AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT...

-- "We bought a 120-year-old abandoned Edwardian water tower — and we’re turning it into our home.   After years of searching for land to self-build on, this unexpected auction lot changed everything." --

The playlist is here.

IT'S A START...

-- "The White House says those living in homeless encampments in the nation's capital will have two choices in the coming days: accept treatment at a homeless shelter, or go to jail. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the ultimatum during a Tuesday press conference." --

THERE'S ANOTHER VACATION DESTINATION SCRATCHED OFF THE LIST...

-- “Why do we need to be using so many hotels for day to day homeless management?,” Gelinas said. “This is turning an emergency program into a permanent program and taking a block of hotel rooms off the tourist market while people complain the city’s hotel room costs are so high.” --

Well... they're not so high for everybody, are they?  

And then there's Memphis.

LIVING IN JOE BIDEN'S NEW, IMPROVED AMERICA

-- "After nearly seven hours of heated debate, Sedona City Council voted 6-1 to approve a program that will provide a safe place to park for workers in the city who are living in their cars. Funded through a two-year grant from the Arizona Department of Housing, the site will be managed by the Verde Valley Homeless Coalition." --

'JOBS ARE FOR SUCKERS,' SAYS LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA

-- "'The government should provide a home to every person who cannot work,' says Liberal Party Housing Minister Sean Fraser. Unemployed currently number 1,229,400 according to the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada: 'If you cannot work you should have a home too. Government should work together to provide it to you.'" --

PRESIDENT GRANDAD'S 'GREAT RESET IS PROCEEDING APACE

-- "A two bedroom, three bathroom single family home has been placed on the market in Portland’s Southeast neighborhood for $330,000. There’s a catch though. The buyer that ultimately ends up purchasing the home will be tasked with removing squatters that have taken over the property." --

AND IT'S NOT A ONE-OFF SITUATION

-- "'Another home outside of Portland and Oregon City was listed earlier this year and sold for $180,000, complete with 'squatters in the barn,' according to a Zillow listing." --

Home Improvement

Halfway through dealing with a kitchen sink drain malfunction and ready to [cultural appropriation alert!] commit seppuku. The realisation that I am no longer as functional or flexible as I once was, has been brought home like a runaway train.

After plunging and attempting to snake the drain from ground level, and apparently making things worse, I retreated to the basement to transect the 2" PVC at a point where I could snake it both ways before it met the larger unclogged main drain.

Turns out the pipe was completely plugged along a three foot section before a turn [with gawd only knows what] and somewhat plugged for a few feet beyond that. Decades of dishwasher debris have to be a contributing factor. Either that, or some sci-fi alien intruder has been taking a dump in the sink when we're not here.

I will leave the minutiae of the unclogging process to your collective imagination. Horrible, evil smelling debris with plenty of aerosolized ejecta as I sawed the pipe. Cleaned it out and remounted with removable couplers [for ease of periodic maintenance] and it's finally fully functional again.

Despite our best efforts, there was... let's call it leakage... and cleanup promises to double our fun. I will never again complain about the money a good plumber demands.

Humans be straight up trespassing

Waiting for the Apocalypse

"Studies have shown (a phrase I borrow from the environmentalist’s handbook — it’s how they start every press release) that next to fish, Kraft Dinner is the greatest brain food ever invented."

Let's change the channel

F@ck the Flu...FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Saw Mike again today. Just standing there with his tongue out, pissing on a wall. Absolute madman."

Not Me, Not Mine...

Not Today...

"The March and April surge came amid an unprecedented run on guns and ammunition during the issuance of coronavirus shutdowns, coupled with doomsday scenarios with civil unrest."

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RELATED: When the lights go out... what next?

From the comments...

"I have accumulated a modest number of pure silver coins but stopped doing it when I realized that no matter how much or many I had... 'I would not be able to buy something that no longer existed'."

There's another destination off...

...the vacation list...

GUYANA • Toronto-area man’s dream of a new life under the sun has ended in murder. Cops in Guyana say hotelier Vivekanand “Veka” Narpatty, 71, was hacked to death along with his employee Harry Persaud Prashad at his remote beachfront property.

Detectives believe the two men were tortured and had been dead at least four days before the gruesome discovery.

MEANWHILE BACK AT THE RANCH:

TORONTO - Six people are facing charges in connection with a home invasion in the Entertainment District near Adelaide Street West and Peter Streeton Boxing Day.

And 2019 goes out with a bang...

A man was fatally shot in the underground parking garage of a highrise on Wingarden Ct., in northeast Scarborough, on Tuesday, the final gun murder in a year that saw a record-high number of shootings in Toronto.

No suspect information is available at this time.

If only there was a law, right Justin?

Don't mess with Texas

Not me... not mine... not today...

“The law allows residents inside their own homes to defend themselves,” said Gonzalez, adding that the matter would nonetheless be referred to the grand jury for an inquest."

"The one with the shotgun was able to shoot at the three males and they were all pronounced dead here at the scene.”

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RELATED: Not everyone will sit & take it...

An Air Force vet shot and killed one of two armed robbery suspects who pistol-whipped him as he worked behind the register of a California convenience store.

Mark Kasbrowicz went down... but then grabbed the store's gun.

MEANWHILE BACK AT THE RANCH:

"Toronto police say two men were injured in separate shootings overnight. They have not released suspect descriptions in either of the shootings."

Surprise, surprise.

SHUTUP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

"The EarthCruiser FX is designed and engineered for long distance, remote travel with a roomy, ergonomic living quarters fit for a family. Utilizing similar construction materials and methods of long-distance cruiser yachts on a fully upgraded Fuso chassis, the FX is the pinnacle of elegance melded with performance, on and off the road."

No ratwurst for you!!!

Obviously, open borders means greater culinary choice...

CHICAGO -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport thwarted a man's attempt to import 32 pounds of African rat meat.

Customs spokesman Steve Bansbach says customs officials prohibit the entry of African meats to prevent the spread of diseases.

Eggshell blue... that's gonna go nicely...

...with his Bridal Path eco-mansion...

"He enters a state of existential reflection, with a realization of his impending mortality: what will be the intrinsic value of his music, if the ice caps melt and the world is no longer sustainable?

Or perhaps more pertinently, he realises that with his stadium-sized cultural standing, and ability to impact on the world at large, he is in an undeniable position of power to enact meaningful change and ensure the survival of the planet’s ecosystem – a network nearly as complicated, beautiful, and wonderfully diverse as Drake himself."

Complicated? Like Avril Lavigne? I suppose that's one word...

"In a song called All Charged Up he raps 'Niggers snitching on us without no interrogation. I stay silent ‘cause we at war.'"

"In another the song No Tellin, he says,'Yeah, police comin’ ‘round lookin’ for some help, On a case they gotta solve, we never help ‘em.'"

Yeah... he's a absolute peach. And just a bit of a poseur...

"He was raised by his mother in Forest Hill, an affluent and predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Toronto. He attended Jewish day school, had a Bar Mitzvah at age 13 and observed the Jewish High Holy Days with his mother. 'My mom has always made Hanukkah fun,' Drake recalls."

You're a "gangsta-come-lately," you gotta try harder, I guess.

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RELATED: In other "Snitches get Stitches" news...

Justin Trudeau's "post-national hip-hop state"... it's a cold, cold place.

York Regional Police Insp. Thai Truong told reporters as many as 400 students from around the region were at the party when Rizwaan Aboobakar Wadee was shot.

“The biggest concerning factor, one of the most frustrating factors for us, is that when police arrived on scene after 4 a.m. and located the deceased... nobody was in the house,” he said.

“Not a single person that we know about had tried to assist Mr. Wadee or stayed on scene.”

And they lived happily ever after...

...said no reasonable, rational person ever...

A high-trust, traditionally homogenous community with a deep civil society marked by thrift, industriousness, and openness, Minnesota seemed like the ideal place to locate an indigent Somali population now estimated at 100,000.

Hip, hip, hooray... diversity is our streng... sweet baby jebus...

A September 2015 report of the House Homeland Security Committee task force on combating terrorist and foreign-fighter travel revealed that Minnesota led all states in contributing foreign fighters to ISIS.

It gets better... by which I mean worse...

"WCCO also learned that when she approached the squad car, Officer Noor, the first Somali-American officer to work in Minneapolis’ 5th precinct reached across his partner in the driver’s seat, then shot and killed [slight, blonde, pyjama clad yoga teacher] Justine Damond."

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RELATED: Think it isn't happening here?

Think again.

"The investigation is going to go nowhere without co-operation. We believe they know exactly who killed this guy and none of them will say," said Edmonton police homicide detective Bill Clark. "If we got co-operation, this one we could easily solve."

Diversity is our streng...

...sweet baby jebus...

The suspects, two Senegalese citizens and one Nigerian, were being held on suspicion of murder, group sexual assault and distributing drugs in the death last week of 16-year-old Desiree Mariottini, Italian authorities said Thursday.

The brutality of the Mariottini's death drew comparisons with the murder and rape of 18-year-old Pamela Mastropietro, whose body was found last winter in pieces in a suitcase in the central Italian city of Macerata.

Where are all the "if it only saves one life" socialists now?

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RELATED: An Empire Undone

Virginia Raggi, the mayor of Rome with the Five Star Movement, is deeply embattled as the city has fallen into disastrous degradation, with garbage strewn across dark, broken streets and drug use spiking in bleak neighborhoods.

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MEANWHILE JUST DOWN THE ROAD:

Seven Syrians and one German passport-holder have been arrested following the gang rape of an 18-year old girl in Freiburg. Such crimes have become increasingly common in Germany since Angela Merkel invited more than a million migrants to the country in 2015.

No hope... no change...

"After the speech calling for rich people to get smaller houses, Barack Obama traveled back to America and to his $8.1 million eight-bedroom, nine-and-a-half bathroom mansion in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the world."

This isn't the first time we've heard about Barack Obama's houses...

"It even became fodder in the presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Barack Obama, whose fundraising and personal ties to Rezko go back more than a decade."

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RELATED: Hillary Clinton, "Butcher of Benghazi"

Don't mess with Mom

Cierra Brittany Forney, fed up with her son’s “entitled” attitude, decided to serve him a slice of humble pie by making him shop at the Goodwill store he mocked his classmates for shopping at — and posted about the experience on Facebook.

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RELATED: Amping up the incentive...

An Arizona mother was arrested Sunday after police say she used a taser to wake up her 16-year-old for an Easter church service.

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LAST WORD: The price of virtue signalling...

MENDOCINO, Calif. — An SUV carrying a large, free-spirited family from Washington state accelerated straight off a scenic California cliff and authorities said the deadly wreck may have been intentional.

Known as the Hart Tribe, the multiracial family of two married women — Sarah and Jennifer Hart — and six adopted children often took spontaneous road trips to camp and hike and travelled to festivals and other events, offering hugs and promoting unity.

“To the best of my knowledge, there was not a suicide note found at the residence,” said Baarts, who added that authorities have been interviewing friends and family members of the Harts.

“There have been red flags,” he said, but did not elaborate.