Broke Boy Eccentric @ NearZone
@nearzone.bsky.social
860 followers 120 following 11K posts
http://www.nearzone.com http://blog.nearzone.com Art Style 72: Reversal of Time I always keep my finger on the trigger, when I walk in solemn landscapes where the past and present linger
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Pinned
nearzone.bsky.social
I just reminded myself of the band I Decline and I'm gonna pin this tweet until I remember to recover the songs I have from them
nearzone.bsky.social
Holy shit I forgot about that awful haircut Mark from Map Men had like a year ago. An old video just came up. Fuck.
nearzone.bsky.social
It's very funny how toast Bluesky is. Who would want to invest in this? At the same time, investors are very stupid.
nearzone.bsky.social
Obviously I don't give a shit about the IRS as it exists but this is stuff that politicians *should* care about.
nearzone.bsky.social
Unless you force them to stop doing this shit on the IRS etc., they're going to keep doing it. And the people who have the position, Schumer and Jeffries, are frantically trying to prevent anyone else from taking that position so something might be done. They are keeping us in fascism.
nearzone.bsky.social
Our "theory of revolution" and "theory of political change" are pretty much the same & ride entirely on this fantasy of popular discontent manifesting into a spontaneous uprising against the state, *a thing that does not happen*. The best way to start uprising is for prominent people to oppose gov't
nearzone.bsky.social
Things do not change just because they are abstractly bad, and this thing where people are okay with Schumer and Jeffries doing nothing needs to end. Even if Trump turned this country into Mordor and everyone hated it, it wouldn't change unless someone with the ability to change things did that.
nearzone.bsky.social
One thing I hope is that this episode radically shifts how Americans view politics. Because we are still believing that some random force is going to come through and just set things right. I know not everybody thinks this, but enough Americans have to be disabused of this that Democrats lose.
donmoyn.bsky.social
The IRS is laying off people during the shutdown, even though it was rehiring staff it previously fired because it was so shorthanded.
This one stands out because firing IRS employees costs the government money, since they bring in about $6-8 for every dollar spent on tax enforcement
IRS Halts Layoff Plans, Begins Rehiring Amid Staffing Shortages
The agency is attempting to rebuild its workforce and restore public confidence.
Treasury Department: Treasury cut 1,446 employees on Friday. Two Internal Revenue Service employees confirmed layoffs were taking place at the tax agency, which has already shed more than 25,000 employees. One employee who was laid off was working Friday and exempt from shutdown furloughs.
Reposted by Broke Boy Eccentric @ NearZone
nearzone.bsky.social
LRT I wonder if the reason that the Democrats don't raise these sorts of issues in the media is the same reason that Pritzker et. al. won't give any orders to the police & NG. The Democratic people know that if they go on TV and say "they are rigging the election" the news won't talk to them anymore
Reposted by Broke Boy Eccentric @ NearZone
nearzone.bsky.social
The reason it's really hard for me to buy that Maduro is The Most Evil Man In The World is that the only people they can find to oppose him are outright fascists whose favorite flags (despite being Venezuelan) are the stars and stripes and stars and bars, and not necessarily in that order.
Reposted by Broke Boy Eccentric @ NearZone
nearzone.bsky.social
Anyway, and I'll get off economics now (I think), the overriding evidence against labor theory basically goes like this: Do you see anybody throwing out theories about why stuff falls down? No, because gravity explains it. That theory can be refined, but it's right, so it stays.
Reposted by Broke Boy Eccentric @ NearZone
thebulwark.com
George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.
thebulwark.com
"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized
nearzone.bsky.social
If labor theory actually worked, it would be the basis of at least *anybody's* economic system, and it isn't. Not in the strict way of using labor units, cutting out profits, etc. As Ingham says, despite Marx's attempts, he didn't actually break out of orthodox economics, which is wrong.
nearzone.bsky.social
Anyway, and I'll get off economics now (I think), the overriding evidence against labor theory basically goes like this: Do you see anybody throwing out theories about why stuff falls down? No, because gravity explains it. That theory can be refined, but it's right, so it stays.
nearzone.bsky.social
Have had a "Contemporary Marxist Reader" for a while and I just took a look, the contents seem fine for what they are but there is no economics in it which is what I wanted to expect but not what I actually did expect, if that makes sense.
nearzone.bsky.social
Politically, labor theory is great. When you're actually trying to solve the problems of exchange & scarcity that economics deals with, it just is not adequate. I have said it before but I will say it again: if labor theory worked economically, there wouldn't have been an NEP.
nearzone.bsky.social
It simply is not straightforward, however, to go from "benefit is the foundation of value" to "this is exactly how benefit & other circumstances result in this specific valuation". This is the thing that labor theory purports to do *but does not do*. I'm sorry, it doesn't.
nearzone.bsky.social
The reason that the labor theory of value is wrong isn't like... conceptual. It's not saying that "you think labor creates value but it doesn't". It's saying that labor theory cannot explain prices, currency flows, etc. Everyone accepts that value comes from benefit, usually increased by labor.
nearzone.bsky.social
I've never been more convinced that economics is real than right now knowing a little bit about it and seeing people who know nothing crack wise.
Reposted by Broke Boy Eccentric @ NearZone
gopher33j.bsky.social
HE DRANK FOR 3 DAYS STRAIGHT AFTER THIS.

3 DAYS OF BINGE DRINKING.

The family belongs in jail.
gopher33j.bsky.social
I’ve seen this posted a few different places - as somebody over a decade sober this would piss me off and I would cease contact with that sister.

It’s not funny - nor a joke - this is abuse.
Tik tok post where a young man was served rum cake at a five year olds ?!?! Birthday party and not told. He was also five years sober and didn’t know it was rum cake until he ate it.
Vile shit
nearzone.bsky.social
Like if it's just funny and that's the only reason people do this stuff I guess I get that, but I also don't like pranks so on that level this still doesn't grab me.
nearzone.bsky.social
People would be telling me about how like one of their uncles insisted that he was gonna pay so he did this fake-out move to everyone at the table to go pay and then find out that another dude had already paid, and like... that's funny but also fucking exhausting, don't ask me to do that.
nearzone.bsky.social
And I'm not like fully rejecting or whatever. But my rule is we do the dance two times and then a decision is made. I will let you refuse to let me pay twice, but if the game is that I'm supposed to wear you down, guess what: you're paying for dinner now. I'll do it a little bit but not forever.
nearzone.bsky.social
I've managed to knock $1k off my last two very cheap cars with basic car dealership shit, and while I'm sure that's just like the standard that the guy expects he's not getting, that's still 1) $1k that I could have paid but didn't, and 2) about as much trouble as I'm willing to go through.
nearzone.bsky.social
Like haggling for deals on cars. I will do it a little bit, but past a point I just do not enjoy it and I don't know why you don't just tell me the real price at the beginning. I mean I *know* why but don't make me do this shit man.