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If Investors Bought At The Peak Of The Market, They Haven’t Been Able To Recoup It

A report from CBS News in Florida. “Just 16 years after construction, residents at a Brickell condo are grappling with a contentious $21 million special assessment for repairs to their buildings. Some unit owners of the two buildings at 1060 Brickell face individual payments exceeding $40,000. While the condo board insists the repairs are urgent and legally required, many residents feel blindsided and financially overwhelmed. ‘I think it’s excessive,’ said resident Nima Mahdjour. ‘I feel like I’m being milked.’ Residents allege that while a meeting was held, the board bypassed a formal unit-owner vote. The special assessment looms large, forcing many to consider their financial future in one of Miami’s most coveted neighborhoods. ‘We question the speed of how they’re moving to do things,’ said resident Marthin Chan, who now contemplates selling his unit due to the financial strain. ‘If it’s so dangerous, then kick us all out of the building, and we should all not be here.'”

The New York Post. “Bill Ackman on Thursday listed two of his New York City apartments for sale at a multimillion-dollar loss, according to a report. The billionaire hedge fund manager is seeking to unload two swanky apartments on Manhattan’s Upper West Side for $19.9 million – years after he spent $22 million on the pair, according to Curbed.”

The Real Deal. “Homebuilders have to use additional incentives to attract buyers — especially those in the market for entry-level homes — as interest rates remain stubbornly high. That’s what Tri Pointe Homes is doing for three residential developments in Austin. Lennar spent $53,400 in average sales incentives per home delivery in Texas in the third quarter this year, up roughly 8 percent from the same quarter last year, which comes out to about 17 percent of revenue spent on concessions per home, according to its latest earnings report. Builders are beating the resale market with the forward commitment strategy by sidestepping seller concession caps, which typically limit how much a seller can contribute toward a buyer’s closing costs at 3 to 6 percent, depending on the loan, said Austin Real Estate Experts owner Matt Menard. ‘What builders did in response is they got in the finance business,’ Menard said.”

The Los Angeles Times. “Southern California home prices dipped in October for the third straight month. Home price growth peaked at nearly 9.5% in April and has declined every month since. In recent months, the number of homes listed for sale has steadily grown. Real estate agents say homeowners who once balked at giving up their ultralow mortgage rates from the pandemic and prior are increasingly choosing to move. In October, the number of homes on the market had risen in all six counties over the prior year, ranging from a 25% gain in San Bernardino County to 49% in San Diego County. In Los Angeles County, inventory climbed 33%. In the last year, asking rents for apartments in many parts of Southern California have ticked down. Experts say the trend is driven by a rising number of vacancies, which have forced some landlords to accept less in rent.”

The San Francisco Chronicle. “Gov. Gavin Newsom just bought a sleek six-bedroom mansion tucked away on a leafy road in a wealthy Marin County town, around 20 miles north of San Francisco. The home, on Woodland Road in Kentfield, sold for $9.1 million last week, records show. The California governor, and possible 2028 presidential candidate, appears to have gotten a good deal, too: The home was first listed at $9.5 million in September, before being relisted with a $1 million price cut last month.”

KOMO in Washington. “The city of Bellingham is set to start cleanup efforts at a large encampment along East Stuart Road next week, following years of complaints from residents about violence and crime. Kelly Todd, who lives in the Tullwood Apartments near the encampment, said, ‘They continue to do their campfires and they burn everything, plastic everything it gets pretty bad.’ Todd added that the area has been plagued by crime, noting, ‘We hear gunshots all the time, last week I heard one, the week before that I heard a couple.’ A resident of the encampment, who identified himself as Mac, said they feel misrepresented. ‘It just happened and some of us can’t get out of it and we’re stuck,’ he said. Mac expressed a desire for more support from the city, saying, ‘They don’t give us any resources like an ultimatum or where can go next or nothing they just keep kicking us from one woods to another.'”

KHQ on Idaho. “The 2024 point in time count (PIT) gathered data on 789 Boiseans experiencing homeless. Spokane’s PIT – as required by the federal government – checked in with 2,021 on the streets. It paints a vague picture of discrepancy confirming what Spokanite’s continue to shout; problems in The Lillac City are exaggerated with a potential template of success to follow just across the Snake River. ‘It’s clean,’ Austen Furymiller said. ‘The Boise Police Department cracks down on any issues that arise. Furymiller returned to Boise for a simple standout trait – it’s clean and safe.”

“‘If it’s illegal, we take action, we hold them accountable, and our criminal justice system here works,’ Boise Police Deputy Chief Tammany Brooks said. ‘We respond to all calls.’ It’s a claim backed up by Furymiller who has worked in the service industry downtown Boise between restaurants and breweries. ‘People understand if they step out of line, [police are] gonna show up. There will be consequences for actions,’ Furymiller said.”

“‘Sometimes prosecutors are making decisions about, hey, you know, I’m not going to prosecute this type of crime, right?’ said Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennets. ‘It can lead to not enforcing things, which then is not a deterrent for people to commit crimes.’ The system creates the outcome of a clean and safe city partly due to state law, according to Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford. ‘You’re not gonna see people shooting up or smoking fentanyl on the street here because people know. You are going to jail for that,’ Clifford said. ‘Sometimes people say you are just harassing these poor addicts. Well, is it fair to just let them stand there and abuse themselves? That’s not very humane.'”

From WTOP. “In the midst of record-high office vacancy rates and a changing work economy, Arlington County, Virginia, has passed a plan to cut red tape, so that empty office buildings can be transformed into multi-use spaces. Arlington faces significant challenges in its commercial office market, with more than 10.7 million-square-feet of vacant space and an oversupply of outdated office inventory. ‘Close to half of the office buildings in Arlington are basically costing more to the owner than they are producing in income, and sometimes by a whole lot,’ said Arlington County Board Chair Libby Garvey, during a Saturday meeting.”

CBC News in Canada. “Ontario’s home construction regulator is seeking to revoke the licence of a builder that has admitted to selling homes without legal approvals and left more than 100 buyers out millions of dollars in down payments. Last month, CBC Toronto reported on issues with the Sunrise Homes company, including projects going into receivership, allegations of misappropriation of funds and one particular project that’s recently left 117 buyers out about $14 million collectively — of which they are trying to recover about $10 million through Tarion, the provincial warranty corporation.”

“Faran Haq spent $100,000 on a down payment for a pre-construction home that was supposed to be built by a Sunrise corporation called Sunrise Acquisitions (Stayner) Inc. near Wasaga Beach, Ont. Instead of moving in this summer, as he expected, the project went into receivership in February and Haq is now hoping to recover some of his funds through Tarion. ‘When I found out about the information on the builder and the defaults and the receiverships at the other sites, it definitely sort of felt like the carpet was pulled under my feet,’ Haq said. ‘We feel wronged … To have a corporation out there that has a licence to build, even after committing all that they have committed.'”

“Bob Aaron, a Toronto-based real estate lawyer and former member of Tarion’s board of directors, says he’d like to see the HCRA sanction the individuals behind the company. ‘I don’t see any action being taken against the individuals to prohibit them from setting up under a new name,’ he said. ‘This is too little too late.'”

This Is Money in the UK. “Tenants will compete over fewer homes and pay ever-higher prices thanks to Labour’s attack on landlords, according to a closely-watched survey of property experts. Daniel Wiltshire, an actuary and independent financial advisor at Wiltshire Wealth says a number of his buy-to-let clients have now decided that property investment is no longer for them. ‘The cult of buy-to-let is dead,’ said Wiltshire. ‘I’ve had several meetings with would-be property investors who have decided to pull out and look at stocks and shares instead The national psyche is hard-wired to pour money into bricks and mortar, but the recent increase in stamp duty, along with other incremental tax rises over the past 10 years, has made even the most die-hard property enthusiast question the wisdom of putting all their eggs in a single, highly taxed basket.'”

Domain News in Australia. “Four capital-city suburbs nationwide dropped out of the $1 million club in the third quarter of this year – and they were all in Greater Melbourne, new data has revealed. The four suburbs that fell out of the $1 million club last quarter – as opposed to the 32 that joined it for the first time – are Beaconsfield, Riddells Creek, Sandhurst and Gisborne. Dimming demand has made prices fall, says local agent Damien Walder of Bound Real Estate. ‘There’s definitely a lot more property on the market,’ he says. ‘And there’s not a lot of urgency from buyers as well.'”

“Riddells Creek, east of Gisborne, experienced the largest price fall at 5.9 per cent (or $60,000), bringing the median down to $955,000. [Prices] did drop finally because the interest rates sort of levelled out a bit,” says local agent Amanda Burt. ‘Vendors’ expectations were very high, so we’ve had to bring them down to reality again,’ Burt says. She has also recently seen more investors needing to sell their properties at a loss, which has heavily affected the median house price. ‘If [investors] bought at the peak of the market, they haven’t been able to recoup it, and they might have lost between $20,000 and $50,000,’ she says.”

The Malaysian Star. “The dream of owning a home has turned into despair for some homebuyers in Marang, Terengganu, as their housing project has been left abandoned for over eight years, reported Harian Metro. This was the state of the Taman Sri Purnama housing project in Kampung Gong Chempedak, whose abandoned status has left many homebuyers who invested into the project with massive debt. Buyer Mohd Hafiz Salleh, 38, said a private developer had created the project in 2016, promising prices ranging from RM73,000 to RM148,000 per unit. ‘We’ve been waiting for eight years for our dream home and we still haven’t gotten it. We don’t know what the real issue is that has caused this project to remain incomplete,’ Mohd Hafiz said. He added that the buyers are now left to pay their house loans to banks and the Public Sector Home Financing Board of between RM400 and RM800 each month for essentially nothing.”

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This Post Has 110 Comments

    1. Everyday Economics: Could inflation return with a vengeance?

      In his latest speech, the Federal Reserve chair sought to reassure investors that inflation is still moving in the right direction, while hinting at a slowdown in the pace of rate cuts. He emphasized a solid labor market that is no longer a significant source of concern – a notable shift from the tone following the central bank’s September rate cuts. The shift in Fed policy expectations has already caused borrowing costs to move higher.

      Although wages are now growing faster than prices, food prices and asking rents have surged nearly 85% and 33%, respectively, compared to pre-pandemic levels. In contrast, average hourly earnings have risen just 25% over the same period. This disparity underscores why inflation remains a deeply unpopular issue for Americans. Elevated inflation and borrowing costs squeeze household budgets, disproportionately impacting Main Street.

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/everyday-economics-could-inflation-return-with-a-vengeance/ar-AA1uibBF

      Reply

  2. ‘Lennar spent $53,400 in average sales incentives per home delivery in Texas in the third quarter this year, up roughly 8 percent from the same quarter last year, which comes out to about 17 percent of revenue spent on concessions per home, according to its latest earnings report. Builders are beating the resale market with the forward commitment strategy by sidestepping seller concession caps, which typically limit how much a seller can contribute toward a buyer’s closing costs at 3 to 6 percent, depending on the loan’

    So they are making subprime loans Matt?

    Reply

    1. “Lennar spent $53,400 in average sales incentives per home”

      It should be disclosed on appraisals. If one of these homes is used for comps it should be reduced by the amount of the incentives. Especially if the comp is used outside of the development.

      Reply

    2. Builders doing their very best to make sure that the sale prices aren’t going down. They really are going down but through the magic of accounting they’re able to hoodwink everyone.

      Reply

      1. You can’t really blame them. Because as soon as it becomes common knowledge it’s charge the sales office time. I remember in So Cal there would be folks with signs protesting their schlongings outside the sales offices. It always amazes me that when there’s a downturn that there is actually those who think the builder should give them a refund for being a dumb-@ss.

        Reply

    3. Lennar is doing price slashing and incentives in my hood. They’re easily combining for 100k+. But they’re still deceiving their previous buyers because the list price has about remained the same. But if you’re watching the recorded sales they’re all closing at least 50k under list with a boat load of incentives.

      Reply

        1. Speaking of Czarly, she tried the same thing when she ran Hewlett Packard, during the dot com bubble. She financed a lot of servers and hardware, only to have her customers, the dot-coms fail and default on their loans. There was a reason banks wouldn’t finance them.

          Reply

          1. xerox did the same. went from 150 t0 15. never thought he’d lose his job….probably the safest job ever , editor of the xerox newsletter

  3. ‘It just happened and some of us can’t get out of it and we’re stuck,’ he said. Mac expressed a desire for more support from the city, saying, ‘They don’t give us any resources’

    Mac has learned the lingo of the gravy train.

    ‘You’re not gonna see people shooting up or smoking fentanyl on the street here because people know. You are going to jail for that’

    Well that was simple.

    Reply

  4. ‘Ackman on Thursday listed two of his New York City apartments for sale at a multimillion-dollar loss, according to a report. The billionaire hedge fund manager is seeking to unload two swanky apartments on Manhattan’s Upper West Side for $19.9 million – years after he spent $22 million on the pair’

    A mighty a$$ pounding Bill.

    Reply

  5. Leftists Leave X For Bluesky Only To Overwhelm Site With Mass Censorship Demands.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/leftists-leave-x-bluesky-only-overwhelm-site-mass-censorship-demands

    It’s yet another reminder of the dark days of pre-Musk Twitter when social media was completely dominated by blue-check Karens and a vast army of San Francisco-based moderators. In the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory which was helped in large part by Elon Musk, high profile celebrities along with washed up has-beens are announcing their great exodus from X.

    Destination? Bluesky, a social media platform which is trying to recreate the progressive cancel culture hellscape of 2020 Twitter. It was created by former longtime Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who later left the organization. The company recently reported an increase of 3 million users since October, rising to 15 million total users in November. Compare this to X with its reported user base of over 600 million and it’s easy to see why the political left was so enraged by the sale of the company to Musk with his abhorrent free speech policies.

    It’s also hard to see how Bluesky represents anything other than a sweaty bubble of cope.

    It didn’t take very long for the new arrivals to saturate the platform with censorship demands, post flagging and general complaints about other users. Bluesky gave notice recently that in only 24 hours the site was inundated with over 42,000 reports and the censorship requests have expanded to over 3000 flags per hour.

    Bluesky was built on an “invite only” system up until February of this year. The rush of woke actors, journalists and activists to the platform after the election has certainly garnered a lot of media attention for the site. Progressive celebrities and pundits such as actress Jamie Lee Curtis, “journalist” Don Lemon, “journalist” Joy Reid, writer Stephen King and The Guardian’s official news account, have all decided to switch to Bluesky.

    Don Lemon accused X of no longer serving the purposes of “transparency and honest debate”, a hilarious notion when one considers the incredible level of censorship enacted under the old regime. What leftists are actually angry about is the fact that conservatives are suddenly free to contradict progressive claims without fear of account bans, the doxing of their homes and workplaces, and cancel culture in general.

    Leftists enjoyed a double standard at Twitter that worked aggressively in their favor. Even if their arguments were devoid of facts and evidence, the Terms of Service system Twitter put in place was specifically hostile to conservative ideals. Progressive members knew this and exploited it often to silence dissent. The only thing that might save an account was its size, with the biggest right-leaning users sometimes getting a pass.

    The exodus merely confirms what most people already knew – The left is afraid of fair discourse on an even playing field. They refuse open debate unless the game is rigged in their favor. So far the general response from the majority of X users is “Good riddance to bad rubbish!” It’s unlikely that this view will change.

    Reply

    1. ** “Leftists Leave X For Bluesky Only To Overwhelm Site With Mass Censorship Demands.”

      Leftists: “They could never be a member of any club that would have them.” ode to Groucho M.

      Reply

    2. I’d love to here some “then and now” stories from some of those moderators.

      Then $250K moderator.
      Now $30K Starbucks Barista.

      Reply

      1. Then $250K moderator.

        I’m sure it was fun while it lasted. You didn’t have to actually solve problems or sell stuff. All you had to do was censor those guilty of wrong think. Probably easier than making a latte.

        Reply

  7. Lawmakers Target Security Clearances of 51 Intel Officials for Claims That Sparked Hunter Biden Censorship

    A group of 51 former intelligence officials who previously cast doubt on the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop by labeling it as potential “Russian disinformation” and causing it to be censored across social media platforms, are now facing the possibility of having their security clearances revoked. This move is being considered by Republican lawmakers, aligning with a promise from Vice President-elect J.D. Vance to hold those who mislead the public accountable.

    Vance, addressing the issue, stated, “You cannot lie, take your position of public trust, and lie to the American people for political purposes. It’s disgraceful. And people have to suffer consequences for it.”

    The issue stems from a controversial period before the 2020 presidential election when the 51 signatories endorsed a narrative suggesting Russian involvement in the release of the laptop’s contents.

    Initially, when the New York Post broke the story in October 2020, Twitter took the extraordinary step of blocking links to the article, preventing users from sharing it on their feeds. Twitter justified its action by referencing its policy against distributing hacked material and Russian disinformation, though it later acknowledged that its communication about the decision could have been clearer. This action led to a public outcry, including from policymakers who accused the platform of partisan bias and suppressing information.

    Facebook also intervened. The platform chose to cut the story’s visibility.

    Despite the FBI and intelligence community possessing the contents of the laptop left at a Delaware computer repair shop by Hunter Biden, long before the story broke, which casts clear doubt on the Russian disinformation claim, none of the signatories have withdrawn their assertions.

    Several Republican legislators have openly supported the clearance revocation. Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) suggested a comprehensive review of all legacy clearances, saying to the Washington Times, “I think we should scrub all the legacy clearances to see whether the people need to have them and for what purpose, and unless they’re working for a company in a role that makes sense, they should be taken away. Most on that list [of 51], I would include in that scrubbing.”

    Echoing Issa’s sentiment, Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) was straightforward in his opinion to the same paper: “They should all lose their security clearances.”

    https://reclaimthenet.org/lawmakers-target-intel-officials-hunter-biden-censorship

    Reply

    1. “It didn’t take very long for the new arrivals to saturate the platform with censorship demands, post flagging and general complaints about other users”

      The NPC demographic.

      Reply

    1. This reminds me of older Japanese “salarymen” who had been dejobbed. They would dress up and pretend to go to work, which meant sitting on a park bench all day.

      Reply

      2. In this latest financial downturn, I’m avoiding any broken down Chevettes (if there are any still running?) on the freeway.

        and if some random guy in a white shirt / tie / duffel bag wants to cut across my fairway?

        by all means, yessir!!

        Reply

  9. “…Just 16 years after construction, residents at a Brickell condo are grappling with a contentious $21 million special assessment for repairs to their buildings….”

    Another Tuesday, another out-of-control holding costs story.

    But on the bright side, the views are probably great….

    Reply

    1. I haven’t heard of any repair stories like that here, other than roofs needing replacement, though insurance rates are rising here in the Centennial state.

      Reply

    2. You blow off or minimize repairs for 15 years to keep yearly fees down in a very humid and hot environment, that stuff adds up really fast. You can fix the problem early when it’s small or you can blow it off and it gets much more expensive later.

      he’s just mad cuz he didn’t get out and hose somebody else with the costs.

      Reply

    3. Another Tuesday, another out-of-control holding costs story.

      And it’s not just residential, include CRE in the out of control holding costs. And that’s before the broke cities start raising taxes on evil corporations and their assets. (Failed so far in Chicago but we will see how that plays out)

      ‘Close to half of the office buildings in Arlington are basically costing more to the owner than they are producing in income, and sometimes by a whole lot,’

      Reply

  10. These celebrities want to leave the U.S. with Trump as president

    Sharon Stone is just one of many A-listers looking abroad for a happier life. The “Basic Instinct” actress revealed earlier this year that she is dreaming of taking up residence in Italy.

    “I am certainly considering a house in Italy,” Stone told DailyMail.com in July. “I think that’s an intelligent construct at this time. This is one of the first times in my life that I’ve actually seen anyone running for office on a platform of hate and oppression.”

    Music icon Cher made clear the drastic steps she would take if Trump were to fight his way into the White House again before he had even claimed victory in the election.

    “I almost got an ulcer the last time,” she told the Guardian in 2023. “If he gets in, who knows? This time I will leave” the country.

    The singer is not the only star to have laid bare her plans to emigrate before the election even took place. Raven-Symoné said on “The View” in 2016 that she and her wife, Miranda Maday, would move if a Republican won again.

    Her choice of refuge? Canada.

    “My confession for this election is if any Republican gets nominated, I’m going to move to Canada with my entire family,” she said. “I already have my ticket. I literally bought my ticket, I swear.”

    America Ferrera is also reportedly set on pursuing a life away from the U.S., with sources claiming that she is looking to the U.K. as a new home base, along with her husband, Ryan Piers Williams, and their two children, son Sebastian, 6, and daughter Lucia, 4.

    “America is sick that Donald Trump is president again,” one insider claimed to DailyMail.com. “She is devastated that Kamala [Harris] lost. She thought the country she lived in was better than that.”

    In July, Minnie Driver told The Times of London that she was going back to the U.K. after nearly three decades in Los Angeles.

    The 54-year-old actress, who has lived in Los Angeles for more than two decades, said in July of this year that she “couldn’t” see herself living in a Republican-run state.

    “Living in California, you are somewhat insulated,” she said. “But do you want to go and live in a bubble? Do you run away from the fire or do you go back and help?”

    “The View” host Whoopi Goldberg has repeatedly said on the show that she often considers moving out of the U.S.

    “Maybe it’s time for me to move, you know,” she said. “I can afford to go.”

    Cardi B. hinted in a recent post that she wanted to leave the country: “And that’s word to the United States of mother f***king America.”

    https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/2024111821/i-already-have-my-ticket-these-celebrities-want-to-leave-the-us-with-trump-as-president

    Reply

    3. Very strange that these Stars want medical tyranny, mandated vaccines, unvetted invasion of Borders, censorship of free speech, escalation of World wars, transgender assult on minors, destruction of small business, inflation on steroids,escalation of crime, withdraw of oil and food production , and 9 month and beyond abortion, and no merits regarding hiring and the racism and gender divide and conquer nonsense.

      These Stars are going to leave unless outright insanity is implemented that would amount to destruction of US and other Countries.
      Very bizarre

      Reply

      1. Well, their gravy train is coming to an end. It’s now revealed that the DNC paid Oprah Winfrey’s firm 2.5 million dollars for a fluff interview with Cameltoe (and she still blew it). I’m sure she wasn’t the only one to get paid.

        So let them have their hissy fits. If they leave the country, even better, though they will try to continue influencing.

        Also, they might want to double check the tax code wherever they are going, they could be unpleasantly surprised.

        Reply

  11. Woman accused of trying to scam hurricane relief program in Bradenton

    The Bradenton Police Department arrested Veronica Torres, 44, on Friday, and she’s facing a charge of filing a false public assistance claim.

    “In this case, she was attempting to take advantage of hurricane recovery assistance,” Meredith Censullo, BPD’s public information officer, said. “The application that she had provided had stated that she had to relocate out of her home because of hurricane damage, and she needed funds to provide for that other temporary housing.”

    Police say the application for almost $8,000 was approved, but when Torres went to pick up the check, a city employee noticed red flags.

    “Something sort of raised the employee’s senses, like something’s just not right here,” Censullo said.

    According to police, the employee noticed that Torres appeared to be significantly younger than the date of birth on her application.

    “I believe the employee had asked a question that, ‘You don’t look like the person who is in this information,’” Censullo said. “And Ms. Torres said, ‘It’s just my Botox.’”

    Investigators say they determined that Torres had used her mother’s information on the application.

    https://www.fox13news.com/news/woman-accused-trying-scam-hurricane-relief-program

    Reply

  12. Florida doctor accused of removing patient’s wrong organ has a history of medical mistakes

    It’s been almost three months since Beverly Bryan lost her husband of 33 years, William “Bill” Bryan.

    “I’m a RN, been in the medical field, working full time since 1979, so if this could happen to me it could happen to anybody,” Beverly Bryan said.

    Days after the 70-year-old Navy veteran died on the operating table, she found out the doctor had removed her husband’s liver instead of his spleen.

    He was admitted to the hospital where she says Dr. Thomas Shaknovsky told them her husband needed surgery.

    “I told him that we didn’t want to have surgery in Florida that we wanted to go home,” Bryan said. “He said, well, you can’t make it home with him. He’ll bleed to death. He’s bleeding inside.”

    She searched for information online about the surgeon.

    “I googled him up and down and sideways, you know, trying to find out about him and the hospital, you know, and I didn’t find anything bad about him,” Bryan said. “As a matter of fact, his reviews were all wonderful, which I’ve been told since then, his reviews and websites had been scrubbed of bad reviews.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/florida-doctor-accused-of-removing-patients-wrong-organ-has-a-history-of-medical-mistakes/ar-AA1ukbHc

    Reply

    1. I can say, from experience, if you need surgery in Florida go to Shands or Mayo. Do not get it done in a small city. Better yet, buy a plane ticket.

      Reply

  13. NC Office of Recovery, Resiliency under scrutiny. What does it mean for Helene relief?

    The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resilience (NCORR), a state organization tasked with overseeing long-term disaster recovery specifically for Hurricane Florence and Matthew, is in financial limbo with a budget hole and reluctance from legislators to fill the gap. The distrust in the agency has prompted questions about what relief for victims of Hurricane Helene will look like in the months and years to come.

    Director of the program Laura Hogshead and Pryor Gibson, Deputy Legislative Counsel, testified at a Subcommittee on Hurricane Response and Recovery hearing Monday which came just a day before legislators are scheduled to convene again and could take up more Helene relief funding.

    Hogshead oversees the spending of the department, which includes almost a billion dollars in funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

    After running through a long list of complaints, budget shortfalls and issues that have come up in the past with the agency, House Deputy Majority Leader, Rep. Brenden Jones, R-Columbus, said he has “zero” trust in the agency, effectively barring his support for filling in their budget gap.

    “If you worked for me, I would have fired you” Jones said, calling Hogshead’s agency a “teenager with mom’s credit card.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/nc-office-of-recovery-resiliency-under-scrutiny-what-does-it-mean-for-helene-relief/ar-AA1ulKWS

    Reply

  14. Microsoft Copilot’s underperformance is the latest red flag for investments in AI

    Microsoft’s massive bet on AI with Copilot has yet to live up to the hype, potentially raising alarms for everyone else investing in the space. But first, is this thing even worth it?

    CEO Satya Nadella didn’t hold back initially, describing Copilot as something that would “fundamentally transform our relationship with technology” when it was unveiled.

    But internally and among clients, that doesn’t always feel like the case. One Microsoft executive told Ashley that Copilot offers useful results about 10% of the time.

    “The rest of the time it’s: Why do we even try?” they said.

    It’s an unsettling realization considering the stakes of AI. Many companies — and arguably the entire US stock market — are banking on generative AI being revolutionary. And while Microsoft’s bet on AI dwarfs almost everyone else’s, its hangup with the tech is something a company of any size can relate to: Is this stuff worth it?

    It’s also not the only challenge the generative AI space is navigating.

    Reports about OpenAI’s newest AI model struggling to show big improvements raised questions about the tech hitting a performance wall. CEO Sam Altman appeared to address it with a cryptic tweet: “there is no wall.”

    But tech players won’t have forever to figure things out. Earlier this year, analysts at Barclays highlighted an under-the-radar risk to AI bets: the depreciation costs related to AI chips. As firms look to stock up on GPUs, they run the risk of the tech no longer being relevant as new iterations emerge.

    And then there’s the possibility of internal drama. Ashley previously reported on the pay disparity at Microsoft between AI-focused employees and everyone else.

    “AI is great and it might be the future, but when are you going to focus on your billpayers?” one employee told Ashley.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/microsoft-copilot-s-underperformance-is-the-latest-red-flag-for-investments-in-ai/ar-AA1uit7b

    Reply

  15. ‘We need to be very well prepared’: Canada West Foundation talks second Trump term

    Gary Mar, Canada West Foundation President and CEO, speaks to Alberta Primetime about expectations for Canada-U.S. relations as Donald Trump returns to the White House.

    MH: A lot of this centres around energy policy so where do you see Canadian Environmental Policy factoring into the equation? There’s certainly a significant political and business community pressure building right here in the province against Ottawa’s draft emissions cap.

    GM: The draft emissions cap I think will likely go to court and it will likely be found to be unconstitutional. Having said that, some of the damage has already been caused. People don’t like the uncertainty of trying to figure out whether or not the emissions cap is going to be put in place, or whether it’s going to be challenged successfully, and so they would rather not have to deal with that uncertainty. It’s already driving investment dollars out of the Canadian oil patch and into the United States or other places in the world.

    I think of the of the ten largest producers of oil in the world, there’s only one that’s thinking about an emissions cap, and that’s Canada.

    https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/we-need-to-be-very-well-prepared-canada-west-foundation-talks-second-trump-term-1.7114078

    Reply

  16. Survey reveals 50 per cent of Australians believe high immigration is making them poorer

    Close to 50 percent of Australians believe immigration is too high and making them poorer, suggesting similar societal anxieties about the cost-of-living that fed into Donald Trump’s US election victory.

    A new annual survey released on Tuesday by the Scanlon Foundation shows social cohesion and happiness have fallen to their lowest levels on record as Australian families struggle to pay the bills or remain locked out of the housing market.

    The results show that 49 percent of more than 8,000 survey participants think immigration is too high, up sharply from 33 percent in 2023, and higher than 41 percent before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019.

    The spike in concern over immigration coincides with widespread financial stress, where 41 percent of Australians describe themselves as either ‘poor or struggling to pay bills’ or ‘just getting along’, with the worst affected groups renters or young adults aged 24-34.

    However, report author Dr James O’Donnell, from the Australian National University, told The Nightly hardening attitudes were driven by economic pressures rather than opposition to multiculturalism and diversity.

    “The first thing we ask in our surveys is what people think is the most important problem in Australia, and those people that were saying immigration is too high weren’t saying immigration was the number one problem,” he said.

    “Two thirds of them were saying it’s the economy and housing that’s the biggest problem. So, people relate the level of migration to how things are doing in the economy.”

    https://thenightly.com.au/politics/australia/survey-reveals-50-per-cent-of-australians-believe-high-immigration-is-making-them-poorer-c-16802751

    Reply

    1. Imagine living in a high tax society, and now the government starts importing hordes of unskilled, unemployable third worlders who will be on the dole forever, and you are expected to pay for it. Maybe they can double the VAT from 10 to 20%?

      Reply

  17. Incoming FCC chair Brendan Carr vows to ‘dismantle’ Big Tech’s ‘censorship cartel’

    Brendan Carr, the incoming Federal Communications Commission Chairman, has demanded answers from Big Tech firms about their involvement in what he described as an “censorship cartel” to suppress speech with which they disagreed.

    Carr – who President-elect Trump dubbed a “warrior for free speech” on Sunday as he announced him as his pick to lead the agency – sent letters to Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Apple’s Tim Cook.

    The letters were dated Nov. 13, days before Trump revealed his promotion from the FCC’s senior Republican commissioner to permanent chairman.

    The Republican specifically sought information about the firms’ dealings with NewsGuard – a for-profit “fact-checking” firm that has run afoul of Congressional Republicans for allegedly targeting conservative outlets by labeling them as more “risky” than liberal outlets.

    “Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel,” Carr wrote in an X post last Friday alongside the letter. “The Orwellian named NewsGuard along with ‘fact checking’ groups & ad agencies helped enforce one-sided narratives.”

    NewsGuard’s advisory board includes at least one member who “signed the now infamous October 2020 letter from former intelligence community officials that flamed the false claim that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation — a letter that itself fueled a wave of censorship,” Carr added.

    Carr alleged that the Big Tech firms were complicit in an effort, alongside the so-called media monitors, to “defund, demonetize, and otherwise put out of business news outlets and organizations that dared to deviate from an approved narrative.”

    “This censorship cartel is an affront to Americans’ constitutional freedoms and must be completely dismantled,” Carr added in the letter. Americans must be able to reclaim their right to free speech.”

    In August, Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that “senior Biden administration officials, including the White House, repeatedly pressured” Meta to “censor” content related to the coronavirus pandemic in 2021.

    Zuckerberg added that he now felt it was mistake that Facebook suppressed The Post’s exclusive reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020.

    https://nypost.com/2024/11/18/business/incoming-fcc-chair-brendan-carr-vows-to-dismantle-big-techs-censorship-cartel/

    Reply

    1. “NewsGuard”

      Tim Pool, who is a bald manlet, regularly boasts of using this to “fact check” sources on his podcasts.

      Reply

  18. Make welfare great again? Donald Trump appointees pledge to slash the government | Opinion

    Donald Trump has appointed former presidential rival Vivek Ramaswamy and billionaire X-owner Elon Musk to lead an effort to slash government called the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE for short. Such things have been tried before and come to little, but Trump’s minions might be more willing to break some china than those who have tried in the past.

    “We expect mass reductions,” Ramaswamy said to Fox News. “We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. We expect mass reductions-in-force in areas of the federal government that are bloated.”

    A great place to start that effort would be by abolishing Washington’s dozens of separate welfare programs and replacing them with one based on the Earned Income Tax Credit.

    Right now, there are multiple programs for providing basic income, healthcare and housing as well as paying for food, utilities, child care, college tuition and birth control. I don’t think anyone has a comprehensive list, in part because they keep getting added. Among the most recent are programs for buying electric cars, installing solar power and getting cell phone and high-speed internet service. Some go on the budget and some get hidden in the tax code.

    Together, the tangled alphabet soup of programs (TANF, SSI, WIC, SNAP, CHIP, ACA, Title X, LIHEAP, Medicaid, Section 8 and on and on) cost more than $1.25 trillion dollars a year and have four things in common. They punish hard work, they strip freedom and dignity from the recipients, they layer rules onto the American economy, and like barnacles on a ship, they sustain a class of bureaucratic hangers-on who forge middle-class lives from the misery of others.

    With a job, even the crappiest of jobs, the poorest of Americans would get a hand up that they earned, have the dignity to make their own decisions about health care, housing and food, be free of the stigma that comes with vouchers and benefit cards and handouts. Moreover we could cut tens of thousands of government workers who contribute nothing to the economy other than paperwork without touching Social Security or Medicare benefits.

    Of course, there are people who will still fall through the cracks, but all the state spending on welfare programs and federal support of non-profits will remain to help those who can’t help themselves. Indeed, according to the federal budget numbers I looked at for the last few years there’d be more than $100 billion a year left over to put towards helping those people or even to cutting the deficit.

    That sounds like a plan Vivek and Elon could get behind.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/make-welfare-great-again-donald-trump-appointees-pledge-to-slash-the-government-opinion/ar-AA1ukKpI

    Reply

  19. DNC Fires Loyal Staffers with One Day’s Notice, No Severance – Staff Union Erupts in Outrage!

    The Democratic National Committee (DNC), the party that claims to champion workers’ rights, has left its own staff out in the cold. Permanent staffers were given a single day’s notice before being unceremoniously terminated—without severance.

    The DNC Staff Union took to X to air their grievances, stating, “One day’s notice, no severance—the DNC fights for workers, just not their own.”

    The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife. This is the same party that campaigns on workers’ rights, union support, and economic justice. Yet when it comes to their own, the rules apparently do not apply.

    According to the union’s statement, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill post-election staff reduction. These were permanent staffers who had assurances that their roles were secure post-election. But as of Wednesday, these commitments seem to be worth about as much as a campaign promise.

    One union member wrote, “As a union member and a DNC member, I’m pretty appalled by the treatment of staff. Layoffs with a day’s notice and no severance? This isn’t how we uphold our values. Respect for labor must begin at home. We owe staff so much better.”

    The North Carolina Democratic Party Staff Union also wrote, “No severance. No communication. No respect for workers and certainly not for “Democratic values”. The DNC has blindsided employees and violated the standards we set for ourselves as Democrats. There is still time to do the right thing.”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/you-cant-make-this-up-dnc-fires-loyal/

    Reply

    1. No respect for workers and certainly not for “Democratic values”.

      The memo probably got lost on the email server, but the Dems threw workers under the bus a long time ago. Their “values” are now aligned with perverts, deviants and law breakers.

      Reply

    2. The DNC Staff Union took to X to air their grievances, stating, “One day’s notice, no severance—the DNC fights for workers, just not their own.”

      Must.not.laugh.

      Reply

  20. Robert Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump’s newly appointed health secretary, accused Joe Biden’s administration of wanting to start World War III after the decision to give Ukraine the green light to use long-range missiles ATACMS rockets.

    “The anonymous men in lanyards who are currently running US foreign policy apparently want to start World War III before they leave the White House,” he posted.

    https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/robert-kennedy-jr-accuses-current-us-administration-of-wanting-to-start-wwiii/news-story/67e6855c40780e6a9c06541264987120

    Reply

    1. All wars are bankers’ wars.

      All of them. Christians fight and die, and pay taxes for all of it, while the coin clippers fondle their money.

      Ever #Notice the demographics of the Unelected Occupant’s cabinet and other White House officials?

      Did you #Notice?

      Reply

  21. ‘F*** you’: Brazil’s First Lady insults Elon Musk at G20 Social event

    Brazil’s First Lady has sworn at Elon Musk while speaking about social media regulation and misinformation at an event in Rio de Janeiro.

    The G20 Social Summit takes place between November 14 and 16 ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

    A loud noise interrupted Janja Lula da Silva, wife of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, while speaking to an audience on the weekend. (Watch in the video player above).

    “I think it’s Elon Musk,” she joked, laughing and bending down. Standing up and pointing to the sky, she said, “I’m not afraid of you,” before adding, “F*** you, Elon Musk”.

    Mr Musk responded to a video of Janja’s remarks with two laughing emojis and the words, “They will lose the next election”. He reposted another clip of the video, simply writing “lol”.

    https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/f-you-brazils-first-lady-insults-elon-musk-at-g20-social-event/news-story/7c582f8ce878115b9b567892413d310e

    Reply

  22. Opinion: The Double Standard Behind Democrats’ Special Session to ‘Trump Proof’ California

    You may have heard that Gov. Gavin Newsom is convening a special session to “‘Trump-Proof’ states liberal policies.” That’s an interesting thought. In fact, let’s take it a step further. What if our local municipalities adopted a similar approach to safeguard their common-sense policies from overreach by Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta?

    As the Governor and Attorney General prepare for a legal fight with the federal government, they appear intent on using taxpayer dollars with little regard for the cost. California’s budget has ballooned to nearly $300 billion, including a robust discretionary fund for the Attorney General’s office.

    Meanwhile, local communities like those in my 32nd Senate District are being inundated with mandates to construct high-density housing, often far exceeding what cities have planned for in their general plans. These mandates not only strip away local control but also bypass the California Environmental Quality Act, raising questions about whether environmental policies are applied consistently or only when politically convenient.

    You would expect that to implement these policies there would be a comprehensive plan to fund the necessary infrastructure to support the large-scale construction of high-density residential projects right? Wrong.

    Already grappling with traffic congestion and strained infrastructure, these areas are now being forced to absorb more growth without proper planning, resources, or support. No plan is in place for these communities to prepare for an influx of residents, who will not only need roads and freeways, but access to water, sewer, electricity, gas, schools, healthcare … you get the point.

    Furthermore, there is no strategy in place to create a more favorable environment for attracting businesses and creating job opportunities in these affected regions. To the contrary, the supermajority’s policies prioritize curbing the construction of roads and highways in favor of bike lanes and high-speed rail projects.

    For those envisioning life in a 700-square-foot apartment, paying $2,500 per month, and commuting 60 miles on overburdened freeways, this approach is probably to your liking. For the rest of us, it simply doesn’t work.

    Affordability is a critical concern. From housing to basic necessities, the cost of living has become increasingly unattainable for many families. High taxes, including some of the highest income, gas, and sales taxes in the nation, make it challenging for people to get by.

    Many families are being forced to make difficult choices, like cutting back on essentials or relocating to other states, just to make ends meet. Without meaningful action to address these high costs, California risks losing even more of its taxpayers.

    Public safety is also top of mind. This shift was underscored by the overwhelming passage of Proposition 36, signaling widespread dissatisfaction with the state’s experiment in progressive criminal justice reform — a key initiative supported by Governor Newsom and the legislative supermajority.

    The declining public support for lenient, “soft-on-crime” policies is clear to anyone paying attention. Yet, despite this strong message from voters, state leaders appear largely indifferent to these concerns.

    Bonta argues that “California rejected him (Trump). We rejected his values. We rejected his agenda.” But this sentiment cuts both ways. Many counties and cities across California have similarly rejected the values and agenda of Newsom and Bonta. By their own logic, shouldn’t local governments have the same right to push back against state mandates that undermine their communities?

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/opinion-the-double-standard-behind-democrats-special-session-to-trump-proof-california/ar-AA1ujUmA

    Reply

  23. If Democrats want to win back the American people, does California need to stand down?

    After voters across the nation chose President-elect Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom cautioned against buying into the first wave of hot takes and “punditry” about what went wrong for Democrats.

    “I think this will reveal itself, and I think we have a responsibility to interrogate ourselves. I’m not naive about that, and that includes all of us, individually,” Newsom said in a video address. “We have to look into the mirror and really reflect on what happened more broadly.”

    Some Democrats say California politics are part of the the problem.

    The party’s loss to a candidate they often liken to a fascist dictator “says something is broken with the vanguard of Democratic policies and Democratic messaging that starts in places like California,” said Mike Gatto, a former Democratic state Assembly member.

    “We don’t want to ever get into a position where we’re not sticking up for the least among us. But at the same time, we also have to focus on things that the majority of voters care about and those things are affordability and the perception that some of the more extremes of the left wing of the Democratic party have gone too far. ”

    The GOP successfully used Harris, a Californian, to epitomize a West Coast liberalism that can often seem more focused on identity politics than on the bread-and-butter issues that mattered most to American voters: Their ability to pay rent and buy groceries.

    As a bastion of liberal ideas, the Golden State and Newsom himself also play an outsized role in the “culture war” debate over ideology in America, driven in part today by the governor’s relentless campaign against Trumpism.

    Newsom villainized GOP leaders, alleging they want to reverse the nation’s progress, as he campaigned for President Biden, Harris, and other Democrats around the country. California, he likes to say, is where the future happens first.

    The governor touted the state’s “first in the nation” study on providing reparations for the descendants of African Americans who were enslaved in the United States, an issue that polled so poorly in California and on the national level that the governor and legislative Democrats distanced themselves from the call to deliver remedies in an election year. Democrats boast about the state’s aggressive fight against climate change that includes a ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars starting in 2035, but haven’t solved the state’s highest-in-the-nation gas prices.

    A law Newsom signed this year to ban school districts from requiring that teachers inform parents when a student wants to be identified as a different gender inflamed conservatives and led Elon Musk to pledge to move SpaceX to Texas.

    The Democratic platform in 2024 became synonymous with abortion access, climate change and LGBTQ+ rights, top issues in the modern Golden State zeitgeist. But that played out in an America concerned about jobs, affordable housing and inflation.

    Republicans made the image of homeless encampments in San Francisco and Los Angeles and stories about people leaving the state for Texas because of crime and housing costs part of their standard talking points, said David Kochel, a veteran Iowa GOP strategist who worked for the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush.

    Kochel pointed to an ad Trump ran calling out Harris’ support in the 2019 Democratic primary for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgery for inmates. The ad featured Harris talking about her past efforts to provide access to care for transitioning inmates in California prisons.

    The ad, frequently aired during college and NFL games, alleged that Harris supports transgender women competing “against our girls in their sports.” Trump said he would ban transgender women from women’s athletics.

    “Kamala is for they/them,” the ad said. “President Trump is for you.”

    Kochel warned that the “virtue signaling” from Democrats could have real-world implications for vulnerable communities and lead to a revolt against California-style “hyperprogressive activism.”

    “What frustrates me as a Republican who supports LGBTQ rights and who supports marriage equality, things like that….the backlash is going to catch a lot of people in it that don’t deserve to be targeted,” he said. “So I’m concerned about the state of marriage equality. It feels like it’s because a lot of this stuff [has gone] too far.”

    Jennifer Horn, a former chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party and now a registered independent who opposes Trump, said there’s no question that the GOP has been very effective at “demonizing California as a dangerously liberal state” to scare other parts of America, whether it’s true or not.

    “They have painted California to be so liberal that if we let the rest of the country become like California, the whole operation will collapse,” Horn said.

    That’s what happened in Iowa, where GOP politicians essentially ran against California issues, said Jeff Link, an Iowa Democratic strategist who worked for former President Obama’s 2008 campaign and former Vice President Al Gore’s presidential run in 2000.

    “I mean that’s all the Iowa legislative Republicans essentially advertised on,” he said, noting the frequency of ads around transgender youth in sports, use of public bathrooms, defunding the police or raising taxes.

    But the Democratic Party didn’t just miss the mark with voters in swing states and Republican strongholds. It was too liberal even for many California voters.

    The California Democratic Party and Newsom opposed Proposition 36, a statewide ballot measure to increase penalties for repeat theft and drug crimes. Harris declined to take a position. The measure prevailed with 69% voter approval. Voters also disagreed with the state party’s endorsements on four other measures, including a failed initiative that sought to ban involuntary servitude in prisons.

    “That was a huge disconnect by the Democratic party and certainly Gavin Newsom and everyone else running around amplifying [liberal social] positions, which doesn’t do us any good,” said John Shallman, a veteran Democratic consultant based in Los Angeles. “We just again have to be focused on bread-and-butter, kitchen-table, middle-class issues, and get away from identity politics, get away from the notion of fighting these culture wars.”

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/news-analysis-democrats-want-win-110002108.html

    This is a different tone from the LA Times editorial board!

    Reply

    1. “We just again have to be focused on bread-and-butter, kitchen-table, middle-class issues

      They will promise to be centrist, and once re-elected will go full woke again.

      Reply

      1. Or it could be the public death of one of the most brief and bizarre episodes in political history. It’s not just wokism. The global warming hoax, electric cars and political correctness in general are in retreat.

        Reply

        1. Here’s hoping that voters around the globe reject the madness. Given how Labour was just elected to rule the UK there is work to be done. That said, the pendulum is swinging in the right direction.

          Reply

        2. The global warming hoax, electric cars and political correctness in general are in retreat.
          I hope you are right, but I still hear people using the CNN lines about all of the above. And yes they watch CNN.
          But, most of them are all old, and some are not well, so maybe they won’t last 4 more years.

          Reply

  24. War pigs gonna pig:

    “Ukraine has fired US-provided Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) into Russia’s Bryansk Oblast, marking a major escalation of the conflict that Russia has made clear risks nuclear war.

    The escalation came as Russian President Vladimir Putin formalized changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine that lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, a step he took in direct response to President Biden authorizing Ukraine to use ATACMS, which have a range of about 190 miles, in strikes deep inside Russia.

    “The fact that multiple ATACMS were used last night against the Bryansk Region signals that they want escalation. You see, it is impossible to use these high-tech missiles without the Americans, and Putin has repeatedly said this,” Lavrov said.

    Lavrov also said that he hopes Ukraine’s Western backers read Russia’s new nuclear doctrine, which considers an attack by a non-nuclear armed state that’s supported by a nuclear-armed power as a joint attack. The doctrine allows the use of nuclear weapons in response to a conventional attack against Russia or Belarus if it is deemed a critical threat to Russia’s sovereignty.”

    https://news.antiwar.com/2024/11/19/ukraine-fires-us-provided-atacms-into-russia-in-major-escalation/

    I hope the Russians capture Zelensky and his skank wife alive.

    Reply

    1. I hope the Russians capture Zelensky and his skank wife alive.

      I recall that the FJB admin has an evacuation plan for them. I wouldn’t count on DJT saving their necks.

      Reply

      1. It would be more fitting to let them leave Kiev on foot, dragging a cart full of gold into the countryside.

        IIRC, this didn’t work out so well for a certain Italian dictator.

        Reply

        1. It is probable that Zelensky has already moved assets to safe havens and that he will resign, once safely outside of Ukeland, and hand over the reins to a junta that will negotiate a surrender to Russia. And that this will happen before FJB leaves office.

          That said, power hunger can make tyrants stay put even when the writing is on the wall. Just ask the Ceausescu’s. I’m sure they could have fled Romania quietly one night before their house of cards came crashing down.

          Reply

  25. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has agreed to postpone sentencing for President-elect Donald Trump in his business records case.

    A Nov. 19 letter to New York Justice Juan Merchan showed Bragg stating that his office believed “further proceedings before this Court should be adjourned to permit litigation” surrounding Trump’s motion to dismiss.

    Sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 26. Trump had asked the court to throw out the verdict and indictment based on presidential immunity with an expected decision earlier this month. Merchan, however, postponed a decision on that motion after Trump’s election.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/manhattan-district-attorney-agrees-to-postpone-sentencing-for-trump-5762313

    Reply

  26. [From the comments section: “DEI now stands for Destroy Everything Immediately.”]

    Pentagon Gets Rid Of DEI Evidence Before Trump Takes Office.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/military/pentagon-gets-rid-dei-evidence-trump-takes-office

    It was recently reported that corrupt Pentagon officials are “scrambling” to wipe all evidence of DEI before President-elect Donald Trump steps back into the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025.

    Breitbart News wrote in its exclusive article that its sources stated that the Pentagon is in “absolute disarray” with “generals scrambling” because Trump plans to fire far-left senior military leaders who pushed DEI and other woke policies instead of taking care of combat readiness.

    One source compared the organization’s situation to a hornet’s nest being kicked over, adding that “DEI pages are starting to disappear off the main websites.”

    “They’re being archived as we speak. They are full-bore focused on cleaning up anything DEI-related,” the source stated.

    Another anonymous person said that many Pentagon employees are afraid they will be fired, stating that “they are in panic mode.”

    The recent news came after Trump gathered the names of senior officers who had pushed DEI. One Breitbart source familiar with the plan said that Trump’s team drafted an executive order to create a panel to recommend those senior officers for elimination and that the executive order is “definitely” going to Trump’s desk.

    “This is for real. This [order] has made the cut,” the source said, noting that the executive order could be revised and consulted with incoming leaders at the Pentagon.

    According to the sources, the order plans to “reorient the U.S. military away from the woke ideology and priorities that have been foisted upon it” since the Obama administration.

    “Looks as if the Department of Defense has ordered an industrial shredder. WARNING: Shredding documents is a felony. We will not accept claims of ‘I was just doing my job.’ The hammer of Justice is coming,” the Department of Government Efficiency parody account stated.

    Headline USA previously reported on Trump planning to fire far-left generals en masse.

    The recent news came after Trump picked Army veteran Pete Hegseth as the head of the Department of Defense, which resulted in the Left seething over the pick.

    “The Pentagon is legitimately scared of [Hegseth] because of his opposition to DEI — keep in mind, the Defense Department is spending around $86 BILLION on various DEI initiatives,” Kaylee McGhee White said. “Hegseth wants to root that out.”

    Reply

    1. Another anonymous person said that many Pentagon employees are afraid they will be fired, stating that “they are in panic mode.”

      Gosh, maybe they should have focused on military readiness, instead of celebrating officers wearing dog masks. Now they’re gonna lose those sweet six figure gigs and their pensions.

      Reply

  27. Do you worry the tech jobs drought may broaden into a full-blown recession, and swamp what little fundamental demand for housing remains?

    Reply

  28. [To experience in full the joy offered up by this post you have to hit the link and watch the short film clips.]

    “Go F*** Yourselves”: Megyn Kelly Eviscerates “Faux Journalists” Joe & Mika Over Trump Meeting

    https://modernity.news/2024/11/19/go-f-yourselves-megyn-kelly-eviscerates-faux-journalists-joe-mika-over-trump-meeting/

    MSNBC’s Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have suddenly decided they want to be all diplomatic with president-elect Donald Trump, after openly calling him a nazi days before the election, and it has not gone down well for them at all.

    The pair announced that they travelled to Mar-a-Lago to meet personally with Trump, with Scarborough saying “It was the first time we have seen him in seven years,” adding “We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets. We talked about that a good bit.”

    They took a look at their tanking ratings and decided to go meet up with ‘literally Hitler’ and see if they can “restart communication.”

    Suffice to say, this hasn’t played well with anyone, from Trump supporters, all the way over to shit-libs and everyone in between.

    Mika & Joe’s own viewers are viscerally disgusted with them. Which is funny.

    And their own MSNBC colleagues are disgusted with them. Which is also funny.

    Absolutely mental leftists are disgusted with Mika & Joe for shrinking the screeching echo chamber even smaller. Which is also funny.

    Even the cackling witches on The View, perhaps the most clownish ‘journalists’ out there, were laughing at Mika & Joe, with Sunny Hostin declaring they went to see Trump to “kiss his ring” commenting “they’re not journalists in the true sense.”

    American Enterprise Institute’s Matthew Continetti pointed out that Joe & Mika are acting as if they went on a pilgrimage to conduct “international diplomacy.”

    Nikki Haley said of Mika & Joe that “the truth is, it’s not that they suddenly saw the light. It’s that they saw the ratings.”

    “I mean, let’s be clear. They saw the ratings tank and they realized, oh, we better get on with Donald Trump or else we’re not going to have a show,” Haley asserted.

    By far the most epic and brutal reaction, however, came from Megyn Kelly, who urged “I searched for a way to respond appropriately and I called on my 10 years as a litigator, in addition to my now 20 as a journalist, and I think I found the perfect phrase… Go fuck yourselves.”

    “Go fuck yourselves, you dishonest jokes of faux journalists,” Kelly steamed, adding “What an absurd farce.”

    Discussing the issue with journalist Glenn Greenwald, Kelly noted “How long have they been telling us that he’s (Trump’s) an existential threat, that he’s a Hitleresque figure, that he’s a fascist, that women will die – will die! – if he gets elected?” she seethed. “Well, they’ve done a 180. They’ve done a 180 as their ratings circle the bowl. This is so juicy.”

    Greenwald declared that “Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are the most humiliating and pathetic people in all of corporate media, and I realise there’s a lot of serious contenders for that crown… Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski don’t believe in anything other than their own career, in their own ratings.”

    “I never thought I’d utter these words, but I agree with Keith Olbermann. Keith Olbermann’s reaction is my reaction,” Kelly quipped.

    It’s worth watching the entire segment:

    There’s no doubt, we just discovered who the absolute worst people in media are.

    Reports suggest that Comcast is putting MSNBC up for sale, and you can bet that these two know their days are numbered. They’ve put together a desperate exit strategy, but lets face it they’re absolutely fucked.

    And it’s glorious.

    Reply

    1. Hopefully, they saved their pennies while the getting was good.

      Nah, who a I kidding? I’ll bet they’re up to their eyeballs in debt.

      Reply

  30. In October, the number of homes on the market had risen in all six counties over the prior year, ranging from a 25% gain in San Bernardino County to 49% in San Diego County.

    Is that a lot?

    Reply

  35. The New York Times wants Europeans replaced:

    “Europe has been struggling for years to limit the number of unauthorized migrants entering by land and sea, instituting increasingly tough policies. Those moves now appear to be working, with the numbers of migrants crossing into European Union countries decreasing dramatically from highs last year.

    But despite the decline in migrant arrivals, anti-immigrant sentiment is flourishing, with leaders adopting or considering harsher policies that mainstream political parties would have balked at just a few years ago.

    The crackdowns have been driven in part by xenophobic, anti-immigrant parties that have played on fears of uncontrolled migration and a dilution of national identity.”

    Dilution of national identity? Jonathan Greenblatt hand rubbing intensifies. Consider yourself #Noticed and #Named.

    “Their arguments are gaining a more receptive audience with Europeans who worry that the influx of migrants is unmanageable and are frustrated that roughly 80 percent of failed asylum seekers never leave, according to E.U. data.

    What is driving the anti-immigrant backlash?

    One reason is the sheer numbers of migrants over the last decade and the failure of many governments to integrate them effectively. Some of the blame is also placed on extremist parties exaggerating the problem and the dangers. As they have attracted voters, they have also pushed more centrist parties to take a harder line.”

    https://archive.ph/ImaJh

    Ever #Notice how Israel isn’t forced to accept any “refugees” “asylum seekers” “newcomers” or whatever the Associated Press Style Guide is calling them now?

    Only White, Christian countries are.

    Why is that, Southern Poverty Law Center? Why is that, Anti Defamation League?

    Reply

  37. As reported by globalist scum media.

    New York Times — Ukraine Fired U.S.-Made Missiles Into Russia for First Time, Officials Say (11/19/2024):

    https://archive.ph/zYCfG

    Washington Post — Ukraine uses U.S.-made ATACMS missiles inside Russia for the first time (11/19/2024):

    https://archive.ph/Ins1f

    Alex Soros tweeted on X in support of this.

    What exactly did your father “finance” ? Did he build some buildings? Did he co-fund an infrastructure project? Is there a visible, tangible object in existence that was “financed” by your father?

    Asking because the globalist scum media always refer to him as a “financier” as his alleged occupation.

    6,000 years of history doesn’t lie, Alex.

    Reply

  39. ‘We question the speed of how they’re moving to do things’…who now contemplates selling his unit due to the financial strain. ‘If it’s so dangerous, then kick us all out of the building, and we should all not be here’

    You’ve probably been saying something like that since you arrived Marthin, that’s why yer airbox is falling apart.

    Reply

  40. ‘Arlington faces significant challenges in its commercial office market, with more than 10.7 million-square-feet of vacant space and an oversupply of outdated office inventory. ‘Close to half of the office buildings in Arlington are basically costing more to the owner than they are producing in income, and sometimes by a whole lot’

    That may be Libby, but let’s be clear: the lending is sound.

    Reply

  41. ‘Haq spent $100,000 on a down payment for a pre-construction home that was supposed to be built by a Sunrise corporation called Sunrise Acquisitions (Stayner) Inc. near Wasaga Beach, Ont. Instead of moving in this summer, as he expected, the project went into receivership in February and Haq is now hoping to recover some of his funds through Tarion. ‘When I found out about the information on the builder and the defaults and the receiverships at the other sites, it definitely sort of felt like the carpet was pulled under my feet,’ Haq said. ‘We feel wronged … To have a corporation out there that has a licence to build, even after committing all that they have committed’

    And they lied Faran, right to yer face!

    ‘Aaron, a Toronto-based real estate lawyer and former member of Tarion’s board of directors, says he’d like to see the HCRA sanction the individuals behind the company. ‘I don’t see any action being taken against the individuals to prohibit them from setting up under a new name,’ he said. ‘This is too little too late’

    You know well Bob that’s the K-dn way. No real penalties, go right back to what you were doing.

    Reply

  42. ‘Buyer Mohd Hafiz Salleh, 38, said a private developer had created the project in 2016, promising prices ranging from RM73,000 to RM148,000 per unit. ‘We’ve been waiting for eight years for our dream home and we still haven’t gotten it. We don’t know what the real issue is that has caused this project to remain incomplete,’ Mohd Hafiz said. He added that the buyers are now left to pay their house loans to banks and the Public Sector Home Financing Board of between RM400 and RM800 each month for essentially nothing’

    At this point Mohd, I’d be tempted to not send in that check next month.

    Reply

  43. Will Toronto Real Estate Be Hit The Hardest? (Toronto Real Estate Market Update)

    Team Sessa Real Estate

    19 minutes ago

    In this episode we look at the current Toronto Real Estate Market specifically the detached home prices and market trends for the week ending Nov 13, 2024. We also discuss how some people believe that if prices are dropping, they will be dropping the most in Toronto.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_1VZYs7FFw

    14:20.

    Reply

  46. What’s Ahead for the GSEs Under the New Administration?
    By Gail Kalinoski
    November 18, 2024
    There’s buzz about privatizing Fannie and Freddie. Here’s how that could happen.
    The Fannie Mae building sign. Image courtesy of Fannie Mae

    Even before Donald Trump was elected to a second term, multifamily and finance industry insiders had spent months discussing whether another Trump administration would finally take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of conservatorship.

    Two things most agree when talking about privatizing the GSEs is that exiting conservatorship would be a complex undertaking and that it would likely take several years to complete. There is less agreement on the best route to that exit.
    …
    https://www.multihousingnews.com/whats-ahead-for-the-gses-under-the-new-administration/

    Reply

    1. Investing
      Buffett’s Behavior Signals Something Bad Is Coming for the S&P 500
      24/7 Wall St
      Austin Smith
      Published: November 19, 2024 10:40 am

      Key Points:

      – Mostly in short-term treasuries rather than fresh stocks, Warren Buffett is carrying a large sum of cash—roughly $325 billion.

      – Given the S&P 500 trading at a high 28 times earnings while the historical norm is closer to 18-19 times earnings, Buffett’s cautious approach shows he might be worried about current market valuations.
      …
      https://247wallst.com/investing/2024/11/19/buffetts-behavior-signals-something-bad-is-coming-for-the-sp-500-voo/

      Reply

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