Probably a long shot, but have you by any chance had exposure to dioxin (agent orange) when you were young? Like growing up on military bases or someplace like Laos or Vietnam?

I know a few people who have those symptoms, and they had significant dioxin exposure as teenagers, though the symptoms didn’t start coming on until they were in their mid-to-late 20s. Being exposed as an adult would not result in disability, however. It has to be during development.

Pretty sure none of them are Catholic, which makes it even weirder that they care about the Pope at all.

Maybe that’s the point. Citizens aren’t going to deport themselves, so it’s just a really random extortion racket. Or maybe it’s not random, but so far it’s unclear whether all the people receiving those letters have anything in common.

If you’re a professional cook, it’s literally a health code violation to have painted or fake nails. Long fingernails harbor bacteria. But yeah, spend enough time in the danger pit playing with fire and knives and you’ll end up with some extra confidence.

A split would create North and South Koreas. If we don’t split, I’m afraid we will only get North Korea 2.0

And they’ll slap on a sticker that says “lowest price!” to gaslight you.

How would it help to leave? Lots of cowards have already done so. Have you ever considered that maybe it’s because so many progressives are leaving that now we don’t have the numbers you want to see when we protest? That the people who would have been protesting are already gone?

I’m fully willing to die fighting fascism in this stupid civil war, but it isn’t a war until we get some governors and coast guard on board. Until that point, anyone who does anything violent is just a ‘lone terrorist’ and will probably be disappeared to El Salvador.

Leaving is not speaking out. Leaving is not fighting. It is only for your own survival, and it leaves the rest of us with less to fight with and less to fight for.

Restaurant work is not typically salaried unless you’re the manager. I’d say that one might be an outlier. This is the first time I’ve heard anyone refer to hourly wages as independent work.

Eh, this is something you can probably change. In the last few years I’ve done a lot of processing work and am trying to make more intentional choices for myself rather than living the way other people want me to. Now when I meet new people it reminds me that I actually quite like my life and wouldn’t want to trade it for theirs.

Don’t go to Facebook first! We need to start normalizing ways to organize outside of those giant corpo-fascist sites.

Especially at work, where you can’t leave and should probably be focusing on the work.

What? How is it a property grab if no one can live there? Only the stupidest and/or richest people would buy an uninsurable home. You can’t get a mortgage without insurance, because the banks want to make sure they still have an asset to repossess if you default. Even if you were that rich, why would you throw your money away on something that will almost certainly be destroyed, sooner rather than later, without a way to recoup any of the cost? If a company like Zillow comes in and snaps up all the uninsurable homes in these regions, they’ll be declaring bankruptcy within 5 years.

That’s really not true though. I have met so many people who are married that I would never be attracted to! And there are probably loads of people out there who would never be attracted to me or my spouse. The only thing that matters is that we’re attracted to each other.

But the fact that you use the phrase “dating successfully” like there’s a right way to do it… there isn’t. Relationships are messy, and attraction is really only a small part of the whole thing. Stop reading game theory or whatever, that’s the real reason you’re having a hard time.

Mostly spatial. I can often find a passage in a book by where it was located on the page (I hate audiobooks and ebooks for this reason). I can’t remember a lot of my experiences later, unless someone can tell me where I was or what I might have been looking at. I’ll probably remember exactly where everyone was standing, but not what any of us said. Sometimes I wonder if I lost my eyesight if I would still be able to make memories at all.

I understand wanting to protest, but what could it possibly accomplish? If you are protesting the incoming administration, they’re certainly not going to care. If you’re protesting the current administration, there’s nothing they can do. If you’re protesting the people who didn’t vote, I’m pretty sure they already know we’re mad at them. As of yet there’s no evidence of outright cheating (if it turns out there is, that would be a better time to protest). But protesting just because you don’t like the results of a race is a bit like throwing a tantrum.

I was thinking a kevlar vest might be a better investment. They may or may not shoot at us, but we can’t be the ones to shoot first.

I hate to break it to you but almost every major corporation has a person whose entire job is to translate corporate copy into easy-to-parse, casual, friendly “conversation,” because they do want you to think of the brand as your trusted friend. They’re trying to manipulate us at every level, every interaction.

Ok doc, what do you suggest? I’m 40 and somehow my 80 year old mother has better mobility than I do. I can’t even tell you why I have pain, there is no injury. Doctors can’t tell me why. I’ve tried everything short of opioids and back surgery, and I know those aren’t going to help either. What the hell do you do when your body just doesn’t react normally to exercise, stretching, physical therapy, etc?? It’s not that I want to accept that this is my life now, but there don’t seem to be any other options. Just be glad this isn’t happening to you, I guess.

Some just gave up entirely and made fun of the kids who could read. What a shitty exercise all around.

Wikipedia lists Real Clear Politics as having become more conservative and right leaning in recent years. Their polls may not be as accurate.