Yeah, it may have changed. Here is the website for commissary eligibility, it looks like civilian employees get limited access (mainly grocery store like items). Here is a link to the Exchange, they get limited privileges or conditional unlimited privileges depending on their situation. Here is the website posting the Army Civilian benefits. Looking online they do have access to on base housing, but active duty get higher priority and may have to wait for an opening.
Here is the general DOD website for the civilian employee benefits, it looks like they get general federal employee insurance (generally considered to be good), and the general federal pension (20 years of service by 50 years old). This site also has more information about the exchange and family care.
To add to this, something I like to point out to people, but (for the US) only ~60% of military personnel are ever deployed. Of those 60% only 10-20% will ever see combat. To top that off ~25% of the military are actually civilian service members, people who work for the military but are not soldiers.
So in summary, for each soldier that sees combat there are:
~6 deployed soldiers who will never see combat.
~11 non-deployed soldiers who never will be.
~6 civilian military staff who will probably never need to move for work.
Of these 24 people, all have access to the commissary, retirement and pension, top tier insurance, paid child care, up to 26 days of paid time off with 13 sick days and 11 fed holidays. The only things the military civilians don't get are the VA, loan programs, and special protections.
So unless you're a complete block head with no skills or talent your odds of joining the military and basically getting socialism with no risks is pretty high. Remember this the next time someone gets mouthy about respecting "the troops" or "serving their country," odds are they didn't do shit.
I used to work with a whole group of guys who their whole military career (20 years) was running a wastewater treatment plant on an Air Force base in the US, that's it.
The thing with politics today is that most of the time the hosts of the debate don't have the courage to enforce the rules of debate. If you talk out of turn they should turn your mic off and verbally scold you. Shut your mouth or else we will end this debate and give the remainder of this time to your opponent without any censor.
I remember a reddit post from forever ago where the guy said that the grocery store had asked his mom to let them know when their son went to college because him leaving would impact the quantities of chocolate milk they stocked.
From what I understand the Grand Jury reviews whether there is enough evidence to go forward with an indictment, not whether someone is guilty or not. I did a bit of digging and this event occurred Feb 6, 2024, and the Columbus Nebraska police did not start regularly wearing body cams until March 30, 2025. So that's what, 3 officers word vs 2 parents of the deceased? At the end of the day there probably just wasn't enough evidence. The Grand Jury trial was for prosecution by the State AG's office against the Columbus Police officers. Government prosecutors typically won't take a case to trial unless they are certain they will win, that's why they have something like a 95% trial success rate, not because they are good prosecutors but because they drop any they aren't certain of.
In the case of Canada I think that is inherently the problem. US Republican's have been complaining specifically about Canada since about 2016 and how they aren't meeting their NATO requirements, have no plans to ever meet them, and how Canada is basically free loading. I remember an article from ~2019 where a Canadian economist was quoted saying that if Canadians are going to be taxed more politicians are not going to spend that money on defense spending over programs which improve quality of life because defense isn't a concern for Canadians due to being next door to the US.
All this talk about Canada freeloading has some merit, but from a US perspective it completely ignores the huge economic benefits the US/Canada relationship has had for the US. At its heart a significant portion of the US has strong opinions and beliefs about the importance of military preparedness and a fascination with naive blind fairness. In their minds the US and Canada have a good relationship, but Canada isn't doing their fair share and that makes them angry. For them they see Canada as a mooch and a bad friend.
Canada not investing in it's military defense both caused US conservative politicians to be upset and also puts Canada in the uncomfortable position they are in now. So yeah, Canada has a "strongest monkey with the biggest stick" problem in that they don't have much of a stick.
For the last one Jeff Rosenstock is a maniacal bastard because it's the only cover of Bizarre Love Triangle of it's kind, he's been literally offered money to make a full length cover and said no. I get his reasoning, but I hate that the world will never hear what could have been. The rest of the jam session is worth watching as it's phenominal.
Yeah, that's the nature of experience, people have different ones. I would agree with you that, for the most part, if you show up to support a protest then you'll be welcomed and not pushed out, but someones experience in Ohio might be different from someone else's experience in Texas, California, Florida, or NY.
I live in the US south east and moved from one city to another about 3 hours away. When I did so my workplace went from 95% white to 65% black. Protests went from politically charged and racially neutral to religious based and racially charged. Your experience in one place is no guarantee for other people's experiences in another.
I have no idea where this guy is from, but I could totally see a place in the US where a middle class white guy showing up would raise some eyebrows.
All in all my experience matches yours, but I am also reminded of this video from several years ago. Maybe this video is fake, maybe it's doctored, or taken out of context, but as it appears in the video it's just an example that perceptions and opinions can be different for different people and the crowd doesn't always support you.
In the US it varies a lot. Some places, like NYC or DC you might rent forever and that's perfectly common. Other places which are not as urban focused, think medium cities that are big but not super dense, you could choose to live down town and rent or buy apartments or you could live in the suburbs or rural country. Some people live in small cities far from any major city and options to rent apartments are rare, you are more likely to rent a small house, live in a mobile home, or you own a house of varying quality.
Here is an example: Let's say you live in Verdigris Oklahoma, outside of Tulsa. Here is a mobile home for $76k with 112 m2. Here is [a home](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/24922-S-Heartwood-Dr-Claremore-OK-74019/22098251_zpid/) for $195k with 938 m2 land and 130 m^2 living space. Median income for Tulsa is $41k with married households having a median income of $99k. Tulsa is a 20 minute drive from Verdigris.
If you then get a job offer in Oklahoma City making more money, Oklahoma City has a median income of $67k with family median incomes being $83k (let's assume your family is beating the median since you're moving for this job). Here are a few houses that are in or near Oklahoma City 12334
Here's another example. Maybe you have a job on the west side of Richmond Virginia. Richmond has a median income of $64k but you live in Chesterfield Virginia maybe in this town home and have a 15 min commute to work. You get a new job on the north side of Richmond and you're getting married soon. You decide to sell your place, upgrade, and move closer to your new work so you buy this place.
Sure, totally understand why some people wouldn't. Me personally, if I spent that kind of money for an appliance I expect to take it with me even if I move.
I think it depends, but most people don't buy a house planning to live in it forever anymore. More likely you upgrade from renting to owning a small apartment or condo, then you move into a starter home, maybe you get married and sell your home because your partner has a home, and then you decide to have kids and the starter home isn't really big enough anymore, then you get a new job in another city, etc.
Honestly, I don't think not having a fridge is that big of a deal. If someone actually wants the house they will haggle you down for the cost of a fridge and I would be totally fine with that. Hey, I could have bought a $900 fridge and put it in here, I will give you $900 out of the sell. If you don't want a $900 fridge you can take that money and put it to the fridge you do want.
Conservatives believe that immigrants are taking jobs, getting tax funded benefits, and are generally opposed to brown people doing something technically illegal.
In truth the majority take jobs conservatives don't really want, they do take tax funded benefits but also pay taxes in most cases (and they don't get the payouts for them most of the time), and the process for legally entering the country is so much more difficult than it should be that many resort to illegal immigration.
Oh, and going back to the benefits part, last I checked the average illegal immigrant household (on average) gets something like < $5,000 per year. Most of the time the benefits they are getting are things like SNAP or medicare because someone in the household is a legal resident and thus can qualify. When you apply for benefits they typically only care if the applicant is legal, but they count the whole household.
The whole thing is stupid, conservatives want to complain about pennies when we have dollar problems and at the end of the day immigrants prop up the economy. We honestly should be lowering barriers to legal entry.
The same reason why the British still use miles and stone. For some other archaic units still commonly used see horsepower, nautical mile, BTUs, acres, shots (volume), and knots (speed).
Most people use the units they grew up with or use every day as their primary colloquial units. If you grew up using inch, foot, or yard, and enough people around you can also use the unit, it doesn't change anything in your day to day to continue to use them. It also doesn't make sense to change what you use and already know if that is also what the people around you use and already know.
That said, Americans do know metric units and many use them every day, they just don't typically use them when talking to other Americans. If the basis of your argument is US produced media then it just goes to show you don't really know anything about everyday US culture. Also, why would US media, made for a US audience, with US characters use a unit that most Americans don't colloquially use?
Complaining about US media containing Imperial Units is like if I watch a Spanish movie and complain about people speaking Spanish instead of English.
Yeah, it may have changed. Here is the website for commissary eligibility, it looks like civilian employees get limited access (mainly grocery store like items). Here is a link to the Exchange, they get limited privileges or conditional unlimited privileges depending on their situation. Here is the website posting the Army Civilian benefits. Looking online they do have access to on base housing, but active duty get higher priority and may have to wait for an opening.
Here is the general DOD website for the civilian employee benefits, it looks like they get general federal employee insurance (generally considered to be good), and the general federal pension (20 years of service by 50 years old). This site also has more information about the exchange and family care.