806 Comments

I messed up with Ukraine which is the only true former Soviet Union States,others though former Soviet countries have puppet Russian governments except North Korea! To young to be a hippie but I'm a believer

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𝑨𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒓 𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒏𝒐 𝒕𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒕.

Damn, and here I went long in pitchforks and torches.

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Hi-ho, the derry-o, Dok.

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Hickory dickory, Dok

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> And yes, the Biden-Harris FTC’s lawsuit against the merger of grocery chains Albertsons and Kroger, filed in February, is still grinding ahead. Good!

This is great news, I was getting worried about this

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PAB went wild today in W-B PA, he never said the name of the town, would probably butcher it. Big dis on the 2 "trans" Olympian boxers, said they just walked into gold medals cuz they were men of course. As KH says, "same old show", claims your taxes will go up 400%, we're becoming Venezuela, 1929 market crash imminent. And the beat goes on...

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Why doesn’t she and Walz do events where they just go through the economic related portions of the 2025 Quick Start Guide to Fascism where they say “Here’s what Trump plans, here’s what we will do instead.” Just keep hammering away, tie that goddamn fascist recipe book to them the more they try to run from it, while also distinguishing the D plan from it.

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The Republicans will be back to vibes before you know it. After they yell and scream, "Communism!" and "Socialism!", what's left?

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'"DEMONS!!!1!1!"

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First it's got to be "WITCHCRAFT!!11!1!" And then "DEMONS!!!1!1!" You have to have a plausible sequence of events.

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To: guy who will die renting while trying to figure out the housing market

Subject: how I spent my summer vacation, and also last night, and also Saturday

Having a house is like having a kid except that doesn’t grow up and go away and instead of costing you less money it costs more sometimes. up late last night swapping out a door knob assembly on the exterior door because I don’t want to do it this winter when it breaks down at 40 below. And today I installed a rechargeable lamp over reading chair, and now I’m going to do the same over the piano. And then I’m gonna go to town and see if they still have some of the free paint at the neighborhood housing authority because I need to paint my garage this fall. And then I’m going to swing by the hardware store and pick up some railings to mount along the front porch where it gets icy in the winter. Oh, that reminds me I need to pick up weatherstripping for the door, and sweeps for the upstairs door and downstairs door, yeah I think that’s everything. For now. No wait, I have to measure my firewood because it’s finally stacked and I think I got shorted and I have to call them about it on Monday. That’s it, that’s my weekend.

I’m not complaining. I signed up for this. But there can be a lot of good reasons for renting, and the freedom it affords can look sweet from this side of the fence.

I hope you’re having a lovely Saturday.

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Yeah but try to get a landlord to fix something ~when you want it done~. Like on or just before a weekend when you're having visitors. They'll get around to it. And if your upstairs neighbor's toilet overflows, well, deal with that cuz they're out of town. And they keep your heat at 68 in the winter to to spare their precious boiler and fuel bill. Owning is a bit of a ball and chain, but it beats renting by a mile. Maintenance can be hired out, and YOU control the thermostat.

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Aug 19·edited Aug 19

I had a landlord who started replacing the painted cement floor of a shower on Super Bowl weekend and didn't finish the job until I started withholding part of the rent in June. (I was living with a boyfriend who was a plumber and could have installed a fiberglass insert for free if the landlord had bought one.) My experience has been (at least with landlords who recently bought "investment" properties or traded up to larger houses) that they are cheap bastards who try to do things themselves to save money, no matter how long it takes or how badly the job turns out. I also got docked part of my cleaning deposit on another rental because I didn't take down and wash the overhead light fixtures.

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“We’re waiting on a part, it’ll be another two weeks.”

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Two weeks! Fast-tracking it, then.

I ordered a scaffold on Prime Day. It’s supposed to arrive on Tuesday. It hasn’t shipped yet. Daylight’s burning, and summer is packing up and moving on to milder climes, whistling and cheery-like.

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That thermometer thing would be kind of a dealbreaker for me. I have a 4° comfort range, and 68 is the basement. Time to throw another log on the fire. The truth is I like making the decisions. I’m not always thrilled with putting forth the effort myself, but that’s what it takes.

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Yeah, my ability to fix ANYthing extends to picking up the phone - "Hello, maintenance?"

Lifelong renter. Shit, I don't even own basic-ass tools...a source of shame.

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Own it proudly! Someone asks you to hand them a screwdriver, take out a bottle of orange juice…

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Shit, I don't have vodka either. I'mma need to start drinking again. Maybe it'll ease the shame of my toolessness.

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I was envying you your toollessness a few minutes ago when I was putting this up. My screwdriver alas did not have orange juice in it. It’s a big heavy honking deck driver. I want one of those tiny little zip zip zip ones, but no this is what I have. But I like the light now. https://substack.com/profile/1687878-1d57a1d5931d/note/c-65829587?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=106di

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And that's rechargeable? I like it!

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The bulb is rechargeable, and has a little control pad that you can use to Turn it off and on, change the light temperature, set a timer, make it brighter or darker. I think we’re looking at the leading edge of wiring becoming obsolete.

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Parts of our house are almost 100 years old, and despite upgrades/fixes over the years, something always needs attention. The grandfather of a friend used to say, "Get yourself a house and a Ford, and you'll never lack for something to do." I'd add to that "or somewhere to spend money".

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I wonder if income taxes and maybe windfall profits taxes might dampen Big Grocery's appetite for price gouging? I recall one of Erik's articles pointing out that 90% marginal tax rates encouraged fat cats that they may as well pay their employees better, because they weren't going to keep profits above a certain point. Maybe Nestle, just to pick a big co. at random, would behave a little less greedily if they were going to just pay their ill-gotten gains in taxes. And maybe those taxes could go to, say, food stamps or school lunches or something useful to support folks on the other side of the income divide.

Oh shit. Am I a soshulist?

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Yes. Pretty cool, huh?

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So, instead of ranting about childless cat ladies or giving out extra to try to get people to have kids, actually do something about the cost of having a baby? Definitely commie!

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Extra votes (oops)

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She reversed on Medicare-for-all, and fracking, so fuck'em all, .....especially Republicans

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If it isn't obvious already Sir's precipitous decline in cognizance and 'popularity' means his only salvageable value to the MAGOP is that of Martyr. And very very soon the MAGOP will take steps to cement that role.

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I don't want him to leave now. He's doing such a great job of screwing up his own campaign!

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Safe to assume Sir's Hannibal Lecter references are meant to prepare the faithful for seeing Sir wheeled onto the stage strapped to a dolly.

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Problem with FTC implementation of rules is that the Supreme Courtesans have decided that the source of all regulations is in their grasping little hands, not the agencies that actually know what they’re doing.

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Eh, the legislation just has to be specific about rule-making authority. The problem is getting Congress to write and pass legislation in the first place. Whenever a politician calls on Congress to do something that's not already in the works, it's a pretty sure bet it's never gonna happen.

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I know housing is in crisis, we need more housing and especially housing proximate to largely urban areas. I just wish we were doing better than letting developers pound out these schlocky fire hazard looking wood framed and vinyl sided four story condominium and town house loafs surrounded by a sea of parking everywhere. This is the kind of stuff from similar big developers pre 2008 that I know is going to result in lots of remediation of shoddy workmanship and materials doing the maximum they are meant to do. At eh same time these places are selling starting in the low $300s? Really?

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I have a friend who refers to them as mushrooms for how fast they sprout up.

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I predict every ugly ass apartment building put up in my city in the ladt decade is going to be replaced on the next decade due to crap materials and workmanship.

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My next door neighbor died in April. Her husband preceded her by about five years. Their daughter was living with them to look after them. There had been a reverse mortgage taken out a long time ago, and there was no equity left. She couldn't afford to keep it, so a realtor took on the task of selling it. It never even got listed; sold sight unseen for an undisclosed amount, but over the ask of $370K. It started as a miner's shack in 1930 and got added onto now and then. That's how it goes here. Outsiders with cash hoover up all the housing, adding to the local crisis.

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Elizabeth Warren appears to be against hedge funds owning residential property.

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Future Commerce Secretary Elizabeth Warren?

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Nothing new around here goes for less than the mid $600s around these parts.

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10-15 years ago here you could buy a [fixer] house with land for $70-$100k. Normal houses with land $200k. Not now.

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I bought my house for $256k in 2014, did a moderate reno at $52k and sold it for $650k in January.

Crazy market out there.

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Or in my town, there are always buildings that are empty for months, because they were previously businesses and the rent was too high. And then the business changes owners in three months and the whole things starts again. So (and I know next to nothing about business) why not turn them into low income housing instead?

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Now that most retail purchases are made online now, brick and mortar storefronts are losers. Much better use would be housing. Maybe not on Main Street, gotta keep a viable downtown going.

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Not willing to pronounce her first name correctly? How about you go with Ms. Harris? Or better yet, Madame Vice President? (The 'Vice' is only temporary)

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Or just "Nasty"!

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I've always liked thinking about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as a way of understanding the successes and failures of individuals and groups. I started doing that when I befriended a lovely friend who happened to be a drug addict struggling to rise above many challenges (but that's another tale).

The bottom two levels

1. Physiological needs: breathing, food, water, shelter, clothing, sleep

2. Safety and Security: health, employment, property, family and social ability

And levels up from that

3. Love and Belonging

4. Self Esteem

5. Self Actualization

The idea being, a deficit of needs being addressed at lower levels will undercut and block stability at higher levels.

So, about Harris's new policy ideas, and the ideas she and Biden have already championed, I think they are great.

I mean, unless you are all against "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".

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