sasquapossum

Great choice of colors. 😉

This is kind of a Bluesky thing. Of the five social networks I'm on now, and far more going back decades, this is the only one where I get *zero* engagement on most posts. Even Mastodon, which is smaller and also has a strict follower-only feed, does better. Something's broken here.

To give just one example of how bad the current system is...

When I had prostate cancer, a new MRI ordered by the chief of urologic oncology at Massachusetts General (i.e. the absolute top of the field) was denied by a non-practicing gynecologist in California. Of course they folded at peer review.

Anything ordered by a physician should be paid for *by default*. If an insurance company disagrees, they should have to present before a board of certified professionals (correct jurisdiction and scope, unlike the company's own mercenaries) to make their case.

If they do institute a draft, a *whole lot* of their base is going to be hopping mad. And they might be so blinded by blood-lust that they'll do it. That would mean a blood-bath in November, but if they try to cancel the election that will be a whole different shit-storm. We shall prevail.

I'm 60. Until a couple of years ago, the only book I ever DNFed was Anna Karenina. Twice. Then I guess I just decided life is too short. Just DNFed a perfectly fine book, moved on to another, and I'm *hooked*. Turns out that there are more good books than I can ever read, so I'm skimming the cream.

Reflexive contrarianism rears its ugly head again. It's a rot that runs all through both Silicon Valley and MAGA, and it might be the death of us all. So little surprise that Jay "waffles" Graber, creator of a site optimized for conflict, is its latest exemplar.

A pile of 15-16 Amazon bags and boxes, next to our front door. Not shown: the *huge* item that I couldn't be bothered bringing up from the basement for a picture.

One week of "free" stuff from Amazon Vine. After we had agreed to reduce clutter, and specifically to give Amazon less business. Some of it arrived while I was in the basement, actively sorting through older junk so we can get rid of it. I can't keep up. If anything makes me leave, it will be this.

This is me. Just not my thing <shrug> but I've seen that you're into it and I think that's great. At least two other writers I follow seem to be into it, and I can't think of anyone else, and that just seems like a really interesting coincidence.

In addition to tons of posts in Spanish and Portuguese, now I'm getting German and Polish as well. I think this is bsky's latest shenanigan since "let's force-feed lots of furry and vore content" got stale. I'd say they're childish, but that's an insult to children.

🤣🤣🤣 hey kitty kitty YouTube video by angelmayan

youtube.com/shorts/GpqPC...

For reasons I can't even be bothered explaining, I'm going to be visiting this site a lot less often. Maybe a couple of times a week, like Mastodon or Facebook. Life's too short to spend much of it on a site optimized for conflict. Xitter refugees re-created Xitter. No fucking notes.

Are any other English speakers suddenly seeing a ton of posts in Spanish or Portuguese? Seems like the bsky Discover algorithm is having another stroke.

He's going to be supervising the exact same people he was cowering from on that day. Awkward.

Apparently the last straw for Trump with Noem was the award of a multi-million-dollar ad contract to an eight-day-old company clearly set up only as a receiver for the grift. So, um, Trump fired someone else for corruption? Only because he didn't get a cut, I guess.

Cross stitch on black background with the Oregon Trail wagon and cause of death listed as "you listened to RFK"

For the last couple years I've started a cross stitch project shortly before the Iditarod with the goal of finishing it by the finisher's banquet. I am very slow, clunky, and overall bad at cross stitch despite it being "beginner" but this was last year's.

This year's is more colors, so we'll see.

A cartoon from the 1950’s that’s more relevant than ever 💔

If executives are using AI to make decisions, then they're proving that they themselves add no value. Cut out the absurdly overpriced middleman. Give the money back to employees and/or shareholders.

Imminent or not, the US has been much more of a threat to Iran than they have to us. When was the last time they bombed us out of the blue, or engineered a coup against our popular leader?

About what I expect from bsky.team TBH.

Oh come on, we just cleaned it up. Let's enjoy it a bit before we start dumping trash into it again.

I really wish I could comment more on this Armageddon stuff. It's not even true to Revelations, and has mostly entered evangelical consciousness via Left Behind - the religious version of Atlas Shrugged. 🤢 But a lot of my family is adjacent to that, and they're good people nonetheless, so 🤐 it is.

I take gummies for sleep, and I'm not about to stop. Other people use cannabis for chronic pain, which can also be traumatizing, or for AuDHD/sensory issues. The concern is valid, but evidence shows that legal cannabis is net positive for mental health. (2/2)

A family member recently warned me about the dangers of cannabis-induced psychosis. I appreciate their concern, but...

AFAICT there's a particular risk related to heavy use among young people, otherwise about 3% are susceptible. But you know what else can cause psychosis? Sleep deprivation. (1/2)

Well, we're not exactly dealing with FDR here either, are we? 🤣

The most evil thought I'll have today (probably) is that listening to people shill for AI is more fun if you pretend that the letters stand for something else. Absolute Insanity. Anal Intercourse. Automated Immiseration. Oh wait, it *is* about that one.

...and it worked. While MSM and social media are all about the Iran clusterfuck, our Department of Lies has expunged about 65K of the most incriminating Epstein files (and of course failed to release any new ones as required by law). Bondi should be impeached and stripped of her dime-store license.

The first separation was because of a demented tyrant on the British side. This one is because of a demented dictator on the American side. There's a certain symmetry to that, I guess.

I forgot about this post from early November, until someone liked it today, and it seems even more relevant now.

A stock chart for the last year. Raytheon is up 90%, General Dynamics is up 44%, S&P is only up 17%.

This only happens in militarist countries. And it doesn't even capture the fact that the real economy is doing far worse than the casinos that our equity markets have become.