CMahaff

Was looking through their website - they sell (or sold, it seems out of stock) a clear plastic card-sized insert for holding coins. As long as you don't need them often, it would probably be sufficient. But I haven't used it.

I don't disagree that it could work, but I'm also not sure it's that simple either.

There's a big difference in trying to get people to protest for the threat that is over the horizon than the one in power for 40 years. People just aren't good at conceptualizing the weight of that future pain against what they currently stand to lose.

And they could lose a lot - their job first, which also means their house and their health insurance. Not to mention plenty of laws criminalizing most protest already, where you are bound to be caught on camera or via other digital surveillance, and a single arrest on your permanent record means no future employment, and missed payments on your credit history means no future economic prospects.

And believe me I know the risk of that is worth it, and the risks you'd have in the future are even worse, but most people in the country still aren't ready to make that trade - hell, most still deny the direction things are headed.

Yeah, people abroad are wondering why Americans won't just stand up, but the reality is that the country is massive and you need an incredible organizing effort to offer any real, organized resistance.

And sure, some groups have tried, but you really need your opposition party, or some kind of major celebrity, or someone else with major reach to organize something that reaches every American and pulls them together to action.

And that just hasn't happened. Some people have spoken out, but nobody has been willing to lead that next step and really lead a movement. Words aren't gonna be enough to counter this.

Bleh, maybe I'm an old man, but when I'm searching stackoverflow, I find the context of stack overflow answers really helpful.

I.E. the top result may include caveats itself or have comments indicating why an answer might be problematic. And sometimes the best answer isn't even the top answer. I've not used AI code assistance very much, but these all seem like things that the model is likely to take for granted.

But I also never contribute to stackoverflow, and agree I'd much rather engage with with an AI than do THAT.

Doesn't look like it's on sale, at least in the US

Well in 2015 Jimmy Carter said that the United States is "just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. "

That same year The Economist's Democracy Index downgraded the United States to a "flawed democracy" and it has continued to trend downwards since then.

If you're looking for something more recent, Bernie Sanders is saying the same thing: "We are moving rapidly into an oligarchic form of society. Never before in American history have so few billionaires, so few people, have so much wealth and so much power".

So between the massive (and growing) income inequality in the country, and rulings like Citizen's United it's hard not to believe it's not at least on the trajectory towards an oligarchy. Now throw in the blatantly corrupt picks of the Trump administration, where cabinet positions are favors to rich friends, or being given to billionaires with a direct interest in killing the government agency they are running - not to mention all the things he's routinely done / will do to enrich himself / friends with tax payer dollars and it certainly seems like an oligarchy to me.

And just on a personal vibes level, living here, it feels like legislation to help normal people or solve normal people's problems is almost non-existent. And when it does happen, it also conveniently throws a ton of money at the rich at the same time (see recent tax cuts, pandemic relief funds, etc.). Even something like the Affordable Care Act, which did a ton of net good things for this country, enriched a whole lot of private healthcare companies along the way rather than creating an actual public option with negotiated prices to keep government costs down.

I don't know enough to say if it's a valid theory, but I saw one commenter suggest this scenario:

• Bird strike takes out 1 engine.
• Wrong engine is shut off by the pilots by mistake (now both engines aren't operating)
• Without engine power, hydraulic systems stop working properly
• Pilots realize their mistake too late while trying to do a go around, try to land instead farther down the runway since they can't climb.

I had a similar situation where a fence of this style was placed directly next to a bike path. At walking height, it would have been hard to land on, but on a bike at speed? It would have been way too easy to be impaled, and it was terrifying.

I've been wondering if he will try the trillion dollar coin workaround.

Previously, no one's been willing to open that can of worms, but this is Trump we're talking about.

In fairness, my understanding is that there are a lot of complications with adding distributed power to existing grids. That doesn't mean it shouldn't happen, just that there are engineering and safety challenges when power is coming from "everywhere" vs centrally.

And of course, there's a lot of energy companies lobbying against clean power sources as well.

Curious did you get the survey popup in desktop mode on the deck? Or does it work in "big picture"?

I got the hardware survey on my Windows PC, but not on my Steamdeck. So I wonder if there is only 1 survey per user, and most people don't use a steamdeck exclusively?