I think Americans can perceive how fucked up and corrupt their government is but they lack any theoretical analysis to determine the nature of it. So all they have is a general perception that the government doesn't work for them and that creates an inherent distrust of any government program, no matter what it does.
So an American might believe that universal healthcare is a good policy, but they also believe that in practice if such a policy were enacted it would mean that money being siphoned off by the ultra rich, with nothing fundamentally changing. They would be paying the taxes of a universal healthcare state, but the actual system would continue as-is, and they would still need to pay ridiculous prices. Thus getting double-dicked for no benefit.
The thing is this is probable. Section 8 is a massive subsidy to landlords. The ACA is a massive subsidy to insurance companies. But if you asked Americans why this keeps happening they would just spout some nonsense about R's and D's, or some particular politician, or whatever.
This cynicism spans both "blue" and "red" America. I think it's the heart of the rot in our society. It's not really a society at all in the sense that people have lost the belief that we, collectively, can work together to achieve more than what's possible working alone. When that breaks the only motive people still believe in is the extractive motive of corporations. They believe that only the rich can make things happen, and thus are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by electing venal politicians who believe the same.
Obviously I'm generalizing here, but just an undercurrent I've observed. It's not coherent, but it is consistent across the "spectrum" of American politics. This ultra wealthy magnify this narrative since it suits them.
I don't know, I have a hard time believing Trump would write, "enigmas never age." I have an easy time believing that he, and many of the ultra rich, regularly engage in activities that would make the cenobites from Hellraiser say, "Dude, that's fucked up." But it's too far fetched to imagine him writing anything even slightly poetic.
Maybe twenty years ago his brain was less deep fried but I kind of doubt that too. Maybe he has an assistant write this sort of thing. Or maybe this is some con that Maxwell is playing. I don't know.
I've been getting annoying amdgpu crashes every now an then. I've tried all the various BIOS and kernel params but so far nothing has worked. Next step is rolling back a kernel version, at least that's what I've gathered from all the threads about it. It's bothersome but not frequent enough to be a real pain.
(This is an amd framework 13 with fedora 42 / wayland)
I don't know if you're opposed to herbicide, but triclopyr will kill it. You can get triclopyr salt (water based) and apply it to the freshly cut stump surface (within moments of cutting), or triclopyr ester (oil based) and apply it to the outside of the plant close to the base, no cutting required. Both of these will kill the root. Otherwise just keep cutting and eventually you will exhaust the root.
Not sure about elsewhere, but in the USA you can typically buy the water-based triclopyr salt in a small bottle with a brush attached to the cap. This is in pretty much any garden store. Even though you have to cut the plant first I think this is the best form for just a few plants.
I prefer the 300 gallon IBC tote. Then I can unload it from my pickup truck with the pallet forks on my skid-steer and put it straight into the mayo door on the side of my house.
I don't know if it's still a thing in the digital age, but having even just a few seconds of dead air back in the analogue broadcast days could mean that "silence detectors" all over the country would start going off and radio engineers everywhere would think there was some kind of problem with their station. So there had to be talking, music, something at pretty much all times.
If you wanted intentional silence you could play comfort noise in the background.
A "carriage house", in the backyard of some rich couple who were the landlords. I split it with a buddy. Open holes to the outside that we patched with duct tape. The entire thing listed to one side. It smelled like mold. Zero insulation or climate control of any kind. Landlord still stole food from our fridge when we were away.
People here in the rural USA also think that factory jobs are magically "good", and that it was factory jobs themselves that created the middle class. As if the factory owner is somehow different and more noble than the owners of other giant corporations.
In reality the unions literally shed blood to make those jobs "good jobs". Those unions, and class consciousness, have since been destroyed. Even if 20th century style manufacturing did return it would just be another form of resource extraction. Those jobs may save people from the absolute destitution they face having been abandoned by their government but they're not going to support a healthy community. That's simply not good for business. When you don't give a fuck about human beings then what's actually "good" for business is a desperate, starving workforce.
People here praise Walmart, even though the community is demonstrably poorer. They've completely forgotten what was lost. They talk about that one great uncle who was fucked over by the unions the same way they talk about that one second cousin who never wore a seatbelt and was saved from a wreck when he was "thrown clear". They all believe they will somehow be thrown clear from the wreck that's been happening for 50 years.
Try to get a really early start so you aren't spending the last few hours driving in darkness. If you haven't listened to the "Shit town" podcast, it got me through a long drive once. This was on a 2012 car with no smartphone features besides basic bluetooth, but there was a pairing procedure that got audio to at least play (it was really wonky to setup, I had to look it up).
Edit: Big Caveat to my advice on the starting early, be careful if your trip ends inside a huge metro area on a weekday, as bad timing can land you straight into some horrendous rush-hour traffic.
Yeah, I've been fortunate enough to be offered those multiple times as well. I froze my credit with the big three agencies after the third or fourth breach. Recently learned there's apparently a fourth agency now? Cool. And there's hundreds of data broker sites...
I do a lot of invasive species management. Many of the common names are "exotic" sounding and include "Asian", "Chinese", "Japanese" etc because they were marketed this way in the 20th century to appeal to gardeners and land managers who didn't know better and just wanted fast growing, pretty plants.
Now, in the current atmosphere of sinophobia I have often heard someone imply these invasives were deliberate sabotage. But it was westerners who imported these things. We wanted them, or at least wanted the plant that hosted the insect, or whatever. Also, by that logic we have "sabotaged" China with our invasives.
I feel like as a society we are so inarticulate, hateful, and short-sighted that we no longer have the ability to solve complex problems.
It looks horrific to me. Like a film prop from Cronenberg or Lynch. I think it's the mix of mechanical motion, a material that reminds me of Jean Jacket's stomach from Nope, and a structure like a severely prolapsed rectum. No way could I get off in this thing.
Maya and Motionbuilder run on Linux, but that happened before they were hoovered up by the monster. Autodesk just ignores that part of their portfolio. I know a few people who work/have worked on the Maya team and they're talented, passionate devs, but management just doesn't give a fuck about Media & Entertainment when Autocad and Revit are making so much money.
This is probably just because it's DC. The rules get really muddy there. For a long time the highest elected position in DC was head of the school board, and even though ostensibly there's "home rule" now, Congress still loves to punish the local populace by overriding anything they think scores points with their base back in Idaho. If you get convicted of a felony in DC you actually get transferred to federal prison.
I think Americans can perceive how fucked up and corrupt their government is but they lack any theoretical analysis to determine the nature of it. So all they have is a general perception that the government doesn't work for them and that creates an inherent distrust of any government program, no matter what it does.
So an American might believe that universal healthcare is a good policy, but they also believe that in practice if such a policy were enacted it would mean that money being siphoned off by the ultra rich, with nothing fundamentally changing. They would be paying the taxes of a universal healthcare state, but the actual system would continue as-is, and they would still need to pay ridiculous prices. Thus getting double-dicked for no benefit.
The thing is this is probable. Section 8 is a massive subsidy to landlords. The ACA is a massive subsidy to insurance companies. But if you asked Americans why this keeps happening they would just spout some nonsense about R's and D's, or some particular politician, or whatever.
This cynicism spans both "blue" and "red" America. I think it's the heart of the rot in our society. It's not really a society at all in the sense that people have lost the belief that we, collectively, can work together to achieve more than what's possible working alone. When that breaks the only motive people still believe in is the extractive motive of corporations. They believe that only the rich can make things happen, and thus are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy by electing venal politicians who believe the same.
Obviously I'm generalizing here, but just an undercurrent I've observed. It's not coherent, but it is consistent across the "spectrum" of American politics. This ultra wealthy magnify this narrative since it suits them.