Honestly, it’s some of my family I’m most disappointed in.

In prior years they started vegetable gardens because they supposedly couldn’t afford to buy fresh produce from the store due to “Bidenflation”, but suddenly this year, they didn’t bother even though prices on produce and so many other essentials are higher than ever.

I had written a long comment, honestly way too long, and then realized that one anecdote perfectly demonstrates how ridiculous it is. These are folks that spent years blaming Biden for post-covid, worldwide inflation and every single time some random thing got expensive like when eggs spiked last year. Then, late January 2025 rolls around and suddenly not a peep since. Any attempt to discuss the topic, or draw attention to the fact that this time around the spike in food prices and general inflation are largely and directly a result of Trump and his administration, the story changes to “the president doesn’t control grocery prices.”

And I know they’re feeling it, that the reality of the situation is affecting them. But I guess I had held out hope that they were better than this.

I’ve seen him perform! Stage name is Miranda Warning. Oh that’s right, never mind, still not a drag queen.

I would correct their grammar if they were a native English speaker because having “a dream of me in it” sounds super weird.

But otherwise, people don’t control their dreams and some people are super sharers so really all just depends on a myriad of context details. Mostly it wouldn’t be anything I’d think about too much, one way or the other. Like if they told me they had tacos for dinner or that they were wearing wool socks because it was cold this morning. No real difference.

I don’t know if it’s my “favourite” but I remember how hilarious it was the first time I heard that original Resident Evil line about “you, the master of unlocking”. Granted, at the time I assumed it was all intentional B-grade horror movie parody.

The relatively new rural hospital that’s saved the lives of people in my family and offered others the ability to spend their final day(s) / hour(s) of life close to home is on the chopping block. I just found out this morning that it may be closing, specifically cited as being due to medicaid cuts.

As far as I am aware, the next closest hospitals are going to add another 20 - 30 minutes or so to an ambulance ride for people in that area.

I think about the “widow maker” heart attack or the aftermath of the car accident that shouldn’t have been survivable, and I wonder if those situations would have turned out differently if it took 20 extra minutes before starting surgery / treatment.

I also think about the ambulance rides that insurance increasingly considers “out of network” and thus people are on the hook for 100% of the cost. Those often charge by the mile. One way or another, things are going to be even more expensive for those folks.

Honestly, I know it’s not the same, but that’s why I have always gravitated towards “news aggregators”, basically the sites that bore progeny like Reddit and Lemmy, where you’re presented with links to news or random websites and people have their say about it in the comments.

I never heard of Third Voice and truthfully anything that is 100% reliant on a third party app or plugin / extension / mod / etc probably isn’t my bag of tea, but still a cool idea.

I see this from two different perspectives:

1. There are some ingredients I just don’t like the taste of. But, in some recipes and if prepared properly, I’m fine with them. Green beans are an example. I don’t like them. But creamy green bean casseroles are fine and vegetable soup with green beans is totally acceptable.

2. Then there are things like desserts that I’m picky about because if I’m going to screw up my metabolism and caloric intake for the day, it better damn well be worth it. I’m not going to waste my time on a substandard sugar and/or fat filled treat. I’m going to skip on that dry cake, jello salad, faux ice cream, fake chocolate sludge, etc.

Almost literally, the moment Trump was sworn in as president, the same exact folks who spent the prior 8 months of their lives blaming Biden for the high cost of eggs suddenly had an epiphany that the president does not directly control the price of eggs. And then when the president DID specifically and directly affect the price of groceries as a result of tariffs, those same people suddenly insist that grocery prices are based on complex and rapidly changing global socioeconomic phenomenon that cannot be predicted nor controlled and besides this is still Biden’s economy because it was so broken that Trump hasn’t been able to fix it yet (even though he promised to have it all sorted out in a timeline of days).

They live in a separate reality, void of fact and logic, and I honestly have not figured out a way to reason with that. As wiser folks have said much more eloquently than I could, you cannot reason people out of something they did not reason themselves into.

Same here, I’m in the Southeastern USA. Monarchs are one of those species I pay attention to, and this spring we had a bumper crop around here. I’ve never seen so many of the caterpillars and adults in the past 10 years or so I’ve made an effort to look.

Granted, that’s also true for the handful of other butterfly and moth species I keep tabs on, they’re all having a really good year this year it seems. Luna moths, several different swallowtail species, Gulf fritillary, regal moths, hummingbird butterflies. About the only thing that I’ve seen less of this year are the giant hummingbird hawk moths.

But these things do tend to ebb and flow. One year certain “bugs” are everywhere, the next year they’re hardly seen. And with the monarch lifecycle being what it is, one good year like this one, even if it’s good in more than one region, isn’t a guarantee of long term success.

Really depends on the situation.

If I’m just feeding myself, I have no issue with going outside and foraging for food. I don’t hunt, but I’m not the type that needs an animal based protein main entree in my meals, so it works/worked for me to collect wild vegetables, fruits, and fungi.

And from there, I eat whatever is cheapest. Grocery store mark-downs and deep-discount sales would guide my decisions. If an acquaintance was giving away food, I’d take it. When the food bank is doing a giveaway and it was close enough for me to visit, I’d go there and take what they had to offer.

At my poorest, when I had no access to a kitchen, peanut butter sandwiches were a mainstay. Tuna sandwiches were next best, but more expensive. At the time, powdered milk was a bit of a luxury, but it definitely helped wash down the peanut butter and was way cheaper by volume than fresh milk.

A lot of stores and restaurants, at least where I live, will have condiment packages out in the open. Don’t go hog wild, but my experience is nobody cares/notices if you grab a few packs of whatever items are out: ketchup, mustard, mayo, honey, hot sauce, soy sauce, salt, and pepper – in moderation – so those can be free to you to use for meal prep.

When I’ve just been broke and/or saving money, my main protein was usually chicken. I’d just buy whatever was cheapest on sale, and try to stock up a bit or get rain checks. Then I could cook that in a crock pot and literally have meals for days. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas, turkey usually goes on deep discount and there are almost always a myriad of programs that just give them away. If you have room in your freezer and a crock pot, then you can be set just from that.

Add in some rice and/or beans/legumes to soak up the flavor when cooking meats.

Eggs were also always a solid choice, pretty versatile because they could be hard boiled, scrambled, fried, mixed into other things like noodles, or used to cook/bake other dishes.

Potatoes were another cheap source of carbohydrates, something that goes on sale often enough that I could usually find a deal, and if properly stored (cool, dark, dry) they can last a long time. Plus, they can go into the slow cooker with some chicken thighs and both ingredients benefit flavor-wise.

So, meals would be whatever combination of those things you can physically obtain. Your meal items don’t have to have a name. If you have potatoes and mix those with scrambled eggs and mix in some wild dandelions, that’s still a meal even if that’s not going to show up in a recipe book. If you boil some noodles and add in some mayo and a pinch of rosemary from a bush you saw down the road, that’s still a meal. Basically, just get creative with what you’ve got.

Really, I just want to figure out a way to make a stable, livable income without having to become a corporate wage slave again. The corporate wage slave part is negotiable.

Looking forward to reading this and the comments.

Having said that and assuming my interpretation of the headline is correct and that the headline is factually correct, my response is DUUUUUUUHUH HUH HUH HUH.

Because DUH HUH HUH HUH HUH.

To be honest, I’m just looking forward to the massive tax savings and ridiculously lowered tax bill I’m one billion percent sure is going to materialize in 2026 from all the DOGE savings we’ve attained. Totally holding my breath on that one. Do cremated remains even pay taxes? Who the fuck am I kidding, this is the USA, of course they do.

… and nobody is there to poop on it, does it even bear repeating at all?

I thought so to, but according to the article, this started happening months ago, but now the scope is expanding. Per the article, China and Hong Kong exemptions ended a while back, but now exemptions for other nations will be ending if I understood it correctly.

I’m here, so keep that in mind, but as far as I’m concerned and objectively speaking, Lemmy does not offer what most casual users / general public want nor does it really operate the way people expect. Whether or not that’s a good thing or bad thing or something in between is more subjective, so I’ll leave it at that.

For example, if I want to scrap my account and start new, fine. But with Lemmy, it’s been forced on me at least 4 times, and several other times I have done it because the instance I was on was unstable, had unacceptable technical issues, or just too much outage. Reddit definitely has outages and other issues like that, but those are generally addressed in minutes to hours, not days/weeks/months.

I’ve long given up on finding a place here for my main hobbies. There are communities, but I don’t enjoy talking to nobody, posting to myself. If I wanted to do that, I’d just get a Twitter account and tweet into the wind. So, honestly, I can see the appeal of going to Reddit so you can actually discuss things and share with other people.

Those are just two examples of things that might keep the average person away. Of course, there are plenty of issues and concerns with Reddit and other social media platforms, but as long as they continue to work in a manner that people understand and expect and offer what folks want, most people aren’t going to go seeking out alternatives that have many more downsides, relatively speaking.

What was the recovery from that surgery like? Any pain / discomfort / concerns?

I am considering getting lens replacement for my dog if I can come up with the money, but financial concerns aside, my other biggest concern is how stressful / painful / risky that kind of procedure might be for her.

I’ll probably butcher this fact, but 20/20 vision does not mean you have perfect vision. It means you have average / normal vision.

I’ve always had 20/20 (or perhaps better) vision. But now that I’m on the downhill side of ancient, I’m noticing that my vision is blurry. Especially while watching TV, reading, etc.

Yet, at both my primary care provider and at the optometrist, I’m able to accurately see all the letters on the vision charts and based on that I have 20/20 vision.

The optometrist (or maybe it was an assistant) explained that it’s pretty common and that 20/20 is just average vision. It doesn’t mean your vision isn’t blurry and it doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from glasses.

The more you know!

Yes! And I’m honestly very thankful for it. The federal grants are the main reason I have affordable gigabit-speed fiber internet way out in here in my rural county. Without it, I’d be stuck with 10mb DSL, crumby and expensive satellite based options, or very limited 4G/5G based hotspot internet.

Is failing. Has failed. Same difference I suppose.