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Sycophants Invade Vacation Rentals
By Ron Lee
Published: 04/22/24
Topics: Government, Legal, Lodging Management, People, Regulations, Software, Vacation Rentals
Comments: 0
Vacation Rentals have been around for centuries often called by many names: lodging, sharing, vacation rentals, bed and breakfasts, and now short-term-rentals.
It has only been in recent years that cities, counties and homeowner associations have conspired to attack rentals and all without logic, reason or adherence to the bundle of real estate rights codified in the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and other laws for 250 years.
Did you know that property rights are the most mentioned right in the Bill of Rights? Because without being able to protect those rights, all other rights can be further trampled on. For example, you can’t have freedom of the press, if government can take away your right to occupy your property.
The reasons for those vicious anti-rental attacks are false and found to be based solely on another age old situation - Xenophobia - the fear of others. The incidence of noise, parking, and even garbage collections are so statistically small as to be non-existent.
Def: Xenophobia [noun]
Aversion or hostility to, disdain for, or fear of strangers.
Synonyms: Bias, Bigotry, Animosity, Classism, Hatred
Now, however, governments have found new sycophants to help them batter responsible private homeowners and, as might be expected, it is none other than Artificial Intelligence software developers taking up the war.
The dictionary points out the threat of these:
Def: Sycophant - [noun]
A self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.
Synonyms: flatterer, fawner, flunky, toady
In the war on property rights, governments are turning to profiteering software soldiers to encourage neighbors to spy on neighbors and to report them for any perceived slight, real or imagined. (Neighbors hating neighbors is nothing new, but now governments are rewarding that hateful conduct.)
One participant in the war on vacation rentals is Deckard Technologies of San Diego, California. Their website, (www.Decard) fosters the idea they are mainly in the business in helping local governments with "tax". But parse their words more closely to learn that Deckard is in the "compliance" business. In other words, governments hire them to control humans.
That makes them sycophants for the same reason court jesters bowed and scraped to kings. It is all for the money. Deckard says governments can fine neighbors using their expensive software to bust them.
With those software contracts costing hundreds of thousands of dollars for cities and counties struggling to balance budgets, those governments will learn that this kind of A.I. ("Awful Intelligence") generated system produces complaints that won’t hold up in criminal court where rules of evidence abide.
And yet counties fall for any pitch that says it won’t cost them anything. Even if they then suspect, and later learn, that the huge cost of such software can never be recovered.
Even if officials admit there is no pay-back for that software, busting people for gossip appeals to government officials who don’t base their decisions on fundamental concepts like property rights.
To see how their xenophobia functions, substitute their words "Vacation Rental" or "Short-Term Rental’ with the names of minority groups to make their rational sound just like what it is, just another form of hate crime.
With apology to the people of south Africa, and the terrible harm they suffered for so many years, it can be seen that segregating vacation rental property owners and guests is used by people who insist on oppressing vacation rental property owners and guests. They steal their rights while allowing others those same rights.
Def: Apartheid [noun]
Rigidly segregating and economically and politically oppressing people.
Synonyms: Segregation, Bigotry, Chauvinism, Injustice, Intolerance
On the Deckard company website, Nick Del Pego CEO claims to be a mathematician, a seasoned corporate senior leader and a U.S. Air Force SpecOps veteran. Isn’t that the service branch who can be called in to attack people with no regrets?
Del Pego and his software soldiers make it easy for neighbors to hate other neighbors who use their Constitutional right to share and rent out their homes.
Plus, his software makes it comfortable for nosey neighbors to report people anonymously, as if they were Peeping Toms. And the penalty for false reporting is - you guessed it - nothing. No liability, no accountability.
In his novel 1984, George Orwell warned about a society where government watched over every little thing done by every little citizen.
And now Del Pego’s Deckard Technologies gets paid to help cities and counties do exactly that.
It must be asked, why would Craig Brown, Greg Rose, Jess Flanagan, Chloe Sasson, Tom Hemmings, Tony Moriarty, Matthew Duggan, Dr. Victor Xie, Loren Vasquez Rivera, Vicki Lane, Dustin Reilich, Stacey Kurtz, Rob Piskorowksi, Dave Brown, Melissa Mijia, Faith Chaza, Dana Lormer, Branden Reese and all the cronies at Deckard agree to help him do it?
Perhaps, they enjoy facilitating gossip and think hate mongering is good. Probably it is that, like everyone else, they just need a job.
Maybe those employees should look for employment in a more reputable industry, where their actions do not deprive others of their basic property rights. There are many worthy causes. How about ending poverty, feeding the poor, volunteering at charities, working to end war, etc.?
Of course, those kinds of jobs don’t pay as well as promoting Deckard’s hateful service.
Author: Ron Lee – Contributor, Vacation Rental Association, Inc.
Blog #: 0989 – 04/22/24Sponsor: VRAI – Providing education, services and support for vacation rental managers and home owners. – VacationRentalAssociation.org
Government Officials Driving Tourism Economy Away
By Ron Lee
Published: 06/01/12
Topics: Government
Comments: 0
Tourism is a clean, responsible industry that brings in visitors anxious to shop, attend events, tour attractions, rent lodging, and pay the taxes that go with them. So why do local government officials want to drive away vacation rentals and turn away the easy spending guests who want them? Read more
Sponsor: VRAI – As a fast growing industry we need your help and support. Join today to learn, share and promote your properties. – VRIA.org
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