Unitedstatesian here; please, go ahead, we’d really appreciate it.

The Dubbya administration was the one that sent the invite

Edit: my mistake - I could have sworn that an administration person was involved at some point

Many, many of them didn’t, and still don’t.

A couple decades ago, they thought it would be a great idea to invite Colbert as a headliner to the (at the time) annual press correspondents dinner. That went about as swimmingly as you might expect.

That’s only going to incentivize a person to not fail at committing suicide. And the policy/laws around this should be focused on assisting suicidal people in improving their mental health and becoming less suicidal.

Also: what are they gonna do if you succeed in the crime? Execute you?

Yeah - “air condition the planet” becomes a reasonable and viable option if you’re at K1

Janeway replicates her coffee.

Holden would never stand for that philistine bullshit.

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The Expanse comes to mind. Holden (one of the main protagonists) has a series-long trope of being a MASSIVE coffee enthusiast, which is interesting for a series set largely in zero-G

Because iirc there were updates made over time to close some loopholes that allowed it to rip blu-rays to local files in the first place. Basically, you’re looking for a device with firmware that’s up-to-date enough to read and output the data from the disc, but not up-to-date enough to bitch about “this is copy-protected”

He’s a teetotaler, but on the flip side, by many reports he’s long been an enthusiast of the Colombian dancing powder.

Just so you know, if a cop ever catches you with lock picks, depending on the jurisdiction, they may try to arrest you for possession of lock picks with intent to burglarize (in the US, at least). Not saying you shouldn’t - but be mindful of what the potential legal hazards are in the worst case.

If you can score an older one on eBay or something with unflashed firmware that will still let you rip blu-rays, go for that.

Carbs in the beer + the caffeine and sugar in the soda, I’d bet

You wouldn’t beanlieve me if I told you

It really depends who you are and what you like and what your values are and what your income is.

That said, as a progressive software engineer who grew up in CA and now lives in Boston: Massachusetts for sure has its issues, and the cost of living in the city proper is ludicrous, but it’s probably the most European-ish city in the US. Many jokingly call it the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, but it’s one of the better states in terms of social safety nets and all that sort of stuff, and is generally pretty fun. Decent amount of shows, and the restaurant scene is honestly quite delicious and varied, once you get hooked into the scene a bit and learn a bit about which neighborhoods are good for what. And -gasp - a (usually) functioning mass transit system that has heavy and light rail as a major component, along with pretty good commuter rail that you can take all the way to the state border north or south (idk about west - western mass is considered to be a fictional location by many Bostonians). Basically, better mass transit than pretty much anywhere in the states I’ve ever been besides NYC, and maybe Chicago.

Colorado is also pretty sweet, though it’s becoming more expensive these days. Probably the only truly inland state I’d ever seriously consider moving to. Unbelievably good skiing and hiking and other mountain-y stuff to do.

You could not pay me enough money to live in Oklahoma.

And as close second for “nope”, the gulf coast is pretty goddamn awful imo, even putting aside the politics (which are predominantly pretty heinous) and racism (because we never really fully put down the confederacy) - largely economically depressed, horridly humid, no real winter (I like the cold), tons of petrochemical industry.

I’ve always been partial to triples myself, in terms of exhaust note

A few points:

• no, I don’t think it’s paranoid to strongly suspect that the fix is in for the fascists. It is, after all, a rather fundamental part of their plan. And the regime’s first spin in office demonstrated that they are absolutely willing to (at least attempt to) use extralegal and/or stochastic means to force change outside of (small d) democratic electoral mechanisms.
• none of that means you should give up on voting.
• i am honestly not sure what will actually happen on the day of the midterms. But I am planning on getting some freelance press photography credentials, taking the day off, and bopping around to see if I can catch any ICEatzgruppen (or Proud Boys or 3%ers or NSC131 fuckheads or whatever other paramilitary group) acting up and disseminating that content. I’m not convinced that it’s going to be that much of a shit show, but I am definitely extremely suspicious that one or more of the aforementioned groups may try to pull something, and if they do (while I have no illusions whatsoever about my personal ability to physically stop or prevent them from doing anything), I will do my best to make sure they’re unable to hide while they’re doing it, and that it becomes a matter of public record.

The USN has literal fleets of underway replenishment ships. It’s a concept they pioneered and essentially perfected, and it’s been done for decades. Logistics is hard, but the pentagon used to be world-beatingly good at it. Turns out that when you have absolute fuckwits running the show, they can ruin the whole logistical pipeline pretty fucking quick, though.