Hacker News Reader

throwaway5752on Elon Musk claims 'massive cyberattack' on X originated from the 'Ukraine area'

This is absurd, only a extraordinary moron would believe Ukraine executing this attack to be the case.

My comment is accurate. It is absurd to suggest or believe Ukraine is executing a DDOS on X. Ukrainians are desperately trying to fight a bordering superpower and need the assistance of Starlink and the US government where Musk is in the leadership circle. It does not serve the community to pretend otherwise.

throwaway5752on US unveils new app for 'self-deportations'

CoreCivic, the large publicly traded prison company, had their share price almost double after the election https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CXW/

throwaway5752on Tesla shares plunge 14%, head for worst day in five years

It's shocking. You do everything possible to alienate your core buying demographic, and they stop buying your product. And maybe doing so particularly in markets that provided badly needed and nearly 100% margin carbon credits to sell to other automakers was a particularly bad idea.

I'm sure self-driving cars and humanoid robots will be here any day now, though, just like the semi, or the previous self-driving cars.

I'm only surprised TSLA has held up as well as it has.

throwaway5752on Wall Street sell-off turns 'ugly' as US recession fears grow

The US is losing innovation talent, guest laborers, export markets, and allies. The federal workforce contributes to the economy, and many federal programs have strongly net positive economic impact.

We have threatened to militarily invade 3-4 countries in the last month and publicly betrayed Ukraine. We have instigated trade wars with 3, including our contiguous neighbors who have been remarkably stable friendly for a century. No country will depend on our technology if it can be removed on the whim of a single person who has demonstrated a willingness to abuse this power. Same for our defense industry. Same for military and economic alliances. Countries won't want to import our goods if the regulatory framework ensuring their quality and safety is dismantled.

I agree with you that today is more a move based on perception than a change in current fundamentals, but I also believe this the beginning of a re-rating of the US as a superpower and it has a very, very long way to run,

edit: I'm not going to vouch for the dead reply. But they jokingly say "if you need an f 35 you'll buy it" as though they missed the news this weekend https://eutoday.net/germany-concerned-over-f-35-kill-switch/. The economic impact of that program is projected to be close to $100B per year on its own beyond the value of airspace superiority. There are already signs of purchasers reconsidering.

throwaway5752on Tesla created secret team to suppress driving range complaints (2023)

Don't worry! Even if Tesla is collapsing under the CEO's public behavior, he will be able to use his position of influence to attract opaque investment in his other companies https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43317526

throwaway5752on Suspicious Tesla Sales Surge Triggers Canadian Government Investigation

My source is the original article

The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association has urged Transport Canada to investigate, citing potential misuse of the rebate system. Attempts to reach Tesla for comment have gone unanswered.

The federal EV rebate program, facilitating over 500,000 electric vehicle purchases since its inception, was paused on January 13, 72 hours after the government signaled its potential suspension. Officials are now reviewing the Tesla sales data to determine if any irregularities occurred during the program’s final days.

A simple search yields https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transportation/innovative-techn... for citations of program overview.

- "Individuals are eligible for one incentive"

- "Organizations and businesses are eligible for up to 10 incentives. Organizations and businesses that share common ownership, other than common ownership as a result of being a publicly traded company, are considered as one single organization eligible for a combined total of 10"

- "The incentive will be applied at the point-of-sale by the dealership once they have confirmed your eligibility"

The story is that Tesla sold as many cars, at four dealers in three days, almost as many as they sold in Canada in all of Q1 2024 at a time when their Canadian sales are trending down.

There are 1440 minutes in a day, they sold 8600 cars. Assuming a 12 hour dealer workday at 4 dealers. Articles say 2 cars a minute, I get one car per minute. It still they correctly process the incentives at point of sale or delivery? The investigating will find out.

The fraud also might be if anyone bought their own vehicles to sell later, or are otherwise violate the 10 rebates per organization limit and attempted to hide this.

throwaway5752on Suspicious Tesla Sales Surge Triggers Canadian Government Investigation

By all means send me the regulations for rebate and some concrete information, I'm open to being convinced otherwise by facts.

throwaway5752on Why Techdirt Is Now a Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It or Not)

Hacker News and Y Combinator should really learn from this.

throwaway5752on Suspicious Tesla Sales Surge Triggers Canadian Government Investigation

This is a very internet take. Being a dick is personal behavior. Falsifying sales records to receive rebates is criminal fraud, regardless of how nicely you do so.

throwaway5752on Microsoft is plotting a future without OpenAI

They don't buy or acquire what they can build internally, and they partner with startups to learn if they can build it. This is not new.

throwaway5752on Is Trump preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act? Signs are pointing that way

If you are not disposed to read this and think it is hyperbolic, let me introduce the author

Brett Wagner, now retired, served as a professor of national security decision making for the U.S. Naval War College and adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The important part is

The clock is ticking down on a crucial but little-noticed part of President Donald Trump’s first round of executive orders — the one tasking the secretaries of the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to submit a joint report, within 90 days, recommending "whether to invoke the Insurrection Act."

This would be April 20.

throwaway5752on GSA prepares to sell over 400 federal properties

It is a perfect plan when you are trying institutionally destroy oversight mechanisms. Fire the people and sell the buildings they worked in. Create maximal damage and work to restore oversight. It's actually quite brilliant, even though it is evil.

throwaway5752on Trump's 'Crypto Reserve' Is Such Brazen Corruption

They are brazenly corrupt. If you are logical, you just expect it of them. Otherwise how did a line item for about 4 million dollars with the State Department turning into a 400 million dollar contract for Tesla. It's just brazen corruption, they are stealing your tax dollars as quickly as they can.

throwaway5752on GSA prepares to sell over 400 federal properties

"The General Services Administration announced Tuesday that it will begin selling off some of the federal government’s most recognizable office buildings, including the J. Edgar Hoover Building, which serves as the FBI headquarters in Washington, and the Robert F. Kennedy Building, home to the Department of Justice — a landmark shift in how the government manages its real estate portfolio."

Selling the FBI and DOJ Headquarters. You can view the list yourself, https://www.gsa.gov/real-estate/real-estate-services/real-pr...

throwaway5752on British nuclear weapons can protect Canada against Trump, says Chrystia Freeland

That seems ridiculous, since the context is a centuries old ally and formerly friendly neighbor that the US has threatened to violently annex for no reason. America could just apologize for its terrible behavior and there's no need for any kind of conflict at all. America unilaterally started this, and can unilaterally end it.

Unfortunately, that won't happen because a group is consciously and intentionally following a program to permanently reduce US soft power and ability to project force globally. They have succeeded, and continue to succeed.

throwaway5752on Treasury Announces Suspension of Enforcement of Corporate Transparency Act

I don't think that is the case, and I didn't care that the parent poster did so. The guidelines are succinct, you can confirm this https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I think the harm from doing that, however, is you can make a mistaken conclusion on limited information and personalize something. Doing so can make you run afoul of Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. or Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

So in good faith reply, nullc, I think I am reacting appropriately to the situation and even though you could describe these in ways that seem similar in common language, they scenarios are very different.

throwaway5752on Treasury Announces Suspension of Enforcement of Corporate Transparency Act

For the record https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/Corporate_...

It is the sense of Congress that— (1) more than 2,000,000 corporations and limited liability companies are being formed under the laws of the States each year; (2) most or all States do not require information about the beneficial owners of the corporations, limited liability companies, or other similar entities formed under the laws of the State; (3) malign actors seek to conceal their ownership of corporations, limited liability companies, or other similar entities in the United States to facilitate illicit activity, including money laundering, the financing of terrorism, proliferation financing, serious tax fraud, human and drug trafficking, counterfeiting, piracy, securities fraud, financial fraud, and acts of foreign corruption, harming the national security interests of the United States and allies of the United States; (4) money launderers and others involved in commercial activity intentionally conduct transactions through corporate structures in order to evade detection, and may layer such structures, much like Russian nesting ‘‘Matryoshka’’ dolls, across various secretive jurisdictions such that each time an investigator obtains ownership records for a domestic or foreign entity, the newly identified entity is yet another corporate entity, necessitating a repeat of the same process; (5) Federal legislation providing for the collection of beneficial ownership information for corporations, limited liability companies, or other similar entities formed under the laws of the States is needed to— (A) set a clear, Federal standard for incorporation practices; (B) protect vital Unites States national security interests; (C) protect interstate and foreign commerce; (D) better enable critical national security, intelligence, and law enforcement efforts to counter money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and other illicit activity; and (E) bring the United States into compliance with international anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism standards; (6) beneficial ownership information collected under the amendments made by this title is sensitive information and will be directly available only to authorized government authorities, subject to effective safeguards and controls, to (A) facilitate important national security, intelligence, and law enforcement activities; and (B) confirm beneficial ownership information provided to financial institutions to facilitate the compliance of the financial institutions with anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, and customer due diligence requirements under applicable law; (7) consistent with applicable law, the Secretary of the Treasury shall— (A) maintain the information described in paragraph (1) in a secure, nonpublic database, using information security methods and techniques that are appropriate to protect nonclassified information systems at the highest security level; and (B) take all steps, including regular auditing, to ensure that government authorities accessing beneficial ownership information do so only for authorized purposes consistent with this title; and (8) in prescribing regulations to provide for the reporting of beneficial ownership information, the Secretary shall, to the greatest extent practicable consistent with the purposes of this title— (A) seek to minimize burdens on reporting companies associated with the collection of beneficial ownership information; (B) provide clarity to reporting companies concerning the identification of their beneficial owners; and (C) collect information in a form and manner that is reasonably designed to generate a database that is highly useful to national security, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies and Federal functional regulators.

Today is a massive victory for criminals.

throwaway5752on Trump Reveals U.S. 'Crypto Reserve'

This is lighting your hard earned tax dollars on fire - and everyone on this forum knows who is benefiting from it. The only surprise is the presidents personal shitcoin isn't included in the basket.

throwaway5752on [dead]

Your tax history and data will be shared throughout the government. This is unambiguously illegal.

Additionally, considering how the data is being analyzed, it is likely the largest breach of federal records in the history of the nation.

throwaway5752on Wealthy Americans fuel half of U.S. economy consumer spending

This is a fair reply, and I was being a little glib. This is in response to the facile premise and body of the article that seeks to defend wealth concentration.

What is clear is that wealth disparity is making it hard for more than half of the country to meet basic needs, and they are not contributing towards consumer spending measures because they are unable to not because they are unwilling to.

The article makes a much better case for updating the higher tax brackets, taxing income avoidance strategies more effectively, and using the proceeds to ease the load on the least wealthy half of americans so they are able to contribute to consumer spending and live happier and healthier lives.

This is where behavioral, microeconomics, and macroeconomics meet up. You have to appreciate the stress on individuals and the social fabric that these figures imply.

throwaway5752on Wealthy Americans fuel half of U.S. economy consumer spending

They own substantially more than half of the wealth.

throwaway5752on Wealthy Americans fuel half of U.S. economy consumer spending

The wealthiest 10% of American households—those making more than $250,000 a year, roughly—are now responsible for half of all US consumer spending and at least a third of the country’s gross domestic product.

As of Q3 2024, per https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distr..., the wealth held by the top 10 percent was $107T. The other 90% was $52T.

The top 10% has 67% of the wealth and only contributes half of consumer spending and a third of the GDP. They doing less than their fair share.

throwaway5752on RFK Jr Issues rule barring public comment on HHS rulemaking

"Senate Bill 5382 (SB 5382) would require individuals collecting petition signatures to sign a declaration on each petition sheet that affirms, under penalty of false swearing, the following:

Each petitioner signed the sheet provided accurate information.

The petitioner was eligible to sign and reviewed the sheet.

The petitioner was not compensated or promised compensation or gratuity for signing.

In addition, the bill requires those people signing the petition to provide their address along with a date, time and signature and the correct spelling of their name as it appears on their signature card registered with their county’s election office."

throwaway5752on Tyler Cowen, the man who wants to know everything

Pseudo intellectual with confident sounding podcast. Academic mercenary for the rich and powerful.

throwaway5752on Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

"Very disappointed with practically all of you"

Zelenskyy could have stood up and urinated on him and this still would have been inexcusable for any president of any party. They cannot control what others do but they can control their own behavior.

This is the most embarrassing incident in modern US history. Reuters was barred and TASS was present.

throwaway5752on Gene Hackman : Hollywood legend dies aged 95

** IF YOU DON'T HAVE A CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR IT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE **

Apologies for impolite formating.

https://www.target.com/p/first-alert-2pk-co400cn2-battery-po...

This is a 2 pack. There are better ones, too. If you don't have one already, don't wait another day. Hundreds of people die preventable deaths each year in the US because of this.

throwaway5752on Gene Hackman has died

** IF YOU DON'T HAVE A CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR IT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE **

Apologies for impolite formating.

https://www.target.com/p/first-alert-2pk-co400cn2-battery-po...

This is a 2 pack. There are better ones, too. If you don't have one already, don't wait another day. Hundreds of people die preventable deaths each year in the US because of this.

throwaway5752on Gene Hackman has died

** IF YOU DON'T HAVE A CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR IT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE **

Apologies for impolite formating.

https://www.target.com/p/first-alert-2pk-co400cn2-battery-po...

This is a 2 pack. There are better ones, too. If you don't have one already, don't wait another day. Hundreds of people die preventable deaths each year in the US because of this.

throwaway5752on Florida insurers steered money to investors while claiming losses, study says

Agreed. It's trivially easy to manipulate suggestible people and say "this is why the system doesn't work" instead of really understanding something complex.

The system works. It is broken in Florida, but Florida broke it and has corruptly and incompetently swept the problem under the rug for a couple of decades while luring people with unsustainably low taxes and insurance premiums. That is beginning to unravel in a way that cannot be hidden.

throwaway5752on Florida insurers steered money to investors while claiming losses, study says

"It is a flawed model that is sucking society dry but this is how America is set up."

This article is about a problem of how Florida, specifically, is set up.

To the downvoter - perhaps you didn't read the article, don't know about Florida's P&C regulatory problems, or wanted to make another point. But from the article:

"The Office of Insurance Regulation said in a statement that the study was not given to lawmakers because it was “not a formal examination report.” It was produced months before lawmakers met in emergency legislative sessions in 2022 and left in a “draft” status."

Florida knew this, and was surpressing this, because the state executive branch is corrupt and in a state of regulatory capture.