GONG! … GONG! … GONG!

And while they’re at it, they very directly propped up Trump as well. Hillary Clinton is responsible for everything Trump did.

I’m probably speaking out of turn here, but reporting a previous name is a simple matter of security, not deadnaming. I’m not trans, but I use my stepfather’s surname and changed to that legally when I was 18. If someone called me by my mom’s abuser’s name to my face I would be distraught, but when forms ask me for prior legal names I just list it and it’s not a big deal. It’s just an identity thing.

The form isn’t asking “what’s your real name?” it’s asking “have you ever been known by any other legal names?”

The only reasonable way for many of us to have an EV right now is to also have an ICE vehicle for the things the EVs we can afford can’t do.

My wife and I have pushed having one car between us to its limit so we’re looking for an EV for regular local driving, but we really can’t risk having only an EV since the ones we can afford are all very small and not AWD. Should be able to replace a lot of our ICE driving but not all.

I am firmly anti-Russia, but I don’t hate Russians. I am anti-China, but I don’t hate Chinese people. I am anti-Israel, but I don’t hate Israelis or Jewish people.

I doubt the vast majority of Americans would bat an eye at the first two statements. Why is the third one somehow more problematic than the first two?

I suspect I have APD (all the hallmark symptoms, including chronic ear infections as a kid), and I do this constantly. I think my “what?” is a sort of defense mechanism not to actually hear the words again but to give my brain more time to process what’s been said. Of course I also often do it because I couldn’t understand, particularly with noisy backgrounds.

My sister thinks she might have it too, and we often describe our experience the same way where it’s like we hear something twice. Once is the physical hearing where our ears collect the sound, and the second is the mental hearing where our brains process the sound. For most people I don’t get the sense these are perceptibly different phenomena. But for us, it’s two distinct steps that are often seconds, in rare cases even minutes apart. “What?” can grant me those seconds to process.