Free Republic

If the city wanted to preserve it than they should have bought it. Do we have property rights or not?

A bank was built on a tiny lot in downtown Tallahassee. There were two “heritage oaks” which were obviously blocking what would be the only possible ingress to the parking lot. If you follow all the ordinances and setbacks there was no other possible place. All the while the building was being constructed and the parking lot paved, the builder went through insane lengths to protect the trees. The weekend before the property was supposed to be turned over. The builder razed the trees and vacuumed the debris so on Monday there was pavement where the trees had stood. This subterfuge was to prevent the ever-present protestors who had all been assured the trees were indeed sacred, so don’t worry. The builder paid the two fines and turned over the property to the new owners. This is what they should have done with the mansion. Get the permit in the late afternoon of a long holiday weekend. Then, do it all on that holiday weekend when the government offices are closed. A bulldozer and forty-five minutes were all that was needed.

“If we don’t get your product we will make an equivalent or better product ourselves. We will also sell such a product to other countries to recoup R&D costs.”

I worked for the American division of what was then Israel’s biggest defense contractor. Israel can manufacture everything that they get from the US. AS far as I’m aware there are coproduction agreements in place for all critical items. What they lack is scale and efficiency. If you’re building hundreds of something, like we do in the US, then each item is cheaper. American sales to Israel have several purposes. They increase the cost efficiency for when the US buys the same item. More was manufactured so the US price is cheaper. They support the Israeli economy by letting them spend less on defense so they can spend more on economic development. Before everyone gets hyper about that, the US is not being magnanimous. The stronger Israel is, the less the US has to spend in treasure and lives to keep peace in the world. We can argue whether that’s in US interests, but that’s the reason. I’d argue it is in our interest as conflicts, once started, tend to have a lot of spillover. For decades we supported Iran. When we had a sudden change in policy...thank you Carter...we ended up with the Ayatollah. We’re changing policy to support Islam now. HUGE mistake.

I think politics is as much about what’s fashionable as it is about morality and logic. Israel is suddenly unpopular because the US government was pro-Israel for so long, the Democrats had to come out against it as they had to pick up the Anti-Israel vote. The pro-Israel vote was on the Republican side so there was no point in being pro-Israel if you’re a Democrat. Hopefully, the fashion will change again soon. Out with ripped genes and tie-died jerseys and back to a suit and tie.

“How hard are they really trying to find her? This smells of a leftist stunt.”

If she says she was rapped thirty years ago by whoever Trump choses as a running mate she’ll be forever untouchable. Then she’ll get a multimillion-dollar book deal.

“What could go wrong?”

I have seven low-end rentals. You’d be insane to take someone into your home. Based on some of the things that have happened to me, as a landlord, I’d say the risks FAR outweigh any benefits.

Even if someone is a “good person” and a considerate house mate, you’d still probably have issues. But these people have already committed a criminal act by ignoring US law and storming the border. That’s your starting point with your new roommate. Now add in smoking, drugs, alcohol, abuse, or just the fact you’re from different cultures. Cultural diversity sucks. You want a reality check, just take in some third-worlder. The level of cleanliness is probably not up to your standards. Their attitude WILL be different, likely from anyone you know.

On the other hand, nothing converts bleeding heart liberals like exposure to the things they think are so wonderful.

“Read somewhere him and Putin were going to discuss the possibility of having some sort of Ruskie military presence in Cuba.”

Russia uses contractors to protect the host country’s leaders. They’re mostly bodyguards and Russia gets paid in whatever that country produces. Gold, oil, diamonds, or, in this case, pineapples, bananas and sugarcane.

Maintaining fighters, bombers, or a submarine base would be colossally expensive. Don’t think we have much to worry about there. At the moment, they don’t have the spare change.

“John Denver would have wanted one.

“

The people most likely to be killed while flying are those who can afford the plane but are not professional pilots. It’s not like driving a car. You actually need to know the theory and what do when stuff doesn’t work like it’s supposed to. Pilots spend hundreds of hours in simulators because this is their job. They aren’t surgeons who just happen to have the money and a free weekend.

Lately, some of the big accidents have been caused by software intended to help the pilot. Bet this thing is loaded with software to keep it stable. But then a bird lands on one part...

I saw a video of a rapper; I believe in Brazil. He was on stage rapping about shooting someone in the gut. Someone in the audience shot him in the gut, killing him.

Rapper culture is a creation of marketers who mourned the demise of the “counterculture” which vanished when the hippies put on suits and became stockbrokers. The counterculture was a readymade market for whatever represented the counterculture to them. Thus, was born horrible “black” music. No melody. No talent. Anti-culture lyrics. They created something horrible because it’s a lot easier than creating something good.

Nothing looks or sounds more ridiculous than a white teenager tunelessly repeating, “I kill ‘da ho,’ I do, I do, I do.”

There was an article several years ago about why billionaires buy yachts they seldom, if ever, use. It has to do with taxes. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but if you spend X dollars on a yacht you get to take that off of your income, thus reducing your taxes enough to make it worthwhile. Some billionaires have several yachts they’ve never even visited.

If you wondered why suddenly SUV’s and trucks were a hundred thousand dollars, it was the same reason. The objective was to increase the flow of money by inducing people to overpay for vehicles. In this case, even if you hadn’t paid for it yet, in the first year you could reduce your income by a full hundred thousand. Each year the amount went down. this is why people with money make more money.

They’re changing the refrigerant in air conditioners again. Having outlawed the previous refrigerants using “climate change” as the reason. The real reason is the same as above. Look forward to spending more than twenty thousand dollars for an airconditioner that barely works.

I thought “The Orville” might be a fun reincarnation of “Star Trek.” I watched a segment of it on YouTube and it was about a disgusting “male?” character married to another “male” character, apparently from a culture that when they have a female baby, change its sex. There was some cutsey fun dialog, but the plot was stomach turning.

I’m aware the original “Star Teck” addressed social issues. But they were at least real issues and not trying to make normal an apparently all male race.

So, A and B are countries at war. A recruit’s citizens from C,D,E and F to go fight for them. As a citizen of those countries, I’d like to know what the mix of soldiers at the front is. I’ll bet there are three or four C,D,E and F’s to every A getting shot at.

Russia’s tactics appear to be, sacrifice the men to force the enemy to give up their locations by firing and then force the enemy to use up his ammo. It’s the opposite of what a general should do. But if you don’t value your men, then you can spend them like a drunken sailor spends his money. If you had one specific target that gave you some inordinate advantage, then perform the sacrifice knowing in the end the overall total will be lower. But the Russians are using this tactic to take everything from the low ground to garbage heaps.

” He can’t possibly believe his endorsement will be helpful?”

Never underestimate an actor’s ego.

“... what was this genius thinking?”

Before a former soldier where I worked turned me in for “politically incorrect thought,” (no kidding) I spoke with everyone I could who had recently separated from the military. I wanted their perspectives on whatever they wanted to talk about. A couple of them were as liberal as any indoctrinated college student who believes in global warming, chem trails, etc. The black guy who turned me in for “politically incorrect thought” sounded like the type who would visit Iran or North Korea because they just know our government is lying about them. It can be painful and life altering to be stupid.

As for the accusation, the HR manager “snuck” into my cube at work and warned me to never talk* to that young man again. He could ignore the charge this time, but if it happened again, I’d be either written up and/or fired. To say I was stunned that such a thing could happen at General Dynamics understates my feelings. (It was pretty common that if any black person lodged a complaint against a white person who wasn’t a manager, that white guy was fired. White privilege card not accepted here.)

* I was always on the lookout to get recognition for line employees who had done something special. I’d gotten a few cash awards given to them over the years. That came to a screeching halt. I never spoke to anyone I didn’t already know again.

Third world cultures don’t value human life* to same degree as the West. Safety is always an afterthought. There were photos on the Wuhan Virus institute’s website which showed more than intended. For example, there was an isolation device with obviously damaged seals. When this was pointed out after the Covid crisis went worldwide they quickly took down the photos. Early on in the very beginning of Covid several top scientists were exposed to the virus and did not isolate. Either they didn’t know they were exposed, or they were just “too important” to follow the rules. Tuns out they were the very first to die, but they’d exposed dozens or hundreds before they died. (Rules and policies are for the little people. Just ask any politician.)

* In China, you don’t even own your own organs. There are videos of people being kidnapped off the streets. Students with rare blood types regularly vanish from school only to have their bodies found in what are most likely staged suicides. A Druze from Lebanon took me to a website in Arabic that advertised organs to order. You’d be genotyped before leaving home and they’d have an organ ready for you the day you arrived. The Druze then took me to Google Earth and showed me the hospital in question. It was adjacent to a prison with a connecting covered corridor. This zero value of human life and total lack of concern for safety go hand-in-hand.

Allying with the United States must be like marrying a schizophrenic. For four or eight years you have either a wonderful or at least an adequate relationship. Then, one election later, you have four or eight years of a backbiting, serial abuser. It’s like we have a devil and a generally good guy who alternate running the place.

In general, the allies would be better off holding the US at arm’s length and relying on Britain or France or India, depending on what they need.

“Why would they send a CIA guy rather than a State Dept guy?”

I worked with a couple of guys who had retired from State. Admittedly, they were probably low level, although they vetted reports and prepared paperwork for the Ambassadors they worked under in various embassies. They were flaming gays and had zero understanding about cultures, Islam, etc. They had a rose-tinted vision when talking about Communism, diversity and current events. (Diversity wasn’t a word when they were in, but the essence of it permeated their speech. All those naked little brown people lived such idyllic lives. These guys were doubtless hippies in suits.)

My point is the people at the bottom of a hierarchy are generally representative of what’s at the top. People all the way down the pyramid hire those they can identify with. Periodically, a new president puts in a very temporary director who mostly has no influence on what sort of idiots get hired. So as bad as the CIA is likely to be, the people in it probably have a better picture of whatever they’re dealing with.

Awards, decorations and honors are more often than not about the people giving them than the people receiving them. Another reason for giving them is to support an ideology or belief system. If for example, you could list all of the Rhodes scholars I’d bet the bulk of them were Lefties. When Obama was told he’d won the Nobel Peace Prize he famously asked, “What for?” Basically, for not being a Republican.

“Seems to me most of the female teachers having sex with students are pretty good looking and wouldn’t have any problem finding a grown adult male to fulfill their need.”

They’re not looking for an equal relationship. They want to be in control. I suspect it’s an unexpected outgrowth of the superwoman portrayed in movies. She’s 105 pounds, absolutely gorgeous and she can one-punch man after man in an “unbelievable” action sequence. The inadequate feeling woman who knows she can’t do that can, at least, be the controller in a relationship with a much younger boy.

I asked a former board member of Honeywell why companies employed former Democrat politicians on their boards when those same politicians got paid but never attended meetings. He said, “You have someone like Dukakis or Hillary Clinton on your board as insurance. If someone like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson pulls the race card on you or some environmental group protests or sues you, a single phone call from your ‘protector’ will make them go away. They don’t poach on each other’s property.”

So, does Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi sit on the Boeing board?

Veteran Russia watchers seem to agree this was authorized by Putin to take Shoigu’s powerbase down a notch. The bribe was a mere #11,000 USD equivalent. This, for a man known as an international playboy who lives in a palatial home.

Shoigu is useful to Putin, but he had apparently become a bit too powerful, and it was time to reign him in.

All Russian government officials take bribes and kickbacks. It’s feature of the system. Since the people who count know all about it those bribes can be used at any moment to take them down and they know it. In this case, it probably wasn’t anything the general in question did himself, but who he worked for and supported. You’d think that supporting someone who supports Putin would be a safe bet. but the politics over there is cutthroat bad. (Or fall down the stairs or out of a window bad.)

“Huh? It sounds as if Israel is choosing to retire its Patriots because it finds them inadequate.”

If I recall the version Israel had exploded in the vicinity of the target creating a debris cone that was supposed to destroy the missile. But the scuds were breaking up and the debris cone was focused in on the larger target, a fuel tank. The warhead was still on trajectory and hit anyway. This problem was addressed in later versions.