Now It All Feels Like A Fever Dream, And The Current Market Is More Like A Nightmare For Those Who Made Snap Decisions Five Years Ago
A report from ABC News. “Crowds of current and recently fired federal workers gathered at a job fair in Maryland on Saturday to search for new career opportunities as the Trump administration continues its purge of federal workers. Daniel Leckie was a historic preservation specialist for the General Services Administration who got fired in February. He attended the job fair with his wife and 6-month-old baby. Leckie said he was fired for being a probationary employee and was just one day away from fully satisfying his probationary period. Leckie and his wife just bought a new home in Maryland, making their first mortgage payment just a few weeks ago. He was also working toward completing the public service loan forgiveness program. ‘I had about maybe two or three months left before I would have satisfied the terms of my student loans. It’s an $80,000 proposition for our family. That’s what we based a lot of our financial future on, including deciding to start a family and taking out a mortgage and becoming homeowners here in the D.C. area,’ Leckie added.”
The New York Post. “A slow-motion crisis is unfolding in Florida’s condo market. Florida’s aging condominiums are losing value. And nearly 1,400 buildings are now blacklisted from receiving mortgage financing, making those apartments an even-tougher sell. ‘There are real people in these units that may be displaced,’ Orest Tomaselli, CEO of Strategic Inspections, which advises condo boards nationally on how to shore up their reserves, ‘that may lose their nest egg and may lose tremendous amounts of value in their units.’ At Miami’s Cricket Club, a 50-year-old waterfront tower burdened with $134,000 special assessments per condo, 23 of the building’s 217 condos are currently for sale, according to brokerage Compass. In a Miami market where the median condo price was $445,000 in the fourth quarter of last year, condos at the Cricket Club are seeking buyers with prices as low as $220,000 for a 1,950-square-foot two-bedroom on the 19th floor. (The owner initially sought $330,000).”
“‘A lot of people moved here to be able to retire and live their life here, and they’re on fixed incomes,’ said Kathleen DiBona, a 50-year resident of Hollywood who serves as president of the Hollywood Beach Civic Association. Many owners whom DiBona knows in Hollywood, a city dotted with older towers, are seeking to off-load units with little success. ‘What happens if nobody can get a loan to buy a unit in your building?’ says Joseph Hernandez, a Miami-based partner in the real estate group of law firm Bilzin Sumberg. ‘It essentially makes the units in your building unsaleable and it makes the value of those units go down. We may see a lot of condo projects go into distress.’ There are roughly 1.1 million condo units in Florida that are 30 years old or more, and subject to the new law, according to the Florida Policy Project. Of those, 58% are concentrated along the Southwest and Southeast coastal counties, in places like Tampa, Clearwater and the greater Miami metro area, including Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach County.”
The Miami Herald in Florida. “With unit owners now seeking relief, Miami lawmakers in key positions in state government are pushing back, saying they won’t soften a law created to prevent another catastrophic building failure. But a Herald/Times investigation shows that experts who advocated for the key component of the law viewed it not necessarily as a means to prevent another collapse, but as an opportunity to force associations to invest in their buildings, knowing it would be financially impractical for a number of unit owners. ‘The building collapse was probably not at all due to financial conditions or lack of reserves,’ said Margaret Rolando, a Miami attorney who helped create the task force. ‘We think, we don’t know, that it was probably due to some construction defect.'”
“Carolyn Hill, the association board president of Sunrise Lakes Phase 4 Inc 1 in Broward County, said about 15 units were currently going through foreclosure because of the maintenance reserve requirements. ‘For the people that are on social security, this is going to be a major impact to them. They can’t do anything to add to their income,’ Hill, 72, said. ‘This is going to be a major reduction to their funds.’ Valerio Morabito, a Miami developer who told the Herald/Times last month that he is in negotiations with three different associations looking to ‘terminate’ their governing structure and sell. He said mandatory reserves combined with expensive repairs triggered by mandatory inspections are ‘creating a lot of stress on homeowners associations that are now considering bulk sales.'”
Yahoo Finance. “Homes are lingering on the market longer in many parts of the country, giving buyers more negotiating power and helping keep a lid on prices for the first time in years. Price cuts are also on the rise, a sign that sellers are growing more motivated. In Colorado Springs, Colo., real estate agent Kevin James Bond said he’s been counseling prospective sellers who bought in recent years at top prices that they might not make money on their homes. ‘They’re not flying off the shelves,’ he said. ‘This isn’t 2020 or 2021 where if you didn’t get in in the next four minutes, you didn’t get the house.'”
“These days, many of the biggest buyer’s markets are in coastal Florida, where condo owners, in particular, have been struggling with rising insurance costs and hit with higher fees and assessments. Cape Coral, Miami and Fort Lauderdale each had more than 10 months of available supply in January, according to Redfin. Real estate agent Scott Neal in Richardson, Tex., has seen similar trends in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The most desirable properties in his region are commanding multiple offers, while ones deemed overpriced or in need of major upgrades are remaining on the market. ‘Buyers are not willing to pay top market value for something that they think is not top market quality,’ Neal said.”
5280 in Colorado. “I remember the way my real estate agent presented the house on South Lafayette Street. ‘It’s a great little place on a pocket park, she said, but there are already at least 20 offers, more than half of them cash. Do you still want to see it?’ I did, because that’s what the Denver real estate market in the pandemic summer of 2020 required one to do. You had to act a little crazy to be able to negotiate the insanity. I didn’t have $700,000 in cash—not even close. But I had to keep up with the market if I wanted to escape the 730-square-foot apartment that was making me feel so darn lonely. I couldn’t let 40 existing offers or the prevalence of as-is purchases or the historically low inventory or the fact that I had to double-mask and wear latex gloves to go inside a home discourage me. But I probably should have. ‘It was a bad time to be a buyer,’ says Britt Armstrong, a broker associate with the Tom Gross Team at Kentwood Real Estate and my real estate agent back then. ‘The pace was frenetic.'”
“It was also unhealthy. ‘There was a tsunami of emotional buying,’ Armstrong says. ‘Bolstered by easy money and the freedom of remote work, people who’d had golden handcuffs removed them and were given golden wings. With three percent interest rates, people could move anywhere—and lots of them moved to Colorado.’ Now it all feels like a fever dream, and the current market is more like a nightmare—for buyers, sellers, and those who made snap decisions five years ago. ‘There’s PTSD from Denver’s pandemic market,’ Armstrong says. ‘I keep trying to tell people it’s not the same as four years ago, but we’re still dealing with the emotions from that time.’ Today’s market—at least as of mid-January—would be more of a buyer’s market, with lots of slow-moving inventory, save for high interest rates that mean many will have to settle for smaller, less appealing houses with more expensive mortgages. Sellers aren’t happy either. ‘The days of 10 cash offers on the first day are gone,’ Armstrong says. ‘Many houses are sitting for 60 or 90 days.'”
“And, Armstrong says, she’s seeing regret among those who left their hometowns and family during the pandemic for a Colorado adventure. ‘A house is just four walls and a roof,’ she says. ‘Relationships and lifestyle make a difference. Many didn’t find their dream here and are now going back home.'”
The Washington Examiner. “Depending on the Californian talking, price controls are the angel or the devil in the debate about the Golden State’s insurance nightmare. Insurers are required to run proposals for rate increases by the California Department of Insurance, a process which often takes months and ends with rejection. Another factor that has affected prices centers on catastrophic modeling, which was not permitted under Prop. 103. A few weeks before the Los Angeles fires, California became the last state in the nation to allow insurers to utilize the software that predicts the probability of loss and quantifies the potential financial impact of future extreme events, such as fires.”
“One resident who has a home in the Los Angeles area, Dr. Houman Hemmati, was recently looking at homes that were ‘incredibly underpriced for what they are’ and suspected it was because they lay in fire hazard zones. ‘I called to see if I can get insurance. You can’t get a mortgage without insurance….insurance brokers told me that they had a tough time finding anyone who would insure…in one case, it was 20,000 a month, and in another case, it was 40,000 a month, which is more than the mortgage,’ he continued. ‘It shows you that there are people who had to reduce the price of their home or been unable to sell because potential buyers couldn’t get a mortgage.'”
“‘It looks like they’re being mean to Californians, but the reality is, they can’t afford to sell coverage there, not at the rates that are being allowed to be charged,’ Dr. Brenda Powell Wells, the risk management and insurance program director for East Carolina University, told the Washington Examiner.”
The Globe and Mail in Canada. “Veteran mortgage broker Tuli Parubets likes to send her clients e-mails showing how their home is rising in value. This year, she’s taking a break. ‘I have not been sending them out because I don’t want to scare people,’ she said. It’s been widely reported that roughly 1.2 million people will renew mortgages this year at rates that will be much higher for the most part. Less understood is the fact that these renewers bought around the time the real estate market was peaking. Prices have come down since then on a national average basis, and rebounds have been inconsistent.”
“Being underwater – owing more on a mortgage than the property is worth – is a discouraging position for buyers, especially given the hype over homes as investments. Victor Tran of TMG The Mortgage Group noted that fixed-rate mortgages set up during the pandemic were at ultralow levels, which meant a higher proportion of payments went toward knocking down the principal. Mr. Tran offered an example of how someone who bought a house for $500,000 and made the minimum 5 per cent down payment could easily find themselves underwater. If your home is worth less than you owe, Mr. Tran advises you to keep that information to yourself. ‘Try to negotiate with your current lender and keep your fingers crossed.'”
From ABC News. “As a single mother raising a teenage boy in southern China, a 1,500 yuan ($330) monthly wage cut has hit Ms Wei hard. ‘I could save 1,000 yuan every month in the past, but now I have to use my savings to pay [part of] my mortgage,’ said Ms Wei, who didn’t want to use her full name for privacy reasons. Ms Wei said she only has enough savings to supplement her mortgage payments for the next two to three months. As an accountant in China, Ms Wei works in the finance sector where the government has been cutting and capping workers’ pay.”
“China’s financial sector is led by state-owned banks and institutions, which are ultimately controlled by the government. Ms Wei’s monthly salary has been reduced from 6,000 yuan to 4,500 yuan and her year-end bonus slashed by more than half. ‘They [the government] started to cut everyone’s salary last July. It’s a heavy blow to my life,’ Ms Wei said. While her wage started shrinking six months ago, late in January Chinese authorities announced a new round of finance sector pay cuts to ‘reduce costs and increase efficiency.’ China’s property prices have dropped about 30 per cent since they peaked in 2021.”
“For Ms Wei, the challenges of raising a school-aged son meant she desperately wanted to spend more time with her family. ‘I’ve made the decision to ask for leave to care for my son. If they don’t approve, I’ll quit.’ But with so many people leaving the finance sector, the prospect of finding a new job concerns Ms Wei. ‘What I’m worried about is that if I quit, I could end up with a worse job,’ she said. ‘The economy is so bad and the competition [for work] is brutal.'”
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Federal income taxes.
‘But a Herald/Times investigation shows that experts who advocated for the key component of the law viewed it not necessarily as a means to prevent another collapse, but as an opportunity to force associations to invest in their buildings, knowing it would be financially impractical for a number of unit owners. ‘The building collapse was probably not at all due to financial conditions or lack of reserves,’ said Margaret Rolando, a Miami attorney who helped create the task force. ‘We think, we don’t know, that it was probably due to some construction defect’
This is an interesting article and it’s worth reading. I think what they are getting at is the lawyers who wrote the bill knew the reserves weren’t the only problem (defects) but that doesn’t change the overall situation which is airbox loanowners are fooked. As for setting up a million loanowners to get squeezed into selling, welcome to south Florida!
‘There are roughly 1.1 million condo units in Florida that are 30 years old or more, and subject to the new law’
Remember when the REIC was telling us this number was 90,000?
‘There are roughly 1.1 million condo units in Florida that are 30 years old or more, and subject to the new law’
Certainly highlights the problems associated with building upward rather than building outward. It’s much easier to age in a single story on flat land.
“This isn’t 2020 or 2021 where if you didn’t get in in the next four minutes, you didn’t get the house”
Muh minor respiratory illness.
“that’s what the Denver real estate market in the pandemic summer of 2020 required one to do. You had to act a little crazy to be able to negotiate the insanity”
Covid is a hoax, and you got played.
The scamdemic showed us who the dangerous rule-followers are, and the militant supporters and enablers of totalitarianism self-identified for all to see. Never forget, never forgive.
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/partner_surveys/jan_2022/covid_19_democratic_voters_support_harsh_measures_against_unvaccinated
“How far are Democrats willing to go in punishing the unvaccinated? Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Democratic voters would support temporarily removing parents’ custody of their children if parents refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Bookmark it. Re-post it. Make them OWN it, because Democrat Party, you own this.
Only in Clown World does the supposed return of the Black Death result in the biggest housing bubble in history.
Never waste an opportunity!
‘Do you still want to see it?’ I did, because that’s what the Denver real estate market in the pandemic summer of 2020 required one to do. You had to act a little crazy to be able to negotiate the insanity. I didn’t have $700,000 in cash—not even close. But I had to keep up with the market if I wanted to escape the 730-square-foot apartment that was making me feel so darn lonely. I couldn’t let 40 existing offers or the prevalence of as-is purchases or the historically low inventory or the fact that I had to double-mask and wear latex gloves to go inside a home discourage me’
If you were watching this with the HBB you had to know it was batsh$t crazy. As I said at the time, Jerry knew. And he let it happen, IMO to crash the market. Central bankers are the scummiest of globalist scum. Mass formation psychosis was a planned event.
“Mass formation psychosis was a planned event”
Remember when Google altered the search results for that phrase?
Remember? It was right after Joe Rogan hosted Dr. Robert Malone on his podcast to discuss it.
Remember when YouTube (owned by Google) took down that podcast?
Remember? The HBB remembers.
‘Hemmati, was recently looking at homes that were ‘incredibly underpriced for what they are’ and suspected it was because they lay in fire hazard zones. ‘I called to see if I can get insurance. You can’t get a mortgage without insurance….insurance brokers told me that they had a tough time finding anyone who would insure…in one case, it was 20,000 a month, and in another case, it was 40,000 a month, which is more than the mortgage,’ he continued. ‘It shows you that there are people who had to reduce the price of their home or been unable to sell because potential buyers couldn’t get a mortgage’
Unable to sell? Houman you do realize this is California you are talking about?
He was also working toward completing the public service loan forgiveness program. ‘I had about maybe two or three months left before I would have satisfied the terms of my student loans. It’s an $80,000 proposition for our family.
Your student loans, your financial obligation, leech.
“That’s what we based a lot of our financial future on, including deciding to start a family and taking out a mortgage and becoming homeowners”
Sound lending.
“Leckie said he was fired for being a probationary employee and was just one day away from fully satisfying his probationary period.”
Daniel has absolutely zero luck. I’m sure he’ll be struck by a falling grand piano while walking in the wilderness. He should also order a paternity test for that 6-month-old baby.
public service loan forgiveness program
He can complete it with any job at any government level, or any nonprofit.
‘There are real people in these units that may be displaced,’ Orest Tomaselli, CEO of Strategic Inspections, which advises condo boards nationally on how to shore up their reserves, ‘that may lose their nest egg and may lose tremendous amounts of value in their units.’
Should’ve thought about that when they were deferring essential maintenance for all those years.
FBI Probing Biden’s $20 Billion Green Fund For Potential Fraud.
https://dailycaller.com/2025/02/28/fbi-reportedly-probing-biden-20-billion-green-fund-potential-fraud/
The Daily Caller – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reportedly probing a massive Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program for possible fraud, EPA officials confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Specifically, FBI agents reportedly interviewed EPA employees this week as part of an escalating investigation of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), a $20 billion program that awarded billions of dollars to green groups loaded with Democrat donors and insiders, The Washington Post first reported Friday citing anonymous sources familiar with the situation so that they could speak freely. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has repeatedly expressed concern about the GGRF abusing taxpayer dollars to benefit friends of the Biden EPA, though some career federal prosecutors have shied away from advancing the investigation when called upon to do so.
The DCNF has reported extensively on the political connections of GGRF awardees since November 2023.
[That was a snip. Access the link to read the rest.]
“…though some career federal prosecutors have shied away from advancing the investigation when called upon to do so.”
They should be fired then so they can find another career!
Do the job or get out.
Someone on X had a great question — A $20 billion bank account generates a lot of interest. Who’s getting that interest? Is it just accruing?
“Who’s getting that interest?”
Every greasy shekel of it will find its way into the bottomless pockets of the Parasite Class.
Yes!
Is that the fund that was supposed to build thousands of charging stations, but only built a handfull?
“FBI Probing Biden’s $20 Billion Green Fund…”
That’s a whole lotta green! 🙂
I was watching a yt video about early predictions for the 2026 midterm elections. Someone made a good point that the slashing of all these slush funds will deprive the Democrats of a lot of campaign cash. That increases the chances of Repbulicans retaining the House. If R’s retain the house in 2026, watch out Dems.
‘It essentially makes the units in your building unsaleable and it makes the value of those units go down. We may see a lot of condo projects go into distress.’
Using my Nostradamus-like powers of prognostication, I see an epic wipeout of Yellen Bux value. This is my “gravely concerned” face.
“This is my “gravely concerned” face.”
All I’m able to envision is “Jim Carry as the Grinch” laughing!
Every time an unqualified DEI hire gets purged and replaced with someone picked on the basis of merit, an angel gets its wings.
https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1896026456263708962
In Colorado Springs, Colo., real estate agent Kevin James Bond said he’s been counseling prospective sellers who bought in recent years at top prices that they might not make money on their homes.
I bet Kevin looks splendid in his Captain Obvious costume.
Might? Might not make any money?!! If they don’t sell for over 100k over initial purchase price they’re taking a pounding. Do the math with realtor commish amd closing costs, holding costs during ownership, the fact that all your payments during the early part of hate loan went to interest. You start adding it up what it took to own that home for a few years and you realize selling it for what you bought it for is a big time loss.
All together now:
At least it was cheaper then renting.
I did, because that’s what the Denver real estate market in the pandemic summer of 2020 required one to do.
You sound vaccinated.
But I had to keep up with the market if I wanted to escape the 730-square-foot apartment that was making me feel so darn lonely.
This lemming is going to be a cautionary tale, and deservedly so.
I couldn’t let 40 existing offers or the prevalence of as-is purchases or the historically low inventory or the fact that I had to double-mask and wear latex gloves to go inside a home discourage me. But I probably should have.
The stupid, it burns.
‘It was a bad time to be a buyer,’ says Britt Armstrong, a broker associate with the Tom Gross Team at Kentwood Real Estate and my real estate agent back then. ‘The pace was frenetic.’”
“Buying into this Fed-juiced housing bubble would set you up for financial disaster,” said no realtor ever.
Thanks to truth-tellers on social media, the Biden-era wall of lies is crumbling.
https://x.com/liz_churchill10/status/1895987288913690972
So you can see the replies without an account: https://nitter.poast.org/liz_churchill10/status/1895987288913690972
100% safe and effective.
How much fictitious Yellen Bux “wealth” is going to be obliterated as digital tulip bulbs revert to their intrinsic value of zero?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-01/here-are-all-the-reasons-why-bitcoin-has-plunged-from-a-record
The garbage legacy media will die off along with the last of the libtard Boomers. No one under 35 gets their news & information from the globalist scum media.
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2025/03/01/report-washington-post-bleeds-75000-subscribers-owner-jeff-bezos-overhaul/
If your home is worth less than you owe, Mr. Tran advises you to keep that information to yourself. ‘Try to negotiate with your current lender and keep your fingers crossed.’”
Horrible “advice” from an REIC shill. Millions of underwater FBs who realize they can never bring enough cash to the table to unload their alligators will simply stop making payments and squat in place for the months or years it takes for the foreclosure/eviction process to play out, calculating the hit to their credit score is nowhere near as damaging as honoring their financial obligations. This is what you get when the central bankers & policymakers create conditions of moral hazard.
Zimbabwe R Us, thanks to the feckless uniparty. The U.S. debt crisis is why DOGE is our last best hope to avert a financial collapse.
https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1895962607099728042
What are student loan deadbeats & their lenders going to do now that the Biden-Harris regime can’t transfer their debts to the public ledger?
https://x.com/UnicusResearch/status/1896018321041928653
It’s different this time.
https://x.com/Barchart/status/1895724765383704812
https://nitter.poast.org/DrJStrategy/status/1895804892536529023#m:
Keep it simple.
A chart of the U.S. 2-year Treasury yield showing lower highs and lower lows indicates that the credit market is assessing real-time economic and geopolitical factors and concluding that the economy is slowing, and inflation is not a significant concern.
Old rule: the Fed follows the 2yr.
Watch Wall St superstars that were calling for no rate cuts change their power point presentation.
FFR will be in the 3% range by year end and the Fed will still be too tight.
Treasury yield showing lower highs and lower lows
Zoom out and I’m not seeing such.
New York Post (3/2/2025):
“I agree,” Musk, 53, wrote on X in reply late Saturday to MAGA influencer Gunther Eagleman’s suggestion that “It’s time to leave NATO and the UN.”
Musk did not elaborate on the specifics of why he wants the US to pull out of NATO and the UN, but the suggestion came after several social media users pointed to Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) call to pull out of both.
Last month, Lee, 53, who has drawn frequent reposts and interactions from Musk on X, introduced legislation alongside other lawmakers to pull out of the UN and decried it as “a platform for tyrants and a venue to attack America and her allies.”
https://nypost.com/2025/03/02/us-news/elon-musk-appears-to-back-us-withdrawing-from-nato-the-un/
No more U.S. taxpayer money for Muh Western Liberal Democracy where you get arrested for posting memes.
Fight your own phony wars. We don’t need you.
Musk, 53
Lee, 53
GenX is DONE with this BS.
‘The Nation Needed This. A Good Shakeup.’
RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas — Homero Gonzalez winced at the mention of Elon Musk, and asked if I’d seen the photos of the billionaire wielding a chainsaw at a conservative conference last week.
Musk’s mass firings and budget cuts meant some Republican lawmakers were getting booed at town halls in their districts. Gonzalez worried that the flamboyance of President Donald Trump’s chief henchman might be drawing the wrong kind of attention. But the cutting? He was all for it.
“It’s hard,” Gonzalez said, but “we need it.”
We were speaking at the Starr County Fair in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where I’d come to visit with some of Trump’s newest converts — voters who turned this county red in November for the first time in more than 100 years and helped Trump win the popular vote for the first time. The way they welcomed the disemboweling of the federal bureaucracy was in sharp contrast to what some have suggested is an emerging backlash to Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.
“There’s a lot of people who take advantage, they abuse the system,” Gonzalez told me.
It was drizzling at the fair, with temperatures just above freezing. Gonzalez, who works in the oil industry, sat by his son in a tent where their friend Roman Del Bosque groomed a miniature Hereford. Getting fired, he said, was something people in this county, one of the most impoverished in the United States, knew all about. “It sucks,” he said. But Del Bosque, a freight driver, also thought it was necessary.
DOGE, Del Bosque said, is eliminating “the B.S.”
The calculation I found among Trump’s voters here was different. There was no buyer’s remorse, no defensiveness. If anything, it was a project they approached with a sense of obligation, or reverence, or glee.
“I don’t qualify for Medicaid, so fine with me,” Nelda Cruz, a clerk at a local utility, said when I asked about Republican spending proposals that could require billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid. “Now they’re going to feel how I feel.”
She said, “The nation needed this. A good shakeup. And all the people it is riling up, it’s because it’s hurting them.”
The owner of a downtown insurance company with a sign outside advertising, “Obamacare: Enroll Here,” asked me if it was true that “reptile people” had been discovered taking Social Security benefits (it’s not), and similarly told me that either way, America “needed a shaking up.”
And if there are negative consequences for federal programs, or for the employees losing their jobs? Gonzalez’s son, Matthew, who recently left work as a hunting guide to take a job with a fiberoptics company in San Antonio, told me he trusted Musk was “doing what’s good for the American people.”
His dad, Homero, shrugged. He suspected many of the employees Musk was targeting were hired during Biden’s administration, anyway. Musk, he said, is “helping out in ways that are good for us.”
“It’s going to hurt,” said Luis Ayala, who was selling spicy candy in an exhibition hall and who, at 35, voted for the first time last year for Trump. He worries about what will happen to his mother, who is 55, if cuts to entitlement programs benefiting seniors are enacted.
“It’s going to suck,” he said.
But it all was necessary, he said. “If everything turns out good, my kids or the kids of my kids, have a better U.S.”
No one I spoke with had been laid off or had services cut yet. A border patrol agent who had come to the fair with his daughter and her sheep said to me, “It’s not affecting me.”
“It would suck, if it was me,” he said, but added, “There are a lot of people who don’t do shit.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-county-voted-republican-first-120000752.html
Social Security workers axed, new Musk email coming. What to know about Trump’s layoffs.
Thousands of federal employees have been let go in the past few weeks in a series of purges by the Trump administration. The cuts have left agencies and workers reeling, while President Donald Trump and his billionaire advisor, Elon Musk, say they are making good on his promises to slash federal spending.
“I just feel a sense of emptiness. Like I feel I’ve done everything right,” Allie Mitchell, a 30-year-old former researcher at the National Institute on Aging, told USA TODAY. “And they just fired us and said it was because of your performance. And that’s not true.”
“The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt,” the memo reads. “At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public. Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hardworking American citizens.”
The memo also directed agencies and departments to submit by April 14 any plans for office relocations from Washington to “less-costly parts of the country.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/social-security-workers-axed-new-musk-email-coming-what-to-know-about-trumps-layoffs/ar-AA1A0i4b
Protestors rally in Parkersburg against firings of federal workers amid DOGE cuts
Protestors gathered in Parkersburg today to rally against the firing of local federal workers as a result of Department of Government Efficiency’s attempts to reduce government waste.
The National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 190 said that over 100 federal employees have been fired so far in Parkersburg. Those in Wood County are left trying to figure out the next steps moving forward without their jobs.
“Shock, really. Just trying to figure out like what my family’s going to do, this greatly affects us,” said Jennifer Piggott, a fired federal employee. “Obviously we’re in America. We’re a two-income home. And we just lost one of those incomes. So we’re just trying to figure out how to move forward.”
Piggott is not alone in her feelings of shock after abruptly losing her job. Many of the protestors that were in Parkersburg today themselves had been fired. Former and current federal workers were joined by community members to protest against the actions taken against federal employees by DOGE .
“It’s heartbreaking. I’ve been trying to get this job for years. Like, I’ve been, you know, working towards getting the experience that I need for it,” said Sarah Hughes, a fired federal employee. “It’s a position that’s supposed to be, you know, stable. That’s one of the benefits of being a part of the government.”
The Chief Steward of the National Treasury Employees Union, Eric Engle, said that these workers being fired is illegal and what DOGE is doing is breaking several laws. He also said the reasoning behind their firings based on false information.
“Absolutely devastating. People are losing their livelihoods,” Engle said. “They could lose their homes. They’ve got dependent children. They’ve got elders that they’re taking care of. This is destroying lives.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/protestors-rally-in-parkersburg-against-firings-of-federal-workers-amid-doge-cuts/ar-AA1A1Aw2
somebody call the wahbulance
don’t care, TBH at this point I”m celebrating and you’re whining makes it even better.
“They violated merit systems law. They violated civil service protection law,” Engle said.
These are still the probationary emplyees, right? Even if they do sue and get their jobs back, they will be first in line for any RIFs anyway.
said that these workers being fired is illegal and what DOGE is doing is breaking several laws. H
I don’t know much about Govt. law but in the private world my Dad was a shop foreman and he had 90 days before the workers became Full time Union Members. He said he let a lot of people go before the 90 days, which is what the probationary period was for. I don’t see how this is any different. Probationary means just that, you don’t make the grade, for what ever reason, you are gone.
“Absolutely devastating. People are losing their livelihoods,” Engle said. “They could lose their homes. They’ve got dependent children. They’ve got elders that they’re taking care of. This is destroying lives.”
And how is this my problem?
Kansas City federal employee swept up in Trump layoffs: ‘Use a scalpel instead of a chainsaw’
As President Donald Trump continues to cut the federal workforce in an effort to downsize the government, a Kansas City man is one of many federal workers who was laid off. He said the unknown caused a lot of ups and downs for him.
In March 2024, Jason Buck left his job with FedEx to work for the General Services Administration (GSA) as a Program Support Specialist.
“I loved everything about it. The work-life balance was what I was looking for,” said Former GSA employee Jason Buck.
In that role, he helped keep track of where Government license plates were needed for vehicles used by federal agencies.
“I felt like it would be something that I could go into and work till I retire; that was kind of the goal,” said Buck.
In December 2024, he was promoted to Fleet Service Representative and started to train for vehicles that were in Nebraska.
“In that role, I was going to be assigned a specific set of customers or agencies,” said Buck. He added, “Any expenses for maintenance, like I would have to decide whether that got billed to GSA or to the specific agency.”
On February 13, Buck was getting ready for bed when his phone buzzed.
“Every time your phone email buzzed, there was a little bit of hesitation like is this it? Is this the email that tells me I don’t have a job anymore?” said Buck.
It was. An email titled: Buck, Jason W – Notice of Employment Termination. In the email, there was a termination letter labeled with his first role at GSA: Program Support Specialist.
He met with his bosses via Zoom the next day to clarify his questions.
“I was very much unsure if I was getting fired from a position I no longer had, or if I was getting fired just because I had less than one year and they pretty much confirmed that it didn’t matter, HR hadn’t moved me over from one department to the other,” said Buck.
Getting that email at 9:17 p.m. wasn’t easy for him. It left him feeling angry.
“I’d like to say that I was surprised, but I really wasn’t, but I didn’t get a lot of sleep that night,” said Buck.
He said no one had a real answer as to why he was being fired, except that he was still on probation. That was set to end in March.
“The way it is set up, they (probationary employees) are kind of low-hanging fruit; they are easy to get rid of you don’t have a lot of appeal rights or processes,” said Buck.
That didn’t make things any easier for him or any of the others who were laid off.
“Here I am hitting the reset button,” said Buck. He added, “The Government does a lot for everybody on a day-to-day basis. I know the stereotype is they are just remote workers that do their laundry and nothing ever gets done, and that is just not the case.”
He felt he was doing everything right in his position.
“I go to work every day just like anybody else whether it is public sector or private sector. I mean, are there parts of the government that probably could be trimmed? Yeah, maybe using a scalpel instead of a chainsaw would be the way to do it,” said Buck.
Buck is now in the process, like many others, of trying to find a new role somewhere else.
https://www.kctv5.com/2025/03/01/kansas-city-federal-employee-swept-up-trump-layoffs-use-scalpel-instead-chainsaw/
What is happening right now is quite simple: the “probationary” workers are the low hanging fruit, the easiest to fire. The icing on the cake is the virtually all of them were DEI hires, who contrary to their claims did little more than collect a paycheck.
a scapel??????????? the budget deficit is 1/3 of the budget, all of which is a tax on everyone. Literally one third of all people and programs need to be ended. They aren’t even close yet.
probably closer to 90% cuts is what is needed, most of what these employees do actually makes things worse.
Keep whining we’re still celebrating
The work-life balance was what I was looking for,” that was kind of the goal,” said Buck.
In December 2024, he was promoted to Fleet Service Representative and started to train for vehicles that were in Nebraska.
The closest corner of Nebraska is 70 miles from Kansas City. I wonder if he had work-life balance because he was working remote, or had extensive telework?
Last year (pre-election), one of the staff members in my office tried to insist that we use the phrase “life-work balance” instead of work-life balance. I noticed that after a month or so, he stopped. My guess is that someone gave him a talking-to. After all, it’s not the “life” people who are signing his paychecks.
‘Tesla Takedown’ protesters gather outside showrooms to rally against Elon Musk’s role with DOGE
Demonstrators gathered at more than 50 Tesla showrooms across the United States on Saturday in protest of CEO Elon Musk’s role in slashing government agencies as part of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency established by President Donald Trump.
The protests are part of “Tesla Takedown,” which, according to its website, hopes to encourage stakeholders to “sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines.”
Peter Jones, a 59-year-old pilot, told CNN that he searched on Friday for upcoming protests but found none. He said if it weren’t for his wife, who heard the chanting and was curious about the protest, they would have missed out.
“It feels great because right now I feel powerless,” Jones said. “Nobody can keep up with all of the destruction. I don’t feel empowered unless we get out into the street; that’s one thing we have is mass.”
It’s unclear whether the Tesla Takedown movement will have much of an impact on the company. Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at automotive site Edmunds, noted there hasn’t been a bump in Tesla owners appraising their used cars.
Some hesitation could be that selling a car relies on other factors, including the cost of buying a new vehicle while interest rates are high and because Teslas are now less expensive, she said.
Although Tesla may face pushback because of Musk’s involvement in the government, some Tesla owners and potential buyers are likely separating Tesla as a company from Musk, she said. Caldwell added that the attention Musk has received from DOGE is not good for Tesla’s business.
“When you look at the other car companies, most people couldn’t name another automotive CEO and much less their opinion on politics,” Caldwell told CNN.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/tech-companies/tesla-takedown-protesters-gather-outside-showrooms-to-rally-against-elon-musk-s-role-with-doge/ar-AA1A3JdZ
encourage stakeholders to “sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines.”
And take an a$$ pounding while doing it.
I don’t feel empowered unless we get out into the street
Only the infant minded would think their power was in huddling together in the street for a crying session.
Protesting has worked before: women’s right to vote, black’s right to vote, getting out of Vietnam, and lots of DEI post-Floyd.
But these protests don’t seem to be landing the same way. First of all, these protestors are all Dems and therefore those votes aren’t winnable even if you gave them what they want. Also, these new causes are pretty weak tea compared to the causes of the past. FedGovs don’t have the right to a job the same way that blacks have the right to vote.
‘They’ve radicalized me’: Federal workers fight back as Trump dismantles their work
Protests opposing the cuts and supporting laid-off workers have started popping up, but the real hotbed of organizing has been happening online, in Signal chats, on Facebook and in the popular “FedNews” channel on Reddit, where federal workers are sharing advice, talking about their experiences and encouraging opposition.
“KEEP SHOUTING THE TRUTH, KEEP RINGING THE BELL: It’s working!” read a post last week. “I just got a mass email from my agency branch ‘reminding’ us not to talk to the media, listing several regulations that state we’re not to talk to the media. They wouldn’t have sent that if the media wasn’t getting FLOODED with federal workers reporting the truth, reporting what is REALLY going on. It’s affecting them.”
“I’ve heard so many people ask: WHY is Donald T. so hell-bent on destroying Federal workers?” read another recent post. “Because we are in his way. … Hold the line.”
The next step will be a “reduction in force,” which will mean large-scale layoffs across agencies, according to a new OPM memo. All along the way, Musk and other members of the Trump administration have belittled, insulted and mischaracterized federal workers.
The episode that stood out most to federal workers was a line in an FAQ that OPM shared to answer questions about the deferred resignation program that they felt diminished their efforts.
“The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector,” the comment read.
Musk himself has sent a number of missives to civil servants, including when he posted that he is “1000% more trustworthy than untold numbers of deep state bureaucrats and fraudsters” or wrote on X that “a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/theyve-radicalized-me-federal-workers-fight-back-as-trump-dismantles-their-work/ar-AA1A54Ol
They’ve radicalized me’
All they did was fire you. You chose to radicalize yourself. If I were in your shoes, I’d start looking for a job.
members of the Trump administration have belittled, insulted and mischaracterized federal workers.
Right. It’s called getting fired. Again, go get another job.
If I were in your shoes, I’d start looking for a job.
In addition to looking for a job, I’d suggest taking accounting classes. Get about 12 hours, which you can do in 3 semesters, and some banks and other companies might consider you for a “financial” position. I wish I had gone the accounting route earlier after the oil industry “died.”
“I just got a mass email from my agency branch ‘reminding’ us not to talk to the media, listing several regulations that state we’re not to talk to the media. They wouldn’t have sent that if the media wasn’t getting FLOODED with federal workers reporting the truth, reporting what is REALLY going on. It’s affecting them.”
When I was laid off I needed to sign a document to keep my mouth shut in exchange for a severance payment.
When I was laid off I needed to sign a document to keep my mouth shut in exchange for a severance payment.
DItto
[Friday Trump demanded a Ukraine wars cease-fire and – presto! -two days later this happens …]
Britain, France and Ukraine to Develop Cease-Fire Plan to Present to U.S.
https://archive.ph/DiONz#selection-653.0-653.108
I ‘ll bet that plan requires lots of money and possibly US troops on Uke soil.
Onward Christian Soldiers!
Agreed. Terms will be unacceptable.
To US and Russia.
[The NY Times is going bananas over Trump’s Climate Change policies.]
‘Full on Fight Club’: How Trump Is Crushing U.S. Climate Policy.
President Trump has quickly transformed America’s approach to the environment, withholding funds and stretching the limits of presidential power.
https://archive.ph/eX4mB#selection-731.0-735.145
In a few short weeks, President Trump has severely damaged the government’s ability to fight climate change, upending American environmental policy with moves that could have lasting implications for the country, and the planet.
With a flurry of actions that have stretched the limits of presidential power, Mr. Trump has gutted federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry.
He is abandoning efforts to reduce global warming, even as the world has reached record levels of heat that scientists say is driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels. Every corner of the world is now experiencing the effects of these rising temperatures in the form of deadlier hurricanes, floods, wildfires and droughts, as well as species extinction.
To achieve such a wholesale overhaul of the country’s climate policies in such a short time, the Trump administration has reneged on federal grants, fired workers en masse and attacked longstanding environmental regulations.
All new presidents have their own agendas, but the speed and scale of Mr. Trump’s efforts to uproot climate policy is unprecedented. “This is not the kind of stately tennis match of the usual switch-over in administrations,” said Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, an environmental law firm. “This is full on Fight Club.”
[Click the link to read the rest.]
[Here is a fun read …]
NY Times – Trump Threats and Mexico’s Crackdown Hit Mexican Cartel.
Several cartel operatives said that for the first time in years, they genuinely feared arrest or death at the hands of the authorities.
https://archive.ph/zet3P
One cartel leader says he’s trying to figure out how to protect his family in case the American military strikes inside Mexico. Another says he’s already gone into hiding, rarely leaving his home. Two young men who produce fentanyl for the cartel say they have shut down all their drug labs.
A barrage of arrests, drug seizures and lab busts by the Mexican authorities in recent months has struck the behemoth Sinaloa Cartel, according to Mexican officials and interviews with six cartel operatives, forcing at least some of its leaders to scale back on fentanyl production in Sinaloa state, their stronghold.
The cartels have sown terror across Mexico and caused untold damage in the United States. But here in Culiacán, the state capital, the dynamic seems to be shifting, at least for now. Cartel operatives say they’ve had to move labs to other areas of the country or temporarily shut down production.
“You can’t be calm, you can’t even sleep, because you don’t know when they’ll catch you,” said one high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel who, like other cartel operatives, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of capture.
“The most important thing now is to survive,” he added, his hands trembling.
The government crackdown on organized crime intensified after the Trump administration threatened retribution unless Mexico halted the supply of fentanyl into the United States, vowing high tariffs if the flow of migrants and drugs continued.
President Trump began floating the possibility of tariffs soon after his election in November, and soon after taking office announced 25 percent levies on Mexican goods if the country didn’t act on border security and drug trafficking. The president gave Mexico a month to deliver results, threatening to enact the tariffs on March 4 if he wasn’t satisfied.
Facing economic chaos, the Mexican government went on the offensive. President Claudia Sheinbaum dispatched 10,000 national guard troops to the border and hundreds more soldiers to Sinaloa state, a major hub of fentanyl trafficking where a cartel war has caused turmoil for months.
“Every day there have been arrests and seizures,” Omar Harfuch, the Mexican security minister, said at a recent news conference after returning from several days in Sinaloa. The detentions have led to “a constant weakening” of the cartel, he said.
The country’s law enforcement seized nearly as much fentanyl in the last five months as it did in the previous year. Ms. Sheinbaum’s administration says it has made nearly 900 arrests in Sinaloa alone since October.
Then, last week, the Mexican government said it had begun sending to the United States more than two dozen cartel operatives wanted by the American authorities. It was a clear signal to the Trump administration that Mexico was eager to fight the cartels, though Mr. Trump said on the same day that he was still not satisfied with the government’s efforts and that tariffs would go into effect on March 4.
“Criminal groups have not felt this level of pressure in such a long time,” said Jaime López, a security analyst based in Mexico City.
In interviews, cartel operatives agreed. Some said they were selling off property and firing unessential personnel to make up for lost income from the dent in the fentanyl trade. Others said they were investing money in advanced equipment to detect American government drones, which the United States flew into Mexico during the Biden and Obama administrations as well.
[Click the link to read the rest of the article.]
One cartel leader says he’s trying to figure out how to protect his family in case the American military strikes inside Mexico.
So much for these cartels being all powerful and untouchable.
Susan Shelley: Trump is dismantling the unaccountable bureaucracy
We’re living through history. We have a new president who has already been president, something that has only happened one other time since the founding of the republic.
Watch as the 45th and 47th president of the United States does something no elected official has been able to do since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. President Donald Trump is going to outlive the all-powerful, formerly eternal, federal bureaucracy.
For nearly 100 years, an unaccountable bureaucracy made up of thousands of departments, offices and agencies has been running the government while mostly ignoring the officials elected by the voters. Feeding on your income through a tube permanently attached to your paycheck, the bureaucracy became bigger, stronger and hungrier every year. Presidents would come and go, but endless wars, wasteful spending, needless regulations and higher debt would stay and stay.
Now Trump has returned to the White House with a map to the source of the problem. A close look at some of his executive orders, and at the particular way he has fired the heads of independent agencies, seems to reveal a strategy aimed at overturning specific legal precedents that have empowered and protected the bureaucracy. He has invited this fight, which is now barreling toward the U.S. Supreme Court. Will he win?
We’ll all find out together when the justices have the opportunity to reconsider the 1935 case of Humphrey’s Executor v. United States.
William E. Humphrey was appointed by President Herbert Hoover in 1931 to serve on the Federal Trade Commission for a term of seven years. When things didn’t work out as planned for Hoover in the 1932 election, FDR asked for Humphrey’s resignation so there wouldn’t be a conservative overseeing the definitely-not-conservative New Deal.
Humphrey refused to resign, and on Oct. 7, 1933, Roosevelt fired him. Because his termination was purely for reasons of policy and not for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” as the FTC Act required, Humphrey had a case, but then he had a different kind of termination, so the case is Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. The executor sued the government for the salary that was owed to the estate for the duration of Humphrey’s appointed term.
FDR’s team argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in a 1926 case, Myers v. United States, confirmed the president’s power to remove officers who were “units of the executive department.” But the justices said the Myers case didn’t matter because the Federal Trade Commission wasn’t really “executive.” It was “quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial.” Therefore, Humphrey could only be fired for cause, not policy.
The 1935 Humphrey’s Executor decision has allowed Congress to create powerful independent agencies that execute the laws but do not answer to the elected chief executive. Lawyers have argued that this decision contradicts the U.S. Constitution by violating the separation of powers, which is key to protecting everybody’s freedom from a government that can rapidly become oppressive when unchecked.
Did Trump selectively fire the heads of independent agencies in order to get sued, get to the U.S. Supreme Court and make the same argument that FDR made in Humphrey’s Executor? You be the judge:
Roosevelt asked Humphrey to resign because “the aims and purposes of the Administration with respect to the work of the Commission can be carried out most effectively with personnel of my own selection.” When Humphrey wouldn’t go, FDR sent him this brief letter: “Effective as of this date, you are hereby removed from the office of Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission.”
Here’s the text of Trump’s letter to Ellen Weintraub: “You are hereby removed as a Member of the Federal Election Commission, effective immediately.”
Here’s the text of the email sent by Sergio Gor, Director of the Presidential Personnel Office, to Hampton Dellinger on Feb. 7: “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as Special Counsel of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel is terminated, effective immediately.”
Here’s the text of more than a dozen nearly identical emails sent by Gor to Hannibal “Mike” Ware and other Inspectors General on January 24: “Due to changing priorities, your position as Inspector General … is terminated, effective immediately.”
Trump has this issue teed up like a Titleist Pro V1 on the first hole at Augusta. Can the elected president of the United States replace the top officials in powerful government agencies, or can they pursue their own policy goals, unaccountable and unchecked in their “quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial” unelected positions?
Legal challenges to the firings of Dellinger, Weintraub, Wilcox and others may succeed in the lower courts. But those practice-round victories won’t count in the final score.
This is only one of the court fights that Trump has picked. His executive orders directing spending freezes, workforce reductions and cuts to foreign aid have prompted lawsuits that have landed in federal courts in Rhode Island, San Francisco and the District of Columbia.
What Trump is doing is the opposite of dictatorship. He’s going after government agencies that have spent decades flaunting that they can do anything to anybody at any time. He is limiting their power.
That’s good. Freedom is a condition that exists under a government of limited power.
The United States was the first nation to figure that out. And we will again.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/susan-shelley-trump-is-dismantling-the-unaccountable-bureaucracy/ar-AA1A33tH
President Trump signs executive order unleashing forest management after LA wildfires
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Saturday that looks to unleash forest management efforts following this year’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
The order takes steps for quicker federal permitting approvals of forestry projects under the Endangered Species Act so that clearing brush, timber removals and other projects aren’t delayed by environmental and other regulatory reviews, according to a White House summary of the order reviewed by USA TODAY.
Trump has long blamed California’s environmental polices for forest mismanagement contributing to the state’s wildfires including January’s destructive wildfires in Los Angeles that killed at least 29 people. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom has defended his state’s forest and land management efforts, pointing to $2.5 billion in state investments on this front.
The order also seeks to increase domestic production of timber by streamlining the regulatory process for timber thinning ‒ whereby full rows of trees are removed ‒ and timber salvaging. The latter refers to removing damaged trees after wildfires or other natural disasters to recover value on the market from the timber.
In addition to expanding forest management, the White House said the goal is to lower costs of housing construction and lumber by increasing the domestic supply of timber to reduce U.S. reliance of timber imports from Canada, Brazil and Germany.
“Our disastrous timber and lumber policies ‒ a legacy of the previous administration ‒ trigger wildfires and degrade our fish and wildlife habitat,” Peter Navarro, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, told reporters. “They drive up construction and housing costs and impoverish America through large trade deficits that results from exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil dumping lumber into our markets at the expense of both our economic prosperity and national security. That stops today.”
Trump also signed an order directing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to explore potential tariffs on tariff and lumber imports. It comes after Trump has already imposed tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports and promised new duties on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and other products.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/president-trump-signs-executive-order-unleashing-forest-management-after-la-wildfires/ar-AA1A3rgN
Trump’s Tariff Convulsions Are Wreaking Havoc on Tequila Makers
US President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff threats against Mexico are giving executives in the country’s iconic tequila industry a splitting headache.
Many buyers rushed their orders after Trump first postponed the measures by a month so they could get merchandise across the border before the levies came into force. Now that another deadline is approaching, business is drying up until the impact of the tariffs becomes clear, with some payments being delayed amid increased inventories, according to producers in Jalisco state.
With uncertainty rising, one seventh-generation tequila maker argued that prolonged threats could be even worse than the levies themselves. “Clients don’t want to commit right now and sitting on inventory is expensive,” Luis Fernando Camarena, 29, said by phone.
His family sells more than two thirds of the agave-based liquor it produces in the US and their company, Camarena Tequila, is already forecasting a 20% drop in the first half of the year. The hit to the broader tequila sector could be even harder, as more than 80% of Mexico’s production heads north across the border.
Mexico has had a monopoly on tequila production since the mid-1990s when it was given so-called denomination of origin status by the EU and then, later, by its North American free-trade partners, the US and Canada. But choosing its northern neighbor as its prime market — due to both proximity and it being home to millions of Mexicans who already drink it — made policy decisions in Washington a “make it or break it” issue for the industry, Monex analyst Roberto Solano said in an interview.
“It’s a pivotal moment for tequila,” said Vas Art, head of marketing at OhBev, a Vancouver-based agency focused on alcoholic beverages. “We’re seeing a frenzy of proactive moves. Brands are front-loading like crazy,” stockpiling in the US and in some cases even importing stainless steel tanks of the liquor for it to be bottled stateside.
Even with the March 4 deadline now seemingly set in stone, Salvador Rosales is hopeful for a reprieve. The 39-year-old grandson of Tequila Cascahuin’s founder, he said that while production continues the uncertainty has made it nearly impossible to plan ahead.
“Do I launch that marketing campaign? Should we hire more US sellers? Those are questions tequila makers cannot answer at this moment,” Rosales said by phone. “US distributors are falling behind in payments,” he added. “I don’t know if they are feeling pressure from high inventories, but it’s something that definitely worries us.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/general/general/trump-s-tariff-convulsions-are-wreaking-havoc-on-tequila-makers/ar-AA1A2IPt
A long term War was launched over a Century ago to undo the Constitutional Republic in the US. A
plan to dismantle capitalism, destroy the family structure, religion, infiltrate the institutions, the governments, media, Science, etc. , for a end game of a One World Order global dictorship.
The core objective was to reduce humanity to compliant slaves in which they had no choice in their existence under a control grid of 24/7 surveillance. The slave masters would control all resources and consumption and even thought.
The Enemy with the plan would manufacture global emergencies to justify their power grab and convince the World they were Saving the World from Climate Change, global Panademics, racism, and capitalist inequity.
The enemy would divide and conquer their humanity opposition by fraudulent narratives and corruption of bribed Science . They would even claim that carbon emissions that are a absolute requirement for carbon based life should be eliminated. They would create gain of function diseases in labs, and force fake vaccine expiermental counter measures, using failed technology that poisoned, killed and injured the injected.
The enemy would posion the food, water and the skies above humans and animals as weapons of mass destruction, while they claimed they were saving lives and you better trust the bribed fake Science.
The enemy would launch a transgender attack on minors and claim a man can have a baby.
They launched the attack of invasion of Counties borders to destroy sovereign States, culture etc with replacement.
They would destroy merit based job hiring with discrimination against merits and certain races, for
Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, which is a direct violation of Constitutional protections.
They would launch numerous attacks on their opposition by claiming they were a threat to democracy , and call them racists , Hitler etc . They would launch law fare against their opposition.
They would steal from the tax coffers to fund and bribe and infect their programs of dismantling the systems for their mayhem and fraud designed to
undo any rational function of Civilization.
Economic Bankruptcy of humanity by the monopoly model of destroying their competition by rigged economic system designed to fail , and loot and render humanity economically powerless is ongoing warfare.
Endless proxy wars and other threats to bring the world down . Biden sneaking around trying to transfer Power by Treaty to UN and WHO, to dictate global policy, that would override the Governments and any Constitutional protections.
of humanity for a One World Order Goverance dictorship by the enemy.
I could go on and on , just saying.
‘Uncertainty is almost as bad as the tariffs themselves’: Tariff threat alone hurts Alberta
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats have been top of mind for Canadians since he took control of the White House, and whether or not that threat actually materializes, some are concerned the uncertainty is already affecting business operations north of the border.
Originally, Trump said tariffs levied against Canada would land on Jan. 20, his first official day in office. Then, that tariff deadline was pushed to various dates within the month of February. When those new dates rolled around, Trump mused about a March 4 deadline, promising a 25 per cent tariff on virtually all Canadian goods and a tariff on Canadian energy set at 10 per cent.
Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist with Alberta Central, which represents the province’s credit unions, says the focus may be less about the actual deadline and more about the risk that threat stirs up within Canadian industries.
“Many businesses that have a big level of operation and activity in the U.S. are reconsidering, ‘Can I continue to do what I do with the threat … with the risk of having tariffs in three months, six months, or maybe a year from now?'” said St-Arnaud.
He noted that companies with activities mostly in the U.S. may decide at some point to leave Canada if the uncertainty persists.
St-Arnaud believes that, regardless of when or if the tariffs actually come into effect, the threat alone is enough to have an impact on Alberta’s economy, referring to it as “death by a thousand cuts.”
“It’s no longer just economics,” he said. “It’s politics, it’s international relations. There’s so many different angles to the situation that cannot be ignored.”
For independent businesses operating in Alberta, the idea of investing in an uncertain future could feel like a bad idea.
“Uncertainty is almost as bad as the tariffs themselves because that causes businesses to have to put the brakes on all sorts of stuff,” said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Kelly is concerned the uncertainty and chaotic messaging coming from inside the Oval Office may actually be Trump’s end goal, as it drives behaviour for businesses. Kelly is concerned small businesses are already starting to look for ways to run leaner by thinning their head count or delaying planned expansions.
It means the president may be successfully undermining the Canadian economy with these threats alone, essentially positioning the U.S. as a stronger, more reliable place to do business in.
If a Canadian business owner is hoping to end the uncertainty, Kelly suggests the impending trade war could be a sign they need to expand or grow in the U.S. market, “to make sure that they’re on the other side of the tariff wall.”
“And even for Canadian businesses that have operations in more than one country, does that mean that any growth is going to happen in the U.S. market rather than in Canada? All of those are bad things for our country.”
Ryder Lee, general manager of the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA), an organization based in Calgary that advocates for beef farmers, says the sector has historically been successful thanks to business being done through a relatively open border.
“What tariffs do is they make that border much thicker, more expensive to maybe make the decisions that make sense for businesses, for farmers and ranchers and feeders,” said Lee.
“That really sucks value out of the marketplace. It’s going to add costs [for businesses], and add costs in the grocery store, too. So it’s hard to find the spot where they expect to find the win here.”
As for Kelly, he believes even if the president doesn’t go ahead with levies against Canada in the coming days — or weeks, or months — he doesn’t anticipate Trump will stop repeating his threat.
He suspects Trump’s tariff rhetoric will hover over Canada’s economy like a black cloud, and believes “we have to be prepared that just the threat of a tariff has its own negative consequences on the Canadian marketplace.”
“Look, my parting comment would be: Canadians are going to have to sleep with one eye open for four years,” said Kelly. “We’re just at the start of this ride, and it’s looking like it’s going to be a bumpy one.”
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/economy/uncertainty-is-almost-as-bad-as-the-tariffs-themselves-tariff-threat-alone-hurts-alberta/ar-AA1A2vaL
Markets hate uncertainty. If a tariff is imposed then they can make decisions on how to cope, but the uncertainty is paralyzing and DJT knows that.
It seems that the whole of Canada has ignored the things they were asked to do to stop Fentanyl. In, my opinion, that is where the uncertainty lies.
I think Canada broadly chooses to ignore their culpability enabling drug and human smuggling. They view themselves as good and polite — better than those tasteless Americans.
NY Post – Disaster in the Oval Office: Dems lead Zelensky, Ukraine off a cliff with pressure to reject mineral deal.
https://nypost.com/2025/03/01/opinion/dems-lead-zelensky-ukraine-off-a-cliff-with-pressure-to-reject-mineral-deal/
A common criticism of Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous Friday performance in the Oval Office is that he failed to read the room.
Actually, the Ukrainian president did read a room — but it was the wrong room.
Before meeting Trump, Zelensky met with anti-Trump Democrats who advised him to reject the terms of the mineral deal the president was offering, according to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
“Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine,” Murphy’s office posted on X at 11:15 a.m. Friday.
Forty minutes later, Zelensky arrived at the White House, where Trump met his car, smiled, shook his hand and walked him into the Oval Office.
Before meeting Trump, Zelensky met with anti-Trump Democrats who advised him to reject the terms of the mineral deal the president was offering
Which goes to show that the comedian is just a puppet of the Left.
“You have NO cards”
LMFAO 🤣🤣🤣
“Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine,” Murphy’s office posted on X at 11:15 a.m. Friday.”
I’m thinking of a word that starts with trea and ends with son.
Why have Costa Rica and Panama agreed to take Asians deported by Trump?
United States President Donald Trump‘s administration has deported thousands of undocumented immigrants since taking office last month, in a crackdown that critics argue is violating immigrants’ rights to due process.
During his first month in office, the Trump administration has deported 37,660 people, according to data from the US Department of Homeland Security, often to their country of origin, but sometimes to third countries.
Several Central American countries have accepted deportation flights. While their own citizens form a bulk of those coming from the US, these nations have also allowed the Trump administration to send nationals of other, mostly Asian, countries, including India, Pakistan and Iran. Last week, about 300 deportees arrived in Panama and more than 100 arrived in Costa Rica, the two countries said. The US has released no official details about the number of flights and exact number of immigrants.
But why is Trump sending deportees to third countries instead of their countries of origin? And why are these countries accepting the deportees?
Last week, Panama became the first country to accept 119 deportees from other countries.
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said on February 13 that the migrants were from countries including China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mulino said it was the first of an expected three flights, and about 360 such deportees are expected to arrive in Panama.
Panama’s Security Minister Frank Abrego said on February 18 that 299 foreign deportees were being detained in a hotel, indicating more deportees had arrived in Panama since the first flight landed the previous week. These migrants were from 10 countries, including Iran, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China.
At least 135 people, including children, from Uzbekistan, China, Afghanistan and Russia arrived in Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, on February 20.
The US transported 177 Venezuelan migrants from its military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Honduras on February 20. From there, Venezuelan authorities flew them on to Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, on flag carrier Conviasa.
“It is more expeditious, limits access to US rights [for migrants], and is intended to send a message to would-be asylum seekers and other migrants not to come,” Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications at the Migration Policy Institute, told Al Jazeera.
Tanya Golash-Boza, the executive director of the University of California Washington Center, said while she has not seen an official explanation for why migrants are being sent to third countries, it is “reasonable to assume that DHS (Department of Homeland Security) is doing this because their detention centres are full”.
Golash-Boza told Al Jazeera that once the migrants leave US soil, “they lose access to any semblance of rights they may have had due to their presence in the US.”
Mittelstadt explained that deportees sent to third countries do not have protections under US law. She added that in the third countries, international standards of protection, “including non-refoulement”, may not be upheld. Non-refoulement is a principle of international law that forbids a country from sending an individual back to a nation they fled if that place is unsafe for them.
When it comes to deportees from countries that the US does not have strong formal diplomatic ties with, these Central American nations serve another purpose for the Trump administration.
“Trump is using Honduras, and may use others, because the US does not have decent relations with Venezuela, but Honduras does and is a useful go-between,” Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights lawyer, told Al Jazeera.
ICE has previously cited countries including India, Pakistan and China as “uncooperative”, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he is “fully prepared” to take back undocumented immigrants, during a White House visit in February.
Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves said his country is helping its “economically powerful brother from the north”, while speaking to reporters on Wednesday, in an allusion to the mismatch in power that allows the US to coerce smaller neighbours.
The deportees will be held in third countries until their repatriation is arranged.
The deportees in Panama are being held in rooms at Panama City’s Decapolis Hotel, guarded by the police. Videos taken from outside the transparent windows showed some migrants holding up signs saying “help us” and “we are not safe in our country.” Others used hand gestures to indicate they were being deprived of their freedoms. On February 19, news surfaced that a Chinese woman, Zheng Lijuan, had escaped the hotel and the police were searching for her.
Panama’s Security Minister Abrego said 171 of the 299 deportees have agreed to return to their country of origin, and at least 13 have done so already, according to authorities.
The migrants refusing to return to their countries of origin are being held at a camp in the remote Darien province, which shares a border with Colombia. In a statement on February 19, Panama’s Security Ministry said 97 such migrants have been transferred to Darien camp.
The migrants in Costa Rica will be detained for up to six weeks in a rural holding facility close to the border with Panama. They will be subsequently flown back to their country of origin, according to Omer Badilla, Costa Rica’s deputy minister of the interior and police. The operation will be funded by the US.
“Countries receiving these returnees temporarily face significant challenges in holding and returning them, and there is no contemplation of asylum in those countries,” Mittelstadt from the Migration Policy Institute said. “While these countries are being described as a ‘bridge’, in reality, they are a dead end for these returnees.”
https://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/world/why-have-costa-rica-and-panama-agreed-to-take-asians-deported-by-trump/ar-AA1A2k06
[More Climate Change walk back …]
New study reveals Canada’s subarctic was once a tropical paradise.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/article/new-study-reveals-canadas-subarctic-was-once-a-tropical-paradise/
CTV News – A new study has revealed that palm trees once flourished in what is now subarctic Canada, offering new insights into ancient arctic climates.
The research, led by Peter Siver, a professor at Connecticut College, and published in the Annals of Botany, confirms that the region maintained warm temperatures year-round about 48 million years ago, even during months of winter darkness
Scientists discovered the fossils by analyzing tiny silica structures from plants called phytoliths, found in ancient lakebed residues in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
These fossils were extracted from a fossil site in the territory called the Giraffe kimberlite pipe locality.
These fossils, along with the remains of warm-water species, suggest that the arctic was once ice-free and had a climate similar to today’s subtropics, according to the study.
“These findings give us a window into past greenhouse conditions and help refine models predicting future climate change,” Siver said.
Siver’s team also documented fossilized stegmata – unique linear arrays of phytoliths in palm leaves – marking the earliest known record of this evolutionary trait that occurred by the early Eocene, a warm era in Earth’s history that lasted about 34 to 56 million years ago.
The presence of warm-adapted aquatic organisms further supports the idea that this prehistoric arctic region was home to a lush, temperate ecosystem, the study said.
Researchers said the study challenges previous assumptions about when and where ice first formed in the Northern Hemisphere.
By looking at past environments, the study said scientists can better understand how ecosystems respond to long-term climate shifts.
Inside the ‘very expensive merry-go-round’ of rape, death and drugs in California’s homeless shelters
Critics of California’s shelter system dub it the ‘homeless industrial complex,’ but Sergio Perez, who was until recently a Los Angeles city accountability chief, has another name for it.
He calls it a ‘very expensive merry-go-round’.
A shocking new study by CalMatters reveals the true scale of California’s shelter system, which is bigger than was widely understood. Since 2018, the news site found, at least $1 billion of tax dollars has flowed to projects for the homeless.
But these epic handouts solve nothing. The number of emergency beds has more than doubled from 27,000 to 61,000 in that time. Yet there are still three times as many homeless people as there are shelter beds across the Golden State.
Researchers lifted the lid on a mismanaged, graft-ridden enterprise – a gravy train of funders, officials, shelter owners and charities that perpetuates the homelessness crisis as it gobbles up more public money.
The homeless themselves are the real victims. They languish in moldy shelters, where stabbings, sex crimes, harassment, and child abuse too often hurt their already-struggling occupants.
Dennis Culhane, an expert on homelessness, says an over-reliance on shelters and other Band-Aids are California’s ‘big failure’, as so few users end up with a permanent roof over their heads and a shot at rebuilding their lives.
‘The shelters are not a solution,’ Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania social scientist, told CalMatters.
‘We have every reason to believe that if we scaled up income support and provided rental assistance, we would probably see the homeless numbers cut in half.’
Del Seymour, a Vietnam War veteran who founded Code Tenderloin, a self-help charity, says liberal policies in San Francisco have only worsened his city’s scourge of homelessness and addiction.
‘We’ve got to quit trying to be Mother Teresa,’ the 77-year-old told DailyMail.com.
‘Because of its passions for equity, acceptance and sanctuary, the city became a magnet for people suffering from addiction.’
The dad-of-two says progressive policies in California’s cultural hub have spurred a ‘three-fold increase in addiction and homelessness’ that’s made it the ‘zombie apocalypse’ seen on its streets today.
Locals rail about the open-air drug market on Sixth Street, where addicts and prostitutes are seen slipping needles into their necks, ankles, or anywhere with a vein.
‘We deal with one person one day, but then it’s three more people coming in the next,’ said Seymour. ‘We can’t solve the problems as fast as they’re coming in.’
Fewer than one in four residents who pass through the system each year move into permanent homes, well below targets set by public agencies.
Brian Samaniego, a homeless drug addict, has lived at a shelter in Salinas run by SHARE Center for the past year. He’s filled out 22 apartment applications for three case managers, but still cannot see light at the end of the tunnel.
‘They sold me a fairy tale, that it was going to be real quick when I got here,’ the 53-year-old told CalMatters. ‘It’s not people that are failing the programs, it’s the programs that are failing the people.’
Catherine Moore beat the odds by making it into a subsidized apartment of her own after spending a decade on the streets, in jail, temporary digs, and then a city-funded shelter in Anaheim.
The 54-year-old describes an arduous struggle to escape the system, where she’s battled her addiction to meth and endured everything from sexual harassment to cockroaches and bloody bathrooms.
‘The shelter is a volunteer jail,’ Moore told CalMatters. ‘The only difference is there are more standards, and you have more rights as a person in jail. That’s horrible, isn’t it?’
Researchers uncovered shocking examples of graft throughout the shelter system.
In Salinas, staff at one brand-new shelter grabbed the best donations for themselves and helped friends and family jump the line for housing, internal emails revealed.
Oakland’s Bay Area Community Services saw revenue explode by 1,000 percent in a decade to $98million in 2023, even as staff there faced allegations of fraud and inappropriate relationships with clients.
Likewise in LA, Special Service for Groups, a nonprofit, brought in $170million in 2023, a nine-figure jump since 2017, again despite complaints and lawsuits over violence and sexual misconduct.
Court filings also show how a major nonprofit hired Ronald Evans as a security guard at a shelter in South LA despite him being convicted of second-degree attempted murder and robbery in the 1990s.
Evans was just three months into his new shelter job when, in a single day, he got drunk and sexually battered three different women living at the shelter, according to court records and victims’ testimony.
One of the women said in court that she was thrown out of the shelter after reporting what happened. ‘You are one of the worst type of predators,’ another victim told Evans after his conviction.
She called him a ‘snake’ who devoured ‘what little bit of existence that I was holding onto’.
Reports also revealed stabbings at shelters in the Bay Area, child abuse in Fresno, and black mold in Oakland. Amid such shocking conditions, the annual death rate in shelters tripled between 2018 and the middle of last year. More than 2,000 people died, official sources show, nearly twice as many fatalities as California’s jails saw over the same period.
The crisis is self-evident on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other big cities, where encampments spring up across sidewalks, housing wretches festering in addiction and mental health problems.
California Governor Gavin Newsom this week unveiled $920million in extra funding for homelessness, while warning cities and counties that they could lose out on future payouts if they don’t start making a dent on the crisis.
Officials have begun cracking down on homelessness with tougher anti-camping policies following the US Supreme Court’s ruling last year that cities can criminalize unhoused people for sleeping outside – even when there are no shelter spaces available.
‘We want to see results. We have to address unsheltered homelessness, encampments and tents,’ Newsom told reporters. ‘We have been too permissive… we need them cleaned up. We’re providing unprecedented support, now we need to see unprecedented results.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14444391/Inside-expensive-merry-round-rape-death-drugs-Californias-homeless-shelters.html
“a gravy train of funders, officials, shelter owners and charities that perpetuates the homelessness crisis as it gobbles up more public money”
Sounds about right.
From the Yahoo article:
When husband and wife Michael and Maria Mancini, both 28, began searching for homes in the Orlando area this winter, they were pleasantly surprised by the extent of the options available in their budget. They toured around 15 homes, including a marathon day in January that took them to seven viewings.
But they still encountered competition. “It was Saturday when we saw the seven houses. By Monday, four of those houses had already gone pending,” said Maria, who works in influencer management.
By Monday, four of those houses had already gone pending
Interesting.
‘Maria, who works in influencer management’
This is one reason why I don’t pay much attention to the internet.
Sitting empty: DOGE and HHS end $18M contract with Family Endeavors for ’empty facility’
by SBG San Antonio | Jaie Avila Thu, February 27th 2025
SAN ANTONIO – As part of sweeping cuts across the federal government as Trump’s second term begins, a local organization has seen a major contract end.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said the Department of Health and Human Services had terminated a contract paying Family Endeavors $18 million a month to operate an empty facility in West Texas.
The organization is also known as Endeavors, and you may have seen its administrative headquarters and wellness center on De Zavala Road, where it has a cluster of buildings and storefronts.
DOGE focused on an overflow housing facility for migrant families that Endeavors operates in Pecos, Texas.
DOGE says the facility has been sitting empty while Endeavors has been receiving $18 million per month.
Homeland Security reposted DOGE’s post on X, tagging U.S. Attorney Ed Martin with the words “please investigate”.
To which Martin responded, “duly noted. We are on it.”
Jaie Avila went to Endeavors’ headquarters in San Antonio on Thursday to get a comment from the organization.
They responded late this afternoon by email:
“Endeavors was responsible for maintaining operational readiness at the Pecos shelter, ensuring the ability to scale from Cold Status (operationally ready but not actively serving children) to full use of 3,000 beds as needed,” said the organization.
“Decisions regarding facility use and migrant sheltering locations were made by the federal government, not Endeavors. Any claims of corruption or mismanagement are baseless.”
DOGE also claims endeavors received its HHS contract in 2021 after a former ICE employee and Biden transition team member joined the non-profit.
Endeavors’ government disclosure forms show its revenues shot up in 2021, from $50 million to $658 million, reaching a peak of $1.1 billion in 2022.
https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/sitting-empty-doge-and-hhs-end-18m-contract-with-family-endeavors-for-empty-facility-local-news-near-me-crime-law-public-safety
From the comments:
Sounds like their milk cow has been milked out.
Will DOGE investigate other fraudulent NGOs like Southwest Key Programs next? It should! There are YouTube videos of kids being tortured by tazing while employees watched.
Do you worry the housing market may have reached a breaking point?
How many years will it take to normalize in case it breaks?
For a potentially relevant examples, China’s housing market broke years ago and is far from normal. And Japan’s real estate bubble popped in 1990 and was still deep in the CR8R a decade later (2000).
US Housing Market Data Suggests ‘Breaking Point’
Published Feb 28, 2025 at 9:16 AM EST
Updated Feb 28, 2025 at 9:24 AM EST
By Giulia Carbonaro
US News Reporter
There’s trouble ahead for the U.S. housing market, new data suggest.
Pending home sales fell to an all-time low last month and mortgage payments now eat away at 40 percent of first-time homebuyers’ gross income.
Why It Matters
The U.S. is in the midst of a housing affordability crunch, as home prices have skyrocketed over recent years while supply has remained historically low.
The rise of mortgage rates in response to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes has further eroded buyers’ purchasing power, squeezing many first-time buyers out of the market entirely.
While pent-up demand has so far kept prices up and rising across the country, a recent dip in sales and an uptick in inventory suggests the market may finally be turning in favor of buyers.
…
https://www.newsweek.com/us-housing-market-data-suggests-breaking-point-home-sales-fall-mortgage-rates-high-2037708
[Some Sunday afternoon humor …]
WSJ Opinion – Gavin Newsom Tips His Hat to the ‘MAGA Movement’.
But he has an awful record in California to live down if he wants to get elected president in 2028.
https://archive.ph/uaOoQ
[Okay, this article isn’t meant to be humorous but, hey …]
California’s Democratic leaders have experienced two major shocks to their system in recent months—Donald Trump’s election and the Los Angeles wildfires. The former has exposed their detachment from reality and the latter their incompetence.
Enter Gov. Gavin Newsom, who claims to be a changed politician.
[Lol.]
Last week he announced that he’ll host a podcast in which he will interview leaders from the “MAGA movement” to “understand what the motivations are, the legitimacy of those motivations, and just really understand where people are coming from.”
Then he unveiled a “California Jobs First Economic Blueprint” in Los Angeles, in which he promised to use the wildfires to change how the government does business. “The inability of the state of California to get out of its own way,” he said, is driving many of its problems including “homelessness, housing, the issue of our competitiveness, our tax base, all of it.” He added: “We are now getting out of our own way as it relates to this recovery, and this mindset, it must be maintained moving forward.”
Yes, Los Angeles’s wildfires would be a terrible crisis to waste. But waste is what California’s leaders do best, whether it be taxpayer dollars, human capital or water.
In 2010 I wrote a piece likening California to actress Lindsay Lohan, who squandered her talent as she spiraled from one personal crisis to another. Ms. Lohan has since gotten her act together. California hasn’t.
[Click on the link to read the rest.]
United Nations Chief Warns Of Global Funding Crisis Due To US Cuts.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/united-nations-chief-warns-funding-crisis-due-us-cuts
The Trump Administration’s agency audits and funding cuts have a wide spectrum of people in a panic, not just in the US but around the world. For some this is not much of a revelation; it’s been known for decades that the US taxpayer backstops numerous governments and NGOs. Without US dollars many of these organizations (and some countries) would not exist. However, seeing the beggars all come out of the woodwork at the same time to get their cut of the pie because the money is running dry is truly something to behold.
Why has America become a cash cow for the entire world?
Call it an extension of globalism or the incremental sabotage of the US economy, the bottom line is that the US is the wealth generator for hundreds if not thousands of political and financial entities that do not have the best interests of Americans in mind. US taxpayers are investing in their own destruction.
Yet another example is the United Nations, which received around $18 billion total from the US annually (that’s 20% of the UN’s entire budget each year. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has released a press statement calling for a reversal of funding cuts, warning that the organization cannot function without US dollars.
“These cuts impact a wide range of critical programmes,” Guterres told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York. “The consequences will be especially devastating for vulnerable people around the world…”
Last week the UN called the situation a “liquidity crisis”:
“The President of the UN Field Staff Union said the Organizaton’s severe liquidity and funding shortfall has created a crisis that threatens the foundation of the staff’s work. “UN staff — who are the backbone of this institution — are being forced to bear the brunt of these financial constraints. Workloads are increasing beyond sustainable levels,” he said, urging Member States to meet their financial commitments fully and on time.”
The US officially provides 20% of the UN’s budget, but this is not the end of it. As Guterres mentions, other governments are also, coincidentally, cutting funding at the same time as the US. In other words, these governments get money from America then give it to the UN. It is not clear exactly how much of the UN’s operations are supported by American taxpayers, but the funding cuts promise to be quite revealing.
Much worse is how the UN spends that money.
The UN then exploits that cash to fund anti-sovereignty efforts such as mass immigration programs into the west. They contribute to the humanitarian and national security crisis at the US southern border by distributing millions of dollars in financial assistance (including debit cards and cash vouchers) to fund migrants headed north. The same migrants that have been crossing into the country illegally in record numbers.
Keep in mind, the US taxpayer doesn’t get to choose how their money is spent by globalist organizations. They talk endlessly of humanitarian food aid and HIV prevention and refugee support, but they don’t talk about bankrolling mass migrations from the third world, or promoting transgender propaganda internationally, or putting millions into the anti-gun rights lobbies, or Agenda 2030 and “Net Zero” carbon controls, sometimes referred to as “Sustainable Development Goals”. These projects are where the money really goes.
The majority of the ideals and goals put forward by the UN run contrary to US values and freedoms. It’s an insult to American citizens to steal their money, use it to pay for project they would normally oppose, and then accuse them of causing a global panic when they decide to take their money back. If the US government wants to support a specific humanitarian cause they can do so directly instead of using a middleman like the UN.
America is not obligated to support globalism.
You just knew they were stealing the Federal tax coffers to fund this destruction of the USA by their fraudulent , insane and treasonous attack on humanity .
How much is being stolen from the State Government tax coffers in similar fashion as the Federal tax coffers. Look at California where Newsom can’t seem to find 23 billion, and never seems to be able to do anything for California Citizens in spite of it being one of the highest taxed States in the Union. About 20 million people work for States governments, and that doesn’t include Government contracts to the private sectors, or private party NGOs that got funds diverted to them.
Its all screwed up big time.
‘At Miami’s Cricket Club, a 50-year-old waterfront tower burdened with $134,000 special assessments per condo, 23 of the building’s 217 condos are currently for sale, according to brokerage Compass. In a Miami market where the median condo price was $445,000 in the fourth quarter of last year, condos at the Cricket Club are seeking buyers with prices as low as $220,000 for a 1,950-square-foot two-bedroom on the 19th floor. (The owner initially sought $330,000)’
Down we go!
‘What happens if nobody can get a loan to buy a unit in your building?’
I saw this movie before Joe and it gets much worser. It cascades, one complex gets blacklisted, the one next door goes to heck, the blacklist expands, they add on more hurdles. An example from the 2000’s was when the GSE’s started saying ‘if you have more that 40% investors, yer blacklisted’. Then the SHTF.
I should add when we hit this stage back then, the really nasty developer vultures come out. The FB’s are stuck and life happens. Without GSE loans the bottom drops out. The vultures will try to skin these people down to the ten thousands.
‘For the people that are on social security, this is going to be a major impact to them. They can’t do anything to add to their income’
You say that like the rest of us can pull a gold bar out of our a$$ Carol.
Setting aside the anatomically unlikelihood of that, (thanks Ben, can’t get the visual out of my head) anyone that spent their life planning on living only on Social Security, has not been paying attention. The money does not exist. It is a Ponzi. The bulging boomer generation distribution demand will insure that at best the cost of eggs will outpace the annual increases in payments.
Come on, if it was your money, you could pass it on to your kids. Instead, they inherit the debt.
They can’t do anything to add to their income’
Novel thought maybe, but they can get a job.
I am in the age bracket in question and I am pretty sure I could find “something” if I really needed the money.
You say that like the rest of us can pull a gold bar out of our a$$ Carol.
The whole “we’re on a fixed income thing irks me. They think the rest of us can just go ask the foreman for some overtime.
‘Buyers are not willing to pay top market value for something that they think is not top market quality’
That’s why you make the big bucks Scott.
‘It looks like they’re being mean to Californians, but the reality is, they can’t afford to sell coverage there, not at the rates that are being allowed to be charged’
We’ve already established that you insurance is lower than fly over and yer shanty’s cost five times as much Brenda.
Globalists, Global Goverance, One World Order,Private /Public partnerships, Stakeholder Capitalism, Great Reset 4th Industrial Revolution, whatever you want to call it, its all treason to the USA Constitutional Republic.
And we do not have to surrender the Country to fraudulent declare global emergencies and the solutions they want to force.
We don’t have to surrender and comply with our own demise or forced enslavement by these psychopathic fraudsters that are a Mafia Cult of bat shit crazy genocidal demonic creeps.
‘Veteran mortgage broker Tuli Parubets likes to send her clients e-mails showing how their home is rising in value. This year, she’s taking a break. ‘I have not been sending them out because I don’t want to scare people’
Good move Tuli, never startle the herd.
‘As a single mother raising a teenage boy in southern China, a 1,500 yuan ($330) monthly wage cut has hit Ms Wei hard. ‘I could save 1,000 yuan every month in the past, but now I have to use my savings to pay [part of] my mortgage,’ said Ms Wei, who didn’t want to use her full name for privacy reasons. Ms Wei said she only has enough savings to supplement her mortgage payments for the next two to three months’
Better get some boxes Wei.
I could save 1,000 yuan every month
I could be missing something in the math, but it looks like she only had 1,000 yuan saved.
Ruby, Spring weather is upon us
https://imgur.com/a/AyneT83
The Kinks — Situation Vacant:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YwBa2ILakQE&pp=ygUWa2lua3Mgc2l0dWF0aW9uIHZhY2FudA%3D%3D
The Kinks — Sunny Afternoon:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tw555YwHE48&pp=ygUZdGhlIGtpbmtzIHN1bm55IGFmdGVybm9vbg%3D%3D
The Kinks — Got to Be Free:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l7qChiEGugE
Are you missing out on the Treasury bond rally?
Markets Insights
February 28, 2025 at 5:13 AM GMT-8 US Government Bonds Rally with Largest Monthly Gains Since July
US government bonds have experienced a robust rally, marking the largest monthly gain since July, as detailed here. Yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes dipped briefly to 4.22% last Friday, a level not seen since December, following a string of weak economic growth indicators that have renewed calls for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates after its recent pause. According to data from IndexBox, the notable rise in Treasury prices has translated into a 1.7% increase for the Bloomberg US Treasury Index as of Thursday’s close in February, contributing to the strongest start to the year for Treasuries since 2020, with a cumulative 2.2% rise. This reflects the rapidly changing dynamics of the bond market, influenced by softer economic indicators and geopolitical tensions, including US tariff threats by President Trump. Market participants are now closely monitoring upcoming economic data, particularly the price indexes for January personal consumption expenditures and next week’s labor report, which could signal further shifts in monetary policy. Speculation about future Fed actions has spurred activity in Treasury options, where traders are positioning for the possibility of the 10-year yield dipping below 4%, contingent on a softer hiring outlook and potential interest rate cuts. Meanwhile, the PCE data due on Friday is anticipated to show a slowing inflation rate, a factor that could keep the 10-year yield pinned between 4.25% and 4.75%, according to forecasts. This anticipated inflation trend contrasts with the current labor market conditions, which remain largely balanced despite ongoing inflationary pressures.
…
https://www.indexbox.io/blog/us-government-bonds-rally-with-largest-monthly-gains-since-july/
Hedge funds ramp up bets on falling stocks
By Carolina Mandl
February 28, 20251:41 PM PST
Updated 2 days ago
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 9, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Global hedge funds sold more stocks than they bought by the largest amount in a year, mainly driven by their bets that stocks will drop, a Goldman Sachs note showed on Friday. The note refers to the period of February 21-27.
Goldman Sachs said the gloomy sentiment was spread across all geographic regions, but mainly in North America and part of Asia, and was seen in almost all company sectors, except for communications services.
In healthcare, net selling by hedge funds was entirely driven by short positions and ranked close to the highest level seen over the past five years. Hedge funds turned more pessimistic about healthcare after buying stocks in the sector on a net basis for six straight weeks.
Bets that U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds will fall, including those focused on large and small caps, rose 5.4% last week among Goldman Sachs’ clients.
Stocks fell over the period, with MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe down roughly 3%, amid concerns about an escalating trade war and a report by chipmaker Nvidia that failed to rekindle Wall Street’s AI rally.
“The pace of risk taking has slowed versus the past several months,” Goldman said in a separate note about hedge funds’ positioning, adding portfolio managers have been rotating out of U.S. equities and into Asian stocks this year.
Exposure to the Magnificent Seven group of U.S. tech and growth stocks is now at the lowest level since April 2023, indicating hedge funds’ de-risking episode could be in the final stage.
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https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/hedge-flow-hedge-funds-ramp-up-bets-falling-stocks-2025-02-28/
Business
Do traders think the stock market looks frothy and overvalued?
Yahoo Finance
Brian Sozzi
February 25, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Traders are becoming worried about market froth and overvaluation for stocks as they digest headlines about tariffs and peak corporate profit margins.
Two out of three traders believe the stock market is currently overvalued, according to a new survey from Charles Schwab released on Tuesday. The study captured responses from 1,040 active trader clients at Charles Schwab and was conducted from Jan. 8-17.
Active traders cited megacap tech and artificial intelligence stocks among the most crowded trades.
“It’s clear that the majority of traders believe there’s some froth in the market but, on balance, they also feel like there’s still more room for the bulls to run,” Charles Schwab head of trading services James Kostulias said.
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https://www.aol.com/finance/traders-think-stock-market-looks-220152478.html
Is the U.S. housing market going to crash in 2025?
Not to worry, say housing market experts, real estate always goes up.
Newsweek
Is the Housing Market Going to Crash in 2025? What to Know
Published Mar 02, 2025 at 3:00 AM EST
By Robert Thorpe
Senior Editor
As we progress through 2025, mortgage rates and inflation have many questioning the stability of the U.S. housing market. Current analyses suggest a modest growth trajectory, alleviating fears of an impending crash.
Why It Matters
The current housing market is marked by high mortgage rates, rising home prices and inflation, making it challenging for buyers to find affordable options. Additionally, builder confidence is dipping due to rising costs and supply chain disruptions, further complicating the market.
While experts don’t expect a crash, the possibility remains if there were a significant rise in mortgage rates or substantial job losses.
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https://www.newsweek.com/housing-market-crash-2025-buying-homes-2038062
“…or substantial job losses.”
How will federal job losses impact mortgage servicing?
More government layoffs are expected, which could lead to more houses being listed for sale and more stress among borrowers
February 27, 2025, 1:39 pm
By Neil Pierson
In the opening month of his return to the White House, President Donald Trump has upended the status quo in the federal government by implementing a hiring freeze and conducting widespread layoffs, including many positions that impact the housing and mortgage industries.
Americans who become unemployed suddenly and unexpectedly can struggle to pay for housing. The New York Times reported Wednesday that federal workers and contractors who’ve lost their jobs are concerned about where their next mortgage or rent payment will come from — and whether they may lose their homes entirely.
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https://www.housingwire.com/articles/federal-layoffs-mortgage-servicing-delinquencies-listings-trump-mba-loandepot/
The New York Times reported Wednesday that federal workers and contractors who’ve lost their jobs are concerned about where their next mortgage or rent payment will come from —
I wonder if private employees have the same concerns? NYT makes it seem like only Federal Govt. paid employees have that concern.
Market Updates
Elevated mortgage rates and affordability challenges push pending transactions down 4.6%
Pending home sales plummet to all-time low
By Candyd Mendoza
28 Feb 2025
Pending home sales in January came in much lower than expected, according to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) dropped 4.6% to 70.6, marking an all-time low. On a year-over-year basis, contract signings declined by 5.2%.
The decline was widespread, with the Midwest, South, and West experiencing month-over-month losses. The South saw the steepest drop, while the Northeast was the only region to record a modest gain. Compared to January 2024, all four regions reported a decline in pending sales, with the South again leading the fall.
“It is unclear if the coldest January in 25 years contributed to fewer buyers in the market, and if so, expect greater sales activity in upcoming months,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in the report. “However, it’s evident that elevated home prices and higher mortgage rates strained affordability.”
Housing affordability remained a major hurdle in January, as mortgage rates ranged from 6.91% to 7.04%. The monthly mortgage payment on a $300,000 home increased by $50 from a year ago, reaching $1,590.
“The affordability environment is challenging, but inventory is rising in parts of the country,” said First American deputy chief economist Odeta Kushi. “In markets where homes are sitting on the market for longer, we may expect price cuts to make those homes more attractive to potential buyers.”
New home sales mirrored the weakness in the broader market, falling to a three-month low in January. Purchases of new single-family homes declined by 10.5% to an annualised rate of 657,000, missing economists’ expectations of 680,000, according to government data released Wednesday.
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https://www.mpamag.com/us/mortgage-industry/market-updates/pending-home-sales-plummet-to-all-time-low/526749
“The monthly mortgage payment on a $300,000 home increased by $50 from a year ago, reaching $1,590.”
Where would one find a home that sells for $300,000? Zillow sez the place we rent has an estimated value north of $1.3 million, and it’s a 40 year old tract home in what used to be a middle class development.
Financial Times
US economy
Americans delay home improvements in latest blow to US housing market
High interest rates and uncertainty over immigration policy discourage homeowners from selling or renovating properties
US flags are displayed inside a Home Depot store in Roseville, California
Home Depot is one of several companies forecasting weak sales growth for home improvement
Patrick Temple-West in New York
Published yesterday
High interest rates and uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s plans for tariffs and mass deportations are biting into demand for US home improvements, the latest signs of a tepid housing market.
Shares of Jeld-Wen Holdings, which sells residential doors and windows, tumbled 6 per cent on Friday to a record low of $5.50. In an earnings report last month, the company forecast revenues would drop 4 to 9 per cent for 2025 compared with last year.
The shares sank despite chair David Nord buying $119,000 of the company’s stock this week, a move often seen by investors as a sign of confidence.
Shares in AO Smith and BlueLinx, which sell water heaters and plywood respectively, have also dropped to the lowest levels since late 2023. Earlier this year, AO Smith forecast flat to modest sales growth for 2025, while BlueLinx warned about continuing uncertainty over the timing of a sustained housing recovery.
Comprising about 4 per cent of US GDP, residential remodelling and home construction have been hit hard by the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates higher for longer. Now, the Trump administration’s tariff threats and attacks on undocumented workers have added new stresses to the market.
“It has been tepid for a while now really since the Fed began raising rates, and I also think the consumer is pretty conservative right now,” said Nicholas Fink, chief executive of Moen’s parent company Fortune Brands.
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