Federal law says otherwise, quite clearly, when it comes to workers deemed to be “excepted” from unpaid government furlough.  The right to wages is not constitutionally enshrined, it’s protected by federal law, and for government workers, federal law on wages is superseded by federal law on protocol during a…

Naw.

But that’s not what is happening. Real estate markets are cooling. In a rising rate environment, not even Schwarzman could raise $2 billion, let alone $20 billion, for a fund where he was going to attempt to not actually put the real estate he buys into use immediately. The monumental stupidity of that kind of play…

Yes, they really do.

I poked around a bit on the OPM’s website, and I’m not going to go dig through the guidance, but I get the sense that “essential” or rather, “excepted” (as in “excepted” from the furlough) is less defined by a hard rule and moreso by guidance that means it can be a bit more circumstance based that purely prescriptive.

“People are actually amazed that, with this many people, that government is really working so well. So we’re very proud of that,” Trump said in a conference call today.

To say Schwarzman is “Interested in real estate deals” as if it’s some sort of new thing is ... maybe not quite accurate.

It’s not considered inhumane by any first world country on the planet, or by international law, or by any non- open borders wackjobber of an international body, to, with reasonable measures that don’t violate their basic dignity (i.e. by not seperating children from their families and by not using excessive force)…

Yeah, I know (thought it can if the owners aren’t managing their property well and are losing money I guess) but still, picturing Blackstone running a bunch of Section 8 housing is pretty funny.

Distressed is pretty common parlance in real estate investing. It can occasionally come with tax breaks I guess, but tax breaks for real estate development tend to come more for new construction. With respect to commercial properties, there’s definitely plenty of owner distress in the types of properties they are…

I’m short handing the fact that McConnell isn’t likely to get in the way of a unanimous consent if there are actually enough Republicans to break cloture.

I love the “distressed” focus. Picturing Steve Schwarzman as becoming a kingpin Section 8 housing landlord and the owner of a bunch of dying shopping malls is funny.

It’s a record sized fund, but Blackstone’s got half a trillion dollars under management, and the total value of all U.S. real estate, residential and commercial (as the fund may invest in single family rental properties) is somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 trillion bucks or so.

Look, I’m sorry you get your news from garbage sources, but the FBI’s done a lot of entirely essential work for a very long time.  The fact that you haven’t heard about it doesn’t mean it’s not true.

Ah, of course, always the dumbass who conflates 100% of migrant workers with asylum seekers.

I hear the criticism here, but it’s moot at the end of the day because 60 is less than 67.

You’re just not viewing the world in absolute enough terms dude.

Our country’s never worked like that. While I hate Trump, and think he’s an incoherent nincompoop, the simple fact is that on this particular front, he’s just being honest in a way that past Presidents weren’t solely for optics.

There’s no way to avoid fallout political involvement, but as I said, he could have handled things more delicately. You’re not making a compelling argument that the FBI is not a vital institution here.

Unfortunately for that narrative, the simple truth is that the Secretary of State having a private email service is worthy of investigation. It doesn’t mean there is a crime worth prosecuting, but in order to figure that out ... the FBI has to ... you know ... investigate. You can argue he could have handled things…