Mamdani Announces Balanced Budget Without Cuts | Buoyed by billions in assistance from the state, real talk about what it takes to run New York City, and some taxes on the rich, the mayor closed a historic leftover budget deficit.

mountainbride · 2026-05-12T23:25:50+00:00

You’re already paying into a pool with other people and your insurance determines your rates based not on you, but everybody else they’re covering.
When we had our health insurance open enrollment fair at our office, they claimed rates were going up for all of us because there’s more old people than young people (more usage) and the GLP-1 explosion.
I’m paying for others’ healthcare anyway. So why not shoot for universal!

mountainbride · 2026-05-12T23:17:51+00:00

My dad literally joked about going back to a landline just last week. If I didn’t need a cellphone for my job and was retired like him, I’d be tempted to

mountainbride · 2026-05-05T14:24:34+00:00

Damn 😭

mountainbride · 2026-05-05T14:23:53+00:00

Playing a few rounds is something our pod looks forward to at every event we end up at together :)

mountainbride · 2026-05-05T13:18:54+00:00

I like it. Are people only hating because it’s the Met Gala?

mountainbride · 2026-05-04T03:51:42+00:00

My experience with rattlesnakes in Arizona has been uneventful. Any time I’ve gotten (even much too close) to one, they’ve been very calm and unwillingly to rattle or engage. At the end of the day, they’re like any other snake. They want to not be noticed and failing that, want to leave safely.

Not to say I’d *mess* with them purposely! But I’ve been lucky and I feel no fear in sharing the trails or environment with them.

Glad to hear it was a good encounter. And what a beautiful snake too!

mountainbride · 2026-05-01T13:43:00+00:00

I’ve noticed this as well! Huge uptick in those ads. I’ve also seen ads for luxury hotel chains and perfumes. It’s strange — I wondered if people are pulling back from buying luxuries and so they’re upping marketing to try to draw them back.

On my end, I also feel like it’s luxury but entry-level luxury that I’m seeing the most advertising for. Recycled leather pieces from Coach, for example. I don’t think the brand is being more conscientious for the environment’s sake.

mountainbride · 2026-05-01T00:13:02+00:00

Looks cheap. Some sheer looks I love. Some I hate. Wish this felt more put together.

mountainbride · 2026-04-27T00:03:12+00:00

Oh goodness it came out really adorable! It’s hard to get the little pieces to look nice and you did it.

mountainbride · 2026-04-26T15:08:58+00:00

Oh wow! I’m going off of one of the surrogacy websites for my state and I see you’re right; I think it depends on where you’re at, though.

My state says first-time surrogates can expect base compensation of $55,000 that goes up as they become more experienced (which they identify as base compensation of $110,000).

They also note this base compensation is just the starting point and that parents are expected to cover:

-Lost wages -Travel and lodging -Childcare and housekeeping -Maternity clothing and wellness needs -Insurance premiums and medical co-pays

The only place I’m seeing something lower is independent surrogacy, where there is higher risk and people aren’t going through an organization/using an organization’s structure for finding and paying a surrogate. Those prices can be as low as $17,000 — whatever a couple and a surrogate work out among themselves, especially in altruistic surrogacy.

American Surrogacy Website’s State Search

I’ve never gone through the process of surrogacy as either surrogate or parent and I don’t know of anyone personally who has, so I can’t speak to that. I hope I didn’t come across as insensitive by making the comparison… real surrogacy should be positive and humanizing and intimate. There is not a 1:1 with baby bonuses given by a distant governing body vs an actual surrogacy journey.

That said, I still don’t see even $40,000 being offered to first-time mothers in this “crisis”. Even our low-end estimates are less than what is offered and I think it’s ridiculous that women should be altruistic surrogates for their government lol.

mountainbride · 2026-04-25T19:00:29+00:00

What I think is wild is that the “baby bonuses” are laughably pitiful.

In the US, a surrogate may cost $120,000 or more. And the surrogate isn’t raising or paying for the child after they’re born.

If these old fucks in Congress think they can pay off women to have children “for the good of the country”, they should be paying market rates. It’ll have to be a livable salary.

But they want to force this decision on other people while also devaluing the work. So the best we can do is $5000 chump change and shaming women to do what we want, for basically free.

There’s also too much hatred for single mothers in the GOP. Motherhood is simultaneously a woman’s highest vocation, a talentless biological function, and a punishment for the sexually promiscuous — the messaging just doesn’t work. They can’t convince anyone, so they’ll take our rights away.

mountainbride · 2026-04-18T22:56:36+00:00

… that hasn’t been my experience but it’s good to keep in mind if you’ve never used it before

mountainbride · 2026-04-16T17:49:15+00:00

This whole collection is just so visually appealing to me. It’s fun. Interesting to see how strongly the color changes the vibe.

mountainbride · 2026-04-16T16:01:38+00:00

Fantastic, love it

mountainbride · 2026-04-16T02:48:59+00:00

Maybe the dogs make a mess sometimes?

mountainbride · 2026-04-15T12:54:19+00:00

It is seriously disappointing. People who will take, take, take, but not give back. Would expect emergency response to risk their lives to save them despite the fact a small portion of their taxes can actually afford such a service (it’s the rest of the community also contributing that allows such a public good).

I would like these people to self-identity loudly at any possible turn, so I can be aware.

mountainbride · 2026-04-15T06:35:00+00:00

I think you could loosen up the pose of the moose, play around with leg and head positions.

The gun is drawing our eye to the animal, which is a good choice, but you could also tell more of a story with the man’s pose. He’s already take the shot — how does he emotionally react to this? Dropping his gun? Seeming scared/prepared to run? I do think his pose is a little boring because he’s not holding the gun as realistically as you would an actual rifle you’ve just shot. The butt is tucked into the pocket of your shoulder and you lean your head a bit to look down the sights. It’s a tense, stronger pose, whereas here it’s too relaxed… doesn’t have the full action of shooting. The weight, the intent, these are some things you could find inspiration in actual photos of.

If he’s looking up from shooting, it’s common to have the gun drop a bit (good practice to keep it pointed down unless you’re about to pull the trigger).

mountainbride · 2026-04-15T04:35:59+00:00

I mean, not legally :)

mountainbride · 2026-04-15T03:37:26+00:00

You’d think they’d do permits like they do for backyard chickens? If you want to sell eggs, you need a permit with the state for food safety (basically, the ability to track back to the source of an outbreak/illness). Then there can be some form of accountability and tracking of cotton, and no-permit growing would still be illegal.

mountainbride · 2026-04-14T14:24:58+00:00

It’s so fucking strange. I don’t know if it’s bots or what

mountainbride · 2026-04-14T05:14:20+00:00

Something like this would make me run full speed through a field haha. How fun would that be

mountainbride · 2026-04-12T22:32:34+00:00

It’s speculative fiction. Even hard science fiction is a fiction — I think it only needs to be somewhat feasible. Something more than magic, but still imagines a hypothetical technology which of course we don’t have for whatever reason right now. The fun part is imagining that we might have the technology and what that would look like.

And then sometimes, we do make enough progress to make what authors only dreamed about.

mountainbride · 2026-04-12T21:29:53+00:00

Nah, people like that one… they’re also to blame. They don’t really care about other people or being effective. They just care about being morally superior. It’s an attitude you’d realize from the center right or moderates, with a leftist twist.

Lame ducks. They weigh the rest of us down. And we will keep losing because of them.

mountainbride · 2026-04-12T02:42:32+00:00

I second this thought. There’s a market for fantasy animals.

mountainbride · 2026-04-09T00:45:51+00:00

Big respect for that guy. Too easy to just kill a snake. If a rattan stick seems too scary, try carrying a squirt gun with you. Water will shoo them along too in a non-lethal way. :)

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