Political Discussion

I lost a limited edition pressing of Death's Symbolic and an out of print board game to a mail truck fire. No compensation because I didn't purchase insurance (I didn't even know that was an option). They didn't even notify me. For over two weeks my tracking said "Out for delivery." I had to go to the post office where they reluctantly told me what happened. T'was a sad day.

Did you watch the video. It’s not just about them catching on fire. It’s about how inefficient gas and all the resources wasted the have been put into redesigning them.
 
That sucks.

Also, for most records I have purchased, I have never seen the option to add insurance in most retailer or bands shipping options.

How do you even add it?
I know on items I send via USPS via media mail I can add on insurance at additional cost. I generally take a bit of cost on to do so just in case for pricier items. I imagine most bands or stores don't offer since they find it easier to replace the record.
 
I know on items I send via USPS via media mail I can add on insurance at additional cost. I generally take a bit of cost on to do so just in case for pricier items. I imagine most bands or stores don't offer since they find it easier to replace the record.
Which means you are generally SOL on a limited release that is sold out :cry:
 

Here is the latest on the stimulus.

No surprise that the Republicans oppose it. Say it's too large, socialism and don't think it is actually needed and that we should wait and see how things progress verses rushing to pass a bill.

When it comes to democrats, many moderate democrats are opposed to certain aspects of the bill, such as increasing the middle wage. Something that progressives are pushing for.
 

Here is the latest on the stimulus.

No surprise that the Republicans oppose it. Say it's too large, socialism and don't think it is actually needed and that we should wait and see how things progress verses rushing to pass a bill.

When it comes to democrats, many moderate democrats are opposed to certain aspects of the bill, such as increasing the middle wage. Something that progressives are pushing for.
They are voting on it tomorrow in the House and have a +10 vote cushion. I would be surprised it it didn’t pass exactly as Biden proposed it. Unlike the previous administration it seems like the Biden administration understands the benefits the bully pulpit that the Presidency wields. I am sure they will be able to whip up enough support. The Senate is where they’ll will run into issues. I am sure it will still pass but they may need some concessions due to their slim margins.
 
They are voting on it tomorrow in the House and have a +10 vote cushion. I would be surprised it it didn’t pass exactly as Biden proposed it. Unlike the previous administration it seems like the Biden administration understands the benefits the bully pulpit that the Presidency wields. I am sure they will be able to whip up enough support. The Senate is where they’ll will run into issues. I am sure it will still pass but they may need some concessions due to their slim margins.

exactly. We know we will likely have 50 votes against i from the get go. This means 50 votes for it is the ceiling and the tie breaker comes into play.

The issue is, convincing a couple of moderate democrats that they need to vote for it. What's his face from I think West Virginia comes to mind.

The $15 an hour minimum wage might be a sticking point. This is the section of the bill that is most likely to see some concessions sadly.

Not things like yet another airline bailout.
 
In this area all rentals built in the last 15 years have targeted people who make 100k a year or more.

Even one bedroom apartments and studios are priced this way. They are either priced for one person making 100k, or double income.

An hourly wage of $32 an hour with single income is considered living above your means for almost all one bedroom rentals.

I can only afford the cheapest rental properties in Salem. The new apartments they just built I can come nowhere close to being able to afford.

Guess I'm in the wrong career. The Millennial able to afford this housing are likely working in finance or insurance in Boston. Which Boston is big on. I was talking to one such person, and their salary is 350k . No wonder they can afford a one bedroom apartment that targets people with an income of 100k or more.

A family of 2 could not afford a many of the 1 bedroom apartment around here if both were making a minimum wage of $15 an hour. Have kids to support? Forget about it, you would need to get into section 8 housing. Which has up to a 15 year waiting list in this area!



When I was in college, my career path was looking like I could easily make 120k a year when I reached the 3-5 year experience range.

The floor fell out with the recession and globalization. Most companies want to off shore web development work and there is a mentality that "any one can work" and that it's no longer a specialized skill.

5 years experience will now land you with a salary of 45k to 70k depending where you are located in much of the country for a Front End Web Developer.

Jobs in the 6 figure range today either have requirements of 20 years experience or is contractor position.

Technically I'm a Full Stack Developer, which includes backend languages and apps. And I do that kind of work. But my job title and pay does not reflect that. And that's because font end development still makes up the majority of my work as well as many of my colleges. It's like the backend work has to make up the majority of our work for them to considers full stack. But in that case they could use the same argument to say you are a Backend Developer, and not a Full Stack Developer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We are flat with no career growth path where I work other than moving up to a VP level position and then the work isn't so much development but rather marketing decisions, sales and management. No yearly cost of living adjustments either. The only real way for me to get a raise is to move around.

Been keeping an eye on things to see if any better job openings come up. But there really has been nothing in the past year. Covid aside, our job Market is saturated. Wayfair laid off 1,000 developers in January of 2020. Much of the advertising agencies also downsized in January of 2020. This means any job that does gets posted is highly competitive with hundreds of people applying for them.

With the surplus of talent, this means the wages are not good on the jobs that do come up. I have been watching Glass Door and there hasn't been anything in the last year that has been worth applying for. They would all mean a pay cut for me. I even saw a front end developer position with 5 years experience listed in Boston for $15 an hour on Glass Door :oops:

I feel this.

I flexed my client-facing communication skills when my company started offshoring our devs to India, who make like 1/3 of our onshore folks, and transitioned into an Operations Lead. It likely saved my job. I was a database dev, but the web and front end folks had it much worse. My team of ~20 folks had 4 on shore web devs and a few offshore. We now have 1 onshore, who is the manager for the offshore folks. It was a sad bloodbath across our entire organization, and I miss the colleagues that we lost in the process, both on my team and not.

I hardly ever code anything anymore, but I also feel like my tech background and new client services experience has really set me up to grow my career. If I hadn't made the decision to transition the month before one of our team leads was let go, I don't know where I'd be now.

I'm also lucky that the cost of living in Akron, OH is crazy low compared to the coasts.
 
I feel this.

I flexed my client-facing communication skills when my company started offshoring our devs to India, who make like 1/3 of our onshore folks, and transitioned into an Operations Lead. It likely saved my job. I was a database dev, but the web and front end folks had it much worse. My team of ~20 folks had 4 on shore web devs and a few offshore. We now have 1 onshore, who is the manager for the offshore folks. It was a sad bloodbath across our entire organization, and I miss the colleagues that we lost in the process, both on my team and not.

I hardly ever code anything anymore, but I also feel like my tech background and new client services experience has really set me up to grow my career. If I hadn't made the decision to transition the month before one of our team leads was let go, I don't know where I'd be now.

I'm also lucky that the cost of living in Akron, OH is crazy low compared to the coasts.

Another fun thing is our clients always want to do more for less every year. We are always taking a hit in our retainer revenue each year and each year our clients want more work done.

Our clients are always complaining about "how we are too expensive". For some of our clients, we are not longer able to touch any of the development work. We can only do the design and consulting. We are no longer an authorized dev shop that these global companies utilize because "we are too expensive". The majority of our work is for pharmaceutical companies.

So we work with a lot of dev shops in India now. And a lot of times we have to build out code and send it to them because they say it can't be done or can't figure it out. But we don't get paid for that work. It's just insane.

I also personally love when we fill bugs for things that are broken, don't work right or have serious performance issues because of bad code, more than half the time the manager at the dev shop in India just flat out tells us no, they are not going to fix that. They are worried about keeping their production line moving verses spending time on fixing bugs. You get what you pay for.
 
Welp. As was kinda expected, there goes the $15 minimum wage increase from the Covid Relief bill per the Senate parliamentary rules.



I saw Romney and Cotton have their own $10 an hour minimum wage bill, maybe they can come up with a compromise and at least get some people some help.
 
Welp. As was kinda expected, there goes the $15 minimum wage increase from the Covid Relief bill per the Senate parliamentary rules.



I saw Romney and Cotton have their own $10 an hour minimum wage bill, maybe they can come up with a compromise and at least get some people some help.

So, I take it that means a super majority vote in the senate is required.

That for sure is the death of $15 an hour. I wonder if even the $10 an hour would get enough support.
 
Welp. As was kinda expected, there goes the $15 minimum wage increase from the Covid Relief bill per the Senate parliamentary rules.



I saw Romney and Cotton have their own $10 an hour minimum wage bill, maybe they can come up with a compromise and at least get some people some help.

I was very skeptical that they would let this pass. It would decrease shareholder profitability.
 
This. She's a vile piece of shit, who's entire platform is being a vile piece of shit, to specifically represent a a small group of vile pieces of shit. I don't need a play-by-play of her miserable life.
She's the rep for the district of quite a few of my coworkers. The ones I've talked to are not happy about it. After the primary she ran unopposed =(
 
This. She's a vile piece of shit, who's entire platform is being a vile piece of shit, to specifically represent a a small group of vile pieces of shit. I don't need a play-by-play of her miserable life.
People, not everyone, are addicted to hating things. I think often about that SNL sketch from last year about people who were addicted to watching Donald Trump. It's a real thing. They need something or someone to hate. Use that energy on literally anything else. Don't follow politics or just read a book, go outside. But do not give these people the attention they want.
 
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