Get used to hearing the “pull funding” threat, it’s how they’re going to start chipping away at minority rights (LGBTQ+, women, Latino, Black, etc).

Have your three branches of government pass an act tying a state-decision to federal funding ala the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, and we’re going to see state’s comply.

But Biden can’t lie once. Got it.

I mean… He ran in 2020 saying he would only be a one-term President…

And then him and his staff hid his cognitive decline well past the start of the primaries…

He also said there’d be consequences for Israel if they didn’t start allowing aid into Gaza…

So that’s four lies, counting his backtrack on pardoning his son.

The problem is Biden helped create the legal system he’s now shielding his son from. The same legal system that put thousands upon thousands of sons and daughters behind bars.

And with the recent attention police conduct has gotten (and all the footage we see of officers abusing/torturing/beating/killing those being arrested), how many of those kids never made it to the courtroom because of ol’ Joe “Maybe Cops Can Just Shoot-em in the Leg” Biden and the militarized police force he helped create?

You’re right, Republicans are corrupt to the core, they’re pieces of shit, and they have and will do things that are worse than this. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that this only benefits the Biden family, and is corruption, full stop. I understand why he did it, and I’ve gone back and forth on whether I’d do the same in his shoes (which probably means I would)…

But he deserves to be criticized for it, as I would be, because it’s blatant corruption, and just reinforces the notion amongst non-voters that both parties are the same, they only care about protecting and enriching their own, and us plebs can just go fuck ourselves.

And actions like this are exactly why people say “both parties,” because they prove it.

Criticism should be constructive, they offered nothing constructive in their criticism.

I got out in 2017 partially because I’m trans and Trump was coming into the oval office. He had made it clear that trans people would not be welcome in his military, and I wasn’t going to risk being discharged because of President Bone Spurs.

The military held him off last time, but I’m not as hopeful this time. And I just wanted to throw out there: I personally believe the GOP is going to use federal funding to essentially strip LGBTQ+ people of their rights and healthcare access. It’s going to be the Minimum Federal Drinking Age Act of 1984 again, where the fed is gonna say, “Sure, you can offer gender affirming care in your state… If you do, you won’t have access to XYZ federal funding anymore.”

And the states will let it happen.

I agree wholeheartedly, believe me.

I have a lot of socially unpopular opinions regarding how technology has and is progressing, and how dependent we’re becoming on all of it.

I think it was more of a long way to say “manual windows and door handles have worked since cars were invented, why are we reinventing the wheel and introducing new fail points on something like a door handle by making it electric?”

Third comma? It’s a lot cheaper to bribe a US politician than that. Many will vote in your favor for a few thousand dollars in campaign contributions.

My dad asked me recently how much I made per paycheck. I told him I take home $1100 every two weeks, assuming I didn’t miss any work because I don’t get PTO.

Dad: “You make $2200 a month?!?”

Me: Yep, I told you, I’m broke.

Dad: “You’re not broke, you’re poor.”

Me: No, I’m both.

I’m 30 next month, I joined the military right out of high school, and I specifically remember them teaching us a bit about 401k’s because of our ability to participate in TSP.

The instructor very clearly told us, the average American needs $1 million in their retirement account when they to to retire to live comfortably. Not extravagantly, comfortably.

Just a couple weeks ago I saw an article saying the average American now needs $2 million in their retirement account to be to retire comfortably, and this is assuming they don’t have a mortgage payment, etc.

So in 11 years, the amount needed to retire comfortably has doubled, and yet my wages haven’t doubled… Minimum wage hasn’t increased in decades, sure they’re talking about $15/hr now, but that should’ve been 10 years ago. With inflation, minimum wage should be around $26/hr, yet even in my blue state, it’s like $15.60/hr or something, it’s barely over $15.

Throw in the recent news about the inevitable and quickly approaching AMOC collapse and the climate hellscape that’s going to come with it… Our futures were robbed from us for profit, and even if I started making triple what I make now, I’ll never be able to retire, nor do I even have a retirement account anymore (I cashed mine out to help me during some really rough financial times right after the pandemic, y’know, when the government told the average American to go fuck themselves). And I was one of the few among my friends who even had one.

So, like many people around my age, my retirement will either be societal collapse in the next couple decades, or a bullet to the head (if I could even afford the bullet) as I die in old age, homeless, while we probably have six trillionaires at that point.

Ok, and? What consequences are they going to face? How will their quality of life be diminished in any way?

I’ll answer for you: none, because we, the little people, do not matter. Period.

Lol, you think we’ll be able to retire 😂

My dad worked for a private company that was a government contractor for almost 30 years before they were bought out by some international corporation.

I asked my dad if they used to have years where they didn’t turn a profit. “Oh absolutely, but we made up for it the next year, or they had money set aside, or…”

None of that happens anymore. Those chickens, I guarantee, caught those diseases because of the practices put in place by the 4 or 5 companies that basically produce all of the poultry for this country. They made poor business decisions, they chose to pinch pennies and not put money aside for unexpected emergencies, they continued to pay out dividends and issue stock buy backs instead of creating an emergency fund like they tell us poors we need to do.

So no, I don’t care to imagine any of their costs, because if they were a legitimate business, they would have contingency plans in place beyond “jack the prices up as high as they’ll go and keep em there until it starts to hurt our wallets enough.” They would take the hit for fucking once instead of passing the cost along to those who can least bare it so they can maintain their lifestyle built on greed and stolen wages.

I used to eat at McDonald’s a LOT, and the main reason was you could get a large quarter pounder meal for under $10. Now it’s $12+, depending on where you go. I used to get a solid quarter pounder, now it’s a 50/50 chance the thing is so soaked in grease that it soaks through the cardboard and the bag, and the fries are 50/50 already luke warm.

But the innovation thing got me thinking: right before the pandemic, McDonald’s in the US was doing “Meals from around the world,” and it was basically McDonald’s items you could only get outside the US (I think they had a French one, definitely a Canadian one, I think Brazil, etc). They changed every couple months, and it was cool! You go to try something that you may not otherwise get to.

They also used to have a lot of them open 24/7 (as did a lot of businesses), and then the pandemic shut everything down and they stopped doing it. When I worked nights and would get out of a catering event at 2 am, I’d be able to swing by McDonald’s on the way home and I knew I was getting a decent meal. Now?

I’m lucky if when I order a large meal with a large drink, I actually get a large drink. Idk if this is happening all over, but I’d say 6/10 times now, I order a large meal and the cashier automatically puts in a medium drink. When I ask about it, they say they’ll let the people know up front, and then they don’t. And then I feel like a jackass for having to tell the people at the window my drink was supposed to be a large (I know they’re the same price, but if I ordered a large meal, why would I order a medium drink?), and they usually give me a look or an eye roll.

Whereas before the pandemic, I was once asked to pull up to the second window to wait for my food. I wanted 5 minutes, tops, and the manager brought me my food and gave me 2 free meal tickets for the inconvenience. I went last week and waited 10 minutes and the kid didn’t even confirm my order before basically dropping it through my car window and walking off.

I don’t blame the employees, even in my state McDonald’s wages are laughable, so who gives a fuck? But wtf happened to the corporation, where’s the care? It’s disappointing to see, not that I have sympathy for a billion dollar corporation.

The hallways one pisses me off to no extent. From the pig who killed him having “Get Fucked” or whatever it was engraved on his rifle, down to the very fact they responded with nothing but conflicting and confusing commands. He was told to crawl towards them but also keep his hands above his head, which is impossible to do, crawling requires hands and knees on the ground, shuffling only requires knees. Then, the clearly intoxicated and unarmed man crying and shuffling towards them has his pants keep falling down, and like any of us would do, instinctively kept pulling them back up. Instead of the pigs telling him to ignore his pants, y’know, to help alleviate some of the stress the poor guy is experiencing, they scream once at him to keep his hands up and then they open fire on him when he instinctively does it again. There’s one of him, and at least half a dozen fully armed and armored pigs, and pulling pants up was soooooooooooooo threatening to these pieces of shit who like to play dress up as soldiers, they riddled him with bullets and he got to bleed out on a carpet in a hotel hallway.

The report was a man brandishing a rifle in a hotel window, and at no point did they guy give any evidence he was packing a rifle or trying to be uncooperative with the pigs. And they killed him, because he didn’t want his pants to fall. Don’t worry though, the pig that killed him was medically retired due to PTSD from the event. I bet the victim sure wishes he could’ve medically retired from PTSD, but that privilege is only for pigs apparently.

I was in an uber with a friend in some Baltimore traffic when the driver almost rear-ended the car in front of us. She was distracted talking to us, I think, was telling us about her life or something.

Immediately after she slammed on the brakes, she admitted to us she was high as a kite, and then went into explaining how she hides it from her rides (uses the ozium stuff to make the smell disappear, leaving a window of time between pickups to ensure the car aired out, etc). Vaping wasn’t as commonplace back then, as I think Colorado and only one other state had legalised it at that point.

But, like, damn lady… Why are you telling your two passengers this right after you almost got into a nasty wreck? We just wanted to get to the bar 😂

Well that may explain an interaction between a possum and my sisters dog a few years ago. When I lived with my sister I’d take their mastiff out on her leash and walk her around their property while I had a smoke. We’d do this all times of day and night.

I’d drop the leash if we were in the backyard since it was fenced on two sides and only one gate to get into the front, which I could keep an eye on while she explored. One night, it had to have been about midnight, she was obsessed with this one spot in the tall grass, like, would not leave this spot. So after about five minutes I went to grab her, and she’s fighting me, nose buried in this spot. I finally turn my flashlight on and walk over, and there’s a possum curled up in the tall grass. And she’s licking it…

I pull her away, since, I’m sure dogs shouldn’t be licking wild animals, especially ones that are dead, right? Like, only a dead possum would let another animal lick it, right? Wrong. As I’m looking at it to make sure she didn’t lick up any maggots or was eating any rotten meat, it turned it’s head towards me, eyes squinting, like, “Do you mind? I was having the most wonderful dream of a bath.” It wasn’t playing possum, I’ve seen them do that, it was literally just curled up in grass, sleeping, while a dog 6X its size was licking it head to toe.

🎵Standing beside you🎵

MLK Jr. literally wrote about this exact same thing in his Letter from Birmingham jail.

that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ ”

Amazon undercut them, stole their customers, bought them, and then shut them down.

How is that “becoming successful but sold out?” Amazon has their hands in so many baskets, from tools and everyday household items to government defense contracts and everything in between, they could afford to lose money on one niche area for probably decades. In contrast, diapers.com sold: diapers and their related accessories, and did not have billions stowed away to undercut Amazon’s prices that they already couldn’t compete with.

Fuck Amazon and everything they have done to the world.

I mean, that’s literally what Amazon does. Anyone remember diapers.com? Amazon lowered their prices on diapers, losing at least $200 million, to stop diapers.com’s growth. When the business started losing money, Amazon bought them, and then shut them down.

Then immediately raised their prices on diapers. I fucking hate Amazon, like, literally refuse to purchase anything from them. I’d rather pay 3 times the price then give Amazon a penny for literally anything.

They’re already implementing automation and robots into their warehouses, once one of their engineers making six figures (compared to Bezos’s billions) comes up with a way to automate delivery, you can bet your ass and mine they’ll drop all of their subcontracting delivery companies with zero notice or fucks given. I’m amazed they haven’t gone after chewy.com or barkbox, but maybe they are.

I remember back in like 2015-2017, when I finally swore off Amazon, I posted on Reddit asking what other shopping sites people recommended that weren’t Amazon, and was downvoted and chastised for even asking because not wanting to suck Amazon’s Dick-of-Convenience wasn’t comprehendible, and look where that fucking got us.

Sorry, this is a long response to your comment, and that’s the end of my rant, but just… Fuck Amazon, to the moon and back… Twice.