Child support isn't treated the same way as consumer debt in pretty much any jurisdiction in the USA that I'm aware of. Things like that and possibly stuff like alimony or similar legal agreements pretty much always have higher limits and more tools available to collect.
So, it would be a bit of a mistake, in my opinion, to equate child support and its laws with medical / consumer debt.
Interesting how similar my case was. I picked up a 72 hour ban from that site for using the word "retard" in the context of providing advice on how to retard (aka slow) the growth of mold.
When I was growing up, a gay kid in a rural setting living in near-poverty and surrounded by constant and extreme homophobic rhetoric, there basically was no open or obvious (to me) gay representation in my little slice of the world. I literally spent ages 10 - 17 thinking I was some alien creature, the one and only. While I knew other gay men existed somewhere out there, it was clear to me that they all lived in giant cities, went around wearing dresses, tried to kidnap little kids to turn them gay, nagged straight men and children for sex, and spread HIV/AIDS.
Truly sorry for the underrepresented heterosexual, Caucasian, Christian, English-only speaking children out there in the USA and their parents and really everybody else going through this affront to their existence. I totally and completely understand how you feel.
I personally don't accept the 35% as a 100% true and pure fact, without some citations. However, the percentage obviously isn't the point here, so I wouldn't get too hung up on the exact number. Even if it was 3.5%, this general situation is still inexcusable.
For the record, most places limit wage garnishment for debts at something like 10% - 25%. Certain types of debt, like student loan debt and medical debt, are often lower or on the lower end. And lower income, with higher costs like having children, can also reduce the max %.
This doesn't necessarily have to be true. There are myriads of things we can't smell, simply because we do not have the appropriate chemical receptors to detect them. If there was no evolutionary reason for us to be able to smell our boogers, then it's entirely realistic to believe that we lost or never even gained that ability in the past.
I know, I feel bad. One of the favorite things I used to say back in the frumpin' day was "Dude, it's the internet, you can cuss here".
Then slowly over the years, site after site after site after site after site started implementing rules against profanity. Not even in a somewhat sane, reasonable, or consistent way either. Which made it all the worse.
And now, annoying as it is for me personally, I just bite my t0%#$#gue and move on.
Still find it incredibly ridiculous that you can get banned from a certain R-word site for using the R-word, but calling someone or referring to them as a "cocksucker" is apparently perfectly acceptable.
In person, I don't really see a whole lot of people in the US admitting or claiming that they didn't or don't vote.
I do, however, see a lot of life-long Republicans and known Trump voters making claims like "I don't really use social media" and "other than the weather I don't keep up with the news", both of which I know are lies in many cases.
However, giving them benefit of the doubt on that, they're admitting something equally as bad: They aren't educating themselves, they aren't informed on important matters, and facts do not matter to them. They're shirking their responsibilities.
Personally, I've always, always, always operated under the principle that our rights come with responsibilities, so I find it shameful that so many people are so negligent in that respect.
With respect to Lemmy and Reddit (don't have much experience with other social media platforms), it often just comes down to the audience.
Some users and some subs are just so fragile and so propagandized that any tiny bit of resistance or any comment slightly against the standard is met with down votes and negativity.
On Reddit, I think my most down voted comment that's coming to mind was in an environmental sub. Someone mentioned that they didn't see any "bugs" around their outdoor lights the night prior even though those lights would have been covered in bugs when that person was a kid.
I acknowledged that I am fully aware that insect populations are in collapse/decline. However, what the person was witnessing wasn't a fair comparison because it was currently winter time where they lived (which was obvious from their other comments) and because modern LED lights don't produce as much heat or ultraviolet light (both things are highly attractive to nocturnal insects) as previous technology.
I think I got something like -342 on my comment within a day or two.
Honestly, as a life long permanent resident, insane is over rated.
You hear that Kelce brothers? You have NO CHANCE with ME. NONE.
Also, depending on your local climate, you might be surprised how quick and easy it is to grow your own turnips. If you're in a temperate northern hemisphere climate, good chance you can have fresh home grown turnips for 8+ months of the year, if not the whole year. They don't take a lot of time to reach maturity, you can basically plant a small batch of seeds every few weeks to keep things going.
Yes, they are delicious on their own, fresh cut in salads, and so on. You can roast/bake/cook them, and they take on a taste and texture similar to potatoes. You can soak them in a pickling brine (1:4 vinegar to water with a bit of salt) for a few hours minimum and that will also eliminate most of the "bite" if you don't like that part of their flavor profile.
I don't know, but anecdotally, my experience is that it's mostly poorer and older folks that trend towards bland foods. It's what they grew up with and what they know, and to them a lot of the recipes are tradition / comfort food. They simply weren't exposed to a lot of spices and taste profiles growing up so they didn't develop an appreciation for it and have no desire to step out of their comfort zone.
A lot of them were from large families and families that basically only ate what they raised and grew, for generations. They might've spent money to buy a small amount of extras like white sugar, bleached flour, salt, and maybe black pepper. And then in terms of produce, most of what was grown was staple foods, and a limited selection of easy to manage herbs like mint and dill that they could grow in a season then use or preserve.
Obviously that's a bit over simplified and not every family and every body's story is exactly alike, but it generally holds true to varying degrees in most of the cases of "blandfooditis" I've encountered.
Then there's also the nature of a lot of larger families having to prepare meals for the least common denominator. Grampie can't have too much salt, Grammie can't chew cause she doesn't have any teeth, Gina is diabetic, Braxton is allergic to pepper ... so you end up with a lot of plain boiled meals simply because that's the easiest/cheapest option that everybody can have.
Mmm, acorn bread and beaver cheese.
About 4 or 5 years ago, I was at a relative's house -- The relative was one of those people that basically watch Fox News 24/7. So, unfortunately I was exposed to the literal propaganda that is Fox News. Calling it propaganda is literally and understatement.
Anyway, at one point during the 5 o'clock "news", they aired a segment that featured Democrats in congress. They played the audio feed from whatever hearing or whatever was going on, but the video feed was a bunch of chimpanzees in a zoo setting.
So, what happened today is nothing new. This is who conservative Republicans in the USA are and have always been.
More importantly, reach out to people in your life, and especially people of color. What happened today is absolutely disgusting, and a lot of people are/were already struggling with things. A bit of kindness, connection with others goes a long way. Community and connections are especially critical in these times, and checking in with your friends, family, and neighbors is basically the least you can do, but also one of the most impactful things you can do right now.
At least you know there's not much chance of mosquitoes.
Smarter than my cousin Larry? Psht. There's a boxwood bush outside my bedroom window that's smarter than cousin Larry.
But realistically, the machines might be smarter than the average poorly motivated human in certain criteria. Hard to take anybody seriously that disagrees with that position.
On the other hand, an average human with sufficient and proper motivation? I'm still on team people in that case.
Don't be so sure. Honestly, even if this question would have made me feel uncomfortable in the moment, I can tell you that it would elevate my opinion of any candidate I was interviewing because it's actually a very thoughtful but also important thing to consider. I actually can't recall at the moment anybody ever asking something like this in any interview I've done -- normally it's the basic stuff like "do you like working here" or "can you walk me through your typical day" kind of questions.
Oh yes, this is delicious! I'm making a note now.
That's what I was thinking (i.e. rechargeable battery not AA), but I wasn't 100% sure. Either way, I'm in the market for a new controller and Steam seems to be working on a great option that ticks all the right boxes for me as long as the price is reasonable enough. It kind of has an Xbox form factor but the more symmetrical d-pad / analog stick placement of a PS controller, so best of both worlds in my opinion.
Admittedly, my brain is a little scrambled at the moment, so hopefully someone here can help me follow along.
They've deported millions of workers out of the job market. Then why are so many places having massive layoffs, threats of layoffs, and hiring freezes? Should there be a massive abundance of job openings now?
Then again, if they're implying that most of those immigrants didn't work, then where did the whole immigrants took my job rhetoric go? And why would non-working immigrants require us to adjust our expectations down in the job market so much?
Are these double-reverse-plus-infinity immigrants, simultaneously not working and living off government benefits while also taking jobs from people, jobs which mysteriously vaporize the moment the immigrants are deported?
That aside: Less than 2 years ago, my small team at work was looking to hire more developers, a qa person, an assistant designer, and a project manager. Trump took office, and within months, the team I worked in was halved in size via layoffs, a hiring freeze was put in place, and several of the remaining folks were demoted (in exchange for otherwise staying employed). These days, nearly everybody I have talked to in various "office jobs" professional services fields mentioned that they are facing another round of layoffs and that there's a hiring freeze in place.