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Cake day: February 1st, 2024

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  • While “the system” is absolutely at fault for this, lifestyle creep — and changing finances — is very real.

    For example, if you can almost afford a house, and your rental is modest, you’re probably not spending all of your take-home. But if you make just a little bit more it might make financial sense to buy a house, stretching your budget to the max. Short term this really hurts, but long term may end up being a savvy decision.

    Opting for a hefty mortgage can be risky, but can also pay off in the long run — especially in a place like California where property taxes are basically fixed at time of purchase.





  • I think it’s a good question. My take, and I dunno if it’s right, is that they fucked up with Roe vs. Wade, and they know it — they were the dog that caught the car, so to speak. But once you catch the car, what do you do with it? It’s no longer something you can use to activate your base. They pivoted the messaging from “abortion bad” to “states rights,” but I think that’s less of a hot button issue.

    So I’m really hoping it’s the same with the ACA — they want to talk about how Dems are socialists and socialism is bad, but they don’t necessarily want to “catch the car” here. I do think that any changes will be explicitly about “Obamacare” and any replacement (even if it’s exactly the same) will be pushed as “Trumpcare.”

    I’m probably way off though, and I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they indeed repeal the ACA. And as much as I feel like a horrible person saying it, I have pretty much zero sympathy for those about to get their face eaten by the leopards — I voted D, and I’m not reliant on the ACA, so basically sorry, but go fuck yourself (not you personally, just the regretful Trump voters — I am deeply sympathetic to others affected by this).





  • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.websitetoRisa@startrek.websitetopical
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    8 days ago

    Open to discussion, but since 2008, the Democrats have won every election where the leadership didn’t “put their finger on the scale” in the primaries/picking the candidate. Obama, Obama; Clinton arguably shouldn’t have been the nominee and Sanders should have; Biden was (?) properly primaries; Harris was picked — obvious pick, but still, not primaried.

    Or the other reason, that the US is too sexist to elect a woman. It’s depressing either way of course.


  • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.websitetoRisa@startrek.websitetopical
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    8 days ago

    The Democrats, in hindsight, fucked up with the economy and/or the messaging.

    Did inflation happen because of the groundwork that Trump laid down in his term (not to mention global pandemic)? Sure — but did inflation get really bad under Biden? Yes, absolutely. That doesn’t make it his fault, but it makes it a problem that the Democrats probably needed to address more aggressively, an all-out attack on rising cost of living.

    At the start of the pandemic, for me to carry $100 of normal weekly groceries home from the supermarket was a real challenge, but I could do it. Now, I carry $100 no problem, with a toddler on my shoulders. The money doesn’t really matter to me, but from what I’ve been reading, it really mattered to a lot of voters. Again: I think his will be worse under Trump (if it does get better, it’ll be due to some shady tax rebates to supermarkets or big ag or something, IMHO).

    So while the Dems are talking about first time home credits and whatnot, Vance is out there lying about the price of eggs — but it’s a lie that “feels” right to a lot of people, and anecdotally, has some truth to it in that inflation/cost of living increase is real. Nevermind that the R policy is…what, exactly? But they say they’ll fix it, and they point out that Dems are currently in power, and that’s enough for a lot of people.