quarks is fun. come right now. dont walk... run

personal + whatever I'm into most right now ☆ d&d blog is @hotgilearsummer ☆ gaming blog is @fable2 ☆ 日本語も話せます

[garaks-padded-bra]

Ds9 s7 rewrite where the dax symbiont doesnt show signs of dying after being removed from jadzia so they just keep the worm around as a pet. Julian walks around with it in a satchel and feeds it silk cut purple 100s. When sisko is unavailable it still captains the defiant btw. Sits on the captains chair and everything. SOPPING wet

[garaks-padded-bra]

[ruleofacquisition420]

@garaks-padded-cell

[bundibird]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We need a "This is absolutely NOT mature content" feedback button on posts. You can report a post as missing a community label. We should also be able to report posts as having a community label when they dont fucking need one.

[gay-pippin]

the saga: x | x | x

[theauspolchronicles]

The negative gearing/capital gains tax changes are really simple and benefit regular people

The media (owned by rich people) are currently going "WOW? SO CONFUSING! BAD LABOR BUDGET BAD! MASSIVE TAX HIKES!" but what actually is happening?

Negative gearing ISN'T being abolished. Literally everyone who already benefited from it on their investment portfolios continues to have it. Anyone complaining and saying they're going to raise the rent because it's made things less profitable for them is lying and a scumbag.

The change is going forward any ADDITIONAL properties an investor wants to get tax breaks on can only be applied to NEW builds, thus encouraging investors to build new properties (instead of buying all the currently existing ones and driving prices up). So who is negatively impacted by this? Literally no one. Who does this benefit? Anyone who wants to live in a house because it increases housing supply and makes the housing market less competitive for investors vs home owners.

Really simple.

What about capital gains tax discount? Basically, in the 90s John Howard made it so that when you sold a house you'd get a 50% discount where half of the profit wasn't taxed. Investors went woohoo! Bought up all the affordable houses to drive prices up and make a big profit. It fueled the housing crisis for the past 30 years. But Labor went "actually, what if we just tax it at 30% instead with no discount?" So instead of half of the money being tax free, it's all taxed. You know... like how making money normally works???

30% is still actually lower than the top two income tax brackets so rich people will still manage to make lots of money without having to work BUT... they'll just have to pay a little tax. BUT only on profit. If a property makes a loss it's not taxed. The amount of tax is also adjusted down relative to inflation so a $100,000 profit isn't taxed $30,000 but actually less depending on how much inflation happened during the time the asset was held.

Also capital gains tax doesn't apply to the home you live in so unless you're a property investor YOU'RE NOT GETTING TAXED! THE VAST MAJORITY OF AUSTRALIANS ARE NOT BEING AFFECTED HERE AND YET WE'RE SEEING WIDE PUBLIC OUTRAGE OVER A TAX DESIGNED TO MAKE THE HOUSING MARKET LESS COMPETITIVE AND THUS EASIER FOR HOME OWNERS TO ENTER IT.

This budget literally mostly just slightly inconveniences the 1% of investors who own a WHOPPING 25% OF INVESTMENT PROPERTIES IN AUSTRALIA.

The capital gains tax discount was never for working Australians! It was never for you! It was always just a tax perk for investors to encourage them to buy up houses away from those who needed them and hike up rents. Labor fixed that.

No wonder the rich media moguls and politicians who make most of their money off property investments like Pauline Hanson and Angus Taylor are mad about it and want YOU to be mad too. They don't want to pay taxes! Booo! The problem is: if we can't get the uber-wealthy to pay a little bit of tax then YOU will NEVER own a home!

So the changes are really simple. They're mild. And yet the right is outraged over how it even slightly benefits working and ordinary Australians.

Fucking ridiculous.

[avontarrant]

[squimp]

candlelight vigil for luca @garaks-padded-bra he got deactivated for no damn reason

WE MISS YOU KING

[palpablestupor]

GARAKS-PADDED-BRA???????

[queermystic]

@garaks-padded-cell

[garaks-padded-cell]

Holy shit this is still going. GUUUUYS. THERES TOO MANY ANGUISHED SCREAMS IN THESE NOTES. COME HOME TO ME….. COME HOOOMEEEE!!!!!!

[live-laugh-yap]

pour one out for a real one ill miss you garaks padded bra

[garaks-padded-cell]

Sometimes i can still hear his voice

[mr-geargrinder]

[genderkoolaid]

so do people know that multiple trans people across the US have reported that their pharmacists have arbitrarily denied them testosterone prescriptions, either because "you need authorization" or "company policy" or, in states where its legal, because they don't feel comfortable giving it to them.

i wouldn't be surprised if its also common for this to happen with estrogen, i found one news story on a trans woman experiencing this, but looking it up there seems to be a LOT of cases of this happening with testosterone. which makes me suspect people feel empowered to do this with T in particular because of its criminalized status. regardless, i do not see this brought up much! and i think we should discuss it more, at the very least to prepare people in case they experience this, so they know how to handle the situation.

examples below the cut for length:

Austin Pharmacist Denies Trans Man Testosterone Prescription

Walgreens says pharmacist was uncomfortable with injection method

For Tristan Martin, a 34-year-old trans man living in North Austin, that fear became a reality last week when a Walgreens pharmacist refused to fill his testosterone prescription. Martin says his pharmacist’s explanation for not filling his prescription was that she was uncomfortable with the doctor’s instruction that the medicine be administered subcutaneously, meaning as a shallow injection under the skin. But, as Martin explained to the pharmacist, he’s taken the same meds for four years, with the same method, and never heard such an objection. Plus, Martin said that the pharmacist was only being asked to provide the testosterone itself, not the equipment necessary to administer it. He later attempted to reach Walgreens’ pharmacy department and store manager to ask about the situation but wasn’t able to reach anyone and never got any calls back. A store employee told the Chronicle they could not address the dispute. Tristan’s wife, Hayden Martin, said she received an apology from a Walgreens regional healthcare supervisor, after the supervisor contacted her on May 23. “He said there was absolutely wrongdoing and that it’s going to get figured out,” Hayden said. “He said he was going to reach out to the higher-ups and he’s going to let me know by Friday what happens.” Hayden Martin told us she was able to contact the pharmacist in question two days after the refusal to fill the prescription. “She would not give a reason as to why she felt the doctor was wrong,” Hayden said. “And she said, ‘I’m not comfortable filling it for ‘her.’ So automatically the assumption is that it’s just an issue of her not being comfortable with the fact that it’s testosterone for a trans man. So I, of course, asked her if this was the reason – because he’s a trans man – and she got very defensive and denied it. And then I tried asking for her name and her license number and she said, ‘Well, that’s not important information.’”

Area Pharmacist Denies Gender Affirming Medication, Reader Spots Substandard Site, Proposed Gas Station Spurs Survey, and More

Walgreens Pharmacist Denies Gender Affirming Meds, But Other Options Exist

Recently, one of our readers, who wishes to go unnamed, sent us the following email:

On the 24th when I went to pick up my testosterone prescription at the Walgreens on Lomas & Carlisle, I was asked by the pharmacist why I took it, and when I told him it was gender affirming, he told me he wouldn’t fill it going forward… I want other trans+ folks in our neighborhood to know that this is not a safe pharmacy (I don’t regret reacting by sobbing loudly in the middle of a Walgreens, but I don’t want anyone else to have to go through that), and I want all our cis neighbors to know that this is a thing that is happening.

We reached out to the Walgreens location, and the person who answered (and who we will keep anonymous) confirmed that there is a pharmacist on staff who refuses to fill prescriptions for gender affirming medication due to their beliefs. However, they clarified that other pharmacists at the location would fill a gender affirming prescription if they were on duty, or the prescription could be filled at other Walgreens locations. Unfortunately, they were not able to provide further information as to the pharmacist’s name or when their shifts might be.

A year after KC investigation, another trans customer turned away from Costco pharmacy

The city’s Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Department launched an investigation in October 2022 after a Star report about five transgender and nonbinary people who said they were denied their prescribed testosterone at the pharmacy. Costco denied the allegations. [...] Dave, whose name has been changed in this story to protect his identity as a transgender man, was grocery shopping at the Linwood Boulevard Costco on Monday when he decided to pick up some syringes. Dave has used insulin syringes for years to take his prescribed testosterone — their thin needles make his regular injections less painful. These small syringes don’t require a prescription, making them easy to obtain — and Costco offers a bulk pack of 100 at a nice discount compared to other pharmacies. At first, the transaction was painless: Dave asked for a pack of syringes and an employee asked him his preferred size and gauge. But when he mentioned that he uses them to inject testosterone, the tone of the conversation shifted abruptly. “They got weird about it,” Dave said. “The pharmacist, I guess, overheard and she came out and she’s like, this won’t work for testosterone.” Dave explained that he has used these syringes for his testosterone injections for years — and has even bought the same syringes at that Costco pharmacy before for the same purpose. Insulin syringes are regularly used to inject low doses of testosterone. But despite being an over-the-counter product, the pharmacist insisted that Dave needed a prescription before she would sell them to him. “She’s like, well, we won’t sell it to you unless you have your doctor call it in,” Dave recalled. He stepped aside to call his doctor’s office, but they were closed for Monday’s holiday. “I didn’t feel like arguing (with the pharmacist). So I just left.” An assistant general manager at the Linwood Costco said Wednesday that he was not aware of the incident and couldn’t comment on it. A pharmacy employee said that she and her coworkers are not authorized to speak to the media. A request for comment from Costco’s corporate office was not immediately answered. Dave called the Missouri Pharmacy Board Tuesday and was told that syringes only require a prescription if they bear the label “for Rx only,” which his syringes didn’t. Beyond that, he said he was told that the state gives pharmacists discretion over what they choose to dispense, as long as they don’t violate federal anti-discrimination laws.

How the Criminalization of Testosterone Attacks Gender Variant People

On a Saturday night two years ago, Stann Fransisco was driving back home to New Mexico after visiting their parents ...

“Criminalization has made it easy for pharmacists to deny my [testosterone] prescription, which has happened to me many times,” Artemis McGettigan, a trans student in Dearborn, Michigan, told Filter. “[Pharmacists] have told me in the past that ‘It’s corporate policy, they’re not allowed to fill that type of prescription … but I knew that was false because other CVS locations, for example, were able to fill it.” A CVS media representative told Filter that its policies “do not prohibit our pharmacies from filling testosterone prescriptions.”

CVS Pharmacist refused to fill my T

I have been on T for coming up on 3 years. I’ve never had any problems with any pharmacy I’ve gone to. I recently had to switch pharmacies and for over two weeks this pharmacist at CVS has given me the run around. “I need to talk with your doctor about why you need it” (which I’ve never had happen before). And then the next day would say “I need prior auth”. It’s been so long without my T that my period came back today and I am freaking out. So I sent a very frantic message to my doctors office. They called me about an hour later telling me the pharmacist sounded fishy and said “I’m not comfortable filling this prescription.” Ok? Your job isn’t to judge my prescription your job is to give me the medication my doctor decided I needed. The doctors office was nice enough to transfer everything to a different CVS close by and even apologized for not getting the pharmacists name. We did call to get his name. My partner is very nice and called corporate to file a complaint and the corporate pharmacist on the phone said that they do have grounds to deny a prescription only if there is not enough info or it’s fake. So they reported it as discrimination. Unfortunately I can’t take legal action or I would. Sorry this is more of a rant than anything. This should be illegal and nobody should work in healthcare if they’re going to gate-keep health. I truly hope this man gets fired. I’m trying to file a report to the state board of pharmacists because he can have his license revoked for discrimination. Thanks for listening.

My pharmacy tried to deny me my testosterone

So I called in my prescription on the 2nd and they told me that it would be ready on the 5th. It’s the 8th today so I called and asked if it was ready yet and the pharmacist told me I needed prior authorization and that my insurance wouldn’t cover it. Thing is, my insurance has covered it for the past two months, which is when I first started T. The pharmacist told me to call my doctor and get the authorization so I did and my doctor said that there’s no issues on her end, no authorization needed, and that my insurance still covers my prescription so she’s not sure why he would say that. I end up calling them back and end up speaking to the lady who took my original prescription and she was like “Oh my god. I don’t know why he said that to you. I’m seeing a refill request but nothing that requires an authorization. I’m gonna send this in today and it should be ready by Friday”. I think it’s hilarious too that when I told him my name, he was like “oh you’re (my grandparent’s names) granddaughter!”

[so-i-did-this-thing]

CVS for years refused to sell me the needles I need for my T injections (prescription was not required, but they lied and said one was), would say they were out of stock (not when I see the box right there), loudly asked why I need my T when other patient convos were done quietly or not at all, deliberately gave me insulin needles (I need much larger) or sometimes only 1 needle for a multi-dose prescription. (Even for 1 dose, you should have at least 2 needles -- one to draw with and one to inject.) They also "dropped" my vial a few times.

Any one of these could be ignorance/accidents, but these each happened multiple times from 3 locations.

If your clinic does its own dispensing, I highly recommend switching to that for your prescription. If you are worried about needles, get your provider to include the needle info on the scrip. And if you *really* have issues with the needles, buy them in bulk online.

[squimp]

candlelight vigil for luca @garaks-padded-bra he got deactivated for no damn reason

WE MISS YOU KING

[palpablestupor]

GARAKS-PADDED-BRA???????

[pien-art]

Audrey!!!!!!!!<33333!!! I have Little Shop of Horrors on repeat the uhhh normal amount. :)

[pjharvey]

i don’t understand how neil gaiman intellectual properties still trend on here so regularly he literally trafficked women. like it’s not even a discourse thing or a “he’s problematic” thing he was “cancelled” for human trafficking. he repeatedly isolated women, usually his or his ex-wife’s fans, with no support system for the purpose of raping them while they were dependent on him for income and housing. that’s human trafficking

[punkrocktipsblog]

And to all his former fans… Neil Gaiman is not your dad. You didn’t know him on a personal level. He wrote stories you liked, and he turned out to be a power-hungry monster.

He didn’t betray you. He betrayed the trust of the women he employed. I’ve never seen such a case of former fans making an abuse narrative about them, when there are women who were materially, physically harmed by him.

The horror of this story is not that you had liked Sandman. It’s in the abuse he perpetrated against multiple young homeless women and against his son. So many people have lost the plot with Neil Gaiman, it’s baffling.

[miamicommune]

you people can't even boycott chick-fil-a.

[quarkfancam]

i really do want to see what the alpha quadrant yelp reviews for quark's bar are like. do they fuck with him. does he get 100% negative reviews from bajorans for working for cardassians

[respocked]

bigearedman

⭐☆☆☆☆

I was informed this was a family establishment, but to my suprise my young sons were exposed to absolute DEPRAVITY! I wanted to take them to witness gambling and how to profit off it, but the females attending were FULLY CLOTHED! To add on to that, I heard the waiters mentioning the uni*n word in front of my children! I will not be returning.

dakhurboy76

⭐⭐☆☆☆

even the forces of two wars blowing through the station this bar is located in wasn't enough to dislodge the stickiness off the tables that probably was there since terok nor. two stars because the dabo girls were nice to me

targlova

⭐⭐⭐☆☆

The drinks are good but the owner wouldn't do anything about the shapeshifter rudely investigating me for a murder I didn't commit

kaiwinnatemyson

⭐☆☆☆☆

i'd boycott this shithole for profiting the cardassian occupation of bajor but i don't think they made any profit

Rom

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

This is where I met my absolutely lovely wife and the best stepmom to my son ❤❤ Happy anniversary babe every day I wake up I am overjoyed to get it to spend with you!!!! One star off for worker exploitation and sexual harassment of employees

glinnAwesome

⭐☆☆☆☆

Whoever thinks that anti-Cardassian racism isn't real hasn't tried their kanar

[ask-anything-polls]

Your phone magically opens to a random fic on ao3!

Spin the wheel 3 times to find out what your fic is about! Put in the tags which fic tags you get!

Picker Wheel - Spin the Wheel to Decide a Random Choice

Picker Wheel is a wheel spinner for a random picker. Various functions & customization. Enter choices or names, spin the wheel to decide a r

Do you read it?

I’ve read this already!

Hell yes this is literally meant for me!

Yes but out of morbid curiosity

Maybe

No

Absolutely not!

Why does this fucking exist?!?!

Voting ended onMay 4

[quasi-normalcy]

It's incredible how all of the censorship on the modern internet doesn't actually seem to be making society kinder or more wholesome hmm maybe there's a lesson in this

[prokopetz]

"This issue isn't 'complex', the only reason it hasn't been solved is because some people don't want it solved" like, yeah, bro, how to get everybody on the same page about what the problem is and how best to fix it is, in fact, one of the complexities in question. A lot of stuff is simple if you skip that step, but the trick is that you can't.

[beehyland]

THE LONG, WEEPING ARMS OF THE PARASITIC HORDE by Bee Hyland

it's out! beneath ceaseless skies is such an incredible publication and i am so honored to put this piece out into the world with them.