wrath-sedan

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Yeah I’ve really loved the culture of niche instances like startrek.website, lebowski.social, sffa.alliance. I think they provide an interesting and friendly local feed, have a more general federated feed, and then of course you can have your own subs. I say go for it!

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Of course! A “grand jury” is essentially a group of citizens who decide whether there is enough evidence to accuse someone of a crime. An “indictment” is the document that lists the crimes that the grand jury is charging the suspect with, saying that there is enough evidence to try him in court.

So this is saying that the Georgia grand jury has decided to charge Trump (and an unknown number of others) with crimes linked in some way with interfering in the 2020 Election in Georgia. The case will now eventually go to trial.

Let me know if there’s anything that’s unclear (or incorrect I’m not a lawyer haha)

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Yeah, I’ve read elsewhere that it’s much easier to prosecute this sort of thing under RICO in Georgia than with the equivalent federal law.

Between that and the fact that state charges are immune to presidential pardon, I think these could easily be some of the most consequential charges.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Honestly, probably Star Wars’ fault for the popularization of the blue kind of glitchy hologram specifically. Would be interested to hear if anyone can name any pre-SW hologram effects.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

No it’s not just “fair” gerrymandering.

There are 7 House districts in Alabama. Currently 1 out of 7 of them are Black majority, while about 2/7 people in Alabama are Black. It’s illegal racial gerrymandering that keeps it this way. Any reasonable map would have at least 2 Black districts, so this case is explicitly about reversing gerrymandering by requiring another Black majority district.

If they created 4 Black majority districts that would be gerrymandering. As it is, it’s about making a map that represents the population of the state (something the legislature is repeatedly refusing to do).

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Any reasonable map would ignore the racial make-up of the population and just be based on equal population.

This ignores the reality that Black communities have been and still are explicitly drawn out of maps of political representation. This is why the Voting Rights Act was passed, because without explicit protections for Black and other minority racial communities they are systematically disenfranchised.

The refusal of the Alabama legislature to redraw this map without a court order should be proof enough of that.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Check out this one quick and easy meal planning trick that will cut your lifetime grocery bill by 99% (the Geneva Conference hates it!)

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Been using Omnivore for several months now with no issues! Really clean, easy to use, and cross-platform.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

As I understand it, knowing that throwing him in jail in contempt of court would likely set off riots, her threat to him for interfering in the process was to speed up the trial. Considering his only real defense is pushing conviction until after the election, I think Trump will soon learn the meaning of “the right to a speedy trial.”

EDIT: Source

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Really missing a decent personal finance community, subbed!

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

How self-aware of him.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

This feels ripped out of the playbook of scummy mobile ads or adult sites where trying to click the x leads you to the exact content your were trying to avoid

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

As opposed to the alternative, surrendering to Russia to the last Ukrainian.

This argument assumes that absent US backing Ukraine and Russia would not be at war. Ukraine is not just a pawn between a Russia-US struggle, it’s a state which has asked for assistance in an existential struggle with a much larger authoritarian aggressor. Ukrainians are dying because of Russian aggression, not US backing.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Living somewhere now where many of the local websites are terribly dated and while the initial nostalgia factor was nice the lack of functionality/accessibility is seriously a problem. Not to say you can’t make a functional/accesible site with old web standards, but some things changed for a reason.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

I’ve been debating which console I might want to get for awhile now and this may have been the final straw pushing me towards the PS5. Haven’t been this excited about this game in a long time and there are several other exclusives that look amazing too.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Honestly, as a Hoosier, surprised they even went for the free meals.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

COVID response is wild because for like 2 years we had a robust expansion of both direct government aid and healthcare coverage and accessibility, and the poof most of it disappeared. Like we literally had free healthcare at point of service for one disease which is crazy.

Great to see that at least some states responding to the demand for these heightened services. We should be pointing towards the example of COVID aid to show what the government can do if the public pressure is there. If we did it once we can do it again!

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Made me curious what the total tax rate would be in Mass. Apparently it has a flat 5% income tax, plus 4% millionaires tax, plus federal rate for income over about 578k is 37%, so altogether it’s 46% for income over a mil in Mass.

Definitely think it should be higher for such wildly high income. Also disappointed to see for being a relatively progressive state Mass has a flat rather than progressive income tax.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

I mean all we know so far is that half of the new tax is going to education (and 172mil of that has already gone towards an excellent cause) and half is going to transportation. Of course skimming off the top is incredibly common, but I think it’s far too early to call the amount misspent.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

paywall-less archived link

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Honestly just shocked how well Adblockalypse rolls off the tongue despite being the linguistic equivalent of three kids in a trench coat

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Sisyphus is going to be pissed.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Can’t wait to hear racist diatribes from the new primetime host Tracker Carlsbot

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Hmm so it’s a choice between the guy whose son didn’t pay his taxes on time and bought a gun when he wasn’t supposed to vs. the guy who is currently indicted in 3 soon to be 4 instances of among other things compromising classified documents and working to overthrow the government he happened to be leading at the time.

Going to be a real tough choice.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Darn tootin’

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

But every advance in communication and information technology makes it easier to surveil or defame, and can be used for bad policing.

So we should just give up and accept surveillance and defamation without trying to come up with any legal counter measures?

Right now there’s a push to regulate the internet to “prevent CSAM” by blocking encryption, and I’m afraid a push to regulate AI will not get better results.

Totally agree that KOSA and the like are awful, but the existence of shitty regulations doesn’t negate the need for positive regulations.

But if we try to go further and impose restrictions on the AI models themselves, this will most likely solidify that AI is controlled by few powerful corporations. After all, highly regulated models by definition can’t be free and open.

I just don’t see this? So regulating powerful companies use of AI will… solidify their power? I’m not connecting the dots here but that might be on me, as I think there are plenty of highly regulated spaces that still see innovation.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

It’s not so weird when that country has about 1 out of every 6 humans on earth, and when 10.56 million people died in China in 2022. They’re experiencing decline not growth.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

They’re about page is a bit of a trip and seems like it’s all about being anti-austerity? At which point why not have an anti-austerity website instead of one about stopping population decline?

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Every article is by “David Demos” which is clearly a pseudonym. I’m not disagreeing with the conclusions, but it’s definitely a red flag for me when info about the author is so obscured. Like it’s fine to be anonymous of course, but there is no establishment of who this person is other than an About page that uses weirdly upbeat language to advocate for anti-austerity measures to support population growth which is itself a strange take and I would want to know more about who is making it and why.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

I hate the word “taxpayer” to disparage anything government funded or that implies the government is cheating the average person. For example, I found this headline after 2 seconds of searching:

“The Taxpayer-Funded Electric Bus Company Pump and Dump Scheme that Benefitted Biden Donors”

They use “taxpayer” to make it sound like instead of citizens, we are customers who buy into government services, and should feel personally victimized by people who use government services as they are taking money from our pockets. And don’t even get me started on the “small business owner”…

EDIT: wow, unsurprisingly the word has always been used for political oppression (from ITPI):

“As the Brookings Institution’s Vanessa Williamson has documented, wealthy southern whites ​“focused their critique of Reconstruction on rising government debt and excessive spending, painting government by Black people and poor whites as intrinsically corrupt.” They called themselves “taxpayers,” allowing them to convince small white farmers to join their side while avoiding explicit opposition to Black male suffrage. Ultimately, they were successful.”

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Master Chief isn’t going to like this…

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Cowboy Bebop.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Just want to point out that this article says that China legalized civil custodianship in 2017, which allows another person who is unrelated to you to legally act on your behalf, which isn’t exactly a civil union but was nonetheless seen as a win for many LGBTQ couples who now could exercise some of the rights they could do if married.

The US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, two years before this. The Respect for Marriage Act passed in 2022, but this was passed largely to ensure that Obergefell v. Hodges didn’t go the way of Roe v. Wade.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Downvote for a headline that is vague, clickbaity, and just shitty. Just use the name of the article “China’s recent economic woes suggest there is something seriously amiss,” so we all know what this thread is even about other than hating on China for no clear reason.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

I think it’s less about finding news without propaganda and more about knowing the biases of particular outlets and even particular authors. For instance this article come from The Guardian, which is a reputable UK news outlet that leans left of center, and has a heavy focus on environmental reporting. But this is also an editorial, so it’s going to be a little more idiosyncratic in its view than just straight Guardian reporting. With that in mind, I know that this editorial is likely going to be pretty critical of China (other than probably to praise China’s green investment to push Western countries to do the same).

Truth is every outlet has its slant, some MUCH more extreme than others, but any news should be read with a critical eye.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

Compound interest. Buy into a total market index fund that will get you more or less 7% on average a year. Let’s say you have a $100 extra per month (doesn’t actually matter whatever you can afford).

Sally from age 20-30 puts her $100 in every month. At the end she has about $16000. She stops adding anything, but keeps that money invested. By 65 she has $170k.

Jeff doesn’t start investing until he’s 30, but he’s consistent and does the same thing, $100 a month from 30-65. He ends up with about $165k.

What that means is Sally made more money than Jeff even though she did the same thing for 10 years that he did for 35. She just started earlier.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Upvote for “not a scam to help Big Dental sell you flavoured string.”

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Not looking for a new note-taking app but givin you a boost since it’s always great to have new projects in the mix. Keep up the good work!

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Wind and solar power Ron DeSantis pollutes the Earth and makes life miserable.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

“Oh no fans might demand good games at release! The horror!”

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

Brb then going to go start I ❤️ Podcasts where I play only 90’s hottest new alternative

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

He’s been a mixed bag on the environment, opening up more oil and gas leases on federal land (although he did just create a new national monument around the Grand Canyon to create more protected land which was a big win for Arizona tribes and environmentalists). I also wish that he would make a harder voting rights push if only to make the issue more visible even if he can’t do much without congress. And while the border policy is an improvement (not saying much compared to Trump lol), there is still a lot of capricious and arbitrary enforcement against asylum seekers and immigrants that the Biden admin has purposefully continued. Tbf border policy is ultimately something Congress needs to deal with, so it’s not going to see any specific changes for awhile.

wrath-sedan, 10 months ago

No, I agree those trillions won’t go directly to people and time will tell how well it’s spent. Some of that money has gone to individuals, some has gone to companies and orgs that build things like roads, and some has been and will be skimmed off the top because of course it will be. I think the overall benefits will outweigh the costs and it’s better to do something rather than nothing but who knows.

Also, he did try to cancel 400b in student debt which was shot down by the conservative Supreme Court, and so he’s used the legal tools he has left to cancel as much as he can.

Can definitely agree on asking more from our leaders, and I think the good things Biden has done definitely come from the voter base shifting left on a lot of issues, and not because he’s some sort of progressive champion.