You know, I’m extremely tired of hearing people piss and moan about the Democrats not accomplishing legislative miracles with the barest of majorities. The GOP is almost gleeful in being a bulwark against anything and everything that might possibly be seen as a Democratic win. We can’t have nice things because 49% of Congress just wants to watch the other party suffer and cling to power by calling them ineffective.

What the fuck have the Republicans done that have helped the average working class American in the last twenty goddamn years?

They’re nothing but rhetoric and religious fundamentalism. They had full control of both houses and the presidency and assured us we would have some great replacement to the ACA and literally nothing ever came of that. The Republicans don’t want to help Americans, they just want to be in power. Why isn’t that relevant? The Democrats can’t pass sweeping legislation because of obstruction and that’s the end of the world, but the Republicans have literally no ideas beyond removing rights from whatever flavor of “other” they’re targeting this season and they get a pass.

Our country is fundamentally broken. One party’s politicians say they want to represent all Americans and the other wants to use the military against their political rivals. And somehow the election is still close? Yeah. This whole country is fucked.

Newspapers are allowed to endorse candidates because the first amendment protects free speech. While I may agree with you that endorsements and news media stumping for ANY candidate is problematic and reeks of propaganda, it is, for better or worse, protected by the constitution.

I would rather risk homelessness and starvation rather than drowning. If the water around the place I am is rising I am going to get to safety. Full stop. No job is worth risking my life for.

I understand what you’re saying, but at the end of the day if you are dead, nothing else matters.

Dame Maggie Smith was a gem in everything she was in. Her performances elevated every piece of media she performed in. I would watch movies just because she was in them, and I never regretted that. Today is truly a sad day. Rest in peace. She gave the world countless masterful performances and now the curtain has closed.

Part of why cats like you is probably because you don’t like them and seek them out. Most cats are wary of people directly trying to approach them without invitation or greeting. In general cats will find the person ignoring them the least threatening and most approachable.

It never fails that cats tend to flock toward the person that is allergic to them, because that person is typically entirely disinterested in them lol. Not being interested in the cats is likely why you make friends with them so quickly!

While I agree that felony murder in theory is just, I do take objection to trying a minor as an adult with it. The whole reason we have a separate justice system for minors is because they are too stupid, impressionable, and gullible to know what they are doing, and understand the potential consequences and outcomes of their actions. Couple that with the adolescent feelings of invulnerability, and trying them as adults is just wrong in most cases in my opinion.

Should this kid be punished? Absolutely yes. Should he live most, if not all, of his adult life in prison? No. Unequivocally no. This situation is exactly where and why we need better rehabilitation and education in the American justice system. The whole notion of him being in prison for 65 years is just absurd to begin with in my opinion - instead of wasting 65 years spending tax dollars feeding and housing him, let’s educate and rehabilitate and get him out to be a productive member of society. …whole situation is stupid

I’m really glad to see this. My husband and I game together a lot so we will still buy individual copies of a lot of games. Theres some games though that I’d like to try but never will because I won’t buy them, and his library is basically never available when I want it to be. Happy that we can now share some of those really weird one off games!

Sleep As Android is hands down the #1 app on my phone I cannot give up. It’s THE reason I could never switch to Apple. I’ve gone beyond basic use and now have it automating things based on sleep actions and I kind of love it.

In my opinion it depends on the game. Games as good as BG3, with no micro-transaction crap and a bit of updates for bugs and some patches? I would pay more for it and gladly. BG3 feels easily worth $120 to me.

The problem is, other studios will see BG3 able to charge that, then go try doing it themselves, riddle it full of micro-transactions, release it half baked, and then gaslight us by telling us we’re being unrealistic with our expectations.

Does your car have an AUX port by chance? Mine was the same with the Bluetooth limited to calls, but with a $20 adapter on Amazon I converted my unused AUX port to Bluetooth audio. Aside from that ONE thing I love my car and am thrilled to have this solved, especially so cheaply.

Generic Epipens still cost $300. They can all go fuck themselves.

I’m not fully de-Googling, however I have been migrating things that Google does badly over to other services. Kagi for search was the latest, and admittedly hardest mentally for me to do. Not because the search engine itself isn’t fantastic (it is), but I’ve been using Google since its inception when I stopped asking Jeeves or Hotbot. Just feels weird to jump ship, but I’m so tired of how bad and enshitified their search has become that I just can’t do it anymore.

I actually have a Proton acct already but only use the VPN. Sounds like it’s time to look further into the other offerings.

Minecraft

Stardew Valley

Baldurs Gate 3

I find it funny that this is what they’re up in arms about, not the happy little threesome. I saw it and was shocked that NBC actually aired it, because that’s just much too controversial for we puritanical Americans to handle.

As you said, you took on the responsibility and obligations of parenthood when you chose to have children. Part of that is considering their interests when exercising your vote. While I don’t have children, I don’t agree that you have more skin in the game as you put it, than I do. I, as a human being and citizen of this country, want to see it succeed and flourish not only now, but long after I am gone, for generations to come. My family, friends and loved ones are all considerations when voting, as well as what I think will be best for society as a whole. It’s why when local votes come up for school funding, I always vote in favor of increases, despite having no children of my own benefitting from it.

Every adult makes life choices, and has various considerations for how they think the world should be, and what will improve it. The personal decisions you make and how you live your life should not afford you more or less votes than anyone else.

Eh, I don’t agree. Sports are a good way for people to get exercise and recreation time in, which are vital for mental and physical health. There are definitely ways to incorporate animals into sports that the animals enjoy and is also good for their mental and physical well-being. We just need to collectively stop being shitty stewards of our animal companions.

Absolutely this. There IS a scenario in which I would love a “smart” or “AI” fridge, but it’s gotta be damn impressive to even be worth my time.

It needs to know everything in my fridge, how long it’s been there and it’s expiration date, and I want it to build grocery lists for me based on what is low, and let me know ahead of time that I should use something up that’s going bad soon. Bonus points if it recommends some options for how to do that based on my tastes. And I want to do this without having to manually input or remove everything.

But we’re still SO far from being able to do this reliably, let alone at any kind of acceptable price point, and yet fridge makers keep shoving out dumb fridges with a screen on them and calling them “smart”. I hate it.

Honestly, look into the Breeze litter boxes. They’re not automatic or anything crazy expensive, but it really does make a HUGE difference. I’ve been told by multiple strangers “I thought you had a cat?” after being in my house a while because she hides and the box generally cannot be smelled. If you change the pads regularly (i.e. before they are full), replace the pellets 2-3 times a year, and clean the box itself when replacing the pellets, the only smell you will have is from poop. I personally buy the bioplastic dog poop bags in bulk, and just use those to quickly grab and dispose of it.

When we used regular litter the cats tracked it everywhere, flung it out of the box, and it always had a smell, even when cleaned daily. I have none of those things with the Breeze boxes. We were using two when we had 3 cats and I had to replace the pads every 3 days. Now with one cat I replace the pads every week to two weeks depending on whether she divides her usage or fixates on one. We pick up the poop as soon as we notice it, which is usually very quickly because they can’t really bury it as well. I will never go back to traditional litter.

There are reasons why a business might actually need or benefit from having a single family dwelling in a way that aligns with their business. For instance a local theatre company owns two large homes here so that when traveling cast come for shows they have somewhere to house them without spending exorbitantly on hotel rooms for weeks at a time, and the cast get a more comfortable stay. The homes are typically occupied at least a portion of each month, and everyone involved benefits.

It’s reasons like these I wouldn’t want to put a total and complete ban on businesses owning single family homes, but in my opinion there should be a reasonable business justification for it and it needs to be very limited.

Not really. I haven’t looked into why it caused the issue it did. Presumably it is not actually intentional by MS, and there is some conflict going on that’s causing it. I’ll eventually get around to trying to let it install that update again, but life has been busy :)