Overzeetop

I think it doesn’t go far enough. Straight up, no one should be permitted to create or transmit the likeness of anyone [prior to, say, 20 years following their death] without their explicit, written permission. Make the fine $1,000,000 or 10% of the offender’s net worth, whichever is greater; same penalty and corporate revocation for any corporation involved. Everyone involved from the prompt writer to the work-for-hire people should be liable for the full penalty. I can’t think of a valid, non-entertainment (parody/humor), reason for non-consensual impersonation - and using it for humor or parody is a slippery slope to propaganda weaponization. There is no baby in this tub of bathwater.

Depends on your definition. I’m white collar, 40 hours a week, bottom 90% income.

Based on videos from one of the major lava-themed entertainment venues who has been posting updates for two months, the “barriers” for Grindavik were barely started, with work only beginning some time after January 4th or 5th. The primary focus of the public work was in building the barriers to protect the regional power plant to the east of the fissures (and hot springs resort area just east and north the power plant). IIRC, those barriers took a month to construct.

The subsurface dam/inclusion runs pretty much directly under Grindavik, so if an active eruption opens along the southern edge of the magma inclusion there will be no way to prevent damage to those houses adjacent.

Disc: I’m neither a seismologist nor a volcanologist, but I’ve seen Journey to the Center of the Earth. Oh, and I was in Grindavik in October.

Because, despite 5 decades of progress in information availability and democratization of knowledge, working class people still have to be spoon fed every bit of news as they are emotionally incapable of learning anything other than what gets fed to them on the TV.

A Bell, Book, and Chicken in a Hatbox

I mean, that’s a weird-ass AI prompt. But if fascism wins and you voted third party, yes - it’s partly* your fault unless you’re too stupid to understand how first past the post voting works.

*conditionals against massive fascist party majority states notwithstanding.

protect the interests of American drug companies abroad

That’s a nice sentiment, but the drug companies are voluntarily selling internationally at lower prices. There’s no “protecting the interests” drone strike we can make when the big pharma is doing the rate setting itself (negotiating, true, but still a voluntary choice). The proper fix would be to mandate that any drug that had any Federal research may not be sold in the US for more than in any other part of the world and that fee may not exceed (make up a number) 10x the production cost, with distribution not allowed to exceed 50% of the cost of the retail price of the medication and delivery not to exceed 125% of commercial shipping rates.

You mean the Royale with Cheese, right?

Well, since the original patties have always been 0.1lb precooked weight and the quarter pounder has always been (checks notes) 0.25lb precooked weight, I’d say shrinkflation is one thing that hasn’t come to McDs. Actual inflation? Oh, yes - $4 for a double cheese burger (with 0.2lb of beef) is straight up insane. That’s $10 for a half pound burger - nearly the same cost per ounce of burger as a Five Guys standard burger, which isn’t even in the same league.

The property tax was separate, and it happens regardless. The 15% is the long term capital gain rate - if the value of an asset increases (say 300k->500k) I have a 200k gain. I don’t pay tax on that 200k until I sell, but if there were an in-process gain tax, I would. So instead of owing taxes on my profit/gain when I sell, I would pay the gain each year (and carry over a loss if the value of the house decreased). Coming up with 30k (200kx15%) would be a tough think to do simply because my neighborhood got popular in the Real Estate market.

“imagine the shitshow if you had to pay extra every year if you owned a house outright but the property values kept going up”

Like property taxes, then. ;-)

Realistically, I understand the issue. If I had to pay taxes on the increase in price on my house (say from a $300k valuation three years ago to a $500k valuation after the market bubble), I’d be fucked to find 15% of that overnight. Of course, if they allowed that to be offset by the primary residence exemption, it would be a zero cost. Without that, it would still be a non-issue for 95% or more of US taxpayers because most people simply don’t own an illiquid asset that increases in capital value (much less an international one), and if you exclude secondary real estate that non-issue number probably increases to more then 99.9%.

Republicans really hate democracy…

Even in States where they get ballot initiatives, the Republicans are always wanting to change the shit voters initiate and approve

maybe get a few of those potatoes up front

It’s good to see such unbridled optimism in these dark times.

Shut up and take my money!

Itemized invoice:

Fan $ 7
Design & overhead to incorporate fan into design $ 13
Value of increased performance, as judged by the accounting department $480

CCRC buy-ins/contracts are for life. I used to design the buildings for them, I still do design work on existing facilities. I’ve also gone over a contract with my own parents. You essentially pay full price for a residential “unit” and as you require more care you are moved, without additional cost, into a higher care location. The owners than re-“sell” your previous unit to the next resident. When you die, there is no equity that your heirs will receive - in that way it’s like a lease. The contract is for life with an annual escalation for maintenance and service.

Okay - you lease a car that includes gasoline and all maintenance. The agreement is that you get to drive it until you die. You pay $80,000 up front for the car and $100/mo for the maintenance, which can increase per the lease. You go along for 4-5 years, and each year your maintenance increases, maybe to $130/mo today, because of the cost of gas and parts needed. You can leave at any time, but if you ever leave or die, you don’t get to keep the car - it still technically belongs to the leaseholder. You forfeit the $80k.

Well, the company sold and the new owners can’t find enough people with $80k lying around to buy in, so they decided they’ll just change the model to include the cost o the car - and charge $650/mo for the service. You get a letter that at your next annual increase, the monthly fee is going to from $130 to $650 because they’ve changed what constitutes “maintenance” as part of their terms and conditions. You can either stay with the package and pay $650/mo or you can leave and have no money to go find a new car. Oh, and you have no job and are on a fixed income because you’re 75 years old.

From the article it sound like there was no maintenance escalation clause limitation - they bought in for, say, $750,000 with a payment of $1000/month in fees, per their contract. Each year the contract maintenance increases (since costs increase) and it had gone up to ~$1300…then, all of a sudden, the owner decided that they weren’t getting enough people with $750k to drop up front and added a $6.5k/month option with little or no buy in. When these residents rolled to their annual renewal, instead of the normal 3-6% increase, they were “upgraded” to the new rental-based prices - $6.5k.mo. Their contract is still valid, and they can still stay there, but based on the lawyers these people have gone to about the increase, it’s all 100% legal because there is no limit in the contract on how much the fee can increase.

The article makes it sound like someone bought the place and jacked up the monthly maintenance fee by $5000 just because “fuck you.”

Well, given that they bought in under the lump-sum + maintenance model and have somehow been “upgraded” to the rental model, that’s exactly what happened. It would be like buying a home and then the old owner coming back and saying, “you know what, I could get more money renting this place - you have to pay rent now.” These people likely sold their house and used that money to buy into the community - essentially paying for the right to use the building until they die. It’s common in CCRC facilities (continuing care retirement community). You essentially pay for the plant and then pay maintenance, and they guarantee that they will have a spot for you in their care facility as you need more assistance (Independent living -> Assisted Living -> Nursing and/or Memory Care - Hospice). It’s much like a reverse mortgage in that you “buy” your “home” and get to live in it until you die, at which point the deed is turned over with your heirs getting nothing. Except that in this case you don’t get a monthly payment; instead you pay a fee for the facility services which is free of a rent cost. As you move up in care, the fee gets larger to cover the additional services (additional meals, personal assistance, and ultimately nursing care), but it’s just for utilities and services - your payment covers the physical buildings. As you move up, people behind you buy in and that money is used for (CEO bonuses) maintenance and updates to the buildings. Many of these are “non-profits” so the extra money technically isn’t for profit, but there are lots of corporate mouths to feed in CCRCs and they find ways to distribute the money.

Those are people who actually voted in the off-year election, not people whos view or registration. https://www.statista.com/statistics/319068/party-identification-in-the-united-states-by-generation/ shows that those in Gen x and above (43 year old an above) Republicans have a ~10% margin over Democrats. Even Pew agrees that Party or Leans-Party favors Republicans in the over 50 group by roughly the same margin https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/06/02/the-changing-composition-of-the-electorate-and-partisan-coalitions/