Now that China is allowing citizens to travel overseas again, any Chinese citizen with the means and creativity to leave China should do it as soon as possible.
Do it before the CCP disappears you!
Jack Ma, Founder of the Chinese companies Ant Group and Alibaba vanished from public view in October 2020. It appears he managed to escape the CCP and China but has given up control of his multi-billion dollar enterprise.
Now that China is allowing citizens to travel overseas again, any Chinese citizen with the means and creativity to leave China should do it as soon as possible. Do it before the CCP disappears you!
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It will be different this time. That's what we tell ourselves as freedom for Hong Kong residents has dramatically eroded over the last three years.
Mainland China has taken control over HK citizens monitoring movements, conversations, internet posts and financial transactions. It is only a matter of time before HK citizens will enjoy the same government constraints mainland citizens live with. Unlike the mainland, HK residents still have a modicum of free will and something the mainland does not have - British citizenship. If HK residents are able to escape the island, England will welcome them. Alternatively, a plane ticket to Mexico is just a short hike across the US southern border and years of free travel in America. Get your money out of Hong Kong now! Plan your escape now! When China invades Taiwan it will be too late. It is not different this time. A Law for All Seasons
The law, it is said, is like a causeway. It keeps those subject to the law on a narrow pathway to or from desired goals. Subjects that stray from the pathway will deal with the consequences of breaking the law, within the bounds of other laws guaranteeing a presumption of innocence and due process. Regulations and administrative policies in support of the law must be clear enough for subjects to understand so that they may voluntarily stay within legal boundaries. Similarly, administrators of the law must also keep within not only the laws they administer but ALL laws governing their activities. Throughout history, regulators and administrators sometimes depart the narrow causeway and regulate or administer on the basis of convenience or expediency rather than strict adherence to laws. These departures are normally the result of a perception by the regulator or administrator that justice would be better served with circumvention of applicable law - the rights of regulated and administrated subjects notwithstanding. An administrator, confronted with a subject it speculates has violated established legal regulation or policy, may sometimes knock down legal barriers in order to catch the devil. A regulator, faced with a fiscal dilemma, may conjure justifications to reallocate funds in defiance of established policy. Done once, it becomes easier to knock down another and another until all barriers erected for our protection, are gone. Then, who is the devil? And when the devil decides to come after us what do we do then? An applicable example occurred with the E-Rate Administrator in funding Year Six. The first funding commitment wave of Year Six contained denials for applicants across the country because the Administrator determined that the E-Rate applications contained 30 percent or more of unsubstantiated charges. These denials, hundreds to date, began on May 1, 2003 and continue today. Prior to the first denial, applicants were given no notice of this new policy and applicable FCC regulations did not address the issue at all. Appeals were filed with the FCC and remain pending in the lengthy backlog of unresolved appeals at the Commission. In the remote Chinese state of Xinjjang, ethnic minorities and religions are systematically moved to concentration-like camps for “reeducation.” Over one million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Christians, Muslims and others have been incarcerated since June, according to credible reports. When confronted with accusations of the camps, Zinjiang enacted a law allowing the mass arrests and detentions. The state also adopted regulations requiring police and civil servants to swear an oath to the Communist Party and have no religious belief.
Local uprisings in the Zinjiang state appear to have precipitated the camps. When news of the horrific cleansing reached outside China, the state initially denied their existence but immediately legally approved them. China is struggling to keep its more than one billion citizens under control and loyal to the Party. China has used extreme measures including mass-murder in the past; however, camps on a scale of Nazi Germany are uncommon. In 2000 the Chinese economy was barely more than third-world. Since then, China GDP has marched to the second largest in the world, roughly half that of the USA. Much of this growth is a direct result of American investment and consumer demand. The totalitarian Chinese government has relied on an unprecedented largely government-controlled economic boom for the last two decades to remain in power. I have been a longstanding critic China trade from toxic drywall to poisoned lead painted toys to contaminated flooring. These revelations and continued stranglehold on citizens’ access to outside news should be a wake-up call to world governments and companies. Apple, Alphabet, Starbucks, Netflix, Facebook, GM, Subaru and others doing business in China, it’s time to consider the state of a country’s citizens before profit. When the current Chinese regime eventually fails, and it will eventually fail, the result very well could be many independent countries like the former Soviet Union. Governments and businesses must do their part to hasten its demise before more innocents are exterminated. As we gather families on Christmas Eve and anticipate a New Year, I want to share two miracle stories from 2017. The first is a miracle of modern medicine and the second a miracle of human spirit.
An Open Letter to Publix Food Markets I received a coupon from Publix with an offer of $10 off the purchase of $50 or more. Fine print on the coupon specified that the offer is good only at Publix at White Oak Village. White Oak Village is 23 miles from my house. With two stores less than five miles of my house, why in the world would I travel across town and burn at least two gallons of $2.50 gas for ten dollars?? The Publix marketing team has a lot to learn about the Richmond, VA market. I have shopped at my local Publix several times and find the store wanting in both selection and pricing. Ukrops and Martin's you're not. Unitl I see some improvment in Publix stores and marketing, I will take my business elsewhere. One Out of Three Ain’t Bad (with apologies to Meat Loaf) Last week I went to our local Chinese restaurant for lunch. While waiting for my food, an older comfortably but well dressed woman walked in and picked up a menu. She was looking at the full-price menu. I mentioned to her that she still had time to take advantage of the lunch menu, printed on the back of the page. She thanked me while settling into a nearby chair. With a sigh, she exclaimed her body was telling her the weather would be changing. I smiled saying I hoped to avoid being a human barometer for a few more years. She put down the menu and smiled back. “I should be dead!” she said, starting to share her story. Without being rude and asking her age, I would say she was in her mid seventies. She had an air of old Richmond – that is to say her accent was refined southern with distinct local attributes. Former Virginia governor Doug Wilder has a classic old Richmond accent. I guessed she spent most of her life in the West End of Richmond. She had one Kidney which was diagnosed with acute Renal Kidney failure. He doctor gave her months to live at most. She was put in contact with a local doctor who had an experimental treatment for her condition. The doctor had performed the operation twice but both patients had died. She didn’t like his track record but considering the alternative, she agreed to move forward. Her new doctor was retiring within the month and the surgery had to be scheduled immediately. She had the operation the following week. That was in January of 2017. She is looking forward to celebrating Christmas with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren this year and more years to come. My food was ready and I thanked her for her story and wished her Merry Christmas and a long happy life. She wished me the same and turned to the counter. “I’ll have the Szechuan Chicken, dear.” She said to the hostess. She is enjoying every moment her miracle operation has given her! One amazing lady! I’m Not Dead Yet! (thank you Monty Python) An 80 something man with one Lung, recently broken Hip, Kidney cancer and a host of other ailments was admitted to the ICU in August of 2017. Both his Oncologist and General Practitioner agreed his death was imminent and he had no prospect of recovery. Both signed statements that he had less than six months to live and he should be given in-patient Hospice care. Hospice is typically end of life comfort and spiritual support for terminal patients. In-patient Hospice is reserved for terminally ill patients in their final days. All treatment and medications for underlying symptoms are stopped. He was in and out of consciousness the first few days often hallucinating and revisiting life events from long ago. Friends and family visited to say farewell. His church choir came to sing. Their voices filled hospice halls with angelic voices singing hymns of comfort and everlasting life. As his numerous medications worked out of his system and he continued to eat and drink, one morning – about the time of the solar eclipse – he woke up with a clear mind. He demanded to sit up and be moved to a chair beside the bed. He wanted to start walking. Hospice administrators concluded he was no longer qualified for In-patient care and had to leave. His family moved him to a rehabilitation facility where he continued to improve. Later he was able to transfer from his bed to a wheelchair. At one point he wheeled himself from his room to the nurses station requesting they arrange physical therapy and social events for him and his roommate as soon as possible. Facility staff were surprised and delighted by his tenacity. During the next month he continued to improve to the point facility doctors and insurance agreed he could be sent home. By Thanksgiving he was able to celebrate with his wife, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His next goal is to see the birth of his next great-grandchild next June! He has fired his old doctors and looks forward to a new lease on life. Believe in miracles! They are all around. I try to avoid doctors. Doctors and hospitals make me nervous. There are too many sick people in doctor's offices and hospitals.
For the last five years my only doctor paid me to take an experimental drug. I had one dose of the drug and got two checkups a year complete with blood tests and counseling. When there were some abnormal levels in my blood, we would talk about how diet and exercise could help fix the problems. Once the drug trial was complete a couple years ago, I could no longer get paid to visit the doctor. In September I had an ingrown fingernail that had become infected. I made an appointment with my "real" doctor to get it taken care of. Sometime in the last five years my doctor had retired and I had been assigned another doctor in the practice. Even better, because I had not been to the practice in so long, they had deleted all my records and assumed I had died or moved on. I was considered a new patient and had to wait for a new patient appointment. New patients appear to be secondary and have to wait longer to see the doc. When I finally got an appointment, my new doctor (who I and the insurance company, Anthem - Blue Cross, are paying) wanted a battery of blood and other tests. The results of my tests blew off the charts. Some numbers were higher than the sum of the Saints/Giants game yesterday. My new doc. was very concerned and wanted to get me started on one of the highly publicized drugs right away. You have to love those drug commercials - ten seconds of how great the drug is follow by 40 seconds of how it will kill you. He considered my blood report and chatted to himself that this one won't work because of my Liver and that one won't work because of my Kidney. He settled on one and said it would be called into my pharmacy. After work, I went to my pharmacy/grocery store and picked up some frozen vegetables and strawberries to start my new diet. When I got to the pharmacy I was told that my insurance company, Anthem - Blue Cross, would not cover any of the cost of the drug and that they had notified my doctor and he would have to contact the insurance company, Anthem - Blue Cross. When I got home, I called Anthem - Blue Cross and asked why they would not cover the cost of this life-saving drug my doctor had so carefully considered. According to Zeke R., That particular drug was not on their "preferred" drug list. I asked what that meant. Zeke R. said that the insurance company, Anthem - Blue Cross had identified lower cost drugs that would do the same thing as the drug my doctor had ordered. I explained to Zeke R. that the doctor had researched the drug and decided which one would be best for me. Zeke R. said that my doctor should call Anthem - Blue Cross and request approval. We have been warned that health care would be changing in a big way - death panels, gatekeepers, etc. This is my first experience with the new age of healthcare and it makes me nervous. Almost as nervous as a visit to the doctor or hospital. Hope I don't die before my doctor can negotiate with Anthem - Blue Cross coverage for my drug! This was the title of one of the chapters in my book, “Where’s MY Bailout? Or, How to Make a Fortune in Real Estate with no Money Down.” Of course, the chapter title was somewhat tongue-in-cheek when the book was first published in 2012; however, with the explosion in hacking, identity theft, and Internet fraud, I think it is time to actually declare war on cybercrime and engage the military to neutralize the enemy.
Because of my reputation of finding bargains, I was charged with finding a beach house for a family reunion this August. Since I use Craigslist to hire contractors, purchase and sell items, rent properties and find bargains, I started my search there. After narrowing the search to the Isle of Palms near Charleston, an ad for a beautiful house across from the beach at a bargain price popped up. The rental price might be considered too good to be true at only $1,600 for the week by some people. I responded to the ad and received an email from Christopher Sherrard telling me the property was available for my desired week with the following: “The property can be obtained at the rate of $235 per night you are required to make a Refundable Deposit of $300 as a security fee, the refundable fee will be given back to you on your check out date. As soon as you have the full rent fee paid together with the $300 Refundable Security fee, the property will be reserved down for your date chosen and the payment receipt will be issued to you, payment is usually accepted via Bank Transfer. Let me know if you are interested so that i can forward you the rental booking terms and the agreement form in order to complete with the necessary information and you will have to return it back to complete your reservation.” Obviously this is a scam and with a little online research, the Craigslist ad matched perfectly a rental property from a local agency advertising a $5,000 per week rate. A quick Google search of his name finds links to several warnings about the scam by Mr. Sherrard in resort cities around the country. Who knows how much money he as stolen already. Our national government has a cybercrime reporting unit called the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx It is a joint venture between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (whatever the heck that is). I reported the attempted fraud to IC3 and urged immediate action, as I was stringing Mr. Sherrard along with the promise of payment for the house. That was two days ago and the FBI has not responded. It may be too late to catch Mr. Sherrard in the act in this instance. If we are indeed engaged in a “cyberwar” and foreign attacks are getting exponentially worse, it may actually be time to start taking out some of the front line solders. The FBI can start with a drone attack on Mr. Sherrard, perhaps eliminating some of his colleagues as collateral damage… I finally sold the Fayetteville condo! I purchased the condo almost four years ago. It was going to be a fairly simple flip. It was assessed at $71,000, other units were under contract in the mid $50's and I purchased it for $25,000 and spent $5,000 on the rehab. Soon after putting the newly renovated condo on the market, I had an offer for $55,000. I was congratulating myself on such a saavy puchase and was dreaming of more easy profits on the next flip when the cold reality of post-housing crisis lending restrictions put a chill on my sale. My buyer could not get a loan guarantee from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Some genius in Washington, DC though HUD was making risky loans and imposed a regulation that HUD would not guarantee loans in areas where the percentage of renters to owners exceeded a certain percentage. I determined this policy was racist because the impacted areas were overwhelmingly minority. The policy has now been overturned.
After the sale fell through I rented the condo with an option to buy. Fifty percent of the rent went to the purchase price which I set the low $50's. My tenants paid on time for the next 18 months but fell on hard times and had to be evicted. The eviction nullified the purchase option and I kept all the money. My next tenant was a party boy and the police were frequent visitors to the condo. I even got a call from the homeowners association with concerns about the late night parties. After only four months, I had to evict him. When I went down to clean up after the evicition, my neighbor came over and asked if my tenant was gone. When I said yes, she gave me a big smile and said, "Good! He had too many parties!" After putting the place back in shape, I listed it for sale again. This time for $50,000 and some additional incentives. I offered one year of HOA fees and four percent to the buyer's agent. I also rented it again. In late February an investor made an offer that I accepted. We closed on March 20. Hindsight has selective memory. Reflecting on the experience after the sale and check was cashed, I seem to remember the good things. Unfortunately, the entire ordeal was described in my book: "Where's MY Bailout?" Available on Amazon for the low price of only $2.99. After the four intensive days in the initial rehab, my back was killing me and I was totally spent. That was only temporary and worth the effort when rent checks started coming in. After the sale, it was completely worth the pain! When I first bought the condo in the depths of the Great Recession, I immediately hired painters, floor installers, carpet installers and a plumber. I bought paint, flooring, carpet, mirrors, microwave, stove, and washing machine. After the first eviction, I hired more painters and bought more carpet. As the economy was falling apart, I sunk about $7,000 into the Fayetteville economy over four years - and this is just a tiny 1,000 square foot condo! If the government and banks had sold more foreclosed properties in the early days of the recession, investors would have stimulated the economy into growth long ago. Sadly, the number of vacant and delining properties remains far to high. Exactly one year ago I wrote on this blog about evicting a tenant and the process in North Carolina. It has happened again. My new tenant fell on hard times and cannot pay rent. Learning from the last eviction, I took immediate action and served the tenant with a demand payment letter with the required ten day notice. I actually visited the condo to confirm its condition. The tenant has kept the unit in excellent condition. I would like to keep it that way and obtain possession as soon as possible.
From the blog post of September 2012, the eviction process in North Carolina is relatively simple but does require several visits and some out-of-pocket expense. In this case, once the ten days has passed, I would have to visit the Fayetteville courthouse and file for a court date, return in a couple weeks for court and return to confirm the tenant has left. From whatever deposit money is left I would detail any damage, lost rent and court costs and either eat the loss or return what's left to the former tenant. There is however another option that costs me a little more but saves two trips from Richmond to Fayetteville. Because the unit is currently in good shape and I'm on good terms with the tenant, I have offered an option of penalty-free early termination of the lease. If the tenant agrees to vacate the unit by a certain date and leave the unit in the same condition it was when the tenant first moved in (excellent condition verses normal wear and tear), I agree to waive the overdue rent and return the security deposit. The tenant has agreed to those terms. For me, I lose a month's rent but get my place back in excellent condition, save at least two additional trips to Fayetteville - a vacation destination, by the way - and can re-rent it right away. Considering the housing market in Fayetteville has taken off, I may just list the condo for sale. Currently there is only one foreclosure in the complex and only one other unit for sale. As I take possession, I may interview a few realtors and get it listed in time for the fall selling season. Anyone want to buy an investment condo? The price will be right! |
Greg WeisigerVeteran. Father. Husband. Real Estate Investor. Sailor. Archives
January 2023
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