"We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes." - Leona Helmsley. (~ 1989)

(Convicted of extortion; sentenced to 16 years; released after months.) Her husband's death left her with the Helmsley hotels, the Helmsley Palace and the Empire State Building. (Yes, that one.)

I ... don't get it. What is the purpose of a tax writeoff? Suppose it saves them money this year. But they lose a much larger profit. Is it being saved for later when their fortunes are lower?

IMO owning an unoccupied house thats off-market, or prohibitively-priced is probably a gambling chip.

IF there are ANY families in the same county that are homeless, it should begin being taxed as a gambling-chip. Sell-it very soon or it may used for a free shelter for however it remains unoccupied by the owner.

While YT is playing its games, I've found a half-dozen other ways to get at the videos. Very educational. I'm thinking they are learning a whole bunch about what people think of their way-too-aggressive approach ... and how people usually respond to that behavior.

It's my opinion that housing is so basic a need that no house should be allowed to use for a gambling chip.

The 'housing market' needs to be broken in favor of individual ownership. (For many, speculation has driven ownership out of reach.)

Only individuals may purchase individual homes, and must agree to occupy them as their primary and only residences until they sell and vacate them. (Live-in landlords included, e.g. boarders.)

As part of the deal, they must first find another individual buyer (under the same terms) for their present home.

(Futher stipluations needed, but none that permit violation of the above principle. )

Hmm. Sure, Vlad. Wait: how much will that pay, per child per month?

There might be a slim chance. But in the words of mid-20th-century writer Robert Anton Wilson,

"Under the present brutal and primitive conditions on this planet, every person you meet should be regarded as one of the walking wounded. We have never seen a man or woman not slightly deranged by either anxiety or grief. We have never seen a totally sane human being."

Eventually there has to be one, so try to hold on to that idea.

After the thousands of years of human history I've read about, getting rid of competitors seems to have been the primary concern of most of the ruling classes all over the world. Way back to Ur.

Who has referred to vets as losers and suckers.

Stop googling! Try your search 'Donald trump Antichrist' at duckduckgo. The link at my first DDG result pointed out this article: https://hartmannreport.com/p/is-donald-trump-the-antichrist

What's weird to me is that people think that a 2000-year-old story of mixed historicity (a story which fell into the control of the Romans and their church ... and 2000 years later the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' fell into the hands of scholars who failed to publish for decades) ... that has been translated and interpreted and re-interpreted by anyone/everyone that whole time ... can be relied on for any clues at all. The prophesy may have already happened, or simply be a horror story to scare children.

Desperate strategy they're hoping will fool some of the people some of the time.

Trusting complete strangers with highly personal information is never a good idea. Even if they promise to take good care of it, before or after they've already got your money.

Oh well ... at least we've still got Popular Mechanics.

KInda stupid question, innit? If I still have it, I don't think it's a misconception. You'd have to tell me.

But then, anyone can make a mistake. Doesn't make you a bad person. I make mistakes every day. I shouldn't have said stupid, I should said... whatever they call it now. Meathead?

Don't respond in any way to whatever they say about each other.

The how part.

I'd say that a vacant home - any place (lots of them) where the homeless are dying in the streets of hypothermia - is owned by a garbage human.

I haven't seen a valuation on Youtube ... but recently saw that Twitter sold for $44B and X is now at $12B.

I've enjoyed viewing YT videos for many years ... learned A LOT ... and thought quite highly of them. I can see charging to see long films (bandwidth and licenses isn't cheap) ... but piling ads on top of thousands of private people trying to help others out (for little profit)? Ads on educational programming? Yeah... it's WORSE than what Cable did to films.

Reminds me of that old song lyric ...

Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss

US RDA age 19+ is 8 mg / day. Maybe if the iron bar is really rusty. Or, pills are cents a day. OR you could eat breakfast cereal or liver, lentils or spinach, Popeye.

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/iron-HealthProfessional/#h2

Saves me the bother and time of visiting many sites on a regular basis to see what's new. RSS is delivered to me.

By choosing what I sign up for, I know what I think I'm going to get and will soon unsubscribe if not. If so I miss nothing. Same reason people prefer purchases of things they know they want to be delivered to them. THAT'S "modern times" to me! You only drive to the store if there's a reason to.

AND they might have had miniature cameras in them for the past 20 years.

(The laws against this stuff are almost non-existing. Option left for those of us creeped out by constant surveillance: don't leave home, unplug that webcam. Demand privacy or lose it.)

Obviously we have to impose a way to make them care much more about that. (If they can stand the shock of a better grip on reality or not.)

When I first tried swimming, it took me quite a while to get to the floating point.

Looks like I'll need to switch to one of those browsers that only take and show characters I can type on a keyboard. Like F and U.

Makes it look like they're doing something about crime. Doesn't stop anyone from selling or buying them one, though, does it?

Some years back, we made a trip to make/selling some simple food at a weekend street-fair (travelling to a bigger town about 100 miles away). One item only but with several ingredients ... non-cheap, fresh , high-quality. Two people, cleared (in today's dollars) about $1000 in two afternoons. It was different from what other vendors were selling, simple, $2 a shot, great-tasting.

My morals would go out the 'Robin Hood' door.

Dear Alex, Welcome to Waking Life !!

Think you meant conjugal visits. Answer: down to 4 states; https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-defense/state-felony-laws/states-that-allow-conjugal-visits

An apartment-building owner WHO LIVES IN the building year-around might be in accord. (My own GG-ma ran a boarding-home for income after her husband died.)

Glad to hear that! Yep he's got a sense of humor -and- knows his stuff.

All war is insane. Repeat ALL.

Generally stirred up by those with the most to gain. Make them fight it out then. Anyone else is killed, THAT'S a crime.

And there are always ONLY losers.

Not complaint but suggestion: When I get to the bottom of a column of msgs and click the NEXT button ... page should scroll to the top!

(I use an FM radio tuned to a spot where there are no signals. Doubles as an FM radio during the day.)

(Use the tone controls for more or less white or brown noise.)

Blaming another business? Hmmm. Sounds like Boeing's attempted solution.

The better the film is, the less likely it gets a sequel. (Or an Oscar.)

Blade Runner, for example. Released in 1982. Oh sure, it got one in 2015 ... because the slo-mo's had 33 years to catch up. And half the original audience was no longer around to mock it.

Close, I liked Marvin. It IS all so depressing.

In my fairly long time on this planet, my experience of 'human traits' has been much more positive than yours. As for leaders, yes, many are selfish. Luckily they and their disease can be avoided, and many people have grown past being infected by it.

Their kind of 'success' is reflected in their smallness and misery. Be careful ...The old 'As you reap...' adage is actually a fact.

I'm never surprised at the middle east's violent co-existence. They've been at it for ten thousand years. They wouldn't know what to do without it. Hatfields and McCoys? Ireland and England? Wannabes.

Not until there hasn't been any for a century. P.S. Best of luck.

Sewers. Ever visited an outhouse in a place where it's 0 degrees out? yOw!

Or carried two pails of water 2 blocks, twice, to start heating it while you did it 3 more times for the rest of your bath? Lots of people still do that.