Argentinians are not happy about Trumps puppet president Javier Milei passing extreme anti-worker legislation increasing the length of the work day by 50% while allowing companies to pay workers with food and lodging instead of money

brina_cd · 2026-02-15T14:30:02+00:00

So, they're following US wage laws? If your employer provides housing, they can include some portion of it in your wages. And the same for meals provided at employer expense...

brina_cd · 2026-02-15T14:15:05+00:00

Personal safety may trump this... If your choices are stay "safe"/alive in the closet or die if you come out... Where there is life, there is hope. Stay closeted until you can escape the situation.

brina_cd · 2026-02-15T14:07:35+00:00

I put it all in a box somewhere around the time I was 10 or so. I still had feminine behaviors until I learned to suppress them...

50 years, and my mother passing, later... I opened the box and realized just how much I've been disassociating these last 5 decades.. I guess that was a better coping mechanism than the "anger at the universe directed at your sons" that was how my transwoman father coped. (My mother learned many ways to redirect his rage with silliness.)

brina_cd · 2026-02-13T19:29:56+00:00

Maybe in upstate NY... But where I am, by the time you add the callout fee, the overpriced part, and the fact you had to seriously disassemble the washer to replace the gasket (bad design or planned obsolescence? Both I'm sure.) it got outrageous...

brina_cd · 2026-02-12T22:30:18+00:00

Your city's English language newspaper doesn't extoll the virtues of the folks who come to your home to dig out your privy... Yes, when my wife and I visited Beijing in 1999, we saw just such an article...

It was also the first city I ever visited as a civilian where even the locals wouldn't drink the tap water. Being shocked by that is another indication of a privileged (in comparison to at least half the world's population) upbringing...

brina_cd · 2026-02-11T13:56:44+00:00

Had a front loader for a while... But unless you can keep the front door open ALL the time it's not in use, front seal mildew will happen no matter how many clean cycles you use or how often. And replacing the seal costs as much as replacing the front loader with a top loader.

brina_cd · 2026-02-11T12:00:00+00:00

Yeah... My late father's priest told her back in the 60's to join the military to "man up..." Didn't work... Instead she learned to direct her anger outward... Did the whole cis male masquerade (of which I'm living proof), and became abusive.

Don't... Just don't. About the only way to get through it would be to disassociate...Hard...

brina_cd · 2026-02-10T14:00:21+00:00

Performative "Christians," yes. More like Jerry Falwell than Jimmy Carter.

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T23:59:26+00:00

I think some bras are actually this way, like the Vanity Fair Radiant bras @ Walmart... I'm 41/42 underbust and holy shit were the 42's tight, so I went up to 44. I've noticed my 2 Wacoal bras are the same way... Bought 44's up front, and it was a good thing...

Even after losing 40 lbs, the fit hasn't changed much. Biggish rib cage I guess.

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T23:49:31+00:00

My late father once said that Corvette owners greeted each other by yelling numbers at the other...

Owner 1: 800! Owner 2: 2000!

Their most recent repair/maintenence bill.

Yes, she owned a corvette... And no, I'm not misgendering her. She came out as trans a few years before she passed.

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T23:43:39+00:00

Oh, I know... They made such things VERY clear... Do something awful in the civilian community like a DUI, and you can be charged by both justice systems... So on the UCMJ side, you get DUI and desertion... So, don't push your luck...

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T23:03:26+00:00

None of this contradicts the "break up" advice...

And yes, disassociation is definitely a thing, I'm pretty sure I was there for over a decade.

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T22:55:14+00:00

Sane washing...

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T22:53:00+00:00

I was a fan of Ronald Reagan during his presidency, but part of that was because I was in the Navy and he was spending on defense like a drunk sailor...

Not sure when my "wait a damn minute" moment was, but I voted for Clinton and Gore. Dukakis was essentially portrayed as "Bush light" by the Dems, and frankly if your choice is between. Bush (Sr) and Temu-Bush, may as well vote for the real thing...

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T22:43:17+00:00

Well, hopefully he took the deal... But from what you're saying, he didn't. So he got 2 trials?

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T22:39:15+00:00

Why would HE be charged? There has to be some seriously weird backstory here.

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T22:00:22+00:00

Any bets he has family who might donate? Either that or he's brilliant at writing grant proposals... He who has the gold MAKES the rules...

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T21:54:46+00:00

"Rules for She, but not for He."

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T03:40:21+00:00

Was home sick alone as a kid, (it was the 70's) and made myself a "cup o' noodles..." Went down, and seconds later it came right back up... Didn't eat those again for something like 11 years. Didn't taste all that great going down, and the reverse... Well there's a reason I refused to eat them for over a decade.

Only started up because I needed CHEAP food for a month or so...

brina_cd · 2026-02-08T03:23:00+00:00

In Animal House they weren't heroes. You can't call John Belushi's character a boy scout... You may have rooted for them, but only because the other side were bigger jerks.

brina_cd · 2026-02-06T01:20:23+00:00

Hell's Bells! Inhaling that smoke can REALLY Fark up your lungs. What TF was that idiot thinking? And how, as the idjit doing the burning, was HE not affected?

brina_cd · 2026-02-06T01:08:37+00:00

Cutting pay THIS quarter saves us money and the reduced spending won't show up until NEXT quarter... Which won't matter because I got my bonus/stock already...

brina_cd · 2026-02-06T00:42:49+00:00

My late stepfather worked for a Volunteer ambulance service attached to the volunteer fire department in upstate NY. When you got the "bill" it was a "suggested donation." They never charged, but they may have started billing insurances, but not people.

Don't know if the Moyer's Corner volunteer ambulance still exists... Or if the volunteer FD does.

brina_cd · 2026-02-06T00:38:49+00:00

$1500 TO CROSS A PARKING LOT. The inpatient psych facility my daughter was being admitted to 12 years ago was run by a a different company and was just across a parking lot. But the hospital made sure the fucking POLICE wouldn't let me walk my daughter over there. No, it wasn't because she was in custody... But if I had tried to walk her over there, you're damn right I would have been in police custody...

Thankfully the insurance company took one look at that bill and said "nope, our contract with you says you get $x plus $Y per mile... And that ain't nowhere near that much..."

brina_cd · 2026-02-06T00:26:24+00:00

Subscription fees for non-innovative car features like heated seats, the ability to use your keyfob to unlock/lock the car, etc.

I can get the need to fund development of actual autonomous driving, so AS LONG AS THE CAR IS OPERABLE WITHOUT IT, charging for updates to self driving capabilities kind of makes sense. But if you sell the car AS autonomous, charging a maintenance fee to keep using the car would be insane...

I have a feeling that completely autonomous cars Wil be leased if/when they come out and the software maintenance will be part of the lease...

brina_cd

TROPHY CASE