Ah, I stand corrected.

That’s even weirder. At least the boys in my middle school had the excuse of being, well, middle-school-aged boys.

Awww, you just made me feel respect toward a gym teacher for the first time in my life.

My middle school held an assembly over a fad of “dick tapping” that had taken over the boys in the school. Apparently it had become “a thing” for them to just reach over and slap their friends’ penises, and it got so bad that we needed a damn assembly.

All us girls were extremely confused. We legit thought most of the boys in our school must have secretly been gay if they wanted to touch each other’s dicks so badly. Even if the boys weren’t gay, we figured they must be pretty frickin’ stupid to play such a dumb “game.” A lot of us had crushes evaporate in an instant, and I for one never looked at the boys in my class the same again.

Nowadays, I know better than to assume one’s sexuality from such things. However, I never stopped being extremely confused about that game.

Wild, I’ve lived in the US my whole life and never heard that. Interesting.

Umm. I’m sorry, but it looks like we’ve got a misunderstanding? I’d simply never heard the word “billion” shortened to “billy” before, and I was asking where you got that term from. (Though now I’m even more curious what you thought I was asking.)

I can only imagine how many foreign-born lawyers exist among their alumni, who care personally enough about this matter to fight pro-bono.

50 Billy

I’m curious. Is this a new term, a thing Australians say, a reference from some media I missed, or just something that’s fun to say?

He did leave as an utter failure - not because of what he accomplished or didn’t accomplish, but because he was already an utter failure of a human being the day he arrived in the White House.

I thought it was a joke about the software making work much less efficient?

Sigh I’ve heard my parents and their neighbors complain about “all the Jews” buying houses to rent to “all the Mexicans” who now live in their neighborhood. (Hint: there is no way that 100% of the “Mexicans” they refer to are actually Mexican. But being so nuanced isn’t a skill racists tend to have.)

I hate houses being bought up by big landlords, too, and I know that being constantly bugged by realtors (who just want to turn around and rent those houses out anyway) is something that bothers those particular home owners. I would be great if we could talk about those problems for what they are, without bringing in people’s religion, culture, or national origin. The only war is a class war, and although even these people agree that a class war of some type exists, it seems that some people love to hate so much that it just gets added to a pile of things to hate.

It’s almost like they’re the opposite of polyamorous, some kind of poly-misery, where they can’t hate just one group. Ugh.

Yesterday I drove into my home town, where I grew up. It’s been hard to go there since MAGA erupted. In a usually-blue state, my home town (and the surrounding area) goes deep red. I wish I could say it was inexplicable, but I grew up around these people - their current authoritarian boot-licking matches up with everything I always knew about them.

How wonderful this news could’ve been to hear on the TV 12 hours ago, when I was back in that town, sitting in a waiting room. There was only one other person in the room, a middle-aged white guy who kept loudly saying things in response to the news on the TV. I’m pretty sure he was just trying to chat with someone, but I know how easy it is to accidentally set some people off, and I’m not about to make small talk about the news with a stranger in that town.

So I ignored him. He kept making unsolicited commentary. I kept reading my phone. Thankfully, someone eventually entered the room with a dog, and that gave the man a chance to start a conversation about the good boi, which the dog’s owner happily obliged. But now I wonder what he would have said if this story had been on the news at that time. It might have actually been entertaining.

Which is why we should all be joining up with supportive local community groups, like, yesterday. Under this administration, one should best assume that there is no official safety net anymore. The dictator-in-chief can sign an executive order and remove everything on a whim.

We’re going to be reliant on our neighbors in a way we haven’t seen in generations. Get involved and start making connections now. There are organizations across the country that serve their own communities.

One quick note - be mindful of how those organizations are funded. If they rely on government funding, that means they’re beholden to the government. To this government. Which can choose to withhold funding or to attach ridiculous strings to it. On the other hand, if they’re completely donation-based by the local community, they can remain faithful to their members’ interests and keep running regardless of which politicians are in charge. Just something to keep in mind.

I imagining a mix of grunge and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Not sure how that would work, but I’m sure you’d find a way to rock it.

Hint: if it’s a thing that unions push for, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t exist in the U.S.

It’s not a coincidence at all, this place absolutely hates empowered workers.

You’re right, there are definitely individuals who do it all as performance, like how Boris Johnson purposely made himself look shabby as part of his image.

I don’t believe that’s the case for every politician. I do, however, believe there are more “men behind the curtain,” so to speak, who we don’t see but who know exactly what they’re doing. Even if those on camera are fools, the people making up “the face” of the organization aren’t necessarily the same people making up “the brain.” Which brings us back to your point - it’s important to pay attention to more than the façade these people express. The oligarchs pulling the strings are well-practiced in this game.

I don’t know about that, I’ll be fine until someone with no comprehension of “right of way” nearly kills me. Those moments usually create a string of angry swears that would make a sailor proud.

I feel you. I have to keep reminding myself that a lot of my anxiety isn’t mine - it’s my mom’s. I just inherited the behaviors that she picked up, that in turn were created in reaction to my (long-gone) toxic grandfather’s abuse.

Generational trauma probably lurks behind all of us, deeprooted and insidious, propping up maladaptive behaviors that go unexamined simply because they are considered “normal” in our families.

My sapphic brain wasn’t tuned to understand that quote properly at first. Instead of seeing an insult, I thought, “Wow, that sounds like a busy, but amazing, morning.”

At least he is married to a man. All Melania has is a geriatric toddler.