HorsesAss.Org

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  1. 1

    How badly did Team Biden blow its initial response to the Maui fires?

    This badly:

    POLITICS
    Biden and first lady Jill Biden to visit Hawaii to survey wildfire devastation

    “No comment.”

  3. 3

    @1

    You mean like how he released federal disaster aid immediately and took native and locals pleas to not ‘tour’ the island waiting until the fires are wholly contained before stressing local police further?

    Dumbfuck, you’re reduced to parroting Marge Taylor Greene complaints. Good job.

  5. 5

    So in case anyone missed it, how criminal conspiracy statutes work in general is that there are criminal elements defined in the statute and to get a grand jury to indict the prosecutor has to show evidence establishing the likelihood that the evidence could support a conclusion of guilt under the statute with respect to each of those criminal elements.

    Again broadly, in Georgia the criminal conspiracy statute being charged in the Trump election fraud indictment describes those basic elements. Two or more persons must have a “meeting of the minds”, wherein they agree to perform some tasks to bring about a criminal outcome. Those individual tasks need not be independently criminal by themselves. But they must be performed in pursuit of some other criminal offense defined elsewhere in the code. The persons involved, “the co-conspirators” must be witting or aware of the criminal offense being sought – they must be knowing participants. And finally, for any one individual to be charged that individual must have performed such a task – again in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, although the task itself need not be criminal.

    This is how almost all criminal conspiracy statutes look everywhere. Georgia is very bog-standard. And prosecutions for criminal conspiracy very frequently look just exactly like this one in Georgia. There is nothing especially exceptional about it in that regard.

    So you want to keep that in mind now when you are forced to endure “journalists” lending credibility to pro-insurrectionist Republican complaints that Fanni Willis is trying to criminalize common, everyday, normal things like phone calls or reserving meeting rooms.

    Those are not “common, everyday, normal” things when it is a phone call to arrange a mob hit or reserving a meeting room so that the hit man can be fully briefed on his target.

  7. 7

    Eric Trump’s wife is MAEGA-incensed that a banana republic keeps charging her father in law.

    Listen Laura, you’re Trump’s least favorite kid’s wife. He’s never going to love you. Once every couple months Donald remembers Tiffani exists and Eric becomes his second least favorite kid for like an hour. No one cares what you think.

    Except Fox News who keep having you on for some reason.

  10. 10

    A “paid campaign fundraiser for Rep. George Santos was indicted in New York on federal charges related to his allegedly impersonating a top aide to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he solicited donations for Santos,” CNBC reported this morning.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/16/feds-indict-paid-fundraiser-for-rep-george-santos-for-allegedly-impersonating-speaker-mccarthy-aide.html

    Everything associated with George Santos is dishonest. But hey, that doesn’t make him a GOP outlier, it makes him mainstream Republican.

  11. 11

    @1 Unlike G. W. Bush, who gazed down from his helicopter at the Katrina devastation, the Bidens will walk through the ashes and talk with the residents.

    Democrats and Republicans aren’t the same.

  12. 12

    @3 “Dumbfuck, you’re reduced to parroting Marge Taylor Greene complaints. Good job.”

    Where the hell do you think he’s been getting his posting material from? Herr Doktor is a Republican. He doesn’t have original thoughts of his own. Like all Republicans, he works off the party’s script.

  13. 13

    Perhaps some of the best news about all the Trump electoral fraud indictments has to do with his emerging line of defense.

    It seems pretty clear that, short of pleading guilty, Trump’s legal team will be primarily focusing on his “state of mind” or in other words attacking the intent requirements of the conspiracy statutes in the various trials. Now in terms of the media this is shotgun bullshit with plenty of it being spouted by dipshit surrogates who just say whatever idiotic shit comes into their heads. But in terms of the defense lawyers and to whatever extent they influence Trump, it’s about “what he believed” he was doing when he was twisting arms, making threats, giving orders, and otherwise putting plans into motion to get these fake electors to be substituted for the real thing in order to overturn the election.

    It looks like they intend to suggest reasonable doubt about intent by sticking to the original Big Lie in all its glory. Now I don’t think there was ever any doubt that The Big Lie was always going to be integral to Trump’s 2024 campaign. Every campaign has some basic questions that must be answered by the campaign messaging. And one of those is always “why this person?” In Trump’s case The Big Lie provides the most (and perhaps the only) satisfying answer. He was not successful as president last go-around. He has no record to run on. And the last eight years have called into question much of his self-promoted mythology as a great success in business.

    But the fact that The Big Lie will now form the basis of his legal defense strategy almost certainly means that it takes center stage not only in Trump’s messaging but in most of the GOP messaging. As guilty as they all are, either criminally or at least morally, Republicans now will be put on trial for The Big Lie and how they all responded to it. And we all saw how Republicans responded to it. For even the most fake “moderate” Trump-shy of incumbents it will become part of their messaging strategy to address the 2020 election result and the party response to that result.

    And almost nothing could be better for Democrats. Perhaps only Dobbs is a more toxic issue for a Republican in November of 2024. And most Republicans are going to have to don that hair shirt and wear it out-and-proud now. Because to do otherwise is to ignore that basic question about “why this person?”

  15. 15

    @7 Someday Trump will die and his kids will get his money. That almost makes it worth having rich asshole parents. In any case, kids don’t have any choice about who their parents are. It may even be advantageous, in some cases, to have your alpha parent locked up in prison.

  16. 16

    @13 The intent defense gets you only so far. Gary Ridgway thought he was doing society a favor by ridding Pacific Highway South of prostitutes, but the best his defense lawyers could wangle for him was getting the prosecutors to trade away the death penalty in exchange for body locations.

    Likewise, Trump may sincerely believe he is the Messiah and America’s savior. But even assuming he believes his own bullshit, or isn’t so stupid as to admit otherwise, no rational jury will believe he didn’t know calling Raffensberger and asking him to “find” more votes “than we have” in order to change the outcome didn’t cross a line. And when you look at the cast of unsavory characters surrounding him — his closest advisers and enablers — he sure looks like the kingpin of a criminal enterprise.

    Don’t get me wrong. Fani Willis has her work cut out for her; this thing isn’t a slam-dunk. But I’d rather be her than his defense team.

  17. 17

    14,
    Surveillance photos released by the police show the suspect and the kid were dressed very similarly. Oddly, the police have been unwilling to respond to requests for information about the origins of the photo they circulated. Noteworthy in the photos released is that it was determined that Lansing police deliberately blurred the image of the 12-year-old boy and color shifted his teal green Hurley tee shirt obtained from very high resolution cell phone videos of the arrest to appear alongside the blurred image of the car prowling suspect wearing a plain white tee shirt taken from long distance by some kind of surveillance camera.

    Original police reports indicated that police were attempting to investigate a prior car theft report in which an unidentified witness described one of the suspects as dressed in “a white tee shirt and neon shorts”. Pursuant to that report an investigating officer had attempted to approach a suspect matching the description, whereupon the suspect fled into a nearby residential area. That same officer then later responded to the arrest of the 12-year-old boy and informed the arresting officer that “he did not match the description”.

    I think a good way to clear all this up would be for Lansing to release all the of the relevant BWC, dashcam, dispatch reports, investigative reports, and police reports from the incident that day in order to clear up the discrepancies.
    I’m guessing that instead they are going to offer cash to the father for his silence and to avoid civil discovery.

  18. 18

    It’s a death cult. The GOP is going to nominate Donald. Felony conviction or no the hard core MAGA controls the primaries. It’s going to be Donald V Joe 2.

    AP poll,

    53% if voters ‘Definitely will not’ vote for Donald.

    60% of likely GOP primary voters are still backing Trump.

  19. 19

    16,
    It might not get him far, but it’s what he’s got.

    Admittedly, I expect his defense to merge this with some claims about First Amendment protections and advice of counsel. But those are both very weak claims in my opinion. The existing case law and controlling holdings do not make room for First Amendment defenses in cases involving underlying fraud. Where there is an underlying attempt at criminal fraud, even strictly political speech would not be excluded from the statute. Openly advising draft age males to refuse to register for the draft or destroy their draft cards does not include any underlying fraud. In Hammerschmidt the court took pains to specify that “mere open defiance” of a governmental purpose of a law or “urging persons subject to it to disobey it” is not conspiracy to defraud. Likewise in Spock the absence of any attempt to deceive or engage in fraudulent subterfuge negated the use of the statute. Had Spock or Hammerschmidt instead engaged in a covert scheme to forge draft roles or documents or as a First Amendment matter, promoted through political speech the adoption of such a scheme, then their fates might have been very different. Trump seems to have pursued parallel paths to vindicate his claims, even if he truly believed them. In one path he openly and publicly pursued more than 100 court cases all of which failed spectacularly. On the other path, he attempted to secretly pursue an effort to assemble impostors, forge documents, and persuade people under false pretenses to commit criminal acts. It’s very different from handing out leaflets or publishing a newspaper ad. And the important difference is one of the easiest things for prosecutors to prove: Trump is a compulsive liar and a complete fraud. Even his own supporters admit to this on some level. It won’t be hard to convince an average jury.

    So the true heart of his defense lies in his “state of mind”. And here again, his track record of constant lying presents a very significant obstacle to that defense. In the end such a defense demands of the jury that they simply “believe” the defendant, in spite of whatever evidence exists to the contrary. Of course some evidence does exist, though we have yet to learn much about it. Here I’ll assume that Jack Smith is not atypical as a federal prosecutor and thus tends to go to trial with fairly overwhelming evidence on key elements. Nevertheless, if we assume Smith or Willis face big challenges in presenting compelling evidence demonstrating Trump’s true understanding of the criminal nature of the fraud/forgery scheme, we still end up in front of a jury that is asked to believe Trump (or his lawyers) when they argue that “he believed it was all perfectly legal”.

    At this point, I just don’t think it’s that hard to get twelve randomly selected, impartial people in Georgia, or DC to believe that Trump is a liar. And I think it will be possible for Smith to get one or two hostile witnesses to say so on the stand in front of the jury.

  20. 20

    @19

    And no Hunter Biden news is going to cover up that the ‘state of mind’ of the GOP candidate is

    A: he’s a delusional fucking lunatic who would demand of you to swear the sun is out and it’s time to go to the beach in February at 1am.

    B: The guy is incapable of telling the truth and knowingly incited a riot that killed a cop.

    This is the kind of scenario where it does not matter who the Democrats have on the ballot. They’re winning.

    And it’s going to kill the party because the GOP are hell bent on showing Gen Z that they don’t have the common sense given Rooster to nominate someone else. This level of dishonesty and hubris (hi Enron recall) is how the GOP lost California forever.

  21. 21

    @1 Unlike G. W. Bush, who gazed down from his helicopter at the Katrina devastation, the Bidens will walk through the ashes and talk with the residents.

    Democrats and Republicans aren’t the same.

    How about the Fuckwad that tossed rolls of Paper Towels at THE PEOPLE!

  23. 23

    Bitches….you can buy yourself flowers. You can write your name in the sand. You can love yourself better……than The Heterosexual Neanderthal Man.

    He got himselfe a Virus. Want’s you to dieeeeeee, he can’t love you like you can.

    Kick him in the balls……….Tell him to go to fucking hell!

    The Heterosexual Neanderthal Virus gets another dumb one. They be grooming them bitches.

    https://www.wqow.com/news/crime/homicide-charge-filed-against-81-year-old-eau-claire-man-accused-of-killing-wife/article_269b1d88-3ba9-11ee-a4c7-1f976f09c557.html

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7KNmW9a75Y

    You can love your self better than any man.

    The American woman have been groomed. They are unable to care for themselves.

  25. 25

    @19 I’m seeing some stuff suggesting he intends to try the “I’m above the law” defense.

  26. 26

    How come the financial wizard isn’t talking about TSLA the last month?

    Maybe if Elon had a dick picture out there he would be interested.

  27. 27

    Funny thing about the “No Comment”

    Nobody actually heard him say that. Turns out some British tabloid writer who somehow got the pool reporter job that day, said “lip readers” said that’s what they think President Biden said.

    The right wing media is lying.

  28. 28

    “And a little child shall lead them.”

    https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kxw9z/qanon-jfk-tiny-teflon-13-year-old-girl

    The sad future of the Shit-Lord Crybaby’s movement now rests comfortably in the care of a middle schooler with a puffy sticker collection and and tassels on her bike handlebars.

    It never had to come to this. We Democrats gave them every opportunity to come back from beyond the brink. This shit is what they are choosing.

  30. 30

    @26 “As part of a criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election, a federal judge asked if the company formerly known as Twitter was trying to ‘cozy up’ to the ex-president by refusing to hand over data related to his account.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/16/judge-in-trump-case-asks-if-elon-musk-tried-to-cozy-up-to-ex-president.html

    A couple years ago, Musk was almost universally regarded as a world-changing genius. Now, he’s widely regarded as just another super-wealthy Trumper.

    P.S., his cars suck, and I wouldn’t ride his spaceship if it was free.

  31. 31

    his cars suck, and I wouldn’t ride his spaceship if it was free.

    yeah.. fuck him and the horse he rode in on.. what an asshole..

  32. 32

    Demorat-Pfizer Party Of Vax Mandates & Chickenhawk Warmongers News –
    ————————
    New survey reveals that thousands are taking to the streets to celebrate Bidenomics.
    “A new Wall Street Journal report reveals the number of Americans ending up on the streets is happening at a “record rate” despite ‘Bidenomics’ being touted as an economic savior for the middle class. Every working-class folk understands Biden’s policies have been absolutely horrendous — two years of negative real wages forced many to rack up insurmountable credit card debt during the highest interest rate environment in a generation while draining personal savings — all to make ends meet, like putting food on the table and paying rent.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/americans-end-homeless-record-rate-bidenomics-flounders

  35. 35

    “People embrace political conservatism (at least in part) because it serves to reduce fear, anxiety, and uncertainty; to avoid change, disruption, and ambiguity; and to explain, order, and justify inequality among groups and individuals”
    >> This fits with the conservatives who post here. I wish they could be better people, who were not controlled by fear and hate, who could cope with a changing world, who could only feel better about themselves if they had forced some group to be lower than themselves.
    I wish they could change for the better, but change is what they resist harder than anything. It’s a corundum.

  36. 36

    @ 22

    How come the financial wizard isn’t talking about TSLA the last month?

    Been a little busy. Shedding some RE and getting ready to build.

    I’m up a shade less than 50% on the shares in eight months, before options premiums. It does seem unlikely that the shares will exceed $350 before mid-January, so my sold call premium looks to have been a wise choice.

    Meanwhile, I’ve made significantly more on GNRC options transactions than Robinhood Dumbfuck Rabbit ever will owning his pitifully small number of shares.

  37. 37

    Mortgage rates now closer to 8% than to 7%.

    Bidenomics is a misnomer for what really is just Bidenflation.

    Welcome, Queen YLB’s fucked kids, to the least affordable home purchase environment evah.

  38. 38

    Get ready for more Bidenflation-related interest rate hikes.

    Federal Reserve officials expressed concern at their most recent meeting about the pace of inflation and said more rate hikes could be necessary in the future unless conditions change, minutes released Wednesday from the session indicated.

    That discussion during a two-day July meeting resulted in a quarter percentage point rate hike that markets generally expect to be the last one of this cycle.

    However, discussions showed that most members worry that the inflation fight is far from over and could require additional tightening action from the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

  39. 39

    @38 thank you kount kreepula for the link to ahole elmo’s racist ev wet dream..

    way to support your babbling about “bidenflation”.. didja know that at HA, Hunter’s dick pics “touch” you only?

    talk about an inflated stock price… if only the fed could put a damper on that…

  40. 40

    Abigail Jo Shry is a Republican voter with a hobby:

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/woman-arrested-allegedly-threatening-federal-judge-trump-election-case-rcna100320

    “Hey you stupid slave N_____. You are in our sights, we want to kill you.
    …
    If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b—-. You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it,”

    Four similar charges and jailed more than 30 times.
    This is the “expanded” GOP base that Trump delivers.

  41. 41

    Overall favorable for the GOP nominee in poll released yesterday has declined to just 35% in a survey completed before the Monday indictment.

    https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-poll-georgia-elections-b6140eed88b3153e41dbf9e008d5a21b

    Seventy percent agree that Dark Brandon won the 2020 election.
    Fifty three percent have already decided that they “definitely” will not vote for Cheeto Mussolini.

    And still Trump is in the GOP driver’s seat.
    Amazeballs.

  42. 42

    Bob wants to keep talking about how Interest Rates are going up and costing you money, but on the flip side he doesn’t want to talk about the upside of CD rates going up and other forms of investment that are bettered from it.

    It’s all persepective.

    One minute he’s working against the little man and then the next he’s pretending to fight for him.

    Meanwhile his Cult Leader may be President from Jail or get away with the biggest fraud and treasonous act, and the other failed nut DeFuckFace.

  43. 43

    @35 In every human social grouping there are winners and losers, and here in America, the losers have their own political party.

  44. 44

    @36 “Shedding some RE and getting ready to build.”

    Sounds like doc sold the pasture (poor horse!) and is buying lumber to replace the outdoor plumbing shelter (outhouse).

  46. 46

    44,
    One good strategy that many Republicans employ is to build a pole barn cover over the trailer before the roof begins to leak too badly.

  48. 48

    @42 Higher interest rates benefit savers and don’t cost you money if you don’t have debt. Credit card junkies, on the other hand …

  49. 49

    Look who’s getting thrown under the bus:

    “With his attorney in tow, Rudy Giuliani traveled to Mar-a-Lago in recent months on a mission to make a personal and desperate appeal to former President Donald Trump to pay his legal bills. By going in person, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, Giuliani and his lawyer Robert Costello believed they could explain face-to-face why Trump needed to assist his former attorney with his ballooning legal bills.”

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/politics/giuliani-trump-legal-bills/index.html

    What the story doesn’t report is they had to feed coins into a meter while Trump listened to them.

  51. 51

    47,
    I’m reminded that Charles Manson was not sent to prison for murdering anyone.

    Charles Manson was sent to prison for leading a cult of murderers.

  54. 54

    Many people are hoping for higher interest rates to bring bubble priced homes and cars back down to reasonable levels.

    Higher rates are definitely freezing out a lot of real estate investors from buying single family homes and turning them in to rentals, which I think is largely a good thing.

    Rates should be raised to around 9% to trigger significant price declines in the used housing market.

    CSHPI indicates home prices still approx. 30% overpriced.
    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/csushpinsa

  55. 55

    @54 Doc prefers high inflation to high interest rates. Makes you wonder how much he owes on variable-rate mortgages, car and horse trailer loans, credit cards, etc.

    I owe NOTHING. Everything’s paid for, and the six figures in my cash accounts have been earning NOTHING. I’m tired of subsidizing profligate borrowers; it’s time interest rates went up.

  56. 56

    A week or so ago I floated the possibility of a DiFi resignation (or, I suppose, a DiFi death in office), which would enable Momala to resign as Veep, Hair Gel to appoint her to DiFi’s seat, and the leader of The Biden Crime Family to nominate as Momala’s replacement someone who isn’t such an obviously incompetent embarrassment to the Democrat party.

    Today it’s in the LA Times:

    “Feinstein could resign from the Senate and Gov. Gavin Newsom could appoint Harris to replace her. Biden then could find a more popular running mate, one more acceptable to voters as a potential successor.”

    Biden could even nominate Hair Gel for Veep.

    You’re welcome, LAT.

  57. 57

    @ 55

    Doc prefers high inflation to high interest rates.

    With my corrupt, incompetent, senile fossil of a president we get both. Mortgage rates haven’t been this high for 21 years.

    Bidenflation touches all. But especially Queen YLB’s fucked kids, and their ilk.

    You were warned.

  58. 58

    @57 Well, looking at these numbers, the problem isn’t prices, it’s wages. Four decades of Repukonomics has left the average American family trying to live on slave wages.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/17/heres-why-americans-cant-stop-living-paycheck-to-paycheck.html

    Meanwhile, greedy employers rip off low-paid workers.

    https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/new-jersey-shutters-27-boston-market-restaurants-unpaid-102340776

    The best solution to these problems is for everyone to become a capitalist and throw off the wage chains. If no one worked, nobody would be living paycheck to paycheck, and there’d be no wage theft.

  59. 59

    54, 55,

    Neither high inflation in housing markets, nor high interest rates in home lending are good for the economy.

    Post-Boomer workers with good incomes, steady work histories, good credit scores, and more than adequate down payments, are being priced out of many housing markets where there are employment openings going unfilled. While the reasons differ, in the case of both new cars and homes there are supply constraints.
    And while the supply constraint in auto manufacturing may be short lived, the supply constraints in many housing markets are systemic.

    Decades of ill-conceived local restrictive land use statutes, and local development requirements have combined with excessive and speculative investment in certain types of homes in certain markets to create a perfect storm. Changes will need to happen on many levels before the supply can be adjusted to better reflect demand. Some of those changes must take place among local voters who must eventually abandon their demented fetish for vast sweeps of restrictive, uniform, low density residential development hermetically separated for all other development types.

    Even in places like Seattle (Or San Francisco) where most owners of single family homes in “traditional” neighborhoods feel as if their “unique neighborhood character” is under threat and where they perceive that there is rapid, high density development, those feelings and perceptions will require some significant realignment. Once you set feelings, expectations, and perceptions aside, and access real data about the price of underlying land, the unit density of development, and the resulting population density the problem can begin to be seen more clearly. These cities while offering opportunity for more intense development are achieving almost nothing in terms of increasing population and housing. More intense development is squeezed into edges where they align with transportation infrastructure, and associated commercial development. That produces incredibly high pricing for underlying land. And restrictions on the level of development in those edge locations in terms of height limitations, parking requirements, set back requirements, etc combined with the land price result in a calculus that absolutely excludes affordable market rate housing. So instead you mostly get $900,000 2 BR condos. And those condos get snatched up by wealthier, high earners with decades more of savings and equity to use as a short term investment vehicle, or to house a college-aged child.

    Community economies depend in part on some carrots as well as sticks. A good job offer in a good career with a good income must be accompanied by the opportunity to make use of that income to improve living standards. If we allow collective tunnel vision, habit, and individual self interest to strip away all of that opportunity then there won’t be anyone willing to take those jobs to produce the growth and income that the community depends upon.

  61. 61

    my corrupt, incompetent, senile fossil of a president

    With Trump having lost to Biden in 2020, your corrupt, incompetent, senile fossil of a president is no longer president.

    Glad to be of help.

  62. 62

    @ 59

    Changes will need to happen on many levels before the supply can be adjusted to better reflect demand.

    We did @ 36 our share. Sold a house at a price that Queen YLB’s fucked kids will never be able to afford, but DINK buyers could. They had been looking awhile, too.

    Maybe Queen YLB’s two fucked kids could wait 15 years, pool their assets, and buy a studio together. I hear they make bunk beds for big kids.

  63. 63

    @ 61

    …your corrupt, incompetent, senile fossil of a president is no longer president.

    I’ll give you points for prescience.

  64. 64

    Paging:

    Robert L. Peters
    Robin Ware
    JRB Ware

    Your party, Mr. Delecto, is awaiting your arrival in the lobby.

  65. 65

    61,
    “With Trump having lost to Biden in 2020…”

    There is a significant statistical probability which suggests that this troll rejects that as a prior. As a Republican voter the probability is about 80%.

    If he were a candidate for the Republican nomination it would be approaching 100%.

    These two numbers also closely correlate with belief in an invisible, secret sky-laser hidden on the dark side of the moon that can change ballots.

  66. 66

    @ 65

    Rejection of election results is fashionable if you are a liberal woman who either does or should wear a muu muu.

  67. 67

    “House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan issued a subpoena to Citibank on Thursday, demanding information about whether the bank gave law enforcement information about customer transactions in the days surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/17/house-republicans-subpoena-citibank-over-data-shared-after-jan-6.html

    It sure looks like Republicans want to protect Jan. 6 rioters and interfere with efforts to prosecute them.

  68. 68

    @59 Unregulated capitalism of the sort championed by “free market” conservatives led to mortgage abuses that led to a housing crash.

    When the housing market collapsed, residential construction came to a standstill, but the population kept growing, so we ended up with a chronic housing shortage.

    This wouldn’t have happened with proper regulation of mortgage lenders. Capitalism, like highways and city streets, needs traffic cops. Markets break down when left to their own devices. This is especially true of financial markets, which is where today’s housing shortage originated.

  69. 69

    @66 There are different kinds of “rejection of election results.” Your party has already shown us what the banana republic kind looks like, and appears to be working toward the death-squad kind now.

  70. 70

    @ 67

    It sure looks like Republicans want to protect Jan. 6 rioters and interfere with efforts to prosecute them.

    Looks just as much like Republicans want to establish precedent for coming House demands for unredacted SARs – there are 170 of them, from 6 banks – pertaining to The Biden Crime Family’s various co-conspirators.

  71. 71

    @ 68

    No one would ever think of the Dumbfuck Rabbit shithole as a potential real estate investment.

    Eww.

  72. 72

    @48

    “All this spending power is the REAL problem and it’s driving up wages. We will stop at nothing to get unemployment back to a healthy 3.8% the way God intended so there is no discussion of ‘paying top wages for top talent’ outside the executive suite.”

    -Federal Reserve

  73. 73

    @ 72

    … spending power is the REAL problem …

    Spending power = M1 money supply.

    Absolutely correct. Massively wild spending by Democrats has kept the supply way too high for a healthy economy.

    Bidenflation touches all. Adam Smith will be the first to tell you this.

  74. 74

    My now mid 60’s aged sister paid 14% interests on her home in the Reagan years, when she and her ex-husband were in their 20’s.

    They managed to bring up two kids and made out just fine. It’s not the end of the world just something great to exploit…..by the master exploiters

  75. 75

    Maybe..

    teh widbee shit-stain will kick the bucket and the munee saved from its low 4 figure once a month SS check will make things better for the next generation…

    oh but.. that’s a definite lock to make things better.. ‘cuz that’s what teh kreepshit babbled..

    heh.. speaks so well to its “seriousness” and “intelligence”..

  76. 76

    Rejection of election results is fashionable…

    …and categorically unrelated to systematically assembling teams of impostors to forge documents, fraudulently present those documents in order to disrupt a basic governmental function and then assembling a Pipe-Bomb Mob of face painted terrorists to help with that disruption.

    And it’s not even in the same universe as lurid, bizarre fantasies about bamboo fibers, secret moon based lasers, and dead Venezuelan dictators.

    But it’s those last things that are going to make Ruby Freeman a very wealthy woman and that send Rudy Giuliani crawling in supplication to plead poverty before the GOP Cheeseburger God.

  77. 77

    Why the GOP, as evidenced by our Dumbfuck, fundamentally misunderstands the problem they need to solve.

    ”MORTGAGE RATES ARE CLIMBING!

    Boomers are trying to sell to fund retirement and ending up in their houses longer. Meanwhile the GOP is telling them as they start to die off that Social Security is an entitlement to be cut.

    Gen X who own homes and aren’t stupid moved to fixed rates when the system collapsed.

    Gen X who don’t yet own homes have seen themselves priced out. They aren’t planning on buying a home ever. The system failed them.

    Millenials have now weathered two major economic disruptions and are realists who know unless they can find a WFH job and move to Northern Nevada home ownership is a pipe dream.

    Gen Z are pissed about ALL the housing prices, the environment, the war on their gay friends who are genuinely good people AND the explosion of higher education costs.

    For those last three groups, mortgage rates are as relevant to their financial planning and political leanings as the rising cost of a Patek Philippe and a case of Chateau Neuf De Pape.

    It’s an ‘issue’ that only lands with a group of voters already predisposed to vote GOP.

    But you go. Cool that you’re now telling a FOURTH story of how you made your TSLA trades.

  78. 78

    @ 75

    Maybe…

    One of Queen YLB’s fucked kids will be murdered. Or will commit suicide. Or get brain cancer. Or get hit by a bus.

    For every Social Security recipient to die, 1.2 will take his/her/its place. For some reason Queen YLB cheers on the worsening situation of her fucked kids.

  79. 79

    @ 77

    It’s an ‘issue’ that only lands with a group of voters already predisposed to vote GOP.

    Shorter @ 77: Democrats have no interest in The American Dream. They just want to do PS5 gaming at the same time as they do spreadsheet analysis on side-by-side monitors, before they head to Georgetown to drink fruity IPAs.

    Bet that’s wrong.

  80. 80

    Maybe…

    teh widbee shit-stain will dance stupidly in December over A LOW 4 FIGURE ONCE A MONTH SS CHECK..

    oh but.. that’s EXACTLY what it will do in December..

    cuz’ it did that for Mary Kay’s SS Check (probably a larger number than the check it will get in December).. It did that stupid dance. MANY, MANY YEARS AGO.. heh…

    That spoke so HIGHLY to its “seriousness” and “intelligence”…

    For every Social Security recipient to die, 1.2 will take his/her/its place.

    yabut.. some of them will be liberal donors like Mary Kay..

    teh repuke shit-stains like kreepula.. drink up, stuff yourself silly with simple carbs… who the f’ needs ya..

  81. 81

    No one would ever think of the Dumbfuck Rabbit shithole as a potential real estate investment.

    No one except a Nazi would ever think of a shithole island surrounded by ground zero military base targets as a good place to live, even seeing it as a good real estate investment.

    What we have here is a fascist troll who desires to see America become a totalitarian state with a strongman leader, and this weak, unfortunate POS chooses to live on a shithole island that is known to attract Nazis. What does all of this add up to?

    Eww.

  82. 82

    a shithole island surrounded by ground zero military base targets

    the noise those flyboys and girls make every f’ing night till like 2 am..

    that’s some paradise…

  83. 83

    68,
    The looming shortage was already well underway when the bubble burst last time. Macro-economic influences play some role. But this is primarily a local phenomenon. Plenty of people kept right on chugging along signing mortgages and buying houses when interest rates were over 10%. Because prices were more stable, far more affordable, and less influenced by locally created supply restrictions and speculation. And people had the incomes to support those rates. Average US home price from just before the crisis to today have inflated 70 percent in fifteen years. That’s not great. But averages are also deceiving. Because the affordability of a home depends entirely on local factors that include local market demand and pricing, and individual income and financing. The real shock comes in terms of the ratio of price to median income. And there again, location is everything.

    Historically, the typical, median home in the U.S. cost 2.6 times as much as the median annual income (so if the median income in an area was $100,000, the median price of a home would typically be about $260,000: $100,000 * 2.6). In the 1990s the average US home was about three times median income. By the mid 2000s just before the Masters of the Universe blew up banking it was five times median income. Today it’s over 5.3 times median income. That is double what lenders and economists consider to be the hard threshold for affordability for anyone. And double what it was historically during the rise of the US middle class, and the establishment of home ownership as a source of financial security. For most post-Boomers that ratio places home ownership permanently out of reach. The median home price in Seattle today is $819,000. By the historical standard of affordability a borrower needs an income of $315,000 to buy that median Seattle home. But the median income in Seattle is only $55,000. That’s an income to price ratio of 14.

    The Fed tells us that wage inflation is too high. But for whatever wage inflation there may be, it is not remotely enough to overcome housing inflation created by these enforced shortages. There is good information in that.
    It tells us that this is fundamentally not a macro economic problem.

  84. 84

    “Cool that you’re now telling a FOURTH story of how you made your TSLA trades.”

    I would never say anything.

    I’d just laugh quietly to myself.

  85. 85

    78 What is it about the greedy racist incel and his obsession with violence to children? Is that a republican thing or is it just him?

  86. 86

    is it just him?

    It’s just him.. mustabeen the lead poisoning clouds from I-5 settling over toonerville… back in the day, when it was a pup…

    https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-evidence-that-lead-exposure-increases-crime/

    heh.. that did major damage to its “intelligence” leading to its “seriously” unhinged, violent fantasies.. And we don’t want to know what it’s actually done outside of this forum.

  87. 87

    @79 way to build up a straw man to excoriate. You only missed avocado toast

    boomer “What’s a home cost today $50-60k? They are just lazy. “

  88. 88

    @79

    Fundamentally misunderstanding the problem still.

    The GOP fails to recognize that for the three generations after the boomers the ‘American Dream’ is as achievable as your slightly overweight teen neighbor winning gold in the 100M in 2028 in Los Angeles.

    The Boomers and their ‘I got my low cost degree and houses for under $100k and federal subsidies to build a business by only my own two hands and then I made sure the corporations we built got major tax relief and put the next generations on their own with none of that help.

    And then they sell ‘by the bootstraps’ and expect the kids to swallow it.

    They’re smarter than you think. They know the olds fucked them at every opportunity.

    And killed the dream to enrich themselves.

    We could get it back with free college, Medicare for all, high paying green energy jobs and a serious devaluation of single family homes. All of which the GOP is something only Stalin would contemplate.

  89. 89

    Thinking about the 53% telling pollsters they definitely won’t vote for Trump….

    Do major stories of Trump supporters calling for the death of Federal Judges and anyone who heard the evidence and returned an indictment make that number go:

    (Circle one)

    Up / Down

  91. 91

    @70 “The Biden Crime Family’s”

    Why don’t you just say “Hunter”? It’s shorter.

    He’s the only Biden family member you can plausibly accuse of a crime, based on currently available credible evidence.

  93. 93

    @71 You’re right. A rabbit burrow in a public park is not, in anyone’s wildest imagination, a real estate investment.

    However, contrary to your insinuation, rabbits don’t shit in their holes. We do it on the grass. And our shit is just tiny little pellets that don’t stink like the turds you’re constantly laying in this blog.

  94. 94

    Why don’t you just say “Hunter”? It’s shorter.

    He’s upset, like a kid in a sandbox that had to share his shovel with the other kid, that The FuckHump Family truly is a Crime Syndicate.

    He’s an alcoholic in denial.

    You know Jeffery Epstien didn’t kill himself, he was probably murdered by The FuckHump family.

  95. 95

    @73 “Massively wild spending by Democrats” is GOP-speak for anything that helps working or middle class people. Optional wars, corporate subsidies, and borrowing trillions from China for billionaire tax cuts don’t count. Examples of “massively wild spending by Democrats” include repairing bridges that fall down and paying for kids’ school lunches.

  96. 96

    @79 “Democrats have no interest in The American Dream.”

    Au contraire, Democrats believe the American Dream should be shared, not just a prerogative of a privileged few. That’s why we’re Democrats.

  100. 100

    Biden-voting counties equal 70% of America’s economy. If the red parts seceded, their economies would last for just weeks without Blue dollars

  103. 103

    Greed and racism must be blindingly powerful additions to keep supporting this loser.

    “Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta. Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!”

  104. 104

    2015: “LOCK HER UP!”
    2016: “LOCK HER UP!”
    2017: “LOCK HER UP!”
    2018: “LOCK HER UP!”
    2019: “LOCK HER UP!”
    2020: “LOCK HER UP!”
    2021: “LOCK HER UP!”
    2022: “LOCK HER UP!”
    2023: *Trump gets arrested and indicted*
    Hillary: 🤣
    Republicans: “STOP SHE’S LAUGHING AT US!”

  107. 107

    106)If THA hadn’t done it, they would have complained that Housing Authority employees couldn’t afford housing. Now, can the TFD find a way to have their fireboats crewed by Engine Companies that occasionally fire up the boat? I mean Seattle is always willing to provide mutual aid, but a vessel fire in Commencement Bay could be put out faster if the TFD arrives on scene faster.

  108. 108

    Having teased his mouth breather cult for a week about his big “Georgia election fraud report”, tonight Trump called it off and went into hiding.

    #HUHRDUHR

  109. 109

    DOJ filed their sentencing memo in the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy convictions.

    The people of the United States will be seeking 33 years for Tarrio and Biggs, 30 for Rehl, 27 for Nordean, and 20 for “Spazz” (Pezzola).

    Fuck.
    Me.

    Tarrio and Biggs being repeat customers is really fucking them up. Their prior convictions for serious offenses disqualify them from any early release or “good time” credits.

    Chicken Shit Shoveler would not see the world again until he’s in his 70s. That is some profound shit.

  114. 114

    Conservatives, do you realize that trump is running to avoid jail, and if he gets re elected, he will never leave office because then he would face jail. If you support him, you are electing a dictator for life.

  117. 117

    “A Florida man who attacked police officers with a flagpole during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol has been sentenced to four years in prison ….”

    https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4158409-man-who-attacked-officers-with-flagpole-on-jan-6-sentenced-to-4-years-in-prison/

    I hope it was worth it, asshole. The good news is you might get to vote in Florida again, thanks to that state’s liberal voters — but not in time for Trump’s 2024 comeback attempt.

  119. 119

    The least we can say about Trump’s canceled “blockbuster Georgia election fraud” press conference is that canceling it is still less humiliating than going through with it would have been.

  122. 122

    @ 118

    Tesla’s stock … sinking … sinking … sinking…

    And 3M has broken the Benjamin going the wrong way again. You’re down about 20% after losing 30% before selling the last time, right?

    I see that Citigroup is down once more. You’re down 30%, right?

    And then there’s AT&T at barely over 14 bucks. You were so happy when it was nearing $19 earlier this year. You must be down quite a bit on that one.

    At least you can celebrate your one-day GNRC gain, Mr. Ten Year Horizon.

  123. 123

    Mississippi continues to pull ahead of all the other racist assholes:

    Oh that’s special.. MS “LE” arrests a 10 year old hispanic boy for peeing against a post. They put the kid in a JAIL CELL.

    If widbee le caught kount kreepula and its buds whippin’ it out behind the vip room, widbee le would shout,

    “woo hoo a pissin’ contest! let’s join in!”

  124. 124

    123,
    It’s the totality of circumstances and conditions in a place like Mississippi.

    Had this kid’s mother been a little less together, the kid would have been held until seen by a local juvenile magistrate. And you gotta know what that means. These are fuckers with kickback deals to place kids like this into “contract” juvenile facilities where they are raped, tortured, and enslaved. They rent the kids out to go clean up construction sites, agricultural facilities, and abandoned houses and shit. It’s how Enrique Tarrio got his start in life. It’s how guys like that are made.

    In places like Mississippi, and to a lesser extent in most other places, these people in LE and criminal justice see their role this way. They see themselves as providing a service to their community by “keeping those people in check”. “Regulating” their behavior. And the community tends to approve of that, at least in terms of the general concept.

    No white parent wants to see their child categorized as a default problem that needs regulation and constant, oppressive, coercive correction. And they won’t stand for it. People of color deserve no less. It’s just another area where the police mindset has got to be completely changed because it is just entirely wrong. That’s not their “Spidey senses tingling”. That’s just garden variety bigotry.

  125. 125

    In Seattle people are paid to urinate in public. Mississippi should be more progressive.

  126. 126

    Adam Smith will be the first to tell you this.

    heh.. Adam Smith, the same Smith who said this:

    “This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments…”

    or

    “Our merchants and master-manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price of their goods both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent and regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.”

    Please tell us where Smith opined about money supply aggregates especially in the context of an economy freezing up because of a global pandemic that’s killed well over a million people in this country.

    That would speak so well to your “seriousness” and “intelligence”… yawwwn..

  127. 127

    123. Selective Policing. The boy was black so he had to go to jail. Just ask the greedy racist incel about the mindset that black people are guilty, the cops just don’t know for what yet.

  128. 128

    In Seattle people are paid to urinate in public.
    Need a link or the greedy racist incel is lying.

  129. 129

    In Seattle people are paid to urinate in public.

    prhaps you and your buds should meetup at Ricks in Lake City..

    Anything for a dollar amirite.. No worries about the cops here. They won’t join ya in your pissin’ contest.. They’ll just laugh and take pics and post them to instagram.

  130. 130

    Mississippi should be more progressive.

    Jailing a 10 year old for having an emergency is indeed a wise, klownservatic use of taxpayer funds.

    One for the annals of klownservaticism.. Bonzo is beaming from its grave.

  131. 131

    130,
    Stunning, isn’t it?

    It’s like a scene straight outta Till and the motherfucker just can’t help but try to defend it.
    So gross

  132. 132

    I can’t help myself. I just can’t.

    Anything at all having to do with Admiral Dildo News is absolutely fascinating to me. I just love that guy!

    Friday the Westchester County District Attorney confirmed a “hot tip” that the office was engaged in a criminal investigation into Admiral Dildo over allegations that he looted Project Veritas of large sums to spend on his personal expenses – among which almost certainly must have been included plenty of dildos, a healthy supply of bulking supplements and HGH, and a bunch of really appalling dance videos like this one.

    After he was implicated in an illegal scheme to publish a diary purportedly stolen from President Biden’s daughter, the backers and funders of Admiral Dildo’s media enterprise had reached their limit and abruptly removed him and locked him out of the place. What followed were allegations and recriminations from both sides that were just bog-standard Republican-grift-ugly, as they normally are. But as time passed the Project Veritas board became increasingly alarmed and outspoken as the workplace harassment lawsuits and unpaid bills began to pile up. (LPT: board members should go ahead and read those financial statements and maybe hire an auditor once in a while).

    So now in addition to a United States Attorney coming after him, Admiral Dildo is looking at some NY state financial fraud charges too.

    I hope they allow him to bring some of his costumes and dildos with him when he is taken into custody. It should really help relieve some of the stress in an overcrowded NY correctional system. Bon Voyage, Admiral!

    https://www.thenation.com/article/society/james-okeefe-criminal-investigation-project-veritas/

  133. 133

    @132 I fucking love it!

    and a bunch of really appalling dance videos like this one.

    On infinite repeat at teh widbee vip room..

  134. 134

    However kount kreepula and its vip room buds will be thrilled to no end over Veritas’ new leader:

    [Hannah] Giles is a wife and home-schooling mother of three children. Along with her husband, Joe Basel, she built a sustainable farm. She holds a black belt in Valente Brothers Jujutsu, and enjoys painting, drawing, raising packs of Livestock Guardian Dogs and training with her personal protection K9s.

    And she played the role of a scantily clad whore filmed walking away alongside a pos with pimp cane, brim and a chinchilla wrap.. kreepee klownservatics were hopelessly enraptured.

  135. 135

    Demorat-Pfizer National Committee Demorat Presidential Preference Poll;
    Preliminary Results:
    Biden – 683
    Kennedy – 2,946,021
    Others – 24,572
    Counting continues…
    Emergency!!! Water pipe breaks, entire DPNC building flooded, counting suspended…
    Good news comrades, it wasn’t a water pipe break, a Russian spy plugged up a toilet in the Persons Formerly Known As Women Restroom, counting continues…
    Final Results:
    Biden – 81,236,841
    Kennedy – 2,947,251
    Others – 27,284

  136. 136

    @135 right on cue, a big time Hannah Giles fan appears..

  139. 139

    134, 136,

    Giles just fired the entire PV staff.

    Seriously.

    I think the whole thing was and is set up as classic Republican grift.
    As a 501c3 their operation was a fraud to take “charitable” donor funds for the personal inurement of the folks at the top. PV went from something like $100,000 in donations at the beginning to $30 million in the blink of an eye. They paid no taxes. And by running huge personal use expenses through the charity as “operating” expenses, the principals were also avoiding tax.

    Now they’ve gone into liquidation phase. And Giles is just playing a role to keep the mouth breather’s wallets open for a few more months. I’ll bet she collected her fee up front. They’ll be gone by Christmas and the remaining money will go into a legal defense fund. They’re going to need it.

  140. 140

    Not so much an error as prescience. It’ll be correct soon enough.

    CBS News
    @CBSNews
    A previous tweet contained an error that had “former” before President Biden. It has been corrected.
    2:00 PM · Aug 18, 2023

  142. 142

    Christopher Worrell, 52, of Naples, Florida, was supposed to be sentenced Friday after being found guilty of spraying pepper spray gel on police officers, as part of the mob storming the Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence him to 14 years.

    But nobody LEO got killed that day.

  143. 143

    @141 He suffered from The Heterosexual Neanderthal Virus….be proud of yourself Jason.

  144. 144

    Ahhhh yes, it wasn’t a hard fishing venture, it never is. This happens wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy wayayayayayayayayayay toooooooooooo toooooooooo often. The Heterosexual Neanderthal Virus has taken more lives and more resorces from the taxpayer. If cops are beating black people they’re picking up the mess of The Hetersexual Neanderthals.

    This violent group of individuals should seek help. The Hetersexual Neanderthal Virus is an STD.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12417895/Oklahoma-murders-wife-three-children-gun-horrific-murder-suicide.html

    Time for the Friday Night Comics!

  147. 147

    141,

    He tried that in a small town.

    Five prior convictions, each and every one for forcible sexual abuse – attempted.

    Obviously a Trump voter.

    ‘nother

  148. 148

    “Coastal cities in the southern US, including Miami, Houston and New Orleans, are in even greater peril from sea-level rise than scientists already feared, according to new analysis. What experts are calling a dramatic surge in ocean levels has taken place along the US south-eastern and Gulf of Mexico coastline since 2010 …. [A] University of Arizona study … provides an alarming new assessment ….”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/10/sea-level-rise-climate-crisis-miami-new-orleans

    We’ve all seen the maps; Florida is destined to become an underwater reef. Should we care about climate-denier assholes in Florida? Should we let them in or turn them away when they become climate refugees?

  150. 150

    149,
    Only if it provides us with an opportunity to assign to a top bunk in a cell block filled with violent human predators.

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