How does the World view America these days?

[Nebraska]

 

[zero]

is a male karen called a darren now? I'm so behind on these things.

[Rubin Farr]

 

[ignatius]

[J3FF3R00]

1 hour ago, ignatius said:

 

My 90 year old neighbors bought their 3 bedroom house (1/4 acre lot) when it was built in 1955 and told me that their downpayment was literally $25.00. 

[ignatius]

2 minutes ago, J3FF3R00 said:

My 90 year old neighbors bought their 3 bedroom house (1/4 acre lot) when it was built in 1955 and told me that their downpayment was literally $25.00. 

yeah. it's crazy. around 1980 my parents bought a 2 bd 1 bath house in north miami beach for $45,000. mom didn't work. my dad had recently declared bankruptcy after being run out of the methodist church for being too radical (he was a methodist minister) and mom didn't work. My dad borrowed $75 each from like 13 people he knew to make the down payment. he was working 3 odd jobs at the time. it's a crazy story and i don't think it'd be at all possible today. 

[zero]

I remember when people were buying houses in the U.S. with like $500 as a down payment back in 2006/2007. we all know how that turned out.

[ignatius]

8 minutes ago, zero said:

I remember when people were buying houses in the U.S. with like $500 as a down payment back in 2006/2007. we all know how that turned out.

totally different world though. the financial products that blew up the world in 2007/8 didn't exist in the 70s and 80s or even 90s.

bundling mortgages together to sell as a product to investors didn't exist. this became a beast to feed. more mortgages were disguised as 'good' when indeed they were bad but they were given AAA ratings by the ratings agency because of how they were repackaged into bundles of thousands. this was then sold to investors. 

$45k over 30 years is a pretty small monthly payment w/a fixed APR. it's a much lower risk than a 15 or 30 year apr that is adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) which can fluctuate wildly and a monthly payment can go up greatly pushing it into the unaffordable range for the mortgage holder. 

if you haven't see it you should watch "The Big Short" - based on an amazing book. the screenplay won an oscar for how it explains all this complex shit to people. it's a movie i watch once a year or so to remember how the fix is always in and to renew anger at banks for being such fucking shitbags. 

 

[zero]

10 minutes ago, ignatius said:

totally different world though. the financial products that blew up the world in 2007/8 didn't exist in the 70s and 80s or even 90s.

oh for sure man, and I wasn't trying to knock anything you said. just had a random memory jump out at me when y'all were mentioning low down payments.

[ignatius]

5 minutes ago, zero said:

oh for sure man, and I wasn't trying to knock anything you said. just had a random memory jump out at me when y'all were mentioning low down payments.

yeah.. it was some predatory shit. mortgage brokers, bankers, financial institutions all got fat on fees and commissions. totally self serving and should've been prosecuted for fraud and/or negligence in many cases. some people should've gone to jail for sure. but they're doing a lot of the same shit again.. not the easy mortgages but the bundling of them and selling them as a product to investors. 

[zero]

damn, been a minute since I've read an ear biting story. ear biter on the loose in south Louisiana:

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/lafourche-terrebonne/wanted-houma-woman-accused-biting-police-officers-ear/289-04e05a85-a14b-440b-8e33-6b6a808d3b19

Quote

The police department said during an "altercation" 36-year-old Michelle Smith began to bite one of the officer's ears.

"During the struggle, Michelle Smith completely bit a large portion of the right ear completely off and she fled the area before she could be apprehended," police say.

 

[auxien]

several Louisiana women fighting in a parking lot of a bar down in Houma at midnight, biting off the ear of a cop who gets in the way. love it.

[ignatius]

5 minutes ago, auxien said:

several Louisiana women fighting in a parking lot of a bar down in Houma at midnight, biting off the ear of a cop who gets in the way. love it.

it makes a nice poem. 

[auxien]

several Louisiana women

fighting in a parking lot of a bar

down in Houma

at midnight,

biting off the ear of a cop

who got in the way.

 

-aux (c) 2021

[cichlisuite]

50 minutes ago, ignatius said:

it makes a nice poem. 

I sang it in country music style

[chenGOD]

‘It’s A Free Country’: Man Threatens TSA Agent’s Life, Throws Checkpoint Stanchion, Strips Naked & Masturbates, Charges State
 

 

[Rubin Farr]

With the infrastructure bill signed into law, the US might finally get a new interstate across the Southern states

[EdamAnchorman]

8 hours ago, chenGOD said:

‘It’s A Free Country’: Man Threatens TSA Agent’s Life, Throws Checkpoint Stanchion, Strips Naked & Masturbates, Charges State
 

 

Dude's name is Frank Towers, sounds like a porn star name.

[Rubin Farr]

[Nebraska]

 

[ignatius]

4 hours ago, Nebraska said:

 

also, unrelated tangent but didn't want to bump the thread so edit:

christian identity shit is simmering. 

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by ignatius

[chenGOD]

14 hours ago, Nebraska said:

 

That bit about the tax situation in Washington State seemed weird, so I went and looked - Washington State doesn't have an income tax (neither corporate nor individual)! That's messed up. Corporate income tax and corporate tax evasion should be the number one priorities for any government in terms of revenue generation.

[zlemflolia]

35 minutes ago, chenGOD said:

That bit about the tax situation in Washington State seemed weird, so I went and looked - Washington State doesn't have an income tax (neither corporate nor individual)! That's messed up. Corporate income tax and corporate tax evasion should be the number one priorities for any government in terms of revenue generation.

the entirety of washington state's government is in the pockets of boeing, amazon, microsoft, etc

it's unsurprising and kind of obvious that this kind of thing happens.  in what world is the state used as a tool of oppression of the owning class wielded by the hands of the working class, rather than the other way around?

Edited November 17, 2021 by ilqx hermolia xpli

[milkface]

just here to leave some parenti

 

The Darker Myths of Empire (16th November 2005)

https://youtu.be/OOF56wYTl1w

 

US interventionism, the 3rd world, and the USSR (15th April 1986)

 

Super Patriotism vs. Real Patriotism (1988)

[Nebraska]

this is what american conversations sound like to anyone who isn't american