Fuck Musicians

I will never spend money on musicians again, ever. The reason for this is copyright trolls who act on behalf of these musicians, who only encourage the trolls.

This problem is destroying YouTube, and YouTube can't do anything about it. The only people who could do something about it are the musicians, yet as I stated before, they encourage the trolls.

To make it worse, things like parodies and using snippets in a vlog or some other video is free advertising, and yet rather than be grateful for this free advertising they attack people who do that for them. Since I lost monetization anyway, every video they claim I remove, no exceptions.

I will not give free advertising to a musician who employs these trolls, nor will I buy any more of their music. I have even gone a step further and started selling the CDs of the music from these musicians for a much higher profit than they got when I initially bought them because they are all collector items.

My favorite musicians are the ones who do not employ these trolls, the rest of you can just fuck right off.

Why Agencies Are Bad For Non-Profit Organizations

A non-profit's income should be very near zero, of course this is after administrative costs. For housing this is a very challenging point to get, maintenance alone can bring an apartment complex into the red and devastating failures caused by lacking maintenance can drop that even more, not to mention actual damages done by the residents.

There are many issues residents will face that will cause damage to units, often without intent from the resident but by the very nature of the medical problem. Let's take the example of surgery, a very common occurrence for vulnerable members of society.

The wounds caused by surgery will take time healing, during this time blood will be likely to come from the wound. This blood will get onto lots of surfaces, which inevitably cause stains which cannot be cleaned up.

Often surgeries will add even more challenges, and more sources of refuse which will inevitably cause damage. Now a good organization will have a manager on site for the majority of the week, and said manager would know what was going on at all times even when not on site.

All residents would know who said manager is as well as have multiple ways in which to contact this manager. Transparency would be nearly complete, communication lines would never be blocked or severed without notice, and whenever an issue arose it would be well documented and taken care of without anyone getting put out or harmed.

A management agency is a for profit business, they want their employees to move their company into the green as much as possible, and there is no obligation for them to take a profit loss even if they are hired by a non-profit organization. So they make promises to reduce costs, and you hire them for that.

Well now the costs include their administration, the business owners, share holders, CEO, etc. As well as their employees, all of them.

So how do they "cut costs"? They reduce the number of hours the manager is on site, and it's reduced to an insane amount.

Given a typical business, you will want a management staff or team on duty for at least 2 more hours per day than the business is in operation. An apartment is, essentially, a business that is open for 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

That's 168 hours per week, which is the same as saying 168 hours work that needs to be done. Apartments are a laid back business, often the manager is only necessary for about half that amount of actual work, however to accomplish that they must be on call and ready to show up at the property every hour of every day.

Agencies do not accommodate that cheaply, for the typical landlord they can increase rent a bit to help pay for better services and most renters are more than happy to accommodate that increase. But for public housing, non-profit, such a method is not viable nor supported by the state.

So the management agency will reduce the number of hours a manager is on site to level which forces these managers to accomplish at least 80 hours work in about 2 hours. This saves the agency plenty of money, they are in the green because of the contract, but the organization which has hired them is suddenly dealing with major damage caused by neglect, tenants being unable to contact a manager when necessary, and a manager who often sells off the organization's property to cut even more corners.

The agency will stay in the green, earning a profit as that is what they are suppose to be doing, while the non-profit organization is in the red so much that they face having to declare bankruptcy. Regular maintenance is so vital to an apartment building, even if something as simple as pipe inspections are neglected can result in massive flooding damage which cascades into neighboring units all the way to the ground floor.

A simple pipe leak, which would be detected and repaired with simple inspections, can explode into millions of USD in expensive repairs. Without a reliable manager on site capable of ensuring such inspections occur unhindered, the massive damage becomes inevitable.

Ultimately not only are the residents made to suffer what is essentially a slum, the organization begins to collapse under all that debt, and the end result is more people back on the streets with nowhere to live. This is what we are seeing happen in real time at Compass Housing Alliance, and the management agency is pushing the blame onto the residents to add insult to injury.

Seattle Housing Authority is unwilling to step in to correct this, the city turns a blind eye to this volatile situation, and Compass is trying to pretend they still have everything under control when they clearly do not. If we want to fix homelessness, this is one of those practices that needs to end as it does not help anyone involved.

The Long Tale of Corruption

How has Compass Housing Alliance changed for the worse? A question that is not asked often enough, it seems.

As Compass Center they were the pinnacle of social services, one of the best that all others could look up to, where those in need found someone who actually cared. This resulted in them getting the bulk of donations from local businesses, enough to fund reconstruction of their offices and a new apartment building fully furnished and ready for occupancy.

But now they struggle, trying to make ends meet and getting no donations to replace the amenities they sell off to pay for office parties and new chapels. That statement should make their mistakes very clear, but the repercussions are long standing and cut much deeper than you'd expect.

Local businesses were already reluctant to assist most social services due to the corruption and the fact that almost everyone they supposedly helped was still unable to meet even basic sanitary standards. But Compass Center residents were clean and presentable to a point that we always blended in with the other customers.

So when the earthquake hit in 2002, the organization had to get money for extensive reconstruction. To get the support of local businesses they offered to turn half of the building into apartments which would be run less like a shelter for the more stable clients using their services.

The result was the Karlstrom, which had all amenities and personal living spaces and very few restrictions on the residents. We were treated like people, and it was managed by a no nonsense manager who took regular maintenance so seriously that she would schedule maintenance inspections monthly to come in and ensure everything was working.

It was great, a wonderful apartment and the residents left good impressions on those who had donated to this project. Seattle had known of no low income apartment building with a better track record for keeping pretty much everyone happy and cooperative.

The Karlstrom was supposed to be a flagship building, a new standard to which all others could be compared to so that when the bulk of staff left Compass Center for retirement, schooling, or new careers those who took over would have the standard already set. Sadly their dream of helping people was destroyed by those hired to take their place.

For the first few years it was just a small amount of chaos as we awaited a new manager to be assigned, so we could get everything back on track. What we got was the beginning of a nightmare, Peter Madril was first appointed, and with him came several new residents which we can only surmise he hand picked from his other program.

Fine, we got some new neighbors, but these were not the same class of neighbor the rest of us had become accustomed to. One on my floor was abusive toward several residents to the point that we had to file complaints of assault on him, he died a few weeks ago and is not missed, but that's a story for later.

Then they sold off the laundry facilities that one of the businesses had donated specifically to this building. Suddenly they were struggling for money to the point of having to cut corners everywhere, including essential maintenance in the building, delaying repairs caused by flooding for years at a time, and having almost no staff present at any given time.

There were no emergency staff to contact, no organization, nothing left but an apartment building lacking basic essential amenities and maintenance which the organization was slowly taking over by storing their old files and supplies in the rooms now vacant after removing the amenities. Carpets with mold growing under them, walls with mold growing in the insulation, and toilets breaking from wear and tear because they have not been replaced in over a decade.

Now to add insult to injury, they remodeled the chapel in the building and hired some new preacher in place of taking care of the people who relied on their organization. Makes you wonder why a religious chapel would take priority over people here.

Our fire alert system has not been updated in over a decade either, wall heaters have not been cleaned or maintained in about that same time, and sinks are routinely clogging at the base of the building. To get any response from them requires many attempts to contact the staff, and most times we don't even know who to contact.

Then the belligerent neighbor dies, which was a huge drama as he was in the hallway attacking another neighbor while suffering what appeared to be a stroke. Others say it was more than a stroke, but I like to give the benefit of the doubt.

He had a cat living with him, a female the same age as my Rhodey. Now Rhodey is slightly underweight at 7.4 lbs because he has a kidney disease, he should be around 9 lbs if he was healthy.

Six days after he died, during which time two of the neighbors were trying to contact the staff over and over again to get the cat from the apartment, they finally got her to safety and she weighed five lbs. Now when I contacted the only person I can get hold of, Kelli Hurley denied that all this happened, all of it except the death that is.

Then she added that someone else had died and made a snarky remark about me not caring. Here's the thing, I don't care, they're already dead and living people take priority over dead people every time.

Using dead people as an excuse to ignore living people is a huge problem and one that many rumored to have started the whole mess. Remember Peter Mardil, they had informed us that it was the death of someone in one of the other buildings he managed that caused him to simply lose his interest in doing his job.

Assuming what they told of us Peter, which I doubted until tonight, it appears there is a big problem with them wanting people to die in their care so they can use these deaths politically. The problem is that this kind of tactic actually works.

People will donate a lot of money to help the organization deal with the dead person but no one cares at all for the living people who the organization now wants to die. If you see the problem then please do me a favor and contact Compass Housing Authority on every website you can to let them know how fucked up this is, or contact Seattle Housing Authority and let them know you don't approve.

https://www.compasshousingalliance.org/

https://www.seattlehousing.org/

Twitter the Hate Site

Twitter is a service many people have come to rely on to communicate with their friends, make new friends and participate in discourse in the safety that the internet has to offer. As of late, Twitter has decided to remove two of those aspects.

Technically they do have the right to censor how their service is used, but this is not what they are actually doing. Instead when a generic threat or general insult is meade they ignore it, however if you direct it at a specific person they lock you out of the discussion completely. Is this simply a move to protect themselves, or are they attempting to become the world's first platform for hatemongering?

I believe someone in the company thinks it's to protect themselves, but the reality is that this creates actual bigotry and hatred. A generalized insult is bigotry, it's hatred for a group of people rather than just ire at a specific person.

Ultimately this move will backfire on them if they continue to follow the course they have chosen. When in a discussion, people will call each other names, that's how humans have always and will always behave when they are faced with opposition to which they can only respond in short comments rather than a formal debate.

If Twitter actually thinks formal debates can even happen on their platform, they are as deluded as the religious people who talk to themselves. The bigger problem is that they are discouraging interraction with other people, which is what social media is.

Soon they will be left with nothing but hatemongering and news feeds, and when that happens everyone else will find a new platform. The only reason people used social media was to find some interraction, someone to challenge their ideas or verious personal aspects.

This latest trend to suspend accounts which engage in social discourse will remove that completely, making Twitter die out like all the other social media who remove the social aspect of their service. Google is coming in strong in this regard, rather than suspend people for engaging with others, they tell those who don't like what they read to just not read it.

Sooner or later a group like Anonymous will declare Twitter a hate site and remove them from the internet completely. As is the reason such groups exist, this is what the support team at Twitter can expect if they leave the racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. and remove those who insult specific people they are actually talking to.

Recently I got suspended for calling someone a nut, that was all I called them because they were just trolling, and that got my account removed from the discourse completely. I didn't say "all this type of person is a nut", I called that one person a nut.

This is the environment that Social Justice Warriors are creating, a society in which it's better to hate a group of people for something than to insult a single person for their own behavior. They do it by calling it bullying, but bullying is (by definition) a situation in which the person cannot remove themselves from.

Online you have many options to remove yourself from the situation, which is why it is perfect for even the most heated discussions. I have been bullied in the past, this is something I am all too familiar with, and right now Twitter support are being the bullies.

Thanks for reading, please add your opinions on the matter for discussion.

McBride Construction and Illegal Immigrants

The troubles with McBride Construction began with the hiring of a crew of illegal immigrants, which barely spoke English and caused damage to personal property due to gross negligence. Hiring illegals isn't something I truly care about, so long as they are able to communicate with their customers and do the job properly.

However that was merely the beginning of the problems with McBride, betraying a problem with Seattle in general. The biggest problem is their lack of communication and an inability to stick to a schedule.

I was informed that my apartment would be ready on a specific date, that day is today and McBride is nowhere to be found to verify this. Aside from the fact that their hired help have been nothing but destructive, the people in higher positions there are now nowhere to be found.

Seeing as how they refuse to comment, it is safe to say that they are simply being irresponsible. Likely off on a golf trip or some other self indulgence while they should be at work earning their huge salaries.

During their mini-vacations people remain homeless, without access to basic necessities, and without any word as to when they can return to their lives. This is what corporate America is, and to deny that my experience is the standard is to deny the nose on one's face.

When I discover what precisely is going on, I will release a video explaining it in more detail. Whether the video is a reveal of great work done by McBride or an example of their incompetence, time will tell.

The Real Problem With Housing

So I live in subsidized housing, I have been in this one apartment for over a decade now. I pay my rent on time every month, I never complain about anything, and I maintained the apartment in perfect working order.

If this was a regular apartment building I would have had no problem getting the repairs done when a neighbor above me flooded the apartments below him. But this is not a regular building, it's subsidized by Seattle Housing Authority.

So how does that change things? It changes a lot of things. For one, housing authorities actually reward building owners of subsidized housing for cutting corners and ignoring resident complaints.

This resulted in the whirlwind of events that have happened recently. First they delayed repairs for 5 months, leaving me with no kitchen and no closet during that time. This means microwave food only, except for the few times I could afford to eat at a restaurant. Around here the restaurants are expensive.

Then when they finally get the repair crew in here, they actually hire some contractor who is unlisted. Their electrician's license is registered at an apartment over in eastern Seattle, http://www.towncontractors.com/shanco-restoration-services-electricians-seattle-wa and no contact information is offered.

So the one hanging the drywall was screwing things in and suddenly the main circuit breaker was tripped. I investigated and said that something shorted out the wiring, and reset the breaker to see because it also effected the lights. Then he went right back to work.

No hesitation, no calling for an electrician, he just went back to work and shorted it out again. This time it damaged my computer and he laughed about that. They rarely spoke English during this whole process, and were obviously joking around about it all.

Ultimately I finally got it through their thick skulls to call the electrician. The next week the electrician showed up and we discovered that the only way it could have been tripped was if the drywall hanger was messing with some wires that were exposed because they powered the oven's vent.

So he was either a complete moron and unqualified or did it on purpose. Neither bodes well for them, or the city in general. For the last 6 months I have been very tolerant of the situation, but now with the housing authority threatening to cut their funding I'm very angry.

Rhodey (my youngest cat) now suffers PTSD because of the cleanup, those high powered fans running and strange people coming into the apartment have scared him almost to death. Every time someone knocks or even walks too close our front door he freaks out, scared.

My health is declining in general, and I find my violent tendencies to be resurfacing. Luckily I am only violent toward humans.

Microsoft donates large amounts of money to Compass, your tax dollars also fund both Compass and SHA, yet they are both taking that money and doing nothing with it. This is the way of things in Seattle, ironically all the drug addicts get a bunch of free resources and housing.

Which leads me to why it's completely backwards here. The drug addicts cannot be arrested by the cops unless they harm people, they can sit on the sidewalks here and do their drugs while harassing people for money.

Compass gives these addicts free laundry and showers, while the working poor, disabled, and elderly are given the finger instead. Every organization in this city endorses and even encourages this kind of behavior.

So what do we do about it? Nothing. Those of us stuck in this situation can do literally nothing, but you can. You can stop electing morons like Trump into office, you can help out your friends, and you can make sure your friends have what they need.

If you can't trust someone, then don't give them your money, don't give them anything. Most of the money you give to strangers is wasted, the way Compass Housing Alliance is wasting everyone's money, the way Seattle Housing Authority is wasting everyone's money, these are not exceptions to the rule.

Trouble at the Karlstrom

I live in a subsidized housing property, which is in itself not bad most of the time. Lately things are changing for the worse though.

The new manager for the building is a bit of a slumlord, as he has reduced what the maintenance are allowed to repair. For this reason my apartment has been flooded four times, the source being above my apartment.

Each time the maintenance says they "think" they fixed the problem, yet it keeps happening. The business that operates the building, I call them a business because that's how they now operate, is Compass Housing Alliance.

Recently many of the staff there retired, and the replacements for them keep getting less compitent. Now they offer more to the homeless people who use the shelters than they do to those of us who pay rent.

I would normally not care so much, except that I was blamed for the damage caused by the flooding. For this reason I am sending them this letter:

I know you care more about your homeless than those of us who pay rent, however I find you in violation of the lease at this time. The plumbing problem has not been resolved after three complaints; which has resulted in damage to me, my property, and my companion animals. Over $100 of medical supplies have been ruined by this issue now. My male companion animal continues to perceive the encroaching water as a threat and thus sprays that area routinely forcing me to spend $30 a month in cleaning supplies to remove the odor, and when the human has incontinence issues it is difficult to train a cat not to do that. This is now the fourth occurrence of the issue. If this forces me to move apartments Compass Housing Alliance will be responsible for all fees and costs during the transition as well as any costs related to emotional stress, cleaning, and medical supplies lost.

I'm very patient and extremely easy to negotiate with, however this issue has also resulted in the manager threatening to evict me in a way that he can profit. His actions may force me to utilize the legal system, I would prefer to discuss this with his employers and come to a compromise that will not harm anyone who is in need. In short, resolving this matter without a lawsuit would be my preference, however since Compass has eliminated communication channels I may be forced to have my lawyer contact those in charge through the courts.