Pres. Barack Obama is the embodiment, the personification, and the culmination of dangerous trends that began decades ago. Moreover, he has escalated those dangers to what may be a point of no return.
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Pres. Obama Didn’t Believe in the Principles and Values of America – Chief Divider | Thomas Sowell
Posted by M. C. on March 27, 2024
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: America, Obama, Principles, values | Leave a Comment »
Congressional Omnibus is Like a Bad Hollywood Movie Sequel
Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2024
by Ron Paul
Unfortunately, this latest sequel is as bad as the previous ones, as the American people are left with a massive $1.2 trillion dollar spending package to add to our already $34 trillion in debt. Military spending will, of course, be increased yet again, as the military-industrial complex demands more of our wealth to feed its ever-increasing appetite.
https://ronpaulinstitute.org/congressional-omnibus-is-like-a-bad-hollywood-movie-sequel
This weekend’s late-night spending vote in Congress seems like another in an endless series of sequels to a bad suspense movie. Just at the brink of “disaster,” just before the stroke of midnight, Congress pulls off a miracle and passes an omnibus bill to save us from a “government shutdown!”
The heroes have saved the day!
Unfortunately, this latest sequel is as bad as the previous ones, as the American people are left with a massive $1.2 trillion dollar spending package to add to our already $34 trillion in debt. Military spending will, of course, be increased yet again, as the military-industrial complex demands more of our wealth to feed its ever-increasing appetite. And if this military spending increase is not enough, Congressional leadership is promising another huge supplemental bill to further fuel proxy wars in Ukraine and Gaza – with some money to provoke China as well.
Republicans like to talk a good game about reining in spending – especially during election season – but as we learned with this “compromise” and all previous “compromises, it’s all talk. At the end of all the dramatic warnings about shutting the government down, we are left with a Washington-style compromise, meaning the leadership of both parties gets to throw anything and everything they want into the massive bill. Because it is only presented to the rank and file at the last moment before “disaster,” none of the Members get a chance to even read it, much less shape it through amendments and debate.
The Republican House leadership promised the Members 72 hours to read any new bill before a vote, but they broke their promise without hesitation. Members would not have the chance to read the more than 1,000 page bill, which was worked out in secret behind closed doors
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Gaza, Military Spending, Omnibus, proxy wars, Ukraine | Leave a Comment »
Taxing The Rich To Help The Poor Or To Send It Overseas? Thomas Sowell
Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2024
Some years ago, in my syndicated column, I challenged anyone to name any economist, of any school of thought, who had actually advocated a “trickle down” theory. No one quoted any economist, politician or person in any other walk of life who had ever advocated such a theory, even though many readers named someone who claimed that someone else had advocated it, without being able to quote anything actually said by that someone else.
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Free Stuff
Posted by M. C. on March 26, 2024
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Joe Biden Is Now Targeting 82-Year-Old Veterans
Posted by M. C. on March 25, 2024
The Biden administration is trying to send an 82-year veteran to prison for life for the crime of repeating ‘Russian misinformation.’ The scariest, most important criminal case you’ve probably never heard of.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Joe Biden, Omali Yeshitela, Russian misinformation, veterans | Leave a Comment »
Affordable Housing – Government Topples Realtors
Posted by M. C. on March 25, 2024
We can be assured, this is not the last private industry that will take a hit. Hospitality is likely the next playground to be hit by the bullies. Having fun needs to be relegated to the elite with money, not the plebes.
by Helena
Posted on by Helena
Houses are not affordable. Despite all the best efforts of government to control the value of your property, they have continually failed. Prices continue to rise. The culprit? Realtors. Apparently, the agency fees to represent the buyer and seller transaction have caused the real estate boom that has made housing unaffordable. How much truth is in this new indoctrination?
In 1940 the realtor commission was 5%. In 1980, the realtor commission rose to 6%. The same 6% it is today. But somehow, despite 40 years of paying the same commission, The Economist powers that be, have decided this isn’t equitable. It isn’t fair. And therefore, elimination of this fee will reduce the cost of a home and make it affordable… That would be the logic. But what is the reality?
Homeowners have the option of selling without a realtor. They also have the option of using the flat fee companies.. Or they had the option of utilizing the expertise of a realtor who has passed rigorous courses and exams on contract law, title law, foreclosures, and inspections. A choice. That choice is being removed by the Powers. Why?
HINT: it has absolutely nothing to do with affordable housing.
When you remove an industries ability to charge a fee and make money, you are attacking the industry – not helping the poor. Let’s say doctors are no longer allowed to charge a fee, does that mean healthcare costs will drop? No. It means there will be no more doctors and healthcare won’t exist. For the Real Estate industry that translates to homeowners being left to mitigate scams, fraud, theft, liability, and corruption. And the tight housing market will become that much more tight as homeowners decide to renovate instead of move.
Builders reap the benefit.
Builders can dangle the carrot of discounted interest rates. They run the show. When no agent is there to represent your best interest – for free – you pay top dollar. And who is selling at top dollar? The Hedge Funds that scooped up entire neighborhoods at a 2% fixed rate of interest and now want to divest their inventory – charging a ‘discounted’ interest rate of 5.5% when the market is 7.25%. Now you are buying more home for the same price because of the “interest rate” – not because of realtor fees.
How much more home? A $500,000 home at 7.25% costs $3,411 per month. At 5.5% – you can now afford a $600,000 home for the same monthly payment. Who wins? The BUILDER!
Did eliminating the realtor bring down home values? No. It moved the buyers from existing homes to new homes that are sitting vacant.
And the headlines read: 2024 Primed To Be Stellar Year For Homebuilders. Realtors? Not so much.
The realtor settlement for repaying homeowners deemed to have been over-charged/gouged by 6% over the last decade – is $418 million. Number of potential homeowners eligible for a cut? 50 million. Amount that will go to legal representation to collect any money? 35%. Which is somehow NOT deemed excessive.
According to The Economist, the realtor commission is a racket, a mob rule that gouges the buyer and the seller. The average estimated savings for a median home sale – $10,000. Example: a house selling for $500,000 would incur a commission fee of $30,000. A negotiated commission at 4% would save $10,000. By comparison, a reduced interest rate from 7.25% to 4.25% would save $11,400. If the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates to the level they were prior to Brandon, the annual savings would be $17,220.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: affordable housing, commission, real estate, Realtors | Leave a Comment »
Asian-Americans are Overachievers, This is Why | Thomas Sowell
Posted by M. C. on March 25, 2024
“Because they work”
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From Boom To Bust: Doug Casey on Fading Enthusiasm for Electric Vehicles
Posted by M. C. on March 25, 2024
They forgot that Tesla is run by a genius who designed an electric car from the ground up with lots of technical innovations. GM, Ford, and the other legacy companies are run by ESG-oriented suits whose first consideration is kowtowing to their HR and compliance departments.
Doug Casey: The shareholders and customers take a back seat to legislators and regulators. It’s perverse.
by Doug Casey
International Man: Outside of Tesla, fewer and fewer people want electric vehicles (EVs). Other car companies have spent billions producing EVs that buyers don’t trust. Why are they developing products their customers clearly don’t want?
Doug Casey: Perhaps they thought that if Tesla, an undercapitalized start-up run by an eccentric with no auto manufacturing experience, could become a trillion-dollar company, then how hard could it be? They forgot that Tesla is run by a genius who designed an electric car from the ground up with lots of technical innovations. GM, Ford, and the other legacy companies are run by ESG-oriented suits whose first consideration is kowtowing to their HR and compliance departments.
Apple was working on an EV, but they just pulled the plug on it after dropping US $10 billion. Building a good EV isn’t as easy as Elon made it look.
There’s nothing wrong with the concept of electric vehicles. The problem—as with most economic problems in today’s world—is the State. The government has basically decided that fossil fuels are evil, and so are the vehicles that burn them. They hate fossil fuels for all kinds of specious and hysterical reasons that mostly revolve around “saving” the planet. Most of which are nonsensical, at least if you want to have an industrial civilization.
The kind of people who go into government hate cars and the freedom that they give the common man.
That’s why they want to put everybody in 15-minute cities, where you presumably won’t need real cars, just EV golf carts.
The federal government has lots of legal mandates designating what kind of cars manufacturers can and cannot make. Average fleet mileage specifications are a major factor in determining what kind of cars we have. But governments are going farther, essentially trying to ban most conventional ICE (internal combustion engine) cars by 2035 or even 2030. Their mandates against ICEs have skewed production towards electronic vehicles.
At the same time, they’ve offered large tax advantages to consumers, getting them to buy EVs that they’d otherwise avoid. So, although EVs have merit for certain places and conditions and have a place in the automotive world, government pushing and pulling creates huge distortions in how people act.
International Man: Last year, Ford lost $4.7 billion on its EV models, and it’s projected that this year, it could lose up to $5.5 billion.
The Wall Street Journal estimates that Ford could actually boost its profits by 50% by ditching EVs altogether. It seems Ford and other companies could care less about serving their shareholders or their customers.
What is really going on here?
Doug Casey: The shareholders and customers take a back seat to legislators and regulators. It’s perverse.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: 15-Minute Cities, electric vehicles, ESG, Tesla | Leave a Comment »
It’s Not Theft…
Posted by M. C. on March 25, 2024
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Taxes, theft | Leave a Comment »
I Have Been Called Worse
Posted by M. C. on March 25, 2024
“If you want government to intervene domestically, you’re a liberal.
If you want government to intervene overseas, you’re a conservative.
If you want government to intervene everywhere, you’re a moderate.
If you don’t want government to intervene anywhere, you’re an extremist.” – Joe Sobran
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