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.

Just housing them is really damn effective in my experience. They recently opened a pallet shelter “village” in my area. Since, I basically never see encampments, and the number of visibly unhoused folks has dropped a lot (since they just look like everybody else due to regular access to hygiene facilities). According to the cops, they’ve had zero calls out to the village.

We should still do all the other things, but just put up a ton of free basic housing and you can make enormous visual progress.

I was at a friends and family barbecue recently, and it just so happened none of the parents there brought tablets for their kids. It was just kids running around the backyard being kids. The parents generally let them do whatever but were attentive enough to prevent them climbing on the shed and stuff.

I can’t remember the last time there wasn’t some kid glued to a screen at that type of party. It was a joy to see.

And he never shut up about how embarrassing Biden apparently was.

If one of my friends showed me a collection of hats with their name on it, I would pull them aside and ask if they have considered getting professional help.

Technically, yes criminal conversion is certainly a thing. If the laptop was expensive and you lived in a really low crime area where the cops were bored that might get pursued. My experience is that cops are practically more likely to say, absent a court order, to sue the person because it’s he-said she-said. It’s just too much effort for a potentially muddy situation.

You’d be surprised how often things that are theft/technically theft are not actually pursued by police in the US. The property crime clearance rate (resulting in at least arrest) is <15%.

Holding onto a rental car, on the other hand, is both expensive and cut-and-dried enough (contract states definitive end date ahead of time) to be a bad idea.

No, at least not in the US. It does not meet the legal definition of theft because (I believe) the property was initially acquired legally.

Otherwise, the police would be doing repo for things like delinquent car loans, which is dystopian corporate hellscape stuff.

In my experience, transplanting within the US has more to do with a significant shift in culture/region. You’re a transplant if you move from Maine to Texas. You just moved if you relocated from Maine to New Hampshire.

I imagine many of those are ordinances intended to regulate fraternities and sororities—or similar college student shared housing situations.