Ok, so does this kick off WW3 or are other nations just going to roll over and allow this to happen?

How the hell is this even a plausible timeline we’re living in?

Oh hey! I narrowly avoided this one. No SNAP here (yet)! Only SSDI, Medicaid/Medicare, and HUD housing 🤨

I once worked at a retail job where at one time I had to work the 7AM shift. I get there and I’m the only male and all three of the female coworkers were pregnant.

I learned more about the female body than any single man should ever know.

Wait…. Did I miss something? What’s going on in South Africa that we take on refugees? Shouldn’t we be, I dunno, accepting refugees from Gaza and Ukraine instead?

Stairway to Heaven / Highway to Hell

I agree with your version of entering hell being a trap door. Heaven would look like an alien abduction.

I think that’s very subjective to each person doing the recommending and also the person wanting said recommendations preferences.

Song; Hunger Strike by Temple Of The Dog

Bands: Linkin Park and Soundgarden

Kurt Cobain was the first death that really freaking hit me as a teenager, but I am not bothered by Nirvana.

When Dime got killed it took me a while to be able to listen to Pantera again. That was a damn gut punch.

Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington still haunt me to this day because I felt like I was seen when I listened to their music — especially Chester. I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety my whole life and have attempted 3 times (along with being an alcoholic). Those two bands just remind me of the dark times and I never want to go back.

Hunger Strike just because Cornell was part of that band and I loved the hell out of that song.

Bonus song: Bother by Stone Sour

Take everything I said above and multiply it by 100 with this song. Every word feels like a mirror on my soul and things get ugly

Ben Stiller

I just can’t. He makes me anxious just seeing him on screen. I so want to watch Meet the Fockers because DeNiro is one of my faves, I just can’t do it.

I dunno, I enjoyed the hell out of his acting in Sons of Anarchy

“There are 18 very important trading relationships, and we are currently negotiating with 17 of those trading partners,” Bessent told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government on Tuesday. “Approximately 97 or 98% of our trade deficit is with 15 countries, 18% of the countries are our major trading partners. And I would be surprised if we don’t have more than 80 or 90% of those wrapped up by the end of the year, and that may be much sooner.”

Uhhh…I’m not sure you understand the gravity of the self-made situation when you have major retailers saying shelves could be empty in weeks because of this stupidity.

“Obviously, we’re working as expeditiously as possible, but we’re not trying to make deals that are Band-Aids for the sake of making deals,” the official added.

From my standpoint as an American citizen of at least 3 generations, I don’t think balkanization will be happen here, just because the divisions aren’t neatly aligned as of 2020.

Cities tend to be Democrat, rural areas tend to be Republican – regardless of state. It’s not like the Civil War where it was more easily divided.

What’s more likely to happen is a full on economic collapse soon. Where things go from there is anyone’s guess – but I don’t see balkanization as a part of it. If Trump and team declare martial law and start doing even more human atrocities it might be the spark for WW3. Does that happen before China attacks Taiwan and start WW3?

Regardless of what happens, this is going to be ugly and a whole lot of people are going to die.

I don’t know if it’s necessarily a problem with AI, more of a problem with humans in general.

Hearing ONLY validation and encouragement without pushback regardless of how stupid a person’s thinking might be is most likely what creates these issues in my very uneducated mind. It forms a toxically positive echo-chamber.

The same way hearing ONLY criticism and expecting perfection 100% of the time regardless of a person’s capabilities or interests created depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation and attempts specifically for me. But I’m learning I’m not the only one with these experiences and the one thing in common is zero validation from caregivers.

I’d be ok with AI if it could be balanced and actually pushback on batshit crazy thinking instead of encouraging it while also able to validate common sense and critical thinking. Right now it’s just completely toxic for lonely humans to interact with based on my personal experience. If I wasn’t in recovery, I would have believed that AI was all I needed to make my life better because I was (and still am) in a very messed up state of mind from my caregivers, trauma, and addiction.

I’m in my 40s, so I can’t imagine younger generations being able to pull away from using it constantly if they’re constantly being validated while at the same time enduring generational trauma at the very least from their caregivers.

Yeah I saw the public broadcasting defunding one. To be honest, I lost track of all the things going on because I’ve been so focused on Social Security, Medicaid, and HUD because anything that happens to them affects me in some way more than anything else being on disability and in HUD housing.

I imagine once things come up in the Supreme Court we’ll see a flurry of activity regardless of their decisions

No, only states do. Although territories have members in congress, they can’t vote on any legislation. They have a government set up by Congress and pretty much oversee themselves with no ability to influence elections or laws in the states. The last territory to become a state was Hawaii. Territories are land grabs, statehood comes after that.

Canada would unfortunately be a land grab for the resources and nothing else for Trump. It would be ravaged and the people of Canada would suffer greatly for it without an ounce of ability to do anything about it.

I don’t think Trump is actually running the white house anymore. Watching the project 2025 checklist, it’s far too complete for Trump to be able to dictate any of it.

What bothers me more is that it’s been stuck at 42% complete for what seems like a month. Things have taken a nose dive compared to the first couple of months. Makes me wonder if we’re going to go from 42% to 80% with martial law all at once soon.

The military preys on the poor and desperate. It brain washes those that don’t know fully what they are getting involved with.

Exactly this. In 96/97 I was supposed to have gone to college and fucked that whole thing up and had to look for a job. I was having a really hard time trying to find a job and thought about the military.

Out of the blue I got a phone call from one of the military recruitment centers (you’re lucky I remember this at all, let alone what branch) telling me about military service since I had turned 18. I told them I was hearing impaired and wear hearing aids as well as legally blind in one eye. I was told I was not a good candidate and would be denied despite my willingness to take the offer since I couldn’t find a job fresh out of high school.

This comment connected this memory of that call and the Iraq War in a way I hadn’t thought of before – I no doubt know now that if I had been accepted into the military I would have gone to Iraq in 2003. At this moment, I am grateful that I have an unusually heavy burden of medical issues when I normally don’t find much to be positive about in life.

Thank you for this unintentional reminder.

Trump has said that although he was “confirmed at a Presbyterian church as a child, I now consider myself to be a non-denominational Christian.”

Uhhhh…he’s not even Catholic? That’s kinda a prerequisite for THE LEADER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!

He’s completely trolling, right? I mean it’s gotta be cover for something happening that he wants to distract people from. He can’t be that stupid that to think he can actually be Pope…can he?

Yeah I have the AirPods Pro and have tried out the transparency feature, specifically because Apple has been floating the idea around that these could technically act as hearing aids and I’m looking for alternatives that might be cheaper now that I’m on disability.

It reminds me of when hearing aids first came out when I was a kid, only not quite as good. But you get the idea with the frequencies and also background noise. Go into a loud coffee shop with them on and try to carrying on a conversation with someone only using the transparency feature.

For someone with slightly declining hearing it might be ok. For me I have mild-to-moderate hearing loss and I have to use an actual hearing aid, not a hearing device which is what all these “hearing aids” that are cheap are. I have to order them through an audiologist and they are not cheap and barely covered by insurance (most of which won’t cover them if you don’t use THEIR cheaper brand). But hey, at least they’re kinda covered now. For 40 years or so of my life it was all $4,000 - $6,000 out-of-pocket every 5-7 years depending on how long they lasted and if they could be repaired.

So it’s the plague’s empty toilet paper section only store-wide? Great…

I wear hearing aids and air dryers annoy the hell out of me because they’re so loud. Almost as much as leaf blowers annoy me.

Hearing aids don’t have the ability to filter noises so it’s like plugging a microphone into headphones and trying to carry on conversations. Mine can now reduce loud noises a little bit so they don’t damage my already horrible hearing further but that wasn’t the case when I had them as a kid and air dryers started getting more popular, that shit hurt.