I’m sorry you feel patronized, that wasn’t my intent. It seemed like you were just really ignorant, I didn’t realize you were pretending not to understand. Now I don’t understand how you pretending to be ignorant brings a semblance of reality to anything, that seems very counterintuitive to me.

In a democracy it is possible to democratically elect an anti-democratic leader. It’s one of the ironies and paradoxes of democratic political systems. I think if you study history some more the world should start making more sense for you.

When restaurants have booth seating where you can feel the person in the booth behind you moving around in their seat.

That logic doesn’t work because the official duties of the VP are both narrow and distinct from the President. Its not obvious that legal powers confer from the President to the Vice President in any way except under predefined circumstances. The VP would need to wait until those circumstances occurred, for example if the President was sedated for a medical procedure, and then do the official act while they have the actual powers of the Presidency behind them.

Sometimes yes, and I tend to get deja vu very often, occasionally its even recursive where I’m having deja vu of having deja vu.

If you are talking about federal income taxes, they are actually progressive. The vast majority of the money collected comes from the top 50%, the 1% pays something like 25% of the total just by themselves. Its why Republicans and billionaires bitch about it so much and want to eliminate the federal income tax. In reality poor people are mostly impacted by sales taxes, and that’s because of the basic economics involved that make sales taxes inherently regressive.

Yes, if friends. Unless they are repeating themselves, I’m going to be interested at least a little. Coworkers, no. I’ll be polite and sympathetic but if it is not related to work I am unlikely to be interested and will try to bring the conversation back to work topics or end the conversation as soon as I can without being rude. Randos, maybe but probably not. I’ve met lots of interesting people and am always kind of interested in hearing about the human experience from anyone who want to share theirs, but really I think I got too old or jaded for that. I avoid interacting with random strangers if its a choice now, and am always at least a little skeptical of whatever bullshit someone I don’t know has to say to me. I try not to be rude expressing my disinterest but I will be if it feels appropriate or necessary.

There’s that DuPont heir who infamously got away with raping a baby.

REITs tend to move like the rest of the market. If there’s a big crash they go down like everything else. I think hedging against a big crash the way you’re thinking is probably not going to be worthwhile, you’re not really gaining significant protection.

It’s easier if you cut back first so your body gets used to having less of it. I started by only having any before 12pm, then 10am, then I cut out energy drinks entirely, then I’d do part decaf coffee until I finally went full decaf. I definitely noticed some headaches and felt kind of shit occasionally but I don’t remember it being too terrible.

Listening to a slightly boring audiobook has been the most consistently effective method I’ve found. Also, I had to give up caffeine.

It’s possible to be both a useful and trash drug. Benzos are inherently dangerous in ways that lots of other drugs are not, it is very easy to fuck up your life with them.

Robots do vacuuming and mopping at least once a week, some areas more often. I do basic cleaning of the kitchen regularly and more in depth cleaning occasionally. Bathrooms are about the same but less frequent. I find getting stoned really helpful for staying on top of cleaning, it’s a much more enjoyable experience.

Mazda used to get a lot of shit from car reviewers about road noise and started really beefing up their sound dampening to make it more “refined” starting around 2016 or 2017.

My parents suck. If you have to put up with their shit you’re definitely a loser.

That is not correct. Headphones encompasses a variety of methods of putting speakers next to ears. Earphones are one of many types of headphone. Or actually more than one because colloquially some people refer to a few different form factors of headphones that way. IEMs for example are often also referred to as earphones. Language is sloppy like that.

This seems backwards. Most desktop speakers are shit. If you’re into headphones at all you hopefully will have some that sound better.

It’s a federal court so specifically about matters of federal law. Where it’s geographically located isn’t relevant to the ruling, and state courts aren’t involved.

For sure, when they knocked on my door at 4am I was sound asleep and had no idea what was going on. I don’t think they ever identified themselves as police, they just kept pounding aggressively on the door. My first instinct was full fight mode, it was a very confusing and terrifying way to wake up. I can definitely see arming yourself in that situation until you figured out who the fuck is pounding on the door in the middle of the night. It’s the opening the door while armed part specifically that’s a bad idea, that’s inherently going to escalate any situation and you don’t know who is at your door or whether they are actually a threat so it’s not appropriate to be brandishing a gun. Either don’t open the door until you know who it is or keep the gun out of sight until you know it’s actually needed.

Sleeping next to a gun sounds like a bad idea too. Unless you’re being hunted by assassins or something along those lines. Not that it’s that guys fault, because reaching for a weapon when you are startled awake is a completely natural response, but just from a safety perspective that feels like a really terrible place to keep a gun.