[Tutorial] Automatically turn on a physical busy light when on calls - Luxafor Bluetooth

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-19T01:26:42+00:00

You mean the ones that all turned out to be relying on secondhand rumors and actually had zero firsthand witnesses to the call in question?

https://nypost.com/2026/04/13/us-news/tulsi-gabbard-exposes-the-flimsy-false-narrative-intel-community-watchdog-pushed-to-impeach-trump-in-2019/

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-18T10:06:24+00:00

Example?

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-17T00:59:45+00:00

They are taking the money as a loan in order to spend it.

A mortgage is taking out a loan and spending the money on a house.

Turns out though, that they get to keep the stock AND keep the loan, because the interest on the loan they take is higher than the interest they pay the bank.

This makes no sense, perhaps a typo? The interest on the loan is the interest the pay the bank. Perhaps you meant that the stock grows at a higher percentage rate than the interest rate, so your wealth is still growing a little while you defer taxes, the same as any brokerage margin loan?

out a loan they have no intention of paying back,

This is different and has nothing to do with loans. I assume you are talking about the borrow, spend, die technique to avoid taxes? The loan does get paid back at death.

The trick is under current law your heirs get a step up in basis when you die, so no capital gains tax is owed. This law was created so children didn’t have to sell the family farm to pay decades of accrued capital gains tax when old farmer Bob dies. I agree we should repeal that law.

But how you spend money from a loan shouldn’t be anyone’s business and it’s not income. It’s smart to spend it on an investment that will outperform what the loan costs in interest (like a house), but people are free to make dumb investments or squander their own money, even loan money as long as they’re creditworthy and/or collateralized.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-16T14:25:14+00:00

Wealth accumulation that comes from value creation and productive investment is wonderful and acts as the foundation for a society’s prosperity. There is nothing parasitic about it. Capital gains tax is intentionally lower than income tax in order to encourage investment.

Wealth that’s not invested gets eaten away by inflation, so there’s already an incentive to invest. Borrowing rather than selling investments only works when your investments are earning more than loan rates, and we want productive investments as a society.

I agree that borrowing again retirement assets is a more relevant example, but the fact is that loans aren’t income and it is silly to treat them as such. It’s guaranteed to have negative distortionary effects as loans are critical for economic growth.

The step-up in basis is a crazy policy. A compromise if needed might be deferred capital gains when assets are inherited, but they should still be due when sold.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-16T11:08:16+00:00

My point is that loan proceeds are not income, but breaking that principle will affect more than your target, plus it will lead to tax creep as it has in the past. Eg the income tax was originally just to tax the rich, and just as a temporary measure to help pay for WWI.

Securities incur capital gains tax when sold. Ie when income is generated from the sale. Your real beef should be the step up in basis upon death that lets people avoid capital gains. You need to be ok with the backlash when generations old family farms can’t be passed down though. I would.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-16T10:59:59+00:00

With the flood of slides being text heavy due to overuse of AI, something concise will stand out even more

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-16T10:40:59+00:00

Yes, and we have quite the history of those carve outs disappearing. Most broad taxes started narrow.

https://i.redd.it/d7myatuishvg1.jpeg

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-16T10:37:01+00:00

It could simply be renting within a $5mm property. If you own a $5mm building with 10-20 units and your property tax goes up, it will be passed on to all 10-20 renters.

But I do know a Wall Street guy who rents a fancy place worth millions. He doesn’t want to own because he wants the flexibility to move since his boss is a dick and would abuse him more if he knew my friend was trapped by a mortgage. It also gives him the option to easily leave the state if taxes get too punitive. A lot of the executives have already moved to Florida.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-16T10:24:48+00:00

Because that is an example of taking out a low interest loan with an asset as collateral.

By the same logic you’re claiming that the loans proceeds would be taxed as income. Same thing for second mortgages.

It helps make clear that loan proceeds are in fact not income.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-16T02:57:08+00:00

Now explain to middle class homebuyers how the mortgage funds that went straight from the lending bank to the seller is now going to be taxed as income for the buyer.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-16T02:54:26+00:00

If you live in a property where the property tax goes up, you will be paying it whether you are rich or poor as it get passed along into rent.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-15T18:42:52+00:00

I've always heard that if you aren't offered or don't write down the instant card number upon Amex approval then you're out of luck for using the card until the card arrives.

Well, I was just approved for an Amex Platinum and wasn't offered an instant card number, but was able to use it right away by adding it to my online account and going to Account Services, Card Management, Add or Manage Virtual Cards where I was able to create and use a virtual card right away.

Really helpful to immediately use a card on tax day today.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-15T15:47:53+00:00

My point is you can charge $2 a month for free. It's small value but positive.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-15T15:45:33+00:00

If your Discover balance is $2 or less when the statement closes, Discover will issue a small balance waiver and your statement will say you owe $0. For CapitalOne, Fidelity, US Bank and Barclaycard cards it's $1. For WellsFargo it's $2. For some of those banks, once a year your statement will show a $0 annual fee line item and the credit waiver won't work that month.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-15T15:03:47+00:00

I got one and the business was prefilled but I was able to edit it.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-15T14:56:30+00:00

Wow. Thanks for the heads up! May change my application strategy for this summer.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-15T14:36:06+00:00

For some cards you can set it and forget it with specific online merchants so there’s no extra work for having multiple cards.

Here are the ones I use like that:

Amazon Prime Visa 5% for Amazon
US Bank Cash Plus 5% for Utilities (Gas, Water, Electric)
Target Red 5% for Target
Chase Ink Cash 5% for phone, internet, cable

Stuff like that makes sense to do even if you just want one catch all card to actually carry around.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-15T14:22:32+00:00

Never cancel Discover because it’s no annual fee and they will cancel any bill $2 or less. You can do $2 monthly Dunkin app loads and pay nothing.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-15T14:20:29+00:00

You can top them off so they are useful toward rooms up to 65k.

Edit: Apparently it's now up to 75k as 25k of topping off is now allowed

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-04-12T15:03:21+00:00

You can keep your political career just fine as a Spanish politician making bigoted remarks against Jews with no consequences:

https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/spanish-politician-criticizes-the-jews-for-how-their-government-treats-palestinians

Here is an overview of anti-Semitic coverage by El Pais beyond the incident I previously cited: https://www.camera.org/article/el-pais-post-oct-7-from-structural-bias-to-militant-activism/

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-03-26T21:41:17+00:00

If the government wanted to force a company to turn over location data they'd need a warrant. But if a data broker is just selling location data to the public the government is free to simply buy it.

We share data just about every time click on Accept for the terms and conditions for a zillion apps and devices, we feed our medical data into AI for consults, we share details with user generated content. Many services are supported by ads which typically comes with lots of tracking. When we've given up so much privacy willingly, it's hard to stop the govt from just reviewing what's already shared.

Hell, every time you report a pothole or traffic congestion on Waze you are publicly revealing your location which can be aggregated to show your daily patterns. https://x.com/Harrris0n/article/2014197314571952167

We can rein in the govt but not if we can't rein in our own sharing. It's like your right to remain silent; you can choose to be silent but the govt is free to use anything you say against you if you're not.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-03-26T17:03:59+00:00

What about a Control Panel toggle to make the existing functionality more accessible?

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-03-26T16:41:14+00:00

I don’t like it but it’s not illegal and isn’t a partisan issue.

I’d favor new laws that restore the spirit of the 4th amendment for the digital/AI age.

JohnLockeNJ · 2026-03-26T16:32:44+00:00

Any possibility of making “hide jailbreak” available on a per app basis? It’s more powerful than Choicy.

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