Amazing video - I watched it all. Thank you!

Thanks! It sounds like “liberal” in this thread is what I’ve always called neoliberal, and “leftist” is what’s known as democratic socialism?

Curious comment, so I looked at Wikipedia’s Liberalism in the United States. Still not sure what you’re suggesting.

Could you elaborate?

IIRC, he was caught withholding congressionally allocated money from Ukraine in order to extort them into an investigation on Hunter Biden, in the hope it would impact the 2020 election. And I don’t recall any repercussions.

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Isn’t it curious how this headline implies an entirely different narrative than the actual story?

The US has become a cautionary tale for:

• Refusing Universal Healthcare

• Opposing Racial and Cultural Equity

• Revoking Women’s Bodily Autonomy

• Expanding Excessive Incarceration

• Exonerating Police Violence

• Dismissing Effective Gun Control

• Ignoring Mass Shootings

• Denying Veteran and First Responder Care

• Allowing Environmental Toxins

• Approving Carcinogens in Food

• Condoning High Infant Mortality

• Eradicating LGTBQ+ Rights

• Encouraging Religion in Government

• Dismantling Social Services

• Rejecting Living Wage, Retirement, and Pension Issues

• Persecuting the Low-income and Homeless

• Promoting the Purchase of Politicians and Judges

Not dealerships, but 43 US states plus DC, have dram shop laws that allow a drunk driver to sue the establishment that overserved.

HP lured me away from Apple about 15 years ago, with promises of better pay and benefits. I made the mistake of believing their lies, and proceeded to work in one of the most hostile environments I’d ever encountered. Aside from the open and constant sexual harassment, I was horrified to see customer service maliciously transfer callers to dead extensions or to the branch in the Philippines, then laugh about it. “Tech support” was for selling more products, not for resolving issues. Management was a shitshow of nepotism, falling-over-drunkenness, corruption, office affairs, and massive cover-ups.

I lasted 8 months, then I fled back to Apple, but I’ll never forget how HP blatantly loathed the customers.

The Democratic National Convention of August, 1968 was in Chicago. It was marked by massive riots, after the April and June assassinations of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr and Democratic POTUS candidate Robert Kennedy, respectively. It was triggered by many issues, including anti-Vietnam War sentiment.

Interestingly, the August, 2024 DNC will be in Chicago. Maybe it’s time for the people of the United States to come together for another “year that breaks America”, and fight for the need to eliminate the DNC/RNC corporate stranglehold and work toward establishing a ranked voting system.

Or we could continue to choose between happy uncle fascist or bloated grifter fascist.

According to this tone deaf article, the middle class is still taking family vacations to Italy and Iceland, without sparing a thought for the carbon emissions of our flights.

Shame on us all for doing the things we’ve never done!

I stopped using deodorant when I moved from the Gulf Coast to the PNW mountains near BC. I just don’t sweat much in drier climates, but I do bathe or shower every day and I shave my armpits plus I use a deodorant soap. I think if I stopped shaving or didn’t shower every day, I’d probably still need deodorant?

Thank you for your clarity. I don’t know how common it is for people to directly question existence, social contracts, our roles and purposes, but I imagine your thoughts resonate with many of us; the experiences and perceptions you shared are deeply familiar to me.

Since your story helped me understand where you’re at, I will reciprocate with a story for you.

I never quite succeeded at living a life that resulted in genuine acceptance from relatives, religious circles, authority figures , or peers. I tried to fit in for awhile, and to even please others a few times, but it isn’t who I am and it shows. This disconnect allowed me to metaphorically wander into the wilds.

For over 30 years, I explored almost all big religions and some philosophies, and by the time I was in my late 40’s I finally embraced my atheism with a growing sense of liberation, although I don’t mention it around theists. I think it scares them, and who am I to yank away anyone’s security blanket?

I’ve lived a long and unconventional life with my own credo. Sometimes this meant fine tuning who is in my life, and who is excluded, which can be controversial - but for me it’s been a relief. Also, controversy is just one spice in a feast.

I agree with you that institutions or culture leaders or mythological deities can’t dictate what is good. My direction has always come from within because that’s the loudest voice*, and when I need to be reminded of what that means, I focus on the REAL life around me.

I don’t look for a purpose or a life well-lived because humans are no different than fish or rabbits or deer … except for how we lost our way. Seriously, look at the animals; this is what I mean by REAL life. They don’t waste their energy striving for someone else’s declared ideal. They don’t worry about yesterday or tomorrow. They don’t get wound up in possible outcomes or fake rewards. They just … are.

As you stated, we are briefly here on an insignificant rock spinning around in a tiny solar system of a regular galaxy, in one universe among countless universes, and we weren’t deliberately placed here to hoard crap, exert “dominion”, destroy everything, or delude ourselves that we should be famous or rich or impactful. (Okay, I took your thought and ran a bit with it.)

My life is filled with the things I need to do for survival, with interludes of connection that bring me joy. I try to not think too much about the survival part because for humans it’s so contrived, and it blocks natural feelings. My biggest struggle is keeping that shit where it doesn’t ruin the things that matter.

And what matters is YOUR call. Time with the people you love or being immersed in music or reading or looking at stars or laughing at how your dog zooms or touching trees or breathing or … whatever you want. As long as you can be in the moment with your true self, you aren’t wasting this magical blink of life.

*I don’t have an actual voice within, because I have total Aphantasia.

There are some philosophical undertones here, and I’m wondering what you really want to ask. Could you elaborate?

Great catch on those scrubbers - I hadn’t even thought about everything I use to clean, aside from plastic-free dishwasher pods. Thanks! And ono’s suggestions are awesome!

We ALL need to do what you’ve been doing.

My household eliminated plastic and non-stick items. We’ve been using only cast iron and stainless steel for stovetop, glass and stainless steel for oven and mixing, glass and stainless for eating. Even the pets’ bowls are stainless steel.

Plastics and Teflon coatings are pure poison.

People forget, or just weren’t around, when only the rich had a mobile phone the size of waffle iron and it just made expensive calls. Even early cells had exorbitant rates for long distance conversations between states, so we had to wait until night when it was more affordable to talk. If I wanted to watch a specific movie, I needed a credit card with a $500 hold to rent a VHS player for 24 hours, and hope that Teenage Mutant Turtles wasn’t on a wait list. Ask Jeeves was better than encyclopedia brittanica, but digging deep required a trip to the public library. And scanning, copying, or printing anything meant driving to Kinkos with your checkbook ready. Anyone else remember pulling up MapQuest and writing down the directions before going someplace new?

Reminiscers can unplug, but I’m keeping my on-demand movies, cheap phone rates, endless knowledge, GPS, and streaming music.