Socialists Always Run Out Of Other People’s Money

Gimme gimme gimme…

Socialists like Comrade Clayton Tucker are lazy and filled with envy. They want what others have but do not want to work for it. Unfortunately for Corade Clayton Tucker, he is too short, weak, doughy and effeminate to come to your house and take what he wants by force. A strong wind would knock him over.

So he votes for other scumbags to do it for him and calls it “fairness”.

Comrade Clayton bellyaches about “trickle down capitalism” all the time. He speaks of it derisively and with contempt.

In fact, it is more accurate to describe capitalism as “trickle up”

A business owner first pays salaries. Then rent. Then cost of goods, etc. Only if customers, suppliers, and employees consider themselves to have received a bargain is anything left over for the business owner.

Comrade Clayton has no clue about any of this because he has never run a business or created anything of value in his entire life. Hell, he’s never even had a real JOB!

This is an amazing list: 10 of the 15 richest Americans started their businesses this generation. The other 5 inherited from recent founders. Almost all these businesses brought dramatically better goods to the masses for dramatically lower prices.

Capitalism works!

Even if we confiscated ALL THE WEALTH ON THIS LIST, we could only give each American a mere $3,000. How quickly would the joy of receiving that $3,000 fade upon realizing there were no computers, no discount retail, no cheap energy, no online shopping?

There’s a reason the world’s poor come to America.

Here is the same list, but for European billionaires. More than half of them are heirs or kleptocrats European “equality” is a mirage. Economic mobility is a joke. It has been said that the US has poor, Europe has wards. Remember that when idiots like Comrade Clayton tells you we should copy Europe.

We don’t have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem. We are at the point now where entire Departments of the federal government need to be eliminated. I’d suggest the Departments of Education, Transportation, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) Energy, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the EPA for starters.

The 800,000 parasites who work in those departments will need to go find something useful to do.

None of those departments existed prior to 1953 and we got along just fine without them. Those useless parasites cost the country close to $2 TRILLION per year just in direct costs. The indirect costs are likely half of that.

Screw your new taxes, Brandon.

Sunday Socialist Seal Clubbing

This socialist clown just never stops!

Yes, of course! “We” should pay people more money. Sounds EXACTLY like the kind of hard-hitting economic analysis my 8-year-old kid would come up with. Pay the unskilled janitor $170,000 per year, if need be. Whatever it takes for a “living wage”, right?

Pardon me for asking, Comrade Rancher Clayton – but how many people does your ranch employ and at what wage? I assume your ranch that you supposedly run is part of that “we” you are talking about, right? Or is this the royal “we”? The “we” that never includes YOU – just lightens everyone else’s wallet?

What is the name of your ranch, by the way? You never did say during all your many lies posts about being a rancher! You DO sign the checks for all of your many, well-paid employees, right? You give them all full benefits, full health insurance and a big, fat $80,000 wage so they can live with dignity in retirement, right?

Who signs YOUR checks? Do you get a W2? Do you get a “living wage” from THEM? If so, why do you still live with mommy? If NOT, why don’t you quit and get a better job?

You fucking dolt.

Local Lib Queen and Drag Show Lover Grady Lucas (With “Soar” Throat) Still Blathering About His Covid.

Nobody cares about your “soar” throat and positive Covid tests. Get a life, nerd.

This guy is definitely dumber than Haywood.

“Minimal discernable symptoms” but still crying like a pussy.

Covid will be with us forever, moron. So of course it is “very much with us” right this moment. So is the flu. So is syphilis. Those of us with brains said this almost three years ago but morons like Lucas and Haywood thought that if we JUST MASKED HARD ENOUGH, it would all go away – which was literally impossible thanks to animal reservoirs of the virus.

Why would anyone without symptoms bother getting tested or treated? Unless you were an insane hypochondriac little whiney bitch….like you.

You know what provided a “vessel for mutations“? Your mom’s uterus.

Younger populations are not affected by Covid. They are literally more likely to be eaten by a bear. However, they ARE being killed in large numbers by the “vaccine”. Hopefully, that goes for 67-year-old libtard shitbirds as well.

And finally, our chance to “get ahead of this thing” was to hang Fauci by his neck until dead for performing GOF research when it was strictly prohibited. Of course, we can still hope that day comes.

This Is The Post Where I Take a Dump On The Industrial Park Agreement.

I asked Finley several clarifying questions about the Industrial Park agreement by email. Of course, he “didn’t have the agreement right in front of [him]”, so I didn’t get an answer to most of it.

Weird, because I only read it a couple times and I think I remember all the major points….and I’m not even a City manager making $200,000 in salary in benefits with an assistant who does all my busy work for me! Nor did I haggle over the minutiae of this deal for well over a year. But that’s just me.

Here is the deal, if you want to take a gander….

Industrial-ParkDownload

Finley must be swamped with all the train wrecks currently going on around him like the disastrous Hostess House bids and the skate park still not being done. Oh well. I’ll give you my synopsis – which is likely 100% correct. I’ll edit this later if Finley says I got something wrong.

#1 – Martin Rod & Custom (MRC) is renting the entire 5.6 acre parcel from the City for only $100 per month. Yes, you read that correctly – $17.50 per acre per month. Or about 1/20th of a penny per square foot. I remember a couple years ago when a farmer friend of mine said she was renting land for $500 per acre per month. Too bad she didn’t have a city government of the other side of HER deal!

Mind you, Martin himself admits he thinks he can rent this space out (boat and RV storage) for $50 per month per boat/RV for 50 boats/RVs and rake in $2,500 per month [see page 23 under Business Description]. I am doubtful he can pull that off, but I will humor him.

Making 25x your cost is not a bad ROI at all. He will make $30,000 per year if he is right – and pay the City $1,200 for the land he is using. At the very LEAST, he will cover his $100 per month with ease. Hell, he could just store his own personal crap there and come out ahead on this. So this is ZERO risk to him. None.

#2 – The City removed the concrete there for $38,300 SPECIFICALLY for MRC. So the City starts off in the hole that amount. The City lied about this in October of last year. This was the first gift.

#3 – The city can change and extend any of the deadlines in the deal, if they want to. So, if we get to June of this year and things are kind of a disaster for MRC, the City can give him more rope to save face when this ridiculous fairy tale fails to materialize (see page 15 – “The City may grant an extension to the deadlines noted herein…).

#4 – Phase I (Martin basically doing nothing but hanging out a shingle that says “park your shit here” and collecting some money) creates ZERO “primary jobs”. If you want a definition of “primary jobs”, see page 7 of the Economic Development Incentive Guidelines and Principles”

So far, we see zero upside for the City here: they spend almost $40,000 to clean up the land, collect $1,200 from MRC for the year and MRC pockets $30,000 for himself – and creates ZERO JOBS…which is supposedly the Prime Directive of Economic Development, as I understand it.

As far as I can tell, this “RV and boat storage” “phase” of the “agreement” may last one year OR it may last two years! A nice option for MRC – and I have no doubt he will take the entire two years. Why wouldn’t he?? That’s $60,000 in his pocket for doing very little. He can push the wild promises of “Phase II” out another year at no cost to himself.

Now the “Agreement” says he needs to “negotiate the terms of Phase II” by June 30th of this year. But remember: the City can change that any time they want. Also, he only needs to “negotiate the terms, including capital improvements and employment projections” – which is STILL all just “pie in the sky” bullshit on paper. We have seen how easy it is to bullshit the City when we watched Eco-Strong and Mike Cour make up mountains of lies and get away with it repeatedly.

#5 – MRC has the right BUT NOT THE OBLIGATION to buy the property for $165,000. This is the second gift. As a former professional derivatives trader myself, I can tell you this is known as a “zero-cost call” or a “free look”. All upside and no downside. The City can only renegotiate the price of the land if MRC takes longer than 18 months to shit or get off the pot. Until then? Free look.

If the real estate market takes off scorching hot again in the next 18 months (which I consider unlikely), MRC can grab the land at a bargain price. On the other hand, if the economy is deeper in the shitter and land prices are too, MRC can walk away from this entire thing, as I understand it.

I see nowhere in this document where he is FORCED to buy the land nor pay any penalty for not doing so. Finley can correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ll be damned if I can see any real penalty for walking away from this whole thing and never doing Phase II as described.

I am guessing that “deals” like this one will be struck for the Business Pork Project too, someday. All upside for a company which puts no skin in the game and all downside for the taxpayers.

Industrial Park Agreement Shows City Lied to Public Back in October 2022.

Last October, Finley came to City council asking for $38,300 to demolish all the concrete at the 5.6 acre Industrial Park plot (on east 580 across from Martin’s Rod and Custom) and to haul away approximately 420 tons of said concrete.

His reasoning? [see page 71]

Staff has identified the need to remove surplus, excess, damaged, and unusable concrete work at the City’s Industrial Park to make the property more marketable. Council to consider a motion to award contract for concrete removal in the amount of $38,300 to WT Excavation.

I was highly suspicious of this reason at the time. That was the SAME piece of property that was supposedly being negotiated over with Martin Rod & Custom. It made no sense that this was to “make it more marketable” generally when Martin was looking to “make a deal” on that same piece of land specifically.

What made sense to ME was that Martin demanded the City pay $38,300 to fix it up for him before he would agree to anything. But Finley presented this in a deceptive way – neglecting to inform us this was essentially a gift to Martin Rod and Custom:

Is Finley Getting Nut-Punched Yet Again?

As I wrote at the time:

BUT here’s the rub: if the agreement has been sitting on the desk of and “in the possession” of Mr. Martin and his attorney for the last seven months, then why is the City suddenly unilaterally spending almost $40,000 to “make it more marketable”?

Or did we not get the entire truth? Is the truth maybe “Martin demanded we pay to have to concrete removed or he won’t go forward”? If that is the case, then THAT should have been mentioned at the City council meeting.

… maybe Martin demanded the concrete be removed (at great expense to the taxpayer) and the City lied and said they did it to “make it more marketable” – and conveniently omitted the part about who was actually demanding it be done.

Turns out I was right. This is directly from the newly-released details of the agreement:

ARTICLE IX: City’s Contribution

9.01 – “City agrees to provide and pay for the initial clearing of the property.”

Also in ARTICLE VIII: ACTIONS PRECEDENT TO PHASE II

8.02 – “City commences clearing of concrete structures at the site, leveling with road base material”

So the taxpayer paid to “make it more marketable”, all right. But not more marketable for the CITY in terms of finding a tenant! It was to make it more marketable for MARTIN’s ROD & CUSTOM when they start their “PHASE I” of the agreement – which involves Martin getting paid by people to store their boats and RVs there. Finley just left that part out.

Incompetence and Insanity On Full Display: Hostess House Bids Come In at $3 Million – Or $1.12 Million Over Already-Bloated Previous Estimate

Holy shit.

Cathy “Even If It Costs a Little More” Kuehne better start practicing her “shocked face” in the mirror this weekend between bites of pork chop panko…she’s going to need to use it at Monday’s council meeting.

The art-teacher-who-would-be-mayor is likely soiling her undergarments right now as she realizes that she and the other profligate spenders on City council are now very much painted into a corner.

I cannot wait to hear her ridiculous “how did this happen?” bleats on Monday evening as she tries to pretend she had nothing to do with any of this.

“How could we have known?” they will cry out in disbelief!

How indeed.

If you’d listened to this blog and the “cowardly keyboard warrior” who called it from the start, you would have been prepared for this.

Here is an excerpt from my blog post last October – Old City Hall 2.0: Hostess House Costs EXPLODE To $1.88 Million! Up 44% From Last Estimate!!

I wrote:

I warned you! I warned you over and over and over. I laughed when the Hostess House “minor repairs” were first talked about….

Birth of ANOTHER bad idea under Mayor Misti Talbert

That was exactly three years ago. Just some “minor repairs” and “minor decorations”. Yeah, sure. I called bullshit. I reminded you of the Old City Hall debacle and the $1.6 million spent on that vanity project (soon to be $1.85 million) – a pet project of Misti Talbert’s.

THEN it jumped up to “about $200,000”, according to City Manager Finley deGraffenreid in the Lampasas Dispatch in March 2021 – a mere 18 months ago:

Maybe Finley can stand up there and tell us how he never said this…kinda like the skate park lies.

Council picks architecture firm for Hostess House upgrades

THEN it ballooned to $1,308,670 – which is a sick joke all by itself. Morons like Cathy Kuehne said they should keep the historical look “even if it costs more”. Why not? It’s not her money! It’s just play money, apparently!

But I knew from years of watching these clowns that it wouldn’t stop at $1.3 million. No way. As of today, the costs have exploded once again…as they ALWAYS DO. That’s what happens when chimpanzees get ahold of somebody else’s checkbook.

The NEW estimate is $1.879,483.55 [see page 67]

My god. It turned out to be even worse than I imagined back then. I guess we aren’t stopping at $1.88 million either. RKJ [of bungled OCH elevator fame] was the LOWER of the two bids at a hair under $3,000,000.00

Three million. You could build 6 nice houses for that money. At this point, you might want to just have the Hostess House hit by Jewish lightning after making sure it is fully insured.

Three million for an “event venue” that MIGHT bring in $12,000 per year AT MOST to the City coffers. So it will only take 250 years to break even on this project. I remember not too many years ago morons like Bruce Haywood were saying the City should build an entire civic center from scratch and that it would only cost about $2.5 million.

Now the question is: why didn’t Reliance Architecture (who has ALREADY been paid a TON OF MONEY to “manage” this debacle) have a better estimate of the costs?

This is the EXACT SAME THING that happened with the Old City Hall “remodel” 8 years ago when JNW Architects fucked up the EXACT SAME WAY.

Here we are again.

There is no way in hell they can accept these bids. They will have to be rejected. Then what?

Monday night should be fun.

City Makes Atrocious “Deal” With Martin Custom & Rod. Taxpayers Heavily Screwed.

Well, I can see why they wanted to keep this a secret. The “deal” also revealed yet another lie by the City last fall…but we’ll get to that later.

I am still going through this and have submitted some questions to the City manager to make sure I understand the details of this “deal” and will report by this weekend. But it looks like lose/lose for the taxpayer and win/win for Martin Custom & Rod. No surprises there.

Meanwhile, here is the EASY way to solve the math problem from yesterday. A couple guys I know who I consider smart made it WAY too complicated and tried to bring algebra into it. Remember, this is a FIFTH-GRADE math question, according to Reddit. Only a little logic and simple division need be applies.

On the second day, the kid reads 1/8 of the book. On the third day, he read 1/4 of the book – which we convert to 2/8 immediately to make all the denominators the same. Ergo, he read 3/8 of the book on day two and three.

THEREFORE, he had to have read 5/8 of the book on the first day – and we know that is 30 pages. Ergo, 30 pages = 5/8 of the book. How do we determine how many pages represents 1/8? What number divides 5 times into 30? Answer? The number 6. Therefore, 6 pages represents 1/8 of the book.

The book is therefore 48 pages (1/8 = 6 so 6×8 is 48)

I know “Doctor” Chane Rascoe has been crowing recently about how awesome our schools are. I wonder if I showed this to every 5th grader in Lampasas ISD, how many would get it right. My over/under is 10%.

I Bet Cathy Kuehne Cannot Solve This 5th-Grade Math Question…

This popped up in my feed this morning. I always marvel that most of the population cannot do basic math. It isn’t even math, really. It’s logic. I bet many of the teachers screaming for a $70,000 starting salary cannot get the answer to this, either. Which is very sad.

I can hear “well, I’m not a math teacher” – which is nonsense. Every adult should be able to figure out a 5th-grade math question. It’s like being able to spell the plural of “STORY”.

There is no way idiots like Bruce Haywood or Clayton Tucker would get it either. If they understood basic math and logic, they would not be pushing for pinwheels and solar panels.

A lack of rudimentary math knowledge is the root of almost every problem in America.

For those of you who want to help your kids in the math department, I highly recommend the book “Innumeracy” – one of the best books ever written.

Yet Another LEDC Exercise In Wheel Spinning Replaced By Free Market

First it was the LEDC Facebook reposts replaced by DoLampasas.

Now, we have Workforce Solutions taking care of the job fair that the LEDC does every year.

Will that stop the LEDC from re-inventing the wheel and having their OWN job fair this spring? Probably not. When you are paying an “economic development director” over $100,000 in salary and benefits, they need to look busy doing SOMETHING!

I never understood the LEDC “job fair” thing around here every year. It might have made sense when I was a young kid in the late 1980s and early 1990s, because we didn’t have the Internet and social media and about 100 other ways to look for jobs with the push of a button. We had to go out and pound the pavement.

These pussies today have it so easy, and they STILL whine about finding a job. Unbelievable.

Lampasas Sales Tax Receipts Up 6.54% For January – Trails State Again

Sales tax receipts have cooled considerably – up only 6.54% over last January.

For comparison, LAST January, receipts were up 17% over the previous January.

The State of Texas as a whole saw receipts increase 9.4% – so Lampasas trails the state by almost 3 percentage points.

The OFFICIAL inflation rate is 6.5% – so this shows out sales tax increase is flat, at best, in REAL terms. We all know that inflation is hotter than 6.5% however. Looks like the start of a serious cooling-off period after the torrid increases due to Biden money printing.