mattmcpeak71.bsky.social
Developer, Husband, Father, Gamer, Progressive, Musician, Speller. Those are my skills in decreasing order of competince.
I'm here to exchange ideas, not phone numbers.
152 posts
131 followers
108 following
Active Commenter
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There are other ways to force compliance on a citizenry that ceases to comply voluntarily. Secret police, neighbors informing on neighbors, fear and intimitation. They also don't work for long, but they'd no doubt try them anyway.
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Notice Trump did not impose any tariffs on miniature bananas. There's just something about full-sized ones that makes him angry.
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"I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned..." The truth of Ecclesiastes 9:11, demonstrated in the person of Donald Trump.
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Well, shit, let's take the 880 billion or so we're spending on defense and do something FUN with it then!
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3 billion dollars is 2,500 people working all their lives (30 years) at the U.S. medium income of $40k/year. If you steal 3 billion dollars, I say, as far as your crime against society, you killed 2,500 people. Death fucking penalty.
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This is a short-sighted piece in the NYTimes. They completely overlook the fact that, thanks to Elon Musk, the poor may someday soon be able to die of disease and starvation on a completely different planet.
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How do I know *you're* not lying? You want me to accept as fact something that randomly appeared in my social media feed, and you are complaining that people are too stupid and trusting? How about including a reputable source next time?
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Even this isn't really the problem. If workers made $100k (yeah, right), and CEOs made a thousand times that (or $100m/year) -- yeah that's very bad. But that's not as big a problem as those caused by the billionaire capitalist class.
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I think that was probably his point - that Dr. Biden insists on a title that he feels should only be used for medical doctors. So, minor correction, he's not necessarily "ignorant" in this particular case. He's just a piece of s__t.
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Am I too cynical to suspect that money is intended to buy their loyalty when the time comes?
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This is why we need to teach ethics in school.
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Just because Dr. Oz is a doofus doesn't mean he's wrong about everything. There seems to be a certain immorality about living a life of improvidence and then expecting free healthcare. I can't judge and don't advocate denying care, ofc, but reasonable people are going to agree there is a wrongness.
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Connections
Puzzle #698
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Too easy today.
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The "out" there is the phrase "to the best of my ability". If Donald Trump is fundamentally incapable of doing anything that is not in his own best interest, *technically* he is fulfilling his oath.
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It was criminal of President Joe Biden not to have Sharpie'd that hurricane onto a safer trajectory.
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It's a good point though, to be fair. As I struggle to pay my daughter's tuition and worry about my future retirement, I do look back and regret buying all those damn extra pencils.
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We're pointing at a quarter of reduced GDP as vindication that Trump's policies are as bad, but I don't recall applying that standard to Biden. If Trump's policies are as bad as we all think, there is worse coming. And it will be clear to all but the most dishonest partisans who's to blame.
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Who was President last time this happened? Biden. Let's stop mindlessly trying to score points for our team, can we? This happened in 2022 and the world didn't end.
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It is a cruel design that Americans' only chance of surviving retirement is to keep all their money in the stock market all their lives. The market will always have a % of winners and losers, meaning a % that will starve in retirement regardless of their other, lifelong contributions to society.
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First quarterly negative GDP since the Biden administration. Let's not get too excited here. Wait for it to get worse. Unfortunately, it probably will.
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If AI takes over everything but doesn't take over VC it is only because VCs won't invest the capital to develop and deploy their own replacements.
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There's probably some truth to it, that their questionable actions in the past left them open to bullying by the government. It's a good example of why we need to clean house: both parties, all three branches of government, and private industry too. America too long has been a thieves' paradise.
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"My God"? Not yet... it's just Pope for now.
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Reading the comments, it's clear a lot of people respond the the headline without reading the article. The 25% tariffs on imported vehicles are still in place. It's just that domestic manufacturers are getting a break on tariffs for imported parts.
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I meant physically weaker. And that is not to disparage the contributions of physically powerful men. Soldiers, police (most of them), firemen - many strong men provide us with safety and security and I admire them. I'm talking about these self-described "alphas".
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The "qualities" that Andrew Tate has are irrelevant nowadays. I think that's where a lot of this bullshit comes from. Men who, in earlier times, would have truly been "alphas" are frustrated: losing prestige, money, and women to weaker men who know how to navigate and contribute to the modern world.
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In Trump's defense - making light of ending an unjust war with over a million casualties _is_ pretty funny.
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Fine, but if that is really what the moment is, we Democrats need to put gun control, transgender rights, identity politics on the back burner until democracy is restored and safeguarded. Let's embrace a big-tent anticorruption platform that explicitly tables all these divisive issues.
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You forgot option 3: be "shocked and disappointed" at everything that happens, as though it were somehow beyond your control.
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Immigrants who are white, attractive, educated, and/or wealthy would need to go through a reasonable naturalization process (no debt, no criminal record, speak English, take test, etc.) Poor, brown immigrants and other huddles masses yearning to breathe free will be told to fuck off.
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Connections
Puzzle #684
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Getting the hang of it.
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It's not that they're dumb necessarily. It's that they believe there are enough other dumb people who will buy. And maybe they're not wrong. Never bet against dumb people. Buying TSLA is a foolish investment, if and only if all investors were rational. That said: I'm not buying TSLA.
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The fact that it is only +3 at this point is NOT AT ALL encouraging.
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No, but really, this is the absolute last thing he is going to demand from them. After that, it will be peace in our time.
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Can someone point me to a reputable article on people being disappeared? Social media is good for news but sometimes it's hard to get the whole story.
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Ice cream allergies are proof that karma and reincarnation are true. No god would be so cruel.
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My understanding was that the President can basically change anything in CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) at will. It's a codification of all the regulatory decisions delegated by law to the Executive. Or an I mistaken?
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Don't hate the players, hate the game. We'll can't change the players (never get rid of human greed), so we must change the game (tax the F- out of these resource hoarders). Wealth at that level is never "earned". It's a byproduct of a system that rewards ownership far above all other contributions.
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I just saw her in concert in NYC a week or two ago. Glory Box is a good song, but overall, I'm just not a fan.
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Easy to say when it's not your ass on the line. You think Trump wouldn't pick 2-3 of them at random to retaliate against? A 10% chance of major problems for taking an ethical stand with little or no practical upside. It's the same math that has always empowered dictators.
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In 2 months, Fox News will memory hole everything and MAGA dogma will be that all this is Biden's fault.
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Let's call it Republican America. There is PLENTY of blame to go around and I really want to make sure they all get their fair share.
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If you are rich and can manage to destroy everyone else's wealth while GREATLY increasing your own, it's a double win. Being rich is only fun when everyone else is poor.
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Being rich is only fun if everyone else is poor.
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Saw that one in Newtown, PA. It's a good one.
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He DOES have it under control. Systematically short U.S. stocks using accounts controlled by him and his cronies. Announce economy-destroyed tariffs to tank markets. Close short positions and acquire long positions. Reverse course on tariffs. This whole thing is a massive transfer of wealth.
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Any laws he's broken are surely Federal laws. Trump will simply pardon him. It turns out we DO live in a dictatorship as long as 1/3 of the Senate is loyal.
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The bombs fell downward when they were dropped. They're congratulating themselves for not fucking up gravity.
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The premise of your question is wrong, I think. In 2016, people only cried "but her EMAILS!!" because they weren't able to cry "but her VAGINA!", which was the real concern.