Friday, May 2, 2014

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, May 2, 2014


Folks... today you're gonna read and hear that the unemployment rate has now fallen to 6.3%.

Yea!

Yeah!

Alright...!!!

(*PAUSE*)

Uh... folks...

(*SIGH*)

Not so fast...

The AP opens its reporting with the following sentence: "U.S. Employers added a robust 288,000 jobs in April..."

Sounds good, right?

(*SNORT*)

Here's how the AP follows up this "great news" in paragraph two: "But the drop occurred because the number of people working or seeking work fell sharply. People aren't counted as unemployed if they're not looking for a job."

Oops...

(*PURSED LIPS*)

And over at Bloomberg News, via paragraph 8 of their story, "The drop in the unemployment rate from March's 6.7% came as the agency's survey of households showed the labor force shrank by more than 800,000 in April. The so-called participation rate, which indicates the share of working age people in the labor force, decreased to 62.8%, matching the lowest level since 1978..."

(*HEADACHE*)

Folks... I can type until my fingers bleed, but in the final analysis, each of you needs to understand and accept that reading newspaper headlines and listening to media soundbites will by and large simply serve to keep you misinformed at best, ignorant at worst.

I'm not saying don't follow the news on your own... I'm not advising you to boycott the mainstream media... all I'm saying is that there's a lot of crap out there. Trust but verify... that was Ronald Reagan's motto and it was a damn fine piece of advice to the American People.

I can't promise you that Usually Right is always gonna have the right answer... the correct analysis. But I can promise that I'll always be honest with you; I'll never deliberately twist or cover-up facts in order to buttress my own opinions and analysis.

Questions, folks... notice that I ask a lot of questions. I ask questions of those on the Right... I ask questions of those on the Left. I do my best to hold both accountable so as to let the chips fall where they may.

Keep reading, folks! Keep asking your own questions... and keep searching for true answers to these questions as they arise.

DON'T... BE... A... SHEEPLE!


5 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-01/1-3-homes-unaffordable-freddie-mac-prepares-enter-trailer-home-loan-market

I can’t say this is surprising. After all, with average peasants - I mean citizens - now priced out of the domestic housing market (Zillow recently showed 1 in 3 homes are unaffordable) due to billionaire financiers and foreign oligarchs buying up all real estate in cash purchases, American serfs now will find out where the “elites” think they belong. In trailer homes, naturally.

Oh, but the story gets better, a lot better.

As is generally the case in the USSA these days, crony capitalist oligarchs have perfectly positioned themselves to benefit financially from the final transition of Americans to neo-feudalism. Recall that in my post from last October titled, "Carlyle Group’s Latest Investment…Trailer Parks," it was noted that trailer park owners share the following attractive quality:

Our customers have no alternative shot at homeownership, nor do they [normally] even have the credit scores and quality to seek anything better…They never leave the park they are in, and the revenues are unbelievably stable as a result.

(Sure, we know from the Dark Ages that peasants on the land stay put. Same concept here.)

However, it gets even better than this. America’s number one hypocritical, crony capitalist, Warren Buffett, is also positioned to benefit.

From Bloomberg:

Want to buy a trailer park? Freddie Mac wants to give you a loan. The unit of the government-owned mortgage giant that funds apartment buildings is set to begin financing manufactured-housing communities, the company said in a statement today.

The firm is broadening its reach in the multifamily segment of the housing market as it seeks to fulfill its mandate to provide affordable options for low-income families. The McLean, Virginia-based lender will work with established companies in the industry across the U.S., said David Brickman, the head of multifamily operations at Freddie Mac.

“It’s rounding out our ability to touch the affordable housing space,” Brickman said today in a telephone interview. “Manufactured housing is a big piece of rural affordable housing.”

Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., lamented the punitive rates charged to purchase factory-built homes in his 2009 annual letter to shareholders.

Berkshire owns Clayton Homes Inc., a builder of manufactured housing.

Berkshire owns Clayton Homes Inc., a builder of manufactured housing.

Berkshire owns Clayton Homes Inc., a builder of manufactured housing.

Berkshire owns Clayton Homes Inc., a builder of manufactured housing.

Serfs up!

William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/1/house-gop-obama-withholding-benghazi-email-crimina/

House Republicans accused the Obama administration Thursday of “perhaps criminal” behavior for having withheld for months key email that sheds light on how the administration framed its post-Benghazi talking points, potentially violating a congressional subpoena.

* "PERHAPS...???"

* "POTENTIALLY...???"

* AND SOME FOLKS WONDER WHY I HATE REPUBLICANS ONLY SLIGHTLY LESS THAN I HATE DEMOCRATS...

House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said Secretary of State John F. Kerry will have to come before Congress to explain why his department refused to release the email until forced to do so by a judge.

* NOW BOEHNER WANTS TO GET INVOLVED...?!?! NOW...?!?!

* JOHN BOEHNER IS A PIECE OF SHIT, FOLKS.

Meanwhile, a retired Air Force brigadier general who was in the U.S. Africa Command’s headquarters the night of the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic post in Benghazi testified that he and others quickly realized the assault was spawned by terrorists. The general said it was either negligence or willful ignorance that led the White House, amid a re-election campaign, to say the violence was ignited by anger over a video.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Several high-profile Republican senators said the revelations, combined with questions still unanswered, should spur Congress to create an independent investigative committee to get the answers.

* AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE SHOULD HAVE BEEN SET UP THE DAY AFTER RICE WENT ON FIVE SUNDAY TALK SHOWS TO LIE ABOUT BENGHAZI!

* FOLKS... GEEZUS... WHY DO YOU SUPPOSE IT WAS RICE INSTEAD OF HILLARY... INSTEAD OF PANETTA... INSTEAD OF THE PRESIDENT HIMSELF...?!?!

“If the White House won’t explain it, Secretary Kerry should come to the Capitol to explain why he defied an official congressional subpoena. And the White House needs to understand that this investigation will not end until the entire truth is revealed and justice and accountability are served,” Mr. Boehner said.

* QUESTION: SIDE BY SIDE PUBLIC SUICIDES... BOEHNER AND KERRY... YEA OR NAY...???

* TO BE CONTINUED...

William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Judicial Watch, a public interest law firm, obtained the email under an open-records request enforced by a court order. The email shows a top White House national security official shaping how U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice should talk about the attack on a round of Sunday political talk shows. The email said blame should be placed on an Internet video.

The White House dismissed the rekindled questions. “This is a conspiracy theory in search of a conspiracy,” press secretary Jay Carney said.

* YES... GO ON...

But he altered his explanation from Wednesday, when he said the reason the email wasn’t turned over in response to requests was that it wasn’t about Benghazi. Instead, Mr. Carney said it was a State Department decision and Mr. Kerry’s department would have to provide the answers.

* WAS IT JUST KERRY WHO ALLEGEDLY BROKE THE LAW BY IGNORING A CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENA... OR WAS IT HILLARY AS WELL DURING HER TENURE...?

Mr. Carney did acknowledge Thursday that the email mentioned Benghazi once, in a question about how administration officials should respond to a report in a British newspaper that the U.S. ignored a warning 48 hours before the attack.

* FOLKS... AGAIN... THE FOREIGN PRESS WAS ALL OVER THIS FROM THE BEGINNING! FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS KNEW THE SITUATION IN BENGHAZI AS WELL!

Immediately after the attack, the Obama administration said it was a mob protest spawned by an Internet video mocking Islam. ... But Republicans said the CIA, the Defense Department and parts of the State Department quickly realized that the Benghazi attack was not a protest. They question why the White House deployed Ms. Rice to the talk shows nearly a week later to repeat that message.

* BECAUSE THE PRESIDENT WAS FACING RE-ELECTION...!!! DUH...!!! IT WAS A DESPARATE COVER-UP... ONE THAT WORKED!

Rep. Darrell E. Issa, California Republican and the House’s top investigator of Benghazi, said Thursday that it was “perhaps criminal” of the Obama administration to withhold the email. “The facts are coming out that this administration has knowingly withheld documents pursuant to congressional subpoenas,” Mr. Issa said as he opened a hearing into the administration’s handling of the deadly attack, which killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

* PROVE IT...

(*SHRUG*)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/rand-paul-aipac/2014/05/01/id/569021/

A bill that could potentially cut off foreign aid to Palestinians has some surprising opposition: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobby, says Sen. Rand Paul, who is sponsoring the legislation.

(*SNORT*)

"Ironically, the group AIPAC is pushing back this bill and this is to me very troubling," Paul told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"If I were to speak to the 10,000 folks who come up here [to Capitol Hill] in support of AIPAC, the vast majority of them would support my bill. And yet the political establishment up here thinks, 'oh we're going to stop this because we've always given foreign aid to the Palestinians and we frankly don't care what their behavior is."

* UNFRIGGIN'BELIEVABLE...

Paul believes the opposition is bound to roil the nation as news of it emerges.

* IF NEWS OF IT EMERGES. (THIS IS THE FIRST I'M READING OF IT - AND NOTE THE SOURCE!)

"The American people, if they knew that, would be very, very upset and think, 'you know what, those people are no longer lobbying in favor of America and Israel if they're not willing to put restrictions on aid to Palestinians,'" Paul said.

* YEP! AGREED!

AIPAC, which says its mission is to "strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of Israel and the United States," had no immediate response.

* DOUCHE BAGS!

Paul said his bill, which he introduced before the Senate on Thursday, would make aid to the Palestinian authority contingent on it recognizing Israel and cut off aid if it does not. "If we’re going to send money to people in the Middle East who hate our ally of Israel, the money ought to be contingent upon behavior and I can't see sending it to Hamas," he said, referring to the terrorist organization whose aim is to establish an Islamic state in Palestine.

"Hamas has in their original charter the destruction of Israel as one of their goals. So how would we ever conceive of American money going to a government that has Hamas as part of it without Hamas agreeing to end hostility and to recognize Israel? "I just can't see how we can conceive of sending American money to a group like that."

* MAKES SENSE TO ME!

William R. Barker said...

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/05/02/rob-schneider-tells-chris-stigall-we-are-sliding-very-fast-towards-fascism/

Chris Stigall spoke with comedian Rob Schneider on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the struggle comedians face in today’s current political environment.

Schneider struck on ominous tone when discussing the path he sees the country on.

“Democracies don’t end well. We are sliding very fast towards fascism. It’s an ugly kind of thing. There’s this kind of mob mentality that we have to be careful of,” he said.

He believes comedians are pressured toward one side of the political spectrum.

“There’s a polarization that’s happening…I do think you look can look at government and go, ‘Wow, it is out of control now,’ and if you do criticize or tend to be not directly along a liberal stand, you can get murdered,” Schneider commented.

Schneider was very critical of the President’s handling of the economy and he feels certain policies are impacting businesses.

“There’s not one segment of business under the Obama administration that hasn’t been hurt…he attacks for-profit schools, which is totally an elitist thing from a guy that went to Harvard. I think for free, by the way,” Schneider said.

He was also critical of the media for being overly influenced by the government and not standing up for the American people.

“We don’t really have freedom of the press. It’s owned by about eight different companies, and it doesn’t really express or help the average American,” Schneider stated.