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Richmond and Los Angeles Have Been Mugged By Reality

Posted by freedomforall 1 week, 2 days ago to Politics
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Excerpt:
"Los Angeles is burning down. The government incompetence there is extraordinary. LA has its own DEI problems. Its fire chief was hired because she is an outspoken lesbian. Her initiative has been to hire more women and LGBTQ firefighters. Yep, I want a 99 lb mentally ill woman who thinks she’s man pulling me out of a burning fire! Who wouldn’t?

I’ve been known to be unabashedly blunt, but of course always right. DEI is the process of hiring simple minded knaves at the expense of competent and qualified artisans. Worse, it instills a sense of unearned entitlement in those who “Didn’t Earn It.” It is a cancer metastasizing through the ranks of work forces given grave responsibilities, and it spreads to the point where no one in an organization has the work ethic or skill to change a light bulb.

As bad as DEI is, what’s worse is the political class that initiates DEI policies. There should never ever be any reason to vote anybody into office that has not had a career in real world practicalities. Community activists, academics, government apparatchiks, non-profit do-gooders, clinicians, blah, blah, they generally know nothing other than the au courant platitudes of the bougie Bolshevik chattering class. In Richmond, 8 of our 9 council members are women, and the one man is a soy boy. Have any of these folks ever crawled under a house to fix a leaky pipe, changed the oil in a car, operated earth moving equipment or walked a police officer’s beat at 2 am in the morning? Have any of them started a business from the ground up and hired and fired dozens of employees? No. Yesterday, I ran into my friend Frank. He runs a small independent HVAC company. Frank understands how things work. Cities need guys like Frank to run them as opposed to purple haired social justice Sallyboys. "
SOURCE URL: https://realclearwire.com/articles/2025/01/10/richmond_and_los_angeles_have_been_mugged_by_reality_1083652.html


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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 1 week, 2 days ago
    Ayn Rand was right about a lot of things. It would have been illuminating to hear her ruminate on the current state of affairs.
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    • Posted by diessos 1 week, 2 days ago
      She did say this in AS..

      "When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed"
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      • Posted by $ jbrenner 1 week, 2 days ago
        This society has been doomed for a long time, ... but maybe it can arise from the ashes like a phoenix.
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        • Posted by mccannon01 1 week, 2 days ago
          I hope you are right, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for said phoenix to rise out of the ashes of Commiefornia.
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          • Posted by $ jbrenner 1 week, 2 days ago
            Not out of Commiefornia, but perhaps the phoenix will arise in some other parts of the country ... like mine in east central Florida.
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            • Posted by mccannon01 1 week, 1 day ago
              I must agree Florida is a rising star (phoenix?) right now. It would be nice if it became the harbinger of things to come for the nation instead of Commiefornia or The Peoples Republic of NY, both of which are leadership disasters right now.
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              • Posted by 1 week, 1 day ago
                Wouldn't hurt if FL dropped their insanely high property taxes, not to mention the property prices are ridiculous and the hurricane risks are high.
                I don't see anyplace in the US that is worthy of a gulch. Governments and banksters are taxing/indebting everyone into slavery.
                Without a complete change the intelligent young people will be seeking a better life elsewhere.
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                • Posted by $ jbrenner 1 week, 1 day ago
                  Florida has a homestead exemption that prevents your assessed value from going up by more than 3%. My property taxes were about $3 K on a $172 K house in 1998. Now it would sell for around $550-600 K, but I still pay $ 3 K in property taxes. You must be looking in Palm Beach or further south.
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                  • Posted by 1 week, 1 day ago
                    First, why should the state be able to steal from you making the state the effective owner of the place you paid for, since if you don't pay the highwayman he will seize 'your' home?
                    Second, why should there be ANY increase at all on the theft by the state of your earnings without your contractual consent?
                    Q: What happens if you move to a different house?
                    A: You are shafted by the state with higher theft (aka taxes.)
                    Are you saying that the high taxes are ok if they don't affect someone until they move or only affects people moving to FL?
                    I understand that you are stuck with (and enslaved by) the theft, JB, but why are you defending it?
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                    • Posted by $ jbrenner 1 week, 1 day ago
                      Actually, if you move within Florida, you can transfer the homestead exemption. My property taxes are a bargain.
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                      • Posted by 1 week, 1 day ago
                        The 'homestead' exemption can be reapplied, but the assessed value is at the current rates unlimited by your previous home purchase.
                        So you sell for $550k and buy another for $550k, your new taxes are based on 550k less homestead (not what you paid in 1998 plus llimited 3%.)
                        The $50k maximum homestead is a much smaller % exemption on the new higher assessment.
                        This also raises the taxes on the house you sold for the new buyer. State wins; you lose.
                        You get shafted if you move or if you move into FL. The state enslaves you economically to your current location.
                        Lastly $250 a month stolen by your enemies is no bargain, imo, and the theft will be much higher for both your new home and the buyer of your house.
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                        • Posted by term2 1 week, 1 day ago
                          As in the last episode of YELLOWSTONE, if you sell your house to someone else to someone for a very low price, isnt the property tax based on the actual selling price?
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                          • Posted by 1 week, 1 day ago
                            Not if it's significantly different from comparable properties nearby.
                            The local government "expert" always wins regardless of rational thought.
                            Doesn't matter if your property needs 100k in repairs either; the %^&*
                            revenooers must have a few pounds of your flesh to justify their illegitimate jobs.
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  • Posted by term2 1 week, 1 day ago
    well, the leftists are getting a dose of their own medicine. I say, DONT help them rebuild. Let the people of california who voted in all this nonsense stew in their own juices. I dont care if I get slammed for thinking and saying this. Its just time
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    • Posted by $ rainman0720 1 week, 1 day ago
      I also agree completely. I can't find it in my heart to feel sorry for someone who suffers from self-inflicted wounds. They crapped in their own mess kits; let them eat it. If you do get slammed, you'll be in good company.
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  • Posted by term2 1 week, 1 day ago
    We should have a national holiday to celebrate Nikola Tesla for the invention of AC power. Imagine for a moment what would happen if the entire AC power system just wasnt available. No water, no gasoline for the cars, no diesel for the trucks, and essentially no food supplies. A giant domino situation.
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  • Posted by term2 1 week, 1 day ago
    We are all running blind in a way. Our current lifestyle is so based on trading with others, and that trrading is really being upset by government. Imagine if our society lost electricity and oil. The entire society collapses. In Las Vegas last week we had a scare that california was not able to send gasoline supplies due to the loss of power in california that supplies the pumps that run the pipeline feeding las vegas. INSTANTLY the lines at the gas stations were insane. I mean the place was gearing up to shut down in only a couple of hours. Fortunately, the pipeline people found power and the scare was off by the next day. A definite wake up call.
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  • Posted by mccannon01 1 week, 2 days ago
    I've experienced such lunacy even before "DEI" was invented. In my day it was called PC (Political Correctness) and it was the forecasting rot that predated DEI. The large company I worked for went strong PC and eventually declared bankruptcy to "reorganize". It still exists today but is a shell for marketing foreign (mainly Chinese) goods using its American name. PC isn't the main thing that brought it down, but IMHO it was a contributing factor. Ahhhh, stories I could tell...

    This is a great article describing a rot Ayn Rand understood, but wrote about it using different terms. AS comes alive in the USA!
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  • Posted by majdad49 1 week, 1 day ago
    Former failed Richmond mayor appointed the director of Department of Public Utilities. She’s been in her position for the last 5 years. She’s not an engineer required for the position, she’s customer service. All surrounding municipalities have an engineer at the helm of DPU.
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