Zorral Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 In NYC empty residences are owned by the very well off and the obscenely wealthy, who have more than one place to call home -- with the very wealthy maybe even 6 or 7 other locations, and the NYC place is hardly occupied at all ever -- and not infrequently has never been occupied. They aren't selling or leaving. Those who don't have other places stayed here in their rentals, and they aren't leaving because, of course, they can't In the meantime, as one developer so delicately expressed it to a NYT writer -- I paraphrase a bit -- "This is a great time for me as real estate is an interest of mine. I was able to ride my new bicycle (this was during lockdown), to scout neighborhoods and streets I never even knew existed before to find properties that need buying." The rents that are going down for the moment are commercial. So you see, this isn't going to last, not at all -- and it ain't much at all: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/realestate/new-york-rents-fall-as-vacancies-rise.html And now of course, the well off are fleeing here from Georgia, Florida, Texas, etc. to hide from covid-19, and doubtless bringing it with them. We were in a terrible housing shortage here (and the whole country) Before. It's only getting worse now. However, if the students don't come back in the fall to attend the many prestigious, large and small, colleges and universities -- that may well make a difference in some parts of NYC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 First I'm hearing about this. In 2017 Trump mused about selling Puerto Rico after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria. Just another example of how callous the man is and how he takes accountability for nothing. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/12/politics/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry of the Lawn Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 52 minutes ago, Martell Spy said: These moves are not going to happen anytime soon. SC Court packing might have happened, but Roberts just defused it for now by siding with the left enough in major decisions. There won't be much pressure for it until the SC does something really horrible again, like a major assault on Roe v Wade, destroying the ACA, or a Citizens United type monster decision. As for the legislative filibuster, we are no where near that happening as the votes are just not there. There's no pressure on Biden since it is Democratic party senators blocking it. Including Bernie Sanders. It's not going to happen in 10 years, much like anytime soon. The decision to allow employers to selectively eliminate parts of a healthcare plan on a religious basis seems like a decent assault on women's rights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 17 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said: First I'm hearing about this. In 2017 Trump mused about selling Puerto Rico after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria. Just another example of how callous the man is and how he takes accountability for nothing. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/12/politics/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria/index.html Helped fuel the insurgence of young, female latinx candidates to run for New York office. Read AOC on this. The idea was vaguely to move most of the PR population to ... leaving enough to serve in the new palatial vacation homes of the obscenely wealthy. This was part of the general deliberate vagueness that the real hope was to replace the 'black' population with well-to-do WHITE people, make PR a state and get more senate seats and congressional seats for the rethugs. Everything old is new again! Shades of Lincoln's and so many others' pre war of the rebellion vague solution to the 'slavery problem' to 'relocate' people of color (when they are very old and / or sick) to somewhere else like Haiti or Africa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThinkerX Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 Good news of sorts from a few weeks ago - and something I can attest to from direct experience at work: put bluntly, despite dramatic decreases in letter and advertising mail over the past several years (and especially the last several months,) USPS has been delivering so many parcels the collapse has been staved off for something on the order of 12-18 months - perhaps longer if they continue to not pay the extortionate pension fund. (Speaking of which, with no evidence whatsoever, I suspect before too much longer assorted congress critters will be caught redhanded stealing from said fund). Good news of sort for the mail in voting thing, maybe... https://federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversight/2020/06/usps-forecasts-push-back-timeline-of-when-it-expects-to-run-out-of-cash/ In recent briefings with mailing associations and congressional oversight committees Postal Service executives presented two likely scenarios for the agency’s short-term financial outlook. USPS now estimates it will run out of cash in April 2021, if package volumes return to pre-COVID levels. If, however, package volume stay 15% above pre-COVID levels, the agency says it would run out of cash in October 2021. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 35 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said: First I'm hearing about this. In 2017 Trump mused about selling Puerto Rico after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria. Just another example of how callous the man is and how he takes accountability for nothing. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/12/politics/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria/index.html I remember a while after the hurricane there being a lot of talk about the idea PR should be sold off to corporations. At the time Trump supporters said things like, "You people just hate Trump so much, don't you, that you'd make up stuff like this". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fez Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 40 minutes ago, larrytheimp said: The decision to allow employers to selectively eliminate parts of a healthcare plan on a religious basis seems like a decent assault on women's rights. Except it was a 7-2 decision instead of a 5-4 decision; that'll make it harder to gin up the same level of outrage on the decision. And if two liberal justices like Kagan and Breyer were on board with it, there's likely a bunch of other potential liberal SCOTUS appointees who would be on board with it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 1 hour ago, Zorral said: Helped fuel the insurgence of young, female latinx candidates to run for New York office. Read AOC on this. The idea was vaguely to move most of the PR population to ... leaving enough to serve in the new palatial vacation homes of the obscenely wealthy. This was part of the general deliberate vagueness that the real hope was to replace the 'black' population with well-to-do WHITE people, make PR a state and get more senate seats and congressional seats for the rethugs. Everything old is new again! Shades of Lincoln's and so many others' pre war of the rebellion vague solution to the 'slavery problem' to 'relocate' people of color (when they are very old and / or sick) to somewhere else like Haiti or Africa. I'm not so sure about that. Isn't PR really struggling with investments on the island? 40 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said: I remember a while after the hurricane there being a lot of talk about the idea PR should be sold off to corporations. At the time Trump supporters said things like, "You people just hate Trump so much, don't you, that you'd make up stuff like this". I wonder how these same people, who are obviously the types freaking out about having to wear masks, feel about seeing their Empire God King wearing one now too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martell Spy Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 New York Times: Trump considered selling Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, former acting Homeland Security chief says https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/12/politics/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria/index.html Quote Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump considered the idea of selling Puerto Rico in 2017 after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria, the former acting Homeland Security secretary told The New York Times in an interview published Friday. "The President's initial ideas were more of as a businessman, you know," Elaine Duke, who was serving as DHS' acting secretary when the hurricane hit the island in September 2017, told the Times. "'Can we outsource the electricity? Can we can we sell the island? You know, or divest of that asset?'" Trump reportedly said, according to Duke in the newspaper interview. "(She said the idea of selling Puerto Rico was never seriously considered or discussed after Mr. Trump raised it.)," the paper reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThinkerX Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 This is surreal. Trump denounces a portion of his own border wall built by his own supporters. 'It was only done to make me look bad.' One wonders how Trump fans will rationalize this... https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/it-was-only-done-to-make-me-look-bad-trump-denounces-border-wall-section-funded-by-supporters/ar-BB16EaVm?ocid=ob-fb-enus-580&fbclid=IwAR2_LP-CMjmaPiDXkUw1lFLN5BDena8dCVp5JfkSPVNIT0Pq8GYmwnVNIUw President Donald Trump said Sunday that he did not approve of a section of border wall in Texas that was privately constructed and partially funded by a group of his supporters in Texas, claiming "it was only done to make me look bad" in response to a report that it might be unstable due to erosion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Centrist Simon Steele Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 3 hours ago, ThinkerX said: Good news of sorts from a few weeks ago - and something I can attest to from direct experience at work: put bluntly, despite dramatic decreases in letter and advertising mail over the past several years (and especially the last several months,) USPS has been delivering so many parcels the collapse has been staved off for something on the order of 12-18 months - perhaps longer if they continue to not pay the extortionate pension fund. (Speaking of which, with no evidence whatsoever, I suspect before too much longer assorted congress critters will be caught redhanded stealing from said fund). Good news of sort for the mail in voting thing, maybe... https://federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversight/2020/06/usps-forecasts-push-back-timeline-of-when-it-expects-to-run-out-of-cash/ It is good news if Trump gets the boot. How on earth did the USPS get wrangled into a "profit based" business? It's like a fucking library. Fund it already! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThinkerX Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 20 minutes ago, Simon Steele said: It is good news if Trump gets the boot. How on earth did the USPS get wrangled into a "profit based" business? It's like a fucking library. Fund it already! you can thank the republicans for the 'profit based' business bit. like I said, I have an entirely unfounded suspicion that a number of congress critters are using the USPS pension fund as a personal piggy bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 It's been a lovely day here -- and it even felt 'mellow' outside. We hung out at Washington Square for a couple of hours. One part of the park was small Black Lives Matter protest, all seeming to be wearing masks, maybe 300 young people? They sang in perfect call and response, with bit of a bluesy lilt to it. Call: Black Lives Matter Response: Black Lives Matter They do this for a while. Then the call changes. Call: Black Women Matter. Response: Black Women Matter. They do this for a while. It changes up again to Black Children Matter. Then they march off, singling peacefully, in columns 2 - 3 people across. Almost all of them were white. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fury Resurrected Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 3 hours ago, Simon Steele said: It is good news if Trump gets the boot. How on earth did the USPS get wrangled into a "profit based" business? It's like a fucking library. Fund it already! The thing is, the only reason it became unprofitable was they passed some insane requirement they fully fund pensions up front for people they’ve essentially not even hired yet (this was by republicans looking for a reason to later sell and privatize the post office). We don’t even need to fund it- we just need to take the boot off of its neck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 Because Nixon and the rethugs wanted it out of the cabinet because the Agency was a great source of Democrats' patronage, particularly for African Americans. Starving it to death, not allowing its profits to be spent by itself but to be slushed into the Federal general fund, so never knowing wht the budget for the year can be, privatizing it, hurts Dems AND African Americans and other minorities, and suppresses votes, doncha know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 And now here's this about the post office. They are demanding delay in delivering first class mail so letter carriers don't get overtime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThinkerX Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 1 hour ago, Zorral said: And now here's this about the post office. They are demanding delay in delivering first class mail so letter carriers don't get overtime. yes, overtime is a touchy subject is Post Office world these days - has been for a while. New hires - 'PTF's (Part Time / Full's) get fired every year for a two week period so the higher-ups don't have to treat them as full time employees with benefits. Daily, I witness scenes to the effect where if carrier A finishes her route early, she's supposed to go help carrier B to prevent overtime. As of late, such measures have been failing big time because of the sheer number of parcels - pretty much double (at least locally) from what they were a year ago. That said, this is the first I have heard about first class mail being ordered delayed. Letter mail, compared to parcels, is 'quick and easy.' Right now, I am inclined to consider the claim suspect. Some offices/routes are seriously overwhelmed - carriers out till 7 or 8 pm, but even so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fez Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 CBS poll yesterday was actually one of the better ones for Trump in a while, which speaks to how dire things are for him right now: Arizona: Tie Florida: Biden+6 Texas: Trump+1 The Arizona one seems a bit out of line with the other two polls (it also found Kelly only up +4, when he's usually up +10), but I'm not going to try cherry-picking polls (except to ignore whatever Rasmussen has to say). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maithanet Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 20 minutes ago, Fez said: CBS poll yesterday was actually one of the better ones for Trump in a while, which speaks to how dire things are for him right now: Arizona: Tie Florida: Biden+6 Texas: Trump+1 Yeah, that's still 3, 7 and 8 points worse than 2016. If that's one of Trump's better polls (and it is), that just shows what a disaster his campaign is looking at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IheartIheartTesla Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 There is also a UT Tyler poll out of Texas that places Biden +5 (with both RVs and LVs, and 1500+ respondents), so the close nature of the race in Texas is real. Same poll found Cornyn up + 10 at least, so it doesnt seem to be a crazy outlier, but maybe part of the statistical 'outlier' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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