They also banked on the sexist “Bernie Bros” and tried to paint the movement as majority male when it wasn’t. Plenty of women who liked Bernie. And a lot of that enthusiasm would have captured some youth that could have attracted young men wanting change and wanting to put their weight behind something.

Change was coming regardless. The DNC had an option for a brief moment to permit or encourage change for the better of all. Instead, they let our economic problems fester, accelerated the income disparity, and chose to back…whatever the fuck this shit show is now.

When parties get so arrogant that they think the people they represent are the enemy—they need to go. Unrestricted and fully backed? I think Bernie could have won against Trump in 2016.

Well done OP!! We look forward to seeing your other artwork in the future. The message is clear and your technique is great. Thank you for sharing!

My family has a high percentage of genetic Neanderthal ancestry. I think about my Neanderthal ancestors in passing.

I do hold a bit of grief that I will never know them, or our Neanderthal culture, or what happened. I will never know or understand their funeral rights. And I will never be able to honor them in a way they would appreciate.

Neanderthals only became extinct from earth a mere 40,000 years ago. But there’s new science that just dropped this week that our hybrid offspring existed and lived alongside Homosapien for much longer:

The dating of the Lapedo Child thus expands the debate on the extent and duration of human-Neanderthal interactions. Genetic evidence suggests interbreeding began at least 49,000 years ago and continued for roughly 7,000 years. However, if the Lapedo Child, a hybrid individual, lived around 28,000 years ago, then questions arise as to whether genetic exchanges lasted longer than previously thought or whether hybrid traits appeared in later generations. March 7, 2025 Archeology Mag

Some of us from the East have Denisovian genetics. They became extinct only 25,000 years ago, I believe.

Compared to all of humanoid existence— being alone as the sole humanoid species is the anomaly.

All of time and history up until modern history Homo Sapiens shared our earth. But as far as I understand, we have no modern cultural memory or history of our interactions. Only through our modern science and forensics do we attempt to piece together our real humanoid history.

Now we look to the stars and ask why are we all alone on this planet?

And I can’t help but conclude the same as you: We are alone because at some point…we decided to be the only humanoids.

This makes me feel simultaneously very good and very very bad.

I think you’re on to something. Presidential Republics are inherently unstable. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that South Korea is facing similar issues to America and both have Presidential systems.

After this settles if we aren’t all fighting in anarcho-capitalist communes, America might consider similar structural reform and consider a Prime Minister style of bicameralism (but they can call it President instead).

You make a good point and it’s a hopeful one

They’re real and out there unfortunately.

I have a good friend who believed his life didn’t change at all if he voted or who was in office. His house was given to him. His job is stable. He has very little needs and never left his small town.

He didn’t start connecting how politics impacted him until I lived with him during the pandemic. It was then he started to understand more and vote.

He’s smart otherwise and a great person who is kind to others. But he isn’t the type to look deeply into anything that isn’t immediately around him.

I feel like a lot of people need that 1:1 coaching or they legitimately cannot connect the dots in the big picture. Or maybe they need physical community and to be surrounded by people like me who can see big picture stuff easily.

It’s like people who can’t imagine objects in their head (aphantasia) but for the inability to connect abstract big picture concepts. Whatever that is called —that’s what these non-voters fuck it who cares people have.

I’m going to shut down Gitmo! - Obama, 2006

And here we are almost 20 years later and GOP is sending Ausländers to expanding gitmo camps.

Harris did campaign on health care for all though, right?

Either way, I agree with everyone. I have a suspicion that Harris team started out the gate with very loud messaging around social economic programs they wanted to push.

Then they got reeled in by the donor class. There’s a distinct dampening on clear message a few weeks after the confusion was settled. This is just my little theory though. I think the messaging is vague on purpose to please the wealthy donors.

I think many people reported their ballots not being properly counted (and there’s like the whole burning the ballot boxes thing).

But is there any organization that officially tracks ballots being properly counted? I guess it’s state reported and state dependent. There’s no official or third party independent organization that tracks ballot discards right?

I just want to second this comment and chime in with my experiences. (Thanks also for the information on Framework as I’m not familiar and love to learn)

My family primarily uses Thinkpads. We refurbish them for fun (and often give them away to our community). We run Linux easily on almost all our Thinkpads. So far, Linux works very well even on some old machines (as old as 2012 which wouldn’t be what OP is looking for but still worth mentioning).

We try different distros all the time but mostly stick with Fedora and PopOS.

Right now, I am on a refurbished Thinkpad T480s running PopOS. The 7th gen processor is probably too slow for OP but it runs Linux great and it can even handle running a large dwarf fortress through Steam haha. The T480s also has a touchscreen option (and screens can often be swapped out). The T480s screens usually have a hinge where they can lay completely flat (although, I’m not sure if they are pen compatible).

A more recent Thinkpad with a better processor could be an option for OP to consider in addition to the other great suggestions you made. :)