It's so obvious to me that cost of living is (relatively) already around its natural level because people are living it and that the juice to be squeezed is in spreading the word on every other topic which needs to be news.

My hypothesis is that he polls lower on economy because it's grounded in a lived experience that media bubble deceit can't easily override. Not because it's intrinsically GOP's biggest weakness. Messaging on it won't do much because it's the one thing people already know about.

I don't necessarily disagree with your ultimate conclusion, but you're leaving cops & pmc out of your count. Do you suspect they are inaccessible for these purposes?

Does the 'ensis' in gladius hispaniensis also mean 'sword' or is that a coincidence of declension?

Los Angeles Be Kind over the end of True Romance
youtu.be/H1ucnvVS7fo played while youtu.be/L87Ern2bLhI is muted

Sortition House of Representatives. (& 300-400 senators)

A bot consistently only referring to itself in the the third person would give a lot of bang for the buck in terms of not driving people insane, i reckon. "What's your favorite color?" "I don't have cognizance, feelings, nor a favorite color" vs "This computer program doesn't have a favorite color"

What might have worked to train me is no expectation of notes during class and assignments/exam questions structured around using notes from the reading.

Note taking as presented in my entire k-12 was unpleasant and useless. Often mandatory during lecture, with limited emphasis on assigned reading, and then no emphasis on rephrasing/summarizing nor instruction on how to productively use them once taken. Counterproductive. Had to figure it out in uni.

Variolation

Brian McClellan Powder Mage

I'm having a hard time spontaneously thinking of an example of your original point where nothing in your follow up applies?

I mean that conservatism is a virulent but necessarily imperfect shield against confronting reality's depth, through which some decency can nonetheless by chance penetrate and by human nature take root

The more one understands a topic the more value one finds in compassion. If by whatever accident he started learning about this stuff before exposure to the conservative party line, which hasn't as comprehensively saturated this matter into its dogma, empathy could organically assert itself & endure

Do we have an estimate of how consequential conquest+plunder was as a proportion of the Roman economy in this timeframe? You've mentioned slaves and settling land as an important element to well armed citizens - would peacetime meaningfully curtail the surpluses available to direct to war material?

1 senator per state chosen by sortition