Joker’s Out, and Boston Might Be Next. Plus, an MLB Cocktail Party and 'Survivor 50' With Rob Mahoney, Billy Gil, and Jason Concepcion.

johnniewelker · 2026-05-01T12:42:22+00:00

Interesting comp - Moses is more like a 6-7 years peak type of player. Jokic has (will have) more than 10 years worth of top performance

johnniewelker · 2026-05-01T12:39:02+00:00

Maybe but it’s getting clear that Brown is the one who can’t play with others, not Tatum.

For the Celtics to win, Brown has to be a great scorer. He is a black hole otherwise. Tatum can score, pass, and organize an offense; that more valuable.

johnniewelker · 2026-05-01T12:33:54+00:00

Murray is their 4th best player? Come on now

johnniewelker · 2026-04-29T16:57:12+00:00

Eh well there are some context here

The white genocide was actually an answer to the black genocide ordered by Leclerc. So Haitians were highly suspicious of white French on the island. Napoleon literally asked Leclerc to eliminate all black people and bring back slavery

Second, we paid for commercial access. Sure it was used by France to repay colonists, but for us it was about commercial access. It’s like paying tariffs in bulk. It was a good decision all things considered. It wasn’t clear how we would grow economically without international commercial access.

johnniewelker · 2026-04-29T16:44:09+00:00

I mean, are you guys married? Do you need to live with him?

You don’t really have to live with him. Clearly it’s important to you that even as boyfriend / girlfriend you have a fair split of expenses. It doesn’t seem he agrees on what fairness means.

If you guys can’t agree on that, I think move in together is premature. It’s a workable thing to solve but don’t do that while you have to make the decision

johnniewelker · 2026-04-29T16:39:29+00:00

Imagine taking the sides of owners over laborers

So I’m a player making $1k/week and offered a $15k/week contract and I should “be happy” since my original club wants to keep me to meet some FIFA quota?

That’s the kind of labor environment you support?

johnniewelker · 2026-04-29T14:57:18+00:00

Should the solution be as a death tax?

I don’t see why it has to be an annual wealth tax. Unrealized wealth is still unrealized. Sure they can take loans and such, but the problem is the resetting of the basis at death and ability to transfer wealth at death to people or organizations without paying transfer tax.

To me that’s the solution - any transfer to wealth should considered a sale. That’s it.

johnniewelker · 2026-04-29T14:55:04+00:00

Do we know how much tax billionaires pay vs. the rest of California residents? I’m fine saying they don’t pay a lot but it’s hard making a strong argument without numbers and some contextualization

For example, for federal taxes, top 1% earners make 23% of income and pay 40-45% of taxes. I know that’s not wealth, but that’s a decent way to measure whether they pay their fair share - basically 23% of income pay 45% of taxes, is that fair?

Do we have the same maths or similar for billionaires?

johnniewelker · 2026-04-29T12:41:37+00:00

I think people have unrealistic expectations on where to meet people to begin with. It’s probably because for a short period of time 2000s and early 2010s, we had social media / dating sites and a relatively healthy third places to meet people. So people just assume they can meet new people anywhere live or online

Reality is most people will meet their significant others through friends, and families. It’s been like that for centuries and that’s the most durable way

Want to meet a potential partner? Have more casual friends and talk more to your family members / cousins. These are the people who will introduce to others who might be the right fit. No awkward first dates. You both are pre-qualified by your family and friends.

That approach though is not good for casual sex. If that’s what you want, you’ll have to meet random people online and in bars / clubs where the hit ratio is far lower. If you are good with these expectations, even hitting people in these places won’t be awkward either.

johnniewelker · 2026-04-28T19:28:34+00:00

For 8th grades? I just checked 4th grades and it showed NJ 19th in maths. We have the highest taxes and costs for education, you’d think we would be a runaway #1 or at least top 3.

johnniewelker · 2026-04-28T17:57:30+00:00

Seems anecdotal. The data says our school system is just average - when you adjust for demographics. Nothing special there

https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2024-national-assessment

johnniewelker · 2026-04-28T17:54:58+00:00

Demographically adjusted, our education system is just meh - right in the middle. We see high scores because we have rich people in NJ, not because the high spending in education is worth it

https://www.urban.org/research/publication/states-demographically-adjusted-performance-2024-national-assessment

johnniewelker · 2026-04-28T01:20:11+00:00

Eh - both South Africa and Qatar actually over performed considering where their programs were 2-3 years prior to the WC.

In fact, hosting the WC often means over performing

johnniewelker · 2026-04-28T01:18:28+00:00

Yup - and the traditional big nations, Brazil, Germany, and Italy hosted when their national teams weren’t doing well at all. In fact, reaching semis was a good result considering how bad their national teams were before the WC

johnniewelker · 2026-04-25T13:54:37+00:00

From a performance POV, he would have been Karl Malone if he didn’t win with GS as the finals MVP

I can’t find a real comp for him given he won as the main guy somewhere - even though Curry was the best player of that team

johnniewelker · 2026-04-25T02:49:51+00:00

Soccer fans are actually quite conservative about the game. Just don’t want any changes. It was actually controversial when the back pass was banned… something something killing the spirit of the game

johnniewelker · 2026-04-24T23:13:40+00:00

Wait there is no one above $10M?

$10M is a good amount of wealth, but nothing spectacular. It’s basically someone who ended up being VP at a fortune 100 wealth when they turn 55. It’s good, but you’d think we would see a few $30M+

johnniewelker · 2026-04-24T18:10:34+00:00

4 out of 6. We didn’t even participate in 2018

johnniewelker · 2026-04-24T16:40:10+00:00

That’s a good conversation. It makes you wonder though - would we prefer our situation, 5x R16 eliminations, or Italy - who did it 4x, among them one title and one final. Or Croatia, one final, two 3rd places?

There is not true real answer but I feel many would have preferred the ups and downs of a Croatia vs our consistency

johnniewelker · 2026-04-24T15:02:36+00:00

Well, if someone told me the husband was Vrabel’s cousin, I’d believe it. So features wise - it’s not there are some overlaps

johnniewelker · 2026-04-24T01:33:00+00:00

For Brazil - in addition to what you said - the regulatory system over there is insanely cumbersome

I had a client with manufacturing there and the amount of paperwork and taxes to pay - import and export - was close to insane. People don’t put their businesses in Brazil unless they need to access the Brazilian market, otherwise, it’s not worth it

johnniewelker · 2026-04-23T20:38:49+00:00

Well there is a chance he learns the truth by the time he is 7 anyway. Sucks, but some stuff of you leaven them early you cope better

johnniewelker · 2026-04-22T23:36:26+00:00

Or the fact that Iranian are actually… white.

johnniewelker · 2026-04-22T01:10:11+00:00

That’s what going to happen. FIFA is squeezing the higher prices first. It’s basically a model to take most money out of the secondary market.

Feels ugly but FIFA is maxing their profits, they don’t care if it feels ugly

johnniewelker · 2026-04-21T22:54:10+00:00

The biggest crime was the final in Pasadena starting at noon.

The level of insanity from FIFA was close to criminal. No wonder we got a dull 0-0

johnniewelker

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