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Oh My God, I Have To Sell A Product To Someone Who’s Actually Going To Live In It?

A report from the New York Times. “After losing his job at the U.S. Forest Service, Cameron McKenzie was worried about finding a new job. But first, he had a more immediate concern: How was he going to pay the mortgage? He’s done the math — finding another job in the environmental sector could take months — and keeping up with the nearly $2,700 monthly payment on his three-bedroom home in Blairstown, New Jersey, will be a challenge, if not impossible. ‘Even on unemployment,’ said McKenzie, 27, who worked as a community engagement specialist, ‘I’m not going to be able to make my mortgage payment. I’m going to have to sell my house.'”

From Fox 4 Now. “Next week, Florida lawmakers will return to Tallahassee for the 2025 legislative session. As part of concerns to ease property insurance rates, lawmakers will once again look to replenish the My Safe Florida Home Program, which quickly ran out of money last year. ABC Action News anchor Nadeen Yanes has covered the program’s challenges and successes since it rolled out. Christine and Leonard Miller emailed Nadeen after they signed onto their portal, which showed money had run out for the program and that their grant application was closed. It came after the couple had to dip into their retirement to put up $15,000 dollars to put in hurricane-impact windows. ‘Which is why we put it off for a little bit. We’re retired. I’m not ready to go back to work,’ Christine said.”

“They moved forward with the program, thinking they’d be approved for the grant, only to see it quickly ran out of money. ‘We have a claim in. We have a claim started. We’ve gone through the steps, but then they’ve run out of funding,’ she said. ‘It’s been confusing to say the least. It’s just it’s not a quick, easy program to work through. We’re just stuck in limbo.'”

WSB Atlanta in Georgia. “Darlean Williams says she owns a shell of a house, after being forced to move out of her brand new home because of ongoing defects. ‘Since I’ve moved in, it’s been issues from day one, I have not been able to get comfortable in my dream home,’ Williams said. Months after purchasing her home, she says her kitchen ceiling caved in. Her next door neighbor, Earl McCarthy, says he and other neighbors are also having issues, involving cracks, HVAC, sewage and other problems. ‘You realize you’re not alone in the struggle that you have with this builder,’ he told Channel 2. Both homeowners say they were told by the developer LGI homes, they did not need a realtor or third-party inspector. ‘They assured us you don’t need a realtor, we’ll help you every step of the way, it’s a one stop shop,’ Williams said.”

The Review Journal in Nevada. “Home prices and listings continue to rise in Las Vegas Valley as the national housing market continues to overheat, according to a new report. Fernanda Kriese, a Redfin Realtor based in Las Vegas, said sellers continue to put their homes up for sale even though prices have hit record highs and sales are down. ‘I’ve met with a lot of potential sellers over the last few weeks. Listings typically pick up in March or April, but this year it’s happening earlier,’ she said. ‘Some of the sellers are listing because they bought just a few years ago and their home value isn’t increasing as quickly as they’d like, so they’re cutting their losses and moving to a less expensive home.'”

From CBC News. “Dale Botting has spent the past 45 winters travelling to sunny Arizona to escape Saskatchewan winters and enjoy the warm weather, golf and friends he’s made at his desert vacation home. But this winter will be his last. Botting has listed his home in Chandler, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, that has been in his family since his dad purchased it 45 years ago. ‘It’s this Trump regime and this cultism,’ Botting told The 306 host Peter Mills from his Arizona home office. Arizona real estate agents say Canadians are bailing out of the American market in record numbers, partly driven by the weak Canadian dollar and the chance to cash in on their home’s appreciated value.”

“Laurie Lavine, a realtor in Phoenix, Ariz., has an appreciation for the current Canadian sell off. He was born and raised in Winnipeg, holds dual citizenship and has lived in Phoenix for the past 16 years selling real estate. ‘The bullying is kind of the last straw that broke the camel’s back, and seven out of my 10 listings are for that reason alone.’ Lavine said other realtors are experiencing the same surge of Canadians selling off their Arizona properties because they are fed up with Trump. ‘In all my 27 years as a realtor, I’ve never really experienced this before,’ said Lavine, who sold real estate in Alberta before moving to Arizona.”

From CBS News. “Sheri Hastings’ property sits on a slow-moving disaster; a complex of landslides in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes, California. For nearly 70 years, this area has shifted roughly a few inches a year, but recently that pace has surged to as fast as four inches a week. ‘It’s a catastrophe, and yet some people are still able to live in their homes up here. They’re kind of riding a big raft down the hill,’ said Mike Phipps, a geologist who has been studying the shifting landscape for nearly four decades. In October, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services announced a $42 million voluntary buyout program for residents most impacted by the slide.”

“But Hastings isn’t interested. ‘It’s not a good deal. You get what the value of your home was two years ago. You get 75% of that. And then on top of that, you have to pay to demolish everything and have it hauled away,’ Hastings said. Hastings said that insurance doesn’t cover any of the damage to her property, either. Her life savings are now slipping away. ‘Everybody thinks we’re all millionaires up here. We’re actually not. Our homes were our money, right? We can’t just go out and buy another home,’ Hastings said.”

Bisnow Washington DC. “Andrew Cohn says he doesn’t usually get sentimental about financial assets, but the building he sold last month in D.C. was an exception. The Huntington Apartments on Connecticut Avenue was developed in the 1960s by his grandfather. But Cohn, now the CEO of Lustine Realty and its parent company, Liberty Group Holdings, says he had no choice but to sell the building, which was the firm’s last property in its home city after it sold a Southeast building early last year. And given how difficult the sale process was, he says he has no plans to invest in the District again. ‘I didn’t want to sell those buildings,’ he said. ‘I felt I was being forced to.'”

“He ultimately sold The Hampton East Apartments on Feb. 1, 2024, for $9.8M. The Huntington sale process took four years in part because the first deal fell through, a collapse that cost Cohn more than $10M. A previous buyer had signed a contract to buy the building for $28M.Cohn and his broker, CBRE senior associate Zach Stone, both blamed D.C.’s tenant-friendly laws for prolonging the first process to the point that the market turned and the deal collapsed. ‘We put the deal under contract in a much different environment in early 2022, and just based on the delays that were incurred because of TOPA, the interest rate environment and the capital markets changed significantly, so there was a major adjustment on price,’ Stone said. ‘I am grateful to have finally exited the multifamily universe in Washington DC and I can promise the city council and Mayor that after their most recent efforts to weaponize housing I will not invest in this city ever again,’ Cohn wrote in a LinkedIn post.”

The Globe and Mail in Canada. “As sales of new preconstruction condominiums have fallen to multidecade lows, more developers are turning away from the sugar high of investor-purchasers and rediscovering ‘end-users’: otherwise known as people who intend to live in the condo they buy. ‘Where we made mistakes was we adjusted our product to suit that short-term buyer – the investor, the assignor – and they were more concerned about price and return than about the actual product,’ said Christopher Wein, chief operating officer of Equiton Developments. Price point is also a critical determinant of sales success: at the peak of the investor frenzy there were projects selling close to $2,000 per square foot. Today, what is selling tends to stay below $1,200 per square foot.”

“‘It’s funny. I guess it’s a trend now that the investor-purchaser has left the building, developers are sitting here saying, ‘Oh my god, I have to sell a product to someone who’s actually going to live in it directly?’ It’s a whole other process. But we’ve never done anything else,’ said Daniel Ger, CEO of OFH. Equiton has not only seen the shift, it has responded to it by rebranding and redesigning its condo project at 875 The Queensway (originally marketed as KüL), which had a disappointing launch in the summer of 2024. ‘I took a hard look at it in the fall,’ said Mr. Wein. ‘I think this is a building that was designed for a market that no longer exists, that’s come and gone. [I thought], let’s take the building apart and start over again.’ Even the laundry room should be more than a closet, because storage is often at a premium in condos. ‘Every condo should have a place to store stuff like seasonal items and cleaning supplies; in most condos there’s not even room to store fabric softener,’ he said. Critically, the price per square foot will still come out between $1,100 and $1,200.”

Devon Live in the UK. “A new development of homes is to be built in a flood-prone East Devon village, despite residents warning against it. The plans for Feniton has led to significant objections, with 55 people formally lodging their opposition. Residents said work is continuing in the village to help reduce flooding and that the sewage system is already inadequate without adding more properties. Resident Chris Wilkins said:. ‘People are enduring sewage overflowing into their garden and backing up into the toilet,’ he said. ‘The knock-on effect for Burlands residents is that they are asked not to flush their toilet and are subjected to pungent smells in their homes. We’re a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, but we’re living in third world conditions, which cannot be right.'”

From Bloomberg. “A year after China Evergrande Group was ordered into liquidation by a Hong Kong court, creditors have yet to pocket a penny from the process. But behind the scenes, the battle for scraps from one of the world’s biggest corporate implosions is intensifying. The maneuvering over Evergrande underscores the challenges of clawing back assets involving hundreds of entities at a property developer that once faced $300 billion in liabilities. Adding to the complexity, most of Evergrande’s assets in mainland China remain difficult to reach even for the court-appointed liquidators, due to Hong Kong’s separate legal system. A previous analysis by Deloitte estimated the recovery rate for offshore unsecured creditors stood at just 3.53%. ‘It’s a massive liquidation,’ said James Wood, a Hong Kong barrister who specializes in restructuring and insolvency cases. ‘This is going to be a long, complex, time-consuming process.'”

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This Post Has 175 Comments

  2. ‘Even on unemployment,’ said McKenzie, 27, who worked as a community engagement specialist, ‘I’m not going to be able to make my mortgage payment. I’m going to have to sell my house ‘

    ‘Her life savings are now slipping away. ‘Everybody thinks we’re all millionaires up here. We’re actually not. Our homes were our money, right?’

    Loanowners = broke a$$ losers.

      1. When I saw that title I had to wonder what the H E double hockey sticks does a community engagement specialist even do? And it must have paid well since he bought a shack.

        Had a zoom meeting with some of the Euro colleagues yesterday. The TDS is strong with them. I said nothing, instead choosing to watch them seethe. They are the classical limousine leftists. Firm believers in Marxism, but think they are exempt from being proles because they are special. And do they hate Musk, hoo boy!

        1. “Community Engagement Specialists plan, direct, or coordinate activities designed to create or maintain a favorable public image or raise issue awareness for their organization or client.”

          There ya go. And I bet you thought they didn’t do anything.

          1. “…plan, direct, or coordinate activities designed to create or maintain a favorable public image or raise issue awareness for their organization or client.”

            Why the heck does the US Forestry Service need that position at all?

          2. Why the heck does the US Forestry Service need that position at all?

            While some FedGov workers perform useful tasks, like say air traffic controllers, this just goes to show how the FedGov has turned into a jobs program, one that pays six figure salaries.

  3. ‘Both homeowners say they were told by the developer LGI homes, they did not need a realtor or third-party inspector. ‘They assured us you don’t need a realtor, we’ll help you every step of the way, it’s a one stop shop’

    In a way they were right Darlean. It was just one stop.

  5. ‘The bullying is kind of the last straw that broke the camel’s back, and seven out of my 10 listings are for that reason alone’

    It’s a good thing you can always sell Laurie!

    2. and seven out of my 10 listings are for that reason alone’

      I was waiting to read about Canadians in Arizona starting to sell their homes and here is the first one I recall. Yuma had a ton of Canadians 10-15 years ago, wonder if they started selling yet or will we be reading about them next.

  6. Washington Post — Why half of America is cheering for chaos (2/24/2025):

    “With the election of Joe Biden, this growing gap in perspective solidified. For a minority of Americans — mostly left-leaning college-educated professionals — the system was working.

    (Correction: Joe Biden wasn’t elected)

    The status quo may not have been perfect, but it was good enough. Revolution wasn’t the answer; reform was. Institutions were worth conserving — and even more so because Trump made it a habit to attack and undermine them.

    Whenever I say “status quo,” I might as well be saying a bad word. And that’s the problem: Democrats became associated with something that most of us bristle against instinctually. American society has always been a society in motion, either progressing or regressing but always moving. The status quo is antithetical to movement. Yet the Democratic Party found itself in an odd position: the party of precisely that — the status quo. The party of the system. The party of institutions (that people didn’t particularly like). The party of the establishment. And, yes, the party of privilege.

    For those outside this charmed circle, system stability means something very different. For much of the 2024 campaign, Democratic leaders and economists brought out the charts to tell Americans that if they thought the economy was struggling, they were wrong. The economy was doing just fine. As Biden tone-deafly put it before he dropped out of the race, “I don’t think America’s in tough shape.” More recently, the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman was still insisting that “by any normal standard we are very close to a Goldilocks economy, in which everything is more or less just right.”

    This was nothing less than gaslighting. Every day, ordinary Americans were still suffering from inflation. They could see as much every time they went to the grocery store. Yet, Democrats were telling them not to believe what was right in front of their very eyes.

    As writer James Pogue remarked in August, “No statistics really capture the feeling, shared by growing numbers of Americans, that the world is just getting worse.”

    https://archive.ph/MtMAk

    $40 for a single bag of groceries.

    Paul Krugman GFYS.

    1. Institutions were worth conserving

      Having to print $2T a years says they were not, and even if they were, we clearly can’t afford them anyway.

      1. saving to print $2T a years says they were not,
        I point this out to some people and they say, not a problem.
        at 3.71% int Rate on US debt (Nov. 2024) and 36.3T debt / 218.3MM tax payers gives us $6,169 per tax payer. ( I am assuming accrual accounting as the estimates for interest payments that I see are closer to $830MM which I am guessing is Cash account? Just guessing.) They are oblivious how that could be a problem.

          1. I mean cash out the door. I am guessing here, that the numbers I see for 2025 interest expense, which are about 450B less than the calculation says it should be, are based on moneys actually paid out, and excludes money that accrue such as zero coupon bonds and EE and I treasury bonds. But I am guessing here because the spread between the 2 numbers is much higher than I would have expected. Maybe there is a better answer but I don’t have one.

    2. “Nobel laureate Paul Krugman was still insisting that “by any normal standard we are very close to a Goldilocks economy, in which everything is more or less just right.””

      Larry Kudlow and his ilk were hawking the same line during the last bubble. IIRC, some posters here noted in ’08 that Goldilocks had abruptly discovered it hurt when she peed.

    2. Is the US economy starting to crack?
      By John Rapley
      February 27, 2025 – 5:00pm

      On Thursday, the US Department of Commerce released its latest revision to its GDP estimate for the final quarter of 2024. Although backward-looking, it nonetheless provides a snapshot of the economy’s current health and its direction of travel, and this one does little to dismiss growing fears of a coming slowdown.

      While economic growth eased somewhat from earlier quarters, it remained robust. However, it was propped up by both private and government consumption, whereas exports and investment fell. With recent reports suggesting that consumer confidence is dropping, it’s likely that portion of the economy may therefore already be weakening.
      …
      https://unherd.com/newsroom/is-the-us-economy-starting-to-crack/

    3. I have stock picking system. I can predict whether a stock will close higher the next day with 50% reliability….. over the long haul.

  8. McKenzie, 27, who worked as a community engagement specialist
    $2700 mortgage payment

    So that means this useless eater is making over 100k
    This is why everyone feels not one iota of sympathy. not one

    and why does the Forest Service need a “community engagement specialist” to begin with? If this job is even needed it’s like a 25,000 a year job, not 100k plus.

    1. $2700 mortgage payment

      Not much left for food unless water is your main course. Sundays are special, so Top Ramen is added!

      1. Depends on the salary. A lot of people have bought into the notion that FedGov workers are paid very little, but nice six figure salaries are quite common.

        1. I had a $90k salary plus overtime during 7-months each year, and I could not survive with a $2,700 per month mortgage in addition to our other expenses. The housing industry is “shot through” with corruption, IMHO.

        2. gov workers get paid a ton and have killer benefits and do basically nothing. (heck they barely even show up, much less actually do anything)

          and what they do do, is actually negative for normal people. Removing them and their ‘job” not only saves all that money but stops them making everyone’s lives worse.

    2. If this job is even needed it’s like a 25,000 a year job, not 100k plus.
      Agreed. What does he do? Go to schools and go to science classes to tell the kids what is available to do in the forest? Some good things and bad things in the Forest? Maybe work at State Fairs handling some wildlife. ( I had a summer job and worked a state fair back in the late 80’s and made and poured sassafras tea for the fair goers and held non venomous snakes for fair goers to touch. These activities sound like they might fit his job description. I made much closer to the 25K inflation adjusted. Actually it was probably less.

  9. [A view from Down Under …]

    Like dropping napalm on the whole Climate Blob: US EPA recommends dropping “endangerment finding”.

    https://joannenova.com.au/2025/02/like-dropping-napalm-on-the-whole-climate-blob-us-epa-recommends-dropping-endangerment-finding/

    JoNova

    If CO2 isn’t endangering lives, legally, there’s no reason to outlaw oil and gas.

    Marc Morano of ClimateDepot calls this the “holy grail” of the climate agenda. Most of the climate policies of the United States depend on “the Endangerment Finding”– so President Trump asked the new EPA head to look closely at it. This is the “finding” in 2009 that CO2 endangers the public, and that in turn means the EPA must regulate this “pollutant”. Thereby becoming the perfect excuse to allow the bureaucrats to regulate cars, trucks, planes, gas stoves and anything from hair dryers to home insulation.

    The new EPA head just finished his 30 day consideration and recommends the Whitehouse rewrite the past conclusion entirely.

    Ann Carlson of LegalPlanet says undoing the Endangerment Finding …”would mean full-blown warfare against all things climate.” She describes how the entire bureaucratic edifice crumbles if CO2 is not a pollutant:

    [Click the link to read the rest.]

    1. She describes how the entire bureaucratic edifice crumbles if CO2 is not a pollutant:

      Meaning the grift comes to an end.

      That said, my Euro colleagues are all on board with the climate scam. This is why the AfD, while its share of the vote did grow, only got 20% of the vote last Sunday, while the rainbow of leftists got the other 80%, and yes, the so called “center right” parties are open borders, climate change leftists who will get into bed with the communist party but not the AfD.

      1. Euro colleagues are all on board

        I worked with Germans for about 30 years. They were by nature very much on board with what voices of authority told them they should think and do.

      1. From the WaPo link above:

        “More recently, the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman was still insisting that “by any normal standard we are very close to a Goldilocks economy, in which everything is more or less just right.”

        Democrat Party loses *BIGLY* in 2024 elections, Krugman “retires” (implying that writing 2-3 columns of propaganda a week for NYTimes is “work” don’t make me laugh).

        Everything is (was) more or less just right FOR THE PARASITE CLASS fixed it for you Krugman.

        Paul Krugman, you are VERMIN.

        1. Everything is (was) more or less just right FOR THE PARASITE CLASS

          This! And they expected the productive to fund their “dream jobs” for life, while we have to deal with the realities of the private sector.

        2. a Goldilocks economy

          Apparently poor Goldilocks is so deeply in debt she has to borrow the money to pay the interest.

    2. “About 43% of those who owe payments haven’t resumed making them”

      If any of these student loan debt default(ers) are federal employees then they’ll be fired soon, if not already.

      1. They have an incentive to keep up minimum payments until they qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness’

    3. “She discovered she was more than 90 days delinquent on payments for her $16,000 in student loans, which she had thought were still suspended.”
      🙄
      “Matthews, 28, said his loan servicer had been contacting an old email and home address for his parents.”
      🙄

      “Ben Kiser, … said in a written statement that “like any credit card, auto loan, mortgage loan, or consumer loan it is ultimately the borrower’s responsibility to ensure their loan servicer has accurate contact information.”
      🙂
      This is the correct answer. The adults need to start adulting.

      1. The adults need to start adulting.

        They were probably hoping that if they ignored it, the loan would just go away.

    2. KDVR:

      “On Monday just before midnight, the Loveland Police Department arrested 40-year-old Lucy Grace Nelson, whose alias includes Justin Thomas Nelson.”

      It’s a tranny.

      “They’re not sending their best”

      1. Isn’t it interesting that we are just barely one month into the new administration and the left is already resorting to violence? And not in some blue sh!thole like Dumver, but here in sleepy, red Loveland, though I’m gonna guess the perp is from progressive Fort Collins.

  12. Maryland national parks feeling pressed by widespread federal layoffs

    Popular landmarks in Maryland, including Hampton National Site and Fort McHenry, could see changes, according to national park advocates.

    “Many of the staff who were let go, these are people who you know,” said Ed Stierli, the senior Mid-Atlantic Regional Director of the National Parks Conservation Association. “They still talk about it as their dream job. You know whether you’re a park ranger or you’re a scientist, many of them were early in their careers.”

    “The National Park Service has been dealing with limited budgets, limited staffing for years,” Stierli said. “Many positions had already been vacant. And now to suddenly lose a thousand staff across the agency, another 700 staff, who you know, essentially took the buyout offer under duress. I mean that’s 9% of the agency’s workforce gone in one week.”

    https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/maryland-national-parks-federal-layoffs-fort-mchenry-hampton-trump/

    1. I mean that’s 9% of the agency’s workforce gone in one week

      That’s par for the course in an average private sector mass layoff.

      As Vader told Lando Calrissian: “I Am Altering the Deal, Pray I Don’t Alter It Any Further.”

    2. National parks. They are pretty much nature preserves. No lawns to cut. No building. No maintenance. What are these employees doing? Selling souvenirs?

  13. Former Carlsbad Caverns rangers speak out as federal layoffs hit national park

    The federal government has laid off approximately 1,000 National Park Service employees nationwide as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort to cut down cost initiatives, impacting parks across the country — including Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico — where reports suggest at least 12 rangers were let go.

    Josh Barnes, a former probationary recreation fees technician at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, said that on Feb. 14, he received a layoff notice from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), just four months after moving to New Mexico to keep pursuing his dream job.

    “It’s really difficult to describe the anguish you see on people’s faces when they’re told they have to walk away from the job they love,” Barnes said.

    Barnes is not the only one. Justin Dyer relocated in October 2024 from New Jersey to New Mexico to work for the National Park Service. After spending thousands to relocate for the job, he was also terminated by the OPM. “I feel kind of tossed to the side,” Dyer said.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/former-carlsbad-caverns-rangers-speak-out-as-federal-layoffs-hit-national-park/ar-AA1zSA8l

    1. Josh Barnes, a former probationary recreation fees technician

      What the haystack is that supposed to be? A cashier?

      1. it is someone’s “dream job.
        Dream jobs don’t last long in the private sector. I would say I had 2 damn near dream jobs. Both lasted less than 3 years before I was moved to a PITA position or laid off. Fun while they lasted though

  14. US Forest Service firings decimate already understaffed agency: ‘It’s catastrophic’

    On a recent Friday afternoon, Marie Richards sat in her living room in northern Michigan. She was having a hard time talking about her job at the U.S. Forest Service in the past tense.

    “I absolutely loved my job,” she said. “I didn’t want to go.”

    “None of us deserved this,” Richards said. “We all work hard and we’re dedicated to taking care of the land.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/human-resources/us-forest-service-firings-decimate-already-understaffed-agency-it-s-catastrophic/ar-AA1zTp1S

    1. The land has taken care of itself for millions of years, those people wont be missed. Here in TN the Cleveland National Forest runs from the state’s southern border to it’s northern border. Every region of it is open access and doesn’t need much at all except for one area, the Great Smoky Park. That area somehow needs megabucks even though it’s just some parking lots and vistas. Fire more of them, they are mostly useless and never stop whining. Then lower the price, it is all such a rip off.

  15. A federal worker who took a buyout tells BI he’s worried Trump won’t follow through

    When a program manager at the Department of Energy received the Trump administration’s “fork in the road” resignation offer, his first reaction was defiance.

    “My initial thought process was ‘I am not going to do this because I don’t want to let them win. They can fire me, but I’m not leaving,'” the program manager told Business Insider, adding that he wanted to stay and protect a clean-energy program he oversaw. “But it became pretty demoralizing and clear that wasn’t a realistic option.”

    The DOE employee said he decided to take the buyout offer — known as deferred resignation — in February after his eight-person team was “decimated.” He said it seemed unlikely that the department’s career leadership could shield employees from President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to slash the federal workforce and eliminate climate- and DEI-related programs.

    The DOE employee said he was impressed by how many federal workers wanted to stay in their jobs because they care about public service. He worried that the Trump administration’s gutting of federal agencies would fuel its narrative that the government is inefficient and ineffective, a view he disagreed with.

    “Trump and Musk are creating those conditions by removing staff and pausing grants and requiring them to remove all the DEI efforts,” the DOE employee said. “Before, things were functioning decently well.”

    The DOE employee said he didn’t know he had to request administrative leave until he had already been locked out of federal computer systems. His last day was Friday, and his pay is biweekly. His first paycheck for administrative leave should arrive in the coming weeks.

    “I’m questioning whether the administration will fulfill the agreement,” the DOE employee said. “I am almost positive that I will not get paid through September.”

    Ideally, he could find a position in clean energy that pays a similar amount as his federal job so he could leave the deferred resignation program altogether. The DOE employee falls on a pay scale ranging from $123,000 to nearly $160,000.

    “I think it’s a tough job market,” the DOE employee said, adding that clean-energy companies and organizations might not be hiring given the Trump administration’s attacks and the uncertainty about grant funding.

    “The prospects of working in clean energy — the thing I care about — seem terrible at the moment,” he said.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/saying-yes-to-doge-one-federal-worker-explains-why-he-accepted-the-fork-in-the-road-offer/ar-AA1zQsLp

    1. Ideally, he could find a position in clean energy

      No private Climate jobs will exist without infusions of tax dollars. Make other plans.

      1. If anything, those guys are quietly having their own mass layoffs and wondering how they will keep the doors open,

        1. those guys are quietly having their own mass layoffs and wondering how they will keep the doors open,
          No Govt. Money, very few jobs. The Clean energy is not ready for prime time yet. Maybe 10- 15 Years?

    2. The DOE employee falls on a pay scale ranging from $123,000 to nearly $160,000.

      And I’ll bet he never had to deal with directors or VP’s asking “what’s taking so long? We need the new product yesterday and the competition is killing us.”

    3. he was impressed by how many federal workers wanted to stay in their jobs because they care about public service

      What effing nonsense. They don’t GAF about the public, the only thing they care about is their sweet sweet grifter paycheck and for having to do nothing all day.

  16. [Along with being stupid, people are crazy.]

    Trump supporters lose $12bn as president’s crypto boom fades.

    ‘Meme coin’ loses 80pc of value since inauguration amid wider market crash.

    https://archive.ph/RY5Au#selection-2735.4-2739.78

    The Telegraph – Donald Trump’s supporters have lost more than $12bn (£9.5bn) in a month after the value of the president’s cryptocurrency collapsed.

    $Trump, a so-called “meme coin” unveiled on Jan 17, three days before Mr Trump’s inauguration, has lost more than 80pc of its value since its peak on Jan 19.

    This has led to its overall worth falling from a peak of $15bn to $2.7bn on Thursday, as it suffered amid a wider crypto rout.
    The paper value of the coins owned by Mr Trump himself has also fallen by $50bn.

    While Mr Trump’s own losses have not been crystallised, investors are on the hook after spending heavily to back the Trump coin in the run-up to his inauguration, partly as a show of support but also as a gamble that the token would rise in value.

    [A chart appears here …]

    However, interest in the project has since dwindled, accompanied by a wider market crash.

    Bitcoin has lost a fifth of its value since hitting an all-time high on the day of Mr Trump’s inauguration.

    An official Melania Trump meme coin promoted by the First Lady has fared even worse, dropping 94pc since Jan 20.

    Mr Trump has vowed to be the first “crypto president”, recently appointing venture capitalist David Sacks as the White House’s “crypto tsar”.

    However, investors have expressed disappointment at the supposed lack of momentum, highlighting Mr Trump’s failure to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

    US Democrats have sought to target Mr Trump’s crypto ventures by announcing plans to put forward laws that would prevent senior government officials and their families from launching meme coins.

    Sam Liccardo, a Democratic Congressman, said he planned to put forward the Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement (Meme) Act on Thursday.

    He told ABC News: “The Trumps’ issuance of meme coins financially exploits the public for personal gain, and raises the spectre of insider trading and foreign influence over the Executive Branch.”

    The proposed law would apply to the president, vice president, members of Congress and White House officials, as well as their family members.

    Online influencers have launched a series of meme coins in recent months seeking to capitalise on their often short-lived fame, and many often collapse after an initial spike in value.

    While supporters of mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are seen by their supporters as a potential way to change payments and finance, meme coins have little use. Instead, they are seen as a way of showing support for certain personalities or a form of gambling.

    1. It’s a bit surprising that 47 has any preference for crypto over gold. I mean c’mon, he owns a skyscraper stocked with golden toilets.

    3. I think Crypto is great. It makes it much easier for idiots to learn a hard life lesson. Expensive for them yes but hopefully a lesson that only requires one class.

  17. ‘People are actually panicked’: Federal workers in Maryland speak on DOGE layoffs

    The Social Security Administration eliminated its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity on Tuesday.

    A spokesman for the Social Security Administration said 140 workers in the Civil Rights Office were put on administrative leave.

    Emotions were mixed as federal employees talked about President Donald Trump’s executive orders and cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency.

    “People are actually panicked,” a federal worker said. “They are in distress, psychological breaking points, and this is serious.”

    “I’m going to do whatever it takes to find another job and make ends meet,” said one federal worker said.

    “The only liberating thing about it is you won’t be in that negative environment where you are constantly wondering when the next shoe is going to drop,” a federal worker said.

    https://www.wbal.com/people-are-actually-panicked-federal-workers-speak-on-department-of-government-efficiency-layoffs

    1. The Social Security Administration eliminated its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity

      The Office sounds like an expensive solution to a problem that didn’t exist.

      1. You beat me to it.

        I mean, aren’t SSA benefits tied to one’s contributions? Oh, that’s right, FJB signed a bill giving benefits to gooberment workers who didn’t have to pay into the program. Something about fairness or whatever. I’ll bet the next step was to give benefits to illegals, because “justice” or something.

        1. I mean, aren’t SSA benefits tied to one’s contributions?

          No, benefits are calculated using a completely different formula from contributions.

          FJB signed a bill giving benefits to gooberment workers who didn’t have to pay into the program.

          No, the Social Security Fairness Act simply removed pension offsets for some public sector employees. They still have to pay into the program to receive benefits.

          1. No, benefits are calculated using a completely different formula from contributions.

            I’m not saying it’s linear, but the more you pay in, the more you get.

            I recall meeting government workers who bragged to me that they didn’t have to pay into SS. Perhaps I misunderstood that part of the bill.

          2. a completely different formula from contributions.

            The formula is based on earnings that were subject to the tax. Contributions is a distinction without a difference.

          3. @BlueSkye
            The formula is based on earnings that were subject to the tax. Contributions is a distinction without a difference.

            Earnings and contributions are two different things. The SS tax rate and max taxable amounts, which determine the contributions based on the earnings, have varied greatly over time. Have you looked at the historical charts?

            Also, the primary insurance amount is a piecewise linear function of the average indexed monthly earnings. Not directly proportional.

            @IC
            I’m not saying it’s linear, but the more you pay in, the more you get.

            Well what you get obviously depends on how long you live, but also on your year of birth and years in the workforce, whether you take early or delayed retirement, whether you have a spouse, whether there’s an earned income offset or not, what the COLA increases are during your retirement, etc., etc. Even if the only differences between two people are years of birth and/or years in the workforce, it can probably happen that one person contributes less and gets more. And then you could argue about whether that should be adjusted for interest and/or inflation.

            I recall meeting government workers who bragged to me that they didn’t have to pay into SS.

            If they don’t pay into it, they won’t get benefits, they would instead have a separate government retirement program. However they may also have non-government jobs and then they would pay SS and collect benefits based on that income.

        2. “I mean, aren’t SSA benefits tied to one’s contributions?”

          Our small city has lots of “beached whales” who are drawing a disability check. One “dad,” who picks up his kids from school because his wife works, has sleeve tattoos as well as neck, face, forehead and fingers too making him unemployable, so he qualifies. No wonder the SS forecast is bleak!

          1. Once again, Social Security Disability is a completely separate program from the retirement program. There are separate trust funds and separate payroll deductions and there is no financial connection between them.

          3. “There are separate trust funds and separate payroll deductions”
            I am 79 and paid SS of some amount since age 16 and for most of my working life I paid to the maximum limit. I do not remember any separate payroll deductions, only SS and then Medicare. I think SS disability is either funded by SS trust or is just “funded” because Congress passed a bill.

          4. There are separate payroll deductions for OASI (retirement) and DI (disability). It is 5.3% for OASI and 0.9% for DI. Some payroll processors may combine them into 6.2% and label it OASDI.

            The DI is a completely separate program with its own trust fund, there is no financial connection to OASI or to any other government funds. This is not difficult to look up.

          5. “The DI is a completely separate program with its own trust fund, there is no financial connection to OASI or to any other government funds. This is not difficult to look up.”

            Who pays into it?

            * SSDI has become the primary income stream in the mid west once unemployment runs out due to off shoring.

          6. Who pays into it?

            Anyone who works and pays payroll tax pays 0.9% of their taxable income into the DI fund, as explained above. The employer also pays an additional 0.9%.

  18. OPM, OMB memo sets off fresh round of concerns among Maryland Democrats

    A Trump administration demand that federal agencies start planning for “large scale” cuts is just more bad news for Maryland officials who say the state has already lost thousands of federal jobs in the weeks since Trump took office.

    “I can say definitively we’re already at a job loss the size of a Ford plant closure in Michigan,” Del. David Moon (D-Montgomery) said Wednesday.

    Moon said the memo, and the whirlwind of actions in the little more than five weeks since President Donald Trump was sworn in, come as no surprise.

    “Everything I’ve been signaling and saying this past week, on the floor and in private conversations, unfortunately, has been pointing to the obvious conclusion that the ‘wait and see’ period with the Trump administration is far over,” Moon said.

    “They fully intend to move through, with the consent of Congress, a very radical agenda that threatens the core of Maryland’s tax base,” he said.

    Maryland’s economy is heavily dependent on federal agencies, with roughly 160,000 federal jobs in the state. That does not include jobs at intelligence agencies like the National Security Administration or the countless companies and contractors that rely on federal work.

    While there is no official number of federal job losses to date, either locally or nationally, Moon has personally estimated Maryland’s toll to be “in the thousands.”

    https://marylandmatters.org/2025/02/26/opm-omb-memo-sets-off-fresh-round-of-concerns-among-maryland-democrats/

    1. Yup, we saw that memo. The memo mentions “statutorily mandated” and “statutorily required” more than once. That is, functions that are specified in an Act of Congress will likely not be RIFfed, at least not this round. Instead, they are looking for retirements, early retirements, quits, consolidating administrative duties, eliminating layers of management.

      Later on, I think they will expand to include low performers. And once everyone is back in the office, they will shed unused real estate. Give it a year.

      1. Instead, they are looking for retirements, early retirements, quits, consolidating administrative duties, eliminating layers of management.

        They are going for the low hanging fruit first. Once that’s done they will set new targets.

        1. The subtle feature of a transfer to another post putting one back into probation seems like a wide open vulnerability.

          1. And there is some question about that. Generally, fedgovs only go through probation ONCE. If you change agencies or get promoted, you can get your prior years of service “reinstated,” so you don’t get kicked onto probation every few years.

            So, when the people in the news who were promoted get fired because they were “on probation,” I’m skeptical. I’m guessing there’s another reason they aren’t telling us. At least one of them was promoted into a DEI position. That’s why she was sacked, not because she was on probation.

    2. “They fully intend to move through, with the consent of Congress, a very radical agenda that threatens the core of Maryland’s tax base,” he said.

      So, Maryland’s “tax base” is dependent on $2T deficits? Do they even listen to themselves.

      1. +1

        Take away Uncle Sugar, and what is Maryland’s tax base? Harvesting crabs out of the Chesapeake?

    5. “I can say definitively we’re already at a job loss the size of a Ford plant closure in Michigan,”
      And did anyone outside of Michigan give a d@mn when that happened. I don’t recall this level of complaining but I could just have a short memory.

  19. Buckle up, liberals: Trump keeps winning, no matter how much progressives object | Opinion

    I live in a liberal bubble, geographically and socially.

    Arlington, Virginia, where I grew up and reside, depends on federal spending, perhaps more than any county in America. I’m the son of a lifelong federal employee (Air Force and civilian Department of Defense and CIA).

    Most of the people I know and love are in various stages of outrage about the first weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term. They join me in posting cries from the heart about what they believe are the latest violations of the Constitution; the laws being broken; the institutions being destroyed; the good people being fired who have spent their careers fighting cancer, investigating plane crashes or taking poison out of America’s rivers.

    Here’s a wake-up call for anyone who also may be living in a liberal bubble: Trump hasn’t been hurt yet in his public support because of his campaign to drastically reduce federal spending.

    Why aren’t all the things that have outraged my fellow residents of Arlington being felt the same way around the country?

    Because many Americans live in a world where layoffs are a fact of life when companies are struggling to cover operating costs − just as the federal government, with a $1.8 trillion deficit last year and a rapidly growing $36.5 trillion debt, is now.

    It’s also because bureaucrats have been demonized by conservatives for so long that many Americans don’t see the value that federal employees add to their quality of life. Watching Washington go through in weeks what workers in Toledo and Youngstown, Ohio, and Allentown, Pennsylvania, have gone through for decades is not a tragedy for most Americans − it’s justice.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/buckle-up-liberals-trump-keeps-winning-no-matter-how-much-progressives-object-opinion/ar-AA1zToZ4

    1. Because many Americans live in a world where layoffs are a fact of life when companies are struggling to cover operating costs

      It’s worse than that Jeremy. The private sector lays off when quarterly targets are missed.

      1. “The private sector lays off”

        Weifield had 140 electricians on site at the peak when they were building Monarch Hotel & Casino in Blackhawk. When the project ended, there were layoffs.

        Berg Electric same thing when they finished building Optiv Tower in downtown Denver.

    2. It’s also because bureaucrats have been demonized by conservatives for so long that many Americans don’t see the value that federal employees add to their quality of life.

      Oh, believe me, I’ve tried, I’ve really tried to see how they make my life better. All I see are regulations, bureaucracy and red tape that make my life more costly and difficult.

      1. I’ve been thinking of all the reasons these layoff don’t bother me one bit. Too many to say but just a few: Rush Limbaugh used to say 5 of the 6 richest counties in the US were right around DC. Obviously most people have been vastly overpaid for decades.

        The bureaucracies think they run the guberment and the rest of us can fook off. And when we take a wee peek at what they are doing, it’s a bankrupting disaster. 2 trillions gone and no trace? These people have been riding us into poverty for generations and getting rich doing it. We either dispose of them or they will dispose of us.

        1. Agreed. I’m sur ethat people like Oxide genuinely believe that they are doing good, and perhaps some are, But as you point out, the Fed Gov is devouring the economy. I recall when a $100B deficit was mind boggling. Now we are expected to accept $2T deficits as the new normal.

          When I hear people complain about DOGE, I ask them if they are willing to pay TWICE the income tax they pay now, or if they pay none, to start paying, in order to stop the deficit bleeding. Few agree, as they usually already can’t make ends meet,

        2. “Rush Limbaugh used to say”

          He also used to say Democrat Party.

          Not Democratic Party. Always, always use the phrase Democrat Party, and don’t preface it with “the” just say Democrat Party.

          The same way nobody says the herpes or the A.I.D.S.

          Democrat Party.

          1. Makes me think about how we say “the hospital” but the Brits just say “hospital”, as in “An immigrant stabbed me so I had to go to hospital”

      2. Many fedgovs make your life better because stuff *doesn’t* happen, not because stuff does. That’s what regulations do.

        1. A case can be made for common sense regulation, like say some airline regulations. But then again, United and Southwest don’t want their planes falling out of the sky, so perhaps federal arm twisting isn’t as necessary as claimed

          1. They don’t want planes falling out of the sky, but they *do* try to push their luck. And it works until luck runs out. And the people scream, Why didn’t “they” do something. Well, who is the they? Fed and state folks enforcing regs.

          2. Fed and state folks enforcing regs

            You might have a point, but we really don’t need half of our economy being “regulating” ourselves.

          3. My last stint as a federal contractor (before Orange’s first term) I sat through some of the dumbest most unproductive meetings of my life.

            Then I quit and got serious about buying electrical tools.

          5. United and Southwest don’t want their planes falling out of the sky,
            The attorneys are also a big player in Southwest and United not wanting their planes to fall out of the sky. I would wager it’s more important than anything the govt. says.

  20. Former Greenville car dealer pleads guilty to $8 million Ponzi scheme

    WILMINGTON, N.C. (WITN) – The feds say a former Greenville car dealer has pled guilty to a Ponzi scheme that caused over 60 investors to lose more than $8 million.

    The Department of Justice says 64-year-old Willard Sutton pled guilty to one count of mail fraud today.

    Federal prosecutors say the Winterville man faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. He will also be required to pay restitution to victims.

    According to court records, between 2019 and 2023, Sutton ran a large Ponzi scheme connected to an investment program offered through Greenville Auto World, a car dealership.

    Greenville Autoworld is now under new ownership through Cooke Automotive Group. Tommy Cooke tells WITN he bought the dealership through bankruptcy court in June 2023.

    Prior to that, officials say the dealership was a “buy here pay here” dealership, allowing customers with poor or no credit history to borrow money to buy a vehicle directly through the dealership, rather than through a bank or credit union.

    Prosecutors say these loans typically carry higher interest rates than traditional car loans.

    Between around 2012 and 2023, as part of an investment program sponsored, promoted, and administered by the dealership, officials say Sutton sold finance contracts to outside investors through direct solicitation, referrals, and word-of-mouth advertisement.

    Around 2019, officials say Sutton falsely led the investors to believe that their investments were safe and that Greenville Auto World was collecting enough repayments from loan customers to be able to fully pay the principal and interest owed to them.

    In reality, the feds say the dealership was collecting millions from investors, but it did not have the means to service the debt through revenue or any legitimate business income.

    Between October 2018 and August 2023, the FBI estimates that the dealership collected more than $60 million in investor funds. However, officials say its gross receipts were a small fraction of the total.

    To hide the dealership’s financial condition, and avoid the collapse of the business, officials say Sutton ran the program as a Ponzi scheme where he would sell a real loan contract to one investor and then sell one or more fake versions to other investors without them knowing.

    Sutton then used the proceeds of the fake sales to pay off earlier investors, officials say.

    Among other things, officials say Sutton forged loan customer signatures to the fake contracts and sometimes gave investors fake title documents to convince them that their investments were secured.

    Around 2022, to get more money to meet the business’s mounting debts to investors, officials say Sutton asked some investors to help pay for vehicle inventory.

    Officials say Sutton falsely told these investors that he was using their money to buy vehicles when he was using it to hide and perpetuate the Ponzi scheme.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/former-greenville-car-dealer-pleads-guilty-to-8-million-ponzi-scheme/ar-AA1zR7Uh

  21. ‘ Botting has listed his home in Chandler, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, that has been in his family since his dad purchased it 45 years ago. ‘It’s this Trump regime and this cultism,’

    Buh bye. Entitled socialist scum. I’ll give ya $69,500. Now GTFO.

    1. But he didn’t seem to have any issues in 2017? Of course, 47 is a lot leaner and meaner than 45 was.

      There’s a very old saying: “If you would take a shot at the king, you’d best not miss.” Every day, we are seeing what happens when someone misses.

      1. Adam Taggart (Thoughtful Money) had a guest recently who said that the current “federal workforce culling” eventually had to happen, but it’s now being done much sooner than originally forecast.

        1. So, $2T+ deficits weren’t enough? Or was he expecting it wouldn’t happen until we defaulted?

          I remember when a $100B deficit was cause for alarm.

          1. was he expecting it wouldn’t happen until we defaulted?
            I did not expect the cuts to happen until the Bond market or Foreigners made us make the cuts. Pleasantly surprised.

    2. Arizona real estate agents say Canadians are bailing out of the American market in record numbers, partly driven by the weak Canadian dollar and the chance to cash in on their home’s appreciated value.

      The real reason. Those with mortgages can’t afford the monthly nut anymore. And they probably need the cash to hang onto the mortgaged igloo back home. All of which is Trudeau’s fault.

      1. This just shows that Canadians are nothing more than economic opportunists just like Mexicans. They are Snow Mexicans and they are part of the problem just like all the others.

      2. the mortgaged igloo back home

        The mortgage is getting more expensive when they have to renew every few years.

        1. Exactly, both mortgages, the one in the USA and the one back home, are becoming more expensive to pay in Canadian dollars.

  22. How Trump’s steel tariffs imperil China’s supply lines to the US via third countries

    New U.S. steel tariffs are set to disrupt a multi-billion dollar supply chain moving steel from China to the United States via third countries, ratcheting up competition in the global market and undercutting a vital source of sales for China’s struggling steel sector.

    Since trade barriers in 2016 and 2018 priced most Chinese steel out of the U.S., mills in countries with relatively freer access have bought cheap Chinese steel and sold it on to the United States after various degrees of processing.

    A Chinese steel trader told Reuters orders for delivery around the normally busy first quarter were “pitifully low” even before Trump signed the tariffs into law in anticipation of the decision.

    “The export orders that we have received for shipments in March and April have fallen by 20%-30% from the same period in 2024,” the trader said on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to media.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/analysis-trumps-steel-tariffs-imperil-080243661.html

  23. Regretful Illegal Migrants Flocking Home In Droves After Trump Border Crackdown

    Latin American migrants are turning around in droves and expressing regret at attempting to cross unlawfully into the United States under President Donald Trump’s watch.

    Karla Castillo, a 36-year-old Venezuelan national, says she “regrets a thousand times” having left Chile, where she had been living for several years, to try and enter the U.S., according to El Mostrador, a Chilean newspaper.

    “My goal was to get to the United States and then bring my children, but they closed the border and it could not be done,” Castillo said of her botched plans. “It is time to return to Venezuela and wait a little while to return to Chile again.”

    “The opportunity [to enter the U.S.] did not arise, but I do not regret it,” said John Orozco, a Venezuelan who is now traveling south after giving up on trying to cross the southern border, according to El Mostrador. The Venezuelan national lived and worked in Mexico for six months in an attempt to land an appointment through the CBP One app, but the program has since been cancelled by the Trump White House.

    “I would say that people are less inclined to go through the Darien when they know very well that they’re going to end up shipped back home,” Allan Baitel, a Panamanian citizen, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation about the local situation. “So the carrot has disappeared, and there’s no reason for them to head north.”

    The president also defunded brick-and-mortar buildings established by the Biden administration, known as Safe Mobility Offices, that made it demonstrably easier for migrants to apply for asylum.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/regretful-illegal-migrants-flocking-home-in-droves-after-trump-border-crackdown/ar-AA1zRxS2

    2. Karla Castillo, a 36-year-old Venezuelan national, says she “regrets a thousand times” having left Chile, where she had been living for several years

      It just goes to show how loud FJB’s siren song was to people who thought they had a chance of joining the Free Sh!t army.

      And given how many came, I’m surprised we didn’t pave a road and put up some 7-11’s in the Darien Gap

  24. Trump Team Weighs Pulling Funds for Moderna Bird Flu Vaccine

    US health officials are reevaluating a $590 million contract for bird flu shots that the Biden administration awarded to Moderna Inc., people familiar with the matter said.

    The review is part of a government push to examine spending on messenger RNA-based vaccines, the technology that powered Moderna’s Covid vaccine. The bird flu shot contract was awarded to Moderna in the Biden administration’s final days, sending the company’s stock up 13% in the two days following the Jan. 17 announcement.

    Moderna said in January that it was gearing up for a big final-stage trial of its vaccine, after successfully completing an early-stage trial last year. Without funding, that big trial may not happen.

    Moderna has been under pressure to find new sources of revenue as its Covid vaccine sales fall sharply and it spends heavily on its pipeline. The contract was pushed through with some urgency, the people said, because of concerns that the Trump administration would be less willing to fund vaccine makers.

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was sworn in two weeks ago as head of HHS, has openly criticized Covid shots. In a 2021 meeting of a Louisiana House of Representatives oversight meeting on Covid vaccination, he called it “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-team-weighs-pulling-funds-225108877.html

    1. “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”

      Any mRNA shot remains an untested experimental drug, not a vaccine. A failed one at that.

        1. Thalidomide is used to manage and treat advanced leprosy and multiple myeloma, and various other solid and hematologic malignancies.

  25. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos says opinion pages will defend free market and ‘personal liberties’

    The billionaire owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, narrowed the topics covered by its opinion section Wednesday to defending personal liberties and the free market, a pivot away from its traditional broad focus and prompting the news outlet’s opinion editor to resign.

    Mr. Bezos, who also is the founder and largest individual shareholder of Amazon.com Inc., said on X that “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

    The move was received by some as an indication that Mr. Bezos is making decisions for the storied news outlet with an eye toward avoiding retaliation by President Donald Trump. Mr. Bezos, though, cast the change as a modernization from the days when newspapers offered opinions on a broad range of topics. Now, he said, “the internet does that job.”

    “We are going to be writing every day in support and defence of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Mr. Bezos wrote in his post, adding that the new topics “are right for America. I also believe that these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion.” Opinions editor David Shipley resigned rather than lead the shift, Mr. Bezos said.

    “I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes,’ then it had to be ‘no.’ After careful consideration, David decided to step away,” Mr. Bezos wrote.

    Some of Mr. Trump’s top allies tweeted their support for Mr. Bezos’ most recent move.

    “Bravo, @JeffBezos!” posted fellow billionaire Elon Musk. Added conservative commentator Charlie Kirk: “Good! The culture is changing rapidly for the better.”

    “This is what Oligarch ownership of the media looks like,” Senator Bernie Sanders, a Democrat from Vermont, posted on X, Musk’s platform “The second-richest guy in the world, Bezos, owns The Washington Post. He has now declared that the editorial page of that paper is going Trump right-wing. Surprise, Mr. Musk agrees. We must support independent media.”

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-washington-post-owner-jeff-bezos-says-opinion-pages-will-defend-free/

  26. Does my country want me? Germany’s historic far-right election gain worries me. | Opinion

    After our federal election Sunday, I looked at a map of Germany, its tree-shaped silhouette colored according to the winners of each constituency, and I worried about our future.

    The Western part was largely shaded in the black of the conservatives, whose 69-year old leader Friedrich Merz won the election with 28.5% of the vote by campaigning on more deportations, less taxes and a “spiritual and moral turnaround” to “German values” like punctuality, hard work and a mandatory year of social service for young people.

    Eastern Germany, in contrast, was a sea blue, the color of the far-right Alternative for Germany. Except for Berlin, the leftist capital. Represented by Alice Weidel, a 46-year old gay woman married to a woman born in Sri Lanka, AfD has doubled its share to 20.8% by campaigning for a massive deportation offensive, the restoration of the Deutsche mark and, somewhat paradoxically, the ideal of the traditional family model of man, woman and children.

    Shunned by liberal Germans, AfD has become the second strongest party in the country and, arguably, the driving force behind a national debate obsessed with immigration. This is the party favored by President Donald Trump’s inner circle and endorsed by Vice President JD Vance and adviser Elon Musk.

    In an interview with Musk, who called the AfD the “last spark of hope” for Germany, Weidel claimed that Adolf Hitler was a “communist.”

    To many Germans, the seemingly unstoppable rise of the AfD is an existential threat that is far from over. It seems to be only a matter of time until the blue parts spill over into the black ones. Weidel and her co-leader Tino Chrupalla are already eyeing Germany’s next federal elections in four years, boasting that they will become the biggest party by then.

    Conservative leader Friedrich Merz, who first entered German parliament in 1994, is very much a man of that era. Will we return to the past as he moves into the chancellery and seeks to undo Angela Merkel’s “welcome culture”?

    According to Merz, it was a breach of law that the former chancellor let in a million refugees in 2015, most of them fleeing the war in Syria. In his vision, Germany’s “leading culture” should replace multiculturalism: “This includes buying a Christmas tree before Christmas. It is part of our Western Christian-influenced identity.”

    In his pursuit of overhauling Germany’s stance toward immigration, Merz recently broke a political taboo by holding a symbolic parliamentary vote backed by the AfD. Tens of thousands of Germans took to the streets to protest, fearing that a conservative-led government could open to the door to a power-sharing agreement with the far right.

    The conservative leader argued that he had been driven to do so after a horrific knife attack in Bavaria last month: A former Afghan asylum seeker had killed a 2-year-old-boy and a man who tried to stop him.

    Merz has since stressed repeatedly that he will never work with the AfD. But some of his colleagues in eastern Germany have started to argue publicly that it will be impossible to uphold.

    At this month’s international security conference in Munich, the U.S. vice president echoed this thinking, arguing that shutting out populist parties with a political “firewall” was undemocratic. Vance also met with AfD’s Weidel, who praised him for an “excellent speech.”

    Merz will now try to form a grand coalition with the ruling Social Democrats, who suffered a historic defeat and shrank to 16.4%. Will they manage to find a compromise on migration, lift up Germany’s shrinking economy and turn the tide of populism? Or will they get washed away like so many other governments did?

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/does-my-country-want-me-germanys-historic-far-right-election-gain-worries-me-opinion/ar-AA1zTBgs

    Macron tried a coalition with communists. It only lasted a few months.

    1. Represented by Alice Weidel, a 46-year old gay woman married to a woman born in Sri Lanka, AfD

      And this is supposed to be an extremist right wing party.

  27. Opinion: California relied on growing to pay for its needs. What happens now that it’s not?

    The U.S. Census Bureau reported that California’s population started growing again last year after three years of unprecedented decline. But don’t let the modest, 0.6% rebound fool you: California is in a new era of slow population growth at best. The go-go growth that the state was long accustomed to isn’t coming back soon.

    To listen to the many Californians who have chafed at the state’s continued growth and opposed further development, you would think this reversal would solve all our problems. But the truth is that even the state’s slow- or no-growth communities have effectively chained themselves to the idea that growth will pay for everything. If California communities are to thrive in a future without more people, we’re going to have to figure out how to unchain ourselves from that idea. It won’t be easy.

    Ever since the state’s voters capped property tax rates by passing Proposition 13 almost a half-century ago, California has embraced the idea that growth must pay for itself. But “Growth must pay for itself” often winds up meaning that “Growth must pay for us too.” So when population growth stops, everybody has to pay more.

    We can no longer rely on new homebuyers to pay for any of that. California is already bleeding residents because of its high home prices and rents. It’s not clear whether new development is even going to be able to pay for itself, let alone pay for the improvement and maintenance needs of existing communities and residents. Lawmakers in Sacramento are under significant pressure to reduce impact fees to help make housing less costly.

    Still, lawmakers will have to do something. Most of their constituents live in communities that are struggling to pay for the basic infrastructure that makes everyday life possible. And barring changes that have proved even more difficult for California, growth isn’t going to pay for it anymore.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/opinion-california-relied-on-growing-to-pay-for-its-needs-what-happens-now-that-its-not/ar-AA1zTVQT

  28. Panademics and Climate Change doomsday based on co2 emissions was the fraud to justify the One World Order power grab to take over the globe and enslave humanity under this Great Reset global dictorship.
    Than add to that the invasion of borders in US and other Countries to add to the mayhem.

    Than add the transgender assult on minors as another insane attack .
    And don’t forget the the escalation of proxy wars , along with escalation of crime in cities, and the bogus racism narrative designed to create division.
    Add to this the censorship of information and the attack on the first amendment and its just a war being waged.

    You have all these crazy events happening at the same time, while being locked down by the Covid 19emergency, that destroyed small business while
    tax money was diverted to Big Monopolies, elites, hospitals and Big Pharmacy by the Cares Acts.

    Than add to that the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion infiltration in job hiring and job policies , that attempts to erase merits and constitutional protections for some kind of Commie overthrow by
    discrimination against targeted groups.
    Than add the law fare against the political oppositions to this attack on the Constitutional Republic and its basically all out war on humaniry using many attacks at the same time.
    Than add the stealing of tax payer funds to fund this insanity World Wide .
    And its not like the enemy hasn’t come out and disclosed their end game Agenda.
    You will own nothing, eat bugs, 24/7 surveillance, mandated vaccines, no freedoms or Constitutional protections.
    But Big Monopolies and Rich Elites , Banks, Big Pharmacy and all the others in collusion control or own the resources of earth and dictate consumption for humanity is the bottom line, along with their genocide under the pretense of saving lives.
    So, no other choice but for humaniry to reject and not comply with the Powers that Be that basically want to enslaves humanity and steal the resources of earth.

  29. Alberta man spearheads parliamentary petition to keep Donald Trump out of Canada

    More than 36,000 people have signed a parliamentary petition urging Ottawa to bar U.S. President Donald Trump from Canada for persistently threatening the country’s sovereignty.

    Alberta resident Gerard Aldridge, who recently initiated the electronic petition, said he’s a fiercely proud Canadian who saw an opportunity to make a difference on an issue of grave concern.

    “I was born a Canadian and I want to die a Canadian,” Aldridge said Wednesday in an interview.

    The petition points out that Trump has been convicted of felonies in the United States – something that could make a person inadmissible to Canada.

    It contends that Trump’s words and actions represent a danger to the security and sovereignty of Canada.

    “I don’t think he deserves to be in our country, whether he’s a president or not,” Aldridge said. “We need to be, as a country, very much together on this.”

    Aldridge was a Liberal member of the Saskatchewan legislative assembly in the 1990s, though he says he currently does not belong to a political party.

    His petition is sponsored by New Democrat MP Charlie Angus, a vocal Trump critic.

    Angus also recently sponsored a parliamentary petition calling for the revocation of billionaire Elon Musk’s Canadian citizenship over his role in the Trump administration.

    During a speech Wednesday in Montreal, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said “we need to ban Donald Trump from attending the G7 summit.”

    Canada should instead use the summit as an opportunity to work with allies on a plan to resist Trump and his “dangerous threats to the world,” Singh said.

    “Why would we invite someone who has threatened our very democracy, our very sovereignty?” he asked. “Why would we invite someone who has threatened our economic well-being?”

    Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Canada needs to find ways to work with the Americans.

    “We are not going to sort of cut ourselves off and float into the ocean. They are going to be our neighbours going forward,” he said Wednesday. “I don’t think that simply trying to throw the president out of the G7 is a particularly constructive approach.”

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-alberta-man-spearheads-parliamentary-petition-to-keep-donald-trump-out/?cu_id=uh9TLvk6V7dc30stwSiP3JLmO57f76ODVyFEY%2FB2paM%3D

    I’d bet 5 pesos we’re paying for almost everything at the G-7.

    1. ‘Alberta resident Gerard Aldridge, who recently initiated the electronic petition, said he’s a fiercely proud Canadian who saw an opportunity to make a difference on an issue of grave concern. “I was born a Canadian and I want to die a Canadian”

      Alberta is one I wouldn’t mind getting. If we do we can deport Gerard’s sorry a$$.

    2. Why would DJT want to go to Canada? He just has to snap his fingers and Canada’s leadership will come to see him (and kiss the ring).

  30. I’ve notice they include this in every woke report:

    McKenzie said he and his husband are planning to list their New Jersey home

  31. [Amazing things are now happening since The Donald has once again become The President.]

    WSJ – Mexico Extradites 29 Jailed Drug Bosses to U.S., Including Killer of DEA Agent.

    Drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero has long been wanted by DEA for killing of agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena

    https://archive.ph/s8gDz

    MEXICO CITY—Mexican authorities extradited drug boss Rafael Caro Quintero to the U.S. who is wanted for the 1985 killing of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, according to a person familiar with the situation, delivering on a longstanding demand by the U.S.

    Caro Quintero’s extradition comes as the Trump administration threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico’s exports to the U.S. if the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum didn’t boost efforts to fight U.S.-bound fentanyl, which kills tens of thousands of Americans each year. Several members of her cabinet are in Washington this week to discuss bilateral cooperation and make the case that Mexico shouldn’t be punished with tariffs.

    Caro Quintero was part of a group of 29 imprisoned Mexicans accused of crimes in the U.S. extradited Thursday. Two leaders of the violent Zetas cartel, notorious for carrying out massacres in Mexico were also extradited.

    Caro Quintero was convicted in Mexico of the kidnapping, torture and killing of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for a crime that roiled bilateral relations between the two countries. Angered by Camarena’s disappearance, the U.S. briefly closed down the border with Mexico.

    In 2013, a Mexican appeals court ordered the release of Caro Quintero on grounds that his case should have been heard by a state court rather than a federal court. Mexico’s federal government then issued a warrant for his arrest, which Caro Quintero evaded for nearly a decade until early 2022, when he was recaptured by an elite unit of Mexico’s navy.

    Mexico’s security ministry said on Thursday that the 29 people had been held in different prisons throughout Mexico and were wanted for their links to criminal organizations and drug trafficking among other crimes.

  33. Ex-Biden Press Sec Admits Campaign Was ‘Gaslighting’ Public Over Joe’s Decline.

    https://thenationalpulse.com/2025/02/27/ex-biden-press-sec-admits-campaign-was-gaslighting-public-over-joes-decline/

    The National Pulse – Former First Lady Jill Biden‘s press secretary, Michael LaRosa, says his colleagues in the Democrat White House ‘gaslit’ the public and their own media allies regarding then-President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and even his election polling. Speaking with Tara Palmeri at American University’s Sine Institute of Policy and Politics on a new book by Jake Tapper detailing Joe Biden’s decline, LaRosa acknowledged White House staff in the Biden family’s inner circle worked to hide the octogenarian Democrat’s physical and mental problems. However, he brushed off the ‘cover-up’ by arguing: “Every politician, everybody, every human being tries to cover up age.”“We were always—from day one—cognizant that age was going, that age was an issue,” the former Jill Biden press secretary said, before revealing: “There are some things that are true, the gaslighting. There was a lot of denial of the polling. And I will use the term gaslight because that is what they were doing—the campaign, former colleagues.”

    LaRosa claims he was most bothered by “the data denial” rather than the machinations of a handful of senior White House staff to hide Biden’s cognitive decline from the American people. The National Pulse reported last summer that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, Anthony Bernal, and Ashley Williams—all staffers with close ties to Jill Biden—formed a protective bubble around Joe Biden, shielding him from even his own Cabinet Secretaries.Palmeri goes on to press LaRosa if he was concerned about Biden, in his advanced age, running for re-election in 2024, to which the former Jill Biden press secretary bluntly responds, “Yes.”“The President’s team was scared to death of impromptu, unscripted, unrehearsed, unpracticed, unchoreographed anything,” LaRosa states, arguing that while Joe Biden loved doing television and big public events, his staff was terrified his failing cognitive state would become readily apparent to the public.

    1. CNN’s Jake Tapper gets ripped on social media for ‘trying to rewrite history’ with new book on Biden’s decline

      Social media users ripped CNN anchor Jake Tapper for promoting his new book investigating former President Biden’s mental decline and its alleged cover-up by members of the Democratic Party.

      Multiple accounts on X accused Tapper of being involved in the same cover-up he and co-author, Axios journalist Alex Thompson, investigated in the book, titled, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover Up, and His Disastrous Choice To Run Again.” Several users pointed to a 2020 video of him lecturing then-Trump 2020 campaign advisor Lara Trump for calling out Biden’s mental faculties.

      Popular conservative account “End Wokeness” shared the 2020 clip of Tapper alongside an image of the new book, and commented, “Tapper then: It’s a conspiracy theory to say Biden has cognitive decline. It’s a stutter. Tapper now: A book on the cover up.”

      During a segment of CNN’s “The Lead” on Wednesday, Tapper talked about the book and insisted that he has been asking Democratic figures and Biden himself about the ex-president’s cognitive abilities.

      “As viewers of ‘The Lead’ know, I’ve been covering the concerns about President Biden’s age and health for years. I literally asked him about it in October 2022, and we’ve challenged Democrats and White House officials about it.”

      The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway ripped Tapper, stating, “The mother bleeping AUDACITY of you to do this after running 24-7 interference on behalf of him and mocking and attacking every single person who noticed Biden’s decline. The MOTHER. BUH-LEEP-ING. AUDACITY. Have you no decency? Have you NO shame?”

      The Libs of TikTok account quoted Tapper’s announcement of the book on CNN in a post, stating, “JAKE TAPPER: As viewers know I’ve been covering concerns about Biden’s age and health for years… we spent several months talking to people… you will not believe what was really going on.’”

      The account added, “I can’t believe this is real and he said this with a straight face. Jake Tapper and CNN covered up for Biden’s decline for years. He’s trying to rewrite history.”

      The Spectator contributing editor Stephen L. Miller slammed Tapper for the book in light of the anchor’s 2020 response to Trump.

      He wrote, “Here’s Jake Tapper incensed over Joe Biden’s ‘stutter’ and outraged over claims of Biden’s cognitive decline. Now he’s cashing in on a book about Biden’s cognitive decline and media cover up. There is no bottom for these people.”

      Conservative actor James Woods savaged Tapper over the alleged hypocrisy, writing, “If there were a bottom for these people, and indeed there is not, this slug would be feeding there for sure. If there were illustrated dictionaries, Tapper’s mewling face would be next to ‘hypocrite.’”

      https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cnn-s-jake-tapper-gets-ripped-on-social-media-for-trying-to-rewrite-history-with-new-book-on-biden-s-decline/ar-AA1zV9Wo

  35. ‘Since I’ve moved in, it’s been issues from day one, I have not been able to get comfortable in my dream home,’ Williams said. Months after purchasing her home, she says her kitchen ceiling caved in.

    Good thing we have so many illegals working in construction.

  36. ’emailed Nadeen after they signed onto their portal, which showed money had run out for the program and that their grant application was closed. It came after the couple had to dip into their retirement to put up $15,000 dollars to put in hurricane-impact windows. ‘Which is why we put it off for a little bit. We’re retired. I’m not ready to go back to work’

    It was still way cheaper than renting Christine.

  37. ‘You realize you’re not alone in the struggle that you have with this builder’

    Yer right Earl, it’s you and Darlean, against the man!

  38. ‘Kriese, a Redfin Realtor based in Las Vegas, said sellers continue to put their homes up for sale even though prices have hit record highs and sales are down. ‘I’ve met with a lot of potential sellers over the last few weeks. Listings typically pick up in March or April, but this year it’s happening earlier,’ she said. ‘Some of the sellers are listing because they bought just a few years ago and their home value isn’t increasing as quickly as they’d like, so they’re cutting their losses and moving to a less expensive home’

    Rate dating = a$$ pounding Fernanda.

    1. Some of the sellers are listing because they bought just a few years ago and their home value isn’t increasing as quickly as they’d like, so they’re cutting their losses and moving to a less expensive home’

      Translation: No sweet equity to extract. Meaning: no luxury cars, vacations or bewb jobs.

          3. Hard to gauge. I posted previously that realtors are mostly oblivious to the fact that buyers may not be able to get insurance even if sellers are insured. I suspect buyers will just sign on to CA’s FAIR Plan and that it’ll take lenders refusing that insurance because of insolvency. At which point, 💰 = 👑

  39. ‘It’s not a good deal. You get what the value of your home was two years ago. You get 75% of that. And then on top of that, you have to pay to demolish everything and have it hauled away,’ Hastings said. Hastings said that insurance doesn’t cover any of the damage to her property, either. Her life savings are now slipping away. ‘Everybody thinks we’re all millionaires up here. We’re actually not. Our homes were our money, right? We can’t just go out and buy another home’

    The lending was sound Sheri, at the time.

  40. ‘I am grateful to have finally exited the multifamily universe in Washington DC and I can promise the city council and Mayor that after their most recent efforts to weaponize housing I will not invest in this city ever again’

    How do you like those 5% cap rates now Andy?

    1. When digging into conspiracies claiming that the federal agency “manipulates” its historical weather data, ABC News’ chief meteorologist and chief climate correspondent Ginger Zee was able to confirm that it was true — but that the routine, public adjustments to records happen for good reason.

      “They are in fact the world’s largest provider of weather and climate data,” Zee said of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

      “And they constantly change things — it’s just they don’t hide any of that,” Zee added of the agency’s public records.

      “Higher-resolution temperature data makes it more detailed, but needs to be adjusted when compared to the older stuff,” she added.

      “NOAA and climate scientists aren’t manipulating data to present the planet is warming,” Zee said.

      “There is data all over the world, at my different agencies saying the same thing: Our temps are going up. So that’s what we should talk about,” she added.

  42. ‘Price point is also a critical determinant of sales success: at the peak of the investor frenzy there were projects selling close to $2,000 per square foot. Today, what is selling tends to stay below $1,200 per square foot’

    It’s a good thing everybody put 45% down!

  43. ‘People are enduring sewage overflowing into their garden and backing up into the toilet,’ he said. ‘The knock-on effect for Burlands residents is that they are asked not to flush their toilet and are subjected to pungent smells in their homes’

    Ah-HA Chris, you are stuffing expensive food in yer pie holes!

  44. ‘A previous analysis by Deloitte estimated the recovery rate for offshore unsecured creditors stood at just 3.53%’

    The gringo has been fooked, and he had to hire expensive lawyers to gets this pitiful result.

    ‘It’s a massive liquidation,’ said James Wood, a Hong Kong barrister who specializes in restructuring and insolvency cases. ‘This is going to be a long, complex, time-consuming process’

    Wa happened to my last minute payment bloomies?

  45. This Home Is Hiding A Massive Secret (York Region Real Estate Market Update)

    Team Sessa Real Estate

    1 hour ago VAUGHAN

    In this episode, we look at the current Vaughan Home Prices, Richmond Hill Home Prices & Markham Home Prices and real estate market trends for the week ending Feb 19, 2025. We also discuss how so many things don’t need to be disclosed when it comes to the purchase of a home, and how some of those things can heavily influence a buying decision.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBDnT27mQCI

    11 minutes.

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