I don’t worry that she will end democracy.

She will do a bunch of dumb Republican stuff and make America objectively worse for a lot of people. But the Republic will survive her presidency at least.

Trump, not so much.

I don’t really want to play adversity Olympics with you but since you insist.

My parents were on food stamps and going to food pantries when I was a kid. Father was an absent alcoholic and drug addict. I myself struggled with heroin addiction in my teens and 20s and ended up ruining my life - or so I thought.

I managed to climb out of that hole (using Obamacare and the support of my family) to find a whole new perspective on my life.

I was angry, bitter, nihilistic, and selfish. I was obsessed with how bad and unfair the world is, and it gave me every excuse to keep buying bundles and nodding into oblivion.

Once I got clear of the horrible opiate withdrawal and paid back the considerable money I owed - once I stopped wanting to overdose and kill myself - I realized how nice it is to be able to take a walk on a warm day and just check out the birds. I realized a cup of coffee and a sandwich is a blissful experience, especially when shared with a friend or loved one.

When I think about the eternity I will spend in non-existence after I die, I know that I have very limited time to enjoy this strange and beautiful trip I’m on. I know this little blip would be the envy of the non-existent. If ghosts were real, I bet every one of them would kill to come back and just feel the sensations of smell, taste, touch, and sound. Or to look at something pretty.

Like dude, I’ve had parts of my life that were fucking miserable. Please don’t tell me it’s so easy. I’ve just decided to enjoy it and practice gratitude. Whatever happens to me, I remind myself that it’s better than going through opiate withdrawal on a plastic cot and wishing I was dead while everyone was disgusted with me.

Life, on average, is much easier now than it’s ever been. The wealthiest men alive didn’t have access to basic over the counter medicine that we have today. If you die of some horrific disease tomorrow, you’ve still had a higher quality of life than most of the richest people who have ever lived.

You know why my ramblings about the beauty of life sound so corny? It’s because a lot of people have realized it before. Because it’s so often said that it sounds cliche. There is a reason so many people have come to these conclusions.

My advice to you is to touch grass. No joke. And if you don’t want to touch grass, go watch a movie that makes you feel awe. Go read a book that moves you. Otherwise you’re going to have your eyes opened on your death bed and wish you had lived differently. Happens all the time man.

Bidet attachment https://www.amazon.com/Bidet-Non-Electric-Mechanical-Attachment-Self-Cleaning/dp/B00P2XZDGG

And I grew up with window unit air conditioners. They kept a couple rooms cool no problem.

I don’t see how I’m talking out my ass.

I actually think life, for all its faults, is a beautiful and amazing opportunity. It’s a special blink of existence where we get to witness the unimaginable beauty in our universe.

Perhaps our lives (in the West, at least) have gotten too easy. Not that I want to go back or live a harder life - I don’t. But for most of human history, there was a pretty solid chance you were going to live a sick, miserable, religion-filled life as a soldier, slave, or peasant. All the while, you’d have pretty much no control over what happened to you. Even the wealthy and powerful were shitting in holes and sweating in the heat. Today, it costs you about two hours of easy labor to get a bidet and maybe 10 hours of labor to get an air conditioner that will keep you cool for many years. People still found meaning and reasons to keep going through the thousands of years of famine, plague, war, and slavery. They kept seeing something that made them want to have babies and love them.

The world isn’t perfect but it’s better than it’s ever been in most ways. Even if we don’t survive climate change and late-stage capitalism, I think the time I’ve already had with my son has been beautiful and meaningful. I only hope he gets to experience love, satisfaction, simple pleasures, etc. Even just a comfortable nap or the feeling of accomplishment after completing a task. It’s all so fragile and temporary. We are the universe experiencing itself and it’s really beautiful despite the miserable parts.

Yeah, no kidding.

There are those special weekends though where you think it’s 4pm and the clock only says 11am.

I find that getting up early, no matter how tired I am (and even if it means I need to nap later) makes weekends feel significantly longer.

To each their own. Just be sure it’s making you happy.

I work to live, but I don’t live to work.

Life is short and I thoroughly enjoy playing a video game without a care in the world. With a kid and a house, I have plenty on my plate. I don’t go out of my way looking for extra work. If the opportunity arises for me to “waste time” I take it and enjoy it without guilt.

Last night I got to play Lethal Company with two of my friends. Most fun I’ve had in months. No regrets.

One big difference I think.

Nazi Germany lost in outright combat against an enemy they had always said they could beat. They were decimated and many of their sycophants were killed in battle.

Unless Trump and his followers start an actual armed rebellion and get put down, I don’t see how they end up ashamed.

Beating Trump in court, while it needs to be done, allows all of his followers to keep saying, “See? We told you the deep state was out to get him.”

Dark Brandon isn’t meant to be serious. It’s meant to mock the Republicans who say, “Let’s go Brandon” (meaning fuck you Biden) and it references the conspiracy theory that he’s a devil-worshipping communist by referring to him as “dark.”

Anytime you see Dark Brandon, it’s the left mocking the extreme right for being idiots.

Happened during the Rape of Nanking too, except they did it on purpose to civilians.

Kangaroos (aka “Roos”) were these awesome shoes with a little pocket in them.

I got a pair about 13 years ago, long after they’d stopped being popular, and used them to hide my drugs in high school and college. They were awesome until I started hiding really bad drugs in there. Then they were just enabling me.

If this were the norm, every country would be split into a million pieces over every petty squabble. Each update to the tax code would fracture another shrinking state.

Think too of the power you wield when your Trump card is, “Okay, we’ll just leave and you can have a potentially hostile country on your border. By the way, we’re taking all of our natural resources and exports with us.”

The gridlock in politics is bad enough. How little would get done if every small town in Alabama could hold the country hostage by threatening to create their own country?

We fought a war over this already and the secessionists lost. The courts also ruled that they cannot just leave. There is no legal mechanism to do so. They can try to pass an amendment but that won’t happen because the rest of the country wouldn’t agree to it.

If they don’t want to be Americans anymore they’re free to try and immigrate somewhere. That’d be hilariously ironic.

My man, if people want to own a couple chickens it’s not that serious.

The rural welfare states are really a separate issue from that.

I do find it funny that conservative states are so anti-welfare when their existence depends on it though.

As a Trump-hating liberal Democrat, I wish there were more evidence against him for this. Not the defamation - he quite obviously did that - but the sexual assault.

It’s such a touchy subject because many people don’t come forward for years or decades after it’s happened. But your ability to mount a defense against an accuser diminishes over time, which is why we have statutes of limitations.

What were you doing 30 years ago today? Prove it.

Carroll didn’t seem to have a lot of great evidence. My understanding is that alleges that she told two friends and that’s it. Seems unethical to say he did it for sure without a bit more proof. That’s all I’m saying.

I’d like to get Trump on things he’s definitely done. He’s done plenty of horrible shit. Every time we get him on something that toes the line or isn’t proven, he’s going to get a boost in the polls.

He would just call them Democrats.

The parties did a flip flop. Democrats used to be the conservative party.

Floaters in the vitreous of the eyeball (aka clumps of your vitreous that got stuck together as your vitreous gel started to liquify, which happens naturally with age for everyone).

They’re normal if they appear gradually as you age. Most common in people with myopia. Can be caused by a variety of things including hits to the eyes or head, possibly by steroid eye drops, anything that increases the pressure in your eye, or just plain old aging.

They never go away but if you’re lucky they might “settle” or get stuck to the side. Never happens for a lot of people though, and they can be quite distressing for many people - especially for people who have many large and moving floaters.

Most mentally healthy people will neuro-adapt and they’ll become less noticeable over time. It can take about six months before this happens though and it does suck at first. I got some new ones after LASIK and I was pretty upset. Now I only notice them on light backdrops like snow or my shower. But even then I just notice them briefly and my thoughts quickly move elsewhere. No stress.

For people who are absolutely driven insane by a large number of them, there is a risky surgery to remove them, but if it goes wrong you can be looking at blindness so you definitely need to weigh your options.

The non-surgical laser treatment for floaters doesn’t work. It seems to maybe work for some people in the short term but most people report that it doesn’t help in the long term. It can even create more floaters or break up your big ones into many smaller ones that move more. The laser is also dangerous for younger patients because the floaters are closer to your retina when you’re younger. The laser can cause damage to the retina and it’s hard to avoid doing that when the floaters are close to it.

There are currently a couple groups researching how to get rid of them non-invasively. Last bit of news I saw said a group had been using gold flakes and a new type of laser to successfully and safely break them down. Personally, I will get mine treated if there is a non-invasive way to do so, but I’m not too bothered by them so I can wait for that.

Worth noting that if you suddenly get a lot of floaters and are feeling pain in your eyes or seeing bright flashes that look like a camera flash, you need to go seek medical attention immediately as these are signs of a retinal tear. Retinal tears are treatable but only if you go take care of them immediately. The consequences are not taking care of them quickly can be severe.

For most people, these are harmless and just a part of getting older. You’ll get used to them.

Actually a really good point on the language of it.

I agree in principle because I think the universe is absurd and complex, but I disagree in practice because most humans form a consensus on the basics of reality far more than we might think.

It’s reasonable to doubt reality from a philosophical point of view. Even though you might be able to make a very well-reasoned case about how humans lack free will using quantum physics and the debate about determinism, we don’t see people escaping murder charges this way.

If you have a murderer who was caught on camera and arrested on the scene, one who left a manifesto and confesses to the crime, I think we could use “beyond any doubt” pretty safely here.

My bigger concern is that people would still abuse this though. They’d say they had no doubt about cases where there weren’t any witnesses, the accused is denying it, etc. They’d be giving the death penalty to innocent people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time because they had absolutely no doubt the person did it.

So yeah, there are cases where beyond any doubt would make perfect sense but I’m still against capital punishment because I’ve seen what one crooked police officer or racist judge can do to a person’s whole life.

But even that is ridiculous. You can love your wife and find other people highly attractive. You can even fantasize about them. You can even have little crushes.

We’re human beings and evolution is a powerful thing. Sex is in our DNA - it’s probably the strongest urge we have after our basic survival needs are met.

The difference is that most healthy adults know that you can be turned on by someone and not take it any further than that. You are free to make your own choices. You and your significant other decide what kind of relationship you want and agree to respect whatever boundaries you do or don’t set.

I see gorgeous women with great personalities all the time. They’re very attractive but I love my wife so I stay faithful to her. It’s not difficult.

While it would be really nice to have January 6th off of work every year, I unfortunately can’t get behind the creation of this holiday.

Perhaps a compromise? We celebrate the day Trump lost the election. The right can celebrate it the way they celebrate the death and rebirth of Jesus, while the left can celebrate it more like Festivus.

Imagine what their demographics would look like if they also started a war and killed their young people though.

Not saying they won’t do it, and they do currently have an excess of young men specifically, but a country with a population problem isn’t in a great place to start a war imo.