“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Ea-nāṣir, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time but it turns out to be meaningless.”
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It’s true. I lived in Germany for a year, and the windows are one of the things I miss. The bread too.
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Because, if US serves as example, refusing a purchase offer by a foreign company triggers coup d’etat and regime changes, usually to the right 
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I was visiting my parents in Germany recently. They had contractors working outside who had a loud blaring radio right outside the glass patio door. At one point it stopped and I thought they had shut it off. Turns out someone had closed the door.
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You can be poor and have a friend with a car, even. I know I’ve been in a position where I have a relatively decent vehicle and can give a less fortunate friend a ride, but can’t afford to support them. If they get out of my car at a local benefits office (street corner, whatever) that doesn’t mean they don’t need the assistance!
I was homeless for a short while (~two weeks) as a teen. I had a car, which is probably one of the reasons I lived long enough to get out of that situation. There was definitely some couch surfing involved, but I also know I slept in that car at least a few nights. I honestly don’t remember much about it, nor really about that whole year, and I’m quite glad for that.
Or about how much money someone they saw was raking in by panhandling. It’s always funny how they never have a good answer to “if it was that easy and profitable, why aren’t you doing it?”
When they do seem to have actually seen a situation you realize they have very little perception of the world. In an online discussion I saw one of these fools describe a situation where a white dude in a suit was talking with a Hispanic woman panhandling on the streets of Chicago. The claim was that dude handed her a business card and told her to “come to this address tomorrow and I will get you work” (or words to that effect.) After dude was gone, the woman quite sensibly threw the card away. The fool said this was obviously because she didn’t really want the help.
I’m glad to report that almost everyone responding in that thread knew a human trafficking lure when they saw one!
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Yeah, I’ve seen some real examples & know of a particularly egregious one. It doesn’t mean there aren’t actually people who genuinely need the assistance.
I can’t even pretend that I live up to this, but I’ve had this quote in my head ever since I first saw it:
Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business.
-Thomas Merton
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Where’s a Baldknobber when you need one! OK, I’m mostly joking, mostly.
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On the space station, no one can hear you scream.
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This. I think it may be more effective, rather that trying to explain why there’s perfectly reasonable explanation for whatever they observed, to just let them know they should mind their own fuckin’ business.
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Joe Strummer’s, Filibustero from the forgotten soundtrack of an Alex Cox movie about William Walker.
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Strikes me that these are people who would watch Oliver and somehow come away with the conclusion that the kids are wealthy and don’t need help.
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President Donald Trump said he will impose a 50% tariff on copper imports
Insufficient tribute, perhaps?
“Nice company you got there. Be a shame if anything were to happen to it.”
(Neither nice, nor a shame - their former CEO was another rich man who wanted for nothing, but compared himself to Jesus Christ)
Not just China: India & at least one of the Gulf countries (KSA was one; I didnt remember that al-Amoudi was involved) were doing this in Ethiopia, during the last decade. This was all around the time of the 2011-2012 food crisis, i.e. they were extracting food from a country that already didn’t have enough.
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Especially not if you’re screaming outside.
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It worked so well for England during the Irish potato famine.
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Can you imagine the audacity of receiving a generous bowl of sustenance only to demand MORE?
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Your answer reminds me of something. I never panhandled, but at my poorest when I would stand outside for too long or even when I was just trying to walk somewhere people would slow drive by and ask me if I need a ride or if I smoke.
But the power dynamics of prostitution have always innately repulsed me.
Yeah honestly some guy telling a woman to show up somewhere with no details? I’d keep the card and ask if I can use him as a reference lol
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If confirmed, Monarez will be the first CDC director without a medical degree since 1953.
But also:
“I think vaccines save lives. I think that we need to continue to support the promotion of utilization of vaccines,” Monarez said.
I expect her confirmation is all but a formality, unless she is inadequately stupid for the MAGAts. The fact that Trump/Junior are OK with her makes me not very hopeful, but she does make the right noises. Guess we shall see.
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