Every answer so far is wrong.

It can be used for good purposes, though I’m not sure if characterize creating a personalized Jarvis as good per se. But, more broadly, capitalist inventions do not need to be used only by capitalists for capital ends.

There’s a few ways in practice.

1. Court decisions are binding broadly. The conservative capture of the Supreme Court is political genius, honestly. They tend to have the final say regarding policy.

2. Federal agency rules are also broadly binding. EPA rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions, for example, apply everywhere in the country.

3. State legislatures are often less polarized, which facilitates a more productive legislature.

4. State agencies, like a state environmental department, mirrors its federal counterpart but is more localized.

5. Non-state organizations can get things done, though their interests are often limited and not necessarily in the interests of the broad public as state and federal institutions are.

6. International institutions can ‘set the tone’. They may not have any power to actually do anything within a specific jurisdiction, but people within those jurisdictions can draw policy inspiration from international organizations and try for something locally binding.

Thanks, I hate it

Exactly

What’s particularly strange about it is that it doesn’t really serve any purpose for a vast majority of people aside from a government-approved official statement that someone finds their in-laws unbearable.

That’s a pretty good purpose. Everybody can save face by taking part in bureaucracy. That sounds like I’m being facetious, but I’m serious. Think about the alternative: avoiding them awkwardly all the time or telling them to screw themselves directly, which will engender negative feelings. At least with the bureaucracy, the sentiment gets filtered through a impartial, uncaring medium.

Ewww no. Fuck balance. Go hard when you can, mitigate losses when you can’t.

As I like to tell myself, “Maybe next time!”

That’s fair

Vote.org is an classic site for voter registration. It has existed many years

And in every case. They cannot be happy: their happiness is range-filled delight

In a sense, that’s how this works and always has.

Presidents are very limited in what they can do by design. Most presidential campaign promises rely on the planets to align (i.e.: Congress to actually do it’s job and legislate, which it often doesn’t). Presidential failure is misnomer, imo, because it’s Congress who writes the laws. Biden’s executive orders can be overturned as easily as he overturned Trump’s. At best, the president provides a vision on where he thinks the party should go but Congress does the heavy lifting.

And if he fails, not only do we not get the progressive promises, but the other president takes more away.

That’s how conservatives think too about their president: if he fails, not only do they not get to roll back the administrative state, but then a progressive can tax the more to put more criminals on the street.

The misconception is that this must be a bad thing. What makes it bad is that Republicans are bat shit insane and want control of everything. But if their views were not moderate and they believed in democracy, then it wouldn’t be so bad. Still disappointing though.

Term limits.

A president’s first term tends to follow a particular pattern: bold action at the very beginning to see what they can get through Congress. They focus on things that will improve their chances to be re-elected. Biden likes to cite the Inflation Reduction Act and it’s policies and some others.

Toward the end of their first term, they start looking forward to our year long election season. There’s less policy implementation and more campaign promises.

Assuming they get re-elected, they can’t be president for a third term so why not go bigger than the beginning of thy first term? Now they can get to work with worrying about the political consequences because there are none for them. And the greater their accomplishments in their second term, the better their party looks.

In short, political incentives differ between terms, with term limits making bolder action more desirable and likely.

I use a computer frequently. So I take the time to learn hot keys and shortcuts. The two minutes it takes to learn them is quickly made up for in productivity.

I don’t have the skills

I don’t really have any advice for anything else you said, except this bit. You don’t have the skills now, but you can develop them. Everybody was a beginner that tried and tried again.

I have an iPhone for work and it’s unintuitive.

…but how?

Human beings are social animals. The only way that other people wouldn’t be able to hurt me non-physically is if I were to cut myself off from my humanity.

…why would anyone want to do this?

Mmm nah I hate it.

Americans are not required to have health insurance. Generally, health insurance is tied to one’s job. Perhaps OP is a business owner and has decided to forego insurance for other things? Idk. And neither do you.

Also, it’s not like American health insurance is effective in reducing hospital bills to the point of being reasonable. It’s a trope that health insurance is a scam because it’s so bad.

Also, like all economic decisions, health insurance vs a home is a trade off, one that OP made for whatever reason. It’s not something to blame them for.

And finally, it sounds like they can afford their home just fine with outfit tradeoffs.

This is ignorance and/or maliciousness.

You’re implicitly generating a fantasy to say this person pays too much for their home when that information is only compared to hospital bills. Idk about you, but I don’t have hospital bills every year or even every decade like a monthly mortgage. To “put myself in a situation where I can’t afford my house” may mean just getting cancer or getting diabetes or dealing with another disease or ailment that I wasn’t before.

So either you don’t know how hospital bills can be financially debilitating. Or you do and you’re blaming them for addressing their health, as if they should just die.

Which is it?