Planet Barf

We should definitely tax health benefits because otherwise people might use them. I want to see Dean Baker's defenses of these.

Acquittal

WTFuckingF.

I Like Hil

About a year ago, [President Glumster] glumly said that he hadn't met anyone who could muster any enthusiasm for Clinton. I said that I was excited for a woman president, Clinton-specifics aside. He said that was reassuring, at least. IIRC.

Virtually nothing has changed about my expectations for her presidency - maybe Bernie pulled her to the left, maybe she's still a centrist at heart, surely she'll continue all the wars we're currently fighting and then toss in some more, etc. Time will tell.

But actually, I rather like Clinton personally, at this point. (Part of it is that her campaign has been effective at making me like her. Part of it is my visceral reaction to the sexism that gets thrown at her. Part of it is the contrast with Trump. Part of it is my admiration for how calculated and long-range and detailed her plans are. Nasty women coldly strategize years in advance, and execute flawlessly, or at least learn from 2008.)

True Swipple

I was never that big a fan of SWPL. I didn't find it that funny, and I didn't think it captured whiteness - it was too enmeshed with UMCism.

I'm going to say that this is a much better description of whiteness, independent of class. Since it spans more classes*, I expect it will resonate less well with you all, of course.

Here are some select things I freely admit:
- I have felt sympathy for Taylor Swift.
- I have said "Jeez Louise!"
- I have eaten soup in a bread bowl.

Whether or not you have done many of these things is not the point, the point is that these items really do seem to evoke something extra-white in the agent.

*Not really. It's because you all are contrary little bitches. Obviously this thread will get hijacked by personal disclaimers.

ATM: Pain relief

E. Messily writes: would you do an ATM about pain? I want to know what treatments other people have had (that turned out to be effective) for any kind of pain, with any cause. Heaches, sprained ankes, migraines, chemo sickness, slipped disc, broken arm, black eye, shingles, whatever.

I want to know about the remedies. Medicine and non-medicine. Basically I'd like a huge list of different things to try. Plus we can all comfort each other and fight about whose pain was worst etc.

Heebie's take: I have strict ideas about what kind of medicine works for which of my kinds of pains, which probably testifies to how superstitious one gets about pain treatment. (It seems custom-made for superstitions, the more I think about it - you desperately want to exercise control over something that is capriciously hurting you.)

So:
Acetimenophen is for headaches
Ibuprofen is for period cramps and muscle aches.
Alleve is for back and neck aches
Codeine is for surgery, although it stops me up so it's not my favorite.

Let me tell you about my neck and back spasms: it's been major problem since September 2015ish. I've tried some PT, which helped, and muscle relaxants, which helped, and sleeping under any possible rules I could fine, which helped. But nothing ever seemed to address the root of the problem.

About ten days ago, it spontaneously went away. I don't know what I did differently, and I don't know if it will come back, and I'm nervous about celebrating it yet. My neck feels generally creaky and a little stiff, but the spasms are gone. Moral of the story: pain is an unpredictable bitch.

Unbonus.

This is so ludicrously evil, but here we are:

Facing enlistment shortfalls and two major wars with no end in sight, the Pentagon began offering the most generous incentives in its history to retain soldiers in the mid-2000s.

A lot of the bonuses were made in error, and so now the government is harassing vets to repay decade-old bonuses. I would say, "Well, now that it's got some bad publicity, they'll no doubt stop this ridiculous policy," except that they've been harassing vets for years, and some of them have already suffered severe consequences.

(Link autoplays, so turn your sound off.)

Guest post - assorted Eurogloom

Mossy Character writes: Spiegel piece on Germany in Europe.

Nikos Xydakis, deputy culture minister for the Syriza government, echoes the sentiment.

"It is as though my country were experiencing the consequences of war," he says. European savings policies have ruined Greece, he says: "We have lost a quarter of our gross domestic product and a quarter of our population is unemployed."

Germany, he says, has become too powerful in Europe. The country, he concedes, is a leader both politically and economically. "But those wanting to be a leader have to behave like one too."

[...]

Helmut Kohl sought to avoid isolation at all costs when it came to important negotiations, but Merkel has all but completely rejected that approach. "I am rather alone in the EU, but I don't care. I am right," she once said to a small group of advisors during a discussion about the role of the IMF. Later, she said: "We are in Europe what the Americans are in the world: the unloved leading power."

Which might work if she actually were, you know, right. But those unemployed numbers say otherwise. Meanwhile in Brexitland:

EU money accounted for 40 percent of funding for cancer research in Britain over the past decade, according to Digital Science, a consulting firm based in London. In nanotechnology research, that figure is 62 percent, and in evolutionary biology, it is 67 percent.

Those resources have plugged the gap in falling British government funding, adjusted for inflation, and low levels of investment from Britain's private sector

[...]

There are also fears that the European Medicines Agency, which has overseen regional drug approvals since 1995 from its offices in London, could move to Europe once Britain leaves the EU, and drug companies could follow suit to streamline the regulatory process.

Heebie's take: I have no take!

E-ssault

This is so gross! This woman is playing some multi-player virtual reality video game:

In between a wave of zombies and demons to shoot down, I was hanging out next to BigBro442, waiting for our next attack. Suddenly, BigBro442's disembodied helmet faced me dead-on. His floating hand approached my body, and he started to virtually rub my chest.

The whole piece is enraging. It makes me never want to play video games, on top of not really enjoying them very much.

Via E. Messily

ATATM

Ugh, I'm drawing a blank yet again on something to post. This election is sucking all the oxygen out of the room.

Who wants advice from me? Write your problems in the comments and I'll tell you how to solve them.

Doesn't it feel like all the easily solvable problems have been solved, and all that's left are the intractable ones that don't solve easily? We need an easily solved problem, posed by an irascible person who will argue with the solution (but not too much! Just the right amount of arguing.)