That capex number in the article is a big part of it. $200 billion spent to generate $1-2 billion a month in revenue is wasteful, and people at the top are feeling the pressure to justify that expense.

Wait. Where are you that a bus pass changes price based on fuel?

The House of Pod did an episode about this, the host is a doctor and one of his guests for this episode is a surgeon and educator. Some good perspective on how this could happen and exactly how giant of a fuck up it was: https://shows.acast.com/the-house-of-pod-a-medical-podcast/episodes/bonus-sode-revisiting-the-mistakenly-removed-liver

That’s like half of Ed Zitron’s output, although he puts more detail into identifying the specific placid and compliant reporters.

In fact, it seems to be getting worse along a number of axes.

OP says his home country is the US.

OH!

Books on local flora that cover what is edible. Lots of shit that grows in the wild or green spaces is edible (often after some preparation like blanching or roasting.)

I can. A couple of years is plenty of time to plant a garden, learn how to cook a variety of vegetarian meals using things you can grow, and if you have the space to invest in chickens or other birds for eggs. It’s also enough time to learn other skills and meet your neighbors, build up a network of trust and mutual aid, and be actually prepared for a crisis in a way that is sustainable.

I guess I think like Rian Johnson, because his explanation (it’s like a person instinctively clawing for the surface when drowning) makes sense to me. I’ve been in a handful of situations where I felt like my life was in danger and I managed to do things I could not accomplish if I was trying to do them consciously. There’s a big difference between (say) holding your breath for a number of minutes when waves are pounding you into the sand, and reaching another person how to swim.

TLJ is where she pulls herself back into a ship after being thrown into space, but TRoS is where Rey refers to her “master” and the reveal is that it’s Leia. I’m…fine with the scene in TLJ, she’s Luke’s twin and in RotJ he says she’s strong in the force so instinctively rescuing herself is not a huge problem. But if she was a Jedi master in TRoS she should have at least had some indication of significant training in the two preceding films.

The Force Awakens was fine, for a near shot-for-shot remake of A New Hope.

The Last Jedi is underrated, and I would argue the worst aspects are the attempt to redo the battle of Hoth. Overall a valiant attempt to make Star Wars something other than “the Skywalker Files.”

I made it ~15 minutes into The Rise of Skywalker before I turned it off. When did Leia become a Jedi Master again? Sometime after TLJ and the start of TRoS?

The best of these movies was okay. Of course no one is watching them.

His most controversial cartoon.

Hell yes.

When the banks were combined prior to the Great Depression they would use deposits from the retail side to fund investments. When investments lose money, and customers come to withdraw funds, the bank is unable to cover its obligations and can fail. When you combine that with banks lending money to each other, a single bank (if it’s big enough) can start a cascading failure.

Glass-Steagall was passed in 1933. Prior to that the US had had a financial crisis every decade or so. 1933-2000 was an incredibly stable period financially speaking, there were a number of small banking scandals but nothing that threatened the whole economy. In 1999 congress repealed it and Clinton signed the repeal, and 9 years later was the 2008 financial crisis. And we’re back on track for one every decade again.

I learned who he was when some republican called him “Barney f-slur” and tried to play it off as a misspeaking of his name.

It’s extremely difficult to estimate the risk or chance, but the fact that (almost) everybody is aware, makes the risk bigger, because for some weird reason, everybody preparing for a financial crisis doesn’t make it less likely because people are prepared, but instead makes it more likely because nobody does anything when the uncertainty passes a certain threshold. And at that point the economy collapses.

It’s because everyone is primarily concerned with making sure they’ll turn out okay, or is too committed to the failing investments that they keep doubling down. Consider the story of the big short: guys who saw the crash coming said it was coming, and when no one listened they made bets on how bad it would be.

Our best case scenario is that we survive and get something like a worldwide Glass-Steagall act that prevents investment banks from also being retail banks.

Also don’t disregard local elections or people who are pushing quality of life improvements that may not seem like a huge deal.

Yeah, the question is framed poorly. Not all effects on one’s life are good.

Also, with the (possible) exception of kids who grow up in the foster system, I would argue your parents have the largest effect on your life, good or bad. Whether you recognize it or not.

I was really disappointed to hear Matt and Daniel on Bad Hasbara basically treating Tucker’s apology tour as legitimate. He’s a vile racist antisemite, that’s where his criticism of Israel comes from.

Keep in mind, this is after a bunch of the first wave of white South African immigrants moved back because the US is a shithole.