Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 30/04/2025Oh the stance is incredibly hostile to international migration too. How many immigrants to NYC can afford anything even approaching a decent quality living situation? Only the rich ones can, definitely none of the economic migrants / asylum seekers! 090
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 18/02/2025Of course they will be influential, and the correct response is to work with them, not oppose them. Push all the powerful interests to the other side (which Democrats have been excellent at recently), and we lose. 040
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 18/02/2025This attitude is one of the reasons we've been losing elections recently. The US's big tech companies are now the biggest, fastest-growing, and most profitable companies in the world, and have immensely enriched Americans at large. 250
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 03/02/2025There's a little difference between a counterfactual that could've been done last month vs one that could've only been done over two decades ago. We can't rewrite that much history. 100
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 03/02/2025Happened to me as I got older too. It wasn't depression, just losing interest. I'm still perfectly capable of sitting down and reading a good novel for hours, or watching a good film, and enjoy those more. 2100
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 02/02/2025Many many e-commerce websites online use Shopify. You've probably used them before, you just don't know it. Once you're familiar with their interface you see it everywhere. 080
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 30/01/2025That's not what happened. The helicopters were always talking on that frequency. ATC has different radios for different bands. There was no "wrong" frequency involved. 000
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 30/01/2025It's seeming like this will have been the deadliest US air disaster since November 2001. 010
Reposted by Ben McIlwainjamelle @jamellebouie.net · 28/01/2025www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/o... 1179343387900
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 27/01/2025I thought for sure it was a huge mistake to lower the toll from $15 to $9, but apparently even $9 is enough? Who knew?? It sure wouldn't stop me, but then again, I don't own a car so I'll only pay it very occasionally when I'm renting. 130
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 27/01/2025If Trump actually wants to end Russia's war on Ukraine, then relieving the pressure on Russia by pausing all aid to Ukraine makes no damn sense. The way to get Russia to back off is by making it clear that our support for Ukraine will only grow, not end. Russia can handle an isolatedUkraine. 020
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 23/01/2025Why are you either-oring this? And you are aware that antisemitism killed MILLIONS of people within the last century, right? 100 is nothing compared to what true evil bigotry can accomplish. You really think fighting antisemitism needs to be stopped in order to help women facing domestic murder?? 210
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 22/01/2025Usually when private equity gets involved it's a bad thing, but some of the NFL team owners have been so brain dead that this could easily be an improvement. I'm thinking particularly of Dan Snyder here. 010
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 21/01/2025Seriously. It would be exactly the same for NJ drivers if we just increased the tolls on the Hudson River bridges and tunnels by $9. What even is the big deal here?? 021
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 21/01/2025Imagine being so carbrained that you, a Democratic politician, bend the knee to Trump over *congestion pricing*. New Jersey, can you please elect better politicians? You're a solidly blue state, get someone who won't brown nose Trump this badly. 060
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 21/01/2025And pardoning all the Jan 6 terrorists, and leaving the WHO ... it's bad. Will be worse if he wants to leave NATO, which is entirely in the cards as well. 000
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025No identity-based special privileges or outreach, just everyone treated exactly the same. 400
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025I don't think the ostrich approach is the way to go. 020
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025Hrm, wasn't Bluesky supposed to have a way to fix typos? Oh well .. 000
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025Anyone who thinks there are should name five unprompted. I can name at least five 19th century US presidents, so if I claimed "US presidents" are notable I could at least pass that test. 120
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025The climate, rule of law, preservation of democratic norms, and economic prosperity were my main concerns this past election, which is why I voted for Kamala. 010
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025Welp, exciting the Paris climate accords is an unmitigated disaster. We're just going to watch the whole world burn because selfish 80-year-olds don't care how bad it'll get after they die, huh. 330
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025(And the latter is indeed illegal for most attributes in most jurisdictions anyway.) 010
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025I think you're making a slippery slope argument here that isn't going to be borne out in practice. There's a big difference between ending collaboration with a specific external outreach partner and any kind of banning based on personal attributes. The latter has never happened in Magic. 210
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025We never learned anything after eight years, why would we have learned anything now. 000
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025Looove how the Bluesky interface just makes these posts appear as "Blocked". Means you have to screenshot anyone if you want to properly quote tweet them, which is dumb. 000
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025Shoulda led with the video, this does indeed look worse. 020
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 20/01/2025LBGTQ people can still go to Magic events through the same normal paths that anyone else can though, right? It seems that this VML was some specific outreach program that is now ended? 420
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 19/01/2025That's why they're hastily in the process of sharding the app to segment off the foreign users from their domestic ones, like how TikTok worked, all while banning foreign apps entirely. They want to have influence over and make money off us, with no reciprocity. 010
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 19/01/2025The blocking over here is out of control. I actually prefer the X approach now, where it doesn't destroy the entire reading experience of conversations, but merely prevents one targeted individual from replying. 000
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 19/01/2025Uhh what? I didn't take you for a pro-murder kind of guy. 100
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 19/01/2025Is that an advertising wrap or a sun screen? I've ran into sun screens on buses before that spoiled the view, but in that climate they were pretty necessary. And I guess it's not easy to remove sun screens seasonally. 010
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 19/01/2025"Consume your content" -- god, I hate the way we talk about things now. I'd rather *read* my novels, *listen* to my podcasts, and *watch* my films, thank you very much. 000
Reposted by Ben McIlwainRiver_Tam @rivertam.bsky.social · 19/01/2025You could convince zoomers to read text posts if you pretended they were subtitles to a TV show 0243
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 16/01/2025You can't just say "write off" as if that explains anything. Landlords are LOSING REAL MONEY from having a vacant unit (with all of its upkeep costs and property taxes due). They aren't writing that off; that's actual money they're losing. 300
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 15/01/2025Such a good point. The Oscars will raise so much money if they properly monetize it for aid. 010
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 14/01/2025That's really what it comes down to at the end of the day. Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky et al are actually accountable to US laws and policies. TikTok is not; it's a CCP propaganda platform that they would sooner shut off than let someone else have control over. 030
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 14/01/2025What's your proposal, and where is it currently successfully implemented? 200
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 13/01/2025Oh that was probably the SNL llama. What night was it? 000
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 12/01/2025None of that has to do with taxation of profits. Indeed if you set the rent too high and don't get tenants for a long period of time, you actually just lose a lot of money. 100
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 12/01/2025DEI and idpol generally are dead. Zuckerberg sees which way the winds have blown on this and is simply getting ahead of it. In my little neck of the woods, the death knell for DEI seems to have been summer 2022, when tech hiring abruptly reversed into tech layoffs. 000
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 12/01/2025It is a business expense though and does go into the costs subtracted against revenue before determining taxable profit. You'd have to fundamentally reform how the entire tax code works. And the second order effects of taxing revenue rather than profits would be severe. 200
Ben McIlwain @cydeweys.bsky.social · 12/01/2025Passivehauses are so well sealed that they actually need a ventilation system running solely for the purpose of providing fresh air (unlike normal houses which only ever need that for heating/cooling). Then they'll have a nice filtration system on the intake. 010
