aquafunkalisticbootywhap

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: September 10th, 2023

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  • If there arent enough people to sign up, the settlement wont be large enough for the law firm to bother pursuing a small settlement. If enough people only signed up for these if the firm was willing to seek actual punitive damages, theyd have to do that if they wanted the case at all.

    If the firm is only going to get 100 people to sign on, ATT wouldnt agree to a $177m settlement in the first place. “So a mass movement to force a fundamental shift in this system? that’ll never happen” - Im trying to point out that we’re the ones enabling the system to fail us as consumers, and we collectively have the power to force law firms to seek higher settlements (or actually try to win cases), which would deter companies from cutting so many corners when it comes to our private data.


  • Im saying legitimizing the behavior that leads to these class action lawsuits is the downside to joining them. Companies do not see them as any more than the cost of doing business since the settlements are insignificant. With no real consequences for the behavior, and both sides considering the matter settled, joining them is an endorsement of the whole, corrupted process. We’re the ones enabling law firms by signing up to have then “represent our interests,” when really no class member ever gets anything anywhere near compensation, companies aren’t deterred from their actions, and the only people who profit are the company that gets away with bad behavior and the lawfirm which continues to look for more lousy settlements for income. We should be demanding more, or refusing to join.


  • “Compensation” you mean probably a pittance of maybe an hour’s wage and some “identity theft protection” from a credit rating company that’s also suffered data breaches?

    these class action lawsuits are nothing but performances that line the pockets of law firms (and the lawyers at the companies) while allowing investors, c-suite executives and board members to direct employees to penny pinch when it comes to keeping private data safe, respecting existing laws and regulations or really caring at all about anything but maximizing quarterly profits.

    no one should be initiating or joining any of these class action suits- firms always settle, don’t give two shits about the size of the settlement (so they are never large enough to actually discourage companies, nor compensate those affected), only caring about getting a company to pay their salaries and bonuses while denying theyve ever done anything wrong.

    If you qualify, maybe take a moment to contact the law firm and tell them to either actually try to win these cases - seeking penalties that actually deter behavior - or be labeled as obviously complicit in the shitty behavior of the breached company by accepting a settlement that does nothing but pay the law firm and allow ATT to continue to do more of the same. don’t be a willing participant in their sad grift passed off as justice


  • In florida years ago, when e-verify was being pushed, and tomato farm operations had to verify social security numbers for their employees, they didnt start paying legal/competitive wages- they just left tomatoes on the vines to rot - and then took subsidies and tax breaks for operating those farms at a loss. some agriculture companies just got out of the tomato business altogether.

    employers at the largest levels don’t care about construction, or farming or whatever- they care about profit. the investors don’t care about the work their companies perform- if a sector becomes significantly less profitable because of a lack of immigrant workers, they don’t just take a hit to their profits and move on, they pull their investments and find another business to invest in. there will plainly be less construction firms, less farms, less local restaurants able to compete with the chains.

    the money in this economy is hoarded by the upper class- they can control how businesses operate, and because the rest of us have limited buying power, our choices are dictated more by what we can afford than what we need or want. demand in this economy has power, but it is easily overwhelmed by control of the supply by purely profit motivated investors.

    they dont want to make less money selling higher priced tomatoes, and at the same time, we dont have the available income to budget for higher priced tomatoes, from the largest or smaller farms, and will just shift spending to other cheap food we can afford in our budgets. lots of businesses will close but the investors- who most elected officials serve- will just invest elsewhere, which is why they don’t care about the impact on the rest of us. large operations will gobble up the failing smaller ones, consumer options will continue to shrink, and the people we’ve been exploiting for their labor will lose their source of income.

    there will be no industry-wide rise in low wages, just diminishing supply. eventually the tariffs will go, and then supply will be replaced by (even cheaper) foreign production.




  • After being a vanilla vi then vim user for a long time before switching to neovim, I find folke’s which-key plugin to be very helpful. If i begin a key shortcut combination (or press my leader key), it shows me all the keys I can press next, and again after each additional step of a multi key sequence, and what each key sequence does. it works for mappings Ive added (usually basically the defaults for a new plugin) but also the standard built-in preset keymappings (see the ‘built-in’ plugins for which-key) for things like window mamagement and motions, using/viewing the registers (what did I just yank?), even spelling corrections, which helps you learn and build muscle memory. Often I dont use a specific mapping for a while and this helps me find it, especially when I group mappings by plugin, and/or prefix all mappings for a particular plugin or task with an additional prefix letter, so they all appear as options when I get as far as rembering “all my debugging mappings start with my leader key, followed by d.” By grouping tasks and plugins that way, I can press my leader key and see a list of where to go next, almost like browsing a menu hirearchy. “i dont remember which button to press after leader and d to toggle a breakpoint, but I know that’s where I’ll find it”





  • There are many, many programs - sometimes as simple as a one-form rebate - available to help with and often completely cover costs related with:

    • replacing grass lawns with native plants, drought resistant plants and food gardens
    • adding cisterns, rain barrels and grey water systems
    • replacing with or adding new “smart” sprinkler controllers that check weather forecasts to plan irrigation around the rain
    • ordering and planting trees, including fruit trees
    • compost barrels, compost and mulch, drip irrigation hoses, pool covers, and more

    Some of my favorites include programs where you can get trees delivered and sometimes even planted for free, programs to help restore local parks and buisness landscaping to native flora, volunteer programs to remove invasive species from local parks, and money for replacing turf lawns with plants, bushes and trees that help bird and beneficial insect populations. Sometimes lanscaping companies and volunteers can even do the work utilizing the grants and rebates with little or no cost to you! Shoutout to the arbor day foundation that provides native trees, delivered to your door.

    Here is a list (not just the US) of programs, and another here. Your local water utility likely has a list of rebates and such available in your area, as well as your county extension office if youre in the US, and any government office from city up to the federal level, especially if you live in a drought prone area like the southwestern US. You can also search for “xeniscaping” to find more, or talk to your local hardware store or nursery.




  • you misunderstand, I think. The number of people who voted for 47 is a product of the current voting system. changing the system will do a few things:

    some people who voted for 47 may have still selected them as their first choice, but in a different system with ranked choices, one of their second or third choices may have been elected instead, if that candidate had more support overall from a greater majority of the voters (depending on the system uses to select the winner) but basically: better to have a large majority’s agreed second choice than a tiny majority’s first choice

    secondly, some people who voted for 47 may have chosen someone else as their first choice if they did not feel it was the only way to make sure their least favorite candidate wouldn’t be elected - a ranked system removes the “spoiler” effect.

    so if you see that people who voted the way they did, did so because of the FTTP system AND importantly how the FTTP system can be manipulated with certain types of propaganda, meticulously targeted, to elect an extreme candidate, then it’s not a matter of first “changing their minds,” and more a matter of having a system that elects the representative that most represents most of the people. that is an effective tool against extremism.


  • imagine thinking the foundation your beliefs are based on so fraglie that the mere exposure to something different is enough for your child to turn away from them

    a good parent encourages questioning everything, including - especially - the beliefs and value system theyre trying to teach. labeling something else as wrong is one thing, but to then forbid your child from having any exposure to it whatsoever? that’s called failing at being a parent, because that’s not how the world works, and part of your job is to teach your kid how to critically consider things as force of habit before theyre a fully grown adult

    so, parents who freak tf out about drag queens reading to kids, or reading books with LGBTQ+ characters - if you think it’s proper to forbid your or anyone elses child from the mere exposure to things you have a problem with, all youre really doing is exposing that you know your personal feelings and opinions about it, religious or not, wouldn’t hold up to a logical, rational discussion with your kid 🤷


  • my favorite thought exercise about advertising:

    “without it, we would have to pay out of pocket for ad supported services!”

    ok but when a company pays for advertising, where are they getting that money from? an added cost on the products we’re buying! so we’re paying for product A, we’re paying extra for product A to pay for product B with advertising spending AND we’re funding product A’s marketing department to make the ads on top of that

    remove the advertising and we would pay less for product A, we could then afford to pay for B directly AND we would all pay less overall because we take ad department employees and costs out of the equation. we’re literally all paying more for everything overall by having some things “free with ads” than if we just paid for everything in the first place with no ads