If people aren't ready to imagine a world without capitalism, how about a world where we force capitalists to pay into society to compensate for all they take out? How about we #SlowTheRoll until they address our needs as a human society?
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The closer I looked at the old photo, the more I could see.
"That's the thing about 19th c. #silver emulsion prints--the amount of detail is amazing. Look: you can practically see the items on the table through the second-floor window in the villa," said the peddler. "Practically transports you there, no?"
Yes! ... And suddenly I *was* there, just inside the window.
"There's some items I want you to retrieve," an echo-y voice said. "Get them, and I'll bring you back."
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It's Honey, like in "Oh, honey..."
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Why ‘open’ AI systems are actually closed, and why this matters - Nature
A review of the literature on artificial intelligence systems to examine openness reveals that open AI systems are actually closed, as they are highly dependent on the resources of a few large corporate actors.Nature
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I live in Matt Gaetz district.
Everyone here knew exactly who and what he was. They knew about the sex trafficking and the DUIs and the drugs and the booze and the trips to the Bahamas. They all know he's the son of Don Gaetz and the rotten apple don't fall far from the crooked tree.
And they all, every one of them, voted for Gaetz -- and TRUMP -- anyway. Because that's who they are and they're proud of it.
This report will change NOTHING for them. Not one thing.
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Name one thing private equity investment hasn't ruint for everyone.
The following are off the table.
Housing - ruined
Healthcare - ruintttttt
Retirement - ruinedTTT
Trailer parks - busted
Nursing homes - ruinTTT
Restaurant chains - yuck
Dental care - grrrr
Toys R Us - fuck
Drinking water - RUINT
Prisons - well, they were terrible in the first place; now they're MOAR ruint
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Sharing PHOTOSHOPPED FAKE MUSK OR TRUMP TWEETS?
How about NOT, okay?
Even if they're funny
Even (especially) if they're plausible
Disinformation is harmful *even if you're sure no one will believe it*
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In a (real) market when your product quality is in freefall you would be expected to a) improve the product pretty quickly; b) reduce the price to tempt customers back.
In the (so-called) water market; service continues to get worse despite complaints & prices (controlled by OFWAT) are about to rise well above inflation for the next five years.
To say privatisation imposed 'market discipline' would be completely wrong;
to say it imposed exploitative monopoly pricing is more like it!
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If Starmer wanted to get some plus points with the Public and try to salvage something from his collapsing polling he could punish the Water Companies.
But he won't.
Nor will Farage, but he'll be picking up the disgruntled and betrayed votes the 'Establishment Man' doesn't want.
If columnists in The Guardian are saying Starmer is handing it all to Farage, they must know within the Labour Party.
Give the Public some meat or prove to us the Labour Party is corrupt.
@Lazarou
I went off on one today, ranting about this too:
ravenation.club/@bearsong/1136…
😡
Public ownership of water!
It seems so obvious to me, and likely popular with voters.
I fear that the general public are not at the centre of these considerations 😟
bearsong (@bearsong@ravenation.club)
"Average water bill in England and Wales to rise by 36% over five years. Firms accused of forcing households to pay for years of underinvestment.Mastodon
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lol, the guys who run online casinos who gamble digital items in games with real money behave like mafia bosses, harassing each other in real life with paid protesters and flyers and sabotaging each others events
I Got Bribed By Casinos, But I Exposed Them Instead
Several months ago I got offered a "bounty" and "$20k" to expose a casino in the Counter Strike Industry. I was both insulted and intrigued. After investigat...YouTube
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BTW, haven’t posted about this in awhile but —
Still wearing an N95 everywhere I’m indoors with other people, except my partner and some close friends/family members who have similar approaches.
Still haven’t had any kind of illness since 2019. Just haven’t been sick. I actually don’t have enough free time to go “back to normal” and get sick 1-3 times a year. So I plan to keep masking indefinitely.
Still haven’t had a single person say anything to me about it. Tall/masc privilege.
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Men, next time somebody in our orbit tells a really creepy and sexist joke......get thrills by ripping into that creep, it's justified.
Make them feel shame and disgust. It's for the good of Society.
There's a rapist in the White House ffs, something needs to be done.
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Musk is WAY too rich and powerful-- he represents a clear and present danger to our country.
What should we do about this?
I propose we confiscate all of his hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth.
Do you agree?
What should we do with Musk's money?
- Split it among all Americans (10%, 2 votes)
- Build homes for the homeless (10%, 2 votes)
- Adopt Universal Health Care (80%, 16 votes)
- Create a Progressive "3rd" Party (0%, 0 votes)
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Freedom of religion is enjoyed by individuals, not businesses (as should be the case), which I think is why the conservative movement invented the "religious freedom" branding for an adjacent-but-not-the-same cause.
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“A country that displays an almost ruthless commitment to efficiency and performance in every aspect of its economy–a country that switched to Japanese cars the moment they were more reliable, and to Chinese T-shirts the moment they were five cents cheaper–has loyally stuck with a health-care system that leaves its citizenry pulling out their teeth with pliers.”–Malcolm Gladwell (2005)
#MoralHazard #dental #DentalCare #insurance #USPol
newyorker.com/magazine/2005/08…
The Moral-Hazard Myth
The bad idea behind our failed health-care system.Malcolm Gladwell (The New Yorker)
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I shopped at Jewel tonight, just because it's closer to my house and I was in a hurry.
Albertson/Jewel pricing is so ridiculous. We should all send the judge that blocked the Kroger merger a holiday gift.
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“I can’t leave Substack, the alternatives charge monthly fees!”
For a mid-sized paid newsletter, you will pay:
Ghost Pro: $149–$269/month
Beehiiv: $131–$218/month
Buttondown: $239/month
Mailchimp: $285/month
Substack: $700/month
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I think the issues are more about discovery and taking subscribers with you.
*starting* a newsletter on other platforms and gaining traction is the hardest part I think. It's hard to beat the free initial startup on Substack and Patreon.
To be clear, I don't financially support Substack.
I quite like Beehiiv, but I ended up using Ghost Pro (not self hosted).
I must admit that I dearly hope the people who love LinkedIn... stay there, so I can continue to be blissfully oblivious to their existences.
I will, however, welcome with open arms those who realise how insipid & fake the entire platform is (due, in large part, to the nature & cultural influence of its owner).
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"Only Sith deal in absolutes," to quote my daughter quoting Star Wars.
No one making 7 figures a year works as hard as someone trying to live on minimum wage jobs. Anytime you read a profile of some rich person talking about how hard they work, you are being played.
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The internet was doomed the moment some fool in Japan created the first imageboard. It was all downhill from there. LLMs just are the final nail.
I once had hope. This communication network, The Internet, is easily one of the greatest and most culturally and socially impactful inventions. I suppose its demise is fitting, given the nationalistic age we are entering. The Internet brought the world together, now borders tear it apart while capital feasts on the remains. It has been my primary means of reaching out and connecting with the world. Perhaps my negative predictions will turn out wrong
I think, at 35 years of age, it may be high time I ended that, gradually. If all goes well I will be living in physical community with other queer people within 5 years.
Not exactly the autistic neighborhoods I have been toying with, but it will do. Still, it is fun to imagine a neighborhood inhabited by autistics, general tone determined by them. Though my ideal one will always be a refuge for the discarded and forgotten in general. But it would be shaped by people like me, from elders to young runaways.
Every morning those obsessed with metallurgy wake up early. The neighborhood is near the docks. One of the warehouses has been squatted and converted to a great makeshift forge. The sounds of hammers pounding upon the anvils, from a distance, serve the same as church bells in older times, rousing all to to wake if alarm clocks haven't. Most us, myself included, work for our living. But a determining number of various support needs do not work. Some survive on welfare of varying degrees of generosity. Others on the inheritance or trusts of their families. But here there are no selfish heirs or listless and dejected dependents. They are the town fathers and mothers, who busy themselves about with things. Some are the reason this poor neighborhood at least has swept streets and sidewalks. Others help in the community garden that has grown to comprise more than one empty lot. The harvest is looking good this fall. Others are the anonymous patrons and matrons, using some of their wealth, who are the reason struggling churches, temples, mosques, etc in the community never shutter their doors; or why the communuty center is still able to run their after school programs. Nevertheless they exercise no control...anonymity and an oath taken at the local madfellows lodge to always serve the community. At night, the streets come alive and...
Well you get the idea.
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"Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people are feared dead in Mayotte after the French Indian Ocean territory was devastated by a powerful cyclone.
Rescue workers are still attempting to reach some communities as they search for survivors."
#cyclone #mayotte #chido #disasters
bbc.com/news/articles/c205wnvl…
Mayotte: Several hundred feared dead after Cyclone Chido
A local official warns the full extent of the damage is still being assessed, with entire communities devastated.Rachel Hagan (BBC News)
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“I can make people check any box I want before letting them use my site!”
“yup, that’s dumb. can’t count on those for anything anymore. next!”
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Hey,
Well if you don't want a website, only email, then you don't need to host the domain. I know a lot of hosts offer "email only hosting using your own domain".
So DNS (usually via the place you bought the domain) and email hosting is all you'd need.
I used to use A2Hosting, but moved to a Norwegian email/domain registrar somr years back.
So are you looking for an email host or something more? :)
We should be very worried about Dr. Oz being appointed by Trump to be in charge of Medicare. He wants everyone put on these (Dis)Advantage plans.
(Christopher Westfall has a very informative YouTube Channel on Medicare.)
youtube.com/live/QejtcHJ0ulQ?s…
Dr. OZ - What it Might Mean to Medicare - CRITICAL
Our help: https://SeniorSavingsNetwork.org1-800-729-9590Links from the video:HHS Warning on Medicare Advantage:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQEPszbprwY On...YouTube
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Tonight I unpublished my eBooks from Amazon. Because to me, kissing the ring of the orange faced devil is not acceptable.
So at the moment the only way to buy my books is from me. And I will publish two more after Christmas. 
#MastoArt #Art #Books #Writing #FediArt
BOOKS
Things dipped in gold can’t growThings dipped in gold can’t grow, is dedicated to situations that we consider mistakes or failures, letters that we write but never send, sketches, doodles, and writ…Maria Liv Gallery
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One of the many things I particularly dislike about #enshittification of services and sellers is the clingy, neediness for engagement. Land on a shop site for something I might actually want to buy, and before anything, pop-up "sign up for our newsletter to get 10% off!" Net promoter scores "would you recommend this piece of business software to your friends and family??!" Heck no!
Every auto subscribed email that takes 7-10 business days to cancel.
Let me buy your widget, and be done with it
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If you are on traditional Medicare, how do you currently obtain Dental Care?
- add a rider for dental coverage to your Medicare Supplemental?
- purchase standalone dental insurance?
- go to dental schools to be worked on by dental students?
- pay entirely out of pocket?
- do without?
Save original #Medicare and add dental/vision/hearing/long-term-care benefits to it.
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pay out of pocket. Always have.
Vision being covered would be nice, my optometry ain't cheap either!
If you don't have a reasonable financial buffer in your savings account(s) or don't live within driving distance of a dental school you're SOL.
The worst NetHack adventurer begins again #NetHack #RogueLike
twitch.tv/kahboomafu
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Quad9 Faces New DNS Censorship Legal Challenge in France from Canal+ | Quad9
After a long but successful result in the German case brought by SONY Music in December 2023, Quad9 is now facing new legal challenges in France.Quad9
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One of the best comments I’ve seen on the McDonald employee turning in #luigimangione is:
“Even Judas at least got paid”
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Jasmine Crockett Wants Old Guard Democrats to Make Way for Young "Freedom Fighters"
#AggressivePolitics #ProgressiveViews #YoungFreedomFighters #OldGuardDemocrats #ImmigrationPolicy
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Ben Royce 🇺🇦
in reply to annekekassteele 🥂 • • •@Keithurbanofficial
yeah, the account looks creeper/ scammer
either way: 🤮