thehousingbubble@gmail.com
Blog

They Don’t Have That Much Equity, And They Can’t Sell It

A weekend topic starting with the Enterprise Record in California. “Building housing ‘is not affordable,’ said Kate Leyden of Chico Builders’ Association. In order to make housing ‘affordable’ for the county, (costing only one-third of the average monthly income) or about $500 a month, the same unit would have to cost $75,000 to build. ‘We have reached the point where the cost to build is more than our economy can support,’ she said. Part of this is due to COVID-19’s economic impact. Butte County’s main employment is in the service and hospitality sectors, the study adds. ‘We don’t have big high paying manufacturing or high tech jobs,’ Leyden said. ‘We are tourism and restaurants, and we are small.'”

“Land in Chico is ‘extremely expensive for two reasons,’ Leyden said (a 1/4 acre to 1/3 acre basic lot could be around $100,000, she said). There isn’t much of it, and there is even less land that is ‘ready to go’ with infrastructure like reasonable access to utilities and roads. ‘There comes a point when people in your town can’t afford it anymore. If we lived in any area with an average household income of $100,000 … then we could manage more cost in houses.'”

“Newly built, market-rate apartments will continue to be priced high because the costs are high to build them. ‘The developers as a marketing tool call them luxury because they have to charge so much for them,’ Leyden said. ‘The report shows the cost to build an apartment is $190,000 a unit at total cost with materials, labor and all additional stuff … it’s almost $191,000 a unit.'”

“The cost of adding infrastructure like roads and sewer to land, as is needed in Paradise, drives up the price of each home on that parcel by between $17,000-$20,000.”

The Park Record in Utah. “The real estate surge comes against the backdrop of an uncertain economy. Unemployment in the Park City area — which the Board of Realtors defines as Summit and Wasatch counties — is down from a spring peak but remains elevated. And there are warning signs that the upcoming winter could be challenging for businesses that rely on ski tourism as the coronavirus pandemic worsens.”

“While William Winstead, president of the Park City Board of Realtors, could not have anticipated the extent of the real estate boom, he’s not shocked that the market has proven resilient during an economic slump. He said the same was true during the Great Recession, though the market did not escape that crisis unscathed. ‘We haven’t had a lot of downturn in our market,’ he said. ‘Even 2008, 2009, 2010, I don’t think we fell below 25%, 30%, where other states were going down to 50%, 60% and 70% below what the real estate market value was.'”

The Motley Fool. “You might have heard of a zombie house: a property that’s been abandoned and is decaying right before your eyes — certainly frightening for the neighbors. But there’s also the vampire foreclosure, which sucks the blood from the local real estate market. There were a couple of reasons banks allowed vampire foreclosures to happen to the extent they did. One was a deliberate measure to help boost home prices in the short-term. (If you recall your real estate history, home prices took a huge hit in the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis.) So banks were biding their time before getting serious about selling off their REO stock.”

“When a vampire occupies a home, that home is not on the market. By all rights, since the former owner lost the home to foreclosure, the home should go back on the market. But because it’s sitting in limbo, an artificially low housing supply is being created. As mentioned, banks can regulate the fair market value of homes to some extent by the timing of when they hold and release their properties.”

The Honolulu Civil Beat in Hawaii. “In 1979, my husband David, his sister, his mother and I pooled our monies hui-style to build a three-story walk-up in McCully. Dave and I own two units on the second floor, his mother and sister each own a unit on the third floor. The whole thing cost $250,000 to build, and our mortgage was very reasonable. David and I paid $750 a month for our two-bedroom and rented out the one-bedroom for $450. His mother paid $750 for her two-bedroom and his sister rented out her one-bedroom for $450.”

“Now every so often we receive a postcard from a realtor looking to buy our apartment building. These postcards typically list other small apartment buildings in the vicinity that are for sale for a million or two. As our median home and condominium prices continue to creep upwards, even during this pandemic, I can’t help but wonder how many families will be able to afford the sky-high mortgages on any of these high-priced properties?”

“There is a luxury high-rise in town that was built 40 years ago. It was beautiful, with spacious apartments. I was shocked to look at a unit there . The spacious living room had been divided into two rooms, the master bedroom similarly sliced; with one other bedroom, there were now FIVE rooms of unrelated folks, each paying $700.”

“Aren’t we complicit when we sell at these exorbitant prices? We must see how we each contribute to the housing crisis and the ever-growing number of people on the streets.”

The East Anglian Daily Times in the UK. “Southwold has long been a popular seaside resort, attracting visitors from not just East Anglia, but places further afield such as London and the Midlands. With a population of around 1,000, nearly 60% of the town’s 1,400 residential units are occupied as second homes or used as holiday lets. But with a shortage of available housing, combined with some of the highest house prices in the country, where does this leave the town’s longstanding residents?”

“Southwold town and district councillor David Beavan fears that the rising number of second homes, coupled with already expensive house prices, will results in the town becoming a seasonal holiday resort, rather than somewhere people can live long-term. ‘Our community is dying because of the number of houses here that are used as holiday homes or second homes. It’s at 60% now, which is the highest in the country. We’ve lost our police and fire stations, pubs are closing, and without a community here, why would people want to come here? If it’s just a holiday park, it loses its attraction. I want the community to thrive as a community.'”

“But why has a town like Southwold got such a small permanent population, and a high percentage of second homeowners? ‘A lot of the second homes are there because so many people have sold up. An elderly resident passes away, their family inherits a place in Southwold, they see they can get £500,000 for it, they put it up on the market and sell it as a second home because no local person can afford to buy it.'”

“At the time of writing, a one bedroom flat in Southwold costs anywhere between £399,000 and £495,000. ‘You just can’t get a mortgage – someone from here would have to be earning five times the average wage to be able to afford a house here.'”

From Arlington Now in Virginia. “This year is going to be an anomaly. We have over 200 percent more inventory going into the colder months than we did last year, though it’s pretty much all hold-over condo inventory. I’m still waiting for that part of our market to hiccup and be absorbed. I won’t hold my breath….”

From Westword in Colorado. “According to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, the average closing price for a detached home in the Denver area is now $625,100, a sky-high record — and the $393,733 average closing price for attached units such as condos is the highest ever in that category, too. But Jim Smith of Golden Real Estate feels this last figure is a bit misleading. He points out that new listings for condos are popping up at an unprecedented pace, but such spaces aren’t selling nearly as quickly as single-family homes — and he believes the reason has everything to do with COVID-19.”

“Smith notes. ‘They don’t want to be mixing in elevators and lobbies with people who might have COVID-19 — and the fact that COVID-19 is accelerating now is probably going to increase the number of condo dwellers who are putting their places on the market.’ He notes, condos ‘aren’t selling like houses. They’re sitting on the market’ because buyers with the means to make purchases in large complexes, particularly in the luxury category, have the same concerns.”

“This disparity might suggest that many people currently living in luxury condos are ditching them to buy detached homes and thereby driving up prices in that category. But the truth is not that simple, Smith suggests. ‘If they have a lot of their money in a million-dollar condo, they don’t have that much equity,’ he argues. ‘The equity’s in the condo, and they can’t sell it. So they’re not necessarily fueling this market.'”

An opinion piece by Aaron Brown at Bloomberg. “Rapidly rising housing prices in the U.S. has led to talk of another housing bubble like the one that helped trigger the financial crisis a little more than a decade ago. Consider that the Case-Shiller National Home Price index has gained in excess of 6% per year on average since January 2012, while net rental income has barely kept up with inflation, increasing just less than 2% per year. The result is that home prices seem as overvalued as they were in the spring of 2005, nine months before the peak.”

“Sure, real estate prices always drift up or down, and differ by location and type of home. A bubble in housing requires widespread overvaluation over years, which is what we have witnessed. The bad news is all previous history came at higher mortgage rates. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell below 3% for the first time in August 2020, and rates are close to the lowest possible levels given the credit risk and costs of writing mortgages. It’s one thing to be a peak valuation, it’s another to be at peak valuation with no discernable upside.”

“It’s implausible that housing prices can go up from here without large increases in rents, which require increases in demand for housing. That’s an unlikely outcome in a recession. If the recession continues, where will new demand come from? If it ends, interest rates go up, pushing housing prices down.”

Related Posts
This Post Has 176 Comments

  1. The Mechanics Behind the Electronic Vote Steal Operation

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/OJrljwQFcIvc/

    https://twitter.com/tom2badcat/status/1325126091460268032

    https://archive.vn/KPwUa

    Michigan @ 45:20. And on. 5 out of 5 states.

    Another poster added:

    ‘At 31:30 in the video, he explains how Trump was comfortably ahead in all the 5 key battleground states, and suddenly all 5, AT THE SAME TIME, quit counting and went offline for 3 hours.’

    ‘Then when they came back, suddenly there were massive numbers of found votes and were all for one candidate and one candidate only (Biden). Statistically impossible.’

    Lots of info and links here:

    https://everylegalvote.com/country

    1. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/11/whats_kraken.html

      While you may not agree that President Trump is a strategic genius who sees things far into the future and prepares for all contingencies, it cannot be doubted that two years ago he anticipated foreign interference with our election process and issued in an Executive Order a means to investigate and punish any person, group or country which engaged in such international election fraud.

      It’s a lengthy order and I’ll try to note some of the most significant portions of it. It tasks the DNI with preparing a report of the investigative results of such interference no later than 45 days after an election.

      Did this Executive Order set in place a means to investigate computer manipulation overseas to affect our election and did such an investigation reveal that this occurred and significantly affected the election in several key states? If so, the reported results must be amended substantially to discard the false count, or other measures taken to prevent certifying fraudulent results dependent on the manipulated reported final tallies. That is the issue I think Powell and Wood are hinting at.

      To be sure, there is a great deal of evidence of regular old-timey ballot stuffing and standard election fraud, but computer and internet generated mischief has the potential to far exceed that and seems to Trump’s lawyers in fact to have done so.

      1. It tasks the DNI with preparing a report of the investigative results of such interference no later than 45 days after an election.

        So we should be hearing from John Ratcliffe on or before December 18.

        P.S. Sidney Powell tweeted this article.

      3. So Trump issued an Executive Order to investigate his own election and ultimately grant the win to himself? Yeah, that’ll go over real well with the public. And December 18 is past the December 14 deadline for the electors to vote.

    2. ‘President Donald Trump on Saturday night announced the addition of Sidney Powell to his campaign’s election legal team. Powell gained the national spotlight when she took over as the defense attorney representing former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.’

      ‘The president also said Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, and Jenna Ellis have joined the legal team led by his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.’

      “I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!” Trump wrote on Twitter.’

      ‘Powell responded to Trump’s announcement by tweeting the hashtag #ReleaseTheKraken.’

      ‘The campaign’s lawsuits also include challenges to votes counted by Dominion Voting Systems. The president and Powell both share video clips about Dominion on Saturday. In one of the clips, the company’s CEO testifies that the Dominion machines contain components that come from China. Another clip features a portion of an NBC News report on how Dominion systems were broken into by hackers at the annual DEF CON hacking conference.’

      ‘It is unclear when Powell joined the campaign’s legal effort but she appeared to be on board as early as Nov. 11 when she responded to a Twitter post by Shiva Ayyadurai, an engineer who received a Ph.D. from MIT. In the tweet, Ayyadurai alleged that an analysis of the voting tallies in Michigan suggested that an algorithm was used to switch 69,000 votes.’

      “You are absolutely right. Maybe more. We will be in contact asap,” Powell wrote.’

      https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-adds-sidney-powell-to-election-legal-effort_3579347.html

      1. Smartmatic CEO apologizing in the 2017 Venezuela Election for 1 million vote switch

        https://www.bitchute.com/video/e2Fxswdf1SsG/

        ‘In an interview with the Fox Business Channel, Giuliani, in his capacity as lawyer of reelectionist US President Donald Trump, claimed that the Smartmatic vote-counting machines were “hackable.”

        ‘He said Dominion, the company that provided the automated vote-counting system used during the most recent presidential election, was owned by Smartmatic through an intermediary company referred to as Indra.’

        ‘He claimed that the Smartmatic vote-counting machine was basically developed and designed to commit fraud in the process of vote-counting, particularly for the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.’

        ‘He claimed that Smartmatic had been behind the electoral frauds in many countries, without actually mentioning the Philippines, which has been using its system for over a decade.’

        ‘Giuliani also hinted about the origins of the Dominion- Voting System and the company’s alleged connection with Smartmatic, one of the most questioned automated voting companies, primarily because of the affiliation of the people behind the company to Chávez.’

        ‘He accused Smartmatic of manipulating the recent US presidential election in key US states, adding that its Dominion Voting System was using machines designed to allow human intervention.’

        ‘He said Smartmatic was founded by three Venezuelans who were very close to the dictator Hugo Chávez back in 2003, adding that the company was formed to fix elections. “That’s the company that owns Dominion. Dominion is a Canadian company, but all its software is from Smartmatic,” Giuliani was quoted during the interview.’

        https://manilastandard.net/news/national/339587/smartmatic-poll-machines-come-into-question.html

        1. ‘Former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell, a Trump campaign lawyer, suggested in a Sunday interview that there is still more evidence coming out in President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud and irregularities.’

          “We’re getting ready to overturn election results in multiple states,” Powell said, saying that she has enough evidence of election fraud to launch a widespread criminal investigation. “I don’t make comments without having the evidence to back it up,” she added, saying that elections software switched “millions of votes” from Trump to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.’

          “We have so much evidence, I feel like it’s coming in through a fire hose,” Powell said, while noting that she won’t reveal the evidence that she has.’

          “They can stick a thumb drive in the [voting] machine, they can upload software to it even from the Internet … from Germany or Venezuela even,” she said, adding that operations “can watch votes in real-time” and “can shift votes in real-time,” or alleged bad actors can “remote access anything.”

          “We’ve identified mathematically the exact algorithm they’ve used—and planned to use from the beginning” that allegedly switched votes to Biden, Powell remarked.’

          https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-lawyer-sidney-powell-were-getting-ready-to-overturn-election-results-in-multiple-states_3579599.html

          2. “We’re getting ready to overturn election results in multiple states,” Powell said

            This is some pretty strong stuff you’re claiming, Ms. Powell. You’re not exactly overturning a traffic ticket.

            If I understand this correctly, they are going to overturn entire states just on the proving fraud in the voting software alone? No hand recounts? No audits?

            This reminds me of the gold vs. bitcoin debate. The general public — and probably a bunch of older judges on the bench — want the kind of evidence that is akin to gold. You can see it and touch it and put it into an XRD. Powell’s got BTC-type evidence. A bunch of electrons with very little weight. I don’t think any judge would overturn states on electrons alone. Wouldn’t they at least order hand recounts?

          3. I won’t be surprised if they prove that the voting machines CAN be interfered with remotely, I doubt anybody will be. The question is can they prove the voting machines WERE interfered with remotely during this election? I suppose the NSA would know for sure but I don’t expect help from them.

            Regardless, if large scale fraud is proven, I will be honestly surprised that it was all done so amateurishly. I would think if you were going to do it, you’d make sure to make it look more random.

          4. I won’t be surprised if they prove that the voting machines CAN be interfered with remotely, I doubt anybody will be. The question is can they prove the voting machines WERE interfered with remotely during this election? I suppose the NSA would know for sure but I don’t expect help from them.

            This is it in a nutshell, and probably why it was done remotely from other countries. But hand recounts would weed this electronic BS out. However, if they were destroying ballots for Trump, a hand recount wouldn’t produce anything because those ballots would be gone.

          5. I suppose the NSA would know for sure but I don’t expect help from them.

            What’s the relationship between DNI and NSA? Would a DNI report include NSA information? Would that explain why Giuliani and Powell can’t speak publicly about it yet?

          7. Looks like they were doing a little of everything. Manufacture some Biden ballots, destroy some Trump ballots, get some dead folks to vote, and if all that doesn’t work, have somebody flip a switch in Venezuela.

            You’ll never see this on the MSM for sure.

          8. WSJ article — so all the Trump team needs to do is run out the clock and the state legislature decides on the electors? Maybe that’s why Trump didn’t contest Virginia — VA has a Democratic legislature, and nothing short of a full recount to flip the state would deter the Democratic legislature from appointing Biden electors.

            But I see a real problem here: The counting has stopped in all of the states except GA, with Biden in the lead at the end of the vote count. One could argue that there is no “dispute” because the votes have been counted.

            So what is the Trump strategy? I suppose one strategy is to release the Kraken voting software to prove that the disputes can’t be solved by any deadline. That’s a tough sell — again, because it’s based on electrons and not on physical evidence.

          9. One could argue that there is no “dispute” because the votes have been counted.

            Not if there are ongoing and unresolved legal disputes.

            So what is the Trump strategy?

            Like the Kraken, it probably has multiple arms.

          10. This sounds a lot like the Diebold machine fiasco from the 00’s. Not sure if they went out of business or not, it I bet there are good examples of legal avenues there.

          11. That’s right, it was claimed that right wing company Diebold stole the 2000 election from the Democrats with their voting machines.

            Was that every proven, or just more stuff like we are hearing now?

            Being in New York, I hear the Democratic version of this stuff too. Neither side can quite grasp how alike they are.

          12. Diebold

            Number of Congressional seats and Presidencies flipped from Diebold investigation: 0. 😴😴😴😴😴😴

  2. ‘There comes a point when people in your town can’t afford it anymore. If we lived in any area with an average household income of $100,000 … then we could manage more cost in houses’

    This is why you make the big bucks Kate.

    ‘The cost of adding infrastructure…drives up the price’

    Really? This is a topic we’ve discussed here many times. A hypothetical: lets start a town in say, Arizona, middle of nowhere. I am the mayor. I get you guys to agree all lots will be one million AZ pesos. Who’s wants that sweet equity?

    Another: let’s do away with just FHA loans? Crater. Go further and get rid of Fannie and Freddie. Mega crater!! So if it’s the financing driving this, don’t we just need to whittle that down, like the FHFA is trying to do, and we can take the air out of the bubble? It’s that simple.

        1. Here is a miracle chart …

          Timeline of the United States housing bubble – Wikipedia
          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_United_States_housing_bubble#/media/File%3AMedian_and_Average_Sales_Prices_of_New_Homes_Sold_in_United_States_1963-2016_annual.svg

          There is no way earned money could have driven these prices to this extent. No way. Prices (and thus “values”) were driven due to the combination of …

          1. Borrowed money, and

          2. Mass stupidity.

          Mass stupidity cannot be curtailed but borrowed money can, hence the person who controls the money valve ultimately controls the prices of houses, and this person happens to be me.

          😁

  3. ‘Even 2008, 2009, 2010, I don’t think we fell below 25%, 30%, where other states were going down to 50%, 60% and 70% below what the real estate market value was’

    Bill is an idiot.

  4. ‘When a vampire occupies a home, that home is not on the market. By all rights, since the former owner lost the home to foreclosure, the home should go back on the market. But because it’s sitting in limbo, an artificially low housing supply is being created. As mentioned, banks can regulate the fair market value of homes to some extent by the timing of when they hold and release their properties’

    Wa? But this is a conspiracy theory! How did fascistbook let this get out?

    And why was the FASB rule letting banks get away with this never repealed after shacks became red-hotcakes?

    1. Basically, the federal government decided higher housing prices (and other asset prices) were “good for the economy.” So allowing REOs to be held off the market and allowed to deteriorate, jacking up the DTI so millennials could spend more of their income on debt, having the Fed buy up mortgage bonds and then corporate bonds, etc.

      What they are unwilling to face is that they have been engaging in income redistribution on a grand scale. From less well off Americans, and future Americans, to rich holders of paper assets. And from later-born Americans, who have been left poorer and forced to pay more for housing, to those Americans over age 62, the richest generations in U.S. history.

      Take any public policy, any economic trend, any social trend associated with the 1960s generation and ask this question. How did it affect their lives, and the lives of those born after? Who was made better off, and worse off? I’d bet you’ll find it’s the same way 99 percent of the time, and it’s all under Omertà. And it’s bi-partisan.

  5. ‘A bubble in housing requires widespread overvaluation over years, which is what we have witnessed. The bad news is all previous history came at higher mortgage rates. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell below 3% for the first time in August 2020, and rates are close to the lowest possible levels given the credit risk and costs of writing mortgages. It’s one thing to be a peak valuation, it’s another to be at peak valuation with no discernable upside’

    Translation – lots of people are fooked. See Bloomberg is a globalist outfit. They are allowed to mention the B word. Her and there in the midst of stampeding weak minded people into the trap.

  6. ‘and the $393,733 average closing price for attached units such as condos is the highest ever in that category…’condos ‘aren’t selling like houses. They’re sitting on the market’ …‘If they have a lot of their money in a million-dollar condo, they don’t have that much equity,’ he argues. ‘The equity’s in the condo, and they can’t sell it’

    Highest ever, but can’t sell. Must be something fishy in the statistics.

  7. ‘‘Our community is dying because of the number of houses here that are used as holiday homes or second homes. It’s at 60% now, which is the highest in the country. We’ve lost our police and fire stations, pubs are closing, and without a community here, why would people want to come here?’

    We’ve seen this repeatedly. Like Flagstaff, huge amounts of 2nd shacks and the town is broke-a$$. 2nd shack owners in Flagstaff spend something like $1500 a year in the town. Except for property taxes, of course.

    1. 2nd shack owners in Flagstaff spend something like $1500 a year in the town. Except for property taxes, of course. What is to keep the voters in Flag from raising property taxes for non-resident owners to vast heights?

      1. I don’t think they can single out speculators. Besides the guberment there loves speculators. It’s a REIC town. I went back to write an article a few years ago. The developers ruined downtown.

        1. The developers ruined downtown.

          They’ve ruined every little downtown in the entire west coast. There has been a fundamental transformation due to this disgusting real estate bubble.

    2. Since the 2000 and 2008 crashes, we’ve had tons of people trying to become landlords that otherwise wouldn’t have bothered, and they’re often doing it out of desperation to make up lost financial ground.

      Add to that the ‘enablers’ – companies like AiRBnB, VRBo, who make money as rent seekers/middlemen and have marketed the concept hard to convince people they too can prosper as landlords (along with TV shows, etc that make it look super easy).

      No mention of course of the risks. Should a black swan event, like 2020, comes along and upsets their carefully laid plans…

  8. “Aren’t we complicit when we sell at these exorbitant prices? We must see how we each contribute to the housing crisis and the ever-growing number of people on the streets.”

    What an idiot. If you want to end “exorbitant prices,” end the Fed. Nixon taking the U.S. off the gold standard in 1971 freed these Keynesian fraudsters from any fiscal discipline when it came to printing the money needed to fund the welfare/warfare state. It’s been all downhill for the American standard of living ever since, except of course for the oligarchs who have been the exclusive beneficiaries of the Fed’s “No Billionaire Left Behind” monetary policies.

    1. People are greedy. There wouldn’t be a bubble if so many didn’t walk into the casino. Brings up a point: there was a time when this whole phenomenon didn’t exist. This is the elephant in the room the media won’t touch.

      ‘How do we determine the truth about home prices? Why is it some homes in places like Aspen Colorado are $1,000 psf while in some areas a comparable size home will sell for $100 psf or less? The average price of homes in the U.S. increased from below $50,000 in 1963 to $384,500 in 2020. Then came the 2007 housing bubble but by 2013 housing prices had returned to pre-2007 levels.’

      ‘In 1975 every region of the country had an average home sale price of under $75,000 but by 2020 the Northeast had an average sale price of over $500,000 while the South and Midwest had an average price of just more than $300,000.’

      https://www.hannapub.com/ouachitacitizen/opinion/columns/bill-roark-sussing-out-the-truth-about-home-prices/article_73d49da8-0e21-11eb-a320-fb2da5592050.html

      ‘In 1975 every region of the country had an average home sale price of under $75,000’

      I’ve mentioned before that the Texas shack my parents bought in the mid sixties cost about the same as shacks in Palo Alto at the time.

      1. I knew a gal from San Antonio years ago, sometime around 2005. She was absolutely floored by the house prices out west. Her parents lived in a roughly 2,000 sq ft rambler on acreage, and the value was $35,000. A 600 sq ft house out west was pushing $300,000.

      2. I’ve noted a couple times here that the neighborhood of simple homes (~1500 sq ft, nothing special) I lived in Northwest Austin, TX went from $80-100k in 2008 (before the crash was in full swing) to $320-$400k today. +300% in just over a decade. Working class people priced out.

      3. 1965: The Great Society welfare programs enacted by LBJ
        1967: The West Bank and East Jerusalem was captured by Israel
        1968: The Tet Offensive changes the Vietnam war
        1969: That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind
        1970: The Aswan High Dam was completed in Egypt
        1971: The U.S. off the gold standard, the Indo-Pakistani war
        1972: Israel Athletes killed in Munich, Operation Linebacker
        1973: Yom Kippur war, OPEC oil embargo

        Just a sampling of major events that increased our economic commitments and involvement around the world.

      4. I’ve looked at archived local newspapers from the 1970’s from the central NJ area I grew up in. Houses were in the suburbs maybe in the 40 grand range, and the prices did go up as the 70’s ended too. In 1987, a Mcmansion in NJ was around the 250 grand mark. Today, i think my brother’s home in central NJ stone’s throw from NJ transit could go for about 400 grand. Funny thing is, homes in southern Maine here are not much cheaper and the job opportunities are much less.

      5. My parents bought the house I grew up in, in the early 80s for $229k. That house is now worth about $1.2M.

        It is nuts for sure.

    2. One of the precious metal bugs made two interesting points this year:
      1. A couple years ago, the Bank of International Settlements elevated gold bullion from a Tier 3 to Tier 1 asset. This means that a bank may hold its reserves in gold at 100% of its value. The only other Tier 1 asset is the US dollar.
      2. Since 1400’s, every fiat currency has lasted no more than 40 years until it collapsed. The US dollar has been the world reserve currency since Bretton Woods 1944, 75+ years ago, and was taken off the gold standard, almost 50 years ago.

      The implication is clear: The dollar’s time is up, and the central banks are preparing to reinstate at least a partial gold standard. Crypto is throwing a wrench into the works, but gold is sure to be a part of it.

      1. “Crypto” is just another scam ginned up by reckless speculators using cheap FED money. When everything comes crumbling down, “crypto” will probably lead in the losses.

  9. Our globalist overlords and media sheepdogs are displeased that growing numbers of former sheeple are pushing back against their arbitrary and capricious scamdemic control measures.

    Inside a California Covid Revolt

    Residents of Shasta County have taken resistance to Covid-19 restrictions to another level: “full-on anarchy.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-10-01/covid-19-restrictions-bring-california-county-into-revolt?srnd=premium&sref=ibr3A0ff

    1. ‘Oltman explained that “Eric” was telling the Antifa members they needed to “keep up the pressure.” When Oltman asked, “Who’s Eric?” someone answered, “Eric, he’s the Dominion guy.” Oltman said that as the conversation continued, someone asked, “What are we gonna do if F*cking Trump wins?” Oltman paraphrased how Eric (the Dominion guy) responded, “Don’t worry about the election, Trump’s not gonna win. I made f*cking sure of that!”

      Oh but there’s no evidence of fraud!

      1. Citizen! Our globalist overlords and our media border collies have ordained that there was no fraud! Furthermore, anyone who persists in pointing out the irregularities indicative of electoral fraud is a far right extremist, per the globalist Dobermans like the ADL! Your social credit score would surely suffer from such a designation, citizen Jones! So please feel free to join the other sheeple grazing on the green shoots sprouting from the manure the MSM flings across their pasture.

          1. I’m trying to be patient, Rip. But it’s a pretty tough sell. I guess they’re expecting Trump to gain a ton of votes and flip a bunch of states all at once. But then, it will look a lot like how the Biden votes did: a ton of votes and a bunch of states all at once. And what if this happens on December 11 or so and Biden doesn’t have time to countersue?

            Meanwhile, I went behind enemy lines to see what CNN is up to. Bad idea:
            Excerpt from Trump tweet: “Biden won because the election was rigged.”
            CNN headline: “Trump says for the first time Biden won the election but later insists he’s not conceding.”
            🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

            I guess the Georgia recount is ongoing. CNN has no headlines about that. Actually they don’t seem to have any headlines on the progress of the Trump challenge at all.

          3. I get the distilled gaslight narrative from a friend.

            “They did a recount in Arizona and didn’t find anything different.”

      2. Giuliani:

        “…we’re also enduring a lot of censorship, a lot, almost complete, like we’re not in America…”

  11. For a preview of coming attractions, it is instructive to review the playbook the Bolsheviks and their financier handlers implemented in Russia in the run-up to the 1971 Revolution.

    SUICIDE OF THE LIBERALS

    https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/10/suicide-of-the-liberals

    Between 1900 and 1917, waves of unprecedented terror struck Russia. Several parties professing incompatible ideologies competed (and cooperated) in causing havoc. Between 1905 and 1907, nearly 4,500 government officials and about as many private individuals were killed or injured. Between 1908 and 1910, authorities recorded 19,957 terrorist acts and revolutionary robberies, doubtless omitting many from remote areas. As the foremost historian of Russian terrorism, Anna Geifman, observes, “Robbery, extortion, and murder became more common than traffic accidents.”

    Anyone wearing a uniform was a candidate for a bullet to the head or sulfuric acid to the face. Country estates were burnt down (“rural illuminations”) and businesses were extorted or blown up. Bombs were tossed at random into railroad carriages, restaurants, and theaters. Far from regretting the death and maiming of innocent bystanders, terrorists boasted of killing as many as possible, either because the victims were likely bourgeois or because any murder helped bring down the old order. A group of anarcho-­communists threw bombs laced with nails into a café bustling with two hundred customers in order “to see how the foul bourgeois will squirm in death agony.”

      1. Matt Bracken’s novel from 15 years ago, “Enemies Foreign and Domestic,” has never seemed as prescient as it does today as we watch Democracy being subverted and hijacked by the globalists and their collectivist stooges.

  12. “As mentioned, banks can regulate the fair market value of homes to some extent by the timing of when they hold and release their properties.”

    Bahahahahahaha … banks also regulate the “fair market values” of homes by providing money (that belongs to somebody else) to ignorant pukes who then immediately, relentlessly, and mindlessly bid up housing prices. The bid up price for one house translates to increased “fair market values” for all the comps. These increased fair market values are then interpreted as increases in wealth, something that can easily be cashed out and spent. Thus a miracle economy can be established not by the application of something as old-fashioned as labor but instead the economy can be established simply by the magical application of finance.

    1. Since they are using medical for a power grab it caused me to remember my youth.

      In my youth people didn’t revolve their lives around the medical industry. Jobs started offering really cheap medical insurance as part of a job benefit creating the rise of the medical insurance cartel.
      It was a slow gradual development that you had this great dependants on going to the doctor for minor stuff or you might die. This talk to your doctor and be tested for everything developed slowly. Than the rise of the vaccine and drugs for everything with all their side effects. Putting people on long term drugs became a big money maker, but addressing lifestyle didn’t matter. A magic pill for everything. ,30% of the college students put on anti depression meds and 36 vaccines given to babies. In my youth they forced 2 vaccines at school and everyone was over seven years old . Big Pharma got immunity from Gov. on any damage caused by a vaccine. What could go wrong with that?
      Not to take away from anything good coming from the medical cartel, but it went the way of corrupted motives.iMHO.
      Obamacare was a Commie program to loot wealth based on IRS enforcement so a price setting medical monopoly could gouge based on income. Again under the guise of providing care for a much smaller portion of population everyone else gets gouged. This isn’t capitalism and it isn’t affordable care, but a form of looting. We cost 50 ,% more per head than other industrial Nation’s. That’s a big overcharge to US Citizens to the tune of a six thousand per head for Americans. They hated Trump for wanting to get European prices on drugs etc.
      Not very much capitalism going on these days, nothing but rigged systems and monopolies. Crazy debt and housing a joke bubble of absurd pricing.

      But, that Medical Cartel is being used to lock us down and God knows how far this will go.

      1. Your opinion on the medical industry and the changes we see today compared to, say, 1960-70 ignores the fact that medicine has changed dramatically since then. In the last 50 years there have been enormous advancements in all areas of medicine which have come from the progress made in the sciences from biology to physics.

        To put it succinctly, back in 1965 medicine was cheaper and more affordable compared to today because medicine only had a pitiful number of drugs and diagnostic tools available compared to today. Back then things didn’t cost very much because doctors could hardly do anything!

        For example, compare what medicine could do for a person with any heart disease in 1965 to standard therapies today. If you had a heart attack back then, good luck because you were going to need it. Or look at what they did when a person had a stroke in 1965. Well they couldn’t really do much of anything. Today it’s different. Go Google “Code Stroke”. Using a CT scanner and clot busting drugs like TPA, neurologists today can essentially abort a stroke. That wasn’t possible in 1965 because the CT scanner wasn’t invented yet. So if you had a stroke back then, you had to get used to being a cripple.

        Or take most cancers–from diagnostics to treatments, the advancements have been revolutionary. Back in 1970 when a child got leukemia, the vast majority would end up dying. Not so today where many are actually cured. Stomach and colon cancer killed because early diagnosis wasn’t possible. Now routine colonoscopies screen for colon cancer which if found early, can be completely cured (remember Ronald Reagan?).

        Look at how medicine has changed because of advances in imaging–MRI, CT , PET and ultrasound scanners. There are thousands of examples how these tools have led to advances in medical care. Take the humble kidney stone. I had a tremendous pain in my lower abdomen which landed me in the local Urgent Care. The doc says, “I think you have a kidney stone!” I said, “Oh NO!” Off to the CT scanner which took 45 seconds. By the time I got back to the examination room, the CT scan had been read by a radiologist (this was on a weekend evening–the radiologist read the scan over the internet on his home computer) and it found a 3.5 mm diameter kidney stone. I got sent home with some strong pain killers and Flomax. I passed the stone about 12 hours later.

        Diagnosis and treatment took minutes and I got better in a day. In the old days there wasn’t any CT scanner and small stones were missed by x-rays. And so the patient definitely had to endure more pain and the outcome was not at all as predictable.

        So things cost more now because doctors can do many orders of magnitude more to treat illnesses and disease. This is like comparing a 1966 Ford Mustang to any modern sedan or SUV. Even an econobox car like my Honda Fit went over 300,000 miles without any breakdowns or repairs except for 2 clutches and front wheel bearings. Everything worked and it drove like a new car until I hit a massive steel beam at night on the freeway. That totaled the car. A 1966 Mustang would never run 300,000 miles, didn’t have AC, did everything else horribly compared to the Honda. There’s been progress, that’s my point.

        People complain about the cost of medicine today without acknowledging the benefits they receive–things are taken for granted and are expected to be delivered for almost free. People don’t think two seconds on blowing $3000 on a short cruise vacation, but go ballistic when they get a $1500 bill for the hospitalization that saved their life.

        2. I said not to take away from anything good from medical.
          My point was that people didn’t revolve their lives around medical and got along just fine. I’m not talking about people who have a higher need for the advancement in med. I’m talking about the average person.
          The story to justify high prices doesn’t compute. *50 % cheaper in Europe per head. Plus since the down time in overnight hosp stays has reduced costs and operations can be done on a out patient basis, that should of lowered costs.
          Putting young people on
          long term drugs with the side effect is not doing no harm. It use to be that older seniors were most likely to need medical services. So the Insurance Carriers didn’t want to give them insurance. So, in the early 70s they created Medicare. The insurance companies got off the hook for carrying the highest risk load, creating more profit for them.
          Old time medicine was not as bad as your suggestion, but it’s cheaper than the new stuff. I don’t dispute that they have some great Cancer drugs that developed.
          But, give a magic pill for everything rather than address lifestyle issues is creating a avoidance of cheap solutions.
          Since lifespans are going down, this isn’t a good testimony to magic pills..
          I am impressed with the advancement on eye surgery .
          Look, I watch the development of the medical cartel throughout many years into the Affordable care act that’s a Commie monopoly of gouge pricing that charges based on income , not health risk, enforced by the IRS.
          The current medical lockdowns don’t follow logic or Science . Suppression of information is obvious and the fear mongering is evident. That’s a short response to your post.

          1. “So, in the early 70s they created Medicare.”

            For clarity’s sake: LBJ signed Medicare into law in 1965, part of the Great Society programs. There was vast grinding poverty in the U.S. back then particularly in the deep South where de facto Jim Crow segregation policies were prevalent.

          2. Medical care cost more today because more care in the form of procedures, surgeries and therapies are done today than in the past. Take Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. In the old days there weren’t any therapies for it. Today there are books about all the different ways to treat CTS.
            Or Migraine Headaches. Not so long ago there wasn’t much of anything that could be done. Today? Dozens of drugs that work to the point where 95% of people with migraines get substantial relief from their headaches. I’m one such patient.

            Look at hypertension and diabetes. I’m not even going to go into these because there are a massive number of drug therapies available compared to the past when there were almost NONE.

            In 1966 a Mustang didn’t cost very much because by today’s standard, it was a glorified conestoga wagon in comparison. Compared to a plain jane Honda Accord the Mustang got 14 MPG, the Honda 30 MPG. The Mustang produced 200 times the amount of pollution, was slower, handled worse, and was a death trap in compared to an Accord. I could go on and on. This is analogous to medicine back then to today.

            The main problem with medicine today are the unrealistic expectations from the public. People today demand drugs that can solve their conditions which are caused by lifestyle choices. Everything from diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity, the list goes on and on, are caused by people who refuse to change how they live to cure or alleviate their poor health status. Instead, they want drugs to do the curing for them.

            Don’t blame modern medicine for the reliance of drugs and other expensive medical interventions caused by the crappy health status of the American public.

            For example, I knew a woman that had three heart attacks. Typical as rain in April, she had every risk factor known to mankind, that’s why she had a bad heart. Her first heart attack resulted in a one month hospital stay which literally cost a million dollars. She then went on to have two more. One day at work, I saw her eating some greasy food and I said, “You know, you shouldn’t be eating that–it messes up your cholesterol levels.” To which she said, “I’ll let my medications deal with that.” In the old days, that first heart attack would have killed her outright. Her medical bill would have been cost pennies and would have avoided another decade of expensive medical bills.

            Compare that to my father who died at 84, never once having ANY serious disease or hospital stays his entire life except for when was in the Army and came home on a hospital ship. He was wounded in action 3 times, so that was the fault of the Germans, not him. The total cost to society for my dad’s medical care was a thousand times less than the bill for that stupid secretary.

            That’s the reason why health care cost so much in America. It’s because lots of Americans are in poor health, mostly caused by their lifestyle decisions. And that forces doctors to do incredible things to treat all of these sick Americans. Every American expects Rolls Royce treatment for a Nissan Versa price.

          3. To which she said, “I’ll let my medications deal with that.”

            She will learn the hard way the day when she doesn’t survive a cardiac arrest.

          4. My point was that people didn’t revolve their lives around medical and got along just fine. NO THEY DID NOT GET ALONG FINE. My aunt had a accidental collision with a bat in her kitchen in 1928. She died in agony and convulsions from a “mysterious” brain ailment a few months later. The local doctor whose main occupation was actual cherry farming diagnosed her condition as (at the time) an untreatable case of spinal meningitis. After a bout of medical school and a careful debriefing of her sister, my mother, I conclude my aunt actually succumbed to a case of rabies contracted from the bat. Her family was dirt poor and could not even afford rudimentary dental care, much less the cost of a rabies shot. In addition no medical person in that era would have even considered that bats could transmit rabies. Aunt’s mother suffered from painful gallstones the last several decades of her life, and she never considered having surgery for it. What killed grandma was related to a fall she took down into the basement, stairs were a true death trap. When she came to at the bottom of the stairs she had a fracture shoulder and hemiplegia. That same cherry farmer doctor diagnosed her has having had a stroke at the top of the stairs, resulting in a fall and a fracture. My informed opinion was quite different. Grandma accidentally fell down the stairs, fractured her shoulder and got an intracerebral bleed due to the head trauma. Even though in 1949 it might have been possible for a neurosurgeon to save her life by draining an intracerebral hematoma, this was not even considered possible for a poor old farmer’s wife in far northern Michigan at that time. My mother got her first dental care when she was 16 and sent to a government boarding school. She suffered with her rotten teeth up to that time. Of course my story consists of totally worthless “anecdotes”, as I know some have already thought.

  13. Interesting post I saw over on reddit /r/preppers:

    Just another ‘boots on the ground’ data point, but interesting. What’s the status of mortgage forbearance in California right now?

    Massive spike in default notices – warning

    Neighbor of close friend works in a major bank’s HQ here in SoCal. We were a small group talking about home values in our town.

    She says (conversation was yesterday, Friday) their mortgage default notices (for the region) numbered about 10 per week for years and years, going back to around 2013, so when the recovery from 2008/9 was really taking hold.

    She says last week and this past week, the mortgage default notices are numbering 80 or so per day.

    She believes this spring is going to see a housing crash. Lovely.

    Economic crash incoming. With stock market essentially at all-time highs, what could go wrong?

    1. https://realinvestmentadvice.com/the-housing-debt-bubble-is-going-to-burst/

      Homeowners enter into forbearance plans with their lenders to avoid penalties and fees when they are likely to be delinquent on their payments. Black Knight reports there are 3M mortgages in forbearance as of October 31st. This forbearance rate is ten times the 300k mortgages in forbearance in February of 2020. Most of these mortgages are approaching their six-month renewal date from last March and April. Homeowners can apply for a six-month renewal under the CARES Act. However, after March 2021, the forbearance period ends, and homeowners must begin paying their balance owned while continuing monthly payments.

      Eighty percent of present forbearance payers have applied for a six-month extension. With unemployment increasing and lockdowns forecast, there may be an increase in the number of forbearance plans. Other homeowners who don’t qualify for forbearance are delinquent in making payments. Mortgage delinquencies outside of forbearance are up by 107% YTD as of October. By the end of 1st quarter, 2021 defaults are likely to rise significantly.

      (emphasis added)

      1. Horrible pictures and mismatched decor but awesome 1.39 acre lot with a well: 15533 Harrow Ln, Poway, CA, 92064. Price is too high for the amount of work I would want to do it and I’m expecting more inventory in Spring.

        2. Would you consider a house without a pool and installing a pool yourself? It would widen your options. And yeah, for $1.5 mil, the Realtor could have done a better job of staging and photography. I don’t think it’s just the decor. Even with the bad pix, the house feels somewhat cramped.

          1. Would you consider a house without a pool and installing a pool yourself? It would widen your options.

            Yes, but from what I hear pool contractors are backed up because of COVID.

    2. zzy, Go ahead and convince yourself that your not being gouged by a price setting .monopoly medical cartel.
      I’m happy for you that they developed meds for headaches, but doesn’t justify wanting to take ,41/2 trillon per year from the economy. It’s looting. A family of 4 paying 30 k a year is a gouge .
      You addressed yourself the lack of treating lifestyle , which was one of my points, that it about magic pills. You blame that on the demands of the public. I blame it on the profit motive of the medical industry.

      1. your not being gouged by a price setting .monopoly medical cartel Whether true/valuable or not, you are quibbling. The core of this issue is this issue is the type of care, not the cost. The care will definitely always cost someone something, and you can argue all you want about that.

      2. There’s no such thing as the medical “cartel”. Why? The industry in the United States is so large and diverse, that there is no central authority or controlling conglomerate or entity. There are the professionals (doctors, nurses, technicians), hospitals and clinics, drug companies and other suppliers, the GOVERNMENT, and of course, the insurance industry.

        Over the years this hodgepodge of stuff evolved into what you see today. One of the problems with our system is that nobody knows what anything costs. There is no price competition since historically reimbursement for services and care has never been open or known. The vast majority of Americans get their health insurance from their employers. Employers shop the insurance market for plans–the insurers make deals with providers and they negotiate premiums and co-pay amounts with their customers, the employers.

        But in the end nobody can tell you what an appendectomy costs or what is the cost of treating colon cancer. Or even what’s the price for a stay in the hospital. This is why President Trump ordered that there must be price transparency–he making the industry post the prices for services and products. You can’t have competition if there are no prices.

        So the system is a mess because of government regulations that have ended up eliminating real market based competition. And the insurance companies have basically operated by doing back room deals with providers all of which are invisible to the consumers. But the consumers are part of the problem because they don’t really have to pay for the services they receive since the bulk of their insurance is provided to them for free.

        So there is no incentive to use less medical resources. A person in terrible health pays the same as a person in perfect health when both people are receiving their insurance from their employer. So the entire system is rigged to function inefficiently and it doesn’t reward people who utilize fewer resources.

        Trump is right when he wants to bring competition into the health business. And this starts with pricing transparency. Then government regulations need to be relaxed and insurance companies be free to offer products in an open market across state borders, etc.

        I worked for one of the largest HMOs in America and worked on a project to figure out what everything actually cost. It turns out that nobody in the HMO had ever tried to figure that out, and to this day they probably still don’t know the true costs for services and care that they provide. It’s an immensely complex issue.

  14. Ben Jones I am retiring the Apartment 401 username.

    This will be a permanent change. Thanks for everything you do for us here. Periodic donations to the HBB will continue.

    1. Follow up post from my phone. These are the only two devices I use to read and post to the HBB, your IP logs will confirm that.

        1. We have a cat fight simmering between two educated coasties, east vs west, but it hasn’t progressed to the mud pit, yet.

          5. Being former military I’ve witnessed synergy and teamwork get the job done, better and faster, whereas infighting divides the team. So, I’d rather you two maintain your personal beliefs, forgive each other and get back to grinding on this RE bubble.

    2. Long Live Beau and the Apartment 401 username!

      PS

      I need someone to email me a PO Box address or something for Ben Jones for I am an old school check writer who survived the Obama administration, recovered financially, and would like to donate to this blog before the Harris administration gets ahold of the economy, dries up the work for my company and empties both my business and personal bank accounts again.

      Thank you

      2. A Story for Jeff: the day Beau got loose and ran wild.

        This was a few years ago. Beau grew up in North Carolina and was a regular visitor to the municipal dog park in Pinehurst, NC. A local philanthropist donated a large plot of land with fields and woods and streams to create it, with a chain link fence around the perimeter to keep the dogs in.

        After moving to Colorado in 2015, Beau was introduced to the real wilderness, seemingly endless forest, the majesty of being on peaks above treeline. I kept him on the leash most of the time. Unlike in a North Carolina dog park, there are wild animals that can be glimpsed, seen, needed to lunge at and run towards.

        He was off leash on the trail up to Front Range 13er Mt Rosalie just below treeline when he realized he needed to chase something, deep into the woods and far off the trail. A few minutes later I knew he wouldn’t be coming back.

        Knowing that he knows that the car and the parking lot is what leads to the food source, I started hiking down the trail as fast as I could. A few people I passed answered that yes they had seen him running past, downhill.

        If he gets to the parking lot, alone, someone will find him loose, call the number on the back of his collar tag to my now-deceased father, tell him they have Beau, without me. Then somebody calls the Sheriff, then Search and Rescue, and it creates a much bigger mess than it needed to be.

        I got back to the parking lot at the trailhead and someone there had secured Beau and was trying to call my father but couldn’t get a signal. He doesn’t get to hike off leash anymore.

        Thank you for reading my Story.

  15. #KnowYourNarrative: When Trump supporters exercising their Constitutional right to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech are attacked by violent BLM-Antifa thugs, usually working hand-in-glove with corrupt Democrat municipal officials, the media will characterize this 100% of the time as “fights broke out” or “pro-Trump protests turned violent.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/video-dc-police-blocked-off-trump-supporters-forced-walk-blm-mob-knew-attacked/

  16. Ben,

    Thanks for allowing my previous post through. This a great blog.

    Check out this link: This is where ‘covid’ came from…NOT from wuhan China…that’s all part of the BS fear story.

    https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00386/japan-gripped-by-major-flu-outbreak.html

    The sleezebags knew this was going to hit the west this past flu season so they psychologically weaponized it against us.

    Japan has a history of mask wearing. Heck of a lot of good it did them last year.

    1. So, they staged that it was from China when it was from Japan? Don’t exactly get how they have all the evidence of a Covid, 19 virus that looks man-made.

      1. This bogus ‘killer’ flu was in the US by definitely November of 2019 if not earlier. Tons of people in Northern New England got it between Nov and Feb and then it magically morphed into the killer ‘Chinese’ covid-19 and then disappeared just as fast.

        My family and I got it mid February. Fever, chills and an annoying 6 week cough for me and I was one of the worst hit. This thing redefines the word: Hoax.

        Someone once said if your gonna lie, make it a whopper. Well boy did they ever.

        1. Well, it seems weird that China has opened up full speed ahead , with
          seemingly no more lock downs, no second wave.

          I kept thinking that it hit America a lot sooner than they were saying also. But if it was a natural virus out of Japan, why didn’t we hear about it. I mean they are just making up some narrative?

    2. The flu epidemic that affected Japan 2018/2019 was caused by a totally different virus than Covid-19.

      “The 2018/19 influenza season (from week 36 in September 2018 to week 35 in August 2019) was characterized by the predominance of the influenza A/H1pdm09 subtype in the beginning, followed by the AH3 subtype and B/Victoria lineage from week 10 in 2019.”

      https://www.niid.go.jp/niid/en/2019-10-04-07-17-22/865-iasr/9288-477te.html#:~:text=Influenza%202018%2F19%20season%2C%20Japan,-(IASR%20Vol.&text=The%202018%2F19%20influenza%20season,from%20week%2010%20in%202019.

      Japan got blindsided by Covid 19 just like the rest of the world. They shut down entry to virtually all foreigners and closed down their economy. But the effects of Covid 19 there have been very minor–nothing like the situation found in Europe and parts of America.

      1. There is no such thing as covid-19. That’s the true hoax. The PCR tests are beyond bogus and return true for anything when the multiplication levels are maxed up.

        It has always been and always will be just a flu weaponized by the media and globalists to mind-screw the world.

        1. On the surface it seems like a well organized crime involving political officials.

          When I was a kid we thought the Sicilian Mafia was a big organized crime problem.

          1. On the surface it seems like a well organized crime involving political officials.

            It looks like treason, punishable by death.

          2. death

            Please keep in mind that wholesale death dealt to domestic enemies is a Socialist characteristic. We don’t need to become dictators to preserve Freedom. Let’s fight not to find ourselves on the other side of that sentiment.

          3. Not wholesale death but death to those tried and convicted of treason. DJT – “This can never happen to another president.”

          4. death to those tried and convicted

            If you advocate death to those committing voter/election fraud, which may include thousands, I am not on your side. It is unbecoming any lover of our country, unhinged even.

            God help me should I have to face a lynch mob of people like you to protect the life of a scumbag.

          5. God help me should I have to face a lynch mob of people like you to protect the life of a scumbag.

            Dramatic much? My gawd…

          6. If you advocate death to those committing voter/election fraud, which may include thousands

            I’m not advocating death to those committing voter or election fraud. Given the rhetoric, I’m sure there were plenty of well-meaning people who thought they were averting another Hitler. There are however enemies of our country, particularly domestic, who knowingly set all of this in motion and need to be tried for treason. The penalty for treason is death.

          8. You’re calling for killing people.

            It’s the law. And yes, I do agree with capital punishment for traitors.

            18 U.S. Code § 2381. Treason

            Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

        2. Please keep in mind that wholesale death dealt to domestic enemies is a Socialist characteristic.

          Who’s talking about “wholesale death?”

          Not wholesale death but death to those tried and convicted of treason.

          Exactly. Thank you for understanding.

  18. I was thinking what could be the fatal flaw in this power grab . It’s pretty ambitious to attempt this when you still have so many Americans that like the Traditionall America.
    Hilter thought he could hold two fronts in the war, which was a fatal mistake. Hilter underestimated Joe Stalins determination to win at all costs on the Russian front.

    So, what is the weak spot of these sinister powers,?
    Are they pre mature and trying to take to much all at once? What about backlash by half the Country.
    They own the media, which is a big deal. They have highjacked the Swamp Government which is a big deal, with their sights on the Judiciary.

    Where is the crack in their plans ?What will make them fail?

    1. What will make them fail?

      Infighting. There are still plenty of Democrats who hated Trump but who don’t buy into Critical R*c* Theory and UBI and flooding the country with immigrants legal and illegal. Trump is a unifying force. Once he leaves office (either in 9 weeks from now or four years from now), there will be little to hold those factions together.

      1. oxide
        The Dems act like a cult to me, they have the same taking points use the same words.
        Don’t they have minds of their own? Do they get punished if they don’t have group think.
        Being that dismissive to that many Trump Voters is pretty weird. Trump improved a lot of things, so I don’t know what all this misery was that they got all in a huff about.
        We should throw all the bums out and start from scratch, but apparently they rig elections to keep the Swamp going.

      2. We’re already seeing fissures widen between the Bolshevik wing of the Democratic Party, which is its future, and the corrupt, calcified Old Guard crony capitalists like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, the epitome of career politicians and corporate stooges. The Squad is adding more members and has much more grass roots support from those who want to vote themselves benefits someone else will have to pay for. The corporate Democrats represent only their Wall Street and corporate donors, so their days at the trough are numbered as the progressives and outright commies purge elderly white Democrats and replace them with AOC clones.

      3. The Dems absolutely have minds of their own… which is why the infighting is so intense. In fact the Democrats accused the Republicans for not having minds of their own. There was little division in the R party, and Rs all voted in lockstep.

        The Dem infighting was almost unbearable up until the day that Trump was elected. Hillary vs. Bernie nearly tore DailyKos in two. In fact it was the infighting that elected Trump in the first place. If Dems had all voted lockstep for Hillary instead of voting for Jill Stein and staying home to protest the treatment of Bernie Sanders, Hillary would have won easily. And they didn’t realize that until about midnight on Election Day in 2016; too late.

        1. Oxide,
          Very interesting what your saying about the Dems. So, I’m not getting why the moderate Democrats aren’t prevailing. If it’s a matter that the Big Money is calling the shots, than that would explain it. For God Sakes the Dems had some Globalist run for President, but they weren’t liked ( Styner+ Bloomberg).
          I think the main problem with the Gov. now is it’s all sold out to the Globalist, Monopolies, Money Casinos , Corporate America, and Hina Monopoly. These forces don’t want power to the people government. All the looting is because of them with their rigged systems. The Commies are on the rise because of the breakdown of capitalism, not because of capitalism. Globalist and Commies getting in bed with each other for a power grab against traditional America.

    2. They have highjacked the Swamp Government which is a big deal, with their sights on the Judiciary.

      Speaking of the judiciary, if Trump’s supreme court picks are the only thing in the way for the swamp in the future, I’m concerned for their physical safety. The bad guys aren’t going to want to play by the rules and wait 30 years for nature to take its course.

      1. Yeah, the goons of the “Trump Accountability Project” are already putting together Chekist-like dossiers on what Comrade Pelosi has referred to as “Enemies of the State.” I can only imagine what these Bolsheviks would be doing if we didn’t have a 2nd Amendment.

      2. The bad guys aren’t going to want to play by the rules and wait 30 years for nature to take its course.

        This has crossed my mind as well. At this point, nothing is beyond them.

    1. All of these globalist Narrative purveyors say in sync that allegations of electoral fraud have been “discredited.” They never say discredited by who, or how.

  21. Check and balance that Newsollini.

    https://twitter.com/JennaEllisEsq/status/1328104699334156294:

    Gavin Newsom, in his official capacity as Governor of the State of Calfornia is enjoined and prohibited from exercising any power under the California Emergency Services Act (Government Code sec 8550 et seq.) which amends, alters, or changes existing statutory law or makes new statutory law or legislative.

  22. ‘Social media website Parler said that its previously unknown investor is billionaire Rebekah Mercer, after speculation from some activists that the site was linked to Russia. In a statement, Parler said Mercer is backing the site.’

    “Rebekah Mercer is a great friend, an American patriot, and most importantly committed to the Parler vision of neutrality and data privacy. We are grateful for her support since 2018, and her early faith in the founders has enabled us to reach these heights,” CEO John Matze said in the statement.’

    ‘Mercer said she started Parler with Matze “to provide a neutral platform for free speech, as our founders intended, and also to create a social media environment that would protect data privacy.’

    “Benjamin Franklin warned us: ‘Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.’ The ever increasing tyranny and hubris of our tech overlords demands that someone lead the fight against data mining, and for the protection of free speech online. That someone is Parler, a beacon to all who value their liberty, free speech, and personal privacy,” she added.’

    ‘“Parler’s policies are, to use a well-known concept in First Amendment law, viewpoint-neutral,” the guidelines state.’

    ‘The number of accounts skyrocketed to 10 million in recent days from about 4.5 million. Matze said the reason is that people don’t trust big technology companies like Facebook and Twitter amid an escalation in censorship on those platforms.’

    “They’re really overreaching to an extent that’s scary, and people are really realizing this. They’re waking up and saying: we’ve got to do something about it,” Matze said.’

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/parler-says-previously-secret-backer-is-conservative-billionaire-rebekah-mercer_3579465.html

    1. “They’re really overreaching to an extent that’s scary, and people are really realizing this. They’re waking up and saying: we’ve got to do something about it,” Matze said.’

      It’s time to see these creepy Orwellian tech companies for what they are: the domestic enemies of the Constitution and the Republic.

    2. The First Amendment of the Constitution, for those who seem to have forgotten it:

      “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

    3. Rebekah Mercer

      Wow, back in the day I remember the lefties talking about her. She was a massive public enemy to the left even 15 years ago.

    4. “They’re really overreaching to an extent that’s scary, and people are really realizing this. They’re waking up and saying: we’ve got to do something about it,” Matze said.’

      And not just regarding censorship. I still get notifications on my Android asking me to review “recent places I’ve been” which they have gleaned from my search history. I have tried to turn it off but they make it so difficult I haven’t been able to accomplish that.

    5. ‘Social media website Parler said that its previously unknown investor is billionaire Rebekah Mercer, after speculation from some activists that the site was linked to Russia.

      It’s ironic that as the globalists have escalated their repression against truth-tellers and suppression of the 1st Amendment, Russian sites allow a much greater degree of freedom and report on topics the MSM automatically censors and consigns to the Memory Hole. The world has indeed turned upside down since the collapse of Communism in Russia and its rebirth in the United States.

  24. “According to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, the average closing price for a detached home in the Denver area is now $625,100”

    I’ll pass on that, thanks.

    For some of us, it’s not about the interest rate or the monthly payment, it’s about the amount of debt. I have no debt. I don’t want debt.

    If enough of us reject debt we can break the cycle and overturn the whole system. The strongest weapon in the war against them is the dollar not spent, and more importantly the dollar not borrowed before it can be spent…

    2. “it’s about the amount of debt”

      “That make$ you $tupid & make$ me $mart!”: A direct quote from thee.🍊.jesus

    1. Obama was a Constitutional scholar. He knows this process as well as anyone. So I don’t get this. Why not indulge Trump his little temper tantrum?* Biden clearly won in a landslide, right? So let Biden win “again,” which would make him even more legitimate. Why the resistance?

      And why hasn’t any real journalist asked this question. It’s not hard. “Hey, Mr. Obama, why not wait a month and let Biden win again? If you shut down the lawsuits now without a definitive resolution, then those 70 million will think it was fraud forever. But if you grind it through, you would provide real closure for them. Isn’t that the best chance to heal the country?”

      ——————–
      *I’m not personally saying it was a tantrum. I’m deliberately taking the liberal perspective as part of my point.

    1. Do you remember the 1990s? It was a nice time to be alive. There weren’t phones everywhere. But everybody you wanted to see or talk to was always at the same coffee shop and later the same bar if you wanted to see them and talk to them. I’m talking about Columbus, OH in the late 1990s, and the used record shops there then were better than anywhere.

      Marilyn Manson — Get Your Gunn:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzulRXFzqcI

  28. It was a nice clear night for the SpaceX launch tonight. I hadn’t seen a night launch in a long time but it’s pretty awesome every time.

    1. I’m looking forward to seeing Starship’s maiden launch (with the heavy booster), hopefully next year, though more likely in 2022.

  30. And at the end of the day, the book people beat the phone people. There was a time in the not so distant past when people actually knew thing because they studied about them and learned something.

    Phone People future in America looks horrible. Once you let them control the present, they will defile the past and destroy the future, forever. I wish this wasn’t the truth, but the smarter phones get the dumber the average.

    Escape is possible. Don’t give them money. Don’t have debt.

  31. Libtards reaping what they voted: NYC edition. As the exodus of the tax base accelerates and the quality of life deteriorates under De Blasio’s Bolshevik “leadership,” that’s going to put more downward pressure on rents and skybox valuations.

    New stats reveal massive NYC exodus amid coronavirus, crime

    https://nypost.com/2020/11/14/new-stats-reveal-massive-nyc-exodus-amid-coronavirus-crime/

    More than 300,000 New Yorkers have bailed from the Big Apple in the last eight months, new stats show.

    City residents filed 295,103 change of address requests from March 1 through Oct. 31, according to data The Post obtained from the US Postal Service under a Freedom of Information Act request.

    Since the data details only when 11 or more forwarding requests were made to a particular county outside NYC, the number of moves is actually higher. And a single address change could represent an entire household, which means far more than 300,000 New Yorkers fled the five boroughs.

  33. Let’s see what happens when the globalists’ BLM-Antifa rent-a-mobs try to launch forays from the Democrat-malgoverned big cities where they are coddled and protected by the authorities, and try to bring their plague and pestilence into the small towns or rural areas.

    How BLM supporters threw FIREWORKS at Trump supporters as they ate dinner and a knife-wielding woman taunted MAGA fans in violent DC clashes – as media is accused of ‘ignoring’ violence

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8953003/Knife-wielding-BLM-supporter-knocked-pro-Trump-protesters-violent-DC-clashes.html

    1. and try to bring their plague and pestilence into the small towns or rural areas

      They tried that in Fort Collins, which is actually a fairly blue college town. They were beat up and run out of town, and never came back.

  35. Imagine if We the People had representatives who could crack down hard on these creepy Orwellian tech giants and their globalist oligarch owners, instead of being bought off by them.

    New lawsuit: Why do Android phones mysteriously exchange 260MB a month with Google via cellular data when they’re not even in use?

    https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/14/google_android_data_allowance/

    Google on Thursday was sued for allegedly stealing Android users’ cellular data allowances through unapproved, undisclosed transmissions to the web giant’s servers.

    The lawsuit, Taylor et al v. Google [PDF], was filed in a US federal district court in San Jose on behalf of four plaintiffs based in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin in the hope the case will be certified by a judge as a class action.

    The complaint contends that Google is using Android users’ limited cellular data allowances without permission to transmit information about those individuals that’s unrelated to their use of Google services.

    1. There are almost certainly back doors in smartphones that enable them to communicate with their masters, even if they are not connected by WiFi or cellular phone networks.

      1. even if they are not connected by WiFi or cellular phone networks

        Where are you going with that? I’m sure when they phone home it’s over one of those. Do you think they have another secret method that doesn’t depend on those? I could believe they have a connection over one of those even when they tell you they don’t, if that’s what you mean.

        1. if that’s what you mean. That’s exactly what I meant. Carried around a powered on radio transceiver made by someone else is a potential problem.

      2. The Walmart app uses Near Field Communication (NFC) to process stored credit card payments at their checkout terminals, and the phone’s unique “digital fingerprint” is included in those transactions.

  36. Another arm of the Kraken?

    Dershowitz: Trump May Seek to Deny Biden 270 Electoral Votes, Put Election in Congress

    “What he’s trying to do is to deny Joe Biden 270 votes, by challenging in Pennsylvania, Georgia, in Nevada, in Michigan, in Arizona,” Dershowitz said, adding that not allowing Biden to reach 270 out of 538 votes would eventually force House state delegations to vote, where Republicans have an advantage over Democrats. Currently, the GOP has a 26-23-1 state delegation majority in the House of Representatives.

    “If he can keep the Biden count below 270, then the matter goes to the House of Representatives, where, of course, there is a Republican majority among the delegations of states, and you vote by state if it goes to the House,” Dershowitz said. “He’s trying to follow the playbook of three elections of the 19th century.”

  37. The Goldfinger Globalist highjacking of the US Government, media, US institutions is evident, now a rigged election.

    The more I read about these power mongers who aren’t elected and their self serving plans to control the World, the more I think no different than Hilter. And their 4th big Revolution they talk about sounds horrible. Nobody would actually vote for their vision of the World. Unreal

    1. Nobody would actually vote for their vision of the World.

      The masses are stupid and don’t deserve any say. Just ask any person who matters when the mics are off. We’re already at least halfway to rejecting the vision of the founding fathers.

      1. We’re already at least halfway to rejecting the vision of the founding fathers.

        Sad, but true.

        The Chileans have already voted to toss their constitution, and will no doubt be voting for a replacement that guarantees all kinds of free sh!t their government cannot possibly deliver, while being very short on liberty and freedom. I’m sure the Davos crowd approves. Coming to a country near you soon.

      2. We’re already at least halfway to rejecting the vision of the founding fathers. I think we went past the halfway point ca. 1992. The electorate has been slowly, slowly learning.

    2. Nobody would actually vote for their vision of the World.
      You have underestimated the stupidity of the public.

Comments are closed.