#Ukraine: A open top BMW 6 series with a NSV 12,7×108 heavy machine gun mounted – is not something you see everyday. pic.twitter.com/wWGrg5ddEU

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 14, 2022

Manhattan rent hits a record high of $3,700 a month – up 24% on a year ago – as landlords cancel pandemic discounts and furious tenants take to TikTok to reveal prices are being DOUBLED

Manhattan renters who leased their apartments at deep pandemic discounts are sharing their dismay as landlords jack up their rents by as much as 65% or more.

As offices reopen and young people flood back to the city, New York’s supply of available apartments has plunged, and landlords are pressing their advantage by raising rents to new highs.

‘I just got my new lease and guess what, they’re raising my rent 48 percent! And its f***ing legal!’ said New York City resident Gabbie Fried in a January TikTok video.

Fried, a comedy writer and actor, said that she had initially leased her apartment during the pandemic at ‘pandemic prices’, expressing shock at the increase.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many New Yorkers fled the city, and rental prices plunged as desperate landlords tried to lure willing renters into their units.

Many property management firms offered deep discounts or sweeteners, including multiple months of free rent, to entice renters to sign new leases.

But now the worm has turned, and with demand outpacing supply, landlords have been able to raise rents to record highs.

The vacancy rate has plunged in Manhattan, with just 1.32 percent of apartments free in February, compared to 11.79 percent a year ago, and the lowest February rate recorded since 2008.

One-bedrooms saw the biggest annual rate increases, rising 27.1 percent to $3,750, while two-bedrooms rose 20 percent to $5,104.

Fuck ’em.

Half the city didn’t pay rent for the lest year.

TikToker in 2020: “I don’t have to pay rent, they can’t evict me, it’s COVID rules.”

TikToker in 2022: “It’s not fair my rent doubled.”

These people moved into apartments they knew they normally could not afford due to COVID policies and now are pissed that they have to pay market rates.

The soaring rents come even as New Yorkers grapple with a shocking wave of violent crime, leading some to question whether it is worth remaining.

Be sure that it’s not worth remaining in NYC but you keep your ass there.  You voted for the people that made these policies a reality.  You shit the bed now you have to sleep in it.

Also, anyone that starts with “I’m an actress, comedy writer, and TikTok influencer from New York City…” just fuck them on principle.

These are the people who spent the pandemic telling us in Red states that we deserve to die of COVID for not wanting to wear masks.

Now they can enjoy bankruptcy or homeless while I live in a house for less than what their pandemic rental rate was.

Not in this case.

HORRIFYING – Kimorah Brown of New Britain, CT was arrested and charged with arson after she set a Synagogue (Congregation Tephereth Israel) on fire this past Friday evening. pic.twitter.com/NwolHjH37c

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) March 14, 2022

Unless they can pit it on a white supremacist in a MAGA hat, antisemitic violence doesn’t count.

That’s because Jews are the original Schrodinger’s minority, we get minority victim status depending on who is committing hate crimes against us.  (Asians are becoming a Schrodinger’s minority too.)

I haven’t heard a peep out of the media about this, which honestly speaks volumes.

I have seen a lot of posts, a lot of posts, about how it’s time to sell your extra ARs and buy NODs, IR lasers/illuminators, a can, mags by the case, and so on.

See, you can only carry one rifle so having more than one AR is stupid.

You need to liquidate your collection to gussy your one AR up like you’re a motherfucking elite operator.

Of course, implied in all of this is if you’re not carrying a recce rifle identical to some Knight’s Armament gun porn or what some Delta operator carries, you’re gonna die.

This is feels a lot like Gun Culture 3.0’s version of the old and obnoxious CCW “you still carry a snub nose revolver, you’re just gonna get yourself killed on the streets if your not carrying [favorite plastic wonder 9] with three reloads.”

So here are my counter points.

First, the practical:

Anytime you buy new gear you need to practice with it.  If you add new optics, especially something like NODs, and you don’t practice, it becomes a liability.

Ammo is stupid expensive right now.  If you can’t or don’t want to spend the money on practicing with all your new gear your were convinced to buy, you’re not really helping yourself.

If you do have the money then post your lottery numbers in the comments.  Because if, on top of the price if gas and food for a family of four, I added an adequate ammo budget to cover practice with NODs, whatever money I had left will become alimony for ex-wife.

If you are familiar with your equipment, don’t change it unless you really feel the need to upgrade.

Second, the legal:

This blog coveted the Kyle Rittenhouse shooting and trial in detail.  I also recently addressed the Jake Garner shooting in Omaha.

So imagine you are caught in a Leftist riot gone to hell.

It’s late at night, these riots don’t get really bad until after dark.

You slot some rioter(s) with your registered 12-inch SBR, with a can, IR laser, and night vision optic.

You are going to fucking prison.

I hate to be the barer of bad news but popping a dude in the dark with NODs will be interpreted as intent to commit murder.

ARs and red dots are probably common enough that with sufficient exculpatory evidence, you can avoid a guilty conviction.

NODs and IR lasers, that type of stuff will be used against you.

“You put the same accessories on your gun as a NAVY SEAL.  Do you think you are a SEAL?  Were your preparing for battle?”

Then your beloved recce rifle is going to walk out of the evidence locker and into some police chief’s gun safe while you are doing 20 to life.

Now, let’s say that society has gone to hell so much that you have no fear about a post-shooting prosecution..

Then I will stipulate that there will be plenty of NODs available already mounted on select fire M4s, and you will have free reign to pick them up off bodies or out of abandoned armories.

Under those circumstances I’m going to get myself an abandoned Stryker.

If you want to own that stuff because it’s cool, fine.  That’s your prerogative.

But I’m going to say the same thing about recce rifles as I will about guys who tell you that you need to practice with your AR out to 300, 400, 500 yards:

Having been through major natural disasters and social unrest, I have never witnessed a situation that required a civilian to take a shot in self defense outside of 25 yards that on anyway could be legally justified.

Buy and practice however you want, but when the shit hits the fan you need to remember you are responsible for every bullet you send downrange and will be required to justify it in court when it’s all over.

Imagine being a Russian soldier and your officer commands you to be the perfect target in a textbook ambush.

Just form a tightly packed column on a road with obstructions to either side, that has clearly been pre-sighted and gives great cover and concealment to the enemy.

Russian military tactics have never been heavy on well thought out maneuvers.

The standard Russian doctrine since… forever, has been throw men at the enemy until they run out of ammo and you overrun their position.

Rolling into an ambush is an extension of that tactic.

We are all familiar with the type of person, generally a Leftist, who has a particular type of condescending contempt for America and love for Europe.

You hear things like:

America has no culture.

Everything in Europe is quaint/better/more cultured/[synonym for superior] to America.

For example:

This is why I love Paris. There are still cobblers. When I told this cobbler there weren’t any such things in America anymore he was stunned. pic.twitter.com/9RFeBnZ55h

— Eleanor Beardsley (@ElBeardsley) March 9, 2022

Ms. Beardsley is the Paris correspondent for National Public Radio.

Of course she loves that Paris has cobblers and how happy she was to shit on America for not having cobblers to a Parisian.

I bet it made her feel so superior.

No doubt she believes that all Americans wear disposable sneakers from Wal-Mart and have no need to resole a shoe.

Tell me you have never met a soldier or cowboy without telling me you never met a soldier or cowboy.

Every city I’ve ever lived in had a boot repair shop and at least half the items I’ve seen on the shelves were high dollar cowboy boots and uniform/combat boots.

There are also a fair amount of high end hunting, hiking, or work boots.

I’ve had several pairs of boots resoled.

When you spend a few hundred dollars on quality work boots, you want them to last.

My dad was a lawyer, he had dress shoes that were older than me and would have them resoled as well.

These places exist but I guess Bob’s Boot Repair (an actual place in Rapid City, SD that does excellent work) isn’t as quaint and cultured as a Parisian cobbler shop, so it doesn’t count.

So without a doubt Ms. Beardsley was absolutely wrong, going entirely by her prejudices and not knowledge.  But what else could you expect from a sneering Leftist who works for NPR and lives in Paris.