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Prak
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Post by Prak » Mon Oct 17, 2016 10:36 am

Is there any particular reason immigration can judge the validity of a marriage? I mean, why should "yes, we got married because it lets them stay in the country. That's the way the law works, what business is it of yours whether we love each other?" be any less valid than easily bullshitted "true love?"
I mean, is it just puritanical idealistic bullshit, or is there some kind of actual reason?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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Username17
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Post by Username17 » Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:27 am

> Prak wrote:Is there any particular reason immigration can judge the validity of a marriage? I mean, why should "yes, we got married because it lets them stay in the country. That's the way the law works, what business is it of yours whether we love each other?" be any less valid than easily bullshitted "true love?"
> I mean, is it just puritanical idealistic bullshit, or is there some kind of actual reason?

People using "marriage" to essentially draft slave labor from shithole countries is already a thing. You "marry" someone from a warzone and then they have to do whatever you say or you divorce them and send them back. Having Los Federales look into green card marriages to see if they are legit is not unreasonable since there is an obvious angle for coercion.
That being said, La Migra is pretty famously a bunch of douche canoes about the whole process, so I would in no way stand in the way of people demanding that it be reformed or even abolished.
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:28 am

Ah, the slave labor thing is something I hadn't considered. Totally seems like that could be looked after without making sure couples are "totally for real in love"
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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Username17
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Post by Username17 » Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:59 am

The other issue is that if you allow marriages to be openly commercialized, then they will be. I don't know how much much Apple would pay you to fake marry a Malaysian engineer for the length of her employment contract, but I'm willing to be it would be "up to one dollar less than the difference in cost between hiring a Malaysian engineer and hiring an American one." That's money that even if you would turn down, there are thousands of people like you that would not.
Creating a vast fake marriage web within the country would make ownership, inheritance, and legal entanglements a fucking nightmare. With thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of people fake married to various corporate guest workers, there would be all sorts of events triggered by accidental deaths and severe illness that would be predicated on the idea that people were close family who in fact did not know each other and might not even speak the same language.
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Count Arioch the 28th
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Post by Count Arioch the 28th » Thu Nov 03, 2016 9:24 am

Can someone explain bankruptcy in small words for me? My recent medical issues are costing me tens of thousands of dollars (with tens of thousands on the way, my heart isn't beating correctly and a stress test shows it gets worse the faster it beats). I'm not going to be able to pay for this. However, I own a car and do not want to lose it (because I need transportation to my job). The internet has not been helpful (or rather I can't seem to filter out the ads for various law firms to find actual information.)
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
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deaddmwalking
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Post by deaddmwalking » Thu Nov 03, 2016 4:34 pm

Bankruptcy can only be granted by a federal court.
This is a link to my home-town Federal Bankruptcy Court.
The first tap is 'understanding bankruptcy' which includes Basics and an FAQ.
Because it is a Federal Agency, it requires documentation. You don't necessarily need a lawyer any more than you need someone to prepare your taxes for you. But for most people, it's difficult enough that having the assistance of a 'professional' is considered beneficial.
There are consequences of bankruptcy that include significant difficulty in obtaining credit - usually for 7 years. If you need to replace your car down the road, you may not be able to with a bankruptcy on your record.
It is possible to settle your debts for less than you owe - especially, perhaps, medical bills. For unsecured debt, most businesses consider getting SOMETHING better than getting NOTHING, which is usually what happens after bankruptcy.
Your car is a secured debt - if you default, it will be repossessed. Sometimes you can avoid a foreclosure on a primary residence with a bankruptcy, but there are variances based on state law.
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Count Arioch the 28th
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Post by Count Arioch the 28th » Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:27 am

Hmm, considering that the last time I got sued they literally accepted 20% of what I actually owed and called it even I may hold off on that then.
In this moment, I am Ur-phoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my int score.
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Wed Nov 16, 2016 6:53 pm

To what extent could executive orders be used to help veterans?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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Grek
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Post by Grek » Wed Nov 16, 2016 7:32 pm

Executive orders could extensively help veterans or extensively hurt veterans. Recall what an executive order is: Instructions from the President to a member of the executive branch detailing how the President wishes a particular law to be enforced. While the President is nominally required to uphold all of the laws of the nation, in practice if the President says enforcing a particular law is the lowest priority, it isn't going to get enforced at all except by people with a grudge.

> FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.

> Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.

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Prak
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Post by Prak » Wed Nov 16, 2016 10:44 pm

Ok, so I misunderstood the president's relation to the military, I thought the president was CiC because he was out the executive branch.
So let me ask the question the right way, I guess- what can the president do as Consider-in-Chief to directly help veterans? Could he issue an order to military medical personnel to act in a certain way? Could he order military hospitals to not bill veterans?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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Mechalich
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Post by Mechalich » Thu Nov 17, 2016 12:10 am

Veterans' issues in the US are handled by the Department of Veterans Affairs, not the Department of Defense. The president has the power to appoint the head of the department and various senior administrators, and thereby set the direction of the departmental policy, but the majority of veteran-related policy is going to be the domain of congress.
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Grek
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Post by Grek » Thu Nov 17, 2016 12:59 am

> Prak wrote:So let me ask the question the right way, I guess- what can the president do as Consider-in-Chief to directly help veterans?

It's Commander-in-Chief. And not much, honestly. Commander-in-Chief means that the President sets the overall goals that the military tries to accomplish. For example, he could order the military to secure a certain city, or withdraw from a particular region or capture a particular enemy leader.

> Prak wrote:Could he issue an order to military medical personnel to act in a certain way?

It depends on what he wants them to do, exactly. Anything illegal or impossible is obviously out, but so is ordering particular treatments. The President isn't a doctor and can't just demand someone have their appendix taken out by military doctors for the lulz.

> Prak wrote:Could he order military hospitals to not bill veterans?

Maybe. It depends on what various laws about VA funding have to say about billing. He could definitely tell military hospitals to be as lenient as possible, and to avoid certain collections practices, though.

> FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.

> Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.

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Koumei
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Post by Koumei » Thu Nov 17, 2016 6:17 am

So sometime around the events in the Ukraine, and then moreso with Brexit, it became clear that even the pillar of Her Majesty's truth and home of Stephen Fry the BBC could no longer be trusted when it comes to news. For a while our own version the ABC has essentially become "We are terrified for our jobs so we'll just say what the current government tells us to say" to some extent. Very recently, basically every single news source that shortens its name to three letters has shown their disregard for honesty as pertains to the US election.
What's left? What remains? The Guardian still seems reasonable, probably thanks to relying on subscriptions and stuff and thus not having the "You eat his bread, you play his tune" problem. But I'm just waiting for that to change. There are obvious health benefits to getting all of your political news from a bottle of Glenfiddich and just saying "Fuck it, I lack an orbital weapon satellite, I can't change this, I can live in places that are (for the most part) unaffected, I don't even need to care." Have we reached a point where, if you're absorbing news from anything that is not the Internet, it is automatically bullshit? Even there does anything remain outside (for now) the Guardian?

> Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.

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Shrapnel
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Post by Shrapnel » Fri Nov 18, 2016 3:56 am

Unless you want to go and witness events firsthand and in-person (which would mean traveling, which is a pain), I don't think there is any source of news that doesn't at least contain some level of bullshit. Newspapers comics, maybe? It's where I get my news from.
Is this wretched demi-bee
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Fri Nov 18, 2016 5:29 am

> Grek wrote:

> > Prak wrote:So let me ask the question the right way, I guess- what can the president do as Consider-in-Chief to directly help veterans?

> It's Commander-in-Chief. And not much, honestly. Commander-in-Chief means that the President sets the overall goals that the military tries to accomplish. For example, he could order the military to secure a certain city, or withdraw from a particular region or capture a particular enemy leader.

> > Prak wrote:Could he issue an order to military medical personnel to act in a certain way?

> It depends on what he wants them to do, exactly. Anything illegal or impossible is obviously out, but so is ordering particular treatments. The President isn't a doctor and can't just demand someone have their appendix taken out by military doctors for the lulz.

> > Prak wrote:Could he order military hospitals to not bill veterans?

> Maybe. It depends on what various laws about VA funding have to say about billing. He could definitely tell military hospitals to be as lenient as possible, and to avoid certain collections practices, though.

I plead autocorrect.
Interesting. I heard about Vietnam vets starting to develop liver cancer due to parasites in river fish they frequently age while stationed there and wondered if there was something a president could do to address the issue directly as commander-in-chief.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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DSMatticus
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Post by DSMatticus » Wed Nov 23, 2016 11:18 am

So, I believe I've mentioned before that I have an uncle with schizophrenia. It's a pretty bad case; he's not exactly functional, and before he was medicated there were threats of violence. Until now, he's spent pretty much his whole life living with his parents, and as such has always had someone to keep tabs on his medication and hasn't really had to manage his own finances or anything of that sort. But not that long ago grandma passed away, grandpa is long gone, and now he's on his own. It hasn't gone so well so far. He swallowed a bunch of some over-the-counter headache medicine, went to the emergency room, said or did some things (it's not clear, could have been based solely on taking the pills?) that earned him a designation as "dangerous to themselves or others," and ended up admitted to a psychiatric hospital, and then also a regular hospital to treat the ulcer he gave himself, and... yeah. He has probably started down the path to bankruptcy and homelessness.
I guess my question is what programs out there can help him? He lives in Ohio. He's 71. He has been professionally diagnosed with and is currently being treated for schizophrenia. He has not worked long enough to meet any work credit requirements. He has no appreciable income beyond what I believe is a small amount of interest, no insurance, but probably has several hundred thousand dollars worth of assets in bank accounts/bonds/the like - which is probably not going to last the rest of his life if he continues to have major hospital visits without insurance. He is kind of sort of a veteran? He served briefly in the naval reserves (I think) during Vietnam before he was diagnosed.
My understanding is that he doesn't qualify for social security or premium-free medicare because he has no work credits. I don't believe he qualifies for social security disability income, because, again, no work credits. I don't believe he qualifies for supplemental security income because he has substantial assets. I'm unclear on how medicaid works under the ACA. I've heard the asset checks are gone? Would he qualify for medicaid based solely on his income? Does anyone know how that whole thing works? If he does qualify for medicaid, if it comes down to assisted living, how the fuck does that work? Is it automatically covered, or is that still gated based on assets? I.e. he'll burn through his money until he qualifies for supplemental security income, and then that plus medicaid would pay for his assisted living? Would it be better to pay the medicare premiums? Does anyone know if that makes financial sense?
I would really like my uncle to not end up destitute and homeless. What's a viable path forward for him?
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Wed Nov 23, 2016 11:35 am

I wish I had answers for you, DSM.
On an unrelated note-
I've been doing some wiki-reading on fascism so that when alt right neo nazi bullshit comes up in conversation with my entirely conservative family I have an actual knowledge base to work from, and something struck me. Fascism was primary a post war reaction to communism, and is primarily defined as being an authoritarian nationalist political ideology that opposes liberalism and marxism. That sounds a lot like McCarthy's red scare, but I've never heard McCarthyism described as the American firm of fascism. Was it, basically?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

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erik
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Post by erik » Wed Nov 23, 2016 1:44 pm

DSM, I'd investigate the VA for treatment since he had some military service and mental health is something they often have a lot of experience with. I'm not an expert on figuring out how to check coverage/service connection level I'm afraid tho.
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Maj
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Post by Maj » Wed Nov 23, 2016 9:56 pm

Also, check with Ohio's medicaid requirements. Each state is different. I know asset checks are gone in Washington, but we're rather liberal out here.
My son makes me laugh. Maybe he'll make you laugh, too.
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Post by Stahlseele » Thu Dec 01, 2016 2:26 am

So . . being half asleep and half full of painkillers i somehow find myself asking myself:
would inhabitants of ponyville be called ponyvillains?
Welcome, to IronHell.

> Shrapnel wrote:

> > TFwiki wrote:Soon is the name of the region in the time-domain (familiar to all marketing departments, and to the moderators and staff of Fun Publications) which sees release of all BotCon news, club exclusives, and other fan desirables. Soon is when then will become now.
> > Peculiar properties of spacetime ensure that the perception of the magnitude of Soon is fluid and dependent, not on an individual's time-reference, but on spatial and cultural location. A marketer generally perceives Soon as a finite, known, yet unspeakable time-interval; to a fan, the interval appears greater, and may in fact approach the infinite, becoming Never. Once the interval has passed, however, a certain time-lensing effect seems to occur, and the time-interval becomes vanishingly small. We therefore see the strange result that the same fragment of spacetime may be observed, in quick succession, as Soon, Never, and All Too Quickly.

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Shrapnel
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Post by Shrapnel » Thu Dec 01, 2016 2:54 am

As far as television episodes and scripts go, what is the difference between a "story" and a "teleplay"?
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hyzmarca
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Post by hyzmarca » Thu Dec 01, 2016 3:11 am

> Shrapnel wrote:As far as television episodes and scripts go, what is the difference between a "story" and a "teleplay"?

Screenplay/Teleplay is the actual finished shooting script. Story by credit goes to writers who wrote a script that was then heavily re-written to such a degree that the re-writer is entitled to a full screenplay credit.
"Teleplay" is, of course, the television-specific version of a screenplay.
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Whipstitch
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Post by Whipstitch » Thu Dec 01, 2016 3:31 am

The quick 'n' dirty is that the story is core ideas and themes while the teleplay is what the full dialogue & stage directions are formally called when you're talking about a television production. It's industry speak and sometimes seems needlessly fussy to outsiders but the terms do serve a purpose when you're figuring out what writing credits are warranted when the project is over. If you want a more detailed answer you can find a credits manual on one of the Writer's Guild of America sites.
Last edited by Whipstitch on Thu Dec 01, 2016 3:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Prak
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Post by Prak » Thu Dec 22, 2016 9:31 am

This is sort of more of a "random, stupid question" but I don't think those really need their own thread. And this counts because I'm sure others will find it annoying-
What in D&DLand would fill a similar cultural niche to chinese food? By which I mean, the weird fusion thing we eat in America that was created by asian railworkers trying to recreate their native cuisine with things they could find here in America, and is now a common cheap food eaten by twenty somethings and college students precisely because it's cheap and served family style by default.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.

> Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.

> FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
> You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.

Top

Grek
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Post by Grek » Thu Dec 22, 2016 12:40 pm

Goblin food.

> FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.

> Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.

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