More Stimulus Ideas From The Wealth Transfer Party

Another whiz-bang stimulus idea from Team Obama:

The Obama administration is considering further actions to strengthen the housing market, but the bar is high: plans must help a broad swath of homeowners, stimulate the economy and cost next to nothing.

One proposal would allow millions of homeowners with government-backed mortgages to refinance them at today’s lower interest rates, about 4 percent, according to two people briefed on the administration’s discussions who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to talk about the information.

A wave of refinancing could be a strong stimulus to the economy, because it would lower consumers’ mortgage bills right away and allow them to spend elsewhere. But such a sweeping change could face opposition from the regulator who oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and from investors in government-backed mortgage bonds.

Well, yes.  The people paying the mortgages will pay less; the people holding the mortgages will receive less.  If Warren Buffet is the sole holder, then he will surely support this, since it is sort of like increasing his taxes and certainly represents an opportunity for him to sacrifice. 

On the other hand, if the bondholders include the elderly and retired (by way of mutual funds or under-funded pension funds), maybe cutting their income is not such a grand idea. 

As to why granny should switch to cat food so that some yuppie lawyer can hang on to the house that was bigger than he could afford, well - a friend of mine used to call the Democrats the party of random wealth transfers.  I was never convinced that "random" was the precise word.  Their intention is always to soak the rich and help their current notion of the deserving, and there is often some overlap between their target zone and their drop zone.

Still, this latest notion is just one more example of capricious rule changes during the game.  How it will help investor confidence is beyond me.

Comments

[NK]

Tom-- you're waaaaay too polite. This is yet another Team Obama trial balloon to snare some Indy votes -- from someone, somewhere -- to improve his LOUSY re-election chances. There's no logic to any of this, no justice, no equity (pun intended)-- this is just raw politics. He's treating mortgage instruments like a Southside Chi Town Ward Leader uses "walkin' around" money. He's disgusting.

[Danube of Thought]

They've gone mad.

[Lord Whorfin says drill baby drill]

Grasping at strawmen. Expect another one next week.

[Pops]

Thank God for the Virginia Earthquake and Hurrican Irene...now Obama and his lackeys have two more reasons why the economy hasn't improved!!

[Lord Whorfin says drill baby drill]

"according to two people briefed on the administration’s discussions who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to talk about the information."

Then why are they talking about it?? Inquiring minds want to know.

[Pops]

I've been thinking that Boehner ought to start the BUFFETT BILL.

Why raise Warren Buffetts taxes when we can just not fund things and send the bill to him?

Want to study toads semen in Arizona? Put it in the Buffett Bill!

Want to study prostitute condom preferences? Put it in the Buffett Bill!

Want to pay an artist to pee in a bottle with a Crucifix? Put it in the Buffett Bill.

Boehner should wrap all those great governbment spending items into one nice bill with a good, say, 1 Billion dollar price tag and mail it to Mr. Buffett.

Dear Warren,
Sorry to have coddled you so long, attach is the list of things to pay with your fare share and the names and addresses to write the checks. Please provide us monthly udates on these projects progress and potential spending overruns that you can cover.

The Buffett Bill could become the Quarterly press conference where Boehner points out all the waste and buffoonery that goes on when spending other peoples money.

Keep the toad semen as our token gift for your generosity.

[Pops]

We should see nationwide TV ads now showing how Obama KILLED private sector jobs.

(National Review Online, Grace-Marie Turner

"The conclusion is inescapable that Obamacare is killing job creation and smothering the recovery, and now the Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk has produced a study that clearly shows the correlation.

He compared job growth before and after the health overhaul law passed in March of 2010 and finds that it basically flatlined after the law was signed.

Before Obamacare passed, the number of new jobs was soaring. Private-sector job creation had improved by an average of nearly 68,000 a month in the 15 months before April 2010. But in the 15 months since then, it has slowed to an average of 6,500 a month, a ten-fold drop.
""

Why isn't this on the lips of every Republican in every interview!!

[daddy]

On a 10 Million dollar TaxPayer Junket,
Malia $ Sasha rode a Yacht to Nantucket...
...

Limerick Time:)

[steve]

"A wave of refinancing could be a strong stimulus to the economy, because it would lower consumers’ mortgage bills right away and allow them to spend elsewhere"

Yet, no more dollars are being spent, they're merely being shifted from one pocket to another. So how does this boost the economy?

Another point: presumably, homeowners with good credit and non-underwater houses have already refinanced and are paying something close to 4%. Thus, the only beneficiaries of this proposal are those with bad credit and/or those with underwater homes who can't refinance. To the former, why expect them to be any better at paying their bills? And for the latter, while they would get a lower interest rate, they'd owe the same amount of principal, how excited are they going to be to keep making payments on a house in which they have - and will have - no equity?

I've got a better stimulus idea. Take everybody who isn't making their payments and evict them. Sell the house at whatever the FMV to someone else, who will spend money fixing it up. Yes, the current homeowner gets out of their mortgage, but practically, what is the likelihood they'd ever have paid off what they owe?

[steve]

Pops: if we saw more of that, perhaps more people would blame Obama and the Democrats than is currently the case.

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Zero to resign]

I see this plan as killing a couple of birds with one rock. Underwater homeowners will, err, happily? refinance their homes at 4%, without realizing that no one legally owns the paper on their home anyway. The banksters get new legal paper, for the minor hit of maybe a couple points of interest, instead of the major crash that could occur if the MERS mess ever got traction.

[GMAX]

Well there is the small matter of closing costs, and unless FNMA and FHLMC intend to waive title insurance and all of those ancillary fees, the underwater homeowner is going to be further underwater for a small reduction in their payment. That is unless you and I are going to eat all those fees and title insurance costs...

[NK]

Steve-- there you go again talking facts-- this has nothing to do with facts, it's ugly vote buying;

Bill in AZ -- the Banks are buying their get out of MERS Jail for $___ Billion Card in the deal with Obama/State AGs. BTW- pretty hilarious how Obama threw left-wing NYS AG Schneiderman under the bus for refusing to go along with lawsuit immunity for BOA/JP MorganChase. Cronyism and vote buying left and right. As I said Obama is just disgusting.

[daddy]

Jim's link to the Cern story on the previous thread: CERN: 'Climate models will need to be substantially revised', prompted this thought:

Look at the new variables contributing to and/or responsible for Global Climate Change that the "Settled Science" was unaware of just last week:

1) Cern: "provides support for a "heliocentric" rather than "anthropogenic" approach to climate change"...cosmic rays significantly enhance the formation of aerosol particles in the mid troposphere and above. These aerosols can eventually grow into the seeds for clouds. However, we've found that the vapours previously thought to account for all aerosol formation in the lower atmosphere can only account for a small fraction of the observations"

2) Scientific American: A newly discovered deep, cold current flowing off Iceland's coast may reveal that the North Atlantic is less sensitive to climate change than previously thought

3) BBC: Satellite photos reveal that huge Antarctic Icebergs last March were actually created by the Fukushima Earthquake, 13,000 Kilometers away

4) Scientists find underground river beneath Amazon: "scientists have discovered an underground river some 4,000 meters (13,000) feet deep, which flows from west to east like the country's famous waterway...The underground river flows at a far slower pace and empties into the ocean deep underground. It is likely that this river is responsible for the low level of salinity in the waters around the mouth of the Amazon."

That's just this week.

Can you imagine what new stuff we'll know about the "Settled Science" of Climate Change by Labor Day?

[Jack is Back!]

I still ask why we can't change the name of the Democrat party to the Dependency party. They keep the D for abbreviations, like in Barney Frank (D-MA). And the Republican party becomes the Responsibility party, or if you are a Dependency party apparatchik or the New York Times, the Refusal party. Doesn't it really make it a lot simpler to understand what each stands for that way?

[Soylent Red]

Virginia Earthquake

Bush's Fault

Thus, the only beneficiaries of this proposal are those with bad credit and/or those with underwater homes who can't refinance.

Eeyup. This is bank shot redistribution.

Any guesses how long it will take for a government backed refinance plan to start having quotas and targeted areas?

With the current crew, I wouldn't be surprised to see that kind of central planning put right into the batter.

On the plus side, millions of jobs shuffling paperwork and composing emails in gubmint cube farms will be created. And, at least for a short period of time deadbeat dirtbags can continue to have a place to lay their heads after a long day of protesting the coming retraction of gubmint largesse.

[centralcal]

Pops! Your idea is just genius! Contact Boehner's office at once!

[Captain Hate]

Why isn't this on the lips of every Republican in every interview!!

The Duke & Duke How-To library, including Message Coordination, was unfortunately in the Beta format and inaccessible once all the few existing machines that would play those wonderful cassettes expired. Their crack technical team is still trying to master the intricacies of floppy discs so expecting any sort of future coordination (assuming that's possible) is at least a decade away.

[MarkO]

If we can't beat these guys, we deserve them.

Doom.

By the way, stating the first line of a limerick is like getting the first move in tic-tac-toe.

What if they met with a bear?

[Jim Ryan]

Malia & Sasha rode a Yacht to Nantucket
While their dad got a bill and then stuck it
Right on their credit card
Four trillion bucks
"Not my problem," he said. "[REDACTED]."

[daddy]

It's not quite as brilliant an idea as Pop's, but this very instant Dan Akroyd is on the Dennis Miller Show pushing his new Product, Chrystal Head Vodka.

Made from Neufoundland water and being Kosher, Dan tells us in that marvelous Super Bassomatic 76 delivery of his that his potent yet marvelous vodka is placed in a replica of the sacred crystal skull discovered in some Mayan Tomb in the Yucatan.

Spirit, errr Ghost Buster number 3 sez "Check it out."

I love the Dennis Miller Show.

[Who's been eating my porridge?]

What if they met with a bear,
Disturbed him right out of his lair.
Refinance that cave,
The economy we'll save.
Auburn locks combed in his hair.
====================

[Jack is Back!]

daddy,

Sounds great. If its Newfie its worth a try.

Give you some idea of Irene. We are 200 miles north of her and she is a further 250 miles east of us. But we have 16 to 20' surf and 25 to 30mph winds. Imagine what it will be like if you are in its direct path.

Stay safe, be smart, east coast.

[centralcal]

hhhmmm daddy! I can totally see DoT trying out Crystal Head right before tilting swords with BF here.

[centralcal]

Yeah, folks - any of you in harm's way of Irene? Janet? Clarice?

[matt]

The kids took a boat to Nantucket
While Michelle blew the government budget
On clothes fancy parties and junkets

When told we were broke
Barack finally spoke
and said "Folks don't worry, we'll fudge it"

[MarkO]

Personally, I have never seen a clean limerick until today. Come on, man.

[Extraneus]

From the discussion in the other thread, I've been reading her for weeks, and I too wondered why Tina Korbe is being featured at HotAir. I think I figured it out.

[matt]

who is Tina Korbe and why does she have that insouciant smile?

[If I have seen fur, it is because I stand on the shoulders of cats and dogs. Feathers are yet another thing.]

Malia and Sasha went to sea
In a beautiful tax green boat.
They sailed away for a week and a day
To the land where the hurricanes bay.
================

[Extraneus]

She's a new blogger at HotAir, matt. Apparently they passed up a lot of other bloggers to give her the spot, and people here were wondering why.

Sorry for the big pic, btw, but that's the way it came out.

[PaulL]

Yes, Pops, the Buffett bill idea is great.

[centralcal]

Well, Kim if you're picking Lear poems to re-write how about:

The Jumblies Obamas

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!

[Bear with me, MarkO. Obama is to the economy like pantyhose is to foreplay. I wish I'd said that.]

Off on a trip to Nantucket
Pa found a hole in his bucket.
Fix it Michelle.
Why, you go to Hell!
Innocents afloat, so chuck it.
============

[Ranger]

I think Pops is thinking too small by just targeting Buffett. All the high rollers who backed Obama should be included. I would call it the "Paying America Back Act." The kind of things that could be included in the "PAB fund" are stuff like extended unemployment benifits. Anyone thats been out of work for more that 2 years should have their extended unemployment funded by the Obama Billionairs Club.

[Extraneus]

Two girls sailed a boat to Nantucket
And spent the day shopping for clothes.

With Coast Guard in tow,
On taxpayer dough,
That none but a skinflint opposed.

[Cecil Turner]

A ten million trip to Nantucket,
Pappy Obama said: "F!@# it;
My babies are cute,
I'm holding the loot,
And besides, it's a drop in the bucket."

[Barbara-Lurking]

While her girls spent the day on Nantucket,
Michelle continued her junket.
She shopped for more frocks,
Boob-belts and smocks,
Stripping even the malls of Pawtucket.

[Chris]

this reads like a stealth bank bailout/Stimulus II. the Bernank will have a difficult time if he fires up the presses and everyone knows it. this fires up the presses/bails out the banks (mark to market) in one fell swoop. Presumably, with congressional approval.

Somewhat related and a depressing read;
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/wolf-sheeps-clothing

[Gmax]

Bernanke has a revolt on his hands for a QE 3. Richard Fisher is off the reservations as are at least three other voting members. Two more defections and he cant get anything through, and I think the conversations have been had offline that the votes are against, at least today. So he will dance and say very little of substance.

[u]

Getting the first squalls of rain. Winds at 30mph. And we are 250 miles west of the eye. Be safe, be sure and be smart, east coast. Give you guys some idea, we are 85 miles south of Jacksonville.

[u]

SKINS!

[sbw]

A democrat politician called me today about a story we didn't publish. It was old and not newsworthy but another newspaper had.

Near the end he called me a "Conservative." I said:

"Not in the least. I'm liberal. most who call themselves liberal nowadays are reactionary:
--Progressive in the worst sense of the term,
--Clinging to the hope larger centralized government will work when it never has,
--Opposed to commercial markets that have brought a better quality of life to more people than their socialist programs ever have.
"No, I'm the liberal. You just call yourself one."

The heck with RINOs and DINOs ... It's LINOs who need to get the message.

[Narciso]

She's a former miss Arkansas, or something of that nature. The most recent reason I was a little annoyed with her today , was very Parkeresque entry.

[Army of Davids]

Thomas Donahue, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on the mandates, taxes, uncertainties and regulations put upon Main Street business by ObamaCare...

"it's a job killer"

[sbw]

Re: Buffett

Emerson: "The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons."

[Pops]

He attacks the rich from Nantucket.
While calling on friends like Warren Buffett.
He claims he has money he don't need;
but with the girls he did plead;
not to share this wealth with Pawtucket.

[Captain Hate]

The Obamas are out in Nantucket
A typically overpriced junket
The taxpayers pay
And can't say "No way"
Next November will all tell them "Suck it"

[Extraneus]

Stripping even the malls of Pawtucket.

Winner!

[u]

SKINS.

[Pops]

It would be nice if someone in the media asked the Obama adminsitration:

Why do you claim you can blame the Congress for not getting things done and at the same time take credit for fighting a 7 month war to overthrow a country and you never required anything from Congress?

[Captain Hate]

u, do we have another Redskins fan here; who are currently beating the shitbirds 14 - Zippo?

[Janet]

She shopped for more frocks,
Boob-belts and smocks,

LOL!

[Rick Ballard]

Gmax,

Hoenig is publicly tossing in with Fisher, Plosser and Kocherlakota.

It really does appear that Mad Ben will be gelded and turned out to pasture.

[Biff Winchester III]

I like Obama's plan. I pay less in mortgage interest and more of America hates Obama. Win, win.

[Janet]

The O girls were out for a row,
The row cost us citizens dough.
"The dough has run out!"
The citizens shout,
But DOTUS just yearned for some blow.

[Gmax]

Rick

I had not seen that preemptive announcement of today, but was going off statements that they had made previously. I think there are more that are reluctant to speak up but will not authorize inflationary QE at least as long as things are muddling along.

Sucks for Zero, but if we are lucky we will avoid needing a wheelbarrow just to go to the corner grocery.

[Jack is Back!]

CH,

Its me, JiB. I have no idea how my N ended u as "u" but the Skins, even in preseason form, have reverted back to regular season form. Not a good sign,

[Janet]

Did anyone else post that today is Sue's Birthday? Happy Birthday, Sue!!!

[PD]

Escorted my sweetie to the hospital today for her colonoscopy (all was okay). When she woke up in the recovery room afterward, she said that when they wheeled her through the big doors into the procedure room, she thought of Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green.

I told her she should have had her iPod playing Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony!

[Jack is Back!]

Oooh, Big Bad Ben talks to Congress but the only guy listening is Perry. And every wag is hanging on his opinion of Ben, no one else. Keep talking Ben, and keep holding hearings, Congress. Rick will love you forever.

[centralcal]

Woo Hoo, a great big Texas Happy Birthday to our gal, Sue!!!!

[hit and run]

Sue's birthday today? The List is dumbfounded to be on the outside looking in.

And yet....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUE!!!!

You're my favorite Cowboy fan.

[Clarice]

HB, Sue!!!

[MayBee]

Happy birthday to Sue. The girl I adore even though she is naturally skinny.

xooxox

[PD]

Happy Birthday, Sue y'all!

[PD]

Tying run at the plate!

(PA, LLWS)

[PD]

What kind of wimpy swing is that?

[Danube of Thought]

I'm watching the Skins/Ravens tiff on tivo delay, and where I am it's 7-0 Skins.

Doesn't matter. By now Skins fans have experienced the same chilling sensation Clippers fans felt many years ago: as long as this buffoon owns the team we will never win anything, and there's no way we can get rid of him.

Raiders fans know the same thing now, as do Bengals fans: you will always be losers until your team's owner decides to sell, and there's nothing you can do to hasten that day.

[PD]

Over. CA wins.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Rick-

I think the votes will be there.

And this mortgage gambit is just a dodge around the failing 50 State's AGs' Grand Agreement negotiations, because if they fail, the players in this Admin, and others, will be exposed as complicit.

This subject has been pushed to the front burner because of this eeentsy-weeentsy little court admission.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Happy Birthday, Sue!

[PD]

Time to ask whether Mo' "Days, Not Weeks" Khaddafi is out yet. Or is he still hanging in there?

[sue]

Thanks. 39 isn't that bad.

[hit and run]

Especially not when you look 29.

[Captain Hate]

Raiders fans know the same thing now, as do Bengals fans: you will always be losers until your team's owner decides to sell, and there's nothing you can do to hasten that day.

I doubt if either of them will sell; fortunately for the Black Hole denizens, Alice Davis looks overdue for his meeting with the Grim Reaper. I think Alice first started losing it when he had that little tiff with Marcus Allen, which had everybody thinking WTF. That was a looooong time ago and the most recent embarrassment was when he refused to honor the contract of Lane Kiffen, accomplishing the impossible by making him an object of sympathy outside the state of Tennessee.

I don't know if I've written about Mike Brown here before (apologies for this tirade if I did) but he gets a small vote of sympathy for having been Paul Brown's son, which couldn't have been easy. PB was quite the innovator and might be the only enneffell person deserving of the term "genius" (although maybe not). But he was losing it badly by the time Modell canned him, which was handled extremely poorly by a putz like Art (who also fired Belichick; what a record as an owner to fire 2 HOF head coaches). As a sign of how badly he was losing it, no other team picked him up at a time when the existence of the AFL put head coaches at a premium. Also PB was quite the prick to his "best friend" Blanton Collier who took over for him by never talking to him again; as if Collier was supposed to just sit around with Paul and listen to him bitch about how dumb everybody else in the league was and have no income. Instead Collier won the last championship by a major professional team in Cleveland. So instead of having Collier to bitch to about what stupid SOBs were in the NFL, I'm sure Mike Brown got an earful.

The league actually played nice-nice to compensate for Modell's boorish behavior by giving Brown a franchise in Cincy. He did a good job of making it good but, like the Browns after Otto Graham retired, couldn't get them over the hump. He then administered a major screw job by passing over Bill Walsh to replace him at head coach for the great Bill "Tiger" Johnson, because he knew he couldn't control a budding strong-willed visionary like Walsh. Walsh talked about his disappointment at some length in an interview with Costas. It was a move that paved the future for the 49ers and sent the Bengals spinning down the toilet, which they haven't emerged from since.

The end of last season was painful to watch all the way across the state in Cleveland as the team completely quit on Marvin Lewis and Brown didn't do a damn thing to put him out of his misery. If Goodell wasn't such an empty suit, he'd have been burning up the phone lines to Brown telling him to fire Lewis while honoring his contract and name an interim coach to give the fans some indication that somebody is doing something, or he could forget about ever getting a fair shake from the zebras for at least a decade. That would've required having a commissioner that cares about the integrity of the game instead of shilling for two extra games to further wear out players in the sport that has the shortest average careers of all the major sports.

I think compared to those two that Danny comes out ahead; in Shanny he has somebody that can put a good program together and Snyder seems to be giving him more autonomy that his predecessors had. He might pull the rug out eventually but I like the Skins offseason moves for a change.

[Captain Hate]

I have no idea how my N ended u as "u" but the Skins, even in preseason form, have reverted back to regular season form. Not a good sign,

This is a rebuilding year in which they cleared out a lot of dead wood. I'm expecting some young talent to emerge over the course of the season but I can't expect anything more than around .500. And if they go deep in the toilet it just increases their chances for Oliver Luck.

[Ignatz]

--Thanks. 39 isn't that bad.--

HB Sue. If you're 39, just like Jack Benny, does that mean you were born in 1894 too? :)
[Note the smile please.]

[sue]

iggy

Jack and I have a lot in common. That's all I'm admitting.

[sue]

hit

Exactly

[sue]

Irene is looking scary.

[Ignatz]

--Jack and I have a lot in common. That's all I'm admitting.--

That's good enough for me Sue; he was a genius IMO.
I've watched George Washington Slept Here about 10 times.

[Captain Hate]

Happy birthday Sue, from a true Mavs fan.

[Ignatz]

And To Be or Not To Be about 15.

[Porchlight]

Happy birthday to Sue! Gorgeous at any age.

[Walter]

Happy Birthday, Sue!

You're not only my favorite Cowbows fan, you are the only friend I admit to with that affliction.

[Ignatz]

--This subject has been pushed to the front burner because of this eeentsy-weeentsy little court admission.--

I'm not sure that Yves is necessarily correct on what she thinks that means, Mel.
It sounds to me as though they claim to be memorializing [recording] a transfer which already took place.
A deed or transfer need not be recorded to be legal, so if the mortgage was transferred to the trust but because of MERS or for whatever reason it was not recorded then I don't see some huge admission here.
If it was never transferred at all until the memorialization then yeah, there's probably a big problem.

[sue]

Who all will be impacted by irene?

[bgates]

Happy birthday, Sue! It rained in central Florida today, does that count?

[Captain Hate]

Who all will be impacted by irene?

My hatettes, S-I-L, grandson and brother

[MarkO]

No way. Happy Birthday, Sue.

[glenda]

Happy Birthday Sue!

from your fellow naturally fat Texan..

[sue]

I'm hoping the weather channel is hyperventilating over nothing.

[jimmyk]

Who all will be impacted by irene?

I've become a bit cynical about all the hysterics over storms that usually don't end up being that big a deal. Bloomberg is talking about preemptively shutting down the entire NYC public transportation system Saturday night--subways and buses--and closing bridges. And that's if the winds reach 39 MPH. That in itself will cause complete chaos.

At the moment we're in the Adirondacks, planning to drive back to NYC on Sunday, but realizing we may have to wait till Monday morning.

[glenda]

pfft..preview is your friend.. phone rang and scared the bejewels out of me..and I messed up my subject, predicate and adjective..anyhoo - enjoy what's left of your day, sue!

[sue]

Thanks everyone.
Its been a good day to turn 39 one more time.

[glenda]

the last big hurricane was Ike, which passed@ 10 miles from here by Galveston Bay. All h-canes are dangerous and leave damage..hoping all along the east coast stay safe and dry.

[Threadkiller]

Happy Birthday Sue!

"The O girls were out for a row,
The row cost us citizens dough.
"The dough has run out!"
The citizens shout,
But DOTUS just yearned for some blow.

Hahahahahahaha!

Janet, I will sit out this Limerick competition. That is a winner!

[Captain Hate]

I've become a bit cynical about all the hysterics over storms that usually don't end up being that big a deal.

There was a purportedly big one that was supposed to hit Ocean City, Md in 94 (I can remember it because it was a trip for my daughter's birthday with a friend and I saw Danny Gatton in a small club shortly before he committed suicide) and some storm in late August was supposed to hit and my brother found a friend's place for the kids and me to stay on the other side of the bay in OC. My brother stayed and it turned out to be nothing. This time he's worried about getting smacked so we'll see.

[MaryW]

2 sons, dil and granddaughter here in Richmond. 1 son in NYC. 2 nieces in DC. Aunt and Uncle in Williamsburg.

It is said thing happen in threes. What should we expect next? Earthquake, hurricane. I am wondering what happens next week.