Porn is Real Life Fanfiction

Imagine you have to take a road trip on a deserted road alone. Halfway through the trip your engine starts to splutter and the car breaks down. What do you do?

A lot of people imagine that therapy and treatment is like calling a mechanic to come and fix your car for you. You make the call, and then you just have to wait around until the mechanic has fixed the problem, and your car is good as new! Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. There is no on-call mechanic. No-one is able to fix this car except for you.

Instead, it’s like you pull a toolbox out of the trunk, pop open the hood, and dial up the mechanic on the phone. You have to try and describe the problems as clearly as possible, and follow the advice they give you as well as you can.

Sometimes you won’t understand the advice, and you’ll need them to explain it again or suggest something else. Sometimes you’ll do what they say and the car still won’t run, and they won’t be able to explain why, only give you something new to try. Sometimes you’ll think you fixed the problem and start driving, and the car will break again two minutes down the road. No matter what happens, it’s going to be hard and messy and frustrating work.

But at the end of it, not only will your car be running again, but you’ll know how to fix it now. Which isn’t to say that you’ll never need another mechanic again, but next time you get stuck, it’ll be that little bit easier to handle.

WOWOWOWOW

LIKE ALL AROUND THIS BIRD IS SO RIDICULOUS

The ARC wasted 500 million dollars in donations after the 2010 quake. Haitians have requested specifically that NO donations be made to the ARC for Hurricane Matthew relief.

Here are alternatives:

Haitian-led orgs you can contribute to directly for relief efforts:

Konbit Mizik

Haiti Communitere

ACFFC

Sakala Haiti

SOIL

Fondation Aquin Solidarité

Volontariat pour le Développement d'Haïti (website is in French)

Lambi Fund

MADRE

Sowaseed

Konbit Solèy Leve

Non-Haitian Orgs with proven track records in Haiti:

Doctors without Borders

Roots of Development

Partners in Health

Border of Lights

XKCD’s excellent presentation on historical global temperature and anthropogenic global warming. 

Kid Cudi enters rehab for depression, shares beautiful note with fans

Kid Cudi announced Tuesday night that he’s checking himself into rehab to address his “depression and suicidal urges,” as he wrote in an open letter to fans posted to Facebook. 

The letter displays a level of openness and of vulnerability artists rarely offer their fans. Cudi deserves praise for his strength and the light that he’s shining on mental health especially as a black male artist. 

Artists and fans have been sharing tributes to Cudi, with Joe La Puma of Complex posting a heartbreaking yet poignant Vine of the rapper. 

Osiris and Riff Ratt 

Osiris is a 3-year-old Dutch Shepherd mix. Riff Ratt is a 3-month-old fancy rat. They live in Chicago and they’re BFFs.

Best friends aren’t supposed to embarrass you in front of people in order to make themselves look better.

Best friends aren’t supposed to make you feel shitty about yourself or make you hide who you really are.

Best friends aren’t supposed to negatively comment on things you cannot change about yourself.

Best friends aren’t supposed to hurt you and damage you.

Best friends are supposed to love you and make you feel comfortable in your own skin.

Best friends are supposed to support you and back you up when you need it.

Best friends should bring out your better side and reassure you that the way you are is good enough.

A month ago, there were “Road Closed” signs up on all of Donald Trump’s potential paths to the White House.

But now, less than a week before the crucial first debate of this presidential race — and as a terrorism bombing investigation continues in New York and New Jersey — a viable route has emerged for the Republican nominee, according to the latest NPR Battleground Map.

About a dozen battleground states have gotten closer, with some key ones showing Trump leading for the first time. Hillary Clinton retains the advantage, but it’s a far more precarious lead for the Democrat than at any time in this presidential race.

Trump’s movement comes as many pollsters have switched to “likely voter” models, which try to predict the electorate based on factors like enthusiasm and past voting records. That alone may be responsible for most of the tightening, but it also follows a less-disastrous month of campaigning for Trump than the stretch immediately following the party conventions, which saw his fight with the Khan family, whose son, a Muslim American, was an Army captain killed in Iraq. Trump also began running his first major round of campaign ads in key states in recent weeks.

NPR Battleground Map: A Path To The Presidency Opens Up For Trump

Not this year.  Not this election.

The map predicts 200 “safe” and 68 “likely” vote for Clinton.  But that still does not reach the 270 needed.  The map also predicts that 168 “safe” and 22 “lean” for Trump.  There  are 85 “toss up” states.  

This election is NOT just about Ohio and Florida.  

New Hampshire, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada are all toss up.  Any of those states could decide the election.  Just one of them needs to vote for Hillary to push her over 270.

And then, there’s Maine and Nebraska.  Each of these states split that Electoral Votes.  This is how it breaks down in Maine.

2 Votes: To the Winner of the Overall State Vote (ie, to Clinton if she wins 46% to Trumps’s 41% to Johnston’s 10% as 538 projects )

1 Vote: To the Winner of the 1st Congressional District (ie: to Clinton if she wins 51% to Trump’s 37% and Johnston’s 10% as 538 projects)

1 Vote: To Winner of the 2nd Congressional District (ie: to Trump if he wins 47% to Clinton’s 41% to Johnston’s 10% as 538 projects)

That means it’s possible for Clinton to win 3, Trump to win 1.

Nebraska is the same.  2 votes for the over all state wide vote, and 1 vote for each of their three congressional districts.  

(What are congressional districts, you ask?  The area that a congress seat represents with a population of about 700,000 residents.  This is why some states with a small population (i.e,: Montana, Vermont) only have 1 congressional district, where a state like California as 53.)  

This map states that ONE of Maine’s votes (CD2) and ONE of Nebraska’s votes (CD2) are listed as toss ups.

If Hillary Clinton wins all her “safe” and “likely” states, plus those TWO congressional districts, she is at 270.  She wins the election.  She could lose EVERYTHING ELSE and STILL win.

This election could come down to the populations of Lewiston, Maine and Omaha, Nebraska.  Not Ohio, Not Pennsylvania.

Every. Vote. Matters.

BUT!  You say: I don’t live in Omaha or Lewiston.  I live in a “safe” blue or red state.  My vote still doesn’t matter.

(Sorry if that comes off as strong, I just feel that Leslie is the best gif for this post)

Your vote ABSOLUTELY MATTERS for three reasons:

Those “safe” states are EXPECTING voters to come out and support them.  The WORST thing that can happen is voter complacency.  “I don’t have to go out to vote, my person is safely ahead.” – And then you lose a county in Florida by 537 votes.

Campaigns “expect” votes by doing polling via Direct Vote Connect (DVC).  DVC is through canvassing (knocking on doors) or phone calls.  This NPR model takes about “likely voters”, or those who have a good voting record.  “Likely Voter” polls are TERRIBLE when it comes to Millennials.  Our generation either has never voted before, or we screen our cell phone calls, or we live in apartment buildings canvassers can’t get to.  When Millennials show up: Bernie Sanders overcame a 21% polling deficit to beat Hillary Clinton by 1.5% in Michigan. When Millennials show up, the GOP loses. 

Hillary Clinton might not be your first choice.  Alas, right now, she’s our only choice.  Dr. Jill Stein and Gov. Gary Johnston do not have enough national support to win in a binary, two-party system election.  News reports show that “Clinton Might Lose the Election because Millennials Don’t Like Her”.  538 Confirms with an article that focuses on Black Millennials.

(Hey, think of it this way: a vote for Hillary is a vote for four more years of Kate McKinnon’s flawless impression in SNL’s cold openings.)

I have been involved in local, state, and national politics since 2000.  I firmly believe, in the depths of my soul, that Donald Trump is a threat to our national economy, national security, and our national ideals.  

Let’s be real: America’s a pretty fucked up place with a fucked up history.  Maybe the country does need the scorched earth policy found in Donald Trump.  Are we willing to risk it?  Are we willing to stand aside and elect a con artist who doesn’t believe in the our 1st Amendment, 5th Amendment, and 14th Amendment rights? Are we wiling to risk our rights and the rights of our friends, neighbors, of the immigrants who still migrate here?  Please, don’t give up on The Dream.  It’s, literally, right now, all we have left.

Please, apply for an absentee ballot. Please, show the world on November 8th that our generation will not stand for Trump’s racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-semitic fascism.

Please.

like i really worry that our culture is commodifying trauma? a band i really like, led by a young woman about my age, they released a song in early 2015 that was quite clearly about sexual assault. and it was a great song, and it earned a very deserved warm reception, but interviewers would persistently ask the lead singer if it was “a personal account,” and she would always say that it was an observation on rape culture and leave it at that. and then about a year later she released a personal essay saying that, yes, it was about her own experience of sexual assault, and then there was another wave of secondary clickbait-y thinkpieces congratulating her for being so brave and so open.

so we have a great song addressing sexual assault, which can more than stand on its own as a piece of art. and we have a young woman who, after a year of getting the same question from reporters, says, “i was raped; the song is about me.” and then we have another wave of reporters coming in to write identical stories repeating her words, calling her brave, and collecting ad revenue.

and that’s what i mean: for every act of personal disclosure of trauma, there is this weird media apparatus that feeds on publicizing that trauma and collecting fat stacks of ad money. publications are taking what might be an empowering process for some people and they’re incentivizing and monetizing public trauma disclosure. it’s deeply fucked up.