Here’s Badger hanging out in the side yard with a bamboo leaf stuck in his jowls. He browses on the bamboo stalks as if he were a panda, and he has the coloring for it.
Earlier today, when I was at my workstation by the window overlooking the side yard, I caught sight of him spinning around as if chasing his tail. Only he doesn’t really have a tail — just a little bit of fluff like a rabbit.
Upon investigation, I found that he’d somehow managed to get a strand of moss wrapped around that nub of a tail, and that’s what he was chasing. I wish I’d taken video of him spinning around — it was hilarious. But at the time, I thought there might actually be a problem, like wasps attacking his bum or something. You never know around here.
Open thread!
PS: In case you missed it, John posted about a fellow Juicer in need yesterday. I tossed in a few quid. Maybe you can help.
zhena gogolia
I love Badger so much it hurts.
CarolDuhart2
I was just thinking-once upon a time when you saw the clock was at a quarter to five on Friday, and nothing had happened yet, nothing was going to happen on the weekend. At least not with the government. Sure there were always natural disasters and such, but that was a given.
I miss Obama. He let us have our weekends.
Aleta
He’s a solar collector and reflector combo.
debit
His sweet little face!!
?BillinGlendaleCA
Badger’s a fine looking Boston, reminds me of my Buddy.
geg6
Badger is such a cutie pie. And dogs are really hilarious. Lovey likes to hide some of her treats to come back to later when there are no treats or food in the offing. Koda likes to eat anything she finds. She often eats Lovey’s hidden treats and catches hell from Lovey when she does. Last night, I had given Lovey and Koda both some dog biscuits after a successful potty run outside. Lovey took hers and proceeded to jump on the couch and onto a bed pillow we keep there for laying down. She is apparently tired of Koda stealing her treats, so she very carefully pulled back the edge of the pillowcase and, using her nose, pushed that treat as far down the pillowcase as she could get it. She knows Koda is a bit too big and impatient to even attempt to get it. She kept it there for a good hour before diving into the pillowcase to eat it. Koda just watched her and then looked at me like “can you believe this?”
Raven
I got back from Houston after a detour through horrific Atlanta traffic to pick up a zipper foot for the boss lady’s new sewing machine. The pups are so funny when you have been gone a few days!
WaterGirl
@geg6: Such a sweet story!
Baud
Watch your mouth if you visit Egypt.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/07/lebanese-tourist-sentenced-eight-years-egyptian-prison-viral-video
Raven
@geg6: we’re feeding lil bit by hand and the bohdi no likey!
eclare
So adorbs. Since OT, opinions welcome on compact crossover SUV’s. I am thinking along the lines of a CR-V or Forrester. I’m going to test drive them this weekend.
zhena gogolia
This is amazing, Mueller at Gate 35 X (the “gate from hell” at DCA) with Qusay in the background in a stupid baseball hat, Mueller looking fine and mellow (can’t embed links any more):
https://twitter.com/politico/status/1022898235910832129
geg6
@WaterGirl:
They are so funny together, especially due to the Mutt and Jeff aspect of a 90 pound Lab being bossed around by a 20 pound mutt. They also have this game where Lovey acts like she’s all fierce and attacking Koda, who acts all terrified. And then suddenly Koda jumps up and they chase each other all over the house. They just kill me when they do that.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Holy fuck.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
On closer inspection, it’s a camo hat, even better. I bet Mueller can’t see him, he’s so well disguised in the underbrush.
WaterGirl
@geg6: You really need to get that on video. The treat hiding behavior, also.
Yarrow
Badger is the cutest! We need more Badger videos!
Baud
@WaterGirl: That will get you at least five years.
ruemara
I like how Badger looks both wrinkly & querulous as well as un-selfconsciously young.
@Baud: a good way to get people to not visit Egypt.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@geg6: When we first got the yorkipom, she liked to eat a bit and then leave the rest for later. She soon discovered that would not work with a cocker spaniel in the house.
Yarrow
@Raven: How’s Lil Bit? Did your wife take care of the eyedrops while you were gone?
Aleta
.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43pngb/how-to-make-your-own-medicine-four-thieves-vinegar-collective
JPL
@WaterGirl: No Egypt for you.
Litlebritdifrnt
I remember one day Judy my late beloved boxer was running around the garden like a mad thing (and we had almost an acre so it was a big garden to run around) she appeared to be running away from herself, and was just tiring herself out doing it. It turned out, once I had stopped her and figured it out, that she had been eating grass in the recent past and had just pooed. Her recently pooed poo was still attached to her by a long strand of grass and it terrified her that no matter where she went, she couldn’t be rid of the poo. Took me with a tissue to pull the strand of grass from her bum and detach the poo. She looked at me like I was a saviour after that. “That is my Mum, she saved me from the poo chasing me”. Never forget that.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia:
Lordy lordy, that’s quite the coinkydink. Predator, meet prey. Prey, pray.
Yarrow
@zhena gogolia: Is that Chuck Toad in front of Junior?
trollhattan
@Baud:
I wonder how much Erdoğan pays Egypt to help make Turkey seem reasonable my comparison?
We have very sketchy “allies.”
Baud
@trollhattan: You realize that with Trump, we are now the sketchy ally?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: somebody should start a rumor that before that picture was taken, they were sitting next to each other, chatting quietly without looking at each other, and the man in the camo hat seemed to hand what looked like a manila folder to older man, who slipped into his attache case and returned to his newspaper as the younger man got in line for Group 1
People are saying that there are unconfirmed reports of those things happening, though my sources have not yet independently confirmed it
Mel
@geg6: Thanks again for taking Lovey in and for giving her such a wonderful life and so much love. It always lights up my day to see Lovey news or Thurston news. Lucky, sweet pups. You and Cole are good people.
Steeplejack
That’s the first picture I’ve seen where Badger doesn’t have a slight “What did I do now?” look. Must be sun-drunk.
Calouste
@trollhattan: The US have had sketchy allies since the day that Louis XVI joined the War of Independence on the American side.
Steeplejack
Just wanted to second the recommendation to chip in on Planetpundit’s GoFundMe campaign. For those who saw the post yesterday and were somewhat skeptical, he has a more in-depth explainer here.
rikyrah
Steven Beschloss (@StevenBeschloss) Tweeted:
There was a time not long ago when it made sense to think in terms of Democrats & Republicans, liberals & conservatives.
But now we’re talking about a divide between Americans who still believe in democracy, justice & the rule of law—& another population who’s abandoned it. https://twitter.com/StevenBeschloss/status/1022659556344705033?s=17
rikyrah
Badger is so cute ? ?
Betty Cracker
@ruemara: Excellent description of him!
Shell
ohhhhh, that face! That little wrinkled brow.
zhena gogolia
@Yarrow:
I don’t think so, but that would be great! This gate is the worst ever. You sit there and they call a flight about every 5 minutes, then you have to go downstairs and wait in line to get on a bus that takes you to the plane.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Someone on the twitter feed was saying Mueller was sitting there doing the NYT crossword in red ink.
Steeplejack
@eclare:
Maybe also look at the Honda HR-V, too. Slightly smaller (and maybe sportier?) than the CR-V. If the doughty Kia got hit by a meteor, I would put the HR-V on the short list.
Mike in DC
The next shoe to drop would likely be Cohen claiming that Trump knew about most if not all of his campaign’s contacts with Russians, and in fact authorized several of them.
Yarrow
Related? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
rikyrah
ABlackWomanWhoVotes (@grandoftwo) Tweeted:
Look at Bernie’s latest letter, he wants Drumpf’s racist voters so badly. This is just sickening. https://t.co/LK477N3Skz https://twitter.com/grandoftwo/status/1022884555844476931?s=17
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
IKR??? And I’m not even a dog person. But I have totally lost my heart to him.
Baud
@rikyrah: Needs more “Believe me!”
geg6
@eclare:
My sister loves her Forester and says she’ll never buy anything else from here on.
Mary G
@eclare: The CR-V didn’t have a strong enough frame/bumper to hold my mobility scooter lift, so I got the Forester and love it.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Note to self: learn something about the culture of the place you are traveling to.
WaterGirl
@JPL: You are right about that!
Litlebritdifrnt
@Mike in DC:
Someone posted a video of Trump today where he was bragging about having dirt on Hillary two days before the Treason Meeting. He was anticipating what he was going to be delivered in that meeting and like all of his deals he got nothing. It reminds me when he was on his birther rant, he told us that his “investigators” were in Hawaii and had found “incredible information, you would not believe what they have uncovered” we never heard about it again, and not one damn reporter followed up and asked him “what was the incredible information” that his investigators had found, not one, they just let him slide on the slanderous bullshit that he was spouting without ever hitting back. It was disgraceful. The national press allowed his bullshit to sit out there casting doubt on Obama among the small minded and not one of them followed up or hit back. It was a failure of epic proportions when it comes to the media.
Mary G
@rikyrah: “I’m not interested in peddling a product, but my friend writes this awesome newsletter” is the grifter’s anthem. My guess for the kickback is 50%.
WaterGirl
@Litlebritdifrnt: As I commented on another thread in the past month or so, who among us hasn’t pulled something unsavory from our beloved pet’s behind? It’s a rite of passage for pet owners, even squeamish ones like me.
Elizabelle
Badger’s such an appealing little guy. Happy Friday afternoon.
Jay
“Now that the Trump administration has achieved its D+ grade in reuniting 2/3 of the families it tore apart with the family separation policy, what’s next for the families who’ve been reunited? For a lot of them, it’s going to be more limbo: waiting to find out whether they’ll be deported, and if so, some parents will have to decide whether to ask for their children to be sent to family members here in the US to pursue an asylum claim alone. Other families who have requested asylum and have passed the “credible fear” test (the first stage of screening) are being released from detention, but have no idea how to get to their next stop in America. Fortunately, a small army of volunteers, advocacy groups, and companies has sprung up in to coordinate food, travel, and temporary housing for the asylum seekers across the country. There are far more Americans who hate what the Trump administration has done than support it, and they’re doing all they can to tell asylum seekers they’re welcome.
Dara Lind outlines the effort in a piece at Vox that’s guaranteed to make you tear up a bit. The efforts start at nonprofits all over the country, basically anywhere near where ICE has been reuniting families and then sending them out the door, often without anything more than the clothes they arrived wearing, ankle monitors for the adults, and an appointment to see immigration officials in a week to ten days. Families have some say in where that will be — most have the name of a town where a relative or someone from their own village may live, and so ICE tells them to be at the nearest field office and shuttles them to a nonprofit (although early on, some were just dropped off at bus stations in the middle of the night).
RAICES, the Texas advocacy group that’s been paying bail and finding lawyers for migrants, has joined with Families Belong Together, the tech industry nonprofit FWD.us, and a whole bunch of local social service groups to coordinate and pay for the migrants’ first steps into this schizoid country where the government hates them.
Connie Phillips, president of Lutheran Social Services Southwest in Phoenix, says her group doesn’t want to rush any of the families:
“They’re so raw” — some families have been together for an hour or less by the time they arrive at the intake center. “Hotel rooms can be pretty lonesome.”
Many have never stayed in a hotel and need to be shown how key cards work. Most need new clothes, and probably shoelaces, since ICE took those away to keep them from hanging themselves. A FWD.us staffer had to find out for one family whether it’s safe to wear the ankle monitors in a shower. And after having been treated like animals, the migrants are often very uncertain about asking for any help at all:
These people are very reserved, very quiet, very compliant,” says Phillips. “We have to say over and over again that ‘we’re here to help you,’ because they’re very suspicious of us.” They are, in a word, traumatized. “I’ve had children ask us, ‘Are you going to take my mom or my dad away now?'”
Fuck this country and the fuckers who elected Trump.
A big part of the motivation for all this seems to involve a degree of national penance, really:
“The American public is going to step in where the government has failed,” said Alida Garcia, the coalitions and policy director for FWD.us, on a press call Tuesday. “It’s going to provide comfort and love and care to these families.”
https://www.wonkette.com/reunited-families-finally-meet-some-real-americans
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: That’s a great quote. Saved for later.
raven
@Yarrow: Yep and she was proud of it!
Roger Moore
@Aleta:
It says something about the state of the pharmaceutical industry that anyone would even consider taking this stuff. The article talks about how heavily regulated the pharmaceutical industry is, but that’s for good reason. You’re taking your life into your hands every time you take a drug; it has to be at the right dose, free from contaminants, and in the right formulation to have a good chance of doing its job properly. Testing to make sure that’s true is one big reason even generic drugs can be expensive. Taking some homebrew concoction of questionable dose and purity is seriously dangerous, and only the hopelessly disfunctional state of our healthcare system would tempt somebody to try.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
When one’s dog is eating a lot of grass because of an upset tummy one will be pulling grass out of said dog at some point. Compelling argument for shorthaired dogs, by the way.
Gin & Tonic
@eclare: I had a RAV4 that I liked. But that’s gone to car heaven, and next up will be a Subaru Outback (which we’re buying from a close friend.)
Jay
@Roger Moore:
Properly engineered, and properly instructed, a “kit” to make complex drugs, is as safe as Big Pharma.
Some drugs arn’t even that complex, which is why the US “hates” generics.
Gin & Tonic
@Aleta: Homemade pharmaceuticals. Sure, what could go wrong?
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
Well BS has pissed off all of the actual democrats so if he wants to be anything he has to go somewhere. Seems wrong not to believe that he’d look in the direction of shitgibbon supporters, given everything he’s done in the last what 3 yrs.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: All this talk is bringing back (un)happy memories of previous removals. :-) I knew there was a reason both my dogs are shorthaired.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: I’ve not had much of a problem with that end, however the yorkipom always gets food stuck in the back of her mouth.
geg6
Big report coming out within days on sexual abuse in PA Catholic dioceses. It was conducted by the state and the church has been fighting its release for months. Apparently, there’s eight dioceses in the report. About damn time.
Major Major Major Major
Badger looks mighty content.
We’re down a developer at work right now because he had to go help evacuate his family from Redding, so it’s a bit of a thumb-twiddling day for me. It’s easier, and probably smarter, to wait for him to get back than it is to try and pick up his half-finished code just for one day.
Of course, this product launches on Tuesday, but we can work around the feature in question for now if we really have to.
Off to pick up my husband from the laser eye center, where he is getting laser eyes installed(?).
Jay
@Gin & Tonic:
There’s 10,000 rules and regulations if you want to bake and sell Gay Wedding Cakes in the US,
Or, you can just buy an Ez-Bake Oven.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major:
And jl thought he just had to worry about my infrared camera…
ETA: In other news, got my car registration done today and chipped a tooth eating popcorn yesterday. Also today would have been my mom’s 92nd and it’s been 12 years since we said goodbye to our Wendy(the first cocker).
rikyrah
Neoliberal Cosmic Dancer (@EtreEtro) Tweeted:
Ivanka Trump jewelry line embroiled in an alleged money laundering scheme, report says https://t.co/q6zQ7MAxpT https://twitter.com/EtreEtro/status/1022823546295386113?s=17
Faithful Lurker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Are they going to the same destination? Where?
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
So, basically, Sanders is doing ads for Jim Hightower’s newsletter. I wonder if he gets a cut of the new subscriptions or if Hightower paid him a flat fee. ?
Mike J
@Jay:
There used to be none, then somebody died from a badly made cake. Then there was one reg. Then someone else died and there were two regs. And so on.
Faithful Lurker
@Faithful Lurker: edit: Not together, of course but to the same place?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: has Hightower become an apologist for the “economically anxious”? Molly Ivins would not be pleased.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: wow, actually reading the whole newsletter now, that is some hardcore grift.
Shell
Thunder storms supposed to be roling thru all night, so guess no lunar eclipse for me.
Mary G
Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker article about Leslie Moonves and the frat boy culture at CBS is up and is just as disgusting as you would imagine:
Lesley Stahl denies everything, which is sad. When will people understand that just because for whatever reason they aren’t abused by someone, it means no one else is either? That is, if she hasn’t made a deal with herself to deny something that happened to her in the past that she complied with to keep her job.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: You a subscriber?
Mnemosyne
@Jay:
Isn’t that what the compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts that gave people bacterial meningitis thought?
EBT
Hey Balloon Juice, today I jumped in front of a car to stop a kidnapping.
Baud
@EBT: Go on.
trollhattan
@Shell:
Where do you live?
Sadly for us in North America, “No eclipse for anybody!” [/soup nazi voice]
cope
@eclare: I second the suggestion about looking at the Honda HRV. It only came out in the last couple of years and is based on the Honda Fit chassis and seat configuration. Our family has had three Fits (two are still in the family, an ’07 and an ’08) and we love them. Small on the outside, YOUGE on the inside and my ’07 still gets between 35 and 40 mpg (if I don’t run the AC) then it drops to 33-34 mpg. If I ever buy another new car again, that’s where I’m going.
trollhattan
@EBT:
What, again?
Do tell.
Major Major Major Major
@EBT: whaaat!‽
@Baud: sorry, I meant the whole *letter*.
Jeffro
Y’all are NOT. gonna believe the #MAGA bullshit my RWNJ dad sent me about the 4th Q numbers…even my RWNJ brother had to laugh.
How do I know bro laughed? We are up in Philly to see The Hold Steady on their (very brief) 10th anniversary-of-“Stay Positive” tour! Already heard sound check and met the band, took pics, etc. Great fun!
But I’ll post tomorrow about dad’s comments so we can all have a laugh together. THE BUBBLE IS STRONG!! ?
Steeplejack
@Faithful Lurker:
Probably not. That gate is one of the “gates of hell” because it feeds a bunch of different flights in a crowded, confusing manner.
CarolDuhart2
Look at my project
One of the reasons I like cats: they are self-cleaning.
rikyrah
@EBT:
Um…story please
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
Lordy, families. Not that it will help but Obama had quite a number of 4+% quarters, so keep that in your hip pocket if only for the entertainment potential.
“The Trade War, it’s working!!!”
Have a great time at the show.
Wife and spawn are in the stinking almost-desert (Ontario area) for soccer and evidently it’s 109. Poor kid. Hopefully they’re grass fields.
Gravenstone
@zhena gogolia: Um, excuse me Mr. Mueller? Can …. can I speak with you? Someplace private, maybe? /looks furtively around
Hafabee
@eclare: I’m happy with the Nissan Rogue Sport (not plain Rogue) I bought last fall. It had the higher ground clearance I was looking for; gets 29 mpg.
Corner Stone
@Jeffro:
Ask him if I can borrow his time machine.
Jay
@Mike J:
Yup, but nobody’s ever died from a Ez-Bake cake,
Although some houses have burned down, but that’s often the homes wiring fault.
Ammosexuals are allowed to print their own guns, or build unserialized guns from “kits”,
So, why shouldn’t an epipen user, be able to assemble from a properly engineered kit, a reusable, sterilizable, auto injector, and have it charged/recharged at the pharmacy,
When it saves them $567 the first time and $597 every time after?
That massive margin isn’t going to cover the costs of research, ( US Taxpayers paid for that), compliance with US Regulations, ( busted by the FDA 56 times) or Made in the US Jobs, ( Phillipines),
it’s going to pay for the 1% lifestyles of the Board.
If it can be safely done at home, with a properly designed kit, by following to the letter, the instructions, why not given the other “options” in US Healthcare?
Steeplejack
@CarolDuhart2:
Cool! I’ll check out some of those.
EBT
My partner was supposed to get her kid after two months of the kid being with the ex’s grandparents.
The ex waited until the mother was alone, and then refused to release the kid, and just drove off.
We get a call 45 minutes away to come help and my partner is sure she just lost her kid for good.
Mistress collects our partner and the partner’s wife and we get to the ex’s house to find the grandmother in a different car with the kid packed up in the back seat and the ex seeing who just rolled up and lunging for the passenger door.
I crawl out from the 3rd row of a van and cross the street to get behind the car before it can pull out. The driver didn’t care and put it in to gear and strikes me with the car.
Gelfling 545
@rikyrah: Tel père, tel fils (actually telle fille but that spoils the structure.)
Mnemosyne
Busy weekend ahead — I have a writing workshop tomorrow, and then I meet G for a UCLA Archive screening that night. On Sunday, I may be driving out to Woodland Hills to check out the marketplace for the ongoing Costume College conference and see if there’s anything cool I would want.
Corner Stone
@Mary G:
Stahl also failed to report an interaction she had with Trump in 2016 where he said he lied constantly in order to discredit the news media. I don’t think she’s an ally.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Reminds me of a recent news story.
ETA and OT: I keep hearing reviews saying that the new Mission Impossible movie is a totally enjoyable blast. Good excuse for me to go see it and enjoy an air conditioned movie theater on a hot day.
Aleta
@Roger Moore: @Gin & Tonic: First thing that came to my mind: people so desperate for a treatment that they take a chance on somebody’s uncle’s friend’s lab or an internet counterfeit.
debbie
@EBT:
It sounds like you weren’t injured. You’re very lucky. Was the kid rescued?
trollhattan
@EBT:
Jesus, you okay? For California this sounds like an Amber Alert call. You have anything similar?
JPL
@EBT: Wow.. Are you and the child okay?
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
NECC was an FDA certified producer of prescription drugs, and also regulated by the State.
debbie
@Brachiator:
If anyone in that family ever bothered to read, they might come off a little smarter.
Steeplejack
@EBT:
Jesus, then what happened?!
Your narrative structure sucks.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne:
NOTHING is cool in Woodland Hills.
Mnemosyne
@CarolDuhart2:
Well, they’re mostly self-cleaning. Keaton has had cling-ons more than once, and he gets all freaked out.
Also, there are three HUGE ads at the top of your blog on my iPhone — I had to scroll really far down to find your post. ?
Major Major Major Major
@EBT: wow, seconding @debbie‘s everything.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Well, not this weekend — high 90s all the way.
But Costume College looks fun in a nerdy cosplayer way:
http://www.costumecollege.net
Aleta
Trump rattling off creepy and frightening lies today while Pence stood there like the other half of a gumball machine.
EBT
The ex tried to shove me off, but Mistress moved to intercept him, so he settled for calling us all shits. He threatens to call the cops for about 10 minutes while Mistress tells him to do so. He finally does and when they show up they talk to both parents and made one of them produce the custody agreement. Which says the mother actually gets the kid for FIVE days out of the week, instead of the two which somehow she was currently doing. The father gets very upset and the police decided all future transfers had to happen at the police station. The driver wasn’t cited for hitting me either, because apparently Colorado has different laws?
And yeah my narrative structure sucks because I am feeling very anxious about the whole thing now that I am processing it.
Jay
@Aleta:
Yup, vs. an affordable, legit solution. Not everybody can come to Canada.
MomSense
@EBT:
Call the police! I hope you weren’t injured.
Faithful Lurker
@Steeplejack: Thanks. I really dislike those kind of airplane gates.
Gravenstone
@Aleta: Ballsy fuckers, and I greatly admire their goals and intentions. But yeah, DIY medicinal chemistry is asking for trouble from any number directions.
MomSense
@EBT:
Does your state have victim’s advocates? They are usually affiliated the the District Attorneys’ offices. I think you need some intervention and assistance. Sending a big hug to you.
Jay
@EBT:
Good, panic after, react during. Go for short walks to burn off the adrenaline. Breathe and relax when you start to tense up.
Brachiator
@debbie:
They might not know how to read. Bunch of dopes.
Don Jr also has picked up his daddy’s thing for lying and blaming Obama. Dumb asses.
Roger Moore
@Jay:
As somebody who works with the drug industry*, I can tell you this has at most a sliver of truth. There are some active pharmaceutical ingredients** that can easily be made using the kind of kit they’re describing. Getting those APIs pure to the point you’d want to use them can be anything from relatively easy to extremely difficult. Testing to be sure you’ve made what you want, purified it to acceptable purity, and you know how much you have, will almost always require equipment that’s out of the price range of people making their own drugs to save money.
Having seen a lot of this stuff from the inside, I can assure you that FDA regulations are not just there to exclude competitors and make big pharma profitable. Getting drugs right is hard, painstaking work, and you really, really don’t want somebody taking shortcuts to try to make stuff cheaper. This stuff really can kill you if you get it wrong, and making sure that it hasn’t gone wrong adds a lot to the cost of making even simple stuff like aspirin. That’s not to say our regulatory regime is perfect. But the solution is to change the rules that let gougers like Mylanta overcharge for established drugs, not to let every Tom, Dick, and Harry try making their own because how hard could it be.
*I work in on the research side of a NCI designated Clinical Cancer Center. Some of my coworkers are do drug development, and my lab does (among many other things) testing of active pharmaceutical ingredients used from early stage clinical trials all the way to commercial sales.
**Technically speaking, what these kits are making are APIs, active pharmaceutical ingredients. A “drug” in industry parlance, consists of one or more APIs formulated with other, inactive ingredients to make the form that a patient will take. For drugs where getting an immediate dose is all you need, that formulation can be quite simple, but for many drugs getting the formulation correct is at least as challenging as making the API.
Mnemosyne
@Jay:
They lied to the FDA and the state and broke the law, which is why its owners were prosecuted. Compounding pharmacies are not permitted to sell across state lines.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
Like father, like daughter.
Mary G
@EBT: Wow. I assume you are not too injured, and what a hero you are and what a good outcome for the child, although the ex is evil incarnate. I talked the other day about how working a few months for a divorce attorney made me give up a legal career because the things some people do to their kids in order to act out against the spouse made me sick.
Roger Moore
@Mike J:
Pretty much, except it usually takes more than one death before they make a new rule. The basic point stands, though: safety rules are written in blood. Repeal them at the peril of paying the same price again before they’re reinstated.
Mnemosyne
@EBT:
Since I also have one of those trick brains that likes to lie to me, don’t let your brain get you all wound up now about what “could” have happened. Whatever scary scenario your brain cooks up after the fact DID NOT ACTUALLY HAPPEN, so don’t let your brain make things seem worse than they were. It may help to write down all of your after-the-fact fears about what might have happened and turn them into fiction — it could give you a little distance from the “what if?” part of your brain.
It’s okay. You did good.
MomSense
@eclare:
All my kayaking friends have either Foresters or Outbacks. An outback saved our lives 3 1/2 years ago when a car crossed the median on Route 1 and hit my car head on. They are wicked safe and practical.
MoxieM
Badger has the best ears.
EBT
Ex called the cops and ended up looking bad, once the custody agreement was broken out and it turned out they were cheating my partner hard.
Ben Cisco
@eclare: Mama Cisco bought a CR-V after her aircraft carrier (Town Car) finally died. Big step for her – if you couldn’t land an F-14 on the roof she wanted no part of it. It’s been a year and she LOVES IT.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
About 10 years ago, there was an issue with a generic for the anti-depressant bupropion (Wellbutrin) where it basically did not work even though it seemed to be chemically correct. I’m not sure if they figured out exactly why, but it seemed to have something to do with the inert ingredients somehow interfering with the drug’s action.
I’ve had issues with different generics for the same drug causing different side effects, which is a pain in the ass.
Corner Stone
@EBT: Is there a score card so we can follow the players?
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
It may be part of his contract. To keep living he has to lie for dad. You don’t want to know what he has to do for money.
Jay
@Roger Moore:
They are not “making drugs” from scratch. They are assembling kits, ingredients and instructions designed to evade Patent and IP laws that allow Companies like Pharma Bro’s extort the market place.
Their epi-pen kit doesn’t require the user to make epinephrine at home.
They have also sized the “kits” for patient use, not production.
They are targetting simple drugs that are either part of the “Great American Ripoff Scheme” because of patent laws and IP rules, or other simple drugs that arn’t easily available, or available at all, in certain States, because God Botherers, not medical professionals, make the laws.
They arn’t targetting kits towards the home reactor that let’s you make radionuclieds.
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
How’s that regulations, inspections and enforcement regime working out for you guys?
The State and Feds closed the barn door after the horse was out.
debbie
@EBT:
I’m glad the only injury seems to be to the ex’s ego. Jerkwad really screwed himself. I’m also glad that the police are involved, that they correctly assessed the issues and are having all handoffs completed in their presence.
Hope you can relax sometime soon! ;)
Roger Moore
@Jay:
Incorrect. As a compounding pharmacy, NECC was required to be registered with the FDA (i.e. they had to tell the FDA the details of their business) but they were regulated by the state of Massachusetts. As a compounding pharmacy, they were supposed to be limited to preparing individualized medications for specific patients, but they went ahead and effectively acted as a small-scale drug manufacturer because Massachusetts did an ineffective job of regulating them. People loved them because they were able to supply drugs cheaper than conventional manufacturers, but that was only because they were cutting corners. It turns out that all that stuff about sterility in 21CFR610 is actually important.
TenguPhule
@Jay:
We are talking about ordinary Americans, yes?
Ruckus
@MomSense:
I work next door to a very large late model body shop. First, I’m amazed at the number of wrecks in one body shop, even if this place is large and I live in car central, southern CA. Judging from the damage that a lot of the cars suffer, most cars are pretty good any more. And while small changes can make a big difference, if you strip off the fenders, hood/trunk and really look at the remains, most cars today are designed very similarly. Which makes sense, they have to meet the same safety standards (which I’m sure shitgibbon wants to get rid of) and there are only so many reasonable/cost effective engineering/manufacturing solutions. These results are also available to us so that we can make purchasing decisions, which has/can have a positive effect upon the mfg.
MomSense
In happy news, my kid is going to be on the radio. One of the producers for a popular local radio station heard him play and is going to have him on her show to play some of his original songs and talk about music and the local scene.
HumboldtBlue
If you wish, you can chip in to help the victims of the Carr Fire in Shasta County you can do so at this go fund me page
Baud
@MomSense: That’s so awesome. Congrats.
CarolDuhart2
@Mnemosyne: Looks like I will have to turn off permissions for Google Ads then. I didn’t see them, or I would have turned them off sooner. I’d rather self-finance anyway.
Jay
@TenguPhule:
Yup, you are the only one that spotted the major flaw in the Robin Hood Pharma Hacking Scheme.
You win the internets today.
Shippings free, but expedited shipping’s gonna cost you.
EBT
@Corner Stone: Mistress, who is dating me, the mother of the child, and a third person who was in the van. The mother is also married to a woman who I have been calling the wife. The ex and his mother were the other side.
EBT
@debbie: Yeah I am currently just finished the first cigarette I have had in years.
MomSense
@Ruckus:
Cars are much safer now but I think Subarus rank at the top for safety.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
There’s a reason people in the industry make a clear distinction between an API and a drug. My lab tests APIs, but we don’t test drugs, and I’m perfectly happy for it to be that way.
MomSense
@Baud:
Thanks! He will be an awesome performer at your campaign rallies and for my In Baud We Trust superpac fundraisers.
stinger
@rikyrah: Nope, still just Democrats and Republicans, Mr. Beschloss, only some Republicans are ashamed to admit it now.
You’re trying to pretend that “both sides do it”. Truth in labeling, Mr. Beschloss — only one side has actually abandoned the rule of law. And there’s only one solution: Vote Democratic.
Steeplejack
@Ben Cisco:
Ha! Mama Cisco’s ride.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense: On the wireless, eh? Congrats.
Mnemosyne
@Jay:
So the fact that criminals exist means that there shouldn’t be any regulations at all?
Jay
@Roger Moore:
Yup, the same rules, regulations and enforcement often cited a reason why drugs are so expensive in the US,
that only get enforced when somebody dies.
Barn, horse, fire.
Given the choice in the US, between a $600 epipen, a $300 dollar generic, a $67,800 ER visit, a safe $30 +$3 alternative, or a death, what’s a broke person gonna do?
debbie
@MomSense:
Congratulations! Is this the same son who got those wasp stings? Is he better?
debbie
@EBT:
Totally understandable. As someone said, not reliving it over and over in your mind is very good advice. Easier said than done, but very good advice!
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Oh my gosh, what an amazing opportunity! He must be really good.
Mike in NC
@Roger Moore: It would be so delicious if Ivanka were to be the thing that brings down the whole rotten Organization
TodtTrump.WaterGirl
@MomSense: Is it a radio station one might be ale to find on the internet?
Steeplejack
@MomSense:
Just saw a Subaru Forester ad on TV. Top-rated IIHS safety pick (whatever IIHS is). Nice-looking ride.
Steeplejack
@MomSense:
Cool!
TenguPhule
@EBT:
Great, I am now more confused then when you started.
Aleta
@Roger Moore: My understanding is that (some) company-made meds are controlled for where in the body they start to break down, how fast they are absorbed, maybe how they get to where they are metabolized or active. Even with generics the amount of absorption can vary. Differences in coating materials or stomach acidity.
Roger Moore
@Jay:
That’s a ginormous fucking “IF” doing the heavy lifting at the front. Being able to do the job when the people who developed the kit are doing it is one thing. But it’s going to be very hard to prove that it will continue to work well every time when you give the same kit and equipment to a bunch of random schmucks to try out. Have they done that? How thoroughly have they tested under all conditions under which the kit is going to be used? Do they batch test the kits to make sure their quality hasn’t dropped off? How about their reactor; have they tested every single one to make sure it’s in proper working condition before shipping? Do they have a proper set of maintenance and testing procedures so end users can be sure their equipment is in proper working condition before they use it?
This is the kind of stuff real drug manufacturers have to do all the damn time, because it’s stuff that’s been shown to be critical to making drugs that don’t kill their patients. Try reading 21CFR210 and 21CFR211 to get just the smallest taste of the kind of detailed work that goes into making drugs.
WaterGirl
Apropos of nothing, until this week I thought it was Ted Devine. Not Tad. I must have seen his name hundreds of times, but I always read it as Ted. It was Al Giordano’s newsletter this week that brought the error to my attention. The first time he wrote Tad, I thought it was a typo. But there were so many mentions of Tad Devine that I soon realized my error.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
I think it is. When I k ow the date I’ll let people here know.
@debbie:
No, my oldest is the musician and my youngest is the sting survivor. Actually my youngest is learning guitar now, too.
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
No, the fact that criminals exist, means that you don’t turn over inspection and enforcement to the crooks, under the guise of “self inspection”,
You don’t extend IP and Patent protections to Extorsionists just because they added a “new” inert ingredient into their extortion plot.
You don’t let “Market Forces” set the price on a Taxpayer funded medical treatment,
You don’t let God Botherers and Fetus Fondlers decide what is a proper medical condition and treatment,
You don’t let people die or lose everything because they get sick.
Because the US does all this and more, you are going to have Robin Hood hackers and makers figuring out how to save lives and desperate people willing to try. I have no problem with that.
If aspirin cost $ 400 a pill, I’d have no issue with an “instructinals” You-tube vid on how to make willow tea.
stinger
@CarolDuhart2: Bookmarked — THANK YOU!
Omnes Omnibus
@eclare: I have never heard any complaints from CR-V owners. My parents are on their second one. They got a ’97 when the model was first introduced and then replaced it with a ’13 sixteen years later. They love the current one.
Aleta
@EBT: It sounds like all of you + your actions had a good effect in a bad situation. Hope the child is relaxing now, and you too.
EBT
@Aleta: Child, Mother, and Wife are having a nice afternoon together.
TenguPhule
I swear, nobody can keep their fucking pants on in this regime!
EBT
@TenguPhule: Haha :)
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Jay: I’m really confused about your point here. “Regulations are making pharmaceuticals expensive, so let’s do away with them!” is usually a line pushed by Republicans, to fill the pharma investors’ pockets at the public’s expense.
There are better potential policies out there for reducing the price of pharma than “just throw out the regs”. That’s just reckless and stupid, IMHO.
Aleta
@CarolDuhart2: This is so great. Thanks.
Jay
@TenguPhule:
It’s a poly triangle, ( maybe, might be a V, EBT was unclear)
EBT
/
wife – mistress
B.B.A.
@TenguPhule: He’s an Obama appointee, so I’m sure Fox News will run with this story 24 hours a day.
Needless to say, Watt should resign immediately.
Mnemosyne
@Jay:
And your solution is Fuckit, let everyone make their own drugs so at least they’re responsible for their own deaths when they screw it up.
I get why people are desperate enough to start compounding their own HIV drugs. I don’t get why you think it’s a great idea to go backwards 100 years and let snake oil salesmen sell “kits” on the internet that will totally work. Having private hucksters kill people is not actually better than having Big Pharma do it.
TenguPhule
Mississippi, what the fuck is wrong with you?
How bad?
This bad.
Lopez was Latino and a registered gun owner.
The NRA is predictably silent as a church mouse.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
It is quite possible that Subies are at the top of the list. I looked at them when my van started to give me end of it’s life worries but I ended up with something else. Just liked it better and the cost was a bit better. I’ve looked over the years at Subies and have come very close a couple of times but the previous time the mileage just didn’t stack up for me. My current car gets mid 30s around town and can get over 40 on long jaunts at actual speed. YMMV, of course. Isn’t it nice that we have actual choices?
Jay
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Regulations, inspection and enforcement don’t make drugs in the US expensive.
A gamed system that ensures the CEO can buy new megayacht every year, because the mark up over costs is 300% -$1.5 million %, makes drugs expensive.
A system where God Botherers and Fetus Fondlers get to decide what is a medical condition and appropriate treatments, make some drugs and treatments unavailable in some States.
Patricia Kayden
I’m sure this is already being discussed but the nightmare at the Southern border for kidnapped children continues.
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
No, I have no problem with people trying to come up with their own solutions.
I live in Canada, we don’t have that problem here, ( other than some rare drugs and conditions).
I can’t fix your problems, only you guys can, and most of you know what the solutions are, to fix the root problem.
In the meantime, hackers and makers are going to try to invent bandaids.
Scamp Dog
Meeca has a new home! I picked her up 90 minutes ago and now we’re walking around the condo lawn.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Well it can be cheaper to let each of us ourselves than big pharma. And some of big pharma killing us is that we don’t all break down the drugs the same way. I’ve written about this before, that I was prescribed a drug that was released for sale the year before I was born, that has a good track record, very little side effects, blah, blah, blah and for which the prescribing old fart doc had never seen anything major, which gave me massive hallucinations which were so bad I was afraid to walk the 15 feet to the other side of my room. I’m one of the 1-2% for that drug. Imagine if I’d made that myself, it would be like taking the brown acid at Woodstock. I guess for Jay that might be better. Or at least acceptable.
MomSense
@Scamp Dog:
Wonderful!! She is such a beauty. Of course we are going to need pictures.
Ruckus
@Scamp Dog:
Cool, hope she fits in, in short order.
A Ghost To Most
In case you’ve never seen a man bites dog story.
Platonailedit
commas cost cash.
JPL
@Scamp Dog: Sweet! I was hoping that you would comment and confirm my suspicions. .
Happy days.
Mnemosyne
@Jay:
So you don’t actually understand the issues here in the US but you’re totally convinced that hackers will solve it all?
Read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to get some idea of the history and why Americans might be reluctant to throw out all of the regulations and go DIY.
Mnemosyne
@Platonailedit:
We warned people that discarding the Oxford comma would cause more problems than it was worth, but they wouldn’t listen. ?
Platonailedit
@zhena gogolia:
Why isn’t the stupid spawn not wearing the stupid magat hat? Fear of getting punched on his stupid face?
Mnemosyne
@Scamp Dog:
Yay! I suspected it when I saw your reply in that thread. I hope your new senior dog has a great life with you.
EBT
@Jay: Polyam penta actually.
Mistress dommes myself, the person who stayed in the van AND the mother of the abducted child. The mother is also married to a woman.
eclare
@TenguPhule: Same, is Mistress dating three people?
eclare
@Scamp Dog: Yay! Many years of happiness to you both!
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
The lack of a serial comma caused much confusion in my area in regard to acceptable ID for voting.
Steeplejack
@Patricia Kayden:
Your link has an unbelievable amount of chaff on the end of it. Cleaned up: “Six-year-old girl abused in immigrant detention center.”
different-church-lady
Facebook.
Steeplejack
@Scamp Dog:
Huzzah! Three cheers to you!
Roger Moore
@Jay:
Good thing we don’t. Drug manufacturers, and even subcontractors, are regularly inspected by the FDA. I’ve worked a few inspections, and they are not by any means pro-forma affairs. The goal is for them to be helpful inspections that work to improve the quality of the people being inspected, but they can turn into inquisitions the moment an inspector thinks they’re being given the run around. Manufacturers can be shut down until they prove they meet FDA standards, and everyone who’s subject to those inspections lives in fear of them because they know it’s not just an idle threat.
FWIW, the reports from those inspections are public records. If you want to know how the company that manufactured the drug you’re using is doing, you can use FOIA to request their most recent form 483 and EIR (roughly the standard form the inspector fills out at the end of the inspection and the narrative report of what they found, respectively).
Mnemosyne
@eclare:
Sometimes I just take the Miss Manners approach of nodding and smiling and saying, “I hope you’re very happy.”
I’m guessing that the unusual household arrangement is part of what is freaking the kid’s father out, but EBT seems like an ethical person, so I feel pretty confident that all the kid knows is that Mommy and Stepmommy have housemates.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: Though it makes it hard to follow the flow of the narrative without a proper character list.
Platonailedit
@Mnemosyne:
The Moar You Know
Since OT, opinions welcome on compact crossover SUV’s. I am thinking along the lines of a CR-V or Forrester. I’m going to test drive them this weekend.
@eclare: The new CRV is big. And a bit mushy for my tastes. But it’s a Honda and they’re pretty great. Better resale than the Forester as well.
But – I bought the Forester. It’s big enough, it handles like a nice car, and unlike most modern cars and SUVs, it has amazing visibility around most of the car. I got mine with the adaptive cruise control system, which is pretty amazing and is something I now consider indispensable (I live in SoCal and it really helps in stop and go traffic). It’s also really good for long roadtrips. Do drive them both. Really liking this Subaru, though.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Yeah, we may need some simple designations so we know it was B’s kid who was almost abducted, not C’s. ?
TenguPhule
If the ammunition gets any drier, its gonna spontaniously combust.
Schumer plays long game, avoids hardball with centrist Democrats over Supreme Court pick
If we can’t unite on this, what the fuck’s the point?
Steeplejack
@EBT:
We’re gonna need an Edward Tufte-level diagram.
Baud
@TenguPhule: What part of we don’t have control is confusing to people?
efgoldman
@zhena gogolia:
The short hop flights to Providence often go out of that “gate”. One time they held the shuttle bus on the tarmac for ~40 minutes
EBT
@Steeplejack: Get four points that are all interconnected and then add another point only connected to one to represent the wife, who is currently just my metamoure. (Metamoure: Noun; A partner in your polycule to whom you are not in a romantic relationship, but someone else in the polycule is in a romantic relationship with)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: It’s all very confusing, Baud.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
I know we don’t have control. What I don’t understand is Schumer not seeing the value in a united front of opposition in the Senate. Not a single one of the times one of the blue dogs has crossed the aisle has the result worked out. Not a single time.
Rally the fucking base. Make a stand as Democrats, not Trump-enablers. Show the difference between the parties for the low information people.
ETA: Punishment is exactly how the party is supposed to reign in rogue members.
Major Major Major Major
@EBT: @Steeplejack: could always be more complicated, mother’s spouse could domme the mistress.
EBT
@Major Major Major Major: No one could ever domme Mistress.
Platonailedit
@TenguPhule:
May be the dem base should turn out to make a point?
Baud
@TenguPhule: What’s the value to putting Red state Dems under the gun if he’s going to be confirmed anyway. Who are we trying to impress? The base will show up to vote. That’s why they are the base.
Steeplejack
@The Moar You Know:
Yeah, that’s why I suggested eclare look at the HR-V. I’m not in the market for a car at all, but I look at them when I’m out and about and I have noticed the size creep on the CR-V recently.
I went through the HR-V gallery at the Honda site when I went over there to get a link, and I have to admit I experienced a faint tremor of consumer lust.
Probably would feel the same if I went through the Subaru Forester gallery. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Baud
@Steeplejack: Or flash cards.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-trade-tariffs-eu-colorful-cards-2018-7
TenguPhule
This is my surprise face. : |
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: It might put Red State Dems and greater risk and we might need Dems in those seats to have a majority next year.
Major Major Major Major
@EBT: maybe being a switch is her dirty secret.
Steeplejack
@Major Major Major Major:
My relationship with the housecat is pretty basic, although, to be honest, I admit there is a slight possibility that she dommes me.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
Avoiding fallout when inevitably the confirmed nominee does something stupid and illegal.
If Republicans want to pass it, make them own it and make them bleed for it. All these Red State votes with the Republicans keep biting them in the ass later. Because it allows Republicans to use them to tar the whole party under the guise of “biapartisanship” and run on “both sides, therefore no real difference, what’s the point?”
We may not be able to hold Manchin and company for most things, but this is one of those really important times we need to.
Baud
@TenguPhule: There’s no fallout. Anyone who blames Dems already hates Dems.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
In an off-election year its always better to motivate them when you can and when its the right thing to do.
Baud
@TenguPhule: No, this won’t affect anyone’s vote except voters in red states who support Trump. You’re theory is a myth.
Ruckus
@Platonailedit:
The responses to that tweet are priceless.
Click the date at the end of the quote.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Now I want EBT to write a thinly-veiled roman à clef to explain the whole dynamic. I think that would be way more fun than a diagram.
Baud
@Mnemosyne: I feel like it’s more complicated than Trump’s conspiracies.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
And if they’d voted for ACA destruction because otherwise they’d risk their seats? Or the Tax cuts from hell?
This is one of those times we need them to vote for the right thing again.
Baud
@TenguPhule: Not unless they can get Susan Collins. Otherwise, what we need is for them to get reelected.
Baud
@TenguPhule: Not unless they can get Susan Collins. Otherwise, what we need is for them to get reelected.
Ben Cisco
@Steeplejack: BWAHAAHAA
EBT
@Mnemosyne: Mistress dommes everyone but the wife, but that is because the mother and wife are new to polyam. I would put money on the wife being dommed in a few months at most. They really understand what I mean about them being my family and being there to love and support them how I can now too.
Platonailedit
@Ruckus:
The first one is a gem.
eclare
@TenguPhule: Seconded.
The Moar You Know
If we can’t unite on this, what the fuck’s the point?
@TenguPhule: He will get confirmed anyway. The GOP controls the Senate, no one will buck Trump, and he will get confirmed. Period. That is going to happen no matter how much Dems squall about it. As someone said, “elections have consequences”. One of the consequences of the last election is that conservatives will have the Supreme Court for the next thirty years. There’s not a fucking thing you, I, or Chuck Schumer can do about that.
What Chuck CAN do is keep members of his caucus from having to take a position on something that might (probably won’t, but might) cost them their seats, which no matter how conservative the Dem, are seats we CANNOT lose.
You want to make a useless gesture. Schumer is trying to give us a majority. He will probably fail, but he is trying with the only tools he has. The useless gesture will accomplish nothing. Schumer might accomplish something. I know what the sane course of action is here.
Mnemosyne
@EBT:
I’m seriously picturing a mystery novel where the ex-husband gets murdered and your whole family has to band together to solve the crime yourselves because you know the police would love to pin it on you because of the way you live. Go write that for me, please. ?
eclare
@TenguPhule: If we expect to hold all Republicans responsible if/when Roe v Wade is overturned, we better damn well make sure no Democrats voted for Kavanaugh. Otherwise the argument fails.
Steeplejack
@Ben Cisco:
Glad you came back. Thought you’d like that. ???
– Smoove B.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
Well, if you want to get technical….
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
The two are not in conflict unless we’re assuming the red state swing voters who elected our Red State Democrats are fucking idiots as well as complete monsters. Anyone having a problem with not supporting Trump’s nominee at this point is probably not voting Democratic in the first place.
Ruckus
@Baud:
It’s for certain that a lot more thought and effort went into them than the shitgibbon has ever managed.
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
If your choice is a home assembled, pharmacy filled epipen, or death, what choice are you going to make?
Prior to the kit, some people only had one choice.
WaterGirl
@Scamp Dog: Congratulations!
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
In ’79, I was working a shit job for shit wages and no benifits in CA.
I got an infected lymph node in my neck.
My choices were very limited. Couldn’t even afford the follow up antibiotics and I would have been about three years in the hole, had I gone to the ER or a Doctor.
At the time, I shaved with a straight razor, so I sharpened it up, sterlized it, slit the mass open, just millimetres from my jugular, drained it, cleaned it out with home made sterile saline solution, stitched it closed, with the sterilized end of a Bic pen cartridge inserted as a drain tube. Saved up eventually enough money to go home a year later.
In the mid ’90’s, ran a Tech Factory in Milwaukee for a multinational. Had a gold plated Fortune 100 health plan. Fairly quickly learned to go home for health care issues.
EBT
@Mnemosyne: I mean, that was what the ex was hoping basically. Get the kid back to texas, have the cis grandmother call us all godless heathens and let a prejudiced court fuck with us.
burnspbesq
@Jay:
You’re not listening, and you’re far too convinced of your own rectitude, so there is really no point in engaging with you.
There are more things in heaven and on earth, dear Horacio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
eemom
Can you say s-c-a-m? I thought you could.
SectionH
@Scamp Dog: oh that’s wonderful! I was so hoping you’d adopt her. best wishes for many happy years together.
rikyrah
@EBT:
Wow. Glad that you are ok
rikyrah
@MomSense:
Fabulous!??
rikyrah
@Scamp Dog:
Yeah!???????
Jay
@burnspbesq:
LMFAO
Mnemosyne
@EBT:
Don’t take this the wrong way, and IANAL, but I’m pretty sure as a layperson that even a court in California would be wary of a polyamorous living situation for a child, especially one with an unknown new arrival (that would be you). Like I said, I’m pretty sure you’re an ethical person who knows not to let the kid find out about the adults-only games going on, but most courts will be skeptical of everyone’s motives. Be extra cautious when the kid is in the house.
EBT
@Mnemosyne: Good thing I am not in CA, also the ex lives in a basement. I live in a place where the child gets a private bedroom, with an ensuite bathroom that links to her mother’s bedroom.
Mnemosyne
@EBT:
Okay, I can tell that I am expressing myself poorly, so I’m going to quit before I dig in and start going down a rabbit hole I don’t want to. Have a great night — you did good today.
And I still think you should write a mystery novel where you and your family are the detectives. LGBT+ mysteries are very In right now.
EBT
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, I could bust out from my schlock fantasy and porn niches.