ignatius

chances are if you don't have some kind of heart problem or blood clot anyeurism thing that you aren't going to die in your sleep. if you are still drunk then don't take benzos.. unless you've done this before and you know what to expect. also, which benzos? xanax or valium? 10mg xanax would be like being in a coma for 16 hours. 10mg valium is like 1mg xanax but a different vibe. if you take .25mg xanax + 1 beer you'll be fine. but it's not advised to combine alcohol w/benzos because unexpected things can happen. also, benzos are not a long term solution to whatever someone is dealing with. they're a bandaid to get through something intense or for the once in a while mage anxiety overload that keeps you from functioning. long term they are terrible for your brain and body and one of the more difficult things to detox/withdrawal/ween from. i've had very very good success with drinking yogi brand kava tea. sometimes 2 teabags in 1 cup or just making one cup then a 2nd cup right after. works well. takes about an hour or so and is kinda sneaky as a lot of the anxiety vanishes. not good to do it every day though as lot's of kava all the time can cause nausea in the middle of the night or it does so for me. also, when it comes to that death anxiety you have to be reasonable. or i do. i say you but i'm talking about me and how i have dealt w/shit because of the numerous health problems. i have long ago surrendered to the inevitable and i'm much happier for it. i have control of nothing. i do the things i'm supposed to do in regards to my health and beyond that it's out of my hands. also i know that none of the things i experience with regards to bad health are going to be permanent. they pass after a while and my state of being will change usually for the better. i've mentioned all the bullshit here before but cancer meds, atrial fibrillation (fixed w/2 heart procedures), meniere's disease, GERD, celiac, back pain, shoulder pain etc.. i'm nothing if not a complex healthcare situation but it's all manageable. your situation will also be manageable in some way i suspect. but it's always a battle to figure these things out and it took me a long time and just when i felt on solid ground something else would enter the picture and yay how exciting. but i can only control the things i can control. everything else.. whatever. and this tea works.. kava is a good thing for anxiety and mood and it was very surprising when it first realized it. i wish you luck in finding solid footing w/whatever you're dealing with. and as they say in AA.. you have to surrender to win.

coffee grinder got clogged. so i finally cleaned it after years and unclogged the clog. now it's like new and the finest grind setting makes coffee suitable for turkish coffee. it's the finest dust. my aeropress loves it and this morning i made a quite excellent cup of coffee.

the alien smoking in a cage is from classic X-files episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space". it's a good one w/lot's of humor and just enough edge. i post these relevant clips in the meme thread and don't give a fuck the guy lighting his cigarette and letting the match hang there a minute is a nice touch.

yeah.. probably. also, adults do dumb shit too. like put graffiti on rocks in national parks and monuments and ancient priceless statues etc... it's garbage all the way down, sir. edit: random. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/03/san-francisco-cruise-driverless-car-woman-hit-and-run-crash/ Woman in hit and run is thrown into path of driverless taxi - then it runs her over and parks on her leg Robotaxi had to be lifted off pedestrian, who was screaming in pain, after it was remotely frozen following the accident

same as it ever was over here in the USAistan

the behind the bastards episodes on SBF are on youtube now. some interesting details in there and also stuff about his personal life/family etc.

tories going full backwards on public transportation and car culture. scrapping new rail lines and adding new car lanes and also some shit about forcing districts to close bus lanes and increase speeds for cars and preventing car sharing??? are you guys becoming america over there? https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newstatesman.com%2Fpolitics%2Fconservatives%2F2023%2F10%2Fthe-tories-are-driving-themselves-to-distraction

https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_pf6evdZ5lX1rydwh8.mp4

michael lewis wrote "the Big Short" and i think "Money Ball". talented writer. has a knack for getting interesting stories.

only reading headlines at NY Times Magazine is true minimalism.

William Gibson's "Agency" has really interesting possible Ai in it. it's not 'everyday' Ai but a more specialized creation. it's interesting to think about what will come between now and then.. possibly.

seems convenient until ya think about it for 5 minutes. where does the Ai live? is it all in the cloud? is your Ai profile dropped somewhere local or is it floating around getting tracked and nudged for ads to be dropped into the feed somehow? overall, this kind of shit is just more of the same. be available always, be attached always.. productivity above everything.. catch up on your schedule.. your emails.. your everything... have your life organized around an ecosystem.. a system i assume one has to subscribe to.

and she's here to be yet a 3rd type alternative media..

it's all potentially terrible regardless of type of government

isn't a lot of that kind of stuff full of misinfo and just plane bad information? i'm sure there's some genuinely wholesome smart people doing what they do but there's also an ocean of grift right? and outright harmful nonsense?

all were shills. it was a non-union shop that wasn't striking or supporting the strike. they make parts or something. and yeah.. a bunch of them were apparently paid to be there. it's all a facade.. an act as usual and some people will buy it.

enjoy the hiatus. i think about it all the time. i hope it's peaceful and productive. here's one for the road.

during trump admin the longest shutdown ever took place. there's various kinds of government support/welfare that get interrupted if a shutdown happens. a bunch of federal workers will work w/o pay. armed services, TSA etc.. if you're waiting on a passport renewal or something.. that might be effected. lot's of shit falls through the cracks. but yeah.. unless you work for the IRS.. or similar you won't notice much.

funding bill has to be renewed every year. the budget. when congress cannot agree then they don't pass a budget.. things close. this didn't used to be a thing but congress can't do basic shit anymore. a bunch far right turds are holding out because they want to add funding to build a wall or cut spending by 20% or something ridiculous. but.. if you look on NPR/PBS you'll find a lot of details about the current situation and previous ones. https://www.npr.org/2023/09/29/1202667062/government-shutdown

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/29/1202474725/2023-government-shutdown-update NPR and PBS always free. POLITICS What closes and what keeps running in a federal government shutdown September 29, 20235:00 AM ET By Ximena Bustillo , Tom Bowman , Selena Simmons-Duffin Government funding runs out at the end of the day on Sept. 30, meaning many federal government services will halt until funding resumes. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images Lawmakers are inching closer to a government shutdown when government funding runs out at the end of the day on Sept. 30. With a deal nowhere in sight, federal agencies are bracing to place hundreds of thousands of workers on unpaid furlough until funding is restored. The federal government hasn't faced this dilemma since 2018 when the federal government shut down for 35 days, stretching into the new year in 2019. As in shutdowns past, people across the country will see a pause in federal services, programming and pay. POLITICS The White House chief of staff says it's on House Republicans to avert a shutdown Washington, D.C., residents and visitors could feel the impact quickly. Smithsonian facilities will remain open until money runs out. Then they will close, which could dampen the celebrations to say goodbye to the giant pandas in the National Zoo. Wildlife lovers outside of D.C. could see the National Park Service's highly anticipated "Fat Bear Week" interrupted as well. Elsewhere, the impacts of a shutdown are likely to snowball as employees go without pay and programs run out of funding to operate. Still — many services will still be available. The Food and Drug Administration will continue "All vital FDA activities related to imminent threats to the safety of human life," Social Security checks will still be issued, Veterans Affairs facilities will remain open. Air traffic and airport personnel will still be on the job, even if without pay, unless employees begin to call in sick to work as they did during the last shutdown. Another institution still running when the money runs out? Congress. They'll keep working without pay, including many of the staffers that keep the Capitol running. Although most major federal agencies have not announced their plans for what would stay open and closed during a potential shutdown, here's what we see could be affected and what could continue. Federal employees could be furloughed or asked to work without pay The National Federation for Federal Employees, one of the unions that represents federal workers, estimates that 2.1 million civilian federal workers could see delayed paychecks and roughly 4 million federal contract workers could receive no paycheck. A representative for the Capital Area Food Bank in Washington told NPR the organization is making preparations for as many as 100,000 federal workers who could need food assistance if the government shuts down. Nutrition and food assistance programs could be paused The Agriculture Department, which runs the Supplemental Food Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Women Infants and Children (WIC) programs, is preparing for the nearly 7 million pregnant and postpartum women, infants and children who rely on WIC to lose access during a shutdown. The USDA Food and Nutrition Service is likely to run out of funding to support normal WIC operations just a few days into a shutdown, according to USDA. The impact on WIC would likely be staggered because some states may have carryover funds or can use their own funds to continue program operations for different amounts of time. POLITICS Millions of Americans will lose food assistance if the government shuts down Still, Kate Franken, board chair for the National WIC Association, urges families to still seek benefits they think they might qualify for. "I do think it gets to be really confusing for the public when they see information about a federal government shutdown and wonder what that means for various programs and services that they receive," Franken said. "There's a risk, and we've experienced this before during shutdowns, where families just sort of assumed that they can't use their benefits or that they shouldn't go to their appointment because services may be closed." Households that receive SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, will receive October nutrition assistance as usual regardless of a potential shutdown. It is unknown how November benefits may be impacted should a shutdown persist. Social services for food and education come to a halt Head Start, which supports education for 3- and 4-year-olds across the country, and Meals on Wheels, which brings food to elderly people, could also get interrupted. National Parks are expected to close Visitor centers, campgrounds, research facilities and museums could be closed for the duration of a shutdown. This would affect events and attractions scheduled for these sites. Depending on how long the shutdown persists, this could create interruptions during the Indigenous People's/Columbus Day three-day weekend for many. POLITICS Thousands of federal firefighters face a looming pay cut. How much is up to Congress Last week, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., sent a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland asking the department to use the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act to keep national parks and public lands open during a shutdown. Funds from the law were used in 2018 to keep most parks open. Health care is likely to go uninterrupted, but research could pause People who get health care or health insurance from the federal government, whether that's through Medicare or the Indian Health Service, should not experience any interruption in their care. They would still still go to the doctor and still make appointments. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has enough money to keep paying states for Medicaid and CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program, for at least for three months. That's good news for around 90 million low-income people who rely on those health insurance programs However, community health centers that get their funding from federal grants could see their funding interrupted by a shutdown. Some clinics are warning they may need to cut back services or staff depending on the timing of the possible shutdown and how long it lasts. Other disruptions could occur at federal health agencies. A report from the Department of Health and Human Services says 42% of agency staff would be furloughed. The National Institutes of Health would furlough nearly 80% of its staff — the only work that would continue is caring for patients at NIH's research hospital. Service members would also work without pay A shutdown would likely affect some 1.3 million active-duty servicemembers who would continue to work but would not get a paycheck. Of the estimated 800,000 Pentagon civilians, some 200,000 would be required to work without pay, because they are "excepted" and roles considered "necessary to protect life and property." POLITICS What a government shutdown would mean for the U.S. military — and national security Another 439,000 of those would stay home without pay, the remainder are paid outside annual appropriations and wouldn't be affected. The White House says all this would be disruptive to national security. The servicemembers are paid twice a month, and the next payday is Friday, Sept. 29. Military commissaries in the U.S. and abroad — which are basically neighborhood grocery stores — will stay open for approximately 60 days into the new fiscal year without appropriations, according to the Defense Department. After the funds run out, only overseas and remote locations will stay open, they warn. The shutdown would also affect those servicemembers scheduled to move to a new assignment. That travel would be halted during a shutdown. Federal law enforcement efforts could slow Larry Cosme, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said a lack of funding also means that there are no resources for federal agencies to continue participating in federal-state-local task forces. He said this includes those working on human trafficking investigations, to disrupt terrorist operations, and crack down on drug violations.

whole video on youtube. she's good. and prepared well for this. righteous indignation is a good thing some times.