Spyke

Replies

reddit

Comment on

I finally am in the club, 4 accounts banned over a buddy using my wifi... (appeal denied)

There's a few ways I could think of to connect these things together

  1. Perfect VPN opsec is actually pretty hard to achieve, if you ever used the account when VPN wasn't working they could get your local IP. Could be ipv6 wasn't going through VPN, VPN wasn't turned back on after a shutdown, VPN leaked IP, etc.
  2. Reddit likely has a unique browser fingerprint for you, if you used the same device to access two different accounts one on VPN and one off VPN they could still tie them together with a matching unique fingerprint across both accounts.
  3. If your buddy was using one of your devices same thing as above.

With perfect VPN usage and perfect opsec and complete separation of devices and accounts it is very unlikely they would have been able to correlate this activity.

Comment on

Right?

Reply in thread

A direct quote from that source:

While there is no clear evidence yet that Tyler Robinson was a formal member of Fuentes’ community, a Facebook photo suggests he engaged with Groyper memes.

I wouldn't say that is conclusive he was a groyper. Seems we still don't have enough evidence to figure out what his leanings where

memes

Comment on

but but authoritarianism!11!111!

Reply in thread

I just want to start by saying I think you are coming at this in good faith.

I disagree that it is as cut and dry as "private citizens cannot [own land]" from the link you posted a private citizen cab get a land grant for 70 years to do with the property what they will. Now sure it might be said that this isn't technically owning the land but it is nearly indistinguishable from a normal American with a house.

And if we want to get real pedantic the fact that the USA can eminent domain your land kind of shows that you are just leasing it as well. This is a bit of an exaggeration since most land has not and likely will not be taken, but the point is it CAN.

I'm not super familiar with how inheritance works in China but if you can will your property to a relative and then they get a fresh 70 year grant then this is basically indefinite. Now maybe that's where the difference is if you can't do that, but that's not what I think of when I'm thinking of "ownership"

Comment on

Phone Recommendation for Cancer Patient

This isn't exactly answering your question, but I thought I'd share this strange gadget the twiddler 3. It's a full keyboard you can hold in one hand and it uses "chords" (think chords on a piano) to achieve a full keyboard with only a few buttons.

Seems you can achieve a typing speed of around 60 wpm with a bit of practice, might make typing a bit easier and it is super mobile unlike a real keyboard.

Comment on

Concealed Handguns Create a Climate of Fear, Gun Industry Research Reveals

Reply in thread

There is -- as far as I'm aware -- no good data to suggest any of this is true. The severity of punishment has no correlative link let alone causative link to crime rate. As for "politeness" I don't even know how to tackle this, I know Japan and Canada are considered "polite" by public opinion and both have stricter gun regulation than US. And as for the great equalizer claim while I can see that theoretically it could be an equalizer of force that would only be the case if the "weak" were as likely to have a gun as the "strong". If we simply compare women to men -- since women are often physically weaker than men -- we see the gun ownership rates skew heavily towards men. So if anything in that context not only is it not equalizing it is further dividing the gap between the weak and the strong in this context.

Comment on

Idaho stop (Should bikes stop at stop signs?)

Reply in thread

I feel like I get the sentiment you are expressing but I just don't think it is very logical. You are suggesting that having different laws for different modes of transportation is inherently bad because of the ambiguity it adds. But if we applied this to another situation -- a pedestrian in a crosswalk at a 4 way stop it begins to unravel. Should pedestrians also queue up at a stop sign and go during their turn instead of halting all traffic and allowing them to pass?

You say that the start/stop explanation is merely justification, but that's the whole point, providing justification for why a law should exist.

Your comment about this wouldn't be a problem if people just followed the law also applies to your original concern of a driver who hits a bicyclist who "effectively ran a stop sign". If this driver just follows the law then they wouldn't have done that.

The data is pretty indisputable that traffic incidents are reduced when this thing happens, so I'll take less drivers hitting bicyclists over more even if the ones that do feel it is unfair.

Comment on

If you argue for a cause like affordable housing for everyone, is it necessarily hypocritical if you also own investment properties?

I would make the argument that it could actually be a means to align with affordable housing (although that would likely be very difficult in this current housing market). Managing a property is a service, you have to manage vacancies, repairs, rent collection, etc.

If you don't offload this to a management company and do it all yourself it is technically feasible to make a profit from the labor of managing the property even when charging below market rate for the property (difficult to do right now, but after owning the property for a period of time definitely possible).

If you were to do this you would be directly combatting the affordable housing problem by introducing competition at a lower price (it would be a drop in the ocean, but it would be fighting for affordable housing).

Comment on

Doin my best

Reply in thread

I have heard this same explanation a number of times but it doesn't quite make sense to me. Sure at Costco you are agreeing to allow them to search your stuff via the terms, however it is not illegal as far as I am aware (ianal) to ignore this. The consequences may be that your membership will be revoked, but you haven't broken the law.

Now for Walmart, if you refuse to have your stuff checked you also haven't broken the law but if Walmart decided to they could ban you from the store (effectively the same as Costco's consequence).

So they are effectively the same in outcome, maybe you are more likely to be banned at Costco than Walmart.

As for if they can detain you if they suspect you are stealing, many US states have "shopkeers privilege" laws that do in fact allow stores to detain customers who they have a reasonable suspicion are stealing. This would apply to both Costco and Walmart regardless of the "terms". Now would refusing to have your bags checked count as reasonable suspicion? Who knows, I bet there is case law on this somewhere, but I'm too lazy to look.

Comment on

Let's play the rich get everything. The rules are the rich get everything. participation is mandatory.

Reply in thread

I largely agree with all the points made here however I think the overall message is a bit misleading. I would disagree that Roth investments are the preferred for long term investments. You aren't accounting for the opportunity cost of the taxes paid in the initial investment year. Those taxes, while small compared to what you will withdraw tax free are also losing out on 8x-ing themselves (as you would have invested that amount in a traditional tax advantaged account).

What this means is Roth is the preferable savings method if you are in a lower marginal tax rate than you expect to be in retirement. However traditional is better if you are in a higher marginal rate than you expect to be in retirement. If the marginal tax rate was the same when you invest and retire then the difference between Roth and traditional would be nil.

news

Comment on

'Let's Go!' Top Economist Applauds as Harris Signals Support for Billionaires Tax

Reply in thread

I find it funny you claim there is clearly no debate while having a debate about this. The reason the person linked that article because of a different section:

Unrelated to the economic philosophy described in this article, the term "neoliberalism" is also used to describe a centrist political movement from modern American liberalism in the 1970s. According to political commentator David Brooks, prominent neoliberal politicians included Al Gore and Bill Clinton of the Democratic Party of the United States.[48]

Aha! You might say, it clearly says it is unrelated to the economic philosophy, but the point is that the word can often refer to different things, including Democrats.

Here is another quote from that link:

Neoliberalism is distinct from liberalism insofar as it does not advocate laissez-faire economic policy, but instead is highly constructivist and advocates a strong state to bring about market-like reforms in every aspect of society.

Sounds a lot like the Democrats to me.

As for your talk of comparing European liberals to American liberals being "propaganda" I disagree. I don't know if this specific movement in lemmy that you speak, but I don't think it is propaganda to show that one could want to shrink a gigantic government to medium one (European liberal) and they would be the same as someone who wants to expand a small government to medium one (American liberals). Healthcare being an obvious example here: the United Kingdom wanting to privatize NHS could be considered similar to Democrats who want to just regulate an already privatized system. The end state is the similarity not the action taken to get there.

I think this is an interesting discussion and am not trying to prove that European libs are the same as American libs, just proving that there is clearly debate here.

news

Comment on

Judge Rules Chud the Builder Cannot Use Crowdfund Towards $1 Million Bond

Reply in thread

It is quite hilarious that you are so smug and judgemental about someone you claim is "just wholesale making shit up"

When you claim:

The issue is this "fundraiser" existed prior to the shooting and is not for legal defenses.

The op's article clearly states that only funds received AFTER the shooting are not to be used according to the judge. Funds for bail do not need to be acquired specifically for legal defense, in fact him receiving funds from his fans after the shooting most likely for his legal defense is expressly WHY the judge is saying they can't be used.

I guess I shouldn't have given you all this valuable information unless you "asked nicely" first. Silly me.

Comment on

Doin my best

Reply in thread

Yeah I dunno about the case law, but that was kind of an aside. The point is I believe they can ask you to check receipt, and if you don't they can't sick the police on you (probably) but they can just ban you from the store, same as Costco.

news

Comment on

'Let's Go!' Top Economist Applauds as Harris Signals Support for Billionaires Tax

Reply in thread

I see no evidence to suggest that the majority of posters here are not debating in good faith, most posters here seem to me just normal humans who have biases and emotions - but I'd hardly call that bad faith. If you think this low of lemmy and its users I don't really understand why you are spending time here.

Even if your assumptions of lemmy users where true I don't see how that affords you the opportunity to discuss without nuance. Discussing in absolutes and without nuance would categorize you in the "weaponize nuance to try and shift goalposts" crowd I'd say.

But you do you

Comment on

Let's play the rich get everything. The rules are the rich get everything. participation is mandatory.

Reply in thread

You seem to be using many different assumptions separately. In the first you assume you are maxing a Roth IRA (in my initial response I was also considering 401ks as many of them have Roth options nowadays). If you are maxing your Roth 401k and Roth IRA you are likely a high earner and therefore likely in a higher tax bracket than you will be in retirement. This means that kind of person will likely prefer traditional investments.

Your assumption there is someone maxing out their retirement options and in a relatively low tax bracket doesn't seem like reality. So in your math example they wouldn't be putting the extra in a taxable brokerage account but in the same tax advantaged account.

Quick edit: also I'm confused on the extra $400/year into taxable account. It should be $1,250 per year (25% of the 5,000) which would be closer to $600,000 before the capital gains tax.

Comment on

Let's play the rich get everything. The rules are the rich get everything. participation is mandatory.

Reply in thread

You definitely can max both a 401k and IRA you can also max an HSA. All these combined allow for an individual (not family) to save $34,150 (there are some edge cases I'm ignoring). Someone who can afford to save almost the US median salary amount is almost certainly going to have a higher benefit from traditional than Roth.

Also, the math completely changes if you aren't maxing because if you aren't maxing the contribution than adding more to the contribution gives you more tax advantaged investments (instead of taxable brokerage investments).

Comment on

*Permanently Deleted*

Reply in thread

I don't disagree that landlords are for the most part acting parasitically. However I would argue that in order for society to function "parasitism" is a requirement. I want to be clear and state that THIS form isn't required, but some form is.

Let me explain my thinking. Nearly half of the population doesn't work. The population of non workers can almost entirely fall within these categories: children, attending school, disabled (mentally or physically), or retired.

These populations need money even though they are not producing any. I would guess that most of the extracted profit that comes out of "mom and pop" rentals goes to providing for non-worker expenses.

Now I believe these expenses should be covered by taxations and redistribution of the factor income, but since we have a pathetic system of this in the US it's hard for me to fault someone for using investment property to hedge against child care and/or retirement

Comment on

*Permanently Deleted*

Reply in thread

I agree with everything here. I mostly was tackling this from the OP's question about if their family member was inherently bad for owning real estate, and I think my answer would slide to the no side.

If these properties are largely going to fund a retirement and are providing under market prices for rent I don't see what's wrong. (Although I have no problem taking that away and beefing up public retirement funding in lieu)