supposebly

As to the religion topic, that seems to me quite a US thing, maybe a Canadian thing a bit too, and of course in the Middle East. Certainly not in Europe. Well, maybe in Poland for a while. And Ireland. I couldn't speak to Africa, South America, or Asia. Well, maybe it's not a primarily US thing once I think about it. Not that Germany is in a good position right now. The left-leaning government coalition just collapsed on November 4. See Germany moving more to the right with the next election. Unless the more conservative party can siphon off those more extremist votes.

I'm only here as a German Canadian, so while I see a rightward movement all over the world, I am wondering whether some of it can be due to the always widening gap between less affluent and the ever dwindling middle class. Keep in mind, I'm not an economist and I am very panicked about the backwards movement against people's rights and protections. But this post is about my thoughts about the economic pressures that may have contributed to some of this mess. The CBC has an analysis that showed that people with higher education and more money remained with voting Democratic while more people on the low end of the socioeconomic scale moved toward Republican. That has been a development for quite a while not only in the US. The Social Democratic party in Germany with a long tradition of fighting for worker's rights has become a shadow of its former self, partly, I think, due to globalization pressures where cheap goods have made unions who help getting people decent wages less important. And now we have an awful non-distribution of wealth. And most people with money and education vote left-leaning. I think that should give us pause. I'm also wondering if the simple fact that if you spend your whole day worrying about money and how to feed your children just makes every other topic irrelevant. I'm not defending people's choices for Trump, far from it, but I also think it's difficult to estimate what is foremost on people's minds. I'm simplifying, of course, but as someone who's been broke or at least quite poor for most of her life, the desperation and mindset that comes with this kind of situation tends to block out almost everything else and doesn't promote rational thinking most of the time. You think until your next paycheck, if you can pay rent or will be homeless next month, that's it. I've been a lot less stressed and anxious about politics when I had no money. My anxiety mostly went to those places not to my rights as a woman. It still sometimes does because it's actually quite hard to get out of that mindset. We have an ever widening gap between rich and poor and I can't help but think that the strong push for globalization is partly responsible for it. We now have these incredibly powerful multinational corporations that more or less determine/influence policy and in the US, they can even bribe people into voting for someone (Musk) and of course, it's not for the good of everyone. Governments in the late 20th century thought globalization and easing of international trade was a good idea and any counter-movement was deemed "nationalist" or "protectionist" and we still think of that as a bad thing. I was watching the West Wing out of nostalgia in the last few weeks, and they were arguing for globalization and more trade to make governments like China more "democratic" and it will make things cheaper for everyone. I think that aged terribly. And Canada benefitted a lot from that, make no mistake. And the EU too. And now we are so deep in a situation where wages are low, prices have been cheap, interest rates low (compared to the 80s and 90s), that a short-term protectionist measure (Trump's tariffs for everything), will backfire (see Brexit). I'm also not so sure he actually will be able to get them all through. And all the money from globalization and more open international trade went to corporations and no one fought for labor rights, and decent wages because there was less pressure to do that. Hence, weaker unions and a backlash against them. Now, an interest rate of 5% makes it incredibly difficult to afford a mortgage because the wages never increased with everything else. I'm not an economist but I think the world economy is in for a rough ride unless we can find means to redistribute the wealth better. And I don't think that's news. We've known that for quite a while.

I always just assumed that was the plan. Beat Trump in 2020 and give Kamala the opportunity and time to position herself as the next candidate, and get people used to a non-white woman possible president. When Biden announced his candidacy, I was quite dismayed.

My school grades 5-13 started at 7:25am. I think first two periods were a write off altogether. The only job I was ever fired from started at 8am. Even as a child, I didn't easily get up before 9am. These days I'm ok getting up at 7, 7:30 ish but I still need more than an hour until I manage to leave the house.

I finally watched this and what started really well felt like it didn't really go anywhere at the end. At least I can take it off my list.

Just another reason I think there should be an exam you need to pass before you are allowed to parent. We make people get licenses to drive cars but not to raise children? The mechanic got training, the parents don't. At least not with the first one. And even with the second, no one tells them what they did wrong until that child grows up and tells them exactly what they did wrong. I'm not excusing bad parenting but I think the comparison with the mechanic doesn't work. He got training. And got to practice on many cars.

I don't know how bad your OSA is but I saw this in my recommendations today, (I don't know why) and found it quite interesting. It talks about the research that looked at the efficiency and efficacy of them. It also talks about an alternative that might be useful if you can't wear the machine. Keep in mind, they're not saying they don't work, but because many people are having trouble wearing them, they're not as useful as if one actually wears them every night.

Congratulations!!!!!! That is awesome news! I'm not sure why I'm so invested in a stranger's job search journey but I've been there and I know how it can get to you when it takes really long. And your debt is reducing too! I'm very happy for you!

I just finished Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. Years ago I read his A Wild Sheep Chase and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World. It's quite to different from those. But very beautiful.

That sounds to me like the whole point of the machine, to give you uninterrupted sleep, is not happening.

I miss voting in Germany. It's on Sundays, so fewer people don't have the excuse that they can't get off work. You also have two votes. One for a candidate of your choosing and one for a party (that could be a different one from the one your preferred candidate is from), if you want to have a balance of opinions in the parliament you're voting for (state or federal). Your votes matter so much more. I vote because my father instilled in me the notion that if you don't bother to vote, you lose the right to complain. I don't think he was entirely serious but I take voting seriously. But it depresses me how little my vote counts in Canada. I'm sure I'm looking at it through nostalgia glasses but still. I miss living in a place where it's a lot less socially acceptable not to vote and there is a proportional system.

My 78 year old mother has been dealing with a flu and a bladder infection with intermittent fever for 3 weeks now. It aggravates me that she thinks she doesn't need a flu shot because "she never gets the flu". Yes but you are 78 and your part time job is accompanying disease ridden 4 year olds on the bus! ETA: Maybe that should be in the Pet Peeves or in the Family thread.

I popped into my local pharmacy yesterday to get the flu shot. Easiest one since I started doing that. They always bugged me for a day afterwards, that's why I do them on weekends. Next weekend is the Covid booster.

I think they were both pretty immature in their relationship. Sometimes, I'm wondering if that was the point.

That's unlikely. AdBlock plus is a browser plugin. So, all you need is the plugin for the browser you use.