90 years ago the entire US population was less than that 140 million, let alone eligible voters. Percentage of eligible voters would make a better argument than absolute numbers when you're comparing over time.

That said, 140m versus 158m is a huge drop. An astonishing drop. The final total could still amount to a >10% reduction in turnout, despite a slight increase in the number of eligible voters. I don't understand how that could be viewed as not sad, regardless of who you vote for.

Some people are genuinely apathetic or feel like it doesn't directly impact their life, but a lot of people fall for the propaganda of "both sides are the same" and that it makes no difference either way, and a lot of people are intentionally disenfranchised by various voter suppression efforts by Republicans. Then there's the electoral college nonsense which leaves the populace of 43 states with essentially no say in who the president is, leading some to wonder why they should bother, not being mindful that their vote may carry weight for the federal legislature and state/local elections. And many people are just too busy surviving to worry about anything else.

For my part, voting straight Democrat in a heavily Republican-leaning state, my vote literally means nothing at all because my state will inevitably give all of its electoral college votes to Trump, and will elect nothing but Republicans to the federal legislature and for almost all state/local offices. But I voted on the first day of early voting, and I will vote in every election, because we have to show support for change if we ever want there to be change. There are enough left-leaning people in my state for it to be a swing state (hell, we had a Democrat for governor 2003-2011, and he was popular), but so many see their votes as meaningless simply because their fellow left-leaners also aren't voting...

Maybe one day they'll enjoy it enough to elect representatives who will try to extend democracy to the rest of us by eliminating gerrymandering and the electoral college.

Do you remember that time Biden rode a bike? With a helmet of all things? So weak. Not like that Putin fellow who rides HORSES without a helmet OR EVEN A SHIRT. So stronk. Much manly.

Well, you see, the Dems control the justice department because deep state hunter's laptop biden crime family buttery males, q.e.d. the poll monitors were only there to rig it for the Dems. Pizza gate!

CPR. Doing 2-3 chest compressions, seconds apart, and then some mouth to mouth, followed by 2-3 more chest compressions. Or the needle into the heart thing. Or the shock a flatline thing. All of it. It's just all wrong.

On Andromeda? I believe it was, a villain used the stereotypical twist the head to break the neck and they fall over dead bit. The character proceeded to be not dead and did the stereotypical express their love while dying in the protagonist's arms bit, talking and moving their neck as if it wasn't broken. And then died.

It's because we have chins. They think we're weird.

You know what has to be accessible? Public schools. You know what is right across the street from the two churches that have been my designated voting location? Public schools.

It's a toss up between

1. R telling me she was on birth control, I guess thinking it'd keep me around if we had a kid, then when our kid was age 4 she said she had cancer and disappeared for several months. Turns out she never had cancer and just said that so I wouldn't think poorly of her for abandoning her child to run off with a guy in another state. ...Her child that she was barely present for anyway.
2. D getting me to empty my 401k to buy a house as an investment property for "our" retirement, only for her to keep it in the divorce. I could have pushed for it to be sold and gotten at least some of my money back, but she would have put up such a fight that I'd have spent in attorney's fees as much as I would have won from the sale, so it wasn't worth the fight to me, and she knew that.

What'd I learn from these? Not a whole lot, it turned out: my next relationship wasn't much better. But at least I figured out to end that one before it got TOO too deep.

As an Arch-using vegan, ...I have no retort.

(I use arch, btw (also I'm vegan btw))

Trader Joe's is one of those other companies that is party to this. Trader Joe's doesn't believe in the rights of its workers either. I have stopped shopping at Trader Joe's and I encourage others to do the same.

People kept asking why it was taking so long to bring charges at all - this is why. Yes, the crimes are obvious and some were even committed in public view, but if you're going after high level government officials - if you're going after a former president of the United States - you better make sure you have every last detail in order. For crimes of such magnitude, you can't risk the case getting dismissed or overturned based on a frivolous detail or a minor oversight or a technicality. It has to be iron-clad and air-tight, with every 'i' dotted and every 't' crossed.

Trump isn't some common thief or vandal. He's not just a crime boss or a corrupt politician. He's a history-altering, would-be dictator who tried to stage a coup to overthrow our government. There is no room for error.