Dimmer06

Where I work they're used to see if we're at risk of unionizing. That's what HR is really there for.

Yeah there might occasionally be an ultraleftist that attacks state infrastructure or whatever but assasinations haven't been in the US left's playbook for over a hundred years now. Assassination and stochastic terrorism are commonly used tools of the right though especially here in the US. It's no surprise they're being weaponized against rightists especially as their coalition fragments.

I mean what did anyone expect? Dude is an upper middle class guy who has almost certainly been living off of the wealth and privilege of his parents and thought it was fun to play radical until it actually might have impacted him personally. Maybe the left should stop getting duped by these people.

This might be correct if there was a left in the US for Trump to crack down on

Some Americans have employer pension funds you usually can't touch until a certain point (either age or years of service).

Much more common are 401(k) plans or 403(b) plans. These are tax advantaged accounts that are the sole property of whoever contributes to them. There are usually quite a few exceptions but if the money is pulled out it the worker has to pay income tax on it plus a ten percent penalty.

You'd probably need over $200k in your retirement account (depending on your housing costs and apy) for it to be more cost effective to leave it in there and even then you're still pissing thousands of dollars away a year in rent instead of owning property. It's almost certainly better to buy rather than rent in this housing market.

My partner and I feel like we're crazy. A former US Marine infantry and private military contractor running for Senate got on stage last night with the president of IAM who has a ton of members working in the military industrial complex. They said they're opposed to oligarchy and war. My partner and I are getting treated like the most insane ultraleftists for being skeptical of this.

I'm sorry you're going through this. It must be awful.

Going to be real with you though. There's no coming back from this and letting it linger is just going to make it more messy. It's fucked to just walk out like that barring extreme circumstances and even then they should probably at least tell you what's wrong over text. Couples therapy isn't going to fix whatever is happening there.

I know you weren't married but you might want to consider hiring a lawyer. Ends to long term relationships can often be just as messy as a divorce. If both of you were on the lease to your apartment they still have obligations to pay rent. You might have rights to the cats depending on the laws where you live. If you have joint accounts either of you can take all that is in them and both of you are liable for joint debts so be wary of that. You should also be present for the move out to make sure that nothing is taken out that shouldn't be.

Some of you have probably seen stuff about a guy named Graham Platner running in the Democratic Primary for the Maine Senate race against Susan Collins. All the radlibs up here got super excited when he launched his campaign despite the fact that he's a nobody whose never been involved in anything up here. He touts his four tours of military service but says he opposes the wars (and strangely enough there's evidence of him opposing the wars before he joined the military). His first campaign ad is like a 2009 Home Depot commercial for manly men doing man stuff.

All of this immediately threw up lots of red flags (not the good kind of red flags). So my partner and I did some digging and it turns out he was a Constellis (formerly known as Blackwater) contractor in Afghanistan in 2018. This was conspicuously left off of his website for some reason. The Marine unit he was first in also went to Haiti in 2004, after he joined the in 2003 so it's possible he was there too but it isn't mentioned anywhere. Then when he and his unit were deployed to Iraq his unit "faced a resilient insurgency that coordinated attacks on Abu Ghraib Prison and other Forward Operating Bases in the Area of Operations."

We've decided he's probably not a psyop and just a guy who believes in leading the US empire "correctly" but it's shocking to see how quickly all the sort of leftists around us immediately glommed onto a guy with this record.

They work really well when they're used in appropriate sized meetings and taught to all attendees. Most groups don't seem to do either though.

Wait isn't Diet Coke his favorite soda?

A couple of things, first they might just not even select you without an interview. I'm guessing they generate a list of names and just cut it in half because I've seen people get notified they got pulled and then never see a word about it again.

Secondly it could be a years long process depending on the case. Make sure you're really committed to it if you do get selected.

Third, during the selection process, as everyone says here, they're trying to weed out "radicals". You're also under oath during selection meaning lying during it is a crime. The lawyers interviewing you will probably know if you're being purposely vague or deflecting. They will probably look through any public social media you have too and search for public records or news papers for your name. You can also be removed from the jury by the judge after the trial has started, who will almost certainly listen to the prosecutor if asked to do this.

Fourth, the defendant might have actually done something heinous and I don't think the US justice system is really justice but letting violent criminals just walk free also is not really justice. Unfortunately you will almost certainly not be involved in sentencing, just determining guilt, so your only say is in whether or not the defendant is punished or not.

If you get through all of that and still want to try to nullify and you can convince the other jurors I wish you the best of luck.

There's a few websites with more info like Fija.org