pingveno
@pingveno@lemmy.world
- Comment on Anon hates smartphones 2 days ago:
And some phones have some excellent cameras. I’ve taken some pretty decent shots with my phone camera, like this one of a squirrel eating pizza. Without carrying around a camera literally all the time, I never would have caught that shot.
Same with many of the abuses that we’ve seen caught on camera recently. There are some problems with videos that lack context, but authorities can’t just act with impunity in their face and expect to not have a camera in their face.
- Comment on As a human, here is my human take on unions 1 week ago:
Same at least for my union in the US. I haven’t needed it, but it’s there for the people who do. Most of the benefits like dental have better coverage through my employer, but I am sure it is more relevant for other bargaining units that they work with.
- Comment on Do you want the murderer of the UnitHealthcare CEO prosecuted? 2 weeks ago:
No, but people are suggesting giving his murderer a free pass because they don’t like him aka he is unpopular. There’s a good reason that he’s unpopular, just like there’s a good reason that many widely detested people are unpopular. It doesn’t mean we start being a lawless nation.
- Comment on Do you want the murderer of the UnitHealthcare CEO prosecuted? 2 weeks ago:
Even after hearing how much of a total POS shit the CEO is, yes. That’s just a basic part of the rule of law. You murder someone, you get prosecuted. It’s a really dangerous path for a society when it’s open season to outright murder people when they’re unpopular.
- Comment on Why do Americans always presume that everyone speaks English 2 weeks ago:
It looks like the type of visas that are usually used for vacations give you 180 days per stay and last for 10 years. From what I’ve heard, they’re either fairly easy to get a hold of or ridiculously hard depending on your country of origin. In other news, everything in the US around visas and immigration is fuuuuuuccccckkkkked.
- Comment on Why do Americans always presume that everyone speaks English 2 weeks ago:
Go from Wales, Alaska near the Bering Strait to the southern tip of Florida. You have traveled 4,580 miles (7,370 km) in 14 states and provinces. At no point were you not in a jurisdiction that was predominantly English speaking.
Mandarin Chinese may have the most number of native speakers, but English has the most number of total speakers, and those speakers are spread much more widely around the world.
The US is a business, economic, and geopolitical powerhouse. So was the British Empire.
I’m not saying that every other language should crawl in a hole and die. I’m currently taking a crack at learning Spanish. But there are pretty solid reasons why Americans make assumptions, even if they are erroneous sometimes.
- Comment on US Democracy 1 month ago:
So based on your 38 days, that would be March 12th (2020-02-03 + 38 days), no? And Biden was indeed declared the winner on a March 12th, but that was in 2024. It took until April 8, 2020 for Bernie to decide to drop out.
- Comment on US Democracy 1 month ago:
Bernie Sanders won 3 out of 5 primaries that occurred before the DNC called it for Biden in 2020 with Buttigeg picking up 1 other.
I’m not sure how to parse what you’re saying. As far as DNC rules are concerned, they “call” it once all primary races are held.
In 2016 Sanders won 23 races and was at 43% of the popular vote despite extreme pushback by the DNC. He was democratically supported cause he had people voting for him. Democratically.
The Democratic primary uses proportional representation, so candidates don’t win states, they win delegates. Hillary Clinton got 55% of the popular vote, Bernie Sanders got 43%. There are no two ways to slice it, Bernie lost that election by the rules of a democratic election by a sizeable margin. Meanwhile, Hillary was dealing with getting hacked and Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi. And you’re forgetting the often adoring coverage that was played to audiences on the left about Sanders.
The selling point for Kamala wasn’t anything in particular about her. She’s the VP and was the only obvious choice. There was no appetite for a contested convention, which was the alternative. It was always going to be an uphill battle, so in a sense she’s also a sacrificial lamb.
- Comment on US Democracy 1 month ago:
If you’re referencing Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020, he wasn’t “democratically popular” in either race. That simply is not supported by polling or election results. He was well behind Clinton by all metrics. Then in 2020, he was briefly “winning” because several similar candidates were splitting the center-left lane. The moment the center-left lane narrowed, Sanders’ lead evaporated.
It’s SOP for candidates to more or less clear the field for an incumbent president. This is partially because of a perceived effect from a strong primary challenger weakening an incumbent. So Democrats were just doing what both parties have been doing for the last half century.
The change from Biden was in response to clear reactions from the US electorate. The electorate saw Biden’s debate performance and was not impressed. There wasn’t time to run a process, so Kamala was the obvious choice given a non-ideal situation. But the electorate got what it wanted in terms of an option that wasn’t elderly.
- Comment on stars & sharks 2 months ago:
Now wait until you hear about skinteeth.
- Comment on Sorry to be a bother... 2 months ago:
Yeah, this really is one of those things where if you’re not okay with a little idle chatter, it’s probably not the right job. And I say that out of admiration for baristas and other service workers. I tried working a service sector job when I was young and I didn’t last long. I just wasn’t any good at it.
- Comment on The heart wants what the heart wants 3 months ago:
The power bowl is nice combined with other stuff. During Hatch chili season, I roasted up some Hatch chilies and removed the skin, stem, and seeds. Chop one or two up and stick them in the bowl. Combine with a heated tortilla.
- Comment on The heart wants what the heart wants 3 months ago:
Though that varies by country. It is also maybe not meat based but milk based.
- Comment on The heart wants what the heart wants 3 months ago:
And many items can be customized to be vegan or vegetarian with some simple substitutions or exclusions. The only problem is when the kitchen makes a mistake. Not a calamity for someone who is just trying to get a lot less meat in their diet, but a reason to be pissed when a vegan wanders into a region of reduced fat sour cream.
- Comment on Regain Control in my ass 3 months ago:
Well, it’s going through my head right now, so I will count it.
Ceilings in my ass
- Comment on Seriously. 3 months ago:
I just started looking up the different ways to order beers. Wow. Even if it’s based on the metric system, each country really did go and reinvent the wheel.
- Comment on Coming up with new names is hard 3 months ago:
Place names in general in the Pacific Northwest. Alaska is from an Aleut phrase. Out of the 36 Oregon counties, 10 have roots in indigenous language or culture.
- Comment on Amazon Contractors can't even sing in their cars now. Unions protect against this micromanagement. 3 months ago:
I’m sorry, that’s too much mouth movement. You are now on probation.
- Comment on I'm so sorry 3 months ago:
This truly is the strangest timeline, where Serious Journalists write about rumors of JD Vance having sex with a couch.
- Comment on I'm so sorry 3 months ago:
Because we are in the weirdest timeline.
- Comment on I'm so sorry 3 months ago:
Merry Christmas!
- Comment on I'm so sorry 3 months ago:
- Comment on Inflation? 3 months ago:
There is that, but the larger explosion in housing prices can be largely chalked up to under supply in popular markets.
- Comment on Inflation? 3 months ago:
Car prices: supply is constrained because of supply chain issues where often just a small handful of the myriad of chips in the car are unavailable.
Housing: supply is artificially constrained by various laws, often of the NIMBY type.
- Comment on Anon is a soyboy 3 months ago:
Portland has oodles of places that serve good tofu. Fried, marinated, sauce, and so on.
- Comment on Centipedes Don't Fuck 3 months ago:
Legistics?
- Comment on Oregonian driving 4 months ago:
Among us bicyclists, they’re called niceholes. They’re just trying to be nice to the bicyclist, but we would rather they just follow the traffic law so that they’re predictable.
- Comment on Paid Leave Olympics 4 months ago:
Mannnnn, I hate it when I get those flags mixed up, and I think Russia was being discussed as well. Thanks.
- Comment on Paid Leave Olympics 4 months ago:
At the place that I interned in software development, there was a period of time before I was there where the hours were starting to creep to long enough that the workers (salaried) were effectively being paid less than minimum wage. Legend has it that there was a mention of a lawsuit if the company didn’t shape up. One coworker who had been there at that point described it as a dark point in the company’s history. In response, they temporarily switched to hourly and 40 hours a week.
Later, some people apparently started working over 40 hours a week of their own volition. Workaholics, I guess. At the behest of one of the people on my team, the CIO talked to them about sticking to normal hours. Part of it was that people just aren’t great developers after already working a long day. The other part was that no one else wanted to slide back into those long working hours. A few people also had had kids in the intervening years, so I don’t think they wanted to see their hours eaten by work.
- Comment on Paid Leave Olympics 4 months ago:
I work in IT at a university. There is a state parental leave program, but above that the union bargained for additional parental leave.
The US has a significant separation between the federal and state levels. For a policy like this, you usually would find some of the more progressive states trying out different programs. Some more backward states will take a long time to come round. It really is more like a bunch of small to medium sized countries in that respect.
Russia is also working under very different demographics, which is probably driving at least the maternity leave. Birth rates are low and net migration, while positive, is not enough to keep up. The US has a birth rate that is closer to replacement and much higher net migration. That would mean lagging states would have less pressure to reform.