Bits Bucket for February 13, 2015
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
CraterRage® Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/zLuLPh
hbb banner ads for something called the ‘$10 retirement plan’
the blonde:
http://www.picpaste.com/13006758313321898113-BnDPIcmk.jpeg
and the brunette:
http://www.picpaste.com/584509961521437209-VbeKDk1D.jpeg
I’ll take two matching pairs.
Right hand side, sexy Russian girl with pensive, rearward “come hither look”, dress hiked up…
“DATING RUSSIANS; FIND MY NEXT LOVE [chat free now]
I get the ad for “Date Arab women” all the time, maybe because of posting about American foreign policy and the Middle East
Speaking from experience, Lebanese women are CRAZY
$10 each too? I’ll take a bakers dozen.
I’m talking cocaine, eating disorder, inpatient psych ward, getting 86′d from the bar, refusing to leave, and then biting a cop crazy
Are you sure you want that?
It’s sounds like you might be generalizing from one woman.
Looks legit…kind of like a beat-up van with “Free Candy” spray-painted on the side.
Running away?
From what?
obamacare?
the obama housing bubble v.20
more debts than ever other administration COMBINED and accounting for inflation?
wars without end?
a destroyed economy?
—————
Biden: Running away from Obama in 2016 would be ‘mistake’ for Dems
washingtontimes | Feb. 12, 2015 | Dave Boyer
Vice President Joseph R. Biden said Democratic presidential candidates in 2016 should embrace President Obama’s economic policies and “run on what we have done” instead of running away from the administration.
“In my view, those seeking to lead the nation should protect and defend and run, yes run, on what we’ve done and own what we have done,” Mr. Biden said in a speech in Des Moines, Iowa. “Stand for what we have done. Acknowledge what we have done. And be judged on what we have done, if we have any chance for continued resurgence in 2016.”
He added, “Some say that would amount to a third term of the president. I call it sticking with what works.”
The Affordable Plumbing Act (APA).
===
Only weeks after leaving office on January 20, 2017, former president Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come out and fix it. Joe drives to Obama’s new house, located in a very exclusive, gated community near Chicago where all the residents have a net income of more than $250,000 per year.
Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the guest bathroom that contains the leaky pipe under the sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama that it’s an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes. Obama asks Joe how much it will cost. Joe checks his rate chart and says, “$9,500.”
“What?! $9,500?” Obama asks, stunned, But you said it?’s an easy repair Michelle will whip me if I pay a plumber that much!”
Joe says, “Yes, but what I do is charge those who make $250,000 per year a much higher amount so I can fix the plumbing of poorer people for free,” explains Joe.” This has always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied the Democrat Congress, who passed this philosophy into law. Now all plumbers must do business this way. It?’s known as ‘Affordable Plumbing Act of 2014′. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it.”
In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there’s no way he’s paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves. Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book calling for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses in the area have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe’s price, Obama does nothing and the leak goes unrepaired for several more days. A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. Michelle is not happy as she has Oprah and guests arriving the next morning. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour and there’s a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with him to return.
Joe goes back to Obama?’s house, looks at the leaky pipe, checks his new rate chart and says, ?”Let’s see, this will now cost you $21,000.”
Obama quickly fires back, “What! A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!
Joe explains, “Well, because of the ‘Affordable Plumbing Act’, a lot of wealthier people are learning how to maintain their own plumbing, so there are fewer payers into the plumbing exchanges. As a result, the price I have to charge wealthy people like you keeps rising. Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work by those who get it for free has skyrocketed! There’s a long waiting list of those who need repairs but the amount we get doesn’t cover our costs. This unfortunately has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, they aren’t being replaced, and nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they can’t make any money at it. I’m hurting, too, all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won’t ‘pay their fair share’.”
The irony.
I’m reviewing a $9500 invoice for a biopsy procedure that took less than an hour. $9500. I’m in the wrong business.
don’t worry. obama will have your back. he’ll come up with an ‘affordable home building act’ soon.
Hey - whaaaat? Ummm…..oh yea…..if you like your house you can keep your house!!!!
if you like your plumber, you can keep your plumber.
on a more serious note.. i hope everything is ok with you.
many people can no longer even afford the deductible.
Thanks. Procedural early detect for one on the team. All is well.
good
Hide your assets…what else can you do? They cant refuse you in the expensive ER.
many people can no longer even afford the deductible.
everyone will soon have that figured out. care in the er will deteriorate. you can’t cheat reality.
If your fetish is bizarre enough, nobody can put a spell on you or give you the evil eye.
If only we had “free” and universal health care…
———–
Tweeting for Treatment in Venezuela
OZY | February 13, 2015 | Sergio Held
It’s a tweet that ultimately fell on deaf ears: “#ServicioPublico Infalgan solution of 10 Mg for injection is needed for Vanessa Chacón.” S ent from San Rafael del Piñal, a small town in Venezuela near the border with Colombia, the tweet was sent on behalf of Chacón, 22, who needed the medicine to survive a severe coronary condition. Unfortunately, it’s simply not available there — and isn’t likely to be anytime soon.
“My niece is very sick. We haven’t been able to locate the drug in pharmacies or in hospitals,” says Nelson Jaimes, who’s Chacón’s uncle and, coincidentally, a pharmacist. “We who are inside the pharma business can’t locate the products. What can a regular citizen expect to find?”
In Venezuela, several hundred tweets like this go out every day under the hashtag “#ServicioPublico,” meaning “public service.” But few cries for help are answered
you should see what ‘free’ healthcare is like in mexico. you wouldn’t believe it.
death panels by shortages and no one to blame…..how cool is that?
yes, and even the locals don’t seem to know how bad it really is until they actually experience it.
But why would anyone use basket-case Venezuela as a comparative model of Universal Health-care? Why not use countries that have universal “free” healthcare that are on USA’s same economic level? Maybe because of this?
U.S. Healthcare Ranked Dead Last Compared To 10 Other Countries
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/06/16/u-s-healthcare-ranked-dead-last-compared-to-10-other-countries/
For this year’s survey on overall health care, The Commonwealth Fund ranked the U.S. dead last .
1. United Kingdom
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Germany & Netherlands (tied)
7. New Zealand & Norway (tied)
9. France
10. Canada
11. United States
‘Perhaps the biggest single takeaway was this one:
The most notable way the U.S. differs from other industrialized countries is the absence of universal health insurance coverage. Other nations ensure the accessibility of care through universal health systems and through better ties between patients and the physician practices that serve as their medical homes.’ The Commonwealth Fund “Mirror, Mirror On The Wall — 2014 Update
But why would anyone use basket-case Venezuela as a comparative model of Universal Health-care?
how did venezuela get to be a basket-case, comrade?
U.S. Healthcare Ranked Dead Last Compared To 10 Other Countries
people are starting to not trust numbers from governments anymore. forbes is no different. they’re a bunch of wealthy elitist leftists like uncle warren buffett.
“wars without end”
I am a registered Republican and I vote in every primary
Still waiting for a candidate who is not running on a platform of wars without end
Good luck with that. The Establishment GOP has been hijacked by the oligarchs, neo-cons and corporate statists. “Defense and security” is a very lucrative racket in case you weren’t aware.
Is this a war against women?
Someone please contact the progressives and the NYT, oh it’s part of their religion?
Never mind…
———-
Husbands killed, Australian jihadi brides face sexual slavery
The Daily Telegraph | February 12, 2015 | Simon Benson
Young Australian jihadi brides are now being traded as sex slaves by terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, intelligence officials have revealed.
Other young women captured by Islamic State fighters were also being bought and sold for as little as $100 each.
The publication of an IS document revealing a price list by age for buying women has prompted intelligence officials to warn that young Australian women risked being sold into sexual slavery.
It is known several Australian women who had gone to Syria had now become slaves of the terrorist group after their partners were killed.
…
They are literally selling women for sex. Young Australian women should know that it’s not an adventure … it’s a slave trade.
…
A price of 100,000 Iraqi dinars ($100) was placed on women aged between 20 and 30. The price went up to $160 for girls aged between 10 and 20.
I have no sympathy. They wanted to live in a “true Islamic state.” Now let them enjoy being human volleyballs. Tough luck. Not one of them should be allowed back in to any civilized country.
‘North of Syria, along 500 miles of border, sits a Turkish army of half a million with 3,000 tanks that could cross over and annihilate ISIS in a month. Former Secretary of State James Baker suggests that the U.S. offer air, logistics and intelligence support, if the Turks will go in and snuff out ISIS.’
‘But not only have the Turks not done so, for a time they looked the other way as jihadists crossed their border to join ISIS. If the Islamic State, as Ankara’s inaction testifies, is not viewed as a threat to Turkey’s vital interests, how can it be a threat to ours?’
‘Everyone in the Middle East, it appears, wants the United States to fight their wars for them.’
‘That an Iraqi army we equipped and trained at a cost of tens of billions would disintegrate and desert Iraq’s second city, Mosul, when confronted by a few thousand fanatics, was a debacle. Why should Americans have to recapture Mosul for Baghdad? And why do these “democrats” we install in power seem to perform so poorly?’
‘Under Saddam, Iraq fought an eight-year war against a nation three times as large and populous, Iran. Yet, Saddam’s army did not run away as the Iraqi army we trained and equipped ran away from Anbar.’
1. The Syrians and Turks don’t like each other. There is no way the Turkish Army is going to sacrifice itself for Syria and battle ISIS.
2. The Turks HATE the Kurds. They are happy as pie that ISIS is killing them.
3. It is amazing what dictators can do with their armies. Look at Germany. They can’t even get a battalion over to the Ukraine to help out nowadays…
If ISIS is such a big deal, why won’t our ‘allies’ do something about it? You probably don’t know, but in Ukraine the draft is turning in only 6% of those conscripted. Now the government has a shoot to kill order on deserters. Why should Germany fight if the Ukrainians won’t? The neocons blew it with this Ukraine thing.
1. ISIS is part of a greater Shia-Sunni World War. Pick a side or stay out. obama has picked the Shias there.
2. European countries that border the Ukraine (or are one country away) won’t send their troops to help the Ukraine or take on Russia - so why should we? obama thinks we should.
But ironically - obama knows that even a few US casualties will be very unpopular. So he is going to help out like he did in Libya…
This pitting Arab against Arab thing has been going on for a lot longer than Obama.
IMO, it’s almost over in Ukraine. The Germans realized the US won’t win and they lose a bunch of trade. I’d say eventually this oligarch the neocons hand picked will be tossed out and Putin’s guys will take over again.
“IMO, it’s almost over in Ukraine.”
I’ll have to ask our local baristas, Ukrainians, what their take on things is. I’m sure they have family or friends still there. Honestly, I haven’t paid much attention other than when the airliner was shot down.
I’d say eventually this oligarch the neocons hand picked will be tossed out and Putin’s guys will take over again.
The irony - the original Putin’s guy was elected. Corrupt and pro-Russia - but elected. He was violently overthrown and replaced. But somehow that was good to obama and the rest of europe.
The Crimea and east Ukraine then violently overthrew and replaced their “pro-west” government. But somehow that was bad to obama and europe.
The whole of Ukraine is not worth one US soldier’s death and not one dollar of the American taxpayer.
‘In recent years, Official Washington – the politicians, the think tanks and the major news media – has been dominated by neoconservatives and their sidekicks, the “liberal interventionists,” with the old-school “realists” who favor a more measured use of American power largely marginalized. But finally, on the dangerous issue of Ukraine, some are speaking up.’
‘Two of the few remaining “realists” with some access to elite opinion circles, Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearsheimer, have written articles opposing the new hot idea in Washington to arm the Kiev regime so it can more efficiently kill ethnic Russians battling to expand their territory in eastern Ukraine.’
‘But what is most remarkable about the two articles – one in Foreign Policy and the other in the New York Times opinion section – is that they deviate from the relentless pro-escalation “group think” that has dominated the U.S. policy debate, across the board, on Ukraine. It’s almost shocking to encounter two foreign policy experts who aren’t on the latest rush-to-war bandwagon.’
‘Granted, their arguments are relatively narrow, focusing on the likely consequences of shipping weapons to the unstable Kiev regime, but still – such skepticism about the conventional wisdom is almost heretical these days.’
‘In Foreign Policy, Walt notes that despite the emerging consensus to ship arms to Ukraine, “few experts think this bankrupt and divided country is a vital strategic interest and no one is talking about sending U.S. troops to fight on Kiev’s behalf. So the question is: does sending Ukraine a bunch of advanced weaponry make sense? The answer is no.”
‘Walt contends that many of the prominent Washington figures advocating weapons shipments have been wrong before about the results of expanding NATO eastwards in the 1990s, predicting that the move would not threaten Russia and contribute to enduring peace in Europe.’
“That prediction is now in tatters, alas, but these experts are now doubling down to defend a policy that was questionable from the beginning and clearly taken much too far,” Walt wrote. “As the critics warned it would, open-ended NATO expansion has done more to poison relations with Russia than any other single Western policy.”
“Moreover, the Ukraine crisis did not begin with a bold Russian move or even a series of illegitimate Russian demands; it began when the United States and European Union tried to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and into the West’s sphere of influence. That objective may be desirable in the abstract, but Moscow made it abundantly clear it would fight this process tooth and nail.’
“U.S. leaders blithely ignored these warnings — which clearly stemmed from Russian insecurity rather than territorial greed — and not surprisingly they have been blindsided by Moscow’s reaction. The failure of U.S. diplomats to anticipate Putin’s heavy-handed response was an act of remarkable diplomatic incompetence, and one can only wonder why the individuals who helped produce this train wreck still have their jobs.”
Obama signals he’s out of ideas with ISIS fight request to Congress
FoxNews.com | February 12, 2015 | Liz Peek
Why is President Obama asking for “Authorization for Use of Military Force against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”? Why ask for permission to carry on with operations that have been underway for more than six months and that are permitted under a 2001 authorization that is still in place? Because he doesn’t know what else to do.
Mr. Obama is being hammered by many on the left and the right for his wavering efforts to destroy the terrorists who have killed and pillaged their way across large swaths of Iraq and Syria. He has been mocked for admitting to having no strategy for their defeat, and he has been criticized for his lack of resolve.
As many have noted, he has been unwilling even to identify our enemy as Islamist extremists or to acknowledge that this is a religious confrontation. Though he has made the case that our coalition forces are holding the line against ISIS’ further advance, Americans are not so sure we are making progress. They are more impressed by the horrifying murders perpetrated by the ISIS savages, and they want more from their president.
I am wondering - Is Obama a Sunni or a Shia?
Obama is a Shinoonoo
Since Obama lived part of his childhood in Indonesia with his mother and muslim Indonesian step-father. he is a sunni muslim (indonesians muslims are 99% sunni).
I can only think of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail scene where King Arthur at the first hint of struggle and attack from the ravenous bunny - shouted “run away, run away.”
How much for women between 40 and 50?
Arab slave trade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade
The Arab slave trade was the practice of slavery in the Arab world, mainly in Western Asia, North Africa, Southeast Africa, the Horn of Africa and certain parts of Europe (such as Iberia and Sicily) beginning during the era of the Arab conquests and continuing through the 19th century. The trade was conducted through slave markets in the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa, with the slaves captured from Africa’s interior.
During the 8th and 9th centuries of the Fatimid Caliphate, most of those enslaved were Saqaliba Europeans captured during wars and along European coastlines. Historians estimate that between 650 and 1900, 10 to 18 million people were enslaved by Arab slave traders and taken from Europe, Asia and Africa across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara desert.
The North African slave markets traded also in European slaves. The European slaves were acquired by Barbary pirates in slave raids on ships and by raids on coastal towns from Italy to Spain, Portugal, France, England, the Netherlands, and as far afield as Iceland. Men, women, and children were captured, to such a devastating extent that vast numbers of sea coast towns were abandoned.
White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800 (Palgrave Macmillan). Davis estimates that 1 million to 1.25 million White Christian Europeans were enslaved in North Africa, from the beginning of the 16th century to the middle of the 18th, by slave traders from Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli alone (these numbers do not include the European people which were enslaved by Morocco and by other raiders and traders of the Mediterranean Sea coast)
Are those considered declining physical assets?
old women are more loyal to the tribes leadership (which is you); they are the true enforcers of tribal culture and hierarchy.
Younger women will switch sides if they think they can get a better deal with the enemy.
*just sayin*
Muslims are barbaric, got it
Christians and Jews and most of the other major world religions are not like this
But it’s not justification to manipulate American taxpayers and voters into supporting another trillion dollar war
The NYT covered this issue when the Yazidi girls and women were kidnapped.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/15/world/middleeast/yazidi-girls-seized-by-isis-speak-out-after-escape.html?_r=0
Well, what was she supposed to do? Ignore this?
————-
Woman Set Fire To Apartment After Boyfriend Smoked All The Pot: Police
CBS 2 CHICAGO | 12 FEBRUARY 2015 | CBS 2 CHICAGO
A Chicago woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to setting a fire inside a west suburban apartment last year because she was mad at her boyfriend for smoking all their marijuana.
Linda B. Lopez, 35, of the 2800 block of S. Drake, pleaded guilty to residential arson, according to a statement from Riverside police. She had initially been charged with aggravated arson, but the charge was reduced.
Lopez was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution, according to the statement.
Sheldon Adelson spent over $5 million to defeat a medical marijuana ballot initiative in Florida in 2014
This is the same Sheldon Adelson who wants to personally purchase the 2016 Republican presidential nominee
Any alleged “small government” and/or “cut taxes” conservative who supports spending tens of thousands of dollars a year per inmate to incarcerate (mostly black and brown) inmates for marijuana possession is a hypocrite
stop the racist crap…..they get caught by being seriously stupid, and openly smoking and selling right out on the streets and in front of the cops.. its all about functional illiteracy
You gotta live in Sh*tcago to really understand this.
What could go wrong?
————–
Sweden cuts rates below zero as global currency wars spread
The Telegraph | 12 Feb 2015 | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Sweden has cut interest rates below zero and launched quantitative easing to fight deflation, becoming the latest Scandinavian state to join Europe’s escalating currency wars.
The Riksbank caught markets by surprise, reducing the benchmark lending rate to minus 0.10pc and unveiled its first asset purchases, vowing to take further action at any time to stop the country falling into a deflationary trap. The bank presented the move as precautionary step due to rising risks of a “poorer outcome abroad” and the crisis in Greece.
Janet Henry from HSBC said the measures are clearly a “beggar-thy neighbour” manoeuvre to weaken the krone, the latest such action in a global currency war that does little to tackle the deeper problem of deficient world demand.
“deficient world demand”
debt exhaustion.
debt exhaustion.
Normally when debtors have reached the exhaustion stage, there is a natural pull-back in lending as the defaults trigger panic; this natural process tends to correct both the level of debt and the excessive degree of risk-taking.
Contrast that with what we have this go-around: the central banks WORLDWIDE are doing their best to force-feed more debt as the solution to debt exhaustion; it reminds me of the goose forced-feeding process used to make foie gras.
Foie gras with money stuffing seems somehow unappetizing.
Nice post 2-fruit…For what ever reason, some say that Sweden is the canary in the coal mine…
debt exhaustion ??
Nice metaphor…
Now this is getting interesting. Much of the world is experiencing some deflation, however Brazil might have 10% inflation this year. Although a big part of Brazil’s inflation is food and energy because of lack of water and unbearable heat. Brazil gets like 70% of their energy from hydro. No water and the prices skyrocket. I’m hearing electricity will go up 40% in March. That is not a typo. This is getting serious.
Will the world’s deflation help tame Brazilian inflation? I don’t see how it could.
Will the Brazil model be followed by other nations to stoke their own inflation? Not.
Will Brazil’s inflation keep a floor under housing prices? (Because Brazil’s history of hyper-inflation always made real-estate the go-to investment. It’s culturally ingrained. )
It’s all crashing down Lola.
It’s all crashing down Lola.
It very well might. I’m lucky to have no mortgage, no debt, good health and some cash. So who cares? Whattayagointodo?
Anyway it’s Carnaval! Starting NOW! Me lady and I are going to meet up with some friends and going to one of the huge street parties in Ipanema. (And I’m sure I’ll see some real Lolas prancing in the street because it’s Carnaval and that’s what they do.) Then some dinner in some place with serious A/C. Cheers Amigos!
Although a big part of Brazil’s inflation is food and energy because of lack of water and unbearable heat.
sounds like you’re reading straight from the old ussr polit bureau, comrade. they blamed the weather for all their crop failures every year too. of course it wasn’t their communist policies that caused the food shortages. no, that was all the bad weather that was occurring solely in russia.
They are having a serious drought.
I bet the open sewer in Rio is particularly nasty.
High electric and food prices because of a drought are not inflation.
Yeah, it does sound like standard market economics. A drought causes a decline in food production and that pushes up the prices.
High electric and food prices because of a drought are not inflation.
There is much more involved than those items. Brazil is having inflation.
comrade, you don’t know all the reasons for higher prices. you just have one script, and it’s wrong. lots of reasons, comrade, lots of reasons.
High electric and food prices because of a drought are not inflation.
Most think they are. And a whacked out climate can exacerbate it.
Causes of Inflation: 3 Real Reasons for Rising Prices
“….A second cause of inflation is cost-push inflation. This isn’t as common as demand-pull inflation, because it only occurs when there is a shortage of supply combined with enough demand to allow the producer to raise prices……Natural disasters can temporarily create cost-push inflation by damaging production facilities, such as what happened to oil refineries after Hurricane Katrina. The depletion of natural resources will be a growing cause of cost-push inflation. For example, overfishing reduces the supply of seafood, driving up prices.”
http://useconomy.about dot com
Most think they are.
most used to think the world was flat too.
combined with enough demand
you don’t know what demand is comrade. you’ve had a long, long time to think about demand since i challenged you on it. are you ready to debate me on it yet?
:crickets:
he’s pouting. he answered you, so i thought he might relent and answer me too. guess not.
he could have his best economist buddy sit next to him and feed him the answers. i wouldn’t mind.
How are the lines at Applebee’s doing?
——————
Panera Bread slumps as 2015 guidance misses estimates
Yahoo Finance - 2/13/2015
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Panera Bread dropped Thursday after the restaurant and bakery chain’s outlook for the year disappointed investors.
The company said business investments, higher medical costs and increased minimum wages will squeeze its profit margins and that earnings per share could decline in 2015.
OK - so I was flying last week next to a Project Manager for Bank of America (BoA).
His project? Cleaning up bad loans.
Lots of good stories.
Here is one.
Four (4) Turkish families were living in a McMansion in NJ and had not paid the mortgage in over six (6) years. BoA finally got through the foreclosure process. The end result? One of the Turkish families that lived in the house bought the house during the short sale process for 33% of the original purchase price.
Is this a great country or what!
Doesn’t sound like the customary “arm’s length” transaction.
Another story.
NJ has an “exit” tax on real estate. (I never knew this)
An additional 2% tax on the sale price of the house if you move out of state.
It is ironic that through-out history - socialist and communist governments have to build walls to keep people from leaving.
NY/NJ. The Great Inflators. Where the public sector job count is far more important than the services you’re paying them to perform.
File this under “I have no sympathy”: a family may lose their home because their incessantly barking dog drove their neighbor to distraction, forcing him to file a lawsuit to get some relief, which (like so many irresponsible dog owners and crappy neighbors) they ignored. They got slapped with a half million dollar judgement and may lose their house. To which I can only say, serves you right.
http://news.yahoo.com/barking-dog-could-cost-his-family-their-home-182514181.html;_ylt=AwrBEiKI_91UWDUAK6_QtDMD
There is a cheaper way to control that;
http://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=CuU2KmTXeVLeGHpTA-QOckYKgAf3smuoFhdDmwL0BkvmQBQgAEAIoA2DJBqABm7jC9wPIAQGqBChP0FEUjidOsVemEzCSMcJQspEsNBo-jOjc1ZHJt1jo1sPc7FVDUd-sgAfNx70IkAcBqAemvhvYBwE&sig=AOD64_28e5w1gWjeJ4z8km8eZx1TuBw1PQ&rct=j&q=&ved=0CCYQ0Qw&adurl=http://www.hitecpet.com/nobarkcollars.html
Isn’t is AMAZING that the same MSM could finding nothing on obama’s days in college as a foreign transfer student? Not one college transcript or grade. Not even a professor who remembers him?
—————
Democrats blow dog whistle on Scott Walker’s college career
The Washington Examiner | February 13, 2015
Even so, the concerns of that elite have suddenly been aroused because one of the leading Republican contenders for president—Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin—quit school without finishing his bachelor’s degree. Walker quit college in good standing, but 34 credits shy of graduation……
….Walker has proven he is competent in the same way most Americans must—with or without degrees — based on his actual career accomplishments. He spent a decade as an obscure state legislator, was elected Milwaukee County executive, and is now the thrice-elected governor of a large state not known for easily favoring conservative Republicans. Love or hate what he has done in office, he is probably the nation’s most accomplished sitting governor. Does anybody really think that an extra few semesters in college over 20 years ago represents the difference as to whether he is or isn’t qualified to be president?…..
I don’t understand how launching another trillion dollar war and borrowing the money from China to pay for it is considered “shrinking the size of government to where you can drown it in the bathtub”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2015/02/gov-scott-walker-i-wouldnt-rule-out-u-s-boots-on-the-ground-in-syria/
I voted for Ron Paul
I donated money to Ron Paul’s campaign
American taxpayers and voters, you are being manipulated
You are in the thinking 5%. We are vastly outnumbed by the slack-jawed zombies who voted for the Republicrat status quo. Telling these cretins they are being manipulated, screwed over, etc. does no good. They are too mindless to care.
Everyone likes to feel special.
Does anybody really think that an extra few semesters in college over 20 years ago represents the difference as to whether he is or isn’t qualified to be president?…..
—————————————————————————–
How many communities has he organized?
+1
Harry Truman never went to college and it was pretty irrelevant to his time in the White House. Nevertheless, that’s a lame article. There are plenty of Americans who think that a president should have a college degree. Not all of them are rich liberals in the Northeast.
When you start running out of Dem Votes it’s time to start manufacturing them.
Party over country.
The ends justify the means.
Power.
Ignore the laws you don’t like. Just make up laws you want.
I have a phone and a pen.
Forward.
————————
Kansas Secretary of State: Illegal Aliens Registering to Vote is a Massive Problem Nationwide
townhall.com | 2/13/15 | Katie Pavlich
During a House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday, Secretaries of State Kris Kobach from Kansas and Jon Husted of Ohio warned that a loophole in President Obama’s executive action on illegal immigration could lead to millions of non-citizens obtaining the ability to vote in U.S. elections.
“I want to bring to your attention my concern that the President’s recent Immigration Accountability Executive Actions will make it more difficult for elections officials to determine if all voters meet the primary standard for voting – U.S. citizenship. I am not here to debate immigration policy or the President’s executive actions. However, I am here to emphatically say that we cannot follow both the federal law and the executive action and ensure the integrity of the elections process without further assistance from Congress and the Obama administration,” Husted said in prepared testimony. “For an estimated four to five million non-citizens, the President’s executive actions provide access to Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses. These are the same documents that federal law requires the states to recognize as valid forms of identification for voter registration. Under federal law, anyone with a valid Social Security number or driver’s license number can register to vote, provided they attest that they are a U.S. citizen. However, there is no way for us to validate this citizenship statement, since under the executive actions previously undocumented non-citizens will have access to the same documents as U.S. citizens. The issue becomes especially complicated in states like Ohio where millions of dollars are spent on third - party voter registration drives where no election official would be present to make clear the eligibility requirements for voting.”
It’s a feature not a bug.
Are you missing out on the stock market rally?
Outside the Box
Opinion: Stocks are near a bubble, but don’t panic — yet
Published: Feb 13, 2015 6:01 a.m. ET
Nowhere to hide in this expensive and increasingly dangerous market
By John Coumarianos
The U.S. stock market nowadays is not like it was in the late 1990s,when a limited set of technology and large-cap issues reached unprecedented prices. Investors had to justify valuations with “new paradigm” narratives, while ignoring real values among small-cap stocks and REITs.
Today, by contrast, the stock market is uniformly expensive, and, paradoxically, unappreciated for being so, according to a research report by James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management..
No sector or group of stocks is in the stratosphere, but there are no obvious bargains either. That makes this current phase of surging stock prices relatively unnoticed and, therefore, more dangerous.
Median stock prices are expensive
Paulsen uses the median or market mid-point price/earnings ratio to show the current market is expensive. Unlike the average, the median doesn’t suffer from the distorting effects of a few extremely high or extremely low multiples. Paulsen’s figures come from the CRSP database at the University of Chicago, with data going back to 1926 and including thousands of NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ stocks.
So while the trailing P/E ratio of the S&P 500 is an untroubling 18 currently, on a median basis the CRSP dataset is at 20, its highest point in history.
Similarly, the market’s median price/cash flow ratio of around 15 represents a historical high, while the market’s price/book value multiple (a bit over 2.0) is the third-highest in history.
The stealth character of low dispersion
Further, Paulsen shows that dispersion (the valuation difference in the most expensive stocks and the cheapest stocks) is extremely low nowadays.
Dividing the market into 19 P/E segments (the fifth percentile to the 95th percentile, from cheapest to most expensive) shows the 5th through 75th percentile segments all rank as the most expensive or second-most expensive in history. Moreover, the 80th through 95th segments all register as at least the sixth-highest readings ever.
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Opinion: 7 danger signs of stocks’ coming bear market
Published: Feb 13, 2015 6:01 a.m. ET
Protect your portfolio now before the downturn begins
By Michael Sincere
Columnist
With the U.S. stock market trying to surpass its all-time highs, many investors still don’t see the problem. After all, if the market is going up, why worry? Lately, many bulls feel invincible.
The problem is that if you wait until a bear market is formally announced, you will have lost a chunk of your paper profits. The key is to slowly take money off the table now. You may also protect your stock portfolio using hedging strategies, such as buying options.
Here are seven signs a bear market is near:
1. Stocks break through key technical levels:The S&P 500 will break through 2,000, then 1,980, and by the time the S&P 500 drops below 1,960, the technical damage will be so great it will be hard to recover (in a worst-scenario, all technical levels could be breached in a day or two). In addition, look to see if the indexes fall below their 50-, 100-, and 200-day moving averages. This is an important technical signal. If there is no bounce, this will also generate automatic computer-selling programs.
2. Rallies have less energy: You will see lower lows and lower highs on a chart, and eventually the market will break hard to the downside. Trader Mark D. Cook says that you can tell the strength of a market by the way it rallies rather than the way it declines . If the rallies are sluggish and heavy, this is a clue the market is rolling over. In a bear market, there are lifeless rallies in a low-volume environment.
In particular, look for failed rallies. As you know, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has rallied close to 1,000 points in just the last two weeks. We will be watching closely to see if this latest rally has legs, or if it’s another dead cat bounce. Note: Lately, the volume has been anemic while the market keeps going up, which is another red flag.
3. Investors focus on prices: Prices are the last indicator to confirm there is a bear market. By the time prices have plunged, it’s usually too late to avoid financial damage.
4. Sideways movement: From Dec. 19, 2014 through February 6, the market has gone nowhere. Although unknowledgeable investors believe a churning market is healthy, it is not. Legendary trader Jesse Livermore went short before the 1929 crash because he recognized that a churning market is a danger sign. Put another way, when the market is pushed up too high on little volume, it will not end well.
5. Sentiment shifts: Investor sentiment indicators, which have been on the high side, will move to neutral, and then reverse direction as investors watch their portfolios disintegrate. Right now, investors are complacent but that will turn to fear as prices fall.
6. Panic selling: As the bear market matures, fearful investors who have been patient will throw in the towel and sell what they still own. Although investors are told that bear markets are buying opportunities, most investors do not have the patience or discipline to hold, let alone the courage to buy when the market stops plunging. (Note: Don’t buy on the way down.)
7. Bears gain respect: As the decline worsens, bearish forecasters are no longer ridiculed, while perpetually bullish strategists who had made outlandishly wild predictions are challenged. In the final stages of a bear market, the bullish investors are mocked.
Sell when you can
If you’ve been paying attention to the market, you know there are other subtle clues a bear market is getting closer. Many in the media are obsessed with bear market definitions (i.e. 20% downturn), but protecting your investments should be your first priority. Remember the old Wall Street adage: “Sell when you can, not when you have to.” One way to evaluate whether it’s a good time to enter (or exit) a position is by probing, that is, by investing a small amount of money to test whether the position becomes profitable.
Every bear market is unique, so don’t expect the next one to play out like 2008. No one knows what the catalyst will be that finally causes the market to plunge. But based on the clues the market is giving, a dramatic plunge could come quite soon.
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yes and I’m perfectly fine with it because I know I wont lose my money either.
It has always seemed rigged off the lows of the crisis. There is no value out there to me.
PAL (North American Palladium) should pop nicely in the next few days, at least 25%, because I sold off my holdings in it today. Made a tidy profit, but by all the laws of the cosmos, it’s going to spike now that I’ve sold my position.
It’s a challenge to put boots on the ground when your military base is 2 feet underwater.
Long but good article (even after discounting for leftist bias) how the US military is becoming increasingly concerned about how climate change is damaging their operations and key facilities:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-pentagon-climate-change-how-climate-deniers-put-national-security-at-risk-20150212
Isn’t there a gang rape story at a college that never happened that needs to be reported?
Fake…but accurate.
Global sea level rise is occurring and has been verified by independent measurements and sensors. To follow your analogy the pregnancy test came back positive
http://www.cmar.csiro.au/sealevel/images/alt_gmsl_seas_rem.jpg
Drudge Report
Fox News
Weekly Standard
World Net Daily
Washington Times
New York Post
UK Daily Mail
Breitbart
(name of city) dot CBSlocal dot com
Intellectually weak, low-hanging fruit
Copied and pasted to HBB daily
“Long but good article”
Well long anyway.
My carbon footprint kicks your carbon footprint’s @ss
I am driving 600 miles this weekend to go ski on some hills that won’t have any snow 50 years from now because of my carbon footprint
And now back to your regularly scheduled Drudge Report links
Heh, if the current weather patterns persist all of the ski resorts will be east of the Rockies and none out west…
We are skiing at Monarch and Wolf Creek because they have the most recent snow
The hike-in terrain at Monarch’s Mirkwood will be like skiing on a mountain of fluffy and delicious cocaine
Wolf Creek is very steep like Crested Butte but not as luxurious
Wolf creek pass….oh yeah!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHb_0Lhegig
Follow the GD money
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, fiancee provide new green energy scandal for Democrats
Controversy creates new questions for billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer
By Kellan Howell - The Washington Times - Thursday, February 12, 2015
What do you get when you mix a governor, his ambitious fiancee, a billionaire environmentalist and some handsome green energy consulting contracts? In Oregon, they have collided to produce an influence-peddling scandal that threatens to end Gov. John Kitzhaber’s tenure.
Mr. Kitzhaber, a Democrat, faced increasing pressure Thursday within his own party to resign over accusations that his fiancee sought to use her relationship with the governor to land lucrative consulting contracts for her green energy consulting business.
The top two Democrats in Oregon’s Legislature — Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek — met with Mr. Kitzhaber to urge the four-term governor to step down, joining a growing chorus of leaders hoping to stem the scandal with a resignation.
“Unfortunately, the current situation has become untenable, and I cannot imagine any scenario by which things improve,” said State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, a Democrat. “Oregon deserves a governor who is fully focused on the duties of state.”
Mr. Kitzhaber remained defiant and said he intended to stay in office.
Oregon’s controversy has created new questions for billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, a major Democratic supporter and bundler for President Obama.
The scandal carries larger repercussions for national Democrats, who have worked hard to put to rest a controversy in President Obama’s tenure over the failures of taxpayer-funded green energy companies such as Solyndra that had political ties to party bigwigs.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/12/oregon-gov-john-kitzhaber-fiancee-cylvia-hayes-pro/#ixzz3Rfn4oHfI
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
Crimate Change
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Mr. Steyer, Mr. Kitzhaber and Ms. Hayes appeared together at an environmental dinner in November 2013 celebrating environmental accomplishments in the West. Mr. Steyer has given $100,000 to the Oregon Democratic Party through his NextGen Climate Action political movement.
Mr. Steyer’s office did not return repeated emails seeking comment. A San Francisco-based hedge fund manager, the billionaire environmentalist was a fundraising bundler for both of Mr. Obama’s presidential races and a heavy supporter of Democratic causes across the country.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/12/oregon-gov-john-kitzhaber-fiancee-cylvia-hayes-pro/?page=2#ixzz3RgG4lBJB
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
“You hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability. That is the sound of your death.”
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Bombers make it onto Iraq base used by U.S. troops
Feb 13, 2015 - CBS News
Eight suicide bombers managed Friday to get onto a sprawling Iraqi military base where hundreds of U.S. Marines are training their Iraqi counterparts, but were killed by an ISF counter attack almost immediately.
Sean Ryan, chief of foreign affairs for the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq, confirmed to CBS News that the attackers made it onto the secluded Ain al-Asad airbase west of Baghdad, but said the attackers made it “nowhere near” the American forces on the base before they were killed.
The official said coalition forces were at least a mile and a half away from the attack, and at no point were they under direct threat from the militants. Ain al-Asad is one of the largest bases the U.S. military has used in Iraq — roughly the size of the city of Boulder, Colorado, according to a Pentagon spokesman speaking to the Defensenews.com website last year.
According to reports, ISIS has been regularly shelling Ain al-Assad for the past couple days, but there have been no reports of damage from the shelling or the attempted bombing on Friday.
It remained unclear how the militants managed to get past the approximately 12-mile-circumference security fence around the base, which includes watch towers, barbed wire, and a bridged entrance over a river.
The BBC quoted a fighter from the Al Bu Nimr tribe, hundreds of whom were massacred by ISIS in October, as saying: “We know that Ain al-Asad will never fall while the Americans are here. They won’t let it happen.”
How many PTSD veterans has William Kristol personally thanked for their service?
How about Hillary! Oh wait - that never happened…
“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles and get to our base.”
– Hillary Clinton describing her trip to Bosnia in March of 1996
When you type “Clinton associates” into Google it auto-populates with “Clinton associates who died”
Got it
American taxpayers and voters were told by Scott Walker last week that welfare programs like $80 billion a year for food stamps turn the social safety net into a “hammock”
The same Scott Walker calling for “boots on the ground” in Syria
The “war on terror” has cost over $1.6 trillion to date
American taxpayers and voters, I hope you’re happy with this
How many of William Kristol’s sons ended up KIA or maimed at Walter Reed? Oh, right, none.
Onward Christian Soldiers.
“Realtor Faces Child Sex Charges”
http://www.heraldpalladium.com/news/local/realtor-faces-child-sex-charges/article_42570527-5b62-528b-82ca-2759af505ac9.html
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Sage Kelly, and your local Realtor
From the head of the IMF to Wall Street to the local used house salesman in your neighborhood, drug addicts and sexual deviants and child molesters all of them, what is it about working in finance that creates these monsters?
post for valentine’s day, because when you get married you are two spouses married to each other and married to big government
http://www.petition2congress.com/1788/unfair-child-support-laws/view/2
young men are waking up and leaving the plantation, and no amount of shaming will bring them back
Oahu just decided to extend their raising of the excise tax another 25 years to pay for a rail project that is close to a billion over budget with less than 10% completed.
The mayor said this was an important move in the name of “transportation equality”. Think about that marxist notion. Can I get a limo just like the mayor?
As long as you don’t get a limo just like Bob Simon.
http://news.yahoo.com/disconcerting-details-emerge-about-driver-in-bob-simon-s-fatal-accident-174825883.html
All that story is missing is the screaming of “aloha snack bar” by the driver at the time of impact!
are you guys seeing any houses sell now that the super bowl is over?
Another corrupt socialist basket case (redundant, I realize) running out of other people’s money. America, meet your future under Comrad Pelosi’s permanent Democrat Supermajority.
http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-is-fraying-2015-2
Green Dog down we got a Green Dog down
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Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber quits amid criminal probe
Hannah Hoffman, The (Salem, Ore.) Statesman Journal 7:55 p.m. EST February 13, 2015
SALEM, Ore. — Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned office Friday amid allegations of criminal wrongdoing, almost exactly one month after being sworn in for an unprecedented fourth term. Secretary of State Kate Brown will replace him.
His resignation is effective Wednesday, he said Friday in a letter.
“It is not in my nature to walk away from a job I have undertaken,” his resignation letter said. “It is to stand and fight for the cause. For that reason I apologize to all those people who gave of their faith, time, energy and resources to elect me to a fourth term last year and who have supported me over the past three decades. I promise you that I will continue to pursue our shared goals and our common cause in another venue.”
Did you dump your Treasurys in time to avoid the hammering bond investors have enjoyed over the past two weeks?
U.S. Treasurys Fall as Global Worries Recede
Investors’ Appetite for Risky Assets Revs Up, While Demand for the Relative Safety of the Government Bonds Fizzles
Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen. Investors are waiting to find out the timing of a Fed interest-rate increase expected later this year. Photo: Associated Press
By Min Zeng
Updated Feb. 13, 2015 4:56 p.m. ET
U.S. government bonds fell Friday, capping their biggest two-week selloff in more than 1½ years as worries over the global economic outlook abated.
Investors’ appetite for risky assets, such as stocks, revved up, while demand for the relative safety of Treasurys fizzled. Money managers took comfort from data released Friday that showed accelerating growth in the eurozone, led by Germany, in the fourth quarter. Sentiment also was boosted by hopes that Greece and its international creditors would find a solution to avert a default by the country.
The S&P 500 stock index hit a record Friday, and European stocks rose to a seven-year peak. Greek stocks and bonds rallied, which also helped lift government-bond prices in other weaker economies of the eurozone, including Spain, Italy and Portugal.
“The fear trade has pulled back,’’ said Thomas Roth, executive director in the U.S. government-bond trading group at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities (USA) Inc. in New York.
In late-afternoon New York trading, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was 2.019%, compared with 1.983% on Thursday. When bond yields rise, prices fall.
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