I am a homeowner and I wish there were more out there like you. It is very hard to find people who will do small jobs at any price.

Various factions would like us to feel isolated and helpless so we can be manipulated more easily. All of the things you mentioned still exist and have meaning, but there are alternative meanings being pushed at us. And we not everyone has a community or family in the traditional senses anymore.

If you want to be a member of a community, you can. There are many available in most places, and there are more on the internet that are not limited by location. Find a group of people with common values, common interests, or anything else that ties you together and participate in it. Humans evolved to be social animals.

Human interconnections are a threat to the power that be. Individuals are easy to deal with via manipulation, intimidation, or incarceration. All of that becomes harder with groups, and the larger the group, the harder it is. That is also why we see so many efforts to subdivide us by race, culture, nationality, generation, education, income, religion, gender, gender preference, sexual preference. The less unified we feel, and the more we view the people around us as “other” instead of part of our community, the less able to we are to band together to form an effective threat to the ruling class.

I think your assumption that personal gain being the main driving force behind everyone’s behavior is flawed. That may be true of humanity in general, but it is not true of a great many individual humans. Mental health is a multi-axis spectrum and very few of us are right in the center. There are many factors that can push people to do things against their best interests.

There just aren’t many lights in this category. The Q8 Plus is a good choice.

That’s a very good list. I just threw out the first couple that came to mind, but it is worth calling out the organizations that are still trying to do real journalism.

I give small sustaining donations to NPR, ProPublica, and The Guardian. I hope to add a few more when I can.

NPR and the BBC still aren’t doing that.

That was the first movie I ever walked out of.

Best of luck!

Report back on your results, if you think of it. It would be nice to know.

That and the fear that Trump will disappear them next.

That seems strange to me, but it wouldn’t shock me to find that is normal. Tech tends to advertise based on extreme best-case scenarios.

Despite that, there may well be something wrong with either your charger or your phone. It would be interesting to try a different charger, if you have access to one.

It’s awesome to see people stepping up like this! Our current situation is NOT normal.

The various charging rates that are stated are always maximums, not averages. The reality depends on a lot of factors. You have to make sure that your AC adapter not only has the capacity your charger needs, but uses the right protocols to communicate with it. The cord needs to be rated to handle the necessary power. Any case will reduce the charging rate, some far more than others. In some cases, the material of the phone back may prevent it from achieving the maximum charge rate.

You can probably improve on the rate you’re getting, but you will probably not achieve the best case scenario either.

Lots of little tools. Various kinds of pliers, drivers, cutters, magnifiers, lights, and a couple of marlin spikes for good measure. Also, a ruler, a tape measure, and a caliper, for even better measure.

I don’t think that acting like third-rate Republicans is going to help us beat the Republicans.

This is both hysterical and terrifying. Congratulations.

Our dogs have every right to be as neurotic as we are. Very few of them take full advantage of that. :-)

Thank you for the kind words! I’ve been thinking a lot about the defenses I hear whenever someone is told they’re being lied to. I’m not sure there is a way to overcome that, but I feel like the usual responses from our side tend to be overly complicated.

The Democratic Party desperately needs to be disrupted. Their social agenda is generally decent, but they don’t seem willing to really push for it. Their economic agenda has mutated to where they support the oligarchs over the workers every time. They are still a lot better than the Republicans, when that’s the only choice, but we deserve better choices. And we can have them. Hogg is not only doing the right thing for the general public, he is also doing the right thing for the Democratic Party. And by that I mean the Party, not the people running the Party.

The world needs fewer cynics and more skeptics.

Don’t threaten me with a good time.