May 2014: Senator Bill Heffernan complains about the lack of metal detectors in parliament, tabling a pipe bomb he's brought with him as evidence
someone questioned the quality of the image and thought it might be AI and I'm here to confirm this is real
you know what you shouldnt do? constantly tell your child how expensive they are to take care of. because eventually, that child gets scared of asking for money, and doesnt feed themself at school, doesnt go places with their friends that require money, because she doesnt want to be expensive. it really does get into their minds, that theyre too much money and that they shouldnt do anything.
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Who the fuck is voting no and can you please give me your money? Sincerely someone who makes about $17,000 a year
Someone who makes $65k may not be "as poor" as someone who makes $17k a year but that doesn't make them rich. You're both still pretty damn poor.
They're only making about $31 an hour. This is how much my mom makes as a nurse, an "essential worker."
She has just enough money to pay her bills. She lives in a tiny, crappy house. Her car is ancient and falling apart. She doesn't have enough money to pay for all the healthcare she needs, including $20,000 of dental work she can never afford.
When I lived with her and she was a single mom, we could never afford the doctor and could barely afford food sometimes.
She will never be able to retire.
How tf do you think that is rich?
Frankly, my mom is still poor.
Your enemy isn't the person makes $65,000, or even some doctor or lawyer making $165,000. It's the people making billions off of everyone else's labor.
You can't eat the rich if you think every single person making more money than you is rich.
The working class is incredibly large. It's hard to survive on $65k and harder to survive on $17k. Neither one is comfortable.
The definition I tend to use is: if you lost your job and couldn't get another, are you fucked? If the answer is yes, you're not rich. Even if it's "I could last for several months on savings and whatnot, but yeah, after that I'd be fucked."
Rich people may have jobs and salaries, but they aren't dependent on them. "Rich" means you own things that make enough money by themselves that you don't have to have a job if you don't want to.
A pithy way to put it is: well-off people own things that cost a lot of money. Rich people own things that make a lot of money.
actually i love growing older and learning how i work as a person like realizing what kinds of fabrics feel best on my skin or what brand of yogurt i like best or how I want to be touched. watching myself change, enjoying brussel sprouts when I used to hate them as a child, understanding why I got angry in that one conversation 10 years ago… there are so many mysteries inside me that i have yet to unravel and there will always be more and sometimes i think maybe its all worth it
HEY, FELLOW HATERS OF INSANELY-BRIGHT CAR HEADLIGHTS, SOMEONE HAS STARTED A PETITION TO REGULATE THEM.
It's an official petition through the Australian Government's e-petition page, which means if it gets enough signatures, it will be tabled in government.
You do have to be an Australian citizen to sign it, BUT!!! PLEASE REBLOG THIS EVEN IF YOURE NOT, because these kind of things have a roll-on effect, and if Australia legislates LED headlights, then other countries may follow.
FYI, the petition asks only for your name and email, and once you've clicked the sign button, they'll send you an email to confirm your signature --- you need to click the confirmation link in the email to have your signature counted.
@batshit-auspol help some bros out
Lets gooooooooo
See also, "We're in a drought; conserve water!" Meanwhile, bottled water companies and golf courses for rich folk empty the aquifers.
I am not you. You are not me.
I believe in human rights—and in the radical notion that every human being has value. Whether they’re privileged, wealthy white men like yourself, or the rest of us—regular people trying to make it in the world with whatever mix of gifts, grit, or luck we were handed.
We, your constituency, matter. Every single one of us. Documented or undocumented, gay or straight, rich or poor, PhD or high school dropout, Democrat or Republican—we matter. And we will not be discarded.
For starters: we see you.
We see the ruthless slashing of the federal workforce. The gutting of public service infrastructure like it's a bloated carcass in your way. We see you starving universities and civil society organizations—those pesky pillars of democracy—of funding, or holding their futures hostage like a third-rate mob boss.
We see the “drill, baby, drill” smirk as you drain the lifeblood from the environment. The way you bully public servants, LGBTQ+ citizens, judges, Black and brown people, journalists—mocking them for sport, or worse, ruining their lives. We see you naming entire bodies of water, like a toddler with a Sharpie and no sense of scale.
We see all of it—for what it is. A grotesque attempt to consolidate power and control the narrative in ways this country has never seen—and never signed up for.
And we think: how narcissistic. How vile. How contrary to every decency we were ever taught—about dignity, integrity, and treating people like they matter.
And yes, we’re angry.
Do you know—really know—that tens of thousands of federal public servants show up every day with the same sense of duty and courage as any soldier? That researchers at the NIH, park rangers, humanitarian workers—they all serve this country with quiet valor?
Thanks to you, many now face a crisis they didn’t create. Laid off in an economy teetering on recession, they’re left scrambling to pay rent, cover healthcare, and put food on the table.
This is the carnage. Not the one you promised to end—the one you gleefully unleashed.
A USAID staffer you sent packing—someone who spent a career saving lives on the front lines of global crises—told me they felt like trash. Like a Vietnam vet coming home. Spat on. Shamed. Forgotten.
You might be wondering—who am I to write this? Just a nameless, middle-class civilian. One of the millions living under your gilded thumb. Who am I to address you—the self-anointed most powerful man on Earth?
I’m the great-granddaughter of a Jewish immigrant who fled Lithuania before World War II. One of the lucky ones. The rest of our family? Murdered in the Holocaust.
I’m the granddaughter of a man who grew up on food stamps in Depression-era Brooklyn, scraping by in a city that only valued the wealthy and well-fed. And on my mother’s side? My great-great-great-grandparents packed their belongings into wooden wagons and crossed the prairie to Nebraska, armed with grit, stubborn hope, and maybe a cow or two.
I’m a former journalist—sickened as you wage war on the press, eroding public trust with every lie, every sneer, every “fake news” jab, until truth itself is bleeding out on the floor.
And I’m an adjunct professor who struggles to look her students in the eye and promise them there’s still a future worth fighting for.
You look at people like me and see weakness. You slap labels on us—radical left lunatics, traitors, threats. You dream of jailing us, silencing us, bending us to your will.
But here’s the thing: we’re not going anywhere.
Because people like me—and everyone like me—we come from fighters. From survivors. From generations who stood up to tyranny, to hunger, to hopelessness, and kept going. My mothers, because I've been lucky enough to have two, taught me how to use my voice to help others.
And we will keep going.
You may think you’ve broken something in us. But all you’ve done is awaken what was always there: the will to resist, to speak, to rise. And rise we will.
I write to you today to affirm my place in the resistance. In the streets. In the courts. And in the hearts and minds of the people.
This is a call to action. A cry for solidarity from someone who wants to be part of the movement for democracy—not the vanity project you’re dressing up as one.
And I get it—it’s hard to show up. It’s easier to be lulled into a stupor by Netflix, or football, or Pilates. To believe the myth that democracy runs on autopilot. Many of us grew up in the richest, freest country on Earth—and for too long, we mistook that freedom for permanence. We took that freedom for granted. I'll own that I've been too tired. Too busy. Too afraid to speak out.
No more.
Because now we see what’s at stake.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
And we are alive with the spirit of our ancestors, whispering across generations: Never forget.
Source: An Open Letter to Donald Trump
Okay, y'all want something to watch that I hope gets picked up for a second season, because it's just that good and I want more, if you have the time to watch 4 hours worth of show...
Check out "Win or Lose"
It's a Pixar created mini series surrounding a softball team during the week leading up to state championships. Each episode focuses on a different character (not necessarily a member of the softball team) but tells a beautifully woven together story recapping events from their point of view (and the different styles of how they cope with anxiety)
Up to and including:
And those are just the main characters of each episode.
Like you want nuanced characters with a colorful cast, this is your show! The pacing is good, the humor is solid, the designs are cute and fun, the visuals are Pixar, and I cannot think of a single character I wasn't invested in. Heck, I want all of them to get their own episode. I don't care if it's groundhog day 132 as long as it's telling the story of a character in this world.
Also, yes, this is exactly how it feels to teach little league sports. All the way down to the vicious parents lmfao
There's tender parent/child relationships that repair the damage that's been happening throughout the show. There's siblings being siblings and annoying the hell out of each other while also being supportive. There's a bi-racial couple that does not include a white person that was incredibly sweet and charming (but be warned does fall apart for understandable reasons). There's girls supporting girls.
It's just a really good mini-series that is going to have you laughing one minute than crying the next.
I cannot sing its praises enough. If you can, check it out. You won't be sorry.
oh i forgot to put this here sillies
I'd just like to clarify some things about Senator Cory Booker's marathon Senate speech in protest of the present administration and everything they are doing to the American people.
Senator Booker was NOT allowed to sit down, eat, or use the bathroom during his speech. Sitting or leaving the room to use the bathroom would be considered yielding the floor. Eating would have interfered with his speaking and the person who has the senate floor must continue to speak, except when listening to questions that they will then answer.
He only took occasional sips of water.
The person who previously held the record for longest speech on the Senate floor did have bathroom breaks and also did things like read from the encyclopedia.
Senator Booker did not do that. His speech was to point out the damage that this administration is doing and he stayed on that subject.
Senator Booker's speech did reach many people. It wasn't a silly stunt that was done so that he could take the record for longest speech. He wanted to show the country that democrats will do something to bring attention to the problems we are facing. That democrats are listening to them.
Senator Cory Booker spoke for 25 hours and 4 minutes to "make good trouble."
also like, a Black man breaking Strom Thurmond's record is absolutely *chef's kiss*
for those who are too young to know about Strom, he was literally a white supremacist
