There's a cat in that image

You look really cute

Shrinkflation noobs. Never specify the size of a (pseudo-)prepared product. It's better to use abstract terms like large, extra large, and jumbo that can be shrunk down in size without increasing legal liability down whenever you wish to juice your profits a bit (/s)

Definitely not genocide /s

Great article. Nice to see an economist doing such important work. I don't really understand finances. I snipped the parts of the article that helped me understand the finding/headling. There's a great chart in the article of taxation differences since the 1960s too - staggering! Plutocracy in action!

Published in The New York Times with the headline "It's Time to Tax the Billionaires," Zucman's analysis notes that billionaires pay so little in taxes relative to their vast fortunes because they "live off their wealth"—mostly in the form of stock holdings—rather than wages and salaries.

Stock gains aren't currently taxed in the U.S. until the underlying asset is sold, leaving billionaires like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk—a pair frequently competing to be the single richest man on the planet—with very little taxable income.

"But they can still make eye-popping purchases by borrowing against their assets," Zucman noted. "Mr. Musk, for example, used his shares in Tesla as collateral to rustle up around $13 billion in tax-free loans to put toward his acquisition of Twitter."

That litter box should have been changed a while ago. Poor cat

Sounds like a lot of pollution and human suffering

I'm really sorry you were put through that. In my experience hospitals are very power hierarchy-centric workplaces and physicians and administrators are very cishet and very privileged, leaving ample room for discrimination. This is probably a pretty stark contrast to the values that led you to pursue nursing.

You were unjustly discriminated against, but you have a good degree. My encouragement would be to try to lick your wounds and find another nursing job. I've heard nurses say that primary care settings are better jobs than hospitals, and public health nursing sounds neat too. If you can get a role in a service dedicated to caring for transpeople, might that be the dream, dream job?

Rooting for you <3

In the fall, Jezebel reported how a bipartisan bill ostensibly meant to protect children from harmful content online could be weaponized by Republican politicians to censor everything from LGBTQ+ content to sex ed info to abortion resources—and for all internet users, not just children.

This is so dystopian

It's completely normalized already! Oops, maybe you meant hatred of republicans ;P

Without knowing Israel's political landscape, I'm inclined to agree, but I don't think 'a referendum on our policies' is part of the right-wing playbook

With Over 10,000 infants and children killed in Israel’s Gaza genocide, hundreds of whom are trapped beneath debris, this is so dystopian

Crap, I use FMovies. If the site is making headlines like this I'm probably going to need another site soon

Abortion rights and a free Palestine!

I’d say in about 2 years, the entire place is going to be bots with AI generated content that try to mimic “real users” using their new Dynamic Product Ads tool

Yeah, it's just partially like that now lol. A few weeks ago there was a side-by-side reddit screenshot post on Lemmy. It showed the exact same reddit post, with the exact same tens of comments (all word for word, some in response to each other iirc), from different accounts less than a year apart. 100% fabrication. I'd never seen such extensive bot-masquerading as people behaviour; it was a realization moment for me

I think the tech companies believe they'll get good PR for a bill that purports to be about child safety. In actuality, the bill will allow them to censor anything they want on their platforms while sidestepping criticism about curtailing free speech because they can say "we're just trying not to get sued; if you have a problem, take it up with Washington"

I'm sorry if this is not the comment you were looking for, but I think I hear where you're coming from and I empathize a lot with you and your current situation. It sounds like you're in an overwhelming amount of pain right now. It sounds like you're having issues with HRT working properly, finances, loneliness, and depression. Social media can be a nice distraction, but it can also magnify our pain and distract us from trying to tackle it. You're feeling hopeless right now, and that's completely valid and understandable given your situation. But try not to interpret it as evidence that things are permanently broken and not worthwhile. It's evidence that you're in a really tough place and could really use some compassion right now. Hearing you say that you started HRT 2 years ago suggests to me that there is something you really want and that you're motivated to pursue it. Maybe there's something to be gained in trying to accept that things haven't gone perfectly over the last 2 years, asking yourself what you need, and trying some new things. Some more medical insight to optimize your HRT and some community sound like they'd be helpful. Returning to your hometown doesn't sound like it excites you, but maybe your familiarity there can work to your advantage. I like the saying "it's always darkest just before the dawn." I hope things start to get better for you and soon. If you're overwhelmed, setting small goals or a "one day at a time" approach can be a good strategy. Virtual hug <3

If I came across these, I think I'd have to buy one, in solidarity with my favourite social media platform. The peach one sounds yum!

And this is the most disgusting thing I've read today. The world's moving in a great direction /s

Three cheers for Jordan and France!!! To the rest of the world: Wake tf up and get on the moral right side of history

Shrewd analysis - thanks for sharing!

Not to be too cynical, but like is Uber going to be delivering Pizza Hut? Are there 'gig economy' laws in place in California? How's that going to work? Are workers going to be forced into an even less regulated labour market?

This is an interesting reflection point for me. When so few people in positions of power have spoken out about what's happening in Gaza, 'just' speaking out about something - particularly by those in power - has never seemed so important, of value, and inspiring to me. I don't know if this is the first time that the Pope has spoken out about this since Oct 7th, but I'm pleased that he has now in his Christmas Message. I note that this story appeared in Al Jazeera - let's see how many North American papers publish it.

“May it [peace] come in Israel and Palestine, where war is devastating the lives of those peoples. I embrace them all, particularly the Christian communities of Gaza and the entire Holy Land,” Francis said.

“I plead for an end to the military operations with their appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims, and call for a solution to the desperate humanitarian situation by an opening to the provision of humanitarian aid,” he said.

The Vatican, which has diplomatic relations with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, believes a two-state solution is the only answer to the long-running conflict. Francis called for “persevering dialogue between the parties, sustained by strong political will and the support of the international community”.

Dedicating an entire paragraph of his message to the weapons trade, Francis said: “And how can we even speak of peace, when arms production, sales and trade are on the rise?” He called for more investigation of the armaments trade. “It should be talked about and written about, so as to bring to light the interests and the profits that move the puppet strings of war,” he said.

Light treason

Wow, this hits hard. Best social commentary I've ever seen from a comic

One of the coolest photos I've ever seen. I like mountains amid the human development too

The greatest barrier to reducing climate change is the ultra wealth financing denialism of climate change and the tight grip they have on what the average person thinks is real through immense lobbying, owning media outlets and controlling what they publish, and unlimited disinformation campaigns. Maybe it's frowned upon to talk about those things at such a rich university, but if you're not talking about those things are you really helping the situation or are you maintaining the delusional status quo of "we can get to it when we get to it"

I'm a little out of the loop, but I'd guess they're trying to build precedent such that if an IVF embryo has 'fetal rights' or whatever they term it, then the same will apply to pregnancy at the earliest stages. And they can say: No abortions 1 day after pregnancy or something like that.

The attack on reproductive rights is unconscionable

I wonder how much support Horton and other public-facing reporters get from their employers in response to online harassment (e.g., email/IP blocking, sending cease and desist letters, private investigation, psychological support). I haven't fully thought through the ramifications of those actions, but it seems to me that these reporters receive abuse because of the nature of their employment and thus it behooves employers to protect their employees. I suspect, however, the reporters are left to defend themselves and told "that's the nature of the job." But, if true, I think that lack of employer protection/support helps fuel this kind of harassment

https://web.archive.org/web/20240229202618/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/no-legitimate-business-purpose-trump-sued-by-truth-social-business-partners/ar-BB1j7hc6 :

Former President Donald Trump is now being accused in a lawsuit of intentionally devaluing the media company he co-owns with two associates who met him as contestants on his reality TV show "The Apprentice."

https://web.archive.org/web/20240229202348/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/29/truth-social-lawsuit-trump-media-founders/ :

The case could complicate a long-delayed bid by Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of the social network Truth Social, to merge with a special purpose acquisition company called Digital World Acquisition and become a publicly traded company.

That merger deal, which could value Trump’s stake in the company at more than $3 billion, would offer the former president a financial lifeline at a time when he is facing more than $454 million in penalties from a civil fraud judgment this month in New York.

Yup. https://www.reuters.com/technology/intel-get-32-billion-government-grant-new-25-billion-israel-chip-plant-2023-12-26/

I think they were being sarcastic, playing with the criticizing Israel's government = antisemitism nonsense

That's creepy af

Honestly, the one thing that really surprises me about this war is how little the Israeli government cares about the hostages.

Sadly, I think the Israeli government might be aware that there are fewer live hostages to come home than people think after the IDF gave the Hannibal directive on October 7th.

The possibility of "friendly fire" has been discussed more widely in Israeli news than US/Western news. For example, here's an opinion piece in Israeli's current oldest paper (refresh the page, which doesn't seem to load properly the first time):

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-12-13/ty-article-opinion/.premium/if-israel-used-a-procedure-against-its-citizens-we-need-to-talk-about-it-now/0000018c-6383-de43-affd-f783212e0000

The accounts of the only two survivors of the hostage-taking incident in Be'eri on October 7 give the impression that the Israel Defense Forces employed the so-called Hannibal Directive with the people being held hostage by Hamas inside one of the houses on the kibbutz. When it is implemented, the Hannibal Directive allows the military to endanger a soldier to prevent them from being kidnapped.

This is terrifying, I'm glad the BBC published it

Yup. Also, France's Foreign Minister referring to Israel as the Jewish State sounds to me like another attempt to conflate valid criticism of Israel's unconscionable actions against Palestinians in the last 3 months and agenda (i.e., genocide) with "antisemitism" as a way of invalidating that criticism and redirecting attention to another topic

80% of the country wants us to continue our support of Israel or to do even more

Source?

I have no problems with the departure of a newspaper editor who censors criticism of Israel while Israel commits genocide. The paper's owner, however, caught my intrigue. A billionaire who's pro-Palestine, owns a newspaper, and has largely respected the editorial independence of that newspaper -- seems like a rare breed of billionaire

“how a dictator behaves”

Israel trying to take the moral high ground - LMFAO

I was introduced to Wayne Brady through Chappelle's Show :) I like his coming out, and the thoughtful message he gave. As a wealthy, middle-aged Black celebrity and comic, I think he may be quite influential in opening others' minds and hearts. Also, I'm glad there's a text summary here, because I'd never visit TT