me, reaching into my dresser drawer for black pants: I hope this isn’t the pair with big holes worn in the inner thighs
Marie Kondo, gently over my shoulder: why is a pair of pants you find unwearable still in your dresser drawer
me: oh shit that’s right!! The dresser is for clothes that under some circumstance I might conceivably wear!!
Marie Kondo, beaming proudly: Yes, that’s correct!!Thesepants must have been your favorites. How wonderful that they were so comfortable and practical that you wore them out. But now since they no longer function as pants, you should move them from the drawer where you keep your functioning pants!
me: Yes thanks I got it they’re in the fabric basket now
Marie Kondo, fading back into the darkness: I love what you’ve done with the kitchen!!
The notion of KonMari as some creepy semi-embodied but entirely benevolent spirit, like a well-intentioned Bloody Mary, is so perfect and wonderful.
You know, rivers catching on fire used to be a regular occurrence.
Boring, even. Mundane. People just accepted that rivers had oil slicks floating on them that could be lit by somebody throwing their cigarette in the wrong place. Cities had regular protocols in place on what to do when the river caught on fire.
The modern environmentalism movement wasn’t just started by hippies you know. Regular people cared about this stuff because their rivers caught on fire and existing near farms gave them cancer and by the 1970s they weren’t even seeing that much economic benefit from it.
If you don’t live in a world where rivers regularly catch on fire it’s because of stuff like the clean water and air acts. A lot of rivers in the US that in the first half of the 20th century regularly caught on fire are now safe to swim and fish in.
A lot of environmental damage is reversible if we act. We’ve got a lot of success stories like this actually. A lot of formerly endangered species have come back, fish have returned to American rivers, the ozone layer is being restored.
I’m not sure what’s going to happen next with the environment but I hold out at least a little bit of hope. Because rivers used to catch on fire and now for the most part they don’t.
Many of those convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, have celebrated the pardons or commutations that they received this week from President Trump.
Not Pamela Hemphill. A retired drug and alcohol counselor who lives in Boise, Idaho, she pleaded guilty in January 2022 to a misdemeanor offense for entering the Capitol during the riot and was sentenced to 60 days in prison and three years of probation.
She said she did not want a pardon.
“Absolutely not,” Ms. Hemphill said in an interview on Wednesday. “It’s an insult to the Capitol Police, to the rule of law and to the nation. If I accept a pardon, I’m continuing their propaganda, their gaslighting and all their falsehoods they’re putting out there about Jan. 6.”
Ms. Hemphill, 71, who was called “MAGA Granny” in some news headlines, has said that she no longer supports Mr. Trump or believes his lie that the 2020 election was stolen. She said that a therapist had helped change her view of the attack by telling her she was “not a victim of Jan. 6; I was a volunteer.”
“I lost my critical thinking,” she said on Wednesday, reflecting on her involvement in the riot and the “Stop the Steal” movement. “Now I know it was a cult, and I was in a cult.”
Her wish to reject the pardon was previously reported by The Idaho Statesman. Ms. Hemphill said she had spoken with a lawyer about spurning the grant of clemency but had not taken any legal action to do so.
It is not clear that she can legally reject the pardon.
“It would be a novel act to file a court case to reject a pardon of a misdemeanor, in part because of the low stakes,” Mark Osler, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, said in an interview.
There is some legal precedent, however, suggesting that any such request could face an uphill battle.
One thing, too – One thing I did not believe in was change before this experience.
Change in what way?
Just change in general. It was actually a quote of Trump that I would carry and repeat. Trump said, ‘People talk about change. Nobody ever changes.’ And I believed that. And now I believe change is necessary for survival.
This struck me as a poignant statement for a recovering alcoholic and MAGA supporter to make. It’s also one that gives me hope that others who, like him, had fallen for Trump’s cult of personality, blame, and anger might also eventually recognize Trump’s fundamental selfishness and be capable of growth and change.
truly the most american thing is Big Drink. more than late stage capitalism, more than an unparalleled cultural focus on individualism, more than 9/11 jokes
what binds all americans together culturally is Big Drink
and you might be saying “is this fat shaming” or “but mayor bloomberg outlawed Big Drink in nyc” or “gays are so annoying about their iced coffee” or some other dumb comment but no open your minds, Big Drink isn’t just sugary or caffeinated beverages
every day i see one of you hydration bitches (affectionate) on the train with a water bottle so big a toddler could drown in it. that too is Big Drink.
we literally invented a bigger beer can (tall boy) in wisconsin in the 60s in the service of Big Drink
anyway i never feel more american then when i have Big Drink in my hands
