From the Star Ledger:
Ad-Rock of Beastie Boys, Kathleen Hanna selling lakefront N.J. home, party boat for $975K
No sleep till … Jersey?
Adam Horovitz, aka Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys, and riot grrrl singer Kathleen Hanna from the bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre have put their Upper Greenwood Lake home on the market.
The California Mid-Century Modern home, located on the lake in the Hewitt area of West Milford, was built in 1958.
Horovitz, 54, and Hanna, 52, who have been together since 1996 and married in 2006, bought the three-bedroom home that year. They are selling the house and lake access for $975,000.
The listing for the home boasts “walls of windows” and a private road.
Horovitz was a member of the Beastie Boys with Adam Yauch, aka “MCA,” and Michael Diamond, aka Mike D.
Kudos for keeping it true to style, and not destroying a beautiful mid-century example.
What an awesome house.
That’s a cool share…had no idea he lived there.
Might be an Islanders vs Canadians Stanley Cup….crazy.
Poland is a joke..team will always let you down.
Florida knows how to build them…
“Miami-Area Beachfront Condo Collapses, Killing at Least One
Twelve-story condo development in Surfside partially collapses; ‘The building is literally pancaked,’ mayor says”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/miami-area-condo-collapse-causes-massive-emergency-response-11624532492?st=wq2vc4kjxpq7gt2&reflink=article_copyURL_share
Backwards America.
Ars Technica: Altice is reducing cable-Internet upload speeds by up to 86% next month.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/06/cable-isp-altice-slashes-upload-speeds-from-35mbps-to-as-low-as-5mbps/
SmallGovConservative, being that the comment came from a family member I see every few years at a wedding or funeral, I probably dont have the statistic of why he stated that. I should clarify he stated the center of the US vs the coasts (my fault for not clarifying). This is a guy from Eastern Europe running freight cross country, so he has no vested interest either way. Im going to guess he is visiting and comparing industrial, inner city neighborhoods for his stops. He is not pulling up to Lincoln Park Chicago in a 54′ trailer. So yes there are some great neighborhoods in center USA. Could be his view of the rust belt and declining neighborhoods surrounding them. We didnt get to discuss opiod addicts, but Im going to guess he sees a lot of that as well.
says:
June 23, 2021 at 4:40 pm
“The midwest is terribly impoverished, compared to the costal states.”
I’m thinking this is one of the most moronic, unwarranted comments I’ve seen on this blog. But as someone who’s kicking around the idea of a condo on the lakefront in Chicago/northern Indiana, I’d be interested in any statistics you have that show the midwest to be relatively/terribly impoverished.
Shady move. Forcing you to grab their 1 gig package if you want good upload speeds.
Phoenix says:
June 24, 2021 at 9:32 am
Backwards America.
I heard the story all morning, but did you fcuking see this?
https://nypost.com/2021/06/24/shocking-video-shows-moment-miami-condo-collapses/
In other news, anything surprising here:
The debate about Subway’s tuna has resurfaced. A New York Times investigation revealed Subway’s tuna sandwiches are missing one key element: tuna. The Times commissioned a lab analysis of the “tuna” the sandwich chain uses at three Los Angeles shops and no tuna DNA was found. The fish probe follows a lawsuit in January that claimed Subway misled customers into buying food “that wholly lacked the ingredients they reasonably thought they were purchasing.” Subway at the time said the claims were “baseless.”
The Fed doesn’t need to worry about the hot housing market right now, Jim Cramer says
-“I don’t want to repeat the mistakes that led to the financial crisis,” the “Mad Money” host said.
-“Unlike the lead-up to the great recession, homebuyers are actually solvent right now with excellent credit and strong stock portfolios,” Cramer added.
-Cramer also said the real estate market has turned into a secular growth story amid low borrowing rates, sparse inventory and pent-up demand from millennial buyers.
Walking you’d be surprised there are some ritzy neighborhoods around Chicago,Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis etc. The difference is in the midwest poverty sprawls(rural poor, poor white people) where as on the coasts it is contained in specific cities/neighborhoods(primarily Black, Latino and immigrant). Arguably the sprawling poor is better, concentrated poverty seems to result in crime. The thing is he is driving large stretches of very impoverished areas, even the farm land is owned by people living outside the rural areas, the wealth is concentrated in very specific areas.
My wife’s grandfather owned a farm something like 3000 acres, the family owned even more land. He was a gentleman farmer but the rest of the family had different business(doctors, lawyers, construction companies). Today no one from that family lives anywhere near that farmland, they’ll periodically check on the farms but they all live in suburban neighborhoods around cities in the midwest where as the older generation lived in farm country they all became professional people who work in cities. The middle and upper class folks living out by those farms are no more, it’s migrant labor and lower class people, consolidation has 10’s of thousands of acres being managed by a small group of managers. It’s kind of depressing but where there was once a vibrant rural town today they can barely keep a dairy queen open today. It makes sense as it is much more profitable to do a professional job in a city rather than in podunksville(technology has also made it so these people aren’t needed in podunksville), corporations and the wealthy own the assets, mechanization/computerization has reduced the need for humans/skilled people in production what is left in the cast swaths of farmland is poverty, there isn’t enough economy is these places that are pretty far removed from the civilized world.
These midwesterners who have good professional jobs and own a chunk of the family farm are very wealthy, moreso than many people on the Coasts but you wouldn’t know it because they do not flaunt their wealth like we do on the coasts. In NJ, NY or CA it is much easier to identify the wealthy out there they do not have as many status symbols, they are less flashy.
Millionaire in NJ
Teacher and a Cop
Now even Cramer gets it. How long have I been saying this and you still laugh at what is driving housing…it’s not the pandemic. That’s so wrong, but keeps being pushed…
“But Cramer pointed out that lending standards are more stringent now, and low mortgage rates coupled with pandemic lockdowns spurred a frenzy in homebuying. Millennials have emerged as the largest cohort of buyers on the market after years of delaying homeownership for various reasons — including the impact of the 2008 financial crisis — he added.
Cramer also noted that the real estate market — known for being cyclical in nature — has turned into a secular growth story amid low borrowing rates, sparse inventory and pent-up demand from millennial buyers.
“The Fed can try to slam the brakes on the economy by raising interest rates, but millennials have been stuck living in their parents’ basements for years,” he said. “After a decade getting over the financial crisis, they’ve finally got the capital to buy their own homes.”
The median selling price of a home in the U.S. for the first time rose above $350,000 in May, up almost 25% from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Economists have associated the surging costs to purchase a home with the low supply of existing homes on the market. Meanwhile, homebuilders like Toll Brothers think it will take years before supply meets demand.”
Bystander,
If it tastes like tuna and you are happy with it, who cares if it’s tuna?
The capitalist mantra.
Once again, just like with the police and cell phone cameras, advances in science are what is bringing out the truth, with DNA finding tuna isn’t tuna or that your wife is a whore and that’s not your kid.
Low interest rates and fear are driving the market. Period.
“I heard the story all morning, but did you fcuking see this?”
Capitalist said use the cheaper concrete. No one will notice. We can profit.
Jcer: It’s also very easy today to pretend your wealthy, but In reality many of these people don’t have a pot to piss in.
Low interest rates mean nothing if you don’t have the demand to overcome supply. I got a 2.75 rate on a fixed 15 yr in 2015. Why wasn’t the market going up in value then?
Low interest rates and fear are driving this housing market. Period.
Phoenix
Thanks for the internet speed link. I just checked all my area providers and fiber optics is not available yet. I did upgrade my internet speed for $20 a month extra to get 400 mbps download and 20mbps upload. Currently have 200 and 10. I did notice a difference going from 100 download to 200 so hoping will notice an improvement.
I can only imagine the quality of all the apartments they are throwing up in Hackensack, Montvale, Paramus, and , Park Ridge?
Phoenix, a can of tuna is like$1-2, think about this for a second how much does a real tuna steak cost, maybe $12-15 a pound. Over fishing has moved tuna grounds way out to sea, think of the cost to catch these fish, what is in the can is whatever they scoop up in a purse-seine net. It’s probably a fish and it could be tuna, it’s edible, when talking about subway they probably are adding fillers as well, years back the chicken was tested and was only 65% chicken, they add soy and god knows what else to all their “meat” why would fish be any different. Back in the day tuna were plentiful, not so much anymore. I don’t know how subway is still a thing, they are pretty dreadful sandwiches, I’m pretty sure the subs at a convince store like Wawa or Quickcheck are better.
I went to a mid mod century estate sale right before Covid hit. It was incredible. Everything, all the furniture and decor was mid mod century. They even had a pair of mid mod century egg chairs. It was so cool looking.
Subway has to be the worst food franchise on the planet. Very, very rarely have I ever gotten anything from this establishment and it’s always been absolute shit. A slice of whatever they call ham, a slice of whatever they call cheese, drowned in shredded lettuce on a piece of bread made by Dup0nt. It’s a bread sandwich and are shameful compared to the mom and pop sub shops. I’d grab a bag of chips to hold me over if the only thing around was a Subway store. And yet, I believe they are the biggest fast food franchise globally. They are total garbage and I have no idea how they stay in business.
Why anybody in NJ would buy a sub from Subway boggles my mind, there are some absolutely incredible sandwich shops in NJ, that are FAR better bargains.
I wonder the same thing when I pass Pizza Hut, Olive Garden and Dominos… and Papa Johns and on and on. Serious what is wrong with people
grim says:
June 24, 2021 at 12:30 pm
Why anybody in NJ would buy a sub from Subway boggles my mind, there are some absolutely incredible sandwich shops in NJ, that are FAR better bargains.
I miss local sub shops. We get Jersey Mike’s occasionally. No way I’m going to Subway The few local sandwich shops are 30 minutes or more away. Same with bagels. Only 1 real bagel shop in the area. Everything else is einstein’s, paneras or dunkin.
At least we have a few pizza places run by brooklyn ex-pats and 1 from a bronx ex-pat.
I think I need to make a trip to Punk Bagel this Sunday morning even though I have a few awesome bagel places around by me. Nostalgic reasons. :)
Dedicated to this posters here……
https://youtu.be/FaPqFI5-yWM?t=109
the…. (yikes)
Primo’s is one of the only good sub sandwich chains I’ve found, I can’t say I’ve ever been to a Jersey Mikes. Good bread, meat and cheese are critical to a sandwich Subway has none of that, the only conclusion I can draw is price, subway is cheap. In jersey most gas stations have better sandwiches than subway. I imagine Subway will experience the same downfall that got Blimpie, most store were gross and the quality of the sandwiches were so bad so people stopped going and the stores closed. Most mediocre pizzerias you’ll find in every jersey town make a better sub than subway, I don’t know how we have any subway store in NJ.
Joyce those other chains are suspect but not nearly as bad as subway, a sandwich is portable why would I buy a subway sandwich when I could make a better one at home? Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, and Domino’s while not good are at least pizza, even bad pizza is good. People are ordering from those places because they do not know of a good place. What surprises me is we have not had a good chain pizzeria rise, it seems like something flyover country needs.
I would add Panera to the list. I can’t eat that fake food. Bakery only.
Punk bagel is the best in NJ.
JCer,
there’s not really demand for it outside of the North East. We heard many a story in Florida of someone opening up good pizza from Jersey out there and they went out of business because they would rather have the crappy pizza. Maybe with enough transplants, that might change.
Jersey Mikes was phenomenal when it was just a few stores in Monmouth/Ocean county. If you want a good sandwich at Jersey Mikes, you gotta go to the one in Wall on Rt. 70. Still run by the same crew as when it was just a few stores. Primo is pretty good but doesn’t match up to real Philly hoagies in the city.
“Credit Suisse put out its annual wealth report that shows a surge in the number of millionaires globally.
There are now an estimated 56 million millionaires in the world, with 39.2% of them coming from the United States. 39.2% is incredible given the United States only accounts for about 4.4% of the world’s population.
If you live and work in the United States, consider yourself lucky! Check out the change in the number of millionaires by country.
Image
I’ll do more analysis of Credit Suisse’s millionaires report in an upcoming post. However, for this newsletter, I think it’s important to highlight several things if you want to join the millionaire ranks.
The Millionaire Mindset
1) Belief. There is no monopoly on being rich. The amount of money in this world is endless. Believe you also deserve to be rich. Adopt a positive money mindset.
2) Grit. Never fail due to a lack of effort because effort requires no skill. This is a motto I came up with after getting in trouble during my senior year of high school. I wondered whether my future had been doomed due to teenage restlessness.
However, I’ve since learned it’s very hard to fail if you keep on going. You start looking at failures simply as setbacks on your way to inevitably achieving what you want.
3) Time. There’s a great Chinese proverb, “If the direction is correct, sooner or later you will get there.” Just make sure you have a healthy enough body and mind to last. We tend to underestimate how much progress we can make over a long period of time.
4) Community. If you can’t surround yourself in person with highly motivated people who also want to build wealth, then you can easily do so online. You can’t help but try to lower your tax bill like billionaires, save more for retirement, and take more calculated risks when you read, hear, and see other people doing just that.
The path of least resistance is to do nothing. Therefore, I hope my grit in writing and podcasting about personal finance every week since 2009 helps motivate you into action.”
“Phoenix, a can of tuna is like$1-2.”
Americans have proven that there is no limit to their greed or deceptive behavior.
Punk bagel is the best in NJ.
For a while, there was this cute chick with tats and wild hair with beautiful eyes and an even more beautiful smile that miraculously was up and working at 7:00 AM, behind the counter. She most likely was up all night, showered and then showed up for work. Besides that, who could complain with hearing Motorhead at 7 o’clock in the morning? And yes, their bagels were/are awesome. There’s a lot of places that match in Jersey.
Subs in N.J. were good at Sub Shack # ____.
After that all downhill except for some speciality deli’s.
“I think I need to make a trip to Punk Bagel this Sunday morning even though I have a few awesome bagel places around by me. Nostalgic reasons. :)”
Nostalgic reasons? Ask for extra napkins 😂😂😂😂
Phoenix, my point exactly it’s “tuna”, which is really trade name for whatever random school of fish they can scoop up. If you want real tuna it is typically $4-5 per can(which matches up with $12-15 per pound), I think everyone is aware of this and is fine with perfectly healthy albeit mislabeled “Tuna”, it’s called “Chunk Light” because they have no clue what it is, they just hack it into chunks and can it.
BRT I just don’t understand how after being exposed to respectable pizza people could go back to domino’s or papa john’s. Pizza Hut I understand it is deeply unhealthy, people love deeply unhealthy food, it might as well be deep fried and they keep coming up with more places to put processed cheese food product. It’s kind of like taco bell which is essentially the meal form of doritos, it’s not Mexican food nor should it be treated as such it is like a giant dorito meal. Again the only conclusion I can get to is cost, chain pizza is cheap mostly because it is made of low grade ingredients, price is key to the american consumer.
“price is key to the american consumer”
You buy and eat what you can afford.
I’d love to eat at the Capital Grille for dinner tonight but that ain’t happening.
JCer, hard to describe. But I grew up on Jersey Pizza, and when we moved to Florida, within a month or two, we were craving pizza and sad to say but Little Caesars was like the best day of the week for me. I can’t explain it. It was so crappy in hindsight but I loved every minute of it. I didn’t realize how ridiculous it was until we moved back a year later.
The Bronx has the best pizza hands down.
I worked at an Italian Deli in High School. We made the best sandwiches and Pizza. Run by a crazy Sicilian and another Italian immigrant from Napoli.
There is a place near that comes close…Taliercio’s Gourmet Deli 500 NJ-35 #7g, Red Bank, NJ 07701
Check this picture Italian sub…this is how it is supposed to be done.
Ham, salami, pepperoni, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion, oil & vinegar.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/food/ABeJB_5kz0PX_oUi5oBIzyOz56aMJaoxJXezBEGAxE3KwZ3mgf9G2LGC5QT1SiLeHBzH4nh–pQqVYV4Vv8prwjZ-MZExbt7gPtE7OArCSUUzOpljfoQzyS24OYlZ6jTZWZBBstmqb9disI
Here is another great sandwich
American Roll
Ham, turkey, roast beef, yellow American, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/food/ABeJB_6IRrNvjP2Xrr5zE07vjkNJjPTHGgnt3uL7GHfuu7ns67M1B7VfDnOnFwbrdUF-WzKzSfS8cYBACJqgUL8AjOa4Cs1CEz1VGS12hBOznuLYYKlE–SLVk46AkvNFU4bsd_Uoti0giA0
I lived ten houses from punk bagel for almost a year. They were good, but not the best. Though they did always play great music and the people who worked there were incredibly nice.
While not expert, guy I used to work with used to bring fresh Utopia bagels from Throgs neck. I lived / worked in city for years and never had anything better than those bagels.
Sickening..
“The US Chamber of Commerce has launched a massive campaign to tackle a growing skills shortage in America and has urged the Biden administration and Congress to scrap the per-country quota applied to US green cards. The Chamber of Commerce recently called for the US H1B visa quota to be doubled to bring more skilled professionals into the country.
“The current H1B visa quota is set at 65,000, with a further 20,000 available to those with a PhD from a top US university. The Chamber of Commerce recently launched the America Works campaign calling for an increase in the number of H1B visas made available each year.
Chamber of Commerce CEO and president, Suzanne Clark, said: “As we stand on the cusp of what could be a great American resurgence, a worker shortage is holding back job creators across the country.”
Jersey Mike’s are decent subs. I see more around Sarasota, FL than in NJ. I tried Tastee sub shop in Edison where Obama ate. Wasn’t excited by their Italian Sub. On Longboat Key FL there is a pizza place that prides itself on Jersey style pizza. It’s OK. There is also a Chicago style pizza place across the bay. Much better tex mex and fish tacos in this part of FL than in NJ. More French and German food too.
Juice,
Can a sub be packed too high? Sometimes too much meat becomes unwieldy.
I also favor a bread with a bit of crust, but not so hard and crusty that I’m getting abrasions from eating it. Some places get carried away with that.
My favorite place was a little Italian deli in Deland, FL, in the 1980s. Had the best Italian sub, from some immigrant. But closed a few years ago after the owner died.
The drought covering the western US is staggering. And may be the new normal.
“From June 2020 to May 2021, California posted its driest 12-month period on record, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. So too did Arizona and Utah, while Idaho, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada and North Dakota all placed in the top 10. California just finished its fourth driest spring on record; Washington, Oregon and Idaho their second. Forecasts call for drought to remain locked in across the West, and by August drought conditions could spread into Nebraska and eastern Colorado.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-24/historic-drought-slams-entire-western-u-s-as-wildfire-season-looms
“My Twitter must be broken … where are all the Cathie Wood and Ark Invest haters from last month at??”
https://twitter.com/arkkdaily/status/1408099120661868549?s=21
Tastee sub is the best Middlesex county has to offer, but it is very overrated compared to the cult that waits in line for it.
If you want to get an idea of Jersey Mikes back in the day, there’s a place in Belmar called “Mike’s sub shop”. Their logo even is Jersey Mikes without the “Jersey” in it. I think they broke off at some point but kinda stayed true to the original. Haven’t been there in about 20 years though. Jersey Mikes used to do breakfast and make omlette subs back in the day. They were awesome.
My favorite sandwich’s are in Philly, down the street from Pat’s. Antonios. The veggie hoagie is the most amazing sandwich. Eggplant, Rabe, Roasted Red Pepper, Sharp Provolone.
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/antonios-deli-philadelphia
The next best place is Angelos, also nearby. Great pizza joint as well. Portnoy gave it a 9.1. The sandwiches are godlike
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/angelos-pizzeria-philadelphia
My last week in Philadelphia after 17 years. As promised, my “best of” list that is indisputably correct.
https://twitter.com/adamlevitan/status/1407331749101776905?s=21
Bystander,
Sickening is right. Totally anti-American
Stop eating all that processed meat unless you want your colon ripped out.
Ah it’s okay. Job security for me too.
I was ID’d the other day at the local bottle king. Felt good, not going to lie.
They checked your bracelet, you mean. Property of Rockland Psych.
Phoenix,
What’s your take on healthy diet recommendations? Depending on what marketing, or ‘science’, one sees or reads… no clue these days what is not influenced by industry, or at least the least influenced.
Anyone feel like Seaside Heights is ripe for the picking?
Robinhood said today that users who participate in the new IPO feature will be encouraged to hold for more than 1 month
Robinhood said “if you sell IPO shares within 30 days of the IPO, it’s considered “flipping” and you’ll be restricted from participating in IPOs for 60 days.”
Saraev’s plan is to keep his body in good enough shape to hit “Longevity Escape Velocity,” a term coined by English gerontologist Aubrey de Grey to denote slowing down your aging enough to reach each new medical advance as it arrives. If you delay your death by 10 years, for example, that’s 10 more years scientists have to come up with a drug, computer program, or robot assist that can make you live even longer. Keep up this game of reverse leapfrog, and eventually death can’t catch you. The term is reminiscent of “planetary escape velocity,” the speed an object needs to move in order to break free of gravity.
https://apple.news/A4LOishZsQQ2xGEgHrlSCxA
On the sub tip, BRT is right about Antonio’s Veggie Hoagie. The place is in the middle of nowhere, there’s no place to park and the joint closes way too early. But if you manage to find yourself with extra time in Philly around lunch, there is really no better (or healthier sub) than that veggie hoagie. It’s a mess too, but it’s worth it. I’ll even put it ahead of the smoked coconut club at the Memphis Taproom for best veggie sandwich out there.
Now Tastee used to be the bomb until about the late 90s. Their meat and bread seriously dropped in quality some time around then. I know, because I was responsible for picking up the subs on the way to every Rutgers home football games since the 80s. They are pretty much run of the mill mediocre now so we don’t even bother with them. I’ve been making my own for the games since then and they are pretty damn good and significantly more cost effective. Nicolo’s Bread helps a lot.
I really think White House, down in AC is the best representation in the state. The bread is fantastic and the meat and provolone both high quality and high quantity too.
Up in our neck of the woods, Hero King in Nutley is overpriced, but very good, though wish their bread was a little more crusty on the outside. Sparo’s in Montclair makes an excellent fancier Italian sub. For a wet mozz/red pepper sub, Nicolo’ is good too.
I know the original Mike’s in Belmar and it’s very good too. Just not enough meat and cheese, but a good all around sub. Outside of the area, Jersey Mike’s is head and shoulders above all of the chains.
In Middlesex county, try Riddle & Martin in South River. The Towne, unfortunately closed up and was the better of the two sub shops in blue collar SR, but R&M was a close second. Haven’t been there in years, but they were always really good growing up.
On the pizza tip. It’s extremely subjective. Especially considering how many varieties there are. I really think NJ is the best due to this. From the giant shore pies with the spiraled sweet sauce to the cracker crust tomato pies near Trenton, to the bar pies in the taverns up in North Jersey, no other state provides the variety. That’s not to say that there are not standout pies in New Haven (their clam pie really is special) and the Bronx (L&E’s). Plus now there are a ton of both wood and coal fired thick doughed pies that are pretty much good wherever you get them (when quality cheese and meats are used). Personally, my favorite pie in NJ is the tomato pie (when in season, which is right now) down at the original DeLorenzo’s down in Robbinsville. It used to be in the crimy outskirts of Trenton, but they smartly moved. Their other restaurants are not the same. You have to go to the one in Robbinsville. The mustard pie down the road at Papa’s is pretty interesting too and has the same cracker crust and should be tried. The problem with that place is that they are cash only and the service there leaves a lot to be desired. At least at DeLorenzo, they appreciate you. Star Tavern in West Orange has the best pepperoni bar pie anywhere. On Wednesdays during the Summer, they do $5 pies. Gotta get there by like 5:30 or you’ll be waiting all night for a table. Bar pies don’t travel so you have to eat them there. There’s an amazing Palermo pie at la Sicilia in Belleville. Ralph’s in Nutley has a unique burnt pie which is really good for those who like that style. Finally Bruno’s Grandma Pie in Clifton is pretty amazing too. So many great pies in such a small area. And then there’s the great napolitan with the greasy cheese and crust that snaps when you fold it, which you can get from nearly any Albanian joint within 50 miles from Manhattan. I’m kind of in the minority here, but that place down in Penn Station under the Garden by the Amtrak Rotunda makes a really good example of it (Don Pepe). I can’t go through there without getting one. Wish it wasn’t so overpriced. Just go plain slice. Everything else there is terrible. I know, I’ve spent way too much of my life down there. And for a cheap soda, the K-Mart by the LIRR has canned soda in a Coke machine for 50 cents right off the promenade.
Lib,
Awesome breakdown. Hope someone has on Google trying to figure out north jersey finds your post.
Lib, just start your own business. You will go far.
Man, nj has so much to offer. I have been banging on the head for almost 10 years how magical nJ is in this world in time and place. To complain about one of the best places to live on earth is petty. True story, brah!!
Ying and Yang, nothing is perfect, but if you can afford to raise your family in NYC metro area, consider how blessed you are.
That really flies over the head over every individual here
People think this location is dying…in economic terms…maybe I’m wrong, couldn’t laugh any harder.
All these debates on Philly, I tried Johns Roast beef and it is so good. Given the reviews of the Genos etc, do I really need to try anywhere else.
Its like Bagels. You hit a standard and you should be happy. I stopped in Teaneck bagels for years on my way to work, for me its as good as Wonder Bagels at the end of Sip Ave in Jersey City. We can all point to others that are as good. For me, any place where they are making it onsite, they are making it right. That said, Rockland Bakery for a commercial operation, its up there!
Mrs Fab and I had the discussion last week. Four more years and we are over the border into NY. Greenwood Lake is on the list of places to look.
It does however spark the conversation where people in here are fawning over the period décor. We had examples of this style of house in Upper Saddle River and the peanut gallery in here derided it. Remember the one with the sunken living room.
There is almost too much to comment on over the past few days. Rudy Collody losing his law licence. All these Jan 6th “Tourists” copping plea deals.
But given Ben Carson was thrown up, I came across this.
https://twitter.com/lindyli/status/1404275075600289792
“Trump’s Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson granted Jared Kushner’s company a staggering $800 million loan
And here’s the kicker: due its unusually good terms, if it defaults, we taxpayers foot the bill”
Its all about the Grift!
Rudys kid is getting killed on Social Media.
https://twitter.com/FrankConniff/status/1408248283131174912
And For CRT, coming soon to a BOE meeting near you.
https://twitter.com/evelynpix/status/1407529403169509379
My Favorite comment
https://twitter.com/benschwartz_/status/1407542593861296139
Clearly this man lived through Critical Race Theory while at Harvard Law and doesn’t want to see it happen in his home town.
Holy Crap.
Israel reinstates indoor mask mandates. Pretty serious news. We’re nearly 10% less vaccinated than Israel, and you can’t blame it on lower-efficacy Chinese vaccines over there, because they used what we used.
Israel hit a wall at 60% vaccinated, and now they are seeing spikes of cases due to the Delta variant in the unvaccinated populations. US is months away from hitting 60% total population.
Don’t throw your masks away yet people, this is what we have to look forward to in a few weeks.
Grim
I expect the south and parts of the Midwest to see big spikes a week or 2 after Fourth of July with their low vaccination rates and delta becoming the dominant strain by then. We were planning on going to Tennessee and Asheville in July but we are thinking of spending the money getting a kitten instead.
Hold,
Damn, you getting a sphynx? I remember when a cat cost zero dollars. I guess topic of day, insane people who don’t get their animals from rescue. My buddy in Ridgewood who does not make tons, had to buy pure breed dog for wife bc that is what (faux) rich do. Sick to me.
Hold,
Sorry, not making any judgement towards you. I thought it was funny. Our 6 yo son is begging for a cat. I have been pet free for over 2 years since two cats put down. They were a nightmare. My wife’s old cat and my cat – two females that hated each other and pissed /vomited everywhere. Nightmare.
Lib, funny you mention White House, literally had them yesterday on the way home from AC. First time in 10 years as I haven’t been down there since I had kids.
And Delorenzos. Probably going to go there tonight. My wife’s family has been going there since inception. We know the current owner, the grandson Sammy. Her grandfather was good buddies with Chick, the original owner. They actually opened up a 2nd location in PA right over the border.
Bystander
It’s around $150 in my area to adopt a kitten. We have 2 middle age cats we adopted as young adult cats. Kids want to add a kitten. Cost to adopt, neuter, and feed a kitten for a year is probably $500 at least. We could stay in hotels using credit card points and only spend $600 or so on food and gas for a week.
Hold,
Wow, that is some dollars. It has been awhile. Will have to save up.
Do they think people who don’t listen to vaccination advice are going to listen to rules about wearing a mask inside, especially in the most likely spreading circumstances of extended indoor contact with friends and family? Doubtful in Israel, even more doubtful in the US.
I think what people don’t recognize about vax percentages is that it’s non-homogeneously spread. In some demographics it’s over 80%, while in other groups it’s 20%.
Media fixates on the white Trumpist anti-vaxxer conspiracy types as the source of non-vaxxers. They do exist, but I suspect they are over-represented in the popular imagination of non-vaxxers. My hunch is that non-vaccination is high in the demographics where crime is higher and education is lower, and precautionary health and medical treatment is generally not paid much attention. Groups that the media dare not speak their name. The same groups that are responsible for most of the “Asian-hate” crimes, though the media would again like you to think that it’s mostly white men wearing MAGA hats.
RE: Freddie Mac/Kushner –
The “deal” that Kushner got from Freddie Mac is precisely the same deal that is offered to all of the biggest institutional commercial real estate owners. There is exactly nothing that is grifting or special about it.
A licensed Freddie Mac lender underwrites the loan, Freddie Mac buys it, add’s it to one of their K-Series CMBS transactions and sells it to the market place. Freddie does retain a 10% top-loss piece, which they also sell out as higher yielding “B-Piece” structure.
Fab the article you shared describes how appx. 25% of the commercial lending market place exists. Fannie has a similar structure, with notable differences, that covers another 25% of the market. HUD carries about 25% of the market and private banks carry the remainder of the market share.
There is just nothing special about the story other than political opportunists are attempting to link the US government giving favors to Kushner. If that is a favor, then Starwood, Related, Brookfield as well as the other 75% of government backed commercial lending is a “favor” as well.
The SCOTUS ruling this week granting the Biden administration the legal right to ax Director Calabria (FHFA Head) is the most notable news of the week. Calabria is going to get fired and the FHFA lending limits imposed on FNMA/FRE are going to be raised – so expect more of these so called favors to occur, but something tells me you won’t see an article about any of that, since the borrowers vote the right way and aren’t linked to the last nutjob to sit in the Whitehouse.
No one
Here’s some data tables breaking down vaccination rates and cases by race for each state.
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-race-ethnicity/
Joyce,
Plant based is better than an animal based diet. You don’t have to abstain, but lean to the plant when you can. It has obvious benefits.
I believe more and more predictions of diseases through genetic testing are coming.
Start by watching your weight. It matters.
“as well as the other 75% of government backed commercial lending is a “favor” as well.”
It sure is a favor. It’s the gifts that are given to American corporations that cause Americans the most grief.
Anti Vaxxers.
” though the media would again like you to think that it’s mostly white men wearing MAGA hats.”
I’d beg to differ, and find it’s the spitting white women types that seem to cause more of a problem like this, you see them in supermarkets, fast food restaurants- they have a name for it, I forget I think it might be
Karen perhaps?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfEPWa1ay0U
Phoenix – If you are advocating for the dismantling of Fannie and Freddie that is a different suggestion and can be debated on it’s own merits. If you removed the US govt backstop then the lending markets would be completely turned on their head. Maybe that is what you are hoping for, there is a valid case to be made that the US Govt should not be guaranteeing commerical loans.
But the supposed “deal” Kushner got is not anything special, it’s an article about how the commercial lending market works and attempts to make it seem like Carson somehow favored a politcal ally. Which is false. Also worth mentioning that Carson ran HUD, which is an entirely different entity with zero influence over Fannie/Freddie. The only link they have is that they are watched over by the same regulator, the FHFA and Director Calabria, who again, is about to get fired from his post.
If you think the Kushner thing was bad an needs to be stopped, wait to you see what happens when the new FHFA director removes the lending caps imposed on FRE/FNM for 2021.
Both Fannie/Freddie are going to hit the lending limit by Oct at the current rate. If the caps aren’t increased, it is going to be very quiet 4th quarter in the commercial real estate market.
” the US Govt should not be guaranteeing commercial loans.”
That’s correct.
Chi – Thought you might get a laugh out of this one.
Pronouns on the signature line, that is for pikers!
https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/o7kzem/american_psycho_2021/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Just pissed myself, I can’t believe how well done that was.
There was talk for a long time of winding down Fannie and Freddie and switching to the European model of covered bonds, banks would retain the credit risk on their home mortgages etc.
No such thing occurred, now the GSEs are levered up with multi-family mortgage debt. Trillions of it, the GSEs back something like 80% of 2 trillion in multi-family mortgage debt today.
Kusher got a deal perhaps? But they are not the only one leveraging loans. Interest only payments for 10 years?? Sounds familiar as those types of loans got the GSEs into trouble last time during the bubble and they had to be taken into conservatorship and bailed out with taxpayer dollars.
BTW FRED was a good source of info. Not since December of 2019….They discontinued most of the economic data they published on mortgages etc.
You have to look a little harder now, but the GSEs now hold twice the amount of debt they held since the last crash…and government takeover. Something like 7.7 Trillion now way way up from the approx 3 Trillion held when it all crashed.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GSETCMDODFS
Speaking of pissing contest. Branson just got FAA approval.
I wonder if he is going to one up Bezos….before his July 20th launch…
https://www.reuters.com/technology/bransons-virgin-galactic-gets-faa-approval-fly-people-space-2021-06-25/
We need to come up with something new and different to identify ourselves. Something other than alpha, beta? Another letter in the Greek alphabet? Identify as a homonym or homophone? This or That? Myself? Suggestions?
BTW – the Supreme court ruling on Fannie and Freddie this week was a shock to some betting long on their stocks, and Biden wasted no time removing Mark Calabria as head of the FHFA.
You can bet now that housing prices are unaffordable again that 7.7 trillion they now hold is nothing to what kind of balance sheet expansion we are going to see now. Fog a mirror, pick a payment, no downpayment etc who knows what it will be for the next generation of first time homebuyer.
Eddie,
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
Just devalue the US dollar already.
Be done with it.
Tripstar you beat me too it, another hit piece from pro publica. The loan package meets the underwriting standards of Freddie Mac and it’s an independent operation(this gets a single line in the article). You haven’t heard a peep about Kushner’s crimes back when they were a major donor to the democratic party(there were many). The Kushner’s are scumbags but most other slumlord rental property owners operate similarly, they rip off their tenants, their partners, etc utilizing their scale and the legal system to their advantage. Yes the loans are on fringe but still they have almost 1/3rd equity at stake which is a lot of money to lose if they default.
I agree the federal government should not be backstopping commercial property loans, it is not necessary and is the worst form of corporate welfare.
The Federal government should be out of the mortgage business entirely.
That was a bizarre press conference Biden gave yesterday.
That was a bizarre press conference Biden gave yesterday.
I didn’t see it but when does it ever fail to be an adventure with O’Biden?
Just looking around the propublica site it’s pretty obvious they are either idiots or intellectually dishonest with political motives for what they write. I like reading the article about the wealthy dodging taxes where rather than focusing on income they are discussing how much some one’s net worth increased. Values fluctuate how in the name do they expect to tax fluctuating asset values? Seriously are these people fcuking communists? The right to property is a fundamental right in the United States part, these people are pushing for a wealth tax something that is fundamentally incompatible with the bill of rights and opens the door for communism.
Somehow elon musk only paid nearly 500m in income tax and that is somehow not enough? He employed thousands of people, built a product people wanted, what the fcuk did the writer for propublica do or any of these a$$holes pushing for a wealth tax. Bezos paid almost 1Bn in tax, that’s an incredible amount of money.
“Somehow elon musk only paid nearly 500m in income tax and that is somehow not enough? ”
He probably made 500m by pumping and dumping Bitcoin for entertainment purposes.
JCer,
If you haven’t noticed, America is changing.
What you “think” is a fundamental right, just like gun ownership, is being debated and modified.
At one time, owning slaves was legal too.
Eventually you get to the point where you no longer care what is legal, or the system it is all based on. See Capital Riots for instance. Or mobs. Or people openly confronting the police for having a female “visitor” blasting the lights and sirens at night while you are trying to sleep.
You can only push people so much. The tipping point is approaching soon.
And Gen Z has just about had enough of the boomers and the crap they pull.
The Federal government should be out of the mortgage business entirely.
Yup.
I agree the federal government should not be backstopping commercial property loans, it is not necessary and is the worst form of corporate welfare.
Yup.
Fast: You can google it. It’s bizarre.
3b
Insanity is when you choose a President with obvious cognitive defects and you expect a different result.
Ink is barely dry and there’s bipartisan support fast-tracking a bill to remove a key provision in the body cam bill:
https://www.njspotlight.com/2021/06/body-camera-footage-police-want-access-before-writing-incident-reports-nj-legislative-committee-agrees-critics-say-bad-idea-could-lead-biased-reporting/
Phoenix: Agreed.
3b,
Just saw the video… the guy is shot, no other way to describe it.
Fast: I try to give the benefit of the doubt, and saying someone is declining mentally is not something that should be thrown around, but this latest incident is concerning. Of course his defenders will say he was just joking, and perhaps he was, but this was not the way to behave at a press conference.
This is not an endorsement of Trump or any GOP team –
When Biden does that peculiar whisper into the mic and forward lean, I cringe so hard I want to go hide under my bead.
“shhhh-I gave them 1.9 trillion dollars…shhh”
Whispering is a conversational crutch that is employed by those with zero confidence in their speaking abilities OR utilized when someone really wants to scream and curse but knows that they can’t, so they go full 180 and whisper with the creepiness factor that is off the charts.
Saul’s take on Biden’s cognitive issues.
Is President Biden okay?
Questions about his cognitive state persist.
Isaac Saul
Jun 25
Comment
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This is Tangle: an independent, ad-free, non-partisan politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from the right and left on the news of the day. Today is a special Friday edition you’re receiving because you are a paying subscriber. If you someone forwarded you this email, they’re asking you to subscribe. You can do that by clicking here.
Today’s read: 7 minutes.
The President of the United States doesn’t seem quite right.
I know we’re really not supposed to say that. For some reason, it’s become one of the most taboo issues for a pundit or reporter to discuss. A few months ago, when I answered a reader question about whether I was concerned about Biden’s cognitive state, I was inundated with emails: “you’re an ageist,” “you’re ignorant,” “you’re not a doctor,” “you’re not qualified to say so” and, of course, “have you seen Trump?” And that was after I said I wasn’t that concerned. All of those responses (except for me being an ageist, which is absurd) might be reasonable retorts. But they’re not arguments that are hard to address either.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks to Department of Defense personnel, with Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Feb. 10, 2021. (DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando)
Before I respond to them, though, I’d like to present my position:
I don’t know what’s wrong with President Biden. I don’t know if something is wrong with President Biden. Some people, especially on the right, like to claim he is frequently exhibiting signs of dementia. His defenders, on the other hand, have pointed to his lifelong stutter (which was the inspiration for one of my favorite essays during the campaign, in which a reporter wrote about seeing his own stutter in Biden). A lot of people have simply dismissed his visible and obvious changes as a product of natural, normal aging.
Regardless of where you land, the result of those changes has prompted some reasonable questions that we should not simply ignore. Last week, Biden made his first trip abroad. After multiple public appearances and addresses, questions — on social media, by the foreign press, and here in the U.S. — were once again raised about his mental state. Many people saw a bumbling old man, while others saw a commanding, articulate leader. I think it’s worth addressing the conversation.
My position, and the argument I do feel comfortable making, is that Joe Biden seems markedly different than he did just five years ago. To illustrate that, I’m going to ask that you watch a couple of short clips.
Here is Biden in 2016 talking about Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. You don’t even have to note his appearance (in which he does look noticeably younger). Just close your eyes and listen to him speak for a minute and a half:
I think this clip is a nice baseline because it’s a video of Biden speaking off his teleprompter and discussing an issue with reporters. Of course, it’s a clip where he’s discussing something he’s most comfortable with: working-class America, and some of the angst across the country.
Now, here he is discussing a more complex issue just this week:
Twitter avatar for @aaronjmate
Aaron Maté
@aaronjmate
Biden confuses Syria-Libya three times. He also appears to boast that Russia’s inability to “provid[e] for the basic economic needs of people” in Syria is a point of US leverage. I assume he means the US sanctions that, like Biden, US media won’t mention. Image
June 13th 2021
922 Retweets2,844 Likes
Can anyone watch these videos objectively and conclude that they’re watching someone with the same verbal capacity? As Caitlin Johnstone, an independent and fiercely progressive writer who recently compared some of these clips said, “If you tell me you’re seeing the same level of cognitive functioning in the first video as the second and third video, you are lying.”
If you’ve spent any time on the internet, you’ve probably seen the highlight reels — some of them from the left — of Biden’s stumbles, stutters, mix-ups, and trail-offs. He has, in no particular order, forgotten the words of the most well-known passage in the Declaration of Independence, forgotten the name of his defense secretary, repeatedly confused nation-states, misnamed the cities he was in, and trails off mid-thought in just about every public appearance he makes.
The result of this “obvious” cognitive decline, as some have put it, created a lot of buzz during the campaign. But that buzz is circling back again now with these most recent examples. Last week, the former White House doctor and 13 House Republicans demanded Biden “take a cognitive test.” Some 33 percent of Americans don’t believe Biden is mentally fit for the job, while the other two-thirds are satisfied with his mental acuity. I guess, depending on where you sit, that’s either a very good or very bad poll for Biden.
The elephant in the room
Believe it or not, it wasn’t such a big deal to talk about this stuff two years ago. Glenn Greenwald very clearly documented the way questions around Biden’s mental capacity became “low blows” and “disgusting” only after he became the favorite to win the Democratic nomination.
Cory Booker pointedly brought it up on the campaign trail, telling CNN that he wasn’t sure Biden had the mental fitness to endure the campaign. During one of the Democratic debates, Julian Castro asked Biden directly if he had forgotten what he’d said just two minutes before. Rolling Stone writer Jamil Smith invoked his late family member, who died of dementia, to raise questions about what he was seeing from Biden. Andrea Mitchell asked her audience how sharp Biden was, or if he still had the “stuff” to be able to defend himself in a debate.
One Twitter user who was documenting all the prominent reporters and pundits questioning Biden’s mental state in 2019 made a thread online. I checked it this week, only to find that about half the tweets had been deleted — perhaps by people who are still reporting on the president and didn’t want those old comments to circle back to them (now that it has become “off-limits”).
That’s because, as Greenwald illustrated, conversations about Biden’s health became increasingly inappropriate as his status rose. CNN reporters who are supposed to be speaking truth to power instead decried organic, viral videos of Biden’s mishaps and gaffes as “coordinated” political attacks. Julian Castro’s communications director insisted Castro had never actually questioned Biden’s cognitive competence, and said the same of Cory Booker (despite each of them doing it on tape in front of millions of people).
None of this, of course, means any of the speculation is true. It just means the reason Biden’s cognitive state went from an open question to an off-limits territory is that people were worried he was going to lose to Trump, and questions about his mental capacities could play an outsized role in causing that loss.
The arguments
There are some standard responses that I’ve now encountered every time I have even remotely inquired about the president’s mental health. I’d like to address them briefly.
“You’re an ageist.” Nothing I’m writing or observing here is because of my biases about Joe Biden’s age. There is, for example, a stark difference between Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is a year older than Biden. There’s often a stark difference between Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Biden, and Grassley is eight years older than Biden. I have previously written about Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who like Biden has been the subject of concern over her mental ability. Not because of what year she was born, but because of how she presents herself in public.
“You’re not a doctor.” No, I’m not. But I have eyes and ears. Watching President Biden, for someone like me, is like watching a family member. I’ve been watching him speak publicly, address Congress, interact with reporters and go on television regularly for almost 10 years. In the last six years, I’ve seen video clips of him nearly every day. Nobody would question my concern over a family member or friend who I saw regularly because I’m “not a doctor,” and pretending I can’t tell the difference between Biden now and then is… a little bit ridiculous.
“You’re not his doctor.” Again, no, I’m not. But I know enough to wonder. I know he’s 78 years old, the oldest president ever. I know he suffered two life-threatening brain aneurysms in 1988. I know he has slurred his words publicly and the last time he spoke in front of the press he didn’t make a lot of sense.
“Have you seen Trump?” Yes, I have. And I covered him extensively, writing frequently about his bizarre ramblings and ridiculous comments and profound ignorance on many issues he should have known more about. Trump also has absolutely nothing to do with Biden’s current state compared to how he was three, five or ten years ago.
The case for Biden
One thing almost nobody ever does when discussing this issue is actually make a strong defense of the president. I’d like to do that here. Not because I am his spokesperson or he needs me defending him, but because it’s not fair to raise this issue without pointing to some relevant and weighty counterpoints.
First, if you ask anyone with celebrity status about what it’s like being filmed or followed all day (and I have) and they all say something to the effect of: “it sucks.” I’m such an avid reader that I often learn words without ever hearing them, and then frequently misspeak when I try pronouncing them (my wife has a running list of all the horrible mispronunciations I’ve made). That’s despite being someone who practices my public speaking and even records a weekly podcast. If someone filmed me every hour for a year and then linked up with a good video editor, I’m sure they could make me look incompetent on subjects I actually know a lot about.
Second, being a human highlight reel of gaffes and mistakes and forgetfulness doesn’t necessarily mean you have some kind of mental affliction. Go watch highlight reels of George W. Bush’s infamous “Bushisms” and one could wonder about his mental state, too (in his case, the press simply framed him as an idiot rather than someone suffering from declining mental health). Narratives have a funny way of informing new inputs. Perhaps if the narrative on Biden was that he was slow or deliberate, his current run of uncomfortable appearances wouldn’t be looked at as potential early-onset dementia but Biden just being Biden. In this case, the narrative on Biden has always been that he was gaffe-prone and sometimes spoke too much — and maybe we’re just seeing that intersect with his age and his stutter.
Third, that stutter is real. It’s impossible to calculate how much it impacts his repeated struggles to start or end a sentence, but it’s not just campaign propaganda. Biden has spoken about his stutter extensively for a while. And the essay from John Hendrickson, in which he spells out exactly how similar his own stutter is to what he witnesses in Biden, was illuminating: “A non-stutterer might not notice when he appears to get caught on words as an adult,” Hendrickson wrote, “because he usually maneuvers out of those moments quickly and expertly.”
Fourth, and perhaps most convincingly, is to simply look at the Biden government.
It’s running pretty well. Whether he’s doing things you want him to do is another story (there are things about this administration I don’t like), but an incapacitated president who was losing his mind wouldn’t be pulling off the legislative feats Biden is. He’s passed trillions of dollars in new spending and appears to be closing in on a serious infrastructure deal as well as police reform legislation.
He’s ticking off many of his promises, and based on reporting we have he’s been deeply involved in a lot of those processes. There have been no damaging leaks about his mental state — in fact, his administration has been remarkably leak-free. So far he has not been faulted for any major failures or flubs (like, say, insulting a foreign dignitary or making a poor high-pressure decision), save for the situation on the border that has hampered nearly every president in U.S. over the last forty years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose words I don’t suggest you ever believe without great care, was queried about Biden’s mental health after the two met last week. “He does not miss a thing, trust me,” Putin said after their summit in Geneva. “Biden is a professional; you have to be very attentive when working with him so as not to miss something.” Take it as you’d like.
Even going back to the presidential debates: everyone and their mother said over and over that Trump was going to bulldoze Biden in their first debate. Even pundits on the left wondered aloud about what would happen and cringed in fear at the prospect of “their guy” getting out-quipped and dunked on by President Trump, who we knew approached debates like boxing matches and had outperformed many opponents in the past.
But instead, the debate turned into a “shitshow,” as CNN’s Dana Bash described it live on air. I wrote the next day that it was a spectacle of the worst kind. But absent from any of those commentaries were questions about Biden’s mental health. He outperformed expectations. By a long shot. Conservative pundits and Trump homers spent most of the next day maligning Trump for ruining “the biggest layup in the history of debates” when he failed to clearly denounce the Proud Boys. Frank Luntz polled 17 Republican voters after the election in a focus group, and asked them to describe Biden in a single or a few words. The positive responses were overwhelming. “Surprised,” “better than expected,” “more professional,” “more a people person,” “confident,” “restraint and compassion,” “leader,” “attentive,” “humanity,” “integrity.”
That feels like eons ago, but it’s still relevant.
My take.
I think it’s impossible to deny that there is something there. I don’t know what it is, exactly, and I’m not sure we will anytime soon.
But after the last year of being told not to question the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, or that Trump cleared out Lafeyyette square for a photoshoot, or that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicnick was killed by protesters at the January 6 riot, or that Russia placed bounties on the heads of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan — all narratives that have since fallen apart — I don’t think it’s unreasonable to resist the narrative that everything is just fine. That Biden is simply aging. That it’s his stutter. And I’m certainly not going to obediently ignore questions about it as so many other people are.
Maybe a more interesting inquiry is: does it matter?
If it’s true that Biden is suffering from some kind of cognitive issue, how is it possible things are… pretty normal? Is it because the president is just a symbolic figure, rather than one who is executing any kind of grand plan? And if he is little more than a symbol, how could his approval ratings domestically and abroad be rock solid if he is so “obviously” exhibiting signs of a worrisome degenerative brain disease?
What I see when I look at the president is a guy who has some good days and some bad days. Some may point to that as further evidence of a “there-there.” But for all the talk of his changes, it’s also not hard to find videos from 2015 where he exhibits many of the things that raise questions now: interrupting himself mid-sentence, stuttering, stumbling, trailing off.
It’s also true that Biden himself has addressed this stuff head-on, denying that his stutter has anything to do with his speaking mishaps but conceding that he sometimes is left “searching” for words when he’s tired. Maybe the explanation is as simple and innocuous as that, and the man we witnessed last week was just a tired president in a different time zone talking about a complex issue. Or maybe that’s just the latest talking point to distract from a worrisome body of evidence that the president is unfit.
Either way, it’s okay to ask some questions.
Joyce.
Of course. Not surprised at all.
No link to Biden video?
Geezus, I just wanted my pool clean. I thought Oz Powell said there was no inflation?
https://www.walmart.com/ip/HTH-Pool-Weekly-Power-Pods-3-In-1-Clarifier-Enzyme-Phosphate-Remover-8-Pods/51453309?sourceid=dsn_ov_19f49f3a-af4b-4849-95cd-b934b00fca26&veh=dsn&wmlspartner=dsn_ov_19f49f3a-af4b-4849-95cd-b934b00fca26&cn=Entp-RT-highvalue-catchall_cnt_dps_dsn_dis_ov_entp
Why would point out this misrepresented nonsense when Hunter Biden is an absolute disgrace. I am not defending Kushner, but seriously what is your major malfunction Pvt. Pyle?
Fabius Maximus says:
June 24, 2021 at 11:09 pm
“Trump’s Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson granted Jared Kushner’s company a staggering $800 million loan
And here’s the kicker: due its unusually good terms, if it defaults, we taxpayers foot the bill”
Its all about the Grift!
Chgo : I wonder if Fab has an issue with Hunter the artist. He is apparently getting big bucks for his paintings.
Dude from Shift4 who funded inspiration4 flying on SpaceX has got to be fuming.
Rumor is he spent $100 million.
Maybe not tho, they are planning to go orbital, not just go kiss space for 30 seconds.
Yes 3 days in orbit launch is scheduled for Sept. Better hope the toilet does not clog as it is on the ceiling and the cabin is only 13 ft wide.
Juice,
Just take some Go-Lytely 48 hrs before takeoff so you fly empty.
Phoenix, they give them two clysters before flying…
Why do they continue to build out west? Why?!
“Gonna be honest I spent 15 years thinking climate change risk was overstated, the last 2 years of drought and fire out west make me think it’s actually an existential crisis.”
https://twitter.com/kevinrschultz/status/1408564797264773125?s=21
I wondered how tomorrow could ever follow todaaayyyyy
https://youtu.be/RZgz6OgCP_U
You can’t make this up:
s
Bryce Dershem, 18, delivered the valedictorian speech at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees, New Jersey
Dershem and school administrators purportedly agreed upon a set speech before the event
However, the teen decided to go rogue on the podium, talking about his queer identity and mental health struggles
Principal seemingly cut sound system, before crowd cheered in support of Dersham and a back-up microphone was handed to him
Dersham is set to commence studies in French literature and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Tufts University this coming fall
PA just overtook NJ in 1st dose vaccinated, and they are running a faster pace as well.
Feel like that’s crazy.
“You can’t make this up…Dersham is set to commence studies in French literature and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Tufts University this coming fall…”
Yeah, I agree. What the hell is he going to do with that degree.
Go Isles!
Left – Investment banking? Did you not watch my link earlier? Classic stuff updated….
Haha, only scanned the forum the last few days. Was the video today?
Here ya go hope you are drinking…
June 25, 2021 at 9:43 am
Chi – Thought you might get a laugh out of this one.
Pronouns on the signature line, that is for pikers!
https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/o7kzem/american_psycho_2021/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Got takeout from a local Korean fried chicken place. They had signs posted that they had to raise prices on their chicken dishes by $2 due to their food costs doubling this year.
HMB,
That will only affect the poor. The rich can afford the extra two dollars, but whine and complain as if their lives were coming to an end.
Phoenix
This place was great. Old school decor in a 40 year old building. Looked like a scene from a Korean drama. The Korean restaurants in Dallas are much older than the ones in Carrollton and Plano and have a different vibe. Kind of like going to grandmas if she was Korean.
Meet the neighbors / flyover Country :
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdPbw6T8/