Loquat
1mo ago
A key part of Project 2025 is to convert a whole lot of "unfirable bureaucrat" positions into political appointments that the president will then be able to fire and replace at will.
Loquat
1mo ago
Same here, my husband was grumbling that his iPhone got a better look at the lights than he did.
Loquat
1mo ago
We'll probably hit a trunk-or-treat or two before going trick-or-treating either in our own neighborhood or in a friend's. The various local schools and churches that do trunk-or-treats have realized they get better turnout if they schedule them before Halloween, so kids can do both.
I appreciate that the colder weather is killing my tomato plants so I can stop canning so much tomato sauce lol.
Loquat
1mo ago
Pretty sure it's pierogies, the Pittsburgh Pirates even have a squad of guys in pierogi outfits as their secondary mascot. Wait for the local guy to tell you where to get it, though.
Loquat
1mo ago
I don't have any useful advice, but I just thought I'd say: that sucks, bro, and I hope things get better for you.
Loquat
1mo ago
Whether it's worth it to get a "setup" vs teabags is really more about how much of a tea snobgourmet you want to be. If you try some fancy looseleaf that's a named variety from China and decide you really like that better, go ahead and invest more. But it's okay if you can't taste the difference and want to stick with the teabags available at the grocery store.
Loquat
1mo ago
I don't think taking the fall for Ukraine or Israel is something Biden even has the option to do. Afghanistan, sure, it's our army and we can pull it out whenever we want, but both those others we're just subsidizing a foreign army and ultimately it's their own government that decides when they stop fighting, not us.
Loquat
1mo ago
I've heard all manner of claims about Donald Trump, but I've never heard anyone accuse him of being the sort of man who'd carefully study a 922-page document on governance.
Loquat
1mo ago
The main problem I see with that is that the VP doesn't really have any formal power except breaking ties in the Senate. If a hypothetical President Harris chooses to just ignore Vice President Trump, there's nothing the he can really do except run his mouth, which he would have done regardless.
Loquat
1mo ago
My local grocery stores' self-checkout kiosks all have a special "reusable bag" button - you press it, put your bags on the bagging surface, and continue on with grocery scanning. My one issue with it is that my bags tend to collapse in on themselves when empty, and the scale freaks out when I correct that to put stuff in them.
Loquat
1mo ago
At the two major grocery chains near me, most fresh produce does NOT have a barcode to scan, just a four-digit code you have to type in yourself. So if you set an expensive steak on the checkout scale and type in the code for broccoli, it'll ring up as broccoli no problem. The self-checkout does have a voice announce out loud what fruit/vegetable you just rang up, but that's about it for enforcement.
Loquat
1mo ago
To engage in group negotiation over wages, benefits, and working conditions, because that's a stronger bargaining position than letting every employee bargain individually, and people on the left tend to think that's a positive good even if the employer is currently claiming to be benevolent?
Loquat
1mo ago
Things I did not have on my bingo card this year: the National Audubon Society, you know, the organization of wild bird enthusiasts, has decided to try and get the National Labor Relations Board declared unconstitutional. Because apparently Audubon was having ongoing squabbles with their staff union and the NLRB was trying to slap them on the wrist for it.
So we have a few different questions here:
- Do you think the NLRB should be abolished?
- Do you think the Roberts court is likely to actually abolish it, due to this case or any similar case?
- If they do abolish it due to the Audubon case, or even just hear the case and this gets a lot of mainstream media attention and handwringing, how damaging is that likely to be to the Audubon Society, considering that most of their donors likely lean left?
https://www.nlrbedge.com/p/audubon-society-argues-nlrb-is-unconstitutional
Loquat
1mo ago
IT'S ABOUT ETHICS IN GAMING POLITICAL JOURNALISM
...
I mean, from what I've heard about JFK, I'm not at all surprised to hear another member of the Kennedy family was up to similar shenanigans. And now that RFK's endorsed Trump I don't think there's any salvaging his reputation among the anti-Trumpers regardless.
Loquat
1mo ago
Given that the media as a whole seems pretty anti-RFK as far as I've seen, I'm gonna say "meh" to this.
Loquat
2mo ago
Was she? My own recollection is that the Cheney family accepted her and her lesbian partner, and there were hints that Dick personally would have been fine with legalizing same-sex marriage, but as VP he wasn't willing to publicly disagree with his president or his party on the matter. I guess it depends on your definition of bus-under-throwing.
Loquat
2mo ago
Hmmm.... our freezer is pretty small, but that might be worth a try. Particularly the part about freezing small individual portions, as I've noticed in the past with the 6-ounce cans of tomato paste that it's hard for me to use up the whole 6 oz before it goes bad.
Loquat
2mo ago
We planted too many tomato plants this year (even our four-year-old has been remarking that Daddy needs to scale it back next year), and now we're canning massive amounts of strained tomato. Any tips for unusual flavor complements? We've already experimented with fresh ginger, and I'm considering picking up some fresh turmeric to try that next.
Loquat
2mo ago
Oh man, I was so shocked when I first saw the movie and Beetlejuice was the bad guy. Not at all what the cartoon led kid me to expect.
Loquat
2mo ago
We do indeed own a couple of booster seats since our kids are in that age range, but you might want to take a second look at the specs on the one you just linked - it's 17.5 inches wide, which means if you want to fit three across then your car's back seat needs to be at least 52.5 inches wide, but actually more because you have to be able to reach in between the booster seats to buckle/unbuckle the kids. I haven't taken a tape measure to my own car seats, but we bought average sized ones and our cars aren't tiny and there still really isn't room for a third seat there.
Loquat
2mo ago
Was your old local leftist lady old enough to remember the days when pellagra was a serious problem in the South? Wikipedia says it was widespread until World War 2 - and of course having meat in one's diet prevents the nutrient deficiency that causes it.
(And to return to the "we've recently become so much wealthier" theme, isn't it astounding that less than a century ago the southern states were so poor many people had to spend part/all of the year living on corn alone?)
Loquat
2mo ago
also in large part because of a worse crop package.
This makes me wonder how feasible it would be to reach the Americas with Roman-era ships. Of course, you'd have to make sure your Romans copy the nixtamal technique after bringing back maize, so your poorer citizens don't wind up with widespread pellagra like happened in real life.
Loquat
2mo ago
And you don't want to have a kid because of a car seat?!
Correction: people with two kids don't want a third, because car seat laws force you to buy a bigger car, which is still a substantial expense for most people.
See, car seats are usually so wide that you can't fit three in the back of a typical sedan or SUV, plus several states require kids to be in car seats or booster seats to a surprisingly high age - my home state of Pennsylvania doesn't allow kids to go without one until the age of 8!
And, y'know, we also have cheap and reliable contraceptives now, alongside all that cheap food.
Philosophy ain't my strong suit, so I'll just say I don't wanna deal with a a kitchen-implement subscription service every time I feel like frying an egg.
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