Hacker News: _2z1p

New comment by _2z1p in "Tax prep companies: $90M lobbying against free tax-filing"

_2z1p — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 21:38:39 +0000

That’s the problem, Roe was an overstepping of the Supreme Court. A law should’ve been passed instead. That is why this Supreme Court ruled the way they did. There was nothing in the Constitution or established law to support Roe.

New comment by _2z1p in "Tax prep companies: $90M lobbying against free tax-filing"

_2z1p — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 20:04:49 +0000

A simple tax code is a simple one for a computer to calculate.

1. Input the taxpayers's income from all taxable sources.

2. Lookup what tax bracket you're in based on that income.

3. Calculate the appropriate tax bill based on that percentage.

4. Subtract that from whatever has already been taxed out of their payroll for the year.

5. Bill them or refund them appropriately.

No humans would need to be part of the process if it were that simple, saving money and making errors less likely. Also, the simpler the tax code is the less computing hours it will require to complete the entire country's taxes, meaning faster refunds and less energy usage. Simpler taxes are even better for the environment!

New comment by _2z1p in "Tax prep companies: $90M lobbying against free tax-filing"

_2z1p — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 19:55:33 +0000

The Supreme Court overturned Roe because it was a deeply flawed decision. Even former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg disagreed with it.

https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/justice-ruth-bader-ginsbur...

New comment by _2z1p in "HHS Calls for Moving Marijuana to Lower-Risk US Drug Category"

_2z1p — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 11:04:02 +0000

Unpopular opinion around here, but strong hallucinogenic drugs can have negative externalities.

New comment by _2z1p in "Pay for New Hires Is Shriveling"

_2z1p — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 17:19:12 +0000

Welcome to the great reset.

That pesky middle class is always sticking up for their rights and freedoms. Just a little more price inflation and a little more wage stagnation and they’ll be owning nothing and being happy about it right according to the WEF’s plans.

New comment by _2z1p in "Weight-based motor vehicle tax"

_2z1p — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 16:58:58 +0000

Not sure why you’re downvoted for pointing this out. Like most recent tax proposals this would disproportionately impact the rural middle class. Farmers and truck drivers would be directly impacted and then these costs would be passed on to consumers.

Those poor enough to receive WIC and EBT payments would have this tax largely subsidized, so it won’t impact them, and the wealthy would barely notice.

New comment by _2z1p in "The Mexican Air Force no longer has any fighter aircraft in its inventory (2016)"

_2z1p — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 15:27:02 +0000

I wonder where they got those nukes from? Also, what about the remainder of Europe that did not have nuclear armaments?

Communism is an ideology that demands world conquest and the extinction of Capitalism. The Soviets expanded as far as they could and absolutely would not have hesitated to conquer more of Europe without the threat of the United States military and NATO.

New comment by _2z1p in "The Mexican Air Force no longer has any fighter aircraft in its inventory (2016)"

_2z1p — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 14:06:14 +0000

Frankly, this is a luxury Western Europe enjoys solely because of their alliances with the United States. The Soviet Union would have continued to push westward had the United States and the NATO alliance not held them in check with the threat of superior military might.

There are no European nations in the top ten military rankings by really any measure that matters…

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/military-...

This is fine, it is just different priorities of governmental spending, but it is absolutely supported by American military hegemony.

New comment by _2z1p in "The Mexican Air Force no longer has any fighter aircraft in its inventory (2016)"

_2z1p — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 11:08:10 +0000

A lot of social spending around the world has been subsidized by the Pax Americana.

The practical reality is that the United States military has made most lesser militaries almost comically obsolete. Iraq was once the world’s fourth largest military and America obliterated their military within just a few weeks.

New comment by _2z1p in "Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule"

_2z1p — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 17:10:20 +0000

> It also highlights Musk's recent rightward political shift

Why is this specifically called out as a problem?

Single party rule is dangerous. There are merits of both left and right wing political philosophies, yet neither has all the answers. We should value political diversity as much as we do other forms of diversity (with the obvious exception of political extremists of either persuasion) and seek compromise and consensus whenever possible.

New comment by _2z1p in "Dude,Where's My Donations? Wikimedia gives another $1M to non-Wikimedia projects"

_2z1p — Sat, 19 Aug 2023 00:56:06 +0000

I think it's fair to be upset when Wikimedia begs for donations to fund Wikipedia and then takes those donations and doesn't fund the continued operations of Wikipedia and instead gives these donations to completely different charitable organizations. All the while continuing to ask visitors for donations constantly, despite clearly having more money than they actually need.

New comment by _2z1p in "Spring 6.1 now compatible with virtual threads and JDK 21"

_2z1p — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 15:56:19 +0000

I think that’s the source of negativity for the HN crowd. It’s boring, predictable, mature enterprise grade software that quietly gets the job done. It’s too similar to what they are forced to work with in $DAYJOB, instead of the exotic, fun frameworks they’d rather be playing with that you always read about here.

New comment by _2z1p in "Under $100 Pre-Owned Mini Computers to Use as Desktop PC's and Servers in 2023"

_2z1p — Sat, 12 Aug 2023 22:40:30 +0000

I just checked...Apple will give me $330 for mine if I traded it in today. That has to be a scam.

New comment by _2z1p in "Car Bloat: “Huge Cars Are Terrible for Society”"

_2z1p — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 20:29:34 +0000

I own both a minivan and an SUV, the minivan handles horribly in poor weather conditions, even with the proper tires. Our SUV handles much better in all weather even without switching to 4 wheel drive.

The minivan also has horrible clearance that bottoms out frequently when you drive on dirt trails trying to get to hiking trails and primitive campgrounds.

They each serve their purpose. The minivan is by far the best suburban people carrier we could’ve bought, and it has incredible storage capacity when you stow the seats, but it definitely has its limitations.

New comment by _2z1p in "Sex-specific differences in myocardial injury after Covid-19 Vaccination"

_2z1p — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 22:30:18 +0000

We were told in no uncertain terms that this vaccine was 95% effective at preventing COVID and there were no side effects. Now all of a sudden the authorities are sheepishly admitting, no, it's not anywhere near 95% effective and it just reduces symptoms of COVID to more manageable levels. So I'm not surprised to hear that they lied about there being no side effects.

Just so you know, the FDA wanted 55 years to comply with a FOIA request related to the vaccines, so that seems a bit suspicious to me. Almost like they have some things to hide.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/wait-what-fda-wants...

New comment by _2z1p in "Sex-specific differences in myocardial injury after Covid-19 Vaccination"

_2z1p — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 20:13:45 +0000

Not in otherwise healthy men in their 20s and 30s.

New comment by _2z1p in "Sex-specific differences in myocardial injury after Covid-19 Vaccination"

_2z1p — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 20:11:47 +0000

The vaccines have been ineffective at preventing infection from COVID. There is evidence that they reduce the severity of symptoms when you do catch it, but it does nearly nothing to prevent infection with COVID.

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-...

New comment by _2z1p in "A proposal to build a sub-Saharan Africa electrical grid across 12 countries"

_2z1p — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 01:40:13 +0000

Off the top of my head there's the "Cultural Revolution", Tiananmen Square, the annexation of Tibet, and of course the ongoing genocide of the Uyghurs.

The Western powers have done a lot of fucked up things, but that doesn't make China the good guys.

New comment by _2z1p in "“We’ve Changed the Game”: Teamsters Win Historic UPS Contract"

_2z1p — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 01:13:12 +0000

Inflation is most certainly not dropping. The rate that inflation is increasing is slowing. That's a huge difference.

Also the reported rate of inflation is very misleading considering it doesn't include housing, energy, or food costs, which just so happen to be sectors of the economy that experienced the most inflation.

New comment by _2z1p in "X.com Now Points to Twitter.com/"

_2z1p — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 20:56:17 +0000

I don't think anyone believes that he designed the rockets and cars himself, but by creating and managing these companies, he is directly responsible for the technological advancements that have occurred.

A lot of people are assholes that get written about here, but I don't see this level of hatred for many people other than Elon Musk.