WoodScientist
@WoodScientist@lemmy.world
- Comment on YSK: Assets in a bank, stock market, 401(k) or pension are not guaranteed 2 weeks ago:
Let’s be more concrete. The real danger here is that the rules around 401ks and IRAs could be changed with new legislation. Or perhaps through a twisted interpretation of law via executive order. Or that new taxes could be levied against them.
The kleptocrats are in charge. And the wealth of the middle class can be plundered to give to the billionaires. For example, maybe they find a way to raise the age where IRA and 401ks can be accessed without the 10% penalty. Or they just straight-up announce a new tax on 401k account balances in order to feed the war effort. The retirement savings of the middle class are one of the few areas the kleptocrats haven’t managed to completely plunder yet. You start a big war. You somberly announce the need for all sorts of new taxes. You conveniently write them so they fall lightly on the rich and heavily on the middle class. You tax the middle class and feed the proceeds to the defense contractors. The wealthy owners of those defense contractors end up with the profits. The retirement accounts of working people get raided to feed the billionaires.
- Comment on Guys did I do it right 2 weeks ago:
It’s not about saving money. It’s about sending a message!
- Comment on Guys did I do it right 2 weeks ago:
I want to park a shipping container in an on-street parking space and use that instead of renting a storage unit. If we’re OK with people storing their crap on public property, why should it be limited to cars?
- Comment on Sooo... What's Mike Pillow up to these days? 3 weeks ago:
“Well Mike, it seems that you’re MY pillow now…”
- Comment on Sooo... What's Mike Pillow up to these days? 3 weeks ago:
He’s locked up in JD Vance’s sex dungeon. JD finally found a human as close to a piece of furniture as possible.
- Comment on Nvidia CEO Says He Gets Where The DLSS 5 Outrage Is Coming From: ‘I Don’t Love AI Slop Myself’ 3 weeks ago:
<Beat CEO in the face with a tire iron.>
“I’m not changing anything, I’m just enhancing your face!”
- Comment on YSK: Israel is ethnically cleansing Lebanon 3 weeks ago:
“Netanyahu announces plan to build gas chambers and to execute three million criminal anti-Semites.”
- Comment on YSK: Israel is ethnically cleansing Lebanon 3 weeks ago:
I think Israel senses that the writing is on the wall. For decades they’ve preferred to gradually expand their borders, slowly antagonizing their neighbors and then using the resulting retaliations to justify land theft.
But this shtick is wearing thin. Slowly the tide is turning against Israel, even in the US. And Trump is likely to be the high water mark for US support of Israel. Trump’s given them a blank check, so they’re treating this as their last chance to grab as much land as possible while facing minimal international resistance. This is the fire sale of the US/Israel alliance.
- Comment on WHO officials admit they are preparing for possible nuclear weapon use in Iran 3 weeks ago:
Yeah, no. Even in this climate, video of a politician fucking a literal child would tank their political career at a minimum.
- Comment on WHO officials admit they are preparing for possible nuclear weapon use in Iran 3 weeks ago:
Get real. Israel possesses high-definition video of half of our business and political leaders fucking literal children. Epstein was an Israeli intelligence operation created to control the American ruling class.
- Comment on WHO officials admit they are preparing for possible nuclear weapon use in Iran 3 weeks ago:
Iran at this point is likely going to be forced to make a sprint for the bomb. What else are they supposed to do, just accept that Israel will periodically bomb them every few months and kill thousands of people each time? The only path Iran has to security is nukes.
At the same time, it seems now that Israel and the US really don’t have a way of preventing Iran from getting the bomb. The US, let alone Israel, doesn’t even have a military large enough to occupy Iran. And any attempted occupation of Iran would be Iraq times ten. Wave after wave of suicide bombers and IEDs.
Israel and the the US have put Iran in the position where it really needs to push for nukes. At the same time, Israel and the US really don’t have any good way to prevent Iran from finishing their weapons program. They already have highly enriched uranium, and it’s a giant country with countless places to hide centrifuges and bomb-making equipment. The US and Israel are really good at hacking communications and locating potential targets, but I imagine the Iranian regime is quickly moving entirely to analog methods of communication. Literally bringing out the typewriters. I really don’t see how the US and Israel can really stop the Iranians from getting the bomb.
No way…except one. If Iran really wants to push for nukes, the only way to really stop them would be to use nukes against them. You might not be able to find a bomb program divided and scattered in a hundred locations across Tehran, but that doesn’t matter if you simply make Tehran cease existing in its entirety.
That’s what has me so worried about this. The US and Israel are simultaneously forcing Iran to rush for the bomb, while at the same time, the US and Israel have no real conventional method to prevent the Iranians from finishing their nukes.
- Comment on Dumb glasses 4 weeks ago:
No, you’re like one of the folks ratting out their neighbors to the gestapo.
- Comment on Dumb glasses 4 weeks ago:
If you wear this, you’re an agent of the gestapo.
- Comment on Dumb glasses 4 weeks ago:
When the law abandons the people, the law of the jungle returns.
- Comment on Weight-loss drugs alone will not solve UK’s obesity crisis, says Chris Whitty 5 weeks ago:
“Vaccines aren’t the solution to polio. I support behavioral changes and personal responsibility instead.”
- Comment on A product of his environment 5 weeks ago:
I mean, you can masturbate about all laws, contracts, and agreements being a “threat of force,” but I don’t give such libertarian dogma any credence.
- Comment on A product of his environment 1 month ago:
Respectfully, you’re painting with far too broad a brush. I don’t consider it authoritarian to not want my next door neighbor to turn their front lawn into a junkyard. Again, it really depends on the HOA. I know that goes against the Lemmy party line, but it’s my lived experience and the experience of millions of American homeowners.
- Comment on A product of his environment 1 month ago:
IDK. I’ve had good and bad experiences with them. But overall more positive than negative. It’s all about which HOA you’re talking about. Yes, you can say you should be able to do what you want with your land. But that isn’t how any kind of land ownership works anywhere on Earth. There are always some entities regulating how you can use it, as you inevitably have neighbors and you don’t have a right to damage the enjoyment of their property.
Can they be overbearing? Sure, the wrong ones can. But they also keep mean that I don’t have to worry about my next door neighbor turning his property into a junkyard.
- Comment on A product of his environment 1 month ago:
OTOH, your town planning councils tend to be a lot more restrictive.
- Comment on A modest proposal 1 month ago:
I mean, with modern drone armies, there’s less and less need to restrict the draft to they young…
- Comment on What do you think might happen if Luigi Mangione isnt found guilty? 1 month ago:
Before he’s set for release, they’ll put him in a cell with someone already serving a life sentence. Another jailhouse killing.
- Comment on What do you think might happen if Luigi Mangione isnt found guilty? 1 month ago:
They’ll kill him.
- Comment on $1,000 car loan payments are on the rise, stressing household budgets 1 month ago:
It’s called critical thinking and common sense. Don’t be a sea lion.
- Comment on $1,000 car loan payments are on the rise, stressing household budgets 1 month ago:
I don’t think so. That’s just the normal price for a basic new Corolla.
- Comment on $1,000 car loan payments are on the rise, stressing household budgets 1 month ago:
Franky, I have no interest in a $2k vehicle as it’s difficult to know what you’re buying, and it’s going to be a money pit if you’re not able to do your own maintenance. I prefer to buy cheap sedans new and drive them into the dirt. That way you know they’ve been maintained properly and you know you’re not buying a lemon. Plus your time has value, and always being stuck on the side of the road with a broken down car isn’t fun.
- Comment on $1,000 car loan payments are on the rise, stressing household budgets 1 month ago:
We bought a new 2025 Corolla for $24k.
- Comment on $1,000 car loan payments are on the rise, stressing household budgets 1 month ago:
Seriously. Last September we had to replace our old 2007 Corolla that got totaled after someone drove out in front of us. We were the only owners of the 2007 Corolla. We owned it from new to dust. We shipped around a bunch, considering various new and used options. We eneded up buying…a brand new 2025 Corolla.
The cost of this vehicle? About $24k. We ran the numbers on it, and that’s actually less, adjusted for inflation, than we paid for the 2007 one.
Affordable cars still exist. You just have to be content with owning less car.
- Comment on $1,000 car loan payments are on the rise, stressing household budgets 1 month ago:
Every dollar of interest subsidies manufacturers give is a dollar they cut from discounts and other incentives.
- Comment on Trans people in Kansas are being ordered to surrender their drivers licenses 1 month ago:
Unfortunately we live in an age of madness.
- Comment on Trans people in Kansas are being ordered to surrender their drivers licenses 1 month ago:
And you don’t see the glaring contradictions in your beliefs? You complain about non-passing trans people with one breath. With the next, you condemn minors receiving gender-affirming healthcare! The entire reason there’s a desire to not wait until kids are 18 is to avoid years of the wrong sex puberty that can make it very hard for trans people to assimilate into their gender as an adult!
Critical thinking is dead.