Reblog Dump

The right wing aspect of it is slapping an air conditioner on Global Warming as a patch, instead of working on leaving fossil fuel behind and other centralised measures. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Also, in a lot of places, in historic districts, it's really not that easy, or even possible, to install AC due to architectural design.

I also want to remind the lovely Americans I follow that US is having crisis with ACs too. It's not a given your grid will be able to handle the increased pressure (or that you guys will be able to afford that). my US acquaintances already reporting blackouts in 35-40+ temperature. So like. You can ridicule the Greens concern all you want, but it may involve you too...

And I know that when most people say "Europeans" they think about EU specifically. But consider this: russia is routinely attacking Ukrainian electrical grid; widespread AC adoption is not possible here. Even now - without any massive attack recently, - we already have scheduled blackouts in some places. The war can easily spread to other European countries - besides, russia already started the sabotage campaigns, proving that it can and willing to target civilian infrastructure.

I even seem to remember Western Europe, particularly Germany, buying Russian gas exactly for this reason. So buying Russian gas for heating is fine and using coal for heating is fine, but everyone is supposed to condemn people to death rather than use A/C. Hello? In what world does that make sense? And Germany's case is self-inflicted, which is even worse! Nuclear energy is bad, shut down the power plants, A/C is bad, we're gonna build our new hospitals without a way to cool them and do cardiac surgery in the 100F heat and will morally condemn everyone for not doing the same, but heating is important so we're gonna buy Russian on the cheap. ????????????

And yeah, the US is definitely having an electricity crisis due to the heat- the DOE issued two emergency declarations yesterday to prepare for the heatwave this week. Not having A/C in a heat is in fact an emergency because the heat will kill people. That's the point. The DOE declaring emergencies and preparing ahead of time only emphasizes that. Even the fucking Trump DOE is taking this as a serious threat. Because it is.

I don't particularly think Ukraine's case is relevant to this when both A/C is legitimately not possible under bombardment and I don't believe (or at least haven't noticed) Ukrainian politicians are morally condemning others for using it. I did speak loosely when using European as a catch all, but given some European countries outside the EU (hi, UK) are also bizarrely anti-A/C, 'European' was still a more accurate catch all to use. Yeah #NotAllEuropeans but I did think that was obvious without specifying. If I remember correctly, I think Italy and Greece etc can also be excluded from this post as well because I generally remember them having A/C where they could afford it and I don't see them mudslinging either. Like I'm not angry at the inability to install widespread A/C. I'm pissed off at the moral rejection of it.

And if by political climate you mean extreme antisemitism, particularly in Europe and particularly in France, as well as a nationalist knee-jerk anti-Americanism because many European - and definitely Canadian too - politicians realize they can just rail against The Orange Man to boost their popularity instead of addressing very real problems (eg A/C but also antisemitism and collective defense) and then turn around and have the audacity to wonder why parties like AfD and National Rally are rising in the polls, then I think I can use a joke to point that out. Because that is exactly what Audrey Pulvar was doing here, and fuck her for doing it. Why admit France's failure to do something about an issue everyone knew was coming for years when she could just blame the US and score easy political points? Fuck her and her high horse, she doesn't have a point about anything and I'm not going to pretend she does, she's as much of a nationalist and eugenicist as anyone in MAGA and being an environmentalist doesn't change that. Meanwhile, China is currently a much bigger polluter than the US, but I don't for a moment think they should cut their A/C and just let their vulnerable population take one for the team.

Very much did in the sense that I literally do not know where my job is at the moment. But, for the time being I haven't been let go because nobody else including the store owner knows where it is either.

So, I don't wanna risk doxxing myself by posting pictures but goddamn am I tempted because this is not a believable event. This is a cartoon problem. For looneytoons.

But yeah, so, I work(ed?) at a kiosk selling boba tea, right? Freestanding kiosk in the mall with full water and electrical hookups and multiple fridges and sinks and a mini kitchen and the works. Fully functional tea shop. Very important to note that it was there last night, The work chat was discussing another issue last night at closing time. I'll get back to this.

It's been showing signs of being on the way out with how business is being handled lately and I've been considering other options, which is probably why I'm not as torn up about this as I should be, but maybe it just hasn't set in yet, but that's not the point. The point is there's been a lot of shit breaking and not being replaced and nobody mentioning anything about it until I walk into work in the morning and have to figure out why shit like the fucking cash register isn't there today. So I'm kinda used to having to ask questions about big things that nobody bothered to update me on. I was out for two weeks recovering from a surgery, so I came to work this morning assuming there'd be some kind of bullshit, yeah?

So, the question I had to ask the chat this morning was:

Not a text I ever thought I'd have to send in sincerity, but there it is. Because what I found instead was a fenced off patch of discolored tiles and a few holes in the floor where my entire place of employment used to be.

And the answer? Nobody knows! It was there last night when the mall closed, and every single trace of the structure and all its contents including drink making supplies and our safe and cashbox was gone when it opened again. And when I say nobody knows, I mean everyone from last night's closers to the actual (former?) owner of the store jad no fucking clue about this until getting that text from me this morning. For once I am actually the first to know. 🎉.

So. I guess I didn't so much lose my job as had it stolen. Not by AI, but good old fashioned hands-on human beings picking it up and carrying it away somehow. All mall security would tell me was that they were instructed not to tell me anything and have us contact our management. Who also don't know anything. And later on I came across some construction workers around the gravesite of the kiosk discussing filling in the holes, asked them about it, and was told that they "weren't at liberty to say".

So, not only is my job gone in the most literal physical sense of the word, but it was taken in some kind of super secret kiosk extraction in the dead of night without any warning or witnesses and nobody is allowed to speak of it. The store owner said she was gonna figure it out 10 hours ago and still no word back.

My mother in law thinks the FBI took it.

Not any of the other stores around the state. Just the one little kiosk.

Why? Because she loves a conspiracy and is just a little bit extra.

Also because she was around for the massive crackdown on Yakuza-owned businesses in Waikiki (in her homestate) that did actually involve the FBI seizing stores (no confirmation of making kiosks cleanly disappear in the middle of the night though).

Still no word from my job on what's actually going on, but the most likely theory so far is that maybe the kiosk was on lease and got repossessed? The mystery continues

According to the owner, based on what she's been able to find out, the kiosk was not removed legally and they're starting a potentially long process of legal action. I hope she gets to sue the shit out of whoever did it but for now at least I know for sure I'm unemployed.

Really hoping for more details in terms of who/why/how, so I'll keep updating if I learn anything.

For now the summary is: An unnamed entity that is most likely mall management (on account of mall security cooperating with them) stole an entire kiosk and all the contents including money and machinery with barely a trace in the middle of the night grinch-style, with zero warning or explanation, and ensured the silence of both security and the construction crew, in an action that was definitely preplanned and illegal, and as far as I know nobody knows its whereabouts.

Enjoy the unintentionally funniest text I've ever sent in my life

Aaand a close-up:

HEY HI HELLO THIS ONE'S MY FAVORITE

- sneezed wrong

- turned your neck a little too fast

- slept weird

- took the trash out to the curb and stepped at a slightly different angle than usual

- breathed

- failed to breathe properly

- breathed in the wrong stuff. Allergy time

- looked too hard at something too far away

The devil within… my sofa