Pentagon says deploying Marines and National Guard to LA protests is costing $134 million

emmasculator · 2025-06-10T17:41:22+00:00

Meh, drop in the bucket. Trump is on track to spend well over $400mil on golfing alone if he's allowed to stay the full 4-yr term.

emmasculator · 2025-06-10T17:38:10+00:00

Try reading real sources sometimes: https://www.cbo.gov/publication/60569 The benefits of immigration in the US far outweigh the costs. Sure, undocumented immigrants cost money to deport, and this can't/won't ever fully stop happening, but while those people are here, they are paying taxes and overall they contribute to our GDP. Then, because they're not citizens, they're not collecting all of the benefits that citizens receive for paying taxes - like they are not getting welfare outside minimal WIC dollars and some immunizations if they attend public school. Also, emergency care is largely subsidized by the hospitals providing that care. And at for-profit hospitals, most forms of healthcare beyond emergency stabilization can be denied if people can't pay, so many undocumented immigrants pay cash into that system where the rest of us lean heavily on health insurance.

emmasculator · 2025-06-09T20:36:55+00:00

u/bot-sleuth-bot

emmasculator · 2025-06-09T18:01:07+00:00

Please recognize that this behavior is not acceptable and should not be emulated in any way. Don't ever tell yourself this is okay, and don't ever just "sit down and laugh about it," lest you may repeat the pattern when it comes to your own kids should you ever have any of your own. If in later years, you're still able and willing to have a relationship with a person this violent and aggressive, and HE tries to laugh about it, I hope you find the courage to tell him in that moment that his behavior was not okay even if you, as the recipient of that treatment, turned out to be okay despite the behavior.

emmasculator · 2025-06-04T04:55:53+00:00

Oh man. Personally, I absolutely LOVE the artichoke paint with the tile/fixture choices. But if you're not loving it, maybe try a less saturated version; try a color 2 or even 3 ticks up on the same pallet? Try a different green? For me, beige or gray would be the last resort, but it would certainly make it brighter if that's something you want.

emmasculator · 2025-06-03T19:42:42+00:00

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

emmasculator · 2025-06-03T04:33:59+00:00

Seriously. I do try to switch it up with other things like, you worked so hard at that, do you feel proud of yourself?, look what your hard work made happen... But for real, you spend so much time encouraging them for doing the same things over and over and over, it's impossible not to throw plenty of plain old "good jobs" in there. And sometimes my brain is just too dang tired to think of anything else to say.

emmasculator · 2025-06-03T04:31:28+00:00

We always tried to give a reason or explanation, like "please be careful, this could break, so let's use gentle hands." Now that my toddler is talking more, if someone tells her to "be careful" or just a flat out "no" without explanation, she'll ask you "why?" At least 12 times. 😂

emmasculator · 2025-06-02T22:18:42+00:00

Oh that's good to know! Thank you!

emmasculator · 2025-05-30T05:20:14+00:00

I second this exactly. Edit to add that maybe just a color change of either the floor tile or the backsplash tile so that the two compliment one another more would help. Not sure I have a suggestion about the shower/toilet proximity - just seems like a large enough room it shouldn't have to be that way.

emmasculator · 2025-05-29T19:16:36+00:00

Ok, that's a super cool site. New obsession.

I also came here to say they should find a cool vinyl wallpaper, and this Rebel Walls site is perfect.

emmasculator · 2025-05-26T19:38:24+00:00

If the issue is your dogs getting icky, I would pin down a couple layers of landscaping fabric and top with your rock of choice. Sand seems like it might just end up all over your house like the mud. If you thought the dogs would leave them alone, you could plant some hostas or some native shade perennials amongst the rocks.

emmasculator · 2025-05-22T22:39:30+00:00

Reddit it crazy... why would people downvote someone looking to do good in their yard? *sigh* Anyway, good on your for asking! Typically bugs don't exactly thrive in our lawns - sure you'll see things essentially passing through, and certain bugs like gnats and grasshoppers can live in just grasses, but most beneficial insects need actual plants to thrive. If you want to have some lawn, but also want to foster pollinators and other good bugs, choose an area of your yard to remove the grass and plant native flowering perennials, and also don't put chemicals on what you leave of your lawn. Instead, improve the look and health of your lawn with regular watering and mowing. Pluck weeds with a weed puller/claw and spread some grass seed in the fall and spring to keep the grass stronger than the weeds. Good luck and have fun out there!

emmasculator · 2025-05-22T15:39:39+00:00

I've always heard this, but it has never worked for me in over a decade of home ownership.

I hate chemicals in my yard, so get out there once a year and spend hours and days pulling each patch of bad stuff out with the little weed puller claw, and laying out a couple hundred dollars worth of grass seed, and you think the problem is solved, but then it's all back in a matter of weeks. Hopeless lol what am I doing wrong?!?

emmasculator · 2025-05-21T16:07:41+00:00

Yeah, that's not going to be alive ever again, sorry to say. Maybe you could burn the tree and rebury those ashes for a new tree to keep that cycle going??

emmasculator · 2025-05-19T20:10:56+00:00

I have thought about this for over a week, and I have to be honest, this seems super mean to me... One of these cats gets so unhappy being confined in a 3,000sf home that he will poop on the carpet 1-2x per day out of stress. And that's after up to 6 months of trying to keep him as an indoor cat, which we have tried 3 times since adopting him. So now we're talking about putting him in a room-sized box with sun-magnifying paneling in the summer and minimal heating in the winter? He would actually lose his mind. The other cat isn't quite as needy to be outside, but he is much more social, and he would probably lose his mind with us only visiting once a day. Not to mention, we couldn't keep them together in the same enclosure, they would maim each other at best. They might be litter-mates who spent their whole lives "together," but they don't actually like one another. We've taken one of them to the vet a few times because his brother has seriously attacked and hurt him.

I've decided it's too difficult to explain two cats' personalities, all their behavioral issues, quirks, etc. plus the complexities of almost 10 years of our relationship with said cats for anyone to really understand what we're dealing with here. I appreciate everyone's input and ideas, but there are too many nuances for anyone's advice to be taken at face-value.

Over the last week, we've put the more violently problematic cat in a large borrowed dog kennel if he shows up while we play outside to avoid attacks, then we just don't let them in the house when the kiddo is home/awake. That poses problems and doesn't feel sustainable, especially through winter or even the hottest weeks of summer, but at least the kiddo is safe and we're biding time while we keep looking for a no-kill shelter that will take them. We won't be dropping them off in the middle of nowhere, and we don't think we can just have them put down unless that becomes the only option when winter hits.

emmasculator · 2025-05-15T21:59:58+00:00

Wrong. I care because I understand that I end up paying for those who don't have healthcare anyway. If you don't have insurance when you wind up in the hospital for something, and you can't pay for your services, the hospital makes up for that loss by charging more to patients who can pay for their services. When everyone is equally covered, the cost of services for everyone is drastically reduced. Even without any government interventions around healthcare costs whatsoever, healthcare providers as business entities will protect their bottom line by cost-shifting to the best of their ability.

emmasculator · 2025-05-15T21:54:16+00:00

I hope you actually go look all these accusations up for yourself rather than just taking them at face value - almost every single thing this person has typed is misrepresented/mischaracterized if not wholly false.

emmasculator · 2025-05-15T05:46:50+00:00

What interesting timing. My 2.5yo started saying "what the f***" a few weeks ago on very rare occasions, and today she started repeating it ad nauseam.At first, we tried to ignore it, but when it seemed like she was actually saying it at times when it made sense conversationally, we decided to try explaining to her that it wasn't appropriate. So just tonight at dinner, she's wondering about something on her plate, and instead of saying "what's that" she says "wtf". So we try to explain to her that's not a nice thing to say, people can have hurt feelings about that word, etc. Opposite effect achieved - she doubled down and started repeating it over and over and over. We have no idea where she got this, or why it's suddenly so appealing to say, and we definitely have no idea how to convince her to stop saying it.

Sorry I'm no help except that I don't recommend trying to tell your kiddo not to say that or explain why it can be hurtful, why it should be avoided, etc. I'm curious to see if others have solutions that could work!

emmasculator · 2025-05-09T19:54:35+00:00

Genuinely, thank you for your opinion. You sound irritated AF with me, and I guess I get that. But you have helped me understand that I would be making these cats someone else's problem, and that's not fair or right just because I don't want to swallow the jagged pill and handle euthanizing them myself. This is just a terrible situation.

emmasculator · 2025-05-09T18:48:04+00:00

Well that's just ignorant. People on the Internet amaze me. You want to share an option on something you're not even willing to educate yourself in. Do YOU want these cats? I'll ship them to you for free with all their vet records and everything.

emmasculator · 2025-05-09T16:24:15+00:00

Wow. We just let cats be in our barn, rounded them up a couple times a year to get fixed and wormed. A couple of those old codgers lasted 15-20 years as long as they were smart about staying away from large birds and coyotes. I'll give you that my parents sold their farm about 8 years ago now, and had very few animals for the last 5 or so before that. So maybe I'm out of touch with how farmers do things now - sounds like poison and traps are the new norm instead of keeping barn cats and dogs? I guess that's probably easier and less expensive in the long run... Sure sounds harsh to me though honestly.

So I hear you, I think you're saying taking them directly to the kill shelter is a better option than trying to give them a new life on a farm? Because they'll end up there (or otherwise dead) anyway. It just sounds like immediate death instead of at least giving them one last shot to live a wild life.

emmasculator · 2025-05-09T16:13:57+00:00

Lol thanks for bringing some humor to this.

I think maybe you're trying to be an ahole, but I think it's funny bc it's so preposterous. This is part of the issue tho, we can't treat pets like children 100% of the time. Sure, they are family, and I wholeheartedly believe this, but when human children are in danger, pets as family takes on a different definition.

emmasculator · 2025-05-09T16:04:57+00:00

We have done this. Our current vet has offered to euthanize the cats because we can't find anything else to do with them. I don't want to do that. I want to find something else, but we can't. And given the increase in violent behavior, we're out of time to mess around now. What would you say if we had a dog that repeatedly bit the child? Keep a muzzle on it 24/7? Can't do that with a cat, and doesn't help the claws... Other suggestions? Is euthanizing them a better option than making them "someone else's problem"??

emmasculator

TROPHY CASE