With Illegals Being Deported or Self-Deporting, Foreign Demand for Rental Properties Falls, and Rents Finally Start Falling as Well

I know commenters have been hammering the direct impact of open borders on rents.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the early evidence is in: President Trump's renewed border enforcement and mass deportation campaign is easing pressure on the housing market, delivering tangible relief for renters who were hammered during the Biden years. Speaking on Fox Business Channel, Bessent pointed to fresh rent data showing apartment prices fell 1.1 percent compared to a year ago and are now down 5.2 percent from their 2022 peak, when housing costs were surging nationwide. Bessent argued the decline isn't accidental, but the predictable result of reversing what he called years of "unfettered immigration" that flooded local housing markets and forced working Americans to compete for limited supply.
Citing a recent Wharton School study, Bessent noted a near one-to-one relationship
between population growth and rent increases, saying the research found that "every one percent increase in population" translated into roughly a one percent rise in rents. "Rents are down," Bessent said, adding that the Biden administration refused to acknowledge how mass migration fueled the affordability crisis.

.@SecScottBessent: "There's a recent study out from Wharton School that shows every 1% increase in population, rents went up 1%. So, @POTUS, by enforcing the border, sending home more than 2 million illegals, we're now seeing [rents] coming down substantially." pic.twitter.com/VtzSj7SiFf
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 16, 2025

Could this be true? Could it really be that 60% of the demand for rental properties came from the foreign-born?

It does have a chart, which makes it True in my opinion.

This is treasonous…

60% of rental demand in America during the Biden Administration was foreign born.

50% of FHA loans with US government tax credits were given to foreigners. pic.twitter.com/GRvKWxbkKx
— C3 (@C_3C_3) December 11, 2025

Trump's boasting about the job numbers released earlier this week, but they're not great. At least, not at first glance. I think 64,000 jobs were created last month, which is a bad number. You want to see a minimum of 100,000 per month and you wouldn't say the market is strong until it gets up over 200,000.

What makes them look better is that new American jobs are going to, get this, actual Americans.

I have nothing against Hondurans or Indians or Haitians but I could not give a fuck about whether they have jobs or not. In fact, as it relates to jobs in America, I would like them not to have jobs at all.

The White House touted fresh labor data Tuesday as evidence that President Trump's economic reset is taking hold, pointing to sustained private-sector hiring, shrinking federal payrolls, and rising wages as hallmarks of what the administration calls a restored "America First" economy.
In a statement accompanying the release, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the latest jobs report shows Trump "fixing the damage caused by Joe Biden" and redirecting growth back to where it belongs.
"Since President Trump took office, 100% of the job growth has come in the private sector and among native-born Americans -- exactly where it should be," Leavitt said, adding that wages are rising, prices are falling, and investment is pouring back into the country as the economy heads into 2026.
According to the White House, the private sector has added 121,000 jobs since September and 225,000 since August, even as the federal government has shed 168,000 positions during the same period.
Federal employment is now at its lowest level in more than a decade, down 271,000 jobs since Trump returned to office, reflecting the administration's push to rein in what it describes as an overgrown bureaucracy.
Overall, Trump's second-term economy has produced 687,000 new private-sector jobs since January, with the gains concentrated among American workers.

Posted by: Ace at 12:14 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Hello

Posted by: fourseasons at December 17, 2025 12:13 PM (3ek7K)

2 SPONGE!

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at December 17, 2025 12:14 PM (xcxpd)

3 And good morning, Ace

Hope you're feeling better

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at December 17, 2025 12:15 PM (xcxpd)

4 You want to see a minimum of 100,000 per month and you wouldn't say the market is strong until it gets up over 200,000.

======

Why do we want these numbers?

What are the assumptions about these being good numbers?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:15 PM (GBKbO)

5 So... supply and demand is an immutable law of the universe or something...

Posted by: Thomas Bender at December 17, 2025 12:15 PM (XV/Pl)

6 TJM was just talking about this.
Deporting illegals has all sorts of benefits.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at December 17, 2025 12:15 PM (xcxpd)

7 It wasn't the greedy Boomers after all

Posted by: Notsothoreau at December 17, 2025 12:16 PM (+mUZM)

8 It does have a chart, which makes it True in my opinion.

Well, yes, but it would be much more convincing with error bars. They don't have to reflect actual statistics, they just need to be there.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:16 PM (Riz8t)

9 Testing

Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:16 PM (Riz8t)

10 Whoa

Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 12:16 PM (BEQiS)

11 There are so many collateral benefits from getting the illegals the F out of our country, it's ridiculous. It's like a huge powerwash, removing the barnacles from the hull for good.

Posted by: Frasier Crane at December 17, 2025 12:16 PM (bNf8H)

12 It shouldn't just be housing prices coming down. Consumer goods should retract, too. I guess we'll see.

Posted by: huerfano at December 17, 2025 12:16 PM (98kQX)

13 This has always been so obvious that it's amazing that all the people crying for "affordability" haven't been able to see it.

Best and fastest way to increase Affordability for everyone:
1) move out the illegals
2) support policies that drop oil and gas prices, thus dropping the price of almost everything.

Posted by: Tom Servo at December 17, 2025 12:16 PM (uWKK8)

14 I didn't do it.

Posted by: bluebell at December 17, 2025 12:17 PM (79pEw)

15
uh oh chongo

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:17 PM (DUeFe)

16 As a homeowner, the only renting I want to do is Eastern European laydees, so this deportation thing isn't helping me at all.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:17 PM (wCwnN)

17 new American jobs are going to, get this, actual Americans.

Now, how in the hell is that supposed to work? Unsustainable!

Posted by: t-bird at the Chamber of Commerce at December 17, 2025 12:17 PM (dfgzq)

18 I like the part where the illegals self deport. $1,000 and a free plane trip to the country of their choice is way cheaper than trying to round them all up and have the lefty's drag their deportations through the court system for months and even years.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at December 17, 2025 12:17 PM (0N4FZ)

19 Aww, man. I broke the thread.

Posted by: t-bird at December 17, 2025 12:17 PM (dfgzq)

20 It’s odd. In states like NY, CA and IL these figures don’t hold. In fact those states economies are running converse to most of the good news.

Somebody- help me out.

Posted by: Vengeance at December 17, 2025 12:18 PM (E/qck)

21 Isn’t that graph perilously close to violating the no maths rule? I guess it’s okay because it’s color coded…the Biden part of the graph should not be purple, though… brown (shitstained) would be more appropriate

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:18 PM (OW907)

22 I think we're back?

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at December 17, 2025 12:20 PM (O7YUW)

23 And my comment which had disappeared into the ether is now back like magic!

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:21 PM (OW907)

24 Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 12:16 PM (BEQiS)

=====

From last thread: no, not Muslim, but they are all younger than me. So I guess it's an age thing. And now I feel old.

Posted by: Jordan61 at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM (DRSnL)

25 Federal employment is now at its lowest level in more than a decade, down 271,000 jobs since Trump returned to office, reflecting the administration's push to rein in what it describes as an overgrown bureaucracy.

--
This cheers me up

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM (+El+t)

26 WTF happened to gasoline? $2.11 last night on way home. $2.59 9 hours later on the way back to work.

Posted by: rickb223 at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM (T+ixL)

27 6 TJM was just talking about this.
Deporting illegals has all sorts of benefits.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at December 17, 2025 12:15 PM (xcxpd)

======

It's the supply/demand curve.

Demand jacked up mightily for everything, especially essentials, unnaturally over the course of four years.

Helped not at all by NGOs laundering government funds to illegals to pay for things from groceries to rents to mortgages.

Removing that pressure by decreasing demand will have a lot of knock-on effects.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM (GBKbO)

28 I’ll say it again: any Biden color coding should have his era the color of a shitstain…

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM (OW907)

29 As a homeowner, the only renting I want to do is Eastern European laydees, so this deportation thing isn't helping me at all.

I would also accept Mexican weather girls.

Posted by: Ian S. at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM (QZThv)

30
75 phone winds here in SW Wyoming.

It's scary.

Posted by: fourseasons at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM (3ek7K)

31 It’s weird. In states such as NY, CA, and IL the economic data runs contra to all the good trends. Those states are also facing a loss of revenue, and budget deficit.

Somebody please help me out. An answer escapes me.

Posted by: Vengeance at December 17, 2025 12:23 PM (E/qck)

32 Welcome back, Ace. We missed you. What’d you bring us?

Posted by: Bulg at December 17, 2025 12:23 PM (rHAVa)

33 Demand jacked up mightily for everything, especially essentials, unnaturally over the course of four years.

Helped not at all by NGOs laundering government funds to illegals to pay for things from groceries to rents to mortgages.

Removing that pressure by decreasing demand will have a lot of knock-on effects.

Half of lefties talking about this on X is them claiming to not understand how 50 million illegals would increase demand and constrain supply. The "lefties pretend not to understand things to make argument impossible" meme has been getting a workout.

Posted by: Ian S. at December 17, 2025 12:24 PM (QZThv)

34 WTF happened to gasoline? $2.11 last night on way home. $2.59 9 hours later on the way back to work.

Posted by: rickb223 at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM

When we went to sherman yesterday I saw gas for $2.59 a gallon. Went to sams there and got gas for $2.08. I have no idea what is going on.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at December 17, 2025 12:24 PM (0N4FZ)

35 Could this be true? Could it really be that 60% of the demand for rental properties came from the foreign-born?
_________
Doesn't that mean that 6% of rental money went to Brandon?

Posted by: Eeyore at December 17, 2025 12:24 PM (s0JqF)

36 Please get these motherf’rs off the commercial flights and drive down that demand. I thought real ID would get rid of them. Nope.

Posted by: Vengeance at December 17, 2025 12:24 PM (E/qck)

37 75 phone winds here in SW Wyoming.

It's scary.
Posted by: fourseasons at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM (3ek7K)

=====

Windy here, too. All the schools are either on a delay or closed.

Posted by: Jordan61 at December 17, 2025 12:24 PM (DRSnL)

38 This post is indecipherable without Venn Diagrams.

Posted by: Mrs. Emhoff at December 17, 2025 12:25 PM (oftw2)

39 33 Half of lefties talking about this on X is them claiming to not understand how 50 million illegals would increase demand and constrain supply. The "lefties pretend not to understand things to make argument impossible" meme has been getting a workout.

Posted by: Ian S. at December 17, 2025 12:24 PM (QZThv)

=======

They've been told that the supply and demand curve may be real but it won't apply in instances where government decides to interfere.

Like labor. Surely there are no negative side effects to artificially increasing the price of labor with a higher minimum wage, right?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:25 PM (GBKbO)

40 Federal employment is now at its lowest level in more than a decade, down 271,000 jobs since Trump returned to office, reflecting the administration's push to rein in what it describes as an overgrown bureaucracy.

--
This cheers me up

Just as important, possibly even MORE important, is that the worst offenders in politicizing the government, e.g. USAID, are being fired, and DEI is being dismantled. It's not just the numbers of Feds, it's the specific people and bureaus.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:25 PM (Riz8t)

41 Here in the DFW area as far as I can tell rents are still ridiculously high. For this area I suspect this is due to an amazing amount of growth (population and related). Houses and apartment buildings under construction everywhere… maybe supply is just not keeping up with demand here…

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:25 PM (OW907)

42 "60% of rental demand in America during the Biden Administration was foreign born. 50% of FHA loans with US government tax credits were given to foreigners."

Except the charts under that quote don't show that at all. The first chart shows an increase in general foreign-born population growth (including legal immigrants). It has nothing to do with how that increase affects rental demand.

The second chart shows an increase in the percentage of FHA loans going to foreigners (including legal ones), but it still only shows about 4-6% of those loans going to foreigners. That's a very far cry from 50%.

I don't know where this guy is getting his top-line conclusion from. I think he's pulling them out of his ass.

Posted by: Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:25 PM (iFTx/)

43 Could this be true? Could it really be that 60% of the demand for rental properties came from the foreign-born?

Supply and Demand are the iron laws that control price.

Biden brought in tens of millions of immigrants, legal and otherwise, and each one of them needed housing.

Though I am amused, we went through a few months of "How come Trump hasn't lowered the cost of eggs!" until he did.

Are we soon going to get complaints Trump's deportations are lowering housing costs too much?

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:25 PM (sKqQm)

44 I bet insurance premiums come down too.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at December 17, 2025 12:25 PM (NwnyJ)

45 WTF happened to gasoline? $2.11 last night on way home. $2.59 9 hours later on the way back to work.
Posted by: rickb223

Oh, now you want four quarts per gallon?

Posted by: t-bird at December 17, 2025 12:26 PM (dfgzq)

46 Helped not at all by NGOs laundering government funds to illegals to pay for things from groceries to rents to mortgages.

Removing that pressure by decreasing demand will have a lot of knock-on effects.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM

All of the ngo illegal shelters in south Texas have closed down. No more customers means that the catholic charities groups aren't banking over $1K of federal government money per illegal anymore.

They have literally lost their paying customer base.

Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at December 17, 2025 12:26 PM (0N4FZ)

47 41 Here in the DFW area as far as I can tell rents are still ridiculously high. For this area I suspect this is due to an amazing amount of growth (population and related). Houses and apartment buildings under construction everywhere… maybe supply is just not keeping up with demand here…

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:25 PM (OW907)

======

The combination of deportations and builder over-creation that's been going on for years is going to create a different crisis in a year or two:

The "builders need a bailout" crisis.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:26 PM (GBKbO)

48 FHA loans, you would think, should require proof of citizenship.

There is a Tokker who does foreclosure inspections in the DFW area.
Lot's of houses just abandoned; self-deportations; not on the market yet but coming.
Most with all the furnishings left behind.
Like one, even the Christmas Tree.
It's really a bit sad, on a human level, to see a life uprooted like that.

OTOH, the majority of comments, and I agree with, "why are they getting loans when American citizens can't?!"

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at December 17, 2025 12:26 PM (HXT0k)

49 Lobstuh, wagyu, Carnival Cruises, it's a tough life for us "renters".

Posted by: Section 8 at December 17, 2025 12:27 PM (oftw2)

50 Willowed…

Comments about colors on graphs aren't that wise.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:21 PM (GBKbO)

TJM! This pierces me to the marrow!

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:27 PM (OW907)

51 The rents illegals were paying were financed with taxpayer debt laundered through charities like Catholic Charities and Lutheran Family Services. Another Bush legacy.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at December 17, 2025 12:27 PM (CAnCX)

52 When we went to sherman yesterday I saw gas for $2.59 a gallon. Went to sams there and got gas for $2.08. I have no idea what is going on.
Posted by: Mister Scott

TXB is asshoe. Sam's is always way cheaper. But the new Wal Mart in Melissa was where I saw $2.11 on the way home last night. It was $2.59 on the way back in this morning. I've never seen WM or Sam's jump that much overnight.

Posted by: rickb223 at December 17, 2025 12:27 PM (T+ixL)

53 Are we soon going to get complaints Trump's deportations are lowering housing costs too much?

From the snapper-uppers of tremendous amounts of rental housing across the US? Oh, they are going to squeal loudly.

Posted by: t-bird at December 17, 2025 12:27 PM (dfgzq)

54 46 All of the ngo illegal shelters in south Texas have closed down. No more customers means that the catholic charities groups aren't banking over $1K of federal government money per illegal anymore.

They have literally lost their paying customer base.
Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at December 17, 2025 12:26 PM (0N4FZ)

They're still doing it a ton in some states, including mine, unfortunately.

Posted by: XTC at December 17, 2025 12:28 PM (UnA8+)

55 The internet says there are about 40M foreign born people in the US legally - immigrants/H1B holders/etc

Add in another 40M illegals.

So that's about 1/4 of the population.

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:28 PM (sKqQm)

56 50 Willowed…

Comments about colors on graphs aren't that wise.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:21 PM (GBKbO)

TJM! This pierces me to the marrow!

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:27 PM (OW907)

=======

I expected the post to be hidden for longer, making me look like some kind of wizard.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:28 PM (GBKbO)

57 From last thread: no, not Muslim, but they are all younger than me. So I guess it's an age thing. And now I feel old.

Posted by: Jordan61 at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM (DRSnL)

Don't let the bastards get you down. Start feeling old when you don't remember what it is either.

Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 12:28 PM (BEQiS)

58 WTF happened to gasoline? $2.11 last night on way home. $2.59 9 hours later on the way back to work.
Posted by: rickb223

Gas station is owned and operated by Instacart.

Posted by: stu-mick-o-sucks at December 17, 2025 12:28 PM (w9Wax)

59 You would think with all the deportations, unemployment would be going down dramatically.

If there millions less people in the US, just the way the math works, if the job situation was relatively stable, the numerator stays the same but the denominator decreases.

But no idea what sort of complex equations they use to come up with those numbers.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 12:28 PM (eIzlH)

60 Job growth in Biden's administration was almost exclusively public sector and health care sector.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at December 17, 2025 12:28 PM (6/Q3k)

61 53 Are we soon going to get complaints Trump's deportations are lowering housing costs too much?

From the snapper-uppers of tremendous amounts of rental housing across the US? Oh, they are going to squeal loudly.

Posted by: t-bird at December 17, 2025 12:27 PM (dfgzq)

======

"Everyone's housing values need to go down but mine."

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:28 PM (GBKbO)

62 I went to grab celebration ice cream for me and my kid at a fast food place. $2 for a dinky cone with some soft serve vanilla in it.

If slashing the prices on rents and gas makes the food costs come down again, so a cheap cone isn't more than a dollar, it can't come too soon.

(Yes we could grab ice cream at the store and bring it home for cheaper. That wasn't the point.)

Posted by: LizLem at December 17, 2025 12:29 PM (gWBY1)

63
What's the story with WB? They rejected Paramount/Ellison?

Does this mean Netflix will get WB?

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:29 PM (DUeFe)

64 My rent is still pretty high for a one room apartment. I hope this self deporting continues at a brisk pace.

Posted by: dantesed at December 17, 2025 12:30 PM (Oy/m2)

65 47 The combination of deportations and builder over-creation that's been going on for years is going to create a different crisis in a year or two:

The "builders need a bailout" crisis.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:26 PM (GBKbO)

Where I live, 55+ Condo Complexes have been sprouting up like weeds. All of them pretty expensive for this area, all of them 55+.

Posted by: XTC at December 17, 2025 12:30 PM (UnA8+)

66 Here in the DFW area as far as I can tell rents are still ridiculously high. For this area I suspect this is due to an amazing amount of growth (population and related). Houses and apartment buildings under construction everywhere… maybe supply is just not keeping up with demand here…
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:25 PM (OW907)
______

Same in NYC and most big cities. A significant reason for this is reduced development during Covid. A lot of apartment and housing projects were delayed for years.

Not only does that mean that newer housing isn't coming on line as fast, it also means that in cases where a new apartment or housing project was replacing an older one, the older units were taken off the market for years.

All this resulted in reduced supply, which of course increased prices.

Posted by: Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:30 PM (iFTx/)

67 Half of lefties talking about this on X is them claiming to not understand how 50 million illegals would increase demand and constrain supply. The "lefties pretend not to understand things to make argument impossible" meme has been getting a workout.

Posted by: Ian S. at December 17, 2025 12:24 PM

Don't make us come over there.

Posted by: The Gods of the Copybook Headings at December 17, 2025 12:30 PM (bFu5X)

68 It's all diagrams, all the way down

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at December 17, 2025 12:30 PM (xcxpd)

69 You would think with all the deportations, unemployment would be going down dramatically./i]

The formal unemployment rate tracks how many people are getting unemployment insurance.

If an illegal is working a non-blackmarket job and they get deported that will generally open up a job for an American and they'll get off unemployment.

BUT

I think the percentage of illegals working non-blackmarket jobs is much less then we've been led to believe, only around 10%.

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (sKqQm)

70 They've been told that the supply and demand curve may be real but it won't apply in instances where government decides to interfere.

Like labor. Surely there are no negative side effects to artificially increasing the price of labor with a higher minimum wage, right?
------

My favorite quote about minimum wage is "The real life minimum wage is always zero."

Posted by: Crusader at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (TN0g+)

71 Added 20 million illegals and didn't add any infrastructure.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (J6Evq)

72 63
What's the story with WB? They rejected Paramount/Ellison?

Does this mean Netflix will get WB?

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:29 PM (DUeFe)

=======

Still about 18 months of regulatory approval to go. And the DOJ has said, off record, that it has concerns, that Netflix is already showing monopolistic behavior, and Trump himself has expressed reservations about the merger.

So...we'll see.

Large mergers have been killed before in relatively recent history. think AT&T trying to buy T-Mobile about 14 years ago.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (GBKbO)

73 Wait till you see the school test scores!

Posted by: connected and litigious at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (cS1cw)

74 I think the I saw that the DC gov public sector jobs have been slashed by at least 200k since Trump took office. Reducing the amount taxpayers shell out for their inflated salaries, pensions, and health care hopefully makes a dent too.

Posted by: LizLem at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (gWBY1)

75 Trump's boasting about the job numbers released earlier this week, but they're not great.

---------------

I expect them to be adjusted later unexpectedly higher.

Posted by: ShainS -- Bamboo Ruminant and GayFontoPhobe at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (WO8bP)

76 The "lefties pretend not to understand things to make argument impossible" meme has been getting a workout.

Posted by: Ian S. at December 17, 2025 12:24 PM

I don't get it.

Posted by: Ketanji Jackson at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (BEQiS)

77 Rents down here too in Wilmington. Still need to know-who shit my pants?

Posted by: Scranton Joe at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (oftw2)

78 I'm in the camp that housing prices going through the help doesn't really benefit anyone unless you plan some exit where you are leaving the area for somewhere cheaper or dramatically downsizing.

Just really makes your property taxes go up.

My house has basically tripled since Covid and it's depressing because I feel stuck now. Even though I like my house.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 12:32 PM (eIzlH)

79 Wharton.
Whartoff.

Posted by: Compound W at December 17, 2025 12:32 PM (npFr7)

80 71 Added 20 million illegals and didn't add any infrastructure.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (J6Evq)

=======

Well, there was a bunch of added funding marked as for infrastructure, to be fair.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:32 PM (GBKbO)

81 "Everyone's housing values need to go down but mine."
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

True, but I was referring more to places like BlackRock, who are highly screwed.

Posted by: t-bird at December 17, 2025 12:33 PM (dfgzq)

82 The generations following the baby boom generation don't have the ability to buy the assets of the baby boomers. This will have consequences.

Posted by: Don in SoCo at December 17, 2025 12:33 PM (vd6bO)

83 59 You would think with all the deportations, unemployment would be going down dramatically.

If there millions less people in the US, just the way the math works, if the job situation was relatively stable, the numerator stays the same but the denominator decreases.

But no idea what sort of complex equations they use to come up with those numbers.
-----------------------------
Even before covid, response rates for BLS surveys were awful. They got much worse during covid, and under Brandon numbers were just made up.

Add to this that the current situation is pretty unprecedented (foreigners leaving, jobs are for skilled non-college educated, lots of people currently have no skills) and you get a weird period where nothing makes sense.

Take CDLs as an example. 100% all of those illegals should be taken off the roads and dumped into the nearest large body of water. But who do you replace them with, short-term, especially when the CDL mills are being close down for certifying illegals? These things will work themselves out, but they need time (and people getting off their asses to improve their hire-ability).

Posted by: The Lower Depths at December 17, 2025 12:33 PM (Dg7ng)

84 Good afternoon all!

Just found out that my health insurance premiums are going up next year because of the "increased cost of providing healthcare". WTH??

Posted by: jmel at December 17, 2025 12:33 PM (RWHIh)

85 I bet insurance premiums come down too.
Posted by: Martini Farmer

Hold my Pinot~!

Posted by: Navin Gruesome at December 17, 2025 12:33 PM (mlg/3)

86 75 Trump's boasting about the job numbers released earlier this week, but they're not great.

---------------

I expect them to be adjusted later unexpectedly higher.

Posted by: ShainS -- Bamboo Ruminant and GayFontoPhobe at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (WO8bP)

======

If the overall population is decreasing, an average jobs report would be negative.

And the census bureau says that the US is going to have the first population decrease in a very long time this year.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:33 PM (GBKbO)

87

The DNC is a criminal racketeering operation.

In a just word this would be investigated.

BUT NOOOOOoooooo

NOOOOOOoooooo

Posted by: Rev DR E Buzz at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (och2J)

88 In addition to my comment above, another reason for increased rents and housing prices is -- wait for it -- increased gov't regulation and requirements for x, y, and z. Building new housing today is much more expensive than building it 10 years ago.

And much like with cars, the newer housing is usually bigger, more luxurious, and has many more features and amenities than older housing. Of course that costs more on average.

Posted by: Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (iFTx/)

89 True, but I was referring more to places like BlackRock, who are highly screwed.
Posted by: t-bird

===

I honestly think you'd make rents go down way quicker just passing some laws against firms like BlackRock or BlackStone being in housing rentals at all.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (eIzlH)

90 Anecdotally… because I lived there a long time and still have friends and family there and visit regularly, house prices in SoCal are dipping (slightly, not significantly). Lots of properties dropping their asking price $30-50K after being on the market for a few months. This surprises me because I thought the folks whose houses burned in the Pacific Palisades back in January would jump into the market and drive prices up. Maybe they’re renting because rent is still outrageous… like $6000 per month for a modest house

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (/iXAp)

91 I have nothing against Hondurans or Indians or Haitians

QUACK

Posted by: Ducks for Trump at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (v0R5T)

92 Too bad. I was cramming 20 Beaners into a 2 bed 2 bath house for $300 a month apiece and a handy from Graciela when they were all work as roofers.

Making 6,000 a month all in cash too. Told the irs the place was empty so I could write it off.

Posted by: Slum Lord Joe at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (m8zKa)

93 Slum lords hardest hir.

Posted by: tubal at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (Tbj3s)

94 I like the part where the illegals self deport. $1,000 and a free plane trip to the country of their choice is way cheaper than trying to round them all up and have the lefty's drag their deportations through the court system for months and even years.
Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at December 17, 2025 12:17 PM (0N4FZ)

If they take that deal, does it prejudice any future attempt on their part to become a legal immigrant to the USA?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (npFr7)

95 Half of lefties talking about this on X is them claiming to not understand how 50 million illegals would increase demand and constrain supply. The "lefties pretend not to understand things to make argument impossible" meme has been getting a workout.

This is a more general thing the left does. When some policy they support has pluses and minuses they just argue the latter doesn't exist.

So they will tell you here illegals add to the GDP and pay taxes. And...yes...some do. But their contributions are drowned out by welfare and other government funds going to them.

If you have 9 illegals on welfare and one illegal roofer getting paid under the table their overall contribution is going to be negative even if they pay sales taxes and the roofer does his part in making roofs.

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (sKqQm)

96 WTF happened to gasoline? $2.11 last night on way home. $2.59 9 hours later on the way back to work.

Posted by: rickb223 at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM
====

Venezuelan oil tanker quarantine raised some eyebrows, I think.

Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (rj6Yv)

97 Every year around this time (during Republican administrations) we get those memes about baby Jesus being an illegal.

Except he wasn't. At that point, all the lands were part of the Roman empire. They were just better at conducting their census than we are.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (Jn9oG)

98 Don't let the bastards get you down. Start feeling old when you don't remember what it is either.
Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 12:28 PM (BEQiS)

=====

Well that's a good way to look at it. Thanks.

Posted by: Jordan61 at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (DRSnL)

99
Trump's been doing a lot of bragging, lately. A lot of self back-patting. It reeks of panic.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (Oonfw)

100 afternoon all. late to the party

but in relation to the jobs numbers, i'll gladly take slightly smaller overall numbers if it means much smaller federal jobs and an increase in us born workers getting employed

Posted by: Sturmtoddler at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (nXhwP)

101 In my area housing doubled in cost under Biden and is flat under Trump

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (sKqQm)

102 ...noted a near one-to-one relationship between population growth and rent increases,

So...that supply and demand stuff really works huh?

Posted by: Diogenes at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (2WIwB)

103 99
Trump's been doing a lot of bragging, lately. A lot of self back-patting. It reeks of panic.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (Oonfw)

The walls are closing in, eh?

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (xcxpd)

104 Crap. Hate typing on a phone, sitting in the dog pen.

Posted by: tubal at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (Tbj3s)

105 Are we soon going to get complaints Trump's deportations are lowering housing costs too much?

From the snapper-uppers of tremendous amounts of rental housing across the US? Oh, they are going to squeal loudly.

*does that look-of-delight thing in the Antonio Banderas clip frequently shown by Critical Drinker.*

Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:36 PM (Riz8t)

106 You would think with all the deportations, unemployment would be going down dramatically.

If there millions less people in the US, just the way the math works, if the job situation was relatively stable, the numerator stays the same but the denominator decreases.
-----

Back before the 2 sides got to the point where we can't even agree what day it is, the consensus used to be that "full employment" was reached in the US when the unemployment rate was...4%...I think?

Now there's no consensus about anything--if 10 people in the US didn't have jobs, the Dems and the mainstream media would have a full court blitz on about how Trump's policies were destroying those 10 people's lives.

Posted by: Crusader at December 17, 2025 12:36 PM (TN0g+)

107 Good afternoon all!

Just found out that my health insurance premiums are going up next year because of the "increased cost of providing healthcare". WTH??
Posted by: jmel
.......

Don't blame me.

Posted by: wth at December 17, 2025 12:36 PM (v0R5T)

108 @61

>>"Everyone's housing values need to go down but mine."

The only people worried about home values are people who want to sell.

I'm going to die in this house, so, housing prices are not important.

What is important is I saw KB: TWBA and was less than whelmed.

There is something unseemly about directors jiggering with their movies. And seeing more blood in the Crazy 88 fight does not make the scene better, it actually makes it less than it was, because your mind does not have to infer the gore and carnage.

Eh, it's still my favorite Tarantino film.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at December 17, 2025 12:36 PM (XV/Pl)

109 94
If they take that deal, does it prejudice any future attempt on their part to become a legal immigrant to the USA?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (npFr7)

====

If I remember correctly, they cannot legally re-enter the country for 10 years, barring any other issues with their status.

And if they do re-enter, they are banned for the rest of their lives.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:36 PM (GBKbO)

110 I saw some breakdown of the numbers on the WSJ, and the biggest job loss, by far, was from federal workers.

So there is some ray of sunshine there.

My guess is NGO's and "foundations" were in the mix as well, but didn't see any numbers.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 12:36 PM (eIzlH)

111 65 47 The combination of deportations and builder over-creation that's been going on for years is going to create a different crisis in a year or two:

The "builders need a bailout" crisis.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:26 PM (GBKbO)

Maybe...or maybe kids will be able to move out before 40. I know my kid would, but she currently finds it unattainable on her salary. I told her keep saving and wait a few years, and I think she'll be surprised.

Posted by: Nova Local at December 17, 2025 12:37 PM (tOcjL)

112
But our Big Problem is Congress.

We have a Congress that completely stopped passing "big" bills. Are they scared rabbits? Are they out of ideas? Are they bored of control of Congress?

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:37 PM (Oonfw)

113
34 WTF happened to gasoline? $2.11 last night on way home. $2.59 9 hours later on the way back to work.

Posted by: rickb223 at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM

When we went to sherman yesterday I saw gas for $2.59 a gallon. Went to sams there and got gas for $2.08. I have no idea what is going on.
Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at December 17, 2025

------

Convection pricing.

Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at December 17, 2025 12:37 PM (iTNuP)

114 If they take that deal, does it prejudice any future attempt on their part to become a legal immigrant to the USA?
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (npFr7)

During the Civil War, they had a system where a rich guy could pay a poor guy to take his place in the draft.

So the poor guys would get their cash, desert, then go enlist somewhere else and get more cash.

I suspect we'll employ a system like that.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:37 PM (Jn9oG)

115 Added 20 million illegals and didn't add any infrastructure.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (J6Evq)

---------------

Cloward-Piven, version 425.7 beta

Posted by: ShainS -- Bamboo Ruminant and GayFontoPhobe at December 17, 2025 12:37 PM (iILYa)

116 Steve Martin is a comedy genius.
I wish he had done more standup.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at December 17, 2025 12:38 PM (xcxpd)

117 Trump's been doing a lot of bragging, lately. A lot of self back-patting. It reeks of panic.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (Oonfw)

Have you not been paying attention to typical Trump behavior over the last, say, 40 years? He’s always been a braggart. Used to bother me, no I find it endearing

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:38 PM (/iXAp)

118 Trump's been doing a lot of bragging, lately. A lot of self back-patting. It reeks of panic.
Posted by: Soothsayer

Yes, the one thing Trump is known for is panic.

Posted by: Navin Gruesome at December 17, 2025 12:38 PM (mlg/3)

119
Our second Big Problem is: also Congress.

In just 6 weeks, the CR expires.

And there will be another Democrat shut down. OR...Republicans will cave on obamacare, which I think they will because Republicans are SPOOKED and are in Panic-Before-Elections Mode.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:38 PM (Oonfw)

120 I shan't buy into this speculative thinking until I hear from Jake Tapper.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (nljXp)

121 Trade High Schools long long over due.

Posted by: Opinion fact at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (KDPiq)

122 108 What is important is I saw KB: TWBA and was less than whelmed.

There is something unseemly about directors jiggering with their movies. And seeing more blood in the Crazy 88 fight does not make the scene better, it actually makes it less than it was, because your mind does not have to infer the gore and carnage.

Eh, it's still my favorite Tarantino film.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at December 17, 2025 12:36 PM (XV/Pl)

======

A few years back I wrote about three movies where the directors had gone back and added things years later: Apocalypse Now, The Tree of Life, and The Exorcist.

All three were best in the theatrical versions.

TWBA, though, was a creation of business-related compromises from the ratings board to Weinstein not wanting to release a four-hour film. I figured the singular version might actually slightly improve on things. But, I defer to your impression, since you have seen it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (GBKbO)

123 Venezuelan oil tanker quarantine raised some eyebrows, I think.

Releasing them will do the same. Uncertainty in the marketplace!

Posted by: Gas Station Surge Pricing at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (dfgzq)

124 "Trump's boasting about the job numbers released earlier this week, but they're not great. At least, not at first glance. I think 64,000 jobs were created last month, which is a bad number."

Two thoughts on this...all during the Biden (and Obama years) they would count the seasonal part-time jobs. I don't think they do that now under Trump. So these are REAL jobs.
The second is most of these are private sector jobs...not government jobs.
Also,

Posted by: Diogenes at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (2WIwB)

125 Every year around this time (during Republican administrations) we get those memes about baby Jesus being an illegal.

Probably the most accurate summation of Roman views of illegal immigration would be Caesar's dealings with the Helvetii. When they decided to migrate into Gaul without Roman approval he met them in open battle and returned them back to where they started...after killing half of them.

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (sKqQm)

126 119 And there will be another Democrat shut down. OR...Republicans will cave on obamacare, which I think they will because Republicans are SPOOKED and are in Panic-Before-Elections Mode.
Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:38 PM (Oonfw)

House Republicans already caved on it.

Posted by: XTC at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (UnA8+)

127 The rent is still too damn high in my neck of VA. I blame climate change.

Posted by: turambar at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (Q0yOR)

128 If they take that deal, does it prejudice any future attempt on their part to become a legal immigrant to the USA?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 12:34 PM (npFr7)

====

If I remember correctly, they cannot legally re-enter the country for 10 years, barring any other issues with their status.

And if they do re-enter, they are banned for the rest of their lives.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:36 PM (GBKbO)
_______

I'm not sure how it works now, but back in the day it was fatal to overstay a legal visa. If you were here even one day longer than allowed, that meant you were fucked on any future visas or attempts to get a green card etc. I know a few people who left the country rather than run the risk of an expired visa, and then got a visa renewal/extension and came back. It was too big a risk to overstay. Of course, that changed under Obama and Biden.

Posted by: Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (iFTx/)

129 I like the part where the illegals self deport. $1,000 and a free plane trip to the country of their choice is way cheaper than trying to round them all up and have the lefty's drag their deportations through the court system for months and even years.
Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS)

==

I would be willing to go up to 10x-20x that number, assuming it doesn't become a magnet for new illegals to enter.

An illegal alien family, that's like $100k a year it's costing the taxpayer. Just two kids in a public school is like $40k+. Add in healthcare, food stamps, free everything, it adds up quick.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (eIzlH)

130 @116

>>I wish he had done more standup.

He did nearly 20 years of comedy before he made it big in films, and he became a big star as soon as he started making them so there was no way for him to go back.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (XV/Pl)

131 Convection pricing.
Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at December 17, 2025 12:37 PM (iTNuP)

The Instacart way?

You drive up in a '94 Geo, they charge you $2.79.

You drive up in a '25 Cadillac Suburban... $3.96.

You drive up in a Tesla? $8.56 per gallon. Good luck!

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (Jn9oG)

132 These things will work themselves out, but they need time (and people getting off their asses to improve their hire-ability).

They can't. They're all down at Starbucks buying $10 coffee.
*ducks*

Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (Riz8t)

133 The 100,000 jobs per month figure is a commonly cited benchmark among economists for the minimum level of U.S. nonfarm payroll growth needed to roughly keep pace with population increases and new entrants into the labor force, thereby preventing the unemployment rate from rising under normal conditions.

This threshold helps maintain economic stability by absorbing demographic-driven expansions in the working-age population (typically ages 16-64), ensuring that job creation matches or slightly exceeds the influx of potential workers. Without hitting this level consistently, unemployment could tick upward over time, signaling weakness in labor market dynamics and potentially dampening consumer spending, wage growth, and overall GDP expansion.

The 200,000+ jobs per month threshold is viewed as a sign of a "strong" labor market because it represents job gains well above the breakeven point for population growth, indicating robust economic expansion, business confidence, and the ability to reduce unemployment or draw more people back into the workforce (e.g., via higher labor force participation).

Grok full: https://bit.ly/4s4cYOn

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (P5BPp)

134 Have you not been paying attention to typical Trump behavior over the last, say, 40 years? He’s always been a braggart. Used to bother me, no I find it endearing
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:38 PM (/iXAp)

Yeah but I’m still trying to let that Reiner post go.

Posted by: Opinion fact at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (KDPiq)

135 122
I'm glad to hear that someone else doesn't like the "Reduc" version of Apocalypse Now. I thought I was alone in that view.

Posted by: The Lower Depths at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (Dg7ng)

136 126 119 And there will be another Democrat shut down. OR...Republicans will cave on obamacare, which I think they will because Republicans are SPOOKED and are in Panic-Before-Elections Mode.
Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:38 PM (Oonfw)

House Republicans already caved on it.

Posted by: XTC at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (UnA8+)

======

Well, since the Senate already voted it down, it's failure theater in the House.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (GBKbO)

137 Afternoon Ace.
At Verizon getting a new phone. Google phone. Nice machine

Posted by: Smell the Glove at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (vqNC8)

138 Too bad. I was cramming 20 Beaners into a 2 bed 2 bath house for $300 a month apiece and a handy from Graciela when they were all work as roofers.

I saw a picture from Louisiana someplace where ICE nabbed an all-illegal roofing crew in the middle of doing somebody's house. All the tools and supplies were left behind and the roof was only partially on. I love that in general, but I'd hate to be the homeowner.

Posted by: Ian S. at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (QZThv)

139 126 119 And there will be another Democrat shut down. OR...Republicans will cave on obamacare, which I think they will because Republicans are SPOOKED and are in Panic-Before-Elections Mode.
Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:38 PM (Oonfw)

House Republicans already caved on it.
Posted by: XTC at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (UnA8+)

3 did...but Johnson is making the traitors wait for a vote til January, after it almost becomes moot...

Posted by: Nova Local at December 17, 2025 12:41 PM (tOcjL)

140 >>> 81 "Everyone's housing values need to go down but mine."
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

True, but I was referring more to places like BlackRock, who are highly screwed.
Posted by: t-bird at December 17, 2025 12:33 PM (dfgzq)

Oh no!!!

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at December 17, 2025 12:41 PM (ULPxl)

141 I also wonder if we can trust any numbers coming out after the last administration lied about every single thing. I just don't trust anything out of DC. Trump is doing what he can and I am glad to see that but DC is going to be DC.

Posted by: turambar at December 17, 2025 12:42 PM (Q0yOR)

142 Be careful, if rents fall too much it will kill Beau Biden again.

Posted by: ballistic at December 17, 2025 12:42 PM (5aZAZ)

143 Ace, are you going to do a post about the Suzie Wiles thing? When somebody mentioned it yesterday I didn't know who she was. Now I think Trump needs to put her head on a pike as a warning to the next seven generations of "smart" Republican consultants.

Posted by: Oddbob at December 17, 2025 12:42 PM (3nLb4)

144 Added 20 million illegals and didn't add any infrastructure.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (J6Evq)

---------------

Cloward-Piven, version 425.7 beta
Posted by: ShainS -- Bamboo Ruminant and GayFontoPhobe at December 17, 2025 12:37 PM (iILYa)
---
Collapsing systems Americans won't collapse.

Posted by: Axeman at December 17, 2025 12:42 PM (Q4cxx)

145 Probably the most accurate summation of Roman views of illegal immigration would be Caesar's dealings with the Helvetii. When they decided to migrate into Gaul without Roman approval he met them in open battle and returned them back to where they started...after killing half of them.
Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:39 PM (sKqQm)

One of those bands I still love, Mission Of Burma, have a line in one of their songs: "The Roman Empire never died. It just turned into the Catholic Church!"

I wish.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:42 PM (Jn9oG)

146 The only people worried about home values are people who want to sell.

They were debating a tax increase in a town near mine. The anti-tax crowd noted that taxes had already increased dramatically because of the massive increase in house prices. The pro-tax crowd argued this meant people had more money to spend. And as you note the anti-tax people noted that if you didn't want to sell and move increasing house prices did you no good and many, many individuals noted they could not afford the higher rates.

The response from the empathetic, caring pro-tax crowd? Then sell and move if you can't afford to pay more taxes.

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:42 PM (sKqQm)

147 132 These things will work themselves out, but they need time (and people getting off their asses to improve their hire-ability).

They can't. They're all down at Starbucks buying $10 coffee.
*ducks*
Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (Riz8t)

You need money to improve your hireability.

Classes are f***ing expensive.

Posted by: XTC at December 17, 2025 12:43 PM (UnA8+)

148 The Dems really rolled out the red carpet to foreigners didn't they?

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at December 17, 2025 12:43 PM (Vh9CX)

149 Good afternoon all!

Just found out that my health insurance premiums are going up next year because of the "increased cost of providing healthcare". WTH??
Posted by: jmel
.......

Maybe it's time for a Horde Hospital.
Lots of free medical advice and we could probably franchise out with MoMe Immediate Care Centers.
And ya gotta know someone would buy the movie rights.
I'm thinking big $$$ here.

Posted by: Diogenes at December 17, 2025 12:43 PM (2WIwB)

150 The rent is still too damn high in my neck of VA. I blame climate change.
Posted by: turambar
.......

Too bad you don't live here in CA because High Speed Rail will solve this problem.

Posted by: wth at December 17, 2025 12:43 PM (v0R5T)

151 143 Yes, Trump should definitely fire a Chief of Staff running the most successful Republican Administration since Calvin Coolidge because of a Vanity Fair article. That makes sense.

Posted by: The Lower Depths at December 17, 2025 12:43 PM (Dg7ng)

152 Every year around this time (during Republican administrations) we get those memes about baby Jesus being an illegal.

Except he wasn't. At that point, all the lands were part of the Roman empire. They were just better at conducting their census than we are.

Both Nazareth and Bethlehem were part of the Herodian Kingdom of Judea. When Jesus was born in a stable, He was NOT an illegal and neither were his parents.

When they fled to Egypt to avoid the slaughter of innocents, they might be considered political refugees.

Posted by: bonhomme at December 17, 2025 12:44 PM (Yp6az)

153 "lefties pretend not to understand things to make argument impossible"
------

I don't think it is 'pretend'.

William G. McAdoo — 'It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.'

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 17, 2025 12:44 PM (XeU6L)

154 150 I know, right?? I keep reading all about that miracle.

Posted by: turambar at December 17, 2025 12:44 PM (Q0yOR)

155 If I remember correctly, they cannot legally re-enter the country for 10 years, barring any other issues with their status.

And if they do re-enter, they are banned for the rest of their lives.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:36 PM (GBKbO)

Which probably explains why so many are simply slipping back across the border. If they were truly "undocumented" then there is no official record of their presence.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (npFr7)

156 He did nearly 20 years of comedy before he made it big in films, and he became a big star as soon as he started making them so there was no way for him to go back.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (XV/Pl)

Most good standup comes from desperate guys (it's always guys, sorry ladies) who are poor and hungry, or have deadly drug addictions. Or both.

Rich and happy stars aren't funny.

Just the way it is.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (Jn9oG)

157 Brown arrested the white dude to cover for Mustafa.

no doubt in my mind

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (gbOdA)

158 Just found out that my health insurance premiums are going up next year because of the "increased cost of providing healthcare". WTH??
Posted by: jmel
.......

Maybe it's time for a Horde Hospital.
Lots of free medical advice and we could probably franchise out with MoMe Immediate Care Centers.
And ya gotta know someone would buy the movie rights.
I'm thinking big $$$ here.
Posted by: Diogenes
......

If only the price of hot irons would come down.

Posted by: wth at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (v0R5T)

159 So the poor guys would get their cash, desert, then go enlist somewhere else and get more cash.

I suspect we'll employ a system like that.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:37 PM (Jn9oG)
=======

The way it worked was that the drafted could pay $300 for a one-time exemption (per notice), or be permanently exempted by paying a fee for someone to serve in your place (which is what T. Rooselvelt, Sr. did). Bounty jumping proved to be so troublesome that it was necessary to send the worst offenders to training camps under armed guard. The guards were usually veterans and they were more than willing to shoot the jumping jumpers.

Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (rj6Yv)

160 @122

>>But, I defer to your impression, since you have seen it.

I love the films, but it's 4.5 hours long, and even with the intermission, it was a struggle to go back to my seat.

And the adding and removing of stuff does not make for a better narrative flow.

I'll never watch that version ever again.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (XV/Pl)

161 It's not unusual for gas prices to jump up during holidays.
Also price gouging is not unusual.

Posted by: Case at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (G1OIb)

162 WTF happened to gasoline? $2.11 last night on way home. $2.59 9 hours later on the way back to work.

Posted by: rickb223 at December 17, 2025 12:22 PM

--------------

"Drumphfff is pouncing on and seizing ALL oil tankers on ALL the High Seas -- depositing their contents into his personal secret underground lair on Epstein Island! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

Posted by: ShainS -- Bamboo Ruminant and GayFontoPhobe at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (WO8bP)

163 What really matters is how people feel about the economy. If unemployment s in the 4% range, I would argue that's close enough to full employment.

What really has people agitated is the cost of living. That's the biggest single reason why Biden&Harris lost.

And while I think it has very little to do with why things cost more, I think Trump's tariffs have gotten at least some of the blame. It's like people forgot gas was $5 a gallon and CPI was over 9% under Biden.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (eIzlH)

164 They can't. They're all down at Starbucks buying $10 coffee.
*ducks*
Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (Riz8t)

You need money to improve your hireability.

Classes are f***ing expensive.

It was just a little joke. Very little.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:46 PM (Riz8t)

165 Oh, keep in mind that inflation calculations include "cost of housing."

You know what is really scary?
The 40 year interest cycle.
We are past-due to enter the increase side; where 2050s sees mortgage rates peak over 15%.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at December 17, 2025 12:46 PM (HXT0k)

166 Another fun debate I've seen locally - a number of people have noted and complained the towns in my area are all rapidly urbanizing - it is no longer the town I grew up in!

And some people have pointed out "if you believe immigration is a right you know those people have to live somewhere right!?!"

The responses to that from the mostly leftwing people are:

1) That's racist
2) Nuh uh! Its all greedy developers!
3) The government should make more low income housing that doesn't increase density!

So deny, deny, and insane.

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:46 PM (sKqQm)

167 DiVeRsItY iS oUr StReNgTh.

There are places in the agricultural regions of California where the per capita income is the 20K per year and remarkably the average home prices are in 250-300K plus range. How are they afforded? Let me count the likely uninsured cars out front.

Posted by: Alteria Pilgram - My President has convictions at December 17, 2025 12:46 PM (HTCU3)

168 Trade High Schools long long over due.

I would apply to go to school all over again if they did that. I mean, aren't school taxes for school?

Posted by: t-bird at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (dfgzq)

169
Why no Infrastructure bills?

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (Oonfw)

170 King David was from Bethlehem, which is located in the southern region of ancient Israel.

ya know what other King was born in Bethlehem?

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (gbOdA)

171 167 They are putting up single family homes and apartments all over where I am and the prices are insane. I keep asking: who is giving loans for these houses and how are people paying the rent?

Posted by: turambar at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (Q0yOR)

172 164 It was just a little joke. Very little.
Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:46 PM (Riz8t)

Yeah, I wasn't commenting on the Starbucks part.

That's a well worn-out Horde Meme (and it'll get worn out even more) at this point.

Posted by: XTC at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (UnA8+)

173 163 What really matters is how people feel about the economy. If unemployment s in the 4% range, I would argue that's close enough to full employment.

What really has people agitated is the cost of living. That's the biggest single reason why Biden&Harris lost.

And while I think it has very little to do with why things cost more, I think Trump's tariffs have gotten at least some of the blame. It's like people forgot gas was $5 a gallon and CPI was over 9% under Biden.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (eIzlH)

=======

By next fall, all the left will have on that front will be beef prices.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (GBKbO)

174 $2 for a dinky cone with some soft serve vanilla in it.

At $2 all you’re paying for is the existence of the store and the cost of the people who got the cone to you.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at December 17, 2025 12:48 PM (EXyHK)

175 MSM: Affordability crisis!!ty

Also MSM: plummeting gas price is bad because reasons

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at December 17, 2025 12:48 PM (udlma)

176 What % of FHA loans were given to non-H-1B foreigners is the better question?

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at December 17, 2025 12:48 PM (Mb4p6)

177 Trump's been doing a lot of bragging, lately. A lot of self back-patting. It reeks of panic.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:35 PM (Oonfw)

Very out of character.

Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 12:48 PM (BEQiS)

178 At Verizon getting a new phone. Google phone. Nice machine
Posted by: Smell the Glove at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (vqNC

Nice data you got there. Pity if something happened to it.

Posted by: Google at December 17, 2025 12:48 PM (npFr7)

179 "I have nothing against Hondurans or Indians or ~~Haitians~~"

Haiti is a shithole country populated by shithole people.

Posted by: Don't blame the alligators at December 17, 2025 12:49 PM (1Nv0l)

180 >>> 128
_______

I'm not sure how it works now, but back in the day it was fatal to overstay a legal visa. If you were here even one day longer than allowed, that meant you were fucked on any future visas or attempts to get a green card etc. I know a few people who left the country rather than run the risk of an expired visa, and then got a visa renewal/extension and came back. It was too big a risk to overstay. Of course, that changed under Obama and Biden.
Posted by: Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (iFTx/)

I *really* hope you are hired so you can update your nic to "Elric The Blade and Immigration Judge".

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at December 17, 2025 12:49 PM (ULPxl)

181 next fall, all the left will have on that front will be beef prices.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

Beef is evil and causes global warming so the left should be happy.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at December 17, 2025 12:49 PM (udlma)

182 Limiting trade training to only high school students doesn't do much to help low-skill adults.

And I know, "LOL, Get f***ed!", but...

Posted by: XTC at December 17, 2025 12:50 PM (UnA8+)

183 The way it worked was that the drafted could pay $300 for a one-time exemption (per notice), or be permanently exempted by paying a fee for someone to serve in your place (which is what T. Rooselvelt, Sr. did). Bounty jumping proved to be so troublesome that it was necessary to send the worst offenders to training camps under armed guard. The guards were usually veterans and they were more than willing to shoot the jumping jumpers.
Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (rj6Yv)

I suspect the much ballyhooed superiority of the Confederate soldier was substantially due to the fact that they had a higher ratio of volunteers than the North, who had a high number of people in uniform who weren't really all that keen on fighting.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:50 PM (Jn9oG)

184 William G. McAdoo — 'It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.'

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 17, 2025 12:44 PM (XeU6L)

Um no. He just won't know he's been defeated.

Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 12:50 PM (BEQiS)

185
I hope this self deporting continues at a brisk pace.
Posted by: dantesed

They will all come back in when the Dems take over again.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at December 17, 2025 12:50 PM (pkeXY)

186 "I have nothing against Hondurans or Indians or Haitians"

Haiti is a shithole country populated by shithole people.
Posted by: Don't blame the alligators
......

They're eating our pets!

Posted by: wth at December 17, 2025 12:50 PM (v0R5T)

187 Fanni Willis is being questioned by Fulton County officials today.
I expect the usual savagery.

Posted by: Mr_Fastbucks at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (tqQmY)

188 The Dems really rolled out the red carpet to foreigners didn't they?
Posted by: MAGA_Ken at December 17, 2025 12:43 PM (Vh9CX)
=========

Yeah, they rolled it out and we paid for it.

Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (rj6Yv)

189 Looking at the LFPR numbers is generally more interesting then the nominal unemployment numbers

This number increased starting in the late 60s, generally attributed to women entering the workforce in mass

But it peaked in around 2000 and ignoring COVID has been slowly decreasing since then.

Part of it is an aging population true, but I suspect another part is an increase in the number of people on federal/state assistance.

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (sKqQm)

190 Maybe it's time for a Horde Hospital.
Lots of free medical advice and we could probably franchise out with MoMe Immediate Care Centers.
And ya gotta know someone would buy the movie rights.
I'm thinking big $$$ here.
------

Perhaps we could offer relationship advice as well--there's some money to be made there as well.

Posted by: Crusader at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (TN0g+)

191 They are putting up single family homes and apartments all over where I am and the prices are insane. I keep asking: who is giving loans for these houses and how are people paying the rent?
Posted by: turambar

==
They get a bunch of people/family piled in them.

I have a relative that owns a lot of rental properties in that starter home market. It's like one pretends to rent it and then 8 end up living there.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (eIzlH)

192
Susie Wiles isn't to blame for VF's Lies.

The VF faggot Democrat took Wiles way out of context and then totally editorialized (made up shit) to fake "explain" what she "really" meant.

For instance, the Reichstagg bullshit in the hit piece. Total fabrication/imagination.

Another example is Wiles' description of Elon Musk: she never called him a doped-up "Nosferatu," VF did.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (Oonfw)

193 187 Fanni Willis is being questioned by Fulton County officials today.
I expect the usual savagery.

Posted by: Mr_Fastbucks at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (tqQmY)

=======

"Why don't you investigate how many times they called me the N-word!"
-direct quote

Not a joke. She's not having a fun time.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (GBKbO)

194 "Federal employment is now at its lowest level in more than a decade, down 271,000 jobs since Trump returned to office, reflecting the administration's push to rein in what it describes as an overgrown bureaucracy."

This is the part that I like. I'd be fine if the government was run by 5 guys out of their garage.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (bss/y)

195 170 King David was from Bethlehem, which is located in the southern region of ancient Israel.

ya know what other King was born in Bethlehem?
Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (gbOdA)

Elvis?

Posted by: Thank you very much at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (O1WpD)

196 ya know what other King was born in Bethlehem?
Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (gbOdA)

Don?

BB?

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (Jn9oG)

197 They were debating a tax increase in a town near mine. The anti-tax crowd noted that taxes had already increased dramatically because of the massive increase in house prices. The pro-tax crowd argued this meant people had more money to spend. And as you note the anti-tax people noted that if you didn't want to sell and move increasing house prices did you no good and many, many individuals noted they could not afford the higher rates.

The response from the empathetic, caring pro-tax crowd? Then sell and move if you can't afford to pay more taxes.
Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:42 PM (sKqQm)

Argh. This is soooo braindead leftist, always thinking they know better what other people should be doing with their money. And they are always assuming other people are hoarding their resources when "they should be sharing."

Posted by: Emmie -- be strong and courageous! at December 17, 2025 12:52 PM (FMtrg)

198 Stahlman?

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at December 17, 2025 12:52 PM (EXyHK)

199 "I have nothing against Hondurans or Indians or Haitians"
.......

tortilla vendors, call centers, and duck ponds hardest hit

Posted by: wth at December 17, 2025 12:52 PM (v0R5T)

200 They're eating the cats!
They're eating the dogs!
They're eating the pets!
Of the people that live there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BrCvZmSnKA

Posted by: Don't blame the alligators at December 17, 2025 12:52 PM (1Nv0l)

201 "Why don't you investigate how many times they called me the N-word!"
-direct quote

Not a joke. She's not having a fun time.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (GBKbO)

Which one of you called her a Negligent Bitch?!

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:52 PM (bss/y)

202 193 That would be time for the old: "I don't really care, Margaret, errr, Fani" line.

Posted by: turambar at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (Q0yOR)

203 At $2 all you’re paying for is the existence of the store and the cost of the people who got the cone to you.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at December 17, 2025 12:48 PM (EXyHK)

Free ice cream at Jimmy Changas

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (gbOdA)

204 I suspect the much ballyhooed superiority of the Confederate soldier was substantially due to the fact that they had a higher ratio of volunteers than the North, who had a high number of people in uniform who weren't really all that keen on fighting.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:50 PM (Jn9oG)
====

Quantity has a quality of its own.

Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (rj6Yv)

205
VF queer pervert also Lied about Venezuela with pure conjecture.

The entire article is fake "journalistic" trash. It's the shit you'd see in a movie.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (Oonfw)

206 196 ya know what other King was born in Bethlehem?
Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (gbOdA)

Don?

BB?
Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (Jn9oG)

Elvis.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (bss/y)

207 Haiti is a shithole country populated by shithole people.
___

My former neighbors (townhouse, Massachusetts) were Haitian. When they sold a few years ago, they left the new owners (Jewish) with a large, jetted tub full of urine.

Oh, and the Haitian woman was a nurse.

Posted by: Haitian Remorse at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (qUkBO)

208 If illegals leave anonymously now so as to avoid any penalty for reentry, when the next Dem administration comes in, they won't have the records to say "this person was already here and should be let in". Unanticipated consequences can be painful.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (Riz8t)

209 >>> 164
==
It was just a little joke. Very little.
Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 12:46 PM (Riz8t)

You mean, like, a Short joke???

Posted by: Sixbucks Barista at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (ULPxl)

210 Again, the question is, why the f**k is anyone sitting down with VF or any leftist outlet?

If you don't talk to them, they won't be able to make up sh*t you said to them or "take you out of context."

Posted by: Thomas Bender at December 17, 2025 12:54 PM (XV/Pl)

211 Jobs reporting should be private sector job gains net of public sector job gains, with NGOs considered public sector.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at December 17, 2025 12:54 PM (Dv3i1)

212 Who would have thought that removing freeloaders would cause prices to go down

Posted by: Smell the Glove at December 17, 2025 12:54 PM (vqNC8)

213 >>Biden administration refused to acknowledge how mass migration fueled the affordability crisis.

Is this like an Instacart thing?

Posted by: JackStraw at December 17, 2025 12:54 PM (viF8m)

214 n word times x people = nx

Posted by: thug dolphin at December 17, 2025 12:54 PM (EyfuW)

215 194 "Federal employment is now at its lowest level in more than a decade, down 271,000 jobs since Trump returned to office, reflecting the administration's push to rein in what it describes as an overgrown bureaucracy."

This is the part that I like. I'd be fine if the government was run by 5 guys out of their garage.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (bss/y)

And more were fired/left, b/c the overall number includes both the decrease AND the ICE increase (which was 50K)...

Posted by: Nova Local at December 17, 2025 12:54 PM (tOcjL)

216
And that, I predict, will be candace owens' next move: accuse TPUSA (and her critics, i.e., us) of calling her a _____er.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:54 PM (Oonfw)

217 211 Jobs reporting should be private sector job gains net of public sector job gains, with NGOs considered public sector.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at December 17, 2025 12:54 PM (Dv3i1)

======

And government spending should be counted against GDP, not positively.

And I should have a pony.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (GBKbO)

218 204 I suspect the much ballyhooed superiority of the Confederate soldier was substantially due to the fact that they had a higher ratio of volunteers than the North, who had a high number of people in uniform who weren't really all that keen on fighting.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:50 PM (Jn9oG)
====

Quantity has a quality of its own.
Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (rj6Yv)

This, also can explain the performance of the US military in conflicts with draft and without (absent WWII.)

Which, what are the numbers for WWII for volunteer vs draft?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (bss/y)

219 These things will work themselves out, but they need time (and people getting off their asses to improve their hire-ability).

Posted by: The Lower Depths

Complicating things is that the Americans who got locked out of everything have often deteriorated...aging, lack of staying in practice, the results of despair...lots of moving parts. The bottom line is that the people who in theory could have stepped into those spaces aren't in the same spot they were five years ago--sometimes even two--and it's questionable whether those employers are willing or even able to meet them where they are.

This is going to be a large problem for quite a while, I'm afraid.

Posted by: Brother Tim (102mm/W59), Keeper of the Tim Continuum at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (OUMaO)

220 Quantity has a quality of its own.
Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (rj6Yv)

Truth.

Something we seem to have forgotten, with this little dustup in Ukraine.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (Jn9oG)

221 Jobs reporting should be private sector job gains net of public sector job gains, with NGOs considered public sector.

Agree with the first part but the second is an interesting question.

What percentage of NGO dollars are direct public sector dollars (eg grants from fedgov) AND indirect public sector dollars (contributions from federal/state workers)?

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (sKqQm)

222
Because all blacks do it eventually. They always pull the race card.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (Oonfw)

223 216
And that, I predict, will be candace owens' next move: accuse TPUSA (and her critics, i.e., us) of calling her a _____er.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:54 PM (Oonfw)

======

"I defeated Erika Kirk in single combat with knunchucks!"

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (GBKbO)

224 Question on the job creation front: Is the jobs created number above and beyond any replacement numbers occurring if an illegal employee is replaced with a citizen?

Posted by: Fish at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (WVxc/)

225 DDG AI says:

In 2022, non-permanent residents, including those who are not on H-1B visas, accounted for approximately 5.5% of all Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan volume.
---
So, the majority of FHA loans to foreigners was H-1B.
And 5.5% of the loans were given to people who should have been arrested when they walked in the door.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (Mb4p6)

226
And candace owens will revert to type.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (Oonfw)

227 I'm not sure how it works now, but back in the day it was fatal to overstay a legal visa. If you were here even one day longer than allowed, that meant you were fucked on any future visas or attempts to get a green card etc. I know a few people who left the country rather than run the risk of an expired visa, and then got a visa renewal/extension and came back. It was too big a risk to overstay. Of course, that changed under Obama and Biden.
Posted by: Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (iFTx/)

I *really* hope you are hired so you can update your nic to "Elric The Blade and Immigration Judge".
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at December 17, 2025 12:49 PM (ULPxl)

For now ....

Posted by: Judge Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (iFTx/)

228 Which one of you called her a Negligent Bitch?!
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:52 PM (bss/y)

She wasn't negligent. Malicious, yes. Crooked, yes.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (npFr7)

229 I suspect the much ballyhooed superiority of the Confederate soldier was substantially due to the fact that they had a higher ratio of volunteers than the North, who had a high number of people in uniform who weren't really all that keen on fighting.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:50 PM (Jn9oG)
====

Quantity has a quality of its own.
Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 12:53 PM (rj6Yv)

Some historian, I forgot which, stated that US Grant was the first Union general to understand the “bloody arithmetic” needed to defeat the confederacy….

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (k0PcD)

230 Doesn't mean I'm not aware of the how badly the odds are stacked against us.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:31 PM (wCwnN)

I sorry to hear it bud. Truly. Don't let my japes and ripostes sour you. America sucks and has long been full of grifters and charlatans at the top but it's still somehow the greatest on earth.

I know you're not asking for it but I will say some prayers for what that's worth.

Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (BEQiS)

231 68 It's all diagrams, all the way down

word.

Posted by: diagram island liberation front at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (v3pYe)

232 219 These things will work themselves out, but they need time (and people getting off their asses to improve their hire-ability).

Posted by: The Lower Depths

Complicating things is that the Americans who got locked out of everything have often deteriorated...aging, lack of staying in practice, the results of despair...lots of moving parts. The bottom line is that the people who in theory could have stepped into those spaces aren't in the same spot they were five years ago--sometimes even two--and it's questionable whether those employers are willing or even able to meet them where they are.

This is going to be a large problem for quite a while, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Brother Tim (102mm/W59), Keeper of the Tim Continuum at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (OUMaO)

The "staleness" of a resume problem...it normally requires one to start at the beginning again to get hired and then work back up...

Posted by: Nova Local at December 17, 2025 12:57 PM (tOcjL)

233 Posted by: Judge Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (iFTx/)

======

There is only one way to read this:

Elric demands that we judge him.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:57 PM (GBKbO)

234 Which, what are the numbers for WWII for volunteer vs draft?
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (bss/y)

I'm sure someone has studied it. That there's some precise ratio that determines whether your army is going to be effective or not.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:57 PM (Jn9oG)

235 Ok, found it on one site:

(During WWII)
38.8% (6,332,000) of U.S. servicemen and all servicewomen were volunteers
61.2% (11,535,000) were draftees

Me: I am actually surprised. I always assumed the volunteer rate was higher.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:57 PM (bss/y)

236 Jobs reporting should be private sector job gains net of public sector job gains, with NGOs considered public sector.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at December 17, 2025 12:54 PM (Dv3i1)

======

And government spending should be counted against GDP, not positively.

And I should have a pony.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (GBKbO)
_________

I want a dragon

Posted by: Judge Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:57 PM (iFTx/)

237 The bottom line is that the people who in theory could have stepped into those spaces aren't in the same spot they were five years ago--sometimes even two--and it's questionable whether those employers are willing or even able to meet them where they are.

I wonder if this will start showing up in an uptick in Wrongful termination cases.

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:57 PM (sKqQm)

238 "Federal employment is now at its lowest level in more than a decade, down 271,000 jobs since Trump returned to office, reflecting the administration's push to rein in what it describes as an overgrown bureaucracy."

The jobs are being cut massively at the federal level. Guess what? They are also falling at the state and local level. As the government shrinks, that is going to drag down employment for some time, until those fed workers get other jobs.

Word is the former feds are having a tough go of it - seems like a lot of private employers don't want them.

Posted by: El Mariachi - Attorney at Law at December 17, 2025 12:58 PM (gDhA9)

239 She wasn't negligent. Malicious, yes. Crooked, yes.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (npFr7)

I was looking for an N word, man.

Nefarious?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:58 PM (bss/y)

240 196 ya know what other King was born in Bethlehem?
Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (gbOdA)

Don?

BB?
Posted by: BurtTC

Elle?

Posted by: Musikologist at December 17, 2025 12:58 PM (oftw2)

241 192
Susie Wiles isn't to blame for VF's Lies.

The VF faggot Democrat took Wiles way out of context and then totally editorialized (made up shit) to fake "explain" what she "really" meant.

For instance, the Reichstagg bullshit in the hit piece. Total fabrication/imagination.

Another example is Wiles' description of Elon Musk: she never called him a doped-up "Nosferatu," VF did.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (Oonfw)

No, but she's to blame for sitting down with people who could be expected to tell such lies.

What's the reward in this risk/reward assessment anyway? Assume it went well instead. Who the fuck are we trying to reach with Vanity Fair?

I remember ace railing at Trump during his first term for giving some NYT reporter repeated access even though the Times always slandered him.

This seems like that.

Not the end of the world. Not even a big deal. Just kind of a naive, bush-league mistake.

But who cares? No one, I think.

Posted by: 2 pounds of shit in a 1 pound sack at December 17, 2025 12:58 PM (Puw3U)

242 >>> 227
==
For now ....
Posted by: Judge Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (iFTx/)

HA!

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at December 17, 2025 12:58 PM (ULPxl)

243 Maybe it's time for a Horde Hospital.
---
Some of you really close to 29 may recall ....
But, long past, I was talking with my Ancients, the aunts who've now passed on, about their home remedies in their youth.

You know, dirt-floor poor.

Things like reducing onions down to make a cough syrup.
And a mustard paste on cloth wrap for pneumonia (I think) where you had to be careful to avoid blistering the chest.
And I surprised someone the other day with the "drink some baking soda in water to calm your stomach."

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at December 17, 2025 12:58 PM (HXT0k)

244 Allowing foreigners to own American property isn't appealing. It is part of first world business but each purchase should be reviewed. - Looking at you, China.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at December 17, 2025 12:58 PM (Mb4p6)

245 Some historian, I forgot which, stated that US Grant was the first Union general to understand the “bloody arithmetic” needed to defeat the confederacy….
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (k0PcD)

Actually Winfield Scott did right at the outset - no one wanted to believe him (although even he slightly underestimated)...

Posted by: Nova Local at December 17, 2025 12:59 PM (tOcjL)

246 I'm not sure how it works now, but back in the day it was fatal
I'm not sure how it works now, but back in the day it was fatal to overstay a legal visa. If you were here even one day longer than allowed, that meant you were fucked on any future visas or attempts to get a green card etc. I know a few people who left the country rather than run the risk of an expired visa, and then got a visa renewal/extension and came back. It was too big a risk to overstay. Of course, that changed under Obama and Biden.
Posted by: Elric The Blade at December 17, 2025 12:40 PM (iFTx/)

That is how the law and the regulations were written and enforced until Clinton. There was a surge of illegal overstays (adjustments) under his administration and both State Consular and INS (now ICE I guess??) were told to deal. It got better, slightly, under Bush, but was basically scrapped with Obama. Trump 1 was fighting too many other battles to deal with it. He had focus in his second term, but faced the deluge of Obama 3.

Posted by: moki at December 17, 2025 12:59 PM (wLjpr)

247 During WWII)
38.8% (6,332,000) of U.S. servicemen and all servicewomen were volunteers
61.2% (11,535,000) were draftees

Me: I am actually surprised. I always assumed the volunteer rate was higher.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at

My grandpa went in to volunteer so he could pick his service. They told him you won't be drafted don't worry. He was drafted 3 months later. I assume there are many many like this in the drafted number.

Posted by: BruceWayne at December 17, 2025 12:59 PM (MGB5H)

248 I sorry to hear it bud. Truly. Don't let my japes and ripostes sour you. America sucks and has long been full of grifters and charlatans at the top but it's still somehow the greatest on earth.

I know you're not asking for it but I will say some prayers for what that's worth.
Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (BEQiS)

I genuinely appreciate it.

One of the last meaningful conversations I had with my mother before she died was to try to tell her, in spite of it all, I still have the spirit in me, to keep moving forward, even though I'm not exactly sure why.

I told her not to worry about me, but she did anyway.

God, I miss that woman.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:59 PM (Jn9oG)

249 240 196 ya know what other King was born in Bethlehem?
Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2025 12:47 PM (gbOdA)

Don?

BB?
Posted by: BurtTC

Elle?
Posted by: Musikologist at December 17, 2025 12:58 PM (oftw2)

Chicken ala?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:59 PM (bss/y)

250 6 ya know what other King was born in Bethlehem?
Posted by: rhennigantx

We have over 18,000 Kings listed in our City birth records.
Can you be more specific with a birthdate or SS#?

Posted by: Bethlehem PA City Clerk of Records at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (w9Wax)

251 Nancy Pelosi Says Democrats Can’t Just Impeach Trump Because They Want To
___

True. They need to set up all the lies, false witnesses and slander first. These things take time. You can't just conjure up some military fatass out of nowhere.

Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (BEQiS)

252 Me: I am actually surprised. I always assumed the volunteer rate was higher. Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:57 PM (bss/y)

My father got drafted. He got drafted because he went to the draft board and said "please for the love of god draft me."

Posted by: El Mariachi - Attorney at Law at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (gDhA9)

253 William G. McAdoo — 'It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.'

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at December 17, 2025 12:44 PM (XeU6L)

Um no. He just won't know he's been defeated.
Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 12:50 PM (BEQiS)

You can beat a narcissist in an argument but he will walk away still thinking he is right.

Posted by: Opinion fact at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (KDPiq)

254 It's not just housing that they increased the demand for.

@Buck Throckmorton, if you're around, I'd love to see you expand on this in long form some morning.

They created phony growth that was counted in the national economic accounts, and as they depart by the millions, they will create phony recession. Think about it: An illegal alien spends $10000 a year on food and housing, that's counted. If it's public money, it's counted twice, because government spending also counts. So $20,000 is added to GDP but it creates no actual economic value. (Never mind all the secondary effects, which are too complex for this little gray box.) When that illegal alien goes back, as far as the economic statistics show, the economy is losing $20,000 of GDP.

So for a while things will be getting better all around us, but the stats will be showing DOOM.

Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (E2l9i)

255 This, also can explain the performance of the US military in conflicts with draft and without (absent WWII.)

Which, what are the numbers for WWII for volunteer vs draft?
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:55 PM (bss/y)
=======

My read on the US military prep for a major conflict is that it usually takes about 12 to 18 months for the incompetents in the officer corps to be cashiered or transferred to non-combat duties and for the competent to get the necessary experience to conduct offensive operations.

Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (rj6Yv)

256 Speaking of illegals. The Tricolor executives who catered to illegals for car loans have been indicated. Wonder if they'll go after Jamie Dimon

Posted by: Smell the Glove at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (vqNC8)

257 149 Maybe it's time for a Horde Hospital.

go long on irons?

Posted by: anachronda at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (v3pYe)

258 If illegals leave anonymously now so as to avoid any penalty for reentry, when the next Dem administration comes in, they won't have the records to say "this person was already here and should be let in". Unanticipated consequences can be painful.
Posted by: Archimedes

Which is why that's not their policy. Dem policy is:
"brown person?" + 10pts
"from shithole country?" +10 pts
"criminal?" + 10pts

"white?" -100pts
"from western country?" -1000pts
"no criminal record?" -1000000pts

Posted by: Don't blame the alligators at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (1Nv0l)

259 In my area single family home building is virtually non existent. It’s all apartments, condos and duplexes/triplexes.

The only SFH building is custom. Like someone buys some land and builds. But subdivisions of single family homes, that’s no longer a thing.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (udlma)

260 How were the US draft numbers compared to other countries?

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 01:01 PM (sKqQm)

261 She wasn't negligent. Malicious, yes. Crooked, yes.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (npFr7)

I was looking for an N word, man.

Nefarious?
-----

Nagger?

Posted by: Crusader at December 17, 2025 01:01 PM (TN0g+)

262 wasn't negligent. Malicious, yes. Crooked, yes.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (npFr7)

I was looking for an N word, man.

Nefarious?
-----

Nagger?
Posted by: Crusader

Nincompoop?

Posted by: BruceWayne at December 17, 2025 01:02 PM (MGB5H)

263 She wasn't negligent. Malicious, yes. Crooked, yes.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (npFr7)

I was looking for an N word, man.

Nefarious?
-----

Nagger?
---

Nigerian?

Posted by: Don't blame the alligators at December 17, 2025 01:02 PM (1Nv0l)

264 Nancy Pelosi Says Democrats Can’t Just Impeach Trump Because They Want To

==

It will start on Day 1.

The best message for the GOP and Trump in the 2026 election will be that's it's bad for the nation to have another impeachment.

For the record, I'm not a fan of Republicans promising impeachment either. I remember lots of Republicans being mad that Obama wasn't impeached. Just politically dumb and the numbers aren't there anyway.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 01:02 PM (eIzlH)

265 Fani Gets Frothy In Epic Meltdown Over Payments To Lover

"Investigate how many times they called me the N word..."

... it's always about her

Posted by: SMOD at December 17, 2025 01:02 PM (RHGPo)

266 OK back to hunting for a job and trying to stay positive. Be well, Horde. Keep the faith.

Posted by: turambar at December 17, 2025 01:03 PM (Q0yOR)

267 Chicken ala?
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:59 PM (bss/y)

I still have PTSD from the MRE version of that.

*shudder*

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 01:03 PM (Jn9oG)

268 The rent decline is also going to be very uneven. In states and cities cooperating with ICE, the decline will be much more profound.

Posted by: El Mariachi - Attorney at Law at December 17, 2025 01:03 PM (gDhA9)

269 260 How were the US draft numbers compared to other countries?
Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 01:01 PM (sKqQm)

That I don't know. This site just has US figures that I can find easily.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 01:03 PM (bss/y)

270 House Advances GOP Healthcare Bill With No Enhanced ACA Extension

The GOP bill includes market reforms to lower health care premiums but does not extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies.

Posted by: SMOD at December 17, 2025 01:03 PM (RHGPo)

271 Some historian, I forgot which, stated that US Grant was the first Union general to understand the “bloody arithmetic” needed to defeat the confederacy….
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (k0PcD)

Actually Winfield Scott did right at the outset - no one wanted to believe him (although even he slightly underestimated)...
Posted by: Nova Local at December 17, 2025 12:59 PM (tOcjL)

Well for outright pessimism at the beginning, no one out-did William Tecumseh Sherman. Grant though was the guy who knew (because of manpower disparities) he could eventually grind down Lee’s army through attrition and actually did it…. I suspect during the Wilderness he began to wonder whether or not he had the stomach for it though…

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 01:03 PM (k0PcD)

272 Indicted not indicated

Posted by: Smell the Glove at December 17, 2025 01:03 PM (vqNC8)

273 go long on irons?
Posted by: anachronda at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (v3pYe

(designs microwave iron heater; 30% faster than a forge)

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at December 17, 2025 01:04 PM (npFr7)

274 That I don't know. This site just has US figures that I can find easily.

I poked around as well and couldn't get an answer.

I'm going to guess the highest volunteer rates would be Finland, Poland, and Japan and the highest draftees rates would be Italy and the USSR.

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 01:05 PM (sKqQm)

275 Could this be true? Could it really be that 60% of the demand for rental properties came from the foreign-born?

My mother is an evil “foreign-born”. The fact that she came here the right way with her family will not change the fact she is an evil foreign-born, I guess.

Posted by: Cow Demon at December 17, 2025 01:05 PM (rQwsY)

276 House Advances GOP Healthcare Bill With No Enhanced ACA Extension

The GOP bill includes market reforms to lower health care premiums but does not extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies.
Posted by: SMOD

==

my understanding is Johnson refused a vote to even be allowed on it. The covid subsidies are dead as far as I know.

Republicans are better off just running on reform than to keep trying to fix Obamacare.

Run on what a failure Obamacare is.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 01:05 PM (eIzlH)

277 I missed if this was already mentioned:

Nuno F. Loureiro
https://shorturl.at/9c560
Wikipedia
"Loureiro was shot in his apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts, on the evening of 15 December 2025. He was transported to a Boston hospital with gunshot wounds, where he was pronounced dead early on 16 December. Authorities opened a homicide investigation that received widespread publicity.

Shortly after, Portugal's minister of foreign affairs, Paulo Rangel, announced his death to the Parliament of Portugal. The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, issued a statement calling his death 'an irreplaceable loss for science', and the U.S. ambassador to Portugal released a statement with condolences...."

???
Straight to the Point (Catherine Herridge): Directed Energy Weapons
LA Times Studios
https://youtu.be/_0ifEgrxVgk

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at December 17, 2025 01:05 PM (ULPxl)

278 @El Mariachi, my dad was working as a carpenter building what later became Oak Ridge. He got a 6 month deferment the first time because his work was supporting the war effort. 6 months later, he told the draft board, everybody else is going, go ahead and take me. But he could have had deferments through the whole war.

Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at December 17, 2025 01:05 PM (E2l9i)

279 If only the price of hot irons would come down.

Posted by: wth at December 17, 2025 12:45 PM (v0R5T)
---
The bronze plan supplies dirt to rub on it.

Posted by: Axeman at December 17, 2025 01:05 PM (Q4cxx)

280 The number of kids in the school system here has fallen to 2010 levels. I doubt that's all because of home schooling. Hopefully eastern Meck Co is heading back to Mexico.

Posted by: NCKate at December 17, 2025 01:05 PM (uQzkA)

281 Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 12:59 PM (Jn9oG)

I'm sorry. Awful to say but in a weird way I'm jealous? My mother is a genuine gaslighting BPD narcissist and that's on her good days. I sometime wonder what it would have been like for me if she wasn't all that - it killed me to lose my dad, I don't think I would have been able to handle losing a mom like yours all that well.

That said, you can take to the bank that I worry too, and cash it.

Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (BEQiS)

282 President Trump Delivers an Address to the Nation – 12/17/25 9pm ET

Posted by: SMOD at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (RHGPo)

283 Elvis?
Posted by: Thank you very much at December 17, 2025 12:51 PM (O1WpD)

TCB King

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (gbOdA)

284 Grant though was the guy who knew (because of manpower disparities) he could eventually grind down Lee’s army through attrition and actually did it…. I suspect during the Wilderness he began to wonder whether or not he had the stomach for it though…
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 01:03 PM (k0PcD)
-------------
Had Hunter in the Valley and Butler at Bermuda Hundred actually done their jobs the war would have been over by the fall of 1864.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (bPc+B)

285
Too bad I missed the Art Thread.

Aeneas: "This is no shit. There we were..."

Dido: (*thought bubble*) "Is he ever going to shut up?"

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (tgvbd)

286 33 Half of lefties talking about this on X is them claiming to not understand how 50 million illegals would increase demand and constrain supply. The "lefties pretend not to understand things to make argument impossible" meme has been getting a workout.
Posted by: Ian S. at December 17, 2025 12:24 PM (QZThv)

To be fair, my observation on the ground here in California is there has been years of indoctrination that ' illegal immigrants are a net plus for the economy paying in far more in taxes and increased demand than they cost in welfare and other benefits. '

This is obviously propaganda but intuition and critical thought don't seem to be strong points of 50% of the electorate.

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (QGaXH)

287 Me: I am actually surprised. I always assumed the volunteer rate was higher.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at December 17, 2025 12:57 PM (bss/y)

Obviously If there was no draft the volunteer rate would have been higher and imo would have produced close to the same numbers.

Guys were just biding their time before they knew they would be drafted.

Posted by: Opinion fact at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (KDPiq)

288 Is it really self deporting if they’re just going to come back as soon as a democrat or rino is elected?

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (nyH/f)

289 Investigate how many times they called me the N word..."

... it's always about her

Posted by: SMOD at December 17, 2025 01:02 PM (RHGPo)

It's always about racism.

Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (BEQiS)

290 My read on the US military prep for a major conflict is that it usually takes about 12 to 18 months for the incompetents in the officer corps to be cashiered or transferred to non-combat duties and for the competent to get the necessary experience to conduct offensive operations.
Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 01:00 PM (rj6Yv)

I forget which war they were talking about specifically, but I've heard that the majority of rifles are never fired in a battle. That the majority of those that are, they aren't aiming at anything, often being fired into the sky by men who are cowering behind something.

The percentage of men who fire consistently and accurately is quite low.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (Jn9oG)

291 18 I like the part where the illegals self deport. $1,000 and a free plane trip to the country of their choice is way cheaper than trying to round them all up and have the lefty's drag their deportations through the court system for months and even years.
Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at December 17, 2025 12:17 PM (0N4FZ)

We still need exit visas and have CBP check everyone’s passport, doing AND going.

Posted by: Cow Demon at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (rQwsY)

292 There's housing, and then there's affordable housing. I've been toying with a move to a more desirable area, but as our financial advisor has pointed out, do you want to do stuff, or do you want to spend it on a mortgage?

Posted by: Ex Rex Reeder at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (MZ+PY)

293 280 The number of kids in the school system here has fallen to 2010 levels. I doubt that's all because of home schooling. Hopefully eastern Meck Co is heading back to Mexico.
Posted by: NCKate at December 17, 2025 01:05 PM (uQzkA)

There is a county near Harris county the is closing 6 elementary schools.

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 17, 2025 01:07 PM (gbOdA)

294 Relatedly, the geese and duck are making comeback.

Posted by: Ripley at December 17, 2025 01:07 PM (GUOwU)

295 Booming, baby, booming. That's the economy under Trump, especially beginning in January when American taxpayers start seeing the lower withholding from the One Big Beautiful Bill.

The tenuous hiring market, especially scary for young families, is the last bastion of Bidenism. It's the last part of the economy that will recover, but even that should start happening early next year.

Of course, SCOTUS could throw us a curve with a contrary tariff decision, but Scot Bessent says they have a plan ready to go to fix whatever damage SCOTUS does.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at December 17, 2025 01:07 PM (EJgoP)

296 Wasn't that the Minnesota tactic? Cover your wrongdoing with cries of racism? Guess the kumquat doesn't fall too far from the Somali.

Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 01:07 PM (BEQiS)

297 Extraterrestrial beings hitching a ride on the 3I/ATLAS comet may have already landed on Earth, according to controversial psychic Uri Geller's bold assertions.

... Jasmine Crockett ??

Posted by: SMOD at December 17, 2025 01:07 PM (RHGPo)

298 I'm anticipating a post on the article "The Lost Generation" (https://is.gd/jDg7ui), which is currently causing a lot of buzz:

Why “The Lost Generation” is a Lost Opportunity
The Problem with Jacob Savage's Viral Article on Millennial White Men.
https://is.gd/kXion7

The people who discriminated against a generation of white men need to be sued into oblivion.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 01:07 PM (Riz8t)

299 Another local news tidbit in my area - one of the towns is having some sort of debate about changing the way that students are sent to various schools.

I couldn't make much sense of why it mattered until someone posted the racial makeup of the schools.

You see the schools that were all Asian/Caucasian were doing "too well" versus the other schools and that's racist dontchaknow

Also I was amazed to see that in these schools the asian population was over 50%. This is a town that had no significant asian populations 20 years before...but now it had a big Diwali and Chinese New Years celebration...

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 01:08 PM (sKqQm)

300 Is $1000 really an incentive? That’s a month’s worth of snap benefits.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at December 17, 2025 01:08 PM (udlma)

301 They're eating the cats!
They're eating the dogs!
They're eating the pets!
Of the people that live there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BrCvZmSnKA
Posted by: Don't blame the alligators

♫ ♪ ♪ ♬
QUACK
♪ ♪ ♬

Posted by: Ducks for Trump at December 17, 2025 01:08 PM (v0R5T)

302 School allowed dad to take his finals the day he turned 17 and already had the release signed by his mom and all the USAAF work done.

He went straight from taking his finals to boot.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at December 17, 2025 01:08 PM (Mb4p6)

303 Also I was amazed to see that in these schools the asian population was over 50%. This is a town that had no significant asian populations 20 years before...but now it had a big Diwali and Chinese New Years celebration...
Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 01:08 PM (sKqQm)

Replacement theory is a vast right wing conspiracy.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at December 17, 2025 01:09 PM (udlma)

304 Rent? Falling? Bravo Sierra, mon chér … they're only rising in the towns SE of N'ville … new apartment complexes are sprouting from the ground like ass-tumors in a dog with mange - and the rents sho' 'nuf ain't goin' nowheres but UP … I'd love to see it start comin' down, but that ain't a happenin' thang here …

Posted by: Dr_No at December 17, 2025 01:09 PM (ayRl+)

305 I'm sorry. Awful to say but in a weird way I'm jealous? My mother is a genuine gaslighting BPD narcissist and that's on her good days. I sometime wonder what it would have been like for me if she wasn't all that - it killed me to lose my dad, I don't think I would have been able to handle losing a mom like yours all that well.

That said, you can take to the bank that I worry too, and cash it.
Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (BEQiS)

I think you can rest assured, if your dad was the person who your seem to be saying he was, he more or less cancelled out the negative impact of your mother.

It's still sad when anyone has a parent who is not capable of loving their children. There are too many of them.

My difficult year is survivable, precisely because of who my parents were.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 01:10 PM (Jn9oG)

306 "I have nothing against Hondurans or Indians or Haitians"

Haiti is a shithole country populated by shithole people.

Posted by: Don't blame the alligators at December 17, 2025 12:49 PM

As is India. Where a ridiculous percentage of the population shits outside in public. Not to mention most of their population is retarded. (Stellantis chose to hire the majority of their outsourced engineering and product development work from this demographic.)

The two are probably correlated somehow...

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at December 17, 2025 01:10 PM (P5BPp)

307 The percentage of men who fire consistently and accurately is quite low.

My memory on the research here is that it is easy to get new recruits to engage in suppression fire but very hard to get them to target specific enemy soldiers and kill them, especially if they are in no immediate danger from the enemy target.

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 01:10 PM (sKqQm)

308 Of course, SCOTUS could throw us a curve with a contrary tariff decision, but Scot Bessent says they have a plan ready to go to fix whatever damage SCOTUS does.
Posted by: Huck Follywood

==

As much as I hate to admit this, the markets would probably rally if the SC goes against Trump on tariffs.

Trump has other levers, but the scuttle I'm hearing is since "affordability" is the buzzword this coming election, the Trump admin is thinking of backing off a bit.

Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 01:10 PM (eIzlH)

309 Another local news tidbit in my area - one of the towns is having some sort of debate about changing the way that students are sent to various schools.

I couldn't make much sense of why it mattered until someone posted the racial makeup of the schools.

You see the schools that were all Asian/Caucasian were doing "too well" versus the other schools and that's racist dontchaknow
Posted by: 18-1

Oh yeah, let's bring back busing. Was so popular and effective last time around...

Posted by: Don't blame the alligators at December 17, 2025 01:11 PM (1Nv0l)

310 The people who discriminated against a generation of white men need to be sued into oblivion.

Posted by: Archimedes at December 17, 2025 01:07 PM (Riz8t)

You misspelled thrown into a tire fire.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at December 17, 2025 01:11 PM (snZF9)

311 @Linus, during the Wilderness, as the Union troops were retreating around him, Grant sat in a chair and chewed on a cigar. One of his staff said, "General, we need to get moving." Grant's answer? "It strikes me that it would be a better idea to order up some artillery and defend the present location."

Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at December 17, 2025 01:11 PM (E2l9i)

312 Is it really self deporting if they’re just going to come back as soon as a democrat or rino is elected?
Posted by: sniffybigtoe at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (nyH/f)

Extended vacation.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 01:11 PM (Jn9oG)

313
I give up, HH.

What's the significance of that port-a-gee getting murdered in Boston?

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 01:12 PM (Oonfw)

314 $25k payment per illegal to leave would get a ton of them out. $25k is a fortune for 3rd world shitholes. A family of four would be the richest family in their town.

And we’d recuperate that $25k in no time once they’re out of the country and we don’t have to support them.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at December 17, 2025 01:12 PM (udlma)

315 Over at Insty, he links to a long piece by, I think a leftie, going on about how dumb the progressive "new improved" and "one simple trick to win elections" of "pivot and blame the rich."

LOL, they really think they have a perfect counter to every issue by changing the subject "is that really important when billionaires have stolen $50 trillion from the Americans?"

They ... actually think the Bernie and AOC Show was a super duper success.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at December 17, 2025 01:12 PM (HXT0k)

316 The percentage of men who fire consistently and accurately is quite low.
Posted by: BurtTC

---

Damned split stream.

Posted by: Don't blame the alligators at December 17, 2025 01:12 PM (1Nv0l)

317 Well for outright pessimism at the beginning, no one out-did William Tecumseh Sherman. Grant though was the guy who knew (because of manpower disparities) he could eventually grind down Lee’s army through attrition and actually did it…. I suspect during the Wilderness he began to wonder whether or not he had the stomach for it though…
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 01:03 PM (k0PcD)
=======

Grant was extremely perceptive when it came to evaluating the competency of his direct counterpart(s) in Gray. He ran into problems when he judged the military stamina of the Confederate rank-and-file. Hence, he accepted the murderous attrition rate incurred during the Overland Campaign, because his objective was the dissolution of the ANV, either through a crushing defeat (unlikely) or a siege (worst case).

Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 01:12 PM (rj6Yv)

318 78 I'm in the camp that housing prices going through the help doesn't really benefit anyone unless you plan some exit where you are leaving the area for somewhere cheaper or dramatically downsizing.

Just really makes your property taxes go up.

My house has basically tripled since Covid and it's depressing because I feel stuck now. Even though I like my house.
Posted by: Leupold at December 17, 2025 12:32 PM (eIzlH)

The ONLY entity that can raise your property taxes is government. Don’t buy the line they feed you when they say “appraisals went up so property taxes went up”. The government, and the government only, sets tax rates.

Posted by: Cow Demon at December 17, 2025 01:12 PM (rQwsY)

319 My memory on the research here is that it is easy to get new recruits to engage in suppression fire but very hard to get them to target specific enemy soldiers and kill them, especially if they are in no immediate danger from the enemy target.
Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 01:10 PM (sKqQm)

One of those things I learned, being an infantry soldier, is that it's best for us to not do too much thinking.

When faced with an enemy force, we should be fully trained on what to do, so it's basically muscle memory. If we start thinking, that's when we would shit our pants and run away.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 01:13 PM (Jn9oG)

320 Remember to always dispute the increase in your appraisal value.

Posted by: Opinion fact at December 17, 2025 01:14 PM (KDPiq)

321 You want to see a minimum of 100,000 per month and you wouldn't say the market is strong until it gets up over 200,000.

——

Gotta pump those numbers up, those are rookie numbers.

Posted by: Mark Hanna at December 17, 2025 01:15 PM (+/y+R)

322 Rent? Falling? Bravo Sierra, mon chér … they're only rising in the towns SE of N'ville … new apartment complexes are sprouting from the ground like ass-tumors in a dog with mange - and the rents sho' 'nuf ain't goin' nowheres but UP … I'd love to see it start comin' down, but that ain't a happenin' thang here …
Posted by: Dr_No at December 17, 2025 01:09 PM (ayRl+)
---
I think Nashville is a relocation destination these days.

You can't judge by areas that are receiving a bunch of legal influx, because those areas are going to have an increase anyway.

Posted by: Axeman at December 17, 2025 01:15 PM (Q4cxx)

323
Are POT ROAST prices going down?

My supermarket had a roast yesterday for 9.49/lb. Looked like a good deal.

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 01:15 PM (Oonfw)

324 @Leupold, the tariffs at the Supreme Court are tariffs under the Emergency Economic Act. Tthey can be replaced under other laws like Section 232, but it's not as simple to implement.

Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at December 17, 2025 01:15 PM (E2l9i)

325 If we start thinking, that's when we would shit our pants and run away.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 01:13 PM (Jn9oG)
-----------

"I can see by your foolish faces that you're all going to be crack troops. Ah, that chap with the five-and-a-half hat size has the makings of a bloody hero!"
---Daniel Dravot, Esq.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 17, 2025 01:16 PM (bPc+B)

326 The arguments against Tarriffs boil down to “I can’t make enough money selling Chinese shit”. If that’s all we care about then we’re done as a country.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at December 17, 2025 01:17 PM (udlma)

327
new one

Posted by: four seasons at December 17, 2025 01:17 PM (3ek7K)

328
nood drunk

Posted by: Soothsayer at December 17, 2025 01:17 PM (Oonfw)

329 >>>As is India. Where a ridiculous percentage of the population shits outside in public. Not to mention most of their population is retarded. (Stellantis chose to hire the majority of their outsourced engineering and product development work from this demographic.)

The two are probably correlated somehow...
Posted by: Clyde Shelton
-----

You forget that India is a conglomeration of different peoples. India has two official languages and 22 accepted other languages. Indians from one area are almost entirely different than Indians from another.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at December 17, 2025 01:17 PM (Mb4p6)

330 Nood

Posted by: 496 at December 17, 2025 01:17 PM (ICj+9)

331 yum yum shit
yummy shit pebbles
in my mouth

Posted by: Aliassmithsmith at December 17, 2025 01:17 PM (+DEP/)

332 Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 01:10 PM (Jn9oG)

Good to hear and you've got a point, I just lost him way too early. Hang in.

Posted by: ... at December 17, 2025 01:17 PM (BEQiS)

333 The tenuous hiring market, especially scary for young families, is the last bastion of Bidenism. It's the last part of the economy that will recover, but even that should start happening early next year.

Of course, SCOTUS could throw us a curve with a contrary tariff decision, but Scot Bessent says they have a plan ready to go to fix whatever damage SCOTUS does.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at December 17, 2025 01:07 PM (EJgoP)
=========

The Big Beautiful Bill provisions start kicking in Jan. 1, right? Working people getting their tax refunds, the new building season with the massive amount of foreign investments pouring in? The future looks a bit brighter, I think. As for the Supremes, they have equity portfolios, too.

Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 01:17 PM (rj6Yv)

334 Another odd fact I remember running across was that in the research on assaults, failed assaults had a bunch of KIA/WIA around 100 yard from the target. And successful assaults had most of their losses nearer the target and fewer losses overall.

The takeaway was that presuming enough resources were given to support the attack its success mostly came down to whether the low level officers/NCOs on the seen could lead a charge across the final distance or not, because the normal human reaction was to find whatever cover there might be about 100 yards away and return fire.

But...since the defenders were entrenched just laying prone in the open was unlike to work...

Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 01:18 PM (sKqQm)

335 "I can see by your foolish faces that you're all going to be crack troops. Ah, that chap with the five-and-a-half hat size has the makings of a bloody hero!"
---Daniel Dravot, Esq.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 17, 2025 01:16 PM (bPc+B)

I would be curious too, once you have a group of men who have been tested in battle, how many of them go on to be "super soldiers," and how many learn how to keep their heads down and survive, without really contributing to defeating the foe in front of them.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 17, 2025 01:18 PM (Jn9oG)

336 The response from the empathetic, caring pro-tax crowd? Then sell and move if you can't afford to pay more taxes.
Posted by: 18-1 at December 17, 2025 12:42 PM (sKqQm)

I agree!

Posted by: Curtis Parrish, Lubbock County Judge at December 17, 2025 01:18 PM (rQwsY)

337 @Linus, during the Wilderness, as the Union troops were retreating around him, Grant sat in a chair and chewed on a cigar. One of his staff said, "General, we need to get moving." Grant's answer? "It strikes me that it would be a better idea to order up some artillery and defend the present location."
Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at December 17, 2025 01:11 PM (E2l9i)

I remember that account. I was thinking of how on day 2 of the Wilderness battle IIRC after he’d nearly been flanked twice, when the crisis was over he went to his tent and collapsed in tears. Completely composed when it mattered but the weight of it all hit him after the fact

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at December 17, 2025 01:19 PM (xT8gx)

338 Im hoping she goes with "Erika told me Charlie is a secret Jew and the 'assassination' was actually a Mossad exfil op to bring their top man in from the cold."

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at December 17, 2025 01:19 PM (BI5O2)

339 I think Nashville is a relocation destination these days.

You can't judge by areas that are receiving a bunch of legal influx, because those areas are going to have an increase anyway.
Posted by: Axeman
========
Location is still a good marker for market real estate prices/rentals likewise the U Haul index is pretty decent predicting where people are moving from and to.

Rule of thumb is when the monthly housing cost including mortgage, insurance, etc. is lower than the same house description rental prices, then buy a home. If reverse, then rent because the market is likely overpriced.

There is also a time factor involved---you won't recover transaction costs from buying and selling with moves within a certain time frame something like 3-5 years in residence. That is assuming no employer assistance for the move.

Posted by: whig at December 17, 2025 01:20 PM (WDjG6)

340 yum yum shit
yummy shit pebbles
in my mouth

Posted by: Aliassmithsmith at December 17, 2025 01:20 PM (+DEP/)

341 I forget which war they were talking about specifically, but I've heard that the majority of rifles are never fired in a battle. That the majority of those that are, they aren't aiming at anything, often being fired into the sky by men who are cowering behind something.

The percentage of men who fire consistently and accurately is quite low.
---
It's not easy to discuss.
But, it takes an actual psychopath to be able to look down a gun scope and shoot another man.
Especially over and over.
We have built a military that has gotten very, very good at getting ordinary men past that hard moral stop, to pull the trigger.
Other cultures use intense hatred, dehumanization, drugs, dissociation, or comradery to push.
We now do it with cold, professional calculation and precision.
Because it's necessary.
We like to pretend, but the whole world would turn on us in an instant if they thought they had a chance.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at December 17, 2025 01:21 PM (HXT0k)

342 315 Over at Insty, he links to a long piece by, I think a leftie, going on about how dumb the progressive "new improved" and "one simple trick to win elections" of "pivot and blame the rich."

LOL, they really think they have a perfect counter to every issue by changing the subject "is that really important when billionaires have stolen $50 trillion from the Americans?"

They ... actually think the Bernie and AOC Show was a super duper success.
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at December 17, 2025 01:12 PM (HXT0k)

Don’t be too sure. This is a country where envy, hatred and resentment are seen as great moral virtues.

Posted by: Cow Demon at December 17, 2025 01:21 PM (rQwsY)

343 I assume our NYC high hotel rates were a result of the city housing illegals in many hotels thus driving up tourist cost.

Posted by: Goatweed at December 17, 2025 01:23 PM (jK3NL)

344 The Big Beautiful Bill provisions start kicking in Jan. 1, right? Working people getting their tax refunds, the new building season with the massive amount of foreign investments pouring in? The future looks a bit brighter, I think. As for the Supremes, they have equity portfolios, too.
Posted by: mrp

We have to wait and see. What is also unpredictable is how Trump's serious chopping of regulatory rules is going to affect the economy. Drag on investments, etc. from regulations is a highly speculative number. Liberals claim little effect, conservative economists, a lot, in part because of unseen diversions in investing strategies and the cost of substitution effects to counteract regulations.

Posted by: whig at December 17, 2025 01:23 PM (WDjG6)

345 343 I assume our NYC high hotel rates were a result of the city housing illegals in many hotels thus driving up tourist cost.
Posted by: Goatweed
=======
I suspect under Mamdani, tourism to NYC is going to shrivel up just like in the 70's under Lindsay and Abe Beame.

Posted by: whig at December 17, 2025 01:24 PM (WDjG6)

346 322 Rent? Falling? Bravo Sierra, mon chér … they're only rising in the towns SE of N'ville … new apartment complexes are sprouting from the ground like ass-tumors in a dog with mange - and the rents sho' 'nuf ain't goin' nowheres but UP … I'd love to see it start comin' down, but that ain't a happenin' thang here …
Posted by: Dr_No at December 17, 2025 01:09 PM (ayRl+)
---
I think Nashville is a relocation destination these days.

You can't judge by areas that are receiving a bunch of legal influx, because those areas are going to have an increase anyway.
Posted by: Axeman at December 17, 2025 01:15 PM

--

I regularly visit relatives near Greenville, S.C., and see new or underway crappy-looking cluster subdivisions every time. ... I'd like to think the surplus will temper prices, but I'd wager on continued inflated prices and more soul-crushing eyesores.

Posted by: SloPitch Whiffer at December 17, 2025 01:25 PM (NYInA)

347 Had Hunter in the Valley and Butler at Bermuda Hundred actually done their jobs the war would have been over by the fall of 1864.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 17, 2025 01:06 PM (bPc+B)
=======

Neither of them were Grant's choices. They were Lincoln's. Grant wanted Sedgwick to command in the Valley, and anyone else but Butler for the Army of the James. Sedgwick came from an old Democrat family and was not trusted by the Radical Republicans, and Butler was a Democrat who came out in support of Lincoln during the 1860 campaign. Out of uniform, Butler would have been a threat during the 1864 presidential campaign.

Posted by: mrp at December 17, 2025 01:25 PM (rj6Yv)

348 Private payrolls are what matters. You can easily get to zero unemployment by hiring all the unemployed to a government job, or a government funded NGO.

A lot of the "weak" Trump job numbers are the firing of useless government workers and cutting off the spigot of government money.

If you have an excellent quarter of private sector hiring, but you also cut a lot of government jobs, it makes the quarter look bad.

Posted by: Vick King at December 17, 2025 01:29 PM (6wd9j)

349 224 Question on the job creation front: Is the jobs created number above and beyond any replacement numbers occurring if an illegal employee is replaced with a citizen?
Posted by: Fish at December 17, 2025 12:56 PM (WVxc/)
- - - - - - - - -
As they used to say on talk radio: "Dittos."

If a job was lost because the employee is no longer present to work, but a USC (US Citizen, per Linked In job postings requesting "non"-USC) replacement is put in place, is that a gain? Or a wash?

And what is the current rate of "discouraged workers"? Those who aren't counted in unemployment numbers, because they stopped trying to find employment? The Unemployment rate apparently went up. But if there's more demand for jobs now, even with the drop of employed immigrants, then it may be that the 'reservoir' of lost Americans has been opened. A new supply to replace immigrants, including illegal ones that were paid under the table and not properly taxed on income.

The question

Posted by: Another Anon at December 17, 2025 01:40 PM (4h45B)

350 @160 And the adding and removing of stuff does not make for a better narrative flow.

I saw it and agree with you except for one thing. The removal of the stinger at the end of Vol, 1 that (SPOILER ALERT) The Bride's daughter is still alive makes us as shocked as she is when she shows up near the end of Vol. 2.

It doesn't make a difference to you or me, who've seen the movie plenty, but to a new viewer I bet it would be a pretty big deal.

Posted by: MrUNIVAC at December 17, 2025 02:15 PM (S/j/E)

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