I'm sorry to hear that. And yes, it's depressing to see these "privitization will save us all" types destroy public services using the same old playbook of "defund, defund, defund, point out the issues after decades of defunding, then start to slow-roll private options until the public service has been fully hollowed out" everywhere.

This might be a bit sensitive of a question to ask, but what country are you in? Because I've lived in several western European countries and the access to healthcare wildly varies between them. Especially countries that've "enjoyed" a multitude of conservative/right wing governments over the past three decades seem to have really embraced enshittifying healthcare access and affordability while pushing an American-style private system as the "solution".

Thanks for sharing these gems. I can almost feel the exasperation in some of the emails and their replies.

What can they do? How about making the cellular models modular? 3G goes bust? Swap the modem for a 4G one next time the car is in for service.

What about World coming down or Life is killing me? I find the album's that document the band and Peter's struggles easier to connect with at an emotional level than the previous - admittedly great - albums where it sometimes felt like the band was intentionally parodying the goth scene.

I can't really or an order to them as they're all favorites of mine, but there's a top 10:

Iron Maiden - Somewhere in time

Life of Agony - River runs red

At the gates - Slaughter of the soul

In Flames - Colony

Sentenced - Down

Black Sabbath - Master of reality

Iced Earth - Alive in Athens (I know this is cheating as it's basically a best of album, but so what)

Kyuss - Welcome to sky valley

Queensryche - Operation mindcrime

Death - The sound of perseverance

Honestly though, I could put together a top "whatever" and still have too little space to place all the entries.

That's the worst part imho. We should hold Ford accountable and demand that money back if they unilaterally decide to axe the plan we collectively funded.

Remember how we used to think people should retire in old age, instead of running a country? Pepperidge farm remembers.

It's a good thing the Republican leadership is as incompetent as they are morally bankrupt, but that doesn't mean they haven't managed to stumble their way into pushing the US to the brink of a dictatorship. As the KGB used to say, a lot of them are "useful idiots" which can be orchestrated by careful external manipulation.

I'm not onboard with that conspiracy, as there were certainly attempts on his life throughout his reign. But I do agree with the relevancy of that Sun Tzu quote.

By 1943 Hitler was making such poor decisions it would've actually benefited the Nazi war effort if he had been removed from power.

That last part is the terrifying bit, honestly. Trump is an egomaniac with the attention span of a toddler. He's an unguided projectile of spite and vanity.

Imagine someone competent filling his shoes with the unprecedented powers that were recently granted by the supreme court and the rabid MAGA fanbase behind them.

The potential for lasting damage goes (even further) off the scale. I shudder to think what that might actually look like.

Honestly, in the event Biden loses, the best hope the US has is Trump's general incompetence.

Same, but in summer. The 24/7 nearly equal intensity daylight does a number on your internal clock and experience of time. 10/10 for wildlife though. Puffins everywhere. Plus whales, seals, walruses, and polar bears in the wild are such an impressive thing to see.