DISCLAIMER: Silly Thought Exercise: NOT AN ENDORSEMENT OF REPLACING BIDEN. I personally do not think replacing Biden is a good idea at this stage in the election. I think that's more dangerous than keeping him, sadly, but he's who we've got. I'm just looking for shitposty thoughts on this question, please and thank you.

What-over-the-top absurd person would you choose to replace Biden who you think could actually body Trump, and why?

For an example, my choice would be based on the idea that the only thing that makes a bully like Trump wilt is a bigger bully. Secondly, US citizens love trash talking and sports and absolutely will vote for someone who is already famous, they certainly love their celebrities. Finally, what better sport for trash talk than basketball?

In that, my choice would be basketball legend Larry Bird. (he's famously apolitical, so it's hard to know if he would actually be politically aligned against Trump.)

...but, the thing is, Larry Bird is a masterclass trash talker.

And that is really what throws Trump off and throws him into obscene tantrums where his composure is lost and he comes off like a whining loser: when he's been taken down a peg by someone else. Nothing sticks deeper in his craw. I don't think he could handle Larry Bird's level of shit-talk, Bird is like god-tier.

I can imagine Bird calling Trump out and saying he can smell his shit-filled diaper from across the auditorium, obviously Bird would describe more colorfully than I. The thing is, I can also see that absolutely throwing Trump into hysterics.

Also, at 67 Bird's a fucking spring chicken compared to Biden or Trump.

So, I'm hoping for answers that are a bit silly, like this. Larry Bird is obviously not actually a good choice for this. I just like chuckling at the idea, because real life has gotten so absurd I need to hide in even deeper absurdity.

What's your absurd Biden replacement? Please, I think we could use some laughs.

I'm bored and making Hundreds of Beavers gifs.

Copied from Reddit's /r/cscareerquestions:

The US Department of Labor is proposing a rule change that would add STEM occupations to their list of Schedule A occupations. Schedule A occupations are pre-certified and thus employers do NOT have to prove that they first sought American workers for a green card job. This comes on the heels of massive layoffs from the very people pushing this rule change.

From Tech Target:

The proposed exemption could be applied to a broad range of tech occupations including, notably, software engineering -- which represents about 1.8 million U.S. positions, according to U.S. labor statistics data -- and would allow companies to bypass some labor market tests if there's a demonstrated shortage of U.S. workers in an occupation.

Currently the comments include heavy support from libertarian think tank, Cato, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association

The San Francisco Tech scene has been riddled with CEOs whining over labor shortages for the past few months on Twitter/X amidst a sea of layoffs from Amazon, Meta, Google, Tesla, and much more. Now, we know that it's an attempt at influencing the narrative for these rule changes.

If you are having a hard time finding a job, now, this rule change will only make things worse.

From the US Census Bureau:

Does majoring in STEM Lead to a STEM job after graduation?

The vast majority (62%) of college-educated workers who majored in a STEM field were employed in non-STEM fields such as non-STEM management, law, education, social work, accounting or counseling. In addition, 10% of STEM college graduates worked in STEM-related occupations such as health care.

The path to STEM jobs for non-STEM majors was narrow. Only a few STEM-related majors (7%) and non-STEM majors (6%) ultimately ended up in STEM occupations.

If you or someone you know has experienced difficulty finding an engineering job post graduation amidst this so called shortage, then please submit your story in the remaining few days that the Public comment period is still open (ends May 13th.)

Public comment can be made, here:

https://www.regulations.gov/document/ETA-2023-0006-0001/comment

Please share this with anyone else you feel has will be affected by this rule change.

Meant to post this in main star trek community, not ten forward, d'oh.

If this is the wrong place for this, I apologize in advance and it's okay if it gets removed.

First, it was bad enough for Elon Musk references, but now...

The real life Paul Stamets, for which the character is named, hired union busters at his business, Fungi Perfecti.

https://www.thestand.org/2024/05/fungi-perfecti-workers-joining-together-with-liuna-252/

But rather than recognizing and respecting these workers’ right to join together free from management interference, the union reports that Fungi Perfecti has responded by hiring the union-busting firms of Littler Mendelson P.C. and the American Labor Group. These firms represent clients such as Amazon, Apple, Google, and Starbucks, all of which have faced multiple Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges with the National Labor Relations Board for illegally interfering in their employees’ freedom to unionize.

These firms have attempted to slow the momentum of Fungi Perfecti workers’ organizing drive with typical union-busting tactics like “unrequired” meetings that are heavily encouraged.

“ALG has been distributing anti-union propaganda that, in some cases, are outright lies,” said Derek Sewell, a warehouse worker for Fungi Perfecti. “But we will not be discouraged. It’s just unfortunate that they are spending thousands of dollars on union-busting to try to discourage us rather than investing in making Fungi Perfecti and better and more sustainable place to work.”

Anyway, my opinion is firmly that if they're going to make references, it needs to be about people who are already dead, whose negatives are known, and who can't come back and fuck your reference up by becoming a horrible person as your life goes on.

Because these living people keep revealing how Un-Star-Trek they are, imho.

https://global-tetrahedron.com/about

Hmm, I wonder why this shadowy organization sounds so... familiar?

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Atheonion.com+%22global+tetrahedron%22

I think it might be safe to file this one under "Good News." It sounds like everyone kept their jobs and the union is intact.

Edward Zitron has been reading all of google's internal emails that have been released as evidence in the DOJ's antitrust case against google.

This is the story of how Google Search died, and the people responsible for killing it.

The story begins on February 5th 2019, when Ben Gomes, Google’s head of search, had a problem. Jerry Dischler, then the VP and General Manager of Ads at Google, and Shiv Venkataraman, then the VP of Engineering, Search and Ads on Google properties, had called a “code yellow” for search revenue due to, and I quote, “steady weakness in the daily numbers” and a likeliness that it would end the quarter significantly behind.

HackerNews thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40133976

MetaFilter thread: https://www.metafilter.com/203456/The-core-query-softness-continues-without-mitigation

Edward Zitron has been reading all of google's internal emails that have been released as evidence in the DOJ's antitrust case against google.

This is the story of how Google Search died, and the people responsible for killing it.

The story begins on February 5th 2019, when Ben Gomes, Google’s head of search, had a problem. Jerry Dischler, then the VP and General Manager of Ads at Google, and Shiv Venkataraman, then the VP of Engineering, Search and Ads on Google properties, had called a “code yellow” for search revenue due to, and I quote, “steady weakness in the daily numbers” and a likeliness that it would end the quarter significantly behind.

HackerNews thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40133976

MetaFilter thread: https://www.metafilter.com/203456/The-core-query-softness-continues-without-mitigation

We're heading to New Vegas in Season 2, and this is the only character I really would like to see resurface, mostly because Yes Man saved me from never finishing New Vegas. I was starting to get bored with the plot and Yes Man brought me back in.

Dave Foley killed as it Yes Man, and I would love to see him back in the role. I was a big fan of Foley from Kids in the Hall/News Radio days, and I was overjoyed when I ran into Yes Man and recognized his voice. Dave Foley has exactly the kind of absurd cheery demeanor a character like Yes Man needs.

Further, I'm going to assume the Courier/Yes Man taking over the Strip ending of New Vegas probably isn't canon, it means there's ample opportunity potentially for Yes Man to continue being the best Yes Man that he is.

Hell, I'd love to see any of the Kids in the Hall in Season 2, honestly. Kevin McDonald keeps looking weirder every fucking year, he would fit in with wastelanders. Hell, the new Kids in the Hall season was an Amazon Prime show, and both Kevin and Dave went full frontal nudity with their weird old bodies. They're the right kind of fit for the wasteland.

I would also think Foley's "Doomsday DJ" sketch is a great example of why they need him in Season 2 of Fallout.

https://youtu.be/qVGq3dU_LNM

Casey's expletive-laden rant continued, "You're being duped by a bunch of grifters and billionaires who don't give a shit about you or your family. They care about their fucking tax breaks and the money they can put in their pocket. If you consider yourself a patriot and you're spouting off that election-denying shit, I will fight your ass outside if you want to. Wake the fuck up!"

In January and February I had curated some playlists and shared them with friends and we watched them together via Watch Together. There was previously an option to Grant Access to the playlist, and after granting access, you could click Watch Together and start a watch party.

However, sometime in the last few weeks this option has disappeared in playlists, and now I am restricted to granting access, but not being able to watch together.

Really the only people who have access to my server is my partner and three friends. This has been a huge bummer, because I was curating old shows complete with old commercials in between.

If anyone has info on why this changed, I'd love to have an understanding, because the change kind of blows...

I have a degree that would put me at Helpdesk Level II if I could find a fucking job.

I literally don't know how to find remote jobs, so I continue to just find and work shitty blue-collar jobs in my city.

I have CML and it would be really nice to have a job that sort of helped me get my medical problems in order. It's either that or being a deadbeat who works part-time just so I can qualify for the ACA and get my $16k a month medications covered.

I have other health problems beyond the CML that would make my life a lot easier if I didn't have to be on my feet all day. I really struggle with it and have to take anti-nausea meds all day and pain meds all day to manage it, whereas I don't need those anywhere near as much if I'm in a chair.

So the first order of business, Lemmy, is how the hell do I even look for a remote job to begin with?

I'll probably come back for more questions about how to actually get a job like that because I feel like I don't know wtf I'm doing when it comes to resumes/cover letters either (part of it is I don't want to write fan-fiction about some shitty job that will mistreat me).