First Class Duck

@chait76 @antoniogm Honestly, just work hard, save your money, support your friends and family, be a friendly and compassionate person, and avoid being bitter. Just avoid chasing women for sex, and you’ll live a happy and healthy life. Just keep some platonic friends for brownies. :-)

@keegan_tweets It’s because it’s the easiest place to start because the employees are probably more likely to stick with the movement, and the employer is the least likely to be absurdly aggressive about fighting it, and the customer base is “woke” and may boycott in support of the union.

One of the crazier things about the post-2020 labor movement is the insistence on organizing service sector jobs where the benefits are already very generous. I ask the same question to these guys: what are you bargaining for and what are you willing to give up.

FWIW, there’s an actual passably nice section of Newark within walking distance of Penn Station and a short drive from the Turnpike. Bonus is all of the Brazilian food you can eat. :-p Scarsdale is too expensive on a teacher’s budget. You may end up looking (much) further north…

@FirstClassDuck Bucks County or Sacarsdale, maybe, but it's still too dark and cold and the property taxes are rapacious

I wouldn't live in Oakland, CA or Portland, OR even if they were giving the houses awa Prices are just the least of it. Look at LA's inability to govern itself

@jansramek @CAForever Exurbs are also far easier to YIMBYfy (yeah I made up that word) because, well, there are literally no NIMBYs living there since it's all sprawl. Far easier politically to build 5-over-1s, bike lanes, and mixed-use neighborhoods on farmland than next to 50 year old neighborhoods.

I think "doing well" is overselling it. The city has a few really big problems percolating. The housing market in NYC is actually really, really bad right now, in the sense that sellers of co-ops, some condos, and rent-stabilized buildings are having a hard time selling, and renters can't find rental units because inventory is lower than I've ever seen it (because of rent-stabilized tenants staying put, and landlords renting off-market). Not all of this is Mamdani's fault, but the rental market is getting worse, and owners unable to sell rent-stabilized buildings are entirely his fault.

As long as they have that weird chasm between their low income poor and their high income rich, there's always going to be a desire for hard left solution to problems in South America. Yet East Asia somehow manages to escape this issue. I've jokingly said the US is about to hit that point where it becomes popular soon because people want more than what their middle class lives can pay for.

Actually?? Who am I kidding, I am specifically calling out the Brazilian left lol Lula especially, what a fucking fossil! Stuck in Midcentury and actually thinks the nonaligned movement is a thing 🙄

I wish the rest of Latin America would take notice. Mexico abandoned Third Worldism a generation ago and has boomed in the meantime

*while casual racism grows more open* It's weird, but as other people have noted, the magical power of calling somebody racist doesn't seem to work anymore, and those people feel emboldened and empowered now. And honestly, it doesn't help that we have easily obtainable footage of black people screwing up and doing dumb stuff or saying silly things on social media that's just fueling these people online. It's literally the "see, the racist guy like me was right, don't listen to the woke people" content. I feel somewhat apprehensive for the next generation which may not have the security of seeing things get better.

This is such a tragedy, and it’s unfolding with a shocking lack of public discussion from other Dems. I’ve lived stateside, in the UK, and in Asia. I travelled a lot in my early to mid-twenties, and for years I believed the US was the best country in the world to be Black. Before anyone comes for me, understand that this is an indictment of the rest of the world as much as it is praise for America. The bar was never high. That was then, before the vestiges of the Confederacy began to coalesce and reanimate in very tangible ways. Black Americans are rapidly losing their voice and institutional power, while casual racism grows more open, more ordinary, more sure of itself. I can’t stress enough how eerily reminiscent it is of the ambient anti-Blackness you observe across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The america of today is not what it was even 10 years ago, and it’s very sad.

@motivatedjoy I tend to take a view of "we're worrying about the wrong thing, go put your kids in Kumon so they can improve their math skills and go into STEM" on this issue.

Exactly why I say the Black community needs to learn from other ethnic groups and capitalize on the interest people have in their culture. You can scream, cry, and stomp your feet over “cultural appropriation,” or you can do what other groups, especially Asians, have done; build, brand and monetize

@NickyFrank30 IOW, he's planning on retiring? With that said, I wonder how this move will work given that there's going to be some number of black voters in his old district who are going to *hate* being lumped in with Massapequa and a white candidate...

Lol I’m going to end up in a district that includes Massapequa aren’t it?

@MCCCANM *They mostly don’t get paid for delays* Wait, so once the door is closed and you pull back from the gate, you're not paid by the minute even if you're shunted off to some penalty box area?

My Summer air travel advice: 1) Fly early. Later in the day storms brew, delays pile up & everyone who missed earlier flights are trying to get on yours. Overnight hours are a “reset” for the airlines. 2) At least 2 hours for international connections. At LEAST. 1 hour for domestic is a gamble, but usually works. More is better. 3) Assume the boarding door will close 10 minutes prior to departure time. Departure time is the time we push back from the gate, not the time the jet’s door closes…which must be earlier than departure time. 4) I still arrive 2 hours before departure when traveling on leisure. You can do less, but there is stress if something goes wrong. Get there, have a beer & be in boarding area 45 minutes before departure (60 for international). 5) Yelling at the Gate Agents will not help, and only hurt your cause. Be nice. They can’t do magic, but they try harder for nicer people. 6) It’s an extremely complex system. If you think you’ll outsmart it, you’re wrong. I’ve been kicked off a jet while non-reving after pushback because the winds changed & we were now too heavy. 7) The crews want to leave as badly as you do. They mostly don’t get paid for delays, and now their layover is shot…or they’ll get home late. They won’t leave until it’s safe, though, and ATC wouldn’t let them if they tried. It’s not really up to them. 8) The airlines are not making a ton of profit on your ticket. In some cases, your ticket was sold at a loss. Perspective. 9) It can get uncomfortable. Too hot, or just sitting around. Everyone else is uncomfortable, too, and we’ll go as soon as we can, but don’t be the person who complains loudly & adds to everyone’s misery. 10) Go to the bathroom before you board. It may be extra bumpy for a long time & the seatbelt sign will be on even after we reach cruise. Hope that helps. Safe flying!

the bus drivers (70yo black men with southern accents who say "be safe now") from NYC to Philly will actually yell at people with their phone speakers on or on a phone call until they stop- it's the most unexpected bastion of western civilization

@McFranchisee @McDonalds I wished that the McWings took off. :-) They were perfect as a late night snack after work, especially if I wasn’t in the mood to cook a whole bag of wings at 3 AM.

Our WorldWide @McDonalds menu for our global convention dropped today. McD builds the world’s largest (and temporary) McD restaurant of 8 kitchens and around 700 people to serve 15k ppl at once. It’s insane. I’m looking forward to: Pistachio McFlurry Salted caramel Oreo McFlurry Golden McFlurry (butterscotch) McWings BBQ Shaker Fries Mini Hashbrowns Garlic Black Pepper Nuggs Follow me in June #McDWW26 What do you want to try?

@JeremiahDJohns I think any serious account of British politics that treats Brexit and the triple lock as central, rather than as symptoms of the deeper collapse in trust in the civic settlement since the 1980s, has to earn the ire it directs at voters it considers *irrational* actors.

* Why not pass that to your kids so that the bad guys don't win in the future?* Because it’s mentally easier to know that your kids won’t suffer under the “bad guys” if they were never born. I think some of them given up on the idea that the ‘good guys’ are capable of winning anymore.

@LeahLibresco I just don't get it. If you share the cultural and political values of your parents, didn't you counteract the evil you see? Why not pass that to your kids so that the bad guys don't win in the future? It's a whole subset that has given up.

Unusually explicit connection from the rejection of children to the death drive at the end of this reader roundup in the NYT. Begins with the usual “Who would want to bring children into a world…” and ends, well…

@motivatedjoy Gotta fuel the fantasy for the nerds. :-)

International media really does an excellent job of making Quebec separatists seem like a bigger deal than they are

I get the feeling that the combination of being Jewish, Canadian, and light skinned is what fuels his opposition. Even though he’s African-American like you, he’s always going to be seen as an outsider to some black people. FWIW, in NYC, he codes as Hispanic if he was a random non-celebrity.

Honestly not so sure Drake would react much more to a hypothetical attack on Black folks, not after how they did him during the whole Kendrick thing. I don’t know, there might be a little bit of animosity there.

this is such a funny point about weirdo gender slop, where every woman's job is pointless and every man is secretly working on the one oil rig where you can also tweet all the time. theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/…

“In full bro-ing-out mode, he told Rogan that “feminists would immediately stop being feminist if they just had a taste of, like, well, you know, people actually did have to shut themselves up at night from wolves.” (How a chain-smoking middle-aged man who podcasts for a living would fare against a wolf is an open question.)”

@nobodyknows2322 The assumes that DNC voters are hilariously demoralized and show up to vote…

You guys do know that the net effect of the VRA districts getting deep sixed is that all those GOP Southern US House seats will be less safely Republican now, right? This has the potential to blowup in their face if we play our cards right

@motivatedjoy Today in weird scary virus facts…

Fucking whatever dude Idfc burn it all down. Fuck it.