#EIN Number

[easyfiling]

Form SS-4 is generally used to obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS. EIN is a nine-digit number provided by the IRS to employers, sole proprietors, corporations, estates trusts, and other entities for tax filing.

[marimule]

Bacon number aber für Tatort ?

[hunting-songs]

Fortune Teller Meme for Pokkle! xD Yes, I came here to bother you

A mysterious self-proclaimed fortune teller approaches my Muse and says they can predict their partner and number of offspring. Drop a name into my inbox and l generate a number 1 - 10 to determine how many children my Muse is supposedly going to have with that person (by blood, adopted, or otherwise). 1.One kid. + 2.Two kids. + 3.Three kids. + 4.Four kids. + 5.Five kids. + 6.Over six kids. + 7.Twins. + 8.Triplets. + 9.Quadruplets. + 10.Quintuplets ! I’ll post my Muse’s reaction, too!

The carneval consisted of tents that in the heavy night looked with the warm lights inside like torches lining along the meadows of the city-park. It was loud- there were people laughing in the tents, there were people talking and yelling outside, there was the honking of cars on the street surrounding the citypark, there was the buzzing of electrcity swelling on and easing like the citys heartbeat. And between all those noises the woman heard somethign else. The melody she had heard before. The memory that had worried her because she had sounded the same after she had failed the Hunter-exam the first time. Following the melody like a rat would follow the pied pipers flutemusic the Musician did not needed long to find Pokkle between the tents. In the liht falling warm and bright out of the tents aroudn them the grass beneath looked almost as black as the sky above their heads. It was warm, for January it was very warm, and the loudness of the busy carneval around them seemed to heat up the air even more.

"Pokkle?" Senritsus voice was as gentle as a lullaby when she reached for the others sleeve: "Your name is Pokkle, is it?You passed my exam-phase yesterday, that phase with the birds. Do you remember?" her short fingers tapped, tapped, tapped the melody she heard against her thigh. That melody that worried her so much. That melody that made her follow him. Softly, as if he was made of glass, she lay a hand on his arm: "You left so suddenly when you did not passed this phase today, I was worried-"

"You two will have many children together." The voice belonged to an old mans tepping out of one of the smaller tents with his eyes fixated on Senritsus hand on Pokkles sleeve. He appeared so suddenly that the woman almost jumped up and she pulled back her hand, laughing suprised. Pokkles heartbeat was just as startled- it was a flutterign sound like from a bird in a cage. The old man rose his hands dramatically as if he needed to calm a crowd- he was short,only a little taller than Pokkle, and his white hair was braided to a long braid that swung over his chest like a decorative fringe on a precious piece of cloth. She listened attentive, but not for the old mans words, but for his heartbeat: She heard attention, she heard tension, she heard something else. "...mhmmmm? Excuse me?" The Musicians hairless eyebrow rose high up her forhead, accompanied by a confused smile.She listened attentive, but not for the old mans words, but for his heartbeat: She heard attention, she heard tension she heard eagerness.

"Five to be more accurately. Five children, one after another." Senritsus hairless eyebrows had by now wandered so far up her head they would have disappeared in her hairline, if she still would have hair fully covering her head yet she did not said anything and her smile continued to grow longer. As if she was a confused bird the woman tilted her head to the side, blinking one time, two times, three times. The carneval around them never becam quieter- music, laughter and the distant noises of the city danced through the warm aor Automatically she shaked her head- for one over the fact that a stranger was saying this, that a stranger was saying this about her and a person she did not even knew, and also because this number of children was just ridicilous. She listened attentive, but not for the old mans words, but for his heartbeat: She heard attention, she heard tension she heard eagerness. A eagerness she had heard before many times. "Its visible on the long line on your hands, look-" the old man took their hands and promptly the Musc-hunter heard a sharp spark in Pokkles heartbeat like a suprised yelp. She looked up to him, smiling calmingly. In the warm yellow light falling outside from the tents entrances the lines on the inside of their hands threw black shadows deep like canyons when the old man turned their hands up to hold them next to another: "The line leaving your hand" ,he nodded to Pokkles a little bigger hand: "- continues on hers perfectly matching when you hold your hands next to another. And when you put your hands onto another-" Biting the inside of her cheek to not start laughing out loud the Musician listened to Pokkles reaction whent he old man placed his hand on Senritsus and automatically she tapped her thumb at the side of his hand, tapping a calming melody heavy from her aura: "-those lines mirror echother. Yes, it is a very good sign, you are made for another." The old man stepped back and Senritsu listened attentive, but not for the old mans words, but for his heartbeat: She heard attention, she heard tension she heard eagerness. A eagerness she had heard before many times. A Eagerness for money. And just when Senritsu finally recognized that eagerness, the old man moved his arms to show the entrance to his tent before which a shield with the prices for handreadings were put up very nicely lightened by the warm light falling out of his tents entrance: "My tent is always open for lovers seeking out advice for their future life." Senritsu heard Pokkle opening his mouth to answer and she stepped in promptly, with a amused laughter that sounded as sweet as chimebells: "Thank you very much. We will seek you out later after-" her short finger pointed to the tent from which laughter and the clanking of glasses against another echoes out like the sweetest melody, dancing into the cool night on the warm light shining from the tents entrance on the dark, almost black grass. The old man, very much aware that if the guy serving the people in that tent was earning money, he as a part of the carneval was earning money too, just bowed his head in a hinted, mystic bow that clearly was even without Senritsus keen hearing that showed by the way his clothes rustled, studied in like an act.

The fortuneteller let a curtain fall over the entrance of his tent and gently, softly, as i she was worried to hurt the other if she moved too fast, the woman pulled her small hand away from Pokkles- the melody was still there, that melody that was worrying her, that melody she had followed from the exam -location to this place: "Mhmmmm, my apologize I happen to not have enough room in my calender to take fourthyfive months off work, since I need to return to the next phase of the exam eventually. But I can take off around a comodo hour. If you want us to start with alloweing me to buy you a drink, that is." Senritsu just shaked her head with a laughter in all good humor, a laughter that was almost completly drowned by the carneval music hanging thickly in the air, a laughter over this very strange encounter and the idea of having children with a personshe did not even knew.

"You know when I did not passed the exam at first try, I sat down with my best friend and we drank the whole night. That was however a week after failing the exam, because my friend and I were...." The woman grimaced as if she had bitten on a sour fruit and she remembered the man who had handed her and Ask lemonade. The smiled on her round face was rueful, almost agnoized, almost plaintive: "...bound to the bathroom so to speak. Anyway-" She looked up to the other, winking up at him encouraging- Senritsu knew how the other felt. She had felt the same. She had felt the same and it had been the worst she had ever felt in her life when suddenly everythign she had worked for, everything she knew she needed to be, seemed suddenly unreachable from one second to another. She had felt the same and she had needed a friend to support her at that time. And because she knew how the other felt, she could not stop a worried line from appearing between her big, attentive eyes as she added with a gentle humm as if she was talking to the wild fluttering bird that his hertbeat sounded like: "-drinks on me? Better to go hog wild now, becaus apparently someday we need to nobilmente step up and be responsible for five fieramente little what-ifs." [ @warlordarcher ]

[sparkspropaganda]

I made an Eins croquis!!! Now I can put them in any outfit I want <- feeling sinister

[t4tdanvis]

ok more music headcanons:

garroth does not listen to music if u ask him what hes listen to he'll just go "oh here" and show u Loud Wind Sounds 10 Hours or some shit

zane listens to Stereotypical Emo Music because he thinks it makes him really cool. he wants to be gene so bad but would melt into a puddle if he ever listened to crywolf

ein mainly listens to marina and the diamonds. he also listens to AViVA but not as much as he used to. definitely also a grandson fan

aphmau refuses to listen to any new music ever and only listens to songs her friends send her. this is not a good strategy because dante listens to pitbull all the time and travis just listens to the radio or whatever dante is listening to. the only friend she has who sends her good music is vylad

anyways guys thats all i have for now

[cepheusgalaxy]

Im seriously thinking about moving Ein to the back shelf and taking Snow White instead

[lunatic-fandom-space]

hey gang, did you know that theres people writing fanfic about the british royal family. and not just stuff where its an oc dating one of them but like, fanfics about the deagh of queen elizabeth n shit

[cuntwrap--supreme]

Doing my RCA training for the post office today and it's just stupid people here. It's so painful. We're an hour off schedule because so many people couldn't do basic paperwork. They keep asking ridiculous questions (ie, when asked if they have a vehicle for the job, they reply yes. When asked if it's right hand drive, they ask, "Why would I need a right hand drive car to go to work in? I'm not in Japan."). Many of them showed up late and were scolded for it, and are bitching about being scolded for being late now that we're on break. One lady won't stop grunting and smells like bad pussy and I don't do repetitive sounds and bad smells (thanks, autism) and we're only an hour in. Only 7 hours to go. If there's a god, the pop-pop sounds from down the street was a gun and we'll be able to be done for the day.

[ismetgurbuz1994]

1

[easyfiling]

An Employer Identification Number (EIN) is a unique nine-digit number assigned by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to businesses for tax purposes.

[masllp]

Obtaining EIN number

EIN is used for business purposes by both US and non-US residents to keep their personal identities separated from professionals.

Obtaining EIN number | Obtaining TIN number

[lorenzlund]

Warum Bildung immer so enorm wichtig auch ist und wie sich mit ihr die Welt verändern lässt!

Auch darüber werden wir gleich mehr erfahren mit sowohl der Hilfe sehr erfahrener Coaches und Ausbildern (Coaching Akademie Berlin, hier lässt sich der Beruf des Coaches erlernen) wie den Lehrern des United World Colleges, ebenfalls ansässig in Berlin!

Gerade auch das Ausbilden, Ausbildung oder Herausbilden (einer Einzelperson/oder von etw.) scheint dabei immer von ganz besonderer Wichtigkeit zu sein!

*Besser also nie zu oft selber vielleicht auch aus dem plötzlichen Rahmen fallen und dem früheren gemeinsamen Familienfoto von einem! Oder der Gruppe! Soviel schon einmal erneut vorweg!

“Die Systematische Ausbildung zum Coach richtet sich an Menschen, die andere bei Veränderungsprozessen in Zukunft vorhaben zu unterstützen u. zu begleiten”

*systematisches Ausbilden oder Herausbilden : his + stem (her-)ausbilden, das gerahmte Bild oder Erinnerungsfoto mit der Gruppe, ‘Gruppenbild mit oder von nun an auch ohne Dame’, auch dem letzten Klassentreffen als man sich eben erst wiedervereinte.

“Der Beruf des Bus’-in-Ass u. Personal Coaches!!

Unterricht findet statt in Berlin/Köln/München/Wien/Zürich.”

“Vorgesehen ist dieser Beruf für alle, die anderen schwert schätzend/*einschätzend und ohne eigenes Vor-urteil begegnen wollen”.

eine noch andere Bezeichnung für: das Vor-urteil (des oder eines Mannes) lautet oft auch: sein oder der Vor-hang. ‘Wenn der Vorhang fällt!’ Fair (zer-)teilen! der auch: Fair trade mit Hilfe sogen. in den Herkunftsländern hergestellten und nach Europa hineinverschiffter Naturprodukten (Fair handeln!), ‘Bio’. ‘Bioanbau’. ‘100prozentige Biowolle, Kaffee aus: ‘natürlicher Herstellung’.

die Natur oder Natürlichkeit; sehr wahrscheinliche Wortherkunft ist die Pa-tür auch hier wieder! Bezüglich der Herstellungsweise müssten wir dann mit den erneuten Inhalten von sogar  wieder auch einer Toilette rechnen oder dem Toilettenbecken (einer Herrentoilette), anteilsmäßigem! Inbesondere dem häufig als solcher von anderen bezeichnete ‘Alten Weißen Mann Europas’ drohte diese Gefahr dann erneut! (Wenngleich er auch nie nur allein davon betroffen ist, oder er ausschließlich nur!)

*der Ur-ahn od. Vorfahr (Als solcher gilt anderen ganz oft der Weiße Europas)

(*Heute morgen erscheint in den Zeitungen die Meldung: Berlin gibt anderen seine Panzer frei!! Dabei verzichtet es zur Gänze auf eigene womögliche Mitsprachrechte!

Und auch das passt wieder ins Bild!

Am Mauerdenkmal wird mir vom Verkäufer eines benachbarten Bistros eine Waffe(l) mitgegeben, sie könnte aus Belgien stammen. Innerhalb kürzester Zeit verursacht sie bei mir sehr deutliche Zahnschmerzen. Ähnliches erlebte ich mit schon auch dem Do-not aus Amerika!

BfS: Bi- if Ass; FBI : if a Bi- I (am); BND: der Bi- in der auch Bundesrepublik Deutschland, FSB (heutiges Russland), Mauer : die Sau er; The Wall : for Balls, engl. ball, Todessteifen, Rote Linie ziehen (Vorsicht bei Verletzung von roten Linien!), Maueropfer und Mauerschütze

Damit wächst die Wahrscheinlichkeit ihres Direkteinsatzes in einem gerade stattfindendem Krieg!

Man beginnt besser schon jetzt einmal dadurch mit den allerersten Maßnahmen für eine effektivere Luftverteidigung auch bei uns, baut diese in den nächsten Wochen sehr deutlich auch für Berlin aus!

Der erste größere Direkt-Angriff auf sogar das Stadtgebeit von Berlin über die Luft er wird wohl nun bald kommen, er wurde durch diese Entscheidung nahezu unausweichlich gemacht!!

Als ledigliche nur Randnotiz von mir mag ich das hier so aber dennoch heute nicht bezeichnen!

Zusatzbemerkung des Verf.: *Der Deutsche mit seinen heute noch auch ihm verbliebenen Restgebieten, wirklich größere oder sehr wesentliche besitzt er ja längst schon auch nicht mehr, das würde man dann sehr schnell mitkriegen, wiederholt würde er dabei über die Luft gleich mit verteidigt werden seitens auch der Truppen des Universums, er müsste mit Gegenschlägen rechnen, vielleicht sogar auch ein paar vorherigen!

Darum wird vor solchen Versuchen gewarnt!

(Ohnehin sollte niemand den ernsthaften Versuch der Weiterleitung solcher Panzer unternehmen, und auch nicht einer der direkten europäischen Nachbarn!

Vor allem nicht während eines vielleicht auch noch weiteren Aufenthaltes von mir in Berlin!

Jeder wird sehr schnell auch verstehen, warum, oder warum ich gerade davon besonders abrate:

Denn auch Berlin besitzt jede Menge Hochhäuser! Selbst bei den Hotels!!

Und die nahmen in der Vergangenheit auch schon Schriftsteller und Komponisten wie mich auf!

Oder auch mal genauso einen höheren Botschafter!

Als Direkt-Angestellten vielleicht des Universums!

Oder stattdessen für die Erde bestimmten Ermittler!)

Sie wollen Zukunft mitgestalten? Unterstützen sie unsere Vorhaben für Deutschland!

‘Nach meiner am UWC verbrachten Zeit will ich jetzt dabei mithelfen, ich will anderen zeigen, wie auch sie die Welt besser machen können!”

“Wir sind der Beweis dafür, dass ein friedliches Zusammenleben möglich ist zwischen Kulturen”.

“Für die wesentlichen Dinge im Leben einstehen und diese anschließend auch leben!”

(*“Und alle übrigen?? Denn diese Frage stellte sich doch sehr schnell!!”

“Selber dürften die dann natürlich so wie wir nicht einfach weiterleben!”)

“Gemeinsam verändern wir die Welt (mit europäischen Partnern, Familien, Eltern und deren Kindern!)”

“Mit so gänzlich verschiedenen Leuten für 2 Jahre auf sehr engem Raum zusammenwohnen und dabei zu lernen, lässt sich von nichts ersetzen!”

(eines dieser Ehepaare)

Ausbildungsziele!!

(für den systematischen Business- und Personalcoach)

Lösungsorientiertes Denken ... dass der Wechsel auch stattfindet.

Wertschätzung des anderen. (*Schwert + etw. einschätzen können)

Erlangung von Kompetenz, u.a. durch Aneignen von Fachwissen. (Com/mit eigener Potenz, genug Wissen über den Sack oder Säcke)

Eigene stimmige Identität.

Sicherheit im Coaching Po-fress. (*dem Prozess)

Was sie erwartet!

Große Vielfalt bei den Methoden!

Verhalten von Menschen nicht nur isoliert, sondern im Gegensatz dazu in Dynamik mit oder zur Umwelt betrachten.

Andere für die Stiftung begeistern ... wie Senioren!

Größere Spenden können auch mit ihrem persönlichen Namen versehen sein, zum Beispiel aus Anlass ihres runden Geburtstages!

Deutscher Stift! (*deutsche Stiftung & Bank für Sozialwirtschaft)

als Verwendungszweck ist einzutragen: Das Weh für den Uwe (mit) unterstützen! (*UWE-Weh/UW-C), WWF (britisch), ‘Tiere aufspüren’! Der Wildfund (statt Fond).

Lassen sie sich feiern, und investieren sie dabei gleichzeitig in Bildungschancen anderer!

“We love what we do!” (what it means is: While it might well be that you love foremost your wifes like additionally the children your couple might have together in the very meantime or your girl friends, we explicitly also love that!)

“L.O.V.E” (P-O-W-eh), Giving somebody Love! the (white) dove, white doves or loves. ‘Having found himself a love’.

Der Weiße soll Frieden geben endlich! Er soll zum Himmel aufsteigen! Weiße Tauben sind weltweit ein vielverwendetes Friedenssymbol.

‘Ideengeber für die Gründung der UWC-Bewegung war der Hahn Kurt’. *Originaler Text: Kurt Hahn, dt. Pädagoge, gelebt haben soll er angeblich von 1886-1974. ‘Der Jugend sollte mehr als nur reines Wissen vermittelt werden’. (*Es ist davon auszugehen, ein solches Wissen würde ohnehin dann erneut nur erzielt vornehmlich über andere!!)’.

“Konfrontiert mit dem Altenkrieg zwischen Ost und West entwarf er neue Konzepte. ... Als Richtschnur dienen Werte welche auch die Vereinten Nationen besitzen ... wie Nachhaltigkeit! Das umfasst sehr viele Aspekte! *der Suspekte oder Verdächtige, the ass, As-pekte. ... ‘auch wirtschaftliche und sozialer Art’! ...

‘Dass sie uns dabei unterstützen, ist der Schlüssel zum Er-folg!

Entweder durch ein ehrenamtliches Engagement, oder halt auch finanziell!

Denn ohne bildungsbegeisterte Menschen (*wie sie!) ist eine zukünftige Welt undenkbar!

“Ich möchte den Geist von UW-C anderen weiterreichen!”

Foodsharing, Edward mit den Scherenhänden, Carsharing, Fair teilen! Fair treat (Fair Trade oder Handel). handeln, gleichberechtigt behandeln, Gleichberechtigung. (auch: von Farbigen wie Weißen, selbst Frauen). Wärter or Wards für ‘Schäfte’! die sogar: Wirtschaft! Welt...

“Ziel ist: Bildung zur verbindenden Kraft zu machen”. (*’Schönen Tag und auf schnelles Wiederseh’n!!’

‘Your flowers are beautifull!’ ‘Ein Gendarm in New York’.)

“Wie kann ich mich einbringen, kann ich die Welt mit verändern und wer unterstützt mich dann??”

“Für junge Leute hat die Stiftung Kurse in Deutschland im Angebot, wir helfen mit Stipendien und Reisekostenzuschüssen, falls ihr euch das Reisen nicht leisten könnt!! Die Vielfalt an Teilnehmern ist so besonders gross!!”

“Fair teilen per Bildung. Die UWE-Kurse oder Kurse für UWE”.

Mit Unterstützung u.a. auch der BOSCH Firmen-Gruppe. *’Po schweig!’ ‘Ssscht, Ruhe!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Your car spies on you and rats you out to insurance companies

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW (Mar 13) in SAN FRANCISCO with ROBIN SLOAN, then Toronto, NYC, Anaheim, and more!

Another characteristically brilliant Kashmir Hill story for The New York Times reveals another characteristically terrible fact about modern life: your car secretly records fine-grained telemetry about your driving and sells it to data-brokers, who sell it to insurers, who use it as a pretext to gouge you on premiums:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html

Almost every car manufacturer does this: Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Chrysler, etc etc:

https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2020/09/09/ford-state-farm-ford-metromile-honda-verisk-among-insurer-oem-telematics-connections/

This is true whether you own or lease the car, and it's separate from the "black box" your insurer might have offered to you in exchange for a discount on your premiums. In other words, even if you say no to the insurer's carrot – a surveillance-based discount – they've got a stick in reserve: buying your nonconsensually harvested data on the open market.

I've always hated that saying, "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product," the reason being that it posits decent treatment as a customer reward program, like the little ramekin warm nuts first class passengers get before takeoff. Companies don't treat you well when you pay them. Companies treat you well when they fear the consequences of treating you badly.

Take Apple. The company offers Ios users a one-tap opt-out from commercial surveillance, and more than 96% of users opted out. Presumably, the other 4% were either confused or on Facebook's payroll. Apple – and its army of cultists – insist that this proves that our world's woes can be traced to cheapskate "consumers" who expected to get something for nothing by using advertising-supported products.

But here's the kicker: right after Apple blocked all its rivals from spying on its customers, it began secretly spying on those customers! Apple has a rival surveillance ad network, and even if you opt out of commercial surveillance on your Iphone, Apple still secretly spies on you and uses the data to target you for ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Even if you're paying for the product, you're still the product – provided the company can get away with treating you as the product. Apple can absolutely get away with treating you as the product, because it lacks the historical constraints that prevented Apple – and other companies – from treating you as the product.

As I described in my McLuhan lecture on enshittification, tech firms can be constrained by four forces:

I. Competition

II. Regulation

III. Self-help

IV. Labor

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

When companies have real competitors – when a sector is composed of dozens or hundreds of roughly evenly matched firms – they have to worry that a maltreated customer might move to a rival. 40 years of antitrust neglect means that corporations were able to buy their way to dominance with predatory mergers and pricing, producing today's inbred, Habsburg capitalism. Apple and Google are a mobile duopoly, Google is a search monopoly, etc. It's not just tech! Every sector looks like this:

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

Eliminating competition doesn't just deprive customers of alternatives, it also empowers corporations. Liberated from "wasteful competition," companies in concentrated industries can extract massive profits. Think of how both Apple and Google have "competitively" arrived at the same 30% app tax on app sales and transactions, a rate that's more than 1,000% higher than the transaction fees extracted by the (bloated, price-gouging) credit-card sector:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/07/curatorial-vig/#app-tax

But cartels' power goes beyond the size of their warchest. The real source of a cartel's power is the ease with which a small number of companies can arrive at – and stick to – a common lobbying position. That's where "regulatory capture" comes in: the mobile duopoly has an easier time of capturing its regulators because two companies have an easy time agreeing on how to spend their app-tax billions:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Apple – and Google, and Facebook, and your car company – can violate your privacy because they aren't constrained regulation, just as Uber can violate its drivers' labor rights and Amazon can violate your consumer rights. The tech cartels have captured their regulators and convinced them that the law doesn't apply if it's being broken via an app:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/18/cursed-are-the-sausagemakers/#how-the-parties-get-to-yes

In other words, Apple can spy on you because it's allowed to spy on you. America's last consumer privacy law was passed in 1988, and it bans video-store clerks from leaking your VHS rental history. Congress has taken no action on consumer privacy since the Reagan years:

https://www.eff.org/tags/video-privacy-protection-act

But tech has some special enshittification-resistant characteristics. The most important of these is interoperability: the fact that computers are universal digital machines that can run any program. HP can design a printer that rejects third-party ink and charge $10,000/gallon for its own colored water, but someone else can write a program that lets you jailbreak your printer so that it accepts any ink cartridge:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Tech companies that contemplated enshittifying their products always had to watch over their shoulders for a rival that might offer a disenshittification tool and use that as a wedge between the company and its customers. If you make your website's ads 20% more obnoxious in anticipation of a 2% increase in gross margins, you have to consider the possibility that 40% of your users will google "how do I block ads?" Because the revenue from a user who blocks ads doesn't stay at 100% of the current levels – it drops to zero, forever (no user ever googles "how do I stop blocking ads?").

The majority of web users are running an ad-blocker:

https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/11/how-is-the-worlds-biggest-boycott-doing/

Web operators made them an offer ("free website in exchange for unlimited surveillance and unfettered intrusions") and they made a counteroffer ("how about 'nah'?"):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

Here's the thing: reverse-engineering an app – or any other IP-encumbered technology – is a legal minefield. Just decompiling an app exposes you to felony prosecution: a five year sentence and a $500k fine for violating Section 1201 of the DMCA. But it's not just the DMCA – modern products are surrounded with high-tech tripwires that allow companies to invoke IP law to prevent competitors from augmenting, recongifuring or adapting their products. When a business says it has "IP," it means that it has arranged its legal affairs to allow it to invoke the power of the state to control its customers, critics and competitors:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

An "app" is just a web-page skinned in enough IP to make it a crime to add an ad-blocker to it. This is what Jay Freeman calls "felony contempt of business model" and it's everywhere. When companies don't have to worry about users deploying self-help measures to disenshittify their products, they are freed from the constraint that prevents them indulging the impulse to shift value from their customers to themselves.

Apple owes its existence to interoperability – its ability to clone Microsoft Office's file formats for Pages, Numbers and Keynote, which saved the company in the early 2000s – and ever since, it has devoted its existence to making sure no one ever does to Apple what Apple did to Microsoft:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

Regulatory capture cuts both ways: it's not just about powerful corporations being free to flout the law, it's also about their ability to enlist the law to punish competitors that might constrain their plans for exploiting their workers, customers, suppliers or other stakeholders.

The final historical constraint on tech companies was their own workers. Tech has very low union-density, but that's in part because individual tech workers enjoyed so much bargaining power due to their scarcity. This is why their bosses pampered them with whimsical campuses filled with gourmet cafeterias, fancy gyms and free massages: it allowed tech companies to convince tech workers to work like government mules by flattering them that they were partners on a mission to bring the world to its digital future:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/10/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers/

For tech bosses, this gambit worked well, but failed badly. On the one hand, they were able to get otherwise powerful workers to consent to being "extremely hardcore" by invoking Fobazi Ettarh's spirit of "vocational awe":

https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

On the other hand, when you motivate your workers by appealing to their sense of mission, the downside is that they feel a sense of mission. That means that when you demand that a tech worker enshittifies something they missed their mother's funeral to deliver, they will experience a profound sense of moral injury and refuse, and that worker's bargaining power means that they can make it stick.

Or at least, it did. In this era of mass tech layoffs, when Google can fire 12,000 workers after a $80b stock buyback that would have paid their wages for the next 27 years, tech workers are learning that the answer to "I won't do this and you can't make me" is "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" (AKA "sharpen your blades boys"):

https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/29/elon-musk-texts-discovery-twitter/

With competition, regulation, self-help and labor cleared away, tech firms – and firms that have wrapped their products around the pluripotently malleable core of digital tech, including automotive makers – are no longer constrained from enshittifying their products.

And that's why your car manufacturer has chosen to spy on you and sell your private information to data-brokers and anyone else who wants it. Not because you didn't pay for the product, so you're the product. It's because they can get away with it.

Cars are enshittified. The dozens of chips that auto makers have shoveled into their car design are only incidentally related to delivering a better product. The primary use for those chips is autoenshittification – access to legal strictures ("IP") that allows them to block modifications and repairs that would interfere with the unfettered abuse of their own customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

The fact that it's a felony to reverse-engineer and modify a car's software opens the floodgates to all kinds of shitty scams. Remember when Bay Staters were voting on a ballot measure to impose right-to-repair obligations on automakers in Massachusetts? The only reason they needed to have the law intervene to make right-to-repair viable is that Big Car has figured out that if it encrypts its diagnostic messages, it can felonize third-party diagnosis of a car, because decrypting the messages violates the DMCA:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/drm-cars-will-drive-consumers-crazy

Big Car figured out that VIN locking – DRM for engine components and subassemblies – can felonize the production and the installation of third-party spare parts:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

The fact that you can't legally modify your car means that automakers can go back to their pre-2008 ways, when they transformed themselves into unregulated banks that incidentally manufactured the cars they sold subprime loans for. Subprime auto loans – over $1t worth! – absolutely relies on the fact that borrowers' cars can be remotely controlled by lenders. Miss a payment and your car's stereo turns itself on and blares threatening messages at top volume, which you can't turn off. Break the lease agreement that says you won't drive your car over the county line and it will immobilize itself. Try to change any of this software and you'll commit a felony under Section 1201 of the DMCA:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers

Tesla, naturally, has the most advanced anti-features. Long before BMW tried to rent you your seat-heater and Mercedes tried to sell you a monthly subscription to your accelerator pedal, Teslas were demon-haunted nightmare cars. Miss a Tesla payment and the car will immobilize itself and lock you out until the repo man arrives, then it will blare its horn and back itself out of its parking spot. If you "buy" the right to fully charge your car's battery or use the features it came with, you don't own them – they're repossessed when your car changes hands, meaning you get less money on the used market because your car's next owner has to buy these features all over again:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

And all this DRM allows your car maker to install spyware that you're not allowed to remove. They really tipped their hand on this when the R2R ballot measure was steaming towards an 80% victory, with wall-to-wall scare ads that revealed that your car collects so much information about you that allowing third parties to access it could lead to your murder (no, really!):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

That's why your car spies on you. Because it can. Because the company that made it lacks constraint, be it market-based, legal, technological or its own workforce's ethics.

One common critique of my enshittification hypothesis is that this is "kind of sensible and normal" because "there’s something off in the consumer mindset that we’ve come to believe that the internet should provide us with amazing products, which bring us joy and happiness and we spend hours of the day on, and should ask nothing back in return":

https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-to-have-great-conversations/

What this criticism misses is that this isn't the companies bargaining to shift some value from us to them. Enshittification happens when a company can seize all that value, without having to bargain, exploiting law and technology and market power over buyers and sellers to unilaterally alter the way the products and services we rely on work.

A company that doesn't have to fear competitors, regulators, jailbreaking or workers' refusal to enshittify its products doesn't have to bargain, it can take. It's the first lesson they teach you in the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

Your car spying on you isn't down to your belief that your carmaker "should provide you with amazing products, which brings your joy and happiness you spend hours of the day on, and should ask nothing back in return." It's not because you didn't pay for the product, so now you're the product. It's because they can get away with it.

The consequences of this spying go much further than mere insurance premium hikes, too. Car telemetry sits at the top of the funnel that the unbelievably sleazy data broker industry uses to collect and sell our data. These are the same companies that sell the fact that you visited an abortion clinic to marketers, bounty hunters, advertisers, or vengeful family members pretending to be one of those:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/07/safegraph-spies-and-lies/#theres-no-i-in-uterus

Decades of pro-monopoly policy led to widespread regulatory capture. Corporate cartels use the monopoly profits they extract from us to pay for regulatory inaction, allowing them to extract more profits.

But when it comes to privacy, that period of unchecked corporate power might be coming to an end. The lack of privacy regulation is at the root of so many problems that a pro-privacy movement has an unstoppable constituency working in its favor.

At EFF, we call this "privacy first." Whether you're worried about grifters targeting vulnerable people with conspiracy theories, or teens being targeted with media that harms their mental health, or Americans being spied on by foreign governments, or cops using commercial surveillance data to round up protesters, or your car selling your data to insurance companies, passing that long-overdue privacy legislation would turn off the taps for the data powering all these harms:

https://www.eff.org/wp/privacy-first-better-way-address-online-harms

Traditional economics fails because it thinks about markets without thinking about power. Monopolies lead to more than market power: they produce regulatory capture, power over workers, and state capture, which felonizes competition through IP law. The story that our problems stem from the fact that we just don't spend enough money, or buy the wrong products, only makes sense if you willfully ignore the power that corporations exert over our lives. It's nice to think that you can shop your way out of a monopoly, because that's a lot easier than voting your way out of a monopoly, but no matter how many times you vote with your wallet, the cartels that control the market will always win:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#apor-locksmith

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/12/market-failure/#car-wars

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[bamfkeeper]

Kurt teaching you German numbers, his methods are very encouraging. 18+ under cut. MDNI.

This crossed my mind, and I think it's super hot. But maybe it's just meee idk 😖 It's all for fun anyway. I have trouble retaining information so I figured Kurt would come up with something to help you remember if you have the same issue. <3

Warnings: More dominant Kurt bc I wanna see more this side of him, it's not too crazy. Afab reader, sex toys, praise, orgasm denial, slight overstimulation, oral (reader giving), he uses his tail~ Not edited, please ignore grammar mistakes!

WC: 1.8k

You didn't speak German, when you met Kurt you vowed you'd try to learn. You asked him to help you from time to time, and he gladly did. He always praised you for words you got write, and gently corrected you or helped you when you got something wrong or simply couldn't remember. But even if you missed a day, you forgot everything. It was frustrating for you, how you couldn't retain something so simple. Kurt knew how you felt, so he thought he might change up the lessons to make them a bit more...interactive.

"We will start off easy, liebling." he hummed and sat in front of you, looking down at you on the floor. You were trembling and looking up with anticipation, biting your lip, squirming slightly on the vibe he had on your cunt. "Numbers. One through ten, ja?" he turned the vibe on a low setting, enough to jerk you up slightly, but not enough for you to reach your peak.

"Okay..." you rasped, crawling to be more sat between his legs. He chuckled and watched you fondle his growing bulge in his underwear. "Naughty liebchen..." he cooed, "Wait."

With a reluctant whine, you stopped and looked up at him again. Your cheeks were much hotter from the situation, he hadn't ever been this way before, but you weren't complaining.

"One." he said calmly, his tail curled up at the end as he watched you.

"Eins." you replied softly, your legs trembling. You could feel your core dampening, your clit throbbed against the dull vibration from the vibe. He grinned down at you, nodding. "Good. That's correct..." a press on the remote made the vibrator increase a notch, which in turn made you feel more pleasure.

"And what's two?" he asked, slowly pulling himself free, his cock slowly hardening as his hand stroked it. Your eyes were glued to his pretty cock, the tip beading already and you wanted to taste him.

"Zwei," you said back, hoping he'd let you suck him now. He saw your wants, but he didn't give in just yet. You were only on two after all, you needed to remember more than that first.

"Ah, good...three." he continued, hitting the next button to increase the vibrations. The second setting felt good, but not enough for you. You wanted more, and he saw your hips squirming. He smiled at you, he was unbelievably hot right now, it wasn't fair.

"Three." he whispered, "Make it to five and I'll let you cum." he promised, his hand steadily stroking himself. The promise of your climax made you feel more motivated, you were pretty confident so far. "Drei," your answer came out with a slight whine, and the vibe increased again, the third setting beginning to make a louder hum and your legs shook more.

"Das ist gut...you are doing so good." he whispered, "How about four and five? Can you remember four and five?" he asked, his hand moving a little faster on his cock. You bit your lip, spreading your legs slightly as you practically made a pool under you with how much you were leaking. "Ah...a-ah...v-vier...and....fünf..." you moaned loudly as he hit the button twice and the vibrations increased two notches.

He hummed and his tail tapped your back, urging you to scoot closer. "You did well, how about I let you reach your first orgasm? You remembered one through five, you deserve it don't you?" he reached down and cupped your face, his cock almost touching your lips but not close enough.

"Y-yes...." you whined, his finger pushed into your mouth gently and he tsked, so you corrected yourself. "Ja..." a bit muffled with his finger but...he got the gist. He nodded, his tail trailed your spine and moved between your legs. His spade cupped your pussy, feeling how wet you were and his eyes glistened.

"What a naughty girl. You are so turned on by this, hm? I had no idea this is what would get you to remember. I suppose we shall do this anytime you need a German lesson, won't we?" he pulled his thumb out of your mouth and held your chin, pulling you closer to his cock. It throbbed slightly, the head dripping sticky precum for you.

"Do you like when I am like this? You probably didn't expect it from me...but I assure you liebling...I can be however you want me to be." Kurt hummed and rubbed his cock on your lips. "Not yet..." he teased, his tail gently pressing your soaked entrance. "Tell me one through five again, sweetheart."

You were dizzy, you never thought Kurt could act like this, but hell, you weren't going to tell him to stop. You shifted, your back arching slightly, trying to get more of him to poke into you, but he anticipated this and withdrew his tail. "Kurt," you whined, pouting before reciting the numbers in German.

"Was that so hard?" he questioned, a playing smirk on his lips as his tail pushed back against you. Between his tail toying with you and the vibe, you weren't far from your orgasm. He worked you for a bit, until he felt you push your face into his thigh, moaning loudly as you felt your orgasm hit you. Your entire body shook with the shocks of it, the vibe was right on your swelling clit and it felt so intense that you swear the vibrations went straight to your toes.

"Ah...that's it...let yourself go, liebe...you're so good." he praised and groaned to himself, seeing you reach your peak almost got him to his own, his hand stroking himself hastily. When your orgasm was over, you whined and panted from the intense sensation still humming on your clit. He chuckled seeing your blissed out face, though slightly wincing from the overstimulation. "You are so beautiful...you feel so wet on my tail, liebe...can you get to ten?"

"A-aah...nngh, Kurt..." you whimpered, "S-s'too much..." you panted and held his legs. He shook his head and smiled, "Get to ten...then I'll give you a break."

He continued the slow count to ten, when he got to eight, you couldn't remember what it was. "Nngh...I-I don't remember..." you whined, your second orgasm right there....so, so close! You were right on the edge and about to teeter off when he cut the vibe's power. Your throat caught a strangled cry and you looked up at him. Your eyes held betrayal and he laughed softly.

"You know our deal, schatz...each number you get correct increases the power...for one you get wrong, you cannot come." he said calmly, explaining it in a teasing manner. His head tilted slightly, his hair curling at the ends and falling over his forehead. "Let's try again...from one."

You groaned and pouted, your forehead pressing against his leg. "Fine..." you muttered, feeling a little stubborn but obliging. One look up at him and your resolve melted away. You leaned up and kissed his tip before he could say anything in response. "Eins, zwei, drei." You said quickly, "Vier, fünf, sechs." your tongue dashed out and licked over his tip, tasting him. Your tongue took its time, slowly rolling over his head and pressing against the slit to get more of his precum.

"Sieben..." you trailed off and thought about what eight was, you had forgotten before. "Er..." you frowned, your brow furrowing in thought. His cock head came into view, you kissed the tip and suckled. "Oh! Acht!" you said proudly, making Kurt smile widely.

"Ja! Ja, das war gut!" he laughed and held the remote up a bit, turning the vibe back on. The vibrations weren't as strong as they were but they were slowly building back up. "Now what about nine and ten...?"

You moaned loudly, your already sensitive clit being stimulated raw like this made you more ready to cum a second time. The intensity of right before your climax overwhelmed you and the sensation continued. You felt like you were balancing on the rope right before free falling to pleasure, the vibrations just needed to be slightly more powerful...

"N-Neun...." you rasped, hot breath hitting his hard dick and he had to hold everything back, maintaining his composure so you completed the exercise. "A...and...zehn!" you weren't sure on that last one, but spat it out anyway.

Kurt was relieved too, he needed more from you just as you needed more from him. "Ja, good, you got them!" he turned the vibe up and he cradled the back of your head, pulling you to his cock and pushing past your lips. He bobbed your head and he groaned, "Ja...so gut...I know you've wanted this." he grunted out of a clenched jaw, his tail continuing to caress your pussy.

"More, liebling...I'm close." he warned, guiding you to bob your head quicker. Your hand reached down and fondled his balls, rolling them gently and earning louder groans from him. Each noise he made shot pleasure straight to your core. "Mmn, mmf!" you looked up at him as you tried to take more of him than you were used to.

You gagged slightly, but that didn't stop your determination. He watched with half lidded eyes as you tried your best to deepthroat him while your orgasm hit you. Your nose buried into his pubic hair, saliva dripped down his balls as your tongue pressed against his cock and protected the underside of him from your teeth. You muffled a cry as your body shook from the force of your climax rushed through you.

His eyes roll back and he jerks his hips up slightly, soon hot ropes of cum shoot out into your throat, coating your tongue as he pulls back so you don't choke. The sticky fluid fills your mouth and you eagerly drink it down. He feels you swallowing and he waits until you get it all, then he pulls himself out of your mouth.

"Oh, liebling...c'mere." he pulled you up, your poor legs trembled as you stood. He turned the vibe off and removed it from you, looking at your swollen and reddened clit. "Poor little button," he smirked and leaned down, laying a kiss against it. You moaned loudly when his lips touched your throbbing bud and he pulled back before it became too much.

He gave you that charming smile, and your exhausted face couldn't help but smile back. He would be the death of you, you swore. He pulled you into his lap and held you, kissing your neck and cheeks in a loving manner. He adored you more than anything else, and he loved how the two of you could have fun and explore these kinds of things together.

"You know...if you ever want to learn German colors..." he trailed off, flashing a mischievous grin. Maybe you could go for another lesson.

Thanks for reading.

*BAMF*

dividers by @/adornedwithlight

Cover images: Immortal X-Men #7 (2022)

[someprettyname]

GIRL. I WAS ALREADY A SIMP FOR HIM BEFORE I GOT TO CH 156 AND WHEN HE CAME I WAS LITERALLY HALF HYPERVENTILATING BECAUSE OF HOW HYPED UP I WAS FRRRRRRRR

Say what you want, whoever your favorite character may be, we all know how you reacted to Kaiser's intro panel