Video killed the radio star

I just bought a house, and having someone to coordinate all the paperwork thoroughly and promptly was definitely valuable to me.

Correct.

There are many different minimum wage jobs out there. Speaking as an introvert who has had several of them, if small talk is that taxing for you then you should consider a job with less intrinsic social requirements.

Barista is also traditionally supplemented by tips, which are likely to suffer if you’re wearing a pin that makes the customer feel like a burden.

Restaurants that switch away from tips frequently switch back. There was a big push about 10 years ago, and most have closed or switched back.

Customers, as a whole, just see menu prices go up and go someplace else; the customers who actually understand the trade-off are too few for that model to work most of the time. Additionally, the best staff jump ship to restaurants where they can maintain their income.

Fine dining is really the only place you can get away with it regularly. The employers didn’t really have a choice if they want to stay open. The system is what it is, every customer who doesn’t tip is giving themselves a discount at the expense of the staff which is a reasonable thing to be upset about. The only way to change the system is through regulatory legislation.

Latin has more rules, but they’re more utilitarian than fancy. Latin rules are there to make sure you understand exactly what is being said. French rules are there to make everything elegant and confusing, like high fashion.

I just have some high school Latin from long ago, but if you parse “fancy” as “ornamental at the expense of utility”, then I think it’s a fair description.

“Objection!”

“Why?”

“Because it’s devastating to my campaign”

That seems like a very roundabout way to say that in the present in the US, critical thinking leads you to not vote third party.

This is correct. Once you get to the top you can use the stem as a little handle too.

4, at minimum

How does this differ from the plan 10-15 years ago?

It doesn’t, we just haven’t been doing it. Progressives show up at mid terms in lower proportions than conservatives, we have to show up for every election, even the boring local ones. Governors and Senators become Presidents. If we want a progressive President, we need progressive Governors and Senators to nominate.

Should we not be seeing returns if lesser evil voting did anything other than ratchet us over to the right?

Perhaps I wasn’t clear: voting lesser evil is necessary for change but it is not sufficient. Again, the return on lesser evil voting is delaying the greater evil so that good can get into position. If we’re not using that delay to vote progressive into lower offices, then yes voting lesser evil accomplishes little else.

Should a politician have to do anything to earn the votes that put them into office?

This isn’t a productive perspective. Lots of things should happen. You shouldn’t have to look both ways before crossing at a crosswalk when you have the light; but if you follow “should”, you’ll have the satisfaction of being in the right when you get hit by a car.

The point of your vote isn’t to reward candidates for having the right policies, the point of your vote is to protect your interests. You vote lesser evil for the same reason you lock your doors, to mitigate a worse outcome.

I could be convinced that mermaids should have dark backs and light bellies

Can I be upset at all of them? The little mermaid should probably be Dutch Danish, and all the rest should be their canon ethnicities. White Disney princesses don’t bother me because most of those stories are European folktales, but that cuts both ways.

Focus on getting progressives into local and state offices so they can build experience necessary to successfully run for federal office. Vote lesser evil for president in the meantime to buy time for progressive to get that experience. In 10-15 years of diligent efforts we can get progressives into probably about a 1/3 of our congressional seats. At that point, a progressive presidential candidate with congressional experience stands an actual chance of winning the presidency, and will have the legislative support to actually accomplish their policy goals when they get there.

If we’re being technical, it resulted more directly from mercantilism than feudalism.

The transition is hellish if you go for the more extreme versions, and you need total control of your schedule because one missed or delayed nap will totally wreck you.

This is merely a projection of a square on the surface of a cone projected onto a plane.

Capitalism is explicitly designed for people to benefit themselves at the expense of others. Capital begets more capital in a positive feedback loop that results in massively powerful billionaires.

If you elect representatives, those representatives are checked somewhat by the threat of being voted out. Capitalism has no such check. Sure, ostensibly people can choose not to buy a product, but unregulated capitalism selects for monopolies.