“The secretary also increased the readiness of additional U.S. forces to deploy, elevating our preparedness to respond to various contingencies,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday.

Military.com: Thousands More US Troops, Attack Aircraft Heading to Middle East as Israel Targets Hezbollah in Lebanon

Ehhhh…… Israel is making this threat because the U.S. is sending more people to the region. Israel’s insanity and posturing is enabled by the U.S. putting itself in a position to be committed.

We already know Russia has assets in Syria and is fighting a proxy war with both the U.S. and Ukraine there.

Devils advocate: It may not be “pee tapes”, it may be video of him sexually assaulting a Miss Universe candidate.

Well. That’s it. Get the flamethrowers. Time to burn down the Amazon.

No. Not the one that’s already burning. The other one.

Reddit comment: Shaving does make your dinghy look bigger!

Patron status is ok

Glad your friend is doing well! Send my regards.

My understanding is that they are focusing on adding in “AI” features in a big way, and that’s why they cut development on the other work. 🫤

Who was it intended toward?

Someone that hasn’t watched TV since the 1980’s? ChatGPT, for when someone invariably turns it loose on the fediverse?

It’s not niche as a concept. Your explanation is known worldwide.
Its inclusion in the discourse is unwarranted.

Next time you feel the need to add a disclaimer that justifies/explains/adds caveats to racist language: fucking don’t.

I like to look up stuff, even if I’m not remotely qualified to understand the results.

Tartrazine induces structural and functional aberrations and genotoxic effects in vivo
Is tartrazine really safe? In silico and ex vivo toxicological studies in human leukocytes: a question of dose

My (thin) grasp of things is that even though it’s a food additive, it’s not heavily studied, and not at higher doses, but the two studies above don’t paint a great picture. And slathering it on your skin is definitely more than you’d come into contact with than what’s needed to color food.
So, yeah - not a parlor trick I’d do to gross out my friends.

The article I read mentioned this person has co-morbidities. Presumably, that’s why their symptoms are worse/they even got tested. Perhaps this means that it only weakly infects humans (currently, anyway). Hence the lack of prior detection.
I’m sure we’ll start to see more community cases. Hopefully that won’t translate to the virus mutating further in ways that make it more infectious or harmful.

A boat load more, one might say.

Not me, of course. But someone.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The only charitable explanation I have for god is that the conditions for life on earth are just a side effect of whatever god was trying to do in another part of the universe entirely.
This galaxy isn’t full of god’s chosen. Merely the forgotten or never intended.

Hell, there’s a theory that the universe we see is actually the inside of a black hole. (It’s not a super widely accepted theory, mind you.) I could accept it as god has already discarded us.

If I believed in the existence of ‘god,’ anyway.

This might sound tin foil hat-y, but the doctor - Petrak - is a contractor without an incentive to complete the work in a timely or efficient manner. I can’t see why he would push for a speedy closure.

That plus a hospital that doesn’t want to be sued for malpractice, plus a government agency where they would rather check boxes and maximize their metrics*, than consider the damage of their policies to innocent people is a recipe for torturing the public.

* I would assume they’re going for number of investigations, and not efficiency. They probably count raw numbers, and do what they can to catch every little thing - thoroughness can be good, mind you - because finding something is “proof” of their efficacy.

It’s a shame more families don’t sue in these circumstances to make the involved parties check themselves to ensure they aren’t causing more harm than good.

Ooooh. It’s three!

I was wondering if I’d been opening windows wrong.

Paraphrased from Forrest Gump.

“Well, I’ve come this far. Might as well keep going.”

It’s great, because you just lie to yourself about the starting point of any task, and it doesn’t seem so bad.
If I’ve survived from birth until now, then I guess I can survive doing the dishes.

Many years ago, some guy was trying to impress my girlfriend with his super powerful laser pointer by shining it on a building a few miles away. He shoved it in his pocket very fast when she told him he was shining it at a hospital.
An unkind part of me was pleased when less than 30 seconds later it was revealed that he forgot to do whatever he needed to do to prevent it from turning on accidentally, and bumped it, burning his pocket/pants slightly, and getting soot inside the lens.

How does their synthetic hold up?

I’ve always bought their cotton boxer briefs and it seems that in recent years the durability has gone down. They used to last a few years a pair, but new pairs start to look baggy and sad after about 4-6 months. (They’re honestly off the list of products I buy right now.)

I have twice typed up huge novels and deleted them.

The very, very simple answer to your question is that I do not think the Democratic Party is liberal. They are a centrist party that pretends to encompass the left because U.S. election law is set up in such a way that only two parties can prevail at a national level.
The why? Those are the novels I keep writing - Election law/electoral finance laws and money. The parties won’t fix the laws, and money skews right. Thus, even the ‘left’ party is in the center.

I say I’m liberal because that’s where I fit with the understanding I have. I did stipulate a U.S. liberal, because - the ‘spectrum’ has always been understood by me to be roughly defined left to right as revolutionaries, liberals, centrists, conservatives, and reactionaries.
Reduced even further, it’s just left, center, right. Liberal, centrist, conservative.
Because I view liberals as separate from centrists, and the Democratic Party as centrist, I don’t view them as encompassing my beliefs. (And, there are a number of actions they’ve taken or not taken that run contrary to my beliefs, too.)

I think that I overlap with leftists on about 90% of views, honestly, but I’ve been attacked and told I support genocide in leftist communities when literally the only thing someone knows about me is that I don’t want republicans to gain power. I’m probably sort of sensitive to the assumption that liberals are supportive of every action of the Democratic Party. My ‘liberals that want revolution’ was a bit of an intentional reversion to the overly broad grouping I feel I’m subject to. Not intended to be an insult - more or less a dumb joke best accompanied by a shit-eating grin.

There’s always the possibility they studied together for their blackmail, extortion, and human trafficking finals.

I am a liberal in the U.S sense. Not a leftist, nor a democrat, and certainly not a nazi.

I really bristle at the notion that there’s no room between liberals that want revolution, and party-line toting democrats.
There are literally dozens of liberals who don’t view the Democratic Party as representing them, but also aren’t all that interested what happens under Christian fascism if normal people don’t vote, or corporate takeover if the people overthrow the government. (Because, after the military, only large corporations have the organization, capital, and manpower to direct society - and they would, if given the chance.)