I really hope that the EU introduces a global payment and banking system that is agnostic. I don't want to be under MasterVisa's thumb, and would prefer to keep the bulk of my money as Euros instead of American Dollars. Problem is, as an American, I can't readily use Euros in my daily life.
Here's hoping the EU can strike up a solution with Blue States, so that I don't need to ask Musk for permission to buy anything.
Yeah, that is what happened to DLSite. It sells Japanese media such as hentai, so Visa & Mastercard put a universal ban on their products, no matter the category. It is a 1st Amendment violation IMO, since they are gatekeeping an entire culture.
I can easily see MasterVisa banning European or Canadian merchants for the sake of a Trump Regime.
I think that UBI and capitalism can be combined, in a specific way: UBI gives everything a person ever needs for survival and general wellbeing, but is boring. Money isn't used for survival, but instead to purchase goods that are more suited to an individual's interests. Instead of the Generic Dress #2 that everyone may order for free, you can spend money on getting a dress with polka dots, made of silk, and so forth.
Capitalism is really good at producing entertaining items, such as music, branded foods with a twist, or Pokemon cards. However, it utterly sucks at ensuring the wellbeing of people. Thus, we should separate the concepts of survival and luxury.
I think under a UBI scenario, people should get to pick the city they want to reside in, then get assigned a public housing unit(s) for their immediate family. They can also be provided free public transport, and a basic UBI vehicle with free fuel.
Ideally, people would have a bedrock of UBI services to rely upon for their wellbeing, and money is turned into something solely used for lifestyle upgrades: Buying a house of the quality, size, and location you want, a fancier non-UBI car, brand-name food or supplies, private school, ect.
Fifteen birds in five fir-trees, their feathers were fanned in a fiery breeze! But, funny little birds, they had no wings! O what shall we do with the funny little things? Roast 'em alive, or stew them in a pot; fry them, boil them and eat them hot?
Burn, burn tree and fern! Shrivel and scorch! A fizzling torch To light the night for our delight, Ya hey!
Bake and toast 'em, fry and roast ’em till beards blaze, and eyes glaze; till hair smells and skins crack, fat melts, and bones black in cinders lie beneath the sky!
So dwarves shall die, and light the night for our delight, Ya hey! Ya-harri-hey! Ya hoy!
If they got the coop working and user-friendly, I might be able to convince someone to join me for a playthrough. Regardless, I will certainly pick up a copy - SS2 deserves my money, and I want Night Dive to keep bringing back the good stuff.
I think the very best thing we can do for Bernie, is to win the political fight and install Roosevelt Administration v3.0 into power, and get genuine reform normalized.
It would be best if he can pass on from this world, knowing he had his part in creating a far better world.
I will put forward a radical suggestion for Progressive candidates in 2028: physically take control of television studios at key points, and make your message. This is because FOX and other mass-media channels are in the pocket of conservatives, so they will try to downplay or outright ignore Progressives, in an attempt to deplatform them among the general public.
While online social platforms like Bluesky or physical locations like churches would be key for messaging, television is a major mouthpiece of the 1%. It will be important to steal the megaphone on occasion.
The studios almost certainly will speak only for Trump when not busy with glazing his nethers.
By making America seem like a good neighbor. Would you lend a hand to someone who doesn't treat you decently?
Treaties, military aid, investment, all of them requires the feeling that things will turn out alright if you get involved. A dickhead like Trump makes it clear that he would shank you and fuck your mother, just because he feels likes it. To say the least, no reasonable or good person would want to associate with a Trumpian nation.
Nations within and without, are built on relationships.
Honestly, I would be alright with this if the AI companies paid Github so that the server infrastructure can be upgraded. Having AI that can figure out bugs and error reports could be really useful for our society. For example, your computer rebooting for no apparent reason? The AI can check the diagnostic reports, combine them with online reports, and narrow down the possibilities.
In the long run, this could also help maintainers as well. If they can have AI for testing programs, the maintainers won't have to hope for volunteers or rely on paid QA for detecting issues.
What Github & AI companies should do, is an opt-in program for maintainers. If they allow the AI to officially make reports, Github should offer an reward of some kind to their users. Allocate to each maintainer a number of credits so that they can discuss the report with the AI in realtime, plus $10 bucks for each hour spent on resolving the issue.
Sadly, I have the feeling that malignant capitalism would demand maintainers to sacrifice their time for nothing but irritation.
I think we need an entirely different economic model, where there are hard limits on income, wealth, and assets. I don't mind people being wealthy, but that definition should be something like: "I am a CEO, I get paid twice as much as a waitress. I own a very nice house, a small yacht, and spend time riding horses at the country club. My husband works as a mechanic, and only makes $10,000 less a year than me."
It would require a huge rethink on economy, the nature of wealth, implementing a strong UBI, and replacing the dollar with a fresh currency. Still, I think a complete replacement of how things were done would be key for America to become a nation worthy of the people who live in it.
I want to see a gun duel between Luigi and Trump. We can put together an Old West stage town, and let it play out.