Brian Niccol “Guess what plebs? I commute over 1,000 miles one way to get the office. If I can do it, so can you. Get your asses into the office, plebs.”
Get hardly anyone to notice me on okcupid, so I cancel my subscription, and within a day or two after it lapsed, I get 25 people interested in me, but I can’t see their profile unless I pay, so I resubscribe only to see they’re all in the Philippines and Africa. Then it’s back to getting nothing. It seems to me that okcupid baited me into buying a subscription and I fell for it. The whole service is a scam.
It’s set at a 50 mile radius, I have no interest in dating people on the other side of the world, I’d prefer someone I can interact with in person without having to hop on an airplane.
OkCupid only checks the swiper’s radius, not the swipee’s. So you can set your radius to 1 mile, but you’re still going to get swiped on by the scam accounts in Singapore, and OkCupid will use that fact to lure you into buying a subscription.
Yeah, all of the Match.com owned services have done that for ages. Okcupid used to be truly a unique service, but it got transformed into another match.com zombie. Yay for late capitalism consolidation efficiency, or something…
Had it happen to me too. They’ll refund you for this. Just be polite when asking for it.
My review on the Play Store: “Premium is a scam. Hides likes which come from all over the world (clickfarms?) even though I set my radius to 5 km. But of course they only show you the fake likes (all of them) after one pays for premium.”
It’s a massive pain in the ass, but every American should freeze their credit with the 3 agencies. Their websites are shit, they will sign you up for credit card ads no matter what you click, and every bit of the process will make you seethe with rage at how fucked and incompetent the whole system is. But go do it anyway.
I did it last year after the state DMV was hacked and lost every personal detail for basically everyone in the state who drives. It was real nice not having a loan taken out in my name a few months later when Experien called me out of the blue to ask if I really wanted to unfreeze.
I also did have to legit take out a loan later and it was easy. Just call one of the agencies and do a temporary unfreeze for 24 hours. Amazingly, they let you unfreeze to take out more loans very simply. Wonder why it’s so hard to freeze in the first place? Almost like they don’t give a shit who’s creating the debts as long as some poor somewhere can be held to account for it.
There’s no such thing as perfect security of course, but in this case it’s because having my phone number and address isn’t the same as having my phone. So short of a SIM clone or something like that, the MFA on those accounts still adds one layer of protection. There’s also “security” questions and, protip, the answer to what high school I went to is not which high school I went to. It’s just another, different pass phrase.
I’m just not worth the trouble to beat all the extra layers of security when there’s millions of people who’s money is far easier to get at.
All the more reason to do it yourself, they all mostly require accounts with 2FA now. Until you set that up, a bad actor could. Once set up, they would have to compromise your second factor as well.
It’s like running away from a bear… you don’t have to outrun the bear, just the other people running from the bear. If someone wants your identity, they’re probably gonna get it if they’re determined enough. The way these hacks usually work, though, is you just buy a chunk of the data, maybe 10k records. Then, they use automated tools to try and open accounts under those ID records. If it fails, no biggie, they just move on to the next record.
Does anybody know the process to unfreeze? I froze mine years and years ago but I don’t recall setting a pin or even remember what it was if I did. It’s going to be a huge PITA next time I need a loan for something. I’ve nearly almost signed up for a new credit card before remembering that I froze all my accounts and abandoning the process because if the aforementioned PITA.
They may have sent you an email with the PIN but if you weren’t paying close attention you could have missed it. If you save your emails it may be worth doing a search.
And the “Experian Alerts - Your Monthly Account Statement is here!” e-mails that you can’t disable, because they, and others, figured out how to get around the CAN-SPAM act by claiming the spam is “alerts related to your account” and not just advertising covered in pig lipstick.
Places to remove yourself from, including the big three:
It’s not that big of a pain. It took me just a few minutes to make the accounts and then freeze everything. I already get credit card ads in the mail, so what else is new, and everything in my email goes to the spam folder.
I’ve had three security breaches in the last year or so. I think of you have any sort of accounts anywhere at this point part, or all, of your identity is out there.
It’s so incompetent because they are federally required to offer the freeze service for free. They all also offer a paid subscription freezing service that’s much more convenient, and they are trying to frustrate you into paying for what they are required to offer for free.
they are trying to frustrate you into paying for what they are required to offer for free
It’s like the coin-operated tire pumps at convenience stores that have a switch on the back that will turn them on for nothing - since in many states tire pumps are required to be offered free of charge.
Freeze credit on the big 3 websites. I unfreeze when needed like when I financed my car, then lock them up again.
It is a pain, and be sure not to lose the passwords. Turn on MFA where ever possible. Do not use correct answers for secret questions, use made up answers and keep track with a pw manager.
Check your credit every year for mistakes or oddities.
If you live in California, contact data brokers like Lexus Nexus or Red Violet and have them delete your profile.
His campaign managers are concerned he would say that publicly? Why?! Why do we still act like his cultists would be bothered? Why do we act like they have a fraction of humility and demeanour left in their bodies? They would love to hear that. Where the fuck have you been the last 8 years? Did you pay any attention?
The issue they have is, Trump can’t win with just his base. He needs to appeal to at least some percentage of voters outside of that group. It seems like he’s been doing everything he can to push anyone who isn’t already all in on him away since Biden stepped down.
Half the reason Trump succeeds as much as he does is due to designed corruption at the state level. Republicans grabbing local elections and using them to upend the system. From psychotic school boards to regressive judges to grandstanding attorneys general.
Flip that reasoning entirely, my dude. If the feds ran elections fully then Trump wouldn’t have needed to make the call to the GA Sec of State to “find” more votes. He would have just fired people until he got a yes from whatever federal employee could do it
No, because that’s the entire point of project 2025. He wants to replace all those federal employees with political appointments so that he can actually do things like that. Trump would have loved it if he could just fire people until they do what he tells them to do. Thankfully that’s not how most the federal government works. He wants to be able to control every Federal agency but thankfully that’s not the way it’s set up. It will be if he’s elected though.
Wouldn’t that be if they were connected at the tail? This is more of a disorganised avian garroting caused by a constant futile bid for meaningful independence.
Trump has never won the popular vote, his 2016 victory was based on highly gerrymandered areas with low populations and a high number of electoral votes. America is being held hostage by wealthy donors.
A poll is just an estimate. Obviously we will never know. But were the election held a couple months ago (vs Biden) Trump would have about an 85% chance of winning according to the best statistical models. (Source: used to work as data scientist for a major pollster and obsess over this stuff for fun)
What were the projected odds for Clinton beating Trump in 2016? I remembered it being nearly a sure thing in the reported research polls but I may be remembering it completely wrong.
Yeah that’s much worse than I thought. I also remember thinking, “there’s no way that many people are so willfully ignorant and will also vote.” How wrong I was.
“That is not language President Trump has used to describe Kamala, and it’s not how the campaign would characterize her.”
The most interesting thing about this statement is they have set Trump up to fail. Because you know he’s going to say that into a microphone at some point during this campaign.
“It’s ok. He says negative things about a lot of people.”
This is the excuse I got when I pointed out video of TFG mocking the disabled reporter to a die-hard Trumper. Also, she has a kid with Downs. Still didn’t break the Trump spell over her. She used to be normal.
John Fredericks, a Trump-aligned conservative radio host, told POLITICO on Monday that the “personal attacks against Kamala Harris are really ill-advised and ill-placed, and have no upside in this campaign,” saying some Republicans’ recent DEI references were “stupid.”
“Certainly on the air, I’m not doing it,” Fredericks said.
Dude admits that it’s what they all are thinking, he’s just aware enough to know that it doesn’t sound good and won’t say that shit in public. Coward.
Oops Dei is hardcore cult within the Catholic Church. And before anyone replies with “the Catholic Church is already a cult”, know that Opus Dei makes conventional Catholicism look like a casual bake sale.
Opus Dei frequently recruits Catholic teens through ‘youth clubs’ to be ‘numeraries’. They specifically target smart kids who are emotionally vulnerable and/or neuro-divergent, and groom them to join their movement. The goal is to get them fully subservient and brainwashed by the time they are in their late teens. At that point they sequester them in sanctioned housing where every aspect of their lives can be controlled, and they push them hard through college. This is also when they are inducted into the movement as numeraries and pushed into a life of celibacy in complete service of the movement. (There is another type of Opus Dei members called ‘super-numeraries’ who are Catholics recruited as adults after they are married. They are also exploited by the movement, but not to the same degree.)
After college numeraries remain trapped in this housing and lifestyle. Opus Dei then sends them out to work in conventional jobs (usually higher-paying ones to maximize their income theft). And all of the income the bring in is taken by the movement for their nefarious plans. The relationships of numeraries are totally controlled, to the point where any friends or family members who express concern about their well-being are cut out of their lives. Any emotional trauma or mental illness they have is left untreated, and is exploited by the movement to keep them subservient.
A numerary’s life is controlled utterly by the movement. As mentioned before, all their income is given to the movement. Their daily schedules are completely controlled. Self-flagilation (not in a fun sexy way) is encouraged to keep them fully-ridden and obedient. And when possible, they are pushed into working with Catholic teens to perpetuate the recruitment and grooming process.
Opus Dei is a fucking cancer on society. It doesn’t surprise me at all that they are involved in Project 2025.
I actually have one of those “youth clubs” close to where I live (also close to a university). It’s this huge, modern building full of what looks like hotel rooms from the outside. Only ever saw female teenagers and older ladies there, but yeah it’s hard to get a feeling from the outside of what it is about. For a long time I imagined it was like a correction house or something like that.
How do you know she didn’t change her name? Maybe after witnessing the armistice in the rail car, she had to go into hiding because they all figured out she was a spy on the Titanic.
Hogan is famously a liar of epic proportions and shut down a potential wrestlers union in the 80s. I know many of us were hulkamaniacs at some point but he’s a piece of shit.
I haven’t kept up with ole Stone Cold but last I checked he was threatening people online for being racist and homophobic. So if you want a decent person that was once at the top of the business he’s a better choice
Edit: I should add that I know Austin beat his wife when he was king of WWE but seems to have changed his ways and bettered himself. Doesn’t excuse that he did it but like I said he’s about the best in the wrestling business
He’s a massive star. He could have said, “no, fuck the CCP, I won’t do it.” It’s not like he would have never gotten work in Hollywood again. He’s worth way too much even if he doesn’t kowtow to the CCP.
I probably worded that poorly. I’m really mean in terms of scale. Spacey is for whatever reason coming to mind. Not to excuse his absolutely abhorrent behavior, but really old allegations of arguable “consensual” sex (with a minor) is just not comparable to sticking your finger in the eye of the CCP. Will Smith might be a better example.
I’m sounding a lot like an apologist when really I’m just trying to say it’s difficult for me to judge Cena for saying “I didn’t mean to offend anyone and love the Chinese people” when it isn’t my career on the line.
Ok? It’s worth applauding them for choosing that stance. I’m still not going to judge Cena too harshly for opting out of a conflict that he can’t really impact anyway, when by all other accounts he seems to be a pretty admirable person.
It’s not like he said “Taiwan must immediately surrender to the Chinese government”. He just chose not to get stuck in the middle of it. You may see that as cowardly but it’s easy to hold that position behind a shroud of anonymity.
Edit: It’s all lip-service anyhow. I’m not going to bother going down the list but I would imagine most of it’s members don’t exactly have a huge following in China, where Cena does. I’m sure Ted Cruz is super upset about not being able to enter the country.
The FCC said it "voted to end exorbitant phone and video call rates that have burdened incarcerated people and their families for decades. Under the new rules, the cost of a 15-minute phone call will drop to $0.90 from as much as $11.35 in large jails and, in small jails, to $1.35 from $12.10."
The new rules are expected to take effect in January 2025 for all prisons and for jails with at least 1,000 incarcerated people. The rate caps would take effect in smaller jails in April 2025.
If this doesn't get reversed somehow, this is going to be such a monumental, positive change for so many families. It's nice to read about a win sometimes.
MOTHERFUCKER - JOURNALISM IS THE FOURTH PILLAR OF DEMOCRACY. ITS YOUR LITERAL ONE JOB - TO DEFEND IT.
It’s our job to cover the full range of issues that people have. At the moment, democracy is one of them. But it’s not the top one — immigration happens to be the top [of polls], and the economy and inflation is the second.
Ah, that’s your problem right there. And this is going to be the major issue for generations to come. The algorithms are determining what’s popular and will generate content to maintain engagement. What used to happen is news rooms would find important stories and report on them then the people would read those stories to determine what actually matters in their lives.
I subscribe to my local paper. The mobile app is essentially ‘what the people want’. Meanwhile, the newspaper itself (print or digital) has almost entirely different content and it’s certainly organized differently. When I want to learn about things in my community and the world - the reason I subscribe to a newspaper in the first place - I read the paper, not the app. The app is just like a blog.
It’s incredibly frustrating how far our fourth pillar of democracy has fallen.
That’s exactly the problem. Kahn and his crew determine what’s a “top issue” the same way the rest of us do, through algorithm-driven engagement. There’s a reason all the major outlets placed a “trending” chyron at the top of their homepages years ago, and that’s because they’re specifically tailoring their coverage to whatever generates traffic on their and other’s websites. Each editor is, after all, a human whose understanding of the world is driven by the content that shows up on their phone, their computer screen, and their television. The fact that media is curated through a narrowing window of social media platforms means that the things that pop onto their radar will be algorithm-influenced. Even if they stepped back and only accepted what polls highly, they’d have to either perform their own real-time polling (yeah right) or point to other polls for emphasis, the results of which have been filtered and amplified according to algorithmic engagement. This is only going to get worse as AI starts to influence the algorithm in real time and we become more and more susceptible to hive-mind coverage where the tail wags the dog.
This is part of the reason 21st century media has skewed so heavily toward sensationalism since 9/11, because for some ungodly reason they’ve decided that their job is to react to the news, rather than create it. Fuck them. Their spineless “neutrality” is a tool Trump & Co. learned how to play like a fiddle from day one, and by refusing to even entertain the possibility of assisting the left, they’ve obsequiously and unconsciously become the right’s most potent weapon. They are the harbingers of fascism in America, and they’re still too fucking dense to see what’s coming.
To add to that, all I keep seeing in the news is about Biden’s poor performance. Yeah, we knoooow. Can we maybe get some coverage of the report of Trump raping a child or how many mentions he has on Epstein’s list? Is there anything else going on in the world we should know about? All the news is doing is grabbing hold of the most sensational topic that every other outlet is reporting on speculating about so they don’t lose ratings / clicks.
The world we live in is not about genuine creativity or challenging perspectives or journalistic responsibility. All we have going forward is what generates ad revenue. What’s “engaging”. And our dumbass brains only care about dopamine. So anything that challenges us to think outside the box is too difficult for us to engage with. The corporations and special interest groups have won. I wouldn’t be too worried about climate change at this point, kids. I doubt you’ll be aware of your surrounds enough to realize what’s going on around you.
I’m just hoping for a new Age of Enlightenment. Maybe people will realize that having everyone else do the thinking for us isn’t such a great idea.
Another part is just straight up computer illiteracy. You can bet Kahn wouldn’t know an algorithm if it bit him in the ass.
What that translates to is an unfamiliarity with how social media works - or rather a distorted familiarity.
It’s the exact same reason it took federal courts a decade to decide Microsoft was a monopoly, and we still have this problem in any legal situation. Judges and newspaper editors know sweet fuck all about how the modern world communicates. Or rather, what they know is an extreme distortion.
University of Illinois professor Nicholas Grossman wrote:
Biden’s age isn’t among voters’ top issues in polls, but the NY Times made it a recurring top story anyway. Voters sure didn’t say they care about the president of Harvard, but the Times made that the number one story for days. When NYT editors care, they don’t defer to polls.
Finally they’re treating opposite gender couples the same as same gender couples! Soon we will be able to ban love entirely for it’s inapropiateness! /s
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