C19 Open Discussion Week 22b

From InsiderNJ:

NJ Business Coalition Urges Governor to Let New Jersey Reopen for Business

With coronavirus numbers in the state declining, the New Jersey Business Coalition, a collection of more than 100 business and nonprofit groups, submitted a letter to Gov. Phil Murphy today urging him to end the “pause mode” of the reopening of New Jersey’s businesses.

The coalition’s Recovery and Reinvention Framework 2.0, a comprehensive update to the original framework issued in early May, points to improving numbers in reported cases, decreased hospitalizations and better capacity in the state’s healthcare facilities and strongly encourages a broader or regional reopening of New Jersey’s economy.

The letter states: “If ‘data determines dates’ relative to reopening, as Governor Murphy has consistently said, it is appropriate that as our COVID-19 cases continue to go down, New Jersey’s economic numbers should rise. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and we find ourselves and our economy in an unnecessary and extenuated ‘pause mode.’

“With a rate of transmission of .98 and a positivity rate of 1.6%, there is no reason not to proceed to reopen our economy.”

Absent an immediate move to continue the reopening process, the coalition called on Gov. Murphy to immediately present plans for three coronavirus-based scenarios, with triggers driving levels of reopening activity, to allow businesses to properly plan for whatever comes next.

The coalition also called for a regional approach to opening, based on data, if there is not a willingness to fully reopen the state for business.

“Decisive action is needed immediately so businesses will know whether to plan for a further reopening now or a prolonged limit on their business, necessitating greater government support,” the coalition explained.

“As such, a grid of ‘safe’ vs. ‘cautious’ counties can easily be developed. We should continue to reopen in regions of the state where the trend lines indicate the ability to do so.”

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332 Responses to C19 Open Discussion Week 22b

  1. grim says:

    Arguable that a regionalized strategy makes a lot of sense.

    Sussex, Hunterdon, and Warren

  2. leftwing says:

    technical frist…..

  3. leftwing says:

    Regional strategy would make sense. Hell, any strategy from Murphy other than “this is what I’m thinking today” would make sense….

    I particularly like the idea of clearly delineated, publicly disclosed signposts.

    Bigger picture, I’ve a serious case of cognitive dissonance re: C19 and it’s at risk of hitting my portfolio…..

    Hard to know what to think….CEO interviews with multi-national businesses are talking about China being nearly “back to normal” economically….NYT front page on my phone app has three measures tracked consistently during the pandemic with graphics…new cases, new deaths, and states where cases are rising the fastest…the first two are in hard decline and have been for at least two weeks, the third was changed to cases per capita as those arrows were all pointing down….the market to the extent we want to use it as the ultimate objective arbiter just missed closing at an ATH yesterday…..

    Yet, we don’t re-open, our cities are emptying out, college sports are cancelled, kids of all ages K-16 are looking at remote learning….no politics here, just seems like there are two parallel universes and these governors don’t give a sh1t. I don’t know what to think at this point and can’t recall another time recently where I was actually at a loss for a reasoned view on a major issue…..

  4. leftwing says:

    “For those who have problems with the school systems, it’s the mommies. Mommies pro-mask, mommies against mask, mommies pro-vaccine, mommies against vaccines-mommies against drunk driving, mad mommies everywhere.”

    Had to re-post this gem from yesterday…..best one of the week do far LOLOLOL.

  5. leftwing says:

    Lib, yeah, socially distanced spectators could be accommodated.

    Interested in your view….I’m supposing that rinks/clubs are going very conservative because USAH has provided literally zero proprietary guidance on best practices….more than a little agitated at that, can not think of a more pressing item for a national umbrella organization in these times…

    Sorry for more questions but trying to get my bearings at this level…

    Practices, were they contact (ie checking)?
    EJ tourney, contact?
    4500, is that short or full season?
    How many practices and games?
    What’s the refund policy if C19 ends season? If you just pull out?

    Thanks, would appreciate the help.

  6. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Essex,

    Why would I post under your handle? I never had a problem with you, but think who might? Think what you want, but someone here goes on other handles for dubious reasons.

  7. TruthIsTheEnemy says:

    Old basement Biden decided to climb up and check which way the wind was blowing. Too ad it ended up exposing his massive cognitive decline and frail health. And as a former southern segregationist he decided to pick a former prosecutor whose pop pop was supposed to be a significant slave owner. I guess he decided he was losing more than he was gaining by fomenting chaos and jettisoned the protest crowd. It will be an interesting spectacle.

  8. 3b says:

    Denial it ain’t just a river!!

  9. Juice Box says:

    so when are 82 million US employees going back to the office or is WFH permanent?

  10. 3b says:

    Juice We are all moving to Kingston NY!!

  11. 3b says:

    Jcer I know people that think BC is the absolute best, I don’t know much about it, except it’s sports crazed as I said, but I would imagine at 17k a year, parents would expect a superior product. As far as college, the ones I know that went to BC , ended up going to generic state schools or then on to Catholic college. Interestingly, Catholic high schools don’t publish their SAT scores.

  12. 3b says:

    Juice: No one is looking forward to getting back on a crowded pos nj transit train, or PATH train , where a lot of people were gross and disgusting before the pandemic.

  13. 30 year realtor says:

    Truth,

    Which way do you want it? Is Biden too far right or too far left? Can’t have it both ways.

  14. Juice Box says:

    Subway ridership has improved slightly.

    Tuesday, 8/11/20 1,302,202 -76.3% Y0Y
    Monday, 8/10/20 1,267,334 -76.9% YoY

  15. Juice Box says:

    Some additonal commuting numbers

    Long Island Rail Road

    Tuesday, 8/11/20 72,400 -77% YoY

    Monday, 8/10/20 73,500 -76% YoY

    Metro-North Railroad

    Tuesday, 8/11/20 46,700 -83% YoY
    Monday, 8/10/20 46,800 -83% YoY

  16. TruthIsTheEnemy says:

    It doesn’t matter to me. But it’s not a endearing move to all the Bernie bros, antifa and sjws pounding the pavement. It’s take it or leave it for them.

  17. A Home Buyer says:

    Troll,

    Lets think about this for a moment. Your belief is that someone… somehow… found an IP address associated with one of the locations you post from, spoofed that IP address to post something under a different user’s handle (on a real estate blog of all places), in the hopes that person complained loud enough to get Grim’s attention, so he could issue you a WARNING not to do it again or face being banned from a forum where every member despises you…

    This is why your doctor’s tell you to stay on your meds. It helps keeps those splinter paranoid personalities in check.

    (Unless Grim is in on it too!. It makes sense that he would create this conspiracy just to get you banned from his own website.)

  18. 3b says:

    For the Bernie supporters and progressives , Warren would have been a better choice, whether one agrees with her or not, she could run circles around Harris when it comes to economic policy. Yet Harris is picked because she was a woman of color; that’s where we are today. It’s interesting that people will say we had our first Black President, but he was bi racial, now it’s we have our first female Black VP of south Asian descent, but she is Jamaican. Yet after all these years we have not had a Black President or now VP, who was descended from slaves, whose roots are in the south, whose parents or grandparents suffered under segregation, and Jim Crow laws and lynchings.

  19. leftwing says:

    It doesn’t really matter to me but KH was a pure identity politics pick. Wish we could move beyond that.

    Read the words below. You’ve seen and heard them countless times. READ THEM. Not for what you think they say, not for what various vested parties want them to say but for what…..they……actually…..say.

    “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

  20. homeboken says:

    Left – reading and comprehending the plain text of wise men is no longer en vogue. Everything is up for interpreation and tinted with the lens of emotion.

    For example – “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

    Shall not be infringed – That is the plain text of the federal law. And yet, we we have thousands of restrictions and regulations, that come in 50 different flavors, regarding the sale/ownership/possession of “Arms”

  21. 30 year realtor says:

    Great to quote Dr. King. Leftwing, what is it, all or nothing? There is no path to that place? No process to reaching it? You can’t just label everything identity politics.

  22. 30 year realtor says:

    Homeboken,

    Where is the well regulated militia you speak of? Are you guilty of interpreting? Just admit that interpretation is not exclusive to either side.

  23. leftwing says:

    Not sure what you mean 30….

    It’s been a favorite quote of mine for what it says for decades…..and during that time I have seen it played in background or as a lead-in to politics that directly undercut those words at every turn…..starting with the Bakke case (yeah, I’m dating myself) through today’s “redress” of “racism”.

    And, yes, there is a direct pathway to ‘that place’.

    Live it.

    Continuing to wallow in the swamp of the miseries of one’s life is most assuredly NOT the way forward. There is only one destination on that train. Generational wreckage.

    And that goes for any circumstance that materially and adversely alters anyone’s trajectory, not just latent racism. Cancer. Loss of a loved one. Breakup of a family.

    You can only control your own actions. Not anyone else’s action, nor anyone else’s perception of you.

    The sooner any party faced with overwhelming challenges recognizes it, the sooner they will rise above it. Or they can blame life, history, circumstance, chance, or anything else that absolves them but changes nothing.

    Again, I would apply this equally to “racism” as to, say, a returning soldier maimed by an IED.

    Only you can change you. That seems to me to be the essence of ‘content of character’.

  24. JCer says:

    30 yr, identity politics are wrong. The path to that place is treating all humans with the respect and dignity they deserve. We can make things right and help people with out resorting to racial quotas….

    Kamala Harris is an atrocious pick. Here actions against the black community as prosecutor make her an easy target in this climate. If the Trump strategy team doesn’t capitalize by using video clips from the debates they should be fired. Trump is an idiot but he is right that Kamala is probably the weakest candidate.

  25. Juice Box says:

    Liars game, before Kamala was against ICE and a border wall she was for it.

    https://twitter.com/HollyWilhelm4/status/1293916452743974912/photo/1

  26. AngelaHit says:

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  27. JCer says:

    30yr, not sure how you can talk about interpretation there, the language and intent was VERY, VERY clear. Americans have the right to be armed, times change, things are different this is not to say I don’t support some regulations around fire arms which today are more deadly than they were in the 18th century when your guns were muzzle loaded and the situation regarding cities is complicated. The issue is if you want to make that change an amendment is needed, judicial activism and executive orders are not the “right” way to govern. If we were really abiding by our constitution NY and NJ’s gun laws are blatantly unconstitutional as currently administered.

  28. Phoenix says:

    “School teachers, taking them by and large, are probably the most ignorant and stupid class of men in the whole group of mental workers.”

    H.L. Mencken

  29. Phoenix says:

    Kamala got aced by Tulsi.

    She did not deny one thing.

  30. Phoenix says:

    “Any seniors who have enough Social Security money to put in the slots all day at the casino don’t deserve or require a senior citizen property tax freeze or rebate.”

    Phoenix

  31. JCer says:

    Phoenix, I image that clip(Tulsi burning Kamala in the debate) will wind up in an ad. Both Biden and Kamala came out of those debates looking like a couple of Turkeys. It should be a slam dunk to beat Trump especially with COVID and his botched response but the ticket looks very vulnerable if they have to come out and debate, speak, and engage against Trump they will likely lose. Biden come across as feeble and Kamala is deeply unlikable much like Hillary Clinton. People are inherently gullible, President PT Barnum has an inherent advantage if he can engage the public…….

  32. RainyThursday says:

    Leftwing,

    Is not that governor’s don’t care, but I is more the lack of imagination, execution, in the face of a very difficult challenge. Is not unusual that in time of severe crisis, many people freeze up or stonewall in their thinking about the next step. Unless you are a pro in your field and you practice, practice and game different events most people can’t hack it. CEOs are supposed to be good at on the fly decision making. Just think the word RACE for Fire, which is usually continually educated in many institutions, so people don’t freeze up. RACE – Remove/Alarm/Confine/Extinguish.

    The decision to borrow $10 Billions, shows there is a fire. They just don’t know how to handle it yet. The answer there is massive, massive, governmental consolidation across all government levels and entities. Example is back in 1968 in FL, the city of Jacksonville merged with Duval County into an integrated government for efficiency.
    Can you picture the imagination, and guts required to do the same with Newark-Essex, Jersey City, Hoboken,etc – Hudson. https://www.coj.net/about-jacksonville/government
    How much money would be save at all levels, even with the usual political hack featherbedding. The answers are always accessible once your brain is used. Getting the politics thru is the bigger one.

  33. ExEssex says:

    I don’t think Trump is “engaging” anymore. I think his influence is on the wane. All but the most die-hard supporters will probably flee because of his policies which have been weighted heavily toward the wealthy and his rhetoric which is unhinged and disjointed to say the least. Trump is a very damaged guy. You wonder why anyone gets married and divorced multiple times and is a serial failure in nearly every business venture he has entered, then you listen to the guy and realize he is truly sick in the head.

  34. Phoenix says:

    Personally I liked Tulsi.
    But I guess once you convince a bunch of boomers and greatest that she is a commie she never had a chance.

    A veteran as well. And a woman. Plus spoke the truth.

    Guess America is not quite ready for that.

  35. ExEssex says:

    Pumpkin, so its a conspiracy. Ol’ Grim who is by all accounts a stand-up guy tracks IPs and yours was somehow compromised? I’m not sure about that one. I will assume best intentions. We live is a weird world where people’s opinions are weaponized against them, Careers are ruined by hearsay, cats and dogs living together……

  36. Phoenix says:

    ” Trump is a very damaged guy. ”

    America is a very damaged country.

    There is a common bond.

  37. ExEssex says:

    Pumpkin, so its a conspiracy. Ol’ Grim who is by all accounts a stand-up guy tracks IPs and yours was somehow compromised? I’m not sure about that one. I will assume best intentions. We live is a weird world where people’s opinions are weaponized against them, Careers are ruined by hearsay, cats and dogs living together……

  38. Phoenix says:

    Definition of America:

    A country where lies > truths.

  39. ExEssex says:

    11:40 I totally agree. We are in a world of hurt. I have found the variety of opinions on this board to reflect the diversity of thought in the Country, but also the struggle to reconcile a direction forward. It’s going to be very, very ugly in terms of the next few years. I truly feel sorry for the kids who have to inherit this mess.

  40. Fast Eddie says:

    …and is a serial failure in nearly every business venture he has entered…

    And yet, he is the President of the United States, his net worth is a few billion and his name is on numerous buildings and associated with numerous ventures. I aspire to reach this level of failure.

  41. leftwing says:

    “Unless you are a pro in your field and you practice, practice and game different events most people can’t hack it. CEOs are supposed to be good at on the fly decision making.”

    Interesting comment and agree.

    I would suggest the two are closely associated….I’ve had the privilege to see more than a few ‘top decision makers’ in both finance and the CEO suite….what I’ve noticed is that those who receive high marks for being good on the fly decision makers are actually best at gaming scenarios….what appears to be brilliance at-the-moment was actually painstakingly gamed, analyzed, and backtested well before such situation ever presented itself. It was all about the tedious preparation, and not pulling something out of the air on the spot.

    Is it too much to ask that the Governor of the State have more foresight than a common housefly and uses a fraction of the immense resources available to him to actually analyze alternative responses and outcomes?

    I mean, a fcuking third year banking Associate can…why not Gov Sh1thead?

  42. Juice Box says:

    11 yrs later and sold for a $625,000 loss, does Livingston’s high taxes have anything to do with it?

    “Wendy Williams and Hunter originally listed the house for $1,895,000 in August 2019. They re-listed in September at the same price, and it sold August 6 for $1,475,000.

    The 5,398-square-foot home, located in Livingston’s Bel Air neighborhood, was built in 1999 and has five bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms. The former couple bought the house for $2.1 million in 2009.

    “https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2020/08/wendy-williams-ex-husband-sell-their-nj-home-for-14m-after-slashing-price.html

  43. Libturd says:

    Left

    Practices, were they contact (ie checking)? No contact pratices, but coach let’s them all hang together in huddles.
    EJ tourney, contact? I think minimal.
    4500, is that short or full season? Full and split (we are doing a weird thing) it probably won’t happen and I’ll get some cash back.
    How many practices and games? Who the F knows. Coach is crazy, so my kids been on the ice twice a week this Summer and has been running up and down ramps in parking garages with a 40 pound sand bag on his shoulders the other three days. This is after working a 40-hour week and walking 6-8 miles a day at work.
    What’s the refund policy if C19 ends season? full pro-rated refunds.

    Wanna puke? Read the EJ plans.

    Half the kids have to sit in locker room with mask on waiting their return to the ice. They can’t even watch the game. We are very close to withdrawing. Not due to the restrictions, but do to how the game is being ruined without any regards to science and especially the fact that all of these kids are just going to hang together before and after the game. There should be an option to waive lawsuits so the kids can play. It’s plainly obvious why the schools aren’t opening as well as the rinks. It’s our litigious society.

    https://www.youthhockeyinfo.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=e1042f79941b7554c9c919c71d135369&topic=1836.0

  44. chicagofinance says:

    Bill Burr….. all the way to the end…. just agree with her, maybe she will touch it…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXgZgD-ObDI

  45. Bystander says:

    Blumpy..or whatever he is calling himself today

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnsyS0fLKx0

  46. unome says:

    “Wanna puke? Read the EJ plans.”

    The EJ is a joke. It exists because the management of the NJYHL are geriatric tone deaf barons not open to change. The only qualification to be President of the NJYHL is to keep the post so long that you die in office.

    The EJ’s roots are in the old GSYHL. It was a league formed by a pissed off dad from a southern rink. He was employed by the municipality where a NJYHL team skated. His future NHL player was put on B team so he left. He formed a new team out of that municiple rink and withheld ice from the NJYHL club. The NJYHL blackballed his team so he recruited a few other independent teams to make the GSYHL to get games. He tried to get official sanction for his new league and was shot down every time. He finally merged with the ejepl which I was told was just a SI dude at a computer compiling stats for other peoples games in the NY area. They are not sanctioned here and I don’t believe they even play by national hockey rules.

  47. chicagofinance says:

    Letter to Readers from WSJ Publisher:

    Dear Readers:

    Charles Dow and Edward Jones might not have considered this a possibility when they founded The Wall Street Journal 131 years ago, but the publication in your hands is a countercultural force in today’s media.

    Agenda-driven reporting on the news is on the rise; news and opinion are increasingly blended; and, not surprisingly, trust in the media has reached a new low. Gallup and the Knight Foundation recently found that the majority of Americans believe inaccuracies in the news are due to reporters either misrepresenting or making up facts. Against this trend, the Journal’s news coverage stands as a beacon with its uniquely detached, researched, factual reporting. It remains the most trusted national newspaper in the U.S., according to a recent survey by the Reuters Institute.

    Demand for our trusted brand of factual analysis and insight is rising: Our readership has never been greater, with more than three million subscribers and tens of millions of visitors to our apps and sites every month. And in spite of the pandemic and its economic impact, our business is performing well and growing. Quality news can be a sustainable—and profitable—enterprise, and it was for us in the fiscal year ended June 30.

    Moreover, in a world facing major challenges that are affecting all our lives, quality news can make a difference. We believe we stand apart for our focus on money, business, careers, economics—the forces that shape the world around us and your own lives.

    We are humbled by your expression of trust. Since taking on the role as the publisher of this remarkable U.S. and global institution, I have received many reader letters and feedback in meetings expressing the importance of our news organization’s balanced reporting. Having worked here for a quarter-century—much of it as a reporter and editor before becoming publisher—I want to assure you that the values we uphold today reflect our founders’ vision for producing news that is “honest, intelligent and unprejudiced.”

    As we embark on a new (fiscal) year here, we will push ever harder to increase the Journal’s reach, impact and influence. We will invest in journalism and in digital excellence to help deliver it to as many people as possible. Americans’ trust is declining not just in media, but also in government, and in each other, according to the Pew Research Center. We are all facing great uncertainty, crises and big choices on how to tackle our collective challenges. The Journal’s pursuit of quality journalism at scale can and should help inform that debate at a critical time.

    Let me offer you some of our bedrock values that are worth repeating: An old motto for The Wall Street Journal was “The Truth in its proper use”—a phrase that still applies today and sums up why we exist. We aim to be the source of truth for our readers around the world, in business, finance and life. Truth—facts—are necessary things whether you’re launching a rocket into space, choosing a stock, or writing a law. Trust is a precious thing, and everyone at the Journal gets up every day knowing that we have to earn it, aware of how easily it can be lost.

    In our quest to reach an ever-larger audience, our newsroom, led by Editor in Chief Matt Murray, will continue our deep commitment to fact-based reporting, free from interference. Facts, strangely enough, are today a market differentiator. Markets demand quality. As such, there is no room to allow personal biases to mold facts to fit pre-determined narratives whether you are reporting on the economy or politics. Our journalists are committed to that.

    As we seek to grow, our opinion pages, led by Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot, form a key part of that effort. Mr. Gigot and his team will continue to provoke thought—and, no doubt, emotions—without interference. His pages have always stood for the same values even as winds change, always been unafraid to challenge conventional wisdom, all the while staying rooted to the editorial board’s philosophical commitment to “free people, free markets.” Their independence, like that of the Journal newsroom, is backstopped by a special committee and is unassailable.

    Together, the news and opinion operations, which have operated independently from each other throughout our history and both of which report to me, create an exciting and unique ecosystem in American media. Our own internal reader surveys show again and again that the overwhelming majority of our readers deeply value our opinion pages as well as our news reporting.

    Facts are important, but of course journalism is a human enterprise, and we make mistakes every day. And when we do, we own up to them and prominently correct them. It is humbling for any reporter or editor (or publisher), and a reminder to be careful as we strive with every article to uphold our commitment to you, our readers.

    Journalists do face dangers, and we care deeply about the safety of our employees. At the Journal, we know these risks all too well and we have a global team dedicated to aiding journalists in tough positions. This is not just theory. In hot spots around the world—from the Middle East to Asia and beyond—our security team works hard to make sure our writing staff can fulfill our promise to readers.

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    Almar Latour

    Publisher

  48. chicagofinance says:

    Fcuk you

    The Great Pumpkin says:
    August 13, 2020 at 8:24 am
    Essex,

    Why would I post under your handle? I never had a problem with you, but think who might? Think what you want, but someone here goes on other handles for dubious reasons.

  49. chicagofinance says:

    Polacks are all a bunch of underhanded tools….. I wouldn’t use a web forum run by a Polack….. it is like openly asking for someone to empty out my bank account.

    A Home Buyer says:
    August 13, 2020 at 9:54 am
    Troll,

    Lets think about this for a moment. Your belief is that someone… somehow… found an IP address associated with one of the locations you post from, spoofed that IP address to post something under a different user’s handle (on a real estate blog of all places), in the hopes that person complained loud enough to get Grim’s attention, so he could issue you a WARNING not to do it again or face being banned from a forum where every member despises you…

    This is why your doctor’s tell you to stay on your meds. It helps keeps those splinter paranoid personalities in check.

    (Unless Grim is in on it too!. It makes sense that he would create this conspiracy just to get you banned from his own website.)

  50. chicagofinance says:

    They are too busy measuring white privilege to run for office….

    3b says:
    August 13, 2020 at 10:02 am
    Yet after all these years we have not had a Black President or now VP, who was descended from slaves, whose roots are in the south, whose parents or grandparents suffered under segregation, and Jim Crow laws and lynchings.

  51. chicagofinance says:

    I was at a friends house on Tuesday and he had Hannity on in the background….. I was embarrassed at what low grade trash it was….. everyone was coming on purposely pronouncing Harris’ first name as “ka-MA-la”….. seriously WTF is that? She isn’t a pro-wrestler…. I almost had to puke…

  52. chicagofinance says:

    unome ….didn’t see your puke offering…..sure twice is nice…

  53. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    I live in a town where I just stood in line where we regularly stand in line with blacks, whites, jews, hispanics, asians, indians, arabs. No one gives a crap. People so fixated on race are the most culturally isolated people in the world.

  54. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Chifi,

    to be fair, he was on the minds of many.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/obituaries/james-harris-kamala-dead-coronavirus.html

    RIP Kamala, the Ugandan Giant

  55. 3b says:

    BRT: that is so true!!

  56. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Does anyone have a clue what the statistics need to show for Murphy to take the next step towards reopening in whatever phase?

    Even Murphy doesn’t know the answer to that.

  57. leftwing says:

    “chicagofinance says:
    August 13, 2020 at 12:48 pm
    Letter to Readers from WSJ Publisher…”

    Thx Chi….nice bookend to my first post of the day expressing utter confusion on what appear to be two parallel universes of facts……

    Journal is rock solid. It hurts – truthfully, it does – to see CBS diminished from the “T1ffany” network to one step ahead of MSNBC. I don’t cheer when impartiality and facts die…..

    Margaret Brennan is a national disgrace. The historical reporters and correspondents of CBS News must be turning in their graves.

  58. Libturd says:

    Unome,

    The EJ is a big money grab for the guy who runs it. Everyone knows it’s a crap league and has nothing to do with scouts and prospects and that nonsense. The problem though, is that AA has become so diluted with POS teams, much like all of these new supposed AAA programs that our son’s AA team could beat with our eyes closed (which explains why AA has so few good teams). So now, instead of local AA teams being able to find competition in their own league, they must travel further and further to find a challenging game. Of course, most of our boys could play on a watered down AAA team, pay double, and travel twice as far to find the same good competition we pay half to play in the EJ. Our country, once again, is really stupid. Tons of dumb, dumb parents who all think their kid is getting a scholarship when they have no clue how far from true that is. And they pay 10K a year easy to live the dream.

    So the EJ lets us play the best teams from the southeast US and a few lower level New England teams without travelling past Philly. They do these showcases where all of the teams get together and just play a sh1tload of games on a three-day weekend against the teams located the farthest away. We’ll play the more local ones at some point during the regular season. So, although the league is run like a POS. It does get us games against like competition, which is why it’s been pretty successful. In the NJYHL, though there are about 20 or so teams in AA. Only three of them will be competitive. Sadly, there aren’t any other options.

    All of the coached at every level has been saying it for years. They need to put in some minimal qualifications to establish a AAA team. It was so much better when there were like 5 AAA teams in the state. Now there are like 20, if not more. And they all still suck, besides the original five. And all of the other levels suffer because of it.

  59. Phoenix says:

    Bill Burr
    “Who was raised right.”
    Haaaa.

  60. AP says:

    Yes, one of the main reasons why we can’t re-open schools as quickly as we need to is because of litigiousness and questions of responsibility.

    Right now since there’s no blanket gov policy, lor blanket health standard so local educators might be holding the bag should re-opening go badly because of decisions made at the local level.

    And btw I think ultimately this litigiousness goes back in large part to excessive social atomism and isolation. Each for him or herself works great when the weather is good, but breaks down at society scale when it really hits the fan.

  61. JCer says:

    Juice that house has a very specific look and it is one that does not resonate with most buyers. In the 2m price range that house didn’t have “it”. Most buyers in that price range would be making big changes to that house to get it to their liking. Also the fact that the home is 21 years old means that mechanicals, roof, etc were likely at end of life….people pay a premium for a newer home when it was purchased it was 9 years old, when sold it was 21 yrs old unless there was consistent and impeccable maintenance and continuous upgrades newer homes depreciate where as an old home the construction is already totally depreciated.

    On Trump, he posses something, a charisma(probably not the right word for a man who acts like a fool all the time), people follow him and they always have. People lent him money against their better judgement, engaged in business with him against their better judgement. My father had a lot of Trump stories well before his political aspirations, he was able to get people to agree to things they never should have nor would they have for most anyone else, solely because he was TRUMP.(coincidentally this was the very stuff that led to his bankruptcies). People are evolutionary driven to follow, most people follow, some people are skilled at getting people to follow and it defies logic and reason. There is thousands of years worth of observational data which backs the notion that people will follow blindly people who make no sense, just look at cults.

  62. SmallGovConservative says:

    JCer says:
    August 13, 2020 at 11:15 am

    …People are inherently gullible, President PT Barnum has an inherent advantage…

    Interesting to see Trump referred to this way — no doubt due to his non-presidential demeanor — by posters who I assume may actually vote for him. Wondering if there are any people like that, who recognize Trump’s many tangible accomplishments (I listed many of them a week or so ago), his doggedness in attempting to deliver on campaign priorities (ie. the wall), his accuracy in identifying and prioritizing issues that weren’t on anyone’s radar screen 4 years ago (ie. China’s behavior), who also recognize the radicalization of the Dem party and general uselessness and incompetence of Dem leadership, but intend to vote Harris/Biden simply due to Trump’s demeanor?

  63. AP says:

    Regarding Trump, I have a theory: American society optimizes for “interestingness”. The worst sin is to be boring in the attention economy.

  64. AP says:

    There’s shockingly little resilience, other than sheer momentum, built into the system.

    Infrastructure at its limit or past, hyper-leveraged economy, essential workers at risk, JIT supply chains driven by algorithmic fluctuations of taste and trend, etc.

    I don’t know about “build back better” but we do need to invest more in resilience systems, I think.

  65. No One says:

    Leftwing,
    One more reason to worry about your portfolio: I just saw an institutional market strategist arguing to institutional investors that “some stocks could go to infinity.” That’s because in his ivory tower equations when the discount rate falls below expected growth in a DCF, it doesn’t compute. But rational people who understand reality know that there’s no such thing as an infinitely priced stock and never will be. There can be parabolic surges that don’t last forever, however.
    Anyway, his argument was basically just a rehash of what I read dozens of times in 1999. Now they say 2020 technology is even more special than 1999 technology which was more special than 1960s technology (and while there are some differences in fact, it’s not evidence that no price is too high for given stocks).
    What bugs me is that these theorists, just as they did in 1999, insist on trashing “old economy” companies as hopeless losers forever. That’s not how it worked out last time. And with a negative discount rate even a zero growth annual dollar dividend also has infinite value. It’s basically just rationalizations for what has already happened in the market.
    Anyway, I’m not an asset allocator or personal finance guy. I just try to run fully invested stock portfolios that beat their indexes. Good luck.

  66. Bystander says:

    What a laugh, Small. MXwas going to pay for the wall then it became fund the wall or I will continue longest govt shutdown. He did not invent tariffs on China. Obama raised tariffs on their tires and was criticized heavily by right. He passed nothing except Ryan cut which produced nothing for lower classes. He has exploded the national debt. Reshoring of money never occurred at promised level nor did manufacturing boom. Obama was evil for Solendra yet no one mentions farmer subs or biggest bust, Fox Conn, with emphasis on Con. Wisky towns takes on millions for facilities yet jobs are no where near Donny and Scott’s promise during ground ceremony. No greatest healthcare on day 1 – red as red Okies have to take Obamacare medicare payments to survive. Virus and social unrest failures. The list goes on and on. He will go down as the worst president ever, regardless how you want to project his greatness.

  67. Bystander says:

    Last April, The Verge reported that the Foxconn “innovation centers” scattered around Wisconsin were largely empty and that renovations were stalled. Several days after that article published, Foxconn held a press conference to announce that it had bought yet another building and told reporters that The Verge’s reporting was incorrect.

    Specifically, Foxconn’s Alan Yeung said The Verge’s story had “a lot of inaccuracies, and we will actually make a correction, and we will make a statement about that.”

    Yeung made those comments on April 12th, 2019. It is now April 12th, 2020, making it exactly one year since Foxconn promised a statement or correction regarding The Verge’s report of empty buildings in Wisconsin. That statement or correction has never arrived.

    And the buildings are still empty.

  68. Bystander says:

    Grim, mod please

  69. chicagofinance says:

    BREAKING: New York #Mets owner, Fred #Wilpon, has tested positive for being the worst f4cking owner in baseball

  70. 3b says:

    REI the outdoor recreation company has put its brand new corporate headquarters on the market in WA. Never occupied. They have re-evaluated their needs due to the pandemic, and are decentralizing to a number of locations. They also said remote work will be the standard for headquarters employees.

  71. Libturd says:

    Just tested positive? This has been chronic.

  72. Libturd says:

    “radicalization of the Dem party and general uselessness and incompetence of Dem leadership, but intend to vote Harris/Biden simply due to Trump’s demeanor?”

    You are all trying WAY too hard!

    Any close election is determined by the electoral college, and really the swing states. The undecided voters are the only ones that matter. Really. History has proven that these swing voters tend to hang onto a single issue ignoring everything else. The single issue doesn’t even have to be that important. In the last election, Trump won the lotto by playing up immigration. Sure it wasn’t that big of an issue to most on the left and the right. But it was the issue that undecided Joe Blow in Pennsylvania latched on too. The problem for Trump this time around (so far), is that he is throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the undecided voter, but it’s not sticking against the backdrop of our collapsing economy. The economy? Gone. Remember, only the top 20% is in the market if that much. Pro police and anti-social justice? Not selling. It’s going to be hard to supplant Covid. Especially with his terrible handling of it so far. If he doesn’t, he loses. It’s that simple. Everything else is noise.

  73. Libturd says:

    Chi,

    My dad went to high school with Wilpon. He was even an idiot back then. My dad played on the same baseball team as him as well as with Sandy, who used to come over our house when I was in grade school.

  74. SmallGovConservative says:

    Libturd says:
    August 13, 2020 at 4:11 pm

    ” The undecided voters are the only ones that matter…”

    I agree completely with this, though not necessarily with your assessment that he’s not appealing to that group, and that as a result, it’s a certainty that he’ll lose. He might, he might not.

    Regardless, imagine me as an undecided voter, tell me why I should vote for Harris/Biden without mentioning Trump or anything about his administration or policies — tell me about their strengths, why you want to be governed by them, and why I, as an undecided voter, should vote FOR them (not against Trump).

  75. No One says:

    When times are bad, people vote for change. Especially people who aren’t into politics.
    The reverse is true when times are good (or better than 4 years prior). They tend to stick with what they have.
    Times are bad now.
    Kamala’s mouth is watering thinking about Biden’s expected lifespan and the near-impossibility of him running for a second term. Becoming the first woman president is so close she can taste it, smell it, and can practically feel it flopping out in front of her face.

  76. ExEssex says:

    4:41 nobody and I mean nobody can change the mind of a true imbecile.

  77. SmallGovGuy WantsBeGovtWhenRonnaGetsHim says:

    SmallGovCon,

    I’ll bite. You want to vote for Biden/Harris over Trump/Pence because,

    -you are tired of refilling anxiety medication.
    -you will save $$ on alcohol/drugs to relieve your anxiety.
    -you are realizing that T/P is monopolizing all your time and thought and he does not have a cute “cookie” like Paris Hilton or Kardashian.
    -you want politics to be about fat boring crooked old people with one of them being tarred and feathered for being client 9 or going to jail for spending not his money on the “other woman or boy”

    All of the above, have nothing to do with political ideology, just that T/P absorbs all the oxygen, all the time, apart from the horrible job he has done.

  78. No One says:

    BRT,
    I haven’t followed Andrew Sullivan for a long time but this article was pretty good, and interesting coming from a sort of centrist liberal in reaction to the new left. I’m telling you, this stuff spread like wildfire in the 11th and 12th grades of elite high schools and have infected many of the younger humanities “intellectuals” and much of the Universities. I just heard a story that an Asian Kumon franchise owner trying to collect on unpaid bills is now getting the “you’re a racist” counter-attack from some deadbeat African American parents in Long Island.
    https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-roots-of-wokeness
    It begins:
    In the mid-2010s, a curious new vocabulary began to unspool itself in our media. A data site, storywrangling.org, which measures the frequency of words in news stories, revealed some remarkable shifts. Terms that had previously been almost entirely obscure suddenly became ubiquitous—and an analysis of the New York Times, using these tools, is a useful example. Looking at stories from 1970 to 2018, several terms came out of nowhere in the past few years to reach sudden new heights of repetition and frequency. Here’s a list of the most successful neologisms: non-binary, toxic masculinity, white supremacy, traumatizing, queer, transphobia, whiteness, mansplaining. And here are a few that were rising in frequency in the last decade but only took off in the last few years: triggering, hurtful, gender, stereotypes.

    We need to understand that all these words have one thing in common: they are products of an esoteric, academic discipline called critical theory, which has gained extraordinary popularity in elite education in the past few decades, and appears to have reached a cultural tipping point in the middle of the 2010s. Most normal people have never heard of this theory—or rather an interlocking web of theories—that is nonetheless changing the very words we speak and write and the very rationale of the institutions integral to liberal democracy.

  79. ExEssex says:

    Small Gubmint Conservative — well, you got a shrunken down government, with a huuuuuuuge bill. Less services, more debt. How’d that work out numbnuts?

  80. ExEssex says:

    I’m sure the mega corporations that bought back their stock with the money they got from tax cuts and then put their hands back out when their stock tanked….(airlines) are gonna vote for the orange imbecile cause corporations are peeeeeeeple too.

  81. ExEssex says:

    Looks like Michael Cohen’s book will be a good read…..golden showers, back channel to Putin, tax fraud…..oh goody. Prediction: TRUMP get absolutely blown out of the water in the next election, Melania files for divorce in Feb., by next November Trump is looking at jail time for tax fraud.

  82. ExEssex says:

    11:47 Eddie, I know you have very few measures of what makes a man “successful”, but I gotta say, if your idea of success is Trump then you learned absolutely nothing in school. He has left nothing but fraud and misery in his wake. He has not only stiffed most of the contractors he’s ever worked with, he’s literally driven the country off a cliff. It will be years before the US recovers from his term.

  83. grim says:

    Presidents always take more credit than they are responsible for, and probably more blame than is due.

  84. ExEssex says:

    This guy is dismantling the post office……the POST OFFICE….to fight mail in ballots.

  85. ExEssex says:

    COME ON!! People rely on the post office for checks and medications, especially the elderly. This is not just a President, this is a criminal and a treasonous, poisonous scumbag at that.

  86. SmallGovConservative says:

    Look who chimes in when asked to provide reasons to vote FOR Harris/Biden, the househusband ExSex whose every waking hour is governed by his wife and whose lifestyle is completely dependent on her income. No wonder you prefer to be governed by Harris/Biden/Pelosi than a rude, crude billionaire like Trump — you’re a beta and he’s an alpha. And stop with the “I out-kicked my coverage” bit with your wife — Ruth Buzzi would be out kicking your coverage. And then the SmallGov guy who can’t come up with a creative name…another one that can’t follow instructions. I specifically instructed you to sell me on voting FOR H/B without mentioning Trump, and your entire response is about Trump. So as I suspected, no one can come up with a compelling reason to vote FOR the Dems.

  87. ExEssex says:

    6:13 weak

  88. ExEssex says:

    “Ruth Buzzi” OK boomer.

  89. JCer says:

    SmallGovCons, I call it as I see it. Policy wise I find Trump to be a mixed bag, I appreciate some of the libertarian policy he espouses but do not appreciate is financial recklessness nor his antics. I also know public opinion changes like the wind, Trump could be getting crushed going into october but could very easily win. I know Trump has a, as I put it charisma, Biden and Kamala have all the personality of a 2×4. Trump can command an audience, he is a showman.

    I already made my intentions clear, I’m voting for agent orange, the most ridiculous person to ever occupy the whitehouse, my personal financial situation means that to vote in my interest unless Trumps comes out as a literal N@zi. The leftward swing of the democratic party has made it such that in good conscious I cannot vote for them, they want to destroy me and everything me and my family has worked for. It’s not just tax rates, the views on wealth and taxes on things other than income is very worrying to me.

    As for the post office, perhaps we should get rid of it. It is after all welfare for Amazon and all the other merchants, overseas sellers on amazon, aliexpress, etc. Conceptually we really could change the model, reduce the footprint, perhaps even outsource delivery.

  90. chicagofinance says:

    +1,000x …. have to deal with such every few weeks for some of my clients that have no brain function beyond the autonomic nervous system.

    ExEssex says:
    August 13, 2020 at 5:20 pm
    4:41 nobody and I mean nobody can change the mind of a true imbecile.

  91. Libturd says:

    SmallGovConservative – the problem with your question is that it is loaded. The truth is, the only good reason to vote for Biden/Harris is to get rid of the worst president ever. Sure, we are replacing him with the same old crap from the left. But that pile of composting cow manure in the White house makes the incoming pile of crap look like a salamander fart.

    Better?

    In other news. Montlcair is online only to start the school year. The same story is coming to your town.

  92. ExEssex says:

    6:51 Man I wish we’d consulting with/retained someone like you in our lives. The amount of money that I have seen pass through this household is ridiculous. Since neither my wife or I are very thrifty, we’ve pissed a lot away over the years. Part of it was just hedonism. Believe me.

  93. ExEssex says:

    Beta…….hrmmmmph. It might look like that. I wish I was a beta. No I live my life like a bull in a china shop. It’s not pretty.

  94. leftwing says:

    “This guy is dismantling the post office……the POST OFFICE….to fight mail in ballots.”

    The post office has been irrelevant for at least two decades outside of registered mail.

    Wasn’t it a 90s Seinfeld episode where Kramer tried to cancel his mail service permanently?

    And it’s politics. Brass knuckle politics. Both side have played, and will continue to play, it.

  95. SomeOne says:

    JCer,

    … my personal financial situation means that to vote in my interest unless Trumps comes out as a literal N@zi.

    Why should N@zism be a problem when everything else is OK when faced with the terror of slightly higher marginal tax rates?

    Here is what Trump said today:
    “I just heard it today that she [Kamala Harris] doesn’t meet the requirements [to be President/Vice President] and by the way the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer.”

  96. leftwing says:

    “SmallGovConservative – the problem with your question is that it is loaded. The truth is, the only good reason to vote for Biden/Harris is to get rid of the worst president ever.”

    LOLOLOL.

  97. SomeOne says:

    JCer,

    As for the post office, perhaps we should get rid of it. It is after all welfare for Amazon and all the other merchants, overseas sellers on amazon, aliexpress, etc. Conceptually we really could change the model, reduce the footprint, perhaps even outsource delivery.

    What do you think about the military budget? F35s in particular?

  98. Bystander says:

    JCer,

    I think it would be wise to come to the conclusion that spending is the problem, not your view that ‘Dems and their taxes’ are the problem. Eventually things like unfunded wars, bailouts, trillions in extra military spending, and huge reduction in tax for wealthy..well it has to be paid. Calling Rs fiscally conserv is a complete joke. Neither party can claim that. That Dumpy blew up spending unheard of outside wartime and during an (inherited) steady, growing economy. That alone should disqualify him. He is reckless and adults will have to come in and clean up.

  99. leftwing says:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/us/yale-discrimination.html

    “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

    And another line I rediscovered rereading it…Today’s black movements are antithetical to his message and the betterment of human condition……

    “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.”

  100. crushednjmillenial says:

    Big changes seem to be coming regarding compensation for college athletes. Last fall, before the Covid pandemic, California passed the Fair Pay to Play Act which will permit college athletes to receive compensation for endorsements. It takes effect as of Jan. 1, 2023. The NCAA, in my opinion, does not have the power to exclude CA schools from major sports, because of the financial and fan fallout from such an exclusion.

    Thus, after CA passed the bill, it seemed that other states were poised to follow. However, Covid likely halted the progress toward college athlete compensation. Now, Congress might act at the federal level, as reflected in the article linked below.

    In my opinion, the college athletes should be compensated with direct payments in addition to their scholarships. It won’t ever happen, but I would favor a substantial portion of the cash compensation to be in the form of a pension (generally not garnishable, which provides some protection against the athlete going broke quickly and provides income for the athletes’ retirement). For the same reason, more compensation channeled into pension programs would likely also be a good policy for the major sports leagues. And, it really, really won’t happen, but I’d also favor some kind of a revenue-sharing progam in the NCAA so that all the football teams, for example, pay the same compensation to the athletes. Otherwise, the top teams will always be the top teams and the games will be even less competitive than they are now.

    https://www.si.com/college/2020/08/13/senators-announce-college-athletes-bill-of-rights-proposal

  101. 3b says:

    Bystander Except they won’t clean it up, they will just add to it. Biden has the blessing of the corporate vested interests on both sides, and will not do anything to upset them. A little window dressing so it looks like something is being done, and then more spending.

  102. crushednjmillenial says:

    Also, in the college realm, the DOJ concluded today that Yale discriminates against Asian applicants.

    Sorry to supporters of affirmative action, but our government and public institutions need to get toward our eventual future – where race is not considered, period, full-stop. Not as a positive and not as a negative.

    I suppose this is one of the ancillary issues that are on the ballot come November. I don’t believe a Biden-Harris DOJ would come to the same conclusion as the current DOJ.

    https://www.npr.org/2020/08/13/902335422/doj-yale-discriminates-against-asian-american-and-white-applicants-in-admissions

  103. crushednjmillenial says:

    Good post, leftwing, on the Yale issue. Didn’t see your post before I posted about the same topic.

  104. AP says:

    “I suppose this is one of the ancillary issues that are on the ballot come November. ”

    Not ancillary, central. The impetus of Trumpism can be said to be largely fueled by racial and social animus. This case is particularly egregious, if not laughable, example of this.

  105. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Also, in the college realm, the DOJ concluded today that Yale discriminates against Asian applicants.

    Sorry to supporters of affirmative action, but our government and public institutions need to get toward our eventual future – where race is not considered, period, full-stop. Not as a positive and not as a negative.

    I can tell you that all Ivy’s discriminate against Asians, and it’s blatant. The only asian I know that got into Harvard had completed AP Physics and Calc BC by 8th grade, and also represented the US in the International Physics Olympics as a sophomore and junior. He had also qualified to represent in Biology and Chemistry as well.

    Translation: he was literally, the top and most accomplished student in the entire nation by grade 10.

  106. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Although, the typical defense is usually very racist in nature:

    i.e. Asian students have no creativity, no personality, and are not leaders.

  107. AP says:

    Re Yale case, did you guys actually read the articles? The facts of the case are laughable, a rushed and thinly disguised political hit designed to cater to the base.

    The SCOTUS has ruled many times on the subject, including as recently as in the last decade btw.

  108. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    lol, do you honestly believe that admissions would come out the same if the students names were left blank and they filled out no information on race?

  109. AP says:

    BRT, again, read the article, which has nothing to do with the scenario you paint.. it is explicitly accepted that race is one of the factors used in the process. The SCOTUS has supported this practice, although it has rejected racial quotas.

  110. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    I don’t automatically accept it as truth because the SCOTUS supports something. I’ve taught dozens of students who can run circles around every single student at every Ivy League University and they can’t get into a single one outside of Princeton or UPenn.

    If I taught at 2 of the absolute top high schools in NJ for 11 years, you would think that at least one of my students would have been admitted to Harvard, MIT, Columbia, or Yale by now.

  111. AP says:

    That’s a very narrow frame of view. I’m not here to defend their admission standards, but attacking affirmative action, specially so crudely, is a waste of time and actually counter productive right now.

  112. D-FENS says:

    Psst. Hey guys… there may not be a budget shortfall in NJ

    https://twitter.com/johnreitmeyer/status/1293982011204526080?s=21

  113. D-FENS says:

    Lololololol!!!!!

    https://state.nj.us/treasury/news/2020/08132020.shtml

    Treasury: Deferred April Tax Payments Track Close to Expectations
    TRENTON – The Department of the Treasury today reported that July revenue collections for the major taxes totaled $5.136 billion, up $2.802 billion, or 120.1 percent over last July. This inflated and unprecedented growth was anticipated due to the change in state law that allowed individual and corporate taxpayers to defer certain payments from April to July due to the COVID-19 pandemic, following similar tax changes that were instituted at the federal level.

    The Gross Income Tax (GIT), which is dedicated to the Property Tax Relief Fund, totaled $3.360 billion, up $2.412 billion, or 254.1 percent above last July. While this growth is inflated because of the extended filing deadline, collections are still below Treasury’s $3.6 billion revised GIT target for July. However, lower-than-expected final and estimated payments by individuals were partially offset by improved employer withholding receipts.

    The Corporation Business Tax, the second largest General Fund revenue source, totaled $589.8 million for the month of July, up a substantial $412.0 million, or 231.7 percent over last July due to the deferred payments. While corporate payments were close to expectations, refund activity fell substantially, boosting net collections.

  114. D-FENS says:

    He can’t borrow the 10 billion based on the NJsupreme court’s ruling

    “We know the $10 billion revenue shortfall that the administration predicted months ago hasn’t materialized. It’s likely we’ll learn that revenues have far exceeded expectations when the administration provides an update on sales, income, and business tax collections,” state Senator Steven Oroho (R-24) predicted on Wednesday.” Based on today’s court ruling, each extra dollar of unanticipated revenue we collect will cut a dollar from the administration’s ability to borrow.”

  115. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    That’s a very narrow frame of view. I’m not here to defend their admission standards, but attacking affirmative action, specially so crudely, is a waste of time and actually counter productive right now.

    I can only tell you about my experiences. But if you want data, you can look at the huge disparity in GPA, test scores at nearly every admissions office across the country on this matter. It’s flagrantly obvious.

  116. crushednjmillenial says:

    First, SCOTUS, and all courts, can use legal nonsense to justify any political motivation. If you read enough 5-4 splits, you get the feeling that politics is trumping principles. Locally, that’s how you have a situation where NJ’s Supreme Court alone concluded that there is a constitutional right to fair access to housing. No other state has followed along with this legal hocus-pocus.

    Second, while SCOTUS has approved of use in race in college admissions, the Grutter opinion states something to the effect “the Supreme Court expects that 25 years from now this interest won’t need to be protected by race-based admissions considerations.” That opinion was issued in 2003, so circle 2028 on your calendars. Better yet, maybe the Courts will dispense with affirmative action in the appeals emanating from the Harvard asian discrimination lawsuit.

    To me, equal protection means equal. One day, as the Supreme Court has recognized, we hopefully won’t be using race at all. To me, that day has already come and it disgusting what asians face in college admissions.

  117. crushednjmillenial says:

    First, SCOTUS, and all courts, can use legal nonsense to justify any political motivation. If you read enough 5-4 splits, you get the feeling that politics is trumping principles.

    Second, while SCOTUS has approved of use in race in college admissions, the Grutter opinion states something to the effect “the Supreme Court expects that 25 years from now this interest won’t need to be protected by race-based admissions considerations.” That opinion was issued in 2003, so circle 2028 on your calendars. Better yet, maybe the Courts will dispense with affirmative action in the appeals emanating from the Harvard asian discrimination lawsuit.

    To me, equal protection means equal. One day, as the Supreme Court has recognized, we hopefully won’t be using race at all. To me, that day has already come and it disgusting what asians face in college admissions.

  118. AP says:

    crushed, that was a good O’Connor quite you pulled there about 25 years. Optimistic timeframe perhaps but I get the point.

    Harvard and Take explain their process as looking at “the whole individual”. While that’s obviously an aspirational goal more than anything, including race, background, along with other individual qualities into the criteria is clearly not only fair but even desirable.

  119. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    How is it that Asians statistically come out on the losing end of those other individual qualities?

  120. ExEssex says:

    And there’s winners, and there’s losers
    But they ain’t no big deal
    ‘Cause the simple man baby pays the thrills,
    The bills and the pills that kill

  121. AP says:

    BRT: “How is it that Asians statistically come out on the losing end of those other individual qualities”

    They don’t. They are over-represented as a percentage of the population, for example. This is really not about excluding whites or Asians, if you look more deeply into into it. Again it’s more about waging ideological warfare against a largely benign social practice (i.e. considering “the whole individual” in admission criteria)

  122. ExEssex says:

    Cause the simple man baby lives in a highway house…..

  123. JCer says:

    AP, BRT I have a problem with looking at Race as a factor, merit is what matters. The social engineers in these universities care nothing about fairness. Grades and scores should be a big part of it but situation and challenges should be taken into account as well. Is a rich suburban black kid more deserving than the Vietnamese kid whose parents came here on a boat and were penniless immigrants running from discrimination all other things being equal? The poor kid in Detroit living in the ghetto, who manages to work work hard in school and against all odds gets good grades and good scores deserves a helping hand it shouldn’t matter the race.

    Someone being a literal N@zi means being in support of genocide, I cannot get behind that. If you have read some of the tax proposals we are not talking about raising the rates a bit, we are talking about penalizing wealth with wealth taxes, massive income tax increases, an inheritance tax that we haven’t seen the likes of in over 20 years, and an end to basis step up, capital gains taxes at 43%. Oh and a giant giveaway to “green energy”. His plans will absolutely sink the economy and hammer family wealth. I’m behind cutting wasteful government programs which are akin to welfare for the defense contractors, it will never happen.

    The government absolutely has a spending problem but there is an issue when you are trying to fund the government entirely on the back of 2% of the population, who is already shouldering a disproportionate amount the tax load. Considering it is only 2% of the population the tax increases need to be quite large on these people. Truth be told reverting to Bill Clinton’s personal income tax rates would be fine, the issue is large changes with unknown unintended consequences.

  124. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Your definition of over represented is presumably greater than the percentage of Asian Americans in the US. Still doesn’t explain the overly wide disparity in admission stats. If you normalized it to academic performance, we would still expect more to be admitted to those institutions.

  125. leftwing says:

    Some pretty fast dancing there, AP….

    Your first responses are essentially that it’s racism, but it’s OK, and we really shouldn’t talk about it…”it is explicitly accepted that race is one of the factors used in the process…attacking affirmative action…is a waste of time and actually counter productive right now.”

    After getting called out you two step to the “whole individual” defense…..

    Fine, let’s base it on the whole individual, without being racists. Use admissions forms omitting race and name. Deal? We still capture individuals from many diverse backgrounds – economically, demographically, geographically, interests, accomplishments, etc.

    And we won’t then be racists…selecting one person rather than another based on race…which is the definition of “affirmative action”.

    A college admission, a professional hire, and especially any type of Board seat will 100% go to an AA over any equally qualified white on this forum hands down, every time. That’s not racism?

  126. AP says:

    BRT, that’s the point. These institutions believe, correctly I would argue, that having attributes other than just raw academic testing results be weighted in improves the mix of qualities they seek and produces more “excellence”.

  127. AP says:

    leftwing, I’m not the one claiming “whole individual” but that is what the universities are defending and I am sympathetic to that argument.

    There’s nothing racist in facing racism, you know? We should use “color blindness” to blind ourselves to certain disparaties that insist in existing.

    Truly this whole case is a distraction. It is hastily put together to score political points, and not based on the spirit of racial equality it purports, but instead is founded on racial animus itself, I would argue.

  128. joyce says:

    What are the other attributes?

    AP says:
    August 14, 2020 at 12:40 am
    BRT, that’s the point. These institutions believe, correctly I would argue, that having attributes other than just raw academic testing results be weighted in improves the mix of qualities they seek and produces more “excellence”.

  129. leftwing says:

    AP. BRT (not to speak for him but he’s written it) and myself are supportive of ‘whole individual’ criteria.

    Just not racism.

    Affirmative action’s goal is to treat people of different races, differently. The definition of racism is treating people of different races, differently. They are one and the same. Intention is irrelevant. There is no such thing as ‘good’ racism.

    Your answers reveal your outlook. You believe there won’t be ‘fairness’ until and unless there is proportional representation of races in these institutions. That is a horrific ideal. I’m not Asian American but those kids bust their asses. If they are better qualified, including under whole individual criteria, it is criminal that their years of individual effort are discarded on some pillar of a collectivist ‘idealism’ to be given to someone less qualified and motivated. That is assuming one can even call taking something away from a hardworking individual and handing it to another less qualified person based on the color of their skin an ‘ideal’….

    And a last point only because you raise it more than once….The Harvard/Yale racism debate is not some ‘distraction’ put together ‘to score political points’ or about ‘about waging ideological warfare against a largely benign social practice’.

    Individual responsibility and accountability are core beliefs of a significant portion of the population and a key principle of our form of government, not some benign practice. Framing opposition to affirmative action as an ‘attack’ and ‘warfare’ is itself inflammatory and minimizes deeply held philosophical beliefs and governing philosophies. These people are not ‘enemy attackers’. In fact, you are.

  130. Juice Box says:

    New Zealand baffled by new COVID-19 cases, eyes frozen-food packaging blames Trump.

    Cold Case
    “The first person in the cluster to test positive was a man in his 50s who had been symptomatic for five days. Of the man’s six family contacts, three also tested positive Tuesday: a preschool-aged child and two adults, according to The New Zealand Herald. One of the adults appears to be a woman in her 20s who works at the lending company Finance Now, and the other is a man who works at a facility operated by Americold, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company that transports and stores goods at controlled temperatures. Americold operates in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Argentina, as well as New Zealand.”

    https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/new-zealand-baffled-by-new-covid-19-cases-eyes-frozen-food-packaging/

  131. grim says:

    Well, there is this too:

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/13/asia/china-coronavirus-chicken-wings-intl-hnk/index.html

    Since July, there have been seven instances where the virus was detected on the packaging of imported seafood products across the country, from Shandong province on the eastern coast to the municipality of Chongqing in the west, according to state media reports.

  132. Juice Box says:

    Billion and Billion spent on researching viruses food safety and they have no idea whether freezing kills any virus nevermind the Covid-19.

    “(Updated 5/11/20)
    It is unlikely that freezing would be effective in inactivating COVID-19, however as detailed by the FDA, there is currently no evidence of food or food packaging being associated with transmission of COVID-19.”

    The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says simply it is not known whether weather and temperature affect the spread of COVID-19. It states:

    “Generally coronaviruses survive for shorter periods at higher temperatures and higher humidity than in cooler or dryer environments. However, we don’t have direct data for this virus, nor do we have direct data for a temperature-based cutoff for inactivation at this point. The necessary temperature would also be based on the materials of the surface, the environment, etc. Regardless of temperature please follow CDC’s guidance for cleaning and disinfection.”

    Quarantine all frozen foods now!

  133. grim says:

    WHO said it’s safe.

  134. Juice Box says:

    Anyone here do an ebike conversion? So many options. I am going to plunk down some money on a rear weel kit.

    MTX39 real wheel with 17ah battery.

    Simon Cowell made he think twice but apparently he has too much money and bought a $9,000 CAB Recon electric motorbike which has 320 ft/lbs of torque and can go -0-50 in 5 seconds and top speed of 60 MPH, that is no bike…

  135. AP says:

    leftwing, good response re Affirmative Action, although I still completely disagree.

    Trust me, if Yale and Harvard want to increase diversity of racial and social background in their classes, that is done mostly for self interested reasons.

    It’s the same thing as in the corporate sector, where you can see by experience that having more diversity is the best antidote against certain cognitive traps that come from excessive social homogeneity.

    It’s not just color of skin either, it’s good to have people with different accents, ways of expressing themselves, etc.

    That is what this case, as well as many other Affirmative Action cases are about: consciously seeking a better mix of views and backgrounds in other to achieve better educational outcomes.

    “These people are not ‘enemy attackers’. In fact, you are.”

    That’s just empty rhetoric. My position is in harmony with practices in both the corporate sector as well as the educational institutons. It is a fact that these case we’re bright up not to increase racial inclusion and fairness, but to double down on a failed educational as well as social model of exclusion.

  136. Juice Box says:

    Funny thing about corporate diversity. It’s seems to be only practiced here in the USA.

    Our Office in Mexico? Only Mexicans. Our office in India? Only Indians. Our office in Turkey? Only Turkish. Our office in Hong Kong? Only Commies. Our office in Canada? Only Canadians……..

  137. homeboken says:

    Using the “My candidate may suck but he’s not as bad as the other guy.” Has been and always be a losing strategy. Always. If you feel confident that this strategy will get Biden elected, then you are not a serious person.

    Israel-UAE peace agreement – virtually no play in the non-Fox press world. We have awarded Nobel Peace prizes for far less accomplishment.

    I’ve said it many times – Lots to not like about Trump. But he checks my two most important boxes –

    1. He has been in elected office less than 10 years.
    2. He supports school choice.

    Again – It’s almost universally agreed that career politicians are liars, corrupt and willing to trade anything for more power. We have almost all agreed with some form of that statement.

    So to the Biden voters – What do you expect to change, first 100 days, under Biden that will be good for me, good for NJ, good for USA?

    Genuinely curious because I don’t see it. Of all the corrupt career politicians, the DNC has picked one of the worst offenders that honed is corrupt craft over the last 5 decades. It’s alarming how tone deaf Trump makes people.

  138. Juice Box says:

    homeboken – you are wrong there is loads of press on the Israel-UAE peace agreement since Biden took credit for it.

  139. Fast Eddie says:

    So to the Biden voters – What do you expect to change, first 100 days, under Biden that will be good for me, good for NJ, good for USA?

    Crickets…

  140. leftwing says:

    “It’s the same thing as in the corporate sector, where you can see by experience that having more diversity is the best antidote against certain cognitive traps that come from excessive social homogeneity.”

    I am a strong supporter of diversity. I am a strong opponent of taking something earned by one individual and giving it to another individual based on the color of their skin.

    “It’s not just color of skin either, it’s good to have people with different accents, ways of expressing themselves, etc…That is what this case, as well as many other Affirmative Action cases are about: consciously seeking a better mix of views and backgrounds in other to achieve better educational outcomes.”

    You come so close and then drive right off the road….Absolute support on differences.
    Your claim is absolutely false that affirmative action is about those differences – it is not. It is solely race based which is why these legal challenges exist.

    “My position is in harmony with practices in both the corporate sector as well as the educational institutons.”

    Illogical. Nothing in that comment justifies racism through affirmative action…the fact that it may be practiced – controversially – surely does not make it right. By your logic segregation could be supported in the 60s as it was harmoniously practiced in both the corporate and educational sectors…..

    “…as well as social model of exclusion.”

    And right off the road into the ditch again. Two very simple words.
    Personal. Responsibility.

    Makes all the world of difference. There is no secret cabal operating in the shadows to exclude blacks from society. In fact, it’s the opposite. As I mentioned above, anyone here who believes that he will get a professional job over a slightly less qualified black is smoking dope.

    It is impossible to explain to you the intersections I have had in hiring at every level, including advising Boards on C-level hires prior to major corporate events. To a person they want the best candidate for the job – black, white, brown, green, pink, or elephant. Actually, in most of these cases they would proactively want a ‘different’ candidate…differentiation as a business enhancement.

    There is a reason your pro-rata percentages are off, and why we are in the FIFTH DECADE of affirmative action and little has changed. those two magical words…

    Personal responsibility.

  141. Juice Box says:

    This election just like any election just another Faustian bargain. You must trade your parts of yourself including your soul if you are going to be a leader in the party of blue or the party of red. You cannot rise in the ranks without trading away yourself until you are but a skeleton of the person you once were, literally walking dead.

    That is who we have for candidates this time, two zombies both kept alive by hair plugs, botox, tanning cream, makeup, and loads of pharmaceuticals and the unwavering material support they get, money to run from those supporters in their ranks.

    Few of us here could run for any office including the local school board. We would stop when it came to the fundraising portion, most of us would actually feel physically ill doing it.

  142. D-FENS says:

    I can honestly say I don’t have any bad feelings or guilt about voting the way I did and the way I will for president in 2020.

  143. leftwing says:

    Murphy on CNBC. In answer to the question about a state shortfall and the logic of raising taxes to cover the hole, Murphy answers:

    “we are going to get back to fiscal well being based on four different principles…number one, the ability to borrow money which we were just allowed to do by our Supreme Court…”

    SMH….

    2. cut expenses
    3. ‘millionaires’ tax
    4. Congress (give me MOOR money)

    Regarding Congress…”if that happens and it happens in significant enough numbers that gives us enormous amounts of degrees of freedom…that’s not a blue state thing it’s an American state thing…”

    LOL. Fcuking panhandler.

  144. Fast Eddie says:

    Personal responsibility.

    I’ll take words not found in liberal doctrine for $1000, Alex.

  145. leftwing says:

    He says he will raise taxes even if he gets adequate Fed funds to address the ‘enormous inequities laid bare by this virus’.

    He uses that phrase – addressing the enormous inequities – at least three times.

    Look out below my B&B NJ lifers….higher taxes coming for sure, regardless.

    When a liberal unabashedly and proudly proclaims he intends to raise taxes….take him at his word. Seriously. And run far, and run fast.

  146. AP says:

    Hi leftwing, excellent response as always. I appreciate the engagement with my arguments.

    “Illogical. Nothing in that comment justifies racism through affirmative action…the fact that it may be practiced – controversially – surely does not make it right. By your logic segregation could be supported in the 60s as it was harmoniously practiced in both the corporate and educational sectors…..”

    So you may have missed my point with bringing that up, it was to illustrate that my position is not “attacking” anything but instead it is “defending” a common and mostly benefitial practice. My position is not radical, I’m only defending constitutional precedent, educational diversity and diversity of opinions and backgrounds, and educational “excellence”.

    You say “Two very simple words. Personal. Responsibility.”

    Do you realize that there are legal and social constructs that are build and very effective at neutralizing the results and conditions for personal responsibility, not just against the Black community but against many other folks as well?

    “It is impossible to explain to you the intersections I have had in hiring at every level, including advising Boards on C-level hires prior to major corporate events.”

    I have that experience too. Thus I see the importance and value of these programs. It truly is about the whole person, including racial and social background.

    Ask yourself, leftwing, why is every quality or difference acceptable criteria, but race is not? Is this interest to increase racial diversity or diminish it? Why?

    Think of two candidates: X is a solid student, good community service, deserves to be there, etc. Y is also very talented and has overcome every difficulty to educate themselves at the local library and comes up with 100 less points on the SAT. That’s the scenario.

    “taking something earned by one individual and giving it to another individual based on the color of their skin.”

    That is not even close to the facts of the case, and this reading is almost deceptive. Nobody “earned” anything in advance of the admissions process itself. Please correct errors like this in your argument.

  147. TruthIsTheEnemy says:

    No one, the haight and lukianoff book covers this in a chapter.

    Intersectionality which I never heard of before as well as Marcuse and neo Marxism, the left shifted from economic to social Marxism when economic Marxism failed to take hold in a prosperous nation. They had to look elsewhere in the search for oppressed.

    The theories go back to the sixties. They are all garbage of course just as classical Marxism. Classic liberalism is now oppressive in the minds of the she crowd due to its support of individual rights.

    The illuminating part is actually really the end game, which appears to be in sight in a lot of ways. Strip everyone of their civil liberties, indoctrinate all of the children and then subjugate any remaining holdouts. The whole essay is here: https://www.marcuse.org/herbert/publications/1960s/1965-repressive-tolerance-fulltext.html

  148. AP says:

    Fast Eddie,

    “Personal responsibility.

    I’ll take words not found in liberal doctrine for $1000, Alex.”

    That’s false. Traditional liberalism is about empowering individuals and small businesses against monopolies and other harmful institutions that exist for historic reasons only.

  149. TruthIsTheEnemy says:

    Also, they do a good job of explaining common enemy identity politics, which is the trademark of the left, and conventional identity politics, which is essentially just politics.

    One is based upon shared values and the other a shared enemy, in this case a boogeyman known as “whiteness.”

  150. 3b says:

    AP Today’s liberalism is not traditional liberalism.

  151. Fast Eddie says:

    What 3b said.

  152. Fast Eddie says:

    Symbolism doesn’t translate into success and achievement… it’s the reason the left is so violent and angry.

  153. TruthIsTheEnemy says:

    It’s no wonder these boomer liberal professors routinely get their heads kicked in by the woke crowd. They have no idea what kind of monster they’ve helped create. They look at the social issues of today through their classic liberal worldview, which clause freedom of expression.

    The neo liberal crowd has no use for any of it. Words are “violence” to these inculcated drones. Their movement cannot advance with freedom of approach.

  154. TruthIsTheEnemy says:

    Freedom of speech

  155. ExEssex says:

    9:16 go ahead – define success.

  156. ExEssex says:

    Buckle up….

    Long-term financial damage may be greater than that of the last recession for states, economists say.

    The Senate formally adjourned on Thursday until early September, leaving undone any package of pandemic relief. House members had already left Washington.

    Democrats and the Trump administration remain far apart on the stimulus, including how much to spend and where the money would go. The House, which is controlled by Democrats passed a $3 trillion dollar package in May. Republicans, who control the Senate, want to stay in the $1 trillion range.

    A major sticking point, aside from how much more to help unemployed Americans, was providing more aid to state and local governments. With tax revenues plummeting, states could face a cumulative budget gap of at least $555 billion through the 2022 fiscal year, according to one estimate. Economists warn that, unless Congress intervenes, the long-term financial damage might be greater than after the recession of 2007-9.

  157. leftwing says:

    “I can honestly say I don’t have any bad feelings or guilt about voting the way I did and the way I will for president in 2020.”

    You know, I’m trying so hard to find a single reason not to vote for the Orange freak…..

    Then I see the liberal ideology in posts from otherwise reasoned people like AP that twist and contort logic into pretzels pulling any random argument possible to try to reconcile that racism in opposition to racism is still racism….And I turn on the traditional gold standard network (presumably unbiased news) and the first three leadins use the adjective ‘racist’ applied to a DJT action in the opening minutes….and I see how the DNC suppresses any opposition intra-party and the supposed standard bearer is so weak he falls in line, again…..and…and….and….

    And I’m like, how can I possibly give these people the keys to the car?

    Jesus Christ, I can’t believe this but if the election were today I’d have to pull the handle for the Orange Idiot.

  158. ExEssex says:

    We can’t say we’re in a recession yet, at least not formally. A committee decides these things—no, really. The government generally adopts the view that a contraction is not a recession unless economic activity has declined over two quarters. But we’re in a recession and everyone knows it. And what we’re experiencing is so much more than that: a black swan, a financial war, a plague. Maybe things feel normal where you are. Maybe things do not feel normal. Things are not normal. For weeks or months, we won’t know how much GDP has slowed down and how many people have been forced out of work. Government statistics take a while to generate. They look backwards, the latest numbers still depicting a hot economy near full employment. To quantify the present reality, we have to rely on anecdotes from businesses, surveys of workers, shreds of private data, and a few state numbers. They show an economy not in a downturn or a contraction or a soft patch, not experiencing losses or selling off or correcting. They show evaporation, disappearance on what feels like a religious scale.
    What is happening is a shock to the American economy more sudden and severe than anyone alive has ever experienced. The unemployment rate climbed to its apex of 9.9 percent 23 months after the formal start of the Great Recession. Just a few weeks into the domestic coronavirus pandemic, and just days into the imposition of emergency measures to arrest it, nearly 20 percent of workers report that they have lost hours or lost their job. One payroll and scheduling processor suggests that 22 percent of work hours have evaporated for hourly employees, with three in 10 people who would normally show up for work not going as of Tuesday. Absent a strong governmental response, the unemployment rate seems certain to reach heights not seen since the Great Depression or even the miserable late 1800s. A 20 percent rate is not impossible.
    State jobless filings are growing geometrically, a signal of how the national numbers will change when we have them. Last Monday, Colorado had 400 people apply for unemployment insurance. This Tuesday: 6,800. California has seen its daily filings jump from 2,000 to 80,000. Oregon went from 800 to 18,000. In Connecticut, nearly 2 percent of the state’s workers declared that they were newly jobless on a single day. Many other states are reporting the same kinds of figures.

  159. SmallGovConservative says:

    As already noted here, yet another significant, tangible accomplishment for the Trump administration. Some key points from Bloomberg News this morning…

    ” Iran has denounced the deal as ‘dangerous.’ But behind Tehran’s bluster will be grave concern that two of its more active and potent adversaries in the region have come together under Trump’s offices.”

    “…Trump’s point-man on the Middle East, has suggested that another Arab country will follow the UAE’s lead. There’s speculation that Bahrain and Oman will
    make announcements soon. Manama generally defers to Riyadh on defense and foreign policy issues, so any Bahraini normalization with Israel would serve as a trial balloon for Saudi Arabia as well.”

    Truly Nobel peace price worthy, as someone already noted. And I know the Dems here have essentially already said that they cannot come up with a single strong reason to vote FOR Harris/Biden, but I’ll give it another try. Anyone, imagine me as an undecided vote, given Trump’s numerous accomplishments — and recognizing his non-presidential demeanor — give me a list of reasons to vote FOR H/B.

  160. ExEssex says:

    You can’t convince stupid sMaLlGubMint
    So take your fat boomer ass back to crackerbarrel
    Along with your bloated fuGly wife .

  161. homeboken says:

    And this is how we know the argument is lost. Ex – You are a real treat to have on this board. What we would we do without this precise analysis?

    ExEssex says:
    August 14, 2020 at 9:39 am
    You can’t convince stupid sMaLlGubMint
    So take your fat boomer ass back to crackerbarrel
    Along with your bloated fuGly wife .

  162. Fast Eddie says:

    9:16 go ahead – define success.

    “Knowin’ how to spend it. I never ordered a Brandy in my life that wasn’t Cordon Bleu… I took two-hundred from shylocks, pop, to see Sinatra at the Garden? Sat two seats away from Tony Bennett. That’s success!”

    ~ Paulie – The Pope of Greenwich Village

  163. homeboken says:

    Remember GoodFella’s? F YOU, PAY ME.

    Minneapolis Tells Residents With Riot-Wrecked Buildings They Can’t Clean Up Until They’ve Paid Their 2020 Property Taxes in Full

    https://reason.com/2020/08/13/minneapolis-tells-residents-with-riot-wrecked-buildings-they-cant-clean-up-until-theyve-paid-their-2020-property-taxes-in-full/

  164. SmallGovConservative says:

    ExEssex says:
    August 14, 2020 at 9:39 am
    You can’t convince stupid sMaLlGubMint…

    Fat, drunk and un-funny is no way to go through life. Get yourself to an AA meeting; might not solve all your problems, but it’ll probably make you a less useless poster.

  165. ExEssex says:

    Ok boomer. So far you are batting zero…..everyone on this board (and off) who knows me knows I’m not a drinker. Doooooooche

    Let’s get back to you tho…

  166. ExEssex says:

    9:49 great film…. but seriously

  167. ExEssex says:

    9:45 you can feel free to blow me….

  168. ExEssex says:

    The U.S. saw its largest ever decline in the number of business owners between February and April, as at least 3.3 million shut their doors, a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research using the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey found.

    What it means: The record wave of closures was widespread but disproportionately hit minority- and immigrant-owned firms, and “may portend longer-term ramifications for job losses and economic inequality,” the study found.

    African American businesses were the hardest hit.
    The big picture: “No other one-, two- or even 12-month window of time has ever shown such a large change in business activity,” author Robert W. Fairlie writes.

    “For comparison, from the start to end of the Great Recession the number of business owners decreased by 730,000 representing only a 5 percent reduction.”
    The reduction from February to April this year is more than four times that much.
    What’s next: “More permanent mass closures of small businesses in the United States are likely to have a dramatic effect on employee job losses, further income inequality, and contribute to a prolonged recession.”

  169. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Business is bad?, f** you pay me
    Oh you had a fire? f** you pay me
    Place got struck by lightning? f** you pay me
    Windows smashed in from peaceful protesters? f** you pay me
    Oh they set up an autonomous zone in the neighborhood? f** you pay me

  170. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    But that being said, wouldn’t the smart move be to get the property value reassessed?

  171. ExEssex says:

    It has now been reported that Donald Trump did not care about the coronavirus pandemic until it started to sicken and kill “our people,” meaning likely Republican voters in red states. This is more proof, if we needed it, that Trump feels no responsibility to the majority of Americans who do not support him and his regime.

  172. AP says:

    Out in Manalapan today looking at houses. Thinking of upgrading. Somebody talk me off the ledge please.

  173. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Manalapan produced Mike the Situation Sorrentino.

  174. SmallGovConservative says:

    ExEssex says:
    August 14, 2020 at 10:40 am
    It has now been reported that Donald Trump did not care about the coronavirus pandemic until it started to sicken and kill “our people,”…

    Nice try, but wrong again.

    From FactCheck…
    “Former Vice President Joe Biden was wrong when he said that the Trump administration made no effort to get U.S. medical experts into China as the novel coronavirus epidemic spread there early this year.

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tried to get into China just one week after China reported the outbreak to the World Health Organization on Dec. 31, 2019.”

  175. 3b says:

    AP: I would not do it. The state is a mess, too to bottom, and at some point the inflated housing bubble will pop. I would pay off your existing house as soon as possible. Treat yourself to a kitchen or bathroom make over, or a nice hot tub, but I would not commit to buying another house in NJ.

  176. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Medcram has a great video on the recent studies showing that blood samples from 2015 – 2018 show approximately 40 to 60% of the population has T-cell recognition of Covid-19, presumably from exposure to previous coronaviruses. Also likely explains why close quarter germ pits like prisons and homeless shelters have nearly 90% asymptomatic.

    They also reviewed a guinea pig study in which the pigs wore masks and were exposed to virus. Masks did slightly reduce transmission but what was more interesting was that the symptoms in the population that wore masks had milder symptoms and faster recovery. The hypothesis is that reduced viral load exposure is responsible for this.

  177. RelaxationIsMagical says:

    Grim,

    China found 7 instances of the virus in frozen food. Why were they testing? Could it be that it was the way their spy service spread it around the world?

    Since July, there have been seven instances where the virus was detected on the packaging of imported seafood products across the country, from Shandong province on the eastern coast to the municipality of Chongqing in the west, according to state media reports.

    Homeboken @8:21

    I expect nothing from Biden except boring calmness, boring competent execution of corrupt window dressing policies for the next 4 yrs, which will bring another Trumpian into office in 2024. BUT, from 1/20/ 2021-1/20/2025 it will be boring, no more “The Donnie Show 24/7”.

  178. chicagofinance says:

    libturd describes Manalapan as hell on earth…..

    Look further east…….
    the only excuse would be …
    https://slicelife.com/restaurants/nj/manalapan-township/07726/brooklyn-square-pizza-manalapan-township/menu

    AP says:
    August 14, 2020 at 10:47 am
    Out in Manalapan today looking at houses. Thinking of upgrading. Somebody talk me off the ledge please.

    Blue Ribbon Teacher says:
    August 14, 2020 at 10:54 am
    Manalapan produced Mike the Situation Sorrentino.

  179. Juice Box says:

    Manalapan Rt 9 ugh. I have a cousin living there and a friend. When people were “commuting” to work back in those olden days it was traffic hell.

  180. 3b says:

    Relax: No not another Trump, but a radical leftist candidate who will win. And it will be the Dems fault, just like Trump is their fault.

  181. Libturd says:

    I know Manalapan really, really well. It’s crown feature is a super market (Wegmans). It’s side effects are the horrible traffic on route 9. There is not a good restaurant within ten miles. Proof? Lots of chains which are nearly dead everywhere else are somehow still alive on the route 9 corridor between Old Bridge and Freehold.

    Manalapan is essentially the Beverly Hills of Old Bridge and Howell. Can I trademark this one?

  182. chicagofinance says:

    My son is SUPER PSYCHED that they are opening a Chick-Fil-A next to the Costco at 9 & 18.

    Libturd says:
    August 14, 2020 at 11:40 am
    I know Manalapan really, really well. It’s crown feature is a super market (Wegmans). It’s side effects are the horrible traffic on route 9. There is not a good restaurant within ten miles. Proof? Lots of chains which are nearly dead everywhere else are somehow still alive on the route 9 corridor between Old Bridge and Freehold.

    Manalapan is essentially the Beverly Hills of Old Bridge and Howell. Can I trademark this one?

  183. chicagofinance says:

    BTW – WTF with all the posts…… from 6PM-10AM a good bunch of you avoided sleep…… dedication……

  184. Libturd says:

    As for affirmative action. It’s absolutely racist and patently unfair to those who deserve the spot that a lesser performer receives simply because they have darker skin. But so is not doing nearly enough as a society to end systemic racism, which is also (obviously) racist. You can argue that two wrongs don’t make a right. I’ll agree with you there. But you can’t argue that Asian’s have faced the same level of mistreatment, the same level of predisposed negative assumption or shall we just call it that dirty white word. Privilege.
    Until we, as a society, do more to change the endless cycle of poverty and dependence on government help (which IMO, is the reason there is no personal responsibility) so common for people born with darker skin, then I’m cool with giving up a couple of spots. I personally have been passed up for a promotion in residence life because of my skin color. I made the same arguments made here. I even called it racist to which one particular person high up in residence life to this day thinks I am a racist for. But I got it then when it was explained to me. And I still support it. Call me a systemic racist! I’m good with it.

  185. D-FENS says:

    Amazes me how reporters can read minds.

    ExEssex says:
    August 14, 2020 at 10:40 am
    It has now been reported that Donald Trump did not care about the coronavirus pandemic until it started to sicken and kill “our people,” meaning likely Republican voters in red states. This is more proof, if we needed it, that Trump feels no responsibility to the majority of Americans who do not support him and his regime.

  186. chicagofinance says:

    Being a good alum of the school. Integrating yourself in post-graduate activities including returning to campus to recruit future graduates. Mentoring current students……. and wait for it…… philanthropy…. how many Asian last names do you see endowing professorships and on buildings….. they are there, but not in the proportion they should be……. they are tight-fisted, bad community members, exclusionary, racist, obstinate, socially unaware. I grew up in Flushing. I went to a NYC magnet school. I am not talking out of my a%%. I wish I was wrong.

    I was just in Ithaca. The entire off-campus area adjacent to the school has been turned completely upside down. All the businesses (of all types) have been replaced with various Asian themed restaurants. Korean BBQ, Sake bars, Thai, Chinese, South Asian, Indian convenience store.

    It is very obvious. They are supposedly ungrads, but they have tons of disposable income. Don’t give a sh!t about the school and are just in it for themselves. That’s the culture.

    Don’t get me wrong…… I have no issue unless BRT starts banging the table about discrimination. Then I will fire back. What are we talking? Maybe 10% of the undergraduate class here or there? Would I rather have another rich book jockey who will make an average alum, or possibly a kid who will go to the hockey games, graduate and recruit future matriculants…. nurture the community….. go back up the Finger Lakes to drink Reisling on Keuka Lake……and most importantly, be part of a broader pool that actually might give $1M-$10M to endow a professorship and put a name on some piece of the campus.

    joyce says:
    August 14, 2020 at 2:46 am
    What are the other attributes?

    AP says:
    August 14, 2020 at 12:40 am
    BRT, that’s the point. These institutions believe, correctly I would argue, that having attributes other than just raw academic testing results be weighted in improves the mix of qualities they seek and produces more “excellence”.

  187. Colonel Libturd says:

    Speaking of chick-fil-a.

    I have been making a few copycat recipes ever since I got the air fryer. You really can reproduce their chicken very easily at home. As a matter of fact, I told ExPat about it and I probably killed him since he didn’t have an air fryer and was eating these things nearly daily. The secret is to brine the tenderized chicken breasts in pickle juice for a day before you fry it. If you want to reproduce the breaded patty, the secret is confectioners sugar in the batter. It adds sweetness and fluffiness. The grilled patty stand on the pickle brine alone. Then, it’s just pickles on a buttered roll to complete the simple sandwich. I prefer mine with lettuce and tomato too and none of that crap secret sauce (which is just mayonnaise and a little ketchup mixed and a few drops of vinegar.

    With the air fryer, I add probably an 1/16 of a teaspoon of oil atomized per breast (yeah, I have an avocado oil sprayer). I’m sure ExPat deep fried. He liked his fats.

  188. Libturd says:

    Chi,

    I actually thought of the endowment/philanthropy thing, but didn’t mention it. It definitely factors in.

  189. AP says:

    Lib, 3b, Chi, BRT, thanks for the context on Manalapan. I can easily imagine myself waking up one day thinking “this is not my beautiful house” there.

    Driving back I was reflecting and I guess what really got my interest more than anything is having a nice in-law suite. The old man is getting older, mom is gone now, so it would be nice to have a place to offer him to come stay. But the old man is a Fox News and Hanitty superfan, so we’ll probably need a separate wing for that!

  190. Phoenix says:

    The irony is that the time affirmative action is going to end whites are going to be a minority and would benefit from it.

    Gen Z….

  191. Phoenix says:

    Chicken wings in an air fryer finished my need to EVER order them out.

  192. Phoenix says:

    The wins for the taxpayers just keep on comin’

    At least we can turf the debt of things like this to the unborn thanks to Murphy and his magical loans.

    https://www.nj.com/essex/2020/08/cop-who-claimed-nj-police-chief-was-a-megalomaniacal-despot-settles-for-675k-after-lawsuit.html

  193. leftwing says:

    “Truly Nobel peace price worthy, as someone already noted.”

    Oh c’mon you can’t be Nobel worthy as a US President unless you are in office for less than eight months and subject to affirmative action, errr I mean ‘have vision’.

    That Nobel was a disgrace. But I guess there is another institution providing support and thereby, in the Left’s mind at least, validating their five decade old failed policy of social engineering.

  194. joyce says:

    Chicago,
    I’m not sure if that’s an argument for or against affirmative action/factoring in race?

  195. Libturd says:

    Phoenix,

    On our police chief, who I know quite well. You knew something was fishy when she hired her masseuse as office manager. Only the brightest and the best serve in the public sector. Gotta love their hiring practices too. Next Pumps will tell me that it’s because she wasn’t paid enough even though NJ cops are the second most highly compensated in the country.

  196. joyce says:

    Viral immunologist Zania Stamataki agrees. “The data on the decline of the antibodies is not scary. We’re seeing a tiny drop, which is quite expected,” says Stamataki, a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy in England. “I don’t think there is this really rapid decay like people have reported.”

    Yang stands by his interpretation of a steep decline, saying it agrees well with the Nature Medicine study and English preprint paper. He says the reason for disagreement may reflect the populations being studied. Yang and his colleagues looked at people with clinically mild infections who had lower initial levels of antibodies, whereas those who have higher levels to start with “may actually also have more persistent antibodies,” he says.

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/concerns-about-waning-covid-19-immunity-are-likely-overblown/

  197. joyce says:

    Phoenix/Libturd,
    Ever notice how the employees are able to endure years of abuse until they’re ready to retire? Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we can find examples of someone suing while in their 30s… but it’s disproportionately people who are almost out the door.

  198. Libturd says:

    Oh…as to what Biden and Harris will do in the first year?

    Biden will call out for a nationwide mask mandate. This is the first step in getting things to reopen safely. Like the rest of the intelligent world has done.

    Trump? He is still questioning every scientific find that does not benefit his approval rating.

    ‘Nuff said.

    The excuse that’s it’s all chutzpah and lack of demeanor, or that his actions aren’t deserving of the criticism he continues to receive, is pure narrative. He is the worst president and has the blood of more dead Americans on his hands than any president before him. To this day, he has not acknowledged any wrongdoing in his complete and utter mishandling of the pandemic. It’s Faucci’s fault. It’s the Dem’s fault. It’s China’s fault. Yet somehow, when Israel makes piece with an Arab neighbor, somehow his idiot followers are giving him credit. Yeah, I’m sure it was the alpha dog move of the embassy to Jerusalem. Must have scared UAE into what is really an economic agreement which has nothing to do with peace. Just oligarchs doing business. Like the relationship we have with Saudi Arabia, where the 9/11 attackers hailed from.

  199. Libtard says:

    You want to see crickets? Go look in Melania’s cooch.

  200. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    I’m sure it does factor in. And if that’s not discrimination, I don’t know what is. Incoming applicants ignored for the misdeeds of others. These schools admit tens of thousands of kids. How many people get their names on buildings? Listen, I don’t care one way or another, but as far as whether Asians are discriminated against in application processes, the answer is overwhelmingly yes…and it’s not just at Ivy League Institutions, it’s at every medical school in the country. I would be much less critical if they were open about it instead of pretending to consider the “whole individual”.

    But that being said, how many Hispanic names do you see on those buildings? Just to toss it out there, I spent a lot of my time studying at the Chang library at Rutgers.

  201. Libturd says:

    “Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian journalist, argued that the deal was actually overhyped by all sides. “UAE was already normalizing relations & the annexation plan was already postponed,” he wrote on Twitter. “No one is a winner in this despite the hoopla that we will hear about for some time. UAE broke the Arab peace plan without getting anything of worth.”

    They got something of huge worth. A great economic trading partner. Even the Arabs are starting to realize that the real enemy is Iran.

  202. Fast Eddie says:

    O’Biden and Camella… Joe and the Ho. And if O’Biden has all the answers, why didn’t he tell Oblama?

  203. AP says:

    Fast Eddie posted something interesting earlier:

    “Symbolism doesn’t translate into success and achievement… it’s the reason the left is so violent and angry”

    Interestingly symbolism does translate into success and achievement. In fact it could be argued that achievement and success (after a modicum of financial security is achieved) are in large part socially constructed, based on symbolic agreements.

    Booker, Nobel, Oscar, Emmys. Principal, MD, Senior. These are all symbolic status markers that are intrisincally linked with current notions of success.

    Why are people suing to get into an Ivy League school? Many aren’t doing it for the “right reasons”, but for the symbolic achievement, which yes could lead to other type of access to capital acquisition.

    Achievement is never as straightforward as it appears, and relies heavily on negotiated symbolism at all levels.

    Good comment, got me thinking.

  204. ExEssex says:

    The facade of success.

    Not success.

  205. Phoenix says:

    Joyce,
    Sure seems to be a common bond.

  206. Fast Eddie says:

    AP,

    Omg. You need to achieve before you get an award. You need to earn, both financially and by gaining respect before you’re tagged with a symbol, not the other way around.

    Hope and change, BLM, being woke, awareness, multi whatever, and all the other words fancied about cost nothing in terms of effort or money. They’re phrases of exclusivity for those with no direction. It’s all bullsh1t. They’re symbols… products of nothing… producing nothing except aggravation and obstruction for those with a plan and purpose. Ugh….

  207. ExEssex says:

    Sorry Eddie but history will be kind to the black man you so hate.

  208. Libturd says:

    Speaking of symbols. That wall hasn’t done sh1t to stop crime. I guess not all the rapists are from Mexico after all.

  209. Fast Eddie says:

    Sorry Eddie but history will be kind to the black man you so hate.

    Hey d0uche, do want me to explain for the 20th time on this blog how much money and effort my family donated through their business for poor kids in the neighborhood? F.ucking put up or shut up.

  210. Phoenix says:

    Have the day off, kid wants some pizza with pepperoni. Trek over to the local place full of Latin American guys, none wearing masks appropriately. Sign on the door stated that they were raising prices due to world events/costs. Neither thing bothers me as I don’t believe anyone gets Covid from food, and okay prices go up. I tell the guy 2 slices with pepperoni. I make the mistake of not checking. Get home, kid opens it, it’s sausage and pepperoni- problem on my hands.

    I return. Guy starts yelling at me telling me in broken English that I said sausage and pepperoni. I tell him the word sausage was never said as this is something I would never order. He shoves the box at me and tells me to eat it. If it were for me and I got home with it wrong I would have, but no way for my kid-not going to happen.

    Ask for the money back, he balks, then pays. 7.75 for 2 slices. I drive to the local Italian run place-much fancier building, not in strip mall. Order 2 slices. 5.30 total

    He won’t be in business much longer.

  211. Phoenix says:

    Here is your rapist.
    Of course it’s labeled as a “tryst” due to gender.
    Read the comments as this is happening here but American media refuses to cover it- the comments really make the story.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8596385/Texas-math-teacher-25-charged-having-sex-15-year-old-male-student.html

  212. Phoenix says:

    “You want to see crickets? Go look in Melania’s cooch.”

    Do they make noise only at night or all day since it’s dark in there?

  213. ExEssex says:

    1:53 ur a cretin Gary.

  214. ExEssex says:

    A Person that is: brainless, stupid, child-like, and full of pointless information that makes no sense and appeals only to other cretins. They can be found in abundance in every single populated internet forum, where they race to post as many mind-numbing messages as possible in a single session. In addition, they seemingly interbreed with other cretins, ensuring that their cretinous genes continue long after they end up dead meaning the Internet will never be rid of their kind. More’s the pity.

  215. TruthIsTheEnemy says:

    What’s the scientific basis for wearing masks?

  216. joyce says:

    You like Obama? because I thought that’s what he meant (the black man you so hate).

    Fast Eddie says:
    August 14, 2020 at 1:53 pm
    Sorry Eddie but history will be kind to the black man you so hate.

    Hey d0uche, do want me to explain for the 20th time on this blog how much money and effort my family donated through their business for poor kids in the neighborhood? F.ucking put up or shut up.

  217. Walking says:

    phoneix The profit on pizza is enormous, that said smany places are hurting that people (owners) are not acting rationally. When your backed up against the wall with bills and pretty much working for free, little things like your slice can tip a guy to irrational.

    You should see the language people use when you tell them they have a $10 copay.

  218. ExEssêx says:

    2:13 that’s who I was referring to. Obama.
    Eddie went to parochial school so he reads a little not so good.

  219. Phoenix says:

    Walking,
    I agree. Dude flipped out. Place was so hot inside I think they cannot afford the A/C due to parasitic rental agreements.
    The Italian place they probably own and bought years ago so building is paid off.

    However, it’s not my fault the man could not understand English. No way did I tell him sausage. I have been to this place before-and if he just replaced it (2 slices) with the correct item he would have had a customer that would have kept on returning.
    Instead he tried to gaslight me and tell me I asked for something I would never possibly done, then told me to eat it. Sorry, but I’m out. Not playing that game.
    Won’t ever go back. You make mistake, you have to suck it up.

    I won’t badmouth his business online, nor rate it poorly. Just never returning. But I agree this was stress related and it is only the tip of the iceberg that the USS America is going to run into.

    We are in a really bad place with no one, and I mean no one capable of being at the helm neither Repub nor Democrat.

    It’s a Shi t Sandwich made with Dung bread, turd beef and steatorrhea sauce.

  220. AP says:

    Fast, you said “They’re symbols… products of nothing… producing nothing except aggravation and obstruction for those with a plan and purpose. ”

    I’ve given some thought to this position, and have started looking into what is the actual signal behind the noise.

    There’s serious work behind the anti-racist scholarship, I found. From serious presses and making very difficult to research, articulate, but important points.

    Here’s an example from the Harvard Law Review that got un-paywalled recently. It is dense, I’m still exploring it myself, but I thought it was worth a look as an example of important scholarship on the topic.

    “In this article, Professor Harris contributes to this discussion by positing that racial identity and property are deeply interrelated concepts. Professor Harris examines how whiteness, initially constructed as a form of racial identity, evolved into a form of property, historically and presently acknowledged and protected in American law.”

    https://harvardlawreview.org/1993/06/whiteness-as-property/

    I know the article could be provocative to some folks, s I don’t post it to say that anyone should agree with the author, but to illustrate examples of scholarship on race that clearly shows “purpose”.

    It’s critical to distinguish the signal from the noise right now!

  221. Libturd says:

    “What’s the scientific basis for wearing masks?”

    Go lick a doorknob.

  222. SomeOne says:

    Lib, re endowments to big schools:

    I believe it may take a few generations of wealth accumulation for families to be rich enough to make big endowments. People with say <5M net worth really can't make big endowments (say 500k+) if they still have kids' education, retirement expenses, etc., remaining.

    Remember, the asian immigrants were allowed in large numbers only after 1965. Big economic opportunities came up since 1990's, so we are still somewhat looking at first generation of wealthy asian immigrants their college kids or recent grads.

    They may be donating to causes in their ancestral countries (poor countries perhaps). Some may be donating directly to an endowment pool. Not every major donation will show up as a name on a building.

  223. ExEssex says:

    Why do you hate America so much. America ain’t all bankers & business people:

    https://youtu.be/dDDVq_LCrOg

  224. No One says:

    AP,
    You are really fond of a lot of pseudo-intellectual BS.
    At least ExEssex is funny a third of the time to others, and funny to himself all the time. He makes me think of “the Dude” from the Big Lebowski.
    In contrast you make me think of Pumpkin if he graduated with a B average degree in history from a mediocre college.
    Please do go buy a house in Manalpan to distract yourself from coming here.
    Is your desire to buy a home a manifestation of your whiteness? Are you agreeing with some neo-Marxist that black people don’t want to own property?

  225. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    I took my kids to yestercades. They have he entire place to themselves.

  226. AP says:

    Ha, No One, Lebowski is one of my favorites films. Lots of characters there that can remind us of folks. Can’t count the number of times I watched that one. Cohen brothers are master craftsmen.

    Other than not much to respond on your message. I encourage you to explore the world of ideas a bit more. You may specialize in a different field but it doesn’t hurt to read more widely than just your trade papers.

    I read and comment on more intellectual fare because I like it and it’s fun to me. I’m sure at least someone out there appreciates my posts as well : )

  227. Bystander says:

    Ed is a perfect mixture of the two Jeff Lebowskis- smokes like the dude, talks like the big Lebowski. Not sure if he likes the Eagles.

  228. SmallGovConservative says:

    No One says:
    August 14, 2020 at 3:29 pm

    At least ExEssex is funny a third of the time to others…

    I’d say a third of his posts might be coherent; can’t recall the last one that was funny.

  229. AngelaToisy says:

    KETO Easy – the best weight loss product – https://kshop5.pro/ur8KL2/

  230. ExEssex says:

    5:04 says that guy/gal who is classifying people as beta and alpha.
    That’s…..priceless. Something tells me you only laugh after kicking a puppy.

  231. Juice Box says:

    Blue – Yestercades! Should have told me I would have come by and kicked you butt in Donkey Kong! My kids love that place and so do I, it’s a regular hang out for us on a rainy weekend . Reminds me I have not been to the Silverball Museum in Asbury in a while need to make a trip soon.

  232. grim says:

    Any pizza place worth their sauce is killing it right now.

  233. Juice Box says:

    Phoenix – When I was in High School I worked for a crazy Sicilian who ran a great little Pizza/deli place that sold only the best Italian food. We had a blast there making pizzas and dinners etc, heat was always an issue except for winter. We had six Bari ovens running at 500 degrees all day, and all we did was sweat, most of the time not on the food as we has plenty of cloths for wiping.

    Boss was crazy, some kid called several times over a month and did a few large fake delivery orders, boss took the phone number and found the address by looking in the old white pages phone book line by line for weeks until he found it, finally the home address! We went there with weapons, a few sticks and a two by four. His sister, partner in the business who looked like an Italian Nun sent me to make sure he did not kill anyone. Little ole lady answered the door and he started shouting at her, lady was like “he is a good boy” “he did not mean it” etc, had to be Grandma. I had to talk the guy down off the cliff as he wanted to go in the house and beat the kid who was perhaps 22 yrs old and “slow”. Managed to take away his stick and run with it, no way he was catching a 17 year old me. He finally calmed down and we went back to work.

    Crazy times, funny the guy wanted to be a professional sax player, once in a while we would goad him and he would break out the Sax and serenade the staff late at night as we were cleaning up after a crazy weekend of making Pizzas. Good Times..

  234. JCer says:

    SomeOne, agree on the endowments, unless I was crazy rich my university would not be the first to get my money. First I think there are people who certainly need it more. Second they are charging kids 50k+ a year in tuition that should cover it all. Third giving them money would just further promote their inefficient operation and continued building of buildings that largely are under utilized. Most of us were not “given” anything by the school either we paid for it or borrowed to pay for it. I’ll give some money to the scholarship funds as I think education is important but I object to the idea of giving money to the university slush fund.

    On Manalapan, it is h*ll on earth, I have family there who moved my grandmother down there she hated it the last decade of her life, way too isolated and quiet for a woman who grew up in Manhattan. There is literally nothing there we would literally go and visit and take her out to lunch in Redbank because the choices out there are like a burger kings, a diner, or some bad chain restaurant. Don’t do it the commute is bad, you can move to western morris county and have the same commute, get the same big house and have more stuff around(Chester looks like a metropolis compared to Manalapan). Frankly Middletown(lincroft area or even up by red bank) is MUCH better, closer to the parkway, the ferry, dining, etc.

    Could AP and Pumps be one and the same?

    In other news received the call today that school is all virtual, yay why am I paying the absurd taxes I pay?

  235. homeboken says:

    Who hear thinks we will wake up on Nov 4 and have a clear winner for POTUS. Meaning, the loser has already conceeded, the winner had 300+ electoral votes locked.

    I don’t think there is any way that happens.

    Seriously considering taking a few grand and buying SPY puts, like 30% OTM, mid Dec. Expiry.

    Talk me out of this someone.

  236. homeboken says:

    Here*.

  237. AP says:

    JCer, “Could AP and Pumps be one and the same?”

    What’s up with you dude. I thought we were starting to get along?

  238. AP says:

    Juice Box, “Managed to take away his stick and run with it, no way he was catching a 17 year old me.”

    My old boss, at a watch store at the South Street Seaport of all places, kept a heavy stick under the store counter. Only saw him chase a customer off the store with it once.

  239. ExEssex says:

    5:33 musical instrument retail is up 18% –

  240. ExEssex says:

    6:35 only the IP knows……

  241. Phoenix says:

    “Could AP and Pumps be one and the same?”

    Well one thing is for sure.
    No one is mistaking me for anyone else on this forum.

  242. JCer says:

    AP, just a joke we know pumps uses multiple names sometimes even of others on this site.

  243. Phoenix says:

    Or anywhere else for that matter.

  244. Fabius Maximus says:

    Whole lot of Stupid posted in this thread. Where to start.

    “No one, the haight and lukianoff book covers this in a chapter.”

    Truth, WTF does that post even mean. You sound like that guy in Good Will Hunting who got smacked down for wasting $150K on an education when he could have got it for $1,50 in late fees.

    You need to water down the taking points if you are going to appeal to Fox News Masses.

  245. Fabius Maximus says:

    Donnie and the Nobel is a joke. That deal was worked on back in 2015 and 2016 and that is why those nations backed Donnie to win.

    Do you really think Donnie gets away with his dodgy deal to sell Nuc Tech to UAE without Israel signing off on it?

    There is so much corruption in this administration you start to forget some of the bigger ones.
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-secret-yacht-summit-realigned-middle-east

  246. Phoenix says:

    Juice,
    Ex wife’s mother claimed to have heritage to the Sicilian mob.
    She was just a run of the mill cretin. Chased out of her job in a school district-you have to be pretty bad for them not to accept you. Not a teacher, however.
    She was a “professional” with patients. Only one rating on Yelp, that was a one also. Person who wrote it described her to a “T.” What they wrote was one of the most scathing things I have ever read.
    Old Battle Ax is probably retired by now.

  247. Fabius Maximus says:

    I’ll take “The playing field is still not level” for $500.

    I have never met a poor bar owner. I have met a few that drank or gambled it away. Its the one industry that is recession proof. People still need that social connection.

    Gary, you grew up middle class, never went higher, never went lower. Your father gave you an education, his life and successes are not yours.

  248. Fabius Maximus says:

    I want one of those “Bye DON” lawn signs.

    The attacks against Harris and Joe are pretty week. Churning up B1rther1sm is pretty weak and frankly a little desperate. By hey, food for the base.

  249. chicagofinance says:

    BRT: I agree with what you are saying. I’m just trying to throw elements of what are a very wide range of potential factors. How race plays in admissions is not black and white (pun intended), but rather a spectrum with multiple variables.

    I hate to be cynical, but the rhetoric of political and social discourse about race has its origins in the universities. So if money buys influence in politics and society, then I would posit that universities are also bought and sold with money.

    As an aside, something occurred to me this afternoon. I attended a NYC magnet school of the exact student body that DeBlasio derides (merit based), and is now currently disproportionately attended by Asians…. especially from areas where I grew up, such as Flushing. It turns out that one of my classmates from 1986 was on the math faculty there until just recently.

    Do you realize that a good deal of the backlash against the composition of the student body is from the teachers themselves? They see the pool of students and have a problem with it. Similarly, don’t you think it likely that the FACULTY at schools such as Harvard and Yale are concerned with the number of Asians on campus. At the end of the day, the admissions staff is taking heat for what is likely an initiative that has many advocates from all parts of that community.

    Personally, I would argue that Harvard is sending a indirect message to you through the chronic rejection of your kids, and you should listen to it. They are saying that they don’t want your Asian student achievers…… and personally, my attitude would be FCUK YOU Harvard, your loss…… but I think it goes beyond that….. as an example, my brother’s decision to attend Princeton was a mistake.

    Blue Ribbon Teacher says:
    August 14, 2020 at 1:17 pm
    I’m sure it does factor in. And if that’s not discrimination, I don’t know what is. Incoming applicants ignored for the misdeeds of others. These schools admit tens of thousands of kids. How many people get their names on buildings? Listen, I don’t care one way or another, but as far as whether Asians are discriminated against in application processes, the answer is overwhelmingly yes…and it’s not just at Ivy League Institutions, it’s at every medical school in the country. I would be much less critical if they were open about it instead of pretending to consider the “whole individual”.

    But that being said, how many Hispanic names do you see on those buildings? Just to toss it out there, I spent a lot of my time studying at the Chang library at Rutgers.

  250. chicagofinance says:

    Clearly, it appears the answer is 7:24PM

    Fabius Maximus says:
    August 14, 2020 at 7:24 pm
    Whole lot of Stupid posted in this thread. Where to start.

  251. Fabius Maximus says:

    Chi,

    “+1,000x …. have to deal with such every few weeks for some of my clients that have no brain function beyond the autonomic nervous system.”

    Nice to see you are finally coming to grips with hating your clients. It will go a long way to improving your mental health.

  252. Fabius Maximus says:

    JCer,

    I really dont get how the right can sit back and let the USPS be dismantled. Donnie has admitted that the main reason is voter supression and all you come up with is whataboutism.

    The PO does more than just Amazon FedEx and Bulk mail. But the upshot will be a lot of hurt for a lot of people. How many companies still use paper billing. How many checks and invoices are still send. This is not just Welfare checks. This is how our economy works.

    Oh, I can just use online Bill pay. Well all that does is generate a check thats mailed. So your electric bill will now be a trip to the PSEG store or a $14 wire payment or a $14 FedEx envelope.

    Callous doesnt even start to cover it.

  253. Phoenix says:

    That Chesire cat smile from Kamala today as she signed the ballot document makes me sick.
    This country is on fire, she looks like it’s all about her and that she has no cares in the world.

    If I were to take that job I would not be smiling-nothing funny about it.

  254. Phoenix says:

    FM,
    It’s going to Bezos. That’s my bet. It’s right in his wheelhouse.

  255. Fabius Maximus says:

    Small,

    Leaving aside the loaded “But you cant talk about anything Donnie has done (or not done)”. Why would you ask me why someone should vote for JoeKA, (TM) why dont you go and ask all the moderate GOP that are lining up behind them. When the GOP lost the likes of ShoreGuy the writing was on the wall. When Donnie lost the Federalists, I was wondering what speed Scalia was now rotating in he11 at?

    At this point the GOP needs this to be a historic rout where they can then start rebuiding the party.

  256. Fast Eddie says:

    Your father gave you an education, his life and successes are not yours.

    And I did the same for my kid. See how that works?

  257. Fabius Maximus says:

    So my company announced that we are WFH until at least June at this point and dropped a very big hint that WFH will be a BIG part of the company worldwide going forward. There will be consolidation and closing of offices and use of 3rd party meeting facilities.

    The biggest news was that if you are not working from your primary residence, you need to report to HR. That go me thinking. I have a colleague who relocated to upstate NY when this all kicked off. I wonder if he realizes he will have to file cut a check to NY State at tax time as he is well over the 16 day rule.

  258. Fabius Maximus says:

    Yes Gary, I know how it works.

    When you’re born on second you don’t get to claim a double.

  259. Fabius Maximus says:

    Killing people to steal an election.

    Still no cancer meds in the mail today. 11 days late.
    https://twitter.com/brettirwin15/status/1294419273700392960

    And why are they coming by mail, because Plans mandate it as its the cheapest option.

  260. 3b says:

    We used to do fake pizza orders back in the day to our counterparts on other trading desks, they of course would in turn do the same. 20 pies can feed a lot of people. Then every year we had our anatomically correct birthday cake; it was delicious, along with a stripper. Those days are over on Wall Street.

  261. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Chi,

    I totally agree. I live 3 blocks from The Lawrenceville School. Below average intellect students (I get my fill of their IQ sitting around in Starbucks) and 30% of them go to Princeton every year. I don’t even want to know where the other 70% end up. The reason is obvious. The parents already dropped 200k on their high school, they’ll be paying full tuition and making a donation.

    I don’t even think it’s that complicated. If the admissions were merit based, the student make up of Harvard would be 40% Asian. It’s been accepted dogma from every single facet of every institution that diversity is “our strength”, and every school tries to stay as close to the accepted percentages as possible. This means, by default, they must accept less asians and more blacks/hispanics.

    Like I said, I don’t care if they don’t get it. Carnegie Melon has consistently swooped them up and they continue to do so because they see a huge talent pool in this area. They are obviously doing it because they know that the other schools are passing these kids over. I’m very upfront with the kids that the meritocracy they have in their little heads isn’t what they think it is. The worst thing they can ever do is play the victim. It doesn’t matter, these kids go to a top notch school and end up on top anyway.

    In fact, a number of them opted for the presidential scholarship (full paid tuition) at Rutgers and have still come out head and shoulders above the rest.

  262. SomeOne says:

    Chi,

    Here are admissions stats for class of 2023:
    https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics

    African American, 14.3%
    Asian American, 25.3%
    Hispanic or Latino, 12.2%
    Native American, 1.8%
    Native Hawaiian, 0.6%

    Want to withdraw your complaint?

  263. Grim says:

    If there was a National do not mail junk mail registry, the post office could probably downsize by 50%. Probably eliminate Saturday delivery as wel.

  264. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Blue – Yestercades! Should have told me I would have come by and kicked you butt in Donkey Kong! My kids love that place and so do I, it’s a regular hang out for us on a rainy weekend . Reminds me I have not been to the Silverball Museum in Asbury in a while need to make a trip soon.

    That was actually my first time (Somerville location). I had to get my kids out of my wife’s hair. And, yes, you’d kill me in DK. I’m more of a Street Fighter 2/NBA Jam kinda kid. I was looking into getting an Adams Family Pinball machine for my basement and it goes for like $10k! Apparently it’s a collectors item. They had it there and it was top notch. My kids were in their glory playing real arcade games. Empanadas afterwards from Division Cafe…the best.

  265. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Oh yeah, and Silverball in Asbury is amazing.

  266. zapaza19 says:

    …And my uncle would probably be still alive today

    He went postal over 10 years ago

  267. zapaza19 says:

    that’s replying to 9:52

  268. No One says:

    Someone,
    Now report the admission rates of academically qualified students by race.

    I’m guessing statistical inference and data analysis is not your strength.

  269. JCer says:

    Fab, my take on the post office has nothing to do with agent orange and his mail vote suppression. It has to do with a tax payer funded entity that becomes more and more irrelevant every year. As someone who works in fintech I’m well aware how archaic America’s payment infrastructure is.

    The government would be better served investing in strategic technology than the pony express. We are one of a few countries in the world still doing payments by check. We could do quite a lot with technology and reduce the frequency of residential delivery eyeing the eventual outsourcing of letter delivery and an end to USPS parcel service. Physical delivery is quickly becoming less critical what would the impact be of reducing mail service? Besides payment processing what do you use the mail for(fyi bill pay to larger entities is EFT), even small merchants are taking Venmo, zelle, using square etc.

    I’ve had enough issues with USPS that in general I would not rely on them for anything important.

  270. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    Update on schools, Murphy has created a massive clusterf*** with his let districts do what they want. It’s creating a domino effect where teachers are now put in a position where they can’t come to work because their own local districts have chosen to go virtual and they have to be at home.

  271. Fabius Maximus says:

    JCer, ok I’ll frame it in your terms.

    Why don’t you go into your FinTech Data Center and turn off and disable the mainframe. I would assume you still have one, because EVERYONE does. About 3-4AM, you should be on a conference call with your CEO and half your IT team. At that point you can wax lyrical on the savings now that they don’t have to worry about MIPS and LPARs costs and how life will be so much cheaper with a new better system.

    After they fire you and they tell the rest of the IT dept to “fix it or the firm doesn’t open on Monday”, you will have time to reflect on the fact that you should :

    A) NEVER EVER TURN OFF A SYSTEM UNTIL YOU KNOW THE FULL IMPACT”
    B) NEVER SUNSET A SYSTEM UNTIL YOU HAVE A FULLY WORKING REPLACEMENT”

    But this comes down to this is pure Voter Suppression. If you are OK, because you’ll still make money under the Orange ticket, then ok, own it.!
    https://twitter.com/tomaskenn/status/1294427812670124033/photo/1

  272. Nomad says:

    Remote work is reshaping San Francisco… WSJ

    Some firms hiring directors of remote work

    https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/i9qi6m/remote_work_is_reshaping_san_francisco_as_tech/

  273. grim says:

    The removal of sorting machines is hardly a surprise.

    Large mailers presort, or use third party presort houses to mail. They don’t drop mail off at their local post office to be sorted. This is part of decades of postal modernization.

    Remember, America’s postal system has two functions, to deliver junk mail, and now to deliver eCommerce parcels.

    Neither of which require sorting machines at the local post office. Remember, they are for outbound mail, not inbound mail.

    America no longer sends outbound mail in any appreciable volume. This is why there are not mailboxes anymore, there don’t need to be, they are empty, all the time. Having someone drive around checking empty boxes is an absurd premise. They cost thousands of dollars each, they rust out, they need to be maintained, they are regularly vandalized.

    As outbound mail declines, these sorting machines become less relevant. Why? They need massive volume to run. You don’t run a sorter for 12 pieces of mail, you run a sorter with 2000 trays of mail. You see two scenarios. Post offices have so few pieces of mail, they manually sort them. Or, they move to a regional sorting model, where smaller post offices simply send all the mail to the same location, have it sorted in bulk, where it’s far more efficient.

  274. grim says:

    Let’s also now consider the demographic impact of a generation of people for whom writing a monthly check is engrained in their being. Younger generations do not write checks, nor do they pay by mail. They also don’t want paper statements mailed to their homes. The next 10 years will see non-junk mail volume decline precipitously.

    Please, don’t think I’m being facetious when I say the role of the US Postal System is to deliver junk mail and online shopping parcels.

    If we made junk mail illegal, we could eliminate most of the USPS in terms of headcount.

    For many areas, it might not even make sense to deliver every weekday.

  275. grim says:

    In the world of Mr. Fabius, you keep thousands of postal workers sitting around all day doing nothing, so that when Gov. Murphy decides to unilaterally cancel the election and instead do it all by mail they can be the heroes? Did Murphy even consult the USPS?

    Come on.

  276. grim says:

    Hahahaha looking at a post on FB from a fucjing dolt who is claiming that all the mailboxes in her neighborhood were removed overnight.

    Right, mysteriously stolen overnight.

    Not that the post office hasn’t been removing them since 1995, and that they have probably been gone for at least 10 years.

  277. ExEssex says:

    Grim grim grim tsk tsk tsk.

  278. TruthIsTheEnemy says:

    The guy who thought Ben Shapiro was making sham antifa websites and embedding his own email in the meta tags because is having trouble keeping up? And then also added “he will never shake this”. Lol. Ok.

    Can I google Something for you?

  279. ExEssex says:

    Google this!
    Today’s Democratic Party is very different from the party that nominated Bill Clinton 28 years ago. It is more liberal and more ethnically and racially diverse than ever before, and more united on essentials than at any time in its recent history.

    In 1994, Gallup reports, self-described moderates made up half the party, liberals and conservatives a quarter each. Today, liberals are half the party and moderates a bit more than one-third, conservatives only 14%. By contrast, conservatives already dominated the Republican Party in the 1990s—about 60% of its voters compared with a bit more than 70% today. The content of these ideological labels has changed over three decades. But Democrats’ center of gravity has shifted far more than the Republicans’. (Independents are 45% moderate, 30% conservative and 21% liberal, each within a few points of their 1994 share.)

  280. ExEssex says:

    Cont’d

    June 2020 report from the Pew Research Center details the party’s demographic shifts. It has become less white and more educated. In 1994, 23% of Democrats were nonwhite. Today 40% are, compared with 17% of Republicans. When it comes to education, the parties have switched places. In 1996, 22% of Democrats and 27% of Republicans had college degrees. The figures are now 41% and 29%, respectively. College-educated whites rose from 19% to 28% of Democrats, while whites without degrees fell from 58% to 30%. Non-college-educated whites now make up 57% of Republicans.

    This shift has been especially pronounced among women. In 1994 nearly half of white women with college degrees identified as Republican, compared with only one-third today. White men have moved more slowly in this direction, from 59% to 51%.

  281. grim says:

    tsk tsk?

  282. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Do you understand people need jobs? You are one ruthless dude. Keep eliminating those jobs in the name of efficiency, it will end well. Don’t cry when billions of people have no means to participate in the economy because it can be run by the minority of the population.

    “If we made junk mail illegal, we could eliminate most of the USPS in terms of headcount.”

  283. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Seriously, why are you so obsessed with eliminating jobs? Now with the movement with WFH making the process of offshoring jobs a piece of cake, does the worker have any shot in the future? A ruthless revolution between the haves and have nots is on the horizon or maybe it will be prevented if ruthless people like you end up having a heart…instead of shipping jobs in the name of cost, you will turn to creating good jobs. Obviously, I’m not counting on it.

  284. Grim says:

    When Erik B and I shut down the Clifton print facility the local usps facility we worked with closed as a result.

    At our peak around 2000 we were mailing a quarter of a million pieces a week.

  285. Grim says:

    If you ever saw a piece of mail from Publishers Clearing House from 1994 to about 2001 of 2002, got a collections notice from BMG, got a package from Highlights for Children, Scholastic, Readers Digest, saw someone tear off a Marlboro mile, a video in the mail, or any one of dozens of By-Mail clubs or schemes, I had something to do with it.

    I programmed big Siemens Oce 2240 laser printers that ran 400 duplex pages a minute.

    Stu is probably the only one here that may have sent more mail than I did. I can easily calc 20-30 million postal pieces.

  286. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Problem is, the small minority can produce what the economy needs, but how does the economy divide up these produced goods with high unemployment rates? Does the production eventually die as not enough consumers with jobs to support said production? Dangerous game on the horizon, wonder how it will end? History says destruction and violence…

    “Don’t cry when billions of people have no means to participate in the economy because it can be run by the minority of the population.”

  287. Juice box says:

    Only time I use the post office is for Christmas cards, and that is because I am cheap and I don’t want to pay the printer extra to mail them for me.

    I won’t be voting by mail if Phil closes the polling stations I won’t vote there is no post office box nearby I have to get in my car and go mail it in town. The prick mailman cannot be trusted anyway his lazy ass leaves my mailbox open all the time .

  288. The Great Pumpkin says:

    As the economy becomes more efficient, is there any choice other than to raise taxes on the only people making it? If they are not creating jobs to redistribute capital to the rest of the system, how else can it be redistributed besides higher taxes on the top? If they only create low paying jobs you get the same result, higher taxes on the ones making it. It’s the only way the economy can survive long term with the system of production tied to a few hands.

    Extreme efficiency brings on new problems.. what to do with all the people that are only needed to consume, not produce, to run the economy.

  289. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    lol, remember Columbia House? In 1998, the Frat house near me was signing up for 8 CDs for 1 cent en masse and ignoring all the notices. They stopped in 1999 because Napster came out.

  290. grim says:

    Did Columbia House for a few years too, Sony ran a similar scheme or a while as well. Including Sony Playboy Home video.

  291. Grim says:

    The 1992 Pam Anderson and 1994 Jenny McCarthy video centerfolds were blockbusters (har har).

  292. AP says:

    Columbia House was an interesting story, some cool writers and artists cane from that. It was almost like a proto-startup culture. There a really good piece about itb a while back but I can’t find it now.

    Here four Columbia House insiders explain the “shady math” behind the 8 CDs for a cent:

    https://music.avclub.com/four-columbia-house-insiders-explain-the-shady-math-beh-1798280580

  293. 3b says:

    MTA is starting to use robots to lay track, and other low skill manual labored are also now starting to look at using robots. NY construction job unions won’t be happy they need to have new members to keep their pension benefits, they are woefully managed and they need new employees to keep it going. That’s why you have the 65.00 an hour coffee guy, who is usually related to the local union rep.

  294. grim says:

    At a high level, there wasn’t much that was shady.

    It was a calculated risk to offer a high value upfront premium in the hopes that you retained the customer for enough monthly shipments to make it profitable. Because these were all direct to consumer programs, generally there was enough margin to do this profitably.

    Many of these programs offered an additional premium at some higher shipment level to entice someone to stick around long enough for that free gift.

    It started to get shady when we invented the negative option to boost profitability. In the club membership language we added text that told customers they could expect to receive additional special mailings – a 13th or 14th month essentially. If they didn’t opt out before it was sent, they were responsible for paying for it.

    Negative option is what killed this business. Margin got so thin that everyone got greedy doing this. When the FTC killed it, this business basically died.

    Also shady was Publishers targeting older folks with those stupid chotchkies. You didn’t need to buy more to win, but they sure made it seem that way.

  295. AP says:

    Yeah, and the other cool thing about Columbia House too was that it gave access to indie titles to kids around the country where there either were no record stores or they couldn’t get the best.

  296. Fast Eddie says:

    Murphy orders mail only voting… can’t this be challenged by the state supreme court? How do I know my vote is being counted? Who is doing the tallying? And by what method? Is it two for you and one for me? This is voter suppression and ripe for fraud and meddling.

  297. Juice Box says:

    He hasn’t he is mailing basically absentee ballots to everyone registered and application to everyone that is not. There will still be polling places.

    Point is will there be ballot harvesting? You Betcha, it’s easier than paying cash to homeless people or people living in the projects to go out and vote for a particular candidate.

  298. Phoenix says:

    By next summer this will be all of NJ.
    https://youtu.be/CXWXB5kIn7M?t=1830

  299. SomeOne says:

    No One,

    academically qualified students

    BRT complains that how his asian students can’t get into Harvard when 25% of Harvard incoming students are asian. So, BRT’s. “gifted students” aren’t so, at least compared to the 25% of students in Harvard. What is the guarantee that BRT’s students will make it there even if Harvard has close to 99% asian students?

    What is your definition of academically qualified? One single measure such as GPA? Standardized test (throw a lot of money on test prep and there is an advantage)? Extracurricular activities (get non-existent gold medals on a rowing team)?

  300. SomeOne says:

    Eddie,

    Murphy orders mail only voting… [False, Eddie]

    [General trolling deleted]

    This is voter suppression and ripe for fraud and meddling.[False, Eddie]

  301. Phoenix says:

    Harvard, schmarvard.

    No matter how smart they are, those in power are going to do what they want and override these PhD experts.

    Just like money rules over science, politics does as well.

    This world, no matter how hard you try, will not run on science or common sense and that is why it’s going to implode.

  302. Fabius Maximus says:

    Grim,

    As I work from home my postman walks past everyday. Have noticed in the past few weeks the times have changed. So the staff are not just siting around. If overtime is canceled and mail is backing up. Again they aren’t sitting on their A$ses.

    All those potential ballots and Stimulus checks are all going outbound.

    I’m all for reform and making the USPS more profitable. But it is an essential service. UPS, AMZ etc don’t have the infrastructure to do last mile to every address most days a week, and I don’t think they are interested. They have said they can’t handle ballots. They just want cherry picked routes.

    As for who sends the most mail. There is always a line of USPS trailers in my company’s car parks.

  303. Phoenix says:

    Just like TikTok, there are assets there that someone else wants.

    Let’s not lie. All of this is a power/money/control/personal information/ grab.

    There are those that are supposed to own TikTok and the USPS.
    And they will because there is a plan in place.

    It’s not an accident.

  304. SmallGovConservative says:

    Fabius Maximus says:
    August 15, 2020 at 12:32 pm

    I’m all for reform and making the USPS more profitable. But it is an essential service.

    Seriously? MORE profitable? An essential service? I suspect you know that’s not true, but I’ve determined that it’s impossible for you to be honest.

    Here are the facts about the usps…
    “From fiscal year (FY) 2007 through FY 2018, the USPS’s net losses totaled $69 billion. The USPS announced in its fourth quarter financial statement that in FY 2019, it ran an $8.8 billion deficit, a 125 percent increase compared to FY 2018. This marks 13 years of consecutive losses for the USPS, totaling $77.8 billion.

    In FY 2019, the USPS saw a decline of 2.6 percent in total volume of mail and package deliveries. That is largely driven by the diminishing First-Class Mail service, which shrank by 3.1 percent.”

    Fact is, if policy were allowed to be dictated by reason, the usps would have been privatized and/or shrunken, years ago — just like the government student loan program, the government flood insurance program and all of the other massive wastes of tax payer dollars.

  305. Phoenix says:

    Start with the mortgage tax deduction. Eliminate that.
    Medicare and Social Security.
    Senior citizen tax freeze.

    But hey, let’s not trickle these down. Use the “Executive order” and launch the missile. Go for it!

    See the older people want this eliminated, just not for them. Same with pensions, they want them “tapered” off and want to be “grandfathered.”

    Debt you rang up while alive you need to pay for while you are still breathing.

  306. AP says:

    I’m not a USPS expert by any means, but this article I turned to in order to learn more seems fairly factual and level headed, from Business Insider:

    https://www.businessinsider.com/us-postal-service-delay-funding-crisis-mail-election-trump-explainer-2020-8

  307. Grim says:

    Roughly 75% of USPS revenue is from the delivery of Junk Mail.

  308. Fast Eddie says:

    Someone,

    Murphy said you can put your ballot in the mail, drop it in one of several secure boxes to be set up across the state, bring it to polling location on Election Day, or vote provisionally in person.

    What the f.uck is provisionally?

    Provisional ballots are counted later, after election officials can verify if you haven’t already voted by mail.

    Bullsh1t. Fraud. Meddling. Scam!! F.uck this shit.

  309. homeboken says:

    If there is a single official currently in office in NYC that gets re-elected, I will be surprised.

  310. 3b says:

    Homeboken: Funny, I won’t be surprised at all. A year plus left for De Blasio, and then it will be another similar type.

  311. Juice Box says:

    homeboken- Deblasio was complaining on twitter the other day that the census in NYC was only 54%.

    They could lose at least 2 congresscritters.

    https://twitter.com/nycmayor/status/1291421814464417794

  312. Juice Box says:

    Meant to say how many are going to return mail in ballots of they won’t even fill out the census?

  313. Walking says:

    Grim regarding removing the mailboxes, what the media is leaving out is that those maiboxes are the old style ones. The reason they are removing them is because people would stick a 2litre coke bottle in there with sticky tape and steal the mail. The new mailboxes are like a subway turnstile , difficult to fish out a letter. But why report the whole story

  314. Juice Box says:

    Just lost two family members this week Great Aunt lived to 104, and Great Uncle that lived to 102. I am going to out live this board that is for sure.

  315. Phoenix says:

    My prediction.

    Trump will be president.

    8/15/20
    RIP.

  316. Phoenix says:

    https://swimply.com/

    Rent your swimming pool, then you can pay your taxes.

    Just wait till someone decides to rent and give a group of homeless people a day at the pool…

  317. ExEssex says:

    Jack Dorsey said that Twitter was already working on “decentralizing” its workforce before the coronavirus outbreak hit.
    Dorsey said the company has been working on the issue for “a year, if not two years” during an appearance on “The Boardroom: Out of Office” podcast this week.
    “No one wants to move to San Francisco anymore, no one can afford to live in San Francisco anymore,” Dorsey said.
    Twitter was one of the first tech companies to close down its offices in March, and Dorsey has since announced that employees can work from home forever if they’d like.

  318. Walking says:

    Phoenix, would you ever do that? Rent your pool to a stranger? I would be worried about the law suits. Kid drowns, someone gets pushed on the shallow end and breaks spine. Broken glass in the pool. Not to mention if you don’t let them use your house to pee.

  319. Phoenix says:

    Hell no.
    But I’m not having a hard time paying my mortgage or any of my bills. I live within my means.

  320. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    BRT complains that how his asian students can’t get into Harvard when 25% of Harvard incoming students are asian. So, BRT’s. “gifted students” aren’t so, at least compared to the 25% of students in Harvard. What is the guarantee that BRT’s students will make it there even if Harvard has close to 99% asian students?

    What is your definition of academically qualified? One single measure such as GPA? Standardized test (throw a lot of money on test prep and there is an advantage)? Extracurricular activities (get non-existent gold medals on a rowing team)?

    I don’t think you seem to grasp that I’ve taught in the top ranked high schools in NJ, and have had students who have universally wiped the floor with the competition at every academic competition in the state. We aren’t talking your run of the mill straight A students.

  321. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    https://abcnews.go.com/US/norad-fighter-jets-intercept-small-plane-trumps-bedminster/story?id=72398332

    Ok, so we saw this incident unfold live while driving down 206 in Somerville today around noon. Was in front of Duke Farms on 206 and I was like “why does it sound like a fighter jet is going to crash into my car?”. Then, spotted the fighter jet and helicopter. Fighter jet was flying and looping around like crazy. And once they got, where I presume was above the golf course, he started deploying anti missile flares. It was pretty cool.

    Unfortunately, Dashboard cam wasn’t in view and my wife tried to film it with the cell phone after the first round of flares but the planes were a little too far for my crappy cell phone to pick it up. We narrated the incident though.

  322. Blue Ribbon Teacher says:

    And, I’m willing to bet that Harvard usually has some sort of preference for Asians in state or local over any from New Jersey. The same reason why I routinely saw Princeton accept 1 of my students each year. Ironically, the student they accept was never my strongest that year which always made me question their methodology.

    I would imagine Asians in MA have a harder time to getting into Princeton than Asians in NJ.

  323. No One says:

    I happened to be golfing at Fiddler’s Elbow CC right below where the jet and helicopter were making noise. It happened after I hit a pretty good drive. Seems like it only lasted a minute. There’s a small airport nearby, so it would be easy for one of those planes to invade the airspace.

  324. No One says:

    Someone,
    If you are going to evade the question, why blather on about it?
    Clearly Yale does some racial affirmative action.
    And yes, there’s no way that all Asian moms can get their dreams of having their kids brainwashed at leftist Ivy League schools. The scarcity is what makes it desired.

  325. The Great Pumpkin says:

    Says the clown trying to increase profit from a company through labor as opposed to good ideas.

    Yea, no one wants to live in SF….sure. I f’ing love these clowns. Yea, go to the ultra cheap places that no one wanted to live before, your life will be so much better with all the money being saved. When will these people be honest with themselves? Expensive places are expensive because too many people want to live there. It’s called competition…

    But please try to con the next generation…

    ExEssex says:
    August 15, 2020 at 9:02 pm
    Jack Dorsey said that Twitter was already working on “decentralizing” its workforce before the coronavirus outbreak hit.
    Dorsey said the company has been working on the issue for “a year, if not two years” during an appearance on “The Boardroom: Out of Office” podcast this week.
    “No one wants to move to San Francisco anymore, no one can afford to live in San Francisco anymore,” Dorsey said.
    Twitter was one of the first tech companies to close down its offices in March, and Dorsey has since announced that employees can work from home forever if they’d like.

  326. The Great Pumpkin says:

    You don’t want to live in NYC, you want to live in the Catskills. You don’t want to live in SF, you want to live in Phoenix or Sacramento. What a bunch of tools..

  327. JCer says:

    Grim, it’s good to see we have similar views on the future of the post office. It’s main purpose today is junk mail and parcels. I rarely even check the mailbox on a daily basis, it will contain junk mail, magazines I don’t subscribe to, rarely a government notice. Frankly mail delivery could be reduced to a few times a week.

    It is really rather ridiculous to attempt to make the post office run well enough to handle vote by mail a few months before the election. Baring a few exceptions which should be handled with absentee ballots, people should have no issues going to the polls even with COVID. I mean really all of us are going out to buy groceries, many are eating out, going to work. Taking nothing away from the danger of the virus in person voting most certainly can be done in a safe way.

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