You know, I’m extremely tired of hearing people piss and moan about the Democrats not accomplishing legislative miracles with the barest of majorities. The GOP is almost gleeful in being a bulwark against anything and everything that might possibly be seen as a Democratic win. We can’t have nice things because 49% of Congress just wants to watch the other party suffer and cling to power by calling them ineffective.

What the fuck have the Republicans done that have helped the average working class American in the last twenty goddamn years?

They’re nothing but rhetoric and religious fundamentalism. They had full control of both houses and the presidency and assured us we would have some great replacement to the ACA and literally nothing ever came of that. The Republicans don’t want to help Americans, they just want to be in power. Why isn’t that relevant? The Democrats can’t pass sweeping legislation because of obstruction and that’s the end of the world, but the Republicans have literally no ideas beyond removing rights from whatever flavor of “other” they’re targeting this season and they get a pass.

Our country is fundamentally broken. One party’s politicians say they want to represent all Americans and the other wants to use the military against their political rivals. And somehow the election is still close? Yeah. This whole country is fucked.

Newspapers are allowed to endorse candidates because the first amendment protects free speech. While I may agree with you that endorsements and news media stumping for ANY candidate is problematic and reeks of propaganda, it is, for better or worse, protected by the constitution.

Many cats die every year from them actually, just like children. I am super vigilant about hiding mine out of the way so ours can’t see them to play with because I’m terrified of it happening. I really just need to replace them, but they’re the nice heavy wooden white ones and throwing them out seems like such a waste.

I live in suburban Kansas City and these are the distances to the things you mentioned -

• Convenience store - 1.2 miles (1.9km)
• Chain supermarket - 2.8 miles (4.5km)
• Bus stop - 1.2 miles (1.9km)
• Park - .4 miles (650m)
• Big supermarket - 5.5 miles (8.8km)
• Library - 1.9 miles (3km)
• Train station - 7.4 miles (11km) (trains are not really a viable transport option here)
• Airport - 29.1 miles (46.8km)

The closest publicly accessible business to me is a fast food restaurant about a mile away.

Basically if I need anything, it’s a 30 minute walk one way to get there. It just isn’t really viable as a regular thing to spend an hour walking to get to/from a convenience store, or 2 hours for a grocery store. Instead, I spend 10-20 minutes in my car for those errands, and save the extra time for walking my dog (since he couldn’t go into any of the places mentioned above either, so his walks would have to be in addition anyway.)

Part of why cats like you is probably because you don’t like them and seek them out. Most cats are wary of people directly trying to approach them without invitation or greeting. In general cats will find the person ignoring them the least threatening and most approachable.

It never fails that cats tend to flock toward the person that is allergic to them, because that person is typically entirely disinterested in them lol. Not being interested in the cats is likely why you make friends with them so quickly!