Author: philg

Wall Street Journal says that Jupiter, Florida is mostly insufferably rich golfers

by philg

“Wealthy Home Buyers Are Flocking to Jupiter—and Not Just for the Golf” (Wall Street Journal, beginning of Pride 2025; no-paywall version):

Toward the northern end [of Palm Beach County] is Jupiter, with a population of about 61,000. The beachy city with a classic Old Florida feel is a mecca for golfers, especially professional ones. “There are at least 75 PGA Tour players in this area,” says Brad Faxon, an eight-time PGA Tour Champion and Jupiter local. The city has nine golf clubs and around a dozen-and-half golf courses, according to Palm Beach County Sports Commission; about 133 more courses are elsewhere in Palm Beach County. Many of Jupiter’s courses are within private, exclusive country clubs, where initiation fees can go as high as close to $1 million. Still, golf isn’t the only reason people live in Jupiter. Residents also seek it out for favorable taxes, good schools and proximity to multiple airports.

They zoomed in on the house next door to ours:

Actually, the WSJ does incongruously (and without explanation) note that the typical house or condo in Jupiter is almost free:

“The price point is broad,” says Leland Rykse, a Jupiter-based real estate agent with ONE Sotheby’s International Realty. Luxury properties can list around $50 million to $70 million, whereas there are also typical midmarket options. Jupiter’s median sale price was $717,500 in March 2025, according to Redfin.

Consistent with everything in our media being lies, the WSJ provides a misleading statistic (“median sale price” includes 1BR condos). More seriously, the WSJ says that prices are going up when, in fact, they are likely going down (the WSJ doesn’t bother to adjust for inflation or the fact that people keep improving their houses so a square foot from 2022 isn’t as high quality as a square foot from 2025):

We humble folks in the MacArthur Foundation-developed Abacoa should just be grateful that our town was noticed even if our neighborhoods weren’t!

Perhaps coincidentally, the Deplorables with Dollar Signs (Fox Business) did an article just a week after the WSJ… “The new Palm Beach? Jupiter, FL, is drawing luxury homebuyers”:

Seth Mansfield, an agent with Douglas Elliman and a Forte Luxe sales executive, told FOX Business that he is seeing a lot of wealthy people come to Jupiter “because they are able to enjoy a storybook lifestyle in a relaxed setting.”

I would love to meet these people living in a relaxed storybook!

“The median price for a single-family home 5 years ago was $530,000 and the ceiling price was $12,250,000. Over the past year, those numbers are $980,000 and $48,000,000, respectively,” he said. “I don’t believe we’ve seen Jupiter’s ceiling.” … “In addition to the steady migration from the northeast and California, we’re seeing more and more buyers shift their attention from Palm Beach to Jupiter,” Mansfield said. “You can get the same house on the same Bahama blue water for a 50-60% discount relative to Palm Beach, with access to all the creature comforts that you’re used to, even more options for golf, and Palm Beach is still at your fingertips. I truly believe Jupiter is undervalued, as crazy as that may sound to some.”

This does sound crazy! But maybe the market will just bifurcate. Peasant neighborhoods like ours will continue to depreciate while the handful of elite gated communities and waterfront areas will zoom upwards. (All over Florida markets are going in opposite directions for older condos and houses and new condos/houses. A house built prior to 2002 when the statewide building code went into effect can slide three percent (real dollars) every year while an adjacent house built in 2022 is appreciating.)

(Note that Fox isn’t as incompetent as the Wall Street Journal. Fox does not mix in the prices of 1BR condos when reporting on what “houses” cost.)

Zooming out to the national real estate news…

Rising home prices and high mortgage rates have pushed the median age of homebuyers to a record-high 56 years old in 2024, up from 45 in 2021. In 1981, the median age of homebuyers was 31 years old, see chart below.

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Los Angeles is peaceful and also too dangerous for a platoon of soldiers to walk around

by philg

Reason to love Legacy Media #479… we are informed that

  • Los Angeles is peaceful and therefore the (defunded?) LA police did not require any assistance
  • Los Angeles cannot be safely traversed by a group of soldiers clad in body armor and armed with M4 rifles (maybe they could be safe in this peaceful city if enclosed within an M1 Abrams tank or Bradley Fighting Vehicle?)

From the Financial Times:

A growing number of military veterans and serving officers have spoken out against President Trump’s decision to deploy marines and National Guard troops to LA, calling it a misuse of executive power that puts soldiers’ lives at risk

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Pride Month in aviation

by philg

Air Canada demonstrates “inclusivity” by excluding any cisgender heterosexuals from working on a particular flight:

Probability question: We are informed that being 2SLGBTQQIA+ is common/normal and also that in a company with more than 35,000 employees there had never previously been an assembly of 3-6 workers (pilots plus flight attendants) who all identified as 2SLGBTQQIA+ (the flight in the video was the “first all-2SLGBTQIA+ flight”.

In London, Ontario, home to a big Diamond factory:

The Irish equivalent of the FAA:

Atlas Air, best known for a crash with a DEI hire at the controls:

The folks who’ve taken over the Climate Change Awareness mantle from all-Hamas-all-the-time Greta Thunberg:

Airbus UK:

How is are observant Muslims supposed to “be their authentic selves” if they must walk by this flag on their way into work?

In case the Trump Tyranny (TM) reaches D.C.’s airports and the tweet below is memory-holed, screen shots:

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A Greta Thunberg yacht trip to California?

by philg

Greta Thunberg is back in Europe after her heroic aid trip to Gaza. There are some open questions regarding this trip:

  • why does someone who says that the Earth is being destroyed by humans choose the Palestinians, close to world #1 in fertility and population growth, as her model society? Just imagine the CO2 output if every group of humans on this planet had 4-6 children per family, as is common among Palestinians entitled to UNRWA aid (i.e., free food, health care, education, etc., even if nobody ever works at any job other than Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad soldier)
  • why was a female do-gooder visiting a group of Muslims (the noble Gazans) not wearing hijab and/or burqa?

I’m not holding my breath for answers to the above, but now that we apparently need not worry about climate change, perhaps the highest and best use for Greta Thunberg would be a diesel-fueled yacht trip to deliver aid to the Californians who are currently #resisting an occupying military.

Let’s look at some photos from my recent visit to the teen section of the central Los Angeles Public Library, which officially teaches cooperation via smartphone to evade ICE. An important way to “keep our community safe” is to prevent federal government workers from doing their jobs:

The #Science section in which we learn that SARS-CoV-2 is no match for teenagers wearing masks and voluntarily receiving an injection of an experimental vaccine that is reserved for those 75 years and older in the UK:

The library has an official “favorite drag queen” and he/she/ze/they recently performed for teenagers:

Any books for the teens to read after the drag show?

Finally, remember that Los Angeles is a hate-free zone (which is why Donald Trump and ICE are being welcomed with love?):

Readers: What should Greta T deliver to the besieged folks in Los Angeles?

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How the ACLU frightens the elderly out of their money

by philg

Here’s some mail that recently arrived for my mother, who would have been 91 if she’d been alive to receive it:

It’s from the same geniuses who wrote the op-ed that led to Amber Heard being successfully sued for defamation. Inside the elderly with some cash potential are informed that “A second Tmmp administration presents a clear and present danger to our fundamental freedoms.”

Here’s the rest of the panic-inducing letter.

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Does every NFL team support Pride Month?

by philg

Miami:

Tampa Bay:

Houston:

Green Bay:

The NFL overall:

Is there any team in the NFL that rejects the U.S. official state religion? What would happen to a team that said they were going to celebrate African American Music Appreciation Month, created by Jimmy Carter, instead of Pride? (And maybe played “Gold Digger” by Kanye West during halftime while a huge fabric disk was paraded around the stadium with the image below, the way that European soccer fans will support an Walmart-sized pro-Palestinian flag or banner.)

For reference, 50x20m according to Al Jazeera:

Speaking of the noble entirely peaceful Palestinians, has anyone claimed the $1 million in funding for a Pride parade in Gaza or the West Bank?

Finally, here’s the archetypical Black rapper according to the Smithsonian’s PhD curators:

(Educated-in-Florida Ray Charles is not sufficiently notable to have made the museum experts’ cut.)

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Jews of Boston gather for a Pride parade

by philg

Recent email from the Jewish Community Center of Greater Boston…

If you don’t get up early enough for today’s Pride parade or the June 14 all-of-Boston Pride parade, you’ll have a third chance in Newton in two weeks (it’s billed as “fun for all ages” but in fact is only for kids, based on the photo?):

The email also advertises a way for your child to spend some quality alone time with an adult stranger:

Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters
This program matches LGBTQ+ youth with adult mentors who share similar lived experiences, offering empathy, guidance, and support while helping build identity, resilience, and confidence.

Let’s check in with that organization. They say that they’re “actively recruiting” children “between the ages of 6-18”:

Confirming the primacy of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ cause, the organization’s web site header has a one-click link to only a single program, anchored by the sacred official Biden-style trans-enhanced Rainbow Flag:

(every other program requires more complex navigation)

Related:

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How can state secrets stay secret in a world with Signal and cryptocurrency?

by philg

Countries still have intelligence, counterintelligence, and all of the other Cold War-era espionage systems, right? How is it possible for Government A to have a secret that Government B wants? What stops Government B from

  1. publicizing a Signal tip line
  2. taking messages from a cash-hungry employee of Government A
  3. after determining that the messages, and any attached documents, are genuine, paying out some cryptocurrency to the rat

? In the old days it was difficult to betray one’s government. A military officer would have to find a way to meet a foreign government’s spies, not get followed to the meeting spot, receive a briefcase full of cash or trust that money had been deposited into a Swiss bank account, etc. Today, on the other hand, unless Government A has a way to read Signal messages on every device and also map its citizens to crypto wallets how can Government A prevent its officials and employees from selling secrets?

Loosely related… imagine how inflated a Californian’s head would have to be for him/her/zir/them to imagine that he/she/ze/they was an expert on “the preservation of Democracy” (from Los Angeles):

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Wheels Across the Pond 2025 car show

by philg

In honor of D-Day (June 6, 1944), a few photos from Wheels Across the Pond 2025 car show, an annual event in Jupiter, Florida that showcases British and European cars (April 19 this year). It’s free for spectators and only $45 per car for show vehicle owners so it is unclear how the event survives financially.

Our show began in the $10 premium parking lot with a rare Talbo. These were apparently made in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, one town to the south, beginning in the mid-1990s. One sold in 2023 on BaT for $230,000 (2023 dollars, remember!). The BaT description: “Designed to resemble a Figoni et Falaschi-bodied 1930s Talbot-Lago T150C SS, the car features fiberglass bodywork finished in burgundy over a tubular steel chassis, and power comes from a 5.0-liter Ford V8 paired with an AOD four-speed automatic transmission. … TLC Carrossiers Incorporated was founded by former Pratt & Whitney engineer George Balaschak in 1990 to create a car inspired by the 1938 Talbot-Lago T150C SS that utilized modern running gear.” (Pratt has a big operation, complete with its own airport (private 7000′ runway), just west of Jupiter/PBG.)

A local art car was parked right near the entrance:

(The biggest art on display here is keeping an older Jaguar running!)

A guy whose dad was the original purchaser of a 1967 Morgan exhibited the family heirloom ($4,092 in what we are informed is our inflation-free society; about 75,000 Bidies today for a replica) and let us touch the wood that supports the body:

The English struggled to make decent cars before they were enriched by migrants. Examples:

Now that the UK is fully enriched, the Aston Martin DBX (not based on a Volkswagen like most of the high-dollar European SUVs) is available. It might be worth the $288,000 price if they could just make the interior a little more orange:

Since we don’t care about pedestrian safety anymore (if we did, we would impose a 50% tax on SUVs and pickups not purchased by people with honest jobs), why can’t we get this look for the nose of our Honda minivan?

Here’s a display that attributes the 1950s decline of the British luxury car industry to the British “victory” in WWII:

Turning now to the country that the British purportedly defeated, we find a great example of speaker-listener disconnect (“pragmatic failure” for the academics)… “I’ll pick you up in my BMW and we can go out for lunch” (a 13 horsepower 1957 BMW Isetta 300):

For scale, next to a baby stroller:

What Germany was able to build before it became an Islamic (as measured by hours spent on religious activities) nation (1961 Mercedes 190SL; current value about $150,000):

A Fiat Topolino and perhaps the only surviving Marot-Gardon (the owner drives it around his Palm Beach County (Lake Worth Beach) neighborhood):

Elizabeth Warren was at the event, but I didn’t get a chance to ask if I could join her on a taxpayer-funded trip to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia:

Also in the motorcycle section, a 20 lb. bicycle from 1900, no carbon fiber required and the roads back then weren’t as smooth as they are now:

Who agrees with me that the 20-year-old Ferrari 360 is more attractive than their latest and greatest?

(They seem to be available used for about $100,000. It was $153,500 in 2000, which translates to roughly $285,000 in today’s mini-dollars (i.e., it wasn’t a great investment if held from new). Our neighbor who owns a couple of Ferraris says that maintenance on the 360 is astronomically expensive due to the need to drop the engine in order to replace a timing belt that has a 3-year life. “Ferrari realized that the reputation for excessive maintenance costs was killing sales so they made the F430 a lot cheaper and easier to service,” he said. Used F430s are perhaps 10-20% more expensive than the 360.)

Let’s close with some Deplorability, a MAGA sticker on a Superformance replica and a “Black Labs Matter” explanation on an old Land Rover:

There were a ton of recent McLarens at the event, but I don’t want to include any here because they’re as common as dirt parked in the strip malls of South Florida. Also, according to a friend who owns a Ferrari and an Aston Martin (24 cylinders total!), McLarens are horribly unreliable and expensive to maintain, e.g., due to broken axles. I’m also leaving out the Triumphs and MGs because the Mazda Miata is so much better.

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Losing my bet on why Elon Musk would leave government

by philg

In mid-January, a colleague and I disagreed on when and why Elon Musk would leave the U.S. government. He said that Donald Trump would get into a fight with Elon and fire him. I said that Elon Musk would quit after he realized that it was impossible to cut federal spending because the enemy is mostly us (i.e., Americans who want the world’s largest welfare state, as a percentage of GDP (we were #2 behind France before the coronapanic enhancements)). We made a friendly bet that I would win if Elon hadn’t been fired by the end of February 2025.

Isn’t it my colleague/friend who lost the bet? Elon was still in Washington, D.C. at the end of February. That’s true, of course, but the fight between the two guys has become so personal that I think it is also fair to say that my friend was correct and I am the loser of the bet.

Which of these two is correct? Neither Elon Musk nor Donald Trump (nor anyone else) has a crystal ball and, therefore, neither one can be proven correct or incorrect. They have different assumptions about future GDP growth, apparently. I am a pessimist so I agree with Elon Musk. Given that the U.S. has turned itself into a shelter for tens of millions of humans from the world’s least successful societies (latest example: Mohamed Sabry Soliman plus his wife and five children; previous example: “Maryland father” Kilmar Abrego Garcia) I don’t see how we are going to have significant per capita GDP growth (even immigrants who earned as much as native-born Americans wouldn’t solve our fiscal problems; see “immigrants age too” in Aporia). But Trump the Optimist could turn out to be right, e.g., if the AI boom turns out to be real.

Although I agree with Elon on the likely deficit trajectory, I disagree with him on what is at stake. Congress isn’t locked into any particular tax or spending policy. If the GDP growth forecast by Donald Trump does not materialize, Congress and President AOC can work together to raise taxes, e.g., a 20 percent federal value-added tax plus a $1/mile fee to travel on interstate highways. Congress and President AOC could eliminate the current unlimited charitable deduction, which is enabling Bill Gates to deprive the U.S. Treasury of at least $40 billion in capital gains taxes as he sends all of his accumulated wealth to deserving Africans (DW). Congress could even, in some alternate universe, cut spending! Congress could say, for example, that no more than 10 percent of Americans can be on welfare (means-tested housing, Medicaid, SNAP/EBT, or Obamaphone) at any one time. The safety net would then be for unusual situations, not for the average American. (Of course, this is a fantasy!)

Related:

  • “The Medicaid program is the largest single source of health care coverage in the United States, covering nearly half of all children, over 40% of births” (source); i.e., nearly half of Americans are born via welfare and continue on welfare (imagine a circus with a “safety net” into which roughly half the performers fall)
  • If All Lives Have Equal Value, why does Bill Gates support shutting down the U.S. economy? (before sending hundreds of $billions taken from US/EU consumers to Africa, Gates contributing to harming Africans via trade reductions for coronapanic)
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