AFK BRB Chocolate

One interesting thing at my local one in southern California: several people were waving large state flags. Lots of American flags as well, but I thought the state flags were interesting.

That really sucks. I’m not sorry for Tesla, but I’m sorry for the workers caught up in the shit show.

People say that, but it’s much easier said than done. You can’t just decide to move to a country and go. Like the US, you have to apply. Many want proof that you have a useful skill. In some cases the application is expensive.

Also, we have kids and family. If I had to give up seeing them easily to live, I guess I would, but that thought is stressful too.

Right, this is a facet that a lot of people don’t get. I’m also more worried about smacking my toe on a table leg than I am of death, because I’m just not at all worried about death. When the game is over, it’s over.

Not having enough money to live sounds horrible though.

Yes, this is it. I worked at the same aerospace company for 40 years and retired this past January. As an engineer, I had done lots of spreadsheets and analysis to make sure I had some confidence that my wife and I could live the rest of our lives without being a burden on anyone. Now, just a few months later, my 401k and IRA are in the toilet, below the worst case of my worst case analysis, the administration is working to dismantle the social security and medicaid that I haven’t yet applied for, and my anxiety is through the roof.

I’ve never really been anxious about death. I mean, I’m not looking forward to it and I try to live in a way that puts it off, but every life ends eventually and I’m at peace with the fact that mine isn’t an exception. But what happens if I run out of money before then? How do I live? I’ve never been rich, but I’ve been super lucky to have a good enough income to feed myself and my family for 40 years. We had a couple times when unforseen issues made me worried about being able to pay our bills, but we were able to get through those times with some belt tightening. But now? I’ve never been so anxious in my life.

Cybertruck might be an exception. I’m surprised Musk hasn’t made a version of the Cybertruck that can roll coal.

All that is true. In addition, those communications are subject to records retention laws, so using signal and flagging them to be deleted is illegal in itself.

Not sure about your political persuasions, but sadly the inexpensive areas of California tend to be deep red as well.

Yeah, there’s kind of a big flaw in this. I’m in California, too. It’s a huge state, and there re giant swaths of it that don’t have especially high cost of living, but the population centers like LA and San Francisco are very, very expensive. Taking the median isn’t going to give you a realistic answer for most of us.

And you think that’s required for recognizing a Nazi salute? That’s whack.

Are you suggesting that a kid doesn’t have any insight into their parent’s behavior and that “experts” do?

It is absolutely an active coup on our democracy, and basically the whole party is complicit.

That part is so frustrating. The other branches are the “checks and balances” we’ve always been taught to trust in, but the Republicans have become a cult that’s infiltrated all of the branches, nullifying those checks and balances. It’s horrifying.

Not sure why some people are disagreeing - it for sure fits the definition. I’m not exactly sad about it - Musk is helping to rip apart the country and I have a hard time blaming people who feel that helping to rip apart one of his companies is about all they can do - but committing arson to further an ideology is terrorism.

Me too! I’ve voted consistently liberal, including for every minimum wage hike on the ballot. Also, I’m on the very trailing edge of the boomer generation, and much of the era you’re talking about was before my time. I did reasonably well because I was a computer science grad when that was an earlier thing, but still, I had it easier than my kids (who we’ve tried to help a much a we can).

I just retired after 40 years at over company, plus some college jobs. I’m 62, and social security was one of the things in my plan that made me decide I could retire My company was laying people off; I was secure, but my leaving allowed one more person to keep their job.

Now Trump is tanking my 401k and Elon is taking about cutting SS. I’ve never been more stressed about money.

No argument, it’s a surprise to the morons who were manipulated into voting for the guy, but most everyone else saw what was happening.

Seems like if that’s was the case, steep times wouldn’t matter. Why would tea steeped longer have significantly less metal in it than tea steeped shorter if they both got poured through the same filter?

From the article (emphasis mine):

It turns out that the type of tea bag matters. The team found that cellulose tea bags work the best at adsorbing toxic metals from the water while cotton and nylon tea bags barely adsorbed any contaminants at all—and nylon bags also release contaminating microplastics to boot. Tea type and the grind level also played a part in adsorbing toxic metals, with finely ground black tea leaves performing the best on that score. This is because when those leaves are processed, they get wrinkled, which opens the pores, thereby adding more surface area. Grinding the tea further increases that surface area, with even more capacity for binding toxic metals.

He doesn’t fucking care. The whole campaign was about doing and saying whatever was needed to get elected so that he could avoid lawsuits, make a profit, and dismantle government. Rich and powerful supported him because they saw ways for themselves to get more rich and more powerful. The richest man on the planet went all in, and now is personally helping to eliminate government agencies that were investigating his own businesses. They don’t care that the public gets unhappy, they’ve served their purpose.

This isn’t a surprise, it’s their plan going as intended.