I have used Motorola for the last 5 years or so. They had superior battery life compared to the others and were inexpensive. I bought my last one for like 40 bucks on clearance. I won’t spend more than 100 bucks plus tax on a phone anymore. I use minimal apps, don’t take lots of pictures with it, mostly text and make phone calls on it. I don’t keep social media apps on it nor restaurant apps. I mostly use the Maps, the Notes, and the browser applications. I don’t like the android/google calendar interface but will use reminders/tasks. I also use book/reading/podcast apps (Librivox, Podbean, Kindle, and another one…). I had overly invested in Kindle years ago unfortunately. I don’t really watch video on the phone as it is too small, but have YT music on it. I could use advice for alternatives that are better.

My 7 year old great niece has already learned how to disable the parental controls on her tablet.

I am Gen X and our parents plunked us in front of the TV however there were only 3 channels that often had nothing of interest to kids on. But they also kicked us out of the house all day so we had to find other kids to play with and negotiate with, so got more exercise, had adventures without adults managing every minute of our time. We walked to school by ourselves, no buses picking us up at the door. But the parents didn’t really spend more time with us because they were working… sometimes more than one job and daycare did not exist. Now if you did that as a parent, you would get CPS called on you. Also GenX parents went hard the other way being helicopter parents. I was more of a free range parent so had to find other ones to find kids for my son to do things with like ride bikes to the park or drop off to the movies. There has to be a happy medium.

Well, you need to understand, Palantir needs a library for their facial recognition software. What if those young people refused to take advantage of the smartphone biometrics? Don’t they know it is for their security??? /s

They have no problem beating identifiable journalists, spraying tear gas directly in their faces etc. Unless you work for Fox, CBS or some other propaganda machine.

Border Patrol Officers are extremely unpleasant, as are ICE, rude, brutal and refer to people as “bodies.” They don’t care if they make you miss your connecting flight or detain you for a few weeks or months just because – right from the airport.

If I had an alternate country I had a passport for… I would be gone.

There is an Irish guy with valid work permit who has been held in a Texas detention center for 5 months.

Heck, I don’t want to be here either. I am working on re-ordering a passport (my old one expired). Also… I may have a chance of getting approved for German residence/citizenship if all goes well (my mother was German). I just have the suspicion there are not nearly enough undocumented immigrants here to keep those planned warehouses perpetually filled-- so who they plan to fill them with? I am betting they will be for those not in the Nazi Republican Party. I am sure they will call them “employment centers” aka “work camps.”

The AI toilet will not flush if you do not use the “authorized” brand toilet paper.

If Intel has to give the US government 5%, Starlink should have to give back 25%.

This along with the elimination of USAID should disqualify the orange gorilla from any peace prize .

In the NE we have a better semblance of a safety net. We are working on a solution to the defunding of medicaid and other federal subsidies we use to bolster it and much involves taxing the ultra rich/wealthy citizens. There are other nascent agencies/organizations being built to administer to our people.

I recently met a guy who wants to join his family down in Georgia. He is an amputee, lives in a nursing home, requires dialysis three days a week. He says there is a 30 day wait period in Georgia in order for him to access the medical benefits he needs to live. But he is hoyer dependent. His family can’t afford one or probably have even trained to operate it or care for him while he waits. So he remains here, only getting to see his daughters and grandchildren 1-2 times a year. It was so sad.

He makes the best of his situation and was constantly making upbeat conversation. Young to be so disabled- just in his 50s. I doubt he will make 65.

Big Wheels is convinced of the role of the unitary state executive like Trump in DC. No checks, no balances.

How many children died d/t cowards with guns and idiots in charge of floodplains?

I happen to be equipped with a uterus and would prefer to have control over its contents without being hunted down like a deer in doe season.

Florida and Tennessee have entered the chat.

Californian retirees move all over the country. You hear people in Florida and Nashville, NC and Virginia, and Seattle, Portland, etc. all complain about the house wealthy Californians moving in and increasing the property prices. These people in Cali that won the house lottery are mostly retirement age and had paid off mortgages. They bitch about us in NY too. NY public employees who have retired and moved to low tax states. You would think they would value these people who are spending money in their communities.

Texas is a very large state; quite larger than not only many states but also many nations. The regular working people there do have high overhead… the property taxes in TX, the home insurance, sales tax, energy costs, water fees and other fees that have been off loaded to municipalities and residents very much makes up for the income taxes one sees in Blue states. So it is not surprising that the average Texan is somewhat a sheltered child who is fed RW news like Fox etc. and believes them. It is not easy to leave the state unless one has the funds to pay for airline tickets for their family. Driving is a commitment that requires adequate paid time off there and back.

Wow. I didn’t know that dial up was still a thing in the US