I thought I was going to rely to this question, but you covered it so perfectly that I’ve nothing useful to add. Thank you for putting in the time.

The vast army of Georgia poll workers report for duty only about three days a year and get paid about $7.25 an hour. Every time we come in, the rules have changed, so we train for eight hours to learn the new protocols. Election day itself, including set-up and break-down, starts at 5:30 am and ends at 9:00 pm, two hours later if you’re a manager delivering the ballots to the regional office. Most of us are retired, and many are elderly (read: not tech-forward).

And poll workers are not perfect. One of them puts on a sweater and inadvertently obscures her name tag (not allowed). Another shows a new person how to work the check-in station (not allowed). Another tells a nonprofit they can set up their food hand-outs inside the building so as to stay out of the rain (not allowed). And at some point during the 15 hour work day, all of you find yourself accidentally socializing with one another (also not allowed). Likewise, the clerks are socializing with the voters (you guessed it: not allowed), which, worst case, is akin to being smothered in grandmas.

This sounds very like my experience back when I used to work the polls. We all did the best we could and we all knew a fair chunk of the voters, so chatting was frequent.

And for hot peppers.

Well, yeah, but that’d take a government not captured by Corporations.

This should be addressed by fixing the software, but it seems to be easier or cheaper to instead further burden the workers.

Does this archive version render any better for you? https://archive.ph/xIOUo

Maybe someone can look for it since I’m being lazy, but I coulda sworn I saw a piece around a decade ago about how sky burials were falling out of fashion in India/Nepal and it was impacting the vulture populations that partially depended on dead humans as a food source. Now I’m wondering if the issue was sky burials in decline or if it was poison in cattle – or both.

Coffee badging is the practice of going into the office for a few hours to “show face,” which could entail coffee with co-workers or sitting in on a work meeting — but then leaving to work remotely.

More than half — 58% — of hybrid employees admitted to checking in at the office and then promptly checking out, according to a 2023 survey by Owl Labs, a company that makes videoconferencing devices.

Research shows that employees are more engaged when they have opportunities for development, learning, mentorship and career pathing, he noted. “Without these, ‘coffee badging’ is just a symptom of a deeper problem.”

Well, at least the article points out that employers are doing nothing to incentivize the workforce. Oh, except possibly spying on them. Cuz people love that.

Sadly, the effect of not voting for one of the 2 candidates is to intensify the power of the most extreme views. Say 100 people can vote. 25 on each side are going to vote for their party no matter what. 20 want something crazy in one direction and 20 in the other direction, and both sides are likely to protest and/or not vote if their guy doesn’t pander to them. That leaves 10 persuadable people – mostly people who are busy with other stuff and not paying attention to the minutia of various policies and the likely after effects they will cause.

What is a candidate to do? They pander to the crazies. They can hardly bother to assuage the persuadables because those folks aren’t paying attention anyway. They have to go after the people who might bail if they aren’t appeased. I hate the system, but there it is.

I used to visit communities like you did, then I took an arrow in the knee.

But no, seriously, if you don’t like the how people are talking, don’t bother going there. I don’t know people who use Steam’s community hubs for actual community. I see them getting used for info/joke sharing about their given games, but not for social bonding. Personally, I like the guides. Sometimes I search the discussions for a piece of information on an issue that I’m hoping someone else has already encountered and worked around. That’s about it.

That said, I generally don’t mind that people make memes. If it makes them happy, then good for them! If other people get a chuckle, that’s even better. For me – and like my opening line – any amusement quickly turns to eye rolls as the same things get repeated over and over and were never very funny from the start.

Came here to say that. Barring a few contrarians, EVERYONE likes both watermelon and fried chicken. I know vegetarians who will admit that fried chicken tastes fantastic, even if they no longer eat it.

I also wanted to link to some info about the “Coon Chicken Inn” chain – founded by a white guy, of course.

• http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/coon_chicken.htm
• https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/links/essays/chicken.htm

off topic piece on collectors’ racist items

Thank you for linking that excellent write-up.

For those wanting a TL;DR:

• The HEROS act says that in times of national emergency or war (like COVID), the Secretary of Education can waive or modify student financial assistance programs to ease the burden.
• Robert’s writes that the word “modify” “carries ‘a connotation of increment or limitation,’ and must be read to mean ‘to change moderately or in minor fashion.’” – faulting Biden for trying to “transform” student loan obligations instead of making “modest adjustments.”
• In dissent: “In the HEROES Act,” Kagan writes, “the dominant piece of context is that ‘modify’ does not stand alone. It is one part of a couplet: ‘waive or modify.’”

(Ergo, since the word “waive” means “eliminate,” Congress explicitly gave the secretary the power to simply wipe away student loan obligations altogether.)