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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • Detroit was the setting of RoboCop. Crime was pretty bad there in the 70s/80s. It’s much better now and the city is turning around.

    However, worth noting that Detroit is in the lower peninsula of Michigan, and the blue “cars & crime” part here is the upper peninsula, which is basically super rural and low crime. I suspect this was done intentionally, lol.


  • Michigan has more automotive manufacturing facilities than any other state, nearly 1,000 if you count all the suppliers and distribution hubs. And despite Stellantis now being French-owned and abandoning their headquarters, Ford and GM are still present with many dozens of facilities as well as their respective HQs.

    Next closest is Ohio with only 600.


  • Roboticide@lemmy.worldtoMemes@lemmy.mlHistory lives in the present
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    1 year ago

    I mean, kinda? They’re also heavily descended from 7th Century AD Arabic conquerors, but yes, many other natives may have adopted Arabic culture, language and religion at that time.

    But Jewish culture is also derived from the Canaanite culture, with arguably more overlap. Jewish culture in the region can be traced back to at least the 9th Century BC, with the literal Kingdom of Israel. So the argument of “Well who was there first?” does not necessarily favor the Palestinians over the Israelis.

    This has always been happening though. It’s not like the Ottomans took over the region peacefully. It’s been conquered and re-conquered by Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans…



  • They are faked, at least partially.

    I was friends with a guy who was on an episode of a one season HGTV show called “Container Homes.” He and his wife at the time actually wanted to buy or build a container home.

    They had talked to a developer and were going to have one built. Got on the show somehow. After the show started filming, some off-screen drama happened with the developer, and an HOA or zoning board or something, and long story short they were denied the permits to build one. But the show wanted to keep going, so they used the construction of developer’s office, which was also a container building, for footage, and when it was completed did a super quick, rather pathetic job of making it look like it was decorated as a house. Then filmed the “reveal,” which at that point was just kind of rubbing salt in the wound. He looked so dead inside, it’s hilarious.

    A lot of the house hunter-type shows are allegedly shot with couples who are already closing on a house, and then HGTV just takes them out and films them just looking at other houses literally for show.


  • Few reasons:

    1. The system is far from perfect. It’s not as good as say, the NHS or Canada’s health system. And while it’s “free” healthcare that is better than the non-existent free healthcare that doesn’t exist for other Americans, it’s underfunded and understaffed, especially following 20 years of war which obviously saw a huge strain put on the VA system.

    2. It’s only healthcare. Veterans with untreated psychiatric problems also often struggle with homelessness and stable employment. If they’re transient, it can be difficult to insure they, say, make a key appointment to get a diagnosis or prescription.

    3. Many people who are largely on their own with psychological issues, including but not limited to veterans, simply do not stick with a treatment regimen. There aren’t a lot of mechanisms in place to force someone to take a prescribed drug, even if it helps, and don’t like how it makes them feel. This obviously can feed back into #2.

    4. Selection bias. It seems like “so many” because our military is huge. 1.9 million US troops were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 20 years. Of those let’s say 5% saw actual combat (hard to say how many, but all estimates I have seen say certainly not more than 10%), which is 95,000. If most of those end up with PTSD, that’s more soldiers than most of the coalition forces sent over, combined. If around half do (and around 35,000 US troops were injured, so this tracks), that’s more than France’s entire contribution to the invasion and occupation. The vast majority of the remaining 1.8 million who went over and weren’t in combat are typically fine. Sure, some will also have psychological issues, but these are people who might have anyway even if they weren’t in the military.


  • Roboticide@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.world*Permanently Deleted*
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    1 year ago

    Not to shill for the US military, but, uh… source on NJ paying anything comparable?

    I don’t know if you’ve looked for a job in the US lately, but the prospects for a 19 year old with just a diploma, and not pursuing a college degree or a skilled trade, are pretty dismal.

    You’re looking at something ~$30k for a Starbucks barista or a McDonald’s burger flipper, or maybe ~$36k if there’s an automotive plant nearby. Both are hourly, so gotta hope they actually give you decent hours if you go the fast food route. If you go the autoworker route, hope you enjoy 8+ hours of repetitive, non-stop, physical labor. You’re then spending at least a third of your ~$20k - $25k take home on rent and another third on food.

    Compare that to $36k, with no significant costs for room and board. You’re paying federal taxes but the deductions for active military are huge and most states waive income tax for soldiers. Your take home is better, your expenses are less, your fit, healthy, and your healthcare is covered for life, and if you leave after your contract is up you get to enjoy the government paying for college.

    Like 99% percent of military personnel never see combat, and especially now that we’re done with Afghanistan and Iraq it’s even safer.

    The military’s problem is that anyone smart enough to do that math and weigh those choices is probably smart enough to do something else, but for millions of people it’s a better choice than slaving away at McDick’s as cost of living and college tuition continues to rise.


  • Many, if not most “regular military” jobs in Western armed forces don’t involve front line combat and getting shot at or shooting at people. Less than 10%.

    Now obviously, you look at Ukraine and think “Well that’s a lot bigger than 10%,” and it probably is. But any country with a large air force, navy, and sizeable ground forces are gonna have thousands of people trained to load weapons onto planes, manage ship engines, cook, drive supply trucks, load cargo planes, cook, manage payroll, manage procurement of equipment, fly drones, cook, run propaganda and recruitment, operate medical facilities… the list goes on.

    I had an ex whose brother was going to med school to be a surgeon for the Navy. Her father, who was an Army pilot, thought it was great because he knew his son was just gonna be (relatively) safe on a carrier or hospital ship somewhere, not getting shot at, and just saving lives.



  • Roboticide@lemmy.worldtoMemes@lemmy.mlDefediverse
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    2 years ago

    Since when is it liberal to be opposed to Russia? It’s been a conservative Western policy since the Cold War.

    You said “directly responsible,” which means all or most of the blame in a given situation. No one uses American English to claim something is directly responsible but not also majority responsible.

    Also, I never even actually said that you claimed the US was solely responsible. I just said Russia was solely responsible, because they chose to invade. If you’re conceding you meant the US is solely responsible though and are walking back that inane argument, understood, but maybe just stop licking Putin’s boot and go read a history book for fucks sake.


  • Roboticide@lemmy.worldtoMemes@lemmy.mlDefediverse
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    2 years ago

    Yeah I wonder why, maybe it’s because they are directly responsible for the current war.

    Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is responsible for the current war. Stop drinking the commie kool-aid.

    You can whine about NATO and geopolitics all you want, at the end of the day Russia could simply have chosen not to invade Ukraine and NATO would not be dumping the entire alliance’s 40 year stockpile into the conflict.