IHeartBadCode

High inflation: I’m losing money faster.

Low inflation: I’m losing money slower.

That’s how it should be read.

Despite negative perceptions on the state of the economy, people are losing money a lot slower than its June 2022 peak of losing a shit ton of money per quarter.

and is doing it likely as someone who is horribly misguided

This is Abigail Disney. She’s rich but she’s not the brightest crayon in the box politically. Her PhD is in philosophy and her dissertation was about the role of romanticized violence and war in American life. Her lists of philanthropy is what one would expect from a run of the mill rich person level activism. Tossing money at the high level stuff, never diving deeper to the root of the problem.

I’m not dissing the lady, but she absolutely falls into the misguided on this aspect.

Oh I see… (laugh/cry)

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Gustafson said in a statement following her defeat. “What we have to say about giving birth and everything related to it is secondary to whatever the men of the Republican Party want.”

Any woman in support of the GOP is asking for this outcome in the end. Subjugation at the heel of their man. Someone elsewhere had mentioned Uncle Tom’s, folks who kowtow to those who would enslave them in desperate acts for a glimmer of affection. Fundamentalist see people as pawns, not friends, not allies, not equals, but as tools to further their agenda. That’s why towards the end, Uncle Tom was flogged to death by the very people whom he sought to curry a modicum of favor.

Similar story is Phil Valentine, mocked the COVID virus, derided any notion of a vaccine. Did exactly as his Republican peers did and said. Wanted nothing more than to kiss up to Trump and had bigger aspirations in the political sphere than his talk radio show provided. Got sick from COVID, spent the remainder of his life suffering to catch a breath alone in a hospital. There was a big moment of silence and remembrance on the radio the next day, by the end of the week it was “Phil who?” The people who he sought to have elevate his status in life forgot about him the second his situation turned unfavorable to their agenda.

Today, outside of his family, the majority of people who remember him are the exact people he mocked and taunted on his radio show. And it’s not a remembrance of who he was that those people remember him, it’s a cautionary tale. One doesn’t get “into the group” with fundamentalist. You simply exist in the group until your utility runs out and then you are removed from the group as demonstration of the group’s resolve.

Another thing is that Uncle Tom was eventually flogged to death by the people whose admiration he so desperately sought to win.

Fundamentalist only see things in measures of what helps them obtain what they want. Once the utility of someone is over, they have zero compunction with turning on the person that helped them and riving them to nothingness as demonstration.

When the blind guy does the routing on the PCB.

But, but, that would be … ˢᵒᶜⁱᵃˡⁱˢᵐ

GASP

How about cutting foreign defense spending

We could, but remember that a lot of that defense spending are people in the US’ job. About 2M would be on the block for chopping.

Or getting rid of insanely wasteful farm subsidies

I mean don’t stop there. Especially at just that point. Relax the restrictions for crop insurance. Reduce the barriers between farmers and grocers. Literally break up the giant grocery stores. Kroger’s is a fucking bitch ass. One of the reasons we have to pay massive subsidies is because there’s distinctly a lack of a free market in the farming and grocery business.

And while we’re at it. Tell John Deere to fuck off.

In the tech industry (likely every industry but I wouldn’t know) we could make a 200 level course in college that covers tech that’s been over hyped. A few choice hits like:

• Crypto
• Blockchain
• Quantum
• Cloud
• WS-I
• LAMP
• XML
• P2P
• WORA
• OOP

Now some of those went on to become useful concepts, but all hardly lived up to the hype of transforming the industry forever. There’s just no shortage of people who lack any kind of set of morals that will, without any knowledge in the domain, jump on some train and hype it to get some quick cash before the thing derails in a fit of coming to terms with reality.

I mean, at least it’s been this way since I’ve been in the industry.

Psss… Let me let you in on a secret. It’s not just this guy.

China is one of the leading producers of solar panels at exceptionally cheap prices. China and the Philippines are currently in a bit of a sour mood with each other. The US could step in with cheap solar panels if they were researching that, but alas, who do you think is going to be providing them with cheap LNG?

So while the story indicates that solar is at it’s cheapest it’s ever been. Not for the Philippines. The Philippines is a clear cut example of how the United State’s continued resistance to a domestic solar panel production industry is literally hurting their long term prospects. There’s a lot of nations out there that want panels and right now, China is the only serious game.

Nice.

I use Firefox, but at the same time I have Vivaldi installed for PWA, like for mbin right now. Why Firefox removed SSB is beyond me, was like one of the things I used regularly. Being able to pin my Mastodon account to the KDE taskbar and click it to pop it open in it’s own window is something I really don’t want to do without.

Maduro has little to do with previous meddling from the United States. He’s directly from Chávez who was the one who attempted a Coup on Carlos Andrés Pérez, likely what we could consider the last US friendly leader.

Chávez was the Venezuelan answer to US meddling and when he came to power. At some point we have to accept that the people and their elected government are at the wheel. Venezuela made a call to put way too many of their chips into the oil markets, no one forced them to bank so heavily on oil, they made that call themselves.

With next to nothing as a follow up, they’re suffering from economic missteps. Additionally, any international help that’s been extended, Venezuela has turned it down. Maybe for the best as they’re worried that the international help is more foreign meddling. But again, that’s Venezuela to make that choice.

What the US did is understandable to be angry about, but at some point it is less about meddling that the US did and poor economic choices and corrupt government rule that has brought about where they are today. I know a lot of people want to seriously blame the US and there’s some rationale behind that. But where the Venezuelan economy sits today, that’s squarely on the elected officials of Venezuela.

Now does that mean that the current situation there should make us turn everyone away? Absolutely not. At least in my opinion. I think that’s where me and @[email protected] will disagree. What’s happening is horrible and we should not lose our humanity towards others just because it is slightly inconvenient. But that’s on Congress in the United States to address as they’re the ones that can approve new asylum programs.

Many countries have offered to help including the US. Venezuela doesn’t want it. Again, maybe the paranoia we instilled is what causes that denial, maybe the US just makes a good effigy. But we have to accept the answer Venezuela gives about other people trying to help, that’s how we demonstrate that our determination to actually stop meddling with countries south of the border. Because given the current situation there, it wouldn’t be incredibly difficult for the US to setup partisans and begin an effort to overthrow the government, if they so wanted to.

As horrible the situation is, as much as we shouldn’t close our border, this mess is very much Venezuela’s making.

Forgot the final bullet points

• US Government does jack shit in terms of legal ramifications for breaking law.
• Musk pledges to break US law once again.