iBankCoin
18 years in Wall Street, left after finding out it was all horseshit. Founder/ Master and Commander: iBankCoin, finance news and commentary from the future.
Joined Nov 10, 2007
23,438 Blog Posts

Staten Island, Post Hurricane Sandy

I don’t think people realize the magnitude of damage afflicted to Staten Island. I lived there for 8 years and can tell you it is the most neglected borough in the city, despite it having the highest income per capita in NY. Many of the homes that were washed away were upper six figure homes, not shanty houses near the side of the road. These were pristine neighborhoods, all destroyed due to a 13 foot storm surge.

My friend has about $100k in damage to his house, none of which is covered by insurance. FEMA offered him a loan.

Here are some videos to get you up to speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWLxc3ew1zQ

Ok, now how many celebrity sponsored telethons have you seen thus far? We knew about this storm for a week before it hit; why wasn’t FEMA prepared with stockpiles of supplies and manpower to service areas like Staten Island?

The answer is very simple. You no longer live in a first world nation, where the government spends your money appropriately and protects its citizens when they need it. Our focus is to protect our oil assets abroad and to rebuild fucktard power plants on Baghdad and adobe huts, AFTER we blow them up. People like Obama and of his ilk point to a crisis like this and say “see we need FEMA to help fuckers out.” But they don’t mention the hundreds of billions that is being wasted and misappropriated, corrupt greed ransacking the treasury.

When you can’t police or provide basic necessities for your citizens during a time of duress, you are a third rate nation. Period, end of story.

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67 comments

  1. Anthony Brown

    Word.

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  2. tm

    There’s only so much FEMA could do ahead of time, keep in mind Sandy had an enormous diameter, I believe approx 900 miles. It certainly was not known for a week ahead that Staten Island in particular would get de-cocked. That’s a little hindsight bias yo. Weather forecasters had minimal confidence on the track even up to the last 48 hours.

    Vote all you want. For those who “believe in small government” I’d ask when you last experienced one. You can act like every minor failing, or even inconvenience, in life was directly caused by our invasive meddling government. But man, it’s gonna be a long life.

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    • The Fly

      You are missing the point. FEMA is an inept organization, riddled by pikers in middle management mindsets. Government.

      I don’t want my tax dollars going to them. Fuck them.

      I much rather have it go to charitable organizations that really put boots on the ground.

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      • Metalleg

        Word x 1,000,000

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      • tm

        I think your wires are crossed. If FEMA isn’t doing much, in your opinion, then they are spending less of your tax dollars than if they pre-emptively sandbagged the entire Jersey coastline (which is what would have been better, while also hating big gov’t??)

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  3. prospectus

    Make sure John Thain’s gold toilet still flushes. Then you can go see about the rabble shitting in the halls of their apartment buildings

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  4. xxxHuggieBearxxx

    I am for less government. Less police, less firemen, less unions, less fucking military, less welfare. Fuck them all.

    And fuck teachers.

    But i will vote for Obama, because neither party offers what i want. Republicans are the biggest government motherfuckers you’ve ever seen, want everything to be a police state and the U.S. to be empire builders.

    Fuck all that. Its all deception for the ignorant. Which is everyone.

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    • xxxHuggieBearxxx

      Although if Romney wins I’ll probably make $200k overnight. So i am torn by greed.

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      • prospectus

        LOL Honesty at last!!

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        • The Fly

          I am only voting Romney for a rhetoric change. I don’t think it makes a difference. However, I am sick of hearing about paying my fair share and told to eat my peas.

          It literally makes me cringe. Therefore, I am voting for The Black Man, the coal man- Romney.

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          • xxxHuggieBearxxx

            I do understand, and i wish it wasn’t Romney. I’m ready to become a republican. I am a republican.

            But i can’t vote romney. I would vote Christie.

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          • DMA

            Christie? I would never vote for that back-stabbing, donut-eating, artery-clogged, heart diseased fat fuck.

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          • xxxHuggieBearxxx

            And i do hate the class warfare rhetoric.

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        • xxxHuggieBearxxx

          I won’t cry if Romney wins, for sure, because i’ll make a lot of money. Maybe 7 figures over 4 years.

          But life is not all about money, and i dont like fakers and flip flopper plastic folks like romney. I prefer a leader,someone who does what they say.

          And above all, I do want healthcare addressed by government. While I think Obama may have “gotten it wrong”, having it passed and implemented will force it to be fixed through compromise.

          on Romney’s side, i like lower taxes. But i don’t believe him. And i dont want a bigger navy and airforce. And i don’t want to engage in frivolous wars. And i don’t believe anything, not a single word, he says. Period.

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          • Metalleg

            After 4 years of Obama, how can you believe anything HE says?

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          • DMA

            You don’t know what the fuck your talking about, flip flopper huggie bear my ass.

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          • Cheesefries

            You certainly know when the liberal candidate is losing.. (see comments above)

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          • moolahheaven

            If Sandy had hit OHIO instead of NY, Obama would be there EVERY DAY clasiming that they “need the help of the Fed govt’ – but since he assumes those suckers will give him the state anyway, he’s off in full campaign mode and doesn’t gove a FUCK. Christie is a FAKE republican – so was George Whabbi Bush for that matter. We survived Carter, but this Obama – he is a totally different Liberal.

            We are talking about an EXTREMIST SOCIALIST here my friends. Anyone who believes in private enterprise – on ANY level, MUST oppose Obama. his goal is to regulate every aspect of your life. His beliefs are founded in his past, which the press has conspired to hide, but if you dig it is obvious that his influences growing up were radical socialists and Marxists. ‘Obamacare’ is NOTHIG compared to the horrors he will impose if given a second term. Forget about just your portfolio – if you care about AMERICA at ALL you MUST vote AGAINST Obama, please, do it for our nation!

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          • Po Pimp

            Let’s bookmark this post, come back in four years and see just how far off base you are. Deal?

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          • Jimbo

            +1,000

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          • Evan Henly

            amen

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          • TeahouseOnTheTracks

            General Eisenhower was a socialist?

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          • Evan Henly

            Are all of you fucking kidding me!!! You really thought you would MAKE money if Romney was elected??? His forte is to buy out the working man to line the pockets of uuber rich, So unless all of you make at least 200k p/yr , you should take the stick out yr anus, get off Obama and try helping yourself for once instead fucking whinning about Obama, after all the Bush league fucked up for 8 yrs and I bet you were fine with it…

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          • Evan Henly

            Obama a socialist, a marxist?? WOW!! those mushrooms have you spinning…

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  5. BottleRocket

    We no longer live in a First world nation because we no longer have a First world populace. Look around you. You are surrounded by shallow, uneducated, sedative, and detached people who stare into their phones and eat themselves to death. The only things we are First in are Obesity and Murder. That’s a direct result of piss poor American leadership over the last two decades.

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    • The Eye-Talian Stallion
      The Eye-Talian Stallion

      Presidents since Reagan:
      Yale – Harvard – Yale – Harvard – Harvard

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      • The Fly

        Good thing Mitt went to Mormon school

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        • The Eye-Talian Stallion
          The Eye-Talian Stallion

          Mitt is the last Harvard I denoted.

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          • DMA

            wrong – Mitt went to BYU.

            Since when do you count your grad school degree as your “college degree” — maybe you don’t have one, but your Bachelors degree is your primary university degree

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    • BottleRocket

      We need a president to come out and read the riot act to the nation and challenge us to regain 1st in everything again. Nobody has the balls to do that though.

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      • Santellisux

        Ah, that would require higher taxes. Personal and corporate. Name one Republican in Congress or one poster on this site who would agree to that.

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    • The Plumbers Crack
      The Plumbers Crack

      Most accurate response ever written on this blog.
      A+

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  6. Mike

    Fly – great post
    TM – as someone who has been affected greatly by this storm and see people cold homeless and begging for food and clothing and shelter for 8 days now I have to strongly disagree. Fuck the fiscal cliff bullshit. This is fucking reality. Life and fucking death. Not whether or some d bag gets a 7 figure salary fucking us taxpayers while most thank them for it. This is a 3rd world country run by 1st rate assholes.

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  7. The Eye-Talian Stallion
    The Eye-Talian Stallion

    The areas of the country that are the best prepared for disasters and come out the other side in better shape are the ones that do NOT depend on FEMA or any other gubberment organization.
    Seriously, how can anyone depend on a bunch of lawyers / politicians that made a C- in Poly Sci at a junior college?
    You are on your own folks, deal with it.

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  8. JTU

    Generac (GNRC) reaches new highs as nor’easter approaches
    http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-11-05/generac-reaches-new-highs-as-noreaster-approaches

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  9. Jason

    Who the F called ESRX here last week? I need to shout out at ’em.

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  10. KingKong

    Big hurricanes mess up low lying costal areas, this is not a revalation. Anyone expecting FEMA or Washington to flick a magic wand much wasn’t paying attention during Katrina or Ike, etc. If those are upper six figure houses then I’m a gorilla on cocaine.

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    • The Fly

      Those houses are not. But I know of plenty others that aren’t in those vids.

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  11. Hammy

    do you have links comparing FEMA to charities, or is that just your (true) opinion

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  12. cdawg

    Well stated, Fly. By the way, in the wake of Sandy, next car I see with a “Free Tibet” sticker on it gets a years supply of un-collected trash from SI. I guess it’s less Hollywood to care for your own.

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  13. moolahheaven

    If Romney were the incumbent people would say ‘look, he doesn’t care about poor people in Bklyn, Queens and SI’ – and they would have a point. We would get K. West type idiotic comments about how he’s off campaigning while this continues, but when the media’s darling – Hussein ‘with my Allah ring’ Obama does it no one says a WORD. Just for national security issues alone (he wont call terrorism terrorism, he hung our boys out to dry in Libya, his hidden mic comments to the Russians, his allowance of the Islamic Brotherhood to rise across the Mid East while inviting this scum to the WH on a red carpet) let alone his Socialist imposition on our freedoms and discard of the Constitution he needs to be voted OUT of the White House!

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    • tm

      Yawn. The president doesn’t have marionette-like control over your life. You are most likely just projecting some short-coming because it’s more comforting.

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  14. moolahheaven

    Maybe O can let Jay-Z do a crack-celebration inauguration if he wins again? They can do free tattoos, and invite all their VIP guests (Islamic Brotherhood, Rashid Khalidi, Farrakhan, Ayers, Sharpton and Castro)

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  15. moolahheaven

    Ballots have been denied to soldiers, Marines and airmen, we should all BE FURIOUS!

    THE SAVAGE NATION (HOUR 1) 11-05-2012 “The Case Against Obama”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_A1o01VTRc

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  16. Joe

    Bet you all buy that $300 flood policy now!

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    • TraderCaddy

      Yes.
      So a person lives near the water, is too cheap or lazy to buy flood insurance and then expects the taxpayers to give them free money to rebuild?
      Okay, but it is a loan with interest and is a lien on the house.
      Yes, Sandy was tragic but I sure didn’t hear that kind of complaining when Joplin,Mo was wiped out (over 150 killed)with tornadoes, the Dakotas were flooded destroying many towns, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa were smashed by tornadoes, etc.
      Maybe New Yorkers are not so tough after all,

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      • TeahouseOnTheTracks

        +1

        and flood insurance is offered by the Federal Gov’t via taxpayer $ … Guess they were adamant republicans who refused to partake in the “socialism” at their own expense … So be it.

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  17. Leo

    Go to Asia or Western Europe (no homo) and see the infrastructure; the trains, bus systems, airports (esp Asia). We have become not a 3rd world but certainly 2nd world in those aspects. We are like at Turkey’s level and it is said considering the wealth we have. As you said, it is used for stupid things – we also use 2-3x as much per capita on healthcare than anyone else hence why we dont have money for basic upgrades.

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    • Leo

      I should clarify – when I say Asia I mean Hong Kong, Signapore, China, etc. Not some of the backwater places.

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  18. Trading_Nymph

    bored. RBA pissed me off by not cutting. Tomorrow will be dull as we wait…Prez, BoE, ECB and China..one busy week.

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  19. asteroids

    Poor Fly, you live in a country that is morally and fiscally bankrupt. I wonder what you’ll do if an honest man steps up to the plate.

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  20. Xmas Ninja

    I tried to stop the flood in lower Manhattan by invoking the power of my magic ninjaku. Magic powers my ass. We have been holed up in a hotel in Brooklyn for days while Con Ed restores our building. The neighbors wear unique black and white garments and festive head gear. I think they are Mormons.

    I agree that we saw this thing coming and preparations should have been better – for example my apartment building should have built a mountain of sand bags six feet high – but it is beyond anyone’s capability to protect the entire stretch of coastline from Atlantic City to CT. That fat guy in NJ has done a credible job. He also had no complaints about Obama’s performance. I am not going to complain about Con Ed because I have seen firsthand what they are up against.

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  21. the state of Massa-chew-setts
    the state of Massa-chew-setts

    Not voting for our former mediocre guvn’r

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  22. dvk1970

    When there is a disaster in a Middle East or Far East country European help is on the way. Those fuckers never return anything after they were helped (Pakistan). The West just dont help their own brothers and sisters during times of need.

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  23. noodleboy

    From what I’ve seen they’ve never gave a fuck, so I don’t see how it is any different now then before. It must suck to see your old neighborhood nearly drowned and neglected though. Sorry, and good on ya to point out the total ineptness and inadequacy of government response to at home disaster, and their fucked up priorities pertaining to operations abroad.

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  24. lol

    Intrade has insanely high odds that popular vote will be within 0.5% on either side, I would bet on that on both sides before I try to pick who is president but with mitt as such a big underdog I would take that. Except I will leave that for the gambling addicts and stick to stocks! lol

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  25. Lisa

    Is this a community organizing announcement or a dust bowl historical documentation?? Or an ironic commentary on either or both?

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  26. Lisa

    I mean, if you’re in “Princeton” unaffected by the storm, what purpose does one serve by posting such information? Which intentions? Why bother? What is the message, exactly?

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    • Lisa

      Obviously, these questions can be posed to anyone in the business of spreading information and organizing community events and what-nots. Consider them rhetorical.

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  27. Juice

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/commentary-total-capitalism-and-the-downfall-of-america-a-865437.html

    “The United States Army is developing a weapon that can reach — and destroy — any location on Earth within an hour. At the same time, power lines held up by wooden poles dangle over the streets of Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy ripped them apart there and in communities across the East Coast last week, and many places remain without electricity. That’s America, where high-tech options are available only to the elite, and the rest live under conditions comparable to a those of a developing nation. No country has produced more Nobel Prize winners, yet in New York City hospitals had to be evacuated during the storm because their emergency generators didn’t work properly.”

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    • Lisa

      continued from article: “… the country’s citizens wouldn’t be able to stop it no matter how hard they tried. But they aren’t even trying.”

      I would just add: The future is in the hands of the elites, their recovery, their reorganizational plans, the source of their vision and inspiration, their ability toward justice and responsibility and especially their sense of personal responsibility; and there’s nothing left to do but hope they get it right ,this time around.

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  28. Lisa

    I mean, doesn’t the ‘campaigning’ ever end? never end?? jfc. This is insanity.

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  29. Lisa

    And aren’t you ever going to answer any of my questions? Directly? (besides customer service rules and regulations?)

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  30. Lisa

    ..or would you rather not get your teeth bashed in and my face bashed in for doing it? and why the bashing and the abusive relationships? why stay with a spousal abuse situation? why???? it’s just unhealthy and toxic for the environment, anyone can see.

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  31. One Day

    I absolutely love your blog and find the majority of your post’s to be exactly I’m looking for. Would you offer guest writers to write content available for you? I wouldn’t mind producing a post or elaborating on a number of the subjects you write related to here. Again, awesome site!

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