MudMan

That is true with or without VAT. VAT isn’t paid by the buyer, either. It’s the seller that makes the VAT payment.

So sure, the rich asshole may try to write off the Ferrari in their business tax, along with all the other loopholes (good luck with that, too-- I’ve gotten audited for much less), but 20% of that cost still went into taxes because the dealership paid in their VAT every three months like a good boy. That’s the entire point.

VAT dodging is an art and a science for contractors of all stripes and other grey economy actors, but if you’re a standing business like, say, a former Fiat subsidiary with a large worldwide business headquartered in Italy, VAT is the one tax you don’t get to mess with because it’s baked into every invoice.

No, you can only tax the rich so much because a lot of the money is laundered through internationally sanctioned loopholes. There was a plan for that, but then some morons elected Trump so now that’s probably not happening.

But sales tax still works for that, since if you want to buy a Ferrari we’re keeping 20% automatically at the point of sale.

And since rich people tend to spend more money than poor people, sales tax is more regressive than other taxes, but not as much as one would think.

So… have you been told to eat only soft food? Can you still use your mouth to process food a bit? If you’re all stitched up you want to keep it to soups and purees and drinks that you don’t have to process at all. I know someone who misunderstood “soft food” for “stuff that isn’t too tough” and had to seek medical attention when a bunch of stuff got loose in there. Talk to your doctor if in doubt, that wasn’t pleasant.

But hey, from that experience, there are a few things I learned you can do if/when you can process your food in your mouth a bit.

• Starchy snacks will melt easily and not taste like cardboard. Chips, bread sticks, that type of thing are all doable.

• Yogurt and dairy desserts, unsurprisingly. Lots of flavours and textures in that supermarket aisle. Try mixing jams and other spreads into sharper stuff like kefir instead of having just the industrially flavored boring stuff.

• Surprisingly, some cold cuts of meat. If you buy it cut at the shop and ask them to go as thin as possible you will be able to shred it with your hands or a knife as you eat it and essentially still make it through a deconstructed sandwich if you pair it with untoasted soft bread.

• Ditto for fruit salad. Banana, finely chopped strawberries and other stuff that is soft or can be cut small and swallowed whole.

• Soups, creams and stews. Overcook veg and potatoes, and chop any meat quite small (and be ready to cut it smaller when eating) but it’ll be fine. I’m not a fan, but it’s a thing.

• Smoothies, milkshakes and chocolate milk. Get some of the nutrients without having to make it taste the same each time.

• Eggs. Omelettes, scrambled eggs, poached eggs, whathaveyou.

• Pasta. Get over the instinct to keep it al dente and overcook a thicker shape a bit. Just keep the sauce less chunky. Also rice and couscous if you’re bored of pasta.

• Flaky fish. Experiment, but there are plenty of kinds that will flake small and be very soft when cooked. Get some garlic and parsley on there, grill it a bit, it’ll taste great.

The idea is to keep it to things that will melt in your mouth with little coaxing or things cut so fine that all the work has been made and can be swallowed whole. It can be a sustainable diet that isn’t unpleasant with a bit of adjustment.

I said whatever part, and that’s certainly a part.

You will have some coping to do in any case, I’m afraid, and best of luck with that going forward. I mean that sincerely.

Exactly my point.

Yes we do. This election has no more evidence of being stolen at this point than the previous one did when the nazi weirdos were banging that drum. You’re free to do the MAGA rounds, though, but I doubt you’re going to get the same traction. Don’t quite see anybody storming the MAGApitol at the moment.

Not that it changes anything, because you let it happen and now it happened, so the end result is the same, however you want to cope with whatever part of responsibility you personally have on the matter.

See, you think that doesn’t make it sound like desperate deflection after having handed the country to the nazis, but it does. I was here during the campaign, I saw how that went.

Nah, man, there is no amount of interference that justifies Trump having a fart’s chance in hell of not losing every single state in a country unwilling to hand the keys to these guys 1932-style. Beds were made, sleeping in them is to happen.

It just sucks that the rest of us are under the covers getting dutch ovened as well.

The mechanism was the election.

I mean, sure, impeachment and whatnot, but it’s not like people didn’t know who this guy was. I can give other institutions a whole bunch of crap for not getting rid of the guy the first time, but when you’ve given him a Supreme Court supermajority, both chambers of Congress and the presidency AFTER he attempted a coup I’m gonna say that’s on you, guys.

Sure. It’ll just be messy and painful for me a few weeks after the people who caused all this, so I intend to enjoy them.

I don’t. Don’t much give a damn what Americans think, either, assuming there’s a distinction to be made there.

At this point I’m camp decoupling. If they want their nationalism so bad they can have it. Quietly, if at all possible.

Despite all the edgy cosplay anarchism below, laws are very important things that are crucial to regulate the powerful into some semblance of equality.

They do require state powers to enforce them, though. They are a fiction that only works if enough people agree it works. Let enough pieces of that edifice collapse and laws do become rules the powerful impose on the populace.

Which is why maybe the US shouldn’t have elected the convicted felon as president (or kept a deficient Constitution that grants him unlimited power), but what do I know.

It is definitely standard MO, and both press and online chatter are letting them get away with it, with no indication that will ever change so far.

I mean, US conservatives are still mocking the French as cowardly, collaborationist and militarily ineffective on account of WW2, so if any of them need a ladder to get down from any high horses they may be stuck on I think I have one in the back.

The conversation is still about this clip and not the actual policy, though.

Which I’m sure pisses Trump off, so there is that, but it maybe shows the press hasn’t learned anything. And it’s too late for the US, but there is still a far right surge to contain back in civilization, so it’s about time they figure it out.

Note that I’m not including the UK there, Labour government or not. That BBC headline is at least as shocking as the event itself.

I’ve definitely gotten lots of looks in the US due to my accent not matching the way I look as Americans understand it.

It ranges from “huh, that was weird” to actually annoying after a while, but it was never an outright issue for me.

Also, holy crap, stay away from cops. That is an actual piece of advice for the OP. You’re gonna think cops are there for you because you’re all European and stuff and I’m telling you now, US cops serve an entirely different social function and do not expect to interact with you unless it’s through violence. I am very serious about this.

I don’t think so. This so far has big Game Boy Color vibes to me. Especially in the context of the Switch OLED being a thing. That’s not necessarily bad, but it’s definitely not comparable to the sheer WTF-ness of the DS, Wii or Switch reveals. And we knew what the Switch was in advance, too.

Nintendo can have a hard time letting go of successful designs sometimes. At least they put a 2 on it instead of a U and made it clear that it’s a new system in the trailer.

I’m ready to change my mind after the direct, but I think the reveal would always have been “Oh, it’s a bigger, more powerful Switch. Alright”.

They were all “FINE. YOU WANNA SEE IT? HERE IT IS, LOOK AT IT. LOOK. AT. IT. LOOKS LIKE THE LEAKS, DOESN’T IT? NOW GO WAIT IN THE CORNER UNTIL APRIL”.

I’m on board. Most empathetic I’ve felt towards Nintendo in ages.

Huh. I thought it was February because Eurogamer linked the US trailer. I had to go double check. You’re correct.

Man, the lackadaisical reveal. Hilarious.

Also, the Youtube video is called “Switch 2 First Look”. I see what you did there, Nintendo.

Upvote for going beyond the headline and for TLDRing for the lazies.

Gotta say, if someone is gonna suffer for this is whoever has to do stuff pre-release next time. Nintendo didn’t use to be the most rabid pre-release security guys (Microsoft got pretty absurd there for a while), but I guarantee the New Nintendo Switch 2 U or whatever is going to be shown to third party engineers by kidnapping them in the middle of the night and flying them to an undisclosed black site.