Okay, I’ll bite and take a few minutes to refute yet another of your seemingly patently false statements that you provide no evidence for.

Are you talking about the expanded child tax credit that the senate didn’t pass(the house did)? If so, that’s not on the president.

I downvoted you at almost every opportunity bc it seems like you’re just talking out of your ass, which isn’t helpful. If I missed something that you’re referring to for poverty, feel free to share and support your argument.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-is-the-child-tax-credit-and-how-much-of-it-is-refundable/#how-did-congress-expand-the-child-tax-credit

There’s likely no 1 magic solution… it’ll take multiple fronts: education, community-building, better(less misinformation) social media…

Is there, though? I was trying to come up with some examples yesterday and all I can find from my admittedly lefty algo are fears propagated because of Trump’s words or incoming cabinet appointments. They are at least based on actual recorded words as opposed to cherry-picked data or “feels”. I guess the left could be cherry-picking data to support their arguments also, but the logic seems more sound, at least to me.

Appreciate the info!

If they don’t already exist, it sounds like a niche need for a third-party company that has some preset templates of different options? Add a lawyer and some legal aid and could be very helpful for the system.

Beautiful stuff, y’all. Keep hope alive!

Considering how under-funded and understaffed the IRS has been/is, they do a pretty amazing job with what they have to work with. Simplifying or redoing our tax codes again is a huge task that will take time. There does need to be some sort of progress though! We’ll see what type of government we’ll have shortly.

That threw me for a loop as well. Finally figured out that they meant “exert”.

I could see the point being to spread the information on what is happening so that (hopefully) we could elect more people who would do something about it. There are some elections coming up where, theoretically, the power could shift. There’s also lobbying our congresspeople, which can have an effect if enough people do it. The power of incumbency, uninformed voters, etc… make this a shitty situation, to be sure. I’m still trying to have hope that enough people pushing for change can find success. If not, I’ll just be cynical at the bleak prospects of life.

I say all that to say, we should fight however we can, but definitely keep pushing forward!

While I can concede your point that it’s feasible and possibly even more practical to open from the stem, I gotta say that since switching to the other end years ago(because I saw a similar thread on reddit), it’s been super easy and I’ve had zero issues. The stem just has a higher rate of fucking up, but it’s not like either end will fully decimate the banana. Peeling properly after it’s opened is an easy fix either way.

IIRC, the reason sodium batteries would be better is we have abundant stocks of sodium, whereas the raw materials for most other batteries are limited and require more destructive mining. John Oliver just covered some of this on his show last Sunday. If that tech can be improved, hopefully there won’t be any deep sea mining for more raw materials!

You can sail the high seas for Fallout. It’s worth it!

Anything could have enough significance to warrant further study. If it has societal implications or environmental concerns, it could be deemed worthy. I’ve read some guidelines on how to read scientific papers, but don’t have the link on me. The scientists are supposed to list their biases, but it’s kind of on the honor system, I think.

On your last question, while changing reps to at-large would certainly help with gerrymandering, that would make it more difficult for reps to have solid relationships with their constituents. It benefits both the constituents who don’t have to travel as far(although phone calls and emails would still theoretically work) to connect with their rep, but also allows the rep to tour their area more frequently and be able to handle specific, local issues more effectively. There are tradeoffs with everything though, so it might work better overall. It’s just so hard to change the status quo, which goes for most things that people have listed here.

Great list overall but I’m wondering what you mean by reasonable behaviors in regards to having kids or not? I understand the notion of encouraging and discouraging behaviors by legislation, but that can be difficult to negotiate/implement.

Sign me up, too. This looks and sounds fantastic!

I’m sure that there’s a decent chunk of corruption with inspections, but there are also states like Arkansas where we don’t ever have to get our vehicles inspected… It’s absurd how shitty some of the cars and trucks are that I see regularly.

I think you’re on the right track with focusing on the local things you can change. And keeping hope alive is important! I mean, I may not have a choice in being fucked and miserable later, so if I can avoid that now, then that’s great.

I liked Spider’s point about means testing for voting. It wouldn’t work, although it does seem like it would be a step forward. We can’t even means test our politicians which has seemed necessary more and more recently… those pesky legalities, lol.

I saw that Mr. Roger’s quote “look to the helpers” recently on here and that keeps bouncing back in my head when I get negative thoughts. I know it’s not completely sustainable, but I keep seeing the impact of positivity on my life and the people around me, which is a nice change from the norm.

In addition to the veto power mentioned above, there’s also the power to issue executive orders and to nominate judges, including supreme justices. Those are fairly significant. There’s also the influence they have over foreign policy.

The vanilla flavored one was a bit sweet, but that’s how I generally prefer it. I usually am throwing berries and granola in there too so admittedly can’t give you an unbiased recommendation! I think there are plain flavored ones either almond or coconut milk based, which might be more of what you’re looking for.