Worried

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

You guys tend to get the impression that I’m Mary Sunshine. At least I assume so, from how hard some of you try to spook me/worry me.

The point is I worry just fine on my own, thank you so much. I’m a raging depressive, and I inherited the paranoia from Mom’s side of the family. I wake up knowing that the world is ending in mere minutes, and that everyone is going to blame me for it.

I’m not actually joking when I say I spent years psyching myself up before entering parties, large meetings, or rooms where I was supposed to be on a panel by saying “Of course they don’t all hate you, you idiot. Most of them don’t know you. They have to know you before they can hate you.”

I apply this type of reasoning to just about everything that panics me or depresses me, which might create the erroneous impression I don’t know things can go wrong, or how badly things can go, or–

This is why I don’t get spooked at things like ante-fa. Because I was spooked, then I poked around and saw that they only operated in areas where the authorities were on their side. And even then, they couldn’t spread thinner than 3 cities or so at a time. This tells you it’s no groundswell movement. Heck, it’s not even as big as the fairly manufactured unrest of the 70s. Because of the way that the news and media worked back then, the people on the street seemed to feel more sympathy for the 70s bs than anyone does now. (No. I don’t know if that was true or the fact that the media and news of the time lent themselves to manipulating the history of the period, as well.)

Or the reason I didn’t lose all hope in people over the Covidiocy. Yeah, I know. It sure did seem like everyone was onboard. Only we drove if not quite coast to coast close enough, which allowed us to see how widely the nonsense was ignored, and how p*ssed people were on it. After all, it’s very easy to think everyone is onboard with it when places like Twitter and Facebook were censoring any posts questioning it. (At the order of the administration — bah. What DDR bullsh*t.)

This is the reason I know the groyper bs isn’t taking hold pretty much anywhere except with the extremely online showing how extremely online they are and edgy. And bots. And foreigners. And foreign bots. Because the general attitudes on the street haven’t changed. (I talk to EVERYONE. Inquisitive ditsy granny. And Dan has always talked to everyone. Even worse (le gasp) I listen in on everyone’s conversations, in grocery stores and diners and … everywhere, really. I count it as part of my preparation to write, but it sure does help with reality check.

Sometimes it’s glaringly obvious the difference between online and normal street level interest in something. De Santis won the online poll for president. Everyone knew Trump was past and DeSantis was the new, new thing. And then– And then it wasn’t a thing. Which I knew because repairmen and store clerks responded to DeSantis name with “Who?” The more informed said “The guy in Florida?” but the less informed asked if he was a singer. There was no way that was going to beat Trump’s name recognition. This is beyond any merit. I’m not going to debate the merits (again) and I never even got into the merits. Why? Because it didn’t matter. No one was going to be able to roar Trump off the track in 2024. And the democrats made it impossible for him NOT to run and to stay home playing with his grandkids. But I remember the meltdowns when I told you this. And all I was saying was “it doesn’t matter. It’s all online and it’s memorex.”

In the same way, I’m not crazy worried about illegal immigration. Yes, I know the elites had the bright idea of replacing Americans with malleable foreigners. But other than some crazy enclaves that tide as turning, and the crazy enclaves won’t be able to keep it up forever. I have the advantage, perhaps, of having seen this abroad too. People are fed up with the mass immigration thing. All over the world. And the sentiment has percolated. People are resisting.

As for the US, if anything the situation was worse than anyone thought. But I can see the shift. On the street, on the ground. How many are self-deporting? How many more will leave as benefits dry up?

Things are becoming clear around the edges, sideways. Like, apparently we were paying for most of the “insurrection” and the left “resistance” which puts an entirely new spin on everything. I mean, communists have always done revolution for wealth, but I didn’t realize it was all being funded on the back of the American taxpayer.

Are there still things that worry me? Of course there are. Some of them panic-worry me.

Take Trump’s idea of sending a 2k check to every American or or 50 year mortgages. TBF he always talked of profit sharing, and he’s also speaking of paying back the debt. Still, it’s a bad precedent, and a bad thing from the inflation pov.

Then there’s the 50 year mortgages, just as the prices were starting to go down on houses. what’s next? Generational mortgages as in Japan?

Actually I DO know what’s driving this. They need — NEED — the economy to be okay by the midterms. And since most of what they’re doing takes effort and TIME they’re trying to do some cheap magic tricks up front, to take the pressure off.

I wish them well, but I worry.

I also worry about the obviously still rigged vote, and the fact that any of hundreds of federal judges can now tell the President what to do, including on matters of military command. That is utter nonsense and if it goes on, it actively damages the republic to a level nothing else can.

Except to avoid appearing a dictator, Trump has to let this play and only the (compromised, you know they are) court can stop the nonsense. Will they? I worry.

I assure you that I have days of bottoming-out worry, which is when the close-in-readers discord group throws chinchillas at me.

NOTE the Chinchilla has a really large walking stick to thump me on the head with.

What’s holding me together with those worries? Well, this is not the Trump of 2016. It’s not even the Trump of 2020.

I don’t trust experts, but I do trust “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” and Trump was bitten and bitten hard. He’s not only seen the elephant, he’s gotten a kick from the front paw.

And sure, he’s older, but he’s not stupid. And he knows his safety and the safety of his family literally ride on his being able to pass the presidency to a friendly. And probably getting a bigger majority in 2026.

And that’s the thread of hope I’m holding onto. I’ll add that for the last 11 months by and large the administration has been ahead of my worries, and stopping them in ways I can’t even tell.

And they still have datarepublican up their sleeve.

Let’s consider that everything seems to be coming apart because it is: it’s coming apart for left, because their entire method of controlling “reality” and making their theories seem plausible or their system possible and inevitable. Without controlling information, they can’t control people or maintain their grip on regions, let alone the country.

Yes, they still have power. Yes, they are going to “win” some. But they’re no longer the big scary. The truth is they never were. We were just financing the war on … us.

This is the chinchilla of hope on its way to you.

Does this mean I don’t worry? People. I’m a nervibore. I live on my nerves. of course I worry.

But I fact check my worries. And right now the prognosis is cautiously optimistic, but frustrated.

232 thoughts on “Worried”

  1. “Because of the way that the news and media worked back then, the people on the street seemed to feel more sympathy for the 70s bs than anyone does now. (No. I don’t know if that was true or the fact that the media and news of the time lent themselves to manipulating the history of the period, as well.)”

    As someone who was in my 20’s then, I can tell you it was fake then as well.

    Liked by 3 people

      1. That was exactly my reaction when I first heard him.
        Back then, every issue was presented in a standard way. The preferred opinion would be presented by three or four “experts” – professors, think tank reps, and so on. The conservative opinion would usually be presented by an obvious crank or incompetent. The actual arguments against the preferred opinion weren’t ever brought up, even when they were obvious. Until Rush. No wonder they hated him

        Liked by 5 people

        1. I was infuriated by all the chin-tugging puzzlement on NPR over the rise of the Tea Party. The powers of the news-gathering machinery over there couldn’t be arsed to actually … call up one of the local larger Tea Party organizations, and talk to one of their leaders, or one of those folks (like myself!) who had been designated media reps, to answer and explain Tea Party concerns. Oh, no – they had to call up one of their so-called “experts” (usually an academic of some stripe or other, who was part of their golden expert rolodex) who usually didn’t have a clue) and would reliably blather a few usable newsbites.
          I think eventually, I heard an interview with a woman who actually was with a big local Tea Party org, and she gave a wonderful account of herself and the goals of the movement – but it was months later.

          Liked by 3 people

          1. Oh, no, everybody knows those weren’t their real goals, just what they told the rubes to keep them in line. Only the Experts! can figure out what they’re really up to. 😡
            ———————————
            They’re the Experts! They only sound stupid to you because you’re not as Educated as they are.

            Liked by 2 people

        1. A woman was staying at a hippie sort of place — in the 70s, I think. Only she and one other person actually had a job. Someone lent her Atlas Shrugged. She was caught reading it and responded to deprecation by saying it was pretty good.

          Shortly thereafter she returned from her job to find she had the run of the place. Everyone, including the other employed person, had decamped.

          Liked by 1 person

      1. It took the APOLLO program to get the ratfinks issue a correction owed to Robert Goddard (&team) about how rockets couldn’t work in space as there was nothing for them push against in a vacuum.

        Never mind that many things, even before Gemini and Mercury proved them so very wrong.

        NYT – unfit to line birdcages, for the birds deserve better.

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  2. “I’m not actually joking when I say I spent years psyching myself up before entering parties, large meetings, or rooms where I was supposed to be on a panel…”

    It’s not an uncommon problem for writers. Joe Straczynski famously doesn’t even talk in normal gatherings. He confessed that he created the character of J. Michael Straczynski to be his public persona.

    Liked by 2 people

        2. Meh. Just because I’m neurodivergente it doesn’t mean I’m superior. Also divergent compared to what?
          I’m of the opinion none of us are quite standard. Some of us are just MORE aware of it, being more self-aware.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. But you’re supposed to be a good little obedient victim, Sarah!

            They threw all the words at you to make you mad about Being Controlled, why aren’t you reacting as they want you to!!?

            Liked by 1 person

              1. I have questions about the folks who go about complaining how their parents oppressed them by… teaching them methods that work for functioning in normal society.

                The funniest, to me, is the gal who had a job at college helping not quite functional enough to live on their own autistics learn to function.

                And she realized that she was autistic, just so was her whole family so they’d taught her how to function.

                And so now she’s mad at her parents for oppressing her.

                :eyeroll:

                Liked by 5 people

                1. My eldest is autistic, and about the only reason that’s at all relevant is that he has a good chance for annoying the crap out of his college roommates. (It’s the one-note humming that’s going to drive them bonkers, I bet. I’ve already told him to take advantage of any gym facilities so that his pacing doesn’t make the whole dorm hate him.)

                  Liked by 4 people

                    2. The only thing that has caused my husband to threaten violence upon me.
                      The between-the-teeth whistling we’ve identified as “Sarah doesn’t know she’s in pain” just results in “Sarah, please, you’re doing it again.”

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                    3. I don’t hum a note. I sing! Songs! Multiple! At the same time! And mangle the words and music all together! It’s enough to make a music lover yell at me, “I don’t care if you mangle the words or the music, but stick to 1 song at a time!!”

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                  1. I speak from experience. There are many, many things my parents should have taught me and deliberately didn’t, from proper conversational manners to how to be well-dressed to driving a car, and they had knock-on effects that dramatically impact my life to this day.

                    These days I am mostly functional, by dint of much hard work and too many hard knocks. But office politics have defeated me.

                    Liked by 1 person

                    3. And once again, I am so glad I’m Odd on both sides going back generations… and our families actually talk. There’s new stuff, but the idea of needing a work-around is a given.

                      There are so many things that I had no idea other families didn’t do, like the pre-meeting-people run down of “do not talk about this, this or that, and for heaven’s sake don’t ask about this other thing.” Generally with follow-up explainers suitable for our level.

                      We still surprised my folks, often– sometimes doing good, like when I hacked the thermostat for the oil furnace by lowering the ambient temp since we weren’t allowed to touch it– but “people are weird, here’s some tools to try to figure out how to interface with them with the least pain” idea was there.

                      Liked by 2 people

                    4. Soo…. I keep meaning to buy your books (mostly on the strength of how much I love Embers), but I can never remember the name you actually write them under. Could you point me?

                      Liked by 1 person

                    5. Net of Dawn and Bones and the latest one. I want to say The Words of the Night, but I’m bad at titles. I mean, I gave No Man’s Land to someone as “Man something.”
                      …. they bought A Few Good Men. Sigh. Not the same.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    7. Even though I only use my first name here, I count on people clicking or at least hovering over my avatar to find my full name and blog plus links to my books. It does drive me crazy with all the people who use familiar aliases here.

                      I’m pretty sure I’ve met Foxfier at LibertyCon, but darned if I remember her real name. I finally decided to make a list. I can now remind myself who Txred and crossovercreativechaos are, but I’ve got a list of 10 more names that came immediately to mind, and I can’t remember/or maybe never have known who they are IRL. It’s like dep729. I have to be reminded that she’s the one with the career in forestry in the Northwest. Of course there may be good reasons, other than just fun, for folks using aliases here, but, if you’re an author, please tell me who you really are.

                      Probably stupid of me since I’ve already got a stack of 10 books waiting to be read. But then I’m known to be stupid, or at least self-defeating.

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                    13. Me? Not an author. My ‘handle’? I’m just lazy. It is my initials. Heck I started out with “d” because I could get away with it both by WP and Sarah. Until WP got snippy and required me to actually have an account. I could use my first/last name. Done a “self name search”. Too common name. Never did find “me”.

                      Liked by 2 people

                    14. I seem to recall reading comments by you when you were just “d”. Frank Hood is not a particularly common name, but last time I checked (a few years ago) there were 500 Frank Hoods on LinkedIn. One guy is the mattress king of South Carolina. There’s also a fellow author who writes about life aboard submarines. I considered adding my middle initial to my author’s name, but me and my ego just decided I was going to bury him with lots of content.

                      Also, Gurgle drives me crazy with their decision to ignore punctuation. I have one guy who shares my name and whose receipts I sometimes get because he signed up with stores using my email name without the dot between my first and last names. Even more annoying is that I have a standing weekly search for my and my wife’s name. She wrote under her initials (S. T. Gaffney). That leads to Gurgle notifying me of every death in Gaffney South Carolina. (So and so lived on 666 Main St. Gaffney, SC. Send flowers to….)

                      Modern Black culture in this country seems to be ahead of the internet curve because so many of them seem to make up unique first names for their kids.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    15. When I search under my birth name. I still can’t “find me” on google. You’d think so because last name is extremely uncommon in the west, and Oregon specifically. As I’m related to almost everyone in Oregon that shares it (down to *9 from high of 22-ish, growing up). There was one family, also in Eugene, that had the same name we weren’t related to. But the name is very much not common down south. With a common first name as in “**which one”, searches on my name, only brings up about 10, none of them are me.

                      (*) Marriages out (me, sister’s, cousins), deaths of prior generations, last one being uncle. Newest generation that is most likely to carry on the name, is two.

                      (**) One doctor appointment at a hospital specialty clinic, out of < 12 people waiting, “next appointment for Diane”, four of us stood up. In chorus “which one”.

                      Liked by 2 people

                    16. One doctor appointment at a hospital specialty clinic, out of < 12 people waiting, “next appointment for Diane”, four of us stood up. In chorus “which one”.

                      Back in elementary school (Catholic so there were 60 of us all in one classroom for the whole day) we had 5 Richards. One was Richard, one was Dick, one was Rick, one was Ricky. I forget what we called the 5th one. :)

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                    18. Google manages to ignore stuff in their email addresses.

                      There’s a guy whose name and nickname matches my name and initials. I regularly get his emails, in spite of the punctuation involved. Including ones that he had to click through to verify that he had access to the email account, so it couldn’t be a typo, and I’ve actually called his kids’ uniform shop to tell them they had to use a phone to get the uniforms picked up, because that email was going to me at the moment. It worked before and after that point. But…eh, google.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    19. Nope, I haven’t made it to Liberty Con yet– but just to add to confusion, I am one of those short, dark haired, bespectacled gals who has folks “recognize” her in places she’s never been, with the luck to run into folks hundreds of miles from where they “should” be, and the lack of skill with names to not quickly know the difference. :D

                      Crossover is Vathara (fanfiction author) and C. Chancy (print author), while pretty red kitty is published as Alma T. C. Boykin.

                      Liked by 2 people

          2. You don’t seem neurodivergent to me.

            (I basically object to the theoretical underpinnings and also the practice of the idea of neurodivergent.)

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    2. My mom, God bless her, sincerely believed that everyone was watching her, waiting for her to make a mistake, so they could talk about her behind her back. She might not have put it that way, but that was the result.

      I don’t know how many times she walked in on conversations among her “friends,” and found that happening, but I suspect at least once. It took me a long time to realize she inadvertently taught me to believe I must have made a bad impression and noone would want to be around me.

      Liked by 2 people

      2. I never felt that. I wonder if that’s a female vs. male thing, or if it’s just because, despite two brothers and both parents, I felt alone my whole time growing up. I always knew I was the one no one understood. Sometimes they even told me that.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. “Watching for me to fail”?

            Nope, I thought everybody was against me and working against me.

            I’ve gotten better.

            Liked by 1 person

          2. Well, THAT’S pathological and known as paranoid delusional. It’s due to an overweening sense of self-importance. I was talking about the more normal, “Who are they gossiping about now, me?” that is common with gaggles of women because when 3 or more women are gathered, gossip commences. :)

            Liked by 1 person

            1. On the other hand, it’s also a rational response to being in an environment where a significant portion of those around you will gleefully spin anything you do into a reason you are an acceptable target of abuse, and the majority won’t even do a basic sanity check before joining in on the declared Valid Target.

              Liked by 3 people

              1. Fortunately I’ve never been in that kind of an environment. I have had people out to get me, and others who willfully misinterpret an innocent comment from others. Those things I cleared up because I had an established reputation among a large group of peers. It also required me standing up, and just forthrightly speaking the truth, but not in a defensive way.

                My sincerest sympathy for your or anyone subject to what you describe.

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                1. I’m lucky, I had pretty good backup from my family so I could recognize it’s a Them problem– but what I describe is a fairly standard situation in public schools, and a lot of inward focused social/work areas, and in social media.

                  Reading old stuff about academic social circles was amazingly enlightening to it being an existing flaw in human nature.

                  Liked by 4 people

                  1. “…what I describe is a fairly standard situation in public schools”

                    So it is. I remember a Ray Bradbury story whose details I only vaguely recall. The gist was that a father managed magically to switch places with his young school-age son, so said son would not have to experience the bullying and ostracism that he knew came with the artificially enforced association of same-age boys and girls.

                    It’s hard enough dealing with your siblings who at least share some bonds of affection towards you, but the public schools are a menace IMHO.

                    Liked by 1 person

                  2. I read an article on primate behavior a few years back that had bullying in the female sphere of a particular primate species, and it mentioned that the function of such bullying was to stress out the low-status members to the point that they’d stop ovulating. You know, evolutionarily privileging the high-status offspring.

                    I somehow think that calling bullies “evolutionary throwbacks” wouldn’t be particularly effective. True, though.

                    Liked by 2 people

                  3. This. I’m still not sure how I survived grade school, outside of the fact that even my parents realized that, just maybe, I was likely to die from one of those assaults.

                    …Nah. It was something worse. You see, a valedictorian from the local HS had to take remedial math courses on entering college! My parents couldn’t have that in their family!

                    So they paid for another school.

                    Meaning a large part of why I’m still breathing today is the fact that my parents had too much ego wrapped up in their children being mathematical geniuses. The irony.

                    Liked by 2 people

      3. I’ve walked in on several of those conversations, and it certainly didn’t make my paranoia better. A couple times they didn’t even bother pretending, and at times I wonder if they had someone watching. “She’s coming! Start talking about her now!”

        Even teachers in elementary and middle school, although the one in high-school was technically about my siblings. “Oh, you have a Ritz in your class? I’m sorry!”

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I know that I am not invisible as I cannot sneak up on anyone if I wanted to (when I do NOT want to, it can happen… “You scared me!”). But often it seems I come across as “utterly ignorable” as conversation happen/go on without me as I stand RIGHT THERE.

          I’d just leave, but usually there’s some issue I need addressed so it doesn’t turn into “blame the ox for not asking about…”

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  3. For most Americans, the house is the One Big Investment. 401ks are catching up, slowly, but still have a long way to go to being “universal”.

    The 50 year mortgage is a way for folks to ride the inflation gravy train, as does the USGOV. I would prefer a sound and stable dollar, but if we are going to deflate 50% a generation, then a 50 year mortgage is one heck of a hedge, paying off the borrowed early dollars with heavily inflated ones. Even if we get down to less than 2% inflation, it will still be a very good deal for folks that cannot accumulate piles of money first. As long as they have the option of an early payoff without penalty, they remain a way to get in that game.

    FDR gave us the 30 year mortgage, by he way. It was a game changer for small folks.

    Again, me personally, I want to see 1% -de-flation each year, rewarding thrift. The Dollar as a monolithic bastion of value. But if we cannot get the dipsticks to see the value of it, then yes, make joe average benefit from the shrinkers.

    Either sanity will prevail, or we wreck it and start over on a same basis. USA wins either way. (Painfully, of course, “fingers wabbling back to the fire” and all that….)

    The current insane gold bubble is going to be interesting indeed. Gold is rocketing up as if we were the Weimar republic, yet common prices are not going up that fast. There is a -major- disconnect in there. Some very large players are buying and hording gold. China for sure, and likely because the see the impending wheel-free wagon mode approaching, followed by the multiple train wreck mode. Also entirely possible that several sneaky players quietly emptied the vaults to get the illusion of strong growth, and are now socking it away before anyone leaks that their cupboards are bare. But it is monkeyshines, not classic paper printing.

    If you are a metalhead, diversify. Look hard at the other industrially useful precious metals.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Gold is worthless if it’s stored where you can’t get in an emergency situation. 😉

      And that’s assuming that the gold is real.

      Liked by 3 people

        2. “let”. In the situation where it becomes a primary currency, what “they” will “let” you do becomes pretty much irrelevant

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          1. Tungsten-Iron buck, I believe. (aint cheap) Turkey loads I have seen recently

            Also Bismuth shot for antiques. (aint cheap)

            Solid brass or copper slugs in plastic sabot.

            Note: lead projectiles and shot are available for handloaders. Cant use them for game-taking in many cases, but game -playing- such as “Cowboy Action Shooting” certainly.

            Tungsten-iron is also used in the US Army’s “green” ammunition, having a compressed slug of it in the composite projectile. Turns out it is also more lethal and more penetrating than a conventional FMJ/lead solid slug, which is a rare case of an eco solution actually improving something.

            Tungsten-iron -frangibles- are also neato. They break up on steel target plates, reducing greatly ricochet hazards in shoot-house training. but the fragments are easily picked up with a magnet to recycle the expensive stuff.

            Sadly, tungsten is mostly foreign sourced, from folks who hate us.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Poked around and these guys have #4 buck and 000 buck for reloading:

              https://www.super18tungstenshot.com

              I have a dim memory of tungsten shotgun shells, possibly some lighter birdshot weight, used vs. drones in a recent “champion shotgun shooter vs. experienced FPV drone operators” YT vid. IIRC his results were mixed, though he said the learning curve was pretty steep, and he got lots better towards the end.

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    4. I don’t recall where I saw it, but it claimed the 50 year mortgage was cooked up by one of Trump’s people, who did a card with FDR and the 30, then POTUS with a 50. If said source is correct, Trump didn’t endorse it, and we might hear of a fresh vacancy in DC.

      Liked by 1 person

    5. If the interest rate is reasonable relative to the inflation rate, credit is an accessible way for “normal” folks to short the currency. With the Fed hinting 4% is the new normal (zero or less is normal you buffoons), I’m seriously considering dumping my tech stocks for short-term Treasuries.

      As for gold, it is the long, long asset. I made a decision years ago to invest in precious metals and was told I was nuts by my adviser. Now it makes up about 40% plus of my liquid asset portfolio.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. That’s what I tell everybody. “What you’re feeling is the BidenFlation hangover.”

      “But but the prices are still high! Why doesn’t Trump bring prices back where they were 6 years ago?”

      “Because that ain’t how inflation works. The Biden* Regime went on and on about ‘the New Normal’ and in a way, they delivered one. It’s just a really sucky ‘New Normal’.”
      ———————————
      There is nothing so f*ked up the government can’t make it even worse.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. The Reader notes that economists still have paranoia over deflation almost a century after the Depression. He also notes that the Fed’s 2% target bakes inflation into our currency – just more slowly. The target should be 0%.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. There are arguments that inflation has been running at 4% annually for some time – chart prices of Campbells soup or a Big Mac. I find this somewhat persuasive, although I’m open to counter-arguments.

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          1. I’m sorry, but it has long been known that the inflation numbers were crap, just because of what was left out of them. Food and fuel? REALLY? I buy as much electronics as anyone, and I don’t spend 25% on that as I do on those two categories.

            From crime rates to GDP, we’ve been lied to all our lives.

            Liked by 1 person

  5. 50 year mortgages won’t help at all. Monthly payment on a $400,000 fully amortized 6% 30 year mortgage is $2,400. You pay more than $400,000 of interest. Essentially, you pay for the house twice. On a 50 year mortgage the payment is $2,105 and you pay for the house 3 times. It takes 18 years to pay off 10% of the principal.

    Because the early payments are mostly interest. Interest establishes a floor of $2,000, and stretching the payments out to 100 years would only slightly reduce the monthly payment.

    Why is it like this? Mostly government meddling. Taxes, regulations, expensive and tortuously slow permitting processes, ‘helpful’ laws like the Clinton ‘Community Reinvestment Act’ that forced banks to loan money to people that couldn’t pay it back…the list goes on. And on.
    ———————————
    There is nothing so simple the government can’t f*k it up.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. The bank is never going to issue a loan it can’t win on, somehow.

      You know who certain financial advisors were telling people to “make an extra payment on your mortgage” to reduce the principal and pay it off sooner?

      Well, the ever-so-helpful banks said “Oh, you want to make 13 payments a year instead of 12? We can help with that!” which is not the same as making an extra payment. But I bet a lot of folks were tricked into thinking it did.

      What would be nice to see are owner-carried mortgages. Which, if I understand right, is a contract between buyer and seller wherein the buyer pays the seller directly a certain amount per month, and when the monthly payments add up to the agreed upon sale price, the buyer own the property.

      Effectively rent to own but without the ruinous interest rates.

      … Unfortunately, since most sales are made to finance the down payment of a different house somewhere else, I’m not sure how well it would work…

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      1. unless it’s a private banking jumbo, the banks don’t hold it for more than a couple of days. Very few residential mortgages on a big bank balance sheet. Very, very few. They either sell it to Fannie Mae or put it into a securitization. If it’s Fannie,

        well, we the taxpayers will pay. The banks make most of their money on servicing anyway and not a lot of banks do that anymore either.

        q.v., Fannie now using own criteria rather than 620 FICO. FICO 620:is the magic subprime number. No cheers for FIVO, but it is at least public and transparent, unlike whatever disaster Fannie is about to come up with.

        Liked by 2 people

    2. If anything 50 year mortgages make it worse. This is the same dumb ass (pardon my french) behavior that gave us the Guaranteed Student loans being totally government controlled. Yes theoretically it let more students attend but it meant there was more money chasing limited degree slots driving prices up producing Voila inflation!

      With a 50 year mortgage instead of offering $500,000 you can offer $750,00 or $950,000 for the same (or slightly lower payment)! This combined with the fact that in some areas in the East the land is either built out or unavailable. Literally the number of buildable lots in the town I’m in is essentially 0 due to rural land (Local dairy/ice cream maker owns like 20% of the land) or building restrictions (no Sewerage and very strict MA state rules for effluents within a watershed as we are in the Ipswich River watershed). So more money chasing fixed goods, once again voila classic microeconomics for inflation.

      Oh and dropping the 620 min cred score for a mortgage? Does this remind anyone of the early 2000’s when there were “liars” loans where you self certified your income and assets? I’d ask did we not learn from 2008 but apparently not. We’ve been seeing similar things in the new car world where prices have risen to ludicrous levels and seeing lots of repo men making money on loans/leases that should have never been offered.

      The thing that baffles me is I expect housing prices to drop. Why because the Boomer generation is headed for retirement villages and homes. There should be a flood of (admittedly higher end) houses hitting the market. Excess supply and limited price sensitive demand ought to drive prices down (and fast). This looks like another ploy to prop up Boomers/Gen x at the cost of the younger generations. It seems the only value some of these Boomers ever built was their (limited) equity in their homes. if prices dropped 20-30% over a 5-10 years they might be underwater, or at least have very limited ROI.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Maybe not house/condo prices, not initially. Rental rates will be affected. No more cramming 8 strangers into two room apartments.

          Like

      2. Read again what I wrote. The monthly payment on a 50 year mortgage is about 12.3% less than a 30 year mortgage. If you could afford a $500,000 30 year mortgage, you could afford a 50 year mortgage of…$560,000. Definitely not $750,000 or $950,000.

        The payment on an eternal mortgage (interest only, forever) is just 17% lower than a 30 year mortgage.
        ———————————
        Governments can’t create prosperity; at best, they can refrain from destroying it.

        Like

        1. You pay it off with inflated dollars. Time/value of money.

          Which is why the Dot Gov wants some inflation always. because it drives down the overall cost of having lots of debt.

          Like

        2. My apologies. I clearly had not read fully. I had also I think implicitly assumed lower rates for the 50 year mortgage (which is what I remember in 10 year vs 30 year from c. 2010) but currently the 30 year has a higher rate than 10 or 15 year (by 20-50 basis points). That said it is going to inflate prices. Where I am $500K will get you an entry level cape at ~1100 sq ft in the less desireable towns. Most of the 50’s ranches and rasied ranches which might have lower prices have disappeared (or never come to market moving in extended families) having been taken and their existing 10-20K sq ft lots repurposed for McMansions as demand is high.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Every time I’ve gone mortgage shopping, longer mortgages had higher interest rates. Not always, but never lower. Because the banks are also expecting inflation.

            Regardless, you will only qualify for the mortgage you can afford today, not in some hypothetical inflated future. I had to start taking IRA distributions when I refinanced for the last time, even though the monthly payments were $200 lower. “I’ve been paying $200 more every month for 8 years; of course I can afford the payments!”

            Didn’t matter, their ‘formulas’ said debt to income ratio was ‘too high’.

            Turned out to be a good thing, though. There’s enough money there to last over 30 years at the present rate of withdrawal. After taking monthly distributions for 4 years, the IRA balance has actually increased as stocks go up.

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            1. “their ‘formulas’ said debt to income ratio was ‘too high’.“

              –

              We’d be in the same boat. Their formulas do not account for money in the bank, except for the down payment. We’ve been pulling from IRA’s, off and on, since hubby retired, to cover expenses. Ironically enough, 2025, the year when required distributions from one account is occurring, we rarely need to as expenses < income, unless big ticket item (vehicle/house insurance, property taxes, major house repairs, major medical (none, yet), some vacation expenses). Same on the “despite paying out, making more money than distributions, even the required distribution”.

              Liked by 1 person

    3. You need to do a Net Present Value calculation on those future payments. Even with steady moderate inflation it makes a big difference, and if we get another inflation discontinuity the affordability side just skyrockets.

      The only way it does not make a huge difference is if we get a period of near-zero inflation again, and such is very unlikely thanks to The Autopen.

      Like

      1. Unlikely unless there’s some sort of phase change economic event, like cheap fusion or magic beans, and then economics has a singularity and you can’t see past.

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          1. I kinda like the former group home, with more bathrooms than bedrooms– that’s over near where that water buffalo held out for weeks, in town but vanishing effectively.

            It’s in town, near the fair grounds and Sleepy Hollow(ren faire location), but it’s not like town town….

            Liked by 1 person

              1. So it sounds like island volcano lairs are not on the table due to the commute to where the kids live – how about an abandoned mall? Lots of indoor room to walk, and plenty are apparently available. That would make a good undercover Evil Space Princess lair.

                Liked by 1 person

              1. Husband and I are looking at that going “We seriously need waaaay more land than that, but dang if that wouldn’t be a great short-term rental thing. ‘Visit grandma in Des Moines, stay in this house instead of a hotel!”

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      2. Median price around RedQuarters is $ 300,000. A few overpriced sales bumped the price. Average size ranges from 3BR, 2 bath, living and dining rooms to true starter homes (2BR, 1.5 bath, combined living/dining room, one car garage.)

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Not where I am.

        Though I will admit, we bought after the bubble pop, and got ours for under $200K, which is probably why we get so many #$^%*& real estate agents pestering us to sell. No, thank you. We bought a place to live, not an investment.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Sisters and I get those not only for our own homes, but mom’s too. Mom filed the form to auto transfer her house to the 3 of us on her death, so no probate on the house. Mom’s response? “I’m not dead!”

          Liked by 2 people

      5. A search for Flyover Falls, very southern Oregon (east of the Cascades, so under the thumb of the whackjobs in Salem, and outvoted by zombies in Portlandia) brings up 422 homes under $400K. Some pretty nice homes, too.

        OTOH, it’s freaking Intermountain West. Snow, Ice, WINTER! Studded snow tires are a really good idea, though slightly less necessary in town. Slightly. (The north side of the hill north of downtown? Forget it without studs and/or a D4 Cat. Don’t ask me how I know. :) )

        In the boonies, we’re careful about new neighbors until they’ve gone through two winters. A fair number leave after one. (I grew up in snow country, $SPOUSE had a nodding acquaintance when she was a little. No problem, modulo winter fall injuries.)

        Liked by 1 person

      6. I think the market for them may be drying up in places.

        I looked on my area’s MLS the other day and was astonished at how many listings were pushing a year (or more!) with no buyers.

        Of course, this is an area where the median income is $57,000, so these 2 bed 1 bath options they want $300K for … aren’t going to appeal to the locals.

        Liked by 2 people

  6. I’m a lot less worried than I was a year ago. But I still worry about things far beyond my control.

    The fact that most of the funding for the protests, through USAID, has been cut has really shown how little actual support there is for leftist ideology even if they can drum up a couple of hundred true believers here and there to attract MSM attention. That Trump 2.0 has been able to do so much in such a little time has been heartening. The recent threads that Data_Republican has put up though are maddening.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Even worse I think that second Chinchilla has some Sphinxian treecat blood. it has 6 paws. AI can do amazing things, but it seems not to know quadrupeds have 4 feet (and bilateral symmetry) on a regular basis.

      Liked by 2 people

        1. “My parents visited a planet where the residents did not have bilateral symmetry and all I got was this lousy F shirt.”

          Extra limbs ~= extra hope!

          Liked by 2 people

        2. Well, duh. They’re from Cheerick. But where’s the gold surfboard?

          “They’re six-foot tall, spear-wielding hamsters,” Weaver reminded her. “And just because we have a brief truce doesn’t mean they won’t fill you full of spears. Please be careful.” “I will,” Miriam said. “But they’re so cute! And they don’t really look like hamsters. More like chinchillas. Chinchillas have opposable thumbs.” “Fine, spear-wielding surfer chinchillas,” Bill said. “Just be careful.”

          Vorpal Blade John Ringo & Travis S. Taylor

          Liked by 1 person

  9. Doomy doom doom doomed.

    There’s a point between losing the information for the old orientation, and gaining the information for the new orientation, as stuff is filtered by the repricing after a lot of information has been corrupted by fraud.

    Minor frauds this is not so much of a disorientation, or may not be a disorientation at all. Obama was part of a very big fraud, including the fraud of energy transition, etc. The deliberate parts also had effects of disassociating people enough to make stupid unreal gambles that they did not understand were unreal.

    Anyway, we are in a repricing period, and if someone does not have any actions that they need to do right now, or if they have a bunch of to dos that are the same without regard to wider information, then they can maybe just set fear aside and work.

    We have theoretical methods that we are accustomed to treating as working, and in some cases the doom that they predict is on what we can verify as an invalid theoretical basis.

    Keeping up with the news makes for a difficult filtering problem.

    —-

    So if Charles Schumer was on Tucker Carlson, and was saying that “the shutdown and the ATC did not cause the UPS crash, that engine separations are usually structural, and metal fatigue does happen”, I imagine that there are people who would disbelieve that so strongly that they would try to make a political profit from pinning the crash on Charlie. (I personally believe that henwit Chuck did contribute to the problems, but by way of covid lockdown and by way of Bidenistas (aviation electricification). One was broadly destructive, and the other was narrowly destructive, and maybe that might have made a difference when it comes to replacing those models, or whatever. )

    Liked by 2 people

      2. The joke is that I merely look sane compared to other alternatives, and that those alternatives have been oversampled in public recently.

        Really, I am just in between periods of stress, and have recovered enough to effectively communicate sane ideas if I have any. I’ve also been benefitting a lot from systemically discounting certain sources of information and certain hair-on-fire analyses.

        I’ve also been getting some interesting ideas in real life, and have been chewing over a bunch of stuff. It is not that the circumstances made it certain that I would find good or sane ideas, but I may have been pretty fortunate.

        In recent memory, the stress had me laughing about how terrible, unskilled, and how unable to do anything I am, and my work was poor. (I really did not like my non-fiction draft. It is now in a bit better repair, and I care less about the issues I don’t know how to fix yet.)

        (Got a surprise about an uncertainty yesterday. Today I figured out that I can literally cut up milk jugs, and it may be a nice convenient alternative.)

        I am not a completely ignorant person too stupid to learn the basics of my occupation, and it is also untrue that I have everything learned that there is to learn within my occupation.

        Liked by 2 people

  10. Sarah had to shout at me on X the other day, I got black pilled hard. Fatigue, a retail job that hires Ukrainian refugees while it reduces our hours, general frustration.

    The chinchilla of hope is my new ride-along partner. :) I’m committed to hanging on and fighting like mad to make things better.

    I really enjoy posts like this. It’s just like regular people are struggling, too, and I don’t feel so alone.

    Liked by 4 people

          1. St. Crinitus??? (crinitus being the best Google can come up for Fluffy in Latin).

            I have to stop looking at that, my blood sugar is going to be shot to heck :-) .

            Liked by 2 people

  11. So I had a comment disappear yesterday (1), probably carelessly forgetting to put in my email and handle.

    Today I was moderated again.

    (1) Or day before, I forget and have a headache. Akshully, would have been two days ago, in response to Mark on Fix What Was Spoiled.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Yuuup.

        With the software world, sometimes all the alternatives I can find do not do what I want.

        Once licenses, and whether the user knows how to operate are considered, there may only be options which are not desireable.

        Was not blaming anyone, and know that it is a software issue. Did feel that maybe today’s comment was worth a poke.

        Liked by 1 person

  12. Ya know, it’s funny, we slam the Other Side constantly for being composed mostly of mentally ill folk, but our band seems so loaded with depressives if feels like our worst risk isn’t so much being sent to the camps as being given a push over the edge.

    Like

      1. Or Puddleglum/Eeyore versus the Joker. Far to many on the left are of the let it burn and use Cloward-Piven stategies to achieve their desired goals. Honestly the Green Witch (or the White Witch) are far more comprehensible to me. Their strategy is clear

        • Take Power
        • Use Power Mercilessly to their advantage
        • enjoy the benefits that provides for them and select courtiers

        The Raving Looney Left (The true believers in Pantifa for example) seem to have a variant of the underpants gnome strategy

        • Break stuff
        • ????
        • International communism!!!!

        Thing is the underpants gnomes although annoying really are harmless. Pantifa and its ilk have embraced a kind of “revolution” which we have not seen for well nigh on 60 years. This anarchist destructive strain seems to pop up on a regular basis in the modern (19th century + ) world for reasons I can’t quite grasp.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. If I saw the face of a leftist in the mirror each morning when I got out of bed, I too would hate humanity.

            To address your comment more substantively, I see three major issues that stick in the Left’s craw when we say “no” to Leftist schemes:

            1. We tell them that the rulebook ( a.k.a. the Constitution) doesn’t allow them to implement their schemes.
            2. Even if the rulebook allowed it, their schemes will never work.
            3. We reject their vision of “Heaven on Earth”, even if it _could_ be successfully implemented.

            Of the three, I believe the last is the one that enrages them the most.

            Liked by 1 person

      1. Downloaded but haven’t watched yet, but when I saw the title “Puddleglum’s Heroic Speech” and the fact that it was in 320×240 resolution, I knew I was going to see Tom Baker playing Puddleglum. I love Tom Baker; he was (IMHO) the best Doctor prior to David Tennant, and even there it’s a toss-up. Production quality and special effects quality definitely went up in the new Who era. Writing quality? That very, very much depended on who was writing the episode.

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        1. Amen on The Best Doctor! (And no slouch as Puddleglum, either. I already loved the character from the books, and child-me was delighted by his bringing the Marshwiggle to life.)

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          1. Match him with Elizabeth Sladen and you have the best team *ever*

            Don’t get me wrong, I adored Tennant/Tate and Capaldi/Coleman, but there is absolutely no substitute for the 4th Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith.

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    3. Being able to look behind the herd, I THINK required the type of temperament where you constantly reality test. So this is the hangover of the left’s information control.
      It’s more, which do you choose? Our side tries very hard to choose sanity. The other side tries to levitate the Denver Mint.

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    4. I, on the other hand, tend to balance that by being quite cheerful (Sarah and Frank can attest to that). For that, I credit my 25 years of military service. After all, how can someone who has a “my favorite SCUD alert” war story *not* find joy in simply making it to the other side, (mostly) intact?

      Liked by 1 person

    5. The issue I have with mental health stuff on the left is not the illness.

      I don’t blame someone merely for being ill.

      The issues I have are the practices that make health conditions worse.

      As said, reality testing is important, as is the philosophical choice to perceive an objective reality that is independent of what we may think or feel.

      The challenges of extreme mental health issues are individual. Being mad at other people for them not bureaucratically fixing everything is about the most counterproductive way of managing a real problem.

      I think that maybe being angry at someone else has never directly fixed one of my own problems with my own midn, or with my behavior.

      Anyway, when the psychological research was screwed up by proposing that modern society is itself the problem, and that healthy means some hypothetical prehistoric society’s norms, then being left almost itself ensured that leftist mental health outcomes would be worse than rightest mental health outcomes.

      Everyone is human, and there can be common trends in driving oneself insane with one’s political interests. I think I mostly try to talk about this last, in politics and mental illness.

      Okay, I am also trying to prove that certain ideas are inherently harmful, and would have a consistent pattern in leading to similar bad ends.

      I am a bit of a wackjob, and many of the problems I talk about having inflicted upon myself while aligned right could have been worse if I had chosen left instead. Or can more easily travel to great evil on the left.

      Anyway, I try to base matters on stuff that others can actually verify for themselves, but a lot of my view of psychology has a strong basis in mostly my own internal experiences.

      Theory obsession can be a hell of a drug.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Too optimistic and credulous at times. ;)

        Then again I deal with a lot more darkness in my job, so it’s good to check in with the more “normal” Odds.

        Like

            1. Yes. Fortunately it’s not where I keep my brain.
              Seriously “Credulous” is the craziest thing to call me. I live by “If your mom tells you she loves you, investigate the claim.” PARTICULARLY if you want your mom to love you.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Now I have a mental image of a Sith Lord and his new and foolish disciple, Darth Credulous.

                (Honestly, the idea of there only being two Sith at any one time was not one of Lucas’ better ideas.

                Liked by 2 people

                1. Lucas’s problem was he didn’t steal enough good ideas from his betters like most good authors do. Should have hired better writers and editors.

                  But then again, he wasn’t selling stories, but special effects and toys.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  1. Lucas’ editors made him great. Star Wars was a dud until they added the bit at the end about “here comes the Death Star to crush the Rebel Base!”

                    Imagine the whole final battle as a Rebel Alpha Strike on the Death Star out cruising somewhere. That loses about 90% of the dramatic tension of the final version.

                    That key plot item “impending dooooom!” was retconned in after major filming was done. Thus “They let us go…” and “You’re sure the homing beacon is secure aboard their ship…”

                    Absent that, Star Wars would likely have been a dud, and maybe a somewhat significant cult film.

                    Liked by 1 person

                  1. I only saw The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, and was put off enough by the dialogue (especially the romance scenes, my goodness that dialogue was awful) that I never watched Return of the Sith. But “Imperial propaganda” was the first thing I thought of at the time, too. I was running a Star Wars roleplaying campaign (Edge of the Empire rulebook from FFG) about 8-9 years ago, and my plan for if any of the players brought up the prequels (they never did) was to have a Rebel NPC say something like this:

                    “Wait, you actually believed the propaganda? Come on, Darth Vader being a virgin birth? Didn’t that clue you in that the Empire was behind those films? Not to mention trying to reduce the force that binds the universe together to a mere energy field generated by microscopic organisms. What an awfully convenient thing for the Empire to want its people to believe, that the Jedi are merely a kind of infection. No, no, my friend, you must learn to think if you’re going to be useful to the Alliance.”

                    Liked by 1 person

                    2. It would have been soooo easy to either:

                      1. Say that mitochlorians are attracted to Force-users and act as a quick test to see if there is any potential there

                      2. Have Qui-Gon look at Anakin, do a quick doubletake, then *really* look at him, and say something like “He is strong with the Force. Stronger than any Jedi I have ever met. He needs training.”

                      Both would have worked (the latter would have been much better IMHO).

                      Liked by 1 person

                  2. I thought Lucas totally boogered up the sequels.

                    Like “Highlander” ….

                    “There should be only one!”

                    Mainly because Luke and Leia turned out to be siblings. Thus the epic “oh yeah?” spit-swap scene in Empire becomes a major Disturbance in the Force.

                    gack

                    just… no.

                    And Lucas retconned Han’s -gunfight-, but not -that-. Lucas, you sick bastard. (Grin)

                    Like

            1. Barret the Parrot!

              Cover cage

              BtP: “Here kitty kitty kitty!”

              (cat climbs up on covered cage. snoozes)

              Parrot sleeps warm

              Wakes hungry. sees cat tail below edge of cover. Gently nips tail.

              K: “MMEEEEOOOOOOWWWW!”

              BtP: “Poooor kitty!”

              Barret also would tell people “Shut up (name)!”

              And some other comedic bits not suitable for this forum.

              Liked by 1 person

      2. They just intrinsically cannot accept the base premise of “we win, they lose,” no matter the evidence.

        As a recovered pessimist, I can attest that it’s just comforting to only be wrong when good things happen – “a pessimist can always be pleasantly surprised.” But hope is a mandatory food group for the soul, and stomping it all the time just so one can say “I told you so” is internally corrosive. Better by far to hope for the best and plan for the worst.

        Liked by 2 people

  14. Not worried about my mortgage. Locked in at 3.1%, and less than 70K left on it anyway. Just haven’t decided whether to get rid of it yet or not. That old monetary opportunity thing.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Ours is locked in at 3.375%. Missed a chance to lower it to < 2%, and they’d pay us for the privilege. Problem was hubby wanted another 30 years (< $250/month required payment). I wanted 15 years (~ same payment). Dithered around too long. Guess I could have conceded and still paid what I was paying. Balance: $111,250 of initial $180k, on a house paid $78k in ’88 (been a few home equity improvements between ’88 and ’13 last refinance (actually ’09 was the last “credit line”. That one we refinanced 6% because the credit line got credit jacked. Credit line was suppose to be backstop for college funds if needed. They screwed with that.)

      We started at $78k at 12.5% variable, 5 year balloon. Got rid of that within a year to 13% fixed. Been dropping it regularly since then. We will not have a loan of any kind that imposes penalties for early pay off. Even at 3.375%, we are making higher overall percentage on our investments than we are paying out (by a lot, on higher balances). Estimated house value bounces between $480k – $510k. “Oh! Look at that equity if you sell!” Um. No. That is also what it would cost to build/buy, and our property taxes would soar if we build (buy? Depends.) Better off “updating” the house (new floors, redo bathrooms).

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Bought house in CA 1991. Re-fi a couple times. Added A/C, modern triple-pane windows all around (1955-ish house had in-wall gas heaters when we bought).

        2015, put about $20K into new roof, electrical panel, paint, kitchen floor, new stove. (We went to Europe for a couple weeks while the contractors did their many things. They were almost done when we got back. Wife was teaching part time explicitly to accumulate travel funds.)

        Sold house in 2019. Had to put some money into staging, paint, new carpet, some little stuff.

        Moved to Oregon, also 2019; had a house built; paid cash. (Pulled an unholy amount out of my IRA – the tax consequence hurt, a lot. Or, maybe a blessed amount – I had it to re-invest.)

        No mortgage!

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        1. I just was extremely blessed, stock I was given by a now ex employer, and had bee ignoring suddenly tripled in value. So I sold off a portion and paid off the last $79K of my mortgage, despite only having a 3.125% loan and five years to go. This way I don’t have a mortgage as my oldest shifts from High School to college. The sad part is realizing that I still have to come up with ~ 1/3 of my annual mortgage cost for property taxes and insurance payments going forward…Repeat after me, taxation is theft, and if you have to pay the government repeatedly for it you don’t really own it…I considered seeing if I could cross invest and have the interest pay the mortgage, but the reliable rates were too low to really do much over the remaining terms, so I figured just not owing a bank anything would feel better.

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          1. Various obvious past stock strategies (Apple just before Jobs came back as CEO, Amazon in their low in the dot com bubble burst period, NVidia about ten years back, Tesla when the Model 3 was having such a painful birth, just to name a few off the top of my head – not to mention all the great short trades) make me wonder if there isn’t a Temporal SEC monitoring trades for suspiciously fortuitousness (by other than members of Congress) to try and catch time travelers – or even people transmitting data into the past.

            That and sports betting would be my go to with a working time machine – and the stock trades would be less likely to attract organized crime attention.

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            1. and the stock trades would be less likely to attract organized crime attention.

              Fred the Fed is too a made man. You take that back!

              Liked by 2 people

              1. Actually if Fred the Fed wanted to scan for time travelers, plugging in to the SEC trades monitoring database would be a perfect method – anything that looks too knowledgeable to be kosher but does not evaluate as possible insider trading, or fall under the Congressional Exception, should get shunted over to the Time Travel Detection Unit.

                Liked by 1 person

      2. Refinanced for two reasons: first was the low rate, second was to cover my wife for cosigning my boy’s student loans that they defaulted on. MASSIVE loss in investment opportunity with that. On paper, it would have been cheaper to divorce, have her and them go into bankruptcy, and then wait the time out for the loan payback to expire. Except I can’t function in a world like that.

        Like

        2. The problem with the divorce and bankruptcy option (depending on timing, it used to). Not an option as bankruptcy does not dissolve educational defaulted loans. Death does, goes into the queue with everyone else. Bankruptcy doesn’t.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. In other venues I’d say something about not giving ideas, but in this crowd successfully faking a spousal expiration is completely on the table, so, nevermind.

            Liked by 1 person

              1. I 100% understand the lack of equity in a home. Current home is our second home.

                First purchased home in another area, where timber crashed. Hubby was *transferred out of that area as his base to Eugene. I was not working. Timber crash = mid-’80s housing crash in timber areas. We couldn’t give away our modest 1 1/2 bath, 3 bedroom, split level, oversized lot. Not when bigger newer homes in our neighborhood, much smaller lots, split level but backed against hill side, $300k homes were selling for $100k. We paid $68k, six years before. We crossed our fingers and rented it out, while we rented in the new area. Eventually sold 3 years later for enough to pay for the needed repairs and painting, and the real estate fee, without losing our down payment. We sure didn’t make any money.

                Timber crash almost bit us on the second home too on getting a loan. Thus the horrible interest rate, and balloon loan. We qualified. The house appraisal and condition qualified. The neighborhood did not qualify. House was “too much” for the neighborhood. Um. No. Nothing had sold over the last 10 years to reflect a modest neighborhood average. Once our house closed, houses started closing all over the area.

                (*) At least that move his company paid to move us.

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                1. We finally got free of mortgages, but not until we’d had to landlord houses that weren’t selling twice. This convinced us the Almighty did not mean for us to be real estate moguls.

                  An old friend once did a list of parody adult ed classes. One of them was, “I Made 100 Dollars in Real Estate.”

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                  1. “Almighty did not mean for us to be real estate moguls.“

                    –

                    Or active landlords (not helped because we were not local). Not helped by the IRS stupidity. Went better (and made better money) after we turned the house over to a management (also Real Estate) company. They doubled the rent. Still had turn over (every 6 months). It was WHO they were renting to (engineers involved in decommissioning Trogan on the Columbia). The once the area started home building again, it was clue it was safe to sell. Hubby has hinted about getting into (local) landlord business. I actually growled the “NO!” Since then we’ve met some who, didn’t own rentals, but worked for management companies. Clue in “See!?!?!?!”, smiles. All in all on paper we legitimately “lost” money. Reality we broke even.

                    Like

                    2. We had a rental agent for the first one, when we moved out of state. It did help. What did not help was when the house caught fire, but fortunately we hired an honest vulture (excuse me, “independent insurance adjuster,”) who got fair value from the insurance company and we sold it “as is,” for a song.

                      Liked by 1 person

  15. Ha! I get the anxiety. After reading On the Beach, I spent years being terrified we’d all die in a holocaust. I cried when the Berlin wall came down and I’ve retained a good amount of hope for all of us since then. The Islamist scares me, although not so much here in CT. The globalist overlords that have homes here won’t put up with that flavor of drama. Still, people seem to be aware of threats in a way that we weren’t 40 years ago. And Datarepublican is a treasure.

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    1. I always wonder how much of that surge of post-newkewler-war fiction was due to editors at publishing houses getting directives from their handlers named Vlad.

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      1. Vlad must have been awfully disappointed in the post-newkewler-war fiction that came out. All the ones I’ve read do not have American’s whining and crying for salvation from the Vlad’s. Nope. They have American’s digging in and not only surviving, but thriving. That Yankee do not give up. Along the lines of “I’m here to destroy your leaders”. Average American citizen “Do you need a map?”

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Yeah, but in retrospect the topic saturation was fairly blatant.

          I’ve noted here before that a high school classmate’s favorite line back in the 1970s, apparently with some success, was something along the lines of “Hey, baby, we’re all gonna die soon when the bomb drops, so we might as well go ahead…”

          Moscow planting over and over into western media the concept that nuclear war was inevitable and (as per “On The Beach”) it would obviously end up killing everyone, no argument allowed, so it’s really better to avoid all the downsides in all those novels and just give in… is completely in line with their “demoralize and divide” efforts.

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          1. “Just give in” might have been their intent. Problem is, like the rest of the world, Moscow does not grok Americans. As the quote goes “American’s don’t read their own manuals.”

            On the other thing? I was in HS early ’70s. I heard that line, a time or two. Ignored it as the lame line it is.

            Liked by 3 people

    2. First response to On the Beach was horror, followed by anger. Guys, you’ve got almost a year! Aren’t there any cave systems in Australia you could seal off and stock for a 20-year siege? Yes, you might all die. Yes, you lose so many good things. But at least try!

      Don’t know if that’s an American attitude or not.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Have not read “On the Beach”. There are areas that will sit (and die) waiting to be rescued. Look at natural disasters as they have occurred in the US: western N. Carolina, Florida, midwest and hurricanes, even fire areas in the west. People on the ground were helping each other long before the government showed up (granted some helping were local government employees). Outsiders on the road immediately with help and supplies. My two reading examples, where outside help not available are Alas Babylong, and more recently Stirling’s Emberverse. Have to help themselves before help others, if any others available to help. Can’t help everyone, or they themselves need help again, but doesn’t mean can’t help anyone.

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  16. I don’t see the attitudes among young men that others are reporting. Granted, I’m not on-line in places where the fringes reside, nor do I teach in public schools. What I see are kids worried about majors that lead to “good jobs,” and complaints about lack of sleep and overwork. I suspect the latter is not the cause of the former in some cases. ;)

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I know examples that are not online – the young couple at church with kids, 3.5 jobs and live with their parents; the skilled machinist at day job who has ‘given up on ever owning a house’, an early career coder who’s brilliant but can’t find a new job.

      Wife and I are ok, but that’s with 2.5 professional jobs and parental help to get into a house.

      It’s feeling like 2008 in my part of the Midwest, which was not fun the first time.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Nieces (4) have purchased homes (Portland/Vancouver), one has just a bought *larger and sold entry level homes, another is choosing to upgrade and expand entry level home, third started out in forever home thanks to spouse’s VA loan option plus her very good job salary. The other 2 nieces are renting (Portland), living the single life. Nephew (Madison, WI) just started his post college career one that has him traveling very frequently, an apartment is his best option. Son, as mentioned before, lives with us (or we live with him, wags hands). An apartment or rental locally is out of the question without roommates. While he has the money, he does not “qualify” based on renting rules (especially now looking for work). Then too he is allergic to spending that high on renting (raised him right).

        (*) Between the two sets of parents, they could “borrow” the new house down, move, then sell the starter home and pay back parents. The harder part was losing the 2% interest rate on the starter home. They’ll definitely be taking advantage of lower interest loans as they start dropping.

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  18. Having created a lot of masks to deal with the human race in general (ADHD and autism, wheee…), I’ve gotten far too good at trying to “fit in” with too much enthusiasm.

    But I don’t want to fit in with this world. Even my home with my family requires me to mask on a regular basis.

    Mostly because of the “human among vampires” issue-if you’re not a part of this…mass of humanity that still believes in the network news, hates Trump as a religious duty (seriously, I’ve seen people loathe Trump that I know should know better with a greater fanaticism than an Wahabist doing the sunnah), believes that the future (and the Force) is liberal and female and socialist…

    …they’re going to eat you alive. And I’m not too sure if that’s figurative.

    And I mask badly. Enough that the last time I took off my mask, I was scared because of what I was feeling.

    I’m worried, only because I suspect that there are a lot more people like me than I care to think about-the proverbial lesbian sheep who are just trying not to get into trouble with the rest of the herd. And that we’ll win out in the end.

    My problem is what it will take to get to “the end” at this rate. We may lose England at this point, or it’s going to be a disaster zone for a while. Native English entertainment may go the way of the dodo outside of indie content and start coming from Japan and South Korea. And let’s not talk about how stupid our local idiots can get (i.e. Japanese company decides to create a specific NSFW site for content, a’la Twitter but with better stonking great tits. The local moron brigade decides to post actual child porn to get the site taken down. And doesn’t understand when I get furious-not the least is that they are helping to spread child porn) and what kind of damage that stupid will do before Darwin runs it’s course.

    Liked by 3 people

  19. Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » EVEN DEPRESSIVES GET THE BLUES:  Worried.

  20. I have a good friend who drives herself into a frenzy of worry on an almost daily basis. Part of it is because she has nobody around her to talk to about things. Her sister is of a like mindset and lives down the road, but for some reason they tend not to talk politics. So I get a ton of texts and end up talking her out of the trees. At the same time, it’s good for me because I have to order my own thoughts and figure out how to respond to her fears, which, tbh, are close to my own. Keeps me somewhat sane and on my toes.

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    1. I play this against myself. Inside me there’s the terrified depressive, and my author voice needs to talk her out logically every day. “Oh, come on. That’s the plot of that bad book we read at 12”

      Liked by 1 person

  21. BTW, guys, the new Environmental Disaster news has dropped, and guess what? The Experts are afraid the Gulf Stream is in the verge of collapse and if it does…..Ice Age!

    Don’t know how they’re going to blame capitalism, but we’ll find out.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. I want acid rain freakouts again. Those were entertaining. I see a market for teflon-coated umbrellas.

        … Of course the even more stupid part of the lack of acid rain damage is that someone went and invented a steel that’s designed to look – when new! – as though it has 20 years of acid rain damage

        Liked by 1 person

        1. That is the good thing that has come out of the “climate scare” is cleaning of our air and our rivers. Acid rain isn’t going to be a thing now because of our clean air. Not even with the forest fires.

          Now if a few of the local mountains (St Helen: “Okay Boys … 1 – 2 – 3 – All together now …”) blow, volcanic ash + rain = not good, including acid rain (ask Hawaii where lava meets the ocean). Or if Yellowstone or one of the other super volcanoes (there are at least 2 others) blow, then, yes – acid rain. Although if Yellowstone, etc., blow, the north, central, and a good portion of northern south Americas, have a bigger problem (most of us “bend over and kiss your assets … never mind, you won’t have time”).

          Liked by 1 person

        2. The Arabian branch of the Scottsdale Public Library is clad in that stuff. IMNSHO it is ugly. And the architecture matches it.

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        3. What’s really funny is that the end of acid rain has meant that farmers need more sulfur in their fertilizer.

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      2. “Again? I’ve lived long enough that eco scams are recycling, y’all!“

        Right?

        More snow in the valley would be nice. Please not enough (’69) that we have to get the tall ladder over to mom’s to shovel off her flat roof (enough regular snow, we’d leave it at her house, we have other ways to get to the top of our roofs (like upstairs window).

        Our mountain ski areas would love more and earlier snow. They are NOT opening before Thanksgiving this year. Opening before Christmas is still TBD. However they do NOT want so much snow that they have to shutdown due to too much snow (buries lifts).

        FYI. Our local roads departments, including the state, doesn’t have the needed equipment to deal with snow deluge west of the Cascades. They couldn’t keep I-5/99, the coast range passes, or the Cascade passes, open in ’69, let alone any streets in Eugene or other towns. Residents: What are snow shovels?

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    2. So if they’re right, after all this angsting about runaway warming and Hothouse Earth, global warming will cause…another Ice Age. Bwahahahahahahahaha… ahahahahaha… ahahahahaha… *gasp* If… If.

      Some say the world will end in fire,
      Some say in ice.
      From what I’ve tasted of desire
      I hold with those who favor fire.
      But if it had to perish twice,
      I think I know enough of hate
      To say that for destruction ice
      Is also great
      And would suffice.

      Liked by 1 person

  23. Oh, sure. First it was global cooling, then global warming, then climate change, back to global warming, now global cooling again. You could even add nuclear winter in there.

    Each had a few things in common. Money and government were the solution, and it was all anthropogenic. There was a bit of a freakout when they discovered that the other planets were following a similar cycle of increased severe weather.

    So some idiots declared that “Gaia” was angry with us and her anger was affecting the other planets.

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    1. Well if Gaia is the sun, and solar wind. But Gaia isn’t suppose to be the sun or solar wind. How is the earth Gaia suppose to effect the other planets? Reflecting off the solar effects? The earth atmosphere does reflect sun effects off the earth. But it isn’t doing that maliciously on purpose, not something that can be consciously stopped.

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