Bits Bucket for December 9, 2015
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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
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Today’s “The more things change…..” excerpt:
“….If the war must be carried on with great vigor, as all the spokesmen of government were saying, then these infidels were not to be treated too gently, and if bad things happened to them, it did not matter very much.
It was not a genteel, restrained, orderly country that was feeling this changed emotional current. It was a nation with the infinite raw strength of graceless youth, moving with gigantic careless energy into a future that was not known to have any bounds whatever. It was feeling it’s oats and flexing muscles bigger than anyone had ever had, and if people got hurt along the way, it was not even going to notice. It had been like that from the beginning…..
This was the country of the boisterous forty-niner, the hell-roaring lumberjack, and the riverman that was half horse and half alligator. Without rancor (and also without the slightest hesitation) it annihilated Indian tribes so it could people a wilderness, asserting the only good Indian was a dead Indian, and remarking casually of it’s own pioneers that the cowards never started, and the weak died along the road. As it faced the cathedral aisles of endless virgin forests, it shouted for immediate daylight in the swamp, even if whole generations must be brutalized for it. It was the country that invented the bucko mate and the Shanghai passage, and if the skysails of it’s incredible clipper ships gleamed on the farthest magic horizon, they were taken there by men under the daily rule of clubs and brass knuckles.
This nation accepted boiler explosions as the price of steamboat travel, and it would boast presently of a dead gandy-dancer for every crosstie on the transcontinental railroad. It wore seven-league boots and scorned to look where it planted them, and each of it’s immense strides were made at immense human cost. And the army of this country, buckling down to it at last in a fight that had to go to a finish, was going to be rough on enemy civilians, not because it had anything against them, but simply because they were there.”
Bruce Catton, “Glory Road”
Buy a house today and you will lose alot of money. Alot of money.
buy a house today and you will have equity tomorrow!
Buy a house today and face eternal sorrow.
Robert Shiller: Don’t Invest in Housing. Houses Depreciate
http://www.pragcap.com/robert-shiller-dont-invest-in-housing/
Besides…. housing prices fall…… alot
Renting is the new black.
…and was the black before 1990.
Precisely.
Why buy it when you can rent it for half the monthly cost?
If interest rates return to normal otherwise buy it an rent it out for a profit
Not when rents are half the cost of buying and carrying the shack.
Buy Tbills, silver, and Bitcoin
Buy bitcoin especially if you are a thief, smuggler or a drug dealer. Just don’t hold them longer than absolutely necessary.
You’re a little behind the times Blue Skye. The major stock exchanges and the largest banks are rushing to implement BitCoin technology into all financial transactions. In a few short years every ATM transaction, every credit card transaction, every major purchase you make will be Bitcoin-ized, in the background, invisible. The transactions will be denominated in dollars, but the software recording your transactions and vetting them will all be Bitcoin technology.
Apparently, the inventor of Bitcoin has been arrested in Australia.
Seems to be tax evasion, which is ironic, because the very nature of Bitcoin is to have an indelible, distributed record of every transaction. He won’t be able to hide anything!
According to the articles out there he has about $400m of Bitcoin. Clever guy. He invents it and “mines” it when it’s easy, then once he’s snagged the low hanging fruit he brings others on board.
The tax evasions seems to be centered around the Oz gov’t treating Bitcoin like an asset that appreciates and has capital gains, which are taxable.
“Apparently, the inventor of Bitcoin has been arrested in Australia.”
Turned out that guy did not invent it. He said he did. Dumb mistake and that got the thugernment searching his house from top to bottom. I suppose they will ask him to pay tax on $400 million that he did not even have.
“The tax evasions seems to be centered around the Oz gov’t treating Bitcoin like an asset that appreciates and has capital gains, which are taxable.”
Which is the right interpretation for a commodity whose reserve currency price is far more volatile than stocks, bonds, housing or even commodities…
What’s an alot?
Alot more than alittle…
incalculable losses
It’s what Loosers spend on a house.
My electric bill is less than $30 a month from October through May.
That is the only housing related variable expense in my budget.
Zillow says my “rent zestimate” - their term for what I like to think of as my “imputed rent” is …
(ta da)
$2,300 a month.
This is the amount of after-tax money I do not have to pay to somebody else each and every month in order for me to live in my house.
“… in order for me to live in my house.” = “in order for me to live in my PAID FOR house.”
There is no such thing as a “PAID FOR house.”
The imputed value of my labor hours not spent on housing related nonsense is thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars every year.
There is no such thing as a “PAID FOR house.”
Of course there is a such thing as a paid for house. It’s when you don’t owe any money on your house.
Do you think you can change the definitions of reality just because you don’t have to mow your lawn?
Lola,
Money is always owed on a house irrespective whether you own it or not. Houses depreciate and that depreciation translates into an enormous amount of money.
$2.50/sqft/yr loss every year you own it.
The mortgage might get paid off, but you will never “not owe money on your house.”
Your Realtorbabble would be better suited for the City-Data forum.
In addition to this, Zillow says the value of my house (as determined by the actions of complete strangers - go figure) has increased by …
(ta da)
$9,406 over the last thirty days.
“The mortgage might get paid off, but you will never “not owe money on your house.”
Zillow says my paid-for house is paying me to live in it.
Your Realtorbabble would be better suited for the City-Data forum.
Is that your self righteous attempt to shut someone up who disagrees with you?
The mortgage might get paid off, but you will never “not owe money on your house.”
I owe a heck of a lot less than you do, and any of my neighbors do paying rent or a mortgage.
Now this is fact that can’t be countered no matter how superior you feel not having to mow your own lawn.
What are your losses thus far?
Data Lola data.
Annandale, VA Housing Prices Crater 8% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/annandale-va/market-trends/
This paid message sponsored by the National Association of Realtors.
“I owe a heck of a lot less than you do”
Now that’s pretty funny. Got a crystal ball and a glass ass.
Us Americans are thinking the peso devaluation has busted your bank pretty good along with the ugly Recession Expat.
RIO: plus 1
You and Lola are a couple?
Us Americans are thinking the peso devaluation has busted your bank pretty good along with the ugly Recession Expat.
It doesn’t have to work that way menina. I’m still golden and my dollars are now king. You can’t win this.
Combo, you are on your way to becoming a Zillionaire!
I think having a paid off house is a great thing, if the price is reasonable. I think $50K is a reasonable price for a house, though I personally did a workaround for a fraction of that and I have a 1200 ft2 shop/studio beneath my cozy 2nd floor apartment. Costs me less than $200/mo in direct expenses plus maintenance to live here, even when I am living on the boat in the summer.
Paying $250,000 or $500,000 as some here are proud to do, is in my mind a senseless waste of money and the produce of decades of hard labor. I make the same coin as I did working in the Philly burbs in a $250,000 house.
It’s about choices and buying with a 30 year loan in a massive bubble is not the best choice.
“Paying $250,000 or $500,000 as some here are proud to do, is in my mind a senseless waste of money and the produce of decades of hard labor. I make the same coin as I did working in the Philly burbs in a $250,000 house.”
Agree. I would not pay for my house what Zillow tells me others are supposedly willing to pay. But I don’t want to sell either.
I make these posts mostly for amusement purposes; Something readily available to use to point out the insanity of it all.
Besides all the painting scraping, leaking pipes and new roof…property taxes just add to the point that a house is never truly “Paid Off”.
True, housing has built in expenses, but being a life renter is dumb. We could not rent a room in So Ca, for what we pay monthly to live in our home. Unless you live in mom’s basement, everyone has a roof over your head cost. Living in an apt, or on a boat would make me crazy. Paying someone else’s mortgage is insanity. I’ll take the $4,500/yr property tax bill and occasional repairs, thank you very much. Quality of life!
We’ve always made $ on our homes, as in net profit.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/key-elements/homeownership/encourage.cfm
“but being a life renter is dumb.”
But paying a 250% premium for a depreciating asset and then throwing more good money after bad on it when you could have rented it for a pittance is smart?
lol@MT Pockets.
inchy: “Paying someone else’s mortgage is insanity.”
Sounds like you have a creepy parasitic Realtor living inside your gizzard working your mouthparts… unless. Are you a Realtor?
It’s the number of people on welfare and disability rather than having a job.
don’t forget “entitlements” counts people on soc sec and medicare.
11k boomers turn 65 each day for the next 15 yrs. you cant stop this.
11k turning 65 each day and headed to the grave Lib.
Random thought: Given the worse than expected Chinese slowdown and its already dramatic effects in driving down prices of industrial metals, food commodities, dry bulk shipping, should we soon expect to see similar negative price effects in North American real estate markets where Chinese investors were until recently a significant factor in driving up prices?
Forgot one: oil
The Guardian
Chinese economy
Commodities rout deepens as Chinese trade data signal weaker demand
Figures suggest continued weak domestic demand from the world’s biggest energy user, driving the price of oil, iron ore and other metals lower
The Yangshan deepwater port in Shanghai. Chinese exports fell 6.8% in November, more than expected.
Photograph: Qilai Shen/EPA
Staff and agencies
Tuesday 8 December 2015 01.00 EST
Last modified on Tuesday 8 December 2015 06.39 EST
The accelerating rout in commodity prices has piled pressure on energy and resources shares in Asia Pacific amid more signs of slowing demand from China.
Although oil prices pushed back on Tuesday from seven-year lows, stock markets around the region felt the pain from uncertainty about global growth and the likely rise in US interest rates later this month.
America is pulling one way, China the other: will the global economy sink or swim?
The Nikkei index in Japan was down almost 1% on Tuesday and the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng indices were down more 0.9% and 1.6% respectively. In resource-rich Australia, the ASX/S&P200 benchmark had a volaltile day but bears had the upper hand by the afternoon with the index off 0.91% at the close with the big oil and gas and mining companies bearing the brunt.
“Beyond the December hike, investors are concerned about the lack of Chinese demand which is acting as a millstone around the neck of risky assets and most investors will stay away until they see a clearer direction on rates,” said Cliff Tan, east Asian head of global markets at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in Hong Kong.
Data showed on Tuesday that China’s exports fell by a more-than-expected 6.8% in November from a year earlier, their fifth straight month of decline. Imports fell 8.7%, which was not as much as expected but enough to signal continued weak demand from the world’s second biggest economy.
Analysts were unsure if the numbers signalled a possible improvement in Chinese domestic demand, which has been a key factor in driving world commodity prices to multi-year lows.
“The big picture hasn’t really changed that much. The US is doing okay, but the problems with emerging markets are really quite big,” said Kevin Lai, chief economist Asia Ex-Japan at Daiwa Capital Markets in Hong Kong.
“Imports have been slumping for more than a year now, so the year-on-year figures are benefiting from a much lower base, which statistically we should expect. But I’m not so sure the number today reflects a real fundamental change for the better in import demand.”
…
Hopefully the article to post later will help to answer Rental Watch’s question from yesterday about collapsing demand, as she apparently hasn’t had much time to read the extensive posts here over recent months on the topic of demand collapse.
She’s a poor donk. Poor poor donk.
PB, I always look forward to seeing your take on things. You’ve been a mainstay of positive contributions to the HBB.
A guy who never sleeps.
Chinese buyer fallout will effect only select markets.
The rest of them are falling already anyways.
Like the entire North America West Coast?
No, stats show lots of Chinese buyers in Texas, Florida, and New York as well.
“Stats” to you is more realtor tripe.
Stats or no, sales are sales.
IMO, the Chinese buyer fallout is going to be even worse for America as a country, at least in my book. As the fallout continues, we may shift from Chinese millionaires buying a few fooking floating boxes of air…. to many more Chinese middle-class buying $100K safe houses (on land) in various Oil Cities.
“sales are sales”
With sales at 20 year lows and nothing but dumb.borrowed.(or stolen.money behind it, there isn’t much significance to it.
And the East Coast.
I didn’t mean to suggest that only the West Coast will get hammered when the tsunami tied of Chinese investors rolls back out to sea. It’s only one of mamy locales.
(1) First they ignore you
(2) Then they mock you
(3) Then they fight you
(4) Then you win
The establishment, from the WH to the Bezos Post, to the NYT, to the GOP are messing themselves in fear over Trump. Rending their garments, tearing their hair, gnawing the carpet.
Double down Donald.
The best thing to come out of the Trump candidacy is the total loss of any and all credibility of the “real journalists” and all establishment media.
Bracken has written some fiction pieces that detail their deserved fate.
Why would American voters back a candidate who has elicited more open comparisons to Hitler than any other since WWII? I’m missing his appeal to other voter blocks besides cowardly, angry, old, white racists.
You seem to be advocating for open borders? Really can’t see it? People are goddamned sick of the PC.
People are goddamned sick of the PC.
LOL. PC this PC that. Whining about “PC” is a tool the right uses to try to shut people up. Hint: It won’t work.
Donald Trump says we’re all too politically correct. But is that also a way to limit speech?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/12/09/donald-trump-says-were-all-too-politically-correct-but-is-that-also-a-way-to-limit-speech/
…There is a certain irony then that some, like Trump, use the term politically correct to actually stifle speech. It tells the offended person or group that they have no right to express their feelings, shutting down any further discussion and putting them immediately on the defensive.
“I think with political correctness, in the world of Donald Trump it’s used to bully people out,” said Peter Smagorinsky, University of Georgia linguist professor.
And, while the anti-political correctness rhetoric is nothing new in GOP politics, Trump’s cavalier attitude toward blatantly hateful speech has intensified it.
“Trump’s use of the term allows [people] to be Trumpish in the way they say this nasty discriminatory stuff,” he said.
Rio:
“LOL. PC this PC that. Whining about “PC” is a tool the right uses to try to shut people up. Hint: It won’t work.”
As if PC isn’t the very hammer that is shutting up discussion on any topic - period. C’mon - wake up Rio - you are being played if you hold the blue pill or the red pill - both are in the process of ’shutting’ us up. Yikes.
No, there’s a point there to be made. We’re never told exactly what PC is. So every time Trump is criticized for saying something stupid or bigoted, he and his apologists can just say that the MSM is on his case because he’s not PC and that’s wonderful because PC is terrible and most people are sick and tired of it.
But because PC is never defined, it functions as old school GOP dog whistle politics.
‘We’re never told exactly what PC is’
Made up as we go along.
‘dog whistle politics’
Like the “vote for Hillary because she doesn’t have a penis”?
No, that’s not an example of dog whistle politics. Some people won’t need any convincing to vote that way. Her campaign may make that pitch, but it will be done explicitly.
‘that’s not an example of dog whistle politics’
Yes it is.
You seem to be a black-and-white thinker who puts words into other people’s mouths.
It’s Lolas self-righteous attempt to shut someone up who disagrees with her.
A person who is for a country controlling its borders and fully vetting those who want to immigrate = Hitler
A person who drones American citizens without any kind of due process, ignores laws he doesn’t like, makes up laws he wished he had, uses the IRS to go after his political enemies and bombs countries without any congressional consent = Uber Progressive Good Guy/Gal Leader
Former DEMOCRATIC president Jimmy Carter banned Iranian immigrants during the hostage crisis, and kicked out a bunch of college students as well:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/261062/carter-banned-iranians-coming-us-during-hostage-daniel-greenfield
So is Jimmy Carter like Hitler as well?
And which party/president was it who rounded up all of the Japanese and put them into camps during WWII?
The liberal cognitive dissonance on this issue is simply staggering.
He banned a nationality, not a relegion. There’s something in that stupid first amendment about religion…. Everyone seems to have forgotten.
You can’t legally ban a relegion in a his country.
Daddy is lying to you again.
Yes, that’s the important point. Also, can anyone name someone who supported Carter’s decision and is currently criticizing Trump’s call to suspend Muslim immigration?
I don’t understand. Isn’t Trump’s saying he wants a pause in all Muslim immigration just what the Left wants and teaches? Always viewing people and choosing sides in an issue based on viewing all individuals as members of some group whether based on race or religion or gender or class without making individual distinctions? Michael Brown right or wrong.
Everyone is a winner in the Victim Olympics.
Everyone is a winner in the Victim Olympics.
From your posts Goon, you seem to feel that your the one who’s victimized by the society you live in.
I’ll be dead in a few decades. After that the cultural relativists and their descendants can suffocate on the jenkum steaming off the progressive utopia they’ve created.
And it’s not gonna look like the 2014 Souper Bowl Coke commercial.
++++1 to you Goon….
There have been 352 mass killings in US this year. One of them happened to be perpetrated by a muslim couple. So when are we banning the rest of the perpetrator races/religions?
he’s behind hitlery in every poll
prepare for 2% growth
like the free HC countries of the EU and Japan
“Kill Trump”: Liberals React to Republican Frontrunner’s Comments on Muslim Immigration
Users flood Twitter with call for Trump’s assassination
Paul Joseph Watson - December 8, 2015
http://www.infowars.com/kill-trump-liberals-react-to-republican-frontrunners-comments-on-muslim-immigration/
“While the media has framed Donald Trump’s rhetoric as hateful and inflammatory, leftists on Twitter reacted to the Republican frontrunner’s comments on Muslim immigration by calling for Trump to be killed.”
“Trump is embroiled in controversy once again after he called for a temporary total ban on all Muslim immigration. After first suggesting that even Muslim-Americans would be barred from re-entering the country, Trump’s campaign clarified that the policy would only apply to non-citizens.”
Paging Attorney General Lynch…
Do these dimwits know the Secret Service may pay them a visit?
I know George Soros has paid agitators and a global chaos squad, but I was wondering if he also has paid assassins? Maybe WPA or Mike could chime in on that question.
It’s all over Facebook too, posted under their real names.
We need a stupidity tax precisely for people like these, to pay for the cost of having to assess each and every threat and to show that such behavior has a cost.
Conservative Republicans are also increasingly sounding the alarms on Trump. I realize that people who spend all their time watching reality TV and don’t know how to read might not be aware of this.
Bought and paid for Globalist Republicans and Beltway Establishment media are the only ones sounding off about Trump.
Whatever. At least they aren’t delusional fools.
Bear’s made up his mind on Trump. This should get interesting.
I heard it said recently that the Republican candidate does not have to defeat the Democrat, but will have to defeat the Media. I agree.
I had made up my mind on Trump years before he announced his candidacy.
And your candidate is?
What difference does it make as to what his candidate is? Moderates never get to pick a candidate - we are just forced to vote to keep the crazies out. Remember Sarah Palin?
A lot of us would like vote for a fiscal conservative republican who is true to conservative values - keep government out of people’s personal lives -ALL OF IT - whether you like it or not.
But a candidate like that doesn’t exist. Instead we get fascists and demagogues. The primary system is broken quite frankly.
Who needs a candidate?
Could collapsing oil demand be the ticket for global economic prosperity and reduced greenhouse gas emissions?
Marketwatch dot com
Opinion: Even cheaper oil would do a world of good for everyone
By Matthew Lynn
Published: Dec 9, 2015 5:12 a.m. ET
It would be like a tax cut for developed countries and squeeze OPEC nations further
AFP/Getty Images
It will tip economies back into deflation. It will trigger political chaos in countries where the state depends on it for revenue. It will depress demand as those economies shrivel.
To look at the way the stock market, and many pundits, have reacted to the latest twist downwards in the oil market, you would think the tumbling price of the black stuff was a threat to the stability of the global economy.
The trouble is, that is nonsense.
In reality, there are three reasons why we should be celebrating the collapse in the price of oil. It is a tax cut for parts of the global economy that most need a stimulus. The oil-dependent states are generally very unpleasant and need to reform themselves. And it is a sign that we are using less and less high-pollution energy. Sure, there is some short-term dislocation. But, on balance, a lower oil price is great news. Ten dollars a barrel. Even $5. Bring it on. The sooner oil is cheaper than mineral water, the better.
…
Somefing tells me that the bubble cult of Wall Street investment bankers don’t typically see the world this way.
How much of the commodities free fall is due to the dollar bubble based on a rate hike sequence that will never happen cause in order to keep us solvent the 19 trillion n debt has to be serviceable?
“…based on a rate hike sequence that will never happen…”
History may prove me wrong and Lucy may pull the football away from Charlie Brown yet again as he tries to kick it, but it seems like the Fed risks losing all credibility if they don’t at least make a few very gradual token rate hikes at this point. The consequence could be bubbles that nobody imagined could exist.
“… but it seems like the Fed risks losing all credibility if they don’t at least make a few very gradual token rate hikes at this point.”
Hence look for “an event” that will “force them” to put off a rate hike.
It’s only a matter of time before collapsing prices will turn into an upward surge of demand. By that time, so many good projects will be shelved that it will take years to ramp up production again.
And there’s years worth of inventory to meet demand.
NPR aired a hit piece on Trump this morning calling him a “demagogue”
Related article provides a narrative:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/12/08/458919219/trumps-muslims-plan-inflammatory-definitely-unconstitutional-maybe
They have a point.
A demagogue /ˈdɛməɡɒɡ/ (from Greek dēmagōgos, dēmos ‘the people’ + agōgos ‘leading’)[1] or rabble-rouser is a political leader in a democracy who appeals to the emotions, fears, prejudices, and ignorance of the lower socioeconomic classes in order to gain power and promote political motives. Demagogues usually oppose deliberation and advocate immediate, violent action to address a national crisis; they accuse moderate and thoughtful opponents of weakness. Demagogues have appeared in democracies since ancient Athens. They exploit a fundamental weakness in democracy: because ultimate power is held by the people, nothing stops the people from giving that power to someone who appeals to the lowest common denominator of a large segment of the population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogue
Gee Mikey - didn’t your messiah Obama do exactly the same thing and continues to do so to this very day?
You’re wring on two points. He’s not my messiah. During his campaign his tone was very rarely emotional. The phrase “no drama Obama” was coined at the time.
Here’s another thought. What you’re saying is that Trump is just like Obama.
Yes - in tone - not so much in content.
The great fear with Trump is his allowing people to be against illegal immigration. And because they are supporting a legitimate and leading presidential candidate they can’t be automatically labeled racist.
Are you making a veiled attempt, based on no evidence whatever, to suggest that Trump is not a demagogue?
Good luck with that line of argument!
Trump is the MSMs unacknowledged best friend anyway. Lots of eyeballs. Without him this whole thing is boring. Everyone can sell fear to the public.
He’s also Hillary Clinton’s best friend, for doing her job of completely obliterating Republican presidential election prospects. He’s also sucking up all the MSM oxygen that might otherwise be focused on the unsavory prospect of eight more years with the Clintons in the WH.
It all seems like part of a calculated strategy, and some of the biggest suckers to it post here daily.
So then why does the left and progressives attack him with such gusto 24/7?
Why not let him destroy the republican party without interference and then let Hillary just dance into the presidency?
Logic = FAIL
Why are you lining up with the small army of angry white bigots for Trump who don’t realize they are actually helping to ensure another Clinton presidency?
Logic = FOOL
So then why does the left and progressives attack him with such gusto 24/7?
Because Trump’s ugliness goes beyond politics. It’s a reflection of a disgusting part of America.
To ignore a blight on America with the cynical goal of simply winning an election is a cheap version of being an American imo.
And Trumps message and followers represent just about everything that’s wrong with the Repub party. To not point that out does a disservice to democracy.
Oh now, who’s being a negative Nellie? Disgusting? We have long grown comfortable with torture and rectal feeding and blowing up weddings. Trump takes things to a logical conclusion, and Dick Cheney, that fervent civil libertarian, is roused from his coffin to denounce The Donald! This is not who we are! The irony and hypocrisy is wafting over DC like a new car smell.
Yes, you got it Ben, Mr. Waterboarding himself ranting about Trump, that is just too rich . . .
Nice rant, Ben.
“Yes, you got it Ben, Mr. Waterboarding himself ranting about Trump, that is just too rich . . .”
Politics would be insufferable if it didn’t offer frequent moments of humor.
PB: [Trump]’s also sucking up all the MSM oxygen
… and Ben’s bandwidth, LOL.
He’s also Hillary Clinton’s best friend, for doing her job of completely obliterating Republican presidential election prospects
In one debate it was mentioned that Bill and Hillary were guests at Trump’s last wedding. Maybe he’s actually doing a favor for a close friend.
That’s my MIL’s theory and I am sticking to it until I see evidence to the contrary.
The Wall Street Journal
Wonder Land
Trump in River City
Donald Trump is the Prof. Harold Hill of the presidential election.
By Daniel Henninger
July 29, 2015 7:01 p.m. ET
In “The Music Man,” Meredith Willson’s great musical, super salesman Harold Hill talks the townspeople of River City, Iowa, into buying trombones, bassoons and drums to form a boys’ band. Then, after the people of River City have committed belief and money to him, he’ll skip town.
Donald Trump is America’s Music Man, and the United States is his River City. Unlike the original, the Trump version isn’t going to have a happy ending.
Like Professor Harold Hill, Donald Trump must know it’s all a fabulous scam. How else to explain that on June 4—just before his presidential announcement—the Donald came to Mason City, Iowa, Meredith Willson’s hometown and the model for River City. And where did Donald Trump address Mason City’s locals? In Music Man Square.
…
They can’t talk about Daddy like that!
Hillary’s grandmotherly bosom is as close to the “safe space” of the womb that progressives will ever attain. Soft, comforting, and tinged with the scent of Gold Bond powder and Chanel No. 5.
…. And Depends.
It is too early in our political cycle for a real hero.
Remember….. a house is a depreciating asset that cost you money every day you own it.
When he wasn’t too busy “horsing around” in the locker room shower, Jerry Sandusky was moonlighting as a Realtor.
“Realtor Accused Of Sexually Assaulting New Employee”
http://kxan.com/2015/12/07/realtor-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-new-employee/
Walking into an empty house with a Realtor is like going home on a date with Jeffrey Dahmer.
Is Greg Swann still a Realtor?
He always looked a little like Sandusky, maybe the jowls.
hmmmm…. Look at this roster of flunkies.
http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/about/
Rush Limbaugh provides the following narrative on Trump and the media:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2015/12/08/how_donald_trump_plays_the_media
Rush Limbaugh is the second highest paid man in radio, meanwhile NPR can’t exist without taxpayer money and passing the begging bowl to its listeners
Rush Limbaugh is a Judas goat for conservatives.
It’s a narrative.
I don’t live in the “safe space” plantation of New York Times, CNN, NPR.
No! It’s an agenda!
“Behold The Deflationary Wave: How China Is Flooding The World With Its Unwanted Commodities”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-08/behold-deflationary-wave-china-flooding-world-its-unwanted-commodities
Collapsing demand. Massive excess supply. Cratering prices.
“Cratering prices.”
Cratering prices that destroy equity, equity that backs debt.
Oh well. It’s the price associated with misplaced risk seeking reward.
It’s called a loss.
“It’s called a loss.”
It’s called a HUGE loss, a huge loss that is composed of two parts:
Part 1: The huge loss of equity that is immediately voted down, and
Part 2: The huge lose of borrowed money that was previously backed by now voted-down value of the equity that will sooner-or-later be written down.
“The equity” doesn’t exist when there is no buyer in sight.
What are your losses thus far?
“No buyer in sight?”
Is the Mona Lisa for sale? Does it have a buyer insight? No?
So, does this mean the Mona Lisa doesn’t have a value?
“Guinness World Records lists the Mona Lisa as having the highest insurance value for a painting in history. On permanent display at The Louvre museum in Paris, the Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on December 14, 1962. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be around US$782 million in 2015.”
https://www.google.com/#q=mona+lisa+value
Not a one off painting. Houses my friend houses. Millions of depreciating houses.
What are your losses thus far?
Worth over a trillion dollars an that’s not a joke
Your art blog isn’t here.
Houses my friend. Depreciating houses.
Does a bigger sucker exist than a Bernie Sanders supporter? Sheesh talk about being played for a fool, oh vey.
Does a bigger sucker exist than a Bernie Sanders supporter?
Trump supporters’ twisted vision of reality will not help the Repubs win the election imo. Unlike most Trump supporters, a Sanders supporter has the intelligence and enough degree of realism to see the big picture. Sanders is helping his party no matter who gets the Dem nomination. Trump is absolutely destroying his party’s chances. Trump is lifting the veil on the very ugly side of the Repubs I’ve been talking about for years.
Come November, Trump supporters are going to still be wondering how it all went so wrong, while most more intelligent main-stream Repubs will know how it all went so wrong.
Hint: I seriously doubt that your gettin’ “your country back” in November.
“Come November, Trump supporters are going to still be wondering how it all went so wrong, while most more intelligent main-stream Repubs will know how it all went so wrong.”
It happens every time. Hillaryous!
Bernie is a case of “right description of the problem, wrong prescription for a solution.” He correctly notes that the economy has been hijacked by the .1%, and the middle class is getting crushed, but his solution - free everything for everybody - will only add a crushing burden to taxpayers and the productive, and further hasten our financial collapse due to unsustainable public and private debt burdens.
Of course!
There’s a whole lot of angry old white male Trump supporters who apparently don’t realize they are helping to make a Hillary Clinton presidency inevitable.
It’s more like they’re planting daggers in the corrupt, oligarch-captured establishment GOP.
more like they’re planting daggers in the corrupt, oligarch-captured establishment GOP.
I don’t think you get Trump’s game. He might totally mess the Repubs up, but Trump doesn’t care about taking down the Repub establishment. Trump cares about Trump.
Donald Trump counters condemnation with a warning
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/09/politics/donald-trump-republican-party-warning/
Donald Trump’s tweet on Tuesday dangling the idea of an independent run for president sent a clear warning to the Republican establishment: Attack at your own peril.
After 24 hours of withering criticism from the likes of Dick Cheney, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and virtually every fellow GOP presidential hopeful — not to mention Democrats and the mayors of Philadelphia and London — Trump is defiantly standing by his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. And he upped the ante by tweeting a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll that shows 68% of the 2016 Republican front-runner’s supporters would ditch the GOP and stick with him if he launched an independent campaign for the presidency.
So give Americans an actual choice, instead of the usual stale Tweedle Dum/Tweedle Dee neo-con/corporate-statist/Wall Street fluffer offerings from the Republicrat Duopoly.
Trump is definitely the establishment GOP’s worst nightmare, and Hillary Clinton’s best friend.
Keep dreaming there. Top three issues, immigration, guns and terror. No one seems to be “for” anyone but Bernt and he’s just a safety valve phony candidate to give the appearance of a D nomination race.
Is PB advocating for the Establishment or is there someone with an ever lesser chance that Trump you’d point to as a better option?
Top three issues, immigration, guns and terror.
You really don’t know your country do you? It’s like you live in an alternate universe where you only hear like-minded gibberish. It must be strange.
Economy Trumps Foreign Affairs as Key 2016 Election Issue
http://www.gallup.com/…/economy-trumps-foreign-affairs-key-2016-election-iss...
May 15, 2015 - Economy more important than terrorism, foreign affairs; Importance of foreign affairs no higher than most recent elections; Economy top issue …
Economy, Government Top Election Issues for Both Parties
http://www.gallup.com/…/economy-government-top-election-issues-parties.asp...
Oct 9, 2014 - Clearly, the two issues that top the overall list — the economy and the availability of good jobs — are relevant for Republicans and Democrats, …
Great support for your position there, articles from 6 months and a year ago, before San Berdoo and your side’s falling face first into San Berdoodoo.
Oh get over your San Berdoo trauma. You didn’t know any of those people. Stop being a terrorized wuss.
At this point what does San Berdoo even matter?
“…he’s just a safety valve phony candidate…”
Almost like Trump, except for the safety valve part.
Yes, a phony candidate who is going to speak out and force the conversation on the ONE ISSUE the establishment wants most buried. Even if he does nothing else he’s already proven not to be a phony because of that.
What I think matters not one iota to the presidential election outcome.
However, Trump is making Hillary Clinton a better option for a majority of American voters.
I am reminded of the scene in one of the Austin Powers movies where Powers drinks a foul tasting cup of “coffee”.
Top three issues, immigration, guns and terror.
These aren’t the top three issues of the middle class. They are the top issues pushed by the right wing, Fox news and AM radio commentators.
Ask a non-political working family what the top issues are. You’ll hear about low wages, crushing student loans, unaffordable health care, skyrocketing rent. All bread-and-butter issues.
No, immigration, guns and terror are massive diversions created by the right wing to divert attention from the fact that the GOP offers NOTHING to address the real bread-and-butter working class problems.
Nobody put a gun to anybody’s head and forced them to take crushing student loans. Another example of the victim mentality . . .
Take the loans, or you will die poor. No gun required.
student loans should not be forgiven. I paid mine back. no free rides.
You can do lots of profitable careers without taking on a six-figure school loan. Such as becoming a state-licensed journeyman electrician. No college necessary, and the job can’t be outsourced.
The traffic light-bulb changers for Seattle’s DOT are making $35/hour. Again, no college required.
…and $35/hour is nowhere near what they need to buy a house in Seattle.
If you ain’t makin’ 6 figures, you ain’t makin’ it.
It sure looks like housing prices have a long way to fall in Seattle….. and everywhere else.
Vegas odds …
“Despite the shakeup in the Republican odds, Hilary Clinton is still the odds-on favorite to become the next POTUS and a massive -2500 fave to win the Democratic nomination.
2016 US Presidential Election - Next President of the United States
Odds as of December 1 at Bovada
Hillary Clinton -110
Marco Rubio +500
Donald Trump +600
Ted Cruz +750
Bernie Sanders +1400
Ben Carson +2500
Jeb Bush +2500
Chris Christie +5000
John Kasich +6600
Carly Fiorina +7500
http://www.oddsshark.com/entertainment/us-presidential-odds-2016-futures
With models as valid as Bear Stearns in 2005.
TrumpFather is going to lose. You can start crying now.
Nah…these guys are going to wallow in their delusions and Rasmussen poll results right up until the vote count.
Trump supporters are as much the fooled as the Sanders supporters. Man, you are the pot calling the kettle black.
Trump pimps are an entertaining gang!
Trump is the front runner. Sanders isn’t even close to Hillary.
So, according to Bill, there are more fools among the Republicans than the Democrats.
Could be, at least this time around. Ron Paul took the intelligent Republicans out of the Republican Party with him.
Actually, I was mistaken about that. The realclearpolitics.com poll averages show that Trump and Sanders have essentially the same level of support with Trump at 29.3% and Sanders at 30.5%.
“Trump at 29.3% and Sanders at 30.5%.”
Nazi or Socialist — which would you prefer?
From yesterday:
—————
Comment by oxide
2015-12-08 12:35:14
“We’ve been stomping on people in the Middle East for So long ”
A thousand years, actually.
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-12-08 21:13:53
Who is your “we” (noting that the United States of America is only 239 years old)?
—————
The “we” refers in general to traditional European “Western Civ” Christians,of which Americans are a direct offshoot.
Historical logic doesn’t work that way.
The U.S. government has been stomping on Muslims since 1946 and leaving them alone the previous 100 years. Never had Muslim terrorism against the U.S. from 1847 to 1946. WHY?
Barbary Wars.
So Barbary wars shut down the Muslims for the next 100 years?
no internet for easy communication
I seem to recall that Islam invaded Europe early on. It took the Spaniards centuries to kick the Muslims out. Had the invaders not been stopped near Austria we all might be unfurling our prayer rugs.
Are we trying to answer the question, “Who started it?”
The MSM has escalated its jihad against The Donald. It just might be that he is viewed as unpredictable and mercurial enough that it would give pause to would-be adversaries who might want to screw with us. In this world gone mad, that might be a good thing.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-york-daily-news-likens-trump-to-a-jihadist-2015-12-09?link=MW_latest_news
‘Suderman may as well be describing the average American, circa 2015, whose egotism invariably thrills at the invocation of “American exceptionalism” by our aspiring officeholders. And surely “the maturity level of a middle-school bully, but with less sophistication about policy” describes US foreign policy – endorsed by American voters in every election since the end of World War II – to a tee. “Xenophobic and bigoted”? These are basic elements of the human condition, and certainly Americans are no exception to the rule.’
‘One has to wonder: what country has Suderman been living in?’
‘Trump isn’t a “fascist” – at least, no more than Franklin Roosevelt ever was. Nor is he especially demagogic, given the history of American politics. He is merely the image we see reflected when a funhouse mirror is held up to the face of the American electorate, and those who pander to them. The fear-mongering and war hysteria that has dominated the American political landscape since 9/11 has come back to haunt our Establishment – and they don’t like it one bit. This is “blowback” with a vengeance, and it conjures in my memory this quote from a trenchant observer of the march of human folly, Henry Louis Mencken: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
The junk bond bubble looks set to be the first of multiple cascading “systemic events” that will tank the markets and force true price discovery.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/12/09/bond-king-gets-antsy-as-junk-bonds-which-lead-stocks-spiral-to-heck/
Will Kinder Morgan be the next Bear Stearns?
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/kinder-morgan-slashes-dividend-74-stock-plunges-after-hours/
The Pineapples will be in their front-row seats squealing with delight and singing the words to every song.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/12040853/Kim-Jong-uns-pop-propaganda-girl-group-to-perform-in-China.html
Testify, Donald!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-09/trump-accuses-merkel-ruining-germany-response-time-person-year-snub
I heard some NPR narrative yesterday interviewing German police officers stationed near the border with Austria that said 6,000 migrants a day are now coming into Germany, and that the majority are young men travelling alone.
Got fundamental transformation?
Don’t racis, man! Every single one of those angry young men is going to become a doctor or an astronaut!
There is a big difference between Mutti and The Donald. One of them is the leader of her country, and the other is a wannabe leader.
Et tu, Brutus?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ex-pentagon-chief-calls-for-not-obama-as-next-president-2015-12-09
Paging ABQ Dan…your crow platter is ready for pick-up.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/12/08/crummy-global-demand-overcapacity-china-containerized-freight-index-ccfi-crashes-to-worst-level-ever/
Maybe China can use some of its excess capacity to rebuild Syria after the civil war eventually ends…if it ever does.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11942480/Russia-posts-Syria-attack-drone-footage-amid-propaganda-drive.html
Another “nobody saw it coming” moment…the first of many to come.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-09/ecbs-nowotny-blames-massive-failure-market-analysts-last-weeks-unprecedented-hedge-f
All you do is push Zero Hedge links. Work for them or sometink?
They put out the loon crack, he partaken.
3 fat hens or 3 stooges. Either way, their story telling is remarkable.
Hillary Clinton wears adult diapers. And has cankles the size of a Christmas ham.
Hillary’s Christmas ham size cankles and adult undergarments that require Huma Mahmood Abedin’s assistance to put on and remove are a matter of National Security and require nose holding in the voting booth.
Ewww, icky….
Tens of millions of excess empty houses, a globe awash in crude oil, now we have excess empty Boeing 747 airliners.
“Malaysia Is Hunting For Mystery Owner Who Abandoned Three Boeing 747 On Its Airport”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-08/malaysia-hunting-mystery-owner-who-abandoned-three-boeing-747-its-airport
Well, 747’s are kind of old.
They’re 747-200’s. They probably 30-40 years old.
“♪ Contraction, traction who’s your faction..♪
Taking out jobs in a disorderly fashion… ♪”
Even though the jobs report “looks” good I can tell you first hand as a self employed American that “contraction” is the word of the year for the marketplace. We lost more clients this year than any other and struggle to find new ones to replace them with.
Maybe you’re just running your business poorly.
Which demand collapsing every year for the last 7 years running, it has more to do with business climate. It’s been horrific.
Yep. What “growth” there is, is of the low single digit variety. Probably less than the defacto inflation rate.
Yet, there are shortages of qualified/experienced employees. Usually of the ones willing to work for twelve bucks/hour.
The good business owners can find a way to make money in good years and bad years.
Are you sure?
There’s no doubt about it.
Doubtful.
A nice cup of
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-08/how-about-nice-cup
Because Trump IS a fascist. The left made a mockery of using that term. As did the discussions of Godwin’s law. But Fascism is real. It sneaks in through gentle intentions and democracy so the apologists for Trump keep saying Trump won’t b a dictator. Same was said about other brutal fascists before they took power. All the conditions for fascism exist today.
http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/waking-up-to-the-reality-of-fascism/
Voting is for vegetables.
And there will be government run death camps on American soil within my lifetime.
Fascism can only exist with a massive government.
Which candidates want even bigger and bigger government, more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes?
Under fascism, the state, through official cartels, controlled all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. Planning boards set product lines, production levels, prices, wages, working conditions, and the size of firms. Licensing was ubiquitous; no economic activity could be undertaken without government permission. Levels of consumption were dictated by the state, and “excess” incomes had to be surrendered as taxes or “loans.” The consequent burdening of manufacturers gave advantages to foreign firms wishing to export. But since government policy aimed at autarky, or national self-sufficiency, protectionism was necessary: imports were barred or strictly controlled, leaving foreign conquest as the only avenue for access to resources unavailable domestically.
The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics
Fascism
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Fascism.html
Well we’ve got the massive government, and a demagogue candidate that has you loons all hot and bothered. Time to get out the brown shirts.
That a good little excerpt, banana. Trump may be a demagogue, but he’s not a fascist.
Agree with Bill, Trump is a Fascist. Famed writer Umberto Eco has a 14-part test to identify a fascist. Trump meets a number of Eco’s tests, including
- Nationalism above all
- Rejection of diversity. Eco: “fascism is racist by definition.”
- Traditionalism (”make America great again”)
- Appeal to a frustrated middle class
- Pacifism is weakness, war-like stance is strength
- Populist elitism (”American exceptionalism”)
Not mentioned by Eco is corporatism, where the government serves corporations first and vice versa. Trump is a natural born back room deal-maker: there is no doubt he will use his presidential powers to benefit corporate power brokers at the expense of the public interest.
There’s lots of fascists in DC:
‘President Barack Obama is personally enamored with a recent essay written by neoconservative writer Bob Kagan, an advisor to Mitt Romney, in which Kagan argues that the idea the United States is in decline is false.’
“The renewal of American leadership can be felt across the globe,” Obama said in his State of the Union address Tuesday evening. “From the coalitions we’ve built to secure nuclear materials, to the missions we’ve led against hunger and disease; from the blows we’ve dealt to our enemies, to the enduring power of our moral example, America is back.”
“Anyone who tells you otherwise, anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” Obama said.’
‘Just hours earlier on Tuesday, in an off-the-record meeting with leading news anchors, including ABC‘s George Stephanopoulos and NBC‘s Brian Williams, Obama drove home that argument using an article written in the New Republic by Kagan titled “The Myth of American Decline.”
‘Obama liked Kagan’s article so much that he spent more than 10 minutes talking about it in the meeting, going over its arguments paragraph by paragraph, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor confirmed to The Cable.’
‘National Security Advisor Tom Donilon will also discuss Kagan’s essay and Obama’s love of it Thursday night with Charlie Rose on PBS.’
Isn’t it interesting how these neocons keep getting into positions of power (like Kagan’s wife, hired by Clinton), in both parties?
‘Obama’s bromance with Robert Kagan’
‘While Kagan’s article is behind a paywall, you can read a copy at the Brookings Institute website. A word about the Brookings Institute would be in order. Like the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, et al, this is one of those bipartisan policy study groups that form a part of the “invisible government”. If you look at their board of trustees, you will find Richard Blum, the arms industry billionaire who is married to Dianne Feinstein and sits on the board of the World Wildlife Fund. As I told Michael Barker, who informed me about Blum’s “green” affiliations, I wonder how long it will take Leon Botstein to recruit him to Bard College’s board of trustees. The chairman of the Brookings board is one John L. Thornton who used to be President of Goldman-Sachs until 2003 and went on to found the Nelson Mandela Legacy Trust afterwards as part of a sense of noblesse oblige, I guess. Pardon me for my cynical snicker at this.’
‘Kagan kicks this off with this gem: “The present world order—characterized by an unprecedented number of democratic nations; a greater global prosperity, even with the current crisis, than the world has ever known; and a long peace among great powers—reflects American principles and preferences, and was built and preserved by American power in all its political, economic, and military dimensions.”
‘One imagines that the loss of 2 to 3 million Vietnamese civilians was part of this noble mission. This blatantly imperialist worldview might seem at odds with the standard liberal defense of Barack Obama as more “reasonable” than the frightening Republican opposition.’
‘But Kagan, as shrewd observer of the president, reminded Foreign Policy readers back in March 2010 that there are no real differences: “Unnoticed amid the sniping in Washington over health care and the wailing about “broken government,” a broad and durable bipartisan consensus has begun falling into place in one unlikely area: foreign policy. Consider the fact that on Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran — the most difficult, expensive, and potentially dangerous foreign challenges facing the United States — precious little now separates Barack Obama from most Republican leaders in and out of Congress.”
Neocons gonna con.
All the conditions for fascism exist today. ”
yes they do “fourth turning” style
‘the most difficult, expensive, and potentially dangerous foreign challenges…precious little now separates Barack Obama from most Republican leaders’
Note expensive.
“The left made a mockery of using that term.”
The liberals who cried fascist should have read The Boy who Cried Wolf as children.
CBS News ran this story last night (Anthony Winchcombe got paid)
A look at Australia’s ban on semi-automatic guns
AUSTRALIA — “I enjoy tinkering around with firearms.” Anthony Winchcombe said he started hunting with his father when he was just five years old.
Anthony Winchcombe gave up his semi-automatic firearms after the Australian government banned them.
But to own a gun in Australia you need a license — which requires background checks that take at least 28 days, sometimes months.
Semi-automatic rifles are banned, and it’s illegal to carry a gun for personal protection.
“I had semi-automatic firearms prior to the laws changing, and I complied with the laws and handed them in. Do I miss them? No, not particularly,” said Winchcombe.
The guns were banned amidst a huge public outcry after 35 people were massacred by a lone gunman in 1996.
http://www.cbsnews.com/evening-news/ - 75k -
So why isn’t Chicago (where the average citizen is basically banned from owning a firearm and has stricter gun control laws Australia) the safest place in America?
And why isn’t Switzerland a war zone (where every citizens has a FULLY automatic assault rifle in his closet)?
When seconds count, the police are only minutes away…
Be afraid…… Be afraaaaaaid!
2B - Don’t move here - you won’t like it.
Mayor Rummy approval rating noted on talking head radio this morning is now at 18% and falling. Most of this is due to the negligence he has displayed to the massacre occuring on Chicago streets each and every week.
Mind you - Chicago is fraut with Democrats who foisted Rummy on themselves for another round of four. Sad fact is - there has not been a Repub challenger for Mayor in Chicago for the last 90+ years. And the result is what was broadcast this morning.
So why isn’t Chicago (where the average citizen is basically banned from owning a firearm and has stricter gun control laws Australia) the safest place in America?
It’s not true. I posted a link a week or two ago about a cabdriver in Chicago who a CCW permit and used his handgun to defend himself, killing his attacker. The police saw that it was self-defense and he was not charged in the matter.
And why isn’t Switzerland a war zone (where every citizens has a FULLY automatic assault rifle in his closet)?
I saw something that showed that gun deaths in Switzerland are higher than in its neighbors, though that may include suicide.
Its not the blue eyed blonde Swiss who are killing each other in droves in Chicago. PC is rampant and everyone’s afraid to call a spade a spade.
Nationally syndicated columnist Cal Thomas calls Climate Hustle “tremendous” and says “anyone who still believes in ‘climate change’ after watching this film needs the type of reprogramming given to cult members.”
68° in Region VII today.
I’ll be in Wellington next week, gonna be pretty warm there too.
Wellington Fl.?
West of town?
Polo Club?
I think he might mean this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington,_Colorado
Rockstar you underestimate me again.
There’s nobody Social Register in Wellington, CO.
There’s nobody Social Register in Wellington, FL, either. Just wanna-be’s. Wellington is just a bunch hot flat land they carved out of way-West Palm Beach County, so people could pretend to play polo and keep some horses.
The real horseflesh action is in Ocala. Quiet money.
I figured you might be visiting a “supplier”.
Yup. Yup. Yup. Got to see a man about a horse.
No alarmism here …
“Sea levels may rise by up to 10 feet as early as now, says James E. Hansen, the veteran climatologist-turned-campaigner and former director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies.”
“… as early as now.” Sea levels may rise by up to 10 feet as early as now.
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/72104/20150727/climate-change-gurus-warning-of-10-feet-sea-level-rise-realistic-or-too-much.htm
According to this guy we are hopelessly screwed …
“At least 10 feet of sea level rise is now guaranteed worldwide; it’s all but inevitable, a done deal. An ice sheet two miles thick has collapsed in West Antarctica—glaciologists have been dreading this moment for decades, though in recent years, it was more of a question of when than if—and there is nothing that can stop it from melting now.”
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/10-feet-of-global-sea-level-rise-now-inevitable
Can any of you guys understand just how much water it would take to raise the planet’s sea level by ten feet? Something that is supposed to be happening … now?
“Can any of you guys understand just how much water it would take to raise the planet’s sea level by ten feet?”
I’m sorry, but common sense has no place at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Le Bourget, Paris.
They have enough problems figuring out how the ruling elite are going to split up the money from the greatest heist in the history of the universe.
We went through that math exercise here already. Yes, it’s easy to show that melting Greenland’s icecap spread over the planet raises the ocean 23 feet. There are massive ice canyons and rivers of meltwater that never used to be there:
http://www.messagetoeagle.com/images/hiddenriversgreenland02.jpg
“Yes, it’s easy to show that melting Greenland’s icecap spread over the planet raises the ocean 23 feet.”
Oh, so now it’s 23 feet. It used to be (a couple of posts ago) an immediate ten feet of sea level rise but now it’s 23 feet.
Sounds inflationary.
23 feet is the ultimate sea level rise if Greenland completely melts. Should we allow the planet to warm to that extent it will take many decades to get there, so it’s not “immediate.” The 10 feet is not just Greenland, it’s all of other disappearing glacier and Antarctic ice as well.
it doesn’t matter if it is one, 10 or 23 feet.
The only possible solution to save us is:
Bigger and bigger government, with more and more regulations and higher and higher taxes.
“… it will take many decades to get there, so it’s not “immediate.”
“Sea levels may rise by up to 10 feet as early as now, says James E. Hansen, the veteran climatologist-turned-campaigner and former director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies.”
“… as early as now.” What do you define the term “now” as?
Most people (parents, especially - and First Sergeants) define “now” as immediate - as in “now!”.
BTW, a post above has a guy predicting an “all but inevitable, a done deal” ten foot sea level rise for something that is occurring in Antarctica, not Greenland but Antarctica, so should this ten feet of predicted sea level rise from Antarctica be added to your 23 feet of sea level rise from Greenland to make it a total of thirty-three feet of sea level rise - global seal level rise?
Have you ever flown over Greenland? (I have.)
It’s covered in ice, and way north of the Equator. Until the Earth’s axis of rotation drastically tilts Greenland towards the Sun, it’s not going to melt.
So while alarming, straw man examples of sea level rise due to Greenland’s ice cap melting away are totally irrelevant to reality.
“anyone who still believes in ‘climate change’ after watching this film needs the type of reprogramming given to cult members.”
That above sentence is hilarious.
Several organizations that have frequently worked with CFACT to promote global warming doubt as listed as co-sponsors of the Climate Hustle premier in Paris, including The Heartland Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Cooler Heads Coalition. Cooler Heads is a consortium of organizations battling climate change mitigation, including the American Legislative Exchange Council, George C. Marshall Institute and the Heritage Foundation.
Climate Hustle was first announced at the ninth climate deniers conference in Las Vegas, NV, put on by The Heartland Institute.[2] Marc Morano has consistently participated in Heartland’s conferences, which feature virtually no credentialed experts in the field.
The movie was promoted again at Heartland’s tenth climate denial conference in June, 2015. Morano’s former employer, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) received an award from Heartland.[3]
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Climate_Hustle
Walter Cronkite reporting on fears of a coming ice age in 1972.
Cronkite - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4JX1S9YZBo - 192k - Cached - Similar pages
Mar 5, 2015 … Walter Cronkite warns of coming ice age. … The New Ice Age theorem was being promoted in schools and we were having some really cold …
Cruz hit this same topic this morning on NPR - these same “scientists” were claiming an impending global ice age just 40 years ago. What happened to that? How could all of those scientists have been so wrong? That science was settled!
They had all of the temperature data back then too . . .
Follow the money, people . . .
Got Carbon Credits?
Nat Sci Foundation is hiring “scientists” at 150k a p[op
lots of them
it’s an industry
The NSF has probably been around for 50 years or more. Is science an industry? You could say that, but it’s irrelevant to global warming.
Nationally syndicated columnist Cal Thomas
He’s not a scientist.
“He’s not a scientist.”
And automatically makes him … wrong?
“this” - “And THIS automatically makes him wrong?”
Al Gore is not a scientist either.
He’s not a scientist, so his opinions about a denier movie, paid for by fossil fuel dollars, carry little weight to refute climate science.
I’m actually very open-minded on climate change. As soon as the deniers come up with a large body of real science in peer-reviewed journals, I’ll be happy to change my position. Until then denialism is just noise.
A blast from the past, all the way back to the year 2010 …
“According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, within a few years …”
“… within a few years …”
“… within a few years winter snowfall will become
‘a very rare and exciting event’.”
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
http://michellemalkin.com/2010/12/20/children-snow/
“I’m actually very open-minded on climate change.”
How open is your mind to accepting that this guy’s prediction - a guy who is “senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia” - is totally out to lunch?
“A blast from the past, all the way back to the year 2010 …”
Correction: Make that the year 2000, March of 2000.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that he is wrong. One should look at the political affiliation of the scientist’s research funding source before deciding.
This weeks RageGauge® reading is…..
http://goo.gl/44IHDM
Two words.
President Trump
Mr. Trump,
I emailed a campaign slogan to your website you might consider.
Donald Trump. A superb statesman with a squad of sexy strumpets.
By the way…. your signs are everywhere.
your signs are everywhere.
in FL.
MD, NY, CT, NJ, PA, MA.
Everywhere Liberace.
This post is clearly a fraud. Not only is The Donald too busy to post here, but he is obviously bright enough to come up with something less moronic.
Trump supporters who secretly desire another Clinton presidency RAISE YOUR HANDS.
Trump or the Clintons (again).
Given these two alternatives, it’s proof positive that the political system in this country is effed up in every way possible.
Say what you will about Bernie Sanders, he seems to have the virtue of not being a total scumbag
Somebody that wants to confiscate and hand out all my money to the lazy qualifies as a scumbag in my book.
+1
You know it’s getting ugly when the bad news flows from CNNMoney instead of just ZeroHedge….
http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/08/investing/stocks-market-falling-apart-jeff-gundlach/index.html?iid=hp-stack-intl
Copper, aluminum and steel collapse to crisis levels….
http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/09/investing/oil-prices-metals-crash-crisis-levels/index.html?iid=hp-toplead-intl
Thanks for offering something other than the Bulgaria Channel.
Nesebar is gorgeous this time of year…
The data is the data irrespective of who reports it my friend.
Your definition of “data” are scraps of information, valid or not, that reinforces already held opinions.
You just defined the data as CNN. Which is the same data ZH reports.
Get yourself together.
I remembered why we should watch those crafty guys at ZH:
‘I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.’
‘It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids, without the knowledge of the individual, certainly without any choice. That’s the way a hard-core Commie works.’
http://www.moviequotes.com/repository.cgi?pg=3&tt=45512
Here’s some more:
‘Mr. President, I’m not saying we won’t get our hair mussed. I do say, no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops! Depending on the breaks.’
‘…100 dollars in gold, 9 packs of chewin’ gum, 1 issue of prophylactics, 3 lipsticks, 3 pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a feller could have a pretty good time in Vegas with all that stuff!’
‘Wouldn’t they become so greif strif stricken that they would not want to go on? DR. Stranglove) No sir, they would be down in the mines, they would have no shocking memories. The prevaling emotion would be one of nostalga for those left behind, combined with a bold coriosity for the adventure ahead! AhaaaH! (his arm goes into a stiff nazi salute he yanks his arm down and beats it).’
” I, uh, I do not avoid women, Mandrake. But I…I do deny them my essence.”
From CNN Money…
“It’s getting harder and harder to make money,” he says.
But for some reason it’s super easy to borrow it!
I was watching the biography of Walt Disney on PBS a week or so ago.
I found it interesting when they were telling the story of how the unions came to the studio in the late 30s/early 40s.
Did Disney consider that maybe the reason people tried to organize was because of unfair pay, favoratism, and unchecked dictatorial power wielded by himself?
Nope. It was all a “communist conspiracy”, meant to steal money from the “producers”.
IOW, the “commie threat” scenario has been part of the playbook for a long time.
One has to wonder why, if the capitalist system is so great in this country, are any signs of “communism” met with jail and kneejerk threats by the PTB? If capitalism was such a universal good, why do it’s advocates feel that communism/socialism need to be eradicated?
You would think that capitalism, being all about “competition”, wouldn’t mind having to compete against communism or socialism in the market of public discourse, or development of government policy.
In fact, it seems that capitalism advocates are willing to destroy government at all levels, rather than see “socialist” policies win.
X-GSfixr,
You scrimp and save for a lifetime. You have a vision.
You start an aircraft maintenance business.
You run it the way you think it should be run. You hire the people who you want. You fire the people who you want. You have your managers run it the way you want it run. You buy the right equipment.
You take risks. Massive risks with your life savings. But you have a dream.
After working 120+ hour weeks for years and never taking a vacation - your business starts to grow. You almost went bankrupt a few times and lost it all. But you made it.
Now things are going your way, Your clients appreciate your focus on quality and never, ever skirting the rules. They now pay top dollar for your reputation and work eithic.
And NOW some organization wants to come in and tell YOU how to run your business. Who to hire. Who to fire. What to pay them. How to inspect. How to run your shop. And take and take and take and always expecting you to take all the risks.
And you are not going get upset at that?
Oh wait - you never did any of that.
There is a reason why socialist/communist societies build walls to keep people IN and why free/capitalistic societies build walls to keep people OUT.
Yeah, government tells me how I need to do things. Which is fine with me, because they want me to do things the right way, instead of corner-cutting, then bitching about “”over regulation”
Funny how it works. When you demonstrate that you are doing things the “right way”, the government guys tend to not bother you very much.
My biggest problem is dealing with people who don’t want to pay me what I’m “worth”. Die-hard Republican Mitt Romney wanna-bes every one. I’ve got no time to waste on them.
My biggest problem is dealing with people who don’t want to pay me what I’m “worth”.
Saved.
Funny how you won’t start your own business. Deal with the unions, government and taxes. Plus actually trying to win clients.
Much easier to demand someone else “pay you what you are worth”
“deserves got nuthin’ to do with it”
– Unforgiven
I have my own little 1099 on the side. I also help set up qualified guys to be 1099s for airplanes I dont have experience on, for contract work, or for filling positions when people are out of town.
Unlike the new wave of “aircraft management companies”, whose business plan is to act as a paid go-between for owners and techs, I don’t charge any money for this service.
So you could say I’m getting paid what I’m worth.
He isn’t demanding anything. He said that if they won’t pay him what he thinks he worth, then he declines their business. Being that he keeps himself busy as an independent contractor, I’d say that he has no problem “winning clients”. He was just pointing out that the Sam Brownback/Mitt Romney types are the ones most likely to lowball you and that he’d rather not do business with them.
And when it comes to aircraft maintenance, you’re darn tootin’ right that I expect there to be “outside standards” to be met. It’s my butt that sits in that airliner seat, and its the only one I have. I don’t want to fly on an airliner that’s been worked on by the lowest bidder and especially not by someone who will cut corners.
Double post?
As noted previously, I do 1099 work on the side. All by word of mouth. I don’t have to solicit work, my customers find me.
Sometimes I”m too busy to deal with certain people.
In fact, I’m thinking about forgoing the 1099 stuff entirely. For a variety of reasons, mainly to do with risk/hassle/rewards ratios. Too many suddenly broke airplanes on weekend/holiday afternoons.
There is a reason why socialist/communist societies build walls to keep people IN and why free/capitalistic societies build walls to keep people OUT.
You’re just confirming his point when you use all those words ending in -ist and -ism. However, this argument may not work the way that you think it will. If you convince people that having strong unions is the same as communism, they may conclude that communism is desirable.
To be fair to Uncle Walt, when he opened Disneyland, he paid the people who worked there a living wage; today’s management pays the non union staff little more than minimum wage. I remember when I was in college in the early 80’s. My roommate scored a summer job at Disneyland, busing tables at the now defunct Tahitian Terrace restaurant. He was paid about $8/hr, back when minimum wage was $3.35.
Of course, back then, paying a living wage was “usual and customary” and that train left the station a long time ago.
And if wages inflated to your pre-determined levels, prices would double again. Question;
Do you really think wages are going to double to meet grossly inflated prices?
Of course not. Fixed, rigged grossly inflated prices will continue falling to dramatically lower and more affordable levels meeting wages. Of course that is when the economy will accelerate like you’ve never seen.
Check out this PBS show if you get a chance.
Walt set up a “company store” in Burbank, then got upset when the serfs showed their ingratitude by forming a union, so they could negotiate pay scales where they didn’t have to make “heat or food” decisions.
Make sure you hear the recordings of Walt hisself. Any complaints from the serfs were obviously “inspired by commies”. A 1940s version of the “47% are takers” speech.
I’ve come to the conclusion that any discussion by the wretched refuse in adjusting pay ratios upwards for working stiffs is automatically “commie talk” to some of the business owning class.
Usually, the same guys complaining about not being able to find “qualified help”
Usually, the same guys complaining about not being able to find “qualified help”
I don’t know about the Burbank studio, but I remember back in the old days when the staff at Disneyland was top notch: well groomed, cheerful, polite, well spoken and very helpful. Fast forward to the present, and it’s more than obvious that is no longer the case. That said, Disney’s theme park business is VERY profitable.Ticket prices rise every year at a rate higher than inflation.
Actually, the -fixr is looking forward to several years of Trump in the White House, and the Congress run by clones of Sam Brownback.
US Americans will finally get to experience the “government run like a business” fantasy they have been dreaming of.
Doesn’t he have a nice plane though ?
I have a fun idea…How about a Pulp Fiction, Airplane, Blazing Saddles, 48 Hours and Trading Places movie marathon on all college campi? No trigger warnings and no safe spaces.
See also the films of Todd Solondz:
http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0001754/
How many days before Lola is placed back in his RageCage. Or is it hours?
Must already be in it again. I’ve tossed out some enragers that he hasn’t responded to.
Republicans are bitching about the idea of “free college”
We actually used to have a program like that, back in the 1940s. It was called the “GI Bill”. Existed thru the Vietnam War. I know lots of guys who got their pilots licenses that way.
At the time, it seemed like a win-win. But that was back in the days when US companies hired US Americans, instead of outsourcing and H-1bs.
Germany has free college education. Somehow they can afford it and American can’t.
It also helped that college was much cheaper back then. I remember back in early 80’s that a quarter at UC was about $400, and a semester at a Cal State campus was even less. And SoCal JC’s where practically free.
Now we have kids graduating from State U’s with 30K of debt and heaven help them if they went to a private college.
A big share of private college funding is parent based funding and endowments.
My cousins came from modest backgrounds, and they all went to
a UC almost free back in the 1960’s in So Ca. Ca had a role model system back then.
JC’s were dirt cheap in the 90’s. A Pell Grant would cover 18 units with spare change for books, and even clothing. Transferring into a 4 yr was never a cash drain either. Higher ed is FUBAR.
“they all went to a UC almost free”
For you Free-$hitters Its all about getting it for free while someone else pays for it.
Like my old man, he was too cheap to do things right, but never minded paying 3x to do things over.
For starters, how much tax revenue did those millions of college grads generate over a lifetime, vs what they would have made as uneducated laborers?
Take a look at all of the WWII vets who subsequently suceeded in business. Tons of them have resumes/wikis that say something like “after the war, went to college on the GI Bill”
Some say that our post WW II economy was due to being the “only economy standing”. I think it had just as much to do with all of the recently minted college grads, who would never have gone to school had the Republican endorsed bootstrap plan of the 1930s remained in effect.
The GI Bill was pretty much ended circa 1973-75. Which coincides with the start of the continuing slide of the US into mediocrity. I’m of the opinion that it isn’t a coincidence.
I know. Everyone is entitled to free stuff so long as someone else pays.
My engineering tuition was $300 a semester in the 70s.
As was mine - in the 70s.
anything gov subsidizes balloons
hc
housing
college
poor folk
College was nearly free in the 1940 (state) and private colleges were not that expensive.
Then government got involved to make things “fair”
The same for housing.
The same for health care.
Maybe you can see a pattern…
They never see government as the problem. They only see it as a solution. Then their solution generates even more distortions and the government again is the solution to problem it created.
That’s how the Free $hit Army rolls…
What I don’t understand is why there’s no uproar about k-12 education being free. Millions of little crumb snatchers getting free stuff every day!
You want DaddyState from cradle to grave.
Are you kidding? There are plenty of people who want to abolish state provided K-12.
Are they making a qualified uproar?
Brazil, Zimbabwe or California. Distinctions without a difference.
“Inflation Soars To 12-Year High In Brazil As Supreme Court Jumps Into Impeachment Fight”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-09/inflation-soars-12-year-high-brazil-supreme-court-jumps-impeachment-fight
Ive repeatedly recounted problems that I’m seeing in my little niche of the business world. And talking with others, I’m utterly convinced it a nationwide, business wide issue.
For 25-35 years, business owners have played the system and the systemic advantages to cut the pay of the average working stiff. Now as Bomber Harris said, “they have sown the wind……..let them reap the whirlwind”.
Almost every day now, I’m hearing stories about contracts not signed, projects not being worked, and balls being dropped because of a “shortage of qualified people”
(Latest to hit the circuit……..airplanes delayed because the airport ran out of jet fuel. Why? “The trucking company hauling the fuel is having problems finding drivers with HazMat endorsements”)
Which illustrates the problem. All labor is considered unskilled labor. Aircraft mechanics with 20-30 years experience are lumped in with 18 year olds working at Jiffy Lube. Truck drivers with Hazmat endorsements are treated the same as pizza delivery drivers. And their payscales have been managed accordingly.
For years, the formula has been “employee takes on more responsibility and risk, with very little reward”. For more jobs I can name, you have reached the point where the prospective worker is asking themselves “why deal with the hours/risks/hassles of job “A”, when job “B” pays the same, with none of the risks/hassles?”
Every airplane shop in the country is bitching about “shortages of skilled help”. They created the problem , with short sighted management decisions. Now they want to form “public-private partnerships” to address the problem. Meaning that they want government to spend the money on training employees, so they don’t have to.
“shortage of qualified people”
Of which I am one. Praise Jesus!
Couple this shortage with the implementation of Six Sigma and - presto! - I find myself at where I work in the position of … the position of being the SHOTCALLER!
The bosses are burdened with the responsibility of getting the job done and I at the same time I am blessed with the capability of getting the job done which means I GET TO CALL THE SHOTS.
I like it, I love it, I want some more of it.
The bosses are the bosses in name only.
I’ve seen too many bosses fire “indispensable” and “hard to replace” people simply to show the staff that they are still “in charge”.
“I’ve seen too many bosses fire “indispensable” and “hard to replace” people simply to show the staff that they are still “in charge”.”
It helps that the bosses really are in charge but with Six Sigma supposedly running things they, the bosses, aren’t.
Six Sigma……LOL
My former enployer lost a division vice president (rumor says) because he got in a fist fight and beat up a Corporate HQ “Six Sigma” guy. (”He was effing with the guy……because he can.”)
I too am finding myself involved in making more decisions than wrench turning. Especially with decisions regarding the ATC NextGen and FANS-1A / CPDLC stuff.
Bingo. And this same thing is happening in every sector of our economy. I’ve been in engineering now for 25 years and I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody. Go to business school, get an MBA, and start rakin’ it in . . .
My friend is an auto mechanic with 25 years’ worth of experience. Does he get appreciated or paid for that experience? Heck no! He doesn’t get any of the “gravy” work in the shop (the no-thinking jobs that are easy to do faster than book time and thus very profitable) - no, he gets all of the cars that nobody else can diagnose/fix, and when you are paid flat-rate, you end up making crap wages as the shop decides what you get paid, regardless of how much time it took you to do the repair.
In the tech sector: massive H1B immigration in the tech sector to keep wages low (relatively speaking). Great pay for young single techies willing to put in 80 hours per week, but when they reach middle-age, are married homeowners with kids in school, and try to work a “normal” work week, they get unceremoniously dumped, for the 25-year-younger, cheaper new workers. Rinse, lather, repeat. Lawyer Bill Gates Sr. (who hired Jack Abramoff to do the dirty work for him and also took the fall for it) really opened up the H1B floodgates for his darling son Bill Jr.
“Go to business school, get an MBA, and start rakin’ it in . . .”
It only works if you go to one of the “right” B-schools. An MBA from 90% of schools out there is pretty much worthless.
“The Default Cycle Is Now Unavoidable”: How The ‘Junk’ Cancer Spread To The Entire High Yield Space
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-09/default-cycle-now-unavoidable-how-junk-cancer-spread-entire-high-yield-space
Tens of millions of junk mortgages and auto loans.
Too late to exit.
Well, I have just one thing to say to all you Trump-bashers out there:
Nanny, nanny, boo-boo. Stick your face in doo-doo.
And no backsies.
How can anyone really think Trump will be good for America? How can you spend all that money on a wall and wars and still cut taxes? please explain.
Wow, we really have two evils to chose from this time.
3rd grade math is HARD:
2014 Federal Spending:
Entitlements: 60%
Defense: 17%
Discretionary: 17%
Interest: 6%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#/media/File:U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2011.png
It just illustrates my point.
Government gets handed the bill for everything that capitalists want, but don’t feel the need or desire to pay for.
Or can’t make a profit from.
3rd grade math is HARD:
2014 Federal Spending:
Entitlements: 60%
Defense: 17%
Discretionary: 17%
Interest: 6%
What does this have to do with CalifoH20’s question?
Nothing at all. It’s just one of banana’s favorite non-sequiturs.
Another question is what does it have to with 3rd grade math?
How can you spend all that money on a wall and wars and still cut taxes?
Ask war president obama how he did it.
“Nanny, nanny, boo-boo. Stick your face in doo-doo.”
And here we have the very essence of Trump support.
I expect fits, conspiracies, finger pointing, and pouting when he inevitably loses.
Mark this post. In on year the tears may be too deep to find it.
How will you DaddyState free-$hitters bring yourself to utter the words “President Trump”?
The regular folk in the UK LOVE Trump and say he speaks the truth. They want him for Prime Minister! Read the comments, they’re priceless!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3352406/Scotland-Yard-mocks-Trump-s-claims-London-police-terrified-Muslim-areas-officers-claim-tycoon-RIGHT.html#reader-comments
Booyah! Double down Donald!
The regular folk? The ones that can’t string together a coherent sentence? I bet they do. Stupid and Certain seeks Stupid and Certain.
None of the urban ghetto dwellers are interested in Trump.
“This is a must watch, share it widely. Mark Steyn demolishes the “science is settled” meme in the Senate hearing yesterday. His ability to argue effectively on the fly is very impressive.”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/12/09/mark-steyn-rebukes-democrats-in-climate-hearing-youre-effectively-enforcing-a-state-ideology/
Here’s an interesting report. Though it fails to mention a noteworthy fact, which is that Mark Steyn is a foreigner from the land that Ted Cruz was born in. I’ve heard his show, but the way that he ties together the denialism with his Islamophobia is reminiscent of the stream of consciousness rants that you get from Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
Ted Cruz Invited A Right-Wing Radio Host To Testify On Climate Science And He Gave This Insane Rant
At a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Mark Steyn, a conservative writer and pundit, dismissed the threat of climate change and said that related concerns about national security were “ridiculous.” In a two-minute rant, Steyn appeared to make the argument that saving low-lying islands isn’t a priority, because displaced Muslims can simply move to radicalized neighborhoods in Europe.
“We are planning now for global security threats a century hence, because the Maldives might have been swept away by water by then,” Steyn said. “The entire population of the Maldives are Sunni Muslim, so they will fit in perfectly fine if they all move to this Brussels suburb that produced the shooters in Paris.”
Steyn did not embellish on why the religion of Maldive Islanders — who are predominantly Sunni Muslim — was relevant, but it is worth nothing that the United States is currently undergoing a significant rise in Islamophobia, following the Parisian attack by ISIS and a mass shooting in Southern California by a reportedly self-radicalized Muslim couple. Cruz’s fellow Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the United States. (Cruz commended Trump for bringing the issue up.)
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/12/09/3729959/mark-steyn-said-some-weird-things-at-this-hearing/
Speaking of the Nanny state - Illannoy has this title by a long shot…..
and Mikey MadAgain is at it again…..
My friends here wonder why I am leaving this coming summer. Sheesh!!!
CHICAGO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan said on Wednesday that the state’s individual income tax rate may have to go back up to 5 percent to deal with the state’s financial woes.
“A good place to start would be the level we were at before the income tax expired,” he told a big crowd at a City Club of Chicago event. The Chicago Democrat has long been regarded as one of the most powerful politicians in the state.
The Democratic-controlled legislature temporarily lifted the income tax rate to 5 percent in 2011 and allowed it to drop to 3.75 percent as scheduled last Jan. 1. The lower rate put a hole in Illinois’ fiscal 2015 budget and made it harder to craft a balanced budget for fiscal 2016.
The fifth-biggest U.S. state still lacks a budget for fiscal 2016, which began on July 1, due to a political impasse between the Republican governor and Democratic state lawmakers.
In his speech, Madigan returned to his familiar themes that the state’s No. 1 problem is its budget deficit and that Governor Bruce Rauner is acting in the “extreme” by interjecting nonbudget items into negotiations.
Rauner has said he would entertain a tax increase, but has tied the move to his so-called turnaround agenda, which includes legislative term limits, collective bargaining curbs, and workers’ compensation changes. Madigan told reporters after his speech that any tax increase would need bipartisan support to pass.
Since the budget stalemate began, various court orders and appropriations have kept money flowing to state workers and for some services, pensions and bond payments. The only budget bill signed by the governor funded primary and secondary public schools.
The governor on Monday signed into law a bill to send $3.1 billion to local governments, lottery winners and others.
Madigan said there is still $6 billion of “traditional” spending on social services and other programs that remains unfunded.
Legislative leaders met on Tuesday with Rauner over the budget for a second time this month, but reported little progress.
“In a matter like this, progress is going to happen in small steps,” Madigan told reporters. (Editing by Matthew Lewis)
With their definition of “progress” being ever-increasing taxes.
Heh, stuff’s getting real in Chi-town, that’s for sure. Mob in the street calling for Rahm’s head. McCarthy must be laughing his butt off, after Rahm threw him under the bus, hoping it would appease the mob.
The mob here grows by the day - differing forms of mob with differing issues. You have the black lives matter folk doing sit ins and marching outside City Hall…demanding that Rummy’s head rolls.
There is a great site on the web here….. http://www.upstream-ideas.com/ideas/illinois-rising-dan-proft-pat-hughes-discuss-the-budget-in-chicago-and-illinois-and-more/
This discusses the issues all over the state and in Chicago. What a f…ing mess this whole thing is. I can only listen to x amount before I get so….depressed I have to turn it off.
Illinois is not alone, rj. You don’t hear much about Connecticut, but it’s right behind ya. Malloy is a complete pandering Demmie idjit. And in other news, the city of Bridgeport in CT just elected a felon who served time, as mayor. No surprise there, he’s just a reflection of the population that elected him.
Marketwatch dot com
America’s middle class has lost nearly 30% of wealth
Published: Dec 9, 2015 4:02 p.m. ET
There are now more middle-income families — with less of the country’s wealth
By Quentin Fottrell
News editor
Everett Collection
There’s more of us, but our net worth is shrinking.
The rich are getting richer and those in the middle class are getting poorer.
More American households make up the middle class than 40 years ago, yet they comprise a smaller share of overall wealth. In early 2015, there were 120.8 million adults in middle-income households versus 70.3 million in lower-income and 51 million in upper-income households, according to a new analysis of government data by the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.
However, the share of income held by middle-income families has plunged to 43% of households in 2015 versus 62% in 1971; lower-income households have remained stable (at around 9% in 2015) while the share of income held by upper-income households has surged to 49% in 2015 from 29% in 1971. (The demographic and income data were derived from the government’s nationwide and nationally representative “Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements” (or ASEC), which serves the basis for the U.S. Census Bureau reports on income and poverty.)
“The hollowing of the American middle class has proceeded steadily for more than four decades since 1971,” researchers Richard Fry and Rakesh Kochhar wrote. “Each decade has ended with a smaller share of adults living in middle-income households than at the beginning of the decade, and no single decade stands out as having triggered or hastened the decline in the middle.” That said, the last 15 years have been particularly brutal for the middle class: In 2014, the median income of these households was 4% less than it was in 2000. What’s more, their median wealth — that is, their assets minus their debts— fell by 28% from 2001 to 2013, due in part to the housing market crisis and the Great Recession of 2008.
…
Furore in Israel as Trump to be hosted by Netanyahu after remarks on Muslims
ERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli politicians of all persuasions called on Wednesday for a planned visit by U.S. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump to be blocked over his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, which has raised an international outcry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement later saying he rejected the remarks but added that the visit, set two weeks ago, would go ahead as planned and did not indicate support for Trump.
A government official said Netanyahu and Trump would meet on Dec. 28.
“The prime minister rejects the recent comments by Donald Trump with regard to Muslims. Israel respects all religions and diligently guards the rights of all its citizens,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
It added that the Israeli leader had determined a uniform policy towards meeting all U.S. presidential candidates from both parties who visit Israel.
“This policy does not reflect support for the candidates or for their platforms, rather, it expresses the importance that the prime minister ascribes to the strong alliance between Israel and the United States,” the statement added.
At least 37 mainly Israeli opposition legislators who make up almost a third of the 120-seat Knesset signed a letter to Netanyahu calling on him to cancel the meeting unless Trump withdraws his comments.
http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-silent-israelis-sour-planned-trump-visit-110908621.html
“How Hillary Clinton Abused Her State Department Role To Help Her Hedge Funder Son-In-Law”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-09/how-hillary-clinton-abused-her-state-department-role-help-her-hedge-funder-son-law
$$$
FORMER ADVISERS TO OBAMA:
MORE U.S. GROUND FORCES NEEDED TO DEFEAT ISLAMIC STATE
RETIRED ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: ‘YOU’VE GOT TO ATTACK THEM ON SEVERAL FRONTS AND WE’RE NOT DOING IT’
and my barber says I need more haircuts and my pool cleaner wants more hours and the the list is long of people wanting my $$$$$
Repost, because nobody was listening:
Traffic - Shouldn’t have took more than you gave (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JweZ_wzmifw
Todd Rundgren - When The Shit Hits The Fan (Sunset Blvd.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8qv6DvI3eQ
And yes, there is more…
the Grateful Dead - Eyes Of The World (April 26, 1977)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBj7igoatWY
I hate to break the news to you folks but interest rates are not going to normalize in your lifetime.
The debt party of the past 8 years has basically made it impossible for rates to go up.
All of you betting on rising rates will lose your @ass.
All of you who bought or are buying houses will lose your @ass. It’s already happening.
Houses are overpriced echo chambers and if you are right, they will remain overpriced echo chambers.
Renting is freedom and far less expensive than owning.
Tyler has it wrong: many people over the age of 40 now realize loan ownership does not make sense and renting means freedom and mobility.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-09/americas-road-serfdom-51-renters-are-over-40-years-old
How’s that hope ‘n change workin’ out for ya, ‘Murica?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americas-middle-class-has-lost-nearly-30-of-wealth-2015-12-09
Which suits you best?
1. President Trump
2. President Clinton
3. Leave the country
4. Ignoring 1 or 2, and staying in the country.
+1.
That’s honestly where I am, too. And I’ve been there for years and years…
Is Trump the Death Eater of Republican Party politics?