RickRussell_CA

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

People can come to their own conclusion. I did not vote for Trump and I won't defend him, but I think the people complaining are ignoring the full context.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Here's the quote in context:

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face. You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building, saying ‘Oh gee, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.’ But she's a stupid person, and I used to have, I have meetings, with a lot of people, and she always wanted to go to war with people.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

I smell the poop of a warrior!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That was my reading in 2016 -- before the election, I realized that the "thrill vote" would go to Trump, and the average folks were going to sit it out because Hillary Clinton couldn't energize anybody.

I'm getting a lot of those feelings around KH too. I just hope folks come out for the anti-Trump vote, at least.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 week ago

They just took an old Matt Gaetz investigative report and did a search-replace on it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Is the US government (or any national government) going to evaluate the value of paintings or baseball memorabilia or the portfolio of song rights for the The Turtles?

My sense is that it's easier to establish value for things -- and make a case for taxes -- when they are sold in a market or used as a financial instrument (e.g. to collateralize a loan).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

making compliance easy and cheap/mostly free

I'm not sure that's how taxes work, though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

That wealth is just paper until somebody spends it to buy something... capital goods, or services, or political influence, or whatever. Let people sit on their paper fortunes, but tax it consistently whenever it's used to buy stuff, or collateralize a loan, or whatever that allows people to realize value.

I wouldn't necessarily oppose a wealth tax, I just don't think it solves the problem. The problem we need to solve is passive income being taxed far less than wage income, and then we need to tax both kinds of income at rates that make sense.

n some special financial scheme that effectively hides/reinvests any profits without triggering the tax obligation

If that happens, then the system is fundamentally broken. If cross-border complications allow for hiding of passive income, then they are effectively hiding the wealth itself.

the obligation to track and report individual wealth in a standard way

I just don't think that's possible. The US can't force reporting requirements on "art" in Switzerland or Botswana. And wealth is difficult to measure anyway -- if the wealth is invested in art in a safe in Switzerland, how do you even value it? How can you possibly know what the next person is willing to spend for that art?

Instead, wait for the owner to sell it, and THEN tax the sale. It's very hard to measure and capture "wealth"; it's relatively easy to capture transactions.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

I think we need to mentally compartmentalize Elon Musk, the rich dingbat, from the output of his companies.

Tesla single-handedly brought the electric car to the American market in a sustainable way, where every US and Japanese car maker was in a pause state waiting for somebody else to take the first move (although, credit to Nissan for the Leaf, but I think that by itself the Leaf wasn't going to open the floodgates).

For all the goofiness around SpaceX, I think they've proven that they are the right model for developing orbital boost systems. Other major players are trying to be more like SpaceX.

Should the US have effectively subsidized these efforts? Yeah, we should have. Arguably Tesla and SpaceX were the only serious players in these markets with the chutzpah to be successful, after a lot of false starts by others (incl. bigger companies in the same markets).

It's a shame that they enabled and enriched a giant dingbat, but in the end, Tesla and SpaceX have done things that nobody else could.

So by all means, tax him. And point out how Tesla and SpaceX depended on gov't subsidies and tax rebates. But let's also keep focus on the fact that electric car success and a more competitive space program are good things that were, and are, worth taxpayer involvement.

Also, to go back to the subject of the article. We don't really need a wealth tax. We don't need a corporate tax (which is just the political cowards tax).

We need to stop giving capital gains a free ride. Tax income when it is realized, consistently. Investment income should the same tax -- or just very slightly less -- as wage income. 15% tax on investment returns is laughably low.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago

Rich in what?

Money.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Ah, excellent point, thank you.

[–] [email protected] 119 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Check the label before you drink it, especially if you're watching your sugar intake for medical reasons.

Umm. How would checking the label help? If the drinks were labelled correctly, there would be no reason for a recall.

 
 

"Alas, it is Extra Sharp!"

 

The Hu (stylized as The HU) is a Mongolian folk metal band formed in 2016. Incorporating traditional Mongolian instrumentation, including the morin khuur, the tovshuur, and throat singing, the band calls their style of music "hunnu rock", a term inspired by the Xiongnu, an ancient tribal confederation of uncertain origins, known as Hünnü in Mongolia. Some of the band's lyrics include old Mongolian war cries and poetry in the Mongolian language.

137
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
 

Now that I've had a few outings on 2S and 3S packs, here is my overall assessment:

  • The brushless system (supposedly 4400kV) is crazy fast.

  • As shipped, the truck is really slammed, and does NOT want to wheelie or come off the ground. On 2S, I couldn't get it to lift at all in straight-line acceleration. On 3S, I had to lift the truck with the shock collar adjusters to get it to flip on takeoff.

  • I'm not sure why, maybe it's the higher top speed & slightly longer wheelbase, but it is a bit harder to maneuver than the smaller trucks. I was getting the hang of it after a couple of packs, but you definitely need to finesse the throttle to keep it from rolling in turns. Go in too hot and it will surely roll. It could also be the tires, which were very sticky out of the box and may get a little less aggressive as they wear down.

  • Jumping was fine from a speed/height standpoint. I was struggling with air control but I'm not very good at that anyway. My landings tumbled but it ended up on 4 wheels.

  • Quite a few tumbles but no damage.

 

So I've been buying these Hyper Gos based largely on the recommendations of Tomley RC almost since they first came out. I've got two of the 1:16 models, the 16207 buggy and 16209 monster truck, and one of the 1:14 scale street bashers, the 14302 Lancia-lookalike rally car.

The 1:16 scale off roaders are damn near indestructible. I've been running both of them on 3S for more than a year, and not one single thing has broken except for some body cracks (easily addressed by trimming the body back and reinforcing with tape).

The one complaint that most owners have with these small trucks is the small battery tray. You either buy extended parts to raise the retaining arm for the battery tray, or you remove the retaining arm entirely and hack together your own solution with velcro straps. Or, just bite the bullet and use the largest 3S pack that will fit the out-of-box tray. The best I could find is a 3S 1300mah Gens Ace that fits like it was made for it. That's still plenty for 11 or 12 minutes of full on hooning, or half an hour of on-and-off trail trucking.

The 14210 monster truck follows on the design of the 1:14 scale street bashers with a similar flat metal chassis plate design with a wheelbase a couple cm longer than the 1:16 scale trucks. It has a LOT more space for the battery, and it can fit 3S 2000mah packs or 2S 3000mah packs out-of-the-box. The servo is no longer parked under the ESC, and can be separately upgraded without taking the whole thing apart. RX has been moved into a dedicated waterproof box. Tires are slightly larger than the 1:16 scale trucks. All welcome updates!

MJX has corrected a lot of the problems that early Youtubers identified:

  • Rear CVDs have been upgraded to sliding driveshafts anchored at both ends, no risk of a dogbone end popping out.

  • Several screws on the model have been replaced with flange head screws, where Youtubers had noted there was risk of the parts pulling off over the screw heads.

  • The "super speed mode" on the ESC has been eliminated. Looks like it's running full power right out of the box.

  • The 2S Li-Ion cylindrical batteries used in the initial release have been upgraded to regular flat-pack LiPos.

Other first impressions:

  • The shocks (metal bodies, metal caps, threaded) are large and buttery smooth for a model of this size. Out of the box, the model squats pretty low, like a Talion or similar truggy. But the kit comes with free stiffer shock springs if you want to push it up into a more traditional monster track stance.

  • The 14302 rally car had a problem where gravel could slip into the joints of the suspension arms, effectively jamming the suspension. Those gaps have been filled with solid plastic on the 14210.

  • The two included bodies (black and gold) are pre-installed with hard plastic sliders for durability.

  • The servo saver is really, really soft. It's built into the servo horn, so I'm not sure if it's adjustable. We'll see how it performs.

  • The 30 page manual is surprisingly comprehensive for an RTR Chinese import, with detailed exploded diagrams & part numbers for all subsystems on the truck.

I picked mine up on Amazon for $170, but if you're willing to wait a couple of weeks, you can find them on AliExpress from reputable sellers for about $155.

 

Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego has remote controlled power wheels-style cars used to transport kids around the hospital.

 

David Sosa was mistakenly arrested twice in the same county, by the same cops, on the same warrant issued decades earlier for a completely different David Sosa in another state, with different age, height, weight, and distinguishing tattoos.

 

Hey folks. A question for you.

I'm RickRussell_CA on lemmy.world, kbin.social, lemmy.ml, and beehaw.org.

When I saw that lemm.ee was coming up in the rankings, I decided that perhaps I should stake my claim here. But, as you may guess, there is already a RickRussell_CA on lemm.ee.

It's even using the profile picture that I had originally used on lemmy.world. It's made 1 comment (on a since deleted post) and no submissions.

I've used the "Forgot password" link and it's definitely not my account, as it doesn't recognize my email.

I understand that this is a risk under the Fediverse model, but I'm a bit worried that somebody staked this out as a way of impersonating me.

Is there any way to address this?

EDIT: lemm.ee admins saw this post, and banned the account. Thanks to them!

 
 

Fascinating story of a Danish traveler who visited every country on Earth, only by land and boat.

 

He's arguably the nation's most decorated journalist on law enforcement and criminal justice issues. He was released from The Washington Post last October and moved his new original content to Substack.

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