The People Who Are Losing Are Losing Really, Really Big

1. ‘Earlier this year, Bennett said he would transfer 19 distressed Bay Area hotels that were part of a $982M mortgage pool back to lenders rather than pay $255M to extend their loans’

   Just like that Monty, yer giving it away.

   ‘Ashford has been dealing with debt woes for years. In August 2020, it sold its first New York City hotel after less than two years of ownership to meet demands from lenders’

   Wa happened to frozen soup line Larry and his hotel empire?

2. King Township in York Region has experienced the largest drop at 41.4 per cent. Three markets have seen average prices decline between 30 and 40 per cent, including Brock (38.5 per cent) and Scugog (35.9 per cent) in Durham Region, and Adjala-Tosorontio (34.5 per cent) in South Simcoe County. Among the remaining 25 Toronto area cities and town monitored by TRREB, six have seen their average price for real estate fall between 10 to 20 per cent. Those include Aurora (15.1 per cent), Markham (14.5 per cent) and Richmond Hill (12.3 per cent) in York Region, Halton Hills (17.8 per cent) in Halton Region, Clarington (16.4 per cent) and Uxbridge (12.6 per cent) in Durham Region, as well as Innisfil (17.5 per cent) in south Simcoe County. The remaining 19 TRREB areas have all fallen between 20 and 30 per cent’

   It’s a good thing they put 50% down! What did you expect K-da? These igloo clusters doubled in minor respiratory illness.

3. ‘Consider the example of one swish apartment close to City Hall, with quartz countertops and a rooftop deck, which in 2019 sold for $1.25m. Not today. After the chaos of the covid-19 pandemic, City Hall now overlooks the locus of the city’s drug problems. Biblical scenes of lawlessness and human suffering play out every night. The flat is now listed for $769,000—and has yet to sell’

   It’s still cheaper than renting bay aryans.

4. You will own nothing.

   1. Nah, I’m pretty sure when this is all said and done I’ll own some stuff at a steep discount. For now I’ll just munch popcorn.

5. Australia’s “cost of oligarchy” crisis is causing FBs to cancel their property insurance policies. What could possibly go wrong?

   https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/budgeting/aussie-homeowners-warned-perfect-storm-to-hit-as-insurance-is-cut-from-budgets/news-story/49ce464c33827b76f1097002f43ec789

6. CNBC (11/23/2023):

   “For some shoppers, the upcoming holiday season may lead to piling on more debt. About 25% of Americans are still paying off holiday debt from 2022, according to WalletHub’s November holiday shopping survey.

   As of November, the average credit card interest rate has risen from around 16% to nearly 21% since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in March 2020 in an effort to combat inflation, according to Bankrate.

   “Even a more modest $1,000 balance (from last year’s holiday gifts, perhaps) would keep someone in debt for 40 months and cost them $390 in interest if they only make minimum payments at [the current average rate of] 20.72%,” Rossman says.

   https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/23/wallethub-25percent-of-americans-still-have-holiday-debt-from-last-year.html

   You don’t need to buy most of the sh*t you’re out there buying today, so don’t buy it.

7. I just did my day after thanksgiving shopping got the usual 2 young fresh organic turkeys for 39cents a pound. exp date monday…..put 1 in the freezer….heck 12lb $35 turkeys for $5 every year its worth it to be shopping at 8 am. ……..dont need the 20+ lb butterballs at the same price.

8. The Joe Biden economy.

   New York Times — Why Is Everyone So Grumpy? (11/23/2023):

   “One problem is that economists and the general public talk past each other. Inflation is a good example. To an economist, inflation is the change in prices. So if prices go up sharply but then level off for a few months, the monthly inflation rate at that point is zero. There’s no more change in prices, right? But to most people, inflation is high prices. So they look at high prices in the supermarket or wherever and say, “That’s inflation!” Woe unto the politician or economist who tells them otherwise.”

   Food prices are up over 50% in the last three years, and they’re not coming down.

   “Another thing bugging people is housing. Home prices and mortgage rates are up, and affordability is way down. Rents are also up. This is no problem if you already own, but it’s awful if you’re a young person trying to buy your first place. That’s why you see TikTok talking about a Silent Depression; that might also explain why 93 percent of people 18 to 29 in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll said the economy was poor or only fair.”

   93 percent is that a lot?

   “In an NBC News poll released last weekend, only 19 percent of respondents said that they were confident the next generation would have better lives than their own generation. NBC said it was the smallest share of optimists dating back to the question’s introduction in 1990.

   For me, this is the great failure of the Biden administration and its economic policies: Americans simply aren’t convinced that the future is bright.”

   https://archive.is/sAcbx

9. The Joe Biden economy.

   Wall Street Journal — Voters See American Dream Slipping Out of Reach, WSJ/NORC Poll Shows (11/24/2023):

   “The American dream—the proposition that anyone who works hard can get ahead, regardless of their background—has slipped out of reach in the minds of many Americans.

   Only 36% of voters in a new Wall Street Journal/NORC survey said the American dream still holds true, substantially fewer than the 53% who said so in 2012 and 48% in 2016 in similar surveys of adults by another pollster. When a Wall Street Journal poll last year asked whether people who work hard were likely to get ahead in this country, some 68% said yes—nearly twice the share as in the new poll.

   The survey offers the latest evidence that Americans across the political spectrum are feeling economically fragile and uncertain that the ladder to higher living standards remains sturdy, even amid many signs of economic and social progress.

   Half of voters in the new poll said that life in America is worse than it was 50 years ago, compared with 30% who said it had gotten better. Asked if they believed that the economic and political system are “stacked against people like me,” half agreed with the statement, while 39% disagreed.

   https://archive.ph/nqddw

   “You gotta pump those numbers up, those are rookie numbers in this racket”

10. The Joe Biden economy.

    Politico — The Horse Race Polling Isn’t the Problem. It’s What Voters Are Saying About the Economy (11/24/2023):

    “It’s been a season of ugly polling for President Joe Biden, no doubt about it.  A recent NBC poll found Biden’s approval rating at the lowest level of his presidency, with a majority of voters holding “negative” feelings toward him. Only a quarter of American voters want Biden to run for reelection, according to a mid-November poll conducted by The Economist/YouGov. And then there’s that much-discussed NYT/Siena College Poll showing former President Donald Trump leading Biden in five of six key battleground states, which generated so many screaming headlines and distraught Democratic operatives. 

    Over the last year, polls have shown voters holding a decidedly grim economic outlook. Most Americans rate current economic conditions as “poor.” Many think we are in a recession and aren’t optimistic that things will improve. They view Republicans as better able to address economic issues and, in the crucial battleground states, have more trust in Trump than Biden to do a better job on the economy — and by a whopping 22 points. An October poll from PRRI found that, in a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, “increasing costs of housing and everyday expenses” topped the list of the most important issues for voters. Other polls have found similar results.

    The expressed economic anxiety is understandable even if not entirely rational. Voters hold these attitudes while the inflation rate has steadily decreased from its peak last summer, unemployment rates remain low with U.S. employers continuing to add jobs and many facets of Biden’s economic plan are popular. Even so, with prices of everyday goods and services stubbornly high, it might be enough to cost Biden his reelection.”

    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/24/democrats-polls-economy-00128483

    Correction to the last sentence quoted: it’s not a re-election because he wasn’t legitimately elected in 2020.

11. Veritas Voter Fraud Compilation – #VoterFraudIsReal

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/avTgXG5jDWJ7/

    11:15.

12. Real Journalists for globalist scum media are getting a hostile reception on the streets of Ireland right about now.

    https://twitter.com/RichTea36/status/1727712988231041294?

    1. Image file courtesy of Gab:

       https://ibb.co/tKcVZCr

    2. grumpycatgood.jpg

       also Mobark wood chippers, not just for pedos

    3. The GloboHomo media is pulling out all the stops to label the Irish rioters as Nahtzies.

13. Meanwhile across the pond…

    Associated Press — Protesters take to the street in Dublin after knife attack that injured 3 children, one seriously (11/23/2023):

    ” Protests broke out in central Dublin on Thursday evening after Irish police said a 5-year-old girl was receiving emergency medical treatment following an attack that involved a knife.

    A woman and two other children were injured.

    Irish police said they weren’t treating the case as terror-related, and that a man in his 50s, who was also hospitalized with serious injuries, is a “person of interest.”

    He is Algerian, not Irish. Why does the Associated Press not report this?

    “In the early evening, protesters fired flares and fireworks at the police cordon in Dublin around the scene of the incident.

    Police armed with shields fended off violent demonstrators attempting to kick and punch them. Many of those attacking the police had their faces covered.

    A number of police vehicles and a tram were damaged during the disorder in the city center. A bus and car were also on fire on the city’s O’Connell Bridge.

    “The scenes we are witnessing this evening in our city center cannot and will not be tolerated,” said Justice Minister Helen McEntee. “A thuggish and manipulative element must not be allowed to use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc.”

    Earlier, Superintendent Liam Geraghty said at a media briefing that preliminary indications are that a man attacked a number of people on Parnell Square East.

    He said that police believe that it was “a standalone incident, not necessarily connected to any wider issues that are ongoing in the country or in the city, and we need to identify the exact reasons for that happening.”

    https://nypost.com/2023/11/23/news/3-children-among-5-injured-in-stabbing-outside-irish-school/

    Why are people from Algeria in Ireland? Ireland was never a colonizer nation. It was itself a colony of Britain until a century ago.

    Replacement Theory isn’t a theory.

    1. Related article.

       Russia Today reports what the globalist scum media won’t tell you.

       Russia Today — Riots and arson grip Dublin after stabbing spree (11/23/2023):

       “Crowds of rioters have set police and public transport vehicles on fire in the Irish capital, Dublin, amid rumors that a man who stabbed three children and a woman at a city school was a foreign national.

       Protesters began to assemble in the center of the city on Thursday afternoon following the knife attack. One of the victims, a five-year-old girl, was hospitalized with serious injuries.

       Police arrested a man in his 50s at the scene, and although no description of the man has been released, Irish news site Gript identified him as an Algerian national, citing police sources.

       Ireland’s struggle to house and integrate hundreds of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers has led to increasingly frequent displays of public anger in Dublin, including repeated protests outside an accommodation center for single male migrants last November, and violent clashes at an illegal migrant squat in the city earlier this year, which culminated in locals tearing down the “shanty town.”

       Some 141,000 immigrants entered Ireland between April 2022 and April 2023, according to the most recent figures from the Central Statistics Office. Last year, a record 13,651 people sought asylum in Ireland, the majority arriving from Georgia, Somalia, and Syria.”

       https://www.rt.com/news/587884-dublin-clashes-looting-stabbing/

    2. Iranian refugee beheads one man in Sligo Ireland and gruesomely murders a second.

       https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2023/10/23/double-murderer-yousef-palani-jailed-for-life-for-attacks-on-gay-men-spurred-by-hostility-and-prejudice/

       1. Gays for Palestine!

    3. Slovakian national murders school teacher and musician in Dublin by stabbing her in the neck 11 times.

       https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12765023/Ashling-Murphys-murderer-short-circuit-brain-killed-Jozef-Puskas-childhood-friend-speaks-remote-Slovakian-village-killer-left-brutally-stabbing-Irish-primary-teach-death.html

       1. Ah, in this case the perp’s ethnicity is not kept a closely guarded secret.

14. Propoganda and lies.

    The Atlantic — Why Americans Hate a Good Economy (11/22/2023):

    “Earlier this month, a Financial Times poll of about 1,000 registered voters found that most Americans believe their financial situation has gotten worse since Joe Biden became president. The economist Claudia Sahm tweeted that the results were “impossible,” adding, “The vast majority of Americans are better off financially. Full stop”—before receiving so much pushback for her statement that she deleted the post. This online drama was part of a larger debate among economists, policy makers, and commentators who have different explanations for why Americans report negative assessments of the economy despite some objective positive measures.

    Despite these positive signs, the Financial Times poll was hardly the only survey to find widespread economic gloom. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index indicated in October that people remain “pessimistic” about the future. And an August CNN poll found that 75 percent of respondents rated economic conditions as very or somewhat poor.

    COVID-19 caused an unprecedented social and economic crisis, including job loss for lots of people. In May 2020, roughly 60 million people reported that they had been unable to work in the preceding month because their employer had closed or lost business due to the pandemic. Then inflation kicked in, raising food, energy, rent, and housing prices.”

    CCP Flu didn’t destroy the economy. Big government destroyed the economy.

    “During the pandemic, the federal government provided Americans unprecedented support. It stopped evictions; it dropped thousands of dollars into personal bank accounts; it paused student-loan repayments; it gave aid to unemployed workers; it provided tax breaks to parents of young children, and billions in aid to state and local governments. In doing so, the government may have raised expectations for what a “good economy” is supposed to feel like.”

    https://archive.is/8Dyce

    The Cloward-Piven Strategy in action, with one ultimate goal: communism.

15. It is hard for me to understand real estate prices around US, especially in California, it is like 80% of US population has an income of Silicon Valley hi class programmers or maybe US suddenly became Norway type of country… what happened for last 3 years, isn’t it fraud, or no ?

    1. It’s called subsidies. Once they’re introduced, they’re impossible to take away without huge issues. The credit availability is the last domino to fall, and that won’t fall just because of increase in cost of borrowing. Access has to be restricted. And that won’t happen until delinquencies rise sharply. And that won’t happen until jobs go away. PE firms are still doing 14x EBITDA deals while borrowing at north of 10%. “Projected returns” are now the same as cost of debt. How does that make sense? It makes sense if you have huge pile of dry powder and have to show you’re doing something with that money.

       There has to be some sort of trigger that’ll change the liquidity dynamic for this all to go to shit. Until then, it’ll be a slow painful, frustrating march lower.

       1. There has to be some sort of trigger

          Zombie firms becoming insolvent and closing their doors will be a start. And I’m not talking about unicorns like WeWork, though those will be part of the picture. More like firms that are part of the Russell 2000. Once they start to drop like flies then the landslide will begin. And higher borrowing costs will be the spark. Some might survive after a BK via an acquisition, but many will be so deep in the hole that liquidation will be the only option.

          Another possible Black Swan could be regional bank failures. We’ve had some already, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Fed has been injecting liquidity into many to keep them from collapsing. And who knows how small banks and credit unions are doing? The car loan apocalypse is probably wreaking havoc with their income statements.

          1. I don’t know bud, those things all seem to be happening already, or at least are on the horizon, but there’s still no panic. So many industries are experiencing slow demand, yet everyone’s holding on. I’m a small time PE investor, all my money, no outside money, and things for small business guys are getting bad, but the psychology hasn’t changed. Almost everyone I talk to is bitching, but deals are few and far between.

             Black swans events usually stem from variables nobody sees coming. Or at least, almost nobody. That’s when the psychology changes very quickly. I don’t know from where and when it’s coming, all I know is, we need that match to start the fire sale.

             1. I like to look on youtube for citizen journalist types who do real reporting. There is one guy who does walks around the downtowns of northern California cities. He has done SF, Ookland, and Sacramento. All three downtowns are obliterated. Everything is closed and there are junkies and tents everywhere. Store after shop after restaurant, once thriving, often for decades, are now empty. We are ‘slow boiling the frog’ so many people are ignoring what is happening right in front of them. Just because the tech companies can still borrow money doesn’t mean the doom loop has been cancelled.

             2. Until the Fat Lady actually sings the denial and hopium will be strong.

             3. “Black swans events usually stem from variables nobody sees coming. Or at least, almost nobody.”

                They happen in plain sight, often slowly so that the smart money has time to exit intact, but they’re not recognized for what is actually taking place, e.g., manual labor guys are still buying new diesel pickup trucks in my area if someone will approve the loan.

16. “German home prices will fall more than previously thought this year and next as high interest rates sap demand, according to analysts in a Reuters poll. Once-booming property prices in Europe’s largest economy have declined over 10% since they peaked last year.”

    It seems like this time around, other leading economies, including Germany and China, are out ahead of the US in the race to the bottom of the real estate CR8R.

    Any thoughts on how long it may take for us to catch up?

    1. Asia ·China
       China’s real estate crisis has helped punch a $37 billion hole in the balance sheet of one of the country’s largest shadow banks
       BYLionel Lim
       November 24, 2023 at 12:10 AM PST
       The Zhongrong International Trust Co. offices in Beijing. The firm is controlled by Zhongzhi Enterprise Group and its missed payment in Aug. 2023 possibly signaled the first sign of trouble for the financial institution.
       Bloomberg via Getty Images

       An apology letter from one of China’s largest shadow banks is giving a worrying sign that the country’s long-running real estate crisis could now spread to its financial system.
       …
       https://fortune.com/2023/11/24/china-real-estate-zhongzhi-enterprise-group-shadow-bank-real-estate-crisis/

17. Business
    5 takeaways from America’s biggest crypto crackdown in history
    By Elisabeth Buchwald, Bryan Mena and Nicole Goodkind, CNN
    Published 11:58 AM EST, Wed November 22, 2023
    Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
    US Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at a press conference with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Behnam to announce cryptocurrency enforcement actions at the Justice Department in Washington, DC, on Wednesday
    New York
    CNN
    —
    The US government just sent a clear message to the world of cryptocurrency, a market valued at around $1.4 trillion.

    Just as crypto investors were hoping to move on from the historic conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder and former CEO of the collapsed FTX crypto exchange, US officials displayed yet another show of force against criminal activity surrounding crypto.

    Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, pled guilty on Tuesday to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, potentially allowing bad actors of all kinds to use the platform to move money.

    Here are five takeaways from the largest penalty ever imposed on a money services business in United States history, which just so happens to be a crypto firm:

    It’s going to take even more time for the crypto industry to wipe away its tainted image

    Zhao and Bankman-Fried were largely seen as the faces of the crypto industry. Now his guilty plea, along with Bankman-Fried’s conviction, means that good actors in the crypto industry will have to make a more convincing case to skeptics to prove the two were exceptions and not the norm.

    In light of Tuesday’s news, Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, took the opportunity to distinguish the crypto exchange he heads from Binance, which admitted to engaging in anti-money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting and sanctions violations.

    “Since the founding of Coinbase back in 2012 we have taken a long-term view. I knew we needed to embrace compliance to become a generational company that stood the test of time,” Armstrong said in a post on X Tuesday afternoon.

    “Today’s news reinforces that doing it the hard way was the right decision. We now have an opportunity to start a new chapter for this industry,” he added.

    At the same time, the government agencies overseeing crypto regulation and compliance don’t want people to forget Bankman-Fried and Zhao.

    “In just the past month, the Justice Department has successfully prosecuted the CEOs of two of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges in two separate criminal cases,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press conference on Tuesday. “The message here should be clear: Using new technology to break the law does not make you a disrupter. It makes you a criminal.”
    …
    https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/business/takeaways-binance-crypto-crackdown/index.html

18. So according to “the science,” munching on popcorn while watching Housing Bubble 2.0 implode increases our risk of dementia. So worth it, though.

    https://nypost.com/2023/11/24/lifestyle/adding-popcorn-to-daily-diet-reduces-dementia-risk-study/

    1. I am of the opinion that outside of surgical procedures, that modern medicine is at the end of its rope. In many cases it feels like a modern version of blood leeches. Take this pill, it might help you, it might have no effect, or it will affect you negatively, we don’t really know how it works, in fact we discovered its positive effects purely by accident.

       1. Ask your doctor if Happy Pillz are right for you!

          Side effects of Stupidoxin are uncommon but may include headache, nausea, vomiting, death, dizziness, vaginal ejaculations, dysentery, cardiac arrhythmia, mild heart explosions, varicose veins, darkened stool, darkened soul, lycanthropy, trucanthropy, more vomiting, arteriosclerosis, hemorrhoids, diabeetus, virginity, mild discomfort, vampirism, gender impermanence, spontaneous dental hydroplosion, sugar high, compulsive HBB visits, even more vomiting, total scrotal implosion, brown, your mom, and mild rash. Use responsibly.

       2. Funny you say this, even including many surgical procedures, I don’t see many people being ‘helped” by modern medicine. (except the doctors nurses, admin, hospitals, etc, they seem to be helping themselves just fine).

          Cancer treatments are mostly an expensive and painful joke at this point. They clearly have no idea what works or what doesn’t. Anyone over the age of 50 knows someone who got diagnosed with “stage 4 cancer” (despite many many many visits to the doctor/screenings) and is dead within 2 to 3 weeks of starting chemo. Or they do all these expensive and painful treatments and “oh it’s ok now”. but did the treatment work or was it just a natural thing?

          or someone is fat and not moving so their joints hurt, so they get replaced (at considerable cost and pain, plus physical therapy) so they can sit around and continue to not move and stay fat.

          Or X hurts so they have surgery to fix X and 10 years later X still hurts. (the back being the prominent example, NOBODY who has had back surgery fells like it improved/solved the problem)

          It’s all a grift and was just built on trusting that your doctor/medical staff had your best interests at heart. And then in 2020, they pissed that all away.

          Staying away from the medical establishment is clearly the only solution at this point.

          1. I agree that many surgeries don’t help. From what I have read, over 60% of knee replacement recipients are very dissatisfied with their outcomes.

             But some, like eye lens replacement work quite well.

          2. Some folks in my area “walk” their dogs holding the leash through an open car window.

       3. we discovered its positive effects purely by accident

          Isn’t this true of all ‘medicine’ though? Even more herbal things, or pain killers or anti-inflammatories from tree bark and such?

19. Heckova job, “Zimbabwe Ben” Bernanke, Yellen the Felon, & BlackRock Jay.

    https://twitter.com/GameofTrades_/status/1728083554255638816

20. The Joe Biden economy.

    CNBC — President Biden’s approval among small business owners hits new low, as economic message fails to sell on Main Street (11/24/2023):

    “You can add America’s small business owners on Main Streets across the nation to the constituencies among which President Biden is struggling to sell his “Bidenomics” message.

    President Biden’s approval among small business owners has hit a new low, according to the CNBC/SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey, with a net approval rating of 30. Measured from his first days in office, the president’s approval has dropped by 13%, from 43% in the first quarter of 2021. Business owners who strongly disapprove of his handling of the presidency (56%) far outweigh those who strongly approve (13%).”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/24/president-bidens-approval-among-small-business-owners-hits-a-new-low.html

    1. I’m amazed that any small business owner thinks positively about Joetato. His policies only help large corporations, and even then the regime is picking the winners and the losers.

       1. Ask the clowns on the South Broadway commercial corridor in Denver with all the virtue signal signs proudly displayed in their business windows.

          They know they’re close to having to shut their doors for good, but they will mindlessly keep pulling that D lever again and again and again, forever, decades beyond Denver’s descent into the permanent economic Doom Loop, because reasons.

          1. but they will mindlessly keep pulling that D lever again and again and again, forever

             Some people can’t be helped. They must have already forgotten how they were forced to close during the lockdowns, but big box stores were allowed to stay open.

21. Kamala Harris Sparks Backlash with Thanksgiving Gas Stove Photo

    Infowars.com
    November 24th 2023, 12:17 pm

    Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris drew criticism on social media after she posed for a Thanksgiving photo near a gas stove, a move seen as hypocritical amid attempts by the Biden administration to restrict access to the gas appliances.

    “From our family to yours, happy Thanksgiving,” Harris wrote alongside a photo of herself and husband Doug Emhoff, with a gas stove beside them.

    The photo comes as the Biden administration has been seriously looking at banning gas stoves, with the Department of Energy and Consumer Product Safety Commission both looking at ways to curtail their manufacturing and usage.

    The gas-powered appliance immediately caught the attention of many, who pointed out Harris is not in compliance with her own administration’s climate change initiatives.

    Libs of TikTok
    @libsoftiktok

    Gas stoves for me but not for thee

    https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1727869218622963965?s=20

    1. What a nasty, nasty skank this woman is, her political “career” earned on her knees under former SF Mayor Willie Brown’s desk.

       I’m supposed to build my new house with a phony heat pump that doesn’t work in locales where it actually gets cold. It gets hot there in the summer too, but I’m supposed to have a swamp cooler and no central AC.

       “Climate change” is the biggest fraud ever, soon to overtake the CCP Flu pandemic in its lies and hypocrisy.

       There is only one goal of all of this: deprivation and suffering. They want all of you DEAD, but if they can’t achieve that now with gain of function viruses and deadly vaccines, they’ll be more than happy to starve you to death, just like Stalin did.

       It’s okay to kill communists. It really is. Go find some communists, and kill them, you’re making the world a better place when you do 😎

       1. I’m supposed to build my new house with a phony heat pump that doesn’t work in locales where it actually gets cold

          What’s wrong with one of the Mitsubishi HyperHeat models? They offer 100% heat capacity down to 5deg F. Throw a wood stove in the mix for emergency heat/ambiance and you’ve got a nice setup IMO.

          (Not cheap compared to a standard gas pack but not horrible)

    2. It’s hilarious how clueless they are. Or perhaps they just don’t care about getting caught, since they get away with just about everything anyway.

    3. “Gas stoves for me but not for thee”

       Remember to bend thy knee when the chariot approaches!

22. A song for the “15 minute cities” they want to imprison you in.

    Traffic — Berkshire Poppies:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZWr_RQ604s

    Go buy something today. More importantly, something you don’t need. Then pay interest on it. Because the “economy” will collapse if you don’t.

    1. The Kinks — Got To Be Free:

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7qChiEGugE

       1. Federal income taxes?

          The Beatles — Taxman:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUim9Jv0y6Q

23. The stupid, it burns (from the Colorado Sun):

    Solving Colorado’s atrocious 16% recycling rate is not solely on the shoulders of Chook Chicken restaurant CEO Elizabeth Nicholson.

    But her roast chicken haven is one of the few places where Colorado consumers are trying new ways to pluck cardboard and plastic out of the 5.6 pounds of waste each person generates every day.

    Chook’s multiple locations in metro Denver have adopted a reusable plastic takeout container from Deliver Zero. Customers who ask for the service pay an extra 99 cents, as if reusables were a menu item like a side of mashed potatoes. The customer has up to three weeks to drop off their used containers or face a $3 charge.

    After forgetting to return the container on time and getting stuck with the fine most customers will say “no thanks, I’ll take mine in a throw away container.”

    And why bother increasing the “recycle rate”? Most recyclables are not cost effective to reuse, so they end up in the landfill anyway. Oh, I know! Mandate that they be reused, regardless of the cost, like they do in Europe. I’m sure customers won’t mind having to pay more, it’s not like we’re being battered by inflation … oh, wait.

24. ‘Any project where the majority is more than 40 percent of foreigners is doomed for failure…[This is] because they don’t come here, they don’t occupy [the properties] here, they don’t spend money here’

    This is what downtown/Brickell Miami looks like to me.

25. Does it seem like MSM-favored real estate experts are finally coming around to acknowlege that housing is headed for the CR8R?

    1. Yahoo
       Business Insider
       Home prices are poised to drop as the frozen housing market thaws, 2 top experts say
       Theron Mohamed
       Fri, November 24, 2023 at 3:43 PM PST·3 min read
       A home for sale with a price reduction sign
       Two housing experts see prices falling.Reuters

       – US home prices may decline, Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi and Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said.

       – Price drops may be needed to thaw the housing market, which could take years, Zandi said.

       – Kelman expects home prices to drop next year, as listings are up and sellers are cutting prices.

       House prices may be headed lower, dealing a blow to sellers but providing relief to buyers, two experts say.

       “The only way out of the box, the only way to get sales back up is mortgage rates have to come down, incomes have to continue to improve, we have to avoid a recession, and I suspect we’ll have to see some house price declines at some point here,” Moody’s chief economist, Mark Zandi, told Yahoo Finance this week.
       …
       https://finance.yahoo.com/news/home-prices-poised-drop-frozen-234351645.html

26. How are your SPAC investments holding up?

    1. Finance ·WeWork
       WeWork’s ignominious bankruptcy adds to the growing list of once buzzy SPAC companies that have gone bust
       BY Bailey Lipschultz and Bloomberg
       November 7, 2023 at 10:02 AM PST
       WeWork’s crash is yet another example of a SPAC company that has gone bust.
       David Paul Morris—
       Bloomberg/Getty Images

       The list of companies to go public through a blank-check merger only to go bankrupt shortly thereafter has a new headline member: WeWork.

       After a little more than two years as a public company, the infamous office-sharing firm has filed for Chapter 11 protection. WeWork joins the likes of Core Scientific Inc., one of the largest miners of Bitcoin, and Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc. to go bust and wipe out billions in market value.

       WeWork is the highest profile SPAC blowup. The company’s $9 billion valuation in an October 2021 deal — one of the biggest mergers by enterprise value at the time — exemplified the profligacy of a near-zero interest rate environment.

       “There was a major change in 2021, where quite a few venture capital-backed firms merged with a SPAC and the track record has not been good,” says Jay Ritter, finance professor at the University of Florida. “Critics of SPACs for many years have said a lot of the companies that were merging with SPACs were low-quality companies and the evidence seems to be somewhat consistent with that.”

       There are at least 23 bankrupt companies born out of SPACs, or special-purpose acquisition companies, and more than a dozen additional firms that were acquired far below their debut values. On top of that, there are roughly 110 post-SPAC firms that are trading for less than $1. All are reminders of the collapse of the pandemic-fueled frenzy surrounding the strategy.

       SPACs are also called blank checks because they raise cash via initial public offerings with plans to merge with an unidentified target company. They give themselves a window to buy something or return the cash to investors, and holders can redeem their investment if they don’t like the deal.

       The pandemic and low rate environment turned blank-check mergers into a popular financing vehicle, attracting celebrity backers like former New York Yankees infielder Alex Rodriguez and NFL quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick, all willing to line up blank checks.

       “You had a bunch of SPAC sponsors looking to take companies public that weren’t able to go public the ordinary way for all the right reasons: they didn’t have scale, weren’t profitable and just weren’t ready for prime time,” said Greg Martin, co-founder of Rainmaker Securities. “But the SPAC guys came with offers of insane valuations, it was almost like a bribery.”

       Another Black Eye

       WeWork’s SPAC tie-up with BowX Acquisition Corp. brought in a whopping $1.3 billion with investors like Insight Partners, funds managed by Starwood Capital Group, and Fidelity Management. They were among those buying in at $10 through a private investment in public equity, or PIPE.

       But the cash infusion wasn’t enough as shares of the company plummeted with a 1-for-40 reverse stock split, extending the company’s life by a few months.

       Its bankruptcy ends a saga that torched billions of Softbank Group Inc.’s cash. The filing came nearly 18 hours after trading was halted as speculation of its demise swirled and co-founder Adam Neumann put out a statement that said WeWork could rise again.

       WeWork is among the 139 de-SPACs — companies that successfully merged with a blank check company — to question their own viability this year, according to Bedrock AI, an investment research company that scours regulatory documents. The firm, which analyzed reports from 392 de-SPACs, says the percentage of companies that merged with blank check firms raising concerns over the past four years is nearly double of those that went public the more traditional route.

       As WeWork becomes another black eye for the SPAC industry, most sponsors have closed shop and even serial backers have shifted to look for the next big stock market fad.
       …
       https://fortune.com/2023/11/07/wework-spac-bankruptcy-chapter-11-core-scientific-virgin-orbit/

    2. Financial Times
       Opinion Markets Insight
       The Spac bubble and bust is one for the history books
       Collective amnesia is a reminder of the risks of investments offering an illusory prospect of easy wealth
       William Cohan
       A scene from the film ‘House of Games’
       The Spac bubble works in large part because it’s a confidence game. As actor Joe Mantegna says in the film ‘House of Games’: ‘It is a confidence game. Because you give me your confidence? No. Because I give you mine’
       William Cohan 11 hours ago
       The writer is a former investment banker and author of ‘Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon’

       It’s always startling to discover a new generation of investors that is both willing and eager to fall for another stock market mania. The mind-blowing, collective amnesia that has been the Spac bubble provides another example of the risks of an investment proposition seen to offer easy wealth, however illusory.

       The bubble was, and remains, sadly, really quite something. In simple terms, the way the ruse works is that a few clever men — yes, mostly men — get together and “sponsor” a new shell company. Known as a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, this comprises nothing more than a pledged aspiration to use the money raised from other people in a profitable way. They conduct an initial public offering, and then find a private company to merge with and take that company public through the merger. Got it?

       The Spac sponsors are on the hook for the legal, accounting and underwriting fees, which can run into many millions of dollars depending on how much money the investment vehicle raises from other people. In return for setting up the Spac, and raising the capital for it, the sponsors get essentially free equity, which they hope will be quite valuable. Their fees are covered, assuming a merger of some sort eventually happens.

       Once the Spac is formed, the sponsors have two years to find a merger partner and consummate a deal. If the sponsors fail, they absorb the fees themselves and return the money raised to investors, plus interest. No surprise that the incentive for Spac sponsors is skewed towards getting the IPO done and then finding a merger partner, of nearly any stripe, before the two-year window closes.

       The ruse works in large part because it’s a confidence game. “It’s called a confidence game,” the actor Joe Mantegna explains in the 1987 David Mamet film, House of Games. “Why? Because you give me your confidence? No. Because I give you mine.”

       Who wouldn’t want to invest alongside seemingly smart — and rich — businessmen and celebrities such as Richard Branson, Bill Ackman, Masayoshi Son, Chamath Palihapitiya, Michael Klein, Jay Z, Shaquille O’Neal and Alex Rodriguez, all of whom have either sponsored Spacs or lent their names to them? It’s the timeless art of seduction writ large and catapulted into the public equity markets.

       Spacs are not new. According to Spac Insider, an industry tracker, the first Spac appeared in 2009, in the wake of the financial crisis, when it raised a meagre $36mn in an IPO. But the Spac phenomenon exploded around the turn of the decade. In 2020, there were nearly 250 Spac IPOs, according to Spac Insider, that raised some $83bn from investors. The following year, 613 Spacs got done, raising a whopping $162bn.
       …

27. End Wokeness
    @EndWokeness

    4 overweight female cops try to arrest a male shoplifter for over 2 minutes.

    He ends up escaping.

    Diversity quotas are our strength!

    https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1728019626330673617?s=20

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