Fix your economy with this one weird trick

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 4d ago

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854

Everyone should be fighting for Universal Healthcare and disability rights. Health is fragile. You can become disabled or chronically ill in an instant. It’s not a moral failing. It can wipe out your savings and leave you destitute. Healthcare is a basic human right.

TFW you want to nominate an extremely popular fandom for Yuletide because the overwhelming majority of the stories that exist are… not really feeding you what you want to eat. Relatedly, videogame fandoms lean toward PC inserts, which can be tricky to pull off well outside one’s own head.

A program called the Veggie Chop Shop enlists volunteers to gather extra produce from farmers markets that would otherwise go to waste. Then, they cook meals for people facing food insecurity. n.pr/4cBYBLe

The Veggie Chop Shop: A delicious way to combat food deserts

A program called the Veggie Chop Shop enlists volunteers to gather extra produce from farmers markets that would otherwise go to waste. Then, they cook meals for people facing food insecurity.

n.pr

As many people have observed, the problem with vaccines is that they work *too* well. The incredible, astounding, profound wonders of vaccines led many people to think of measles as a rash, the flu as a bad cold, mumps as a thing that makes you look like Brando playing Don Corleone.

Well slap my ass and call me a radical lefty lady but maybe our food safety regulations were in place to regulate the safety of our food.

Tim Curry and Dolly Parton have taught us not only that you should be bigger, weirder, gayer, and freakier, but also that those qualities are what people will love about you. The things that make you strange and amazing are the things that will resonate with other strange and amazing people

TFW one of the cats drops a deuce so phenomenally, legendarily stinky that you get up at 1am to change the cat box so you can breathe…

every billionaire & tech mogul, they all want to be adored & celebrated without doing the things Dolly did with a fraction of the power & money. What she had, she gave away. I'm sure she was comfortable (& that's good!). But she just relentlessly helped. It's not that difficult. Love. Care. Help. 💚🌸

Part of the reason a lot of super rich people are so awful is that when normal people get an absurd amount of money, they immediately start looking around for who they can help.

Stoo Metz 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈@stoometz.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Rachel Reid, who wrote the popular “Heated Rivalry” novel, has donated $300k to Annapolis Valley Regional Library, “one of the most significant private gifts” in their history. “I credit my local library for being a huge part of the reason I’m a published author today,” Reid said #Halifax #HaliSky

Philosophers often bring up the "principle of charity": a willingness to assume good faith in an interlocutor and treat them accordingly. It's good to do in many circumstances. But it is worth formulating a principle of not being a fucking mark. If not during the rise of fascism, then when? 12/

All you have to do is find things that cue up the bigotry you want to promote, and make them salient - preferably, while avoiding the same for context that would complicate your intended narrative (in a distracted, low-participation political culture, the last bit comes practically for free). 8/

Vaccines do not cause autism. Fire RFK Jr.

Who could have known that taxing the extremely rich would be an easy way to fund a massive expansion of the welfare states? Who, I ask, who?

Franklin D. Roosevelt Thug Life Meme

ALT: Franklin D. Roosevelt Thug Life Meme

static.klipy.com

Citizen.Coping@propcazhpm.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Massachusettes "Millionaires Tax", which was targeted to fund transportation and education, has been a resounding success. It has funded FREE school lunch for ALL students, FREE buses in lowest income communities (people can get to work, etc.), and FREE community college. And "exodus" was minimal.

The news that doesn't make the big headlines: In June alone, my office put over $1 million directly back into Massachusetts workers' pockets by enforcing our labor laws. That's money they can use on bills, groceries, or whatever the hell they want. Because it's their money, and they earned it.

There is a certain type of bad guy whose main contribution is sowing confusion between good and bad by failing to understand things that are easily understood.

burn it all down@russbengtson.bsky.social · 2mo ago

ah so that's why 60 minutes hired douchehat

Every now and then someone takes a run at me along the lines of "I don't understand why you, a scifi writer, don't appreciate 'AI'," and I'm all, motherfucker, it's *because* I'm a science fiction writer I have the positions I have, how many times do we have to fucking yell "torment nexus," my dude

I wonder if students today would be less likely to lean on AI for writing assignments if schools had made sure they could touch-type (at least 60wpm) before having them submit all their assignments online. 1/🧵

Anyway, I’m far from Ann’s original point but I know a lot of instructors specifically currently dealing with AI nonsense in creative classrooms so I’ll bring it back around. Got a student who keeps bringing AI slop into a class meant for original creative work?

I can’t talk about today’s nutbars work thing because HIPAA, but please trust and believe that the school-to-prison pipeline is a real issue that constantly impacts the kids I work with in community mental health. Our systems keep failing kids and we … keep cutting services? To what end? 

you're worried about your streak ending i'm worried because thanks to the nytimes normalizing anti-trans rhetoric, i won't be able to renew my passport, be careful which states i even consider traveling to, watch as more and more "allies" who "don't hate" regurgitate bigotry and right-wing framing

may@maysuser.name · 2mo ago

the real victims of the new york times' targeted campaign against trans people are cis people who like to play wordle

I remember seeing someone say we need a movie with Daniel Radcliffe and Margot Robbie playing a couple who get mistaken for assassins who are played by Elijah Wood and Samara Weaving, and I may not ever stop wanting to see that movie.

No one asked for this but I'm going to share my personal Theory of the World about men, power, rage, and the patriarchy of it all.

Mrs. Detective PikaBOO, Esq.@clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 3mo ago

It seems abundantly, ludicrously clear that the number one way we could reduce the violent crime rate is by making sure every child is wanted, protected, and loved. We should be spending billions on education and child welfare, instead of making them run on shoestring budgets.

With alt-text, taps sign. It especially matters when the whole image is nothing but text.

@trungles.com is reading pride and prejudice for the first time, and live-blogging the experience,. If you have messaged this, it is absolutely worth your time. I just spent a very pleasant “put your phone down and go to bed” hour reading all that, and I have no regrets :)

Oh shit there’s another party. I hate these. Every party has been terrible, and I have no reason to believe this will go differently at this point. Jane Austen is so good at writing that me reading about a party at Longbourn gives me social anxiety!

I just saw a meme that said “get in losers, we’re reclaiming the emdash”. People. PEOPLE. Where are your STANDARDS? It CLEARLY should be “get in, losers — we’re reclaiming the em dash.”

'Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.'

Jesspooka Kant 🎃@jessdkant.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Fascinated by this dialectic where democratic socialism is too unpopular and niche to win elections and therefore must be spurned in favor of the mythical “big tent” but also its so powerful that Democrats have to do everything they can to stop it from “taking over the party”

‘Tis a fair point

Chaucer Doth Tweet@levostregc.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Even the moost canny listeneres notyce not the contradictoun yn the song "Peaches." The speaker seeketh to eate a lot of peaches by cause thei are movinge to the countrye and YET the peaches arryve yn a can ynto which thei are put by a man yn a factorye DOWNTOWN. What confusioun of rural and urban?

Did I maybe have really crappy knee pain today and take two special pain candies instead of just one? And now I have been a wee bit high and posting too many comments in the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit? Look, new players need guidance. Which is also a cantrip that Shadowheart can cast for you.