#i gotta figure out equity now and its the last thing i want to do with my life

[essential-randomness]

Twitter: here's resources for founders in silicon valley who might need support with their companies

me, looking down the list, the dread rising with each pic of people having "business fun":

[dumdeeedum]

“The Magicians” Alice/Quentin/Eliot Love Triangle? Que? No, let’s stop the fuck right there...

I’m so frustrated with how bad Wednesday night’s episode of “The Magicians” was and with how bad this entire season has been, especially with how poorly they’ve handled anything to do with Alice, Quentin, and Eliot. I mean, generally I’m frustrated with how bad this show can be way too often but I’m going to try to keep my thoughts as organized as I can.

I want to preface all of this by saying that no, I don’t believe they’re still pursuing Eliot and Quentin because they’ve still given me no reason to. I just wanted to express my thoughts on these rumors of a love triangle and who knows, they might go that way, I don’t work there. I just know that for now they’ve set things up in a really poor way and I don’t see a true Eliot and Quentin outcome happening for a while if at all.

First I gotta reiterate this in case it isn’t clear: this is not a well-written show for me, it’s a fun show, to be sure, but not a well-written one. They have too few episodes to get away with the amount of dicking around they do and it’s clear they have no direction even when they have source material to draw from, and that’s a bad combination and a big problem. And those are just some of its issues.

A show like “Black Sails,” for example, had about 8 episodes per season and made good use of every minute of them because that’s how you tell the story you want to tell when you have limited time and can’t fuck around with filler. Very similar situation with the show “Spartacus” with a similar number of episodes per season to “The Magicians” and they wrapped it up in 4 seasons. But I tend to think 4-5 seasons is the limit before a show loses focus and goes downhill anyway. 

It has also become clear to me that Sera Gamble has no interest in doing anything progressive. She wants to be one of the boys, play the game and get ahead which is her prerogative but at this point people have to come to terms with the fact that she’s always been a White Feminist(tm) and quit fucking around like she gives a shit about equity for marginalized communities or even visibility. All of the bullshit to do with Sera Gamble has been known for years now, too, so I’m not even sure why anyone would be surprised that she sucks at this point. I’m sure she’s sitting somewhere right now unable to understand where she fucked up and why because she doesn’t have it in her to accept criticism and it shows. Last I heard she’s still going after people on twitter for not liking the outcomes of her dumbass decisions as a show-runner; bitch, grow up!

You know what would be truly radical in this series? Stop having these women live for these men. Julia is off losing her autonomy to a man, again, Kady is about ready to allow herself to die because she misses her boyfriend, Margo is ditching the plan to save her best friend over some super mediocre, joke of a man she can do better than without even trying, and Alice is once again in Quentin’s orbit and having nothing to do for herself. Yay, feminism? You’re fucking kidding me, right? 

And now I’m hearing people saying that they’re trying to set up a love triangle in season 5 between Eliot, Quentin, and Alice and I think the idea of this disgusts me more than if they’d just drop Eliot and Quentin as a pairing altogether after the massive fuckup that was the latter part of this season. How obtuse do you have to be to think a bisexual love triangle would be appropriate queer representation given our social climate? But here’s the thing, they’re playing on your intelligence if they do this, again, and I’m about to explain why.

Yes, it’s going to get lengthy because I’m going to be discussing the show from a social but also from a narrative standpoint, but you know me by now.

Don’t get it twisted, what they would ultimately be doing if they went this route is giving us even more straight representation while under the guise of bisexual representation given that Alice and Quentin are now back together, as a straight couple whether you think Quentin is bisexual or not. And that’s what matters when it comes to queer visibility. We’ve gotten straight Quentin pairings now from seasons 1-4 and they’ve yet to have Quentin explore any same-sex romantic partnerships or even fantasies other than the nonsense with Eliot because those were blink and you miss them moments. 

And here’s the insidiousness of all of this and I really want people to think about this: They would use this as an excuse to still appear as though they were doing right by their queer audience while once again only really exploring one facet of Quentin’s supposed bisexuality, the more palatable one, while ignoring the other, more taboo one and calling it bisexual representation. That is not good bisexual representation, at all, how can it be?

And god forbid you raise a stink over these poor attempts at representation because then you get accused of hating and bi-phobia and of erasing Quentin’s bisexuality and blah blah blah. And, really, bisexual, where? Where are we going to get this exploration of Quentin’s sexuality while he’s dating Alice again and Eliot is somewhere in the sidelines dealing with the aftermath of being possessed by a being who murdered people using his body? 

Can we stop with the intellectual dishonesty? Can we stop accepting these insults to the intelligence of the lgbtqa community? 

And no, don’t even pretend the idea of a poly-amorous relationship wouldn’t be a fucking absurdity given their history. Quentin and Alice broke up because Quentin fucked Eliot and Margo. One of the people involved in that betrayal would be one of the last people Alice would want to share her boyfriend with. And that’s if she would even be OK with a poly-amorous relationship to begin with because the idea seemed to disturb her when her parents were doing it and frankly, not everyone is poly-amorous, in fact, most people aren’t. 

Unfortunately, that’s just part of living in a heteronormative society where people, as a whole, just aren’t evolved enough yet to have explored other types of relationship dynamics because of the restrictions society has placed on them and it is what it is. The polyamory argument doesn’t even belong in the same space as the bisexuality argument because it makes bisexuality seem like a life choice as opposed to something people are born as. I’d say it’s less realistic, right now, to have everyone OK with sharing their significant others with everyone than to have a person identify as bisexual! Most people don’t have the self-confidence or the conditions to improve their self-esteem enough to even explore poly yet, and some people just aren’t into it and that’s their right, but I digress.

It just seems like everything that should have been happening in this season would instead be happening next season if they went this route and the only difference would be that they’d have made it palatable for their straight, homophobic audience by having Alice on Quentin’s dick the majority of the time they should be using to explore Quentin’s sexuality. When would they have time to give Quentin the important moments of introspection he needs to figure out whom and what he wants? Even his getting back together with Alice was very abrupt and didn’t seem like a well thought out decision on either Quentin’s or Alice’s part. Why couldn’t they just be single for a while if they were going to waste season 4 and work on this in season 5??

But this is just what they do by now because they can’t write a good romance. Straight shit gets put on the fast track in an absurdly unrealistic way, everyone’s in love in 5 minutes, smart, beautiful, boss bitch women date mediocre men when we’d never see it the other way around, and anything queer gets a couple of seconds of screen-time at best before someone is killed off, or they add a woman to the mix for no good reason, or we have to do a 50 year montage with no actual romantic intimacy to establish tha they’re even romantically interested in one another, blah blah, woof, woof.

Here’s a good question for those of you bi-Quentin-stans: None of you think it odd that while these creators kept alluding to exploring a canon male/male pairing with a bisexual character Alice and Julia, two women whom have exclusively dated men, have still had, to date, a longer, more sexually charged make out scene than gay Eliot and a supposedly bisexual Quentin ever have? Not to mention that the only time we explore Quentin’s sexuality in fantasy it’s some super fucking trite women making out for his pleasure fantasy.

No one thinks about why that is? No one thinks that perhaps it’s because depicting lesbian situations for the male gaze is a super common thing to do in media and is another one of those things that allows creators to pretend they have queer representation when really they’re trying to draw male views by exploiting the women of their series? It seemed pretty obvious to me as soon as I saw it but I haven’t fucked around with critiques of this shit in a long time and I don’t let this shit slide.

So now if they went the love triangle route in season 5 how would that work?

We’ve gotten a story line where not only was Eliot right that Quentin wouldn’t choose him when Quentin has the choice, but Eliot is going to have to come back and see this shit and deal with it on top of whatever massive trauma being possessed like this would inevitably cause. Do we really see Eliot saying anything to Quentin after that knowing what we know about Eliot’s way of handling shit? 4.5 leaves us thinking that maybe Eliot now sees that perhaps he shouldn’t have been so quick to reject Quentin and that perhaps Quentin would have chosen him and that Eliot wasn’t right to suggest he wouldn’t and yet here we are. And knowing what we know about Eliot would he try to get between that?

I actually think they’d done a good job closing the chapter on Alice and Quentin when Quentin told Alice he didn’t love her anymore and closed the book and I think they could have explored a really good friendship between them after that! That should have been when Alice and Kady did their own library thing and became more fully-fleshed out characters in their own right and when Quentin started exploring his own options and realizing he would choose Eliot even if at the time he thought Eliot wouldn’t choose him. Because this is something he should have been thinking about anyway!

There seems to be a pretty big issue that no one is considering about 4.5 and it’s a result of this ret-con having been handled so poorly so they couldn’t do what really needed to be done with the aftermath of it. The rejection conversation was really fucking poorly done because it was such a short, almost throwaway scene! We have Quentin get his memories back and immediately jump to wanting to be with Eliot and Eliot rejects him, for very good reason, in my opinion. Quentin seems a little bummed about it and then the scene ends. But from what we know about episodes 3.5 and on, Quentin hasn’t given it another thought. It didn’t even come up when he talked up Fillory to the plant so I really reject the premise that it was so traumatic for him to be rejected by Eliot that he didn’t even want to talk about anything to do with Fillory. Unless he’s even more immature than I thought it seems really unlikely that being rejected would eliminate all the other good shit in Quentin’s mind that relates to that lifetime, like, I don’t know, his fucking wife, his son, his grandchildren!? Miss me with that and stop excusing the shit decisions they make for Quentin in this show.

Was the idea here that they continue to go this route where everyone is expected to consider Quentin's feelings but he isn’t expected to consider theirs? Quentin has a habit of being inconsiderate dating back to season 1 (For Julia, his best friend, not getting into Brakebills was her punishment because she wouldn’t fuck him, Alice shouldn’t be upset that he cheated on her and Quentin doesn’t have to respect it when she tells him to back off, etc.) and the reasoning is always that Quentin’s got a low self-esteem and depressive issues but that’s not good enough now with 50 years of life experience under his belt. It’s especially not good enough when it comes to a man whom he’s known an entire lifetime through good and bad. So why didn’t they have him even consider what Eliot said to him and the validity of it?

Eliot explicitly says to Quentin that he knows Quentin so he knows how this would turn out, and Eliot was right! But somehow when Eliot rejects Quentin it isn’t incumbent upon Quentin to consider why Eliot would do that even though Quentin knows his own dating history and that he’d had a wife in Fillory? We’re just supposed to accept that Quentin just took the rejection at face value without even really listening to the wording or thinking about where Eliot might be coming from? Neither his nor Eliot’s problems or desires in the real world have suddenly disappeared just because they got their memories of Fillory back and Quentin knows that. Eliot made that point when he rejected Quentin, in a way, so isn’t there more to consider here? It’s especially egregious for this to be Quentin’s take away when we remember that Eliot didn’t have a husband in Fillory so Eliot was always there for Quentin and Quentin’s son and even Quentin’s wife in ways Quentin couldn’t be there for Eliot. How could it be as simple as “in the real world, you don’t do it for me” by Quentin? That’s just dumb.

A better scene would have had Eliot qualify his rejection to a man he spent 50 fucking years in love with so that Quentin could consider Eliot’s feelings on the subject before jumping to conclusions or even making a decision about them. And Quentin could have taken a moment to discuss Eliot’s insecurities if he really wanted to be with him or even just understand them. But instead the takeaway is more “poor victim Quentin isn’t special.” That’s just bad writing!

And what about Eliot? What does he get in all of this if they went the triangle route? Would they then allow him to explore a non-toxic relationship of his own or would he be sitting by like a dog and watching this shitshow of a romance between Quentin and Alice for however long it takes before they give us a sprinkling of Queliot? And who will be there to support him when his best friend is off fucking around with that loser Josh and Quentin is back with the girl that Eliot was afraid Quentin would choose over him? This effectively leaves Eliot alone to handle shit the way he’s always handled it and that’s just bad for his character after all the development he’s had. 

What kind of queer representation is this going to be moving forward? We barely got Eliot this season, will he just sort of be there next season and have just as little to do as he had this season? He has nothing more to do in Fillory so where will they stick him now?

Narratively, everything that’s happened post 4.5 has really fucked the ability for an Eliot and Quentin pairing to work unless they double time it in season 5 and I don’t see how they can when Quentin is with Alice again. The show-runners have really gone out of their way to erase anything having to do with Eliot and Quentin as a couple to the point where it makes 3.5 and 4.5 seem like alternate universe versions of the show that don’t fit into the rest of the series. It’s clear to me at this point that they’re trying to move past the idea of Eliot and Quentin as a couple so even a triangle would seem really bizarre in light of that.

I’m not seeing it, I’m really not and as much as I know people want to hold out hope that Eliot and Quentin will happen I just feel like at this point the show would be trying to run out the clock without giving them anything substantial the same way they did this season. Everyone’s obviously free to do what they want with that but realistically I would hold out and not give them ratings until we see if they give us something that isn’t insulting bullshit.

[didanawisgi]

The Reckoning of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center

By Bob Moser (2019)

“In the days since the stunning dismissal of Morris Dees, the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, on March 14th, I’ve been thinking about the jokes my S.P.L.C. colleagues and I used to tell to keep ourselves sane. Walking to lunch past the center’s Maya Lin–designed memorial to civil-rights martyrs, we’d cast a glance at the inscription from Martin Luther King, Jr., etched into the black marble—“Until justice rolls down like waters”—and intone, in our deepest voices, “Until justice rolls down like dollars.” The Law Center had a way of turning idealists into cynics; like most liberals, our view of the S.P.L.C. before we arrived had been shaped by its oft-cited listings of U.S. hate groups, its reputation for winning cases against the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations, and its stream of direct-mail pleas for money to keep the good work going. The mailers, in particular, painted a vivid picture of a scrappy band of intrepid attorneys and hate-group monitors, working under constant threat of death to fight hatred and injustice in the deepest heart of Dixie. When the S.P.L.C. hired me as a writer, in 2001, I figured I knew what to expect: long hours working with humble resources and a highly diverse bunch of super-dedicated colleagues. I felt self-righteous about the work before I’d even begun it.

The first surprise was the office itself. On a hill in downtown Montgomery, down the street from both Jefferson Davis’s Confederate White House and the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where M.L.K. preached and organized, the center had recently built a massive modernist glass-and-steel structure that the social critic James Howard Kunstler would later liken to a “Darth Vader building” that made social justice “look despotic.” It was a cold place inside, too. The entrance was through an underground bunker, past multiple layers of human and electronic security. Cameras were everywhere in the open-plan office, which made me feel like a Pentagon staffer, both secure and insecure at once. But nothing was more uncomfortable than the racial dynamic that quickly became apparent: a fair number of what was then about a hundred employees were African-American, but almost all of them were administrative and support staff—“the help,” one of my black colleagues said pointedly. The “professional staff”—the lawyers, researchers, educators, public-relations officers, and fund-raisers—were almost exclusively white. Just two staffers, including me, were openly gay.

During my first few weeks, a friendly new co-worker couldn’t help laughing at my bewilderment. “Well, honey, welcome to the Poverty Palace,” she said. “I can guaran-damn-tee that you will never step foot in a more contradictory place as long as you live.”

“Everything feels so out of whack,” I said. “Where are the lawyers? Where’s the diversity? What in God’s name is going on here?”

“And you call yourself a journalist!” she said, laughing again. “Clearly you didn’t do your research.”

In the decade or so before I’d arrived, the center’s reputation as a beacon of justice had taken some hits from reporters who’d peered behind the façade. In 1995, the Montgomery Advertiser had been a Pulitzer finalist for a series that documented, among other things, staffers’ allegations of racial discrimination within the organization. In Harper’s, Ken Silverstein had revealed that the center had accumulated an endowment topping a hundred and twenty million dollars while paying lavish salaries to its highest-ranking staffers and spending far less than most nonprofit groups on the work that it claimed to do. The great Southern journalist John Egerton, writing for The Progressive, had painted a damning portrait of Dees, the center’s longtime mastermind, as a “super-salesman and master fundraiser” who viewed civil-rights work mainly as a marketing tool for bilking gullible Northern liberals. “We just run our business like a business,” Dees told Egerton. “Whether you’re selling cakes or causes, it’s all the same.”

Co-workers stealthily passed along these articles to me—it was a rite of passage for new staffers, a cautionary heads-up about what we’d stepped into with our noble intentions. Incoming female staffers were additionally warned by their new colleagues about Dees’s reputation for hitting on young women. And the unchecked power of the lavishly compensated white men at the top of the organization—Dees and the center’s president, Richard Cohen—made staffers pessimistic that any of these issues would ever be addressed. “I expected there’d be a lot of creative bickering, a sort of democratic free-for-all,” my friend Brian, a journalist who came aboard a year after me, said one day. “But everybody is so deferential to Morris and Richard. It’s like a fucking monarchy around here.” The work could be meaningful and gratifying. But it was hard, for many of us, not to feel like we’d become pawns in what was, in many respects, a highly profitable scam.

For the many former staffers who have come and gone through the center’s doors—I left in 2004—the queasy feelings came rushing back last week, when the news broke that Dees, now eighty-two, had been fired. The official statement sent by Cohen, who took control of the S.P.L.C. in 2003, didn’t specify why Dees had been dismissed, but it contained some broad hints. “We’re committed to ensuring that our workplace embodies the values we espouse—truth, justice, equity, and inclusion,” Cohen wrote. “When one of our own fails to meet those standards, no matter his or her role in the organization, we take it seriously and must take appropriate action.” Dees’s profile was immediately erased from the S.P.L.C.’s Web site—amazing, considering that he had remained, to the end, the main face and voice of the center, his signature on most of the direct-mail appeals that didn’t come from celebrity supporters, such as the author Toni Morrison.

While right-wingers tweeted gleefully about the demise of a figure they’d long vilified—“Hate group founder has been fired by his hate group,” the alt-right provocateur Mike Cernovich chirped—S.P.L.C. alums immediately reconnected with one another, buzzing about what might have happened and puzzling over the timing, sixteen years after Dees handed the reins to Cohen and went into semi-retirement. “I guess there’s nothing like a funeral to bring families back together,” another former writer at the center said, speculating about what might have prompted the move. “It could be racial, sexual, financial—that place was a virtual buffet of injustices,” she said. Why would they fire him now?

One day later, the Los Angeles Times and the Alabama Political Reporter reported that Dees’s ouster had come amid a staff revolt over the mistreatment of nonwhite and female staffers, which was sparked by the resignation of the senior attorney Meredith Horton, the highest-ranking African-American woman at the center. A number of staffers subsequently signed onto two letters of protest to the center’s leadership, alleging that multiple reports of sexual harassment by Dees through the years had been ignored or covered up, and sometimes resulted in retaliation against the women making the claims. (Dees denied the allegations, telling a reporter, “I don’t know who you’re talking to or talking about, but that is not right.”)

The staffers wrote that Dees’s firing was welcome but insufficient: their larger concern, they emphasized, was a widespread pattern of racial and gender discrimination by the center’s current leadership, stretching back many years. (The S.P.L.C. has since appointed Tina Tchen, a former chief of staff for Michelle Obama, to conduct a review of its workplace environment.) If Cohen and other senior leaders thought that they could shunt the blame, the riled-up staffers seem determined to prove them wrong. One of my former female colleagues told me that she didn’t want to go into details of her harassment for this story, because she believes the focus should be on the S.P.L.C.’s current leadership. “I just gotta hope your piece helps keep the momentum for change going,” she said. Stephen Bright, a Yale professor and longtime S.P.L.C. critic, told me, “These chickens took a very long flight before they came home to roost.” The question, for current and former staffers alike, is how many chickens will come to justice before this long-overdue reckoning is complete.

The controversy erupted at a moment when the S.P.L.C. had never been more prominent, or more profitable. Donald Trump’s Presidency opened up a gusher of donations; after raising fifty million dollars in 2016, the center took in a hundred and thirty-two million dollars in 2017, much of it coming after the violent spectacle that unfolded at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that August. George and Amal Clooney’s justice foundation donated a million, as did Apple, which also added a donation button for the S.P.L.C. to its iTunes store. JPMorgan chipped in five hundred thousand dollars. The new money pushed the center’s endowment past four hundred and fifty million dollars, which is more than the total assets of the American Civil Liberties Union, and it now employs an all-time high of around three hundred and fifty staffers. But none of that has slackened its constant drive for more money. “If you’re outraged about the path President Trump is taking, I urge you to join us in the fight against the mainstreaming of hate,” a direct-mail appeal signed by Dees last year read. “Please join our fight today with a gift of $25, $35, or $100 to help us. Working together, we can push back against these bigots.”

In 1971, when the center opened, Dees was already a colorful and controversial figure in Alabama. While studying law at the University of Alabama, in the late nineteen-fifties, “Dees sold holly wreaths and birthday cakes, published a student telephone directory, dabbled in real estate,” Egerton wrote. He also worked for George Wallace’s first, unsuccessful bid for governor, in 1958. Upon graduating, in 1960, Dees teamed up with another ambitious student, Millard Fuller, who’d go on to found Habitat for Humanity. They opened a direct-mail business in Montgomery, selling doormats, tractor-seat cushions, and cookbooks. “Morris and I, from the first day of our partnership, shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money,” Fuller would later recall. “We were not particular about how we did it.” While running their business, the two also practiced law. In 1961, they defended one of the men charged with beating up Freedom Riders at a bus terminal in Montgomery. According to Fuller, “Our fee was paid by the Klan and the White Citizens’ Council.”

In the late sixties, Dees sold the direct-mail operation to the Times Mirror Company, of Los Angeles, reportedly for between six and seven million dollars. But he soon sniffed out a new avenue for his marketing genius. In 1969, he successfully sued to integrate the local Y.M.C.A., after two black children were turned away from summer camp. Two years later, he co-founded the Law Center, with another Montgomery attorney, Joe Levin, Jr. He volunteered to raise money for George McGovern’s Presidential campaign, and, with McGovern’s blessing, used its donor list of seven hundred thousand people to help launch the S.P.L.C.’s direct-mail operations. The center won some big cases early on, including a lawsuit that forced the Alabama legislature to divide into single-member districts, insuring the election of the state’s first African-American lawmakers since Reconstruction. In 1975, the S.P.L.C. started a defense fund for Joan Little, a black prisoner in North Carolina who’d stabbed to death a jailer who attempted to rape her; the case became a national sensation and drew attention to the intrepid little operation in Montgomery. Dees, of course, had already positioned the Law Center to capitalize on the positive press.

A decade or so later, the center began to abandon poverty law—representing death-row defendants and others who lacked the means to hire proper representation—to focus on taking down the Ku Klux Klan. This was a seemingly odd mission, given that the Klan, which had millions of members in the nineteen-twenties, was mostly a spent force by the mid-eighties, with only an estimated ten thousand members scattered across the country. But “Dees saw the Klan as a perfect target,” Egerton wrote. For millions of Americans, the K.K.K. still personified violent white supremacy in America, and Dees “perceived chinks in the Klan’s armor: poverty and poor education in its ranks, competitive squabbling among the leaders, scattered and disunited factions, undisciplined behavior, limited funds, few if any good lawyers.” Along with legal challenges to what was left of the Klan, the center launched Klanwatch, which monitored the group’s activities. Klanwatch was the seed for what became the broader-based Intelligence Project, which tracks extremists and produces the S.P.L.C.’s annual hate-group list.

The only thing easier than beating the Klan in court—“like shooting fish in a barrel,” one of Dees’s associates told Egerton—was raising money off Klan-fighting from liberals up north, who still had fresh visions of the violent confrontations of the sixties in their heads. The S.P.L.C. got a huge publicity boost in July, 1983, when three Klansmen firebombed its headquarters. A melted clock from the burned-down building, stuck at 3:47 a.m., is featured in the main lobby of the Montgomery office today. In 1987, the center won a landmark seven-million-dollar damage judgment against the Klan; a decade later, in 1998, it scored a thirty-eight-million-dollar judgment against Klansmen who burned down a black church in South Carolina. With those victories, Dees claimed the right to boast into perpetuity that the S.P.L.C. had effectively “shut down” the K.K.K.

By the time I touched down in Montgomery, the center had increased its staff and branched out considerably—adding an educational component called Teaching Tolerance and expanding its legal and intelligence operations to target a broad range of right-wing groups and injustices—but the basic formula perfected in the eighties remained the same. The annual hate-group list, which in 2018 included a thousand and twenty organizations, both small and large, remains a valuable resource for journalists and a masterstroke of Dees’s marketing talents; every year, when the center publishes it, mainstream outlets write about the “rising tide of hate” discovered by the S.P.L.C.’s researchers, and reporters frequently refer to the list when they write about the groups. As critics have long pointed out, however, the hate-group designations also drive attention to the extremists. Many groups, including the religious-right Family Research Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom, raise considerable money by decrying the S.P.L.C.’s “attacks.”

In recent years, the center has broadened its legal work, returning to some poverty law; around eighty attorneys now work in five Southern states, challenging, among other things, penal juvenile-justice systems and draconian anti-immigration laws. But the center continues to take in far more than it spends. And it still tends to emphasize splashy cases that are sure to draw national attention. The most notable, when I was there, was a lawsuit to remove a Ten Commandments monument that was brazenly placed in the main lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building, just across the street from S.P.L.C. headquarters, by Roy Moore, who was then the state’s chief justice. Like the S.P.L.C.’s well-publicized 2017 lawsuit against Andrew Anglin, the neo-Nazi publisher of the Daily Stormer, it was a vintage example of the center’s central strategy: taking on cases guaranteed to make headlines and inflame the far right while demonstrating to potential donors that the center has not only all the right enemies but also the grit and know-how to take them down.

These days, whenever I tell people in New York or Washington, D.C., that I used to work at the Southern Poverty Law Center, their eyes tend to light up. “Oh, wow, what was that like?” they’ll ask. Sometimes, depending on my mood, I’ll regale them with stories about the reporting I did there—exposing anti-immigration extremists on the Arizona-Mexico border, tracking down a wave of anti-transgender hate crimes, writing a comprehensive history of the religious right’s war on gays. But then, considering whether to explain what an unsettling experience it could be, I’ll add, “It’s complicated, though,” and try to change the subject.

For those of us who’ve worked in the Poverty Palace, putting it all into perspective isn’t easy, even to ourselves. We were working with a group of dedicated and talented people, fighting all kinds of good fights, making life miserable for the bad guys. And yet, all the time, dark shadows hung over everything: the racial and gender disparities, the whispers about sexual harassment, the abuses that stemmed from the top-down management, and the guilt you couldn’t help feeling about the legions of donors who believed that their money was being used, faithfully and well, to do the Lord’s work in the heart of Dixie. We were part of the con, and we knew it.

Outside of work, we spent a lot of time drinking and dishing in Montgomery bars and restaurants about the oppressive security regime, the hyperbolic fund-raising appeals, and the fact that, though the center claimed to be effective in fighting extremism, “hate” always continued to be on the rise, more dangerous than ever, with each year’s report on hate groups. “The S.P.L.C.—making hate pay,” we’d say.

It wasn’t funny then. At this moment, it seems even grimmer. The firing of Dees has flushed up all the uncomfortable questions again. Were we complicit, by taking our paychecks and staying silent, in ripping off donors on behalf of an organization that never lived up to the values it espoused? Did we enable racial discrimination and sexual harassment by failing to speak out? “Of course we did,” a former colleague told me, as we parsed the news over the phone. “It’s shameful, but when you’re there you kind of end up accepting things. I never even considered speaking out when things happened to me! It doesn’t feel good to recognize that. I was so into the work, and so motivated by it, I kind of shrugged off what was going on.” A couple of days later, she texted me: “I’m having SPLC nightmares.” Aren’t we all, I thought.”

Bob Moser is the author of “Blue Dixie: Awakening the South’s Democratic Majority.”

[creativitytoexplore]

Swim by Christopher K. Miller https://ift.tt/3757ycN Christopher K. Miller's character is tired of ageing and called by the sea.

Every February, for the past nine years, you and your second husband, Jack, drive down from Ottawa to Anna Maria Island. Official snowbirds now. Always stay at the same rental semi on the beach: a well-appointed cabin, really, with cable TV and high-speed internet. Central heat and air - most days you need both. Shared cedar deck with a big gas barbecue, saltwater pool, and hot tub, too, of course. Mornings you drink coffee with whipped cream and watch pelicans dive-bomb for fish. Last year, a woman you met on an island boat tour said she'd heard they eventually go blind from all those eyes-wide-open impacts, and starve. So no pelican ever dies of old age. Afternoons, it's burgers and beer at Skinny's. A snack shack with a bar. Close enough to walk. Decorated totally with dollar bills. Thousands of them. Like the owner tacked up the first one he made, but then couldn't stop. Then, after a nap, dinner someplace nice. Evenings, unless it's cloudy, you watch the big orange blob of a sun sink into the Gulf. Drink pink Zinfandel you buy at the local Publix for twelve dollars a gallon. Lean on the railing. Talk to the couple next door. Last year, dairy farmers from Wisconsin. From the moment the sun's orb touches the horizon until it's completely gone takes only a few minutes. You can stare without hurting your eyes. Second time you watched, you took a cell phone video and posted it on YouTube. You don't want to die of old age, either. You've given this some thought. Every day on the road is one less day in Florida. Plus you and Jack both hate motels. Always seem to have this musty smell, even the non-smoking units. Noisy heaters mounted beneath dirty windows overlooking parking lots. Crappy TVs, usually bolted onto something. Flimsy doors that either stick or refuse to latch. Shallow tubs with gritty anti-slip tread strips. Leaky toilets. A waste of time and money. So you just drive straight through. Easy in the Caddy. GPS. Cruise. OnStar. Jack, who used to work for QNX, says it's just a matter of time until the car'll drive itself. Still, it's a long haul. Twenty, maybe twenty-two, hours speeding down I-79. Depends on pit stops. Between Jack's prostate and Sheetz's bottled cappuccinos, you take almost as many exits as you pass. The first Waffle House is in Philadelphia: Welcome to Waffle House! Tim Hortons as far south as Georgia now. Not as busy as the Canadian franchises, though. Last year, driving back through Summersville, West Virginia, you thought your headlights weren't working. It was raining and, between the slick and the glare, you couldn't see the center line. Jack does all the driving now. Says he doesn't mind a bit. The trick's to not eat too much. And pacing the caffeine. This year's neighbor's a financial planner, also from Ontario. Works for one of the big banks. Maybe CIBC... or could be the Royal. Hands Jack his card. Tells him he oughta consider moving some of those GICs when they mature into oil and precious metals, maybe even cash out early if that's an option, pay the penalty. The mighty "petrodollar" is gonna crash soon. He uses his fingers to indicate quotes. Like didja see where Germany wants its gold "repatriated." Again with the fingers. But The Fed don't have it. Can't produce it. Prolly sold it to the Asians. No wonder they refused the Germans' request for an audit. Been wallpapering the Globex with naked shorts, unredeemable gold warrants, since Christ knows when, trying to drive the price down. Quash interest rates. Desperate to sweep Obama's latest QE clusterfuck under the rug. To mask inflation. Prop up the nation's credit rating. His wife, who looks maybe half his age, hasn't said a word. Probably heard it all a million times. Appears stoned in some asocial way, or maybe just super bored, as she watches the sun set, dusk fade. No breeze. The ocean looks coated in orange plastic. Like a giant sheet of Canadian fifties. You've heard that a good way to die is to swim out as far as you can. At first, you'd turn on the car's defrost. Then you blamed cataracts for the fog. Jack had them a few years back. Half your friends already, too. Really, nowadays, almost everyone gets them. Even babies. Jack thinks it has to do with all the cell towers and microwave radiation around. A million texts a minute zapping through your body. Fortunately, an easy fix. You researched it on Wikipedia. How they used to slice open the eye. Replace the lens. Stitch it shut. How you'd spend three days flat on your back in a halo hoping your retina didn't detach. Now it's a topical anesthetic. In-and-out with a needle. A simple ten-minute procedure. OHIP's rates lag the technology. A good ophthalmologist can do thirty a day, make three million a year easy. After dark the neighbors join you in the hot tub. Dip their toes in. Ask if you mind. She's fit enough for a two-piece. But he's too big for a speedo. How is it men are oblivious to their fat? The water rises with his entry. There's a restaurant/bar with an outdoor patio maybe half a kilometer down the beach. Semi-live music. Just a guy singing karaoke, really. Maybe a guitar. Everly Brothers. Simon & Garfunkel. Beach Boys for the younger set. Drowned out when Jack turns on the jets. He and the financial planner are working on a happy drunk. A loving drunk. Guy's explaining derivatives trading. How today, thanks to computers, that's where ninety-eight percent of the market is, and how a wise money manager uses 'em to hedge, not leverage. His foot keeps touching yours. The stars look out of focus. The moon's full and low, but murky. As if shrouded in smog. You point to where you think a city-sized cruise ship's lights decorate the horizon. But no one confirms. Jack says the stock market's always frightened him the way casinos should compulsive gamblers. Even after RIM bought QNX and handed out call options like Halloween candy and made him and everyone he worked with rich, he never cared for it. You wonder if he's playing footsie, too. Surprised that you don't care. What at first you think's a falling star turns out to be either a satellite or some high-altitude plane. Or maybe the space station. Even looking at it out of the corner of your eye, where objects are at their clearest, it's impossible to tell. Might just be something floating across your cornea. You were a pretty decent swimmer back in high school. Swam men's varsity your freshman year, only girl on the team. Still remember your times. Fifty yard freestyle: twenty-three seconds flat. Two-oh-nine-seven once in the two-hundred individual medley. Coach Burton's face in yours every time you breathed: Swim! Last year, at your eye appointment, you wondered if all the chlorine might've caused your condition. Dr. Hopfner, the optometrist, thought not. Anything's possible. But AMD's a genetic thing. More common in women, eh? Your mom died in a car crash when you were sixteen. On her way home from a Christmas party. Drunk. But you remember her mother as seeming kind of blind, always trying to see you better, always pulling you a little too close but never looking straight at you. Back then you figured it was just an old person thing. Like wrinkles. Like bad hair and teeth. Dr. Hopfner advised you not lose hope. Leafy green vegetables. Intravitreal injections. An SSRI if necessary. Though you were right about the cataracts. Just not mature enough to be operative yet. Better to take a wait-see approach. Weigh the risks down the road. The financial planner's wife steps into the pool. Says she needs to cool down. Her breasts are too big for the rest of her. Her swimming looks like some combination of doggie paddle and sidestroke. And drowning. The way she rolls and gulps. Appendages flailing. All working against each other. You almost want to rescue her. Takes forever to swim two laps. You can tell she's proud of her aquatic prowess, though. The way she leans over the shallow end's gutter drawing deep, even breaths. Like hyperventilating. Like she's just crossed the English Channel. Jack asks the financial planner why he thinks it is the US still hasn't gone with plastic money or chip cards, and why you gotta pay cash in advance at the pumps, which is a total pain the ass. This causes the guy to launch into a diatribe about the US economy being so bust now that it actually relies on a certain "manageable" level of forgery and identity theft. He puts his drink down to do the quotes. No one could even begin to counterfeit a fraction of what The Fed does each and every day. Not even close. So who cares, right? And did you know they get most of their oil from us? So how come gas is so much cheaper here? He advises Jack terminate any exposure his portfolio might have to US currency. Not just cash, but any mutual funds containing US bonds or equities he might have kicking around in RSPs and whatnot, too. He places his hand on Jack's shoulder. Giving free advice seems to evoke in him a sense of largesse. The ocean is black and smooth. Like an oil slick. Swells and ripples instead of waves. You wonder if dolphins sleep at night. Sometimes, in the morning, a pod will swim by, surfacing and diving. Up and down, up and down. Like swimming the butterfly. As if stitching invisible seams. You used to rush out to see. Peer through the binoculars. Though not anymore. It's funny how the amazing blurs into the commonplace. How you can become inured to anything. Like the sun. The good life. The whole universe. But probably not blindness, despite Jack's theories about its leading to enhanced spatial and eidetic memory, better hearing, and probably better sex. At first you thought they were sharks. You climb out of the hot tub's fever-temperatured water. Say you think you'll try a swim, too. But in the ocean. The financial planner seems actually impressed. Are you nuts? What about undertows? What about sharks? You tell him there's no such thing as an "undertow." Only rip currents. They'll drag you out, but never down. And that you're more afraid of jellyfish. Jack brags you're an unbelievable swimmer. A regular fucking dolphin. Sounds a little inebriated. Glances at the woman, again floundering in the pool. Looks a little worried. What about cramps, though? You take off your ring. Wouldn't want to lose it. Four flawless carats. Wouldn't want to attract barracuda, either. Jack's glad to hang onto it till you get back. No worries. Your muscles are limber. You haven't eaten in hours. Your fingers graze his palm. A kiss might seem too final. There's a gate, then a path leading down to the sand. Scrub grass on either side. You close it behind you. South on the beach, the entertainer's singing an old Lou Christie hit. Faraway voices blend with the nearby lapping of water. Two Faces Have I, but not quite Christie's keening falsetto. High tide. Probably headed out soon. The ocean's cool, but not much cooler than the air. You're still hot from the tub. The sand's soft and smooth. Early every morning a grader truck rakes up all the stones and shells. Someone said they use them on driveways. It seems to take forever until the water reaches your knees. The moon is almost straight ahead. You recall reading somewhere that its orbital period and women's menstrual cycles are identical in length. When the ocean tickles your thighs, you dive, and swim for it. But after only a dozen strokes your hands grab sandbar. Standing makes you feel heavy. Unwieldy. Removing your suit helps. You surrender it to the tide. Now the air seems cooler than the water. After the sandbar, the bottom drops away quickly. As if on the edge of a steep underwater hill. Or cliff. You raise your arms up over your head and perform a standing surface dive. The deep water's colder. But your feet don't touch bottom. So you kick back up. Swim for the moon. Effortlessly. Like flying in a dream. You wonder if you should pace yourself. And, if so, how? For the mile? Your personal best was 17:59. But that was in a twenty-five yard pool. A long time ago. Sixty-five flip-turns. Coach Burton screaming himself hoarse the entire final hundred yards. Bringing you home. Every breath to poolside, screaming in your face: Swim! Both Jack's sons are visiting next week with their daughters. No wives, though. Separated. The three girls call you Gamma. Like the radiation. Your step-sons call you Jeanne. Always have. You're glad they don't call you Mom. Even though you've known them since they were little. Kissed their owies. Helped with their homework. And, later, their finances. Even though you love them, and you're pretty sure they love you, you suspect it's not the same. Sometimes you wish you'd had children of your own. Though not right now. Stroke stroke stroke, breathe. Steady flutter-kick. Goddamn your feet are big. First thing Coach Burton ever said to you. Regular flippers. Mermaid feet. Huge smile on his face. Stroke stroke stroke. Your armpit forms an air pocket. Breathe. Stroke stroke stroke. You skip a breath, laughing. Never paced yourself for maximum distance. Stroke stroke stroke, breathe. Guessing eighty-second hundreds. Pulse maybe picking up a little. Sixty-eight or so. More from exhilaration than effort. The current seems to carry you. Even when you stop and tread water. Your longest competitive open-water swim was five kilometers. Organized by Swim Ontario. Then there were boats and buoys and other swimmers to guide you. You seem to have drifted south a little. Toward the open Atlantic. Toward the restaurant, which is almost directly behind you now. The singer sounds tinny. Lost in the tide. Strings of red, white and blue bulbs outlining the patio look like violet webbing. To the north, past your rental, past your husband and the financial planner bonding in the hot tub, a hotel's pool lights leer aquamarine. Ahead, the moon seems to have drifted to your left. Surely an unreliable guide. You've never heard of sailors navigating by it. Only the stars. Fuzzy and faraway. You wonder if it's really true that if all the stars visible to the naked eye were grains of salt, they'd only fill a teaspoon, whereas all the stars you can't see would fill a lake. The sun's amber glow still lingers on the horizon. Like a tease. You swim for it. Coach Burton always thought you had a shot at Lake Ontario. Would've gladly helped you train. You wonder if he's still alive. He was about the age you are now. So how old would that make him? Probably too old. It occurs to you, and for the first time, that maybe it wasn't all about mentorship. Maybe his will to your athletic success was mired in something more. Stroke stroke stroke, breathe. Of course. He had a crush on you. You with your big feet, flat chest and pimples. He just wanted to be with you. Even if it meant sitting for days in a small boat, gripping a sputtering outboard's steering arm. Tossed about. Hour after hour. Occasionally vomiting into Lake Ontario's rough, cold water. Just to watch you swim. He also taught Health Ed. Breathe. Stroke, stroke. Breathe. Only to the left now. One reason you never took on Lake Ontario was all its lamprey eel. Maybe the ugliest creatures on earth. Long, slimy suction cups with needles for teeth. Love to attach to swimmers. But the real reason, the main reason, was those who'd gone before. You wouldn't have been the first, the youngest or the fastest. Though now, it occurs to you, you could be the oldest. Something slick and firm bumps, really more like nudges, you on the thigh. As if to remind you that you're not alone. Maybe a manatee. You pause for a rest. Look around. Pee. That last glass of Zinfandel. The air's much cooler than the water now, which is cooler than your body. Your urine. You relax. Float. Easy. Seawater's buoyant. You settle into it, only your nose and mouth exposed to the chill air. Feel the ocean's rise and fall. As if breathing. As if in a deep sleep. You listen for the eerie howling moan of whale song. Hear only the drone of some faraway ship's engines. Then surface. Look around. Ears and cheeks cooling. All horizon now. Everywhere you look. You wonder if it's true that sailing ships of old always carried swine. That a pig, thrown overboard, will always swim for the nearest land. You feel a little dizzy. A mild vertigo. Disoriented. Faraway lights could be a ship, or a pier. Or an illusion. But the moon seems real. And about where you remember it. You've always had a good sense of direction. You consult your inner swine. Then do the opposite. Swim for the farthest shore. You're in the Gulf. So somewhere on the coast of Mexico. Or Texas. Or even Louisiana. Cuba, if you're way off course, would be much closer. But still far enough. Switching to backstroke works a different set of muscles. Gazing up into the night sky is not unlike gazing down into the deep. Both are unfathomable in their way. You imagine Jack has lost interest in matters of national economic import by now. Whatever buzz he's managed to tie on, you've probably killed. But surely the other couple hasn't gone to bed. Left him standing alone on the beach. You wonder how long he'll shout your name before he breaks down. Calls 911. The coast guard. No. It'll be someone else who does. Maybe someone from the restaurant. Americans are way friendlier than Canadians. Especially in the South. What's the problem, buddy? What? How long did you say? Oh man! Jack might even argue a little. A few hours in the water ain't diddly. Not for you. Hell, there've been Lake Ontario crossings took over forty. Some who've swum across and back. Even after the call is made, he'll keep trying to find you. Run up and down the beach all night. Screaming like Coach Burton. Like you're not the one who's lost. You stay on your back, but switch to a frog kick, with a lazy underwater double-arm sweep. Not a competitive stroke. Well maybe in synchronized swimming. Super easy. Have to be careful not to kick too hard, though. Don't need a calf cramp. But you have to keep moving. You've heard sharks have to swim to breathe. If you stop swimming, you could freeze. Seems funny someone could freeze to death at room temperature. Because that's what the water is. There's a kind of tension, a clenching, that precedes shivering. The air seems colder now. You push a little harder. Just enough to get warm. You don't want to sweat. You don't want to cry, either. The ocean is big enough. So you stop thinking about Jack and the kids. Roll over. Get back to some serious swimming. Count your strokes. In a pool it's about fifteen hundred per mile. In open water, usually more. Depends on waves and current. There are no waves out here. Not the breaking kind. Only swells. You rise and fall. Rise and fall. It's made you a little queasy. You also have a niggling headache. Like someone's squeezing your eyeballs. Dr. Hopfner mentioned glaucoma. Not to worry. You don't have it. But your IOP's at the high end of normal. Both eyes. Could complicate things down the road. Something to keep on top of. Did you know swimming goggles have been shown to raise intraocular pressure? Do you still swim? Goodness! No wonder you're so trim! You start over every thousand strokes. But was it nine or ten? Your arms are heavy. Burning. And, at the same time, a little numb. Breaststroke's just as hard on your lats, but easier on your shoulders, and better for looking around. Not a lot to see, though. Water. Sky. Stars. The spoonful that are visible, anyway. Tough on the knees. For about a hundred strokes, whenever you pull up to breathe, you think you hear a helicopter. Far away. And getting farther. Till it's just your heart thumping in your ears. Seems a waste of energy to try to shake or knock the water out of them. Should've worn earplugs. Sustained, breaststroke's hard on the neck. It's made your headache worse. Rolling to your back turns your stomach. Turns your queasiness into full blown nausea. Thinking about Skinny's onion rings doesn't help. What goes in a veggie burger? Do meats ever masquerade as vegetables? You need to shit. On the road, you're at the mercy of public washrooms. Restaurants, gas stations and service centers. You can usually hold out longer than Jack. But you get less warning. Still, you both try to sync washroom breaks with refueling. If you don't need gas, you buy an Almond Joy and something to drink. You feel like you should pay something. You wonder if whales ever hold it in, either as an exercise or out of some sort of marine etiquette. But you're just visiting. No holding back for you. You push. Sync it with your whip kicks. No wiping after. Nice thing about being naked in the middle of the ocean. Cleans you right up. Like a giant bidet. It helped. You feel less nauseated. Less bloated. But your head still hurts. All the way down your neck and back, really. Whoever said swimming out into the ocean as far as you can was a good way to die probably never tried it. Or wasn't a very good swimmer. Think about something else. You don't believe Coach Burton had a wife. A family. You remember how obsessively he bit his nails. Probably from being responsible for things over which he had no control. Like your times. Gnawed them till they bled. Right down to the quick. Right into the meat even. Had to have hurt. Probably be prescribed an anticompulsive today. Except when screaming, always had a finger in his mouth. Angry scabs oozing yellow pus. Especially his thumbs. You wonder if they ever got infected. Seemed to infect his breath a little. Your own, too, when blown back into your face. Bile rises up into your throat so, instead of air, you inhale that. And cough. And cough. Makes your head pound. Once, at the YWCA, you took a lifesaving class. Got your certificate. What you're doing now is called a jellyfish float. Tucked into the fetal position, curled like a question mark, you cough into the ocean. Gulp your own saliva and stomach acids. And seawater. Brackish and warm. Like blood. Like urine. Underwater, you vomit. Heave. Bits of veggie burger and deep fried onion and whatever it was you had for dinner... spinach salad and blackened ahi tuna... it all spews from your mouth and nose. Swirls around you. Like chum. But again, you feel better. Cleansed. Lighter. And thirsty. In lake crossings there's juice and pop. In country crossings there's bottled waters. Sweetened teas. Flavored coffees. Whatever you want. Everywhere you stop. But here there's only your saliva. You swallow. Roll to your back. The stars are gone now. The moon, too. You forge ahead, nonetheless. Feel for the farthest shore. Trust your inner pig. Ignore your thirst. The ache in your shoulders and back. Think about something else. Maybe Coach Burton's eating his fingertips was just his way of sharing your pain. How can you expect to push others to maximum endurance if you aren't willing to suffer yourself? Bleed yourself? That reminds you. He had a scalp condition, too. Maybe eczema. A wreath of scratches and pricks. Always a few tiny flakes of skin sprinkled on his glasses. Thick bifocals that made his eyes look as if they were floating in water. Try sidestroke. A lifesaving stroke. But, unless you're carrying someone, an inefficient stroke. Asymmetric and slow. Or maybe you just never practiced it enough. Butterfly is almost as fast as the crawl. But more demanding. A woman did once swim Lake Ontario using it, though. Land mammals all instinctively swim doggie paddle. But you wouldn't. Not if your life depended on it. Switch back to breaststroke. Then freestyle crawl some more. Then just lie on your back and kick those big feet without using your arms. Your mouth is dry. A kickboard would be nice. All the salt you've gulped. You feel weak in a way that transcends mere muscle fatigue. Drained at the core. Your headache is back. But you're almost there. Once, in a psychology class you took back in university, they showed a video of an experiment some psychologists had performed to determine how long rats would tread water before drowning. Some lasted as long as ninety-six hours. Four days. How this knowledge could possibly ever benefit anyone was a complete mystery to you then. You stop. Tread water. Ahead in the distance, you think you see the lights of that city-sized cruise ship again. But then it's gone. The sky and the ocean are black. But with different textures. Seem to reflect one another. Each distorting the other's image. Again and again. Over and over. Like floating between two vast funhouse mirrors. An assistant coach, whose name you forget, once told you Coach Burton had swum for the University of Michigan. On scholarship. Even qualified for Olympic trials. Made it all the way to the finals despite a very tough field that year. Then missed the two-hundred meter freestyle cut by less than a tenth of a second. Tragic in a way. The relay team took gold that year. All that hard, hard work. You think high school workouts are tough? You have no clue what tough is. Heat after heat, with only a few breaths to recoup. Then, after all that hardship and pain, to lose by a fraction of a second. Difference between a six-figure Wheaties endorsement and coaching high school. So maybe Coach Burton just wanted for you what he couldn't give himself. You wonder if he chewed his nails off to keep from scratching his head. Funny how a man can come into focus after so many years. Be seen clearer at a distance. You always wondered why you never saw him in the pool. Never saw him swim. Maybe the chemicals. You try a few more strokes. But, no. Nothing left. And so here you are. Finished. You made it. As far as you can go. So thirsty now. You look up at the starless sky. Feel like you should say goodbye or something. But instead say, Help. Not loud. Not to attract attention. Not even as a prayer. You don't pray. Wouldn't to save your life. You say it only as a kind of joke. Between yourself and the universe: Help. Still you can laugh. A hissing sweeps across the water. You hear the rain before you feel it. Then splashing all around you. Mottling the ocean's smooth surface. At first you think it's a bad thing. Just more water. You feel hope sink. Yourself, too. From below the surface, the rain sounds like it's shushing you. Telling you to listen. Then you realize: it's a gift. And rise up as from the dead. As if reborn. Lie on your back. Feel it pelt your eyes and face. Open your mouth and drink. And drink. Drink until all is quiet. Until the stars return. Again you try to swim. To forge ahead with your plan. Again your limbs refuse to obey. Your arms are numb. Legs, too. Only your lungs still burn. Only your heart still aches. Everything else feels like rubber. So this is it. This really is as far as you can go. Behind you, as if to agree, and to confirm the correctness of your course, dawn shimmers on the horizon. Offering guidance. Promising warmth. In a few minutes the entire sun will peer up over the edge of the world. Rising as it fell. You wonder when humans stopped worshiping it, and why. You feel a warm gust of wind in your face. Like Coach Burton's breath. Feeling has returned, accompanied by a prickling in your extremities. Still, you cannot swim any farther. Not another stroke. Not ahead. And so there you are. Two directions remaining. Down into the unfathomable. The inevitable. Or back into the morning's light. And whatever else awaits. All or nothing, now. Nothing, or all... And so you pirouette. Turn. Reverse course. Breathe. Stroke. Roll. Breathe. You probably look like the financial planner's wife. The way she does her laps. Stroke. Roll. Breathe. Still, progress is progress. Pain a blessing. Endurance unfathomable. This you have learned. This he has taught you well. Crab-walking along beside you. With that awkward crouching stride that must've killed his knees. At times, stooped almost as in prayer. Keeping pace. Bringing you home. Just as you remember. Bent down with that thorny crown. Those drowning eyes. Leaning right out over the water. One hand on the deck for support, and, in the other, holding forth, clenched in bloody fingers - not for you to read, but only to emphasize the importance of time remaining - his silver stopwatch. Screaming, blowing your breath back into your face. Every time you breathe: Swim goddammit! Swim!

[cc-hatredisland]

Prologue. 12.  {.Burning Passion.}

The remaining trek was mostly a silent one but unlike the one prior, I didn’t feel too bad about it. Kurumi’s company was different from Kumatani’s, I guess. I was lost in thought before but now I’m just kinda eager to see where this leads... maybe finally get some answers. Daisy and Kumatani are talking up a storm, the former more than the latter and it leaves me feeling kinda content. I’ve gotta admit that all these introductions have kinda left me a bit drained.

Kumatani glanced behind at me and gave me a short nod and smile before brandishing his hand ahead.

“We’re here.”

I can kinda... see the difference now, actually. More than see it, I can feel it. Somehow the walls seem... colder. Less of the actual rock and more of the actual metal structure, I guess. And it smells... man, I sound like a dog or something but it just smells like there’s fresher air up ahead. I mean, it makes sense, we’ve been walking for god knows how long and I do recall stepping up slopes here and there.

I finally nod and continue at a steady pace. There’s one last huge slope. If I wasn’t so athletic this’d probably destroy me. I wonder how the equity girl managed it. The three of us all seem pretty capable so there’s no problem walking up although when I reach the top I do feel some burning in the back of my knees...

There’s no real time to rest, however, as a loud voice thunders at us. Oh god, this voice... it’s that guy again.

“Hey! You wait just one moment, Naoki Kumatani!”

Shockingly, he’s not talking to me this time.

“Shiratori-san.”

Kumatani’s greeting back, for me, is shockingly... placid.

“Did you harass Toshiko Kasahara?! And don’t bother trying to hide it! I know all your tells!”

Normally I’d figure that meant that meant these two knew each other pretty well but with how hot-blooded that guy was... I more just assumed he was making an ass out of himself. The pathologist adjusts his glasses and speaks in a kind voice I feel is kinda tailored to children.

“... I don’t mind cooperating so let’s just tone it down a little, alright? She just... decided to go on ahead of us, that’s all.”

“And you let her?! She was practically on her knees when she came up here!!! That’s negligence at its finest, what if something happened?!”

I’m starting to wonder if it’s physically possibly for this guy to just... chill. Maybe it’s not my place but I cut in anyway. I dunno, something about the way this guy talks just grates on me bad.

“They’re both fine with it so what’s it matter? It’s none of your business.”

When he sets his attention on me I feel that familiar tension. if it’s a glaring match I have no intention of losing.

“The welfare of citizens is ENTIRELY my business. And who are you to get in the way of it? You know... from the moment I saw you, I had this feeling you’d be trouble. I want your full name and title, post-haste!”

... Post-haste.

He’s really challenging me here. I don’t know what it is about people like this that rubs me the wrong way but I just can’t stop. There’s nothing to gain by butting heads but there’s no stopping me. Call it a character flaw.

“And if I don’t want to?”

“Winding people up’s only going to complicate things, Kae-kun.”

I’m snapped out of my berserker state by that voice. Sure enough, I hadn’t seen her before but at some point Yuunagi had shuffled over to us. She was standing in between with her hands up.

“Get this hooligan to tell me his name!”

And just like that I’m back to wanting to punch him.

“Isn’t it common manners to give your name first? Geez, you guys and your big shows of machismo... doesn’t that get tiring? Right then,”

Without warning, Yuunagi takes my hand and one of his hands and brings them together in the most forced awkward handshake of all time. We both seem to wrench our hands away about the same time.

“Kae-kun, this is Suguru Shiratori. Sugu-chan, this is Kaede Shimizu. Free runner. Police officer.”

She points to each of us at the right moment and suddenly a whole bunch falls into place. A police officer. Scum. I’d never liked them... and with good reason. Just makes sense this guy would be one, too.

“Aha, splendid work, Maki-kun. Now don’t you two feel a bit silly for getting all worked up like that?”

There’s no good answer to this so I opt not to say anything.

“... I have work to do! You lot, this way. You’ll want to be here for this.”

With one last indignant sniff, Suguru Shiratori strides on ahead. I hear Daisy’s sigh of relief again but there’s no such release for me. There’s some niggling feeling buzzing in my head.

“Seems like we’re about to get out of this place. You don’t wanna miss that, right?”

My eyes snap to Yuunagi who tilts her head. I don’t... want to miss that, yeah. God dammit. Why do I do that sorta crap? Now I’m just feeling tired. She makes a beckoning gesture and keeps pace with me as I come to a big metal gate. Everyone’s here now. From tall Rie to lithe Mikiro. From quirky Buki to cartoonish Hirotsugu. Fifteen students, all in front of this tall metal barrier...

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[thoughtfulcupcakesublime]

Community members learned more about a local business owner last week.

Mike Garcia was the guest speaker of a Hispanic Council meeting.

The Prince William Chamber of Commerce hosted the discussion at its headquarters in Manassas on November 5.

Garcia is the owner of Mike Garcia Construction, which was established more than 35 years ago.

Here is a video of the meeting:

Here is a translation of the video, which was completed with 80 percent accuracy:

Mike Garcia: And, and it’s, it’s, people ask me all the time, how did you know? And I said, very, very easy. I said, I watched the man that lived across the street from where we lived. I grew up in Manassas park. I watched the man across the street from the age of 10 till about the age of 12. So over a two year period, he retired. I took an early retirement from Sears. Um, he bought the first seamless gutter machine in Northern Virginia. So at that time you only bought gutters and 10 foot sections and you put it together and that’s where it would always leak. And, and that’s, that’s just what you expected. So he bought this machine that would make a 400 foot long gutter and no seams and started contracting through Sears. And I watched him in two years go from, from being as poor as we were to all of a sudden, um, you know, he’s gotten new vehicles and he’s building a house.

Uh, he built a 120 foot long rambler on a full basement on five acres in Nokesville. And I thought that’s the richest, was the richest man I knew, and I S I witnessed it happen. So I thought, you know what, I can do it. So I just started working for him. Um, I was the guy when the gutters hit the ground, I would take my little tape measure and cut, cut it into eight foot sections, load it in the truck, rake up all the debris that fell out, and he would pay me $10 a day and I’d go sit under the shade and read comic books for the rest of the day. I mean, and, but I watched and I’m, I observed. So my wife and I, uh, well my soon to be wife, we, uh, it was as simple as I’m going to follow him.

I’m gonna follow in his footsteps and I’m going to do exactly what he does. It may take me longer because you know, the economy or whatever. But I, I, I had what we called in our family. We have the Mexican mentality means we work, we work no matter how long it takes. Uh, as a matter of fact, as I grew and went up, up in his company, he used to call me and it wasn’t racist back then. We didn’t, we didn’t know anything. I mean, I didn’t take it as being racist, but he used to call me his Mexican Bacco, y’all know, when a backhoe is, it’s a piece of machinery, uh, you know, and, and I was proud of it, you know, because he was bragging on me to, to the people that they could dump, you know, to dump truck loads of gravel, give me a wheelbarrow and a shovel, and I would move that whole pile inside the basement.

I never complained because I knew I was on a path and I would eventually get there, but I just had to, I just had to work for it. So I got a Robyn and I got married at 18. Uh, I went to work for him full time after I graduated and stopped working just in the summers. Within one year, I was running his crew out in the field. Uh, so I surpassed, he had four other employees and they hated me because I wanted, I wanted to be his number one. And I, I just worked my way up through the ranks. I would stay late, I would work weekends. It didn’t matter. I told my wife before we got married, I said, you know, I’m going to work a lot of hours. You know, that right? And she goes, I, I know, but it’ll, it’ll, it’ll be worth it, be worth it in the end.

So, uh, you know, I, I, uh, became his foreman, and within a year and a half I knew that I had learned all I could learn from him and it was time to move on. So I moved to North Carolina. The reason why I made that decision, it was a crossroads in my life. Uh, I realized it was all about the money for him. Okay. He was in business just for the dollar. There was no pride. Um, you know, and the way I figured it out was I asked him if I could build a house, could he help me build a house on this side? He gets the loans, I will do all the work and we’ll sell the house and then split the money with me. So he did that. So he was getting mad at me because I put more quality into the house that we were doing on his job.

So I was learning because our path is all about learning and, and I realize it’s just about the money with him and, and that, that was okay, but I wanted to make them make my Mark. So he, it came out of his mouth one day that I heard him say to, uh, to another subcontractor. I’m rich, I’m tired of hiding it. And that hit me wrong, you know, because it was, it, to me, it was, it was a very arrogant thing to say. Um, so I, I just stored it away. I said, you know, it’s, I’m going to treat my employees better than that. I’m going to, um, you know, he never had an employee longer than five years. So I, I just, I’ve observed and I just got better and I, and I thought, well, money will come by doing what you love. You do it, you do it for the love of doing it.

You gotta make a living. And sometimes you have to work seven days a week to make that live in, but you’re still trying to, your name, your name is, is the value. It’s not what you do, it’s your name. So I don’t know why I knew that. I took all the pieces and I started on all my out on my own. Uh, and I use Mike Garcia construction. I felt like, what better way of, you know, creating, uh, quality and, uh, I want to protect my name. So off I went and for about 15 years, I had blinders on. I built five houses a year for 15 years. And I did everything. I mean, I, I say everything I framed on my, I cleared the trees off off of the lots. Um, I didn’t lay the block, but I poured the footings. I, I frame, I framed the houses, I trim the houses.

Uh, I even put in the yards and the driveways. I did as much as I could. And I did five, five houses a year. And, and I never focused on the money. It was all about the quality and the houses were getting more and more complicated. And, and I’m, I’m doing the pre-selling and I was my own salesman. And, uh, you know, when people were struggling to, to sell their house, I would say, you have a house to sell. And they’d say, yeah, I bet I can’t sell it. I’ll say, well, how much, how much equity do you think you have in your house? I’d like to come see your house. So I’d go look at the house and I go, you know, I can build you a house and I’ll take your house in on trade and I’ll give you 50. I’ll take 50,000 off of the value of a new house and we’ll just trade houses.

And, and I was doing that. And other people were sitting back and they couldn’t sell their houses. And I was, you know, to me it was just a little nother little stepping stone. And all of a sudden, my wife and I owned about 25 rental properties and it was created a nightmare of headaches, nightmare headache. So, uh, to get a phone call in the middle of the night that, uh, you know, the house is on fire, uh, or a pipe burst and it’s just, you know, flooding the house. Uh, you know, I realized this is probably not how I’m going to create wealth, you know, it helps, you know, I didn’t understand money. I didn’t understand investing. Uh, all I knew was what I knew, which was construction and, and making a name for myself. So, uh, I started selling those off. Well, in 1996 I read and I’ve read the art of the deal by Donald Trump.

Okay. Whether you like them man, or not, had no idea who he was. I, that book was referred to me and was like, my blinders came off and I S I told my wife, I said, I think it’s time I build an office building, so I’ll never forget it. She, she just said she laughed at me. She said, with what? And I said, I don’t know, but I’m gonna figure it out. So what I, what I did is this is how simple it is. And I certainly don’t make it wanting to make it sound like it’s simple, cause it’s not, you have to have guts to do this. You have to be fearless. Okay. And, and I’ll get into that a little bit later, but you know, I didn’t want to fail. I was the only son. And as you know, and, and in our culture, we’re expected to take care of the family, right?

So, so I knew that was gonna be on me, so I could not fail, but I knew this was the right thing to do. So I called John Norman Norman Realty back in the time John’s since passed on. And, uh, I w I, he sent me out with his son to look at commercial properties. So we looked at, spent a half a day and, and then I asked him, I said, so John, if you were me or, or, uh, there was Jay, his son, I said, Jay, if you were me, which one would you go with? And, uh, cause that’s something I’d always ask my trades, Hey, if this was your house, how would you do this? So I wanted his opinion. And he said, I do, I would go with this one and this is why, and made a lot of sense. So I put a $5,000 on that piece of property and I, I, uh, I said, do you know of an architect?

Cause I was drawing my own house plant and that’s all I knew was yeah, was a residential. So he gave me a name of an architect. So I went to the architect, his name was Mike Carroll. I said, Mike, I don’t have any money to pay you right now. I said, but this is a piece of property that I have. I said, true Jewish draw me a building that goes on it. He says, well yeah, I can do that. He says, but first you need to go to an engineer and you need to have an engineer take the lot and figure out how much parking you need and then give me the size of a building and I’ll draw you something. I said, okay. So, so I did that. I went to my residential engineer and he did that for me and uh, didn’t charge me a lot of money.

I went back to the, uh, architect. He drew me a building. It was on a ledger piece of paper. I still have it. And I just went around to every business owner that I knew and I said, I’m thinking about building an office building. Do you want to be my partner? And I had to go through about a dozen people and I found his name is bill Laith on hands budget motels. Um, and he says, uh, yeah, you know, I think I’ve, I think I would like to do it. How much? How much is it going to cost? I said, I figure it’s going to cost $4 million. He goes, okay, well bank’s gonna require 25% down $1 million. I have my 500,000. Do you have yours? And I want, yeah, no, not yet, but I will, I said, I’ll get back with you. So, uh, in reading re reading that book, it’s, it starts with an idea and then you just, you just got to get down into the weeds.

And I said, well, you know, my builder fee was going to be $375,000 and this will be good. Nathan, you’ll like this week, 375,000. So I called BB and T and I said, is there any way you could just keep that 375,000 and I’ll give you 125,000 spread out over six draws while I’m building the building? And they said, I don’t know, nobody’s ever asked us that. Let me check. They came back and says, yeah, well we’ll let you do that. So I literally, uh, that’s how I started my first office building. So, and that’s something I, that I, you know, of course I had houses that I’m trying to sell and I sold some of those and used it to put in the 125,000. But that was my first building. That was in 1997. It was the first, uh, first office building that had been built in Prince William County in like 10 years.

I mean, it was, it was a dry period. So I jumped out first, at least up. And, and then I’m like, I’m in commercial construction too. So we started growing our commercial division, um, 38. So, so I’m in my 38th year now. Uh, I’ve, I’ve accumulated, uh, I think it’s, it sounds terrible and I should know this, but again, it’s not about the money. And, and I have about 46, 47, 48 properties in my family’s portfolio that we manage. I don’t do it. My sons do it, my wife does it. So Mike, my construction company has become a tool in my toolbox to create generational wealth. And I think especially for, for our heritage, it’s a bout family. It starts with family. You know, I, um, I’m embarrassed to say when I, I remember this and I tell people that I’m embarrassed about it. I, when my wife and I, you know, from such a young age, I told her, you know, we waited over five years to have kids cause I was working all the time and I told her, you know, but when we started having kids, you know, I’m going to pull.

And then the kids, you know, we ended up having two sons. Um, and I wanted more, but she, I told her, I said, you know, when you’re, when you, cause you’re, it’s the kids are on you. I’m working. And that was the deal. And I told her, I said, you know, if you, if we can just cause the value of, of anything you get out of life. I mean, I’ve been married 41 years now and you know, that that truly is the greatest success of my life. It really is. Because I wouldn’t have done it without her. We don’t need that. I mean, men know we could live in a garage, you know, have a nice car and live in a nice garage. I mean, it doesn’t take that much. But, uh, you know, there’s been plenty of times when my wife has said when is enough enough.

Okay. That, I mean, we’ve had all of those. I mean, in my business it’s like this. So we’ve weathered three really hard recessions and you got to know what’s gonna come. If you’re in business today, you, you’ve got to know that, like right now is the time to be putting 110% in it. And, and you know, when my oldest son got out of, he graduated from UVA on a Sunday, Monday of the next day, I put him building a 40,000 square foot square foot medical office building. Oh, okay. There was no week vacation, you know, off in the tropics. No, you know, he knew, he knew if you’re going to come in our business, you are going to work. My average employee stays with our company. Uh, I’d say right now our average is probably 16 years. The oldest, uh, he retired for medical reasons. He was with us 34 years.

I mean, when he came to work for me, he was living in a van. He was 17 years old, living in the back of a band. So, you know, we, we, um, my employees become family. My goal with every employee is for me to help them build a house that should be everybody’s goal. You know, you can buy a house but build a house, put the thought into that house. Uh, R R I, I just hired someone. Uh, I’ve known him since he was two years old. His name is, uh, BJ, Brayden, he, he is a, uh, he’s a son of one of my partners in the excavation business. Hardworking, worked for his dad, but his, his dad is not like me. He, he, uh, he’s just hard. He’s hard on his kids and, and you know, you, you, there’s a balance there and that balance wasn’t there and you, you got to figure out, you just got to figure out what that balance is.

But I always thought, man, I a great worker, you know, but he didn’t pay him enough. He gave him a place, he gave him a house to live in. He gave him a vehicle to drive paid for his insurance, but his, his salary was so small that what his father didn’t realize. His friends all make 10 times more money than he does. They live in nicer houses, but he was going to inherit a big chunk of money. My, my horn Baker project, that’s, he’s my partner in that development. Uh, we made a lot of money off that development. It’s a industrial park, corn in industrial park called, um, horn, Baker industrial park. And uh, but you can’t expect your kids to be a slave to you and then wait for you to die. But that’s not, that’s not good. You know, it doesn’t, it doesn’t bring them along the way, the way that you should bring them, you know.

So, uh, but anyways, so he came, he quit his father and, and I, I stayed out of it for one year and my son, my oldest son, Michael says, dad, um, I think you should reach out to BJ cause somebody’s going to grab him. And so, so before I did, I talked to his father and made sure it was okay. I said, look, somebody’s gonna get him. Why don’t you let me offer him a job and and see if, um, he would take it. At least he’s close. He’s not going to move out of state cause you guys may make amends and he may come take over your company. So he, he was fine with that. So I offered him a job, got him on, on board. Within two months I took him to a one acre lot up on bull run mountain that I had just, I buy things and just stick it on the shelf.

Uh, it was a one acre lot that I paid $25,000 for because it didn’t, perk means it did. You couldn’t get a drainfield if y’all know what that is. But I knew how to solve all those things, so I solved it. Uh, and then I had $30,000 into it and I said, BJ, uh, would you like to build a house here? I said, I’ll sell you the lot. Uh, I sold it to him for $10,000. That’s gives you an idea of who, who I am. I get, I sold it to him for $10,000. And I said, you can use the equity and value of this land and you won’t have to put any money out of your pocket. You can build a house. And, and it was like the greatest gift I could ever get somewhere. So do you think he’s going anywhere? No. No.

And he’s been working on his house for a year and a half. Okay. I maybe he’s, he’s taken forever. He wants to do everything himself because he’s going to live there his entire life. So you help people and they, you know, you share, because I was talking to Nathan earlier, you know, money is the root of all evil. It is. I’ve, I’ve witnessed it. Uh, I’ve seen, I’ve seen people’s family. Parents died. The kids turn on one another and you know, and that’s part of it. You know, you got a, um, the value is, is, is, is knowing how to make it, knowing that you’ve got the security of knowing, no matter what happens in the world, you can survive. That’s why I personally believe I a trade a trade school. You know, the greatest value we can give our kids is to teach them our work ethics.

My kids have seen how I work and it was, and it still is to this day. I have, I can work, I can, I can tell you this, I can work about 31 to 32 days in a row and then I have to have three days off. So I’m right now I’m pushing about 30 days. I’m, my energy level is really low so I’m going to be recharging. I’m taking Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. But that’s me. That’s, that’s what drives me. It’s not the money. It’s the creating the relationships, helping as many people as I can. Um, I try, I want to give you guys something that you can take away from this today, that, that can alter how you think. And I think the way I can do that is, you know, even to this day, I, well I, I checked how many emails I have in my computer and I don’t, I don’t erase emails. I’m involved in 23 different LLCs, have many, many partners. There’s many, many things get said and I have to protect myself, so I’m afraid to, you know, but I have 293 emails. I have not opened.

And I opened them. I, I, I, I made it to be unread so that I’ll go back to it. Okay. But it’s, so I, I know I’m falling behind. I know it. Okay. But I’m still doing the best I can and anybody, if they get to me, I apologize. You know? But it’s, it is, it’s not, it’s not for me. Cause I have built some of the most gorgeous things for people. People come to me and it’s like, I have the money, I can afford anything I want. I just don’t want to be taken advantage of. So, I mean, I built bowling alleys in people’s houses, indoor swimming pools, secret rooms, guns, vaults. I mean, what, what, what? I just tell people, whatever you think you’re going to tell me, it’s unique. I’ve already done it, you know, and, and you know, your secrets are your seniors.

I’ll never, never go anywhere. Uh, but you know, they’ve known that, that it’s my passion. They, they chose me. Not because I was the smartest guy, it’s because I had a passion to work for them. And you know what, I, I know I had 10 times the money that most people come to me that wants me to build a house. You know what, I, I still have that passion side about the money. I just want, I tell people I want to satisfy you so that you’ll tell everybody you know how you retreated. And that’s, we don’t advertise. We’ve never really advertised other than I tell people, you know, good people help good people. So if I can satisfy you, you’ll spread my name and they do it.

I do. I do have a little little smart car. When they first came out, we bought one and we wrapped it a micro say construction and I said, I will drive that thing and please do you have right now? You know, we had as many, uh, in the boom time we had about 30. Cause I have it goes up and down. Yeah, we had about 30. And I will tell you this, um, I, I, uh, I didn’t make any more money when I had 30 as I do now at 15. Okay. Right? So, so we’re smarter now. I know I have partners that did $40 million worth of volume and they broke in. Okay. Now he says he breaks even, but if you calculate the liability, okay, then he takes on, cause he has over a hundred employees and he’s had employees turn equipment over and die and, and he has trucks on the road that gets an accident and kill people.

Okay. So he’s always in a lawsuit, always in a lawsuit. Now for me, that’s just not me. I, I, you know, but he’s very, you know, it, it, it goes very gradual and everyone seems to think that, you know, the more I do, the more money I’ll make. That’s not true. Okay. It’s not about working, you know, more and making more [inaudible]. It’s about being smarter. I, I would, I, I’m more the tortoise. I want it, you know, I, I S I’ve always said I want to do this 50 years, 50 years. Now that I’m in my 38th year, so another 12 years, I think I’ll make it. I really do. I think I’ll make it. Um, I’ve learned a lot of things. I mean, in 1999, you know, well, let me just back up. So when I jumped out, built that first office building, it brought some attention to me.

Yeah. Here, you know, economic development. I mean, they got me a building permit off of a footing plan. I didn’t even have a full set of plans. They just, there was nothing had been built in so long. When I was naive enough to think I’m going to build an office building, everybody was like, come on, come on here. You know, they gave me a building permit off I went, well, it got the attention of Cardinal bank. If y’all remember Cardinal. So, you know, they, they approached me, they said, you know, would you like to become a director for the bank? And I’m like, well, you know, I, I don’t know a whole lot about banks. I’m afraid of banks. I’m afraid they’re going to come knock on the door. And one of, you know, call the loans that I have, you know, some, and maybe, maybe I should go over to the other side a little bit, learn a little bit.

So, uh, so when they said, yeah, you only have to buy $50,000 worth of stock. And it was like, do what? But, but I did it. I did it. I probably took a second out on my house or something, I don’t know, but I came up with the money and, uh, so cart, I, I kind of, I was one of 11 directors and I learned about money and what it taught me was, you know what, uh, it’s, it’s a relationship. It’s a partnership. We, you know, so don’t think of your bank as, you know, it’s us against them. They are your partner. Okay. They want you to succeed. You just gotta be very transparent with them, let them know the challenges and, and they want you to succeed. So I had to learn all this from, from the inside. Uh, and, and so when United bank bought Cardinal, uh, I was the only director. They asked to come over. Now, I think it’s because of my last name. That’s what I tell people. I think they just IX, they’re just a bunch of white people. [inaudible]

woman. Yeah. So, so I, I, whenever they did have one woman, uh, so I, I went, I went and I was there for one year and then, uh, John Marshall, uh, asked me to come over to them, to their bank. And it’s a small community bank. So I like small community banks. Um, you know, the big bank. I will tell ya, uh, I have, I’m gonna, I’m gonna write a book. I, it’ll be funny, it’ll be the funniest book, you know, going, going, building for people. Uh, cause it’s, I built houses for people trying to save a marriage and never worked, never worked. Uh, but I’ll, I’ll a lot of funny stories. Um, but uh, I just lost my train of thought while you’re thinking, and then you’d have to leave. I just wanted to introduce the name Lewis. She’s at the museum now. I know you guys helped up in museum.

She’s in the gift shop area, so she has got some treats for you all. And Mike is done. This is courtesy of the day. And that’s right. That was the secret. That was the secret you were doing right there was like, Oh yeah, you remember that. So go ahead. Um, so anyway, I got a call from a BB and T, uh, this’ll, this’ll keep you awake at night. So I built a, I built a, I did a hundred acre, uh, commercial residential mixed use development down on Quantico down off route one. This was back, you know, 2000. It was wide open. I mean, just wide open from 2000, obviously to about 2006, you know, uh, and, and I knew, I knew it was, it was riding and I knew it was going to eventually, you know, run out. So, you know, and I had had experience talking with other, uh, customers of the bank that were much older than me and had done everything that I’m doing.

I’m big at not, not being the first, I like to follow a member, my mentor, I just wanted to follow in his footsteps. I don’t want to, I don’t have to be the, the, the uh, the guy that creates everything. I just, you know, cause it’s not about the money, cause I’m doing this over 50 years. It takes a lot of the pressure off. But, so I did this mixed development and I sold off a hundred lots to Washington homes for $5 million. Right? I sold 300 apartment units for $3 million. And then I was going to keep the commercial component out on route one and I donated 17 acres to a church for a $3 million tax write off because it was zoned for apartments. I mean I’m, I’m in the middle of all of this and figuring it all out and I was having a blast and, and I, I built the first building and the FBI came to me and they, we want to floors 10 year lease.

So I mean, I mean it’s just, it’s all just, you just had to show up. You had to show up and you had to spend 10 12 hour days and, and just, you know, just stay in the game, stay healthy at number one, stay healthy. And uh, when I went to my second second building patent built the building, you know, I landed the United mine workers, it was their national headquarters. They took two floors in the building and then 2006 hits. And BB and T calls me up and says, Mike, uh, you know, we really appreciate all the business that you’ve given us over the years, but, uh, we like to pay you to pay your loan down a million and a half dollars.

And I’m like, do what? I said, are you kidding me? No, no, Mike, we’ve, we did an inhouse appraisal and you know, things aren’t just, they’re not valued what they used to be. So we need you to pay a million and a half, pay your loan down a million and a half dollars. And I was only a 25% partner. Okay. Because I am the creator. I’m the, I’m the construction guy, so I find the dirt, I would develop it, I would take and find the users, I bring them in and I would retain a small piece, like 25%. That was kind of my, my norm. Uh, even my office building that I’m in now, uh, on the Prince William Parkway, right net, right. We’re right. We’re old bridge road and the Parkway hit, there’s a mini lad kill the Keller Williams building building. Uh, it’s really my building, but I put their [inaudible] there. They’re helping me pay off my building.

I believe it will be paid off and four and a half years. Wow. Four and a half years. So I put their name on it. It’s not an ego thing. I’m in the basement, I’m in the basement, I’m in the cheap rent. Uh, but yeah, so they, they um, so I only had 25%, but still a million and half dollars. That was a chunk of money. So I said, are you sure you want to do this? Cause I have given you guys, I don’t know, $300 million worth of business over the years. Yeah. Mike, I’m sorry, this is coming from corporate, you know how to North Carolina. And I said, okay, well let me just send you over a list of all the accounts that I have with you, including all the condo associations that I created that I’m the president of. And let me just send that over to you. Maybe that’ll make a difference. Oh, okay. Well I sent it over. They call me back. Yeah. I’m like, wow, we’d had no idea how much money you had in our bank. Ah, I got you approved to ho you only have to pay $1 million. [inaudible]

so, so, uh, I had two other partners, so I took a $250,000 check over to him and I said, here, here’s my, here’s my 25% you guys send it off. And it was like flushing the toilet. Uh, but no. Yeah, not really. Cause we weren’t gonna sell the building anyway. You know, cause real estate goes up and down and, and I, you know, no matter what you do in your business, you should dabble in real estate. Okay. Just know it. There’s been more millionaires made from real estate than, and I think that will be the case going forward. I don’t think that ever will change. W would you agree? Yep. So it’s not something, you know, it can be a lot of headaches, but no matter what you do, whatever business you have, you want to own, you’re the, if obviously you want to own your own house, you want to own your own business.

So one of the successful things I did is just realizing that an over at horn Baker, uh, you know, we created these warehouse condo buildings. They were 86,000 square feet. They were 37, uh, 2100 square foot, little, little condo base. And, and, and we started selling those to small business owners. And I was telling Nathan, you know, in our portfolio, we have about 30, 35, 36 of them, and they’re all full. Every one of them. And I would tell you, if you ever get an opportunity to buy one, um, buy it because it is a, to me, and I’m involved in a lot of real estate, uh, condo warehouse is the safest commercial real estate that you could own. Okay. Because the tenant takes care of everything on the inside. The condo association takes care of everything on the outside. So for you as the owner, obviously if you’re going to run your business out of it until you hopefully out grow it, then you go up somewhere else and you retain it, you own it personally and you’ve rented to your company so your company’s profits can pay for your personal asset. Okay. Cause at the end of the day, that’s, yeah. I mean, how many here believes social security is going to take care of us when we get older? No. Now that, that money is going to be squandered. So it’s us and our work ethic, uh, is what’s gonna, you know, give us that as we get older, that lifestyle that we’re gonna we’re gonna want

Speaker 2: on behalf of the Prince William chamber and the Hispanic council, we want to present you with this small token of our appreciation and let you know that it means a lot for you, for us, for you to take time out of your busy schedule and everything you’ve got going on to come and share some of your experience, your wisdom with us. So we’re presenting this to you. Recognition for your support or the Prince William chamber, Hispanic council, your tireless dedication and to our community continues to greatly impact the lives of those who live, work, play, and play in Prince William. And thank you very much. And as we do in the military, we’re also presenting you with the Prince William chamber coin for all the contributions that you made. Thank you very much. I can’t, here’s your certificate and let’s take a picture.

Speaker 3: [inaudible].

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The Reckoning of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center By Bob Moser March 21, 2019 The firing of Morris Dees, the co-founder of the S.P.L.C., has flushed up uncomfortable questions that have surrounded the organization for years. In the days since the stunning dismissal of Morris Dees, the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, on March 14th, I’ve been thinking about the jokes my S.P.L.C. colleagues and I used to tell to keep ourselves sane. Walking to lunch past the center’s Maya Lin–designed memorial to civil-rights martyrs, we’d cast a glance at the inscription from Martin Luther King, Jr., etched into the black marble—“Until justice rolls down like waters”—and intone, in our deepest voices, “Until justice rolls down like dollars.” The Law Center had a way of turning idealists into cynics; like most liberals, our view of the S.P.L.C. before we arrived had been shaped by its oft-cited listings of U.S. hate groups, its reputation for winning cases against the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations, and its stream of direct-mail pleas for money to keep the good work going. The mailers, in particular, painted a vivid picture of a scrappy band of intrepid attorneys and hate-group monitors, working under constant threat of death to fight hatred and injustice in the deepest heart of Dixie. When the S.P.L.C. hired me as a writer, in 2001, I figured I knew what to expect: long hours working with humble resources and a highly diverse bunch of super-dedicated colleagues. I felt self-righteous about the work before I’d even begun it. The first surprise was the office itself. On a hill in downtown Montgomery, down the street from both Jefferson Davis’s Confederate White House and the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where M.L.K. preached and organized, the center had recently built a massive modernist glass-and-steel structure that the social critic James Howard Kunstler would later liken to a “Darth Vader building” that made social justice “look despotic.” It was a cold place inside, too. The entrance was through an underground bunker, past multiple layers of human and electronic security. Cameras were everywhere in the open-plan office, which made me feel like a Pentagon staffer, both secure and insecure at once. But nothing was more uncomfortable than the racial dynamic that quickly became apparent: a fair number of what was then about a hundred employees were African-American, but almost all of them were administrative and support staff—“the help,” one of my black colleagues said pointedly. The “professional staff”—the lawyers, researchers, educators, public-relations officers, and fund-raisers—were almost exclusively white. Just two staffers, including me, were openly gay. During my first few weeks, a friendly new co-worker couldn’t help laughing at my bewilderment. “Well, honey, welcome to the Poverty Palace,” she said. “I can guaran-damn-tee that you will never step foot in a more contradictory place as long as you live.” “Everything feels so out of whack,” I said. “Where are the lawyers? Where’s the diversity? What in God’s name is going on here?” “And you call yourself a journalist!” she said, laughing again. “Clearly you didn’t do your research.” In the decade or so before I’d arrived, the center’s reputation as a beacon of justice had taken some hits from reporters who’d peered behind the façade. In 1995, the Montgomery Advertiser had been a Pulitzer finalist for a series that documented, among other things, staffers’ allegations of racial discrimination within the organization. In Harper’s, Ken Silverstein had revealed that the center had accumulated an endowment topping a hundred and twenty million dollars while paying lavish salaries to its highest-ranking staffers and spending far less than most nonprofit groups on the work that it claimed to do. The great Southern journalist John Egerton, writing for The Progressive, had painted a damning portrait of Dees, the center’s longtime mastermind, as a “super-salesman and master fundraiser” who viewed civil-rights work mainly as a marketing tool for bilking gullible Northern liberals. “We just run our business like a business,” Dees told Egerton. “Whether you’re selling cakes or causes, it’s all the same.” Co-workers stealthily passed along these articles to me—it was a rite of passage for new staffers, a cautionary heads-up about what we’d stepped into with our noble intentions. Incoming female staffers were additionally warned by their new colleagues about Dees’s reputation for hitting on young women. And the unchecked power of the lavishly compensated white men at the top of the organization—Dees and the center’s president, Richard Cohen—made staffers pessimistic that any of these issues would ever be addressed. “I expected there’d be a lot of creative bickering, a sort of democratic free-for-all,” my friend Brian, a journalist who came aboard a year after me, said one day. “But everybody is so deferential to Morris and Richard. It’s like a fucking monarchy around here.” The work could be meaningful and gratifying. But it was hard, for many of us, not to feel like we’d become pawns in what was, in many respects, a highly profitable scam. For the many former staffers who have come and gone through the center’s doors—I left in 2004—the queasy feelings came rushing back last week, when the news broke that Dees, now eighty-two, had been fired. The official statement sent by Cohen, who took control of the S.P.L.C. in 2003, didn’t specify why Dees had been dismissed, but it contained some broad hints. “We’re committed to ensuring that our workplace embodies the values we espouse—truth, justice, equity, and inclusion,” Cohen wrote. “When one of our own fails to meet those standards, no matter his or her role in the organization, we take it seriously and must take appropriate action.” Dees’s profile was immediately erased from the S.P.L.C.’s Web site—amazing, considering that he had remained, to the end, the main face and voice of the center, his signature on most of the direct-mail appeals that didn’t come from celebrity supporters, such as the author Toni Morrison. While right-wingers tweeted gleefully about the demise of a figure they’d long vilified—“Hate group founder has been fired by his hate group,” the alt-right provocateur Mike Cernovich chirped—S.P.L.C. alums immediately reconnected with one another, buzzing about what might have happened and puzzling over the timing, sixteen years after Dees handed the reins to Cohen and went into semi-retirement. “I guess there’s nothing like a funeral to bring families back together,” another former writer at the center said, speculating about what might have prompted the move. “It could be racial, sexual, financial—that place was a virtual buffet of injustices,” she said. Why would they fire him now? One day later, the Los Angeles Times and the Alabama Political Reporter reported that Dees’s ouster had come amid a staff revolt over the mistreatment of nonwhite and female staffers, which was sparked by the resignation of the senior attorney Meredith Horton, the highest-ranking African-American woman at the center. A number of staffers subsequently signed onto two letters of protest to the center’s leadership, alleging that multiple reports of sexual harassment by Dees through the years had been ignored or covered up, and sometimes resulted in retaliation against the women making the claims. (Dees denied the allegations, telling a reporter, “I don’t know who you’re talking to or talking about, but that is not right.”) The staffers wrote that Dees’s firing was welcome but insufficient: their larger concern, they emphasized, was a widespread pattern of racial and gender discrimination by the center’s current leadership, stretching back many years. (The S.P.L.C. has since appointed Tina Tchen, a former chief of staff for Michelle Obama, to conduct a review of its workplace environment.) If Cohen and other senior leaders thought that they could shunt the blame, the riled-up staffers seem determined to prove them wrong. One of my former female colleagues told me that she didn’t want to go into details of her harassment for this story, because she believes the focus should be on the S.P.L.C.’s current leadership. “I just gotta hope your piece helps keep the momentum for change going,” she said. Stephen Bright, a Yale professor and longtime S.P.L.C. critic, told me, “These chickens took a very long flight before they came home to roost.” The question, for current and former staffers alike, is how many chickens will come to justice before this long-overdue reckoning is complete. The controversy erupted at a moment when the S.P.L.C. had never been more prominent, or more profitable. Donald Trump’s Presidency opened up a gusher of donations; after raising fifty million dollars in 2016, the center took in a hundred and thirty-two million dollars in 2017, much of it coming after the violent spectacle that unfolded at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that August. George and Amal Clooney’s justice foundation donated a million, as did Apple, which also added a donation button for the S.P.L.C. to its iTunes store. JPMorgan chipped in five hundred thousand dollars. The new money pushed the center’s endowment past four hundred and fifty million dollars, which is more than the total assets of the American Civil Liberties Union, and it now employs an all-time high of around three hundred and fifty staffers. But none of that has slackened its constant drive for more money. “If you’re outraged about the path President Trump is taking, I urge you to join us in the fight against the mainstreaming of hate,” a direct-mail appeal signed by Dees last year read. “Please join our fight today with a gift of $25, $35, or $100 to help us. Working together, we can push back against these bigots.” In 1971, when the center opened, Dees was already a colorful and controversial figure in Alabama. While studying law at the University of Alabama, in the late nineteen-fifties, “Dees sold holly wreaths and birthday cakes, published a student telephone directory, dabbled in real estate,” Egerton wrote. He also worked for George Wallace’s first, unsuccessful bid for governor, in 1958. Upon graduating, in 1960, Dees teamed up with another ambitious student, Millard Fuller, who’d go on to found Habitat for Humanity. They opened a direct-mail business in Montgomery, selling doormats, tractor-seat cushions, and cookbooks. “Morris and I, from the first day of our partnership, shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money,” Fuller would later recall. “We were not particular about how we did it.” While running their business, the two also practiced law. In 1961, they defended one of the men charged with beating up Freedom Riders at a bus terminal in Montgomery. According to Fuller, “Our fee was paid by the Klan and the White Citizens’ Council.” In the late sixties, Dees sold the direct-mail operation to the Times Mirror Company, of Los Angeles, reportedly for between six and seven million dollars. But he soon sniffed out a new avenue for his marketing genius. In 1969, he successfully sued to integrate the local Y.M.C.A., after two black children were turned away from summer camp. Two years later, he co-founded the Law Center, with another Montgomery attorney, Joe Levin, Jr. He volunteered to raise money for George McGovern’s Presidential campaign, and, with McGovern’s blessing, used its donor list of seven hundred thousand people to help launch the S.P.L.C.’s direct-mail operations. The center won some big cases early on, including a lawsuit that forced the Alabama legislature to divide into single-member districts, insuring the election of the state’s first African-American lawmakers since Reconstruction. In 1975, the S.P.L.C. started a defense fund for Joan Little, a black prisoner in North Carolina who’d stabbed to death a jailer who attempted to rape her; the case became a national sensation and drew attention to the intrepid little operation in Montgomery. Dees, of course, had already positioned the Law Center to capitalize on the positive press. A decade or so later, the center began to abandon poverty law—representing death-row defendants and others who lacked the means to hire proper representation—to focus on taking down the Ku Klux Klan. This was a seemingly odd mission, given that the Klan, which had millions of members in the nineteen-twenties, was mostly a spent force by the mid-eighties, with only an estimated ten thousand members scattered across the country. But “Dees saw the Klan as a perfect target,” Egerton wrote. For millions of Americans, the K.K.K. still personified violent white supremacy in America, and Dees “perceived chinks in the Klan’s armor: poverty and poor education in its ranks, competitive squabbling among the leaders, scattered and disunited factions, undisciplined behavior, limited funds, few if any good lawyers.” Along with legal challenges to what was left of the Klan, the center launched Klanwatch, which monitored the group’s activities. Klanwatch was the seed for what became the broader-based Intelligence Project, which tracks extremists and produces the S.P.L.C.’s annual hate-group list. The only thing easier than beating the Klan in court—“like shooting fish in a barrel,” one of Dees’s associates told Egerton—was raising money off Klan-fighting from liberals up north, who still had fresh visions of the violent confrontations of the sixties in their heads. The S.P.L.C. got a huge publicity boost in July, 1983, when three Klansmen firebombed its headquarters. A melted clock from the burned-down building, stuck at 3:47 A.M., is featured in the main lobby of the Montgomery office today. In 1987, the center won a landmark seven-million-dollar damage judgment against the Klan; a decade later, in 1998, it scored a thirty-eight-million-dollar judgment against Klansmen who burned down a black church in South Carolina. With those victories, Dees claimed the right to boast into perpetuity that the S.P.L.C. had effectively “shut down” the K.K.K. By the time I touched down in Montgomery, the center had increased its staff and branched out considerably—adding an educational component called Teaching Tolerance and expanding its legal and intelligence operations to target a broad range of right-wing groups and injustices—but the basic formula perfected in the eighties remained the same. The annual hate-group list, which in 2018 included a thousand and twenty organizations, both small and large, remains a valuable resource for journalists and a masterstroke of Dees’s marketing talents; every year, when the center publishes it, mainstream outlets write about the “rising tide of hate” discovered by the S.P.L.C.’s researchers, and reporters frequently refer to the list when they write about the groups. As critics have long pointed out, however, the hate-group designations also drive attention to the extremists. Many groups, including the religious-right Family Research Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom, raise considerable money by decrying the S.P.L.C.’s “attacks.” In recent years, the center has broadened its legal work, returning to some poverty law; around eighty attorneys now work in five Southern states, challenging, among other things, penal juvenile-justice systems and draconian anti-immigration laws. But the center continues to take in far more than it spends. And it still tends to emphasize splashy cases that are sure to draw national attention. The most notable, when I was there, was a lawsuit to remove a Ten Commandments monument that was brazenly placed in the main lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building, just across the street from S.P.L.C. headquarters, by Roy Moore, who was then the state’s chief justice. Like the S.P.L.C.’s well-publicized 2017 lawsuit against Andrew Anglin, the neo-Nazi publisher of the Daily Stormer, it was a vintage example of the center’s central strategy: taking on cases guaranteed to make headlines and inflame the far right while demonstrating to potential donors that the center has not only all the right enemies but also the grit and know-how to take them down. These days, whenever I tell people in New York or Washington, D.C., that I used to work at the Southern Poverty Law Center, their eyes tend to light up. “Oh, wow, what was that like?” they’ll ask. Sometimes, depending on my mood, I’ll regale them with stories about the reporting I did there—exposing anti-immigration extremists on the Arizona-Mexico border, tracking down a wave of anti-transgender hate crimes, writing a comprehensive history of the religious right’s war on gays. But then, considering whether to explain what an unsettling experience it could be, I’ll add, “It’s complicated, though,” and try to change the subject. For those of us who’ve worked in the Poverty Palace, putting it all into perspective isn’t easy, even to ourselves. We were working with a group of dedicated and talented people, fighting all kinds of good fights, making life miserable for the bad guys. And yet, all the time, dark shadows hung over everything: the racial and gender disparities, the whispers about sexual harassment, the abuses that stemmed from the top-down management, and the guilt you couldn’t help feeling about the legions of donors who believed that their money was being used, faithfully and well, to do the Lord’s work in the heart of Dixie. We were part of the con, and we knew it. Outside of work, we spent a lot of time drinking and dishing in Montgomery bars and restaurants about the oppressive security regime, the hyperbolic fund-raising appeals, and the fact that, though the center claimed to be effective in fighting extremism, “hate” always continued to be on the rise, more dangerous than ever, with each year’s report on hate groups. “The S.P.L.C.—making hate pay,” we’d say. It wasn’t funny then. At this moment, it seems even grimmer. The firing of Dees has flushed up all the uncomfortable questions again. Were we complicit, by taking our paychecks and staying silent, in ripping off donors on behalf of an organization that never lived up to the values it espoused? Did we enable racial discrimination and sexual harassment by failing to speak out? “Of course we did,” a former colleague told me, as we parsed the news over the phone. “It’s shameful, but when you’re there you kind of end up accepting things. I never even considered speaking out when things happened to me! It doesn’t feel good to recognize that. I was so into the work, and so motivated by it, I kind of shrugged off what was going on.” A couple of days later, she texted me: “I’m having SPLC nightmares.” Aren’t we all, I thought. Bob Moser is the author of “Blue Dixie: Awakening the South’s Democratic Majority.”

[sizzlingcrusadebouquetfan-blog]

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How much would it cost on insurance average for a 17 year old owning a street bike?

im looking at 2012 ninja 250r kawasaki street bike and wondering the average insurance monthly and im 17 years old

USAA insurance rates from traffic ticket?

I received a traffic ticket for following too closely and was clocked at 17mph going through town. The car in front of me had pulled away from the stoplight and was clearly not interested in speeding up, so I had to speed up some to signal into the adjoining lane to pass him. This was during rush hour, so traffic was pretty heavy. The cop pulled me over and cited me for following too closely which carries a $115 fine. He asked me why I thought he pulled me over, and I honestly had no idea what I did wrong. Unfortunately, he would not concede to a simple warning and cited me anyway. I also received a ticket about 11 months ago for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign before turning. USAA did not increase my rates from this ticket, but I am concerned that they might increase my rates if they find out about the latest ticket. Should I plead not guilty and have a trial date set to fight this, or just pay the fine and pray that USAA doesn't pick it up? Does anyone else have experience with two minor traffic violations within one year and USAA auto rates?""

Lake Minchumina Alaska Cheap car insurance quotes zip 99757

Lake Minchumina Alaska Cheap car insurance quotes zip 99757

Is there a way for me to figure out how much insurance would cost me with different cars?

I'm 16 now, and shopping around for cars. I was wondering if there is any type of tool on the internet that would allow me to see how much I would pay for insurance with different cars? Say, a Civic compared to a 3000GT/Supra or something sportier.""

Independent young couples under 25--How much per month do you pay for all your insurance?

About how much do you pay for car/medical/dental and other insurance bills per month?

Auto Insurance Is Prohibitively Expensive. What To Do?

I'm 23 years old. I rent a flat and have held a steady management job for 4 years. I don't drink or smoke. I am looking to purchase a 1993 Nissan Altima and I was looking for insurance. I was blown away when I got the quotes. Mind you, I live in Detroit and I understand that insurance is expensive, but this is ridiculous. Every quote I got was for at least $400 a month, liability only. Esurance was the most expensive at $582 a month. Allstate was the lowest at $396 a month. Any advice? I really need this car, but there is no way I can afford those insane rates.""

Are annuity health insurance premiums deductible?

My husband gets a government pension. His health insurance premiums are deducted from the annuity payments each month. (I don't know yet if the premiums are paid with pre-tax or post-tax dollars, looking into it.) Are those premiums deductible in the medical expenses area of our federal income taxes?""

Help!!!! changing car insurance?

I called another company and had a quote with them and they offering me a way better price than my current insurance company... I wanna make a change.. what do I do? Do I have to call up the current insurance company and cancel the policy?

How do online insurance quotes know the cars I own?

How do online insurance quotes (via Progressive, State Farm, etc.) know what cars I own based only on my name, address, and birth date? What kind of database houses this information?""

How do you find the cheapest car insurance?

I'm almost 20 been driving since I was 16. No accidents, no tickets. I've been on my grandparents insurance but now it's time I get my own. How do I go about finding the cheapest car insurance?""

Do you have to report a DUI to the car insurance company?

My friend got a DUI not too long ago. This is the state of Florida, and she has Allstate. I understand that her getting a DUI is now public records because she spent the night in jail. Because the fact that it's public records now, is she required to inform her Allstate insurance company about her DUI? Also, what will happen either way whether she reports it to insurance company or not? Will they remove her from her insurance or jack up the rates? It is her FIRST DUI and other than that she has a good driving record. Thanks.""

Are auto insurance rates determined by credit score & not driving record?

I see a lot of people complain that they have a good driving record but bad credit & their insurance rates go up.. Is having good credit better then having a good driving record?

Is there any affordable health insurance out there(about 140-180 dollars a month)?

Not health savings accounts ...Is there anything by the government for Americans trying to live the American Dream on a modist income.

Is Mass Mutual insurance affiliated with any other insurance companies?

any agencies affiliated to Mass Mutual life insurance

Can i get new york insurance while maintaining a florida tag?

Can I get new York insurance while maintaining a Florida license plate?

""Are manual shift cars better on gas than automatics, and are they cheaper insurance wise?""

Are manual shift cars better on gas than automatics, and are they cheaper insurance wise?""

How much does a broken wrist cost after insurance?

I have a paper from school and in it I must in include all details of a situation. My story line includes a child breaking their wrist. I was wonder what someone would have to pay after insurance? If you could help me be detailed as much as possible like how much would it be for like x rays, doctor visits, medicine, etc. I've never broken anything so Im a bit lost. Even just a average estimate would be appreciated.""

Does anyone know the average price of plpd insurance on a mustang gt for a 16 year old?

I am turning 16 and I really want a mustang gt ive found one but I need to find the price of plpd on a mustang gt so if anyone has any answers or prices please tell me

How to renew two wheeler insurance ? Can I purchase some other insurance ?

Hi All, I have two wheeler (TVS wego), and when I purchased it I had United India Insurance which is expired, I want to renew it. How do I renew it or can I buy some other insurance as other can be purchased online ? Is it acceptable by RTO ?""

Good/cheap car insurance?

I currently have Farmers Insurance. I'm thinking about switching and trying to find a lower rate. Does anyone have positive or negative feedback about companies like Geico and Progressive? Is there much of a difference between their rates and complanies like State Farm or Farmers? Any suggestions would be helpful!

What is the average cost for insurance on a 2009 Yamaha R6?

Im going to get it tomorrow. I am almost 19, and i have one accident. I think it was a fault from both drivers. not sure. just let me know what you are paying and on what kind of bike thanks.""

Which car insurance company is best with a teenage driver?

i am 16 and i am considering buying a 1999-2004 mustang or maybe a firebird or camaro from about the same time and i know the insurance is going to be high. 1) how much of a difference will it make if its listed as my parents' car and im just a driver rather than it being my car and 2) which auto insurance company is best for discounts from drivers ed, my gpa(4.0 thank you very much),and maybe a defense driving course or something like that. thanks in advance everyone!!!""

How much is it to insure a replica car ?

Im looking to buy a replica lamborghini Aventador but was wondering if the insurance would be to high to handle. I live in Ontario, Canada Thanks""

""Just got a quote for 10,000 for my car insurance?!?!?""

i was getting a quote from comparison websites and the cheapest quote i received was 10,000. i also put my mother on the policy who has over 25 years driving experience and also switched to third party. what else could i do to lower the insurance costs.. im buying an audi a3 but is there any other way i could lower the insurance, thanks everyone""

Where can you find the best/cheapest car insurance for a 17 year old?

I am 17 years old and I hav recently jst passed my driving test. I was wondering where i can find the cheapest car insurance. Preferably, i would like to put myself as second driver of the car (under my dads name who is the main driver). But does any1 kno where i can find the cheapest car insurance for someone my age? Thanx in advance.""

""Does anyone know how much Plan B costs without insurance at the Flagstaff, AZ Planned Parenthood?""

Also, does anyone know, if I were to use my parents insurance, if they would find out that I got Plan B? I really can't let them know about this... please, I need helpful answers. Thanks so much.""

What car colors are more expensive for insurance?

I am buying a new car and I have found the one I want but I need lower insurance so what color is cheapest and what is most expensive.

Why not lower heath care insurance than universal health care?

I pay $450 a month for my health insurance, why dont they just cut the cost in half? Then people could afford it. Its alot for me but worth it, i had spinal meningitis at 18 and without id be dead.""

Lake Minchumina Alaska Cheap car insurance quotes zip 99757

Lake Minchumina Alaska Cheap car insurance quotes zip 99757

Young driver insurance quote?

Hi guys I was checking insurance for myself for when I passed my test in December and I have been quoted 3500. Now that was with my mum on insurance as a second driver. On my own it was 3600 on an Reno Clio 2000 1.2L. I'm 18 and only live with my mom. We're not made from money so I won't be able to pay that much for insurance. Is it this'd high because I'm from Poland (been in UK for 7 years) or is it because I got it from one of the comparison websites (compare the market, go compare). All answers are appreciated and thanks for reading. Jake""

Riding a motorcycle without licence?

I just bought my first motorcycle today, and I'm enrolled in the msf course but it dosn't start for a few weeks. Can i still ride my bike legally?""

What happens if you just don't pay your car insurance?

Where I live you get car insured and they put a sticker on the plates with expiry date a year from now. But you still only pay once a month. What happens if you simply stop paying ...show more

Do teens with their permit need car insurance if their parents have USAA auto insurance?

please provide where u got this info from not jus u came up with it i need proof

Where do I find Cheap Car Insurance When I have Epilepsy?

I'm 19, and I haven't had a fit since I was 16 (I believe I've done the teenage growing out of it ), The DVLA are fine and are issuing me a provisional, but finding insurance is a pain in the ***. Is there anywhere that does cheap insurance that doesn't care if I have Epilepsy? OR just does it cheap anyway?""

Car Insurance help!?!?

I have got insurance with EGG and i had a non-fault accident and have got a claim going through. The car isn't drivable, I have got another car is there any chance i can switch my insurance from my old car to my new car making sure my old car insurance claim goes through???""

What is the best health insurance plan for INternational students who are IN USA?

Hello there ,what is the best health insurance plan for International students who are in USA. If it helps I am currently IN MAryland. Please let me know , would be great if you could provide websites and links as well. Thnaks so much for your assisatnce!""

Cheapest California Auto Insurance?

Any One Can Tell Me The Cheapest California Auto Insurance

Do your insurance rates go up when you file for bankruptcy?

Do your insurance rates go up when you file for bankruptcy?

Progressive insurance auto full coverage?

I've had progressive insurance now for an year, I renew every 6 months. However I'm not too happy with the dollar increase every renewal. Is this normal? I have full coverage and pay $84 now (monthly) I've never had a ticket, no accident whatso ever in my life. So I would like input whether or not all/most auto insurance charge you an increase for insurance renewal? Please DO NOT tell me it's cheaper to pay a lum sum to get a discount, I can NOT do this.""

If i get insurance for a car that is registered to my father can I get plates from DMV?

If i get insurance for a car that is registered to my father can I get plates from DMV?

Question about Liability Insurance.?

My mother has insurance on a car I drive, but do to a horrible driving record State Farm - her car insurance company - won't carry me, and when they will again it won't be cheap. I recently found some cheap liability insurance but I was curious - the insurance companies won't give me a straight answer - does my mom have to switch all the insurance for the car, or can I have insurance just for when I drive. If so should I get PIP - personal injury protection instead of liability? Pretty much can there be 2 forms of insurance from 2 seperate companies on one car? Full Coverage for the car and my mom, and Liability for me?""

How much average does a family of four pay annually or monthly for health insurance?

I'm currently in the military and plan on getting out in 3yrs. I have an EF but people in the service forget about health insurance (because its free now). I want to set my family up. Just wondering what would I be looking at paying when I separate for a family of four so I can start saving

Will my car insurance rates go up if i crashed a car as a valet?

backed into another car as a valet. My company has insurance. The insurance exchanged was my bosses, and the other 2 parties involved (car I was in and the car that was hit). My license number was taken down and I received a traffic ticket. Oh well. My real concern is does MY insurance ever find out about this? Or is it all on the company's insurance?""

Recommended Auto-insurance break-ups?

I have Mercury Insurance for my Camry (Make-2009). It is due for renewal next month. I was with this company from past one year. I am from different company, so frankly telling, I did not used my mind while buying Insurance and I just followed my friends. Can somebody review it and suggest, if it is recommended or I should change it ? May be I can save more money ? Bodily Injury Liability = 100,000 (Each Person)/300,000 (Each Accident) Property Damage Liability = 50,000 (Each Accident) Uninsured Motorists Bodily Injury Liability = 50,000 (Each Person)/100,00 (Each Accident) Uninsured Motorists Property Damage Liability = Maximum Comprehensive = Deductible Car-1 $ 500 Collision = Deductible Car-1 - $ 500 Roadside Assistance Per Occurrence = Car-1 - $75""

Is there any affordable health insurance when you are a smoker with high blood pressure?

Is there any affordable health insurance when you are a smoker with high blood pressure?

How to get off an auto insurance policy?

about 2 years ago, my mom signed me up in the same insurance as her car...i do not drive her car and never did, however, we still pay 80 bucks extra a month, i want to get off of that insurance but i hear its much trickier than it seems. The car i drive is already insured, but not under my name. Is that legal or not? I live in illinois if that helps. how should i go about removiving my name from this insurance company?""

How much will car insurance be for a teen driver?

I know that there could be no true answer here but I want to know a range. Factors: 4.1 GPA student 16 year old male. California residence 2007 Honda Civic Took drivers ED Asian (if that matters, haha) My parents have a HIGH credit score. I'm going to be added in to my parents insurance plan. My dad is paying around 50 dollars for full coverage on the 2007 Honda civic right now (passing it on to me)""

How much would car insurance cost with a 2008 kia optima im 17 years old?

i get my lisence in 2 months i live in south florida and im gunna have to pay for my insurace so i need to know so i know how much im gunna have to work

Help on medical insurance?

My girlfriend just lost her medical health insurance benefit from her job, and she is having difficulty finding an insurance provider because she is pregnant. Does anyone know of a health insurance company that will accept her? Thank you for your help.""

Where can I find cheap auto insurance?

I have a spotless driving record and pay my premiums on time every month. I signed up for AMICA insurance a few years ago because they only cared about your driving record so my premiums were low. Two years later they decide to do a credit check on all of their customers and they saw I have a wage earner. Regardless of my spotless driving record and my dependability on making all of my premiums on time they upped my premiums substantially because of bad credit. Its not fair. When I signed up they did not do credit checks and went solely on your record. Where can I find an insurance that charges you fair premiums based on safe driving record?

Whats the average cost for teenage car insurance?

im going to get my permit soon and i would like to know what the average teen car insurance cost is.

Is it wrong to TTC without having medical insurance?

We've been married for more than 3 years now, I'm 27, we just bought a house and we both have decent jobs, we feel we're ready and is a good time in our lives (even though there's never a perfect time). The insurance issue is been stopping me from before, but I don't get it from my job and is very expensive to get it through his. Everyone says I automatically get medicaid, we don't make great money but we're not poor either, do we qualify? is it irresponsible from us to start without it? Also I'm a permanent resident, husband's american...I do pay taxes!""

Problem with Admiral car insurance... heeelp!!!!?

Hello Thank you for entering in my post I've been with Admiral insurance for more than 1 year, which is my 1st car insurance since I've been in England I've been driving for more than 12 years and I've never made a claim before it was a normal and clear day and i was going to work when I had an accident with a girl riding a moped It was a very silly accident, fortunatelly none was injured, and I only had a broken wind-mirrow, which is no more than 50 of damage I had to call Admiral, my insurer, to sort the problem out, I had no other choice Admiral told me I was not covered to go to work since on the policy agreement says: use for social, domestic and pleasure purposes only. And, according to them, to be covered, my policy had to be: use for social and COMMUNITY. So Community for them means, going to work, it is ridiculas but that's what i was told However they said we cover you, you will have to pay 23.74 extra and you will be covered, it was frustrating, a theft, but I let it go... The absurd story didn't even start yet! I gave Admiral all the details which the police had given to me the day of the accident plus some pictures of the scene, which I took before to leave that day Admiral sent an inspector who interwied me at my house. This inspector wrote a statement of 6 PAGES! about my accident, however, I need to say, he did a very good job On the statement states that none was injured and the fault lies with the moped rider, which is also what the police said on the scene. In addtion this inspector suggested to call my insurer again to finally get my car fixed. Admiral told me I will have to pay for the damage myself and, after all their investigation, if they find out it was not my fault, I can ask e refund for the damage, and they added that this investigation can take up to 3 years, so I will have my money back in 3 years! this is because according to them, the moper rider was injured This is absolutely incredible What would you suggest? I would like to get rid of this Admiral policy as soon possible, I would like to claim against it Who could I call to claim against Admiral? Any suggestion according this matter will be very apprecitive thank you in advance for your help""

Is car insurance for a new car the same or more than insurance for a used car?

ive been hearing different things saying that there is not real difference between insurance prices for used or new cars, but some people are saying insurance for used car is cheaper..which is true??""

Lake Minchumina Alaska Cheap car insurance quotes zip 99757

Lake Minchumina Alaska Cheap car insurance quotes zip 99757

Cheap/Affordable Car insurance for a 20 year old Driver?

Hey guys, I've had my license for a couple of months (Just turned 20) and I was wondering where or how I'd be able to get the cheapest possible insurance. Also, is there any ways around it? like putting it under my Dads name lool? Thanks!!""

What car insurance do you have and do you like it?

I'm about to get my license and my parents asked me which insurance I want. I want to know your personal experience with your insurance company and would you recommend them? Judging by what my parents have explained to me so far I plan on getting full coverage not the bare minimum just because its cheaper (which is stupid in my opinion). Right now I'm driving our 2007 Mitsubishi eclipse but my parents plan on giving me the Saturn since the eclipse is more my moms car than mine. Do you know approximently what it will cost to insure the saturn. Also what do you think makes your insurance better than others?

What is the cheapest Auto insurance I can get?

I'm 23, just got my license, i have a Honda civic 2002. Thanks!""

How can i get car insurance cheap ?

i am a young driver and car insurance is a joke how do i get it cheap without breaking any laws ?

The cheapest car insurance?

Hey everyone!! I'm planning to get my first car, and i was wondering what is the cheapest possible car insurance in Utah and nationwide. thanks!!""

Will calling insurance over a cracked windshield raise my insurance rates?

I have Geico insurance for the past 8 years. I have not made one claim in that 8 year time frame. I was driving down the highway last week when something struck my windshield and spider cracked it pretty good. Should I pay it out of my pocket or call the insurance. Will my rates go up for making a windshield claim?

""Would it be worth going through insurance, pictures?""

Its a 2002 Honda Accord SE 4-door. Lets just they there was an incident, anyways. The rear passenger door is banged in. My issue is, if I buy a replacement, would it be hard to mount the door, are the bolts, just screw on, and the door is already aligned or is there some type of process? The deductible would be $500 with the possibility of higher insurance rates. I could get the door in the same color for less. What should I do through insurance or do it myself, would it be difficult? I have someone who will paint it, if it doesn't match. Supposedly, as far as the Window components are (Regulator etc, they are included in the replacement also) http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a81/oyoki1/Pictures1026.jpg""

Question with progressive insurance?

Ok heres the deal. Last September we were backing out of our driveway and bumped into our neighbors drivers door on his late 80's mazda mx3. It caused a little dent in his car and just a tiny scratch on our car. We agreed that we will just handle it outside of insurance once spring came. Now that the snow finally melted here, he left a note on our door saying he wants payment in full in 7 days or he will report to our insurance. My question is, progressive told us they put it under property damage so there is no deductible but what will this do to our rates if anything? Thank You""

How can i apply for health insurance in california?

is there a website where i can apply online? please help!

Renault clio? first time insurance how to get it cheap?

looking at a clio 1999-2003 model any hints on how to get cheaper? got a quote for 4000 today!

What is the most reasonable home owner and Auto insurance?

I need to get a cheaper insurance for car and Auto.Would like to hear from you that have checked prices before you bought insurance.

Do i have to notify my car insurance company?

do i have to notify my insurance company, if someone hits me from behind and their insurance is covering the damages""

Cheap car insurance company in vegas. 2 cars paid off?

Cheap car insurance company in vegas. 2 cars paid off?

What is a good and cheep health insurance?

i only need it for a month i'm 19 years old and in good health. oh i live in florid

Can an 18 year old/college student stay on parents auto insurance?

I'm 17 (turning 18 in 8 months) and my parents are extremely hesitant about letting me get a car because of the insurance going up. I'm testing for my license in a few weeks (After almost two years of them putting it off...) I'll be getting a safe, four door car, probably a 2001 Chevy Malibu. I'll get the good grades discount, and i already took a defensive driving course online which will get me another 10% off, and I have a steady job and decent savings account and would be able to pay them the difference in insurance every month. They still aren't going for it. So first question, anyone have some tips for me to get them to cool down about this? I'll be taking college classes at our local tech while I'm still in high school, and then I'll be going to that school full time after graduation. My parents work opposite shifts and can't take me to all my classes constantly. I need a car, not just for independence, but for practicality. That brings me to my second question, once I turn 18 and am a full time college student, will I still be able to be on their insurance? Will that change if I move out? Thanks!""

How do you switch insurance on your car if you get another one?

1) How much paperwork is involved. I drive a 92 Lebaron that is not too far from dying. I would like to buy a car within the next year and make monthly payments. 2) Is it really just a phonecall with my agent? 3) Do I get to keep my license plate? 4) What happens to my excise tax?--Do I have to inform my town hall of my new vehicle? Do I still get billed for my old car?

Typically whats the cheapest insurance company?

my rates are pritty high.. im thinkin about changin

How much would decent health insurance cost in the USA?

How much would decent health insurance cost in the USA for an elder person, say 65, who has no health history in the us due to being an immigrant? I am talking about the decent type of health insurance one gets when working for a fortune 500 company with low premiums and 20 dollar copays. ANy advice?""

I dented my friends car. can my insurance cover it?

i accidentally kicked my friend's 2011 Camry SE's back side door. He treats his car really well and i know it really upset him. I was going to pay for it, but when we took it to the toyota shop, not only was it $2000 but they also need to keep it for a week. He would need another car to go to his full time job and full time school, so he asked if my insurance could cover for it and give him a rental car. My insurance is in my parents name so i want to know whats going to happen before i decide to ask them. Anyone have any knowledge about this? Thanks.""

Do you need to have car insurance to rent a car?

I used to live in Ohio. Now i live in Florida. I'm trying to plan a trip up to Ohio to see my friends next week. I sold my car here in Florida because i really didn't need it anymore. So of course my car insurance was cancelled after that. Will they let me rent a car without insurance? I know you can buy the rental company's insurance which i will do of course. Thank you in advance.

Were would i find price range for car insurance?

im doing a power point on insurance and i need to find the best price range for car insurance

What is the average monthly rate for restaurant liabilty insurance in tampa?

And which insurance company in tampa do the restaurant insurance..Mind is in the plaza not free stand..

How much will my car insurance premium change when i turn 25?

I'm 24 and a car in insurance group 6 is costing me 600-700. I've heard this goes down significantly when I turn 25, is this true and how much should it go down by?""

How much would my car insurance be?i'm 18 in los angeles..?

i'm getting a 2003 nissan sentra with 92,000 miles...i was just wondering around how much would my car insurance be..? and if I put it on my dad's name and i'm a co driver?""

How much would it cost to put an 18 year old on progressive car insurance?

I have to add my daughter to my insurance and I want some input before I make any decisions. What is a good estimate for how much it would cost?

Lake Minchumina Alaska Cheap car insurance quotes zip 99757

Lake Minchumina Alaska Cheap car insurance quotes zip 99757

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-lowest-car-insurance-kia-william-willis/"

[tocoworks]

💰💦💪How To Make More $$$ With These Freelancer Apps + Websites w/ 208 Monkeys' Damian Alpizar

Episode Sponsors below** Damian Alpizar is a director, producer, writer, photographer, editor, podcast host of The Wrap Party, and owner of 208 Monkeys, a video, film and animation production company in Ybor City, Tampa, FL.

🎧 iTunes http://bit.ly/sweatequitypodcast 🎧 Laughable http://bit.ly/2k7y6Ff 👓 Facebook facebook.com/SweatEquityPodcast 👓 Youtube http://bit.ly/swequityyt

Grasshopper, the virtual phone system.  Sweat Equity listeners save $50 when they sign up using the special link  TryGrasshopper.com/sweat

John Jacobs album, Summer at Southside  https://bitly.is/2p96enf

Nick Hoff's album, Baby Daddy https://goo.gl/oZo6it

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT VIA DRAGON DICTATE

 Yes now you see the red light damage rely guys right I feel and get himself I like doing this little tease music and beginning now just before you really start to get a vibe going you know like foreplay if when are you today that yeah you play the role of my wife in a sitcom study that that set up just got done talking on them and let her we just got done talking about but we may have to get an apartment together because were nerdy out so much because were working so hard yeah yeah that's it but let's do no support the sponsors that support the show right back of like this if you like this podcast were trying to give you the pragmatic advice we stumbled upon via conversation or interview and so why not when I have a business line you know when I have a good app that is your business line not not don't go to Verizon go hey I need a second line added here's why did you get confused when it was on call it love it when idiots like that come in right in your call be like you do the joke I like to do you say no limit studios you know that's a funny answer quote unquote when someone when someone calls my personal line but now my business line so when people call business line we have say talk about your consulting no or we share the business line yeah you have the app you have the same line I do it's scalable so let's get some grasshopper action going on the virtual phone system you need to get for your business to eight monkeys.com let's get creative but our listeners get $50 off if they get a trygrasshopper.com/sweat let's TryGrasshopper.com/sweat and that's… Like Nelly Furtado in your favorite dude I don't remix like I'm not a good DJ but I am good at telling about good abs grasshopper the entrepreneurs phone Ray get this thing going and my dad is the thank you grasshopper hello we'll talk later a minute and a three and a two and a body chatty you love that love it I love it I love it why because I hated you I do I got there David yeah hey got new this thing will come in handy liberty do many episode today we've got some in the hopper coming up because I listen to a lot of podcasts and I hate when they just take the holidays office I do bake couple episodes so I was on my friend Krishna readies just tube which is science with a comedic kind of taste on it little approach to that Sweden's first one in here so it look very similar this set up when you see it if you want to watch a video and then we gotta do to two freebie shout outs to come to sponsors John Jacobs comedian buddy of our our program of cigar city comedy in this the Tampa Bay area he's got an album out called some Summers Southside we got a huge argument last night if you look up on iTunes I said he had to redo his album art because it has McDonald's logos as the atoms of what was the argument yeah it's like he doesn't want to change it so I was shot often to vehicles look at Jacobs do like this not an argument you have to do it he's here claiming parity law I said parity laws fine but Bill do a cease-and-desist and then by the time you figure it out it will be here at least that those that become like great marketing then because he's got like this to make it talk about so negative I will be to do that so I said if you have an organic audience and then you make it a big shade about it then yes that would be fine he doesn't have that you have a big enough audience for that to create like a crazy fervor on Twitter or whatever and then on the other side he does have the money for PRT and really execute that it's one of the other would come back from it so yeah just like because I feel like some of these PR like spats the really kinda calculated you know you were to do this on Tuesday morning because that's gonna be the album he dropped album on a Sunday Lord's day every album comes out on a Tuesday so I like that still exist yeah me anything about got drop bombs on Tuesday so you do on a Tuesday same it I think some people don't but same logic with movies so they did it on Fridays because you want the box office for the weekend they kept creeping back you want to get the midnight showing's accounts towards your first weekend all that stuff Tuesdays you do it so it has like a ripple effect throughout the week so a bunch of people bide on to say the big fans and then that'll have like a snowball fight for more people to hear about it more people to buy it Tuesday seem to be that's going to go away doesn't seem to me is that you still standard the right yeah but you know him say like it's not that you look at the physical CD copy but he does have some funny he does have some funny stuff and that's another interview we have banked that were to put on I go through Facebook I do like the music it's funny it's good it's really funny I I thought it was gonna be like really esoteric garbage and he did what I want to I don't like giving the confidence you do love you do love the very Tim and Eric that would be so yeah I would love to be Simon Rex turning into dirt nasty work be a rapper as a big show in a bisexual and right if this is what you know he is he is yeah sure no legislation so the other one hour another shot I will give is another comedian buddy Nick Cortes now will now check it out on Amazon and in iTunes as well give let give us a five star review give them a five star review all that should really help sets a cheat code like creep creep up the rankings so now that's out of the way yeah and half my body I used to tour with a love you know him and I will meet we get a lot of arguments but I still love him like a brother and he's opening for Foxworthy and Larry the cable guy over the country and cool which is cool but that is I see them big names but say what you I know I don't know say what you will about the those flavor of comedians by you know those guys have a crazy work ethic and you don't really get that good by being unfunny I think they chose a path of what yeah exactly latest decided they can just go right down that narrow little Foxworthy used to work at IBM smart noon that's Larry the cable guy from this area yeah yeah Hilda now cable guy surprises what yet when his accents fake to people it's an act I know that but I don't think everybody else does dude I was told some last night 1/3 of the country doesn't care about jokes feeling like no most the countries I am care but what's funny and so are just as like the other guys that is creative that's that's the property you know all that kind of stuff what what we want to get into we had some I told you to Cork until we started deeming outputs are what the net neutrality others mean there's that mean that that's a big thing right now especially a man much on a harp and be like oh no net neutrality is completely horrible I mean I understand why some corporations like hey look we need to you know what is it for about wondering what okay will net neutrality and and and and and I'm trying to existing not skip and jump all over the place I'm also directing over here because it's got some with me was got some weird angles that is trying to jump to the wife it is had to do it yourself well you know how it would please the showoffs yes director heads it's like picking want to keep talking people's heads it now it's the Meebo's fault now you claim in the I am or what I am I am you had I am totally annoyed by no no no you didn't I see nothing episodes and he just get head chopped off quite a bit so no so one of things what net neutrality in an in layman's terms is that originally the Internet was supposed to be like the information as long as you're going through an ISP it was all treated equally no matter what band with you so if you are going with streaming nine porn videos at one time if you streaming nine porn videos at one time or if you're just putting up some text you got equal pager you paid your ISP you got through it you you you you pay for your band with and you can use have been with as as needed the analogy that I saw on Forbes I believe was shelving on in a supermarket where you know you people in retail they pay for in a preferred shelving and pervert space in the supermarket to consumer preferences and consumer preferences pay more its dynamic pricing you pay more to be on the in At a grocery store I'm kind of obsessed with I like a lot of that stuff like will the serial killer existing to pay a lot more to be on the in because you impulsively get Cocoa crispies or whatever they remember the commercial where the guy was walking squatted down and there's trying to sell that bag cereal on the bottom of the shelf whole gimmick was that he was walking real short and that's alien pay extra for literary people don't want to bend over so that the loan literally they don't exist at all know that serial anywhere you and then a new answer and then they do the reverse one now were people now know to go down to the lower floor so this like the pen ultimate the one that's just off that I noticed that the other day the frosted flakes like on the bottom like the that will be going on on the bottom if there was a printed Lord of the frosted flakes on the bottom because kids can reach and grab it and put in the car they want to put those were dry it can grab it like I did grab the process of the worst box sometimes is the not the bottom but right above that and then ultimate the top because most people can't grab the stuff on the top so so you just cook is like I do that sometimes my I don't have I got like T Rex arms like the you know when you do this you do your wingspan does and how tall it mine site I be like a midget is essentially really worth excuse me little little human could to sell yourself short arms how much shorter are the now I don't know not much but it's alligator arms measure that and I always do the debate like I get someone from Publix over here now just get the thing I don't want to try to there house been what is never seen convenience be such a big part of business dynamics now because it used to be used to be price or uniqueness right does work on it right here and now convenience, in the middle of that yet convenience time time is to be the big thing but now it's now convenient as it is another big factor that's all was basically happening is that but you see stores have limited space they have square walls they have an area that they have to stay within so you can charge more for premium space and things of that nature but when you come to the Internet which doesn't have any limitations as to realistically does have a notation it and you can't say that oh you're running out of space on the Internet or speed on the Internet really you're not so what is happening is that now the ISPs can say hey you know what Netflix you've got a whole lot of people using your stuff were going to charge you more to access and push through intern human Netflix obviously being a corporation is going to just eat that cost are going to raise their price and that consumers will not have to for Netflix get more but here's the problem is that let's say Disney is getting ready to do their streaming service right and they strike a deal you already know the disease try to strike a deal by Fox what if they struck a deal with Verizon and say guess what will make sure that all of our streaming services only go through Verizon network so if you're on the spectrum or another network of any type now you can get the Disney streams of youth the log on to their that particular ISP provider to get that because now does he like okay well you can go with you guys versus because you guys giving us the better deal for the band with you giving us your giving us a better deal for Ben with will go you guys that that the blocks out the other guys now Netflix is only available in one versus it being neutral were all of them are treated the same and anyone and as a consumer we can pick and choose and just let the free market that neutrality I thought it was reverse of what you think it is by the name you want net neutrality want not want all you want to want to be neutral yet you want you want all the ISPs to treat all of the providers equally no matter how much popularity and that their business doing great you don't want them to say hey by the way you got a great service right to charge more for now the rock is a problem with that is that everybody says all man net neutrality site will note that the the law against it whatever that so that the problem is that whoever branded this did a really good job yeah fuses me every time I listen to it I hear it my lizard brain goes what should be neutral and then I think I don't know like what you want and I want it over the Internet will be free market and then like and I have to remember that it's not admit it's not at first blush what you think it is and if you like work in this world a little bit or a lot I'd say I feel like the generation older than us supercomputer I'm sure there's so many complaint letters that went in that said get rid of that neutrality and they think they're wanting one thing when there now well then yeah that means probably get it had to happen to his I hear it all the time and and and it could be confusing because you have to look at it and say okay why do I want all of my providers to be treated equally will you want them to be treated equally so that when it's up to their service to you that's going to determine how successful they are you want to be a matter of that they made a deal in the back in with somebody and now all of a sudden because they made a deal they blocked out competition and that's the problem that you're running into situation were now corporations are deciding what can be the better service for you to have and your internets can go out so we are to go up it's weird that in all, revolves around corporate consolidation because I do not feel so that John Oliver piece couple weeks ago is great iconic explain like every big business in the United States is all corporate consolidation like so therefore ISP there's a for Internet people you can choose from basically Google fiber tried to get in the market it you literally have to lay fiber down like there's fiber that goes from from the East Coast United States across to Europe like there's little I know it's crazy that's so crazy sitting on the ocean floor there's good Michael Lewis I was called flash boys about how these guys manipulated the market because they could get I have second faster from the Chicago trade to where the servers were so that Chicago's marketplace Star Trek stock marketplace Jesus Christ to New Jersey that so it's all about this guy like train the pipeline through Pennsylvania Mountains and stuff to get 1/2 second faster made boot two dollars because their Internet connections faster essentially airlines right it's all it's all an oligopoly I get a lecture from my good buddies because I went on a rant couple years goes like it's all godly man like preach price fix how many airlines are there the four right Southwest Delta American United maybe I think we only fly spirit because my wife is cheap that doesn't really count as that's like Greyhound that people bring on like Phil and Joe Stelzer L no not wearing shoes and chickens flying around inside then they charge you for like headphones that you brought so like what happens is with the net neutrality stuff this year for providers right it's like a double flock of us think about it so you only have for you we have most places you have one or two to pick from the United States Internet wise right and then from there now were seen the Disney fox probable no acquisition of Fox which they'll take Julio and it will be a juggernaut against Netflix both are huge sucks on on Internet bandwidth and then they now have their own kind of bottleneck on the entertainment stuff that everybody wants see I okay so these this could be a good thing just like your mom say yeah my mom would find a silver lining is so will you get every movie ever I don't remember what 20 but is there's a city that's they're gonna start treating broadband Internet like a utility where the city's organist start developing their own broadband system somehow and then providing it from there and then you also got I don't know if that's a good idea it's an option are more options I mean what we can only choose one electric provider right now I don't think that's a great great thing is manna because they bring our options because they lobby to block solar energy for long time which means were worth talking laggard state always here we also just go to make a get to the point where Elon musk puts all his Wi-Fi balloons in the space and then we all have Wi-Fi for free forever it will write our I'm trying to think of how this affects most people really on the ground level because while we can you know is it it's like the tax stuff that everybody's pitch about maybe seven days ago already forgot that's what's crazy about all the new cycle is like it is so ADD out that like I can want to write down what people are already in hysterics like put it on the wall remember that if we can go talk a month later bola and we look like were very thoughtful yeah well this is that I mean unfortunately it's it's you know people very forgetful and I think that definitely there and as it were in a teenage were all that was so tweeted you know five minutes ago but it will affect people long run there's a mic and harp on Amicus at them like oh no you all rise and and and they got people that are fighting against it there's going to be the must center actually sent me a letter saying sorry that that got those kind of messed up energy that are lower than ours online sorry RR Sen. right I didn't get anything well which Sen. Utah yeah other public figure usually Hoosiers not going to LaRose on most are you on the inside no way I read the thing is failure rather will have two senators already sorry I rep about this but let's let's dovetail this into some Moroccan out looking at because I'm certain of the tax stuff and that was affecting a lot of freelancers right because I've got 15 minutes until I got to get out here and that that affects on freelancer's of what they're some of the tax code that there is a change you can't get nearly the write-offs that you do now that was to be the big overall thing and what's crazy about that is you now you see New York City if your independent contractor now they kinda have laws to protect them a little bit like minimums and like and things things that higher rate people that are hired and freelancers have to do now which is good and bad at the same time with it for like it's good but it kind of defeats the purpose after while that gets to restrictive well the thing is with freelance in particular like for example and in our industry which is primarily the foreman and movie industry freelancers are essential to me they are the ones that projects are spaced out and so in order for you to if you are going to commit yourself to one particular job that's a sound guy and you got equipment and even all these things that you have to rewrite often the travel there's a lot of things that right that are involved with freelance work that should be expensed nicer restricting some of that and you start give making it so that it different more difficult for these independent workers to find work because let's face it it's not like videos being shot every day they have to go where the work is and throughout the state of Florida's perceived nonunion so you run into the situation where they have to get equipment update their stuff keep up with the gas to all the stuff you certainly start restricting some of those things that are in that our tax write offs and now they are in a position that it hurts them at the end of year this is good already have a cheat sheet for this because I wrote this down I was going to do a blog posting and I was five I broke this long I was on a flight route this like is towards my standup comedian brother and that I don't like when they pitch about life they can't make enough money because they can clearly do something on the side and this is good is appropriate for a podcast because it's a lot of people that might want to do their own thing or not doing it because they need a little bit more cash flow or while they're doing it they need to add some other income coming in and I will always tell the comedians of my you could be content writers you know you could be you write all the time you to be social media marketers to since I get to the side gig yeah why not abort the kick at current answer is just work harder not not to that but I'm saying like the it's kind of a separate thought are turning old white man you know will I feel like a low-sodium fire suit straddling and get your ship but I do feel like you can that can be a self fulfilling prophecy that it defeated some kind of attitude were you go let me I'm already doing this you know like I yeah like I've had three gigs going at all times for 10 years and yeah a little crazy but it's made me so good and send so many different ways that were doing meetings I'm not nervous to talk about certain the law stuff will I think I mean freelancers and again I'm only speaking about in particular in my industry freelancers in mind she can sometimes moonlight in other positions rats okay but when you're let's say you're in contracted guys right right your to like production stuff is like your contracted for months right I'm talking about like I was directing this more towards people who say they want to do something I wanted to start this but the goat man I don't have I have a job and you know like you like okay we have let's just break it down if you have a 50 hour week job call at all that put people on the on the defense of the cool want to prickle that down but way too busy to even do that right wool coat let's call it 9 to 5 job I don't know including like an hour like get there get back you know whenever Scott 50 hours right and then 60 just be conservative you got 20 other hours a week probably right depends if you have family kids mail it all depends what I say I know that's a really nice letter yes right but the yes here's a list of sites you can go on and you can do freelance work in this gig economy right so it's I think that's what it's coined as the gig economy you can go on up work with the lance and O desk merge together it's the biggest freelancer website this is also good for project manager to people that need other people to it that's probably the best marketplace for the soft skill stuff programmers graphic designers animators video editors I think I haven't done it on there but we need to get our agency account back up because the more you do on their you knocking started a high dollar per hour at first because you don't have any reviews yet you haven't done anything so what with all this stuff online decide to him to give out you going to start a low dollar per hour in the news creep it up the more jobs you do the more five-star reviews you have the better right so up work there's guru that's a 1.5 million freelancers on that with the time tracking system freelancer.com fiver which is kind one of my favorites yeah it in and then just because fiber don't think that you start off at five dollars and you can now offer a five dollars service but their people are starting off their you might hire Ira five Ron Tosh .0 when they used to pay five bucks for people to do silly stuff around the world and then I looked at it because I would do it for like a joke for fantasy football get some someone you don't know like that's worth five bucks yeah I said something and it's fun it's funny to me it's worth five dollars S what what I see Eric now going on five or me like I want people to snow just to silly stuff for me in Uganda is like that can go to fark is that YouTube guy puny pie he tried to do it any try to do like I Hitler joker some basically took him out of Disney's favor ruined up so don't hurt too far with your Hitler jokes is as a house if so fiber is a good one if you need like little things done you know I need to get the background out of this photo can you take that out in vector that out were can you do a jingle for me or voiceover sometimes those like little things that can just prolonged projects that you need sometimes you get that done pretty quickly let's see I you got a menu got over left you see a lot of that going on the rideshare stuff yeah you can do for each grub hub delivery all that were the other sets of that task rabbit in some cities for writers online writing jobs.com daily posts text broker journalism jobs.com and pinch me.org those are all good writer no losses he doesn't really prepare these pockets but he seems awfully prepared thank you for the ship this hope this was for this was for a blog post and research for nap for one of our clients had it I have in my Evernote ready to go and we start on about tax codons like yeah yeah yeah yeah visual exclude visual arts jobs you can put your creative's on be Hanse.net which I like because that's were like the kind of the best graphic designers are the Hants the Hanseatic that the heart part of Adobe now I figured is kind of prepping me for when you tell me to hit the bricks know so you listen to the podcast schedule… Talking with you as I write to give the fungi of the flipside of this is a second because it's not it people think that's easy like it's easy to screw over get freelancers a lot of what we do here is switchboard operator flock load of freelancers right yeah so you need you need good operating contracts independent contractor operating agreements need legal that's the other part say they say you get a logo made by graphic designer they just copy it from someone don't get the license don't tell you about it and then you pass it on company uses it now your indemnification just like the McDonald's and Jacobs iTunes art I told him I was like your signed contract from it help you because if I put ads out and it leads to iTunes album cover that has a McDonald's logo on it I can be I can control tubes can have a hard time making the song taken a big Mac big time for charities yeah what a mean-spirited I think I hear you say what everyone is like is a whole album about McDonald's is no title to food okay will when I made it home if it is a movie that pretty much bashed McDonald's entire times I'm pretty sure the king when the founder no no not not not not the founder that's good movies I like that the founder they you know McFadden's oversizing supersize me yeah so soon what were those chains were supersize out of it so so you can't and you can't tell freelancers as someone hiring when you can't tell him hey I need to be online this dated this the of these hours or I need you to do I need to be in office like you know 95 it doesn't work like that you have to give them due dates for everything so it is a pain in the ass to hire freelancers the beginning if you haven't really done it and you try do a lot of them to save money week on occult money bawling the best like teams best groups of people together because now everything so segmented out for the online world let us talk about that like there's 40 different kind of programmers there's 40 different styles of graphic design yeah things will we do more valuable oh right so why not pluck the best specialists out when they have time and you need a specialist to know you know because you can't just be like hell, to start a company and I don't anything about the sums going to go ahead and you know pulling a much freelancing traffic I need this you still need to vet those guys and look at their work and say yes worth it and yet not not worth it and so that takes professional life so that that is what we as switchboard operators would still need to operate in an in a show our expertise in that sense and the other went on to throughout there because I'll have a few minutes before I get a heart out is is LinkedIn's legit if you're looking I we was gonna save you bring up a can link to click and heat how do I don't understand the wording I will eventually sponsor the show hello it right now you do so for you for instance because you just got your profile on we need to add a bunch of stuff on there you've worked on a bunch of stuff in the last nine months so I need to write a recommendation for you so you need to go out and request some from people all he is so setting you up for for moving on into freelance world no online resume thing away into the make here is it all helps because your under our company account it says you you work here at took about a consulting so the better your profile the better our profile as a whole but at the same time all the connections are better to so the more user profile the better I can reach out to people to it just it built that social capital is a call it a dishy term but Pro finder you should be on LinkedIn Pro finder there's no reason both yell should be on their it's free to sign up I was at a meeting last night happy are just having beers on site just do this while you're sitting here it takes three minutes to fill out an application no you have thought that much and I've gotten for really high quality leads for proposals just from that and I haven't done anything it just like a Angie's list of business professionals essentially but it it just use your profile so people can look at it and I had like all over the board, thing like had some that were print consulting price consultant which I don't really push out there that much but I guess someone to put it in my skills endorsements I think prices are saying that I was like yeah I we can deftly help you that that is that is that it that's what this podcast for the time yet so look that's my advice those are the list of sites on it were to Dragon dictate this out and hopefully I don't have to do too much editing but will all the links of the places I just said should be in the transcript on our site will replace the blog post so real quick before you head up so we can wrap this up holiday in holiday planning special holiday plans are you yoga first why get this music going fine art no now like the end like not even trying out a family are you seeing anything, knowing that while my wife probably is I have no idea my in-laws are coming over think spending the night waiting for Santa and then that's it also do you have any kind like a holiday tradition that you normally do if you started a huddled under Francis I mean I think Christmas has enough traditions only to be make up my own well-known on on my talk about slaughter pressure will know sorry life example will are are were trying to start like my family had their holiday tradition and then were trying to start like me and my wife are trying to start a kind of a neurologist right now are the only thing we got so far is keeping each Christmas tree from each year to the to make an art piece out of it later on but I'm just saying like the only thing we thought it was like a reporter changing credit to reclaim what I was asked to go to the dump why don't we just save these every year until the we have enough until I decide to smooth a lot more work to save a minute if the people who had ratified I would've prefer to throw more but I see the man is behind the art and the history behind it so I understand what you're Cuban to do the notes what is it the no show the rail note of when I let you do you deny that she go to hang on a spit we don't especially since we had a pet pig for a long time so we don't put the guns but we do Panini but we don't ask to put the pig on a spit and there's a Tampa Bay times writer that was looking for someone to write an article so if you want to do what you got going on just ugly ugly Christmas where parties can have actually went because of my recent life changes wedding and now home possibly yours to buy my house can't take that back I said possibly you were actually doing will try to keep it easy for everybody and not worry about get the change just have a good gathering food in an ugly sweater party of the onesie party to look as good intentions will seal that plays out we get we wish you for that but we don't do it I haven't I don't think I've ever left for Christmas ever my family is one of the rare families it's been in Tampa for like four generations or something mind to witness they're all here yeah so it it kinda sucks when it's really hot to doesn't feel like Christmas on a night like Christmas 80° right now but you were three days is hang out I'm excited to see our little boy is about you mean your kids are right and the best age that well yet evident Tom Iverson so close five and five and 217 FF know you're the one great improper notice yes and yes and I have other kids that other different ages I know I said 70 but they it's a good age for them yet for sure there that's the best age the right there in the suites but I'm pretty sure my daughters onto it like she's not in ugliness and a ship next year she is already get to the bottom of things do show or cramp us I was looking that up the other day I think a pretty good movie yeah I thought I better highlights its name from you if it's a comedy horror it's actually really good movies as far as holiday movies are concerned and since I'm the movie guy here grandpa's jacket off yeah all right will let's let's play it out thanks for hanging out yeah man hey LLC guys between now and then I

[endorsereviews]

Ron Legrand – Commercial Property Bootcamp

Ron Legrand – Commercial Property Bootcamp

Take a look at all the super wealthy who made their fortune in real estate and you’ll see it was Commercial Property that made them rich.

Now I know that sounds strange coming from a guy who teaches residential real estate and is world renowned as the expert in it. So let me defend myself.

First, a lot of people get rich with single family houses. I’m one of them and I’ve taught perhaps thousands who have done so. But there’s rich and there’s super wealthy which to me means a net worth of over $100,000,000. You’d be hard pressed to find a super wealthy house buyer.

Second, I buy commercial property and teach others how to do it as well but since that’s not what I’m famous for you don’t see me as the Donald Trump of real estate who made his fortune in commercial.

The Donald can spot opportunity when he sees it and frankly any idiot could see it in the commercial slaughterhouse going on in America for the last six years. I should know, I’m dead center of it and have… Personally lost over $150,000,000 in value in my commercial projects!

No I didn’t say I lost a hundred and fifty million real dollars. I never had it to lose but I can honestly say I lost that and more in future after developed equity and cash on projects that will never get built because of the current market.

I have lost millions in actual cash and will be several more years cleaning up the blood from twenty one commercial projects I purchased from 2004 – 2006, including over fifty million dollars in personally guaranteed debt and millions in private equity capital.

I didn’t create the recession and my timing really sucked and the fallout from my commercial projects will be with me for the rest of my life.

So why am I telling you this at the risk of scaring you away and at my own personal exposure?

I took a big hit but I didn’t strike out. It’ll pass and I’ll survive and come out the other side much stronger and wiser than when I went in. The most successful people you know suffered bigger defeats and overcame them. Using Donald again… from 1.5 billion in the hole to a multi billionaire. They can’t take what we know and once you learn how to make big money it sticks for life and you just keep getting smarter and smarter. More on that in a minute.

It’s truly an unusual time for us all to take advantage of the biggest real estate value reduction in your life. It’s a great sell off right now at prices even I can’t believe. Commercial real estate is taking such a blood bath frankly almost anyone who’s armed with the basic information to buy and manage or flip properties can make a lot of money… seven figure money. I see smart people creating huge windfall profits from the bottom feeding in progress. Here’s a few examples I’m personally familiar with or involved in…

A retail project I had in Texas appraised for $12,500,000 in 2005 and the banks who foreclosed sold it for $500,000 and it took them 3 years. A warehouse project we purchased in ‘05 appraised for $11,000,000 still hasn’t sold for $2,000,000 and its in much better shape than when we bought it. I just made an offer on an apartment complex at $10,300 per unit that appraised for $44,000 a unit five years ago. A restaurant building, fully equipped, in prime area in Jacksonville cost $5,000,000 to build about four years ago is down to an asking price of 1.9 million and sat unoccupied for two and a half years…so far. Lots we sold in Myrtle Beach in ‘05 and ’06 with numerous appraisals over $400,000 sold at a a bankruptcy sale for 41K each. A house on one costing 1.6 million to build sold for 275k. Fully developed housing projects ready to build houses all over the country were sold by banks for twenty five percent of what it cost to develop, including two of mine. Over 40% of the retail centers in some cities are bank owned and will sell for a fraction of 2005 value. Office buildings are easy to find for half the cost to build or less.

Ok, I’ll admit it is depressing, especially if you’re on the receiving end like I am.

But if you’re on the outside looking in at the opportunity and know how to buy or control these assets without risk to you the movie is much more fun to watch.

You now become the predator, not the prey – you’re in control not the slave to circumstances and you can build massive wealth from what you know, not your credit or capital.

I can teach you these things and will do so in the one Commercial Boot Camp I’ll do this year if you have interest and truly want to create life changing wealth with commercial real estate.

But Ron, you just told me you lost a fortune and now you’re suggesting you can teach me.

How to find the good deals and quickly discard the time wasters. Just for the record, you only need one to set you up for life, and you won’t spend much, if any, money locating good deals.

We’ll prescreen every type of deal there is and discuss how to evaluate them, what’ll kill the deal and what facts you need to move forward and why. We’ll cover raw land for residential and commercial development plus apartments, office buildings, strip centers, office warehouses, industrial buildings, mobile home parks, special use buildings and more.

You’ll see how and when I’d plan to exit from each type of property, how that determines my buying offer and why some deals work while others don’t.

We’ll cover financing on all types of property as well as all types of financing: interim financing, hard money, seller financing and bank financing. It may be recourse or non recourse. We’ll use real case studies on each and dissect them like a frog in anatomy class. Financing is the key to success or failure and without this missing piece you’ll lose a fortune but with it you have the keys to the vault. You must know how to structure deals so they can get financed but that doesn’t mean you’ll be sucking up to banks.

You’ll learn about things like Cap Rate, Debt to Income Ratio, Internal Rate of Return and other fancy jargon I’ll convert to layman’s terms and show you why they matter to lenders and investors. We’ll cover selling big properties, when it’s smart, when it’s not, how to sell and to whom. I’m the King of Quick Turn, but I must tell you something: when you can get several million dollars out of a property, tax deferred, and then have it shed monthly income like a golden goose, you gotta think long and hard about selling. Well, that’s exactly what you can do with many commercial properties and what you should do. But you gotta know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. I’ll teach you how to manage properties and never talk to a tenant or get caught up in time wasting tasks. If you’re gonna keep ’em, you better get this one under control, or you’ll be one of those motivated sellers. You don’t get rich managing. You get rich buying. Some extremely smart real estate guru once said, “The Less I Do, The More I Make.”® You’ll learn how to do multi-million dollar deals inside your IRA if you’re American, so you’ll never pay taxes on the gain. I’ll show you how to set up your entities to do just that with a couple simple but strategic moves. We’ll also cover 1031 exchanges for deals outside your IRA to keep more and give the IRS less. I’ve even got a couple strategies for you Canadians and your RRSP’s.

I’ll cover all the bases, provide the missing pieces, prove my case and then turn you loose to conquer the world on your own or to bring us deals. Either way, it’ll be the experience of a lifetime and a one-of-a-kind opportunity. I’ll go through several of my projects and show you the cool strategies I used to buy them and why I did so. You’ll see how I crunched the numbers, made the decision to buy, planned the exit, how I raised the money, how I built a dream team for each not living in the same city, and…

A lot of time will be spent on raising the capital and how to structure the deals with as little cash as possible and several ways to make money without buying any property. You’ll see several profit centers in each deal and several places to exit so you can get out quick or stay in for the big money.

You’ll learn my own patented technique I use to become a land developer without buying the land. In fact, you get paid $10,000 per month per project while other people do the work and you get half the profits with no investment or risk.

You’ll make the land owner rich by doing what he/she can’t and won’t do and use the land to get the capital to pay you and get the work done to raise the value. Every word I just said is true and I’ll supply you with the agreement to make it happen and the training to pull it off… on several projects simultaneously.

We’ll discuss how to structure the entity to buy and lessons I learned when taking on partners that’ll serve you in any endeavor. I’ll teach you how to insure partner performance and stay out of court when they don’t by using simple strategies that cost me at least $250,000 in legal fees to learn. My hard learned lessons, from 30 years experience and willingness to share will save you a fortune and make you one if you listen.

I’ve invited three friends to bring their expertise to you and they are top in their field, all of which should interest you.

Lance Edwards—The Small Apartment King

Lance Edwards is living proof of his mantra that you don’t have to “graduate” from single family to multifamily – you can start with multifamily. Lance purchased his first deal (a four-plex apartment) in March, 2003 – nothing down. Over the next 2 years, he went on to purchase 50 units nothing-down on a part-time basis, while working his full-time corporate job. In July, 2005, Lance retired from his 20 year corporate career to start a full-time real estate business that acquires multifamily properties. And he now teaches others how to create faster financial freedom with apartments using none of their own money. Last year, he purchased 10 unit and 50 unit apartment buildings – all nothing down. Just recently, he closed a 56 unit property – again using none of his own money.

Scott Meyers—The Self-Storage King

Scott is the undisputed self-storage champion with hundreds of units all over and he makes this such a small business. He has a very unique way to acquire and fund his units and they are all operated on auto pilot.

These things are cash cows and the worse the economy gets the better this business becomes. Scott will take you behind the curtain and disclose the real facts and you’ll see why self-storage is one of the fastest growing segments of real estate and how to retire with them.

Jack Bosch—The Land Man

This guy has bought and sold over 7,000 pieces of land. That’s not a misprint…seven thousand. I’ve never seen anyone do what Jack does with land and his unique business was discovered by accident while buying houses.

If you want to make some easy cash and get free land you won’t sleep after Jack leaves. By the way, it’s all done on auto pilot and you don’t need to get involved in all the costly entanglements of land and development, building, zoning or city council meetings. Jack is in and out quickly and never touches or visits the land. This is really cool.

This event is designed to train you on things you’ll never learn from anyone else alive but its also morphed into a Deal-a-thon.

Before it starts I’ll have a call to help you locate some good prospects to bring to class and I’ll bring skilled staff to go through them with you. We’ve created a lot of good deals this way and maybe we can get you to your first one.

We’ll prepare a letter of interest in class if you want to make an offer after we dissect it. You’ll get all the agreements to buy and sell buildings or land and how to use them.

Worse case, you learn a lot while actually making an offer. Best case, it gets accepted. No extra charge to try. You and the entire class will see how I analyze your projects and mine.

That’s my specialty but I’ll admit some of your best deals will require a loan from some kind of lender if you want to take it that far before you exit. I’ll have several contacts for lenders for different purposes, carefully selected by myself and faculty who use them.

That’s actually the easy part if its income producing but as I said earlier I’ll try to talk you out of it first. There’s always a market to buy income streams but they’re harder to build than sell.

You’ll see my retirement plan for you and just one project can do it.

This event cost $5,995 a few years ago and it was full. You’ll get that much value the first day and if you don’t, just say so and leave and get a full refund. The cost has been drastically reduced for a short time to $3,995, but take a look at the registration and build your own financing plan and discounts.

Sorry, no bonuses, no bribes, no tricks. If I have to resort to any of that to get you I don’t need you in the event. Its not for everyone.

You, if you have an interest in commercial real estate and think I am qualified to help you build wealth correctly.

You, if you’re already in commercial real estate and actually want to make a boat load of money instead of watching everyone else get rich.

You, if you want to simply buy your own office building or other business site without using your money.

You, if you just want to see my projects and all the things I did wrong and those I did right.

You, if you’d like me to partner with you on a deal anywhere in the US or Canada to make sure it gets done right. Many of my current and past deals were brought in by students and some did very well before the clouds turned dark.

Couch potatoes, whiners, complainers and those looking for everything free and who are generally miserable to be around.

Anyone who’s at such a low cash flow position I would be taking the groceries away from the kids if you register. Feed the kids. If I do it again you can reconsider then.

Anyone who’s afraid of their own shadow and doesn’t have enough grit to take out the trash without a chaperone. Commercial real estate is not for wimps. You won’t need experience but a little guts will be mandatory. Ok, if I haven’t scared you off by now you can register below and save more money on a special VIP offer with a short window. If you’re Canadian there’s no PST, GST, HST or any other ST and we’re using US dollars so you can get another discount on the exchange rate.

FYI, Canadians are ripe for this event. You guys are sitting on a gold mine all over Canada and will have an unfair advantage over your competition when you know what I know.

I’ll have your manual ready with my copyrighted forms and agreements and we’ll spend four days discussing life changing money making secrets.

To Your Quantum Leap, Ron LeGrand

Ron Legrand – Commercial Property Bootcamp posted first on premiumwarezstore.blogspot.com

[sublimedeal]

Ron Legrand – Commercial Property Bootcamp

Ron Legrand – Commercial Property Bootcamp

Take a look at all the super wealthy who made their fortune in real estate and you’ll see it was Commercial Property that made them rich.

Now I know that sounds strange coming from a guy who teaches residential real estate and is world renowned as the expert in it. So let me defend myself.

First, a lot of people get rich with single family houses. I’m one of them and I’ve taught perhaps thousands who have done so. But there’s rich and there’s super wealthy which to me means a net worth of over $100,000,000. You’d be hard pressed to find a super wealthy house buyer.

Second, I buy commercial property and teach others how to do it as well but since that’s not what I’m famous for you don’t see me as the Donald Trump of real estate who made his fortune in commercial.

The Donald can spot opportunity when he sees it and frankly any idiot could see it in the commercial slaughterhouse going on in America for the last six years. I should know, I’m dead center of it and have… Personally lost over $150,000,000 in value in my commercial projects!

No I didn’t say I lost a hundred and fifty million real dollars. I never had it to lose but I can honestly say I lost that and more in future after developed equity and cash on projects that will never get built because of the current market.

I have lost millions in actual cash and will be several more years cleaning up the blood from twenty one commercial projects I purchased from 2004 – 2006, including over fifty million dollars in personally guaranteed debt and millions in private equity capital.

I didn’t create the recession and my timing really sucked and the fallout from my commercial projects will be with me for the rest of my life.

So why am I telling you this at the risk of scaring you away and at my own personal exposure?

I took a big hit but I didn’t strike out. It’ll pass and I’ll survive and come out the other side much stronger and wiser than when I went in. The most successful people you know suffered bigger defeats and overcame them. Using Donald again… from 1.5 billion in the hole to a multi billionaire. They can’t take what we know and once you learn how to make big money it sticks for life and you just keep getting smarter and smarter. More on that in a minute.

It’s truly an unusual time for us all to take advantage of the biggest real estate value reduction in your life. It’s a great sell off right now at prices even I can’t believe. Commercial real estate is taking such a blood bath frankly almost anyone who’s armed with the basic information to buy and manage or flip properties can make a lot of money… seven figure money. I see smart people creating huge windfall profits from the bottom feeding in progress. Here’s a few examples I’m personally familiar with or involved in…

A retail project I had in Texas appraised for $12,500,000 in 2005 and the banks who foreclosed sold it for $500,000 and it took them 3 years. A warehouse project we purchased in ‘05 appraised for $11,000,000 still hasn’t sold for $2,000,000 and its in much better shape than when we bought it. I just made an offer on an apartment complex at $10,300 per unit that appraised for $44,000 a unit five years ago. A restaurant building, fully equipped, in prime area in Jacksonville cost $5,000,000 to build about four years ago is down to an asking price of 1.9 million and sat unoccupied for two and a half years…so far. Lots we sold in Myrtle Beach in ‘05 and ’06 with numerous appraisals over $400,000 sold at a a bankruptcy sale for 41K each. A house on one costing 1.6 million to build sold for 275k. Fully developed housing projects ready to build houses all over the country were sold by banks for twenty five percent of what it cost to develop, including two of mine. Over 40% of the retail centers in some cities are bank owned and will sell for a fraction of 2005 value. Office buildings are easy to find for half the cost to build or less.

Ok, I’ll admit it is depressing, especially if you’re on the receiving end like I am.

But if you’re on the outside looking in at the opportunity and know how to buy or control these assets without risk to you the movie is much more fun to watch.

You now become the predator, not the prey – you’re in control not the slave to circumstances and you can build massive wealth from what you know, not your credit or capital.

I can teach you these things and will do so in the one Commercial Boot Camp I’ll do this year if you have interest and truly want to create life changing wealth with commercial real estate.

But Ron, you just told me you lost a fortune and now you’re suggesting you can teach me.

How to find the good deals and quickly discard the time wasters. Just for the record, you only need one to set you up for life, and you won’t spend much, if any, money locating good deals.

We’ll prescreen every type of deal there is and discuss how to evaluate them, what’ll kill the deal and what facts you need to move forward and why. We’ll cover raw land for residential and commercial development plus apartments, office buildings, strip centers, office warehouses, industrial buildings, mobile home parks, special use buildings and more.

You’ll see how and when I’d plan to exit from each type of property, how that determines my buying offer and why some deals work while others don’t.

We’ll cover financing on all types of property as well as all types of financing: interim financing, hard money, seller financing and bank financing. It may be recourse or non recourse. We’ll use real case studies on each and dissect them like a frog in anatomy class. Financing is the key to success or failure and without this missing piece you’ll lose a fortune but with it you have the keys to the vault. You must know how to structure deals so they can get financed but that doesn’t mean you’ll be sucking up to banks.

You’ll learn about things like Cap Rate, Debt to Income Ratio, Internal Rate of Return and other fancy jargon I’ll convert to layman’s terms and show you why they matter to lenders and investors. We’ll cover selling big properties, when it’s smart, when it’s not, how to sell and to whom. I’m the King of Quick Turn, but I must tell you something: when you can get several million dollars out of a property, tax deferred, and then have it shed monthly income like a golden goose, you gotta think long and hard about selling. Well, that’s exactly what you can do with many commercial properties and what you should do. But you gotta know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. I’ll teach you how to manage properties and never talk to a tenant or get caught up in time wasting tasks. If you’re gonna keep ’em, you better get this one under control, or you’ll be one of those motivated sellers. You don’t get rich managing. You get rich buying. Some extremely smart real estate guru once said, “The Less I Do, The More I Make.”® You’ll learn how to do multi-million dollar deals inside your IRA if you’re American, so you’ll never pay taxes on the gain. I’ll show you how to set up your entities to do just that with a couple simple but strategic moves. We’ll also cover 1031 exchanges for deals outside your IRA to keep more and give the IRS less. I’ve even got a couple strategies for you Canadians and your RRSP’s.

I’ll cover all the bases, provide the missing pieces, prove my case and then turn you loose to conquer the world on your own or to bring us deals. Either way, it’ll be the experience of a lifetime and a one-of-a-kind opportunity. I’ll go through several of my projects and show you the cool strategies I used to buy them and why I did so. You’ll see how I crunched the numbers, made the decision to buy, planned the exit, how I raised the money, how I built a dream team for each not living in the same city, and…

A lot of time will be spent on raising the capital and how to structure the deals with as little cash as possible and several ways to make money without buying any property. You’ll see several profit centers in each deal and several places to exit so you can get out quick or stay in for the big money.

You’ll learn my own patented technique I use to become a land developer without buying the land. In fact, you get paid $10,000 per month per project while other people do the work and you get half the profits with no investment or risk.

You’ll make the land owner rich by doing what he/she can’t and won’t do and use the land to get the capital to pay you and get the work done to raise the value. Every word I just said is true and I’ll supply you with the agreement to make it happen and the training to pull it off… on several projects simultaneously.

We’ll discuss how to structure the entity to buy and lessons I learned when taking on partners that’ll serve you in any endeavor. I’ll teach you how to insure partner performance and stay out of court when they don’t by using simple strategies that cost me at least $250,000 in legal fees to learn. My hard learned lessons, from 30 years experience and willingness to share will save you a fortune and make you one if you listen.

I’ve invited three friends to bring their expertise to you and they are top in their field, all of which should interest you.

Lance Edwards—The Small Apartment King

Lance Edwards is living proof of his mantra that you don’t have to “graduate” from single family to multifamily – you can start with multifamily. Lance purchased his first deal (a four-plex apartment) in March, 2003 – nothing down. Over the next 2 years, he went on to purchase 50 units nothing-down on a part-time basis, while working his full-time corporate job. In July, 2005, Lance retired from his 20 year corporate career to start a full-time real estate business that acquires multifamily properties. And he now teaches others how to create faster financial freedom with apartments using none of their own money. Last year, he purchased 10 unit and 50 unit apartment buildings – all nothing down. Just recently, he closed a 56 unit property – again using none of his own money.

Scott Meyers—The Self-Storage King

Scott is the undisputed self-storage champion with hundreds of units all over and he makes this such a small business. He has a very unique way to acquire and fund his units and they are all operated on auto pilot.

These things are cash cows and the worse the economy gets the better this business becomes. Scott will take you behind the curtain and disclose the real facts and you’ll see why self-storage is one of the fastest growing segments of real estate and how to retire with them.

Jack Bosch—The Land Man

This guy has bought and sold over 7,000 pieces of land. That’s not a misprint…seven thousand. I’ve never seen anyone do what Jack does with land and his unique business was discovered by accident while buying houses.

If you want to make some easy cash and get free land you won’t sleep after Jack leaves. By the way, it’s all done on auto pilot and you don’t need to get involved in all the costly entanglements of land and development, building, zoning or city council meetings. Jack is in and out quickly and never touches or visits the land. This is really cool.

This event is designed to train you on things you’ll never learn from anyone else alive but its also morphed into a Deal-a-thon.

Before it starts I’ll have a call to help you locate some good prospects to bring to class and I’ll bring skilled staff to go through them with you. We’ve created a lot of good deals this way and maybe we can get you to your first one.

We’ll prepare a letter of interest in class if you want to make an offer after we dissect it. You’ll get all the agreements to buy and sell buildings or land and how to use them.

Worse case, you learn a lot while actually making an offer. Best case, it gets accepted. No extra charge to try. You and the entire class will see how I analyze your projects and mine.

That’s my specialty but I’ll admit some of your best deals will require a loan from some kind of lender if you want to take it that far before you exit. I’ll have several contacts for lenders for different purposes, carefully selected by myself and faculty who use them.

That’s actually the easy part if its income producing but as I said earlier I’ll try to talk you out of it first. There’s always a market to buy income streams but they’re harder to build than sell.

You’ll see my retirement plan for you and just one project can do it.

This event cost $5,995 a few years ago and it was full. You’ll get that much value the first day and if you don’t, just say so and leave and get a full refund. The cost has been drastically reduced for a short time to $3,995, but take a look at the registration and build your own financing plan and discounts.

Sorry, no bonuses, no bribes, no tricks. If I have to resort to any of that to get you I don’t need you in the event. Its not for everyone.

You, if you have an interest in commercial real estate and think I am qualified to help you build wealth correctly.

You, if you’re already in commercial real estate and actually want to make a boat load of money instead of watching everyone else get rich.

You, if you want to simply buy your own office building or other business site without using your money.

You, if you just want to see my projects and all the things I did wrong and those I did right.

You, if you’d like me to partner with you on a deal anywhere in the US or Canada to make sure it gets done right. Many of my current and past deals were brought in by students and some did very well before the clouds turned dark.

Couch potatoes, whiners, complainers and those looking for everything free and who are generally miserable to be around.

Anyone who’s at such a low cash flow position I would be taking the groceries away from the kids if you register. Feed the kids. If I do it again you can reconsider then.

Anyone who’s afraid of their own shadow and doesn’t have enough grit to take out the trash without a chaperone. Commercial real estate is not for wimps. You won’t need experience but a little guts will be mandatory. Ok, if I haven’t scared you off by now you can register below and save more money on a special VIP offer with a short window. If you’re Canadian there’s no PST, GST, HST or any other ST and we’re using US dollars so you can get another discount on the exchange rate.

FYI, Canadians are ripe for this event. You guys are sitting on a gold mine all over Canada and will have an unfair advantage over your competition when you know what I know.

I’ll have your manual ready with my copyrighted forms and agreements and we’ll spend four days discussing life changing money making secrets.

To Your Quantum Leap, Ron LeGrand

Ron Legrand – Commercial Property Bootcamp published first on http://ift.tt/2qxBbOD