[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 12 points 7 hours ago

Ah yes, Stepford Wives wasn't dystopian at all and was in fact something to strive for.

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 1 points 15 hours ago

Are you this naive about everything or do you just especially like sucking on the Blue?

Of course, they'll lie that they saw a knife even though there's a video. "I swear I thought I saw one and I had to act." Csuse you know the video isn't going to back them up.

Even if the guy had a knife, that doesn't justify shooting into a crowd. Oh shit, there is a violent criminal in NYC. We better nuke it to make sure the criminal doesn't get away.

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 0 points 15 hours ago

Their two senators don't represent them at all though. That's the rub. They're punished because they live in a colossal state with a bunch of dumb fucks. If you get 260k votes in North Dakota, you are a Senator in a landslide. You get 260k votes in Texas and congrats you managed to lose to Henry the Porpoise who was a write-in candidate.

North Dakotans have disproportionate political power because the system is inherently biased against large states. The result is tyranny of the minority.

If we can't have some equity in the rules, then we should consolidate the Dakotas, Wyoming,Montana, and Alaska down to one state. The lower 48 of that group especially largely have similar political views. They shouldn't get 5 times the political power of California or Texas when together they don't even have half the population.

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 7 points 23 hours ago

I agree with your House argument, but I strongly believe that the design of the Senate was a major fuck-up. Senators are far more powerful than representatives, and I get none. A single house member cannot torpedo legislation the way a Senator can. North Dakota (population 780k) gets two. The 4.7M people in Harris County get none. That is a poor design.

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 16 points 23 hours ago

Look, folks, a temporarily embarrassed billionaire. They're the only people that benefit economically from Trump's policies. Check your 2016 taxes paid divided by income and your 2023 taxes paid divided by income. The reason you paid more taxes in 2024 is Trump's tax reform. Did you get more for your tax dollars now? I don't feel like I did.

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 day ago

We're just not weird enough to understand.

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 day ago

Land doesn't have rights. It's just gerrymandering by another name. The problem works both ways. The rural fuckheads in California are also unrepresented. Harris County (where Houston is located) is larger than Rhode Island. Where is their representation? Why do the Dakotas (4 senators for virtually no population) get more political power than California or Texas? Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio get no representation despite a huge amount of population. Rural Californians get no representation despite outnumbering the Dakotas and Wyoming.

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 day ago

I don't think the Senator limit is okay. For instance, the city of Houston has more population than North and South Dakota combined (4 senators) and gets zero senators (Houston is consistently Democrat and is "represented" by two Republicans that do nothing for them).

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 49 points 1 day ago

Hey! That's my IP address whenever the script kiddies are boasting in chat. How did he get it?

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

AI prompt was probably "draw Hillary, but make her as fat as Donald."

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

People over 80 don't have as much of a stake in the future. Maybe they should lose the vote?

20

I am not much of an implementers, but if we wanted to do something to target and reform our screwed up society, I have an idea. The great vulnerability of our capitalist culture, especially in the U.S. and Western Europe, is fractional reserve banking.

For those that don't know, a quick summary is that any given bank only has to keep a small percentage of their deposits on hand. This allows them to invest other people's money for fun and profit. Many resources explain the concept and its evils in far more detail than I can get into here.

So how is this an exploitable weakness? Well, if you have seen It's a Wonderful Life, you probably already know. Because banks only hold a fraction of the reserves needed to cover their depositors' accounts, they are vulnerable to "runs." A run on a bank happens when the customers lose confidence that the bank will be able to cover their deposits and rush to withdraw their money before the bank runs out of money (FDIC insurance was setup to protect depositors from this phenomenon).

How do we use this to fight the bankstas? We deliberately cause runs on banks. Of we can get enough people to withdraw their money from a bank, the bank won't be able to return people's money to them. Even if you don't have an account with the target bank, you can help by spreading fear (Big Bank is the targetof an internet attack, ge yourmoneyout before they collapse - you don't want to have to wait for the FDIC to give you your money, do you?) An additional collateral attack than can be made is to simply not pay any debts (mortgages, credit cards, etc) owed to that same bank. The non-payments will accelerate the time frame for which the bank will run out of money.

Also, if you short the bank's stock before the run or when it starts, you can profit from the banks collapse.

The real key to the plan (the part I haven't figured out yet) is how do we get enough people to panic over a particular bank to get the party started. Subsequent banks should be easier after the first.

Be aware that some states have laws that make inciting a run on a bank illegal, although the constitutionality of such laws is still up for debate. Truth is a defense to libel, so if there is an attempt to sue for that, you get to conduct in depth discovery on the financial condition of the bank (just how bad are all of those loans and derivative instruments they hold? How low is their cash in hand compared to their depositors receipts?)

62

We'll melt some permafrost and release trapped methane that will melt even more permafrost.

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collapse_already

joined 9 months ago