Bits Bucket for March 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.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Advice for buyers: Try not to catch yourselves falling knives.
For sellers: Sell now in order to cut your losses, or else plan to lose a lot more later.
Advice for buyers: DON’T
They just ran a story on CNBC about buyer traffic so thick for a house that the police had to come in and direct traffic, over 100 bidders, house under contract immediately, blah, blah, blah. And yet, nobody even questions this insanity. WTF happened to this world?
Do you think building 1MM new housing units per year in the US is a sustainable level of new housing construction?
I don’t.
With a housing start rate of about 1MM, we only added about 500k housing units in 2014 (per the US Census estimate of housing inventory). How is this so?
Homes do have a finite life as HA rightfully says, and there are over 130,000,000 housing units in existence in the country. So, with that context, about 500k homes being demolished isn’t an unreasonable estimate. Frankly, I’m surprised that the number of homes bulldozed isn’t much higher.
Also, we are adding 3MM of population each year in the US.
So, if you are adding 3MM of population each year, and building a NET of about 500k homes nationwide, how long do you think this can happen before there is a supply shortage in at least SOME markets?
Sorry, we’re adding about 2.5MM people per year…same comments.
Here is the Y-o-Y Housing Inventory data to see what I mean about total housing units only increasing by 500k.
http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/qtr414/tab4.xls
Rental Watch, I think the question is very similar to the shale oil production question. There the question is how many economically viable drilled wells that could be fracked exist. I believe that the answer is just a few more months and the data is supporting that contention since the quality and quantity of the wells fracked appears to be dropping.
For houses the question is how many surplus houses exist on the market that were created during the boom in desirable locations? I do not know the answer. If it is just a few million then if we “consume” a half million more houses than we produce we should see a rapid surge in house construction soon and probably rapidly increasing house prices until supply meets demand. However, if we have 25 million houses surplus then it would take 50 years to work off the surplus. I bought for shelter and a tax deduction. I hope that the former is the true state but I bought anticipating that the latter might be true and houses would only appreciate at the pace of rents.
With 25 million excess empty and defaulted houses out there and growing by the day, a stagnant population and another 35 million houses just beginning to empty as boomers die off, there is no need to build more houses.
Adan-
It’s different in every state (largely due to restrictions on development and availability of easily developable land).
That’s why I said “SOME markets”.
In some markets there is already a shortage.
In other markets, it will take years to work off the excess.
If you look at historical vacancy rates published by the Census, we have nowhere close to 25 million excess housing units overall as compared to 50 years. In CA we have a well-documented shortage that has been in the making for at least a couple of decades (and the housing boom didn’t alleviate it).
There is no “shortage” in any “market”. In particular in CA considering the 4.4 million defaulted and empty houses.
Further, the CB data already shows tens of millions of excess empty houses. That doesn’t include those that are just beginning to empty right now.
flipping houses is an honest way to make a living.
Sure, until taxpayers have to bail out the bank that foolishly lent into a housing bubble.
It is just paper currency, nothing lost here. do overs apparently are apparently part of the game now.
Take away the “do overs” and it’s game over. I know family that completed bankruptcy, and new credit cards arrived shortly thereafter.
exactly dude
with fiat currency having no backing its very easy just to create more.
Its all about managing people.as long as people get out of bed to chase it things are ok.
The reason it is still working is the ability to finance major purchases.
I know family that completed bankruptcy, and new credit cards arrived shortly thereafter
With a 22% interest rate, no doubt.
“I know family that completed bankruptcy, and new credit cards arrived shortly thereafter.”
And they promptly levered up again, right?
Because if people were forced to pay off a $100,000, $300,000, $500,000 or more debt there would be no more suckers to lend to.
Sure, until taxpayers have to bail out the bank that foolishly lent into a housing bubble.
Nope—the banks are explicitly lending with government backing this time around.
Since the GSEs dominate the market, and banks have no funds at risk, they shouldn’t need a bailout, right?
Unexpected…from a Dreamer.
As 2banana has said before. We will start to enforce immigration laws (as written and as on the books) when prominent democrats are killed by illegals driving drunk and when illegal’s crime start affecting them personally.
—————–
Illegal Immigrant Charged With Rape, Sodomy Of 10-Year-Old Alabama Girl
dailycaller.com | march 12, 2015 | al weaver
An illegal immigrant was arrested Monday in Alabama after sexually assaulting a young girl.
According to reports, Ramiro Ajualip, a 27-year-old who entered the country illegally, was accused earlier this week of raping a 10-year-old girl on Feb. 27.
Ajualip was charged with first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy, which are both Class A felonies in Alabama and carry with them sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison with parole a possibility if convicted, according to a local report.
from 10 years to life in prison ??
Raping a 10 year old girl…That guy will wish he got the death penalty after he spends even one year in prison…
Maybe he’ll enjoy being a bad man’s girlfriend. He’ll be getting “prostate stimulation” around the clock.
Oil - the closest thing left to an unrigged market - is getting smoked.
http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/
US Gas prices about to drop!!!!
————–
Union says tentative deal reached to end U.S. refinery strike
Fortune | MARCH 13, 2015 | Reuters
The United Steelworkers union and oil companies have reached a tentative deal to end the largest U.S. refinery strike in 35 years, the labor group and people familiar with the negotiations said on Thursday.
The new agreement for about 30,000 workers would last four years, a year longer than previous agreements. The deal, which still needs to be ratified, may not end strikes right away at all refineries that have suffered walkouts as local union chapters could still need to work out pending issues.
More like will not rise as much. It is Summer blend time and the new blend costs more.
BTW Hessel, your chart shows a very small decline in Brent which actually sets gasoline prices these days. The decline is caused by the stronger dollar. I think you have a lot of businesses screaming about the higher dollar right now so I do not see the Fed taking some role to stop the rapid rise. We are losing the currency war, like we are losing Ukraine, losing Iran, losing to Isis etc. Every other country is trying to devalue their currency for competitive reasons.
Every other country is trying to devalue their currency for competitive reasons ??
Buzzzzzzzzzz……Wrong answer…..They are devaluing because of deflation…
They are devaluing because of deflation
That is their excuse, but leaders like Abe clearly want to make his country more competitive.
It’s down to about 45 as of right now. In the words of Lola on the subway, oof.
Not Brent.
Lola’s a damn “genius” in that he fact-checks the heck out of right-wing hacks. And they hate it. And I mean a visceral hate. lol
Fact checks like Shillow’s propaganda assertion that the middle class is better off now and Adans latest fibs that Warren Buffet is not for raising capital gains taxes and implication that Carter raised taxes. That’s why Lola drives peeps crazy. Bring on your ridicule. It makes Lola laugh.
All the best amigos!
Lola
I missed it show me that Warren Buffett was talking about capital gains taxes and not just earned income.
I went back to yesterday and you posted a link but I am presently in an area where reception is bad for internet and most links will not open, however, Ben’s blog while a little slow does open. Warren Buffett is a buy and hold guy, he pays very little capital gains taxes since he receives very little earned income, and he seldom sells which triggers the capital gain tax. Maybe he did agree to minor increase in capital gains after people called him out for it, but the bottom line Buffett favors a tax system that puts very little tax burden on him. I have never heard him supporting a wealth tax which he would if fairness was his major concern. It is easy to be for raising a tax on the upper middle class if the overall tax system puts very little burden on you. That is my major point and I stand by it.
BTW, Rio you are wrong on your facts 90% of the time and right 10% for me it is just the opposite. That hardly creates a visceral hate in me towards you. 98% capital gains, I don’t care who said it, Wikipedia is filled with mistakes, you should have known that was BS.
Should be Warren Buffett receives very little earned income and he recognizes very little capital gains since he does not sell. But his wealth increases by billions a year. Meanwhile that person making $250,000 in a major city has very little left over and he supports taxing him or her up the azz.
…Maybe he did agree ….That is my major point and I stand by it…..
A bunch of lawyer back-peddling gibberish Adan. I caught you in another falsehood Adan. Just call me a bigoted name and call it even.
A mistake is not a falsehood, I do not follow Buffett around hearing everything he says, however I have heard him a lot on CNBC etc and I have never heard him call for higher capital gains taxes but he was in the forefront of raising the tax rate on earned income by Obama. I heard him call for that all the time.
It is easy to be for raising a tax on the upper middle class if the overall tax system puts very little burden on you. That is my major point and I stand by it.
What’s your definition of upper-middle class?
It varies by region. However, it ignores the main point. If the billionaires supporting the Democrats really believe that fairness requires more taxes then they should come up with a plan that just applies to them. How about a 3% tax on all wealth over 100 million dollars? You would levy it just like property taxes. I have not heard one billionaire supporter of Obama suggest it, I wonder why?
and implication that Carter raised taxes.
He did raise taxes, the old Democratic way, he allowed inflation to move people into higher tax brackets. That is the practice that Reagan put an end to and why the left hates he so much. They actually have to raise taxes to create new programs. Obama had to raise taxes to fund Obamacare, the old way was just to promote inflation and the revenue would pour in.
He did raise taxes, the old Democratic way, he allowed inflation to move people into higher tax brackets.
More lawyer gibberish designed to deflect from your intentional falsehoods. As if Carter planned to increase inflation to have a stealth tax. Clown-talk.
Lola,
You misunderstood what I said. I didn’t limit it to just the middle class. I am talking about everyone overall. Even pulling out the rich top 10 percent, the quality of life is much much much better, but especially for the lower 47 percent or more that you exclude. The poor today are way way better off than the poor in the sixties from a materialistic point of view. iPhones iPads, 40 inch plus flat screens, free meds, education, and an amazing assortment of food. Section 8 now is much better and not limited to the ghettos.
Even though I do think it probably still is true for just the middle class, you can’t exclude half the population of ants from my statement that the .1% masters are keeping their ants in a much better ant farm than before.
My point is averaged out over all 300 million and considering all the amazing progress on many many fronts, everyone overall is better off. For how long who knows.
As if Carter planned to increase inflation to have a stealth tax
Never said that, but there are sins of omission and sins of commission, Carter did not index the brackets even during his term of office which included high inflation.
Looks as though the cotango hoarders’ efforts to drive up prices by hiding the oil glut on large ships is failing. Are they likely to dump supply onto the market if prices keep dropping at the rate they are today?
Futures Movers
Oil set for weekly loss of more than 9%
Published: Mar 13, 2015 1:39 p.m. ET
IEA raises U.S. supply, storage concerns
Bloomberg News/Landov
Oil production is still booming.
By Myra P. Saefong
Markets/commodities reporter
MarkDeCambre
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil futures fell sharply on Friday after a monthly report from the International Energy Agency raised concerns that the glut of crude supplies and tightening storage capacity in the U.S. may cause prices to weaken further.
Crude-oil for delivery in April (CLJ5, -4.02%) fell $1.98, or 4.2%, at $45.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices were set to end the week with a loss of around 9.2%.
April Brent crude (LCOJ5, -4.19%) on London’s ICE Futures exchange shed $1.50, or 2.6%, to trade at $55.58 a barrel — trading nearly 7% lower for the week.
In its report, the IEA said any appearance of stability in oil is tenuous.
“On the face of it, the oil price appears to be stabilizing. What a precarious balance it is, however,” the report said. “Behind the facade of stability, the rebalancing triggered by the price collapse has yet to run its course, and it might be overly optimistic to expect it to proceed smoothly,” the report said.
IEA’s monthly report indicated that oil production in the U.S. increased by 115,000 barrels a day in February and said ballooning inventories combined with the nation’s shrinking oil storage could drag prices lower.
The comments from IEA come as oil has been trading in a relatively narrow band over the course of the past few weeks, on the heels of steep declines in weekly U.S. rig counts. Baker Hughes (BHI, -1.87%) on Friday reported that the number of U.S. rigs actively drilling for oil and natural gas as of March 13 fell 67 rigs from last week to 1,125.
But the declines in rig counts haven’t put a dent in the nation’s crude-supply glut. A government report Wednesday reported a ninth weekly rise in crude stockpiles.
Matthew Parry, senior oil-market analyst at the IEA in Paris, told MarketWatch in an email that the widening price spread between WTI and Brent crude is due to the “sharp degree to which stock additions in the U.S. have outpaced elsewhere.”
“The first half of 2015 looks distinctly oversupplied everywhere, and higher stocks are the overriding consequence, but thus far the U.S. has taken the lead,” he said. Brent, meanwhile, has received some cushioning from supply concerns from Libya, he said.
Meanwhile, U.S. refinery workers have reached a tentative deal to end a six-week strike.
Nymex gasoline for April delivery (RBJ5, -2.68%) fell 3.3 cents, or 1.8%, to $1.777 a gallon, poised for a loss of around 5.6% for the week. April heating oil (HOJ5, -3.39%) fell 4.5 cents, or 2.5%, to $1.734 a gallon, down 7.3% for the week.
April natural gas futures (NGJ15, -0.22%) fell less than a cent to $2.727 per million British thermal units. It was set for a weekly decline of nearly 4%.
…
Are they likely to dump supply onto the market if prices keep dropping at the rate they are today?
Normally they are hedged—e.g. long the commodity, short the future contract, and paying for storage. In other words, the true coNtango play is aritrage, and they don’t _need_ to dump oil regardless of what the price does.
In fact, by enter _into_ the position, they add sanity to the market, but pushing down the futures pricing to reflect the supply that they will be adding in the future.
By its very nature, it adds information to the market; the notion that it adds something that can be “dumped” is a deep misunderstanding.
In fact, if they dumped the physical commodity, they would need to go LONG on the future to exit their short position!
s/aritrage/arBitrage/
I believe the dry bulk shipping industry offers another fundamentals based (”unrigged”) market example. I promise to post early tomorrow on recent developments.
OWS repeat?
Really - what a jerk…
——————–
Surveillance cam captures serial poop vandal
wmcactionnews5 | Mar 12, 2015
Police in Akron, Ohio are working to identify a man believed to have repeatedly defecated on multiple cars and children’s front yard toys in one neighborhood over the last three years.
Sounds like a Lola stunt.
Like Lola, this person needs to be locked up and evaluated for serious problems way beyond the pooping. Pooping is a gateway crime.
Living in your “mind” rent free.
Living in a cardboard box rent free is more like it.
… in an alley.
… in an alley.
The actual place I live is….in a cardboard box, in an alley, wearing your favorite dress…in your brain.
You’re angry again Lola.
Sorry, I liked the blond in Risky Business not the drag queen. However, the board knows who you emulate.
You’re angry again Lola.
That is because Ronald Reagan is living in his head rent free. It really sucks to him that RR was so successful with free market policies and Obama has been such a failure with statism.
It really sucks to him that RR was so successful with free market policies
Reagan’s “free-market” policies turned USA from the world’s greatest creditor nation to the world’s greatest debtor nation.
Some “free-markets”.
living in his head rent free
As I in yours. I scare you.
Reagan’s “free-market” policies turned USA from the world’s greatest creditor nation to the world’s greatest debtor nation.
Sucks that Obama was suppose to be the anti-Reagan and instead caused the Senate and House to return to Republican rule due to the repudiation of left wing economics.
Sucks that Obama was suppose to be the anti-Reagan
B.S. And that has nothing to do with the fact that Reagan’s “free-market” policies turned USA from the world’s greatest creditor nation to the world’s greatest debtor nation.
In the reality of the filibuster and the Supply-Side false religion, there can’t be an anti-Reagan. And Reagan did some good things too. However the Repubs have taken his trickle-down philosophy to extremes Reagan would have scoffed at.
Like I said Lola you are wrong 90% of the time on your “facts”;
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3263
Excerpt from link showing that you are keeping up your record of being wrong 90% of the time, it even has a video of Obama:
The video clip above is Barack Obama explaining his admiration of Ronald Reagan. I’ve transcribed it here.
I don’t want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what’s different are the times. I do think that for example the 1980 was different. I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn’t much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.
There are many reason progressives should admire Ronald Reagan, politically speaking. He realigned the country around his vision, he brought into power a new movement that created conservative change, and he was an extremely skilled politician.
Relax Lola.
you are wrong 90% of the time
Nope amigo. I am on it. And you know it. Bad.
There are many reason progressives should admire Ronald Reagan,
Great puppet actor for the billionaire man.
Did you hear about the midnight pooper?
It’s nighttime and he’s got to go.
Did you hear about the midnight pooper?
Left something on your kitchen floor.
He don’t give a toot of a warning,
He’ll squat on top your 4×4.
He don’t poop by the light of morning.
Left something for the kids, you know…
LOL
We need to bring back public pillory posts and horse-whipping for POS scum like this.
It is not like they lack DNA evidence. They have it up the wazoo.
So to speak….
are working to identify a man believed to have repeatedly defecated on multiple cars and children’s front yard toys ??
We have had that problem at a commercial center…Police said that the surveillance camera is useless…Said they cannot arrest off the video…They said they must catch them “in the act” to be able to arrest them…
The financial media is trying to lure the last of the retail bagholders into the rigged casino so Da Boyz can pump & dump.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-this-stock-market-could-be-getting-ready-to-party-like-its-1999-2015-03-13?link=MW_latest_news
thats what they get paid to do, take the muppets money and put it it their donors hands.
What the rulers in Washington really think of you.
It is a good thing we have a president who can rule by executive fiat and get around this.
—————–
Biden: In D.C., ‘Being Middle Class…Means You’re Not Sophisticated’
CNS News | 3/12/15 | Ali Meyer
“Today, not only have we walked the long road back, but we’ve built the foundations, in my view, on which our economic futures continue to be built and that has to be a future where the middle class is dealt back into the deal, where there’s really opportunity and jobs you can raise a family on,” Biden said. “Now I know I’m always referred to as always focusing on the middle class, and I know in this town being middle class is not viewed as a compliment — it means you’re not sophisticated.
Google CNS News - Another Ultra Right-Wing “news” service, just like the “Blaze” and every other crazy religious site.
I guess you subscribe to the Washington Times also?
It’s probably some random Drudge Report link
People who copy and paste Drudge Report links are not known for their sophistication either
Intellectually weak, low-hanging fruit, served fresh daily on HBB
Nope. As of the time stamp of this post - it is not and never has been on Drudge.
But you already knew that.
But please keep up your progressive/liberal politics of destruction. Kill the message means killing the messenger.
No matter how much truth might be in it.
Funny how you didn’t dispute the quote.
Shrinking the size of government to where you can drown it in the bathtub, one war at a time
William Kristol thanks you for all your support
Gosh darn it! I’m so mad about what Biden said DC thinks about the middle class that I want to go to war with Iran! Let’s do it!
Bomb,Bomb,Bomb…Bomb,Bomb,Bomb Iran….The sick bastard that said that thinks it was funny…
Somehow partisan politics is okay if you are a liberal. Even though William Kristol and the rest of your ruling oligarchy, leftist or rightist, profit from it.
Please allow Iran to have nuclear weapons. They are not so bad.
Bomb,Bomb,Bomb…Bomb,Bomb,Bomb Iran….The sick bastard that said that thinks it was funny…
Unfortunately, the Iranian have a far worse government than they deserve. The majority of them are actually reasonable which makes them unlike many of the people in the Arab countries. We and they are still paying for the naïve policies of Carter and now we have Carter II.
Both you and Cracker must be very, very unhappy people. The only thing you seem to offer is bile and put downs. Why don’t you tell us something of value. The very best part of a blog is that you can be easily skipped over.
The very best part of a blog is that you can be easily skipped over.
Especially if you’re using the Joshua Tree Extension for Firefox!
That’s right, because the reason we all come to this housing blog is to read post after post about how Obama isn’t really the president posted by, I would guess, aging white guys. I think you’re skipping over the wrong posts.
What blog are your reading Dman? The one with every morning post after post of links from a pot salesman angry at the right wingers and making fun of the links on Drudge or the one where the links being made fun of are from MushPo, MSNBC etc.?
Thanks for throwing out race/color, next comes comparisons to Hitler, you lose.
Thanks for throwing out race/color, next comes angry bigots like Shillow, Adan and HA calling other people gay.
Because they’re bigots, don’t deal in facts and are angry.
Lola
For those who aren’t keeping track, progressives like to add the following phrases to “color” their posts about conservatives and forward their meme:
“ultra right wing”
“religious ”
“old white guys”
“unsophisticated”
“gun loving”
“back woods”
“uneducated”
As if being an uneducated, back-woods, gun-loving, religious, old white guy was such a bad thing compared to being an effeminate, over-educated, limp-wristed, metrosexual immoral atheist left-wing, “minority” communist was a good thing.
I get tired of reading about the latest Fox News talking points, or rather, having to scroll past them (I’m looking at you, BBanana and PScandals). You can have whatever opinion you want, but if you can’t say it in a short sentence, keep it to yourself, or post a link. I don’t have the time to read every overlong right wing conspiracy theory that gets posted here, and even if I did, I wouldn’t. I just hate having to scroll through them. As an aging white guy myself, life is too short. Ben should have a one paragraph rule when it comes to quotes, otherwise, a link should be mandatory.
I am so tired of Fox new talking points, I am gonna post me some DNC talking points.
I agree with the one paragraph rule. Find the most relevant few sentences and let me go to the link if they want more.
Feinstein wants to limit who can be a journalist
Eric Boehm - August 12, 2013 - WatchDog.org
In a proposed amendment to a media shield law being considered by Congress, Feinstein writes that only paid journalists should be given protections from prosecution for what they say or write.
At a congressional hearing on the matter last week, Feinstein said shield laws should only apply to “real reporters.”
An amendment offered by Feinstein would extend shield-law protections to those who work as a “salaried employee, independent contractor, or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information,” though students working for news outlets would similarly be covered. The definition seems to leave out the new tide of bloggers and citizen journalists who thrive on the Internet.
Post some Patrick Buchanan and spare us the neocon propaganda please
Alinsky
RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
#FundamentalTransformationOfAmerica
Feinstein won’t extend the media shield to bloggers? That does it! Let’s go to war with ISIS!
Let’s give Iran the nukes and cut out the middle man. Might even make a little profit. Then they can take over the region.
See the recent stories about veterans volunteering to go fight ISIS sans the US military. How many here on this blog have the conviction of belief to leave their families and go fight in foreign lands with no pay or support of their own country’s military.
Want to know the difference between a fight we should be involved in and one we shouldn’t? Here it is: Americans, Christians, going to fight on their own to wipe out an evil blight on this great earth that seeks to bring back the middle-ages to the middle east.
Occupying Afghanistan was the wrong fight. Invading Iraq was the wrong fight. Now we have spent out blood and treasure when a righteous fight presents itself. What’s a real American to do? I know what those limp-wristed metrosexual liberals won’t do… risk their life for those in need
“Now we have spent out blood and treasure when a righteous fight presents itself. What’s a real American to do? I know what those limp-wristed metrosexual liberals won’t do… risk their life for those in need”
If the people in the Middle East want to kill each other, I don’t care. If you want to go join the fight, why are you posting here?
If you’ll excuse me, I pulled a wrist muscle typing this post, and I have to the emergency room.
Occupying Afghanistan was the wrong fight. Invading Iraq was the wrong fight.
I am sure these actions had nothing to do with the current development. Actions have consequences, yo!
This could be a splendid little religious war. Except for those darn metrosexuals who don’t want to fight in it.
A number of those stories were about veterans who were bored with their post-war lives. They wanted the excitement of combat. It’s unclear that most of them choosing to risk their lives to fight evil. There was a story yesterday about a guy from Texas who joined the Kurdish pesh merga. I wonder what he knows about the government of the Kurdish province of Iraq. For example, what is life like for Christians or non-Kurds who live under that government. These veterans probably don’t know or don’t care.
Sorry, but as is typical with most “real journalists” today, the art of asking the right questions to get at the truth is lost. If these veterans were bored and looking for “action”, why not become a mercenary and fight for Ukraine, or the Ukrainian seperatists, or the Nigerians, or any of a hundred factions in a humdred different hotspots around the world? Why choose to join the Kurds in fighting ISIS, and why do it for free? Why did a German motorcycle club volunteer to help the Kurds fight? Why is the Sons of Liberty training Syrians and Kurds for free to fight ISIS and living on Christian donations to survive?
The thing about critical thinking, which is sorely lacking in today’s younger generation, is that it requires asking the hard questions to get at the truth of a matter… asking hard questions is difficult, requires preparations and time and “gasp” insight.
Those might be interesting question to ask. Since they weren’t asked, you can only speculate what the answers might be. The story that I read yesterday about the veteran from Austin, TX did say that his previous service in Iraq was part of his motivation to go there.
If they’re going to fight ISIS, aren’t they essentially fighting alongside Iran against the sunnis? Or is that too much critical thinking?
Yes. They are in fact “siding” with Iran against Sunni extremists. However, the bigger issue is that US foreign policy has failed, spectacularly.
That’s Obama’s legacy, just as Bush’s is a failed occupation of Iraq. Note I say failed ocupation… the invasion of Iraq was successful, albeit unnecessary.
How does fighting alongside Iran help us? Are they really our allies?
More the enemy of my enemy is my friend, until that is no longer the case. As to the Sunni-Shia conflict, Kurds are mostly Sunni, yet they are ISIS’s enemy.
So for now we’ll be allied with the guys that we’re also sanctioning and threatening to attack if they don’t give up their nuclear weapons program. Got it. That should work well.
Hey, can’t we fight ‘em both at once? Get like a two-for-one special on wars? It’d be righteous, and more efficient.
“I know in this town being middle class is not viewed as a compliment — it means you’re not sophisticated.”
Two words: reading comprehension.
“I know in this town being middle class is not viewed as a compliment — it means you’re not sophisticated.”
What’s the big deal? The important people within both parties have known this and acted on it for decades now. Biden’s one of them too, but in this case, he’s just pointing out that this is how high finance, government, and law work.
Needless to say, it’s bad for the country. But the electorate in the US is easily divided among superficial issues. More people vote on issues like guns, abortion, social security, medicare, and the military than vote on nuanced, big picture issues like the overall structure of the government, efficient delivery of services, and appointment of competent judges. This is why every nomination from the 90s until now is about finding and picking at contentious issues, such that no good or sane person wants to take these jobs– only people with a political/climber mindset. And it’s why judges get asked about 2 or 3 atypical cases rather than the 99.9% of instances they’ve ruled on summary judgment motions, class action certifications, or decisions they’ve had appealed.
We have the gov’t our electorate deserves. Both parties suck. And smart people have been taking advantage of that for a long, long time.
So we should go to war with Iran and ISIS?
you’re asking the wrong question.
“does it support our party’s narrative heading into the next election? does it fit our brand? what do the donors think? what does our hard core/primary-voting base think?”
The answer is hang the politicians… and the lawyers, just for good measure. A leason we should have learned from our French brothers.
So there are a lot of rich people in Washington, DC and look down on middle class people. This is not big news. It’s probably quite common wherever rich people congregate all over America.
Anyone pretending this is newsworthy is naive or stupid. DC people _hate_ middle America. This is especially true of the DC people who nominally “represent” middle America. Very few of them want anything to do with middle america beyond delivering pork barrel spending/military bases and rallying their voters every few yrs to stay in office.
It’s true of rich, powerful people everywhere, not just in DC. A great example of this was Mitt’s Romney’s remarks about 47% of the population. A lot of those people probably consider themselves to be middle class.
Another part of the FSA. “Professional” sports.
—————–
Sports Stadiums Throw Taxpayers for a Loss
Townhall.com | March 12, 2015 | Steve Chapman
This is good news because attracting a team would probably mean piling a burden on local taxpayers to enrich owners who are already wealthy. Local taxpayers would have been on the hook for $350 million in debt to finance the new arena, on top of the $322 million left to be paid on the current convention center. And taxpayers elsewhere would have been effectively sharing the load, because the bonds used to get the money would have been exempt from federal taxes.
St. Louis and Missouri have countered by proposing to build the Rams a new stadium, which could involve $350 million in state bonds. You could almost forget that the Edward Jones Dome is just 20 years old and was built, with public help, to lure the team.
University of Chicago economist Allen Sanderson has a better idea: Pay the Rams to keep playing there. “It would be far preferable for the mayor of St. Louis to write a check to the Rams’ owner for, say, $100 million and let it go at that, essentially a bribe to stay put and shut up,” he told me.
This is a second-best option, he admits. He has a sensible preference that local governments and the feds provide no money at all. NFL teams are rich entities, and there is no reason their owners shouldn’t pay for their own playgrounds.
But all of us are getting to do it whether we want to or not. Bloomberg Business reported in 2012, “Over the life of the $17 billion of exempt debt issued to build stadiums since 1986, the last of which matures in 2047, taxpayer subsidies to bondholders will total $4 billion.”
State and city bonds were originally intended to finance projects like roads, bridges, schools and other projects that serve the public. But they have been expanded to borrow money for all sorts of projects that serve to enrich private corporations.
Everytime I rent a car in Phoenix I pay about 40% more in various “fees” and taxes.
One is the Stadium tax. I occasionally go to baseball games but the ticket prices should pay for the stadiums.
Here’s the breakdown for my upcoming two day car rental:
Estimated Mandatory Charges
Rental Time Charge: $70.58
Apt Conc Recov Fee: $8.76
Facility Charge: $12.00
Fac Maintain Fee: $1.86
County Stadium Tax: $3.24
Energy Recovery Fee: $6.44
State Tax: $15.25
Estimated Optional Charges
Estimated Grand Total: $118.13
So $3.24 for a silly stadium tax. That is 5% of the car rental fee $70.58.
The other fees are very slimy. The 9/11 BS forced the rental car companies to move to a central facility and then have a “Facility charge” and “Facility Maintainence Fee.”
And then there is the 20% state tax on renting a car.
You might want to stay away from Florida then.
One is the Stadium tax. I occasionally go to baseball games but the ticket prices should pay for the stadiums.
That would be unamerican. Capitalism, yo!
Taxes on hotel rooms and rental cars are a brilliant innovation of state and local governments because they levied on out-of-towners. Of course, anyone who thinks about it for a minute will realize that people in Phoenix will pay the same taxes when take vacations in other states.
The other fees are very slimy. The 9/11 BS forced the rental car companies to move to a central facility and then have a “Facility charge” and “Facility Maintainence Fee.”
Why aren’t those costs included in the rental fee? I don’t pay a “facility fee” at the supermarket.
neocon link list (united states taxpayers edition)
fox news - isis accepts boko haram loyalty pledge
breitbart - exclusive - tom cotton stands firm against left, media: obama ‘paving the path’ for iran to get nuke
weekly standard - a contrived controversy and an emboldened iran
drudge link - military concerned isis fighters returning to caribbean could reach us
washington times - tikrit offensive vital in reversing islamic state gains in iraq and syria, analysts say
world net daily - u.s. inaction against isis a trap for iran
and remember, always always remember, that when you click on one of these links, you pull a shekel out of the u.s. treasury and give it to william kristol (net worth $200,000,000)
and tom cotton wins the ‘base rallier of the week’ award
You forgot about the Koch brothers!!!
They get hundreds of millions of dollars every time you click on one of those articles.
With that money - it is how they are going to starve kids and throw grandma in the street and pollute the air.
The Koch brothers don’t get involved with foreign policy
But Sheldon Adelson (net worth $30,000,000,000) sure does
I donated money to and voted for Ron Paul
You sir are being played for a sucker and a fool
+1
How’s life at the Soros compound these days? Who’s in charge of the communist rent-a-mob emergency dispatch team?
#DontFundamentallyTransformMeBro
Let me know when you’re joining Tom Cotton’s Iran liberation brigade, I can give you a ride to the airport
“How’s life at the Soros compound these days?”
Alinsky
RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
#Fundamentalisthypocrite
Ron Paul? Yet pretty much all you do is rail against right wingers and ignore the other half of mush heads. Being partisan doesn’t help get Ron Paul elected.
“#Fundamentalisthypocrite”
The alinsky rules have worked very well for left wing radical revolutionaries, I am simply taking a proven tactic and employing it against left wing radicals.
#DontReinventTheWheel
“I am simply taking a proven tactic and employing it against left wing radicals.”
That’s what makes you a hypocrite, accusing others of what you do yourself.
A pox on both their houses, but especially those darned republicans!
Where are the neo liberal links?
You know my position on race hustlers, feminists, and gun grabbers
and tom cotton wins the ‘base rallier of the week’ award
Boots, I think you meant ‘Tom Cotton wins the ‘Democratic base rallier of the week’ award. Dems have been sleeping since BO’s reelection and Tom Cotton’s rookie blunder woke ‘em up. Hillary sent a thank you note to Tom, ‘thanks for taking the media focus off of the e-mail thing.’
Dude has balls, now it’s time for him to be “Cained”
We can’t have conservatives speaking against the Prophet Obama.
Alinsky
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
#TheEmailThingIsNotGoingAway
” Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
Why do you keep reading to us from your playbook? We get it, you’re using Alinsky’s methods.
I think Tom Cotton is the first senator who ever had to have an Iranian mullah explain to him how the constitution works.
I think Tom Cotton is the first senator who ever had to have an Iranian mullah explain to him how the constitution works.
Iranian Mullahs know more about US constitution than US president and politicians.
This country is a fooking joke!
tom cotton may have a sham marriage, but numerous people who went to college with him say he was a pretty obvious closet case. he’ll be a fine addition to the senate’s closet club, currently headed by warmongering lindsay graham.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/29/the-nra-s-sexy-tom-cotton-grindr-ad.html
How are these folks supposed to buy $500,000 starter homes?
———————-
American Millennials are among the world’s least skilled
Fortune | March 10, 2015 | Anne Fisher
Researchers at Princeton-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) expected it to be when they administered a test called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Sponsored by the OECD, the test was designed to measure the job skills of adults, aged 16 to 65, in 23 countries.
When the results were analyzed by age group and nationality, ETS got a shock. It turns out, says a new report, that Millennials in the U.S. fall short when it comes to the skills employers want most: literacy (including the ability to follow simple instructions), practical math, and — hold on to your hat — a category called “problem-solving in technology-rich environments.”
“We really thought [U.S.] Millennials would do better than the general adult population, either compared to older coworkers in the U.S. or to the same age group in other countries,” says Madeline Goodman, an ETS researcher who worked on the study. “But they didn’t. In fact, their scores were abysmal.”
What does that mean for U.S. employers hiring people born since 1980? Goodman notes that hiring managers shouldn’t overestimate the practical value of a four-year degree.
B-b-but, they’re GREAT as social justice warriors, two minute hate artists and they’re experts at principles of diversity, an important part of today’s workplace. Plus they sho’ can text and snapchat. Everything is awesome! Everyone’s a wiener!
Seriously, though, I blame the parents and the schools for this. They’ve degraded these kids big time.
http://moonbattery.com/liberal-manhood-personified.jpg
Will his girlfriend get mad if someone else is driving her hotrod?
This ties into the decline in productivity in the U.S. I am even seeing a decline in worker productivity at Costco. When unemployment was at its highest, they all worked fast and seem intelligent and competent. Now, there are some workers that I do not want to be in their lines.
This ties into the decline in productivity in the U.S.
Propaganda using ultra short-term numbers.
USA productivity has been well rising for decades while wages are flat. That’s why the middle-class is not doing as well as in the 60’s Shillow. Check out the chart. This is not opinion. This is fact.
https://fixingtheeconomists.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/productivity-and-real-wages.jpg
Why don’t you post latest productivity numbers that were just released lying by omission? I cannot get to them due to internet problems but productivity was down sharply.
Why don’t you post latest productivity numbers that were just released
Because I talk about big-ideas - the big picture of trends and facts.
You talk about knee-jerk short term trends that you warp to fit your biased narrative.
I just posted a 50 year chart and you talk about a blip in time. And lie by omission about the big picture. Figures. You’re a lawyer.
I take that as party omission that you know that I am right that productivity has been going down under Obama and now has even turned negative.
This is a very serious problem and should not be happening in a rising economy, From the BLS I am starting to get slightly better reception, I hope more clouds do not move in:
PRODUCTIVITY AND COSTS
Fourth Quarter and Annual Averages 2014, Revised
Nonfarm business sector labor productivity decreased at a 2.2 percent annual
rate during the fourth quarter of 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported today, as output increased 2.6 percent and hours worked increased
4.9 percent. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally
adjusted annual rates.) From the fourth quarter of 2013 to the fourth
quarter of 2014, productivity decreased 0.1 percent reflecting increases in
output and hours worked of 2.9 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively. (See
table A.) Annual average productivity increased 0.7 percent from 2013 to
2014. (See table C.)
Labor productivity, or output per hour, is calculated by dividing an index of
real output by an index of hours worked of all persons, including employees,
proprietors, and unpaid family workers. Measures released today were based on
more recent source data than were available for the preliminary report.
Unit labor costs in the nonfarm business sector increased 4.1 percent in the
fourth quarter of 2014, reflecting a 1.9 percent increase in hourly
compensation and a 2.2 percent decline in productivity. Unit labor costs
increased 2.6 percent over the last four quarters. (See tables A and 2.)
This is a very serious problem and should not be happening in a rising economy,
Study long-term trends and charts Adan. There are blips up and down. Just as temps can rise long-term with some yearly declines.
The world is complicated.
take that as party omission that you know that I am right that productivity has been going down under Obama
Didn’t know and I don’t care much about short term blips in 50 year trends. USA workers haven’t gained much from massive productivity gains the past 40 years anyway so I don’t see this short-term “downturn” as “a very serious problem”. Maybe they’ll have to hire more people now and stop bleeding every last drop of sweat out of American workers.
Workers will not be getting raises when productivity is falling, for very long, it is a big issue, unlike you I like to anticipate the trends not act like the generals of WWI and fight the last war.
Workers will not be getting raises when productivity is falling
As if they got real raises when productivity rose for 40 years. Get real and stop spouting your 8th grade level propaganda. Your picture of the world is biased snap-shots in time Adan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrAIGLkSMls
“Squirrel!!”
Study long-term trends and charts Adan. There are blips up and down.
You study the charts Lola and show me the number of times that productivity dropped when we were not in a recession.
Despite this the dollar is taking off like a rocket, however it is not manipulation at least according to most of the board. Sorry, I am not prepared to believe that a .25% interest rate hike in the future can cause a 25% increase in the value of the dollar. I will stick with manipulation.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-13/surprise-u-s-economic-data-most-disappointing-in-the-world
show me the number of times that productivity dropped when we were not in a recession.
What difference would that make in the context of my main point here that American workers have not benefited proportionally from over 3 decades of massive productivity gains?
You think you’d shock me that USA could be in Recession? Why? I’ve said USA is suffering from a lack of demand for years and it hasn’t mattered much if a Dem or Repub is in office.
What difference would that make in the context of my main point here that American workers have not benefited proportionally from over 3 decades of massive productivity gains?
I knew you could not show it, because declining productivity in an alleged recovery is unbelievable. Last night after I stopped posting you took a minor point and made it the major point, the major point last night was Obama will have run up ten trillion in new debt while Reagan ran up 1.5 trillion and accomplished far more. So you have no moral high ground to complain about my post not being responsive to your point. This is particularly true when you try to hijack someone thread which was really about the poor quality of today’s workers. My point was responsive to that point, your 50 year trend on productivity was not.
My point was responsive to that point,
Your point is lawyer tactics of bs and subterfuge.
Last night after I stopped posting you took a minor point and made it the major point,
I made a major point. It’s all about you isn’t it? I’ll bet people run from you at social gatherings.
When unemployment was at its highest, they all worked fast and seem intelligent and competent
—————————————————————-
Computers have allowed employers to hire dumber people.
Computers have allowed employers to hire dumber people.
Actually, it has allowed employers to not hire dumber people at all. When you can automate menial jobs, you don’t have to hire dullards to do them.
They’re best skilled in social media, selfies and serving up cappuccino.
And they are racists, too.
I am glad that I missed the this sorry bunch by just few years.
“I am glad that I missed the this sorry bunch by just few years.”
Relax, they’ve got your golden years covered.
Couldn’t be more wrong.
Every one of these kids is special.
Every one is a winner.
I guess we know who really benefited from Obamacare, and it ain’t the American consumer or taxpayer. Wonder if Obama is going to follow Ms. Clinton’s example and pick up $300K a speech from audiences comprised of employees and investors from companies that made out like bandits from his policies
http://us.spindices.com/indices/equity/sp-500-health-care-sector
Only bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes can solve this…
If you were to compare that index to the S&P 500, you’d see that it did better than the S&P 500, but not tremendously better. It also shouldn’t be surprising that health care does better than the rest of the stock market during a period of weak economic growth and high unemployment.
Are the sheeple waking up?
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLL_FAITH_IN_GOVERNMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-03-11-15-47-05
There is a reason obama is the great divider.
As long as we are fighting along class and racial lines - obama gets a pass for seven years of absolute failure.
He managed to unite enough people to get him elected twice.
Chavez did the same thing, at least twice, however that did not mean he ran the economy effectively or he did not damage democracy in his country.
You could say the same thing about little W.
You could say the same thing about little W.
Actually, I would not argue with that statement and I denounced W’s policies on this blog on a regular basis while he was president, which makes me very different from the liberals on this blog that use a different standard depending on whether some one has a D or R before their name, but they claim to be independent. What also makes me different is that I understand that W is no longer president and the new president needs to take 90% of the blame for whatever is happening particularly after a couple of years.
Bush Jr. did, too.
He managed to unite enough people to get him elected twice ??
Which says much about the party on the other side now doesn’t it…
Bamboozled enough people to get elected twice is the right description.
Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice we won’t be fooled again.
–American Sheeple who vote
I’m sure I’m not the only one reminded of this:
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
George W. Bush
And I bet you voted for him.
“won’t be fooled again” -
this was a quote from a song by The Who right?
this was a quote from a song by The Who right?
Yes , but Shurb jr. had a similar quote somewhere. All I was saying that people who voted for Obama (or Shrub for that matter) are as stoopido as Shrub jr.
I can’t get that saying right either, that’s why I try not to say it. Like I told the guy at Home Depot, measure once and cut twice.
Rallying the base
Huffington Post top headline - Ferguson On Edge
A) Michael Brown attacked the cop
B) Eric Garner was murdered
C) Al and Jesse need to get PAID
D) All of the above
You care about one guy, but it’s fine to let Iran have nukes?
it’s 10am local time and dispensary is open for business, no more foreign policy posts today, i have customers to serve
have a good day
I got it now, you play Foxnews and Rush in the dispensary, get yourself and the patrons all riled up and sales skyrocket! Brilliant.
We sell what the voters voted for
If you like drinking Duff and popping Oxycontins, stay in Alabama
Sweet Home Alabama.
Rile em up, then calm them down. Great sales paradigm.
Isn’t bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes just great!!!
—————–
Americans have insurance but can’t afford to use it
The Fiscal Times - By Beth Braverman - March 13, 2015
The report finds that many consumers don’t have the cash on hand to cover the cost of a mid-range deductible or $1,200 for an individual or $2,400 per family. High deductible health plans require that consumers cover their health care costs out of pocket until they’ve met their deductible.
A Gallup poll released last December found that one in three Americans have put off treatment for themselves or a family member because of cost—the highest rate in the history of the poll. There may be good reason: A separate report released also released in December by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that about half of all debt that goes to collections agencies represents medical bills.
Increasingly, consumers are turning to high deductible plans not because they’re the best option for their family, but because those are the plans with affordable premiums or the only type of plan offered by their employer. (Nearly one in five employers offers only a high-deductible plan to workers.) “High deductibles are going to continue to be a problem [for some consumers] until we can get costs under control or figure out how to get people to save more money,” says Barbara Gniewek, principal with PwC’s Human Resource Services practice.
Health care is 18% of USA GDP
But it should be at least 25% to show those Euro-socialists who’s boss
#AmericanExceptionalism
You are right.
We need an obamacare part II.
That will surely fix it.
That the French can make their healthcare system work and we can’t says a great deal about American Exceptionalism.
There’s elections to be won & lots money to be made in American healthcare. That’s why nobody will fix it. Collapse is the only answer.
Than again France is a country and America is a game.
America is also a big shopping mall.
I agree, ACA sucks. Repeal and replace with Medicare for all. If you want a higher level of care, buy your own supplement or “gap” coverage.
Repeal and replace with Medicare for all. If you want a higher level of care, buy your own supplement or “gap” coverage.
That is a good solution that would fit within the existing structure. Repubs wouldn’t go for it because their psyops propaganda machine is against it.
It’s not just the psyops machine, Rio. The ultimate plan by Repub hardliners is to kill Social Security (eliminate FDR’s legacy), kill Medicare (eliminate LBJ’s legacy), kill ACA (eliminate BO’s legacy). They want Atlas to shrug and let the “invisible hand” decide if Grandma survives or not.
Not sure how’s that any worse than a mid-level bureaucrat deciding if Grandma survives or not?
Not sure how’s that any worse than a mid-level bureaucrat deciding if Grandma survives or not?
It’s worse because those bureaucrats don’t exist.
Oh yes they do; they just work for the insurance companies.
Not letting insurance companies take their cut is detrimental to people who get campaign contributions from insurance companies.
2banana’s rule on politics.
Conservatives are more than happy to live under the same laws and pay the same taxes they want for everyone else.
Liberals/Progressives expect to be exempted from the same laws and taxes they want for everyone else.
————————–
If Hillary Clinton Signed Form OF-109, She Committed A Felony
Investor’s Business Daily | March 13, 2015 | IBD EDITORIALS
On leaving, the official must sign Form OF-109, a formal separation statement, certifying under penalty of law the departing official has “surrendered to responsible officials all unclassified documents and papers relating to the official business of the government acquired by me while in the employ of the (State) Department.”
The employee does not get to determine what is classified or not, personal or not, and Clinton’s assertion that she never emailed classified material is, as they say in court, irrelevant and immaterial.
If an employee violates the terms of the Form OF-109 she or he has signed, that act is punishable by Section 18 U.S.C. § 1001 of the criminal code, which makes it a crime to knowingly and willfully falsify or conceal facts made in statements to federal agencies concerning matters under their jurisdiction.
There’s a warning in the official records management handbook that states: “Fines, imprisonment or both may be imposed for the willful and unlawful removal or destruction of records as stated in the U.S. Criminal Code.” That is the law, and Clinton was sworn to uphold the law.
Copying and pasting Drudge Report links to the HBB does not make you some kind of Woodward or Bernstein
But is sure as hell makes people like William Kristol get RICH
Whoops my bad:
http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/international-coalition-bombing-killed-50-iraqi-soldiers-anbar-says-mp-fatlawi/
Would that sort of thing occur under your plan for us to continuously bomb Iranian nuclear sites?
Not true, that never was my plan, go back to yesterday and read my posts. I made it clear that we should not be involved in bombing the sites. If Israel wanted to do I,t that is fine. The U.S. should be involved with strict economic sanctions and nothing more. The above article if true is what happens when you do not have sufficient boots on the ground to direct airpower. I say if true is because we are losing another war in Iraq and that is the way for influence in that country. Iran and its allies in the Iraqi government spare no effort in using propaganda against the U.S. All the Iraqis here is about U.S. mess ups and Iranian successes against ISIS. Iran is our enemy to allow them to get nuclear weapons would be the biggest mistake since Carter forced the Shah to let up on his opposition which led to his downfall and the rise of clerics.
So Israel would be continuously bombing Iran under your plan. Would that involve any civilian deaths? Would the rest of the middle east perceive Israel to be working in conjunction with us?
And how would sanctions work when China and Russia won’t go along with them? Russia is contracted to build eight new nuclear reactors in Iran in the coming years. Do we send Israel to bomb them? Should they bomb them when the Russian engineers and scientists are there?
So Israel would be continuously bombing Iran under your plan
You consistently distort what I have said. Israel bombing Iran is not even part of my “plan”. Stronger economic sanctions are my plan. However, Israel can bomb if they want to and Israel can decide what to do if Russian engineers are helping to create a bomb. It would not be the first time Israeli bombs killed Russians and probably will not be the last. as far as the rest of the Middle East, you still do not get it, the rest of the Middle East does not want Iran to have the bomb and would be perfectly happy to see Israel bomb Iran. The only exceptions are the other Shiite nations.
I still like my plan.
- Let Iran “nuke up”
- Along with everyone else in the Middle East
-We GTFOOD, and wait for them all to start slinging nukes at each other. With any luck, Benji NetanYahoo will kick things off.
- Afterwards, when the Middle East is a sheet of glass from the Atlas Mountains to Baku, we come in with the Windex.
Let Iran “nuke up”
Yep. Let Iran have it and also let Saudi have it, too.
Not sure how the balance of power changes with this scenario. Same as it ever was.
It is not a balance of power problem, it is the problem that there are plenty of people in that region crazy enough to use them. It is an area where there are plenty of people that are proud when their ten year old straps on a bomb and blows his or herself up for Allah. People like that should never get the bomb, never, and they should not even be allowed to have the capacity to create a nuclear bomb.
region crazy enough to use them.
Crazy enough like Truman, you mean? In the history of mankind, there’s been only one country that has nuked unarmed civilians. History, yo!
Crazy enough like Truman, you mean? In the history of mankind, there’s been only one country that has nuked unarmed civilians. History, yo!
It probably saved one million American lives and perhaps many millions of Japanese lives. The Japanese as I posted a few days ago killed tens of millions of civilians in occupied countries and were fanatics that fought to the death and compelled their civilians to die also instead of surrendering. An invasion of Japan would have been a very bloody affair. Look it up, history yo!!!
How do the sanctions work if Russia and China won’t go along with them?
“the rest of the middle east…would be perfectly happy to see Israel bomb Iran”
They’ll be greeted as liberators!
Look W got Libya to give up his nuclear program, it was just after we began our invasions. All I am requiring of Obama is that he be just as effective as W. I think that is setting the bar low. If he does get Iran to give up its enrichment program, he would deserve the Nobel Peace prize, but if he agrees to enrichment and no monitoring of the program after ten years he deserves to be in the same category as those that appeased Hitler and caused WWII.
” W got Libya to give up his nuclear program, it was just after we began our invasions. All I am requiring of Obama is that he be just as effective”
Sounds like part of the effectiveness was beginning “our invasions”. Should we invade some countries now to show we mean business?
No, but we certainly should not show that we want the deal more than they do. The rug merchants will eat your lunch if you do that and from the sounds of it they are eating Obama’s lunch. The deal sounds like an illusory contract.
What specifically about the deal is bad? What would make it better? How do we get them to agree to a new deal?
I have addressed all those issues for days what is the point if you are not even going to bother to read my posts. For example, look at today’s post problems with deal:
1. Allows Iran to keep enrichment capacity sufficient to make a bomb
2. Has a provision of no monitoring of nuclear program after ten years.
These should be deal breakers and just a few years ago it was Obama’s position that Iran could not have the capability to produce a nuclear bomb. It could have a civilian nuclear program but it do not the capacity to enrich, particularly the ability to enrich to the 90%+ U235 enrichment sufficient to make a bomb. Iran has that right now and cannot be allowed to keep it. That was our position and it should not have changed. Iran has been increasing its demands as it wins concessions such as a partial lifting of the sanctions it received in November 2013. Obama has shown he wants a deal more than he wants to keep Iran from getting the bomb. Iran knows it and is exploiting it.
I have addressed all those issues for days what is the point if you are not even going to bother to read my posts.
Adan. Really? With your long and never ending posts full of deflections and half-truths, it’s tedious to separate the pepper from the fly sh!t.
Shorten them up and less lawyerSlimeSpeak please.
With your long and never ending posts full of deflections and half-truths,
Lola, you are projecting again, you have described your posts to a tee.
It probably saved one million American lives and perhaps many millions of Japanese lives.
Probably, huh?
How can you have 100% certainty over something that did not happen? We know the invasion of Okinawa was very bloody including large number of civilian deaths, many were “encouraged” to commit suicide instead of surrendering. There was no historical reason to believe that the invasion of Japan should be any different, so you assume the larger army on the home island would fight to the death with many civilian dead. Is the one million estimate certain, of course not, however it was a reasonable estimate.
Why would Iran be in favor of making more concessions? Russia and China show no inclination to go along with any new sanctions. Russia is building eight new nuclear reactors in Iran in the coming years. We’re probably lucky we got the deal we did. If you and Netanyehu want to send in the troops, feel free to take the lead position.
US led coalition.
I smell another Nobel Peace Prize for the teleprompter reader.
I am dubious about whether the Apple Watch will be a success but the complexity of supply chain is amazing. Around 350 suppliers just from China alone.
Link:
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-03/11/content_19782428.htm
Excerpt from link that will post:
After the six-month wait, the Apple Watch is finally here, a supplier related to Apple Inc said.
The latest wearable device from Apple was unveiled on Monday. According to China Galaxy Securities, 5 million Apple Watches are on standby to be sold.
Consulting company Strategy Analytics predicted that more than 15 million Apple Watches will be sold, and the technology giant will become the world’s number one smart watch vendor with 54.8 percent of global market share in 2015.
The huge shipments of the Apple Watches can only be made possible with strong support from Apple’s suppliers. According to Apple, 349 of those suppliers are in China.
It’s interesting that China can only sell products that have been designed by foreigners.
You have not seen their latest smart phones from Chinese governments. I find it interesting Apple is so dependent on Chinese suppliers. There would not be so many negative articles against China if they would have stayed in that support role, it is the fact that they are creating their own brands, that has the multi-national companies s#itting their pants.
You have not seen their latest smart phones from Chinese governments
Coffee has not kicked in. Should say you have not seen the latest smart phones from the Chinese. SOEs do not dominate the Chinese smart phone industry.
You need a lot more than coffee.
I remember when the calculator watches were a fad too. I dont wear a watch. Half the time I don’t care what time it is. I look at my phone to check time. I’m not a buyer.
For me…IF it was cheap enough and nice enough and held a charge long enough I’d love to be able to just glance at the watch to see who just messaged me. I’m probably in the car and felt the vibration but really don’t want to dig the phone out unless it’s really necessary. There are some other nice features too.
But this first generation probably isn’t for me yet. The model I would like is around $1000 and has to be charged every single night. Not what I had in mind for something that I’d probably want to update in a year or two.
I read an interesting criticism of the gold one. If someone buys a gold Apple watch and it becomes obsolete when the next version is released a year later, they have an outdated electronic device surrounded by gold.
It is a very expensive status symbol with a very limited shelf life. I do not know how much gold will be contained in the watch, but I would hope for ten thousand dollars it would be substantial and thus the watch could be recycled. However, I think you would be far better off buying the regular one and spending the rest on gold directly.
But then how would everybody know you were better than them? Just wear the gold around your neck or something?
No, go to Target and buy a $5 wall clock and hang it by a chain on your chest.
I think that only works once and Flava Flav got there first.
iWatch will usher Apple to be the first 2 trillion dollar company. I say 2 trillion because we all got 2 wrists and it is our duty to fill our iLives with more iCraps.
If you live in or near one of these six cities, prepare for the worst. If you own property there, sell now. Do whatever you have to do and GTFO.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/0312/Justice-Dept.-chooses-6-cities-for-project-on-curbing-racial-bias-video
This is just gross. Project to “curb racial bias”. What’s next, lobotomies for white people?
Too bad about Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, two urban areas that were maintaining. Not any more.
“lobotomies for white people”
no surgery required, just get a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts or the humanities
You mean enroll in a liberal brain-washing program.
What, is racial bias something wonderful that needs to be promoted?
Are you as angry about this as I am?
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2015/03/13/president-obama-reads-mean-tweets-talks-ferguson-clinton-emails-on-jimmy-kimmel/
Obama is such a smug prick, when I heard about this I called up my Congressman on the phone and told him we need to start bombing Iran five minutes ago
Rallying the base
When I heard about these filthy muslims throwing their poop on our soldiers I got so angry, angry, angry that I threw the remote at the TV, and then I went and voted for the candidates that Sheldon Adelson purchased
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/03/13/gitmo-detainees-splash-guards-daily-with-human-waste-marine-general-tells/
Nigeria says send in the white boys. I am glad they can help against that savage group:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/world/africa/nigerias-fight-against-boko-haram-gets-help-from-south-african-mercenaries.html?ref=world
Excerpt:
A senior Western diplomat confirmed that the South Africans were playing “a major operational role,” particularly at night. Equipped with night-vision goggles, the mercenaries “are whacking them in the evening hours,” the diplomat said.
“The next morning the Nigerian Army rolls in and claims success,” the diplomat added.
The mercenaries “are doing the heavy lifting,” said the diplomat, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Sounds like Obama would do well in the Nigerian Army. How long did he claim success for the increase in U.S. oil production due to shale oil production?
Hey ABQ Dan — thought you’d like this. More clean, economical solar power right there in your back yard
Xcel Energy plans to add 140 megawatts of solar energy in New Mexico
“We are making these purchases because they make good sense economically,” Hudson said. “Not only is solar energy dropping in price, it also displaces megawatts generated from some of our older, less-efficient natural gas-fueled plants.” …Hudson said the purchase will further support the company’s goal of keeping fuel costs low.
Good morning sunshine, bye bye fossil fuels.
If solar is going to work anywhere it would be New Mexico and Arizona. However, include the link because I am sure it includes some information about subsidies, without massive subsidies and higher payments to providers by utilities passed on to consumers, solar does not work period. Recently, I heard about a company building a peak natural gas plant in New Mexico which will also be in the rate base and is needed if you are going to rely on solar. This is why despite low coal, oil and NG prices people throughout the country are paying the highest electricity bills ever, thanks Obama.
How much of a subsidy do oil and gas get? Please include the cost of US military escorts and protection in international waters, provided by taxpayers at no charge to oil producers.
Be sure to include the cost of the Iraq War, which, as Dick Cheney explained, would solve all our energy problems.
No fan but what do you think the price of oil would be if Iraqi oil was not back on line?
Please include the cost of US military escorts and protection in international waters, provided by taxpayers at no charge to oil producers.
No, because we interfered in the Ukraine without any oil being involved, we invaded Afghanistan without oil being involved. Our military budget is not directly tied to oil production and should not be added to the price of a barrel of oil. Keeping our enemies from obtaining money through oil sales might require the military but even if we were 100% self sufficient in energy whether alternative or not we would still do it.
‘Afghanistan has some oil and gas of its own, but not enough to qualify as a major strategic concern. Its northern neighbours, by contrast, contain reserves which could be critical to future global supply. In 1998, Dick Cheney, now US vice-president but then chief executive of a major oil services company, remarked: “I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian.” But the oil and gas there is worthless until it is moved. The only route which makes both political and economic sense is through Afghanistan.’
‘Transporting all the Caspian basin’s fossil fuel through Russia or Azerbaijan would greatly enhance Russia’s political and economic control over the central Asian republics, which is precisely what the west has spent 10 years trying to prevent. Piping it through Iran would enrich a regime which the US has been seeking to isolate. Sending it the long way round through China, quite aside from the strategic considerations, would be prohibitively expensive. But pipelines through Afghanistan would allow the US both to pursue its aim of “diversifying energy supply” and to penetrate the world’s most lucrative markets.’
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/23/afghanistan.terrorism11
And this:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-war-is-worth-waging-afghanistan-s-vast-reserves-of-minerals-and-natural-gas/19769
It’s a good think Dick Cheney was allowed to pick himself to be vice president. Now if he would only go to Iraq so they can hail him as a liberator…
Ben, I think that with both Afghanistan and Iraq the reason we stayed and attempted nation building was to obtain the resources for the PTB. However, removing Hussein and destroying Al Qeada were legitimate national security aims. Unfortunately, like Rahm, the rest of the PTB will never miss and opportunity to exploit a crisis. Thus, instead of just containing legitimate threats we expand our involvement to make them safe for multinationals. It was not enough for us to just to the alter the balance of power in our favor in those countries.
EIA figures on government subsidies, hot off the press:
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=20352
Found the story, as I expected you have left out the part about the subsidies:
The Associated Press
ROSWELL, N.M. — Two planned solar generating stations are expected to boost Xcel Energy’s renewable energy portfolio for electric customers in New Mexico and Texas.
The utility announced Thursday it has signed power purchase agreements with affiliates of NextEra Energy Resources, which plans to build solar farms near Roswell.
The agreements require the approval of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.
Xcel spokesman Wes Reeves says the cost of solar has come down and tax incentives have helped to make it more competitive with gas-fueled generation.
Most of the utility’s renewable energy comes from wind generation, but Xcel is looking to add more solar before investment tax credits expire.
Through the subsidiary Southwestern Public Service Co., Xcel serves nearly 385,000 customers in New Mexico and the Panhandle and South Plains regions of Texas.
Related: SolarCity coming to Albuquerque.
Ya know - I peruse this site several times a week and there had been nothing glaring of late - this following the oil field catastrophe still unfolding - but what gets me is when you have 50 layoffs here and a couple of hundred there every single friggin day this adds up over time.
Comrade Otrauma - thank you for this failure resulting from your ideology you idiot.
Matter of fact every stinking fool to occupy that oval office in the last couple of generations have planted seeds that have led up to this disaster we are living in. F….them all!!!
http://www.dailyjobcuts.com/
The oil industry is consolidating, and jobs are being lost because of it. Unless you’re against free markets, there’s nothing that anybody in government can do about it.
It is not a free market it is Obama trying to wage war on Putin. Saudi Arabia seems to have deserted the fight, probably mad about Iran, Obama is down to spiking the dollar and manipulating the futures market, he will soon be saying “this sucker is going up”, as in the oil price.
“manipulating the futures market” LMAO
Obama is about six years late to that game.
The big job cuts will happen when there are no longer a back log of wells to frac, we are getting close and when that happens oil production crashes too.
At the same site is a list of job openings and who’s hiring (http://www.dailyjobcuts.com/jobs.htm). To my eye it looks like the job openings are the same or a little bit more than the layoffs.
So let’s see how Obama rates on the various FoxNews Republican Litmus Test.
Gives a big free pass to the banksters - Check
Passes the “Health Insurance and Medical-Industrial Complex Wet Dream Plan”, aka “Obamacare” - Check
Continues playing the Middle East “Cop on the Beat”- Check
Pushes NATO expansion/USA exceptionalism into the Russians back yard, creating a too convenient for words conflict with the Rooskies - Check
Continues the Domestic Spying plan that Republicans began- check
I could go on……..but sounds like most of this is pretty much Republican party wish-list stuff.
Obama isn’t a Democrat, he’s Republican-Lite.
Except for Obamacare, I would agree with most of those points, especially number one. But unlike Republicans, he’s not chomping at the bit to send thousands more Americans to die. Obama is a bluffer, but conservatives aren’t happy unless there’s real blood on the ground.
But unlike Republicans, he’s not chomping at the bit to send thousands more Americans to die.
This is just bogus. Obama expanded Afghani war and has sent thousands of troops all over the ME. I don’t think they are going to party there.
Stop the lies, yo!
Obama expanded Afghani war and has sent thousands of troops all over the ME
Yes he did but Is not expanding a war to end it and sending troops to the ME much different than starting the Iraq Hot War under false pretenses?
Republicans aren’t republicans, they are democrats-lite.
See how that works.
The one thing Obama cannot do is actually produce oil, the rig count is dropping like a stone both here and in Canada. In fact, in Canada there are less than half the rigs working. Quite simply at today’s prices the world cannot produce enough oil. The economics are that we need $80 a barrel to have a sufficient oil supply. The fact that we are so far below that is due to manipulation. Sometimes manipulation works for people and they do not want to recognize it. Predatory pricing are the hardest cases to bring in Antitrust law because people like the lower prices even if they are setting up people for much higher prices. But here is the rig count:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=79687&p=irol-reportsother
80 rigs were lost in Canada, they now have only 220 working as opposed to 522 last year at this time. We lost another 67 rigs. I would have no problem with a decline in the price of oil if it were due to a true oil glut. But we have more than five million barrels of oil coming from shale oil and we need to be drilling more and more wells to just stay even in production.
Obama’s oil war is just like predatory pricing and it is not even supported by the Saudis anymore who are not talking oil down now. This is being done by our egotistic president who is in a pissing war with Putin. Spiking the dollar is hurting our economy and lowering the price of oil just means higher oil in the future. If I was wrong about the cost of production, so many rigs would not be shutting down. The world will have a massive oil shortage in much of the shale oil production is lost with a corresponding rise in price, that is the path we are on, despite Obama’s propaganda promulgated through a friendly MSM.
HOUSTON, Mar. 13
03/13/2015
By OGJ editors
The US drilling rig count plunged 67 units—64 on land and 56 targeting oil—to settle at 1,125 rigs working during the week ended Mar. 13, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc.
That total is the lowest since Nov. 20, 2009, and 684 fewer units compared with this week a year ago. The count has now fallen in 14 consecutive weeks, losing 795 units during that time (OGJ Online, Dec. 5, 2014).
Just in……
“I can rub people the wrong way. I talk when I should listen. I own that.”
Very truly yours,
Rahm “Dead Fish” Emmanuel
Soon to be former Mayor of Chicago
And just reported on am 560 here in Chicago - Chicago now has the lowest population since the 1920’s. And it is a perfect place for Obama and his library - the city has been hollowed out and only the folks insulated from bad public policy are remaining - those who are uber rich and live on the lakefront and the poors. So……the consensus is Chicago is the next Detroit!!!
Rahm will win with the republican votes. Oh, the fooking irony!
Chicago is already Detroit, except that Detroit filed bankruptcy first.
60 years of solid and unbroken rule by corrupt liberal/progressive democrats.
60 years of domination of public union goons.
60 years if instituting every failed “big government” program ever dreamed up.
It will end even worse than Detroit.
Detroit had obama and a democrat senate and the corruption of the GM bankruptcy to cushion the blow.
Maybe these cities should buy some multi billion dollar weapons systems that don’t work. That’s always the conservative solution.
OTOH, we have Kansas…..
-35 years of solid and unbroken rule by Republicans and DINOs
-50 year of “Right to Work” (for scraps)
-35 years of Republican tax policy, culminating in our current “Trickle-Down/Trickle-on” program.
Republicans are more efficient than Democrats. It only took 35 years for Republicans to hose things up. Those lazy/bureaucratic Democrats took 60.
If any Chicagoans feel like things are better here in Kansas, Governor Sammie will welcome you here with open arms.
If you were to consider cities that are doing better, you’d also find that they also have Democratic mayors. The other thing that they have is lots of government jobs, or industries that have been built on corporate welfare.
those who are uber rich and live on the lakefront and the poors
That’s true of many large American cities and it’s been going for decades. People in the middle like the suburbs.
But….but….but - the burbs have become a blighted mess in the last ten years - right -
And with the collapse of tax base in cities like Chicago - Rahm over the last couple of years has been poaching businesses faster than his predecessor did to essentially gut the burbs to the favor of a tax write off to relocate to the City - witness United Air, Motorola (now an arm of Google), Miller Coors and others that escape my memory. The poaching is a planned and purposeful attempt to favor the city over the burbs with cronyism all in an attempt to ‘control’ the greater fools who would relo to downtown.
Plus you wanna work for City of Chicago ? Well, bend over because you have to reside in the city of chicago - otherwise - you gone.
The stock market down 300 points one day, up 200 points the next day and now currently down 235 points.
It is almost like it is trying to tell us something.
PS - Oil down 4% in ONE day today.
Must be Obama’s fault.
The daughter’s cat crapped on the floor the other day. He blamed it on Obama too.
Can’t be this “no demand, because J6P no longer has disposable income” and “running out of places to store it at Cushing” problem.
It moves with the dollar like everything else. The market does not like a higher dollar, it depresses earnings particularly of the Multinationals. But it is all Obama has left against Putin. Russia will tell them that a lot of its business debt is in Euros so this is not all that bad.
Yeah, like keep building cash… Firewalls allow me to sleep at night.
Thanks for reminding me. I forgot to count my cash today…
“Levon, Levon likes his money
He makes a lot they say
Spends his days counting
In a garage by the motorway”
+1 on the old school Elton John reference
And if you don’t have it, get the album Tumbleweed Connection, it rawks
Since we’re coming up on seven years since the meltdown, you should sit down and watch “Inside Job” then ask yourself…”how much has changed?”
How rude of Bear Stearns to implode like that in the middle of Jamie Dimon’s birthday party, LOLZ
One last post on this topic to “rally the base”
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-13/cotton-republicans-struggle-to-balance-threat-with-defense-cuts
No “small government” or “lower taxes” to see here folks
Now that your base has been rallied, how are you gonna pay for it?
shhh goon, you’ll rile up the cheerleaders for the red team.
but seriously, neither of the parties has proposed any real changes in a long time. they both nominate insiders and political types to cabinet posts, agency posts, and committee heads. they both spend most of their time kowtowing to special interests and attending donor functions. and they both rile up their base with wedge issues.
the best tactic is to laugh at this stuff. and to pat the “true believers” like 2brony on the head like you would a child.
Liberace!
Park a $125,000 Galpin-Fisker Mustang Rocket in the driveway of your $225,000 Phoenix house so your neighbors will think you have plenty of cash to freely dispense.
http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/g6180/2015-galpin-fisker-mustang-rocket/
The insurance alone would be a house payment. Then again, I don’t think the suburban Camry and Prius drivers would appreciate such a beast anyway.
Stories like this pizz me off:
http://tinyurl.com/qfwzky6
Not the subject. The wrong facts, and the “stating the obvious”…..
Especially this stupid stuff like “…..confirmed it was the Musashi…..”
How many other 70,000 ton Japanese battleships were sunk in the Sibuyan Sea?
And another thing. Pat yourself on the back for helping to pay for the expedition.
I’m sure there is some kind of tax writeoff for Paul Allen’s yacht in there somewhere.
I thought you guys would find this funny…
If I wanted to spend $10K on something that will be obsolete in 3 years…
Nice :-).
+1
Should I be worried? A guy just showed up at our rental to take pictures of the house for insurance. I hope our landlord is not getting ready to sell; we’d prefer to stay put for now. We’ve been here four years and I don’t remember anyone coming to do that before. I’m sure he’s noticed the increase in inventory in Las Vegas.
I told our him years ago we would not be interested in buying unless it was a bargain. I think he owes too much money on it (pretty sure he HELOC’d it in 2010 to buy the place he’s in now) to sell it to us at a price we’d find reasonable.
I would be worried but only to an extent - wife and I had a nice home west of Chicago and every six months or so Mr. Banker would send a photographer to the house across the street - a foreclose (on a mortgage underwriter no less - the irony still kills me) and in the three years this was going on - nothing really changed except the condition of the house as it continued to deteriorate.
Thanks, RJ. Makes me feel a little better. They’ve also lightened up on the inspections, which is strange.
Stay alert though - stay very alert to what ever is going on and ask a few questions - you would be amazed at how the folks who are working for Mr. Banker will pony up info.
The PM people are really tight lipped. WTH, if anything else happens, I’m just going email the landlord and ask what’s up.
NASA scientists (doesn’t make him right, necessarily) claims California has only about a year’s worth of water left. Perish the thought of all those locust-like swarms of Californicators leaving their liberal la-la land-turned-dustbowl behind and flocking into Colorado. Don’t imagine a mega-drought of Biblical proportions is going to help the housing market, though it would be fitting divine retribution against the state that gave us Comrades Pelosi, Boxer, and Feinstein.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-famiglietti-drought-california-20150313-story.html
Maybe the illegals flocking to the state will have to bring their own water.
And what is so strange when I travel to CA for business is how many hotels still have 6GPM (”gusher”) showerheads installed.
You’d think that the CA gov’t. would have mandated retrofits by now for something as simple as a $5 plastic showerhead that takes 5 minutes to install.
Interesting. Thanks!
Boots on the Ground — saw this on Twitter
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B__PKYCVEAA1-aa.jpg
How sad, that’s why I donate money to the Wounded Warriors Project
Acquaintance of mine ran a Tough Mudder race in a team of veterans, one of his buddies doesn’t have legs so his teammates carried him over the obstacles he couldn’t do on his own, pretty cool
Detroit: Knock, knock immediately followed by “blamblamblam etc” Grandmother shot after gunman opens fire through door.
Article didn’t state whether or not anyone inside actually answered the knocks on the door.
Article also didn’t state whether the cops even showed up on the same day - often, they only come a day or more later, if at all . . .
In addition to the foreclosure that recently went up for sale within one block of my job, there is now an abandoned house (with a notice) and another house for sale. I sure do hope the number doubles or triples this year.
Check out the Mark Taylor apartments in the Phoenix area.
This is one of over a dozen Mark Taylor communities. Luxury, and away from the riff raff and carefree living. Some have attached garages. Why rent a house and get slow maintenance when you can get same day maintenance and convenience?
http://www.mark-taylor.com/arizona/san-travesia/#home
Looks sterile without a Rigid Tool girl poster in the garage.
If you are looking at me you must see me laughing at you Wman.
—————————————————————–
Comment by Dman
2015-03-13 09:00:42
I get tired of reading about the latest Fox News talking points, or rather, having to scroll past them (I’m looking at you, BBanana and PScandals).
——————————————————————
Comment by Dman
2015-03-13 09:58:41
I think Tom Cotton is the first senator who ever had to have an Iranian mullah explain to him how the constitution works.
—————————————————————-
Comment by Dman
2015-03-13 09:37:37
Be sure to include the cost of the Iraq War, which, as Dick Cheney explained, would solve all our energy problems.
——————————————————————
Comment by Dman
2015-03-13 10:07:06
It’s a good think Dick Cheney was allowed to pick himself to be vice president. Now if he would only go to Iraq so they can hail him as a liberator…
——————————————————————
Comment by Dman
2015-03-13 07:36:18
He managed to unite enough people to get him elected twice.
——————————————————————-
Comment by Dman
2015-03-13 08:25:09
You could say the same thing about little W.
————————-
Comment by Dman
2015-03-13 08:29:59
I’m sure I’m not the only one reminded of this:
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
George W. Bush
And I bet you voted for him.
——————————————————————–
Latest update on the soon to be former mayor of Chicago……
UPDATE 1-Chicago mayor seeks to phase in higher pension payments
Reuters 3/13/2015 4:13 PM ET
Print Article
(Recasts with details of mayor’s fiscal plan)
CHICAGO, March 13 (Reuters) - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday called for phasing in higher, state-mandated payments to city pension funds to avoid a shock to the city’s budget and a big property tax hike.
The move, which would require state legislation, was part of a plan released by Emanuel’s re-election campaign ahead of an April 7 runoff election against Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who also released his fiscal plan on Friday.
Under an Illinois law, Chicago’s contributions to its police and fire pension funds will increase by about $550 million next year. Another state law allowing cost-saving pension cuts to shore up Chicago’s municipal and laborers’ retirement funds is at risk of being voided as unconstitutional in state court.
Still, the mayor’s plan advocated measures that labor unions and others are challenging in court. These include slowing cost-of-living increases for pensions and gradually increasing workers’ contributions to ease costs.
Emanuel also called for closing Illinois tax loopholes to gain money for the third-biggest U.S. city, along with obtaining state approval for a publicly owned casino.
Garcia’s plan seeks cost savings through intergovernmental collaboration and creates a committee to examine revenue options. It does not address possible funding sources for Garcia’s campaign pledges to hire 1,000 new police officers and to replace traffic ticket revenue generated by red-light cameras he wants removed.
“It is too early to tell residents in the city of Chicago that we’re going to give them bad medicine without stepping back and taking a comprehensive look and approach to how city finances will be met,” Garcia told reporters.
He also said he opposes reducing pension benefits for current and retired city workers.
Emanuel received about 45 percent of the vote last month, short of the 50 percent level needed to avoid a runoff. He leads Garcia by 51-37 percent according to a Chicago Tribune voter poll released on Friday.
Mounting pension pressures led Moody’s Investors Service to lower Chicago’s credit rating by five notches since July 2013, with the last downgrade to Baa2 occurring on Feb. 27.
Garcia said Chicago could save as much as $350 million by consolidating purchasing and some services with other governmental bodies under the mayor’s control, including the Chicago Public Schools. He also said Chicago’s budget could receive a $150 million boost from reforming tax increment financing districts meant to spur economic development within certain geographic boundaries. (Reporting by Karen Pierog; editing by Matthew Lewis)
What are peoples feelings on investing in land?
land where?
There are a lot of places where nobody wants to live, ever . . .
And a lot of places on the West Coast that people really, really want to live, and most of those same places coincidentally have a high earthquake risk.
Do you feel lucky?
“No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change,” said Obama in his State of the Union speech Tuesday.
The United States should lead in international efforts to protect “the one planet we’ve got,” he said.
———————————————————–
Michelle And Barack Go To California – On Separate Planes
by Charlie Spiering13 Mar 2015236
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were both in California at the same time yesterday, but the pair took separate flights for two different television appearances.
Yesterday, President Obama traveled aboard Air Force One to California for a TV appearance with comedian Jimmy Kimmel. The First Lady, however, flew on a separate plane to California for a TV appearance with Ellen.
The popular daytime television host tweeted a selfie with Michelle Obama yesterday at about the same time that President Obama was filming himself reading mean tweets with Kimmel:
The pre-taped Michelle Obama appearance with Ellen airs Monday.
After the Kimmel show, President Obama attended a DNC fundraiser before leaving this morning for a separate trip to Phoenix, Arizona aboard Air Force One.
The First Lady flew back to Washington D.C. separately, while the president will fly back to Washington D.C. this afternoon.
“No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change,” said Obama in his State of the Union speech Tuesday.
Um, yeah. The $18 trillion (and counting) debt foisted on future generations by the Republicrats, the Boomers who installed them in power, and the Wall Street-Federal Reserve looting syndicate might weigh more heavily on future generations than “climate change.”
If what’s left of the working class starts to wake up, see that the Democrats as well as the Republicans have been totally captured by the .1%, and starts getting mad as hell and not willing to take it anymore, there might still be hope for this Republic of ours.
http://www.firstrebuttal.com/2015/03/12/wow-the-fed-gives-a-giant-fuck-you-to-working-class-americans/
phony scandals