First Class Duck

an opinionated and jaded traveler

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Last Notes

2024-01-10 06:02:40

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This comes across as an awful plot line on a Tyler Perry produced drama on BET or OWN…
When the time was needed for somebody to be on their best behavior, she chose poorly. :-/

2024-01-09 03:03:49

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Germany does the "13th month" thing?
I've jokingly said that holiday pay for Thanksgiving *and* Black Friday is my employer's Christmas bonus. :-)

2024-01-03 08:08:49

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A convent with none of the benefits.
Stability and prayer? No, just infighting and drama!

2024-01-03 08:03:07

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(insert joke about women joining the harems of the men who don't use porn)

2024-01-02 10:20:20

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I must admit, you're good for challenging my preconceived notions. :-)

2024-01-01 10:47:10

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Happy New Year! :-)

2023-12-25 10:37:21

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Merry Christmas! :-)

2023-12-14 19:52:53

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(Big hug)
Some of us miss you! But I understand if you want a break!

2023-12-08 14:18:22

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* Same feeling I had when Covid broke out. Global must-see-TV.*
I was on leave from work, so that was *definitely* the case for me with Covid. BBC, France 24, CNN. Always hungry for the next drip of news to develop during peak pandemic.

2023-12-08 14:14:51

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I'm still shocked at how a US spec car managed to survive life in Germany for so long. :-)
Has a replacement been selected yet, or are you discovering the wonders of German rural cycling?

2023-12-07 23:00:44

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The problem is that we're so desperate to look for a magical solution for underpeforming black students that all of the old tricks didn't work, so we have a new generation of activists and educational policy makers with no real world memory of the past who don't see the awkwardness of this idea.

2023-12-07 22:58:11

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The trick in the US, IIRC, is basically to refuse to issue visas until the country submits to taking back their citizen. I suspect the Germans aren't willing to do this, and have far less leverage in this regard.

2023-12-07 22:24:12

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I wonder what you think of the chemists and nerds that play with sensors that create photography. :-)

2023-12-07 10:26:38

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FWIW, the US testing as well as it did is rather shocking.
Somebody noted that US whites and Asians were BTFO of other countries, and black people were outscoring some actual European countries.

2023-12-07 10:26:13

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Principle + 2% is better than "OMG, where's my money".
This isn't play money, it's your *retirement*.

2023-12-07 06:38:02

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I tend to be somewhat concerned about pensions given that I'm a single adult with zero chance of marriage and kids at this point, so a guaranteed payment upon retirement is attractive to me, but outside of government and a few unionized workforces and non-profits, you're left with far less secure defined contribution accounts and IRAs which guarantee nothing.
FWIW, this seems that this is basically a German substitute for our 401ks/IRAs.

2023-12-07 06:03:34

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(Does a google search)
Um, do the riesters offer guaranteed payouts upon retirement, or are they subject to the succces of the markets?

2023-12-07 05:41:32

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Retirement *insurance*?

2023-12-06 16:45:39

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*The solution for high prices is high prices.*
Increase the supply of housing!
I shouldn't have to go move halfway across the country to find somewhere to live, and then spend the bloody savings on daycare because I can't afford to live near my kids grandmother who would be a far better babysitter.

2023-12-06 15:57:12

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IIRC, my portion of the town property taxes comes out to 1500, so I'm effectively paying a little over that now if you split the cost between myself and my younger brother.
*then they should move someplace cheaper or demand higher wages*
So people complain about price increases due to wage increases, businesses don't want to reduce their profits, and landlords don't want to cut rents. And people moving to lower cost of living locations ends up driving up rents in the new places. So there isn't a magical escape plan.

2023-12-06 13:55:14

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Weird fact: $100 per head is $75M for my town.
My town spent $25M on health insurance for their employees.

2023-12-06 13:39:21

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Then how does my town function? Nobody is going to work for minimum wage, and the town doesn’t even run a social welfare state since those functions are done by the county.

2023-12-06 13:32:23

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What if nobody wants to donate for them?
I guess I’m a bit more willing to accept that some people are unemployable and unlikable.

2023-12-06 13:27:11

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You know most of us aren’t as smart as you. :-/

2023-12-06 11:05:54

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For sampling purposes, my (Republican run) township has 750K residents and a budget of $500M budget. $100 per resident isn't enough.
Coincidentally, this doesn't cover our county or local school district budget.

2023-12-06 10:59:01

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*Everyone resident over the age of 18 pays €100 and basta.*
Sucks to be you, unemployable/low wage adult.

2023-12-05 20:56:27

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CAN CONFIRM, IS GOOD IDEA.
/me is a mommy's boy.

2023-12-05 20:43:46

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Act_2003
For those who aren't aware, that's the legal framework permitting these types cases in the UK, and based upon the sample cases used below, it seems that saying anything in public or private social media in the UK is a raging liability risk.

2023-12-04 13:51:58

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What client(s) are you using now on the web side?

2023-12-04 13:50:58

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I see you also work in a legal death trap.

2023-12-04 13:38:55

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I've jokingly noted that those types of dresses scream "hot" when it's worn by a hot girl, but "plain" when worn by even above average woman.
FWIW, the second dress in the white floral pattern looks the best. The others feel awfully, um, Little House on the Prarie-ish. I think some of us have some memory of an older woman in our life wearing something similar as a house dress, and it destroys the *entire* ability to see women in these as attract. They're de facto burkas.

2023-12-04 13:32:34

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FWIW, it seems to hold up in Switzerland and Netherlands, but they're admittedly smaller countries where the Intercity service there is akin to a RegioExpress service in Germany.

2023-12-04 13:30:37

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Test :-)
FWIW, American Transit Twitter is infatuated with takt because they want regular coordinated schedules that don’t need to be “checked” in order to improve ridership, but it seems that Germany osnt able to keep the takt going at current service levels.

2023-12-04 13:28:03

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That’s the issue. It wont even let me *post* if it’s in NoName so you would not be able to see it in the fiest place…

2023-12-04 13:21:25

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So, um, what should I do?

2023-12-04 13:15:51

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It's weird in that I can see them, but any attempt in Coracle leads to not being able to click through and post a reply.

2023-12-04 13:14:21

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I just realized that I can't post into the +no name categorized posts.

2023-12-03 16:29:53

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Could you, um, rock the chestnut coloured hair? :-)

2023-12-02 08:21:31

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You have a husband and two kids.
I believe it is their job to clear a path for you.

2023-11-30 16:52:38

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*That's why there are no modest OnlyFans.*
Modest OnlyFans is called "Her OnlyFan". :-P

2023-11-30 15:35:57

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Let's just say it's a reminder of a close female friend, except she has black curly hair.

2023-11-30 13:18:29

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And yet, still very pretty. :-)

2023-11-30 13:08:12

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This one hits a little too close to home for me. :-P

2023-11-30 12:02:06

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FWIW, I have family members who overstayed their visas, and I wouldn't call it Lebensraum...

2023-11-30 12:00:57

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Based on what I was seeing on my commute to work, with the 60 day cap on shelter stays, they're slowly starting to use the subway system as their overnight rest point. Most seem to find an outlying station, look for an empty corner, and setup some blankets for the night...

2023-11-30 11:58:54

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FWIW, NYC has a right to shelter regime due to a court ruling some years ago, so they're technically entitled to somewhere in the shelter system. My dad used to work at an intake center so seeing immigrants show up seeking help wasn't new to me, but the difference is the numbers seeking shelter.
IIRC, hotels and temporary camps have been the main housing sites, but other alternatives have been abandoned Catholic schools and surplus land at a mental instutition. They floated using school gyms, but the parents revolted at the idea of cancelling gym for unvetted men with free access to the school.

2023-11-30 03:58:18

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FWIW, judging by the Hispanic guys that I see sleeping under blankets in the subway system, they're not exactly securing free housing.

2023-11-30 03:43:49

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They basically either liquidate whatever assets (including ancestral land) they have at home to sell to coyotes, or they end up owing them with a high interest loan, or they attempt to make their way up north with some money and some luck and kindness from others. Once they're here, if they don't find work or support from fellow members of their ethnic group, at best they're looking at help from non-profits.

2023-11-30 03:04:04

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I tend to not see it as an invasion given that, well, it's not exactly an organized takeover of the country. The Haitians and Venezuelans showing up at the border aren't seeking to overthrow the US government. They're just looking for somewhere better than home where they can work and eventually send for their relatives.

2023-11-30 02:43:10

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We admittedly outsourced that once every moderate sized city or county ended up with their own SWAT team. Plus, admittedly, the risk of invasion is low, and most people don't have "two weekends a month, two weeks a year" to devote to training.

2023-11-29 16:00:03

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*If he's so good, *why* are you here?*
For me, the viewpoint is, if you're in a pays blanc, and it's better than home, you should want home to be just like a pays blanc. In other words, copy the white people and be secular and educated so you and your people can be a pays blancs too.
But I'm the child of foreigners that looks in awe of everything in the first world.

2023-11-29 15:56:35

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It's weird, Haitians have a weird "the Americans messed up our country, but yeah that dude is corrupt" vibe, so I don't think you'd see the same degree of support for a Haitian leader. If he's so good, *why* are you here?
FWIW, Haiti doesn't allow for dual citizenship, so a lot of Haitians held onto their passports for years. 9/11 and various changes to Medicare qualifications during the 1990s made *many* Haitians sign up for citizenship*. Oddly, to think back to my childhood, it's interesting to note that my family discussed American politics despite not being able to vote for years. Mind you, they never went to the embassy to vote in Haitian elections either.
*My maternal grandmother wanted her citizenship ASAP in the 1970s. Mom became a citizen almost 30 years after arriving in the late 1960s.

2023-11-29 15:48:20

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Organic 2% milk is $1.50 less at BJs compared to anywhere else. We buy a half gallon on a weekly basis. The membership pays for itself when combined with eggs and some cold cuts. :-)
I'd love to try Aldi, but it's near the shopping mall which means it's too far and too annoying to reach for weekly shopping, so Lidl wins.

2023-11-29 14:52:56

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Pet Theories:
1) It's relatively easy to fly back home and stay "Turkish" with cheap flights on Wizz Air, and WhatsApp chat groups.
2) Erdogan lifting Kemalist secular cap allowed religion to blossom which means any immigrants from his era are more likely to be wedded to their faith.
3) The Turkish economy improved to the point that the smart fraction types and the mid level types don't leave anymore. You either get the activist/artist types, or the dudes from "the back" who are poor and looking for the short cut to success via Germany.

2023-11-29 14:47:16

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TIL that Egypt grows potatoes.

2023-11-29 14:46:44

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FWIW, a local supermarket chain was taken over by Lidl in an attempt to beat Aldi to Long Island. It was *very* unpopular with locals due to the loss of a deli counter that sold Boars Head products.
The bagged salads, brautwurst, raclette cheese, sliced chorizo, and German potato mix ensure that I keep coming back. Otherwise, fruits are meh and the freezer containing the chicken seems to have a weird smell. Salmon is *great*, but there's only boneless steak. I'm feeding two people in my household so I can be a bit more picky in terms of paying more for nicer stuff at other places.
With that said, Shop Rite (local chain), WalMart, and BJs are where 90% of my food shopping is done.

2023-11-29 13:50:31

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In contrast, I've met second and third generation Italian Americans who feel the need to make the pilgrimage back to Italy. I've met a few who don't feel as *white* as other white people.
OTOH, do you kids even *remember* living in America?

2023-11-28 22:04:34

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In contrast, from the perspective of a Northerner foreigner, ADOS are *foreigners* in a country of white people. Black people are still isolated socially from white people after four hundred years.

2023-11-28 21:57:06

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As a sidepoint, I suspect I'd never feel at home in Haiti. I'm relatively bland by most standards*, and as a cousin noted, back home, I'm *blanc* because to many, I'm a foreigner with American sensibilities. So as I've noted before, there is no where for me to go to.
*FWIW, even within Caribbean circles, for some reason, I code as Trinidadian or Guyanese.

2023-11-28 21:51:38

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You're right. You feel accepted by the community in Germany, and I suspect you felt the same way in the States.
In contrast, I tend to view African Americans as *internal* foreigners who are basically special, barely tolerated long-term guests, while foreign black people like my parents (and by extension myself despite native citizenship) as external foreigners. I'm an American, but for all intents and purposes, the racists don't think of me as one.

2023-11-28 21:43:14

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How so?

2023-11-28 21:32:27

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As I've noted before, I don't think we'll ever agree on this issue. :-/

2023-11-28 21:24:12

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To be honest, I can't *fault* her for feeling concerned and scared. For some of us, as much as we call the land of our ancestors "home", it really isn't home especially for the first generation of us born here, and there isn't anywhere for us to go, so we're going to be concerned for our safety in the countries that we've adopted. A bunch of dudes lighting up a tramway in anger over a stabbing by a non-white person isn't exactly comforting especially since some of the more extremist types aren't exactly making differences between non-Muslims and others.

2023-11-28 21:05:56

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IIRC, in the case of Scotland, it was an internal party election, and the party members opted for him over two white woman...

2023-11-28 21:00:38

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* All three ruled by a Southeast Asian man.*
FWIW, Varadkar is half-white and supposedly grew up in a Catholic household. Ironically, Yousaf and Sunak are respectively partial and full descendants of Indian immigrants that were chased out of Africa. So for all intents and purposes, I don't quite know if I'd tar and feather them...

2023-11-28 20:02:07

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Wait, candidates, or is First Communion done differently there? It’s basically a April/May thing here.
Also, do you guys have big parties, or we French Caribbeans the only weirdos that do this?

2023-11-26 12:21:20

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IIRC, these schools aren't as anarchic as say worst case scenarios you're thinking of from the DC and Baltimore metro areas.
With that said, there way more spots available in not nice schools than in nice schools districts. If you're not Catholic, you can't teach in the few Catholic schools left. So it's either charter schools, or um, you earn $50K with that BA in teaching. For most teachers, they'll ride it out for as long as possible until they vest in the pension plan, their student loans are paid off, or a better school comes along. My friends that operate buses and subways in the worst neighbourhoods are in a similar boat.

2023-11-26 11:33:55

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There goes my plans to visit Ireland. :-/

2023-11-26 11:31:40

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Primarily because there's a line around the block to teach in a suburban school, and NYC had issues finding qualified black and Hispanic people to teach. DoE pays better than the alternatives, so until they find a rich husband, they're going to have to teach somewhere to pay back their student loans and then pay for a down payment on a home.
With that said, the school in question doesn't have a good reputation, and it's zoned for mostly black, Latino, and South Asian working class neighbourhoods. So add in some rabblerousing activist students, social media, some Muslim kids, and black kids who are unlikely to have philo-Semetic views and you this level of lobo in a high school.

2023-11-25 23:59:26

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FWIW, I suspect it's a combination of the fact that if you're a member of the Green Party, you're more likely to be idealistic about this issue, sympathetic to poor people struggling to enter les pays blancs, and have friends who are non-white.

2023-11-24 19:12:49

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In contrast, my parents' generation came to the States just as Vietnam was slowly winding down, so they missed out on that, and they were too old for GW I. My cousin was out of the Marines by the time Iraq started up as well. A lot of Haitians from that era were unlikely to see the military as an option, especially since the bourgeois types were unlikely to rocket their way to officer status like back home, and the homless black veterans on drugs literally scared people into wondering what goes on in the military.
Now my niece and another cousin are DoD property.

2023-11-24 08:46:03

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It's weird, I've known you for over a decade, and somehow never made the connection until now.

2023-11-24 08:41:53

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Which leads one to ask if your dad was involved in the first Gulf War?
FWIW, my niece is currently overseas as DoD property so the positives tend to outweigh my fears of the negative for her. IOW, there's a reason I pray for peace and prudent leadership...

2023-11-24 08:00:49

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I think somebody noted that DoD was basically the easiest way to live like a European as an American citizen...except for the whole military controls your life part. Otherwise, you had cheap healthcare, daycare, and excellent racially integrated schools.

2023-11-24 07:44:25

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"Why Northern Europeans have six weeks of vacation. To spend three of those weeks in the winter in Southern Europe and the safe for tourist parts of the Middle East"

2023-11-23 13:50:33

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...but wouldn't that be true of Millennials? FWIW, a decent chunk of Gen Y is composed of siblings of younger Millennials in some cases.

2023-11-23 13:43:34

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Meanwhile, my Catholic school had the updated versions of Apple IIes with color screens, educational games, and Logo programming for a surcharge over the tuition. No internet connection as this was years away from AOL being common knowledge.

2023-11-23 13:32:24

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*Personally, it's Millennial men that don't seem like real men to me.
I've known several Millennial dudes who are in their 30s, never married,
and don't really know where they're going in life.*
I suspect that I'm the unmarried, never had a real girlfriend, childless 40 year old example of this. As I've told Stella before, I still don't feel like an adult and still feel like a kid in relation to the older adults in my family, and I suspect a lot of us in this situation feel the same way, but we're probably unlikely to really change our situations.

2023-11-23 13:27:41

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FWIW, these men to be anti-feminist because feminism leads to female independence and avoidance of them for "alphas" and non-white men. So if you take away feminism, the implication is that they'll remain chaste virgins who will be forced to date them* and magically find them attractive with zero ability to compare them with previous lovers solving whatever awkward inadequacy issues that they have.
There's a reason why the more extreme ones like Islam for it's stronger anti-feminist viewpoints while also permitting divorce and polygamy.
*They assume "he has a middle class job* would somehow make them attractive if in peak 1950s fantasy land. Meanwhile, they'd probably still be in envy of the women that the men with more money/charisma could attract.

2023-11-23 13:22:14

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Assuming you weren't skipped ahead, you did this what I was in first grade in the extreme late 1980s so that's *amazing* to me.
I didn't play around with the internet for at least another six years.

2023-11-23 13:17:18

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...they don't have the GMail app on their phone, but they have WhatsApp?
OTOH, you're admittedly in a rural area so maybe it's different there...

2023-11-23 13:01:18

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OTOH, the fun narrative buster is the fact that Mark Rutte's successor in the VVD is Turkish and seems to have more moderate politics, but is potentially willing to support him in a coalition government.

2023-11-23 12:59:16

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At best, you'll get the "he's a sell-out" comments in regards to his maternal ancestry. For all intents and purposes, he comes across as a white guy to most people, and as a reflection of that, he's not going to see himself as a member of non-white group that would need protection from his party's political manifesto.

2023-11-22 23:03:29

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FWIW, that's the only thing some men have to offer. I've jokingly said the men who complain the most about women using men for their money and want women out of careers also want women to choose them over "bad boys" because they have "money".

2023-11-22 11:43:31

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I think it's the bizzaro version of the strategy where men marry the woman that they're emotionally/intellectually compatible with, but cheat on her with the "hot" girl that evokes sexual desire. They're doing the inverse where they marry the woman for sex, but desire to cheat on her with the intelligent and interesting woman.

2023-11-20 22:13:28

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FWIW, one of the more interesting quirks is that contracts that would have gone to European (and Japanese) firms are now going to Chinese firms. It's arguably a make work scheme for the Chinese to fuel internal economic growth, reduce unemployment, and ensure greater control over their own natural resource supply chains.

2023-11-20 20:29:30

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If youre buying super high end cuts that usually go to high end restaurants and other upper class buyers, it seems sensible in terms of pricing.
If you’re buying average ReWe cuts, then this is just awful.

2023-11-20 18:01:42

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I thought pricing was always in grams in metric land?
IIRC, at least that's what I remember from walking around Auchan.

2023-11-20 18:00:35

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FWIW, are they doing this to women outside of Southeast Asia?
I get why you're so viscerally against it, but if this all done on a consensual basis, I personally see nothing wrong. If a bunch of white dudes started marrying off Caribbean women, I wouldn't be mad. That just means the apex people think our women are pretty too! :-)

2023-11-20 08:23:37

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…and now you see why Americans feel broke.
The fun part is that the insurance industry is highly regulated in the US, its not very profitable, and home insurance is slowly becoming unaffordable due to natural disaster risk with some states losing coverage because regulators won’t allow even higher rate increases…

2023-11-20 08:19:48

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I remember reading that Germans love insurance, but its rather cheap compared to the US. Hell, full coverage for my decade old car is $180 per month, and thats with a multicar discount. Its cheaper than Canada, but it’s been hinted to me that ten timwa my coverage limit is near what I currently pay…

2023-11-20 07:39:44

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The disability insurance has no resale value and takes up 6% of my net pay. The retirement is near 7% of my *gross* pay or roughly 10% of net pay.
The 30% seems awfully harsh, but it's easier for some people to live simply. :-)

2023-11-20 06:38:26

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In retrospect, if one looks at my net pay, it's roughly 3.5% that I set aside for savings. I don't count the small amounts that I put into the 401k at work, our pension plan deductions, or the disability insurance deductions.

2023-11-20 05:22:19

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IIRC, I have 1, 2 is *highly* theoretical for long drawn out real world reasons, 3 is *definitely* not true unless I take a huge hit to my lifestyle, 4 is somewhat true but that's due to a generous match at my previous employer that started when the market was at its lows, 5 was tested a few years ago and definitely not true, 6 is somewhat true but I don't know if I could replace the cars with brand new equivalents. 7 describes my brother's household...
8 and 12 are definitely not true, and given what Catholic school costs, I definitely can't afford high prole children so we can discount 9...

2023-11-20 05:18:47

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*And you don't need $500k. He estimates that you just need a bit over 6-figures per household.*
IOW, as I've jokingly said, you live like an immigrant.
The problem is that most people don't do all of this work to merely live like an immigrant.

2023-11-20 04:55:54

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*middle class primarily from active income, but also passive income and
with enough assets to not fall into poverty during hardship*
Then there's going to be a lot of Americans who deem themselves to be middle class who are really high proles with white collar jobs. In effect, you'd have to be a $500K managing director to really be "middle class" by this definition. Meanwhile, an accountant and teacher couple consider themselves to be middle class despite only owning one home and some investments that sit in a retirement account.

2023-11-19 18:52:20

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NGL, my debt from some irresponsible spending was eating away at me. I can service the debt, but it still eats away at me compared to having no debt or just debt for something like a car loan.
With that said, I suspect I'm not feeling food inflation to the same degree because the giant package of chicken only serves two people with multiple feedings here.

2023-11-19 18:49:33

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FWIW, you're admittedly in a wonky spot given that while your American peers had student loan debts*, you missed out on their working years. So you married and had kids versus the others who maxed out their income and rode the housing ladder.
*You're slightly younger than my comp engineer cousin who was single for *years* and earned relatively high incomes compared to the rest of us.

2023-11-19 13:35:12

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Racists: This is a way better choice than the black guy! (/grimacing)

2023-11-17 13:44:16

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$15/hr at 6 hours per day for 5 days per week over four weeks is $1800.