radix @ radix @lemmy.world

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542

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2 yr. ago

The conventional wisdom is that Social Security is a so-called "Third Rail" of politics. Nobody is going to touch that and live to tell the tale.

Of course, we would have had a similar thought about non-controversial stuff like "cooperating with the World Health Organization," so there are no guarantees, but wholesale restructuring of the program would (hopefully) cause more backlash than any politician wants to deal with.

The blueprints he's working from doesn't say anything about SS by name: https://www.newsweek.com/what-project-2025-could-do-social-security-1923892

Despite being over 900 pages long and spanning most of the departments of government, including defense, homeland security, agriculture, education and energy, the mandate text does not provide direct policy positions on Social Security or its government agency.

That's not to say the program will be entirely unaltered, but that page suggests the extent of the (public) policy proposals seems to be raising the retirement age by a few years. Not great, but nobody seems to be loudly advocating for slashing existing benefits.

It can happen, but it's hard to imagine that it could change the outcome.

https://www.npr.org/sections/biden-transition-updates/2020/12/14/946080856/who-are-electors-and-how-do-they-get-picked

Generally speaking, the parties send a slate of names to be electors. If Trump wins a state, the electors sent by the GOP are sent to Washington. If Harris wins, the Dem electors are sent. Many (not all) states outlaw faithless electors.

When it does occasionally happen, it's a useless vote that wouldn't have changed anything anyway. For a group of party loyalists to all work together to flip the outcome would be ... unimaginable, frankly.

You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.

I don't see the original source (probably some dense campaign finance disclosures), but there's some numbers going around on bluesky the last day or two:

Trump's "small dollar" donations are only like 1/4 of what they were four years ago. Three different billionaires have each spent more than all the normal people combined.

The grassroots support sure seems like it has cratered, and he's being puppeted into a virtual tie by a very small number of people.

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/agatha-all-along-budget-marvel-brad-winderbaum-1236167398/

Winderbaum also claims the show has the best continuation rate of any Marvel show

Disney, and streaming in general, makes a huge point to measure audience retention. That's the metric they're using as "success."

Actually explains a lot of decisions by game publishers the last 5-10 years if their official position is that games are meant to collect dust on a shelf rather than being played.

Undocumented Immigrant Offending Rate Lower Than U.S.-Born Citizen Rate

This study offers one logical conclusion: if you want a safer country, deport native-born Texans.

Hanks larger point is that you can answer a lot of questions in life by being more curious than suspicious.

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/08/being-the-first-name-on-the-ballot-has-a-huge-effect/

https://www.khou.com/article/news/verify/do-candidates-who-appear-first-on-ballot-have-advantage/285-fd2626f2-633d-47a6-aef8-9ae45fa29ff4

https://www.npr.org/2016/07/27/487577930/why-the-first-name-on-the-ballot-often-wins

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Jack left bsky a while ago.

Forget the rebels, why build the death star(s) in the first place?

It's easier, faster, and waaaaay more effective to just send a few dozen small ships throughout the galaxy with an extra hyperdrive or two to be ready to blow up any planet with some space junk. Any time. Any place. No centralized base for the rebels to stop.

If this is US, find your state labor board here:

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/contacts

It's a very specific question, so probably won't be spelled out exactly on any website, but you should be able to contact somebody with more knowledge of the laws in your area.

I appreciate the 30 second heads up of which exact previous scenes will be important in the upcoming episode.

Even if I've just binged a bunch, and don't need a recap of the broader story arc, there may have been a name drop or specific reference that could have been missed.

Something like 63% of the US population identifies as Christian. That number is over 75% in Latin America.

If they really wanted more Christians, they'd welcome the immigrants. But that's just an excuse to cover for the racism.

They're streaming in the 3d world detail, but the rendering engine is installed locally.

Playing on xCloud will just stream in the visuals that are rendered remotely, so a lot less bandwidth, but then you have the lag, and need a subscription.

SPF-1701

I know this isn't what you're asking, but there are two Mount Olympuses (?!) in the USA.

The one in Washington has a similar prominence to the Greek mountain (2,389 m to 2,353 m).

The one in Utah has a similar peak elevation (2,752 m vs 2,918 m).

The UFO could be issued a citation for taking an unauthorized vehicle on a public roadway, which would give you a very strong case to have them pay for any damages to your car in the event of a collision.

However, if you don't have full coverage, or uninsured motorist coverage at least, you will be in for a battle with your insurance company when they can't track down the other driver (pilot?).

As always, defensive driving is your best bet. Avoid the collision and none of the other details matter.

The math might change if it's one of those anal probe aliens, though. No judgement if that's your thing, but I also won't blame anyone for avoiding that situation even if it costs them a few out of pocket repairs.

There's also Ulysses S. Grant. The "S" was apparently just a mistake on his enrollment at West Point. His birth name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. He tried to switch his first and middle names, but ended up with the initials USG instead of UHG.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ulysses-S-Grant