Stockstradamus AKA Stocky’s Blog

A few days before Christmas we get this heartbreaking Frontpage above the fold story about a young mother who just gave birth to a new baby but is struggling to keep her family warm.

In a sign of the times twist, it’s not some generic evil landlord that is keeping our poor family in the cold but it’s an evil bank/mortgage company who recently foreclosed on the previous generic evil landlord.

It’s a terrible situation. The new evil landlord will not pay for the delivery of heating oil. They won’t clear the sidewalks of snow either.

Tenants in some foreclosed Boston apartment buildings are living without adequate heat because the new landlords - mortgage companies often based in other states - have not repaired broken systems or paid for the delivery of heating oil.

Karla Herrera, who gave birth to a daughter Wednesday, has lived without heat in her Roxbury apartment since November, when the system broke. “Sometimes, I turn on the oven for 20 minutes for heat,” she said in Spanish, speaking through an interpreter.

Now Stocky is not a total bastard. I do have sympathy for those poor kids but there are some things the Globe left out of the story that leads me to ask a few questions.

The woman spoke through an interpreter. What are the odds that she’s here legally?

She just gave birth to another kid. Where is Dad(s)?

Is there a law against her paying for a load of heating oil herself? She could deduct the amount she paid for the oil from the rent she’s paying.

Assuming she’s paying rent, of course. The amount of rent is mysteriously left out of the story. You’d think The Globe would put that in the story. It would certainly add to the outrage. Call me a cynic but I’d bet half her welfare check that she is not paying a dime in rent.

Which leads me to another question. Why did the buidling go into foreclosure in the first place? Is it possible that tennants not paying rent could have contributed to that? How hard would it have been for the Globe to find the previous owner?

And who do you think is paying for her hospital stay? Hint: look in the mirror. Again, where’s Dad(s).

In another building the Mortgage company has offered the tennants $1,000 to vacate the building. Sounds reasonable to me but not to some of them:

All but one of the other tenants, a woman with a new baby, left after receiving $1,000 from New England Group, which represents the new landlord, GMAC Financial Services.

Murdaugh’s reply to the offer: “Are you serious? Where do we have to go?”

Much less is known about Murdaugh’s situation but I think it’s fair to guess that she’s not paying rent either. If that’s true then yes, finding a new place to stay for free would be tough.

So excuse me for lacking “compassion”.

No, not Dennis and Callahan this time. It’s 2 Bloomberg reporters who show total ignorance of how Bookies make their money.

As I posted earlier, even sports “experts” don’t have a friggin clue about this.

In case you’re not sure yourself, just remember 2 things:

• BOOKIES DON’T CARE WHO WINS!!
• BOOKIES MAKE THEIR MONEY NO MATTER WHAT THE SCORE IS!!!!

It’s not a difficult thing to understand. The point spread (and the over/under) is not based on what a Bookie thinks the score of the game will be.

It’s based on getting 50% of the betting public to bet on one side and 50% to bet on the other side. The Bookie collects a fee for the transaction of both winners and losers. The winners and losers effectively transfer the money between themselves while the bookie collects his transaction fees.

In cases where the Bookies miscalculate where the line should be due to more money being bet on one side or the other the line moves which encourages money to come in on the other side.

NONE OF THIS IS A PREDICTION OF THE SCORE OF THE GAME!!!!

Let’s hear from the 2 Bloomberg dummies, Aaron Kuriloff and Erik Matuszewski:

Las Vegas sports books are one of the few places that haven’t benefited from the Patriots’ dominance. New England has outscored opponents by an average of 20.8 points and its offense — 34 points shy of setting an NFL record for points scored in a season — has been a big draw for bettors while making it difficult for oddsmakers to accurately predict the outcome of their games.

You fucking dopes!! They are NOT trying to predict the outcome!!!!

The quote they get from the vegas bookie is priceless. The more action he gets the more money he makes. If people think he’s getting screwed, all the better. Do you think he would point this out? Of course not. So this is his quote:

“Let’s just say the public has done very well backing the Patriots,'’ said Chuck Esposito, assistant vice president of Caesar’s Race and Sports Book in Las Vegas.

Translation: “You 2 reporters are fucking morons but if you want to write an article publicizing my business and encouraging people to bet who am I to complain. Let’s just say that I’m making money hand over fist and leave it at that. Good luck with your journalism career.”

It’s time to check in on the Housing Bust. Stocky’s favorite Economist makes an appearance in a Wall St. Journal article on the “Mortgage Relief Plan”. It seems not everyone’s thrilled with the plan. Particularly people who played by the rules and don’t qualify for any help while their deadbeat neighbors look for a handout.

It’s an interesting article if you have a WSJ subscription but what really caught my eye was a quote from John Husing. He’s a previously Stocky profiled “Economist” from the “Inland Empire” section of California. Apparently one of the areas most effected by foreclosures and the Housing Bust.

Some of his quotes from my previosu post:

‘They don’t get the market,’ Redlands-based regional economist John Husing said about buyers. ‘They don’t understand it. They think prices are too high.’

…

“‘It’s fear,’ said regional economist John Husing of Redlands. ‘People just flat don’t understand this market. If you’re thinking about the biggest purchase of your life and you don’t understand it, you don’t buy.’”

Those damn buyers!!! If they weren’t so stupid we wouldn’t have this problem!!!!!

He, like a lot of “Economists” had been predicting an upturn in the market “soon”. His tune is now changing and he doesn’t see a recovery anywhere in sight.

However, the cause of the problem remains the same:

Mr. Husing is an authority on the Inland Empire, a term coined in the 1950s as the region evolved from an agriculture belt to a suburban sprawl of 48 cities, interlacing highways and grueling commutes. “My sense is that the [rescue] plan won’t help,” Mr. Husing says. “A lot of people made dumb decisions.”  

Those Godamn dumb buyers again!!!! But this time they are dumb because they DID buy. 9 months ago they were dumb because they “Think prices are too high” and were NOT buying.

John Husing. Another blowhard with a stack of degrees that I wouldn’t trust to balance my checkbook.

In that hard hitting interview with Emily Rooney the other night Gov. Do-Nothing said he had the votes right now to pass his casino plan.

Oh really? Those meanies at the Globe decided to actually check that claim out. What they found is not surprising. 

An informal Globe poll of all 19 members of the legislative committee that will consider Patrick’s proposal showed that it would probably get a negative vote that could prove difficult to overcome.

“There’s a lot of strikes against it,” said Representative Barry Finegold, a Democrat from Andover and a member of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies who does not support the governor’s plan to license three casinos.

…

Twelve members of the committee said they are inclined to vote against the proposal, unless wholesale changes are made, such as reducing the number of casinos in the plan, giving more gambling proceeds to cities and towns, or allowing the state’s racetracks to add slot machines. Three members said they are leaning in favor of the proposal. Four said they are on the fence.

So, of 19 members of the committee that has the power to kill his proposal, 3 are leaning in favor of it.

Do they teach Math at Milton Academy?

I know the Guv has been getting affirmative action handouts his whole life and has never had to play by the same rules as most people but this is ridiculous.

His entire administration is riding on these Casino’s getting built and producing the revenue he claims they will so one would think he’d have a better handle on the prospects for approval by the Legislature. A Legislature consisting almost entirely of members of his own party.

You’d also think that with the stakes so high he’d be busting his pampered ass working on getting this approved. Let’s hear  from some of his fellow Dems in the Legislature:

Patrick’s administration said it has been speaking with legislators, but most of those on the committee said they have not been contacted by the governor on the issue.

“It’s interesting to me that the governor proposed it, but he has not been crusading for it,” said Representative Ellen Story, a Democrat from Amherst who is opposed to the proposal. “He proposed it, and that was almost the end of that.”

This preening shmoe of a Governor has been handed things his whole life. Once he was plucked out of the Chicago projects, being smart + Black (not necessarily in that order) has been enough. Has he ever had to work for anything?

Once these casinos go down in flames, what then?

Despite all these obvious shortcomings, Stocky sees a bright future for our Preening Shmoe Gov Do-Nothing. Unfortunately for the Citizens of Massachusetts and the United States in general that future involves the U.S. Senate.

Could there be a more fitting job for an empty suit windbag like Deval? Forget Emily Rooney, he belongs in front of the bright lights of Tim Russerts show. He would be perfect for that. Pontificating endlessly, sanctemoniously lecturing everyone on what they need to do while never doing much of anything himself. 

Sounds a lot like the current job description for John Kerry. Or Barack Obama.

What we have is an Obama in waiting. AKA Obama Lite. 

Reach for that, Guv.

The Globe’s lazy Business reporter Steve Bailey gets the bad timing award of the week with his column today on the new Boston Fed Governor.

He sings the praises of Eric Rosengren for being the lone dissenting vote at the last FOMC meeting. Eric wanted a half percentage point cut in the rate instead of the quarter point cut we got.

The argument for the bigger rate cut is that a slowing economy is the biggest worry. The argument for a smaller rate cut is that Inflation is the biggest worry.

Bailey compares Rosengren to a previous Boston Fed governor Morris who wrongly opposed Chairman Volker for pushing up rates to stem inflation.

Keep in mind that inflation is the single biggest destroyer of wealth there is.

Bailey, sings the praises of Rosengren for standing up against Bernacke while acknowledging a previous Boston Fed Governor who did the same thing which we now know was flat out wrong.

Right on Queue we get new economic data today that the WSJ reports:

Friday’s report, particularly coming on the heels of the import price and producer price data, appears to justify the Fed’s modest rate cut — which disappointed many on Wall Street — and its decision not to cite slow growth as a bigger risk than inflation, as many analysts had thought it would.

Bailey’s new “Boston Leader” so far looks like a dolt. But in Bailey’s world doing something, anything, even if it’s wrong is to be admired:

“What I am encouraging the organization to think about as we gather the data and do the analysis,” Rosengren said, “is that the end point is not doing a working paper, the end point is not doing a speech, but having some tangible impact.”

Here in Boston, we’re forever wringing our hands about the dearth of leaders. We may have been given a good one in Eric Rosengren. Sitting atop the Boston Fed at the age of 50, the man now has a decade or more to make a real difference. What an opportunity.

What an opportunity all right. An opportunity to destroy an economy.

Emily Rooney did all of her fellow journalist’s proud by forcing Gov Do-Nothing to submit to a viscious waterboarding on her WGBH Show Greater Boston last night.

As has been documented recently, Emily is renowned as one of the toughest interviewers in the Boston Media. As John Gonzalez from Boston Magazine wrote a few months ago when talking about Emily and Jim Braude:

They have well-earned reputations as two of the toughest interviewers in town.

…

I’ve been on both your shows, and it’s not easy. Do you realize how direct you two are? It can be intimidating.

…

But when you’re trying to get information out of people, and maybe you have someone on the show who isn’t used to that style, do you ever consider easing up on the waterboarding?

Yes, take it from Johnny, that Emily is one tough bitch. So last night she has Deval Patrick on her show and opens by noting that it’s been nearly 1 year since he took office.

(Oh, this should be good, you’re thinking. Wait till she asks him what the fuck he’s been doing for a full year and why he has nothing to show for it.)

Well, first she spends 5 minutes talking about his junket to China. Then she soft peddles a question about him taking campaign contributions from the same old cronies as his Republican predecessors which the Globe recently reported on. Gov Do-Nothing can’t stumble his way to a good enough excuse so Emily chimes in with:

  “You’re not going to turn away money from groups if they haven’t done anything illegal.”

Thanks Emily. Your invitation to the Gov’s “Holiday” Party is still intact.

Then it’s on to more “waterboarding” as she prefaces a question on the Casino debacle with:

“I’m sure there are things you do every day that the public has no idea about and it’s hard to measure accomplishments …”

Yes, Emily. It’s certainly hard to measure accomlishments when there are none.

After nearly 15 minutes Emily notes that she’s almost out of time but she’ll try to “summarize” Deval’s 1st year in office. The Gov giggles at a reference to his Cadillac and gold plated drapes as Emily gets back to her “waterboarding” with this final question:

“What are some of the things that emotionally make you feel good about your leadership of this state?”

Emotionally makes him feel good??? Is this the Governor being interviewed by one of the “toughest interviewers in town” or are these 2 teenage girls talking about their boyfriends?

That’s just fucking pathetic. Can anyone imagine Mitt Romney or any Republican being asked that question?

The Great Black Hope answers by noting what a ”Great Team” he has along with some other insignificant nonsense before Emily literally teases him about his property tax relief campaign promise. Yes, Miss Waterboard finally brings up Gov Do-Nothings signature campaign promise 30 seconds before the end of a 20 minute interview. Wow. That Emily really is one tough bitch. 

And Gov Do-Nothing does not disappoint with his answer. You see, it’s all the Legislature’s fault that there has been no property tax relief. Gov Do-Nothing promises to try to get the Legislature to focus on that next year.

Not his fault. Nope. Not him. It’s that incompetent legislature. Of course “the Legislature” probably would say that there is no money available for Property tax relief. Which brings me to the single biggest lie of the Deval Patrick campaign.

He said many times that he would find $750 million of waste in the State budget and that was how he was going to fund property tax relief. Not only has he not cut state spending, the first thing he did when he took office was restore cuts that Romney made.

This guy is such a blatent lying moron that he hasn’t even appointed some phony commision charged with finding the mythical $750 million in waste. And why should he when even the “Toughest interviewer in Town”, Emily Rooney behaves like a Bill Clinton Intern instead of a journalist when she has an opportunity to hold the Governor accountable.   

This State is mind bogglingly (is that a word?) pathetic.

Todays Globe and all of Boston.com for that matter contains not a word about this person. Jeanne Assam.

Who is she? Some might find her newsworthy. She saved scores of lives yesterday. How did she do it?

With her legally owned Gun.

That’s strike 1 if you’re keeping score for the Globe.

And she praised God for giving her the strength to gun down the scumbag who was shooting up her church.

God?? Strike 2 for the Globies.

She’s a single woman, apparently not gay nor a feminist.

Steeeerike 3!!! She’s out of the paper!!!

Fortunately you can read all about Jeanne by doing a quick Google News search which as of  11:00 AM Tuesday pulls up 726 hits.

The Boston Herald does better. At least they took time out from inserting annoying ads on their web site to include a pretty long AP story which identifies Jeanne as the “security guard” who ended the carnage by shooting the gunman.

Of course any story where a Gun is used in self defense is a “non-story” as far as the Boston Globe is concerned. The Globe has a long history of ignoring those stories.

One that comes immediately to mind was a mid-day shooting in Davis Square  Sommerville. The shooting victim ran from the scene and jumped on the Subway. The Police tracked him from his blood trail and stopped the train in Cambridge, pulled him off the train and placed him under arrest.  

That sounds like a wild scene. A bleeding man running through yuppified Davis Square at 1:00 in the afternoon jumping on the T to avoid arrest. That would make a good episode of some police show.

The story was that a homeowner, home for lunch shot the perp after he broke into his house. The Perp had a history of burglaries but in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts that still meant the homeowner was held for hours of questioning before he was released.

Surprisingly, this only made Page 2 of the Boston Herald. But at least it made it into the paper. Unsurprisingly, not a word was ever written about the incident in the Boston Globe.

Law abiding citizens defending themselves with legally owned Guns does not fit the Globe’s narrative.

Gov Do-Nothing gets asked about the piss poor performance of the Commuter Rail service and responds with this, from the Sunday Dec 9th Globe:

“You haven’t heard me screaming?” Governor Deval Patrick said, only half-jokingly, when asked about the late trains during a recent news conference.

Ummm, no Gov. we haven’t heard you.

Not to worry though. Gov Do-Nothing has been screaming so no doubt long suffering commuters will get their satisfaction as the Gov cracks the whip.

Or Not.

Just in on Monday Dec 10th:

The company that runs Boston’s commuter rail service will get another three years to transport 72,000 suburbanites to their jobs every day, despite a recent spate of delays that has caused uproar among passengers.

Thanks a lot Governor!!!!!!! Good work!!!! Your screaming really helped!!!!!

Christ Almighty. This guy is a fucking disaster.

Joan Vennochi gives a nice slap to the dumb voters of Massachusetts in her Sunday Column:

BARACK OBAMA is promising to change politics as usual in America. As Massachusetts already knows, that can be one tough promise to keep.

Last year, Deval Patrick promised to do the same, when he ran for governor. Voters bought the message, making him the first Democrat in 16 years to win the corner office, and the first black candidate to do so.

What dummies we all are. Well, not Stocky. I didn’t vote for Deval but the rest of you sure are dopes.

Joan takes a small swipe at Deval later in the column:

Obama has held elective office on the state and national level, so he has much more political experience than a neophyte like Patrick.

Neophyte. Not very endeering. That Joan sure is tough on our Governor and the rubes who fell for his campaign spiel.

But what about Joan? Let’s hit the way back machine and find all those columns she wrote during the campaign warning us not to be fooled by the Great Black Hope’s Hype and accurately describing his lack of experience….

Damn. The friggin machine must be broke again. I can’t find a single Vennochi column like that. In fact, all I can find are column’s where Joan is fawning all over Deval like Bill Clinton on an intern.

Revisionist history at work in your Boston Globe. Be a Woman Joan. Admit you’re a dope too.

More on Deval:

Howie Carr takes time off from his much less listened to radio show to make a point that Stocky has been making for months:

What exactly has the guy accomplished in his first year in office?

Exactly nothing if you ask me.

Gov Do-Nothing is back from a “critical” trade mission to China where he set up an office to do who knows what. Sounds like more good jobs at good wages for Deval suckups and campaign contributers.

What a joke this guy is.

All this is detailed at devalpatrickwatch.com

The Junior Blowhard (John Kerry) from Massachusetts checks in today with a Boston Globe Op-Ed.

Planet’s fate hinges on our choices.

…

This week, Senator Barbara Boxer and I are leading a Senate delegation to Bali. We have been on the front lines of the battle to change America’s domestic policies on energy and emissions.  

…

blah, blah, blah

Of course, no word from Senator “do as I say not as I do” on what choices he’ll make to  help save the planet. 

Get back to me after you’ve done something other than preach about sacrifice you sanctemonious douchebag.