TheSanSabaSongbird

That must be nice. My company does a lot of work for one of the world's largest chip manufacturers and getting access to some of their facilities is like pulling teeth. Somebody forgot to submit the right paperwork, it didn't go to the correct department or project manager, this facility is always locked down on the third Tuesday of every month, for reasons, you name it I've encountered it.

I think this can be the case, but I also think intent has to matter. I don't see any evidence that OP intends to be transphobic.

I believe you are the one who is confused and making unwarranted assumptions here.

I don't know how it is for you, but when I look back at 24-year-old me, I am not impressed. I guess what I'm saying is that there are a lot of us who definitely don't have their shit together when they're 24. They say your prefrontal cortex isn't fully developed until 25 at the earliest, but I feel like it was closer to 30 for me. Granted, I'm kind of a dummy anyway, so this probably doesn't apply to everyone.

I live in Portland and it's the same here on the Columbia and the Willamette. We don't get the giant container ships because they can't cross the Columbia Bar, but we do get midsize grain ships headed for Asian and South American markets.

Also it's cheaper to ship grain from the upper Missouri region to the Columbia Plateau and then down the Snake and Columbia on barges where it then gets loaded onto freighters in Portland, Vancouver and Longview and shipped to Asia and South America. By volume the Columbia is the second largest watershed in the US. Obviously all of the Columbia Plateau grain gets shipped down the Columbia as well, which is a lot, since it's a major grain producing region.

The downside is crossing the Columbia Bar which is also known as the graveyard of the Pacific, but there are highly paid Columbia River pilots for that.

Same. Mine is a regular watch with hour and minute hands and a digital read-out in the background that I can turn on and off. It's nothing fancy, but I wear it with a fat black leather wrist-band which is pleasing to my easily-entertained soul.

I am a simple man in many ways.

This is basic cat stuff. "Oh, smell good! Must investigate! Do want or no? Not sure, is hot, but definite smell good! Maybe want?"

True, however, the concentration of wealth has meant that desirable areas are far more out of reach for the middle class than they were in the 1950s when unionization was at an all-time high and the difference between a highly-educated professional vs a skilled tradesman was more a matter of what kind of car they drove and how big their house was rather than what we see now which is working people being priced out of entire markets.

I got lucky because my wife and I bought our house when the neighborhood we're in was still seen as the ghetto. We bought it because it was the only thing we could afford and it was relatively close to my wife's parents, but since then the neighborhood has rapidly gentrified and our property value has gone way up.

This wouldn't be an issue in a country wherein wealth is not so egregiously concentrated at the top.

My relatively small house (~1200 sq ft) was built in 1950 and is currently appraised at $550k, so it's not just house size. Granted, I live in a highly-desirable west coast city and the lot is worth more than the house itself, but the point remains.

Also the parties realign during this period with conservative southern Democrats going to the Republican party and fully embracing the idea that government is the enemy rather than a potential force for good in people's lives. The subtext being that if you're poor, it's your fault and rich white men should be left alone to run big businesses however they want.