Half of me: Blue and Yellow are going to have to confront eons worth of sins, war crimes, prejudice, the creation and enforcement of biological castes, the removal and dismantling of the very notion of consent, their part in upholding the lies that gems are solitary, unchanging, incapable of love or companionship, downplaying gems own physical abilities leading to entire swaths of gem culture untapped, and that’s not even mentioning the eugenics, use of unconventional (by gem standards) weaponry, the corruption weapon. They’re going to have to face the fact that they won’t be able to atone for all of that (especially re: Pearl) even if it turns out that the theory that White Diamond outranks all other diamonds in terms of superiority and my personal theory that Blue and Yellow are off-color diamonds like Pink was is true and that I’m actually spot on about Blue and Yellow not knowing the full extent of the corruption weapon’s effects on gems (as implied by Blue and Yellow thinking that they’d simply killed all the gems on Earth instead of corrupting them). There’s just no way they’re going to get all of the Crystal Gems to trust them just like that, at the very least not without a big rant from Pearl about how they could have just listened to Pink 5700 years ago instead of ignoring her and continuing to expand their genocidal colonialist empire.
Giant tarantulas keep tiny frogs as pets. Insects will eat the burrowing tarantulas’ eggs – so the spiders protect the frogs from predators, and in return the frogs eat the insects. Source
This has blown my mind for years. It’s so unreal. It’s almost the same exact reason humans and cats started living together.
Tiny frogs are tarantula housecats. A science fact seldom gets to sound that much like meaningless word salad.
This is legit, guys. And I’m excited about it.
Someone needs to draw a tarantula person with a tiny pet housefrog now. Please let this be a thing.
I love radio garden and I’m so happy I found it via tumblr. This is how I found some of my favorite radio stations! And it’s just lovely to be able to listen to what people in my home country or places I’ve never been are hearing.
Dear family who want me around for major holidays,
If you haven’t worked retail since the Reagan administration, kindly FUCK OFF. Your Reagan-era and Reagan-inspired laissez-faire policies are why I fear retaliation for even considering asking off for any time in November or December. Yes, this will be my sixth holiday season in a row with no time off. I am well aware. I don’t have “seniority,” I can’t “pull strings,” there is no one who can “cover for me,” and my manager will certainly not “understand if I just don’t show,” not this time of year. Those are statements of things that were possible when unions were stronger in the 1970s and had the lobbying strength to make sure that employers weren’t running busy times on overworked skeleton crews with no backup. Accrued time off, and especially paid accrued time off, simply doesn’t exist anymore for anyone on an hourly wage, so even if there was coverage, I still need to eat.
If you’re so upset your children and grandchildren can’t see you for the holidays, maybe you shouldn’t have sold them into wage slavery in the 1980s and every election since with your voting habits.
Lemmetellya, working the job I have now – which isn’t retail but is a customer service-ish, hourly, tightly-scheduled job – has reminded me of a lot of indignities I hadn’t dealt with for a while, and talking to my much-younger coworkers about their lives is eye opening. They’re trying to unionize, and I am IN.
HEY TUMBLR if you want something concrete to do about yesterday’s Helsinki summit and today’s bullshit half-assed retraction/“clarification”, this is a great list of specific stuff you can politely demand from your legislators. Includes phone scripts, and yes, voicemails are good too; I just wait until after hours and leave a voicemail, although I…do tend to hit the time limit pretty often, whoops. But seriously, it’s easy. It only takes a couple minutes to leave a voicemail, it’s important, and you don’t even have to talk to a person.
I know I don’t have a very big audience here, so please reblog!
What we witnessed in Helsinki was a treasonous act.
The fact Trump stood next to a known adversary, and said he believes someone who:
Is a former KGB officer
Has had reporters killed
Has poisoned former intelligence officers
Annexed an entire region
Sanctions
Asking for the transcript from the translators in the room w/ Trump/Putin (since who knows what Trump promised?)
Making sure Mueller is protected
And doing everything in their power to condemn the POTUS, including considering a censure.
over the men and women of our intelligence agencies, is an absolute perversion of our democracy.
(And yes, I’m aware he retracted everything today, Tuesday July 17th. It still happened. Still an act of treason.)
I know I generally like to keep things firm but light, but Helsinki, combined with the show circus that was Strzok’s hearing, the indictments, the push to impeach Rosenstein and the fact DNI Coats made it very clear that the “red lights are blinking again”, is making me very concerned.
Add in the fact my ex-intelligence/current military officers classmates at JHU are also concerned — a professor agreed with Coats that this is another “pre-9/11 period”, it’s all pointing in one direction. We need to step up our vigilance.
1. Call your electeds and ask them to respond strongly to Trump’s actions.
There are a number of things to ask for.
Sanctions
Asking for the transcript from the translators in the room w/ Trump/Putin (since who knows what Trump promised?)
Making sure Mueller is protected
And doing everything in their power to condemn the POTUS, including considering a censure.
You: Hi, my name is [name]. I am calling from [address/zip code].
You: I’m calling to ask [elected] do everything in their power to condemn President Trump’s actions in Helsinki, including (but not limited to): further sanctions against Russia, and a resolution of censure. The President just endorsed an adversary who directly spearheaded influence operations against our 2016 elections — as proven by our intelligence communities.
You: Congress can’t stand by and do nothing, as Trump erodes and perverts our democratic principles and norms. I demand action, and it has to go beyond statements issued on social media.
You: I also want [elected] to ask for the translator’s notes from the private Trump/Putin meeting to be subpoenaed. We need to know what was said.
You: [Elected] needs to show their constituents that they will fight for our democracy, even if Trump won’t.
Ask your federal electeds to move more quickly on the various pieces of election protection legislation floating around. @wapo has a great, succinct write-up.
E.g. @amyklobuchar has co-sponsored two great pieces of legislation, including:
2b: Protest the nomination of Donald Palmer to the Election Assistance Commission He was nominated to the Election Assistance Commission last week, and has a history of purging voters in his home state of Virginia. To wit:
Here’s more on the Election Assistance Commission, and why it’s so critical in a year we’re worried about the integrity of our elections. Palmer’s nomination requires a full senate vote. So call, and get on the record.
You: Hi, my name is [name]. I am calling from [address/zip code].
You: I am calling to ask [Senator] support the bipartisan S. 2593: Secure Elections Act, and S. 3090: Save Voters Act. With the November midterms right around the corner, it’s important Congress ensure that our elections are protected and transparent.
You: I am also calling on [Senator] to vote NO to Donald L. Palmer’s nomination to the Election Assistance Commission. His past track record of purging voters and misinforming voters of their status. in Virginia proves he can’t effectively perform or support the mission of the Commission.
You: Finally, I want to remind [Senator], Friday’s indictments reinforces Russia is interfered in our elections, and by all accounts from our intelligence community, will continue to do so. I expect [Senator] to do everything in their power to protect our election integrity, regardless of what the White House might say.
Then, either email or call your Secretary of State to ask how they plan on protecting November elections, given the warnings from DNI Coats this week. At the local level, you can reach out to your county register and ask the same question. Understand their process.
3. Take some time to learn how impeachment works
I’m seeing a lot of calls for impeachment, which I completely understand. Unfortunately, we have to recognize:
1. we don’t have the numbers right now (meaning Dems who will vote in favor of impeachment in both the House or the Senate, since the GOP sure won’t), 2. Impeachment doesn’t necessarily mean POTUS leaves the WH. See: Johnson, Andrew.
Honestly, if I believed we could achieve impeachment in this climate, I would absolutely tell you to push for it. The national nightmare can be over, I can get more than four hours of a sleep, etc.
But as it is: it would be a misdirected call, which might send people exerting precious energy on the wrong thing. Make sense?
But on that note —
4. Let’s recommit to our mission to defend incumbent Senate seats + flip two.
You know the drill — I’ve spoken out about the need to defend the Senate, and often. Polls shift, but some of our incumbent Democrats are down. As a part of our vigilance, we need to be paying attention, and supporting them however we can — even if we may not like some of them.
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