From AARP:
AARP’s Top 100 Places to Live for Older Adults
What cities and towns have the qualities older adults value, such as a good job market, walkability and affordable housing? AARP’s Livability Index platformevaluates communities based on these criteria and more to come up with its annual list of best places to live.
Get healthy, stay healthy in very large communities: Population 500,000+
6. New York, New York
8. Nassau, New York
12. Hempstead, New York
15. Hudson County, New Jersey
17. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
20. Delaware County, Pennsylvania
21. Union County, New Jersey
Get involved in large communities: Population 100,000 to 499,999
8. North Hempstead, New York
17. Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
23. Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
24. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
25. Elizabeth, New Jersey
Little need to drive in many of these midsize communities: Population 25,000 to 99,999
1. Cliffside Park, New Jersey
2. Fort Lee, New Jersey
9. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
11. Bergenfield, New Jersey
12. Union City, New Jersey
14. Lodi, New Jersey
17. Hoboken, New Jersey
20. Long Beach, New York
21. Valley Stream, New York
Great places to get to know your neighbors: Population 5,000 to 24,999
1. Great Neck Plaza, New York
10. Willison Park, New York
12. Fairview, New Jersey
13. Manorhaven, New York
15. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
16. Wallington, New Jersey
23. New Cumberland, Pennsylvania
First
Happy Saturday to all.
Even you, Juice.
Thank you for your service. Now you get even less as there is no cavalry coming.
At least Lowes gives you a discount.
The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to abruptly eliminate as many as 35,000 health care positions this month, mostly unfilled jobs including doctors, nurses and support staff, according to an internal memo, VA staffers and congressional aides.
I don’t see anything in that list that references Ridgewood or Montclair. Therefore, it’s bogus. Bergen and Essex County not represented? Blasphemy. Bergenfield and Fairview doesn’t count, not enough “Lexus December to Remember” people there.
Good conversation I had with grok.
Me: China bought massive amounts of gold (some not even reported). They created a bubble in gold by creating a fomo environment in gold. Sending a false “fear” signal to the market with how they drove up the gold price to get around the dollar. It will not end well.
Grok: China has indeed ramped up gold purchases in 2025, with official reports showing 25 tons added, but estimates suggest unreported buys could total 250 tons, pushing real reserves toward 5,000+ tons. This has driven prices up over 40% to a peak of $4,380/oz, as part of a strategy to diversify from the USD amid geopolitical risks. Analysts see it as a long-term trend, not a bubble, though volatility could lead to corrections. Outcomes remain uncertain.
Me: They are the source of this run up in gold. They caused traders and algorithms to jump in with how much they have driven up the price. I know you say “it’s fine and sustainable,” but it’s not. What happens when China alone stops buying or even sells? Won’t end well. Bubble
Grok: Gold prices have surged ~60% in 2025, hitting $4,343/oz as of Dec 12, per Kitco. China’s central bank added modestly (5t in Q3), with reserves at 2,304t, but buying slowed from prior years.
While China drives demand, global central banks, inflation hedges, and AI bubble fears also fuel the rally. If China halts or sells, prices could dip short-term (BIS notes bubble risks), but analysts like ING forecast $4,325/oz avg in 2026, suggesting resilience from other factors.
Me: Gold would never go up 60% without china buying like a madman. This will blow up in their face in time. Gold is not supposed to move like this. Watch and learn
Grok: Gold prices have surged ~62% YTD in 2025, reaching $4,297/oz as of Dec 12, driven partly by China’s reported and estimated off-book purchases (potentially 10x official figures). Analysts forecast averages around $3,675-$4,000 into 2026, though volatility is expected due to global factors like tariffs and central bank demand.
I will die on this hill. Ai isn’t the bubble….gold is. Gold going up so fast and hard created fear trades. Now silver is even in a bubble because of gold. All of this started by china. Then emotion took over the commodity markets.
punkin,
Interesting read on shiny metals. I’m intrigued on the action/reaction to the metals as a spectator. What quarter is it? What yard line are they on? What down is it? What formation is the offense and defense in?
That AARP list is suspect. Not worth the virtual paper its written on. There aren’t any cities listed outside the US. One friend of mine is in Valencia, Spain. Another is in Ecuador. A third is in Ridgewood, NJ. What gives?
12. Fairview, New Jersey
LOL
You mean from like a neighborhood watch perspective? As in, hey did you see who stole my package earlier today?
Your new NJ incoming Governor wants to raise the sales tax.
Here’s the headline: “Mikey raises taxes, muppets duped again.”
Look at the gold chart. Now match it up with when China started buying. People will argue otherwise, but China created a bubble in gold. Nothing more, nothing less.
Remember, the markets are emotional and data driven. Gold going up like that sends a signal to doomers to act on it. Gold going up so quickly also attracts the degen traders chasing momentum in either direction as long as it moves quickly. China’s immense (insane amount) gold purchases set this all in motion.
So understanding this: gold will pop when the market realizes they shouldn’t be in fear mode and that the ai bubble is not going to pop. They will rotate and chase gains in crypto, ai, robotics, and biotech. Where all the “real” growth and innovation will happen. Energy included with ai.
That’s how I see it as of now. Things can change, but if no wars or black swans, I believe i will be correct.
Bergenfield is not a walkable town in my opinion, unless you live right off of Washington Avenue, close to the Aldi. Last time I was in Bergenfield lots of empty stores on Washing Ave Bergenfield has seen better days.
Fast: Farview is a sad town, are you going to lick it out of Bergen Co? If so, you should probably kick Lodi out too.
Back in the day, Bergenfield had a thriving Washington Ave. We knew every shop owner and they knew us. It slowly decayed into what it is today.
BRT: Yes, it really did. It was like and old time Main Street. The avenue used to be packed. I had friends that lived there, but moved up to Old Tappan/River Vale or to Rockland Co. Bergenfield s reputation took a hit when those high school kids committed suicide back in the late 80’s.
And hands down (i could be wrong), crypto is the play right now. It’s the only asset class that didn’t move this year. Extremely undervalued one would think. It’s how i look at markets…what are the masses in now, and where will they next move.
I am becoming better and better at this game. Years of punches builds strength. There is no other way to learn…make the mistakes early…never give up…and shine in your 40s/50s with the killer instincts you developed from painful lessons.
It should be a game of survival in the youth. Play and survive. Eventually, if you survive, you will make it. Grit. Never give up is who makes it. Not the smartest, but the most resilient.
3b , I’m remember in high school they brought in special counselors for us that year due to the Bergen field suicides. I guess they figured Garfield kids would be next to copy cat that. Garfield was poorer and blue collar at the time. It’s pooer now , no blue vollar
Washington Avenue in Bergenfield? There was a plan to knock it all down and put in mixed use apartments. Don’t know if it will happen this decade or the next.
“teenage wasteland” was the book that came out on the the suicides. The parents tried to blame Ozzy and his music. Sometimes a little introspection on the parents part could have been more helpful. The backstory on the kids was the typical broken home and low eq led to a lot of dysfunction
Walking: I know it was big news and rightly so, and that is when people I know that lived there said the town started to go decline. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s what I have been told.
The Burnouts kids that dropped out of school and did drugs is what I remember. Looking it up now all except for one were adults.
Juice: The apartments might be an impromptu with retail below. They did a nice job on the ones in Park Ridge on Kinderkamack. The ones on Kinderkamack in Emerson have started construction again, after being stopped due to ground water issues. Thst development is hard on Kinderkamack right by the train station. That one will be a traffic nightmare.
The suicide cluster in Bergenfield included more deaths as well.
“Joe Major, a friend of Cheryl’s, had fallen 200 ft. to his death off the Palisades cliffs along the Hudson River last September”
“four suspicious deaths among Bergenfield youths in the nine months before last week’s quadruple suicide. Two other young men were hit by trains, and another acquaintance walked into a pond and drowned. All the previous deaths were alcohol related.”
https://time.com/archive/6708681/teen-suicide-two-death-pacts-shake-the-country/
A deranged woman stabbed a tourist in Macys women’s bathroom yesterday. The tourist from California was changing her 10 month old baby. The woman who stabbed her was released from a psychiatric hospital the day before after being kept there for a year.
Juice: I did not know about those other deaths.
Mixed use… that term makes me want to rage. Everywhere I turn, something is being leveled to make room for “mixed use” construction. I’ll keep repeating it: to own a single structure in the gravity of NYC is a luxury, not an asset.
3b – I did not hang out in Bergenfield but we all knew back then the “burnouts” as they called themselves that hung out downtown were all doing drugs and causing trouble. We avoided them and Bergenfield for the most part. I did not go to the movies in Bergenfield either as there as there were better options like Paramus etc and the Malls. I hung out with a group of friends in Cresskill and Alpine of all places. We were friends with a bunch of Holy Angels if you know what I mean.
Teddy sniffing glue he was twelve years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was eleven when she pulled the plug
On twenty six reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, fourteen years old
He looked like sixty five when he died
He was a friend of mine
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends and just died
Too bad they didn’t have concern for them while they were still alive.
Walking says:
December 13, 2025 at 10:17 am
3b , I’m remember in high school they brought in special counselors for us that year due to the Bergen field suicides.
Juice: Those Holy Angels girls were not that holy! And you with your airs hanging out in Credskill and Alpine. Just kidding.
Fast: You better embrace it, it is everywhere. And soon it will block out the sun in the backyards of the single family houses, as these multi families, mixed use get closer and closer.
According to the news, the woman was homeless. Well, now she has 3 hots and a cot for years to come.
3b says:
December 13, 2025 at 10:38 am
A deranged woman stabbed a tourist in Macys women’s bathroom yesterday. The tourist from California was changing her 10 month old baby. The woman who stabbed her was released from a psychiatric hospital the day before after being kept there for a year.
3b says:
December 13, 2025 at 11:05 am
Juice: Those Holy Angels girls were not that holy!
Of course not. Religion is a place for people to look “holy” when so many of them really aren’t even close. Just look at their leadership.
re: “not that holy”
Just praying to get lucky….
Reason #1014 to limit conversation with elderly people that you don’t know so well.
Odd stories.
“I was just visiting my friend Barbara. She has a melanoma on her vulva.”
were you talking to US Gary?
Chicago says:
December 13, 2025 at 12:36 pm
Reason #1014 to limit conversation with elderly people that you don’t know so well.
Odd stories.
“I was just visiting my friend Barbara. She has a melanoma on her vulva.”
12:36 that sounds a lot like an invitation:
https://youtu.be/k80nQyBjmyo?si=8Vo6hVCrM9qgZTTn
“I was just visiting my friend Barbara. She has a melanoma on her vulva.”
At least it ain’t on her BMW.
I know he’s a dork, but the guy gets it. Give it a watch if you want to open your mind a little more on crypto.
https://x.com/0xtulipking/status/1999725202239107366?s=46
That interview will do more to enlighten you about crypto and markets in general. It’s a legit interview with a guy that knows what he is talking about.
Maybe this will help you see crypto through my eyes. It’s a revolution in finance. Nothing more, nothing less.
Just think of the nerds that created crypto as financial punks. Set out trying to break away from trade fi and ending up eating it up (what is happening as we speak). The digitalization of financial network. The digitization of exchanging value.
Open, free, and permission-less capital markets. Evolution happening before our eyes.
Lmao
https://x.com/ericbalchunas/status/1999898679986262485?s=46
As I told @MariaBartiromo last week, U.S. financial markets are poised to move on-chain. Under my leadership, @SECGov is prioritizing innovation and embracing new technologies to enable this on-chain future, while continuing to protect investors.
https://x.com/secpaulsatkins/status/1999248667937841188?s=46
2 shot dead and 8 wounded at Brown University. Gunman is at large. It doesn’t end.
With the latest mass shooting at Brown University, this might be a good time to mention that Bill Clinton’s assault weapons ban reduced mass shooting deaths by 43% – but after George W Bush & Republicans let it expire, mass shooting deaths spiked by 239%
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1999797316950327631?s=46
“I think part of the reason younger generations are so upset is because older generations took for granted a rich social fabric that naturally reigned in the worst parts of Capitalism
We aren’t owed affordable anything.
Capitalism never promised that median household incomes would be able to afford median priced homes
Our grandparents could buy home on a single median income—because the traditional social fabric of our country supported having stay-at-home moms
Our parents could afford a home on a median *household* income because now two parents both needed to work, but our social fabric still supported American families—we didn’t have institutions, LLCs, and foreigners buying homes
Today, SOMEONE can afford our homes (foreigners, investors, multigenerational living pooling several incomes, wealthy people with excess capital), but NOT most young families
And so the system still works, even though the social fabric has frayed and no longer supports American families as a first principle
Capitalism has proven to be better than any alternative economic system—but it operates best in a high-trust, morally principled society that puts its own people above profits”
The Repub parts suggests having more children. Maybe take a page from Hungary?
Could you f’n imagine? Question is, how do they afford this? Maybe not having a real military?
No country better embodies the ambitions and limits than Hungary, where years of policy expansion have led to a system of benefits almost Scandinavian-like in its generosity. The country now spends 5 percent of its gross domestic product on family policies, a greater percentage than what the United States devotes to defense.
It offers grandparental leave. It furnishes reduced mortgage rates to married couples planning families. It provides parents $30,000 loans — which don’t need to be repaid if they have three or more children.
On Oct. 1, all women with three children gained lifetime personal income tax exemptions. Next year, mothers under 40 with two kids will become exempt as well.
“For the long-term survival of a nation, it is worthwhile,” said Hungary’s culture minister, Balazs Hanko, a father of four.
The Repub parts suggests having more children. Maybe take a page from Hungary?
What’s the population of Hungary? What’s the demographic make-up in Hungary?
Dark: The population of Hungary is under 10 million. Also, the left says the leader of the country Orban is a dictator, and also a racist as he won’t allow mass migration into the country
Rare mass shooting in Australia, at a Jewish event on Bondi Beach, 11 people killed. I wonder who carried that attack out?
3b
Understood.
But how can he afford that?
Eddie asks questions.
This is what you do.
To solve most anything.
I’m tired of mass shootings, war, and just plain arrogance.
Looks like I am going to be tired for a very long time.
“Can’t we all just get along?”
Dark: German police broke up a planned terrorist attack on a Christmas Market, that was organized by an Iman in a local mosque. Just another reason why people in Europe are wary of Muslim migrants in their countries, and that of course means they are racist.
3b,
I fail to understand citizens of the 3rd World coming to the EU, either legally or illegally, and then being unhappy with Western society and norms. I personally think the EU should not allow any immigration from muslim countries as their citizens refuse to integrate into European society. A high percentage of the million or so that Merkel allowed into Germany in 2015 are still unemployed and receiving government benefits.
I fail to understand citizens of the 3rd World coming to the EU, either legally or illegally, and then being unhappy with Western society and norms.
Liberals detest Western s0ciety and norms. It doesn’t work for them. They feel awkward and out of place. Liberals are very uncomfortable with the idea of traditional western ideals and values. No one really debates the cause which is a mental illness that results in frustration, anger followed by aggressive outbursts in the form of protest and violence.
It’s not discussed in the mainstream because first of all, the mainstream is predominately controlled by liberals and if it is discussed, it would be considered discriminatory on an epic level and will no doubt be met with the aggressive outbursts mentioned above.
How to tame or control wild animals and out of control children? You somehow just deal with it or hope you can distance yourself from it for a while just to get a breather. Once you let it go too far, it’s difficult to rollback. Like a screaming child, you throw it something to shut it the fuck up. Same with liberals, give them a crumb or a line of shit and hope they sit in a corner for a while.
Chad: I do too. But, to say that is racist. People talk about the decline of freedom of speech and dissent in the U.S., because of Trump, and I don’t deny it to some extent, but it is more prevalent on the left, because to say something like thst is deemed racist, and so the conversation or any other conversation is shut down. It is the same in the EU, with Ursula and company, and the EU as a whole is certainly to the left. Freedom of speech and dissent is shut down, and deemed racist and right wing, and meanwhile the right continues to grown because of this. Nothing happens in a vacuum.
Late to the nail salon?
https://www.reddit.com/r/PublicFreakout/comments/1pme738/a_crossing_guard_near_a_school_stands_in_front_of/
The man who tackled the shooter and was wounded himself, was identified as a Muslim. He is undergoing surgery. He is a good, brave man. It is the Islamic terrorist
murderers who need to be vetted and prevented from entering western countries. Others who are already there and have become radicalized should be deported.
Meathead and his wife found murdered.
Sad.
‘murica like a 3rd world country now.