“A white woman can say that a neighborhood is “sketchy” and most people will smile and nod. She felt unsafe, and we automatically trust her opinion. A black man can tell the world that every day he lives in fear of the police, and suddenly everyone demands statistical evidence to prove that his life experience is real”
Noted financial services expert Newt Gingrich was given the opportunity by congressional Republicans to testify about the horrors of consumer financial protection earlier this month. Because it's a Republican Congress and it's Newt Gingrich. Turns out, Newt thinks protecting consumers from predatory lenders is a bad idea. And worse.
"Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is so far outside the historic American model of constitutionally limited government and the rule of law that it is the perfect case study of the pathologies that infect our bureaucracies at the federal level. […] It is dictatorial. It is unaccountable. It is practically unrestrained in expanding on its already expansive mandate from Congress. And it is contemptuous of the rights, values, and preferences of ordinary Americans."
Republicans have been attempting to kill the CFPB since its inception with almost the same zeal that they've been trying to destroy Obamacare. You have no more right protecting your meager finances from predators than you do keeping your body healthy in the Republicans' world. But just as Obamacare is helping to save actual lives, the CFPB is directly helping people, saving them billions of dollars.
Earlier this month, the CFPB released a report examining how one part of its financial regulation has unfolded. The CARD Act, passed in 2010 and overseen by the CFPB, aimed to clean up the credit card industry by eliminating hidden fees that hurt consumers.
According to the CFPB, the CARD Act's changes saved consumers from $16 billion in these sorts of hidden fees between 2011 and 2014. Most of those savings have been paid for with higher upfront interest rates. Still, the total cost of credit cards declined in the first few years after the law's enactment and has held steady since then at about 2 percent less than before the CARD Act.
That's just one of its regulations, and just one aspect of its success in the five years of its existence. Those successes—that's the real problem for Republicans and for Wall Street interests that bankroll them. For example, Gingrich was actually testifying as "a paid adviser to a corporate-funded group, the US Consumer Coalition," a group which does not disclose its donors but was created by a PR firm for the sole purpose of bringing down the CFPB, the banking industry's enemy number 1.
But it's not just the fact that Wall Street hates anything that might make them put the good of the country ahead of their profits that fuels Republicans. It's the evidence that government can do something meaningful to actually make people's lives better. That, in Republicanland, is just not acceptable.
Side note, me and the boyfriend plan on buying most, if not all of these books. Possibly in multiples, because I like my audiobooks, and the bf likes his paper.
From Twitter earlier today:
Today I saw a rant on Reddit about me ruining science fiction, and I was all, "YES I AM AND I WILL RUIN IT FOR ANOTHER 13 BOOKS AT LEAST"
Seriously, words can’t express how delighted I am to vex and annoy bigoted turds like this one, simply by existing and publishing. Because I do exist. And I will publish! The contracts are signed! Barring death itself, there is no way to stop the decade-long flood of my ruination of the science fiction! Best of all, I don’t have to do anything other than publish to irritate this sad sack of crap. And I was going to do that anyway. It’s the perfect storm of least effort on my part.
Here’s the thing: If I ruin the genre of science fiction for you, or if the presence in the genre of people whose politics and positions you don’t like ruins the genre for you — the whole genre, in which hundreds of traditionally published works and thousands of self-and-micro-pubbed works are produced annually — then, one, oh well, and two, you pretty much deserve to have the genre ruined for you. It doesn’t have to be ruined, mind you, because chances are pretty good that within those thousands of works published annually, you’ll find something that rings your bell. And if you do, why should you care about the rest of it? It’s literally not your problem. Find the work you’ll love and then love it, and support the authors who make it, hopefully with money.
But if you’re determined that I or any author, or feminists or socialists or whomever are ruining the genre, then you’ve given those people the power to ruin the genre for you, whether they care what you think or not, or whether or not they even know you exist. And, speaking personally, if a sexist, bigoted cloacal squirt of a human wants to give me that power, then sure, I’ll be happy to ruin the genre for them through no additional effort of my own. Why, yes, I am destroying science fiction! With glee! And I’m going to be destroying it a lot over the next ten years at least.
So, you might want to pack a lunch, chuckles. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be here in science fiction a nice, long, productive time. I’m going to write what I want to write, how I want to write it, and I’m going to have a hell of a lot of fun while I’m at it. And if you think that ruins the genre, then that’s your problem, not mine.
A mini-comic I made, exploring my thoughts on the corporatization of space travel, and what it means to expand capitalism beyond earth, into the universe.
I made this comic almost exactly one year ago, my first real original comic. I still like it! It’s also now in my storenvy.
I always reference this scene when talking about Jonny as Holmes because this is what makes him the most Holmesian Holmes since the passing of the great Jeremy Brett.
Sherlock Holmes cares about people, he cares about justice, he cares about not what is legally right but what is morally right and this scene reminds me so much of Holmes’ concern for Violet Hunter in The Copper Beeches or Violet Smith in The Solitary Cyclist or Helen Stoner in The Speckled Band all women in close proximity to abusers/potential abusers and he’s so concerned for them.
That’s Sherlock Holmes, a man concerned with justice and the protection of victims. I love Jonny’s Holmes with a passion because this is my childhood hero returned.
And when she says ‘one of the best […] EVER’ (emphasis mine), lemme tell ya: it’s really, really true.
hey
hey you there
following me
stop
stop what you’re doing
and watch
oh my god
my life
my entire fucking life
someone understands
W A T C H T H E T H I N G
If you haven’t seen this, your life is about to get so much better. If you have, I assume you will watch it again because it is impossible to watch this video too many times. Watch it NOW.
This is, hands down, my favorite fanvid.
I send this thing to people who don’t know fanvids, and they love it.
reblogging myself because every day should be Rewatch Starships Day
This was glorious.
always reblog Starships
^^^^ always reblog Starships
always
I can now sometimes watch this without crying but only sometimes. Also recommended: the black and white remix version with classic golden age SF.
For every boy geek who grew up to be a "man" who is angry at Carrie Fisher for being an actual human being, there are many more girl geeks who grew up to be the women we are because we have had her and Leia as our role models.
“What I didn’t realize, back when I was this twenty-five-year-old pinup for geeks in that me myself and iconic metal bikini, was that I had signed an invisible contract to stay looking the exact same way for the next thirty to forty years. Well, clearly I’ve broken that contract. Partly because, in an effort to keep up my disguise as a human being, I had a child at some point. And then, in an effort to stay sane for said child, I took pounds and pounds of medications that have the dual effect of causing water retention (think ocean, not lake) while also creating a craving for salad—chocolate salad. So yes, in answer to your unexpressed question, sanity does turn out to come at a heavy price.”
“Few people are brilliant enough to be a computer programmer or a mathematician. Even fewer can add “rocket scientist for NASA” to their resume. Annie Easley, however, was all three. During her 34-year career, she worked not only on technologies that led to hybrid vehicles, but also on software that enabled great strides in spaceflight and exploration. And if that wasn’t notable enough, Easley also did all of this as one of the first few African-Americans in her field.”
DON’T ACCUSE PEOPLE OF NOT NEEDING THEIR MOBILITY AIDS FOR ANY REASON
DON’T ACCUSE PEOPLE OF NOT NEEDING THEIR MOBILITY AIDS BECAUSE THEY DON’T NEED THEM ALL THE TIME
DON’T ACCUSE PEOPLE OF NOT NEEDING THEIR MOBILITY AIDS BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE A VISIBLE REASON
DON’T ACCUSE PEOPLE OF NOT NEEDING THEIR MOBILITY AIDS BECAUSE THEY APPEAR TO WALK FINE WITHOUT THEM
DON’T ACCUSE PEOPLE OF NOT NEEDING THEIR MOBILITY AIDS!!!!!
““Your generation would probably ‘livetweet’ the apocalypse” you say, and you laugh
You mean it as an insult, and I understand,
Or you don’t
because the word lies awkwardly on you tongue, stumbles as it leaves your lips, air quotes visible
You meant it as an insult, so you don’t understand, when I look into your eyes and say “Yes”
Because we would.
It would be our duty, as citizens on this earth
to document it’s end the best way we know
and if that means a second by second update
of the world going up in flames, or down in rain, or crushed under the feet of invading monsters
so be it.
It would mean a second by second update of
“I love you”
“I’m scared”
“Are you all right?”
“Stay close”
“Be brave”
It would mean a second by second update of the humanity’s connection with one another,
Proof of empathy, love, and friendship between people who may have never met in the flesh.
So don’t throw the word ‘Livetweet’ at me like a dagger, meant to tear at my ‘teenage superiority’
Because if the citizens of Pompeii, before they were consumed by fire,
had a chance to tell their friends and family throughout Rome
“I love you”
“I’m scared”
“Don’t forget me”
Don’t you think they’d have taken the chance?”
-
Sometimes it hurts when people scorn internet cultre (via herrsassyfras)
another person on facebook was having trouble getting their family to understand the spoon theory because they couldn’t wrap their head around the metaphor so I wrote up a detailed version of my battery post I made ages ago inspired by my macbook, might as well post it here too.
I’ve never been a big fan of the spoon theory because it’s kind of
abstract and confusing to explain unless you print out and carry the
thing with you and make people read it because it makes NO SENSE out of
context so I made one that most people will be able to understand
easier. (might not help with elderly people but generally they will get
it because their battery might not be defective, but all batteries stop
holding charge when they get old so they are more likely to Get It without a metaphor)
When you get an electronic device, like a laptop or cell phone it comes
with an rechargeable battery. Some people are unlucky and get a dud. Or
maybe there is a recall and the entire line of the product due to a defect.
My battery isn’t any good.
When I’m all charged up I and it says it’s ok to unplug the charger,
I’m not at 100%. I haven’t been able to charge that far up for years. I
am already basically in the yellow when I start my day. If you only have
a half hour of battery life just browsing the internet, how are you
expected to load a flash video to watch that takes up way more juice?
You can maybe do it with the right help, such as a portable charger
(here representing accessibility devices like wheelchairs, or treatment/medication). Sometimes the percentage amount is also inaccurate
to. It says you have 20% battery and 20 minutes left and then your
computer just -shuts off- out of nowhere. Surprise! you crashed! I hope
you were anticipating that risk and saved your work!
In addition
my charger doesn’t always work.
I can plug it in and it just says “not
charging”. So sometimes you leave the computer overnight to charge and
wake up, wait, 30% battery when my 100% is a normal person’s
60%????!!!?? not fair! This is what happens when you combine in the
restfulness or inadequate sleep.
The combination means you are
really working at rationing what you can do with your device. Should I
turn it off most of the day in case I need it later? How many people can
I talk to on my phone for how long before it runs out of juice. How
much work can I get done on my laptop before the battery dies, possibly
taking the work with it?
That’s how are bodies are. We have to
carefully monitor how much energy we (think) we have, what amount of
stuff we should be able to do with it, what must be sacrificed, as well
as try and keep track of charging stations, battery packs etc. to rescue
us if we miscalculate. And if we do we could lose something important
in the power outage.
But batteries aren’t user replaceable and
we don’t have a warranty, we can’t get it fixed, just have to deal with
it as well as we can. The battery does not define us but it effects every part of our lives effecting everything we do and every decision because while most people haven’t experienced a energy crash, they have probably experienced the hell that is the computer shutting down and destroying hours of effort you’ve put into something as punishment for taking that risk.
sexual history does not define purity. i have seen pure. it is my friend silently moving things so her blind girlfriend doesn’t have to grope around for them. it is the seven year old student i had who learned how to sign “want to play” so he could talk to his deaf neighbor. it is the morning i woke up to find my dog and two cats all sleeping next to each other. it is in small beautiful moments: holding someone’s hand so they can work through a panic attack, giving someone a smooth rock from the ocean, a little boy being a princess, the look on a child’s face the first time they read a book on their own from start to finish. pure is paying for someone’s coffee, is giving up time for soup kitchens, is staying up late to help a friend work through things. it’s saying “yes, i’ll help,” even when you’re dead tired and you need help yourself.
this world is full of terrible things people can do to each other and yet we don’t see “pure” as the moments that matter. we see it as one black or white possibility: either you are a virgin and holy or you are unclean. but people are not blankets of snow. we don’t dirty for letting people in. no. when we love, we only become more beautiful.
the assassination of franz ferdinand was actually the most hilariously botched assassination attempt of all time though like i can’t even explain to you how badly it went i mean there were six guys and the first one chickened out and the second one forgot to factor in the delay on a hand grenade so it exploded like three cars past the archduke’s so the guy took a cyanide pill and threw himself into a river, but the cyanide was expired and the river was six inches deep so the police just pulled him out and took him off to jail and then everyone else basically gave up and headed home, and then the driver of the archduke took a wrong turn and the car stalled next to the last of the six guys, and he was just like “what a crazy random happenstance” and started world war one
You forgot to mention that the last guy only happened to kill Franz because he had just come out of the sandwich shop where the car stopped
It is obvious to even the most casual observer that this particular event has been meddled with by at least two groups of time travelers trying to change history. Please, if you invent a time machine, leave the assassination of Ferdinand alone; the space-time continuum there is already showing obvious cracks from the strain.
Becoming aware of your discomfort with making eye contact and getting self conscious about it, so you now you stare at people when they talk instead and everyone’s uncomfortable, including you
