Joseph A. Tranfo

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@rkylesmith Don't tell me: You were an Englebert Humperdinck fan? Bobby Vinton? (I had a lot of aunts)

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@rkylesmith Easy on Sir Tom, Kyle. David Lee Roth or Axl Rose better targets 👍

[Notre Dame College Republicans @NDRepublicans]

I’ve seen enough. We need a total and complete shutdown of any government funding to Catholic Charities until we can figure out what the hell is going on.

[Clifford Asness @CliffordAsness]

That is, she won amongst spoiled moron children indoctrinated by their socialist jew-hating madrassas their parents spent millions (you know, tuition plus the donation to get their slow kids in so they can learn to hate civilization, hate prosperity because someone might be more prosperous than others, ignore overwhelming evidence their ideas have been horrific for a hundred years and, you know, were never taught, if they were capable of learning, critical thinking) getting them in.

She lost amongst the people her party disdains (no matter what they say about the working man) as not up to their massive intellects (so untrue). That is, she lost amongst the good people with common sense.

A socialist jew-hating revolution not just led, but dominated, by rich child-morons (and many many Jews) not by actual working people.

We are so screwed.

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@erikkain @Forbes How the "creative" team could put a character like that on screen in a post-Rey / Daisy Ridley world is astoundingly stupid. "Mary Sue" has a new avatar.

[Yossi BenYakar @YossiBenYakar]

Antisemitism at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
During World Cup matches, security at the stadium demanded that a fan remove his Israeli flag.
When he asked why, they simply said they had “orders from above.”
Meanwhile, numerous fans waving Palestinian flags were left completely undisturbed.
This is selective discrimination against Israel and Jews.
Double standards at the World Cup, enforced by FIFA and stadium officials.
Shameful.

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@EthanVanSciver "No lowballers. I know what I have."

[Jim O'Shaughnessy @jposhaughnessy]

Two thoughts from James Cameron

“If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.”

“Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own. Imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality.”

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@BobbySkinner_ Flopping French Freak

[Rich Cimini @RichCimini]

If the Knicks win it all — and they will — the OG tip-in will go down with the Helmet Catch and the Buckner error as some of the most memorable miracle plays in New York history. #Knicks

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@JordanRaanan Jordan, you mean "Epstein confidante Steve Tisch"?

[Brandon Avedikian @bavedikian]

Bought a $1,742.80 camera online from BestBuy.

The FedEx delivery driver stole it. FedEx admitted it.

But BestBuy won’t give a refund. They said we need to “work with local law enforcement.”

Thought everyone should know if you buy from @BestBuy and a @FedEx driver steals what you paid for, your money is gone. Neither company will make it right.

I’ve spent over $30K at BestBuy and will never spend another penny there.

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

信長さんは、できる限り多くの人々に知られるにふさわしい方です。投稿の一つひとつが、私に喜びをもたらしてくれます。

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

USA. A backyard. One man guarding a grill for four hours.

He never left it once.

Everyone else drifted and drank and laughed. But one man stood alone before the flames, turning meat with a long fork, immovable. I knew him at once. The keeper of the sacred fire.

I took my place beside him and said nothing. After a while, he spoke.

"Low and slow," he said, eyes on the coals. "You can't rush it. Rush it, you ruin it."

I bowed my head. A blade, a tea, a life. None can be rushed. I had crossed four thousand miles to hear my grandfather's words from a man in a "KISS THE COOK" apron.

"Everything worth doing is slow," I agreed.

He glanced at me. Something passed between us.

"My wife says just use the oven." He shook his head at the fire. "She doesn't get it."

"They never do," I said.

And this is where it turned.

For the first time in years, this man had been understood. And he rose to meet it. His back straightened. His voice dropped low. A teenager reached for the grill and the man lifted one hand without even looking. "Not yet." The boy retreated. He was becoming what I already believed him to be.

A woman asked when the food would be done. "It's ready when it's ready," he told the flames.

Three people approached. Three were turned away with a single word. By the fourth hour, no one questioned him. The whole party had arranged itself around the man and his fire, the way a village arranges itself around a shrine.

Then he handed me the fork.

"Watch it a sec. I gotta pee."

I have been trusted with castles.

I have never been more honored.

He served everyone before himself, and ate last, standing, still watching the coals. We never traded names. We did not need to.

He believed he had finally met a man who took his cooking seriously.

I believed I had finally met America's last samurai.

Neither of us will ever correct the other.

So tell me, America.

Who is the man at your gathering who will not leave the grill?

Have you ever once asked him why?

I think he is still standing there.

Guarding the fire.

Waiting for one person to understand.

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@japan_nobunaga Instafollow

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

The Law of Unintended Consequences is the iron law of the universe.

[Bull Theory @BullTheoryio]

BREAKING: Google is planning to release 32 million mosquitoes across Florida and California.

The company has asked the EPA for permission to proceed, with the public given until June 5 to respond.

The mosquitoes are infected with Wolbachia bacteria, which stops them from reproducing and slowly collapses the wild population from within.

Google's previous Debug Project trial in California's Central Valley nearly eliminated mosquitoes from three test sites entirely. A separate trial in Singapore cut dengue cases by 70% within 12 months.

Google has now released over 1 billion mosquitoes across four continents. This new proposal is the largest deployment in US history.

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@johnkonrad Long past time that @instapundit's Revolving Door Tax was made law of the land: https://t.co/J3eIwcw9l0

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

Ayn Rand ain't got shit on Steve Roth.

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am the Chairman and CEO of Vornado Realty Trust. Eighty-four years old. Seven buildings in Midtown Manhattan. I said what I said.

I said "tax the rich" is the equivalent of a racial slur. I said it at REBNY. Into the microphone. Eight hundred people. Median net worth in that room was north of $240 million, I know because our CFO ran the guest list through a Bloomberg terminal as a joke, and then it wasn't a joke. And when I said it, twelve people applauded. The rest nodded. One woman in the third row mouthed, "Finally." I saw her.

Sharon, my communications advisor, Columbia, $430,000 a year, very bright, Sharon wants me to walk it back. She drafted something. "Mr. Roth's comments were intended to highlight the emotional impact of political rhetoric on business communities." I read it. I put it in the trash can on my desk. Not the recycling. The trash. Here's my clarification: I understated it.

"Tax the rich" is worse than a slur. A slur is just a word. It doesn't come with a CBO score. Nobody is introducing a bill called the Racial Slur Implementation Act of 2026. But there are seventeen active proposals in Congress, I had Sharon count them, seventeen proposals designed to take more of my money. My money. Mine. Money I acquired by being better at acquiring Manhattan commercial real estate than anyone alive for four consecutive decades. That is not a crime. That is a record.

I pay property taxes on $18.2 billion in assessed assets. $412 million a year. Say it again: four hundred and twelve million. I carry that number. It's the first thing I think about when I see a protest sign. I think: I pay more in property tax than the entire annual budget of the city of Fort Lauderdale. I looked this up. Fort Lauderdale: $408 million. Steve Roth: $412 million. I am a small city. And the city doesn't get screamed at.

My effective tax rate last year was 11.4 percent. I say this because I believe in transparency and because I'm not ashamed of it. The rate reflects the legal structure of real estate investment trusts, depreciation schedules Congress established in 1986, and carried interest provisions that both parties have voted to preserve for forty years. I did not write these laws. I organized my entire financial existence around them with the help of nine full-time tax professionals who have offices on the 38th floor of 888 Seventh Avenue, which I also own. Their office is in my building. Their work protects my buildings. This is not a loophole. Sharon calls it a loophole. I've told her: a structure maintained by nine attorneys across four decades is not a loophole. A loophole is something you slip through once. This is architecture. This is the foundation. This is the building.

Last Tuesday, same as every Tuesday, I walked past 1290 Sixth Avenue. My building. And there was a man. Same man as last week. Same sign: "Billionaires Pay Your Fair Share." He was standing on my sidewalk. My literal sidewalk — my company owns the ground lease. He was maybe thirty. He was wearing a jacket I would estimate cost $60. My lunch that day was $114. For one. I am telling you this not to boast but because these are facts. He has decided I'm his enemy. Based on a number he saw on a Forbes list. He doesn't know what I pay. He doesn't know what my buildings cost this city in construction jobs and lease revenue and foot traffic. He knows one number. He has made one judgment.

I see him every Tuesday. I've started to notice things. He brings coffee from the cart, not the Starbucks. He has a backpack that looks heavy. He doesn't look unhealthy. He looks like he probably works somewhere, but not on Tuesdays. I've wondered: does he have a job? Does he have a building? Does he have anything that depends on him the way 4,200 employees depend on me? I suspect not. And yet he has opinions about my tax rate.

I gave $22 million to charity last year. The Met. NYU Langone. Mount Sinai. I gave a building to NYU. Not money for a building — a building. The Steven Roth Residence Hall. It houses 400 students. That man with the sign has never housed 400 students. He hasn't housed one. He gives cardboard. I give structures. This is not a comparison I'm making to flatter myself. It's just arithmetic.

When I said what I said at REBNY, I was saying what every person in that room believes and none of them will say publicly because they have communications advisors and the communications advisors all went to Columbia and they all say "unhelpful." I'm eighty-four. I'm too old for helpful. I'm too old to perform restraint for people who hate me for something I can't change.

I didn't choose to be rich. I chose to be good at one thing for a very long time, and this is what happened. You don't punish someone for that. You don't legislate against someone for that.

My net worth fluctuates between $3.8 and $4.1 billion depending on the quarter. I fluctuate more in a fiscal week than that man on my sidewalk will earn in his life. Both of these are facts. Only one of them is considered polite to say.

They want me to apologize.

I'll be dead in ten years. Twenty if I'm lucky. And they'll still be renting my buildings.

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@EddyElfenbein One "builds" Legos, Edward, one does not "play with" Legos.

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@true_nof1 If you want to see how it would go if those groups settled Mars, this is the book for you (the author - @MorlockP - expressly cites Albion's Seed in his afterword): https://t.co/znn2tIbwij

[Joseph A. Tranfo @JATranfo]

@jondelarroz Travis Corcoran, who is @MorlockP. I just reviewed his new book and it is excellent, smart, and provocative.