I’m not losing sight of anything. My comment wasn’t off topic because it was a response to your comment, not the post. I wasn’t supporting him or Elon/DOGE. I don’t know why you’re taking issue with my comment. I imagine we agree on more than we disagree on, I was just adding context. If you didn’t want to talk about it, then I’m not sure why you brought it up.

I’m pretty sure it comes from his twitter handle or something like that. I think it’s more irrelevant/childish humor and less serious than it’s made out to be. Plenty of people refer to each other by their online handle, and I don’t think it’s intended as a “nickname” in the conventional way. I have a friend whose UN is basically “dragonslayer42069” and people call him dragon. I don’t think he chose that name so his nickname would be badass or anything. I think he thought it was funny when he made it and people just happen to refer to him as dragon. Plenty of memorable vulgar UNs on microblogs and forums are just there for some immature fun.

Honestly, I think a flat tax is just fine if the rate is 100%. The taxes can be used to cover UBI plus universal health/child care and room and board for everyone. See how into flat taxes he is then.

/s but his idea is also bad

I hate when people talk about getting out of jury duty. If you think the system is bad, jury duty is on of the few ways you can actually have a direct personal impact on it.

You’re right on counts 1 & 2, but people have been referring to it as a buy out, so I’m just using that term colloquially, and the fact it’s illegal doesn’t change the fact that tens of thousands of federal employees are expecting/planning on quitting, since it effectively worked as a mass resignation.

Regarding point 3, I bring it up because essentially by stopping government employees from being paid, it’s going to encourage people that were willing to hang on, to be less inclined to do so, depending on the length of the shut down.

Kinda feels like you didn’t read my comment, because I already mentioned that stopping government work will not stop DOGE from dismantling the government. I’m not saying one or the other option is definitely better, but I’m sure it’s something they’re considering. If the government employees aren’t there, there’s nothing stopping musk et al from barging in and confiscating documents or electronics. Clearly it hasn’t stopped them so far, but at least there are people there witnessing it and documenting it. If the shutdown happens and people just start leaving, it definitely makes DOGEs work easier.

I think there’s legitimate concern that if they do that, they play directly into R plans. Currently tens of thousands of federal workers have taken the buyout, and the Rs are trying to dismantle every agency and encourage workers to step aside, stand down, and go quietly into that good night. Agreeing to a shutdown means the workers aren’t going to be paid, and though the government has generally done back pay, I think it’s a real concern that it’s not going to happen this time. A lot of good people will be forced to leave to keep food on the table. Who does that really benefit? Elon and his ilk/their cronies aren’t doing it for the pay, so they can get a skeleton crew to overtake these now empty agencies, and maintain it’s for the good of America, while “spending gets sorted out”.

Why does it matter if scholars don’t think something is written by the apostles? Mark is not considered an apostle and people seem fine with him having his own sections. Even so, is the Bible not the word of god? Do we need entire history departments dedicated to tracking down who wrote what to declare what parts of the Bible are “real”? Isn’t that in itself an issue? Also, plenty of obvious issues with the New Testament even if you only take from books by apostles theoretically written close to their own time. Enjoy Matthew 15:21-28 where Jesus refuses to help a woman’s sick daughter because the woman was not Israeli/appropriately Jewish and refers to her and non-Israeli/jews as dogs. He eventually helps her once she says “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Cool dude I’m sure, provided you were from the right place and followed his exact religion. Gee, I wonder if that reminds you of anyone?

I agree that basically all religion is bad, but for what it’s worth, in the story Eve knows she shouldn’t eat the fruit, and she isn’t tricked, she’s tempted. Those are different things. It doesn’t make god any less of a jerk, but mistakes like that can sometimes make people disregard a whole argument because they think you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Yea, again, it wasn’t just the cursing. I curse and people have cursed in comment chains in response to me, but it was part of the overall tone. Like any individual part would’ve not been mentioned, but all together they lended a tone (imo). I didn’t internalize it or anything, but “the fuck do you mean?” on its own doesn’t quite come across as neutral (to me) so the other factors contributed to what could be considered (to me) a negative tone. I just mentioned it. I didn’t mean for it to be a big thing or main take away. I just think sometime people don’t realize how they may be perceived and that information may be helpful. Obviously, not everyone cares or wants that feedback, and I’m not asking anyone do anything with it, just providing it (uninvited).

Yea, possibly at the end, but tipping the same person every day for an extended period feels weird to me. Though I’ve not had any relevant personal renovation experience.

Extremely sorry this is happening to you. I know some young men who are “not political” and who if you ask them would say they “don’t follow politics”, yet every dog whistle republican talking point has somehow been demonstrated to them via TikTok without them knowing/noticing. You talk about healthcare or education and it’s always “I saw a TikTok and it said that no one actually needs to go to a doctor or school”. It’s just something the “nanny state” says you should do. Like, how are they so unable to what’s happening to them? Then they say it’s not political because it’s just one persons opinion. Then when you point out that it’s affecting their politics and everything is inherently political, all the sudden you’re the problem trying to convince them to vote when they don’t want to or to vote against Trump or whatever. Normally, I can have a normal conversation with people who disagree with me but I legitimately cannot predict/understand what conclusions they will jump to. I’ve never had such unorganized, unproductive conversations in my life. Best of luck to you and your family.

Not sure what I missed.

I think people overestimate the CIA and their capabilities both individually and as an institution. There’s a lot of rank and file there. It’s not like 90% of the workforce are covert agents or anything.

What do you expect them to do? If you believe that they’re going to get rehired as consultants, who’s gonna hire them, and what for? Their names are in a list somewhere as having already worked for the CIA and they likely don’t have a personal in with the necessary people (like Elon Musk). Do you expect them to use their covert identities? How many people do you think have those? How many of those identities would have relevant experience? Who is going to support those identities, now that the office providing them with believable history and financial details is no longer running? What kind of action do you think they’re gonna take? If not any against the government, then they’re just going to capitulate to doing their job for fascists. If against the government, why did they wait till it got so bad already? I legitimately don’t understand what you think is going to happen.

People seem to not understand that there will be no rebuilding of these decimated institutions. If there are, they will be manned by a skeleton crew of trump loyalists. They don’t care about lost institutional knowledge, or scaling back to current size, they care about capitulating to foreign actors that want to see US influence disappear from the world stage, and rehiring anyone doesn’t help them accomplish that.

No worries. I didn’t take it like anything. I generally try to just respond to the content of a comment and ignore the tone, since you really can’t tell. Like I said, mostly mentioning in case it benefits you in the future. Also, fyi, Google seems to agree with you that tipping plumbers is not expected. My understanding is unless it’s a sit down restaurant, tipping should never be expected, but I’m happy to tip most people doing manual labor if they do it well or go above and beyond. I’m happy with my plumber and will probably continue to tip, but you’re fine not to tip. More to the main point, google seems to think tipping movers is much more common. The internet consensus has spoken lol.

I’m not personally offended or anything, but it was the overall tone of the comment. Yea, the cursing was unnecessary, but then the accusation of using a corpo place that’s taking advantage of the workers, and the multiple question marks does kinda contribute to an overall overly incredulous tone to the point of hostility towards the person you’re responding to. Comes across as flippant and mocking (to me). Again, I don’t really care, just thought I’d mention because sometimes people don’t know how their text is perceived.

Oddly hostile reply, but ok. It’s not required at all, but yes I have tipped plumbers and so have people I’ve known. I have had a plumber come out to take a look and tell me in like 5 minutes what was needed. He didn’t charge me anything, even though I agreed to a nominal site visit charge, because the quote was astronomical and I wasn’t going to go through with the project and he was only there a few minutes. I definitely tipped him and have used him twice since. He’s very nice and knowledgeable and tbh it feels like he way undercharges for his work. Maybe it’s just my personal experience. Not everyone should or has to or anything.

Tipping culture in the US is out of hand, but in my experience most home service people are tipped. The main exception being people there for multiday renovations/work or people not doing manual labor.

Yes, people definitely tip plumbers. Are you in the US?

Aghhhhh. I hate this so much. The same with head start programs. Like every $1 spent on early childhood programs saves $7 (at the low end!) in the long run. We have the answers. Makes me want to scream honestly.

Yes, and I’d like to not see it happen either 🥰

/s obviously