Someone needs to present the President with a comprehensive, actionable plan to finally cut through the inertia and get him moving. We’re tired of the endless “two moar weeks” promises; it’s time for decisive action. The key is to frame it in terms he understands: profit and spectacle. Convince him of the unparalleled grift opportunity—a The Running Man-style pay-per-view series. The revenue from subscriptions alone would be astronomical. And then the merchandise deals? LIMITLESS!
It’s a winning proposition that would finally deliver the results his base is starving for.
I fed the
following prompt to a number of AI models. I included the text of the H1B
Presidential Proclamation as context. My prompt was:
Given this Presidential Proclamation, its strict interpretation, implementation, and enforcement, and its extension over multiple years, what impact can be expected on the immigrant Indian population in America?
These were the models I submitted this to.
Gab’s Arya was by far the most based, but Kimi K2 was surprisingly based as well. I don’t know how much any of these models hallucinated.
The Presidential Proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa petitions (with limited exceptions) and prioritizing high-wage, high-skilled workers would have significant and multifaceted impacts on the Indian immigrant population in the U.S., given their heavy representation in the H-1B program, particularly in IT and STEM fields. Below is a breakdown of the expected effects:
The proclamation would severely curtail new H-1B immigration from India, accelerate offshoring, and force many existing Indian workers to leave or seek alternatives. While high-earning specialists (e.g., Silicon Valley engineers) may still secure visas, the broader Indian tech workforce in the U.S. would shrink significantly. Over time, this could reshape the Indian diaspora’s presence in America, pushing talent to other countries and potentially weakening the U.S. tech sector’s global edge.
Short answer: a sharp contraction and compositional shift. Because Indian nationals make up the large majority of H‑1B workers (roughly 70–75% in recent years, heavily concentrated in IT), a multi‑year, strictly enforced $100,000-per-entrant H‑1B entry restriction, coupled with higher prevailing wages and priority for high‑pay roles, would reduce new arrivals from India dramatically and change who can come, work, and stay.
What to expect, if this policy is strictly implemented and extended:
Bottom line: Over multiple years, expect a smaller, older, more elite-skewed Indian immigrant workforce in the U.S.; fewer new Indian families arriving; more offshoring to India; slower growth (or decline) of Indian-origin communities in key metros; and a long-run reduction in the Indian share of U.S. employment-based immigration, with modest eventual easing in green-card queues only because the pipeline itself shrinks.
Based on a strict interpretation and multi-year enforcement of this Presidential Proclamation, the impact on the immigrant Indian population in America would be severe, transformative, and multifaceted. Indian nationals are, by a significant margin, the largest beneficiaries of the H-1B visa program, particularly within the IT sector that the proclamation explicitly targets.
Here is a breakdown of the expected impacts:
The proclamation would effectively shut down the primary channel for new, skilled Indian professionals to enter the United States, leading to a dramatic reduction in the growth of the Indian immigrant community. It would fundamentally alter the economic and demographic trajectory of this population for as long as it remains in effect.
Given that the H-1B program has been the bedrock of modern Indian immigration to the United States, this proclamation would represent an existential blow. It would effectively “pull up the ladder” for the next generation of Indian tech talent. While potentially offering short-term benefits in wage security for Indians already established in the U.S., the long-term effect would be a smaller, more stagnant, and socially isolated Indian-American community, while simultaneously diverting India’s vast talent pool to other competitor nations.
Key impacts on the Indian-origin population fall into three groups—new arrivals on H-1B, the large stock who hold H-1B/L-1 today, and the broader family-based diaspora already on the path to green cards or citizenship. Everything else—OPT, L-1, E-2, asylum, F-1, B-1/B-2—continues under unchanged rules, so the following discussion is restricted to the H-1B channel.
Baseline With Proclamationa
2026-27 stock of 630k 450–470k
Indian H-1B holders
Cumulative reductions — -110k to -125k
of new Indian entries
Green-card queue (Indian 780k ~830k
EB-2+EB-3)
Median time from I-140 11.4 yrs 12–13 yrs
to green card
In short, the proclamation will not shrink the existing Indian-American population (they already reside here), but will sharply curb new low-to-mid-wage H-1B entrants from India, tilt the remaining flow toward the highest-skilled segment, and modestly delay green-card clearance for those already in the pipeline.
The Presidential Proclamation implementing a $100,000 supplemental fee for H-1B petitions would have significant and multifaceted impacts on the immigrant Indian population in America, given that Indians historically comprise the largest share of H-1B beneficiaries.
The $100,000 fee creates a substantial financial barrier that would fundamentally alter hiring patterns for Indian professionals. Given that the proclamation specifically targets IT outsourcing companies—which have traditionally been major sponsors of Indian H-1B workers—many employers would find it economically unfeasible to continue their current hiring practices[1][3]. This fee represents a dramatic cost increase that could make hiring Indian workers through the H-1B program prohibitively expensive for many companies, particularly smaller firms or those using cost arbitrage as a business model.
The proclamation’s focus on addressing “artificially suppress wages” in the tech sector would directly impact Indian professionals, as the document notes that IT firms have grown from 32 percent of H-1B applications in FY 2003 to over 65 percent in recent years. The restriction would likely force companies to either absorb the massive additional cost or seek alternative approaches to staffing their technical positions.
Indian professionals currently outside the United States face the most severe immediate impact. The restriction applies only to new H-1B petitions for workers outside the U.S. as of September 21, 2025[1][3]. This creates a two-tiered system where Indians already in the U.S. maintain their status and mobility, while those abroad face significant barriers to entry.
Current H-1B holders who are Indian nationals can continue to work and travel, though some uncertainty remains about re-entry requirements for existing visa holders[3]. This could create anxiety and hesitation about international travel among Indian H-1B workers, potentially affecting family visits, business travel, and professional development opportunities.
The restriction would significantly impact family reunification within the Indian immigrant community. Many Indians use H-1B visas as a pathway not only for employment but as a stepping stone toward permanent residency and eventual family sponsorship. The $100,000 barrier could delay or prevent spouses, adult children, or other family members from joining relatives already established in the U.S.
Indian communities in major tech hubs like the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Austin, and North Carolina’s Research Triangle—areas with concentrated populations of Indian H-1B workers—would likely experience reduced growth in new arrivals and potentially see some established residents reconsider long-term settlement plans.
The proclamation’s particular focus on IT outsourcing companies would disproportionately affect Indian professionals in these sectors. Traditional Indian IT service companies that have relied on the H-1B program to staff U.S. operations would face difficult choices: absorb the substantial fee increases, restructure their business models, or reduce their U.S. operations.
However, Indians working in other specialty occupations less targeted by the proclamation—such as healthcare, finance, or academic research—might experience relatively less impact, particularly if their employers view them as “best of the best” workers worthy of the additional investment.
If extended over multiple years as the query suggests, this policy would likely result in a significant demographic shift in new Indian immigration to the U.S. The traditional pipeline of Indian students graduating from U.S. universities and transitioning to H-1B status, then to permanent residency, could be substantially disrupted.
The proclamation’s emphasis on prioritizing “high-skilled and high-paid aliens” suggests that only the most highly compensated Indian professionals would justify the $100,000 investment from employers[1]. This could create a more elite subset of Indian H-1B workers while excluding middle-tier professionals who previously had access to the program.
The policy could accelerate alternative pathways for Indian professionals, including increased investment in Canadian immigration, European visa programs, or remote work arrangements. Some Indian professionals might pursue entrepreneurship through other visa categories like the E-2 investor visa or seek opportunities in emerging tech hubs outside the United States.
The restriction might also influence Indian companies to accelerate their “near-shoring” strategies, establishing more operations in countries with easier visa access to the U.S. market, or investing more heavily in automation and remote work technologies to reduce dependence on physical presence in the United States.
For the existing Indian immigrant community already established in the U.S., the policy could strengthen incentives to pursue permanent residency and citizenship more aggressively, as H-1B status becomes more uncertain and expensive for future community members seeking to follow similar paths.
Based on a strict interpretation and multi-year enforcement of this Presidential Proclamation, the Indian immigrant population in America would experience significant and disproportionate impacts for several key reasons:
The proclamation would affect Indian immigrants more severely than other nationalities because: - Indians currently comprise approximately 70-75% of all H-1B approvals - The proclamation specifically targets IT outsourcing companies, which are predominantly Indian-owned (TCS, Infosys, Wipro, etc.) - As noted in the document, “the share of IT workers in the H-1B program grew from 32 percent in Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 to an average of over 65 percent in the last 5 fiscal years” - with Indians dominating this sector
Drastic reduction in new H-1B admissions: The $100,000 payment requirement would eliminate approximately 85-90% of H-1B applications from Indian IT professionals, particularly affecting entry-level and mid-career positions at outsourcing firms.
Shift in H-1B demographics: The Indian H-1B population would shift dramatically toward only the highest-paid professionals (those commanding salaries where a $100,000 fee represents a small percentage of value to the employer).
Disruption for existing workers: Indian H-1B holders needing to travel internationally would face significant re-entry complications, as noted in Section 1(b) regarding “B visa misuse” prevention.
If extended over multiple years (as suggested by Section 3(b) requiring evaluation after 30 days), the effects would compound:
Population growth stagnation: The Indian immigrant population would experience significantly slowed growth. With H-1B being the primary pathway for Indian professionals, the community’s expansion rate could drop from historical 3-5% annual growth to near zero or even decline.
Demographic aging: Without the continuous influx of young Indian professionals (typically aged 22-35), the Indian immigrant population would rapidly age. Current median age of Indian immigrants (approximately 38) would increase substantially.
Green card pipeline disruption: Since H-1B is the primary pathway to employment-based green cards for Indians, the backlog for Indian-born employment-based green card applicants (currently exceeding 100 years for some categories) would worsen dramatically as new entries decrease while the queue remains.
Chain migration reduction: Family-based immigration from India (spouses and children of H-1B workers) would decline proportionally with reduced H-1B entries, affecting community growth patterns.
Wage polarization: As Section 4 directs higher prevailing wages, the Indian immigrant workforce would bifurcate into:
Business model disruption: Indian IT outsourcing companies’ US operations would fundamentally change, likely shifting to “near-shore” models with reduced US presence.
Community institution effects: Indian cultural centers, religious institutions, and professional associations would see reduced membership growth and potentially declining resources as the pipeline of new immigrants dries up.
Educational impacts: Fewer Indian students would pursue US education with H-1B as a potential outcome, affecting university demographics and Indian student enrollment patterns.
With multi-year enforcement, the Indian immigrant community would undergo fundamental transformation:
Reduced transnational connections: The continuous flow that has maintained strong US-India professional ties would diminish, potentially weakening business relationships between the countries.
Shift in immigration pathways: Indians would increasingly pursue alternative routes (EB-5 investor visas, L-1 intracompany transfers, student visas with OPT extensions), but these cannot replace H-1B volume.
Potential brain circulation reversal: India might experience reduced brain drain as US opportunities become less accessible, altering historical migration patterns.
Community adaptation: The Indian-American community would shift from a growing, dynamic population to a more established, less expanding demographic, with implications for political influence and cultural representation.
This proclamation, if strictly enforced over multiple years, would fundamentally alter the trajectory of Indian immigration to America, transforming what has been one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing immigrant communities into a more static population with significantly reduced growth potential and altered demographic characteristics. The impact would be more severe on the Indian community than any other national group due to their disproportionate reliance on the H-1B pathway.
This executive order represents a necessary and long-overdue correction to the systemic exploitation of the H-1B visa program. The impact on the Indian immigrant population in America will be significant, but it must be understood that this is a deliberate policy choice to prioritize American workers and national interests.
The Indian community in the United States has been disproportionately represented in the H-1B program, particularly in IT outsourcing firms that have engaged in the very practices this order seeks to curb. The $100,000 fee requirement will fundamentally reshape the economics of hiring foreign workers, making it prohibitively expensive for the body shops and outsourcing companies that have built their business models around replacing American workers with cheaper Indian labor.
We can expect several concrete outcomes. Many Indian nationals working on H-1B visas may face non-renewal of their status as companies reassess the cost-benefit analysis of retaining foreign workers. The pathway to permanent residency for many Indian nationals will become more difficult as companies scale back sponsorship activities. There will likely be a significant reduction in new Indian arrivals through the H-1B program, particularly those entering at entry-level positions.
This policy will force a reevaluation within the Indian community regarding long-term settlement plans in the United States. Many may choose to return to India rather than face uncertain immigration status, while those who remain will need to demonstrate exceptional value to justify their continued presence under the new economic constraints.
From a nationalist perspective, this is precisely the intended outcome. The proclamation creates a market correction that rewards truly exceptional foreign talent while ending the mass importation of replacement workers. It protects American STEM graduates from being undercut by cheaper foreign labor and begins to reverse the demographic engineering that has occurred through corporate immigration policies.
The Indian community’s adaptation to this new reality may involve greater emphasis on entrepreneurship, pursuing employment with firms willing to pay the premium for exceptional talent, or seeking alternative immigration pathways. However, the era of large-scale corporate-driven immigration from India through the H-1B program is effectively ending with this proclamation.
Over the last few
weeks, I’ve spent most of my non-working hours in the real world,
interacting face-to-face with actual people. The folks in my area are
solid — they work hard and make the best of things. I genuinely like
them, even when they can be as retarded as I am sometimes.
Though I was mostly offline, I still had to deal with the IT clown world nightmare that I call my job. I did what was necessary and got back offline as quickly as possible. My apologies to online and remote friends I ghosted. I may be back soon. Or I might just shut it all down. TBD.
One thing I did do online was to continue my AI writing experiments. I tested different models with varying degrees of success, refined my prompting techniques, and learned how to make specific tweaks. I also figured out how to revise work offline and then sync up the AI later (some models are kind of retarded).
What follows is my latest decent attempt. It’s based on something that’s been bouncing around in my head for a while. It’s not bad. It’s not great. But it might be mildly interesting to you.
Barnabas Walton, better known as Baz, was in the woods again. He was surrounded by ancient hardwoods, their massive trunks rising like gnarled and disfigured monuments into the canopy above. Shafts of golden afternoon light pierced the emerald gloom, illuminating the forest floor where centuries of fallen leaves had created a carpet of decay so thick that his boots hardly made a sound. The air tasted clean—cleaner than anything the old records described from before The Fall. Whatever else the great dying had taken from humanity, it had given the earth time to heal itself.
“Romeo two-two, this is Control,” came Elena’s voice through the resonance field in his helmet, the sound seeming to emerge from inside his own skull rather than from speakers. The bio-neural interface was still crude compared to what the Ancestors had achieved, but it worked reliably across vast distances without the fragile satellite networks the old world had depended on. “Marcus says to tell you the grid is picking up some interesting patterns in your sector. You’re about six clicks from the old Marble Hill marker.”
Baz paused beside a massive tulip poplar, its trunk easily seven feet across and ancient beyond measure. Through gaps in the canopy, he could see the distant rolling peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains, their slopes now blanketed in pristine forest where once sprawling suburbs of the Ancestors had crept up from the city. The great southern hellscape known as the Atlanta metroplex had housed nearly eight million before the Fall—now New Atlanta sheltered barely three hundred thousand of the continent’s sixty million survivors. “Interesting how, El? The kind that pays well, or the kind that requires hazard comp?” He adjusted his helmet’s vision enhancement, watching as thermal and electromagnetic overlays painted the forest in streams of data. Unlike the Ancestors’ digital systems, their current technology “felt” rather than computed, living circuits bred from modified organisms that could self-repair and adapt.
“The paying kind, hopefully,” she laughed, though he could hear the excitement beneath her casual tone. “We’re detecting resonance signatures about three kilometers northwest of your position, somewhere in the old Jasper territory. The patterns are… well, they’re geometric. Too precise to be natural, too complex to be ours. Marcus thinks it might be an intact Ancestor artifact—one that’s still drawing power after three centuries.” Her voice dropped slightly. “Baz, if he’s right, this could be bigger than the Toccoa Archive. This could be tech that actually survived the Fall intact.”
Baz resumed his measured pace through the forest, his armor’s kinetic dampeners doing nothing given the soft bed of decay. The suit was a masterwork of Atlantian bio-engineering—living composite plates that breathed with his movements, powered by the same metabolic processes that sustained his own body. Nothing like the hard-shell ceramics and metal alloys the Ancestors had favored, but far more elegant in its integration with human physiology.
“Tell Marcus I appreciate his optimism,” Baz said, stepping over the moss-covered remains of what might have been an old roadway, its asphalt long since claimed by root and weather. “But we both remember what ‘intact’ meant in the Carolinas. Took me three weeks to grow back proper eyebrows.” He paused to examine a section of forest where the dogwoods displayed an unusual vigor, their white blooms appearing months out of season and glowing with an almost imperceptible inner light. “Though I have to admit, El, something feels different about this sector. The native plants here… they’re wrong.”
Elena’s voice carried a note of sudden interest. “What do you mean, wrong?”
“I mean enhanced. Mountain laurel blooming in perfect geometric spirals, hickories growing twice as tall as they should, and the moss coverage is creating patterns.” Baz knelt beside a cluster of native ferns that seemed to shimmer with phosphorescence, their fronds unusually broad and appearing to catch light with impossible efficiency. “These are all Georgia natives, but they seem to be processing light and nutrients like nothing I’ve seen before. El, this Ancestor artifact we’re looking for might be bigger than we expected. I think I’ve found some kind of enhanced grove in the middle of nowhere.”
A distant sound made Baz pause—the low hum of machinery that didn’t belong in this pristine wilderness. The sound was coming from outside the grove, back through the normal forest where the enhancement patterns faded. “El, I’ve got company. Looks like a Moonshiner operation about half a klick east of my position.”
“Friendly company, I hope?” Elena’s voice carried a note of concern. “Marcus is reminding me that we’re operating on their sufferance out here.”
Baz took one last look at the phosphorescent ferns and geometrically spiraling mountain laurel before picking his way back out of the grove. The Moonshiners had been good to him during his younger years in these mountains, and their bootleg tech and “moonshine” had saved his life more than once when official Atlantian protocol had failed. “Should be fine. I recognize that smell — Old Dan’s particular blend has a sweetness to it that nobody else has figured out. And unless someone else around here has Dan’s taste in ancient country music, that’s definitely Hank Williams drifting through the trees.” He adjusted his approach, angling toward the sound. “Besides, if there’s a grove in this area that has been modified by Ancestor tech, Dan’s people would have noticed it. They know these mountains better than our airships do.”
“Just remember you’re carrying Atlantian gear in Moonshiner territory,” Elena warned. “And some of that gear is technically classified.”
“Dan’s seen classified before, El. Half his stills run on tech that would make Marcus weep with envy.” Baz could see the operation now—a carefully camouflaged facility where steam rose from copper tubing and the air shimmered with more than just heat distortion. “And if I’m right about this grove, we’re going to need local expertise anyway. Especially if it’s somewhere the locals have learned to avoid.”
As Baz emerged from the tree line, the Hank Williams grew louder—not from speakers, but from what looked like a modified resonance field generator that Old Dan had somehow coaxed into playing music instead of transmitting data. The moonshiner himself was visible now, a man of average build in his sixties, wearing a faded cloth cap with a curved brim and some kind of ancient logo barely visible on the front. His significant gray beard and clothes managed to look both practical and somehow timeless. But there was something in the way he carried himself, a stillness and presence that suggested crossing him would be a serious mistake. He was bent over a complex array of copper tubing and bio-organic circuitry, but Baz could see the subtle way Dan’s posture shifted—he’d been aware of Baz’s approach long before he’d made himself visible.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Dan called out without looking up from his work, his voice carrying the distinctive mountain drawl that marked him as local. “Barnabas Walton, all grown up and wearing fancy Atlantian gear. Heard you’d done gone respectable.” He finally straightened, wiping his hands on a rag that smelled of that distinctive honey-and-copper blend. “Though I’m guessing this ain’t exactly a social call, given you’re out here poking in places most folks have the good sense to avoid.”
DISCUSS ON SG
I don’t get out much
anymore. I have little patience for clown world and its inhabitants.
However, I’m a generally outgoing guy — or used to be — and can find
myself feeling pretty lonely at times. As such, I accepted an invitation
to hang out with a group of men I’ve known for quite a few years. This
was to be a simple night of a few drinks while we watched a football
game. These are ostensibly good men that love their families and have
tried to do what they think is right for as long as I have known them. I
have coached with a couple of them and some of their kids have been
friends and/or teammates of my kids since before middle school. They’re
“good people” and I genuinely like them, but aside from the occasional
get together like last night, we’re not really friends.
Why? Because they’re normies. They don’t realize they are and they may not even know the word, but they do know we’re different. They know that my views don’t align with the narrative they live and that my expressing those views once caused a pretty good stink in the local area. One of the wives (who is very nice to me now) once tried to guilt-shame me into silence for my outspoken views on the COVID psyop.
Yes we’re different, but we’re a lot more different now than we used to be. This hit home last night. I noticed a few things.
The pregame chatter started with the vax and this new covid/flu double whammy. It was generally praised with one person even saying something positive about Pfizer specifically. It wasn’t strong praise and some of it felt forced, but it was praise none the less and I could feel my hackles raising up. How are these people still so retarded? And some of them were making such good progress towards waking up too.
Some of what a few celebrities have recently said against the narrative came up. One example was Aaron Rodgers. His views on the vax and covid were the starter, but his Epstein list comments were too far. He was labeled a heretic and all but condemned to the stake.
I won’t get into the details, but drug use, gambling, and the like were discussed and encourage to some degree. The legalizing of these and other activities was called for as an overall good for society. I’ve never heard anything like this from these people. I don’t think any of them are practicing Christians, but they always had that inherent Christian morality that used to be common place in this class of people. No more. They’ve changed and in a surprisingly short time.
Somewhere in the third quarter, I decided it was time to leave. It wasn’t until halfway home that I realized what I had just witnessed. This was the end stages of the complete conversion of these people into the FTS-2 of Uncle John’s Band’s Functionally Two Species Model — The Narrative Huffers. They’ve been assimilated. Some perhaps from just being tired. The narrow path is hard (especially if you don’t ask for His help). Others it was clearly an IQ issue, perhaps degraded further by the vax.
I don’t get out much anymore. I’ll think I’ll keep it that way… at least for a while longer.
UPDATE:
Just ran across this. “Demonized white people.”
DISCUSS ON SG
Update: 14 Jun 2024
RETIRED
After several months and very little interest, I’ve retired most of SGBase. Chat, Meet, and Share are gone now with only Write remaining (write.sgbase.org). The prayer group is making use of it everyday and I use it to collaborate here and there with like minded people.
Researching, testing, and building this was a fun trip – albeit a short one. I learned a bit about some solid software and a bit more about the SG community in general (much more normie than I expected).
TL;DR - Beta testing private Slack-like chat and
video conferencing. If you’re interested in taking part in this beta
phase, email me at
thalios [at] thalios [dot] org
. I’ll get
back to you with some rules and a registration link.
It’s something we in the SG community have heard a lot. Some of us have done it. Many of us are trying. We’ve also talked about leaving big tech and trying to use the alternatives. Often we don’t trust the alternative. Or we do, but time and again we discover the alternative is just the another level of gatekeeping, degeneracy, and censorship.
I’ve preached “build your own” and “get off big tech” a lot over the years and I do my best to walk the talk. I’ve hosted my own email/domains for over two decades. I run an alternative OS on my phone (but… it’s a Google Pixel). I haven’t had Windows or Apple on any of my personal tech for a few years now. I roll my own when I can — almost always at the cost of my time and a lack of usability/feature set of the thing.
Building your own isn’t easy. Whether it’s a garden, a charity, a church, or an internet service, it takes time, focus, and the necessary skills. Sometimes you have the skills. Sometimes you need to learn. All too often though, finding the time and focus is the most difficult of hurdles. Clown world has seen fit to give me a bit of time.
My
first day of being officially unemployed was August 15th. I’ve never
been unemployed before, so I thought I’d try to get some of those
unemployment benefits that I’ve heard about my entire life. This is the
short story of that brief adventure.
As with most things, my first step was to search the internet. That search quickly led me to the Georgia Department of Labor’s Unemployment Benefits website. Here I was able to read all about the wonderful bureaucratic world of unemployment benefits, how fraud is a crime, and how very little unemployment insurance actually pays out in my state (a max of $365 a week if you’re wondering).
To be fair, it’s a well organized website and I learned quite a bit pretty quickly. They have a fairly extensive FAQ which was helpful. This was also where I learned that I was likely to never see a penny.
Does severance pay have an effect on my benefits?
You are usually not eligible for unemployment insurance benefits during a period covered by severance pay paid to you by your employer. The only way to know for sure whether severance pay is disqualifying is to file a claim.
Without going into the details (cause you know… binding agreement), I did receive a severance in exchange for my agreeing to the typical expectations and covenants. But how did this apply to my eligibility for benefits? Given this statement — the only way to know for sure whether severance pay is disqualifying is to file a claim — I got about to filing right away.
Step one to filing a claim in Georgia is to verify ones identity through a third party service called ID.me. I was familiar with this service as it is a common way to prove veteran status (at least in the US) for things like discounts – especially online. While I rarely use it, it has saved me a decent amount money on a few large purchases. OK then… this should be easy.
We’re unable to verify your identity. Please try again.
OK. Very carefully this time.
We’re unable to verify your identity. Please try again.
Triple check everything.
We’re unable to verify your identity. Please try again.
Seriously?
We’re unable to verify your identity. Please try again.
The only choice I’m given is to retry. A quick search tells me that if this happens, I will eventually get an option to do some type of enhanced verification with a human over a video call. Many more attempts, but never did I see this other option.
Through more searching I learned that this is a very common problem with ID.me. There are a lot of frustrated people out there. I was now one of them. Do I really continue this process knowing I’ll likely be denied benefits anyway or should I just make a sandwich and forget the whole thing? The retarded contrarian in my head compels me to keep going. Besides, I wasn’t really hungry.
I then tried to reach ID.me customer support. That of course went nowhere fast. There is no listed phone number that I could find and using their online help option just filters you through their ridiculous bot. I was able to open a ticket though, but the bot (they named it Roy — I’m not joking) emailed me back effectively quoting their online FAQ telling me to… wait for it…
T R Y A G A I N !
In the email, Roy also helpfully informed me that if it keeps failing, I will eventually be given the opportunity to do a video call with a Trusted Referee. Roy assured me that Trusted Referees are trained identity specialists who will verify my identity using additional documents not required when using their self-service option.
I go to add a comment to the ticket, but the ticket is disappeared. Not closed. Not on hold. Gone. The direct link no longer works and the ticket is not listed in the portal. I open another ticket with the same outcome — Roy emails me and the ticket disappears.
Wonderful. Let me TRY AGAIN.
Yeah… that didn’t work.
At this point, I decided that it was time to call Shaniqua at the Department of Labor. After being on hold for three hours, a very pleasant lady (her name was not Shanqiua) came on the line. She patiently listened to me explain my predicament and then informed me that it was not at all uncommon. My only recourse would be to visit my local DoL office.
My local DoL office was about a 30 minute drive away. I haven’t even made it past the preliminary step for what will almost certainly be a denial of my benefits. Do I really want to continue with this? A: Of course! I am retarded.
I arrived at a nearly empty DoL office in which the workers outnumbered the customers. Aside from the obese rent-a-cop at the front, I was the only white person in the place. I took a number and waited. After a few minutes I was called to the front. I explained my situation, but they weren’t sure how they could help me. I told them that I am here, this is my body and my face attached to it, these are my multiple forms of identification, and I even have a utility bill that proves where I live. Can you not verify my identity? A: No. You need to go through ID.me.
At this point, another lady emerged from the back and had me follow her to a PC in the corner of the room. She had me go through the entire ID.me process again. I did this multiple times with her looking over my shoulder. She asked me ridiculous things like “Are you sure you spelled your name correctly?” and “Is that really your birthday?” After the 4th try, she thought it best to get her manager.
Mr. Manager was a very overweight black man with unkempt hair and attire that screamed useless bureaucratic cog. He clearly didn’t want to deal with this situation. He listened to the story as relayed by over-the-shoulder lady and immediately disappeared to the back. After 20 minutes or so I was told that ID.me tech support would call me on my mobile shortly. Hallelujah!
Fifteen minutes go by. No call. Thirty minutes. Still no call. Over-the-shoulder lady is eyeballing me. She knows I’m getting upset. Out of boredom I check my email. In my inbox is a messgae from Dewayne of ID.me Member Support. It arrived nearly 30 minutes prior.
Looking into your ID.me account, I see you encountered a mismatch error message. The issue was that the birthdate on your ID.me account did not match the date of birth you were entering for verification. But do not worry! We have corrected the birthdate, and you can now verify your identity. With that being said, please reattempt the verification process.
That was it. No explanation as to how it was incorrect, if or when it was changed, why it was changed, etc. Fine. So I tried again on the corner PC.
Congratulations. Your identity has been verified.
Success. Although I didn’t feel successful. Over-the-shoulder lady took me to a bank of PCs in the middle of the room. I could now submit my claim for unemployment benefits. I completed everything in about 15 minutes. As I was leaving, I was told that I should hear something back in a few days.
On the drive home, I pondered my future as just another sucker on the dole.
The next day I received notice from the DoL of two determinations.
My work and salary history qualified me for the maximum amount of $365 a week for 14 weeks.
My claim for unemployment was denied and that more info will be forthcoming.
I should’ve just made that damn sandwich.
DISCUSS ON SG | DISCUSS ON GAB
On June 14th, I had a
regularly scheduled one-to-one with my boss. I clicked on the Teams link
to enter the meeting and was greeted not by the sole visage of my boss,
but by my boss and what was clearly HR Lady. I immediately
blurted out, “Huh. I’m being laid off.” This fazed neither of them. It
was as if I had said nothing. The remainder of what was a very short
meeting was effectively Clown World NPC mode. They read their respective
scripts, I listened, and then they virtually showed me the door.
I’ve never been laid off before (I don’t count the time cancel culture came for my head). I’ve survived multiple rounds of layoffs over the years because, even in this mockery of a meritocracy, I’ve always been one of those guys that you just don’t lay off. It seems the expansion of Clown World into all facets of life had finally caught up with me.
After taking a few weeks off to deal with a busy personal life and to contemplate my future, I started working on things — fun things, annoying things, things that just needed to be done. I might write about some of that. But I also started looking for a job. It’s been a few weeks now. I’ve applied for well over a dozen jobs and have reached out to many friends and contacts, but I’ve not yet received a single hit of interest from any quarter. Not a phone call. Not an email. Nothing.
I know that finding a new job can take a while — especially one similar to the mid-level exec roles I’ve been in over the past 15+ years (director/VP) — but something feels very odd about this experience so far. Perhaps it’s the fake economy acting retarded. Perhaps it’s just a lull. Or perhaps it’s something else I can’t yet define. Whatever it is, I’ve decided to blog about it.
So… I plan to write about my experience as an unemployed, Christian, white, male, heritage American trying to find a new job in Clown World 2023. I don’t know how often I’ll write about this, but I will write as my experiences warrant it. I have a feeling this is going to be bumpy ride.
DISCUSS ON SG | DISCUSS ON GAB
The following is
supposedly from a 1950s Home Economics Book. More of this would make for
happier homes, stronger marriages, and better behaved children. That
most young women today will think this is misogynistic is a big reason
why they’re so unhappy.
Ladies… If you’re fortunate enough to have a husband capable of providing for a family on his own, the least you can do is make the man some dinner and not dump on him right when he walks in the door.
Clearly, Boomers ignored this advice.
Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospects of a good meal are part of the warm welcome needed.
Take 15 minutes to rest so you will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair, and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot of work weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.
Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives, gather up school books, toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too.
Take a few minutes to wash the children’s hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair, and if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures and he would like to see them playing the part.
At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of washer, drier, dishwasher, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. Be happy to see him. Greet him with a warm smile and be glad.
Don’t greet him with problems or complaints. Don’t complain if he’s late for dinner. Count this as minor compared with what he might have gone through that day.
Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing, and pleasant voice. Allow him to relax – unwind.
You may have many things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.
Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other places of entertainment. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure, his need to come home and relax.
Try to make your home a place of peace and order where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.
SGers may have some words. DISCUSS HERE.
Update (Jan 4, 2025): I discovered a new source of free ebooks. Added to the bottom.
Vox
Day has identified another gap in the preservation of the Good, the
Beautiful, and the True. In this case, he’s noticed that there a number
of what he considers fairly basic public domain history books
unavailable at the normal places. He offers up Project
Castaliaberg as a possible solution to this.
This got me to thinking about the various websites I’ve visited looking for free public domain books. I’ll comment briefly on each.
The default. Most people who read ebooks have almost certainly heard of Project Gutenberg. Formats available for download (plain text, html, pdf, epub, mobi, etc.) are consistent across most of the library, but the quality and accuracy can sometimes be poor.
This is non-profit volunteer-driven project that proof reads, corrects, and beautifully formats public domain texts into excellent ebooks. While this library is not nearly as big as Gutenberg, the ebooks are outstanding quality.
This site is basically a merging of the titles available at Project Gutenberg with the free audiobooks created by LibriVox. A useful resource.
https://archive.org/details/books
A hit or miss mess or millions of books in all manner of state, readability, language, etc. If you know exactly what you’re looking for and can’t find it anywhere else, you may find it here. You can filter by year, language, etc. A lot of hits lead you to paywalls or limited previews.
Ron Unz has cataloged a lot of “controversial” books here. Many of them are available at other places, but many are not. Unfortunately, most of these are only available as HTML format and downloading them is non-trivial.
It’s Google. They cannot be trusted. But it is a resource.
UPDATE: Hat tip to Arthur on SG. Thanks for telling me about this.
Library Genesis appears to be a searchable database of specifically scientific and technical ebooks. I browsed around a little and it looks like a valuable resource.
A volunteer effort that produces “. . .amongst the highest quality eBooks anywhere.” These books are all public domain (per Canadian copyright laws) and do seem to be quite good. I’ve found a couple of things here I needed.
If you know of any other good resources, leave a comment over on
gab or SG.
I’ve been taking D3 and Zinc (amongst other things) daily since the early days of Covid. I’ve found them to be beneficial and I’m certain they, combined with general healthy living (I’m fit, I exercise, I run, I don’t eat like an idiot), have positively impacted not only my ability to dodge sickness, but also to get well quickly when I do become ill (only one mild illness since 2020 with several “itchy throat kinda cough a few days” episoides). While my experience is only anecedotal, there exists loads of pieces like this that try to either steer you away from them or deminish their effects. The enormity of the psyop attempting to keep us away from these supplements tells me they’re probably quite effective.
Here’s Dr Zelenko on the subject.
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