What are /r/AskAnAmerican's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Amazon doesn't sell firearms.

As for cabbage, yes. Amazon Fresh is a grocery delivery program. Here's cabbage.

Americans tend to have incredibly high levels of dental health and hygiene. We see a white smile as being a very desired thing, even if you drink coffee, tea, or smoke so there's a lot of whitening products on the market just for this and this idea isn't just for rich well to do people. Everyone has this social standard.

It's why you can find really powerful peroxide gels online for cheap. Like this: https://www.amazon.com/SenAllis-Cosmetics-Whitening-Effective-Compatible/dp/B004BLXG5U

You combine that with a mouth guard and essentially bleach your teeth twice a week and you will get nice white teeth.

Same is true in fixing gaps, chips, etc. It's seen as being well off enough to have a nice smile and most full time jobs offer dental insurance, but that doesn't necessarily cover whitening or teeth straightening work.

I'm no different in this. I smoked for 15 years and drink tea almost daily. I whiten my teeth and use an ultrasonic toothbrush with a whitening toothpaste.

Yup. We’d road trip up to Canada every summer. There are a little set of roadside attractions we’d stop by pretty frequently.

We drove from Denver to Seattle one year and stopped at Yellowstone and the Tetons on the way.

We had lots of little road trips down to the Smokey Mountains.

We had a lot of little car games we played from eye spy to roadside bingo. These were enjoyed by the siblings. My mom would read to us a lot as well.

As an adult I have driven the Maine or Providence to Indianapolis route a ton of times for Christmas or Thanksgiving. We went from Providence to NYC many times and Providence to DC area a bunch. For most of those there are little places we like to stop but it is mostly just driving to get there.

Hilariously inept and corrupt government, a military famed for its gross incompetence, great food, and ancient cities teeming with pickpockets and people who sell selfie sticks.

Historically, the interactions of all of the different city-states are fascinating.

I get my shaving cream from you guys, so it's not all bad. I also have an Italian last name despite having approximately zero Italian heritage. So does my wife now, despite her saying "Eyetalian" Inglorious Bastards style.

Bears are more afraid of you than you are of them.... Unless you startle them. You might want to pick up a Bear Bell. It just makes a noise as you walk so bears are alerted to your presence and run away before they can be startled.

The only place in America you're likely to be eaten by a bear is in San Francisco or Greenwich Village.

Alright, the title made me laugh like an idiot.

For real though, try thrift stores, they sell everything there. If all else fails, there's always online ordering.

I did a search at Walmart.com and found quite a few results - so check your local Walmart store, and if it does not have one on the shelves, you can order one online from their website and they will ship it to your local Walmart for you to pick up.

EDIT: Also, a note about stores - some American stores do not have their merchandise organized in a sensible manner, and what you are looking for may be in a different section than you'd expect. Don't hesitate to ask an employee, they're there to help - "Excuse me sir/miss, I'm looking for a teapot, do you have any?" - and they will help you find it if they have one.

>Burger: i try hands first and if everything squishes out I use fork and knife

Dated a European, went to the burger joint, knows what the score is, here.

Many Europeans, when with a burger without utensils, will try to touch the burger as little as possible. What they end up doing is try to hold the burger in just their fingertips.

Burger buns are soft. They will give under pressure, and when you're supporting the weight of the burger on just your fingertips, your fingers end up piercing the bun, releasing the condiments all over your hands and turning the burger into a giant mess.

To prevent this, you have to touch the burger more directly. Instead of holding the burger with your fingertips, hold it with the length of your fingers in contact with the bun. This increases the surface area of the contact point, allowing the bun to remain intact. There's plenty of stock photos demonstrating this.

That's how you prevent everything squishing out.

According to the State Department, there is 137,588,631 valid passports, in a population of (as of this writing) roughly 327,865,782 Americans.

That's (plugging into a calculator app) tap tap tap (carry the one) tap tap roughly 41.964925%, give or take a few thousandths of a percentage point.

I think GWB had the international political capital after 9/11 and Afghanistan to topple a guy he did not like and used it. He then realized he did not have as much political capital as he thought; but still had enough.

Hell, I remember in the spring of 2003, certain Devils fans booing the Canadian National Anthem during the Eastern Conference Finals because Canada was not in on the Iraq war.

I also remember there were many liberal hawks who really helped sell the war. I can't believe this guy still has a job.

Besides all of the lives lost; the really bad geopolitical outcome this had was to make Iran stronger. We toppled two of their biggest foes to the east (Taliban) and west (Saddam Hussein).

It was NOT justified for many reasons, but the big one for me is that it made the theocratic regime in Teheran much stronger.

You realize the limbaugh is the most listened to show in America, right? Followed by hannity I believe. Wikipedia on rush

Sorry, on mobile. Not sure link us working properly https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh

There's nothing I can offer that isn't available on a guide that I'll attach here, but definitely encourage them to seek help in the form of the Suicide Hotline (800-273-8255) we have here, or someone like a pastor, counselor, etc.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/suicide/in-depth/suicide/art-20044707

The most plausible explanation for Roswell was Project Mogul

A less plausible explanation is the idea that the U.S. government was conducting high altitude tests on Japanese POWs

And the least plausible explanation is aliens.

Yes. One of the attachment ones, not a separate unit.

I have one on each of the toilets in my home. They're only $35 people!

https://www.amazon.com/Luxe-Bidet-Neo-120-Non-Electric/dp/B00A0RHSJO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1526312435&sr=8-2&keywords=luxe+bidet

We have them, normally used when someone is sick to apply heat. However, it's more common to see hot and cold packs which are pre-filled with a gel that can be warmed in a microwave or cooled in a freezer.

Tacos dorados (fried tacos) were always pretty easy for me to make overseas. More of a Mexican-American thing, but universally tasty I think and a million times better than buying “taco shells” with ground beef.

Again, not 100% authentic, but relatively low effort and somewhat easy to make with what’s available overseas.

Cook some chicken or beef brisket and shred it. Put it in a folded corn tortilla and fry it in some oil. When crispy, add some shredded lettuce, diced tomato, and shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Cotija/Queso Fresco if you can find it. Try to import a can of Pato sauce. and drizzle it on.

I made these for friends with what I could find on a military base in Korea and it was a good time.

> Why do are there so many flagpoles and flags inside houses and outside?

Those poles inside houses, the ones someone told you was a "flag pole?"

That's not a flag pole...

Accent vs dialect, from Rosetta Stone:

> Perhaps the easiest way to think of the difference between accents and dialects is to first understand that accents are only a part of what makes up a dialect. An accent is simply how one pronounces words—a style of pronunciation. A dialect includes not just pronunciations, but also one’s general vocabulary and grammar. > > As an example, someone from the United States may say, “Would you like some tea?”, while a person from the UK might instead say, “Fancy a cuppa?” They’re both speaking English, and they’re both expressing the exact same idea. But not only would the pronunciation (the accent) be different, the choice of vocabulary and the grammar behind both sentences is clearly distinct. > > Within any given language, both dialect and accent will vary—both largely a product of geography/regionality. Someone in coastal northwestern France sounds quite different than someone from Paris. A person from the Swabian region of Germany (Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) will often sound wildly different than another from Hamburg in the north.

Also: https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/vs/dialect-vs-accent-nuances-language

There is a wonderful book called What the F, which gives a great rundown of the science, linguistics, and culture behind swearing. It has a section on differences in swearing between British and American English and rules that seem to apply to swearing across the English language.

Super fascinating read and it gives a broader answer to this specific question.

Yeah WWII has so much that you can read about, not just from history books, but also first hand accounts. A good place to start is "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge. You're never really done discovering stuff about WWII once you start diving into all sides of the conflict.

I've stayed in various hotels across the United States for various reasons--travel, business, etc.,--and generally what I've seen are older hotels nearly always have an ice machine and hotel-provided ice buckets. Newer hotels and remodeled hotels generally put a small bar mini-fridges in their rooms--I suspect because mini fridges now cost about half as much as a big screen TV.

And periodically when ice machines break, some hotels simply get rid of them and replace them with vending machines.

But the pattern I've observed in the United States is that the oldest hotels don't have in-room min-fridges, but they do have ice machines. New, cheap hotels have vending machines and may or may not have ice machines. And the more expensive the hotel, the more likely it is to have a mini-fridge--because the more expensive the hotel, the more likely they just recently renovated.

(Edit to add: Keep in mind I'm talking about the cheaper chain motels. Higher-end luxury motels follow their own rules.)

1. Standardize American English. Spelling, grammar, hell even rework the alphabet or throw it out and start from scratch if need be.

2. Fund a Jurassic Park style program, but with Pleistocene mammals. Annex some or all Canadian Provinces and let extinct megafauna repopulate.

3. Metric System

4. Ban advertisements for prescription drugs.

5. Ban tacking bullshit onto bills that have nothing to do with the original bill.

Well you have some reading to do.

Here's a decent book.

Then maybe Conscience of a Conservative by none other than Mr. Barry Goldwater.

Then the complete Federalist Papers.

God and Man at Yale by good old Bill Buckley.

Read the National Review.

Conservatism (at least in my own ignorant opinion) is the idea that social structures develop and contain an enormous amount of value which should not be thrown away lightly.

Combine that with personal autonomy, allowing markets to exist with as minimal amount of regulation as possible to prevent fraud and abuse.

Then a certain moral conservatism which is very hard to define. Be good, don't resort to violence, respect long standing institutions especially the family.

But overall I think it is simply opposing radical change of all types. Tinker around the edges to improve society but don't overturn the apple cart. This is the difference between Nazi Germany and American conservatives. Hitler demanded radical changes that would fundamentally change everything about German government while Conservatives would absolutely abhor his rise to power. American conservatives basically say "oh, we should probably not change everything all at once for no reason."

Just watch Buckley on Firing Line.

I could go on about this forever. There is no real simple answer and even conservatives radically disagree amongst themselves.

OP in particular asked about coastal southeast though. Savannah, Georgia is actually pretty darn close to Santa Barbara for winter temperatures.

https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/1443~17828/Comparison-of-the-Average-Weather-in-Santa-Barbara-and-Savannah

Posted this in the other thread, too...Illinois license plates.

While Martin Luther King, Jr. is held up as the preeminent figure of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X is probably one of the next most recognizable figures of the time. He's more controversial, but he also isn't ignored. It isn't terribly unusual for people to have read The Autobiography of Malcolm X as part of a school assignment, for instance. I read it in college. I actually think he becomes less controversial as time goes on.

Illinois license plates.

I use https://www.justwatch.com/us.

JustWatch is a service that aggregates movie / series availability across several dozen streaming services. You can

• See a chronological view of what's been released recently (filterable by service, by release year, by genre, by rating, by subscription/free/pay or any combination thereof)
• See a "Popular" view filterable as above
• Browser all movies / series using the same filters
• Search for a particular movie or series to see what services it's available on
• Search for a particular actor or director to see what works of theirs are available on which services

Good news for you foreigners: JustWatch is available worldwide.

>12. Don't shop at the bookstore for your school books! Amazon is your friend on this one!

Honestly, don't even fiddle with Amazon if you can help it. Search for your textbook here first, free is always better. Usually if I can't find a book there, I'll do a super deep search on the internet for a pdf of it, and if that doesn't work, then I'll go to Amazon.

In the US, health insurance is tied to your job. There is literally no way to know how much you'll be paying until you find a job. The offerings will be extremely different depending on where you live and who you work for. In fact it will vary so much that we can't even give you a ballpark estimate here. One thing you could do is head over to the Obamacare website, put in a ZIP code, answer the questions, and see some plans. But it won't be a good reflection of what you'd actually be paying, since your job is likely to offer you a much better deal than the exchanges.

Catch 22. It is just so stupidly American and a great read.

Vonnegut anything.

Twain anything.

Cormac McCarthy for modern stuff.

How has no one said Hunter S. Thompson?!? Jesus Christ, he is as American as they come. He is a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger. He went in search of the American dream but it had been a lame fuckaround.

I think Neal Stephenson is just pretty American. The big sweeping epic story lines with determined individual heroes. Obviously it is all pretend fiction but it has that American flavor. The Big U is probably my favorite "American" book of his even though he apparently hates it.

For "quintessential" stuff, I'd recommend non-fiction though. Ron Chernow's "Washington: A Life," "American Prometheus" about Oppenheimer, Sherman's biography by James McDonough, John Adams by James McCullough, Richard Rhode's "Making of the Atomic Bomb," etc. etc. etc.

If you want to understand America and Americans then non-fiction is really the best. It gives you the base. The fiction gives you the flair and the nuance.

>The main problem with capitalism is that a) people don't understand what it actually is

Exhibit A:

>Capitalism is two people trading value for value to mutual benefit, in the absence of coercion

You only described trade, which also happens under socialism and probably every economic system. Capitalism refers specifically to the private ownership of production of goods and services as opposed to socialism or communism which refer to public ownership.

You're right that we have a mixed economy rather than pure capitalism, but you also got the definition of mixed economy wrong as LawBot pointed out.

That was a kind of mean post, so I also want to say you're right about corruption being a problem and you're right that people blaming capitalism in general is a huge oversimplification. I think you just took some creative liberties with the definitions.

Fake News has been a problem in the US for a while imo. Because of the explosion of the internet and how easy it is to pull information online, news aggregation has gotten easier than ever. Because it's gotten easier than every, it's led to a more backseat consumption of the news. Rather than reading stories and checking the validity, most people take news at face value (or even just the headlines), something that even Redditors do all the time.

Fake news at it's most basic level is literally just fraudulent information meant to promote an agenda. Things like one tweet from twitter leading to a spurr of articles about Clinton bussing in supporters for her rallies. Something I distinctly remember, ~~I'll try to pull up the thread in a bit~~ here I found it - still frustrating as hell to read, ON REDDIT was a tweet that literally contained a picture of Chelsea Clinton and a headline. This tweet said something like "Chelsea Clinton promises her mother will not declassify weed as a class ~" or whatever. I saw that tweet posted on about four different subs including r/trees where it reached the front page. I literally messaged the mods pointing out that it was straight up not true but they left it up anyway. In the comments when I literally posted the transcript of her speech and pointed out the "proof", I was downvoted and called "CTR Shill" for "correcting the record".

Things like that were ridiculously common on both sides this election cycle and actually did have a noticeable impact on the election unlike most other cycles. Hopefully that answers your question.

Walmart must be seen to be believed. People think, oh, it has a grocery section somewhere where they sell staples like peanut butter, milk, and cookies. No. It's a full, massive grocery store, within the monstrosity that is walmart. So you can go to walmart, you can do your entire grocery shopping, do all the shopping to outfit a baby's room including things like get a crib and other furniture, get an eye exam, eat at mcdonalds, get drugs from the pharmacy, and buy a new goldfish. All without leaving the store.

Aside from walmart, we do enjoy our food in the US, so yes, we have large chain grocery stores. A lot of them. I'd have to count again, but last I checked I had about 7 within a 5 minute drive. And they're all massive. My personal favorite is Wegmans.

Though, a can of lentils? Is that a thing? I love lentils, and cook them on a regular basis, but have only bought bags of uncooked lentils. Soup companies will sell a can of non very good lentil soup, is that what you mean?

Also, couscous is more of a specialty item here. All major grocery stores around me do have it, but if I went to a smaller market I wouldn't expect to find it.

Kinda strange, but Neiafu, in the Kingdom of Tonga. I was there ( and the surrounding islands) for a month plus. It was so different from other places I've been, very colorful but at the same time kinda run down. But it gave off a genuine "off the grid" feeling. It's definitely not known as an adventure seeking type place, but it felt like a "real" one. Idk how to explain it well. There was a cafe in town where the owner was a British expat, and he was the kind of guy who knew everyone and everything. You'd go to him for gas, food, clothes, anything. We'd walk around, and all of the stores are kind falling apart yet still standing. It had a classic market, and it wasn't just geared towards the sailors and tourists. It had real, homegrown food from the outer islands, and homemade mats, baskets, garments, etc. It was interesting, and everytime I went into town, Id see someone I know. The Italian pharmacist, the cafe owner, every Tongan friend I'd made, a couple other sailors I met while there. Felt like I was on the edge of the world. I'd love to include pics, but my phone broke :(

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neiafu_(Vavaʻu)

Heres the harbor, and google images seems to only have hotels/nicer buildings on it. It was an amazing place. https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=neiafu+tonga

you can literally buy those same police patches on amazon for $12. They didn't identify themselves in any way other than those. How the hell are we supposed to know they are legit? They're just pulling people off the streets in unmarked cars. thats something you'd hear about in alagoas.... not Portland.

One of the problem is that by the time the historians came to the new world to see what was going on with the Natives, disease wiped out up to 90% of the population, and many villages and cities had fallen into disuse or disrepair.

So we don't know.

But we have some pretty tantalizing evidence of a society that was as populous and as sophisticated as those in parts of Europe, with structures so large they are often confused for small hills.

As to why Europeans invaded North America and Native Americans did not invade Europe is a subject for a number of anthropologists. I find the explanations by Victor Hanson's "Carnage and Culture" somewhat persuasive--but again, those civilizations were wiped out by disease before we had a chance to study them. And a lot of Europeans sometimes found the pre-made structures and moved in, claiming them as their own.

They didn't use the word "fancy" but one time I was playing chess with a friend at college when guys from down the hall walked in. One of them accused us of pretending to be rich. When I asked what he meant he told me chess was a rich person's game.

To get the full effect, understand this is the exact board we were playing on.

Favorite: This one

Least favorite - All those right wing ones that read like /r/forwardsfromgrandma

Honorable mention: Not a decal exactly, but this van's decals and the reaction someone wrote next to it are hilarious.

It looks like our link to the handbook is dead, but finding a 5e player handbook PDF shouldn't be too hard. Same with character sheets.

Roll20 should have most everything you need though!

Check this out, look under "Climate" section:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada#Geography

Edit OH FUCK, I realized it doesn't show March lol

Try this: https://weatherspark.com/m/2228/3/Average-Weather-in-March-in-Las-Vegas-Nevada-United-States for Las Vegas specifically, but I feel like most of Nevada may be similar.

Anyway, looks like you're lookin' at 20 to 24 degrees Celsius on average, so pretty nice.

The UK version is available on Amazon.

We have hundreds if not thousands of other options available and I promise you some of them are as good or better than Cadbury.

I gotchu bro.

Nature's Bakery Whole Wheat Bar, Fig, 6 Count https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YG9MB5S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_SJKRPZ4DZJ2014FDRAYM?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Closest I’ve found to what I remember Fig Newtons to be.

You keep replying that to everyone, but they’re mostly concentrated in Michigan, Ohio & Western NY.. Unless you live there or are a hockey fan you probably haven’t heard of Timmy’s.

You can get it it cheaper by ordering the volumes of Don Rosa Library that contains the 12 stories together. Its the volumes "Last of the Clan McDuck" and "Richest Duck in the World".

https://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Uncle-Scrooge-Donald/dp/1606999273/ref=bseries_primary_0_1606999273

https://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Uncle-Scrooge-Donald/dp/1606998668/ref=bseries_primary_0_1606998668

As you can see, you can get them both used for 11 bucks.

I own his full library in its first Danish publication, but the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck book is a special limited edition release that inflated prices by keeping supply artificially low. Its better to just buy the stories in the library volumes :)

FUCK EVERYONE'S RECOMMENDATIONS

Don't listen to them (ok Joy of Cooking is good).

What you really need is Best of America's Test Kitchen. They put one out every year, not only does it have technique descriptions, equipment and supply recommendations, it just has awesome recipes. The "Cooking for Two" series is also awesome for couples.

Then Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

And my personal favorite just because I have met the chef and he had my absolute favorite restaurant I have ever been to... Homegrown. I love that guy and love that cookbook.

The best cookbooks are one's that include technique descriptions. Any random online site can give you a list of ingredients but it is harder to get good recommendations about technique.

Julia Child does an amazing job of including technique descriptions. I specifically and highly specifically recommend her Pan De Mie recipe if you ever want to bake bread. Just get that cookbook and call it a day.

It might have been who you worked with. The Alaskans I have met are all pretty much normal American with a little more "frontier spirit."

Two brothers I know would get fedexed packages of caribou and salmon jerky from their mom who made it in their house after dad went out and killed a caribou, butchered it, then caught some salmon in a nearby river.

I know a gal that lived in a town only accessible by sea or air. Her mom wrote this book. It is a good read, definitely in NPR Garrison Keillor style. It doesn't seem all that far off from any small town area.

I will say the Alaskans I have met do take it as a point of pride just being from Alaska. Like "you bitches just don't understand what being hardy is."

I was born in Europe but live in US for close to 20 years now.

Years ago while I lived in Europe I would not think anything of it because it was part of what we thought as being "America". Confederate Flag (Think "Dukes of Hazard), US Flag, RayBan, New York Yankees Baseball Hat, Lucky Strike, Zippo, M-65 Field Jacket, Converse, Levi's 501, huge cars with fins, choppers, cowboy boots, etc ... all had somewhat same "quintessential American status".

I remember growing up in 90s at one point even Confederate US Solders Hat was popular with rebel teenagers. Usually they featured name of a band or something similar, but in some cases various flags including Confederate we printed on top flat part of it.

Same thing goes for dreads. In 90s there was metric shit ton of white European kids running around with dreads, and every last one of them thought they were cool when in reality in US that is really not the case.

Now things have changed in every way and Confederate Flag most definitely does not belong nor does it have same status and people still using it most likely understand what is the meaning behind it.

Uh, you should read the definition of building bridges. I don't understand why you're adamant that improved relations with other nations is a bad thing. Strong relations with other countries is important to our nation's soft power. Something which Trump has been burning through at a terrifying rate.

"Not walls" is an obvious statement against NEW restrictions, but nothing about that statement suggests the removal of existing "walls" or open borders altogether.

Here is a battery pack specifically designed for CPAPs:

https://www.amazon.com/CPAP-Battery-Philips-Respironics-Remstar/dp/B01H637L82

As for fuel-powered generators, that may be difficult living in a condo, but if you have a balcony you can set one out there with an extension chord running inside. Here's a really small one that runs on propane:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-900-Starting-Watt-Propane-Powered-Inverter-Generator-RYi911LP/302703564

Get him a little American flag pin that he can wear without it being seen.

I have known a few people who have gotten these and they never left home without it.

Life Pro Tip - we use binder clips in the kitchen to keep those inner bags rolled up tightly and our food fresh.

We use 'em in the freezer, the pantry - everywhere

Have you ever read The Millionaire Next Door? The author makes the point that the general construction contractor living in a blue collar neighborhood, perhaps also owing several rental properties, driving a Ford F150 is statistically more likely to have actual wealth than a doctor working for an HMO trying to keep up appearances with her colleagues.

The thing is, you are far better off having a diagnosed cancer in the United States than in nearly any other country in the world: our cancer survival rates sit alongside Japan and France as being the highest in the world.

This implies that we do a better job at early detection and at early treatment of cancer than most of the rest of the world--including much of Europe.

So we must be doing something right--and to suggest otherwise is yet another example of the "perfect solution fallacy."

But it is worth acknowledging that there are those who put off seeing a doctor because of out-of-pocket expenses--out-of-pocket expenses which have gotten far worse over the past decade. And it is worth acknowledging there are those who have put off seeing a doctor due to time--meaning just because someone dies of a previously undiagnosed cancer does not imply it was due to cost. It could instead be due to a failure of the person seeing a doctor even when symptoms have presented themselves.

Obesity is high everywhere but childhood obesity is down 43% in the US and up in the EU.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/health/obesity-rate-for-young-children-plummets-43-in-a-decade.html?_r=0

http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/obesity/data-and-statistics

If you do end up sleeping in your car for some nights, there are some truck stops that offer showers if you need. Not all of them, but on the interstates there are some mega stops that offer that and usually a restaurant and well stocked convenience stores. It's not ideal, but good to know in a pinch.

This link has ideas and tips.

> I don't even get why a company would locate themselves there

One explanation I've gleaned from this book: because the majority of the tech industry operates there, so does the majority of its labor force, including those looking for work (where better to expose yourself to all those tech firms?). By situating in the Bay Area, new firms as well as existing ones looking to scale up are in the best position to a.) find best possible hires and b.) continue finding best possible hires. The internet has not countered this dynamic to the degree we would have expected.

The bill lowers taxes disproportionately on top earners and corporations. It attempts to offset those (unsuccessfully) in the budget deficit by limiting the tax cuts that low income earners get. For example what they're calling the "grad student tax". If you're a graduate student, especially in PhD programs, you have a tuition that normally gets waived and them you're paid a stipend on top of that (not much more than 20K annually). This bill says that the tuition waver will now count as taxable income, so if your tuition is 35K dollars a year and you're only getting 20K as a stipend, you have to file as if you're making 55K.

It also extends the corporate tax cuts indefinitely while individual cuts last a little less than a decade. In the grand scheme of things this shifts the total tax burden away from corporations and toward citizens. Worse, it's not just American corporations that get the benefits, it's foreign multinationals who just come in here and pillage our workforce and resources for free.

It all boils down to this... the GOP wanted to cut taxes for corporations and the rich (read "their donors") but they couldn't do that without adjusting for it in a the budget somehow, so they try to make up the revenue losses on the backs of everyone else.

The difference is between one banana thrown by one asshole, and a bunch of bananas and monkey chants by several "fans".

No no, not like fresh fair food ones. Those I only see at carnivals. I'm talking about these monstrosities that hostess is now selling nationwide.

Houston is probably hotter. Just from a glance at this page it looks pretty similar to DC or Philly, although around here I don't think we have such a pronounced rainy season in the summer.

edit: yeah looking at the page for Houston it's a lot hotter. The temperature and humidity ranges are similar to the Mid-Atlantic as I thought, but we do indeed get a lot more rain year round.

Friendships have been destroyed by the infamous Sportime Playground Ball

I'm listening to a podcast with Marian Tupy (from HumanProgress.org) and Ron Bailey right now. Even though I've heard them talk before, it's amazing how many different indicators there are showing that things are actually getting way better. (I also just bought their book, which is supposed to be pretty good.)

coffee makers are very common kitchen appliances. Just about everyone who drinks coffee has one like that or maybe one like this

Tea isn’t very popular in the US.

Edit: just looked it up and you can also make tea in a coffee maker, so I’m sure some people who do like tea use one for that purpose.

My condolences. All my rural Ohio relatives are Trump supporters. I sometimes wonder how I would have turned out if I hadn't moved to Australia.

Have you read Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance? He describes what growing up in that culture was like.

We have that problem in Australia too. I'll never forget the time I wandered around the poorer areas of my city and was shocked to find expensive muscle cars parked outside semi-detached homes that were getting more and more detached as time went by.

Flair socks bitches.

One

Two.

And a whole bunch of others. Lobsters. The ocean. Patterns.

I am a fancy lad.

I don't know, but maybe you should understand that the majority of republicans aren't against gay marriage, the majority do believe in climate change, and there is no evidence whatsoever that they think children deserve to be locked in cages.

But you know, it's easier to strawman than use actual logic and understanding, amirite?

Former USMC Intel guy here, it was a clusterfuck then and it's a clusterfuck now. The amount of information the public doesn't have when it comes to current events is huge.

Gotta say after seeing someone seriously try to pass off combine harvesters in a Ukrainian wheat field as Russian artillery all my faith in the American IC died. Apparently this looks like a battery.

It's not going to be universal, but I think a lot of people completely overlook the costs of a longer commute in search of cheaper housing without sitting down to figure out whether it actually works out that way.

The True Cost of Commuting

> Let's take a typical day's drive for this self-destructive couple. Adding 38 miles of round-trip driving at the IRS's estimate of total driving cost of $0.51 per mile, there's $19 per day of direct driving and car ownership costs. It is possible to drive for less, but these people happen to have fairly new cars, bought on credit, so they are wasting the full amount.

> Next is the actual human time wasted. At 80 minutes per day, the self-imposed driving would be adding the equivalent of almost an entire work day to each work week – so they would now effectively be working 6 workdays per week.

> After 10 years, multiplied across two cars since they have different work schedules, this decision would cost them about $125,000 in wealth (if they had for example chosen to put the $19/day into extra payments on their mortgage), and 1.3 working years worth of time, EACH, spent risking their lives daily behind the wheel*.

> That's EVERY ten years. And that's with a commute that most Americans claim is "not too bad".

Thanks for this, a lot of people forget what a disaster the 1970s were. I'm a historian and one of my favorite books on the topic is Decade of Nightmares.

They're specially designed "over-the-range" microwave ovens, and many are designed with an integrated hood light, fan and exhaust system for the range they sit over.

Bruce Campbell at a book signing, Henry Rollins and Anthony Keidis.

I also lived in DC and met a LOT of politicians. The only two that were random were John Boehner (I was drunk outside smoking, saw him walking by, yelled BOEHNER! and he turned and waved) and Mitch McConnell (I saw him in a little corner bodega. I said hi, he looked scared and scurried away).

The US is 33rd for average *mobile internet speed globally, which is decently high given the low population density.

*We’re 9th for average broadband speed.

https://www.speedtest.net/global-index

For my own internet I'm getting 78/6 with 11 ms ping. I think I pay for 75/5.

> With your statement, my biggest problem is that the term "third world country" as nothing to do with socio-economic issues, and is entirely about political affiliation, derived from the cold war.

Phrase meaning evolves. Your definition has not been the popularly accepted dominant one for decades.

Third World

1) the underdeveloped nations of the world, especially those with widespread poverty.

2) the group of developing nations, especially of Asia and Africa, that do not align themselves with the policies of either the U.S. or the former Soviet Union.

3) the minority groups within a nation or predominant culture.

The US recovered from the recession faster than basically every other nation except Germany. It really suggests that it was managed well.

the Outer Banks of North Carolina are really lovely, not too touristy, somewhat affordable, and have nice beaches. I'd check out AirB'n'B options in the area. July 4th is a high-demand weekend, so there will be some slightly higher rates, but that's where I'd go.

https://www.airbnb.com/s/Outer-Banks--NC?s_tag=F0nMIdks

I fly into Christchurch. Average flight time for SFO - CHC is 20-40 hours.

Where I previously was flying from was Raleigh, which was 28 - 50 hours, according to Google Flights. So yeah. 27 hours with layovers seems pretty on point.

Not an American but I can answer this one.

Donald Duck: Applecore!

Dale: Baltimore!

Donald Duck: Who's your friend?

[Dale thinks for a moment, looking around, then sees Chip]

Dale: [points at Chip] Him!

[Donald throws an applecore at Chip, hitting him right in the face. Donald leaves chuckling. Dale bursts out laughing at Chip. Chip angrily picks a rotten apple and smashes it on Dale's head]

Source

Also this site is spammy but you can download the SRT file and open it in a text editor to view the captions.

There is a fantastic book about it. Notre Dame vs. The Klan.

It actually caused a brouhaha when a janitor at IUPUI was reading the book during his lunch break at the Indianapolis campus. It has a burning cross on the cover. Someone anonymously reported him as a racist and bigot and he got fired because the book was deemed "inappropriate" based on the cover alone. It cause major outrage when people found out someone was fired for reading a book against the Klan.

I think he eventually was offered his job back after months of bureaucratic bullshit but he declined and found another job.

It was idiotic as hell. The silver lining was that the general public was absolutely outraged at the stupid "PC" decision.

You and /u/mand71 should look into either getting some jeans by Dickies or Carhartt. I wear the Dickies' ones. They're pretty solid. Good jeans exist - they're just a pain in the ass to find. Pac-Sun in my area used to carry some decent ones by a company called Bullhead. Loose fit, boot-cut type. Then Pac-Sun went out of business. =/

Yes, absolutely. There are hurdles to go through. This article actually does a side-by-side of Oregon v. NYC in terms of buying and carrying and is pretty informative.

Yeah, it has a negative connotation because it is an indicator of an ignorant and small-minded person.

Please observe a dictionary, here are two examples:

Phobic defined as “Having a strong dislike of something”:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/phobic

Phobic defines as “having an intolerance or aversion for”:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phobic

I worked in the D primary in 08 as a volunteer and otherwise saw the on-the-ground effort here. Obama spent more money here than any R POTUs candidate before or since in my recent memory. And I'm not talking in just the cities and college towns of Indiana. He had a presence everywhere. I don't know if in all 92 counties, but definitely a majority of them.

A prominent Indiana Democrat, Kip Tew, even wrote a book about how Obama took Indiana in 2008.

Worth noting it wasn't a blue wave in Indiana though. Mitch Daniels won his re-election bid in 2008 and even took Marion County/Indianapolis.

Irn-Bru in cans for 49 cents?

Just a pack of three on Amazon is $14!

I've wanted to try it for years but fuck paying $15 for some pop.

> Because job or not, choosing to utilize the system or not, you will be fined if you do not participate. https://www.healthcare.gov/fees/fee-for-not-being-covered/

OK, yup, you're confused.

We're talking about socialized medicine, NOT the ACA. The ACA is a market based (see, capitalistic) means of providing health coverage. You're in the middle of the wrong argument here.

A socialized system, like Canada's, would be paid for by normal means of taxation. If you chose to not work a normal job, not purchase consumer goods & not own a home, as you say, you could avoid paying the taxes.

If you truly wanted to opt out of the system, in a single payer system, you would only need to not go to a doctor. Or see one and demand to pay him yourself, which sounds a bit crazy honestly.

It's pretty much absurd for most people to consider living a life like that, but if you want to live like that you could avoid the taxes for socialized health care.

Single payer systems do not tax you for being alive. You're using talking points against the existing system that doesn't make any sense at all in the context of a socialized system.

Manifest Destiny was extremely beneficial and good for the expansion of our nation and its economy, and unlocked key resources that let it become the super power of the industrial revolution. But, the treatment of the Native Americans and the wildlife was inhumane and disgusting, even today I feel like Native Americans still get discriminated against and we need to help them out more.

Having said that, I still believe that it's ignorant for someone to slander the United States over it when European nations have been doing it for hundreds of years, and continued to into the Modern Era. No, I'm not saying it was justified by any means. India in the 1940s is a great modern example of this, they were treated like second class citizens with little political power. One of the most notable examples of violence during India's independence movement is Amritsar Massacre, where hundreds of Indians were killed for peacefully protesting. Truly disgusting and representative of how Native Americans were treated here.

Check out groupon. For example there's an 8 day all-inclusive trip to Portugal which includes airfare for only $599 right now. Or how about 10 days in Italy, including airfare and car rental for $799. She has a bunch of friends that like to travel as well, so they all go together, helps them get better deals.

Fortune cookies are an amazing American story

Lawsuits, writer's block, intellectual theft, actual theft, and fortune cookie cartels splitting territory.

I like ours just fine.

> . To be honest, that’s a little unsettling that you track the political beliefs of other users.

Really? I tag people with all kinds of stuff, so I can see their background (as I've seen it) in relation to what they're talking about, especially in a totally different context/subreddit.

>Am I free to go, Herr Sturmbannführer?

http://papersplea.se/

>I just don't see Esperanto catching on. And at this time what would be the point?

It was created in the hope (literally; Esperanto translates to “hopeful”) that it would be used as an easy-to-use common language for the whole world.

>Just to prevent native English speakers from having a leg up on the rest of the world?

Not really. Esperanto is easier to learn than English, and it's especially useful in diplomatic situations. I'm not disparaging the use and utility of English, but there are a lot of little differences among dialects that bug me. Esperanto doesn't have that AFAIK.

>Maybe I'm missing a bigger point, is Esperanto supposed to be easier to learn/use?

It can't be that hard if William Shatner can do it. Besides that there are websites such as <em>Lernu!</em> for those interested.

It depends a lot on where in the country you live. For instance, a family in Orlando isn't going to take a week-long trip to Disney World since they can visit whenever. For others, Disney World might be their dream vacation spot.

People who live on the East Coast might fly out to the West Coast, or vice versa. People in the city might go camping; rural folks might want to spend a few nights in the city. Road trips can be fun within reason; families in the heartland might rent out a beach house.

I think most Americans vacation domestically due not only to the cost of overseas airfare for an entire family, but also because so many different destinations are reachable without a passport. You can find some of the most popular US destinations on Trip Advisor.

English is the most stress timed language vs more syllable timed languages.

that was my initial reaction, too. I had to go looking. I found this.

Apparently 4chan has reached white wizard levels of trolling.

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck: Short, funny gem of a novel. East of Eden is longer, darker saga that I love.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn: I've met some of Twain's characters; they're funny, ignorant, insightful. This free audiobook of Huck Finn is great.

Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. I Listen to this version of the story every autumn. It's lush, it's funny, and it reminds you that people are the same as they ever were.

More modern books: Just Kids by Patti Smith is a great little portrait of gritty New York in the sixities and seventies. Less than Zero and Rules of Attraction are over the top, exaggerated depictions (well to me, but I didn't live anything like this) of rich, spoiled, narcistic young American assholes, but damn if I didn't enjoy it.

The Virgin Suicides is a bit of bizarre, surreal story, but I think it mirrors the decline of Detroit and this sort pulling apart at the seams that's strangely engrossing.

The Joy Luck Club is a great story of the immigrant/first and second gen America experience.

This is probably about as cheap as it's going to get. $30/month for unlimited text and data. 100 minutes of talk included. They have a$50 plan with unlimited talk if the 100 isn't enough.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/T-Mobile-Complete-SIM-Kit/39081494

Edit: I believe that plan is 5gb at 4G then throttled thereafter.

Ok so I'm going to give you fair warning about LA.

Don't visit Hollywood. Don't even bother. You will leave disappointed, and it will be a waste of time when you could be doing something else.

Hollywood is an idea, not a place. Or rather Hollywood the idea (glitz and glamour) is mutually exclusive from the place (hookers and heroin needles) And that idea is perpetuated by everyone east of the Sierra Nevada from teeny boppers listening to shitty pop music to grandmas watching Charlton Heston movies. This place is a Entertainment Factory. Its not designed to manage your expectations and disappointment when you find out all the studios are in Burbank and all the fancy homes and shops are in Brentwood.

LA isn't for lazy tourists. It doesn't make itself accessible via public transport and offer itself up on a silver platter like New York does. If you come here (hopefully after you rented a car) for the Ghetty, the Endeavor, the Huntington Library, LACMA, the Queen Mary, a convention, or a starting point for you PCH roadtrip, fantastic. Pull up a rent-a-car and grab some tacos al pastor. If you come here looking for that Hollywood Idea served up to you like New York's Times Square, save yourself the disappointment and go to Vegas.

EDIT: Oh and btw. Its gonna be raining here from Wednesday the 18th all the way to Monday the 23rd.

EDIT EDIT: Anyways, post me any questions or comments you may have. LA is a big spread out place. Its hard to gauge what to see and what to do without knowing what neighborhood you'll be staying in or if you're relying solely on public transport or renting a car.

Based on the things you've mentioned, New England seems appropriate. Your impressions about being generally more progressive are true, especially around the the Boston area. Boston would be the area I'd probably recommend, echoing others here. Vermont and Maine can get awfully rural.

California is really big, so the San Francisco area is quite a bit different culturally and climate wise from Los Angeles, where most of our tv and movies come from. Playing around with http://thetruesize.com, it looks like if you put Los Angeles in Stockholm, San Francisco would be somewhere near Trondheim.

You might also consider the northwest, Seattle and Portland. There's skiing close by, the climates are quite mild with low altitude snow and temperatures 30 C and above both being very rare. The University of Washington has one of the best medical schools in the country, so the medical scene here is competitive and advanced.

For the rockies idea, Denver is one of my favorite cities to visit. It's less expensive than anything else you or I have mentioned and it's a well developed medium sized city.

Honestly, it's gonna be hard to do without paying the drop fee. I'm looking at different car rental services online right now but they all seem to include that.

*Hertz charges 3x/day as much on one-way rentals though, so it's ≈$415

Edit: Also OP if you're under 25 then good luck finding a company that'll rent to you…

Edit 2, Rent-A-Car Boogaloo:
Priceline† & Kayak‡ are showing rentals at around ≈$100/day if you book now, which obviously isn't as cheap as it would be if you weren't going one-way but is better than going through the renters' sites where they tack on huge fees

†Priceline link
‡Kayak link

I guessed on dates (14 Aug. – 18 Aug.) but the prices should be relatively similar per day for weekdays

Irish isn't an ethnicity?

That's news to me.

Most European nations identify around one major ethnicity due to nationalism defining European borders. Of course, there are a bunch of other ethnicities, like Sorbians in Germany and Poland, Tatars across Eastern Europe, Roma... everywhere, Greeks in southern Italy, etc etc. But the French are mostly French, the Greeks Greek, and Danish Danish.

It can also vary wildly based on the class. I was a history minor, and a lot of my "textbooks" were common books you could buy (or order from) any decently-sized bookstore. This was my textbook for my "Ancient Greece" class, available used from $10.44 on Amazon. And this was my textbook for four quarters of Latin, $15.83 new from Amazon. I paid about that much for it at the off-campus bookstore, but I could have bought it for slightly less from the Waldenbooks or Barnes & Noble at the mall.

People who were taking engineering and upper level chemistry and biology classes got screwed, though. It wasn't uncommon for their textbooks to cost $150 or more, and this was in the mid 90s.