He is probably multilingual. Seems like a smart, well-educated person.

That’s just what I was thinking. It should contain added microplastics and industrial waste. And it should come in bottles made of plastic that cant’ be recycled and never breaks down. That would be the proper way to support right wing environmental policies. It would also be another “don’t get vaccinated” way for them to kill their own supporters.

You’ve chosen beautiful counters and floors!

I’m not sure if this helps, but my PayPal account has two sources configured. One is direct withdrawal from my checking account. The other is a debit card tied to my checking account. I have never had a merchant refuse it.

They are aggressively going after anyone who points out that almost everything they say is a lie. That’s what “woke” really means. They’re terrified of anyone who is awake and paying attention.

Just ignore the fact that you’re up to your waist in floodwater and go about your normal business. After a while it will stop bothering you.

I appreciate your patient contributions to this discussion. And I agree with you. This is another case of blaming the victim. When someone makes a threat threatens you the focus needs to be on those making the threat. How you handle the threat is only important if no one stops the aggressor.

Large parts of the GOP want to turn our country into a “what it used to be” that never existed. Destroying our educational system is a critical part of that mission. The lies at the base of their movement are not very effective against people with critical thinking skills, so they want to avoid letting anyone teach those.

These people are a genuine threat because we have allowed them into positions of genuine power. There will be no long-term solutions to the problems they are causing until we get them back out of power.

My city plows the bike paths at the same time it plows the emergency routes. We’re in Wisconsin, but a startling number of people still commute by bike all year long.

A bold adventurer!

This seems like a useful tool. Thanks!

I was thinking the same thing.

The problem is that honest names, like repression fund or authoritarianism fund, don’t score well in marketing research.

This is an illustration of Multiple Physicality Disorder.

You have given the correct and inevitable answer.

Maybe you should add a bit of lithium with the detergent.

I try very hard to buy everything on physical media. I subscribe to a few streaming services, but I never buy non-physical media. You don’t really own anything that can suddenly disappear because a company changes policies, get bought, or goes out of business.

Everything I buy is then ripped and stored on my local media server. That makes them more convenient and allows me to store the physical media out of the way. If something goes wrong, I can always re-rip.

It is worth noting that optical discs age and can become unreadable over time. If that happens, I can always go in the opposite direction and burn a new disc from my digital copy.

The best therapist I’ve known had a neat little cross-stitich on her lobby wall that said:

“Normal is just a setting on your washing machine.”

Every mode of human thought and behavior is represented by a spectrum. There is never a clear boundary between normality and mental illness.

Recorder is one of the easiest to learn. If you want something you can use to accompany yourself, guitar is the obvious choice, but it does require some cramped hand positions. If your joints are still recovering you may want to look into keyboards instead.

For what it’s worth, I’ve found leaving to read music for a particular instrument is easier than learning to read it more generally.

Best of luck!

He certainly fits here. And I think he’s just getting some perspective of his own from that angle.

Your dog is an artistic genius. Fortunately, your failure to recognize it does not seem to be discouraging her.

Taking an absolute stand may be comforting, but it has not and will not actually accomplish anything.

Our existing system is broken. Our current choice is between continuing with it, and trying to influence, or exchanging it for an authoritarian government run by a vindictive child. In the long run there may be other options, but right now you aren’t going to get a third choice. One or the other of those outcomes is going to happen.

Trump has said, at various times, that he would enact violence against protesters, have them arrested and held without due process, or have them deported. How effective do you think your efforts to push for more progressive government policies are going to go under those conditions?

Burning it all down sounds good in theory, but nothing happens in a vacuum. If we allow the current system to fail it is not going to be replaced with an idealized new system. It is going to be replaced by whatever existing movement is in a position to assert itself. Right now, that is will be the right-wing authoritarians.