Create an internalized version of yourself that wants you to succeed and is upset at you putting yourself down.

The "Cool Zone" is essentially a state of internecine violence (triggered by admin violence, state rebellion, whatever), described as such ironically because it would be very Not Cool to have a civil war rip the country apart.

Leisure and hospitality lost jobs, so that's probably part of why.

Also, compared to the last 3 Octobers, these numbers are down ~148,000 jobs on average (though this figure is seasonally adjusted).

Themperor Shit.

(Men can also cure their loneliness by better socializing with other people in a non-romantic context and not all solutions to the male loneliness epidemic are about getting laid)

Like what the fuck are we supposed to be when Biden's signature achievement in office was literally called the "Inflation Reduction Act" and every commentator ostensibly on our side keeps pretending he nominated Ru Paul for Fed Chair.

You brew espresso at home for the same reason you brew beer at home; love of the drink.

It is probably important that I resist the urge to literally yell at these people when I meet them IRL, but God is that a hard thing to do.

Note this is the same Sen Johnson who, when informed that seniors in his state (WI) were upset that DeJoy's attempts to kill the USPS were resulting in them not getting their prescriptions on time, basically said those upset seniors simply weren't real.

No idea why WI votes for this chucklefuck.

Also the fact that everyone seems to have not known Trump's policies, even though he and people associated with his campaign stated them all the time (but also lied about them just as often, granted).

The fact that no one can remember or knew at the time about Harris's incredibly popular policies (per polling) despite her mentioning them constantly in speeches and TV interviews is so obviously a bigger problem than choosing more popular policies at the margins.

This is why some people are betting the shutdown ends after the off-year elections but not really any other time, imo. Either the elections in VA and NJ go so horribly for one of the parties (most likely GOP) that they feel there is no option but to surrender, or...? No other obvious scenario.

Like, we might have dodged the productive years of fascism where they still have enough people who are craven but effective around them, a la Germany in the mid-late 1930s or Russia in the earlier Putin years, and skipped to "can't save themselves by virtue of being themselves."

I continue to maintain that having the American fascists out of power from 2021-2025, and then being forced to pick up again with their cult of personality strongman at Hitler circa late 1944 mental faculties + foot soldiers overcooked in the propaganda, might be our saving grace here.

On the one hand, easily resolved with a few light compromises with local PDs in power-sharing arrangements that don't look down on and mistreat the local PDs.

On the other hand, that's literally the kind of thing this Admin is fundamentally incapable of doing, even if it benefits them, every time.

People sometimes ask me why I care so much about housing policy now that I'm married and live in my wife's house in the suburbs; the answer is I spent 10 years struggling with crazy rents from bad policy choices in NYC/DC and want people to have opportunities I did not in my 20s, it's that simple.

I make a lot of jokes about how my wife is the one who owns the F-150 in our relationship (carpenter), while I, strongman competition husband, putt around in my Buick Encore because I work downtown. The forces of social masculine presentation are whack.