Other accounts:
Yes, I was being genuine with my question (but reading it again I can see how I was a tad snarky). I’m totally ignorant when it comes to this stuff, obviously.
I also genuinely wonder if other countries couldn’t figure out how to source that stuff from countries other than the U.S. if they really wanted to. Again, I am ignorant when it comes to this stuff.
Does the U.S. make anything of value as an export compared to what we import from other countries? Almost everything today has a microchip inside it (except food…I hope) and I’m pretty sure we import most of the microchips we use in stuff. I think the trade war is going to make our economy MUCH worse pretty quick because we are in an even more global economy than we were when Hitler was in power.
I can guarantee you I would again waste countless hours just spinning stuff around again if I tried using it now 😆
While that sounds cool to me, it kind of defeats my main purpose of switching to an e-reader in the first place. I have trouble holding physical books for a long time due to hand pain. I had a similar issue with the e-reader, just not as bad, until I put a PopSocket on the back of it. Now I can hold it with the PopSocket resting in-between 2 fingers and can read significantly longer.
I switched from Kindle Paperwhite 1st Gen to a Kobo Clara Color a month or so ago. It was cheaper than Amazon’s color Kindle offering plus Amazon not letting readers download their books pushed me out. I did try the jailbreak for the Kindle and…I gave up on it after numerous issues that I ran into probably relating to the age of my Paperwhite.
I mostly use Overdrive (Libby) to get books from my library. The Kobo has Overdrive support…mostly due to Kobo store availability and whether or not you have multiple library cards with multiple libraries. I’m in NY state and have a library card with my city library and then one with the NY Public Library. This isn’t really a reflection on Kobo, more so Overdrive being shitty and not willing to update their Kobo app to work with how they migrated from the Overdrive app to Libby.
This is where Calibre comes in handy, I download the book to my phone from Libby, transfer it to my Mac and use Calibre to add it to it to my Kobo. It’s not pretty like Overdrive’s Kindle integration where you basically press a few buttons in the Libby app and the book is sent to your kindle.
As far as reading the book in general, I don’t really notice that huge of a difference other than better technology. I did have some slight bugginess when I first used it, but after a full charge and a few reboots it seems to be fine now. I don’t have a current gen Kindle to compare it to, so someone else can speak to that. I do wish it wasn’t such a hassle to get my library books to it, but at least I have access to all my books!
Man this is a trip I remember Beryl and when it turned to Compiz. I spent way more time than I care to admit just spinning stuff around and playing with effects than accomplishing anything of meaningful value.
I don’t see it. Yes I am legally blind in one eye but my good eye sees pretty damn well and it just looks like a blurry mess
The easiest solution would be to do a UBI tied to a COLA of some sort to fend off inflation and then ditch all the other entitlement programs to simplify things. Anyone making more than UBI would have to pay a tax. I don’t even want to go down that rabbit hole of what can fix our busted tax system. Let anyone who has paid into Social Security still be entitled to their benefits and UBI would be added if there is a negative difference with Social Security.
I dunno, these are just ideas I think of when I’m trying to sleep at night, I have no clue if they’re even remotely feasible to do in this country with prices and incomes varying so widely in every part of the country.
All I know is what I had to go through to get SSDI and I discovered the social safety net is really just you free-falling through hoops on fire hoping you land on the tiny speck of an inflatable bouncy house on the ground that also has a slow leak in it and may or may not stay inflated to brace your fall. And you have to repeat that for each program you need to apply to for benefits. Oh and you get to free fall every year to 5 years depending on the benefit, but instead you’re free falling from half the distance with less hoops on fire but the inflatable bouncy house still has a leak. Oh and if you happen to make it through and be protected by the bouncy house, don’t even think about saving money for a parachute next time because you could lose some benefits or have them cut.
Anything is better than the broken system we have now.
Great! Show me a country that will willingly take in someone who’s disabled, financially support them, and house them and I’ll fly there tomorrow – oh and they’ll need to cover the cost of the plane ticket too. I’m terrified of what’s coming for me as a “parasite” being on disability, Medicaid/Medicare, and HUD housing but I don’t have the finances to move elsewhere.
Contrary to what the media tells us, those of us solely relying on SS retirement or SSDI/SSI are at or below poverty level. I’m on SSDI and am not making much more
Exactly my thought too
I want one too! Only because I love Lego 😆
Jokes on them, I have facial paralysis!
Aren’t 99% of local and state law enforcement Trump supporters?
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday, but officials refused to let him visit an erroneously deported Maryland man who the Supreme Court has ordered returned to the United States.
Because he’s dead
Ramirez, in a letter to House Homeland Security Committee chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) first obtained by Axios, requested he authorize an official CODEL to El Salvador.
Given that the Administration’s use of CECOT for illegal and unconstitutional deportations is rife with ‘administrative errors’ … I urgently request a CODEL to conduct oversight," she wrote.
The song Hotel California comes to mind here.
Reps. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) both shared photos of themselves at the notorious maximum security prison on Wednesday in posts on X praising the administration’s deportation policies.
I can’t even…WTF
Ouch. And here I thought I was terrified because I’m on SSDI. I hope you get to escape from this idiocy.
As for me, I’m trying to enjoy my life to the fullest that I can in my current situation and biding my time until I get disappeared. I don’t have the financial means to even attempt to get to another country, and none of them would want a “parasite” like me anyways.
Man I miss old Looney Tunes.
I went and saw the new movie with Porky Pig and Daffy Duck: The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie and it was pretty darn good.
And listen, I know now isn’t really a good time to watch a movie and get distracted, but it did a pretty good job of distracting me and made my mental health a tiny bit better not having to think about what we’re going through and will be going through.
I don’t even think we have that long.
Well, I’ll rephrase that: I don’t think I have that long being on SSDI, Medicaid, and in HUD housing. I have no doubt I’ll be disappeared as a “parasite” long before the collapse. I do have a cane and I’m not afraid to use it for what it wasn’t intended for so I won’t go down without a fight.
But given the fact that nearly half of Project 2025 has been implanted in a little less than 4 months it might happen at the end of summer – especially if the debt ceiling doesn’t get raised.
And there it is. Combine this “accident” with the Death Master List and you have a recipe for “accidentally” ruining people’s lives who are retired or disabled. We know how this administration handles mistakes now as well.
What does a person who is declared dead but indeed still alive do when this happens and they lose income, housing, and medical insurance? Asking for a very terrified friend…
🤯