laurabearl

and in explaining to her my interaction with the cat i put into words a thing i'd never put into words before, having always automatically understood what i was doing. But once i put it into words my mother said she'd never thought of that and it felt like something worth sharing here.

This cat did a typical cat thing where she sniffed my fingers i was holding out, and then acted like she wanted me to pet her, but then when i started to move to pet her, moved her head away slightly to prevent it.

I instinctively understand this interaction, and stopped trying to pet her and moved back to a neutral position and waited to see if she would re-initiate an interaction.

Because this is basically a consent test. This is how a cat can assess "how closely are you paying attention to what i'm telling you" and "how respectful of my boundaries are you".

If i am responsive to her yes/no game, moving to pet her when she indicates i can, stopping immediately when she seems to change her mind, then she knows she can trust me to understand her, and also to respect her choices. That's what i did, so then she knew she could trust me and relax around me and enjoy my company. She was actually a very friendly and social little cat, who clearly wanted to make friends with me.

But if i had insisted on trying to pet her when she seemed to change her mind instead of simply understanding that she didn't want to be pet in that moment, she would have known she couldn't trust me to understand or respect her, and she would have treated me like she has to treat 90% of the people who visit that house, evidently.

I work mostly with dogs these days, but i grew up with cats too, and am generally good with animals. Many shy animals will also do this same "sniff sniff okay touch me nope just kidding" routine, especially if they've had experiences with people that make establishing that kind of communication and trust important to them.

And in fact, a lot of animals will do some version of this kind of consent test in a whole variety of situations. When well socialized dogs do that thing where they are rough housing and then they both stop suddenly for a moment until one of them play bows or makes a little pouncing motion and then they fly back into rough housing mode, that's what they are doing, they are doing a consent check-in, like "whoah this is getting wild, are you still in? are we still playing, is this still a good time for you?"

Yes. Since sharing that, I have been acting like a mad scientist when I write. Embracing my best worst ideas. Becoming unhinged.

Last time I had one of these (a couple of months back) I looked at the corner situation I'd painted written myself into, and after a while recognized the terrain. Okay, time to get proactive, I thought, and set the flag in the file that means Experimental Paradigm Shift Begins Here. I then reached back into a significantly older universe, grabbed a character I'd worked with previously, and chucked him into the scene I was having trouble with.

I spent the next two hours having so much fun with mismatched dialogue and character reactions banging chaotically into one another that the problem at the root of the difficulty came unstuck while I wasn't looking, and a resolution presented itself. Most of that afternoon's work was deletion fodder, but the crucial fixed bit simply needed to be restated in adjusted idiom to work just fine where I needed it. Next day work continued as it should have.

1. Luke's girlfriend (Anne Jones, the only one who's credited for her acting role)

2. Badass biker

3. Pink braids (yes I only have like...two good pictures of her)

4. Curly hair eyepatch

5. Super tall eyepatch (if I'm not mistaken, she's in the credits as the producer's secretary)

(also there's this picture so the eyepatch girls are a couple in my heart)

6. Pink's best friend

7. Humungus' servant

?. All the characters played by Dale Aspin (because let's say it, we never really see her, but she was everywhere. Let's give her the recognition she deserves) (in the second picture she's wearing the uniform of a Smegma Crazy minus the fur)

(also, I've heard different things about who did the close-ups shots of the Landau driver, so we can't be sure it's her, but I think it's still worthy of mention)

??. And, last but not least, I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that there was at least another woman among the Smegma Crazies but I can't support my claim bc there's pretty much zero pictures of them without the masks.

Conclusion: this means there's...at least 10 women in the gang. They're not as visible as their male friends, but, considering that this movie was shot in 1981, it's still pretty good. Especially if we consider the fact that all these women are supposed to be villains.

A universe in motion seen from the International Space Station during a night pass over Earth.

(@ wonderofscience on Twitter)

i can fully understand the posts on here from a lot of americans being tired of “vote blue no matter who” posts when the #1 thing that people are constantly (and sometimes only?) addressing is how the republican party is going treat trans/queer people if elected.

it’s part of an unfortunate pattern of prioritizing the effects on a demographic that includes white + upper class people, when people of color and those in the global south are actively and currently being killed or relegated to circumstances in which their survival is very unlikely

it is genuinely exhausting to witness this, and i was also on the fence about even participating in voting because i a) felt like it didn’t matter and b) every time i voiced being frustrated with the current state of the country, white queer people would immediately step in with “but what about trans people!” -> (i am mixed race trans man)

and i say this with unending patience toward people who do this, because i know that it’s not something they actively think about. but everyone already knows how the republican party is going to treat queer people. you are probably talking to another queer person when you bring up project 2025. the issue is that, for those of us who aren’t white, or for those of us who are but who are conscious of ongoing struggles for people of color worldwide, the safety of people around the world feels more urgent than our own. that is the calculation that’s being made.

you’re not going to win votes for the democratic party by dismissing or minimizing these realities and by continually centering (white) queer people.

very few people on here and twitter are actually talking about issues beyond queer rights that concern people of color, or how the two administrations differ on these issues instead of constantly circling back to single-issue politics. this isn’t an exhaustive list. but these are the issues that have actually altered my perspective and motivated me to the point of committing to casting a vote

the biden administration has been engaged in a years-long fight to allow new applicants to DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program that allows undocumented individuals who arrived as children to remain in the country) after the Trump administration attempted to terminate it. the program is in limbo currently because of the actions of Trump-backed judges, with those who applied before the ruling being allowed to stay, but no new applications are being processed. Trump has repeatedly toyed with the idea of just deporting the 1.8 million people, but he continues to change his mind depending on whatever the fuck goes on in his head. he cannot be relied on to be sympathetic toward people of hispanic descent or to guarantee that DREAMers will be allowed stay in the country. biden + a democratic controlled congress will allow legal challenges to the DACA moratorium to gain ground.

the biden administration is open to returning and protecting portions of culturally important indigenous land in a way that the trump administration absolutely does not give a fuck. as of may 2024, they have established seven national monuments with plans to expand the San Gabriel Monument where the Gabrielino, Kizh / Tongva, the Chumash, Kitanemuk, Serrano, and Tataviam reside. the Berryessa Snow Mountain is also on the list, as a sacred region to the Patwin.

i’m recognizing that the US’s plans for clean energy have often come into conflict with tribal sovereignty, and the biden administration could absolutely do better in navigating this. but the unfortunate dichotomy is that there would be zero commitment or investment in clean energy under a trump-led government, which poses an astounding existential threat and destabilizing force to the global south beyond any human-to-human conflict. climate change has caused and will continue to cause resource shortages, greater natural disasters, and near-lethal living conditions for those in the tropics - and the actions of the highest energy consumers (US) are to blame. biden has funneled billions of dollars into climate change mitigation and clean energy generation - trump does not believe that any of it matters.

- Work permits for asylum seekers. Trump did not allow asylum seekers to work above board, forcing them into cash paying, near slavery jobs. Biden has made work permits relatively quick and easy to get. Also, even though they aren’t cheap, ($520 each) his admin has waived fees for many categories including initial asylum seekers and Violence Against Women Act seekers. Also, anyone with a work permit that was renewed this year will have it for 5 years, enough that if trump fucks the process for everyone people can at least still make a living.

- Prosecutorial discretion. Under Trump, if you didn’t have a path to citizenship and you had immigration court, you were finished. Biden has essentially paused proceedings for hundreds of thousands of people who don’t have a case now, but might in the future, giving them time to work, marry, have children, and potentially open new doors for themselves.

- The one that made the news: Parole in place. To immigrate legally, you have to enter the country legally except under very narrow circumstances. If you crossed the border and don’t win in court, you currently have to apply for a hard to get waiver with a 4 year waiting list to leave and come back legally. Biden is trying to waive this by expanding the options for people who crossed the border and married citizens to eliminate the waiver process.

These changes could be gone as soon as january 25th 2025 if Biden loses, as the new administration will replace the whole administration with political appointees frothing at the mouth to send people back regardless of their personal circumstances.

Recipients of SSI are - by definition - not “upper class” because you can’t have more than $2000 at any give time. Half of SSI recipients aren’t white. (People of Color are also more likely to have jobs where they’re injured or working in dangerous conditions, and have also been disproportionately impacted by COVID.)

The Biden Administration removed the In-Kind Support and Maintenance Rule as it applies to food. This means that - as of September 30th, at least - you won’t be at risk of losing your benefits if someone shares food with you. Previously, if your parents bought you groceries or your friend cooked for you, you could have your benefits reduced by up to 1/3.

We vote for the lesser evil every four years because there’s a fundamental flaw in our voting system. We use a “first past the pole” voting system, awarding the prize to whoever gets the most votes (with some electoral college nonsense thrown in). That inevitably means that if there’s a candidate “sorta-like the Democrats, only better” then all the non-Republican votes will be split between two candidates and the Republicans will win.

It inevitably results in two parties. There’s no room for alternatives because alternatives just hurt your own side.

The good news is that Ranked Choice Voting is spreading. Ranked Choice Voting lets you rank the candidates in order of how much you like them. Under Ranked Choice Voting you can say “I like Jill Stein the most, then I suppose Biden’s better than Trump, and Trump is the worst.” Under this system if no candidate wins over 50%, then the candidates with the least votes are removed, and everyone that picked those candidates as their #1 choice has their vote shifted to their #2 choice. Under this system you can vote for Jill Stein (or Kennedy, or Ralph Nader) without electing Trump. It’s a system that allows third parties to grow, gain recognition, and hopefully put an end to “pick the lesser evil” politics (here, have a link).

But that system won’t be in place for the November 2024 election.

Things aren’t completely hopeless, we do have a path forward, there are things we can do. But it’s not going to be done by November 2024. You’re going to have to vote for the lesser evil. You’re going to have to remember just how much this election matters, because it’s very likely the next President is going to pick another two Supreme Court Justices. And they will be young judges, given lifetime appointments. This next election could have repercussions for generations. Donald Trump appointed 1/3 of this court, and in a short amount of time it has repealed Roe vs. Wade, gutted the EPA, FDA, and other Federal regulatory bodies, ruled that it’s okay to pass laws making it illegal to be homeless, and gave Trump and other Presidents nearly complete immunity. They essentially ruled that Nixon could have said “the men I sent to Watergate were just investigating” and he would’ve been fine.

The only way that isn’t happening is if the only current threat to them wins instead, and there is no third party with even 1% the backing of the two big parties.

@thedisablednaturalist @fagtabulous

“I believe that we should make community college free. We should have debt-free college if you got to a public college or university. You should not have to borrow a dime to pay tuition… I disagree with free college for everybody. I don’t think taxpayers should be paying to send Donald Trump’s kids to college.“ [video link]

But that was the point exactly. They posted some real things and a lot of half-truths that would appeal to the kind of politics on here and therefore spread disinformation to discourage us from participating in stopping Trump through the only option we had. I’m glad tumblr left these posts up so we could see for ourselves. 

She was not. There were SO many posts by her that got big numbers and most of them were fine. That was an illusion so that when she posted things like this it might not click like it would if it were loudly pro- Trump.

You see a blog that is leftist but only critical of the more “safe bet” cookie cutter candidate and has very little to say about the obviously right wing, objectively worse for everything you stand for candidate?