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Arotrios

@[email protected]

For Amusement Purposes Only.

Changeling poet, musician and writer, born on the 13th floor. Left of counter-clockwise and right of the white rabbit, all twilight and sunrises, forever the inside outsider.

Seeks out and follows creative and brilliant minds. And crows. Occasional shadow librarian.

#music #poetry #politics #LGBTQ+ #magick #fiction #imagination #tech

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[Analysis] Wall Street Stokes Culture War to Fight Swipe Fee Reform ( prospect.org )

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing for a piece of financial reform that would unshackle small businesses and consumers alike from the maw of Visa and Mastercard’s credit card duopoly. Wall Street, in response, is spending millions to thwart the bill’s recent advances by fueling a conservative culture war over gay...

thank you, spez ( moist.catsweat.com )

i have been working through the stages of grief over my dear, departed friend reddit. many years we spent together. it has been clear though, that the reddit governance committees that now exist in the corporate ether have different priorities than those priorities that governed its creation....

Arotrios ,
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The sun always shines brighter on the day you leave an abusive partner. Welcome to what the internet was like before centralization - a playground of imagination, unfettered thought, and unbridled creativity. Congratulations on becoming part of the renaissance that is the Fediverse and breaking free from the stench of the Spezticle.

[Press Release] Introducing the OLIGARCH Act to Tax Extreme Wealth and Combat Aristocracy - Reps. Barbara Lee, Summer Lee, Jamaal Bowman, and Rashida Tlaib ( lee.house.gov )

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representatives Barbara Lee (CA-12), Summer Lee (PA-12), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), and Rashida Tlaib (MI-12)introduced the Oppose Limitless Inequality Growth and Reverse Community Harms (OLIGARCH) Act to tax extreme wealth, reduce inequality, and combat the threat to democracy posed by aristocracy....

Arotrios OP , (edited )
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Depends on how the 2024 elections turn out.

Barbara Lee is targeting Feinstein's seat, and she has enormous pull on the democratic side. She's looking to take the national stage, and I believe that this legislation will be her signature goal during her campaign - while drawing a contrast between herself and Schiff and Porter, who are also eyeing the seat. I think that if the Dems take the house back, and if the public shows strong support for the legislation, there's actually the political capital to get it done, especially if Schumer keeps the Senate.

The tax is actually quite modest (no more than 8% for the highest earners), but it's unique in how it's structured, as it's based off of not of a set number, but the dynamic of median income per year. This is what really caught my attention - this is actually a very smart, modest tax designed to capture as many centrist votes as possible, while insulating the middle class entirely from any fallout - it only starts on incomes that are 1000 times the median wealth. For reference, in 2019, median wealth in America was $140,399, so if the tax were in play then, it would start at wealth totaling over $140,399,000 - and only at 2% at that tier.

So the math is basically very centrist and non-threatening when considering the small number of people it will tax and the modest rates - remember that the capital gains tax used to be over 70% (back when we had things like clean water, affordable housing, and free college).

So do I think it has a shot of getting anywhere? Yes, but not till after the elections, and only if the Dems take the house. If Barbara Lee gets Feinstein's seat, I think it's much more likely - the California delegation usually follows the Senators' lead, and Lee has proven herself a powerbroker in the House already.

Edits: I grammar and spel gud

Arotrios , (edited )
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While this seems evident on its face, there's good reason to draw attention to what's happening here. This isn't just his lawyers scrambling for a defense, this is a coordinated media effort to define the narrative that's being actively pushed through the alt-right media (please use protective gear when viewing that link if you're sensitive to bullshit). They're using the indictments to claim the Dems are weaponizing government against Trump for political reasons, then conflating the charges to treason, and then further claiming that the Dems are trying to send him to the chair for sedition.

Regardless of whether or not you think that possible outcome is fair, it's important to note how it's being used as a rallying cry to further incite the alt-right base to violence, and that this is very much a manufactured narrative push supported by multiple media outlets. I'm glad Vox recognized the trend and decided to stomp on it promptly.

[Analysis] Journal of AMA Study - Gap between GOP and Dem COVID death rates increased by 43% in OH & FL after April, 2021. Conservative Political Rhetoric Now Has an Official Body Count - Esquire ( www.esquire.com )

The Journal of the American Medical Association published a damning report confirming that party affiliation in Ohio and Florida was a risk for dying of Covid-19....

[News] DeSantis-controlled Disney World district gets rid of all diversity, equity and inclusion programs and staffers ( www.nbcnews.com )

ORLANDO, Fla. — Diversity, equity and inclusion programs were abolished Tuesday from Walt Disney World’s governing district, now controlled by appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an echo of the Florida governor’s agenda which has championed curtailing such programs in higher education and elsewhere....

Opinion: Joe Walsh - Trump Is a Dangerous Criminal Who Belongs in Prison ( www.thedailybeast.com )

The four count indictment Special Counsel Jack Smith handed down against Donald Trump alleges that on Jan. 6, approximately two hours after the mob broke into the Capitol, “the Defendant” joined others in the outer Oval Office to watch the attack on television....

Arotrios , (edited )
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While I agree with the article's premises that treason should carry the death penalty, that presidents are not above the law, and that Trump is likely guilty of treason, this is some claptrap alt-right ragebait designed to rile their base.

However, credit where credit is due - clever of use of the misleading headline and the tag - that's some deft upvote farming and propaganda seeding. And I do love this line:

...we may be watching footage of Trump enjoying one last Big Mac and fries in his cell before he is led down the hallway to be strapped into Old Sparky.

indeed... but also

EDIT: OP responded below and the hashtag was just missing its /s - hats off for the edits and clarification.

Arotrios ,
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Upvote - thanks for the clarification and edits, and my apologies for the insinuation. Just used to slick tricks like this from the alt-right and I assumed that the hashtag wasn't tongue in cheek.

Arotrios ,
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I'm hopeful - we're starting to get a lot of traffic over here from redditfugees. @PoppinKREAM showed up a little while ago, and that's a clear sign that the best content creators are making the move.

Because I like to bag on Reddit, here's what I think is happening:

Supposedly they were taking down /r/place today, in the past that's involved an infrastructure change. They are also getting rid of coins and awards and replacing them with some other bullshit, so that's likely to break the site too. That plus the ongoing API changes and Reddit's history of fractalized spaghetti code plus an angry userbase that includes a lot of anon and 4-chan members...

...well, lemme just say that you couldn't pay me enough to be a Reddit admin right now.

Arotrios , (edited ) to Politics
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For fellow redditfugees, you may remember a time when a certain brilliant citizen journalist topped /r/politics with their exquisitely detailed posts on American politics and an amazingly buttery username. Well, today I found out that @PoppinKREAM is now on the Fediverse. I'd like to propose a toast to the work of the best citizen journalist I've ever read. May your work here eclipse your accomplishments on Reddit. Salud PoppinKREAM!

The BBC on Mastodon: experimenting with distributed and decentralised social media ( www.bbc.co.uk )

As the social media landscape ebbs and flows, the team at BBC Research & Development are researching social technologies and exploring possibilities for the BBC. One part of our work is to establish a BBC presence in the distributed collection of social networks known as the Fediverse, a collection of social media applications...

Arotrios ,
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Fun trick, if you write poetry to @BBCRD, you'll get your profile and your post listed on their server.

Proof

Caveat: poetry may or may not be required, but is much appreciated.

Not by the BBC, of course, just me. I always appreciate your poetry.

Arotrios , to Fediverse
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In my humble opinion, the Fediverse beats out all other social media types based on one simple truth - it's a fuckton more fun.

Arotrios OP ,
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I hear you - when starting out, you're not presented with a front-page or /r/all, so you do have to actively look for content.

My suggestion to you would be start following folks, especially across instances, and be liberal with your subscriptions.

Once I got up to about 100 folks on my following list, I started finding a huge amount of active communities to subscribe to through their posts and threads (I'm on Kbin, so we get both Mastodon and Lemmy), which further increased the reach of my feed. Right now, with about 120 folks followed and a similar number of community subscriptions, my feed is beating the pants off of the sad stale crap Reddit is delivering.

Arotrios OP ,
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Good point - didn't realize the WAPO's title wasn't specific. Fixed - thanks!

Arotrios OP ,
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I wasn't sure, and your question got me looking. My answer is I don't think so, at least in California - it was a pretty significant blowout and Trump came away with 75% of the vote. He would have crushed his challengers under either system in CA in 2016, however it's important to note how small the actual voting population in that primary was (2.2 mil in a state with 39mil at the time). The CA republican party is a joke in the state and hasn't won major seat here since Schwartzenegger.

Arotrios OP ,
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IKR? It's amazing what it does for the quality of the posts here.

Be wary of spiteful Reddit users ( kbin.social )

In the past week and a half, I've noticed Reddit behaviors starting to try and poison all of the places that people are taking refuge in to get away from the toxicity, myself included. They've started to DDoS Lemmy for a while, which is a Reddit thing to do and what they're notorious of doing whenever they feel they don't like...

Arotrios ,
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We should reject Reddit toxicity in general, tell them they don't have a place here or anywhere.

Wait, so you're saying we should kick out all ex-Redditors?

First they came for the Redditors, and I said nothing
Then they came for the Facebookers, and still I said nothing
Then they came for the Instagramians, and still I said nothing
Then they came for the Twits, and I laughed and laughed and laughed until I vomited
Then they came for the OnlyFans, and I think they're still coming

Arotrios ,
@Arotrios@kbin.social avatar

To be fair, Aaron wasn't really heavily involved with Reddit. He was involved with Infogami, which failed and was merged with Reddit. Per this post, he got equity in Reddit as a result, but only worked for a few months on the actual site.

After his death and the media portrayal of him as a martyr for free speech, Reddit started claiming him as "co-founder" much more vocally than they had previously. While technically he had that title, his involvement on Reddit was neither starting the company nor working on it for any extended period of time.

That being said, given what Reddit's become, wherever his spirit roams now, I'm sure he's relieved to have his name off the site.

Arotrios ,
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Congrats, you get a cookie. Now toddle on kiddo.

Arotrios ,
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This is like an incel posting on a dating site after calling all women whores.

Arotrios , to Fediverse
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I hereby triple dog dare Elon Musk to get a Fediverse account. Lemmy, Mastodon, I don't care. I just want more popcorn.

Arotrios OP ,
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Apparently I forgot my /s, apologies to anyone I inadvertently terrified.

Arotrios OP ,
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I get the sentiment, but personally I never liked those, as they just reinforce the us vs. them narrative without doing much to keep it from happening again, and as someone who loves America (flawed as it is), I can't take pleasure in the preventable deaths of my fellow citizens, regardless of their partisan beliefs.

At the same time, I think they do serve a purpose in drawing attention to the hypocrisy of the anti-vaccine movement when awarded to a celebrity outspoken in their refusals to trust the science. But when they end up giving awards to some unknown Alabama grandma, making her 15 seconds of internet fame a eulogy on her idiocy, then it moves from the realm of political mockery to cruelty.

Arotrios , to Politics
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So I'm reminded today that the Republican Party hasn't released an update to their policy platform since 2016. Seeing as they're having money troubles and all, I thought I'd ask the Fediverse to help out.

So Fediverse, in your opinion, what is the current policy platform of the Republican party?

If you can provide links to specific legislation (passed or pending) or news articles that support your answer, all the better.

Arotrios ,
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From the article - be warned, it's a TwitX link.

Arotrios ,
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Yeah. I sincerely hope Kate Bush's lawyers get a copy.

Arotrios ,
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Raising it only kicks the problem further down the road. The minimum wage needs to be tied to the local average cost of living and dynamically adjust on a year to year basis accordingly to accomplish the original goal of allowing a full-time worker to support themselves on it. Without dynamic yearly adjustments, inflation and political apathy will simply put us back in the same place 10 years down the road.

This is the fight we should be fighting, not for a number, but for a law that makes it illegal to hire someone at a wage below the cost of living.

How a Billionaire’s “Attack Philanthropy” Secretly Funded Climate Denialism and Right-Wing Causes - an exposé on the secretive Barre Seid ( www.propublica.org )

Emails and interviews reveal privacy-obsessed electronics magnate Barre Seid’s long history of backing efforts to attack climate science, fight Medicaid expansion, and remake the higher education system in a conservative mold....

Dark Money - Clarence Thomas got a personal media campaign worth at least $1.8 million from conservative nonprofit groups led by lobbyist Leonard Leo, part of $1.6 billion in donated by Barre Seid to Leo. ( www.washingtonpost.com )

Leo is well-known for shepherding conservative judicial nominees, but the public relations campaign shows how he has continued to exert influence in support of right-leaning justices after helping them secure lifetime appointments....

Arotrios OP ,
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Weird, didn't notice. Turn off javascript and you shouldn't have an issue.

Arotrios ,
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The moment I saw this headline this song popped into my head for some reason...

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    Arotrios OP , (edited )
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    Looks like Georgia is setting the stage for the Feds go RICO on him.

    Which brings up an interesting point:

    Civil RICO

    Even though RICO threatens very long prison terms for racketeers, the law's real power is its civil component. Anyone can bring a civil suit if they've been injured by a RICO violation, and if they win, receive treble damages. In the 1980s, civil lawyers attempted to fit many different claims inside of RICO, but in the 1990s the federal courts set up a number of hurdles for civil RICO claims. To succeed on a RICO claim, a plaintiff must show:

    Criminal Activity. You must show that the defendant committed one of the enumerated RICO crimes, which include the broad crimes of mail and wire fraud. If you bring a claim on a fraud basis, however, the court will apply strict scrutiny.

    Pattern of Criminal Activity. One crime is not enough. You have to show a pattern of at least two crimes. A pattern requires the crimes be related in some way—same victim, same methods, same participants—or continuous, meaning it was conducted over at least a year.

    Within the Statute of Limitations. The Supreme Court held that RICO has a four-year statute of limitations, which begins tolling from the time the victim discovers his or her damages.

    So, anyone wanna guess how many Trump donors would have a case here?

    Arotrios OP ,
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    Not too sure about that. Your rank and file may not, but there are some very wealthy previous supporters who are not pleased with the way things have been going with GOP finances. Rupert Murdock, for instance, is supporting DeSantis, and he's not pleased with having to pay in the Dominion lawsuit for Trump's lies. If Trump is convicted criminally, I think a whole lot of sharks are going to start smelling blood in the water when treble damages are involved.

    Arotrios ,
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    Well, it's definitely doing a number on Spez right now -let's find out if some of that energy can be turned to stopping bad legislation - here's the direct action link for those in the US.

    Arotrios , to Fediverse
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    So after stumbling across this patently absurd bit of Russian propaganda from noagendasocial.com, I'd thought I'd stroll on over to the instance and see what the fuck is going on over there. After all, it's run by Adam Curry of MTV VJ fame and the so-called podfather, so it's gotta be just one bad apple, right?

    Holy fuck, it's like walking into FSB propaganda machine made for Trumptards. That one bad apple is a power user with the top rated post, an anti-LGBTQ+ meme.

    @adam what the absolute hell? You used to be cool when I was 8 and watching MTV. Did you lose your morality and ethics when you cut your hair?

    Arotrios OP ,
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    Dude, that's a really stupid meme, not a counterpoint.

    Arotrios OP ,
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    <insert pigeon playing chess analogy here>

    Blocked, kid. You ain't worth the air I'd expend responding.

    Arotrios OP ,
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    And another childhood icon bites the dust...

    Didn't realize noagendasocial already had a reputation, thanks for the heads up. Thankfully kbin can block by domain, but I'm vaguely curious to see if he'll respond.

    Arotrios OP , (edited )
    @Arotrios@kbin.social avatar

    @adam

    Holy shit. Given the source, I think that's best praise I've ever gotten in my life. I'm gonna go put that on my profile. @TokyoMonsterTrucker hit me up if you wanna go grab a beer to celebrate.

    Seriously though, Adam, you need to take a step back and realize what your toy has become - you're gonna end up with blood on your hands if you keep letting this hate spread. Maybe take a night off and watch The Fisher King - I think it speaks to someone in your position, and when you've got Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges in the cast, you know it's gonna be good.

    EDIT: A month later, and it's become clear I'm the one of the few dozens on the Fediverse who actually remember who Adam Curry was. No point in wasting the real estate on my profile for a troll fading into obscurity.

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