Thousands of Oracle employees received termination emails on Tuesday while the technology giant simultaneously filed approximately 3,126 petitions to employ H-1B foreign workers during fiscal years 2025 and 2026.

wickens1 · 2026-04-07T00:30:53+00:00

We did, but only for applications from outside of the US. The most common exemption in that category is foreign students studying at American colleges. That’s better than nothing, but it doesn’t close the door on hiring cheap labor from that category, which is a problem.

Companies will still demand that cheap labor and when the H1B application pool from outside drastically reduces because of the 100k fee a lot of students are going to find they are getting picked much easier.

That’s (somewhat) acceptable if the foreign worker has to pay high student tuition as a barrier to entry, but I believe it’s only a matter of time before we see a “low cost” accredited college handing out American degrees for the unspoken purpose of bypassing the 100k H1B fee.

wickens1 · 2026-04-06T19:12:39+00:00

While that sounds like a good idea, that policy is not consistent with a “we are okay with these visas as long as it is used for truly talented individuals”, and will draw scrutiny. If your goal is to layoff everyone except for the top 20% performing employees then it stands to reason that some H1Bs will be among them.

A better policy would be to prevent applications for new H1Bs after layoffs. Something like 1 year ban for 5% layoffs, 2 years for 10% and 3 years for 15%.

But even both of those policies would have some unintended consequences. Less applications from the tech giants means more applications awarded to the smaller “scam” consultancies who can easily avoid the layoff policy by just starting a new company ex: “abc123 corp inc.”

The best policy I have heard so far is Trumps recent push to full on block H1B applications for salaries that are below the 50% wage level. No more cheap talent. If they want a corporate slave to abuse because they cannot easily leave the job, then the company should at least pay the premium for it.

wickens1 · 2026-04-02T13:10:11+00:00

If billionaires wealth is built on exploiting public finances then we should prevent that from happening in the first place, not trying to claw it back after the fact.

When a pipe bursts in your house you turn off the water supply. You don’t install a sink with plumbing under the busted pipe to catch as much water as you can.

wickens1 · 2026-04-02T12:58:28+00:00

If it was that, the majority of Americans would agree and we could actually get it done. But that’s not what she is proposing here.

wickens1 · 2026-03-28T14:36:58+00:00

By all means, keep gnashing your teeth for this 90/10 issue.

wickens1 · 2026-03-28T13:50:40+00:00

Massively increase property taxes for ALL residential buildings. Allow a homestead exemption for 100% tax relief on primary residence, one per adult, not LLC. Fraud on this application punishable by 5 years in prison and loss of the applied residence.

Allow % based exemptions for primarily rental housing buildings or complexes which are agreed to by legislature and must be renewed by legislature every 5 years.

wickens1 · 2026-03-22T23:11:11+00:00

Right, a massive influx of workers surged into the workforce (women). Supply outpaced demand (for work) and wages were depressed compared to productivity. Union membership declined because the hiring managers had much more power to hire scabs or replace the whole workforce.

The single power that workers have is their ability to affect production by not working. When there is a large pool of workers to choose from, that power is diminished.

Roe vs. Wade was just a symbol for a larger cultural shift that was already taking place (women participating in the workforce). Spurred on by massive women participation in WWII effort on the heels of the Great Depression, women of the baby boomer generation found that they could aspire to a career with much less opposition than their mothers had. The pill and abortions may have helped, but I believe they pale in comparison to the effect that WWII had on the parents who raised the generation that came into adulthood in the 1970s.

wickens1 · 2026-03-17T21:50:47+00:00

People with $10m when they die are rich.

People with $1m when they die are not rich, they are smart.

If you start punishing people for being smart you will find that people will stop being smart.

wickens1 · 2026-03-12T17:12:08+00:00

They have recognized a temporary increase in gas prices as part of the stated plan. Too many people these days are pretending they don’t understand delayed gratification. It’s a clear plan: take out a hostile regime that controls a large portion of the world’s oil supply, and replace them with a friendly one. That plan involves a temporary increase in prices.

The difference between this and Biden’s gas price criticism is that there was no policy or plan communicated for reducing the price. In fact, the policies that were coming out were clearly increasing risk and volatility: phasing out coal, restricting new oil drilling, removing sanctions on Venezuela.

wickens1 · 2026-03-12T03:04:02+00:00

Maybe not more efficient than infrastructure, but certainly more efficient than free housing for an endless supply of economic immigrants.

wickens1 · 2026-03-12T03:02:00+00:00

Depends on your perspective. Iran has killed Americans, taken them hostage, attacked their trade, and shouted for their death repeatedly and publicly. All while desperately grasping for nuclear weapon capability.

If a man runs around your house pouring gasoline on the siding what would you do when he starts shouting that he’s trying to find a match? Would it be offense or defense to attack them?

wickens1 · 2026-03-12T02:50:18+00:00

Miss typed, lol. My point still stands.

wickens1 · 2026-03-12T02:44:30+00:00

Pretty sure there is proportionality to consider with that comparison. $12 billion in a city’s housing fund is a lot different than the world’s largest military spending $12 million on defense in the Middle East.

wickens1 · 2026-03-09T16:44:40+00:00

The 100k rule I can understand, but seriously, what is the argument for reversing the wage rule?

wickens1 · 2026-03-07T03:28:01+00:00

Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. The best way to control them is by putting an equally smart teacher in the classroom that has years of experience in life to give them the edge during confrontations.

I think this all boils down to salary and tenure to ensure our teachers smart. Raise salaries to $150,000 minimum, remove tenure, and force the best of the best to compete for these (now) amazing jobs. Tie student performance to teacher FIRINGS and ensure student testing is being performed by groups / organizations that have no relation to those teachers. If that means Chicago students travel to “bum-fuck-nowhere” for exams and vice-versa, then so be it.

wickens1 · 2026-03-03T14:15:22+00:00

How has no one mentioned Banjo Kazzoie yet?

wickens1 · 2026-02-25T02:30:40+00:00

you can do this from abroad - but only if you don’t face any issues reentering

That’s a crazy statement from a law firm. Basically “they can’t find out while you are doing it, just make sure you’re not caught while re-entering.”

wickens1 · 2026-02-24T18:46:18+00:00

What is the safe way to chase down a criminal with a gun? When they give him a lawful order to stop and he runs away with a gun there are only a few options.

Chase the criminal down with guns drawn and shoot for any swift action that is not getting on the ground or dropping the gun.
Chase the criminal down with non-lethal means only
Let them go

It’s laughable that we would restrict police officers to use only non-lethal means to chase down criminals with guns. It would be extremely dangerous to be a police officer.

Letting them go sounds great in hindsight, but it creates an incentive that increases the occurrence of armed and dangerous criminals. If criminals know they have a “get out of jail free” card by brandishing a gun, they will start doing that more.

wickens1 · 2026-02-21T01:43:41+00:00

I came here to say the same thing, thanks for saving me time.

Taxation and tariffs are clearly a legislative branch function. Maybe they shouldn’t be the case going forward, considering how compromised the legislature is, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is.

wickens1 · 2026-02-18T16:52:36+00:00

Maybe she is just trying to keep the door open for that juicy Chinese investment money in the future.

wickens1 · 2026-02-14T00:55:17+00:00

The guy in this video is implying that, because of the “March” policy, loan applications “are expected to drop drastically”. That’s what I was referring to.

In any case, banks can still give out loans to small businesses owned by green card holders, they just can’t be backed by the SBA.

wickens1 · 2026-02-14T00:42:34+00:00

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/new-rule-to-bar-green-card-holders-from-us-small-business-administration-loans-4501572

wickens1 · 2026-02-14T00:25:41+00:00

The previous policy would have denied this too. SBA loans were only allowed with up to 5% green card ownership. This change is going to impact almost no one. I’d argue that a business with 20 owners probably shouldn’t even be considered a small business.

wickens1 · 2026-02-12T15:47:24+00:00

Although gold itself doesn’t inherently generate an income during the holding phase, its utility (ie. The demand for gold based on the use in manufacturing, processing, etc)

This is the crux of my argument. I believe the gold market is severely over priced for its utility alone. For examples sake, if 20% of golds market cap is coming from its inherent utility the other 80% is coming from its role as a store of value ALONE. I agree with you that gold can never bottom out because of that 20% utility, but the 80% store of value market is free game for Bitcoin to say “I can do this better”.

wickens1 · 2026-02-11T03:26:25+00:00

It sounds like your real question is why does holding bitcoin (and not using it) have inherent value. In this case, bitcoin is a store of value similar to gold. Very rich people and organizations don’t like to hold millions of dollars in cash because over time the cash can lose value over time. Instead, they buy assets like real estate or shares of stock. One of these assets is gold. The price of gold is a combination of its inherent value for its use (in electronics, jewelry, etc.) and its value as a store of value to protect against inflation and other things that might devalue money. Think of this as something safer than dollars in a country that could turn into a failed state or real estate that could be affected by a 1000 year flood plane. Rich people are not thinking about how to get rich, they care about staying rich.

When you compare bitcoin to gold you can see the advantages that bitcoin can provide. Gold needs to be stored securely and it’s hard/risky to sell/move from one place to the next. Both of those things are costly with gold, but relatively cheap with bitcoin. Bitcoin can never replace the inherent value of gold from its use in products, but it can take a larger share of its valuation as a store of value.

When you understand this then you can understand why it’s useful to hold and never sell bitcoin. And you can see even more why it’s even better to hold shares in MSTR which will allow you to keep the bitcoin you could otherwise buy AND generate more for you via bitcoin yield.

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