Bits Bucket for January 1, 2016
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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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Did Mr Grinch steal your Santa Claus rally?
Financial Times
Global Market Overview
Last updated: December 31, 2015 10:47 pm
S&P 500 sees first annual loss since 2008
Eric Platt and Michael Hunter
US and European equities slid on the final trading day of 2015 in thin and choppy trade, with the benchmark US equity index closing out the year with a loss after three years of double-digit gains.
The S&P 500 declined 0.9 per cent to 2,044 on Thursday, as selling pressures materialised in the final hour of the New York trading day. The index finished 2015 with a loss of 0.7 per cent, its worst annual performance since the financial crisis in 2008 when it declined 38.5 per cent.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1 per cent on Thursday to 17,425; since the year began the index has declined 2.2 per cent.
Volatile crude prices and an unexpected jump in initial jobless claims in the US weighed on sentiment.
…
“…the benchmark US equity index (S&P 500) closing out the year with a loss after three years of double-digit gains.”
Three years of double-digit gains were sweet. It’s unrealistic to expect double-digit gains to go on indefinitely. My sense is that the 2012 to 2014 returns were the result of digging out from the 2008-2010 period.
Over the next decade I expect a bumpy ride, and my expectations for a diversified portfolio are for 4% to 5% annualized returns over the next 10 years. I am far more confident in accuracy of the bumpy ride part than I am about the 4-5% return part.
One thing I am absolutely certain about- estimates and expectations are always off the actual mark when you look back on them.
In the absence of stock buy backs with borrowed money, the SP is an $800 index.
I think we need generational home loans that can be assumed by family members so prices can continue to rise and people have more equity to spend at walmart.
Falling prices Poet….. falling prices.
Plano, TX Housing Prices Crater 14% YoY
Expect insane public union goon pensions in long term democrat controlled cities to go bankrupt faster.
And demand a bailout.
A promise is a promise.
They will soon learn that some promises are more equal than others.
“My sense is that the 2012 to 2014 returns were the result of digging out from the 2008-2010 period.”
Are you somehow forgetting the artificial asset market stimulus provided by QE1, QE2 and QE3?
That’s gone now, with ZIRP soon to follow. We’ll see how stock prices hold up if the Fed continues to gradually follow through with announced plans to take away the asset price stimulus punch bowl.
I’m well aware of QE1-2-3. Although many may not agree with the magnitude and duration of the QE, it falls under the broad category of digging out from the 2008-2010 period.
For now I’ll stick with my expectation of 4% to 5% returns for a diversified portfolio over the next 10 years. I certainly do not expect sustained double-digit returns for an extended period.
And once again, I expect a bumpy ride over that time frame.
With oil having collapsed isn’t the stock market being down only 2 percent something of a blessing? Oil infiltrates a huge portion of the economy. Shouldn’t it have had a much greater effect?
An even greater miracle is that U.S. housing continues to go up in the face of a commodities collapse and a losing year for stocks. Real estate truly is the best investment!
Hillary Clinton is the worst secretary of state in history.
But her ineptitude and evil as president will be epic, the stuff of anti-legends. ‘Muricans will get what they voted for, good and hard.
She’s certainly no William Seward.
Hillary Clinton is the worst secretary of state in history.
“ Trump called Clinton “terrific” again in an interview with Fox News, saying she performed well as Secretary of State.
Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman,” he told Greta Van Susteren. “I am biased because I have known her for years. I live in New York. She lives in New York. I really like her and her husband both a lot. I think she really works hard. And I think, again, she’s given an agenda, it is not all of her, but I think she really works hard and I think she does a good job. I like her. ”
Time magazine
The rich love big government.
It protects them and their wealth and destroys any competition.
Why do you think the wealthiest senators and congressmen are democrats?
And why no business will ever disparage it.
Funny how you complain about what neo-cons stand for and try to blame the DEMS.
Why do you give these GOP attorneys a free pass?
Stop injecting facts in the face of Trump propaganda!
Trow da bums out!
The bill is coming due for all the money that has been borrowed the past 8 years.
Do not be FOMO’ ED by wall street, use your head.
A little digging into the economic numbers shows that things are terrible.
The financial engineering is simply a big scam.
They want your money.
As of this moment, the financial shenanigans seems to have worked though. Stock market back up, house prices back up. More people are provided for at a higher standard of living than ever before in this country’s history.
Tell that to the record number of ‘Muricans (94.5 million) “not in the work force” or on food stamps, aka SNAP.
Another way of looking at it is that a lot of these people used to have to work for their sustenance but now we can apparently feed, clothe and shelter ever growing numbers of people without requiring them to work. This, of course, ignores the inevitable damage to the spirit from their choosing not to work.
Or what happens when the free sh*t delivery gets interrupted
This, of course, ignores the inevitable damage to the spirit from their choosing not to work.
I’ve got some family in Florida, in an area where there are a lot of retired people. One family member knows a few people who were able to retire at 55. One couple was able to retire at 45 because the husband owned part of a small company that was purchased by some large corporation. She says that no one ever regrets retiring that early. Nobody that she knows misses working. If there’s any damage to the spirit, she’s ever seen it.
You are right Mike. My language was loose, I should have said choosing not to work AND not support yourself. The well off needn’t experience that because they can pay their own bills and have control of their own lives. Those on the dole not so much.
some of us have banked our profits. no debts.
“That is, we are just completing a year in which the Fabulous Four FANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google) gained $500 billion of market cap while the remaining 496 companies in the S&P index went down by more than one-half trillion dollars.
In fact, during the next 15 years Cisco’s performance steadily improved, but one and one-half decades later it is still at only one-third of the levels implied by its dotcom era market cap. That is, revenues have grown from $15 billion to nearly $50 billion, and its net income has more than tripled to nearly $10 billion per year.
Needless to say, it’s market cap today at $140 billion is just 25% of its dotcom bubble peak!
In short, its market cap was driven to the absurd height recorded in March 2000 by the final spasm of a bull market, when the punters jumped on the last momo trains out of the station.
At the end of the day, AMZN’s current preposterous $325 billion market cap has nothing to do with the business prospects of Amazon or the considerable entrepreneurial prowess of Jeff Bezos and his army of disrupters.
It is more in the nature of financial rigor mortis——-the final spasm of the robo-traders and the fast money crowd chasing one of the greatest bubbles still standing in the casino.
That’s right. The Kool Aid drinkers in the casino are betting $325 billion on a massive e-commerce distributor of books and merchandise that has a steady state profit rate at 0.5% of sales
Instead, better try this. As indicated above, AMZN’s operating free cash flow during its most recent LTM period was $2.76 billion compared to $2.26 billion way back in 2009.”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-next-big-short-jeff-bezos-brobdingnagian-bubble/
Enjoy it while you can. Some day we may look back on these as the good old days when you could get almost anything delivered to your door in a couple of days max.
Agreed. Every day that hot water still comes out of the tap, electricity out of the outlets, and my green paper FRNs buy tangible goods, is a good day.
We really do have cupcake frosting coming out of our taps.
Happy New Year. Want to see a New Year/early first quarter rally to get the shorts on. Should be a fun year.
Indeed.
May the New Year be filled with falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels accelerating the economy and raising your standard of living like nothing else can.
Happy New Year right back at ya, txchick! Good to see you check in.
Any thoughts on sectors that you think will be worth shorting in that Q1 rally??
How many will “disobey” the upcoming obama gun control EOs?
Who will enforce them?
Can you be jailed for disobedience?
Hope. Change.
And how we later burned in the camps.
of course they will never install full body scanners at public housing projects where the drug and crime rates are astronomical…..nope dat bee rascis….
If the EOs set a number of guns a month you need to sell to be in the business of selling guns, and therefore subject to doing instant background checks on your customers, what number is it going to be?
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Secret midnight arrests and work camps? How inefficient and 20th century. Much easier to pacify with drugs, iPhones, porn and the dole. The Gulag of abundance is the best prison.
Also massive abundance in food to the point where the poor are FAT!
It is all by design, and it costs more to eat healthy.
We’re not far away from Soylent Green, for real, this time. We already feed cows ground-up brains from other cows.
“Never let a crisis go to waste” — Rahm Emanuel, former Obama Chief of Staff (and the brains of the operation).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/01/obama-to-impose-new-gun-control-curbs-next-week/
Must.disarm.the.serfs.
http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-obama-to-tackle-unfinished-business-of-gun-violence-in-2016-2016-1
I disobey some victimless crime laws. I am not going to say which ones. Most of us break laws every day. Ho hum. We are all felons in the eyes of big government so why even worry? Just keep quiet about which laws you break.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704471504574438900830760842
How it is at the state level in New York
https://reason.com/blog/2013/01/25/new-york-gun-owners-flip-the-bird-to-ass
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/07/johannes-paulsen/new-york-gun-owners-tell-cuomo-pound-sand-safe-act-firearm-registration/
I’ll be curious to see if any of these EOs are anything more than window dressing and affect a regular person. So far I’ve heard no real specifics other than the one proposal for people who are in the business of selling guns.
Welcome to america mehikan drug dealers ohbahmuh has an open door policy just for you.
http://www.krgv.com/story/30864198/brownsville-resident-frustrated-over-increased-border-activity
Incoming new democrat voters.
No ID needed to vote.
Welcome to a radically transformed America.
Yup. That’s what motor-voter is all about (where you automatically get registered to vote when you get a driver’s license). California is giving away drivers licenses like free candy at a 4th of July parade.
‘Criminal organizations utilize tactics that put the public in danger. By taking a stand against crime in their neighborhoods, community members help prevent misfortune and the loss of life that could arise from cruel and callous smuggling methods used by criminals.’
This is why the gateway states don’t appreciate being used as a conduit for illegal immigration.
But yet when these states try to enforce immigration laws they are sued by the obama regime to stop.
Don’t enforce laws you don’t like…
Make up laws you wished you had.
Use the IRS to go after your enemies.
Obama created Trump.
Who on this blog supports illegal immigration and open borders? Please step up and admit it.
Only the ones you imagine in your fearful, angry fantasies.
Central Scrutinizing has its benefits, ask the NSA. All that centralized power for scrutinizing provides wonderful opportunities.
It’s fantastic for loon watching.
Housing Analyst, is that you, with yet another new handle for 2016?
Falling housing prices my friend. Falling housing prices.
Mukilteo, WA Housing Prices Crater 10% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/mukilteo-wa-98275/home-values/
It isn’t a debate between open borders and building a high wall to keep out the Muslims and Mexicans. That’s just the way moronic black-and-white thinkers for Trump frame the debate.
What is your real world proof that this is the case? From what I see the current choices are 1) ignore and do nothing hiding from the issue and sweeping it under the rug, amounting to de facto amnesty and a thwarting of the will of the people; or 2) actually bring up the issue.
Who is actually bringing up the issue?
The issue is not “build a wall” versus “do nothing.”
And I repeat myself…
In the real world what was happening was “do nothing”. Actually worse than do nothing, pretend the law doesn’t exist.
Every politician was doing nothing and was happy to do nothing. Could you provide some real world example of someone doing something other than ignoring the issue and the will of the people?
I’d rather have politicians “do nothing” than propose bad policies that will make the situation worse.
Do nothing is amnesty. Are you in favor of open borders?
I’m in favor of a rational, cost-effective process for legal immigration, and strong policies to crack down on illegal immigration.
However, I don’t believe the legal standard should be based on race or religion, as some candidates have proposed.
I’m in favor of $100 bills raining down from the sky. Other than to ignore the issue entirely, which other candidate has done anything at all? None, zero, zip, nada, zilch. They all tried desperately to ignore it and the will of the people.
First do no harm.
Spying on Congress and Israel: NSA Cheerleaders Discover Value of Privacy Only When Their Own Is Violated
Kinda how they ignore illegals until a drunk one driving kills or rapes a family member?
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of folks, really
And +1 for the Intercept, Glenn Greenwald is one of the last real journalists we’ve got
I wonder what the NSA has on Clinton and “orgy island” where under aged girls where pimped out to the rich progressives of America?
The real question is how much dirt (if not video) debauched oligarchs like Clinton friend and convicted pedophile Jeffery Epstein has on Bill and Hilllary.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2584309/Bill-Clinton-identified-lawsuit-against-former-friend-pedophile-Jeffrey-Epstein-regular-orgies-Caribbean-compound-former-president-visited-multiple-times.html
‘At the time, Netanyahu and his government were engaged in an all-out campaign to torpedo the nuclear agreement with Iran, and that effort wasn’t limited to using their American fifth column to put pressure on Congress and the Obama administration. Israeli intelligence planted malware in the hotel computers where US negotiators were staying during the negotiations in Switzerland: they intercepted highly sensitive inside information on the talks, and leaked it. Did they leak to members of Congress opposed to the Iran deal? It no doubt occurred to the US intelligence community to ask this question, and answering it was a matter of national security.’
‘As the Journal reports: “Stepped-up NSA eavesdropping revealed to the White House how Mr. Netanyahu and his advisers had leaked details of the U.S.-Iran negotiations – learned through Israeli spying operations – to undermine the talks; coordinated talking points with Jewish-American groups against the deal; and asked undecided lawmakers what it would take to win their votes, according to current and former officials familiar with the intercepts.”
‘Israel’s congressional amen corner, which is now howling “Scandal!” and is determined to launch an “investigation,” claims that this surveillance was aimed at their First Amendment right to take orders from Bibi Netanyahu. However, this defense fails to make the important distinction between speech and espionage. The Israeli government was clearly engaged in the latter when it bugged US diplomats engaged in delicate negotiations – and released that sensitive information to domestic opponents of the Iran deal, including but not necessarily limited to members of Congress.’
‘One bit in the Wall Street Journal piece was particularly telling. In discussing the administration’s vow to ease off on monitoring the communications of foreign leaders, one official is cited as saying: “There was little debate over Israel. ‘Going dark on Bibi? Of course we wouldn’t do that.’” That’s because Israel is right up there with China and Russia as one of our principal adversaries in the covert world of spy-vs-spy.’
Is this governmental incompetence? We can’t shield our own conversations?
True that. I don’t care about his lifestyle. I am no social conservative. His book, “No Place To Hide” was the book that really got me out of the minarchist camp into e voluntaryist camp. And he is no libertarian. Sometimes it takes an old style liberal to show you that neoconservative ideals depend on big government and the violation of the 4th amendment.
“Bill Clinton Made $8 Million From Speeches To Companies With Matters Pending Before Hillary’s State Dept”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-31/bill-clinton-made-8-million-speeches-companies-matters-pending-hillarys-state-dept
Two great frauds that fraud great together.
he is worth every penny
That’s what she said!
While “hope and change Goldman Sachs can believe in” has enriched the Wall Street plutocrats beyond their wildest dreams, thanks to the Fed’s printing press and middle class taxpayers, the real economy - as opposed to the all-important “markets” - isn’t doing so great.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/12/31/business-in-the-midwest-takes-worst-hit-since-july-2009/
“Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper.” –
–Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”
Ayn had orgies with Greenspan.
Most destroyers probably destroy property.
Mighty
What was the first months flavor?
Did you get one jar or two?
Jelly of the Month Club
“The gift that keeps on giving all year!”… and the perfect Christmas bonus! You have found the longest running Jelly of the Month Club in existence!
Our Jelly of the Month Club features terrific selections of jellies, jams and preserves delivered monthly. Each month we select hand crafted jars of jelly, jam or fruit preserves for our Jelly of the Month Club from quality producers that you won’t find on your local grocer’s shelf.
Because we have been doing this for so long, we have sampled hundreds if not thousands of items so you can be assured that you are getting the best of the best! Examples of some of the delicious flavors include basics like strawberry, apple, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry and peach as well as more adventurous taste treats like bumbleberry preserves, cranberry/peach marmalade, blackberry guava daiquiri jam, blueberry orange preserves and plum pomegranate jelly.
We offer the Jelly of the Month Club in two options: one jar per month or two different jars per month.
They hate us for our guava blackberry daiquiri jam.
Hey Goon, looks like “fundamental transformation” has reached Denver….
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29328215/up-1-000-immigrant-children-be-temporarily-housed-lakewood-colorado?source=rss
CraterRage Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/JAfOnG
FOMO
You might want to read the neocon playbook for 2016, since you and your children will be paying for it.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/we-re-going-to-take-out-7-countries-in-5-years-iraq-syria-lebanon-libya-somalia-sudan-iran/5166
Will 2016 be the year the SJWs start getting serious push-back?
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2015/12/31/coming-2016-all-out-war-on-so-called-social-justice/
“That movement is called cultural libertarianism. It stands against any authoritarian, from the Right or the Left, who sucks fun and freedom from the world like some kind of vampire without the cool factor, and who uses faux grievances and exaggerated victimhood to get what they want. Cultural libertarianism rejects the fainting-couch feminism and race-baiting of the Left in favour of deliberately provocative joyfulness and exuberance. It also predicates facts over hurt feelings, versus the social justice crowd who want to turn harrowing anecdotes into “lived experience” — which we are then expected to treat like scientific data…
What is the limiting principle on such liberty? Is it that you are only entitled to the amount of Liberty that you can personally handle? Some people can’t handle heroin and will turn into addicts willing to do all sorts of depraved things to obtain it or overdose if given in unlimited quantity.
What about those who choose liberty from work but still want to eat?
Meanwhile, in Goon’s neck of the woods, “fundamental transformation” continues apace….
http://www.infowars.com/feds-to-open-massive-denver-facility-for-up-to-1000-illegal-minors/
pfft! That’s a drop in the bucket compared to all the illegals already in Denver.
That’s a nice excerpt there, Goon. It doesn’t contain much content, though. Apparently, the crackpots are still coining new terms that end in -ist or -ism. They also like ridicule, just like Alinsky.
“It doesn’t contain much content, though.”
I begin to detect a pattern!
This paid message sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
I was wondering who paid you to post propaganda here.
“That’s a nice excerpt there, Goon. It doesn’t contain much content, though.”
There is some content right here.
“who uses faux grievances and exaggerated victimhood to get what they want. Cultural libertarianism rejects the fainting-couch feminism and race-baiting of the Left in favour of deliberately provocative joyfulness and exuberance.”
Although from the $5 million and they didn’t lay a glove on Hillary crowd I would expect no less.
We can only guess at what the heck “deliberately provocative joyfulness” is.
Get ready to ante up, taxpayers. Puerto Rico has too many Democrat voters to not be bailed out.
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/puerto-rico-default-portion-1-billion-debt-payment-due-monday-n488036
15 stories the MSM consigned to the memory hole in 2015, while the sheep grazed on in blissful ignorance.
http://theantimedia.org/15-news-stories-from-2015-you-should-have-heard-about-but-probably-didnt/
Why does it feel like a house of cards again?
The difference between now and 2008 is that the Fed and central banks have already blown their wad, and derivatives exposures have grown to monstrous proportions. ‘Muricans are going to bitterly regret not heeding Ron Paul in 2008, when he was our last best chance to pull back from the abyss.
Inföwars Pays Tribute To Motörhead’s Lemmy
A truly unique individual who refused to obey the rules of society
http://www.infowars.com/infowars-pays-tribute-to-motorheads-lemmy/
Lemmy was one of a kind. R.I.P.
If you like to gamble, I tell you I’m your man
You win some, lose some, it’s - all - the same to me
The pleasure is to play, it makes no difference what you say
I don’t share your greed, the only card I need is
The Ace Of Spades
The Ace Of Spades
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –
Nice…Serious Kryptonite for Globalists. Kind of like holding up a cross in front of a Vampire.
For about $50 you can by a tablet and with a library card download wirelessly FOR FREE more books than you could read in a month. Downloadable video programming is also available from the library for free. Free wireless is ubiquitous in most public spaces now, meaning you can also learn free from Stanford or MIT or a thousand other colleges via YouTube or other free video learning service.
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
These seem to be your causes, phony:
1) Trannies using the women’s room.
2) Uppity black college students.
3) Cops not being allowed to shoot any black person.
4) Expensive vacations using government plane by black president.
5) Takin’ down ol’ Dixie.
Getting popcorn for phonys takedown of this.
Wonder what the founders would think of a king that thru official edict would:
Make up gun control out of thin air
Ignore laws he didn’t like
Make up laws he wished he had
Used the tax authority to go after political enemies
Spend more than all the other kings in history combined and accounting for inflation
Spy on anyone including elected officials
Allow invaders through open borders to terrorize citizens
Oh wait…
Lube up and engage the reality distortion field, angry old man.
* RULE 5:
Swallow’s weak attempted use of Hillary Clinton confidant “Dear Saul,” she began. “When is that new book [Rules for Radicals] coming out—or has it come and I somehow missed the fulfillment of Revelation?” Saul Alinsky’s Rules 5 & 6 need no takedown from me and further illustrate why he will never receive a Jelly of the Month Club Christmas bonus “The gift that keeps on giving all year” from Mighty’s employer.
* RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)
* RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)
Globalist Progressives=Fail
You’ve lost my Soros Employee, you just haven’t got the memo.
sacramento retailers see robust holiday sales:
http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article52469780.html
Philip K. Dick described the “eerie, mystical almost religious subtheme” in Star Wars and Empire as what enchanted him so much in those movies. That right there is what I think is what is lacking in the current film or those after Empire.
Then again Dick also wrote this in his 1981 predictions: “1995 Computer use by ordinary citizens (already available in 1980) will transform the public from passive viewers of TV into mentally alert, highly trained, information processing experts.”
Internet porn, video games, etc. are the new opiates for the masses to keep them dissipated, distracted, and docile. The Obama Zombies, McCain Mutants, and Romney Retards are the visible proof that passive screen viewing produces lobotimized dullards with a bovine acceptance of the corrupt status quo.
Don’t forget legalized pot. It is having its intended effect.
George Lucas based the Empire on the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
You know the one.
The same folks who banned guns, nationalized health care and spied on all it’s citizens.
To fundamentally transform Germany.
“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects… totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.”
–Aldous Huxley
Mega-speculator George Soros eagerly awaits “middle class champion” Hillary Clinton in the White House, since his puppet Obama failed to live up to his expectations.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-01/george-soros-regrets-supporting-obama-eagerly-awaits-president-hillary
Wayne Rogers, who starred as the beloved Trapper John McIntyre on “M.A.S.H.” died Thursday, December 31, 2015 from complications of pneumonia, the Associated Press and Entertainment Weekly report. He was 82. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenwichtime/obituary.aspx?n=wayne-rogers&pid=177104275#sthash.9KNAwzcr.dpuf
And Natalie Cole, daughter of Nat King Cole died.
I feel so chronologically old.
Take care of yourselves.
I think when I reach 60 I will go back to luxury travel and paint the town in Newport Beach dressed well and hob nobbing with the 50 year old attractive women at the bars. Live it up.
Wayne Rogers’ non-leftist economics must have driven wussy socialist Alan Alda up the wall.
I know, I know, I know. I like zombie literature too. I like watching The Walking Dead and World War Z type stuff. But, the zombies are not coming. Physics doesn’t allow the dead to return to life or creatures to shuffle around indefinitely once the biological processes that have taken millions of years to develop start shutting down. Zombies are not real. Zombies are not coming.
I see zombies shuffling down the street every day, staring fixedly at their iPhones. And the 2008 and 2012 election results are proof positive zombies not only are real, but comprise 95% of the electorate.
#zombielivesmatter
Maybe its time to ENFORCE existing gun control laws rather than passing new legistlation (though I support expanded background checks and tighter criteria for who can buy or possess firearms).
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/01/gun-crime-convictions-33-percent-gun-control-rhetoric/
Is this just federal data? Doesn’t ten times more prosecution happen at the state and local level? Maybe that is where the cases are going. Maybe that is where they belong?
Whatever happened to good old Brillo pads?
Symbol of hard work, scrubbing to make it clean:
http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/columnists/tom-walsh/2015/12/25/brillo-plant-expands/76994804/
Children aren’t going to know what snow is.
Ooooops …
California snowpack 136 percent above average …
https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-snowpack-136-above-average-113353035.html
In defense of the truth the headline should read that the snowpack is 36 percent above average.
Better take your children to see the snow while it still manages to fall from the sky.
Sad news here…I played in backup orchestras for her on two different occasions back in the 1980s.
Natalie Cole dead at 65: R&B singer was daughter of Nat King Cole
BY Larry Mcshane
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Friday, January 1, 2016, 12:21 PM
Chart-topping R&B singer Natalie Cole, who followed her legendary father into the music business with hits like “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)” and “Unforgettable,” died at age 65.
“Natalie Cole, sister beloved & of substance and sound. May her soul rest in peace,” tweeted the Rev. Jesse Jackson on New Year’s Day.
Cole, who had struggled with a variety of health issues in recent years, died Thursday night, according to publicist Maureen O’Connor. The cause of death was reportedly congestive heart failure.
A physically weakened Cole, winner of nine Grammy Awards, was forced to cancel a string of concert performances over the last three months after a recurrence of hepatitis C linked to her earlier drug abuse.
The daughter of music icon Nat (King) Cole scored a huge 1991 hit with “Unforgettable” — a virtual duet with her late father. Natalie was just 15 when her father died in 1965, a decade before his daughter launched her own solo recording career.
…
Would you vote for a presidential candidate who made a campaign promise to violate the Geneva Convention?
Rand Paul: Trump’s Plans Violate First Amendment, Geneva Conventions
By Greg Richter
Tuesday, 15 Dec 2015 10:44 PM
Front-runner Donald Trump’s plans as president would require a repeal of the First Amendment and the Geneva Conventions, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said in Tuesday’s GOP presidential debate.
“Closing the Internet” to fight terrorism is a violation of the First Amendment while killing the families of terrorists requires America pulling out of the Geneva Conventions that ban the purposeful targeting of civilians, he said.
…
One wonders why you have remained silent for so long about violations of the Constitution by the current president.
I like to raise issues which others neglect. And there has been no shortage of very capable critics of Obama on the HBB for the seven years he has occupied the WH.
Is this the reason? I thought you said it was because you were offended by his comments on a pause in immigration due to your personal ties to someone special?
The inference that Republican candidates are KKK operatives below seems to conflict with that stance.
“…personal ties to someone special?”
It’s not about me.
I’d rather not see policies put into place which destroy America’s longstanding commitment to an open, just society. Trump’s politics of fear and division have zero appeal to me — absolute zero.
“The inference that Republican candidates are KKK operatives below seems to conflict with that stance.”
An inference is a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning. If my posts led you to infer something about Republicans, that is your personal business, not mine.
People who say “it’s not about me”.
I want to thank you for your selflessness, herr professor.
evidence and reasoning
Oh that. Arrows which you only shoot from behind the lines of the other entrenchment, as if there was something more honorable lying in the muck over there.
Just my impression after reading your politically charged posts over a few election cycles. The only reason I bring it up is that I think this sort of thing actually protects the beast that is our financial industry captured USA government.
Just my impression after reading your politically charged posts over a few election cycles.
Same here. No matter how hard he tries to hide it, his biases rear their ugly head during elections. Nothing wrong in having biases, we all do. Some are just intellectually dishonest to accept it and the Pro is the master of it.
“I want to thank you for your selflessness,…”
You are most welcome. I always post with the best interests of the American people in mind.
“Just my impression after reading your politically charged posts over a few election cycles.”
I can’t hold a candle to the trolls for Trump brigade who posts angry old white male rhetoric here on a daily if not hourly basis.
angry old white male
So, an old white male angry at angry old white males. I guess that pretty much eliminates any constructive ideas.
There will be no recovery until there is reform.
So, an old white male angry at angry old white males.
LOL. The Pro is so angry I think he’s become the ones he bemoans. He’s so angry and so white that the irony is most likely lost on him, too.
Don’t confuse my posts to point out the folly of supporting Trump with anger. It’s the Trump trolls who froth at the mouth with bigotry and rage.
thats why taking out the mosques and its religious leaders and leaving innocent people alone has always made sense to me…it is a religious jihad
Trump supporters for torture, raise your hands high!
December 18, 2015
Why Germany Can and Should Open an Investigation into US Torture
Published in Frankfurter Rundschau
Géraldine Mattioli-Zeltner
Advocacy Director, International Justice Program
In 2004, four Iraqis filed a criminal complaint with the German federal prosecutor against senior United States officials alleging torture by US armed forces in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The US government strongly protested and warned that the complaint could affect US-German relationships. The German federal prosecutor rejected the complaint, making a sweeping statement that “there were no indications that the US authorities and courts were refraining from taking legal action” on torture in US-led detention centres in Iraq.
Ten years later, it is abundantly clear that the US has failed to conduct effective investigations not only into most of the crimes committed at Abu Ghraib, but also in the broader state-sanctioned torture program created following the 9/11 attacks.
In December 2014, the US Senate released a damning 499-page summary of its report investigating the CIA secret rendition, detention, and interrogation program. The Senate report summary confirmed previous accounts of grave abuses against detainees and revealed that torture committed by US officials had been more brutal, systematic, and widespread than previously known. Detainees were held in pitch-dark windowless cells, chained to the walls, naked or diapered, for weeks, months or years. Others were subjected to abusive “rectal feeding” and waterboarding. One detainee was forced to stand for days on end without sleep with broken bones.
Grave crimes under international law were committed. The US government has a legal obligation to investigate and prosecute those responsible. But the unwillingness of US authorities to seek justice for the victims of grave abuses heightens the importance of other governments, including Germany, acting where possible to limit impunity.
…
Torture becoming key issue in presidential campaign
By Bob Egelko
December 7, 2015
Updated: December 7, 2015 10:24pm
Taliban and al-Qaida detainees in orange jumpsuits sit in a holding area during in-processing to the temporary detention facility on Jan. 18, 2002, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report on the CIA’s interrogation practices. The report said the CIA misled Americans and government policymakers about the effectiveness of the program that was secretly put into place after the 9/11 terror attacks.
Photo: Shane T.McCoy, McClatchy-Tribune News Service
The terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino are refocusing the presidential campaign on what the U.S. should do about radical Islamic terror suspects who fall into its hands, and Republican candidates — especially front-runner Donald Trump — say torture should be part of the equation.
…
–CRICKETS–
Old racist white cowards typically wear white hoods when conducting terror campaigns.
Yeah, racist see, them guys are racists!
AKA future Trump voters…
Sadly, plenty of former libertarians supporting Statist Trump. I know some on Facebook. HBB also.
You have to assume that at least some of the HBB Trump trolls are getting paid to post propaganda. Their over-the-top rhetoric cannot possibly be served up free of charge…
Funny you should mention that. Because the way I see it, your anti-trump hysteria plays right into Hillary’s hands. So is Soros paying you to post this anti-trump hysteria? The racist card came out early, didn’t it?
Trump and Hillary are two sides of the same coin, just like Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton were.
I only vote for candidates who have won a Nobel Peace Prize.
It insures that we won’t be droning wedding parties or American citizens.
It also keeps Brown dudes safe.
So I take it you aren’t planning to vote for Trump, then?
no one with an education wants Trump to win.
Remember Bush/congress passed the “secure fence” bill in 2006. But congress then refused to pay for it. same shite, diff flies.
Trump kids do. They are educated in top top colleges I think.
Too bad America has so many uneducated people!
Too bad America has so many uneducated people!</i?
Yep and 2/3rd of those people with some HS voted Obama in 12.
“They are educated in top top colleges I think.”
Like Trump University?
Where is the denouncing of the democratic candidate for her more of the same stances?
The Democratic candidates are invisible, due to The Donald sucking up all of the MSM oxygen to gaze on his dazzling personal glory.
Weak
Weak, yes. But let the dude alone, it’s personal to him, I get it. He and Bill used to date some very kind girls.
I never said I dated any Muslim girls. That’s just more of your bigoted Trump supporter logic rearing its ugly head. One cannot help but conclude you are paid to propagate half-truths and lies here.
I tThink he is confusing you with Bill, who I do seem to recall saying something along those lines…
I indicated there are Muslims in my personal circle, which I am quite sure is the case for many Californians.
I indicated there are Muslims in my personal circle, which I am quite sure is the case for many Californians.
There are Muslims in my personal circle as well—some of whom I am very fond.
Thanks PB.
If nobody stands up to bigots, then we can look forward to more incidents like the one depicted in the Norman Rockwell painting I linked above.
Swiss gunning up in response to their globalist leaders’ throwing open the doors to unrestricted Third World migration.
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/-false–sense-of-security_gun-sales-up-in-12-swiss-cantons/41869086?ns_mchannel=rss&linkType=guid
Treason: Leaked Wiretaps Reveals Netanyahu Bribed Republicans To Sabotage Obama’s Iran Peace Deal
“A U.S. intelligence official familiar with the intercepts said Israel’s pitch to undecided lawmakers often included such questions as: “How can we get your vote? What’s it going to take? Mr. Netanyahu and some of his allies voiced confidence they could win enough votes.” The answers to Israeli proposals have yet to be fully revealed, but it is clear that favors were offered – bribes were proposed – and from the subsequent behavior of Republican lawmakers, we can only infer that our legislators accepted those bribes, from a foreign government in exchange for opposing the diplomatic efforts of the Obama Administration. At the very least, the very discussion itself indicates that they conspired with a foreign government to undermine the foreign policy agenda of their elected Commander-in-Chief, which certainly amounts to treason
http://www.occupydemocrats.com/treason-leaked-wiretaps-reveals-netanyahu-bribed-republicans-to-sabotage-obamas-iran-peace-deal-2/
Founded in late 2012, Occupy Democrats is a political organization and information website that provides a new counterbalance to the Republican Tea Party. The Occupy Movement changed the national conversation around the issue of class and inequality, but unlike the Tea Party, it failed to achieve legislative victories.
WHO WE ARE
Our aim is to create a more equal society for all by working with progressives, President Obama & the Democratic Party! Our mission is to Occupy Democrats on November 2017 AND BEYOND by voting in a LANDSLIDE of progressive Democratic candidates! While the rightwing Tea Party has an entire caucus in Congress ruthlessly pursuing its extreme agenda, the Occupy movement has yet to produce even a single congressperson.
Occupy Democrats are a bunch of whiney hiney-holes, in other words.
Took all of 5 seconds to find clicking on their “about us” on that site. Can’t imagine someone would seriously write that, it’s almost like the onion.
only to you
Does a more equal society include a culture who routinely beheads or hangs people for being gay?
Better than being a pro-war, big gov neo-con!
I am a fiscal conservative. I want less gov, not more. Less spending, less war, better airports and roads.
Ben, can you add a virtual “panic room” to the HBB where our resident progressives can take shelter when the Usual Suspects rampage through their unicorns-and-rainbows la-la land and turn their sacred cows into hamburger?
http://www.simivalleyacorn.com/news/2016-01-01/Business/Demand_for_panic_rooms_growing.html
They look a lot more amused than paniced. Perhaps a giggle room.
With asset forfeitures running rampant, how do you tell the “legitimate” highway robbers in uniform from the impostors?
http://patch.com/florida/newportrichey/fake-homeland-security-officer-raising-concerns
Since Albuquerque Dan is missing in action, I feel obligated to fill in for him.
Rasmussen Reports
Clinton vs. Trump: Still A Dead Heat
in Politics
Monday, December 28, 2015
Presidential frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump remain all tied up in a hypothetical matchup heading into 2016.
If the 2016 presidential election was held today, 37% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for Clinton, while 36% would vote for Trump. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a sizable 22% would choose some other candidate, while five percent (5%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
These findings are nearly identical to those measured in October when Trump picked up 38% support to Clinton’s 36%.
Seventy-five percent (75%) of Democrats back Clinton, up five points from October. Trump draws support from 63% of Republicans, virtually unchanged from the previous survey. Unaffiliated voters prefer Trump 36% to 25%, but 29% of these voters like some other candidate. These findings also are similar to the October survey.
…
The Fix
Please ignore general election polling (except ours)
By Philip Bump
December 15, 2015
Not to talk about Donald Trump again, but Donald Trump has an argument he likes to make.
Donald Trump would beat Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump says, and Donald Trump should know, because Donald Trump is looking at some polls that show Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head contest next November.
Donald Trump is looking at some polls, though. Not all of them. If he were looking at all the live-caller polls, he would see something that looked less like “Donald Trump will beat Hillary Clinton” than “Hillary Clinton will beat Donald Trump.”
Real Clear Politics has Clinton as a six-point favorite based on its poll average, which includes the new Post/ABC poll putting Clinton up by five points. If the election were held tomorrow, the saying goes, Trump would very likely lose.
…
The latest Iowa Electronic Market 2016 Presidential Election Winner-Take-All Market prices suggest roughly 2:1 odds against a Republican presidential election victory ($0.639 for a Democrat vote future that pays $1 in the event of a Democrat victory, $0.380 for a Republican vote future).
Gambling odds don’t look good for The Donald.
do u think the FED will monetize the clinton deficits too?
Zero Hedge outed with copycat article on News Doctors
Article about Pentagon lies about ISIS on both sites.
http://thenewsdoctors.com
WPA is going to make a fuss about this.
Actually Newsdoctors. Stole article from ZH. Whew. Renewed respect for ZH.http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-01/why-did-pentagon-falsify-reports-about-military-successes-fight-against-isis
The U.S. exports more gold to Hong Kong than it produces.
http://thenewsdoctors.com/the-drain-continues-u-s-exports-more-gold-to-hong-kong-than-it-produces/
Keep buying gold. American sheople are ignoring gold.
Oh we are all doomed. 8 out of ten people live in large metro areas. 80percent of the HBBers are doomed and that includes me.
People such as Holter and Doug Casey predict most people will suffer and accompany those predictions with $hit-eating grins.
http://thenewsdoctors.com/2016-predictions-economic-collapse-caused-by-fraud-debt-bill-holter/
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