u/Uberubu65

Yesterday's primary election marks a frsh start for the Sarasota County School Board. Three currently sitting members chose not to seek relection, those being  Robin Marinelli, Karen Rose and board chair Bridget Ziegler. Ypu may remember that Karen Rose was voted off of the school board in the last election, only to be reappointed to it by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which essentially negated the will of Sarasota County voters. Then there is Ziegler, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, who created more drama than a televised soap opera between her push for book bans and reported three-way trysts despite her "Christian" harping. To these two especially, I say "Good riddance!" and hope that their replacements on the board take their position seriously and remember that they are there to ultimately give kids a better education, not drive social media likes or power plays for themselves. Our community, and our kids, deserve better, and I hope that this election can bring the change that the school board desperately proverbially needs to right the ship.

Edit: results of the election show Jimmy Glover winning District 1, Megan Tennimon winning District 4 and Beth Mayberry winning District 5

I've had at least six offers from buyers that I have accepted this week just wither on the vine and die because the buyers haven't followed through and actually purchase the item. This has got to be one of the most frustrating things about Vinted, aside from no native search for your own listings. I mean come on people, if you go to the effort of making an offer, then me actually accepting it, BUY THE ITEM! I mean Poshmark is far from perfect and had many issues themselves, but at least accepted offers over there are binding. On Vinted? Eh, maybe they will, maybe they won't, we just have to wait out the three days and see,. Geeze!

I had an offer on two items in my closet today. However, when I clicked on it to respond to the offer it wasn't there anymore, which I thought was strange. Then I saw a banner at the top of the page saying I had inactive items and to click to reactivate them. Guess what were in the items to be reactivated? The two items I had just received an offer on. Only because Poshmark decided to deactive these items and have me reactivate them my offer was no longer there for me to reply to and hopefully sell my items. I hate this new update so much.

I received a notification from Vinted that a buyer had an issue with a pair of shoes they bought from me. When I opened up the issue, they said they they were "substantially different" from the listing description and that I misrepresented the item twice in the listing as well as failed to disclose any issues with them. She included photos showing the material with "faux leather" showing as well as one with a small black mark on the heel. My lusting clearly said "faux leather" in the description as well as it in the material section, and thr mark was visible in the photos I took of the shoes. I immediately agreed to a return and message her back that despite what she was claiming the lusting was accurate and the photos showed the condition of the shoes. This person went on a rant bender messaging me back FOUR times about me lying, how we can "agree to disagree", and how disappointed she was. Now mind you I had already agreed to a return. And to top things off, she only paid $3 for them and had free shipping as well. Good Lord, people are just nuts.

If you're thinging of using Booking.com, just don't. I thought by trying it yesterday I might be able to save some money on a last minute hotel reservation in Orlando. It didn't go well.

The actual reservation process was pretty easy. After making my selection and entering my credit card number, I got an email confirmation of my reservation in just a few minutes. The off I went to Orlando.

When I got to the hotel last night there was a text message on my phone saying they're waiting for me and showed my check-in date and check-out date as well as a picture of the hotel. Upon arrival at the front desk, the young woman there asked if I had a reservation and I handed her the printout that showed my reservation, the confirmation number and PIN for the reservation. However, the hotel didn't have my reservation. Booking had sent the hotel the wrong dates, showing me arriving yesterday and checking out the day I actually got there. They could check me in, she said, but only after Booking sent them an email with the correct r dates so they could get reimbursed by Booking. However, just try getting a live person to speak to. When I called "customer service", I instead got an AI assistant that asked for my confirmation number and PIN, but didn't allow me enough time to enter the 20 digits of the confirmation number. I had to hang up, call back and try again. Finally, it took the numbers. Then I had to wait on hold for 20 minutes. When I finally got a luve agent, I told her what was going on and she said my only option was to cancel the reservation and try rebooking as she was not able to speak with the hotel directly. My request for a refund would be "kicked up to a higher office". Totally no help from this company for what was their error.

After hanging up with Booking, I said to the young lady at the desk, "We'll, you heard the entire conversation with what they said. I'm not really happy with the situation as I've now been trying to check in for an hour. I'm tired, and I need a room. What can you do for me?" She ended up getting me a upgraded room for less than the rate I had through Booking. Kudos to this young lady at the Holiday Inn Celebration, shame on Booking. I still don't when, or if, I will get a refund from them for a reservation they charged me for but wasn't able to check in with. Their "customer service" is horrible, and I for one will never use them again. BTW, they are part of the same larger company that also owns Kayak and Priceline, so beware.

In case anyone needed a reminder, the peak individual tax rate was as high as 94% in 1944 to fund WW2, and still as high as 90% until 1963. It wasn't until the tax rate dropped from 70% to 28% under Ronald Reagan that we saw the influx of the super-rich class in the United States. In 1988 there were only 68 billionaires in the country. When Trump took office there were 536. Today there are 938 in the US alone who account for an astonishing 26% of the entire wealth of the country, with many billionaires paying an effective rate less than those considered middle-class.

Tell me again that the super-rich aren't taxed enough or why they deserve yet another tax break.

I know a lot of people here share the same sentiment that I do about being sick and tired of what Trump and his MAGA minions have done to this country. That said, I'd like you to read a great article that appeared in The Hill recently by opinion writer William B. Becker entitled "Move over, MAGA - it's time to take America back." Take a read, and let me know what you think in the comments.

The US and Iran have reached a "memorandum of understanding" that essentially extends the ceasefire between the two countries for an additional 60 days. The Strait of Hormuz will reportedly be reopened to all traffic by this weekend. However, no agreement has been made on what Trump had demanded that Iran agree to to end the war, which is the elimination of their nuclear program. This issue has just been kicked down the road. So what, then, has this war really accomplished?