Ask Lucario

I wish they would realize that universal healthcare doesn’t mean they HAVE to get healthcare through the state, just that it is there. You can still pay millions of dollars out of pocket for your own treatment at a private hospital.

America actually has terrible healthcare compared to a lot of nations with socialized medicine:

American leftists, who have been fed for years that America is supporting Israel and it's evil: the evil (((Zionists))) are stealing our healthcare! We pay for it!

Nazis: you're right, these filthy Jews are responsible for every illness in America.

This site refers to at least three different measurements of healthcare quality, the USA sadly ranks low on all of them. Conversely, that still has nothing to do with Israel, and if we have decent healthcare I can promise you not a single dollar of American aid goes to that. Do you really think we'd want to have one of our most basic structures supported by a foreign power that can stop the aid whenever it wants? If you can't believe that this just makes no sense in any level, understand that it's not beneficial to Israel whatsoever if its healthcare is financed from outside.

a) yes, they did.

b) cool, YOU never heard it, so it didn't happen?

c) okay cool, they more often use terms like, "Israel heavily lobbies Congress and thus influences Congressional decisions--"

So does China and over a dozen Arab Muslim countries, yet I don't see you accusing Chinese or Muslim Americans of "controlling Congress" on those grounds.

In fact, you accuse anyone who does of being "Sinophobic/Islamophobic."

Showing you're all two-faced hypocrites.

d) And again, that's beside the point:

The Left claims to protect minorities.

The Left harasses and attacks Jews.

The Left claims Jews "don't count as minorities" because "Israel donates to Congress, so Jews are REALLY the ones with power--"

Except

1) Diaspora Jews =/= Israelis

2) You cowards never attack ACTUAL Trump Congress Officials or Trump fans at Trump Rallies, because you know deep down they'll actually hit back and/or legally retaliate with the full force of the law.

Thereby demonstrating with your COWARDLY ACTIONS who you REALLY think is in power.

You're not "punching up at those in power" when you harass and attack Jews, you're BULLIES AND COWARDS who're PUNCHING DOWN AT AN EASY TARGET.

Mike Johnson tactics before a double-back to allude bribe taking SPECIFICALLY by "An Israel Owned PAC" (AIPAC is American) over any other PAC while insisting you're NOT talking about a Jewish conspiracy? "I don't know about that" AND THEN the double-back? Objectively less competent than Mike Johnson.

The US/Western left is a Nazi bar. All those cute stories about Punk Bars and Punching Nazis? well. They decided they liked what the Nazis had to say, and if they called Jews/Israelis Nazis and said things like "Even the Nazis weren't this depraved" it wouldn't be noticed or called out, or affect people because they don't see Jews as people. They don't see Palestinians or Arabs or Muslims or Druze or Syrians or really anybody as people either, just elves or avatars to engage their fandom-religion over because it lets them 'punch up' Wil Wheaton posted this and a bunch of people felt very good about themselves and then he and a whole bunch of other people failed Jews and let Nazis into the bar because the Nazis slightly changed how they said what they said, and what they wore.

The DSA, Fight Agency, Ivy league nepobaby shitheads funded and supported by Neville Singham, the CCP and Russia (to fuck with US function because they're autocratic imperialists with their own interests) are doing their best to make the Democratic Party into a Nazi Bar after spending decades making the academic/protest left their useful idiots and disposable weapons. And a whole lot of people who consume activism as a faith-fandom because they're certain they don't need a faith or a church social group and are recreating it through some fuckers recruting them through HERO STORIES and REVOLUTION STORIES are primed to let them. Because they like the Good Things and so they are the Good People. And Jews are easy for loser populists to blame.

Punch Nazis, right? Anyway.

That's funny, I don't see you criticizing Russia the same way. I don't see you criticizing China the same way. Afghanistan. Syria. Yemen. Iraq. Iran. Turkmenistan. North Korea. The list goes on

That's interesting as I'm russian myself, dumbass, tell me more about how we, russians, are firebombed at protests, blocked from student campuses, called baby killers, vermin, how russian neighborhoods are filled with people screaming for our blood, how random russians are blocked from cafes and stopped in the streets and harassed over Putin's war simply because they're russian.

Ну давай. Расскажи мне, русскому человеку, о притеснениях русских иммигрантов. Может ещё заведешь мне путинскую шарманку, про то, как русскоязычных везде притесняют и обижают, а? Ну так, если совсем мозгов нет. А судя по тебе мозгов реально нет и вряд ли когда-то были

Where are all the articles about Orthodox Churches in financial crisis because they can't afford the security measures they need to not get killed for congregating?

i also condemn Israel's genocide of the Palestinians.

it's very unfortunate that Israel has confused antisemitism with criticism of state actions. now when we hear antisemitism we don't know what it's referring to. what a disservice to efforts to combat antisemitism.

there is no world where criticizing a genocide, and wanting peace and freedom for all, could be antisemitic. everything I read about Judaism is life-affirming and just. wanting children to get to grow up could never be antisemitic. desiring that the geneva conventions be respected is not antisemitic. wanting an end to checkpoints and restriction of movement for Palestinians is not antisemitic. wanting children to stop being sniped is not antisemitic. wanting everyone to have equality under the law not antisemitic. it's not antisemitic to desire women and children and civilians to have medicine, food, and water.

proceeds to engage in a whole lot of antisemitism and disinformation

"wanting an end to checkpoints and restriction of movement for Palestinians is not antisemitic" - but wanting that for Palestinians without acknowledging that the reason Israel imposes restrictions on the free movement of Palestinians is because some Palestinians go around murdering Israeli civilians is antisemitic. Especially when some of the "restrictions" the pro-Palestinian movement goes on about are in fact the same things imposed against foreign nationals by literally every nation on earth.

"wanting children to stop being sniped is not antisemitic" - but implying that Israeli soldiers in general deliberately attack children, as you do here, is antisemitic.

"wanting everyone to have equality under the law not antisemitic" - but implying that Israeli Arabs are not equal under the law, when in fact they are, is antisemitic. (Psst, the reason Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews are not equal under Israeli law is because the latter are citizens of Israel and the former aren't. Again, like literally every nation on earth.

Yes, because the Washington state government activated like a sleeper-cell and ruthlessly, systematically hunted them down and annihilated them.

“Y2K came to nothing amirite?”

Yes because an army of software engineers working around the clock, losing sleep, and busting ass till the last minute prevented it from happening.

“Remember the hole in the ozone layer?”

You mean the one that was fixed through rigorous world wide government action?

One of the root problems of our society is a refusal or inability by media to articulate that all those “it’s gonna be an apocalypse” disasters were not disasters because we collectively did something about them.

The good news is this is actually quite correctable. I maintain my firm belief that we as humans are capable of solving almost all of our problems, when we decide to do so.

And I still think that’s going to happen. I don’t know when or how, but I do know that abandoning hope won’t help bring it about.

I’m not going to stop feeling strongly about it in the same way I still feel strongly seeing centuries of my people’s history buried under Catholic churches. I understand the dome is there now, and I don’t think it should be destroyed because I understand the significance it holds now.

But I’m not going to stop being angry about it. Especially since my people are not even allowed to go there. I can’t imagine the rage we Mexicans would justifiably have if Spaniards suddenly decided we aren’t allowed to visit our own ancient cities and temples becuase the land is “their’s now” since they built their churches there. The patience and understanding of the Jewish people is so fucking undermined. We have time and time again been expected to and have bent over backwards for others becuase we fundamentally believe in uplifting everyone, even at the cost of ourselves. Even in our own fucking country. Even in the country everyone accuses of being “Jewish supremacist” do we still face blatant discrimination, and allow ourselves to face it for the sake of our muslim neighbors and muslim Israeli citizens.

There are real labor problems here. Base pay is often insulting. Customer tips carry too much of the burden. Workers need better protections, more transparent algorithms, protection from arbitrary deactivation, and actual recourse when the app or a customer screws them over. Car-dependent delivery is also an environmental and infrastructural problem, though in a denser city I’d still be doing this work; I’d just be doing it by bike.

But when people talk about delivery work, I rarely see them talk to actual delivery workers. I see a lot of abstract arguments about convenience, consumer decadence, “hustle culture,” and internalized neoliberalism. Meanwhile, when I’m out working and waiting in restaurants for orders, the other Dashers I meet are usually people who only speak Spanish, people who read as neurodivergent, visibly physically disabled people, or some combination of the above.

I have not met this mythical Disco Elysium poor ultraliberal hustlegrinder-wannabe people seem to be arguing with. Maybe that archetype exists somewhere. If it exists among any kind of gig worker, it would probably be rideshare drivers. But most of what I see looks less like “rise and grind” and more like “this is one of the few forms of work available to people who need flexibility, low barriers to entry, limited managerial surveillance, or a way to work around language barriers, disability, burnout, chronic illnesses and injuries with symptoms that come and go unpredictably, caregiving, résumé gaps, or discrimination.”

That does not make the current system good. It means the current system is filling a real gap that a lot of supposedly better systems do not even acknowledge.

As a disabled person who is burnout-prone and demand-sensitive, contracting as a delivery driver has given me an unprecedented level of financial flexibility. I can work when I have capacity. I can stop when I’m deteriorating. I can build my day around my actual body instead of being trapped under a manager who thinks “reliable” means “able to perform the same way every day no matter what.” That matters. It does not cancel out the exploitation, but it is also not fake just because it is politically inconvenient.

And delivery itself is not some inherently decadent evil. Sometimes people live alone. Sometimes they are sick. Sometimes they are disabled, exhausted, overwhelmed, grieving, overloaded, or recovering from something else - perhaps the stress and fatigue induced by their own job. Sometimes they need medicine, groceries, or a meal that will actually unplug their sinuses instead of whatever generic community-care slop someone thinks they should be grateful for. Humans are allowed to need specificity. “Food” is not the same as “the food I can actually eat right now.”

A serious labor critique would ask how to make delivery work safer, better-paid, less tip-dependent, less car-dependent, less algorithmically punitive, and less precarious. It would ask what kinds of flexible, accessible work should exist for people who cannot thrive in conventional employment. It would ask how cities could support bike delivery, worker cooperatives, public infrastructure, and real protections without simply replacing one bad system with a moral sermon about how nobody should ever want takeout.

But a lot of the discourse does not do that. It treats convenience itself as suspicious. It treats wanting flexible work as false consciousness. It treats the needs of disabled people, immigrants, and other people who can't fit into traditional employment structures as details to be swept aside in favor of a cleaner political image.

republicans hate black/brown/poor people with the white hot intensity of 10,000 suns

And if you're wondering why I bring this up on this post: there's a mountain in Phoenix that used to be named for a slur for Native women. It's been renamed to honor a female Native military hero.

Now whatever your own feelings on the military, we can all agree that honoring our veterans is a big deal in this country, and that it's one a lot of the right wing at least claims to love.

There are people here who still insist on calling it the old name "because they only did it for woke."

Imagine! Yes, they did pick a Native woman on purpose because the former name was disrespectful to Native women. But it's not like they went "we are naming this after Random Diné Woman Jane Smith." They picked a significant and accomplished military figure! People are now proudly using the slur specifically because it's a slur.

“Grace says he would like half of dome to be water.”

“Oh, is necessary for humans to have large amounts of water question?”

Small Eridian equivalent of a sigh. “No. Not needed for life. In fact Grace will die if he falls in water and does not get out.”

“Tell him we give him water in containers that won't kill him. Lots lots lots of water on Erid for Grace to drink.”

“No. Grace say he want water on ground. Also want it with excess sodium chloride compound so it will be unhealthy for drink.”

“Grace want this liquid for celebration.”

“Of course.” They scan it. “You have wrong liquid. This contain compounds which are poisonous for humans.”

“Yes yes yes. Grace say humans like feeling of being slightly poisoned.”

It's rude. You're making someone take their time to read something you couldn't bother to write. You're telling them they were so unimportant you couldn't be bothered to actually take the time to say something yourself. And frankly, you're lying about it while you're at it.

They cheerfully and proudly said they were doing this.

In 2021, Swarovski (the company that makes the very sparkly crystals you see in certain jewelry, on figure-skaters' twinkliest outfits, on red carpet dresses), decided they didn't want the grubby fingers of small-time jewelers, clothing designers and costumers and crafters on their shiny beads and rhinestones anymore. They decided to limit their sales to "luxury" and couture creators, not girls who sell stuff on Etsy. The tenor of their press release on the subject was snide and insulting. Resellers (like your favorite bead shop) would no longer be allowed to carry their product; the average Jane on the street would not be able to purchase them. You could only get them if you had an authorized business agreement that bound you to very strict brand behavior. And those of us who still had good stock of the crystals would no longer be "permitted" to use the brand's name in our listings for sale.

Every bead shop and craft supply place and many, many small clothing makers--wedding shops, prom and dancing dress suppliers, the sort of salt of the Earth mom and pop time machines of shops that are the backbone of the field--scrambled to find something that could replace them. The last of the stock dwindled quickly, all of us grabbing what we could get while there was any chance of it, and then it was gone and we no longer had any access.

I was Big Pissed about it at the time. It was just so goddamn stuck-up, when wholesalers and indie jewelers had made them so much money, when some people I knew--when *I!*--had been brand-loyal for decades. But with no recourse, everyone pivoted fairly quickly, most of us to Preciosa Crystals. Those are Czech, quite sparkly, and considerably less expensive than Swarovski. The faceting method they use is different, but not worse; any differences are hardly noticeable when you're seeing them as a hundred pinpoints of light.

Well, out of nowhere, Swarovski just dropped this: https://www.harmanbeads.com/swarovski-brand-policy-update

"Effective June 1, 2026, Swarovski updated the distribution and brand usage policies introduced in 2021. Businesses may now purchase Swarovski Crystals without signing a Brand Control Agreement, and Authorized Distribution Partners may once again sell Swarovski Crystals to resellers, including bead stores and online retailers. Businesses may also use the Swarovski brand name when following Swarovski’s Proper Use Guidelines. Designers, manufacturers, artists, brands, retailers, and resellers are now eligible to purchase Swarovski Crystals through authorized distribution channels."

They want us back. A lot of the companies who could have kept a brand relationship with them also have swapped to Preciosa, over the last half-decade, in solidarity with indie creators and out of a sour awareness that it could be them, next. And it doesn't hurt that Preciosa was able to expand their line quite a bit now that everyone who wanted sparkle had no choice but to go to them.

And I'm not seeing nearly anyone who intends to return. The feeling is, "Y'all told us to fuck off! Off we fucked! And now, that's what you can do, too!" I'm seeing a lot of "How many of us did you stab in the back?" comments from the people whose money they're hoping to attract.

Check this out.