This is horrifying.

It’s sad that we have not been able to yet expand the world’s attention from Palestine to Cuba. They suffer together.

Walkin’ on the Sun, by Smashmouth

It’s from '97, but for anyone who wants to know what the end of the twentieth century sounded like, this, imo, is it.

Source?

I’ve just started having these conversations with my mom, because her mom just passed away at 99.

My mom isn’t as temperamental as you’re describing, but she doesn’t like talking about death. However cleaning out her mom’s old condo has forced her to think about it, and that’s the lens of the conversations.

It’s not going to be one conversation, btw. I think that’s the key thing to understand: you’re not trying to figure out how to talk to them about end of life planning one time, you’re trying to figure out how to talk to them about full-life planning maturely from now on.

I would focus on specific issues rather then a broad concept; relate it to things that others are going through as a reference point; discuss it through the lens of ensuring a long, dignified life instead of about the end part; and try to offer appealing solutions rather than problems that they need to solve.

For instance, ‘I was just talking to a friend who was visiting their dad, and he had a bad slip moving trash to the curb and is now thinking of moving into an retirement village. I’ve always imagined you guys living here forever, and I wanted to check if that’s what you guys want to do too, and if there are any renovations you’d be interested in to make it more comfortable.’

That’s very cool.

I can speak from experience here, because this actually happened to me!

My partner (born female) and I married in our late 20s. He was already casually gender non-confirming before we married, and I described myself as hetero-flexible. His transition was rather gradual, with no strict coming-out event, but it was something we discussed openly. After he began presenting as male on work settings, I began identifying myself as bisexual.

It worked out very well. As the person above noted, you can really call yourself whatever. If you wanted to, you could identify as straight with an exception made for a single person. Although I would advise against it, as your partner might take some offense, and it confuses people if you identify in a way that conflicts with your long term partnership. Most co-workers assume I’m gay because I’m married to a man, and I don’t bother to correct them.

Sometimes it comes up, because my husband and I have a biological son together, which isn’t a secret. Sometimes when taking about him and genetics, it leads me to explaining all of this. But as you can see, it’s unusual, but not that hard to explain.

Where do you work? How hard is it to find a new job? How likely are they to fire you if you stand up to them?

The best case scenario would be that you and the entire staff stand up to HR and say that you were all led to believe this was permitted policy, and that if they’re going to declare retroactively that it isn’t, you all want a compensation raise because you considered this a job benefit.

Obviously you shouldn’t do this, though, unless you feel like you’ve got a strong position and you’re not afraid to find a new job.

If you’re looking for the safest option, I’d go with lie and deny: deny having eaten what you ate. Deny having confessed. Deny that you even work there if you have to.

Don’t bother throwing your coworkers under the bus. This is very unlikely to change HR’s reaction. They will punish you the same either way, they just might punish others too. There’s no benefit to you, so either stand up and fight or deny deny deny and promise you’ll be good.

They’re also different enough that people will disagree on taste.

The worldbuilding of the expanse is head and shoulders better than Firefly. But Firefly’s strength was characters: the writing and acting made the crew so loveable. I like the crew of the Roc, but I never felt the same level of connection to them.

I wouldn’t bother pitting then against each other. They’re very different, but if you like Firefly, you should check out The Expanse.

Personally, though, I recommend the books. I watched the first few episodes of the show first and was underwhelmed, but then checked out the books and was hooked right away.

First: It’s not like ice are going to walk up to white girls with blue hair and be like, ‘No voting for you, liberal.’ They don’t need to assess anyone to guess how they’re going to vote: the plan is to just reduce overall turnout at voting sites in places with a lot of Democratic voters.

The way I expect this to go is for Maga folks to drive into big cities and station themselves outside voting sites in poor, non-white neighborhoods and pretend they’re ‘looking out for non citizens who might try to vote’. The goal is to create hassles and long lines so that people who have limited time decide to leave instead of wait.

If you are able to arrive early and don’t mind waiting you’ll be fine. But a better response is to contact your county and volunteer as an election worker. If you do, you can help enforce distance requirements for observers, make sure there are no bottlenecks, make sure there is seating available, keep the line moving in good spirits, etc.

If you just make voting smooth and efficient as a volunteer, they lose.

You’re welcome to your opinion, but what’s funny is that I live in Oakland in a household of three on a joint income of $160k. We live in a two bedroom apartment near Lake Merritt that costs $2500 per month. And we’re pretty comfortable.

It sounds like you and I are neighbors. If you’re having a harder time than I am I don’t want to invalidate your experience. But not everyone who feels financially constrained is poor, imo.

I saw it, and it said that a household of eight living on an income of $200k would be “low income”.

First, “low income” is not poor, either legally or in the informal definition of the word. Even according to the chart you’re referencing, $200k is far above the poverty line. It’s more than twice the cutoff for “extremely low income”.

Second, this is also based on an absurd qualifier: It’s only “low” if you’re trying to support seven dependents.

By this logic, $300k a year is poor too (if you’re supporting a household of 12), and a million a year is also poor (if you’re supporting a household of 40 in San Francisco).

This is silly. If your monthly income is $16k you aren’t poor.

You can still be broke. You can be in debt. But no: you are not poor.

I’m not saying that you can’t run out of money if you make $200k. I’m saying that it’s not poor.

If earning well above average in an area with a high concentration of high earners can be poor, the word means nothing.

$200k is not poor in San Francisco.

It’s still significantly above average, even in San Francisco.

I mean no offense, but I don’t think this is true.

I don’t think anyone who makes $200,000 a year is considered poor under legal definitions or under the casual common use of the term.

You could make $200k and be in debt. You could make $200k and be in a precarious situation. But I don’t think you can make $200k and qualify as in poverty, either legally or in the court of public opinion.

Okay, but that’s not what poor means.

No?

This question makes no sense.

There’s a short story by Andy Weir called “The Egg”, and the premise – spoiler alert – is that every human being is a reincarnation of the same single soul cycling through reality over and over inhabiting each person. So every person on Earth – parents, their children, bosses and employees, your best friend, your lover, your rival, every politician and their opponent and every voter too are all fundamentally the same person interacting with themselves.

And if one can get past their hatred for members of a genocidal cult, it’s a profound metaphor. If we appreciate all creatures as linked, Every Nazi was unwittingly murdering their own brother. Every American in Vietnam didn’t realize that the person on the other end of the bullet was secretly their own father. And this doesn’t just hold for the bad guys: every American who shot a Nazi was killing a version of themselves.

War is hell. The Israelis got sold a lie, that it was possible to poison a hand that you didn’t like, as if poison can be isolated to one part of a whole. The mission has been one of mutual death this whole time, and so many of them only discover it after they sold their soul.

I want peace so badly. Not vengeance, even for the most wicked. I understand why people want vengeance, but all I want is peace, equality, and dignity universally. I feel like I’m watching a civilization kill itself.

I would second all of this, except for the suggestion to delete it. It’s a common question.

To reiterate, “biologically male” means very little scientifically. Sex in biology is far more complicated than most people understand.

It doesn’t matter, because when we discuss gender socially, we’re not describing reproductive capabilities. We don’t stop calling women women when they go through menopause, for instance.

If someone wants to debate it, say no thanks. It’s a waste of your time. If someone asks in good faith, you can explain it if you feel capable, or shrug and say you’re not really sure, but it doesn’t matter.

Wow. I knew lint is flammable, but I kinda assumed spontaneous ignition in a dryer was a myth. Good to know.