Bits Bucket for July 21, 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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RENT
…. for 50% less than the cost of buying.
Loanownership is really overrated
And costly.
ben bernake and janet yellen saved us from a massive depression, just sayn.
be thankful u still have an internet connection.
Just got my lease renewal letter yesterday. Rent is going up by 7%, less than the 10% I was expecting based on what the starting rents on the building website are. What remains unchanged, obviously, is that after “throwing money away on rent” every month I have so much money left over I don’t know where to throw it
I anticipate a 4% increase in rent in OC when my lease expires.
If you are in a large complex that is professionally managed you can expect maximum increases every year…94% occupancy is optimum…Anything above that, you can expect further rent increases…
If I were a renter, I would be looking for a well run mom & pop complex that is managed by them…They typically are well behind the rental curve….
Goon, does your complex offer move-in specials like first-last months free, or a lower rent for first year?
A 7% increase in rent is very hefty, especially if it’s every year. But where you are, you’re probably better off renting.
I rent from a LLC that owns about a dozen buildings around Denver
When I did a gig as a property accountant for Archstone, we used http://www.mrisoftware.com as one of our tools to price asking rents
And I would never rent from a large corporate owner, they don’t create “shareholder value” by treating tenants well
For my sister in San Rafael, hers was ten percent.
I am not too worried. This is all cyclic and it will become a renters market again. There was an article I saw, maybe on Zerohedge, that apartments are being built like crazy all over.
Cyclic? So at the end of X years of renting, you pretty much break even? Whatever happened to the concept of banking the (Rent - PITI) savings for 30 years and then using that cash to buy something outright at retirement?
Cyclic? So at the end of X years of renting, you pretty much break even?
Cyclic does not imply break-even…
Whatever happened to the concept of banking the (Rent - PITI) savings for 30 years and then using that cash to buy something outright at retirement?
Alive and well! I’ve banked that much easily since I sold and started renting.
Of course, since it is hard-earned rather than Dumb.Borrowed.Money, I am loathe to plunk it down at current seriously-distorted pricing. Call me when rationality eventually returns to the market—or if it never does, I’m ok with never buying.
It is cheaper to rent in the best parts of California (jobs, weather, conveniences) than to own. Has been for decades, will be for decades.
It is even cheaper to live in a van by the river. Renting or owning is for suckers.
It’s cheaper to rent anywhere at current grossly inflated asking prices of resale housing. 50% cheaper.
It is cheaper to rent in the best parts of California (jobs, weather, conveniences) than to own ??
If cheaper is what drives you then go for it…For some, its not about being “cheaper”…Other quality of life issues to consider other than “price”…
It’s always about price Dave and always will be.
It’s the way the world works my friend.
“quality of life issues…”
I am pretty sure you mean having now what you cannot afford.
“since I sold.”
How much of your savings came from saving by renting vs. selling?
“ben bernake and janet yellen saved us from a massive depression…”
Gotta wonder why they’re taking us toward an even larger depression than 2008, right?
“…I have so much money left over I don’t know where to throw it…”
Take goon_babe out for lunch and shopping.
“It is even cheaper to live in a van by the river.”
I prefer a man_cave with tools and toyz.
“If cheaper is what drives you then go for it…For some, its not about being “cheaper”…Other quality of life issues to consider other than “price”…”
I rent a place in a newly refurbished luxury building with concierge and other staff, for about 2/3 of what I would pay to buy an equivalent space in a rotten old row house.
Quality of life is cheaper here if you rent.
I’ve been in the same place for 5 yrs, ,mine went up about 3% this year and is at least $400 below current market rates. I never bother them. Having skills and tools from owning homes in t he past, I fix minor stuff that breaks.
unless you “bought” that loan in 2012 and looking to sell it now. If you wanted to make money, you just did. timing is everything!
But, what if you studied hard in college, got a good job and money is not a problem anymore? Some people want a nice house with a workshop and guest house.
Who has time to work in a workshop? Working out, working, commuting and sleeping fill most of the day.
Work? 35 hrs a week
Working out? that is why we play sports.
Commute? nah
not everyone is a drone
Squat?
Renting: Awful for just about everyone right now
The Atlantic
By Gillian B. White
A recent report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) at Harvard, puts some numbers on just how bad this problem is: About half of all renters in the U.S. are using more than 30 percent of their income to cover housing costs, and about 25 percent have rent that exceeds 50 percent of their monthly pay.
Pricey rent might not seem like that big of a deal, but it is. Housing accounts for the single largest expenditure for the bottom 90 percent of earners— which is pretty much everyone. While you may be able to scrape and skimp in order to decrease other bills like groceries, utilities, or extras like entertainment, housings costs are generally fixed—at least for a period of time. In other words: The more you’re burning on rent, the less there is for everything else.
And for the 11.25 million households that are considered the most burdened by housing costs—those spending more than 50 percent of their income—they aren’t just spending slightly more than half their income. Jakabovics says that the median of that group is well over the line, and what they spent on rent is closer to 70 percent of their income.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/renting-awful-just-everyone-now-115800504.html
Rent less space than you can afford
And if the poors can’t afford the rent, they should stop breeding
The DNC has made overbreeding of entitlemenet voters a centerpiece of its continued growth into a permanent Democrat Supermajority. Once Obama gets his race data base, the Dems can redistribute the Section 8s to make sure every district and every state votes Blue.
overbreeding of entitlemenet voters…Obama gets his race data base,
You forgot to mention in your post that they all look alike and Obama’s uppity.
Some political party is dead set against birth control and abortion. I wonder if that has any effect on the reproductive rates of poors?
And if the poors can’t afford the rent, they should stop breeding
Hasn’t the US birthrate just fallen below the replacement level?
“Hasn’t the US birthrate just fallen below the replacement level?”
The eloi sub the hard work to the brown and yellow troglodytes.
Currently mine is 19% of my income but in a couple months I will cut that to 11%.
Is that gross or net? My PITI is at about 20.0% gross, 25% after paying extra principle.
PITI + maintenance, depreciation, utilities = 75% of your net
The manager’s special meat bin at Safeway often has stewing pork and beef on 50% markdown, maybe you could spice up your ramen with that if you’re feeling anemic
If, by “depreciation” you really mean deterioration, then that is covered in the maintenance. Don’t count it twice.
By the way, great comment on the Yahoo article:
“Mark Carl Nolte: Bought a trailer on land in a city in central Florida and paid cash. Now I cant find better work than $10 per hour but I live better than when I was General Manager of a TV station make ten times the money. I pay $140 per year in taxes and have a daughter in school. Why take a job in a big City and give one third to rent? High Stress for nothing working for a property management company profits.”
An Oil Citier, I see.
That is out of my gross income but does not include my benefits.
Nor does it include income from my investments outside my tax deferred plans. My bonds and REITs income is nearly equal to my rent in Orange County.
No. He means depreciation Donk. That’s exactly what it is. $2-$3 per square foot per year every single year until the day you die.
Put that in your inflation calculator.
My PITI is in the low single digits as a percent of income. This is the reward of renting.
Goon:
Up early or up late? Man o man. Post at 2.30 am - really?
Some of us like to sleep!!!
Rents can go down as the economy tanks. Mortgages don’t.
If you aren’t making your payments, the PITI on your mortgage sure goes down when the economy tanks!
It’s not the most beautiful dinner to look at and it has a very odd name… but in China the geoduck is an expensive delicacy, so on North America’s Pacific coast the race is on to farm them and cash in.
The first thing people notice is the shape - it’s not nicknamed the King Clam for nothing.
Its long, probing siphon bulges out of its shell and burrows through the sand - sucking in sea water, and squirting it out again (minus vital nutrients) from its tip.
Even its name sounds peculiar when pronounced correctly: “gooey-duck”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33261666
Manchester, England, England!
Frankie when I get over there I want to get a selfie in front of the Salford Lads Club, just like on the Smiths album, is that place still there?
The club gained international fame in 1986 when the alternative rock band The Smiths posed in front of the building for the inside cover of their album The Queen Is Dead. The Smiths’ music video for the songs “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” and “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” also featured shots of the building’s exterior. The committee were said at the time to be furious, and solicitors acting for the club claimed that;
inclusion of the photograph may generally cause any person reading the [album] or listening to the record to attribute the material to the club, its committee or its members … we would cite for example the reference in the song Vicar in a Tutu to the singer being engaged in stealing lead from a church roof, or indeed the very title to the album itself and the tenor of the title song.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salford_Lads%27_Club
Yes it is still there address
St Ignatius Walk, Salford M5 3RX
You may want to visist the Smith Room.
Goon,
Yes, its address is
St Ignatius Walk, Salford M5 3RX
and you can see it on google maps.
Helipads, climate-controlled fur coat closets and ostentatiously dripping in gold: Inside the Russian mega-mansions that’ve had £40m knocked off the asking prices as Moscow feels a financial chill (but they still cost £50m!)
Property prices in Russia are being slashed and up to £44m is being knocked of the value of the most lavish home
Sashing of house values shows how Russia’s elite are reeling from low oil prices and punishing Western sanctions
In Rublyovka, known as Beverly Hills, property prices fell 36 per cent in the first half of this year compared to 2014
A palace advertised at the start of this year for £70m has been reduced to £26m - a little over a third its original price
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3167968/Helipads-climate-controlled-fur-coat-closets-ostentatiously-dripping-gold-Inside-Russian-mega-mansions-ve-40m-knocked-asking-prices-Moscow-feels-financial-chill-cost-50m.html
Russia is due for another “egalitarian” revolution.
“Russian” oligarchs took advantage of Harvard economist Jeffery Sach’s “shock therapy” neoliberal looting scheme to buy up state-owned enterprises at firesale prices under the Yeltsin-era “reforms” (crony capitalism run amok). Now they’re sitting pretty while ordinary Russians were financially devastated. The oligarchs who didn’t abscound to London with their ill-gotten gains may regret not getting out while the getting was good.
You won’t be able to visit London without running into a Russian or Chinese oligarch.
Can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a kleptocrat.
You won’t be able to visit London without running into a Russian or Chinese oligarch.
Is one expected to genuflect?
No, but keep a hand on your wallet.
Today’s Forecast….
http://goo.gl/UPkXdP
Do you think Fox News will exclude Trump from the debate on August 6th?
Are you kidding? Of COURSE they’ll have him on the debate, if he’s still standing by then. They wouldn’t miss it for the world. It would probably be the highest rated. debate. EVER.
Although I don’t do twitter myself, I do monitor his twitter feed. McCain really opened a can of worms with his “crazies” comment. Whew! People posting links to all sorts of stuff about McCain’s involvement in the POW/MIA cover up.
MightyMike made a great point yesterday about why the whole POW/MIA thing was probably suppressed:
“Comment by MightyMike
2015-07-20 13:15:15
I read somewhere that the PTB made a decision that they wanted to “normalize” relations with Vietnam in the mid-1990s. That was probably to get access to cheap labor or commodities. Once that decision was made, the whole POW/MIA cause evaporated pretty quickly.”
BINGO!
I’m not on twitter either but I bookmarked his twitter page in my browser
Wikipedia:
“Several congressional investigations have looked into the issue, culminating with the largest and most thorough, the United States Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs of 1991–1993 led by Senators John Kerry, Bob Smith, and John McCain. It found “no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia.”[1]”
So if the PTB wanted to stamp my socks with “made in Vietnam,” they made that decision after Kerry and McCain concluded that there were not POW’s left in the country.
This article shows that the Bush 1 administration announced that it would ease the trade embargo about a month before the Senate committee released its report. One important thing to keep in mind is that there was never any significant credible evidence that Vietnam was holding American POWs after 1975.
This is an interesting section from the article:
Worried About the Competition
Last month Japan extended a $380 million development loan to Hanoi; Japan and France have offered to repay Vietnam’s loans from the International Monetary Fund. United States companies are concerned that increased economic ties between Tokyo and Hanoi might mean that they will lose out to Japanese companies in the Vietnam market.
“A lot of people believe that there is more money to be made in Vietnam in the next 10 years” than in China because of Vietnam’s “affinity with the West, the country’s crushing needs and its highly educated populace,” said Gerald Warburg, spokesman for the Multinational Business Development Coalition, a group of corporations that, like many business and trade organizations has lobbied for a relaxation in Washington’s policy.
Veterans’ organizations are split, however: the V.F.W. supports the move; the American Legion says Hanoi has not done enough to warrant easing the embargo.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/15/world/embargo-is-eased-after-hanoi-s-help-on-mia-s.html
Why would they? He’ll bring the fireworks, and viewers. I look forward to seeing him evicerate Jeb and the rest of the Establishment GOP clown car occupants and Oligopoly toadies.
Trump and Cruz are going to be a tag team in the debates. Trump as the bomb-throwing pit bull, Cruz will act as the more reasoned follow-up version, all while keeping his hands clean of the more outrageous Trumperies.
Cruz is a Goldman Sachs plant. I hope to God The Donald doesn’t pick this neo-con stooge and corporate statist to be his running mate.
Cruz and Rand, that is the ticket for Republican success. It really does not matter for electability who leads the ticket.
Trump is the Real Deal?
No, his negatives are too high. He is John the Baptist to Cruz, who is the “savior” of the U.S. Did I make your head blow off, I hope so.
Cruz and Rand, that is the ticket for Republican success ??
Can’t wait for your hourly Rasmusson updates all the way to November 8, 2016….
“Did I make your head blow off”
No, the fact that you think a Goldman Sachs stooge is the savior of America really doesn’t surprise me in the least.
“No, his negatives are too high.”
What negatives? Compared to what we’ve had since Ike, he’s gold stars all the way, IMO. Does he have faults? You betcha. Don’t we all.
It really does not matter for electability who leads the ticket.
With the Repubs losing the popular vote in 5 of the last 6 presidential elections, and noting this year’s Repub clown-car, I’d say that is an accurate statement.
The President suggested the country wants a “new car smell.” There’s a smell coming from the Iron Maiden and her wall street pals alright. Proceed with the coronation.
the rest of the Establishment GOP clown car occupants ??
He’s the biggest clown in the car….If you take the silver spoon out of his a$$ he would be hawking cell phones at some Verizon store for a living….
Trump is a son of Fred Trump, a New York City real estate developer.[8] Donald Trump worked for his father’s firm, Elizabeth Trump & Son, while attending the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and, in 1968, officially joined the company.[9] He was given control of the company in 1971, renaming it The Trump Organization
The irony is his father was a very humble and hard working guy who made his money building quality middle class housing in and around New York. Their family history perfectly mirrors that of the last 60 years in America.
Trump is the ultimate boomer effigy to burn. He screams of being a liberal false flag time bomb in the bosom of the GOP.
The GOP is about to learn that Fox doesn’t give a f**k about them… they are all about the ratings, and there’s nothing more fascinating that watching a major political party go down in flames.
The sponsors will love this.
Trump is doing is doing very well in the latest poll, but it’s too soon to tell how much remarks about McCain’s war record will hurt him.
Politics
Poll: Trump surges to big lead in GOP presidential race
Businessman Donald Trump surged into the lead for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with almost twice the support of his closest rival, just as he ignited a new controversy after making disparaging remarks about Sen. John McCain’s Vietnam War service, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Support for Trump fell sharply on the one night that voters were surveyed following those comments. Telephone interviewing for the poll began Thursday, and most calls were completed before the news about the remarks was widely reported.
Although the sample size for the final day was small, the decline was statistically significant. Still, it is difficult to predict what could happen to Trump’s support in the coming days and weeks as the controversy plays out.
Even with the drop in support on the final night of the survey, Trump was the favorite of 24 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. That is the highest percentage and biggest lead recorded by any GOP candidate this year in Post-ABC News polls and marks a sixfold increase in his support since late May, shortly before he formally joined the race.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who announced his candidacy a week ago, is in second place, at 13 percent, followed by former Florida governor Jeb Bush, at 12 percent. Walker’s support is strongest among those who describe themselves as “very conservative.”
The next seven, ranging in support from 8 percent to 3 percent, are: former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), former Texas governor Rick Perry and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-trump-surges-to-big-lead-in-gop-presidential-race/2015/07/20/efd2e0d0-2ef8-11e5-8f36-18d1d501920d_story.html
when you divide by 12 any move makes you the “leader”
he’ll announce a new show soon.
I doubt if Trump’s remarks about McCain’s war record will hurt him. It’s certainly not going to change the minds of people already on board with Trump, it’s because of people like McCain that they support Trump in the first place.
I get the sense that a lot of veterans are not enamored of McCain, for various reasons. Plus Trump is keeping the “crazies” remark front and center. I am one of the “crazies” that McCain refers to. To which I say “Back atchoo, buddy”.
+1
The pollsters think that his remarks will hurt him, but another poll is necessary. There are probably quite a few GOP caucus and primary voters who like John McCain. They gave him the nomination seven years ago. Even some people who don’t like McCain will be upset about the insult to POWs.
The pollsters work for oligarch news outlets that have no credibility. I don’t give a rat’s a$$ what pollsters or editorial writers say, when they’re hirelings of the Oligopoly.
What’s an oligarch news outlet?
It’s now the Grand Old Shrieking Tree Monkey party.
All rise honk out the national anthem on your clown noses.
Poll: Trump surges to big lead in GOP presidential race ??
Which tells you exactly how dysfunctional and off the edge of the earth the current GOP is…I smelled them coming with Bush & Cheney in 2000…Thats when I went Independent…
not if ratings matter.
Do the Saudi’s (FOX) like Trump?
Wall Street’s next looting binge: the healthcare sector. The 95% of ‘Muricans who voted for crony capitalism with their votes for Obama, McCain, and Romney are going to discover there’s a price to be paid for stupidity.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/07/20/private-equity-firms-buy-out-your-doctors-cash-in-on-medicare/
The irony is:
Obama - 8 years in power and has caused massive damaged to our liberty and economy
McCain - never elected so we will never know (but that doesn’t stop the meme)
Romney - never elected so we will never know (but that doesn’t stop the meme)
‘McCain - never elected’
‘There’s a new bipartisan gang in town known as the Gang of 8: Eight senators who will unveil an immigration overhaul Monday. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.): McCain is a long-time advocate of immigration reform who tried and failed to push a comprehensive overhaul back in 2006. He backed off in the 2008 election and into 2010, seeing that his position was toxic with the Republican base. (Who could forget McCain’s “complete the dang fence” ad?) Now that the party has come around, it makes perfect sense that McCain will help lead the effort.’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/01/28/immigrations-gang-of-8-who-are-they/
McCain was a terrible candidate.
Would he had done worse than obama?
I doubt it.
At the very least:
No obamacare
No ignoring immigration laws already on the books
No ignoring traditional marriage laws already on the books
No polarization of black deaths
No EO gun control
Etc.
2banana - you are hilarious with your hate of O.
Obama didn’t get us into a war with Iran, which McCain and his AIPAC handlers almost certainly would have.
Obama - 8 years in power and has caused massive damaged to our liberty and economy
I haven’t noticed this at all. I have the same freedoms today as I had 8 years ago… I got to keep my doctor and I still have my firearms. Thanks to “TSA Pre” fast pass I go thru the airport faster today than I did 8 years ago and now I don’t have to take off my shoes. My net worth is higher today than it was 8 years ago.
You win!
We lost our health insurance, now we pay to not have health insurance.
Have had 2 vehicles hit and run by acts of love.
Got to go, if I don’t make those monthly tax deposits my @ss is doomed.
One other little thing
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ - 248k -
We lost our health insurance, now we pay to not have health insurance.
Have had 2 vehicles hit and run by acts of love.
Got to go, if I don’t make those monthly tax deposits my @ss is doomed.
I’d hate to be you.
Both of my grandmothers died when G. W. Bush was president.
“Both of my grandmothers died when G. W. Bush was president.”
And god was watching.
Obama once bit my sister.
“I’d hate to be you.”
Not so bad really, we’re on our way back. Started to pick up about a year ago and the last 7 months have been good, we are back in black (some of the people we are working for say it’s the light at the end of the tunnel figuring Obama will be gone soon).
Anyway, I kept 4 long time guys with families not missing a paycheck through 5 really bad years and 10 to 15 others helped out with work the best we could. We had to go outside the box a couple of times (re-build docks, strip exterior siding wrap it and hardie plank siding etc.) but we made it.
None of us stood there with our hands out and none of us missed a rent or mortgage payment.
PS
If they took out entire Teabagger neighborhoods like you fantasized about Colorado, we probably would have all been gone anyway. Of course there would have been a lot of liberal collateral damage
I haven’t noticed this at all.
Sheep tend not to be the most observant creatures.
I would agree, the Bush Recession was hard on most, but we are all better off now. All you have to do is apply yourself.
The DOW agrees.
The record of both McCain and Romney is crystal clear. Both rabid neo-cons. Both corporate statists. Both crony capitalists who supported the 2008 Wall Street bailout. Need I go on?
Got crater?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-old-suburban-office-park-is-the-new-american-ghost-town/2015/07/20/b8e7653a-1f6e-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html
P.S. your walkscore sucks
Prisoner of place office buildings…Going the way of the suburban mall and the sub-suburban residential subdivisions…Thanks for the post Goon…
Black Twitter does not like Bernie Sanders:
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/07/20/feelthebern-black-twitter-skewers-bernie-sanders/
The top rated article comment notes that the same MSM that loves to point out how white the Tea Party is remains silent on how white Bernie’s base is, but that’s just how real journalists roll yo
His “progressive” base (mostly Boomers who got theirs, now want ever more benefits paid for by youngsters) won’t appreciate the demands of the Black Lives Matter extortion mob, which ultimately mean less bennies paid to them and the defanging of the thin blue line of public union employees that allows them to live out their cossetted liberal existences in security.
Bernies and the blacks have been covered by the MSM. That a Breitbart commenter is confused is not a surprise. There are plenty of things to criticize about the MSM, but Breitbart readers have no idea what those things are.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/us/politics/bernie-sanders-lags-hillary-clinton-in-introducing-himself-to-black-voters.html?_r=0
See also:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/07/13/us/politics/ap-us-dems-2016-hispanics.html
MikeyMite will never stray from the real journalists plantation of thought
Ole Massa gave you some nice rags to wear, and some extra ham bones for Easter
P.S. Andrew Breitbart was murdered under direct order from King Obama
MightyMike, WPA, and AmazingRuss are Big Brother’s wet dream. Proles who never had an original or independent thought in their entire lives, but who slavishly repeat their MSM/DNC talking points on cue and with evident fervor.
That’s a good one, Ray. I was simply stating facts, if anyone is interested in facts. When it comes to original thoughts, I probably had more in elementary school than you’ll have in your entire life.
And when it comes to repetition, you’re the undisputed champion. How many times have you repeated the thing about 95% of the population being morons?
If it didn’t come from World Nut Daily, it can’t be factual.
Who is off the New York Times bestsellers list this week?
Yeah, I posted about #BlackLivesMatter vs. Bernie Sanders yesterday. The whole thing is odd… Sanders is post-racial. The trouble with being race-neutral is that some minority activists equate that as being unsupportive of civil rights, e.g., “affirmative action” vs. “equal opportunity.”
Black Twitter does not like Bernie Sanders:
Meh, if he’s the Dem nominee, they’ll vote for him.
they are too lazy to vote. Only old people vote.
A day in the life of a Greek realtor. 50% of RE offices have closed down (sob), home prices have cratered (sniffle), cash sales are now the norm. When Comrad Pelosi’s permanent Democrat Supermajority brings ‘Murica to the same state, this is a preview of what’s in store for us.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-07-20/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-greek-realtor
How long are “we” going to keep welcoming these vipers into our midst?
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2015/07/21/U-S-authorities-allege-Oregon-imam-assisted-radicals.html
Great question.
That’s not the COEXIST utopia promised in the 2014 Super Bowl Coke commercial
LOL, I saw a Co-Exist bumper sticker in person, on a real car, for the first time yesterday, in a Wally World parking lot. Minnesota plates. Here in Florida.
Palmy - those stupid stickers are all over the place in this commie socialist paradise known as Chicago - Don’t come here you won’t like it.
By the way - did you see that Rummy is proposing a 1.1 billion dollar bond float to sustain the bankrupt and corrupt Chicago public schools? What a reprobate.
LOL, I saw a Co-Exist bumper sticker in person, on a real car, for the first time yesterday, in a Wally World parking lot. Minnesota plates. Here in Florida.
Was it a Prius?
I’m more partial to these….
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=exist+bumper+sticker&ia=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.legalinsurrection.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F09%2FBumper-Sticker-Roswell-NM-Exist-e1410923778259.png
You guys do realize that those “coexist” people are, like you, very against going to war in the middle east. So you’re mocking your potential political allies.
Creating such divisions will help us go to war.
People form alliances with folks they despise all the time.
It helps not to needlessly pick fights with them, especially over something as inconsequential as car styles.
“Coexist” sounds kind of libertarian to me.
“Coexist” sounds kind of libertarian to me.
The “crazies” in the Repub party are just angry because it’s “just slippin’ away”. Even “Coexist” pisses them off. A blast from 2012 as seen from overseas.
“A buffoon like Donald Trump was briefly a frontrunner for the nomination.”
The Republican Party: The death of America’s angry white man
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-republican-party-the-death-of-americas-angry-white-man-8303846.html
If the GOP wants to win next time, its leaders need to wrest power from the Tea Party fringe and embrace the changes in the US
….The Republicans lost because America has changed, and the extreme conservatism they currently expound has indeed lost its appeal. As everyone points out, correctly, it is a matter of demographics. The archetypal Republican voter is older, white, male and non-urban, at a time when the country is more diversified and urban than ever,
It helps not to needlessly pick fights with them, especially over something as inconsequential as car styles.
Do not worry too much, they make fun of their allies behind their backs too.
Another way to look at it as the people who don’t want to coexist agree with that Palestinian guy in Chattanooga. He doesn’t want to coexist either.
BTW, there is one aspect of this incident that seems to be overlooked, which is the father being placed on the watch list. I do not know if it related but some history. Kuwait invited a lot of Palestinians to work in the country. Probably why the shooter was born in Kuwait. However, when Saddam invaded the country they did not support the people of Kuwait most of the Palestinians supported Saddam and essentially helped him loot the country. Thus, many of Palestinians were forced out after the war. I wonder if we are dealing with a family that has a history of betraying the country that allows them sanctuary.
“I wonder if we are dealing with a family that has a history of betraying the country that allows them sanctuary.”
Gee, ya think?
These people have NO business being in the US, and not in Europe either. Incompatible, period. Not even up for argument.
Hey palmetto,
How about this? We send all of those Muslims back to the Middle East, and we ship all those “freedom loving” White Americans back to Europe! Problem solved☺️. I am pretty sure the Native Americans would love this plan….
That reminds me of something from George Carlin:
We really gave the Indians a fast trip across the continent, you notice that? They were having a little cookout in Massachusetts- buncha boats came up, man…”Hey, ya mind moving over, guys? Bring in the stuff. Would you move it over, man. Bring in the stuff. Would you move it over, man. Bring in the stuff. Would you move it over, man. Over three mountain ranges…four mountain ranges. Got ‘em onto an offshore island, Alcatraz, right? Off the continent completely! They had to take the island to get it! Then we kicked them off there. “I guess we’re going to send them back where they came from.” Yeah, we must, we.. They bought the Bering Strait theory. “Get them welfare people to work filling in the Bering Strait and charge them Indians a buck a head to go home. It’s a good sound business solution.”
http://www.madmusic.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=21780
“How about this? We send all of those Muslims back to the Middle East, and we ship all those “freedom loving” White Americans back to Europe! Problem solved☺️.”
I wonder what the country would look like in 10 years?
Not quite that cut and dried, ABQ Dan. The Bidoons (stateless Arabs in Kuwait) have had a pretty sh*tty deal, which is why some of them collaborated with Saddam’s military against the Kuwaitis (and paid a heavy price).
http://www.politicsforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=91213
Obama questioned by CBS News’ Major Garrett on Iran hostages
July 15, 2015, 4:02 PM
Transcription of exchange between CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett and President Obama over Iranian hostages.
Major Garrett: As you well know, there are four Americans in Iran - three held on trumped up charges according to your administration, one, whereabouts unknown. Can you tell the country, sir, why you are content, with all of the fanfare around this [nuclear] deal to leave the conscience of this nation, the strength of this nation, unaccounted for, in relation to these four Americans?
President Obama: I’ve got to give you credit, Major, for how you craft those questions. The notion that I am content, as I celebrate with American citizens languishing in Iranian jails - Major, that’s nonsense. And you should know better. I’ve met with the families of some of those folks. Nobody’s content, and our diplomats and our teams are working diligently to try to get them out.
Reminds me of…
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
Mona Lisa Vito: Don’t you wanna know why Trotter gave you his files?
Vinny Gambini: I told you why already.
Mona Lisa Vito: He has to, by law, you’re entitled. It’s called disclosure, you dickhead! He has to show you everything, otherwise it could be a mistrial. He has to give you a list of all his witnesses, you can talk to all his witnesses, he’s not allowed any surprises.
[Vinny has a blank look on his face]
Mona Lisa Vito: They didn’t teach you that in law school either?
One of my favorite movies, she is a great actress. She can make even a movie with no body count worth watching. Actually, just watched her in a movie called “The Rewrite”, a bit of chick flick but I liked it.
Utes!
ATF Works With FBI And VA To Get Veterans’ Guns Taken Away
Patrick Howley
Political Reporter
12:16 AM 07/21/2015
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is involved in a government effort to disarm America’s veterans and seniors who may lack the capacity to manage their finances.
And it’s not just veterans facing this scrutiny: now it’s anybody who gets Social Security.
New documents obtained by The Daily Caller reveal that ATF, a division of the Department of Justice, is working with the FBI and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to enter veterans who get VA benefits into the government’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
TheDC first reported on a government program in which the VA sends veterans’ medical information to the FBI to disarm them. VA uses sneaky criteria to get veterans on the list for “persons prohibited under federal law from receiving or possessing firearms.”
If a veteran is deemed incapable of managing his or her own finances, the VA sends his or her information to the FBI to be automatically added to the criminal background check system. For some injured veterans, their incompetence was determined merely because they signed up for auto-pay on their debit cards, because their wife gives them financial advice, or because they asked for an in-house assistant to help with chores. The VA sends this list to the FBI every month. At last count, there were more than 120,000 veterans in the government’s background check system.
Now we know that the enforcement agency ATF is working with the VA and FBI to suppress information about the program.
Michael Connelly, executive director of the United States Justice Foundation, sent Freedom of Information Act requests about the program to four federal government agencies. But when it came to get a response, he got one from a fifth agency that he didn’t even request information from: ATF.
Connelly, whose research blew the lid off the program in our previous Daily Caller expose, learned that FBI sent his request to ATF, which stifled it.
The FBI sent ATF seven pages of documents pursuant to Connelly’s information request to check with them first. ATF denied Connelly’s request for information, telling him that the agency is “withholding deliberative materials” in a letter dated July 12.
Why?
ATF claims it can withhold “inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency.”
So, if different agencies swap memos around to each other, then you need to sue them to get the documents under public disclosure law?
And the story is getting bigger. The Los Angeles Times reported this weekend that the Obama administration is trying to get the Social Security Administration to provide information to the FBI on Social Security beneficiaries who can be prohibited from owning a firearm for some form of incompetence. The Times cited the VA’s strategy of using veterans’ financial records against them.
“As I predicted the assault on veterans’ 2nd Amendment rights was just the beginning,” Connelly said. “Social Security recipients would be next. The LA Times has confirmed it. Sometimes I hate it when I am right.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/21/atf-works-with-fbi-and-va-to-get-veterans-guns-taken-away/#ixzz3gXHvZNGJ
If somebody has been adjudicated to be mentally incompetent, maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to own a gun. Mental functions, like driving ability, deteriorate in some people over time, to the point where it would be irresponsible to let them drive or own a gun.
Current banner ad on HBB, described as “ethereal boudoir photography”
http://alloriawinter.com/mobile/index.php?v=v1
More of this please Ben Jones, more
Ben doesn’t pick the banner ads. The banner ads are selected by AdChoices based on your -ahem- browsing habits
Don’t ever, ever, ever google the phrase “chin-dong”.
They featured a similar device years ago in, A Clockwork Orange.
Fresh from NOAA: June 2015 global temperatures smash records for warmest on record. Jan 2015-June 2015 warmest 6 month period on record.
“the heat in 2015 isn’t just breaking records, it’s smashing them.”
http://mashable.com/2015/07/20/earth-warmest-june-warmest-year/
2brony has the day off, so let me fill in:
Only bigger and and bigger government, more and more regulations, and higher and higher taxes can solve this
Other than international agreement to regulate fossil fuels and a carbon tax, what other solution is there?
Pretend it’s not happening.
And hope that you take a dirt nap before the SHTF.
Only bigger and and bigger government, more and more regulations, and higher and higher taxes can solve this
Just like global cooling in the 1970s…
Blame the liberals.
How about waiting to we warm up close to the natural high of an Interglacial period before we jump to a conclusion that this is anything more than a normal warming not based on co2. We can build sea walls, more dams in this country to deal with warming. There is no need to transfer any wealth to any other country, just build resiliency in our country.
Better yet, lets just deny it’s even happening, because in reality it’s a secret alien plot to make us spend all our quatloos on water wings for polar bears, who are under mind control and will swim down and devour all good, clean thinking, white ‘muricans so that the country can be populated with brown skinned hosts for our parasitic alien overlords.
The loon is strong with this one…
It sounds like something you would believe. I recognize spin when I see it. Saying the Earth is warmest ever might convince the weak minded. However, what we are really saying is, if the manipulated data was correct, it would only show that the Earth is warmest in the last 135 years which in the greater scheme of things is nothing. Now, we might even be able to say we are the warmest since the last Interglacial period but so what? We are still within the normal climate range. If we warm beyond 2 degrees Celsius than you have a reason for alarm but not now. So be willing to give up the nation’s wealth and even our constitution to address this “threat”, I am not.
BTW, many states allow people to choose an electric rate with only green power. So I suggest that whomever believes this scam opt for it and pay the higher rate. It is funny how many people want to impose higher taxes on other people but don’t believe enough in AGW to pay higher rates.
… which of course disproves AGW.
Around and round you go, in your little circle of deflections and diversions. It’s fascinating to watch.
Fresh from the DC suburbs.
I got every diesel pickup in the fleet equipped with a smoke switch. Now instead of just 9 of us hittin the switch and billowing hot air balloon sized plumes of thick black smoke while driving on residential streets, there’s 16 of us.
Next up- Figure out a way to dump fuel into the cylinders of the gas pickups for the same effect.
You don’t add fuel - you add oil, something like auto transmission fluid into the intake, through a vacuum line.
Makes the most excellent smoke screen (used to happen when the diaphragm inside the vacuum modulator on an auto tranny ruptured, allowing intake vacuum to suck fluid out of the transmission - this happened to our 1971 LTD while we were on the proverbial trip to grandma’s house).
Not good for the catalytic converters, however . . .
Romi oil?
Is anyone else having flashbacks to 2005 lately?
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2015-07-20 20:10:58
Strange but true (and definitely giving me flashbacks to 2005):
There was an email thread among a bunch of neighbors on my block today; they were commiserating about their various real-estate assessments that they just received in the mail.
There was definitely an overtone of shock at how much their taxes had gone up (and some discussion of whether or not to appeal the assessment), but underneath that ran an undercurrent of “OMG–my house went up $100K this year???”.
I kid you not.
flashbacks to 2005
After Scott Walker becomes president and launches another trillion dollar war, we’ll have plenty of flashbacks to 2005
The charred corpses of government contractors hanging from a bridge in Fallujah is a golden oldie you can look forward to seeing again
Tell me when we are building 2MM housing units annually, ARMs are 40% of all originations, and bubble prices have extended to secondary and tertiary markets.
Then it will be 2005 again.
Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of places where prices are completely out of control, but the insanity isn’t as widespread as it was during the bubble years.
I got a market report on Phoenix the other day…Q1 2015 Wells Fargo HOI (Housing Opportunity Index–affordability) was at 70%. The low was Q3 2006 at 27%. 70% is in line with longer-term averages. I recognize that this is in part a byproduct of low interest rates, but 70% is a long way off from 27%. Far more than just explained by interest rates.
Meanwhile back in real ville….a bit of job levity for all this morning…there are a couple of big layoffs noted herein.
http://www.dailyjobcuts.com/
Nuf said.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/17/conscious-capitalism-icon-whole-foods-exploits-prison-labor/
I know it’s off topic, but ProLogis announced their results today:
Rent change on rollover increased record 14.4% (the amount rents increase from prior levels when a space’s lease comes due and new rents are negotiated).
Dividend increased 11%–mid-year increase, second increase this year. Total of 21% increase over last year.
And the stock is now yielding about 4%.
REITs often respond to interest rate moves like bonds, however, when was the last time the bond you held increased the coupon by 21% in a year?
FWIW, pretty much the smartest guy around when it comes to industrial real estate is Hamid Moghadam (CEO of PLD). The only earnings transcript I try to read every quarter is that of PLD just to see what he has to say.
Rental W:
I invested in PLD a while back for this very reason.
But I wonder - what does this mean for the future?
Looked into Aeroterm - all airfield cargo facility DBOM company - sadly privately held at the moment with many holdings. Waiting to see if they do an IPO similar to PLD.
What do you think?
I don’t know anything about Aeroterm, but generally speaking, I do like logistics real estate. PLD’s largest rent payer is Amazon…and the growth of those kinds of businesses is not going to stop anytime soon. Owning the right logistics real estate will be more and more valuable in time.
If Aeroterm were to ever go public, I would be focused on one very important factor…do they own their real estate? Or have they entered into ground leases? Big picture, it is increasingly difficult to create new airports/airfields–that’s why you see lots of repurposing of existing airfields. As such, the real estate associated with airports/airfields will become more and more valuable. If they own their real estate, that would be an interesting long-term play. If they only have leased their land, it may be a different story.
In the meantime though, I do like the diversity of PLDs holdings–and their management is top notch.
‘Amazon…and the growth of those kinds of businesses is not going to stop anytime soon.’
Losing money on every package, make it up on volume.
EPS (ttm): -0.88
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=amzn
Where would you rather place your bet:
1. A resurgence of brick-and-mortar stores, and thus an increase in rents for those stores; or
2. Continued growth in the internet economy, where the storefront is a website, and the “store” is a warehouse?
The funny thing is that either way, industrial real estate wins. WalMart proved long ago that efficient distribution was much cheaper than having a warehouse associated with each retail location (which is a classic case study as why WalMart beat K-Mart).
As the economy grows, so will industrial real estate.
If the internet economy grows faster than the economy as a whole, industrial real estate will be a major beneficiary.
Amazon has already put a lot of bookstores out of business. Maybe they’ll drive a lot of other stores out of business as well and then jack up their prices.
In some cases, their prices have already been jacked up. There is one common lawn mower carb diaphragm used on millions of mowers that costs 50% higher on Amazon than it does at the local box store.
Do your homework before pressing that ‘order’ button!
You also asked what this means for the future.
PLD put out a research paper a few years ago that so far has been right on the money.
They basically said that rents do not support the widespread development of industrial real estate. As such, they predicted a number of years of strong rent growth.
The second part of their report (which was not emphasized too much) was that the rent growth prediction was based on assumed stable cap rates. As such, if cap rates rose (because interest rates rose), they predicted even stronger rent growth.
I think I’ll be holding PLD until at least I see industrial development significantly break out of the doldrums (which will likely be a precursor to the next medium term peak in rents). Unfortunately, one of my favorite sources of this data (the PREA “compendium of statistics”) is now behind a paywall–I need to find a new source of data.
One high-class problem that I’m grappling with though, is that my investment in PLD was for cash flow, and my basis is so low that when I sell, I’ll be paying ~30% in taxes. So I need to replace PLD with another investment that is yielding 5.7% in order to keep the cash flow the same.
While I say now that a possible exit time is when development has been ramped up, it is more likely I’ll hold as long as current management is in place.
What if I can order my iPhone direct from China? What if the millennials dont want to own a bunch of junk?
So, is the phone delivered directly from the factory in China to your doorstep? One guy on a plane that jumps out with parachute to hand you your phone?
Or does it fly from China to an airport, go from the plane to a cross-dock facility/trucking terminal (perhaps owned by PLD and rented to UPS or Fed-Ex), with the large shipment of iPhones divvied up among the delivery trucks, and then driven to your home?
Some industrial real estate is as simple as a cross-dock facility. One truck comes in from the port, and parks on one side of a raised concrete dock. Goods are removed from that truck and using a forklift (or other means) are wheeled across the dock to the other side where the delivery trucks are waiting. Those trucks then leave to deliver to the last mile.
PLD leases 9.8MM square feet to DHL
2.8MM square feet to FedEx
3.3MM square feet to UPS
5.4MM square feet to Home Depot
4.8MM square feet to WalMart
3.8MM square feet to PepsiCo
2MM square feet to UnderArmour
etc. etc. etc.
Those are a handful of their top 25 customers. Their top 25 customers only represent 18% of their total rent.
They have a HUGE diversified tenant base.
if they are private and you cant invest, who cares? or “what difference does it make” to quote the “one. “
You are right about ground leases - overlooked that fact.
I know here at ORD - Aeroterm leases the ground from the City of Chicago - I think the term is 50 years initial with 10 year incremental re-ups.
Aero in the process as I write this of a complete site overhaul on the NE Quadrant of ORD (some 45 acres) in prep for a DBOM of some 30 additional cargo freighter nose in to a pass through / storage facility with landside truck delivery / uptake to midwest market.
Project is large and what I understand will be built in phases.
The land remains in ownership of City - Aero only owns the facilities.
The terms of the ground leases will be important. There are almost unlimited options of how a ground lease would work, but broadly, I would expect that the first 50 years have a “recast” every decade or so, meaning the rents are marked to market. Depending on where we are in the economic cycle, this could be good, or bad.
In Hawaii, a lot of property is on ground leases, and a lot of recasting was done when land values were at an all-time high…HUGE payment shocks to the ground lessees.
The other feature of a ground lease that could be beneficial is one where the land owner shares in revenue. This reduces the downside of the lessee (if they are getting less in revenue, they pay less in rent), but also limits the upside (the reverse is also true).
And ground leases are not unique to airport properties. Simon Properties “owns” the Stanford Mall here on the mid-peninsula. By “own” I mean it purchased a ground lease (the land is still owned by Stanford).
In any event, they’ve probably figured out how to manage the business–you just need to recognize that the ground lease presents potentially different long-term economics than owning the properties on a fee simple basis.
This article is disgusting
Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Joe Lieberman will help Scott Walker get his war:
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-20/lindsey-graham-and-his-two-amigos-kick-off-no-nukes-for-iran-tour
No “smaller government” or “lower taxes” happening here, LOLZ
The oil industry is sh**ting nickels at the thought of what all that Iranian oil will do the the price of a barrel. They’re playing all their instruments as loud as they can to put a stop to it.
Nice to know Obama’s talking point of the day.
20 dollar oil is coming, dannyboy, as is your denial that you ever claimed otherwise.
In the end with or without Iranian oil, the minimum oil can sell is the price to produce shale oil. Due to geology that is going up everyday despite the cost of drilling and fracking a well going down. Oil in the 50s has been enough to resume a falling rig count, the cost of production is clearly closer to $60 for all new shale oil now and moving up fast. Once the prime locations are drilled out it will be higher that $80.
In the end, the sun will explode… which is no more relevant to us now than your inane predictions.
Your denial is eclipsed only by your incompetence.
In the history of the GOP, have they ever given us less spending and smaller gov?
Rand Paul used a chainsaw on the tax code this week. He want a flat, 14% one page code. Sounds great as I pay more than double that.
I’m down for it. 14% sounds great.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/21/arctic_bounces_back_world_returns_to_sea_ice_levels_seen_in_1980s/
Nice try, but this has already been debunked
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/20/no-arctic-sea-ice-is-not-going-to-be-okay/
Arctic sea ice is like the stock or futures market: in a long-term falling trend, you’ll have “up days” from time to time. It’s a zig-zag downward path, not a straight line.
Jesus restores an iceberg every time a gay married couple get beat up.
Of all the astonishingly stupid things I’ve read or heard today, that takes the cake.
It has not been debunked and we will not know for a number of years whether it is a trend or blip. We do know that in the Southern Hemisphere it is a trend and it is totally inconsistent with “Global Warming”. The amount of ice is totally consistent with the AMO natural cycle which had been in a warming cycle during the entire decline of the ice pack but now appears to be heading into a cooling cycle.
July 20th
Climate scientists say 2015 on track to be warmest year on record
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says first half of year was warmest ever and Earth experienced hottest June.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/21/climate-scientists-say-2015-on-track-to-be-warmest-year-on-record
Climate scientists say 2015 on track to be warmest year on record
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says first half of year was warmest ever and Earth experienced hottest June.
Data that has been manipulated. Most importantly, the religious right is always being accused of thinking that the world is just a few thousand years old, does the AGW crowd think that the world is less than 140 years old? Why is a 140 year record even significant? We know for a fact that their have been multiple times in the last 440,000 years where the Earth was at least 2 degrees Celsius warmer than we are now for centuries and it had nothing to do with manmade activities.
So your reasoning is: My little brother spilled the milk yesterday, therefore it is impossible that I spilled the milk today.
Do you ever wonder why the people that agree with you also believe that the army is going to invade Texas and put everybody in walmart camps? Loons of a feather.
Follow the money
The Earth experienced its hottest June and the hottest first half of the year since records began, according to scientists.
Off-the-charts heat is “getting to be a monthly thing”, said Jessica Blunden, a climate scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. June was the fourth month of 2015 to break a record, she said.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/21/climate-scientists-say-2015-on-track-to-be-warmest-year-on-record
NOAA: $5.5 billion FY 2015 budget request promotes environmental intelligence
Investments ensure NOAA continues to protect the public with innovative science
March 13, 2014
NOAA Blue Book - FY 2015 Budget Summary.
President Obama’s fiscal year 2015 discretionary budget request for NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, totals $5.5 billion. This is $174 million over the 2014 enacted budget, an increase of 3.2 percent.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2014/20140313_budget_statement.html - 21k -
“on record”
“Follow the money”
The loon mantra.
“So your reasoning is: My little brother spilled the milk yesterday, therefore it is impossible that I spilled the milk today.”
Makes sense to me! My hero Albuquerquedan.
“The loon mantra.”
Oh dear it’s RamboRuss and he’s calling me a Loon.
Useful idiot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In political jargon, useful idiot is a term for people perceived as propagandists for a cause whose goals they are not fully aware of, and who are used cynically by the leaders of the cause. Despite often being misattributed to Vladimir Lenin,[1][2][3] in 1987, Grant Harris, senior reference librarian at the Library of Congress, declared that “We have not been able to identify this phrase among [Lenin's] published works.”[4][5]
In the Russian language, the equivalent term “useful fools” (полезные дураки, tr. polezniye duraki) was already in use in 1941. It was mockingly used against Russian (anti-communist) ‘nihilists’ who, for Polish agents, were said to be no more than “useful fools and silly enthusiasts”.[6]
The term has been pejoratively used in the West for fellow travellers and other revolutionary communist sympathizers during the Cold War. The underlying accusation was that, despite the people in question thinking of themselves as standing for a benign socialist ideological cause, and as valued allies of the Soviet Union; they were actually held in contempt and were being cynically used by the Soviets for political purposes. The use of the term in political discourse has since been extended to other alleged propagandists, especially those who are seen to unwittingly support a supposedly malignant cause which they believe to be a just one.[7]
Loons are the only thing standing between us and
a communist dystopia!
WOLVERLOONS!
I see the “statesmen” politicians calling for that “buffoon” Trump to get out of the race. He’s so unstatesmanlike. He’s not playing by the Marquis of Queensbury rules.
Unfortunately, politicians have lost touch with their public images. What they do and why they do it has become much more public. They doubtless consider themselves statesmen. But that is because they are narcissists surrounded by supplicants and yes-men.
Don’t get me wrong - Trump is a billionaire landlord/rentier playing the populist. But the establishment has overreached trying to discredit him.
Example: On Meet The Press, they’re simply all lying about what he said. The duckspeak is that he said “Immigrants are rapists” or “Mexicans are rapists” - these are flat out lies. That’s nothing close to what he said.
To a lesser extent, the McCain crack was taken out of context because he immediately qualified his response. Politically it was a stupid crack, certainly. But you know what - while McCain is a very physically tough individual, he’s got a sordid personal history, both romantically and in terms of political looting.
I’m not a Trump supporter, but I am heartened to see at least someone dare to speak about at least one of the hot button issues of the time.
Meanwhile, RP has a chainsaw and a pair of jeans: http://www.infowars.com/rand-paul-takes-chainsaw-to-u-s-tax-code/
think of the job losses! no more HR block or Turbo Tax.
He won’t last long. First he offended Mexican-Americans. Then he offended veterans. The question is, which group will he offend next?
Nancy-Boy lib-tards like you?
Nancy-Boy, really? You sound like a low-achieving 11 year-old from a WT family.
I would say this was in the 12 year old range.
Comment by MightyMike
2015-07-21 11:23:27
Both of my grandmothers died when G. W. Bush was president.
And RamboRuss a 9 1/2 year old for…
“Obama once bit my sister.”
White trash is actually a racist term, because the implication is everybody who isn’t white is obviously trash. Been trying to point this out for years.
I may not file a hurt-feelings report….
Housing in Reno, now is the time to buy!
http://www.rgj.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/07/15/edawn-carson-citys-worth-housing-needed/30206019/
How’s that hope ‘n change working out ya, ‘Murica?
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/report-3-million-more-children-in-poverty-under-obama-22-of-all-kids/article/2568686
I forget…in Ukraine, do we back the oligarchs or the neo-nazis?
http://www.rt.com/news/310396-ukraine-right-sector-revolution/
What genius at the automakers thinks it’s a good idea to have a car or SUV that can be hacked into remotely and then crashed?
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/
Has the Wall Street-Federal Reserve Ponzi market entered its end game?
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-stock-futures-after-earnings-july-21-2015-7
stocks and homes are your chance to get out of the hole.
And volume is very low with everyone on vaca.
plus China can fight off the selling for only so long…
Good time to be a seller last week.
Now that the Fed’s ZIRP forced yield-seeking retail “investors” (soon to be bag holders) in Wall Street’s rigged casino, Da Boyz are ready to do some muppet-slaying once they signal their co-conspirator, Yellen, to raise rates and implode the Ponzi market.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-21/wall-street-prepares-reap-billions-another-main-street-wipe-out
Ever since President Obama took office, the poverty rate among children has soared to 22 percent, with three million more children living in poor conditions, according to an authoritative new report released Tuesday.
1. Does the gov create jobs?
2. do you want the gov to help poor people
3. does trickle down work?
4. Did corporate profits triple under O?
What do we do with the uneducated, unskilled zombies? No one will ever hire them!
A large portion of the jobs don’t require a lot of skills. Only around 20% require a bachelor’s degree.
Skills? I am saying I would not hire these toothless meth addicts to sweep my driveway. Have you ever driven through the south?
‘toothless meth addicts…Have you ever driven through the south’
I’d be willing to bet there are meth addicts in California. Even on the coast.
Yes, in CA too… especially Fresno, Modesto, Stockton, Bakersfield and on the coast if housing is cheap enough.
Still no answer as, what to do with them.
What do we do with the uneducated, unskilled zombies?
Simple. We enlist them into Comrad Pelosi’s Free Sh*t Army and register them as lifelong Democrats. Then they sponge off the productive and responsible, as long as they vote straight D.
I see you have no solutions. Just complaints. Typical from the “do nothing ” party of clowns Trump speaks of.
There is no free sh&t by the way. Maybe $160 in food stamps to keep em out of jail at $45k a yr. (fiscally conservative) No one will ever hire them. They are lazy, fat, uneducated and use drugs. And of course, make sure they cant abort.
I have decided, after due consideration, to give this 22-year-old conservative anchorwoman the well-deserved opportunity to be the mother of my baby….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3168926/Tomi-Lahren-22-rants-live-TV-Obama-s-tip-toe-efforts-against-terrorism.html?ito=video_player_click
Chinese stocks in Hong Kong dropped, extending the world’s biggest declines this month, on concern the nation’s slowing economic growth will hurt earnings and state intervention in equities will delay market reforms.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slid 1.7 percent to 11,671.97 at 11:34 a.m. in Hong Kong. The H-share gauge has fallen more than 10 percent in July, the worst performer among 93 global benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg, as the bull market in mainland equities ended. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4 percent Wednesday.
This is why the GOP has no future:
In 8 years, the Bush Jr. Administration spent every single penny of the Social Security surplus, using it like a piggy bank to give huge tax breaks to individuals and to corporations, to start wars, to give lucrative government contracts…far beyond their value…to friends and associates. During that time, the Bush Administration drained $1.4 trillion dollars, the entire surplus and used it to write down their additional national debt, which turned out to be…without the Social Security funds…a grand total of $3.4 trillion.
Q
Collapsing housing demand