I read this a few weeks ago, it is so so worthwhile. The numbers - including the number of young children being raised by grandparents/other relatives - are just staggering.

The church I grew up in had mass in Polish every Sunday, and still insists on only hiring a priest who is fluent in Polish.

But the most pain you’ve ever had isn’t necessarily a 10. I’ve never had a kidney stone, which women I know who gave birth without an epidural said was worse to have, so I would never claim a 10 for whatever else even if was the worst pain I had felt (that honor still goes to a staph infection) because I know it isn’t…

I don’t think he ever believed anything he was saying, to be honest.

A secret service agent monitors all his food, unfortunately.

Maybe he’s holding out hope that between him & Mattis they can keep us out of a nuclear war? I don’t know how either of them have been able to walk through the West Wing and not just smack everyone over the head with their briefcases.

If he hadn’t gone for the 3rd term, Bloomberg would be remembered as one of the best mayors this city has ever had. As it is, people now only recall him trying to ban soda.

And they’re all used to the golden parachute if they do get the boot in the private sector.

The communications director for AVN wouldn’t give a statement that vulgar to Penthouse.

Agreed, Mattis’ loyalty is to the constitution and the people who serve, not to the Oval Office and whatever BS comes out of it these days.

I do live at the beach (you can just make it out in the background there) so summer cocktails are a way of life.

That’s so depressing to me. My dad was raised by a single father in the 1950s and Scouts were a lifeline for him as far as activities since my grandfather was working all the time. My brothers were both Scouts (the younger of them got Order of the Arrow), and in our small town it really was a community organization.…

Well if shit keeps going the way it’s been with this bunch of asshats running the show (I am exempting Mattis from this bunch, especially after that interview he gave that high school kid where he praised HRC and said the best route to peace in the Middle East is education), I may need a liver transplant from all the…

I’m just drinking gin.

I can’t share your idealism on single payer when the three socialized medicine programs that already exist here are such shit shows. My mom is a nurse, my dad worked for a defense contractor, I’ve spent my life talking about shit people don’t want to pay for because it isn’t important to them personally.

But Medicare doesn’t pay hospitals any better than private insurers. I’ve seen my father’s billing statements. For a surgery he had last fall, the anesthesiologist billed at $800. Medicare determined that service was actually only worth $170 (that doc would have to knock a lot of people out at that rate to even cover…

I never see this part discussed so I want to ask - where are all the people currently working for insurance companies going to work? Do they automatically become federal employees? I grew up in Connecticut so a huge number of people I know work for health insurers. I’m not talking CEOs, I’m talking regular people who…

But who is to say the people they paid to transport them haven’t promised legal visas/papers? If you live somewhere with limited communication access, how would you know they were bullshitting you? If you haven’t dealt with bureaucracy, how would you know the steps? Hell, there are people born and raised in this…

Just send the card to the partner, they will pass it on.

VAs are so hit or miss. I know people who get great care at their local VA and those who can never get an appointment and if they can they get barely competent care. It’s atrocious.