We just call then pharmacy benefit managers in the US, and they have a special exemption to take kickbacks legally

How much taxes should increase?

Wait, is this just printing money with extra steps? Cause it sounds a lot like printing money with extra steps

Again, how? No one is buying American bonds right now. You can’t raise the debt if no one will loan you money

The only things worth ordering at Starbucks are the coffee and the iced coffee. Maybe with some expresso shots. And even then, it’s worth it to look for a local coffee shop

Once you’ve had your caffeine as God intended, you have the energy to go somewhere that actually makes food and decent milkshakes

The problem is, most changes you can make are easy to weaponize.

Yep. That’s why I’m not proposing something like a civics test, any idea has to be simple and straightforward enough that there’s no room to twist it into targeted voter suppression

Also, to make any type of change you have to vote for it in the current system where low info voters can be convinced to vote against their own interests anyway

That’s true, but politics is an ebb and a flow. We’ve passed basically no laws for years now, and (hopefully as we’ll see today) there’s building pressure for change

If we get enough progressives in office, and they answer the call of the people to do something, we’re going to end up with a short period where change is possible.

Hopefully in two years, when Trump is in still in office and progressives have spent the last two years establishing themselves and gaining the trust of the people, we could have a full progressive sweep of Congress and at least a somewhat progressive or sympathetic president

That would open a window, and that will be the chance to make sweeping charges. Probably the only chance in our lifetimes

I mean… If I had the option, I’d declare myself an incomprehensible time zone and use it to skip meetings

Well… They used to exist. We killed off most of the coolest Pokemon in most regions

With what money? No one is buying bonds. The US would have to print so hard it’d cause hyperinflation, which still means the bubble pops

Yeah, I agree, it’s much lower hanging fruit, and I think it would have a positive affect on the team-sports attitude most voters have

Why? In places where there is no law about “at least a X polling places for Y citizens” it increases throughput and lets more people cast ballots.

This makes no sense to me though… It’s like “if times are tough, we should just prescribe people medicine for every other day”

Like, sure, I’m sure it increases throughput, but at the cost of effectively disenfranchising high information voters.

Our models for democracy are not working. We’re one of the furthest along, but the same corruptive forces are happening in every democracy. I think it’s fundamental that everyone has the right to vote, and that access needs to be universal. But I’m no longer convinced everyone’s vote should count equally - we need to create a better form of democracy

It’s just too easy to manipulate low information voters, and liberal democracy seems to produce a whole lot of bad outcomes - even in countries with less susceptible systems than ours, low information voters are killing us

I think this idea is worth trying, and if we need to widely use mail in voting or open more polling stations, that seems like a really cheap price to pay. It’s not like we’re well enfranchised now… The fact that we don’t have enough polling to serve the voters is a problem in itself

This election aside (which will hopefully be very historical), modern US elections are decided by a shockingly small percentage of the population living in the right place

Much of it is manipulation through crazy districts and voter suppression, but the biggest factor is the fact the majority of active voters are blindly loyal down ballot voters. That predictably is why gerrymandering works - along with the insanely granular data collection and control of information, elections are more like a game of strategy than the will of the people

I know I’m preaching to the choir, but I want you to understand that your desire for improvement is good and correct, and there will always be a million excuses to keep things the same

We need to try things and adapt as we go… There will be problems, but if we keep pressing forward we can find solutions. And it’s much better than guaranteed suffering forever

I’ve been playing project zomboid. It’s a bit too high stakes for me with standard settings, but there’s tons of workshop mods that provide a lot of QOL changes

You might need someone experienced to show you then… When I was a kid my mom handed me a properly peeled one and pointed out exactly the right spot

There’s always YouTube university. Not as good as direct learning, but at least you’ll be able to see exactly how it should look

You got it, that’s exactly right

Sounds like you’re doing too much peeling and not enough tapping

There’s a sweet spot like a ketchup bottle. It’s like 1/3 of the way down, you only have to peel it a little bit and tap the right spot onto the corner of the counter

Hell to the no. Start with a standing invitation to the cookout and we’ll talk

The other thing that works is to commit violence against balloon kind. Popping one is stressful, if you pop the first as you are already jabbing at the next one it’s great

You just gotta go ham

You’ve got to tap them … It’s a sensory delight

I’ve never once not tapped them, it sounds horrible

Imagine bread dough, but it’s more like a slightly pressurized paste in a cardboard tube

I’m pretty sure most Europeans would burn you at the stake for crimes against bread

Wait… Does no one else give them a tppy tap? They’re not scary if you’re the one actively making them pop

Yeah, it’s carbs on carbs, no nutrients or fiber to be found. They’re really dangerous, I don’t allow myself to cook them because I’d probably eat the whole tube in one sitting

Why? You just peel it a lil and give it a tiny tap it and it goes “pufffff”. Much satisfy.

I will happy open all of yours for you. I’m also immune to onions, so I will cut them if I get some of what you’re making