It’s even more infuriating when I hard boil a bunch of eggs and about half of them peel pristinely clean, the other half end up looking like the surface of the moon. Ya’ll was in the same damn pot, what’s the excuse?

I’m so proud of my town (though I’m not gonna dox it/myself here).

Hundreds of people in a rural area showed up for the last No Kings, far more than apparently anybody was expecting. For many of us, it was our first time. I’ve met the organizers, just local groups working together, most of the people involved are working class folks dedicating their own free time and had little or no experience with organizing protests or rallies before.

I braved it last time. Had no idea what to expect. I was actually anxious going in. But here’s the thing, it was enjoyable. Lots of like-minded people and it was a safe space. People were having fun. Many of us were meeting new friends.

And I was shocked at some of the people who showed up that I knew. I had always assumed they were staunch conservatives. Some of them are. But they showed up with signs and cheered, too.

Really hoping that today is even better. I think that’s part of the point: Getting people comfortable with exercising their rights and giving community builders the chance to learn first hand how to organize. That’s a fantastic thing.

Sounds like your local organization(s) may have failed you at the last No Kings. From what I can tell, these are all grass roots organizations, a coalition of many different groups across the country, putting these together.

This isn’t top down mandated events orchestrated and funded by billionaires and elites. It’s working class people who are literally learning on the fly how to do these things, not professionals paid by billionaires. For a lot of these groups and the people involved in them, this is the first time they are doing these events. It’s a learning process, mistakes will be made, and there will be room for improvement.

As for what you can do: Did you reach out to the organization(s) that sponsored and organized the last protest you attended, offer your assistance and/or provide feedback on where they could improve? Did you reach out to those speakers, even if you didn’t like what they were saying? That might be a start. I can’t say about your specific circumstance, but many of these groups have a social media and online presence, even if it’s sparse, they’ll have contact info listed somewhere. You might have to look. If you are really good at making signs, you can offer to help. If you’re well-connected with the police or political candidates in your area, you can be a liaison. If you have a medical background, you might be able to be a street medic during future events. If you have money to spare, these groups are almost certainly taking donations. All of these things help. If your local group(s) aren’t helpful, look further. Look to see if there’s a county-wide group, state-wide, national, etc. Reach out to them. Donate to them. They’re supporting the local folks, too, with training, information, and planning assistance.

And if all that fails, start your own group. Literally anybody can organize a No Kings event. All you have to do is register when the time comes. Of course, there’s lots and lots of work, time, energy, money, etc involved – even for a small event with a dozen people. It’s hard work. But someone has to do it. So, if you want to participate and nobody else is living up to your standards, raise the standard and show them how it’s done!

Bee extinction means drastically fewer crops and less pollination, but not no crops. It would be devastating, but there would still be agriculture. Lots of staple crops are wind pollinated and don’t rely on insects at all. But for the rest of our food, that would all become very expensive and widely unavailable.

I’m sure things are different in different parts of the world, but where I’m from, pretty much none of the big crop farms let fields lay truly fallow. Most of them plant various cold season cover crops that include things like clover, brassicas, and legumes like vetch. Those all produce lots of flowers that feed the bees in the off season.

The issue with wildflower meadows, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that most of those wildflowers bloom at times when the fields would otherwise be needed for crop production. Of course, there are farmers who skip planting at all some years, but in my neck of the woods, nobody does that. They plant every year, at least once, they just rotate different crops in and out. Corn one year. Hay then soy, the next. And so on.

At the rate things are going, it may be cheaper to burn those bills for warmth this coming winter than it will be to pay the electric/gas/oil bills we’re going to experience. Just sayin’.

Awesome! I think that’s great to hear. Comradery for the win!

I’m going to pick on you a bit, but don’t worry, I’m not doing this to be mean spirited nor am I trying to change your opinion. Just wanted to mention some things, for the benefit of others reading disparaging messages who might benefit from a different perspective.

They need to protest during the week and disrupt businesses.

No Kings is about building a movement, with the goal of increasing attendance at each event. I’m not sure that protesting during the week will achieve that goal – in fact it would likely be counterproductive. Almost certainly, it would lead to fewer people showing up.

This is not to mention that many/most of the groups sponsoring and organizing No Kings are also organizing a mass protest on FRIDAY May 1st. It’s not a No Kings event, but again, many of the same local organizations planning it.

And not only do it a couple times a year like it’s a music festival.

No Kings isn’t just a couple times a year. Tomorrow is the first event of 2026, but 2 more are being planned, leading up to the election in November. It really does take a lot of time and money and effort, all coming from volunteers who have lives outside of organizing events, so the cadence needs to be careful not to exhaust goodwill of the people protesting but also the people organizing. And to reiterate, many of these organizations making No Kings events happen are also doing other protests and events, like ICE OUT and the May 1st protest.

I was an early organizer for 50501 and Indivisible last year and nothing has changed

Change takes time, movements take time to build. But also, and I apologize for being personally critical of you here, as it may not be your fault, but I have to wonder why an early organizer for the groups you mentioned wouldn’t know that there are more than a couple No Kings being planned this year and that there is a protest during the week (Friday May 1st) coming up (just not No Kings) being organized by pretty much all the same local orgs that do No Kings.

What’s missing in these protests from experience is young people. It’s mostly 30+ people. Mainly retire aged.

That seems like a local phenomenon or a reflection of the people in your area. I will say, lots of people are giving in to fascism and authoritarianism and complying in advance in response to fear of violence and retribution. That’s how fascism works. For example, I’ve got friends who won’t go because they are afraid of being arrested or that counter protesters might resort to violence.

The hardest people to recruit are those who have never been to a political rally or protest. People younger than 30 overwhelmingly fall into that group. For many of them, this chaos feels normal, it’s pretty much all they’ve known since they reached an age where they started paying attention. And, throughout the ages, young people are less politically engaged than older crowds. Social media might have you think otherwise, but nothing has really changed there. Then also consider that people of that general age range are more likely to be working weekend jobs, going to college and working, starting new families, etc. That’s why it’s even more important for the rest of us to show up for them.

Be brave. Go anyway. Talk to the organizers. Let them know that the cameras might scare people away. Offer some valid, reasonable alternatives.

Lots of people will probably be filming and streaming on their phones anyway, so you’re going to be filmed and recorded and posted publicly in all likelihood. Not that it’s the same thing as the flock cams, but

In the case of these No Kings events, it allows peaceful and non-violent people such as myself to find a community of like-minded people, to learn how to organize and assemble safely by putting it to practice, and how to exercise my rights.

I would NEVER intentionally involve myself with a violent movement. Violence will not solve the precarious situation that many of us feel the country is in, it will literally only make things worse. And alone, I would never have a chance to disrupt anything. Virtually no single, unorganized person would. No matter how peaceful or how violent they are.

What will change things is people like myself finding out that in my small, rural town that often feels like it’s mostly MAGA, there are actually hundreds of people willing to be brave and join me in solidarity.

What will that inspire? It’s far more likely to inspire a new wave of future leaders, showing them how to organize and lead. It’s far more likely to motivate people to build community with each other and turn out for future protests. Protests aren’t bad. They’re an essential part of our rights and a way to reach each other. And, at the end of the day when people find their voice and their leaders actually represent them, that IS disruption. That is a radical change from how so many of us see things working now.

Violence does not achieve any of that. It changes things, but not for the better.

Probably the best thing about these events, for me, is that I’ve learned that there are hundreds of like-minded people in my rural area and that I’m not alone in this. Living in this area, it feels like I’m surrounded by nothing by MAGA conservatives and there’s no room for dissenting opinions. But it’s simply not true. They’re just the ones who’ve been loudest all these years, but that’s changing.

Sitting in front of a screen and complaining about what’s going on while also disparaging those trying to do something about it – 100% ineffective, 100% counter productive.

When hundreds of people are showing up in public across thousands of small towns around the country, that’s people learning they aren’t alone. That’s people making new friends. That’s people actually getting involved and organizing. And that’s not to mention, this is happening in all the major cities as well.

In a way, the demands of the movement are on ourselves, the people attending these events. It comes down to making ourselves responsible for learning how to organize, engaging in political speech, and to normalize exercising our constitutional rights. This is all new to large numbers of people attending these events, so it’s a learning experience for a lot of us.

And besides, I think of it this way…

Let’s say November rolls around and the president decides to interfere with the elections or he tries to invalidate the elections. What’s got a better chance of successfully resisting? A scared and disorganized population that’s never organized and/or attended a protest and isn’t prepared for what that entails? Or a populace that’s done this a few times already in recent history, that’s built up support, knows how to organize, knows who to contact, and one who is actively engaged? In this life, there are no guarantees, but if I had to put my money on one of those two, I’m choosing the the latter.

These waves usually turn out better quality users than the lulls when we’re otherwise mostly getting the people who’ve been permabanned from Reddit. So, hopefully we get some good ones!

For potato salad: I have several secret ingredients. I don’t necessarily use them all at the same time, but hard boiled eggs, yellow American mustard, and relish made from home-made sweet pickles.

On the topic of pickles: This is particularly true for sweet pickled veggies (like cukes & peppers), I’ll add some fresh cut ginger. Pairs extremely well with more the more traditional pickling spices used in my part of the world.

For most anything savory: A bit of celery seed. This one falls into the “with great power comes great responsibility” category, though. Use just enough that you, the cook, can detect it but not so much that other people can easily pick it up in the flavor profile. Also, it works best with dishes that pair sweet and salty profile with herbs, such as soups and marinades.

For dishes that need a bit of extra fat: I’ll sometimes add some bacon grease if I know that everybody having the dish is fine with pork products. It’s a quick way to add saltiness, meaty/umami, and smoke flavoring to things like various greens, various bean dishes, and stuff like that.

I’d already heard of Mastodon and based on poking around there, I learned about Lemmy, so I explored it as a Reddit alternative. Initially, my early exposure to lemmy was mostly a curiosity thing.

Also during that time, my resentment and distaste for Reddit’s policies and general culture was building up. The place had changed so much over the years, just slowly enough that it took awhile to notice that it was no longer the same place it was when I first arrived.

I ended up coming to Lemmy in the months ahead of the Reddit API fiasco, but would still peek over there from time to time. Then post API fiasco, I just stopped even peeking.

In those days, Lemmy was a largely KIND place, so that really helped the transition. The culture here was different from Reddit, and seemed much more positive and supportive at that time, so that made it easier to look past the flaws. It was a regular occurrence to see folks call out users who were being abusive or overly abrasive in their replies, and folks would often talk out or joke about their differences. It was a nice, refreshing change of pace most of the time.

That’s almost all gone now or perhaps hidden on some private or unbeknownst to me server somewhere in the Fediverse. But for me, for now, I’m still here. I just had to adapt. Basically I mostly stopped reading replies to my comments and just block people I see being abusive to others, but this also means Lemmy is now a sad, dead echo of its not too distant past and more of an opportunity to fart into the winds of oblivion.

College in the USA. I’ve gone several days without food, simply because I could not afford to buy anything to eat nor did I have transport (or money for transport) to buy/procure any.

I’ve also gone several days without food while sick. For me, these two things were QUITE different. Being too sick to eat sucks because I was sick and feeling so bad that hunger didn’t register. But being otherwise healthy, but having no access to food is something else entirely.

It was like a day before my every waking thought somehow revolved around eating and food, almost feels like being mentally ill. Every thing you think about turns into a tangent, memory, feeling about food. Hard to describe and it’s been so long, that fortunately it’s a foggy, distant trace of a memory. Just still remember that I couldn’t focus on anything worth a shit because any semblance of a thought process would devolve into food and eating.

I agree. Those true crime documentary-style shows are probably the closest thing to traumatizing. All this other fake, fictional stuff other people are posting? That crap made me laugh.

But something about knowing that some lady got murdered near the lake we used to go swimming at? Yes, that would scare me.

Sucks to be in tech right now. I’m sure there are still pockets of good employers with happy, confident worker bees, but those are few and far between as best I can tell.

Pretty much everybody I know and speak with regularly who is working in the tech industry or a tech role in general is feeling the strain.

Layoffs. Remaining employees have to pick up the additional workload of people who were laid off. Threats of future layoffs. Hiring freezes. Bonuses slashed or cut entirely. Little or no raises, not even cost of living increases. Demotions, in some cases. Expected to use LLMs to do things that LLMs have no business doing because management is clueless on the topic and expects everybody who is “good with computer” to be an AI expert. And the list goes on.

And then as already mentioned elsewhere, there are almost no true entry-level positions opening up, so new grads are really struggling to get established in the industry. It’s particularly sad because this is so short-sighted and the negative impacts have the potential to be quite severe.

Weird that affordability has never been worse (in my lifetime), inflation is not under control for actual necessities (like groceries), and yet there’s not Trump “I did that” stickers all over the place. Wonder why those people who put out all those Biden “I did that” stickers, practically everywhere, don’t care now. What happened to them? Hmmmm, guess the world will never know.

I haven’t read the article yet, so apologies if this is addressed.

Bluray has always been a niche product in many/most parts of the world, DVD is ubiquitous.

It pains me to say this, but people generally just do not care about the difference in picture quality between the two formats. At least not enough to pay the Bluray premium.

The equipment itself is more expensive, as are the discs. Your subjective “not even much more expensive” is very dismissive of the economic situation for huge numbers of people around the world. It’s often $3 - $4 more per disc in a retail setting, sometimes higher. And DVDs go on deep discount far more often in my experience, furthering the cost divide. And the bluray players aren’t just more expensive, they’re way more troublesome, slower, clunkier, and many/most/all require a stable internet connection (at least periodically) or you’ll be locked out of watching your discs.

The money aspect isn’t a concern for wealthier households. But, wealthier households tend to have higher adoption rates for stable, reliable, unlimited, high speed internet. They’ve largely switched to streaming only, and have little to no need for discs and players. They’ve also got many other entertainment options. They went from DVD to streaming, skipped Bluray.

Poorer households are far more likely to have no/less reliable internet, let alone unlimited data. If you don’t have internet, you will be locked out of watching at least some of your blurays. You certainly won’t be streaming, at least not regularly and reliably. That $3 - $4 difference in the price of each disc is money for gas or a loaf of bread. The $50 difference in the player is potentially a big financial blow. If you want to watch something cheap, you can find a huge selection of DVDs at the thrift store or even rent for free from the library, or you can pay a little more for the one bluray they have for sale (it’s an Adam Sandler comedy from 20 years ago where he dresses up as a woman) and does funny voices.

The tariffs are basically the “consumption tax” that was popular in “libertarian” circles decades (or longer) ago. I remember a buddy of mine going down that path circa 2004 “income tax doesn’t work, we should have a consumption tax aka universal sales tax instead”.

On the other hand, this strikes me as yet another scheme to try and cover up the prior scheme. Basically, he thinks/realizes that he might have to pay back the money from the prior/current scheme, so he’s hatched a new one to try and collect enough money to at least break even.

We’ll see how it goes.