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. :-/


Germany does the "13th month" thing?

I've jokingly said that holiday pay for Thanksgiving *and* Black Friday is my employer's Christmas bonus. :-)


A convent with none of the benefits.

Stability and prayer? No, just infighting and drama!


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


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


Happy New Year! :-)


Merry Christmas! :-)


(Big hug)

Some of us miss you! But I understand if you want a break!


*  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.


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?


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.


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.


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


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.


Principle + 2% is better than "OMG, where's my money".

This isn't play money, it's your *retirement*.


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.


(Does a google search)

Um, do the riesters offer guaranteed payouts upon retirement, or are they subject to the succces of the markets?


Retirement *insurance*?


*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.


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.


Weird fact: $100 per head is $75M for my town.

My town spent $25M on health insurance for their employees.


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.


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.


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


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.


*Everyone resident over the age of 18 pays €100 and basta.*

Sucks to be you, unemployable/low wage adult.


CAN CONFIRM, IS GOOD IDEA.

/me is a mommy's boy.


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.


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


I see you also work in a legal death trap.


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.


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.


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.


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…


So, um, what should I do?


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.


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


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


Wait, is that a digital artifact, or is that the infamous blue hair? :-)


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


And yet, still very pretty. :-)


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


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


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...


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.


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


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.


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.


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.


*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.


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.


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.


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.


TIL that Egypt grows potatoes.


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.


How so?


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?


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.


There goes my plans to visit Ireland. :-/


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.


Is this early or normal for your region?

In NYC Metro, this is insane for the city and Long Island, but not crazy if you're in the Hudson Valley or Poconos.


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.


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.


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


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...


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.


"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"


...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.


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.


*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.


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.


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.


...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...


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.


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.


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".


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.


Belarus did something similar with Poland, and the few who were sent back were shot at by Belarusian soliders and border patrol forcing them into the Poland. I suspect those who crossed in to the Polish realm ultimately ended up in Germany.


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.


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.


I thought pricing was always in grams in metric land?

IIRC, at least that's what I remember from walking around Auchan.


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! :-)


…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…


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…


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. :-)


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.


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...


*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.


*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.


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.


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.


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


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


FWIW, Medicaid pays for nursing home stays. In most states, it does not pay for home care, so it's easier to state parent X is broke and have the state cover the care than to spend your own money to care for your relatively while you're at work.


Lefty residents who didn't vote for him see this as their prayers because it's their best chance of removing him from office in the hopes of somebody that will be  more amenable to their perspective.

FWIW, the same people that would argue that NYS is run by terrible machine politics would generally turn around and argue that the US Department of Justice is probably the least affected by said machine politics.


It's interesting that ZH takes a relatively conspiratorial view here while left leaning types were never fond of him and assumed he was corrupt from his time as the Borough President of Brooklyn, and normies have assumed he's just another incompetent mayor incapable of solving NYC's troubles, especially in terms of crime.


You too can live in an expensive top flight city with low income and few “coworkers” you can trust. :-/


FWIW, some of those men would love to go back, but the women dont want them for varying reasons. :-(

With that said, as the son of somebody that was an unmarried single mom until she met my dad, it’s possible, but you have to do some filtering. My parents were married until my dad’s passing, and theh were seen as the strongest marriage by others.


My 401k will be less depressing!

OTOH, time to secure some high rate long term CDs and bonds!


Mmm, tasty. :-)


They have turkeys in Germany? I always assumed it was a North American bird that's mostly in Anglo American cooking.

I'm assuming that the birds are imported at some insane price point? I'd jokingly tell you to sneak onto a DoD base and buy from there. :-)


Some of them bought BTC. Some of them bought other, um, crypto instead. Some stored their stuff at a local institution called FTX…


Hence why some porn stars make “come backs”. Previously to mainstream porn studios or strip clubs, but now to Onlyfans.


And FWIW, even if the sex *stops*, a husband deciding to replace her with somebody else is seen with some degree of social scorn and shame even in modern secular circles. And there's an implied sense that she *supports* him in various ways and should be entitled to *something* if he opts to leave.

There's just far less public, widespread sympathy for the recipient of a sugar daddy's benefits. Her friends might feel sorry for her, but nobody will treat her the same way as married woman going through a divorce.


That's so crude.

He's more of a sugar daddy that actually loves and cares about you. :-P


FWIW, the stats for married black men versus their white counterparts is rather depressing, but definitely explains some of the bad financial and wealth stats floating around about black families...

OTOH, I think we need more white guys to marry black women. For, you know, reparations.


Marriage *selects* for men who can earn more when married.

Men who can't do so are either in the social class that doesn't marry, or they're more likely to divorce when their income doesn't grow to meet the needs of their spouse.


My condolences and prayers. :-(


And this is why I want a condo with an in-unit washer/dryer.


I remember that!

IIRC, he stopped doing that set when he noticed that some white people liked it *too much*.

It’s the middle class black people dillema.


There's a reason why lefty types wanted to re-imagine policing and all those other buzz words. They knew that black cops would be just as awful as white cops.


In contrast, here so many want citizenship ASAP to avoid the risk of deportation. Everybody is afraid of that risk given how hard it is to get a green card, and the fact that you have family members relying on you back home.


Either the German media overhypes things, or immigrant groups somehow manage to not be as insane toward each other in the US. Haitians aren't going to light up the Jamaicans with pitchforks around here.

OTOH, maybe it's because if one chooses to commit felony assault, you win a free trip back home. It's not worth bashing somebody if it means you lose everything.


There's a reason why hospitals in the Bronx wouldn't put Dominican patients in the same rooms as Puerto Rican patients...

Coincidentally, there's a reason why Caribbeans live in black neighbourhoods and not Latino ones. :-/

With that said, I suspect it's because they're used to meeting bourgeois types, um, crude about these issues compared to other people within our own ethnic group. They're basically meeting white people that "season their chicken". I suspect one could argue that our immigration policy should select for that, and I suspect that's why East Asian immigrants are well liked in North America....


*EU is getting a bunch of Senegalese, lately.*

Stable enough to avoid being the top story on the news, but insanely high unemployment. So you send the men off to Europe, and shame those who didn't make it. Seriously, I've heard the stories on BBC about how those who don't make it are seen as *useless* and mistreated by their families, especially if assets were sold to pay for their trip...


I remember when NYC was the capital of the Haitian diaspora.

Now it's Miami. IIRC, the Haitians in Florida are mix of people from Miami and the Northeast. They wanted somewhere cheaper with less extreme weather, and oddly, for some Haitians, Atlanta feels like "home" if they grew up in the mountains.

Bonus is being away from the other Haitians that you don't like.


Haiti is a case where because there's crap for opportunities even before the state's implosion, you have lots of poor people struggling that basically view leaving as the only solution because they have zero hope of securing the few middle class jobs in the country. And the few people with middle class jobs view leaving as their backup option in case they lose their jobs.

In the 1980s, the latter would just overstay their visa. Now they just wait perpetually on line for some first world country. The former sell everything and become boat people, or they hope that somebody from a pays blancs sends money back home so they can pay bills and eat. With the capital imploding, even the latter will forgo waiting to try sneaking into the US.


I was going to write up a whole thing, and then I remembered how Northeastern and Canadian Haitians look down at their Miami counterparts as kinda trashy. OTOH, New York and Boston Haitians look at their Canadian counterparts with shame in the sense that they live in a place where they speak French, and yet somehow haven't become filthy rich.

FWIW, the Canadians partially solve for this problem by requiring their immigrants to meet a skill profile, or for those being sponsored by family to be financially supported by their families with a financial penalty for state support. The stories of family members going on welfare and the government billing their sponsors makes sponsoring the questionable cousin less enticing.


IIRC, I think they're from other parts of West Africa like Senegal.

As I've jokingly noted, they *seem* Haitian, but it feels off. :-)


*Quinceañeras*

Nah, we celebrate Labour Day and Sweet 16s. Not us. :-)

With that said, it seems that the neighbourhood is going down, and your dad is bailing before things get worse. I can't blame him or anybody else for doing the same thing.

FWIW, the loud party reference is why we *never* considered having a family BBQ. Stuff that's tolerable in a black neighbourhood would never fly in our mostly white neighbourhood which is what partially scares some of the non-white buyers away. Day time party is acceptable, but definitely, no loud music.


FWIW, based on my grandmother's nine grandchildren, only two have married white people and those two were probably the most white adjacent out of all of us as they grew up in the Upper West Side in Manhattan. One cousin married a FBA, another married a fellow Caribbean. And so far, four great grandchildren are products of FBA relationships, one is FBA/Hispanic, and two are mixed race.

From what I've seen, we're melting into the FBAs.


If he's open enough to marry a foreigner, he's open enough to the idea of more foreigners coming in.


I noted my cousin's harsh tendency toward fellow Haitians trying to claim refugee status during the Trump era because they were afraid of being deported from the US back to Haiti. His view was that it wasn't Canada's problem to solve if the US didn't want them.

FWIW, I felt far more sympathetic given the current state that Haiti is in right now...


When you've paid stupid amounts of money to make it here, and you see somebody showing up and screwing up your deal, you tend to take it somewhat personally, especially if they're from a different ethnic or religious group.


TIL that Susan Rice is also a fellow Caribbean.

FWIW, those three aren't that different from the types of middle class people that I'd see in my old neighbourhood waiting for the bus or at church.  Kamala is a ten percent of the Jamaican moms or aunts where I grew up.

*White people don't notice that effect because we all look alike to them.*

Meanwhile, I think we can figure out who's the foreigner within 30 seconds. :-P

A friend noted that in NYC, I'm "Haitian", but in Seattle where he grew up, I'm just another black person. It's partially why I've never really warmed up the idea of leaving New York, and I'd prefer Canada where the bulk of the black population is composed of black immigrants, especially from my part of the world.


"She's incorporated white supremacy toward browner Muslims."


*wow*

I guess it's weird to see somebody actually move away because foreign black people showed up, but I live in NYC Metro where foreign black people are a sizable chunk of the black population. You'd never see FBA people openly say up here, "I can't live around these Caribbeans". If anything, I've met a few FBA types that looked up to us as "better".


So the Christians rise up in terms of education and make it through normal immigration channels while the poor Muslims, especially in the Sahel just bolt for Europe?


Palestinians who happen to be Christian versus Christians who happen to be Lebanese.

The confessional state is strong in Lebanon while it doesn’t seem to deliver any real benfit to Palestinians.


That reminds me of adult actress Mia Kalifa saying pro-Palestinian argments online while having a tattoo of a group in the Lebanese civil war that was anti-PLO and sometimes allied with Israel…


Let’s just say that the kleptocracy problem existed before foreign aid became widepsread.


Haiti's been a nominal democracy with elections since 1994, so it's not quite despotic rule.  FWIW, the real problem is kleptocracy, especially in a country where the easiest way to make money is to *loot* the government via corruption. Sometimes the foreign aid promises don't quite materialize, but when it does, $X is allocated, $Y is looted, and $X-$Y leaves very little to get anything done.


FWIW, there's a small plurality of Haitians that would kill for a pays blancs to take over and fix the country at this point. Mind you, I suspect they're looking at things from a very idealistic standpoint. Germany* isn't going to fix Haiti and turn it into the 17th Lander overnight, and the inability to do this is what creates some of the problems.

*Some Haitians liked the Germans because they're not a previous colonizer, the Americans are seen as awful interlopers, so that leaves the Germans as the next best option.


I guess we could just occupy Palestine and "fix it", but I suspect that it's a non-starter for many reasons...


Theres a cold part lf me that argues that we have to be better, otherwise it defeats the entire purpose of Western Civilization.


Mom used to take tuna and mix it with mayo and something else to make a pate of some sort that was perfect for sandwiches.

Zero clue of how to replicate that.


But disposing of that little bit is what's supposed to make us better as a people and a civilization!


My fish consumption these days is now salmon, frozen whiting, and fish sticks. It's supplemented with canned sardines and mackerel.


Caribbeans: Do they not have the red snapper in your country? :-)

Mom used to make that stuff, and I haven't had it in *years*.


Maybe other people should be *less* racist like those non-racist white people.


Put it this way, immigration from the rest of the world doesn't make me feel less foreign per se because it doesn't make me *white*. It's not the presence of other people, but the ability to be seen as equivalent to the middle class natives with no negative stereotypes.


I suspect this is one of those topics where we'll probably never agree. :-/


FWIW, I read a story about Nigerians that ended up in Brazil because the boat they were using as their escape method ended up there instead of the US as would have preferred. Despite being more organized than back home, most longed for the States. The happiest, IIRC, was a mom with kids who seemed somewhat content about being somewhere *better* than home. The men wanted the US.


Somebody will argue that it's morally wrong to make such a distinction between two suffering groups.

FWIW, it's only North America, Europe, and Australia that have the attempted financial capacity to absorb some immigrants. The Middle East is basically only workable with oil and few citizens, South America isn't that rich and the same could be said for most of Asia.


And I'm *very* hazy about hyping up the idea of killing these people because I look like a foreigner, and the people who are generally anti-immigrant are also anti-*me*.


Something something "why don't you do this Ukranians, but to Africans/Arabs/Middle Easterners/Latin Americans".

FWIW, the US goes the closest to this route in terms of partial imprisonment, and people still *try* to come here in the hopes that they'll find work because earning first world money is better than nothing. And nobody wants the optics of dead people in the sea in sunken ships or coated in blood at the frontiers.


FWIW, there isn't a magical solution given that Africans are *desperate* to make their way to Europe in the hope of living a better life. Just as in the US, the people we deport tend to make additional attempts to enter, so short of imprisonment or death, we're stuck with this problem....


There's an implied sense that you were supposed to buy something "nice" with it, but I suspect if they thought about it, they would have realized that silver coins and BTC are nice things to you versus high end purses.


The irony is that your mom is also a beute frau. :-)


*Inside joke.*

I see what you did there. :-)


Charlemagne! :-)

Promoting Franco-German unity since 800. :-)


With that said, you somehow manage to visit the hidden spots that most of us in the States never think about visiting. We focus on the big cities and the obvious stuff, and you're visiting hidden gems that Europeans keep to themselves. :-)


*Aachen*

I believe you mean Aix-la-Chapelle. :-)


FWIW, as I've noted before, you didn't quite notice it because there weren't reports in local media of it. Yes, there were illegal immigrants in various neighbourhoods, but they all had some type of home and employment. We're noticing the issue now because they're being bused from other states, and they're seeking state support.


Well, the thing they had in common was that they were all seeking normalcy and acceptance by the rest of society.


There’s a sense that Camp of the Saints turned out to be true in a limited form, but it’s hard to stop the flow without being hilariously racist about it.

I’m somewhat sensitive and biased to that for not quite obvious reasons.


As my friend noted, he’s seeing more Hispanic men sleeping in the subway with the implication that they’re refugees who have either lost their housing or new arrivals that have been kicked out of shelters.


FWIW, illegal immigrants have been in NYC for *decades*.

The difference is that you're noticing it because there's no more cheap basement apartments and overcrowded houses in the outerboros anymore.


I suspect this is what women really mean when they say "dad bod". :-)


Western WeChat.

The irony is that FB kinda beat him to the punch.


Wait, where is that?


So, um, what do I have to do to keep following you?


*where I live, but we have no whores*

I suspect local regional capital will have some.

OTOH, maybe I'm getting older and no longer as interested in viewing, but Munich didn't seem to have the seedy side that Berlin has, or even a Cologne or Frankfurt...


So a state with an awful trafficking problem decided that prostitution should be something that takes place with minimal rules and regulations?

The problem is that advocates for sex workers tend to hype up decriminalization as the solution to minimize interaction with the state while not realizing that we want state interaction to make it as easy as possible to capture the bad actors.


As a few people have noted, NYS legalized marijuana with the most cumbersome process ever to open a store, so illegal stores have popped up selling openly with nearly minimize enforcement from law enforcement.


In contrast, you have e black kids renting homes on AirBNB, hotel rooms, or using low use catering halls expecting family events as party venues.

One went wrong when some kids shot each other over the summer. :-/


Drunk Mode: Baha’i is the liberal Islam that never quite caught on.


As I’ve said before, you could just have picked Caribbeans if you needed some workers. :-)


In my drunker moments, I’ve wanted to argue that the CIA et alia need to start infiltrating these mosques to influence their adherents with more liberal and secular values, but I suspect there’s not much of a market for Liberal Islam with some of these types.


In contrast, this shift just isn’t happening to the youth in the US.

OTOH, immigrants are “normalized” in the US.


So can we import their matching women just to paper over this problem, or do they have the taste for local women now?


Somewhere in SPD HQ, the comfort of knowing that AfD was stealing CDU/CSU votes has faded as some of their base is going to slowly defect to the Iranian Ossi.


FWIW, I know you’re too libertarian to vote for her, but would your husband and other right leaning SPD types consider her as an option?


Isn’t she basically the AfD but “for the left leaning Ossis?”

OTOH, does anybody in the West vote for Der Linke given its past, or there people who vote for it because they’re too leftist for the SPD?


Oh good because it’s close for some of us :-)


Wait, you just found out?

Supposedly, it was a Hamas rocket that failed. Then they overhyped it and claimed it was Israel, the media ran with it, and it lit up the so-called Arab Street and the jeune leftists.


And nobody wants the stressful work of nursing when they can do admin work for nearly similar or more money with less weird hours.


*Thank you. 40 is such a nice age.*

Really? :-)


*when they find out what an old biddy I am*

Black people 43 isn't the same as white people 43, so you're basically still a young woman. :-)


Happy Birthday fellow Scorpio. :-)


Yeah, there's a reason why everybody started off with no speed limits on the highway, and within ten years, somehow speed limits became a thing.

Only the Germans could really pull it off without being a death trap. France tried, and well, France was a raging death trap filled with speeders until recently.


Greenwich Village/LES/Williamburgh on the Spree :-)


I've generally noted that my mom spent more time in the kitchen than in her own living room or the den with the larger TV.


So you're saying I should visit and eat your food?


*some of the longest, flattest stretches of road in the world, with virtually no traffic. Canadian prairies.*

I drove from Alberta to Drumhellier a few years ago, and as somebody from a coastal plain, that was a little surreal at times.


This sounds right.

Even in Sweden a few people will jaywalk, but Germany? LOL no.


It’s probably better if they discovered that you’re religious now versus later if it bothers them that much…


A lot of problems go away with the right (or wealthy) man. :-)

With that said, at least husband gave an enema. Some men don't bother at all. :-/


I suspect that trick works for happily married women.

The ones who didn't marry well may feel differently. Well, more so about the former while the latter is probably unlikely in both cases. And I suspect the former is assuming a more idealistic version of what could have happened.


Smart black dads club. :-)


My parents didn't quite go about purposely assimilating, but somehow, it kinda happened so I'm not quite sure what people are expecting?


There seems to be an implication that black girls can't be intelligent and quirky, so you have to be a bot. Once you dropped the Jewish ancestry references, all of a sudden "it makes sense".


It feels as if she blew through her five weeks of vacation already!


At the rate things move at my job, I’ll need at least two decades of work to have a chance at that…


It's interesting that you say that as we spoke English and Creole at home, and that was the case for most of us Pan Am Caribbeans. Our Canadian relatives went back and forth between French and Creole. OTOH, compared to the cohort of immigrants that you're getting, we're *very* Western in comparison, hence my joke about sending Haitians to Germany if you needed warm (Catholic) bodies.

OTOH, I have an aunt that never really picked up English for whatever reason, and living in South Florida without papers (and no access to good jobs) reinforces the Haitian bubble.

>Sometimes the most racially-foreign person in the room is the most ethnically-native person there.

As my dad noted when his viewpoints shifted over the years from living in the US, sometimes magic dirt does work.


You were literally on vacation a month ago! :-P

𝕼𝖚𝖎𝖊𝖙 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗


𝕼𝖚𝖎𝖊𝖙 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗


Some men like the first kind of exotic.

Other men like the second version where the woman in the apron is exotic.


You can buy a house with 3% down now!

FWIW, the co-ops in NYC require 20% so despite being affordable and low priced, they’re not the cheap and easy option for buying.


NGL, if I was earning my current income, and the unit not being in a poorly run co-op with water damage, I would have considered buying out my other relatives. Decent rental property or a place to downsize into from the current house.


FWIW, I'm in the weird case where my grandmother's condo was sold and the profits were split among her grandchildren. Let's just say that the money was spent but it papered over the period after my mom passing away.


Fixed rate mortgages, yet such a depressed home owner rate by European standards...


It's the same reason as to why my cousin didn't leave the Caribbean until the crime problem became awful.

If you're a professional in a low to middle income country that's stable, you have a decent level of living that while not quite comparable to first world equivalency, the status of being a professional combined with being able to afford servants reduces the incentives to immigrate. These types tend to leave when the government starts to hunt them down for holding the wrong opinion on things, or if they're gay or feminists.

OTOH, the college educated types that leave are those who didn't win employment in their field, and they're unemployed or stuck working in a low income job with zero hope for marriage.


They don't want Hamas members sneaking out to cause problems in their countries. Hamas is a spin off the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Jordanians remember Black September when the PLO tried to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy...


The multi-lane traffic circle near me at the beach just feels awful to use, so I'm not inclined to support *more*, and they're generally rare in downstate NY. Upstate will install them, and it just feels like they're over powered for simple intersections, but the wrong fit for high volume intersections.


*Nobody has ever accused me of having social skills before.*

I've seen you in real life. You have social skills! :-)


It's weird, the English love those things, the French use them considerably, and then there's the Germans who have some actual hesitancy by European standards.

They're popular in urbanist circles due to view that they better for calming traffic while maintaining thoroughput without the need for four way stops, but most Americans *hate* them. It's been a fun discussion in Urbanist Twitter where non-drivers love them, and drivers hate them...


FWIW, there's been a stream of articles about how certain Muslim heavy regions of the US, local school boards have been supportive of removing books that are LGBTQ friendly, and the LGBTQ activists are very upset that their support of a marginalized group, especially during peak War on Terror, wasn't reciprocated here.

I suspect they're slightly biased from meeting well educated, very liberal types that end up going to selective schools versus the average person on the street who is far less amenable to this stuff.


I'd opt for a propane tank since I have the upper body strength of a wet noodle, but mobile internet definitely makes that lifestyle a bit easier if you're looking for a brief escape or permanent exile.


If the property taxes aren't awful and the environmental rules not awful, he could make use of this place with some pre-built housing kits some companies offer now.

Otherwise, van life is probably the best option here.


*Feels like a shrine. I've tried to throw some stuff away, but they just complain.*

If it makes them happy, let it rock. :-) /bias


https://jobs.deutschebahngroup.careers/en_US/jobsGlobal/JobDetail/Ausbildung-Lokf-hrer-in-2024/239042

DB is always hiring if you want meaningful work. :-)


They cheated by having lower cost housing. OTOH, we have amazing tech and cheap flights. :-)

If you live at home with your parents, it's an amazing time. If you wanted to be independent at 18, it's awful especially when your competition is also being subsidized by their parents.

FWIW, in the case of the video, I suspect the parents bought the house back when those things were cheap, and if they're in a state with pensions for teachers, they didn't need to be as hard or aggressive with retirement savings compared to other white collar workers. I see similar things at my job where the older workers pay less into the pension with a better return, while the newer workers will pay more with less payouts compared to previous generations. We have less free cash flow, and housing costs more.


You should suggest some Bitcoin buying options to her :-)


FWIW, one could argue that we should be proud of her frugality and ability to save money, especially given the stereotypes of people on welfare.


CSU + FW government?


I like your glasses! :-)


What happened *now*?


I'm still there, and I don't see what anybody is complaining about...


You've prevented homelessness!

Now work on social integration next! :-(

קยภк ภ๏รtг๏ภคยt :verified:


I guess "hot with makeup" is beating out "cute with no makeup".

OTOH, more women use makeup for social media, OTOH, when you walk around the real world, it's certainly not being used for the trip to Target...


Do you want more housing ASAP, or are you going to argue about not dumping all of the poor people in one location?

I'm not saying that to be mean, but it's admittedly part of the problem for policy makers at this point. You can hold out for the perfect solution, or you can build build build, and worry about the other problems later.

קยภк ภ๏รtг๏ภคยt :verified:


FWIW, I tend to take a dirigiste approach, I'd argue for the state to just build units at this point, but I suspect while France would pull it off, the Germans would somehow screw it up with planning, and the US would either be too cheap, overpay, or not build any because the locals fight off the project and the people who support it would never support build it in a greenfield location.


I'm guessing you count the household computers when you were growing up as work PCs for the parents?


Nerd.

Better yet, German speaking Nerd!

My first exposure to Linux was 2016. I bought a used ThinkPad where the previous owner sent a fresh copy of Ububtu. My godmother didn't take the computer as intended, and it became my travel laptop until 2020. It's on the slow side now, but it definitely showed that Linux can be aesthetically appealing and functional for doing basic stuff like browsing websites.


Yeah, the market has dried up even in small town places, and as a few others have noted, the high interest rates create the doom loop where builders won't build as much which stifles supply which influences inflation upward which causes the Fed to say "keep rates high"...

קยภк ภ๏รtг๏ภคยt :verified:


The reality is this ... those people who think the decline of American-led rules-based order is going to usher in an era of peace, because you've convinced yourself that the military industrial complex is the chief antagonist in what would otherwise be a more peaceful world ... well, you may very well be about to feast on prodigious meal of rude awakenings.


One could argue that those functions of law enforcement shouldn't come at the detriment of citizens overseas, but as somebody noted, citizens overseas "don't count" in the minds of most people.


Apparently, the US government thinks there's some giant chunk of money going untaxed by Americans overseas.

Meanwhile, actual rich Americans use accountants to come up with all sorts of insane ways of minimizing their tax payments.


I thought it's because they didn't want the headache of reporting data to the IRS for American citizens. It's easier to dump those customers than to figure out how to deal with that issue.


*home-office*

Is that what you call "work from home" in the language of your people?

*so long as it includes the chance to have sex on your coffee break.*

That sounds like a Southern European employee benefit. :-P

I suspect the already happens at some workplaces, as it has at mine. The problem is when that person isn't one's significant other...


For a minute, I wondered if you mellowed out.

Nope, still out believing lukewarm types like myself. :-)


Who ever wins that seat is de facto Senator for Life like the previous holder of the seat, so it makes some sense to have somebody hold the spot temporarily until an election…


It's supposedly how you meet the dual mandate where you promise to nominate a black woman while keeping out potential candidates from having incumbency advantage. The bonus is that it keeps the black woman with lefty politics from having said advantage.


You haven't changed one bit. :-)


My employer just announced that they’re going to start accepting vacation requests for the next year in a few weeks.

I’ve already made several scribbles about how to use the days and have some idea of where to go based on that assuming that I have enough points and that there will be enough availability…


With that said, some will pay because they can afford to do so, but I wouldn’t be surprised if non-payment rates are higher than pre-pandemic. Some won’t pay out of principle, some because ruined credit is better than not being able to afford food and housing.

I suspect some people may not suffer as much if the new payment plans capping repayments pans out…


There was a part of me that wanted to stop paying but something told me to just pay it off ASAP.

That free cash flow from paid off student loans has been very helpful in our current inflationary era.


It also hasn’t helped that NYC’s economy has been somewhat depressed compared to pre-pandemic, so there’s less jobs to absorb these migrants in the first place. Most of the men now earn income either working under the table or doing e-bike deliveries, and the women and children ride on the subway selling candies.


As I’ve said before, they expected immigrants who show up, find fellow co-ethnics that secure them work and a room rental without involving the state.

Haitians, Ecuadorians, and Venezuelans showing up and asking for shelter wasn’t part of the plan. :-/


To be honest, if it’s one group of people who would be awful parents, it’s the race realists. There’s a certain coldness to them that makes me question their ability to love their own children.


As I've jokingly noted, the race realists are never in the "
have lots of kids camp". They're usually in the "I don't want to lower my living standards by having more kids" camp.


I tend to take the view that it's *both*.

As I've jokingly noted, if my dad was born 20 miles to the east and spoke Spanish, I'd be *Hispanic* and not "black". Race is something that exists in a biological sense, but the social reaction to it is the social construct.


Once we nuked industrial employment in the North, there wasn't a magical high paying job for lower class, uneducated black men, especially outside of civil service gigs, but their women were employable in low wage but growing service sector. So, something gave, and it was the usefulness of marriage to increasingly unemployable black men.


In contrast, as I've said countless times before, if the welfare state is collapsing, it screams "don't start a family". IOW, hoard as much as possible and don't marry or have children lest your have to spread your declining earnings and savings over multiple dependents.


ʕ ಠᴥಠʔ   Bäretta   🇨🇿


I have a dungeon available on Long Island. $2000 per month and one hour away from Manhattan! It’s almost as good as a penthouse suite! :-)

Seriously, there’s a reason why so many adults stay at home with their parents in our area. You need six figures to move out, or your fiancé needs to make that amount to have a shot at buying a house.


Don’t they work out as well? And eat all sorts of organic stuff?

Although some of the vegan stuff just comes across as junk food with more steps…


You cheated by being black, living in Germany, married, and religious.


Of course the trade off is that I’ll end up having to work some stupid amount of overtime to pay off the contractors…


My skills at this stuff are lacking, so it’s more of a “pay somebody to do it lest it look so awful that it’s embarrassing” situation for me.

I’m still debating driving up to see my cousins for a Canadian Thanksgiving or just sitting around the house for a week…


I just want more money and vacation time so I can ride trains in Europe. :-)


"Yes, I'd like to have my cake and eat it too. And no child support payments, please. "


FWIW, it seems that men will *date down*, but down is relatively narrow, especially for white men. There's no accountant dating a home care attendant.


The suburban and rural counties near NYC have pretty much said no, and the few places that have taken them are basically poor cities upstate with two star hotels that would kill for NYC's guaranteed payments at rack rates. The hotel owners are making a killing, but the migrants are stuck in places with no public transport and even less work opportunities compared to NYC.


FWIW, NYC has been looking for places to house our new migrant population. Parents flipped out when they started using school gyms, locals flipped out when surplus area at the mental hospital near ball fields and a YMCA in Queens was considered, and tents in a national park site are being fought by locals despite the relative isolation of said park. Neighbouring counties declared states of emergency to prevent hotels from taking in migrants from NYC, and the State was looking for anywhere other than upstate to house these locals.

It has not been an ideal situation. The families are sympathetic cases, but the young single men aren't despite many of them being from Venezuela. And as we all know, nobody likes the Haitians. :-/


"We have an exotic woman of vague origins"

"Oh you'll have zero chances with her because she's happily married, but we won't tell you that until you sign the contract."


Given who joins the US military, I suspect there weren't *that* many takers for that option...


I find that weird, but race is wonky in the US.

In contrast, back home in the Caribbean, some of the older women were generally shamed into finding the lightest guy they could find as a husband. The light skinned guys generally had money and social status, and in a poor country, that stuff matters...


None Gone - on a quest to make a living on #Bitcoin only!


It's an interesting way of solving the "we messed up our housing supply to the point that low end healthcare workers can't afford housing" problem.

But yeah, those roles admittedly skew Southeast Asian/Hispanic/Black/Native American, but $25/hr is nothing when the in the Bay Area, the tech guys (that still have jobs) are making $150K a year. My friend turned down a job managing a Regiobahn line there because $150K and being de facto on call 24/7 was detrimental to reducing his stress, and the pay wasn't enough to buy a house close to work there.


You know, I wonder if the Gen Y equivalent of your father dates the local women off base, or if it's just easier to date on base now with actual women...


*getting schtupped by a German guy*

Oh no, our daughter will be married to a white guy who can care for her, and provide for our future grandchildren, and we might see some money once in a while.

And this is why some countries stay poor. :-/


And not the whole "yeah, Muslims are awfully queasy about their daughters marrying non-Muslims" thing?

Does having lots of female soldiers depress the need to find women in the local community, yes. Does the lack of American female soldiers make Muslim fathers in Iraq or Afghanistan willing to let their daughters date Christians? I suspect you'd find some who wouldn't mind as much, but it's a much harder sell compared to say, Germany in the post-war period.


IIRC, I think somebody noted that the War on Terror was the first war in which American soldiers didn't bring back war brides.


There's a weird "this country has become a hell hole for women, so let's send our young men away" plan here.

FWIW, I suspect the real issue is that trying to leave for the West is hilariously dangerous, so they're even more inclined to send their sons on a dangerous trip, especially in a very conservative society. At worst, they send money back home, and at best, they get sponsored for family reunification, and they travel via plane to the first world.


It’s 2023?

Also that’s a bit too warm for my ancestors in the Caribbean to wear when this stuff was commonplace.


…wait, how do you know this? Only weirdos pay attention to WEC, and I know this because my brother watches 24 Heures du Mans every year!


Nah, you need to tell! :-)

FWIW, I like Ubuntu Budgie because it’s pretty and Lubuntu because it’s pretty and works on old ThinkPads…


My desk is the *opposite*.

Mom would be screaming at me if she saw it...


In a "there's lots of stuff close together sense" or in my mom's "wow, you can drive into several countries within four hours of home" sense? You can see a limited version of that in the Northeast, but the former is impossible to replicate in most of North America...


I'm guessing, I should be the one who visits and not you. :-)


I suspect you're well aware that most (North) Americans look at Europe as train heaven, so we're all trying to double down and milk the train rides.

FWIW, I've driven in Germany and the UK. Germany is nice, the UK feels like a bit of a scam given that they're basically paying similar gas prices, have high taxes, but the roads seem awful compared to Bayern.

The low key dream is to drive across the Pont Millau and Oersund Link, but I'm a weirdo nerd. Most other people just want a pretty B road or Route Nationale.


I would have figured that the $10/gal gas and the tolls would make that, um, very expensive as well. If you think DB/SNCF is expensive, you should see Amtrak these days. :-/

Also, I never had you pegged as somebody who hates flying...


Wait, Europeans drive?

And Germans pay French and Spanish tolls? :-)


I mean you could always fire up the atom plants :-/


“Yes, a communist state that represses faith is a good place for a Lutheran minister and his family.”


The Germans made an interesting assumption that everybody else was as rational as them.

Jokes on you. OTOH, caring about the environment is such a German thing to do, and I despite German coal mining, I suspect you guys will *never* drill for natural gas.


*who our left-leaning politicians*

To be fair, Merkel is an ex-DDR resident. Learning Russian was a valuable skill in a Russian colony.

With that said, I had a joke with a friend where I said that everybody in the 2016 race was a Russian plant. It really didn't help when you had Trump courting Russian money, Jill Stein at a dinner sharing a table with Putin, and Sanders left leaning viewpoints and his awfully grifty campaign staff.


* Germany is sitting on a gigantic gas reserve*

It's funny that you say that as it's weird that Germany would have coal, yet no natural gas while the UK somehow ended up with both, as did Pennsylvania.

NYS has a moratorium on fracking as the land with potential natural gas is also NYC's water shed, and even from a practical standpoint, the economic benefits aren't enough to pay for the filtering needed to make NYC's water passable if it's contaminated with the byproducts of drilling. Yes, NYC's tap water is de facto natural water. PA has fracking, but it hasn't quite made the state *that* rich.


My environmentally conscious friend jokingly noted that anti-nuclear/pro-wind+solar is just a front for US nat gas producers who get to be the baseline power source. Turns out, the Russians have the same idea.


Wait, that was all Russian financed?

It seemed relatively realistic and plausible. OTOH, they supposedly planted the whole "CIA caused AIDS" meme that plagues the black community...


IIRC, some miners were trying to use Upstate NY for mining due to our cheap hydroelectric power and ample small towns with legacy power connections due to abandoned factories. Quebec saw some miners for similar reasons...


It's funny how Atari to you is a micro computer, while to most people, it's a *video game console*.


My friend jokingly noted that the tools he uses to operate a train in New York are museum pieces in Madrid.


It's rather interesting to note the weird regionalism with those early computing systems before DOS & Win 3.11 became the standard.

FWIW, my Catholic schools had Apple IIs. Ironically, the mostly black school had newer fancier versions with colour screens. OTOH, they charged extra for computer classes, and had zero qualms about excluding students that didn't pay.


Wait, how does Scandinavia have cheaper electricity rates than Germany? Hydro?


*Imagine launching an oversees war and throwing all of your Chicago
ghetto residents and Latino gangbangers at it. It would be popular here,
 too.*

With the nationalist bonus of annexing Canada.


Admittedly, I’m shocked that such a large German firm is having those issues…


*I have individual stocks that generate good dividends*

If you're hilariously bored, see r/dividends at Reddit. :-)


There's a reason why I've said that once your parents pass away, the only people obliged to pay attention to you are gone. :-(


Some of those women would kill for a man with money to add sprinkles to their lives on state support. They're just not in a position to access those men. A lucky few do make it out though...


The guys who tend to be complaining about not getting laid tend to also have limited ability to do anything cool with their lives.


*I suspect a lot of men are happy if there wives are homemakers, for this very reason.*

Have you tried to price out a house in a safe neighbourhood? Nah, she needs to work.


Great, I'll have to entertain myself again.

Lousy married moms focused on their lives instead of me. :-P


I've jokingly said this is why I'd rather stay single. It's too hard to try and compete on this issue.

And I'm *scared* of the women who think I'd be a good option. Shudder.


I suspect this explains part of the wonky "why don't black women get/stay married" problem. Or more so why their marriages to white guys seem to pan out *really* well.


My pet theory is that he won exotic girl lotto with you. :-)


1) Be pretty
2) Be smart
3) See 1.


I suspect for a weirdo like me with weird hours, returning home from work at 4 AM turns the 7:30 AM Mass in the rough mental equivalent of a evening Mass.


I suspect it’s a bit of an indictment of who still attends and runs your average suburban parish on Long Island (retired boomers), and a mindset about Mass being the start of your day versus the end of it.

The 7:30 AM Mass is skews a bit older than the 9 AM which has a few more SAHMs with day care aged kids.


(Fires up brokerage)


Dryer Supremacy!


In contrast, I can’t think of any parish around here that has daily Mass after noon. Most places, it’s 6:30/7:30/9 and maybe a midday Mass of some sort.

Even the Euro Sunday night 7 PM Mass thing doesn’t exist here with some parishes no longer offering a late Sunday Mass.


It’s weird, as I knew about the requirement to file for overseas citizens, but I figured that you wouldn’t qualify for the stimulus.

Wait, so did you qualify for tax credits from your kids too?


Wait…you qualified for the stimulus on foreign sources of income? WTF?


Vigils?


I don’t think I’ve seen any parish where the sacristans were in our age group.

OTOH, you had kids young and work part-time so you’re in that point in your life where you’re free to spend lots of time at church.


Joke: you’re not a post-menopausal woman with adult kids! You’re too young for that!


IIRC, around that time I would have been in the tail end of elementary school, so other than Dragon Ball Z, my info on anime was from Filipino kids at my Catholic school who were importing translated anime from back home or playing Japanese spec video games on jury-rigged PlayStations. The kind of stuff you found in ads in the back of now defunct video game magazines.


*I'm the OG anime fan in the house, but from way back. She's like oh, the classics.*

Given that you're just slightly older than me, anime watching in your teens was far more avant-garde compared to now, especially when OMG anime was still stuff like Dragon Ball Z. Even Sailor Moon was a bit off the wall.


Germany doesn't have withholding, or it's not enough for your tax situation?


I’m sure the FHA will offer a 3% mortgage on German property nowhere near a US a military base.


The depressing part isn't so much when you draw up the budget.

It's when everything is finally deducted, the food and transport budget is drawn down, and the hope for a surplus after final reconciliation disappear.


*I know some people on the Internet from real-life and that's nice to know, at least they're real.*

Hi friend! \(^_^)/


I shall buy a home in your town and rent it on AirBNB! :-)

I can think of four wonderful Germans to work there part-time as needed. :-p


You would think that somebody would have capitalized on this by now.


FWIW, if you're going to assume the worst about women, then it makes sense to hold out for some insane level of perfection that's worth the opportunity costs.


*Most women are like Cramer.*

Somebody at JPM is getting rich on shorting everything this man says is "gold".


ʕ ಠᴥಠʔ   Bäretta   🇨🇿


It's been a while since I've been in the Bundesrepublik, but how common are those things?

In ethnic supermarkets, they don't exist yet, while in the big chains, they've been there for almost 15 years. I've seen one 24/7 market turn them off after 10 PM forcing everybody to use the checkout lane, while another market leaves them as the only option in the last hour before closing.