Sunday, April 05, 2020

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.

14 comments:

  1. I'm not too worried about the local people here. It's the hordes down in Denver and Aurora that bother me.
    If TSHTF we'll head up into the canyons here where our DIL's parents live. We've been told to get our rear ends up there if TSHTF, and we have enough trailers and trucks available to get all our "valuables" up there in one run.

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  2. Nothing has changed in the mountains in Northern Arizona. Sparse population, everyone strapped, supplies remain constant. There aren't many people to spread it and the population centers haven't been impacted to any degree. I can imagine that New Orleans will go nuts.

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  3. "Hunker down" laws w/ curfews and roadblocks in place after 5 pm, with intercity travel all but prohibited. Sheltering in place is gonna be the rule right now, if things go sideways. Neighbors are a federal judge, two retired Army, a State Trooper, and one active duty Air Force. This block will remain reasonably safe in the short term.

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    1. So every one a taxeater?

      Not a single productive person?

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  4. Back in 2004, when four hurricanes chose to target my area, three right over our roof, two people who know of my prep and defensive posture told me somewhat jokingly that they were going to come over to my place if the SHTF. I didn't respond.

    Recently, one of them made the same comment again and I told him the grocery is still open and so is the gun shop. If he can afford to eat he can afford 2 cans extra every grocery visit to prep. It ain't rocket science, but it IS taking responsibility for oneself, and if he can't/won't do that he's not going to get in my way and screw up my planning.

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  5. Heh. Go to your neighbors with some Eddie Eagle gun pamphlets from the NRA.

    It's a game.

    Will they thank you?
    Will they spontaneously combust?
    Or both?

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  6. Hey Murphy;

    Scammers gonna scam....To them Life is a continuous hustle, and yes I can see the may day protest getting sporty because they are idiots and freeloaders and someone "owes them".

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  7. The stupid is going to get strong down there, right up to the point that people get dead... THEN the finger pointing will start...

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  8. Fortunately, civil unrest isn't as big a possibility up here. I'm more concerned about bored kids getting up to mischief. Said mischief apparently being why there was a major fire over on Gingerbread today. I'm hearing it was kids playing with gasoline.

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  9. Don't rent to welfare rats in the first place. Oh, they bought those cheap dumps just so they could rent to them? Karma, baby.

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  10. Welcome to the mindset of the folks I grew up with down there. A bunch of human garbage that are the most creative when it comes to ripping other people off or taking advantage of charity. A pox on all of them.

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  11. Yep, we're seeing that don't need to pay the rent game up here too.

    With the courts effectively closed, and any answer or hearing stayed until after the outbreak is over, a lot of people have decided not to wait and not pay for their rent and other obligations.

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  12. I always tell my liberal friends that Pelosi office will hand out free guns in an emergency.

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  13. Don't have much sympathy for landlords destroying white neighborhoods under section 8.

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