During the Depression, the WPA and CCC employed a slew of people with skills as diverse as construction to historical research to artists. Others were trained to fill needed positions. It could be done again. 

I agree with this take, but I come from a hot-headed family where this sort of thing is done by men and women, so I don’t see it as toxic masculinity but as a frustrated way to make him feel some of what his daughter has been put through. I hope he gets probation and community service and maybe anger management, and I…

Except for the missing cats (one is absolutely refusing to come inside or be trapped, but I know where she is; I’m beginning to fear the worst for the boys - I live in mountain lion territory), the sheer level of escalating drama is almost getting to the point of amusing absurdity. I know Kafkaesque is overused, but I…

Okay, you might find this funny because of its near operatic level of drama/dumpster fire:

My FIL was a nice, sweet man. My MIL was a horrid bitch so I didn’t really get to know him until after she died, but I liked him and sent him cat photos on the reg (he LOVED cats). My husband doesn’t seem to fathom that I could be mourning his death, too. Not in the same way, of course; but I still lost a friend. 

I am so sorry you are going through this too. I too am disabled; I’m in Stage 3/4 kidney failure (it’s fluctuating between “not good” and “pretty bad”) and have a bunch of other weird shit wrong with me that requires expensive medicine that’s currently covered by insurance through his job (I do have Medicare). Moving…

I take some small malicious pleasure in knowing that me not being around will not bring him what he wants. At all. 

I’m the one who got my brother to see a therapist. I believed he was a self-medicating bipolar (there’s a lot of serious crazy in my family, so I’m not just doing Diagnosis by Google). His therapist was helping but for some reason Rx’d Vyvanse, which causes delusion disorder in people with his disorders. SIGH. So if I…

Thank you so much. I really don’t know that many people here (he moved us to a fairly isolated area) and I’ve just felt so alone. I have a brother, but he too is off his meds (he believes his neighbor is moving walls and toilets in his house, and rewiring it) (I wish I were making this up) and my SIL is pressuring me…

You are absolutely right. I’m just in a kind of shock and running off at the mouth (fingers?). I’ve already asked two friends about the lawyers they used in their divorces (and got him to agree to pay the fees for my lawyer). I just have been walking around in a stupid shell-shock fog while at the same time…

No chance. Long story, but the body was found a few weeks after death and there were suicide notes ... but he also had a particularly bad cancer, drank a lot, and was known to take his meds improperly but not with intent. 

As for documenting the communication - it’s all been text except for one exceptional drunk, self-pitying call from him, which I quote in txt the next day.

I thought I’d whine somewhat anonymously.

It sounded better than Piecemeal Health, which is what they provide to women. 

KfromMa - you will always be a better person than I am.

You make good points. As I said - I’m open to anyone that isn’t Biden; I just have a fantasy Team Angry in my head of W/S or S/W that would combine their ideas with actions to make some changes. I can dream! Realistically, Sanders is too old to run for President after a triumphant and successful two terms of Warren; an…

Warren’s (and Sanders’s) righteous anger at the things everyone should be angry at is why I’m cautiously optimistic. They’re both doing well, and “Crazy Bernie’s” ideas are now pretty mainstream. They’re not mad at us; they’re mad for us.

If Sanders wins the nomination (from your lips to The Election Gods’ Ears), my VP pick is WARREN.

Heterosexism excludes bisexual women having a same-sex relationship that’s not a threesome with a man. Heterosexism demanded she give up a same-sex partner because being lesbian or bisexual would have damaged her career and how she was being marketed.

I’m a believer that substance abuse is a symptom of an even more serious underlying condition, such as untreated trauma, mental illness, etc. Being forced away from the person you love (and who loves and supports you) and into “straightness” would break anyone enough to want to numb that away, whatever it took.