You know, I’m extremely tired of hearing people piss and moan about the Democrats not accomplishing legislative miracles with the barest of majorities. The GOP is almost gleeful in being a bulwark against anything and everything that might possibly be seen as a Democratic win. We can’t have nice things because 49% of Congress just wants to watch the other party suffer and cling to power by calling them ineffective.

What the fuck have the Republicans done that have helped the average working class American in the last twenty goddamn years?

They’re nothing but rhetoric and religious fundamentalism. They had full control of both houses and the presidency and assured us we would have some great replacement to the ACA and literally nothing ever came of that. The Republicans don’t want to help Americans, they just want to be in power. Why isn’t that relevant? The Democrats can’t pass sweeping legislation because of obstruction and that’s the end of the world, but the Republicans have literally no ideas beyond removing rights from whatever flavor of “other” they’re targeting this season and they get a pass.

Our country is fundamentally broken. One party’s politicians say they want to represent all Americans and the other wants to use the military against their political rivals. And somehow the election is still close? Yeah. This whole country is fucked.

Newspapers are allowed to endorse candidates because the first amendment protects free speech. While I may agree with you that endorsements and news media stumping for ANY candidate is problematic and reeks of propaganda, it is, for better or worse, protected by the constitution.

How many times are you going to post that link? We have seen it, and at this point you’re just spamming.

We get it, you don’t like Kagi. Stop spamming the thread.

While I agree with your sentiment, there is a difference between not understanding and actively disparaging. The former is fine - there’s plenty of stuff I don’t understand, and I just don’t comment on it because I have no business doing so. Where I take objection is when the lack of understanding transforms into bigotry and disparaging remarks.

By all means be ignorant (and I don’t mean that in a derogatory manner - we are all ignorant about various things), but don’t let your ignorance manifest into negativity.

Generic Epipens still cost $300. They can all go fuck themselves.

My neighbor used a leaf blower to dry his car after washing it at 7am on a Saturday. I don’t know that I will ever be able to like that man after this.

Yeah I would guess the vast majority of women competing are on birth control. No way would I let something as stupid as an ill timed period and all the hormonal crazy that comes with it potentially affect my performance at an event I’d been training 4 years for.

Eh, I don’t agree. Sports are a good way for people to get exercise and recreation time in, which are vital for mental and physical health. There are definitely ways to incorporate animals into sports that the animals enjoy and is also good for their mental and physical well-being. We just need to collectively stop being shitty stewards of our animal companions.

I’m of the opinion we just need to stop focusing so hard on raising the birthrate and focus more on taking care of the people and population we have. We don’t need more people on the planet - 8 billion humans is plenty. We need to figure out successful economic strategies that don’t require perpetual population growth rather than trying to breed our way into economic security.

You can do that in the US too, but if they give it to you in a hospital the line item charge is much higher.

The bugs are going to be unbearable this year.

My question is, why are concentrated soaps not bigger for human use like they are for animals? The shampoo and conditioner to wash my dog comes in a gallon jug and dilutes 50:1. That gallon jug lasts me years, and I’m bathing a golden retriever that has a lot of hair. If shampoo came by default in a gallon jug we just had to mix once or twice a month with water in a separate bottle we would save so much plastic, so much cost, and so much transportation weight!

And concentrated products for pets are more common than diluted ones. So clearly we know how to do this, why don’t we do it for human stuff too by default?

…are you me? lol

Also don’t forget StumbleUpon! So many wasted hours!

Ohhh that’s good to know! We already live in the US though. I’ll have to look at the new legislation. Thanks for the info!

At one point my German husband was looking into becoming a US citizen, but just never got around to it. I stopped encouraging it years ago, because Germany has weird laws about dual citizenship and he would likely have to give his up to become a US citizen. As a result, we have a European exit plan. While I’d really like the US to get it’s shit together, knowing we have options is nice.

The problem here is that hospitals do not remain under the same management consistently. Apparently I am responsible for knowing when each of the local hospitals changes administrations (because capitalism and they get bought out) and stops or begins accepting my insurance. When I first moved into my house the closest hospital did NOT accept my insurance, last I checked they do, but that was a few years ago, so who knows now. The hospital closest to me has changed names 3 times in the last 15 years.

It’s ridiculous that in an emergency that “when was the last time we checked to make sure that hospital takes our insurance” is even a question.

It makes me crazy that we’re even talking about this and it’s more than a year away. Our election cycles in the US are too damn long.