classic

Beans and grains for the win I guess

Not panicked at all. Just exploring an element of this person's proposal

You're on to.something here. And you're right: that illustration probably distorted my understanding of the process

My sneezes (when I'm not sick)

I'm not so much concerned as interested, in this person's proposed model, what happens to this accumulated detritus. Maybe it's just that it's negligible. But it must accumulate

So wood absorbs the microbes where they eventually suffocate and die, according to this article. But is there then a buildup of dead microbes (and their waste products)?

Drum snare

Their job is to express the will and goals of the people they represent.

Citizens United has entered the chat

The political system is inherently set up for politicians to compromise for their self-interest — because money. For personal profit and/or to get re-elected. There was a decent New Yorker article I read on the matter a few years ago that suggested something along the lines that, even if a politician begins their career with the best intentions, the process of getting elected for higher and higher offices erodes those intentions. That's even if they had any decent intentions to begin with, of course.

Combining our two misreadings, we might actually be on to something

I read that wrong at first, saw an r where there's an s

How arrogant of you to suggest that your entire country's medical needs are somehow more important than the financial well-being of some shareholders