He could’ve given the rest money back to his friend after all the repairs were done. He chose to keep that money.

Hundred years ago it was normal to beat women of they were out of line. Millenia ago it was normal to own slaves. It’s also “normal” for the US Healthcare to screw over people who need Healthcare. Just because something is “normal” doesn’t mean it’s somehow right. Slavery was normal but then different societies over time understood that slavery is not right and it stopped being normal. Beating women used to be normal but over time we learned that’s also not right and it stopped being normal. I don’t know about you but I don’t think ripping people off is right. However ripping people off has been normalized for capital owners (including land lords).

Nobody should be wishing for his demise (compared to Blackrock and its kin, who I do think should cease to exist), but at the same time he shouldn’t be padded on the back for not ripping off his friend as much as he could’ve. What he did shouldn’t be normal.

Oh yeah, my bad. I was thinking about the past not the present.

I agree, but it seems there’s no group of politicians willing to invoke article 7 when it comes to Hungary.

It’s already a two step process with the first step requiring some kind of evidence that the country in question is breaching the founding values of the EU. If they are then the first step is about giving them a warning. If they can’t show they’re still in line with the founding values then you get to step 2 where the EU effectively unilaterally agree to revoke the rights.

I’ve already glossed over some nuances but I think it should already be evident that process is far from easy and it’s definitely not fast. I also don’t remember if the EU has ever even gotten to the first step. I think the closest they’ve gotten with Hungary is considering the possibility of proposing a breach of values, which is just a bunch of nothing.

Yeah, they’re the non-vote parties. FPTP voting always devolves down to 2 parties, see Duverger’s Law. Even if by some miracle a 3rd party wins (and continues winning) they will eventually kick one of the previous 2 parties out and take their place as the new party in the 2 party system. In practice if my memory doesn’t fail me voting 3rd party hasn’t mattered for over a century because the 2 main parties are so entrenched, so voting for 3rd party is more or less throwing away your vote.

In a two party system, especially when there’s no clear “I don’t like either” option then yes, nothing else exists. When you don’t vote you’re not saying “I don’t like either party” you’re saying “I don’t care which party wins”. If you don’t care which party wins then you’re in support of both parties.

Maybe this blog post is of use. Good Alt Text, Bad Alt Text — Making Your Content Perceivable.

If you don’t feel like reading the entire post you can skip to “Writing good alt text — Context is key”.