From HousingWire:
Millennials still grapple with first-time homebuying
“Among primary residence homebuyers, the demographics have shifted dramatically, especially among first-time homebuyers, whose share of the market has dropped to its lowest level in decades,” said Jessica Lautz, director of member and consumer survey research for the National Association of Realtors. “We have also seen an increase in the median age and income of the average buyer, as well as in multigenerational household formations as adult children and elderly family members move back in with their families.”
Adult millennials, those aged 18 to 33, were a popular topic of discussion for the panel.
In 2014, millennials saw 60% better job growth than the U.S. overall and a drop in unemployment to 6%. This growth, along with improved economic opportunities, should encourage millennials to form households and buy homes in the coming years.
“Millennials are the largest generation of people in the U.S. and represent 60% of first-time homebuyers,” said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for realtor.com. “They are also more likely than any other group to purchase a home in the next year.”
Tightened inventory, difficulty receiving credit and lower-than-average salaries have kept many of these buyers out of the market, but most economists see that as a temporary setback.
“It’s not that young people don’t want to purchase homes, it’s that they are delaying the purchase,” said Lisa Sturtevant, vice president of research for the National Housing Conference. “Many of the reasons millennials are not forming households or making purchases are economic, so as the economy improves, we should see this group become more of a force in the housing market.”
…
“They represented 37% of home shoppers this summer, and over the next five years this generation will make up two-thirds of household formations,” he said. “Between June and September 2014, over half of adults aged 21-34 visited real estate websites or mobile apps. And this is the cusp—get ready for the millennial wave to drive the housing market for decades.”
Sweeney unveils massive plan to prevent Atlantic City from “becoming Detroit” … by doing … get this … raising costs to casinos. You can’t make this shit up.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/11/sweeney_proposes_atlantic_city_plan.html#incart_m-rpt-1
First.
First after Grim, that is.
[1] grim
I wholeheartedly support Sweeney in all his endeavors.
Housing is dependent on the millennials? We are soooo screwed unless we let in every rich Chinese national and then some.
Happy singles day
Trust me, I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.
Wow, look at that, an Ebola quarantine is being widely lauded as saving Mali from outbreak (and not an American nurse).
In Quick Response, Mali Thwarts an Ebola Outbreak
Using old-fashioned detective work, public health workers in Mali, one of the world’s poorest nations, working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, tracked and quarantined 108 people in two cities and a few roadside towns who may have had contact with a 2-year-old girl from Guinea who died of Ebola on Oct. 24.
There was even a car chase: The last bus the family traveled on during a 700-mile journey from Guinea was stopped on a rural highway, emptied out and disinfected.
A 21-day quarantine since the little girl’s death on Oct. 24 is almost over, and 41 of the 108 Malians in quarantine are due to be released Tuesday, and the remainder by Friday. Since none are showing symptoms, health officials are allowing themselves to hope that their quick response has kept Mali’s first outbreak to a single case.
If so, Mali will join Senegal and Nigeria in having proved yet again that rapid reactions can stop Ebola. In contrast, the initial outbreak in Guinea festered unaddressed for months before it exploded.
As fast eddie always says, any questions?
Damn, I feel good right now. Have I not said over and over again that this demographic will rise from the ashes and drive the next rise in the real estate cycle. Wage inflation will come with the improvement in the economy. Then demographics will drive the real estate cycle into an upward trend towards the end of this decade. The 2020’s will be the next rise, 20 years after the last upward cycle in real estate.
You see fast Eddie, you want to buy now. You have limited competition right now in the housing market. When the millennials come to the market you will have major competition, hence, why their arrival to the market will cause the next upward swing in the real estate cycle.
“In 2014, millennials saw 60% better job growth than the U.S. overall and a drop in unemployment to 6%. This growth, along with improved economic opportunities, should encourage millennials to form households and buy homes in the coming years.”
A big thank you to all the individuals who serve and protect the freedom we enjoy. Thank you. You are appreciated and respected.
That stock I mentioned that went up 25% on Friday went up 15,5% yesterday. This bull is roaring. This is prob going to end up being the best stock pick of my life. It’s almost impossible to find stocks like this. This is what dreams are made of. Pretty much like winning the lottery. So lucky that I stumbled upon this company. I bought in at .10 in July. It hit an all time high of .315 yesterday and closed at .305. Can’t wait to see if this bull keeps roaring.
[9] Michael,
I hope you are right but every instinct I have says it won’t play out that way.
[8] grim
The people in those countries hate our freedoms!
/sarc off
C’mon nom, at this rate, in 20 years, New York City will stretch straight through to Bucks County.
Just back from Europe. A few things to note.
A lot of farms are putting up their own wind turbines. They don’t look bad and blend in.
I really miss the food. There is nothing better than shopping in the supermarket and almost all the fresh meat, dairy, bread etc is locally produced.
Boston is nice airport to fly out of, but they need to take the big World Champions sign off Fenway and send it over to SF.
Austerity is still there in Ireland but it is poised for a comeback and people are tempering expectations which is good. They are fighting to stop the bubble blowing up again.
The UK is in for some tough times.
The carToons get one good win against the scousers and think they are qualifying for Europe.
I see Chi is still burning his brand.
All-Clad is good but hard to justify the price. I use the Padermo set I won at a Hoboken Shelter benefit 10 years ago and I love it. They have a great sale at the moment. Order this for the cook in your life.
https://paderno.com/shop/11pc-commercial-set/
Sweeney, Fulop, or that other Goldman Sach’s exec who keeps throwing money at Democratic candidates will probably be our next Governor.
What’s with all these Democratic Governors or Governor wannabe’s who are ex Goldman Sach’s employees? I thought Republicans were the party of the evil rich white guy?
A quote from the same dingus that brought us trickle down economics and set the stage for the Federalist takeover of our court system and dismantling of our financial regulations.
Grim says:
November 11, 2014 at 6:30 am
Trust me, I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.
#7 [Grim]
Back in 2011 my recently finished basement flooded after hurricane Irene. House was nowhere near a floodzone and since it was built (1962) never got water.
A few weeks later while at the local deli a neighbor asked me if I got my money yet.
I said “for what!?”. “We’re in a disaster area and the Feds. are giving out money for repairs. Go to the FEMA website”.
Took about an hour to fill out and submit the application for a GRANT. Not a loan a one time GRANT that would not have to be paid back.
A day later someone from FEMA calls me to set up an appointment to survey the damage.
Guy (a contractor) takes pictures makes notes and then tells me to login to the FEMA site again and give them my banking info.
Two days later there was a direct deposit into my checking account.
FEMA then sends me an e-mail asking if this is enough or would I like to appeal for a greater amount (what I got was enough to fix everything but not replace furniture and other items). Since I planned on selling immediately after the basement was repaired I declined.
A neighbor did appeal and got three times the amount! Said it was no big deal just took about a month.
The only help I ever got from the U.S. Government but it was quick, professional and free! Incredible!
The Mad world of wind turbines.
http://youtu.be/svicELHAWyw
Nothing to worry about people, keep calm, Sweeney has a plan.
“What’s with all these Democratic Governors or Governor wannabe’s who are ex Goldman Sach’s employees? I thought Republicans were the party of the evil rich white guy?”
They are and the sad reality of politics is that most Democrats are really just Republicans. Of course it’s only Democrats that are pushing reregulating the financial industry, throwing Wall Street in jail, providing women with true autonomy over their lives and bodies, reestablishing the equal opportunity of America, shall I go on… There’s just not enough of them, so we all suffer.
Of course it’s only Democrats that are pushing reregulating the financial industry, throwing Wall Street in jail
Please tell me you are not so closed minded to actually believe this to be the truth? What part of the Obama/Holder Department of Justice has prosecuted any Wall Street banker? In fact, Holder has made many statements around the fact that settlement, and not prosecution, will be their approach. Reagan’s DOJ prosecuted and imprisoned hundreds of bankers. Obama’s? I’m guessing it is still a big fat Zero.
Settlement? Who wins in a settlement. Not the American people. Don’t be so fooled by the settlement dollar amounts, they aren’t even remotely punitive.
C’mon man, I’m always game for a heated argument, but this is just silly, you are wearing blinders.
Sounds Beautiful.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2010/02/wind_energys_ghosts_1.html
Fabius Maximus says:
November 11, 2014 at 7:36 am
Just back from Europe. A few things to note.
A lot of farms are putting up their own wind turbines. They don’t look bad and blend in.
@tim_cook:
Today we honor the men and women who have sacrificed for our freedom. We are deeply inspired by their courage and love of our country.
By 1992, the more than 1000 prosecutions had taken place, and 837 convictions were made in the S&L scandal.
You can argue that small time bankers represented the bulk of this, but they were bankers and insiders, management. Hell, at least people were held accountable. In the current crisis, no one was held accountable, no one was prosecuted. Bankers were pandered to by the regulators. It was a travesty, Holder should be tried for Treason.
In fact, if you want to look at the convictions made, I will wager a bet that you will find that there have been more borrowers prosecuted for mortgage fraud than there have been bankers prosecuted for anything.
That is right, the average citizen is likely to be more aggressively pursued and prosecuted by the government than any banker at all. Bankers don’t even need to get out of their corner offices and penthouses to fight, their massive legal teams will just take care of everything, they won’t even need to miss their dinner reservation. Citizens, however, stand no chance.
Just a few days ago I saw an article that indicated that a figure involved in a mortgage fraud that totaled $15 million dollars was facing 30 years in prison.
Compare this to the frauds that were committed by the big banks? $15 million? They did that much in a day, every day.
And as a result, every crafty banker operating in the US is simply going to factor the cost of the settlement into their business planning. You can commit your crime now, just as long as you pay the appropriate public bribes to government you’ll be fine. Just cost of doing business.
This is the legacy of the Holder DOJ. This was brought to us by Democratic leadership.
Disgusting.
Goldman Sachs, Ambassador, New Jersey Governor?
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/Goldman_Ambassador_New_Jersey_Governor.html
Ottoman says:
November 11, 2014 at 7:46 am
“What’s with all these Democratic Governors or Governor wannabe’s who are ex Goldman Sach’s employees? I thought Republicans were the party of the evil rich white guy?”
They are and the sad reality of politics is that most Democrats are really just Republicans. Of course it’s only Democrats that are pushing reregulating the financial industry, throwing Wall Street in jail, providing women with true autonomy over their lives and bodies, reestablishing the equal opportunity of America, shall I go on… There’s just not enough of them, so we all suffer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NAAzBArYdw
Fabius Maximus says:
November 11, 2014 at 7:36 am
Just back from Europe. A few things to note.
A lot of farms are putting up their own wind turbines. They don’t look bad and blend in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EmYe2u6J6g
Fabius Maximus says:
November 11, 2014 at 7:36 am
Just back from Europe. A few things to note.
A lot of farms are putting up their own wind turbines. They don’t look bad and blend in.
clot’s windmill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPDmL8VQ2no
So what Wall Street firm will Holder take a leading position in now that he’s leaving the DOJ? He’s certainly paid his due.
“Too Big and Scary to Prosecute” – The Head of the DOJ too afraid to bring prosecutions… From Bloomberg – March 6, 2013:
Too-Big-to-Fail Banks Limit Prosecutor Options, Holder Says
The size of the largest financial institutions has made it difficult for the U.S. Justice Department to bring criminal charges when there’s wrongdoing, Attorney General Eric Holder said.
Criminal charges against a bank — something that could threaten its existence — may also endanger the national or global economies in the case of the largest ones, because of their size and interconnectedness. That has “made it difficult for us to prosecute” some of those institutions, Holder said today at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“That is a function of the fact that some of these institutions have become too large,” Holder told lawmakers. “It has an inhibiting impact on our ability to bring resolutions that I think would be more appropriate.”
I will say though, Obama’s statement on Net Neutrality yesterday was one of the most positive things I’ve ever seen from him. Regulation of broadband as a public utility is absolutely the right approach.
Typewriters, horse sadles, Beepers all cyclical as the dam IPADS, cars and Cell Phones are fads.
Housing for most folk is a luxury item they dont need to buy. ONLY reasonI bought a place was I got married AND kids were on the way. I would have been more than happy to stay in my rent stablized NYC apt and let you suckers, mow lawns and shovel walkways all while paying 24K in property tax!!
Michael says:
November 11, 2014 at 6:46 am
As fast eddie always says, any questions?
Damn, I feel good right now. Have I not said over and over again that this demographic will rise from the ashes and drive the next rise in the real estate cycle. Wage inflation will come with the improvement in the economy. Then demographics will drive the real estate cycle into an upward trend towards the end of this decade. The 2020′s will be the next rise, 20 years after the last upward cycle in real estate.
You see fast Eddie, you want to buy now. You have limited competition right now in the housing market. When the millennials come to the market you will have major competition, hence, why their arrival to the market will cause the next upward swing in the real estate cycle.
“In 2014, millennials saw 60% better job growth than the U.S. overall and a drop in unemployment to 6%. This growth, along with improved economic opportunities, should encourage millennials to form households and buy homes in the coming years.”
Nice to talk about Veteran’s. But let’s do a reality check. Which would you like to deal with better, both from today’s NY Times.
#1
A Maddening Bargain With a Mexican Police Officer
#2
Police Use Department Wish List When Deciding Which Assets to Seize
Grim [1];
PA’s slot revenue tax is 55%. And still they’re kicking AC’s a$$. I’m with Milton Friedman – “I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible.”
AC’s problem is not the tax level. The problem is that the city is a snithole, and everyone responsible for that has over decades learned to perpetuate it because they succeeded in spite of that fact. Their moat dried up (ironically about the time the ocean flowed in) and they can’t even seem to capitalize on the advantages they should have.
Michael,
I know I’m trying to communicate with someone who exhibits 50 shades of aspergers, but let me try this once more; whether I see a 500K house or 700k house, they’re mostly pieces of sh1t that need lots of overhaul or have one heavy duty, major red flag that sends us running the other way. You’re the expert, show us the link to one house that you yourself would consider at the asking price.
AC is done, officially, done, over.
No large casino operator is ever going to enter the market with the level of political and legislative risk associated with the market. It’s like operating in a market rift with unknowns, at the whim of politicians making rash decisions and completely changing operating models.
Why would anyone enter into and operate in this market? God help you. You could have the best business plan in the world only to have the model completely destroyed by a politician “WITH A PLAN”.
Look at the things Sweeney is proposing, they are massive revisions. Oh, by the way, property taxes? No that’s gone now, instead you are going to pay us $150 million in PILOTs. Oh yeah, and we’re going to legislate whatever else we think might help us get reelected next year.
This is insanity, it’s no wonder why AC is done. It’s easier to do business in China than to do business in AC, at least in China you know what to expect. In AC, who the F8ck knows, even as a business owner you are rolling the dice.
So Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Cablevision and Time Warner borrowed heavily, and at great operational risk to their organizations, in order to build networks to carry the Internet and now you want the government to hand the vast majority of the benefit of that investment to Netflix, Google, Apple, and sundry geeks to abuse in the name of convenience…….that sounds like fascism……people should pay for what they use…..maybe that would prevent content royalties from becoming asymptotic with zero……
grim says:
November 11, 2014 at 8:32 am
I will say though, Obama’s statement on Net Neutrality yesterday was one of the most positive things I’ve ever seen from him. Regulation of broadband as a public utility is absolutely the right approach.
Con’t [37]
the city that is reeling from the loss of four casinos and 8,000 jobs,
Is the city really feeling the loss of jobs if the people who held those jobs didn’t live in the city (or even the state)? BTW, a casino/hotel doesn’t close overnight. They had years or months of no overtime; short staffing. If a sections of the casino floor is closed for lack of demand, they don’t need dealers, floor supervisors, security staff, cocktail waitresses. If room demand is off, they mothball whole floors and short staff housekeeping. All of this writing was on the wall long before any of the casinos closed.
And another thing — Atlantic Club going under was fratricide. Poker Stars had a deal to buy Atlantic Club to gain a foothold into the online market (Online slots and table games are a sideshow; online players are playing poker). Established interests blocked PS’ gaming license to keep out crushing competition. Now more than a year in, their poor performance has poisoned the well. Properties are already dropping their online platforms. Of those that remain, its doubtful even PokerStars’ entry can revitalize the field.
After OTB, the SECOND bookmaking operation in the history of mankind to lose money.
Grim, pls. unmod.
#36… Not Joyce
Do you really want to go there? We are happy because we are not like Mexico? I can relate to how it would be, because it is more or less similar in India — bribery/extortion by cops in India is more or less common place, and one snarky comment and things can go bad very quickly.
Chi from yesterday…
Thanks for the details. I will do that and also have TrueCar quote handy just in case. If they are close enough, I will go with Costco’s choice [unless Costco asks me to drive 100 miles].
40 – Many providers are already operating in a monopolistic market with nonexistent competition. In fact, many geographies limit new market participants from hanging their fiber on the utility poles. Specifically in NJ, most municipalities have franchise agreements in place with cable providers that specifically prohibit competition. If you recall back when Verizon was looking to enter the catv market, it was a huge issue for many areas. It’s probably moot since it would be near impossible for a new market entrant to build out a network and compete on any real scale. By the way, the FIOS deployment is complete, no new markets will be entered, it’s largely been a failure.
So it looks like a monopolistic utility, it smells like a monopolistic utility, and it sure as hell prices like a monopoly.
In addition, what makes you think that preferential or paid access would be enacted in a way that is beneficial to the consumer of the service? It could just as easily be used to exploit consumers.
The issue as I see it is that the Cable TV industry is now realizing it’s model is dead. It can no longer control delivery and content. This is the major issue as I see it. As long as the cable providers can use the bandwidth access to selectively control or profit from content, they will benefit at the expense of consumers.
Like it or not, the way the industry is going is for content to be stripped out of the delivery channel, the cable industry will fight tooth and nail to control both of these.
I, as a consumer, wish to have the ability to purchase my content separately from my delivery, very much in the way that deregulated energy works. Control of the last-mile of the network to my home shouldn’t also permit the delivery provider to control my access to content.
If I want HBO, let me buy it from HBO. If I want Disney, let me buy it from Disney. Don’t tell me that unless I buy it all from you, I can’t have anything. Why exactly does my cable bill have a $5.95 additional fee for “sports” that I don’t watch?
Grim,
On AC, and doing business in NJ, you are totally correct. Does anyone think PILOTs are necessary? Wouldn’t the rich developers (already protected by pro business bankruptcy laws) still develop without them?
In Montklair, the developers of the leaky Sienna wrote up and was approved for a PILOT where they wouldn’t be responsible for paying any taxes until all of the retail on the first floor was occupied. So the developer left a tiny storefront vacant on the side of the building with the lowest traffic. All of the retail space on the taxpayer funded 1.4 million renovation of South Park Street was fully occupied and the developer paid no taxes. In the first five years, the developer did not pay a penny of the PILOT. Montklair took the developer to court to try to get something from them and they lost. In comes the next mayor and town council and they allow the same developer to open another, much larger complex originally named Centro Verde which the locals nicknamed Centro Merde. How could that be in Progressive Montclair? I thought Bluewave Dems don’t support the corporatocracy like their big bad Republican counterparts until they pay them enough.
They are all the same. Baa. The biggest asses are the Otto’s and Anon’s who shill for them.
Grim,
Here’s an analyst who followed public utilities for decades arguing against net neutrality, arguing that besides the property rights-violating aspects of “net neutrality,” it would instill the same disincentives for improvement that most power utilities stagnate under:
https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/winter-2008/net-neutrality/
5th Generation cell service should bust open the cable/fios grip on high speed connections, I’d guess it emerges within 10 years. The higher the cable rates, the faster and farther 5g wireless rollout will come.
McD, I really can’t offer you more help than to suggest you use Truecar and try to get the last $100 to $500 off through negotiating if your time is worth it to you. Also, put the wrong phone number and a junk email address down or forever be prepared to get inundated with hundreds of phone calls and emails daily. Even after you purchase the car. With my Mazda 6 purchase, I gladly left about $200 on the table to not have to spend 8 hours at a dealer fighting over .006 of the total purchase price. I could have gotten it, but I just didn’t have the energy. Plus it’s tougher without a trade and without the financing to negotiate, plus they knew I needed a car.
Oh yeah, does anyone know where to get ethanol free gas in NJ? I have a new leaf blower and snowblower. Both were earned in AC (and I won $6K each time to boot). They are both mid grade and from what I read online, their carbs get fouled up with ethanol blended gasoline. I was told to use true gas (like $25/gallon at HD), jet fuel or find a gas station that does not use ethanol, which in NJ seems like an impossibility. Hey, aren’t marine fuels ethanol free to? Maybe I’ll try that route. Was thinking about inquiring about jet fuel at Teterboro.
HughesRep?
Some thoughts as I enter busy season:
Grim, otto should be ignored or belittled. And in the event of civil upheaval and a WROL environment, killed.
Chifi: Fabius should put his money where his mouth is and erect a windmill. Pull up a chair, get some popcorn and enjoy the hilarity.
Not Joyce: There are many reasons that munis out my way have either disbanded, refused to create, or are considering disbanding police departments. One reason is to keep the cops we do have honest; in our town, some are already calling for their heads so if they ever got praetorian on us, they’d be gone. I submit that its the reason many small NJ towns resist consolidation–once you consolidate, you lose control and that is one area you don’t want to lose control of.
Off to the salt mines. . . .
You can buy race gas at the drag strips, Raceway park, etc. I don’t think it contains ethanol, but they are very high octane (100+), which may cause other problems (hard starting, poor performance). I’ve always thought that yard gear ran better on lower octane shit gas. Jet fuel is kerosene, not what you want. AV Gas has lead, which might not be good to have your kids around when you mow, although if your motor will run on 100 octane, it will likely last forever running 100LL.
some employment statistics and charts possibly of interest.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/more-employers-are-hiring-but-they-arent-raising-pay/
Thanks Grim.
Outside of NJ there are ton of pure gas stations. There’s probably some dumb regulation that makes NJ maintain the use of the ethanol.
54 – Replacement carb on anything recent only usually costs around $30 and requires turning 4 screws to replace. Who cares? After 3 or 4 years, the carbs are shot on most consumer gear anyhow, and it’s the single biggest cause of frustration. 9 out of 10 times, change the carb and the motor runs like a kitten.
I’m going to buy a snowblower this week. Getting tired of trucks causing damage by packing the snow, driving their plow into my turf, etc. Consumer reports seems high on the Ariens 28 inch for about $1000. Home depot has them. I hadn’t heard about how farm subsidies via ethanol were also destroying America’s small engines. Home depot sells non-ethanol fuel?
Any further advice?
Rags, use fuel stabilizers and drain the gas at the end of the season. Also change the spark plug annually. Take it from a guy who has a 20 year old lawn mower, a truck with 200k miles and a 13 year old Harley.
Any two stage snow thrower with a decent warranty will do. Just size it right for your property.
Lib have not been able to find any, not for lack of trying. Use stabil to prolong life of jets and seals seafoam at the end of the year. When the carb does go, I just replace it rather than rebuild. If the snowblower is straight gas hell if the weed wacker is 4 cycle this should keep you in good shape for a while.
Husqvarna weedwacker carb sh!t the bed this summer. Rebuild kit 10 bucks and three hours worth of work. New carb 25 bucks and 45 minutes. Needless to say went with the new carb. Probably will rebuild the old one over the winter when I have nothing to do and just rotate them as they go out. tinkering is fun
[9] Maybe it’s time to stop?
Have I not said over and over again…
56 – My father has an Ariens, it’s a very nice machine. His model has heated hand-grips, very sweet.
I have a big 33″ monster. Electric start is a MUST-HAVE – imho. Nothing easier than plugging in the extension cord and tapping the button a few times. Don’t be the jackass with the pull-start.
Typewriters, horse sadles, Beepers all cyclical as the dam IPADS, cars and Cell Phones are fads.
Housing for most folk is a luxury item they dont need to buy. ONLY reasonI bought a place was I got married AND kids were on the way. I would have been more than happy to stay in my rent stablized NYC apt and let you suckers, mow lawns and shovel walkways all while paying 24K in property tax!!
Perhaps you missed it. Michael doesn’t ever mow his lawn.
50. I bought the tru-fuel when home depot had an online special that was roughly 50% off w/delivery. For 2 stroke, the stuff is great, easy starting, no smoke and less odor. I used to use synthetic oil and even mixed properly this stuff burns cleaner and has an incredible shelf life.
I have a 2 acre prop and used maybe 2 cans over the last 6 months at most. It is pricey, but good. I bought 4 cases, enough for many years for 100.00. Not going back for a while at least. Fatwallet is your friend.
60. My Ariens has heated handgrips also. I thought that was a joke-nope, they are my favorite feature. Wet gloves are no match for those.
Thanks for the carb replacement advice. I always use Stabil and found another great tip. Fill the tank to the tippy top to avoid ethanol sucking in moisture and watering down your fuel.
I always run the tanks dry at the end of the season, and on my generator, turn off the fuel line and do it after every use. Craziest thing is a ten year-old Weedeater string trimmer that I paid $50 for on a special. I think I last mixed the oil and fuel 5 years ago. I know I am tempting fate, but she continues to run perfectly on this old gas. I’m pretty certain it was ethanol free.
I always have ten gallons of fuel in the garage which I pour into the cars every 6 months. 5 gallons in a can and 5 gallons in the generator. I swear by Stabil. Mower is also ten years old, but is a Honda so that’s no surprise. The free snowblower is a $700 Troy-Bilt. I have a Honda Snow thrower which is good for about 90% of our storms. And yes Grim, it’s a pull-start. Not a real big deal though as she starts first pull every time. So call me an animal.
56. Toxic is right.
Run your equipment BONE DRY before storage. At the end of the season drain what you can, start it and come here to post till the engine stops running.
Agree with bone dry, I only ever put stabil in my generator, since the fuel tank is so damn large.
Rags [56];
Don’t bother. I just bought the 208cc/7HP 24″ Cub Cadet from Costco ($700). I’ve therefore guaranteed no appreciable snow this winter. When I think of it, cheap insurance.
Troy-bilt name back in the day had some cache, but I believe most of the recent products have just been rebadged MTD equipment. It’s not bad, but don’t turn your nose up at the Yard Machines snowblower, because it’s the same thing. Believe all the Craftsman equipment is made by MTD also.
66 – My snow thrower is old school, single stage w/ a two stage motor so, I just make sure I buy the two stroke oil with the fuel stabilizers mixed in already.
The previous owner killed the electric start…….pounded on the button over and over and burned it out. Had an old spark plug and crappy gas in it….they pressed it in desperation on a snowy day and burned it out. So, I just use the pull start….with fresh gas and a new spark plug it only takes one or two pulls on a cold day.
(sorry two stage motor should be….two stroke)
Buy 93 octane. Buy stabil and ethanol shield. I wouldn’t use fuel that is more than a month old. Got damn ethanol is the worst. Like I stated previously with comparing gas prices from 20 years ago to today, it’s a moot argument. You used to get 100% real gas. Now you get crap that breaks your carb in less than a season. Went through hell with this problem. My commercial blower has went through 3 70 dollar carbs in 3 years. Total bs.
Con’t [67];
The snowblower came with a bottle of Stabil, so I guess they’ve identified the most common cause of returns within the 3-yr warranty period.
71- think of the gas of today as watered down with corn alcohol. Talk about ripping off the consumer. Paying a lot of money for 85% gas, and who knows what kind of chemicals they have engineered to put into the fuel to further dilute that over the years.
71 – I disagree with that. Especially on a snow thrower. Higher octane gas is actually is only different in that it requires higher pressure to ignite. I’m no scientist, but I want my gasoline to ignite more easily in colder weather.
I have a snow shovel, works great.
JJ [75];
You’ve also got all of 40′ flat sidewalk to shovel, and you can borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbor without either of you leaving your kitchen.
gluteus (15)-
Why don’t you just stay there, you brain-infected wanker? Can’t wait for my Magpies to lay a beatdown on your pathetic girlymen.
“Just back from Europe.”
Funny, corn alcohol comes from the midwest, your gasoline comes from some god forsaken middle eastern country who is hell bent on cutting your head off.
I’ll take the alcohol.
Thanks.
JJ, I was actually referring to my 6 year old. I like to refer to him as my snow thrower. I hand him a shovel and promise not to feed him the cheap stuff if he does a good job.
jj says:
November 11, 2014 at 11:17 am
I have a snow shovel, works great.
grim (25)-
No chance. And the new AG- a big Holder pal, natch- will have no taste for anything more than helping cover up his crimes.
People like Holder should simply be dragged into the public square and summarily executed. However, we have no taste for the necessary things that must be done.
“Holder should be tried for Treason.”
Waiting for the “we are a nation of laws” drivel to start. Yeah, we’re a nation of laws, alright: laws enacted and enforced to give you and me a good, old-fashioned arse-reaming.
Don’t hand him a shovel, tell him to get it himself. Even better rent him the shovel.
Cant be coddling the kids.
Toxic Crayons says:
November 11, 2014 at 11:26 am
JJ, I was actually referring to my 6 year old. I like to refer to him as my snow thrower. I hand him a shovel and promise not to feed him the cheap stuff if he does a good job.
jj says:
November 11, 2014 at 11:17 am
I have a snow shovel, works great.
grim (39)-
Why would anyone in his right mind (other than a master distiller, such as you ;) open a business in NJ or move one to NJ? It is financial suicide…as I managed to prove to myself.
“No large casino operator is ever going to enter the market with the level of political and legislative risk associated with the market. It’s like operating in a market rift with unknowns, at the whim of politicians making rash decisions and completely changing operating models.”
woops…said the casin0 word. Moderated.
Still came yesterday, it’s a beauty.
https://www.facebook.com/silkcitydistillers
Just enjoying the mental image of stu filling his leaf blower with jet fuel…
86 – That’s the kind of equipment that’s really needed in AC.
The reason why you need the higher octane in small engines today is due to the ethanol. The ethonal attracts water and lowers the octane rather quickly. The gas goes stale quickly.
“With the ethanol separated from the gasoline, the layer of gasoline now as a lower octane level than the original ethanol gasoline blend. If you originally bought 87 or 89 octane fuel,
Water and ethanol (bottom)
separated from gasoline (top)
the gasoline layer in your storage container now has a lower octane than what the engine manufacturer intended to be used, resulting in unstable engine operation, power loss and major engine failures.”
http://www.stihlusablog.com/2012/03/gasoline-guidelines-for-stihl-outdoor.html
Toxic Crayons says:
November 11, 2014 at 11:09 am
71 – I disagree with that. Especially on a snow thrower. Higher octane gas is actually is only different in that it requires higher pressure to ignite. I’m no scientist, but I want my gasoline to ignite more easily in colder weather.
Grim you have a kid now your not supposed to still hit the gym;)
88 – Nice comment in there about using 100LL av gas and having your equipment last forever, like I said above. Funny thing about lead, it works, it’s great.
Maybe moose can chime in, but I didn’t think you were allowed to just walk over to Lincoln Park airport and fill up a can of av gas anymore. Will they let you?
Six bucks a gallon?
Teterboro might not, but smaller airfields, like Lincoln Park might. By the way, nice Still shots. Can’t wait to sample that first batch.
The column and condensers are still all packed up, I may head over there tonight to grab some parts and take some more photos.
LL,
Here’s the new version of “rule of law” in the US.
1) Pass a law once creating a new bureaucratic agency with vague but happy-sounding goals
2) Have them start making shit up depending on how the president and lobbyists feel. 3) Their rules and regulation then become de-facto new law, without bothering with the legislative process.
4) Tell congress they have to fund all that shit and the people who think it up or “they are shutting down government”
Yup, that will teach those jumpers a lessson….
Best line from the article- “city officials hope will make it more difficult for people intending to take their own lives.”
Fence goes up on Victory Bridge, where 23 suicides have occurred
http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2014/11/fences_go_up_on_victory_bridge_where_23_suicides_have_occurred_photos.html#incart_river
Why is it we just can’t let them jump?
only 1.4 million. Only in NJ.
Wait a minute, $1,400,000 to cover an existing 5 foot tall steel guard rail with 5 feet of chain link fence, with simple metal ties?
Holy jesus no wonder we’re bankrupt, that’s what, $10k worth of materials, probably two days work?
Who is pocketing the other $1.35 million as profit?
And this is stopping someone from committing suicide? I want to kill myself just looking at this insane wastefulness and idiocy.
@firefox: We stand for the open Web & are thrilled to hear @WhiteHouse’s plan to protect #NetNeutrality on our 10th anniversary
Grim, as a frequent crosser of the GWB. I have never seen one trying to flight, but I have been inconvenience by the response.
You got to have some heart for us poor commuters that get stuck by the combined response of NYPD, FDNY, and PAPD. It’s like a memorial day parade with so many lights, bells, wistles and siren.
So yes, put a damn fence around any bridge that attracts the troubled.
PS. Christie ordered Bridgegate. Don’t think I have forgotten that pea brain fat bastard.
I can sum up net neutrality very easily, it doesn’t take 7 pages or tech jargon.
Today, Comcast can tell Amazon it wants a $100 million dollar fee for carrying it’s bandwidth to the end-customer, and if Amazon doesn’t pay $100 million, it can very easily shut down access to Amazon. Amazon would sue, but would likely be powerless to fight this. Net Neutrality says Comcast doesn’t have the right to do this.
Or let’s say it this way, let’s say you work for a small business, who sells products on the internet. Comcast signs a deal with your competitor, Walmart, providing them preferential access. Unless you also pay said fee, your bandwidth is carried at the slowest possible speeds, and your customers are now routinely frustrated by the slow speed of your website. You go out of business and lose your company. This is net neutrality.
The cost to deliver 1 megabyte of data to the end user is the same, regardless of what is contained in that 1 megabyte.
What the cable companies are saying is that my megabyte is more valuable than your megabyte, and I should pay more for it, even though my customers are already paying the cable companies a very pretty penny for monthly internet access.
The real issue here is not net neutrality, it’s that the cable companies are losing their role as a content provider, because they’ve taken a sweetheart business and turned it to shit, exploiting customers.
grim,
Does it matter, in your opinion, that certain businesses such as Netflix are heavy users compared to others?
@BarackObama: The internet shouldn’t have gatekeepers. Add your name if you agree: #NetNeutrality
No, the “problem” is that people are preferentially selecting to purchase their content from Netflix and not through a cable subscription, which is a threat to the cable industry.
The cable industry is dead set on maintaining it’s role as the content toll collector.
This argument about heavy utilization is a red herring, the issue is not the bandwidth at all, but the profits associated with content delivery.
HBO announcing that it would sell streaming services without a cable subscription was a death knell for the cable industry.
Telephone cord cutters will transform into coax cutters. Why can’t I pay for internet access and buy my content from the content producers that I want to buy from? Why again is it that I need Comcast, Cablevision, or Time Warner to broker and curate the content for me?
What value are they bringing me for $175 a month?
1. Regulating the internet like a utility makes sense because ISPs don’t actually compete
Free markets are great in theory because they allow people to decide for themselves the kind of products and services they want, and the consequence is that businesses will compete for their attention by making the best possible stuff at the lowest possible price. So it makes sense that Republicans would want broadband internet to be sold with as little interference as possible from the government.
There’s just one huge, glaring problem: there’s actually no meaningful competition in the broadband market. “None. Zero. Nothing. It is a wasteland.” The market is fundamentally broken; people can’t make real choices about who to buy internet from. In a lot of places, your only option is Comcast. Regulating broadband like a utility will provide more options for consumers and make the broadband market more like the ideal kind of market conservatives value.
“What value are they bringing me for $175 a month?”
So Cable providers are becoming Bandwidth Suppliers. Still can’t figure out why Apple hasn’t released a video version of iTunes?
If (when) that comes to fruition, do you your monthly internet bill will be usage based?
3. Net neutrality is the only way to protect the free market of the internet from monopolists like Comcast and Verizon
Monopolies are as much of a threat to free markets as meddlesome governments, but monopolies can’t really exist without the government’s help; ironically, killing net neutrality will do more damage to the free market by preserving a status quo that already transfers massive amounts of wealth and power from the government to just a few companies. So far these companies have been reined in slightly by net neutrality rules, which prevent them from completely manipulating who gets to use the internet and how they use it.
Mobile internet, for example, relies on doling out precious bands of the electromagnetic spectrum to companies that build and operate networks. Spectrum is a finite resource managed by the government, and ISPs like Verizon and AT&T have dominated the market by cornering spectrum sales and wielding huge influence over how their networks can be used. Consumers can’t make useful decisions that will have real impacts on ISPs if the providers are powerful enough to ignore their preferences. In the case of wireless networks like Verizon and AT&T, many upstart competitors are literally locked out because of the laws of physics.
The cable companies would love for you to believe that they control the network from the time it leaves Netflix and gets to my TV, but the reality is that they don’t. Companies like Netflix are already paying significant fees for network connectivity and bandwidth. The cable companies control only the last mile, and in some cases significantly less than the last mile. In the grand scheme of the “internet”, they control a minuscule piece of the network, yet they are claiming they are feeling all of the associated pain. The “free rider” argument is hogwash, a red herring, a diversion, as Netflix has already compensated carriers for every byte of data traversed until they hit the cable companies networks.
And Ted Cruz is a f*cking idiot.
Like I said earlier, municipal franchise agreements allow cable companies to operate as defacto monopolies today, just as utilities. There is no competition because there can be no competition, I do not have the right to hang my cables on the poles. The only reason some areas of NJ had access to either Verizon FIOS and Cable were because of historical exception. No new market entrant would be able to do this.
Ragnar nailed it above, the revolution is coming, and it will be wireless.
Why? Because the laws as written, the laws that protect the monopolies, will not apply, the laws talk wires, cables, poles. Go long air rights, antennas are fair game.
I can’t wait for municipalities across the US to scream bloody murder than they are no longer capturing significant franchise revenue associated with the monopoly.
4. Net neutrality will expand liberty and free expression
The great irony of net neutrality becoming a partisan issue is that it is, by its very definition, about creating a level playing field that doesn’t discriminate against types of expression. Net neutrality is just that: neutral.
Net neutrality is nothing like, as one of those emails I received had insinuated, the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” — an FCC policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses to present competing views on issues of public importance. Republicans have rightly blasted recent efforts to revive this kind of policy for being a heavy-handed form of governmental interference in the marketplace of ideas.
Net neutrality is actually the opposite of something like the Fairness Doctrine. The fundamental principle of net neutrality is equality: the idea that all information being carried on the network should be treated the same. It means that data coming from Senator Ted Cruz’s website should be treated exactly the same as data coming from President Obama’s website, and that companies like Verizon and Comcast shouldn’t manipulate how that data is delivered.
Net neutrality is pure capitalism, anything else is akin to crony capitalism. I’m paying for a service, charge accordingly….traffic…is traffic…is traffic, I’ll gladly pay to send and receive data but that data is my business, any attempts and segmenting traffic and charging for will just stifle competition and promote inefficiency. I find it amusing that the typically pro capitalist, free market boosters are ok without net neutrality. Capitalism depends heavily on light regulation, laws need to allow FAIR competition between businesses so that the strongest performers thrive. An internet without net neutrality is essentially an inefficient market.
Wireless could change the playing field, but I know that Comcast and FIOS spent a bloody fortune laying Fiber and Coax to get the bandwidth to their customers. I remember the initial FIOS cost being $2,000 per sub. Last I cared it was around $800. So without Comcast and FIOS, who has the financial resources to build out the network? Without the network, how am I getting Netflix?
Just snooping around on my own PC, running Netflix. It really looks like Level 3 is doing the lions share of network delivery when streaming Netflix, and not the cable company. In fact, it appears the data very quickly leaves the cable companies network, traversing to Level 3, which makes the long haul connections until it hits another communications provider, XO, which appears to be providing last-mile connectivity to the data center. In this model, both XO and Level 3 are already being handsomely compensated for carrying the traffic, and we as consumers are handsomely compensating the cable companies for providing our last mile connection.
Again, what burden? These companies went into business to provide internet access, bits and bytes, and now they are claiming that there are too many bits and bytes?
Red herring.
Cable companies will see revenues crater if they are no longer in control of reselling the content.
I’m sorry…is there some kind of petition circulating here to neuter anon?
Please consider this my signature.
Net Neutrality explained (with helpful pictures for dummies)
http://theoatmeal.com/blog/net_neutrality
The last mile is everything, and the most expensive to create and maintain for a variety of reasons….both man and machine related……
grim says:
November 11, 2014 at 1:40 pm
The cable companies would love for you to believe that they control the network from the time it leaves Netflix and gets to my TV, but the reality is that they don’t. Companies like Netflix are already paying significant fees for network connectivity and bandwidth. The cable companies control only the last mile, and in some cases significantly less than the last mile. In the grand scheme of the “internet”, they control a minuscule piece of the network, yet they are claiming they are feeling all of the associated pain. The “free rider” argument is hogwash, a red herring, a diversion, as Netflix has already compensated carriers for every byte of data traversed until they hit the cable companies networks.
What’s to neuter? They haven’t developed the nano-technology to perform such an operation.
To be clear, what you are arguing is that the Prudential Center and your house in Wayne should be charged the same amount for electric use, regardless of the fact that PSE&G spends the vast majority of more time, effort, and money keeping the Devils in business.
You would have no issue with Christie dictating such a scheme to PSE&G, and also the incentive that provides others to attempt to mimic it…..
Further, in order to allow such an environment, your house would need to be blacked out from time to time in order to deal with the demand when a hockey game is in session….or the Biebs plays The Rock.
The last mile is everything, and the most expensive to create and maintain for a variety of reasons….both man and machine related……
Fine, but explain to me why resale of content is necessary to maintain this network as opposed to providing last mile connectivity alone?
Are you saying that it is not economically viable to be an ISP and provide unfettered internet access? Somehow the resale of marked up content subsidizes the network cost?
119 – Your analogy is nonsense. You want a more appropriate analogy?
It’s like PSEG telling me I should pay 2 cents more a kilowatt hour to charge a dildo, because that’s a premium service compared to toasting bread in my oven, even though in both cases, the electrons are identical.
Do they make rechargeable dild0s? There could be an untapped market there.
That’s not going to happen, that upcharge, right, that was just hypothetical…?
Looking at TwC’s 2013 Financial Statements, it’s pretty clear, they are two completely different companies operating as one.
The operating entity that manages the physical infrastructure, and the operating entity that resells video content, two wholly different businesses.
The physical network business is small, and doesn’t appear to represent significant cost or revenue.
The content resale business is massive, carries with it huge revenues, but also huge costs.
Clear why TwC would want to protect it’s position as the single source of content in the markets they operate in. Without that, they’d be relatively small and boring businesses. Hell even the capex associated with network improvements and infrastructure is significantly smaller than I would have expected it to be.
Extortion…..legalized
http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2014/04/25/this-hilarious-graph-of-netflix-speeds-shows-the-importance-of-net-neutrality/
Grim,
I suppose one could counter the cable companies with a class-action lawsuit, saying that they advertised 10gb/s, or 50 gb/s, or 100gb/s, and instead were only selectively delivering depending on what source the customer chose (though then the question becomes, was it the source’s fault or the cable company’s fault that the speed couldn’t be made). I have heard that someone has to invest in infrastructure in many locations to get high speeds to be achieved in practice, including the cable companies, or parties the cable companies are spending money on. Is this the case?
I know that high speed capability isn’t just some free service that comes from wishing. (I suspect Anon’s mental model is “high speed is here, somehow, so let’s ‘spread it around'”, much like Oblamer’s view on wealth.) But I don’t know who is doing the bulk of investment and why. I have to believe that higher speeds come from someone investing, and in general think it’s likely that market forces rather than price controls and/or mandatory carry are most likely to deliver investment to what the market demands and is willing to pay for.
So my fear of the govt-connected utility model is that it will inevitably lead to stagnation and further distortions, as such models almost always seem to.
I’m a Cablevision subscriber btw, I think at 100GB speed (or maybe 50GB). The practical limit is via my wifi network, using a Nighthawk router. I don’t use Netflix, instead use Amazon Prime video occasionally via PS4. Also have a specialty Chinese TV box running on internet via WiFi. Throw in some computers and phones/tablets.
Internet speed is never a problem for me, streaming high def video on PS4, while running some other devices, possibly another high def video stream.
4K high def streaming would probably be more of a challenge, but that’s at least a couple years away.
Grim: I believe it is more appropriate to consider the total amount information needed to run a toaster oven versus a full movie contains content such as a d!ldo. Almost by definition you will be a bandwidth hog, so you stand where you sit.
this whole issue is so halff-ast
To Rags point. There is no monopoly. If there were, they would doom themselves to failure because there would be a high powered incentive to create a cheaper alternative ASAP.
In my town, there is one Cable/ISP.
chi in People’s Republic of Ithaca says:
November 11, 2014 at 3:19 pm
There is no monopoly.
Re: 100LL (100-octane Low Lead)
Most suppliers have policy restrictions the limit or prohibit off-airport sales. I’d say you might be able to get some from an airport the size of Lincoln Park $6.39/gal. 100ll.com), Greenwood Lake, Blairstown or the like — you’d have to ask nicely, discretely, convince them you’re a racer. Buy at least 10 gal (see, racer) and pay cash — don’t ask for change. You go anyplace much larger than that — say Caldwell, probably a no go (particularly with the FAA right on the field at Caldwell) and just forget anyplace the size of Morristown, Teterboro ($10/gal last time I looked) and up.
One thing I will mention with 100LL — lead fouling of plugs. Almost all piston-powered aircraft engines burn 100LL, but many don’t need it (some have paperwork that lets them burn 93UL autogas, if it is not polluted with corn squeezins). The lead raises the octane. Engines that don’t specifically need the higher octane can suffer from lead deposits
Also the octane method used to measure 100LL is not the same as autogas, so strictly speaking its not an apples-to-apples comparison, but its close — ~4-5 octane difference +/-.
Lol ….insanity. People cry about govt workers, but never about this. Some private sector business man making out like a bandit on our tax dollars. That’s why the public vs private debate is pointless. What makes you think there is any difference. Either one will suffer from corruption. So why even make this an argument. At least if it’s a govt run issue, you can have a chance at doing something about it. Private business, good luck at stopping the corruption. Literally impossible.
grim says:
November 11, 2014 at 1:09 pm
Wait a minute, $1,400,000 to cover an existing 5 foot tall steel guard rail with 5 feet of chain link fence, with simple metal ties?
Holy jesus no wonder we’re bankrupt, that’s what, $10k worth of materials, probably two days work?
Who is pocketing the other $1.35 million as profit?
And this is stopping someone from committing suicide? I want to kill myself just looking at this insane wastefulness and idiocy.
RE: net-neutrality
I’m nominally with Grim here, despite my laissez-faire predisposition. Cable companies were given exclusive access to that last mile; just like utilities. They should be treated as such.
Myself, I’d love to just give Cablevision the finger — I can get satellite TV, but there’s no FIOS in my neighborhood. Experiments with tethering to my phone for 4G wireless internet have been unimpressive to date.
I am strongly considering moving to Dish or DirecTV and using Cablevision for Internet only at $65 a month.
Michael [133];
Who’s signing the check? That’s what makes it a government boondoggle. The money is always going to end up in the private sector, either as salary and materials or as a contract payment (which is salary + materials + profit).
The point is the gubmint bureaucrat is not spending their own money, and doesn’t get to keep what they don’t spend — thus no incentive to find a better price than $1.4 MM, or just keep the money in reserve.
FIOS not an option here since large swaths of the neighborhood use underground utilities and Verizon is unwilling the bear the cost of the deployment.
I believe the FIOS deployment is considered closed at this point, so if you don’t have it now, you may never have it.
I think it’s been said here, but Verzion has laid all the fiber that they ever will in support of FIOS. They’re done expanding.
Last I heard the Kansas state legislature was working with the Cable TV lobby to pass new legislation prohibiting the expansion of Google Fiber in Kansas.
No, no monopoly.
I guess grim and other’s initial reaction counts as nothing. Nor does the majority of the comments on the article. I thought you were an expert on copying and pasting them here for us?
Michael says:
November 11, 2014 at 3:30 pm
Lol ….insanity. People cry about govt workers, but never about this.
Abe Vigoda > Big Bank Hank
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2014/11/big_bank_hank_sugarhill_gang_rapper_dies.html#incart_river
It is govt. run now, moron.
Michael says:
November 11, 2014 at 3:30 pm
At least if it’s a govt run issue, you can have a chance at doing something about it. Private business, good luck at stopping the corruption. Literally impossible.
Same here with FIOS. I liked it when I had it 5 yrs ago. Don’t have much complaints with Cablevision other than the price of the package, and the fact that the Scientific Atlanta boxes and interface is slow and sux. But compared to my wife and daughter’s latest Iphone 6 + data packages, it’s a pretty good deal.
I don’t know how the median income family can handle paying $400/mo on cable, internet, Iphones, messaging, calling, etc. Since my main expenses these days are taxes, I don’t mind paying for stuff where I actually get something in return besides insults from leftist politicians and the masses that support them.
Excuse me… Idiot
Explaining things to you, in a way that you can understand, is what’s literally impossible.
Def agree with that angle. Never a good thing to let someone spend what they have not earned. Always ends badly.
Anon E. Moose says:
November 11, 2014 at 3:37 pm
Michael [133];
Who’s signing the check? That’s what makes it a government boondoggle. The money is always going to end up in the private sector, either as salary and materials or as a contract payment (which is salary + materials + profit).
The point is the gubmint bureaucrat is not spending their own money, and doesn’t get to keep what they don’t spend — thus no incentive to find a better price than $1.4 MM, or just keep the money in reserve.
From the Philly Inquirer:
Will Verizon be allowed to break its FiOS promise to New Jersey?
Verizon customers in New Jersey have paid $15 billion in surcharges in return for the telecommunications giant’s guarantee that it would deliver broadband internet to every resident of the Garden State by 2010.
Now, some critics say that Verizon won’t ever have to deliver on the promise. Four years past the deadline, wide swathes of New Jersey – especially in the southern portion of the state – remain without access to the fastest form of broadband – fiber optic service. One vocal critic says up to 50 percent of the state remains without and that Verizon is actively working to renege on its legal obligations.
…
According to Kushnick, the state has given Verizon an opportunity to “erase the law.” He said the roots of the Verizon issue stem from 1991. At that time, Verizon New Jersey said it would transform the state into the first completely wired with fiber optic cable in a plan known as Opportunity New Jersey. Customers paid Verizon about $15 billion dollars in excess phone charges and tax breaks to perform the construction over two decades – in addition to rate increases along the way.
I was generalizing. Not speaking to anyone directly. Most of the general public are blind to how their tax dollars are stolen. They always blame pensions and govt workers.
joyce says:
November 11, 2014 at 3:43 pm
I guess grim and other’s initial reaction counts as nothing. Nor does the majority of the comments on the article. I thought you were an expert on copying and pasting them here for us?
Michael says:
November 11, 2014 at 3:30 pm
Lol ….insanity. People cry about govt workers, but never about this.
114 – they are dinosaurs. Stream NBC?
NBC broadcasts in high def, who needs to stream, quality over-the-air is better than through cable for me.
I have reason to believe that chi is in Ithaca on a choom vacation. :)
Someone post The Department Of The Internet by Andy Kessler, an Op-Ed on page A15 of today’s WSJ. I am working off my phone right now. Thank you in advance.
I never counted, but I get something like 20 channels over the air. 20 channels of shit, but not like cable is any better.
If you are interested in being a cord cutter, you can find your OTA options here:
http://www.antennaweb.org/Default.aspx
” I am working off my phone right now.”
Translated:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qCaeKipAtA
Joyce. I disagree with your statement about ISPs
The Department Of The Internet
A complete bastardization of understanding of the Internet.
The Silicon Valley crowd particularly likes the net-neut idea, because it would mean cheaper access for companies like Google and Netflix, who are heavy bandwidth users.
This is the only statement I need to read to know that the author is full of crap.
If there ever was an argument for net neutrality, just look at who is against it. Wall Street dirtbags trying to get their hands in our pockets one more time.
Half of them can’t even articulate a decent argument against it and instead keep trying to resort to buzzwords like investment, capital, stagnation, etc.
nwnj,
Investment and capital aren’t buzzwords, they’re the main source of difference between life here and life in Sierra Leone. Stagnation also isn’t a buzzword, it’s what we’re living in now that “investment” is now being mostly diverted into cental bank + treasury bubbles/scams, rather than the real economy.
When it’s NJ residents footing the bill, how you do define who is making the “investment”?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/the-contime-merger-do-we-_b_4839339.html
Grim [149];
Yeah, OTA works for some. I pitched cable while living on LI for a few years. Basic UHF antenna brought in 5 majors, 2 independents, and 3 PBS. Spent a bit on DVDs for the kids, too, but overall a net savings over cable tv.
Antennaweb tells me NG where I am (in a bit of a valley — top of my street along the ridge line can get NYC and Philly – though I’d need a directional antenna. Something like Aereo would have been great for me; except the Supremes knocked it down on flimsy reasoning.
Grim,
That fiber deal is pretty sleazy, I wonder why NJ isn’t enforcing the contract.
No wonder I only get Cablevision, when the other half of the town gets both to choose from. Get a reward to reach 100% of the market, serve the most profitable 50%, then rewrite your deal.
Huge swaths of Monmouth can’t even get Verizon, I know I cant. Cable company knows too and just jacked me up another $20 and threw in some garbage movie channel, I think the channel is called Lube?
Too many trees in my yard for the dishes.
Really ridiculous thing was if I canceled my phone service, my high speed internet increased by the same amount. So I have a phone line with no actual phone in the house. Maybe I’ll dig up my old fax and do the old roll trick with eff you written on it send it to Cablevision billing dept.
Sorry Lib, not my area of expertise on the small engine stuff. I sell plumbing and heating equipment. I know just enough to ruin my stuff when I try to fix them myself.
Grim. How can you casually disregard the Op-Ed? It is a history lesson, not a partisan diatribe.
BTW. I worked for AT & T. The Op-Ed hits all the main points.
We picked our neighborhood Monmouth partly because because there are no utility poles, all underground wiring and we have FIOS too. When my wife and I were looking she intentionally passed on all streets that had telephone poles, house did not matter much to her if there was a utility pole out front.
re # 149 re: – NBC broadcasts in high def.
FIOS Mobile does the same, many channel are available. Kids won’t let me watch the game on the 4k TV? I go for the tablet, tablet not available because wife is shopping for curtains? I go for my Samsung S5 or iPhone 6 + and head to my garage and hide.
You’re right again. I’ve never heard anyone blaming tax loopholes for the rich / corporations.
Michael says:
November 11, 2014 at 3:48 pm
I was generalizing. Not speaking to anyone directly. Most of the general public are blind to how their tax dollars are stolen. They always blame pensions and govt workers.
grim – that glass on your web site is exactly “my” glass. I was thinking back recently how my Dad always had “his” glass, which there was no match to, for his after work drink and how silly I thought it was at the time. Sure enough, we (actually my wife), has broken every one of those knife-edge rock glasses save one and now I find myself asking, like my dad, “Where is my glass?”
Care to elaborate?
chi on NJT North Jersey Coast Train 3256 in Newark Penn says:
November 11, 2014 at 4:08 pm
Joyce. I disagree with your statement about ISPs
I worked for Verizon in my past, nothing too exiting and I left for Dot Com riches which sadly did not pan out although it was allot of fun. Planning for fiber to the home in the 90s was a huge deal, CEO at the time Ivan Sidenberg a former splicer made it happen. Verizon started in the South and Western states where there was less regulation. Great guy too, friend was related and he would come over and play Nintendo at the holiday party, way back in the day of-course.
Elizabeth Warren’s Op-Ed in The Washington Post:
Elizabeth Warren: It’s time to work on America’s agenda
There have been terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Election Days for Democrats before — and Republicans have had a few of those, too. Such days are always followed by plenty of pronouncements about what just changed and what’s going to be different going forward.
But for all the talk of change in Washington and in states where one party is taking over from another, one thing has not changed: The stock market and gross domestic product keep going up, while families are getting squeezed hard by an economy that isn’t working for them.
The solution to this isn’t a basket of quickly passed laws designed to prove Congress can do something — anything. The solution isn’t for the president to cut deals — any deals — just to show he can do business. The solution requires an honest recognition of the kind of changes needed if families are going to get a shot at building a secure future.
It’s not about big government or small government. It’s not the size of government that worries people; rather it’s deep-down concern over who government works for. People are ready to work, ready to do their part, ready to fight for their futures and their kids’ futures, but they see a government that bows and scrapes for big corporations, big banks, big oil companies and big political donors — and they know this government does not work for them.
The American people want a fighting chance to build better lives for their families. They want a government that will stand up to the big banks when they break the law. A government that helps out students who are getting crushed by debt. A government that will protect and expand Social Security for our seniors and raise the minimum wage.
Americans understand that building a prosperous future isn’t free. They want us to invest carefully and prudently, sharply aware that Congress spends the people’s money. They want us to make investments that will pay off in their lives, investments in the roads and power grids that make it easier for businesses to create good jobs here in America, investments in medical and scientific research that spur new discoveries and economic growth, and investments in educating our children so they can build a future for themselves and their children.
Before leaders in Congress and the president get caught up in proving they can pass some new laws, everyone should take a skeptical look at whom those new laws will serve. At this very minute, lobbyists and lawyers are lining up by the thousands to push for new laws — laws that will help their rich and powerful clients get richer and more powerful. Hoping to catch a wave of dealmaking, these lobbyists and lawyers — and their well-heeled clients — are looking for the chance to rig the game just a little more.
But the lobbyists’ agenda is not America’s agenda. Americans are deeply suspicious of trade deals negotiated in secret, with chief executives invited into the room while the workers whose jobs are on the line are locked outside. They have been burned enough times on tax deals that carefully protect the tender fannies of billionaires and big oil and other big political donors, while working families just get hammered. They are appalled by Wall Street banks that got taxpayer bailouts and now whine that the laws are too tough, even as they rake in billions in profits. If cutting deals means helping big corporations, Wall Street banks and the already-powerful, that isn’t a victory for the American people — it’s just another round of the same old rigged game.
Yes, we need action. But action must be focused in the right place: on ending tax laws riddled with loopholes that favor giant corporations, on breaking up the financial institutions that continue to threaten our economy, and on giving people struggling with high-interest student loans the same chance to refinance their debt that every Wall Street corporation enjoys. There’s no shortage of work that Congress can do, but the agenda shouldn’t be drawn up by a bunch of corporate lobbyists and lawyers.
Change is hard, especially when the playing field is already tilted so far in favor of those with money and influence. But this government belongs to the American people, and it’s time to work on America’s agenda. America is ready — and Congress should be ready, too.
LOL. I didn’t know I was so behind on drug technology: http://www.hightimes.com/watch/high-times-how-do-dab
By the way my FIOS Actiontec router rocks. Gig-E for wired home networking devices and and easy 50 Mbps up and 50 Mbps down internet.
802.11n wireless is standard, haven’t needed to go 802.11ac yet, but I can get the new Greenwave G1100 with 802.11ac with Zigbee home automation support,that would be for the 5th wave Internet of Things devices.
http://www.zigbee.org/Products/ByStandard/ZigBeeHomeAutomation.aspx
re # 170- Dems had their chance when they had the 111th Congress and Potus, all they got done was the ACA in 2010, they had plenty of time for reining in everything else, but I gather their members aren’t as Dem as they say.
Regarding the FCC. Let’s assume for now with political pressure Net Neutrality will continue, however by their choice which is the FCC’s alone to make under current law, the winners are chosen anyway.
There really is another side to the coin, the existence of a free and dominant chat, e-mail, search, and social-networking services, it awfully hard for any competitor to arise.
Access to the railroad or utility power lines was never free and today requires massive capital, who is to say anyone will ever compete with Facebook, Google etc if they get their lunch for free?
juice (165)-
I thought you only did that to work on the dirty bomb you’re building.
“Kids won’t let me watch the game on the 4k TV? I go for the tablet, tablet not available because wife is shopping for curtains? I go for my Samsung S5 or iPhone 6 + and head to my garage and hide.”
expat (167)-
Just chug it out of the bottle. Works for me, and there’s less cleanup after.
“I was thinking back recently how my Dad always had “his” glass, which there was no match to, for his after work drink and how silly I thought it was at the time. Sure enough, we (actually my wife), has broken every one of those knife-edge rock glasses save one and now I find myself asking, like my dad, “Where is my glass?”
Liz Warren writes good. Too bad she’s just another shrill old hag who just hasn’t figured out who her masters really are.
If she even gets a sniff of running for Prez, those masters will introduce themselves to her in a manner that is subtle, yet effective.
Hint: her masters are not you and me. She puked up any chance of that the day she filled in the “Native Amerikan” box on that college app.
Luge – that was high school. I am currently watching for an X-Flare that will make us all irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, in the interim I will enjoy life just like you.
More Memphis stories please, I live vicariously these days.
expat (171)-
WTF is that? Good lord, nothing about that looks like fun.
juice (178)-
Just another round of day drinking and barbecue here. In other words, your typical Memphis Tuesday. Germantown Commissary still turns out a good plate of shredded pig.
just got moderated twice for “b@th s@lts”…
re: # 180 – never said it but thanks, tomorrow I will live vicariously and listen to some
Memphis blues on my way to work.
Cheers
Sean
juice (182)-
Listen to gunfire. It’s the new Memphis sound.
Three 6 Mafia for life, mofo!
[179] Clot – Hope your Southern sojourn is going well. Yeah, I didn’t know WTF that was either, but did a search on “dab” based on your post of [153] and another vid by that same chick, and that’s what I came up with. I guess a little dab’ll do ya.
expat (171)-
WTF is that? Good lord, nothing about that looks like fun.
Here’s your gal (never heard of a gravity b0ng either):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X51PYX80kGQ&list=UUdS7PjPJnhaxGekVfJpS4ww