He didn’t want to pack the court so I’m not holding out hope that he’d empty the court either. Obviously assassinating justices would completely fuck the country up, but one could argue that the current justices are slow playing us into a fascist dictatorship.

The DNC has been snatching defeat from the jaws of victory my whole life. I’m so sick of this shit.

They should have had the balls to do the right thing anyway. But even legitimate news companies showed zero moral fiber so expecting more from an unprofitable internet startup is a fool’s errand.

Regardless, the time to act was way before that POS got into office. The Donald was a dumpster fire years before the election.

Is that why that priest in Wisconsin was calling for the Pope’s death? Is the Pope cowed by NE US liberals and ignorant of actual Catholic teachings?

Would one need to follow the Texas bishop who got removed, in order to get actual Catholic teachings?

When you presume that I have “no understanding of actual Catholic teachings”, is that solely based on my ignorance of the conservative and fundamentalist US parishes?

It’s too bad you chose to comment on my beliefs in such a condescending manner. We could have had an interesting conversation if you were more civil.

https://www.newsweek.com/priest-calls-pope-francis-killed-likens-him-devil-1836438

https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/pope-fancis-joseph-strickland-removed-conservative-texas-bishop-catholic-church/

I think the Florida Supreme Court was still dealing with Bush v Gore when the Supreme Court jumped in. Although, I guess that one did have a more direct relationship to Federal law. But it was 100% bullshit, regardless.

Yeah, but we’re talking about groceries. No one says “I’m gonna fast this week cuz I think groceries will be cheaper next week”

Yeah. Back east folks are hyper aware of the child rape fuckery and are salty AF about it.

I’m so confused by the super fundie catholics. I grew up in New England and was raised Catholic, even went to Catholic school for a bit, and never got any of that “barefoot and pregnant” in teachings or sermons. The church always had awful stances on abortion, birth control, divorce and homosexuality but pretty much everyone just glossed over or ignored it. And there really wasn’t anyone pushing that shit. Like you never heard anti gay or any abortion stuff in church or in school. I wonder if the church adapts to the local region? Like how McDonalds sells wine in France? Or maybe the American dioceses all got infiltrated by super right wing priests?

Eric Clapton is wildly overrated

That much underground would be awful for mold allergies. And IDK how much time and money is needed to deal with nothing ever getting permits

Very unusual unfinished, unpermitted concrete bermed home with unpermitted septic system and no power on 4.97 secluded, wooded acres. Individual well. 4-1,000 in ground propane tanks, 500 gal water storage tank. Used to be powered by a solar system & a generator, both of which were stolen (and other equipment) but electric nearby. Owner was working on a self-sufficient home but passed during construction having spent over $400K on the project. Current best use may be to bring in power, do engineering calculations & permit this structure as a shop/ag building & build another home/manufactured home. Owners have some construction photos. Great buy at the list price. There is still a lot of value there. Located in the country East of Olympia.

Literally no downsides to getting rid of TikTok.

Well, unless you want people under the age of 40 to vote for you.

Since the Supremacy Court ruled that race based admissions are unconstitutional, IDK why legacy admissions should be OK. But the US always cares more about rich people than Black people.

Can he say that he will appeal, but do nothing, and just hang out in limbo? If you don’t actually do the appeal then you don’t have to put the money in escrow and you haven’t actually exhausted your appeals. Running out the clock is a pretty standard Trump move.

Every other billionaire is spending their money on lobbying to get their taxes even lower. Maybe she could still have an impact through lobbying and influence peddling, but she’s outmanned and outgunned.

I’m not saying that she’s an angel. I haven’t seen anything in the press about her motives or political stances; you could be 100% correct. But paying politicians to go against all the other donors isn’t a trivial undertaking

China does have a lot of agricultural and manufacturing workers who aren’t on computers all day. And they have some pretty poor rural areas. But I’m calling bullshit on Japan’s numbers. Tokyo looks like Blade Runner at night but and the office culture is famous for long hours but no one is looking at screens? Get the fuck outta here.

I don’t think people would necessarily know that they’re experiencing discrimination. And people might not realize that they are treating folks unequally.

You can know you’re in pain and that the medication that you’ve been given isn’t eliminating all of the pain. But you don’t know why. Are you being given the maximum reasonable dose or is it because the doctor doesn’t believe you when you say you’re in pain? Or is it because the neighborhood you’re in (which is still influenced by decades of systemic racism) has had a history of more patients with drug seeking behavior? Maybe the ER in your neighborhood has longer wait times due to some unknown corporate policies or accounting that impacts staffing? How would you know? It’s not like you’re checking out all the ERs all the time and leaving Yelp reviews. Or maybe the person doing triage makes a split second judgment that you seem to be in less pain than someone else and are therefore lower priority?

All that said, I did actually have a racist dentist once. IDK if it had any real impact on the quality of my care (it’s not like I’m a dentist and can assess whether a filling should have been a crown or something).

How did I know? Well,ll I didn’t know at 1st. The receptionist was the dentist’s mother and she was super old. She would always be checking and double checking that I understood that I would be billed if the insurance didn’t pay and that I understood how much things could cost. And this wasn’t just once in a while, it was every damn time I came in. As a fairly well paid engineer with good insurance, this seemed really weird. My white husband had the same dentist and when I told him about this he was like “What? Dr X’s mom is just as sweet as pie.” She never asked him how he would pay for things even though he was on MY damn insurance! So we went on with me thinking the dentist’s mother was racist and my husband thinking that I was imagining things. And then one day, my husband was in the chair with a sports magazine from the waiting room. The cover had some large athlete, looking intimidating. It may have been someone who got physical with someone? I don’t remember, I’m not sporty. Anyway Dr. X says to my husband “Can you imagine having that gorilla coming at you”?. This was decades ago but my husband learned a valuable lesson that day.

I used to stick to that rule and get a sensible mid sized Toyota Corolla or Honda Accord that’s a few years old as needed. But in 2013 (the last time I needed to get a new car) the cost savings were really low compared to new. I think the used market was particularly hot so you’d save less that 10% of the cost, so I ended up getting my 1st and only (so far) brand new car ever.

Sounds like you’re doing everything you can. It sucks that you’re going through this; I hope the situation improves and you don’t get furloughed.

I’m guessing that if you could get to all your jobs without the car, you would have already done so? Saving on gas and insurance can help, but depending on where you live that might not be realistic.

You could try contacting local food banks and see if they ever make accommodations for people who are working during operating hours. They might not but there’s no harm in asking.

Right now you’re in a serious hole from missing work for a family emergency. I don’t have much advice for getting back onto steady ground aside from being super crazy frugal and working extra hours in the short term (which is fucking exhausting mentally and emotionally and physically). Do you have any long term plans for having more breathing room years from now? If your steady state is “one car repair or illness away from defaulting on payments” then that’s a hard path. Do you or your wife have prospects for better paying jobs in the future? Are there training or educational opportunities that could help? Are there cheaper places you could live (smaller, worse neighborhood?) to save money while working towards better job prospects? Living on not enough money in crappy circumstances sucks but it is definitely more bearable if you know it’s temporary and you’re making progress towards something better.

Good luck.

Jumping between Mac and Windows I keep accidentally awakening Cortana when I try to copy and paste. Now that god awful, universally reviled feature if finally getting deprecated but it still brings up the damn window/modal/pice-of-shit just to tell me that it’s gone. If you want to be gone, then go! Don’t make a fuss telling me about it. Just go. No one wanted you in the 1st place. Fuck.

Not the main character but Gus Fring was a remarkably intelligent gangster.