The state could separately bring criminal charges. Also, the standard in civil court is preponderance of evidence (more likely than not) rather than beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s much easier to meet that in civil court, especially for sexual assault.

There’s a ton of situations where that’s not realistic. If you travel a lot for your job, not doing work when you have downtime like a layover isn’t feasible. Timezones are also a factor, and that may be the only time where all parties could be available. Or they just want to get the work done in the time before their flight so they don’t have to when they get back.

This is a mistake that should surface and get corrected in high school or earlier if the education system is working properly. Around 14 I bombed a writing assignment because my response was all personal feelings rather than reasoning and evidence. My teacher told me he agreed with me personally, but I did not actually complete the assignment as asked. I never did that again. Though I am not entirely convinced this wasn’t deliberate to create a culture war story.

I really agree that communication is where the American “left” is way behind. Both in terms of individual campaigns and as a whole.

The American “right” now has endless well-funded platforms to push messages and narratives. Podcasts, streamers, YouTube channels, news networks, social media accounts, etc. They also embrace AI to increase exponentially the amount of content they can shovel out. And they understand you need to use apolitical or quasi political interests as an entry point.

There are examples on the left of all of these, but not at the same scale and with the same financial backing.

TIL my natural writing style has distinctly feminine traits.

I don’t think anybody really knows. My understanding is the problem is KSA reports unaudited reserve numbers, so you have to take them at their word. There’s a lot of skepticism because they would report unchanged reserve numbers for years despite high exploitation. While they can certainly discover new reserves, it seems unlikely it would consistently be about equal to what they pumped out. I’ve read some analysts think they have less than half of what they report.

You can see some case study examples on their consulting website.

Cubicles are terrible until your office gets converted into an open concept, and then they seem amazing. Home office is best though.

Very true. I’m genuinely curious how many Trump voters didn’t find it likely enough last year to vote for him and only now do.

Definitely agree on occasional fine dining. If you can afford to save up for a really nice splurge meal every once in a long while, it’s absolutely worth it. The key is to find a place that is truly actually good and not pretentious or Instagram hype. But when you do, the combination of incredible food, drinks, and service can reinvigorate your zest for life.

About 22% of all Americans (not just voters) voted for him in 2024. So there’s still millions of people who voted for him and believed he knew.

I think there’s something to be said about a game that is both able to be and worth modding to such a degree. Bethesda has a bit of an unfair advantage due to decades of community knowledge building on the creation engine, however. I don’t disagree with any of your criticisms though.

This is not a surprise if you actually talk to random voters, like while canvassing. People are just cynical about that government actually doing any of this, not if they are worth doing. If we can get a slate of progressives elected who truly accomplish some of these goals, that could start some real systemic change if properly communicated.

It’s a very accurate description of the Northeast. People will help you dig your car out of the snow while passively aggressively exhaling very loudly to emphasize how much of a pain it is. But then they’ll just walk away not even expecting a thank you.

I haven’t played Starfield due to its reception, but Fallout 4 for me was excellent taken for what it was. Granted, the modding community (as usual for Bethesda) elevated it from a good to great game. I was surprised the number of hours I’ve put into it actually surpassed New Vegas. Though overall imo New Vegas > 4 > 3.

From an administration with low favorability ratings, two people with high unfavorability ratings. Foolproof plan. No notes!

I’m pretty sure you’d still have to make quarterly estimated payments in that case to avoid potential fines.

That clause doesn’t limit the scope to only members of Congress or laws they write. Supreme Court interpretation, 14th amendment, etc. have expanded that to government writ large.

Free speech protections generally extend to government employees, except in the scope of speech related to their official duties, to my understanding. It would be difficult to seriously argue a pride flag in someone’s office in the past meets that criteria of official duties. My faith in the courts to consistently hold that precedent is not high these days, however.

Americans are not practiced in large enough numbers in protest, demonstration, civil disobedience, and solidarity for a large scale general or rent strike to be successful. There needs to be a ramp up period with increasingly more frequent and expansive demonstrations for that to become practical.

It is because Apple has been dominant in the premium smartphone market for years, including in China. Huawei have started to make a big dent in that tier in China after eating Apple’s lunch in the lower price categories.

This is a feature that Huawei brought to market before Apple, which was kind of a first. Until recently, they were just following Apple’s innovations. It’s early and I wouldn’t want one now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if smartphones-that-fold-out-into-tablets was the standard by the end of the decade.