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Pro tip: you don’t have to pick between one of two evil empires. Karl Marx said that
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 18:34 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 07:11 |
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:Pro tip: you don’t have to pick between one of two evil empires. Karl Marx said that There were more empires around in Karl's day.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 18:44 |
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Edgar Allen Ho posted:Pro tip: you don’t have to pick between one of two evil empires. Karl Marx said that Hit me up when there's a good empire.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:11 |
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PeterWeller posted:Hit me up when there's a good empire. Hello.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:17 |
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PeterWeller posted:Hit me up when there's a good empire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsM6wpIA3Sc
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:18 |
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PeterWeller posted:Hit me up when there's a good empire. Imo empires are pretty good for the people doing the imperialism
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:28 |
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Byzantine posted:Hello. This is John the Golden Mouth erasure and I for one will not stand for it
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:29 |
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OctaMurk posted:Imo empires are pretty good for the people doing the imperialism Counterpoint: england
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:33 |
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OctaMurk posted:Imo empires are pretty good for the people doing the imperialism For the ruling class yes. There are typically an awful lot of people inside the empire that are doing really poorly.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:34 |
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NBC News figured out who the Tupac warrant was for: A 60-year old named Duane Keith Davis. Davis was a member of the Crips for decades and is the Uncle of Orlando Anderson - who has long been rumored to have been the one who killed Tupac, but there was no direct evidence and he was never charged. He was eventually killed in a gang shootout. The police took a significant amount of electronic devices, hard drives, and notes from the house. They were also looking for manuscripts for an unreleased book he was writing about his time in the Crips. Nothing specific about what they found has been released. Davis is not a suspect in the shooting, but he was allegedly in the car with Orlando Anderson on the day that Tupac was killed. He initially gave the police limited testimony in the 90's in exchange for immunity, but the thing that triggered the recent search is that he had apparently been telling people he was in the car with Orlando Anderson, witnessed the actual shooting, and was considering writing a book about it. In addition to telling people this privately, he had recently begun speaking about it in online interviews. https://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/1682073204507000853 quote:Nevada police executed a search warrant in the murder investigation of Tupac Shakur Monday looking for laptops and other electronic devices at the home of a gang member who said he was in the car when the superstar rapper was fatally shot in Las Vegas in 1996, according to the warrant exclusively obtained by NBC News on Thursday.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:35 |
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PeterWeller posted:Hit me up when there's a good empire.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 19:42 |
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Evil is right there in the name man.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:00 |
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Those anti-trust guideline changes discussed earlier were apparently just part of a big batch of anti-trust and "junk fees" reforms from executive agencies that were announced today. Some other more significant new policy changes were announced in addition to clarifying and toughening older guidance documents. Biden has been doing the "junk fees" thing and making changes through regulatory agencies for a while, but now he is rolling that into "Bidenomics." I guess he is embracing the Bidenomics thing and just running with it. Although, this does make it a little harder to determine what Bidenomics is actually defining. Because it now apparently encompasses everything from labor unions to building roads to raising wages to making Ticketmaster get rid of hidden fees to anti-trust rules to minimum internet speed regulations to making sure you get a free hotel if an airline delays your flight. Literally anything the executive branch does is Bidenomics now, baby. The actual anti-trust and fee changes do appear to be pretty significant, if they were enforced strictly by the courts, but there is a 100% chance that a lawsuit is coming the first time they try to enforce them and it's not clear if they are going to get that strict interpretation from a judge or not. The biggest change is that official DOJ and FTC anti-trust policy now considers lowering labor wages as part of an anti-trust analysis. quote:The new antitrust guidelines also reflect the White House's focus on labor issues. "Where a merger between employers may substantially lessen competition for workers, that reduction in labor market competition may lower wages or slow wage growth, worsen benefits or working conditions," the guidelines say. That would be very significant, but as noted before, this isn't really laid out in actual anti-trust law and it's not 100% certain a court would agree with them that impact on labor alone violates current anti-trust law. https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1682020031054348290 quote:US regulators unveil antitrust roadmap with Big Tech in crosshairs Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Jul 20, 2023 |
# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:00 |
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I’m of the opinion that megacorporations are the #1 problem facing America so even though I criticize a lot of what he does (and think this is about 5% of how far we should go) I’m glad we’re moving in this direction.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:02 |
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Megacorporations are very bad but at least it’ll make it really easy to nationalize industries if the public ever starts demanding it. (Yeah I know, privatizing the government seems more likely but you never know which way the wind will blow.)
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:14 |
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Didnt the FTC/government just OK the Microsoft takeover of ActiBlizz just last week?
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:14 |
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Furnaceface posted:Didnt the FTC/government just OK the Microsoft takeover of ActiBlizz just last week? No. They attempted to block it, lost their lawsuit, and have appealed.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:15 |
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Mellow Seas posted:Megacorporations are very bad but at least it’ll make it really easy to nationalize industries if the public ever starts demanding it. I disagree. It makes the paperwork or whatever easier but the reality is that that nationalization (which I agree in a lot of things should happen) is practically impossible while we have megacorps.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:17 |
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Also, part of this anti-trust and junk fees package involves apartment rental sites having to list their full price upfront without hidden fees. I have not used one of those for a while, but what kind of hidden fees could not be advertised and end up costing hundreds of dollars? Some kind of convenience fee? Some extra fees on top of the paid criminal background/credit checks? Does Apartments.com actually charge you some kind of fee before you even apply for an apartment? Even those seem like it would be hard to spring into the hundreds of dollars for looking at apartments online. I remember using one of these sites 8-10 years ago and I had to pay for the background check (which you could do through the site with your application), but I don't remember any other fees for just using the site that could be in the hundreds of dollars.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:22 |
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One thing I would.really like to see addressed is telemarketers/spam/spam calls, because they drive me absolutely insane and lol and behold, it's another case of American exceptionalism where they're legislated out of existence pretty much everywhere else iirc
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:39 |
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:Also, part of this anti-trust and junk fees package involves apartment rental sites having to list their full price upfront without hidden fees. I have not used one of those for a while, but what kind of hidden fees could not be advertised and end up costing hundreds of dollars? Broker fee -- in Boston and NYC the broker charges anywhere from one month's rent to 15% of the annual rent for their services rendered. It's really loving annoying because A) from the renter's perspective, literally the only thing they do is put the apartment on the internet and open the door for you, so why the gently caress are we paying them rather than the landlord, and B) it's illegal and/or not done in most of the country except for these two very, very expensive cities. NYC even managed to ban it for a while before some judge said a couple years back that the landlords can start passing it on to the renter again
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:40 |
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Professor Beetus posted:One thing I would.really like to see addressed is telemarkets/spam/spam calls, because they drive me absolutely insane and lol and behold, it's another case of American exceptionalism where they're legislated out of existence pretty much everywhere else iirc They actually did crack down on them somewhat recently. The FCC required the VoIP operators to be responsible for blocking calls that come from known scam blocks. Verizon and other providers had been adamantly fighting that for years. It is definitely not legislated out of existence elsewhere. Unfortunately, VoIP has revolutionized international calling in a lot of great ways, but it also makes it trivially cheap to buy enormous amounts of numbers and make enormous amounts of calls. So the cost of getting all your numbers blocked is minimal. And if you are based in India or Pakistan and the local government doesn't really care that much about going after you, then there is nothing the U.S. can really do to people outside of its jurisdiction. There are a bunch of really interesting documentaries (BBC did one, Vice did a miniseries, and there's several big "anti-scam" Youtube channels) that go into the logistics and finances of the scam industry and how crazy it is. Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Jul 20, 2023 |
# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:43 |
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Edit: nm, I didn't realize the post I was replying to was so old
DeadlyMuffin fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Jul 20, 2023 |
# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:48 |
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:I guess he is embracing the Bidenomics thing and just running with it. Although, this does make it a little harder to determine what Bidenomics is actually defining. Because it now apparently encompasses everything from labor unions to building roads to raising wages to making Ticketmaster get rid of hidden fees to anti-trust rules to minimum internet speed regulations to making sure you get a free hotel if an airline delays your flight. Literally anything the executive branch does is Bidenomics now, baby. I mean, it's political branding heading into an election year, branding that builds upon everyone's fond memories of Reaganomics & adopting its alliteration based on their last names both ending in N. It's also vague enough to encompass virtually any action the administration takes, negligible as it might be, as part of a larger plan to reassure voters. It's brave, given the 56 percent of Americans who say they are living paycheck to paycheck, as well as the 60-70 percent of voters throughout Biden's presidency who have considered rising costs for meeting people's basic needs like food, shelter & healthcare to be major problems, but it's not a mystery why his reelection campaign would try to convince people that their lying eyes are the problem instead of those cost increases.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:50 |
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Professor Beetus posted:One thing I would.really like to see addressed is telemarketers/spam/spam calls, because they drive me absolutely insane and lol and behold, it's another case of American exceptionalism where they're legislated out of existence pretty much everywhere else iirc Unfortunately its not going to stop the dementia riddled stranger that somehow recalls my digits out of the void and calls me several times a month from various phones.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:51 |
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Youtuber "Mark Rober" did a miniseries where he partnered with someone else to infiltrate a scamming operation in India and tape it. There is a second video from the people he partnered with on their channel (can't find it right now) that delves into the logistics and finances of scam call centers. They are huge, bring in an astonishing amount of money, and run like actual giant businesses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsLJZyih3Ac&t=3s Another Youtuber "Kitboga" did a similar series.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:53 |
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:They actually did crack down on them somewhat recently. The FCC required the VoIP operators to be responsible for blocking calls that come from known scam blocks. Verizon and other providers had been adamantly fighting that for years. I get at least 5-6 calls a day, most annoying me during the workday, so ymmv about how much it's been dealt with. My assumptions about elsewhere in the world was based on people from elsewhere in the world telling me that they don't have the problems with spam calls that we do. But I guess actual data says otherwise.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:54 |
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:There is a second video from the people he partnered with on their channel (can't find it right now) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dT6jB2Dbmk
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:56 |
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Willa Rogers posted:I mean, it's political branding heading into an election year, branding that builds upon everyone's fond memories of Reaganomics & adopting its alliteration based on their last names both ending in N. Isn't acknowledging a problem and saying you are attempting to fix it literally the opposite of claiming that it doesn't exist?
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 20:57 |
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:Isn't acknowledging a problem and saying you are attempting to fix it literally the opposite of claiming that it doesn't exist? Only if that actually leads to fixing issues of concern to voters, rather than bragging that they've already been fixed (eta: or will be fixed at some point in the future). Buttigieg announcing that he's going to put pressure on the airlines to compensate travelers whose flights are delayed is small comfort to the thousands who've been stranded at airports over the past week, e.g. And saying that inflation has been reined in because YoY numbers are "only" 3 percent now instead of 10 percent, e.g., elides that people are still paying 13 percent more or w/e than they were a couple years ago. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) Willa Rogers fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Jul 20, 2023 |
# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:05 |
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Willa Rogers posted:Only if that actually leads to fixing issues of concern to voters, rather than bragging that it's already been fixed. The results are separate from the idea of acknowledging it. Even if you don't do anything to fix it/insufficiently fix it, telling someone that you think X is a big problem and you are doing Y to try and fix it is literally the opposite of saying, "We don't need to do anything because it doesn't exist." He is objectively not telling people they are imagining it because that is the opposite of the entire premise of doing a big announcement, making policy changes, and promising to try and solve it. Complaining that something is not enough or won't change much in a year is fine and makes sense, but hearing, "I am going to fix this issue because we have been getting screwed for too long and only my plan will deliver results!" and then saying, "He is telling everyone they are imagining the problem and it isn't real" is a weird jump in logic.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:11 |
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I'm with Willa on this one. "Bidenomics" to me comes off as sounding like Joe owning the economic realities since he took office, fairly or not. Yeah they're looking to explain that he's making policy changes etc, but it's one of those "If you're explaining you're losing" deals. It's red meat for GOP "Here's what Bidenomics has done for you" commercials and a total unforced error in my opinion.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:27 |
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I personally find it disgusting when politicians try to argue that they did a good job when they are campaigning for reelection. Willa Rogers posted:It's brave, given the 56 percent of Americans who say they are living paycheck to paycheck, This figure has not been better at any point in the recent past and yet it has not stopped politicians from saying they handled the economy well, and it also hasn’t stopped people from believing them. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:29 |
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I don't think it's possible for the President to avoid getting blamed for the economy, all he can do is convince people that the economy is good because of his efforts/bad despite his efforts.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:30 |
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What is Bidenomics even supposed to be?
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:32 |
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Fister Roboto posted:What is Bidenomics even supposed to be? The idea is that Biden is doing New Deal/Great Society type spending to fix problems that voters don't like while stimulating the overall economy - or at least doing his best to do that stuff but the Republicans keep getting in the way. Whether that's what Biden's actually done/wants to do, I dunno, but that's what Bidenomics as a brand is, it's New Deal/Great Society stuff and what he's promising for the second term.
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:35 |
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:The results are separate from the idea of acknowledging it. Even if you don't do anything to fix it/insufficiently fix it, telling someone that you think X is a big problem and you are doing Y to try and fix it is literally the opposite of saying, "We don't need to do anything because it doesn't exist." Bragging about jobs coming back & inflation going down as Bidenomics isn't claiming that he's "going to fix the issue"; it's "Look at the issues I've already fixed!" Demanding plaudits for stuff like "asking landlords to tell you upfront what excessive fees their charging you" rather than actually regulating those fees out of existence is an example of a floor, not a ceiling, as are most of the other non-humble brags coming from the administration. And claiming that your administration has created the mostest jobs in the shortest time ever, or any of the other hyperbolic stuff the WH & DNC are tweeting out on a daily basis, as well as getting most major media to faithfully repeat, isn't doing anything to ameliorate people's concerns at not being able to meet their basic needs like healthcare, food & shelter. I can post some tweets as examples of what I'm talking about if you're still confused & think my claims are "weird" but Biden's approval ratings not being above-water for a solid two years now kind of says it all. Voters haven't been buying what the administration is selling, even when it's wrapped up in Reaganesque alliteration, which is what I meant by their "lyin' eyes."
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:37 |
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Mellow Seas posted:I personally find it disgusting when politicians try to argue that they did a good job when they are campaigning for reelection. Are you addressing this to me? Because I've said it's totally understandable why they're doing PR leading up to an election in spite of voters' lying eyes (ie: their experienced realities).
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:40 |
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Willa Rogers posted:Biden's approval ratings not being above-water for a solid two years now kind of says it all. Polls are worse than ever so I'm not sure. The Democrats did pretty well in the midterms, although part of that is that the Republicans are really struggling to look sane right now. I think if the general election were tomorrow, Biden would win against most of the Republican candidates especially the one who's actually going to get nominated (Trump).
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# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:44 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 07:11 |
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Worth noting that while people obviously aren’t out holding parades celebrating the end of inflation and the return of prosperity, the recent improvement in economic statistics has correlated with opinions about the economy improving. Gallup’s economic confidence index has improved from -43 to -32. There is a lot that has to happen for a majority of people to consider the economy “good” a year from now but it is good that people are capable of noticing improvements, even if they have been modest to date. If inflation stays low that number is virtually guaranteed to keep rising. E: forgot Gallup link, sorry: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1609/consumer-views-economy.aspx Willa Rogers posted:Are you addressing this to me? Because I've said it's totally understandable why they're doing PR leading up to an election in spite of voters' lying eyes (ie: their experienced realities). Mellow Seas fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Jul 20, 2023 |
# ? Jul 20, 2023 21:45 |