Fast food and major chains have gotten absurd. I used a gift card at Red Robin. It was $19 before tip for a dry burger and bland fries. Two bucks more could’ve gotten me a gourmet meal at a five-star place just down the street. The value just isn’t there anymore. Eating local almost always tastes better, feels better, and costs the same or less. Why settle for mediocrity when better is right around the corner?

That's lovely. I'm my experience, tea people are special people.

Add it to the list. Might take you a while to find the bottom.

Excellent news! Slava Ukraini!

I highly recommend reading Ezra Klein's latest book "Abundance" for a look at why the DNC has been losing the working class. It also offers some optimistic ideas for moving forward.

"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward."

Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

I just finished Ezra Klein's new book and I thought it was great. It illuminates the history that has brought us here and gives some hopeful ideas on how we can fix it. That is, if there is anything left to fix by next year.

Huh. For some reason all I see is *******.

I hear that you’re not anti-immigrant and that your focus is on encouraging higher birthrates among the existing population. That’s a valid position. But I’m still unclear on something: you say “substituting locals for immigrants won’t work”, but what does that mean, practically?

We’re already seeing immigrants and their children working in essential industries, serving in the military, paying taxes, starting businesses, and contributing culturally and economically in every measurable way. In that sense, it is working, not as a perfect system, but as a very real and ongoing contribution to national strength.

So if your point is that we also need pro-natal policies, that’s great, many countries are trying that too. But that doesn’t invalidate immigration as part of the solution. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.

If you believe immigration “won’t work,” can you explain specifically what metric or outcome you’re pointing to? Otherwise, it feels like the disagreement isn’t about whether it works, but about whether we’re emotionally comfortable with who is coming in.

You're right that immigration brings complexity, it always has. But what you’re describing isn’t a reason to reject immigration. It’s a reason to invest in integration, civic education, and community infrastructure, the very things that made past waves of immigration ultimately successful. The challenges Irish, Italian, and Eastern European immigrants posed didn’t prove immigration was a failure, they proved that assimilation is a process, not a plug-and-play switch. And they eventually helped redefine the idea of who counts as “American.” That doesn’t mean there weren’t tensions, but it does mean people changed, adapted, and became part of the whole.

What I hear in your argument is a belief that culture is static, and that outsiders are always permanent outsiders. That’s a dangerously pessimistic view of human beings. It treats people as incapable of growth, and societies as too fragile to absorb change. But that’s not how culture works, not unless you let fear do the steering.

And yes, importing labor from poorer countries can create tension, especially if the host society is structured in a way that stratifies opportunity. But then the issue isn’t immigration, it’s inequality. The problem isn't that “the poors” look different. It’s that we’re failing to create systems where they can become something else.

Extremist sentiment is rising in Europe not because immigrants are inherently dangerous, but because politicians and media figures are stoking fear and resentment instead of investing in cohesion. We've seen this movie before. It never ends well.

It’s not xenophobic to be concerned about cultural change, but it is misguided to assume that culture is a fixed object that only flows in one direction. America, and much of the West, has always been shaped by the beliefs, values, and adaptations of immigrants. People change, adapt, and contribute in complex ways. Immigrants don’t arrive with a USB stick labeled 'final values.' They raise kids here. Their kids go to school here. They vote here. And yes, they bring different perspectives, but so did Irish Catholics, Italian immigrants, and Vietnamese refugees. The melting pot doesn’t mean erasure, it means evolution."

Also, beware of confusing correlation with cause: conservative religious values exist in all societies, not just 'third world' ones. We’ve got plenty of evangelical pushback on rights from people born and raised here too. If we’re going to have a conversation about values, let’s do it honestly and not use fear of ‘the other’ as a smokescreen for deeper social anxieties.

Immigration isn’t ‘outsourcing childbirth’, it’s investing in the future of our country. People who come here, build lives, and raise families contribute just as much to our communities as anyone born here. Their children are American in every meaningful way. That’s not a loophole, that’s the foundation of our nation. If we start drawing lines around who counts as a 'real' solution based on origin, we’re moving away from what has always made America strong.

Forget the serious debate videos—his supporters aren't watching those, and even if they did, they wouldn't care. You want to make a dent? You go after the ego.

Picture this: an endless stream of totally "realistic" phone-recorded AI videos of Trump playing golf. He lines up the putt—misses. Tries again—air ball. It's literally an inch away now—misses again. Doesn’t blink, just traps it in, smirks, walks off like he nailed it. Over and over.

The key is subtlety. These can’t look staged or flashy—make them feel like someone’s nephew filmed it from the cart. Make it look like he's genuinely terrible but thinks he’s crushing it.

Then blast them everywhere. Flood the algorithm. Turn his “I’m the best at golf” schtick into a punchline.

This is how you use AI to actually take Trump down—with a thousand tiny ego papercuts.

Don't worry. Trump is gonna remove taxes on tips. That's like, so much money! /s

Also, it's a terrible idea.

How long do you think the Supreme Court is gonna wait to wipe their ass with constitution again and overturn the ruling? Any bets? I say about 2 weeks.

Check out the youtuber "Neural Viz". Using multiple AI tools, he has built an incredible universe of consistent characters. As @tjsauce pointed out, it ultimately comes down to how much you care about what you publish. You can spend hours trying to get AI systems to produce the exact effect you're aiming for—but few people are truly searching for something specific. That’s where the artist becomes a designer: someone who not only creates, but curates with intention. Most people aren’t thinking that way.

As far as I can tell, it seems that way. But take that with a grain of salt. I haven't contributed anything of my own. I only speak as an experienced user.

Why not just continue down? Lots of people post long panel comics. Something like this:

Conservatives love to say Trump keeps his promises and, in a way, that’s what makes him so dangerous. Weaved between the nonsense, there are times he is true to his word. But far too many people never really listened to what those words meant. They didn’t question the promise to 'run America like a business' because they never questioned the man making it. They embraced The Art of the Deal not because it was a good book with any actual wisdom, but because they believed a rich man must be a smart man. That success equaled wisdom. That wealth was proof. But the book was never a blueprint, it was a warning. A gospel of ego, smoke, and debt. And now, with trillions wiped from the market, we’re living the consequences of their taking that promise seriously. Promises made. Promises kept.

Please understand: trimming a cat’s nails is not the same as declawing. Trimming is like cutting your own nails—quick, painless, and healthy. Declawing is a surgery that removes part of the bone, like cutting off the tip of your finger. They are completely different. My cat lays in my lap and purrs when I trim his nails.

Millions of cats are born and raised indoors and never go outside. For those cats, keeping their nails trimmed is necessary. It helps prevent painful overgrown claws, reduces accidental injuries, and keeps their paws healthy. That’s not cruelty—it’s just responsible care.

Cats can absolutely stay healthy and happy indoors with trimmed nails. It takes time, patience, and positive reinforcement—treats, love, and trust. That’s not “Stockholm syndrome,” that’s training and bonding, just like with any pet.

You're right that cats are predators by nature—but domesticated cats are not wild animals. That’s what “domesticated” means. Any animal whose natural life cycle has been altered by humans lives a different kind of life, and it’s our job to care for them in the environment we’ve created.