Fascinating article on Trump’s pick for National

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Fascinating article on Trump’s pick for National Security Advisor, a currently-serving active-duty three-star Army Lt. General, H. R. McMaster. 

Worth noting: as an active-duty serviceman, McMaster did not have the option of turning Trump down. Likely, he would not have, as this is a huge promotion. But, in any normal regime, none of the other picks would have either; this is the kind of service high-ranking generals dream of being tapped to do. Telling, then, that it took this many rejections before someone took the job. (And, importantly, had no option but to do so.)

This article was written before McMaster was selected, but accurately predicted it. 

I remember him telling his soldiers that understanding counterinsurgency really wasn’t hard: “Every time you disrespect an Iraqi, you’re working for the enemy.” They even had “Customer Satisfaction Forms” that detainees were asked to fill out upon release: Were you treated well? How was the food? What could we do better?

Well, that’s hopeful. As the article points out, he doesn’t know Mattis well– they’re from different branches of service, Mattis was Marines– but seems to have philosophies in common with him. 

Article was linked to from Twitter, I discovered it here. 

I’m super good at this. I’m saving them

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I’m super good at this. I’m saving them all up to make a Loser Collage. That’s all of them, btw, it’s not like I’m skimming off the winners. No, I’m at 0. #timhortons #rolluptherim

shuttertroy:Notes left for Rep. Chris Collins. Today more than...

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Notes left for Rep. Chris Collins. Today more than 150 constituents protested outside Rep. Collins office. Link for the entire album is in my description.#photography #photojournalism #buffalo #photographersofig #townhall #politics #wny

Love Letter America |

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My mother linked me to this on Facebook.

It’s a site full of designs made for you to print onto postcards, which you can then write on the other side of and send to your reps. There are great instructions on the site, and many designs.

The one above? Mo Willems, author of Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus, and the Piggie and Gerald stories, and many other wonderful children’s books. Much sweeter than my furious text-only postcards, if a bit more ink-cartridge-intensive. 

"Bad books on writing tell you to “WRITE WHAT

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“Bad books on writing tell you to “WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW”, a solemn and totally false adage that is the reason there exist so many mediocre novels about English professors contemplating adultery.”
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Joe Haldeman (via rachelfershleiser)

I cannot reblog this enough, this is hilarious to me. 

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cause of death: too shy to call ambulance

Didn’t want to inconvenience anyone

Someone else might have needed it more

This happens. :(

Bear in mind that ambulance companies aren’t diverting EMTs away from a heart attack or traumatic amputation to answer your call.  They’re much more likely to be diverting EMTs from:

Sitting in an ambulance station or a random parking lot playing Words With Friends and/or developing elaborate company-wide romantic intrigues

Sitting in a hospital EMS room doing giant stacks of paperwork no one will ever read while trying to make dinner entirely out of saltines and condiments

Routine transports of people who have to travel by stretcher, who maybe are not happy to be late, but are hardly going to die from it

Transports which are technically emergencies, but are stuff like vomiting or a sprained ankle where the urgency factor is more like “yeah, you should get that seen” than like “STAT CODE RED CODE BLUE CODE POLKA DOT STAT STAT STAT.”

So if you think you might need an ambulance, call one.  You are not going to single-handedly take down the EMS system by daring to use it.

I’m reblogging it but I would be that person wondering “Do I need this enough” until I died.

I have legitimately done this. Please, take care of yourselves.

This is 100% true.

As a First Aid trainer, I’m constantly hearing stories of people who didn’t want to call an ambulance because they didn’t want to distract from “real emergencies.”

But here’s the thing: most people don’t know what an emergency is, so by the time something is bad enough that they think they need an ambulance, it’s too late. They needed an ambulance hours ago. Now they need a coroner.

What we teach is ‘if in doubt, call them out.’

Emergency services will get all the info about your situation they need, and will triage you amongst the rest of their patients. This means if you have trouble breathing and call an ambulance, you’ll be at the top of the list; if you broke your toe, you’ll probably be somewhere down the bottom. But if you or a loved one is in pain, and it’s more than you can handle on your own, call an ambulance.

If in doubt, call them out.

ok but with what money tho

yeah, that’s really the thing here. I’ve held off on going to the ER for terrible pain before, and I’ve been right. one time I passed out from pain, and so finally dragged myself in thinking I was having organ failure or something (I’d never actually fainted before, except from lack of oxygen, so I was really alarmed), and was told I wasn’t eligible for any assistance at all, and that it was just a torn muscle and there was nothing they could do, and then was stuck with a $700 bill that might as well have been a million dollars to me at the time, for them having looked at me and given me an ibuprofen, when I earned less than $10k a year. (I couldn’t get Medicaid, they said, because I shared an address with a wealthier roommate, who’d driven me there and didn’t think to lie when put on the spot and asked. This is not actually policy, but the hospital said it was, at the time, and stood firm on it, refusing to discount my bill in any way. I just didn’t pay it, ruining my credit, but that shit goes away eventually.)

Medically, absolutely, yes, you should seek assistance, via ambulance if necessary, and they won’t be cruel to you, it’s not a waste of time to be safe.

But, given the state of healthcare in the US, and especially once the ACA is dismantled and what access we have is gone, it’s a sad reality that sometimes you have to just take an Advil and get your affairs in order. 

Or, just get really good at not caring about collectors calling for bills. You gotta do you. 

(Oh, I’d sort of blocked that out, but that probably also explains why my phone anxiety is so bad. Unknown number = collections. You know how mean they get on the phone? I’d actually forgotten that! I panic when my phone rings and had forgotten why. I guess it’s been a while.)

darktenshi17 replied to your photo “I’m

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Even at my work (which isn’t even a TIm Hortons, why do I have to sell the coffee D:<) not a lot of people have won, those that do it’s mostly potato wedges. It seems chances are lower than usual this year. I can’t drink anything caffeinated so I haven’t bought a single roll up cup myself.

Ha, I can’t comment on the relationship of this year’s prizes to last year’s. This happens to me every year. I never win anything. I very occasionally win a coffee and am too shy to redeem it so I give it away. So it’s just as well, if I won a car or something I’d be terrified. 

But I just think it’s funny that people get excited about it. Nobody ever wins anything, what’s the big deal??

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Exactly

communist icon

the idea that he’s saying this sarcastically is completely horrifying

This is just like when Rush Limbaugh went on this rant about how absolutely depraved it was that people thought any sex that was freely consented to was okay. And the rest of us were like…. is that not how it works???? ??? ??

darktenshi17 answered your question

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I always say this is the time of year that Canadians get super crazy. Like people try to steal cups in anyway they can (especially from the coffee counters), my uncle had some lady take his coffee cup from his shopping cart once. God knows why

You know, Americans often mistake Canadian politeness for niceness or even, god forbid, weakness, and as a longtime border town resident and sometime traveler I gotta say, Canadians are fucking terrifying and should not be messed with. I mean, they say things like “soh-ry!” a lot and it’s cute and all, but like.

 It’s not an invitation to cross them. They will straight up cut you. 

I am terrified of Canadians. 

(my experience of Canadians may be disproportionately with physically aggressive ones due to a decade of cross-border roller derby tournaments. but some of the most violent experiences of my life have involved Canadians and have ostensibly been for entertainment. there may have been a strip club involved at least twice. i may have been too drunk to walk properly on at least one occasion. i may have gotten tackled into a wall by a referee at least once. it may not be a fair perspective to judge a nation from but let’s be real here, it’s a fun perspective to judge a nation from.)

Around here we don’t generally go that crazy over the coffee cups. If you’re a Starbucks drinker, you’re still a Starbucks drinker this time of year. You’re just going to get made fun of. I mean, more than usual. 

(I’m not a Starbucks drinker.)