WatchI've been a fan of patrick.net, since 2006 or 2007? The early days.
I have seen a tragic downturn in the quantity, and quality of real estate postings over the past few months.
Every day, it's 70-80% of left leaning, political rhetoric.
If Patrick doesn't mend his ways, this site will not remain a haven for real estate watchers, and will pass away.
Cheers,
Larry
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47 male
Lafayette, CA
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Most of the "leftists" on patnet would have been considered right wing Republicans 50 years ago.
I own a business, have employees, own handguns, and advocate core family values. I'm very much against communism and socialism, I don't believe in no-fault divorce, I cheered when Bin Laden was executed, I want stronger border controls, and I don't believe in affirmative action or special rights for minority interest groups.
Apparently that makes me an extreme leftist. Why? Because I think raising taxes on rich people to a fraction of what they were under Reagan is a good idea.
We don't really have left and right in this country anymore. We have constitutionalists who still respect the American government, and we have borderline fascists who want to tear it apart.
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According to ZH, I'm part of the 1%. So it's a good thing I'm not involved in the protests: http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/who-are-1
A few of you have alluded to "following the rules". What are the rules?
Go to college and get a degree?
When you're out of a job, beg the gov't for assistance?
Are those the rules?
I don't have a degree. I chose to drop out of college after a year and a half, because I didn't believe that $40,000+ debt was justifiable when I lived in a country that permitted me to succeed without a degree. Was I right or was I wrong? I would say I'm right since I'm now part of the 1%.
I did not know that Gov't assistance was available to everyone; I thought it was only available to those that made under a certain amount of money in their previous job. I know better now; but I was last laid off in 2008 (in my mid-30s) and didn't know that I could get gov't assistance.
The "rules" I grew up with, thanks to my parents, were simple:
If you don't have a job, then you go find one.
If you can't find a job, then you create one. (Meaning you talk someone into creating it for you or else you start a business)
My current job requires a PhD. Yet, I have no degree.
The "rules" are those that you choose to follow. If you don't agree with the "rules" (as I did not), then create your own. You're free to succeed and you're free to fail. That is capitalism. I've been fired; I've been laid off. I got back up and moved forward anyway. When I was last laid off in 2008 (right when everything was starting to hit home and post-Lehman) it took me 2 days to find a new job. 2 days. Not because I have a degree (which I do not) and not because I have connections (I knew no one at the new company I went to work for). But simply because my parents taught me to watch out for and take care of myself. Make wise decisions. Go find your way and find it well. That kind of advice, while very simplistic, applies to every aspect of your life: criminal record, driving record, resume, positions, attitude, you name it.
Don't tell me Obama is a great leader because he fights for the 99%. No he doesn't. He fights for the 1% while making believe otherwise. Don't tell me any other leader fights for the 99%. It's impossible to fight for the 99% when you're deep in the 1%. I don't just mean deep in the pockets of the 1%, I mean you're deeply part of the 1%. How much are each of these people worth? That makes none of them part of the 99%. You're not going to voluntarily fight for those that oppose the amount of money you have; but if it'll get you re-elected, then you'll happily lie about it.
Obama
Biden
Boehner
Pelosi
Reid
Perry
Paul
They are all part of the 1%. Don't believe their lies. Instead vote for who you think is best qualified to make the right decisions for the country, not for the 99% they claim to support, because then you're just stuck following in another liar's speech.
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is that a threat? lol. who the fuck are you?
do you have data that says traffic is down, or is down due to the political leaning of the website owner? This is his site, he can do what he wants with it.
he doesn't censor our opinions, you have no right to tell him how to run his site.
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
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Welcome back again Larry! Didn't you swear you'd never read my site again several times now?
I'm flattered you think my super-leftist powers are capable of changing the world! If not, why keep protesting?
My dirty secret (shhhh) is that I'm actually quite the little capitalist, but little capitalists like me and you have no chance against the big ones who defeat the free market every day and get bailouts when they fail in their rigged market anyway. Their secret? Lobbyists!
You don't have a lobbyist for yourself, do you? Didn't think so. HTF are you going to get anywhere on a playing field that's tilted about 89 degrees?
To quote myself from another thread:
BTW the site is doing fine. Email subscriptions and forum traffic are way up.
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I check Patrick.net every day and I send a lot of traffic your way. Wink, wink via ZeroHedge. Keep up the good work.
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Napa, CA
(Exactly) what pianist said.
BD
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Emeryville, CA
Why does the Right feel so besieged? As far as I can tell, they've won every major policy victory in my lifetime.
They've held the White House more often than the Democrats, and when we do get a Democrat he was a DLC triangulator, a fancy word for Republican--victory for them again. (Coincidentally, the only Democrat re-elected since FDR). Democrats can win the Presidency, and the houses of Congress, but "centrist" DINOs prevent real change. They can lose the House and be stifled by the ruthless tea-illiterati--one caucus in one branch--victory again.
Not content to stop moderate policy (preciously their own legislative goals, like HCR), they attempt to kill the already-decimated unions and go after a woman's right to medical treatment. They discourage the youth vote and suppress minority turnout. They installed regulators and Fed Chairmen who believe that markets self-regulate, and that the best Government is one that destroys itself.
So, you've won--congratulations. But with your policies come some negative consequences--like the rotten economy we're in. And despite their dominance, they'd have you believe it's the Democrat's fault. It's Barney Frank's fault. Weird worldview, that's for sure.
In this climate, the truth would indeed seem liberal since the dominant conservative answers have been and continue to be so, so wrong.
I say, keep telling the truth Patrick! Reality has a liberal bias!
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mdovell says
Globalization is nothing new. It occurs when an empire exploits other nations and it occurs when trade barriers are brought down by ill advised policy. The original Boston Tea party was in large part a protest against globalization........in this case a monopoly on tea by Britain from colonial sources.
Our near perfect economy was ruined when Reagan took over and decimated both trade barriers and beneficial federal tax policy. You're mostly correct when you say technology and globalism have made some aspects of liberalism useless, however you need to remember that it's the rules of the game that determine which course is the best one. Misguided neoconservative economics wrecked the rules of the game.
"America competing in a global economy" can only mean one thing in the end. American workers earning the same wages as overseas workers. The really sad part about all this is that America IS the world's biggest consumer. We don't need exports like much of the rest of the world does.
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larrypatrickmaloney says
You could always build larry.net. There you could decide all the links and control all the forum topics.
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South Pasadena, CA
Don't give in Patrick, I'm about as Left as one can get and I don't see this as a Lefty page by a long shot. All of us citizens who are educated and rational must bear the brunt of the Idiocracy....
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This sites political discourse attracts the Stew pot for a hat crowd.
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madhaus's website
And it's time for a political put-down from the "Elephants good, Donkeys bad" wing of the FoxNews Party. Wheee!
Real estate sites as a whole are down a LOT from the bubblicious days. For more proof of this than you'd ever want, have a look at this article I did, The Decline and Fall of the Real Estate Bubble Site.
http://www.burbed.com/2011/01/02/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-real-estate-bubble-site/
Burbed traffic is definitely down compared to 2008. We always appreciate it when Patrick links to one of our articles.
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I'm with Larry on this one. This blog started off so well circa 2006, which is when I started reading. Over the past number of years the leftist, nonsense propaganda that has crept in has been disgusting, and offensive at times. I'm not right wing republican either so don't start throwing those darts either. It's been really sad. So I've since taken to just subscribing to the blogs that provide useful, nonpartisan, real estate information. Patrick, you always talk about keeping you're site alive with donations. I would happily give had you not introduced so much political garbage into your site. I am a physician and we spend much of our training these days being "culturally/politically/religiously sensitive". You would catch, maintain, and retain a mucher wider base if you kept the focus of your site on what it started out as. Many of my friends that I initially turned on to your site have since stopped reading for the same reasons. Its obviously your site that you can do what you want with, and that is still part of what makes the US "ok". Just some suggestions. Take care.
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Patrick says
I did hit the quote button, but the function didn't work btw.
Like I said I'm not left or right. But I do hate the hate mongering towards certain groups.
Just the other day you posted a link about how doctors make "too much money". Really? That should be on a real estate blogging website coming from someone who has zero idea about what goes into being a doctor or the sacrifices that have to be made. Or calling tea party people stupid. That's the garbage I'm talking about. The one thing B. Hussein could have done was reel in the finance industry and he didn't. Instead he ramrodded through "health care reform" that nobody wanted.
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Common Sense Citizen says
Have some memory of that link but I can't find it. Anyway, here's a good substitute:
http://www.worldsalaries.org/generalphysician.shtml
US physicians are the highest paid in the world. Whether or not it's "too much", it definitely contributes to the higher per-capita spending on health care in the US.
Common Sense Citizen says
Not nobody, not by a long shot. I wanted it and many millions of people who suffer from our ridiculous medical billing and insurance system, but have to admit reform was not done very well so far. Has giveaways to the insurance and drug companies, and no real control of the underlying costs.
And like corntrollio said above "ObamaCare is basically the Republican health plan from the 1990s." That's a good measure of how extremely far right the right wing has gone. They don't even recognize their own former self.
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agree both side have more in common then they realize, if they would just stop calling each other names and hating on each other, they would realize they are both getting fucked by the people in power.
Obama-Bush, Democrat-Republican, neither side are serving the people.
Teabaggers and the wallstreet hippies are angry about the same thing, they just don't know it yet.
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Santa Monica, CA
Proof that the system is rigged - companies that spent the most on lobbying have returned 400X the S&P 500.
From the economist:
http://www.economist.com/node/21531014
The question is, do you just complain about it, try to change it, or buy companies in this index so you get your slice too?
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Holbrook, NY
Patrick says
I can't speak for everyone, but one day I all of a sudden started getting your emails every morning. Did you auto-subscribe everyone with a patrick.net account? Cause I didn't sign-up. That would account for your spike.
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gregpfielding says
Truth be told.
They get the bailouts, we get the bill for it.
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Reseda, CA
After a 10% chance real estate will fall another 50%, and new steady housing and tax policies are put in place where the housing sector can stabilize and grow over the next 50 years, then there will be no need for patrick.net and it will dissolve.