Monday we’ll see if repo agents show up at Trump’s property… it’s so exciting!

Yup, it’s pretty well known that Schiff used part of his ad spend to promote Garvey’s name recognition.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-03-06/california-senate-primary-schiff-help-garvey-column

Will this fleet noticeably impact the balance of power?

No, she must be having a zombie affair with Queen Elizabeth the first. I won’t be falling for your reasonable explanations!

Adam Schiff spent money propping up an RNC candidate to torpedo a fellow Democrat. This isn’t about him putting forward a platform, this is about him sabotaging a legitimate threat and making it more likely that a republican wins the seat - do you think his genuine interpretation is that a republican should take the seat?

The Case For 2024 Pessimism:

Optimism Breeds Complacency.

Drink your ovaltine.

Why are you surprised when they take actions consistent with their best interests.

Because they’re running for a job where they should have the public interests first.

Just because America is a shitty corporate hellhole doesn’t mean we can’t be disappointed when politicians fail to live up to a reasonable standard.

Why does Australia even want a fleet of nuclear submarines?

Victoria 3 is the game I keep tabs on the news feed for - it’s getting better (mostly - slowing down economic growth is just far less fun) but not there yet… and the potential is amazing.

I think that businesses below 200k annual income are probably not worth taxing outside of income taxes on employees. It’d probably spur small business entrepreneurship which I think is pretty healthy for market competition.

It’s an especially awful problem in America because we jail people for minor offenses so this impacts a lot of people that arguably should never be jailed anyways… and once you’re jailed in the US there’s a strong chance it will happen again and again.

That deals with scalping - but a rich person can still game the system by contacting out buying the tickets.

I think it’s less blackmail and more just knowing what buttons to push. Tucker needs attention, he’s that kid saying “look at what I can do” but grown up and completely lacking ethics. If you offer him a platform and reach he’ll agree to anything.

I think some of us experience food drastically differently. I would die inside if I worked a sixty hour week and came home to the same food every night - food is an important luxury for me (and I’m not even talking about high end Michelin star food). I think it’s extremely depressing to imagine a life where I put my nose to the grindstone and just exist until it ends. Rice and beans can form a good basis for stretching a good cuisine - but if that’s the only way you can afford to be healthy most people aren’t going to go for it.

This is one part of the vicious cycle of excessive imprisonment in the US. You generally don’t. If you’re imprisoned your rent or mortgage will lapse and if you can’t afford to absorb the payments with savings you may be forced to sell or release the property to avoid going into debt… then when you get out you’ll have no where to go.

No, they do not. Tax exempt organizations shouldn’t be private and also exempt from government oversight. I do think that legitimate small businesses should be tax exempt to simplify beaucracy, though.

Here’s the core unresolvable issue with concert tickets… there is a lot of demand and venues have limited space. If you allow open ticket bidding the prices will be insane - but if you don’t then people will work around the system. If someone offered you 30k for an eras ticket you’d be an idiot not to take that deal… and those rich folks might just hire people to make sure they get one of the first tickets anyways.

I don’t know if there’s any solution to this problem that doesn’t feel shitty but one salve is not obsessing over global celebrity, there are, in every corner of the world, interesting local bands that cost nothing more than the price of a beer to see. Three billion people won’t see Taylor Swift in her lifetime no matter what she does - her live, in person, performances are a limited resource.

There are simpler explanations - she’s pretty clearly an incompetent political installation… I don’t know if you’ve ever had a nepobaby coworker but incompetent people installed for prestige really destroy workplace morale. It could be that she was advocating for illegal stuff outloud or she may just be disappointingly incompetent.

And an alternative explanation… she’s clearly at the epicenter of a political shitshow - it’s really easy to become collateral damage. Whether you, as a clerk, agree with her politically or not, it’s dangerous to be near her.

It’s dumb but a lot of people are buying into it.