sartalon

@sartalon@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Went Off SSDI to work, hit with large FTB tax bill, lost power and can't pay for meds. Now what?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Fuck, fuck, fuck CA,'s FTB. They can fuck themselves with a butcher knife. They’ll bill you for shit you don’t owe.

  My wife dissolved her business and she she still got a tax bill for fucking YEARS. She did everything, but it didn’t stop until she called her old boss, a state legislator, who still had to have a face to face meeting with them (and he was not a nobody). We were lucky as fuck and had an ace to play, wtf is anyone else supposed to do?

  Like WTF.

  Note. DO NOT START A BUSINESS IN CALIFORNIA. Be a contractor or pick another state, dear God.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tiny pocketsies⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That short notation is an abominable lie!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨TURKEY POWER⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not rich or have money invested.

  Sorry to disappoint.

  Bureaucracy does have a purpose but it can also become a problem. Sometimes technology can advance much quicker than the paperwork can process. It’s not a miracle or propaganda.

  But spouting the same anti- nuclear shit that has been spouted for the last 50 years IS propaganda.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨human anteaters⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Let me know how it goes. I honestly would love to know.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨TURKEY POWER⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The problem with nuclear is: business wise, it is a TOUGH sell to the public, even without the anti-nuclear lobby groups fighting with safety propaganda.

  It takes a much higher capital spend to start up nuclear than any other type of plant, so you won’t “break even” for 30 plus years, if ever.

  It doesn’t help when there are high profile sites that are being refurbished, whose costs are already phenomenaly high, and then the managing firm fucks it up (I’m looking at you Crystal River).

  It makes it high risk, financially. And it’s the public that ultimately ends up paying.

  My hope is that SMR’s become viable. They introduce a new factor though. If you get small, “cheaper” nuclear plants, then you will get more operators and you will get some that may run fast and loose. One fuck up can ruin it for everyone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨TURKEY POWER⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  He said nuclear waste. Most of those are accidents involving radiation exposure (Are you lobbying we stop radiation therapy too?), Russian subs, and Soviet era handling of nuclear sources.

  The rare incident of death cause by nuclear waste was an explosion at a testing facility in Japan that was apparently trying to research a new way to deal with nuclear waste.

  One death attributed to Fukushima is amazing to me. That was a catastrophic event. (The tsunami that caused the incident may have killed some that would have otherwise died from exposure, but without the tsunami, there wouldn’t have been an incident, so I don’t know how to argue that one.)

  A better argument is cost. It is EXPENSIVE to store nuclear waste. We are not allowed to just bury it and we can’t just shoot it into the sun… yet.

  I’ve seen all kinds of novel ideas for modern ways of dealing with nuclear waste but the current rules are tied up in so much bureaucracy, it would practically take an act of God for approval of any change. People fighting nuclear cause more problems than they help.

  Take the San Onofre plant in California. They replaced a system that was aging, then some time later, they shut down for routine maintenance and discovered that the replacement system was wearing out much faster than it should. So the plant said they would stay off until they found the problem and fixed it. At no time was the public in danger. But the anti nuclear whackos took their opportunity to pounce, took advantage of that famous California NIMBYism, and got the plant shut down permanently. Now electricity is provided by natural gas.

  That was a waste of fucking money. Plant was already producing electricity, and now there is more CO2 getting pumped into the air.

  I don’t trust the anti-nuclear power crowd anymore than I trust the oil industry. They both lie their asses off and don’t care about facts. One just has a lot more money than the other.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨human anteaters⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah it fucking sucked. I don’t necessarily disagree with how or why they did it though.

  It taught you that no matter how tough you are, everyone breaks. Nobody made it through that scenario without saying whatever they told you to say. You are to resist as much as you can but it is not worth your life.

  So as a tool to demonstrate that everyone has a breaking point, it was very effective. But as a method for actual intelligence gathering, torture has and always will be notoriously unreliable, and in my opinion, not worth the ethical sacrifice.

  I thought the Army had their own version of SERE.

  You’ll like this story. I was a helicopter crewman off the Kitty Hawk when 911 happened.

  They kicked off most of the airwing. The kept a few of us helos, some hornets, and some S-3’s (for refueling).

  Then we took on a bunch of Rangers and Delta, and turned us into an Army Carrier. Then straight to hanging out just barely in international waters outside of Iran/Pakistan.

  It was 75% Chinooks and Blackhawks. No rotor brakes or folding rotor heads. No real carrier landing quals, and half the hand signal were different. But we made it work.

  We had to give up our Ready Room and some other “primo” spaces to “Task Force Sword”, but post 9/11, there was zero inter service rivalry. It was all, “what does the mission require.” and “What do you need from us?”

  Our Aircrew shop was next to the Ready Room and it only took a day for a couple of the operators to realize we had Unreal Tournament. So our shop became a common rest stop between missions.

  Man that was a crazy deployment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨human anteaters⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I was a helicopter aircrewman. They sent all aircrew through.

  I definitely wouldn’t consider myself “harder than a woodpecker by any stretch”, and yes, I got the box and there were several songs they would loop that were designed to prevent you from relaxing. The “Boots” song is one I probably won’t forget

  The box actually didn’t bother me. But there were a lot of things that really messed with head. They were also still water boarding back then.

  We still had SEALs going through the same school (they have their own now), and we had one that kept escaping. You couldn’t really escape though, because this was all training, so you if you did escape, you were supposed to stop and announce it, and let the guards come get you. And then you get punished. So it was stupid to escape. Except this fucking guy didn’t give a shit. He just kept escaping. The stripped him, hosed him down, slapped the shit out of him, he didn’t care. In the debrief, they said they almost failed him because they thought he wasn’t taking it seriously. I thought they weren’t taking it seriously if it was that easy to escape

  That wasn’t something I ever want go through again.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨human anteaters⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There was a brief moment, while I was going through SERE training, in the Navy; it was before we were “captured” but long enough that I hadn’t eaten in a while. We were in the low mountains of SoCal, dry and hot. Whenever we would stop movement for a money and take a seat, I could smell when an ant was on me.

  I didn’t recognize what the smell was at first until I saw an ant, after smelling it. I hooked him on my finger and brought him close to my nose and it was clear, he was the source.

  I couldn’t describe it very well though, not a common smell to me. Never experienced it since.

  Maybe it was the combination of no food or bathing, and heightened stress. My SiL also went through SERE, says she has no idea what I was talking about, and just makes fun of me about it. But she’s also the type of person who would lie about it, just to fuck with me.

  So who knows.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bro 😭😭⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Date a 17 year old when he was 30. Just sex predator stuff.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bro 😭😭⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A. Who gives a fuck if Stamos didn’t actually shave his head.

  B. Fuck Dave Coulier.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You Pay For It, We Own It - Sony's $7.9B Lawsuit⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Unskippable ads, required downloaded updates, region restrictions…

  Nah, I’m downloading that fucking car, I’m done giving movie studios chances to be reasonable.

  They were good for a bit, but they are a slave to stock value and their finance bros will take every opportunity to squeeze you for revenue, ruining every experience.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Divine Dick⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  One man’s waste is another man’s gold…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Thieves caught stealing political yard signs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Your Dad was doing everyone a favor. So many people don’t take the shit down in public right of ways.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Not Us—They Are!' Union Leader Rejects Fox News Spin on Port Strikes⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Who is he talking to when he says, “People never gave a shit about us until now, when they finally realized that the chain is being broke now,”

  People know who longshoremen are. They deserve fair wage and benefits as much as anyone else.

  I mean I didn’t give much more thought about longshoreman than I did about a poleman, or a miner, or the farmer growing my food. I don’t expect them to give a shit about me either.

  So I support them, yes. In the sense that I’m not going to whine about the impact of their strike on my own life. I’m certainly not going to support the industry that is not bargaining with them in good faith.

  But why is there animosity towards anyone other than the companies they are bargaining with?

  So I am guessing that they cherry picked that quote just for the reason that out of context it makes him sound kinda bitchy?

  Guy does need someone to help him with talking points though. They have a lot going for their side, they don’t need to fuck it up with bad press.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do our brains process reality? I heard our eyes were just low-res cameras and our brains were doing all the heavy lifting in 'rendering' reality.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You can train your subconscious! Well, at least influence it’s decisions. Videogames are a great example. Trained reaction/response. Repeated response to similar stimulus can create a trade ned a conscious response.

  However, I have difficulty, especially now that I’m older, where subconscious and conscious will compete and I will lose acuity of what I actually did.

  That and my memory is getting worse. :/

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Crow reboot producer is surprised the original filmmakers aren't more accepting of the new movie⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This guy really is a fucking moron.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is the safest way for a partially disabled person in the USA to use prison for food and shelter as an alternative to dying homeless in a gutter on a cold rainy night?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Let us know which town. Sounds like it’s already full of trash.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Oh jeez⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think you’ve seen some of these movies if you think it has anything to do with how sad it made them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do Texas residents afford electricity?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Umm, what?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do Texas residents afford electricity?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Close but not correct.

  It’s an established marketplace, where legislated “middlemen” buy from the utilities and then sell to the consumer.

  You can’t actually buy directly from the utility generating the power without going through the marketplace.

  It is sold as a “free market” that would drive competition and keep prices down. In actuality, it just allows leaches, who don’t actually produce anything, to sit in the middle and suck money out of the economy.

  Sure some of them will lose money, while others will make a billion, but the system works just fine as a regulated controlled monopoly.

  Texas is a perfect example of Republican hypocrisy. The Governor, Lt Governor, State AG, etc… are quite literally the worst kind of politicians.

  I seriously dislike Sheila Jackson Lee, but I feel bad about her situation.

  I would laugh if that wheel chaired, piece of shit rolled off a cliff.

  I would laugh if Dan Patrick caught on fire.

  On second thought, I might use Ken Paxton to put out the fire, by that I mean, push him onto Dan, hoping he would catch on fire too.

  Shit, that went a lot darker than I intended.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This Classic John Carpenter Picture Is The Greatest B-Movie Ever Made [Big Trouble in Little China]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just rented this and watched it with my wife and 12 year old daughter.

  Wife rolled her eyes, but I knew she was game, but the 12 year old stayed through the whole movie! That is a rave review in her book.

  Man I love this movie.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘The Brothers Sun’ Co-Creator on Subverting Asian Male Stereotypes and Why Michelle Yeoh Has Limited Fight Scenes⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Michelle Yeoh didn’t need to fight. She was able to steal scenes on her acting alone.

  I loved the slow broil they did with her character. She is so talented and did such a great job with it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is she making KD at 1:30 am?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We got ground beef once. Life hasn’t peaked that high since.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨art⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I see your mom.