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Brew

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Everything posted by Brew

  1. Never did figure it out, we stay at the Langham and there was always that many outside. I kind of think it was a staging area to rotate them through downtown on breaks maybe because that road is dead and it’s out of the way. It did seem odd they were lined up in front of Trump towers of all places though. I’ve always been a Chicago fan. We’ve been going 1-2 times a year for probably the last 10-15 years. We always took the train in/out, walked everywhere or took the subway, etc. It felt different this last trip walking around downtown. I think Harrison hit on it pretty well, it was a weird mix of feeling uncomfortable by the presence as well as comfortable in a City you know pretty well. The other issues were that Michigan and that area felt dirty and old compared to our last trip before all this crap. There was a lot of empty space even though the places we frequent were still there. It was just different.
  2. They are keeping a significant number of police set up around the downtown area. Guess they have given up on the south side. We were there right before Memorial Day and they had cop cars pretty much on every block along Michigan, State, etc. with cops also walking the blocks. There were 4-5 cars stationed outside of Trump towers the entire time.
  3. Got out for the first time this weekend and ran through all the break in procedures. Also had the fun experience of spending 3 hours mounting the Bimini and frame. Printed included instructions have gotten really shitty over the last few years. I guess they figure everyone just goes straight to YouTube. That works great unless you’re on my lake with no cell reception. Need to get some pictures next weekend.
  4. If you’re on a super low carb diet, but a 1/2 cup of rolled oats, a banana, and a few blueberries isn’t very much especially if you aren’t eating much in the way of carbs the rest of the day. It may hit 20% of the low end of the daily guidelines.
  5. Ended up chunking the Fox shocks. After going in circles with customer service, the best they would do was give them my credit card info, send them the shocks, and they would evaluate whether a rebuild would work. If so, they would charge my card for that. If not, they would ship a new set and charge my card for that. They would it call and discuss the options. The shop is trying to get me to go to airbags, I think I’m going to throw some Bilstein’s on the rear and see how they tow.
  6. If you want an evaluation of the current Greek system in relation to racial diversity, Ole Miss is probably not place the start. That campus is as old south white as a campus could possibly get. There is no telling what they are signing on Greek row today, but it probably hasn’t changed much.
  7. Churches are outnumbered by other nonprofits by a factor of 4 or 5 to 1 I believe. Now some factor of the other nonprofits is made up of religious based organizations, so I don’t know how much that gap closes. I’m definitely not going down the road of a religious debate although I guess that ultimately is probably the dividing line in this debate for both sides.
  8. Similar story, college for me was a means to an end that no one else in my family chased. I was dating my now wife (married my junior year of college) from high school, working full time, and trying to get as far away from what I grew up around as possible. It wasn’t bad per se, it just wasn’t what I wanted in life. The Greek life looked to me like a bunch of fuck offs that needed someone to hang out with. Looking back, I was off base but I don’t think certain aspects of my life would look like they do now if I went that route In my industry it’s made some things difficult not being involved in the Greek society as doors seem to open a lot easier, but I just wanted to be done with college. I do work for a large national Greek organization now. It’s interesting being on that side in this discussion. They have been trying to outrun the perception for all the years I’ve worked with them, but some of the perception is intrinsic to the Greek system and impossible to get by. Their entire corporate staff is heavily women and minority at this point almost like they are trying to change their perception at the top on that alone. Every year they get pulled back down though with a National story that breaks. Kids are stupid, they are products of their upbringing, and especially in some of these locations racism runs deep and travels with them as they head off to college. Look at the baseball draft and some of the stuff that comes out on drafted high school guys every year when some newspaper researches their Twitter history. It’s nuts in 2021 what is still rooted in large swaths of society.
  9. Neither, I will say their headquarters is just where the employees sit and there is some meeting space. It just happens to sit right where an entity with a ton of money (another nonprofit entity actually) needs to have the location for further expansion. Paying property taxes for the vast majority would not impact their ability to exist, it may make some of them think about their location/mission/etc. a little more. Most nonprofits exist outside of high cost areas and even those could only really be assessed at their “ground” value. I’m not saying they should pay at the same percentage of value as commercial/residential, but they should pay something in my view on the property tax side.
  10. Tax exempt status takes a few hours to fill out the paperwork and gather the requisite documents, but I’ve never seen the IRS question a filing outside of if you are missing something.
  11. Maybe or maybe they use their support differently or raise additional funds. I do work for a nonprofit that has 20 or so employees. They have had offers in excess of $40M to buy their current headquarters. What helps them meet the purpose of their charter more, that tied up in one piece of real estate or that available to be spent on their work?
  12. I’m with Brisket for the most part. There is good and bad in the world on nonprofits and churches, but the good far and away outweighs the bad and I don’t think you go after all of them for the sins of a few. There should be a system the challenges their status periodically to make sure they are following their formation documents though. Also, churches should have to file 990’s rather than it be optional. That makes no sense and that way comp, lawsuits, and other spending is disclosed. I also think they should have to pay property tax.
  13. This is the one I’ve looked at a couple of times and keep coming back to although I would probably go with the standard band.
  14. I’m not falling for that shit again or I need a signed contract this time.
  15. Wife has been chasing a purple face 31mm DateJust for a while now. The local watch place she has been working with said Rolex produced 140k fewer watches in 2020 than normal because they shut production down thinking Corona was going to kill luxury spending. They didn’t plan for the government throwing money around like drunken sailors. They said it is probably going to take them 2-3 years to get caught back up. I assume most of the high ends are in the same boat although they are definitely worse off it seems. We’ve been in stores in Memphis, Nashville, Chicago, and Naples in the last month and you’re only going to find 3-4 Rolexes at most in a store and it’s typically a variety that isn’t all that desirable. Omegas seem to have plenty of product on the floors right now with Panerai, Breitling, etc all having decent inventory. I hope this doesn’t turn into a habit like purses have, I may go broke. I’m hung up on Seamaster Aqua Terra at the moment. The simplicity of the dial setup has caught my attention and I think I’m going to grab one. I don’t like a lot of stuff going on and want something simple and that or the white faced Master Coaxial seems like the best fit.
  16. Derka is co-managing HG’s team, so many pieces of the puzzle come together after keeping an eye on the TB thread over the years. I do take exception with your contention that your starting pitching is stupid loaded, it’s not. You’re just churning also rans that are off to a good start which is evidenced by your WHIP/ERA place and the fact that you only lead K’s and are 2nd in QS because you are running so many starters. Hopefully, the shitty ones you drafted haven’t dug too deep a hole for you to climb out of, since you will cap out in August and then start to back slide based on your 48% QS ratio. I am curious, how many original draft picks do you have left at this point?
  17. You quoted a question I asked someone else and as usual added nothing to it other than a smart ass response taking a potshot at me which I then responded to and then you responded to. It’s not that difficult to look back up a few posts.
  18. I still think you’re using such a small percentage of what’s happening out there as your justification, that it makes no sense. However, moving past that because it really doesn’t matter. You still can’t call it an income tax, it’s a wealth tax pure and simple or a tax in unrealized gains if you are only going after specific asset classes. It doesn’t meet the definition of income which has been part of this discussion the whole time. I assume you are taxing unrealized appreciation on properties, private holdings, etc. as well so it’s a true wealth tax and you’re not just picking on unrealized appreciation in investment accounts? If it’s everything, then I assume that also includes personal residences over the tax threshold, rental properties, etc. with everyone getting to participate?
  19. I’m curious about how they pulled their data. I just looked through the first 20 where I live and none of them had a posted salary. Their website links with ziprecruiter and it pulls an expected salary range for your area with most having a low estimate of the $20k range but the high estimate was generally 1.5x-3x that for a pretty useless range.
  20. I’ve found with F150 sunroofs it’s better to never use them. The one truck I used it on, it had to be replaced. I’ve never opened it on the last two and have not had an issue.
  21. It’s such a fucking beating being involved in a discussion with you over anything, so I’ll bow out of further ones at this point.
  22. I 100% get that scenario for large purchases, other investments, whatever. They are using leverage against an asset they own to invest in something else. I have zero problem with that scenario no different than taking a second out on your house to build a pool. You own the asset and use it accordingly. My read on this discussion has been they were leveraging options/other assets for more lifestyle related things, current expenses, etc. because the valuation increase is greater than the interest expense. Maybe that’s still the play, I just don’t see it. If I have $1B in that investment bank and borrow $50M to fuck around with this year, I still have to create taxable income somewhere to pay it back unless we are just running a stacking deal until I die. If I borrow $50M next year to fuck around with, now I’m into the bank for $100M and even at 1% I now owe them $101.5M at the end of year 2. If I die, the kids or the trusts owe the money back but they got $1.17B (assuming 8% growth) in stepped up basis without paying CG’s and end the day $60M or so ahead not getting into estate tax issues. Spread that out over some longer period and they are just betting on stock valuations to outpace interest I guess. However, I just don‘t see this example anywhere near as prevalent as my first example. You are talking a handful of people with the kind of unrealized appreciation where that works in end of life stages where it makes sense. Shit, most of those people still have plenty of cash where again it is a scenario 1 deal on large scale investment opportunities. Maybe everyone is doing it, but short of reviewing their financial statements it’s a still just a bunch of hypotheticals. I’m not sure it’s a reason to argue for the wealth tax as the real reason is unrealized appreciation of the investments not what they are doing with that equity. Back on that one, how are we valuing closely held entities under this new wealth tax provision?
  23. Who do you think does the tax work for the top 2 percent, typically the Big 4. I brought over the southeast regional managing tax partner for one of the top 6 firms as a partner 3-4 years ago, that discussion isn’t something that has come up. I have a number of clients that are well into the 9 figures, none in the 3 comma club so you are probably right about that. Which is also the reason I asked for an explanation rather than conjecture and what I’ve heards. Also a number of Big 4 partners don’t make that much, typically the regionals outpace them in comp and they make up for it in retirement benefits.
  24. I’ve asked before, explain the concept for me in detail. In years of practice and years of sitting in tax planning discussions with people as high up as Big 4 partners, it’s never come up. I get the concept of taking loans against assets, I don’t get the concept of this in long-term planning to avoid capital gains when they are at historical lows.
  25. Valid example, people tap home equity all the time for things. However, I would consider that outside of the loan types they are talking about. It may not be though.
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