God damn, why am I not surprised that Republicans voted down a grant for counties to upgrade/improve/develop disaster response infrastructure.

Ahh, damn… Yeah, that sucks. Do you guys have HOAs, at least? I know they get a bad wrap, but properly run HOAs can be a large boon for unincorporated neighborhoods.

Have you called the police? They fucking suck, but even in legal states they still have city ordinances that don’t allow lighting off fireworks all night long. I know in the last city I lived in that allowed them, you had to stop by 2230 and they typically enforced it on every day that wasn’t the 4th of July. The city went on to eventually ban fireworks year-round except for NYE and a 2-week window around the 4th.

My point is, if your city doesn’t have these types of ordinances, you should rally local support to get them implemented. I guarantee you there are tons of people who feel the same as you about assholes lighting off big booms at 1am.

For sure, I’m not saying that bugs aren’t important to the ecosystem. The way the article was presenting the information, it seemed like they’ve become much more numerous starting around 2022. To me, that indicates that the ecosystem there is out of balance (unsurprisingly, given that climate change seems to be the catalyst for this).

As a side note, I have a friend who lives in New Orleans. When she was telling us about the annual termite swarms, we were legitimately aghast, lol.

Did you see the pictures in the article? They’re blanket everything so thoroughly that the dude was able able to scoop up piles with a shovel. Feels like that is a genuine nuisance, as I can imagine they’d be clogging vents and other things with how intense the swarming is in some areas.

If it gets to the point where the States are withholding money from the federal government, I’d wager it’s because they no longer view the federal government as legitimate. I guess, good luck to the IRS trying to collect?

My wife has had to follow a low FODMAP and gluten free diet for the last 6ish years. It’s miserable and I wouldn’t wish such a vast allergy as this on anyone. I know there are plenty of haughty taughty vegans in this thread making jest, but these kinds of allergies fucking suck and I guarantee vegans consume shit that has these compounds without even realizing, since like you said, it exists in far more than just basic meat-based foods.

which is why big blue states like California and Illinois and Massachusetts and New York also refuse to implement the far more efficient and equitable public health reforms common to countries in Europe with much smaller GDPs.

Those states do have a lot of benefits for low income families when it comes to healthcare that red states don’t offer.

But a big reason they don’t do universal healthcare, aside from billions of dollars in insurance and healthcare capital lobbying politicians, is because you need all the neighboring states to also be on board as well. Why would it be beneficial for me to have universal healthcare if I live on the state border and work in another state? If I get hurt and I need to go to the ER in the other state that doesn’t have universal healthcare, I’ll be super screwed when the bill finally hits. I bring this up because people in the US travel between states quite often.

But aside from that, I’d argue the biggest issue is that even though California and other blue states have large GDPs, they don’t usually have much money to spare. The fact that the Federal takes so much money from regular people in addition to State taxes, it wouldn’t be feasible to offer universal healthcare without buy-in at the national level.

The simple fact is, the healthcare system is broken. Costs are so high because they’ve been able to get away with it due to millions of people throwing money into insurance and not needing to use their insurance the majority of time outside of routine appointments. As a result, these companies had billions just sitting around and for-profit hospitals knew this. As such, it’s become a greedy race to the bottom.

A typical surgery even 40 years ago would not drastically hurt anyone financially. Yes, technology and medicine has drastically improved, and correct me if I’m wrong, but fixing a basic broken bone hasn’t changed much in the last 50+ years. So why does getting a broken leg fixed now cost thousands of dollars when it used to only cost maybe a couple hundred?

Greed, is my conclusion.

I think this is a large amount of the issue, along with what others have commented. There literally is.a hostile sentiment towards the “common/greater good” in the US if it means individuals have to sacrifice even a modicum of inconvenience. COVID and asking people to mask up was a perfect example of it in action. And that wasn’t even entirely a democrat vs red hat cult thing, though the cultists definitely were much more pissed off and loud about it.

Oh I’m sorry, the Iranian government hasn’t violently put down any female civil rights movements there?

Yes, I pointed that out in an earlier response.

Again, you’re ignoring that the IAEA’s entire purpose is non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Why deny compliance to third-party inspectors? If their endeavors were truly so innocent, then they had no reason to be uncooperative.

Sorry, I will not feel pity towards the Iranian government. I sympathize for their people, but their government can shove off.

I’m not arguing Israel’s or the US’s intent to destroy the Iranian government (and, for the record, the Iranian government is definitely shitty, even a notable portion of their population loathes it as well). That Israel–and the current US administration–has been wanting to attack Iran for any reason, even if the reason is dubious, is not in question.

What I’m arguing is that you said this was all to prevent Iran to have nuclear energy, which is untrue since Iran already has that. And it is also undeniable that Iran has not been complying with the IAEA’s inspectors since 2019. Why would the IAEA report that Iran is enriching uranium beyond what is needed for energy? Why is Iran not complying with their inspectors?

Those are questions worth asking and seeking the answers to. I do not agree they should be outright attacked over such things, but to pretend like Iran is completely innocent is ridiculous. It’s unfortunate that genocidal war criminals are running Israel and a corrupt group of fascists is running the US at the moment, but it is unsurprising that they are not seeking to resolve these issues peacefully.

What? Iran already has a nuclear power plant with a 2nd one beginning construction in 2019 and a 3rd one planned. And the International Atomic Energy Agency had reported that Iran was not complying with their inspectors on numerous occasions: https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164291

So wtf are you talking about?

I’m not saying they have/had nukes, but your story is just completely made up.

Are you referring to this photo?

Yes, he is definitely “groping” her here… Jfc.

And the kissing thing was definitely unacceptable, but hardly worth the amount of scandal it received.

She said Franken, a former “Saturday Night Live” cast member and liberal activist who was elected to the Senate in 2008 and won a second term in 2014, insisted on rehearsing the scene backstage.

“He said to me, ‘We need to rehearse the kiss.’ I laughed and ignored him. Then he said it again. I said something like, ‘Relax Al, this isn’t SNL. … We don’t need to rehearse the kiss’,” she wrote in a lengthy and detailed post on KABC’s website.

“He continued to insist, and I was beginning to get uncomfortable.”

Tweeden said she reluctantly agreed to rehearse the line leading up to the kiss and that’s when Franken “came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.”

“I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn’t be so nice about it the next time,” she said. “I felt disgusted and violated.”

Franken, through a spokesperson, responded: “I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann.”

Edit: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-al-franken-accused-forcibly-kissing-groping-woman-n821381

I will add that the GOP also amplified the issue 100x. The fact that Trump of all people was tweeting out against Franken is peak hypocrisy.

Chuck Schumer fucking sucks.

The fact they’re deferring to AI for targeting despite a significant error margin is horrifying, a fact made even worse considering the collateral damage of other innocent bystanders.

I agree it isn’t fair for others to put the ante on those that are sick, but I think your response is also unwarranted. The fact of the matter is, we all have something to lose. That’s the primary thing keeping mass civil unrest at bay. I will attend protests and vote, but I sure as hell am not going to start shooting bullets at politicians in the vain hope it’ll change anything while subsequently resulting in me going to jail for the rest of my life.

I mean, I agree with the rage and intent. But, under your system, there’s no balance of power, heh. That system would be corrupted in a few years vs the couple hundred it took to fully corrupt the current setup.

But I 100% agree that the time for being delicate to these extremists is long fucking past and their leaders all deserve the firing squad.

Trump hasn’t studied shit. His enablers and handlers have, though.