I recommend watching comedy shows - Seth Meyers (for daily updates), John Oliver, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert. Oh, and occasionally Saturday Night Live.

The only thing I don’t think Seth has touched on accurately is the genocide in Gaza, but I suspect it’s because his wife is Jewish and published a piece in support of Israel. Everything else is spot on.

You get paid that much PER MONTH? That’s 18,000 per year.

In the US, most people just get tax credits. They don’t come anywhere near $18k.

If you’re poor enough, you’ll qualify for WIC which is state dependent, generally $25 per month per kid under 4 years, ~$50 per month for the mom, and limited to certain food/child items.

Thank you for sharing.

On one hand, it’s disgusting that we don’t have a similar system. Yet at the same time, you’re the “proof” against such a system and the reason conservatives would never support it - that people won’t work anymore if we had this system. Neither of you have a full time job.

There has to be a better compromise.

664 votes.

For a good 1.5 weeks, it was lost. The last couple days it started to get saved. The day before they stopped counting votes, it was only ahead by 45 votes.

I watched it closely.

For ~a week, it RCV was down by 4K votes.

It was only in the last couple days that it started to pull ahead.

Final tally had it win by only 664 votes.

As an American who has lived in Germany, I’ve found the lack of speed limits to be more of a fantasy.

Sure, there are stretches of the autobahn where there is no speed limit - but they are comparatively short. The constant construction destroys any ability to make true use of the autobahn. Similarly, the public tends to drive at 110-120kph - despite the lack of speed limit. Overall, a disappointing experience.

To compare, the highways in the US may have speed limits of 65mph, but the traffic moves at 75-80mph in the slow lane (NJ, NY).

At what point do they tell you what salary they’re offering?

Does your field require extensive tests/interview process prior to being hired?

I was responding to a previous comment that said “Nowhere in the US.” Alaska is still the United States.

I still use Fb because of the groups/pages there.

There are mentorship and professional groups there that aren’t available elsewhere.

Plus, the local groups for my town/state provide crucial information about weather, taxes, traffic, river safety, etc. In general, it’s a good source of knowledge.

I hate that I’m giving up privacy, but there are also no other social media networks that can compete. I can’t message/Signal my closest 5,000 neighbors to find out which local/free berry patch is ready for picking. But, there’s a fb group for that.

Agreed, that would be a good first step in the right direction. It shouldn’t remove the requirement for lights.

Reflective tape should also be on the horses’ gear.

RFK is terrible.

Last Week Tonight did a whole hour on him on Sunday. It’s on YouTube.

———

It has video clips from interviews where he himself brings up that he was friends with Epstein, OJ, and Bill Cosby. When he himself was accused with rape, his response was “I’m not a church boy” and “more might come out.”

There are also video clips showing how on more liberal interviews he says with vaccines he’s open to changing his mind (and even apologizing) if he’s introduced to new facts showing they’re safe. But then he routinely goes on conservative shows and tells them that vaccines are not safe and that he goes up to random people in the park to tell them not to vaccinate their kids.

He also went to Samoa and influenced the death of over 80 people by inspiring a fear of vaccines. (Last Week Tonight shows photos of him there and the welcoming ceremony they put on for him.) But when asked about Samoa, he denies even going there.

Especially because the buggies are black, which blend in at night/dusk.

Daytime running lights are required on large sections of the highway in Alaska. It’s posted on signs on the road and you can get ticketed for it.

“( c ) Every vehicle traveling on a highway or vehicular way or area must illuminate lights when traveling on any roadway that is posted with signs requiring the use of headlights.

(d) For the purposes of ( c ) of this section, lights include low intensity headlights and daytime running lamp devices…”

https://dot.alaska.gov/stwdplng/hwysafety/headlights.shtml

I hear Bernie’s voice and cadence when reading the quote.

I also have ringing in my ears and took care of them same as you.

I have perfect hearing according to the typical “can you hear this beep” test - which is infuriating when dealing with my tinnitus. The ENTs said the same as yours did (nothing is wrong)- it took going to a specialist who fits people for hearing aids before they did an extended range hearing test and helped narrow down the range that my tinnitus is affecting.

With the new doctor, we figured out that my tinnitus is caused by the other medications that I’m on. They did research on it and found certain classes of meds increase tinnitus more than others.

Working with my other doctors, we changed some of the medications to try and see if that would help my tinnitus. I also noticed that if I don’t take my allergy meds (Zyrtec) then I have less tinnitus that day. If I do need to take it, then I get elevated tinnitus, more pain in my ears, almost can’t hear, etc. for the next 2-3 days.

As an aside, wearing hearing aids helps for two reasons.

A) if you get the right ones, they have a setting that equates to “white noise” so your brain focuses on that and helps drown out the ringing. There are a couple options for what your white noise could be - actual white noise, beach waves, rain falling.

B) this has been proven to re-teach your brain that it doesn’t need to create the ringing in your ears. Ringing in the ears is ultimately the brain trying to compensate for something - and this is teaching the brain to stop doing that. Meaning, the tinnitus gets better over time.

Note - the fancier hearing aids are blue tooth compatible, so you can use them to listen to music from your phone

Hopefully some of this helps!

Europe (Germany specifically) has their own problems with carriers though.

When you notify them that you’re cancelling your service, you still have to pay for 3 MORE full months of service after that. Even if you’re in the military and ordered to move. That’s a long time.

This 3 month period mandatory cancellation notice doesn’t change even if you’ve been with them for 2+ years.

For US carriers, once you’ve been with them more than the initial 2 years, you are pretty much able to cancel whenever.

So everyone knows… the new Apple Card lets you do 0% financing on the iPhone. (You also get 3% cash back for buying from the Apple Store.)

So you can buy an unlocked iPhone and pay for it in installments.

Now there is no need to buy from the carriers, have a locked phone, or pay full price up front.

Source: Me, paying ~$68/month for the unlocked iPhone 15 Pro. Also, I do a carrier’s prepaid plan because I’ve been bested by contracts before.

Do you prefer the shorter day and eating at your desk, or the longer day with the lunch break?

9-5 never made any sense to me.

I thought working 40 hours was the standard, but 9-5 with a paid lunch is less than 40 hours. So, the math never made sense.

The only place I heard of people working 9 to 5 was in Dolly Parton’s song. I’m enjoying reading everyone’s answers though, and I’m hoping someone chimes in that has actually worked a traditional, in office 9-5.

Edit: I meant to say with an unpaid lunch.

I had no idea he had a podcast! Thank you so much for sharing this! I just looked it up and am listening now.

I saw he had a podcast during the 2020 election season too, so I’m going to listen to that while waiting for new episodes to come out.

What great recommendations!

Some More News is a bit long to start him off I think, but Internet Comment Etiquette has the perfect vulgarity and format. I think it will catch his attention and make him actually watch some.

Beau of the Fifth Column has an incredible beard and background. It really hits the right vibe too! Thank you!