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Now You Have A Situation Where Investors Are Fleeing

A report from the American Statesman in Texas. “A Houston firm has made its first purchase in Austin. The acquisition is the retail space in a foreclosed mixed-use condominium project on South First Street. Located at 1600 South First St., Willa was developed by Austin-based StoryBuilt, which built numerous dense residential and mixed-use projects in prime locations around town. However, StoryBuilt ran into financial trouble and entered into a voluntary receivership on July 31, 2023, as its problems mounted. The company’s financial collapse prompted the layoffs of dozens of employees, the departure of top executives, and lawsuits filed by condominium owners and investors. Last year, StoryBuilt put 28 commercial and residential properties on the market, in Austin, Seattle, Dallas and Denver. A report filed in court last year by the court-appointed receiver, Los-Angeles-based Stapleton Group, said StoryBuilt did not follow ‘typical accounting practices.'”

“Earlier this year, the Austin Business Journal reported that more recent findings from Stapleton, published March 21, ‘allege that StoryBuilt funded real estate acquisitions prior to raising money from investors, used funds allocated for one project to pay ‘fictitious profits’ to investors of others, frequently blended project funding with other sources and gave preferential treatment to certain investors, among other observations.'”

Community Impact in Texas. “The median sales price of homes in each of Georgetown’s three ZIP codes declined year over year in October, according to data from the Austin Board of Realtors and Unlock MLS. ZIP code 78626 saw the largest decline at 15.25%, with average price dropping from $410,000 in October 2023 to under $350,000 this October. Meanwhile, ZIP code 78633 saw just a 3.19% decline. The median homes sales price in this ZIP code was $15,000 less this October compared to last. Despite seeing a 12.2% decline, median sales prices remained the highest—at $482,875—in ZIP code 78628.”

NBC Miami in Florida. “Owners in one Hollywood condo community are asking state lawmakers for help after learning of a nearly $60 million special assessment just a year or two after going through extensive structural repairs. At least 55 residents are behind this notice of intent to sue the board over the $58 million it is trying to borrow to pay for the projects. ‘You know, all of a sudden, you pay $120,000 more for your apartment,’ condo owner Daniel Lezcano said.”

From WPTV. “The clock is ticking for condominiums across Florida as the deadline to perform building assessments on older properties is approaching. ‘A lot of people are on fixed incomes, they only have Social Security, and they cannot afford this additional assessment,’ Jean Geiger, a resident of the Governor’s Pointe Condominiums in North Palm Beach, said. The fees result in $30,000 per unit, according to Geiger. ‘I know it’s a lot of money, but we want to feel confident, and you want to have peace of mind living any place,’ Geiger said, ‘but I feel a lot of residents will need financial help.’ She said residents were given the option to pay upfront or finance the fee.”

“‘Everybody has to stay and people have to understand, and it’s going to cost,’ Steve Rogers, who lives at the Chalfonte Tower Condominium in Boca Raton, said. Rogers was the president of his condominium association at the time of the Surfside condo collapse. ‘Why would you say these assessments are needed?’ asked WPTV reporter Joel Lopez. ‘I think it’s neglect,’ Rogers said. ‘I think that many of these buildings have been neglected (for) many years. There’s many elderly people and people that bought many, many years ago when prices weren’t where they are today and taxes aren’t where they are today,’ Rogers said. ‘Now they’re coming to this point where it’s costing so much to do and you’re going to see people getting pushed out.'”

From Masslive. “A Kingston man who ran several sober homes in Massachusetts pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston on Thursday for four fraud schemes that involved sober homes in the Greater Boston area, Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levy’s office announced. Daniel Cleggett, 38, formerly of Braintree and Quincy, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of conspiracy to make a false statement to a mortgage lending business (mortgage fraud conspiracy), 25 counts of wire fraud, six counts of unlawful monetary transactions (money laundering) and three counts of making a false statement to a mortgage lending business.”

The Hartford Courant. “A Connecticut man who managed a real estate agency has been sentenced to federal prison in connection with a flipping scheme he was involved in with others in Massachusetts. James Macchio, 46, of Glastonbury faced sentencing Thursday in federal court in Boston where he was handed down a 42-month prison term which will be followed by two years of supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. Federal officials said Macchio and the others involved hid their involvement as the ‘de facto buyers’ of short sale properties from their clients and used their insider knowledge as the owner’s broker to minimize the sale prices, which later helped maximize their gain from the ‘flipping’ process.”

“During the flipping process, officials said Macchio and others further defrauded their clients by submitting fraudulent renovation bids from contractors to their own clients, including from a fake construction company they controlled through a co-conspirator. Once the bid was accepted, they hired different contractors at a much lower cost and pocketed the difference, according to authorities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Macchio and co-conspirators defrauded the Small Business Administration by obtaining pandemic relief loans ‘to fund their ongoing real estate fraud scheme,’ federal officials said.”

The San Francisco Chronicle in California. “San Francisco’s long pandemic hangover continued to suppress new housing construction in 2024, with the city on track to produce fewer units than any year since the aftermath of the Great Recession. Strachan Forgan, a principal at the architecture firm SCB, which has been one of the city’s most prolific multifamily residential designers over the past two decades, said his firm has studied about 20 residential-to-office conversions, but none of them work economically at the moment. Despite multiple laws and a ballot measure making it cheaper and faster to convert office buildings to housing, only two projects are going forward. ‘So far, those buildings are not making the returns needed to allow them to go ahead,’ Forgan said.”

“Currently, about 800 construction trades specialists are without work. ‘If people didn’t realize that construction was a major part of the city’s economy, they realize it now,’ said Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council. Gonzalez said all the multifamily developers are busy winning approvals needed to add units to already entitled but long-delayed housing projects, which should help make them feasible at some point. ‘That is not people doing it for fun, they are doing it because it’s the only way projects have a chance of working right now,’ he said. ‘Multifamily is going to pencil when it pencils.'”

W42ST in New York. “The storied home of the infamous Show World Center sex stores has taken another turn as the 8th Avenue buildings sold for just $46 million — far below the $80 million spent on a redevelopment intended to transform the site into a modern office hub. KRW Realty Advisors and the owners spent $80 million developing office space and new retail opportunities at the two interlinked buildings (303 W42nd St and 300 W43rd St) starting in 2019. They rebranded the offices as ‘The Hive,’ in the hopes of attracting a busy colony of worker bees. but it seems their honey wasn’t enough of a draw, as they sold the buildings to Blake Partners, JAM Real Estate Partners and The Straus Group for just over $48 million, according to sales brokers Cushman & Wakefield. This isn’t the first time a Hell’s Kitchen office building has gone for a discounted price — in the spring, Related Companies sold a 10-story building at 321 W44th Street (between 8th and 9th Ave), home to the Birdland Jazz Club, at a 67% discount.”

The Globe and Mail. “Subsidizing affordable housing with the sale of market housing is a nice idea, but in B.C.’s market downturn, it’s a model that’s showing major cracks. The city of Vancouver’s latest initiative is creating 17 mixed use neighbourhoods, or villages, throughout the city that will include below-market rental housing to be ‘diverse and inclusive.’ Ross McCredie, founder of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, and chief executive officer of Sutton Group, doesn’t see how that will play out in this economy.”

“‘You think about what they’re trying to do here in Vancouver, and [mayor] Ken Sim and everything, which is great, but at the same time, these initiatives, how are we going to pay for them – when presales are down 70 or 80 per cent?’ he said. ‘And governments and municipalities heavily depend on those closings to fund their administrations. When they talk about market housing paying for non-market housing, and you don’t have a market, this may end up being a lot of talk and not a lot of building.'”

“‘Those fees won’t be there if they can’t build those units, and they won’t build the units, if they can’t do the presale,’ says Mr. McCredie. ‘A big chunk of those presales goes to investors, and investors are pretty much gone from the market now. So, a lot of the product the investors would normally buy are smaller studios and small one-bedrooms – that’s why there is a lot of those out there – but now you have a situation where investors are fleeing.'”

From Bloomberg. “Abu Dhabi’s ruling Al Nahyan family has bought a mansion in London’s Holland Park neighborhood. The latest deal defies a wider tax-driven slump in London’s luxury housing market and is one of Britain’s priciest home transactions of the year. While it’s unclear if the Al Nahyan family negotiated a discount, roughly half the homes sold in Kensington, Notting Hill and Holland Park in the year through October saw reductions in prices, according to researcher LonRes. Some sellers have resorted to discounts of around 30%.”

Domain News in Australia. “This year was one of the strangest on record, with the ‘will-they-won’t-they’ ongoing uncertainty about interest rates, the mounting housing crisis and the continued after-effects of the pandemic on the market. As a result, many forecasts from the experts never came to pass and, equally, many unexpected events did. Interest rates were meant to come down this year weren’t they? And was the property market supposed to keep going up at the rate it did? ‘The early optimism about rates coming down in 2024 influenced so many people’s decisions about buying property,’ said Domain chief of research & economics Dr Nicola Powell. ‘And that was the basis of so many things that went wrong this year.'”

“Agents report that you can now buy an apartment in Melbourne for about 30 per cent less than it would cost to build. High interest rates on the back of the devastating pandemic, which hit Melbourne harder than anywhere else, have had a major depressing effect. At the same time, growth in the supply of units has outpaced demand. Then, there were changes to land tax in Victoria, which hit house owners hard. Jacob Caine, president of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, said that was the final blow. ‘I don’t think even cuts to the interest rate will bring the market back,’ he said.”

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This Post Has 87 Comments

  1. ‘StoryBuilt did not follow ‘typical accounting practices’…‘allege that StoryBuilt funded real estate acquisitions prior to raising money from investors, used funds allocated for one project to pay ‘fictitious profits’ to investors of others, frequently blended project funding with other sources and gave preferential treatment to certain investors, among other observations’

    The REIC has tried to ignore this situation. The most important aspect is these clowns went under when it was to the moon Alice!, especially in Austin. So how do you lose when everybody is a winnah!? Paid too much fer the land, plus you obviously had some stupid crooks involved.

    1. My unofficial study shows that under the Biden-Harris regime, malarky increased by 376 percent.

  2. ‘ZIP code 78626 saw the largest decline at 15.25%, with average price dropping from $410,000 in October 2023 to under $350,000 this October’

    It’s a good thing everybody put 20% down!

    1. It’s also a good thing this documented regional price decline is a rare exception, not part of a national trend…RIGHT!?

  3. ‘pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of conspiracy to make a false statement to a mortgage lending business (mortgage fraud conspiracy), 25 counts of wire fraud, six counts of unlawful monetary transactions (money laundering) and three counts of making a false statement to a mortgage lending business’

    Senator running deer heap angry!

    ‘A Connecticut man who managed a real estate agency has been sentenced to federal prison in connection with a flipping scheme he was involved in with others in Massachusetts…officials said Macchio and the others involved hid their involvement as the ‘de facto buyers’ of short sale properties from their clients and used their insider knowledge as the owner’s broker to minimize the sale prices, which later helped maximize their gain from the ‘flipping’ process’

    We’re seeing more short sale fraud. How can you have short sales when it’s red hotcakes?

    1. Clients: buy high, short sell low.

      Broker: buy client’s short sale(s), flip high.

      Clients: Wuh happened? I’m bleeding!

  4. ‘Currently, about 800 construction trades specialists are without work. ‘If people didn’t realize that construction was a major part of the city’s economy, they realize it now’

    Wa happened to my labor shortage Rudy?

    ‘Gonzalez said all the multifamily developers are busy winning approvals needed to add units to already entitled but long-delayed housing projects, which should help make them feasible at some point. ‘That is not people doing it for fun, they are doing it because it’s the only way projects have a chance of working right now,’ he said. ‘Multifamily is going to pencil when it pencils’

    So yer saying there’s no demand.

    1. “Currently, about 800 construction trades specialists are without work.

      I wonder how many of these are citizens.

  5. ‘roughly half the homes sold in Kensington, Notting Hill and Holland Park in the year through October saw reductions in prices, according to researcher LonRes. Some sellers have resorted to discounts of around 30%’

    This goes along with my theory that these bubble markets are constantly trying to crash. How many times have we seen yuuge a$$ poundings in the white elephant London market? Too many to count.

    1. “From Bloomberg. “Abu Dhabi’s ruling Al Nahyan family has bought a mansion in London’s Holland Park neighborhood. The latest deal defies a wider tax-driven slump in London’s luxury housing market and is one of Britain’s priciest home transactions of the year. While it’s unclear if the Al Nahyan family negotiated a discount, roughly half the homes sold in Kensington, Notting Hill and Holland Park in the year through October saw reductions in prices”

      shortcut to respectability; earn it? No, just buy it. anything Brit-ish will have a veneer of class. just the accent alone is worth big money & opens doors. upper class posh, even wales but NOT, Cockney.

  6. “Earlier this year, the Austin Business Journal reported that more recent findings from Stapleton, published March 21, ‘allege that StoryBuilt funded real estate acquisitions prior to raising money from investors, used funds allocated for one project to pay ‘fictitious profits’ to investors of others, frequently blended project funding with other sources and gave preferential treatment to certain investors, among other observations.’”

    A classic Ponzi, yet no one involved will go to prison.

    1. They’ll go to prison alright. They have multiple feds after them, state, local prosecutors, IRS. It’s a tangled mess with fooked lenders and investors trying to find who they can sue into poverty.

  7. ‘A lot of people are on fixed incomes, they only have Social Security, and they cannot afford this additional assessment,’ Jean Geiger, a resident of the Governor’s Pointe Condominiums in North Palm Beach, said.

    Then pack yer boxes & GTFO.

    1. Owners in one Hollywood condo community are asking state lawmakers for help after learning of a nearly $60 million special
      Hey, there is a novel idea, let’s use someone else’s money to solve your problems.

  9. “The storied home of the infamous Show World Center sex stores has taken another turn as the 8th Avenue buildings sold for just $46 million — far below the $80 million spent on a redevelopment intended to transform the site into a modern office hub.

    It was only Yellen Bux.

  10. ‘A big chunk of those presales goes to investors, and investors are pretty much gone from the market now.

    Die, speculator scum.

    1. “never better time . . . Damascus ”

      HAHAHAAa right on target. 20 bucks sez there is a shortage of pretentious realtor vehicles right now.
      it’s probably just me, but if I was handling someone else’s money I’d go for the low key Detective Columbo beater special, just to show I practice what I preach & don’t waste YOUR money on frivolous poser peacocking nonsense.

      1. Every closing is a crime scene, as is the federal prison cell where Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.

        1. If you’re looking for the perfect Christmas present for the person who has everything, ali express has Jeff Epstein air fresheners that say ‘this air freshener didn’t hang itself’ for the amazing price of 1 dollar shipped to your door! They come vacuum sealed so I don’t know what it smells like yet. I’m sure it will be fine.

  16. [Because people are stupid?]

    Q. Why are Ponzi schemes so effective?

    https://www.quora.com/Why-are-Ponzi-schemes-so-effective

    Some thoughts:

    1. Most people are unsophisticated investors – They don’t have the ability to understand finances and investing. And many simply don’t want to know how to.

    2. High rates of return are always attractive – Most Ponzi schemes (at least in the initial phases) offer substantially higher rates of return than any other investment available. These rates are always going to attract people; even the wary.

    3. Most Ponzi schemers are personable people – A great deal of investing is selling yourself as well as selling your investment. If you have “sold” yourself to people, almost without exception you have sold your investment scheme, whatever it is.

    4. To paraphrase Gene Linetsky’s answer: People think that they can win the lottery – People believe that they can (and will) be fortunate enough to locate an investment which will pay them spectacular returns even though those investments are often as rare as lottery wins.

    5. The sheer number of frauds on-going and which have been detected are so great that they overwhelm law enforcement – Most law enforcement agencies have tiny fraud staffs and tinier budgets for those staffs. Crooks literally can commit dozens ( and occasionally hundreds) of frauds with little or no fear of being detected, arrested or prosecuted. When they are, with rare exceptions, few face substantial prison terms.

    6. The investing public has a short memory – Although every year at least 4-5 major Ponzi schemes are uncovered and reported in the media, people seem to forget about them by the end of that year, if not by the end of that month. People simply do not remember how others were defrauded in similar manners, thus allowing themselves to be similarly victimized.

    7. Many people involved in early stages of a Ponzi scheme know what is occurring, but won’t tell later investors – One of the least spoken about and least pleasant aspects of many Ponzi frauds is that early investors often know ( or strongly suspect) that they are involved in a scam, but they don’t bother to inform later investors. Why? A) They are making solid returns for a while B) They want to get their money out before it collapses. If they warned later investors ( whose money comprises the majority of their “returns”) about their suspicions, they also would lose money.

    8. Most people are trusting, even when it comes to money and investing – Most people simply don’t (or won’t) believe that they will be defrauded. They trust that either the person who they have met and who has involved them in the scheme will “take care of them”. Or that “government” will bail them out if their investment turns out be a fraud. Similar to # 1; but not the same.

    1. 🇨🇦: Toronto, Canezuela is extending a bike lane at a cost of ~$23,000 Arctic pesos PER FOOT.

      Good to see the peso thing spreading. I like the ‘Arctic pesos’ bit.

      1. I like how one of their metrics is airline travel levels, which are allegedly at record highs. Yet airline after airline is posting quarterly losses.

    1. There are companies in the midwest that will sell you the plans and milled wood to spec for a decent 2br 1bath for 15k. Rent a couple Amish dudes and it is built in a weekend. All of the ‘solutions’ being pushed on people are grossly overpriced.

      1. Can you list any websites of these providers of the 15k lumber and plans companies? I searched but could not find.

        1. I asked the AI bot at search.brave.com:

          “There are companies in the midwest that will sell you the plans and milled wood to spec for a decent 2br 1bath for 15k. Rent a couple Amish dudes and it is built in a weekend. All of the ‘solutions’ being pushed on people are grossly overpriced.”

          Amish House Plans and Prices

          Based on your query, I’ve identified several companies in the Midwest that offer pre-fabricated cabin kits and milled wood for custom builds.
          These companies often partner with Amish craftsmen to provide high-quality, handcrafted construction. Here are a few examples:

          Midwest Woodworks (Kalona, Iowa): They offer a wide range of Amish-made furniture, including cabin kits and milled wood for custom builds.
          Their prices start around $10,000 for a basic cabin kit, which can be assembled with Amish labor.

          Weaver Barns (Multiple locations in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky): This company provides pre-fabricated cabin kits and milled wood for custom builds.
          They partner with local Amish craftsmen to deliver high-quality, handcrafted construction.
          Prices vary depending on the size and complexity of the project, but a basic 2BR/1BA cabin kit can start around $12,000.

          Amish Built Cabins (Southern Indiana and Kentucky): This company offers handcrafted cabin kits and milled wood for custom builds.
          They provide plans and materials for a decent 2BR/1BA house for around $15,000. Renting Amish labor can add an additional $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the scope of work and location.

          Countryside Amish Furniture (Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio): While primarily a furniture manufacturer,
          Countryside Amish Furniture also offers custom cabin kits and milled wood for handcrafted construction. Prices vary depending on the design and materials, but a basic 2BR/1BA cabin kit can start around $10,000 to $15,000.
          ———————–

          Several options are available for affordable pre-fabricated cabin kits in the US. Some popular choices include:

          Zook Cabins: Offers modular homes with quality Amish workmanship and special attention to detail. Their cabin kits are quick, affordable, and stress-free.
          Conestoga Log Cabins & Homes: Provides log cabin kits designed for rental properties, including small log cabins, bunkhouse cabin kits, and bathhouse log kits.
          American Log Homes: Offers prebuilt log cabins, log homes, and portable cabin kits. They also provide customization options for their log home floor plans.
          Q Cabin Kits: A sustainable, disaster-resistant option for homes, with a full set of architectural drawings, structural drawings, and calculations ready for permitting.
          Texas Arched Cabins: Offers prefab metal buildings that are resilient and can withstand wind speeds of up to 150 mph and up to 30 pounds per square foot of snow.

          Milled Wood Options in the US

          Milled wood options are also available for those who prefer a more traditional approach to building a cabin. Some popular choices include:

          Conestoga Log Cabins & Homes: Offers milled wood options for their log cabin kits, including pre-cut logs that are manufactured in a factory and then assembled on-site.
          American Log Homes: Provides milled wood options for their log homes, including pre-cut logs and customization options for their log home floor plans.

          Price Range

          The price range for affordable pre-fabricated cabin kits and milled wood options in the US varies depending on the size and features of the cabin. Some approximate price ranges include:

          Zook Cabins: $$$$ (high-end)
          Conestoga Log Cabins & Homes: varies depending on the size and features of the cabin
          American Log Homes: varies depending on the size and features of the cabin
          Q Cabin Kits: varies depending on the size and features of the cabin
          Texas Arched Cabins: DIY kits start around $14,000, with pre-assembled kits starting at around $17,000

  21. [A thought-provoking article …]

    Bird Flu: The “Next Pandemic” Is Right On Schedule.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/bird-flu-next-pandemic-right-schedule

    We haven’t published anything about bird flu since June. There hasn’t been much to say. Nevertheless, I still regularly comb through journals and news sites, ensuring we don’t miss anything potentially important.

    During one such search yesterday evening I found this article in the journal Science, its title asking simply:

    Why hasn’t the bird flu pandemic started?

    …and, you know what, that’s a good question. Why hasn’t the bird flu pandemic started?

    Not literally, of course. The bird flu “pandemic” won’t ever really start. If or when it is declared it will be a lie, just like Covid.

    The question is why haven’t they started the big roll out yet?

    That is obviously the plan after all.

    The establishment has been signposting “the next pandemic” since before Covid sidled off the world stage. “Pandemic preparedness” has been a buzz phrase at all the intergovernmental panels and UN summits for at least two years. All the indications were that bird flu was the anointed successor.

    But it’s all come to nothing so far.

    Bird flu hasn’t become “the next pandemic”, it hasn’t become really anything at all, it’s barely even grazed the major news cycle.

    Instead, the story has been stuck in a strange holding pattern, circling around with dire warnings of imminent danger, only to swoop away from the runway before its wheels touch down.

    A pot that never boils despite the fact nobody’s really watching.

    Why hasn’t the bird flu pandemic happened yet? What are they waiting for?

    Well, Donald Trump, apparently, amongst other things.

    That’s isn’t speculation, it’s definite messaging. It looks as if some sort of narrative about Trump failing to do enough, or the right things to handle the “crisis” might be in the offing.

    Earlier today, MSNBC ran the headline:

    Why the threat of bird flu makes Trump’s transition problematic – Could an unqualified public health leadership team deal with a new pandemic?

    Mother Jones thinks “Avian Flu Could Define Trump’s Second Presidency”, the Nation asks simply “Will There Be a Bird Flu Epidemic Under Trump?”, AXIOS claims Trump’s potential bird flu response “raises alarms”.

    NOTUS is already explaining why Trump’s planned mass deportations will make bird flu worse.

    On November 26th, a guest article in the New York Times headlined “I Ran Operation Warp Speed. I’m Concerned About Bird Flu”, which opens:

    As Donald Trump gets ready to return to the White House on Jan. 20, he must be prepared to tackle one issue immediately: the possibility that the spreading avian flu might mutate to enable human-to-human transmission.

    Hmmm… so why must Trump be prepared to tackle bird flu “immediately” when they admit it has been hovering around being essentially harmless for two years already? Are they perchance conditioning us for what they already know they have planned?

    Beyond Trump, the bird flu narrative has been migrating to the front pages in the weeks since the election (just in time to drive up the price of Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys too – every little helps in the drive to impoverish and immiserate the 99%).

    On November 25th, New York magazine was warning us about the USA’s “alarming bird flu strategy”.

    The next day, the Independent reported:

    Experts say bird flu is more widespread than we think: ‘We are in a soup of virus’

    The New Scientist says “H5N1 bird flu is closer to gaining pandemic potential than we thought”, Scientific American that “Bird Flu Virus Is One Mutation Away from Binding More Efficiently to Human Cells”.

    These are both stories from the last 24 hours.

    Earlier today, TIME published a long piece headlined:

    It’s Time to End the Denial About Bird Flu

    There are other developments to – some potentially a lot more meaningful than your run-of-the-mill fear porn.

    On November 19th, a child in Canada reportedly tested positive for bird flu without coming into contact with birds or animals. The next day, the same exact thing was reported in California.

    These “cases” allegedly indicate “the virus is showing signs of adaptation to human hosts”. A Dutch study done on ferrets and published three days ago, claims the latest variant of bird flu shows increased aerial transmissibility.

    Just today, the US government ordered that – going forward – all milk has to be screened for bird flu before being pasteurized.

    We’re being told about new test kits too, a breakthrough that can distinguish flu strains in just 3 hours.

    The European Union has announced they will be “increasing monitoring” for bird flu going forward. Euractiv reports “Europe increases bird flu monitoring – is it the next Disease X?”

    Chinese experts are warning that another strain – H2N2 rather than H5N1 – may have already jumped to humans. The Chinese government is reportedly planning to increase testing and surveillance.

    In the UK, the Cambridge University journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology published new recommendations for the potential containment of avian influenza in “healthcare settings”.

    And of course there’s the vaccines, let’s not forget those. Keir Starmer’s government just signed a supply contract for five million doses. Very odd for a country without a single case so far.

    Again, all those stories are from the last 2 or 3 days, and they hit some major talking points. Transmissibility, tests, adapting to humans, containment measures for hospitals, “increased monitoring”, buying up vaccines…these are major red flags.

    This is exactly in line with our predictions for the next pandemic made back in April:

    When will the “next pandemic” happen? Probably not until the winter, I would guess January 2025 at the earliest, for two reasons:

    They need it to be flu season so they can co-opt normal seasonal deaths into their “pandemic” narrative.

    I think they’ll want to wait until after the “big election year” is over so there are fresh governments in place.

    Is that why the bird flu pandemic “hasn’t happened yet”? Were they waiting to get other pieces in the right places on the board?

    Maybe 2025 is the year it all comes together.

    Bird flu has been useful for driving up the cost of food, campaigning against organic farms, further impoverishing farmers and demonising raw milk, but it was meant for bigger things.

    After Donald Trump takes office, don’t be surprised of Bird Flu is finally allowed to spread its wings and fly.

  22. Trump touts tariffs, mass deportations and NATO skepticism in TV interview

    In his first formal television interview — and just six weeks before he takes office — Trump again signaled that US support for Ukraine will scale back, saying he will “probably” cut the aid helping Kyiv repel the Russian invasion.

    Trump also said he would “very quickly” look at pardons for supporters jailed for storming the US Capitol after his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.

    Trump reiterated his familiar threat to leave NATO, the cornerstone of security in Europe since World War II, saying that US allies do not pay enough for their defense.

    “If they’re paying their bills, and if I think they’re treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I’d stay with NATO,” said. But there is also “absolutely” the possibility of America’s departure, he said.

    He also stressed that his campaign promises of huge tariffs — including against top US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China — would be enacted. “We’re subsidizing Mexico and we’re subsidizing Canada and we’re subsidizing many countries all over the world,” he said.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-touts-tariffs-mass-deportations-154443546.html

  23. “I have stopped wars with tariffs,” Trump said. “By saying, ‘You guys wanna fight great, but both of you are gonna pay tariffs to the U.S. at 100%.’ And they have many purposes, tariffs, if properly used.”

    “Are you actually going to impose these tariffs or are they a negotiating tactic?” Welker asked.

    “We’re subsidizing Canada to the tune over $100 billion a year. We’re subsidizing Mexico for almost $300 billion. We shouldn’t be. Why are we subsidizing these countries? If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state,” Trump said.

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/12/08/trump_were_subsidizing_canada_mexico_and_many_other_countries.html

  24. Immigration department received intelligence about huge rise in clandestine U.S.-Canada border crossings last year

    Intelligence experts within Canada’s border agency informed the federal immigration department last December about a big rise in illegal crossings of the Canada-U.S. border, including into the States, which raises questions about why action to curb it was not taken earlier.

    An intelligence document sent to senior Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada officials, says smugglers were moving people across the border in both directions, with some foreign nationals flying into Canada at major airports and swiftly slipping across the border into the United States.

    The Canada Border Services Agency’s intelligence analysis says clandestine entries have led to thousands of refugee claims, mostly in the Greater Toronto Area.

    The document says “the Southbound movement into the United States (US) has grown significantly since 2022″ adding that “the majority of individuals who attempt to cross southbound illegally arrive by air, mainly at Montreal Trudeau International Airport and Toronto Pearson International Airport and move quickly.”

    It found that “the vast majority were very likely in Canada for less than 6 months of which a large portion were in Canada for less than 3 weeks.”

    Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, who obtained the document using Access to Information laws, said it confirms Mr. Trump’s concerns about border crossings from Canada, and shows that Ottawa knew at least a year ago about what was going on.

    “There’s a disconnect between what the Ottawa politicians are saying and what they knew,” he said.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-immigration-department-received-intelligence-about-huge-rise-in/

  25. Governments are stockpiling Bird Flu vaccines.

    My question is how do they know what strain to produce in a vaccine prior to it becoming a human panademic?
    And what is with a Global Panademic every 3 or 4 years, when historically this was a rare event.

    Are people going to take a MRNA Bird Flu vaccine, be locked down and masks again?

    Trump said he wouldn’t mandate vaccines so I hope he sticks to that promise. These aren’t even vaccines, they are gene therapy failed technology.

    I have seen them already saying that Bird Flu has a 30 to 40% death rate. So, the fear mongering is going to be off the charts claiming a Global Panademic with that sort of mortality rates.

    And PCR tests again to determine infection.
    Bill Gates and others saying the next Panademic is going to be worse, is pretty suspicious, like when Dr Fauci said that a Panademic would take place during Trump’s Presidency.
    They say accidental lab leak, but nothing is accidental if you predict it and have pre drills and have everything set up to censor dispute to narrative, even fake footage from China with people falling in streets BS.
    So, just saying I’m not going to take the Bird Flu vaccine, or any vaccine ever from these Fraudsters.

  26. ICE Looking for New Detention Center in California Despite Democratic Opposition

    Federal immigration authorities are looking for a potential new detention center in Northern California, an effort that alarms advocates and some Democratic state lawmakers as President-elect Donald Trump gears up to unleash his mass deportation plan.

    In August, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a request for information to identify additional detention bed space in the state as other federal agencies intensified border enforcement. The effort began in the wake of the Biden administration’s sweeping asylum ban, implemented in June, for migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border outside designated entry points. Under the ban, border agents can deport such migrants within hours or days without considering their asylum claims.

    California tried to ban new federal immigrant detention centers from opening during the first Trump administration. The court blocked that, ruling that the state was unconstitutionally overstepping on federal immigration enforcement. California Attorney General Rob Bonta told CalMatters that the state may be powerless to stop the possibility of a new facility.

    “An expansion of ICE detention operations within the Bay Area and Northern California is going to be part of a reign of terror on our communities the Trump administration is threatening,” said Bree Bernwanger, a senior staff attorney on the Immigrants’ Rights team at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. “We already know from existing facilities within California that ICE does not and cannot maintain safe and or healthy standards of confinement for people inside.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-looking-for-new-detention-center-in-california-despite-democratic-opposition/ar-AA1vrPVh

  27. Opinion | Why I think Max Rose is the perfect person to lead the DNC right now

    Returning from my family’s annual vacation to the Jersey Shore last August, I was struck by the number of Trump flags and signs we saw driving north. If I had a nickel for every piece of Harris-Walz signage I saw, I’d be well short of the toll on the New Jersey Turnpike. All the enthusiasm was for MAGA.

    As Democrats prepare to pick a Democratic National Committee chair early next year, they need to find a way to reclaim their hold on places like the small towns that dot the Jersey Shore and points north, not to mention the big cities the people who vacation there come from: primarily, New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

    Trump did better in those and many other cities, which are usually blue redoubts. He did better in the suburbs, too. On the whole, Donald Trump only lost New Jersey to Kamala Harris by 6 percentage points — a stunning achievement, considering that in 2012, Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney here by 17 points. Trump also had a relatively strong showing in deep blue Maryland; he even won a (very small) swath of Manhattan.

    “It doesn’t surprise me that the very largest swings away from Democrats in this post-COVID, post–George Floyd, post-inflation election occurred in blue states,” Josh Barro wrote after the election in The Atlantic, after describing what he saw as a sad state of affairs in his home base of New York. “The gap between Democrats’ promise of better living through better government and their failure to actually deliver better government has been a national political problem.”

    Cue the red siren emoji. Democrats have grown weak in the very places where they were supposed to be strongest: big, coastal cities and the suburbs that ring them. Which is why, as they prepare to select the next chair of the DNC, they should put aside worries about the Midwest and the Sun Belt and instead elect someone from one of those cities that suddenly got worryingly Trumpy.

    I am thinking specifically of Max Rose, the former U.S. congressman whose district included Staten Island, by far the most conservative of New York’s five boroughs. Rose is reportedly looking to chair the DNC, which will hold an election on Feb. 1.

    During the presidential campaign, Harris put out a raft of policies to entice Black men, Latino men and other groups. She had fixes for housing costs and food prices. It was like Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “Warren Has a Plan for That” shtick, except less wonky and less ambitious.

    Why didn’t it work? Because voters don’t care about plans. “One of the hopes is that the Democratic Party will begin to understand that voting is not always an act of self-interest, but also an act of self-expression,” Rose told Puck’s Tara Palmeri in a recent interview. “And if we completely ignore that element of decision making, we’ll continue to fall short.”

    Rose went on to diagnose what I think is the Democrats’ main problem: “We have the country largely unified around what we’re doing, but not feeling like they’re emotionally, culturally and psychologically aligned with where are as people.” Hence the huge “Take America Back” flags flying from the expensive, well-outfitted boats at the Stone Harbor marina, or the Trump-Vance bumper stickers on tank-sized SUVs barreling down the Garden State Parkway.

    In 2018, Rose defeated Rep. Dan Donovan, a Republican, by casting himself as a practical centrist. “He didn’t fight a culture war; he talked about oppressively long commuting times and the opioid crisis,” The New York Times noted approvingly after his win. Imagine that: a politician who remembers legendary House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s dictum that all politics is local. No one cares about your plans to save democracy if you don’t have a plan to fix potholes.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-why-think-max-rose-115147037.html

  28. Where is the fierce urgency of now?

    The Trump train keeps on rolling. The so-called resistance is still in shock if not prematurely surrendering. Some among the mainstream news media are already engaging in what historian Timothy Snyder describes as “anticipatory obedience.”

    As I desperately tried to warn the American people, the Democratic Party had no answer for such power; the elites have not and will not save we “the Americans” or our democracy and future. Now we are here, less than two months before Trump becomes president for a second time.

    Trump’s “bloody” plans to deport more than ten million refugees and undocumented persons are ramping up very quickly: the private prison industry and the other predatory gangster capitalists who will profit from this exercise in state-sponsored trauma and violence are enthusiastic; profits always matter more than people. By comparison, the targeted communities and their allies are in a state of terror and panic. During a visit to the U.S.- Mexico border last Tuesday, Homan plainly stated, “Let me be clear: There is going to be a mass deportation because we just finished a mass illegal immigration crisis on the border.” Honan is prepared to put mayors and other public officials in prison if they unlawfully interfere with the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.

    Meanwhile, the numerous criminal felony investigations into Trump have been terminated. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Special Counsel Jack Smith have been metaphorically defenestrated. Trump now stands supreme and basically above the law. Contrary to its national mythology, America, especially for rich white men who are billionaires and former presidents, is a country of men and not laws.

    In his newsletter Enough Already, journalist D. Earl Stephens explains his rage, disgust and disappointment at these developments: ‘Our worst nightmare had come to life. On Monday we learned that our so-called “Justice” Department was abandoning the two criminal cases it took them forever to file against the most dangerous person in the world.’

    ‘Less than three weeks after the most consequential election in American history, they waved the white flag of surrender. They were cutting and running. How appropriate for these weaklings.’

    ‘It didn’t stop them from all their double-talking, however, which frankly I could have done without. I have heard enough from these appeasers forever. I just wish they’d get the hell out of our lives and stay there.’

    ‘They have done enough damage to the United States of America. Because no matter what kind of bulls—- they are lobbing at us now to explain their way out of the terrible mess they left us in, only one thing is true at this terrible moment in American history: Justice delayed is justice denied.’

    Following the election, President Biden met with Trump in the White House. Biden treated Trump as though this was any other presidential election and transition of power instead of the national emergency and existential danger to the future of the republic that he, Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party’s other leaders proclaimed it to be. Thus, the following questions: Were these alarms serious? Did they believe them to be true? Were the Democrats just selling wolf tickets in an attempt to win the 2024 election?

    As reported by Rolling Stone, Trump and his inner circle are mocking President Biden and the Democrats for their collegiality:

    “Some of us have been laughing about it,” an incoming Trump administration official tells Rolling Stone. “[Democrats] spend all this time calling Donald Trump a Nazi and Hitler, and now it’s just: ‘Smile for the camera!’”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/where-is-the-fierce-urgency-of-now/ar-AA1vtyRC

    1. “[Democrats] spend all this time calling Donald Trump a Nazi and Hitler, and now it’s just: ‘Smile for the camera!’”

      Hitler speeches translated by AI have gone viral on TikTok, especially among young people, one in five of whom has a positive view of Hitler. An unintended consequence of having a corrupt, evil, incompetent party of degenerate, virulently anti-white Marxists calling everyone they don’t like “Hitler” and “Nazis” makes at least some young people believe that anyone opposed to the Democrat-Bolsheviks and globalist agendas must be A-OK in their book.

  29. Have you ever wondered what the liability will be if AI makes a mistake if implemented in Medicine?

    Well , a friend just texted me that “disclaimers” are being put in medical files claiming no responsibility
    regarding AI mistakes.

    Can you have a disclaimer that is a dismissal of AI mistakes and mal practice? And in addition the Disclaimer says words to effect, that the patient has to correct any errors by AI they dispute.

    What kind of a system would this be, where you have layman people having to correct mistakes from AI.

    From day one my first thought was where the liability falls when AI makes a mistake that harms people. Looks like industry is trying to skirt the liability and put it back on the consumer of AI mistakes.
    Another person I know when to Heart Doctor. Dr told this person a list of medications that AI suggested. Ozempic, a statin and another med was suggested by AI. This person said to the Dr that they didn’t trust AI. So far this person has refused the AI diagnosis of meds suggested, especially the Ozempic.
    And VP Harris was also assigned job of being AI regulation czar, and she did nothing in terms of any AI regulation.

    1. “Have you ever wondered what the liability will be if AI makes a mistake if implemented in Medicine?”

      AI in medicine and behind the wheel are scary prospects. Who is liable if ‘the computer did it’?

  30. In Miami, grocery and housing prices are soaring. It made Trump more popular.

    Larry Milian makes it a habit not to talk about politics. Milian, a high school teacher who helps manage the only student-run radio station on SiriusXM, usually sticks to sports or offers up life advice for students.

    But on a recent Saturday, he broke that rule and shared that he had “absolutely” voted for President-elect Donald Trump.

    “I actually don’t like Donald Trump,” said Milian, who lives in Hialeah, a blue-collar manufacturing enclave in Miami where Trump is so popular a city council candidate put the former reality star and commander-in-chief’s image on her campaign signs.

    Milian said he made his decision based “not so much (on) who I want to go have a beer with – but who I think can run the country better.”

    “The cost of living in Miami is really tall, and there’s no reason for it because it’s Miami,” he said. “It’s not New York; it’s not Chicago.”

    Many longtime Miamians say they’ve felt this way since the pandemic transformed much of their city. As New Yorkers and Californians faced lockdown orders and restrictions, many flocked to Florida, with the largest increase of New Yorkers moving to Miami where they could benefit from tax and mandate breaks while working remotely. But along with having the largest net population gain of any state in the country came exploding living and housing costs. Housing prices have risen almost 50%, according to the UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index released last month.

    Grocery prices shot up. (An average household spent about $327 per trip). So did electric bills. A carton of eggs last year cost $5.

    Milian, whose relatives immigrated from Cuba and the Dominican Republic, has had enough. He is part of a growing constituency of Latino voters – especially men – who supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election. And in presumably purple Miami-Dade County where Democrats had won every presidential election for 36 years, Latino voters flipped the county red.

    Fernan Amandi, a political consultant who has done polling for Democrats in the past, said the party neglected to make inroads with communities that supported them in the past.

    “They have, in essence, just ceded the county and ceded the state to the Republicans,” he said. “So it’s not surprising that the Republicans would then quickly overrun the county.”

    Milian, the teacher and radio host, said Florida voters’ shift to the right is also about everyday luxuries. Four years ago, he said, he could buy a 12-pack of Coke Zero for about $4.50 and three 12-packs for about $13 at Publix, a local grocery chain. Now, he can’t get a 12-pack of Coke Zero for under $9.

    “I love Coke Zero, he said. “It makes me wonder what happened.”

    Sebastian Villa didn’t always support Republicans. The 37-year-old sales representative voted for Democrat Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

    But in recent years, Villa said he shifted away from the party. He grew up as a Democrat but began doing his “own research” and found he connected more with Republicans and Trump.

    “Looking at what has happened and what continues to go on in the world and just in the country, I figured I was making a mistake in being a Democrat,” Villa said.

    https://news.yahoo.com/news/miami-grocery-housing-prices-soaring-100132070.html

  31. Federal employees scramble to insulate themselves from Trump’s purge

    Federal employees are scrubbing their Facebook and X accounts for any negative posts about Trump. Some, including at least one prominent official who testified in Trump’s first impeachment inquiry, are weighing putting in retirement papers, while others maneuver to transfer to seemingly safer agencies. D.C. recruiting firms are seeing booming business from those looking for private-sector work.

    Before Trump takes office Jan. 20, career staffers are racing to outmaneuver his plans to gut and radically reshape the nonpartisan bureaucracy of 2.3 million. The president-elect has promised to fire thousands of professionals and replace them with political loyalists, slash trillions of dollars from the federal budget, eliminate departments and relocate others away from what he derides as the “deep state” of intransigent bureaucrats in the capital. Russ Vought, Trump’s pick to run the Office of Management and Budget, told supporters earlier this year that Trump’s second term would “put the bureaucrats in trauma.”

    “There is shock and there is actual fear, and there is self censure in the sense that people are scared about retaliation,” said Jesus Soriano, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403, which represents more than 1,000 scientists and administrators at the National Science Foundation.

    In another shift with potential to upend the civil service, lawmakers with a new GOP majority on Capitol Hill are dusting off legislation to force teleworking employees back to the office, allow Veterans Affairs to fire underperforming workers with little recourse and to require mandatory training to ensure that federal employees follow the administration’s agenda.

    Now, Vought, the first-term White House budget chief who began implementing Schedule F at the Office of Management and Budget, is set to return to the same role as Trump is pledging to reinstate Schedule F.

    Many civil servants, facing whiplash from a Biden presidency that embraced federal employees and their unions, say they need to get ahead of what might happen.

    Career employees at all levels are considering plans to quit or retire, although numbers are anecdotal.

    “I think the risk is very high that the strongest, most experienced OMB career staff who have worked for multiple administrations under different parties will be leaving,” said Kathy Stack, who served at the agency for almost three decades. “Many employees are actively looking at their options.”

    Top watchdogs at the Central Intelligence Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, both Biden appointees, announced their departures in recent weeks in what colleagues in the inspector general community said was a concern that Trump could continue a purge of inspectors general carried out in his first term.

    Trump’s designee to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, has vowed to fire the agency’s top officials, shut down its Washington headquarters and make it easier to sue journalists. Within the Justice Department, initial panic faded when Rep. Matt Gaetz — who had been investigated by prosecutors for sex trafficking claims — withdrew his name as Trump’s choice for attorney general. But even with a new selection, former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, many of the more than 100,000 staffers at the country’ largest law enforcement agency remain wary of a president who has vowed to fire career staffers and prosecute his enemies. Legal firm recruiters in Washington have been deluged with queries from career law enforcement officials about private-sector work.

    “There’s been such a disdain for civil servants that is not typical that everyone sort of knows why they want to leave government,” said Sarah Van Steenburg, one recruiter taking a rush of calls from Justice Department lawyers. “A lot of these people have done phenomenal things in the government,” she said. “The concern is that there isn’t space right now in the private sector.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/federal-employees-scramble-to-insulate-themselves-from-trump-s-purge/ar-AA1vtqIC

    1. Trump needs to take an iron broom to the DEI hires and “woke” management and “leadership.” Starting with the FBI agents who took a knee for the REAL insurrectionists.

  32. It looks like the One World Order just wants to change any kind of rule of law, liability, Constitutional protections of rights, for this Great Reset One World Global Governance.

    And it clear that Climate Change Emergency is fake Science, and Panademics are manufactured for some kind of warfare against the populations of earth.

  33. Mayor Gloria touted a bold initiative to address homelessness in San Diego. So far, it’s only purchased t-shirts

    Earlier this year, Mayor Todd Gloria chose one of his biggest platforms to unveil his administration’s latest initiative to solve homelessness.

    “Tonight, I’m announcing a philanthropic campaign to help the city carry out our ambitious plans to end our homelessness crisis,” Gloria said at his State of the City address in January, as the name of the new initiative appeared on a giant screen behind him. “Called San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness, this campaign already has commitments for a quarter of a million dollars.”

    In the following weeks, the city laid out a bold plan involving everyone from regular residents to San Diego’s largest philanthropic organizations. City leaders vowed to turn that initial $250,000 into $370 million in donations by the end of 2024, setting the stage for more robust prevention efforts and the building of a 400-unit affordable housing high-rise downtown.

    Nearly a year in, however, the city has tempered this lofty vision after falling woefully short of its initial goals. San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness has raised only $1.3 million — a tiny fraction of its target for 2024. The initiative’s lone expenditure so far did nothing to address the root causes of homelessness. It spent $2,400 on t-shirts for a volunteer cleanup event downtown in July.

    Meanwhile, the city’s 10-member advisory board that’s supposed to help guide San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness remains only partially filled and has yet to hold a meeting.

    Experts and advocates who specialize homelessness response and prevention criticized the initiative as unrealistic, unfocused and a potential distraction from better-established efforts in the region.

    “It just doesn’t add up,” said Jennifer Mosley, a professor at the University of Chicago who studies the intersection of nonprofits, philanthropy, government and homelessness.

    An effort on this scale, she argued, needs a detailed plan, an organized structure and a convincing message to donors — all of which are lacking.

    “Why should people give to an initiative where it’s not clear who’s going to be making the decisions on where the money is being spent (or) what it’s going to be spent on?” she said. “It’s just not surprising to me at all that people aren’t really interested.”

    Rick Gentry, former CEO of the San Diego Housing Commission, said there’s a role for nonprofits, philanthropists and the private sector in the city’s homelessness response. But donors are often loathe to give money to an “amorphous” effort like San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness.

    “It is a worthy aspiration, but not terribly practical and probably not achievable,” Gentry said. “I think there’s a great need for planning, coordination, focus and partnership … You don’t just set out a goal and expect people to follow you.”

    Mosley, the University of Chicago professor, encouraged the city to terminate the initiative and instead focus on building a stronger partnership with the San Diego Regional Taskforce on Homelessness.

    “I don’t think that this sounds like a very successful initiative,” she said. “I think that the proof is already there in terms of the low amount of money that they’ve raised, the low amount of money they’ve give out and the fact that they don’t seem to have built any infrastructure around it.”

    https://www.kpbs.org/news/politics/2024/12/03/mayor-gloria-touted-a-bold-initiative-to-address-homelessness-in-san-diego-so-far-its-only-purchased-t-shirts

    1. San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness has raised only $1.3 million — a tiny fraction of its target for 2024.

      I want a cut of the Compassion, Inc. racket. My new NGO, Veterans Emphatically Rejecting Marxist Ideological Nonsense (VERMIN), will deal with our “unhoused neighbors” like the societal parasites and pestilence that they are.

    2. “…San Diegans Together Tackling Homelessness…”

      Let me guess, “Either you’re with us, or you’re against us!”

  42. Trump vs the Deep State.

    https://dailyreckoning.com/trump-vs-the-deep-state/

    “Not permitted under the law,” snapped Jay Powell. The scene was the Fed’s press conference. It was the day after Donald Trump’s resounding election victory.

    The reporter, seeking confirmation, followed up. “Not per-MIT-ted under the law!” repeated a visibly irritated Powell, slowly enunciating the word.

    Powell’s body language said he’s ready to battle Trump in the press. I recount this scene to give you a head start in identifying one of Trump’s next battles in his multi-year conflict with the Deep State.

    Starting in 2017, the Deep State tried to impeach Trump, undermine his policy goals, slow-walk his orders to the military, and ruin the 2020 economy with COVID lockdowns.

    Most controversially, it’s hard to argue that the Deep State didn’t inspire the mysterious shooter whose bullet grazed Trump’s ear at a fateful July 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. You, me, and the entire world are wondering, “What will they do next?” By “they,” I am not referring to a pre-planned conspiracy. There is no single evil mastermind running the Deep State – one who has anticipated every possible countermove.

    No, the Deep State is a faceless blob.

    It is a group of government agencies, media outlets, corporations, and people inside those organizations. They understand that Trump’s vision for America is disruptive to their preferred way of doing business. Rather than adapt to Trump’s priorities, they see it as a sacred duty to resist him.

    First Things First – Trump Will Inherit A Weak Biden Economy
    Let’s return to the role of Fed Chairman Jay Powell. Powell is trying to serve the American public as best he can, even if he’s blind to the Fed’s role in promoting wealth inequality and inflation.

    Powell’s policies have been too soft on asset owners in our overly financialized U.S. economy. The Fed’s asset-pumping policies have exacerbated the wealth gap. It eased policy far too much with trillions of dollars in money printing and its tightening in 2022 and 2023 has not been nearly so dramatic. The wealth gap, powered by the residual money printed in 2021 and 2022, has played a key role in resurrecting Trump’s campaign.

    Trump started from a small base of loyal family members and friends on January 6, 2021, rode a tidal wave of public discontent over rampant Biden inflation, and won the popular vote. The remarkable rebound in support for Trump over three years could not have happened if most Americans were happy with the status quo under Biden.

    We know where most of the American public stands. They are financially worn out and frustrated by the pain of cumulative inflation. Their confidence is low, but many are hopeful that Trump will turn things around quickly. However, turning around this economic ship will not be easy, nor will it be costless.

    The economy is like a large ship that’s been heading in a specific direction. Even if Trump steers it sharply in a different, more production-oriented direction, it will take time to see material results.

    Meanwhile, Biden’s advisors have for years been steering the economic ship in the direction of bloated government spending, government jobs, and malinvestment in green energy.

    I think it’s important to keep this in mind when thinking about Trump’s goals starting in 2025: There is a global imbalance between production and consumption, and it’s been growing for decades. I support Trump’s vision to reprioritize production in America. Our multi-decade trend toward over-consuming with too many government jobs and service jobs is unhealthy and unstable. We’ve done this while exporting bonds and stocks to foreign producers to fund this consumption.

    Bonds and stocks are securities with explicit or implicit promises to deliver streams of cash flow. Bonds are explicit, pre-defined streams of cash flow. Stocks are implicit promises of future cash flow in the form of dividends.

    Here’s why stocks are so volatile: It’s difficult – even for diligent professionals – to estimate how large and sustainable their dividends will be for decades into the future. In an all-too-common example, a company that goes bankrupt within a few years of an investor buying its stock rarely pays enough dividends for that investor to recoup his investment in that stock before it goes to zero.

    With that context established, I’ll say this: Achieving Trump’s vision to reprioritize production in America will involve pain for an economy with an unhealthy addiction to bubbly asset prices.

    There is no easy path to revitalizing American manufacturing. Compromises will be required either way.

    The fact is, the pain from restructuring a bloated federal government means the risk of a recession is high. And when recession risks rise, the Fed slashes rates and gold typically surges higher.

    Stay tuned to see how this story develops.

  44. ‘At least 55 residents are behind this notice of intent to sue the board over the $58 million it is trying to borrow to pay for the projects. ‘You know, all of a sudden, you pay $120,000 more for your apartment’

    It was cheaper than renting Dan.

  45. ‘Why would you say these assessments are needed?’ asked WPTV reporter Joel Lopez. ‘I think it’s neglect,’ Rogers said. ‘I think that many of these buildings have been neglected (for) many years. There’s many elderly people and people that bought many, many years ago when prices weren’t where they are today and taxes aren’t where they are today,’ Rogers said. ‘Now they’re coming to this point where it’s costing so much to do and you’re going to see people getting pushed out’

    It’s the perfect storm of HBB Pitfalls of Commie Urban Living™ Steve.

  46. ‘When they talk about market housing paying for non-market housing, and you don’t have a market, this may end up being a lot of talk and not a lot of building’

    K-dns are well known for their central planning Ross.

  47. ‘The early optimism about rates coming down in 2024 influenced so many people’s decisions about buying property…And that was the basis of so many things that went wrong this year’…Agents report that you can now buy an apartment in Melbourne for about 30 per cent less than it would cost to build’

    All the rate daters got schlonged Nickie, but the ones with a queen on yer peso especially.

  48. Do you worry the Mother of All Bubbles may soon pop, leading your all of you risk asset HODLings to revert to fundamental value, with no bailouts on the horizon to rescue you?

  49. Now the rate daters are fantasizing that a second Trump term willl magically lead to lower interest rates.

    Logic need not apply…

    1. What Trump’s 2nd term could mean for the housing market: Expert weighs in
      By Andrew Craft and Catherine Stoddard
      Published December 5, 2024 7:20pm EST
      FOX TV Digital Team
      What are Trump’s plans for the housing market?

      The U.S. housing market was a major issue for voters in the 2024 presidential election, as low inventory continues to drive home prices to new highs. President-elect Trump vowed to address America’s housing woes if they won back the White House. LiveNOW’s Andrew Craft discussed Trump’s plans to alleviate the housing crisis with Real Estate Lawyer Pierre Debbas.
      The Brief

      Affordable housing, expanded HUD programs and incentivizing developers should be at the top of the incoming administration’s to-do list, real estate analyst Pierre Debbas told LiveNOW from FOX.
      President-elect Donald Trump promised a litany of actions to make homeownership more attainable going into the next four years.

      WASHINGTON – Following President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of former NFL player, Scott Turner, to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, some experts are speculating what the housing market in America will look like during Trump’s second term.

      Pierre Debbas, a real estate analyst, broke down what he believed should be at the top of the Trump administration’s to-do list when it comes to the housing market going into 2025 and beyond.

      “I’m going into next year with a very optimistic perspective,” Debbas told LiveNOW from FOX’s Andrew Craft.
      …
      https://www.livenowfox.com/news/what-trumps-2nd-term-could-mean-housing-market-expert-weighs

    1. I have not seen a stock market like this in 42 years. Here’s why and how to approach it
      Published Sun, Dec 8 2024
      10:27 PM EST
      Jim Cramer
      CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer
      Rob Kim | NBCUniversal

      Maybe new investors don’t care about valuations. Maybe new exchange-traded funds can take Wall Street by storm. Maybe insiders aren’t in a hurry to sell. Maybe earnings are going to be much better than we think. Maybe some part of the market mechanics has broken down. Or, maybe the whole market has a new expectation of stocks — and, stocks are delivering on those expectations and then some.
      …
      Jim Cramer says this market is too speculative — but 2 stocks are still buys

      Cramer: Musk-Trump bond fuels an ‘alternative market of unreality’ we can’t ignore

      More In Jim’s Columns
      This holiday, I want to thank shortsighted stock traders for allowing us to win the long game

      The hidden dangers of parabolic stock moves — and how to best handle them
      …
      https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/08/jim-cramer-i-have-not-seen-a-stock-market-like-this-in-42-years.html

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