#literally no one is going to come to a program that’s advertised like that

[starbuck]

lord give me the strength to not be a massive cunt at work today

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Fintech bullies stole your kid’s lunch money

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

Three companies control the market for school lunch payments. They take as much as 60 cents out of every dollar poor kids' parents put into the system to the tune of $100m/year. They're literally stealing poor kids' lunch money.

In its latest report, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau describes this scam in eye-watering, blood-boiling detail:

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_costs-of-electronic-payment-in-k-12-schools-issue-spotlight_2024-07.pdf

The report samples 16.7m K-12 students in 25k schools. It finds that schools are racing to go cashless, with 87% contracting with payment processors to handle cafeteria transactions. Three processors dominate the sector: Myschoolbucks, Schoolcafé, and Linq Connect.

These aren't credit card processors (most students don't have credit cards). Instead, they let kids set up an account, like a prison commissary account, that their families load up with cash. And, as with prison commissary accounts, every time a loved one adds cash to the account, the processor takes a giant whack out of them with junk fees:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/14/minnesota-nice/#shitty-technology-adoption-curve

If you're the parent of a kid who is eligible for a reduced-price lunch (that is, if you are poor), then about 60% of the money you put into your kid's account is gobbled up by these payment processors in service charges.

It's expensive to be poor, and this is no exception. If your kid doesn't qualify for the lunch subsidy, you're only paying about 8% in service charges (which is still triple the rate charged by credit card companies for payment processing).

The disparity is down to how these charges are calculated. The payment processors charge a flat fee for every top-up, and poor families can't afford to minimize these fees by making a single payment at the start of the year or semester. Instead, they pay small sums every payday, meaning they pay the fee twice per month (or even more frequently).

Not only is the sector concentrated into three companies, neither school districts nor parents have any meaningful way to shop around. For school districts, payment processing is usually bundled in with other school services, like student data management and HR data handling. For parents, there's no way to choose a different payment processor – you have to go with the one the school district has chosen.

This is all illegal. The USDA – which provides and regulates – the reduced cost lunch program, bans schools from charging fees to receive its meals. Under USDA regs, schools must allow kids to pay cash, or to top up their accounts with cash at the school, without any fees. The USDA has repeatedly (2014, 2017) published these rules.

Despite this, many schools refuse to handle cash, citing safety and security, and even when schools do accept cash or checks, they often fail to advertise this fact.

The USDA also requires schools to publish the fees charged by processors, but most of the districts in the study violate this requirement. Where schools do publish fees, we see a per-transaction charge of up to $3.25 for an ACH transfer that costs $0.26-0.50, or 4.58% for a debit/credit-card transaction that costs 1.5%. On top of this, many payment processors charge a one-time fee to enroll a student in the program and "convenience fees" to transfer funds between siblings' accounts. They also set maximum fees that make it hard to avoid paying multiple charges through the year.

These are classic junk fees. As Matt Stoller puts it: "'Convenience fees' that aren't convenient and 'service fees' without any service." Another way in which these fit the definition of junk fees: they are calculated at the end of the transaction, and not advertised up front.

Like all junk fee companies, school payment processors make it extremely hard to cancel an automatic recurring payment, and have innumerable hurdles to getting a refund, which takes an age to arrive.

Now, there are many agencies that could have compiled this report (the USDA, for one), and it could just as easily have come from an academic or a journalist. But it didn't – it came from the CFPB, and that matters, because the CFPB has the means, motive and opportunity to do something about this.

The CFPB has emerged as a powerhouse of a regulator, doing things that materially and profoundly benefit average Americans. During the lockdowns, they were the ones who took on scumbag landlords who violated the ban on evictions:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cfpb

They went after "Earned Wage Access" programs where your boss colludes with payday lenders to trap you in debt at 300% APR:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

They are forcing the banks to let you move your account (along with all your payment history, stored payees, automatic payments, etc) with one click – and they're standing up a site that will analyze your account data and tell you which bank will give you the best deal:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

They're going after "buy now, pay later" companies that flout borrower protection rules, making a rogues' gallery of repeat corporate criminals, banning fine-print gotcha clauses, and they're doing it all in the wake of a 7-2 Supreme Court decision that affirmed their power to do so:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

The CFPB can – and will – do something to protect America's poorest parents from having $100m of their kids' lunch money stolen by three giant fintech companies. But whether they'll continue to do so under a Kamala Harris administration is an open question. While Harris has repeatedly talked up the ways that Biden's CFPB, the DOJ Antitrust Division, and FTC have gone after corporate abuses, some of her largest donors are demanding that her administration fire the heads of these agencies and crush their agenda:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Tens of millions of dollars have been donated to Harris' campaign and PACs that support her by billionaires like Reid Hoffman, who says that FTC Chair Lina Khan is "waging war on American business":

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Some of the richest Democrat donors told the Financial Times that their donations were contingent on Harris firing Khan and that they'd been assured this would happen:

https://archive.is/k7tUY

This would be a disaster – for America, and for Harris's election prospects – and one hopes that Harris and her advisors know it. Writing in his "How Things Work" newsletter today, Hamilton Nolan makes the case that labor unions should publicly declare that they support the FTC, the CFPB and the DOJ's antitrust efforts:

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/unions-and-antitrust-are-peanut-butter

Don’t want huge companies and their idiot billionaire bosses to run the world? Break them up, and unionize them. It’s the best program we have.

Perhaps you've heard that antitrust is anti-worker. It's true that antitrust law has been used to attack labor organizing, but that has always been in spite of the letter of the law. Indeed, the legislative history of US antitrust law is Congress repeatedly passing law after law explaining that antitrust "aims at dollars, not men":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

The Democrats need to be more than The Party of Not Trump. To succeed – as a party and as a force for a future for Americans – they have to be the party that defends us – workers, parents, kids and retirees alike – from corporate predation.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/26/taanstafl/#stay-hungry

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

do you know anything about the san antonio aquarium? a few days ago someone posted a video on the conditions the animals are kept in and when i commented about it they blocked me on tiktok

There's two aquariums in San Antonio: SEA LIFE, and the San Antonio Aquarium. Given the context of this ask, I assume you're talking about the latter. I know them by reputation - I haven't visited - and it's really not great. PETA is going after them pretty hard right now for repeated issues and USDA violations.

Because I know this is going to come up as a question, the San Antonio Aquarium and the Austin Aquarium aren't part of the SeaQuest chain. They're run by the same family, though: one brother's family runs those two facilities (technically it's owned by his wife, but...), and one brother runs the whole SeaQuest chain. There's a whole bunch of drama: SeaQuest has a really nasty history of people and animals getting injured at multiple locations, and the dude whose wife runs the two locations in Texas was convicted in 2013 for smuggling eagle rays and lemon sharks without a permit.

A quick search of their site shows them advertising pay-to-play direct contact with lemurs (yikes) with maskless people during a respiratory pandemic that primates can get (bigger yikes). I've seen some lemur interaction programs I was okay with, but literally putting them in people's laps ain't it. Unsurprisingly, apparently a number of them have bitten or scratched guests during public encounters.

A quick google search pulls up that the San Antonio Aquarium also repeatedly flouted the original COVID shutdowns, and kept operating literally when the police department called them on it. Cops had to show up and force them to close.

So like. I haven't been, I can't speak to personal experience. But everything I can find online - including photos from people's experiences - is a giant red flag. They've gotten a lot of scrutiny lately and haven't responded well, so I'm not really surprised they blocked you.

[techploration]

Skittering Data Harvesters

Keeping your data secure is tricky. Every time you send a message electronically there is a chance of digital eavesdropping. There is not such thing as total security— your goal is to minimize risk.

So you secure your home network— VPNs, encryption, not a single ‘smart’ appliance. Ad blocker on everything, chat only on closed platforms. You do your best to minimize and anonymize your digital shadow.

But. you’re still getting targeted ads? You get a loan offer for your exact credit debt?

And then you lift your wireless router while cleaning and see a metallic shimmer as something scurries off the back of the table.

Of course. You’ve got bugs.

Literal and Figurative Bugs

As more people install ad blocker and opt out of data collection what are advertisers going to do? Stop collecting every shred of data they can about you? That sure doesn’t sound like capitalism. Turning to shady data collection by legally separate 3rd parties? That sounds a bit more likely

So in come bugs, which are small, cheap data sniffers that crawl themselves into place, collect data until their storage is full, crawl back to a public network and upload your cache. Repeat

They come in hundreds of varieties— colors, features, specializations. Most look like some variation of beetle (a good design is a good design)

They get past digital security by crawling past physical security. They are not looking at what sites you visit— they are clinging to your laptop cloning your entire hard drive. It latched on to your purse when you set it down grabbing coffee, and now you can’t get them out your apartment. You smashed a few and keep seeing more, so you are certain they built a Queen (you found the remnants of your old phone— they must have stripped it for parts)

You also learned you can’t just stomp them and throw them away. You broke the shell but the data is still there. And turns out they don’t just clone their bodies— they clone their data. So they all have your data. And they are going to sell it.

How is this even grey area legal? Because it is anonymous. They don’t target, they infect. The data is random and disorganized. Overwhelming noise to signal ratio. They are supposed to scrub all identifying details, bank info, etc.

So the reality is that it is horrific and predatory but hugely beneficial to advertisers so regulation is minimal and the legal battles protracted.

Oh, and part of the reason it’s so hard to control is that it is an opensource project. The software is on github and parts off the shelf. The hundreds of varieties of the hundreds of competing companies, trying to out perform each other, trying to snipe data from each other.

But no one is sure who wrote the original program (the github author claims to have found it on a forum and the thread gets more tangled from there)

[melonsharks]

i'm shark, but you can also call me gabu! please use he/they pronouns for me! i am an adult.

I don't mind spam reblogs/spam likes. do what you will!

FOLLOWING FROM: @sharkboyz (main blog / all my reblogs go here)

I AM 1/2 OF: @ghostsharkpress!!

---

ZINE I'VE RUN: @bntzine @mcrvenomzine @frenreyzine

NOW RUNNING: @goromcomzine

MY SHOP | MY INRPNT

MY CARRD

↓ more under the cut ↓

FAQ (may be updated!):

Where else can I find you?

twitter, instagram.

what art program do you use?

procreate!

what brushes do you use?

i use diana marmol's soft brush for everything, usually on 40% opacity (and i make it pretty big) and then i polish it with the eraser tool (using the same brush). i use this whole pack to some extent, but soft brush is my go-to for literally anything. opaque is the second most used brush. usually for clean lines on my merch, or flat coloring.

do you take requests?

sometimes. usually only when I ask, and I usually only ask on instagram!

are your commissions open?

i usually say yes if you ask. im not good at advertising them LOL

can i use your art?

im ok with my art being used as pfps, wallpapers, banners, in edits, as long as i'm credited (ideally with a link back to my account!) and if you DO make an edit with my art, please tag me, I'd love to see it... NOT okay with my art being reposted. Do not repost my art without permission or credit.

can i draw/write fanart/fanfic of your aus?

YES!!! this is always ok, I am always so honored when people do this. Just tag me, so I can see it and gush about it! :D

are you ever bringing back [merch item]?

this completely depends on demand. the answer is always maybe! unless its my first fr-nrey charm, then the answer is no.

will you ever draw for [fandom] again?

i draw whatever strikes my fancy at any given moment. i might draw for an old fandom again someday, but if you're following me for ONE thing, you may want to adjust your expectations :') i have a lot of interests and my hyperfixations come and go.

im sorry for spam liking/spam reblogging, etc.

hey. look me in the eye. its ok. i love you

tags i mainly use (may be updated!):

#gabuart - art tag

#asks - ask tag

#melonshop - shop announcements

#melonmerch - merch showcase

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jonathan Cohn at HuffPost:

“Folks, he’s coming for your health care, and we’re not going to let that happen.” Those are the closing words of a new 30-second ad from the Biden campaign, focusing on the Affordable Care Act and the possibility of repeal if Donald Trump becomes president again. The ad buy is significant: $14 million to run the spot in a half dozen swing states, as my colleague S.V. Dáte reported. And it’s not difficult to understand why.

Trump’s attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017 was highly unpopular. The backlash was almost certainly a big reason Republicans managed to lose both houses of Congress and the presidency over the next two elections. Reminding voters of this history can only help Biden and the Democrats, especially amid polls that show the 2010 health care law to be more popular than ever. And the threat to the law is real. Trump spent his entire presidency trying to tear down the program; when legislation failed, he tried to undermine the law by ― among other things ― taking away funds for advertising and promotion. Last fall, he returned to the subject in a Truth Social post, declaring, “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives.”

Trump followed up with what was supposed to be a clarification, stating, “I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!” But of course, that was just another version of the promises he made before taking office last time ― you may remember vows like “I’m going to take care of everybody” or “We’re going to have insurance for everybody.” He then proceeded to push bills that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would have added more than 20 million Americans to the ranks of the uninsured.

[...] Democratic leaders vowed to address that issue by increasing the subsidies, effectively realizing their original vision for the law. And they did precisely that in 2021. The American Rescue Plan, which Democrats passed and Biden signed, boosted the Affordable Care Act’s financial assistance so that nobody has to pay more than 8.5% of household income on a standard plan.

It was a temporary measure tied to the pandemic, but in 2022, they extended the subsidies through 2025. The impact has been substantial. Roughly 15 million Americans are saving an average of about $800 a year on their insurance, according to calculations by the Department of Health and Human Services. And like all averages, that covers a range of people. The savings amount to only a pittance for some, but it’s literally thousands of dollars a year for others. The enhanced subsidies have also had more subtle effects. Some insurers still sell “non-compliant” plans that resemble the old policies. These plans can be sold more cheaply because they have big coverage gaps that can leave beneficiaries exposed to punishing, catastrophic medical bills. (Loopholes in the law allow this.) However, fewer people are now buying those policies, opting for the more comprehensive plans available than the Affordable Care Act, according to a study from the non-partisan health research organization KFF. That’s because, with the extra subsidies, the more comprehensive plans don’t cost as much as they did before.

[...]

A Familiar Debate, An Uncertain Political Future

The new Biden ad says he wants to make the assistance permanent, consistent with a proposal in his latest budget. That wouldn’t be cheap. CBO pegged the cost at about $25 million a year back in 2022. It’d probably require more money more now. The inability to find enough offsetting cuts or revenue to cover that cost is one reason Biden and the Democrats didn’t make the bigger subsidies permanent last time. That could happen again. But it’s safe to assume that, at the very least, Biden and the Democrats would approve another temporary extension if they are in office and have enough leverage in Congress after 2024. If Democrats don’t have that kind of power come next year, the fate of these increased subsidies will be in the hands of Trump and the Republicans. And while they haven’t had much to say about the issue, it’s hard to imagine they’d be enthusiastic about extending the subsidies given their traditional hostility to government spending on social welfare, to say nothing of their animus towards Obamacare. Conservative intellectuals are already laying the groundwork. Brian Blase, the former Trump administration official now president of the conservative-leaning Paragon Health Institute, has assailed the extra subsidies as regressive because they have made higher-income Americans eligible for assistance.

If Donald Trump wins in 2024, then there could be big consequences for Obamacare… and it won’t be pretty.

[shinsources]

Visibility Features + Preventing Third-Parties Sharing Our Info.

So I was in the process of making my new blog strictly for advertising my fanfics, original fiction, worldbuilding, and what have you. Now because of the recent events that came about with Tumblr being Stupidr and giving out everybody's shenanigans "to train AI models" as they claim, I wanted to go ahead and go out of my way to Enable it (something I strongly encourage literally everybody to do btw).

Hide <username> from people without an account. This blog will only be viewable to people that are logged into Tumblr and its submission form will only be available on mobile apps. Learn more.

Discourage external searching of <username>. External search engines like Google or Yahoo will be discouraged from indexing your blog and showing it in search results. It is ultimately up to them to honor your request. Learn more.

Exclude <username> from Tumblr Search. Your blog will be hidden from Tumblr search results, and the in-blog search function will be disabled for everyone, including you. Learn more.

Prevent third-party sharing for <username>. Prevent this blog's content—even in reblogs—from being shaerd with our licensed network of content and research partners, including those that train AI models. Learn more.

Three of the four things listed above are, in my opinion, strictly optional (for the most part) whereas one of them is obligatory. And that, once again, happens to be the Prevent third-party sharing for <username> option.

Now using programs such as DeepL, Grammarly, Hemmingway, ProWritingAid, and what have you are fine since they're writing assistants. What that means is that they're used for improving our grammar, punctuation, phrasing, etc. But using AI Programs to "create" fanfics or original stories or fanart or adoptables to sell?? No. That's not okay.

It's one thing to trace over things to learn how to make body parts proportionate in various angles. In fact, it's encouraged for young artists to start out by tracing and then watching/reading/viewing tutorials on how to draw things via freestyle and by merely looking at them. And when it comes to improving our writing styles it's best to read a lot of books, poetry, scripts, articles, songs, etc. because this helps us learn a wide variety of different literary devices and point of views and writing styles. Not only that but it also broadens our vocabulary. The same is equally true for constantly writing. The more we write the better our writing, style, vocabulary, and what have you improve.

This is why so many of us are anti-AI. There are so many people who pour their hearts and souls into their art (be it writing, gfx, drawing, or whatever) and these AI Bots are taking all of these away from us. They're also very privacy invasive (in which the internet is already hella problematic when it comes to being invasive and not caring about our privacy so there's that to consider).

[skittlewaffle]

Different Flavors of Daycare Attendants (WIP maybe ??)

PLEASE NOTE that I do not read fics a lot and certainly don’t know everything. These are just general headcanons about the Daycare Attendant placed into categories! Personally my view is a mix of a good handful of every category

But yes this was all made for fun because I have brainrot. I’ll keep adding to this post or make a part two if this is something people enjoy, and I’m happy to accept any help! I know there are plenty more headcanons that I don’t have under categories yet.

… Some sections were rushed because I just wanted to post this before Ruin comes out and the Biblically Accurate section gets muddled.. haha. JUST,, enjoy !!!

Canon

Sun

Unhinged

Potentially partially virused, though it’s generally assumed not

Theatrical antics

Probably overdramatic on purpose / playing his theater role but in a child care setting

LIGHTS ON!!

Overbearing, offputting, and loud

Stickler for rules and cleanliness

Keeps daycare clean and organized, but not himself or his room

Might not be restricted to daycare out of frame, but implications are present that he may be lonely

It’s unclear if he and Moon have a connection in their headspace, but it is sometimes assumed they don’t

Probably unaware of Moon’s virused state

Moon

Silly gremlin

Fully virused

Theatrical antics amplified; evil stage persona is more literal

Naptime protocol amplified; what feels to him like putting people to sleep is actually killing people

Childcare and entertainment programming still seems functional

Creepy

Loves to stalk, dance, and play pretend

Shares Sun’s obsession with rules and cleanup

Strong enough to knock out a Glamrock

Seems quite lightweight

Sounds like he has a built-in, broken music box ??

* HEADCANON: Has a different mode meant to reflect the gentler character he appears to be in the Moondrop candy advertisements, instead of his theater villain role

Anxious boys

Sun

Restricted to daycare, refuses to take even a single step out

Doesn’t know what he’s doing

Scares or hurts the kids on accident, proceeds to freak out over it

Weak to compliments and praise; he just wants to do a good job

Needs affirmation, stat

Will 100% fall in love with anyone who is consistently nice to him

Acts like a kicked puppy when spoken to sternly, lectured, or yelled at

Lets people walk all over him

Constant fidgeting

Stutters a lot

Stressed OUT

Constantly at his breaking point; help him

Moon

Self-conscious about his naturally creepy looks and mannerisms

Bad first impressions

Often keeps a distance, watching from afar

Uses few words

Wishes to be liked

A kid likes him? His child now.

Sad to see them go :(

Rather graceful, slow movements that give him eerie vibes

Tends to word things in ways that sound like red flags (like offering candy in a shady area), but doesn’t quite realize it

False reputation amongst patrons

Many complaints from parents for his bad vibes

Heavily misjudged; really means no harm

Wet napkin

Likes to dance on his wire; keeps him busy when he can’t socialize

Will perform many tricks for people who do become his friend

Never forgets anyone who is kind to him in even one instance

Confident boys / high experience DCA

Sun

Practically built for childcare; knows what to do in pretty much every situation

Loved by all the children

Social towards everyone, no matter how stubborn or closed off they may be

Manages to put a smile on all faces

Really not afraid of drawing attention or being embarrassing if it means making a child happy

Always knows just what to say

Very helpful to new employees

Might step outside the Daycare from time to time

Reads faces very well, in adults and children

Capable of disobeying protocols for more serious reasons

MUCH more observant than you think

Roasts Karens lol

Moon

Is both the Naptime Attendant and a nighttime security bot

Many children want to cuddle with him during nap time

Has a ton of patience

Especially loves getting to hold babies

Very protective of the little ones

The most feared security in the entire Pizzaplex

Takes his job as security bot very seriously; loves his job as a childcare worker

High Tech

DCA has many upgrades

Still very versatile and could be upgraded more

AI advanced enough to be considered eligible for human rights

Movements, speech, and feelings are very realistic, almost not robotic at all

Can experience human senses (smell, touch, etc.)

Softer casing to simulate a more human feel

Can blush and cry tears, but not bleed (unless it’s oil in their machinery)

Feels pain and temperature, and is ticklish

Can get overstimulated and feel disgust at certain textures

Has certain mannerisms that could classify them under certain diagnosable human conditions or mental disorders (which they technically aren’t; the diagnoses are worded for us humans to better understand and relate to)

Cannot get sick and doesn’t need to eat or breathe, but can pretend to

Has eyelids, lips, tongue, and movable facial features to emote better

Acts sleepy or drunk when low on battery, and genuinely feels like that

Has a simulated heartbeat and breathing

Waterproof

Multipurpose

Perfectly capable of obtaining a PHD

Seems to have built-in tools for almost anything, mostly for human health and first aid purposes

Might need some recovery time after P&S visits, similar to pain after human surgery (tight screws, rearranged wires, etc)

More capable of fighting viruses and defending themself and others

Low Tech

Basically a stereotypical cartoon robot

Still sentient and can learn, but still operates mostly on programming

Still have the basic qualities of Sun and Moon’s original personalities (cheery and loud; calm and quiet)

States what they’re doing out loud (processing, downloading, initiating protocol, etc.)

States warnings and errors out loud (low battery, update failed, null object reference, ERROR!!)

Static smile

Uses prerecorded lines often; new lines sometimes sound broken like AI or TTS

Might not understand certain topics

Might mishear you

Sometimes treats other everyday machinery like they are alive, mostly holding grudges, fearing them, or being jealous of them

Cares much more about the feelings of others than their own

Less capable of fighting viruses or preventing other unwanted actions towards them

Whores

Aimed towards the more mature side of the fandom

Bastards / smug / absolute sluts (affectionate or derogatory, whatever you feel lol)

Wear suits, ties, suspenders… fancy stuff

Shirts are often only partially buttoned, ties loose or just draping over

Also may wear feminine clothing, depending on the type of storyline

Can drink and smoke somehow

More laid back and flirtatious

Occasionally / casually threatening

Might have cool hats

Sometimes have guns / some kind of weapon

AWOOGA

Often involves suggestive implications

Call you nicknames you probably love but your Y/N often hates

Plot involving high stakes and serious danger

Simp material

We are attracted to any red flag they may have /hj

Animalistic

Sun

Dog

A big dog who thinks he’s a lap dog

Probably fell in love with you immediately

Separation anxiety / abandonment issues

Loyal; will always wait for you no matter what

Whines if you’re gone for too long :(

Misses you sooo much

Begs a lot

Head tilts

Extremely attentive, affectionate and excitable

Might tackle you

Loves playfighting

Always weak to praise and cuddles

Is a good boy, the best boy

Full of energy; loves to play

Rays fold backwards / retract when guilty, angry, or defensive

More apologetic than really necessary

Would probably be very sorry if you called him bad, even if he did nothing wrong

Easily excited / distracted at particular things or favorite items

Highly possessive of favorite items

Hides his favorite items in random corners of your house

Gets the zoomies (and may or may not accidentally break something from jumping over / running into furniture and stuff)

Very aware of people

Likes to sunbathe

Got muddy and needs a bath .. again

Has stim toys, many of them squeaky

Doesn’t sit on the couch right

Wants to protect you

Loves the outdoors and going for walkies

Always sleeps on your bed / somewhere in the same room

Wakes you with a complete ONSLAUGHT of smooches

Moon

Cat

First meeting was likely him hunting and pouncing at you

Still likes to stalk and prowl for fun / as a game

Likes to rest in elevated places, including the top of your fridge

Loafs

Hisses

Interested in silly / shiny little trinkets

Gremlin; knocks your stuff down on purpose and runs away

Has claws, could be retractable

Eyes dilate / shrink

Might flinch when touched, but still leans into it if he wants the attention

Slinks away from touch when distracted by something else

Likes to fall asleep on you; you can’t move (he is aware of this)

Likes laser pointers and dangly thingies

Enjoys sneaking up on you

Purrs (or has some robotic equivalent of purring, like whirring or broken music box)

Gets 3AM zoomies

Elegant s t r e t c h

Changes from bipedal to quadrupedal when he feels like it

Likes the window

Hates water, but likes to keep clean and tidy

Movements are fluid; he is liquid

Tries to fit into small spaces, twists his animatronic body to do so

Has favorite hiding places

Territorial

Hunts pests in your home if he’s bored.. might even bring them to you

Stares at you. Slow blinks. Affection.

Head bonks while sitting next to you

Lazy / sleepy bitch disease

Prefers to stay inside, but likes to explore occasionally and go for nighttime walkies

Always curls up beside you at night

You wake up to him kneading at you or rubbing his face on you

* DCA may have tails and / or beans

Brothers

Mostly tends to be a separate bodies view

Inseparable either way

Chaotic duo

Quite the opposite in a way they still have a close bond

Lots of playfighting

Sometimes actual fighting

Care a lot for each other, but have a sort of friendly rivalry

Never one without the other

Not afraid of speaking their mind plainly, to their benefit or detriment

Great teamwork on their better days

Immature pouting / silent treatment on their worse days

Do most everything together

Often competitive

Disagreements are most often more comedic than serious

Their fights are childish and silly; you can’t help but laugh

Sometimes complains about who the “big brother” is

Get into the silliest shenanigans; it’s trouble, but endearing all the same as they love having a story of adventure to tell

Know each other better than anyone else can

Look very closely after each other, especially when someone else gets close

Favorite colors are what the other wears most often / is themed after (Sun: blue; Moon: yellow)

Applies to their eye colors, especially if chosen by them for upgrades

While both are very different, both also exhibit certain behaviors that directly parallel / mirror the other

Lovers

(NOT brothers at the same time. Fuck off)

The most wholesome shit you’ve ever seen

Fluff, comfort, cuddles, words of affirmation… the dream

Tons of celestial nicknames, phrases, and metaphors

Very poetic; immerses you in calm, dreamlike scenery, like a storybook

Emotional support partners

Each often doesn’t take care of themself until the other notices and helps them

The cutest little dates (tea parties, art sessions, and sleepovers are common)

Still prone to angst, but has a happy ending

I hope

AUGHH

That is all for now; I hope you enjoyed!! If we have a continuation of this, I have category ideas, such as a Cartoonish DCA, a DCA with very very many features, Sun and Moon as enemies, or any other types of DCA you have in mind! Thanks for reading :D

[exeggcute]

sometimes i get so mad about online advertising being so lawless compared to other mediums (ex. television ads occupying specific spots in programming or a small fraction of the screen while online ads can sprawl wherever the hell they want And bog down computer performance) i find myself wishing for someone to enact legislation leading to their regulation, but how likely of a possibility do you think that actually is?

it depends tbh. we do have related stuff like CCPA and GDPR (obligatory meme that I have saved on my phone:)

...so it's not impossible for further laws/regulations to crop up down the line. my main thoughts here are that (1) adtech changes so rapidly that I think any specific legislation is almost certainly doomed to become obsolete before long (compounded further by the fact that most lawmakers barely seem to understand the internet, let alone a fucking RTB supply chain lol), (2) enforcement would be a nightmare considering there are literally several hundred billion bid requests generated EVERY SINGLE DAY (googled this stat to make sure I wasn't misremembering and got another dr. fou link lol. can't escape this guy) and (3) believe it or not, the online advertising industry is largely self-governing... or at least tries to be.

an organization called the IAB (interactive advertising bureau) sets a ton of standards around not only the logistics of buying and selling ads (they are, for example, the creators of the OpenRTB protocol for real-time auctions), but also the quality of the ads and ad space being sold. there are tons of initiatives they've proposed that have widespread buy-in among the industry, like ads.txt, which everybody who's anybody uses these days.

you do, of course, have to buy in to what the IAB is metaphorically selling, but their decrees hold a lot of weight among all sections of the ads supply chain—both reputable buyers and reputable sellers regularly adjust their behavior based on IAB guidelines. for example, two of the things you mentioned:

"ads can sprawl wherever they want": the IAB has about a million guidelines for where ads can physically go on a page, how they can run (e.g., video ads must be muted by default or they aren't IAB compliant), and what percentage of the visual real estate they can use up. publishers obviously can and do violate these guidelines, but third-party tools exist to make sure your ads aren't running on pages that pull that shit. and as a rule, advertisers actively dislike buying ad space on awful cluttered pages because they know the pages are shitty and the impressions are less valuable.

"big down computer performance": people call those heavy ads! the IAB sets standards around ad performance (the lighter the better, basically) and google chrome even implemented a feature that automatically kills heavy ads before they eat up your whole CPU. some performance based-issues are also caused by malvertising which is uhhh a whole other thing but no one likes it and everyone who matters is trying to stop it.

which isn't to be naive here or an industry shill or whatever because Fucking Obviously these problems persist. I actually had to email the advertising division at conde nast recently because I kept getting malicious redirect ads on their mobile site (they haven't responded yet... return my calls bitch!) so clearly even well-meaning reputable websites and ad platforms and advertisers continue to have issues with IVT and whatnot. the struggle is eternal.

but arguably so is the struggle against basically anything that's legislated, like property crime or whatever. I'm admittedly not optimistic that formal laws would fix digital advertising, only put a slightly hotter fire under people's asses to clean up their respective acts better. which is certainly a good thing, it's just a rapidly evolving game where the bad actors are always coming up with new tactics.

fun and related example: I read a recent retrospective about the kids behind the mirai botnet, which originally started out as a DDoS-for-hire scheme but pivoted to ad fraud when it turned out that was way more profitable. possibly the largest botnet ever (don't quote me on that though) and it was spun up by three teenagers!!!

[nerdby]

Part of me wants to think that there's no way that Joker: Folie A Deux could possibly be worse -- meaning more triggering -- than the first one is, but then I remember that it's set in motherfucking Arkham Asylum. And as someone who has spent time in an asylum -- sorry, transitional housing program -- I can tell you that it's unfuckingpleasant. And here's a thought:

What if Todd Phillips made it a musical, so that it would be less traumatizing?

Cause that's a thing they do in psych wards -- they play music to help you cope and it works really well but SHIT. Like I kind of really want this movie to blow the whole fucking lid off of the mental healthcare industry. I want it to show how high functioning patients have their health problems downplayed and overlooked in favor of the more dramatic patients. I want it to show how you have to play along, never losing your temper and assuaging some fucking doctor's or therapist's ego so that you don't get labeled a difficult patient. Cause once you're labeled difficult you either end up discharged or strapped to a fucking gurney with a syringe in your arm.

Or how some doctor's literally use their patients as free fucking advertising for new meds.

"Oh, that antidepressant you're on hasn't been working -- well, I just got this brand new one in. No, it doesn't matter that it's only been a month. Take a sample and come back three months from now."

But also having seen the first one......JFC, I just know it's going to be absolutely nightmare inducing.

[adultswim2021]

Christmas in December | December 15, 2009 - 4:30AM | Special

Well folks, 2009 has come to a close with this. The first Sunday of December featured a special night in which that evening’s programming featured interstitials of shop-at-home style segments advertising real Adult Swim products. I don’t think there was a phone number to dial (I literally watched this mere hours ago and don’t feel like checking), but there were numerous calls to action for people to go to the website and order these fine products (just in time for Christian Christmas)

The two hosts, Kurt and Sue, seem like shop-at-Home pros. They clearly aren’t very familiar with the stuff they are selling, but the real hosts on the real shop-at-home channels rarely are. The patter and banter they engage is fairly amusing at times; like anytime they identify William Murderface on a piece of merch they refer to him as “William the Murderer”. An early line, when Sue suggests taking your will out of the safety deposit box and putting a Carl nesting doll in there instead, seems like the kind of thing that may have been fed to her by a writer, but it’s mostly very genuine. 

I don’t have a recording handy of the original evening’s worth of bumpers, so one thing I can’t comment on is if the 11-minute version of this completely encompasses all of the segments that originally aired. Sorry. But, that's this one. This was actually considered lost media by some who didn't happen to be on the secret website I got this from. But if you feel like watching it yourself: Merry Christmas!

Q: WHAT ARE WE FUCKING DOING (now that 2009 is done)? A: We are going to do THE FINAL SPACE GHOST WEEK, featuring the heretofore-unseen-by-me GameTap episodes. I’ve heard terrible things. But I might take a little time off before I get into that. You must simply be patient, my little man. My little son. You are my boy and you are not a girl.

EPHEMERA CORNER:

[not-terezi-pyrope]

I'm not the same anon who sent the thing about the burrito test and I don't entirely agree with them either (pinky swear this isn't a sock puppet or something lol) but tbh I can see where they're coming from as someone who has also been put in a psych ward against my will and also currently works in a group home. it is a bit gauche to compare not being allowed to post/consume certain things "for your own good" to living years of your life in a situation where personal autonomy over one of your most basic needs was denied. and while I understand that sexuality is a human need, honestly, posting is not on the level of eating. you're still allowed to go out and touch real boobs on a human person if you want and they consent. the people in institutions can't; under the law they can't consent to have sex and the programs do not permit them to do so. a facility that doesn't pass the burrito test is straight up abusive, a platform that doesn't let you look at boobies is just a junk website that you can log out of and touch grass about. it sucks, it's bad, I don't want it to be like that either, I love looking at pictures of boobs online too, but it will not traumatize you. there is not an inescapable power dynamic even though there is a power dynamic within the system. you can hit the bricks! it sucks but it's a thing you can do, even if you don't necessarily want to. institutionalized people can't. sometimes people who are the victims of these institutions LITERALLY CANNOT PHYSICALLY TOUCH GRASS BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED OUTSIDE UNSUPERVISED. they are under total, physical, bodily control of their oppressors.

TL;DR your analogy wasn't necessarily inaccurate but it was insensitive as hell and came off as comparing struggles.

Buddy, I don't know how many times I need to say "making an analogy does not imply direct equivalence of circumstance" to have people believe me.

It feels very much like people are unable to recognize that they are making an instinctive assumption that it does, confusing this assumption for objective fact, and then coming at me with "yes, you are ignoring this objective implication!". This is regardless of how many times I have expressed that that was not what I was trying to say, nor is it something that would always be implicitly read into my post by default.

If you cannot separate a perceived secondary implication from analogy, then I think that that is actually your issue, not mine!

If you don't want people to project things you have not even said into your words don't have a post go viral on tumblr, I guess.

(Also, I will point out that the growing *universal* imposition of clean content rules on the public internet by payment providers, advertisers and other corporate entities arguably means that your complaint about the analogy above clarifies a point of the comparison rather than contradicting it, but whatever)

[most-annoying-sponsorship]

Any submitted propaganda under the cut

Raycon - 10

God awful earbuds with 3 times the price of similar quality with the same script every god damn time at least allow creators to do something with it. Not an active scam product but they try so hard to market themselves like one and I don't understand.

1. It's been a while but at it's height, you couldn't get through a video without seeing someone shilling these subpar earbuds. 2. They're literally earbuds bought off of alieexpress with a fancy brand slapped over the top 3. They're garbage earbuds. DankPods did an excellent breakdown of why they're awful 4. Now everyone I know thinks Raycons are great despite them being as expensive or more so than actual established brands that work hard and take pride in their sound quality

I used them for a while actually but they just didn't work out for me so at this point I'm not going to start buying them again and I don't need to hear about it anymore

they’re everywhere. everyone i watch (which is a fairly diverse list) has a sponsorship. i also know zero people in my life who own them.

There are so much better earbuds that are also cheaper. Plus I don't wanna hear YouTubers awkwardly explain and show them being used, it's just dumb.

they wouldn't even stay in my ears plus the look like they go right up against your eardrums. red flags all around plus i hate wireless shit the battery lasts like two shakes at best

Cerebral - 1

Ok sorry this is gonna be an essay with some snark. So for some important background, at last report Cerebral is under investigation by both the DEA and DOJ for essentially being an online pill mill. This tech bro startup took advantage of a temporary measure meant to help patients keep their EXISTING prescriptions during the pandemic -- the usual rule is that controlled substances can only be prescribed after an in-person appointment, to avoid the exact kind of situation I'll describe, but of course when lockdowns made in-person appointments much harder then people who have been taking stimulants or w/e for years shouldn't be left hanging. But then, in comes the Cerebral tech bros who decide to build their new business off prescribing stimulants to NEW patients... to "95%" of new patients, to be exact, because one of them actually admitted "100% would be a pill mill". (Oh yes, 95% is much better, not just a malicious loophole at all /s) Basically, a patient would have a single 30-minute video appointment, take one quiz that's meant to be a SCREENING tool (not a diagnostic tool! if you get a high score that's an indication you need MORE testing to confirm a possible diagnosis!) and then immediately get prescribed stimulants with no physical exam (no EKG, heart rate, or blood pressure, just for starters that any RESPONSIBLE doctor would do) and no further questions asked.—

—That would have been bad enough, but the advertising and shilling. Oh god, the advertising and shilling. Cerebral put out ads deliberately overstretching "signs you may have ADHD" in such a way that would put Tiktok influencers to shame (and we'll fucking get to that.) Like one ad implying that overeating sweets, something that literally everyone does at one point or another, is a sign you should make an appointment with Cerebral to get that sweet sweet Addy! And as for the real treat, the actual sponsorships. They had a fucking AFFILIATE CODE PROGRAM. Tiktokers would be like "use my code to get $30 off your first month!" for PSYCHIATRY. Not only that, but for psychiatry prescribing stimulants which are addictive and can kill you if you're not being carefully monitored for heart problems. Tiktokers and ads would also describe this service as a "life hack" and emphasize how easy it is to get stimulants through this one neat trick! Medical ethics is dead and we killed it. It got to the point that major pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens started refusing to fill prescriptions originating from Cerebral, because if/when a pill mill gets busted, pharmacies that filled the prescriptions can also be held liable. Think of the opioid epidemic for examples of the situation they were trying to avoid. They noticed how suspicious it was that ALL THE SUDDEN there was a huge flood of prescriptions for addictive drugs, ALL originating from the same few healthcare providers (mostly Nurse Practitioners rather than Medical Doctors, because MDs were more likely to call out the ethical/legal violations, but even many of the NPs who worked for Cerebral described feeling pressured by the corporate higher-ups to increase prescriptions and discourage waiting or further testing) Once this all came to a head Cerebral tried damage control by no longer prescribing stimulants to new patients. I haven't heard any updates on the regulatory investigations since then. But you know what I haven't seen that's even more telling? Not one, not a SINGLE one of the content creators who shilled for this company EVER apologized. For all they know they could have contributed to getting someone killed, not to mention life-ruining addictions, all for that sweet corporate sponsorship cash. Even if you argue they might not have known better at the time (to which I say bullshit, it's your responsibility to at least google the company to see if there's any red flags, Cerebral had more than a communist parade) even AFTER all this started making national news, it was just dead silence and moving on to the next corporate sponsor. But hey, if you're struggling with Adderall addiction, I know just the thing to help! Sign up for BetterHelp using code "SHILL" to get $10 off- *dies*

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

You Should Care

I've been AWOL for a little while. Brain has not been working right.

That aside this is a topic I've been meaning to cover more in depth and I really wish I could get it seen by bigger names than myself like Moist, Asmond, etc. Which is the larger issue with what happened with Russell Brand.

For those of you COMPLETELY out of the know, Russell Brand has recently been accused of sexual assault, "Being a creep", and rape. These accusations came out after a "Journalist" approached several women, specifically with the intent to find women that would say things against him. Mind you, all of these allegations are over 7-10 years old and some older than 20 years ago. (Several women also came out claiming the exact opposite, and several more women came forward saying the journalists approached them as well, but because they only had good things to say, they were ignored).

Now what I'm about to cover is the larger ramifications this is going to have in the future. After these allegations came out the BBC and Channel 4 unilaterally took down almost all if not all of his content and shows. Not long after that happened, we heard that several other people were removing Brands ability to make money, specifically YouTube. Who demonetized him outright. Now thanks in part to Rumble and also....SHOCKINGLY, TikTok. Seen here.

So this is a GOVERNMENT, who actually has a decent amount of power, sending out requests to Public and Private companies, to remove the FULL ABILITY of a Private Citizen, to earn money.

Now you can totally believe that Brand did what he has been accused of. And if you do? More power to you. However, you should not agree with him being depersoned and debanked without a trial and conviction by a jury of his peers. However, this becomes impossible as news of the allegations spreads in general. It's a social assassination using the media.

However, now for the actual scary part. Under the "Freedom loving UK's" New laws, the are now threatening to remove Rumble from their country outright for not getting rid of Brands ability to make money. Never in my life have I seen this kind of blackmail by a government this publicly. For context here is some stuff that's coming out recently.

This feels like the UK reaching out to people that advertise on Rumble in an attempt to remove Brands ability to make money, but also to remove him from the internet as a whole.

And this should scare you. Not because it's some "Rich guy who used to be kind of promiscuous publicly". This is because it proves that governments have a monopoly on companies. Regardless of the interests of the public. What do I mean by this. Consider the following.

The UK Gov, more or less demanded, Russell Brand have all money earnings removed outright to YouTube(Yes other places but let's focus on this one for the moment).

Then, YouTube, takes and removes his ability to make money and removes him from the Partner Program as well. They in fact cite "Off Site Behavior" in doing this. Meaning, this sets a precedent, for YouTube, to receive a "Claim" or "allegation" against you, and they will act on it as if it's actual fact.

That should worry you. And no matter how much you don't like that "Nazis" exist, or any other awful group of people, Rumble and Kick are places that are supposed to be arenas of competition for YouTube and Twitch. Will they ever actually overtake? Probably not. But if we don't actually take a vested interest in trying to move people over to using the competition, we are more or less letting places, like the UK, or any other country for that matter, decide what is, "Real information".

How long until the profit motive from China becomes so much that companies start removing LGBT stuff from all media. How much profit motive from China is needed before they say, "Yeah no we don't just want you to minimize black roles in media. Take them completely out entirely". And while you think, "That will never happen", It's literally happening right now. THIS is the very public start to that problem. If we don't make this the hill we fight and die on, we are bowing to censorship, and we will not win this ground back.

It might be about time you started to take notice. Shit's going to go south really soon. How long until you take a stand?

[pbandjesse]

We are in the car on our way to our camp site. I am excited but also nervous and also very tired. I got very overheated as we were finishing up getting ready to leave and that caused me great stress. But it was still a pretty good day.

I wish I had slept better. But my body woke me up 1 minute after my alarm should have gone off but I forgot to set it. So I lucked out there.

I felt alright enough and got dressed and ready to head out. James made me a bagel. And our car registration sticker finally came so they could come down to put that on the car. And I left only a couple minutes behind.

I got to camp and had to wait by the office because someone was dropping something off and were blocking my path. Ah well. I spent a few minutes sorted out our glove compartment. So much paper in there. It's much neater now.

Once I was able to get up to arts I would spend some time organizing the car with all the camp stuff. James didn't think we had room for the cooler but I would make it work.

Bonnie, the clean lady, and her dog Buddy came and said hello. We chatted about the wedding this weekend and she told me about the mess some people left that needed to be picked up. I wished her luck and finished up my packing.

I did some work down at woodlands. I moved the ceramic pots down to the pueblo and was pleased to see that the paint dried exactly the right shade and you can't even tell where I patched. And once I was done there I started looking at the long house and tried to figure out what I would need done in there. I will have to move out the paint and ladders that had been left in there. And get another bench.

I decided that would be done later. And so I went back to the office.

Alexi was there and I was able to check in with her about a material that was forgotten when I sent my list the other day. And then got to work printing and laminating the scans of one of the books for my program. We did order the book but we aren't sure when it'll come so this is a good stand in.

I would spend some time sharpening pencils. And finishing up getting my group boxes together. And then I started working on a poster for a visual for Iroquois trade. I decided it should look like a grocery advertisement. This is not done yet but it was fun to start laying it out.

Heather and Alexi would ask me if Celia could come help me move stuff. And she would show up later in the day. While she was there Alexi also asked if I could drive a sleeping bag to a child in white hall. Which was just fine with me.

Celia would walk around with me while we waited for Ayça to be done with the gator. She would start helping me move the picnic tables but it went bad fast. It fell right over and I went down with it and twisted my handle and scraped up my legs. I saw it happening and I really was close to legit breaking my ankle. But I did not put all my weight on it and fell to the side instead and it was very scary.

Celia helped me up and we went back to the office. She had driven us down there so we were able to drive back and while it was sore for a while it doesn't really hurt anymore so I don't think I messed myself up to much.

When we got back there Ayça was not yet done. So we got the nature key and walked over to see how my snails were doing.

Turns out not good. I think something went wrong and they are all dead. I literally don't know why but they don't seem to have survived the transport and I'm bummed. I'm going to leave it and see if any of them made it when I'm back on Tuesday but I am sad about it.

We sat in the nature lodge for a while so Celia could give treats to all the animals. I just chilled for a few minutes.

But then we were given 20 minutes to use the gator. So we put on a timer, literally, and saw how fast we could collect 3 benches.

Honestly it went better then expected. And even with having to help direct s few lost wedding guests, we finished in 17 minutes! And now the long house and the Hogan have 3 benches. Amazing.

I also got the Hogan's fire pit dug out and then I talked the whole space. I want to get the cots out of there but for now it looks better with the benches and the removal of some stocks and leaves. I'm excited about making the spaces better.

Celia headed out with promises to Alexi to come back to get the bunnies to watch for the week while Alexi is in Florida. She's going to Disney! I hope she has the best time. And then I found out Ayça is leaving for turkey tomorrow! I wished her luck and told her I hope she comes back next year.

I would spend a little more time on my advertisement. But then it was time to go. I had a lot of driving to do and if I wanted to be home by 4 I had to go.

I got the sleeping bag and the address. I had called the dad earlier to double check he wanted it dropped on the side porch. And then I was off.

And it was a nice drive. All farms. I got to see a giant field of sunflowers. Which was magical. And I dropped off the sleeping bag with little fan fair.

The only real issue I had was our box of kitchen stuff fell over in the car and went everywhere. Also was just very loud. I would pull over at the royal farms after the sleeping bag was dropped off and everything fell on the ground. It's fine. I collected everything back up and made it more secure.

I would get home as James was telling me they would be leaving work in 15 minutes. That was fine. I would find my old bike basket net to put over the kitchen box. And it is a little dry rotted but it's fine for this weekend. I would also clean out the gravel a bit in the tanks. Pet Sweetp. And took a shower.

This made me feel a lot better. This would not last long though. James was getting home as I was getting dressed and I was already dropping sweat. Sucked a lot.

I sat on the couch while James finished getting thier stuff together and I opened the mail. My new earrings came and I would struggle really bad to put the one in and had to get James to help me be sure I was so sweaty I couldn't think. But we got it in and things calmed down.

I got Sweetp's food together and said goodbye. We went down to the car and put the last of our stuff in and then we were off! 3 hours to the beach!

We are an hour away still. We are making pretty good time. I hope we are mostly set up before the sun goes down. We are usually pretty efficient so I'm not to worried. Only a little worried.

We are stopped for McDonald's now. And then we will be back on the road and hopefully get there before the rangers all leave at 8.

I am not sure what service will be like so I'm getting this posted now! I love you all! Until next time!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps de Genève :: [Scott Horton]

* * * *

Thats Another Fine Mess

ELON CONTINUES TO SCREW THE POOCH

TCinLA

Returning to our originally scheduled programming, here’s as fine a mess as one can find.

Over the past 40 years, many people have come to believe that a person who is Good at Business - who becomes rich - has done so because of their massive intellect, managerial savvy, and good judgement.

During that time, there have been many examples that disprove such belief, but none so obvious as Donald Trump and Elon Muck. What unites the two is their seething resentment of a world that rewarded them money and influence, but still refuses to grant the respect they think is their due.

Trump has proven that resentment is perhaps the most powerful political force in the modern world. Muck is doing his bit too.

Over the past 12 years, Muck tweeted whatever came to mind, mostly without major negative consequences, even when he tweeted things like informing the world he had the financing to take Tesla private, which had a major effect on Tesla’s stock price and should have gotten him in trouble with the SEC

Now, ten days after overspending by at least $40 billion to purchase Twitter in a financial climate where the $44 billion offer was mostly his “fuck you” money, and then forced to purchase it in a financial climate that puts his entire house of cards at risk, he is finding that his every word matters. And pretty much every word he has spouted in those ten days has made his situation worse by factors of billions of dollars.

Muck is on the hook for $13 billion that is secured by his Tesla stock. If he is forced to come up with the money, selling that much stock will lead to a fire sale that could see him lose upwards of $100 billion of the $200 billion in “assets” that constitute his claim to be the world’s richest man.

Twitter is rapidly becoming a theater of the absurd, worthy of an Ionesco drama, as William D. Cohan put it. Here’s Elon’s dilemma, and it’s a financial doozy: his $13 billion has an interest rate capped at an annual rate of 7.5 percent. So Twitter has to pay nearly $1 billion in interest to its banks each year. That’s basically the same EBITDA Twitter had in 2021. However that’s probably no longer an attainable level of EBITDA in 2022, based on Elon’s Friday tweet alone.

It’s hard to see how Elon can go from losing $1.5 billion a year, if true, to generating the cash flow he needs to keep his creditors off his back, even after firing half the company, and especially if users and advertisers continue to leave. It’s highly unlikely a guy like Larry Ellison will pony up more money to flush after the first billion.

And the possibility of that happening is becoming more and more likely - literally from one tweet to the next.

Tweeting an offensive conspiratorial fantasy to Hillary Clinton about the assault on Paul Pelosi had immediate consequences. Advertisers fled because of that tweet and have continued to do so with each following brainfart. The Pelosi tweet may be the most expensive in history, since so far it has cost Twitter billions in advertising revenue as companies like General Mills, Audi, Pfizer, General Motors and other big institutional advertisiters pulled their marketing because they do not want their brands even remotely associated with anything scandalous.

Muck’s Saturday threat to “name and shame” advertisers for doing what advertisers are expected to do merely demonstrates further his complete incompetence as a manager.

At this point, it might be useful to point out that Elon Muck DID NOT do the following:

He DID NOT invent Paypal. He DID NOT start Tesla. He DID NOT start Space-X.

He is the scion of an Afrikaner family that made their millions in the “blood emerald” and “blood ruby” business in Rhodesia, a company that is still known for its involvement in purchasing “blood” gemstones, also known as “conflict gems,” whose legitimate provenance cannot be proved. They consort with warlords and their profit comes from the deaths of exploited Africans in Africa’s civil wars and general instability of the past 40 years.

He came here with several million dollars and proceeded to hire fellow students at Stanford who actually knew what they were doing to create Paypal, which he did in alliance with now-certified pro-Nazi anti-democrat Peter Thiel.

He then took the money made from that and bought his way into both Tesla and Space-X much the way he bought himself into Twitter, though both of those companies actually made things. Tesla has yet to actually be profitable making his tinny toys, since it depends for the majority of its income on government subsidies for electric car sales. He bought his way in, got rid of the actual people who started the company, and named himself “founder.”

Tesla, in fact, is now falling in sales because the real car companies are eating his lunch, creating EVs that actually work, that don’t need to hide a non-disparagement agreement among all the papers a buyer signs. Companies that act like car companies, not Silly Con Vally tech companies.

Owners are upset when all cars have the same glitch, and over extended periods of time the company doesn’t fix them. The shine is off these tinny toys. Nondisparagement agreements or not, word is getting around.

Musk is not an inventor. He is not “chief engineer” at Space-X.

He is the man behind the curtain Dorothy was told to pay no attention to.

Muck is so bad at what he does that when he had a conference call with ad executives last week to quell their concerns over his tweets and the 500% increase in appearance of the “n-word” on Twitter since he took control, that many of the people on the call literally paused the ads and shifted the accounts elsewhere DURING THE CALL because of the uncertainty his statements were adding to. When he fired half the company over the past weekend, he managed to unwittingly fire Twitter’s chief customer officer, the one responsible for maintaining crucial brand and agency relationships.

The advertisers don’t need Twitter. Compared to the other social media behemoths like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, Twitter barely registers.

When it became known last Thursday that he was going to fire half the employees, he did via an email and didn’t even sign his name to it, an act of cowardice one can list high on “character tells” about him. Many found out about their termination when their work accounts stopped functioning. The cuts hit or totally destroyed major parts of the trust-and-safety, policy, machine-learning, social-good, accessibility, communications, ethical-AI, data-science, and research teams. Those remaining were told to work 80-hour weeks to build products for Musk lest they too be terminated and to come up with ideas to “tantalize” Muck. Today, Bloomberg reported that some of the employees had skills necessary to build products Musk actually wants to launch and were terminated by mistake, and the company is trying to lure them back.

It’s actually amazing there are any employees left.And Muck continues digging the hole deeper. This morning, to the dismay of lost all the brand advertisers left - all of whom strive to be apolitical - Muck endorsed the Republican slate of candidates for tomorrow’s midterm elections to his 114-million-followers. The blowout of advertisers after the Pelosi tweet is nothing compared to what is going on as you read this.Every decision he has made: getting rid of content management, firing half the employees, failing to engage brain before hitting “send” on each tweet, has cost him billions of dollars. Every decision he’s made has lost him money.

Muck is holding a master class in how not to run an effective organization. He is surrounded with a group of yes-men advisers, many of whom also lack specific expertise.Even if he does manage to salvage things, what we are seeing is the opposite of a business mastermind at work. Muck is not leading Twitter with careful vision; he’s bumbling his way through a job he’s unqualified for.The history of capitalism is that you can be very successful and also be a very terrible human being.

In this sense, Musk is an excellent teacher. The great irony is that his achievements with Space-X and even Tsla might have obliterated the perception that he’s a spoiled, rich doofus. Buying Twitter and telling people to vote Republican has pretty much obliterated that possibility.That one tweet will likely cost him many Tesla sales, since it’s mostly the vehicle of choice of rich lefties.The Silly Con Valley Bros need to be reined in. What they are creating is not “progress.” Hero-worshiping the mega-rich is the road to ruin, as we can see around us every day.The lesson we have learned with Muck and Twitter is an old one: it’s better to be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and prove it beyond all doubt.Yesterday began the second workweek of Musk’s tenure. He celebrated it in the traditional way, by tweeting an image of a Nazi soldier in a meme about birds.

pic.twitter.com/gCxUkZ4kZC

What fresh hell will tomorrow bring? Bet on more chaos.