Peanut President posted:

they don't pay taxes anyway i don't see the point

Gene Hackman Fan posted:

wealthy people are renouncing american citizenship

bawfuls posted:

this is the most insane part of the whole event, and is further confounding that it's a part of the modern pentathlon

Maybe we could, idk, modernize the event and ditch the 19th century cosplay part??

Due for another update, what skills do modern soldiers need behind enemy lines? Can we simulate drug smuggling or stealing a car?

CodfishCartographer posted:

https://twitter.com/MartyAmericaUSA/status/1423772080642875397?s=20

for some reason twitter thought it'd be cool to recommend this to me. I guess it wasn't wrong, since this is fine thread fodder

CodfishCartographer posted:

https://twitter.com/MartyAmericaUSA/status/1423772080642875397?s=20

for some reason twitter thought it'd be cool to recommend this to me. I guess it wasn't wrong, since this is fine thread fodder

Cup Runneth Over posted:

Parody account dude

Peanut President posted:

they don't pay taxes anyway i don't see the point

Noosphere posted:

tbf, this is something that I am strongly considering doing. Not that I'm in any way rich, but ever since FATCA was implemented, local banks no longer allow American citizens to open accounts. My account was grandfathered in, but this is an inconvenience on my life that I'd love to get rid of.

Lib and let die posted:

"and what kind of activity do you think is causing the reefs to get sick and die?"

Lib and let die posted:

Wife and I had dinner with her sister and a couple of her small business tyrant buddies (my SIL included) and there really is no greater case to be made that these people live in an entirely different reality than the rest of us than spending 4-5 hours just listening to them talk. Their concerns are so alien to me - of course, there was the group therapy session over " It's so hard to run a business these days, nobody wants to work for me, I have to come out of the office sometimes and wash or vacuum a car myself!" and "We're always in Florida this time of year, this is the most profitable time of year for my gas stations!" before moving on to the deep, existential threats the managerial class faces every day like "my contractor didn't do the thing I paid him to do the way I learned how to do it on YouTube, because they're cheap and don't want to create the overhead to buy the expensive, correct materials to do it like I saw on Lowes' YouTube channel!" and it's just a horrible, awful situation we're in because TWO of the business owners are waiting to buy the rest of the lumber they need to build the deck addons they have planned for their houses - meanwhile the catered cuban food spread we're all indulging in here is the first time my wife and I have gotten more for takeout than a small pizza and a milkshake to share in months.

My wife and I mostly sat in silence. We don't even own where we live, nevermind owning a business, so for all intents and purposes it felt like we just straight up didn't exist to these people, unless my wife was forcefully interjecting herself into the conversation. As we'd hit our limit for the cries of the professional-managerial class and started making our exit, one of the owners complained about the "Sunday Scaries" (lawl, you're a loving owner) and before I could even think it through, my head snapped around and I commented that "I got those when I was working in the private sector just to make someone else money. Right now I'm working with a nonprofit that helps domestic violence survivors with mental health conditions seek appropriate, affordable care and counseling and another nonprofit that helps pair up autistic, epileptic, or otherwise-afflicted kids with trained service dogs. [My wife] works in emergency veterinarian services and saves lives, we both feel really good about the work we do and don't dread it at all." My wife quickly ushered me out the door after that because once that cork pops, there's no stopping until I'm screaming from the rafters about guillotines and gulags.

And I think my wife is finally starting to crack and go ping. We sat down in the car and before I could even begin to figure out how to package class consciousness in a way that didn't sound Marxist/Leninist/whatever you want to call it she looked at me and commented that it was the most awkward dinner she'd ever sat through and that after hearing the car wash owner and his wife bitching about no one wanting to work for them no longer felt bad about loving her boyfriend back in high school. She's not quite there, and still occasionally drifts into thought ideas that are clearly a result of the effectiveness of the modern propaganda machine, and I want to encourage her but I have a really bad habit of starting with something like "yeah of course no one's going to work for your sisters' friend at $11 a hour" and trying to segue into "therefore dismantle capitalism and all the systems and agents that uphold it, cast the american government into the dustbin of history, and start throwing business owners into gulags" in under an hour so I'm afraid I might do more harm than good.

e: my favorite part was the yacht-industry people complaining about eroding waterfronts because of dying reefs. If I'd been biting my tongue, I would've vomited blood doing what I could to prevent myself from blurting out "and what kind of activity do you think is causing the reefs to get sick and die?"

A Buttery Pastry posted:

I get that some people in C-SPAM love this classification for some reason, but you're describing standard petite bourgeoisie. Hell, the one with multiple gas stations is definitely close to losing the petite part if they're not already there.

Tubgoat posted:

Sounds like OP picked the correct thread, then?

exmarx posted:

Cup Runneth Over posted:

https://twitter.com/bilbosfootcomb/status/1424848764372758532

lordofthefishes posted:

Endless_joker_laugh.wav

If there were mental gymnastics in the olympics, this person would win gold.

Flesh Forge posted:

everyone in the state of Texas got this notification sent to their phone last night at 11:30pm

https://twitter.com/Noahdunn99/status/1427486065670213632

GalacticAcid posted:

https://twitter.com/business/status/894922691098148865

The Nastier Nate posted:

everyone is always saying we need to fund social security and Medicare more...or we could just start killing old people off

tokin opposition posted:

Coronavirus may have killed a lot of people but insurance companies are making way more money so who can say if it is bad or not

E: sorry thought this was d&d while having a flamewar flashback

Thanatosian posted:

At the start of the pandemic, a bunch of hospitals had to furlough a lot of their employees, because they're cancelling all of their elective procedures due to COVID. Those elective surgeries were there main source of revenue, so they weren't making enough money to stay fully staffed. During a pandemic.

Best possible economic system.

The Nastier Nate posted:

If Obama hadn’t made it illegal, insurance companies could consider “having the means to get a Covid vaccine but being too stupid to get one” a pre-existing condition.

Then they could deny paying for treatment if you end up unvaxxed and vented

And that saved $30,000 could go right into the shareholders pockets

Thanatosian posted:

Crosscut is usually better than this.

"Certainly we can all agree on upzoning for density!" No, actually, the lobbying groups that represent you and your rent-seeking leech "housing provider" compatriots fight against that tooth and loving nail. I also don't think we can agree on making it easier for landlords to evict tenants, or building more microhousing that removes 70% of the size of an apartment and reduces the rent by like 5%. If you want to live in a sardine can, good for you, but it should at least cost what it's worth (and I say that as someone who shares 425 square feet with a roommate).

quote:

Given that I had worked so on the property and that my children were in immediate proximity to it, I chafed at the rule that said I had to rent the home to the first person who qualified. I chafed at what seemed like an un-ending stream of new rules and regulations that I was suppossed to track and comply with. The threats of fines if I didn't comply correctly. I have a full time job, I raise a family.

In the end, I decided the small rental income wasn't worth the distraction and potential aggravation. The ADU is not on the rental market.

quote:

A few years ago things changed for us as landlords in Seattle as the city literally began taking more and more control of who lives in our home. When the pandemic came and we could no longer be assured of being paid by our tenant, whether they were impacted by covid or not, we decided to eliminate all of the personal and financial risks and simply sell the house and move to a place where we won't need the rental income. In February we sold the house to a couple who does not intend to rent the ADU. It's unfortunate for potential renters that a clean, well maintained space in a beautiful house is no longer available for anyone to rent.

quote:

Now tenants in Seattle facing eviction get a free lawyer no matter if they can afford it or not. As for the small time housing provider, nope! It would be so easy to add a small-time housing provider (less than 4 units) exemption to these bills and legislative actions, but that falls on deaf ears every time. I pay a membership fee annually to RHAWA so I can get access to rental forms and information on this ever changing landscape. You'd think Seattle would provide all the forms etc. But they do not. So I pay for it out of pocket. Still that does not protect me, we are still expected to know all the complex laws now in place.

quote:

A single family rental in the Bitter Lake neighborhood was sold. The landlord had more than 10 years experience and cites as reasons for selling: 1) Current / recent landlord-tenant laws. 2) Risks of future landlord-tenant legislation. 3) Political and/or social animosity toward landlords. It appears the new owners are no longer offering it as a rental.

quote:

The plan was to renovate the basement into another apartment which would help cover the cost of the improvements, but our finances are not strong enough to pull us through a lease with a bad tenant. Seattle's new laws are terrifyingly restrictive to independent landlords, and it is just not worth the risk to our personal finances. We can use that basement for other purposes and will sell the house when the current renters decide to move out.

quote:

Despite the claims of commitment to 'community', Seattle City Council's Landlord hostility has hamstrung the smaller land holding entrepreneur and ensured that the only people who can afford to gamble in this market are absentee corporate landlords.