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Peter MacMonagle's avatar

I was not feeling very positive this morning when I wrote Senator Budd. Nonetheless here is. the letter/email:

Senator: Given trump's attacks on governmental processes, the economy and trade, immigration, and the rule of law, I do not believe this nation will survive these attacks if he is to be allowed to continue his assault on the people of this country.

If he is not removed, and we lose the rule of law, neither you, nor I, as citizens will be safe from his demands for absolute loyalty under the threat of deportation or imprisonment with the blessings of the US Supreme Court. I fully consider that your inaction, Attorney General Garland, and six members of the bribed and compromised Supreme Court, have simply sold us out to a man who admires Adolph Hitler and Vladimir Putin.

Nothing any Republican nor administration official in any capacity can be trusted. Period. I believe, you all are liars and complicit in selling this country out to either the lowest bidder, a trailer trash grasping chief executive, or a set of incompetent administration officials recruited from a television station to run this country.

When the president decides to hold wrestling matches on the White House lawn, we are only one step away from a merry-go-round and paid admission to a gift store selling cheap Chinese trump trinkets at inflated prices.

If you do not get rid of him yourselves (meaning Congress), I believe the people of this country will, or we will become a warning and a caution to others not to come here lest they be arrested at the border for their tattoos, or random pictures on their cell phone. Since it is already happening, I am not making anything up. It will get worse unless Trump is stopped.

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Anzu's avatar

One MAGAron who supports this told me, "The weather channel is good enough for me!" and I had to explain to her that TWC gets its data from NWS, same as her local TV station. They just run 24/7 instead of at the top of the hour.

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Demodocus's avatar

"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned [prisons & workhouses] --they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."

"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

Any 10 year old can tell you Dickens was saying that Scrooge before the ghosts was a bad guy.

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mr_snarky's avatar

We're all going to die anyway so might as well make it sooner due to "surprise" flooding.

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Bagels of Doom's avatar

Rich people get hit by flash floods too. It's just a matter of time before they find out that they don't just float down a mud flow in their plot armor.

Or, perhaps more likely, get caught in an unforecast weather event while in the air or at sea in one of their fancy private vessel-thingamabobs.

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Anzu's avatar
Jul 8Edited

In some places, they're MORE likely to get hit by surprise flooding, as the more expensive real estate is on lakes, streams, and creeks - or they can get caught in the landslides because the more fancy houses are built on steeper slopes in places like Asheville.

Knowing what I know about flash flooding, Mr. Anzu and I made sure to buy our house near the flat top of a hill, rather than in the bottomlands near the creek, or built into the hillside with a fancy basement. Sure enough, the folks about 2/3 of the way down the hillside are now dealing with overflow from the retention ponds, and the houses near the creek found out that the lower deck they had built 10 feet from water's edge was not immune from Hurricane Helene's massive water dump. The deck survived, but they had to reposition it.)

Back when my sister in law lived in Richmond Hill near Savannah, her house was on the edge of the wetland, and Hurricane Michael pushed the floodwaters up to her back porch. After that, she moved back to the mountains, and is now back to being near the top of a foothill again, although her house now has a slight risk of encountering a minor landslide under heavy rain conditions. She's reinforced the retaining walls as much as she could, but a serious rain event could bury her driveway.

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Bagels of Doom's avatar

When I was in my early teens, I saw a tiny little stream that barely made your feet wet under normal circumstances grow into something very scary within minutes in a heavy thunderstorm, and that put things into perspective for me.

When we bought this house, we made sure that it's away from any wash or mouth of a canyon because here in Vegas, you're very unlikely to live on top of a hill but not so unlikely to get hit by a flash flood especially when you live near the edge of town.

We're also getting so little rain on average (even for Vegas standards. Clouds usually don't make it here), but regardless, even if a flash flood should happen, we would only get some of the peripheral runoff on main street one over from the cul-de-sac we live on.

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Bobathonic's avatar

TABS!

~for Stroke

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

I had to block someone yesterday because even though we are friendly, they are SO COMBATIVE about EVERYTHING. Not only do they respond to every post, but their response is always a "no, but" and they just have to get the last word in. I felt bad, but I just can't take that energy in the AM. 5-7 AM CST is my peace time.

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Mark Linimon's avatar

The Whatabouters are slowly eating my soul.

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Vienna Woods's avatar

I wouldn't be surprised if it's someone whom I've blocked, too. As I'm not seeing anything like that in response to your comments. Blocking here is very effective and while I've only used it on a few, it really has improved my experience of hanging out here.

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Bobathonic's avatar

Bummer you had to block someone.

I much prefer the atmosphere here in the morning.

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Land Shark 🇺🇦 🏳️‍⚧️'s avatar

The billionaires need to create a market ... since AI isn't living up to the hype.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺’𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘍𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥-𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘜.𝘚. 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴’ 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘛𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯 𝘈.𝘐. 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘶𝘣 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 $23 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘣𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴: 𝘔𝘪𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘧𝘵, 𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘈𝘐 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘤.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗙𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗦' 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱-𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀' 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝘂𝗯 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 $𝟮𝟯𝗠 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁, 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗔𝗜, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰 — The American Federation of Teachers said it would use the $23 million, including $500,000 from the A.I. start-up Anthropic, to create a national training center.

https://archive.ph/kffpB [Vichy Times]

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Fog of Jen's avatar

Or, and get me on this, they could ACTUALLY try to make it work proper and not steal off everyone?

I know that would involve hiring humans to do the work, but still

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

Like I've been saying AI is here whether we like it ot not. Writing, etc, is about to change dramatically.

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Anzu's avatar

AI can be used to replace a lot of things, but they are not training it to replace the things that it SHOULD be replacing. Generative AI can't do anything that we couldn't already program a system to do mad-lib style, and it does it worse. But analytical AI can absolutely do things that a human can't do as well, or as fast, like fold proteins in 3D space or pick out pre-cancerous spots on a mammogram.

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Bobathonic's avatar

I expect output quality to decline precipitously.

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

I think that if we can teach people that it's a TOOL, not a replacement for writing, we can be ahead of a lot of the issues.

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skinnercitycyclist's avatar

Yes, just like the automobile is a TOOL, not a replacement for moving one's body.

That's why Americans are the fittest people on earth.

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Bobathonic's avatar

That's true for practitioners but the people who really need to know that are the ones insisting AI go in everything, everywhere - e.g. movie and teevee script buyers are all looking at cost. They're loving a world where they won't have to pay creative people.

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Anzu's avatar

One place I'm seeing it used very poorly is in comic translation. AI translation that does it all in one will read the text, clean the text off, and replace it with the translation in a single step. Unfortunately, the AI translation tools can't understand the context of a comic page -what came on the page before. So it treats each page as a stand alone, and usually gets things very wrong. It also doesn't perform any localization, and may not have any consistency, so a word from another language might get translated as "ebeleen" on one page then "aveline" on another when the author intended it to be "Evelyn" as the characters' name. The only way to find this out would be to ask the author!

I can immediately tell when an AI bot was used to translate a Korean manhua. It's for this reason that the professionally licensed comic apps like Tappytoon still use a human editor, even if some of the translation is done by AI, because the human editor can catch those mistakes and fix them before they charge someone money.

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

"We invite you..." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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NatalyaResists's avatar

Like it's some shitty Mar a Lardo event.

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The Wanderer's avatar

I'd send the letter back soaked in piss.

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

The article is interesting. It points out that we already have deals, which, like the JPCOA, that orange bag of shit simply refuses to acknowledge.

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NatalyaResists's avatar

Since there's nowhere for S. Korea or Japan to go, he's looking for a pay off, right?

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Robert Eckert's avatar

They can, and will, go to China.

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The Wanderer's avatar

Exactly.

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

I am so sick of these piece of shits.

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Schmannity's avatar

Trucks Entering Alligator Alcatraz Are Hiding Their Logos, DOT Numbers

The contractors are illegally covering up the USDOT numbers on their trucks.

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/trucks-entering-alligator-alcatraz-are-illegally-hiding-dot-numbers-23572228

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Mark Linimon's avatar

Because of course they are.

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Fog of Jen's avatar

So weird how they are suddenly not so out and out proud of being MAGA innit? Covering faces, covering trucks. TOTAL transparency!

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Teen Laqueefa's avatar

Low confidence in the future of fascism.

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Fog of Jen's avatar

I am wondering how many are neo nazis that the internet slueths could and would point out.

guessing that number is high

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

Yeah, they don't want to get announced for facilitating concentration camps.

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Fog of Jen's avatar

well of course. We're their customer, after all. They get to beat them and make slaves of them, but it is totally up to us

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NatalyaResists's avatar

"Remarkably the U.S. government didn’t provide this information to us or the court,” American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt said in an email.

Remarkably?

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The Wanderer's avatar

Why is it "remarkable," is my question.

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NatalyaResists's avatar

More like SOP.

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Bobathonic's avatar

"As expected, the US Government lied its ass off in court."

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

I have read some opinions that say that our democracy rests on judges no longer giving the government the benefit of the doubt where truthiness is concerned.

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

God, fucking everything these bags of shit say is a damn lie. Every single thing!

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The Wanderer's avatar

Doesn't surprise me.

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Fog of Jen's avatar

Just in time for all the anti-vaxx epidemics springing up

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Schmannity's avatar

What's the matter with Kansas?

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NatalyaResists's avatar

How much time you got?

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Fog of Jen's avatar

A lot of states down there, to build their libertarian utopia of no taxes on anything (except middle class and poor people purchase, goods and property of course) have been super over reliant on the fed for decades now. If the fed slashes, they suffer.

Wonder if Kansas is one of those.

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The Wanderer's avatar

It's . . . well, it's Kansas. Senator Brokeback, laboratory for many GOP bullshit ideas that basically destroyed the state economy . . .

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

Yeah, I posted that the "$50 billion rural hospital fund" isn't even going to put a dent in it. I'm #2.

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Teen Laqueefa's avatar

Basically if you're poor you can fuck off and die.

Richest country in the world hates poor people.

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

My local hospital is coty owned and has "finances currently strain under $32.8 million in debt principal and $20 million in annual interest". I'm hoping we get some of the relief.

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Bobathonic's avatar

It turns out that only Lobo knew how to create an atomic super man.

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Fog of Jen's avatar

Lobo, he hunts alone

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The Wanderer's avatar

"Now he has the strength of TEN heroin addicts!"

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Bobathonic's avatar

"I'm going to do Plan 9, I'll be right back."

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The Wanderer's avatar

"He tampered in God's domain."

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Bobathonic's avatar

That's a quote my son and I use often!

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Schmannity's avatar

Alex Jones::

"The DOJ is running cover for the CIA and Mossad.

NO ONE IS BUYING THIS!!

Next the DOJ will say ‘Actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed.” This is over the top sickening."

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

Do you ever listen to Knowledge Fight, the podcast about Jones? They do great coverage of him.

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Fog of Jen's avatar

Fuck off, Alex

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memzilla's avatar

RFKjr and Gubbernor Wheels, take a bow!!

' Measles cases in the US reach 33-year high '

The number of reported measles cases in the US has reached a 33-year high, with nearly 1,300 confirmed infections across the country as of Friday.

The data, released by Johns Hopkins University, marks a new milestone in an ongoing outbreak of the highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease that was once thought to be eliminated in the US.

Measles cases have been reported in 38 states and the District of Columbia this year. At least three people have died from the illness, and 155 others were in hospital.

A vast majority of the measles cases - 92% - were in people who were either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown, according to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC).

The worst hit state is Texas, CDC data shows, where more than 700 cases have been reported. Other states with dozens of cases include Kansas and New Mexico.

[Deadly measles outbreak does little to counter vaccine scepticism in Texas]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98jng7j1llo

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

Weird, I read the other day that RFKj got lucky because the outbreak had subsided.

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Tza's avatar

Highest for my ENTIRE FUCKING LIFETIME. SO PISSED OFF.

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Bobathonic's avatar

I remember when kids were dying from rubella. They lined us schoolkids up and used a jet injector for the rubella vax (it sprays the serum right theough your skin). MMR came a few years later.

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

I have heard that those jet sprayers can fuck you up if you move. Does the injection hurt?

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The Wanderer's avatar

When I went into the military, they used jet sprayers. We were warned to hold still, as the pressure could cut you open.

One guy flinched and needed a bandage.

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Bobathonic's avatar

Ha! A line of 4th graders did better!

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Bobathonic's avatar

It was super easy, barely an inconvenience. It didn't hurt as much as a needle.

What I've read is they're not great in sanitary terms. Whatever is on your skin gets blasted into you, too. But it was fast for a group, so I can see the appeal. Alcohol wipe, blast, NEXT!

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

Morning all. ☕️

#Worldle #1264 (08.07.2025) 6/6 (100%)

🔥 Current Streak: 1 days

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨↙️

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨↙️

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨↙️

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨↙️

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉

https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/share

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Zyxomma's avatar

Good morning, Diane. Head okay?

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Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

Fair, I did not sleep great last night. Migraine come in bunches for me and I guess now is one of those periods. Someday there will be a cure. I know it.

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The Wanderer's avatar

Good morning, Diane!

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Bobathonic's avatar

Morning, Diane!

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