Oh, yeah, that’s a fair addendum: “unless you live in a state that does not allow the reduced minimum wage for tipped employees.” At that point I would agree that tipping is more or less optional.

I feel like “mental gymnastics” has become grossly overused, and I don’t think it applies, but regardless you are involved in the shitty food joint’s (read: all that have wait staffs that operate on tips) business model, by being their customer. By going to a business that you know pays their wait staff less that minimum wage, you are agreeing to their shitty business model. So then, not paying a tip is essentially taking a discount on your order at your wait staff’s loss. The business owner isn’t hurt by that, they still get the full rate for the food. And as long as SOME customers pay tips, they don’t have to pay any more (hence the taking from other tables comment).

It is a shitty system, but you agree to participate in it if you go to those restaurants. Which, for sit-down restaurants in the US, is most. If you go to one of those restaurants and don’t tip, you aren’t making some protest against tipping culture, and you aren’t hurting the business owner. You are only saying that the wait staff should be paid at $2.13 per hour to serve you.

Lobby against the labor laws that allow less-than-minimum for tipped employees, or don’t go to restaurants that rely on that model. Anything else, you’re just taking a discount from the wait staffs’ paychecks by not tipping.

And I absolutely can not believe that such anti-worker, pro-business owner bullshit is happening here. I cannot stress enough, you not tipping does nothing to the business owner. Billionaires jack up prices, stifle wage increases, and we’re out here complaining about having to tip a person who otherwise would get $2.13 an hour, because somehow that’s legal.

That being said, starting at 30% is ri-goddamn-diculous.

Also, since I didn’t get to your later point, I’m not sure of its relevance to what I was saying. You have no control (and usually no knowledge) of how tips are distributed. So not sure what you are expecting from me here.

Not for each transaction. So not tipping is like reaching over to another table and taking some of their tip for your table. They are still paid less than minimum wage for the service they provided you, but someone else’s tips will still keep them out of minimum wage for the shift.

So yes, at they’re worst they should get at least minimum wage for each shift. But per customer, their rate is below minimum wage without tipping, which is an awful system we need to get rid of.

If you don’t believe that the cunty “ur not irish m8” attitude is borne of hatred for Americans… Show me the hoards of Englishmen, even, being told the same.

Wait… the Irish hate Americans more than the English now? Daaaamn. I mean, not like we don’t deserve it, but so do they.

I’ve got a crazy idea that probably won’t work, but who knows:

Let’s start making tons of memes of Bibi making Trump his little bitch. Make fake quotes that make the rounds of Bibi calling Trump a useful idiot, or easier to control than Biden. Try to get Trump to see doing whatever Israel wants as being weak, and make him get into a huge row with Netanyahu.

Israel isn’t Russia, and I don’t think Bibi has Trump by the short hairs like Putin does.

Just a reminder to those “Biden and Harris are participating in genocide, it’s not like Trump could be any worse” crowd.

It can always get worse.

Seriously, the part about him coming in to ask her when a project was finished and eventually yelling that he needs a date sounds like she was waffling, waffling, waffling, and he was asking for a simple answer he could work with.

“I need to know an estimate of when you’ll have this portion of the project completed.”

“Well, there’s this thing that’s having problems with this, and we’re working through this. This other thing…”

“I understand, but I need a timeline so we can give the other team an idea when to expect it.”

“So the thing is, there’s this portion of the project…”

“For the… I NEED A DATE! A DATE!”

“That’s sexual harassment.”

I bet Simone Giertz’s Truckla had working windshield wipers…

Front seat? Sure. Back seat? Nah. You have to remove paneling, pull a tab up, then pull a cord forward. That is a three step, non-obvious and non-intuitive way to open a door.

You also have to vocally state that you are invoking your right to remain silent. Just remaining silent is apparently not enough.

Additionally, the request for a lawyer must be unequivocal. Not “I think I need a lawyer,” as much as any reasonable person would consider that as a request for a lawyer. McDaniel, the guy in the linked case got railroaded after saying that he thinks he would rather have a lawyer there to speak for him, and the claim that the questioning should have stopped was dismissed because he hadn’t requested a lawyer, only that he thought he needed a lawyer.

Judges bend over backwards to let police mess with our rights, so clarity and assertiveness are a must.

Most bears try to avoid you. The best thing you can do on a nature trail is be noisy, talk a bunch, make sure the bear knows you are there. Because they don’t want anything to do with humans.

The second worst thing you can do is surprise a bear.

The worst thing you can do is get between a baby bear and its mom.

Yeah, okay, fair ban.

I think it’s less about “going high” than it is not alienating people in your own group. You can’t make fun of disabilities on the other side (with the exception of a clinical lack of empathy) without the collateral damage of also making fun of people on your side with those disabilities.

They’re saying that those kids are taking responsibility, even while their money hasn’t supported genocide. Those of us that do pay taxes should have at least that feeling of responsibility for what our money is funding.

Have you listened to his Mythos Trilogy? It’s a compendium of Greek Mythology. He wrote and narrated it and it is brilliant. I’m on Troy right now (the third book).

I get what you’re saying, and I’m not arguing it.

However I am always amused at the “Don’t hate the player, hate the game” comment, because invariably the people doing the hating hate both (the game that allows the player to exist, and the player for perpetuating it). It’s always been a funny comment to me.

Like when you complain about a particular type of corruption in a politician (which is technically not illegal) and you get “Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” when the whole point is we should change the system so that politician can’t be corrupt. I feel like people get lost in this idea that a person working within a bad system is inherently blameless because the system allows the bad thing (it’s not wrong if it’s allowed), any criticisms made must inevitably be directed at the person doing the bad thing in that system (undeservedly, hence the “don’t hate the player”), and that since it’s in that person’s self interest to perpetuate that system it is also in their interest to treat the system as immutable.

Like, you can’t have it both ways. Either you recognize the system is bad, even if you benefit from it, and it should be changed, OR you are the system and deserve to be criticized for it.

This and huge taxes on AirBnBs. I live on an island that is a regular tourist spot, and housing is so scarce there are people who work full time living in tents in the woods because they can’t find a place to live.

In Alaska.

And there are still a bunch of AirBnBs here.

One of the benefits of my job (military) is my upward movement is almost entirely based on my motivation. A huge portion of the competition (as it is a competition) is a test on both the service at the level you’re moving into and your particular specialty. But there’s also time in rate (the pay grade you are currently at) and time in service, both of which get capped at a certain point (we call those “dinosaur points”) so your chances improve the longer you’re in. It also includes award points (medals, basically) and some other things, and finally employee review (the next largest chunk after the test).

So work hard to get a good review and study for a test, and you move up. But that’s not always a good thing. I sat at E-5 for a long time because I loved the job I was doing, and I was making decent money (about 60k after taxes), but then I was such a “senior” E-5 that I got to do the job I loved less (being a helicopter flight mechanic, maintaining and fixing aircraft) and the next level up stuff more (managing people, mentoring, supervising), so I just decided I would make the effort and get paid for it (which I did).

As much as people in my service complain about how advancement (promotion) works, every story I hear about how absolutely arbitrary and shitty it is in the civilian world I’m reminded how good I have it.

I didn’t read this, but did you know that the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV has a free trial, and includes the entirety of A Realm Reborn AND the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 with no restrictions on playtime?

Right? What other possible materials could they use? Prior to plastic, we just cupped our hands and had people pour beverages into them, or directly into our mouths.

Plastics have been revolutionary in keeping our hands and faces from getting sticky. I, for one, refuse to go back to the days of sucking off the tap.