Reality

@ThatEricAlper @Shinedown

The last time you wore a band t-shirt, which artist was on it?

@DHARMERICA 2/2 Not inherit to property tax as a system. Consumption taxes will always impact the less fortunate more unless we only tax things that only the wealthy buy. NC has a proposal to make apartments exempt if they are 1% owned by NPO. That’s another example of shifting the burden.

I understand your point but that’s exactly where I think we’re missing the bigger issue. The answer shouldn’t always be, “someone has to pay the bill, so keep taxing property.” That assumes the current system is the only way to fund services and I don’t believe it is. Property taxes place a permanent burden on families just to stay in their homes. That’s the core problem. It breaks stability at the household level, and over time it erodes true ownership. We should be asking different questions: Why are we relying so heavily on property taxes instead of consumption-based models (goods, services, sales, usage, fuel taxes)? Why does funding essential services require people to continuously “rent” their own homes from the government? Where is the accountability on how much is being spent vs. what is actually delivered? Fire and emergency services are essential—I agree. But those can be supported through targeted, broad-based taxes that spread the burden more fairly, not through a system that disproportionately impacts homeowners. As for education and policing, those systems clearly need structural reform and accountability before simply asking taxpayers for more. At the end of the day, this isn’t about refusing to fund services. It’s about how we fund them and whether families should be the ones carrying a system that isn’t delivering proportionate value.

What I am trying to express is this: the “cold facts” of the market are not natural law-they are constructed systems shaped by policy, power, and incentives. And what has been constructed can, in time, be corrected. I say this not as an outsider, but as someone who grew up within a powerfully rooted real estate family in North Carolina. I have seen firsthand how the inner workings of the market operate-how deals are structured, how land is valued, and how systems are quietly designed to benefit those who already understand how to navigate them. This is not theory to me. It is lived experience. There is a distinction that must be made between the constitutional framework of this country and the modern capitalist structures that have grown around it. The Founders envisioned a system where individuals could secure property and independence as a foundation of liberty. Property ownership was meant to be a stabilizing force for the citizen-not a lifelong financial obligation to the state. Over time, that balance has shifted. The framework of this country fundamentally changed after the abolition of slavery. While that moral correction was necessary and just, new economic systems emerged in its place-systems increasingly tied to corporations, financial instruments, and debt structures that replaced one form of dependency with another, more complex and less visible. What is now called “freedom” often exists within systems that quietly bind individuals to perpetual cost, obligation, and extraction. At the heart of this issue is a simple principle: Every American should have the right to at least one home free from perpetual taxation. A primary residence should not be treated as a speculative asset first and a place of life second. It should be protected as a foundational element of personal stability and dignity. If individuals or entities wish to engage in real estate as a business-buying, selling, scaling, and profiting-then that should exist clearly within the framework of a business or corporate structure, subject to its own rules and risks. But the line between home and enterprise has been blurred, and that blur has allowed systems of advantage to take hold. Many of these advantages are not visible to the average citizen. They are embedded in trust structures, tax strategies, and legal frameworks that allow capital to concentrate, properties to be leveraged repeatedly, and markets to be influenced in ways that appear “natural” but are anything but. The result is a market that continues to hemorrhage affordability, while appearing to reward growth. I understand the argument for profit. I respect the discipline and strategy behind it. But I do not believe that a basic human necessity-housing-should be primarily driven by profit at the expense of access and stability. And I do not believe that property taxes, as currently structured, serve the long-term freedom of the individual. Those resources, in a more balanced system, could be retained and invested by citizens themselves-building personal equity, generational stability, and true ownership. This is not a rejection of markets. It is a call to realign them with the principles of a free people. Because if ownership becomes conditional, if shelter becomes speculative, and if the citizen is forever paying to remain in place then we must ask whether we are still operating within the spirit of a republic, or within a system that has drifted far from its original intent.

@DHARMERICA Good morning. I don’t think property tax does disproportionately impact homeowners. I think consumption taxes are far too regressive. The ultra wealthy have the means, motivation, and influence to lessen their relative ad valorem taxes but that’s a systemic failure 1/2

@DHARMERICA @Jeanne2999432 @BrianEchNC equitable value. A way of fairly distributing the tax burden. If community members don’t want to be taxed out of their homes, they should take that up with their elected officials, not the assessments. Putting off a 7 year reval makes the inequity far worse.

@DHARMERICA @Jeanne2999432 @BrianEchNC Everything you said is thoughtful and true. It’s doesn’t change the cold facts of the market. Values going up 300% doesn’t price anyone out if the tax rate is adjusted according. At the end of the day, it’s not even about finding market value, it’s about finding an equitable valu

Property taxing entity does not want their power to tax your property limited? 🤔 Riiiiight. 🤪 #ncpol #northcarolina

@ThrillaRilla369 yup.. Opened a franchise QSR and 90 straight days, many 10+ hours. Some were 15 hours for about a week straight.

Trying to prove a point Have you ever had to work more than 55 hours in a week

@Jeanne2999432 @DHARMERICA @BrianEchNC There is not some boogyman pricing you out, it’s a market. Buyers and sellers that determine the market, assessments are simply supposed to reflect the market as of a given date.

@DHARMERICA @BrianEchNC My theory is that pricing you out of land you already own is the tactic that forces you into renting "affordable housing" that is owned by a TAX-EXEMPT NGOs operating as Land Trusts.

@JoCoGuardian Penalized rural land ownership? Half of the large rural land in NC is taxed at a fraction of the value. Essentially Large landholders protection act. Pender waited 7 years to do a reval, of course the values doubled. Doesn’t mean the tax bill needs to go up.

The #NCGA needs to scrap the whole property tax system and shift it into a less regressive tax model that doesn’t penalize rural land ownership and establishing roots in the community. Those who’ve been at the coast for generations are being forced out by unaffordable values. (3)

This is prime example of the complete disaster the NC property tax system is, Surf City has to scrap their tax rate proposals based off the re-eval in pender county bc the county suddenly decided to delay doing it because it’ll raise taxes too much. But, here’s the kicker… (1-3)

@DHARMERICA @BrianEchNC @Jeanne2999432 An overwhelming show shouldn’t matter if it’s coming from a place of ignorance. Values have easily doubled there in the past 7 years, regardless of how people feel about it. It’s just math.

Also, Pender County Board of Commissioners were forced to cancel the new tax assessments due to an overwhelming show at the meeting last night. The location was flooded with citizens. They agreed to use 2025 appraisal for citizens. Huge win for our county citizens. There is power in numbers!

@StarNewsOnline Ignorance of the law and reality shouldn’t be rewarded. They waited 7 years to do a reval, of course values doubled.

Pender County suspends property revaluations after public outcry starnewsonline.com/story/news/loc…

@Mr_Husky1 We had friends over swimming years ago. Their 5 year old daughter was there. Someone said something surprising and the reply was: “Shut the front door!” to which she replied, “It is shut, daddy”. But now STFU is shut the front door for 10 years.

Admit it: Your kid mispronounced a word three years ago and now the whole family says it that way. What's the word in your house? (We still say 'pasketti' and I’m not stopping anytime soon.)

@bofrench So buy an ice maker.

I want ICE in airports. I want ICE in hospitals. I want ICE in schools. I want ICE in Home Depot. I want ICE on college campuses. I want ICE in meat packing plants. I want ICE in restaurants. I want ICE on farms. I want ICE everywhere.

@dkipp1353 @data_republican I’m well educated, which is why I know the praying part doesn’t belong. You should try it sometime

@__Reality__2 @data_republican Not for you anyway. We can pray for you but if you hate being educated...

I know it's called TDS, but I think it's so much more. They hate us. They hate America. And I have no delusions that their hatred will end when President Trump leaves office. They are AINOs. Americans In Name Only.

@data_republican @dkipp1353 “Praying and educating” should never be used together.

@dkipp1353 We keep praying, keep educating others, and keep fighting! The alternative is to lose our country.

@bshawesome Even if that did happen, that’s a minor inconvenience at worst.

@__Reality__2 Because they’re gonna pull him off his sim rig at 7 AM on a Tuesday

JGR hired a PI to follow Gabehart over the winter. JGR also had Hamlin, FRM’s Bob Jenkins, Toyota’s Andy Graves file over potential damages that could result from the transfer of proprietary data. Potential sponsorship poaching claims too. motorsport.com/nascar-cup/new…

@bshawesome @CarsonHocevar @MattWeaverRA Unless Hocevar did something nefarious, or had knowledge of it, why would he care? Easy enough to say “I don’t know” 20-30 times when it’s the truth.

@CarsonHocevar @MattWeaverRA This will seem funny right up until you get subpoenaed.

@ihieanacho7824 @lily_10asl Gotta be rage bait.

@lily_10asl He cheated on her after all the love and provisions she gave him, as a man, you're supposed to be the provider but she is and yet you have the guts to cheat on her He deserved everything she gave him

A man defends himself after being punched multiple times by a former Howard Stern writer

@BellaBaddie__ Def Leppard. maybe Shinedown, Matchbox 20

8 hours of road trip but you can only listen to one artist???

@HawkEmDownChris Maddux, Smoltz, Nolan.

Age yourself by naming a MLB pitcher you grew up watching. I’ll start: Clayton Kershaw.