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grumpyduck

grumpyduck's Journal
grumpyduck's Journal
December 8, 2022

Thoughts about Venmo?

Is it safe?

December 2, 2022

Question about sick pay for railroad workers

I'm sure I can find the answer to this online, but it would probably take hours. From what I've read, the issue is that railroads don't want to give workers sick leave: they want them to take it out of PTO.

A friend of mine worked for years at a huge medical conglomerate, and all staff had vacation, sick time, and holidays all in a PTO "envelope." The company figured out how much vacation time etc. each employee rated and added it all up, and gave them that much PTO. It worked fine because everyone was aware of the system. And, for the company's accounting systems, it was probably easier.

So, with the railroad workers, is it that they just don't get enough paid time off to cover everything, or that they may think PTO is all vacation time? It seems, from the MSM, that the battle is specifically about "sick time," when just increasing the amount of PTO might take care of the problem. Or do the railroad oligarchs just don't want to think about it that way?

November 23, 2022

All this far-right hate propaganda reminds me of

what the Church did in the Middle Ages: a constant barrage of this-is-bad that-is-bad you-should-not-do-this bullshit dumped on the uneducated masses to rein them into supporting the institution. The funny thing is, the Church depended on the masses being uneducated (and encouraged it) to avoid people questioning their "teachings."

The first universities during this period were run by the Church, and it was a matter of finding the bright (or gullible) ones, bringing them into the fold, and keeping them there to help spread the word and control the money.

So far the repukes haven't started talking about hell and excommunication, but I wouldn't be surprised if they bring those up one of these days. Heck, right now they have some evangelicals swallowing the bait.

I was raised Catholic and attended parochial schools and church for a long time, so I think I can safely say this.

November 23, 2022

I thought I was a genius kid.

Older generation... we were expected to eat what Mom put on the plate... no questions asked. My Mom was a really good cook and I generally liked what she served, but now and then I just didn't like something. So I came up with a brilliant idea: I would eat what I didn't like first, as in scarf it up, and then take my time with everything else. Worked like a charm for a while.

Until one day when an aunt came to visit. There was something I really didn't care for, so I scarfed it up. My aunt saw this, said, wow, look how much he likes it, and dropped a huge spoonful of whatever-it-was on my plate. My nine-year-old image of myself as a genius was shattered. Back to the drawing board.

This post was inspired by a piece on Huffpost about what not to say to your kids at dinner time.

November 19, 2022

So why did Twitter sell?

I missed all that.

November 19, 2022

About Garland and the timing.

After reading a number of the posts about this over the last couple of days, my guess is that DOJ wants to make sure it has a galaxy-class tight case before proceeding. I think they know what a disaster it would be for our democracy if tfg were to be acquitted, so they are looking into stuff with a microscope and probably even have some people playing devil's advocate. IOW, they're prepping for the trial of the century.

And yeah, it's appalling that so much money is being wasted on that pos, when the Russians would have a much simpler solution for one of their own.

November 18, 2022

After years of reading about the rethugs throwing hissifits

and conniptions, it is my humble opinion that they are doing it for one and only one purpose: to get and keep their voters pissed off at the Democrats. Since they don't have much to say, the only way they can get some people to support them is to "be against the other party." A lot of their moron voters may not know what the repukes are doing or what the Democrats are doing, but they sure know how to vote against "the other party."

So, AFAIC, all these hissifits are just moron-level theater.

November 8, 2022

Anyone checkiing out Mastodon?

It's a fairly new alternative to Twitter. I just found out about it.

October 30, 2022

All the stories about Russia recruiting prisoners

and such remind me of the recruiting scene in Blazing Saddles.

"We don't need no stinking badges."

October 24, 2022

"But uh..."

I've known a fair number of people over the years who love to talk, as in they talk even when they're not saying anything, or take five minutes to say what could only take one minute. You get the idea.

And I've noticed that a lot of them will stop and then immediately go "But uh..." as if to say "I'm still talking, just need a moment to think of what to say."

Anyone one else notice this?

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Member since: Sat Dec 16, 2017, 01:51 PM
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