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I’m Essentially Stuck In A Loan That I Can’t Get Out Of

A report from Fox 13 in Florida. “A St. Petersburg business owner is under investigation after reportedly orchestrating ‘a classic Ponzi scheme,’ according to federal investigators. Russell Todd Burkhalter is the founder and CEO of Drive Planning, a Georgia-based financial consulting firm that lists an office in St. Petersburg. According to investigators with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Burkhalter encouraged people to invest in his real estate opportunity, promising a 10% return every three months. From 2020 to May of this year, Burkhalter raised more than $330 million from over 2,000 investors, according to court documents. $66.9 million of that amount came from retirement accounts. ‘Overall, it’s one of the larger Ponzi schemes, I’d say,’ Miami attorney Jeffrey Sonn, who’s representing investors across four states in this case, told FOX 13. ‘They’re angry,’ Sonn said of the investors he’s representing. ‘That’s their money that was used.'”

From WPBF. “Following the evacuation of three condo buildings in St. Lucie County, WPBF is taking a deep dive into recently released videos and records detailing the damage. Gustavo Alvarez, an engineer with AB Plus Engineering and Restoration, can be heard in the videos explaining his findings. ‘The steel is completely disintegrated,’ he said. ‘You can take these pieces by hand.’ He blames shoddy work in the original building and poor work since. Gregory Buck, president of National Risk Experts, an insurance company based in South Florida, advises new buyers to be extra thorough with their research and reviewing past inspections. ‘Have those things been done? Because you don’t want to not have any idea what is in store for you if you don’t do those things and you could lose your investment entirely,’ Buck added.”

KVUE in Texas. “New data from the Austin Board of Realtors has revealed that home prices in Austin are at their lowest rate in almost three years, while housing inventory is at its highest rate in 13 years. The median sale price for a home in Travis County currently sits around $450,000, according to the report. The last time the median home price hovered at that rate was September 2021, about eight months prior to home prices hitting their peak median price average of $550,000 in April 2022.”

From KCTV 5. “Thousands of residents in Jackson County are frustrated as county leaders say there will be no refunds after homeowners filed appeals in the 2023 property tax assessment. County leaders said the money has already been spent. Jackson County is in the westernmost part of Missouri, bordering Kansas. Laura Carey said she spent the last year fighting the county over the tax increase. Her property tax went up 69%, and because of that, her mortgage increased by roughly $500 a month, something she says she can’t afford. She’s worried that she might lose the home she raised her five kids in. ‘A decision that would have never been made before is now on the table,’ Carey said. ‘When you’re retired, on a fixed income, you can’t roll out some more money. You can’t go to work on overtime. You have to figure out what to do. Do I expect to see a refund? No. Would I like to see a credit? Sure.'”

“However, county officials said homeowners who were overtaxed should not expect the problem to be fixed because the money has already been spent. ‘So, I wanted to disabuse people that they’re going to get some lovely refund check because of because of this egregious error, but it’s not going to happen,’ County Administrator Troy Schulte said.”

From CBS Colorado. “When you think of East Colfax in Denver, chances are you think of drug dealers, transients, and prostitutes. But the neighborhood is increasingly home to young families and professionals, and they are working to shed the area’s reputation as the ‘rough’ part of town. ‘There’s a lot of first-time homebuyers here. The market has gotten very expensive,’ says Noeli Rodriguez, who is one of those first-time homebuyers. She moved here from out of state for a nursing job only to realize her neighbors were sex workers and drug dealers. She says the carport-turned-crack house behind her served more than 900 customers in 21 days. While most people may have moved, Rodriguez says she’s not going anywhere, ‘I’ve worked so hard to own a house. I don’t want to give up so easily.'”

“While they’re making progress, neighbors say, they want parity. They say the city should address the homeless problem on East Colfax like it has in downtown Denver. ‘They squat against the wall and poop on the floor. It’s trash, we clean up trash every morning,’ says Chanelle Simmons, a business owner in the neighborhood. ‘Busting our windows and us having to pay for those, breaking into our storage, it’s bad. They’re camping out everywhere.’ That includes a vacant house that’s caught fire twice in three weeks. The first fire spread to Deacon Rodda’s place, ‘The property has just been full of squatters. People use drugs every day. People started another fire in that same space.'”

Mission Local in California. “San Francisco does not have one program that puts homeless people onto buses and sends them elsewhere. It has three. Because of course it does. Once again, we’re reminded of S.R. Hadden’s first rule in government spending: ‘Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?’ Or three. Why not three? Except, when it comes to the price, these programs’ price tags are relatively infinitesimal. Not including staff costs, the price of putting a homeless person on a bus and sending them out of town is about $275 a pop. Those are the costs, at least, for the ‘Journey Home’ program — again, one of three the city has.”

“But this is the program that’s top of mind. That’s because on Aug. 1, Mayor London Breed issued the Journey Home executive order, mandating that homeless people being swept off the streets be offered a bus ticket out of town before being proffered shelter or other services — or arrested. City officials stress that Homeward Bound was not the crass ‘Greyhound therapy’ of the sort that has resulted in so many out-of-state homeless people being funneled to San Francisco. In 2015, for example, the state of Nevada agreed to pay San Francisco $400,000 after City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit over that state’s longstanding practice of busing mental patients here. Journey Home participants do not need to have friends or family in whatever town they are being sent to. Nobody needs to vouch for them and offer to provide housing or care. They simply need to prove ‘a connection’ to somewhere else. This could be fulfilled with a former address.”

“If Bakersfield or Humboldt or Tulsa or Rapid City or wherever else object to San Francisco busing people to them, it is not hard for them to begin reciprocating and busing people to us.”

The Tennessean. “The Ritz-Carlton hotel development in Nashville has been stalled since it was first announced in 2021. Between October 2023 and July 2024, at least seven lawsuits have been filed against Florida-based developer Tim Morris alleging unpaid loan balances, unpaid rent and misappropriation of funds related to the Ritz-Carlton development and other real estate projects. Plaintiffs say Morris owes a collective $16.7 million, at least. A bank has already secured a $6 million judgment against him in federal court. Meanwhile, the vacant SoBro land originally selected for the luxury hotel was sold to a new owner earlier this year in a foreclosure auction after the developer defaulted on the loan.”

“The Tennessean reviewed hundreds of pages of court records to reveal the status of the Ritz-Carlton development and the legal battles of the principal developer behind the project. Tennessean subscribers can read how those documents describe a developer with a Marriott family connection who painted himself as a wealthy man with luxury vehicles worth $500,000 and easy access to capital before later claiming he didn’t even own a lawn mower.”

Bisnow on Massachusetts. “A Malden-based landlord acquired a vacant five-story office building at a steep discount. United Properties acquired the vacant 125K SF building for $7.8M, down from the $40.5M seller The RMR Group paid in 2010, the Boston Business Journal reported.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “A realtor who raised more than $25-million in promissory notes from small investors for a series of stalled real estate projects has been ordered by Ontario’s Capital Markets Tribunal, a division of the Ontario Securities Commission, to stop all trading in securities for his companies. Daniel St-Jean, a sales representative with EXP Realty, is under investigation by the OSC for allegedly violating securities law by ‘trading securities without registration’ between 2020 and 2023. In addition to being unlicensed, the OSC’s application alleges Mr. St-Jean ‘used the proceeds of its distributions in a manner contrary to representations made to investors’ and that ‘during the course of the investigation, the Commission found evidence that: DSJ … may have engaged in conduct that perpetrates a fraud.'”

“Monica Van Berlo, who runs a property management business in Timmins, Ont., and began investing in real estate through Mr. St-Jean in 2021, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. ‘We had lent him $40,000 for a six-month period, everything went well and we got our money back, so we lent $120,000. He started acting a little weird in late 2022.’ According to Ms. Van Berlo the second loan, structured as a promissory note, was not repaid after it’s maturation date and Mr. St-Jean stopped paying interest in 2023, but he did begin sending a lot of messages. ‘We have been getting bi-weekly or weekly e-mails from Daniel with some really random updates,’ she said. ‘One excuse after another and for over a year now … the last one was almost threatening.'”

“The Globe and Mail obtained a copy of a July 16 e-mail allegedly sent by Mr. St-Jean to investors, warning that any attempts to take him to court for unpaid debts would be a ‘bad move.’ ‘The four houses they could put a lien on as per the agreement are all underwater,’ he said in the e-mail, meaning they were heavily indebted. He concluded by saying: ‘The only winners in those court battles are the lawyers.’ Many of the investors who spoke with The Globe heard about Mr. St-Jean through The REITE Club, an organization he co-founded in the Hamilton area where so-called experts in real estate investment could network and share ideas. Members say former mortgage broker Claire Drage – who raised more than $130-million in private mortgages and promissory notes for the insolvent real estate business of former child actor Robby Clark – was also a frequent attendee at REITE events.”

“The evidence gathered by the OSC alleges that Mr. St-Jean admitted to using new investor money to make interest payments to early lenders. The underlying business of real estate developments appears never to have made any money, a fact Mr. St-Jean laments in some e-mails submitted by the OSC. ‘So in 14 months, I’ve sold the Hantsport deal to 125 people … and I’ve collected $10,719,700 with most of it going to you one way or another,’ Mr. St-Jean wrote in a March, 22, 2023 e-mail to a business partner named Peter Tsakanikas. ‘What can I show new investors that was achieved with 10 million bucks? Nothing much really.'”

From BBC News in the UK. “A woman who says she is unable to sell her flat due to its cladding has described the ‘huge emotional impact’ the situation is having on her. Leaseholder Lucy Tissington said it had been almost impossible for potential buyers to get a mortgage on Bristol’s Clayewater Court, since it was deemed the block did not have an adequate standard of fire safety. Ms Tissington moved into Clayewater Court in St George in April 2017, two months before a fire destroyed London’s Grenfell Tower, killing 72 people. The disaster led to changes in building regulations. Ms Tissington’s block of flats was subsequently inspected and deemed a fire risk. According to Clayewater Court’s form, its external fire safety is not adequate, and work needs to be done to improve it. That work could cost tens of thousands of pounds, which Ms Tissington and her fellow leaseholders do not feel they should have to pay for.”

“Ms Tissington said she had spent seven years trying to get her point across, which had taken a ‘huge’ emotional toll. ‘I want to maybe start a family with my partner. I want to get away from these costs and I can’t. I shouldn’t have to put up with this stress for this many years,’ she said. ‘For nobody to say that they are going to help, as well as living in a building that’s deemed a risk and could set on fire, it’s huge. I just want to move on.’ Ms Tissington purchased the property via the Help to Buy scheme and paid for the deposit with a government loan, which was interest-free for five years. She said she had hoped to pay the loan off by now, but was instead paying interest. ‘I’m essentially stuck in a loan that I can’t get out of,’ she added.”

Radio New Zealand. “Construction has stopped on New Zealand’s tallest new building, the soaring 56-level, 221-unit, $300 million Seascape, according to an Auckland Council chief. But a development boss says it is simply going at a slower pace. Jeff Fahrensohn, council field surveying manager, said work had ‘paused’ and he did not know when it would resume or why no one was working there. Others who have been working on the project, which is a 187m-tall building, said work had stopped weeks ago but would not say why. They also hope China Construction will return shortly.”

“The tower has become a dominant yet skeletal feature on the horizon after it reached the top level around June. The skyline is visible through many of its floors, yet to be enclosed in the tower which is not fully clad. A number of surprised office workers and residents contacted the Herald lately to say they had seen no one on the site for weeks. ‘Our office building overlooks Seascape and it appears construction has stopped,’ one person wrote last week. The Herald in January said Seascape was expected to open later this year. But that now appears impossible, given the amount of work to be completed.”

South China Morning Post. “Ever since China launched the Xiongan New Area seven years ago, a burning question has been hanging over the project: will it become the futuristic ‘modern socialist city’ touted by the top leadership, or just an expensive ghost town predicted by the sceptics? The city, about 100km (60 miles) south of Beijing, was designed to reduce population pressure on the capital and speed up development in the surrounding province of Hebei and neighbouring mega-port of Tianjin. It will not be completed until 2049, but has already attracted around 670 billion yuan (US$93 billion) in investment, and the leadership reaffirmed their commitment to the project during last month’s third plenum, a key economic policy meeting.”

“A recent visit to Xiongan, which is less than an hour ride from Beijing by high-speed train, confirmed that much of the urban hardware is already in place, with office buildings, residential blocks, public transport, schools and kindergartens, shops and restaurants all up and running. Unlike most major cities in China, there are no skyscrapers, underground passes or overhead walkways. But although it has an official population of 1.2 million permanent residents, another striking feature is the relative lack of people out on the streets.”

“Mike Yang, who moved to Xiongan in May, said he only came because he found a job in the city, but he still spent most weekends in Beijing. ‘The truth is, people haven’t come yet,’ said the 24-year-old, but added that the government may force more people to move there from the capital in the next few years.”

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This Post Has 111 Comments

  1. an insurance company based in South Florida, advises new buyers to be extra thorough with their research and reviewing past inspections. ‘Have those things been done? Because you don’t want to not have any idea what is in store for you if you don’t do those things and you could lose your investment entirely,’ Buck added.”
    No one should buy a condo in FL for the next year or two. Way too much risk.

  2. ‘The median sale price for a home in Travis County currently sits around $450,000, according to the report. The last time the median home price hovered at that rate was September 2021, about eight months prior to home prices hitting their peak median price average of $550,000 in April 2022’

    Up over 20% in 8 months. You really screwed up this time Jerry. And that’s not counting what it went up before September 2021.

  3. ‘From 2020 to May of this year, Burkhalter raised more than $330 million from over 2,000 investors, according to court documents. $66.9 million of that amount came from retirement accounts’

    I can remember when 330 million pesos was a lot.

    ‘Overall, it’s one of the larger Ponzi schemes, I’d say,’ Miami attorney Jeffrey Sonn, who’s representing investors across four states in this case’

    Until the guberment starts regulating these ponzi schemes Jeff, they will keep growing.

    ‘They’re angry,’ Sonn said of the investors he’s representing. ‘That’s their money that was used’

    And what did he spend it on?

    ‘According to court records filed in Georgia on Tuesday, Burkhalter is also accused of stealing these investor funds to fund a lavish lifestyle, including spending $3 million on a yacht, $4.6 million on private jets and luxury car services, and over $2 million for a condo near the water in St. Petersburg, according to Pinellas County property records’

  4. “…Burkhalter encouraged people to invest in his real estate opportunity, promising a 10% return every three months…”

    ~40% return annually ?

    Oh sure, no red flags here, sign me up.

    1. probably just me but the only time I’ve ever heard/saw/read the last name of “Burkhalter” was when the TV General of same name was perpetually chewing out Col. Klink.

      Ho-GUUUN !!

    2. Yahoo
      Motley Fool
      Interest Rates Are About to Do Something They Haven’t Done Since March 2020, and It Could Trigger a Big Move in the Stock Market
      Anthony Di Pizio
      Thu, Aug 15, 2024, 7:44 AM MDT
      6 min read

      Inflation refers to the general rise in the price of goods and services. The U.S. Federal Reserve aims to keep the consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation growing at an annual rate of 2%, and the central bank will adjust the federal funds rate (overnight interest rates) when it deviates too far from that target.

      The CPI hit a 40-year high of 8% in 2022, triggering one of the most aggressive campaigns to hike interest rates in the history of the Fed. The rate of inflation has cooled considerably since then, so the central bank appears set to reverse that policy.

      That means interest rates may be cut for the first time since March 2020. If history is any guide, that could trigger a big move in the benchmark S&P 500 stock market index — but the direction might surprise you.

      The Fed could cut interest rates three times before the end of 2024

      The U.S. government injected trillions of dollars’ worth of stimulus into the economy during 2020 and 2021 to counteract the negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the Fed slashed interest rates to a historic low of 0% to 0.25%, and it injected trillions of dollars into the financial system through quantitative easing (QE) by buying government and agency bonds.

      Loose monetary policy and drastic increases in money supply tend to be inflationary, but disruptions to global supply chains also drove prices higher. Factories and shippers were periodically shutting down all over the world to stop the spread of COVID-19, which led to shortages of everything from televisions to cars.

      So, a cocktail of factors sent the CPI surging during 2022, which triggered the flurry of rate hikes that followed. The federal funds rate ultimately settled at 5.25% to 5.50% after the Fed’s last rate hike in August 2023. That’s a long way from the pandemic low point.

      But here’s the good news: It’s working. The CPI ended 2023 at 4.1%, and it came in at an annualized rate of 3% in June 2024, which is the most recent reading. In other words, inflation is closing in on the Fed’s 2% target.

      That’s why most experts are expecting imminent rate cuts. According to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, the Fed is likely to cut rates three times by the end of 2024 (once each in September, November, and December).

      The stock market doesn’t always respond well to rate cuts

      Conventional wisdom suggests rate cuts are great for the stock market. They reduce the yield on risk-free assets like cash and Treasury bonds, which pushes investors into growth assets like stocks and real estate.

      However, if we examine the chart below, which overlays the federal funds rate with the S&P 500 going all the way back to 2000, we can see that falling interest rates often foreshadow a decline in the stock market.
      …
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/interest-rates-something-havent-done-085500772.html

      1. The U.S. government injected trillions of dollars’ worth of stimulus

        That is what inflation is, not the price of goods. In order to solve a problem, pretty much any problem, you have to start with a clear understanding of what it is.

        2. Even if inflation begins as an expansion of the currency supply, it eventually lands in the grocery store. Money is created as debt, and that debt has to eventually be filled in with somebody’s labor.

          1. lands in the grocery store

            My point is that is an effect. If you are distracted away from the root problem cause, you will believe the BS that greedy grocery stores caused the higher grocery prices. Of course, the government that is clipping coins will promise to fix the greedy grocer problem.

  6. Shocking video shows cops enforcing Tim Walz’s curfew by shooting paintballs at residents as they stood in their doorways

    By Chris Nesi
    Published Aug. 13, 2024

    Disturbing video shows dozens of riot cops enforcing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s curfew order spreading out in a Minneapolis neighborhood and peppering residents with paintballs while they stood on their porches and in their front doorways.

    https://nypost.com/2024/08/13/us-news/cops-enforcing-tim-walzs-curfew-shot-residents-with-paintballs-video/

    4. On X, I just saw a snippet of Kamala’s rally with Biden in Prince George’s county, where she appeared visibly drunk. Comments said that Kamala has been battling the box wine for a long time.

      Is this true? Can this be proven? Is there other footage of this? If so, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Trump campaign is sitting on this, waiting to unleash a barrage after the Dem Convention.

  7. Thousands of residents in Jackson County are frustrated as county leaders say there will be no refunds after homeowners filed appeals in the 2023 property tax assessment. County leaders said the money has already been spent

    Knock me over with a feather. I wonder how many counties and municipalities save their surpluses in a rainy day fund, vs. spending it. Very few, I suspect.

    1. ** “So, I wanted to disabuse people that they’re going to get some lovely refund check because of because of this egregious error, but it’s not going to happen,” County Administrator Troy Schulte said.
      Schulte said those losses to tax revenue will have to be made up somewhere. “If we are forced to comply with this order, as written, we can face substantial cuts to central services,” Schulte said. “This includes vital areas like our schools, fire protection and police departments.”
      Schulte said the county will work with the 57 taxing jurisdictions within Jackson County to fight the order from the State Tax Commission.”

      Talk about supreme arrogance?! Holy MOLY the chutzpah on that one. Not only does this Govt. azzhole proudly proclaim they screwed up, but then sneers at any rebuttal for recourse.
      AND, of course, threatens removal of vital public resources, such as the police/fire/etc. if any fiscal cuts are made.

      They do this every time. Every. Time.

      This is a scale of arrogance that matches anything here in CA. which perpetually serves as the butt of jokes.
      Take note, Amurica: this is the future.

      “We (Govt) got it. Overspent it. Whattya’ gonna do about it!? Not much. More to come. Get ready to pay again next year.
      So FU / PAY ME, you tax slaves! “

      1. The city government in my little burg is having a conniption, because we voted to repeal the grocery sales tax, and the repeal has gone into effect. Without providing specifics the city said it would be tightening its belt and that there would be cutbacks in some services.

        These are the same clowns who wanted to raise the sales tax to fund a bunch of unneeded stuff. Voters wisely shot the spending bill down, and the proponents had a hissy fit. Amongst the wish list items were second branches for the library and the rec center, which would have created new permanent operating costs, not to mention lots of bonds that would have to be repaid.

        1. Move over Denver, Los Angeles is one-upping you.

          1] New Proposition on Ballot this November:

          The “Affordable Housing, Homelessness Solutions and Prevention Now” measure will repeal and replace existing Measure H 1/4 cent sales tax that funds homeless programs in L.A. County and that expires in 2027, with a new *PERMANENT* 1/2 cent sales tax.

          So there you go, the Homeless Industrial Complex wants to fund homelessness *PERMANENTLY*.

          2] The average CEO salaries of the top 10 “non-profit” ‘lets end homelessness’ organizations in LA is over $800K. (source: KFI radio}

          There is no end.

          2. “…We’ll see if Angelinos are smart enough to say no….”

            The greed, corruption and stupidity of government knows no bounds.
            Roll that in with a dumbed down electorate and what have you got?

            “Many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue.” – P. T. Barnum

    1. I haven’t set foot in a Subway in over 10 years. Their meats are mediocre. There are much better choices for the same price.

      1. And of course, there is the famous story (and lawsuit) about how Subway ‘foot long’ sandwiches aren’t really a foot long.

        For me the breads are way too salty.

        Subway sandwiches, IMO, are junk.

        Much better products (and cheaper) at other stores.

    4. Subway raised my suspicion when EVERY employee, regardless of time or location, started off the toppings line asking if I wanted lettuce. Of course it’s planned that way. Lettuce fills the sub space with airy shreds of nothingness, leaving no room for anything substantive. A few times I tricked them by declining the lettuce, getting some better tomatoes and peppers, and then “changing my mind” at the end and asking for a little lettuce on top.

      Your best bet is to just get your food at the grocery store deli. Many have hot bars, pre-made subs or pizza slices. Prices aren’t bad compared to fast food places. My go-to is cold cuts. You can get a half-pound of meat ready-to-eat for like 5 bucks. I don’t worry about nitrites or additives; veggies have more nitrites than meat.

  9. Todays market news
    The U.S. Economy Is Still Strong. The Latest Data Make it Clear.
    Barron’s Online

    OTOH
    At a time when credit card interest rates are super high, more Americans find themselves carrying credit card debt from month to month, a new survey suggests.

    Half of credit cardholders surveyed in June as part of Bankrate’s latest Credit Card Debt Survey said they carry balances over month to month. That is up from 44% in January – and the highest since since March 2020, when 60% of people carried debt from month to month, according to Bankrate’s surveys.

    One-third of U.S. adults (36%) have credit card debt that’s higher than their emergency savings, according to Bankrate’s findings. That’s the same amount as a year ago and the highest since the personal finance site began asking the question in 2011.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/08/10/credit-card-debt-balance/74741230007/

  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j0GFnM3X0Y

    Niall MCconnell will be live streaming on the housing and refugee crisis in Ireland starting at 2:45EST/11:45PST. Please send link to anyone one who has an interest in the future of Ireland and its people.

    Irish people are getting denied planning permission all over the country for houses on their own land while any accommodation for “refugees” is exempt. The government is paying so generously to house “refugees” that Irish are being evicted from their flats all over the country and replaced with “refugees”. Foreign capital is flooding into Ireland to buy up derelict properties all over the country to get on the gravy train of housing “refugees”. Ireland and its culture and traditions are vanishing from the face of the earth. The flood of third world refugee labor is driving wages so low and housing cost so high Irish can’t afford to live and work in their own country. The curtain is falling on the existence of Ireland as the ancestral homeland of the Irish people.

    1. “the existence of Ireland as the ancestral homeland of the Irish people”

      They’re too white, too Catholic, and globalist vermin will have none of that.

      The #Noticing will continue.

      1. The situation is so surreal that the government is even paying the veterinary bills for refugees’ pets. There is no golden ticket anywhere in the world more appealing than being a fake refugee in Ireland.

      2. I haven’t broached this topic with my colleagues in Dublin. I’m sure most are all onboard with the invasion, and those who aren’t know better than to speak about that at work. Plus about half of my Dublin colleagues are not Irish to begin with, so we know where they stand.

        1. —-Plus about half of my Dublin colleagues are not Irish to begin with

          Only half? Your company is clearly behind the curve.

          1. Probably because we haven’t been doing a lot of hiring in Dublin for a while. Now Bangalore or Bucharest, lots of hiring there.

  11. New documentary called “Vaxxed 3 ” that exposes the hospitals deliberately killing the unvaxxed during covid.

    Apparently in a effort to make it look like the unvaxxed were dying more by Covid than the vaxxed where, they employed killer protocols to the unvaxxed, while also getting major money incentives for each covid death.

    So, more obstructed evil is coming out and what they did to up the death counts in the unvaccated.

    And you know that they refused some medical services for the unvaxxed, such as transplants, and other medical services.

    No wonder a bunch of people are scared to go to hospitals these days, if the evidence in this documentary is true.

    I understand that it’s very hard to believe this level of evil or murder and that you have to protect yourself.

    1. Dodged a bullet at that one, since I was in the hospital a lot during that time.
      Doctor’s offices are weirdly empty these days here in Las Vegas. My PCP desperately tries to restrict my referrals to doctors in his group.

          1. surgeon
            Wild, after mentioning her today. Watching a freebie streaming channel, when suddenly (no longer) my surgeon appears in a commercial endorsing the NV incumbent democrat senate candidate. Strange for a local doctor to do. For some people, that certainly won’t add to the dr/pt relationship, if that even exists anymore.

      2. Also, my prescription get filled in record time (Walmart). Years ago, you’d have to wait two days, then it went to one day. This morning, it was less than a half-hour. Maybe it’s just that their verification systems have improved.

    1. My understanding is that Brandon is supposed to be the lightning rod for everything that is going wrong, so that Cameltoe can be presented as pristine and having nothing to do with what is happening.

      1. Promising things as President she could have done as Vice President isn’t lost on the electorate.

  13. A reader sent these in:

    RBNZ GOVERNOR ORR: DARKEST PERIOD FOR ECONOMY IS RIGHT NOW

    https://x.com/financialjuice/status/1823556514382024785

    Redfin CEO 2023: housing mkt has hit rock bottom, there is a supply shortage, housing prices only go up

    Redfin CEO 2024: housing prices will go down as sellers can’t postpone listings any longer and new supply comes on to the market

    Refin CEO 2024: I will drink my own urine

    https://x.com/Will_DeCotiis/status/1823037467991158826

    What phase is the drink your own urine phase?

    https://x.com/Will_DeCotiis/status/1823036933032878287

    But, but, but the TSA numbers…

    https://x.com/MauiBoyMacro/status/1823394862127050833

    In June, 21% of home purchase agreements fell through in Orlando, Jacksonville, and Tampa, Redfin found.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1823710414347362760

    College students state they expect to make about $84,855 one year after graduation, according to a survey of college students by Real Estate Witch.

    The average starting salary for recent graduates is $56,000, per CNBC.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1823706639536648428

    Americans who want to tap the rising equity of their homes without giving up their low mortgage rates are increasingly turning to home equity lines of credit, per Bloomberg:

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1823695314487808195

    Those with a mortgage rate below 3% say their likelihood of moving in the next three years would soar from about 17% to 28% if they could keep their current loan, per recent surveys from the New York Fed.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1823683989879558227

    When you start at the Redfin estimate until you hit reality.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1823793237896892546

    I would love to see how these pricing algorithms are geared/methodology – if it’s anything Real Page’s Rent Rigger – then it’s deliberate upward pricing pressure on home prices.

    The stupid estimate still has the home at mid 8s and it sold today for that.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1823794326285246726

    ZIRP killed #innovation

    The goggles failed so let’s pivot to robot iPads.

    Buybacks > creating anything of value to consumers

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1823790458902045022

    Every time I do napkin math on the cost of living in Fort Lauderdale post-2020 for those w/median salary I have no idea how anyone would or could do it.

    This is a nationwide phenomenon.

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1823756002744758417

    “We can see the disinflation!”

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1823715132784173439

    Young, college-educated women appear to be the hardest-hit group in the deteriorating labor market. Their unemployment rate has quickly risen from 1.8% to 4.4%, the largest recorded 3-month spike outside of Covid.

    https://x.com/JeffWeniger/status/1823476256639475751

    Update: Canadian lenders now offering NINETY-year mortgages 🤡 – everything is a-okay with our neighbour up north

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1676690932903583746

    Cisco will layoff around 5,500 employees

    https://x.com/MacroEdgeRes/status/1823820882156101897

    This is a suburb of Dallas – only three ways to solve this:

    > Deflation
    > Much higher incomes
    > Find cheaper country & earn USD

    https://x.com/DonMiami3/status/1823850432965292531

    Fake and false consumer reviews are now banned by the FTC, per MorePerfectUnion.

    The new Biden admin rule prohibits writing, buying, or selling fake reviews and suppressing negative reviews.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1823788101787156610

    Hackers may have stolen the Social Security numbers of every American from National Public Data, around 2.9 billion records, per the LA Times

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1823799752879964339

    Initially, the cache was offered for sale at $3.5 million on hacker forums in April. Following this, portions of the data were shared for free on the hacker forum Breached, significantly increasing its spread online.

    https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1823839486435852369

    I’m waiting for real estate prices to just crash. I look at my area around Portland, Ore and the complete disconnect between prices and wages is astonishing. I’m a homeowner too btw who has benefitted from the rise in RE prices the last decade.

    https://x.com/JoshhowardOR/status/1823743414757699738

    Shut up, Jeremy Siegel.

    WTF are you but a paid @WisdomTreeFunds shill anyway?

    If you know Jeremy, please show this twit my tweet.

    https://x.com/RudyHavenstein/status/1823799440286867816

    Food has never been so expensive – about one quarter of renters had to skip meals in the last year to stay current on their bills; this is a cost-of-living crisis:

    https://x.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1823724428674449694

    You ever wonder how your grandparents bought a home for 7 raspberries, but you can’t afford a one bedroom apartment? It’s not you.

    We’re facing a national housing shortage. The government needs to tackle this crisis head on.

    https://x.com/SenWarren/status/1823725522742034516

    Make no mistake, this is a direct assault on Canada’s working class.

    The educated, laptop class such as myself will not be affected. We actually stand to benefit as wages for low skilled jobs are suppressed. How an ostensibly left-wing coalition can promote and preside over this boggles the mind.

    https://x.com/RichardDias_CFA/status/1823790829758247014

    I knew that move looked familiar…

    https://x.com/ClownWorld_/status/1823785512894914704

    San Francisco’s last Denny’s closes due to rampant dine-and-dashers. Another blow to the city’s crumbling state. Is this the utopia Democrats promised?

    https://x.com/ClownWorld_/status/1823499337374294376

    2. Young, college-educated women appear to be the hardest-hit group in the deteriorating labor market.

      It’s hard to get a job when you majored in victim’s studies.

    3. Those with a mortgage rate below 3% say their likelihood of moving in the next three years would soar from about 17% to 28% if they could keep their current loan, per recent surveys from the New York Fed.

      Stupid hypothetical.

  15. ‘They’re angry,’ Sonn said of the investors he’s representing. ‘That’s their money that was used.’”

    Must.not.laugh.

  16. AI models ‘collapse’ and spout gibberish over time, research finds. But there could be a fix

    One of the buzziest research papers in the world of artificial intelligence emerged from an idle lunchtime conversation between Ilia Shumailov and his brother Zakhar, as they wondered whether it will be easier or harder to train large language models in the future.

    The internet is awash in the text data used to train LLMs, which underlie chatbots and other AI applications. The output of these models, such as text from ChatGPT, could also be used to train future AI models. But it might not be entirely suitable. “We were basically sitting and chatting, and on a piece of paper, trying to map out what the proof would look like,” recalled Ilia Shumailov, who is a former research fellow at the Vector Institute in Toronto and junior research fellow at the University of Oxford.

    The two brothers turned the question into a formal study, along with University of Toronto assistant professor Nicolas Papernot, and others. They reached a startling conclusion: Training AI models on AI-generated data renders them useless. Text models spout gibberish, and image models barf garbage. They dubbed the phenomenon “model collapse.”

    On the surface, the findings are alarming. Generative AI models need massive amounts of data to find patterns, build associations and output coherent results. Today’s LLMs have already been trained on wide swaths of internet content and need fresh data to improve. The conclusion that AI-generated data will pollute future models, just as lead coursing through the bloodstream turns the human mind and body to mush, is worrisome, to say the least.

    Abeba Birhane, a senior fellow in trustworthy AI at the Mozilla Foundation, wrote on X that model collapse is the “Achilles’ heel that’ll bring the gen AI industry down.” Ed Zitron, who pens a popular Substack often expounding on the shortcomings of generative AI, wrote, “It’s tough to express how deeply dangerous this is for AI.” Gary Marcus, another generative AI critic, wrote on X, “So hard to tell whether AI systems are sucking on each other’s fumes, in a way that could ultimately lead to disaster,” accompanied by a sarcastic eye-rolling emoji.

    But Dr. Shumailov isn’t quite so pessimistic. Moreover, an early version of the paper was released last year and the updated version was published in Nature at the end of July. During the interim, other researchers have not only looked at ways to prevent model collapse, but how to use AI-generated data to improve performance.

    “I’m sure progress will continue. I don’t know at what scale,” Dr. Shumailov said. “I don’t think there is an answer to this as of today.”

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-training-ai-models-generated-data-llms/

  17. Her property tax went up 69%, and because of that, her mortgage increased by roughly $500 a month, something she says she can’t afford.

    Laura, ya might want to take a more active interest in how the county is spending yer tax dollars.

  18. The folly of Liberal immigration policy is now showing up in the job market

    In late 2023, Immigration Minister Marc Miller revealed that his department was working on a “broad and comprehensive” plan to “regularize” the status of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who either came to Canada illegally or overstayed their visas.

    The planned move to grant legal status to undocumented immigrants, many of whom had been working in Canada for years, drew praise from the New Democratic Party, on whose support the Liberal minority government has relied to stay in power.

    Fortunately, Mr. Miller has now put that plan on ice. And none too soon, as the fallout from Ottawa’s short-sighted approach to immigration begins to show up in the labour market, with soaring unemployment among youth and newcomers.

    There should always be room for exceptions on humanitarian grounds. But blanket amnesty for undocumented immigrants would send a clear message to the vast majority of the country’s 2.8 million temporary residents, who are legally obligated to leave when their student visas or temporary work permits expire, or if their asylum claims or applications for permanent residency are rejected. It would encourage temporary residents to go underground in the belief that Ottawa would eventually grant them amnesty, too.

    That is the last message the Trudeau government should be sending at a time when the unintended consequences of its move as the pandemic receded to massively boost immigration to torque economic growth have now been laid bare.

    As Statistics Canada reported on Friday, the unemployment rate among youth aged between 15 and 24 surged to 14.2 per cent in July, up 3.6 percentage points from 2023 and the highest rate (outside of the pandemic) since 2012.

    Research has shown that entering the labour market during a recession can leave long-term scars on young people and new immigrants, who can continue to experience lower earnings long after economic growth resumes. That is why federal immigration policy needs to be based on more than stoking short-term growth or pleasing certain political constituencies.

    It has taken far too long for the Liberals to figure this out. The Trudeau government belatedly announced in March that it aimed to shrink the proportion of non-permanent residents, or NPRs, in the country to 5 per cent from 6.2 per cent of the overall population by 2027.

    But execution has never been this government’s strong suit, and many analysts remain skeptical that it will reach its target. Indeed, Ottawa approved 71,000 applications to hire temporary foreign workers in the first quarter of 2024 alone.

    The Trudeau government’s misguided immigration policies will continue to make the situation worse for a while yet. It cannot turn the taps off temporary immigration fast enough to correct the imbalance it has created in the labour market.

    Young people and recent newcomers are now paying the price for the Liberals’ immigration folly.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-the-folly-of-liberal-immigration-policy-is-now-showing-up-in-the-job/

    1. There should always be room for exceptions on humanitarian grounds.

      Funny how all those people claim to be “refugees”.

      Anyway, it appears that there is no room at the inn in Canaduh.

  19. “When you think of East Colfax in Denver, chances are you think of drug dealers, transients, and prostitutes.

    But no realtors, right?

    1. in 2019 (so before it went all insane) was delivering RCP (concrete sewer pipe) to a project on 14th (one block off colfax) about 5000 or so east. It was not a good neighborhood. Sitting there talking to the construction crew, they were like “it’s nuts. We leave at like 3pm and take EVERYTHING with us, nothing stays and you’ll notice there’s no portapotty”. We have even had to leave earlier cuz people were getting into arguments waving guns around (urban youths I imagine). ” The only reason they were accomplishing anything was because they started long before the hood rats got up.”

      i’m sure it’s worse today.

  20. Joel Kotkin: Boomers have left the economy in tatters, driving youth to the right

    Like counterparts around the world, Canada’s youth are struggling, victims of a weak economy and a rising cost of living crisis. Whereas boomers rode an unprecedented wave of prosperity and higher living standards, younger Canadians, particularly those under 30 , are now more pessimistic about the future than older generations.

    These realities suggest severe consequences for the rest of us, and for our future. Younger voters were once seen as the driver of a progressive takeover of all institutions. But today younger voters are, if anything, headed in different directions, with some, notably single women, headed to the left while men, in almost all countries, moving decisively to the right.

    In Canada, for example, the youth vote is trending towards the Conservatives. Twice as many voters under 35 think Trudeau has hurt their generation more than helped them; the younger the voter the more negative they tend to be. Two in five, notes a Fraser Institute study , feel pessimistic about the federal government compared to less than eight per cent who have confidence in the current national regime.

    In the U.S. as well the percentage of young voters identifying as Republicans has been on the upswing since 2016. This year Donald Trump has gained ground over his weak 2020 showing. It is too early to tell how much the substitution of Kamala Harris for the doddering Joe Biden could weaken this trend. In Europe as much as one-third to two-fifths of young people support parties — and views of immigration climate polices — often characterized as far right.

    Even in the recent British elections, Labour lost ground among younger voters, barely breaking two fifths while Reform quadrupled its share. Although much is made of young people’s embrace of Hamas and the terrorist-friendly progressives, U.S. poll data shows that economic factors and alienation from current institutions are likely to be far bigger factors in how they vote. In particular, the rightward shift comes from people without college degrees who make up roughly two thirds of young people across OECD countries.

    Young people are further disheartened by the often-hysterical predictions of climate disaster. The majority of young people in forty countries, according to a Lancet study , see the planet as doomed by climate change. A recent study of Canadian college students found 80 per cent claiming it effects their mental health, and half say they feel this every day.

    Rather than seek to address and adapt to whatever changes are coming — warmer winters in Canada could have some positive impacts as well — young people confront a green ideology that embraces “degrowth,” that is smaller economies that would make upward mobility all but impossible.

    Not surprisingly those under 30 constitute the most “disengaged” workforces in the high income world, with many delaying their transition to adulthood. In the U.S. some 40 per cent of recent graduates are underemployed , in jobs where their college credentials are essentially worthless. Across Europe , and the U.K., large proportions of young workers are neither in work nor school.

    Even East Asia, once the heartland of workaholics, Japanese “shinjinrui,” or the “new breed,” have rejected steady work. Many are living with their parents and spending their time traveling, playing video games, and pursuing hobbies. Even in China, where many educated millennials , faced with diminishing prospects for the country’s increasingly beleaguered middle class, have abandoned striving in favour of “lying flat.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/joel-kotkin-boomers-have-left-the-economy-in-tatters-driving-youth-to-the-right/ar-AA1oQamq

    1. Boomers were arguably the most worthless generation in human history until Millennials came along. But the true fault for the “tattered economy” lies with the Keynesian fraudsters at the Fed, who’s sole “mandate” is to serve as the oligarchy’s chief instrument of plunder against the 99 percent.

    2. I would say that 2/3 of GenX is also fed up with this nonsense, the other third being hopeless cat ladies and lonely passport bros. If there is to be a Fourth Turning, it will be led by GenZ and younger Millenials, with lots of willing advice from Gen X.

      1. as long as they stay healthy no dui or failing off a roof , id say pretty decent because they will have plenty of money and useful skills to move anywhere the jobs are. like i did at that age.

        1. Agreed. They didn’t fall into the debt trap. Remind them debt is slavery and substance abuse limits opportunities.

  21. United Properties acquired the vacant 125K SF building for $7.8M, down from the $40.5M seller The RMR Group paid in 2010, the Boston Business Journal reported.”

    This can’t be. Frozen Soup Larry, NYC real estate mogul wanna-be, assured us 50% drops in CRE were a “pipe dream.” Smoke ’em if you got ’em, ladies!

  22. ‘The four houses they could put a lien on as per the agreement are all underwater,’ he said in the e-mail, meaning they were heavily indebted. He concluded by saying: ‘The only winners in those court battles are the lawyers.’

    It would take a heart of stone to read about these fleeced speculators, and not laugh.

  23. Heat pumps could bring the German economy to its knees

    Emissions would come down. It would create a high skill, high wage economy. And it would reboot industry, accelerate productivity, and deliver a boost to growth. For years we have been told that moving to Net Zero would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and billions of euros, dollars and pounds have been thrown at the companies promising to make that happen.

    But hold on. Now it turns out that the green jobs are disappearing at an accelerating pace – and the investment in creating them will have been squandered.

    There should be plenty of money to be made from heat pumps, especially in a country such as Germany where the Greens are part of the coalition government, and where a relatively new, well-insulated housing stock makes them more than a match for older gas or oil boilers. And yet, it has turned out to be far from easy. According to the German business paper Handelsblatt Stiebel Eltron, one of the country’s largest pump manufacturers has this week been forced to announce job losses. The reason? Sales have been weaker than it expected. Despite generous subsidies for homeowners, and €18.6 million from the state to support production, the pumps are falling flat, with only 90,000 sold in the first half of this year against an official target for 2024 of 500,000.

    The trouble is, that is far from an isolated example. Shares in the German battery manufacturer Varta are down by over 80 per cent so far this year, and there are warnings that the company may not survive after making heavy losses on energy storage unit for hybrid sports cars.The Belgium chemical group Umicore announced a €1.6 billion hit last month as slowing sales of EVs hit its battery material business, and it decided to postpone plans for a battery recycling plant. Siemens Energy has announced big losses on its unit that makes the giant wind turbines that were to be built across the countryside and along every coastline. And of course, all the major European auto manufacturers have had to scale back their plans for electric vehicles as sales disappoint, and high-quality, cheap Chinese models take whatever few orders there are.

    The list goes on and on. The companies that poured billions into building the industrial infrastructure for the transition to Net Zero are running into trouble one by one.

    It is not hard to work out what has gone so badly wrong. Governments have tried to pick winners, backing new technologies before they have proven themselves in the marketplace, and then doubling down on that up with quotas and subsidies even in the face of consumer indifference. Even worse, they have thrown their support behind the wrong businesses, rewarding companies that tick all the right climate change boxes, rather than waiting to see which ones can make the best product at the lowest possible cost. Industrial strategy, as so often in the past, has been a recipe for disaster.

    Right, now we are seeing the entirely predictable consequences of that. Money is being wasted on an epic scale, right across the continent. No one should be in the least surprised if many of the green projects the British government has backed turn out to be hopelessly uneconomic as well, yet our energy secretary Ed Miliband, and the climate change fanatics who put constant pressure on the Government to reach Net Zero harder and faster, are intent on pouring even more money into what will inevitably be an even larger series of white elephants. In reality, the “well paid green jobs” are disappearing fast, replaced with poorly paid “green redundancies”. Governments will be left with a huge bill for a costly series of mistakes – and the unfortunate workers who thought they were being offered a lucrative career will have to find something else to do very quickly.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heat-pumps-could-bring-german-070000106.html

    1. where a relatively new, well-insulated housing stock makes them more than a match for older gas or oil boilers

      That must be why my Dublin colleagues pay 500 Euros a month in the Winter to heat their tiny homes. It blows me away: they are paid quite a bit less than we are, their taxes are higher (the VAT is 23%) and their cost of living is high. And on top of that they have to pay a king’s ransom to heat their shanties. Imagine if it got as cold there as it does in my neck of the woods. They would freeze.

  24. Ms Tissington purchased the property via the Help to Buy scheme and paid for the deposit with a government loan, which was interest-free for five years.

    Gub’mint (taxpayers) “helping” FBs to get up on that housing ladder should be illegal. I don’t want one cent of my tax dollars used to enable loose lending to the manifestly non-creditworthy.

    1. I don’t want one cent of my tax dollars

      But if you own a really big house, or a bunch of them, it makes you rich!

  26. Pedo Joe & Kamala get heckled by pro-Palestinian protestors in Maryland. The incipient civil war in the Democrat Party between the unhinged radical leftist globalist imports & special snowflakes, and the entrenched crony capitalist Old Guard embodied by Pelosi & Schumer is beautiful to behold. Can’t wait for the Democrat Convention – it’s going to be like watching the Iran-Iraq War: loons who want nothing good for me & mine at the throats of corrupt DNC worthies who also want nothing good for me & mine. Fight! Fight! Fight!

    https://x.com/saras76/status/1824163791304626586

    1. Tim Pool was talking about the Dem Convention. Evidently the Convention is going to be physically split into two venues, the United Center where the Chicago Bulls play, and the McCormick Place convention center.

      The two venues are 5 miles apart.
      In downtown Chicago.
      With reporters and delegates and speakers trying to travel between venues for events…
      and 10,000+ protesters running around.

      This is going to be a disaster.

    1. News
      Futurism
      Elon Musk Says Ketamine Is His Special Medicine
      Victor Tangermann
      18 March 2024
      3-min read

      Former CNN anchor Don Lemon’s interview with multihyphenate billionaire — and, at the time, his boss — Elon Musk finally aired on Monday, allowing a better glimpse at the possible reasons why the X-formerly-Twitter owner may have canceled the former’s show on the platform.

      Musk abruptly canceled Lemon’s show following the interview, leading to widespread speculation about the billionaire’s motives. One possible reason: Lemon asked probing questions about Musk’s drug use.
      …
      https://uk.news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-says-ketamine-special-143004599.html

  28. The Tommy Robinson Interview: The UK Migrant Crisis is Destroying the UK

    Nick Shirley Interviews

    1 day ago

    I had the opportunity to interview the # 1 activist and most controversial man in the UK Tommy Robinson. We discuss the open border issue in the UK and how most Brit’s feel like they are losing their country due to the influx of migrants.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u3QnQ4Uy-E

    10 minutes.

    1. You have to hand it to the globalists, Davos and WEF crowd. They are executing perfectly. In a few decades Europeans will be a minority in their homelands.

  29. ‘advises new buyers to be extra thorough with their research and reviewing past inspections. ‘Have those things been done? Because you don’t want to not have any idea what is in store for you if you don’t do those things and you could lose your investment entirely’

    If I just want a shanty Greg, that sounds like a big head ache.

  30. ‘There’s a lot of first-time homebuyers here. The market has gotten very expensive’…She moved here from out of state for a nursing job only to realize her neighbors were sex workers and drug dealers. She says the carport-turned-crack house behind her served more than 900 customers in 21 days. While most people may have moved, Rodriguez says she’s not going anywhere, ‘I’ve worked so hard to own a house. I don’t want to give up so easily’

    It’s clear you are a winnah! Noeli. Had you spent a couple of hours casing the joint before you won it might have turned out different.

    ‘While they’re making progress, neighbors say, they want parity. They say the city should address the homeless problem on East Colfax like it has in downtown Denver. ‘They squat against the wall and poop on the floor. It’s trash, we clean up trash every morning’…‘Busting our windows and us having to pay for those, breaking into our storage, it’s bad. They’re camping out everywhere’

    You do have parity Chanelle, you can go out there, squat on a wall and take a dump anytime. Nobody will say boo.

    ‘That includes a vacant house that’s caught fire twice in three weeks. The first fire spread to Deacon Rodda’s place, ‘The property has just been full of squatters. People use drugs every day. People started another fire in that same space’

    It’s still way cheaper than renting Deacon.

  31. ‘City officials stress that Homeward Bound was not the crass ‘Greyhound therapy’ of the sort that has resulted in so many out-of-state homeless people being funneled to San Francisco. In 2015, for example, the state of Nevada agreed to pay San Francisco $400,000 after City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit over that state’s longstanding practice of busing mental patients here. Journey Home participants do not need to have friends or family in whatever town they are being sent to. Nobody needs to vouch for them and offer to provide housing or care. They simply need to prove ‘a connection’ to somewhere else. This could be fulfilled with a former address’

    Remember the shock! when the Texas guvnah shipped some illegals up north? They have all been doing this for years.

  32. ‘at least seven lawsuits have been filed against Florida-based developer Tim Morris alleging unpaid loan balances, unpaid rent and misappropriation of funds related to the Ritz-Carlton development and other real estate projects. Plaintiffs say Morris owes a collective $16.7 million, at least. A bank has already secured a $6 million judgment against him in federal court. Meanwhile, the vacant SoBro land originally selected for the luxury hotel was sold to a new owner earlier this year in a foreclosure auction after the developer defaulted on the loan…those documents describe a developer with a Marriott family connection who painted himself as a wealthy man with luxury vehicles worth $500,000 and easy access to capital before later claiming he didn’t even own a lawn mower’

    Sound lending!

  33. ‘who runs a property management business in Timmins, Ont., and began investing in real estate through Mr. St-Jean in 2021, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. ‘We had lent him $40,000 for a six-month period, everything went well and we got our money back, so we lent $120,000. He started acting a little weird in late 2022.’ According to Ms. Van Berlo the second loan, structured as a promissory note, was not repaid after it’s maturation date and Mr. St-Jean stopped paying interest in 2023, but he did begin sending a lot of messages. ‘We have been getting bi-weekly or weekly e-mails from Daniel with some really random updates,’ she said. ‘One excuse after another and for over a year now … the last one was almost threatening’

    On top of those happy days Monica, you got schlonged.

    ‘copy of a July 16 e-mail allegedly sent by Mr. St-Jean to investors, warning that any attempts to take him to court for unpaid debts would be a ‘bad move.’ ‘The four houses they could put a lien on as per the agreement are all underwater,’ he said in the e-mail, meaning they were heavily indebted. He concluded by saying: ‘The only winners in those court battles are the lawyers’

    Common thread in K-da: I’ll tie you up in court if you expose my ponzi and bleed you dry cuz there is no juice to squeeze.

    ‘Many of the investors who spoke with The Globe heard about Mr. St-Jean through The REITE Club, an organization he co-founded in the Hamilton area where so-called experts in real estate investment could network and share ideas. Members say former mortgage broker Claire Drage – who raised more than $130-million in private mortgages and promissory notes for the insolvent real estate business of former child actor Robby Clark – was also a frequent attendee at REITE events’

    Lovely. One of the most corrupt countries for real estate on the planet, and that’s saying something.

  34. ‘moved into Clayewater Court in St George in April 2017, two months before a fire destroyed London’s Grenfell Tower, killing 72 people. The disaster led to changes in building regulations. Ms Tissington’s block of flats was subsequently inspected and deemed a fire risk. According to Clayewater Court’s form, its external fire safety is not adequate, and work needs to be done to improve it. That work could cost tens of thousands of pounds, which Ms Tissington and her fellow leaseholders do not feel they should have to pay for’

    Wait a minute, I’ve heard this story before!

    ‘Ms Tissington said she had spent seven years trying to get her point across, which had taken a ‘huge’ emotional toll. ‘I want to maybe start a family with my partner. I want to get away from these costs and I can’t. I shouldn’t have to put up with this stress for this many years,’ she said. ‘For nobody to say that they are going to help, as well as living in a building that’s deemed a risk and could set on fire, it’s huge. I just want to move on.’ Ms Tissington purchased the property via the Help to Buy scheme and paid for the deposit with a government loan, which was interest-free for five years. She said she had hoped to pay the loan off by now, but was instead paying interest. ‘I’m essentially stuck in a loan that I can’t get out of’

    Lucy yer stuck in the commie urban vertical living airbox nightmare it was destined to be. But you don’t have to shovel snow. If that helps.

  35. ‘Construction has stopped on New Zealand’s tallest new building, the soaring 56-level, 221-unit, $300 million Seascape…They also hope China Construction will return shortly…The tower has become a dominant yet skeletal feature on the horizon after it reached the top level around June. The skyline is visible through many of its floors, yet to be enclosed in the tower which is not fully clad’

    They aren’t coming back Auckland. Settle in for looking at that thing for many years. Tallest building, can see it for miles.

  36. ‘Ever since China launched the Xiongan New Area seven years ago, a burning question has been hanging over the project: will it become the futuristic ‘modern socialist city’ touted by the top leadership, or just an expensive ghost town predicted by the sceptics?’

    So far ghost town sceptics are ahead 100 to zero.

    ‘The city, about 100km (60 miles) south of Beijing, was designed to reduce population pressure on the capital and speed up development in the surrounding province of Hebei and neighbouring mega-port of Tianjin. It will not be completed until 2049, but has already attracted around 670 billion yuan (US$93 billion) in investment, and the leadership reaffirmed their commitment to the project during last month’s third plenum, a key economic policy meeting’

    Central planning!

    ‘A recent visit to Xiongan, which is less than an hour ride from Beijing by high-speed train, confirmed that much of the urban hardware is already in place…But although it has an official population of 1.2 million permanent residents, another striking feature is the relative lack of people out on the streets

    Some one is a lion, in China!?

    ‘Mike Yang, who moved to Xiongan in May, said he only came because he found a job in the city, but he still spent most weekends in Beijing. ‘The truth is, people haven’t come yet,’ said the 24-year-old, but added that the government may force more people to move there from the capital in the next few years’

    In addition to that they may even say you can’t leave Mike.

  38. Las Vegas Police Union Threatens to Boycott NFL Games, Fears League’s Social Justice Partners May Obtain Officers’ Private Info

    Warner Todd Huston
    15 Aug 2024

    The Las Vegas police union is warning the Las Vegas Raiders and the NFL that if new requirements for officers to supply the league with biometric data are implemented, they will cease providing security details for games.

    The NFL has recently mandated that all gameday staffers—including contractors and non-employees—supply biometric data, including an image of their face, via an approved app before being allowed clearance to enter the stadium.

    However, the police union representing Las Vegas police officers is warning officials that its members will not comply with the new security requirements. If they are forced to do so, they won’t work Raiders home games at Allegiant Stadium.

    At issue is the league’s close relationship with numerous anti-police organizations. Members of the police are afraid that the data will end up in the hands of these woke, left-wing organizations, which will then turn around and use the data as a weapon against police officers.

    Las Vegas Police Protective Association President Steve Grammas recently sent out a video to members stating that he is not on board with handing his data over to the NFL to end up in the hands of “people that you don’t know.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2024/08/15/las-vegas-police-union-threatens-to-boycott-nfl-games-fears-leagues-social-justice-partners-may-obtain-officers-private-info/

  39. Why Are We So Crazy About Real Estate? (York Region Real Estate Market Update)

    Team Sessa Real Estate

    1 hour ago VAUGHAN

    In this episode we take a look at the current Vaughan Home Prices, Richmond Hill Home Prices & Markham Home Prices and real estate market trends for week ending Aug 7, 2024. We also discuss a recent Uber ride where the driver, someone who has been in the country for only a short time, very clearly saw this obsession Canadians have to real estate.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ExYWrKXpg

    11:19.

  40. Harris and Walz interview each other while dodging media, get trashed online: ‘Completely scripted and fake’

    Fox News
    Gabriel Hays
    August 15, 2024 at 10:39 AM

    Vice President Kamala Harris and 2024 running mate Gov. Tim Walz took heat on social media for sharing clips of a “scripted and fake” interview they did with each other online while they continue to evade interviews.

    Despite Harris not having a formal press conference or sit-down interview 25 days into her presidential campaign, both her and Walz have shared excerpts of their interview they conducted to generate hype for the ticket. The clip was met with ridicule from conservative critics who said it encapsulates the fakeness of Harris’ entire campaign.

    “So your response to accusations of hiding from interviews is to put out a scripted conversation?” conservative commentator Blaire White asked on X after viewing the clip.

    https://www.aol.com/harris-walz-interview-other-while-143917005.html

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