I’ve been trying to find some excuses to be optimistic. Here’s a few potential silver linings:

1. If Trump/Project 2025 manages to accomplish their goal of tearing down the federal government, people will suffer immediately, including republicans, when they lose their Medicare, social security, access to healthcare, free education (daycare), prices go up, wages stay stagnant, unemployment and underemployment skyrocket, etc. This could open up a window in 2028 or 2032 where these programs need to be replaced, and it can be with non-halfassed universal systems like single-payer health insurance, UBI, etc. All the big brain swing voters might even be desperate and angry enough to actually pay attention and support them.

2. I hope 2024 demonstrated the importance of having primaries and participating in them. We might look forward to increased turnout in 2026 and 2028 primaries. If people want to nominate a left-leaning Democrat, primary turnout needs to be overwhelming. Unfortunately they might need to see centrists get wrecked a few more times. It’s possible that a third party rises out of this eventually, but more likely a progressive Democrat will eventually get a chance to run. In any case, sitting on your hands and whining about the system is not effective.

Do these help during the next 4 years? Not really, but go vote in the fucking primary in 2026 and nominate congressional candidates who want to talk about progressive policies. A little bit of hope goes a long way. Moderates don’t offer hope. 2016-2020 felt bearable because I thought Sanders would have a chance in 2020. I need some hope for 2028.

Also vote in your local elections in 2025 and 2027 too.

Well I did say they are dumb AF.

Hope there will be a legitimate election in 2028, and show up to the fucking primary before it and in 2026.

I think Trump won because of the economy. Yes, he has a rabid base that really does want his fascism, but the voters who pushed him over the edge are ones suffering because inflation and the wealth gap that has just been allowed to increase unimpeded. Those voters don’t want fascism - they’re just dumb AF and don’t pay attention. They just voted for “change.”

These problems will only increase over the next 4 years, so there will be another opportunity defy the status quo in 2028. We had a chance and failed to do in 2016. We came closer in 2020. We didn’t have a real primary in 2024. When we get to 2028, it’s time to fucking do it.

It sued itself in its confusion!

I have nipples, Greg.

I’m using part of this comment to inform my monitor purchases for the rest of my life.

I think they’d do two things if they want to keep the buy button. 1) Not require always online connections to play, or properly remove the online requirement or convert to P2P in the case of multiplayer games if they want to end support, or 2) sell their server infrastructure to a third party.

I assume this law is to preempt demand for something similar to the EU’s “stop killing games” petition. It’s a way to say that consumers were made aware and agreed that their games are only temporary licenses, so they can’t demand refunds or continued support when the company wants to stop.

There should be an exception: If they want to still say “buy” or fail to comply, they will need to refund the full original purchase price if they ever shut down the server.

Next do planned obsolescence and products that are designed to break a week after the warranty expires.

“Our investigation has identified the root cause of the contamination as a specific production process that only existed at the Jarratt facility and was used only for liverwurst. With this discovery, we have decided to permanently discontinue liverwurst.”

While the statement seems to offer some closure on the outbreak’s source, previously released inspection reports described a facility riddled with sanitation failures. Between August 1, 2023, and August 2, 2024, the facility was cited for 69 violations, which included water leaks, mold in numerous places, algal growth, “meat buildup” caking equipment, and walls that were also crawling with flies and gnats, sightings of other insects, rancid smells, trash and debris on the floors, and even “ample amounts of blood in puddles.”

The ol’ misdirection trick. “Please focus and the liverwurst. Don’t look over there. Or there. Or there…”

I saw two artistic swim teams in a row use Eminem’s Lose Yourself.

Barbed, for everyone’s horror.

What I’m hearing is that Biden should spend the rest of his term handwriting checks.

This is such a wild departure from real beauty pageants, which have always been known for pushing realistic beauty standards and for making normal women feel good about their bodies.

I’ve always been a PC+Nintendo person. I get mostly just Nintendo’s games (Mario Kart, Smash, Zelda, Metroid, Splatoon, etc.) and some party games on console, and everything else on PC.

There’s not been a time in my life when I haven’t had the first-party Nintendo lineup since the NES came out when I was like 8. Since most non-Nintendo games seem to eventually make their way to PC these days, they complement each other nicely.

Whenever I see questions like this, I know there are going to be a lot of answers about how bad this or that jewelry is, or how traditional rings are evil or a waste of money, or whatever. Luckily I don’t see any anti-marriage replies yet. In any case it’s a good idea to not preemptively use logic and morals to override what your future wife will want and feel.

But this is the right answer. I think if you’re going to get married, it’s good to be at a point in your relationship where you’re talking about these things and you can just choose ring together, or at least discuss if she wants you to be the one who selects it, or if she doesn’t want diamonds, or how much to spend, and whatever else. You should be as confident in choosing a ring you know she’ll like as you are in marrying the person. The best way to do that is to communicate and do it together.

It’s just not the same…

The manual options are ancient - like a sickle, or a scythe or clip by hand with garden shears bent down on your knees for hours. But fuck all that, you’ll want an electric trimmer for edges.

Steam, GameStop, Toys-R-Us, Walmart… Someone always makes a profit on selling games, or any products - even digital. Steam has not reinvented the wheel here. It’s not a new concept. Are you arguing that the idea of stores should be eliminated?

In return, the game is more likely to be seen, just like placing a product in a real store where people walk by it. It also gets advertised, reviewed, has another community outlet, and Steam uses their own servers and bandwidth to distribute it.

It’s not a bad deal for the devs and publishers.

In that case, you can make it a point to charge when the grid is “cleaner” - usually overnight. Your electricity costs may be cheaper then anyway.

The Apple Home app shows a grid forecast for your location, with cleaner times highlighted in green. I’m sure they pull this info from the utility company, so the info should be available in other smart home apps or maybe even your utility’s website.

But like others said, phone charging is very minimal. We’re talking about a 20W charger vs. say, a 1500W air fryer. Running larger appliances off-hours is a bigger deal - dishwasher, laundry, etc.

Some crackers have whole grain versions that taste as good or better than their white flour versions. Goldfish and Cheez-its are the two that come to mind. This doesn’t make them “healthy”, but at least there’s some better fiber in there. Compare nutrition labels.

Also try veggie chips/sticks. Again, they’re not “healthy”, but… there’s some better stuff in them than normal junk food. They are junk food with a small amount of bonus nutrition.

Freeze-dried fruit is addicting, but expensive. Try it and/or dehydrated fruit. The latter is chewy while freeze-dried is crunchy and melts in your mouth.

You can also try making your own nuggets or tenders with whole-grain panko breadcrumbs, and seasoning. The trick is to make it better than McDonald’s, which is easy for an adult, but tricky for kids. I don’t know the magic sauce though.

One of the latest Splendid Table podcasts had a guest on to talk about cooking healthy for kids (or she just wrote a book about it, I didn’t listen yet.) It’s a great show. Check that out.