I Don’t Know How We’re Going To Get Rid Of It
A report from Mansion Global. “The tide is starting to turn, and the end of the year is turning into the most buyer-friendly market we’ve seen in a long time. Five years to be exact—before the COVID-19 pandemic turned the real estate market into a wild roller-coaster ride that came to an abrupt halt when mortgage rates doubled. ‘Those days are over,’ says real estate professional and attorney Bruce Ailion, of Re/Max Town & Country in Atlanta. ‘More homes on the market mean more choices, which is crucial for finding the right property with the features and amenities you want,’ says Mike Wall, CEO of eXp Realty/EZ Sell Homebuyers in Dayton, OH. Wall recently worked with a buyer who had been watching a home for weeks. ‘The price was initially set too high, and as a result, the property didn’t receive much interest,’ he says. ‘After two price cuts totaling nearly 10%, my client swooped in and made an offer below the asking price, which the seller accepted without hesitation.'”
The Miami Herald. “Florida condo owners won’t get any relief from potentially crushing association fees for future building repairs before the end of the year, Republican legislative leaders said this week. Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo, a Democrat from Sunny Isles Beach who lives in a condominium himself, said that translating condo living to his Senate colleagues who are mostly homeowners is tough. ‘I’m one of 40. I’m the only one that lives in a condo,’ said Pizzo. ‘There’s no financial bailout coming for this.’ ‘Some may look to fight, but others might not be able to afford [to stay]. They might have to panic sell,’ said Peter Zalewski, a condo analyst and founder of the downtown Miami-based consultancy firm Condo Vultures.”
Fox 13 in Florida. “Dozens of St. Pete Beach residents marched toward city hall on Tuesday, the night before a planned committee meeting, demanding permits be signed faster, so people could begin rebuilding. ‘We’re not going to take it anymore; sign the permits! We’ve lost everything!’ screamed one resident on the steps of the city hall. ‘I’m faced with the fact that I can’t rebuild my home. I’m paying for a rental and mortgage, almost equal to my mortgage payment. I’m not going to be able to live,’ said Jill Mederos, a St. Pete Beach resident. ‘I’m going to have to take a second job. Nothing is moving; we’re so frozen.'”
From WVUE. “As Louisiana homeowners face escalating property insurance premiums, many are reaching a financial breaking point, with hopes for relief dimming as insurance companies continue to limit coverage in high-risk areas. Homeowners like Billie Landry, a Jefferson Parish resident, are watching their budgets buckle under the weight of rising premiums. The Landrys have lived in their two-story home for 40 years, but paying for upkeep is impossible given their insurance costs. ‘Although we have our home paid for, with the insurance and the way things are going, we can’t afford maintenance work on it which it needs desperately,’ said Landry.”
8 News Now in Nevada. “It was a packed house at the Shadow Hills Church as Rock Springs Vista residents were up in arms over the potential HOA fee increase coming to their doorstep next year. ‘When I moved in 18 months ago, it was around $200,’ Scot Levine shared with 8 News Now. ‘Then it increased to $250 and come this January it will be $416, we can’t afford that,’ he added. ‘It doesn’t make sense for what we get. We have a pool and one of them doesn’t even work. We don’t even have a gate or onsite security. There’s no justification for it.’ Mary Bryndle lives on a fixed income and said she feels as if she is being pushed out. ‘We have a large number of social security residents and that’s their only income. It’s basically half of their mortgage,’ she added.”
The Union Tribune in California. “A symbol of downtown San Diego’s faltering central business district, the 24-story office tower at 600 B St. has gone back to its lender after a monthslong foreclosure process. WeWork had long been the building’s largest tenant, occupying around 100,000 square feet of space, but all of the coworking company’s space was listed as vacant by commercial real estate firm CBRE as of mid-2024, said Joshua Ohl, CoStar’s senior director of market analytics. ‘It looks like here there was no bidder at the foreclosure sale and because of that, the trustee’s deed upon sale shows that it went back to the lender,’ said Gordon Gerson, whose commercial real estate law firm, Gerson Law, represents financial institutions. ‘Lenders are not in the business of owning and managing property. There are parties probably lining up at that lender’s door right now offering bottom-fishing prices for the property.'”
Market Place. “Permits for new housing construction were down nearly 8% year over year, according to data from the Census Bureau. Dan Dunmoyer at the California Building Industry Association said he’s concerned about how the new administration’s immigration policies may push labor costs even higher. ‘People saying, ‘Well, I have my green card. I’m able to be here. I just don’t want to deal with the hassle. Maybe part of my family doesn’t have it, so I’m just going to go back to where I come from,’ Dunmoyer said.”
Business Insider. “Elon Musk’s government-efficiency commission could end up costing some federal workers their jobs. More than 2 million Americans collect their paychecks from the federal government, so Business Insider looked into which agencies employ the most people and what they pay on average. Most departments had six-figure average salaries, with the Department of Education and the Department of Energy having the highest averages. Musk said during October remarks that while the commission’s goal was to cut spending by reducing head count, he’d consider giving impacted workers ‘very long severances’ that could amount to two years’ pay. ‘The point is not to be cruel or to have people not be able to pay their mortgage or anything,’ Musk said during his October remarks, adding, ‘We just have too many people in the government sector, and they could be more productive elsewhere.'”
The Washington Post. “A big change to housing policy that many experts anticipate from the new Trump administration could roil the mortgage market and throw an already unsettled real estate industry into more turmoil. The new administration is widely expected to resume a push to remove Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two national mortgage behemoths that buy up huge quantities of loans, from government control. Others within the mortgage industry fear an abrupt change to the market — including an elimination or paring back of the government backstop — would push mortgages up. That’s because investors who buy Fannie and Freddie’s mortgage-backed securities could demand higher interest rates, especially if there is no explicit government backstop for the mortgage bonds. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics who also advised the Kamala Harris campaign, said such a move would leave the 30-year fixed rate mortgage ‘diminished.’ ‘Whatever scenario you pick — it’s just worse than the status quo,’ Zandi said.”
The London Free Press in Canada. “Buyers in the London area’s sluggish real estate market appear to be using their leverage to include ‘escape clauses’ in purchase offers, local realtors report. Escape clauses are provisions in home sales that allow either the buyer or the seller to back out of the agreement under certain conditions. That’s a sharp reversal from the pandemic years when buyers, desperate to buy a home, were willing to forgo even basic house inspections, said Phil Bailey, a real estate agent with HouseSigma Brokerage. ‘During the pandemic, you couldn’t entertain a financing condition or even home inspection condition,’ said Bailey. It was an assessment echoed by Drew Johnson, broker of record for Coldwell Banker Power Realty. ‘During the pandemic period, the market was such a strong sellers’ market that a seller wouldn’t even consider a conditional sale,’ he said. ‘It just didn’t happen.'”
From Castanet. “Look up and you might notice something missing from the skyline of Kelowna. A lot fewer tower cranes are working in the city than we’ve seen in the past few years. According to a Statistics Canada report, Kelowna saw the sharpest drop in building permit value of any census metropolitan area in the country year-over-year in September. While the national average went up by $1.3 billion, or 11.5 per cent, in Kelowna it dropped 83 per cent.The interim executive director of the Canadian Home Builders Association-Central Okanagan, Cassidy deVeer doubts the Central Okanagan will see the buying frenzy that took place during and in the first few years after the pandemic.”
“‘COVID, obviously, had a massive impact and that’s probably a housing market we will never see again. Hopefully, we don’t. I think for most people it was a crazy time to work, it was a crazy time to buy,’ deVeer says. ‘Homeowners buying houses sight unseen isn’t really in anybody’s best interest. But, if we can get to 2016-2017 numbers, I think that’s going to show the strength of our area.'”
I News in the UK. “There was often a deep puddle on the road outside Kerry Forster’s house. But she had no reason to believe her new build house, in Blyth, Northumberland, would actually flood. Flooding was never flagged to her as a risk when she bought it in 2020. Fast-forward to April this year, and she was at work – it was her first day at a new job – and her wife messaged to say that she was really worried, the water level was much higher than normal. Within a couple of hours the inside of their house was flooded, 6 to 8in of water destroying the ground floor in the process. Six months later, on 8 October, restoration was finally complete, the residents had been told by Northumbrian Water that it was a freak ‘once in 100 years’ event, and Kerry’s family were preparing to move back when the rain started again. ‘They finished [our work] on Monday and it flooded on Tuesday. Some neighbours had moved back on the Saturday and lost everything.'”
“Although Kerry was insured for both floods, she says getting insurance now is impossible because of high premiums and the two open claims. ‘No insurer will cover that property for flood,’ she says. As a result, the house – which had been valued at £152k at the start of 2024 – is now ‘worth nothing,’ says Kerry. ‘The same people who valued it before now said we might get £60k. That doesn’t cover the £90k mortgage or Help To Buy loan. I don’t know how we’re going to get rid of it.'”
From ABC News. “A 25-year-old entrepreneur accepted $1.3 million for tiny homes but failed to supply them in a reasonable time, the Victorian consumer watchdog alleges. Spencer Porter is facing 42 criminal charges relating to his businesses My Tiny Home Kit Australia and Property Magician, following an investigation by Consumer Affairs Victoria. My Tiny Home Kit was founded in 2022 and promised customers affordable tiny homes as a solution to the housing crisis. The company went into liquidation in May.”
“Melbourne woman Lyndy U’Ren purchased a tiny home for $28,000 from Spencer Porter in 2022 and said she only received a partial frame. She hopes the criminal proceedings will help her and other alleged victims. ‘I feel there is a hope that justice may happen,’ she said. ‘There has been a devastating impact on people … they feel alone and unsupported.’ In May a 7.30 investigation featured customers who described being “ripped off’ by Mr Porter, including a Sydney father who paid more than $32,000 for a tiny home for his teenage daughter. ‘It’s almost beyond imagining, losing that much money for nothing,’ he said.”
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‘Wall recently worked with a buyer who had been watching a home for weeks. ‘The price was initially set too high, and as a result, the property didn’t receive much interest,’ he says. ‘After two price cuts totaling nearly 10%, my client swooped in and made an offer below the asking price, which the seller accepted without hesitation’
That’s the spirit Mike! Hit em with a lowball just as they are getting desperate.
Nothing like a low ball after a chunky price cut. Like a kick in the nuts after a B-slap.
if they accepted the offer right away with no counter, the offer was still too high.
Yep.
‘That’s because investors who buy Fannie and Freddie’s mortgage-backed securities could demand higher interest rates, especially if there is no explicit government backstop for the mortgage bonds. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics who also advised the Kamala Harris campaign, said such a move would leave the 30-year fixed rate mortgage ‘diminished.’ ‘Whatever scenario you pick — it’s just worse than the status quo’
Ho Chi Zandi is a well known communist. If he’s against it, full speed ahead!
So the bond buyers are cool when .gov guarantees their investment?
Then buy Treasuries.
“…if there is no explicit government backstop for the mortgage bonds.”
Then it would all collapse, e.g., housing would be valued at 2.5x household income again. Bubbles are blown with FedGov guarantees. The free market is a myth just like our 6’2″ blue eyed, blonde haired Jesus.
“We just have too many people in the government sector, and they could be more productive elsewhere”
The Parasite Class.
“…they could be more productive elsewhere”
I doubt that, and they’re dug-in like an Alabama tick.
“wild roller-coaster ride that came to an abrupt halt when mortgage rates doubled”
Replace “mortgage rates” with “prices” and the statement becomes a lot more accurate.
“Permits for new housing construction were down nearly 8% year over year,”
It’s a lot steeper drop than that in the jurisdiction I work in.
[This woman sounds as if she has totally gone nuts.]
Washington Post columnist claims ‘Republicans want to kill your kids:’ ‘It’s actually true’
https://www.yahoo.com/news/washington-post-columnist-claims-republicans-113004020.html
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin is urging Democrats to change their messaging to say that “Republicans want to kill your kids.”
On Tuesday’s installment of her “Jen Rubin’s Green Room” podcast, Rubin insisted Senate Republicans who acquiesce to President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees must pay a “political price.”
“The people who irresponsibly put dangerous, treasonous, unfit people in positions of authority are responsible not only for those people, but for all the horrors that will unfold,” she said. “And Democrats better get started now tracking these people, holding these people accountable and making clear to ordinary voters who voted for what and who’s responsible for what.
In order to do that, Rubin advised, “You can’t talk broad themes. You have to boil it down to nuts and bolts, and you have to be pithy. What do I mean by pithy? How about this: Republicans want to kill your kids. It’s actually true.”
“If you’re gonna oppose vaccinations, if you’re gonna stop breakthrough medical research, if you’re gonna allow minors and all sorts of people to get semi-automatic weapons, which they use to shoot up schools, well, then you are responsible for kids’ health and death, unfortunately. It has to be that simple and that direct, and it has to be over, and over, and over again,” Rubin continued.
Fox News Digital reached out to Rubin and The Post for comment.
Rubin, a former conservative writer who has infamously been advocating on behalf of Democrats in the Trump era, has been outspoken this week about her outrage towards MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, calling it “disgusting” on social media. Rubin is notably an MSNBC contributor.
She even fueled a growing boycott of her network colleagues.
“The market works great. You can stop watching Morning Joe anytime,” Rubin wrote on social media Monday evening.
She then followed, “On MJ: If you don’t appreciate the audience you have, betray that audience and lose their trust you are [going] to lose lots of them. I have seen this movie.”
Rubin even had some harsh words for billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos after he halted the paper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris just days before the election, blasting his “bulls— explanation.”
“First of all, I do not believe the reason stated. I don’t believe they have suddenly decided – he has suddenly decided that we should endorse everybody except presidential candidates, and that of all the elections, this is the one to start with this new policy,” Rubin said on her podcast in October. “We endorsed a presidential candidate in 2020 no problem. And I perceive this, and even if it’s not intended, it is inevitably perceived as bending the knee to Donald Trump at the worst possible moment when democracy is on the line.”
“You have a billionaire who has a business aside from The Post that does business with the federal government deciding not to run afoul of a man who has declared war on democracy and on the free press, and I still find it absolutely inconceivable that someone who owns a newspaper would do this,” Rubin continued.”
“I am equally troubled by the fact that the reason given was not candid, was not accurate. Why mess around if you say, ‘Hey, I’m a businessman. I don’t want to endorse anyone because I don’t want to affect those businesses.’ Yeah, everyone will be aghast, but at least you’d be honest. At least you’d be taking responsibility,” Rubin added.
“When a newspaper is forced to advance a bulls— explanation, how much more damage does that do to The Washington Post? But the problem goes well beyond Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post, it goes beyond the LA Times. It goes beyond USA Today. This is a matter of how free societies defend themselves against fascist threats.”
Neocon Watch
Jennifer Rubin: We Won The Iraq War!
by Chris Rossini | Jan 6, 2014
Reality never seems to phase neocon commissar, Jennifer Rubin. Last year marked 10 years since the dreaded US invasion of Iraq, and most of her fellow neocons had the sense to keep a low profile. Even they knew not to draw attention to such an abysmal failure.
But not Rubin! She was perplexed, and ready to deny reality like a good trooper. Why were her fellow gang members so reticent? ”Where are the Iraq War Defenders?’ went the headline:
‘I’ve been surprised by the lack of effort on the part of those who backed the Iraq War to defend it. They were unusually quiet as the 10th anniversary of the war came and went, as if in a defensive crouch while the “what a disastrous war” crowd had the field.’
Well, since that time last year, the situation in Iraq has gotten even worse! Just last month alone, nearly 1,000 people were killed. Dr. Paul writes that “Iraq is the ‘liberation’ neocons would rather forget.”
Not Rubin! She has no intention of forgetting her version of the story. Rubin remains obstinate to this very day:
‘Consider that the Iraq war was won and al-Qaeda crushed when President George W. Bush left office.’
The Iraq war was “won” and al-Qaeda was “crushed”?
Someone please alert Rubin that the U.S. brought al-Qaeda into Iraq! They were not in Iraq prior to the horrendous invasion in 2003. They were no friends of Saddam Hussein!
Do you know what Rubin’s logic is equivalent to? Imagine going to a doctor visit. When your doctor enters the room, he swings a baseball bat at your leg and breaks a bone. The same doctor then resets the bone, puts it in a cast, and then brags about how he fixed your leg! You’re supposed to ignore the fact that the doctor was the one that broke your leg!
The US “won” the Iraq war in the same way that Greenspan & Bernanke created prosperity with their stock market and housing booms. Eventually, the hard truth is revealed. We’re seeing it both in our shattered economy, and in the daily chaos that emerges from Iraq.
Just don’t try to convince Jennifer Rubin that Americans have “lost” in so many incalculable ways. Like Charlie Sheen, she’s always WINNING!
https://ronpaulinstitute.org/jennifer-rubin-we-won-the-iraq-war/
Washington Post columnist claims ‘Republicans want to kill your kids:’ ‘It’s actually true’
What a strange thing for abortionists to say.
And castration cultists.
Well we know what Democrats want to do to the kids.
Climate scientists officially declare ‘climate emergency’ at an end.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/11/19/climate-scientists-officially-declare-climate-emergency-at-an-end/
Climate scientists have issued a shock declaration that the “climate emergency” is over.
A two-day climate conference in Prague, organised by the Czech division of the international Climate Intelligence Group (Clintel), which took place on November 12-13 in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic in Prague, “declares and affirms that the imagined and imaginary ‘climate emergency’ is at an end”.
The communiqué, drafted by the eminent scientists and researchers who spoke at the conference, makes clear that for several decades climate scientists have systematically exaggerated the influence of CO2 on global temperature.
The high-level scientific conference also declared:
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which excludes participants and published papers disagreeing with its narrative, fails to comply with its own error-reporting protocol and draws conclusions some of which are dishonest, should be forthwith dismantled.”
The declaration supports the conclusions of the major Clintel report The Frozen Climate Views of the IPCC [presented to the Conference by Marcel Crok, Clintel’s co-founder].
Moreover, the scientists at the conference declared that even if all nations moved straight to net zero emissions, by the 2050 target date the world would be only about 0.1 C cooler than with no emissions reduction.
So far, the attempts to mitigate climate change by international agreements such as the Paris Agreement have made no difference to our influence on climate, since nations such as Russia and China, India and Pakistan continue greatly to expand their combustion of coal, oil and gas.
The cost of achieving that 0.1 C reduction in global warming would be $2 quadrillion, equivalent to 20 years’ worldwide gross domestic product.
Finally, the conference “calls upon the entire scientific community to cease and desist from its persecution of scientists and researchers who disagree with the current official narrative on climate change and instead to encourage once again the long and noble tradition of free, open and uncensored scientific research, investigation, publication and discussion”.
The full text of the communiqué follows:
[Click on the link to read the rest of the article.]
Warmists gonna warm.
[Some snips from an article from Down Under …]
BIG News — The Climate Blob finally goes Nuclear “to save the world”: US and UK offer nuclear secrets (and Australia says NO).
https://www.joannenova.com.au/
Everything just changed. For the first time in Climate Bureaucracy, Nuclear power can save the world too.
Until today, only renewables had the Holy Sacred Power against Climate Change. But last night the UK and US signed a new agreement at COP29 to share “billions of pounds worth of nuclear research” in order to “decarbonize” the world.
They did this backflip in such a tearing rush, they didn’t even have time to phone the Prime Ministers they were offering this bonanza to. They accidentally listed all the countries they expected to sign up, only to find the Australian government is going to an election waving the anti-nuclear flag, while the opposition demons carry the pro-nuclear pennant. Oopsie indeed. The press release was reissued, but the Labor government in Australia are now trying to explain why nuclear power is great in submarines, but too expensive and slow for sites that don’t move and aren’t underwater. It’s entertaining.
Apparently, Australia has too much sunshine, and thus we’re stuck with solar power. We also have the largest uranium reserves in the world, but shh. This is like energy lessons on Sesame Street.
Nuclear power is Kryptonite to Renewables
Don’t miss how big this is. Only a year ago France scandalized the world when they dropped their renewables target and fought the EU to get nuclear power accepted as a “low emissions” generator. They had to threaten to scupper the EU’s new Renewable Energy Directive unless the EU included a role for nuclear power.
Renewables groupies hate nuclear power, because it’s everything they want to be but aren’t. Nukes are low emissions, reliable, proven, easy to add to a grid, and they don’t need a caravan of batteries, flywheels, hydro-dams or a 1,000 miles of high voltage lines. Obviously, if nuclear power can save the world from the Carbon Yeti, no one needs to build floating bird killers.
The implication is that renewables are being quietly thrown under a bus. The Blob is backing away slowly from 30 years of “free energy” propaganda. They have blinked, and switched to nuclear, the same obvious solution they could have picked from the start in Rio in 1992. Be prepared as they gaslight the world, hoping they will forget the trillions of dollars poured into the renewable energy port-a-loo.
The Trump factor is already killing sacred cows
The Blob is clearly tripping at full speed here — reacting to the shift in power with Trump’s win.
Ed Miliband may be trying to try to save COP29 from terminal irrelevancy. But the Blob surely knows that the grifter game is up for renewables — now that investors are abandoning them, industries are headed to China, and electricity prices have taken off like one of Elon’s rockets. That and Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle ignored their wind and solar pony showcases and rushed to get nuclear power to feed their pet AIs.
For all we know, the new nuclear plan might have been written the day they released it. How much effort would it have taken for Ed Miliband to mention it to Australia’s Energy Minister (Chris-“Blackout”-Bowen). He didn’t even need to phone him. They’re both at Baku.
Giving away Nuclear technology
The UK Government and the US will be giving away nuclear technology, to speed up deployment of civil nuclear power to “decarbonize industry”. The new agreement would start on March 1 2025, and is (was) expected to be signed by Canada, France, Japan, Republic of Korea, Republic of South Africa, China, Euratom [Europe], Switzerland and Australia. Thus it perfectly wedged the Australian government — which agreed to AUKUS, a nuclear sub sharing program, but is also 100% committed to a Glorious Renewable Future. The US and UK obviously assumed their AUKUS partner would leap at the chance. Instead the updated press release dropped the list of nations.
For baffled foreigners, the next election in Australia has to be held by May 2025, and looks like it will hinge on nuclear power, which is currently banned in Australia, (largely by accident — because of an incidental Green ten-minute amendment in 1998). Our slow moving Labor diehards were already glued to the renewables-train but the opposition is making nuclear energy a key part of their platform. Polling suggests Australians are not anti-nuclear, but they are anti-electricity-bill-bonfires. So voters seem to find the idea of change appealing.
Ed Miliband, of course, is still raving in a hollow rehearsed way about the unreliable transition, but it is a simple fact that the more nuclear power a grid has, the less wind and solar it wants. In the new world order of Trump — The Australian Labor Party may be the last man standing on unreliable renewables.
[These are snips. Link on the article to read it all.]
Mary Bryndle lives on a fixed income and said she feels as if she is being pushed out. ‘We have a large number of social security residents and that’s their only income. It’s basically half of their mortgage,’ she added.”
Once again, Social Security is not “fixed”. Yes I know the increases don’t necessarily cover all cost increases or additional expenses that may happen in one’s life. But the payouts are definitely not “fixed”. Moreover, anyone who has planned at all for retirement probably has a 401(k), some real estate, and possibly a corporate pension, which also increase over time, often dramatically.
SS Cost of Living Adjustments
2021 1.3%
2022 5.9%
2023 8.7%
2024 3.2%
2025 2.5%
“fixed”
Maybe it means fixed to their neck like an anchor chain.
possibly a corporate pension, which also increase over time, often dramatically.
The few people I know with Corporate (not Govt.) pensions do not have a COLA increase. Mine certainly does not
Climate Change Activists Who Threw Red Powder on Constitution Display Sentenced to Prison Time.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/climate-change-activists-who-threw-red-powder-constitution/
Back in February, two climate change activists walked into the Capitol Rotunda and threw red powder on a display case which holds the United States Constitution.
The stupid stunt caused upwards of $50,000 in damage and took days to clean up.
The two activists were arrested and charged with a felony. Now they have been sentenced. They got real prison time.
The Associated Press reports:
A climate change activist who dumped red powder on a case containing the original copy of the U.S. Constitution was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison for his role in the vandalism earlier this year at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Donald Zepeda that his attack on the display of the priceless document did nothing to advance his cause.
“You still think that was connected to the climate change problem, and I can’t agree with that,” she said.
Zepeda, a leader of Declare Emergency, was charged with another member of the climate change awareness group. Jackson sentenced Zepeda’s co-defendant, Utah resident Jackson Green, on Tuesday to 18 months of prison.
Zepeda, 35, of Maryland, pleaded guilty in August to destruction of federal property. The Constitution itself was not damaged.
The Hill has more:
The Post said that Zepeda’s attorney argued that “as viscerally infuriating” as the defendant’s actions might have been, “he never intended to damage the Constitution nor its case, nor anticipated the cost of cleaning it.” The intention, his defense said, was to have “the Biden administration declare a climate emergency,” The Post reported.
Green, according to The Washington Post, apologized and wrote, “I have come to realize that in addition to causing direct harm to individuals, destructive protest actions like the ones I carried out can lead to the opposite of our intentions by creating a negative response — turning people off from climate activism and creating further discord.”
Perhaps if this type of punishment was handed down more often, leftists would think twice about defacing famous works of art by throwing soup on them.
It was a Red Green protest.
We need to introduce Singapore-style caning to whip the stupid out of those who deserve such correction.
https://www.businessinsider.com/man-named-brick-indonesia-caning-singapore-for-sneaking-boat-2024-4
Immigration advocates in Maine brace for sweeping changes under Trump
President-elect Donald Trump ran in large part on promises to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and severely limit immigration into the country, including through legal pathways. Now, as the new administration takes shape, immigrant rights groups in Maine are girding for sweeping policy changes that could put many foreign-born residents at risk.
Legal protections for Haitian, Afghan, Ukrainian, and other immigrants could also be on the chopping block.
Those actions would likely face legal challenges. But the threat is already rippling through some immigrant communities in Maine.
“My goodness, sheer panic. That’s what I’ve been just hearing, is just panic,” said Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition.
Without knowing yet exactly which policies will be implemented, Chitam said her group is preparing for a rapid barrage of changes, similar to what they experienced during the first Trump administration.
“It was almost like policies were coming out nonstop, almost like a fire hose,” Chitam recalled.
https://www.mainepublic.org/politics/2024-11-19/immigration-advocates-in-maine-brace-for-sweeping-changes-under-trump
“My goodness, sheer panic. That’s what I’ve been just hearing, is just panic,” said Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition.
Holding the architects and enablers of the Great Replacement accountable for their actions against Heritage Americans should be the first order of business.
“the architects and enablers of the Great Replacement”
Southern Poverty Law Center
Anti Defamation League
#Naming
Cruise ship tilts, causing panic as ‘Titanic’ song plays
A grand piano slid across a stage, bottles fell and broke on the ground, and furniture drifted on the deck while people were yelling and running, according to witness videos and reports from a recent cruise.
One injured passenger received medical care in Las Palmas on Spain’s Canary Islands after the incident occurred on a Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas cruise ship.
Cruise ship passengers got a scare when the vessel listed, a term used to describe when a ship leans to one side, with one man saying the theme song for the film “Titanic” had played during the ordeal.
Simon Goodenough says he was in a theatre when he heard Celine Dion’s song “My Heart Will Go On” as the cruise ship began to tilt.
“We actually thought it was part of special effects,” Goodenough told Local 10 News in South Florida as he disembarked in Miami on Sunday. “The ship started to tip to one side, all the glasses and bottles fell off the bar and we thought, ‘wow this is amazing.’ And then we realized and looked at crew’s faces that this isn’t special effects.”
Watch the videos above to see the cruise passengers’ ordeal.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/cruise-ship-tilts-causing-panic-as-titanic-song-plays-1.7115335
What idiot would play that song on any cruise ship EVER?
Yeah, good call. LOL
House Republicans signal support for proposal to ban bathroom access for 1st transgender member
House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled support Tuesday for a Republican effort to ban Democrat Sarah McBride — the first transgender person to be elected to Congress — from using women’s restrooms in the Capitol once she’s sworn into office next year.
“We’re not going to have men in women’s bathrooms,” Johnson told The Associated Press. “I’ve been consistent about that with anyone I’ve talked to about this.”
A resolution proposed Monday by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina would prohibit any lawmakers and House employees from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” Mace said the bill is aimed specifically at McBride, who was elected to the House this month from Delaware.
“I’m absolutely, 100% gonna stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms,” Mace said told reporters Tuesday.
https://kesq.com/news/2024/11/19/house-republicans-signal-support-for-proposal-to-ban-bathroom-access-for-1st-transgender-member/
The Science™ says they can get pregnant and make babies, because The Science™
Trump has called for dismantling the Education Department. Here’s what that would mean
Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump heaped scorn on the federal Department of Education, describing it as being infiltrated by “ radicals, zealots and Marxists.”
Through its Office for Civil Rights, the Education Department conducts investigations and issues guidance on how civil rights laws should be applied, such as for LGBTQ+ students and students of color. The office also oversees a large data collection project that tracks disparities in resources, course access and discipline for students of different racial and socioeconomic groups.
Trump has suggested a different interpretation of the office’s civil rights role. In his campaign platform, he said he would pursue civil rights cases to “stop schools from discriminating on the basis of race.” He has described diversity and equity policies in education as “explicit unlawful discrimination” and said colleges that use them will pay fines and have their endowments taxed.
Trump also has pledged to exclude transgender students from Title IX protections, which affect school policies on students’ use of pronouns, bathrooms and locker rooms. Originally passed in 1972, Title IX was first used as a women’s rights law. This year, Biden’s administration said the law forbids discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, but Trump can undo that.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-has-called-for-dismantling-the-education-department-heres-what-that-would-mean/ar-AA1upljz
‘Recycling tax’ fee scrapped in Greens and Coalition manoeuvre
Fees that could have cost waste exporters hundreds of thousands of dollars to send paper and cardboard offshore for recycling have been scrapped in a joint manoeuvre between the Greens and the Coalition.
The parties joined to strike down a fee that costs exporters about $13,500 every time they vary a contract, which industry sources argued could be as often as four times a day if destinations, recyclable volumes and carrying ships change — though the government has argued it would only apply to substantial changes such as what waste is being exported.
The move is another blow by the Senate against Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, who has so far been unable to win support for her proposed environmental laws.
Ms Plibersek said the Coalition and Greens had teamed up “to make it easier to send Australian rubbish overseas and increase greenwashing”.
“The decision to licence the export of waste was made in 2019 by the Morrison government alongside the states and territories. They also announced the costs of regulating the export of waste would be a levy from industry — not taxpayers,” Ms Plibersek said.
“Sussan Ley called it ‘historic’ and said it was ‘critical’ and the ‘right step for the economy and the environment’. Why have they changed their mind?”
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said he also would have preferred to avoid the uncommon move, but it was the consequence of government failing to listen to industry.
“These regulations have been unanimously rejected by the resource recovery and recycling sector, and supported by no one except Labor. Recyclers have attempted countless times to engage with the government to attempt to resolve issues, without success,” the senator said.
“The disallowance of these regulations is a problem of the government’s own making. The Greens have asked the government for months to meet with the resource recovery sector to resolve issues related to export licence variations contained in these regulations. This has not occurred.”
An inquiry into the waste sector has heard from industry that the variation fees, dubbed a “recycling tax”, would threaten to send more recyclable products to landfill because it would be cheaper than sending offshore to be processed, and state regulations prevent it from being put into storage.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/recycling-tax-fee-scrapped-in-greens-and-coalition-manoeuvre/ar-AA1up7H4
Arson suspected in Burnaby, B.C., fire that displaced around 100 people
An intense fire that broke out at a Burnaby, B.C., condo building overnight – displacing around 100 residents – is being investigated as a possible arson.
Burnaby RCMP provided the update early Tuesday afternoon, but did not provide any further details on the suspected cause of the fire.
CTV News has obtained CCTV footage captured from a home across the street from the low-rise building near Kingsway and Jersey Avenue. Just after 12:25 a.m., two people can be seen approaching the front doors of the building. They hang around the entrance way for a few minutes before flames start to erupt, the individuals then take off, before an explosion is heard.
While authorities haven’t disclosed any possible motive for the suspected arson, court records show that the sale of the building, known as Cameray Gardens, was the subject of a legal battle.
Documents show that a $61 million deal that was reached between the strata and a numbered company back in December of 2022 went sideways.
Multiple residents who declined to be interviewed told CTV News they were notified on Monday that the sale had finally gone through.
“Our team will definitely look into that,” Burnaby RCMP Cpl. Mike Kalanj told CTV News. “First and foremost were looking to find the suspects, and then anything like motive will be part of our investigation for sure,”
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/arson-suspected-in-burnaby-b-c-fire-that-displaced-around-100-people-1.7115496
With Trump headed to White House, Canada has its eyes on Chinese investment in Mexico
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday she shares the “legitimate” concerns of U.S. officials about Mexico becoming a back door for China to wedge its way into the North American trading regime.
Freeland said members of the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden and advisers of incoming president-elect Donald Trump have expressed “very grave” concerns personally to her about the issue of China setting up shop in Mexico to muscle its manufacturing into the North American free-trade zone.
“We are not a backdoor to Chinese unfair traded goods,” Freeland said Tuesday. “However, the same cannot be said of Mexico.”
Freeland has sought to reassure nervous Canadians that the country is in a good position with the incoming Trump administration, even as it threatens new tariffs, because Ottawa is moving in lock-step with the U.S. on Chinese trade irritants.
While Ottawa bristles at Mexico by way of diplomatic blandishments, by far the boldest words are coming from two of Canada’s premiers.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford turned heads last week when he suggested Canada should forge ahead on a bilateral trade deal with the U.S. if Mexico doesn’t clamp down on Chinese auto imports entering into North America.
On Nov. 12 Ford said that Mexico is “importing cheap products” from China, then “slapping a made-in-Mexico sticker on and shipping it up” into Canada and the U.S.
“What I’m proposing to the federal government: We do a bilateral trade deal with the U.S., and if Mexico wants a bilateral trade deal with Canada, God bless ‘em,” he said. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith echoed that sentiment. While on the national TV talk circuit, she said she’s “a thousand per cent” in agreement with Ford.
“We need to take a bilateral approach and put Canada first,” Smith said on CBC Friday.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/with-trump-headed-to-white-house-canada-has-its-eyes-on-chinese-investment-in-mexico-1.7115895
There is talk of China building auto plants in Mexico. But to qualify for free trade status, those cars need a certain percentage of North American content, which at this point the Mexicans cannot do, at least not for EV’s. Even for ICE cars a lot of investment will be required to meet the content requirements, but it is doable. I think this is what worries the Canucks and why they want to exclude Chinese branded cars from an amended free trade agreement.
Sweden has no plans to take stake in Northvolt, deputy PM says
The Swedish government does not plan to take a stake in lithium-ion battery maker Northvolt, Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch told Reuters on Tuesday as the company continues to explore options to stay afloat.
Northvolt has in a matter of months gone from being Europe’s best shot at a home-grown electric-vehicle battery champion to exploring options to stay in business, hobbled by production problems, the loss of a major customer and a lack of funding.
“To come up with a completely new system that doesn’t exist today, that’s not on the table,” Busch, who is also minister for energy, business and industry, said. “To go in and have state ownership in Northvolt, for example, is not on the table.”
Busch’s comments echoed those of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson who said in September the government did not have plans to invest in the cash-strapped battery maker, which is shrinking its operations and cutting jobs in order to stay afloat.
“There are huge investments happening in the green transition in Sweden whether or not the Northvolt project gets fully completed or not,” Busch told Reuters.
“With that said, Northvolt is important for Sweden and it’s important for the whole of the European Union, because we are in something of an industrial fight with China and the United States,” she said.
The company has been discussing the possibility of bankruptcy protection in the United States as one of several options for the group to survive, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters last week.
https://www.aol.com/news/sweden-no-plan-stake-northvolt-143006094.html
Trump’s appointees have criticized Trudeau, warned of border issues with Canada
Donald Trump’s second administration is filling up with some of his most loyal supporters and many of the people landing top jobs have been critical of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and security at Canada’s border.
One expert says there are not many Canadian allies, so far, in the president-elect’s court.
“I don’t see a whole lot of friends of Canada in there,” said Fen Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa and co-chair of the Expert Group on Canada-U.S. Relations.
The president-elect is also critical of giving aid to Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression and has attacked the United Nations, both things the Liberal government in Canada strongly backs.
Stephen Miller, who will join Trump’s White House as deputy chief of staff for policy, last year called Canada “increasingly authoritarian and despotic” and has labelled its leader “far-left Trudeau.”
Trump tapped Mike Waltz to be national security adviser amid increasing geopolitical instability, saying in a statement Tuesday that Waltz “will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!”
Waltz, a three-term congressman from Florida, has repeatedly slammed Trudeau on social media, particularly for his handling of issues related to China.
He also recently weighed in on the looming Canadian election, posting on X that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was going to “send Trudeau packing in 2025” and “start digging Canada out of the progressive mess it’s in.”
Like Trump, Waltz has been critical of NATO members that don’t meet defence spending targets — something Canada is not doing, and won’t do for years. Trump made a slew of announcements Tuesday evening and many of the people joining his inner circle have a history of lambasting Trudeau.
Immigration and border security were a key focus for Republicans during the election and Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming border czar, has called the Canada-U.S border a national security issue.
“There has to be an understanding from Canada that they can’t be a gateway to terrorists coming into the United States,” Homan said in an interview this week.
Trump’s choice for ambassador to the United Nations, New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik(opens in a new tab), has also focused on the border with Canada.
Stefanik, as a member of the Northern Border Security Caucus, called for Homeland Security to secure the border, claiming there had been an increase in human and drug trafficking.
“We must protect our children from these dangerous illegal immigrants who are pouring across our northern border in record numbers,” she posted on X last month.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/trump-s-appointees-have-criticized-trudeau-warned-of-border-issues-with-canada-1.7108209
Tom Mulcair: Is Justin Trudeau just playing out the clock?
Justin Trudeau recorded a long video on the subject of immigration and released it over the weekend. It was a howler.
In it, he blamed Canada’s immigration crisis on: the pandemic, provincial premiers, colleges and universities, “big box stores” (not joking) and, maybe a teeny, tiny bit, his own government.
Not a word about the plan he espoused to bring Canada’s population to 100 million by the end of this century. He was on track for that. Canada had 36 million souls when Trudeau came to office in 2015; we now number close to 42 million, and counting.
The problem is that Trudeau was radically increasing immigration without a thought to the predictable effects on availability of healthcare, education facilities and, most importantly, housing.
He’s paying a very heavy political price for that negligence, and it is one of the key reasons he’s some 15- to 20-percentage points behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives in the polls.
Trudeau promised when he came to office that if there was even a whiff of impropriety in his government, he’d deal with it decisively. After all the revelations came out concerning Boissonnault—his sketchy Indigenous claims and his business dealings—how is it possible that he remains in cabinet?
The Conservatives continue their filibuster in an attempt to draw attention to the truly scandalous behaviour of the Liberals in yet another boondoggle. This one involves a sustainable development technology fund(opens in a new tab) that was so rife with cronyism, conflicts of interest and illegal subsidies, that Trudeau forced out its leaders (whom he’d appointed) and tried to bury the whole thing by sending its budget to another government agency.
The Conservatives, doing their jobs as official Opposition, have been hounding Trudeau to hand over the documents, as ordered by Parliament itself. So far, the Liberals have steadfastly refused and have continued to try to shunt everything off to a committee.
It’s a gong show that few, outside the confines of Parliament, are paying attention to; but it has the unmistakable smell of a government at the end of its regime.
Trudeau is cornered, but is unwilling to let the people decide. He’s grasping onto power thanks to an NDP that has been embarrassing as it continues to support the Liberals, come hell or high water.
The problem, of course, is that there’s still a country to run, and the government has run out of gas. Parliament can’t function, yet Trudeau continues to spend as much time as he can on the road (who can blame him for playing hooky? It’s no fun at all for him in the House).
Trudeau strongly supports Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use long range missiles into Russia. Shouldn’t there be a debate here in Canada on such a crucial issue for the future of the planet? Apparently not.
What is our game plan for trade with the new U.S. administration? So far, all we’ve got is the laughable reassurance that everything’s going to be fine, because the Liberals have already thought about it.
Hubris is an amazing thing. Shut yourself off from the world and you can convince yourself that everything’s great across the land.
Except, it isn’t.
Trudeau has presided over a historic drop in the fortunes of the Liberals, but can’t seem to shake his core belief that we really, really need him.
Time is fast running out for his party’s one chance for a reset: proroguing Parliament and holding a shortened leadership race.
Maybe that’s the point: Trudeau is playing the clock, either to his eventual successor’s total disadvantage, or to satisfy himself.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/tom-mulcair-what-is-trudeau-s-game-plan-for-trump-and-other-pressing-issues-concerning-canada-1.7115441
Sounds like he is planning on hanging on until the bitter end.
Tulsi Gabbard’s Nomination for Key Intelligence Post Raises Red Flags
President-elect Donald Trump nominated Brendan Carr for the chairmanship of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Sunday night. Carr, who is the ranking Republican on the FCC, has been a fierce critic of social media companies over free speech and censorship issues. In a post on X after the announcement, Carr said, “We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.”
In March 2019, a Democratic congresswoman running in her party’s presidential primary appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for a standard candidate interview. Colbert asked Tulsi Gabbard a curious question: “You’ve gotten some fans in the Trump supporter world. David Duke, Steve Bannon, and Matt Gaetz,” Colbert said. “What do you make of how much they like you?”
“You should ask them,” Gabbard replied, going on to denounce Duke by name. But she didn’t reject the support from Bannon or Gaetz.
More than five years later, President-elect Donald Trump picked the former Democratic rising star to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The selection follows Gabbard’s formal exit from the Democratic Party in 2022 and embrace of Trump during the 2024 campaign. But the roots of her transformation have been clear for years: She brings an isolationist outlook and a hostility toward the foreign policy establishment that helped her gain popularity among hard-right Trump supporters.
“I know the importance of our national security as well as the terribly high cost of war,” she said in the first Democratic primary debate in June 2019. “For too long our leaders have failed us, taking us from one regime-change war to the next, leading us into a new Cold War and arms race, costing us trillions of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars and countless lives.”
But Gabbard trained most of her fire at fellow Democrats, decrying party leaders like Hillary Clinton as part of a foreign policy establishment supportive of those “regime-change wars.” The approach didn’t get her very far in the 2020 primary, but it helped elevate her standing among anti-establishment and populist media figures like Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson.
But she continued on her journey toward Trumpworld, publicly leaving the Democratic Party in October 2022. “I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that’s under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness,” Gabbard said at the time. She endorsed Trump in August of this year, this time praising the foreign policy of his first term. “He not only didn’t start any new wars,” she said in her endorsement speech. “He took action to de-escalate and prevent wars.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-nomination-key-intelligence-094901506.html
more liberal media BS
“today’s Democratic Party that’s under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness”
Sounds about right.
Follow the money.
Maybe the FCC will drastically reduce it’s nearly 35% tax on telecommunications services they lovingly call “contribution factor”?
Vulnerable Democrats who won say party must follow their path
House Democratic front-liners have a message for leadership as the party grapples with what went wrong in this year’s elections: Follow our example.
While Democrats were generally wiped out on Election Day — losing the White House and Senate, and failing to flip control of the House — vulnerable Democrats in the lower chamber were a rare bright spot for the party.
As Democratic leaders conduct an election postmortem, the front-liners are urging colleagues to take a page from their playbook, which features a heavy focus on kitchen-table economics while largely avoiding the culture-war battles that were a drag on the party on Nov. 5.
“We’ve got a group of strong, battle-tested incumbents that have won in some really tough races and overperformed the top of the ticket,” said Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), a perennial front-liner who won a fourth term this month by 8 points — well above the margin of victory for Vice President Harris. “The party would do well to look at how we’ve been able to win our races, and the type of messaging we’ve used that I think has connected with voters in our districts.”
“In my district, abortion rights is still a top-testing issue, and people are deeply concerned about the direction of that,” he said. “But I think overall the economic anxiety needs to be front and center in terms of our agenda.”
Still, other Democrats have been eager to participate in the early talks. Some of them have used the forums to voice concerns about the party’s messaging on immigration, food costs and the Israel-Gaza conflict. Others expressed deep frustrations with the party’s focus on culture-war issues, like transgender rights, which Republican campaign operatives used to hammer vulnerable Democrats up and down the ballot.
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), who spoke up during the Democrats’ first caucus meeting last week, said the jubilant tone of the gathering belied the fact that they’d just lost control of the House for the second Congress in a row.
“It feels like a pep rally in there. Nobody’s holding anybody responsible,” he said afterwards. “I mean, I was one of the ones with a grievance, because I think we need to improve our messaging. I got clobbered on all the transgender messaging in my district, and it was very painful.”
Gonzalez’s advice for party leaders was simple: Don’t pressure vulnerable lawmakers to take tough votes that will hurt their chances of reelection.
“I got beat up on everything I pushed leadership against, everything I pushed the whip on on issues I knew were losers. You know what saved me? Oil and gas. My oil and gas votes,” said Gonzalez, who squeaked to victory by just more than 5,000 votes in a Texas border — and heavily Hispanic — district that also went for Trump.
“All I’m saying is: You’ve gotta respect me; respect my votes, and I kinda put everybody on notice,” he said. “Don’t ever try to whip me again, because it’s better to have me 97 percent of the time than my opponent 100 percent of the time.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/vulnerable-democrats-who-won-say-party-must-follow-their-path/ar-AA1ulRLi
Four Questions for the Democrats
No, it’s not time to panic. But it is time to choose the coming battles wisely.
The 2024 election shattered—or should shatter—illusions that sustained Democrats’ hopes. Demography did not save the party, nor did Dobbs. And neither did fear for the future of democracy. Donald Trump is continuing to build a multiethnic, working-class party, while Democrats are left with a coalition of college-educated whites and Black women (24 percent of Black men voted for Trump!) that will not yield reliable majorities.
Since I cast my first vote in 1968, the Democratic Party has undergone several setbacks. 2024 strikes me as a combination of 1980 and 1988. In 1980, we encountered a new Republican coalition that reached deep into our base. In 1988, we learned that this coalition was powerful enough to outlive its founder. We had to change, and we did. Starting in 1992, Democrats won the national popular vote in seven out of the next eight presidential elections, and an Electoral College majority in five out of eight.
Not this year. One fact that carries particular sting is that Donald Trump will end up winning not only the Electoral College but the popular vote. In 2000 and 2016, Democrats could blame the Electoral College “tilt” for their losses. Now they are out of excuses.
The Harris campaign spent hundreds of millions more on paid advertising than did the Trump forces, and Democrats had a much more extensive field operation as well. These tactical advantages did not come close to closing the gap. The fundamentals—dissatisfactions about the economy, immigration, and the Biden presidency—drove the outcome.
I hope that the familiar circular firing squad will quickly give way to the honest and searching analysis the party so desperately needs. Here are some issues we must ponder.
First: In this new phase of American politics, class—defined as different levels of educational attainment—has a greater impact on voters’ choice than does race, ethnicity, gender, or age. But there are nearly three voters without four-year college degrees for every two college graduates. Running a large deficit among non-college voters makes every national election an uphill battle for Democrats. Whence an urgent question: What can the party do to improve its standing with an increasingly multiethnic working class?
Second: The phrase “people of color” is an ideological construction, increasingly detached from reality. Hispanics are not African Americans; they are immigrants, with the classic immigrants’ trajectory. As my co-author Elaine Kamarck and I have long argued, they are the Italians of the twenty-first century. They are focused on a future of upward mobility, not a past of white oppression, and they will reward policies that help them move up. More than two-thirds were born in the United States, and many see illegal immigrants as threats to their hard-won economic and social gains. What can Democrats do to stem their losses in this large and rapidly growing share of the electorate? (And while they’re at it, they might ponder the exit polls that show a plunge in support for Democrats among the disparate groups that pollsters typically lump together as “Asian.”)
Third: The effort to mobilize women on the issue of reproductive rights was a major disappointment. Early polls suggest that Vice President Harris was able to raise women’s share of the electorate only marginally while receiving a smaller share of their votes than Joe Biden did four years ago. At the same time, her support among men was only 42 percent, down 8 points from Biden’s showing in 2020.
Has the tendency to attach “toxic” to “masculinity” sent the message to men that we regard them as a problem? Have we paid enough attention to the fact that the new, education-based economy has worked to their disadvantage over the past four decades? Do we believe that working-class men can or should adopt the norms and beliefs toward which many college-educated men have moved during the past two generations? Are Democrats willing to make room for cultural diversity in gender relations?
Fourth: From time to time, Democrats stumble badly over cultural issues, and the past five years were the latest iteration. Harris never quite recovered from the positions she espoused during her first run for the presidency in 2019, and the Trump campaign used her endorsement of taxpayer-funded operations for incarcerated transgender individuals (including immigrants in the country illegally) at that time to portray her as outside the moral mainstream.
Meanwhile, with Congress and the executive branch unified under Republican control, Trump’s second term will pose urgent challenges on multiple fronts. Here are my recommendations for the strategy Democrats should pursue.
First: Abandon the language of “Resistance,” which suggests that they do not accept the 2024 elections as representing the will of the people. Democrats and their affiliated groups and constituencies are the opposition, not a guerilla army, and they cannot win political battles with demonstrations, no matter how large and loud. Nor can they win by impeding the implementation of lawful policies, no matter how misguided they may be.
Second: We must distinguish between policies that are unlawful or unconstitutional, on the one hand, and those with which we disagree, on the other. We should oppose both, of course, but only the former represent a challenge to constitutional democracy. If we expand the idea of democracy to include everything that we believe to be right and good, we will weaken our hand by turning democracy into a partisan concept. For example, transforming thousands of federal workers protected by civil service laws into political appointees who can be dismissed at will is a bad idea, but it is probably permissible under existing statutes. It may impede the effective operation of government, but it is not per se undemocratic. The remedy for illegal or unconstitutional measures is litigation supplemented by organized public persuasion, and Democrats should be prepared to challenge them.
I conclude with a plea for realism. The arc of the moral universe does not move inexorably toward justice; history records innumerable examples of regress as well as progress. Nor, regrettably, does history have a “side,” or take sides, so it makes no sense to say that Donald Trump is on the wrong side of it. He has been able to mobilize dark passions—above all anger, fear, and the desire to dominate—against everything we stand for.
I suspect that our own errors have helped open the door for him. But this is no time for recriminations or regret. The task before us is to defend what we can while regrouping our forces and developing new strategies to guide the next advance.
If we keep our heads and choose our battles wisely, we can limit the damage and regain the people’s confidence while preparing for the next Democratic administration.
https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/four-questions-for-the-democrats/
2026 will reveal if they will reform, or double down on the insanity.
They can’t reform. The Democrat-Bolsheviks are wholly beholden to their globalist moneybags like Soros who have worked their entire adult lives to bring about the destruction of Western civilization. As minions to the likes of Soros and Bloomberg, the Democrats serve only a corrupt and venal .1% in the financier oligarchy that wants to reduce the 99% to the status of indigent debt slaves on the incorporated neoliberal plantation. That is the Democrat-Bolsheviks’ entire political agenda.
Well said.
+1
The phrase “people of color” is an ideological construction, increasingly detached from reality. Hispanics are not African Americans; they are immigrants, with the classic immigrants’ trajectory.
This reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon where the boss chastises Wally, saying he wanted his presentation slides to be done in color. Wally responds, well technically black and white are colors.
So actually we’re all people of color, just different hues.
+1 Tonto says Kemosabe “white man.”
Blackstone is buying Jersey Mike’s.
Expect new and improved sandwiches with 1/2 the meat and cardboard bread, just like Subway.
When I buy a sub I usually go to Silvermine (a local chain)
Silvermine is known for being open until 3AM and doing their own delivery. They are the sub of choice for pot heads.,
I never go to chain or corporate restaurants. Independent, family-owned all the way.
Ditto.
“They are the sub of choice for pot heads.”
Munchies!
Cheba Hut says WE are the pothead sandwich shop. IT’s even in our name. (TBF the subs are pretty good but it is definitely stonerville.)
I like Subway.
banned
Harsh! 😊
end of jersey mike’s
(((private equity))) ruins everything.
Actual headline language, an Associated Press article published on the NPR website:
“A man has been convicted of murder in the killing of Laken Riley”
Remember when he was first arrested and these same globalist sc*m media called him an “Athens man” remember that?
The article reluctantly reports:
“federal authorities said Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case”
Pursuing his case, that aspiring legal scholar.
The Associated Press not only wants you replaced, they want you r@ped and murdered, because they are the Real Journalists.
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/20/nx-s1-5197834/laken-riley-trial-guilty-murder
Probably not his first victim, but his DNA is now in the database.
DHS head Majorkas should be tried as an accessory to Laken Riley’s murder, along with Biden & Harris.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14106373/Laken-Riley-killer-Jose-Ibarra-guilty-murder.html
Five years to be exact—before the COVID-19 pandemic turned the real estate market into a wild roller-coaster ride that came to an abrupt halt when mortgage rates doubled.
Globalist scum media keeps repeating that it was the scamdemic, rather than the Fed’s deranged money printing, that blew Housing Bubble 2.0 to such insane heights.
If you intentionally identify the cause of a problem wrongly, then you intentionally can’t fix it.
‘After two price cuts totaling nearly 10%, my client swooped in and made an offer below the asking price, which the seller accepted without hesitation.’”
Another knife-catcher cautionary tale in the making.
My thoughts as well. I also hope the buyer wasn’t counting on dating the rate.
War pigs gonna pig:
“Ukrainian forces have attacked targets inside Russia with British-made Storm Shadow missiles for the first time, according to UK paper of record the Times of London.
British government sources confirmed to the Times that the Ukrainians have deployed Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of around 250 km (155 miles), in an attack on the Kursk region of Russia, where Kyiv launched a surprise incursion over the summer.
The attack was first reported on by Russian Telegram channels, which shared images purporting to show missile fragments with the name ‘Storm Shadow’ stenciled on them.
The use of long-range British missiles against targets inside Russia comes after lame duck U.S. President Joe Biden reportedly approved the use of 190 mile range (300 km) American Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles for similar strikes over the weekend after months of refusals over concern of escalating the conflict.”
Keir Starmer is a wanker.
There was a poll a couple of days ago saying President Trump and Nigel Farage are both more popular in the UK than Starmer.
2nd Baltic Sea Cable Cut; Germany Suspects Sabotage
The C-Lion1 cable runs alongside the multibillion-dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.
Damage to two undersea fiber-optic communication cables in the Baltic Sea—one between Lithuania and Sweden, and the other between Finland and Germany—should be regarded as sabotage, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday.
“No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally. I also don’t want to believe in versions that these were ship anchors that accidentally caused the damage,” German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said before meeting of European Union defense ministers.
“So we have to state—without knowing in concrete terms who it came from—that this is a hybrid action. And we also have to assume—without already knowing it, obviously—that this is sabotage.”
A 218-km (135-mile) internet link between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland Island went out of service at about 8 a.m. GMT on Sunday, according to Lithuania’s Telia Lietuva, part of Sweden’s Telia Company.
Later, Finnish state-controlled cyber security and telecoms company Cinia revealed that a separate 1,200-kilometre (745-mile) cable connecting Helsinki to the German port of Rostock has also stopped working, around 2 a.m. GMT on Monday,
There are about 400 subsea cables across the world, connecting islands, countries, regions, and continents. Subsea cables, which are about as thick as a garden hose, use optical fiber technology to transmit electronic communications data at the speed of light, according to the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA).
The foreign ministers of Finland and Germany said in a Nov. 18 joint statement that they were “deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea.”
The ministers said that the fact “that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times. A thorough investigation is underway.”
“Our European security is not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors. Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies,” they added.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/second-baltic-sea-cable-cut-germany-suspects-sabotage-5762155
There was a poll a couple of days ago saying President Trump and Nigel Farage are both more popular in the UK than Starmer.
It didn’t take long for the buyer’s remorse to kick in. Now the question is how to dump Labour before the 2029 elections. At least we get to “throw the bums out” every two years, but their bums get 5 years, unless Starmer dissolves the government and holds early elections (fat chance). And Labour has enough seats to not need to make deals with the Green or Communist parties, so a “no confidence” vote isn’t likely, at least no anytime soon.
I expect Labour to “fundamentally transform” the UK as much as possible in the next 5 years, throwing as many people guilty of wrong think into prison as possible, while freeing real criminals to terrorize Charles subjects, while opening the gates wider than ever for immigrants. Maybe he can raise the VAT to 30% to feed and house the “New British”
Some of our bums get 6 years.
IIRC, their “Senators”, the House of Lords, are not elected.
That said, it is very hard to throw out the bums. Most incumbents are “throw out proof”
‘It looks like here there was no bidder at the foreclosure sale and because of that, the trustee’s deed upon sale shows that it went back to the lender,’ said Gordon Gerson, whose commercial real estate law firm, Gerson Law, represents financial institutions.
CRE auctions going bid-less means true price discovery can’t be ascertained for the collateral on all those loans. Another “Oh dear” moment in time is upon us, frens!
“Elon Musk’s government-efficiency commission could end up costing some federal workers their jobs. More than 2 million Americans collect their paychecks from the federal government, so Business Insider looked into which agencies employ the most people and what they pay on average.
In any organization, 20% of the people are responsible for 80% of productivity. So as a base case, fire the bottom 80% of FedGov performers, and all of the DEI hires, who are unqualified in the first place.
‘People saying, ‘Well, I have my green card. I’m able to be here. I just don’t want to deal with the hassle. Maybe part of my family doesn’t have it, so I’m just going to go back to where I come from,’ Dunmoyer said.”
What a tragedy to lose our Democrat-on-Arrival dependency voters.
Don’t let the door smack you in the @sw on your way out. How many of your extended “family” are on Medicaid, food stamps, Obamaphones, etc?
The Department of Education needs to be shut down and fumigated. States can manage their own schools and refuse to implement globalist agendas in our NEA indoctrination mills.
https://x.com/WallStreetMav/status/1859266170769018936
‘During the pandemic period, the market was such a strong sellers’ market that a seller wouldn’t even consider a conditional sale,’ he said. ‘It just didn’t happen.’”
I’m going to thoroughly enjoy seeing the FOMO lemmings being evicted from their foreclosed shacks, after making housing unaffordable for the prudent portion of the population.
Bring Back Insane Asylums!! (Election Tantrums Keep Getting Worse 😂)
Lionhart Media
6 hours ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ifrMzl46k
11:35.
These never get old. We need AI to do something useful, like identify these TDS sufferers & get them the mental health intervention they clearly need, after first declaring them incompetent to vote or breed by reason of insanity.
Hit the bricks, globalist scum media propagandists.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/we-could-be-fired-tomorrow-morning-joe-awkwardly-jokes-about-comcast-selling-off-msnbc/
I’m old enough to remember when the MS in MSNBC meant “Microsoft”. It was a rather different beast back then.
Being that channels like MSNBC are only on cable/satellite, and the cord cutting continues, it does seem that the handwriting is on the wall for them
Any mention of MSNBC means Courtney Reagan to me.
Chunk Uygur ExpIodes on Democrat “Election Guru” Allan Lichtman! 😂 MUST SEE!
Mark Dice
18 hours ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mx3DcngUK4
9:13.
Olympic level crying competition.
Using my Nostradamus-like powers of prognostication, I foresee the stamping of little feet reaching a crescendo in 2025 as China’s PBOC becomes the first central bank to lose control of its housing bubble & Ponzi markets. Coming soon to a Fed-blown asset bubble near you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhyQzkFVVaY&t=89s
From Crain’s New York:
Related sells four-building Prospect Heights rental portfolio at nearly 50% loss
Libtard Bay Aryans elected a Soros-backed DA, with predictable consequences.
https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1859346009949684142
The 2020 election was stolen.
Yep, now the deep state has to explain 15M extra ballots.
‘I’m faced with the fact that I can’t rebuild my home. I’m paying for a rental and mortgage, almost equal to my mortgage payment. I’m not going to be able to live…I’m going to have to take a second job. Nothing is moving; we’re so frozen’
Normally in these situations Jill I would point out that it’s still way cheaper than renting. But you are renting as well so yer fooked.
‘Then it increased to $250 and come this January it will be $416, we can’t afford that,’ he added. ‘It doesn’t make sense for what we get. We have a pool and one of them doesn’t even work. We don’t even have a gate or onsite security. There’s no justification for it.’ Mary Bryndle lives on a fixed income and said she feels as if she is being pushed out. ‘We have a large number of social security residents and that’s their only income. It’s basically half of their mortgage’
See here’s where Mary and whatshisname are really the winnahs! They are raking in that sweet equity right now, as I type. These are past fixed expenses; think of the profits if you can stop eating?
‘deVeer doubts the Central Okanagan will see the buying frenzy that took place during and in the first few years after the pandemic…‘COVID, obviously, had a massive impact and that’s probably a housing market we will never see again. Hopefully, we don’t. I think for most people it was a crazy time to work, it was a crazy time to buy’
If you were to say this to a pre- mass formation psychosis person Cassidy, they would likely ask, what the heck does a virus have to do with igloo prices?
‘That’s a sharp reversal from the pandemic years when buyers, desperate to buy a home, were willing to forgo even basic house inspections, said Phil Bailey, a real estate agent with HouseSigma Brokerage. ‘During the pandemic, you couldn’t entertain a financing condition or even home inspection condition,’ said Bailey. It was an assessment echoed by Drew Johnson, broker of record for Coldwell Banker Power Realty. ‘During the pandemic period, the market was such a strong sellers’ market that a seller wouldn’t even consider a conditional sale,’ he said. ‘It just didn’t happen’
Gosh Phil and Drew, I hope no one overpaid in such an environment!
‘Although Kerry was insured for both floods, she says getting insurance now is impossible because of high premiums and the two open claims. ‘No insurer will cover that property for flood,’ she says. As a result, the house – which had been valued at £152k at the start of 2024 – is now ‘worth nothing,’ says Kerry. ‘The same people who valued it before now said we might get £60k. That doesn’t cover the £90k mortgage or Help To Buy loan. I don’t know how we’re going to get rid of it’
It sounds like you’ll have to write a big whopping check and get some boxes Kerry.
‘U’Ren purchased a tiny home for $28,000 from Spencer Porter in 2022 and said she only received a partial frame. She hopes the criminal proceedings will help her and other alleged victims. ‘I feel there is a hope that justice may happen,’ she said. ‘There has been a devastating impact on people … they feel alone and unsupported
Bargaining <- Lyndy you are here.
These Condos Will Cost You Way More (GTA Condo Real Estate Market Update)
Team Sessa Real Estate
42 minutes ago TORONTO
This episode looks at the current GTA Condo Markets – Toronto, York Region & Peel Region for the week ending Nov 13, 2024. We also discuss how people complain about maintenance fees on older buildings but don’t realize it’s because their units are often times much larger than in newer buildings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PnQqnGKLHM
16:19.
Jose Ibarra Sentenced to Life in Prison for Laken Riley Murder
Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, has been convicted of murder in the February killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard handed down the guilty verdict on Nov. 20. Ibarra had waived his right to a jury trial, leaving Haggard to try the case and determine the verdict.
Haggard handed down the sentence about an hour after finding Ibarra guilty on all 10 charges. These included one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, and one count each of kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstructing an emergency call, and tampering with evidence.
An ICE spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times that Ibarra was arrested by ICE agents in September 2022 after illegally crossing the border near El Paso, Texas. Following his arrest, he was paroled and released for further immigration processing.
In August 2023, Ibarra was arrested by New York police and charged with “acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17” and a motor vehicle license violation. However, he was released by the NYPD before immigration officers could file a detainer to initiate deportation proceedings.
After Ibarra’s Feb. 23 arrest, ICE lodged a detainer, meaning Ibarra could face deportation after completing his sentence.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-laken-riley-killing-5763092
Are you loading up on stocks in the most expensive market of all time?
The FedGov has inflated stonks and other assets too!