If it’s attached to the wall theres probably bare metal on the bottom, and if not there’s definitely some on the inside when you open the door. Just any bare metal on it.

I usually go with the light switch/outlet screw but you said those are covered. There must be grounded metal somewhere in your house. The microwave body, a pipe or faucet, you could even get one of those grounding wrist straps that plug into the ground port on your wall socket.

Absolutely, if full local control is what you want and you expect to get more devices then it’s worth either reusing an old computer for home assistant or getting a home assistant yellow.

Yeah, I don’t blame you not wanting to commit to a hub if you’d only have this thermostat.

Depending on what features you want maybe you could find an offline one with those features built in. I know there’s ones with schedules and presence detection that are fully offline.

I’ve used this zwave thermostat for a few years now and it’s done fine. Only really makes sense if you already have a Z-wave compatible hub though.

https://a.co/d/aEr4gaq

Demonstrating that the bottom 99% has had wages increase 50% since 1979 while inflation has decreased the value of the same currency by 320% is damning. There’s no good defense for capitalism here.

It does match exactly what’s happening though. Others have mentioned housing cost which is a clear example, but you can also look at income inequality. Here’s an article which cites data from the congressional budget office https://inequality.org/facts/income-inequality/

It shows up to 500% growth since 1979 in the earnings of the .01% while the 99% of earners are only making about 50% more than in 1979. That data makes it clear that wealth is being concentrated, and that people at the bottom are going with less. Especially considering inflation since 1979 has been 320% (source)

It does have bipartisan support, this is repeatedly shown in polling. But it doesn’t matter what voters want. The interests of capital will be served above all else because of decades of antidemocratic moves.

Antidemocratic moves like

• Legalized bribes that push politicians towards the interests of capital.
• Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the electoral college which all reduce progressive and leftist voices to the point where we need massively more votes than right wingers to get the same power.
• Filibuster power that firmly cements the status quo by requiring the majority of bills get a supermajority vote to pass.
• Democrats being unwilling to wield their power to revoke the filibuster and enact their legislative agenda
• The rotating villian democrats always seem to have have who can spoil anything even close to progress by one or two votes (Manchin and Sinema for now)

The US is just an oligarchy at this point and it’s getting harder and harder for me to stay optimistic about getting out of it.