This is hard to look at. I thought our side of the ocean was dystopian. So you get health care, but no private texting.

Yea, he’s not a nice guy. You should hear Mark Cuban talk about him. Oof.

Or they have chihuahuas.

So much scamming via phone. You in person is verifiable, so that makes sense.

The man has dementia. His doesn’t involved staring like Biden’s does, his waxing and waving is louder and rantier.

They’re the same age. There needs to be an age cap.

I think they’re complacent because the main plan is to simply not certify. And they have Mike in the house to make that happen.

Does door knocking work? I don’t answer the door anymore, haven’t for a while. I check the cameras. If I don’t recognize someone or their uniform I don’t get up.

Same with picking up the phone. Leave a message and I’ll call back, if it’s relevant. Don’t leave a message and there’s no callback.

And I’m skeptical of text surveys, what new scam could be contained within?

Who is doing participating in these polls? Is this all boomer data? Or are they just pulling numbers out of air for headlines?

There’s an NYT podcast picking apart the origins of the pet comment and what the immigrant population details actually are. Summary.

Springfield: population 60,000 dying town, no jobs. Suddenly manufacturing moves in, and now there’s not enough workers.

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In the last 3-4 yrs, very large influx of Haitian immigrants: 12,000 to 20,000. Immigrants tend to go where the community is in a new country, so the density in one place makes sense.

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On the one hand the new jobs that moved in now under threat of moving out due to lack of workers have stayed. On the other hand, it’s too much population to support all at once. 4 guys in an apartment can pay more rent than 1 family and other more traditional setups so rent goes up for locals, and housing availability goes down.

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Healthcare is overwhelmed. I can say that her comment on the translation need, at these numbers, overwhelming healthcare business hours and emergency room wait times is plausibly 100% correct. Use of translators which are almost never in person but by 3 way phone (corded phone with two receivers), speaker capable corded phone at times, or video, depending, do make each case requiring one take 2-3x as long. Everything gets said twice and there are pauses between everything said. Equipment availability is also never every room level. Usually there’s only 1-2 tablets for video interpreters too. And the interpreter services don’t always have interpreters available for your language at various times throughout the day. It can be a bottleneck with just a few cases. Some patients are savvy enough to bring their smart phones in with a translation app, that can work in a pinch, but most medical institutions require a trained medical interpreter for medical conversations. Family interpretation can be unreliable for medicine. So at some point that phone needs to go away and an actual, trained medical interpreter needs to be present. For every case. Clinic appointments get run over, and those already take a long time to get into.

Translation aside, adding this many people in a small town/city would do it as well, even with common language.

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Small Midwest town is suddenly 1/4 Haitian, with spike on housing prices and loss of available housing, and healthcare is overwhelmed. Enter tragic headline. A mini van hits a school bus and a child dies. Yes, that mini van was driven by a Haitian immigrant. The reporter says this is the boil over point.

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Now, among other things, some resident seeds the pets thing on a local Facebook group.

Bingo. Temu and Aliexpress. Same site, really.

Woodpecker or the item you can freely drop on the concrete floor without crying due to loss of investment.

The second hand market is 80% suck since 2021 or so. Everyone wants retail for their shit. And goodwill has decided to be “the last reseller” and priced accordingly.

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People want to sell their beat up tools for $10 less than the full warranty with returns tool (router, brad nailer, palm sander, belt sander, recently, different sellers.) a plug in craftsman belt sander as old as my dad and you want what now?

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Shirts. Even the best thrift store will have a $7-8 minimum on a used shirt. Meanwhile, I can get 2 for $10-12 on Amazon, new, with returns.

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Photo paper is an uncommon thrift. Though I found two 5x7 packs for $1 each this year. They were in a box with wrapped postits and index cards so I think someone was confused.

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Remember, time is a commodity. Killing a day and coming out empty handed isn’t for everyone.

Harbor Freight.

Here’s the issue, and these stories don’t swing to such prominence in what is now that perpetual firehose to the face of information we now have daily.

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No one wants to invest years into what they assume is now their child, love, tears, hope, relief, and find out a few years in it might not be a done deal.

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Hi, I’m her real mom. I was on drugs and not of sound mind when I signed those papers. I’ve cleaned up my life and now want my baby back. Thanks and all but here’s a subpoena. Wins in court after 4 years of what was supposed to be permanent adoption.

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Hi, I’m his real dad. I never signed off on this. Sure I abandoned him, but now I’ve cleaned up my life and want to be a better man. I deserve this opportunity. Here’s a subpoena. Wins in court after 5 yrs of what was supposed to be permanent adoption.

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What does a couple do to avoid this bullshit? You travel to an orphanage in another country, then leave.

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If our system had permanence, I doubt this would even be a thing.

I don’t think POTUS or VPOTUS, even pre SCOTUS insane decision on presidential immunity, would be prosecuted for standing ground or engaging would be castle law, even in a state without either. I don’t think any of those offices would be held to duty to retreat either, and rightly so.

Right? I’m sure no one remembers Charlottesville.

She was a DA. She’s probably carried since then.

Kamala Harris is Vice President of the United States of America and the POTUS is mentally compromised. If she shoots anyone while under threat, which a break in would suggest, she’ll just get a nod and probably even keep her handgun.

If/when she is POTUS she’ll have immunity, per SCOTUS.

I’m still hearing about Tulsi from two people. Insert eyeroll here.

It’s more than theocracy, yes, but fuck theocracy, it’s a significant piece of the long game on this.

Downvotes are probably the people still livid that Tulsi failed, and who want a third party to break into this hopelessly entrenched duopoly of an election system.

Fair enough, but thinking you can fix it by yourself isn’t going to fix it, just help Trump win.

This is a lot of reading for so early in the morning. I’ll wait for the Jon Oliver expose on her. His RFK episode didn’t disappoint.