Regarding the padded invoices that resulted in illegal rent increases over years and decades: in addition to New York State finally investigating (took long enough!), why is there no lawyer out there putting together a class action lawsuit on behalf of the hundreds of tenants who were ripped off by the Donald and the Trump family? Maybe these tenants who fell victim to Trump's machinations won't make for as good a media spectacle as Stormy Daniels and her hush payment/special campaign payment did, but this would actually be the good fight - standing up for the little guy against a powerful opponent with deep pockets. Of course, it would also require many hours of serious legal work, and less time in front of the cameras. I guess that means Mr. Avenatti won't be interested? Let's see.
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To Shawnthedog's mom - further about age.
My dad (98 a few months ago) and his sister had grown up in the same town in Poland as Mark Wieseltier, father of Leon Wieseltier (who is a huge celeb in the editor world, had MeToo issues, a different story. You may not know hum, but in his field, Leon is huge). My uncle, who was a rabbi, co-updated a book with Mark about their Poland town, Stryj. We used to see Mark and Stella all the time, and though we didn’t know Leon directly, it was fun reading or talking about what he was always doing with Barbra or Twyla, etc.
In Florida, much later, my Dad was looking at new books that I brought, astonished that the ones I self-publshed for $200 or $300 were as well-made as the play books that were really published, only difference was no publisher nam. He said, in a literary understatement, “You know, Leon wrote a book about Mark.’ I started saying “Not just a book, a classic,” and my mom (who had read it) zoomed in saying ”Nat, the book Leon wrote about Mark was ‘Kaddish,’ kaddish after Mark died. Don’t be in a rush for your kids to write a book about you. We're not ready for you to go."
(That quick story turned out long! I bet Larry Eisenberg could have told it in five lines. Larry may have a record at 13,000 posts in the comments, but what I lack in brevity, I like to think I make up in word count.)
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How about investigating de Blasio and his dealings. I am no fan of Trump. However, why is it de Blasio keeps getting a "free ride"? Everyone he surrounds himself with gets indicted. Yet, he knows nothing of their duplicity.
NYTIMES, let's be fair. Investigate de Blasio, as well. All he does is take, take, take.
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Because Trump is such a buffoon he was treated as little more than a late night punchline for way too long. We're now paying the price fur our collective lack of due diligence. This may cost us way more than anyone could have imagined. The cost of his "War on the Environment" may be one we can't resolve.
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In the Best of the Times section:
“R.I.P., prolific limerick writer: Dr. Larry Eisenberg wrote more than 13,000 comments on nytimes.com, mostly as limericks."
This was my tribute.
“I’m Just Wild About Larry”
Tune of “I'm Just Wild About Harry"
We’re just wild about Larry
His way with five concise lines.
Upbeat to cranky
Preet to Bernanke
We love how Larry opines.
Stayed great far into his nineties
Still razor sharp as can be
Yes, we’re so wild about Larry
And his online poetry.
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@Freddie, a very nice tribute. The news of Larry Eisenberg's passing saddened me more than I thought possible. Dr Eisenberg's limericks were a national treasure and I hope the NY Times can gain the rights to them and publish them.
I clicked over to the obit link on Larry and learned in the comments there that another prolific commenter, Richard Luettgen had also passed away earlier this month. I never agreed with any of Richard's opinions, as he held deeply conservative views, but they were always intelligently written. I was just thinking the other day how I hadn't seen his comments recently, now I know why.
A sad day for the NY Times commenter community.
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@Shawnthedog's Mom, but wow - age 99, and he was still turning material out so recently that shows the mind still very much there, absorbing brand new events and technology!
I did feel even he goosed up the rancor for comic effect once in a while, like any good comedy person, though.
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@Freddie, yes, people who actually knew him in real life had stated that his mind remained sharp til the end. Truly a blessing. Funny, too, how from his writing I never would have guessed he was 99.
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Even when he was young, Donald Trump's face always seem plastered onto his head, with a fake smile, kind of soulless. That is, when I was waiting in line at the supermarket and had to be paused in front of the tabloids.
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If investigation or fishing expedition is good for the goose, what about the gander? Why hasn't an investigation started on Andrew Cuomo? All the cards are there, including shady deals and players.
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Could someone finally make the rich obet the same laws that the rest of us obey? Please?
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As far as explaining Trump to New Yorkers, you folks are preaching to the converted (or singing to the choir--don't mix your metaphors with "preaching to the choir"). We know him all to well, from his self interest to his disregard of others, and of his lack of common decency.
His feeding the NY Post weekly updates on his sex life with Marla Maples. His birther campaign. His full page ad promoting the execution of the Central Park five. And so on.
What is frustrating is that his "base" cares not a lick. if you say anything that questions his character, they consider it to simply be a liberal attack. Nothing he does or says changes their opinion. Our only hope is that the 6% undecided voters, or the registered voters who stay home without voting, decide that they have had enough.
Please Democrats, do not nominate another unlikeable/undependable candidate like Hilary. No lightning rods. Just a boring, caring and capable individual. Please!
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@Billy
What keeps me so angry is that that man won only because of gerrymandering and the bizarre functioning of the Electoral College. I didn't find Hillary unlikable at all. I also didn't find her undependable. But I do realize that she rubbed some people the wrong way. However, who among the likely candidates might be able to win as a "boring, caring, and capable individual"? Obama wasn't boring. He won twice, against all odds. I think what we're seeking is someone who is smart and sincere. If
I never have to look at another huckster-in-chief, it will be too soon.
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@Martha
I understand your anger kiddo. I'm so disappointed in the American public that I'll have all I can do to remain involved in the process. I cannot fathom that 62,979, 636 adults voted for him, and millions of other Americans stayed home. Has the country become an open-air insane asylum?
My reason for wanting a capable and inoffensive Dem candidate is that I hope that few folks feel compelled to vote against the Democrat. I believe that if the only people voting for Trump are people that are pleased with his performance, he will be out of there quickly. he needs to be gone before he ruins the environment, our schools, our foreign alliances, and drains every drop of decency from this country.
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Happy holidays Azi.
Already read these stories, some as early as last week. How about some original reporting, as Alexandra and Jonathan did? And your personalized twist on the otherwise drab weather? Or a hair report? Ahhhh the good old days...
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No more hair-weather reports, please. That got old. I agree that I have already read many of the linked-to stories by the time they are posted here, but there has been original reporting or pieces that have collected and commented on similarly-themed articles in a useful way. Unsurprisingly, the column is still developing under Azi, but I think it's headed in a good direction.
But a story about bird-watching brothers with bland quotes like "Just trying to see cool things..." and "Next year will be more exciting!" is not worth doing. New York City just has too many remarkable and surprising people and events to give space for that. I wondered if it wasn't a misguided attempt to be diverse that came off (completely unintentionally) as pandering. I know that black people are birders. I only want to hear about the interesting ones.
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@Lifelong Reader, just on the Hair Forecast: Since the Hair Forecast (like the Winter Coat forecast before it) was not done every day, I found it almost always worked and felt welcome whether it brought a laugh or a groan, and for others so incredibly easy to jump over. I assembled these here:
http://fred-and-the-economy.blogspot.com/2018/11/celebrating-transition-at-new-york.html
This was my thought: In one line, it represented with a smile or laugh what we really need to know as we go to work crossed with a modern often cultural slant, from Game of Thrones to Shakespeare in the Park ... a feel-good moment before we were about to read some often-troubling “In the News” items. That's New York every meaningful work day I've had.
I wonder if the new version is becoming to have that fun one-liner when one suggests itself, but also not force it every day - only when there is one. And the weather has taken on an easing-in role.
I do like and appreciate the experimenting, and that the comments are considered even when I lose, LOL. I'm no Mnuchin on business theory, but what some might scoff at as pandering can, in the right research hands, mean reaching more people - the more we readers click, even click several times a day to check back on what "we" are commenting, the more the ads will help pay for the paper, so our subscription price may benefit from that, which should make more new people subscribe, and on and on.
I used to think that when Trump continued to be Trump, only in the much more conspicuous and weighty role of president, rational people would recoil in horror. The past two years have disproven that theory. His supporters, aided and abetted by the Republicans in power and Fox and its ilk, have accepted and explained away increasingly despicable and immoral behavior.
I can think of no explanation, other than the weird dynamic of a group delusion that happens in a cult. Telling the truth about him horrifies those not in the group, but it doesn’t even register with those who are his followers. That is truly frightening.
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effective regulation would have destroyed failed 45 years ago. only the tolerance of graft and crime allowed him to rise.
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It's not a stretch to say that most of us native New Yorkers are already too well-informed about Donald Trump since he went out of his way to be tabloid fodder decades before heading to middle America to hand out red MAGA hats.
Sorry. But the New Jersey glitter story is far more interesting.
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@N. Smith I am not a "native New Yorker" and I had lots of information about the lying current occupant. It was not a lack of information, it was a lack of curiosity by the voters. If they had done even an hour's investigation, they would have seen what a criminal he is.
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@BigFootMN
That's obviously a very big "IF"... Still, New Yorkers are the ones who had to live with Trump's daily antics, and we tried to warn the rest of America about him.
Guess what? They didn't listen.
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Yes, there was information. And now Trump supporters are challenging the Times's article on how a podiatrist, as a favor to his Trump's father, diagnosed Trump with bone spurs so he would be granted a medical deferment. That's a very easy story to understand and there's no reason to question the accuracy of the reporting. But some voters don't care about facts.
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"In 1992.....State officials are now investigating." See the problem here? (and for that matter, where was The Times? In Sept of 2016 The Times was still writing about Hillary's emails.)
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A 70 year old man who continues the patterns of behavior of his whole life. So what else is new! You think YOU will change your pattern of behavior at age 70?This pattern of behavior got him elected to the Presidency of the United States, why should he change?
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What Trump has done with his company is neither new or unique. I would love some real investigative reporting on ALL big real estate owners and why THEY ALL GET TAX BREAKS in fact they are all in the %3 tax bracket regardless of their wealth. Why?
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Keep the pressure on Trump as long as you can. And I hope the media has learned it’s kesdon well to remember that due diligence in reporting trump’s all else. Thanks for this article.
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This is excellent reporting on who Donald Trump really is. You say it took a year of study and analysis. Question: Where was this reporting in the more than one year it took for Donald Trump to become President? Where was it while he was a "businessman" in New York all those years prior, bilking one person or institution -- rich and poor -- one after another? Why was this grifter given such an enormous pass by everyone? Now, THAT would be a story.
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@John Figliozzi, unfortunately, while I so wanted Hilary Clinton to prevail against Trump, there were strangenesses on the Democratic side, too, which had to be covered.
Certainly the Times knows it will be used as a source way into the future. When, even before the net, we wanted to look up the Civil War or the first World War, even as kids doing term papers the "primary sources" for the facts were almost always the Times in microfiche at the library. Before the election and Trump's actually having power, balance between the candidates on known mis-steps was essential on the news end.
Here in what some people call our New York City bubble, I really don't even begin to understand how Trump got the G.O.P. nomination.
But we have seen so many politicians pivot just fine from campaigning mode to governing mode, and right after the election, it even felt like just maybe Trump could pivot. Maybe something strange is in the air not just forTrump - look at our Democratic Mayor de Blasio who certainly doesn't act like he works for us, some oddities I had not sensed in his first term since I did vote for him for his second term. And Governor Cuomo behaves 100% sure that we must have loved what he gave us in the past, and seems to act sure that we don't want him to change a thing,I guess since we voted again.
I much prefer de Blasio's and Cuomo's policies, so take the bad with the good. (Maybe the Trump base is also taking the bad to get lasting policies they want.)
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Perhaps you’re too young to have read or heard anything about “the Donald” in the 70’s and 80’s. It was widely known how he refused to pay contractors the amounts due to them by contract. What was not widely know was that he had henchmen doing deeds unmentionable. I’m referring to the infamous Roy Cohn, of Mccarthy Era and and now the other Cohen. How many others we never heard about (yet)??
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I don't want or need to "understand" Donald Trump. He works (or doesn't) for us. Remember? All I want to say to him is, "You're fired!" For cause. Lots of them.
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