Closures, and Drug Busts, and Suicides, OH MY.

A lot of people wonder why, after the business of Bend RE has finally begun its Great Implosion, why would I or anyone want to remain anonymous? Why not come out of the proverbial closet, and say who I am. Even BendBB? Who is he?

Well, we found out this week. People in Bend take their real estate seriously. Real serious. Dead serious. People around here will KILL when RE deals go South on them.

I don't know who this Jay Audia guy is, but he swooped in on what is now the Mirada parcel, bought it at a pretty good discount, and was going to make low-end laborer shacks. We've talked about this in the past actually. I've actually put pictures of Mirada right here in this blog.

Apparently Mirada, at steep land price discounts, still did not work out. And this Audia guy took it to heart. Too bad. But it illustrates a point. From the comments:

I have to conclude you don't know what your talking about when you're talking about SF. I think it has more to do with your propensity toward creating artificial stereotypes and projecting your bottomless hatred at them. Sorry, but it ain't reality. Personally, I hate SF. But it is quite sound economically. It is an endless fountain of endless 100K + jobs. If you don't make that in SF, you don't even exist or must have no motivation whatsoever. There is so much money there I don't think you can fathom it.

And another:

You're right the Cali-banger isn't a real person. It's a meaningless stereotype used to make you feel better about not taking responsibility for the conditions in your own community.

Hmmm. People have a passion about it. An irrational passion. They'll kill over it. Themselves when necessary.

They'll accuse me of hate crimes of a sort. "Bottomless hatred". Can't even see the forest for the trees anymore. Mention "Cali-Banger", and they go into attack mode, can't even think straight. Buster said what I couldn't:

The cali is a very real person. They can be seen speeding through Bend round-abouts daily. They can be seen by their car, they can be seen by their dress.
...
A cali is a fucking disease, and is a real person. HOMER trys to call the whole USA cali-ism, but cali is really about california, and what it does to people, and the kind of people who leave the east-coast and come to cali, and then migrate north.

Florida has its own breed, and in general the east-coast are all mother fuckers, classic americans, in the sense of complete fucking dog-eat-dog americanism. I concur with homee that mid-west is the salt of the earth, but that don't mean they'll inherit the earth, history shows the meanest junk-yard always wins.

The bible is full of fucking shit, about the meek inheriting anything. The law of the jungle is the jungle-law. The USA will continue to rape and pillage the world,, and the citizens of the USA will continue to rape and pillage one another. Cali-ism, or its particular type of consumerism, is of course non-sustainable.

Our current post 1998 cycle, where they could sell the $1M, and come to Bend and buy 1/2M, and live off the other 1/2M is OVER. No more perpetual money machine in Bend. The cali lifestyle and visible wealth will go the way of the do-do, just like visible wealth post-depression.

They are real, they walk the streets here thicker than the indigenous Original Bendites. They are easy to spot. They just have the most severe case of some sort of disease that is creeping across this country.

And it's so subtle, it's hard to catch it anymore. It's ubiquitous. My least favorite commercial is by American Express. It's supposedly narrated by a series of telephone operators who tell these Amex Success Stories. A man buys a diamond ring, but is approached STERNLY and is told, "There's a problem". A couple wants tickets to a show and some Amex phone operator weasels tickets for them. Another is what appears to be a ridiculously expensive restaurant.

It GLORIFIES excess consumption. It's so over the top, it makes me want to gag. But I watched that commercial probably 100X with complete accepting indifference before I realized how horrendous the message was. And how absurdly over the top it was. And how COMMON that sort of thing is. Now I run to change the channel or mute the TV whenever that crap comes on, cuz it is sickening.

Cali-bangers are real. The Real Problem is wanton excess. In cars, in clothes, in homes, in everything. It's not knowing what to think about your life in terms other than consuming goods & services. And it's a very easy trap to fall into.

I feel like I have to maintain constant vigilance not to fall into this trap. I feel I have one real weakness, and that's books. They are work related, which helps me rationalize things. I've probably spent $150 on books this year alone. That's a LOT for me. I just don't buy stuff.

I can afford a lot of "stuff". But I have no interest in buying crap like that. I have 2 cars, food to eat, a few computers & books. Don't need much else. Although I do want a house someday. I'm pretty sure that when the time is right, I'll be able to buy a house for cash. Maybe. From the comments:

I knew a guy who had the saying "He Who Dies With the Most Toys Wins" on his license plate. He was a native Oregonian. The attitude you describe is an AMERICAN one, not just a California one.

This ludicrous excess consumption is the #1 Social Problem in this country. IT'S DEADLY because there's No Institutionalized Cure. In fact almost every large scale economic force is DEDICATED to making it worse.

This is why the current BAILOUT is doomed. We are band-aiding the problem, AGAIN.

Dropped rates the for the NASDAQ bust, don't wanna feel the pain. No way. Keep spending, keep the party going.

Second tinderbox, the housing bust, well they're going to bailout the banks. Notice they're BUYING foreclosed homes; fuck the inhabitants, pay off the banks.

Reminds me of Old School forest management. Fight the fire. PUT IT OUT. Think about the destruction. Prevent it at all costs. We can HARVEST that wood, if we put out the fire. Squelch the flames before we suffer!

We found out the ignorance of our ways.

Fires periodically burn the fuels on the floor, and if they burn frequently enough, and nature takes its course, then the fires don't burn as hot. Big trees remain, the ecosystem rejuvenates itself, and growth begins anew.

But humans intervened to STOP THESE NATURAL PROCESSES. Selfish, stupid & short-sighted.

The old NEEDS to be PURGED. It NEEDS to burn. If we don't let it burn now, the next time it goes up it will INCINERATE EVERYTHING. It will go out of control.

Fannie & Freddie should be allowed to go down. Otherwise we end up with companies famously contained in Mr Burns stock portfolio:

Amalgamated Spats. Confederated Slaves Holdings. Baltimore Opera Hat Company.

We're in our Second Huge Firefight. We saved NASDAQ in 2000-2004. We are now saving Fannie & Freddie, and it's burning HOTTER. This time it is WAY BIGGER than last time.

We should let them BURN. We should allow nature to take its course. Let homes be foreclosed on. Let banks lose trillions. We'll survive & move on in a few years.

But the government is GOING TO FIGHT THIS FIRE, because The Religion of Excess Consumption would be sacrificed if they did not. They can't even allow that to ever even be considered. Excess Consumption is What We Do.

Mark my words: Fire #3 won't be containable. They are going to LIQUIFY THE US ECONOMY. Maybe Fire #3 is Hyper Inflation, maybe a huge fucking war. I don't know.

I only know that the US economy is being manipulated to an unnatural demise. We've got to allow FAILURE. We NEED TO BURN. We need to cleanse this desire to consume well beyond our needs.

Moving on...

Dunc had a pretty good post, Greenwood status report.

I travel Greenwood quite often, and it has become riddled with "For Sale" and "For Lease" signs, or the true harbinger of doom, "For Sale or Lease".

If you want to watch the gutting of Bends bread & butter businesses in high relief, then go to Greenwood, mainly between 3rd & downtown. EVERYTHING is empty. It's happening everywhere, but this is a main artery & heavily traveled.

Good training ground for future generations on how to destroy property values. Raised lease rates beyond reasonable, and now vacancy rates are exploding. Once you hit that tipping point of excessive EMPTY, you can't lease anything at any price.

There are in fact many Cent OR standby businesses that are shuttering their doors.

Kayos is closing both locations. Blue Teal. Ernestos. Jokers is now called something else (I forget), after its owners had to kite checks. Tum-A-Lum lumber.

This is Tip-Of-The-Iceberg reporting. For every 10 that is reported as closing, 90 are simply shut down.

Bend media. Just like the US Government. Amex too. Wants to keep you spending. Blow sunshine up your skirt. LIE about the magnitude of the problem. Act like its not even there.

TETHEROW OPENED TODAY!
SPEND! SPEND! BE HAPPY! SPEND!

No one is killing themselves over bad real estate deals. No businesses are closing. Just spend.

No. Bends true character is coming out nonetheless:

Tumalo barn yields record $2.8 million pot haul
A raid on a large barn in Tumalo turned up almost 650 marijuana plants worth more than $2.8 million on the street, the largest indoor pot grow ever dismantled in Central Oregon - and it was still gearing up for full operation, officials said Thursday.

Madras meth raid busts 'major supplier'
A raid on a southwest Madras home Tuesday morning led to the arrest of two residents, one described by drug agents as a major methamphetamine supplier in the area.

Bend police capture second fugitive after chase

Driver charged with hindering prosecution; handgun found By Barney Lerten, KTVZ.COM The second of two Bend men wanted in a recent assault and robbery was located by police Friday night and tried to run away but was soon spotted again and taken into custody, officers said.

Bend fugitive on the run captured in Idaho

Knocked on Nampa woman's door, asked for water - and place to hide By Barney Lerten, KTVZ.COM A Bend fugitive wanted in an armed robbery and assault who fled pursuing police late last week, triggering an intensive manhunt, has been captured in Idaho, authorities confirmed late Thursday.
Bend manhunt: Knife-wielding suspect eludes police
Residents get warning; search scaled back at midday By Nina Mehlhaf and Barney Lerten, KTVZ.COM Wanted since Monday for armed robbery and assault, a Bend man forced south Bend residents to keep their doors locked while a manhunt went on for hours Thursday.

Yup. When the rubber meets the road, Bend reverts to its True Self, a crime & drug haven.

No. It ain't "just you". These stories ARE happening with increasing & alarming frequency. Hell, I didn't even mention the huge increase in vandalism.

Look at what's happening. We are all of us consuming lemmings. They want us to keep buying NO MATTER WHAT. Even if it kills us. Even if CONSUMING means ME KILLING YOU. Even if it means ME STEALING YOUR SHIT. Even if it means ME SELLING YOU DRUGS.

Jay Audia, I'm sure was a nice guy. But he bought into The Bend Dream, like thousands of others. But it's a DREAM folks. This place doesn't really have a sustainable economy. That's how 19 year old punks rent HUGE mansions: DRUGS.

Bend is becoming & will become a town of crimes, drugs, vandalism, murder & suicide.

And it's because the media WON'T let us BURN. Audia in the papers as a WARNING? No. Put out that fire. What's after Audia then? Someone going postal?

The Shire shut down. Are they going to kill Peter Jackson? Hey, I'm NOT kidding. Read the comments. People are MAD AS HELL because I'm advocating WE LET IT BURN THIS TIME. "Bottomless hatred" they call it.

City of Bend. American Express. US Government. Bend media.

All want to let it ride. Put out the fire & LETS GET BACK TO NORMAL. Worked out with that NASDAQ snafu, right? It'll work this time again, right? Not going to happen.

IF, and it's a big IF, we manage to avert disaster this time, we simply have built a tinderbox that will rage out of control next time.

The current crisis is so large it will require liquefaction. Fire up the printing presses. Economy turns to mud beneath our feet. Hyper inflation. That'll be it. End of Story.

See, Jay Audia is the collateral damage of this firestorm. There will ALWAYS be losses. Anyone whose been in Cent OR for the Summer season KNOWS there's always going to be a spark.

But no one wants anyone to know that. They think that ARTIFICIAL CONTAINMENT is a sustainable practice, it is not. Jay Audia killed Jay Audia. But in some measure John Costa killed Audia. KTVZ killed Audia. Hell, even Alan Greenspan had a hand in it.

The last containment creates more victims The Next Time. And believe me, There Is Always A Next Time. If you notice, this country has begun to be run as if there isn't.

Not On My Watch. I don't care what happens, just not on my watch. That's how it's being run. Give it to Obama.

The first cycle, I had friends who lost lots of money. But nobody DIED. Now in Round 2, we're starting to see what happens when nature is NOT allowed to take its course. People we KNOW have started to DIE.

Jay Audia would be alive today were the NASDAQ recession allowed to run its course. But no, Greenspan had to resurrect the Cali-Banger ASAP. Who cares about Round 2, that's Not My Watch.

Folks, we need to let this thing go, run its course & burn like hell. I DO NOT have "bottomless hate" for you or your excessive ways, Cali-Bangers. I have quite a few friends who probably scored over 50 on my little Cali-Test. I had a few points too.

But the Cali-Banger lifestyle is going to INCINERATE this country. Negative Savings? We've started acting like it's OK! What? We've gotten used to it.

For each one of us, our government owes FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS hundreds & thousands of dollars. We are transferring our wealth, built over the course of centuries, to foreign governments & corporations at a rate unheralded in history. We only have to buy 400 billion barrels of oil, and we'll be broke. $700 billion a year OUT THE DOOR. Your 3 humungoid SUV's & 2 White Liberal Guilt Prius' are why that's happening, Cali-Banger.

Who cares about what we owe each other. Credit cards, budget deficit. Blah, who cares. That's just us owing us. But when we owe others, we are well & truly going broke. The budget deficit won't kill us, the Trade Deficit WILL. And the Trade Deficit is the DIRECT RESULT of the Cali-Banger lifestyle, a lifestyle that has the decision makers of the World scrambling to preserve it AT ALL COSTS.

Simply realize it CANNOT be saved. Negative savings? My God, talk to anyone about a topic like that prior to the last 30-40 years, and they'd have thought you crazy.

At some point 'we the people of bend' have to take action, and collectively edoocate the BULL&SORE that having +50% of homeless beggars roaming in BEND will NOT fix the fucking bubble.

If we stay on this bailout track, the US will be the beggar out on the course, picking up balls. We will be the Worlds beggars, if we aren't already. Centuries of work, wiped out to preserve an artificial lifestyle.

You need only educate yourself on the aftermath of artificial forest management to see where the US is headed. We did it for a hundred years. Just meant forests overrun with fuel, tinderboxes, burned out of control "next time". We couldn't "save" them, the Big Trees were not big enough to survive & they burned.

What are these "Big Trees"?

Note, also before one jumps to some huge fucking conclusion, the oil will be gone as know its use in 20-40 years, and the USA has the biggest COAL deposits in the world. Our coal will ten-fold, the rest of the world will be buying coal derivatives in the form of liquid petro from the USA in the next century.

Your cali-ism of excess, is just a 1920's blip. The world moves on, I think the logical assumption would be that if the USA continues to impoverish itself, that you can expect China or some 'super-power' in the future to invade the USA to secure our coal deposits.

We are. The US itself, is. We need to let this fire burn. We didn't last time, and now this time it is burning so hot it threatens our very financial system. It threatens to take down a system that has put MILLIONS of people in homes for the past 40 years.

If they liquify our economy to preserve the Cali-Banger this time, there won't be a place left worth going here. Des Moines, Wichita? No, the whole mess will be taken down, no matter its participation in Round 2.

Shit get an old boat, or an old RV, and head down to mexico and live on $500/mo or less, or shit go to thailand, and live on $500/mo or less and get a 20 yr-old wife even if your 80..

We've talked back in the day about some pretty weird stuff. Gardening for your food. Caching gold, for the love of Christ. Real survivalist stuff.

(How about this: Historians might look back on George Bush as one of our greatest, most prescient Presidents! After all, he created the Great Country of Amer-Iraq-ica, 3rd largest oil reserves in the World...)

And this stuff is actually starting to make A Lot Of Sense.

Did you think people, people you know, would start DYING over this thing?

People are dying, collateral damage of artificial maintenance of a natural process. If they're DYING this round, what happens Next Time.

China takes us over? Buster & his clapboard; Looks less & less crazy everyday. It ain't Wichita or Charlotte we'll flee to, to escape Round 3, it'll be Thailand or Australia or China.

We need to let this fire burn. Let it burn, or there won't be a country worth having next time.

Drugs. Business Closures. Murder. Suicide. Speed traps. Bank failures. Homocide. Fannie. Freddie. Foreclosures. The Plaza. Meth dens. Robbery. Embezzlement. Fraud. Jay Audia.

All for want of the Cali-Banger lifestyle.

They are all of the same origin. Round 1 wasn't allowed to run its course. These are the offshoots of that decision. They are the fuels of Round 2. And they are AGAIN not going to let the fuel BURN. And so begins Round 3. Hello Bangkok, goodbye Wichita & Charlotte.

We should LEARN from our own mistakes & the mistakes of others and Let It Burn. If we do not, this time will be remembered as the most backward & uneducated period in our financial history. The Great Depression... The Japanese Bust of the past 20 years... both the DIRECT RESULT of Well-Meaning, but ultimately DESTRUCTIVE intervention by governments who wanted to preserve the status quo At All Costs. And the costs ended up being high indeed.

When you want to know The Real Costs, the Total Costs, of this bailout, look around. It's everything. It's all around us. We'll lose this country. Let It Burn means making do with your car for another 2-3 years. It means NOT buying $200 in clothes this weekend. It means waking up & not being lulled into a coma by some fucking Amex commercial. You DO NOT NEED 90% of the shit you think you need. You don't need that fucking iPhone, PS3, big screen TV, or all that other crap. You don't.

Consuming in excess of what you're making, and pre-consuming all your future earnings is the road to complete disaster. We can't survive as a country & think that's even remotely possible. We're transferring $700 billion overseas every year JUST FOR THE OIL needed to perpetuate this myth. And it is a myth, a 100% fantasy, and it cannot go on.

But our government & corporations are doing everything possible to keep this dream alive. Despite the fact it will ruin us. 100% ruination.

We Need To Let It Burn.