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Finally getting around to watching the latest video. A day in the life with baby Will. I'll admit I've been skipping a lot of post-baby content because it's just so dull. This is no exception. I'm at minute 26 of 40. Even with fast forwarding, it's excruciating. They are obviously the first-time parents who are obsessed with their kid. Every moment is the Most. Special. Ever. Will is a cute baby, with a shock of hair that won't lie down, and he seems like a happy little guy. He wears an expression of intense concentration for most of the video, and they appear to be giving him a lot of attention and appropriate stimulation. But the constant gushing gets old fast. This episode in particular feels like a long-form commercial, as they demonstrate a washer-dryer combo, a bible storybook for kids, and a gadget that allows Tiff to trim Will's nails while he's napping. Gem of the video: Tiff tells us they have to put mittens on his hands at night because otherwise he'll poke himself in the eye and wake himself up. "The opposite of sleeping is waking up," Tiff informs us. Ya think? They inform us they're packing because they plan to spend the month of December in California. Wait, what? How can they afford to spend an entire month in California? Social media must pay well. If this is a true representation of a day in the life, they're both home with the baby all day. As she's giving Will a bottle, Tiff also tells us they'll be doing a Q&A soon (memo to self: remember to skip) during which they'll address the feeding situation. Reading between the lines, it sounds like Tiff has had issues with nursing and has taken some flack for bottle feeding. Tiffany tells us she thinks Will has Lawson's personality. Oh, dear God. I hope not. Another reason I've had to cut back on their videos is that Lawson's flirtation with the camera gets more and more insufferable. Among other activities - they dress Will in a beige outfit, Lawson plays "Jingle Bells" on the piano while Will sits on his lap, they do bible time with Will while reading out of a bible storybook (Tiffany tells us she's been gifted three), Tiffany extolls the necessity of teaching your kids about Jesus early, and Tiffany talks about how happy she is to be a boy mom. Tiffany pages through Will's elaborate baby book (let's see what the book for #3 looks like!). Lawson tells us he changed "about a thousand diapers" at first, but recently Tiffany has become "the diaper queen." Lawson cooks blueberry pancakes and talks about how he wants to improve as a cook. I may or may not finish the video. When they're not traveling, they are extremely dull.

Here's the thing that bothers me. Did Justin ever receive a cancer diagnosis from an actual oncologist? There just seems to be something missing. This lung issue is so concerning. Either it's an undiagnosed condition or he does have cancer and it isn't cured. I just worry they are going to a chiropracter who is practicing medicine without a license and doing x-rays or something. If Justin's been working in a auto body shop breathing paint fumes for his adult life, he could be dealing with some kind of lung issue related to that. Who is draining his lungs? Wouldn't they have to go to a hospital for that, at the behest of a medical professional who understands the diagnosis. I just don't quite get what's going on here.

I always get excited about having a DO for health care; they are the best! DOs do regular medical school training, plus a bit more that is DO specific and pass the same boards everyone else passes. Then, like everyone else, they decide to do family practice, or specialize in whatever. ETA: Ooops, I just realized that Coconut Flan has covered this upthread! Glad to see another person excited about DOs!

Carlin and Josie taking their young daughters for manis and pedis drives me a little irrationally crazy. I see it as indoctrination into being feminine. "Look at us having a super fun time and it's only for girls! Aren't we so lucky to be girls!" I also think it's an influencer thing because damn it must be hard coming up with interesting content. I think they know that a large portion of their followers find little girls doing women things adorable.

I am past 50 and have long hair. Of my college friends, only one has cut her hair short. Our mothers were firmly of the "you must cut your hair short after a certain age" generation and the age was somewhere around 35-40. I feel like Gen X doesn't care about those rules.

I bet the Duggars and Bateses didn’t even have room to put up a Christmas tree. Both families were packed into tiny houses for such large families before TLC came along.

Oh Travis, bless his heart! On his IG stories, he was talking about his Christmas singing tour. He said they were going from Tennessee to Arkansas to Missouri. However, the text had the postal code for Mississippi, and the two cities appear to be in Mississippi, not Missouri. I hope he's on a tour bus and not driving himself.

I don't think it's rich people, but influencers and possibly immature and silly people or for very special occasions. The very well to do people's kids I see are too busy in activities to be bothered with pedicures.

Thanks! I thought it was last year but time has been flying lately. At least the Pearls aren’t quiverful. They still haven’t made a pregnancy announcement.

The other dudebros for whom this seems to be going very poorly (which, to echo earlier sentiments, couldn't happen to nicer persons) are Joel Berry, the managing editor of the Babylon Bee. It's particularly bad for him because he has Jewish ancestry. Also Owen Strachan, who spent a few years calling everything woke until suddenly, somehow, he realized about a year ago just what was coming down the pipeline. So far I haven't seen either of them actually admit that perhaps courting/encouraging the far right for as long as they did could have led to some unfortunate results.

I do wonder a little if he's actually going to Idaho, and that's why Wilson is taking the antisemitism/Nazis stuff so hard. He's ignored it for so long, why set his foot down now?

Phil Williams attended the annual meeting of the American Renaissance Conference, SW of Nashville at a TN state park lodge. Predictably, these cowardly asswipes demanded that they not be filmed or photographed because “These people can lose their jobs. Their girlfriends could jilt them. I mean, that's the kind of society we live in."

One of the best cardiologists I've had was DO - they were board-certified in cardiology, so clearly a DO degree is not a barrier to further medical qualifications. Re: return to H4$. Hope that Justin can travel with his O2 & get the rx refilled while he is away. I shudder to think how much more money this will cost them - Iʻd guess several thousand, at least, for the projected stay of a week or so. Re: Brand offspring. They have 6 kids. The oldest, Janelle, has been married for a couple of years. The next oldest is a daughter (16-17) still at home with four younger brothers, two of whom are going to Mexico with the parents.

I completely get dropping out of the present race completely. Or the drawing names and everyone just buys one present or whatever schemes are around to reduce the sheer amount of gifts and gifting obligations. But how expensive are your trees? What numbers are we talking? Here you get a nice tree for 30-50€- which is about the same in $ I think. Not cheap if you have to budget really hard but also not crazy expensive for the majority. I mean, we usually don’t put it up before December or even the 24th, so it easily lasts till January 6th. And no one buys new ornaments every year. So the expense is just that. I have seen those „putting Jesus back into Christmas“ slogans and you can hate on the commerciality of it- but it all seems rather over the top? As if people desperately try to open up a fight for absolutely no reason? There are hundreds of ways to drop commercialism and re-direct the whole thing back to the original cause. That’s not cancelling Christmas though? And it’s nothing to get on the holier than thou horse as well. It’s just another way for Fundies to gloat about while looking crazy. We are for sure not a very if at all religious family. But we all know the reason and have no problem in merging the cultural aspect (Biskuits, Advent calendar, carols, presents, tree) with the religions one (church, filling the merger with straw - one for every good deed, reading the Christmas story in a children’s bible…). I just don’t get those Fundies. So desperate to be special. Bless their souls.

It's a rich people thing.

Okay found it here (link). According to Hoipolloi, she got married at 17 in 2022.

No the oldest got married last year I think? She was a teen bride. But I don’t believe she was underage. She is Janelle. The second oldest girl is Laila.

I soundly say its uncommon, But she gets them as much as Carlin now. This should be more of a rare things. Birthday holiday or special day. But its content so Layla gets a mani pedi. If you want content Carlin maybe try painting your nails at home like a lot of people have to do to save money. It will make you seem more relatable.

Is it common for children this young to get pedicures? Or is this just an influencer thing?

She was 16; she must have just turned 17. I thought she was the oldest and they still had 6 at home.

Agreeing. Gun ownership and access is so much higher among Republicans that it would follow that gun-related assassination attempts would disproportionately come from the right. Also there is a level of unhinged rage in alt right worlds that has not evaporated just because Trump was re-elected.

There are lots of fundies who celebrate Christmas but not with a tree and Santa. It's very puritanical - they think the secular celebration is bad as it takes away the Joy of Jesus or something. I find Christmas annoying af and pretty much hate December so I'm not super helpful. I don't think that most fundies (as opposed to "Christian" Influencers) are skipping Christmas because they want attention. Rather I think they think the commercialism takes away from the "meaning of the season" which to them IS the birth of Christ; apparently the birth of this little Jewish kid in a barn is more important than the teachings he did 30ish years later.

Biden is very different from Trump in that he has not been accused directly of wrongdoing and, or course, has no felony convictions. But it has long been know that his younger brother, Jimmy, and his son, Hunter, have shamelessly taken advantage of Joe's political connections. My take is that the family is very emotionally enmeshed (and enabling) and the enmeshment extended to shared use of accountants, attorneys, and business contacts in a way that is deeply concerning. I get why people are protective of Joe Biden, especially given the personal tragedies he endured and that he genuinely has a moral compass. I do not understand all that protectiveness extending to family members who love to profit off the political connections. Come on. Trump is a different beast because he is the one who is corrupt and in power. It's not just the people surrounding him. However, as much as Trump wants to be a dictator, our current set-up does not allow for unfettered power. There would have to be many more people in cahoots with him; yes, even more than the current long list of sycophants. Like many of you, I am deeply concerned that his coming administration will be far more damaging than this first because guardrails are eroding. But the guardrails are not yet gone. One technique Trump used to fill judgeships quickly was that he picked candidates without experience. This was maddening and unsettling (looking at you Amy Coney Barrett) but it had the unintended consequence that not all Trump appointees have turned out to be Trump loyalists. Some early research--which I consider very preliminary--is that Trump appointed federal appellate judges are often dissenting from other Republican judges. They are less predictable. But by other metrics (productivity, influence), the Trump appointed judges are not doing badly. They look an awful like all the other judges. There is the justifiable outrage as to how these judges got nominated, vetted, and voted into place, but that is different from how they are rendering opinions. The biggest concern I have over courts during the next Trump term is actually the immigration courts, because those are housed within the executive branch (and not the judicial branch). Immigration attorneys are running worst case scenarios and it is very bad. Trump does have a lot of power to mess with those courts and, by all indications, he will. Add to this that Trump does love the private prison industry. This connects with the immigration courts in that there is suspicion he will switch from mass deportation to mass incarceration with undocumented people. How does all this connect to Hunter? His sentencing on the gun charges was set for Dec 4 and I don't think Trump interfering was a high priority. He is too preoccupied with other things. Could Musk have called out the judge? Meh. These judges have congressional approval and I think that's not what Musk is going for. Mostly he is fluttering around in peacock mode, playing the bully and trying to get federal workers to quit voluntarily. Musk is emotionally and socially impaired, but he is not yet that brazen. Could Trump, in office, have tried to pull strings to make sure Hunter got placed in a private prison? That I could see as realistic. But again, Trump's theatrics often have unintended consequences. In this instance, putting Hunter in a private prison would also shine a light on the hell that is the private prison industry. There is real reason to be concerned about the coming Trump administration. But poor Hunter does not make my top 100 list. I predict fewer years of sobriety than if he actually served time.

It was slightly more traumatic this time because baby was early and not breathing well, so I didn't get to see him while they were sewing me up. They briefly presented him to me and then whisked him away for about 5 hours to work on his airway. I'm generally a very practical person rather than an overly emotional person and even though I knew it was brief and all for the best, I was so upset getting wheeled back to the room without him. It was very different than the post-delivery euphoria I had holding my daughter. It also meant I didn't put him down at all for the first several days - or really at all yet, honestly. I couldn't put him in the bassinet because it was too far away from me, even just being a foot away. We're all doing better now but I haen't gotten sick of watching him breathe. Physically, I've healed amazingly and could have been back at work full time by the 2 week mark.

I tend to assume threats are from Republican voters. Just like the assassination attempts against Trump were by Republican voters. They are either people disillusioned by getting exactly what they voted for, or people stirring up crap wanting to build sympathy for the target while making "the liberals" look as scary as the Rs keep saying they are. Or they could be from "but Palestine!" virtue signallers who are pissed that instead of potential tolerance of genocide they got a near guarantee of genocide. They COULD be from Democrats. Maybe. But I think it's the least likely option. Most Dems seem to be sitting back with crossed arms saying "enjoy getting what you asked for!" while watching the leopards feast on peoples' faces; while also planning and preparing - both how to make a difference and how to prepare for the inevitable chaos that's coming. I think most liberal gun owners, even if they were crazy enough to make an attempt, probably wouldn't threaten first. Anyone serious about an assassination attempt wouldn't threaten first. Of course there are always people on all sides with mental health issues or who are just not thinking straight and since any restriction on gun ownership is an affront to the constitution that means anyone could make a threat or grab a gun at any point. If they are by democrats or liberals I'd like them to stop, definitely. Going high hasn't worked, but going low is not the way either, and threatening other peoples' lives is not OK in any way. It's not OK to unilaterally choose to go kill somebody, no matter how much (to quote a recent Republican candidate) they "just need killing." If the threats and attempts are from Republican voters? Shrug. The voters chose these people, and these people chose to court those voters. They knew who they were dealing with, and they know that anger and hatred have been stoked high and those lead to violence. Thoughts and prayers.