Yes, with a caveat.
Create a single-issue party for something like free healthcare, with your sole goal to be to drain votes from Democrats. Gain enough traction, and that party will welcome you into the fold with open arms, and will actually fucking listen to your issue as their primary platform.
That’s all well and good, but don’t just sit back and hope that healthcare magically improves, or that other healthcare CEO’s start getting their life claims denied.
Take the current well of anger, and point it towards politicians that will actually fight for free healthcare. It’s not only a public health emergency, but also a “crime” emergency, and one of safety.
It’s easy to sit behind a keyboard and laugh. It’s slightly harder to sit behind a keyboard and email your local reps. It’s again slightly harder to rally at your local reps office hours or town halls for free healthcare.
I mentioned this elsewhere, but I wonder if this will drive Europe towards aligning with China.
With the Russian economy struggling, many of its oligarchs can either share their insane wealth to prop up the war effort, or they can ask China for help. If Europe were to broker closer ties with China over the US, would they favour growth with Europe over propping up a failed war? Losing its biggest ally might be enough to make Putin decide that it’s simply not worth it, to declare victory, and retreat back.
Those looking to succeed Putin are also likely looking at how easy it might be to oust an ageing leader, and to do basic shit like revoking a war to rebuild a global economy. I’m not saying that the Kremlin are likely going to rejoin the fold any time soon, but unfucking everything couldn’t be easier.
For many, they seek the easiest option.
They oppose what they’re told is “wrong”. However, tell that person that you could escalate a war that’ll last a generation, or let your friend surrender and die to shut Russia up, they’ll take the option that turns the sad Ukraine news off and puts the attention back on them.
To the average Trump voter, the government should stfu about Ukraine and Palestine, and focus on the very important fact that things cost too much.
I work in big tech, and in the US there is a lot of money being thrown at knowledge workers. IMO it’s not a bad thing, but I do wish that other workers also got their fair share.
Regardless, the dirty secret of these companies is that a big part of your compensation is usually restricted stock units, and when you relocate through work to a different country you usually get to keep the same amount of stock. You’ll get a good base pay, but your stock once vested will usually put you leaps and bounds above the average pay.
So, work for one of these companies that pays stock, and move to the UK, France, Germany, somewhere with a MUCH cheaper cost of living and better social net. At a high enough level, you could arguably quit your job and prop up your future salary from interest.
Absolutely 100% this.
To be totally blunt, this doesn’t need political backing. This requires people collectively coming together, forming unions with single-focus, and pushing for an increase in pay to align with the cost of living. Hell, if anything it’s better if Trump and his lackies oppose this, because you ultimately have the power to cripple these businesses via strikes, forming your own cooperatives off the back of your soon-to-be previous employers, or simply signalling to businesses that if they cannot afford to pay people enough money they shouldn’t be in business.
Push for gradual increase year-on-year until pay is aligned. If this is missed, everyone walks. Push for the removal of limited sick pay, and for 25+ days minimum vacation time a year. Leave it at that, and you’ve got terms that 90% of workers will agree to. Can’t get a single company to agree? Create a professional body for your line of work and promote it as the place to be for those in your field. Push for accreditation for roles, and shun those that avoid it.
Many of our airports are also owned by foreign companies. My local airport is owned primarily by the Canadian public pensions fund…
I think some would accept it more if public transport was good, but getting the train into London is so expensive I could literally put a deposit on a flat up north for the price of a season ticket. I’m literally self-funding a visa to the US for a third of the price of my train ticket to London…
The Lizzy Line is my line when I go to the office, so I hope they don’t fuck it up more than it can be. It’s usually reliable, but when it isn’t, fuck me it’s a nightmare…
I had discussed it with my wife. I didn’t want her to feel obligated to do so, and I know it would be awkward at her work to change her last name, but ultimately she wanted to - so I guess that’s one reason?
There is a degree of closeness from it that I think some people appreciate. If you all share a last name, perhaps you feel closer as a family? I’ve known some people that don’t share the same last name as their kids, or people that went double-barrelled, but didn’t with their kids, and some of them had either changed later, or regretted not having the “same” name.
Easy.
No one outside of the fediverse bubble gives a fuck about federation. It solves a problem no one has, and offers no real solutions to problems users have.
Mastodon offers nothing on the Twitter experience outside of “but it’s federated”
It absolutely fucking BAFFLES me that Brooks’ Law isn’t known by every software manager on the planet.
I’ve quoted it so many times at work, even in engineering focused teams in at least two big tech companies. It’s not a concrete fact, but it explains why so many teams are hilariously shit at delivering software.
Oh boy, I’ve seen a few:
At a startup, one dude had obviously lied about his credentials. He was hired as a writer, but couldn’t write shit. He spent the entire day hitting on women and bitching about how his ex wanted support for a child he wasn’t convinced was his. He was fired about 3 days in…
When I was a student, I worked at a sports store. One girl there was, let’s say, packing in the chest compartment. She was also about 17, maybe 18. Most people were nice enough to not hit on her, but one day the security guard (who was maybe late thirties at the youngest) made a comment to me to say “I would absolutely destroy her back door, you know?” (but slightly more graphic). I told management, and she was brought in. She broke down, and went over all the off-hand comments he’d made to her. The manager immediately walked out, told him he was fired, and apologised to her.
An old employer hired this guy who was a Microsoft MVP nominee. The guy was one of those types that could talk brilliantly, but couldn’t take criticism. He listened to me, as I was senior, but ignored anything from managers or people at his level. To cut a long story short (I could write a book on this guy, and it would be hilarious) he lied about a project he worked on solo for six months. After checking in on his work we found he had bypassed our PR system and had been accepting all of his own requests, so no one has verified his code. It was an absolute mess. It cost the company a quarter of a million, for a project that should have brought in £50k. We later found out he was a nominee because he was so active on some Microsoft support forums, and mostly got that through posting “yeah I had the same problem” or from supplying easy or wrong answers. That loophole was closed shortly after…
Isn’t this a bit like saying that because I drive a German car that’s maintained by the dealership, it’s not my car?
I’m sure it wouldn’t be tricky for the UK to move the Trident weapons program closer to home, or to align with allies in Europe (lol).
Go to your Democratic party and demand change.
Find a candidate that will stand on the basis of free healthcare, equal rights, the right to union, enforcing a higher minimum wage, enforcing paid sick leave and a minimum of 20 days holiday a year, and committing to lowering the cost of living.
Once someone stands up for this, push them to the moon for the next four years. Tell anyone else NOT on this platform to fuck off.
Essentially, America needs a Project 2029.
Maybe try:
Many also don’t truly “pay” for things. They leverage debt against their assets, essentially like a fancy credit card that says “I own MegaCorp, you know I’m good for it, just send the bills to this wealth management firm”.
So it’s not out of the realms of possibility to say that a billionaire is actually spending very little money, ever. What they have is essentially gifts from whoever manages their assets, and that company just skims whatever things “cost”.
IMO taxing wealth is what’s needed, but it needs to be framed in a way that makes a billionaire want to invest in their country through high taxes. Make it a privilege that is praised, and ostracise those business that excuse themselves from contributing.
I got into cooking during lockdown, and have managed to get surprisingly good at it, to the point where if you asked me to make a meal of your choosing I could probably make it without looking up a recipe. It’s actually unbelievably simple to make even complex stuff, basically using all the same rules you apply at work:
When I was a kid, the saying (here in the UK) was “right ear, right queer”.
And how will that help those that are struggling with healthcare costs? Frankly, I’m shocked it’s taken this long for America to shoot the shit out of these cunts, but you’ve shot one dude - and a new CEO is probably rubbing their hands with glee with replacing them and getting that big fat bonus.
Make the change that will help people, rather than the one that satisfies your exec-level death kink.