How do you remove the bullet points in this paragraph:

1. US Patent No. 4,136,359: "Microcomputer for use with video display"[41]—for which he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
2. US Patent No. 4,210,959: "Controller for magnetic disc, recorder, or the like"[42]
3. US Patent No. 4,217,604: "Apparatus for digitally controlling PAL color display"[43]
4. US Patent No. 4,278,972: "Digitally-controlled color signal generation means for use with display"[44]

To:

US Patent No. 4,136,359: "Microcomputer for use with video display"[41]—for which he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
US Patent No. 4,210,959: "Controller for magnetic disc, recorder, or the like"[42]
US Patent No. 4,217,604: "Apparatus for digitally controlling PAL color display"[43]
US Patent No. 4,278,972: "Digitally-controlled color signal generation means for use with display"[44]

I’m using sublime with vintage mode (vi).

Previously, I would just delete the first bullet points (02dw) then repeat (.) on the following lines. Or record a macro (q).

The other day I learned split selections into lines in Sublime (from my coworker Danniel Condez), and now I can do this:

V -> } -> SHIFT+CMD+L -> v02dw -> ESC

You might wonder why is this better?

Because it can scale (still a constant time if you have 1000 lines compared to repeat 999 times).