wyomingweasel

[wyomingweasel]

“Use your gifts and your talents to greatest possible effect while you can. Spread joy wherever possible. Laugh at jokes. Tell jokes. Make puns and bugger the embuggerances. Read books. Read my books. You might like them. You might find something else you like even more than them. Look for these things in life.

Question authority. Champion good causes. Speak out against injustice. Do not tolerate bullies or bigots or racists or anti-intellectuals or the narrow-minded. Use your education to challenge them. Broaden their perspectives. Make the world you interface with a happier place.

These are your choices. Choices you have been fortunate to have been given, so don’t waste them while you have them. Don’t look back in years to come and wish you had grasped a fleeting opportunity. Grasp it now with both hands, Live. Strive. Love.”

from A Little Advice for Life taken from ‘Terry Pratchett: from birth to death, a writer.’

—Sir Terry Pratchett; April 28, 1948 – March 12, 2015

One of the greatest compliments I've ever received is that I resemble Sam Vimes.

Mind how you go.

[wyomingweasel]

Living for the stupid memes rn. Featuring some pals from the GC.

[wyomingweasel]

A PSA about trucks from a truck driver

I and some colleagues were talking about how we wish everyone could see the safety videos that our company was showing us, because I don’t think most people understand how traffic works in a truck. So here’s some things we wish everyone on the road knew.

- we’re not kidding about tailgating. If you’re right behind us on a straight highway? Chances are we have NO IDEA you’re there, which means we can’t anticipate any of your movements. Plus slowing down takes multiple downshifts, so we might start decreasing speed way earlier than you expect.

- We’re not kidding about any of our blind spots. WE CAN’T SEE YOU, GUYS.

- That bit about slowing down taking a while? The same goes for when you’re in front of us. Don’t cut off a truck. Oh god, PLEASE don’t cut off a truck. If you cut me off, I’m not irritated, I’m terrified. For YOU. It can take 7 to 9 seconds for us to stop. DON’T CUT OFF TRUCKS.

- Before you get mad about how slow we’re going on the highway, keep in mind that many companies govern their vehicles so they literally CAN’T go over 60 or 65. This is a good thing, I promise. Because…

- Do you know what happens when a car meets a truck in an accident? The car gets totaled and the truck needs a new coat of paint. You will not win this fight. I know nobody likes getting stuck behind a big dumb truck, but it’s not worth your life.

We are trying our best to protect you from our 80,000 pound death machines. Please help us out.

[wyomingweasel]

[wyomingweasel]

truly from the bottom of my heart i hate the level of enshittification etsy has reached because it's still the best place to buy patterns for my hobby and every time i go scrolling through endless ai-generated bullshit to finally dig up a human-designed pattern i like, i'm hit with a deluge of 'popular!! 563 people are looking at this right now!! it's in 134632 baskets!! you must buy immediately!!!' it's a pdf file. it's a fucking pdf file. do you get off on trying to give people fomo over a fucking pdf file. fuck off. get diarrhea forever.

[wyomingweasel]

Tens of thousands of notes on a post claiming a bill introduced by the Republicans will make credit card companies support NSFW content, and only a handful going "hey maybe don't support this".

Let's look into how the bill is being reported elsewhere - in fact, from the Senator who introduced the Senate version of the Fair Access to Banking Act

"In recent years, prominent American banks have engaged in a discriminatory practice, referred to as debanking. Banks and financial institutions use their economic standing to categorically exclude law-abiding, legal industries by refusing to lend or provide services to them."

Hmm. What industries could he mean?

"This includes industries such as firearms, ammunition, crypto, federal prison contractors, as well as energy producers."

Wow. Who could've guessed that's what he meant

“When progressives failed at banning these entire industries, what they did instead is they turned to weaponizing banks as sort of a backdoor to carry out their activist goals..."

So it is, in fact, a bill around trying to stop left-wing activists from, say, going after oil and gas companies or private prisons or the arms industry

But - surely it would include NSFW bans too, right? It would overturn them, right? If you read the text of the bill, which is deliberately vague as you'd expect, it explicitly allows banks to deny payment based on "quantitative, impartial risk-based standards" - it only bans it for "political" or "reputational risk" considerations. And claims that the adult media industry is "high risk" is why payment processors drop it

But let's see who supports it!

"The Fair Access to Banking Act is endorsed by several organizations, including the National Shooting Sports Foundation, National Rifle Association, North Dakota Petroleum Council, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, The Digital Chamber, Blockchain Association, Independent Petroleum Association of America, Online Lenders Alliance, Day 1 Alliance, GEO Group, Lignite Energy Council, National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, National Mining Association, CoreCivic, and the National ATM Council."

Private prison companies, fossil fuel companies, blockchain companies, and the NRA. But surely...? SURELY a bill we're explicitly told again and again is about preventing left-wing activism against private industry, that's co-sponsored by fucking Lindsey Graham, and that certainly seems to include a carve-out specifically to let payment processors continue to deny adult content, but not deny conservative political causes...would secretly be pro-NSFW content?

This bill is all over the internet now, with viral pleas to GET IT PASSED and shutdowns of any criticism of a bill whose real intent is extremely overt. All of this is a simple search away and straight from the horse's mouth, and nobody wants to do even that modicum of research because they would prefer to take someone's word for it that a magic panacea is just a few phone calls away. If you make phone calls asking for this to pass, you're being played: tricked into supporting a bill crafted by the people leading the moral panic that harassed Itch into oblivion that would do nothing to help that, but that would ban any activism against payments for destructive fossil fuel extraction or gun lobbying. The guy who made it just told everyone that's what it's for! Does no one care to look? To read the bill? You can be the one to read it and say it's bad (being the only person to actually read an odious bill is called "Russ Feingold-ing")

Looking up the talk about this bill one theme I saw a lot was people dismissing anyone pointing out a Republican introduced it by saying "I don't care who introduced it! AS LONG AS SOMEBODY DOES SOMETHING!!!!" But you know what? If you saw that a Republican introduced the bill, and your reaction was to go "wow, so a Republican introduced a bill to protect adult content?" without even a pang of skepticism...I have no words tbh

[wyomingweasel]

I need y'all to understand that studying ecosystems and wildlife is largely a black box endeavor and a lot of the knowledge we have about ecosystems and food chains in any given environment is piecemeal at best. What we do know so far is only the tip of the iceberg. What gets study and attention largely depends on finances and the whims of the people who control those finances, so only fractions of a whole get studied at a time and that's what we have to work with to get a bigger picture of what's going on ecologically.

We are only just beginning to study and understand the complex microbiomes in soil for instance, which has a direct impact on our health, crop yield, and biodiversity. Just last year a study was published showing the long term (and permanent) effects to the Yellowstone environment caused by the removal of apex predators and consequent overgrazing(x). There has also been a preliminary study linking a decline in bat populations to a potential increase in infant deaths (x).

Ik it's funny to joke about how 'useless' animals like koalas, pandas, and mosquitoes are to the environment but due to how difficult it is to account for all the variables when studying animals in the wild we *genuinely* do not know the full implications of their disappearance from their respective ecosystems. This is what makes rapid and mass extinction so scary; we haven't yet begun to see the effects of keystone species disappearing and what we do know through science points to it being bad. Because of this it's a very bad idea to write-off *any* species as 'expendable'.

It's hubris to assume any given specie's disappearance doesn't have an impact, especially something like a mosquito that is a vital food source for countless species *and* acts as a pollinator. Additionally out of the thousands of known mosquito species only a fraction of them prey on humans and it was found something like 10% are known to cause the spread of disease in humans.

"this animal can be wiped out completely with no consequences" yeah, they said that about wolves too

[wyomingweasel]

Over 5 years ago I was commissioned to draw some absolutely hideous methed-out character sprites for a vn and didnt think much of it after that. Imagine my surprise to find out today at least 2 of them has a small but very dedicated fan base. Tumblr stay winning

[wyomingweasel]

hey followers. have you ever wanted to know how it feels to be inside a bag of cornflakes

[wyomingweasel]

I cant do much

But I can show up and do my friend's dishes

I can cook us a meal, it will be plain but very nutritious

I can sit and listen and hold people while they cry

I can unpack and deep clean for someone who is overwhelmed

I can train my body and mind to withstand a beating so others dont have to

I can organize donations and resources for friends in need

And that's going to have to be enough for now.

[wyomingweasel]

i know yall love sharing items from small shops and supporting small businesses and small creators is great, but yall really need to stop sharing items from resin shops that make resin dishware and cutlery until you do further research.

there is a food safe resin, HOWEVER, the vast majority of shops will not be using it. its extremely fucking expensive, and to remain food safe, any dyes or additives used must also be food safe, and the piece will have to have been mixed and cured correctly. anything wrong in that process, and it's no longer food safe.

the vast majority of resins, especially those cheap enough for artists and small creators to regularly use, is poisonous. its a carcinogen. it will leech chemicals, even if given a clear coat or varnish, and you can get very sick very fucking quickly from eating or drinking anything that came into contact with it, and long term exposure could very well kill you- this isn't taking into account any additives to the resin, dyes, or colorants either, the vast majority of those are not regulated for food use.

an absolute boom in resin crafters from over quarantine hasn't helped this situation either. many simply do not know or do not care and will sell items that are suspect at best. partially cured pieces, bad molds, just plain inappropriate items used in resin crafting have gotten very common over the past few years, and still are.

TL;DR: Most resins are NOT food safe, and are incredibly toxic. Do not buy or share anything made of it for food use. Shops selling appropriate food safe resin items will be flat out about it, and are going to be extremely expensive.

[wyomingweasel]

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Elizabeth MacDonough doesn’t give fiery speeches on the Senate floor. She doesn’t pound podiums, tweet clapbacks, or beg for airtime on cable news. Most people couldn’t pick her out of a photo lineup. But this week, she did more to derail Donald Trump’s legislative fever dream than any Democrat in Congress. With nothing but a binder, a brain, and a spine forged from 230 years of procedural precedent, she calmly gutted the “Big, Beautiful Bill” — and sent the Republican Party into a frothing, incandescent rage.

Here’s the part that should terrify the GOP: she’s not even elected. She’s the Senate Parliamentarian, the nonpartisan referee responsible for interpreting the arcane rulebook that governs the world’s most dysfunctional deliberative body. She doesn’t write laws. She doesn’t vote. She doesn’t grandstand. Her job is simple: enforce the rules, no matter who’s in charge. And when Republicans tried to use reconciliation — a fast-track process meant for tweaking budgets — to shove through a far-right wishlist of land seizures, healthcare rollbacks, and anti-trans cruelty, she read the fine print and dropped the hammer.

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” was supposed to be Trump’s magnum opus: a tax-slashing, Medicaid-burning, land-devouring beast of a bill that would reshape America in his image. It included everything from selling off millions of acres of federal public land to states and private developers, to gutting Medicaid for low-income families, immigrants, and trans people, to defunding Planned Parenthood and hacking away at environmental protections like they were weeds in a billionaire’s backyard. It was grotesque. It was rushed. And it was entirely dependent on sliding past Senate rules without a fight.

Elizabeth MacDonough was the fight. She reviewed the bill’s contents and ruled — piece by piece — that major provisions violated the Byrd Rule, which bars unrelated ideological junk from hitching a ride on budget bills. The land sell-off? Not budgetary. Out. The Medicaid provider tax cap? Out. The bans on gender-affirming care, immigrant coverage, and ACA subsidies? Out. The GOP was left holding a gutted husk, their legislative trophy reduced to a few tax cuts and a pile of redacted dreams.

This wasn’t sabotage. This was MacDonough doing her job — the job she’s held since 2012, appointed under a Democratic majority, and respected by both parties until it became inconvenient. She is the Senate’s quiet guardian of process, a civil servant who doesn’t answer to polls, Super PACs, or social media mobs. Her loyalty is to the rules — even as the people around her treat those rules like a hotel minibar. She doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t yield. She simply reads the law and applies it, with the precision of a scalpel and the force of a freight train.

And oh, how the GOP hates her for it.

Mike Lee, who tried to shove his public lands fire sale into the bill like it was a foreclosure listing, is already scrambling to rewrite the language and sneak it back in. Trump, fuming from whatever taxpayer-funded golf course he’s currently defiling, is screaming about “deep state rule tyrants.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune is getting asked uncomfortable questions about whether it’s time to “review” the Parliamentarian’s role — a polite way of saying, “Can we fire her for being smarter than us?”

Because that’s the rub. They didn’t lose because the Democrats outmaneuvered them. They didn’t lose because of public pressure or media backlash. They lost because a woman they barely understand said, quite plainly, “You can’t do that.” And when they asked why, she handed them the rulebook. And when they tried to argue, she pointed to precedent. And when they blustered, she didn’t even blink.

Elizabeth MacDonough has no political agenda. That’s what makes her so dangerous to people who do. She exists outside their theater. She answers to no party. And yet, she is currently one of the most powerful people in Washington — not because she makes the laws, but because she refuses to let anyone break them.

So no, she didn’t kill the Big, Beautiful Bill. The GOP killed it themselves — by trying to use budget procedure as a battering ram for authoritarian fantasy. MacDonough simply told the truth. And in 2025, that might be the most radical thing anyone in government can do.

Let the Republicans rant. Let them plot her removal. Let them rewrite their monstrosities and try again. But remember this: when the bulldozers were revving, when the Medicaid cuts were inked, and when Trump’s wrecking ball of a bill was barreling toward the American people — it wasn’t a senator who stopped it. It wasn’t a protest. It was a woman with a binder and a backbone.

We see you, Elizabeth. And we thank you.

[wyomingweasel]

Just saw a video analysis about if the Scooby gang could beat Light Yagami. I wasn’t worried about the gang but I didn’t realize how cooked Light was. Velma alone is way smarter than L, Freddy would instantly see through the trapped drawer that hid the Death Note and Scooby is such a wildcard overall, who is immune to the Death Note because he isn’t human. So even if he gets the rest of the gang, Scooby is coming with a vengeance.

Funniest scenario is Shaggy and Scooby trailing Light only to be confronted by him. Light tries to kill Shaggy but can’t because he would never just give away his name as “Norville Rogers.” Light thinks Shaggy is some genius playing fourth-dimensional chess with him.

[wyomingweasel]

Walking around my neighborhood wearing my sick as fuck custom T-shirt that says "I STEAL EVERY FRIENDLY CAT I MEET WITH NO REMORSE I DO IT ALL THE TIME DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK I BEEN HERE FOR YEARS KEEP THAT BEAST ENCLOSED LEST YE FACE MY LIGHTNING CAT GRASP" and smiling politely while my neighbors' indoor-outdoor cats gently trot down the sidewalk towards me as the neighbors themselves read my shirt with a growing sense of panic.

[wyomingweasel]

What resources do we have to protect our Mother for real? Do we already have people organizing about this, who are more in the know about it and what we can do about it? Where do we pool and focus our efforts?

[wyomingweasel]

Happy pride sleepy dykes

[wyomingweasel]

Notes on a non-human character from the dream I had the day before yesterday🕊‎

In the dream, this boy was being called an angel.

He looks like an angel (a supernatural being), but if you look closely, each part of his body is extremely bird-like.

His intelligence is about the same as a crow’s. He’s treated like an animal. His body resembles a human’s too closely, so they’ve put clothes on him—just in case.

I guess I’m thinking about the same kind of beings whether I’m asleep or awake.