I’m completely on board with that, except for the “wish fulfillment”. I don’t know how it got twisted around that you could presume to tell God what to do or that he would - it seems so entirely inconsistent with anything else about religious beliefs

So we have this all powerful and all knowing supreme being , right? And he’s got a plan for the entire universe and all of time, right? But he’ll disrupt all of that to grant you a favor if you wish hard enough? Or you can blame him if something bad happens to you specifically, out of all the universe over all time? What hubris, what ego could make us think we’re in control and can use it for personal gain?

My mom still drinks tea

It is! I also go on the border a couple times every year! https://www.ontheborder.com/locations/

But then US interference most directly affects US jobs and customers. That’s a much better er situation.

Think of car manufacturers that have done this for decades. They may have a global supply chain, heading mostly back to their home country, but they also have worldwide plants near their customers. Thanks partly to similar incentives and tariffs, my Honda was assembled in, I think, Kentucky, and was as us-manufactured as any us brand, meaning us jobs, us manufacturing, partial us supply chain. The result has been almost entirely good.

We’ve spent the last few decades outsourcing key industries, where US no longer has as much manufacturing and we’re way too dependent on other countries. It took supply chain disruptions from COViD to realize how much of a bad idea that was.

We’re finally trying to recapture some of those key jobs, industries, supply chains, dependencies, starting with chips and renewable energy. THANKS, BIDEN! this is what will make America great again

And somehow when my ex asked for help, I’ve spent weekends at her house carrying heavy stuff, assembling furniture and fixing stuff. Crap, I need to set boundaries, don’t I?

It’s misspelled slang

• https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pwn

“Trump pwns the libs” == “ Trump defeats the liberals”

Conservative/Reactionaries love anything to beat the liberals who are trying to bring change

It’s difficult for at least half of us to understand as well, but the only answer is repressed anger, desperation, fear of change. People are unhappy and Trump gives them an outlet with his rants, identifies scapegoats to hate, attacks changes they are afraid of. Even his open flouting of the law attracts those who feel stifled by overbearing laws.

Let’s take the Department of Education as an example. Here, education is mostly at the state and local level. The federal department of education doesn’t have much say, but they can give money with strings attached. In the last few decades, those strings included requirements for the disabled, racial and gender equity in school sports, separation of church and state (like our Constitution requires), programs to uplift the impoverished or poorly served, as well as programs to identify and remediate failing schools. For example my town just built a new high school: some of the reasons for the insane cost are federal requirements because they paid for most of it. People may not be comfortable with all these changes imposed by the federal government, despite the funding that comes with it and regardless of the overall good. Demagogues like Trump can stoke outrage based on outsiders telling people what to do.

Now it’s a core Republican plank to shut down the Department of Education, so state and local governments can run Education their way. I don’t believe they even think about what they’d lose, who they’d lose it for, or how much worse off they’d be., just “stop telling us what to do”

It all starts with a dating app - find the person of your dreams, build a life together, have children, help them grow up, then …… you have a house full of people with phones who can find your phone!

But more seriously: assuming Apple, I can find my phone from my iPad and from my Watch. I do also have the family set up as an iCloud family so that is easy as well. I expect any Siri device as well

I couldn’t find the oldest building overall, but the oldest surviving house was built in 1716. While my city was settled earlier, it was essentially a “boom town” of the early Industrial Revolution in the US

If they have a concept of danger, it’s enough to blast away

They “became aware of a knife in his pocket”. That’s why there was no light reflecting

Look, I’m just quoting Wikipedia. It seems like you have an argument with them.

Your quote is followed with

According to The New York Times, “Big legislation largely eludes Mr. Sanders because his ideas are usually far to the left of the majority of the Senate … Mr. Sanders has largely found ways to press his agenda through appending small provisions to the larger bills of others.”[146] […] Nevertheless, he has sponsored over 500 amendments to bills,[148] many of which became law.

Man, I used to think I was so handy, doing household, appliance, and car repairs, etc ……

It’s been a while since I needed to do anything, and now I have this cursed ikea furniture. Somehow it took three weekends to put a bed together, and it’s not even done since I broke another part. I’ve never before broken ikea furniture on assembly and have never needed support or replacement parts, yet this effing bed has needed replacements twice.

I don’t know if my hands are cursed and I’ll never again be handy, or if it’s ikea

I’m quoting Wikipedia, and that Wikipedia entry has such a list

• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders

More importantly, no more creepy comments about Ivanka. Now we know why: Ivanka is too old for Trump

Let me quote just one line from the Wikipedia entry

Sanders is credited with influencing a leftward shift in the Democratic Party after his 2016 presidential campaign

You can also look at his legislative history to see that he’s been pretty successful pulling progressive Democrats along, regardless of not changing the electoral system or getting nominated

Without support from the House and Senate, a 3rd party president would be powerless.

Or consider it from the other direction. In a party line vote on new policy, imagine if the difference was a couple green or progressive congressmen instead of the Manchins of the world

The debates define rules ensuring only serious candidates join the debate - third parties need enough votes to be in the race. I’m aware that I’m letting them off the hook, but I don’t know a better solution. While it would be better to include third party candidates, we also don’t want many non-serious ones

Why doubt? That’s outstanding! As an astronaut, they want to be in space and have been trained for space. If I were an astronaut I’d be frustrated at piddly one week trips and want to be up there with the big boys taking a full shift off planet (not that I have any idea)