Thanks for the realistic POV and cross-posting to the ZA comm. I didn’t even realize we had that many geography-based comms.

What you and the person there said, that’s what I kind of figured, but there’s so much “Ahhh!! Crime!!” stuff online that seems overblown. Crumbling infrastructure and zero ability of resources to fix anything seems to be a nearly global problem. I expect it’s not going to get better anywhere in the next little while, short of China where they just do whatever.

I just searched for SunEden - lol, I expect that won’t go over well with the spouse, but you never know.

Looking forward to some good braai again. The beef there is better than most places, I’m tired of making my own biltong, and kudu is delicious.

I’ll agree that it comes down to the personal vs. group nature of the vehicle. Maybe also who is controlling the vehicle (professional vs. amateur)

You don’t board a motorcycle or a horse. You don’t board a unicycle or bicycle. You don’t board a kayak or canoe or a jetski or a dingy.

You DO board a stagecoach, pulled by horses. You do board a trawler or a fishing vessel.

I don’t board my own van. I do board the intercity bush taxi (the same van with staff and better paint).

Likely all related to use of “board” for ships and devolved from there.

Lol. I usually write RSA because so many people not from there would get confused by ZA other than people who have heard so many ads ending in “visit us at (website) dot Co dot zed-a” on the TV and radio. Maybe I overthought it.

And not to worry, I already know my 12 obligatory words in Afrikaans. It’s all lekker, Bra.

I could have sworn I saw someone saying they’re in SA a while ago. So maybe there’s just 1 and they haven’t seen this yet.

Thanks for this. I recall the days of having to take cash to a sketchy guy or getting screwed at the airport so you can get out of the airport. It wasn’t cool, and being able to pay with a credit card in some far-flung places now is pretty amazing.

When I worked in a real IRL office, I ironed stuff all the time. Now, rarely.

Companies: Subpoenas? We just sell it to them. They already have it.

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I meant more like three start of easily shared online memes.

Massie ain’t never been in step with MAGA. That’s his whole thing.

I just can’t jump the shark and commit to fully living in the weird people world. I actually love having a foot in both worlds most of the time, but it does get hard to vent and talk about things like the fucking Epstein files with normies.

Did we run out of memes? Did we circle back to the start?

IIRC, pajamas were popularized during WWII because of air raids and having to possibly get up and go to a building bomb shelter in there middle of the night. Also works for earthquake prone areas and homes with ghosts.

I should have put “paltry” in quotes to show it was sarcastic.

I knew plenty of people that joined right out of high school, some weeks before 9/11. Signing bonuses like that were absolutly live changing for many people, which is why they went for it, and went they’re not “elites” for shopping at a fucking PX.

Right, so what you’re missing here is that AAFES and NEXCOM are independent corporate entities under the DOD that are almost entirely self-funded (I would guess some basic admin elements are staffed by DOD staff or something very basic, but I’m not sure). That puts them into a weird category of company that is usually referred to as a parastatial corporation or “state-owned company” in most places outside the US. The US usually contracts out rather than have state-owned companies, as a limit to liability.

They’re basically 100% independent entities with no taxpayer budget so they can operate with less bureaucracy and government requirements for how they spend their money and contract with vendors and contractors. AAFES has a civilian CEO. Their employees are not members of the military, they’re civilians. It IS a non-profit, as they’re also captured to only have a limited client base. Their goal is to break even and save money for things like buying a new meat cooler for when the ones they have break. Which means they get much easier taxes to deal with.

They key here is that they save money on things like real estate costs and import/export duties compared to Wal-Mart, but leverage the same corporate relationships. So taxpayer money isn’t exactly going to commissaries, they’re just not getting charged as much for facilities or utilities because they’re leveraging military economies of scale. That does count as a subsidy in a sense, but it’s not like they get cash from DOD to run any commissary.

It’s not “socialism” in any sense of the term. It’s a company store if anything - it’s just the one version of this where the prices are not jacked up to exploit people.

You do know the UK and a few European countries also sometimes have commissaries on joint bases or diplomatic properties, right?

Lol. Brilliant reaction.

I’m sadly well-educated on the subject matter and wish I wasn’t. Or at least wish I had gotten paid.

This is hilariously out of touch with reality.

First off, how many redneck trailer park kids joined the military because of a paltry $3,000 signing bonus? The Bush administration scraped restrictions against felons after 9/11. Who, exactly, are the “elites” that shit in a bucket you light on fire once a week? Rich kid don’t join the military.

Second, that’s not how commissaries work at all. It’s not socialism in any way. It’s hyper-capitalist if anything.

A huge amount of resources are put into name brand items being shipped across the globe to lock in brand loyalty for life. It’s not free either, only duty-free. No import costs. A $4 small pack of sour patch kids or $10 frozen 4-pack of frozen Jimmy Dean breakfast includes shipping costs. Containers from the States cost $80K+ to ship, which the commissary pays for. Every commissary is a business that operates as an independent business. Except for the ones managed by huge contacts to companies.

They’re non-profit only because of host country laws about profits without import duties.

Wait… So Hegseth speaks for Jesus now?

“Eff around, and find out.”

• John 3:16

Found Pierce Brosnan’s lemmy account.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:

The era we call “The Dark Ages” was a period where people simply didn’t write as much down.

Right now, we can’t get to the shit worth reading. It’s buried and every day going farther and farther down under layers of slop.