Former conservative here too. Just wanted to add this for others coming from a conservative background. Maga is not conservative. This is no longer the Republican Party.
Trump was a Democrat for abortion etc and then decided it's easier to manipulate the right.
The government needs to get out of people's personal lives. It's none of their business what healthcare they get or who they marry. What happened to freedom and the pursuit of happiness?
Renewable energy is energy independence and self reliance.
Tariffs are taxes.
Law and order means convicted felons get prison, not becoming immune to crimes.
Every time Republicans are in office there is a recession. Every time Democrats are in office the economy improves.
The US is not allied with Russia.
Free speech and corporate rights means Disney can say they support LGBT rights.
Republicans: No screw you
Democrats: Maybe if not too much effort
If you are one of the groups of people Republicans are targeting though, it's a huge difference. At least Dems won't utterly devastate and wreck your life because of your demographic.
Anyone who is convinced by the benefits on the environment has been for a long time. It's just marketing towards the people who are already convinced.
Already married, broke and not a refugee so all I get to do is go on road trips to Canada from time to time lol. My step grandmother was born Canadian but that's not legally recognized.
Definitely do your own research on this. My understanding is that if any one country does not agree on Article 5 being invoked then there is no collective response. Even if it is invoked each country can choose what they want to do as a response.
The only time it has ever been invoked is after 9/11. Many countries just decided to not send military aid.
Countries can always decide to defend eachother outside of Nato as well.
With the US out of the alliance there is talk of setting up a European nuclear defense system that can't be disrupted by an election by one of the individual countries.
This is why renewable energy needs rebranding. National defense from distributed energy sources. Energy independence, no reliance on foreign oil. Disaster preparedness. Provide for your own family if you can power your own house.
New jobs by building up domestic manufacturing of solar panels, batteries and wind turbines. These days costs are coming down so you can lower electricity bills too.
I didn't. I put some on credit card that was required up front in hospital and the rest went into debt collection while I fought the insurance company for 2 years. Eventually I ended up paying about $12,000 I think.
But the credit cards interest was more and I have been in severe debt the past decade since. All my money goes towards debt payments and bills.
When I last visited Canada a group of old men were talking at the Canadian Tire about how long it takes to see a doctor. Were saying they need to start making people pay like they do in the States.
Don't fall for that propaganda. We have both long waits and pay a ton of money in the US. It can be both. I've had bills up to $118,000 and it can take me a year to see a specialist. I can't find a primary care doctor and it takes several months to get in with a temporary nurse practitioner instead.
NH has the lowest poverty rate of all the states. Plus it's generally cold and rural so people are more isolated and chill.
Seriously? I had to pay $118,000. I fought insurance company for two years and eventually only ended up paying about $12,000
I was lucky that the place I was at provided activities and better food than I was used to. But there really wasn't much actual therapy and the meds didn't help.
It's been 20 years and I would definitely say it was only the other patients that provided me any long term benefit. Really let me see through my own problems and understand stuff that other people went through too.
For example the girl who somehow managed to get through life despite having full on hallucinations of a guy playing a solo guitar session 24 hours a day.
Or another girl who had her stomach pumped from a suicide attempt. She had a birth defect that unfortunately made her look like a goblin just without the green skin. Hope she turned out ok everyone felt for her.
Also met the first probably trans person before I knew that even existed. The facility kept apologizing for misplacing a girl with the boys for a week based on appearances alone. But they were like seemed fine to be there.
What country was this? All of what you said is true, except that I had a private room that consisted of just a bed. I guess maybe it depends on what your normal life is or how for profit a place is, but I have some good memories.
It was the only time in my life that I was around people where we could understand eachother. People treated me well. Normally I was the outsider with the messed up life but everyone else there had problems too. I met some very interesting people there that I never would have seen otherwise. You could actually tell people about yourself. And they had lots of activities that I normally didn't have access to.
Personally I question NATO effectiveness under a Trump presidency. Hope I am wrong about that but Trump's personal loyalties seem to be closer to Russia.
While the other countries are strong combined a lot of their plans and coordination depends on US being first responders. There has also been decades of military neglect by many of the countries, and many buy US weapons instead of home production.
There is also the concern that while Russia alone would be unlikely to attack NATO, they might if China, Iran, and NK join in as they have been slowly increasing support.
If someone is dying from being overweight, can't see without glasses, can't get around without a prosthetic, etc you treat it. There is a severe quality of life problem that is beyond cosmetic.
For someone who is trans, not having surgery or hormones is like that. They can't have relationships and sex the way they want. They can't fit into society without standing out or being told who or what they really are. They can be in danger of anything up to being murdered.
Assuming you aren't trans, you have built your life the way you wanted. Dated who you wanted, dressed how you wanted etc. The people you date see in you what you see in yourself.
Now imagine you woke up with a body of the opposite sex. Is your relationship with your partner the same? Or has the way you had sex and relationship dynamics completely changed? Can you wear the same clothes or take part in the same hobbies or work the same job? Without any pushback or modifications? Are you ok being referred incorrectly as mam or sir, he or she? How would you mentally feel now that your body isn't the gender you know yourself to be?
As a straight man what would it be like to only be able to date lesbians who are attracted to feminine aspects that you don't want in yourself? How would you feel about dildos? Or as a straight woman how your dating prospects would change only being able to date gay men who want your penis?
They should here too but everything is privatized. The company that has a monopoly is only focused on short term profits for their stock investors.
I live downtown in a city next to a hospital and city hall. A few years ago I wouldn't have ever expected power outages lasting up to a week. Climate change and poor infrastructure.
In the northern US we probably have about a week or so a year without power. From lightning or random wind knocking down lines. No hurricanes or tornadoes.
After this recent election I didn't sleep for 5 days. Just seemed like one really long day that eventually seemed like one really long dream. My sleep schedule is still messed up but I am sleeping again. Unfortunately I'm not waking up from this nightmare.
My grandfather credited the new deal with not only his life, but the lives of everyone in town. His father ran the local CCC camp and it provided the majority of the local work and food. Whatever food was leftover my grandfather would walk miles delivering to people who were starving.
At his funeral nearly 80 years later he had hundreds of people show up who were descended from people who he had delivered spare food to. I never really understood how serious his stories were until hearing so many people credit him with their lives. And all of that was directly possible because of the new deal.
To this day the hiking trails they made in the area are still in use as well. So the work was also meaningful.
Not in exact words, that I am aware of. But he has proposed rounding up illegal immigrants and locking up political enemies, protesters, as well as going after "the enemy within". And has countless mentions of making an enemies list that has included everything from people who donated to Nikki Hailey to LGBT people or Democrats.
He wants to implement the Enemies Act of 1798 that was last used in WWII to place American citizens of Japanese descent in internment camps.
He has also recently proposed relocating the homeless, drug addicts and mentally ill to somewhere with cheap land.
He did say they can bring in doctors but given he is putting them there to remove them from society, the involuntary nature, and the massive funding cuts he wants in the federal government I would expect these to be terrible places.
Anyway we look at it he has been saying that he wants to detain millions of people in various ways for various reasons. What he does after that isn't entirely clear and can devolve with time. With unchecked power it's now almost completely in the hands of one person who was elected saying he wants this. Hitler didn't run for office saying he would kill the jews, lgbt, disabled etc either.
Or he can use it and adjust the algorithms to promote himself. Probably use for surveillance too