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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 1d

If queer people feel the need to find safety in a straight-appearing marriage, I won't tell them this isn't the choice they should make because they are the best judges of their own safety, but it's a bellweather of how bad things are that people are going through with it.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 1d

And yes, this life was as good a one was they could make, but it was full of compromises. My grandmother should have been able to marry without fear of a man taking away her work or her independence. My grandfather should have been able to marry who he loved without fear or shame.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 1d

(My grandfather worked at the student health center at Stanford University, so was well-placed to help struggling queer kids there. My grandmother worked with Planned Parenthood.)

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 1d

They were lifelong friends, they built a stable household together, had lovers (pre-kids), had three kids, and had a rotating set of college students who helped out around the house and my mom realized many years later were probably queer kids who needed a place to stay.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 1d

For my grandfather, he needed to be sure to beat the allegations of queerness so he wouldn't get his medical license stripped (psychiatrist). For my grandmother (also a doctor), she probably got assurances that he would never make her be a traditional housewife.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 1d

I mean, this was my maternal grandparent's marriage, and it was the best choice both of them had, that was because society in the 1950s was terrible.

(To be clear, my grandmother knew before they got married. She knew she was a beard.)

Kathryn BrightBOO! 👻 @kebrightbill.bsky.social · 1d

No, WaPo, we are not doing a repeat of creating social pressure for gay people to get straight married, and no, it's not, "redefining what it means to be in a relationship."

Also, could that kiss in the thumbnail be any more awkward?

He’s gay. She’s straight. They’re happily married.

Meet the couples who are redefining what it means to be in a relationship, including those in gay-straight and same-sex platonic marriages.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Kayla B @queenofthesouth.bsky.social · 1d

Needing multiple streams of income to stay afloat is a societal failure not a personal one. You should be able to afford a comfortable lifestyle with one job. You are not lazy.

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Vittoria Elliott @telliotter.bsky.social · 1d

My first foray onto YouTube for @wired.com, doing a deep dive into the state of immigration enforcement and deportation under the Trump administration.

youtu.be/uD9ETC80HDA?...

Where ICE Has Taken The Most People | On The Grid | WIRED

YouTube video by WIRED

youtu.be

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Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 2d

GOOD NEWS! Researchers have discovered a powerful antibody, known as 04_A06, that is able to neutralize 98.5% of MORE THAN 300 different HIV strains AND permanently reduce HIV viral load to undetectable levels, making it one of the broadest-acting antibodies against HIV identified to date.

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Selena Larson @selenalarson.bsky.social · 3d

Whenever I see an AI generated video I get a tummy ache as if I just ate something I know is going to give me food poisoning.

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neongrey @neongrey.bsky.social · 4d

all discourse aside, there is one machine with consciousness. it's printers. they are alive and conscious and they hate you and they'd take your arm clean off if you let them. never trust a printer.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 3d

This is a good point, and definitely a potential outcome- I've been thinking of it as de facto rather than de jure secession. On paper, it's still the USA, but in practice, the federal government is only sometimes obeyed but no one wants to push anything too far.

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K.B. Spangler @kbspangler.com · 4d

I'm very close to being a one-issue voter and that issue is Follow the Goddamned Law and Put Those Assholes in Prison.

eschneider @eschneider.bsky.social · 4d

"Willing to go full criminal charges" is probably the most important policy issue for 2028. :/

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Rick Caruso’s Private Fire Crew @amandasmith.bsky.social · 4d

The all-knowing bsky mods gave Erin Biba a 24 hour suspension for a months-old skeet about Christian Zionism, and I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that this happened when she’s been vocally criticizing Jay

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 4d

Judges allowed one of New York's most prolific guardians to engage in apparent self-dealing as she transferred $1.5 million of her wards' money to her own company.

(Published Aug. 2024)

This Guardian Enriched Herself Using the Finances of Vulnerable People In Her Care. Judges Let It Happen.

Judges allowed one of New York’s most prolific guardians to engage in apparent self-dealing as she transferred $1.5 million of her wards’ money to her own company.

www.propublica.org

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Grudgie the Whale @grudgie.bsky.social · 5d

They’re moving quickly because they get less popular every day.

They’ll never be more popular than they are now and they are extremely unpopular.

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 4d

Australia's grid operator has a clear line of sight to 100% renewables. There's nothing unknown or exotic required.

It'll be fun when the first large/major economies start hitting the goal. Too bad the US is likely to be at the rear of the pack.

As coal fades, Australia looks to realize dream of 100% renewable…

The country’s grid operator says shifting from coal to clean power is not only possible but inevitable. The work there could provide a road map for other…

www.canarymedia.com

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 4d

I did not know this, but this is a very interesting fact! Did they have a lot of irregular violence/guerilla warfare/resulting civilian casualties?

Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 4d

Yeah. I think our least violent scenario still involves something like the Troubles. I can see some paths to a larger, "formal" civil war but there are a lot of unknowns. The escalation path to "intermittent gunfights scattered throughout various hotspots and bombings" feels frighteningly close.

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Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 6d

These people were enslaved as laborers for a call center soliciting church donations in case you’re wondering the exact level of where we went wrong as a human species

Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 6d

amp.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...

Raid of church leader’s Florida mansion reveals 57 forced laborers, feds say

The victims, called “armor bearers” by the church, are threatened with damnation if they fail to meet their quotas, federal officials say.

amp.miamiherald.com

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Ash Higgins @ashhiggins.bsky.social · 7d

This. Is. Why. I. Paint.

"They're trying to convince people they can't do the things they've been doing easily for years - to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies - to write that for you." We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, "that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won't know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can't do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat.
People are already doing this. You won't have to process grief, because you'll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via Al video call every day. One of the ways it's going to destroy humans, long before there's a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people."

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Missing The Point @missingthept.bsky.social · 7d

God could do the funniest thing to make it legal for the Treasury Department to issue its planned Trump coin.

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Alison Smaalders @vividwings.bsky.social · 7d

My parents designed the house they retired into and one thing my mom insisted on is that NOTHING goes into drawers or closed cabinets unless it is something she will actively use often enough to remember where it is. Everything else: open shelves and glass-front cabinets. I want this someday.

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👻madeline boOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 7d

“Madeline why is all your stuff out on counters” so I remember it exists

🌈Dr. Franken Frizzle 🎃 @swilua.bsky.social · 7d

people without ADHD don’t understand how EXPENSIVE it is to clean the house. If I put it away I will literally NEVER SEE IT AGAIN and now I have to buy all new stuff and my house is EVEN MESSIER

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Sexy CHOAM Nomsky costume @samthielman.com · 7d

Hell is not hot enough ailatexas.org/news/ice-ope...

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