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Vacant Units Have No Value

A report from the New York Times. “The coronavirus has dealt a blow to the Manhattan real estate market unmatched in recent history, and the prospects of a near-term recovery remain unclear. The median sales price fell 17.7 percent, compared to the same time last year, to $1 million, the biggest drop in a decade.”

“There may be more lasting changes in the months to come. The share of all-cash buyers dropped to 41 percent, down from an average of about 50 percent over the last several years, said Jonathan Miller, a New York appraiser and the author of the report. That could have major implications for the luxury market, which had been propped up by investment buyers who typically bought without financing.”

From CBS Bay Area in California. “Rents for one bedroom apartments in San Francisco in June were down nearly 12 percent from this time last year. ‘Vacant units have no value coming upstream to pay their property taxes and their mortgage and that value as part of the system,’ said senior Zillow economist Skyler Olsen.”

“Analysts pointed to a couple of factors for the steep drops in rent, including high unemployment and more companies having employees work remotely, driving down the demand for living in high-cost cities. One bedroom rents are down 15.1 percent in Mountain View, 13.5 percent in Menlo Park and 15.7 percent in Cupertino.”

The Midland Reporter Telegram in Texas. “Midland’s real estate veteran Victoria Printz remembers being in the office on March 9, one of the more significant days of in Midland housing sales downturn. ‘I had 20 transactions fall apart,’ Printz said of the March 9 crash.”

“The market wasn’t kind to many Realtors in Midland during those months. There were 156 sales in April and 150 in May across Midland County – numbers that were down more than 100 year over year. The May number was the lowest since the Texas A&M Real Estate Center started keeping track in 2011. With sales down, inventory spiked, hitting 885 at the end of May, according to A&M.”

“Printz said that the median price has stayed at about $285,000, which would be close to a $20,000 decrease year over year. ‘Things are selling, where the last part of March and April it was a ghost town,’ said Printz, who added that historically low interest rates and the availability of homes not seen since 2016 make it a great time to buy.”

From Bay News 9 in Florida. “The Governor’s extension of the moratorium on evictions comes as good news this week for renters and owners out of work, but perhaps bad news for landlords and banks who are stuck with tenants not paying rent and in jeopardy of foreclosure.”

“Although that does buy people some time, Alexis Muellner with the Tampa Bay Business Journal said there may be a domino effect on the housing market in the coming months. ‘How could it not be a housing crisis at this point?’ Muellner said. ‘Given that we have so many people unemployed, so many folks that are not going to be able to make their rent and then landlords that aren’t going to be able to make their debt service.'”

“There are thousands of evictions pending right now statewide, whether it be renters or owners going through foreclosure, and Muellner says that will have a deep impact not just for owners and banks, but for local governments. ‘ That has a direct impact on their own economies and running their businesses because their costs are not just profit they go in to property taxes which the counties are suffering huge losses,’ Muellner said.”

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  1. This is an abbreviated post for this AM as I’m having technical difficulties with a server. Hopefully this will be resolved shortly.

  2. ‘Analysts pointed to a couple of factors for the steep drops in rent, including high unemployment and more companies having employees work remotely, driving down the demand for living in high-cost cities’

    Demand down, from bay aryans? I can’t believe it. They’re so rich! They drive a tesla until the battery runs down and walk away.

    This apartment bubble was along time in the making. In no time in history have we not been able to provide housing. Even when we made nails by hand.

  3. Coeur d’Alene, ID Housing Prices Crater 16% YOY As Sellers Flood Market And Slash Prices Double Digits

    http://www.zillow.com/coeur-dalene-id-83814/home-values/

    As a noted economist said so eloquently, “liquidate whatever you’ve got to eliminate all debt and hold onto every dollar you’ve got…. You’re going to need every last one of them.”

    1. “hold onto every dollar you’ve got”

      Unless we go full ZImbabwe, which given the way we are spending, is not impossible.

      1. Prices fell 16% and cratering fast.

        This is good news!

        Spokane, WA Housing Prices Crater 18% YOY As Rural And Retirement Property Market Demand Collapses

        https://www.movoto.com/spokane-wa/market-trends/

        As a noted economist said so eloquently, “liquidate whatever you’ve got to eliminate all debt and hold onto every dollar you’ve got…. You’re going to need every last one of them.”

      2. Unless we go full ZImbabwe, which given the way we are spending, is not impossible.

        The MSM has practically blacked out what is happening in Lebanon, where corrupt elites in league with the central bank plundered the economy for 30 years. Now the currency has collapsed and they have hyperinflation and violent protests in the streets. For a glimpse of where the Fed is taking us, google “Lebanon protests”.

  4. “There may be more lasting changes in the months to come. The share of all-cash buyers dropped to 41 percent, down from an average of about 50 percent over the last several years, said Jonathan Miller, a New York appraiser and the author of the report. That could have major implications for the luxury market, which had been propped up by investment buyers who typically bought without financing.”

    How does even 41 percent all cash buyers compare with historic norms? Seems like it might be on the high side of pre-bubble-era levels, but I don’t know where to find the data.

    1. So was it

      1. Chinese, Eastern European, S.American corrupts that were paying cash so that if the S*** hit the fan, they would have a place to live in\
      2. People that could get leveraged loans on other assets at 2%., and use the resulting cash to buy
      3. Bank of Mom and Dad that bought $1M condos for their 30’ish children

  5. The first article about NY reminds me of some previous conversations on this blog about big cities leading the way in a downturn. The basic premise is that big cities rise first and fall first. If that’s true, then NY and SF have been falling for a while and accelerating since COVID. If it’s true we should also start to see secondary and markets in the orbit of those big cities start to fall in price later this year.

    1. From Crain’s New York:

      Manhattan residential market faces a reckoning amid the pandemic

  6. ‘How could it not be a housing crisis at this point?..Given that we have so many people unemployed, so many folks that are not going to be able to make their rent and then landlords that aren’t going to be able to make their debt service’

    I’ve been thinking the past few days and weeks: this is the most bizarre period of time I’ve ever lived through in regards to information distortion and manipulation. I try not to exaggerate or misinterpret events and how the media presents it. But just look at how the REIC/media (same thing these days) has responded to the CCP virus. It’s red hot baby!

    Just how could that possibly be true? As has been posted here a few times, we’ve just compressed what happened last decade into a few months, as far as unemployment and foreclosures. This thing was coming apart well before the virus. Take NYC: down double digits. But it’s been falling since 2016. Recall that it now take over 1,000 days to foreclose – in Texas and Arizona! These two states used to get it done in less than two months.

    1. “I’ve been thinking the past few days and weeks: this is the most bizarre period of time I’ve ever lived through in regards to information distortion and manipulation.”

      Hear hear! It’s like wartime communications.

      In war, truth is the first casualty.

      — Aeschylus

      1. Yes. And little old me is out here trying to figure out what to do and not to do. Primarily in terms of finance and housing.

          1. And better yet, reinvest the proceeds in the stock market. This is a no-lose path to riches!

      2. There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen. – Vladimir Lenin.

    2. it is the REIC (at the local level – i.e. brokerage owners, or full agents) that want to get a last set of commissions to hold them through the winter of 2020 and early 2021.

      They will exaggerate / skim the truth – to get it closed. After all those Mercedes SUV leases need to be paid.

    3. We’ve left the Information Age behind, and now inhabit The Bullshit Age.

      Buckle up!

      1. Even with the Fed engaged in Unlimited Quarantinive Easing measures to fight deflation?

        1. Either the FED is jawboning, or they intend upon destroying the currency and going Weimar before ever letting asset prices crash.

          2. One of the gold bugs I watch believes that the dollar will also fail, or at least stagflate. He has been repeating that as of March of 2019, gold bullion was re-classified as a Tier 1 capital asset. That means that now a central bank can keep gold as a reserve, same as cash dollars.

            Now, this doesn’t install a gold standard. But what it does is to position gold as a way for banks to hold reserve value if they don’t want dollars. The banks had been planning to do this for a couple years and it became final in March 2019. Looks like they were eyeing gold as a sort of backstop to the dollar, and this was pre-COVID.
            I’m sure Powell knows about this, so he may not feel so hesitant to destroy the dollar if there is a safety net (or suicide net?) already in place.

            Of course, the crypto-bros think that the world is going to do away with fiat altogether and replace it with bitcoin, the decentralized people’s money. I’m skeptical. I don’t think that the billions of people in the world are sophisticated enough for blockchain.

          3. Of course, the crypto-bros think that the world is going to do away with fiat altogether and replace it with bitcoin, the decentralized people’s money.

            If the FED decides to replace fiat with a blockchain currency, it certainly isn’t going to be Bitcoin or any other current iteration. They will come up with their own.

          4. now a central bank can keep gold as a reserve

            As always, forever, not something new at all.

          5. or they intend upon destroying the currency and going Weimar before ever letting asset prices crash.

            I don’t know if they will succeed. But that was my conclusion about their intentions 10 years ago. Their decisions then made it a done deal, the only question was how long they could ride the dollar first before converting it into iBucks.

          6. the only question was how long they could ride the dollar first before converting it into iBucks.

            After destroying one currency, why would anybody buy into their next currency? Once they destroy the dollar, the FED should be abolished.

          7. After destroying one currency, why would anybody buy into their next currency?

            You would think. But historically lots of countries includes the USA have been able to replace their currency successfully. I’m guessing they’re counting on being able to do it again.

            Once they destroy the dollar, the FED should be abolished.

            Woulda shoulda coulda. Good luck as long as they have an army behind them.

    1. Live by the knife, die by the knife.

      My guess is that Deloitte did not terminate her because she supported BLM. They terminated her because:

      1. She threatened violence.
      2. She recorded herself.
      3. She edited and posted the video to her own account.

      It would be one thing if she had said something in a heat of passion and been secretly recorded and outed by someone else. But n-o-o-o, she deliberately and proudly put her stupidity on display for all to see, on her own. Deloitte does not need that kind of attitude. And it seems to be a feature of the Millenial/GenZ generations. No wonder the world is laughing at us.

      1. Deloitte dodged a bullet by having this chica out herself as a psycho before the insane drama and lawsuits she would’ve brought into the workplace.

      3. Years ago I got in a discussion, not even an argument, with an acquaintance about US foreign policy. He got more and more agitated for reasons I couldn’t understand. Finally, in a fit of anger he blurted out “It’s all you f#$king white people! You cause all the problems in the world!”. He was a graduate from Columbia University. There’s your Ivy League for ya. It’s gone from Mortimer and Randolph Duke in trading places to Che Guevara. Not sure which is worse.

    2. “college instructors”

      Deloitte won’t hire her now, but I expect Harvard will offer her a full ride to grad school. Those arsonist lawyers in New York were Ivy League too.

      1. Paul Soros (brother of George) and his “New American” fund paid the tuition for the female Muslim lawyer arrested for firebombing police cars.

    3. “I’ma stab you, and while you’re struggling and bleeding out, I’ma show you my paper cut and say, ‘My cut matters, too.'”

      Wow. Just wow. The fact that this unhinged Affirmative Action loon is a Harvard graduate says everything there is to say about how far this country has fallen.

    4. Raised by white commie lesbos, of course she hates them and then projects that hatred onto others. Make a good dog faced pony soldier in Bidens army of deranged brown shirts though.

  8. We are now in an entirely fake economy where the FED and .gov control the prices on everything, where wages and peoples’ willingness and ability to pay mean nothing.

    The biggest risk to the wealth of the oligarchs is falling prices. When stocks, real estate, art, etc. crater in value, their fortunes are decimated. So, the FED has decided that they will do anything and everything to prop up prices, no matter if it’s stocks, zombie corps, houses or otherwise.

    1. She’s had plenty of time to rig deadman switch info drops. She may last a bit longer than jeff

      1. The problem is that those deadman switches just result in more “suicides.” A lot of those people don’t want to be suicided.

          1. I’m sure Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and other wealthy guests are keeping Tums in business. Now if Maxwell can be strangled in the same prison as Epstein the government can blame it on an unexplained supernatural evil.

  10. Interesting detail from that article:

    “Maxwell’s prosecution by the Southern District comes less than two weeks after the former head of the office, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, was fired by Trump.The office is now being led on a temporary basis, at least for now, by Berman’s former deputy, Strauss.”

    2. it started with morgan stanley and spread to every investment bank, brokerage and money center bank.

      Their claim is that 2020 does not matter … extrapolate out to YE 2021 – and calculate the profit and earnings ratios.

      Absolute bs – but that is what they are doing to preserve their bonuses for CY 2020

      1. I’d guess that this time, there will be more preemptive stealth bailouts to ensure that another Lehman Brothers blowup and subsequent highly embarrassing public debates about bailouts don’t happen.

        1. stealth bailouts

          It should be entertaining to watch them try to plug all the holes in the dam with their piggy fingers. There may be leaks.

        2. Exactly. The FED is operating unchecked, now. There is no going to Congress for approval of anything. They are running the country.

          1. They are running the country.

            There is one simple thing that every American can do to not let the bankers “run the country”. One simple thing!

            Don’t borrow money for 30 years for an overpriced and oversized house that you don’t really need. Don’t borrow money for toys and cars that you don’t really need. Don’t be a debt donkey!

            That alone would slay the banks.

            It’s a lonely battle.

    2. Weren’t there COVID parties in March too? The objective was to get the disease and get immunity. Not sure if it’s working out that way.

  14. Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s procurer, has been arrested. If she decides to talk instead of being overcome with remorse in her cell, a la Jeffrey, a lot of profoundly evil people in high places might finally be brought to account – though I’ll believe it when I see it.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53268218

    2. If she decides to talk

      There should be plenty of evidence seized from Epstein’s properties.

    3. Do you think she knows as much as Jeff did? That’s the primary reason people were p-o’d that *ahem* Epstein didn’t kill himself. All that knowledge went with him. But she might have the goods.

      1. Do you think she knows as much as Jeff did?

        Probably more. She was basically the chief operating officer of Epstein’s operation.

      1. Or that they’re beginning to lose control of their brown shirts. I recall reading that Mao almost lost all control of the Red Guards.

        1. And THIS is my favorite part of the #Narrative, when they lose control of it, when the paid crisis actors start forgetting their lines and start scripting their own narrative.

          Stay out of densely populated urban areas this weekend, HBBers. And stay armed 🙂

      2. Or maybe they’re just FAKING that they are storming their master’s houses, just to convince people that their masters aren’t really their masters. The old reverse psychology bit.

    2. FYI, the prepper community has been advocating that people stock up on a long-term supply of spices, to either literally spice up day after day of beans and rice, or as barter items. They’re non-perishable, light, and don’t take up much room. And they’ve been advocating this for years.

      1. They’re non-perishable

        Actually, paprika goes bad rather quickly, or so I was told in Hungary. Of course the vendors in the picturesque central market are more than happy to sell you a huge container.

        1. Oh, but did you pack it in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and vacuum-seal it? Yeah, I didn’t think so. 🙄

          😜

          1. Actually, it’s sold to tourists in mylar bags in Budapest. Of course, once you open them, all bets are off.

  17. Andrew Jackson is reviled by globalist oligarchs for his principled, patriotic opposition to the forerunner of the Federal Reserve. It is no wonder their BLM/Antifa/Red Guard rent-a-mobs have been tasked to tear down and vandalize statues of this great patriot who stood up for We the People against the banksters. Here is his famous quote to these “vipers”:

    “Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!” ― Andrew Jackson

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/feds-arrest-ringleader-in-attack-on-andrew-jackson-statue-by-white-house

    1. The shadowy globalist cabal may despise him for that, but the rabble that went after his statue despised him for killin’ injuns.

      1. the rabble that went after his statue despised him for killin’ injuns

        As they’ve been instructed.

        1. By 5G Chinese mind control waves, or Bill Gate’s injectable microchips?

  19. Late-breaking news:

    The Father of our Country and his wife were evil slaveowners. Who knew!?

        1. I haven’t heard if this song is yet under attack, but I’m sure it’s coming.

          The Rolling Stones – Brown Sugar

          Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
          Sold in a market down in New Orleans
          Scarred old slaver knows he’s doing alright
          Hear him whip the women just around midnight

          Brown sugar how come you taste so good?
          Brown sugar just like a young girl should

          Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot
          Lady of the house wonderin’ where it’s gonna stop
          House boy knows that he’s doing alright
          You shoulda heard him just around midnight

          Brown sugar how come you taste so good, now?
          Brown sugar just like a young girl should, now

          Ah, get along, brown sugar how come you taste so good, baby?
          Ah, got me feelin’ now, brown sugar just like a black girl should

          I bet your mama was a tent show queen
          And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen
          I’m no schoolboy but I know what I like
          You shoulda heard me just around midnight

          Brown sugar how come you taste so good, baby?
          Ah, brown sugar just like a young girl should, yeah

          I said yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
          How come you… how come you taste so good?
          Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
          Just like a… just like a black girl should
          Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo

          3. That’s actually a deliberate media-driven misconception about Jefferson having children with one of his slaves. Pretty interesting story, will have to refresh my memory and find the links, but from what I remember: a university studied the DNA of the black family claiming to be descendents of Thomas Jefferson and it was a positive match, but only for any male in the Jefferson family. They released a report that every media outlet picked up: Thomas Jefferson was the father. A coalition of prominent universities later published a very detailed report explaining that Thomas Jefferson was very unlikely to be the father (maybe even impossible due to the timing of the births, can’t remember), but that it was highly likely the father was Thomas Jefferson’s BROTHER, who was always at Monticello and whose time between marriages (he was a widower) lines up with when the Jefferson children were conceived. Good example of a media narrative that has become accepted history.

          5. Check this out, before BLM scrubs it from our historic record:

            Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings:
            A Brief Account

            Years after his wife’s death, Thomas Jefferson fathered at least six of Sally Hemings’s children. Four survived to adulthood and are mentioned in Jefferson’s plantation records: Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston Hemings. Sally Hemings worked for two and a half years (1787-89) in Paris as a domestic servant and maid in Jefferson’s household. While in Paris, where she was free, she negotiated with Jefferson to return to enslavement at Monticello in exchange for “extraordinary privileges” for herself and freedom for her unborn children. Decades later, Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemings’s children – Beverly and Harriet left Monticello in the early 1820s; Madison and Eston were freed in his will and left Monticello in 1826. Jefferson did not grant freedom to any other enslaved family unit.
            …

          6. Here’s a snip from an article at WND.

            “To this day, most Americans think that DNA proved that Thomas Jefferson fathered the children of slave Sally Hemings,” said Barton. “But how can that be when Thomas Jefferson’s DNA was never tested? It was for this reason that the 1998 announcement of Jefferson’s alleged paternity was pulled only two weeks after the story’s release.”

  20. Congratulations to anyone reading this on surviving to the halfway mark of the strangest year of my time on the planet thus far. Stay safe this July 4 weekend!

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus pandemic
      Texas orders face masks as US Sun Belt cases continue to surge
      Nationwide increase tops 50,000 for second day in a row, led by sharp rise in Florida
      An aid worker wears a face mask at a food distribution centre in Dallas, Texas.
      © AP
      Peter Wells in New York and Courtney Weaver in Washington 2 hours ago

      Texas governor Greg Abbott has issued an order requiring face masks be worn in public in the state’s hardest-hit regions, the latest attempt to snuff the coronavirus outbreak that continues to spread in the US south and west.

      The executive order from Mr Abbott, which applies to counties with 20 or more positive tests, was accompanied by a measure giving local governments the authority to limit public gatherings to 10 people statewide.

      “We need to refocus on slowing the spread but this time we want to do it without closing down Texas again,” Mr Abbott said on Thursday.

      The governor’s order came as the number of new cases nationwide increased by more than 50,000 for the second day in a row, led by Florida, which tallied Thursday’s sharpest uptick. The state reported 10,109 new cases over 24 hours — a record that was up from 6,605 recorded on Wednesday.*
      …

      1. ..snd while we’re all inside, cowering in our masks, the globalists will send their minions to collect our shrubs and other yard plants, thus completing their elaborate scheme for Complete Global Subjugation. This is our last chance, at freedom, everyone. See to your shrubberies!

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
      Corporate bonds
      Junk bond funds see biggest withdrawals since March
      Investors cite climb in US coronavirus cases among factors for pullback
      Redemptions of $3.4bn for the week ending July 1 broke a 13-week streak of inflows in which $54bn was added to the fund group
      © Bloomberg
      Joe Rennison in London and Eric Platt and Colby Smith in New York 6 hours ago

      Investors pulled the most amount of money out of US junk bond funds since the depths of the coronavirus induced sell-off, as investor appetite for lower-rated debt shows signs of waning.

      Junk bond funds saw a $3.4bn withdrawal for the week ending July 1, according to data from EPFR Global. The redemptions broke a 13-week streak of inflows in which $54bn was added to the fund group, and marked the biggest weekly outflow since the middle of March.

      Investors chalked up the exodus to rising concern over the outlook for the US economy as cases of Covid-19 have started rising again, coupled with an eagerness to crystallise profits after a ferocious rally sparked by historic central bank intervention.

      “There is some investor caution, but it is not investor fear,” said Ashish Shah, co-head of fixed income at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

      Since March, the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates to zero, announced an unlimited asset purchase programme and pledged to pump trillions of dollars into the financial system via 11 emergency lending facilities aimed at shoring up an unprecedented range of asset classes. The measures include programmes to support corporate credit markets, including junk bonds.
      …

  24. Could they bolster luxury foreclosure home sales thusly?

    The Financial Times
    Coronavirus business update 30 days complimentary
    The Art Market Collecting
    ‘The auction of the future is here’
    Sotheby’s makes leap with digital auction; rumours swirl around Art Basel; Lévy Gorvy to open in Paris
    Sotheby’s livestream
    Melanie Gerlis July 1 2020

    Hats off to Sotheby’s for being the first to test out a digital-only, live-stream auction for the highest-priced art — and for passing with flying colours. At the start of its June 29 sale, auctioneer Oliver Barker, standing in front of several screens from mission control in London, announced that “The auction of the future is here.”
    …

  26. It has been a month now since the headlines were dominated by Alarming Rise in CCP Virus Cases, other than America Burning headlines. Every day a record number of Total Cases and “We’ll know something in two weeks.”

    I’ve occasionally looked at the fatality curve for the US and various states making the news for alarm. No increase. Not for the country, not for Florida, Texas, California. The half a dozen or so significant changes in the way Case Counts have been manipulated hasn’t conjured up any increase in fatalities.

    The herd has been led to believe that “Cases” is a forward indicator of fatality. That seems to be a complete logical disconnect. Such an illogical narrative cannot survive forever. I guess.

    1. Meanwhile, the daily case count increase keeps accelerating. And because there are no statisticians involved with creating and administering a scientifically designed testing protocol, it is impossible use modern mathematical statistics to infer the total number of U.S. cases.

    2. We were told that the massive Memorial Day crowds would lead to massive spikes in deaths. Over a month later – nada. Now we’re told that this latest surge will certainly lead to a massive spike in deaths. I have my doubts.

  27. The Coronavirus Crisis
    U.S. Surpasses Global Record For New COVID-19 Cases Recorded In A Day
    July 3, 2020 3:31 AM ET
    Doreen McCallister
    A mannequin wears a face mask at the Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday urged Californians to turn to their “better angels” and use common sense over the holiday weekend by wearing a mask and skipping traditional gatherings with family and friends.
    Jae C. Hong/AP

    The United States has reached a daily global record for the coronavirus pandemic — reporting more than 55,000 new COVID-19 cases. The daily U.S. tally stood at 55,274 late Thursday, which exceeds the previous single-day record of 54,771 set by Brazil on June 19.

    Johns Hopkins University & Medicine’s Coronavirus Resource Center, which tracks the virus worldwide, says the total number of cases reported in the U.S. stands at 2,739,879, an increase of 53,399 over Wednesday’s figure.

    Brazil has the next highest number of cases with 1,496,858. Russia rounds out the top three with 660,231 cases. U.S. deaths attributed to the coronavirus stands at 128,740. Brazil ranks second with 61,884 deaths and the United Kingdom third with 44,080 deaths.

    As infections spike in the U.S., a number of states are taking action to try to slow the spread of cases.

    Florida’s surge of COVID-19 cases shows no signs of slowing down. The state Department of Heath reported Florida set another daily record Thursday, with 10,109 cases, surpassing Saturday’s record of 9,585 cases.

    The milestone continues a marked upturn in cases that began last month, weeks after Florida started allowing businesses to reopen.
    …

    1. San Diego Makes California COVID-19 ‘Watch List’ as Record 584 Cases Reported
      Posted by Chris Jennewein on July 2, 2020 in Tech

      The San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency reported a record 584 new cases of coronavirus Thursday and said the county will be added to California’s COVID-19 “watch list.”

      Of 8,510 test results received in the past day, 6.9% were positive and the 14-day rolling average increased to 4.9%. As recently as two weeks ago the average was under 3%.

      “Today’s numbers are another stark reminder that coronavirus is real. It is spreading and we must take action to get it under control,” said Supervisor Nathan Fletcher.

      Five more deaths were reported. The latest victims were three men and two women ranging in age from 51 to 93.

      There has also been a surge in community outbreaks, with 22 in the past seven days. Eight of the latest were in restaurants or bars. A community outbreak is defined as three or more people not from the same household contracting the disease at a specific location.
      …

      1. said Supervisor Nathan Fletcher.

        It’s a great time to be a “supervisor”!

        My daughter told me that our cell phones are being updated to give us all a tracking App. My Android updated this morning and will now not tell me the weather in my home town without me agreeing to allow location tracking. Marvelous.

        2. The permissions for each app have much more granularity in the newer Android versions.

          The GSM network core tracks your phone’s location independent of the apps layer. The WiFi is also busy handshaking with other WiFi access points like your neighbors or the doughnut shop, which refuse your device for lack of a password, but your denied MAC address is in the logs, which are constantly being uploaded and organized, so even if you removed your provider’s SIM card your phone’s general location is known.

          If you forgo your phone altogether, you can be found from facial recognition software that sifts through everybody’s images on the cloud servers. Someone taking a photo of their kids might catch you in the background walking by on the sidewalk, etc., and all these photos have geo-location tags, so once a general location is established, only the photos in that general area will be searched. Gotcha!

  28. Here’s some great news for wannabe knifecatchers: Foriegn buyers of U.S. real estate have run for the hills!

    1. Real Estate
      Foreign Home Buying Dries Up, Easing the Way for Domestic Buyers
      Foreign purchasers, a tiny percentage of overall buyers, have had an exaggerated influence in certain markets
      By Nicole Friedman
      July 2, 2020 5:30 am ET

      Foreign buying of U.S. homes was a driving factor in markets from California to Florida, helping prices reach new highs. Now, the pandemic, reduced travel and immigration restrictions are further undermining already weakening international demand.

      Overseas residential real-estate purchases climbed steadily between 2011 and 2017, peaking at $153 billion in the year ended March 2017…

  29. I am in Washington state for the long weekend. Supposedly everyone has to wear a mask in public per Herr Governor Inslee’s orders. Ha!! Maybe in Karen (King) County the lemmings are obeying. Not where I am. Arrived yesterday evening didn’t see a single mask in town. If a cop says anything to me I’ll mumble something about systemic racism and walk away. Good luck enforcing that nonsense at the lake with temps in the mid 80s guvnah.

  30. I’m totally convinced that this so called social justice revolution is a Commie take over plan. It’s like a virus that you can’t even challenge because you are than accused of White Privilege if you have any attachment to Western Civilization or even Science.

    The one thing about recent events is the true colors of this Revolution has come to the surface on the intent of these social justice warriors who are the protestors.

    In a way I’m glad they have revealed themselves and just how brainwashed education has been.

    Basically this Social Justice idea has evolved to the idea that a take down of Western Civilization to be replaced by a Commie take over is the only way to achieve social justice.
    If there is any situation where the outcomes are not equal than for these nuts it means it’s a byproduct of a unjust Society.
    So, if a homeless bum drug addict is not successful it not because of the choices that person made but rather it’s Societies fault.

    Rather than any looking at how the Money people bought off the Political class to create financial class struggle toward all races in the rigged systems, it’s a call to a Commie Takeover.

    The Communist have been working on this take over for a long time.
    In my view Communism is one of the most evil ideas ever conceived. Making everyone drone like ants is the net result with the Commie Leaders handiing out their version of equally.

    While capitalism isn’t really operative right now because of price fixing monopolies and a Oligarchy that has evolved, rather than correct this , the idea is only a Commie takeover is correct solution.
    So the Constitution , freedom, Bill of Rights, equal rights under the law, etc. Is to be replaced with Commie everyone is equal and all shall get the same. Nothing is placed on effort, on merits, on choice in a free world but the equality of a main command dictating your equal share of resources.

    When you hear these Protestors talk they make all these demands of what they are entitled to , without any regard to who has to pay for this dead weight who doesn’t seem to think any requirements should be put on them, and they think that is social justice.
    The Politicians giving in to these Commie hell children is a mistake.
    This movement is bigger than I thought and it will throw us into the dark age if it goes any farther. This is Commie takeover plot that’s more advanced than I thought.

    1. this Revolution

      Don’t worry too much. A revolution against a small number of elite is entirely feasible. A revolution against the average persons that you want to be just like doesn’t have much air.

      I listened to a bit on NPR while driving this morning. The speaker railed against the “Capitalist” who just wants the money. Eventually he said they (whoever he was speaking for) just want the money.

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