Chit-Chat: The Feels

[Anela]

3 minutes ago, kittykat said:

The Walgreens near our old house in Shoreline had vaccinations too.  Got all of ours plus our 5yo when she qualified.  It was super easy.  

I don't have insurance, but I'll check them out today, if we're near one. I have soup in the freezer, and more in the fridge. Also, tea, ramen, liquid IV, tylenol, etc, if I feel bad, should I be able to get it. 

[ProudMary]

2 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

What's that saying?  They know just enough to make them dangerous.  I get it.  The Biden administration wasn't doing what they wanted them to do.  Their mistake was thinking Trump would do better. 

They had no idea what the Biden administration was accomplishing. They had no interest in finding out. Just the Infrastructure Act and the Chips Act by themselves, are more than most presidents have accomplished in their entire terms of service. I was furious down here in Redland in that the Republican House Reps were actually campaigning on all the funds that were flowing into the state from those bills, when all of them had voted against both!

20 minutes ago, Trini said:

When the bird flu hits epidemic levels (it's coming y'all), it's going to so much worse because of this administration's anti-science, anti-accountability stance; and the price of eggs is only going one problem from that.

More than anything else, this has me the most concerned. He pulled the US out of the World Health Organization via EO on Day One. The US had been leading the charge within WHO on H5N1. I'm not saying that scientists from other nations can't pick up the baton, but everything now needs to be restructured! And then, he froze all NIH research grants via another EO.

As of today, we're not aware of any cases of human-to-human transmission yet, but this virus is mutating rapidly and has already killed several humans who have acquired the virus from handling infected birds or dairy cattle.

If you have pets that spend time outside, you should be taking precautions. Here's a good NPR article. The section about protecting your pets is near the end

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/12/30/nx-s1-5239924/bird-flu-q-a-what-to-know-to-help-protect-yourself-and-your-pets

[Eri]

4 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

What's that saying?  They know just enough to make them dangerous.  I get it.  The Biden administration wasn't doing what they wanted them to do.  Their mistake was thinking Trump would do better. 

I don't think they made a mistake. I theorize that some voters lied to themselves or fell under the propaganda. Trump wasn't an unknown entity - did they really need to wait for him to be president for him to show VILE of a human being he is?  The US was already funding military weapons for Israel - well more of that is about to head there and it is becoming more likely that Palestinians will lose their land so....nothing changed? Was it worth it "punishing" Biden/Harris out of spite? Is it disturbing how he seems so comfortable discussing ethnic cleansing while the world remains silent and the media treats it as if it's a completely ordinary topic? It certainly seems that way, but not surprising.

Still, it's incredibly frustrating :(

Edited January 26 by Eri

[Dimity]

2 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

As of today, we're not aware of any cases of human-to-human transmission yet, but this virus is mutating rapidly and has already killed several humans who have acquired the virus from handling infected birds or dairy cattle.

Now come on, folks, if it's anything comparable to Covid or similar viruses it will mainly affect the old and the already health compromised.  And as any Republican leader will tell you  grandparents are just thrilled to die if it means a strong economy. 

[peacheslatour]

We stopped feeding our cat raw food after this started happening-

More than a dozen cats have been killed or sickened by bird flu that is spreading in raw food products, the Food and Drug Administration says, prompting a federal probe into how the virus got into the pet food supply chain. 

"The FDA is aware of reports of death or illness associated with uncooked food in 13 domestic cats in eight households, 1 exotic cat in one household, and an unknown number of animals at two sanctuaries for large felids," an FDA official said in a statement. 

Cases have been in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington state, the FDA said.

[SoMuchTV]

3 hours ago, Dimity said:

Without wishing to sound in the least Pollyannaish has there been anything at all that Trump has done in the last week (dear god has it only been a week?) that could be construed as a positive "this is good for the country" thing?  Because I'm drawing a blank.

Well, I learned that all embryos are genetically female at birth conception, which was news to me.  But then Snopes partially debunked that, so I guess I'm back to square one.

Edited January 26 by SoMuchTV
conception, not birth; I guess I learned even less than I'd thought

[peacheslatour]

18 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

Yes, I'd heard about this, too. I'm glad your baby is being protected. ❤️

People need to be paying some attention to bird flu, not panicking, just remaining informed. Of course, the right will say, "The libs are going crazy again." 

Intelligent people read and verify sources.

We never let her outside because we have a busy street in front of our house and there are coyotes, raptor birds and raccoons around here. We try to do everything we can to keep her safe. There are lots of good cat foods around, we figure, why take any chances?

[Annber03]

Our cats are full on indoor cats, too. 

[Trini]

50 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

As of today, we're not aware of any cases of human-to-human transmission yet, but this virus is mutating rapidly and has already killed several humans who have acquired the virus from handling infected birds or dairy cattle.

Even if it doesn't become a widespread problem among humans, just the repercussions among the animals grown for foods is going to have ripple effects. 

Edited January 26 by Trini

[Blergh]

I'm putting it in this sub-Forum because I've needed to vent this for a long time (and I know it's just a tiny drop in the deluge that made up the perfect storm). However:

 

I always said that no good would come from glorifying, and lionizing the Palpatine and the Dark Side with cruelty, depravity and deception  celebrated while all the Jedi and all the heroes along with the concepts of  kindness, compassion, mercy and empathy got belittled, demeaned and reduced to punching bags by virtually every production, publication,etc. after Return of the Jedi. 

Add this to so many other entertainment productions that have celebrated  evil  (with zero comeuppances or triumphs by good) in the last few decades and then  why should we should be surprised that so many have sided with it  re their own lives.

 

BTW, to keep this from being a total rant and bummer, I also would beseech anyone with access to first edition historical books, documents,videos,etc. to SECURE them as carefully as possible so we have the means to teach later generations even if those in charge would want to destroy them- and teach as many younger generations as possible the actual facts  do they can make their own individual decisions based on what had actually happened to the best of documented knowledge- as opposed to lopsided propaganda!

 

 

[Bastet]

14 hours ago, anony.miss said:

Trump's answer to Gaza  is getting rid of the Palestinians who live there. Ship them out like crates of oranges. Erase their history.  Build Trump hotels on the beach. Luxury vacays for broligarchs. Problem solved.

Yep; he said - upon already backing away from the ceasefire he'd taken credit for just a couple of days prior, saying he's "not confident" it's going to remain in place (well, of course not; his asshole buddy Netanyahu is ignoring the other ceasefire, I don't know why anyone thinks this one will stop his genocidal campaign):

“You know, Gaza is interesting. It’s a phenomenal location: on the sea, the best weather. You know, everything is good. It’s like — some beautiful things could be done with it. But it’s very interesting. But some fantastic things could be done with Gaza.”

His only "concern" for Gaza is if his grifting family can build a resort there.

[peacheslatour]

Hope you weren't counting on roses this Valentine's Day.  From Politico-

 

President Donald Trump said Sunday he is slapping an emergency 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from Colombia after the country’s president turned away two U.S. military aircraft full of detained Colombian migrants.

Sunday’s action could be the first legal test of Trump’s threat to impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners, which he likely has power to do under emergency authorities. He did not specify the legal basis for the tariffs.

[Eri]

30 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

Well, I learned that all embryos are genetically female at birth, which was news to me.  But then Snopes partially debunked that, so I guess I'm back to square one.

!!

But this means Trump is our first female president. Groundbreaking, someone should tell him 😉

Edited January 26 by Eri

[Blergh]

5 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Hope you weren't counting on roses this Valentine's Day.  From Politico-

 

President Donald Trump said Sunday he is slapping an emergency 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from Colombia after the country’s president turned away two U.S. military aircraft full of detained Colombian migrants.

Sunday’s action could be the first legal test of Trump’s threat to impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners, which he likely has power to do under emergency authorities. He did not specify the legal basis for the tariffs.

I also hope everyone's stocked up on coffee for a while.. .

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, Blergh said:

I also hope everyone's stocked up on coffee for a while.. .

Good thing I bought all my cocaine on Black Friday!

[ProudMary]

8 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Hope you weren't counting on roses this Valentine's Day.  From Politico-

 

Roses? How about coffee and chocolate? That should make for lots of happy, upbeat Americans. /s

[anony.miss]

22 hours ago, MostlyContent said:

As a Republican, I will wait a while to see how some of the concerns expressed here today shake out.  Admittedly, it does seem like fear mongering to me right now.

Perhaps what you label as "fear mongering" is just people using a different threat assessment for Trump. As a Republican, your party ran a convicted felon who was also found criminally liable for sexual assault. To millions of Independent and Democratic voters, Trump's criminal history alone was a three alarm fire; not fear mongering, but disgust at his lack of humanity, morality and trustworthiness. Unfit to serve anything but a jail sentence.

And after this last week in office - milking fools for meme coin millions,  pardoning violent January sixers bent on revenge,  attacking a Bishop for speaking of Christian values, pushing through an admitted chronic drunk as head of the military, announcing he wants to clear Gaza like a lawn of grass cuttings, etc, etc  - there's no need for many of us familiar with this horrible human being to "wait a while". Given the repugnant things Trump did in the past, the rapid escalation of degradation this time around,  he's made it clear what his agenda is. Chaos. Revenge.  Expanding American territory by hook or crook. And fuck the price of eggs.  What you call "fear mongering" is just many of us calmly assessing the evidence in front of us.

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters."  Donald Trump, 2016.

Edited January 26 by anony.miss

[DrSpaceman73]

Colombia

Canada

Panama 

Denmark

Who's next on the 'how can I piss off a close regional ally?' List ?

[bluegirl147]

2 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Colombia

Canada

Panama 

Denmark

Who's next on the 'how can I piss off a close regional ally?' List ?

The next country that refuses to take deportees.

The reason Trump is mad at Colombia is they simply asked him to treat immigrants respectfully.

Meanwhile he is asking Egypt and Jordan to take more Palestinian refugees.   He doesn't  want any refugees here but expects other counties to take them.  

He is going to end up pissing off every other country in the world.  And what is he going to have to show for it? MAGA's adoration?  His appeal doesn't go far beyond red state America.

[DrSpaceman73]

1 hour ago, Anela said:

I got to say what I wanted to say to a former friend who is MAHA, and I did it politely, even though it pissed me off that she responded to something I posted years ago, with far-right propaganda. 

Now I need to get out of here for a while. Cabin fever is dialed up to eleven.  

Oh, I didn't find a way to get my covid vaccine, because my dad was working all the time, and I wasn't getting out of here. I need to contact my county health services again.

Yep.

Also, the people who claim to not be political, always share far-right propaganda. They are political, and they only believe things that demonize liberals. 

The ones that annoy me are the ones that claim 'I'm not really a republican. I consider myself an independent ' but all they ever post is far right trump propaganda. 

And I went off on one guy on Facebook.  All trump and far right. He's a preacher or religious figure.  Then trump is elected and he posts a religious based article about how ok trump is mow ekected we can now point out his faults and basically after the fact saying we don't 'really' support all his actions and behavior. 

 

Omg....was so pissed and told him using your religion to support and promote this guy and then once elected saying you don't agree with ALL he does is so freaking feckless and Weasley and basically he can eat my poo

[peacheslatour]

What are the kids gonna say when Trump demands they change the name of Molly of Denali?

[ProudMary]

Not just Colombia. Brazilian immigrants to the US have been deported to Brazil, handcuffed and deprived of food and water.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-demand-explanations-degrading-treatment-deportees-2025-01-26/

The extent of maltreatment has been reported in Brazilian news sources, in Portuguese.

https://revistaforum.com.br/direitos/2025/1/26/brasileiros-deportados-relatam-agresses-de-agentes-dos-eua-em-voo-iriam-nos-matar-173029.html

Edited to add:  In English via Yahoo. The were handcuffed and bound, no food or water. No AC on a four-hour flight. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/brazil-slams-us-dozens-deportees-065725467.html

Edited January 26 by ProudMary

[Dimity]

35 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

He is going to end up pissing off every other country in the world.

Unless it's a country already being led by one of his heroes.  The guys he wants to be.  No prizes for guessing which countries I mean 😠. 

17 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

The were handcuffed and bound, no food or water. No AC on a four-hour flight. 

Handcuffed AND bound?  So, America, feeling great again now?  Shameful.  Absolutely shameful.

[bluegirl147]

6 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Unless it's a country already being led by one of his heroes.  The guys he wants to be.  No prizes for guessing which countries I mean 😠. 

 

They don't like him either.  He is a useful tool to them. Once he stops being useful who knows what happens

 

[ProudMary]

17 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Handcuffed AND bound?  So, America, feeling great again now?  Shameful.  Absolutely shameful.

Yes. From the Yahoo story I linked above:

Edgar Da Silva Moura, a 31-year-old computer technician, was on the flight, after seven months in detention in the United States.

"On the plane they didn't give us water, we were tied hands and feet, they wouldn't even let us go to the bathroom," he told AFP.

"It was very hot, some people fainted."

[Annber03]

21 minutes ago, Dimity said:

Handcuffed AND bound?  So, America, feeling great again now?  Shameful.  Absolutely shameful.

So Kamala's laugh is "weird" and that's why people can't vote for her (well, that's the excuse they use to avoid stating why they REALLYl didn't want to vote for her, anyway)...

...but this is apparently totally fine with them. 

And Trump supporters can't figure out why the rest of us despise them and want nothing to do with them. 

[bluegirl147]

6 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

So Kamala's laugh is "weird" and that's why people can't vote for her (well, that's the excuse they use to avoid stating why they REALLYl didn't want to vote for her, anyway)...

...but this is apparently totally fine with them. 

And Trump supporters can't figure out why the rest of us despise them and want nothing to do with them. 

The cruelty is the point with them.   Regarding immigrants. Abortion bans.  Rolling back LGTBQ protections. They see Tump as some sort of savior to right all the wrongs done against white Christians "traditional" Americans.  The rest of us see him as a spiteful petty wannabe strongman.  The only strong thing about him is that smell they say emanates off him

 

[Dimity]

One of my sister's shared a meme on FB saying "if you were paying $35. for your insulin and voted for Felon-47, you must be happy you're now going to pay $600."

Is that true?  I am hopeful it is an exaggeration.

[tearknee]

Sarcastic humor. Same as the joke about the ending of Jaws: The Revenge being shot on a budget of 47$ (which far too many people took at face value...).

[peacheslatour]

[peacheslatour]

Trump just posted this about slapping Columbia with tariffs.

 

[Bastet]

Colombia's president told Trump about himself, saying Colombia would welcome home deported migrants on civilian planes, not via military aircraft treated as criminals.  Petro said even though there were 15,660 Americans without legal immigration status in Colombia, he would never carry out a raid to return handcuffed Americans to the U.S.  "We are the opposite of the Nazis," he wrote.

He also countered the tariff threat by saying, okay, fine we'll impose 50% tariffs on U.S. goods.  Week two hasn't even started yet and Trump has managed to provoke a trade war.

[FilmTVGeek80]

And just like the Bishop who simply asked FIC to have basic compassion, all the Columbian president is asking is for FIC to treat these people like human beings. Not letting them have food, water, or letting them go to the bathroom. It’s worse than barbaric. Instead of complying, he’s just doing the dumbest thing possible because his delusional ass thinks he looks tough. Never mind the ever present hypocrisy of the whiner who constantly complained about the inhumane conditions that the J6 convicted criminals had to deal with (though notice he never campaigned on fixing the prison system for everyone - only his “hostages” deserved to be treated with decency) doing worse to the people he’s deporting. 

[bluegirl147]

16 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Colombia's president told Trump about himself, saying Colombia would welcome home deported migrants on civilian planes, not via military aircraft treated as criminals.  Petro said even though there were 15,660 Americans without legal immigration status in Colombia, he would never carry out a raid to return handcuffed Americans to the U.S.  "We are the opposite of the Nazis," he wrote.

 

This shows Trump is being unnecessarily an asshole. He could have alerted Colombia and sent the deportees on civilian airlines but he wanted to be a dick and treat the deportees like they don't deserve any respect.  And I'm sure his base is cheering him on.  

[Lugal]

Just a quick google search tells me the US imports 20% of its coffee from Colombia (as well as crude oil, minerals, lime and cement).

Savor your coffee America, it's about to get a lot more expensive.

[Bastet]

6 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

he wanted to be a dick and treat the deportees like they don't deserve any respect.

Using military planes is also part of his "national emergency" bullshit, where he's trying to classify immigration as a national security issue, allowing him to invoke extraordinary powers.

[Annber03]

Boy, so much for that concern about the price of eggs, huh? 

[tearknee]

36 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Trump just posted this about slapping Columbia with tariffs.

 

A detective from a film noir? ;)

[bluegirl147]

5 minutes ago, Lugal said:

Just a quick google search tells me the US imports 20% of its coffee from Colombia (as well as crude oil, minerals, lime and cement).

Savor your coffee America, it's about to get a lot more expensive.

Cement?  Isn't that what his big beautiful wall is supposed to be built with?

The mam is not only a menace he is a stupid menace.

[isalicat]

3 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Hope you weren't counting on roses this Valentine's Day.  From Politico-

 

President Donald Trump said Sunday he is slapping an emergency 25 percent tariff on all goods imported from Colombia after the country’s president turned away two U.S. military aircraft full of detained Colombian migrants.

Sunday’s action could be the first legal test of Trump’s threat to impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners, which he likely has power to do under emergency authorities. He did not specify the legal basis for the tariffs.

All the roses around here (central coastal California) are either grown here or in Ecuador (the supermarket ones are all from Ecuador). Where do the Colombian roses go? (seriously asking out of wanting to know...) And most coffees are blends nowadays, not pure Colombian either (I prefer beans from Jamaica and Hawaii, but Dominican Republic and Ethiopian coffee is also great).

[Dimity]

19 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Boy, so much for that concern about the price of eggs, huh? 

As has been noted if he keeps slapping tariffs as his way of punishing countries that don't do his bidding eggs are going to be the least of people's worries at the grocery store going forward.  What a complete and utter fool he is - but then no more foolish than the "starting January  20 we can afford to eat" crowd that was gloating over the Internet last week.  Those memes and posts didn't age well.

Edited January 27 by Dimity

[bluegirl147]

8 minutes ago, isalicat said:

All the roses around here (central coastal California) are either grown here or in Ecuador (the supermarket ones are all from Ecuador). Where do the Colombian roses go? (seriously asking out of wanting to know...) And most coffees are blends nowadays, not pure Colombian either (I prefer beans from Jamaica and Hawaii, but Dominican Republic and Ethiopian coffee is also great).

I won't be surprised if coffee companies or even Starbucks raise prices using the tariffs as an excuse.  It has become the American way.

  

[Annber03]

10 minutes ago, Dimity said:

As has been noted if he keeps slapping tariffs as his way of punishing countries that don't do his bidding eggs are going to be the least of people's worries at the grocery store going forward.  What a complete an utter fool he is - but then no more foolish than the "starting January  20 we can afford to eat" crowd that was gloating over the Internet last week.  Those memes and posts didn't age well.

Hell, forget about Trump suppoerters looking foolish, I'd like for the media to acknowledge that, oh, gosh, maybe the price of eggs and so on wasn't the REAL reason a lot of people voted for Trump after all. 

[bluegirl147]

8 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Hell, forget about Trump suppoerters looking foolish, I'd like for the media to acknowledge that, oh, gosh, maybe the price of eggs and so on wasn't the REAL reason a lot of people voted for Trump after all. 

Most media and social media companies as well are owned by rich white people.  They are never going to tell the truth about why so many people voted for Trump. 

[Dimity]

7 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

They are never going to tell the truth about why so many people voted for Trump. 

If the people who were insisting they only voted for Trump because of the economy are  not outraged at these stories coming out of Colombia and Brazil then that's my clue that they never cared about the economy.  And it's interesting to see them (thankfully for me this is only online and on TV) not addressing this at all.  They don't want to be considered MAGA or racist for whatever reasons of their own but their silence speaks volumes.

Edited January 27 by Dimity

[Macbeth1966]

5 hours ago, ProudMary said:

They had no idea what the Biden administration was accomplishing. They had no interest in finding out. Just the Infrastructure Act and the Chips Act by themselves, are more than most presidents have accomplished in their entire terms of service. I was furious down here in Redland in that the Republican House Reps were actually campaigning on all the funds that were flowing into the state from those bills, when all of them had voted against both!

More than anything else, this has me the most concerned. He pulled the US out of the World Health Organization via EO on Day One. The US had been leading the charge within WHO on H5N1. I'm not saying that scientists from other nations can't pick up the baton, but everything now needs to be restructured! And then, he froze all NIH research grants via another EO.

As of today, we're not aware of any cases of human-to-human transmission yet, but this virus is mutating rapidly and has already killed several humans who have acquired the virus from handling infected birds or dairy cattle.

If you have pets that spend time outside, you should be taking precautions. Here's a good NPR article. The section about protecting your pets is near the end

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/12/30/nx-s1-5239924/bird-flu-q-a-what-to-know-to-help-protect-yourself-and-your-pets

I have a friend who's partner works for the National Institute of Health and she says it is absolute chaos right now for that government entity.

When I look to see what is going on at the NIH I see articles stating - they are canceling scientific meetings, pausing research grants, and they are prohibited from purchasing supplies for their studies.

[PRgal]

Since these countries don't want the "deportees" back on military flights, where on EARTH are these people going to go?  Do they really think other countries are going to pull a Come From Away?  There's a difference here.  The people who had to land in Gander, NL knew they were going to leave soon.  It was truly a temporary thing.  This, on the other hand, is something else.  Most left their OG countries for a reason. 

[CheshireCat]

On 1/24/2025 at 7:42 PM, chitowngirl said:

In the matter of Elon vs Trump-who will turn on whom? And why?

I think Elon wants Tik Tok and them will dump Trump…

Considering how he's inserting himself into the German election now, I have my doubts. I believe that Musk likes power and part of me also wonders if he might be bored. 
People with high potential (and I believe Musk's might be very high) need challenges. So, it's possible, he's now looking for the next challenge and that's why he's set his sights on Germany. 

I think he enjoys the power and the feeling of being able to outsmart everyone. The problem that I see is that it's dangerous to believe you're the smartest person in the room and act like it, too. 

 

On 1/25/2025 at 5:09 PM, MostlyContent said:

I don't believe that Democrats can simply 'get rid of' the Electoral College.  We are a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy. 

I hope I don't come across as if I'm schooling because that's not what I want but what makes the US a republic isn't the EC but that they're a representative form of government. In the US, people vote for politicians who are supposed to represent them and their interests. It's the representatives who vote for and make laws and policies.

In a democracy, it's the people who do that. In other words, the minority doesn't have any representation in a democracy. 

In a republic, a head of state can be elected directly or indirectly. (In Austria and France the president is elected directly by the people and much like in the US, the president of France isn't just a figurehead or ceremonial but holds actual power. In Germany, the president is elected by parliament, so indirectly). 

In German, republic and democracy are defined as "Staatsform" and "Regierungsform" but they're translated as the same word. "Staatsform" means how the government of the country is organized as, so, as a republic. But said republic is governed by the rules of democracy, so according to a majority vote. 

[bluegirl147]

18 minutes ago, PRgal said:

Since these countries don't want the "deportees" back on military flights, where on EARTH are these people going to go?  

Deportation Centers slave labor camps. And I'm not exaggerating.  The guy Trump put in charge of the border said "deportation centers" would have to be built and it wouldn't matter how much it would cost.  Do we really think they won't have detainees work?

[ProudMary]

The people who were flown to Brazil were accepted by that country. It is true that we don’t know why they chose to leave and come to the US. We don't know if they are asylum seekers who were in danger in their country. It's possible we will never know. 😔

I'm also concened about the Colombians who were not accepted. Where are they being held and under what conditions?