Uncategorized

40 years ago this week, the final episode of MASH aired. It was the most watched television episode of all times (not counting sporting or news events) in the United States. That list includes:

1. Final episode of MASH, 106 million viewers
2. The Day After, and Episode 8 of Roots, 100 million viewers (tie)

I don’t count sporting events because 23 of the top 30 watched television events were sports: 22 Super Bowls, and one Boxing match (Spinks v. Ali). Four of them were news events: Apollo 11 moon landing, Nixon’s resignation speech, the Simpson low speed chase, and Disneyland’s opening.

Still, 40 years? I remember seeing it (vaguely). Man, I’m getting old.

After being passed from one tax attorney to the other, I finally decided to talk to a CPA that I was using a few years ago. Here is what she said:

You are on the right track with wanting to preserve the appreciation without incurring tax upon eventual sale. I encourage you to get the appraisal as planned, but you do not have to go to the effort and cost of selling the home to an S corp to retain the tax exclusion. Upon conversion to a rental property, the fair market value becomes the cost basis for the rental. Later upon sale of the rental property gain will be calculated as follows: Sale Proceeds LESS Closing Costs LESS Adjusted Cost (Appraised Value when converted to rental LESS annual depreciation expensed)

So there is my answer. She may be wrong, but if the IRS disagrees, the use of a professional insulates me from any claims of tax evasion. That’s why I pay a CPA $175 an hour to do my taxes.

So it looks like we will do a quitclaim to an LLC. That makes things easier than dealing with an S corp.

Prince Harry says that he doesn’t understand the First Amendment and thinks it is “bonkers.” See, no one should be allowed to bad mouth him because he is rich, or royalty, or something. If he doesn’t like that Amendment, wait until he finds out that his 6x great grandfather (and also his 5x great grandfather, due to Royal inbreeding) was the reason for the next Amendment and what that Amendment means.

One of the reasons why I am glad to be moving is that the area is changing. It used to be a solid middle class area with no homeless on the corner, no real crime (aside from the one burglar that was behind several break-ins and got caught).

That neighborhood is changing. It began in 2019 when the beggars started showing up on the street corners. I went to the grocery store (Publix) that is about a quarter mile from the house this weekend, and this is what I saw:

Now you might think that the problem I have is that she is black, and you would mostly be wrong. The problem that I have is that she was covered in dirt, braless, wearing slides, and looked like shit with her lack of caring about her appearance. It’s a sure sign that the area is on a downward economic trend.

To make things worse, there is a low income housing development going in about a quarter mile away: it will be a mix of 200 apartments and 150 homes. All what they call “affordable” housing. yay.

It’s the law in Nevada that a casino has to have enough money to pay off every bet in that casino. That is, if every single chip and bet were to be called in at once, they have to have enough cash on hand to pay it off. For the slot machines, the casino has to have $1,000 per .01-.50 machine, plus $1,800 per $1 slot, and $5,000 each for slots of higher denomination. The idea here is that the casino needs to be able to pay the obligations it incurs by losing its bets.

Banks have laws that require them to have a certain amount of funds in reserve. All banks with more than $124.2 million on deposit must maintain a cash reserve of 10% of deposits. Banks with more than $16.3 million but less than $124.2 million must reserve 3% of all deposits.

So when I see a story telling me how a Florida insurance company, faced with having to pay out hurricane claims, is going to use insolvency as an excuse to get out of paying, it boils my blood. These companies are in turn owned by other companies, and the use that structure to move money from one place to the other to avoid having to pay out claims. They collect billions in premiums for decades and send that money off to their parent companies, then when they have to pay out a large number of claims, they claim to be cash poor.

Perhaps the state needs to make sure that there are more cash reserves required to do business as a Florida insurer. United Property and Casualty had about 135,000 policies in Florida. That means they are collecting at least $150 million a year in premiums in Florida alone. It claims to have losses of more than $35 million each year since 2017. The thing is, it is owned by a larger company, United Insurance Holdings Corporation. That company was making $10 million a year in profits until 2018.

An Oregon court has ruled that Second Amendment sanctuary laws are illegal. I wonder if that applies to marijuana and illegal immigrant sanctuary cities and states.

I think we know the answer to that.

A disgruntled Eagles fan broke into a Florida fire station after the Superbowl and attacked firefighters, who held him for police by beating his ass. Note the black eye in the mugshot.

Despite the fact that our oil reserves are at historic lows, Biden continues selling them off for political gain.

SIOP- The Single Integrated Operations Plan. It’s a war plan for the strategic assets of the US military. This plan, covering thousands of pages, is one of the most classified documents that the military has. It details targets, timing, and routes for the nation’s armed forces in the event of a nuclear war. The plan outlines where each cruise missile, land based ICBM, and bomber will strike, what paths they will take, and how they will be supported- tankers, fighter support, and more. The plan is meticulously timed so that no two weapons interfere with each other. A cruise missile might take out a SAM site, then an aircraft out of a European base might fly through the gap created to strike an airbase that allows other forces to reach a missile field. A bomber that is too close to a cruise missile detonation becomes useless when it’s downed by fratricide, so timing is important. SIOP gets updated constantly.

The US Air Force operates a wing of RC-135s whose mission is electronic reconnaissance. They map every single radio and radar transmitter that puts out more power than a toaster for hundreds of miles on each side of its flight path. For radars, it isn’t just location. The plane records the frequency, power, pulse width, and repetition rate of every radar. For radio, they record conversations, frequency, and other facts to determine whether or not those radios belong to command posts, air traffic controller sites, or other defense functions.

How does this tie in to the Chinese balloons? It’s very possible that the Chinese are preparing for a war. Yes, a nuclear one. It’s my feeling that, before invading Taiwan, the Chinese are updating their own version of SIOP. Any invasion of Taiwan has a possibility of involving the United States, and any nation that takes on the US military has to consider the possibility that the conflict will eventually involve a nuclear exchange. PLAN would not be doing their jobs if they did not have an updated picture of the capabilities of NORAD.

These drones, balloons, whatever they are, are mapping the defenses of this nation for a reason. Why now? Why so many? Why risk it? The risk is high, so the reward must be equally as high.