I'm pretty sure it's the price that's holding this house back and not how it's presented.

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The buyer of 121 Round Hill Road paid $2.250 for it in 2022, did nothing with it, and put it back on the market 41 days ago priced at $4.5 million and pitched as a land sale. No buyers having appeared, they’ve now created separate listing that describes it as “now ready for a full renovation”. Huh? A potential buyer who looked at it as land but rejected it, will now come back because it’s now been brought to his intention that the exixting wreck could be renovated?

It’s Same land, same house, same 100% markup. I predict the same result.

An easy sell

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Penthouse at 680 Steamboat Road #8, $4.850 million, contract in 10 days. It’s a co-op, not a condominium, and having representing a (different) co-op board in town many years ago, I’m not a fan of that form of ownership, but that’s never bothered buyers here in the past — maybe they all came from NYC? — and obviously it’s still no hurdle.

The same unit sold for $4.425 in 2021, and $3.975 in 2012.

Founder of the Lincoln Pedophile Project is banned from Twitter, and he doesn't understand why

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He posts, you decide: “Oh, that wasn’t a call for violence”. Uh huh.

Rick Wilson Suspended From X for Promoting Violence Against Tesla

Matt Margolis, PJ Media:

“Now that his violent rhetoric has gotten him suspended from X, Wilson is desperately trying to backpedal, claiming he wasn’t advocating for more violence.”

“One of the things that's really important to understand, Elon took me off Twitter claiming I was calling for violence against Tesla,” he said in a video he posted to YouTube. He then challenged anyone to read the article (which is paywalled, nice try) and find any reference to where he calls for anyone to attack Elon or Tesla dealerships.

“Either the MAGA folks didn't read it or they can't. I'm generally leaning towards the latter.”

Margolis:

Let’s not forget that Wilson used violent rhetoric against Donald Trump back in 2015, when, during an appearance on MSNBC with Chris Hayes, said “The donor class can't just sit back on the sidelines and say, 'Oh, well, don't worry, this will work itself out.' They're still going to have to go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump.” 

Allies of Wilson in this terrorist campaign also claim they aren’t calling for violence; their denial is as specious and believable as the former Republican’s.

There’s even a website called Dogequest, with an interactive nationwide map that allows budding terrorists to track down Tesla dealerships and even individual Tesla owners.

The proprietors of the site claim their intent isn’t malicious, which must be why the map cursor is a Molotov cocktail.

RELATED:

But will they be assigned to womens' prisons? (UPDATED)

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Attorney General Pam Bondi accuses 3 Tesla vandals [sic] of ‘domestic terrorism’ after string of attacks

Three people accused of destroying Tesla cars and charging stations are facing up to 20 years in prison for “domestic terrorism,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday.

“The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended,” Bondi said in a statement.

“Let this be a warning: If you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars,” she added.

The defendants are accused of using high-powered weapons and explosives to destroy property from the Elon Musk-owned car company.

AR-15 semi-automatics and gasoline bombs (Good news: if the Extinction Now people get their way and petroleum is banned, Molotovs will be a thing of the past.)

One allegedly carried a suppressed AR-15 rifle while lobbing eight Molotov cocktails at an Oregon Tesla dealership, while another is accused of trying to light Tesla cars on fire with the same explosives in Loveland, Colorado.

The third allegedly vandalized charging stations for the electric cars with profane anti-Trump rhetoric, then torched them with Molotov cocktails, according to the US Department of Justice.

Each face a minimum of five years in prison if convicted, but the charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years.

Look for prosecutors to go for the maximum; this is not Sleepy Joe’s DOJ.

UPDATE: Not the Bee has further details.

Well, this will come as a relief to the neighbors

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A renovated and expanded 2 Random Road, $4.895 million, is reported pending.

The property has a colorful history, which I wrote about a few years ago; it was quite a sight back then, and for years before.

Ah, the genius of Anglo-Saxon Jurisprudence

December 19, 2021 Chris Fountain

Neighbors complain of mess at Old Greenwich property: ‘This is what I have to look at every day’

GREENWICH — For more than five years, some residents of Old Greenwich have been in a dispute with their neighbor over the condition of a Random Road property.[2 Random Road — ed]

Old barbecue grills litter both the front yard and backyard, and there are several parked cars, discarded jet skis and folded-up ping pong tables in the front yard.

Neighbors said they worry that the old grills, which may be coated with old grease and meat residue, could attract vermin or act as a fire hazard. And personal interactions have gone badly as well, neighbors say, as the person who lives there has refused their pleas for change.

Complicating any legal action is ownership of the property — it belongs to Deutsche Bank although the former owner still lives there — and eviction and other remedies were put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since December 2020, more than $30,000 in fines have been levied against and sent to the owner — Deutsche Bank — with an additional $100 added every day because of the conditions, Assistant Town Attorney Aamina Ahmad said.

Deutsche Bank has not paid the fines nor any taken action to evict the occupant, even though the federal eviction moratorium has ended, Ahmad said recently.

“This is a pretty bad situation on the property,” Ahmad said. “We have been in contact with the neighbors, and we’re trying pretty hard to do something and get that stuff out of there. Deutsche Bank unfortunately has not been very cooperative with us.”

The town has “reached out to them and asked their attorney to please move on the eviction case, and basically, we have been told that Deutsche Bank has a hold on it,” he said.

Attorney Justin Ortega, who represents Deutsche Bank in the matter, did not return phone calls or an email seeking comment. The occupant could not be reached for comment via phone; his listed number is not in service.

…

Neighbors say they have been putting up with the situation for years, with no relief.

“My heart just sinks when I see this,” neighbor Eileen Smiles said. “I worked my whole life to be able to live on a road like this and have my kids grow up on a street like this. I continue to work hard and pay all my taxes and pay all my bills — and this is what I have to look at every day.

“This is taking away from all our property values. I was told by a Realtor I couldn’t sell my house if I wanted to because of this. Nobody wants this,” she said of the nearby property.

Carlos Serra, who owns the property next door, has similar concerns about the current state of the property. He described it as in “declining condition” over the past five years — and said the lot resembles a junkyard, except it’s in a neighborhood zoned only for residential use.

The relationship between the occupant and the neighbors has been contentious since at least 2015, when the former owner was taken to court in a dispute over parking vehicles on a parcel of land between his property and that of a neighbor.

New plans for triple-width expansion of sidewalks on Sound Beach Avenue to be unveiled

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“Sound Beach Avenue, 2025”

as proposed by Friends of the earth, greenwich chapter

Residents and stakeholders are encouraged to attend to learn more about the project, ask questions, and provide feedback.

The meeting is Tuesday, March 25 from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the Greenwich Town Hall Meeting Room

This meeting will provide an overview of the proposed improvements and offer attendees the opportunity to engage with DPW representatives. We welcome your input and look forward to seeing you there.

Strom on AWFLS

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David Strom mansplains the phenomenon

By now, everybody has heard of the AWFLs--affluent white female liberals--and knows that their political views diverger dramatically from those of white men and the population as a whole. 

But I am not quite sure that we yet grasp how awful this group really is, and how out of touch from reality they appear to be. 

Being affluent, they are insulated from most of the ills that trouble less well-off people in America, and they almost certainly are isolated from the crime, urban decay, inflation (it's only money...), violent protests, and most of the other practical matters you and I have to deal with because we live in the real world. 

They live in a world where Race2Dinner parties are worth thousands of dollars to attend. 

This is the demographic that swoons over Robin diAngelo, Ibram X. Kendi, make TikTok videos about all the injustices in the world and how Bad Orange Man caused them, and who thought Biden was dreamy and Kamala Harris was a visionary. 

The latest NBC poll reveals just how stark the division between white women and white men are, and to a lesser extent how uniquely different the group is from the population as a whole. 

White women with a college degree are among the most liberal people in America, and are unusually politically passionate. In Maslow's hierarchy of needs they are beyond all wants save seeking the esteem of others and "self-actualization," which is a fancy word for trying to find their best selves. Which, in this case, is proving that they are especially virtuous people. 

Not every AWFL is a "Karen" or simply virtue signaling, but most women in this cohort share the same news sources, have adopted similar views on how the world works and what the problems are, believe that empathy and sympathy are the highest virtues, and tend to disdain the idea that all choices involve trade offs. 

"If only everybody did X, the world would be better" is a formula for solving problems in their minds. "Everybody who disagrees is a racist/sexist/homophobe" is a common complaint. 

That reality doesn't work that way is a strike against reality itself, not a fact to be acknowledged and dealt with. 

To be charitable, [Strom may be, I’m not — ED] many of these women do believe they are doing the right thing, but see things through the lens of higher education, which focuses less on practical matters and more on theories about how to make the world a better place. Aspirations, which are abstract, count more than practical matters, which seem grubby. 

AWFLs tend to have extraordinary faith in "experts," believing credentials=credibility. During the COVID pandemic they were among the most zealous about enforcing COVID restrictions, most angry when others didn't want to, most likely to call for harsh measures against dissenters, most friendly toward censorship and punishment, and now most forgiving of the experts who misled them. 

Their faith in experts would be charming, but for how dangerous it is, and how difficult it makes it for the rest of us trying to formulate rational policies based on actual evidence, not regime propaganda. 

One tends to think of men as being the most friendly toward authoritarianism, and there certainly can be a tendency for men to gravitate toward masculine strong men in times of crisis. 

But AWFLs proved themselves to be zealous advocates of tyrannical measures during COVID, and a substantial fraction of the people calling for violence or a coup against Trump seem to be unhinged AWFLs whose world seems to be crumbling. 

People who are, when they are getting their way, perfectly nice and charming, seem to become unhinged harridans when they lose control over their environment. 

Obviously not all AWFLs are awful, nor are all liberals bad people. I have plenty of liberal friends and family who are smart, compassionate, rational, and decent, but who still believe the Pravda Media so see the world in vastly different ways than I do, which means tremendously divergent from reality. (I don't claim to grasp all of reality, but even I knew Fauci and company were lying in March 2020, and that Biden had no brain). 

How to fix this problem? I haven't a clue. When people can live comfortably within an illusion that makes them feel good and self-satisfied, nothing will dislodge them until those conditions change. No amount of discussion will make it happen. 

It will change when reality slaps them in the face, one AWFL at a time. 

Related

Florida city council members tear up at vote over ICE partnering with local officers

Fort Myers City Council failed to pass memorandum of agreement between federal and city law enforcement officers

No doubt those employees are already on the street, armed with screwdrivers and molotovs and looking for Teslas (Bumped and updated with additional information from by someone who was there)

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Inside The Now-Shuttered Federal Agency Where Employees Lived ‘Like Reigning Kings’

Employees of DOGE's latest target spent taxpayer money on exotic vacations, portraits, and more.

Luke Rosiak from The Daily Wire

One of the seven small federal agencies that President Donald Trump ordered downsized or eliminated on Friday was rife with corruption, with its employees hiring friends and relatives, commissioning paintings of themselves, and using government credit cards to indulge in constant luxuries.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) occupied a nine-story office tower on D.C.’s K Street for only 60 employees, many of whom actually worked from home, prior to the pandemic. Its managers had luxury suites with full bathrooms; one manager would often be “in the shower” when she was needed, while another used her bathroom as a cigarette lounge. FMCS recorded its director as being on a years-long business trip to D.C. so he could have all of his meals and living expenses covered by taxpayers, simply for showing up to the office.

FMCS is a 230-employee agency that exists to serve as a voluntary mediator between unions and businesses. As an “independent agency,” its director nominally reports to the president, but the agency is so small that in effect, there is no oversight at all — and it showed, becoming a real-life caricature of all the excesses that the Department of Government Efficiency has alleged take place in government.

This reporter spent a year investigating the agency a decade ago, and I found egregious and self-serving violations of hiring, pay, contracting, and purchase card rules. One thing I could not discover is why the agency actually existed, other than to provide luxurious lifestyles for its employees. Endless junkets to resort destinations, which employees openly used to facilitate personal vacations, were justified as building awareness of the agency in the hopes that someone would actually want to use its voluntary services.

FMCS seemed, quite clearly, to exist for the benefit of those on its payroll, and not much else. One employee told me: “Let me give you the honest truth: A lot of FMCS employees don’t do a hell of a lot, including myself. Personally, the reason that I’ve stayed is that I just don’t feel like working that hard, plus the location on K Street is great, plus we all have these oversized offices with windows, plus management doesn’t seem to care if we stay out at lunch a long time. Can you blame me?”

“Recreation and reception fund.”

Top FMCS official George Cohen used a “recreation and reception fund” to order champagne and $200 coasters for his office, and to purchase artwork painted by his wife. The tiny agency commissioned paintings of its top employees — as one employee told me, “like they were reigning kings or something…I’ve never seen anything like it before.” It spent $2,402 retouching the portrait of someone who briefly held the top job in an acting capacity.

FMCS employees “unblocked” their government credit cards to turn off typical abuse protections, then used them to apparently fund personal expenses and simply bill anything they’d like to the government. One employee leased a BMW; another (IT director James Donnen) billed the government for his wife’s cell phone, cable TV at both his home and his vacation home, and even his subscription to USA Today.

UPDATE:

A local reader writes,

The Federal Mediation Council reminds me of CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act). Although Nixon started CETA, Carter expanded it. A LOT! I

In the summer of 1975, I was working as a political intern near City Hall. We and the other interns used to order pizza from a place next to CETA HQ. One of the interns was heavily into drugs. I knew he had a connection nearby. But, I found out it was in CETA when, one lovely summer day, we went on our normal pizza run, and the guy said, "Hold on. We gotta go in here." CETA HQ

We went upstairs. Not one single employee was actually working, except for the guy selling cocaine. In fact, the intern -- who was a low level Dem Party operative (Long story.)-- had a couple of other friends at CETA. Spacious offices. Closed doors. Without exception, as we walked in, they whispered, "Hey! Shut the door." I can only guess they didn't want to make it too obvious that they weren't working.

Much, much more on the abuses and theft of taxpayer money over on Twitchy. Here’s one example out of many:

How odd — or is it? Mentally ill people are, well, mentally ill. (Updated, with further proof)

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And this: