Bits Bucket for February 18, 2016
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Rubio-Haley
Wow, good call. That would be a very interesting team. I like them both personally, not something I can say about Trump, Cruz, or Clinton.
You’ll line up for Hillary, both of you.
Saturday will you prefer crow or Gamecock?
You are a black-and-white thinker. Predicting what intelligent voters will do is beyond your mental capacity.
There you go again making it all racial group identity politics. Just like a Southern California “professor”
There you go again making it all racial group identity politics
Apparently Rusty is unfamiliar with the term “black and white thinking”. Ironic, because he personifies it.
Thanks for the laugh, Rusty!
His post confirmed my point.
The irony is all over you two, oddfallow and the bear.
Gag me with a giant spoon. I guess you like unfettered immigration, open borders and PC…not to mention more Orwellian globalism.
It’s possible they’d make the Republican ticket, but they’d never win the general election. That’s why lefties push them.
Trumplings may have gotten too smug too soon, as there may still be a way out for the Republicans from The Donald’s hostile takeover of their party.
Like you care what happens to the Republican party. LULZ. I’m always amused by the “concern” over the Republican party expressed by those who oppose it. Without Trump, they’re done. But they don’t know it. They don’t call it the stupid party for nuthin’.
Rubio will protect us from ISIS with his Christmas gun.
One pump, and he is done.
No surprise. You donks are so scare of Trump you’ll jump feet first into those open border shills camp.
Rubio was caught red-handed telling English audiences that he was for border security before any kind of amnesty while he was telling Spanish audiences- in Spanish- the exact opposite.
Rubio is yet another open borders elite that couldn’t care less about Americans. This is the reason Trump is tremendously popular. He’s the only candidate that isn’t bought and paid for by Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce, who want dirt-cheap 3rd World labor to replace American citizens.
Of course, you aren’t really for either. You will line up for Hillarykins.
and that’s why they push Rubio-Haley, lol. It would ensure a win for the dems.
Heck even if Rubio won that election it would be a win for the dems Agenda. The important parts, anyway.
What most fascinates me about Trump is just how confident he is that the voters will turn a blind eye to his offensive behavior. Will fundamentalist Christian voters back a candidate who unpolitely refers to his top evangelical rival by slang for a woman’s genitals?
The Washington Post
The Fix
Donald Trump trails in a national poll for the first time in four months
By Philip Bump
February 17 at 5:00 PM
On Wednesday evening, Donald Trump will sit down with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski to chat about the 2016 presidential race. That conversation will likely be somewhat different than it might have been a few hours ago, thanks to a new poll from MSNBC’s parent company, NBC, in partnership with the Wall Street Journal.
That poll shows Trump in second place nationally, two points behind Ted Cruz. This is the first major poll in which Trump hasn’t led the field nationally since October.
NBC and the Journal also polled in January, shortly before the actual voting began. Since then, Trump has fallen 7 percentage points and Cruz has gained 8, with a margin of error of 4.9.
…
He’s outpolling Cruz amongst evangelicals in SC, so I guess so. Goldman Sachs does not stand for good Christian values.
Here’s the Don’s twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump
He’s polling at 35% in the CBS and Monmouth University polls, in Bloomberg, 41%-51% (four different issues were polled).
His voters are self-identified pigs. He craps, they wallow in it. The stinkier the crap, the better.
Don’t be makin’ with the pooh comments now, your guys blew it and left a ton of it behind at Malheur.
General Fatton made a big doody?
Yeah, well, you know the media, that was the main thing they fastened on after the place was vacated. If you’re gonna do the sovereign man thing, at least take along a prepper or two. Or some Porta-potties.
Hadn’t heard that. I guess patriots without a clue don’t poop in the woods.
No, they built a trench. The media fascination was such that you might be forgiven for thinking they were observing the excavation of the Sumerian sewers.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/oregon-militia-occupiers-left-firearms-bombs-a-lot-of-poop/
Well at least they’re housebroken. A man of that girth is gonna make a lot of poop.
You’d think so. OTOH, the girth could be due to holding it in.
Who needs a suicide vest when you have that?
Sound like something out of Bad Grandpa.
It looks to me like Trumps confidence in unwavering support from his fans despite outrageous behavior is warranted. I thought that when he ridiculed McCain’s war record months ago that might be the beginning of the end for him but it apparently made little difference to his supporters, even those who are veterans.
A “war hero” doesn’t get captured. Trump is right.
Calling McCain a war hero is like calling first responders to fires and emergency incidents “heros”. That’s what they’re paid to do. Sit around and wait for something to happen.
Especially the veterans, many of whom know what a creep McCain is and was.
I think that CRUZ will be the new slang term.
Braman-Romney
That’s a riot, though. It would be Romney’s ultimate revenge on JEB! and the Bush machine that buried him.
Come to think of it, this wouldn’t just be Romney’s revenge on Bush, it would be his revenge on the entire party, lol. All those campaign consultants who mis-advised him, etc. Wow.
lol I’m pretty sure ‘d stay home for that election.
Rubio-Haley ??
Thats a loser IMO because of Rubio….Kasich/Haley would be a powerful combo in a General election…That would be countered with Hilary/Castro….I could see myself voting for Katich although I would like him to move a bit to the middle…So far I have only donated to two people…Kasich & Sanders….
Haley on a Kasich ticket would kill it for me. The Romney connection would be too strong.
So now the question has been raised of whether Trump is a Christian.
If the answer is no, then wouldn’t that make him, wait for it…
A MUSLIM!?
Or Satan!
Sharp Rebuke by Pope Francis
Donald J. Trump, signing an autograph in South Carolina on Thursday. Polls suggest that the state’s primary contest is tightening.
Jim Wilson / The New York Times
By PATRICK HEALY
February 18, 2016
In his most audacious attack yet on a revered public figure, Donald J. Trump veered into risky political territory on Thursday as he denounced Pope Francis, seeking to galvanize Republicans who worry about border security and appeal to evangelical voters who regard Francis as too liberal.
After the pontiff’s remarkable contention that Mr. Trump “is not Christian” in proposing deportations and a wall with Mexico, the candidate said Francis’ criticisms were “disgraceful” and “unbelievable,” and he contended that the Mexican government had hoodwinked the pope into criticizing him.
Politicians rarely rebuke the Vatican so forcefully for fear of alienating Catholic voters, but Mr. Trump has been increasingly aggressive ahead of Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, where polls show a tightening race and the popular Republican governor, Nikki R. Haley, just endorsed Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
Mr. Trump’s attack on Francis reflected a political calculation that criticizing the pope would not hurt him with conservatives and might even improve his standing in South Carolina and in the Southern-dominated Super Tuesday contests on March 1.
…
If he disses the Pontiff, he is clearly the Antichrist.
Pope Francis suggests Trump is ‘not Christian’
Donald Trump fires back at Pope Francis
A scary moment for Pope Francis
President Barack Obama stands alongside Pope Francis during an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on September 23, 2015.
Story highlights
In press conference during flight, journalists asked Pope about Trump
Francis was returning from a five-day trip to Mexico, including Mass at U.S. border
(CNN)Thrusting himself into the combative 2016 presidential campaign, Pope Francis said Thursday that GOP front-runner Donald Trump “is not Christian” if he calls for the deportation of undocumented immigrants and pledges to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.
The Pope, who was traveling back to Rome from Mexico, where he urged the United States to address the “humanitarian crisis” on its southern border, did not tell American Catholics not to vote for Trump.
…
Drudge Report links to this at the top center column now, pimping the fear about ISIS and WMD’s. Did somebody say “boots on the ground?”
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0VQ22F
No smaller government or less regulation or lower taxes happening here.
Neocons gonna neocon.
Real journalists pile on now too, with the Washington Post editorial board providing a narrative titled “The U.S. must act in Libya before the Islamic State grabs more territory.”
Cueing 2brony to provide a historical narrative about the “shores of Tripoli.”
The national debt is now twenty trillion dollars. All these neocon wars are getting really, really expensive. But just slap a yellow magnetic ribbon on that and it’s all good bro.
Banana will also kvetch that “entitlements” (AKA Social Security and Medicare) are bigger than defense spending. Nevermind that they are funded by the payroll tax, while .gov has to borrow to pay for the wars.
Except ever since LBJ (D) merged Social Security with the Treasury, so there is no “separate fund” for Social Security.
Medicare has never paid for itself from payroll tax.
Math and facts are tough:
Entitlement Spending: 60% of the Federal Spending
Defense Spending: 17% of Federal Spending
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#/media/File:U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2011.png
SS is not a “entitlement” 2-fruit….Its a paid for pension just like any other…If congress F—it-up thats their problem to fix…
As far as military spending, thats the biggest welfare program we have…We spend more than the rest of the world combined…Go ahead, make the argument for that…
SS is an entitlement now Dave.
Remember….. Social Security ran a $80 billion deficit in 2014 years and has run a yearly deficit since 2010. Social Security is bankrupt.
Calling a program an entitlement just means that Congress doesn’t vote on its budget every year.
Irrelevant.
SS is not a “entitlement” 2-fruit….Its a paid for pension just like any other…If congress F—it-up thats their problem to fix…
It always amazes me that after he’ll pay hundreds of thousands of dollars into it, banana considers the benefits he will receive from SS as an “entitlement”.
When it’s a transfer from one group or individual to another, it’s an entitlement. Always.
In the United States, an entitlement program is a type of “government program that provides individuals with personal financial benefits (or sometimes special government-provided goods or services) to which an indefinite (but usually rather large) number of potential beneficiaries have a legal right…whenever they meet eligibility conditions that are specified by the standing law that authorizes the program.”[3] Entitlement spending is distinct from discretionary spending. Congress does not pass an annual appropriation; instead, expenditure on the program automatically increases or decreases with the number of claims against eligibility criteria. The government must provide the benefits even if it is insolvent, has reached the debt ceiling, or has not passed a budget.
Entitlement programs with dedicated funding sources, such as the payroll tax for Social Security, maintain a “trust fund.” If the trust fund is exhausted, this means benefits must be paid from discretionary sources such as Income Tax revenue; it does not mean benefits will run out (although it implies other programs will need to be significantly curtailed given the size of entitlement programs relative to discretionary spending). In order to reduce the government’s overall debt and interest expense, trust funds make inter-fund loans to the discretionary fund; otherwise, the government would simultaneously retain uninvested cash in reserves and borrow more at higher rates. Congress can, however, alter the standing law authorizing an entitlement program to increase solvency at any time by raising the tax rate on dedicated funding, decreasing eligibility, decreasing/restructuring benefits or imposing new taxes and fees. Courts tend to expand entitlement eligibility over time through broader definitions of eligibility, contributing to a tendency of scope creep and insolvency in entitlement programs. Trust funds also operate distinctly from discretionary funds in that they are allowed to accumulate surpluses over time. Discretionary funds are not allowed to accumulate retained earnings unless a specific rainy day fund is authorized. In discretionary spending, this is seen as a check on overtaxation.
The beneficiaries of entitlement programs are normally individual citizens or residents, although sometimes organizations such as business corporations, local governments, or even political parties may have similar special ‘entitlements’ under certain programs. Examples of entitlement programs at the federal level in the United States include Social Security, Medicare, most Veterans’ Administration programs, federal employee and military retirement plans, unemployment compensation, and agricultural price support programs.
Many programs that seem like entitlements are not, in fact, entitlements. Federal Pell Grants receive an annual appropriation. If all the grants are awarded, the government may not make any grants until congress makes a new appropriation. In practice, however, the government makes the grants anyway, and Congress makes an appropriation in the following year to make up for the shortfall. Other non-entitlement programs accumulate waiting lists when appropriations run out.
Originally, the term “entitlement” in the United States was used to identify federal programs that, like Social Security and Medicare, got the name because workers became “entitled” to their benefits by paying into the system. In recent years the meaning has been used to refer also to benefits, like those of the food stamps program, which people become eligible to receive without paying into a system.[4] Some federal programs are also considered entitlements even though the subscriber’s “paying into the system” occurs via a means other than monetary, as in the case of those programs providing for veterans’ benefits, and where the individual becomes eligible via service in the U.S. military.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entitlement
There it is. SS is an entitlement.
SS was a cash cow until demographics caught up with it.
Now its a “entitlement” see how that works.
“Except ever since LBJ (D) merged Social Security with the Treasury…”
Ain’t the Great Society, great?
“Peace Prize” Obama involvement and toppling the Libyan government was just as mush as disaster as Bush in Iraq. The same will happened in Syria.
The only difference is that Bush actually let the Senate and House vote on the Iraq issue before he acted.
Anyone who thinks my story is anywhere near over is sadly mistaken.
Not over yet. The reality TV between now and November is certainly going to be highly entertaining!
It’s hard to deny the balls it takes for a politician to butt heads with the Pope!
They’re both master manipulators.
I’m voting for the guy who made immigration a top issue. That IS doing something.
And the ONLY guy who can’t be bought, because he’s funding his own campaign.
It’s funny how Trumplings yammer on endlessly about The Donald’s money and financial independence. Didn’t he have to stiff his creditors BIG TIME to get there?
Business
1/24/2016 7:36 AM
Trump’s bad bet: How too much debt drove his biggest casino aground
By Robert O’Harrow Jr.
Washington Post
For months in 1987, Donald Trump maneuvered to take control of the hulking, unfinished Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. He snapped up stock in the parent company after its owner died and then made a surprise bid to take the company private.
With the Taj, along with two casinos he already owned in the city, Trump could dominate gambling on the East Coast. But first he needed to convince state gambling regulators that he was financially stable and could raise enough cash to complete the $1 billion project.
On Feb. 8, 1988, at a licensing hearing in front of the state Casino Control Commission, Trump said he could pull it off for one main reason: He was Donald Trump. Because of his reputation as a dealmaker, he said, bankers were lining up to lend him money at prime rates. That meant he could avoid the risky, high-interest loans known as junk bonds.
“I’m talking about banking institutions, not these junk bonds, which are ridiculous,” Trump testified, according to transcripts of the hearing. “The funny thing with junk bonds is that junk bonds (are) what really made the companies junk.”
Trump received the approvals he needed for the Taj, but the prime-rate loans never materialized. Determined to move forward, he turned to the very junk bonds he had derided in the hearing. He agreed to pay the bond lenders 14 percent interest, roughly 50 percent more than he had projected, to raise $675 million. It was the biggest gamble of his career.
In April 1990, the Taj opened as the world’s largest casino-hotel complex, joining Trump’s other holdings already operating in Atlantic City, the Trump Plaza and Trump’s Castle. But Trump could not keep pace with his debts on the three casinos. Six months later, the Taj defaulted on interest payments to bondholders as his finances went into a tailspin. In July 1991, Trump’s Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy, the first and most significant of the four that his companies have experienced.
The bad bet on the Taj Mahal continues to haunt Trump, the leader in the race to become the Republican nominee for president. During recent GOP debates, opponents and journalists have repeatedly asked why he should be trusted to manage the country after losing lenders hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump responded that he was shrewd for using “the laws of the country to my benefit” and has distanced himself from the Taj’s troubles, saying he never personally declared bankruptcy.
…
Trump responded that he was shrewd for using “the laws of the country to my benefit”
Precisely what we fear.
185 days a yr
It’s funny how academics need an endless stream of ME students to fund their tenure.
Why do you constantly deride academics? Is that intended as a lame attempt to muster an ad hominem attack?
Why do YOU draw first blood and then react with a wounded sniffle and take refuge in a pretentious latin term when someone bites back?
meh, I’ll let George Carlin explain it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuEQixrBKCc
“Why do YOU draw blood…”
I was talking about a political candidate, which you equated with a personal attack.
I didn’t realize that Trumplings had such thin skins!
No you weren’t. You were talking about Trump supporters, and it was “intended as a lame attempt to muster an ad hominem attack” on me. But keep on twistin’ away.
“It’s funny how Trumplings yammer on endlessly about The Donald’s money and financial independence”
It is not funny at all. Some of us think regulatory capture is a monstrous problem. It isn’t about Trump, or Bernie, it’s about the system that allows the Clintons to collect $150 million in payola and not even be embarrassed about it. It’s about 100 million people who are fed up with it.
We have two pretenders who are bringing this issue to the fore. One who doesn’t need the payola and one who wouldn’t know what to do with it. Together, this is a very large voice against corruption in the White House.
You can’t protect your precious little Hilly with childish insults.
I’m not a Hillary supporter. I’ll write another candidate of my choice if it is a Clinton-Trump showdown.
because he’s funding his own campaign ??
At the same time selling hats, tee-shirts and charging admission to his events….LOL…Barnum & Baily…
What’s wrong with that?
Nothing wrong with that…the carnival barker image fits perfectly!
because he’s funding his own campaign ??
If we can trust Trump because he’s so rich he doesn’t need more money or outside funding, then surely we can trust every word of the much wealthier Warren Buffet or George Soros.
Buffy and Sore-O’s aren’t running.
*THINK Lola*
aren’t running.
All the more reason to trust them.
THink, little robot.
Presidential election Lola. Stay on topic.
The guy that tells you what you want to hear to make the sale.
Trumplings are so stupid.
Not just immigration, but donorism, globalism, 9/11 and the Iraq war, not to mention the current conflict in Syria. Trump brought up all those issues. Even if he loses, he wins, because as he’s said, he has a movement. And the misery that was once the US will have to hear his loud mouth intoning “I told you so” over and over, ad nauseum.
If he loses, he’d have to stay involved in politics in some way to have a movement. If he just goes back to his business, his movement will shrivel up and blow away.
Mr. Trump is your next president so I don’t think you have to be concerned about him going anywhere.
You are voting for an admitted surveillance state tyrant. You are despicable that you will welcome severe slavery in exchange for not seeing brown skinned people in your city.
Social Justice Hoarder?
http://architecturaltrend.com/tiny-homeowners-insurance-quotes/?utm_source=gemini&utm_campaign=AT-Tinyhouse1C-0215&utm_term=tinyhouse2&utm_content=31736047091
por que Tiny House
why don’t they just buy a used travel trailer for 10k $
why don’t they just buy a used travel trailer for 10k $
Yup, tiny homes are yet another extravagant fad.
Why not?
Because tiny homes present an opportunity to be trendy AND pious.
A Prius serves the same purpose.
pious vs hindsite
the best South Park episode ever
How long is this short covering rally going to last? Seems we have had perpetual short covering rallies. Just when it looks like all hell could break lose someone is wheeled out to talk about more stimulus. It was Bullards turn this week. LMAO
walmart missed on revenue and operating earnings continue to crater. Looks like those dollar stores are cutting into sales.
EPS always seems to beat depending how many shares were bought back in the quarter.
Kmart is liquidating a store locally. I went in there last week and even with the sale prices the cr@p was overpriced. Bankruptcy soon as the execs bleed off the cash from the real estate sale. Must be one hell of a party going on for the big wigs.
PONZI?
I’m writing in WEBB/PAUL
or Ben
Trump should look a Webb. Might boost his crossover appeal.
I think if he made it, Scott Brown would be the veep pick, but it’s just a guess.
Palin
Is Sarah Palin good strumpet material still?
Brown seems moderate enough to have some crossover appeal but I’ve been through enough election cycles with him to know that many on the left think of him as an extremist, or at least know how to portray him as one. Still, not the worst choice though.
I guess they did, I was shocked they elected Shaheen over him in NH. Shaheen and Ayotte gotta go.
Trump should look a Webb ??
Former secretary of the Navy align with Trump ??…Little thing called “integrity” that tells you that has zero chance…
Heh heh…
He became a democrat so his integrity is not infinite.
Ruh-roh, Rorge. Here we go:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-18/turkey-blames-kurds-assad-terrorist-attack-vows-swift-response
Moments after a massive explosion rocked Ankara on Wednesday, we said the following: “Expect this to be pinned on either ISIS or the PKK. If it’s the latter, Ankara will once again claim that the group is working in concert with the YPG and that will be all the evidence Erdogan needs to march across the border.”
Man Undressing in Women’s Room Cites Transgender Rule
By Eric Scheiner | February 17, 2016 | 2:16 PM EST
The Seattle Parks and Recreation department is facing an obstacle regarding gender bathroom rules.
According to KING-TV, a man undressed in a women’s locker room on February 8, citing a new state rule that allows people to choose a bathroom based on gender identity.
Seattle Parks and Recreation says a man wearing shorts entered the women’s locker room at Evans Pool and took off his shirt. Women alerted staff, who told the man to leave, but he said, “the law has changed and I have a right to be here.”
Employees claim the man made no verbal or physical attempt to identify as a woman, yet he still cited a new rule that allows bathroom choice based on gender identification.
The man later returned a second time while young girls were changing for swim practice. No arrests were made, according to the KING-TV report.
A Seattle Parks spokesman says they’re still working on the issue. At this time there’s no specific protocol for how someone should demonstrate his or her gender in order to access a bathroom.
My betters inform that any objection to this is racist.
It’s a stretch of a narrative, but when you’re a progressive you get to lump Dred Scott, W.E.B. DuBois, Rosa Parks, etc all together with the brave, brave warriors in the struggle against cisgender patriarchal oppression.
Listen to your betters.
Any objection would be LGBTQIAP-ist!
Know your narrative. Know the structure of your narrative.
Involuntarily being chained to the bottom of a boat, hauled across the Atlantic Ocean, forced to pick cotton for generations, subjected to another century of segregation and systemic racist violence, is the absolute moral equivalent of being born male and choosing to wear women’s panties.
The reason they’re called betters is because they’re better than you.
What about the heterosexual guy who’s willing to put on women’s panties and pretend to be transgender for the chance to look at the naked babes? How does he fit the narrative from our betters?
What about the guy who dresses and looks more or less like a woman? How do we screen them out? Genital checks at the door?
When you think about it, in a world where everyone is carrying a digital camera or two at almost all times, we either need to get comfortable with our bodies or get stalls in all locker rooms and public restrooms.
I don’t think it is reasonable to expect sixteen year old girls to “get comfortable” with the boys of the same age looking at their naked bodies. Would President Obama be fine with teenage boys sharing the locker room with his daughters?
If most 16 year old girls are like mine when they were sixteen, they will just kick the crap out of him…..
Recent -fixr conversation with 22 year old daughter:
“D”: “Dad, will you come bail me out of jail, if I beat the crap out of someone?”
-fixr: “No. You created the problem, you need to figure out how to address it”
“D”: “But DAAAAAAD!!!!!! They really deserve it!”
Would President Obama be fine with teenage boys sharing the locker room with his daughters?
Some daughters are more equal than others.
If most 16 year old girls are like mine when they were sixteen, they will just kick the crap out of him…..
You mean like how the ladies in Cologne kicked the crap out of Frau Merkel’s “rapefugees”?
Oh wait, they didn’t.
That was a cultural misunderstanding.
“What about the guy who dresses and looks more or less like a woman? How do we screen them out? ”
You have one or two separate unisex bathrooms for wheelchairs and between-genders. End of story.
And as I explained the other day (and you didn’t answer that either), stalls are not an answer. There is no way to wall off everything that happens in a locker room, unless you create dozens of separate 5×8 baths. That goes far beyond reasonable accommodation for anyone.
And btw one man’s “getting comfortable with your body” is another woman’s peeping tom, stalker and potential rapist. Which one are you, oddfellow?
“You have one or two separate unisex bathrooms for wheelchairs and between-genders. End of story.”
That’s genderist!
Just filled the tank with Costco regular at $2.159 a gallon. I don’t remember the last time gas was this affordable, but it has been years.
Why do the central bankers want to drive the price of affordable gasoline skyward, just when I have started stimulating the economy by spending all the extra cash left over after buying gasoline?
Just wait for what is coming…
Elections have consequences.
—————-
January 28, 2016
Urinating and drinking in public would no longer be treated as crimes under a package of bills New York’s City Council will consider to ease enforcement of quality-of-life offenses that lawmakers say clog the courts and have been disproportionately enforced against minorities.
This also comes as the city is relaxing rules on public drug use, open alcohol container rules, public masturbation, and excessive noise in this sweeping “Criminal Justice Reform Act.”
Read more: http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/40005-2/#ixzz40X8pRDDC
http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/40005-2/
Singapore has caning for the small stuff
Seattle Parks and Recreation says a man wearing shorts entered the women’s locker room at Evans Pool and took off his shirt. Women alerted staff, who told the man to leave, but he said, “the law has changed and I have a right to be here.”
So much for that not ever happening.
Could be an agent provocateur.
Here’s a narrative on conflicting formats of Sky Wizardry that you rarely see:
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/02/17/donald-trump-ill-be-neutral-between-israelis-palestinians/
40% of the Republican primary electorate are Evangelical Christians. These people interpret the teachings of Christ (the Prince of Peace, BTW) with a rabid bloodlust to drop bombs on anybody brown. They believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old, and that only after all of the Jewish people are gathered into Israel, will they all be selfishly Raptured.
Neocons gonna neocon (and get rich in the process), and Christian Zionists are just cannon fodder to “secure the realm.”
They believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old, and that only after all of the Jewish people are gathered into Israel, will they all be selfishly Raptured.
How are they gonna get all the wealthy Jews who live in West LA to move to Israel?
Who cares! I’m still combing through the Bible looking for the narrative about the Rapture. I learned that I shouldn’t eat shellfish, shouldn’t have sex with my sister, and that women shall be exiled to a tent outside of the village in their time of uncleanliness. I read about some burning bushes and some loaves and fishes too, but I couldn’t find the part about the Rapture in there anywhere…
You probably got one of those *old school* bibles from a thousand years ago. Bah. You need a version more applicable to today’s times, like The Message Bible.
Oh, and if you’re still at the unclean tent part, you’ll be reading for a while. Might want to skip ahead a bit.
The Saudi-Russian oil deal is worthless.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/02/17/the-saudirussia-oil-deal-is-worthless-heres-why/
This is hilarious:
“The Internet once again exploded in outrage Wednesday after a San Francisco tech entrepreneur wrote an open letter complaining that homeless “riff raff” were turning the city into an “unsafe” and filthy “shanty town.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/18/s-f-tech-bro-writes-open-letter-to-mayor-i-shouldnt-have-to-see-the-pain-struggle-and-despair-of-homeless-people/
The most Democrat Party city in the most Democrat Party state, LOLZ.
And here’s a repost about the most progressive utopia in Region IX:
http://m.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Human-waste-shuts-down-BART-escalators-3735981.php
Sigh, forward.
Pure comedy gold.
This dude in the toga/cape was doing some community organizing on the Venice Beach boardwalk while I was eating breakfast last week:
http://imgur.com/lPMVWkS
I took a walk along Ocean Ave in Santa Monica. The grass between the sidewalk and the dirt path next to the cliff above the PCH is all brown and dead and covered in garbage. I counted over a hundred people who appear to be homeless sitting sleeping smoking etc in less than 30 minutes.
If I was a homeless schizophrenic I’d probably want to live there too. The sun always shines, it never rains, and everything is free.
homeless people are so lucky!!
The most Democrat Party city in the most Democrat Party state, LOLZ.
It might be Berkeley.
Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley …images:
https://www.google.com/search?q=homeless+telegraph+avenue&biw=1360&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiCh_r-x4HLAhUL22MKHfYaA7kQ_AUICCgD
Some useless personal trivia regarding Telegraph Ave…
The Hate Man
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_Man
Years ago I was walking down Telegraph Ave and when I passed this guy he said to me:
“I hate you”
Well, that stopped me. So then I asked:
“Why do you hate me. You don’t even know me.”
“I don’t hate you. I love you.”
“Then why did you say you hated me.”
“Because if I said I loved you you you would have kept on walking. But instead, here you are, talking to me.”
After this I found myself a seat on a bench and sat down to watch as he interacted with most everyone who passed by.
Interesting guy: No matter what position you took in a discussion he would take the opposite position and argue successful - very successfully - in defending his position.
An article, with a picture …
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Homeless-ex-reporter-opted-for-Berkeley-streets-3192690.php
“No matter what position you took in a discussion he would take the opposite position and argue successful - very successfully - in defending his position.”
One of the first things they teach you in a debating class…how to argue a case you don’t necessarily agree with. That’s why when you see an eloquent person steam rolling over someone in a debate you have to ask yourself “is this person right or is he/she just more talented at making convincing arguments?”.
Boston.
From the complaining letter in question: “The residents of this amazing city no longer feel safe.”
Simple solution for those unsafe-feeling “residents” - move to western ND. Plenty of unused facilities and weather tends to keep the riff-raff out. Real estate is far, far cheaper than in SF.
lol, in other news, I understand Apple is going to relocate to the Malheur National Wildflife Refuge in Oregon.
Yeah, they’ve got the same problems there.
Firearms, explosives and trench of human feces found at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, feds say
Investigators so far have found firearms, explosives, spoiled food and a trench of human feces at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, federal prosecutors said.
The FBI is expected to take 21 days to complete processing “crime scenes” at the federal property in Harney County, which includes 24 structures and an outdoor camping area, the prosecutors wrote in court records filed Tuesday.
The FBI Evidence Response Team began its work last Friday. The team initially found “significant amounts” of human feces in and around the outdoor camping area and “large food stores that are spoiling” in living quarters on the refuge outside Burns, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ethan Knight and Geoffrey Barrow wrote.
Federal officials have found two large excavated trenches and an “improvised road on or adjacent to grounds containing sensitive artifacts,” the prosecutors wrote.
“At least one of these trenches contains human feces,” according to Knight and Barrow.
The prosecutors also noted that “the FBI is concerned that vehicles and buildings may be booby trapped.”
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/02/firearms_explosives_and_trench.html
Is there a Western in which the “heroes” ride into town, totally f it all up, and leave?
“Is there a Western in which the “heroes” ride into town, totally f it all up, and leave?”
High Plains Drifter.
Mordecai!
Whenever we have stock market rallies it seems most of the buying is from short covering.
Seems like the powers that be keep helping to create them with stimulus hopes.
Just sitting here evaluating the situation we have had like 7 years of this.
It really seems the short covering is a floor under the market.
Can the market really crash with them constantly being forced to cover?
Can hopes of more stimulus keep shorts on the ropes?
I see two options for a crash:
Most of shorts are forced out of the market and thus there are very few left to create short covering rallies.
Central bank stimulus calls wear off and real selling ensues and shorts are not constantly forced to cover.
“Options for a crash”
Don’t miss the fundamental disconnect between the real economy and the euphoric stock market.
that hasn’t mattered in this whole run up. Terrible economic news and stocks keep levitating.
What happens to interest rates when foreign “investors” stop buying US debt?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-why-speculation-that-china-is-mass-selling-us-treasurys-could-be-true-2016-02-17
FWIW, China is the one with the capital flight problem.
Problem is China doesn’t have any capital.
It’s interesting how dead it gets here in the evenings. Almost like lazy unionized government workers or SLPC paid shills leave their work computers heading home at 3:30-4.
SPLC paid shills
They’re still working past 4pm. The troll farm team leads know that HBB is a morning blog, so the SPLC employees move on to Twitter and Facebook for 2nd shift.
Free Red Bull and M&M’s in the troll farm break room means they never slow down.
Where is all this peace cr@p I keep hearing about?
Muslim Refugees Welcomed to Canada With Call to “Destroy” the Enemies of Islam
Pro-ISIS Imam: “Strengthen the mujahideen….let them hit their targets”
Infowars.com - February 18, 2016
Muslim refugees arriving in Alberta, Canada were welcomed by a pro-ISIS hate preacher who called for the destruction of enemies of Islam and prayed for jihadists to “hit their targets”.
The speech took place during an event hosted by the Alberta Islamic Welfare Association to welcome Syrian refugees arriving in Canada.
The speaker, Shaban Sherif Mady, has previously advocated the return of the Caliphate and for Islamists to conquer Europe, the very same goal shared by ISIS. He also called on Allah to “annihilate” anyone who opposed this plan.
During his speech to welcome the refugees, Mady struck a similar tone;
“Oh Allah, strengthen the mujahideen everywhere! Make their hearts firm and strong, let them hit their targets. Give them victory over their enemies.”
“Oh Allah, destroy the oppressors! Oh Allah, destroy your enemies, the enemies of religion (Islam).”
“Oh Allah, whoever wishes good for Islam and the Muslims bestow all goodness upon him.”
“Oh Allah, whoever wishes ill for us and wishes ill for Islam and the Muslims, make his plot (tied) around his neck, make him preoccupied with himself, and make his plan cause his own destruction.”
In another video, Mady likens Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Ashama ibn-Abjar, a king who betrayed his own peopled before converting to Islam. Mady thanks Trudeau for “removing the suspicion that terrorism is related to Islam” (while simultaneously calling for terrorists to “hit their targets”).
As we previously highlighted, this is not the first time that Muslim migrants arriving in Canada have been welcomed under alarming circumstances.
Members of a school choir were asked to sing a song to welcome 163 newly arrived refugees back in December. The song celebrates Muhammad’s arrival in Medina after he forced Christians to convert to Islam under threat of death.
Justin Trudeau tweeted his approval of the song, despite the fact that it refers to a battle cited in the Koran, which calls on Muslims to fight and kill non-believers until they “pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”
The Jizya is a crippling tax on non-Muslims which is currently imposed on Christians in the Middle East by ISIS under threat of execution and taking their wives as sex slaves.
In summary; the children were basically singing a song that celebrates the subjugation and “submission” of Christians to Islam after thousands of Muslims migrated and took over a large portion of territory.
Syrian refugees in Alberta welcomed with prayer: destroy enemies …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86WRqU4pMKs - 156k - Cached - Similar pages
4 days ago .
Muhammed was 53 years old when he consummated the marriage with 9yo Aisha.
So you are saying Muhammed would blend right in, if he lived in the former states of the Confederacy?
The speaker, Shaban Sherif Mady, has previously advocated the return of the Caliphate and for Islamists to conquer Europe, the very same goal shared by ISIS. He also called on Allah to “annihilate” anyone who opposed this plan.
Wanna bet he’s on the dole?
Has Wall Street set a massive bear trap for unsuspecting greater fools?
Leading economic indicators fall for second month in a row
By Jeffry Bartash
Published: Feb 18, 2016 10:05 a.m. ET
Index drops 0.2% in January on falling stocks, higher claims
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A measure of leading economic indicators declined in January to mark the second straight decline, mainly because of falling stock prices and somewhat higher jobless claims last month.
The leading economic index dropped 0.2% to 123.2 last month, according to the nonprofit Conference Board.
…
Philly Fed index shows manufacturing contracts for sixth straight month
By Greg Robb
Published: Feb 18, 2016 9:36 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A early indication of manufacturing conditions in February indicated contraction for the sixth straight month, according to data released Thursday.
The Philadelphia Fed said its manufacturing barometer of regional manufacturing activity rose slightly to negative 2.8 from negative 3.5. That was slightly ahead of the MarketWatch-compiled forecast for negative 3.
Readings below zero indicate a contraction of activity.
Details of the report were “grim,” according to Omair Sharif, economist at Societe Generale.
The index for new orders sank to negative 5.0 from negative 1.9. the lowest level since November 2013. Shipments remained positive but slid to 2.5 from 9.6 in the prior month.
Steve Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, said the driving force for the weakness appears to be inventory measures.
“I believe that we are closer to the end than to the beginning of the inventory correction, but it is clearly still ongoing,” he said.
Inventories slipped to negative 17.1 in February. the lowest reading in almost three years, from negative 15.7 in the prior month.
The report’s reading on future expectations sank to the lowest level since November 2012.
…
MarketWatch dot com
Opinion: Longtime bull turned bear says S&P 500 could tumble 34.1%
By Howard Gold
Published: Feb 18, 2016 5:12 a.m. ET
Jim Stack also says the pain may last longer than many would expect
Jim Stack, president of Stack Financial Management: “Bear markets typically are not just a 20% decline. … [They] typically take back half or more of the previous bull market gain.”
If you were encouraged by stocks’ big rally that began last Friday and had catapulted the Dow Jones Industrial Average almost 800 points by Wednesday’s close, one longtime market bull has some cautionary words for you: Don’t be.
Jim Stack, president of Stack Financial Management and InvesTech Research, has been bullish since early 2009, sticking with stocks in the face of investors’ doubt and disbelief.
But he’s gotten more cautious over the past year, gradually lightening clients’ and subscribers’ recommended equity exposures. Now, the other shoe has dropped.
Last Friday, in his long-running InvesTech newsletter, he wrote: “Judging by the depth, duration, and broadening sector contribution to the ‘distribution’ in leadership, we must conclude that Wall Street is currently in a bear market.” “Distribution” is Wall Street-speak for “selling.”
“If it looks like one, walks like one, growls like one, then, yeah, we better assume there is one,” he told me in an interview Monday.
And it may be just the beginning, so stocks could fall more and the pain could last longer than many are ready for. The bear’s depth and duration will depend on whether the U.S. economy slips into recession.
Right now, Stack doesn’t see that happening, but several classic signs of a bear already are here:
• Daily volatility has spiked. “This is a war between the bulls and the bears … and so far the bulls are losing.”
• Margin debt peaked last spring and has been falling ever since. “Past peaks in margin debt have coincided with, or led, peaks in the stock market.”
• Many stocks already are in bear markets. Over 60% of the stocks in the S&P 500 Index are down 20% or more from their highs, and so are the small-cap Russell 2000 Index and Dow Jones Transportation Average. Bear markets in the Russell and Dow Transports haven’t preceded bear markets in the broader indexes “only three times in the past 35 years.”
• Stack’s proprietary indicator of buying and selling is flashing red. “Over the last couple of months, downside leadership, those stocks that were hitting their 12-month lows, has broadened out considerably to include pretty much the whole gamut of sectors,” he told me.
So how bad will it get?
That depends on whether we have a recession in the U.S.
…
MarketWatch dot com
Opinion: Negative interest rates set stage for next crisis, Stephen Roach says
By Stephen S. Roach
Published: Feb 18, 2016 11:44 a.m. ET
Central banks try to force banks to lend even though there’s no demand
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Project Syndicate) — In what could well be a final act of desperation, central banks are abdicating effective control of the economies they have been entrusted to manage. First came zero interest rates, then quantitative easing, and now negative interest rates — one futile attempt begetting another.
Just as the first two gambits failed to gain meaningful economic traction in chronically weak recoveries, the shift to negative rates will only compound the risks of financial instability and set the stage for the next crisis.
The adoption of negative interest rates — initially launched in Europe in 2014 and now embraced in Japan — represents a major turning point for central banking. Previously, emphasis had been placed on boosting aggregate demand — primarily by lowering the cost of borrowing, but also by spurring wealth effects from appreciating financial assets.
But now, by imposing penalties on excess reserves left on deposit with central banks, negative interest rates drive stimulus through the supply side of the credit equation — in effect, urging banks to make new loans regardless of the demand for such funds.
This misses the essence of what is ailing a post-crisis world. As Nomura economist Richard Koo has argued about Japan, the focus should be on the demand side of crisis-battered economies, where growth is impaired by a debt-rejection syndrome that invariably takes hold in the aftermath of a “balance sheet recession.”
Such impairment is global in scope. It’s not just Japan, where the purportedly powerful impetus of Abenomics has failed to dislodge a struggling economy from 24 years of 0.8% inflation-adjusted growth in gross domestic product. It’s also the U.S., where consumer demand — the epicenter of America’s Great Recession — remains stuck in an eight-year quagmire of just 1.5% average real growth. Even worse is the eurozone, where real GDP growth has averaged just 0.1% over the 2008-2015 period.
All of this speaks to the impotence of central banks to jump-start aggregate demand in balance-sheet-constrained economies that have fallen into 1930s-style “liquidity traps.” As Paul Krugman noted nearly 20 years ago, Japan exemplifies the modern-day incarnation of this dilemma. When its equity and property bubbles burst in the early 1990s, the keiretsu system — “main banks” and their tightly connected nonbank corporates — imploded under the deadweight of excess leverage.
But the same was true for over-extended, saving-short American consumers — to say nothing of a eurozone that was basically a levered play on overly inflated growth expectations in its peripheral economies — Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. In all of these cases, balance-sheet repair pre-empted a resurgence of aggregate demand, and monetary stimulus was largely ineffective in sparking classic cyclical rebounds.
This could be the greatest failure of modern central banking. Yet denial runs deep. then-Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan’s “mission accomplished” speech in early 2004 is an important case in point. Greenspan took credit for using super-easy monetary policy to clean up the mess after the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, while insisting that the Fed should feel vindicated for not leaning against the speculative madness of the late 1990s.
That left Greenspan’s successor on a very slippery slope. Quickly out of ammunition when the Great Crisis hit in late 2008, then-Fed Chair Ben Bernanke embraced the new miracle drug of quantitative easing — a powerful antidote for markets in distress but ultimately an ineffective tool to plug the hole in consumer balance sheets and spark meaningful revival in aggregate demand.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s famous 2012 promise to do “whatever it takes” to defend the euro took the ECB down the same path — first zero interest rates, then quantitative easing, now negative policy rates. Similarly, Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda insists that so-called QQE (quantitative and qualitative easing) has ended a corrosive deflation — even though he has now opted for negative rates and pushed back the BOJ’s 2% inflation target to mid-2017.
It remains to be seen whether the Fed will resist the temptation of negative interest rates. But most major central banks are clinging to the false belief that there is no difference between the efficacy of the conventional tactics of monetary policy — driven by adjustments in policy rates above the zero bound — and unconventional tools such as quantitative easing and negative interest rates.
…
If more money is coming into the stock market than is leaving, the general level of stocks will climb. The reverse is also true.
From yesterday:
>”Once you put your pocketbooks back in the closet and carry a wallet like the rest of us, you’ll understand.”
I usually carry a pocketbook but will occasionally carry a wallet in my pocket. It’s not unusual for me to wear clothing marketed for the other gender. It’s not a matter for ridicule and I’m not aware of any IRL.
More importantly it has nothing to do with Real Estate or Economics - the reasons I read this blog. Having graduated from Jr High ridicule seems irrelevant.
I have great respect for our host but am boggled that he allows ridicule and bullying on his blog.
Trumplings gonna trumple.
Just yesterday I compared the bits bucket to Monty Python’s argument sketch. I gave up on it completely and when I pondered getting rid of it, several posters implored me to maintain it as a way to keep the riff-raff away from the real blog. How many hours a day would you spend refereeing this mud-fest? It serves as a moat to collect the waste of timers away from my blog. For instance, today I have examined our good neighbors to the north, and the spectacular collapse of their 20 year + housing bubble. As one condo king said, it is a unique time. And I’m not going to spend it here.
Point taken.
“Point taken.”
palmetto
You’re not a Mudder.
Unfortunately I do tend to fling a little pooh in the prof’s direction, but only after he draws first blood.
So, why the prof and not russ, for example. Because I know where he’s coming from and am not entirely unsympathetic. He comes by his beliefs honestly. IMO, anyway. Some think he’s a lefty. Far from it, LOL.
That’s a good point Ben. Probably should restrict my reading to your topics. Occasionally there will be a nugget of interesting news in the bits bucket and you’ll re-post them occasionally which is appreciated but I understand you not wanting to devote much time to the mud-fest.
I celebrated 28 years of sobriety a couple of weeks ago, but this thread was still a…
buzzkill
Something that spoils or ruins an otherwise enjoyable event, esp. when in relation to ruining a drunken or drug-induced high.
We were having a great time at the party until Jim puked all over the floor. That was a major buzzkill.
Are you really sober if it’s been redirected as hatred of your fellow man?
Are you a rage-aholic?
First football and now sobriety?
Why don’t you stick to subjects you know about like men wearing dresses.
Does your sponsor know what you post?
Show me in the Big Book where it says the word “sponsor”.
You can’t because it isn’t there.
Once again Oddie, stick with what you know, men wearing dresses.
You created the Bits-Bucket about 10 years ago I believe Ben so as to keep the off topic comments out of the real estate related post that you provided…Maybe the bits has run its course…I can’t blame you for not wanting to moderate it or even read some of the stuff that gets posted..Going back to the fundamentals of why you started the blog makes sense if you choose to do that…
“It serves as a moat to collect the waste of timers away from my blog.”
The bits bucket is the World Wrestling Federation of the blog. Fake infotainment, signifying nothing, but it’s good fun.
Especially for people who create multiple names and have complete discussions with themselves.
Seek medical help HA. With Obamacare, there is no longer an excuse not to.
lol. You one-upped yourself. A charade better than your realtor funded “blog”.
You’re shameless.
HA and I are warring figments of a brilliant imagination. There is no Scrutinizer without HA. Thus it has always been, and always shall be.
And so am I my friend. And so am I. So let’s fix it ourselves starting right here.
Riviera Beach, FL Housing Market Craters; Prices Collapse 32% YoY As Declines Spread Nationally
http://www.zillow.com/riviera-beach-fl/home-values/
“And so am I my friend. And so am I. So let’s fix it ourselves starting right here.”
OK I’ll bite.
For one, Riviera Beach is the hood. Those $30k houses got pumped up to $300k during bubble one. I don’t know where the 32% YoY price drops come from but it is still probably not enough.
The house I bought in Jupiter Fl. for $190k 3 1/2 years ago can be sold for $300k this week by me without a Realtor. They have sucked four young couples into buying at these prices or higher with the dribble out the inventory plan that keeps the inventory low in decent hoods.
Although I think about selling because I have a 2005 feeling about things, the thought of paying a Deadbeat or corporate LL $800 to $1,000 a month more than i pay here for the same thing makes me sick. Not to mention the thought of living under the communist rule of another HOA.
Ben had a topic a week or so ago that included a Realtor from Greenwich saying the back country mega million mansions weren’t selling. The low end $1 million stuff in Old Greenwich/Riverside etc. like the house my parents paid $30k for in 1960 still are.
That’s all I got.
Now if you will excuse me, I am going to check 2 jobs on Palm Beach. I will check the Atlantic Ocean and make sure the sea level rise is still being absorbed by the parched earth while I am there.
I hope this post didn’t offend anyone.
“I don’t know where the 32% YoY price drops come from but it is still probably not enough.
Precisely. Irrespective of location.
Speaking of Greenwich, I sometimes lurk at this Greenwich area realtor’s blog:
https://christopherfountain.wordpress.com/
When there’s not much in the way of real estate to post about, he posts a lot of political stuff, though, (and for a while the saga of his dying son, who passed away not long ago) so you kind of have to scroll past it to get to the real estate stuff, which confirms the predicament the back country is in.
My family’s old house has been featured twice on the blog since I started lurking there.
I’m shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED what houses in Riverside and Old Greenwich are going for. Most other places they’d be like a tenth of the price or less.
The house I bought in Jupiter Fl. for $190k
If you paid more than $10 a square, you got reamed. And you’ll never recover.
Falling housing prices Lola. Falling housing prices.
Anacortes, WA Housing Prices Crater 5% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/anacortes-wa/home-values/
u can rent a house for $1000?
In my humble hood it’s $2500
And it costs $5000/month to buy it.
“u can rent a house for $1000?”
“$800 to $1,000 a month more than i pay here for the same thing”
My PITI $1,300 and change
Rent similar house in similar neighborhood $2,100 to $2,300
Sounds like both prices and rental rates have a long way to fall.
“My PITI $1,300 and change”
I said to someone who wanted to talk to me about buying a house the other day: “How would that math work if the price of the house fell just as the price of oil fell, both are bubbles.”
Of course that did not compute for them. This is the evil of a Fed sponsored housing bubble. High rent is a bitch, sponsored by cheap loans for the speculators. High house prices are a trap, also sponsored by low interest rates.
A decade into watching this fiasco through the HBB lense and I still wouldn’t touch high rent or high price with a 10 foot pole. I have only stepped to the side of either, to walk on the green grass rather than the parched and bloody well trodden path.
My understanding of the definition of “pocketbook” is that it is a non folding wallet (that often doubles as a checkbook) that can be stored in an inner pocket of a man’s business suit jacket.
Thanks for the redefining an established traditional definition of a word.
The debt pimps just redefined the word red into black.
This will explain it.
It’s European! - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d_VAWyCFE8 - 169k -
The only accouterment missing is a pink purse.
http://goo.gl/CN1dLE
The bits buckets is greatly instructive, it shows the weakness of some political arguments, revealed by their need to be insulting and harassing just to keep up their side in the debate.
You even have your own RageCage personalized with your name on it Lola.
Here’s an idea Lola…
Have you ever considered joining the conversation with the adults on the daily housing posts?
If you can keep yourself out of the RageCage and man up long enough, you might make your way over there. It might be… well…. rather therapeutic for you.
I actually like that… shows they got nothin’ and gives me free reign to abuse them. The day just isn’t complete without slapping down a trumpling.
And here comes Lolas cell mate.
Apple warms my heart. Just upgraded my Droid and now I am thinking of getting an IPhone as well because of its stand.
http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/
Donald Trump is a Nazi.
For all we know Apple is quietly giving the Feds the key to the back door while posturing.
However, Apple is telling the public that the public has the right to privacy. That is the most important part. Be a thorn in the side of the State. You have to look at the bright side. It is helping people realize their right and to not buckle down to Statists.
However, Apple is telling the public that the public has the right to privacy.
Talk is cheap.
I don’t think so Colorado…Its goes to the fundamental core of the brand….Why do the FED’s need to extract the info…Maybe let Apple engineers extract it and had it over to the FED’s…
Heh, exactly. Mr. Tim “I Offered My Kidney to Steve Jobs” is the biggest. tech diva. ever. Great marketing ploy, though. As beautifully demonstrated by SH above.
“I’m being audited by the IRS. What hoppen?”
“Somebody emptied my bitcoins account. Wha’ hoppen?”
Exactly. I always take anything a corporate spokesman says with a healthy dose of skepticism.
It’s like the old saying goes: How can you tell a salesman is lying? A: His lips are moving.
Well, you’ve got the battle scars from the tech industry, so you’ve got the cred.
“Well, you’ve got the battle scars from the tech industry, so you’ve got the cred.”
31 years in the software tech industry myself - in the trenches, embedded software. 15 of those years in encryption. I’m not naive bucko.
Well then, you should know better. You walked right into the diva trap.
I’m not saying Cook is wrong on what he says. What he actually does is another thing.
Well, here ya go, Colorado. It’s just like you said.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-18/it-all-just-publicity-stunt-apple-unlocked-iphones-feds-70-times
“On the surface, this appears like valiant attempt by the CEO of the world’s most valuable company to stand up against the Big Brother state made so famous in the aftermath of the Edward Snowden revelations.
However, a quick peek beneath the surface reveals something far less noble and makes Tim Cook seem like you average, if very cunning, smartphone salesman.”
“in other words, Apple’s stance in the San Bernardino case may not be quite the principled defense that Cook claims it is.”
“… it may have as much to do with public relations as it does with warding off what Cook called “an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers.”
After all, what better way to boost sagging iPhone sales for the company whose stock recently entered a bear market than by being constantly talked about in the media 24/7, a company which has taken on the admirable role of being the noble David taking on the evil Big Brother Goliath.”
“Said otherwise, the true trajedy here is not if Apple is engaging in another public relations stunt, but if the government - which is perfectly capable of extracting whatever information it wants from the iPhone - is actively aiding and abeting this cheap attempt to peddle more iPhones to the masses.”
And, apparently, it was successful, because Bill stepped right up to the plate, upgraded his droid and is thinking of getting an I-Phone.
But, “I’m not naive bucko.”
Actually, the true tragedy here is they misspelled tragedy.
Zerohedge has come out supporting fascist Trump a few weeks ago.
Even the Pope does not like the Christian Trump.
I hate to say this, because I was raised as a Catholic in a parish that didn’t have child molestation issues (in fact it had more problems with lonely housewives throwing themselves at attractive young priests, lol) and I still do have respect for the church in that I did get a pretty good elementary school education.
But I have to say that Francis is a very silly old man treading on some very thin ice here, interfering in the separation of church and state. First of all, the Catholic Church gets to operate tax free in the US, as a result of those laws. And it has some choice real estate, among other assets. Secondly, it rakes in billions from the US taxpayer, regardless of religion, through its Catholic Charities arm, which functions as a subcontractor to the State Department in settling thousands of “refugees” in the US, among other activities. That is charity forced on the American taxpayer. If Francis doesn’t STFU, someone just might decide to go all Henry the Eighth on his holy posterior.
And finally, please google the images of Vatican City on line. It has a YUUUGE wall around it. ” Pope on Trump: “A person who thinks only about building walls…is not Christian.”
Here’s Vatican City’s wall:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/97404164
FWIW, those walls were built during medieval times, when all cities had walls.
That said, AFAIK you don’t need to show a passport to enter.
yes, that’s when those walls were built. And the reasons they were needed then are much the same today.
I’m guessing you’re a practicing Catholic, and I don’t mean to offend you, but the Pope shouldn’t be living behind a wall and throwing stones at those who might prefer similar fortifications. Especially when enjoying the forced largesse of the American taxpayer. Just sayin’.
Back then the Muslims needed walls
Everybody needed walls. And had them. I was watching Andreas Viestad’s cooking show the other day on PBS, which he taped in and around some Norwegian town still heavily fortified from the medieval times. He mentioned that the Norwegians of those days were afraid of the Swedes. I guess this stuff comes full circle in time, although the Swedes they’re now afraid of are more likely to be called Mohamed than Sven.
I guess you haven’t seen ” Spotlight” yet.
Catholics are hypocrites! I can say this after 12 yrs of cath school.
Does China face a Keynesian nightmare of growing itself to oblivion?
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
China News
Overproduction Swamps Smaller Chinese Cities, Revealing Depth of Crisis
Beijing had hoped small cities like Suizhou would help drive the expansion of the middle class and sustain economic growth
Cement-mixer bodies are stored at Suizhou’s Hubei Aoma Special Automobile Co., a once-humming factory that is now all-but-defunct as orders have dropped off.
Photo: James T. Areddy/The Wall Street Journal
By James T. Areddy
Updated Feb. 17, 2016 10:16 p.m. ET
SUIZHOU, China—Even in China’s remotest places, relentless overproduction—here it is mushrooms and cement trucks—is clouding the country’s path to prosperity and jolting the global economy.
When 48-year-old farmer Yang Qun began trading at Suizhou’s bustling morning mushroom market a half decade ago, the fungus industry was expanding, even attracting a rural lending arm of British financial giant HSBC Holdings PLC. Ms. Yang saved enough to buy a minivan. When wet snow fell last month, she was settling for closeout prices to unload six bags of dried mushrooms that took a half year to cultivate.
For Xu Song, a clanging sound was once a welcome reminder that his 200 colleagues were busy pounding steel into the giant barrels used on cement trucks. On a recent day, he sat alone watching videos in an unheated office, the only worker left on an abandoned factory floor where dozens of rusting barrels were stacked like multi-ton footballs.
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“The decline was steep,” says Mr. Xu, standing inside the all-but-defunct Hubei Aoma Special Automobile Co. factory, where he was hired to do quality control. “I don’t know what had really happened to us.”
Beyond the glut of steel and apartments that weighed down growth in recent years, China’s economy is also saturated with surplus goods from farms and factories. Numerous small and midsize cities such as Suizhou, which boomed on easy credit and government support for agribusiness and construction, were supposed to provide the second wave in China’s growth story. Instead they are now sputtering, wearing down prices, profits and job opportunities.
The struggles in Suizhou show how China’s slowdown is broad and deep and hard to fix. It has fueled volatile market trading around the world and has contributed to anxiety about potentially stalled U.S. growth. Domestic overproduction means China is now spending less overseas, while businesses that sell to China are bracing for possible protectionist moves aimed at propping up local companies. And with Chinese demand at risk, its industrial giants with idle capacity are looking to capture market share abroad, including construction and railway equipment makers.
The government has made a priority of eliminating “zombie companies,” kept alive with loans to produce unneeded goods, to clear the path for more vibrant parts of the economy. The squeeze won’t be easy because in small, remote places such as Suizhou, overbuilt industries are often the economic backbone.
Chinese manufacturing remained slack in January, including the weakest reading for the government’s official purchasing managers index since August 2012. Chinese steel production fell last year for the first time in over three decades. Bank and utility credit grades are getting cut, as rating firms do math that suggests looming debt problems.
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I always thought the notion that China would someday grow a real middle class and eat its own dog food and not be utterly dependent on ever expanding exports to be risible.
LOL, me, too. Never. gonna. happen.
What I’m waiting for is the call for “reparations” from the US, for ruining their environment. I think that trial balloon has already been floated, but I expect to hear the call get louder and louder.
Labor Force Participation Rate Plummets To 37 Year Low; Jobless Population Soars To Record High
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
we are in a recovery!
Remember Az_Donk….. A ‘recovery’ is falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels by definition.
we recovered!
10% unemp to 5%
gas is under $2.
Apple reports a quarterly profit of $18.4 billion, the largest in history!
Record high unemployment doesn’t seem like a recovery my friend.
Quote today from Dave Kranzler at Investment Research Dynamics…..
“I truly believe the technically insolvent status of the country’s fifth largest State” (ILLANNOY) “is a lot more relevant to our collective lives than is the latest episode of The Jerry Springer Show Trump vs. Rubio vs. Cruz vs. Clinton “reality” TV show.”
Reality TV it is - the whole band of republicrat candidates is nothing more than that. What an F…..ing joke this whole cycle is. And what a sad example of what our nation has become. There are no more statesmen. Period.
what a crazy article. there ain’t no flipping going on.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/18/house-flipping-deja-vu-all-over-again.html
And you thought there were loads of fraud with the tsunami of subprime mortgages 2009-2015?
Nothing like doubling down on the housing crime wave.
“Brandt’s company spends millions on marketing, building a strong national brand so that they can find sellers more easily. While Las Vegas is hot, he said investors are making the most money in Los Angeles — that is if they have deep pockets. Investors there are flipping multimillion-dollar properties, so the rewards are therefore greater. ”
Pacific Palisades.
Debt undermines your best wealth building tool: Your income.
Back to the fundamentals- Construction costs at $55/sq ft(lot, labor, materials and profit).
What reason exists that compels an individual to pay 2x, 3x (or more) construction cost for a used up depreciating asset like a house?
What about permits and utils? Some states want $30k +
Wrong again. Besides its been discussed over and over.
How much rent does an empty skull bring in these dayz?
Housing prices in my neighborhood have simmered down from last summer. The same floor plan as ours (just not as nice as ours) is listed at $500K. We still have “wiggle room” since we have watched our wallet fixing and modernizing. The haircut from the summer is $125K.
DIY may not be glamorous, but it sure keeps the costs down.
Sounds like shanty prices have long way to fall.
Stocks and homes are the backbone of the economy. Go buy a car and help support workers cheapo.
Data Az_Donk. Stick with the data.
Oakton, VA Housing Prices Collapse 21% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/oakton-va/home-values/
Crater rage comin to a town near you?
http://wwwtheworldandeverythinginit.blogspot.com/2016/02/angry-americans-story-of-failed.html
Trump’s balls are so big he kicks the Pope….. in the balls.
Now what is not to like??
great for the non-believers! But Trumps claims to be one.
At least he doesn’t have to pretend he has some.
Trump could not have paid for better publicity than The Pope starting a fight with him over immigration.
Won’t a bevy of America’s Catholics potentially strike the Donald off their list due to disrespectful behavior towards the Pontiff?
Oh, wait…I forgot The Donald can insult whomever however he wants without harming his popularity with American voters.
I suppose somebody like the Pope foolishly picking the wrong side of the immigration issue might hurt Trump with some, but it will help him with far more.
You are rabidly blind to reality because of your hate. And your love, love for open borders, as this post defending the pope’s open borders philosophy clearly shows.
“Professors” in the tank for Hillary.
Another day. Another day to save cash!
N.W.A. — Straight Outta Compton (full album):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOsLz7S5xww
Region IX
It’s Thursday? I should be listening to some Kinks or Byrds or David Bowie. Instead this, for Black History Month, Ice Cube — AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blrwIyzPL-M
Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye
Notorious B.I.G. — Ready To Die:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jkGLlqKukQ
Hillary defended a child-rapist, then laughed about getting him off on a technicality.
http://freebeacon.com/politics/hillary-clinton-speaks-about-defense-of-child-rapist/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/variety-factors-prevent-workers-working-longer-094113151.html