Thanks for the insightful comment!

They do. However, the drugs your pet needs may not be off patent, and thus you have to buy branded.

Been running GrapheneOS for years now. Started with a Pixel 3, then moved to a Pixel 6 Pro, and now have it on a Pixel 9 Pro. It is ridiculously easy to install and use, and is regularly updated. I love it!

ALPRs are just one small part of the surveillance state, and even if you were to trust the state with absolute surveillance, it is virtually impossible to prevent bad actors with government employment from abusing the technology to stalk and harass people. There are plenty of documented cases of police and others with access to these tool using them to harm people like ex-wives, etc. I personally have been subjected to a long-term (multi-year) campaign of stalking and harassment by people with access to state-owned surveillance technologies, with the goal being to drive me to suicide, and I know I am not the only one. It was a complete nightmare.

Jesus, I thought for sure this one was fake. Nope.

No, I’m afraid in this case he will 100% do it. See, Trump thinks that you can magically control the economy by lowering the Fed funds rate and quantitative easing (money printing), and has zero understanding of the complex interplay and limitations that the Fed deals with. Moreover, his policies are crushing the economy, and he has a midterm election to deal with in the fall, which will be the beginning of the end of his presidency if things continue as they are. In his mind, he gets rid of Powell, has his lackeys juice the economy with low rates and QE, there is a massive boom in the markets and along with his strategies rig the elections, the GOP gets the push it needs to prevail and the Trump presidency rolls on. The downside for anyone who cares to see it is that the dollar will be destroyed as the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. will suffer hyperinflation like prewar Germany, and the subsequent fix will require austerity measures that will lead to depression that will make the one in the 1930s look quaint (I’m calling it “The Greatest Depression”), worldwide economic output will be crushed, WWIII will come into full swing with the U.S. the weakest it’s been in my lifetime, and in all likelihood, China will rise to the top of the world order and the yuan will be the world’s reserve currency. Mark my word, we will see gold top $8K this year, and might reach as high as $20K. There is a reason I expanded my exposure to to the gold market and put everything I had left into a 2X gold ETF back in June of 2024 when it became clear to me that Trump would likely win a second term. We’re definitely living in interesting times.

Expect a lot more things like this to come out in all industries as the economy worsens. A thriving economy can hide a lot of financially problematic issues, in the same way a high tide can hide the rocks. As the economic tide recedes, all the ugly things below are revealed. This specific example involves the collapse of Prospect Medical, a for-profit hospital chain plundered by private equity. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

“We are all domestic terrorists.”

-Official CPAC slogan

The “Yo Dawg” meme would also be a good choice for this issue.

This is a well recognized tactic of narcissists.

and prohibit administrations from uninviting a speaker based on their opposition to abortion or LGBTQ rights

Why only opposition to these issues? Are administrations free to prohibit speakers in support of these issues? How is this not governmental viewpoint suppression in violation of the constitutional protection of freedom of speech? This is insane.

I see she’s using the recipe for happiness!

This is encouraging, in that things in Hungary got bad enough to oust the dictator. Sadly, I think it will take the coming financial collapse to change enough minds to oust Trump, and that ouster can only happen if Trump is unable to cement his grip on power, which he is working hard to do.

I see the first one as a fair approximation of downward dog, which begs the question as to why we don’t refer to it as downward cat?

Children’s television programming geared towards young children (e.g., Bluey, Peppa Pig, etc.) can fill this gap, and are widely used as comprehensible input content by adult language learners.

Picking up a new language is much easier if you use the Comprehensible Input method, which is fun and easy. It’s essentially learning language like a child learns. You watch videos that are 100% in the target language. In the beginning, they are super easy, with lots of props, gestures, and other context that helps convey the meaning of the words. As you pick up more and more, you watch more difficult videos. It’s amazing how fast you pick up the new language. In about 3 months I learned enough Spanish to give me around 80%+ comprehension of normal conversation, and better comprehension if the person spoke slowly and clearly. Don’t count out learning a new language, as it is a lot easier than you might think if your only experience is with traditional methods.

Okay, I’m going to have to actually stop in and eat there one of these days.

I used to have a kindle and it would periodically lock up and I’d have to do a hard reset and then re-download all my books. It was extremely frustrating. I finally got tired of it and ditched ti for a Kobo Clara. Whats nice about the Kobo is that it doesn’t have all the janky DRM bullshit, and it just works. You can load up books or pdfs from any source. So much happier now!

Just for the night.

This is the point I was looking for. I’d happily pay a reasonable price for Netflix, and I did for years. However, I was rewarded for my patronage by massive price hikes combined with a consistently worsening product. The end came when I realized that I didn’t even use it anymore because it sucked so much. If I wanted to pay exorbitant prices to watch ads, I’d go back to cable.