can_you_change_your_username

NASA is definitely a target. Musk wants to make SpaceX America's privatized space agency.

but the more time she spends chasing Senate seats and climbing the political ladder, the more dulled that "political outsider" edge gets.

I think it's possible to serve in Congress and still be considered a political outsider. It's not easy, the secret seems to be a strong commitment to principles outside of the mainstream but at least a couple of people have done it.

Bernie has been in the legislative branch since 91 and was in state government for a decade before that. Being a political outsider is still part of his appeal. On the other end of the spectrum Ron Paul was first elected to the House in 76 and retired from politics in 2013 without ever having become a political insider.

Someone who didn't eat the Mona Lisa.

People don't revere the framers, they treat our founding mythos similarly to religion. They embrace what they like and what reinforces their beliefs while ignoring things that they find inconvenient. Primarily they ignore that very little was universally agreed upon by our framers and that the Constitution is the result of significant compromise. When someone says, "The framers believed..." they are almost always wrong and actually only framing what they believe in a way that they think gives it more credibility.

Townhalls are a type of political event. They are typically small forum events held in places like town halls or school gyms and involve the politician giving a short speech typically limited to a single issue or current event followed by a longer period where the audience asks the politician questions. It's not limited to campaigning, legislators often hold these events outside of elections. Theoretically they give the politician the opportunity to hear issues and concerns that their constituents most care about but mostly they are used to drum up support for legislation that the politician already supports.

It's much less than 50%. 2020 had the highest percentage of eligible voters actually vote in US history, it was about 67%. About 70% of Americans are eligible to vote and of that 70% about a third voted for Biden, about a third for Trump, and about a third didn't vote. So a little over 20% of Americans chose to vote for Trump last time. That number is still too damn high but it's not as bad as half.

I bet if we could see the itemized list of charges it would include a previous balance and delinquency fees. Either that or he's doing some serious hydroponics.

Is it bad that I get most of my non-local news from foreign sources? I do look at the AP and NPR but I usually go to the BBC or Reuters first and I almost always check the CSM for international stories I want more information on.

$100k is about the average household income in the US, the average single income is about $67k. So about a year and a half of the average wage. And median income is much lower (median household income is about $44k) indicating that high income households have a much larger effect on the average than low income households so the average middle class individual income should also be much lower than the average individual income.

It's supposed to be less militaristic. By the time of tos Starfleet is pretty well established as being a space navy. The idea was that in the beginning Starfleet would be more like a band of explorers who were all experts in their own fields and everything, including the command structure would be less formal.

If I were in the friend's position I doubt I would have gotten a close enough look to differentiate. The autopsy said the victim had "multiple chop wounds" including to the skull so it was probably a machete or ax attack. With lots of long deep wounds and blood there wasn't much chance he was alive when the friend found him so it's plausible that the friend didn't actually go into the campsite, just saw the blood and assumed it was a bear because what other animal could do that much damage.

They pulled a Nixon!