Here is where I am at and why. I believe that the next administration is a significant risk for the country, the envionment, and will likely have global geopolitical implications on what happens to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Gaza. The immigration policy and rehetoric is unbelievably hateful, not based on reality, and will likely be an unmitigated disaster. The promises to eliminate the ACA and governmental regulatory bodies/oversight in the EPA, FDA, and NOAA make all our our lives more risky and worse. Specifically though, they my MY KIDS LIVES MORE RISKY. If you are going to actively vote against MY KIDS, YOUR GRANDKIDS lives/futures in such a fundamental way, you don’t get to be a part of my life.

You can’t convince me those are not in the same cinematic universe

Sequel culture is getting out of hand.

Don’t forget sex nuts.

Yeah, I actually bought mine just before the VI models were available for purchase when I found out at 5 VI was not going to be produced. Its a big hole in the segment imo.

Sony Xperia 5 V

Great camera, small size, excellent battery life, removable storage, IP rated, and has a headphone jack. The only thing it is missing is a removable battery.

The start of WW3

No it won’t. The problem causers can afford air conditioning.

Virtual insanity.

(That was the joke)

There is a difference between realizing that the money you pay in taxes pays for stuff that benefits the citizens vs the govenrment is taking my money and using it on stupid things or wasting it.

They also conveniently forget/ignore that because we have relatively low taxes in the US, all the benefits like state funded college, universal healthcare, paid family leave, etc are just externalized onto you in the form of private insurance, tuition, and no family leave. I would happily pay more in taxes if it meant that was nationalized. You could damn near double my witholding and I would still come out ahead when you figure in the cost of private health insurance.

Our first kid cost $12000 out of pocket on private insuance that cost my wife and I $1400/month after my employer paid half of the monthly premium.

I fully expect my kids tuition to be over $100k by the time they are in college unless something changes.

Don’t forget Hillary’s emails, she is literally unelectable.

Yeah but Biden is old

No one makes a 65+" oled monitor so before anyone suggests “just buy a monitor” you can’t, I have looked.

Up until last year, I would have said get a good quality projector but even projectors have started getting infiltrated with smart “features” now.

Digital signage was also an option but oled options are basically non-existent and they often have matte screens that make the colors kind of mushy.

From what I have read online, the Sony tv offerings seem to be pretty unintrusive and don’t really care if you hook them up to the internet. The smart software is android tv based and can potentially be modded/stripped of google services. I have to do some more research though so don’t quote me on the above.

Our current TCL/Roku tv is dying and has turned out to be really bad smart/privacy wise and has gotten consistently worse performance wise over time. I’m currently evaluating options for its replacement and the Sony 65" oled is looking like the best one so far.

This is great.

I just learned about the vpn thing a few days ago and its annoying.

John Dies at the End is a good b/c/campy movie. It is absolutely not 1:1 to the books (which are good) but its a weird fun movie.

The plane fell out of a window and shot itself in the back of the head 4 times on the way down while its arms were tied behind its back.

The problem is that they have really ramped up enshitifying the public school system in the last few years. It was never great but either its gotten a lot worse or I have become much more aware of it in the last few years.

The power grid stuff is probably the easiest to fix with a solar setup but I don’t know that I want to spend that money in a state I don’t want to stay in longer term.

I can tell you the other thing people do as they grow up and that is develop their own views. Growing up in Texas, I didn’t realize anything was wrong or out of the ordinary politically/ideologivally. My parents had their views which initially became my views since that was what was normal in my family and community

Getting older and more mature, I realized I didn’t agree with my state or parents but I also didn’t have the option to pack up and leave. By the time I was able to sustain myself and build a life, I had already gotten a job, a relationship, and wanted to start building my own family. Doing that meant staying where I was since my in-laws were in the same city and my spouse didn’t want to be away from them.

Even if on paper to some people it is as easy as just sell your house and leave there are complicating factors. I don’t want my kids to have to deal with hurricanes, power grid failures, intolerance of others, and everything else Texas has to “offer” but at the same time, its not so easy to just bail and start again.