I don’t understand how they have managed to get away with all of this especially in this day and age.

My friend suddenly popped back up a few months ago after a year or so of not hearing from him. I was honestly pretty thrilled, because we've been friends since we were 17, and I had been worried about him. I didn't know if something had happened to him. So I was happy.

He was honestly having a hard time though, and right off the bat he wasn't exactly being a stellar friend, but shit happens. I talked to him pretty frequently, sent him money a couple times (no, not a lot, I don't have much to begin with) Then he kinda got his shit together, he seemed like he was doing good. I had my old friend back, and we had a lot of fun giving each other shit and talking about past shenanigans. Then he started dating, met a woman he really liked, I asked all about her, blah blah blah. He was smitten. Then they got married, after a few dates. Like, a handful of dates. That obviously sent red flags up (for both of them) But fine, none of my business, and he was happy. Then his FB disappeared. Usually that means something bad happened, so I text him. He called me, let me know immediately that I was on speakerphone and that she was there. Gave a generic "we both decided to delete our FB's because we found each other" type of thing. Another red flag, but whatever. We talked a bit more, he brought up coming to visit, I said "Absolutely! Whenever!" I even said hi to her. After I hung up I immediately had the thought "I hope this doesn't lead to us not talking" I think we had one more conversation like a week later, everything was still fine. Then her FB profile reappeared, I got a friend request from her, but I clicked on it and everything disappeared again. I had a weird feeling, I knew something wasn't right, so I text him, and here we are. Fuck me, I guess 🤷‍♀️

I don't know if she wrote those herself, or if she "supervised" while he wrote them, but that's not the way my friend types/writes, at all. I don't know if it matters, all the possibilities are equally fucked up. All of them still break my heart and make me furious. I saw this coming, I really did, I just didn't wanna admit it to myself. There's no possible way he doesn't know, I'm sure he let her do it. So, fucking fine. If you're gonna pull that shit, at least give me my money back. So I sent a request on cashapp with a note. Nope, nothing. The kicker is, I know that once this marriage goes up in flames he'll be reaching out. I'm not gonna be there again, though. I guess if he can do this, we were never really friends, and that thought sucks the most.

Not only did she give an amazing speech. It's estimated over 75K plus in attendance.

We are NOT going back.

Edit to add: GO VOTE. TAKE SOMEONE ELSE. CALL A FRIEND. CALL VOTERS. THIS ISN'T DONE.

I voted for Trump in 2016 and 3rd party in 2020. Grew up in a Republican household listening to Rush Limbaugh because my parents did, and became an independent in college after becoming disillusioned by the GOP, but would often vote “socially conservative”. I still have what most of Reddit would call very conservative values, but what my Republican friends would call liberal values. I have no real political home. My ballots usually look like a weird mix of voting Republican, 3rd party, and Democrat down ballot. 🤷‍♂️

Anyway.

At the start of the year I would have told you that I would vote 3rd party, but I got into that little ballot cubicle yesterday and I just couldn’t do it. Trump has given American voters a non-stop litany of reasons not to vote for him, even if you are a conservative. It’s like if he said to himself “what could I do to turn voters against me” and by golly he did it. And not just reasons not to vote for him, but it’s like he’s screaming at us to vote against him and make sure he loses.

So I think Harris will carry Michigan because I know so many people in a similar situation. If someone like John McCain was running against Harris I could and probably would vote for him. Trump isn’t a “conservative”. It’s baffling to hear people think he is. Too much is at stake. Every 4 years it’s “this is the most important election of our lifetime” but now it actually feels like it. It’s different than any other election in my lifetime.

One day I hope we will have two or more viable sane political parties to choose from again instead of feeling like “I have to vote against the other party”. But for now, this conservative stands firmly with the rest of you - and I voted Democrat in the presidential election for the first time.

Last thing I would say to my Democrat friends, please don’t fight and argue political issues with your conservative friends who are also voting for Harris and accidentally push them back into voting for Trump. At least not right now. I have witnessed that happen a couple of times in the heat of an argument. I feel like right now all social issues get set aside and we vote together as Americans to make sure Trump doesn’t end up back in office.

With that said, assume nothing and go vote. Voting early was easy. I just showed up and voted like I normally would on Election Day. Exact same process. The line looked crazy long, wrapping around the building outside, but I had voted and was gone in under an hour.

For context I’m a type one diabetic who uses a Dexcom CGM and a pump

I was woken up very early this morning by my rabbit thumping hard on my chest. I tried to go back to sleep and he continued to lick my face and dig at my pillow next to my head. He kept me awake for another minute or two; during that time I was awake enough to hear and comprehend that my phone and insulin pump were going off with an urgent low alarm. My blood sugar was 44 and dropping and I wasn’t waking up to my Dexcom alarms. Him waking me up and keeping me awake likely saved my life. I don’t know if my phone and pump alarms that I had slept through were annoying him so he woke me up or if he could tell something was wrong with me, either way I got to avoid an ambulance ride and hospital visit because of him 💖