From the article: "There’s something about the freedom of mobility and there’s something very American about it, and so, I also think that there’s a lot of people around the world that think about American cars, and they think about American road trips, and we want to invite the rest of the world. They’re going to come for FIFA’s club games, or they’re going to come for the World Cup, or they’re going to come for the Olympics, come and see sporting events, but then you can also take a week or 10 days with my family to travel around this great country. Stop at our great restaurants. Stay in our wonderful motels or hotels. Gas up your car with great American energy."

THIS is actual car-brain thinking. I see a lot of memes in fuck cars attacking individuals and the choices they are forced to make, but this article illustrates issues that we have to fight. It's got all the delusion you expect from a government source written by car companies: tying car ownership to freedom, oddly thinking that non-americans think about our car culture as a positive experience, and that wonderfully tone-deaf tagline.

Your city likely has some form of a transportation committee. Join it. Go to the meetings. The switch to Zoom has made it even easier to do so. My experience with our local zoning committee has reinforced that you have to fight like hell, even with your own neighbors, to do simple things like decrease parking requirements. Car-brain is real and it's propped up by decades of propaganda and policy.

They're related, those incestuous, chinless WASPs. Brother takes sister to a formal dance and stops by the pharmacy to get a malt and let Dad get a whiff of sister's corsage. Keep it in the family!

The Red Room hands out estrogen pills as yet another form of control. If you don't behave, you don't get your daily fix. You can tell the non-compliant girls by the lack of secondary sex characteristics. Ol Washboard Wendy over there is a rebel!

I feel like it's kind of odd to show the main character shilling fake products during an Upfront, where you are courting advertisers so that they can purchase blocks of advertising time "up front." I mean, it's a little meta, but also potentially confusing if you are trying to put your product next to Fallout's.

Pets help us understand our own mortality in ways that continue to surprise me. When I was young, the first pet I lost was a young cat, just a few years old. I raised her from a kitten that was probably too young to ween so we had a close bond. She was indoor/outdoor and was attacked by a neighbor's dog during the day when I was gone. Holding her and watching her die broke me, like she waited all day to die in my arms. She was mine and I felt like I let her down. Woof, it hurt. Still does.

But while I was holding her, our family dog (Allison) was next to me. She was older than I was, a feisty Lhasa Apso that had lost her ability to hold her bladder. We diapered her: we'd cut a hole in human diapers to pull her tail through to keep the hardwoods from getting ruined. She died a year later, after living a full life.

I buried both of them in the front yard, under a couple of pines that bordered our neighbor's pet cemetery. Both times, digging those holes gave me the time I needed to be able to return them to the earth and say goodbye. I learned so much from their passing. It is the last gift our pets give us, their final act of love.

Now, older, with kids of my own, we have Sadie, who I am looking at as I write this. She's a rescue, probably a golden mixed with some border collie, at least 16 years old. Her sister died last year and it was the first close death my kids experienced. Her passing taught my kids the alchemy of aging gracefully, the privilege of old age. Now, they find charm in Sadie's rickety hips and excuse her incontinence. Getting old is okay; we are lucky to be able to do it. Watching your loved ones get old is a privilege we should cherish.

Edit: I wanted to thank OP for posting this. Reading your observations of your aging cat brought It all forward.

Azalea, hellebores, and sarcococca that have been suggested won't survive in your zone. There are some rhododendron that can survive, and those might be your best bet.

My Thermador is no different, shitty ice maker.

We all have to ask why this is happening, because it sure as hell isn't because of immigration or fentanyl. If the powers that be are trying to trigger another Great Depression, what is their end goal?

In the US, since the 60s, we have been steadily marching towards the complete privatization of all industries. With the current administration clearly dismantling the federal government and saying things like opening up the public parks for private interests, I think this is their end game. The first Great Depression led to strong government intervention; now, with a mere shell of a federal government, the only ones poised to act after a second Great Depression would be entrenched corporations.

They will buy all the land from bankrupt farmers and carve the US up into smaller corporate States. Individual Americans will own nothing. The corporate States will jockey back and forth to drive profits up at the expense of all natural and labor resources.

It will be hell.

"Screw 'em, do what you want" shall be the whole of the law.

A US made drone designed to be adopted by law enforcement/military with a hefty price tag is probably relying on robust public funds to procure such drones. Lucky for us n'er-do-wells, those public funds are being DOGEd. Right? ...right?

"How is our young doctor?" ..."Young."

He's great. I first heard him on a Ninja Tune compilation. I got to see him in a 100 seater doing a poetry night. All snaps!