Those Clinging To Past Market Values Tend To Linger On The Market And Risk Going Stale

1. You will own nothing.

2. ‘Bromberg, a widow nearing her 70th birthday, said she hasn’t ‘crunched the numbers’ to figure out how much she is losing, but most of the insurance claim will go to repay the property’s $656,000 mortgage’

   70 and still has a whopping loan. Loanowners = broke a$$ losers.

   ‘Almost everyone in the Palisades is underinsured’

   That’s some sound lending right there Tony.

   1. ‘Almost everyone in the Palisades is underinsured’

      [There is a good reason for this …]

      ‘Built to burn.’ L.A. let hillside homes multiply without learning from past mistakes.

      https://archive.ph/UdlxK#selection-2423.0-2423.85

      1. that was an interesting article, thanks for the link.

         1. Agreed.

   2. despite the loan at 70, she’s the smart one. she’s gonna use the insurance to pay off the loan and walk away with a million bucks. meanwhile it’s going to be 3,4,5 years until that place is rebuilt for 2 million dollars to be worth 1.5 million (plus the million in land)

      There’s no hit to the pocketbook it’s smart. he who panics first panics best.

3. ‘The trend started back in 2020…New data by the City of Cape Coral shows there were more than 9,000 short-term rental listings in the city in 2024, which is nearly double the 5,000 that existed in 2020’

   2020, wasn’t that when minor respiratory illness started? That crazy virus is still kicking the sh$t out of investors!

   ‘He says this surplus in Airbnbs is overpowering the demand, even in peak rental season. He says the owners of one house he is selling are experiencing this issue. ‘This property is absolutely beautiful. I mean, this view, this location. I mean, you’re minutes from downtown Cape Coral, and you know, there, there might be five of them on this canal, whereas before there was only one’

   You’ve been disrupted Trevor.

4. Realtors are liars.

   1. Realtors are liars.

5. The AIDS-ridden population of sub-Saharan Africa won’t be able to mooch off U.S. taxpayers anymore.

   https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1889148136439926836

6. ‘Census data shows Myrtle Beach has a 22% rental vacancy rate and North Myrtle Beach has a 71% rate…These numbers may be attributed to the Myrtle Beach area’s high number of short-term rentals’

   Is that a lot?

   ‘If people aren’t renting apartments, it forces companies to lower prices to meet demand, Correnti said. But prices can only go so low, as owners still need to pay the mortgage and overhead costs’

   Yer right Spencer, these vacation people are just going to have to dig deeper or these loanowners are fooked!

7. Yellen the Felon & our other Treasury Secretaries belong in prison for their fiscal mismanagement.

   https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1889314366375202911

8. ‘The allegations led to an FBI investigation and a federal grand jury in New Jersey indicted Whalen in November of 2019. Federal prosecutors said the crime was part of a ‘Ponzi scheme’ that resulted in millions of dollars in losses for investors nationwide, including in New Jersey. ‘He’s out partying his (expletive) off all the time’

   I blogged about this extensively at the time. Puddle watchers have never even heard of it cuz they don’t put in any work.

9. Vietnam’s dong has gone limp. Should’ve traded your fiat currency for God’s money, Vietnamese.

   https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1889300585490366812

10. ‘Once one of the country’s biggest growth drivers, China’s property market has been in a downward spiral for five years with no signs of abating. Real estate values continue to plummet, households in financial distress are being forced to sell properties, and apartment developers that have racked up enormous debt on speculative projects are on the brink of collapse’

    This is globalist scum media bloomberg. This POS company told us 3 times that Evergrande had made a ‘last minute payment’ when they hadn’t. They made it up, a straight out lie. Why would globalist scum media cover up for the chicoms?

    Puddle watchers also have no idea this occurred cuz they don’t put in any work.

11. #Winning. Learn to mine coal, DEI office personnel.

    https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2025/02/11/pbs-caves-to-trump-we-have-closed-our-dei-office/

12. USAID funded vast media censorship apparatus.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/usaid-funded-massive-news-platform-extending-censorship-industrial-complex-to-billions-worldwide

13. Cry it out, Democrat-Bolsheviks.

    https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1889317250835915258

14. For your HBB enlightenment:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/

    This quote resonated with a lot of readers:

    “2020 created two economies. the you already bought a house before 2019 and the everybody else. paying 4 times the amount to get less.”

    CCP Flu money printing, four years of Harris/Biden economic carnage, and this is what you get.

15. The Clinton Crime Family is starting to sweat.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14382579/chelsea-clinton-breaks-silence-usaid-claims.html

16. Diversity is our strength.

    https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdtx/pr/cbp-officer-arrested-el-paso-charged-alien-smuggling-and-drug-trafficking#:~:text=Perez%20Jr.%20is%20charged%20with,substance%20with%20intent%20to%20distribute.

17. The DNC’s FBI Chekists who ran roughshod over J6 protestors who took an unguided tour of the Capitol Building are now tipping off Democrat-on-Arrival illegals to pending ICE raids.

    https://x.com/saras76/status/1889158057764303028

    1. “are now tipping off Democrat-on-Arrival illegals to pending ICE raids.”

       Strip their pensions, lock them up and throw away the key.

       1. +1

          Here in Region VIII, it’s only a matter of time before the “rallies” at the Colorado Statehouse defending r@pists and drug dealers devolve into roadblocks and carjackings (the HBB remembers Reginald Denny).

          Stay vigilant!

18. “If people aren’t renting apartments, it forces companies to lower prices to meet demand, Correnti said. But prices can only go so low, as owners still need to pay the mortgage and overhead costs.””

    Oh my dear sweet child. What something is worth has absolutely nothing to do with what you paid for it. A lot of people are about to learn this harsh lesson. again.

19. “But prices can only go so low, as owners still need to pay the mortgage and overhead costs.”

    😂😂😂…..prices don’t care about your mortgage or holding costs. Dumbest comment ever!

    1. “But prices can only go so low”

       https://youtu.be/jT46qV9XMs0?si=7FIdA7DdfVGmWTxw&t=34

    2. ..prices don’t care about your mortgage or holding costs. Dumbest comment ever!
       Very dumb comment but a lot of people say the exact same thing.

       1. Indeed. They’ve never had an entrepreneurial experience.

       2. a lot of people say the exact same thing

          In anticipation of an imagined future, not in retrospect.

20. LA Times: Strongest storm in a year bearing down on Southern California: What you need to know.

    [A snip from the article …]

    Those living in or around recently burned areas should plan to leave their homes before the storm or, if they choose to remain at home, hunker down and stay off the roads. The National Weather Service warned of “potentially life-threatening and damaging flooding and debris flows,” and said the next few days could end up being the wettest storm of the entire winter.

    [First comes the fires, then comes the mud, then comes the rebuilding. Rinse, repeat.]

    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-11/strongest-southern-california-storm-in-a-year-what-to-know

    1. [Here is a better link …]

       https://archive.ph/dhXsC

    2. “Strongest storm in a year…”

       Mother nature says, “Kick ’em while they’re down!”

21. CNBC — Fed Chair Powell says central bank doesn’t ‘need to be in a hurry’ to lower interest rates further (2/11/2025):

    “With our policy stance now significantly less restrictive than it had been and the economy remaining strong, we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance,” Powell said. “We know that reducing policy restraint too fast or too much could hinder progress on inflation. At the same time, reducing policy restraint too slowly or too little could unduly weaken economic activity and employment.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/11/fed-chair-powell-says-central-bank-doesnt-need-to-be-in-a-hurry-to-lower-interest-rates-further.html

    I want rate hikes, not rate cuts.

    Since 2008 it has been a deliberate War On Savers, with almost all of the alleged benefits of low rates going to the Wall Street pigmen, the non producers, the coin clippers.

    Low interest rates = Big Government welfare for the Parasite Class.

22. Retirees, federal workers ‘scared to death’ of Musk and Trump accessing Social Security benefits

    A 35-year veteran of the Social Security Administration who works out of its headquarters in Woodlawn, Shelley Washington describes himself as “the guy that makes sure grandma gets her check.” He’s the one, he said, who gets the call at 2 a.m. if the system goes down.

    A potential mass exodus of his colleagues because of President Donald Trump’s steps to slash the federal workforce isn’t just destabilizing for his office — it’s a moment he believes could upend a service he’s dedicated his career to and that millions of people rely on.

    “I’m a lifer,” said Washington, a systems programmer and expert on the agency’s batch production software. “I know nothing else but this, so it’s very scary.”

    Washington was among about 150 public officials, retirees and workers who rallied outside the headquarters Monday afternoon to protest a slew of actions from Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency in recent weeks. Those include several moves to reduce the federal workforce and, in recent days, attempts to infiltrate the Treasury Department system that handles Social Security benefits and tax refunds.

    A federal judge temporarily blocked DOGE’s access to that system over the weekend after Maryland joined 18 other states in suing Trump.

    Musk, for his part, has said his efforts are intended to ensure the government has a full grasp of what it’s paying. In a post on X on Saturday, he claimed there are $50 billion to $100 billion in fraudulent entitlement payments to individuals per year, though he did not specify where those figures came from or if they are even correct.

    “If accurate, this is extremely suspicious,” he wrote.

    Retirees at the rally Monday chanted, waved handmade signs and screamed out in worry during a series of speeches by Maryland elected officials.

    “Keep your forking hands off our $$$$,” read one sign, referring to the “fork in the road” email that went out to millions of federal workers two weeks ago asking them to resign with seven months of paid leave. “Nobody elected Elon Musk” and “Hands off our Social Security” read others.

    “It’s like being invaded,” Carol Goldstein, an 83-year-old retired nurse from Towson, said in an interview about Musk’s team trying to gain access to the payments system.

    Debra Brown, 71, of Pikesville, said she was “scared to death” about what it could mean for her and others’ personal information.

    “What are they going to do with it? Why do they want it?” said Brown, a retired social worker. “I’m just thinking of all the bad things that are going to happen.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/retirees-federal-workers-scared-to-death-of-musk-and-trump-accessing-social-security-benefits/ar-AA1yOeHN

    1. Retirees… ‘scared to death’

       I’m not and it’s hard to imagine why anyone should be.

       1. The implication is that retirees might stop getting their SS checks, which is a scare tactic.

          Of course, they do not mention the upside, that by rooting out fraudulent payments, Social Security’s day of reckoning is deferred.

          1. “…that by rooting out fraudulent payments…”

             What’s really stunning is that you would think that the SSA would identify and terminate fraudulent payments as part of normal audit procedures.

             Ditto for Medicare which is considered to be a even bigger sinkhole.

             Are Federal agencies immune to [independent] audits?

             1. Are Federal agencies immune to [independent] audits?

                Not anymore, it would appear.

                Just think about the money that was allocated to build charging stations. I wonder how much of that money was stolen.

    2. “I know nothing else but this, so it’s very scary.”

       Sounds like you’re scared of everything.

23. Federal workers, Maryland leaders plan Capitol Hill rally to protest Trump’s efforts to slash workforce

    Federal workers and Maryland leaders continue to combat President Donald Trump’s efforts targeting government employees as courts examine the legality of his orders — and as he reportedly plans to issue more.

    “Federal workers, do not surrender,” Everett Kelley, the head of the largest union of federal employees, said Friday in a live Instagram conversation with U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth of Anne Arundel County. “We’re in this fight, and we need to fight. We need to fight like we’ve never fought before.”

    A nearly government-wide hiring freeze, the firing of longtime workers and an offer to pay others to resign are among the moves that have already decimated agencies like the United States Agency for International Development, disrupted work at the Maryland-based National Institutes for Health, and ended all diversity, equity and inclusion offices.

    “CLOSE IT DOWN!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday, celebrating the dismantling of USAID, for what he claimed was “totally unexplainable” and “fraudulently” spent money by the agency that delivered aid to countries around the world.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/federal-workers-maryland-leaders-plan-capitol-hill-rally-to-protest-trump-s-efforts-to-slash-workforce/ar-AA1yKZNQ

24. About 3,000 encampment fires reported in San Jose in 2024, firefighters union says

    The number of fires started at homeless encampments is going up year by year, according to the union representing San Jose firefighters. With around 3,000 of these fires reported to the department just last year alone, the union says something has to change.

    The union says they respond to 3-4 unhoused encampment fires every day, and during the dry months, that number can go up to 10 or 20 calls.

    “Every day we come to work we know there is a possibility of this type of danger we deal with,” said San Jose Fire Department Captain Jerry May. “It’s increased tremendously over the last 10-15 years since I’ve been there.”

    Out of the 4,600 non-structure fires responded to by San Jose fire, San Jose Firefighters Local 230 says around 3,000 of those were from encampments. The union adds the number is a about 200 more than 2024.

    “We are one of the busiest in the Bay Area, and to see all the fires we’re going to in day in and day out is really concerning,” May said.

    May says the fires can cause unnecessary exposure to toxic gas and prevent firefighters from responding to other fires. He says it’s common to see unhoused people die because of the fires.

    “I’m tired of hearing excuses for why we can’t enforce common sense prohibitions on open flames, loose propane tanks, tapped electrical lines and other similar behaviours in encampments that put us all at risk. Given the recent tragedies in L.A., this truly can’t wait,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said in a statement to KRON4.

    Unhoused advocates like Shaunn Cartwright say unhoused people start fires to stay warm at night, and only long-term housing solutions can end the fire danger.

    “If you don’t want people to be living outside and starting fires you should be supporting permanent supportive housing,” she said.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/about-3-000-encampment-fires-reported-in-san-jose-in-2024-firefighters-union-says/ar-AA1yNxeN

    1. “tapped electrical lines”

       The State of Colorado gave me a license, but I should probably ignore any hazards associated with this, because muh progressive, compassionate, etc

       There’s episodes of The Wire where the orphan gang kids of Baltimore live like this

25. ‘We will not abandon them’: Nonprofits scramble to support refugees after federal stop-work order

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — After waiting for several years, Shamiran, 18, and her family had less than two days to pack up and leave behind their lives in Iraq when they were granted permission to come to the United States as refugees. With only a few personal belongings, the family arrived in Chicago on Jan. 19.

    Just one day after their arrival, President Donald Trump was inaugurated, and immediately issued an executive order pausing the U.S. refugee admission program for 90 days, prompting canceled flights for those waiting to come to the U.S. and leaving refugees who had been approved by the federal government stranded. Later that week, the Trump administration issued a stop-work order that froze the work of resettlement agencies and the local nonprofit affiliates that help refugees who have already arrived settle into their new homes.

    The administration’s orders have left Bay Area nonprofits scrambling as their funding to support hundreds of refugees who have already arrived has disappeared — and have left recently arrived refugees fearful for their futures in the United States.

    “It was devastating,” said Shamiran, who asked that her last name not be used due to her refugee status. “We need a little help before we can get on our feet.”

    The resettlement services, which are up to 90% federally funded, last for the first 90 days a refugee has arrived in the country, Frazer said. In addition to case management and assistance with basic needs such as food, the refugees are each given a one-time stipend of $1,650.

    Now Shamiran and her family — and hundreds of other refugees in the Bay Area — are left without those services and cash assistance.

    The executive order states that the United States “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.”

    “We’re four people, so how much could it get for us?” Shamiran said. “It’s going to be a lot harder to do what I wanted to do — to get on my feet.”

    Madhi, 30, another refugee who fled Afghanistan and finished his 90 days of service shortly before the stop-work order, said he would have been homeless without support.

    “It’s going to be very hard,” he said through a translator. “They’re going to face lots of problems.”

    Sayed Agha Dawlati, who lives in Concord, had traveled to Qatar to bring his five- and eight-year-old daughters to join the rest of his family in the United States when their travel plans and refugee status were canceled — which he described through a translator as a “shock.”

    “It’s a very uncertain situation that I’m stuck in,” Dawlati said. “If I’m not in the U.S., I cannot support my family, and it’s like losing them as well.”

    Now, Dawlati is facing an impossible decision because he cannot leave his two daughters alone in Qatar, but his family risks eviction if he does not return to work driving for Uber in Concord.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/we-will-not-abandon-them-nonprofits-scramble-to-support-refugees-after-federal-stop-work-order/ar-AA1yNS4f

    1. he cannot leave his two daughters alone in Qatar

       Apparently, he already did in 2024.

    2. ‘We will not abandon them’: Nonprofits scramble to support refugees after federal stop-work order
       Ok, so they probably won’t abandon them for what a week? Maybe a month but then, By ya, see ya, wouldn’t want to be ya.
       Unless of course a new flood of cash shows up.

26. “On a cul-de-sac in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades, what was once a four-bedroom wood-and-stucco house is now a pile of rubble. The property went on the market 10 days after flames ripped through the community last month, with an asking price of $999,000. More than five dozen offers later, it’s now in escrow for ‘a good chunk more’ than $1 million, according to the agent who listed the property.”

    $1+ million for a pile of rubble and burnt dirt!? Must be a mania happening…

    1. “$1+ million for a pile of rubble and burnt dirt!? Must be a mania happening…”

       Is there any word on how long it will be before Governor Newscum and his Democrat partners in crime allow the new owners of the $1+ million pile of rubble and burnt dirt to start fixing it up?

       5 months?

       10 months?

       5 years?

       10 years?

       1. “a pile of rubble and burnt dirt”

          Let’s not disrespect that. I bought one, but I didn’t pay a million dollars for it.

       2. Not the most pleasant work but working on it yourself = not paying somebody else to do it:

          https://ibb.co/XZB8PGps

          https://ibb.co/B52BjGv2

27. Some people detained during the statewide crackdown said that’s not what it feels like on the ground.

    “It was just a regular morning,” said Loreal Duran from Echo Park in Los Angeles, describing her family’s before-school rush to get the kids out the door and loaded into the car.

    But on the morning in question, Jan. 23, as her husband fastened their two young children into their seats, an immigration officer walked up, asking Loreal to show identification. “As he got closer to the car, he saw my husband, and basically, he just went around to the other side to grab my husband out of the car and take him away.”

    “You can sense that kind of panic and also hunger; hunger for correct, reliable information as to what they should do in times of a raid or in times of an encounter with an immigration agent,” said Ian M. Seruelo, an immigration attorney in San Diego.

    California Republicans appear to be on board with Trump’s actions so far. They urged Newsom to veto two bills signed into law last week. One was the $25 million for immigrant legal defense and the other allocated another $25 million for Attorney General Rob Bonta to pursue litigation against the Trump administration.

    “We have a public safety problem in California, and a big component of that is international gangs and cartels. Human trafficking has exploded, and it knows no bounds,” said Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares, a Republican from Santa Clarita, during a floor debate on the legislation.

    In Tijuana, outside a federal shelter set up to assist recently deported Mexicans, a 16-year-old told CalMatters he had been detained trying to reach Stockton to find work. “They grabbed me,” he said, and within hours, he was back in Mexico.

    Thirty-four-year-old Vilma Ordóñez said she and her husband and children went out to eat in East Los Angeles on Jan. 26. As they got out of the car in front of the restaurant, two agents wearing bulletproof vests approached “and told my husband that he looked like someone they were looking for,” Ordóñez described.

    It’s possible the agents were looking for indications on Ordóñez’s husband’s ID that he was not an authorized immigrant. In 2013, California passed the Safe and Responsible Drivers Act, granting undocumented residents the ability to obtain driver’s licenses. More than a million undocumented Californians got the special licenses, which look slightly different than regular state licenses. Some advocates worried at the time the licenses could be misused by immigration authorities to identify people who are undocumented. ICE did not respond to a request for comment about whether it is identifying immigrants without legal status by their AB60 driver’s licenses.

    Ordóñez said the agents let them go, so they went into the restaurant with their children and had dinner. But when they returned to the parking lot, four agents were standing around their car.

    “They told him he had signed a voluntary return in 1996 and had not left the country, and so they were going to detain him and take him,” she said, adding that he’s currently being held in a California detention facility. Ordóñez said her husband never signed the voluntary return form.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/it-was-just-a-regular-morning-californians-picked-up-in-recent-ice-raids-include-kids-volunteers/ar-AA1yOLEY

    1. “Ordóñez said her husband never signed the voluntary return form.”

       Shaggy – It Wasn’t Me

       https://youtu.be/2g5Hz17C4is?si=vow94lnD0LR3uF8i

    2. Another story where they try to paint an illegal as an upstanding citizen. Yet it is clear in the story that the ICE agents weren’t just looking randomly for people to pick up, they knew he had signed a form promising to leave. And even if he hadn’t, he was present illegally. Why are people surprised? Were they expecting to stay until they retired, and maybe collect social security, even though they never paid into it?

       In Tijuana, outside a federal shelter set up to assist recently deported Mexicans, a 16-year-old told CalMatters he had been detained trying to reach Stockton to find work. “They grabbed me,” he said, and within hours, he was back in Mexico.

       Again,what was this guy expecting? Trump and Homan had made it crystal clear there were going to enforce the border. “Oye vato, I was only looking for trabajo, why you send me back to Mexico?”

       1. These stories make me wonder if msn is making them up to support their narrative. How could one even verify them.

          1. It wouldn’t be the first time they lied to push a narrative

       2. a 16-year-old told CalMatters he had been detained trying to reach Stockton to find work
          Yeah a 16 year boy with no skills, and probably a poor grasp of English is gonna be able to support himself in CA. Maybe but I wouldn’t bet on it.

28. Haryana family spent Rs 1.2 crore to reach US, deported back in 12 days
    In the FIR, Paramjit alleged that in Mexico, they were lodged in a room and were tortured

    A Haryana family deported from the US recently has told the police that they reached the USA by spending Rs 1.2 crore on January 22 this year but was deported back within 12 days. The four members were among the 104 people deported by the US on February 3 this year for entering the country illegally. They landed at the Amritsar airport on February 5.

    Now the Haryana Police has launched an investigation against the three travel agents who had allegedly promised the family of four to send them to the US by charging Rs 30 lakh per member.

    A resident of Haibatpur village of Kurukshetra district, Paramjeet Singh, 45, has lodged a complaint against three travel agents: Salinder Bhura, a resident of Kirmach village; Jinda, a resident of Kaithal; and Rinku, a resident of Thanesar (Thanesar) and their unknown accomplices. The police have lodged an FIR against them under the charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating, human trafficking and under provisions of the Immigration Act.

    To arrange more money, Paramjit sold his house for Rs 74 lakh in June 2024. In August 2024, he gave Rs 8 lakh to the travel agents while a payment of Rs 40 lakh was made on December 18, 2024. The agents said that the remaining Rs 70 lakh will be charged once they reach America.

    On December 21, 2024, they took a flight from Delhi airport to Rome from where they went to Paris and landed in Costa Rica on December 27, 2024. After 15 days, they reached Mexico by road.

    In the FIR, Paramjit alleged that in Mexico, they were lodged in a room and were tortured. He said the associates of the travel agents asked him to make a call to their relatives in Haryana to make the payment of the remaining money (Rs 70 lakh). “Our phones and passports were snatched and we were beaten up badly. We were kept hungry. On January 15, I called my cousin to make a payment of Rs 70 lakh to the travel agents and the same was made to them the next day,” said Paramjit in the police complaint.

    According to Paramjit, on January 22, 2025, they were taken to the US border. “As soon as we crossed the US border, the American police took us into custody and we were lodged in the jail. We were tortured in America too. We were sent back to India on February 5,” Paramjit said.

    Paramjit told the police that he made a phone call to travel agent Salinder Bhura after landing in India but he did not pick up the phone.

    https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/haryana-family-us-deportation-journey-travel-agents-9829120/

    1. Haryana family spent Rs 1.2 crore to reach US

       That’s $14000 USD. The whole family was able to travel from India AND be smuggled into the US for 14 grand?

       According to Paramjit, on January 22, 2025, they were taken to the US border. “As soon as we crossed the US border, the American police took us into custody and we were lodged in the jail. We were tortured in America too.

       Baloney

       1. They have returned to their hometown in India, where they were tortured.

    2. so let me get this straight: these people traveled from India to the U.S. via Rome, Paris, & Mehico, and then this globe-hopping excursion ends badly, they get caught, shift the story to “torture” . . . even in America !?

       South African, please!!
       sus. highly sus.

       just more economic illegals caught in the rapidly narrowing fish net.

29. Letters: Snowbird view of Trumpland

    We’ve been snowbirding in Florida, and I’m so glad to hear all my family back home are making efforts to buy Canadian goods.

    We’re trying to do the same here, but items are so hard to find. So I’ve decided to at least try to buy from Democratic states — maybe maple syrup from Vermont, for example.

    I no longer wear my Canadian cap because I’ve been getting nasty looks.

    Some of our American friends apologize for their president. I hope one day to get back to the way we were — good neighbours.

    Lorraine Taylor, Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/letters-snowbird-view-of-trumpland/ar-AA1yMksL

    1. We’re trying to do the same here, but items are so hard to find. So I’ve decided to at least try to buy from Democratic states — maybe maple syrup from Vermont, for example

       I insist only on maple syrup from Mississippi

       1. ** “I insist only on maple syrup from Mississippi”

          Mississippi Maple Syrup = used motor oil from the Airboats mixed w/sugar cane.

          not to worry, its labelled “Distributed in Bentonville, AR”.

    2. Some of our American friends apologize for their president. I hope one day to get back to the way we were

       Where US Taxpayers fund Canadian NGO’s?

30. Derek Burney: Trump crassly betrays decades of mutual economic benefit

    Donald Trump temporarily reversed his initial 25 per cent tariff threat against Canada and Mexico when both countries offered tangible examples of measures to tighten the border, most of which had been announced in December. As the Wall Street Journal observed, “President Trump never admits a mistake, but he often changes his mind. That is the best way to read his decision to pause his tariffs.” But yesterday, Trump doubled down, announcing 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum “affecting everybody,” but with a particularly negative impact on Canada. He promised further “reciprocal” tariffs would follow thereby risking an all-out global trade war.

    Trump’s actions are reckless, unwarranted and a flagrant violation of the USMCA he signed seven years ago. Can his administration be trusted to live up to any agreement it concludes? Once broken, that trust will be hard to repair, especially among erstwhile allies.

    Trump’s “might is right” approach runs roughshod over the rules-based order of international relations and undermines the U.S.’ role as “leader of the Free World.” He is using bogus complaints against Canada to cavalierly trash the existing trade agreement between us.

    Trump declared obtusely that America needs nothing from Canada — not our oil nor uranium, nor lumber and critical minerals. Really?

    Republicans were once the champions of liberalized trade, as compared to protectionist Democrats. In Trump’s MAGA world, that is no longer the case. They and senior U.S. business executives who know better, were remarkably silent during the tariff kerfuffle. They had better come to their senses soon.

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/politics/derek-burney-trump-crassly-betrays-decades-of-mutual-economic-benefit/ar-AA1yL8UN

    1. They had better come to their senses soon.

       Or else?

31. U.S. Lumber Coalition: Duties have near zero impact on new home price

    The U.S. Lumber Coalition released the following press release regarding tariffs and their impact on the cost of a new home.

    Since 2016, U.S. mills have added eight billion board feet of production capacity and produced 30 billion additional board feet of softwood lumber, more than offsetting the decline in unfairly traded Canadian imports.

    The increased U.S. capacity through the enforcement of the U.S. trade laws means that today the United States can supply up to 95 percent of its own lumber needs.

    Data provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Fastmarkets Random Lengths confirm that cost of lumber is a very small component of the price of a new home. Consequently, duties on a share of that lumber imported from Canada resulting from the enforcement of U.S. trade laws against Canada’s egregious unfair trade practices in softwood lumber have a near-zero impact on the price of a new home.

    The time has come to turn the page on this false narrative by Canada and its U.S. allies that duties on Canadian softwood lumber are a big driver of the cost of constructing a new home, and instead focus on the positive results of growing U.S. lumber manufacturing capacity through strong enforcement of the U.S. trade laws. The softwood lumber trade cases to offset Canadian lumber subsidies and unfair trade have resulted in more U.S. lumber being produced by U.S. workers to build U.S. homes.

    Since the filing of the trade cases by the U.S. industry in 2016, domestic sawmill investment and capacity expansion has been robust. U.S. mills have added eight billion board feet of production capacity and produced 30 billion additional board feet of softwood lumber during this period. That amounts to an average of 3.7 billion board feet a year of added production by U.S. producers. These increases have more than offset the decline in unfairly traded Canadian imports and have resulted in enough lumber to build two million single-family homes.

    This strengthening of domestic supply lines to build American homes with American lumber would not have happened without strong enforcement of the U.S. trade laws, which work to level the playing field against subsidized and dumped imports.

    “The U.S. trade laws have allowed the domestic industry to dramatically increase its production capacity since 2016,” stated Andrew Miller, Chairman and Owner of Stimson Lumber, adding that “the trajectory of the increased U.S. capacity through the enforcement of the U.S. trade laws means that today the United States can supply up to 95 percent of its own lumber needs.”

    https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/opinion/us-lumber-coalition-duties-have-near-zero-impact-new-home-price

    1. cost of lumber is a very small component of the price of a new home

       I thought it was 1/3 of the cost. Maybe cost is not related to price.

32. Donald Trump sparked a movement toward economic nationalism. Where will Canadians take it?

    Charlie Angus was driving down Northern Ontario’s Highway 11 and his signal kept dropping. But he was still on a roll.

    The New Democratic MP was on CNN the night before comparing U.S. President Donald Trump to “Al Capone in his syphilitic period.” He’d been on social media urging Canadians to boycott U.S. products. The response was emphatic.

    “That’s a very hopeful sign because it means Canadians are willing to shift buying patterns,” Mr. Angus said from his car. “But the bigger picture is, what are we going to do as a nation to make our economy more resilient? We’re probably going back to pre-1980s standard in terms of having more of a nationalist view of our economy.”

    In 1972, Pierre Trudeau’s government, dismayed by the brief imposition of U.S. tariffs in 1971 and faltering in an election campaign, issued an Options Paper for Canada-U.S. relations. It outlined three choices: the status quo, greater integration and free trade, or diversification and economic nationalism to reduce vulnerability.

    Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals favoured the third option, and later brought in a Foreign Investment Review Act and National Energy Program. But that didn’t make Canada’s economy an unshakable fortress.

    The tide turned decisively when Brian Mulroney won the 1988 election on free trade with persuasive arguments that competitiveness would bring prosperity. But there had been warnings that the deal would increase dependence on the U.S. and eventually allow the bigger country to demand better terms and undermine Canada’s sovereignty.

    “Hawaii first started out with a trade agreement with the United States and ended up as the 50th state,” then-Liberal MP Lloyd Axworthy noted in the Commons in 1988.

    There seems to be a nascent national consensus on building more pipelines to ports, but reducing dependence would also mean passing on proposals to build pipelines to the U.S.

    Politicians have treated resources, notably critical minerals, as Canada’s key bargaining chip, but future prosperity depends on more. Economic nationalism in 2025 would have to include technology and a national effort to develop intellectual property.

    “That’s where all the money, and power, and security is – in intangibles,” said former BlackBerry co-CEO Jim Balsillie.

    The world’s economy is now divided between intellectual-property owners and renters who pay to use it, he argued. Canada is a nation of renters that has failed to fight trade rules that raise the rents while effectively giving intangible assets away, funding research without ensuring Canadians retain ownership.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opinion/article-donald-trump-sparked-a-movement-toward-economic-nationalism-where-will/

    1. ‘Canada is a nation of renters that has failed to fight trade rules that raise the rents while effectively giving intangible assets away, funding research without ensuring Canadians retain ownership’

       That’s been happening to the US too Jim. They sent our best jobs to China and Mexico. Let in millions of illegals to take jobs inside the country. Wages haven’t gone up for over 40 years. That’s why moms have to work instead of raising children. IMO what you are seeing now is what it looks like when globalism dies.

       1. “what you are seeing now is what it looks like when globalism dies”

          +1

          Let’s have more of it.

          1. +1000

33. Virginia Democratic Party Chairwoman Susan Swecker to step down

    Virginia Democratic Party Chairwoman Susan Swecker, who has led the party through a decade of blue waves, red sweeps and murky, purple-state mixed bags, will announce Monday that she is stepping down, making way for new leadership ahead of fall elections for governor and all 100 seats in the House of Delegates.

    Swecker grew up on a sheep and cattle farm in Highland County, rural territory on the West Virginia line where, she likes to say, there are “more sheep than people.”

    Her home county leaned Republican back then — unlike the union-heavy coal counties to its south, which were blue. Today, that whole corner of the state is solid Trump country. The former president won Highland County in November with 71 percent of the vote, the coal counties by even greater numbers.

    The party’s slide in rural areas has been a worry for Swecker given her roots there, even if the blue votes in more populous areas can often more than make up the difference in statewide contests.

    “It’s definitely something that keeps you up at night,” she said, noting that Democrats opened presidential and congressional campaign offices in rural areas last year. “We didn’t lose those voters overnight, we won’t win them back overnight. … Part of it is showing up and listening — not talking. We’ve got to quit talking at people and really listen.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/virginia-democratic-party-chairwoman-susan-swecker-to-step-down/ar-AA1yL2iS

34. DHS fires 4 FEMA employees who sent NYC $59 million for migrant hotels

    The Department of Homeland Security made a unilateral move and fired four Federal Emergency Management Agency employees, accusing the “deep state activists” of paying out $59 million to New York City hotels to help cover costs associated with the migrant crisis.

    DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the Washington Examiner Tuesday morning that the federal department was parting ways with four government workers because they went around leadership in order to pay out tens of millions of dollars to New York City, where millions were spent housing illegal immigrants from the border in luxury hotels in Manhattan.

    “Effective immediately, FEMA is terminating the employment of four individuals for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants. Firings include FEMA’s Chief Financial Officer, two program analysts, and a grant specialist,” McLaughlin wrote in a statement.

    “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS will not sit idly and allow deep state activists to undermine the will and safety of the American people,” McLaughlin continued.

    The terminations come a day after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency alleged that the Biden administration dispatched $59 million this past week to reimburse New York City for the massive amount of money it spent housing illegal immigrants who traveled to the sanctuary city during the Biden administration.

    “The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants,” Musk wrote in a social media post. “Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals! A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dhs-fires-4-fema-employees-who-sent-nyc-59-million-for-migrant-hotels/ar-AA1yPI8u

    1. Just think, had Democrat Party installed itself in the White House for the next four years, all of this would continue.

       Replacement Theory is not a theory.

       It is your literal replacement, and its strongest advocates who will be #Named are the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti Defamation League.

       My greatest hope within the next four years is that these organizations will be shut down, stripped of their assets, their executives and management imprisoned and/or deported.

35. Biden is least popular living president, Gallup survey finds.

    https://archive.ph/RljA2

    Six-in-ten US adults said they viewed Obama favorably, while only 39% said the same of Biden. Trump, meanwhile, is viewed positively by 48% of US adults, according to the poll, which was conducted in late January immediately following his second inauguration. That’s an improvement for Trump, who was viewed favorably by only a third of US adults during his first presidential campaign. Americans’ views of Obama have remained steadily positive since he left office, and 20% of Republicans view Obama favorably, compared with only 8% who view Biden favorably.

    1. “only 39%”

       Only? Where do they find these people, besides obviously the Deep State, Real Journalists, and the Parasite Class?

       TDS is one hell of a drug.

36. Mental Health Experts See Massive Increase In “Despair And Burn Out” Among Democrats.

    https://archive.ph/4CDkL#selection-4703.0-4703.84

    Modernity – Leftist outlet Axios has published an article claiming that mental health experts are seeing a huge increase in patients who are Democrat voters complaining of “despair and burn out” in the wake of President Trump winning the election and taking office for the second time.

    The piece claims that the worn out whiners are whinging about not being able to keep up with the pace of Trump’s “rapid fire policies.”

    The article notes “Mental health professionals say even people who don’t see themselves as directly affected by administration actions are feeling frazzled by the dizzying pace and Trump’s enduring ability to command attention.”

    “They may feel it through the venting of a spouse, the distress of a neighbor with a trans child or an anxious friend who works for a government contractor,” it hilariously adds.

    The piece further states that Andrea Bonior, a Georgetown University psychology professor “said she’s seen an uptick in patients, particularly Democrats, expressing a sense of burnout, guilt and despair at losing an old way of life.”

    It adds that “Bonior pointed to federal workers who aren’t sure if they’ll be let go as well as others concerned about their immigration status or worried about loved ones whose refugee flights were canceled.”

    “It feels, no matter which way you go, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m being ruled by a very different system that I thought I was living in,’” New York-based neuropsychologist Sanam Hafeez told Axios.

    Yes.

    Won’t someone think of the bureaucratic federal workers and the illegal immigrants who now face “uncertainty” because borders and limits on government spending have been restored.

    The world’s smallest violin is playing for them.

    [Hit the link to read the rest.]

    1. mental health experts are seeing a huge increase in patients who are Democrat voters complaining of “despair and burn out”

       More likely they are worried about being arrested for fraud and embezzlement. Suddenly that 5% kickback for signing off on a bogus contract doesn’t seem like it was such a good idea.

37. Goldman Nukes DEI IPO Requirement As Woke Era Implodes

    by Tyler Durden

    https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/goldman-nukes-dei-ipo-requirement-woke-era-implodes-trump-era

    During the “summer of love,” as BLM riots gripped cities and towns nationwide, Goldman Sachs went down the woke rabbit hole and informed companies and investors that it would no longer take a company public unless its board included two diverse board members, one of whom must be a woman—even if it meant forfeiting underwriting the deal.

    [snip]

    According to Bloomberg, Goldman has received Trump’s memo and nuked its DEI IPO requirement.

    “As a result of legal developments related to board diversity requirements, we ended our formal board diversity policy,” Goldman spokesman Tony Fratto wrote in a statement, adding, “We continue to believe that successful boards benefit from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and we will encourage them to take this approach.”

    Goldman’s DEI IPO requirement arrived at a time when the “woke mind virus” spread rapidly across corporate America. BlackRock and other globalist asset managers were at the heart of this corporate-led Marxist revolution, which pressured companies to prioritize DEI initiatives over profit maximization and adopt environmental, social, and governance responsibilities.

    Bloomberg stated the good news at Goldman: “Goldman has already advised on initial public offerings that don’t appear to meet its diversity criteria. It helped on a listing that priced last week for Titan America SA, a cement company whose website lists no women on its board.”

    From Meta to Google to Walmart to Amazon to many other companies, the era of toxic DEI dominating corporate culture and installing far-left activists in managerial positions to spread wokeism is over. The nation is returning to meritocracy, yet the folks screaming and yelling and calling for a revolution the loudest are Democrats who are watching their artificial power grabs under woke evaporate under Trump’s executive order.

38. DOGE Investigating Feds Whose Net Worths Have Exploded After Samantha Power Bombshell.

    by Tyler Durden

    DOGE head Elon Musk said on Tuesday that DOGE is going to investigate federal employees whose net worths have exploded despite their comparatively low pay.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doge-investigating-feds-whose-net-worths-have-exploded-after-samantha-power-bombshell

    The announcement – which came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to work with DOGE, follows a bombshell report that Samantha Power, former head of USAID, saw her net worth explode to $30 million despite an annual salary under $250,000.

    “We don’t know why. Where did it come from? I think the reality is that they’re getting wealthy at the taxpayer expense,” Musk said on Tuesday.

    Power, a former ambassador to the United Nations under President Obama, and was sworn in as head of USAID in May of 2021, reported a net worth between $6.7 million-$16.5 million in January of 2021 on a disclosure form. Her net worth is now estimated as high as $30 million, according to the website Biden’s Basement.

    [Click on the link to read the rest.]

    1. At the link:

       Elon Musk

       How did she accumulate wealth that is 100 times her after tax salary?

       https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888579484401479867

       1. Hillary was a savvy cattle futures trader, IIRC.

39. ‘Now, Moyer, 55, isn’t so sure her future remains in tech. Since being laid off from Indeed last year, Moyer has applied to more than 140 jobs but received no offers. She and her wife are considering selling their house near Portland, Oregon, and buying land to farm instead — worried whatever job she finds won’t cover her mortgage. ‘It would be a meager existence, but it would be fulfilling,’ Moyer said. ‘I would no longer feel like a no longer useful commodity’

    I know it may not be the best time to mention it Daelynn, but it was still way cheaper than renting.

    1. Now, Moyer, 55, isn’t so sure her future remains in tech. Since being laid off from Indeed last year, Moyer has applied to more than 140 jobs but received no offer

       TBH, this hardly unusual, which is why you should start building that nest egg as early as possible. After 50 it’s hard as rocks to find work in coding and engineering, especially if you look old.

    2. “She and her wife…”

       LMAO!!

    3. buying land to farm instead — worried whatever job she finds won’t cover her mortgage. ‘It would be a meager existence, but it would be fulfilling,’
       air conditioned office worker to farmer. I am sure it will end well./sarc
       I gotta admit as a former A/C office worker the thought is appealing but, come on, go out in the cold, snow rain and heat to do something you most likely know little about?

40. ‘Peterson’s experience was like that of many investors. In 2017, he borrowed money from family members and dipped into his retirement savings to purchase two homes for $94,000, which included the cost of rehabbing the properties. He later discovered the homes were nothing like the nicely renovated turnkey properties Morris featured in his YouTube videos. One house didn’t even have a front door. The condition of the homes was particularly shocking because Peterson had been provided with a signed leasing agreement and had received rental payments, despite the fact that the home clearly had been uninhabited. ‘That’s why I think it was a Ponzi scheme’

    Cole said his a$$ pounding was only $16k after the settlement, but that’s only if his time is worthless.

    1. Cole said his a$$ pounding was only $16k after the settlement, but that’s only if his time is worthless.

       If that’s all it cost him, he got off easy.

41. ‘The lawsuit is just the latest problem for Landa, which was founded in 2019 with the hopes of making real estate investment accessible by creating a user-friendly app and selling fractional shares of rental properties for as little as $5. But six years after its founding, Landa’s tenants have told Bisnow they live in squalor, and some investors fear a total loss of their money. Landa owns more than 200 single-family rentals in the Atlanta area and dozens more throughout the Southeast, as well as a handful of Brooklyn apartment buildings. Israel-based CEO Yishai Cohen is an entrepreneur in his late 20s with no real estate experience who managed to secure $33M of venture capital funding to launch the platform’

    Remember when the SEC would run investigations on this sort of thing as it happened? Obamie closed that door.

42. ‘With an uptick in activity, it’s important to remember that homes priced in line with current market conditions (tentative recovery) tend to sell more quickly, while those clinging to past market values tend to linger on the market and risk going stale,’ said Kaytee Sharun, president of the 2,600-member Association of Interior Realtors. For example, if a potential seller lists their average single-family home at $1.2 million, it will likely sit unsold until the price comes down to closer to $1 million. That same potential seller might have snagged that $1.2 million in boomtime 2022, but not today’

    It’s a good thing everybody put 30% down Kaytee!

43. ‘According to Statistics Korea, fourth-quarter construction output in 2024 plunged 10.1% year-over-year to 30.44 trillion won ($22.7 billion), marking the steepest drop since the 2008 global financial crisis, when output fell 15.3%. ‘With interest rates remaining high and rising labor and material costs pushing up construction expenses, projects are being delayed or even canceled,’ an industry official said. ‘Beyond housing, securing large-scale infrastructure projects is also becoming increasingly difficult, making this a full-scale crisis for the industry’

    I’d say this is a ‘not different this time’ thing.

44. Sellers Are In For A Massive Shock (Toronto Real Estate Market Update)

    Team Sessa Real Estate

    56 minutes ago

    In this episode, we look at the current Toronto Real Estate Market specifically the detached home prices and market trends for the week ending Feb 5, 2025. We also discuss how sellers may not be prepared for what’s to come if they put their house on the market.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQo2hAA0rjw

    15:28.

    1. Team Sessa should offer complimentary bottles of Boy Butter!

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