spaghettiwestern

The corporate enshittification of once decent products and services continues unabated. Amazons decision to charge for UPS store returns even if the products they delivered were defective was almost enough for me to cancel Prime, but this seals the deal. When Amazon Prime commercials begin my Prime membership and most of my Amazon purchases end.

It’s an open question whether they gave us enough tools to deal with a guy like Trump...

IMO the lawlessness of Trump's 4 years in office and the 2 failed impeachment convictions are ample evidence that the answer to that question is "No."

Trump may be facing consequences for his actions now, but he could easily have remained in office for another 4 years, pardoned himself and avoided any federal charges.

Trump's insurrection would have succeeded if there weren't people who refused to go along with it. Military leaders literally came out before the election and announced that that military would not become involved in the politics of the election. Pence refused to get in a Secret Service SUV so he could be removed from the capitol.

Clearly the way Trump's insurrection failed and the Senate's failure to remove him for what were clearly high crimes are indications that we are a nation of men, not of laws - the opposite of what the Constitution's authors intended.

He's on his 2nd term and cannot run for a consecutive 3rd, but he's governor until 2027. Plenty of time to further destroy the state.

Medicare brokers and agents (salespeople) consistently tell potential customers that they have no reason to recommend Medicare Advantage insurance over traditional Medicare + Medigap. That is complete BS. Salespeople have huge financial incentives to push Advantage plans over Medigap plans.

An agent who sells 1,000 Advantage plans in a 5 year period instead of Medigap plans may make a whopping $400,000 more selling those Advantage plans than they would have selling those 1,000 people Medigap plans.

Medicare insurance sales representatives also make commissions on every plan they've sold for as long as customers stay with that plan. After 6 years those commissions decrease substantially for Medigap plan but not for Advantage plans, yet another reason for agents to push Advantage plans.

Over a decade a salesman conceivably may make $1,000,000 more selling Medicare Advantage insurance rather than Medigap plans.

Keep that in mind when taking advice from a sales rep who is recommending you or your parents buy Medicare Advantage insurance.

This hardware DRM shit is just plain evil. Was considering an Iphone next year for the first time, but going to nope right out of there.

True if Soylent Green was immortal and sought money and power at any cost.

The GOP and right wing justices' blithering about the Founding Fathers, Originalism, and "historical tradition" is absolute, self-serving BS and regularly the opposite of historical reality. If you have a few minutes this history of U.S. corporations is fascinating. An excerpt:

Initially, the privilege of incorporation was granted selectively to enable activities that benefited the public, such as construction of roads or canals. Enabling shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end. The states also imposed conditions (some of which remain on the books, though unused) like these:

• Corporate charters (licenses to exist) were granted for a limited time and could be revoked promptly for violating laws.

• Corporations could engage only in activities necessary to fulfill their chartered purpose.

• Corporations could not own stock in other corporations nor own any property that was not essential to fulfilling their chartered purpose.

• Corporations were often terminated if they exceeded their authority or caused public harm.

• Owners and managers were responsible for criminal acts committed on the job.

• Corporations could not make any political or charitable contributions nor spend money to influence law-making.

For 100 years after the American Revolution, legislators maintained tight control of the corporate chartering process. Because of widespread public opposition, early legislators granted very few corporate charters, and only after debate. Citizens governed corporations by detailing operating conditions not just in charters but also in state constitutions and state laws. Incorporated businesses were prohibited from taking any action that legislators did not specifically allow.

Pixel 6. From Android Authority:

Hate is a strong word to use in any context, so I’ll try my best to avoid that language. I very strongly dislike the Pixel 6’s fingerprint sensor.

Glad your experience is better than ours. Maybe Google fixed the problem.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, maybe it's a duck. Not interested in any "both sides are the same" BS. You may not like both sides but saying they're the same is laughable.

Don't forget, Corporations are Peopleᵀᴹ

Unfortunately that huge shift would require a complete change in Google's corporate culture and that's not gonna happen.

I had my own experience with their customer support after purchasing 2 Pixel 6's. They were utter garbage. Both had the cellular connectivity problem and the fingerprint sensors were completely useless. Those sensors failed 100% of the time in brightly lit stores. There's no way in hell that Google was unaware of those problems, and they were in fact well documented (but not resolved) after six months and one major software "fix".

Lucky for me a request for help on Reddit resulted in multiple people saying they despised their Pixels and to return the damn things before it was too late.

She went on to say she values her ability to not get caught on video.

She went on to say she values her ability to not get caught on video.