Category: Longform
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Orange County California Supervisor allegedly funneled millions to daughter's non-profit
We spend a lot of time focusing on the National elections. There’s nothing wrong with this, but this singular gaze has, for years now, been shifting our attention from local issues to the National stage, and we do so to our civic peril. Over and over again we see so-called politicians leveraging public office for personal gain, regardless of party affiliation. Stay awake. Keep your head on a swivel. #uspol #localpolitics #california #corruption
“Orange County Supervisors Katrina Foley and Vicente Sarmiento are calling for Supervisor Andrew Do to resign Wednesday as authorities investigate allegations of fraudulent spending of COVID-19 relief funds by a nonprofit that employed Do’s daughter.”
“Earlier this month, the county sued the Viet America Society and its President Peter Pham, alleging misappropriation of millions of dollars of pandemic relief earmarked for delivery of meals to needy residents. The Hand to Hand Relief organization, which subcontracted with Viet America Society, was also sued.”
Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter deemed among worst deals of all time
“Seven banks loaned Elon Musk money totaling $13 billion in 2022 to help him buy Twitter, now known by the obnoxiously generic name X … the [Wall Street] Journal explains that this wasn’t just one of the worst deals since 2008, it’s one of the worst deals of all time.”
Over the years I have offered many examples of why he’s an idiot. This one takes the cake. #elonmusk #tesla #twitter #xitter #finance gizmodo.com/bankers-h…
Ancient Roman sarcophagus discovered being used as a bar in Black Sea resort
Apparently it’s illegal to own historical artifacts in Bulgaria. Not a bad idea, to be honest. Such artifacts are snapshots of the rich history of humanity on our lone planet thriving with life in the solar system. It sucks that certain peeps are allowed to develop their own private collections. While I believe that in this case it was likely inadvertent, there are many more who selfishly or for investment purposes collect these items. Additionally, there is now more talk about presevation of cultural heritage going on now in Bulgaria. #history [SOURCE]
America's legal system at work... for Billionaires
You know what’s great about #sarcasm? It’s hilarious and it allows us to laugh at terrible things being done by terrible people for terribly stupid reasons. The Legal Eagle seems to agree… or concur or however lawyers prefer to say it. In that spirit, isn’t it also great that America lets geniuses like #ElonMusk take steps to force silly advertisers unwilling to be associated with Hitler and Nazis to pay #Xitter to advertise again? This is, after all, the AmeriKKKan way!
Russia's insane revisionist pulp fiction industry
If you question why the general population of #Russia supports the #war in #Ukraine there’s likely one fact you are unaware of. I certainly knew nothing about this, because it is one of the single most insane methods of #propaganda sponsored by any sovereign state I have ever seen. This is bat shit crazy on steroids, crossed with Cthulhu, and cloned into oblivion. If you know of something more ludicrous and insidious, do let me know. #youtube #video #culture #putin #insane youtu.be/iCI6es9G0…
A list of things that pair well with McDonald's Szechuan Sauce
Whilst having a conversation with a friend he wanted to give me a list of foods that would probably taste good with Szechuan sauce. Considering the list itself, I have a feeling that it's not as tasty as he might recall. These are compiled from our talk on the matter over one of the popular (but not too popular) messaging apps:
I'm done with Microsoft Windows
As of May 31st, 2024 when Microsoft announced Windows Recall, I have a single physical machine, and no virtual machines, with any version of Windows installed and that will not be changing as long as Microsoft remains on the path they're forged for themselves. The one machine which has Windows 10 is a Dell Venue 8 Pro which needs a dongle to install another operating system, and I need to find the dongle. Once I find the dongle, Windows is gone, gone, gone. Why would I go through so much trouble getting rid of Windows?
Mastering the macOS Menu Bar
I came across the following article on Apple Insider a few days ago and was initially enthused. I'd recently written a quick guide to a freeware tool for the Mac called Spaced and was hoping to find some more gems to get my menu bar under even more control. It turned out to be little more than an advertisement for Bartender, a paid app.
So, I've decided to write my own guide instead and this post has no paid anything. It's all freeware.
Spaced | macOS Freeware
I was a Bartender user for a few years. It was quite nice to get a handle on my Mac’s menubar. But I was paying $10 a month for SetApp and access to their library of around 240 applications and utilities. I could have purchased Bartender for $16 instead, but I didn’t. I paid SetApp $240 for two years to end up using about six apps.
That's not a value in my book.
Save The Web: Advanced Dollarnomics
In the first part of this series I started last year, I spoke about the idea of Dollarnomics, describing it in some detail. If you want to get the basics of the concept, then you should go read that first. It’s not a long piece and I’ve linked it below. I do outline a few ideas there, but there needs to be some additional context so that you might fully understand the power that I believe resides both in the $1 bill and in the people who are tired of always being on the bottom of the economy, even if you only have a few million dollars in the bank, an amount that is nowhere near as comforting as it was a decade or two ago.