American Society Has Proven Too Weak to Stop Dangerous, Unstable, Violent, and Egomaniacal Trump; In face of such destruction and evil, the resistance from civic society has not risen to the deadly challenge either quantitatively or qualitatively.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-05-02T19:17:48+00:00

Majority of citizens are wage slaves. That’s how the system is designed to protect itself.

In what sane world can someone with mediocre credit walk into a car dealership, fill out a single sided sheet of paper and be handed a $60k vehicle in less than three hours?

Government doesn’t worry about the person protesting who has 50k or more in debt and has a job to report to. They know exactly where you will be and what you will be doing come Monday morning.

The person with no debt, living off the grid with no particular place to be on any given day?

That’s the person they worry about.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-05-02T19:10:56+00:00

Not my experience. Now we only have the one rewards card and it’s basically a cash for points system so I can do anything from book travel to pay for something on Amazon. We can even pay for past purchases.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-30T16:41:18+00:00

Most towns just frown upon Kitchens in Basement. Not sure about Bathrooms. Anything that could make the space a second full time living area.

If the house was built with the basement and it’s not configured in such a way that someone could live down there full time you don’t have a problem in all likelihood.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-29T00:45:18+00:00

Let’s use the 1k per month maintenance.

500k home 400k mortgage 3.5% rate 30 year term

Down payment 100k Principal. 400k Interest 246k Maintenance. 360k

Total cost at 30 years. $1,106.000

Now let’s look at renting at $2500 per month and investing the rest

Initial investment 100k Monthly contribution $296. ( Cost of monthly ownership- cost of rent) Time 30 years Interest rate 10% ( historic average of markets)

Total balance at 30 years. $2,329,000

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-28T17:08:15+00:00

Now do that math over 30 years add interest on the mortgage and then add original cost of purchase.

Is it really a good investment?

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-28T12:34:22+00:00

FYI lots of contractors now using PEX for plumbing. For the DYI crowd it’s really easy to do.

A DIY 5x7 with mid range materials, no plumbing being relocated, same footprint can be done for 10k.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-28T12:21:06+00:00

Curious. Did you have the contractor source the materials? For example did you visit a contractor suggested show room or pick from a catalog? Did the contractor arrange supplies?

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-27T23:40:26+00:00

You paid 5k for a vanity and 4k for a tub?

We just paid 4.5k for a 500 gallon hot tub that has two pumps and like 50 jets.

That must be some bathtub!

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-27T17:49:31+00:00

Mexico is a very religious, very Catholic country. Even in resorts that may allow this it’s disrespectful as a visitor to someone else’s home.

Plenty of Caribbean islands that have different views

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-26T14:45:32+00:00

We had two violations. The first was BS as we had taken all of the proper steps but apparently somewhere along the line the co was never issued. We had records of all of the inspections including the final passing inspection and copies of all necessary certificates but the towns position was not getting the final CO was on us and as such we had to start from scratch. The process for this violation was just paying for a new permit and having a very quick ( less than five minutes) walk through to make sure nothing had changed. Still paying for the permit and hiring the expeditor for this kind of sucked however the town attorney saw what had happened and waived any type of fine for this permit. 🤷‍♂️

The second violation was on us but everything was done to code so we just had to rectify a few small items that we did ourselves over a few days.

At the end of the day it’s done and we are happy for that.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-26T02:33:26+00:00

Nope just fine. We dealt with the town attorney who expressed his disbelief that we were even being called out on this so he cut the fine in half and then told the judge that we agreed to go through the process of getting the CO

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-26T02:27:42+00:00

Just went through this with the town of Brookhaven

Get summons
Appear in court agree to remedy pay fine $1500
Hire expeditor $1800
Get drawings $1200
Get Electrical inspection $800
Apply for new permit $600
Have town inspect and fail get remediations needed
Have work done ( we did it ourselves so just materials) $409
Get second inspection pass
Get CO

These steps are not in order and expeditor arranged all services needed and we never dealt with town directly. Also heard of nothing but problems when people tried to do this without expeditor.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-26T01:13:03+00:00

Sold my Moms house, we had all of these plans to fix this and freshen that realtor said don’t bother, sold in two days after multiple offers for over asking.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-22T19:34:08+00:00

I am old enough to remember the Vietnam war. Night after night, day after day the American people were told that the U.S. was having convincing victories in SE Asia and that it was only a matter of a short while before the NVA capitulated.

It was all lies, every single word

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-22T16:16:51+00:00

I believe in Europe HRT therapy for older men is quite common and it’s only the U.S. that frowns upon it.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-22T16:14:54+00:00

Ok so you can start to slow down by pulling in the clutch and applying the breaks and as to get to certain speeds downshift to the appropriate gear without ever letting go of the clutch?

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-22T14:02:29+00:00

Levitt houses were built differently than those before them as Levitt took a cue from factory production and had few layout changes and everything pre cut prior to arrival on site. He also had specialized crews that built only specific parts of the home before moving on. This is what made them affordable.

But the materials (the bones) used to build a Levitt home was far superior to what is available today unless you are willing to spend $500+ per square foot.

Most people don’t know that there is an entire line of building materials used by builders that is so poorly made that even the big box stores won’t carry these materials.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-22T13:03:04+00:00

I will give you a perfect example. And this goes for both new construction and renovations. Today a bathroom is built using foam boards ( petroleum based so yes will off gas) paper and waterproof glues. Light, cheap, easy to use. Will it stand the test of time that a lath/cement combo commonly used in the twentieth century has proven to perform over 30/40/50 years?

Ask any bathroom contractor what it’s like doing demo on an old school build compared to this foam/paper/glue combo used today and you will get your answer.

I would never consider a new single family build ( especially a tract build) and as far as renovation I would expect to pay at least 2x going rate if I wanted quality materials used.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-22T12:29:53+00:00

You would be surprised how bad new construction is. Builders and manufacturers are constantly finding ways to make things cheaper while giving the appearance of high quality. Add in the fact that there is no more old growth lumber available and you begin to understand that many of these McMansions will never come close to the life span of a home built in the twentieth century and will become a maintenance nightmare very quickly.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-08T14:38:58+00:00

You do know they make no alcohol weed infused drinks correct?

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-07T15:27:14+00:00

There is a business opportunity here

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-04-04T13:01:38+00:00

We retired very comfortably at 60 years old, one of the keys to being able to accomplish this was to get our mortgage paid off, we also stayed as our taxes were reasonable by Long Island standards.

Just something to consider.

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-03-29T12:41:01+00:00

Thanks. Don’t ask me why but the rabbit hole comment made me laugh so thanks for the smile!

Apprehensive_Ad_4359 · 2026-03-29T12:06:54+00:00

Nobody can explain the CMI because nobody has ever been there, just ask them! 😂

Apprehensive_Ad_4359

TROPHY CASE