These limp dick positions just provides political cover for poor policy
If you want to criticize me for my position on the issue, my position is that we should have universal healthcare at least on a par with the other developed countries.
My post was me griping about how pretty much impossible it has been to do anything about health care in this country for decades, and even the little we've gained is still under threat of being taken away. It took decades to get even the protections of the ACA passed (not allowing them to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions being IMO the most important one, which IS an improvement that has saved a lot of suffering and my life, among others, followed by expansion of Medicaid, which has also saved lives).
So yes, I did say things were even worse before the ACA and they were. That's a fact, whether you want to admit it or not. If they repeal the ACA, it will cause more suffering and death. That's a fact.
If you want to see how it was before the ACA, watch Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko". You'll understand how the ACA is an improvement, regardless of its flaws and failure to be The Ideal One True Universal Healthcare we wish for.
Trying to get something, anything, passed to improve the HC situation took decades of fights. Read the history of it. Did you know Nixon tried to get universal coverage done back in the late '70's, but Ted Kennedy decided to make the perfect be the enemy of the good and led the effort against it, killing it (before he died he said that was his biggest regret). He and the unions calculated that if they killed it they could deny Nixon a win (sound familiar?) and get single-payer next time there was a Dem president, which of course they couldn't. Clinton tried to do it, HRC led the effort and they were inundated with massive opposition. It got nowhere, not even close.
Next up, Obama. However imperfect it is, it was a significant accomplishment to get the ACA done. It was hoped it could continue to be improved and worked on going forward. Instead it's been a constant battle just to keep it from being repealed.
OK, I just didn't take it as being an argument that smartphones were bad or that they haven't helped anyone. I took it as OP saying that having one hasn't benefited them personally, which I can understand and relate to, and is why I was defending that opinion (I explained my view about them in an earlier post in the thread). Anyway, no point in continuing since we just have different interpretations of what they were saying. Thanks for being polite about it and giving me a better idea of what some responders were upset about.
OK, you thought their opinions were antagonistic and we may have different definitions of antagonistic. But read the thread. There are a lot of aggressively antagonistic posts telling OP they're full of shit, lying, a troll, etc. Apparently they just couldn't believe someone didn't think their smartphone has made their life better, and attacked. Maybe I missed something, I didn't see any posts from OP calling anyone names, accusing anyone of lying, or telling anyone they're full of shit.
I guess it depends on how you take it, could be vice versa. I see a lot of posts that could be taken as other people dismissing OP's valid points that don't suit their preconceived points of view. Downvotes on most of OP's posts that aren't saying anything offensive, just expressing their POV.
Have we gotten to where everyone has to agree with the majority or they get piled on? Even if the opinions seem antagonistic to you, could that you be feeling personally attacked because you do like smartphones. They're just opinions of phones, not opinions of people who use them. It just seems weird how strongly people are reacting to someone who hasn't done anything wrong or insulted anyone, but is just not conforming to the norm.
To answer the original question, it's because the earth is very large and retains the heat from warmer times preceding the solstice in the water bodies and the ground, like a buffer, so there is a lag time for things to lose that heat and get to the coldest air temps. As an analogy, if you heat up some rocks in the oven, then turn off the oven, the rocks will still stay hot for a long time and gradually cool off.
I saw no hostility except from you toward OP. Don't take it as a personal insult if someone isn't into smartphones as much as you are. Let's not treat attitudes towards phones as if they are attitudes towards the people who do or don't use them.
So far I have managed to avoid getting a smartphone and am still using a flip phone. Every time I look into getting one it gives me a yucky feeling, but I'm still considering getting one at some point.
Of course I have a computer, a laptop, and also a small tablet that I have some apps and games on for amusement. But for a phone to carry around, all I care about is having a way to make a call if needed and send/receive texts, so I have no need for a smartphone. I have taken my tablet to a cafe and used their Wifi to access the internet a few times, but I rarely want to do that.
(edit to add): I can also use my flip phone as a wifi hotspot for my tablet if I really need to access the internet but I never do this as I usually don't carry my tablet around.
Things that I can see a smartphone being useful for:
GPS/maps, but I don't really need that since I rarely travel that far away and I know my way around my city and nearby cities. However I can always download static maps of other cities to my tablet if I'm going to an unfamiliar place and/or look it up online ahead of time--like when I had to go to a funeral, I printed off a couple maps--one close up on the location area and one zoomed further out to see the route to the area.
Weather app with radar.
Signal app, which I'm not sure I'd use, but I think it would be nice to have in case I need secure messaging as we move into 2025.
ummmm, can't think of anything else 🤔
Things I'm glad I don't have to worry about by not having one:
going around like a zombie everywhere constantly staring a screen, unable to sit or stand quietly for more than 15 seconds without whipping it out (the phone! you knew what I meant). This is really not healthy. Maybe I wouldn't do that, but who knows, maybe I would start doing that, as it seems everyone else does, and (sorry, but) it looks pathetic and I think it's not healthy.
the constant beeping, dinging, vibrating, or whatever it's set to do for notifications, from dozens of apps demanding attention. That would drive me nuts. My phone only makes a sound if I get a phone call or text, which is not often. If I ever started getting texts too often I might turn off sound for them.
Oh, then you mean there is some public record somewhere that he actually joined the Democratic party when he ran in the 2016 election? Maybe a registration form? (link?) Because I don't think he did. From what I read, he didn't actually join or register as a Dem, but the party didn't try to stop him from running as a Dem, and he just verbally said he was a Democrat when asked, which I guess was good enough.
According to this article, which goes through the timeline of his party affiliation(s), it wasn't until Bernie's 2020 run that the Democratic party formally wrote up a rule that a candidate had to be a member of the party, and only then did they require him and the other candidates to sign a document officially declaring themselves as Democrats.
This article, as best as I can tell, confirms that in 2016, he didn't actually join the Democratic party, but he stated Democratic party as his affiliation on the statement of candidacy for his political campaign, and also verbally said to people who asked that he was a Democrat.
Biden won it. I don't think an incumbent president has ever lost their primary when running for re-election, at least not in modern times when they actually had primaries that people could vote in. It's on Biden for deciding to run again.
If you want to criticize me for my position on the issue, my position is that we should have universal healthcare at least on a par with the other developed countries.
My post was me griping about how pretty much impossible it has been to do anything about health care in this country for decades, and even the little we've gained is still under threat of being taken away. It took decades to get even the protections of the ACA passed (not allowing them to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions being IMO the most important one, which IS an improvement that has saved a lot of suffering and my life, among others, followed by expansion of Medicaid, which has also saved lives).
So yes, I did say things were even worse before the ACA and they were. That's a fact, whether you want to admit it or not. If they repeal the ACA, it will cause more suffering and death. That's a fact.