This was a good start. But then you finished by giving loads of reasons to remain complacent.
Polticial polls have to adjust for turnout and that is extremely difficult to get right. But it is a nailed on guarantee that Trump fans will turn out. Dems should be worried that the polls (in general, not just this one) are very close. Biden's presidency has been somewhat better than expected from a progressive perspective but is still too beholden to the kind of Dem that lost it in 2016 by appealing solely to rich people instead of the tens of millions of voters with no one to vote for. They will struggle to enthuse the people they need to enthuse and that is showing up in the polls.
Don't get complacent. Don't push narratives that encourage complacency.
You almost certainly have. A substantial minority never develop symptoms. It's one of the things that makes it spread so easily. If it made everyone very sick they'd all be safely tucked up in bed and not spreading it.
There is no useful answer to your question. Some people develop symptoms very quickly, some people are asymptomatic for a period, others remain asymptomatic throughout.
If you think you've been exposed and you could put others at risk, do a test. False positives are common but they're better at picking up people who are very infectious so that's something.
If you want to know if you've had it, there are antibody tests which check for antibodies from infection rather than vaccination. (Example for information, not a personal recommendation.) They're not 100% accurate but a positive is most likely a true positive, given that the vast majority of people have had it by now. They test for two types of antibody, IgM and IgG. IgM should only show up during or immediately after recovery from an infection, IgG turns up later in the course of an infection and sticks around after recovery.
He actually made that demand before they illegally demolished it, when the facade was still mostly intact. I don't think it would have been very practical but still, they absolutely cannot allow the developers to profit from this vandalism.
They should build a mining museum on the site, with a modern but still wonky design (and coins rolling uphill). And force the crooked developers to donate the site as part of a plea deal. It may have been impossible to prove they were behind the arson but a piece of piss to prove that they were behind the illegal demolition.
Our tram is called the Metro, which is light rail. It connects a small city to a bigger city, and loops around the bigger city. The residential zone along it is enormous, well beyond walking distance. Many people need buses to make use of it.
Westminster Council has been cracking down on US sweet shops after many were discovered to be fronts for illegitimate businesses. In November 2022 one third of the stores had been shut down and by March 2023 the Met Police had seized £1 million worth of goods from the shops.
The solution is pretty sweet (pun intended):
A new initiative by Westminster Council called Meanwhile On: Oxford Street will allow up-and-coming businesses to open in the sites of closed-down candy shops without paying rent, while also having their business rates cut by 70 percent. The free rent will last for the first six months of the stores opening. It comes as part of a scheme to regenerate central London’s waning high street.
“90% of content moderators are foreigners. What we have experienced during the process is very hard… spending three months without receiving a salary, in a country that isn’t yours. You cannot pay the rent, you cannot buy food,” Nkuzimana explains. Cori Crider – co-director of Foxglove, a British organization that is supporting the workers in this process – adds that this situation “forces [the content moderators] to continue accepting insecure jobs to remain in [Kenya], despite the serious risk to their mental health.” Moderators have resorted to crowdfunding, so that they can support their families as the legal fight unfolds.
On November 22, Joanne circulated a letter among the migrant crew. “I have been made aware the crew members are contacting an outside representative,” it read, possibly referencing a call Quezon made to Stella Maris seeking help for Susada. “I am also aware that crew members have been leaving their port without permission or making our office aware. Sadly the actions by these crew members are beginning to ruin the trust and faith we have placed in our Filipino crew.” It concluded by noting they would make reports to local police and UK immigration authorities “if necessary”.
These people are fucking sick. The whole system that denies people the legal right to work just so they can be more easily exploited is fucking sick.
Then you're in a perfect position to help him out.
Make sure he gets a say in it. Invite him into your life, don't just make sure you're the next dumping ground for him, if that makes sense. Kid needs a sense of agency, I'm sure. And he needs to know that someone wants him around.
And make sure he has trusted adults outside your household he can talk to if things get difficult at any point. Your brother sounds perfect for that. Weekly phone calls or something to check in with him. It's important that he knows he can tell someone if he's being treated badly. Not that you will, but he needs to know that f anything goes wrong, he has someone he can tell about it.
This will not be easy. But if you're in a position to do it, it'd be a great thing to do.
I used to live round the corner from a strange little place that sold cassette tapes (what we used for music and sometimes even data before CDs, for those too young to know). Everyone was convinced it was a front but it turned out it was a world famous tape supplier. Just happened to be based in my quiet little back street.
The newsagents next door to my last place have to have been a front though. Shelves were half bare, only ever stocked with stuff that doesn't go off. Always two or three guys hanging out in the back room, looking slightly surprised if you wanted to buy something. Cash only, no cards (not that unusual round here but they usually have a minimum purchase rather than just no card machine at all these days).
They were absolute sweethearts. Took loads of deliveries for us, always really nice about it. And that's more evidence that it's a front. Proper criminals are the best neighbours anyone could ask for because the last thing they want is complaints bringing the police to their door.
Do you live close enough to his school to offer (effectively) childcare during the week plus any time she is working at the weekends?
If so, you don't need to take him off her or present it as that kind of threat. Just give her some space to get her shit together without forcing the kid along for the ride.
If you don't live close enough to his school, it gets a lot more complicated.
There's only so much time in the day. And far too easy to waste it arguing pointless things with random strangers on the internet.
In this case, their motive does not matter. They did you a favour shutting it down before you wasted any more time thinking about something that does not matter at all.
Rebuilding this would be impossible, I think. But listing the ruins to ensure they are preserved rather than redeveloped would be fitting, as would prosecuting the fuck out of these arseholes.
Neither will happen, of course. As a semi-local, I hope the locals find ways to make sure any redevelopment is a loss-making disaster for the new owners.
Your entire post is supporting complacency.