I’ve carried a set of leather wrapped juggling balls on flights off and on since the 90’s. They used to make every X-ray reader twitch out. They’re about the right size for bad items (explosives, grenades), and I have three, not just one.

Normally it would get a quick search, a moment of confusion, and then no worries.

Once when going through the old airport in Berlin, I got searched at the second checkpoint, they brought out the balls to me, so I started juggling them and did a routine. It was really quiet so I was the only passenger in sight. That was the only time I’ve performed in front of an audience who was carrying machine guns.

I just saw the article on AI powered ammunition vending machines in OK and AL. Have you seen one in person? That’s a wild concept.

Nations with their citizen’s health as an actual priority have (mostly) solved these problems. The US is not a developed nation, nor a humanitarian one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_First

Storming the Bastille was done (in part) to free prisoners who were being indefinitely held for reasons related to being poor. I’m mostly just bringing that up because history has lots of interesting themes we should all be considering in our decision making during daily life.

I paid $400 out of pocket with good insurance for a standard checkup in the US recently. Protect that NHS or you too will get to decide if you want to live or die with every injury.

Yeah, but you already have a king and we in the US just annointed our president king. Unless something changes hard for the better of the Republic in November, we’ll be a dictatorship in no time.

And your God emperor is signalling bloodshed if we let you do it.

You don’t negotiate or compromise with Nazis like the Project 2025 people.

The hiding of the control panel is just extra pain for the fun of it. I know it’s the same tool they’ve had for many generations now so they’re hiding it because it’s ugly, but it’s the real way to get things done. Hiding it is just making everyone’s life harder, which is basically the Microsoft approach to OS design.

Sorta. It’s a democracy with the voting and all that at this time. Since the person holding presidency is now above the law, then as long as the current president decides that we get to continue to have a republic, then we’re a republic. The moment a US president decides that it needs to be an official act to end voting, or just stall on voting indefinitely, then we stop being a republic. Basically, we’re living on borrowed time until the “by the people” part of the US nation is taken away by whomever we voted in as president last.

President Biden has the idea that he should respect the Constitution. He’s unlikely to decide to end the republic. If he gets reelected (and the conservatives don’t just kick off a civil war trying to end the election like they failed to do back in 2020), then we buy at least a few more years. Then… we go into a cycle where if benevolent dictators keep getting elected we stay afloat. The moment a populist gets elected president who also doesn’t personally decide to not take over as dictator, the republic ends.

Why that’s easy. It’s the top elected official, of course.

That’s been a continual strategy to try to deter and block RCV. They argued that in front of the courts in Maine when the state moved to RCV.

In the end, I feel there’s one big defense: no matter where my vote ends up, I only get one for the last candidate standing that I voted for.

The other voting systems where you rate candidates on a scale, it’s a bit muddier as to what a “vote” is. A vote should be your voice that’s the same as anyone else’s in the electorate. As long as all humans get the same voice, it should be able to take any form.

Since the only other likely alternative is a fascist, insurrectionist, felon, rapist who couldn’t finish a thought or sentence we’ve got ourselves a tough spot, but a clear better choice of the two: vote for Biden.

Having our government by a gerontocracy is not going well.

It’s a tunnel with electric trains. I volunteer my pasty white ass’s house as tribute for this. My city has near zero rail service and I’ll take it in a heartbeat.

Yes, the US has been using infrastructure to harm minority communities for generations, but so far this doesn’t seem to be the most egregious example of that. The exhaust system being next to a school is the only concern, but only if there’s a fire in the tunnel (which should be rare unless Boeing starts making trains).

Either move the exhaust or move the school while you start digging that new higher speed tunnel! Let’s go for some real modern transit!

Except the Duchy won the war against the US and brought back a hydrogen bomb. They then used that threat to make the league of micro nations. The bomb didn’t work, but the threat of it allowed a tiny nation to gain leverage on the geopolitical stage.

Germany’s overhaul of their immigration system added 3/5th credit to citizenship for foreign students doing university in their country. If you do a 3 year bachelor’s, then a 2 year masters it puts you only two years working from permanent residency. It’s a brilliant move to help highly educated people get connected then prove their commitment to the nation on a path to permanent citizenship.

Then there was the fancy mustard incident… It nearly ended the USA as a world power (at least according to the right wing propaganda channels).

Don’t even get us started on the coffee salute and how it made the military ready to start a coup from the disrespect. /s

WTF is happening to this nation? Somehow our politics has been taken over by Idiocracy grade stupidity as a matter of course.

It sounds like he needs to get the house on the market. Keep shaking those pockets out, you fascist fuck.

Why do you think they buy such ridiculously large vehicles? It’s to make moving the goalposts faster.

To write true haiku

One must practice inner peace

True haiku is calm

Tom’s Root Boot.

One floppy disk, one Linux machine!