Notices by Janis (janisf@mstdn.social)

@maskedscheduler
It's an indicator that governments feel? disempowered in the face of private enterprise. It's not a government-to-government transaction.

@jeffowski

No, only HOUSE Republicans did, and would have with our without the rogue 7 of 213 Democrats:

Tom Suozzi (New York)
Henry Cuellar (Texas)
Don Davis (North Carolina)
Laura Gillen (New York)
Jared Golden (Maine)
Vicente Gonzalez (Texas)
Marie Glusenkamp Perez (Washington)

It has not gone to the Senate for a vote yet. Call yours. (202) 224-3121

_Republicans_ did this, and when you blatantly disinform to trash on Democrats, you are helping them do even more.

@reallyflygreg @bmacDonald94 I'm just talking off the cuff from having watched quite a number of volunteer groups get organized. One of the things I love about social media is the un-booked studying people reflect on.

One thing I've noticed is it's a whole lot easier in a smaller group to cry BS. More critical mass is a heavier upstream swim. I don't doubt for a minute tiny tribes were generally more egalitarian. Double vulnerability, then, I guess.

@reallyflygreg @bmacDonald94 I'm really wondering of there's a "realization" in a cognitive sense in the early bits, before the structure to climb is there. It seems to me to simply gather people and then lend the group to having someone issuing in-the-know directions.

The hunger, from my vantage, seems to be to abdicate power/culpability while having things taken care of, and feeling safe. So, not so much about doing as getting others to do.

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @economics-that-works It's still smacks of hustle culture. People are putting groceries on credit. There comes a point (which we've passed) where microeconomics, regardless of what you're putting on your toast, doesn't cut it. Childcare, medicine, and education costs are rising because people need higher wages. The big cash flow, though, is going to passive income, namely, /unregulated/ global digital & real estate investment companies.

Tax the rich, globally.

@fixatedpersonsunit The concerning thing is that there are enough constituents who think launching a war on "porn" 1. isn't an infringement of free speech, 2. is realistic. 3. Think someone's going to pay for it... worse, think it's a priority over making sure disabled people get, like, wheelchair repair, or kids getting throat cultures.

We can chuckle all we want, but people have their heads this far up their asses. Apparently they need pictures to see what that looks like.

@jeffowski that's just it. I get cash. I go to my co-op and to 3 mom&pop second hand stores. I bought my car used from a local guy with an unmarked personal loan from my tiny credit union. I'm ALL for people doin' it my way.

I do struggle with one thing. Ace Hardware is technically a cooperative. Boycotting franchises and co-ops is an entirely different beast than the same with a publicly owned corporation. I am checking (as we all should).... https://www.myace.com/open-a-store/

@jeffowski You'll fit more people through a pair of doors in less time if they line up.

I am not stopping action. Quite the opposite.

Organizing is impossibly hard. it's exactly why you haven't seen the change you'd think we'd have seen by now. It simply hasn't actually been organized.

Check in with me on this in June, would you?

@jeffowski Hon, bless your heart. I've been fighting for market/retail change since about 1994. My first Facebook post in 2009 was about "consumer power." I seed-funded Fair Trade, and watched it fizzle by getting sloppy and too big to manage.

I'm glad you're enthusiastic. Please trust an oldster when I say it gets unwieldy really, really quickly. Tight and tidy will serve this movement better.

@jeffowski It's GREAT to fight consumerism, but that's not a boycott. If we communicate effectively, we can have nice, clean, effective boycotts, with statements, beginnings, ends, and results. it's like a workers' strike, but for shoppers, a bargaining tool.

It's another thing to say a list of companies trashed their DEI programs, so don't shop here if you can avoid it for the foreseeable future. That's not a bargaining tool, that's a directive to quit.

Organizing is better clean, yes?

@jeffowski Diffuse or unsustainable boycotts just get the last-person-hired fired. There's no rhyme or reason to the messaging sent.

Target for 40 days would say a thing, but not a lot. It looks like Costco is doing well, though, so Big-Box business stays strong, DEI doesn't change. And, in April, everyone will go buy up all the Target-brand stuff Costco doesn't carry.

Or consumers can grasp the power each.dollar.spent actually has, and be deliberate & knowledgeable how it tips balances.

@benroyce For every 100K births 32 women die, in the US. If you survive, you're about $20K in medical debt right out of the gate.

The hard part, though, is facing a boss that doesn't give parental leave or a wage that feeds & houses your kids, then lays you off, forcing you into worse (or no) housing that'll poison your kids.

It seems people who have won don't see what a no-win situation relative poverty is.

In the mean time, conservatives have more voter-babies.

@adammoe2022 @alissaazar Nope--but if we want to get under their skin, you'll have to dress like a real threat convincingly on occasion. ;)

@alissaazar I hear Idaho property is pretty cheap. Maybe we go all in and build a complex for some armed drag queens and pissed off lesbians.

If they want landowners, we can rip that page from their playbook.

@GottaLaff This is really interesting, really. The press has been under much worse attack from Facebook & twitter, who reap the eyeballs and funding without giving press outlets any way to recover, outside paywalls. Most folks have had their heads in the sand on this.

What Trump can't attack is diversified, small donations. End of story.

We haven't been paying for what we read.

(Now that you can, protect the CBC.)

@pezmico But if we take away the window to the shitstorm world, our kids can stay in our windowless McMansion enjoying the same wealth-supported ignorance we do.

What. We turned out OK. We're good parents. We worked hard to provide. Their C-PTSD *can't* be us.

(/s)

@dalias @JessTheUnstill Index returns have been about 10%. Last year the price of a house (avg US) went up 18%, while if individuals don't buy them, global investment corporations do, paying that 10% index to its investors, pocketing the other 8%, and actually hiring a remote employee to manage multiple properties in exchange for a single unit. (Obvs, it's not allegorically simple like that, but you get the gist.)

Against whom are you trying to win?

@JessTheUnstill Agreed. It's important, though, I think, in the process of getting to that conclusion, to see that individuals generally rent for retirement income rather than wealth, where the (many foreign) corporations who've bought up most of the housing and let it sit empty for appreciation over time are a bunch of people just doing their jobs, making profit for shareholders.

The problem is that passive income makes more than wages. That's a systemic issue.

@JessTheUnstill the landlords don't pocket most of that money--they're paying mortgages (plus interenst), property taxes, appliance loans, repair, easements the bulk of what they make is on the sale of the property that "magically" appreciates.

Ask to see your landlord's books? Little individual middlemen aren't the ones accumulating wealth, at least not until they sell--and that's the definition of a market gamble. They're playing the game, but the game is what's evil. Peg the rule-writers.

@eribosot The only common theme I can find is hatred of Democrats, while not understanding the actual political landscape.

This moment feels like five minutes after a car accident, when your head reattaches to your body. I think, perhaps what we need to do is figure out, proverbially, which tow company to call and get off the street so we don't get hit.