dhork
@dhork@lemmy.world
- Comment on [deleted] 2 days ago:
That’s very generous of you, but I would advise against doing this secretly, for a few reasons.
First of all, the information needed to do this (like their loan account number) is considered personal financial information whose disclosure is protected. There is nothing preventing them from giving you the info willingly, but if you try and find it out without their knowledge you may be breaking the law.
Also, technically any gifts between people who aren’t directly related are treated as income by the US government, and there is technically tax owed on it. And yes, paying off a loan would still count as a gift. The threshold to trigger tax on a gift is high ($19k for 2025), but the tax is the liability of the giver, not the receiver. Depending on how big the gift is, you could be inadvertently opening yourself up for scrutiny by the US IRS. But if you are open about the gift and plan it with the recipient ahead of time, you can also do all the required tax planning to make sure you don’t run afoul of the IRS.
I don’t think I need to remind you that the legal climate regarding foreigners in the US on student visas is precarious right now. It would suck if your attempt at a secret gift ended up backfiring on your plans in the US.
- Comment on Would it be a bad idea to show up at a protest outside a Tesla dealership with a sign that says "Deny Musk, Defund Doge, Depose Trump"? 1 week ago:
Yes, that would be a bad idea. It shouldn’t be a bad idea. But right now, it would be.
Then again, you are probably in for Domestic Terrorism charges for simply protesting against the Car of the People. It’s up to you whether you want to dial it all up to 11.
- Comment on What would happen if the Supreme Court sent a US Marshall to arrest a member of the executive branch? 2 weeks ago:
Individual US States are a party to some of these lawsuits, and they have their own duly sworn law enforcement officers. I bet a Federal judge would be able to find NY State Troopers or Massachusetts State Police willing to enforce their orders if there is a judgement in favor of that State in court.
- Comment on Do you think the US will actually log its national parks? 2 weeks ago:
No, there’s a different reason why he thinks the people of Gaza are incapable…
~he’s a super racist Nazi scumbag~
- Comment on Do you think the US will actually log its national parks? 2 weeks ago:
I’m sure he has, and thought that they would make nice golf courses.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
You have to pick a leader somehow. In authoritarianism, the leader is often the one who can take over by force, and can maintain that force over time (even across generations, for hereditary systems). While it’s possible for someone who takes over that way to be benelovent towards their people, it’s far more likely they will be violent and overbearing, because that’s how they got the gig in the first place.
- Comment on 4 weeks ago:
There’s nothing illegal about cryptocurrencies. It’s just random numbers and code.
However, those random numbers have actual value, and governments regulate some transactions, particularly ones that cross national borders, to make sure those transactions do not hide a crime or go to individuals who the government has put under sanctions.
Some people of a Libertarian bent get involved in Crypto to keep their governments out of their business. But those laws still apply, no matter what the medium of exchange is, or how much those people whine about those laws.
- Comment on Why doesn't phones numbers have a "DNS" servet so we can just type in words like we do with the internet? 1 month ago:
Because when the telephone system first was developed, all you had were dial phones, which could only send numbers 1 through 0 (10). So every call needed to be addressible using only numbers.
AT&T came up with the numbering system in the 40s…
- Comment on Why are there silly license requirements? 1 month ago:
When the State licenses things like that, it’s usually because whatever activity is being licensed utilizes shared resources, and the State has an interest in making sure those resources are used in the common interest.
Radio licenses are essential because the RF spectrum is a common resource. The State wants to make sure that certain frequencies are only used for certain purposes, and that those who use them have the proper training.
Some communities use pet licensing as a tool to make sure all pets are properly vaccinated, to reduce the spread of rabies (which really is a horrible way to go…)
Hunting and fish licenses are a way to help control the overall wild animal population, and make sure they are not overharvested and preserve rhe availability for future seasons.
- Comment on How can Doge access critical government infrastructure and fire people if it isn't even a real department? 1 month ago:
It is a real department, sort of. Trump used Legislation that was intended for an Obama Era “US Digital Service” and rebranded it “US DOGE Service”
en.m.wikipedia.org/…/United_States_DOGE_Service
They do, in fact, overstep their legal boundaries quite often. But the administration simply fires anyone who gets in the way until they get an acquiescent administrator who lets them grab the department by the pussy.
- Comment on Isn't having your own domain name for email very bad for privacy? And how do you pick a good domain name that doesn't sound goofy? 1 month ago:
Yeah, individual emails can be picked off at any point in the chain while in transit. And someone who has hacked key infrastructure in front of your server can see all emails on transit. But your server might have stored emails, so someone with clandestine access to that will be able to access part of your email history (perhaps all of it, if you use that server for permanent email storage), and they are not limited to emails in transit.
- Comment on Is anyone planning on doing anything about trump creating a concentration camp at guantanamo bay? 1 month ago:
I plan on complaining about it on the Internet. That’ll show 'em!
- Comment on Isn't having your own domain name for email very bad for privacy? And how do you pick a good domain name that doesn't sound goofy? 1 month ago:
I know a lot of people with their own domain names and email servers. From a privacy perspective, it is better because you know nobody is reading your emails. Your email address is a method to track regardless. But free email services are only free because they scrape your emails to figure out which ads to send. If you run your own mail server, you know no one is snooping.
The real issue is that you need to be fastidious about security, because your servers are exposed to the broader Internet and there are a lot of bad actors. You not only have to make sure your server doesn’t get hacked, but you also need to make sure the mail server application can’t act like an open relay. Spammers use misconfigured mail servers all the time to send tons of spam messages using someone else’s bandwidth.
And once your mail server is used as a spam relay, it might get IP blocked from major email providers, and I bet that is a pain to get resolved.
So it’s only worth it if you know what you are doing.
- Comment on Keep getting permanently banned on Reddit subs 1 month ago:
Only a matter of time before Trump renames them the Indians by Executive Order
- Comment on USA Question | How much is a dozen large eggs near you? 2 months ago:
$4.69 at Wegmans
- Comment on You have got to be kidding me... 2 months ago:
Unless God exercises His Ultimate Veto and cuts his term short.
- Comment on I feel stupid asking this. But cities and countries who have smog and a major amount of air pollution. Why doesn't the wind blow it away or move it overtime? Is there that much pollution? 2 months ago:
I went to Beijing several years ago on business. By a total coincidence, it happened to be just after the Golden Week festival, which is a national holiday and businesses were closed. I expected quite a bit of smog, but when I arrived everything seemed clear. My Chinese host took me out to see the Great Wall, and it was breathtaking, and also crystal clear. I was wondering if the dirty air I had heard so much about was a myth.
But then the work week started, and as the week went on and the factories started up again, I noticed that the air was getting dirtier. My Chinese host took me to see the Forbidden City at the end of the week, which was also extremely beautiful, but already the air was so thick that I couldn’t see the landscape anymore, only the buildings in front of me.
Nature does a good job at cleaning the local air itself, but when we spew so much crap in it Nature can’t keep up. So, yeah, smog happens because it constant pollution.
- Comment on Would not adding a stamp and return address on a letter give you free postage 2 months ago:
- Comment on Is there anything stopping constant impeachment votes? 2 months ago:
Impeachment must start in the House, and the rules of the House are heavily tilted toward majority rule. So it would need a majority vote to even get started, and it would be referred to a committee with a Republican majority. If, somehow, the investigation done there is fair and a recommendation to impeach passes the committee, it still needs to pass in the House again.
But then, it goes to the Senate, where a 2/3 majority (67/100) is required to convicted. So now we have gone from needing a handful of Republican defectors on the House (including at least one committee member) to needing 22 of 53 Republican Senators to agree to convict. That is an extremely high bar. If you were a Republican who is on the fence about Trump, it is simply not worth openly defying him unless you were certain Republican Senators would convict.
- Comment on Why did trump go after the Gulf of Mexico rather than New Mexico? 2 months ago:
New Mexico has an actual constitution, as well as three whole branches of government, who have the official say on what is called. The Gulf of Mexico just has some fish and oil rigs.
- Comment on Meta Censors #Democrat when searched for 2 months ago:
It’s been a common trick for a long time on the right to equate simple disagreement with censorship, and use that as an excuse to practice actual censorship when they take over.
- Comment on Dragonsweeper: A nicely challenging Minesweeper/roguelike combo 2 months ago:
I have been playing this all night, thanks. I did beat it once so far, now I’m trying to clear the board
- Comment on Why is Tesla market cap so high ? 2 months ago:
The price of very large publically traded companies is set entirely by supply and demand. Yes, those shares do represent a tiny share of ownership in the company, which means a share in the profits and assets of the company. But there is no law tying them together. Tesla’s market value is so high because there are more buyers than sellers, it’s as simple as that.
- Comment on Dunkin' added achievements to their mobile app 2 months ago:
They do it because it works. Not only does it lead to more direct sales, but the app is scraping data that can be further used to generate sales, either to the user directly or sale of their data to third parties. And people who don’t like their habits being gamified will simply not install the app.
How many people are going to say “I refuse to go to Dunkin because they went too far gamifying their rewards program in their shitty app I never use”? Probably close to zero. So, the cost of doing it is whatever they pay their offshore contractors, who probably can’t afford to come visit the US, much less go to Dunkin for awful coffee every day.
- Comment on We got several more inches of snow last night after getting over seven a few days ago. I went to my local newspaper's website to find out if there was anything I should know. This was their top story. 2 months ago:
Yeah, that is more incompetence than I am used to. When we get driving bans and other emergency declarations, the local news will put that crawly thing on the bottom of the screen letting us know what’s up. I bet they get complaints when it covers up the score of the game.
- Comment on We got several more inches of snow last night after getting over seven a few days ago. I went to my local newspaper's website to find out if there was anything I should know. This was their top story. 2 months ago:
I live in an area that gets snow regularly. When we get a storm, there are precisely three things the news can report on:
- When will it stop
- Are the roads driveable
- Are there school or business closings
If there is nothing to report in those three topics, then it’s just another slow news day. Just be glad they’re not making TV news reports about trending Social Media topics, that’s what our local news gets into when they run out of Sinclair propaganda (or Bills highlights) to run.
- Comment on If the United States has Cuba banned from things, how does Guantanamo Bay exist? 2 months ago:
slate.com/…/how-did-the-u-s-get-a-naval-base-in-c…
The US took the area by force during the Spanish-American War, and then signed a “lease” with no end date with the Cuban government at the time.
I bet every time Cuba says they want to take it back, the US says “Yeah? You and what army?”
- Comment on There's fucking ads in board games now 2 months ago:
where air should be monetized
- Comment on There is a fee to close my HSA account 2 months ago:
This is because you are not the customer. Your employer is the customer, they are the ones who get to choose the HSA provider for their employees. You are the goods to be sold. The HSA provider is simply harvesting profits.
- Comment on If investing in the S&P 500 is such a surefire way to make money, then why isn't everyone doing it? 3 months ago:
It’s not entirely without risk. 2002 and 2008 both saw the S&P lose over 30% for the year. But it is up more often than down year-to-year, and it is usually up by at least 10%.
I found some good charts here, even though it is a EU site:
curvo.eu/backtest/en/market-index/sp-500
If you are investing for the long haul , you will take the occasional 30% haircut if you can get 10-20% the rest of the time. But it would suck if you got that 30% haircut just before you needed to sell…
