Happy Monday!

Wednesday Roundup #AndrewSGinsburg

I have been quite busy lately and now its time for me to weigh in on a few issues that are going on:

• The reason the watered down gun control background checks failed in the Senate when 90% of the public wants background checks. The reason is simple, gun control is not high on peoples priority list. The number one priority of the American public is the economy and job creation. President Obama, Congress and the Media are all failing us in completely ignoring the issue of longterm unemployment. The number of people unemployed and the length of their unemployment has not been seen since the Great Depression. Estimates are from 25 million to 89 million people are unemployed as of now. This is whats on the publics mind, not guns and most likely not immigration. The fact that the President of the United States is ignoring this issue is deplorable; the fact the media isnt being the ‘check’ on government as they should be and reporting on whats going on is a complete breakdown in our news media. If Barack Obama had spent the amount of time, energy and weight of his office on jobs instead of guns we would have a jobs bill that would start putting people back to work. I am saddened, and disgusted, to say that I think Mr. Obama is more concerned with his “legacy” than the real problems that are going on today. Ironically if immigration fails like guns did, he wont have a legacy to speak of.
• The tragedy in Boston last week is really chilling to think about. I am from Boston, so I know the city well. The 2 bombs that went off were in the Back Bay very close to my brothers home and where my mother had a thriving art business for decades. The thought of all of Boston being on lockdown numbs the mind. I was here in Manhattan for 9/11, living a few blocks from the Trade Center; I couldnt go home for 2 weeks because the area was considered a ‘crime scene’ After 9/11 we kept hearing about a second wave of terrorism that would be coming and were all on edge for a long time. But, we were never on lockdown, never had a madman running around that could have a suicide belt on, throw grenades, shoot innocent people. That was not part of our threat back on 9/11. It does give me some relief that the cataclysmic terrorist attacks that were predicted a decade ago, like nuclear weapons going off in American cities, has not happened as of yet. What has happened are more the lone wolf one off kind of thing. Whereas thats a horrible thing, and I dont want to diminish the pain and anguish people went through; its hardly bringing down the 2 most iconic buildings in the country and killing thousands.
• The Associated Press’ twitter account getting hacked yesterday is really a chilling event; the hackers put out a tweet saying that the White House had been attacked by terrorists. The stock market dropped over 200 points. All of this hacking that is going on could lead to serious trouble; just about every news media outlet has been hacked. If false reports are going out it could send our country into panic mode. What if one of those reports said North Korea nuked South Korea and the United States retaliated by nuking the North? We need more cyber safety. For other things like the electrical grid, banks. As citizens we must know we are more secure than we are.
• Online news media is in serious trouble. Ad revenue is going down, this on top of print revenue disappearing. That revenue used to be used to have correspondents and reporters telling people the news of the world. With the revenue drying up how we get our news could be greatly impacted. Online, digital and social media are all also facing an uncertain future. They are trying to turn all of these outlets into money making centers. That sounds good and fair, in order to subsidize the news but as a user when you see ads crawling across your screen; if you are forced to watch a video commercial before seeing a video you want to see its getting to the point where I wont even watch online videos, knowing I have to sit through 30 seconds or longer of paid advertisement. I dont like being forced, I dont like not having the option to opt out. As a matter of fact it makes me hostile towards the companies that play the ads. They should figure that out soon enough and come up with a different model, but for now its a complete annoyance.
• Do you ever feel like nothing changes? Israel and Palestine, Iran wanting Nukes, North Korea wanting and getting Nukes and making absurd threats. It doesnt matter who is in office, its the same old tired story. Americans should come together knowing that the situations have been the same, or getting worse, for decades. Its not President Obama’s fault, or Clinton or Bush. These issues just go on and on and on.

And Thats The Way It Is on April 24, 2013!

The Jobs Crisis: It May Not Be “Breaking News,” But It’s Definitely “Broken News”

This is a must read article by Arinna Huffington; she is the only one talking about the jobs crisis as illustrated in her column:

 

BREAKING! This just in: the economy is terrible and the country is suffering its worst jobs crisis since the Depression… developing…

Of course, this isn’t actually breaking news — it’s aching news — and, before the tragic bombings in Boston, the most important story going on. But you wouldn’t know that if you watched any of the Sunday shows last week.

On CBS’ Face the Nation, the topics were the background check bill and immigration, with Senator Marco Rubio.

On ABC’s This Week we had the president’s budget, Jay-Z’s trip to Cuba, Ken Burns’ Jackie Robinson documentary and immigration, with Senator Marco Rubio.

On NBC’s Meet the Press, they went with the background check bill, the president’s budget, Ken Burns’ Jackie Robinson documentary, and immigration, with Senator Marco Rubio.

The piece continues http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/jobs-crisis-broken-news_b_3096331.html

http://huff.to/15e6IGP via @HuffPostMedia

The Manor Gets Named House of the Day by the prestigious Brownstoner.com

Yes, its a great honor to have Brownstoner.com, Brooklyn’s most read  website  about real estate, renovation and neighborhood news, name my house as their house of the day!  Check out the full piece here http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2013/04/house-of-the-day-530-76th-street/?stream=true and yes the gas lamppost out front is real. Thank you Brownstoner.com! 

What Are The President Congress and the Media Not Talking About?

Lets see, we have a GOP and tea party thats obsessed with budget cuts, lowering the deficit, cutting vital programs and of course obstructing everything president Obama wants to do. We have a president who is clearly working on his legacy, he wants gun control, immigration and a grand bargain on debt reduction to be what he is remembered for. We have a media that goes for the lowest hanging fruit and will make a story out of anything thats easy and salacious. Everyone thinks the media is left leaning, they are actually just lazy and want any kind of sensational stories to tell to try to boost ratings and clicks on their websites. This combination is a recipe for finishing off the decline of the American Empire.

So, what is it that no one is talking about? The long term unemployed. Their are estimates that run anywhere from 5 million to 89 million of people who are long term unemployed and or who have stopped looking for work because they cant find any. The media should be explaining to the public about this crisis, and what the long term consequences of it will be. Last month the unemployment rate dropped; the reason it dropped was because 500,000 people stopped looking for work. Last week on Meet the Press Andrea Mitchell was starting to explain this and David Gregory cut her off to talk about something else. This is the story. No one digs into the numbers; yes we have had 4 years or however long of job creation; however that job creation is only enough to break even. This is the first period since the Great Depression that this many people have been unemployed for this long a period. The workforce participation rate, which is basically the percentage of people who have jobs compared to the entire population, has not been this low since the 1970s when women were barely in the workforce. Their have been some articles showing prejudice in hiring through ageism, the longterm unemployed and how companies wait for that perfect hire and make people go through rounds of interviews then decide not to hire anyone. In general the Media, whose purpose is to call out the government on what they are doing wrong and to educate the public of serious issues, gets a grade of F.

President Obama was going to pivot to jobs after ObamaCare, or after the election, or after the midterms. Wait, he never did it. For those that say he tried to push a jobs bill through the congress that is true. However, he did this in September 2011 and has done almost nothing since. Thats unacceptable. I see him on the road, almost campaign style, talking about gun control. Gun control is an important issue, but its not worth spending all of his political capital on. So, why is he focusing on guns over jobs? Some say he knows he won’t get anywhere with jobs so he is deliberately not talking about it and he is talking about guns so it will become one of his legacy issues. This to me is deplorable behavior. For those that say he can do more than one thing at a time, that is true. But in order to get the kind of jobs bill passed that will make a dent in unemployment he needs to be out there rallying the cause. The GOP talks about how we are spending record levels on Food Stamps and other assistance programs. Hmmm, why would that be the case? Oh yeah, the 10′s of millions of people who are unemployed and need assistance. And yet Barack Obama is making minimal effort at best to create jobs, he is a huge disappointment and for job creation he also receives a grade of F.

The GOP is more to blame than Mr. Obama for the lackluster economy since they have obstructed and filibustered everything Obama has tried to do. By being the party of ‘just say no’ they have made the environment in Washington caustic and much worse than it was when President Bush was in office. What is the GOP’s motivation for this? I think its racial, I could be right I could be wrong. In 2010 when the tea party came in they made things even worse. Yes there is a debt problem but its not as pressing as the unemployment problem. Every cut the tea party tries to enact has the exact opposite effect, their actions have made the debt larger. As I have mentioned I think the tea party should be tried for treason by mishandling of the economy. Every crisis that they have caused has slowed the economy. The slower the economy is makes for few jobs created, consumers spending less, GDP falling. All of this adds to the debt and deficit and all of it is caused by the tea party in their so called effort to lower the debt. The GOP and tea party get grades of criminal F.

Why is longterm unemployment such a problem? Because it destroys peoples lives, it takes away their dignity, ends many marriages. Why should the government care? Well in the coming years those 25 – 89 million people are going to be signing up for welfare, medicaid and are going to put a much more serious strain on the debt of this country. If Obama spent the time and effort on creating jobs rather then gun control we could have serious investments made. We need another large stimulus for job creation, we need tax incentives for companies that hire the longterm unemployed. There is so much that could be done. If the government invested $400 Billion in job creation now the taxes the workers would pay would lower the deficit by $4Trillion over 10 years.

If things continue as they are Mr. Obama’s legacy will be one of a president who did nothing for the jobless and this will over shadow anything else he has done.

My Views On Guns ** The Wrong Topic

Let me start out by saying that we are debating the wrong subject. Gun control is an important issue that needs to be addressed but the main issue facing our Country today is the long term unemployed. There are some 25 million, some estimates say 89 million people who are unemployed, stopped looking for work or arent earning enough to survive on. Today’s most pressing issue is getting people back to work, with whatever measure is needed; stimulus to build something; tax incentives for companies to hire people. The workforce participation rate is the lowest in over 30 years and the length and number of unemployed people has not been seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Tomorrow’s jobs report looks like another disappointment with job growth not even able to keep up with population growth. The fact that Congress, Mr. Obama, the media have all chosen to ignore this situation of the long term unemployed is maddening. Its also a foolish economic move; at some point all of these millions of people are going to put a heavy strain on the government with Food Stamps, Welfare. When an investment today would stop all that, and it would create jobs that would generate revenue for the government. No one I know who is unemployed wants a hand out; they want a job.

Now on to guns and my views on them. Again, I cant stress enough, this is not the right time to have a battle of gun control, its a time for a battle for job creation. The only time I have ever held a gun, a rifle actually, I think, was in summer camp for Riflery. I am born and bred in Boston and having been living in NYC since graduating from college many moons ago. I personally dont want a gun, dont know anyone that owns a gun. To me guns lead to violence. But I know its not as simple as that. Lots of things go into the mass slaughterings we have seen too many of in the last decade. Laws to outlaw guns wont necessarily stop any future events. The problem we have here is a stalemate. Both sides are right. Outlawing guns will only make the criminals have guns and too many guns are what leads to violence are both true. So you have the left and right fighting points which are both valid and what ends up is a stalemate. No one wins, both parties lose, the American public loses and nothing gets done. Like I have said, this is tragic when many more people are affected by unemployment and poverty than are gun laws it pisses me off that we devote so much time to this. Is Mr. Obama looking for a legacy issue rather than an issue that could help struggling Americans today?

To me the thought of hunting and killing living animals for sport is something I cant even imagine. If you notice everyone on the left always starts their argument by saying hunting is great and one of our rights. To me hunting is cruel and inhumane. Do I eat hamburgers and steaks, yes. Do I know how they are killed, no. So I might not have the high ground with this, but to me killing animals to feed people is different than killing them for sport. Now, I obviously dont make the rules and we do have a 2nd Amendment to the Constitution that allows this. Fine. I dont endorse it, but thats the law and thats the way it is. People talk about ‘background’ checks. What does that mean? What exact information are they looking for? How much access should the government have to my personal, or yours, psychological make up? Yes, I think that is an infringement on my privacy to look into my past, but not my criminal past. Thats fair game. I dont have a criminal past so dont bother looking.

To me there are some common sense fair minded things that can be done with guns. The most important being, have gun licensing like drivers licenses. I just had to renew my drivers license, I had to get an eye exam. I think every gun owner should have to have a license. If they pass a treasured gun to one of their kids, whomever owns the guns should be subject to getting a license to use it. The license should last 5 – 10 years and need to be renewed. Maybe you cant go into someones personal psychological profile, but you can go into their criminal record. I think thats completely fair. Also, perhaps they should make gun owners have insurance on their guns, like people have to have insurance on their cars. Liability insurance.

Nothing is going to stop deranged people from mass killings, whether by bomb, semi automatics, hand guns, knives. The goal is to have fewer killings not to win political points. Washington needs to stop digging their heels in on issues like this. The longevity of this country revolves around our economy.

Like I said, the fight we should be having now is over how much stimulus we will allocate to job creation for the longterm unemployed. Thats our best bet for a bright financial future.

Its Official The Manor Will Be on the Market Soon

Yes, its time to move back to Manhattan so the papers were signed today to put the Manor on the market. Corcoran will be taking care of the details. Photographers, floor plan people, and all the rest will be going on the next few weeks then they will broadcast the Limestone globally but no one will be able to see it until the first open house. I hear the Brooklyn Brownstone market is red hot with pandemonium at open houses, bidding wars etc. This Limestone is perfect but its time to go back to that deluxe apartment in the sky where they do everything for you. Keep your eyes out for teasers and more details, especially if you are in the market for the home with every detail intact.