For a short period of time early last year Donald Trump seemed to be nearly on the brink of tossing his hat into the ring of candidates running to represent the Republican Party against President Barack Obama in the 2012 general election. He appeared to connect with a portion of the population not regularly involved in politics, but fed up enough with the direction of the American economy and President to stand up and call for a change in Washington. One birth certificate unveiling, one debate and several cross Youtube videos later, Donald Trump’s political star seems to be shining only dimly in 2o12. That decline was made more evident in a Facebook/POLITICO pol l released Saturday, asking Nevada Facebook users if Trump’s endorsement of Mitt Romney Thursday was a positive. Survey says: net negative. The poll surveyed 1,150 adult Facebook users, not specifically registered voters or likely GOP caucus voters, in Nevada on Friday. Following Trump’s endorsement Thursday, The Blaze’s Eddie Scarry reminded readers and fans of Romney that the real estate executive’s support may not be a cause for celebration just yet.
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Facebook/POLITICO poll shows that few in Nevada ‘liked’ Trump endorsement of Romney
This is the point a lot of folks are wondering about in today’s otherwise good-looking numbers in the monthly jobs report: Population estimates for the household survey are developed by the U.S. Census Bureau. Each year, the Census Bureau updates the estimates to reflect new information and assumptions about the growth of the population during the decade. The change in population reflected in the new estimates results from the introduction of the Census 2010 count as the new population base, adjustments for net international migration, updated vital statistics and other information, and some methodological changes in the estimation process. The vast majority of the population change, however, is due to the change in base population from Census 2000 to Census 2010. Keep reading this post . . .
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Lost City
See Noemie Emery, at Weekly Standard , ” Occupational Therapy “: “God, I love ’em,” wrote Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post not long after the glorious dawning of Occupy Wall Street, saying that the protests “arise at just the right moment and are aimed at just the right target” to grow into something quite big. Apparently, the stench from McPherson Square (the Washington, D.C., equivalent of Zuccotti Park in Manhattan) had not yet wafted the two blocks north to the Post building, for he was back a week later to praise it again, along with his stablemate E.J. Dionne and many other liberals who read into the Occupy movement numerous virtues that never existed, while wholly ignoring the vices that are only too real. And why would these clean, polite, well-mannered people, for whom an overdue library book would most likely seem like a major infraction, embrace a collection of ne’er-do-wells who are causing a public-health crisis in the midst of their city? Because they and the rest of the left are desperate for any kind of jolt to jump-start their party, which has been in a coma since the air seeped out of Obamamania sometime in 2009. So what if the occupiers have no idea what they want, and no plans for getting it? “Liberals need a tea party, damn it,” writes Jonah Goldberg, and thus “have embraced the movement in principle with the understanding that they’ll worry about the details later, if at all.” For similar reasons, labor and assorted left-wing organizations are also circling, hoping to connect to the “99 percent” the occupiers say they are speaking for. They hope to repeat the success of the civil rights and the Tea Party movements. But there are reasons this may not work out. The problem with Occupy is that it involves occupation, which gets it off to a very bad start. The Tea Party asked people to show up for a few hours on weekends, march, listen to speeches, perhaps call upon members of Congress, pick up their trash, and go home. Occupy by contrast asks people to leave their homes (should they have them) and live in a tent in a park for an indefinite period, for goals that are hard to explain. What kind of people move into a tent for an indefinite period? Those without strong connections to professions or to other people, without obligations, routines, and responsibilities; without children or clients or jobs. This self-selects against the 90 percent of the population that is productive and grounded, that supports itself and works hard, not to mention the part of the population that votes. Even before the camps were heavily infiltrated by homeless and/or criminal elements, the composition was tilted to those on the fringes, frequently by choice as well as necessity, which made it more like a cultural event such as Woodstock than like the Depression-age Hoovervilles, which were peopled largely by those who once had middle-class standing and were then down on their luck…. The civil rights and Tea Party movements addressed specific concerns—a cosmic injustice, and fiscal policies believed to be ruinous—that had means of redress through political remedies, which they pursued by legal, nonviolent means. The Occupy forces by and large have problems that do not admit of political solutions. The civil rights and Tea Party movements sprang from the middle of middle America; Occupy Wall Street from the fringe. Its happy embrace of a “communal”—and rag-tag and dirty—lifestyle was bound to alienate that much larger part of society that likes soap and water; clean clothes, sheets, and towels; indoor plumbing and sleeping in beds. The people who claimed to speak for the 99 percent who aren’t rich managed to repel the 98 percent who want order and cleanliness. Emery mentions New York Magazine ‘s John Heilemann, who published a piece about those holding out for a resurgence of Occupy in the spring and summer. Turns out there’s some planning to occupy the national party conventions: ” Yes, tent cities teeming with lice, rape charges, and piles of excrement (200 pounds of it in Santa Cruz, California) are just the thing to rally swing voters .” Yep, that’s exactly movement that James Walter “Occupy” Casper III endorsed with his exhortation: ” Occupy wherever you are .” Freakin’ scumbag. Criminal Hatesac3′s even more stupid than the doltish union idiot at the video. Man, Cavuto reams her a new one. That’s gotta hurt. Winning!
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Occupy Wall Street: A Movement Custom-Designed to Make Democrat-Socialists Look Like a Bunch of Freaks
The mayor of a small town on the coast of Peru known for its long beaches and flavorful shrimp, believes that there is something queer in the water. Huarmey Mayor Jose Benitez has revealed that metal strontium has got in the water supply, and his belief that it is making men homosexual. “Unfortunately strontium reduces male hormones and suddenly we’ll be as Tabalosos, where the percentages are increasing of homosexuality,” The Daily Mail reports he announced while i ssuing a warning to the citizens of Huarmey during an opening ceremony for a local water project. A Peruvian television report several years ago claimed that the population of Tabalosos was predominantly gay. The interior city is the source of water for Huarmey. The report has been rebuked, but the stigma still exists, as Benitez cites the false study in his water project announcement. Dr. Robert Castro Rodriguez, Dean of the College of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of Lima, told a radio station that strontium can cause bone cancer, anaemia and cardiovascular problems, according to Pink News. A link with homosexuality has yet to be identified.
Nationwide, the housing market is still reeling from one of the worst crashes in history. Still, over the next two years, some areas are expected to start recovering. Researchers at 24/7 Wall St. have identified the ten metropolitan areas where home prices are projected to increase the most by next year. However, since most of those markets have experienced exceptionally large drops in home prices, the revival is bittersweet. Six of the ten metropolitan areas that are projected to have the largest home prices increase from the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012 are also among the top 50 areas that experienced the worst housing prices declines from the second quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2011. The housing markets in these areas were so decimated by their real estate bubble burst that they are considered to be at their bottom with no room to get even worse. Such bottoms tend to draw in investors. The inflow of new money causes these markets to bounce back, driving home prices back up. Of course, there are many large cities, such as Las Vegas, Nev., and Riverside, Calif., that were also hit exceptionally hard by the housing crisis that are not expected to recover in the coming year. The difference between these cities and those on this list is their size. The metro areas that are projected to recover have slightly more than 100,000 residents, for the most part. Carson City, where home prices are expected to increase by 15.5 percent, has fewer than 55,000 residents. As a result, housing inventories are much smaller. It is much easier to turn around a housing market on this scale than on a much larger one. 24/7 Wall St. used data from Fiserv for 384 metropolitan areas to compile this list of the ten cities where home prices are expected to increase the most from the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012. They also included future projected price increases, population, when the metropolitan areas reached their price peaks, and unemployment rates, all provided by Fiserv. 10. Mobile, Ala. Change in home prices (2011 Q2 to 2012 Q2): 6.2 percent Change in home prices (2012 Q2 to 2013 Q2): 14.2 percent Population: 411,536 Prices reached peak in: 2008 Q2 (-27.1 percent) Unemployment: 11.2 percent Home prices in Mobile, Ala., dropped more than 27 percent in the past three years. From the second quarter of 2010 to the second quarter of 2011, prices dropped 18.8 percent — the second largest decrease in the country. According to the Mobile Area Association of Realtors, foreclosures and short sales accounted for 40 percent of all sales in the area for the 12 months that ended October 1. However, the metropolitan area is one of a few in the country where prices are expected to increase significantly this coming year and even more so the following year. The real estate market is expected to make a comeback in the coming 12 months, with a projected increase of 6.2 percent in prices. 9. Syracuse, N.Y. Change in home prices (2011 Q2 to 2012 Q2): 7.0 percent Change in home prices (2012 Q2 to 2013 Q2): 1.5 percent Population: 647,108 Prices reached peak in: 2008 Q1 (-7.9 percent) Unemployment: 8.0 percent Home prices in Syracuse, N.Y., decreased only 7.9 percent from their peak in the first quarter of 2008. This is not only significantly lower than the national drop of 32.3 percent from the national peak in the first quarter of 2006, but also significantly lower than other metropolitan areas on the list. The city’s housing market has done exceptionally well compared to the rest of the country. In 2010, it had the fifth-lowest foreclosure rate in the nation, according to RealtyTrac. 8. Las Cruces, N.M . Change in home prices (2011 Q2 to 2012 Q2): 7.4 percent Change in home prices (2012 Q2 to 2013 Q2): 7.3 percent Population: 211,617 Prices reached peak in: 2007 Q3 (-12.6 percent) Unemployment: 6.6 percent Las Cruces’s unemployment rate of 6.6 percent is the 47th lowest in the country and is much lower than the national rate of 9.1 percent. This measurement indicates a healthy economy, which in turn influences the housing market. From the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012, housing prices are expected to increase 7.4 percent. This trend is projected to continue through the next year, and prices to increase another 7.3 percent. 7. Niles-Benton Harbor, Mich. Change in home prices (2011 Q2 to 2012 Q2): 7.5 percent Change in home prices (2012 Q2 to 2013 Q2): 2.4 percent Population: 160,414 Prices reached peak in: 2007 Q4 (-13.2 percent) Unemployment: 10.7 percent The Niles-Benton Harbor, Mich., metropolitan area has seen a 13.2 percent decrease in housing prices since its peak in the fourth quarter of 2007. In the last 12 months, housing prices dropped by 5.2 percent. Prices are expected to bounce back dramatically, increasing 7.5 percent by the second quarter of 2012, and then increasing just 2.4 percent in the following 12 months. 6. St. George, Utah Change in home prices (2011 Q2 to 2012 Q2): 7.9 percent Change in home prices (2012 Q2 to 2013 Q2): 3.5 percent Population: 138,492 Prices reached peak in: 2006 Q4 (-41.4 percent) Unemployment: 9.6 percent Home prices have decreased by 41.4 percent in St. George, Utah, since the fourth quarter of 2006. In just the last twelve months, prices have decreased 12.4 percent — the eighth largest drop in the country. However, from the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012 prices are projected to increase 7.9 percent. Check out the top 5 here. (Charles B. Stockdale– 24/7 Wall St. /The Blaze)
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These Are America’s Worst Housing Markets Poised to Recover
-By Warner Todd Huston When is a national park not a national park? When it is “themed” toward one small segment of the population by a government infected with PCism. That is what U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar did when he advocated recently for “Latino” themed national parks and historical landmarks. One might ask if Salazar is
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Newest PC Goal: More Hispanic Theme Parks
If only Twitter had monetary value — or does it ? Bin Laden’s death racked up 5,106 tweets per second (TPS). Japan’s earthquake and tsunami: 5,530 TPS. The royal wedding: 3,966 TPS. Beyonce announcing her bun in the oven on the MTV VMAs? Hold the phone! No seriously, thousands of people were holding their phones and tweeting at mind-boggling rate of 8,868 TPS. This pregnancy news smashed the previously held TPS record of 7,196 TPS from the FIFA Women’s World Cup between Japan and the United States. As the Gizmodo writer Mat Honan states : Twitter is the most important metric of attention. It is not based on past behavior. It is equally capable of measuring scripted events, and the completely unexpected. And it is remarkable because it measures not just consumption, but also interest. When Twitter measures tweets per second, it measures what people are interested in right now. It measures live attention. And that is very, very valuable. Though tweets per second are a valuable unit of measure in their own right, here are just a few other considerations for the importance of these numbers: The audience using Twitter; How many people have Twitter available to them, can tweet instantaneously and therefore contribute to TPS; and If this reflects accurately on the majority of the population’s interest and priorities You may scoff at something like Beyonce’s baby taking top seed for tweets per second, but it’s only a matter of time before something new enraptures the Twittersphere. Here’s the video of Beyonce revealing her news with a bump rub, as reported by CBS News (and they mention Twitter): h/t Techcrunch via Gizmodo
Consider: the population of the United States is a bit over 311 million, yet, we start off with Obama unintentionally telling us that government is too damned involved in American life If nothing else, the crisis over the debt ceiling is reminding the country of the astonishing reach of the federal spigot, encapsulated by a figure
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Just How Big Is The Federal Government? Over 100 Million Checks Sent Out Each Month
