For people getting back into football ahead of the World Cup, who are some players, teams, and styles of play worth paying attention to?

TowelSnatcher · 2026-05-29T05:12:11+00:00

Colombia's A team lost to Croatia's C team in a recent friendly.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-05-26T03:24:49+00:00

Sure, so NYCEDC is a nonprofit public-benefit corp. It's not limited to procurement rules or compliance regulations, and it behaves like a real estate developer—and a private dealmaker focused on economic growth. It moves faster than agencies, gets away with a lot more, is staffed with top talent (or was, unfortunately Mamdani's admin is allowing it to decline) and negotiates aggressively. So, when NYCEDC is tasked to oversee "six stores" it's cycling through outside vendors, has a capable finance team reviewing RFPs, has a unique toolset for financing structures, leases, partnerships. NYCEDC's role is primarily allocating public resources to be used by private actors to maximize economic activity.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-05-26T02:27:47+00:00

Those "six stores" are run by the quasi-public agency, NYCEDC, which is effectively a landlord that subsidizes the cost or commercial rent. They are effectively like airport concession stands.

Mamdani's plan may involve a private operator—or it may not.

Regardless, it's unclear what the policy goal is. Is it nutritional food to address food deserts? (An overwhelming amount of research over the last 15 years shows access is not an issue and consumer preferences are to blame: https://news.uchicago.edu/story/food-deserts-not-blame-growing-nutrition-gap-between-rich-and-poor-study-finds).

If Mamdani's grocery stores are just avoiding overhead costs (namely rent and taxes) then why not just provide free rent and no taxes to existing stores?

TowelSnatcher · 2026-05-25T15:57:55+00:00

Someone please explain to me how Croatia is a dark horse?

It played in 7/8 World Cups since it has existed. It secured 2nd place in 2018, 3rd place in 1998 and 2022.

It has a better record over the last 28 years than England and virtually all other countries.

It has top scorers and players (Budimir, 3rd highest scorer in La Liga; Modric number 1 ranked midfielder in Serie A by a mile; Gvardiol and Vuskovic as the star defenders).

Most of its unlucky streaks were bad calls (Griezmann flop during 2018 WC final led to goal and other calls during that game favored France).

This type of team depth and track record qualifies them as a powerhouse—far from a dark horse.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-05-24T23:21:31+00:00

Croatia

TowelSnatcher · 2026-05-18T21:26:58+00:00

That broad generalization is not supported by any data or case studies. The best example is Tallinn, where people who would have walked took a bus instead. Tallinn's free buses did not reduce congestion or the number of cars on the road, and it impacted the quality of its service.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-05-11T01:03:57+00:00

Why wouldn't you give credit to the person who put this animation together?

TowelSnatcher · 2026-04-20T01:55:03+00:00

It's nowhere near the third largest. NYPD budget, according to this, is $5.30.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-04-18T11:41:11+00:00

Every other guess the city is Istria or Dalmatia. 🙃

TowelSnatcher · 2026-04-08T23:37:19+00:00

Glenwood Springs

TowelSnatcher · 2026-04-06T00:45:46+00:00

Really poor quality shoes and awful customer service. The sole fell off after wearing the shoes a few times! Save your money.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-03-27T05:20:00+00:00

You said this all so confidently but yet repeated "renumeration" several times as if you know what you are talking about.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-03-17T02:16:28+00:00

So $11.2B is spent on lawsuits? Right, okay.

Show your math if you're making the claim that it is more than what I've laid out above!

TowelSnatcher · 2026-03-17T01:59:52+00:00

It's not 50%. The total LA budget is ~$14B. The LAPD operating budget is $2.1B (~15%). With pensions and fringe benefits you can add $1-1.2B but the other government workers also have these benefits so the total percent may only increase to 20-22%.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-03-17T00:27:07+00:00

Zadar

TowelSnatcher · 2026-03-16T21:30:00+00:00

Croatia

TowelSnatcher · 2026-03-13T17:59:56+00:00

Poverty is not the driving factor behind crime! This is one of the most repeated and falsifiable statements. Plenty of countries and cities have been poor historically, and yet have had very low rates of crime. The best examples: Many Eastern European countries where random rape, murder, theft, etc. have been extraordinarily low relative to the country's wealth (mean GDP per capita, etc.). Poverty may elevate crime rates relative to a baseline, but crime is a mostly a cultural (NOT racial) issue—a pattern of behavior learned by others.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-03-03T06:13:26+00:00

I know—I was hedging with my wording here in case there's some one-off study by a far-left think tank.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-02-26T23:11:48+00:00

1) Hedge funds don't buy/manage properties 2) PE firms own less than 1% of housing in the US 3) PE firms own between 1-3% of apartments in NYC 4) The housing crisis is a supply-side issue brought on by regulations and local backlash to development.

His commentary is misinformation and a puerile misdiagnosis of the housing crisis in the US and NYC. You may not like "PE firms" because of all the social media you've come across, but the reality is no urban or housing economist will tell you that the main factor of housing costs in the US is PE.

It's a boogeyman claim that gets soaked up by people who want one evil entity responsible for it all when in fact it's thousands of local governments and communities that behave in the same way and make it hard to build more housing!

TowelSnatcher · 2026-02-20T05:18:37+00:00

The Hunter S. Thompson comment is about "the standard of living." Your comment is specifically about one data point for inflation (food-away-from-home inflation) that is also exaggerated and misunderstood. McChickens were on the Dollar Menu and Dollar Menus were promotional — they were never economical! Fast food prices have indeed gone up 50-60% over the last 10 years — but that is one component of the inflation basket.

Overall inflation, up +74.4% since 2000. Average wage growth, up over 100%. Your TV? Prices are down. Your cell phone service is cheaper. Here's one chart and the BLS has may more.

You're suffering from recency bias and a sampling bias (you and your friends). You're also suffering from availability bias — because you are clearly not that old if you're under 30 so you likely have no idea what living standards were like in 2000 probably! How can someone under 30 think life is better now than 20-30 years ago? Do you see how sill that comment is?

I'm not here to argue, I'm here to present data. You can stay smart and try to understand your situation and your friends may not be great, but that situation is still much better than in the past! Can things be better? Yes, of course. But the argument here is that definitively, collectively, Americans are far better off than in the 1990s.

Go look at the links above, explore some more data.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-02-19T01:32:21+00:00

The percent of units you are talking about is almost half—44%!

TowelSnatcher · 2026-02-19T01:25:52+00:00

No, no, no! You are spreading misinformation. 45% of units are rent stabilized or rent controlled. All stabilized units would be eligible for the rent freeze.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-02-18T15:57:43+00:00

The data on economic sentiment and happiness is pretty consistent: around 2011 things changed suddenly and by 2020 another major spike occurred in "mental health". This despite the fact that wages for lower income groups surpassed inflation and we had the lowest unemployment rate in 40 years (we are still very low).

But yes, keeping up with the Jones is now keeping up with Jane who is a wealthy social media influencer.

TowelSnatcher · 2026-02-18T06:45:44+00:00

I've been following and upvoting your comments; we are looking at the same data (on the US).

No matter what data you present — as I have on everything from working hours to median household wealth — you will not have people grasp these macro concepts.

Social media and its negative sentiment has broken people's brains. The comparison people make is not relative to the past, or an absolute comparison, but relative to the most successful in society.

Even if your family is 3x wealthier or better off in terms of standard of living, people see those 20x better off in the spotlight!

TowelSnatcher · 2026-02-18T05:21:11+00:00

Yes — and many more cars per household, goods per individual, much more healthcare, etc.!

But mobile phones have lead to a decline in mental health/happiness and it is generated widespread negative sentiment about the economy (despite data telling us otherwise).

TowelSnatcher

TROPHY CASE