I had an average January, but a weak February. March is off to a good start and it's on pace to matching my best months.

What SS did was evil. It comes from a very dark place where only sociopaths dare the tread.

They were already making a lot of money, so they didn't need to cut artist commissions. They did it purely out of greed in the middle of a pandemic, while putting out phony virtue about BLM and social justice.

I honestly hope SS a quick death and Adobe Stock take their place at the top. At least Adobe have an incentive to keep artists happy because their biggest source of revenue comes from artists using their software. Shutterstock provide nothing else.

Has anyone registered their stock business as a LLC in the U.S.?

I've been thinking about it a lot lately since my little stock business is growing in scale. If you're incorporated, I would like to know about your experience.

- Do you pay more taxes / less taxes in general?

- What are the benefits of being a LLC? What are the pros and cons?

My worst start to the year since 2016.
Not only on SS but on all sites.
We'll see.....

I feel the same way. The only outlier is Adobe Stock.

I think some companies canceled their stock subscription plans at the end of the year to save money.

Many smaller companies are struggling right now, so let's hope for a semblance of normalcy later in the year.

Quote from: Minsc on October 12, 2020, 15:06

COVID-19 wrecked the economy. You are dishonest by blaming a virus on Trump. Every economy in the WORLD followed a similar pattern that affected the US economy. It was booming before COVID-19 took hold. You're no different from the people who blame hurricanes and flooding on Trump. Just completely dishonest.

You are falling so hard for governmental propaganda!

While it's true that the pandemic had an impact on most countries, the American economy suffered disproportionately more because of the catastrophic lack of leadership from the "Spreader in Chief" during these difficult times.

The dollar has tanked, making our work less valuable. Not only the national debt has risen to unprecedented values, but also the national debt in reference to the GDP broke all records, beating the previous peak recorded immediately after WWII.
That's so precious, for a so-called republican, who traditionally chest beat themselves with their fiscally conservative values! 

There was massive dumping of fiat money in the economy, only to keep the stock market afloat because that's the only KPI the moron in chief cares about. And that's a hidden tax we all pay from our pockets, on top of the price hikes imposed on us the consumers, by his stupid trade wars. And that's again, so precious, for a so-called republican, who traditionally chest beat themselves with their love for the free market 

And it's not just about macro-economics, did you check the prices in your supermarket lately? Just do it and remember what you used to pay for the same products (milk, bread, etc) earlier this year.


As for the pre-covid situation, again, so much governmental propaganda! Check the attached stats:

A lot of economies were hit far harder than the US. To say that the US was hit disproportionately harder is a lie. Look at the chart below. The UK was hit far harder.

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-health-economy

The dollar is the currency which all other currencies measure to. If the economic activity in the US is low, it's going to fall. The fall of the dollar is directly tied to US economy, which has been greatly affected by the pandemic. It's a black swan event.

The national debt will always rise to unprecedented levels. Even rising a dollar from yesterday is unprecedented. The rise of the national debt in 2020 is also directly tied to the pandemic. The economic stimulus plan didn't come out of nowhere and it was supported by both Republicans and Democrats. The 2nd stimulus plan, which is being discussed right now will further add to the debt. The Republicans has proposed a conservative plan, while Democrats propose a plan loaded with pork. They want to include hundreds of billions of dollars as a blank check to poorly run Democrat-controlled cities. They want to include billions in free handouts to unions. They want to bail out failed cities like Detroit, Chicago and Baltimore. And when the bill hits home, they're going to point the finger at Trump, and say "The national debt rose to unprecedented levels under Trump." and pretend they're angels.

https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/10/12/pelosis-stimulus-bill-an-unhelpful-spending-spree/

I'm also paying roughly the same price for food that I did in March. If some food prices rise, it's because of supply and demand, not because of the something Trump did. You're reaching far too much to blame black swan events on the president.

We can't refute anything you said?

Quote from: Minsc on October 07, 2020, 18:44

   
The Republican Party (with Abraham Lincoln as the president) was the Progressive party who freed the slaves, and Democratic Party (with Jefferson Davis as the President of Confederate States during the Civil War) were the conservatives.

The confederacy broke away from the Union and had no connection to legitimate parties - the Democratic party continued to run for office in the Union

Quote from: Minsc

Michelle said above that it happened during the 60s, so I am guessing that's when it all solidified with the Kennedys, but there was a change that started with Teddy Roosevelt.

don't guess, you're just showing laziness or ignorance -- research it if you're not sure.  The Kennedy's played a part but they didnt solidify anything - 2 were murdered before they could achieve their goals.
 

Quote

The Democrat party of today is no longer the Democrat party under Obama, where he has more classical liberal values, which would be considered conservative values today by the left. If people look at some of his beliefs from 2008, you'd think he was a Republican. Obama moved further left in his 2nd term, but what he said in 2008 mirrors a lot of what Trump said in 2016 regarding illegal immigration and a variety of other issues.

The Democrat party of today has changed so much that it has become unrecognizable from the Democrat party I SUPPORTED in 2008. The party has moved much further left.


....
In other words, you can't refute any of it.

Not just 'any' -- most is easily refuted

The Democratic left (and those of us non-Ds who held out noses to vote for the lesser of 2 weevils!) has always had problems with the party's centrist candidates - just since the 60s we had RFK, Gene McCarthy, McGovern, Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson and on .. who ran against the party 'favorite'.  Until the republicans drank the koolaid, US politics consisted of 2 center-right parties, with only minor differences (judged in comparison to European parties). The changes in the Ds in the last 10years are minor compared to the 50-70s


 

Quote

I proved that it didn't flip by pointing out that the 20 of the 21 people that voted against the Civil Rights Act did not become Republicans after the Civil Rights Act. They remained Democrats until the end of their service and replaced by other Democrats. Republicans didn't start winning the South until the early 90's, nearly 30 years after the passing of the Civil Rights act. And this happened mostly due to changing voting demographics.

saying you proved it doesn't make it so
 bit more detail debunking your claim the south didnt change til the 90s:
 
>>>  when President Harry S. Truman, a Democratic Southerner, introduced a pro-civil rights platform at the party�s 1948 convention, a faction walked out.

These defectors, known as the �Dixiecrats,� held a separate convention in Birmingham, Alabama. There, they nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, a staunch opposer of civil rights, to run for president on their �States� Rights� ticket. Although Thurmond lost the election to Truman, he still won over a million popular votes.
-----
The night that Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, his special assistant Bill Moyers was surprised to find the president looking melancholy in his bedroom. Moyers later wrote that when he asked what was wrong, Johnson replied, �I think we just delivered the South to the Republican party for a long time to come.�

The change wasn�t total or immediate. During the late 1960s and early �70s, white Southerners were still transitioning away from the Democratic party (newly enfranchised black Southerners voted and continue to vote Democratic). And even as Republican Richard Nixon employed a �Southern strategy� that appealed to the racism of Southern white voters, former Alabama Governor George Wallace (who�d wanted �segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever�) ran as a Democrat in the 1972 presidential primaries.

By the time Ronald Reagan became president in 1980, the Republican party�s hold on white Southerners was firm. Today, the Republican party remains the party of the South. It�s an ironic outcome considering that a century ago, white Southerners would�ve never considered voting for the party of Lincoln.
<<<
from
https://www.history.com/news/how-the-party-of-lincoln-won-over-the-once-democratic-south

Half the stuff you quoted isn't even from me.

And like I said, whatever the Democrats has done in the past stays with them. Just like how HRC was against gay marriage before she changed her mind. Just because the stance has been adjusted doesn't mean it's no longer part of their history. Voting demographics changed throughout history and it will continue to change in the decades ahead. The fact is that Democrats are the party of slavery and Jim Crow and that's part of their history.

Quote from: Minsc on October 07, 2020, 18:44

Quote from: Milleflore on October 07, 2020, 18:32

Quote from: Minsc on October 07, 2020, 17:23

Quote from: Milleflore on October 07, 2020, 06:21

Quote from: Minsc on October 06, 2020, 13:02

Quote from: Shelma1 on October 05, 2020, 13:53

Quote from: gillian vann on October 05, 2020, 03:35

Quote from: Shelma1 on October 04, 2020, 20:35

The fact is that the electoral college was designed to give conservatives a bigger voice than their actual numbers should give them, and that legacy continues today, with Republican losers becoming president anyway. All other offices use the popular vote...there�s absolutely no reason for the presidential vote to be any different.

ah, your mistaken belief is that conservatives were the slave owners in the first place.

No, my correct knowledge that conservatives were slave owners. Before the 1960's conservatives were called Democrats, but the parties flipped, and today conservatives are called Republicans. They may have a different name, but they're the same set of people who declared war on their own country in order to keep slavery alive, who created the electoral college to count their slaves as 3/5 of a person when they voted so they'd have outsized power, and still try today to push everyone who isn't white and male aside. And that includes trying every trick in the book to keep black people from voting...the descendants of the very people they once counted as 3/5 of a person when they cast their votes.

The parties never flipped.

Yes, they did. But the people didn't.

The Republican Party (with Abraham Lincoln as the president) was the Progressive party who freed the slaves, and Democratic Party (with Jefferson Davis as the President of Confederate States during the Civil War) were the conservatives.

But later it did flip. Around about the time of the Roosevelts is when it started. Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive and leader of the Republicans, but left later and started his own party because he felt the party was becoming too conservative. Not sure what happened to that party. But his cousin and nephew-in-law, FDR was a democratic AND a progressive.

Michelle said above that it happened during the 60s, so I am guessing that's when it all solidified with the Kennedys, but there was a change that started with Teddy Roosevelt.

But its the demographics that didn't change. The South being predominately conservative, and the North progressive, liberal.

You only want to believe that it flipped because the Democrats are linked to the KKK, Jim Crow and Slavery. Democrats used racism to achieve their goals and they're still using it today with identity politics and race baiting.

What Michelle is referring to is the 1964 Civil Rights Act, where the myth of the flip began. I proved that it didn't flip by pointing out that the 20 of the 21 people that voted against the Civil Rights Act did not become Republicans after the Civil Rights Act. They remained Democrats until the end of their service and replaced by other Democrats. Republicans didn't start winning the South until the early 90's, nearly 30 years after the passing of the Civil Rights act. And this happened mostly due to changing voting demographics.

Has values changed with times? Of course it has. Everything changes over time. The Democrat party of today is no longer the Democrat party under Obama, where he has more classical liberal values, which would be considered conservative values today by the left. If people look at some of his beliefs from 2008, you'd think he was a Republican. Obama moved further left in his 2nd term, but what he said in 2008 mirrors a lot of what Trump said in 2016 regarding illegal immigration and a variety of other issues.

The Democrat party of today has changed so much that it has become unrecognizable from the Democrat party I SUPPORTED in 2008. The party has moved much further left. They have become racist, intolerant and to an certain extent, fascist. Just because you don't like the history of Democrat party doesn't mean it flipped. It changes over time, but it's still the same party. One example I can give is Hillary Clinton. She was against gay marriage in 2004 and she changed her mind over the years, but her history of being against gay marriage is still there. It's her and she is still the same person. This is also true of the Democrat party. They supported certain things when it was convenient and supported others when it was more convenient, but the history doesn't go away.

The Democrat party of today is slowly reverting back to the Democrat party of the early 1900s. They are encouraging mob rule. They are trying to silence people with revenge culture. They are trying to take free speech away from people. They are trying to promote segregation in the name of social justice. Many are not going to like what I've said, but that's just the truth.

Woah! A lot of political propaganda in there!

In other words, you can't refute any of it.

LOL. Talk to the hand, mate. Look at my icon, I'm from Australia and I don't care about your prejudices.

I just want a 'leader of the free world' that's going to clean up the big mess. I dont want USA to go down the toilet. I want you guys to be strong, and stop with all the political shite. Otherwise, who knows whats going to happen - and thats scary for everyone.

If you don't understand American politics, maybe you shouldn't talk about it.

If the US goes too far left, it's going to affect me and everyone else. Too many people lack common sense, and doesn't look at the consequences. People here complaining about a rate cut from SS, but totally oblivious to the fact that many Americans will be losing quit a bit of their income if too many of the far-left policies get implemented. I'm talking about paying over $5,000 extra in taxes per year for the middle class... maybe more.

The US will go down a toilet or turn into a toilet, like many Democrat-run cities if we don't follow common-sense policies. Most people only want to have feel-good policies, but guess what, this is what happens when the bleeding hearts have too much control. And yes, this affects me. I live in the SF area.

Homelessness in LA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzWSowCz_Ow

Chaos by the Bay: The Truth About Homelessness in San Francisco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw8MACDZ3RI

Quote from: Minsc on October 06, 2020, 13:02

Quote from: Shelma1 on October 05, 2020, 13:53

Quote from: gillian vann on October 05, 2020, 03:35

Quote from: Shelma1 on October 04, 2020, 20:35

The fact is that the electoral college was designed to give conservatives a bigger voice than their actual numbers should give them, and that legacy continues today, with Republican losers becoming president anyway. All other offices use the popular vote...there�s absolutely no reason for the presidential vote to be any different.

ah, your mistaken belief is that conservatives were the slave owners in the first place.

No, my correct knowledge that conservatives were slave owners. Before the 1960's conservatives were called Democrats, but the parties flipped, and today conservatives are called Republicans. They may have a different name, but they're the same set of people who declared war on their own country in order to keep slavery alive, who created the electoral college to count their slaves as 3/5 of a person when they voted so they'd have outsized power, and still try today to push everyone who isn't white and male aside. And that includes trying every trick in the book to keep black people from voting...the descendants of the very people they once counted as 3/5 of a person when they cast their votes.

The parties never flipped.

Yes, they did. But the people didn't.

The Republican Party (with Abraham Lincoln as the president) was the Progressive party who freed the slaves, and Democratic Party (with Jefferson Davis as the President of Confederate States during the Civil War) were the conservatives.

But later it did flip. Around about the time of the Roosevelts is when it started. Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive and leader of the Republicans, but left later and started his own party because he felt the party was becoming too conservative. Not sure what happened to that party. But his cousin and nephew-in-law, FDR was a democratic AND a progressive.

Michelle said above that it happened during the 60s, so I am guessing that's when it all solidified with the Kennedys, but there was a change that started with Teddy Roosevelt.

But its the demographics that didn't change. The South being predominately conservative, and the North progressive, liberal.

You only want to believe that it flipped because the Democrats are linked to the KKK, Jim Crow and Slavery. Democrats used racism to achieve their goals and they're still using it today with identity politics and race baiting.

What Michelle is referring to is the 1964 Civil Rights Act, where the myth of the flip began. I proved that it didn't flip by pointing out that the 20 of the 21 people that voted against the Civil Rights Act did not become Republicans after the Civil Rights Act. They remained Democrats until the end of their service and replaced by other Democrats. Republicans didn't start winning the South until the early 90's, nearly 30 years after the passing of the Civil Rights act. And this happened mostly due to changing voting demographics.

Has values changed with times? Of course it has. Everything changes over time. The Democrat party of today is no longer the Democrat party under Obama, where he has more classical liberal values, which would be considered conservative values today by the left. If people look at some of his beliefs from 2008, you'd think he was a Republican. Obama moved further left in his 2nd term, but what he said in 2008 mirrors a lot of what Trump said in 2016 regarding illegal immigration and a variety of other issues.

The Democrat party of today has changed so much that it has become unrecognizable from the Democrat party I SUPPORTED in 2008. The party has moved much further left. They have become racist, intolerant and to an certain extent, fascist. Just because you don't like the history of Democrat party doesn't mean it flipped. It changes over time, but it's still the same party. One example I can give is Hillary Clinton. She was against gay marriage in 2004 and she changed her mind over the years, but her history of being against gay marriage is still there. It's her and she is still the same person. This is also true of the Democrat party. They supported certain things when it was convenient and supported others when it was more convenient, but the history doesn't go away.

The Democrat party of today is slowly reverting back to the Democrat party of the early 1900s. They are encouraging mob rule. They are trying to silence people with revenge culture. They are trying to take free speech away from people. They are trying to promote segregation in the name of social justice. Many are not going to like what I've said, but that's just the truth.

Quote from: Minsc on October 06, 2020, 13:02

Quote from: Shelma1 on October 05, 2020, 13:53

Quote from: gillian vann on October 05, 2020, 03:35

Quote from: Shelma1 on October 04, 2020, 20:35

The fact is that the electoral college was designed to give conservatives a bigger voice than their actual numbers should give them, and that legacy continues today, with Republican losers becoming president anyway. All other offices use the popular vote...there�s absolutely no reason for the presidential vote to be any different.

ah, your mistaken belief is that conservatives were the slave owners in the first place.

No, my correct knowledge that conservatives were slave owners. Before the 1960's conservatives were called Democrats, but the parties flipped, and today conservatives are called Republicans. They may have a different name, but they're the same set of people who declared war on their own country in order to keep slavery alive, who created the electoral college to count their slaves as 3/5 of a person when they voted so they'd have outsized power, and still try today to push everyone who isn't white and male aside. And that includes trying every trick in the book to keep black people from voting...the descendants of the very people they once counted as 3/5 of a person when they cast their votes.

The parties never flipped. That's the biggest myth perpetrated by the left because they're so ashamed of their history. The Democrats are the party of slavery, KKK and Jim Crow. All they did was change their strategy, but they still used the same tactics today. If you look at the values of the Republican party for the last 100 years, the values are still the same. Instead of keeping blacks on the plantation, Democrats just keep them on welfare and public assistance. Shifting from one from of control to another.

 

Roll your eyes all you want, but history tells the truth. Of the 21 Democrats that voted against the Civil Rights act in 1964, only 1 of them switched parties and became a Republican. The other 20 Democrats that voted against the Civil Rights Act remained Democrats until their service came to and end.

The only thing that changed was the voting Demographics, which slowly shifted in the south to become more Republican. Republicans values has remained fairly consistent in the last century. It's still the party of individual liberties, free market capitalism, property rights, constitutionalism and racial integration...yes racial integration.

Republicans judge people by their values. Democrats judge people by their skin color, which is basically the definition of racism. Republicans welcomes people of all races as long as they have the same values. Democrats will call you a race traitor the moment they try to think differently.

Quote from: Minsc on October 02, 2020, 15:37

Quote from: Shelma1 on October 02, 2020, 15:28

Quote from: Minsc on October 02, 2020, 15:16

Quote from: Shelma1 on October 02, 2020, 14:09

Quote from: Minsc on October 02, 2020, 13:56

Both candidates knew how the Electoral College works. The popular vote never mattered.

One candidate campaigned in the battleground states and the other was too busy mingling with celebrities. Blame the candidate who mingled with celebrities instead of the one doing actual campaigning.

Knowing the game is rigged doesn�t make the game not rigged. The fact remains that the electoral college is unfair and was purposely designed to be unfair. To make one team always have to fight an uphill battle while the other continually coasts downhill is ridiculous. Why do the Republicans need an unfair advantage? I wonder.

Nothing is rigged. Hillary got over-confident and she paid the price for her arrogance. If she bothered to visit the battleground states instead of staging concerts with celebrities, she would have won. Her defeat falls squarely on her shoulders. The EC is just an excuse for her incompetence.

You see it as being unfair, but many people see fair and equal representation for the states. Federalism protects state sovereignty and the Electoral College is an extension of it. It protects the farmers and the interest of individual states instead of having a bunch of coasters living in bubbles determine the direction for the rest of the country.

The mental gymnastic conservatives go through to defend an inherently unfair system are entertaining, I guess.

This article came out 2 days before 2016 elections. The purpose was to make Trump look bad for not having much celebrity support. It basically details all the concerts and events Hillary had planned with celebrities. They mentioned how Trump was focused on the swing states while Hillary ignored it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/us/politics/campaign-trump-clinton.html

Hillary had the 2016 election in the bag. A series of campaign blunders cost her the election. If you want to blame anyone, blame the person who failed to connect with the people. Hillary played a game of chess and lost and then complained that it wasn't a game of checkers.

She got more votes than any white man in the history of presidential elections, 3 million more than the orange nutcase, 10 million more than Reagan, 18 million more than Nixon, almost 20 million more than her own husband did when he won, yet Trump sits in the white house. The electoral college cost her the election. The electoral college is the reason candidates have to pander to a teeny tiny slice of the electorate instead of the majority of us. The electoral college is why Dubya �won� despite Gore getting more votes. Hillary played a game of chess where the opposing side has two queens and she has none, but it�s her fault for not winning even when she wins. Again, your mental gymnastics are sort of entertaining, but the fact is that the electoral college is stacked unfairly in favor of conservatives, as it was designed to be. And that shows so clearly the morals of this country�s conservatives.

The population grow over time... I know, crazy. I've been stating nothing but facts. I think you're the one with the mental gymnastics because you still can't accept the results of the election or the blunders of Hillary's campaign. Anyone blaming the EC for Hillary's defeat is like someone blaming a cloud for raining on them when they knew it was going to rain beforehand.

Quote from: Minsc on October 02, 2020, 15:16

Quote from: Shelma1 on October 02, 2020, 14:09

Quote from: Minsc on October 02, 2020, 13:56

Both candidates knew how the Electoral College works. The popular vote never mattered.

One candidate campaigned in the battleground states and the other was too busy mingling with celebrities. Blame the candidate who mingled with celebrities instead of the one doing actual campaigning.

Knowing the game is rigged doesn�t make the game not rigged. The fact remains that the electoral college is unfair and was purposely designed to be unfair. To make one team always have to fight an uphill battle while the other continually coasts downhill is ridiculous. Why do the Republicans need an unfair advantage? I wonder.

Nothing is rigged. Hillary got over-confident and she paid the price for her arrogance. If she bothered to visit the battleground states instead of staging concerts with celebrities, she would have won. Her defeat falls squarely on her shoulders. The EC is just an excuse for her incompetence.

You see it as being unfair, but many people see fair and equal representation for the states. Federalism protects state sovereignty and the Electoral College is an extension of it. It protects the farmers and the interest of individual states instead of having a bunch of coasters living in bubbles determine the direction for the rest of the country.

The mental gymnastic conservatives go through to defend an inherently unfair system are entertaining, I guess.

This article came out 2 days before 2016 elections. The purpose was to make Trump look bad for not having much celebrity support. It basically details all the concerts and events Hillary had planned with celebrities. They mentioned how Trump was focused on the swing states while Hillary ignored it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/us/politics/campaign-trump-clinton.html

Hillary had the 2016 election in the bag. A series of campaign blunders cost her the election. If you want to blame anyone, blame the person who failed to connect with the people. Hillary played a game of chess and lost and then complained that it wasn't a game of checkers.

Both candidates knew how the Electoral College works. The popular vote never mattered.

One candidate campaigned in the battleground states and the other was too busy mingling with celebrities. Blame the candidate who mingled with celebrities instead of the one doing actual campaigning.

I contacted a seller yesterday who was reselling some derivatives of my vector work. I said it's not permitted to (re)sell (altered versions of) my work, even with a license. She said she did buy an RF license but misread the terms. She apologized and removed the items from her shop.

Bottom line: if you ever find your items on Etsy, try contacting the shop owner and politely but sternly explain the situation. That might be more effective than contacting Etsy with a DMCA.

It's a mixed bag.

Some people will take it down. Some people gave me a hard time, asking for evidence of ownership or copyright. Some people think they own the artwork because they made slight changes to it. Some people just refuse to take it down. The people who refused to take it down forced me to file DMCA take down notices. Even then, some of them file counter claims and gave fake contact information (Shop in US, but their address is some random place in Europe).

I've gotten tired of contacting the shop owners. It's a waste of my time. Nowadays, I just file take DMCA take notices and let Etsy sort them out.