whiskybravo

PROT.OL

Added Protector and JOE. Sold Berkshire.

Added to Protector

Thank the board for indulging my concerns. Just a follow up. I placed an email with the USPS informing them of the situation. A couple of hours later I received a call from a woman thanking me for raising the matter. She told me that they are aware of the situation and are awaiting a contractor. She told me that she would email that contractor again. If anyone wants I will post a picture when old glory has been restored

Caring about dead children and caring about showing basic respect on Memorial Day are not mutually exclusive. People are capable of being concerned about more than one thing at a time.

There are 33,000 post office locations nationwide. That is why it is the responsibility of the local postmaster to determine when a flag is unsuitable to be flown. Tattered flags should not be flown. It is extremely disrespectful to fly these torn and tattered flags on Memorial Day.

It’s the responsibility of local USPS management. USPS guidance specifically tells “Postmasters and other managers” to regularly inspect flags, replace worn ones, and ensure they are displayed correctly. https://news.usps.com/2023/10/19/flag-check/?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://news.usps.com/2015/05/18/handle-with-care-9/?utm_source=chatgpt.com I try to look at things as objectively as I can and I’ll admit that I don’t know what is going on in the mind of the branch manager. Maybe she is just disorganized or inefficient. I spend time on Memorial Day contemplating its implications. The condition of those flags and the way they are displayed offends me.

Take another look. That flag is torn and near completely detached from the flagpole. It’s been that way for a while, not just this weekend. “According to the U.S. Flag Code, which provides guidelines for the care and display of the flag, the flag is considered a symbol of a living country. When an American flag becomes worn, tattered, or unkempt to the point where it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, traditional etiquette suggests it should be retired in a respectful manner.”

Which led to community uproar. https://www.khou.com/article/news/la-porte-residents-feel-tattered-torn-american-flag-flying-above-post-office-is-disgraceful/285-320997224

Look how the flag is flown in front of a post office in NYC on Memorial Day.

This is not that kind of a forum!

As a retired physician (radiologist) and also someone who went through prostate cancer myself, I appreciate both of you sharing your stories. There’s a lot of value in discussions like this because many people, especially men, delay getting evaluated even when they know something isn’t right. I had a prostatectomy about 8½ years ago. Fortunately, because I kept up with annual checkups and PSA testing, we caught it early after my PSA doubled to 6. I acted quickly and was able to avoid any adjuvant therapy, and I’ve remained cancer free since. Regarding Lazarus’s (btw appropriate name) experience, had he presented in the US with persistent back and flank pain that wasn’t resolving, he would very likely have been imaged earlier. American medicine tends toward more aggressive diagnostic workup. A CT would almost certainly have been ordered, and that tumor near his spleen would not have waited months to be found. Congratulations to both of you on being cancer free.

Hey we’re practically neighbors. I lived at Riverside and 74th from 1989-1995. Used to hoop on the courts in Riverside Park and 75th. One Saturday morning a couple I worked with at the hospital, a tech and a nurse, were walking by. They called me over and said “You know you’re white don’t you?” Another morning I was playing my wife was sitting on a bench reading the paper, when she started screaming. A homeless guy was strangling an old lady sitting next to her with a wire. Before you could blink those guys I was playing with, many of whom were cops, were after him. They chased him across the west side highway and caught him. Another time some homeless guy with a cigarette in his mouth asked my wife for a light, with his dick hanging out. This was thirty years ago. We just walked up Riverside this week and cut over to Zabar’s. We go up to Citarella once a week for fish. I will grant you 72nd and beyond the feeling does change. You get up into more hard core New York lefties and the scraggy characters become much noticeable. Big change moving down to CPW near Lincoln Center. Been a long time since I’ve been to the lower east side. That’s always been a dump. And I’m sure it’s still very expensive. No thanks. We love the opera, but that experience is changing too. Just saw Tristan and Isolde. The performance was outstanding, but the staging was ridiculous. It’s like they feel that they have to distract people rather than just letting the beauty of the opera speak for itself. Anyway, peace brother. Sorry to see someone like you go.

Very realistic take Dwy. I am in an advantageous situation being long retired living on 15% federal taxes. I guess if I lived in Fla, I’d be paying close to squat. Given how I live, my life is more peaceful than if I had to daily climb in the car and roll down Highway 98. Great thread. Fun to see Greg and LC go off the rails together. Marco you know your stuff. I’m just curious where you’re seeing all this dog shit and homelessness. Just had lunch with my niece and daughter, who are visiting from Phoenix, at Peacock Alley in the Waldorf. My wife and I walked from CPW and the streets were clean, lots of activity (down from ten years ago, but still thriving). Saw one homeless woman and child. She looked like a migrant. One saw hundreds like her when the borders were open and Abbot and DiSantis shipped them up in busloads. I don’t know where they all went but its like they disappeared. Adams emptied the Roosevelt Hotel and others where they were being housed. But where did they go? They aren’t lingering on the streets they way they were a couple/few years ago. We drove down to Balthazar last week parked in a garage and walked around the West Village. Again clean, lots of activity.

Apples and oranges. The article is addressing the movement of high income people from blue to red states. You’re referring to how blue states have been net contributors to the federal treasury and red states net recipients. If more reasonable democrats don’t wrest control of the party’s agenda, the graph you posted will look different in the future.

CPW in Lincoln Square. Short walk across immaculate Central Park for my morning cappuccino at Sant Ambroeus. Dog shit/homeless not a factor unlike in the ‘80’s. Forgot about the NIIT. That brings it to 27%. Next level that it would jump would be NY state at $2.15M I can usually manage to stay below that lol.

I think a lot of this discussion comes down to the fact that people can experience NYC very differently depending on where they are in life and how their income is structured. Where I live, the city is spotless, busy, economically vibrant, and full of life, not remotely comparable to the New York of the 1970s fiscal crisis era. What’s new is ideological politics that are openly hostile to the capitalist engine that historically has made New York successful. I am watching carefully. My own circumstances afford me a longer leash than many others have. I have the ability to observe how these political and economic trends evolve before deciding whether the long-term balance still works for me.

I live in NYC. My math is different. My income is dominated by qualified dividends and a smidgen of long term capital gains. The sum of my federal, state, and city is 24.7%. No paycheck, so no social security or Medicare payroll tax. I don’t look at property tax as a percentage of income, but rather a percentage of net worth (0.1%). Sales tax has always been here. 8.25% when I moved here 42 years ago, 8.875% now.

After this weekend I decided to take the position. I should have bought yesterday, but in the end it’s not going to matter. I have never liked sitting around with a lot of cash, so I took care of that problem today. Great thoughts on BRKb valuation. Let’s hope that the lack of buyback follow up was due to a self imposed blackout. Would be great to see more aggressive buybacks under Abel. I was really impressed listening to him. It’s great to get so much color on the businesses. Looks like he has found his own way to bring value to the meeting.

Bought 10% position in BRKb. For the long term, I would rather have it there then in cash/short term treasuries.

Sounds like a good argument not to allow them to obtain nuclear weapons.

ExxonMobil, the primary descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, is officially moving its legal domicile from New Jersey to Texas in 2026. While the company's physical headquarters moved to Texas decades ago, this final step severs its last formal legal tie to its 19th-century origins. Leadership cited the need to protect the company from frivolous shareholder lawsuits and abuse. Texas recently established a specialized Business Court designed to resolve complex corporate disputes more efficiently. Approximately 75% of ExxonMobil's U.S. workforce is already based in Texas. By moving the legal domicile to Texas, the company is finally retiring the 144-year-old New Jersey charter that once served as the legal anchor for Rockefeller's entire global trust.

Check out 1947 Carnegie Hall on Prime. The story is hokey, but the plot is just a vehicle. Heifetz, Rubinstein, Stokowski, and others are a unique pleasure.

Very interesting, thanks. The video states that Anthropic’s Claude along with Palantir and the Pentagon’s Maven AI have provided unprecedented military targeting and assessment. (Quantum leap in target efficiency from say Iraq war). Also damage from retaliatory Iranian strikes has been limited. UAE has been patient, concentrating on defense ( ~95% interception rate) and not being drawn in to retaliate.

Thanks @flesh and @cubsfan for your suggestions. I will look into them.