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Bill’s Commentary:
“Do you really own your house or condo if an HOA can do this …not to mention skyrocketing taxes?”
Bill’s Commentary:
“From the “elite” royal highness or excellency, or whatever he’d like to be called The Pope! Maybe he should read the US Constitution and Bill of Rights to understand God given rights versus elite assholes trying to play god…?”
Pope decries populists, warns democracy is in bad health
Pope Francis denounced populist politics and what he called “the dross of ideology” on Sunday, warning that democracy was not in good shape in many parts of the world.
The 87-year-old pope was in the northeastern city of Trieste for a flying visit, his fourth trip within Italy in just over two months as he prepares for a 12-day journey across Asia in September, the longest of his papacy.
Speaking at an annual Roman Catholic convention on social affairs, Francis said many people felt excluded from democracy, with the poor and the weak left to fend for themselves.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Don’t tell me, they had water leaks all over the country and then had to “secretly” count ballots?”
SHOCK French Exit Poll Shows Far Left Bloc Winning; Right-Wing National Rally Takes Third.
The far-left New Popular Front (NPF), a leftist coalition, appears to have emerged victorious in the second round of France’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, with the right wing National Rally (RN) securing third place, initial exit polls have claimed.
Preliminary results indicate that the NPF has gained between 170 to 190 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly. President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble bloc is anticipated to take 150 to 170 seats, placing it in the second position. The RN is expected to win between 135 to 155 seats.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Why does anyone act surprised? The guy never campaigned in 2020 yet got more votes than any president in US history. He was a bumbler back then and apparently has slid further as he got older …but people are shocked?”
Western Elites Have a Reality Problem
Joe Biden’s debate performance is not, and should not be seen as, a personal failure, but as another example of the systemic institutional breakdown that drives the populist revolt across the globe.
By vigorously denying the president’s obvious decline, liberals in the legacy media tried to make us believe something that obviously was untrue. The people who claim to want to protect Americans from disinformation and American institutions from being destroyed actively worked in direct opposition to the truth and, in doing so, undermined faith in one of the nation’s most iconic institutions — the office of the president of the United States.
Most people engage with reality pragmatically, not politically. We focus on solving the challenges of day-to-day life functionally, not as an ideological construct. We don’t make believe, we make do. We exist in a real world filled with actual challenges to be overcome, and we use our talents and willpower to make our lives better and achieve our personal dreams.
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The latest from USA Watchdog –
Bill’s Commentary:
“Your tax dollars at work again!”
House Judiciary: Taxpayers funding border crisis, services to illegal foreign nationals
(The Center Square) – Taxpayers are not only funding the border crisis, but they are also paying for numerous free services illegal foreign nationals receive, according to a new report published by the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.
The committee blames the Biden administration in its new report, “Chauffeur at the Border, Concierge in the Interior: How the Biden Administration Rewards Illegal Aliens on the Taxpayers’ Dime” for costs to U.S. taxpayers.
It also notes that Congress, including Republicans, voted to fund the programs it identified as wasting taxpayer money and facilitating the border crisis when Congress passed an omnibus appropriations bill in March that President Joe Biden signed into law.
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Bill’s Commentary:
“Erik outlines a situation with where nearly all endings are bad endings…”
The latest from Erik –
Bill’s Commentary:
“A shocker? I thought this was a given in today’s world?”
‘Key to Revolving Door’: FDA Tells Staff Who Leave for Pharma Jobs They Can Work ‘Behind the Scenes’ to Influence Agency
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) informs departing workers that they can still influence the agency’s decision-making after leaving their position to work for the pharmaceutical industry, a new investigation by The BMJ revealed.
According to an internal email obtained by The BMJ, the FDA told departing staffer Doran Fink, M.D., Ph.D. — who had reviewed COVID-19 vaccines while working at the FDA and who had accepted a job at Moderna — that although U.S. law prohibits some forms of lobbying contact between former FDA workers who leave to join the private sector, they “do not prohibit the former employee from other activities, including working ‘behind the scenes.’”
Peter Doshi, Ph.D., who wrote The BMJ’s July 1 report, told The Defender he was surprised to see “just how proactive FDA is at informing departing employees of their ability to work behind the scenes post-FDA.”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Thought provoking on the 4th of July”
Twilight’s Last Gleaming
When a presidential debate devolves into an argument over golf scores and afterward the public argues about the candidates’ mental acuity or personal honesty, when the question for voters is who is the sharper debater rather than who would be more faithful to the Constitution, when both major party candidates support mass surveillance, undeclared foreign wars and borrowing trillions of dollars a year to fund a bloated government, nearly all of which is nowhere countenanced by the Constitution, we can safely conclude that personal liberty in our once free society has been radically diminished and is in the twilight of its existence.
Bill’s Commentary:
“This will be a housing crash for the ages!”
What’s the Cost of Mortgage-Rate Buydowns and Other Incentives to Homebuilders? Lennar Discloses the Numbers
When mortgage rates rose to 6% and then 7%, sales of existing homes plunged by close to 40% from 2021 and by over 30% from 2019 because sellers refused to cut their prices enough to make 7% mortgages work, and buyers lost interest. Commercial real estate has been repricing properties, and the haircuts are massive. But home sellers are not in the mood. They’re going to wait this out or whatever. So sales have plunged even as active listings and supply have risen to the highest in years.
Homebuilders, however, have to build and sell houses regardless of how high mortgage rates are, that’s their business, they cannot wait out anything. So they have gone on an aggressive program of buying down mortgage rates, even for the entire term of the mortgage (“permanent”), and of throwing in other incentives, such as free upgrades and closing-cost pickups. And sales have held up.
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Bill’s Commentary:
“Any questions?”
Bill’s Commentary:
“I for one am shocked! Didn’t Dick Cheney tell us that deficits don’t matter?”
Bill’s Commentary:
“It’s OK, they are saving Democracy!”
Biden Regime Operatives Stalk Journalist, Block Interviews With Voters at Campaign Stop
The Most Transparent Administration in History™, as the marketing slogan goes, is now, right out in the open, in broad daylight, hounding journalists — even state-sanctioned journalists from the beloved New York Times — so as to prevent them from discovering and reporting that voters have eyes and ears, who were none too impressed with the Brandon entity’s on-stage total apocalyptic meltdown last Thursday night.
Bill’s Commentary:
“And then one day, it just appeared in your backyard!”
Satellite Images Show Expansion of Suspected Chinese Spy Bases in Cuba
WASHINGTON—Images captured from space show the growth of Cuba’s electronic eavesdropping stations that are believed to be linked to China, including new construction at a previously unreported site about 70 miles from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, according to a new report.
The study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, follows reporting last year by The Wall Street Journal that China and Cuba were negotiating closer defense and intelligence ties, including establishing a new joint military training facility on the island and an eavesdropping facility.
At the time, the Journal reported that Cuba and China were already jointly operating eavesdropping stations on the island, according to U.S. officials, who didn’t disclose their locations. It couldn’t be determined which, if any, of those are included in the sites covered by the CSIS report.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Ooops!”
How thousands of Americans got caught in fintech’s false promise and lost access to bank accounts
When Natasha Craft first got a Yotta banking account in 2021, she loved using it so much she told her friends to sign up.
The app made saving money fun and easy, and Craft, a now 25-year-old FedEx driver from Mishawaka, Indiana, was busy getting her financial life in order and planning a wedding. Craft had her wages deposited directly into a Yotta account and used the startup’s debit card to pay for all her expenses.
The app — which gamifies personal finance with weekly sweepstakes and other flashy features — even occasionally covered some of her transactions.
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Bill’s Commentary:
“I would say the flood gates just opened?”
Jury fines BlueCross for firing worker over COVID-19 vaccine mandate
A Tennessee jury has awarded a former research scientist at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee $687,000 in back pay and damages after she was fired in 2021 for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
Following a three-day jury trial in Chattanooga last week, a federal jury decided BlueCross failed to provide reasonable accommodation for Tanja Benton, who did most of her work from home and claimed a religious exemption to the company’s vaccine mandate.
Chattanooga Attorney Doug S. Hamill, who represents Benton, said the biostatistical research scientist was fired in November 2021 in violation of her religious beliefs after working for the Chattanooga-based health insurer for nearly six and a half years. Benton said she believed the COVID-19 vaccines are derived from aborted fetus cell lines.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Another country repatriates their gold from the West …hmmm?”
Even Nigeria Plans to Bring Gold Reserves Home to Minimize Risk
Even Nigeria is now bringing its gold reserves home to keep it safe from the West.
According to a report by The Star, Nigerian officials decided to repatriate the country’s gold in April “to mitigate risks associated with the weakening U.S. economy.”
“Economic indicators such as rising inflation, escalating debt levels, and geopolitical tensions have raised apprehensions among Nigerian policymakers about the stability of the U.S. financial system.”
Nigeria holds about 21 tons of gold in its reserves.
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Bill’s Commentary:
“I did not know this had happened, but I have thought for years that current history could be digitally erased similar to a “book burning”. It looks like that thought process was not far off the mark?”
LIBBY EMMONS: The encroaching digital dark age begins with the erasure of MTV News
When I was a kid I really wanted to know things. I would ride my ten-speed to the library in our little suburban Massachusetts town, say “hi” to Mrs. Johnson the librarian, and scour the card catalog to find things I didn’t know. I liked maps and old history. I liked fiction and stories about girls my age. I liked tales of adventure told by great American men. As I grew up, my obsession with libraries was unceasing and I discovered that if you looked deep enough, there were records of everything. In college, I poured over microfilm of old issues of The New York Times or defunct old news outlets like the Philadelphia Tribune that were kept in storage but hadn’t been publishing for years, sometimes decades. Kids who are hungry for knowledge of the past will find gaping holes in those records: all beginning with the erasure of MTV News.Bill’s Commentary:
“Pretty much spot on!”
Surprise, Surprise!
“Joe Biden is the walking embodiment of the exhausted American Establishment. More and more people have simply lost their faith in our Ruling Class. You could scarcely have a more potent symbol of its impotence.” — Rod Dreher
Just before the weekend, a political prairie fire raced across a nation buffaloed, blind-sided, and buried deeply in bullshit, and the little critters who inhabit the landscape are still running around with their fur smoldering. What a surprise that “Joe Biden,” the mentally-disabled pretend-president, fell apart in the debate spotlight for all to see, like Captain Queeg in his fateful witness chair, or William Jennings Bryan at the Scopes trial (1925), or the Wizard of Oz when little Toto drew the curtain back — a brutal revelation of stark truth about how things actually are.
Bill’s Commentary:
“As we approach July 4th, I don’t think this is exactly what our founding fathers had in mind? But, if AOC is “butthurt”, it might make the BBQ taste a little better?”
AOC threatens to IMPEACH all six conservative Supreme Court Justices after Trump immunity ruling
Squad leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that she plans on impeaching the six conservative Justices on the Supreme Court for their ruling in Donald Trump‘s presidential immunity case.
The conservative 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court ruled Monday a president does have immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts in a monumental decision.
The ruling kicks the decision on whether Trump intentionally tried to subvert the 2020 election results back to a Washington, D.C., judge – and will likely delay the trial until after the November election in a ‘big win’ for the former president.
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Bill’s Commentary:
“Mark my words, this will be used to tell you after the crash “but we warned you”!”
The Fed and FDIC Wake Up Suddenly to the Threat of Derivatives, Flunking the Four Largest Derivative Banks on their Wind-Down Plans
Since the financial crash of 2008 and the Fed’s multi-trillion dollar bank bailouts that followed, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has been waving a giant red flag every quarter in its “Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities” reports. For sixteen years the OCC has been reporting that just four megabanks are responsible for more than 80 percent of the trillions of dollars in bank derivatives.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Weekend comedy!”
CDC Recommends New COVID-19 Vaccines for Nearly All Americans
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 27 recommended forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines for virtually all Americans.
“CDC recommends everyone ages 6 months and older receive an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 this fall and winter whether or not they have ever previously been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine,” the agency said in a statement.
The COVID-19 vaccines now available, which are also broadly recommended, target the XBB.1.5 strain. But observational data indicate they provide short-lived protection against COVID-19 infection and hospitalization.
Bill’s Commentary:
“Update; I posted the below commentary and chart last weekend regarding silver, it is still valid. We are a week out from this writing and things still look similar if not better as we have another week of building the base. I believe within a week to 10 days, the MACD at the bottom of the chart will form another hook, and then crossover to the upside. With all of the surrounding financial, political, and geopolitical catastrophes building, my target of $34-37 in the medium term may end up being modest?”
”Is silver bouncing exactly where it is supposed to? $29 is support from the previous highs back in April and also support from the 50 day moving average. Given a week or so, this looks like we may see another “hook” in the MACD turning upwards and crossing over. I think we could see at $34-37 on this next leg but we need to see more work done here digging off support. In any case, a very big move either up, or down is in the cards as we have spent nearly 3 weeks chopping in the $29-31 zone, not overbought nor oversold on the daily’s and coiled for a move one way or the other. Add the fundamentals where silver is in a structural deficit and a snorting bull market/major short squeeze looks likely. Stay tuned!”
Bill’s Commentary:
“Erik on Socialism vs Capitalism”
The latest from Erik –
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Bill’s Commentary:
“”Someone” holds the debt on these to be empty towers, the losses will be eaten by “someone”…”
Moody’s Predicts 24% Of Office Towers Will Be Vacant By 2026
A new report from Moody’s offers yet another grim outlook that the commercial real estate downturn is nowhere near the bottom. Elevated interest rates and persistent remote and hybrid working trends could result in around 24% of all office towers standing vacant within the next two years. The office tower apocalypse will result in more depressed values that will only pressure landlords.
“Combining these insights, with our more than 40 years of historic office performance data, as well as future employment projections, our model indicates that the impact on office demand from work from home will be around 14% on average across a 63- month period, resulting in vacancy rates that peak in early 2026 at approximately 24% nationally,” Moody’s analysts Todd Metcalfe, Anthony Spinelli, and Thomas LaSalvia wrote in the report.
Bill’s Commentary:
“The election process certainly got much more interesting last night! I see no possible way that Joe Biden is on the ballot in November. James Howard Kunstler has an interesting take linked below. In my opinion, if anything, last night’s trainwreck upped the odds in my opinion that we actually do have an election, but not by much… The reason being, I am not sure that Joe Biden can even finish the current term, there will be (already are) calls from the left for him to step down and be replaced by another candidate. I do not believe there are any candidates out there that can whip up enough excitement or support in 130 days to get within “the margin of cheating” to be believable …with one exception, Michelle Obama. In my opinion, this debate was scheduled as the earliest debate ever, and before both conventions, to leave time for a replacement candidate. I still believe that the occurrence of an election is at best a 50/50 or slightly higher proposition. My fear is this, there has been so much crime behind the scenes that they will have to kick the table completely over, so that no “investigations” can be made. One thing I am sure of, the potential for armed conflict and WWIII rose greatly last night. Whether it be that foreign adversaries now see the US as a rudderless entity (and a greatly diminished power) or as I said, an internal kick of the table via false flag, the entire world just got more risky in the first 2 minutes of that debate. I believe markets, ALL markets, will reflect this higher risk over the next 4 months. Time will tell!”
Joe Biden Catches Cold
Maybe ninety-seconds into last night’s long-awaited debate spectacle, the consensus must have jelled among the woke-and-broken news media mavens that their champion, “Joe Biden,” was not quite killing it out there at the podium. CNN moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash acted like witnesses at a ritual sacrifice. And afterward, the CNN post-mortem panel seemed genuinely shocked that months of playing pretend had skidded to such an ignominious finish.
Which raises a great many questions, starting with: why on earth did the Democratic Party and its media handmaidens persist in pretending month-after-month that “Joe Biden” was a fit candidate for another four-year term? Last night, he didn’t appear capable of even finishing the current term. Why did they usher him so jauntily into the nomination? And what are they going to do about that now? And what were their motives for all that pretending? “Joe Biden” circulates among scores of astute officials every day. Did they all fail to notice his incapacity? Or has the whole thing been a sham and a lie all along? Was this just the culminating hoax by the Party of Hoaxes of a long string of hoaxes against the nation going back to 2015?
Bill’s Commentary:
“This is pretty scary!”
DATA ANALYSIS: MORE BANKS AT RISK OF FAILURE AS CRE LOANS REPRICE
More than 60 of the largest banks in the country are at increased risk of failure due to their commercial real estate (CRE) exposures, according to a data analysis from a finance expert at Florida Atlantic University.
Sixty-seven banks have exposure to commercial real estate greater than 300% of their total equity, as reported in their first quarter 2024 regulatory data and shown by the U.S. Banks’ Exposure to Risk from Commercial Real Estate screener.
“This is a very serious development for our banking system as commercial real estate loans are repricing in a high interest-rate environment,” said Rebel Cole, Ph.D., Lynn Eminent Scholar Chaired Professor of Finance in FAU’s College of Business. “With commercial properties selling at serious discounts in the current market, banks eventually are going to be forced by regulators to write down those exposures.”
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Bill is interviewed by Liberty and Finance (Also posted under Interviews)
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Bill’s Commentary:
“In case you were wondering, this is why Julian Assange was jailed.”
10 most controversial exposé by WikiLeaks founded by Julian Assange.
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