KindnessIsPunk

At least you don't have a co-worker that messages you Happy Fri-yay! and Happy Fri-yay eve!

alright between this and the border control bill, I'm really starting to miss Trudeau

I eat them.

Runs in the family I guess, and by family I mean Republican caucus.

TL;DR:

GOP legislators snuck $2M into the budget for the National Child Identification Program run by Kenny Hansmire who sells fingerprint/DNA kits hyped as tools to find missing children.

This is the second time lawmakers tried funding this scam after ProPublica/Tribune exposed it in 2023.

This is after GOP Sen. Donna Campbell in a 2021 bill tried to funnel $5.7M to Hansmire’s company.

Child safety specialists say the kits are wasting time and money that could go to actual protections.

The current U.S. administration is outright hostile to pretend otherwise is dangerous. Sure, the president borrows from Vladimir Putin’s playbook, undermining us with soft power projection. But that shouldn’t downplay the severity of the threat.

Between the constant "51st state" rhetoric, repeated tariff threats, and strong-arming us into footing the bill for contracts that’ll inevitably funnel money back into his/their pockets, anyone who doesn’t see this as dangerously aggressive is delusional.

You're right that media coverage needs to be scrutinized however I'd argue it's easier said than done. We’re barraged by a constant onslaught of information far more than we have the time or energy to process. This problem is compounded by our tribal tendencies, which politicians exploit by flooding the discourse with empty controversies while quietly pushing through more sinister actions.

This dynamic also helps explain why disadvantaged populations are often less informed or politically engaged. When daily life is a struggle for survival, scrutinizing this week’s partisan bill or police skirmish inevitably falls lower on the priority list.

TL;DR;

Trump admin guts the Biden-era EMTALA guidance which forced hospitals to provide life-saving abortions in medical emergencies.

CMS claims it’ll still enforce EMTALA only if the fetus is also at risk. Translation: Pregnant people’s health no longer matters.

SCOTUS’s non-rulings left ER docs guessing if they’ll face prison for doing their jobs.

This isn’t "states’ rights" it’s state-sanctioned femicide. The admin’s own CMS admits the goal is to "rectify confusion" (read: intimidate hospitals into compliance).

Link

TL;DR:

CDC vaccine expert Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos resigned via email. The resignation email called out RFK Jr. for his unilateral order stripping COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy kids, bypassing the CDC’s advisory committee.

Her resignation email criticized the administration for abandoning the vulnerable. The directive was announced via Twitter before the CDC had formally been made aware.

Link to the article that doesn't bug you to disable your ad block.

I used to struggle with this, I was in a friend group that was needlessly abrasive and hostile and it quickly became apparent that speaking up was never going to make anyone happier and even after I left that friend group for it's obvious toxicity the behavior stuck with me it took a long time to break that.

I couldn't agree more unfortunately it just feels like the only real solution would be one at the government policy level

I can't imagine trying to pay with cash anymore, stores aren't really set up for it anymore

we only maintain cash symbolically