niamhlincoln:

faunmoss:

velmadinkleys:

tropes that need to die: redemption arcs for abusive fathers

also: “I finally forgive him” arcs for the adult children of abusive parent figures

not to mention abusive relationships, where they forgive the abuser, because ‘they’ve changed’

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

lillivati:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

cannibalcoalition:

Remember that time when Pence made a last minute decision to not sign an application for a grant that would have made preschool in Indiana more accessible and help fix our crumbling infrastructure?

Remember that stern letter that a bunch of big businesses in Indiana wrote to Pence because he signed a law that was discouraging business from both within and without the state of Indiana?

Oh, and that time that Pence caused an HIV outbreak in rural Indiana because the only clinic that did HIV testing was a Planned Parenthood and his fixation on defunding reproductive rights caused it to close- even though that particular clinic didn’t even offer abortion services?

And then there’s the “Pence Must Go” signs all over central Indiana…

And who could forget the time that he planned on using taxpayer dollars to fund a news outlet because he couldn’t control the negative image surrounding him from the press.

What about the time that the FEC had to rewrite laws to prevent challenging candidates from using campaign funds for personal use because Mike Pence used 30% of his campaign funds on mortgage payments and golf tournaments?

And who else remembers when they were giving states a chance to individually tailor their Clean Energy laws to fit the needs of the state and Pence just said ‘no’ and didn’t offer any alternative?

Hey, what about that time that Pence stated that condoms were ‘too modern’ of a solution to HIV and STI prevention and that abstinence was the best choice?

Remember also that 49% of pregnancies in Indiana are unintended, and that out of 1000 teenagers, an average of 49 will become pregnant before they age of 19. And that STI cases have reached record rates for the state of Indiana.

Oh! Remember when Pence went against the advice of legal professionals and signed a good number of laws that mean that you are classified as a drug dealer (whether proven or not) if you are found with a certain quantity of drugs in your possession, and increased the minimum sentence to ten years- even when it was argued by many legal sources that the best way to combat drug use is rehabilitation and not incarceration?

How about the time that he campaigned heavily against raising the minimum wage to match neighboring states, even though an overwhelming majority of Hoosiers polled said that they support a $9/hr wage and approximately 93000 residents of the state bring home less than $300 a week?

Or that time he stripped the office of state superintended of all its meaningful power because he didn’t like who won.  (More.)

That person being Glenda Ritz, who by the way, received more votes than Pence.

Of course, I thought that it needed no mention, but who could ever forget the national embarrassment that was the RFRA laws, which allowed business-owners to refuse service to people if they felt ‘religiously burdened,’ which essentially boiled down to discriminating people who are part of the LGBTQ community. 

And you know I’d love to rant about Mike Pence all day long, but for those of you who want a more comprehensive list of how incompetent he’s been as our governor, this one sums it up pretty nicely and has sources! 

Oh, but don’t take my word for it: here’s another masterpost of all this and more. 

And just in case you thought he was done being awful- how about the time that Pence and Trump made a visit to Louisiana despite the fact that politicians were asked NOT to visit the flooded areas for essentially photo ops because its a further strain on resources? Meanwhile, South Bend IN is currently experiencing a flood where a visit would not be a negative impact the resources, but a photo op in Baton Rouge is more important somehow. 

Also seemingly less important than an unwelcome photo op is the soil in East Chicago, IN- which has a lead content 30 times what is considered unsafe levels for children to be in contact with. This comes from a man whose initial decision not to run for President was based on his ‘need to focus on his home state.’ 

Of course, everyone remembers how the RFRA, a law that was written in the spirit of LGBTQ discrimination, was strongly protested but signed anyway. No one could have possibly guessed that people would try to use it to justify child abuse- except for literally every person who protested. 

But to put a little more levity in this post, Purvi Patel’s sentence of feticide has been reduced to ‘child neglect’ and she’s out of jail. So that’s good news! 

Of course, injustices like these haven’t stopped radical anti-choice laws from being signed in during the entire run of the controversy. 

batarangst:

im pretty sure you all know what im about but just to be clear: black lives matter. i stand with the muslim and jewish communities. i am an intersectional feminist. i am pro-choice. im part of, and support, the LGBTQA+ community. i stand with immigrants. i stand with refugees. i stand with the poor and the homeless. i stand with the imprisoned and support criminal justice reform. racism is not tolerated. homophobia and transphobia are not tolerated. islamophobia and anti-semitism are not tolerated. ableism is not tolerated. sexism is not tolerated.

i am not silent and i am not complacent and i am still learning. and if you aren’t helping, if you are proudly part of the problem, you are not welcome on this blog.

steviemcfly:

sanguisfulgur:

hayley566:

-Trump cannot do most of what he promised, even with a republican senate and house.

-He still has a rape case coming up and may still serve jail time.

-Trump ran as a democrat in 2012 and has tried to become president for way longer than you think. The only reason he went to republican is because he realized it would be easier.

-He is a joke and just wanted to become president as an ego boost. He’s not actually interested in making any real changes.

-His supporters will start to abandon him when they realize he can’t fulfill their desires.

-it’s just going to be 4 years. Besides, we’ve had bad presidents before and survived.

-We can always impeach him.

—

I know that it may be dangerous for a lot of people the next few days but trust me, it’s not the end of the world.

We will protest. We will impeach. We will fight. We’re not gonna let an attention hungry dried up orange ruin our lives.

Stay safe and stay positive. There is always hope and I hope this has helped you.

…yeah, this is bullshit.

• Trump absolutely can do most of what he wants with both houses of Congress. Especially because he’s going to be able to stack the SCOTUS.
  
• The rape case was dropped. Which doesn’t mean it didn’t have merit, but it’s no longer coming up.
• Trump did not run as a Democrat in 2012. He threatened to run as a Republican. This is his second official run. In 2000, he ran for the Reform Party nomination.
• He offered Kasich the opportunity to be “the most powerful Vice President in history,” by which he meant being in charge of “foreign and domestic policy” while Trump would be in charge of “making America great again.” So you’re right in a sense, but wrong because Mike Pence is effectively the POTUS. You know, the guy who wanted to have miscarriages investigated as murders and make those who have them have funerals for them. And wants to ban gay marriage again by stacking the SCOTUS with judges willing to overturn it. And wants nationwide stop-and-frisk.
• He can fulfill his promises because he has a majority of both houses of Congress. On top of that, they didn’t start following him for logical reasons and they’re not going to stop following him for logical reasons either. You’re assuming rational thought will come from people largely incapable of it, and that’s a mistake.
• In his first four years, Bush 43 had us in two wars, turned a budget surplus into a deficit, cut taxes for the rich, restricted abortion rights and stem cell research in a huge way, curtailed our civil liberties in huge ways, and started domestic surveillance through the NSA. If you don’t think Trump can do a lot in four years, you’re on crack. Also, we were certain in 2000 (and 2001, 2002, 2003, and the first ten months and change of 2004) that Bush wasn’t going to get a second term, but guess what? This country is dumb enough to elect Trump, so they’re dumb enough to re-elect him. Especially if the Democrats put up someone who isn’t “fun” enough for the morons we call our fellow countrymen. And we’ve had bad Presidents before, but they caused damage that lasted way longer than their terms (Reagan’s eight years are still causing problems twenty-eight years after he left office, and obviously we’re still feeling the effects of Bush 43), and Trump is worse than any of them by far.
• We can’t impeach him. To be impeached, he has to be brought up on charges (”high crimes and misdemeanors”) by the House of Representatives and then tried in the Senate. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority vote, and removal from office is only one of an infinite number of possible outcomes. Do you think the Republican-controlled House is going to charge Trump with a crime? Do you think the Republican-controlled Senate will vote–specifically with a two-thirds majority–to convict Trump, and then choose to remove him from office rather than levy fines or something? It’s not going to happen.

We do need to protest, but your optimism is based on complete ignorance, and spreading bullshit is helping no one.

jawnbaeyega:

morecolorfulmetaphors:

heartsinhiseyes:

howtolivefatandhappy:

Trump’s presidency isn’t final. Candidates do not actually recieve electoral college votes until December 19 when appointed individuals (called electors) vote, which finalizes the presidency. Electors generally vote the way their state suggests, but they are only obligated to do so in 26 states. The electors can choose to cast their votes for any candidate. There’s more that happens should they choose to vote for someone besides the majority suggestion, but the point is that nothing is final until December.

If you know an elector, please encourage them to vote for HRC!

If anyone has contact information for electors in swing states, now is the time.

Hey everyone, I know this and other efforts like it are well meaning and coming from a good place, however, they’re not going to yield any fruit and could actually be more problematic. Hear me out, because I want us to fight, but we need to focus our efforts and energy on feasible outcomes. 

The electors aren’t going to upend “the will of the people.” They can’t and they won’t because a pillar of American democracy is the peaceful transfer of power & acceptance of free & fair election results. I know you’re going to say “but it’s not official until the electors vote” but the people have voted, the electoral votes divided, & the electoral college vote is mostly just a ceremonial ratification of what has already happened. Also, the need to accept the result of a free and fair election is precisely why you won’t hear President Obama or Hillary Clinton expressing outrage and calling for people to rise up against Trump. They can’t and they won’t. Because if they do and if the electoral college goes against free and fair election results, it sets a terrible precedent: It means that should the tables be turned, a decent and qualified candidate who properly won an election could be ousted because the people who voted for Trump this time around don’t like the newly elected president. In short, the electoral college defying election results effectively ends the veneer of American democracy and the tradition of peaceful transitions of power (because if you think Trump’s supporters won’t take to the streets with their guns if this victory is taken from them by 60 or so unknown electors, you’ve got another thing coming). It’s not going to happen and it can’t because it would destabilize the entire democratic system (which probably needs to happen, but not like this). 

So what can we do?

1. Before the transition of power, folks need to take personal precautions and secure themselves and their families. Get an IUD if you need one, go to the doctor and get checked for things you might lose coverage for, get a VPN, etc. Save money because the economy is about to significantly change. Make sure you and your family have Passports and any necessary documentation as to your identity and citizenship. There are lots of good posts going around on this stuff. Read up. This is important, because it’s infinitely harder to successfully organize if we don’t have our basic needs of health, safety, and shelter met.

2. Congress is up for re-election in 2018 & we have to stop the Republican majority. Two years might seem like a long time, but the Presidential election went on for nearly two years. In order for challengers to have a chance they need to be working and organizing right now! Folks need to figure out who their Representatives are, what party their from, and who their potential challengers are in the next race. Build that voter base right now! 

3. Donate to, volunteer at, & join progressive legal organizations & nonprofits giving direct services to marginalized communities.

It’s important that people really understand the situation we will soon be in. We haven’t had a Republican dominated Executive, Legal, and Judicial branch since 1928. Then we had the Great Depression. These people are about to do their best to literally reset the clock to the 1950s…and they can make it all legal because they now have the power to do so. The rest of us are literally in survival mode. The language we will use in Amicus briefs to the Supreme Court must now change. The arguments lawyers use in court rooms to protect and defend marginalized people will have to change when Trump appoints more federal judges. The goals and tactics of our organizing and mobilizing must change. 

I’m not trying to be an alarmist. It is vitally important the people understand what the situation in and what’s at stake so that we can concentrate and focus our efforts on things that have a chance of working. 

We are in survival mode. Our efforts must focus on taking back the Legislative branch and working to mitigate the damage and impacts on the most vulnerable among us when new policies and altered laws start going into effect. 

tzikeh:

randomlyimagine:

abbiehollowdays:

dynastylnoire:

lavendersucculents:

When you guys have visited potential apartments, what kind of questions did you ask besides the basics like what rent and utilities include?

Here are questions I didn’t ask but should have: what does the basement look like?

What measures are taken to secure the building ?

Are the walls thin?
Brief info of who lives in the building. Are they college kids? People that work through the day? Elderly? Is it a mix?
Where does the garbage go?

Can I pay rent bi-weekly?
What kind of fuses does the apartment use? (My fuse box is in the basement. If I blow a fuse I have to replace it myself. They screw until the box. All of which I didn’t know until it happend and I was sitting in the dark suddenly)

Who do I call for repairs? (If it’s a private rental)
Am I allowed to paint the walls?
Is there any additional storage?
Do you do regular pest control?

LAUNDRY FACILITIES
Definitely ask about security
Whether subletting is allowed (esp if you’re in college and might want to sublet for the summer)
If you have a car, whether there’s parking/how much it costs
What kind of heating/AC there is
Procedure/response time for any maintenance
How mail/packages are received/protected from theft (seriously people stealing your packages can be a huge problem)
What kind of verification of your salary will they want, and in what circumstances will they accept a guarantor instead?
Whether the apartment is furnished

Assuming you are in the middle of looking at/choosing between places:
When does the lease start? Are you going to give preference to people based on when they can move in?
Whether groups of a certain number of people get preference
Really anything about who they prioritize for applications, it can save you a lot of trouble in trying to apply to places you’ll never get into

TEST THE WATER PRESSURE IN THE SHOWER

I want to add:

Especially if you are renting a house from a single person, Know Your Area’s Building and Fire Codes.

Make sure the smoke detectors are up to date and working properly. Best case is for them to be hardwired, but it might not be required in your area.

Check for ventilation, especially in the kitchen and bathroom. Lack of ventilation leads to mold.

Make sure all the outlets work. Ask how the furnace and hot water heater are powered (electric or gas). Ask how old they are and when they were last inspected. Ask for an estimation of heating and cooling costs and other utilities. Ask about lawn care.

Ask about pet policy. Some landlords will only allow certain kinds or breeds of pets. Some will charge a flat fee and others a monthly fee.

ALWAYS READ YOUR WHOLE LEASE.

deathcomes4u:

greenjudy:

joebidenfanclub:

it seems so strange to me that the only people it is socially acceptable to live with (once you reach a certain stage in life) are sexual partners? like why can’t i live with my best friend? why can’t i raise a child with them? why do i need to have sex with someone in order to live with them? why do we put certain relationships on a pedestal? why don’t we value non-sexual relationships enough? why do life partners always have to be sexual partners?

My grandmother and grandfather more or less adopted my grandmother’s best friend back in the 50s. After my grandfather died (before I was born, back in 1968 or so) they continued to keep house together, platonic best friends, and they hung together until they died, a few months apart, in 2007.

It’s quite recently, as far as I can tell, that living arrangements like that have stopped being regarded as normal.

It’s absolutely a new thing to find this stuff weird, and it has a lot to do with media pretending that the nuclear family and marriage are the only reasons to live with other people.

I’ve lived in a 3 adult household my whole life. My parents and their best friend. This was never weird to me, even though everyone my age thought it was because the media never portrayed these kinds of housing arrangements. As far as i was concerned, I just had an extra non-blood parent.

According to my parents, it was very common in the 70′s-80′s to buy houses with your friends, because it was financially smart to do so (so long as you were certain they were close friends who wouldn’t fall out with you and fuck everything up). Houses and house payments are much more manageable when you split the bills 3-4 ways instead of just two.

Millenials aren’t the first to think it’s a great idea to just shack up with friends. That’s housemating without the hastle of living with strangers. It’s still a good idea to shack up with people you’ve known a long time so you know how you’ll get on living together, but still. In the current economy, it’s pretty much now our only option for affording anything.

I think, and I’m not researched on this, but I think conservatives probably tried to suppress images of non-nuclear families because they likely thought it would encourage ideas of polygamy, polyamory, open sexual relationships with or without marriage, as well as other relationship types they thought of as un-christian or unsavoury. I could be wrong, but that shit wouldn’t surprise me.

(And i want to make a note that there’s also a disturbing amount of asexual denial around that makes people go ‘if they’re living together they HAVE to be banging because why wouldn’t they?’ and that shit both creeps me out and annoys me no end. People can be in relationships without sex. People can live together without sex. Sex is not the be-all and end-all and people being taught to think it is really need to stop).

Don’t let the media fool you into believing you can only live with a sexual partner or blood family. Someone somewhere has an agenda for making these seem abnormal, when really it’s just practical.

niobiumao3:

whoopsrobots:

reversingyourpolarity:

hello-hayati:

materassassino:

samuel-vimes:

lierdumoa:

I was reading this article that was complaining about people should be more focused on bringing characters that were originally conceived as POC to the screen than on recasting white characters as POC. 

Which I actually agree with.

But in the same article the writer complained (I’m paraphrasing) “If you cast a black guy as Tony Stark, no one will think of him as Tony Stark, they’ll always think of him as Black Tony Stark.”

I have to point out a big flaw in that logic:

Children.

Everyone in the older generation thinks of Obama as “the black president.” You know who doesn’t think of Obama as “the black president”? 10 year olds. Obama is the only president they can remember. He got elected when they were two.

There are children who listen to Fall Out Boys’ “Centuries” and don’t know they borrowed the opening riff from Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner.” As far as they’re concerned, that’s Fall Out Boy’s riff.

There are children who don’t remember that The Rock was Dwayne Johnson’s wrestling name.

My favorite version of  A Christmas Carol is The Muppet Christmas Carol. I don’t care how Bob Cratchit was written in the original story because as far as I’m concerned, the real Bob Cratchit is a bright green frog puppet that’s my canon you can’t stop me.

There are a dozen incarnations of every possible comic book character. And every vigilante superhero we read about today is based on the original vigilante superhero – The Scarlet Pimpernel. There is no real version, there is only your favorite version. Every version that isn’t your favorite is going to feel fake to you.

But it’s going to feel real to someone.

Nick Fury, I’m just saying.

If we went back to white Nick Fury, it would just be fucking WEIRD

dude i forgot that nick used to be a white irish guy

I regularly forget about white Nick Fury. So much so that the current iteration is just Nick Fury while the former has become ‘white nick fury’.
Also green lantern. We all know who was best.

My little brother (who’s six)  loves the avengers, and a while back he got some kind of retro avengers game to play on the DS, and about half an hour after he plugs it in I hear him freaking out and I ask him what’s wrong and he says “They ruined Nick Fury! The ruined him! They made him white and he’s got hair!” and honestly I’ve never heard him so betrayed. Six year old little white kid, btw, and he was so disappointed because it wasn’t OUR Nick Fury

I was thinking about this in a different context last night, specifically about how the things which happen before you’re able to consciously comprehend them and remember them and their effects long-term, feel like long-dead history even when they may have happened only a year before or after you were born.

Take all the 18 year olds this year, for whom 9/11 is just something from a history book. That’s the same as kids born right after Pearl Harbor. It’s not something you learned about in real-time, and watched change the world–it’s your baseline.

And that’s why so much of this change in representation is so important: it is changing the emotional and societal baseline these kids come into (as these posts show). The longer it keeps up–the longer we have MCU!Nick as *the* Nick, the longer James Olsen is Mechad Brooks and the longer Iris West is Candice Patton and Zendaya is MJ and the longer the most recent Magnificent Seven isn’t just seven white dudes but instead has black, East Asian, Latino, AND Native American cowboys–we will shift the world view kids open up to and so their expectations.

This is why representation matters, including altering the races of long-standing characters.

obaewankenope:

sanerontheinside:

eclipsemidnight:

sweetlyminiaturesublime:

k-lionheart:

ralkana:

alykat86:

bittyblueeyes:

nominanescio:

joestoyes:

unironicallyenthusiasticknitter:

dafezgirl:

thomas-is-so-vine-and-kind:

“really?” I say to inanimate objects that are not working like they usually do

“Stay.” I glare at inanimate objects that continuously fall over

“Thank you!” I say exhasperatedly to the inanimate objects when they do finally work right/stay put

“Sorry! I say to the table I bumped into

“SHHH” I say to the inanimate object that keeps making noise

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” I huff at the persistent kitchen timer.

“Don’t take that tone with me!” I exclaim at objects that make strange and sudden unknown noises.

“Stop crying, you’re fine,” I snap as I’m looking for the charger cord for the electronic device beeping demandingly at me.

“Oh nice, real mature,” I snarl at devices that suddenly stop working after I berate them for not working properly.

JESUS CHRIST I HAVE NEVER RELATED SO HARD IN MY LIFE

“Just shut up,” I groan when the alarm clock across the room goes off.

“No, no, don’t be dead,” I plead with the infamous Blue Screen of Death

“I trusted you,” I whisper, staring at the app that just restarted and deleted everything that I spent two hours writing with tears in my eyes.

stargazerdaisy:

anartisticanomaly:

phantomcat94:

meefling:

You Aren’t Boring I Just Suck At Conversations I’m Sorry: a novel by me

I’m Not Ignoring You I Just Don’t Know What To Say: a sequel by me

I Feel Like I have Nothing Interesting To Say So I Don’t Say Anything At All And I’m Really Sorry Don’t Stop Talking To Me: the trilogy.

Sometimes I Don’t Know What to Respond With, But I Definitely Want to Acknowledge What You Said, so I Just Say “hehehe” or “mmm”: a series reboot by me