Yep. That’s pretty much exactly how I feel. American economics ispl pretty far from capitalism, having too few balanced regulations and allowing extremely one sided (wealthy) dominance of the market. Which is the exact opposite of a free market (one where every party in a transaction has equal and fair power in the negotiation. Free market has absolutely nothing to do with that nonsense about being free from regulations or government interference).

I think it is worth considering that every single b-rated movie has a huge pile of things they had to cut that probably made them cried for days and will regret cutting for the rest of their lives. Movies cost a fortune to make, and every single element costs more than you can imagine. At a certain point it is the choice between shitty sound or abandoning big enough plot points to kill the whole project.

That idea alone is sort of impossible. There is no pure communist or pure capitalist economy. Hell even capitalism is one balanced region between four points of varying qualities: authoritarian vs libertarian, and market driven vs planned economy. Communism is an authoritarian planned economy.

One of the first economic rules is that it is impossible to have a pure economy. Purely market driven or purely planned. The closer an economy gets to it the more it all falls apart. Right wing totalitarianism is the closest thing to an opposite of communism, and it absolutely sucks. Several former Soviet nations went that way after the fall. They became so anti-communist that they had to become totalitarian regimes (pseudo democracy where there is an election, but only one party, with only one candidate, because they illegalized all opposition). RWT is as destructive to economies as communism was. I admit that perceptions of how communism performed is filled with controversy and misinformation on every side. But no matter how you slice it, communism failed mostly because it placed duty to community above basic needs like food and shelter. Or, more correctly, managers of production had no incentive to perform their best, so they performed at lower and lower levels until the whole economy was so depressed that it could not feed everyone while food was spoiling in the fields unharvested.

There is a reason why China switched to a capitalist economy, even though they still call themselves communist the way Burger King calls themselves “King.”

Oh, bum deal.

(I knew a guy who said that to a kid with obvious debilitating hemorrhoids by accident once. I’m sorry for being crass)

I’m down fifty pounds. My mobility and flexibility are steadily improving, as is my strength. And best of all, I have cured my prediabetes, and very possibly my fatty liver disease.

My guess would be your Windows ID. Did you use the same Microsoft account when setting up the new laptop as your old one? I know Brave should eliminate that but from what I’ve heard it just doesn’t. It’s all lies. You mentioned using Edge, and I am thinking that Microsoft and Google are both so heavily intertwined at this point that they are basically the same data cesspool.

Of course that is assuming it was a PC and not an Apple or Linux based device (again, you mentioned Edge). Other options would be a Samsung, HP, Acer, Google, or other manufacturer accounts. Google for sure. If you signed into Google anywhere else on that thing with your ID I would just assume your data was being beamed straight into every computer watching for it in existence.

I would suggest considering completing the licensing before moving. I have seen just way too many times when people jumped the line in similar ways and it ended up biting them in the rear eventually.

You may end up wanting to return in a couple of decades. Or it could streamline something if you move again to another country. Or you could end up being needed while traveling. Or being offered a position that needs that license for some online work without ever moving back. You could have a death or illness in the family that forces you to return. Or any of a million other reasons that you would want that, and not getting it now could mean eliminating options in the future. I knew a guy who’s wife was a doctor in another Mexico for years before immigrating to the US, and she had to start over from scratch. Just something to consider.

I think they need to update the laws regarding light placement. Right now they have to be placed at the top corners of the hood. So trucks and SUVs are forced to have their headlights positioned at eye level with many smaller cars. It’s absolutely bonkers.

As a dad I can say you better think twice kids!

Ten swallows of water without taking a breath, as fast as you can.

I am a Christian and I don’t believe that. I could go on at length about how the Bible doesn’t support that idea.

Ironically, I have read that there was a study that found that the most gullible kids in elementary school grow up to be republican. I’m not kidding.

There is a lot to be said about economics and capitalism. I am in no way excusing the greed based nonsense we have rampantly running us all into the ground. But I do think that these actions will eventually burn themselves out. Take AI replacing workers. If that happens, there won’t be enough customers to buy AI products. So they will mostly go out of business and become a taboo. Instead there will likely be a balance.

The same is true of all the stuff you are mentioning. I think we are reaching a tipping point where these bad business practices and bad financial government practices are all coming to a head. Our economies are based so much on credit, and we are running out of credit to borrow worldwide. And, these corporate corruptions of government free democracy are all kind of back firing. I think in the next four years there will be an uprising of the population, much like what happened after the Hoover presidency, and I think that will result in some major law changes for the better. Not perfect, but better. I also think that we will see a LOT of these high profile compani s get broken up and go bankrupt. Take the insurance industry. It has become so toxic that they are getting close to being not worth it. They don’t pay out as much as they cost for most of us. So I think we will see alternatives start to pop up.

But then again, maybe I am just sticking my head in the sand because it feels safer to be ignorant.

For me, deciding that everyone around me is an incompetent imbecile has been quite freeing. I don’t care what anyone thinks of me. I am always pleasantly surprised when they do a good job. And I am extra vigilant, take responsibility for the safety of those around me at all times.

Hate me all you want. I’ll burn your eye sockets out with my high beams.

I spent an extreme amount of time aligning my low beams so they don’t point up into people’s eyes. And I drive a fairly low to the ground Hyundai Elantra. I am very careful with those high beams.

I have no idea. It may have even be n a false claim. But I do believe the government can pay claim to a patent if it wants to. Like, if you invented a new kind of bomb, like say you figured out how to make a device that could create a decent amount of antimatter in a second row two, specifically loaded into a warhead, I’m pretty sure the government would take that from you and all your research. And it would be illegal to publish the design.

But I’m no lawyer and am merely guessing.

I knew of someone who had a patent for a device that attached to a forklift to aid in large scale floor remodeling (scraped up old vinyl flooring). The US military used Eminent Domain to steal that patent and use it for military operations (still just remodeling old floors, not even for combat operations).

I don’t know any more specifics about it. (I have a feeling there were more details that would have made that more understandable). Just that they can take a patent if they feel they need to.

I am religious, and for me he’ll is sort of where we already are. Like, heaven is more a concept of achievement, like being healthy and balanced. Hell is the regret for what could have been, and was always open to you.

As far as the political Christianity that has overtaken republican politics, I think most of it is what Jesus was talking about when He said nothing angers God more than claiming you are a follower of Christ for the vanity. They (the Republican party) do not represent the teachings of Christ in any way at all. Not one part of their platform was taught or encouraged by Christ. (Except a very misunderstood adaptation of race politics that ignores Christ’s actual words regarding it).

Long story. But basically I took a few of my friend’s friends out on rented snowmobiles at night and we all shared a bottle of jägermeister. My friend was a 30 year old mother of two with a husband in jail for violating a restraining order she had on him. Her two friend had recently had a threesome with her. (I chose not to have sex with her months before despite her throwing herself at my 18 yo self). This resulted in them getting into an argument, and I decided we should all leave. On the way back, mistakes were made (the two stopped suddenly in the middle of the trail to argue and I overcorrected to avoid them) and she fell off and hit her head. The two dicks sped off leaving me alone in the woods with an unconscious woman, who’s brain resorted to animalistic screams and flailing arms, holding her head/neck at an angle so she didn’t stop breathing. Some time later we were found, then the cops and paramedics arrived. I was sober by then, so didn’t go to jail. But she got life flighted half a state away and spent a month in the hospital.

I sort of changed my life after this. I don’t really think of this as the moment it all changed. Rather it is other events (finding a belief in God and wanting to become a better person as a result) that precipitated those changes. But truth be told, I probably would have continued to go downhill if not for this incident. Typing that all out made me realize just how messed up my life was back then.

A very long time ago I was a stupid young man. I got a little drunk and ended up putting my friend into a coma for a week (on snowmobiles). That was the last drop I ever drank. It’s been over 25 years, but I will never forget how invincible I felt, and how foolish that feeling feels every time I think back on it. Don’t mess around with this shit. Like ever.