patrick.net

What would the US do if suddenly an ARMED army of protesters emerged, fed up with this and that, the Fed, the crony capitalism, globalization, gonzos hairdo whatever? Uh, they would label them terrorists, deploy their paramilitary forces and use ANY means necessary to squash the resistance, drones, fucking new fangled NSA weapons, maybe also some good ole bullets just gaitling gunned into everything that moves "Dorner-hunt style". Only AF & family would survive. And on what grounds do they want to police the world? Hypocrites. Four more wars! ;)

Straw Man says

Russia is already arming Assad to the teeth. But let's not kid ourselves: if US enters Syria it will be lights out for Assad in 3 weeks tops. Probably less.

The problem is that most of these leaders provided stability in the region, and once taken out clusterfuck central happens and far more basic human rights go out of the window than were missing before. The alternatives in those regions have been almost always proven to be worse, plus you have to add the count of innocent people killed during the toppling. What would US citizens & gov. do if some country declared the US an unfit regime and put boots on the ground (given they had the power to do so)?

Dubai at least have $20K French cognac shoot in restaurant, waiters have to live there as well.

mell says

Straw Man says

Russia is already arming Assad to the teeth. But let's not kid ourselves: if US enters Syria it will be lights out for Assad in 3 weeks tops. Probably less.

The problem is that most of these leaders provided stability in the region, and once taken out clusterfuck central happens and far more basic human rights go out of the window than were missing before.

No argument there. My response was to Gary "False Flag" Anderson who keeps hinting at some horrible response from Russia in case US goes into Syria. There is nothing Russia can do beyond what it already does. Which is not much, really.

bgamall4 says

Straw Man says

And this is bad exactly why?

That is good,

Why the "watch out" comment then? If anything we should embrace Russia's opposition to our involvement in Syria as a convenient cover. And pray that Samantha Power doesn't get involved, because Russia is no match to that broad.

If the US is trying to save lives they could have done a lot more with less money in Somalia this last year or two. It's all about the oil.

those jobs were bullshit anyways

jump straight to 2nd segment
http://video.pbs.org/video/2327953844/

bmwman91 says

Foreign purchases have fallen 30%, so now they make up 20-25% of all RE sales in the SFBA instead of 30-40%.

You want to document that? I'd be surprised if the number was as high as 10%.

I "served"in Iraq. Some "mission accomplished" there. Maybe for the oil companies.

They'll be hangin' from the helicopter skids in Afghanistan too, when we bug out and declare "victory".

marco says

I "served"in Iraq. Some "mission accomplished" there. Maybe for the oil companies.

They'll be hangin' from the helicopter skids in Afghanistan too, when we bug out and declare "victory".

Yup and the no bid defense companies like Halliburton-which is based out of Dubai now! I don't see why more young Americans have to die and get maimed for life, because some hellhole is trying to figure out how to live with themselves.

Speaking of going "full circle" .... how about vulture capitalism meeting up with the same result as communism? Where 1-2% at the top have and control everything, and give the stupid populace two levers to pull in elections that are meaningless. Poor George Orwell is turning in his grave, 'cause he wrote this ostensibly about communism ... never thinking ruthless vulture capitalism could eventually morf into the same result.

"Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer-
except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs."

-George Orwell, The Animal Farm

No difference between the two "parties" to speak of. Like Ron Paul said, "I'm still waiting for a second party in America". Here's what a black man (with a PHD in constitutional law) thinks of Obama:

".....we end up with a Republican, a Rockefeller Republican in blackface, with Barack Obama.... a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.”

Dr. Cornel West
Princeton University

And here comes Hillary next. Oh I can't wait! Everyone that thought a black man could become President without being owned by criminal Banksters, criminal Wall Street thugs, and war criminal military industialists will now think that a woman who becomes President will be somehow different.

"Was there ever a people whose leaders were as truly their enemies as this one?"

-Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

"Mama, she keeps them unprepared
To meet the enemy
That's comin' unto us
Teach them that evil dwells across the sea
Lives in a mountain
Like they see on TV

Down in the heart of town
The Devil dresses up
He keeps his nails clean
Did you think he'd be a boogeyman?"

Buffy St. Marie

Using this one weird old tip!

Real estate investment funds hate her!

You are forgetting that there is not enough oil in Syria for us to actually intervene.

Look at how the British, Russians, French and USA carved up the Middle East and created countries out of tribal areas. Each still lays claim to their territory. Just a bit of jockeying here.

How do you know if a buyer is a foreign resident or not? I know lots of people with foreign names and accents who own houses in sfba. But almost all of them came as students, worked, saved, then bought houses. And have either green cards or US citizenship. I know just a handful of people who came directly from overseas and bought. (fwiw mostly from Europe - and - these people have ended up living here more or less permanently. People might perceive this as good or bad. ).

My anecdote is not data either. But my point is that just because someone is named Zhang or Krishna doesn't mean that they are "foreign bagholders" as meant here.

Is there some report on how many foreign non-residents are buying? I'm honestly curious.

bgamall4 says

Read my ebook, False Flag Murdering Neocon Crazies

I'm sorry, but these people all had valid long-form birth certificates and never lost an ambassador to Libya on their watch.

BTW: How do we know you are who you claim to be? Whom do you answer to?

The reason I ask is that I detect a pattern in your diction which suggests an east-coast education and time served in a defense/NatSec bureaucracy. Are you a mole?

bgamall4 says

What is Qataris?

Qatar is a player in funding one side aligned with their version of Islam against the other. Mucho dineros. Like the Saudis.

bgamall4 says

Thanks. So, Qatar is bankrolling a false flag against Syria?

It's a proxy war. TPTB partner with whatever side meets our goals. No morals.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/qatar/10022759/Qatar-playing-with-fire-as-it-funds-Syrian-Islamists-in-quest-for-global-influence.html

Wake me up when they protest in San Francisco because a theater there didn't show a Bill O'Reiley barkumentary.

signed
Rip Vanwinkle

My wife went to our local park yesterday, said it looked like a meetup group for Asian moms. She's half Asian herself and I said maybe you'll fit in? But she said they were all speaking some language she wasn't familiar with. I guess maybe the foreign buyers, some of them, are shipping their wives and kids here to live and go to school.
Anyway, price cuts in housing are showing up here as well. Stuff that's IMHO overpriced is just sitting.

CaptainShuddup says

Wake me up when they protest in San Francisco because a theater there didn't show a Bill O'Reiley barkumentary.

I'm not exactly sure what this gibberish sentence is suppose to say; I guess if I take a stab and read it Art Collage style, I can pull out SF and O'Reiley [sic] and draw out some sort of thinly veiled invective on liberal hipsters and hypocrisy.

What I would say is that neo-conservative gas bags make for much better entertainment (see: AM talk radio, Rush Limbaugh, et al.) with their ridiculous diatribes, deliberate obtuseness, and shell game talking points. Viewed through the lense of irony, they are a sort of Theater of the Absurd that shows us how *not* to think (as in, "use logic", not "be told what opinions to have").

La Fonda, on the other hand, is a bland mess, didn't even look that hot when she was a young Jazzersizer, and suffers from the same Boomer Hippie, boring bleeding heart airheadedness that affects the likes of Darryl Hannah (definitely hotter) and Rosie O'Donnell (appraisal redacted).

Investors started disappearing back in June. It's hard to get out of bed in the morning for 1% or negative yields.

Post 10 years of tax returns to verify identity....

HydroCabron says

BTW: How do we know you are who you claim to be?

SiO2 says

I know lots of people with foreign names and accents who own houses in sfba. But almost all of them came as students, worked, saved, then bought houses. And have either green cards or ...

...doesn't mean that they are "foreign bagholders" as meant here.

You are so right.

Those folks who said such things just don't get it.

Since they got their student visa -> H1 -> green card they are not foreigners. It's just the money from "back home" that is "foreign".

Sky's the Limit in The Fortress.

Walmart business plan is simple. Come into an area and dump products at break even or less until everyone around goes out of business.

They always hire the least skilled kind of people, (an average union worker without an IQ of a union worker to get a union job). And keep all costs as low as possible. They have enough money to take a loss for a while until others are out of business and they are the only company left on the hill... then they raise the prices.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

Alexander Kinyua Pleads Guilty But Not Criminally Responsible In Killing, Eating Of Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/19/alexander-kinyua_n_3780580.html

Housing market in freefall. No jobs. GOP shrieking their SIEG HEILS like possessed hyenas. Cannibalism breaking out everywhere. [see above]

Smells like CANNIBAL ANARCHY to me, guys!

LOCK 'N LOAD, BABY!!!!1

Bigsby says

The US is far better served by not getting involved in Syria. You'd have thought people would have realized that after Iraq, but seemingly not.

It's troubling that, even after Iraq, people still think the US can invade a country get rid of the bad guys, and everything will be ok thereafter.

You know, people will suddenly love democracy more than their religious dogma, jihadists will go home and become contributing members of society, and everyone will hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

I actually understand the right's point-of-view on this one. Nancy Reagan would be much better portrayed by Bonzo the Chimp.

Heraclitusstudent says

's troubling that, even after Iraq, people still think the US can invade a
country get rid of the bad guys, and everything will be ok thereafter.

It's not that folks inside the loop think that. It is what they have to sell to the Joe Six Packs around the world. What esle can they say? Hey, to have access to natural resources, we have to keep the region in a constant state of instability. Hope that is OK with everyone. Now salute the flag, you dumbfucks.

If it weren't for Wal Mart, we would never have collected the necessary data to prove that the white race, is, indeed, not superior.

Dan8267 says

Do it yourself for less than one tenth the cost. Batteries are cheap, but you'll pay $10+ to have it done at a kiosk in a mall.

Only watch I have doesn't need batteries, it's one of these:

Of course it hasn't worked in about 100 years, stuck at a particular time that great-great-grandpa had it in his pocket when a train hit him. He was pretty much deaf and was foolishly walking along the train tracks.

I haven't worn a wristwatch since mid 90's.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

SiO2 says

How do you know if a buyer is a foreign resident or not?

They're staring at you from the corner of their eye, rubbing their stomachs and licking their chops.

We can always count on AF to keep it real!

B.A.C.A.H. says

SiO2 says

I know lots of people with foreign names and accents who own houses in sfba. But almost all of them came as students, worked, saved, then bought houses. And have either green cards or ...

...doesn't mean that they are "foreign bagholders" as meant here.

You are so right.

Those folks who said such things just don't get it.

Since they got their student visa -> H1 -> green card they are not foreigners. It's just the money from "back home" that is "foreign".

Sky's the Limit in The Fortress.

BACAH, I can't tell if you are being sarcastic, please forgive my obtuseness.

The people that I know who came as students - > h1 - > green card don't have money back home. They came with $50, $500, $1000 in their pocket, went to grad school (working as research assistant), and made money here. Then used that money to buy here.

There are definitely some people who made money overseas, then came here as 30-40-50 year olds and bought here. I think this is less common than the student case, but I have no data to support my claim.

Quigley says

My wife went to our local park yesterday, said it looked like a meetup group for Asian moms. She's half Asian herself and I said maybe you'll fit in? But she said they were all speaking some language she wasn't familiar with. I guess maybe the foreign buyers, some of them, are shipping their wives and kids here to live and go to school.

Maybe, but also is likely that these moms came here as students, etc etc as BACAH and I have discussed.

If they didn't know English at all, that would support the idea that they are wives of foreign buyers. But I know plenty of people who speak languages other than English, and easily flip back and forth depending on who they are talking to.

B.A.C.A.H. says

You are so right.

Those folks who said such things just don't get it.

Since they got their student visa -> H1 -> green card they are not
foreigners. It's just the money from "back home" that is "foreign".

I suspect this kind of immigrant buyers out number real foreigner buyers in CA. However, the inflation of money in Asia would surely help some of the immigrant buyers (think of the one-child policy in China. Who else will inherit/get the money from their parents?)

SiO2 says

The people that I know who came as students - > h1 - > green card don't
have money back home. They came with $50, $500, $1000 in their pocket, went to
grad school (working as research assistant), and made money here. Then used that
money to buy here.

These were old days (5-10 years ago.) Nowadays, if you know the right communities, you can easily find young immigrants (or even just visa holders) buying properties with their parent's money. I am not saying they form a majority though.

I decided to buy a home a few months back in large part because I discovered the breadth and depth of the foreign investor market in my area and it outweighed my concerns about housing with respect to the local/national economy. Our economy might suck, or at least parts of it may, but there are solid perennial jobs in the area that pay well and which holders will be able to purchase homes provided the prices don't go too far out of sight. And it's a hotspot for Chinese immigrants. I got this info from mandarin speaking friends whose realtor only worked with Chinese speakers, mostly with cash. There are bus loads of Chinese house tours that roll around the area, helping potential investors find the most desirable areas to buy and dump their families. It's a business. It's a factory procession but it stays mostly out of our news.
Lately, however, very very fast rising prices have made the market cool considerably and I am seeing dropping list prices, as the mls site I subscribe to notifies of both new listings and new drops in price. Sellers who are too optimistic about the price of their shack will not attract buyers.