Divemedic

Supply and Demand

Scott Adams asks how giving homebuyers money will cause home prices to rise.

Let me use a real life example to explain how that works. In 2009, Microsoft unveiled a new search engine. To get people to begin using it, they started a promotion. If you used Bing to arrive at a website and made a purchase, any purchase, on that website, you would get a ten percent discount (maximum $100) and you could do this once per day for ten days.

Armed with a new $10,000 credit card that offered zero percent interest and no payments for the first year, I bought 8 one ounce gold Eagle coins from Ebay. They were costing $1000 each, and with the discount, I managed to only pay $900 each for them. Why didn’t I buy ten? Because a lot of other people were doing it, and the coins had risen in price quickly and it was no longer a deal. In les than two weeks’ time, the price of gold Eagles went from $1000 to over $1100, even though the price of gold didn’t move.

Why did that happen? Because the demand side of the supply/demand equation was pressured, while supply remained the same.

The coins: I held on to them for almost a year, sold them for $1800 each, used the proceeds to pay the credit card off, and walked away after doubling my money- well, their money. I made $8k using the credit card’s money.

By Divemedic, ago

Internet Badassery

One of the things that is so tiring about blogging and social media is the amount of chest thumping from Internet badasses. You know what I mean- those who post things about “I would shoot that cop” or about how they would kill anyone who shoots their dog.

The endless claims about wanting to start CW2, or on how you are going to start shooting people, or other forms of statements about all of the shit they are going to do just get tiring sometimes.

Let’s face it- you aren’t going to do shit. You aren’t going to tilt your lance at a windmill, only to die needlessly charging up that hill, only to find out that your efforts and sacrifices aren’t going to matter. Even if your own little personal war du jour does begin, how do you define a win? Even if you “win,” what is your plan for what you are going to do next? It’s just childish, foolish bravado.

Instead, start deciding how you are going to survive, how you are going to keep your loved ones safe, and what you are going to do AFTER everything goes to shit.

By Divemedic, ago

No Winning

Check this out:

Here is the story, if you would like to read the rest of it. The incident happened on July 4, but as of this point in time, she has still be arraigned.

There is no winning here. Let’s say you see a cop doing this to your wife. It doesn’t matter if he is right or wrong, overpowering this cop, holding him at gunpoint, or shooting him will result in your death, no matter how unlawful his actions were.

The saddest part is that her kids were acting like their mother was in the wrong.

By Divemedic, ago

Late

So the tenant in my rental was late on the rent, because she tells me that she is short of money this month. According to her social media page, she took her 2 daughters to Europe to see a pair of Taylor Swift concerts.

This is why I have no sympathy for tenants who are late because they are short on money. She bought six Taylor Swift tickets, 3 round trips of airfare, and hotels for a week in Europe, which probably cost in the neighborhood of $7500 or more, but expects me to feel sorry for her and not charge late fees because she doesn’t have enough money for rent.

I don’t care what she does with her money, but I do care that she didn’t pay her rent on time. That’s why I don’t buy people’s sob stories.

By Divemedic, ago

But is it, really?

Two men were arrested for stealing a firearm. But was it really stealing? A moron of a Seminole County deputy left his firearm in a gas station bathroom, where it was found by a pair of men. One of them refused to pick it up because he was a convicted felon. The other took it with him and sold it for $40.

Both have been arrested for theft of a firearm, and the ex-felon was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. If they get a decent lawyer, they just might beat those charges.

  • They didn’t steal the gun- it was left in a public bathroom.
  • There is no evidence that the convicted felon ever had possession of the handgun.
  • The state could argue that they knew it was a crime because they concealed the handgun when they walked out of the gas station, but a decent lawyer will claim that they concealed it because open carry is illegal in Florida.

The only crime that was committed here in my opinion, is that the Deputy left his firearm where anyone could reach it- with the barrel wedged into a toilet paper roll in the stall of a public bathroom. Those two are no more guilty of stealing that firearm than the deputy is in trafficking firearms.

By Divemedic, ago

Silencing the Right

The attack on free speech by the FBI continues. The latest claim by the Feds is that the Russians have paid 2800 social media influencers to spread pro-Trump propaganda and influence the election. According to them, the propaganda includes:

  • Republicans are “victims of discrimination of people of color”
  • white middle-class people are being discriminated against

The claim is that the Russians are using AI and other tactics, and they have documents from the highest levels of the Russian government to prove it. So the FBI is seizing 32 web domains. This is how they are going to silence and neutralize the right’s pushback on social media. If you are pro-Trump, if you believe that we are being replaced by illegal immigrants, if you think that whites are being discriminated against, don’t believe your lying eyes- instead trust that the FBI is working to keep you safe from this dangerous Russian disinformation. Trust them, they love you and want to protect you from the double plus ungood thoughts that you are having.

Disappearances will begin shortly. It’s for their (and your) own good.

By Divemedic, ago

Yelling Expletives at Your Computer

I would not have been as calm about this stop as this guy was, especially when the cop grabbed me by the throat. The officer involved is Matthew Mercado of the Walnut Ridge, Arkansas police department.

When the man in the video, Adam Finley, went to the Walnut Ridge Police Department to complain, he was given citations for refusal to submit to arrest and obstructing governmental operations with the tickets being written by officer Matt Cook with the permission of Police Chief Chris Kirksey. After a trial on April 3, 2017, in Lawrence County District Court, Finley was acquitted of the charges.

Finley sued, and the city of Walnut Ridge settled out of court, paying him $57,500 in damages.

I used to be fairly backing of the cops. No longer. As far as I am concerned, the police are an out of control, armed, criminal gang of violent assholes who only use force when they know the subject of their bullying behavior can’t fight back.

By Divemedic, ago