iNow

I think perhaps you're conflating personal/household debt with government/US debt. They're different in important ways (last I checked, I don't have a money printing press in my basement or the ability to write trade legislation with other nations) EDIT: I also cannot with the stroke of a pen decide whenever I want to collect additional revenues from my employer. The government, however, can tax whom and however much they want to whenever they want.

The risk of debt is being unable to borrow more at low interest rates. Too much debt means we're seen as too risky to lend more and interest rate on that lending jumps up. We can borrow at nearly 0% interest right now. I'd say debt isn't the problem seasonal deficit hawks are claiming it is.

I think it's more possible there's damage to other apartments near you which you cannot personally see yourself

I have to assume you've not looked at the studs or anything below surface, or even used a detector that's better than the human eye to "see"

The fix here is to remove the drywall and strip it bare to the studs where you'd want to hit the framing with a sand blaster / dry-ice blaster to knock the charred remains loose and leave the clean unburned wood below exposed.

Or get a mortgage on a house to move your children to a better school district with better air and water quality. Or get a car loan so you can drive to a better paying job farther away. Or take out a student loan to increase your future earnings potential and job opportunities. Or ad infinitum.... Conclusions drawn from false premises are only ever correct by accident.

Except when debt is a gain of opportunity, in an economy that can invest that debt and print money to pay it off or at least lower it’s real value. The US government is not a household. They need not budget as if they are. That said, I tend to agree we should address debt. One of the best ways to do so is to enforce tax laws and prosecute tax evasion.

You could always try cocaine

I’ve heard this said by different people and more than once recently: Republicans right now are the biggest threat to the survival of democracy in the US It’s nihilistic

I think next the state of California should follow this same path and allow private citizens to sue others for owning a gun, or driving someone to a gun show, or for frequenting a shooting range. That’s the type of vigilantism Texas is showing is works.

Sometimes infamous, too.

Marketing. It makes a better narrative.

Which god(s)?

Praying isn’t much different from meditating. The main difference is instead of listening to your own mind, you’re pretending your mind is that if god and it’s listening to you.

Because labels are flat and one dimensional, whereas we humans are complex, nuanced, and multi-dimensional. @Phi for All has had some excellent posts through the years here about the problem with labels that have resonated with me. Fun fact: After chatting with Senator Elizabeth Warren briefly at an event in 2019, I got pulled aside afterward by a reporter. Long story short… I was quoted in the Washington Post using the phrase “Overton window.” It was part of my response to their question “Why Warren and not Bernie?” and I was praising Bernie for shifting the Overton window on topics like UHC and wealth inequality before answering why my preference was for Warren. I’m almost famous 😂 I return you now to the previously scheduled Troubles in Texas topic.

Your framing of this is definitely more accurate than mine. The particulate matter (PM2.5) is leading to worse outcomes and increased infection in the lungs / increased inflammation across the immune system. I suspect you’ve seen this, but here’s a study saying same: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi8789 Where my view came from was commentary on that story above from doctors and related experts on the news. They suggested that the particles in the smoke offer a platform for the virus to move greater distances than it would in clear air. A bit like larger raindrops form on grains of pollen than by themselves… However, if the ability of Covid to transport more easily in US wildfire smoke has been studied, then I’m not easily able to find where right now so will withdraw my confidence above and suggest it as an interesting possibility that deserves study. In the meantime… This study touches on how bioaerosols and airborne pathogens enjoy easier spread amid polluted air, but I’m not certain Covid fits that same bill (or if instead Covid would simply “die” whereas the bacteria or fungi this team studied would not… I’m unclear if the particulates are equally a vector for Covid in the same way they are with the others) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es4048472

Then lobbying needs to be reformed and regulated, not abolished. And this anti-abortion law didn’t come from big money corporate lobbyists. It came from groups of single issue base voters and groups who know how to move the levers of our governance and legislate by fiat / shadow dockets.

It depends on which ones we’re talking about, what the actual issue is, what numbers they have supporting them, which populations are affected by the issue and how sympathetic or connected they are, and what tactics they use to advocate and push for said change. We don’t disagree that they’re usually outgunned by big money and big corporations. I’m simply saying they’re not useless nor worthy of being disallowed under the generalization that “lobbying = bad.”

As a father of young kids and someone who cares for others who will outlive me, I am unable to share this nonchalance about our shared future. But they do. Not all constituents agree. Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.

Agreed, though it’s free (at least in the US), which makes people still refusing to take it that much more infuriating. Too many people are treating it like a how-to guide In fact, they’ve found covid to be spreading more rapidly with all of the wild fires in the western US since the virus can grab ahold of the smoke particles and fly farther.

I support this. It's how the state supreme court jurists are selected in my state (tho some on the right are trying to change this to corrupt the process in pursuit of power and control) Judges in the US don't campaign in this sense. They're appointed. It's all currying of favor, but still needs to be approved by the senate which is where the check is supposed to exist. But it's not a political campaign in the standard sense. Again, I support all of this. As you have already acknowledged, however, it'll never happen since the people we need to write these laws into place are the very ones benefiting today from their absence. I'm not as convinced this would matter nor that people living in their echo chamber ecosystems would watch / care, but I am not opposed to it. I don't see any way this could be done given freedom of speech and freedom of the press protections. This one seems like it would help, but could never be implemented so is moot. This is too broad. Some lobbying is good. Parents of massacred children lobby for better gun regulations. Residents near heavily polluted waters lobby for better environmental protections. Lobbying is not bad in and of itself. What I think you want to focus on instead is no longer equating lobbying with money contributions, not letting corporations have so much access, and not letting former elected officials lobby for X number of years after leaving office. Anyway... thank you for engaging my question directly. It's very much appreciated, you offered good ideas, and I clearly wasn't giving you enough credit last night.

Please elaborate. How might one do this? What could it look like beyond lofty idealized words on a page or screen?

Have you ever seen the movie Idiocracy? One of the storylines was that they were killing their crops and starving because they kept "watering" them with a Gatorade-like product called Brawndo. After all, it had electrolytes... it's got what plants crave! But then all the plants died and they were starving as a community. They just needed to use water and the plants would be fine, but nope... they just kept using the Brawndo / Gatorade and the plants just kept dying. Well, that's kinda how I see this whole conversation we're having about ivermectin (or hydroxychloroquine or whatever the next snake oil happens to be). You're basically watering your garden with Gatorade by taking that stuff and the plants just keep dying... It's like you got a cut and refuse to use neosporin and a bandaid, and are choosing instead to seal it with metallic spray paint and elmers glue. It's this ridiculous and absurd style of thinking that's causing this pandemic to continue and get worse. So, here's a thought... Just use water for your plants... just use the neosporin! This isn't exactly rocket science... just get the vaccine. Here I was wrong and obviously did. I withdraw this particular comment, but not the others. I am basically saying to just get vaccinated already.