Ownership class needs to extract as much value as they can out of their workers. They think that if you don’t entangle healthcare with employment, then no one’s going to work anymore. I think it is all projection; the wealthy already don’t work nearly as hard as the people they exploit.

That’s great advice. I used to hate tomatoes when I was younger, but as an adult I found that I actually love fresh garden tomatoes. Store-bought tomatoes had a flavor that younger me could only describe as “sharply dirt-like.” The tomatoes I pluck from my own plants are sweet and delicious, and the heirloom varieties sold in farmer’s markets are usually tasty, too.

I have to try this. I’m going to make playlist of sea shanties, Alestorm, and Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew and move it to the top of my “get stuff done” folder.

“Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen is widely regarded as a patriotic anthem. It’s played at so many sporting events and political rallies that most people think it celebrates American pride. But the song itself is about a small-town kid who gets drafted, sent to war, and then comes home to find himself unemployed, homeless, and abandoned by the system that sent him there.

The irony is that media and propagandists grabbed the punchy chorus and stripped it from the rest of the song. An anti-establishment story about neglect and disillusionment that got balefully repurposed as an advertising jingle to drive military recruitment.

Some American grocery stores already tested the waters by posting armed guards in its stores. This article is a few years old, but the precedent stands.
https://retailwire.com/discussion/hy-vee-creates-its-own-armed-security-squad-to-deter-crime/

Hy-Vee last week announced the introduction of an in-house armed security team to manage theft and in-store disturbances.

The Midwest grocery chain said in a statement that it has long worked with third-party contractors or off-duty law enforcement that work in a security capacity. The goal of bringing it in-house is “to create a consistent look for the security team and consistent approach to customer service and security across all [its] stores.”

I can’t speak for OP, but in my case I could tell how “bad” a day was likely to be based on small clues that most people wouldn’t see. Tiny things like a slight increase in the pitch of a parent’s sigh, how quickly keys were put down as they came through the door, the position of their shoulders as they picked up a dinner fork. How the almost invisible deepening of the creases around their mouth and eyes matched the increasing tension in the air. Instantly knowing by the timbre of the footfalls climbing the stairs if I needed to pretend to be asleep.

Growing up in an abusive, trauma-inducing household fosters a talent to sense the proverbial “blood in the water,” and how likely it is to send the sharks into a frenzy.

I’m 99% sure the narration is AI-generated using Watts’s voice, and I don’t think it was quoting Watts directly. The on screen text needed quotation marks to show what, if any, words were taken directly from Watts. Misleading, yes, but I don’t think intentionally so.

Entire too relatable. I grew up in much the same way. Having that feeling as my baseline, my “normal”, made everything else feel wrong, but I could never fully put my finger on why. I developed a sense of stoicism so that I could get through each day showing as little outward reaction as possible. However, I confused that stoicism for calmness and stability; inside my mind everything still roiled as my instincts and senses were always watching and waiting, preparing for the next time things became dangerous.

Decades of living with that level of hypervigilance paired with the effort needed to put forward a stoic exterior has worn me down. The physical symptoms of chronic mental and emotional exhaustion are debilitating; the body really does pay a toll for the mind’s wounds. Maybe if twenty years ago I had the knowledge and resources that I do now, I could have done something to stave off what I’m going through.

All this to say: if you aren’t already, please seek counseling as soon as possible. Don’t make the same mistake I did; just like the smoker who denies that their habit it harmful, if you don’t work to heal your psychological wounds now, then it will eventually catch up to you. Be well, and take care of yourself.

I meant to reply the other day but, well, everything is a distraction.

I checked out Black Vomit and really enjoyed it! That’s the kind of noise-as-music that I like. It is equally background and foreground; melts into my environment while I’m focusing on something else, but interesting and attention-grabbing in the moments when my focus waivers. Excellent recommendation, thank you!

I wrote down your jazz recommendations and am slowly getting to them (lately I haven’t been much in the mood for jazz, but the mood always comes back around eventually). Free Lancing was a hell of a ride, and I loved every track. Shared it with a friend of mine who also likes experimental/eccentric guitar-focused music and they also liked it. I’ll add your other recommendations to the list and will definitely give them a listen in the coming weeks. Thanks again! :)

Oooh! What is the album? I’m a sad fool for noise-as-music. The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation and Black Boned Angel are some of my favorite backgrounds.

There are also a lot of people out there that will intentionally swerve to hit an animal. Mark Rober made a video a long time ago where 6% of drivers went out of their way to hit animals that were just chilling on the shoulder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Fp7flAWMA