patrick.net

edvard2 says

So my question for all of the righty-wingers who think GM and Chrysler should
have failed, what would that have done to the economy?

The right wingers have selective memory, because there's been some pretty big bailouts handed out by republicans.
Here's some other companies that were bailed out.

http://www.propublica.org/special/government-bailouts
Savings & Loan 1989 After the widespread failure of savings and loan institutions, President George H. W. Bush signed and Congress enacted the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act in 1989. (What happened after the bailout?) $293.3 billion

Airline Industry 2001 The terrorist attacks of September 11 crippled an already financially troubled industry. To bail out the airlines, President Bush signed into law the Air Transportation Safety and Stabilization Act, which compensated airlines for the mandatory grounding of aircraft after the attacks. The act released $5 billion in compensation and an additional $10 billion in loan guarantees or other federal credit instruments. (What happened after the bailout?)

dodgerfanjohn says

Spend some time in the courthouses in Long Beach or Compton(or better yet the
juvenile courts...Kenyon and Eastlake will suffice), and report back.

I'll be waiting.

Any such "evidence" would be purely anectodal.

Of course some people abuse welfare systems. And it's not a good thing.

To find out the actual extent of the problem, we'd need actual data. Going to a few bad neighborhoods and seeing poor people laying around doesn't prove anything.

Ayn Rand happily took her Social Security check, and used Medicare.

Now, why on Earth would Disability claims be skyrocketing? It wouldn't have anything to do with an aging population, right? I mean, demographic facts, that's Commie-nism!

thunderlips11 says

It wouldn't have anything to do with an aging population, right?

It's because getting on disability is easier than getting a job. Just watch a few episodes of Judge Judy and you will see her questions plenty of able bodies people on disability.

Bap33 says

I did read on here, and on the net, and in the paper, and saw on Fox, that CONSERVATIVES give more to PRIVATE public help "programs" than self-profressed non-conservatives do. Ever heard that?

You've garbled the claim, and there's little reason to believe this assertion:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/10/21/study-conservatives-and-liberals-are-equally-charitable-but-they-give-to-different-charities/

"Charity" is what is usually said, not "private help". Conservatives are more likely to donate to religious groups, and liberals more so to secular ones. You donated to build a new roof on your megachurch, meanwhile there's a veteran sitting on the stoop begging for money great work!

Vicente says

"Charity" is what is usually said, not "private help". And as pointed out in
this article quite a lot of tithing and church donations may not go directly to
helping individuals. You donated to build a new roof on your megachurch,
meanwhile there's a veteran sitting on the stoop begging for money great
work!

This is an excellent point. When T. Boone Pickens gives $165M to Oklahoma State Football, that is hardly "charity." It is leveraging taxpayer money (because he would have payed taxes on a portion of this donation) to specifically benefit one portion of the state's budget.

Cronyism at its finest.

Say hey! This was in the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 1999. Note "... how much it will buy."

Holy cow/interesting/compelling ...!

And where is it up to date??? Right here ... see the first chart shown in this thread.
Recent Dow day is Wednesday, October 16, 2013 __ Level is 98.1

WOW! It is hideous that this is hidden! Is there any such "Homes, Inflation Adjusted"? Yes indeed, go here:
http://patrick.net/?p=1219038&c=999083#comment-999083

what lib program is not funded by taxpayers or Soros?

I get my disability check and *POW*! Down to Pants n' Nat!

Wait, college sports isn't already corrupt?

Bap33 says

I did read on here, and on the net, and in the paper, and saw on Fox, that
CONSERVATIVES give more to PRIVATE public help "programs" than self-profressed
non-conservatives do. Ever heard that?

You mean like this one?

Sean Hannity’s Freedom CONcert Scam: Almost None of Charity’s $ Went to Injured Troops, Kids of Fallen Troops; G5s for Vannity?

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/6938/sean-hannitys-freedom-concert-scam-only-7-of-charitys-money-went-to-injured-troops-kids-of-fallen-troops-g5s-g6s-for-vannity/

Or this?

Non-Profit Pays Bristol Palin $262,500, Donates Only $35,000 to Charity

I knew there was a lot of money to be made in the non-profit industry, but I didn’t know anyone would so blatantly abuse their position at a supposed charity. For every dollar Bristol gave to the cause, she gave $7.50 to herself.

Her charity, the Candie’s Foundation, also spent $165,000 on advertising. That’s another $4.71 for every dollar given to charity.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/04/06/non-profit-pays-bristol-palin-262500-donates-only-35000-to-charity/

Vicente says

You donated to build a new roof on your megachurch, meanwhile there's a veteran sitting on the stoop begging for money great work!

Well put.

Bap33 says

what lib program is not funded by taxpayers or Soros?

Sure you want to go there? The ENTIRE Tea Party is basically one giant astroturf, invented front created by conservative billionaires whom use it as a cover, telling their eager followers one thing- that any and all things that benefit them like air, water, and environmental regulations, healthcare, taxation, social programs, energy policy and so on are all a bunch of liberal/socialist/communist ideas and then using that misplaced influence to get what they want through government.

As we have just seen, the tea-party led government shutdown cost the US economy 10's of Billions of dollars. So in other words, ironically the Tea Party did exactly the OPPOSITE of what its supposed stated mission was- which was to reduce spending. Well they cost us a LOT of money instead.

In other news, it's a great time to buy. NAR says so.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Comptroller says

It was pure as the driven snow until the REALTORs started twisting it.

Jerry Sandusky was a REALTOR.

Facebooksux says

Better switch positions and buy while you can.

Mind if I permalink your comment? ;-)

We'll see what happens a year from now...

I don't buy a lot of precious metals just a few collectible coins for fun. I will buy more when price drops below 1000.

freak80 says

Facebooksux says

Better switch positions and buy while you can.

Mind if I permalink your comment? ;-)

We'll see what happens a year from now...

Not at all.

SJ says

I don't buy a lot of precious metals just a few collectible coins for fun. I will buy more when price drops below 1000.

Realize that collectible coins are a huge ripoff. You get more for your BERNANKEbux by simply buying modern coins.

Here is another story of a Realtor who baited, kidnapped, held for hostage, and then murdered a super model.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/16/fehmina-chaudhry-pakistani-murdered_n_4110955.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D392696

http://www.professionalrealtygroup.net/content/agentpage.html/519914

He specializes in first time buyers and new houses. I guess that means he gets kickbacks from the builder's for bringing in the suckers.

edvard2 says

It was his presidency in which this law was passed. Nuff said. Either way, this President has certainly gotten more done, and of those- better things done- than his predecessor.

Yeah, well Nixon pretty much proposed/invented the EPA around 1970, which was "created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress", yet I don't see liberals falling over themselves in celebrating Nixon's efforts on this.. 'nuff said.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Environmental_Protection_Agency

Yeah, Obama's gotten a lot done, or UN-done.

- You think the Middle-East is more stable or less stable siince he took office?

- Do you think our allies (UK, Turkey, Israel, Japan, etc) trust us more or less since Obama took office?

- Do you think small business owners and entrepreneurs are facing a more hostile or less hostile environment since Obama took office?

- Do you think Americans feel their privacy is more intact or less intact since we've learned about Obama's abuse of the NSA and in particular the IRS being used as a weapon of political nature?

- Since the abortion called Obamacare was rolled out a couple of weeks ago, you think Americans trust the gov't more in how our health care is managed, or trusts the gov't less since Obama lied to us about 'keeping our doctors', that 'rates will go down'?

Face it, those too naive to see it, Obamacare is a massive voter-buying wealth re-distrubition whirlpool of shit. He's ruined a system that gave 300 million Americans a decent (but not perfect) healthcare industry, all in the name of getting 17 million poor people health care. That's it in a nutshell. Wait till more and more companies health care contracts expire. More and more voters will get fucked and dumped into Obamacare. They will lose their doctors, and pay more for less service....

AAAAAND, they will remember Obama's lies back in 2009/10 when they vote in 2014.

AverageBear says

Yeah, well Nixon pretty much proposed/invented the EPA around 1970, which was "created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress", yet I don't see liberals falling over themselves in celebrating Nixon's efforts on this.. 'nuff said.....

Its not like Nixon was totally enthralled with the EPA when it passed. Ever since then the GOP has been trying its damnedest to have the powers of the EPA reduced. So if your narrative is about the supposed good-hearted, well-intentioned Republicans then your point is sort of pointless given how the GOP acts in regards to environmental protection.

Pretty much everything else on your list was in play well before not only the current administration, but well before the last, and the one before that. And so I find it ironic that you are somehow attaching these as things that have been "Un-done" since it wasn't this administrations.... "Doing" in the first place.

As far as the "wealth distribution" bullshit, when will that crap ever die? It never had a premise when it started other than some lame yakking point from the McCain campaign, and it doesn't have a premise now.

lastly, after this latest GOP/Tea Party induced debacle, where the shutdown THEY and THEY ALONE created, and did so despite even members of the GOP themselves saying the shutdown over Obamacare was doomed to fail, this cost the US economy something like over 20 BILLION dollars.

So anyone who thoughtlessly and unquestionably believes and follows every little whim that the GOP or Tea Party says has zero rational grounds to make any sort of claim against Democrats when their party themselves did more to damage the economy and take money out of people's pockets than the make-believe. hocus-pocus liberals they always like to blame things on as a means to detract from their own failings. So you want to complain about Redistribution? The GOP JUST DID THAT VERY THING!

In the end, the historical outcome is the same. Conservative Americans are wrong this time, every bit as wrong as they have always been in this country, and no matter how many times they use the same McCarthy-era scare tactics ( oooohhh! Communists/Socialists!", I personally take comfort in knowing that despite their noise they will lose. every. single. time. Just like they did last night, and just as they will going forward.

The neighbor next to me just recently made some bank selling to a Chinese Own-to-Renter. The seller was older and retired, so her timing was perfect. She listed at $549,000 and the buyer, with 50% down (from a bank in China) swooped in and overbid to $600,000.

Within a week after closing, and with doing absolutely nothing to the house (with dead weed pile in driveway remaining as evidence), put the house on Craigslist for $2,800 per month. He had an open-house and there were many visitors, but it's been two weeks and the only activity I've seen is him there every now and then with various pickup trucks from local engineering contractors. Not sure if he's fixing it up, or just fixing it.

Anyway, this is textbook Chinese investment. Time will tell how good or bad it was.

Nobody needs a mortgage anymore. Everyone (but me) has millions in cash and are buying homes straight-up.

It's different this time.

House flipping remains fruitful in Las Vegas, if not elsewhere

http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2013/oct/16/house-flipping-remains-lucrative-las-vegas-drops-a/

Sure, their are fixers, but all flipping really does is take away the disposable income of the middle class, then the lipstick on the house wears off - back to the bank again, for whatever reason.

Mortgage applications did fall off a cliff when mortgage rates jolted upwards about 1 percent. But, this just sounds like the refinancing craze is over for now. To be completely honest, I don't know where people get the money, I really don't.

everything says

To be completely honest, I don't know where people get the money, I really don't.

I have that thought a lot here in San Francisco. Someone will reply, "Tech stocks" or something similar. But I'm looking at the median and average incomes and still wondering!

Many funds lately have exited the housing investments. There is no more money made, "recovery" is over.

That should probably be on the investment forum.

How could anything this awful have happened a full decade before Benghazicare?

bgamall4 says

BTW, Fox News reported about the Israelis taking the day off.

Are you implying that Bin Laden told Israel about the upcoming attack?

tatupu70 says

Are you implying that Bin Laden told Israel about the upcoming attack?

No - I think he is implying the Jooos told Bin Laden to attack the US.

The Jews don't even bother to lie about it. Al Franken was not in his WTC office that morning, and admits "Yep. I got the Jew call."

Say hey! This was in the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 1999. Note "... how much it will buy."

Holy cow/interesting/compelling ...!

And where is it up to date??? Right here ... see the first chart shown in this thread.
Recent Dow day is Friday, October 18, 2013 __ Level is 98.3

WOW! It is hideous that this is hidden! Is there any such "Homes, Inflation Adjusted"? Yes indeed, go here:
http://patrick.net/?p=1219038&c=999083#comment-999083

Republicans and teabaggers have done nothing but visit monuments with veterans since the government re-opened, right?

finehoe says

Republicans and teabaggers have done nothing but visit monuments with veterans since the government re-opened, right?

Since monuments and air shows constitute the only legitimate activities of government: yes.

tatupu70 says

Are you implying that Bin Laden told Israel about the upcoming attack?

Maybe Bin Laden didn't want to be nuked by Israel.

Why is it that Hydrocarbon's posts come across as sounding less satirical than yours?

This sounds like a different version of this pile of BS: http://www.snopes.com/rumors/israel.asp