Free Republic

“Watch out. Just b/c you’re in Florida, these same policies infiltrate into red areas. No one is safe as long as there is a single Marxist in gov’t, federally or locally.”

You’re right that the landlord business is getting more difficult. If DeSantis had lost out to the gay drug user communist black guy I’m pretty sure the landlord business would already be much worse. I plan on selling the properties as they come available. That may take ten years as my present tenants are all long-termers. I’m just too old now to do the work myself and that’s the only way to make a profit. I can put on the best metal roof available for five or so thousand dollars. But it’s technically illegal as I’m a landlord. If I have it contracted, I’d pay over $20,000. Think of the number of years it takes to make up that markup. Then figure in plumbing and air conditioning repairs and I’m only losing money on every house every year. (Yet the government complains rents are unaffordable.)

I’m a Florida landlord. Thanks to Florida law we don’t have the problems landlords have in other states. But you must follow the procedures. For example, on an eviction you must list the county the property is in. XXX Parkway Blvd, Unit 2, Wakulla County, Florida, 32327. Fail to put down the county and you’re back to square one and the tenant gets about another six weeks of free rent and opportunity to run down the property.

Having said that, I’ve reduced my evictions to zero. I did this by insisting on two month’s rent in advance as a deposit. So, to move in is three month’s rent. The number of scofflaws who apply drops to zero. Drug users, alcoholics and your typical crazy simply can’t come up with that much money. Incidentally, I’ve been able to rent my properties before I even list them. Often the outgoing tenant knows someone, and I often get calls from renters who left years ago looking to come back.

Before having intimate relations with someone you don’t know, think about this. Approximately one in ten people* are sociopaths. They have zero empathy. They can be charming, funny, and pleasant to be around...while they are manipulating you to get what they want.

Sometimes you might work with them or see them often at church or the grocery store and not realize what they are until you are in an actual relationship. People who sell themselves are, of course, across a whole spectrum of types, just like the rest of society. But the quicky...very dangerous.

* The ratio of sociopaths in prison is substantially higher. Food for thought.

The most effective thing possible is to make giving any help to illegals, illegal. No SNAP card, no welfare, no rent, NOTHING. They will self deport.

Anyone in any organization, including government who give welfare of any sort should immediately face prison.

Both Russia and China have used airplane crashes to get rid of politicians they had concerns about. Recently, the Wagner group was wiped out in total. Further back in time, a mysterious crash helped Mao consolidate control. It’s convenient, and it has plausible deniability. The suspect list is probably pretty long, but I’d wonder who in Iran’s elite benefits the most.

Of course, it’s entirely possible it’s an accident. But if there’s a few more mysterious deaths and someone new in Iran acquires more control or power...well...just coincidence.

BTW, both Iran and China have been making hay in the remote countries that Russia has considered their back yard. It has caused quite a bit of consternation in the Kremlin. Problem is, other than running propaganda and black ops there’s not a thing Russia can do about it at the moment. And those countries have been hit hard by Russian stealth mobilizations. I forget which regional president just said, “If they have another mobilization here, it will wipe out the future of our country entirely.” He was shown wearing a yellow and blue ribbon on his lapel. (Ukrainian colors.)

Going to war with the Soviets would have required a “1984” style reversal of all the people involved. Suddenly, we had always been allied with Northestalia (or whatever he called it) and had always been at war with Eastasia. After spending countless millions on pro Stalin propaganda, the Allies couldn’t suddenly reverse course and stay if office. The Allies had just won, yet Churchill was voted out of office. Not because he wasn’t popular, he was, but because the voters wanted to turn the page and put the war behind them and that’s what they did. Probably FDR wouldn’t have been reelected after the war had he lived for the same reason. Also, the US and Brittain were maritime powers and Russia had the largest land army the world had ever seen. We would have gotten our clocks cleaned on land and probably lost the rest of Europe to the Soviets. As horrible as the abandonment of what became the Warsaw Pact countries was by the West, I don’t see that they could have done anything about it. The West even turned over citizens who had escaped the Soviets along with countless captured soldiers who had surrendered to the West to escape the Soviets.

If you gave these crazies everything, they wanted do you think that would shut them up? Let’s take a look at gay marriage. All we want is equality. Then, they got marriage and what they wanted next was Christian wedding planners, photographers and bakers to celebrate with them. Lawfare followed. Every “gain” was followed by yet more demands. This will never end. The only thing to do is back off of the wins they’ve had and never give in on anything again. We also need laws to protect people from lawfare as that is the progressive’s preferred weapon.

Several years ago, in Florida some college students stole a stop sign to hang it in their dorm room. A driver was killed by a car that didn’t stop as the sign was gone. The students were hunted down and sent to prison for manslaughter. If someone is stealing traffic lights the same thing should apply. Hunt down and send to prison.

To deter copper theft in Florida you must submit your driver’s license to sell copper. More than one or two sales will earn you a visit. Only some businesses are allowed to recycle things like air-conditioners because they were so frequently stolen. When I took a bunch of copper in I took paperwork showing I was renovating a rental. I have been told by metals buyers that the incidence of stolen copper has fallen to undetectable levels. (Oh, undercover operatives will try to get buyers to buy obviously stolen copper. Publication of this had immediate positive effects.) When I take stuff in they look up my account and see how much I’ve brought in and over what period.

The reason we have crime at all is society allows it. When a black man where I worked was murdered and the family started making public accusations of racism the police had suspects in custody within hours by asking the cell tower operators to tell them which phones had been at the murder location between the night before and the probable murder time. They could, if they wanted, use a similar technique to solve probably eighty percent of crimes. But they don’t. They just take reports and compile statistics because the authorities don’t give a flying fart about protecting the public. Unless whatever happened is going to turn political.

Often times statements by governments are pure politics. The problem is it’s hard for the uninitiated to determine which is just bullshit, like some nation warning its citizens who visit Florida that they’ll be discriminated* against. Or the US government warning hippies in the Vietnam war that if they hiked across the border to show “solidarity” with their communist brothers in the North that they’d be executed. As far as PRIDE events, so many elements within the alphabet community hate each other that it’s not inconceivable that a group of, say, lesbians, would beat the (stew) out of a trans woman.

* As far as discrimination goes there was a joke in the fifties, I suspect originated in somewhere like Mississippi. It goes, “What do you call a rich (N-word?) White.” People who show up in Florida, regardless of color, creed or politics who have money, will be catered to. It’ll be, “Yes, sir, no sir or what did you say your pronouns were?”

Here’s the thing. There are millions of organisms in a reef. They are optimized for different conditions and different temperature ranges. (Note I said ranges.) The temperature goes up so a class of organisms that top out at the old temperature will die off. This assumes the report isn’t just a bunch of hogwash. Organisms that have a higher tolerance will proliferate. There may be a period where the reef is apparently dead as the other organisms take hold and proliferate. But in a few years, the old organisms will be replaced, and the reef will be just fine. One wonders how much of this hysteria is predicated on the study grant reaching its end. Because it’s a “global warming” grant the resulting report had better mention global warming, or at least “climate change” several times for the grant to be reestablished for the coming year.

I have to admit, if I had someone paying me to spend a career playing around coral reefs, I’d probably play the game to keep the money flowing...just sayin’.

I think Dr. Kevorkian was a serial killer who simply figured out what he thought was a socially acceptable way to carry out his life’s joy. Killing people. Same thing here. I’ll bet it’s a real power trip.

The problem with people pushed beyond their level of competence into leadership roles is, they feel they must be seen to lead. While this is true because of the leadership role they’re in, incompetent people choose to do whatever sounds good, whether it’s effective or not. Remember, for people like this, it’s the appearance. And they may be stupid enough that they don’t know the difference between the “leadership” they’re providing and effective policy. Sometimes, as with Covid, there isn’t any proactive thing to do other than for everyone to hunker down and survive by washing their hands after they go out. Telling people to do what their mothers insisted on is not in their eye’s effective leadership. They make up things that are essentially superstition. Having bad leaders is much worse than having no leaders.

This isn’t about allies. It’s shameless pandering to a voting demographic that is anti-American, anti-Jewish, anti-Western, anti-profit, procommunist and all-around horrible people. The thing is, Biden can’t possibly do enough to make them happy. Because as long as anything Western exists, they’re pathologically against it. Funny thing is, if everything they wanted suddenly happened, they’d be left with a feeling of free-floating unhappiness that would eventually land on something they were previously in favor of. Because you can’t destroy the type of unhappy hate these people have.

I’ll tell you the quickest way to get me to move on to the next article, any mention of “climate change.” Same thing with movies. The movie is set in some apocalyptic future. The inevitable narration goes something like, “After the climate disaster of the early twenty-first—” “Click.”

Trans surgery is the twenty-first’s century’s lobotomy. The people who do it and who condone it will be considered by the future in the same way as those who practiced lobotomies.

I loved the Tom Baker episodes. I couldn’t wait for the next one. When I found a new Dr. Who on cable I tuned in. Suddenly, without any warning or idea as to why, the male star started deep throating another male character. I was stunned. If it had somehow related to the story or the plot, I probably would have continued watching. But it was gratuitous and had no relationship to the story. In fiction, you never mention something that isn’t related to character building, the plot or the story. If you mention the gun on the mantlepiece you’d darned well better use it later in the story. You might say the kissing was character development. Well, it wasn’t a character I wanted to know any more about. “Click.” I’ve never been back.

“Should be user pays. When lawfare such as this is attempted, those who brought it should pay the costs.”

The reason that doesn’t happen is because the laws are made by lawyers for lawyers. There are WAY too many lawyers. Anything that slows down, or in this case, stops lawsuits entirely, will never happen.

I can’t remember which science fiction novel this was in, but the calendar was divided between when there were lawyers and after they were all killed. Or what do you call three dead lawyers? A good start.

“From what I see with $200 pedicures, $300 nails, $250 hair dos...it’s usually people that dont have a pot to piss in.”

I was sitting in the mall watching a black woman with a passel of kids scurrying around as she had a shop employee rub her face down with what looked like dental floss. The guy sitting next to me and wearing the same uniform as the employee said, “That’s a welfare momma paying $150 bucks for a skin beauty treatment.” He sounded disgusted.

I noticed the employees were all white and the customers were all black women with small children.

I guarantee he’s going to be better off somewhere else.

In my industrial career I ran across a couple of managers who had started life as teachers and then thought, “What the heck am I doing here?” They were all bringing down significant salaries.

“The laws of Physics/Thermodynamic trump the laws passed by grandstanding morons every time.”

I took Thermo in college from a genuine card-carrying NASA scientist. He hated the idiot free energy nuts, what today we call The Greens. He had us work through every possible Green Scheme from electric cars to free air-conditioning from ground water. He had us make the most generous assumptions and then figure out the physics and the economics. Nothing, and I mean, nothing was more efficient and cleaner than the standard oil, coal and gas we were already using.

Right now, most of the Western world is facing a demographic suicide where fewer children are born. I think that directly relates to the cost of trying to do something that isn’t possible. People won’t have children if they can’t afford them.