I'll have my citizenship revoked or liberty taken away if I make too much of a fuss.

Russia tried a 13% flat tax. And for the most part it accomplished what it set out to do; get tax evasion and the black market economy under control. Those problems are not anywhere to the severity here in the US that was seen 1990's and early 2000's Russia.

To fund the social programs, infrastructure, and military that people want, the tax is going to need to be quite high in the US. 13% won't cut it. The number is around 35% flat tax to hang onto what we have today without borrowing. And that does not answer what we do with people where a 35% haircut to their income means they are short on rent.

We are a nation that can put men on the moon, build the largest nuclear-powered naval fleet in the world, and collect and tally the votes of over 150 million registered voters. I think we can figure out how to count your income, subtract each bracket off the effective earned income, and tally up the rows to get you a final tax value. If you want to know your effective rate, take that value and divide it by your gross income.

That said, if we really don't want to do arithmetic anymore, then perhaps we could save a little money by ending our math education. Imagine the tax savings if we lower our standards and create a generation of ignoramuses.

Ketchup bought the distribution rights from WB for around $50M. I suspect most of the $100M goes to the box office and actors, I'm not sure what percentage WB gets. Likely not much given the large up front payout. That puts WB around $20M in the red on this film (they probably spend around $70-80M making it).

I would define what went down as a major cock up for WB. And no matter how well the film does they will have trouble doing much better than breaking even.

Plus my votes potentially won't count in the next election. (all mail ballots)

I do protest, and I do encourage everyone to be prepared both mentally and financially for a general strike. Because I believe it to be the only way to force representatives to listen to We the People.

It's got AI *slaps hood*

This AI stuff is like 90% marketing. What's extra silly is selling computers with NPUs in them as if you can run local models but then bundling a subscription that tacitly admits that the hardware isn't good enough to run local models of any importance.

After 12 months the subscription to AI Pro is $26.99/mo.

You can cancel the subscription and still use the laptop, but some features that were built into it go away without AI Pro. Such as autonomous agent support, and of course you look 5 TB of cloud storage when you drop Pro.

Nobody? Honest mistake? I guess nobody has to take responsibility for anything anymore. THANKS AI!

Because Republicans believe the average American to be an uninformed lout. That none of this will ever come back to their party. That they can simply pivot away, stir up a new crisis, and we will all forget.

I almost always replace the nasty food with a different icon for the theme.
I don't like the macOS face icon either, looks like some kind of weird Star Trek half black/white freak alien.

In the future, some books may be primarily accessible only through AI. Having no available physical copies nor a legal electronic format.

The author's voice counts for something. Or at least it used to.

I've had otherwise legitimate interviewers where they wanted me to access some weird website or install an app on my phone.
My current employer we use some interview software that tracks the desktop focus to help identify if someone is cutting and pasting into search engines or AI. Not fool proof, but there are plenty of people that didn't realize they granted some key permissions when they signed into the website.
I think it's somewhat invasive, but I just work here and do what they tell me.

Meh. I think it generally gives bad advice, making the writing worse.

If you didn't want to write it

For private citizens, the 13th eliminates the ability of parties to enter in indentured servitude contracts. And civil statutes built around the authority of that Amendment are used to regulate some private actions. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981, which prohibits racial discrimination in making and enforcing contracts (including by private businesses and schools); 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1982, which prohibits racial discrimination in private property transactions.