Th3 Core

Someone I know (not me) just got a report from an SEO agency who, citing "best practices," advised:
 - No text links on the home page
 - All links on the home page should be buttons
 - All buttons should have the anchor text: "Learn more."

I'd be curious to know what "best practices" document they are referencing.

Well, I would hardly blame liberals for that.

The two watershed moments that led to California homelessness of the mentally ill were
1. 1967 - Massive cuts to the CA Department of Mental Hygiene and the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act which made involuntary hospitalization illegal (which from a personal freedom point of view was a good thing, but coupled with cuts to DMH, was disastrous).

2. 1981 - Repeal of the Mental Health Systems Act on the federal level.

Who was the governor of CA in 1967 who drove the massive cuts to DMH? The same guy who was president in 1981 who drove the repeal of the Mental Health Systems Act.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11209729/did-the-emptying-of-mental-hospitals-contribute-to-homelessness-here
https://www.salon.com/2013/09/29/ronald_reagans_shameful_legacy_violence_the_homeless_mental_illness/

BTW, the portrait of California above is nothing like what I experience here.

The unfunded mandates are a problem though. California government by referendum results in people voting in measures that both reduce the state's ability to tax and require the state to spend. When the economy booms, corporate taxes make up for it, but when it doesn't we ended up with the situation that resulted in the recall election of 2003.

As for the rest of it (the "values" question), I mostly don't dare to go there so refrained. But as I've said before, I haven't lived in a place with such good neighbors since the 1970s. I'm in the middle of a major remodel and I would guess that neighbors have contributed at least 50 hours to help me. I've had dinner with neighbors at least four times so far this month. A neighbor just asked if I need him to pick anything up in town. And so on.

As one neighbor told me about another once, "d##k and I don't like each other, but when I call him at midnight because I have a water leak, he comes and helps me fix it."

Car break-in crackdown bill made perfect sense. California lawmakers killed it
https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Car-break-in-crackdown-bill-made-perfect-sense-12995551.php

California law now states that smashing a window and stealing items from inside a car can be charged as felony burglary only if prosecutors can prove that the car’s doors were locked. If not, it’s misdemeanor theft.

Yang is out; I bet we see him again.

I think that's a fair bet. Here's his statement upon dropping out (relevant parts in bold)

We have accomplished so much together.  We have brought a message of Humanity First and a vision of an economy and society that works for us and our families to millions of our fellow Americans.

We went from a mailing list that started with just my Gmail contact list to receiving donations from over 430,000 people and support from millions more across the country.

One of the things I’m most proud of -- we gave $1,000 a month for a year to 13 families across the country.

We highlighted the real problems in our communities as our economy is being transformed before our eyes by technology and automation.  We stood on the debate stage and shifted our national conversation to include the fourth industrial revolution, a topic no one wanted to touch.

Our signature proposal, Universal Basic Income, has become part of the mainstream conversation.  We increased the popular support for Universal Basic Income to 66% of Democrats and 72% among voters 18-34.

And without a doubt, we accelerated the eradication of poverty in our society by years, perhaps even generations,

And that is thanks to all of YOU!

Though thousands of voters came out for our campaign tonight in New Hampshire, it is not the outcome we fought so hard for.  It is bitterly disappointing for many of us.

But it should not be.

Every single day I’ve had supporters say to me:

“Your campaign helped me out of a depression.  Thank you.”

“Working on this campaign has made me a better human being.”

“I met my significant other because of you.”

“Your campaign brought my family together.  Your campaign got me excited about politics for the first time.”

These are all things that people have said to me in the past days.  I’m incredibly proud of this campaign.  We have touched and improved millions of lives and moved this country we love so much in the right direction.

And while there is great work left to be done, I am the MATH guy.  And it is clear tonight from the numbers that we are not going to win this race.  I am not someone who wants to accept donations and support in a race that we will not win.

And so tonight, I am suspending my campaign for president.

This is not an easy decision.  Endings are hard and I’ve always intended to stay in this race until the very end.  But I have been convinced that the message of this campaign will not be strengthened by my staying in this race any longer.

Endings are hard.  But this is not an ending.

This is a beginning.

This is the starting line.  This campaign has awakened something fundamental in this country and ourselves.

We’ve outlasted over a dozen senators, governors, and members of Congress and become the most exciting force in this entire race.

The Yang Gang has fundamentally shifted the direction of this country and transformed our politics, and we are only continuing to grow.

My goal when I first started was always to solve the problems that got Donald Trump elected.  And I know in order to do that, I will support whoever is the Democratic nominee.  That said, I hope this campaign can be a message, and word of caution, to all of my Democratic colleagues.

Donald Trump is not the cause of all of our problems.  He is a symptom.  We must cure the disease that got him elected, and in order to do that we must address the real problems that affect our people and offer solutions to actually solve them.

Those solutions are bold, and many think they are crazy.  But I hope my campaign has made it a little less crazy to think we can lead our country to eradicate poverty.  In fact, five candidates in this field have already supported it or expressed openness to supporting Universal Basic Income.

I stand before you today and say that while we did not win this election, we are just getting started.

This is the beginning.

This movement is the future of American politics.

This movement is the future of the Democratic party.

This wave is just beginning and it will continue to build until we rewrite the rules of this economy to work for us, the people of this country.

Thank you to each and every person who made this campaign possible, I love and appreciate you.  Being your candidate has been the privilege of my life.  We will continue to do the work and move this country forward.

Thank you all.  God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.

-Andrew

I've been totally off the "exercise" wagon, but doing five days a week of construction work the last three weeks. Tore the cabinets and ceiling off my downstairs, added soundproofing and am putting the ceilings back up. Just need to tape, mud, paint, put the cabinets back and clean up and I'm done!

I had a serious cold at the start anyway, so it was probably better not to be running in the cold.

"Your margin is my opportunity." -- Jeff Bezos

It's interesting with a small portfolio (one vacation rental, for example) vs a larger portfolio (350 "keys"). If you have a few hundred keys, you can see how things are going and then start turning dials. So if you're behind, it's well worth it to give Expedia their 15-18%, because 85% of full revenue is better than 0%. This is why Expedia contracts are written to make it hard to cut them out if things are going well.

When you have 1-2 keys, though, once you fill, you fill. There's no more inventory to sell. You can't say "Oh, I'm pacing ahead, I can raise prices." It's already too late. If you think, "Their commission is too high," and you decide to wait it out and book without them, you might go empty.

So the decision about letting someone (Sykes, VRBO, whatever) turn your margin into their margin is a lot harder to manage as the season unfolds.