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If You Can Sell Now, Sell Now

A report from Denver 7 in Colorado. “A Nov. 2024 report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors shows November was a good month to be a buyer in Denver. Of the homes sold, roughly 50% had at least one price reduction before going under contract, and about 60% of sellers provided concessions to buyers. Lori Abbey, a Compass realtor in Denver, told Denver7 that the median number of days gave buyers more options and more time to decide. ‘That gives buyers some time to be a little more picky than they’ve been able to be in the last little while. It gave them a few more choices,’ she said. ‘They have not had a lot of choices for the past bunch of years. It was whatever house was there in the area they were going, that’s what they’re buying. Now, they had choices.'”

The Sun Sentinel in Florida. “The months’ supply of inventory increased in both Palm Beach and Broward counties this year in comparison to 2023, according to the Broward, Palm Beaches & St. Lucie Realtors. ‘If you can put your buyer hat on or your shoes on, you could say, ‘Oh OK, I went out and looked at three homes this week, and I didn’t really like any of them, but I’ve been noticing there’s more properties coming on. I see more signs up,’ said Whitney Dutton, the residential sales director for Native Realty. ‘It completely removes a sense of urgency and fear of loss from the market. And when you remove sense of urgency and fear of loss, the buyer gets to be a little more picky.’ This ‘pickiness’ can lend itself to more negotiating power for a buyer or renter, Dutton said. ‘I’m telling a lot of our buyers, don’t be afraid to make offers,’ he said.”

“Interest rates have lowered slightly in recent months, and are hovering around the ‘low-to-mid sixes,’ Dutton said, and what it’s led to is houses taking longer to sell. ‘Whenever houses are taking longer to sell, sellers get more motivated and buyers get better deals,’ he said. For the next several months, Dutton doesn’t see the market changing much for sellers. ‘I don’t think waiting right now is going to help sellers out. I think if you cannot sell your house today in this market, I don’t necessarily know that in six months it’s going to be worth 5% more,’ he said. ‘If you can sell now, sell now.'”

The Bradenton Herald in Florida. “According to the Realtor Association of Sarasota and Manatee’s November report, Hurricanes Helene and Milton were followed by a slowdown in local home sales. Manatee County townhouses and condos saw a decrease in closed sales and a drop in the median sales price. There were 162 townhomes and condos in closed sales, marking a 24.7% dip compared to October 2023. The median sales price also fell, dropping 11.4% to $327,990. Active listings rose 39.5% to 1,285, which amounts to six months supply of inventory. The median sales price in Sarasota fell to $490,000, a 5.8% decrease, with closed sales dropping 4.3% to 515 in October compared to the preceding year for single-family homes. ‘The latest marketing reports continue to show a stabilization in the market, month after month,’ RASM president Tony Barrett said in a news release. ‘A decrease in median home prices or longer days on the market shouldn’t be seen as a setback, but rather as an opportunity for adjustment.'”

From WFAA TV. “Three North Texas women, including one known as the ‘Short Sale Queen,’ have been indicted on mortgage fraud allegations, according to federal authorities. Nicole Espinosa, 35, of Plano; Stephanie Smith, 44, of Midlothian; and Selena Baltazar-Hill, 28, of Dallas, face two counts in the indictment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas: Conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured financial institution.”

“Prosecutors say the three suspects researched and found properties that were going through the foreclosure short-sale process. They would then approach the owners about listing the properties for sale, according to prosecutors. After signing an agreement with the owners, prosecutors say, the suspects would submit ‘various fraudulent documents’ to financial institutions and mortgage companies to stop the foreclosure process. Prosecutors say the suspects fraudulently submitted documents for at least 88 properties, which totaled more than $8 million in sales. The suspects obtained at least $390,000 in commissions and processing fees, causing a loss of at least $2.5 million to financial institutions. The suspects face up to 30 years in federal prison, according to the release.”

KSWB in California. “The City of Escondido passed regulations on short-term rentals for the first time in the city’s history. The proposal has generated strong feelings from both sides of the argument. ‘I live next-door to an Airbnb and it’s a nightmare. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever had in my life,’ said a man named Michael during public comment. Part of the ordinance creating some controversy involved not allowing STRs within 500 feet of a school, which would affect almost 30 current rentals. ‘By targeting one or two homes, you’re saying that those are party homes. You’re effectively impacting 24 other families,’ said Sky Management owner Mo Rashid.”

“Right now there are an estimated 181 short-term rentals within Escondido that have gone unregulated. ‘We never know who’s going to be there. There are 10 trash cans out at one time, they’re parking in the street, they’re making a lot of noise. My concern is for the children in our community,’ said Carolyn Rangel.”

Los Angeles Daily News. “The bag of tricks that California politicians are using to con voters into approving higher taxes and spending would impress David Copperfield. Twice this year we’ve seen politicians pledge ‘accountability’ for massive spending on homelessness in order to win votes for more massive spending on homelessness, while delaying the release of critical audits until after the election. The county auditor-controller’s report on spending by LAHSA, which is a joint powers authority created by the city and county of L.A. in 1993, reveals serious lapses in management.”

“For example, LAHSA handed out more than $50 million in cash advances to ‘various subrecipients’ starting in Fiscal Year 2017-18 without establishing formal agreements for repayment. As of July 8, LAHSA has recovered only 5% of that money. Needless to say, LAHSA did not develop ‘an adequate contract monitoring plan’ for the contracts they couldn’t even list accurately. The salaries that taxpayers provide for LAHSA executives are very generous. In 2023, the CEO, CFO and Executive Director all took home more than $300,000 in pay and benefits. Will anybody be fired? The L.A. County Board of Supervisors now plans to study whether a new county agency should take over some of the functions of LAHSA. But there’s no plan to shut LAHSA down. So taxpayers may end up with double the bureaucracy.”

Philadelphia Inquirer in Pennsylvania. “A long-planned apartment project in the Italian Market appears to be shelved, with the developer instead planning a low-slung retail complex on the southeastern corner of Ninth Street and Washington Avenue. Since 2015, New York-based Midwood Investment & Development had planned an apartment building for the property. The company declined to comment on the rationale behind their change of plans. The plans have been paused for years, even as Philadelphia experienced an apartment building boom that resulted in a glut of market-rate units that developers have struggled to fill at their asking rents. Midwood itself recently completed a 376-unit tower to the north in eastern Center City.”

Blog TO in Canada. “Developers have been scrambling to draw attention to the dire state of Ontario’s new condo market, in which many projects have been postponed, fully cancelled or have been put into receivership as sales have waned and construction activity plummets as a result. The latest casualty to dwindling buyer interest appears to be a 37-storey tower from high-profile Canadian firm Broccolini, which was slated to rise from the corner of Queen and River Streets in downtown Toronto. The Riv, as it was dubbed, would have brought some 400 units to the Regent Park neighbourhood by 2028. But, it looks like the developer has recently axed the project and taken down its dedicated website.”

“As one person aptly noted in the comments, Toronto’s persistently unrealistic housing prices, even for the smallest of condos, are likely what’s keeping so many people — investors included — out of the market at current. ‘MAYBE it’s the $500k studio unit that’s beyond overpriced that’s the problem,’ they wrote. ‘No one but an Airbnb marketer wants that sh*t. Please, please build for end users in mind. What? End users won’t wait 3-4 years? Don’t they wait for other products?'”

Insauga in Canada. “The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board said 5,875 homes were sold in November throughout the Greater Toronto Area, up 40.1 per cent compared with 4,194 in the same month last year. The board says lower borrowing costs made properties more affordable for buyers. But for those who purchased homes at record-high prices in early 2022, the lowered costs may have come too late. Homes have been selling at a loss and for under the asking price recently. A Brampton home sold for a $487,000 loss in September, and a home sold for $700,000 under the asking price in Mississauga in October. In a more recent example, the home at 5 Bassett Cres. in Brampton sold for a $520,000 loss in November.”

“‘This one is going to hurt. Bought for $1.8M just days after it hit the market in 2022. The lender took over and just sold it for a mind-blowing $520K LOSS,’ said real estate commentator Shazi on X. Sadly, the home was listed as a power of sale in November. Power of sale a mortgage clause that permits the lender to foreclose on and sell a property when the borrower defaults on the loan. Online real estate records show the home sold on Feb. 7, 2022 for $1,800,000 — it was listed for $1,799,913. It was listed for $1,399,000 in July 2024 and listed again on Nov. 19 for $1,283,999. It sold for $1,280,000 on Nov. 27.”

From BBC News. “Robbie Anderson told the BBC he felt ‘taken advantage of’ after his house sale fell through despite having the insulation fitted under the previous government’s Green Homes Grant scheme. Estimates suggest as many as 250,000 homes in the UK have this type of insulation, with much of it installed under the previous government’s official scheme. But some of the UK’s biggest mortgage firms are reluctant to deal with homes with spray foam insulation due to concerns over poor fittings leaving moisture trapped and roof timbers at risk of decay. When they put their house on the market this summer, they quickly received an offer at asking price. But Robbie said he was ‘shocked’ when the buyers’ lenders rejected the property and they pulled out of the purchase.”

“He told the BBC he felt a ‘little bit betrayed’ and confused over what to do next, with 12 months remaining on their current mortgage. Philippa from Wiltshire also had open cell spray foam fitted in her loft in 2021, with the £8,662 cost covered by the Green Homes Grant scheme. She recently accepted an offer from first-time buyers on her property, but said Nationwide would not lend to them without further paperwork on the insulation. Philippa said she cannot afford to remove the insulation and has reduced her asking price to cover the cost on any future buyer’s side. ‘I feel like I’ve been conned by the government,’ she said.”

ABC News in Australia. “Shortly before its abrupt collapse in August, Queensland battery manufacturer Redflow Energy appeared to be riding high. The 19-year-old company was capitalising on global demand for large-scale battery systems, with multi-million-dollar contracts in California and a growing list of prominent customers at home. But, largely out of public view, the company was in trouble. Batteries sold with 10-year warranties were sometimes failing within months of installation. According to financials in a recent administrators’ report, the company was spending more on repairing and replacing batteries than it earned selling them. Redflow’s assets are now being liquidated after the administrator was unable to find a buyer for the business.”

“Not even Redflow staff saw the end coming. John, a former Redflow employee whose name has been changed to protect his identity, says the news came as a shock on August 23. ‘At no point was there any hint that we were in financial strife,’ he says. ‘It’s a lot of money people are going to lose.’ Some of Redflow’s customers say they are now stuck with broken batteries covered by warranties that are probably worth little. On August 22, Calvin Melen paid Redflow (through his installer) $25,000 for three ZBM3 batteries to be delivered to his Brisbane home on August 26. ‘After they took my money, it wasn’t even a business day before they went into administration,’ Calvin’s installer, who asked to remain anonymous, says.”

“Calvin’s paid-for batteries are now sitting in a Redflow warehouse, part of the company’s assets to be liquidated. To make matters worse, Calvin’s other three Redflow batteries died in September, six months after installation. ‘We’ve lost $60,000 on three dead batteries and three we never saw,’ Calvin says. ‘If you didn’t laugh about it you’d cry.’ Simon Hackett served as Redflow’s CEO until 2018 and was employed by Redflow as a technical consultant at the time of the collapse. ‘It was always a high-risk investment,’ Mr Hackett, an investor in the company who stands to lose $11 million, says. ‘It’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Notwithstanding it was a very bloody expensive cookie for me.'”

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This Post Has 65 Comments

    1. Especially when they’re starving….

      “I don’t think waiting right now is going to help sellers out. I think if you cannot sell your house today in this market, I don’t necessarily know that in six months it’s going to be worth 5% more,’ he said. ‘If you can sell now, sell now.’”

      That sounds like starving realtor who hasn’t had a listing for months talk to me.

  2. ‘I live next-door to an Airbnb and it’s a nightmare. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever had in my life’

    It’s still way cheaper than renting Mike.

  4. The Amish criminal element strikes again.

    “Three North Texas women, including one known as the ‘Short Sale Queen,’ have been indicted on mortgage fraud allegations, according to federal authorities. Nicole Espinosa, 35, of Plano; Stephanie Smith, 44, of Midlothian; and Selena Baltazar-Hill, 28, of Dallas, face two counts in the indictment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas: Conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured financial institution.”

  7. The CEOs of rapacious FIRE sector companies may own Congress through their lobbyists and donations, but the people they’re pitilessly screwing over might not take their shafting lying down. Corporate security looks to be a lucrative market going forward – especially as people who have nothing to lose, lose it.

    https://nypost.com/2024/12/05/us-news/unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompsons-assassin-may-have-left-message-on-bullets-used-in-murder-sources/

    1. People who have been pushed to the breaking point are going to snap. The capture of our government-for-hire and the uniparty by the “monied interests” and corporations will have predictable results as more and more people are pushed past the breaking point. This isn’t a left/right thing. It’s the 99% vs. unchecked predatory capitalism.

      https://x.com/LetsVoteOnThis/status/1864497536385397038

    3. One step closer to the South Africanization of our major cities. Next comes the South Africanizatoin of our rural areas as productive land distribution takes over…

    4. “Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.”

      “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” —Abraham Lincoln

    1. Hunter will end up in a hardcore federal prison within 2-yrs, IMHO. His repugnant behavior won’t change; the die has been cast.

    1. Joe can’t pardon those who created 15M plus phony ballots to flip an American presidential election. The public won’t stand for it.

    1. Unless his “vaccine” is proven responsible for the deaths and maiming of tens of millions of people.

      It’s a medical genocide.

  12. Philippa from Wiltshire also had open cell spray foam fitted in her loft in 2021, with the £8,662 cost covered by the Green Homes Grant scheme.

    It’s always with someone else’s money in the UK.

    Don’t they have fiberglass insulation over there? Spray on foam? Really?

  13. Fauci is even now pulling in several hundred thousand $$$ in his late retirement . As the highest pd. civil Servant ,he was pulling in 400K per year , Should have his name changed to Falsie ,is was all a lie…

  14. As for the NYC offing, I think someone was denied coverage ,for a family member maybe, They will get found, took it way too serious , all the way to the top guy…..

    1. Unfettered corporate greed doesn’t have to reckon with our captured, complicit uniparty which is supposed to look after the general welfare, per the Constitution. But if enough screwed-over members of the public start resorting to vigilante justice, that might make CEOs start counting the cost of corporate rapaciousness.

    2. Murdered Insurance CEO Had Deployed an AI to Automatically Deny Benefits for Sick People.

      https://www.yahoo.com/news/murdered-insurance-ceo-had-deployed-175638581.html

      Just over a year before United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered this week in Midtown Manhattan, a lawsuit filed against the insurance giant he helmed revealed just how draconian its claims-denying process had become.

      Last November, the estates of two former UHC patients filed suit in Minnesota alleging that the insurer used an AI algorithm to deny and override claims to elderly patients that had been approved by their doctors.

      The algorithm in question, known as nH Predict, allegedly had a 90 percent error rate — and according to the families of the two deceased men who filed the suit, UHC knew it.

      As that lawsuit made its way through the courts, anger regarding the massive insurer’s predilection towards denying claims has only grown, and speculation about the assassin’s motives suggests that he may have been among those upset with UHC’s coverage.

      Though we don’t yet know the identity of the person who shot Thompson nor his reasoning, reports claim that he wrote the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” on the shell casing of the bullets used to shoot the CEO — a message that makes it sound a lot like the killer was aggrieved against the insurance industry’s aggressive denials of coverage to sick patients.

      Beyond the shooter’s own motives, it’s clear from the shockingly celebratory reaction online to Thompson’s murder that anger about the American insurance and healthcare system has reached the point of literal bloodlust.

      As The American Prospect so aptly put it, “only about 50 million customers of America’s reigning medical monopoly might have a motive to exact revenge upon the UnitedHealthcare CEO.”

      And the alarming cruelty of the claims around the company’s AI algorithm — we asked the company whether it’s still using it, but received no immediate reply — perfectly illustrates why they’re so angry.

      1. UHC denies 32% of customer claims – one of the highest among insurers who are raking in record profits. Seems there’s a downside to being massively hated by the public you’ve been screwing over since time immemorial.

  15. Brian Thompson NYC shooting latest: UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killer seen in new footage as police ‘close in on suspect’

    Police appear to be homing in on the identity of the suspect who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

    Officers are said to be seeking a search warrant for the New York City facility where they believed the killer may have been hiding, sources told ABC News on Thursday.

    The killer left behind a cryptic message, with the words “deny,” “depose,” and “defend” inscribed on live rounds and shell casing left at the scene, police said.

    Police are said to have found an image of the gunman without a mask, as authorities home in on finding United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer, according to a report.

    Now, police have captured one usable image where he isn’t wearing a mask in his hostel, a law enforcement officer told the outlet.

    The gunman is said to have stayed in a multi-person room with two other men, the source said.

    Paulette Thompson said that her husband had recently received threats from angry customers over complaints she believed may have had to do with “a lack of coverage.”

    “I don’t know details,” Paulette Thompson told NBC News. “I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”

    UnitedHealthcare headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota, where Thompson, 50, was station had more than 100 demonstrators descend in April and July to protest an alleged “epidemic” of claims denials.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/brian-thompson-nyc-shooting-latest-unitedhealthcare-ceo-s-killer-left-chilling-message-behind-at-scene/ar-AA1vgy0W

  16. Ontario Premier Doug Ford calls Donald Trump ‘funny guy’ in Fox News interview

    Ontario Premier Doug Ford called U.S. President-elect Donald Trump a “funny guy” on Wednesday in an interview with Fox News for his comment that Canada should become the United States’s 51st state.

    “We’ve always had an incredible relationship between Canada and the U.S., and we want to continue that. We want to make sure that we build the Can-Am Fortress per se, if you want to call it that,” Ford told Cavuto Wednesday afternoon.

    “The real focus should be on China, it should be on Mexico, trying to bring in cheap products through Mexico, slapping stickers that they [are] made in Mexico and shipping it up to America, and/or Ontario and Canada.”

    Then the conversation steered to Trudeau’s surprise visit with Trump, which came right on the heels of the president-elect’s threat of tariffs on Canadian goods. Cavuto questioned the premier about what he thought of Trump’s joke that Canada should become a U.S. state if the tariffs are going to be so debilitating to the local economy, to which Ford said Trump simply has a “good sense of humour” and likened him to a “funny guy.”

    “I guess he’s still upset that in 1812 we burnt down the White House and he’s holding a grudge after 212 years,” Ford said, referring to when British troops set fire to the White House, then called the Presidential Mansion, on Aug. 24, 1814, the final summer of the War of 1812.

    https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-premier-doug-ford-calls-donald-trump-funny-guy-in-fox-news-interview-1.7134263

  17. General Motors Takes $5 Billion Hit From Ailing China Business

    General Motors said it expects to take more than $5 billion in noncash charges in the fourth quarter because of weakness in its China business that will force the automaker to close plants and offer fewer models.

    GM on Wednesday said it will write down the value of its stake in partnerships with China’s state-owned SAIC Motor by $2.6 billion to $2.9 billion, or nearly half of their value. The move is in recognition of the company’s dimmer long-term outlook for the business, it said in a securities filing.

    GM separately expects a $2.7 billion hit from restructuring actions such as factory closures, aimed at returning its China operations to profitability.

    GM has been losing money in China throughout this year, a marked change from the past decade, when the company reliably padded its bottom line with about $2 billion a year from the country.

    Homegrown Chinese companies such as BYD—once viewed as inferior to foreign giants like GM and Volkswagen—have increasingly captured the market with affordable and tech-forward vehicles. Chinese consumers have also been quick to adopt electrics and plug-in hybrids, catching foreign automakers off guard, analysts have said.

    The retrenchment in China is particularly jarring for GM, which leaned on the world’s largest auto market as its core growth driver for years, especially in the wake of its 2009 bankruptcy. For more than a decade, the Detroit automaker’s vehicle sales in China eclipsed its U.S. totals, before that trend reversed last year.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/general-motors-to-take-5-billion-charge-on-china-business/ar-AA1vfXDJ

    1. Chinese consumers have also been quick to adopt electrics

      Since they live in high rises with no garages, where and when do they charge their EV’s?

  18. Mexico seizes record fentanyl haul after Trump’s tariff threat

    Mexican troops have seized a record amount of fentanyl pills in the northern state of Sinaloa, equivalent to more than 20 million doses of the drug.

    Speaking at a morning press conference on Wednesday, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said that the haul had a street value of almost $400 million (€380m).

    Late on Tuesday, soldiers and marines in Sinaloa, a hotspot for fentanyl manufacturing, spotted two men with guns, according to the Mexican authorities.

    After chasing the men into two houses, the troops discovered 300 kilogrammes of fentanyl in one and a truck with 800 kilogrammes of fentanyl in the other.

    Two men were arrested and several guns were seized, the authorities said.

    Security analyst David Saucedo said the timing of the fentanyl bust was no coincidence.

    “It is clear that the Mexican government has been managing the timing of fentanyl seizures,” he said. “But under the pressure by Donald Trump, it appears President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration is willing to increase the capture of drug traffickers and drug seizures that Washington is demanding.”

    Saucedo warned that fentanyl operations of this type would do little to stop the production of the drug, which is made with precursor chemicals, largely imported from China.

    “It’s a very, very big seizure,” he said. “But if they don’t dismantle the labs, this kind of production will continue.”

    Before the latest drug bust, fentanyl seizures in Mexico this year had been low, with only 130 kilogrammes seized across the country between January and June, far less than the 2,329 kilogrammes captured in 2023.

    Seizures of the synthetic opioid, which is thought to cause 70,000 overdose deaths each year in the US, have been on the rise in America.

    At the start of July, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) discovered 4 million blue fentanyl pills in a pick-up truck in Arizona. The CBP said it was the largest mass seizure in its history.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/mexico-seizes-record-fentanyl-haul-after-trumps-tariff-threat/ar-AA1vjMNj

  19. “It is an investigation that has been going on for a long time, and yesterday it yielded these results. It is the largest seizure of fentanyl pills ever made,” Sheinbaum stressed. García Harfuch, an official who feels comfortable under the spotlight and who survived an attack by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in 2020, was in charge of announcing the news on Tuesday night. “These actions will continue until the violence in Sinaloa decreases,” he said. A week after Sheinbaum took office, the secretary was seen walking the streets of Culiacán, the capital of the state in northwestern Mexico, to send the message to the disputing groups about the change in the government’s strategy to confront the war for control of the Sinaloa Cartel.

    Hours before the announcement of the raid, Culiacán woke up to the sound of gunfire and a loud explosion, which caused panic among the population and led to people thinking it was a car bomb attack, which was later ruled out by federal authorities. The incident left no injuries, but increased the questions against the governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, a member of Morena, the party of Sheinbaum and López Obrador.

    The government was in need of a success story like the fentanyl haul to counter the terror that drug traffickers have imposed on the civilian population in several states, as well as the narrative that the authorities have lost control of parts of the country, a message that has resonated in Washington, especially among the most conservative sectors. In the first weeks of Sheinbaum’s presidency, beginning on October 1, there was the decapitation of a mayor in Guerrero, the explosion of two car bombs in Guanajuato, and massacres such as the one at the Los Cantaritos bar in Querétaro, a state that is not usually among the country’s hot spots.

    The raid in Sinaloa took place in two separate operations, in coordination with elements of the National Guard, the Army, the Secretariat of Public Security and the Attorney General’s Office. In addition to the seizure of weapons and tactical equipment, two criminal leaders were also captured, Elier Jassiel Esquerra Félix and Javier Alonso Vázquez Sánchez, linked to the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, former allies and later enemies of the Sinaloa Cartel during the days of El Chapo. The arrests took place in Guasave, in the north of the state, which was plunged into violence after the capture of El Mayo last July in the United States. Amid accusations of treason, the two factions that led the cartel, Los Mayos and Los Chapitos, have been waging an all-out war since September 9.

    At the start of her term, Sheinbaum placed the blame for the Sinaloa crisis on Washington, accusing the Biden administration of stirring up the drug hornet’s nest and capturing Zambada without previously notifying the Mexican government. But it is a message that she will not be able to maintain against Trump, who is much more volatile and impulsive than his predecessor. The Republican has threatened a tariff war and has made the renegotiation of the USMCA free trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada conditional on his partners cracking down on key fronts such as migration and the trafficking of fentanyl, a drug that causes tens of thousands of deaths in the U.S. each year and is at the center of the latest crusade against Mexican cartels. Sheinbaum said this week that her team is seeking a meeting with the next president of the United States in the near future.

    https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-12-05/mexicos-sheinbaum-sends-security-czar-to-deal-with-violence-crisis-in-sinaloa.html

  20. Sensational banana art still echoes as Art Basel Miami Beach opens

    Shunting aside qualms about an art market slump, bazillionaires and the merely rich lined up Wednesday morning as a soft electronic bong signaled the start of the 22nd edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, the main attraction of the annual hometown extravaganza known as Miami Art Week.

    Five years after a banana taped to an Art Basel Miami Beach gallery booth wall stirred controversy and sensation in and outside the art world, the reverberations are still being felt.

    Parisian gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin caught a lot of flack for selling the duct-taped banana for $120,000. Just last month, that work — Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian”—sold at auction for an eye-popping $6.2 million, evidence that perhaps the right art still commands a high price.

    “In a sense, I undersold,” Perrotin told the Miami Herald on Wednesday at his convention center booth. He marveled at the price Chinese billionaire and cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun paid for the installation at the Nov. 20 Sotheby’s auction in New York.

    “It was a symbol of our times,” the gallerist said. “I created a monster.”

    Perrotin said he was simply seeking to spur comment and reflection about the history of art. He was not trying to rile people the way some artists do.

    “It was not meant to be provocative; it was just a banana on a wall,” Perrotin said. “We didn’t know it would have this power.”

    Perrotin also made a confession: In 2019, he ate the first banana that was affixed to the wall when it started to get too ripe, out of sight of curious onlookers. That was before performance artist David Datuna caused a minor scandal when he removed the banana from the wall and consumed it in front of a stunned crowd at the fair.

    In what may or may not be a cheeky comment on the art-world banana furor, one fair sponsor, Chiquita Bananas, installed a cart filled with the yellow tropical fruit outside the Grand Ballroom, which hosts the fair’s exclusive collector’s lounge. Those bananas are free.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/i-created-a-monster-sensational-banana-art-still-echoes-as-art-basel-miami-beach-opens/ar-AA1vhpiT

    1. Ben, I feel like you’re selling me short by not partnering with me to offer HBB regulars The Francis Soyer Art Institute’s once-on-a-lifetime deal of a $620 duct-taped pear (order now, supplies are limited).

  21. Elon Musk is getting some (tentative) bipartisan interest as he heads to Capitol Hill

    Republicans are set to fete Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Thursday in a Capitol Hill gathering, but there are also signs that the pair’s extra-governmental “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is attracting interest from across the political aisle.

    “One of the things that’s been encouraging about seeing DOGE come into existence is how nonpartisan and even apolitical the interest in this mission has been,” Ramaswamy said Wednesday afternoon in an appearance at the Aspen Security Forum before his planned Capitol Hill stop today.

    Ramaswamy was talking primarily about business leaders he said are flooding his inbox, but it could equally be applied to at least a few Capitol Hill denizens.

    “Elon Musk is right,” posted Sen. Bernie Sanders earlier this week in reference to trimming military spending.

    “Reducing ineffective government spending should not be a partisan issue,” added Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat who was the first Democrat to joined the House’s now-bipartisan “DOGE caucus.”

    The expressions of bipartisan interest come as both parties have pushed against government waste for years, especially for programs they were less fond of in the first place.

    Another DOGE-curious Democrat is Rep. Ro Khanna, who also pointed to the US military as an area to cut in multiple interviews this week, telling Forbes that “defense contractors are fleecing the American people.”

    Khanna also slammed a recent California decision to exclude Tesla from EV tax credits alongside his DOGE comments, earning him praise from Musk who called him “a sensible moderate.”

    Sen. Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, also focused on the military in his post, echoing Musk and Ramaswamy who often point out that the Pentagon recently failed its seventh audit in a row.

    Sanders also posted this weekend “we must defeat the oligarchs,” a sentiment Musk is unlikely to echo.

    Likewise, both Sanders and Khanna are supporters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency which Musk recently said he wants to “delete.”

    As for Congressman Moskowitz, he announced his intention to join up with Republicans on DOGE to highlight one issue in particular: his push to break apart the Department of Homeland Security.

    “It’s not practical to have 22 agencies under this one department,” Moskowitz offered in a statement. “I look forward to working in a bipartisan manner with my colleagues to remove FEMA and Secret Service from DHS” and make them independent agencies.

    For his part, Ramaswamy seemed on Wednesday to be trying to shift the focus in his effort away from simply cutting deficits.

    He used Wednesday’s appearance to argue that exclusively looking at DOGE as a means to cut the deficit “understates the impact we hope to have,” arguing instead that his No. 1 metric for success will be increased GDP growth.

    “I hope that’s why our success is going to be one that isn’t a partisan victory, but it’s something that goes beyond traditional politics,” he added later.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-is-getting-some-tentative-bipartisan-interest-as-he-heads-to-capitol-hill-090019339.html

  22. Supreme Court seems ready to uphold ban on gender-affirming care for minors

    The Supreme Court’s the conservative majority on Wednesday seemed very likely to uphold Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

    In the last few years, fully half of the states have adopted similar bans, and Wednesday’s case provided the first test of those laws. Three Tennessee families—and the Biden administration—are challenging the ban, which bar minors who say their gender doesn’t align with the sex at birth, from having access to puberty blockers and medications needed to transition to the opposite sex.

    Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar led off on Wednesday, telling the justices that the state cannot eliminate medically approved treatments for gender dysphoria while allowing the same medical treatments for minors suffering from other conditions, from early onset puberty to endometriosis.

    Prelogar said the state law singles out one particular use in its ban.

    “It doesn’t matter what parents decide is best for their children,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what patients would choose for themselves. And it doesn’t matter if doctors believe this treatment is essential for individual patients.”

    She got immediate push-back from the court’s conservatives.

    Justice Clarence Thomas went first, questioning whether the law is “simply a case of age classification when it comes to these treatments, as opposed to a ban?”

    Chief Justice John Roberts followed up by noting that this ban involves medical judgments, and studies conducted outside the U.S.

    “Doesn’t that make a stronger case, for us to leave those determinations in the legislative bodies, rather than try to determine for ourselves,” he asked.

    Justice Samuel Alito reeled off a list of studies from Sweden, Finland, and the U.K., studies that he said show the damaging effects of these treatments for minors. In light of that, he asked Prelogar if she would like to modify her claim that there is “overwhelming evidence” of the benefits of gender-affirming treatment.

    No, replied Prelogar, noting that while there is a lot of debate about how to deliver this care, “there is consensus that these treatments can be medically necessary” for some minors.

    Defending the ban, Tennessee Solicitor General Matthew Rice said the law “allows the use of drugs and surgeries for some medical purposes, but not for others.” Thus, he maintained, the law is based on purpose, not sex.

    But, Justice Kagan wasn’t buying that argument at all. “The prohibited purpose here is treating gender dysphoria,” she countered. “The whole thing is imbued with sex… It’s a dodge to say its not based on sex.”

    https://www.wfae.org/united-states-world/2024-12-04/supreme-court-seems-ready-to-uphold-ban-on-gender-affirming-care-for-minors

    1. “Gender-affirming care” – Orwellian Newspeak at its worst. Call this what it is: mutilation of confused and impressionable children.

      1. Groomers gonna groom. And at its core, at its root, is Marxism.

        CA State Senator Scott Weiner could not be reached for comment..:

  23. Opinion | Biden Buyer’s Remorse

    More Democrats are now pointing fingers at Joe Biden’s late exit from the race as a reason for their November election debacle. How long before the party understands the full damage of the Biden presidency? The elder Biden on Sunday provided yet more proof via a sweeping pardon of his son Hunter. Joe’s infamous lack of judgement has claimed a lot of casualties over time, and the list is only growing with this pardon:

    Biden justified expunging Hunter’s tax and gun convictions on grounds his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” following pressure from the president’s “political opponents.” Yet the cases were assembled by career federal investigators and prosecutors, brought by special counsel David Weiss, unopposed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, overseen by federal judges, and (in the gun case) decided by a jury of Hunter’s peers. Were they all in on the plot? This is the same DOJ that Biden resolutely defended as Jack Smith brought charges against Donald Trump. His pardon was such a self-serving sandbagging of DOJ that Mr. Weiss on Monday swung back with a court filing that noted “in total, eleven (11) different Article III judges appointed by six (6) different presidents, including [Hunter’s] father, considered and rejected” Hunter’s claims of “selective and vindictive prosecution.” And the federal judge overseeing the tax case rebuked President Biden for attempting to “rewrite history.”

    As evidence piled up of Hunter’s unseemly influence peddling, Democrats retreated to praising the system, and citing Joe’s belief in it—in particular his vow not to pardon his son—as evidence he played no part in Hunter’s schemes. “This is why we have a Justice Department. Let’s just let them do their job,” said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin about the naming of Mr. Weiss as special counsel, adding that the GOP had “not laid a glove on Joe Biden as president.” “I defer to Merrick Garland and David Weiss. If Hunter Biden has committed crimes, he should be charged with them,” said New York Rep. Dan Goldman. Asked last year if a pardon would be a mistake, Mr. Goldman said: “Yes, and I don’t think there’s any chance that President Biden is going to do that—unlike his predecessor, who pardoned all of his friends.” These humiliating statements are now playing on cable-TV loop, as Democrats scrabble for new defenses of an indefensible pardon.

    The press had also rushed to praise Biden’s integrity. “People who insist Biden will pardon Hunter after specifically ruling it out are telling on themselves,” John Harwood lectured in June. “They can’t imagine someone acting on principle and keeping his word.” MSNBC legal analyst (and former federal prosecutor) Andrew Weissmann lauded Biden for “not pardoning his son,” because he “is living what it means to have a rule of law in this country.” It’s tough to feel much sympathy for an embarrassed press corps given its long history of ignoring Biden’s failings.

    And imagine how different things might look if the media had aggressively covered the Biden family business back when it counted—during the 2020 election. Standards and norms: Perhaps the biggest loser is the public, which has already lost too much faith in our system of justice. Many Americans will look at this as the latest example of two tiers of justice, one for average Americans (who do go to prison for tax fraud), a second for a political scion. One for Republicans (via unprecedented and untested legal theories against a former president), a second for Democrats. Biden won election in 2020 in no small part on a promise to “restore honor and decency to the White House.” How’d that turn out?

    Biden supporters have spent so much of the past five years reinventing him as an elder statesman, they have little choice now but to express surprise and dismay over this cringeworthy decision. Yet the the harder truth is that the Hunter pardon is in keeping with a lack of judgment and principle that defined Biden’s career and presidency. The Joe who entered the 2020 race was a two-time presidential loser, previously dismissed by voters over his troubled relationship with the truth (exaggeration, plagiarism), his arrogance and his malleable positions. He caused so many headaches as vice president that Obama aides considered dropping him from the 2012 ticket. His main asset in the 2020 primary was being less crazy than the rest of the field. He then outsourced his presidency to a progressive base and pursued policies that provoked inflation, border chaos and global disorder—and earned him the worst approval ratings since Jimmy Carter. An honest history won’t be kind.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/opinion-biden-buyer-s-remorse/ar-AA1vhnlG

    1. More Democrats are now pointing fingers at Joe Biden’s late exit from the race as a reason for their November election debacle.

      I love how the shuffling, slack-jawed Dementia Patient shanked Nancy Pelosi & outfoxed the DNC by endorsing the epically incompetent Comrade Kamala before #OurDemocracy could hold their rigged open primary to select a less odious globalist stooge. This parting F-U from Biden, after the palace coup shunted him aside, guaranteed Trump a landslide victory and made it impossible for the globalists & DNC to orchestrate an electoral fraud on the scale required to overcome Comrade Kamala’s deep unpopularity.

  24. And when you remove sense of urgency and fear of loss, the buyer gets to be a little more picky.’

    Three things:

    1. Realtors are liars
    2. Realtors are liars
    3. The “fear of loss” hasn’t been removed. FOMO has been replaced by Fear of Getting Schlonged (FOGS) – which the dissemblers of the NAR are trying desperately to avoid mentioning. Dawning buyer awareness that shacks have far more downside risk than upside potential is a huge impediment to Always Be Closing.

  25. ‘By targeting one or two homes, you’re saying that those are party homes. You’re effectively impacting 24 other families,’ said Sky Management owner Mo Rashid.”

    Die, speculator scum.

  26. A Brampton home sold for a $487,000 loss in September, and a home sold for $700,000 under the asking price in Mississauga in October.

    But…but…muh generational wealth!

  28. Now that the vile racist mayor of SF has been booted they are finally reporting the deficit she left is 876 million dollars. That is around 9 times higher than Ookland! The incoming mayor claims they can’t just cut their way out of it, I think this means house prices will increase significantly there. Buy now or be priced out forever!

    1. BTW they are concerned that the Trump admin will cut federal funding as they attempt to defend being a sanctuary city. This would immediately shoot the deficit to well over 1 billion. I’m sure it will be fine. They had a few people come shop at Macy’s on Black Friday and declared that SF is back! Oh and in case you all missed it, they actually voted in favor of closing HWY 1 to traffic. 🙂

    3. The incoming mayor claims they can’t just cut their way out of it

      Either they do that or they’re gonna run out of money, and then no one will get paid.

  29. [I ran cross this info and decided to pass it along. It’s about an airport in The Maldives that has an elevation of six feet above mean sea level. Despite the howling about rising sea levels huge gobs of money has been continuously poured into construction of this airport.]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velana_International_Airport

    [Here is an article that reports on the projected demise of the Maldives …]

    Facing dire sea level rise threat, Maldives turns to climate change solutions to survive
    The islands could be 80% uninhabitable by 2050 at current global warming rates.

    https://abcnews.go.com/International/facing-dire-sea-level-rise-threat-maldives-turns/story?id=80929487

    1. climate change solutions

      I believe that’s called “give them more money”.

      It’s ironic that they are coral islands. Since coral only grows below water level, the water level must be lower than it used to be.

  30. Regarding Medical Insurance. Whistleblowers have exposed the following:

    -Ins companies deny coverage that’s covered forcing Doctors to have to fight for what they wanted for their patient. Eventually the Drs get tired of going thru the constant denials and give in to the Insurance Companies course of reduced treatment.
    -Ins Companies are getting kick backs on excess billings on services.
    -Currently a number of Health Insurance Companies aren’t making the payments to med Providers, causing those med Providers to deny services to patients, or they have to pay out of pocket.
    – Patients are being forced into hospice care, while being denied life saving measures, that’s pre mature termination of life by denial of entitled medical care. Mostly done to older patients.
    -Pre mature release from hospital stay, without stabilization of patient, to a cycle of repeat emergency events at home.
    – Reduced testing so as not to have correct diagnosis regarding the patient.
    -Gas lighting patients as to Covid 19 vaccine adverse effects telling patients its in their head.
    – Excess use of ventilators, that has a high death rate.
    -Doctors starting to use AI for diagnosis and medications recommended.
    -One size fits all standard of care protocols that doctors follow or they might be at job risk.
    -Various incentives and bonus payments given to Drs and hospital to do dictated care.
    -Not enough med personnel to service patients.
    -Ongoing fraud to the med file as to what is occurring, a fraudulent narrative to protect med system from mal practice lawsuits.
    Hard to believe but this is the type of stuff that is typical now.

    So, not surprising a disgruntled person might of killed the CEO of the biggest Medical Insurance Company.

  31. ‘The latest marketing reports continue to show a stabilization in the market, month after month…A decrease in median home prices or longer days on the market shouldn’t be seen as a setback, but rather as an opportunity for adjustment’

    Good job Tony, talk em’ down outta that tree.

  32. ‘The suspects obtained at least $390,000 in commissions and processing fees, causing a loss of at least $2.5 million to financial institutions. The suspects face up to 30 years in federal prison, according to the release’

    A paltry payout considering the cost.

  33. ‘For example, LAHSA handed out more than $50 million in cash advances to ‘various subrecipients’ starting in Fiscal Year 2017-18 without establishing formal agreements for repayment. As of July 8, LAHSA has recovered only 5% of that money. Needless to say, LAHSA did not develop ‘an adequate contract monitoring plan’ for the contracts they couldn’t even list accurately. The salaries that taxpayers provide for LAHSA executives are very generous. In 2023, the CEO, CFO and Executive Director all took home more than $300,000 in pay and benefits’

    Central planning!

  34. ‘Philippa said she cannot afford to remove the insulation and has reduced her asking price to cover the cost on any future buyer’s side. ‘I feel like I’ve been conned by the government’

    Yer a stopped clock far right election denying anti-death shot Putin puppet knuckle dragging conspiracy theorist Philippa. Own up to yer sin – yer giving it away!

  35. ‘At no point was there any hint that we were in financial strife’

    They’ll keep the phones on and tell you ‘we’ll pay you next week, we got a big check coming in’. If the phones go it’s over.

    ‘It’s a lot of money people are going to lose.’ Some of Redflow’s customers say they are now stuck with broken batteries covered by warranties that are probably worth little. On August 22, Calvin Melen paid Redflow (through his installer) $25,000 for three ZBM3 batteries to be delivered to his Brisbane home on August 26. ‘After they took my money, it wasn’t even a business day before they went into administration…Calvin’s paid-for batteries are now sitting in a Redflow warehouse, part of the company’s assets to be liquidated. To make matters worse, Calvin’s other three Redflow batteries died in September, six months after installation. ‘We’ve lost $60,000 on three dead batteries and three we never saw,’ Calvin says. ‘If you didn’t laugh about it you’d cry.’ Simon Hackett served as Redflow’s CEO until 2018 and was employed by Redflow as a technical consultant at the time of the collapse. ‘It was always a high-risk investment,’ Mr Hackett, an investor in the company who stands to lose $11 million, says. ‘It’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Notwithstanding it was a very bloody expensive cookie for me’

    Normally I’d tell you guys keep yer eyes on the prize, become a winnah! But you both just got fooked.

  37. Rhode Island Sanctuary City Released Guatemalan Illegal Charged With Child Sex Crimes Despite ICE Detainer

    by Dan Lyman
    December 5th, 2024 5:19 PM

    Federal authorities say they apprehended a suspected child sex predator after he was released in a Rhode Island sanctuary city despite an immigration detainer.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the recent arrest of 45-year-old Felix Meletz Guarcas, an illegal alien from Guatemala.

    Meletz Guarcas entered the U.S. at an unknown location and date, indicating he is one of millions of ‘gotaways’ lurking across the country.

    In 2002, Meletz Guarcas was arrested by the Pawtucket Police Department for misdemeanor disorderly conduct and felony assault of police officers and other officials and later convicted of those crimes.

    He was sentenced to six months probation but apparently allowed to remain in the U.S.

    “The Providence Police Department arrested Meletz Guarcas for one count of first-degree sexual assault on a child and five counts of second-degree sexual assault on a child Sept. 3, 2023, and those charges are pending,” ICE explained in a press release.

    ICE lodged a detainer against Meletz Guarcas, but officials ignored the request and he was released back into the community by the Rhode Island Department of Corrections.

    Officers from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston finally caught up with the Guatemalan on Nov. 20 and took him into custody, where he remains pending a hearing before an immigration judge.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/rhode-island-sanctuary-city-released-guatemalan-illegal-charged-with-child-sex-crimes-despite-ice-detainer

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