BREAKING: Democrats just elected David Hogg to be the Vice Chair of the DNC.

Hogg is touted as their face of masculinity to help them regain the young male voters they lost in the 2024 election.

I HONESTLY CAN'T BELIEVE IT! pic.twitter.com/MS4bV0fv79

— George (@BehizyTweets) February 2, 2025

!coomers !hornyposters

I think they were discussing philosophy or quantum computing or Red Hat Linux or something.

Most Based Comments

Basedness: 🔥🔘🔘🔘🔘

I am totally convinced that Musk is behind this army of bots that try to overwhelm this sub with feel-good fake butt stories (2)

Basedness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

Every time I read one of these posts I get a little more hopeful. My parents are still stuck that Rump isn't gonna take away social security and that dems are "saying whatever they can" to try and get people to turn against him. (-4)

Basedness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

As someone who hates Trump, I'm having trouble giving a pass to these people. With smart phones, we all have access to the same kinds of information. What is it that makes people think he didnt mean what he said? (42)

They got sucked into that right wing media bubble. Don't underestimate its power. And now Drump is trying to kill PBS, NPR, CBS, and is forcing any non-right wing media out of White House and Pentagon press briefings. Soon there won't be anyone left to report on the real news. ALL news is looking doomed to be right wing. Welcome to authoritarian heck. (9)

Angriest Comments

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

A lot of these comments are pretty mean, and while I think it was dumb of her, I think people have to remember not everyone who voted for trump is a monster. Not everyone who voted for trump is racist, some of them saw how bad things were under Biden and didn't want Kamala and didn't investigate exactly what was going on. We have uninformed voters, but most dangerous of all misinformed voters. We have the media saying crime is on the rise and immigration is a matter of homeland security and neither are true and both parties are running with it. The Democrats are ratcheting right, but they can't out-flank the Republican party. There comes a time when if the Democrats are just doing the same inhuman shit but with a cleaner coat of paint, 1 Democrats are going to stop coming out to vote, 2 more people are going to vote Republican. Democrats keep chasing the idea of stealing votes from the Republican base and all it is doing is shrinking their own. With a world on fire, to a lot of peop... (1)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

ima throw a gross generalization here, but... i work in the public sector and deal with a rainbow of people. and an alarming number of these indivs are... dumb. they cannot communicate well; they are slow to comprehend; those factors combined cause them to get frustrated easily. their parents failed them and the system has failed and continue to fail them.i get why trump is president--these poor numbskulls relate to him. it's sad and scary at the same time.edit: i am sorry for saying this in a sub for optimists, but i feel as though irreparable damage has been done to our country. and based on world history, this kinda extreme ideological division will only lead to a geopolitical(?) schism... (15)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

So exactly what is your definition of a Republic? As in The People's Republic of China??, I've never heard the terminology Republic of USA... United States of America, United. Being the operative word. That word got lost somewhere.You might as well blame everybody because that's really where things went awry. I really didn't care that he, won this election The country is in horrible shape. Had he lost? Do you think he would have left gracefully and with dignity? Heck? No, it's embarrassing to watch him.Be our leader.. Nobody's united, everybody on the right waits. to see what he wants, and then they all share the same brain,. If you want to call that United they're all in lockstep. Okay, but thru chaos comes order . I don't see him or any of the Democrats looking for order .He has no interest in order as if they're looking for order. We are a supposeed democracy, a government in which the people rule. You don't have to try to teach me anything, I understand I'm not going to lose tra... (1)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/jrfredrick

Score: 🐮🐮🔘🔘🔘

Number of comments: 8

Average angriness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

Maximum angriness: 😡😡🔘🔘🔘

Minimum angriness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

NEW: Subscribe to /h/miners to see untapped drama veins, ripe for mining!

autodrama: automating away the jobs of dramneurodivergents. Ping HeyMoon if there are any problems or you have a suggestion

3 buses exploded in Israel tonight and undetonated bombs were found on another 2 buses.

According to initial reports, they were supposed to explode tomorrow at 9am but instead exploded tonight at 9pm when the buses were empty and not in use pic.twitter.com/iX9h0WLfXB

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 20, 2025

!jidf

https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1in1feb/german_tourist_detained_by_ice_in_the_usa/mc7tr8q/?context=8

TL:DR She posted about how she was going to work illegally and had the cowtools to do so

Rightoids cant fathom that it requires great collective sacrifice to maintain their preferred racial makeup of their town.

NHS England:
*Trans staff changing room policy*:

"If a woman is not comfortable sharing female facilities with biological males, she can use the gender neutral toilets"?....

What does that mean exactly?... pic.twitter.com/X9PCZ92z7J

— Jonny Bell (@Jonnywsbell) February 17, 2025

Foids owned

!transphobes

Only $1.4m was burnt and the rest donated, but $7m sounds more dramatic

https://etherscan.io/tx/0x5e8bef5dcb69206fa1bacc8d0b0c0204e12f1e45483d12b9f69dc1829ac74315

BREAKING: Someone just burnt 500 ETH (~$1,400,000) by sending it to 0x000... and wrote the following message 👇

"The bosses of Kuande Investment: Feng Xin and Xu Yuzhi used brain-computer weapons to persecute all company employees and former employees, and even they themselves… pic.twitter.com/Ou9ejFbHAv

— Pluid (@tryPluid) February 17, 2025

From foxymation

from foxymation, a youtuber

this is from foxymation, a youtuber

When Lorraine Kelly shared her experience of menopause on her daytime TV show in 2017, she was her own last resort. Initially, she set out to interview a famous woman about her story, but everyone she approached refused.

"I thought, nobody else will talk about it so I'll do it. It was a breakthrough moment," said Kelly.

Seven years later, it often feels as though we have reached peak menopause. Michelle Obama, Salma Hayek and Gwyneth Paltrow have all been open about their experiences, encouraging women not to feel ashamed about a biological process an estimated 13 million people in the UK are now going through. And yet there's still one part of it that is barely spoken about.

Vaginal dryness.

As with so much in this realm, it took a celebrity – Davina McCall in this case – to shine a light on it. For those of us who'd assumed this symptom was a minor inconvenience, which only affected s*x and was easily remedied with the kinds of lubrication readily available from high street chemists, it was a brutal wake-up call.

"I had severe dryness, so severe that when I tried to wipe myself after going to the loo, it was so sore I was having to kind of dab," McCall said in her 2021 documentary, S*x, Myths and the Menopause. "I didn't know what it was, I had no idea that it was part of being perimenopausal."

Previously known as vulvovaginal atrophy, now rebranded as genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM), vaginal dryness will probably affect between 60% and 80% of women, according to various studies. It is caused by the drop in oestrogen levels, which happens as women go through menopause, causing vaginal tissue to become thinner and less elastic. Despite it being so common, one study has found that a third of female sufferers did not report it to their doctor.

This is partly because of embarrassment, says Haitham Hamoda, consultant gynaecologist and clinical lead of the menopause service at King's College Hospital. "Most GPs are well informed and offer a great service, but of course, there are variations of what you can access. Part of it is going to be what is available to you, what is offered to you, and what you feel comfortable talking about."

He continues: "You'd be surprised how many people would come and see you because they're talking about flushes and sweats and brain fog. And when you say, 'Do you have vaginal dryness?' they will say, 'Oh, yes, it's really uncomfortable'. But they never really think about bringing it up, unless you specifically ask."

Hamoda has seen women who are too sore to wear underwear. "You do find people who say clothes are uncomfortable because it's touching against the area … In extreme cases they find it uncomfortable sitting or walking."

GP and menopause expert Dr Renée Hoenderkamp has had cases like this too. "I've seen women who can't go about their daily life because of vaginal dryness. It's absolutely debilitating. They can't go to the gym any more, can't wear jeans, can't go for a bike ride, can't run up the stairs at the station. It's all just too painful."

Clare, 55, says GSM "consumed my whole life". "I used to sit in a shallow, cold bath, sobbing. It was agony, the burning never let up for one second of the day or night. Even walking was painful." It began when she was 47, but she never considered her symptoms could have anything to do with being perimenopausal because her periods were regular, and she was not having hot flushes.

But, as Hoenderkamp points out, every menopause is different: "For some women, vaginal dryness will be their first symptom, very early, even before their periods have changed. Other women won't get it until they've gone through it all. It's really individual."

She also believes that seeing dryness as just a symptom of menopause can be misleading. "Women who breastfeed for more than six months will suppress their oestrogen to a level where they may get vaginal dryness. The pill can cause it. Antidepressants. It's not just restricted to menopausal women."

The implications of vaginal dryness can go far beyond pain, says Hoenderkamp. "Once past menopause, when all of the tissue in and around the vagina and urethra dries and atrophies, women become much more susceptible to urine infections because bacteria are able to attach to the tissue."

Hamoda has also seen women avoiding or missing cervical screening due to GSM. "Sometimes you can't open the speculum because they're so dry and uncomfortable, even though, of course, you're using plenty of lubrication." In some cases, he has told patients to "take vaginal oestrogen for the next two months, then come back and we'll attempt this smear again. Sadly, this is not an uncommon scenario."

Not every doctor is aware of how to help women with GSM. Emily, 44, sought medical advice as soon as her vaginal dryness began four years ago. "It felt like there was a red hot poker inside of me," she says. She also suffered from urinary tract infections. Her GP found it so hard to reach a diagnosis that at one point he told her – on the phone – that she might simply have to prepare herself for a life of chronic pain.

As she was 40 when her symptoms began, her doctor didn't consider perimenopause. She was passed between different NHS services, given courses of antibiotics, a cystoscopy, referrals to urology, gynaecology and physiotherapy. She also paid to see a private vulval pain specialist. As all this was going on, no painkillers could make any difference, and she remained in agony.

"It's been catastrophic," she says. "The pain makes it very difficult to concentrate. I've had to give up four jobs in the space of four years. I've had to sell my house and move away from my friends because I need to have more savings in case I can't carry on working. It's had a massive effect on my mental health."

Out of desperation, Emily began to research her symptoms herself. She found out that one in 20 women go through perimenopause before they're 45, and, presuming this was what was happening to her, Emily wrote a detailed letter to her GP, asking for vaginal oestrogen. He agreed to put her on a low dose. "And within two days the burning stopped."

She is still, however, struggling with her UTI symptoms – which include needing to pee around four times an hour. While it's impossible to know what has caused this, she believes that because her infection was not treated for so long it has got worse. She is now being treated separately for her persistent UTI.

Misdiagnosis is a common thread through this condition. Dr Paula Briggs, a consultant in sexual and reproductive health at Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust, reports, "It depends who the patient presents to, how likely they are to get the right diagnosis. Loads of women will be told they've got thrush."

It's a perfect storm – women reluctant to seek medical help in the first place, then a delay in being diagnosed.

"Whereas other menopausal symptoms resolve – generally they get less severe, then they stop – GSM becomes progressively worse over time and is very difficult to reverse," says Briggs. She now thinks all women should be given vaginal oestrogen at around the age of 45 as a default.

However, as oestrogen pessaries fall under the HRT umbrella, some women remain nervous due to the small increased risk of breast cancer linked to progestogen-containing forms of HRT. Hoenderkamp says that vaginal oestrogen does not carry the same risk. "It is just about as safe as houses, and very easy. I often have women who say I can't have vaginal oestrogen because I've had breast cancer. Well, you can."

Hamoda is more cautious: "Generally speaking, with breast cancer patients you would try other non-hormonal options first. But on an individual basis."

However, it is not a problem that will disappear overnight. "In terms of the oestrogen, women are not going to do it for a year and then it will all be OK. It's probably a lifelong commitment to their vagina," says Hoenderkamp.

Vaginal oestrogen is available from chemists – although it's cheaper on prescription from your GP – and there are also moisturisers and lubricants women can buy over the counter as a possible first port of call.

The message overall is clear, though. If you are uncomfortably dry, you should never suffer in silence – it's not just a part of ageing that happens to everyone, which you have to grin and bear – it's something that can be treated and, in most cases, eased.

"Awareness is key," says Hamoda. So, while there has never been so much talk about menopause as there is now, there's still a lot that needs to be said.

Some names have been changed

this is from a youtuber Foxymations

Top Drama

Relative Drama (takes into account the size of the subreddit)

autodrama: returning jobs to dramneurodivergents. Ping HeyMoon if there are any problems or you have a suggestion

!nooticers

https://old.reddit.com/r/fednews/comments/1ipluyt/im_think_lay_offs_are_here_at_the_irs/

https://old.reddit.com/r/IRS/comments/1ippxle/us_irs_prepares_to_lay_off_thousands_of_workers/

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS will lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season, according to two sources familiar with the agency's plans, and cuts could happen as soon as next week.

This comes as the Trump administration intensified sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce, by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection.

It's unclear how many IRS workers will be affected.

Previously, the administration announced a plan to offer buyouts to almost all federal employees through a "deferred resignation program" to quickly reduce the government workforce. The program deadline was Feb. 6, and administration officials said employees who accept will be able to stop working while still collecting a paycheck until Sept. 30.

However, IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season were told they will not be allowed to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until after the taxpayer filing deadline, according to a letter sent recently to IRS employees.

It is unclear how many workers will be impacted by the layoff announcement plan. Representatives from the U.S. Treasury and IRS did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.

Jan. 27 was the official start date of the 2025 tax season, and the IRS expects more than 140 million tax returns to be filed by the April 15 deadline. The Biden administration invested heavily in the IRS through an $80 billion infusion of funds in Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act, which included plans to hire tens of thousands of new employees to help with customer service and enforcement as well as new technology to update the tax collection agency.

Republicans have been successful at clawing back that money, and billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have called for the U.S. to "delete entire agencies" from the federal government as part of his to radically cut spending and restructure its priorities.

Elected officials are trying to fight against DOGE plans. Attorneys general from 14 states challenged the authority of to access sensitive government data and exercise "virtually unchecked power" in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, says the actions taken by Musk at the helm of DOGE can only be taken by a nominated and Senate-confirmed official. It cites constitutional provisions that delineate the powers of Congress and the president.

https://kiwifarms.net/threads/commonwealth-of-virginia-v-austin-curtis-peterson.200730/post-20494966

https://www.twitch.tv/thebossmanjack

Wall was patched

The bombings were supposed to happen at 9 AM. When medics and police would centralize around the bombed buses, there were suicide teams ready to explode in other parts of major cities. Then Palestinians from Judea and Samaria would storm the fences for an October 7th 2.0.

One woman saw the suspicious package on the bus and alerted the driver to get everyone off the bus. It exploded after everyone got off. Then the call went out to the other buses and two more exploded without anyone on them. Three other buses were found with bombs on them and those were removed and detonated as well.

No buses in Israel have been bombed since the last intifada because the bomb makers had been in prison. Many of those bomb makers were released recently in an exchange for the hostages. It's a strong coincidence that shortly after they were released that bombs appeared on Israeli buses again.

!jidf

Fat b-words are s*x offenders I see them and I’m sexually offended Making lingerie for fat b-words is like giving knives to little kids They gone hurt somebody If you find yourself in a fat b-word kitty just remember it’s because you’re broke

— ye (@kanyewest) February 7, 2025

So, I'm short. 5'2". My girlfriend is tall, probably 5'10 or 6'. We're "a short and a tall," as Big Mouth would put it. We love to dress to the nines and go out. Dresses, jewelry, cocktails, laughter. I'm not gonna lie, we're a hot couple.