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sweetreveriee · 6 months ago

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WILDFIRE AID RESOURCES MASTERLIST

these are all the places ive found helping those affected by the la fires. please stay safe everyone <3

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FREE THINGS:

Planet Fitness Offers Free Things (ends January 15)

Form To Get Free Temporary Housing From AirBnB (space limited, eligibility criteria required)

List of Restaurants Offering Free Meals (updated January 9)

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UPDATED MAPS:

CalFire

Watch Duty

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INFORMATION:

List of Updated Info

Spreadsheet of Resources (by location and type of aid)

If you have anything to add to the list linked above, comment here

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SHELTER:

If you need shelter, text "SHELTER" and your zip code to 43362 for nearest open shelters

open shelters:

Arcadia Community Center – 375 Campus Drive, Arcadia, CA 91007

Ritchie Valens Recreation Center – 10736 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Pacoima, CA 91331

Pan Pacific Recreational Center – 7600 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036

Westwood Recreation Center – 1350 Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025

El Camino Real Charter High School – 5440 Valley Circle Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91367

Pasadena Civic Center – 300 East Green Street, Pasadena, CA 91101

Pomona Fairplex – 1101 W McKinley Ave, Pomona, CA 91768

YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles - locations unaffected by fire are open and providing free childcare to those who need it. also offering evacuation sites, temporary shelter, basic amenities, and showers.

for updates and locations click here

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TRANSPORTATION:

CalTrans Updated Road Closure List

Fare collection suspended at Metro through January 9. A list of updates and changes that occurred because of the fires and winds can be found here.

Lyft is offering two free rides of 25$ each (50$ total) for 500 riders using code CAFIRERELIEF25. offer ends January 15.

Uber is offering a free ride of up to 40$ for those who use code WILFIRE25 in the wallet section of the app

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ANIMAL CARE:

List of Shelters (check capacity and availability)

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MENTAL HEALTH:

LA County set up a 24/7 hotline to help with anxiety, distress, and grief. Call (800) 854-7771.

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WHAT TO PACK:

remember the six p's:

people and pets

papers, phone numbers and important documents

prescriptions, vitamins, and eyeglasses

pictures and irreplaceable memorabilia

personal computer, hard drive, and disks

plastic (debit, credit, ATM cards) and cash

what to put in your "go bag":

face masks/face coverings

three-day food supply (nonperishable)

three gallons of bottled water per person

map marked with AT LEAST two evacuation routes

basic first aid and medical supplies

sanitation supplies

toothbrushes, toothpaste, hair brush, deodorant

period products

prescriptions and medications

a change of clothes (bring AT LEAST one warm coat)

spare eyeglasses or contacts (if needed)

extra set of car keys

chargers for your devices

cash, credit/debit cards, traveler's checks

flashlight

battery powered radio

EXTRA BATTERIES

(copies of) important documents such as birth certificates, passports, insurance, a list of emergency contacts and phone numbers

your wallet (ID CARD)

food, water, and meds for your pets (checklist here)

a can opener

not necessary but you might want to bring:

valuable items that can be easily carried

family pictures that cannot be replaced

blankets

more than a day's worth of clothes

important school supplies (for students)

books

trophies, medals, certificates, awards

pens and paper

self defense tools (pepper spray, pocket knives, etc) (NOT ENCOURAGING VIOLENCE. FOR SELF DEFENSE ONLY)

extra shoes

fuzzy socks

non-essential hygiene products

gum/breath mints

ALWAYS PREPARE BEFOREHAND. EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT DIRECTLY IMPACTED, THE FIRES CAN GROW. KEEP YOUR BAGS IN THE CAR SO YOU CAN EVACUATE QUICKLY IF NEEDED.

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WANT TO HELP?

Best Friends Animal Society

LA Fire Department (donations sent directly to first responders)

LA Food Bank

LA Works

MusiCares

Salvation Army

Santa D'Or (in need of fosters for displaced cats)

Silverlake Lounge (also offering a communal gathering place)

Sweet Relief Musicians Fund

Dream Center (in need of volunteers + non-perishable food items)

The Red Cross

We Are Moving the Needle

World Central Kitchen

United Way of Greater LA

As of January 9, the Westwood Recreation Center and Pan Pacific Park are at full capacity and not accepting additional donations. Check with all organizations by phone, text, or email before donating if possible.

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IF THERE'S ANYTHING I MISSED OR MESSED UP PLEASE ADD IT OR LET ME KNOW SO I CAN FIX IT. REBLOG TO SPREAD AWARENESS!!!!!!!! stay safe everyone

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autisticadvocacy · 4 months ago

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On February 13th, the president issued an Executive Order saying that the administration would be establishing a commission to attempt to lower the prevalence of autism and chronic health conditions in the United States. The proposed plan is full of attempts to research thoroughly debunked science, states goals that run counter to the actual actions taken by the administration, and spreads misinformation about autism. ASAN disapproves of the proposed plan, and will be joining efforts to push back against its harmful ideas, as well as the harmful policies proposed by the current administration.

The proposed plan refers to autism and other disabilities as “a dire threat to the American people and our way of life.” This is fundamentally inaccurate. Autistic people have always been here, including before America existed. We aren’t new. The document cites the increase in autism diagnosis since the 1980s as evidence of an “epidemic.” This ignores the fact that healthcare access has changed dramatically in the last forty years.

Historically, there have been multiple diagnostic disparities—a difference in the number of people diagnosed between different categories of people—among autistic people. Women, adults, gender diverse people, and people of color are all generally speaking less likely to get an autism diagnosis—both because testing was modeled off of a very small group of people, and because having access to diagnosis tends to be harder for these groups (due to things like access to professionals able to diagnose autism in these categories, access to insurance, ability to access transportation to get to said professionals, and access to childcare or time off of work, among others). Another reason more people have autism diagnoses today is that what it means to be diagnosed with autism is much different today than it was in 1980. Diagnostic manuals were revised in 1994 and in 2013 because clinicians increasingly recognized that autism is a spectrum. Only a narrow subset of autistic people could qualify for diagnoses prior to 1994, and many conditions that we now know frequently co-occur with autism were considered disqualifying for an autism diagnosis. The result was many autistic people went undiagnosed or got misdiagnosed and couldn't get the supports that they needed.

Both of these facts mean we’ve been underdiagnosing people in these groups for decades. This has only just started to change, as these factors that determine access begin to - Medicaid expansion states making it possible for more people to be insured, for example. That means that we aren’t seeing an increase in the number of autistic people that exist - rather, more of us are getting access to the tools necessary to get a professional diagnosis. It is entirely possible that this is also true of ADHD, which is referenced in a similar capacity later in the order.

The order also refers to autism as a “disease.” Autism is a developmental disability—and disability is a natural part of human diversity. Autism is something we are born with, and that shouldn’t be changed. Autistic children should get the support they need to grow up into happy, self-determined autistic adults. For many people, diagnosis is the first step towards accessing those supports. Increased diagnosis is a positive thing; it indicates the many, often multiply-marginalized, autistic people who are gaining access to autism diagnoses and receiving the supports they need.

In addition to the administration’s focus on autism as a disease, the executive order’s focus on preventing “obesity” presents certain people’s bodies as undesirable or diseased, rather than part of a natural variation and a largely genetic factor. This also ignores the fact that weight loss has both incredibly low rates of success, and that weight cycling (losing and gaining weight rapidly due to diet) has consistently negative overall impacts on health. Weight stigma and fatphobia is often the cause of negative health outcomes, including delayed diagnosis and treatment of actual medical problems. The focus on prevention of the issues this administration considers undesirable, combined with their proposed cuts to Medicaid, will do untold harms to people of the United States, and will result in exacerbation of current disparities in access to high-quality medical care for fat Americans.

People with disabilities are not burdens; painting disabled people as burdens is ableist and presents disabled people as a “problem to be solved,” rather than a group of people who deserve to be fully included in all aspects of society. This focus on preventing disability, rather than providing supports and services to the many disabled Americans already living, so they can access school, work, housing, healthcare and other aspects, are even more disturbing coming from a president who has baselessly blamed people with disabilities and other marginalized groups for the recent airplane crash in Washington DC, and who allegedly said, in reference to his own disabled family member, that people like us “should just die.”

The Trump administration is also currently pursuing policies to curtail the rights of people with disabilities. Trump’s statements about disabled and minority members of America’s workforce mirror his executive orders directing agencies, including the FAA, to discriminate against people with disabilities and other marginalized groups. Trump has encouraged agencies to discriminate against and sideline members of the federal workforce based on their identities and stripped away or suspended government activities that protect against discrimination. There are also reports that he intends to issue an executive order severely reducing or even abolishing the Department of Education, an act that not only violates the separation of powers set out on the Constitution, but also will result in the Department of Education having the reduced ability to enforce the rights of students to accommodations, inclusive education, and to fight discrimination in schools. The president and Congress are also pursuing damaging cuts to Medicaid. People with disabilities rely on Medicaid for essential health care and supports, and any cuts to Medicaid, no matter how the President and Congress say they are targeting these cuts, will hurt us.

Under the leadership of Trump, who has publicly claimed that he believes in the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has founded an anti-vaccine group, claimed that no vaccine has been proven safe and effective, that the recommended vaccine schedule for children is dangerous, and that “autism does come from vaccines,” ASAN is deeply concerned about the call for increased causation research. Trump claimed in December that he would direct the HHS to investigate a connection between vaccines and autism, which has already been proven to be nonexistent. The executive order also directs the Make America Healthy Again commission to look into the “potential over-utilization of medication, certain food ingredients, certain chemicals, and certain other exposures pose to children.” While some of these things may indeed be connected to or cause other disabilities, such as lead poisoning and fetal alcohol syndrome, they do not cause autism. We also ask the president, why, if he is concerned about links between toxic chemical exposure and children's health, he, in his first term, rolled back many regulations aimed at reducing toxic emissions and, in his second, has cut programs enforcing restrictions on toxic emissions, and pledged to further roll-back regulation aimed at eliminating and decreasing pollutants.

We are deeply concerned at the Trump administration’s commitment to further research thoroughly debunked myths about autism and his disregard for established science and research. We are also deeply concerned about the potential damage caused by President Trump and Secretary Kennedy using official channels and government agencies to promote false “cures” and “treatments” for autism, as well as other disabilities. This will not only decrease American confidence in public health agencies, but also cause real harms, such as the decrease in childhood vaccination in the United States since the beginning of the pandemic and the death of 83 people in Samoa, both attributable to anti-vaccine advocacy and specifically now-Secretary Kennedy. Autism causation research is dangerous, ignores decades of science and research, and ignores the autistic community, which has been insistent that we do not need or want a cure for autism, and that we will fight for the civil rights and services and supports needed for us to fully participate in all aspects of society.

The executive order also targets the health care that many people rely on directly. The order plans to focus on the “prevalence of and threat posed by” prescriptions for a range of medications prescribed to individuals with ADHD, depression, anxiety, and many other conditions. Secretary Kennedy has repeatedly stated his belief that school violence is caused by SSRI prescriptions, an ableist claim that has been studied and debunked. To the contrary, many of these medications are not only beneficial to people with significant health needs, but often life-saving. SSRIs are used for a range of mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder. For many people, these medications are an essential part of their health and wellbeing. Similarly, medications for ADHD have been found to reduce the risk of premature death by nearly 1/5th. Rather than making America healthy, these attacks on essential medications directly threaten the health of many Americans. This is hardly the first threat to Americans’ health to come from this administration in the past month; previous executive actions have threatened the ability of transgender and gender-nonconforming people to access health care and attacked any mention or consideration of racial or gender equity across the government, including health equity research. Any effort to “address chronic disease” that refuses to acknowledge the health disparities we experience is doomed to fail before it has even started.

The executive order says that, “There may be public hearings, meetings, roundtables, and similar events.” In an administration where health agencies are already freezing out stakeholders, this vague suggestion is inadequate. People with disabilities must be heard on issues that threaten to directly impact our access to health care and services. ASAN calls upon the administration to carry through on its responsibility to listen to the people, and to listen to the disability community when we say that this research direction is not only wasteful, but will cause harm to countless people across the United States. ASAN and our community must fight alongside the many other communities harmed by this administration to protect our civil rights, the programs that our communities depend on, and our community from these attacks.

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guzhufuren · 4 months ago

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if you follow me, or simply see this and have 1 free minute, could you read this post please? i'm in desperate need of as many and as varied ideas as possible from different perspectives and people

i cannot bear to stay where i am much longer, living here is killing me from inside, i'm clawing at the walls. i want to move countries, cut ties with almost everyone, have the freedom of marrying anyone i want, adopt, change gender marker, work in a region where my preferred job field is much more progressive and valued, and stop holding myself back from living. i know what country i will move to and which work program i will go through for it. but in order to do that i need savings and money to get shit done like documents and gender affirming stuff. to do that faster i need a job with as high of a pay as i can get. i really want to get the fuck out of here in 6 or 8 months

i want to kindly ask, please if you have an idea of a job that would be a possible fit for my needs, no matter what it is, leave it in replies here or in anons. might be something innovative and unusual, or might be something obvious that i haven't thought of before

further info under the cut

- note, i live in Kazakhstan so almost any eu/us/nz/au jobs are considered high paying to me because of our enormous difference in the currency value. in case of a possibility of remote job done from faraway i can figure out the taxes issue

my skills and characteristics that can be helpful to think of something, but also not limited to those: - fluent in 2 languages (russian and english) - adaptable, very fast learner, good at finding things and doing varied tasks, analytical - fast to make people open up to me, charm them - good at promoting stuff, but it's fully self-learned from experience - good with computer shit, passable in photoshop - conventionally attractive (it has been helpful in all customer service jobs) - almost completed a childcare degree, have all skills that come with handling kids - though i do not have a degree yet. i quit astrophysics major a decade ago and will only finish my bachelors in early childhood education this summer

jobs that i have done before:

- the most successful and longest one: store chain manager where my position combined responsibilities of offline store manager, sales manager and internet store manager. promotion of top-price brands and their growth in popularity, training personnel, working with vip clients, working with suppliers, choosing and purchasing all products, social media advertising, fully taking care of online store too - various sales - real estate agent

jobs i do not consider: - jobs that will require me to go to another country and exchange stuff. i specifically need money so i can do that in the future, and the whole problem is i cannot do that right now without a security blanket to to fall on. or rent funds - childcare jobs (the field is in the ditches here, the aim is to earn money, not put myself into debt) - teaching jobs, same problem - persuading people to buy anything - translating text. i am horrible with written speech, very very poor writer's skills - the kind of customer service where you have to prostrate yourself to customers. i don't have patience to take shit anymore - please don't suggest sugar dating. done that. trauma

i can easily find a job on my own but i wanted to be smarter about it this time and consider everything, use all resources including this blog. if you thought of anything, please tell me

#mine #biggest thank you to anyone who answers in advance

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aidentitycrysis · 5 months ago

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On the left is an official document issued to the Chinese government by the American Embassy, shared on xiaohongshu and apparently believed by normal Chinese folk, that is filled with so many lies it makes me want to rage puke- and I'm not even American. On the right is the translation of this document into English. Here's a little tl;dr-

- According to the American Embassy, the average American household income is $1.2 MILLION. This is clearly a manipulated statistic, but the method of manipulation is interesting- because for this number to make sense as an average, it would mean the wealthiest people in America could make every household millionaires and still be millionaires themselves. I don't doubt that this is, indeed, the mathematical average of American income, which is disgusting considering the income of the average American.

-According to the American Embassy, social security provides adequate healthcare, childcare, social services and pensions to a majority of Americans. They are literally saying you guys get FREE HEALTHCARE. At this point, everybody in the Western world knows this is patently untrue, no matter which way you approach the matter.

-According to the American Embassy, recent surveys have shown that Americans don't even consider 'millionaires' to be rich anymore. I don't even know what to say about this one, I'm lost for words! Every American I know would consider themselves, at the very least, profoundly fortunate if they were a millionaire.

- According to the American Embassy, food costs account for roughly 10% of household income, and a 1.3% rise in the price of groceries recently is in line with recent wage increases and therefore effectively unchanged. Is this your experience of recent increases in the cost of food? Pretty confident the answer is "LMAO no, wtf?!".

Look, I know I'm not American, but I care about several American people personally, and I care about human beings generally. I've spent time in LA and seen the homeless camps. It breaks my fucking heart to know that many of the people in those camps have done nothing to deserve it except be unfortunate enough to require a medical procedure.

Much like an abusive partner, the American government- under BOTH Republican and Democratic rule- have maintained a long running campaign of information control and disinformation that has thrived on the inability of most American people to communicate with Chinese people. Think about it- the right wing hate China because of the so-called evils of communism, and the left wing distrusts China for a slew of alleged human rights violations, few of which have been substantiated by anyone actually inside of China since the 90s. I'm forced to wonder how much truth there is to many of the things I've learned from sources that I've now found out are happy to manipulate statistics and outright lie in official government documents.

Look, I'm British, my government is evil as hell, all day every day, it doesn't matter who we vote for, they stay evil. Not only am I sick to my stomach about what an insult to humanity these documents are, it makes me wonder what lies my own government has hidden in foreign languages, away from the eyes of my working class.

Luigi said "This is an insult to the intelligence of the American people". He's right. They are insulting you. They are insulting all of humanity with this bullshit. I'm not saying put aside all your differences with people on the other side of the fence to you, but I am saying that they keep us from working together the same way they kept this document a secret- by making it unlikely that we will come together to have a rational conversation, rather than a debate, and compare notes. It's the same way they are stopping us from making any kind of meaningful change for the better as a society.

Every normal person in the West is struggling right now. We are all FUCKED, and we are only getting more fucked as time goes on. But the rich are still getting richer. The businesses we owe our paychecks to in order to survive have experienced record profits as they tell us they can't afford to pay us decently or offer a fair and affordable price for their services. This isn't just inept and indifferent- it's fucking sadistic. We need to put aside the political arguments we've been taught to have and start having conversations across the divide so that we have a chance to scare these fuckers straight at some point in our lifetime.

#anarchist #anarchism #communist #communism #xhs #xiaohongshu #red note #rednote #tiktok refugee #wealth inequality #government corruption #anti capitalist #anti capitalism #oligarchy #hegemony #eat the rich #revolution

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salparadiselost · 10 months ago

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How do the Mersupials see Clark? As a friend? As family? Something more complicated given their situation?

Hi!

So I think the mers solidly see Clark as “one of the pod” and essentially part of their family. I don’t remember where I talked about mer social structure, but I believe I’ve said that male Mers tend to raise their children communally.

In the wild, mer pods generally take three forms: male familial pods, female temporal pods, or male-female coupling pods. Male familial pods are the most common and often have the most individuals together. They are formed of multiple males with their pups and are multi-generational. Male pods are very strongly bonded and male Mers are often born into a pod which they do not leave their entire life. Females of the species are usually raised in male familial pods but almost always leave to go solo.

Occasionally females form pairs or small pods called female temporal pods, but they tend to be more fleeting or made for a purpose, such as hunting large prey. As the name suggests, these pods are temporary and rarely get above five individuals due to the aggressive nature of females. There have been many documented cases of female temporal pods ending due to in-fighting or even killing of other pod members, an instance that is exceedingly rare in male familial pods.

Male-female coupling pods form when an adult male and adult female live together in a lone couple. These tend to be a forced arrangement by the female onto the male. They can arise through circumstance such as a sister and brother hunting together, but most likely it is a forced arrangement where a male was seperated from a familial pod to breed with a female and care solely for her pups. It is not particularly uncommon and often is the reason why new pods forms, though the male is often extremely distressed by the arrangement and may try to return to a familial pod.

Males instinctively form pods because it provides an advantage in raising children and protection against females who could try to come in and kill pups to make room for their own or steal a mate from the pod. With multiple adults in a pod, males can spread the duties of childcare and are well-documented to frequently pass their pups into the pouches of related and unrelated males. This is also a strategy against infanticide by females as instantly frees up a pouch without the death of a pup or can confuse a female regarding their relatedness to a pup. Females do not kill their own children and they are much less likely to kill any pups at all if they are not sure what male is currently pouching their young. Pod members also provide protection against separation or the killing of pups as they can gang up on a lone female.

So, this is a long way to say that Bruce is basically hardwired to form pods, especially in stressful situations because pod = safety in the mer brain. This is only heightened when he has multiple pups and there’s more paternal pressure on him with his limited pouch space. Even though Clark is a different species, Bruce was raised by humans and sees them as equals so he wouldn’t hesitate to apply pod status to one. If anything, he’s probably really pissed that Clark never puts the pups in his pouch and Bruce has to do all the work, like wth Clark is supposed to be helping him out here.

Even though Clark has hurt them occasionally, Clark has basically lived with them for multiple years and there’s years of instances of Clark caring and helping raise the pups. The pups definitely see Clark as pod. He helped raise them. He’s protected them in many ways. They trust him completely even though he’s weird and funny looking. They see him as similar to Bruce though not as close as they recognise Bruce as their pouch parent. After all, Bruce was the one who pouched them when they hatched, nursed them and carried them when they were at their most fragile; he’s their ultimate parent, though that’s typical for mer social structures.

#kay speaks #mersupials #httym #lore #another very long answer to a rather simple question

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marygih · 4 months ago

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Do you have any headcannons or ideas about the Ymbryne academy?

To be honest, I thought about it so much that I even imagined the subjects they study lol, forgive me for taking so long to answer, my life has been turned upside down in the last few days.

The ymbrynes academy usually has two teachers, I'm going to base it on the regime I imagine for Miss A and Miss B, which will probably be the same system followed by Alma and Isabel.

The subjects that the ymbrynes study are:

- Metamorphosis

- Time control

- Loopology

- Peculiarity

- Normality

- Disguise and camouflage

- Languages (includes dead languages like Latin)

- Old peculiar

- Peculiar literature

- Peculiar history

- Peculiar politics

- Photography and documentation

- Erasing memories

- Entrepreneurship and financial education (and other illegal ways of getting money)

- Hiding peculiar incidents

- Housework and maintaining a home.

- Childcare

- First Aid

- Peculiar Medicine

- Peculiar Botany

- Peculiar Fauna

- Locating and Searching for Peculiars

If I think of any other subjects, I'll include them here.

If you want, I can explain how each subject works in another post.

The two teachers divide the subjects and teach different classes. In the morning, the younger ymbrynes study, and in the afternoon, the older ones who are close to graduating. This way, each teacher has free time to dedicate to their other ymbryne duties besides teaching, such as taking care of their peculiar children and dealing with peculiar politics and the council. The teachers can't be overwhelmed.

The course is expected to end in 10 years, but in some cases it may take longer. All ymbrynes start the course at a specific age and have different classes between children/teenagers and young adults/adults.

Before graduating, ymbrynes work as assistants to other ymbrynes who are overworked, so they gain practical experience of what their future will be like. If they do well in this "internship" they complete their course. This is like a final practical test, a proof that they have learned and are truly ready to start their careers as ymbrynes. But obviously they have to spend a few months in this internship and must do impeccably in it, dealing in practice with everything they learned at the academy. They also attend the ymbryne council and intern there for a few months as well. After all, 30% of their time is dedicated to peculiar politics while the remaining 70% is dedicated to their loops, their children and their responsibilities as guardians.

At their graduations, they wear bird costumes created by themselves, and it is on this day that they officially receive their bird name as their surname.

The academy itself delimits regions where each ymbryne must act on the continent in order to effectively spread the ymbrynes across the territory and protect the entire Peculiardom, preventing more than one ymbryne from being responsible for an area, while another area requires an ymbryne.

The council is responsible for deciding how the ymbrynes will educate their children, giving them the subjects that they must teach their children, so that all peculiar children have the same knowledge, both in human and peculiar subjects.

For today, this is more than enough, Tumblr has a character limit and I always exceed it, maybe later I will post more things about the academy, in a more organized way too.

If anyone wants to ask me any other questions about this or any other subject I would be happy to answer.

I think you will like this Post @honeysuckletoast

#mphfpc #miss peregrines home for peculiar children #peculiar #ymbryne

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justinspoliticalcorner · 2 days ago

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Qasim Rashid at Let's Address This:

Mamdani’s win is a victory of the many over the money. And America need more of it—everywhere. Let’s not sugarcoat it. This week, the Democratic machine threw everything they had—billionaire endorsements, NYT op-eds, a deluge of corporate cash, and the full weight of washed-up politicians like Andrew Cuomo, Bill Clinton, and Michael Bloomberg—at Zohran Mamdani. And he still won. Big. The party now has a choice to make, and that choice will determine whether it ever has a chance of truly returning to its roots as a party for working people—or whether it completes its transformation into Republican-lite. How do we ensure they make the right decision, and how do we ensure leaders like Zohran Mamdani become the new face of the party going forward?

History In The Making

What we saw last night was nothing short of historic. A 33-year-old immigrant Muslim socialist from Uganda named Zohran Mamdani uprooted one of the most powerful political dynasties in American history. This wasn’t just a political upset. This was a generational rebuke. A reckoning with a Democratic Party leadership that has spent the last decade cozying up to hedge fund managers while scolding progressives for daring to demand housing, healthcare, and dignity. Mamdani didn’t just win despite the machine—he won because he rejected it. He ran on taxing millionaires 2% more and raising corporate taxes, to pay for a rent freeze, free childcare, and a fare-free bus system. And working-class New Yorkers—Black, brown, and white, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian, everyone—turned out in force to say: yes, we want that future.

Establishment Dems & Corporate Media United—to Fail Together

Meanwhile, the same Democratic figures who claim Trump is unfit for office because he is a serial sexual abuser, couldn’t bring themselves to oppose Andrew Cuomo—a man accused of serial sexual abuse from at least 11 different women. As the detailed 168-page-report by New York Attorney General Leticia James documented:

[Cuomo “reached under her blouse and fondled her breast, grabbed her buttocks, engaged in ‘intimate hugs,’ and asked at work whether she had ever cheated on her husband.”]

That’s not opinion—that’s sworn testimony. And its one of many, many horrifying examples of serial abuse. And yet, Ritchie Torres, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bloomberg, and yes—Bill Clinton—all stood by Cuomo. They endorsed him anyway. They knew. And they sent him their time, money, and support anyway. Is it any wonder why the Democratic Party’s approval rating remains at an abysmal 26%? It’s because too many people see what the party refuses to admit: that you cannot be the party of #MeToo, racial justice, and working-class power while propping up men like Cuomo, backing police budgets over school budgets, and kneecapping every progressive candidate who dares to run without Wall Street permission slips. And likewise, we cannot overlook the sinister role corporate media played in the anti-Mamdani mania.

The New York Times, for example, tried to erase Mamdani entirely. They endorsed former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson—who currently sits at a whopping .8%. Not 8%, but .8%. The Times picked a real winner. And not content with merely endorsing a multi-millionaire who definitely knows what its like for struggling New Yorkers in 2025, the New York Times then explicitly told voters to not rank Mamdani. And in response New Yorkers instead gave the proverbial middle finger to the Times editorial board, and overwhelmingly ranked Mamdani #1 on their ballots.

Mamdani Shows How Authenticity Is The Best Defense

Every attack on Mamdani failed for one main reason—Mamdani ignored the Establishment Democratic strategy to “move to the center,” (which keeps shifting right by the way) and instead continued to unapologetically lean into his values of fighting for economic justice. New Yorkers responded by trusting his authenticity and sincerity—even as the attacks increased, even as each attack was progressively worse than the last. “He’s untrustworthy because he changes his accents.” Yes, this was an actual attack on Zohran Mamdani. Tell me you’re white and monolingual without telling me you’re white and monolingual. Apparently, those making this attack have never heard of code switching and why Black and brown people regularly engage in such as a humanizing (and survival) method. “He’s a socialist who wants to take your money.” New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly for a proposed 2% tax increase on people making $1M or more and a corporate tax rate that matches New Jersey’s rate, in exchange for free bus transport, free childcare, and rent freezes. “He’s antisemitic because he won’t visit Israel first as NYC Mayor.” New Yorkers saw the absurdity of this purity test for a mayor of New York City—which definitely is in the United States last time I checked—and valued his actual answer to serve as a Mayor for all New Yorkers in the five boroughs, period. They saw his alliance with New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is proudly Jewish and proudly endorsed Mamdani. They saw Mamdani’s efforts to humanize Jews, Muslims, and people of all backgrounds, as who he sincerely is. They saw his plan to increase funding by 800% to combat antisemitic and Islamophobic hate crimes as a meaningful path to peace and reconciliation. “He’s a scary Muslim and by the way did you know he’s brown too?” Cuomo’s Super PAC literally darkened Mamdani’s eyes and grew his beard in their attack ads on him, warning that if you let the scary brown Muslim get elected then…apparently you’ll all have to grow beards too? I wasn’t sure what the conclusion of that attack ad was—I just know it was dumb, racist, and fortunately didn’t work.

The Zohran Mamdani mayoral victory in New York City is a big win for working class folks and Palestinian solidarity.

Most importantly, it is a big fat loss for the Cuomo family name and the treasonous AIPAC agenda.

See Also:

The Dean's Report (Dean Obeidallah): Here’s the winning message sent by NYC Democrats to party leaders nationwide!

The Bulwark: What Zohran Can Teach the Centrists

#2025 Mayoral Elections #2025 Elections #New York City #Zohran Mamdani #Andrew Cuomo #Whitney Tilson #Brad Lander #New York

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hymnserendipity · 8 months ago

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Dad Nanami, pt. 1

Fluff (kinda, also sad)

Two years ago Nanami had a relationship with a woman who at the time she thought was her soulmate, but as time went by the two grew further apart, and Nanami realized that he had very little in common with her, but it was she who broke off the relationship. However, Nanami didn't know that she was pregnant at the time, until one day he heard soft baby cries coming from the hallway of the building where he lives, and after a few minutes he looked out, noticing a wicker basket with a blanket on top and a one and a half year old girl sitting there sucking her thumb with eyes full of tears.

Nanami froze in front of his apartment door when he saw a cradle with a crying baby left at his doorstep. He just stared in disbelief as he recognized the girl's facial features to be similar to his first ever lover.

He carefully picked her up, holding the crying baby in his arms against his chest. He looked around for any note or any indication of why this girl was left at his doorstep. He looked down at the girl in his arms as she continued crying. He had no idea what to say or do. He felt his heart skip a beat, realizing a harsh and unexpected truth. He carefully brought the girl inside his apartment and shut the door. He gently placed her on the sofa and took a seat beside her. He was quiet, staring at her as he tried his best to calm himself down.

Nanami spotted the papers peeping from under the blanket. He carefully removed the blanket and grabbed the papers. He slowly unfolded them and took a glance at the contents. And he notices a note on the basket in which the woman had indicated that she wanted to leave the child with him because she didn't feel like being a mother. Underneath there were also documents for parental custody already signed by her. Nanami glanced at the girl who looked up at him with big eyes. A strange feeling twisted in his chest as the reality sunk in. For whatever reason, the girl was his and had the face of his ex lover. He continued to stare at her for a while before glancing back at the papers in his hand. He examined them carefully, reading through the contents that confirmed the girl's parentage. Nanami couldn't help but notice the resemblance between the girl and himself. He looked at her face intently, seeing hints of his own facial features in her small features. It was impossible to deny the connection even if he wanted to. Nanami felt a twinge of bittersweetness as the girl's laugh and giggles echoed through the room. Despite the circumstances, he couldn't help but find her innocent laughter somewhat soothing. He gently brushed his finger against the soft skin of her cheek, feeling a mix of emotions. He couldn't believe he had a child, but at the same time, he felt a growing sense of responsibility towards the little girl. Nanami watched as the girl's small hand reached out and grabbed his finger. He gently squeezed her chubby hand, feeling a strange yet familiar connection to her. He sat silently, holding her small hand in his large one, marveling at the realization that this was his child. He had no idea how to process the information, but he felt a deep sense of protectiveness towards her. After coming to terms with the new reality of having a child, Nanami decided to prioritize his responsibilities. As days turns into weeks, he started working less, spending more time with the little girl. When he had to work, he carefully enrolled her in a local day care center and always looked forward to picking her up in the evening. As time went on, Nanami found himself falling into fatherhood easily. He would make sure the girl was clean, clothed, fed, and happy, even if it meant compromising his schedule. He would rush to pick her up from childcare as soon as work finished, always looking forward to her little hands reaching out to him. One day Nanami carried the girl into the house and closed the door behind them. Carefully, he removed her jacket and hung it up, noticing how the girl was clinging to him, as usual.

"Dada!" Nanami couldn't help but smile whenever the little girl called him like that. He ruffled her hair affectionately and lifted her up to nuzzle her face. "Hey there, little one." Kento suddenly realized in that moment what just had happened. "Dada" was not only her first word but also a significant milestone, he was quite worried to say the least, since she never talked before. He felt a pang of both happiness and melancholy as he cradled her in his arms.

"Did you just say your first word?" he asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.

"Dada!!" Nanami's heart skipped a beat. He held her close, feeling a mix of pride and awe. "Yes, Dada," he confirmed with a soft chuckle. "That's me, your Dada." He couldn't believe that this little creature had found her voice to call him by that name. It was a moment she would never forget, a testament to her growth and the bond they were beginning to build. Nanami carefully prepared a simple meal for the little girl, ensuring that it was nutritious and suitable for her age as always. He moved around the kitchen with a practiced ease, occasionally glancing over to check on the girl, who was perched on a chair nearby. He felt a strange sense of contentment as he took care of her needs, even in such a mundane task.

Time seems to pass quickly, while he has now become accustomed to that new life, and has had a wall knocked down to create a bedroom for her. She recently turned three. Kento had settled into his role as a father, constantly adapting and learning alongside the little one. He found joy in witnessing her growth and accomplishments, whether it was her first steps, her first words, or her first art project. He is preparing dinner now.

"No no dada. No greeny" Kento stimulated a laugh as the little girl protested against the plate of vegetables he had placed in front of her. "No greeny" she said firmly, pushing the plate slightly away. He crouched down to her level and feigned a stern expression.

"No greeny, hmm? You need to eat your vegetables to grow strong and healthy" he said, gently poking her belly, making her giggle. Kento chuckled as the little girl pouted, her tiny face screwed up in a determined expression. "Oh, you're quite the little rebel, aren't you?" he teased, reaching out to gently pinch her cheek. "But you know, Dada's right. Vegetables are good for you." She sticks out her tongue. "Dada first." Kento tried to keep a straight face amidst the little girl's antics. He couldn't help but find her stubbornness both adorable and amusing. "Me first, huh?" He pretended to think for a moment before nodding “Alright, Dada will have some first.”

Kento picked up a piece of broccoli from the plate and popped it into his mouth, making a show of chewing it slowly and exaggeratedly "Hmm" Kento smiled as she finally slowed down and began eating the vegetables, albeit slowly and with small reluctant bites. "Now, there's a good girl," he said, ruffling her hair affectionately. They're not so bad, are they?" He watched as she continued to eat, occasionally offering words of encouragement. "Just a few more bites, and then you can have dessert" he promised, knowing that the incentive of sweets would motivate she finished the plate. Once she had finished the vegetables, Kento smiled in satisfaction. “Well done” he praised, taking the empty plate from her. “Now, what would you like for dessert?” Kento paused in surprise as he heard the knock at his door.

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #nanami kento #jujutsu nanami #jjk nanami

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ccssmanagementsoftware · 3 months ago

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Source

#child care applications #childcare booking system #Early Learning Documentation system

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leannan-sithe · 1 month ago

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is it possible to be spiritually pregnant by a deity you're otherpartner with? if so, are there any symptoms or ways to figure this out?

A copy/pasted version of an answer to this question from the godspousing discord server I mod, edited for Tumblr.

TL;DR

Sex with entities is imaginative and daydreamy. You can experience physical sensations, such as arousal, and you can envision specific sex acts on yourself. Some people are capable of feeling sensations that align with these experiences, but it's not as common. Most sex with entities is collaborative masturbation (with toys or other help) or imaginative acts in the astral, otherworld, etc. When discussing sex on [godspousing discord server], the community doesn't really differentiate non-physical astral sex (daydreamy / imaginative) from astral sex using physical stimuli IRL. We also include sex that happens in dreams or visions as the same experiences. It doesn't matter if it's penetrative, intentionally imagined, written in a Word document, the kinkiest scene, or half-remembered from a dream -- If you say you had a sexual experience, you did. We don't really qualify what is or isn't 'real' sex here. Astral pregnancy has fanfiction rules, as I like to call it. If you can imagine it, it can happen. You can be pregnant with a clutch of eggs, or give birth to puppies. Your cis man partner can become pregnant. A tentacle with no reproductive capabilities can impregnate you. If you can imagine it, it can happen. Astral children can be wildly different than human children, aging slower or faster, being immediately independent, or requiring something similar to IRL childcare. Most astral children end up under the primary care of the non-corporeal partner. If you want to have astral children, it's better to assume they'll be identical to human children in their wants, needs, and caretaking requirements -- that they'll completely change your life -- and be pleasantly surprised when they have lesser demands on your time and energy.

-----

How to Sex

There's a lot of different ways to have sex with an entity, the basic concepts of which are:

inviting an entity to comment, watch, or participate while you masturbate

providing a toy or device for the entity to possess / enter into, which is then used to masturbate

asking to channel or be possessed by an entity, and they give you direction or guide your hand to, you guessed it, masturbate

with a fully consenting and aware human partner, having sex where one or both of the humans involved is channeling or possessed by the entity

the prior point, but it's symbolic rather than a channeling/possession situation

having a sexual dream with the entity, or with a being that you interpret as the entity

inviting the entity to give you direction or commentary on a smut scene you're writing (masturbation usually included as reward)

writing a smut scene with your entity as a character and intentionally picturing your entity partner while doing so

going into The Astral TM and envisioning your avatar / person and the entity getting it on

the prior point, but with masturbation or toys as physical stimulus,

"daydreaming" or randomly thinking of sexual acts with the entity (in the same vein as random thoughts or emotions being nudges, random sex thoughts could be intentional, talk to your partner)

many, many more options this poor aroace can't think of

As you can guess, functionally sex with an entity is Masturbation + Spice, where the spice is any spiritual or metaphysical process you want to include. This is up to your discernment, almost entirely. If you think it's a sexual experience, it is.

-----

Nuances

Sensation from astral, imaginative sex is very personal, too. Some people have touch as an astral sense, so astral sex is intense for them. Some people can envision sexual acts and are aroused, but lack any sense to make them feel physically grounded. What you feel and sense is going to be individualized. No one can tell you what you should experience. It's up to you to find the right options for you and your entity partner, to make things pleasurable together. It's a funny little shared experience that people who are aromantic and asexual IRL sometimes do not have those same feelings when it applies to entities. Why? We don't know. But it happens. If you're aro or ace, or if you identify as being attracted to strictly one gender (ex. a gay man who is solely attracted to men), sometimes you can find yourself intrigued, interested, or even fooling around with an entity that completely shatters your IRL identity. Don't worry -- entities aren't human, they don't abide by human gender, logic, or sexualities. You do what makes you happy, and none of us will judge you for doing what makes you happy. Boundaries are an issue with some entities. Often, people find that they need to set boundaries in regards to sex and sexual interactions with their partners, for their own peace of mind.

Here are some basics to consider:

You can forbid an entity from putting sexual thoughts in your mind while you are at work, interacting with friends, or in a public where it would be inappropriate. Either set boundaries where NOT to do things or set explicit boundaries where sexual thoughts SHOULD be provided (such as at home, in the bedroom, etc).

If you value astral/imaginative sex as equal in intimacy and sexual content as IRL/fleshy sex, then doing so in a public setting is dicey if not outright questionable. A kink for public sex can be done safely. Kinks require consent from all participants, including the audience.

If you are one of the rare few that get physical sensations during sex (in addition to regular arousal), then you should not have astral sex in public. It's akin to public masturbation.

None of us here can thoughtcrime you for doing any of the above, in the same way we couldn't punish you for wearing a vibrator in public, but if you discuss it openly, you may be criticized. Especially if it's not safe, sane, or consensual to all participants.

More than a few people might disagree with #2 and #3 as they think of astral sex as a religious/spiritual thing that is not equivalent to physical sex. Again, we can't stop you, so if you want to avoid my criticism in particular, don't debate me on it.

-----

Astral Pregnancy and You

You can become pregnant by an entity. It exists in the astral, otherworld, non-Earth plane of existence.

You can accidentally become pregnant.

You can have a miscarriage.

You can trick yourself into believing that you're pregnant when you're not. Validating a non-physical pregnancy is nearly impossible, so it's mostly a wait-and-see thing.

You can be pregnant for shorter or longer than the standard 9 months. I've seen weeks to years of astral pregnancy reported.

You can experience pregnancy symptoms while astrally pregnant.

Astral pregnancy is not identical to human pregnancy. You may experience nausea or slight pains, but it isn't the 9 month potential hell that human pregnancy is.

Most people experience no symptoms during astral pregnancy. It just happens.

You can be impregnated by any person, place, or thing -- a same sex lover, a tentacle, an intentional thought from your lover.

If it can happen in mythos or fanfic, it can happen in the astral in regards to pregnancy.

You can impregnate an entity, regardless of gender or genitals.

You can have a single child, multiple, a clutch of eggs, a dandelion seed smattering of spirits that disappear into the wind. Fanfic rules apply.

You should presume your child will be exactly as much responsibility as a human child, needing constant care and attention. Parenthood is a commitment.

Astral children can be exactly like human children.

Astral children can age faster or slower than human children. Aging to adulthood in days or taking many years just to get out of infancy into toddlerhood.

Astral children can be born fully independent and need no childcare.

Astral children can be more animalistic (or fae-like or monstrous, or demonic or anything really). They do not have to be humanoid or act human.

Astral children can have advanced communication skills or none at all.

The standard of child expectations is the human child, because we all inhabit a human society. Expect a human child, be pleasantly surprised when it's not.

Entities, especially gods, can influence pregnancies, such as picking out gender or preventing/allowing pregnancy in the first place.

Entities can speed up or slow down a pregnancy, if needed.

Most people leave the childcare up to their entity partner, if more childcare is needed than the human half can provide through astral workings.

I'm sure there's astral daycare somewhere.

Kink: You can be a broodmare or a breeding stud/womb and have no responsibility to the offspring. That's between you and your partner. Do what ye will.

You can negotiate to Never Ever become pregnant if you communicate with your partners.

You can adopt instead of becoming pregnant.

-----

Safety First

Everyone should familiarize the slogan of kink communities. Safe, sane, consensual. Aspects of it don't always apply to astral sex but you should still consider it. You can be safe and get ripped to shreds while fucking. You can be sane and experience madness in bed. It's because it's consensual with a trusted partner who will put you back together or is doing these things to you in a metaphorical way, not a dangerous way. Talk it through first or commit to a mind-based consensual non-consent and roll with the punches. You may experience sexual encounters that you don't like with entities, especially because astral sex feels so dreamlike, like a gentle but persistent push that you're not always in control of. If something happens that you don't like, communicate that. Don't presume your partners know. Don't assume that they were trying to be hurtful. If you were triggered by the encounter, communicate this, take a step back to calm down, and communicate ways to move forward as well as clear boundaries. Use a mediator if you need to. You can also engage in kinks that you would never be interested in IRL or flesh and blood. You should educate yourself on emotional and physical pitfalls and nuances of that particular kink, just in case. Now, for the odd bit. You can get astral STDs or parasites. It's not my specialty; I don't particularly believe in them, myself. But others have reported it and are much more knowledgeable than I am. If something like that happens, ask your entity partner to help you. You can ask the entity in question for birth control, for help getting pregnant, for help dispelling or terminating a pregnancy, for help removing or cleansing a parasite or astral STD. You can ask entities for anything. The deity types usually can do it on their own or know someone who does. The spirits might not, but it's always better to communicate first.

-----

Astral sex does not have the exact same impregnation rate as physical irl sex --you are not guaranteed to ever get pregnant even if you have sex for decades; you could get pregnant every single time.

You can prevent pregnancies from ever happening or negotiate fertility concerns by communicating with your partners.

#godspouse #godspousal #godspousing #spirit sex #whatever other tags exist idk #if you disagree with me please make your own post educating the internet instead of starting a fight with me #i will just block you as I do not have time to debate spiritual systems with others

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posttexasstressdisorder · 1 year ago

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GOP has gone rancid—and it isn't fair decent people have to keep cleaning up after them

D. Earl Stephens

April 23, 2024 5:27AM ET

People await the arrival of former U.S. President Donald Trump at a rally for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) at the Miami-Dade Country Fair and Exposition on November 6, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

I’ve heard more than enough from people identifying as Republicans to last for whatever is left of my life.

By words and actions, Republicans have proven they are not serious people, and most definitely do not love or care for our country. We have learned without any doubt during the past decade that there is no line they won’t cross, rule they won’t break, or lie they won’t tell to further their dirty causes, which have absolutely nothing to do with making America great.

They are incapable of good governance, and have settled into mob rule. The Republican-led House of Representatives is a complete and nasty joke, where members literally elbow and hiss at each other, and that is both true and terribly, terribly sad.

With help from our inept Justice Department and a bought-off Conservative Supreme Court, Republicans are making a mockery of the notion that our nation is protected by the rule of law. They know better than anybody, that this simply is not true.

They have exploited a system they have learned to eagerly spit on by refusing to allow nominations for Supreme Court Justices in some cases, while rocketing other Conservative nominees through the Senate in record time.

READ: Breaking our democracy is all part of the GOP plan

They call violent terrorists who attack our country hostages, and expect the press to keep swallowing it whole, because that’s what they do.

Cheating and underhandedness is in their DNA.

They are long past the point of no return, and will either pay for their felonious behavior, or will somehow be rewarded for it at the polls this November, in which case we are done with our Democratic experiment after 248 years.

It is now up to Democrats to once again save this nation from the sick arsonists eagerly trying to burn it to the ground, and that is helluva lot to ask, and isn’t remotely fair.

Here’s a damn truth we don’t hear near enough about: If the Democratic candidate for president was facing 91 felony counts, had been convicted of fraud, was a serial abuser of women, told a documented 30,573 lies in four years, spread a big, toxic lie about an election he lost, and praised dictators, the party and the people who support it, would drop him/her like a rock.

He or she wouldn’t stand a chance. They’d be banished to the nearest dumpster. No decent person would want to be associated with such obvious scum.

The people who vote on the Left and the Right in this country are not remotely the same, and I am way past sick and tired of hearing that they are.

Something as despicable and odious as Donald J. Trump could NEVER happen in the Democratic Party. We simply would not allow it.

That right there is an ironclad fact.

Democrats and left-leaning people are not perfect, because no person is, but we still believe in truth, decency and manners. ALL children are important in our world, which is why we believe feeding them and getting them the healthcare and the childcare they need is vital, and far more important than paying the taxes of filthy-rich, bloated billionaires. We still believe that how the United States projects itself to rest of the world and our children means something.

We love our country, warts and all.

We still believe that when we’ve made mistakes, or said stupid, hurtful things we should apologize for them, not recklessly double down like ill-bred maniacs.

We have not, and will not, surrender to the lowest form of life like Trump. It is simply not in us.

As of this writing, I am officially DONE listening to the unmitigated gall that “both sides do it” or “both parties are the same” because that’s a complete load of bullshit. It is brutally insulting to the tens of millions of people in this country who play by the rules, believe all people are created equal, and still know a damn lie, or attack on our country when they hear it and see it.

The people who populate the Left and Right in our country are wired differently, and it’s time this was said out loud, and repeatedly. It is also long past time our media reported this. Especially because they know it to be true.

In the newsrooms where I used to work, if something so obviously bad and as evil as Trump and his enablers had burst on the scene, we would have been sounding alarms and reporting on it 24/7. The man means us and our country harm. We know this because he is SHOWING US AND TELLING US THIS.

There is seldom a day that goes by without him saying or doing something revolting and egregious. The media doesn’t even bother asking his Republican followers in Congress to account for his larceny anymore. They just accept it as somehow normal when it most certainly is not and never can be.

There are two sides to the story that should be told in America right now. One is called, good, the other is called, evil.

The only reason our national press does not report on this legitimately and accurately is simply because they are pathetic cowards, plain and simple. They know they are failing, but are carrying on despicably, anyway.

I’ll always have ammo to burn addressing their egregious behavior these days, but for now, I want to continue unwinding this thread of how the Left and Right are completely different and how unfair it is that we have to deal with the never-ending recklessness on the Right.

Back in 2015, when Trump laughably announced he’d be seeking the Republican nomination for president, many prominent Republicans rightfully scoffed at the possibility. You’ll get no better example than Lindsey Graham’s evergreen tweet: “If we nominate Trump we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.” Graham went on to call Trump, “a jackass.”

The Bushes, Rubios, and other red-blooded Republicans all saw Trump for what he was: completely disgusting and ridiculous. That was before the big-mouth, lifetime loser started blasting them off the debate stage by imitating a slobbering, belligerent drunk at the end of the bar.

Instead of bouncing him from the party, they allowed him to play to the delight of the silent minority in America, who had watched him bravely fire people on his TV show, and lick his toilet seat by degrading President Obama with his putrid, racist, noxious birther blather.

These were the fine people whose tongues bled from self-censoring the bile that flowed from their broken brains, into their big, fat mouths, and had taken centuries to finally go out of taste in this country. It killed them that there were actually awful, hurtful things they could not say out loud anymore.

Now they were free to be themselves again, and let the sludge flow freely from their chapped lips.

Their freedoms had nothing to do with breaking free from any chains, or breaking glass ceilings. No, their freedoms meant having the permission from the very top to be just as disgusting and appalling as they wanted to be. It meant belittling the disabled, and dragging women into the gutter. It meant coddling Nazis and calling cities that terrified them with their sophistication, “s--t holes.”

Before we knew it Nazis and white suprematists were coming out of their caves everywhere and lighting their tiki torches. They were finally on the march to the point of no return, where their disgusting leader was waiting to tell them that he loved them.

Once you have coddled a racist, a traitor, a two-timer, a friend of our enemies, an environmental terrorist, a serial liar, and a sociopath, you are completely lost and broken. Done.

Now the mob rules the Republican Party, which makes it fitting they are represented by this two-bit thug, who is currently sitting in a court room for hiding campaign money he paid to an adult movie star he slept with named Stormy, while his wife was at home caring for a newborn.

Yeah, that’s good and wholesome and normal right there.

A few have broken free of the madman’s grip in the Republican Party, while others have tried, and have crumpled into a heap and back into the mud and slime.

In February, Trump’s very own attorney general, the morally corrupt, Bill Barr, stumbled into bravery and truth when he said that voting for Trump would be “playing Russian roulette with the country.”

By this past Wednesday he had once again devolved and said, but “I’ll support the Republican ticket” if Trump leads it.

Also in February, New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu said of Trump: “A--holes come and go. But America is here to stay.”

On Sunday, he admitted he had changed his tune and said: “Look, nobody should be shocked that the Republican governor is supporting the Republican president.”

That’s exactly right, governor: A--holes come and go, and apparently you will do everything you can to hang around for a while. You are a revolting person, sport.

Nobody should be surprised by these things anymore, because the Republican Party is irredeemable and incapable of surprises. They can ALWAYS go lower, and prove it literally every day.

This is what happens when you are morally busted and are not bound by any rules or self-control that guides the rest of us.

This is what happens when you surrender to depravity.

This is what happens when you rubber stamp abuse of women, lies, insurrection and support for dictators as anything in the vicinity of normal.

So what happens when standing by the truth and playing by the rules gets you nowhere as a political party and as a country? What happens when millions discover there is no justice and a depraved mad man once again has the keys to the kingdom?

Thanks to the Barrs and the Sununus, and the tens of millions of below-average, broken-down Republicans littering our country, we are terrifyingly close to finding out.

It is up to the Left to take out the garbage once again in America, because the Right has lost its damn mind, as well as its sense of taste and smell.

At what point can all this FINALLY be delivered as fact and shouted on Page 1?

At what point can we quit pretending that both sides are even remotely the same?

NOW READ: What most assuredly happens when Trump sits down with the New York Times

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. Follow @EarlofEnough and on his website.

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dcawritings · 2 years ago

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You are the manager of the daycare (and Sun by extension). Some people think this means you don't care if he gets yelled at.

This assumption is wildly inaccurate, and you are not afraid to professionally threaten correct them.

You're in the middle of something important.

It's been clinging at your thoughts all day while you tried desperately to ignore it, but at some point it became impossible to deny the truth--technically, it had a higher priority than everything you decided to complete much earlier in the shift.

And unfortunately that leaves you stuck at your desk, staring down hard at the collection of intake forms and spreadsheets. You know it won't take more than half an hour, but that time would be some of the most horrible, boring, downright painful minutes of your life.

Could you push it off until tomorrow? Maybe Monday even?

No, you ultimately decide, the paperwork needed to be done. There was no point to pushing it back again--it still needed to be forwarded to the document filing team, then to human resources, and that would only end up making your job harder in the end since only then could you finalize everything.

By the time that you'd actually relegated yourself to sitting down and getting the work done, the day was nearly over with--parents were starting to come in and pick up their children.

Some were kids of employees that worked at the Pizzaplex itself; childcare cost was heavily discounted for workers of any department, so it was extremely convenient for many who simply didn't have any other options. They were also some of the sweetest kids you'd ever met, if only because they were very familiar with the daycare and its rules. Other children were simply dropped off because the guardians wanted some time to enjoy the facility themselves for a few hours or so. The process for checking a child out was the same regardless, and typically very painless after a parent knew to expect the process.

Normally you don't need to worry about assisting with child pickups. You had several employees that were expected to make sure the process was quick and smooth, though there was only two on the clock right now--a couple call-outs had left you with less people than you'd like on such a busy day, but the two working today were some of your best and longest-term employees. They handled plenty of crazier days, so you trusted them to keep things together when office work took precedence over smaller tasks that kept you visible and available even for the kids themselves.

So, one can imagine your utter surprise when the sound of disdained yelling suddenly echoes through the daycare. Not just a little yelling either; it's shrill, with enough intensity that it reaches all the way to your back office and that... that takes a lot. Enough that it immediately tugs at your instincts to investigate.

The words aren't clear enough to make out, so you push yourself away from the desk and leave the office, then out of the hallway into the main daycare area.

It doesn't take more than a breath of time to realize who is making all the noise--a parent. They're standing near the front of the daycare, but not where they're supposed to be.

The check-out desk was located in the small room overlooking the daycare's main play area, separated by plexiglass and rope netting. Not only was it supposed to be an easier way to get kids comfortable in being away from their parents (they literally arrive in the daycare by way of a slide into a ball pit), but it also served as a form of security--nobody could enter the daycare without proper credentials, and there was always someone posted up there to greet anyone coming to drop off or pick up their child.

But this one? Somehow, this one came through an employee-only entrance. That audacity alone would make your blood boil, but the fact that you recognized the woman only made it worse.

Her shrill screaming filled the room with venom while she clutched her son against her hip, as if trying to shield him from the poor daycare attendant animatronic who was, as best as he could, diffuse the situation.

It doesn't take long to get an idea of what she's going off about either--the woman is not particularly quiet about it.

"When I leave my son here, I expect that he will be safe!" she hisses, brushing her son's hair as if trying to soothe the child. "And what do I find when I come to pick him up? That he's been manhandled and tossed around like a toy--you're lucky he didn't break a bone!"

The young boy doesn't look injured, and if anything he seems more scared of his mother.

Travis, you recall his name--a rather quiet boy, didn't always like to play with other kids. His mother, Sarah, worked in one of the back offices as a programmer. Her hours were always odd, so his father tended to be the one to drop the boy off. Now you understand why.

The thing was, Travis really liked playing with Sun. Since he was shy, the daytime bot often took it upon himself to try and encourage the boy to take part in craftime or storytime--he'd recently been able to get him to play in the ball pit with the other kids his age.

"This kind of behavior is completely inexcusable," she finally seethes, a look of one-note rage in her eyes that seemed to burn the longer she looks at the animatronic. "I will make sure to put in a complaint about this--"

"I-I am sorry that you think your son was h-harmed, Miss Martin. I assure you that h-he was just playing with the other kids." Sun lifts his hands up in a passive way, trying desperately to keep her from screaming more. People were starting to stare at the unfolding scene, and it was quickly coming undone at the seams. "I am incapable of doing anything that w-would put any little superstars in danger!"

Sarah's eyes gleam with poison as she seems to catch her claws on a hook. "Oh, so you're saying you're defecting from your programing?"

"N-no! Not at all! My programming is clean as a whistle, I have it debugged at r-regular intervals!"

"I work in the programming department," she says, voice going quiet. "With the glamrock series code. Directly down the hall from the man who makes decisions about every machine in this facility. All it would take is for me to walk right down to his office and let him know that the daycare is turning into a severe liability for the company." You are already hurrying over, not missing the way Sunny's fists start to clench tight, tight enough for his joints to squeal under the pressure as he restrains himself. He's trying so hard to keep his professionalism under the abuse--and Sarah seems to know exactly what to say.

"Your model is old. Your code is old. It's a shoddy piece of work that should be scrapped and redone, I've been telling them that for months now. They'd be better of scrapping you so we can finally have room for another glamrock and-"

You waste no time in immediately stepping directly into the line of fire, forcing yourself into the space between Sun and Sarah who has, until that moment, been encroaching closer and closer into his personal space. Was she trying to set him off? To see how far he would take the abuse before saying something wrong?

Probably. You wouldn't put it past a cruel woman like her at this point.

"What seems to be the problem here?" you say, fake smile wide and tone forcibly friendly. "I sure heard you all the way from my office!"

"Oh no dear, don't worry, it's nothing you need to concern yourself about," the woman says, waving her hand at you as if expecting her words to be like an order. "Though you can be a dear and go fetch the manager?"

You don't move, but clench your jaw tight and force the words through your teeth, "I happen to be the manager of the daycare, so if there is an issue or complaint, then I need to know about it! So please," the fake smile drops and you stare at her hard. "What is the problem here?"

Sarah's expression twitches with annoyance, but she tries to immediately save face by gesturing to her son and acting as if she was the one getting yelled at.

"Well, I didn't want to make a big deal of it, but my son has been injured because of your animatronic!"

You glance over at Travis. The poor kid is no older than eight, and he's trying to stare down at his shoes, his face flushed red with embarrassment and shame.

"Hey, little buddy," you kneel down to be closer to eye-level with him. "Did something happen to get you hurt?"

He shakes his head before his mother can try to interject. When you try to ask him another question she finally puts a hand between his gaze and yours, breaking it and forcing you to look back at her.

"That thing is running on severely old, broken code," she says, tone low and voice slow, as if trying to communicate an unspoken threat. "It's only a matter of time before something happens. Before someone gets hurt. I don't understand why they haven't just decommissioned the abhorrent thing. Doesn't even look as cute as the glamrocks."

Oh. So she's chosen death?

No. Breathe. Slowly. Remember how things work. Remember to play it smart. She wants you to get angry, needs to get a response out of you just so she can use it to cry to upper management.

Be smart about this. Be smart and unyielding. It takes every ounce of restraint not to deck the woman in the nose right there--but you at least have an upper hand.

"Who is your direct manager?"

"Huh?"

You stare at her expectantly, letting the silence fill the room before finally clarifying and repeating yourself. "Who. Is. Your. Direct. Manager?"

"I-I don't know how that's relevant to the current problem we're trying to solve."

"Well," you finally say, pulling out your company-assigned mini pad and scrolling through the employee database. "I need to get into contact with them about your behavior. Obviously you've forgotten several very important policies and I want to make sure you're educated on them as need be."

"Wh-what policies?" Sarah demands. "I haven't broken anything--that thing is what we're talking about right now."

You shake your head, proud of the even tone to your voice even though you want nothing more than to scream and yell at her in kind.

"First, you enter the daycare using an unapproved door-"

"I am an employee for the company-!"

"-and even employees are not allowed to use that door. It is for daycare attendants and handlers only. It is an active security measure to ensure the safety of little superstars like your son, whom you obviously seem to care for the safety of, right?"

She is silent, sputtering, taken aback by your confidence or simple knowledge of how to play the system correctly.

"Second, I have you on record actively harassing a coworker. Not only are you specifically not using his preferred pronouns, you are also belittling and demeaning him and his ability to do his job correctly. A job which I will remind you is difficult and stressful and comes with a wide variety of nuance."

You take the opportunity to step forward. Not too far, just a little idle step. Enough to take control and apply pressure to the situation.

"I'm sorry that you can't seem to understand the subtlety of how kids tend to play around Travis' age, and I'm sorry that you don't seem to care about the fact that he has been making very good progress in getting to know the other kids--specifically because of Sun's hard work with him."

Another small, calculated step. Sarah retreats from how she's looming forward, and you can see the tension in her jaw.

"Harassing a coworker? I haven't said anything to-"

"Sun? You mean one of my employees? The very one I heard you screaming at?" You shrug, managing to seem coldly nonchalant with surprising ease--maybe it's the adrenaline coursing through your veins. Between the heat of your words, you feel one of Sun's hand gently grabbing the back of your shirt. Not tugging, just holding on. "I mean, if you like we can go into my office and I can pull the cameras--if I misunderstood something then surely we can go over the recording and find out where I'm not getting that right."

That's the final push. Sarah knows she can't win the argument or force you to back down from a legitimate, honest-to-god threat. Despite being in a different department, technically you are still above her; you already know her manager. Marcus was a pretty easy-going guy that had a lot of sympathy for the animatronics, so it wouldn't take much for him to write her up from your word alone.

"I... well, maybe I just misunderstood," the woman finally says, her smile cold and not reaching her eyes. "No need to make this a big deal or anything! I will make sure to use the right door next time, my mistake."

Your mouth moves faster than your brain can stop them--it's edging on the line of being appropriate for someone of your position, but you need to make sure this woman understands that you are willing to hold your ground.

"Please do, because if I hear of something like this happening again? I will ban you outright from the daycare facility."

Her eyes widen and she opens her mouth as if to say something, but she's already lost. You have the authority to decline service to anyone, and at least with this situation you were grateful to have that power.

Sarah hurries out of the room without another word. You feel bad for Travis--the kid really didn't deserve to be in the middle of all that--but he offers some assurance by turning around to try and wave before the two of them disappear beyond the door.

You barely get a chance to let out a held breath before a pair of hurried footsteps approach you.

"Is everything okay?" one of the attendants ask. She's normally so soft spoken, but you can hear the genuine concern leaking through the words. "I knew as soon as I saw Sarah things would be bad--she always tries to find something to yell about when she picks Travis up."

"Yeah," the other worker echoes, then turns to speak to Sun. "I am so sorry you ended up with her, Sunny. If I knew she had used the door down here I would have immediately left the intake room."

The two of them started to crowd around you and Sun a bit more than you liked. Jesus, how was Sun even doing?

"We're okay, it's fine just-" another sigh spills from your lips, exhaustion taking the space where adrenaline had kept you so still and composed. "You two go make sure the other kids are okay? That was a lot of screaming for them to hear."

With only a little more consoling they finally move away to check on the few kids still waiting to get picked up. It leaves you and Sun alone at least, a vague amount of privacy.

You turn around, not sure what to expect from the animatronic--but it's a surprise all the same to find him staring at you with wide, as if unbelieving eyes. There's a sense of tension hidden somewhere in his expression, but its overshadowed by something else. Something hard to read.

"... Are you okay, Sunny?" you finally ask in a soft, gentle voice. He looks down, peering at the multicolored carpet silently. All it takes is the soft touch of your hand gently touching the side of his faceplate to make him twitch, listening but still not looking at you. "Don't you worry about anything, okay? She's just a cruel nobody who likes making other people feel bad. I will make sure she's not allowed anywhere beyond the intake room and make a recommendation that Travis' dad be the only one who can pick him up."

He is still silent, but you're relieved to see his body loosen. All that tension, all that heartache and anger, almost all gone in an instant.

"Sunny...?"

After a moment, the animatronic finally tilts his face into your touch. Before you can ask or say anything else, however, he sweeps you into his arms in a tight hug. So tight in fact that he begins to spin you around in a circle, stopping only when he's done sputtering.

"You didn't have to do all that for little ol' me! Someone so busybusy like you shouldn't need to deal with parents at all--you're so silly, starlight!"

Despite the fact that his words try to sound casual, you saw every sign in the book that Sun had barely been taking the woman's verbal abuse. You can't imagine what would have happened if you hadn't shown up--would he have snapped? Would she have threatened something worse?

"Oh goodness please put me down Sunny-" you lean into his arms as the room slowly stops spinning around you. Then, when you collect yourself, you offer him a warm and genuine smile. "Sunshine, you are one of my employees, and nobody deserves to be talked down to like that at all. It's not fair for her to treat you like that-" you catch a look of worry somewhere in his eyes, and so you quickly add, "-and I will never let you be decommissioned. There isn't anything wrong with you, so don't let her empty threats put a rain cloud over you."

It's only in that moment that you realize how tightly his hands are grasping at your uniform.

"... you... promise?"

He's more scared of that then he ever lets on.

"I promise," you say with complete confidence. "Nobody will ever hurt you on my watch, Sun. You and Moon both. They'll have to go through my stubborn ass first--and I actually memorized most of the employee handbook anyway."

"Starlight!" he says, sounding shocked.

"Wh-what?"

"Language."

You chuckle, the sound rumbling through your chest as you bring a hand over your face. You'll have to touch base with Sun again once the other kids and employees have left for the night, but at least he's doing better.

And you're still sending a message to Marcus about her--she'll be lucky if she doesn't get a huge write-up for that outburst.

#fnaf #fnaf dca #fnaf sun #sun fic #fic #writing #sfw #sfw fic #sfw writing #80% of the vibes from this come from my actual job as a manager #because god if i have the ability to shut someone down i fucking WILL #manager!reader #dca fandom #fnaf dca fandom #fnaf daycare attendant

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dmitri-smerdyakov · 1 month ago

Text

Hey guys! So…

I wish this was just a joke, but... yeah, no, it's not.

Basically as of November last year, my seasonal role at Hampton Court ended and I started working for a call centre that's a retention line for a well-known far right centrist newspaper that shall remain nameless; the job was essentially people calling up to cancel their overpriced subscriptions and I had to try and convince them to stay. I was getting high QA scores every week, my feedback was positive, I was told I had a good softphone voice/skills etc.

Unfortunately, this newspaper is overpriced, constantly raises their subscription prices (£26 a month for digital only access... that's all I'll say) and I ended up getting a LOT of trial subscribers (people who take out £1 for 3-4 months trials and then cancel, then take out another trial etc) on the phone, a lot of rude people, and also this country has gone to shit so a lot of the elderly subscribers (the main group who read this paper) can no longer afford their subscriptions because they need to afford their heating or winter fuel allowance. I was also absent the first week of April due to a booked holiday (the only booked holiday I took) so I could do my tech week and perform in the play I was doing, and then I took the last three days of April off due to illness (the only days I've taken off for illness).

Basically I went into work on 2nd May, got pulled into a probation meeting with my team leader and one of the higher ups, they said that while my calls are great and I've clearly been making an effort (asking my TL for feedback, pushing to make sure my calls are a good length, using documents of questions/topics the TL sent me, attending extra coaching, I even did a 10-7 shift where it was literally just me and the team leader in because my entire team was off sick) my retention rate is not what they expect of me. I had a 36% retention rate in March - it dropped to 26% for April; this was not helped by reasons I've already mentioned, nor because my manager kept taking me off the retention line so I wasn't getting as many to try and increase my percentage.

So what it came down to was me being unlucky enough to get the trial subscribers on the phone pretty much - they gave me 7 days notice (meaning I still had to do an 8-4 shift on a bank holiday Monday a well as 3 10-7 shifts) and that was that. They also couldn't be bothered to send me a P45, nor to send written confirmation of the termination of my employment - and my TL literally couldn't be fucked to give me any kind of thanks on my last day despite me actually doing a very good job on the last few days I worked. So yeah, fuck them!

Obviously I'm very upset - not because I liked the job (the job sucked ass) but because I was getting paid every two weeks and getting a bonus every month, and now I don't have income so that's fucking great! I've spent the entire last two weeks looking for jobs, but so far I'm struggling because everywhere I go to apply for, they want you to have receptionist experience, two years of call centre experience etc. Indeed literally gives me nothing but childcare or agency stuff, which I can't do to myself again - I just can't.

I'm not expecting anyone to help me out, but I wanted to make this post anyway just in case. I've got a lot going on right now - personal family things I'm not allowed to talk about, my family is in the process of moving to Ireland at some point in the future (the house is bought, it's just a matter of my parents getting jobs, us packing up etc - no date has been decided yet though, could be a few months, could be a year, who knows?)

I'm not planning on going on any massive shopping sprees or buying expensive things right now but obviously there's things I've bought already coming up (eg. I already bought a VIP ticket for the Djo concert in London next month) and I still need to pay my bills.

In case anyone does have any spare change, my Ko-Fi page is HERE. I also have an Etsy store but right now the only thing it sells are some really niche basic Fred Hechinger/Joseph Quinn character themed bracelets (eg. Geta, Caracalla, Eddie Munson) - I'm hoping to put some crochet things up for sale though at some point.

But yeah...that's my update for today. Hopefully I'll find a new job soon that won't make me want to scream and give me sensory overload or burnout, so... fingers crossed.

#personal #unemployment #ko-fi #etsy shop #idk how to tag things anymore #nonbinary #autistic #autism

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