The scamming begins

Among other things that happened here is that owing to the large numbers of people unemployed currently, the Mayor was one of the first in the country to declare that no one who failed to pay rent can be evicted , and she completely closed the city's eviction courts. A landlord who owns properties on the block is now aghast that his tenants are contacting him and telling him that they want to take advantage of this and not pay rent for April. The aggravating part? These tenants never had jobs. They're all on Section 8 or other welfare programs and they're still getting paid just like it was any other month. But they've let him know that "because of the Corona" they won't be paying their rent. And there's not a thing that he can do about it.

Likewise, the buzz is going around among many of the local service industry workers and performers who work under the table for cash that even though they were excluded from the $1200 stimulus checks because they didn't file tax returns in 2018 or 2019 (some have never filed taxes in their lives and they are in their 30's and 40's), they can now grab the special unemployment check provision by going back and filing for 2018 and claiming no income. Doing this makes them eligible for $600 over whatever other unemployment benefits that they'd be able to claim, which since they can't claim any, they still get $600 a month until this is over. The section 8 and SSI-D folks get those extra $600 checks too, btw. And the people who will be getting these checks are already discussing how to keep from spending any of it on rent since they can't be evicted for not paying during the emergency and they're ignoring the few voices--including some landlords--who are warning them that even though they don't have to pay now, there's no waiver of then rent during this time and it will be due eventually. But again, the talk I'm hearing is about ways to keep and enjoy the special checks that they'll be getting and saying things like "they can't evict all of us when it's over..." And the talk or organized rent strikes and other actions is starting to get louder too. Socialist groups are popping up like dandelions now advocating varying degrees of militant action, and May 1st, "International Workers Day" has been getting more heated around here the last few years with all of these millennial kids who think that the world owes them something because they chose to wait tables or tend bar as a career. I have a hunch that we'll see some stuff kick off if people are still largely out of work and scared then, because the socialist agitators have been dreaming of a crisis strong enough to draw more desperate people into their orbit for decades. We might have that crisis now.

Stock up if you haven't yet...this mess hasn't peaked yet and it's going to get worse before it gets better, especially in parts of the country that haven't even seen it yet.

Oh, and of course it's all Trump's fault. Those opportunists are already hard at work.

As for me, the Thompson gun has a 50rd drum in it and a pouch filled with 30-round stick mags right next to it. And mine's a good one now--it feeds jacketed hollow points flawlessly. Some people around me have been making inquiries about where and how to get guns now, and my responses typically vary based on how liberal I know them to be and how anti-gun, anti-NRA and anti-conservative that they were before.

My close friends who don't have guns (or very good guns) know that if things break really stupid, there are loaners here for them. But they're a select few. Take care of yourselves and stay home.