Bits Bucket for March 17, 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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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Hanovers bad, duPonts good.
Happy St Patricks Day to you!
Irish Americans were traditionally excluded from the Social Register, but they can marry into it.
“Social Register”
“I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” - Groucho Marx
Some clubs you just have to be born into:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke%27s_Peerage
Downton Abbey is the most popular show among the olds in Lake Forest.
And the longest and hardest pimpathon in the history of PBS.
I give credit where it is due. Masterfully dispensing of visual crack to a certain elderly female demographic. It is silver and stemware porn.
I don’t understand the appeal of that show.
I watched two episodes - massive cast, no depth.
Never watched it. Sounds like a retread of the old “Upstairs, Downstairs” show.
I initially found “Sherlock” to be intriguing, but it got old.
If you watched two episodes, its not surprising you didn’t see any depth.
Narcos, is good.
The UK version of “House of Cards” is old but excellent, all 3 seasons are available on Netflix. “Shameless” UK is great too though subtitles are a must due to the thick Mancunian accents…the last few seasons are garbage but the early stuff is fantastic and VERY funny at times, also on Netflix streaming.
(I didn’t care for the American version of either show)
Watched “Man Up” on Netflix last night. An excellent Brit flick staring that guy who was in Shawn of the Dead and a very watchable female. Gave it five stars.
Erin go Bragh
I think this now has a different meaning given the 55 mil that Erin whatever her name is got for the peeping tom vids of her being naked in that hotel room?
That would be…
Erin Andrews go Braless
Ya Baby - that is her!!!
Just perfect.
good tea
I doff my cap to you, sir. Well played.
I recently read China is much more similar to Japan because they both have huge currency reserves!
I wonder if China will ultimately have a Lost Decade, like Japan did from 1991-2000?
It seems like the US is still struggling to come out of the 2006 bubble bust, which gives us our own Lost Decade…..an maybe now a Lost Two Decades……like Japan through 2010!
Do I hear Three Lost Decades? That is half my life.
Did Japan’s lost decade ever really end?
Japan’s Lost Decade.
IMO this is worth a close read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decade_(Japan)
from the link….
“Expressed as a percentage of the Japan’s GDP, at 240% Japan has the highest level of debt of any nation on earth.”
There are so many things wrong with the Japanese economy. One way to help mend it would be an open society and a healthy immigration policy…..but that will not happen.
Yes importing millions of impoverished third worlders is exactly what Japan needs.
They don’t need more people, they need to break down the self imposed stupid policies where the young make junk wages at make work jobs in giant crummy cities where the cost of living is high and the quality of life is low. They have beautiful countryside but few jobs there, and very little housing is built in the nice parts of the country. People are depressed there, you can see it in their faces, in their media, etc. Thats where the US is headed if we don’t break down the insane monopolies making the cost of housing, education and health care skyrocket. The US is even worse in that we have entire classes of parasites and import even more from the third world turning the country into a hellhole.
We are there.
what happens when gov saves you
Isn’t China’s lost decade already underway?
“China is much more similar to Japan…”
An elephant is much more similar to a chipmonk.
“the US is still struggling to come out of the 2006 bubble bust…”
This could get you into trouble, not realizing that the bust was never allowed to happen. What lies ahead may take you by surprise.
not realizing that the bust was never allowed to happen ??
No ?? January 1, 2008 unemployment rate was 5%….12 months later, January 1 2009 the unemployment rate was 9.5% and heading higher…
Lehman collapsed…GM was basically going under and would take with it all of the businesses that supply GM…AIG was going down…The underwater mortgages throughout the country was on the cusp of taking the entire financial system down…
The carnage was everywhere…The systemic effect would have sent our country and the world for that matter into a depression….SS, Medicare would have collapsed…
GWB….”This Sucker Could Go Down”…..
I won’t argue what caused the events…We all know there was rampant fraud on many fronts and the perpetrators never paid the appropriate price…But to sit back and suggest that we should have just let the whole country implode suggest a serious character flaw IMO…I guess, when you are in the position your are in, living on a boat with everything you need or want it maybe easy to just say let it go down…I don’t GAS…
Lehman collapsed
Their CEO never went to prison. Watch some clips of him testifying before Congress on C-SPAN if you feel like throwing up inside your mouth today:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_S._Fuld,_Jr.
Their CEO never went to prison ??
A lot of people did not go to prison that should have….
True story because I was given the info first hand will keep it short…A couple guys start and runs mortgage company in Silicon Valley about 7 years…They are bundling & selling mortgages at a frantic pace…Sell the mortgage company to wall street financiers for right at 100-mil I believe around 2006…Now times these two guys by how many mortgage companies across the country…
Orange County was full of these companies. And speaking of Orange, Countrywide up in Calabasas too.
I don’t watch much TeeVee, but what is that commercial for Quicken Loans about? Is it an actual smartphone app to get a mortgage?
Countrywide up in Calabasas too ??
What about WaMu….
Is it an actual smartphone app to get a mortgage ?
I have heard it also…Not sure but it sound like a “on-line” application & approval…
Is it an actual smartphone app to get a mortgage?
I guess it is, for the “home buyer” on the go. Mr. Banker does his best to make debt acquisition easy with the virtual dotted line.
“Press button, get mortgage” is how the commercial goes.
Reminds me of the button pressing hospital admission scene in Idiocracy.
Some people won’t be happy, sc, until they get a free house!
“a serious character flaw IMO…”
We’ve heard this idea that the world would have ended if a general liquidation had proceeded. It is inevitable so we will find out eventually. Now we are in a more fragile position than before. Hopefully this does not bother you.
read the “let it all go speech” by Andrew Mellon
it worked
what we have now is turning Japanese
25 MILLION excess, empty and defaulted houses CHECK
Housing demand at 20 year lows and falling CHECK
Housing prices inflated by 250% CHECK
Household formation at multi decade lows CHECK
Rampant housing fraud CHECK
A media corrupted by the housing industry CHECK
Population growth the lowest in US history CHECK
Immigration flat to slightly negative CHECK
What were you saying about housing?
What were you saying about housing?
“Get on the property ladder with a no income/no document/no downpayment government guaranteed loan at historically low interest rates. Buy the biggest house you can. It is a no-risk way to make money and achieve the American dream.”
It’s time to brace for a second ‘lost decade’ as the post-Lehman recession drags on
Attempts to wean the global economy off government life support haven’t worked
PUBLISHED : Friday, 04 March, 2016, 4:32pm
UPDATED : Friday, 04 March, 2016, 5:03pm
David Dodwell
From last week’s G20 in Shanghai, to our APEC Business Advisory Council meetings in San Francisco, the messages from economists and the world’s economic policymakers alike seem unanimous: that the world’s economy has taken a dangerous turn for the worse.
I would not dare to disagree – but I am still perplexed at the disingenuity and denial at the heart of efforts to explain why we are in our current pickle – in particular in the US where the terrible post-2008 recessionary journey began.
As if we need to be reminded, we are now close to eight years into the Great Recession that has followed the Lehman crash in 2008, and are soon formally likely to acknowledge a “lost decade”. And unless policymakers in places like the US begin properly to admit true causes, I fear we may be into a second decade before we can see confident evidence of recovery.
For me, the analytical problem starts right back in 2008, when Lehman’s collapse threw the global economy into cardiac arrest. After recognising that the immediate crisis had been caused by the crazy collateralization of huge volumes of sub-prime mortgage loans, Ben Bernanke laid the foundations for unprecedented Quantitive Easing in order to bail out the banking institutions that had created the crisis. [A file photo from 2009 showing a group of protesters burned by the so called mis-selling of Lehman Brothers-linked financial products hold placards demanding their money back outside the Bank of China headquarters in Hong Kong. Photo: AFP]
The assumption seemed to be that the crisis that engulfed us was a product of panic, and that if enough money was flushed into the economy, and interest rates lowered far enough, then what was essentially a psychological crisis could be resolved, allowing the pre-2008 party to resume.
From my contrarian perspective, this was profoundly wrong: the message from 2008 was that a significant proportion of the “growth” recorded in our GDP numbers since the mid-1990s had not been growth at all. Rather, it had been an orgy of interbank collateralization activity which had given the appearance of growth, had massively enriched those in the financial sector that were driving the orgy, and which had little to do with any traditional banking role of funding real growth in real companies in the real economy. It had been a bankers’ Ponzi scheme of gigantic proportions. In short, much of the giddy growth and apparent wealth we had recorded since the early 1990s had never occurred in the first place, and at some point would need to be written down. Many in the US even today seem reluctant to acknowledge this.
With the global economy in cardiac arrest, quantitative easing was used as life support. The assumption then appeared to be that if they dealt with the panic, and recovery would occur naturally. They seemed not to recognise that life support systems can only buy you time, but they do nothing to deal with the root cause of the cardiac arrest.
From this point of view, the Federal Reserve’s first quarter-point upward tweak in interest rates in December was a first tentative effort to turn off life-support, and to discover whether the patient was able to survive unsupported. The message so far is resoundingly no – and this is the alarming insight that in my view has spooked the markets since December.
…
They are still kicking the can down the road.
Techniques for dilution, misdirection, and control of an internet forum:
http://imgur.com/RnoZnqE
I just use my satellite mind ray to send messages to the radio the CIA secretly implanted in your nostril.
“Potential” housing crisis dead ahead:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/17/potential-housing-crisis-dead-ahead/
Potential?
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush
….from the link…
“….That could mean the rapidly inflating real-estate bubble is headed toward another crisis…..”
I thought real estate was already cratering. Evidently it is still rising rapidly. Whocuddanode?
Are you sure?
US Housing Demand Plummets To 20 Year Low
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0q8fIAsczFk/VUANHEhSbnI/AAAAAAAAjRs/oANwXOUviGw/s1600/MBAApr292015.PNG
Patricius: The True Story of St. Patrick
Before all the festivities focused on shamrocks and leprechauns and good luck wishes, there was truly something to celebrate: a man willing to stand in the gap for Jesus Christ.
It was an act of defiance that changed the course of a nation. Patrick lit a fire in pagan 5th century Ireland, ushering Christianity into the country. Who was this man who became the patron saint of Ireland?
Ireland was a beautiful island shrouded in terrible darkness. Warlords and druids ruled the land. But across the sea in Britain, a teen-ager was poised to bring this nation to God.
“Patrick was born into a Christian family,” says Philip Freeman, author of St. Patrick of Ireland. “His father was a deacon; his grandfather a priest. But Patrick says that from an early age, he didn’t have any serious interest in religion and that he was pratically an atheist when he was a teenager.”
Around 400 A.D., Patrick was abducted from his village and thrown onto a slave ship headed for Ireland.
Patrick was sold to a chieftain named Milchu. He spent six years tending his master’s flocks on the slopes of the Slemish Mountain. Patrick recounts his time as a slave in his memoir entitled The Confession.
“He says, ‘I prayed a hundred times in the day and almost as many at night,’ ” says Rev. Brady, the Roman Catholic Archbiship of Armagh and Primate of All of Ireland. “Through that experience of prayer and trial, he came to know another God — God the Father, who was his protector. He came to know Jesus Christ in those sufferings, and he came to be united with Christ and he came to identify with Christ, and then of course, also the Holy Spirit.”
One night during a time of prayer and fasting, Patrick wrote: “I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me: ‘It is well that you fast. Soon you will go to your own country.’ And again, after a short while, I heard a voice saying to me: ‘See, your ship is ready.’ ”
Patrick eventually returned to his home and family. His experience of God’s grace and provision solidified his faith. He began to study for the ministry.
Patrick struggled in his soul. Could he return to Ireland and minister to the same people who had enslaved him? Once again, he turned to God in prayer. He received the answer in a dream.
“He talks about how he, in this dream, is trying to pray and yet he can’t,” says Freeman. “So he hears a voice coming from inside of him which he realizes is the voice of God praying for him.”
Patrick knew he had to go and convince his church that he was called to be a missionary to Ireland. He set sail in a small ship.
Patrick landed at the mouth of the Slaney River. When Patrick set foot on this shore, a new era dawned on this island.
“The Ireland of his day really wasn’t much different from the Ireland of a few years ago here where we are sitting here at this moment,” notes Most Reverend Dr. Robert Eames, Church of England Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland. “It was an Ireland of tribalism, an Ireland of war, an Ireland of suspicion, an Ireland of violence and death. Here he came as a virtual stranger to this country of warring factions.”
“They worshipped multiple gods of the sky and the earth and the water,” says Freeman. “And so that was his first challenge: to convince the Irish that there was only one God and that his God really did love them.”
Patrick came face to face with the chieftains and their druid priests. The showdown came on the morning of his first Easter in Ireland.
The weather can be absolutely brutal here in Ireland. But just imagine how it must’ve been for Patrick in the 5th century as he trekked across the countryside bringing the Gospel to the pagan Celts.
“People sometimes made fun of him because he said that God often gave him a message there was danger ahead,” says Freeman. “But, he said, ‘Laugh at me if you will. This is something that has protected me in Ireland.’”
In 432 A.D., Patrick built a church on the site of the present day St. Patrick’s Memorial Church in Saul — the first ever Christian church in all of Ireland. It’s considered the cradle of Irish Christianity.
“Preaching the Gospel, of course, baptizing converts, confirming them, appointing clergy,” continues Calvert.
Patrick’s ministry lasted 29 years. He baptized over 120,000 Irishmen and planted 300 churches.
To this day, no one knows where Patrick is buried, but many believe that it is somewhere beneath the church on the hill at Down Cathedral.
Rev. Sean Brady concludes, “He was a man who came to face and help his former enemies who had enslaved him. He came back to help them and to do them a great favor — the greatest favor he possibly could.”
http://www1.cbn.com/churchandministry/patricius%3A-the-true-story-of-st.-patrick
Best way to stop a deranged criminal: a good guy with a gun.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/national/good-guy-gun-hailed-hero-after-killing-hatchet-wie/nqkFk/?icmp=cmgcontent_internallink_relatedcontent_2014_morepopularheadlines2
What do you get when you mix:
A country sitting on vast reserves of oil and natural gas
with “government can solve all are problems” socialism.
Well, at least they are not freezing in the dark.
———————
Venezuela to Shut Down for a Week to Cope With Electricity Crisis
Andrew Rosati - March 16, 2016 — Bloomberg
Venezuela is shutting down for a week as the government struggles with a deepening electricity crisis.
The government has rationed electricity and water supplies across the country for months and urged citizens to avoid waste as Venezuela endures a prolonged drought that has slashed output at hydroelectric dams. The ruling socialists have blamed the shortage on the El Nino weather phenomena and “sabotage” by their political foes, while critics cite a lack of maintenance and poor planning.
Venezuela has long suffered rolling blackouts that cripple public services and leave citizens in the dark for days at a time. The extended break seeks to further ease demand on Venezuela’s strained power grid and follows a forced reduction of hours at shopping malls and public institutions.
‘Murica is headed down the same road once the DNC imports enough lifetime entitlement voters to secure its permanent Democrat supermajority. Forward!
“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.” — Albert Einstein
Mexico has huge oil reserves. Yet the amount of remittances sent from north of the border is now more per year than they make on the oil. A 5-10 percent tax on remittances pays for a wall.
Mexican oil production has been tanking, mostly because the low hanging fruit is mostly gone and Pemex lacks the expertise (like say fracking) to go after the not so low hanging fruit.
Ehhhhh no.
There isn’t a market for Mexican crude due to the massive tax imposed on their exports. They’re not competitive. Further… Pemex is the most mismanaged organization on the globe due to it’s nationalized status.
Pemex is stockpiling crude.
Pemex=gov
What will Yellen the Felon do to levitate our Ponzi markets until after the elections to help the Democrats?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-16/yellen-defends-fed-as-non-partisan-over-campaign-contributions
We must embrace the blessings of multiculturalism.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/kurdish-woman-shot-dead-at-wedding-for-refusing-to-marry-her-cou/
Demand for suits is way down as the minimum-wage job openings in our Obama-Fed-Goldman Sachs “recovery” don’t require such attire.
http://www.businessinsider.com/jos-a-bank-has-disastrous-merger-2016-3
If you have to wear a suit, the job is pointless.
Gold soaring as a no-confidence vote in the Fed and its debauchery of the currency.
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/future/gold
No one wears suits anymore; not even Evang Pastors. Only executives and politicians still wear them.
My hangar maintenance guy graduated from R.N. school, and applied for a job he really wanted to get.
He didn’t have a suit. I loaned him one of mine. He later got the job.
We got laid off around this time. Didn’t see him for about three years. Had lunch with him a few months ago. He told me that after he had been there a year or so, his boss told him that he was hired, because he was the only applicant to show up for the interview wearing a suit.
Same deal with one of my daughter’s boyfriend’s. He was applying for 6-7 open positions against a few hundred other candidates. Even though it was an “outdoor” manual labor type job, I told him to wear the nicest jeans he had, a white or blue dress shirt, and a tie. He didn’t have a tie, so I gave him one.
He also got one of the open jobs. The guys doing the interview said he was the only applicant to show up wearing one.
The moral of the story? In this job environment, anything you can do to make yourself look more professional/distinctive/impressive than the herd, you gotta do.
Get ready for more taxpayer bailouts.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/energy-sector-defaults-could-go-like-dominos-2016-03-16
“Energy-sector bond defaults — and for some producers, bankruptcy risks — are piling up and coal liabilities aren’t the only culprit. Oil-and-gas producers, suffering with low crude prices after a shale revolution made the U.S. a viable energy producer, are smothered under their own junk bonds.”
The double whammy:
First up: Equity prices and thus equity values get destroyed immediately by Mr. Market. (Poof number one.)
Next up: Debt values get destroyed later on by write downs and defaults. (Poof number two.)
Poof number two will not happen if poof number one is seen as being temporary, but it is certain to happen if it is seen to be something that is long lasting, hence a difference, the difference, between a market dip and a major decline.
Meanwhile, gasoline is up 50 cents/gallon in my neck of the woods.
Not a good sign for your “neck of the woods”.
Remember…. Nothing accelerates the economy and creates jobs like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels. Nothing.
Yes the market is trying as hard as it can to rise and forget about all the bad news lately. Anyone else think this is just covering destroying shorts and letting the big players get out on the upside. I don’t get oil going up when inventory levels are still rising.
Will securitized auto loans be the next implosion in the financial system?
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/a-collision-is-coming-in-securitized-auto-debt/
As has been quoted in this blog in the past: You can sleep in your car but you can’t drive your house or apartment.
Since cars can be repo’d rather quickly (unlike a foreclosure) some will do whatever it takes to pay the monthly nut. Of course, if one is unemployed the inevitable outcome will be repossession.
The dollar is getting crushed against the yen, meaning the yen carry trade - one of the few gimmicks propping up our Ponzi markets - is going to blow up unless the BOJ intervenes to weaken the yen. Love watching these lunatic central bankers and their ill-considered chicanery.
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Currency/USDJPY?countrycode=US
Denmark named the world’s happiest country. Soros must fix this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/galleries/The-worlds-happiest-countries/
Godless commies
Factory jobs trickle back to the US. I had a feeling this would happen eventually.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/factory-jobs-trickle-back-to-the-us-giving-hope-to-a-once-booming-mill-town/2016/03/16/5647cd7a-e4a3-11e5-b0fd-073d5930a7b7_story.html
Factory jobs trickle back to the US. I had a feeling this would happen eventually ??
It won’t happen in any significant way until congress gets off its obstructionist a$$ and deals with the issues of the day…Makes you wonder if Hilary were to win, and they did not lose the senate or house, if we would get four more years of obstruction…
Raindrops in the desert my friend. Raindrops in the desert.
Labor Force Participation Rate Plummets To 38 Year Low
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
American Jobs for America’s Robots
“America’s Robots”
Nah, those are most likely to continue coming from Japan, Germany, or Switzerland.
The brains for them come from Silicon Valley. It’s not all Twitter and Facebook down there.
Twitter facebook and amazon.
We need more QE to prop up housing values in the Hamptons.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-property-hamptons-idUSKCN0WJ151
Commodities are a de facto short play on the dollar. With Yellen the Felon and her Keynesian lunatics at the Fed hellbent on printing away all government and corporate debts and liabilities, I’m expecting commodities, especially precious metals, to rip higher.
http://www.businessinsider.com/commodity-prices-march-17-2016-3
‘Muricans more stressed, less happy than they were in 2007. But our misery under President Hillary Clinton will be off-the-charts epic, I predict.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americans-less-happy-now-than-in-2007-says-latest-world-happiness-report-2016-03-17
our misery
Spend less for housing than you can afford.
Don’t have kids you can’t afford.
Save at least 10% of your take home income.
Avoiding this “misery” isn’t that complicated.
Great advice Goon! It is really that simple.
Avoiding this “misery” isn’t that complicated.
Being a trustafarian always helps, too.
I went to high school with a guy who got a $500,000 life insurance payout when his mom died and he was 19 years old.
He spent all of it on heroin in a few years, finally got clean, and now at age 30 something drives a school bus in Kentucky.
Yep, easy money can ruin you, especially when you’re young.
Yep….You see it happen with professional athletes all the time…
Good for him for making it out of the addiction abyss. And driving a school bus in Kentucky sounds like a good Oil City job.
Did all of you get those free Chipotle coupons?
I got one in my mail, and then I went through the garbage next to the mailboxes in my apartment building a few times over the next day and scored several more free burrito coupons.
It was like finding a $50 bill on the ground.
do you have a video of that?
goon goes dumpster diving
Was there any antidiarrhea coupons? You might wanna load up if you are going to Chipotle.
Yup. Though being cheap and well off when you are “over the hill” won’t get you the women, no matter how trim and muscular you are. Fortunately it will not get you the gold digger sector of that group either.
My truck is 17 years old, covered in rust, about to hit 200K miles soon, and it smells like a wet dog. I’ll let you borrow it if you want to drive it on first dates.
My economy Japanese car turns 13 at the end of this month - it will be a teenager. It has less than 800 miles to go to reach 100k.
It’s my status symbol. Not only that, the paint job is still great. No rust.
Heard that. 1996 Camry that is tighter than most new cars on the road. repainted the hood and she’s good for another 150,000miles.
Avoiding this “misery” isn’t that complicated.
It is if you already have the kids, the house and had your income reduced. You can jingle mail the house, but you’re stuck with the kids (even if you later find out they aren’t yours).
But the younger guys are aware of the trend. And of AF/BB too. So they will most likely not fall into the trap.
Alpha F**Ks/Beta Bucks
…. and rent for half the monthly cost of buying.
Remember…. Current grossly inflated asking prices of resale housing are 250% higher than long term trend and double construction cost(lot, labor, material and profit).
You can contribute $6500 to your IRA if over 50. Do it!
It’s 50 and over. So you get an earlier year. I turn 57 this year and it is my eighth year of contributing to catchup (not that I needed to “catch up”).
You can also contribute $24,000 to your 401k (Traditional or Roth - pretax or aftertax) if you are 50 or over.
So you basically can contribute $30,500 this year to tax deferred accounts. Since 2014 I made all my new contributions to Roth 401k and Roth IRA (converting traditional IRA every year to Roth IRA). Nearly twice my monthly rent worth of my income is going into Roths! If you have employer matching contributions it’s several thousands on top of that. Lucky you, I don’t have matching employer contributions.
Why do you convert the traditional IRA to a Roth? What is the benefit? Thx.
tricky part is where to invest all this?
You convert your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA and pay tax on the conversion with non-IRA funds.
In the first scenario you have $100k today (and $30k under your mattress) and you’ll have $200k in 20 years that will be taxed.
In the second scenario you have $100k today (and $0 under your mattress) and you’ll have $200k in 20 years not taxed.
I’ve always been inclined to take the options to pay less tax today, and to avoid paying more tax today. Promises promises.
In the second scenario you have $100k today (and $0 under your mattress) and you’ll have $200k in 20 years not taxed.
As long as .gov doesn’t change the deal.
From a Huffington Post narrative:
“The bottom line is that Clinton does not have to prove anything to AIPAC. It’s constituency is solidly in her corner.”
Without getting into Mr. T and all that, I thought this clip from yesterday’s CNBC was fascinating. “We choose the nominee, not the voters”. It should be required viewing/reading for all civics students. Oh, wait, do they even teach civics anymore?
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/16/we-choose-the-nominee-not-the-voters-senior-gop-official.html
I was fortunate to have a history teacher in the seventh and eighth grades who spent some time on civics. She explained the electoral college and such things, also stressed the importance of local elections over national, because local officials could more immediately affect one’s everyday life. I’ll never forget it: “They can zone you out of house and home”.
She’s the reason I always knew we don’t live in a “democracy”, but rather a representative republic. She explained the dangers of a “mobocracy” (but never got into what happens when the representatives actually become the mob, she always felt “checks and balances” could prevent this) On national elections, though, she didn’t drill down any deeper than the electoral college, so this insight into the primary process was fascinating.
It didn’t entirely bother me that Curly Haugland said that the party chooses the nominee, not the voters, given what I already knew. The show-stopper was when one of the hosts asked why bother to have primaries and he said “That’s a good question.”
So, why DO we have primaries? Is there any useful purpose, other than to generate economic activity, shake down donors and such? It would seem, from the back and forth between the host and the GOP officials, that primaries are nothing more than media spectacles, at least since the 1970s.
“We choose the nominee, not the voters”
What happens when they choose the nominee and millions of people say Pog Mo Thoin?
Romney loses.
“The media has created the perception that the voters will decide the nomination.”
Gosh, why on earth would they do a thing like that?
Hint: $$$
Wonder how some of the donors feel about this, especially the super PAC donors? They never needed to give all that money in the first place.
I think Mr. Haugland is probably out of a gig now. It’s not so much that he exposed the futility of the “vote”, but that he exposed the donor shakedown, which means less $$ flowing to the RNC and to consultants and such.
the reason I always knew we don’t live in a “democracy”, but rather a representative republic.
Isn’t that what the GOP bigwigs are claiming? They’re not controlled by the votes of “the mob”. They will decide the party’s nominee.
Is that a check and/or balance?
Uh, duh, oddie. That was my point. In fact I’m not indignant over what the guy said, he spoke the truth. The host actually brought that point up about the system of representation (although I think she called it a representative democracy, which is essentially an oxymoron), and when she did, the other GOP official jumped in trying to “clarify”.
Nope, Haugland was telling it like it is, and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. So, why DO we bother having primaries?
Haugland: That’s a good question.
and when she did, the other GOP official jumped in trying to “clarify”.
I think he was trying to say that the GOP and the Dems are private political parties that can do what they like, they’re not embedded in the Constitution, thank god. They can’t break the law, but they can ignore the votes of their members and choose whomever those in control of the party like as nominee, as near as I can tell. It might break up the party, or cause many to leave, but it’s not illegal.
How much plainer do I have to make it? WE’RE IN AGREEMENT HERE!
Jeebus, between you and the blogger, am I speaking a different language or something?
With that said, why do we bother having primaries?
To whip up cable news ratings.
That’s one reason, but you gotta look at the big picture. It just boils down to large scale bogus and unproductive economic activity (malinvestment), when you think about it. The taxpayer gets the shaft for having to pay for all those “election services” that mean nothing, but employ people. Donors get shaken down for all that campaign and PAC money, for consultants and for the coffers of the parties. Media gets to put on their American Idol debates. Thousands of miles of ink, real and virtual, gets spills in the MSM rags. It gives the pundits a sense of importance. I guess it gives “the people” a sense of importance, too.
Holding primaries is apparently very lucrative. But bogus. Haugland is right: “The media has created the perception”
I just contacted one of my local county commissioners to suggest they should give the taxpayers a break and shut down primary voting, based on what was said during the CNBC segment. (Primaries being meaningless).
After a bit of stunned silence, I was directed to speak with my state legislators, since the state mandates the primary voting.
‘Haugland is right’
Yes and no. Why did Bush and Rubio drop out? Not enough votes. Somebody said the other day, the establishment is lucky the people are using votes to get rid of them.
“why do we bother having primaries?”
Illusion of control.
Maybe a better question is, why do we have parties? Political ones, that is. I’m all for keggers.
I’m just working my way up the layers of government. Called my state legislators’ office, Tom Lee. With regard to primaries, the only thing mandated at the state level is the date of the primary.
Now I’m on to my US Senator (not Rubio, the other one), and the local office could not answer the question. They’ve referred me to their DC office and I have to speak with a legislative aide who has a specialty in election law. This should be fun.
I see your point, though, Ben. Primaries are perhaps good to weed out and point to candidates who can win a general election and thus send a message to the electoral college. However, it looks as if primaries are not legally mandated anywhere. It’s just a system that has sort of sprung up and taken root.
‘Is that a check and/or balance’
Like I said, be sure and hold your nose and vote for the person the 1%ers are trying to throw the election to.
I’m voting for Bernie, I don’t think he’s a 1%er candidate.
Barney Sanders is pro-debt slavery.
Bernie Sanders is a collectivist. He has no problem using coercive force against the productive to force them to redistribute the fruits of their labor to the FSA.
Anti-Trump conservatives (not the establishment, they stress) meeting in DC today to discuss possibility of 3rd party run.
They must think that Trump has a chance against Hillary. Or maybe they have insider info on that email server case.
Hillaryous is unelectable.
“We choose the nominee, not the voters”
Then why have primaries and caucuses?
This is the establishment stamping its feet because the rank and file is saying “none of the above” when presented a list of “approved” candidates.
From the article:
‘”The media has created the perception that the voters choose the nomination. That’s the conflict here,” Curly Haugland, an unbound GOP delegate from North Dakota, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. He even questioned why primaries and caucuses are held.’
Ben Jones if you’ll let this past the filters I think it’s a topic that merits discussion:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/what-happens-to-america-if-trump-loses-20160314
No, it doesn’t merit discussion at all. Rolling Stone has already discredited itself with its campus rape hoax article. It used to have some good journalism, back in the day. That day is over. It is now a magazine of very bad fiction and like much of the media, is trying to gin up a race war. Which you seem to get a perverse kick out of. Hubba-hubba.
‘No, it doesn’t merit discussion at all’
I’ve volunteered in some political campaigns. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get people to vote in a primary? Sure they will argue, say this or that, but to actually get off their couch and go to a poll and take the time to vote in a primary is harder than pulling teeth. This guy has done that. Hispanics, evangelicals, women, vets, income levels, education levels, across almost every line, he got the most support in primaries and caucuses.
Explain yourself if you object. You think he’s Hitler? Well apparently many thousands of women, Hispanics, you name it, disagree. Guess what? Their opinion matters just as much as yours. I know it makes you mad but there it is. He won in a Texas county that is 94% Hispanic, running against two Hispanics, on illegal immigration! Is your head up your ass?
No amount of histrionics is going to change this. Set your hair on fire. Froth at the mouth. Go ahead. The fact is, people aren’t happy with the status quo. They aren’t listening to the super PAC’s and their money. They aren’t listening to the MSM. They are actually thinking for themselves and getting up and voting. They matter just as much as you, as terrible as that may seem to you. That’s the way it works.That’s the way it worked when the powers that be pushed election after election at us with their approved candidates, and now there is an unapproved candidate, OMG the world is going to end!
No it’s not. This is how it’s supposed to work. This election hasn’t been bought - not yet at least. But the machine is working double time. They are telling us voters don’t get to chose nominees. Slick Showtime documentaries have super rich all-white dudes complaining about not having a dictatorship. Could the oligarchy be any more obvious?
Hands up all who have been swayed by comments on this blog about who to vote for. Not me. Not anyone I’d bet. We are just observing. It’s not worth one tick in blood pressure to comment here one way or the other. All this vitriol about this election seems to me more like some of you don’t care what other people want in their lives. Higher incomes, stable jobs, lower priced houses and education. Yes, the one candidate that has been talking about the Fed and bubbles is Hitler to some of you. You want people to shut up and stay home and let the 1% decide. That may not happen this time.
I sincerely believe that this election cycle is a once in a generation, perhaps once in a lifetime, political sea change that will profoundly resonate in American history.
‘Cramer would rather go over what Donald Trump is actually saying, and what he would do if elected President. In Cramer’s perspective the U.S. has been crushed on almost every single trade deal it has done, going all the way back to Nafta. And every time Cramer has asked an official of either party to name a deal that was signed in the last decade that has given the U.S. a trade surplus, no one could come up with an answer.’
‘For years those who have questioned any of the trade deals has been dismissed as foolish. Now that Trump has said that the U.S. government has been horrendous at negotiating these deals, Cramer has no beef with it.’
“Say what you will about Trump, I agree with him about these trade deals,” Cramer said.’
I turned against NAFTA and the WTO before I knew who Trump was.
I was a 100% open borders libertarian until I moved 30 miles from the Mexico border and lived there for 5 years. I realized, open borders can’t work. I realized these amnesty deals are bad for our economy and theirs. They are exporting unemployment and social unrest. Mexico needs to boot out their oligarchs and fix their own country.
This isn’t about Trump. I wish I had 5 candidates with similar views to chose from. But guess what? The “system” hasn’t given me one in my lifetime that has a chance to win.
“I sincerely believe that this election cycle is a once in a generation, perhaps once in a lifetime, political sea change that will profoundly resonate in American history.”
And theres’ a herd numbering in the tens of millions that concurs with that sentiment.
“They are exporting unemployment and social unrest. Mexico needs to boot out their oligarchs…..”
Add to this list Central and South America, and pretty much the entire Middle East.
And while we are at it, have the US military stop reinstalling the oligarchs, after the wretched refuse have actually booted them out.
Mexico’s problem is that it is a failed state. Or as they say south of the Rio Bravo: Anarquia.
An anecdote which didn’t get published in the US MSM: Not too long ago there was an all out gang war battle in Guadalajara that crippled the city for a few days as people dared not venture outside of their homes. This is a metro area of 4 million people, and it was shut down for a few days by lawlessness.
Outside of Mexico City the federal government has fundamentally lost all control. Zapatista rebels blocade major highways in Tabasco and Chiapas, shaking motorists down for money. Where is the army? It’s protecting Mexico City, not that the capital is all that safe.
From what I’ve heard from my contacts, big multinationals are paying protection money to the many drug cartels. And there is no safe place. Not the beach resorts, not the small cities, not the medium or big cities. Kidnapping is rampant. Everyone knows of someone who has been kidnapped and held for ransom and it happens at all economic levels, even if if just for a few hundred dollars ransom.
Where this will end is anyone’s guess. I wonder if at some point our fearless leaders will decide that “something has to be done” and invade Mexico.
Nice narrative, Rockstar.
American real journalists don’t report on that.
“Explain yourself if you object. You think he’s Hitler? Well apparently many thousands of women, Hispanics, you name it, disagree. Guess what? Their opinion matters just as much as yours. I know it makes you mad but there it is. He won in a Texas county that is 94% Hispanic, running against two Hispanics, on illegal immigration! Is your head up your ass?”
Holy Jeebus, Ben, no offense, but whose head is up whose arse here?
I just stepped into the Twilight Zone, I think. I’m one of Mr. T’s supporters, I think the Hitler stuff is crap. You should know this, you banned me for an evening after I called out a poster for suggesting violence against Mr. T. BTW, I understand why you did and accepted it.
My explanation of why this Rolling Stone article doesn’t merit discussion is on the way. It’s nothing more than race baiting propaganda and their real objection to Mr. T is his stand on libel laws.
‘Explain yourself if you object’
I wasn’t directing this to you palmetto. More of a general thing.
Oh, Ok. Thanks for letting me back on the blog, BTW. I forgot to apologize for the tone of the comment that got me banned.
I apologize.
Dang Palmy, *I* havent even been banned. You must have been a bad, bad boy!
I was. I’ve been banned twice that I know of. Once for excessive potty keyboard, more recently for countering a sinister implication with a sinister implication. I crossed a line and should have phrased it differently. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I would have banned me, too. And I would have made it permanent. So that demonstrates how magnanimous the blogger is.
How do you know when you’ve been banned? Efforts to post are met with spam warnings. You don’t need to contact the blogger, the message is crystal clear. You learn your lesson, do your penance, and hope he takes pity on you and lifts it.
I haven’t ever been banned and that amazes the sh1t out of me.
That 1 replacing the i tempts me to post George Carlin’s 7 dirty words with all the vowels replaced with numbers.
Can I get a HALLALUJAH!!! in the hose?!!
The perfect candidate hasn’t been born yet. He doesn’t exist and never will. Do I agree with Trump across the board? Oh, hell no. Do I wish he’d quit alienating entire categories of people? Yeah. But flawed as he is as a human being and candidate, he may be our last best change to pry the Oligopoly off the levers of power. If we can’t do that, we’re sunk as a nation.
Trump or Goldman Sachs. The choice is yours.
If we have an oligopoly and Trump wrests control of it, why should we believe he would restore our Constitutional rights and form of government rather than keep control of everything for himself and his friends, a la Putin?
Which course would his character and past suggest he might take?
“Trump or Goldman Sachs”
Now that you put it that way, Praise The Lord for Trump!
“Higher incomes, stable jobs, lower priced houses and education.”
That sound great! Which candidate is offering these things as part of his platform?
However, what does merit discussion is that Mr. T has brought up the issue of changing the libel laws so that one can sue the peewadden out of the media for false reports. Had more stringent laws been in place, after the UVA campus rape hoax article, Rolling Stone would be out of business. That’s the main issue here.
Against illegal immigration = racist. Is this statement true, yes or no? It’s really that simple.
Headline:
Trump as big a global risk as terrorism: Research
What was that quote about protesting too much?
No bias in the MSM…
Would he usher in an era of American fascism?
But in a nation in which Donald Trump has a huge number of riled-up, racist supporters
“No bias in the MSM…”
Glad we agree the Rolling Stone reporter hit it out of the park!
CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves Finds New Way to Cheer for Donald Trump
CBS chief Les Moonves famously cheered “Go Donald!” during an investor call in December, and in February said Donald Trump’s campaign “may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”
Now he’s found a new way to celebrate the Trump run.
Countering concerns in the media industry that Trump may not spend as much campaign money on TV commercials as a traditional major-party nominee, Moonves is pointing with delight to all the money down-ballot Republicans will spend to distance themselves from their party’s standard-bearer.
“There may be some Republican candidates that — local senators and governors — who are going to have to spend more money, because let’s put it this way, they may not be absolutely in sync with the national ticket,” Moonves said at the Deutsche Bank Media, Internet & Telecom Conference last week. “So there may be more money that way.”
Moonves reaffirmed that the 2016 campaign season is still set to be a “record-breaking” year for political spending on TV.
“I’d be surprised if we don’t see a new high-water mark,” he said. “This is a pretty interesting year. I’m going to be careful what I said because I got in trouble last week for saying something that got misconstrued about Mr. Trump. All I said was he’s very good for ratings, put it that way.”
https://theintercept.com/2016/03/16/trump-campaign-ads/
Soros, after funding subversion and “colored revolutions” all over the former Soviet bloc, has now turned his malevolent gaze closer to home. As long as his rent-a-mobs cavort in places like NYC and Washington DC - no problem. But it would be very, very unwise for them to pull their crap in places where the local populace isn’t inclined to put up with harrassment and intimidation from hired goons.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-17/anti-trump-groups-plot-democracy-spring-largest-civil-disobedience-action-century
I am inviting my friends who live in Cleveland to come stay here the week of the RNC.
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush
Ray K;
Add Chicago to that list - the home of agitators.
Just at 14 mins long and well worth a look see……
The text on the vid says it all….
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/03/17/muslim-women-secretly-film-inside-raqqa/
You’re making me hungry for a pulled pork sandwich.
I commented here earlier that when you head south of Castle Rock into Monument and Colorado Springs you see alot of bumper stickers that say “Infidel” with the American flag.
“Pulled pork”
There’d be nothing but Crater Taters if you weren’t renting for half the monthly cost.
Oil rippin higher - near 40 bucks a bbl.
http://oilprice.com/
Yes but is driving it? It is not supply or production dropping.
What is the consensus over / under on SCOTUS nominee?
“Civic Center and the Capitol area in Denver are an embarrassment. People lying on the ground, trash everywhere, aggressive panhandlers, rampant drug use.”
http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2016/03/16/embarrassed-by-the-area-around-colorado-capitol-and-civic-center/41210/
For only $500 a square foot, you can buy a piece of this paradise!
Seems crime is really cranking up in cities everywhere.
Violent Crime Surges 21% In Los Angeles
http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/as-crime-surges-downtowners-worry/article_57e4f716-3247-11e5-aa62-079b56f2b0c8.html
Another article in there:
‘The U.S. stock market is shaky. Financial analysts are worried about the economic situation in China. Many people are wondering if another recession is on the horizon.’
‘You would hardly know that from looking at Downtown Los Angeles, where the development scene continues to boom. Land and buildings here are selling for ever-higher prices. Rents in new apartment structures routinely surpass $4 a square foot. More than a dozen skyscrapers are under construction.’
The increasingly bad traffic along my daily commute makes me think the economy is nearing a tipping point. It was last like this in the runup to the 2007-08 meltdown.
Traffic gets worse as the economy gets worse?
Looks like higher taxes and more police and jails are needed.
A state as poor as CA can’t afford it.
Poor, like Elon Musk is poor.
Lots of poor places have billionaires. Doesn’t make the rats any smaller.
as long as the rats are on the other side of the sierras. might as well be in AZ.
Jan 2016
As he prepares to release a new state budget proposal Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown is looking at a more-than-generous surplus.
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates revenues could be $3.6 billion above projections. The influx of cash means many will be eager to replenish programs that were slashed during the recession.
Chris Hoene leads the California Budget and Policy Center.
Problem is rats like polluted water.
Progressive cities attract panhandlers.
Downtown Denver is so white white white it looks like a Bernie Sanders rally.
Browns who work for a living can’t afford the rent in this “progressive” utopia.
I prefer Boise. Less traffic, closer the mtns.
Boise’s noisy.
Remember….. Nothing accelerates the economy, creates jobs and cures poverty like falling oil and housing prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels. Nothing.
Unless you live in Houston.
Irrespective of location.
What falling prices? Gas went up 50 cents a gallon in just a few weeks in my neck of the woods and every morning I see higher prices.
Not a good sign for your ‘neck of the woods’.
Remember…. Nothing accelerates the economy and creates jobs like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels. Nothing.
“Nothing accelerates the economy and creates jobs like falling prices………”
Unless the amount of money in your paycheck is falling faster than falling prices.
Falling prices results in fatter paychecks.
Unless the amount of money in your paycheck is falling faster than falling prices.
+1000
That’s not how the world works.
The Swiss are fiercly independently minded people - witness their lack of membership in EU - granted they went negative interest rates but…..
This….
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-people-against-the-establishment-a-swiss-story-of-inspiration/
And This……
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-american-dream-remains-within-reach-in-switzerland-2016-03-11
Maybe it is time for a guy like Mr. Trump to just blow the whole thing up and we start from scratch and get back to being liberty loving, independently minded folk. What say ya?
“The Liquidations In August & January Are Just The Start”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-17/increasingly-inefficient-bubbles-liquidations-august-january-are-just-start
Remember….. Hold onto every dollar you’ve got, liquidate assets for whatever they’ll fetch and get out of debt.
Today’s US UNFUNDED LIABILITIES (GAAP)
$101,489,860,754,^^^.
We should just make it a kagillion dollars and call it good? Either way it’s a joke.
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”
– Barack Obama, Fargo, ND, July 3, 2008
————-
Insolvency milepost: Debt accumulated under Obama sails past $7 trillion
August 4, 2014 - Guy Benson
The total federal debt of the U.S. government has now increased more than $7 trillion during the slightly more than five and a half years Barack Obama has been president. That is more than the debt increased under all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton combined, and it is more debt than was accumulated in the first 227 years of this nation’s existence–from 1776 through 2003. The total federal debt first passed the $7-trillion mark on Jan. 15, 2004, after President George W. Bush had been in office almost three years.
There’s a reason why the fact-checkers have unanimously affirmed O’s undisputed Debt King status. When President George W. Bush took office, the national debt hovered just shy of the $6 trillion mark, then exploded by roughly $5 trillion over his eight-year tenure. Many conservatives have rightly criticized Bush and the Republican Congress for utterly squandering an opportunity to reduce leviathan’s size and scope during that era. In fairness to their legacy, though, the last budget over which Republicans wielded total control was the FY 2007 blueprint, which featured an annual deficit of “only” $161 billion — not exactly a pittance, but child’s play relative to the shortfalls we’ve grown accustomed to lately. And that was during two active wars.
In any case, the debt picture darkened dramatically in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, triggered when the massive, big-government-inflated, subprime housing bubble finally burst on the US economy.
President Obama has proceeded to institutionalize the resulting emergency-level spending, racking up enormous deficits and causing the national debt to zoom skyward. But candidate Obama presented himself to the public as a deficit and spending hawk. During the 2008 presidential debates — post economic meltdown — he vowed to enact a “net spending cut” by poring over the federal budget “line by line” with a “scalpel.” On the campaign trail, he unloaded on his predecessor’s “unpatriotic” track record on debt accumulation:
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – number 43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.“
imagine the rate of increase if/when interest rates go up.
I wish Obama would have paid off WW2 with all that extra money.
Yeah, all of those digits are ridiculous.
They’re just zeroes!
Actually, I was referring to the non-zero digits. It would make more sense to say it’s around 100 trillion, instead of bothering to estimate all of the other digits.
“there’s a reason why the fact-checkers have unanimously affirmed O’s undisputed Debt King status.”
Mirror mirror on the wall. Who is the biggest deficit spending president of them all.
Why…. why it’s Barack Obama!
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7150/6598216937_8b6002895a_b.jpg
Another day of exploding skulls and CraterRage on the HBB.
http://goo.gl/jFCOkn
he dindu nuffin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZGSQXmJPaQ&feature=youtu.be
“Personal publicity in a war can be a drawback because it may affect a man’s thinking. A commander may not have sought it; it may have been forced upon him by zealous subordinates or imaginative war correspondents. Once started, however, it is hard to keep in check. In the early days of a war, when little about the various commanders is known to the public, and some general or admiral does a good and perhaps spectacular job, he gets a head start in publicity. Anything he does thereafter tends toward greater headline value than the same thing done by others, following the journalistic rule that “Names make News”. Thus, his reputation snowballs, and soon, probably against his will, he has become a colorful figure, credited with fabulous characteristics over and above the competence in war command for which he has been conditioning himself all his life.
His fame may not have gone to his head, there is nevertheless danger of this. Should he get to identifying himself with the figure as publicized, he may subconsciously start thinking in terms of what his reputation calls for, rather than how best to meet the actual problem confronting him. A man’s judgement is best when he can forget himself and any reputation he may have acquired, and can concentrate wholly on making the right decision.”
Admiral Raymond A Spruance
http://tinyurl.com/z9m6t5k
2banana’s Rule:
Conservative are more than happy to live under the same laws and taxes they want for everyone else.
Liberals/Progressives expect to exempted from the laws and taxes they want for everyone else.
———————-
Obama to GOP: Do as I Say, Not as I Did
Townhall.com | March 17, 2016 | Debra J. Saunders
Washington, D.C., should host an Olympics for finger-pointing. There would be no shortage of accomplished practitioners. Start with President Barack Obama, who, in introducing Judge Merrick Garland as his choice to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the big bench, asked the Senate “to give him a fair hearing and then an up-or-down vote.” He told senators: “If you don’t, then it will not only be an abdication of the Senate’s constitutional duty, it will indicate a process for nominating and confirming judges that is beyond repair. It will mean everything is subject to the most partisan of politics — everything.”
You’d never guess Obama not only voted against Chief Justice John Roberts but also supported a filibuster — that is, he opposed an up-or-down vote — to thwart the confirmation of Samuel Alito in 2005. Hillary Clinton also opposed Roberts and supported an Alito filibuster. Both Roberts and Alito won confirmation with Democratic support — which tells you they were qualified but not immune to the sort of partisan opposition that Obama now finds distasteful.
On the other side of the aisle, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the floor to promise he’d oppose an election-year confirmation in deference to the “Biden rule.” (In 1992, then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Biden said he would oppose an election-year GOP nominee.)
Because this is an election year, Obama chose a qualified and non-extreme federal judge with probably a shorter life span than his other potential nominees. The conservative Barnett described Garland, a former classmate, as “probably the most reasonable nominee a Democratic president could make.” The New York Times places Garland to the left of all living justices, save Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, and also reports that a Garland confirmation “could tip the ideological balance to create the most liberal Supreme Court in 50 years.”
Having also opposed Roberts and supported an Alito filibuster, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., knows he isn’t in a strong position to scold the GOP leadership. So the craven Schumer has come up with a line about how the Senate owes Garland and the American people hearings. Hearings for someone the Senate is bound to reject? Why not try waterboarding? I cannot think of a more textbook example of political circus.
Does anyone else think the “self driving car” is stupid?
I don’t see how it will sell in Europe, where drivers still refuse to purchase cars with automatic transmissions.
I heard a story on the radio today about how “automatic braking” cars will be standard in 5 years, and that the tech is a stepping stone to self driving cars. Proponents claim that automatic braking will be the end of the “fender bender”
I think it’s solving a problem that doesn’t exist. I prefer to drive a car as opposed to riding in one. I feel less thrown around by unexpected movements. It’s worse on a bus or van. If I have to be in the car at all, I’d rather drive. When I travel long distances, some of these mountain roads and highways take some judgement about who to get ahead of before the next incline or whose smoke you don’t want to eat for the next 20 miles. And that’s beside the question of who will get sued when a bus gets run into a river? Google or the guy who owns the car?
An answer looking for a problem to fix.
It’s only going to be as good at “self driving” as it’s software. When a few people get killed by software bugs/hacks, the self driving car problem will fix itself.
Which is why the passenger-carrying “pilotless airplane” will never float. Airplanes have tons of intermittent problems with systems and software that the pilots ignore/work around/address, depending on their perception on how serious the problem is. Any software that can take account of these endless scenarios is either going to be “fail-safed” to the point that the airplanes never fly, or you run into the software/hack problem.
OTOH, you have the recent AirAsia incident, where the pilot-in-command didn’t really understand how the “fly by wire” system logic worked, pulled some circuit breakers, and crashed the airplane.
It also illustrates that no matter how much systems monitoring you do, if a fix/action can be “kicked down the road”, it will be.
(This is what is nice about working corporate/business airplanes. I have one airplane to worry about, and can tell when the airplane is starting to get “sick”)
Which is why the passenger-carrying “pilotless airplane” will never float. Airplanes have tons of intermittent problems with systems and software that the pilots ignore/work around/address, depending on their perception on how serious the problem is. Any software that can take account of these endless scenarios is either going to be “fail-safed” to the point that the airplanes never fly, or you run into the software/hack problem.
This made me think about the now retired space shuttle, whose launches were constantly being scrubbed. A big part was that the shuttles were a bad design to begin with, so it was easy for the computers to find a “show stopper”
From autos to aerospace to finance. Your gyrations are exceeded only by Rental_Fraud.
For the general populous yes. For the handicap just driving around town it gives them freedom of movement.
Unfortunately it will be used as a step to force people down the line to buy new cars and remove still useable vehicles off the road. Let’s keep the public in debt and on the how-mucha-month-it-gonna cost me plan.
I thought about this too. Having driven two Toyota’s into the ground, one at 140k miles and one at 240k miles, it took some reasoning to decide how to push those ever tiring systems in certain situations. I have to have a car that is in tip top shape so the software can operate? The public will love that. I can see it being useful in some ways, but I got my head around the paperless office and I’m still surrounded by paper.
I have to have a car that is in tip top shape so the software can operate? The public will love that.
You just know that to cover their butts, manufacturers will have these care perform the most nit picking diagnostics at start time, which will probably mean that your car won’t be ready to go anywhere for a few minutes after it’s started, unless of course one of the many sensors hiccups and you car tells you it’s not roadworthy.
Some argue that you won’t need a car, that you’ll call uber who will send a driverless car to pick you up within a minute or two. That might work in the big city. Out in the sprawling burbs? Probably not so much.
My uncle has a country place
That no one knows about…
Unfortunately it will be used as a step to force people down the line to buy new cars and remove still useable vehicles off the road.
This is already done in Europe, where cars have to pass onerous inspections, which always produce a long laundry list of expensive and unnecessary repairs, which as the car ages gets so long that it’s just cheaper to send a perfectly good car to the junkyard than to get it to pass inspection.
Looking at the multitude of dangerous, smoke belching sh!twagons I’m seeing up here in Anchorage, I can see the point of inspections.
lol
‘automatic braking will be the end of the “fender bender”
Yeah, it will never get icy or slick when fresh rain falls on a dirty street. Even my phone locks up from time to time.
Jeez you all are a bunch of fuddy duddies. Self driving cars will allow for much better commutes. Computers linked together can manage traffic flow much better and avoid the one idiot stepping in his brakes problem. Double speeds, eventually.
This means the areas now currently outside the 1 hour commute mark will be accessible to job center cities. Buy beyond the exurbs, that is where the new development will be.
Also self driving cars make light rail obsolete.
Does anyone else think the “self driving car” is stupid?
95% of the electorate are stupid. Why not give them a car that allows them to sit there like an Easter Island statue while the robotic car drives their slack-jawed, inert bulk from place to place?
“Scary” is the word that comes to mind.
Where’s Hillary? Is she at a bar today washing back some suds?
Hillary doesn’t know where Hillary is most of the time.
No worries. I just ordered this:
http://www.dead.net/store/1970s/july-1978-complete-recordings
Denver, CO Housing Market Implodes; Prices Plunge 19% YoY As Housing Demand Craters Nationally
http://www.zillow.com/highland-denver-co/home-values/
por que?
Zillow predicts they will rise 4.2% within the next year.
Falling prices VA_Donk……. Falling prices.
Where are they now? Oil pricing ‘Kupit’ and Brazil in chaos! Hey Rio, hey AlbqDan tell us how things are going now!
Sorry error, Kaput or Kaputt.
St. Patrick’s Day is to alcohol distributors as Valentine’s Day is to Florists and Jewelers.
I don’t get it, myself. But I’m not a drunk, Irish, or Catholic.
A manufactured “Celebration/National Holiday” to sell unneeded stuff to the the wretched refuse.
Downtown Portland, ME is a parking lot according to a friend who just ventured down there earlier to hear a bag-pipe band. You gotta laugh it off. Trump is gonna plunge us into 4 years of darkness and the only thing left is to drink.
Especially considering the true story of St Patrick in Ireland.
Hint: He wasn’t Irish.
It has nothing to do with green beer, leprechauns or driving out snakes.
See post way above.
I don’t get it, myself. But I’m not a drunk, Irish, or Catholic.
Outside of the USA and Ireland, no one celebrates St. Patrick’s day, not even Catholics. They are more like to celebrate March 19th (St. Joseph’s day).
What’s wrong with being drunk, Irish, and Catholic?
Paul Ryan called me the other day. Tremendous call. I spoke with Mitch McConnell today. We had a great conversation.
And then the three of you jumped in the hot tub and made sweet, sweet love.
Your fantasy?
it gets cold in Alaska.
Where the men are men, and the women and the women are scarce.
Starting to leg into the market short position I’ve been waiting for for a year. I don’t know if this is the top, I just know I want short exposure. This could go on into early June. I hope nobody chased that early year correction. It was a good trade but I want to get in and forget it for a good long while. Cheers!
….CA budget has come a long way since Brown began his second stint as governor in 2011. Back then California faced a $25 billion deficit.
today with Brown (DEM) a 3.6B surplus.
why are all the fiscal conservatives DEM?
Are you sure?
California Debt Load Grows To $437 Billion; Grinding Poverty Expands
http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-california-debt-clock.html
Jake - you seem like someone in their 80’s, why do you care about 100 yrs of debt?
It’s a way to distract himself from his impending demise.
Pick yourself up off the floor and cheer up and remember….. Nothing accelerates the economy like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels.
grinding.poverty.
Brown is mostly lucky. Between the Silicon Valley stock option grants and the boom and bust housing market, California tax revenues vary a lot from year to year.
and he wants to save for a rainy day, unlike most politicians
Irrelevant.
great movie! Caprio deserved the award.
Locked in at 3.875
dont forget to make the seller pay for a 1 yr home warranty, then break everything.
“Locked in”
What an unfortunate phrase.
Cage Rage
Henrik Lundqvist Freaks Out and Flips Goal Over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjKpKi8h4io - 218k -
Sarasota, FL Housing Market Caves; Prices Crater 16% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/sarasota-fl/market-trends/
Why the Fed should allow wages to rise
excerpt:
What will it take to get wages growing for those at the lower end of the income distribution? One important change would be to give workers more bargaining power in wage negotiations, something those at the top of the wage distribution are more likely to have.
Another important factor in boosting wages is the state of the labor market. When the economy is near full employment, wages rise much faster.
Achieving full employment — and despite a jobless rate of 4.9 percent, we aren’t there yet because so many workers left the labor force during the recession, and many will return as conditions improve — depends critically on the conduct of monetary and fiscal policy. Unfortunately, even though aggressive government spending on infrastructure would push employment higher and help the economy reach its full potential, political stalemate makes it very hard to imagine Congress enacting any fiscal policy program of the scale needed. The best we can hope for is that Congress doesn’t make things worse by trying to reduce the budget deficit.
That leaves monetary policy as the only policy tool left for promoting and maintaining full employment. While I would have liked the Fed to be much more aggressive to this point (and for it to have left its target interest rate unchanged in December), to date the Fed has done a pretty good job of promoting its employment goals. The real test is ahead.
Monetary policy acts with a lag, so the Fed must forecast where the economy will be months ahead when it sets monetary policy. Presently, it must decide when to continue the increase in interest rates that began at its December meeting. If it acts too soon, it will cause employment to be lower than it could be and stifle wage growth. If it acts too late, the risk is inflation.
Traditionally, the Fed watches growth in wages as an indicator of inflation pressure, and it begins to increase interest rates when it see signs of upward wage pressure. However, it’s not necessarily the case that an increase in wages will translate into an increase in prices, particularly at a time when the division of income within firms has favored profits over wages. Prices could go up, but competitive pressures could make it difficult for companies to increase prices and cause the wage increases to come out of profits.
My view is that the cost of inflation is much smaller than the costs associated with flat wages and employment being lower than it could be. For that reason, and because it’s far from certain that wage growth will translate into inflation, the Fed should not enact further interest rate increases until it can see clear signs that inflation is a problem.
The working class paid huge costs during the Great Recession in terms of unemployment, home foreclosures and lost savings as people tried to weather the storm. Even before the recession, middle-class incomes were stagnant and inequality was on the rise. Policymakers must do all they can to reverse these trends.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-the-fed-should-allow-wages-to-rise/
“He doesn’t want to look like Jeb Bush,” said a Rubio backer. “By the time Jeb quit, he had no credibility and his endorsement meant nothing, which is part of the reason we suspect he didn’t endorse Marco in Florida. It wouldn’t have helped, and we didn’t want it anyway.”
Ouch! That says all you need to know about Marco “The Snake” Rubio. JEB! was Rubio’s political sponsor for years and backed him for the Senate over Charlie Crist, the former governor. I’m not sure what to make of this statement. Either Rubio and his “backers” are even more stupid and arrogant than I already thought, or the Bushes are truly finished in politics.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/marco-rubio-nears-ted-cruz-endorsement-220952
Bush neocons are done for good. Great day for america and Trump made it happen.
I hope that’s true, but I’m not counting them out just yet. Very, very poor form on Rubio’s part, to kick in the teeth the very person who endorsed, supported and mentored him in Florida politics. I’m no fan of JEB! by any means, but that’s just stone cold rotten. At the very least, he and his “backers” could have been graciously silent.
Rubio was dealt a humiliating slap by Florida voters. It’s like he’s saying to JEB! “Nyah, nyah, you’re a bigger loser than me”.
BTW, JEB! actually got 2% of the Florida primary vote, so I heard.
very poor form on Rubio’s part
what do you expect from bush protege? he has learned well from the criminal family. there’s still another bush protege out there, cruz….don’t even get me started on this preacher wanna be moron….
heh, and there’s that Wayne Allyn Root guy over at Fox with an editorial telling Cruz it’s time to make the phone call to Trump.
Oh, boy. It’s like the pressure on Reagan to take Bush the First as VP, in order to “unite the party”.
Considering the Bushies snaking around Cruz, don’t do it, Don. Reagan got a hot lead injection for his trouble.
“Rubio…It’s like he’s saying to JEB!”
It seems more like a supporter said it, not him.
True, but candidates sometimes speak through others. In this case, not a mere supporter, a “backer”, which implies having some skin ($$) in the game. It would appear to be someone closely involved in the campaign, given the use of the word “we”.
Don’t discount the power of stupid people in large groups. Neocons are like cockroaches that will survive the nuclear wars that they start.
half the cost of owning at the cold, windy, useless beach:
http://slo.craigslist.org/apa/5481119694.html
“half the cost of owning”
That would be the case, irrespective of location.
That beach IS pretty miserable… as is the rest of Oceano.
Oh, boy, the Don just threw down (or up, as the case may be). From his Twitter feed:
“Hillary Clinton has been involved in corruption for most of her professional life!”
The Tweet seen ’round the world.
Hillary Clinton has been involved in corruption for most of her professional life.
Oh, hello, we were just talking about you.
We are all anarchists most of the time. The only time we undo all the good deeds we make is when we vote. Voting is violence.
Larken Rose came up with this:
“Inquisitive Statist Sally: If you woke up tomorrow living in the type of society you desire, what would that look like? Are there any historic examples of a stable ‘anarchy’? Do you have any evidence that what you aspire to is sustainable and beneficial long-term? From an outsider perspective, your posts sound the same as anyone else peddling an unsustainable “utopia”. I want to see evidence that this is a workable solution.
NVC Anarchist Guy : Hi Sally, and thank you for reaching out to me with this question. This may not be the sort of response you were looking for, but it is from my heart.
There is no particular type of society I desire. My beliefs are based on the moral principle that all human interactions ought to be voluntary, and on the principle of self-ownership. I reject any notion that involuntary, coercive and/or violent human interactions are necessary.
One example with evidence of this playing out successfully is in the way Sally(you) interacts with others in her daily life. Looking at the way she talks, thinks, acts and interacts with people in her daily life [with the exception of politics], she is already an anarchist. She leaves people alone as long as they leave her alone. She ascribes to the “live and let live” philosophy in almost everything she does. She understands that it is not okay to assault others if they do not do as she says. She understands that it is not okay for her to force others to behave the way she wants them to behave, and she understands that it is not okay to force others to pay her for things they did not first agree to pay for. She understands that it is okay to do almost anything she wants to do, as long as her actions are consensual and voluntary. When she goes to the supermarket, she doesn’t hold a gun to the store owner or employees and demand that they give her food. Instead, she brings something of value (money) and voluntarily agrees to trade it for other things of value (food, etc.). That is anarchy, and it is more or less the way she interacts in almost all other areas of her life [with the exception of politics]. This is because she has a fairly solid moral compass and understanding of right from wrong which she bases almost all of her actions on.
Sally would not feel okay about robbing her neighbor at gunpoint to pay for her education or to give to those she believes need assistance, because she knows that is wrong. However, she also believes that through voting for a 3rd party [“government”] to do the exact same thing on her behalf, that suddenly that exact same wrong action is okay. This is because she believes in something called “government”, and she believes that this “government” can possess an exemption from basic morality. She believes that even though an action is *wrong* for her to do, that somehow she [someone who does *not* have the right to do that thing] can delegate that action as a right to others. In other words, she believes that she can delegate a right that she herself does not first possess.
In her real life [and 99% of the time] she doesn’t think she can rightfully use violence or coercion in her interactions with others. However, she has faith in her belief in “government”, and thus through politics and as a result of her beliefs in “government” and its supposed “authority”, she is tricked into betraying her own values and beliefs in peaceful, voluntary human interaction.
Not only are these things true of Sally,, but they are also true of the VAST majority of individuals on the planet! So, I can say with confidence that most of the interactions of most of the individuals on the planet are anarchy in action, and that anarchy almost always works toward the betterment of those individuals involved, and is used almost exclusively [with the exception of politics] in almost all of their interactions with others. And while I acknowledge that there is the exception of politics which contradicts their beliefs, politics, violence and coercion are unnecessary for society to survive and thrive [as evidenced by 99% of human interactions].
The belief in a society that does not attempt to institutionalize and legitimize violence through “government” is not Utopian at all. Utopians are those who still cling to the bogus belief that, despite our observations and choices in our own lives to avoid and resist violence in 99% of our interactions, that institutionalizing violence, theft and involuntary human interactions and associations will somehow result in something other than tyranny, or that this would somehow result in a peaceful and more productive society.”
Is China’s Lost Decade at hand?
Does China Face a Japanese-Like “Lost Decade”? – Wells Fargo
Wed, Mar 16 2016, 06:25 GMT | FXStreet
Research Team at Wells Fargo, suggests that the Chinese economy appears headed for a sustained period of slower growth such as Japan experienced a few decades ago.
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The schizoid Trump impersonator is back.