We’ve got people being offered housing in Manchester, a man that just lost his wife being forced to put his terrified children in another high rise, a man that lost his wife being shunted into an old folks home and case closed. And they’ve got no choice or they get this “walked out of the system voluntarily” label and that’s that.
Enough is enough, this is sick.
I’ve know the trap of ‘intentional homelessness’ make people suicidal in this country. It sends people mad. They can’t do this to them
How to Gentrify:
Destroy working class lives and homes through decades of tactical neglect;
Deport working class survivors away from their jobs and support networks after their homes finally burn down;
Presumably build new homes for the “productive classes” (i.e., real estate speculators and Russian gangsters);
Get your boot-licking peons in the media to call anyone who objects a Bolshevik
When the sorcerer found the dragon, it was attacking a grape.
This was only possible because the dragon was not much larger than a grape itself, but she still had to do a double take to be sure the object it was fighting with such animosity was in fact inanimate.
She crouched so that her eyes were level with the top of the table and squinted at it. The dragon sank its tiny fangs into the grape’s skin and gave a great tug, succeeding only in throwing it and the grape into a backwards tumble. The tiny green reptile rolled to a stop with its whole body wrapped around the grape and shook its head ferociously, managing to pull its teeth out but also launching the grape across the table. It gave a mighty roar of anger (about as loud as a human clearing their throat) and stalked after it, tail swishing dangerously.
“Do you need help?” she offered.
The dragon froze mid-prowl and whipped its head around to look at her, looking so offended she almost apologized for asking.
“I mean, I could peel it for you, if that’s the problem.” She wasn’t sure it was getting the message. One could never tell how much human language these little creatures picked up by hanging around the magic labs. Some understood only such essentials as “scat!” or “oh fuck, that sure did just explode”, while others could hold entire conversations — if they deigned to interact.
This one looked like it was deciding whether she was worthy. Finally, it sniffed daintily and flicked its tail, scales clacking together. “Little monster is my prey, and you can’t have it. Found it first. Will devour it!”
“Oh, sure,” she agreed. “But you know it’s a grape, right?”
This was the wrong thing to say. It glared at her and then bounded away to the other end of the table, where it slithered up to the grape and pounced on it.
Grape and dragon promptly rolled off the edge of the table.
The sorcerer quickly went around to that side, alarmed that it would be stepped on. The labs were bustling with shoppers stopping by to watch demonstrations this time of day, and a small dragon wouldn’t be easily visible on the blue and green tiled floor.
“Horrible! Dirty!” The tiny dragon was screeching at the top of its lungs, holding onto its prey for dear life. It would have been hard to hear anyway, with all the noise of the labs, but with the sorcerer’s diminished hearing it took several seconds to locate the screaming creature.
She scanned the pattern of the tiles for it and sighed. “Oh, hold on, we mopped this morning.” She cupped her hands around it and deposited it into her skirt pocket, an indignity the dragon endured only with more screaming.
“An outrage! Put me down!”
“Shh,” she advised. Lab workers were strongly discouraged from bringing creatures into the back rooms, which was where she was heading, picking her way through the crowded front lab.
“Fuck pockets!” her pocket responded.
“Oh, you can curse. Wonderful.”
The dragon seemed to take this as an actual compliment. “Am multitalented. Can also compose poetry.”
“Really? Can I hear some?”
“No. For dragon ears only.” It sounded viciously pleased to hold this over her head. The bulge in her pocket rearranged itself, and she thought it might be trying to gnaw on the grape.
She felt herself smiling even as she tried to squash her mouth into a straight line. She liked this little bad-tempered thing, even though its spiky feet were digging into her thigh.
In the much quieter kitchen of the back rooms behind the lab, she transferred the wriggling, scaly handful from her pocket to the table. The dragon hissed out a few more insults as it got up and straightened itself out, but its jaw fell open when it finally took in its surroundings. She’d set it down next to the fruit bowl.
“There you go. Food mountain.”
The dragon’s shock didn’t last long. Abandoning the grape, it scraped and scrabbled its way up the side of the bowl and from there onto an apple, its claws leaving tiny puncture marks as it hiked to the top of the arrangement. “Food mountain!” It repeated, its gleeful crowing much clearer and almost sing-song without having to compete with the noise of the crowd.
She watched it turn in a circle, surveying the feast. “But… cannot eat it all,” it observed after a while, crestfallen. “Human-sized. Big shame.”
“Don’t you have nest-mates who can help you with it?” she asked. She had assumed not, from the way it had apparently been foraging for food on its own, but she needed to be sure she’d found a loner.
“No nest. No mates. No nest-mates. You’re rude.” It flopped down ungracefully, wings spread out flat on the apple like it was trying to hug the entire much-larger fruit.
She gave it a moment to be dramatic, and then offered it the grape, minus the peel. “You seem to have a good grasp on human-speak.”
It grabbed the grape without so much as a thank you. “Yes. Have composed poetry in both Dragonese and Humanese. Not for humans to hear, though.” Bragging cheered it up a little.
“You mentioned. I can’t hear very well, anyway.” She pulled up a stool and sat down. “Actually, I’ve been looking for a helper.”
“An assistant,” it said, apparently showing off its Humanese. “An attendant. An aid.”
She watched it bury its snout in the grape, juice dribbling down onto the apple it sat on. “Yes. A hearing aid. How would you feel about having a job?”
It smiled craftily. “Would feel positively, if job comes with chocolate chips.”
“It could,” she said, grinning. She had some friends who employed bird-sized dragons as messengers, but this was the first time she’d heard of one negotiating its salary for itself. “It certainly could. What’s your name?”
“Peep,” said Peep. “It is self-explanatory.”
“Don’t worry, I got it.”
Peep expressed its doubt that humans ever got anything, but she thought the tiny, prickly creature might be warming up to her.
On the plus side today, the phone trouble does seem to have been fixed by letting the battery drain. After the recharge, it did start up fine!👍 I was afraid it was just bricked.
No further hassle or expense required. Hopefully. Worst case, I did get insurance which should cover fixing/replacing it, but the extra hassle is what I was really glad to avoid.
No idea why it decided to pull that, but electronics. Almost hesitate to say it, but let’s just hope it was a one-time tantrum *fingers crossed*
OK, that’s looking to be a problem with Chrome. It just rebooted itself again (successfully this time 😧) when I was using Chrome.
It’s not showing a recent update or anything, so I’m not sure what’s suddenly going on there. Time for some troubleshooting in a while. ETA: Not using Chrome on there. *wry smile*
So, it wedged up again, using the Samsung stock browser. Only this time without showing the startup screen at all, and so also without the LED on for an indication of when the battery drains.
Tentative plan: try a repeat of the previous “let the battery die, recharge, try to restart”–and then wipe the cache partition.
A van deliberately drove into a crowd of Muslims leaving Finsbury Park Mosque tonight in London.
My heart goes out to everyone affected by this disgusting attack. At least the media I’ve seen has called the attacker a terrorist, and rightly so. ALSO it is important to know that the reason the police can question the suspect is that the Imam of the mosque protected him and the survivors held him down. (Source: Sky News)
“Lone wolf” attacks by the far-right in Europe have been more lethal than those inspired by the Islamic State (Isis), a comprehensive study into extremism has found. While Islamist attacks have been the focus of counter-terrorism investigations, researchers say plots by individuals and small groups of right-wing extremists – like Norway’s Anders Breivik – are more deadly and almost as numerous.
Britain leads every other European country for the number of attacks or plots over the past 15 years that have been planned by individuals or self-starting cells, according to the report by four research institutes.
posts that are like “let bi women date men!” or whatever are like… so embarrassing because i know that what they probably mean is “bi women who date men are still bi” and that kind of erasure is an important issue both in and out of the lgbt community but like please phrase it better bc Nobody is disallowing women to date men kjdgkdf
except for lesbians who tell bi women if they date men, they’re no longer a part of the queer community.
like i get what you’re trying to say here but there are biphobes within the community literally disallowing bi women to date men with the threat of excommunication from the community. “let bi women date men” is an important message that needs to be shared with folks who genuinely believe that a bi woman dating a man is no longer queer. (same with a bi man dating a woman)
so yeah, let bi women date men.
I went back in the closet for YEARS after I first came out as bi because my friends in the community basically gave me an ultimatum and told me that bisexual was a “stop gap” and I had to choose if I wanted to be a “good ally”. I knew I liked boys so I chose straight because I didn’t know what else to do.
With that choice came years of self hate, internalized biphobia and literally forcing myself to have sex with men when I didn’t want to because I was trying to make myself fit. And when I did have sex with women I would go into full denial mode, “just because I can have sex with a woman doesn’t mean I’m bi”.
It takes zero effort to let bi women date men, it takes zero effort to believe us when we say there is a VERY negatively charged association within the community towards bi women who date men and it takes zero effort not to make posts trying to pick at the bi people who make short posts about it.
Let me tell you. I’ve had a few people tell me I wasn’t bi upon finding out I’m getting married to a man. Never met them before that. Never had a conversation with them. Yet they still decided to tell me I wasn’t bisexual upon meeting me and finding out I was engaged.
So yeah. Let bi women date, love, be engaged to, and marry men. Let them. LET THEM. Because this biphobia within the community is one of the most hypocritical things I’ve come across and it needs to stop.
Plus it’s just like statistically more likely for a bi girl to meet a straight guy than a queer woman? Like I’m a lesbian and I have enough trouble finding girls to date, if I were bi I’d probably be way more likely to date men because that would just be easier.
Erasure goes both ways and it’s really annoying. My girlfriend’s bi, and whenever she’s dated men, everyone just assumes/calls her straight. Now that she’s with me, people assume she’s gay, and it’s super frustrating because being bi is a huge part of her identity, but she constantly has to decide whether or not she feels like explaining that to people. It’s also incredibly frustrating for her when people treat her as though the relationships she has had with men don’t matter simply because she’s with me now. Those are still important parts of her life and they shouldn’t be discounted just because she’s dating a girl now. Seriously, let bi girls date men, and don’t treat them like they’re any less queer because of it.
Also, stuff like “don’t say you’re butch if you’re bi,” which seem to be new things–I’d definitely never heard them before Tumblr.
I get that some lesbians are uncomfortable with community shifts. In some ways, so am I! And I don’t really care what anyone calls me, honestly, just what they want me to call myself.
But the message I get from that as a bisexual person is some weird sort of
“Only women who like only women are masculine enough. If you also like men, you must turn into feminine submissive Cinderella for them. Because no woman could possibly love women as much as she loves men.”
the people in grenfell died because they were poor.
the people in grenfell died because their landlord chose to spend money on flammable cladding because rich tenants in nearby penthouses didn’t like the ugly council building ruining their view.
the people in grenfell died because their landlord chose not to spend money on a centralised fire system or sprinklers or an additional fire escape.
the people in grenfell died because the tories voted against a law that would force landlords to make their buildings inhabitable and safe for their tenants.
the people in grenfell died because of the privatisation of social housing.
the people in grenfell burnt to death with their children in their arms because they were poor.
While surfing the net one day, I came across an article on a pop-culture magazine site that made me screech to a halt. “Eight Signs A Woman Wants You”, the headline blared, promising to “clear up the confusion.” As I read it, I grew more and more horrified, because six out of those eight “signs” are things that women with #Asperger’s Syndrome may do, for reasons that have nothing to do with sexuality at all.
This article is all over the net – just Google the title and you’ll find a page full of hits, all repeating the same article. Bear in mind that this article is the sort of thing that teens and young men take as gospel truth (later in life, they learn that it’s pretty inaccurate with neurotypical women as well 😛 ) So if young men are being told that these “signs” are guaranteed indicators of attraction, this is a HUGE red flag that may help to explain why so many women on the spectrum are at risk of sexual assault.
Let’s take a look at these “signs.”
“1. She’s primping. …if she’s doing things such as smoothing her blouse, playing with her hair or adjusting her posture, she’s into you.”
Stims and sensitivity issues are common traits of Asperger’s Syndrome. A woman with AS may twirl or touch her hair as a stim or it may be a perseveration, she could be doing it out of nervousness (as I do.) She may be adjusting her clothes because they’re uncomfortable, perhaps itching or binding somewhere. She may fidget because her seat is uncomfortable, or because she has nervous energy to expend.
“3. Her lower body likes you. …If she’s sitting with her legs crossed and her top leg is slightly swinging, she’s attracted.”
This one hits close to home: When I cross my legs, my top foot twirls. I hadn’t even noticed that I do it until someone pointed it out to me once. It happens regardless of where I am or who I’m with – on the bus, at the doctor’s office, in a board meeting, with a friend.. if my legs are crossed, my foot is twirling. Crossing my legs is comfortable for me, so it happens often.
“4. Her language style matches yours. …If a woman repeats your phrases or uses words similar to yours, she’s flirting.”
Another one that hits close to home. Women with AS often learn to survive by mimicking others in an effort to fit in. By the time we’re adult, it can be automatic and quite unconscious for us to start to match our words with those we’re conversing with. This isn’t attraction; this is a social survival mechanism that’s employed with women as well as men.
“5. She talks funny ….When flirting, women will speak in a higher pitch and use more ‘I’ and less ‘we’ in their speech.”
Now there’s a nicely subjective one – exactly how does one define “talking funny”? Women with AS tend to have rather soft, monotone voices, but their voices may rise and fall in pitch quite a lot, especially if they’re policing themselves (having been criticized all our lives for speaking in flat, monotone voices *flail* ) Women with AS tend to talk about ‘I’ rather a lot – that’s why Autism is called Autism, from ‘auto-’ meaning ‘self.’
“6. She asks questions …If she’s asking questions, she’s invested in your conversation.”
Not necessarily. Many women with AS are not naturally good at conversation. We also tend to get a lot of flak for talking about ourselves too much :3 So when a woman with AS doesn’t know what to talk about, she will ask questions to get the other person talking. We also tend to be very interest-focused, so we will ask questions to try to find a common interest that might give us a topic for conversation. She may not be invested in your conversation; she may just be trying to be polite.
“7. She thinks deeply. …Ask an open-ended question such as, ‘If you could travel anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be and why?’ about 10 minutes into the conversation. The depth of her answer is going to be a good gauge of how into you she is.”
Another one that hits reeeeeally close to home. You just asked a question that triggers a natural Aspie response. Any woman with AS who has an interest in a particular place, is going to answer that question with full-blown Aspie Babble. And she’ll answer that way because you just twigged one of her interests, not because she’s into you.
“8. She’s into your touch. …Try “accidentally” touching the back of her hand or let your foot brush up against her foot.”
And here’s where the big problems start. While some women with AS have very active hands and touch a lot to explore their world, others (like me) are very touchy about being touched. I’m extremely huggy with my close friends, but find the touch of other people very very invasive (weddings and funerals, occasions where I have to hug strangers, are nightmares. Not only am I wigging out, but I have to pretend that I’m happy about it!)
I found three other “signs” that aren’t part of this list, but are part of other, similar articles. All deal with eye contact: “If she meets your eyes for a moment then her gaze flicks away, she’s into you.” “If her eyes go all over your face, she’s into you.” “If she gazes steadily into your eyes, she’s into you.”
Except…… Women with AS often have eye contact issues. We either don’t do enough, or we overcompensate (having been taught that people will think we’re liars if we don’t look at them) and do too much (my famous Baleful Stare.) People with AS don’t blink as often as neurotypical people do, so our gaze is particularly intense when focused. And if we’re not feeling fully secure, our gaze may flick away after the initial acknowledgement. Some women with AS (such as me when I’m having an off day) will compromise by gazing at other parts of the face – that avoids the intensity of the eyes, while still looking at the person. None of these are guaranteed signs that she’s attracted.
So, here’s our lad, talking up our Aspie girl at the cafeteria. She’s nervous, because small talk isn’t her forte and she doesn’t want to say something the wrong way (as she has so many times before), so she’s twirling her hair and jiggling her foot since these are socially acceptable stims. The tag on her shirt itches so she’s a bit fidgetty. Wanting to be polite and not dominate the conversation so much, she asks him some questions about his hobbies and interests, looking for some common ground to talk about. As our lad talks, she listens, nodding to encourage him to keep talking, because the more he talks, the less she has to, lessening the worry about putting her foot in her mouth. As he talks, she maintains eye contact, then realizes she’s staring again, so tries to break it up by looking at other parts of his face.
Our lad is impressed by her demure manner and instant understanding of him, and having read a few articles online, asks our Aspie girl where she would go, if she had the money to travel right now, and why would she go there? As it happens, our girl loves anime and is deeply intrigued by Japanese culture. So she starts talking about Japan and the history and some of the places she’d like to visit and things she’d like to do there. As she talks, she starts to relax and her hands become more animated. Then she realizes that her voice (which always sounds fine to her!) has gone flat again, so she consciously tries to vary her pitch and put some ‘life’ in it. She’d picked up some of our lad’s gamer jargon while she was listening to him, and she tosses that in there because that shows that she was paying attention. Oh right, and smile, because smiling is friendly.
By now our lad feels this Aspie girl gets him and is totally into him, so he tries to touch her and she reels back in shock, leans away and looks nervous, then her face goes blank, as blank as Buster Keaton’s. He’s puzzled, then hurt, then he feels angry. He’s thinking “What? I thought she was into me, why’d she do that? What kind of cocktease is she?”
She’s thinking “Why did he do that? Why did he try to touch me? Why is he looking at me like that? Now he looks upset. Did I do something wrong? I was just trying to be nice! What do I do now?” Shortly after, she finds an excuse to leave.
Our poor lad, who’s had his ego crushed by the cold-hearted evil Aspie girl, tells his friends what a cocktease she is, playing hard to get like that. “Yeah, yeah!” they say, “What a bitch! Someone should teach her a lesson!”
Our poor Aspie girl, who’s had the dickens scared out of her by the predatory guy she was just trying to be polite to, asks her friends what the heck happened back there. They say “What did you think would happen? You were totally leading him on!” “No I wasn’t,” she protests, “I was just trying to be nice!”
(nb, yes, #2 on the list is missing. It dealt with the dilation of pupils. Since I can’t see my own pupils when talking to someone, I can’t say for sure if that’s a homonym or not.)
Since my esteemed colleague lynnesoraya referenced this post in her recent Psychology Today article, I’m reblogging it today.
This is important. Autistic people can have unique methods of communicating and body language that make these “typical” methods of interpreting such things (which are usually bullshit anyway) ableist and awful.
But regardless, autistic or allistic,
#8 IS HORRIBLE.
Autism is one of a number of issues that might make someone shrink from touch. If I am in any way triggered (PTSD from rape) I will absolutely react horribly from touch. Sometimes the touch itself is a trigger. Never touch another person without their permission.
I am a huggy person, even with all my issues. But I always ask a person if they are the same, if it’s okay if I give them a hug, touch their shoulder, etc. before making such a gesture. Because another person’s body is not your property. You have no right to touch it.
This isn’t because Burger King is nicer in Denmark. It’s the law, and the US is actually the only so-called “developed” country that doesn’t mandate jobs provide a minimum amount of paid vacation, sick leave, or both.
kinda debunks that claim that they can’t afford to pay their workers those sort of wages and still make a profit
Its corporate greed, plain and simple.
It is the same in Sweden. It is so funny every time an american company opens up offices here and then tries to do it the american way and all the unions go “I don’t think so”.
They refused to sign on to the union deals that govern such things as pay/pension and vacation in Sweden. Most of our rights are not mandated by law (we don’t have a minimum wage for example) but are made in voluntary agreements between the unions and the companies.
But they refused, saying that they had never negotiated with any unions anywhere else in the world and weren’t planning to do it in Sweden either.
Of course a lot of people thought it was useless fighting against an international giant, but Handels (the store worker’s union) said that they could not budge, because that might mean that the whole Swedish model might crumble. So they went on strike in the three stores that the company had opened so far.
Cue a shitstorm from the press, and from right wing politicians. But the members were all for it, and other unions started doing sympathy actions. The teamsters refused to deliver goods to their stores, the financial unions blockaded all economical transactions regarding Toys ‘r Us and the strike got strong international support as well, especially in the US.
In the end, Toys ‘r Us caved in, signed the union deal, and thus their employees got the same treatment as Swedish store workers everywhere.
The right to be treated as bloody human beings and not disposable cogs in a machine.
and that story right there? is exactly why Republicans in the US work so hard to bust unions. it’s because unionizing WORKS and they’re terrified of workers actually having some power.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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