Theoretically each candidate can vote however they like for each vote.

The leaders of each party in each house of Congress can do things with committee assignments that increase or decrease a senator/representatives influence. Buck the party line too often and you can be neutered as far as influence over writing laws. Leadership is elected by the lawmakers of their party though, so if they lean too hard or force too many unpopular votes they can be removed from leadership.

In practice they tend to want to work with each other and get along. Inter party fights are embarrassing. Some lawmakers from states outside the norm ideologically can get away with voting against the party by pointing to their constituents and usually leadership takes this into account before deciding whether to hold a vote.

Joe manchin was a Democrat from West Virginia. He famously voted against several of Bidens environmental bills to favor coal mining. John Tester was a Democrat from Montana who neutered parts of the ACA under Obama. In both cases the Democratic president needed every single democratic senator to agree or the vote wouldn’t pass because their was no chance of Republicans crossing the isle.

Republicans allow much less ideological diversity through their primaries, so even a Republican like Scott Brown from Massachusetts was a solid conservative.

Possibly possible is redundant, but possibly doable might convey what you mean to say.

Necessarily needful might work as a synonym.

Seem fairly sound and self evident. Obviously there can be disagreements on judgement, but I can’t think of an scenario where the greater evil should not be opposed.

Huh, here in Texas, we typically just have a thermostat.

If the house goes over the temp we set, air conditioning comes on. If it goes under, heat comes on.

If you want to save money, you set a wider range of acceptable temps.

So if you don’t care about saving money, you will put it at 68 to 72. Or whatever your ideal is, and if you want to save some $ you set it to 60 to 78.

And then your house is 78 for 80% of the year.

Some of them wanted it out of government. The fundies of the day we’re willing to go along because their parents and grandparents were chased out of England for being wackados.

All of the practices in the book are inspired by real history.

What public transport?

If just my state left, and I could leave to another state, that would be pretty good. Two Republican senators gone, roughly 15 net house reps gone, and an influx of dem refugees like me into neighboring states.

Texas could legit try to make a go of it as an independent nation. It would be a disaster for my family though.

This will be super regional. A lot of the US a trip the the grocery store is a 30 minute drive one way. They make that trip once a month and load up their SUV with all their groceries.

Some people work 3 Jobs and their schedule is super tight, so even a 10 minute trip is a burden they would rather risk porch pirates than deal with.

I believe there are lots of places that porch pirates make delivery to door or mailbox just unrealistic. Personally I have never been a victim of theft to my knowledge. My knee jerk response to mitigation strategies is “why? It’s not a problem for me” and I suspect most of my neighborhood this would be true.

So I suspect Americans reaction will vary dramatically by region. I see the Amazon dropoff locations and the boxes in stores near me and I don’t see anyone use them.

I sometimes wonder if I am ever broke and hungry if I could just grab some food off the pickup shelf in a restraint near me. I won’t, because I am not broke and have never needed to skip meals, because I am fortunate to have friends and family support even when I was broke. But it must not be a huge problem where I am or those shelves would not have food on them.

Barter was very rare in pre market economies. People weren’t trading potatoes for furniture.

You would barter with people you never expected to see again. People you lived with you would owe them one.

Those three states would more than double the population of Canada and overwhelm their political system. I wouldn’t do that if I were them.

Some of us are. No idea how many. We are separated into news bubbles.

Is it worse than the first term?

Yes. Trump didn’t think he would win the first time. He had no plan for what do do if he won, so he leaned hard on institutional knowledge of party stalwarts and military people, along with a few trusted insiders from his campaign, but they didn’t know how Washington worked.

This time hard core ideologues from the Heritage foundation were ready. They are tired of democracy and limits on the power of wealth so they are dismantling it with project 2025.

Why are legal people being kicked out?

Trump has only a few actual policies he cares about and one is to stop brown people from imigrating to live in America. This is also a test case of his own power. Because if he can disappear green card holders without due process he can also get rid of citizens that are a threat to his power.

He is getting ready for a night of long knives and a krystalnaght.

When is it time to consider leaving?

Depends. If you are an anti Israel green card holder with a history of organizing college campus protests you should probably pack your bags and make your way to the nearest airport.

If you are a citizen or permanent resident you have to make a judgement about what you are giving up, where you can go, and how likely we are to go full 3rd Reich.

I will say that if we declare war on Canada or Mexico, you should probably make your way to the other one unless you want to stay and fight it out.

Spoken like someone who’s family loves them.

With right wingers, it’s completely impossible.

Do you want the option to see your brother again? Mend bridges at some future point?

There are some things you can’t take back. I have a grandmother in law that skipped my wife and I’s wedding and we have not spoken to her since.

I don’t want right wing apologia in my life. I do not enjoy biting my tongue to avoid arguments. I understand why you wouldn’t either. But skipping a wedding is serious and maybe permanent damage to your relationship. If it will free you and leave you better off, don’t go. If you will regret it, probably go and do the best you can.

A human that is cisgender would be cool.

Honestly though, how would I appreciate it if I don’t keep memories?

That’s called a taint squeeze.

Steam never showed me this game. It said I have never played a game like it.

I’ve played arpgs, tactical RPGs, and crpgs,

What more do you need steam?

Pixel RPGs? Western RPGs?

I guess steam thinks the target audience is people that played Red Dead Redemption on steam.

I wouldn’t feel safe letting a stranger in to shower. My wife would be very upset with me.

They could have a bottle of water and a sandwich.