[EnergyUnlimited]

And it's not just that. It's also the mortgage interest on my mom's house that has been paid thus far exceeding the value of the house, AND all of the fees/regulations/permits required to keep it up and the fact that it is falling apart and not up to code which could cause her to lose it(the city is not going to pay for all of the things it is forcing us to abide by, after all, and could condemn the property if it found out what was wrong with it, and I'm not making nearly enough to fix it and the cost of repairs needed likely matches or exceeds the value of the property).

One thing here is interesting, if I understand it well.
You are writting that the property is "not up to the code".
How so?
When it was built, it had to be up to the code of that time.
Does that mean that once codes are upgraded, owners are forced to upgrade their properties as well?
In Poland you do not need to do it.
If your wiring or building heat insulation is lets say up the code from 1990-ties and property was built at that time according to these codes, you are not obliged to make any upgrades now, even if codes have changed.
You are only obliged to make sure that property is structurally sound and not at risk of collapse.
Is there any difference in the US?

Regarding smartphones going dark.
Who knows, maybe malicious piece of software aka virus will one day clog up or corrupt data transmission networks to the point of making them unusable?
And if this software is advanced AI type and based on morphing codes it may not even be possible to flash it out of the system?

[Newfie]

Codes are enforced by local municipality. Generally changes are not required until the building is going through some upgrade or addition. But once you do start to do something then you may be required to do all sorts of things. So you are stuck, touch anything and you have to do everything.

There are times when some code will become retroactive. Generally in commercial spaces and rare.

[EnergyUnlimited]

@Newfie,
Thanks for explanation.
So we have it easier because only new add-ons would have to be done according to new codes and what is already done is not affected.

[Tanada]

@Newfie,
Thanks for explanation.
So we have it easier because only new add-ons would have to be done according to new codes and what is already done is not affected.

A place where I used to work replaced an old leaking flat roof with a peaked slate roof to preserve a historic building built in 1925. As a result they had to replace all the wiring, install ADA approved handicap access and because the building had running water already in place also install a handicap accessible restroom while they were at it. Replacing the roof was on the order of $50,000 while doing all the other structural improvements to comply with the regulations raised the total bill to $120,000 because water testing proved the water supply was not potable and they had to pay for installation of a very long underground fresh water line in addition to a septic system for the new plumbing.

This is a portion of the reason why a lot of historic structures in the USA are being allowed to decay and eventually be demolished.

[Ibon]

I will share a near disaster story. One of our former properties in South Florida was a fixer upper. There was a ficus hedge hiding most of the home from view. We started some minor work and saw termite damage and started tearing down a wall. The previous owners also had 10 cats int he house and I thought that just replacing the floor tiles would get rid of the cat piss smell. Unfortunately the cat urine penetrated the plywood base boards below the tiles. Between the termite damage and cat piss the next thing you know we had the back wall of the house torn down and the floors stripped all the way to the joists. It was then I realized that maybe I need to get permits so I called an old retired contractor who I knew to ask his opinion. He came out to the house and looked around for 5 minutes and then told me...... You need to quickly do this work as fast as you can , forget any permits. I asked why? Well,, in Florida if you are doing renovations on more than 25% of the home then the whole structure must be then brought up to code and this home was built back in the 60's before the upgraded hurricane codes. Had I went down the road of getting permits the building inspector would have required that we re framed the entire house.

So we did all the work without permits. We needed a dumpster out on the driveway to haul out all the torn apart damaged floors and walls. Problem is you cant have a dumpster dropped off in front of you house because the inspectors driving around the neighborhood look for dumpsters and then see if there is a permit. This is how they catch home owners doing work without getting a permit. So we had to think how to solve this. We also needed a new roof and I had a roofing friend. So what we did was pull the permit for the roof which then has to be tacked up on the outside of the house. The roofer said he would give me 2 month to finish are renovations and then he would do the roof work. So we had a dumpster and a permit hung on the house and were able to just get by undetected.

Need I mention all of this work was done with undocumented Guatemalans?

[mousepad]

Need I mention all of this work was done with undocumented Guatemalans?

No, not at all. We already know that you have a globalists mindset. Squeezing workers while sidestepping the law. Always "me" first, to hell with the rest.

BTW, with "undocumented" you actually mean "illegal", right? I mean, somebody who violated federal law, right? I'm always a bit confused about those new lefty terms trying to put lipstick on a pig. It's kind of like calling a kid special instead of dumb, right?

[EnergyUnlimited]

Need I mention all of this work was done with undocumented Guatemalans?

No, not at all. We already know that you have a globalists mindset. Squeezing workers while sidestepping the law. Always "me" first, to hell with the rest.

BTW, with "undocumented" you actually mean "illegal", right? I mean, somebody who violated federal law, right? I'm always a bit confused about those new lefty terms trying to put lipstick on a pig. It's kind of like calling a kid special instead of dumb, right?

@Mousepad,
These days we will not get far deliberating about something being "very illegal" or maybe only "slightly prohibited".
Those who try to stick to the law at the time when our system (and civilization) is crumbling will end up thrown under the bus first.
You are probably breaking half a dozen (or more) of laws every day without even knowing it.
Our legal systems on the West need general overhaul because they became too complex, obsolete and increasingly ignored.

[mousepad]

Need I mention all of this work was done with undocumented Guatemalans?

No, not at all. We already know that you have a globalists mindset. Squeezing workers while sidestepping the law. Always "me" first, to hell with the rest.

BTW, with "undocumented" you actually mean "illegal", right? I mean, somebody who violated federal law, right? I'm always a bit confused about those new lefty terms trying to put lipstick on a pig. It's kind of like calling a kid special instead of dumb, right?

@Mousepad,
These days we will not get far deliberating about something being "very illegal" or maybe only "slightly prohibited".
Those who try to stick to the law at the time when our system (and civilization) is crumbling will end up thrown under the bus first.
You are probably breaking half a dozen (or more) of laws every day without even knowing it.
Our legal systems on the West need general overhaul because they became too complex, obsolete and increasingly ignored.

I agree.

[Ibon]

Need I mention all of this work was done with undocumented Guatemalans?

No, not at all. We already know that you have a globalists mindset. Squeezing workers while sidestepping the law. Always "me" first, to hell with the rest.

BTW, with "undocumented" you actually mean "illegal", right? I mean, somebody who violated federal law, right? I'm always a bit confused about those new lefty terms trying to put lipstick on a pig. It's kind of like calling a kid special instead of dumb, right?

Rueben was one of the nicest guys. He road his bicycle to the house at 7:00am and worked until 5:00pm. Amazing skills, he could run electrical lines, dry wall, put in hard wood floors, frame the back of the house, he even knew all the hurricane codes and put in the proper braces holding the wall to the roof.

He went back to Guatemala about a year later. We still chat on Whatsapp sometimes. I have invited him to come to Panama but he seems settled back in Guatemala with his family.

[Plantagenet]

Giant four-story tall portrait of Greta Thunberg being painted on the side of a building in downtown San Francisco

mural-activist-greta-thunberg-going-san-francisco

The hagiography of St. Greta has reached a new peak. My guess is that she doesn't approve of this sort of thing, but she is clearly adored by many people.


Big Greta is watching you

[EnergyUnlimited]

She looks like... Lenin.
I remember comparably big portrait of Lenin displayed during commie time in one Polish town on one of buildings for few weeks.

[Plantagenet]

She looks like... Lenin.
I remember comparably big portrait of Lenin displayed during commie time in one Polish town on one of buildings for few weeks.

They do look similar.

But Lenin was an authoritarian and a cold-blooded murderer.

Greta is a well-meaning prophet of climate doom.

[asg70]

Look out, UN COP25 Climate Change meeting. Don't you dare try to hide your failure to act on climate change. Greta Thunberg is coming to hold you ACCOUNTABLE!!!!!

Fanboing is so cringey.



Oh, and btw, who is gonna hold you accountable for your frequent flying?

[Plantagenet]

Yo asg/mos/ennui....nice job on your selfie. But when did you get so fat?

Cheers!

[asg70]

I take that to mean you have no defense. Thanks for the capitulation.

[Newfie]

Go get a room you two.

Keep discussions on topic.

[dissident]

She looks like... Lenin.
I remember comparably big portrait of Lenin displayed during commie time in one Polish town on one of buildings for few weeks.

It's a personality cult poster. A dirty trick to shut down any serious debate since any criticism of the talking points is automatically turned into "how dare you attack this poor, autistic girl". The girl and her autism are utterly irrelevant. Greta is a species of human shield being used by certain deciders who have George Soros in their camp. Greta's antifa thug parents underscore this point.

[Plantagenet]

It's a personality cult poster.

Its not a poster. Its a giant mural on a 12 story high building in San Francisco.

A dirty trick to shut down any serious debate since any criticism of the talking points is automatically turned into "how dare you attack this poor, autistic girl".

It remains possible to discuss global warming without attacking Greta personally.

Cheers!

[asg70]

It remains possible to discuss global warming without attacking Greta personally.

Yeah. You demonstrated taking the high road so well in how you bashed Obama daily (typically with a puerile and oversized political cartoon) for all those years. And as far as I could tell, it was ultimately driven by a subtle racism on your part.

[dissident]

It's a personality cult poster.

Its not a poster. Its a giant mural on a 12 story high building in San Francisco.

A dirty trick to shut down any serious debate since any criticism of the talking points is automatically turned into "how dare you attack this poor, autistic girl".

It remains possible to discuss global warming without attacking Greta personally.

Cheers!

Good luck with that. On social media it is routine to instantly resort to the sort of misdirection that I am talking about. You can have some sane discussion with yourself and a few of your associates, but you can't have a rational discussion in public fora. Attack on Greta's talking points is instantly misconstrued as a personal attack.

Mural = poster = propaganda.