As things get worse, I’m sure we’ll see plenty of people suffering the consequences of electing Trump and blaming it on the people around Trump. They may be losing the farm and their home and livelihood, but rather than shifting ideologically, they’ll be talking about warning Trump that the government is doing this stuff behind his back.

The problem is that on certain specific issues he was occasionally the voice of something resembling reason among Republicans. I highly doubt that his replacement will be anything but a pure MAGA nut job.

I’m glad they’re publicly contradicting Trump. Too bad they won’t actually do anything about him.

Fun Fact: The Roman Republic viewed regicide as a virtue. As I understand it, “he was trying to become king” was grounds for a justifiable homicide defense.

The difference between my proposed policy and the ones you are discussing is that I would suggest that there should be some amount of funding for it coming from the government. I wouldn’t object to parents being able to invest some additional money into the account, but I don’t think it solves the problem if parents are the only ones contributing. Kids already put a strain on finances, and most people aren’t going to invest money they need today in an account that won’t be touched for more than half a century. Lower income families in particular would get the most benefit from such a program and would be the least likely to use it unless it was funded by the government.

I wouldn’t even want to make this an optional program, I’d say the account should be created automatically and parents can gain access in order add money of their own or possibly to adjust the investments among a defined set of options. When a kid comes of age they would be able to claim the account, and they should be able to contribute to it with a withholding from their paycheck.

I’ve always thought that we should offer some kind of a credit to parents to invest in a retirement account for their kids. Nothing huge, but something that will get six decades of compound interest. Not only would that help all future generations to retire in an economically sustainable way, but it should also be a slow and steady boost to the economy.

Unfortunately, that would be unlikely to happen in the best of times. The people who would benefit most won’t be voters for years, and won’t actually reap the benefits until the politicians passing the law are all long dead. Given the dystopian nightmare timeline we’re in now, I’d say the odds of a program like that being created are slightly lower than the odds of us trying to fund social security by invading Ireland to find their leprechaun gold.

Do we even know if he has nipples? Sure, he looks like a mammal, but alien life wouldn’t necessarily fit neatly into the categories we use on earth. We can’t just assume they produce milk. They might be puking up honey to feed their young for all we know.

Since OP didn’t bother, I went looking for the recipe

Ingredients Yield: 24 squares (one 9-by-13-inch pan)

• ¾ cup (170 grams) unsalted butter (1½ sticks)
• Nonstick cooking spray or neutral oil
• 1¾ cups (385 grams) packed light brown sugar
• ¾ cup (170 grams) canned pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2½ cups (320 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1½ cups (9 ounces) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

• Step 1

In a small (preferably light-colored) saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue cooking, stirring constantly to prevent the milk solids from burning, until the butter foams, darkens into a light amber color and becomes fragrant and nutty, about 3 to 4 minutes more. (Watch closely to make sure the butter doesn’t burn.) Immediately pour the butter along with any of the browned milk solids into a large heatproof mixing bowl. Let cool for 20 minutes until warm but no longer hot.

• Step 2

While the butter cools, heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch metal or glass baking pan with cooking spray or oil and line with a strip of parchment paper that hangs over the two long sides to create a sling.

• Step 3

Add the brown sugar, pumpkin purée and vanilla extract to the cooled butter and whisk until smooth and glossy. Add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cloves and nutmeg and stir with a spatula just until a soft dough forms with no pockets of unincorporated flour. (Try not to overmix.) Add 1¼ cups/216 grams of the chocolate chips and stir to evenly distribute throughout the dough.

• Step 4

*Transfer the dough to the prepared baking pan and press into an even layer using a spatula or clean hands coated with nonstick spray or oil. Sprinkle the top with the remaining chocolate chips, pressing them in so they stick. Bake until the bars are puffed, the top is lightly browned and a skewer or knife inserted into the center comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached or with smudges of melted chocolate, 30 to 45 minutes.

• Step 5

Let the bars cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 1 hour. Using the parchment paper, lift the bars out of the pan and cut into 24 squares. The cookie bars will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

to this day are still alive and thriving as avians who aren’t ancestors of dinosaurs but are straight up mini dinosaurs.

I think the word you’re looking for is descendants. Ancestors are the ones that come before.

This is one of the big things that killed Amazon for me. They used to have a great search and filter function that was designed to make it as easy as possible to find what you were looking for. Now it’s designed to find things that are related to your search and ignore your filters when sellers pay them to promote their product. Combined with the fake reviews and the ocean of low quality trash that fills 95% of their inventory, it’s now actually easier to drive to a store and search shelves manually than it is to sit and click.

And don’t get me started on AI generated “reviews” that are just reworded marketing material with affiliate links. It used to be that google could get you some relatively reliable sources, but most of those have long since replaced real reviews with this bullshit. At this point, I just assume every review is a lie unless I see a video of a human testing the product while taking about it.

I honestly think that anyone who is making money by misleading consumers with product reviews that aren’t actually based on some interaction with the product should be in prison for fraud.