Trump, and a large portion of the US electorate, don't understand soft power. The idea of propping others up helps yourself; of graciously taking a back seat in one area to strengthen your position in another. It's fucking infuriating, and it's going to have ramifications long after Trump joins Kissinger.
Sitting in my closet, rocking back and forth waiting for it to be over. Exactly the same, I told my wife afterwards "If I'd had an ice pick, I would have shoved it through my eye."
A distant family member of mine was (is) a Marine, and made it to Drill Instructor before the effects of his PTSD from 3 tours and a TBI became too much (ie he basically had a psychotic break) and he medically retired.
After he got out, he and I talked about it one time. He told me that he'd had a lot of trauma growing up and was fairly bigoted when he first went in. But that after a while he couldn't care less about someone's sex, gender, race, religion, etc (at least as far as the people who had joined; he admits civilians are still a tough thing for him), because when you're in the suck, none of that matters. The only thing he cared about is whether the person next to him was properly trained and willing to put their life on the line for him, just like he would for them.
It's not to piss them off, but to send a message. Just like Putin, he's going to put the screws to somebody wealthy to send the message "I did it to them, I can do it to you."
Primary and secondary schooling is just practice to be good little worker bees. That's why conservatives view college/tertiary school as iNdOctrINATIOn cEntERS
Completely agree on people not understanding statistics. See: most of the polls showing a slight edge to Harris, but with a 3 to 4 point margin of error, being taken to mean that Harris had it in the bag.
SOMETHING HAPPENING 49 OUT OF 100 TIMES IS STILL VERY LIKELY!
They won't need to pack the court. Alito and Thomas will retire in about 18 months, just after having upheld a national abortion ban. They'll view it as their crowning achievement and walk into the sunset as GOP heroes. Then they'll be replaced with like-minded ideologues in their mid-40s to ensure that the right wing of the court will remain intact for at least the next 20 years.
If they packed the court, they will have just opened the door for Dems to do the same. Instead, they'll leave it at 9 and dare the Dems to do something about it.
And when the economy tanks, him and his rich buddies will be right there to buy everything for pennies on the dollar, putting the screws to all of us even harder.
The first hospital diagnosed her with strep throat without investigating her sharp abdominal cramps. At the second, she screened positive for sepsis, a life-threatening and fast-moving reaction to an infection, medical records show. But doctors said her six-month fetus had a heartbeat and that Crain was fine to leave.
Also remember (as you clearly wrote many times) that we're talking increased risk, not causation. We were 24 and 27 when my autistic daughter was born. Sometimes you just get dealt a rough hand.
No worries. I've never played a ttrpg, just have a passing interest and thought I'd ask. Cheers!