#trusts

[niroke]

An excerpt from the CNN article reporting on it is listed below.

After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in Monday’s opinion. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”

The decision by the US District Court for the District of Columbia is a stunning rebuke of Google’s oldest and most important business. The company has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to secure a dominant position as the world’s default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.

Those contracts have given it the scale to block out would-be rivals such as Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo, the US government alleged in a historic antitrust lawsuit filed during the Trump administration.

Now, said Mehta, that powerful position has led to anticompetitive behavior that must be stopped.

Specifically, Google’s exclusive deals with Apple and other key players in the mobile ecosystem were anticompetitive, Mehta said. Google has also charged high prices in search advertising that reflect its monopoly power in search, he added.

[autumnslance]

Level 100 Trust Glamours for Thancred, Urianger, and Krile.

I had to level Aeryn's boys first, and it's Krile's backstory expac.

Team 2 will be G'raha and the LB Thieves as I still need to level Aeryn's Healer job.

[wiirocku]

Proverbs 28:26 (NKJV) - He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.

[postcard-from-the-past]

"Foolish who trusts him"

French anti-Nazi vintage postcard

[thecarlinecanopy]

Usually, when something weird happens in Duty Support/Trusts, I can understand the reason why it happened. An NPC stood in AOE? When AOEs aren't scripted, they dodge the first AOE, but aren't programmed to handle if a second is placed on them or where they're dodging to. Healer died in a boss fight? Either I was pointing the boss in a way the NPC tank wouldn't have and therefore the healer was taking damage from attacks meant for me, or they stopped to heal and were targeted for an AOE and they dodged too late.

However, recently while fighting Dohn Mheg's final boss, I watched Alphinaud dodge out of the way of the slime their transformation was spewing, stand in the safe spot for a second, and then run back into the wave of sludge, spamming Galvanize to heal through the damage he was taking. I haven't the slightest idea what he was trying to achieve there, but it was amusing to watch nevertheless.

[eaglesnick]

Is Capitalism Working: Landowners (1)

When I asked the question,  “Is capitalism working?" (see last post) I quoted Kate Raworth’s definition of capitalism wherein it is argued that our present economic system is designed to provide profit for the already wealthy – shareholders, landowners and moneylenders. It is certainly true that increases in share price and dividends are not matched by an equal increase in workers pay: shareholders increase their wealth at the expense of ordinary working people. Similarly, we can check if landowners and landlords have seen an increase in their wealth compared to the rest of us.

The whole question of land ownership and associated wealth is a complicated one, not least because landowners have been very good at hiding their assets, and therefore their wealth and income. An additional problem is that there are different types of landowner. Today I am going to deal with the aristocracy and gentry.

The aristocracy and gentry, relics of Britain’s feudal past, still own 30% of Britain’s land. Much of this is agricultural land and until we left the EU they received taxpayers money in the form of farming subsidies, based not on need but on the size of their land holdings. Under this scheme the aristocracy and landed gentry have received tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers money.   This has helped them double their wealth over recent years.

“Britain’s 600 aristocratic families have doubled their wealth in the last decade and are as ‘wealthy as at the height of Empire’” (inews: 19/07/19)

One reason their wealth has increased is because

Countless peers with major landholdings and stately homes have put all their assets into discretionary trusts, thereby evading both public scrutiny and inheritance tax." Guardian: 07/09/17)

In addition

 “The asset-owning super-rich to the extent that they include the aristocracy would appear to have benefited during the period after the financial crisis from factors such as quantitative easing which allowed them to use those assets to secure mortgages and debts to buy further assets.” (Inews.co: 19/07/19)

Put simply, quantitative easing (QE), the governments preferred way out of the financial crash of 2008, saw a massive increase in the money supply, which in turn saw a massive rise in wealth for the already wealthy. QE led directly to asset price inflation. In short the landowning aristocracy and gentry saw the value of their land rise and rise.

“QE…increases the prices of things such as shares and property”  (BBC News: 01/11/22)

Consequently, as the majority of the UK population saw a fall in their living standards and wages due to Tory austerity,  the aristocracy and landed gentry saw their wealth increase.

At this point it is important to note that the aristocracy have the legal right to sit in the House of Lords. They are not voted in. They represent no one but themselves, yet they are a powerful influence on the laws of this country. It is therefore inconceivable that the laws they influence do not profit them in some way.

One law in particular springs to mind.

“One legal provision unique to England and Wales has been of particular importance to these aristocratic landlords: over the centuries they built many millions of houses, mansion blocks and flats, which they sold on a leasehold rather than freehold basis. This meant that purchasers are not buying the property outright, but merely a time-limited interest in it, so even the “owners” of multimillion-pound residences have to pay ground rent to the owner of the freehold, to whom the property reverts when their leases (which in some areas of central London are for no more than 35 years) run out. This is unearned income par excellence.” (Chris Bryant, Guardian, 07.09.17)

Another use they make of the laws they themselves influence is the avoidance of inheritance tax. Quoting Chris Bryant again

The primary means of squirrelling away substantial assets so as to preserve them intact and deliver a healthy income for aristocratic descendants without bothering the taxman is the trust. Countless peers with major landholdings and stately homes have put all their assets into discretionary trusts, thereby evading both public scrutiny and inheritance tax.”

In conclusion, the evidence shows that certainly over the last 15 years, as the majority of working people have became poorer, the aristocracy and landed gentry have become steadily richer. This fits Kate Raworth’s definition of capitalism, not only because it sees the already wealthy making even more money at the expense of the rest of us, but it also demonstrates how they influence the legal and political system to secure and reproduce their already privilege position within society. 

[1900scartoons]

They Are Next! 

November 27, 1906

The massive moneybag Swollen Fortunes and a man with in a suit made of money, Vested Interests, stand in Dr. Roosevelt (Trust Buster)'s waiting room.

The caption reads "The Invalids - They say the doctor is feeling especially vigorous since his vacation trip." President Roosevelt had just returned from Panama, as the governments case against various trusts continued.

See Also: Theodore Roosevelt

From Hennepin County Library

Original available at: https://digitalcollections.hclib.org/digital/collection/Bart/id/5435/rec/312

[aimlesspoet]

a bottom-tier autistic experience is being told throughout your entire childhood that you are just an overthinker when it comes to social situations and later finding out that your friends did, in fact, hate being around you and tried to communicate that through weird little hints

[altades]

betrayal

[autumnslance]

Vanaspati Catgirl

With a few substitutions, but she's kitted out entirely in the level 85 gear. So where does that leave her, since pausing MSQ at the end of the quest to unlock it for Trust runs? Well, uh...

That exp boost for the Scions sure is something...

C'oretta can probably not farm the other instances quite so much. And is in a good spot to begin the Role Quests...

[wiirocku]

Psalm 28:7 (ESV) - The LORD is my strength and my shield;    in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults,    and with my song I give thanks to Him.

[fattributes]

Genuinely, I don’t know how else to get the word out, but I feel like if your home-cooked dinners don’t taste right, you're missing either paprika, sugar, butter, or chicken bouillon.

[thecarlinecanopy]

Duty Support/Trust NPCs When I'm Playing Sage: We are all well-oiled machines, dodging perfectly or at least getting hit predictably. We know this dungeon better than you do. Our programming is impeccable.

Duty Support/Trust NPCs When I'm Playing Astrologian: We will stand in every AOE and divide your attention among us so that you cannot save us all. We've never been programmed to handle this dungeon. The tank has moved the boss at a weird angle and the DPS aren't programmed to handle that.

[starridge]

puppet hour was brutal

[blurds]

This blog has been telling you not to trust pelicans for over a decade and this is why