Jan 1 my out of pocket maximum resets so I’m going to hurry and start getting some medical stuff done hopefully that I can fit into a single year. If not then it won’t get done. Sucks that we have to ration medical care in the US, even when we pay thousands per year for insurance.

Unless you have in depth knowledge of the company operations or at least the very specific industry a company is in and all of their major investors, most stock investing is gambling these days. And with options, shorting, etc., even moreso. It’s more about knowing when a stock will make large changes and taking advantage of those changes than actually investing in a company that you believe in. And the value of companies has little to do with actual viability of the company or it’s assets, only the short term estimation by major investors of their profit. A single wealthy investor or investment firm can easily manipulate the price simply by buy or selling in large enough amounts and automated investment platforms cause a lot of fluctuations. It only works because retirement funds now are used to keep the market stable because no one wealthy and powerful has them, so they’re good for sacrifice.

Thanks, guess I missed that. No man for the LE to deal with, so they can flex. And no man there to raise the child other than the elderly, so it hurts their “family values”.

OK, then look at cable TV. Or any other industry where a tax or regulatory fee was added and a customer gets a detailed bill with charges other than the product cost. They just add line items and pass it on, but of course most of the time those line items aren’t directly connected to the cost itself since the consumer wasn’t the direct target. So the companies add a little extra for “processing” (i.e. profit). It’s a common practice and likely to be the same with the tariffs.

I don’t watch many things that have commercials. Only if I really want to see something and nothing else is more convenient or it’s just for background noise while working on a project.

But since so many streaming sites let the ads be super loud compared to the content, yes, I usually mute it a couple of seconds ahead of time to avoid the jump scare.

They’ll do the same thing big restaurant chains did where they couldn’t pay their tipped employees less than minimum wage anymore. They’ll add a new “service charge” so they don’t have to increase the product price directly. They’ll make it much higher than the actual tariff costs, but say “hey look we’re not charging you a full 20% more.” Even though the tariff isn’t 20% of the retail price but people who support the tariffs are dumb and will think they’re doing good.

Most garbage disposals just cause more trouble that they’re worth since they turn small chunks of food into paste and that’s more likely to stick to the insides of drains and cause more clogs than the small chunks, as long as your drains are properly maintained. And a halfway decent strainer will keep out the larger pieces. It’s also not good for your city drains and makes sewage processing more expensive. Better to use composting for your food scraps if you can.

I’d be willing to bet she’s a single mother and these people are just going after her for that sin and to flaunt their power over someone they perceive as weak and evil. Otherwise, it makes no sense at all. I was forced to walk to the store alone many times starting at like 6 or 7, and I rode my bike all over the place from like 8 and up, way more than a mile from the house. And the crime rates are way lower now in most of the country. And there weren’t cell phones.

Because most of the people in power actually want Trump to push things too far. That way when he leaves, they can push things almost that far and look like a good guy. Remember, the Democratic party is conservative centrist, not leftist. There are very few left centrists like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in office and no one is truly very far left at all. But compared to Trump, they appear to be extremely leftist.

Yeah they may not cooperate with authorities, but I’m sure they’d be happy to sell it to contractors working on behalf of the government to the same ends. They already sell the info as it is.

Also grew up poor. But, wow, I wish earning over $100k was enough for vacations and hobbies in Seattle… I make around $150k, have a tiny home, and have only had one vacation since before COVID. I mean owning a home at all is pretty significant here, I guess.

I could probably do better if I moved far enough out of the city, but I’d lose a lot of conveniences that would cost me lots of time and money mostly around transportation, parking, shopping, etc. I do have a few hobbies, but most of my hobby time is used in home maintenance because it’s a 118 year old home… These days it takes about $250k around here to really start to have extra money for nice vacations and hobbies.

Protecting my privacy. I am gender nonconforming and on HRT. So with the current political atmosphere and the fact that it has enabled and encouraged hate speech and attacks, I’ll new to be more careful on platforms that my identity is more prevalent.

I’m not going to hide, as I’m not hiding by posting here. But I’m going to remove my data from corporate platforms that have connections to law enforcement and have poor security that insist on keeping my personal details. Can’t trust the federal government or any company, starting next year if the Project 2025 or Trump’s plan are truly put in place.

If there were death threats against people working for me, I’d tell them to avoid those people, too. It’s not discrimination. It’s a safety issue. A lot of them were threatening to shoot FEMA workers if they violated their property.

It’s not very different if you don’t dig into the guts of the thing. I think the people most afraid of making the switch are actually the ones it is easiest for. If you’re not used to digging into the windows registry and haven’t upgraded to powershell 7, then you probably won’t touch much of what’s different in Linux.

The hardest part is picking a distribution – I usually recommend either Fedora or Ubuntu. – and an xwindows system – and coming from Windows I usually recommend KDE Plasma or from MAC I’d recommended GNOME. So either:

https://fedoraproject.org/spins/kde/

OR

https://kubuntu.org/

The only reason I stuck with Windows for so long was PC gaming. But I don’t do much of that anymore and what I do actually do runs fine on Linux these days. So I haven’t looked back. But you can always install Linux after Windows is already present if you have a spare hard drive and boot into either at will. Just don’t try to do the opposite since Windows installer will corrupt your Linux boot setup.

But to each his own. Windows is now a platform like many others where you trade your personal information for services instead of or in addition to your money. Some people are OK with that and that’s totally fair.

Take some basic logic classes first. It’s really helpful for a lot of people before learning math and science. I didn’t realize how many people aren’t just logical thinkers by default sine I am. But being able to consciously think that way will help a ton with math.

Trump Putin Will Soon Get Classified Briefings Again

Force them to take a class where they read the Bible?

Sounds like they prefer this outcome for some reason. Maybe they made some mistake they’re covering for, or maybe the situation is just so complex with poorly written laws that he might end up being allowed to stay for a long time while it’s all worked out. This gets him out of the building and makes him someone else’s problem.

Basically, people are dumb and think that the current economic situation reflects only current policy, whereas in reality it takes several years for a policy to affect the economy significantly. I mean i don’t have any love for Biden, but the fact that the inflation started at the end of Trump’s presidency and continued into Biden’s was due primarily to Trump policy. The fact that it slowed finally is due to Biden policy, but now that Trump is taking over, he’ll take responsibility and immediately go back to policy that breaks the economy again, but only at the end of his term. This is one reason he’s unlikely succeed for long if he to tries to seize power illegally and would have been way worse off if he had won his second term. His policy effects would be under his watch. Also why single term presidents are often less reviled than two term ones historically.

I mean that’s standard practice. If a feature, product, or company develops a bad reputation, just rename it. If your market is large enough there will be enough people not paying attention to not realize it’s the same product.