WelI, I Thought I Was Back

The wife and I went from busting our asses to get ready to go on vacation, to busting our asses cleaning up undone crap from our time away, to relaxing..? Hell no; now we're moving. Back into the house we were trying to sell. I remember when we moved out, I was in mourning so to speak, saying I would likely never live in a house that nice ever again. Our neighbor reminded me of that the other day: Not only a house that nice, but the same house.

I doesn't make sense to make two house payments, with one sitting vacant. It doesn't make sense to keep dropping the price, especialy during a panic. The wife and I are both working (still): She for a health care non-profit think tank/association/bureacracy/lobby shop... and me for one of the last manufacturers in Seattle, Washington and (with all due respect to Driftglass) the US (at least so it seems), but in this economy...? I don't count on anything.

Oh we did have at least one offer that I know of: It was a total fucking insult. I was talking to my sister (Another fucking story here but), who lives and with her husband owns a few houses in Reno, and the same thing's happened to her: The vultures come by and hoping you're in an upside down situation, make an offer that's 10-15 cents on the dollar. The redistribution of wealth that the refuckyoucans ignore (because it's the one THEY want), but that happens in every recession/depression, is certainly happening now.

I knew if I got started, there'd be no stopping me....

Who am I kidding? If I had a few hundred thousand in disposible bucks I'd be making offers too.
There's only so much land out there, and they ain't making any more; if the climate keeps warming, we'll have less. I'm not going to kid myself that, I'd buy houses and renegotiate things to keep people living in them. Maybe I would in the beginning, but greed is universal, and I'm not a fool enough to think that one, two, three.... more houses would be enough. I'd want to make money and buy more, and to do that would mean I'd need to rent at a profit, and to do that would likely mean there'd be people who'd be out of the house (and on the street) no matter what happened.

Is it possible that we all have this same warfare going on inside us? A war between our "do-gooder," bleeding heart Liberal and the greedy, rapacious conservatard?

My sister used to be a liberal. I love her dearly, respect her in many respects, but she gets scarier by the day. I will say this: Sh called me last night and she's not pouting. She says she's all behind our new president and hopes his administration will be successful. At digging us out of the hole, our fratboy, fucktard, preznit select and his Refuckyoucan minions have put us in...? She won't go that far.

We didn't get into the pros and cons of why it's OK for working taxpayers to foot the bill to keep mismanaged banks and investors afloat, but automakers should be on their own.

That's what's distressing to me. To me it's as plain as the nose on my face. This country has been stood on it's head (During reagan, bush I) and stuck in a bucket of shit (During dubya), but she thinks I'm full of shit (her term was bovine excrement) when I point out the obvious: Our present economic state is the DIRECT result of conservatard hands-off, free-market, deregulatory policies and practices. Just like back in the Republican (Great) Depression, the Republican Panic of 1870 and the Reagan Recession(s). To her, that's bullshit? History is bullshit? FACTS are bullshit? ???

I damn near cry when I get off the phone with her.

I saw truly bad things happening to her back in 2000 when she expressed her "hope" in dubya saying, "Maybe now we'll get some conservative judges." ec-fucking-scuse me? ??? Of nine Supremes, Six were refuckyoucan appointments and you want Conservative judges? "Are you sure you don't mean Nazis?" <== yes, I asked her that. "Good conservatives." "If there Were some, maybe, we'd have some."

The republican party has lost it's way: It's not conservative enough.

She considers going libertarian. "Ron Paulism: Slash and Burn?" Pick an arbtrary date, like say 1860, turn on your way-back machine and get rid of every position that exists now, but didn't exist back then? ??? Why stop there? What was wrong with government in 1812? or 1790? ??? Was 1860 the last time we had a Dept of War as opposed to Defense? Maybe that's what Libs believe is "honesty in governement."

Talking to her hurts, sometimes.

The problem with "the housing bubble" is the people who took out loans/mortgages they couldn't afford. Forget, I guess, that requirements/regulations were changed to the point of absurdity, to fuel an economy of smoke and mirrors: retail buying and flipping properties. Never mind the unregulated "non-insurance" "credit default swap" market created to innoculate the greedy assholes who sold and bought "Mortgage Securities." Now THERE'S an oxymoron if I ever saw one: Mortgage security. Smoke and mirrors.



She was shocked at how little documentation was required during her last house purchase. Because she had bought houses before and had higher expectations. As opposed to your average first time buyer; I have NO fucking clue what's required to buy a house. All I know is to ask them/myself, "Can I make the payments?" Problem with that is: ARMs; Adjustable rates that often were hidden from buyers. Problem is that some banks/lenders will not reveal what the payment will be untill the loan is accepted, and YES I ran into that once, when I considered a bank loan to replace a dealer loan on a truck. I had sense enough to assume that a 2-yr loan would have payments twice as high as a 4-yr loan. So I walked. And listened to, "You're going to be paying SOoooo much more in interest if you don't change loans." And having your truck repoed is better?

Some times things really are a simple as they seem.

The wife is packing; I better go. Anyway....

Anyone know of a research project looking for an antidote for conservatardation? One I can donate to?

PS Happy Thanksgiving (Turkey Day) everyone.