Hijack This Thread

[Shizzle Popped]

One of the reasons I've always hesitated to donate to political parties and other causes is because I've witnessed the absolute shitstorm they made of my dad's email. I'm talking hundreds of emails a day asking for money. We tried unsubscribing and blocking but new email addresses kept popping up. We finally had to open a new email account and let the old one go.

So, this year I've donated to the Harris campaign, a couple of state candidates and a couple of local people I know. It's not the local people but one of the other organizations or ActBlue gave my name away and I'm starting to get emails from campaigns in other states. But the one that really takes the cake is Sherrod Brown out of Ohio. I've gotten six emails from these assholes today alone! I can't even vote for the guy and he's spamming my email hard asking for money all day. Even if I could vote for the guy I wouldn't.

So, I think I'm going back to not contributing.

<rant over>

[sugar magnolia]

One of the reasons I've always hesitated to donate to political parties and other causes is because I've witnessed the absolute shitstorm they made of my dad's email. I'm talking hundreds of emails a day asking for money. We tried unsubscribing and blocking but new email addresses kept popping up. We finally had to open a new email account and let the old one go.

So, this year I've donated to the Harris campaign, a couple of state candidates and a couple of local people I know. It's not the local people but one of the other organizations or ActBlue gave my name away and I'm starting to get emails from campaigns in other states. But the one that really takes the cake is Sherrod Brown out of Ohio. I've gotten six emails from these assholes today alone! I can't even vote for the guy and he's spamming my email hard asking for money all day. Even if I could vote for the guy I wouldn't.

So, I think I'm going back to not contributing.

<rant over>

I've never, ever contributed to a political campaign with my email AT ALL and I get Sherrod Brown emails in MISSISSIPPI!

[Shizzle Popped]

One of the reasons I've always hesitated to donate to political parties and other causes is because I've witnessed the absolute shitstorm they made of my dad's email. I'm talking hundreds of emails a day asking for money. We tried unsubscribing and blocking but new email addresses kept popping up. We finally had to open a new email account and let the old one go.

So, this year I've donated to the Harris campaign, a couple of state candidates and a couple of local people I know. It's not the local people but one of the other organizations or ActBlue gave my name away and I'm starting to get emails from campaigns in other states. But the one that really takes the cake is Sherrod Brown out of Ohio. I've gotten six emails from these assholes today alone! I can't even vote for the guy and he's spamming my email hard asking for money all day. Even if I could vote for the guy I wouldn't.

So, I think I'm going back to not contributing.

<rant over>

I've never, ever contributed to a political campaign with my email AT ALL and I get Sherrod Brown emails in MISSISSIPPI!

The people running the Sherrod Brown campaign are just a bunch of giant assholes. Good to know. OTOH, I started getting spammed by the Harris campaign to the tune of three emails a day almost immediately after I contributed. It didn't take long before I unsubscribed and blocked them. Maybe it doesn't bother most people but I spend a lot of time keeping my email from getting out of hand and this kind of behavior pisses me off.

[sugar magnolia]

.... I spend a lot of time keeping my email from getting out of hand and this kind of behavior pisses me off.

Exactly the reason for my recent complaints about the "gift" links to the wapo. I have no intention of "gifting" them access to my email.

[Foggy]

I swear I will never rely on a gift link again. I will copypasta the gift link, and then I will copypasta the entire story and give it to you without having to sign up for anything.

If'n I mess up, remind me and I will fix it.

[neonzx]

May just be me but all the political emails end up in my "Newsletters" folder. I did not train it. It sees it as bulk mail. My primary inbox stays pretty clean.

[AndyinPA]

I have a junk email address I use for most things.

[Foggy]

What is this thing called email?

[keith]

This is cool on Faceache.

[Frater I*I]

What is this thing called email?

So let me explain slowly, since your are old, and I am drink addled....it's like a letter, but it's sent over the interwebs, which is series of tubes, that arrives to the recipient in their "electronic mail inbox", whereas they can click on it read the "letter"...

Okay that's as far as I can make it into this poor joke...



I'll come in again...

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

I gotta see those series of tubes!!! Is that like thoose inhouse mail systems from the 40’s?

[johnpcapitalist]

I gotta see those series of tubes!!! Is that like thoose inhouse mail systems from the 40’s?

Yes, but way faster and unfortunately without the slurping, whooshing sound that made the experience of those pneumatic tubes so satisfying.

[bill_g]

We were pulling wire through a ceiling, and our apprentice jumped off his ladder as one of those shuttles went by in the six inch conduit next to his head. He had no idea what it was. I thought he had found a spider or something. No. Just old tech that still gets used occasionally.

[northland10]

I gotta see those series of tubes!!! Is that like thoose inhouse mail systems from the 40’s?

Put your mail in the tubes and they pop out here.

[Rolodex]

We love Animusic. They came out when my younger son was a little and we watched them all the time! they really are quite amazing.

[neonzx]

[AndyinPA]

[bill_g]

(responding to a comment in Poli Toons in Hijack rather than continuing to take Toons off topic)

In my experience with private fire depts around here is they go broke real fast. It's not a good business model.

You can make a profit if you include enough political corruption with your private "volunteer" fire department. Teaming up with street gangs to fight the competition also helps. Just ask Boss Tweed.

That just helps prove greed is innate. Great topic for anothe rtime.

I'm talking about private fire departments with large annual subscription fees to protect your remote multi-million dollar property not served by the local community. To get insurance, you need a fire department. Your live-in groundskeeper isn't going to stop a forest or brush fire. So you hire a qualified private company to build and maintain an active automatic suppression system with a four hour response time to be on site.

After a couple years of paying them thousands to be on 24/7/365 standby constantly monitoring your property that you only visit twice a year, you roll the dice and elect to discontinue their services. The insurance concerns can be damned. You'll be fine. Or maybe not. But it's not the private fire department's problem anymore.

Their problem is a lot of their accounts have made the same decision, and now they can no longer make payroll. So, they close up. Now there's abandoned aircraft and brush trucks staged across the state and/or region. Someone may snap them up as part of the asset recovery, or they may get lost. And anyone they owe money to will have to write the loss down.

[Rolodex]

Interesting about private fire companies; I was not familiar with that concept. Seems that model doesn't work for the very reason you explain.

I've thought that maybe 2nd homes in vulnerable areas should not be insurable at all. Just self-insure; if it's destroyed, pay out of pocket to repair/replace or just let it go. I guess mortgage companies wouldn't want that -they want their money in case of disaster and suing uninsured folks after a disaster would be a nightmare. Maybe there could be a super big premium on 2nd homes. I just think it's unfair that non-residents' 2nd home should have the same privileges as folks' primary residences. People who own second homes can certainly afford more (or maybe don't get a 2nd home if you can't afford it) and not put the government on the hook (flood insurance).

And I say this as a second home owner. I'm not inconvenienced at all if my 2nd or 3rd home is hit - I still have a place to live. I thought about that when my FL home was pretty well destroyed after Michael. We have insurance and rebuilt - although ins didn't cover everything. There is a percentage added to the deductible when the damage is due to a hurricane and I'm fine with that.

[bill_g]

We have lots and lots of less than one person per square mile area out here. So, if you want to roll your airplane right up to your front door, you can do that. Electricity is only about $30K/mi to stab in. Phone and interwebs will be a moderate speed Earth station. TV will be a sat dish too. That's if you want it at all. Plenty of opportunity to put in your own solar and/or wind gen system. Water you'll have to drill for (if your land has water rights!)(oh opps!)

It's hard to be fabulous.

[MN-Skeptic]

October 1, 2024 - Happy 100th birthday to Jimmy Carter!

[neonzx]

October 1, 2024 - Happy 100th birthday to Jimmy Carter!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, President Carter.
Hang on because we need your vote!

[RTH10260]

John Oliver Is Still Working Through the Rage

New York Times Podcasts
28 Sept 2024 The Interview

The host of ‘Last Week Tonight’ talks about what he’s learned in the ten years of making the show, why he doesn't consider himself a journalist and not giving in to nihilism.

[AndyinPA]

Thanks. That was a great look at him and how he puts his program together. Never miss it.

[Maybenaut]

Interesting about private fire companies; I was not familiar with that concept. Seems that model doesn't work for the very reason you explain.

I've thought that maybe 2nd homes in vulnerable areas should not be insurable at all. Just self-insure; if it's destroyed, pay out of pocket to repair/replace or just let it go. I guess mortgage companies wouldn't want that -they want their money in case of disaster and suing uninsured folks after a disaster would be a nightmare. Maybe there could be a super big premium on 2nd homes. I just think it's unfair that non-residents' 2nd home should have the same privileges as folks' primary residences. People who own second homes can certainly afford more (or maybe don't get a 2nd home if you can't afford it) and not put the government on the hook (flood insurance).

And I say this as a second home owner. I'm not inconvenienced at all if my 2nd or 3rd home is hit - I still have a place to live. I thought about that when my FL home was pretty well destroyed after Michael. We have insurance and rebuilt - although ins didn't cover everything. There is a percentage added to the deductible when the damage is due to a hurricane and I'm fine with that.

It's fraught. We discovered that morgtage companies don't even want to lend for a second home. When we bought our cabin in 2013, every lender we talked to was like, borrow against your primary residence and use that money to purchase the second home, and if you don't have enough equity in your primary residence, you're SOL. It's too easy to walk away from a second home if you can't pay the mortgage, and the bank really doesn't want to own your vacation home.

We bought our cabin in 2013, then bought the neighboring property (which is now our primary residence) in 2021. When the wildfire hit, we were told by the volunteer fire department that since the cabin property was not a primary residence, they weren't even going to try to save it because they were stretched so thin. We were like, yeah, we get it. Do what you have to do. After we evacuated, the last thing we saw on the security cameras at the cabin was flames. Fortunately the cabin and our primary residence survived, but we lost an accessory building and the septic system at the cabin. It took *forever* for the insurance company to pay, but they did, eventually.

I'd be happy to pay a higher premium for insurance on our cabin. And we might be - our properties are too dissimilar to make a valid comparison. The house is 5000 sq feet on 2 acres; the cabin is 900 sq feet on 16 acres. But insurance is one of those things that I don't know enough about to shop around. I have USAA, which sells only to military. My sister was a personal property adjuster there. They're relatively easy to deal with. We've been with them since 1990 when I got commissioned (back in those days they only sold to officers; now they sell to all military).

But I do think I ought to be able to insure it. Insurance is all about allocation of risk. I'm betting that something really bad is going to happen to my property; the insurance company is betting that it's not, and it has the information available to it to determine the probability of that happening and setting its rates accordingly. I DON'T think I should be able to keep rebuilding in a flood zone and expecting the government to pick up the tab.

For me, the issue isn't so much what the insurance would pay for, but what services the government should provide. In our county, we only have volunteer fire departments. They are funded by state and federal grants, and donations/fund drives. I personally think that's a disgrace. Firefighting is, in my view, a government function. It shouldn't rely on unpaid volunteers; it should have government employees. And if it is going to rely on volunteers, it should treat them as state employees if they are injured on the job. A volunteer firefighter was injured while fighting the wildfire here back in March - not on our property, but a few miles away. A branch fell from a tree and hit him in the head, causing traumatic brain injury and a spinal cord injury. He was in the ICU for a long time, then in rehab. His wife set up a GoFundMe recently because the insurance that is provided to volunteer firefighters is of limited duration, and she has to raise money for in-home health care. I think that because he was carrying out what is a government function, he should have the same health care available to state employees, and if he's hurt on the job, he should qualify for the same disability as a State employee would be.