"Conflict of interest" is a white-glove euphemism for "corruption."
Trump’s Social Media Company Opens New Avenue for Conflicts of Interest https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/us/trump-media-truth-social-campaign.html?pvid=HgXBBqL_Tf7ih_bTrjtno9Ga&ugrp=c&smid=tw-share
I supppose the surge in Truth Social prices can be viewed as rational if you assume that a Trump presidency makes it a vehicle for graft
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/us/trump-media-truth-social-campaign.html
Just had an idea for a thought experiment. I'd like to hear anyone's answers, but I'm especially interested in how @freemo answers:
Let's say the presidential election was framed as a stock market. The market itself (equivalent to NYSE or NASDAQ) is America. The stocks are the presidential candidates.
In this experiment, each American has a net worth of $1000 and they have to spend it "voting" for presidential stocks during the election year. They can vote early in the year, or wait and see how others invest and vote later. They can split the $1000 between as many candidates as they want, or put it all on one.
After the election happens, they receive 10% of what they invested in the winning candidate each month (so if they put it all on the winner, they're made whole in 10 months). After the election, the winner's stock becomes the premier stock of the entire market and drives the market valuation based on the President's performance, paying dividends to every American when it does well.
In this scenario, you have two (potentially) competing motivations: enriching yourself and enriching the market (America).
So, the two questions that arise are:
1) Do you invest early, based on just your morals/politics, or do you wait and see how others invest first?
2) How do you divide up your $1,000?
McKenzie Scott has now given away $16.5 billion from the fortune she came into after divorcing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. She gives big, unrestricted gifts to small organizations, making a huge difference to what they can accomplish. #ShareGoodNewsToo https://apnews.com/article/mackenzie-scott-open-call-yield-giving-bezos-ae809a469080e9e61a945a14a230629e?ref=fixthenews.com
Breaking: #Florida now requires its citizens to submit photo identification to foreign #pornography websites.
Fuck's sake.
Can't wait for this one to inevitably be struck down for being unconstitutional, like most of the laws Republicans have passed in Florida under DeSantis's tenure.
QT: https://journa.host/@w7voa/112157501056658919
from #MarkZandi
this is the worst way to gauge a strong economy. when “homes are up”, people who don’t own a home are poorer, will shell out more to buy or rent shelter.
when “stocks are up” — trade a higher valuations — the public will be squezed for profits to ratify nosebleed share prices.
these prices are “wealth” to individual assetholders, but they are often the opposite of wealth in a substantive sense of wellness to society as a whole.
It's truly incredible how many people are capable of being blasé while operating the gas chamber so long as they're not the one on the inside.
QT: https://mastodon.social/@FrankPasquale/112147514619963490
Only Central Floridians will understand.
#memes #meme #i4eyesore #i4eyesoremafiachallenge #i4eyesorememe #i4eyesorestrong #majestybuilding #orlando #florida #altamontesprings
"As with Boeing in the late 1990s, Apple is financializing; it now spends twice as much on stock buybacks as it does on R&D, and that’s because it faces no meaningful competition that forces it to innovate. For sure, Apple has fantastic development capacity, as illustrated by the Vision Pro, but it increasingly degrades the quality of its own flagship product - the iPhone - for the purpose of maintaining its market power." @matthewstoller https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-the-apple-antitrust-suit-matters
To be clear, this is definitely a post about food, not sex.
QT: https://qoto.org/@LouisIngenthron/112145831181295859
Software engineering contractor/consultant in Florida specializing in .NET C# #WebDev, plus #Indie #GameDev in #MonoGame, #Stride, and #Godot.
I like complex simulations and enjoy writing procedural generation algorithms for fun.
#Pilot in training. Burgeoning fan of #Aviation in general.
Fan of #1A jurisprudence and the kind of #FreeSpeech that applies to everyone equally.
Pro-Democracy. Pro-Rights. Pro-Freedom. In that order.
He/Him 🏳🌈
High risk of rants, especially with the lack of character limit.