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Ottis

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Everything posted by Ottis

  1. I agree this happened, however, no matter how complicated or deceptive the pitch, the basics of a loan are X amount borrowed, at Y interest rate, over Z years, results in a payment of ______. If any of XYZ changes at any time in the loan, the question is, "How does my payment change?" And if anyone tells you something like, "Your house will be worth so much more in the future, you'll be able to afford it," and you believe it, that's on you. This is basic finance. Poor loans wouldn't be sold if consumers recognized they were not a good deal and refused them. Consumers got greedy, and were already ignorant (and sometimes stupid), and that enabled the lenders.
  2. ON NPR this morning, they cited Larry's trouble connecting with millennials as the main reason for cancellation. Aren't millennials supposed to be all multi-cultural? The citation may have been to CC execs, it wasn't clear in what I could hear.
  3. If that part of the population doesn't care enough to understand the basics of a loan, why is that predatory lending? if you are borrowing money, the very thing you are doing is borrowing X for Y amount of time time at an interest rate of Z, which results in a payment. When any of XYZ change, then the payment will change. That's not fine print. That's the basics of a loan. You don't have to be sophisticated to understand that. You have to have the discipline to not borrow more than you can afford. THAT is the problem in the vast majority of these loans, IMO. I'm an independent politically and have lots of issues with conservatives (most of them social), but I get it when they say some people who make poor decisions are getting bailed out and everyone else has to pay for it.
  4. Pretty much. The assumption here in the US is that you need a car to get around in all but the biggest cities. The handful of places who have public transportation talk about how helpful it is. The vast majority of places don't offer much, or offer a hodge-podge of bus/train combinations. IMO, we shoot ourselves in the foot a lot. Like with Amtrak, our (sort of) national rail system, which takes 24 hours or more to cover a distance you can cover in 12 hours or less in a car, because there are a ridiculous number of stops because Americans won't stand for driving 2 hours to the train station.
  5. I continue to fast-forward through any scene featuring Molly, stopping only once or twice to hear a summary line. I had thought Sammy grew up during the rebellion, fighting alongside others, but he seems to have been reset to his prior idiot self. There is absolutely zero chemistry between Leila and the general. Barry's actions in this episode provided a clear link to what happened in the past when his father rules. it's easy to go from the democracy guy to cracking down when people you know are targeted. Between that and the amam guy who preached peace almost being killed, it makes me wonder if this show is saying that Barry's father was right. Force is needed to defeat those who use terror. Though Leila seems to have a better perspective.
  6. I watched the show for the first 3-4 months. Liked it initially, but as the panels became more and more left, sometimes with a token dissenter, I stopped. TLWS, like TDS, is best when it pokes fun at all sides, not when it takes one side. That's why I stopped watching TDS during JS's last two years, and dropped it with Trevor after a month.
  7. I tried to find the part where Oliver offered an alternative, did he? I missed the last couple of minutes. There is nothing mysterious or "unfair" about subprime loans, given the current American capitalist system. People who are high risk are charged higher interest rates ... because they are high risk. If they think the rates are too high, don't take out a subprime loan and find an alternative (bike, public transportation, a family or friend, car pool, etc.). There are *wider* issues around people finding jobs that pay enough to afford various transportation options. And around the number of jobs themselves. But neither has anything to do with subprime loans. Your only alternative is for someone (the government?) to decide what the rates should be, thereby determining the level of risk to the lender. If the risk is deemed too high, the lender will leave that market, and there will be one less option (however expensive) than there was before. You can take a step back and say that from a human perspective, we as a society ought to offer an affordable transportation option for people who can't afford a car. But that, like a mandated higher minimum wage, is a different discussion than railing against subprime lending. This video reminds me of all the "predatory lending" claims after the mortgage bubble burst. The government forced lenders to loosen lending rules so more people could buy homes, and then many of those people bought homes they had no business buying given their income. And then they bailed on them. That wasn't predatory, that was poor decision making by buyers. You can't win with this kind of issue. No universal solution is free, and if you start charging for it so that it is sustainable, then you are accused of being predatory.
  8. Molly is, and always has been, useless. Sammy was except for his resistance work. Have them join Emma. How do you attack a terrorist camp without knowing that your main target is still there? Killing Jamal was a mistake. This should have always been about he brothers, the Arab family and the culture clash. The Americans should have remained simply an anchor to Barry's other life that would eventually be shed. After Molly slapped the maid, I wondered if the maid would run for president.
  9. ON 7/22/2016 AT 4:05 PM, CHESSIEGAL SAID: "Re: young folks buying expensive houses. We sold our last house for $650K to 20 somethings - she had just finished residency at Georgetown Hospital and had a job at NIH. He was a sales rep for IBM. Between the 2 of them, they were pulling down over $300K/year. They had plenty of money for a down payment, even had the original hardwoods redone before they moved in. Location and jobs - makes a difference." "Yes, that's why it doesn't phase me. Lots of DINK's twentysomethings in NYC, where both have six figure incomes." Clearly people who live in very expensive cities tend to have higher incomes, and therefore can afford more (though what they can buy for that more is less than what it buys in other places). But many of these 20 and 30 somethings buying $500K homes are not in just NY and California. It's Texas, it's the Carolinas, etc. And some have jobs like "IT support" or "marketing manager.' I want to know how they do it. There's a reason so many HH:International people are in finance; those jobs pay a lot. But some of these others ... one episode they were a firefighter and a teacher or some such. I don't get it.
  10. 30 minutes is too short for this show. Every episode feels like we spend 90 seconds with any character who isn't Joe and The Rock, and it all seems so incomplete. And what happened to the guy who was trying a comeback? Did he succeed? He must have played, didn't he? It seems now like he isn't as good as he was (slower and more expensive), so they want to move him and now he balks after they took a risk for him to come back? His story should be one of the strongest, but hearing about it 30 seconds at a time really makes it choppy.
  11. The show should have indicated she had been talked to about this before and ignored it. Maybe the old principal explicitly allowed it, we and the new principal don't know. Without that happening, the firing was pretty sudden. I FF'd through the house stuff. That was too far. And not funny. And the end was just stupid. This only ends well with an East Bound and Down serendipity at the last second.
  12. I haven't ever seen her be funny, so she was true to form for me. Alec seemed to have dropped his standing Tony Bennett impression as host in this episode. I wonder why? He seemed much more like Alec and not Tony. This panel was generally boring. And I am so glad and proud that me and the two African America panelists said chocolate "thunder." Pretty fly for a white guy.
  13. So Durant gives a "you can't handle the truth!" speech. Ok, I guess. And we know later he is wandering New York penniless. So he either escapes jail or gets out. OK ending. Wish more of the show the past two seasons was like the past two episodes. The first two seasons, Common's arc and then the last 2-3 episodes of season 5 were the best parts. In the middle was some odd, Dr. Quinn stuff. I will miss the show, tho, because it felt real. Kind of like Fargo makes me feel cold when I watch that series.
  14. Jeez. There are many people of color characters on this show, not sure any are black but if one is then more are. Cockroach meant he keeps turning up and won't die. Don't care about anything with Molly. Or Emma really. Can't this show be about the country and the leaders and not a bunch of Americans who shouldn't even be there?
  15. I am almost officially over this show. Don't care what happens to the people who crashed society or crazy drug users. Give me someone to care about.
  16. Agree. The beach was completely empty each time they showed it. Odd? The dad had emotional ties to that location so it seemed predestined they would end up there. Was kind of curious if the teen daughter was expected to stay in the same room with the teen boys. That wouldn't fly at our house.
  17. "Important" on a message board is relative, however, I sure want to know how they are doing it. Financial planning is my hobby. I've worked steadily for 30 years, have saved 15-20% of my income annually and have a very good salary, and I couldn't/wouldn't afford a $750k house. How can they? And they are often 15-20 years younger than me. Are they simply financially reckless (i.e., paying interest only), financially stupid/entitled or have they somehow run into or earned a lot of money at that young age? I want to know if we are watching budding geniuses or the next generation to default on a mortgage and claim "predatory lending." Maybe in some areas of the country, it's 50-year loans, like Japan. Maybe people live in hock to their eyeballs because that's what you have to do in the most expensive US cities. I want to know, dang it!
  18. I actually found Goggins difficult to watch, maybe because I keep seeing his role in Sons of Anarchy (that was him, right?). McBride acts like a PE teacher and Goggins acts like a French teacher. Seeing either as AP is difficult; no wonder the school board brought in someone else as principal. I just wish the principal was less susceptible to Goggins' ploys, and called him on it. Not sure about this one. The best parts were with McBride's life outside of the school. I'll give it a few more eps.
  19. Come on, that's how you know it's a beach. What I want to know is, why always just the butt (of women or men)? Does that allow them to avoid model release forms vs. shooting from the front?
  20. Our guess was that the oft-mentioned "up to $20 million" in financing fell through, or was never real. Their goals were unclear. As someone else posted, you want a nice place for fundraising AND a place for kids to run around? There are far cheaper ways to find a place (or more than one place) than to buy an island. Good to see John Amos, though. I thought he had passed. we still watch reruns of GTs.
  21. Finally watched this ep. Leslie needs to be permanent, as well as Rosie (as a calmer anchor). None of the men have stood out to me, yet. Leslie took the show to a whole different level of funniness.
  22. What a difference a year makes. Now all the anti-Wall Street/e-Corp people seem like Bernie supporters. Why does it feel like you made things worse? Because you did. What was the point? This ep I kept wandering off to do quick chores. Just didn't keep my attention.
  23. True, but my recollection (which could be wrong, I was a kid) was that the panel would stay the same for a while before they would switch out a few of the panelists. It didn't change every week. Or did it? Nipsy Russell for Life.
  24. Alec is definitely channeling his SNL Tony Bennett impersonation, which makes his hosting even more amusing. I liked how the celebrity panel seemed to be relaxing, drinking and bonding in episode 2, but if they keep changing the panel, the chemistry will never completely gel. Ana seems like the smart girl who is trying to dumb down to be popular. And I always hear the ghost of CNR when I watch this show.
  25. I try to enjoy this show, but the insipidness of the answers from whoever the 100 people are, coupled with the dumbing down of the questions for the celebrity version (name a color on a traffic light?), just causes me too much annoyance. I've lost count of how many ridiculous answers are on the board while reasonable ones are not. They need a new way of getting their answers. Ask 100 people on a college campus? Ask 100 people at NASA? Something.
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