$0… 🙃

I went into a clothing store in the 90s and heard this song playing. I never heard it on the radio before or after that one day (I think it was in a fashion bug?), but it was memorable enough to stick in my head for the rest of that day and I seem to randomly remember it approximately once every decade.

Your post did it this decade.

You’re asking America to let you take away their rights and privileges, and your argument, as the person that would be holding the power is that you’re willing to take the risk to your rights and privileges?

The king’s sales pitch for why his peasants should be ok with handing over even more rights and civil liberty, is that he (the king) is willing to take the non-existent risk to his own rights, in exchange for even more authority and power being given to him.

And somehow, the king having even more domestic spying power is for the benefit of the king’s military… Who are currently fighting a foreign war that was started by the king despite having no support from the peasants.

Setting the unjust foreign wars aside for just a min, it seems kind of important to ask why a king (and his military) would somehow benefit from increased domestic authority?

It’s not like he views the rights and liberties of the American people living under his regime administration as some kind of threat. Or like he considers American citizens to be hostile enemies…, right? 😅

I mean, I 100% support calling out the Dems when they do obviously morally questionable things. They also just did something good (blocking arms sales to Israel), and even though it didn’t pass (bc they’re the minority), they deserve to be acknowledged when they do the right thing. It certainly took them long enough, and honestly, I doubt they would have united if not for public pressure, and journalists pointing out the hypocrisy/questioning why wealthy donors often seem to have more sway over Dems than their own voters do.

Domestic surveillance is an issue even Republicans are divided on, and most Americans, regardless of party, are opposed to the government trampling on civil liberty in the name of “safety” and “patriotic duty.” Especially during an unjust forever war. We’ve seen this one before. We know how it ends.

The Patriot Act marked a very clear turning point for America. If you value democracy and civil liberty, expanding domestic surveillance power is a terrible idea. Even Trump opposed this when it was just a campaign issue, but now he’s suddenly in favor of it. Why?

This really should have been a no brainer issue for Dems to rally behind and support. Like this should be a major part of any 2028 presidential campaign. Given how many AI investors and other evil billionaires are now raining donations on to politicians in hopes of accessing the data the government collects or being contracted by the government to collect it, we should all be asking why the Dems didn’t take the ball and run with this one.

Somebody asked me this question before I saw Blade Runner, and I just got really angry and confused and said something like “of course I would turn it over! Why wouldn’t I?”

We always used to joke about me being a replicant. Then the same person tried telling this story to my dad and he also got angry and confused and was like “Well why wouldn’t she turn it over?!?”

That was how I learned I’m probably a replicant but also descended from a long line of replicants.

You’re in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down…

NVM somebody beat me to it. Fuck. I guess I’ll just have to accept my new cyborg companions. Or just continue cutting toxic people out of my life regardless of if they’re cyborg or human. If that’s an option I would probably just do that until I’m also replaced by a cyborg.

I always avoid killing bees but I am terrified of wasps. I grew up getting stung by these fuckers constantly. That’s how I found out I’m allergic.

They’re extremely aggressive and live in giant nests together. If you kill one, it releases pheromones or something that signals to the others and they swarm. I would beg my parents to do something about them because they made life absolutely miserable, but they had this weird fatalist attitude about them like “the wasps were here long before we were. They’ll be here long after.”

Realized as an adult that decoy paper wasps nests are very cheap and work surprisingly well as a repellent. You can also just use a brown paper sack. Could have saved myself from some very traumatic encounters if I had known that sooner.

I saved this comment that @JoMiran@lemmy.ml made (different post, same community) when I scrolled by it a few weeks ago.

This is a Lemmy gold worthy comment (imo), but also want to make sure they get credit:

I can’t begin to tell you how much of a relief it would be to learn that an occult curse is the real reason standard of living in the U.S. has been on such a steep decline since Reagan (and the Heritage Foundation) took office.

Paper wasps have a unique perspective of “provoked.”

I was tired so I just decided to land and rest on your head. Why are you provoking me?

I was building a nest in the only door you use to come in and out of your house. When you tried to leave, I flew directly into your path and basically body checked you. Why are you provoking me?

“My life is falling apart, and things somehow seem to keep getting worse with each day that passes. So, you know, just living the dream.”

Or if you want to keep it brief, “Pretty sure I must have pissed somebody off in another lifetime.”

Had a c-section on a Thursday afternoon. For some reason, late Friday afternoon my doctor said I had to confirm if I wanted her to order any pain medication because no doctor would be on the floor overnight.

Still don’t understand why I had to confirm ordering the meds, instead of her just leaving an order in case it was needed. Anyway, I asked if the epidural had fully worn off and if I was already in as much pain as I would be in. She said “yeah pretty much,” so I declined. Turns out that wasn’t true.

A few hours later, a nurse came in to my room to check on why I was just letting my newborn keep screaming. She found me squirming around like a turtle on its back and sobbing while my husband was snoring and sleeping through all of it.

I remember telling her I could feel my stitches tearing every time I tried to move (they weren’t, it just felt like it). I was begging for anything to help with the pain, but since the doctor left without putting in an order for any medication, she couldn’t even give me Tylenol.

So far in my life, that has definitely been my most physically painful experience.

Willingness to be the parent you needed growing up, but also be able to really reflect on the job you’re doing, and make sure you’re not somehow projecting your own bullshit on to your relationship with your child.

Willingness to give yourself some grace when you can’t always be the parent you wish you could be, but along with accepting that you’re only human, accepting accountability and acknowledging when things go wrong.

Be willing to apologize to your child/acknowledge when you mess up, and remember that they learn how to resolves conflict and handle the mistakes they make by watching how you handle yours. If you were in the wrong, don’t just convince yourself that you get a pass for being human/being the “adult” in charge. Talk to your child about what happened.

I also feel like it’s very important in general not to try to hide reality from kids. You have to have the difficult conversations, and not just the birds and the bees. (That’s actually the easier side of the “difficult to talk about” spectrum).

You need to talk to your kids when people they love get sick, when people lose their jobs and are under stress, when money is tight. There are certainly different ways you have to handle explaining situations to a kid vs an adult, but it’s such a terrible idea to just plaster on a smile, sweep things under a rug to buy yourself time, and pretend everything is ok when your kid can clearly tell something is wrong.

When you refuse to communicate anything about what’s really going on, you leave people (both adults and kids) with no choice but to come up with their own explanations. Often kids just default to blaming themselves, and your attempt to protect/shield them from reality only ends up doing more harm.

Health

I was under them impression that just using the internet in America might subject you to domestic surveillance.

The woman who accused Donald Trump of sexually abusing her when she was 13 provided several verifiable details about her life in interviews with the FBI, according to a new report. The woman detailed her alleged abuse by Trump and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein over four interviews in 2019, the Epstein files revealed. The interviews were initially kept secret by the DOJ.

This could not be more ridiculous. Pedophelia and sex trafficking are literally being normalized to levels of “locker room talk” in 2026. Nobody is facing justice. We’re basically just legalizing pedophelia for the wealthy, which apparently we’ve always done, we just have to accept it as official now. And maybe that was the point of Trump focusing so much attention on pedophiles in the first place?

However, a grandmother wearing an inflatable penis costume to protest captain pedophile while he holds the highest office in the United States is the real danger to children. Got it.

Straight to jail with you granny.

He demands to know how she could possibly justify such an obscene display: “I would like to hear how you would explain to my children what you’re supposed to be.”

I would like to hear how you would explain to your children if they ever cross paths with the man this grandmother was protesting, they should probably run as far away as possible. You know, because he’s a fucking pedophile.

Talking to a colleague over his two-way radio after the encounter, Babb described what happened. Gamble was dressed “like a freakin’ weiner,”

Babb asks where the zipper is and, as he peels off the penis suit, asks Gamble for her name.

She replies, “Aunt Tifa.

At this point I feel like it might be easier to just ask “What is he not trying to distract from?”

It’s a tricky balance. You have to learn to let yourself trust and rely on others, but also understand it’s a gamble.

Be ready for the possibility that you may end up having to pick yourself up if they let you fall. It’s not necessarily because people don’t want to do the right thing. They’re only human.

You’ve almost certainly let somebody down at some point. As long as you didn’t set out with the intention of hurting the other person, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. That’s just life.

You have to learn to give yourself and others grace when it’s deserved, and accept that sometimes it’s not deserved. You have to learn to be vulnerable, but also learn to be resilient. Refusing to take the risk just because you’re afraid of being let down or letting others down, is a guaranteed way to be lonely.