TeknOShEeP
11d ago
The prepayment wouldnt be an issue as the whole point is to stretch it out as much as possible. And theres no back interest, its simply a loan at 0%, if its in arrears it goes to collections/repo. Our intent is to have our finance guy create a separate account that we put $60k in and have monthy payments pulled out of, with the remaining principle invested. Naturally theres risk of losing principle, but thats true of all investing. The exact investment profile is TBD, i was just using S&P for some back of envelope calcs.
TeknOShEeP
11d ago
Okay, need some double-checking of my thinking. With an expanding family, and expanding home needs my wife an I are getting a bigger (and safer) vehicle. Long story short, its $60k, which we can actually cover outright without strain. If we do, there is a manufacturer incentive in a $5k cash rebate, which is quite nice! However, a separate, mutually exclusive incentive offer is $0 down (though we will have to pay roughly $6k in taxes and fees upfront, but that happens no matter what option we chose), 0% APR for 72 months financing, which seems to me to be an absolutely screaming deal. Some quick math suggest this saves $12k over a conventional loan, but even more importantly if we just throw that $60k into an index fund and pull our loan payments out of it, we will still have between $22-26k left at the end assuming average returns. We tend to keep our cars a long time and don't envision wanting to change out of this one. Is there any good reason not to do this?
Its detailed in the linked article, but what the SPLC actually "sells" to its donors is the ability to do a massive, coordinated pressure/harrassment (depending on your outlook) campaign against noncompliant institutions that results in reputational damage that can be priced very highly.
So in some sense, it doesnt even matter if the SPLC is convicted, the mere fact that they now have the "potentially fraudulent" label hanging on them means compliance departments not only do not have to, but are arguable legally barred from, having contact with them in the way they used to operate. So the SPLC as a political operative NGO is basically dead in the water.
Also, not sure how they are going to weasel out of their CEO directly admitting to bank fraud in official communications, so as a going concern as well they seem to be in a lot of trouble.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Nah, thats a "DEI admit" flag if ever I saw one. Caltech used to be the last holdout against it, but even they have collapsed in recent years. I would bet his grades in undergrad are of the "barely passing with massive help from tutors and the counseling office" vintage.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Louisana, Texas, Florida, Indiana. Contrast with Connecticut, California, and now Virginia. It seems like math disagrees with your conception of reality.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
In the case of the SPLC, they are the same thing. The organization only exists as long as donors can be convinced the big scary evil hate organizations actually exist in any meaningful way. When the SPLC was founded, the KKK was an actual social force that had real political heft in the South. They are now a joke in internet memes. The biggest "racist gathering" in recent memory, Charlottesville's "Unite the Right" appears to be at least partially funded and organized by the SPLC themselves. There are functionally zero active, violent, White race groups in the US, and thats a big problem for the SPLC, because thats their entire raison d'etre. Its not that demand outstrips the supply, its that the supply is entirely fictional.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
The US actually throws politicians in jail fairly regularly for corruption and bribery. Not often enough for my tastes, but it happens. Just yesterday a congress critter resigned minutes before being expelled by a bipartisan vote, and the federal charges are probably going to stick.
The informant the SPLC paid 7 figures for was fundraising for the most milquetoast-ass Nazi group possible who seem to be decades removed from any convictions for violent crimes. Safe? No, but La Cosa Nostra or the cartels they are not.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
I am dying. The meme is that the demand for racism vastly outstrips the supply leading to things like the Jussie Smolet situation. The reality is so, so, so much more entertaining. It's pretty well-established that the going rate for bribing American politicians is shockingly low (according to the US Sentencing Commision, median amount is $45k-65k). From the indictment, between 2014 and 2023 the SPLC paid an informant more than a million dollars to steal documents for them. Oh, and also they paid somebody else a measly $6k to be the fall guy for the first informant's theft. Wonder how he's gonna feel knowing he could have held out for so much more?
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
I'm very frustrated with the whole thing. First for Trump kicking off this fight.
I'm frustrated that you think Trump started this. All of the Dem redistricting proposals are in response to Texas redistricting, which is a legally mandated response to a 2024 5th Circuit ruling saying "no, you cant have racially discriminatory districts", which is generally a thing democrats claim to oppose, except when it helps them.
The fundamental truth is that currently the DNC is the overwhelming beneficiary of gerrymandering efforts, and the push in Virginia about the 759th finger on a very crowded scale.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
I'm against a man who would manipulate them into sex without requiring love, mutual commitment, support or investment.
Absolutely, and this is one of the advantages of a strong family, as it has been historically. If a man knocks up a woman and doesnt do the honorable thing, the womans family has certain duties involving pitchforks and/or shotguns. But an age gap is not a good indicator of lack of commitment, I would argue both historically and currently its the inverse. Even the sour-grapes danger-haired feminists who shriek about such things couch their argument in terms of power imbalances rather than a lack of commitment.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
I would have slighly more tuck for "Chinaman" being an ethnic slur, if the Chinese themselves weren't so intent on making "Chinese" a perfect synonym for "ethnically Han".
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
If my niece or one of my younger cousins when they come of age at 18, told me they were currently dating a 30 year old man, it would certainly give me pause and reflection to wonder where his particular interest comes from
The same place all male interest in females comes from. Historically, 30 year old men (or even older) routinely sought out 16-18 year old women to form families with. The question is entirely in the quality of the man. I happen to have this exact situation in my family, with a cousin dating and then marrying at 19 to a man 12 years her senior. He is a very good dude who happened to really, really want a large family. To my knowledge, he adores her, never speaks down to her or has treated her as less than an equal partner, and 8 (or maybe 9? I've lost count) kids later they are one of the happiest families I know.
Programming is an extremely g-loaded activity.
For some subset of g, where g is pure logic. For other subsets of g, especially those related to mechanical reasoning and 2nd order effects, I have a large pile of former FAANG resumes that have failed the conversion to nuts, bolts, and actual atoms engineering that argues otherwise. Not to say they arent intelligent, but a "pure generalist" is not a hard requirement.
When I taught programming
I think this is one of those "theory vs practice" things. In theory, programming is an extremely intellectually straining endevour, and the academic pipline in the West is set up with some pretty fine filters. In practice though with the way big companies PM the development, deployment, and maintenence of most software today you dont actually need an above-average IQ to excel (this is a feature, not a bug). I agree with badger that the market rate for programming salaries has probably overstated the relative intellectual demand compared to other professions of similar educational requirements.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Catholics are not allowed to ignore the pope. A Catholic potus has an obligation to obey the pope or they are not Catholic.
Billions of Catholics ignore the pope's directives every day. You may feel this is some sort of contradiction of the religion, but you are grossly, vastly outvoted.
Insert Ex Cathedra explanation here
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Nothing fancy, I do most of the cooking in our house and just try to keep things simple and relatively quick. I used to go more all out and do more sophisticated stuff, but nowadays I just shoot for quick, relatively cheap, and tasty. This is just one of about a dozen or so casserole variations I do, none of them take very long, and you basically just throw whatever ingredients you have into an AI and it will come up with good suggestions.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Cheeseburger casserole with heavy cream
2 lb ground beef 1 lb bacon 8 eggs 1 cup heavy whipping cream 12 oz. Cheddar cheese 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp black pepper (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cook beef and bacon separately over medium heat until brown. Place beef in a casserole pan, add the bacon, mix well, and spread in an even layer. Mix eggs, cream, salt, (and pepper) well. Add 3/4 of the Cheddar cheese. Pour the batter over the beef and bacon and sprinkle the remaining Cheddar on its top. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes until golden brown.
Its a carnivore recipe, so extremely calorie dense, and easy to digest. How health it is depends on your personal level of trust with nutritional science.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Correct. At this point the majority of what the US government does is redirect money from people who have earned it with productive labor to those with the right political connections and ability to game the system. The fact that anything gets done at all is a testament to the durabilty of the inital arrangements.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
The cuts it involves are insane IMO and not worth it unless you think out of all that excess spending, benefits will fall out of it and accrue to other industries and subsectors
Defense spending is only about 50% fraud and mismanagment. Social spending, at this point, is 100% fraud and mismanagement. Basic infrastructure is about 50% F&M. Any government speding cuts at this point are a good thing.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
If you're getting into arguments about politics with your therapist, you need a different therapist.
TeknOShEeP
1mo ago
Yes. I hire for technical roles (actual science and engineering, not programming) on occasion, look at resumes and do interviews more that occasionally, and it cannot be overstated how little a prestigious institution for a Bachelor's degree matters. Actually, its probably a counter signal, especially if BS from Prestigious Institution is followed by Graduate Degree from Less Prestigious Institution. That pretty much screams "DEI pick, lawsuit waiting to happen, do not hire."
Best results? BS from a good state school or Jesuit college, followed up with a worthwhile grad degree from a school thats respected in the field. Shows personal growth, not coasting.
The value of an Ivy undergrad degree is the networking, that's it (other than maybe Math at Harvard or Princeton). Want a rigorous education? Go to big state U and pick the hardest major, or a Jesuit school and argue philosphy against people with a 500 years worth of cliff notes.
TeknOShEeP
2mo ago
Lol what? He is absolutely offering very specific criticism of specific actions. Specific cops raided his place based on an anonymous tip, caused $20k in damage that they did not compensate him for, and so, understandably pissed, he made a bunch of music videos using security footage of the incident and yes, ascribing certain negative aspects to the cops who raided his home in the context of thst criticism. Textbook free speech, and happily the jury agreed.
The idea that you can't insult agents of the state for doing their jobs poorly is how you get dictatorships.
TeknOShEeP
2mo ago
The difference is that the cop, acting in their official capacity as an agent of the state, performed what appears to be a bunch of unjust and legally actionable violations of his civil rights. Afroman is offering criticism to specifc agents of the state for their specific actions that in his eyes, warrant such criticism.
A barista doing her job for Starbucks is in both a socially and leglly different position. It has been long established in case law that defamation of public figures or state actors has a much higher bar than private figures.
TeknOShEeP
2mo ago
Hmmm... have they ever been seen in the same room together? Allegedly theres a 7 year age gap, but I feel living a double life as a famous kung-fu actor is exactly the sort of thing Papa Illia would do.
Hah, funnily enough thats the other model we had under consideration. We test drove both the base gas and premium phev versions and absolutely hated it. $34k stuck us as about $14k overpriced. Might as well just get a used lexus or something, and be much better off.
I think the cheap new car market right now is in a bad place- you can get fairly heavily depreciated but still new-ish and reliable upmarket vehicles for the same price and a much better ownership experience.
We'd both much rather buy a nice new car and drive it for decades (our newest current vehicle is 11 years old but still comfortable and reliable) than get a cheaper one that we'll get tired of and have issues.
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