Bits Bucket for December 12, 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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Irving, TX Housing Craters; Prices Tailspin 12% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/irving-tx/market-trends/
I enjoyed -fixr’s long quote to start the bits bucket a few days ago. This one doesn’t compare to that, but it’s about housing, and it’s got a little punch to it.
Apollonius of Tyana lived in the 1st century AD; his Life was written by Philostratus in the 3rd century. From Book V, Chapter xxii:
It happened that a young man was building a house in Rhodes who was a nouveau riche without any education, and he collected in his house rare pictures and gems from different countries. Apollonius then asked him how much money he had spent upon teachers and education. “Not a farthing,” he replied. “And how much upon your house?” “Twelve talents,” he replied, “and I mean to spend as much again upon it.” “And what,” said the other, “is the good of your house to you?” “Why, as a residence, it is splendidly suited to my bodily training, for there are colonnades in it and groves, and I shall seldom need to walk out into the market place, but people will come in and talk to me with all the more pleasure, just as if they were visiting a temple.” “And,” said Apollonius, “are men to be valued more for themselves or for their belongings?” “For their wealth,” said the other, “for wealth has the most influence.” “And,” said Apollonius, “my good youth, which is the best able to keep his money, an educated person or an uneducated?” And as the other made no answer, he added: “My good boy, it seems to me that it is not you that own the house, but the house rather that owns you. As for myself I would far rather enter a temple, no matter how small, and behold in it a statue of ivory and gold, than behold one of pottery and bad workmanship in a vastly larger one.”
And behold fake styrafoam stucco and floor beams on 24 inch centers…
“Education” that doesn’t lead to a good paying job, a worthless conceit of the rich and a fool’s game being sold by hucksters to the middle class. Borrow your ass into the grave.
Libraries are free.
“Libraries are free.”
There it is. An intelligent, gifted person may spend most of his life acquiring valuable knowledge and experiences and then spend thousands of hours formatting and condensing this knowledge and experiences into a readable book which means all one has to do to tap into this person’s formatted and condensed knowledge and experience is to go to the library and check out the book. For free.
Such a deal.
Saw a story the other day about a library nearby who checked out items such as sewing machines.
The free knowledge I get from Internet sites for engineering, like StackOverflow, has helped me learn useful skills for more software projects. I also contribute my knowledge to StackOverlow and other open source users groups.
Open source is the way to go.
This stuff makes engineers sharper and able to push the envelope on technology.
It’s been about 18 years since I was sent to a classroom environment for software skills for my job. In fact, with internet I immediately try new things in the practical world.
Libraries are turning into hangouts for the homeless and places for single moms to dump their feral spawn while they go smoke week or hang out with friends.
I can remember as a small child some 35+ years ago being scared of the mentally ill homeless at the public library. I think they’ve always gone there.
Libraries are free.
Libraries are socialist.
“Libraries are socialist.”
That they are.
I thought they were philanthropic providers of public goods?
Socialism is generally more about distributing one group’s private wealth to others.
Wiki …
“Socialism is a social and economic system characterised by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production, as well as a political theory and movement that aims at the establishment of such a system. “Social ownership” may refer to public ownership, cooperative ownership, citizen ownership of equity, or any combination of these. Although there are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them, social ownership is the common element shared by its various forms.”
An important part of the definition, IMO:
“Although there are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them, social ownership is the common element shared by its various forms.”
“No single definition” creates a lot of arguments among those who choose to have different definitions of the term.
Such is a weakness of using labels.
Such is a weakness of the Lolas
philanthropic providers of public goods
Is health care a public good?
You’re just trying to get your crazy meds free
Is health care a public good?
Yes. How could the health of the public not be a public good?
Is health care a public good?
by Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/08/is-health-care-a-public-good.html
…..Medical services are not an ordinary commodity but more like a “public good” which should be financed using a regulated public utility model.
A “public good” is a product or service which benefits everyone in the community. Public goods are characterized by: (1) value that has benefit to the community as a whole beyond any purchase price paid, (2) often requiring large initial investment costs that are generally too expensive for any individual or private corporation to afford and earn a reasonable return, (3) requiring a higher level of administration than any individual or company can arrange and (4) having value that accrues over time and is difficult to price properly. Public goods have “externalities,” that is, value that accrues to people who benefit by other’s consumption of them without paying for it themselves.
It is crucial to know the epidemiology of medical expenses. In fact, 1% of the total population consumes 25% of medical care (by cost), 5% of the population consumes 49% and 50% of the population consumes only 3% of medical care by cost. Since relatively few people incur rare, huge, often catastrophic costs on a largely unexpected basis, pooling of risk is necessary. And the bigger the insurance pool is, the better it functions economically.
By definition “public goods” are not well distributed by market mechanisms. Americans are very accepting of some public goods, i.e. police and fire departments, national military forces, the GPS system, water distribution and sewage treatment plants, education, radio frequencies and the internet. Looked at from an economic and a public policy perspective, health services are the epitome of a “public good.” This is what is meant by the phrase “Health Care is A Human Right!” Hospitals, ambulance systems, mosquito control, TB control, restaurant inspections, sanitation, and vaccines are all good examples.
…These economic concepts provide an important insight into why the last 40 years have failed to provide adequate medical services through a commercial market. Thus we can say that those contemporary proposed solutions for health reform which mandate (subsidized) buying into the fragmented commercial health insurance based system are likely to be intolerably expensive, economically inefficient, and, in the end, not solutions to the problem.
In my opinion the only real solution is a government run, universal care, single-payer, public utility type financing of medical services. This is not socialized medicine (like the VA system). The government will not own hospitals, nor put physicians on salary. I will have 10 per cent more time to see sick people. I will be able to lower my office overhead by 20 per cent. And no patient will be worrying about how they will pay for their care or medicines.
Jeoffry B. Gordon is a family physician.
Health care is mostly a private good, unless we’re talking about cholera and such.
But community immunization programs (public health) are way cheaper than physician office visits (private health services).
community immunization programs
…are socialist, too.
Health care is mostly a private good, unless you’re over 65, or in the military, or work for the government, or work for a publicly traded company, or work for a large private company with pooled risk, or on medicaid, or are uninsured and get sick or injured with the public to pick up the bill.
+1, PB.
Even cholera is much more about clean water (e.g. sewage sanitation) than about health care services. I do consider clean water and sewage sanitation a public good, though.
Immunization is a clear public good; we all benefit from someone else not spreading contagion about. Even things that can’t be immunized against, such as TB: public good, as there is a huge public benefit in containing it.
Almost everything else in health care is a private good, though.
One of the challenges of arguing about whether costs should be spread more broadly or not is that some health-care costs truly look like risk-sharing, and some do not. Some health-care costs are clearly self-inflicted wounds (e.g. dying slowly from a lifetime of smoking is expensive; dying slowly from obesity-induced diabetes is expensive; etc).
Thanks for commenting. Sometimes I read something that reminds me of the old saying “History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes”.
The Goon has arrived in Florida, narrative to follow…
Zillow predicting 6+% for most of FL
ZILLOW!
Zillow is making me rich! Zillow says the value of my house increase by $10,677 …
That’s $10,677!
… over the past thirty days.
And all I have been doing to the house is living in it. A miracle.
I must be … I must be a … a financial genius.
“… a financial genius.”
Or maybe it’s because others are just plain stupid.
Are you going to feast on the carcases of dying housing speculators?
“Are you going to feast on the carcases of dying housing speculators?”
Yes, as much and as often as I can, as I do with all dying financial carcases.
“The Goon has arrived in Florida, narrative to follow”
Smell those shrimp they’re beginnin’ to boil.
Now don’t get wasted away again in Margaritaville.
I have not visited this Region in three years, and am already noticing the differences. Going to Miami next week.
Let me know if you get near North Palm next week.
I will buy you a lunch at the Brass Ring, best burger in town.
I could do this next Tuesday 12/15. Ben Jones you have my permission to give phony my email and phone number.
The HBB again proves that hospitality even extends across Regional boundaries. And I always try to fulfill my role as an ambassador of Region VIII when in another Region.
I’m going to St augustine in two mondays to spend time with brother and to look for a beach or marsh home! I will need your help if i find something to buy!
I will need your help if i find something to buy!
Heh! I’m sure phony will be happy to come over from the Atlantic coast and help you move your sleeper sofa in.
Up the Atlantic coast.
I enjoyed St. Augustine a few yrs ago. Miami was gross, i felt safer in Columbia.
Redneck Florida, Cuban Florida or old people Florida?
I prefer redneck FL myself.
Florida’s panhandle- the Redneck Riviera.
Salon dot com rallies the base with the following anti-Trump narrative:
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/11/protesters_take_it_to_donald_trump_hundreds_rally_outside_trump_tower_in_nyc_to_slam_his_hate_speech_and_welcome_refugees/
Why didn’t they just call it what it was: An undercover Hillary Clinton campaign rally?
I don’t think the Hilary campaign is rallying against trump I would think they would want him to win the nomination…
This blog proves otherwise
Americans support Sanders over Trump, even with 1/10th of the free Trump TV coverage.
Fear not: More Americans support Bernie Sanders than Donald Trump — no matter what TV says
https://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/fear-not-more-americans-support-bernie-sanders-than-donald-trump-no-matter-what-tv-says/
As the Donald Trump campaign turns from farce to tribulation, it’s worth noting that millions more Americans support Bernie Sanders than the Republican frontrunner.
Trump’s level of national support is 30.4 percent of GOP primary voters, according to the average calculated by Real Clear Politics, while Sanders remains in second place among Democratic primary voters with a 30.8 percent average level of support.
However, as the Philadelphia Daily News‘ Will Bunch points out — there are considerably more Democrats than Republicans.
The most recent Pew poll shows 32 percent of Americans identify themselves as Democrats, compared to 23 percent who describe themselves as Republicans — so that suggests far more people support Sanders than Trump, based on party identity and both candidates’ levels of national support.
I’m still p*ssed at Anderson Cooper for his opening question to Sanders at the heavily watched first Democratic debate. To paraphrase, Cooper said, more or less: “Sanders, why the hell are you running, you’re a Socialist and everybody knows America won’t elect a Socialist.” Cooper, with that question, just cemented into the minds of any viewers on the fence that Sanders Is Unelectable.
“Cooper, with that question, just cemented into the minds of any viewers on the fence that Sanders Is Unelectable.”
Wow, what enormous power that Cooper guy has.
Cooper himself, no. Are you suggesting the mainstream media has little power to shape the public’s opinions?
More on Anderson Cooper: who pays his paycheck? Time Warner owns CNN. Who is a top recipient of Time Warner’s campaign contributions? The DNC. Who is the DNC’s top candidate? Not the senator from Vermont…
Anyone who doesn’t know that CNN and the rest of the captured media are propaganda outlets and agents of influence for the Oligopoly hasn’t been paying attention.
First you say: “Cooper, with that question, just cemented into the minds of any viewers on the fence that Sanders Is Unelectable.”
Then you say: “Cooper himself, no.”
So, which is it? Does Cooper have the power or doesn’t he?
cemented into the minds of any viewers on the fence that Sanders Is Unelectable.
As of today, it looks like Sanders would beat Trump easier than Clinton would beat Trump. Trump’s retro-vision of America has faded tone and tint.
Bernie Sanders 49.1%
Donald Trump 43.3%
Hillary Clinton 47.5%
Donald Trump 43.5%
Karl Rove: Donald Trump Would Get ‘Creamed’ Up Against Hillary Clinton
The conservative called Donald Trump a “dream candidate” for the Democratic Party.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-karl-rove_566c34e2e4b0e292150e19b7?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
Cooper himself no, if he wants to stay employed. See my followup above, the CNN-Time Warner-DNC link says it all, if you care to connect the dots.
As of today, it looks like Sanders would beat Trump easier than Clinton would beat Trump.
That’s great Rio but Sanders is down 55-31 in primary matchups according to the HuffPo poll tracker.
Sanders is down 55-31 in primary matchups
Bernie Sanders 49.1%
Donald Trump 43.3%
It’s more a comment on Sanders’ vision appealing to more Americans than does Trump’s. But we don’t hear much about it.
Hillary is a machine that unfortunately Sanders will have a tough time overcoming imo.
With an estimated share of popular support below ten percent, Trump has to be one of Hillary’s top picks for Republican candidate.
If Trump gets the nom or goes third party, who would his VP choice be?
My money is on Palin.
“My money is on Palin.”
She does seem like The Donald’s type, though it would be much better if she were blonde.
Wall Street Journal article reports on loanowners in Denver who live in a 3,600 square foot house on a 1/10 of an acre lot:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/as-yards-shrink-neighbors-feel-the-squeeze-1449863869
When your options are to live like this, or to drive until you qualify, I’d rather keep renting until I leave Denver sometime within the next decade.
until I leave Denver sometime within the next decade ??
And go where ??
Rallying the base
Huffington Post reports on arson at a mosque in Southern California:
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/566b7d74e4b011b83a6b6c96
“If he is terrorizing the terrorists, if he is terrorizing America the terrorist [...] I am with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist.”
― Zakir Naik
Are you a supporter of bigots?
The whole point of bombing and droning of the Muslims is because we believe they are inferior to us, isn’t it?
Sad Pandas voted Obama twice to carry out this bigotry. What is worse, talking about a muslim immigration ban temporarily or actually maiming, killing of muslim children, women and men?
Let’s be honest here.
This is the most amazing hypocrisy to be exposed recently. Look at the furor. An immigration ban! Hitler!! Meanwhile, the “Assad Must Go” policy has resulted in the deaths of over 300,000 Syrians.
Think about that. 300,000 people. What was the death total in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? And this is outside of Libya, or Yemen. This is outside of the Stanford University estimate of over a thousand civilian casualties of drone attacks, which was made 2 years ago. Yet the drones kill on. Good God, look at the fresh blood on our governments hands.
And Romney would have done what?
The exact same thing, most likely. The Military-Industrial complex is still very much alive and well.
Don’t forget the 4 million refugees and a ruined, devastated country that will be a breeding ground for extremists and terrorists for a generation at least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ELAa02TUY
You know, it’s possible to be against both those things.
Syria was the example of the country where we did very little in the early stages of their Arab Spring uprising. UK PM Cameron (I think) summed it up well when he said we put boots on the ground in Iraq, and it was a disaster. We used air power but no boots in Libya and it’s a disaster. And we did pretty much nothing in the early years of the Syrian uprising, and that’s been a disaster too.
We’re running out of options. Seems like we’re down to supporting dictators like we used to, or getting out completely.
‘we did very little in the early stages’
‘Twice in as many days, Vice President Joe Biden did something Obama administration officials rarely do - apologize for offending a foreign leader. Biden had suggested that several Arab state allies of the U.S. in the Middle East, including Turkey and the UAE, are the “biggest problem” in the effort to combat Islamic extremists in Syria. He said the countries had “poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of weapons into anyone who would fight against [Syrian President Bashar] Assad. Except that the people who were being supplied were [Jabhat] al-Nusra and al-Qaeda.”
‘The White House does not outright deny, however, that the substance of what Biden said was true - that Arab states are partly responsible for fueling the rise of ISIS, a point which President Obama made publicly earlier this year, though he did not identify specific countries by name.’
‘2012 Defense Intelligence Agency document: West will facilitate rise of Islamic State “in order to isolate the Syrian regime”
‘Astoundingly, the newly declassified report states that for “THE WEST, GULF COUNTRIES, AND TURKEY [WHO] SUPPORT THE [SYRIAN] OPPOSITION… THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT, IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME…”.
‘The DIA report, formerly classified “SECRET//NOFORN” and dated August 12, 2012, was circulated widely among various government agencies, including CENTCOM, the CIA, FBI, DHS, NGA, State Dept., and many others.’
‘The document shows that as early as 2012, U.S. intelligence predicted the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), but instead of clearly delineating the group as an enemy, the report envisions the terror group as a U.S. strategic asset.’
2012. How many innocent people have died since 2012?
The Gulf oil states pumped a bunch of arms in there, not us. Arguably, that was an example of us letting the locals hash out their own differences without us interfering. Like I said, if we follow that course, there will be blood. If we step in to stop the bloodshed, we’ll never get out.
It’s a very tough choice, not the easy one many make it out to be.
Sad Pandas voted Obama twice to carry out this bigotry.
It would seem that tough guy like John McCain would be better choice than a spindly-legged community organizer if a voter wanted a guy would be big bomber and droner. Then again it’s unclear what a sad panda is exactly.
“Sad Panda” is from the Southpark episode about sexual harrassment. Sexual Harrasment Panda is his real name.
In this context, it’s appropriated by loons as a pejorative, though they have no idea what it means.
What is worse, talking about a muslim immigration ban temporarily or actually maiming, killing of muslim children, women and men?
That’s a non-argument. Trump talks about doing both.
“They have some in Syria, some in Iraq. I would bomb the s— out of ‘em. I would just bomb those suckers……You have to take out their families’….”I will not hesitate to take military action if Iran attempts to create a nuclear weapon.”” Donald Trump quotes 2015
What’s the point of bombing the sh%# out of them, like Trump wants to do?
The difference, he hasn’t yet.
That’s a pretty weak difference. Are we hoping that he won’t get elected, or that he’s just lying to us?
Like any other politician, my bet is he is lying.
Look at the replies; Romney, McCain, bah! The two party system made me support a guy who caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands!
I remember when hundreds of thousands turned out to protest Bush wars. I presume many of those were Democrats. Where oh where have the anti-war Democrats gone? Could Obama get away with this slaughter if his own party turned out in the streets like before? Is it too cold to protest, Democrats? Is reality TV too compelling? We won’t even contemplate that such slaughter was completely avoidable.
And to think, Bush had to work up the nation for months to stage phony excuses to remove one man from power, killing hundreds of thousands in the process. Now the President doesn’t need WMD lies. He just arbitrarily decides, arm the head choppers and suicide bombers.
Most U.S. presidential candidates don’t openly advertise plans to bomb and water board. I suppose honesty is always the best policy.
Is citadel rigging the markets?
was the 300 point drop on friday another wall street temper tantrum before the rate hike meeting?
It seems like Fed liftoff could be damaging to America’s housing and stock market wealth gains.
Why would the Fed want to take an action that makes Americans poorer?
such a simple concept and great question actually. Do they want to ruin the party they created?
The only way the Fed will hike is if Yellen’s Goldman Sachs handlers have massively shorted the indexes, then give her the go-ahead. My money says they’ll punt, again, citing low oil prices or some other convenient pretext.
You can’t taper a Ponzi. The only question is when Da Boyz are going to bail and slip out the back before the retail invester bagholders realize the jig is up and stampede for the exits. Then after the panic-selling Da Boyz can take QE4 and snap up distressed assets at firesale prices.
Lather, rinse, repeat…
“So the Keynesian monetary plumbers of the Eccles Building will try something truly stupid. That is, they will try to levitate the entire sea of money-like liabilities they have conjured over the last two decades, but especially since September 2008, mainly by paying higher rates of interest to banks on those $2.8 trillion of so-called excess reserves.
Well now. Will higher IOER (interest on excess reserves) cause money market funds to pay more to their long-suffering investors; or cause the repo rate on trillions of government and other fixed income securities to rise in sympathy; or lift the rate on short-term CP and the multiple other forms of wholesale money?
No it won’t. The Fed is fixing to call a rate rise but its preferred tool is powerless to make it happen. The so-called IOER scheme has always been a pointless crony capitalist sop to the Fed’s banking system constituency, anyway.
The truth is, IOER payments were designed to compensate the banks for the regulatory cost of capital required to be set-aside against these assets under the new rules. So the banks got their capital costs subsidized and Wall Street got more fungible collateral in the bargain.
In any event, Congress will surely blow its top if the Fed uses up this $100 billion “deficit reducer” by paying IOER or other forms of bribes aimed at make pretend interest rate raising.
At the end of the day, the Fed will not be able to bribe the money market higher in a manner that is politically feasible. So it will be forced to repair to the old fashioned recipe——-draining cash from the Wall Street dealer markets.”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/december-16-2015-when-the-end-of-the-bubble-begins/
The Fed’s destination is QE4 and NIRP, because those are the most efficient means to facilitate the transfer of wealth from the 99% to its oligarch accomplices. Any rate raise (and I’ll believe it when I see it) will likely cause chaos in the markets, which the Fed will then use as a pretext to shower more trillions in funny money on its TBTF bankster cronies, and give it the cover to ram through NIRP. The latter will force the last of the bagholders into Wall Street’s rigged casino to be fleeced at will.
The Middle Class Is Dying
More hope and change is needed
Dying for more credit?
America’s Middle Class Is No Longer the Majority
12/10/2015 12:52PM
The middle class is no longer the majority in America, according to a new Pew Research Center report on incomes and wealth in the U.S. WSJ’s Janet Adamy reports on the implications. Photo: Getty
No problem. They will just “redefine” the definition of “middle class”.
Sorta like they have redefined “in the labor force” and substituting dog food for steak in the “basket of goods”.
No problem. They will just “redefine” the definition of “middle class”.
This. The new definition will be: if you work more than 20 hours a week, then you’re middle class.
Trump
Is it time for the Republicans to dump Trump?
If so, how will they do it with minimal blowback?
The Hill
December 04, 2015 - 08:00 AM EST
Vice President Trump?
By Eddie Zipperer
Donald Trump doesn’t strike me as a right-side-of-the-slash sort of guy. After all, a man whose ego can be spotted from the International Space Station probably fancies himself as being above the office of vice president. Not to mention the fact that he’s currently perched atop all the major polls like King Kong, swatting down whichever pesky Republican flies too close to him. But Trump hasn’t wrapped up the nomination by any means. Right now, there are three possible outcomes to the GOP primary: 1) Trump wins; 2) Trump loses and launches an independent bid for the presidency; and 3) Trump loses and goes back to griping about politics from the sidelines.
Unfortunately, each of these three outcomes could be a Defcon-Perot level disaster for the GOP.
…
Sure, deny them a candidate of their own choosing and appoint someone instead just like the democrats have done. Too bad your crooked establishment types get no traction.
You’re the one with “types.” Politics is nothing to me but entertainment.
“Politics is nothing to me but entertainment.”
Same here.
People who are relentlessly driven by, totally possessed by, the endless, unsatiable, and destructive lust for power are quite interesting to watch.
Pure horseshit about the entertainment. If that were true you’d love Trump. Look in the mirror dude.
I confess to a fear of politicians who resemble Hitler.
Unfortunately, the percentage of top politicians who fit this description seems to be increasing over time.
The people hungry for power are actually disgusting to watch. I have zero respect for them. They are zeros in my life if it were not for the fact they drone bomb and murder foreign innocents and say it’s in my name, JQ Public.
woops, Hitler, you lose.
“…and say it’s in my name, JQ Public.”
That’s just it! Even though as Californians, your and my vote has ABSOLUTELY ZERO effect on the presidential election outcome, people around the planet will hold you and me accountable for whatever abominable acts our next commander-in-chief perpetrates around the globe.
It’s quite similar to how 1.2 billion Muslims around the planet are currently suffering due to the recent acts of a fringe lunatic couple in San Bernardino. Unfortunately the average human is not sufficiently intelligent or rational to avoid the horrible logical error of attributing heinous acts committed by a very small fringe minority to millions and millions of other humans who had no part in it.
They are currently suffering because between 5 and 20 percent of tha number share their beliefs. Ask Loretta.
+1 PB
Exactly true PB.
If you don’t want to be held accountable for your government’s actions, don’t vote for people who order the killing and maiming of muslims. Muslims don’t hate for our freedom, they hate us for our own terrorism.
The lesson should be etched in the minds of people who voted for Obummer in 2008 thinking America would go back to noninterventionism.
You never get what you vote for. Instead you get regret, guilt, or rage.
I voted for Gary Johnson in ‘12 and Ron Paul in ‘08.
I got rage.
Since 2012 I have been thinking, perhaps if one of the two became president and did the exact opposite of what they promised. Then I would have both rage and regret.
So I quit voting for good. I have rage but no regrets or guilt anymore with regard to not voting.
Muslims don’t hate for our freedom, they hate us for our own terrorism.
Chainsaw, aren’t you a Trump supporter? He wants to bomb the sh%# out of them.
No not a Trump supporter. I don’t vote and not a partial to any political party. Just exposing hypocrisy when I see it.
No not a Trump supporter
You weren’t posting here and supporting him quite recently?
ou weren’t posting here and supporting him quite recently?
Just exposing hypocrisies. Just because I criticize Trump critics doesn’t mean I support or will vote for him.
Just exposing hypocrisies. Just because I criticize Trump critics doesn’t mean I support or will vote for him.
Those two sentences appearing together is hilarious.
“If that were true you’d love Trump.”
Nah. I confess to no fondness for bigots.
Commentary: Republicans should dump Trump now
Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump gestures at a regional police union meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. (Charles Krupa / AP)
Patrick T. Reardon
Enough is enough.
It is time — right now — for the Republican Party to expel Donald Trump.
If the GOP acts now, it will not only do the right and moral thing, it also will take the offensive against a man who has bullied and hatemongered his way into the heart of American politics.
If Republican leaders don’t move swiftly and decisively, Trump will continue to poison the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan — and poison this year’s presidential campaign. He will continue to call the shots, and the Republican Party will continue to dance to his tune.
Trump’s unfitness for the presidency has become painfully clear by his words and actions. He’s a bigot, calling for a ban on Muslims coming into the United States, and a liar, continuing to assert the discredited claim of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the Sept. 11 attacks. He has made fun of disabled people. He has belittled his opponents. He has denigrated women. He has demonized unauthorized Mexican immigrants as criminals and drug dealers.
Trump needs to be drummed out of the Republican Party. Right now.
Karl Rove will know how to do it. Fox News will promote it. The nation — except for Trump’s deluded followers — will applaud it.
If the GOP moves now to eject Trump, if it takes the bully by the horns and throws him out on his butt, the party will clear the way for a reasonable alternative to arise from a crowded field of candidates.
No question, some of the Republican hopefuls have their own Trump-like qualities. Yet there are others who are thoughtful, humane and even statesmanlike.
As it is now, Trump has twisted the presidential campaign all out of shape. He has catered to fears when what is needed is understanding and compassion. He has sought to demean whole sections of the American population when what is needed is an effort to find common ground.
It is time for the GOP to say publicly to the American people and the rest of the world: Donald Trump’s demagogic hate-spewing will no longer carry the Republican brand.
…
The thing is, all of the Republicans around here seem to agree with him.
Along with the “abortion is murder” crowd.
The main reason why I’m a former Republican
I have friends on Facebook who are on voluntaryist Facebook sites and they gush over Trump. I know it is really because they want an iron curtain around he USA and mass deportation of people they do not like.
I keep needling them about how statist they are. I remind them Trump wants to have Edward Snowden executed. He will renew the “Patriot act.”
In my lifetime I would consider Edward Snowden as one of the bravest patriots the nation has seen.
FWIW, I don’t understand the intelligence community. I understand why we have a military, but why must anything be secret. Is it a big time to state what we’re for, and what we oppose and act accordingly?
time = deal
If they threw Trump out now, he’d go third party for sure.
Hillary might be able to scare his supporters to his successor.
+1 Russ.
The Republicans’ only viable option appeaes to be to dump Trump and hope they survive the blowback. With Trump the Republican candidate sucking up all the oxygen, there’s no time or interest for the MSM to critically examine the many reasons why Hillary Clinton might not be the best person for the CIC position.
A question that has to be on Republican party leaders minds at the moment: Would Trump inflict more damage on the party as a member candidate or as an independent?
“A question that has to be on Republican party leaders minds at the moment:”
Hillary’s mind too; One of the best things that could ever happen to Hillary is Trump.
Despite all the ugly, hateful, misogynistic, juvenile comments this observation is likely to inspire, one thing is perfectly clear:
HILLARY TRUMPS TRUMP.
SOPHIE’S CHOICE
12.11.15 1:00 AM ET
Why Hillary Clinton Should Thank God for Donald Trump
He is potentially the worst president ever, but she’s got a proven record of failures and flip-flops on economics, foreign policy, and civil liberties.
Forget the fake facts, the Mexicans-are-rapists racism, the stupefying ignorance of international trade, and the unambiguous and unapologetic anti-Muslim bigotry. Forget even the fact that he’s just a gold-plated Billy Mays who has pitched every goddamned crap product from frozen steaks to a failed namesake university to mattresses.
Perhaps the very worst thing about Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy is that it’s keeping us all—Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike—from examining just what a god-awful and terrible president Hillary Clinton will be. Less than a year out from the 2016 election, that’s the horror we all need to be confronting.
Clinton isn’t just cruising to the Democratic nomination—she’s far and away the most likely winner in next year’s general race. At PredictWise, for instance, she’s got a 58 percent chance compared to the next closest, Marco Rubio, who’s at 17 percent; Trump limps into third place with a weak—weak!—9 percent.
…
Doesn’t sound like entertainment. Someone is really obsessed with Trump.
Hillary was also anointed president around this time in 2007.
Why does Obama hate the middle class?
There is no middle class under Sharia.
The middle class does not fit the Fabian Socialist Model.
Calling out China. Anti Nafta. Only.one.talking.about.immigration.
How much longer from now will Trump propose to ban Jewish comedians from our shores?
Watch Jon Stewart Imitate Donald Trump on ‘Late Show’
“No one is going to listen to you unless you, I don’t know how to put this, ‘Trump’ it up a little bit,” Stephen Colbert tells his former
Comedy Central cohort
By Daniel Kreps
December 11, 2015
Jon Stewart impersonated Donald Trump and lobbied for the renewal of the Zadroga Act after interrupting Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ monologue.
After crashing The Daily Show Monday to lobby in support of the Zadroga Renewal Act, Jon Stewart interrupted Stephen Colbert’s Late Show monologue Thursday in an effort to pass the bill that would extend the health care benefits of 9/11 first responders. Colbert tells Stewart that, since the host left The Daily Show, there is now only one way to have your message heard: By bringing the Trump.
…
Thursday, Dec 10, 2015 6:07 PM UTC
Stephen Colbert takes apart Donald Trump’s ban on Muslims
Donald Trump is so obscene and horrific even Republican candidates for president are going out of their way to criticize him. Stephen Colbert announced on Wednesday night’s “Late Show” that he stands with Lindsey Graham who said that “Trump can go to hell.”
Just practically speaking, Colbert doesn’t know how the TSA could even test Muslims for their religion when entering the country. “Though I will say their pat-downs are thorough enough to tell if you’re Jewish,” he joked. “Maybe we could casually ask them, ‘Hey I’m trying to recalibrate my compass, do you know which direction Mecca is?” and then flashed a wide-eyed serious-face. Trump is insulting every major group of Americans except one: white people. “And, frankly, I feel left out,” Colbert said.
…
Those “Republican candidates for president” with the exception of Rand Paul and maybe Sleepy Dr. Ben the Fabricator are bought-and-paid-for stooges of the Oligopoly and the captured establishment GOP. A vote for Trump is a middle-finger salute to the status quo.
. A vote for Trump is a middle-finger salute to the status quo.
Or is it cutting off your nose to spite your face?
Or throwing out the baby with the bath water?
Friday, Dec 11, 2015 12:42 PM PST
“Dump Trump!”: Hundreds rally outside Trump Tower in NYC to slam his hate speech and welcome refugees
On International Human Rights Day, activists in NYC rally to welcome Syrian and Iraqi refugees to the U.S.
Ben Norton
(Credit: Salon/Ben Norton)
Hundreds of activists gathered outside of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York City’s Columbus Circle on Thursday evening for a demonstration in solidarity with Syrian and Iraqi refugees. The protest was organized to coincide with International Human Rights Day.
The organizers of the rally said protesters were there “to say no to the harmful racism, Islamophobia, Arabphobia, and xenophobia towards the refugee community.” An enormous coalition of groups endorsed the demonstration, including civil rights, migrant rights, leftist, anti-war, LGBTQ, Latina/Latino, Black, Jewish, Palestinian, Iranian, Desi, Filipino, and Greek organizations.
“Hate is not going to divide us,” Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, which co-sponsored the rally, told Salon. “People need to be held accountable for this hate speech. These are not just words; they are words that are inspiring actual violence against innocent people who have nothing to do with these terrorist attacks happening.”
Sarsour stressed that, in the past few weeks, as presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Ben Carson have ramped up their Islamophobic rhetoric and proposed explicitly anti-Muslim policies, there has been a rapid increase in the number of attacks and threats against Muslim Americans.
Just in New York City in the past few weeks, there have been several hate crimes in recent weeks. A Muslim woman at a Brooklyn restaurant was assaulted by a customer who shouted “Muslim motherfu**er!” In another incident, a man in a Manhattan eatery screamed out hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric, hit a Muslim worker, and smashed two glass partitions at the food counter. In late November, a Muslim sixth-grader in the Bronx was attacked by her classmates, who called her “ISIS” and tore at her headscarf.
Similar attacks have been reported throughout the country. In one of the most extreme, on Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh, a man ranting about ISIS shot a Muslim cab driver with a rifle.
“This is not the first time people have done this in this country, and this is what scares American Muslims,” Sarsour told Salon. “We’ve had the Chinese Exclusion Act; we’ve had Japanese internment camps. Tell that to young people in our community, who think that someone is going to come round us up. It’s very traumatic.”
“But I’m happy to be in a place right now, in Columbus Circle, with people who say ‘Nope, not our watch,’” she added.
…
Let’s change the subject from immigration with three straw man posts. Oh Professor Bear you are so above it all and non biased. You choose no side and view it all as comedy.
I think it really ends up coming down to your not liking Trump stealing all the air from the room that you want to control with your 2 am posts. You’re mad people want to talk about immigration, thus Trump, instead of what you want to direct them to. Please learn from the Professor or he’ll compare you to Hitler.
Too true. HBB was waiting with baited breath for news of the latest movements in the bond markets.
Think of the junk bond market crash as an early warning sign that your home equity is soon going to crater again if you want to understand the relevance of my bond market posts.
The Wall Street Journal
Markets
Junk-Bond Rout Deepens, Sending Shockwaves Through Stocks and Other Markets
Abrupt liquidation of Third Ave fund one factor behind Dow Industrial’s 300-point decline
By Mike Cherney, Corrie Driebusch and Leslie Josephs
Updated Dec. 11, 2015 7:02 p.m. ET
U.S. junk bonds posted their steepest decline since 2011, intensifying fears that a six-year bull market in stocks and other risky assets is nearing an end.
The largest high-yield exchange-traded fund, the $15 billion iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF, dropped 2%, to close at $79.52, its lowest since July 2009. Friday’s trading volume of 53 million shares doubled a record set Tuesday.
The retreat punctuated a day of heavy selling across markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 310 points and U.S.-traded crude dropping 3.1%, to $35.62 a barrel. Oil’s 11% decline was its biggest weekly fall since March.
Traders said much of Friday’s decline was triggered by the abrupt closure of a high-profile junk-bond mutual fund. Investors in the Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund learned this week that they won’t get all their cash back for months or more, as Third Avenue Management LLC liquidates the $789 million fund.
…
Oh RoadKillStu, thou art the most high-minded judge of character on the HBB. I humbly apologize that my posts doth offend thee.
Lazy. Greedy. Selfish. Sneaky. Deceitful.
You rang?
lol
Opinions
Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric will live in infamy in American history
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to guests during a campaign stop at Iowa Central Community College last month.
(Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post)
By David Ignatius
Opinion writer
December 10, 2015
Nobody knows where Donald Trump will stand six months from now in the bizarre Republican presidential campaign. But you can predict with some confidence how his recent anti-Muslim diatribes will look in a decade or two, unless Trump manages to rewrite the Constitution.
American politics, like most things, is a story of what statisticians describe as the reversion to the mean. Self-proclaimed saviors and other outliers come and go throughout our political history. Occasionally they’re successful; most times, they’re not. But the system has rebalanced toward the basic principles of tolerance, freedom and democracy that were set forth by the Founders.
This inner balance wheel is one reason that Warren Buffett, our most brilliant modern business tycoon, likes to say that no matter how severe an economic downturn may seem, investors have never made a mistake betting on the ability of the American system to recover. This mysterious engine of creativity and self-correction could finally be broken after 226 years , but I doubt it.
Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric will live in infamy in U.S. history. He obviously doesn’t mind; his narcissistic personality is so extreme that every high-visibility outrage is for him a kind of validation. (If you’re curious about other examples of such personalities, read the recent book “Narcissism and Politics: Dreams of Glory,” by Jerrold Post, the CIA’s former director of psychological profiling.)
…
Tweet from Bernie Sanders proving he’s a moron:
“I promise at the end of my first term we won’t have more people in jail than in any other country.”
Smart guy. It’s a lot cheaper for the taxpayer to pay for a non-violent offender on general assistance on house arrest than it is to house the same offender in a prison. Prisons are expensive.
Prisons are expensive ??
Prisons and are a profit center…
The prison-industrial complex generates lots of payola for our political elites. And the rubes think Lincoln abolished slavery….
Also a training ground for our future heroes who “fight” for our freedom in abu gharib or other torture camps.
How much does Trump pay people to fawn over him on social media?
True believers will fawn for free.
Not on the left. No way. The agitators in Ferguson threw a fit when they didn’t get paid, lol:
http://www.usworldreport.com/ferguson-now-protesting-over-not-getting-paid-to-protest/
That seems like a rather extreme entitlement mentality: “Why isn’t anyone paying us to tear up these businesses?”
On a personal note, I happened to be in the area during Thanksgiving of 2014, to help my parents sell the family homestead, which was located 4 miles east of Ferguson’s Ground Zero. My sister and I couldn’t resist the temptation to take a driving tour. It was very sad to see how the rioters tore down their community in order to express their unhappiness about the Michael Brown situation. Rather like collectively shooting themselves in the foot…
Maybe it was a giant middle finger to the status quo?
“The damage to the city of Ferguson, Missouri is estimated to cost the country an upwards of $4.2 million dollars. Some of the people demanding these protests induced paychecks are upset that since they took time off of work to travel to Ferguson, they can no longer pay their bills. The organization in question is funded by the liberal billionaire George Soros which provides for the organization through his Open Society Foundations (OSF). He paid for several protests groups to travel to Ferguson and participate in these demonstrations.”
“He (George Soros)paid for several protests groups to travel to Ferguson and participate in these demonstrations.” Demonstrations that caused up to $4.2 million dollars of damage.
It seems to me that George Soros be stuck with the bill.
“be stuck with the bill ” = ” should be stuck with the bill”
Yes, he should be, but he won’t.
Can’t the U.S. government go after Soros for damages? Seems like he should be held accountable for the cost of rebuilding Ferguson if his thugs instigated the destruction.
Cartoon Carousel
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here’s an offering of the best of this week’s crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
By POLITICO Staff
12/11/15 05:22 AM EST
…
I guess it was inevitable that some cartoonist would depict The Donald as the Republican Darth Vader, a caricature he apparently has inherited from Dick Cheney?
Lol, DiCaprio terrified of a Chinook wind. Another Hollywood genius.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/leonardo-dicaprio-mocked-for-fear-over-warm-calgary-chinooks-1.2694552
Housing’s new crisis: Half your income for rent:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/housings-crisis-half-income-rent-175033297.html
When media posts things like this, the end of the phenomena they post about is nigh. And a reversal is about to happen.
When will they post the demise of gold? Already platinum is below $900 per ounce.
How many of these “victims” have children?
If you can’t afford your rent, use birth control.
I wonder where those people live. I can imagine recent engineering school graduates in my part of OC paying 25% of their annual salary and compensation, but that is living alone. It is cheaper to rent than own in Southern California.
“When media posts things like this, the end of the phenomena they post about is nigh. And a reversal is about to happen.”
Why?
No, really, someone give me a real answer, no some “what goes up must come down” law of physics cop-out that economists are famous for. Are renters going to add yet another income to the last bedroom? Are they going to “chase cheaper rent” further from the jobs? Are they going to protest by not paying rent? Are LL’s going to pass up the profit center of Luxury Grade A units in favor of build new affordable housing which is going to get trashed? LL’s charge what the market will bear. And people will pay the rent because they have to. No, it’s some other expense that will take the hit — e.g. JCPenney in favor of Wal-mart.
No really, why?
“people will pay the rent because they have to.”
And you paid double the rent plus some for a depreciating asset.
Your point is?
Mr. President will do. Thank you.
You left out the “s” in “Mrs.”
“‘Trump is right – we can’t wear uniform in our OWN cars’: Five police officers claim Donald Trump is RIGHT about parts of London being so ‘radicalized’ they are no-go areas.”
http://pamelageller.com/2015/12/uk-cop-there-are-areas-we-have-to-ask-muslim-leaders-permission-to-patrol.html/
Check out the Photo, I am pretty sure I would be beheaded four times over in that neighborhood. No Smoking or drugs, No Gambling, No Drinking and No Concerts. Sounds lively.
This woman is a LIAR.
We have Red Pill News and Blue Pill News. I post red pill news. The whole Jew thing is bigotry that I would rather not lower myself to participate.
Also, a link would be helpful to back up your assertion.
Red pill is the one that the loons take?
The blue pill is the one the blind and ignorant take.
Trump supporters who secretly love Hillary Clinton, raise your hands high!
Rent free.
MASSIVE selloff in junk bonds. Here’s the chart of HYG, the largest ETF on the market with $15 Bil in assets:
http://schrts.co/VhEdB4
While the mass media will talk about the Fed rate increase, this selloff is way too intense to be due to a measly little 1/4% hike. This is a lot more serious… the market is pricing in junk bond defaults, probably from the oil patch, as has been discussed here many times.
What’s up, everyone? Happy holidays to all the Housing Haters.
I love that this place mostly figured out 2-3 years ago that China’s economy was rife with problems. I remember Dan “warning” us that China was going to be writing all the rules, become the reserve currency, and start bullying us around, it was always pretty funny.
Quality still matters. In pursuit of hitting numerical targets and flooding the world with cheap products, China tossed aside its environment, its demographics, its traditional family structure, and its financial system. It’s going to be a bad trade for the vast majority of its citizens as things continue to play out. Unfinished houses, half-built highways, poor people being pushed off of their land to make way for public projects, rural people forced to move to cities, a lack of women to provide wives/companions for the men, old people without nearby children to care for them (and yet no gov’t system of social security), courts that rule based on politics or wealth, corrupt public officials and corporations, a rigged stock market, etc. Quality matters, Dan, it’s just harder to talk about than quantity (”data”).
On the flip side, I’m surprised that countries in northern and western Europe aren’t incentivizing their own citizens to have 2-3 children, which would have many advantages over accepting refugees and immigrants. It seems crazy to me to think that Boomers and Gen X are counting on young immigrants to buy their houses, pay for their retirements, and administer their society someday. I don’t think you have to be racist to hold the view that someone with a different culture, religion, and family structure will not value the same things as you.
Here in the US we have only one presidential candidate willing to say things like this^^. (Cruz might say similar things but he’s very unlikeable and his wife wears the pants in their marriage so I can’t trust him.) I don’t agree with everything trump says, but he’s challenging the media’s story and to the extent he goes too far, Congress and the courts would provide some balance. For example, yes we should build a meaningful southern border that includes walls and fences, but no we should not kick out every single immigrant, we should give them a couple months to register and get checked, otherwise they should be deported or imprisoned. We do need to know who is here and if you avoid becoming legal or if you have an arrest record (even misdemeanor, IMO) you should not be here. Take any issue where Trump goes too far, there are common sense ways to fix the problems. That’s the nature of the Presidency, it’s not a dictatorship. Trump won’t be able to do whatever he wants, just like Obama can’t.
The difference with Trump is, he’ll actually tell you what he wants, which is something Hillary simply can’t do. (Nor can Rubio or Yeb, who are also owned by powerful interests.)
’m surprised that countries in northern and western Europe aren’t incentivizing their own citizens to have 2-3 children
Poor, white trash and religious families still have children in those countries.
Yes, because it’s become artificially expensive to have 2-3 children for people who are earning significant income. In the long run, this is bad for the country. The same thing happens here in the US.
To flesh this out a bit more, it’s because governments are spending more to help immigrants (and their children) instead of natives who want high quality schools and infrastructure for their families. Instead, their tax money goes to support newcomers who are often at odds with the natives. We can call this racism or we can look at it realistically. Most people want to raise children in a stable community with high levels of trust and where their own basic values are prioritized.
I will most likely cut checks to send my son to an expensive middle/high school because of the values being taught at even the best public schools. Things like the framers of our county were terrible evil racists, regardless of their bravery in war or foresight in writing the Constitution. Things like the primary purpose of the Law is to provide equity rather than follow precedent or honor contractual agreements. And as for college, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t pay to send my kid to my alma mater because the great academics are taking back seat to SJW grievances.
Things like the framers of our county were terrible evil racists, regardless of their bravery in war or foresight in writing the Constitution.
That’s a big exaggeration. The founders are honored in our schools and also recognized for their errors of their day. Is that a problem?
….Things like the primary purpose of the Law is to provide equity rather than follow precedent or honor contractual agreements.
The primary purpose of the law is justice. If precedent and honoring contractual agreements were law’s main purpose, than the slavery that you resent being brought up when discussing our founding fathers might never have been ended.
Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
That’s a big exaggeration. The founders are honored in our schools and also recognized for their errors of their day. Is that a problem?
I think that Joe’s wife is a teacher. Maybe he knows something about the schools in his community that you don’t know. But you’ve got a point. The truth is some of them were brave and foresighted as well as being racist. On the other hand, Benjamin Franklin founded an group that advocated abolition. The kids are best served if all of the facts are presented to them.
thanthen the slavery^^ my point above is 1) opportunity costs have risen and 2) immigrants drive up the costs for obtaining quality education, housing, etc. And the answer is not as easy as “build more houses” or “build more schools”. Quality matters, having a significant immigrant underclass, esp one that doesn’t especially agree with the natives, imposes costs that go beyond supply/demand.
Trump and the GOP are making immigration into a sideshow to distract voters from the real issues. For the average working family immigration is just not that important. On a day to day basis working families are weighed down by stagnant wages, underemployment, rising rent, homes that are unaffordable, cost of living, student loans, expensive health care. The truth is Trump and the GOP have little or nothing to offer to deal with these issues, so they ignite bonfires fed by social wedge issues, xenophobia, etc. as a distraction.
FRAUD
Trump ain’t fraud, he’s got it out in the open. His proposed tax cuts put the top rate at 15%. Same old trickle down Bush plan that balloons the deficit and makes the rich richer. It’s right there for the middle class to see, but they are too distracted by islamophobia and border walls.
Great point! Trump’s three ring media circus, including the antics of his army of trained baboons who hang on his every extreme policy proposal, is the ultimate political smoke screen.
“stagnant wages, underemployment, rising rent, homes that are unaffordable, cost of living, student loans, expensive health care.”
You can’t see how immigration ties into this at all?
Why do you think wages have stagnated for the working and middle class?
Why do you think housing costs have gone up, even for basic no-frills homes?
Why do you think people “have” to move or pay for private school to put their kids into a school where ESOL is not dominant? (This is what I am going to do when my child reaches middle school… I can easily afford Gilman School, but most people can’t.)
You can’t see how immigration ties into this at all? Why do you think wages have stagnated for the working and middle class?
Sure, illegals have some effect on some job sectors I suppose. But its importance to our standard of living is quite far down the list compared to globalization, NATFA, outsourcing, leveraged buyouts, etc.
Immigration exacerbates all those problems.
Ugh. Walls. Register.
Statist.
Walls — yes, where needed (e.g. near Ciudad Juarez or south of San Diego) so we can have an orderly system instead of a free-for-all that includes human trafficking and re-entry by previous deportees who committed crimes here previously. Nations must enforce basic, fair rules otherwise they degrade over time.
Registration — yes, like a temporary working visa, or some other documentation of who the person is and the basis for their entry (joining a spouse, working an agricultural job, student).
Driver’s licenses and IDs are a whole separate issue. But before someone can get a driver’s license or other ID, let alone receive any type of benefit, there should be some lawful process that is transparent and fair.
I guess this sort of basic procedure makes me a “statist” to people who never outgrew their adolescent mindset. Yes, I want a government that has a few goals, and managing the border is one of them. If we have immigration, it should reflect a mix of people from around the world and we should have standards.
Other worthy government goals are things like a fair court system, building and maintaining infrastructure, and national defense (not nation building or peacekeeping or interventions to support foreign regimes).
The Framers of our constitution believed in these basic things, to different degrees to be sure. Hamilton, Franklin, Washington, etc — these guys were not idealistic eunochs. Lincoln and Teddy R were not pie-in-sky libertarians. Some type of state is necessary to provide the scaffolding for a dynamic society.
Liberace!
Thank you, joe. Good, thoughtful post.
It seems crazy to me to think that Boomers and Gen X are counting on young immigrants to buy their houses, pay for their retirements, and administer their society someday. I don’t think you have to be racist to hold the view that someone with a different culture, religion, and family structure will not value the same things as you.
That’s why we never should have let any Greeks in.
I’m not Greek (in laws are). You’re making a very weak straw man argument. We should spread around the immigration and make sure that we’re not getting criminals, people who are likely to be unemployed/unemployable, or people who may hold radical views inimical to our country.
I’m also missing how Greek immigrants held divergent values from our society? Most of the Greeks who immigrated to the US (or Canada, Australia) did so because they favored the American system. Many were fleeing Communism and socialism in their own country. (The PASOK party in Greece was dominant for many years.) Many others specifically wanted to learn English and have their kids educated here. My wife’s family was mostly from Cyprus, which was part of the UK–they already spoke English and assimilated easily.
Where are the Greek terrorists here in the US? Where are the Orthodox churches that are shooting/bombing Catholics or Jews or Muslims? Where are the Greeks forcing their religious views on women? Where are the Greek communities that want their own system of law?
With reference to the southern border, we shouldn’t let the immigration from any one part of the world exceed the ability to have a workable system. If we limited legal Mexican immigration to, say 300,000 per year, so that we could properly run the system, would that be unfair to you?
“I don’t think you have to be racist to hold the view that someone with a different culture, religion, and family structure will not value the same things as you.”
The Greeks have a strange church, strange customs, live in extended families, dress their women in near-burkas. Their ways are not compatible with our culture or democracy, they don’t have the same values as us.
At least that’s what people said when your in-laws’ ancestors came over. What’s different now?
Once again you use a straw man argument.
I don’t have a problem with strange religions, nor do 99% of the people who want scrutiny towards Islamic refugees. It’s not that any religion is “strange”, it’s that there is a particular religion and part of the world that has a major grudge with America and the West.
Orthodox Christianity really is not strange. Orthodox was the original Christianity. My in-laws immigrated as adults. They had college degrees and spoke English already. My FIL had served as a merchant marine and was an engineer by education. If he was an unemployed, uneducated person who hung around a Greek church with ties to terror, yes he absolutely should’ve been banned from entering the country.
Again, you put “strange religion” into debate. It’s not the religion, it’s the unemployability, the malcontents, and the ties to questionable religious organizations tied to VIOLENCE. People who come from situations like this could be radicalized and need to be vetted. We have no GOOD system to do that now.
Oddfellow,
Tell me about how women are treated in Greece? What customs are there on modesty? How are crimes punished?
I know you’re being willfully obtuse, but please enlighten me on these alleged parallels between the Greek Orthodox church and Sunni/Shia Islam?
Once again you use a straw man argument.
By quoting you? You said you can’t trust someone with a different religion to share your values. That’s exactly what earlier arriving, mostly Protestant, Americans said about Catholics and the Orthodox.
I don’t think you have to be racist to hold the view that someone with a different culture, religion, and family structure will not value the same things as you.
You heathens arguing about religion is like reading Donks posts about construction and economics.
Thanks for the thoughtful posts Joe. Common sense grows increasingly less common everyday it seems.
“Quality still matters. In pursuit of hitting numerical targets and flooding the world with cheap products, China tossed aside its environment, its demographics, its traditional family structure, and its financial system.”
It’s telling to see so many Chinese citizens leaving the country like rats jumping off a sinking ship.
The difference with Trump is, he’ll actually tell you what he wants ??
No matter who he offends….He would make Bush look like Mother Teresa..
If he had the slightest clue what’s in the constitution, he’d know he won’t get what he wants.
What’s in the Constitution has not deterred Obama.
Have guns been banned? Has single payer healthcare been implemented?
No, but we haven’t treed the last of the liberals with bloodhounds, either, so there’s still much to be done.
We don’t need him to get what he wants, we need to have a real conversation that is not policed by the media.
There are sensible solutions that stop far short of what Trump claims to want.
With Hillary (or Rubio/Yeb), there will just be more excuses, can-kicking, and half-measures.
+1, joe. Enforcing laws that are already on the books would be a good start.
Seems like nobody in government except maybe for Comey really does their jobs, to the point that many don’t even bother pretending anyone. The department of Homeland Security runs as a refugee agency. The Secretary of State thinks he’s head of the DOD. The Sec Def functions as Officer of Gender Equality. The lady who was running the office of personnel hadn’t a clue what she was supposed to be doing and said it was everyone’s responsibility.
And forget Congress. They’re so treasonous they function as foreign agents, for the most part.
“A real conversation”
Conversations lead nowhere. People’s minds are already made up.
we need to have a real conversation that is not policed by the media…..There are sensible solutions that stop far short of what Trump claims to want.
How can a complicated society ever come to “sensible solutions” stopping far short of what Trump wants without the media sharing in the responsibility?
Do you know the function of the “4th estate” and media in societies? For example: It’s not the media’s responsibility to point out new precedents of bigotry in American politics? In which country?
the press plays an important role in the development and stability of modern society and, as such, it is imperative that a commitment of social responsibility be imposed on mass media. According to this social responsibility theory, the press has a moral obligation to consider the overall needs of society when making journalistic decisions in order to produce the greatest good. Though there had been journalism “codes of ethics” for decades, the Commission’s report was considered landmark by some scholars; they believed it was a pivotal reassertion of modern media’s role in a democratic society.
wiki
Thanks Joe. You hit a nice chord on that post.
Why do pols always choose the extreme straw man?
Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/49/15078/F1.expansion.html
A dying breed.
did your bra catch the drool?
Did you catch this one? If you believe in his hair, you’ll believe anything.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/photos/2015/09/an-illustrated-history-of-donald-trumps-hair#17
Sometimes, but not often, no matter how careful one is on diet and waist size, illness can get you in midlife.
It’s a humble pill to take. Never wanted to be on prescriptions.
Fortunately for most people they will never have to be on prescriptions and a mediterraneandiet and exercise will extend their youthful years and keep away chronic diseases.
+1
The Nation, a rare old-left magazine that speaks truth to power, calls out Hillary on her so-faux campaign promises to reform Wall Street.
http://www.thenation.com/article/hillary-clinton-is-whitewashing-the-financial-catastrophe/
Incessant jawboning notwithstanding, Yellen the Felon will not raise rates until one of two things happens:
1) The bond market forces her hand as “investors” belatedly realize that buying US debt that Yellen intends to inflate away with her money-printing is a bad idea; or
2) Her Goldman Sachs handlers go massively short, then give their central bank flunkies the go-ahead to hike rates.
My bet is that Yellen will punt, again, on Tuesday. You don’t taper a Ponzi.
why are banks controlling all the markets?
Because they can.
95% of the electorate gave the banksters their explicit sanction by voting for Wall Street water carriers Obama, McCain, and Romney. The banksters now know the sheeple will grab their ankles on demand.
creating bank credit and collecting interest is hard work.
Joan Rivers on Obama and Michelle:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=joan+rivers+video+obama&view=detail&mid=DCA2B804B5556877D40ADCA2B804B5556877D40A&FORM=VIRE1
NTTAWWT, but if true, they should just be upfront about it.
Geez, this thing goes way far down the rabbit hole. I do think examining the front of Michelle’s clingier dresses is gross and totally unnecessary and doesn’t prove a dang thing. It’s like giving Hillary Clinton a hard time about the camel toe.
Rivers was totally non-judgmental and quite matter of fact about the whole thing. “We all know it. It’s fine”.
Get out of your bond fund before it’s “gated.”
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/second-warning-get-out-of-your-bond-fund-before-its-gated/
Yeah, been reading about this, seems like something’s going down. I’ve had the feeling of a major “event” just around the corner, and all this other noise is exactly that, just the orchestra tuning up prior to the opening curtain of the real show. It’s a weird feeling.
They are warming up to perform The Rite of Spring.
I’ve had exactly the same feeling, Palmy. Something wicked this way comes. So have the more astute among my friends.
Well that is why you have to load up on precious metals to counteract the meltdown in the bond funds. Because the stock funds will implode as well and there will be few assets to put your proceeds in. One asset class shrank in value 50% since 2011 and will be the rush to safety.
Bitcoin, Litecoin, and dogecoin too.
Some “background check.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/us/san-bernardino-attacks-us-visa-process-tashfeen-maliks-remarks-on-social-media-about-jihad-were-missed.html?_r=0
Yeah, so much for the NSA data collection effort. Really worked well, NOT!
Gee, I don’t seen any of our resident Hitler screamers talking about that.
Bunch of phonies.
San Bernadino: the plot thickens.
http://shoebat.com/2015/12/10/89194/
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Republicans need to stop treating climate change like a political issue
FAIL
No bubble here, just move along….
http://www.businessinsider.com/unfinished-ritz-carlton-penthouse-sells-for-21-million-2015-12
Whoopee ti yi yo,
Git along little dogies…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2cFji4CmHE
Oddie
After reading yesterdays Bits Bucket I have to agree with the comment that was made and can only add…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xrw0gbnNuU - 152k -
Droopy Dog/Ben Carson voice:
“you know what? that makes me mad.”
He might not stab you….
Politics
Dec 12 2015, 7:11 pm ET
Cruz Catapults to Top in Iowa in New Poll, Leapfrogging Trump
by Vaughn Hillyard
Ted Cruz catapulted to frontrunner status in Iowa on Saturday night with a new poll showing the Texas senator with 31 percent of the GOP support in the state, 10 points ahead of Donald Trump’s 21 percent.
In the new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll, Cruz, considered the new evangelical favorite, leapfrogged the candidate he has continually avoided to cross paths with throughout the campaign.
The poll, conducted by longtime, respected Iowa pollster Ann Selzer, is seen as a bellwether for the state of the race. Voters in Iowa will get the first chance at picking the Republican nominee at the caucuses in less than two months on February 1.
…