I would like everyone to know that the republicans were right, the election was stolen. I actually did it personally, just crawled thru the window and grabbed the box they were keeping it in. If anyone needs it it’s in my garage
They’re doing trivia at the bar across from my house, what if I just sit at the end of my driveway and shout answers across the road for the next two hours
If I were a billionaire, I'd pick a poor, depressed town in the Adirondacks and become its patron.
I'd fix every single dilapidated building, build an insanely ornate Gothic Church, and plant a gigantic, multi-thousand-acre plantation of pine nut pine trees that, in 30 years' time, would comprise the chief source of industry in that town. Until then, I'd foot the bills for everything, and buy a "great camp" or a huge old luxury hotel and run it myself, personally.
I'd build an extensive network of geothermally-heated, semi-underground greenhouses that would be put into citrus, tea, and fig production for both export and local consumption. I'd hire tea masters to design a regionally specific, unique style of tea that would be known and coveted the world over.
Might also experiment with reindeer ranching and attempt to make the village self-sustaining for its meat and milk needs. And I'd try to lobby the State DEC to let me stock the woods with Moose in a special game zone open only to residents on a big easement.
I'd also attempt to get a spur to the village on the Adirondack Railroad, and would personally fund that railroad to be a full-scale passenger rail with connection to Amtrak. I'd make every effort to dissuade automobile use in the village, and work to persuade villagers to stop owning cars. I would also consider narrowing the streets if it was feasible.
Housing-wise, I'd buy up anything that came for sale, including seasonal residences and camps, and I'd put them in a "land bank." Interested buyers would interview for a sale, probably through an incorporated private club that would hold the properties in a trust. Covenants would be placed on the homes to keep them in the hands of club members, and to also limit the valuation of the properties so as to prevent the place from becoming unaffordable to future generations -- to incentivize multi-generational settlement.
And I'd found a print-only newspaper and publishing house, perhaps adjoined to a monastery (preferably of the Franciscan Friars of Primitive Observance) and college. The college would only be locally accredited -- such that its chief purpose was only to educate those who wished to stay and work in the village. A school of theology, arboriculture, Reindeer-herding, and possibly Gaelic.
Finally, I'd build tall stone walls around the village, such that upon entering or exiting, one passed through a true "gate." And I would sit at the city gate and smoke little hand rolled cigars made from tobacco grown in our greenhouses, chatting with villagers, greeting them, and hearing their complaints and concerns, with an eye toward responding to them quickly and efficiently.
I will never be a billionaire, but I think one can learn a good deal about somebody based on their idea of what they'd do if they were so obscenely wealthy.
Here's what Elon Musk recommended to govern Mars:
“Direct democracy by the people. Laws must be short, as there is trickery in length. Automatic expiration of rules to prevent death by bureaucracy. Any rule can be removed by 40% of people to overcome inertia. Freedom.”
@eimmaculat64894 Idc about SpongeBob specifically, it’s just a microcosm of the issue. It’s not the inclusion of IP I don’t like that bothers me either. It’s that the stuff I do enjoy, like Lorwyn, is being delayed and ignored because Final Fantasy or Assasin’s Creed is more profitable