There are plenty of pieces of legislation which allow small businesses to exist which do not involve literally outlawing the competition. Outlawing competition is the sort of regulatory capture that simply should not exist, no matter who benefits from it. Rather, the consumer never benefits from it.

small businesses

car dealerships

Bruh, wat?

Yeah, famously “small business”, those car dealerships. Right up there with payday loan places, and equally ethical. I can’t even.

Because the laws had to exist for dealerships to exist…

If a business cannot exist without its competition being made illegal then it should not exist. Anti-competitive laws cut both ways.

All of the things you’ve listed there are reasons why dealerships should be allowed to exist. They do not address why manufacturers should not be allowed to sell cars directly to consumers at their own stores. Why would that interfere with the numerous benefits you’ve suggested that dealerships bring about? Consumers would still be able to choose to purchase their car from a dealership, so why wouldn’t they? What could motivate them to go direct to the manufacturer?

Price. It’s the price. Manufacturers can offer cars to the consumer at a better price, period. Not only that, they offer it without you having to sit through 2 hours of high-pressure sales and having to double-check every goddamn form you sign to make sure some rate or term duration hasn’t “accidentally” been changed to a much higher value.

If dealerships were actually competitive they wouldn’t need this law on the books to keep their industry alive.

Turn it around: how does the enforced dealership model benefit consumers? What value is added by forcing people who want to buy a car to go through another entire group of salespeople adding their own overhead and cost to the equation rather than buying directly from the car manufacturer?

Musk’s motivations are anything but pure here, but this is one of those “a stopped clock is right twice a day” moments.

Unfortunately, Sony seems to be really hostile towards allowing most any video player apps on the PS5. They specifically went out of their way to remove DLNA support, and they only just allowed a DLNA-enabled video player on the store 7 months ago… and it’s subscription based.

Especially since the comment is still up and visible.

Now OP’s response under that where he posted “Guillotine Elon”, that was removed.

EDIT: You can also see this by searching his post history in the sub on pullpush. It’s literally the first result.

Yep. Underwood Ranches. You can buy it from their site directly or on Amazon. It’s good stuff.

Most of them have gone to BlueSky. A few are on Mastodon but rarely as their primary (sadly). A lot of artists have gone to places like FurAffinity, Pixiv, and to a lesser extent DeviantArt.

Unfortunately a lot of them have just resorted to being on Patreon, which is unfortunate.

Even the porn creators and erotic artists have left.

When you’ve lost the porn it’s game over man.

Oh no doubt, but they thought they could appease him somehow. Now they’re realizing that once you’re on his list there’s no getting back in his good graces. Peace was never an option.

Let’s not forget the embedded racism in the original quote from Terry: “CIA n*ggers glow in the dark.”

Yeah, but if they can do it that fast on their own, imagine how much faster they can get it done with help.

Besides, if China starts getting a little froggy Japan and South Korea are going to need a lot more than a few armaments to ward them off.

NATO was that, but it may very well continue on as something else. Without the US mind you, but nothing says the rest of the NATO countries can’t just decide to stay in.

Of course it might also be a good time for them to all make the international equivalent of the No Homer’s Club. Either way.

It doesn’t, but per comments from the fire department and the gas company there were no signs of leaking pipes or carbon monoxide.

The fact that the dog died makes me think it was environmental of some kind though. Maybe something they all ate/drank?

I’ll take “Streisand Effect” for $2000, Alex.

Technically they aren’t lying: their subjective experience is much better when they don’t have to deal with customers.

I actually run a hidden WPA1 SSID at home just so I can connect my PSP Fat to the net, so this is directly relevant to my interests.

Of course I need to upgrade my CFW. Still on M33 5.0. Then again I’ve been needing to do that for a while.

If you prevent the FDA from reporting on the bird flu then that means the bird flu doesn’t exist. Easy peasy.

Yeah, even though this is obviously politically motivated, the claim that they’re effectively running commercials isn’t that off base. It was one thing when they’d say “we receive funding from Company X: Their Slogan”, but now they’re reading sometimes paragraphs of ad copy, back-to-back.