Observe. Think.React

We are here, and there, and nowhere

[forfuckssakejim]

Omg so I’m at the cafe by campus and this guy came in and went to hug this chick but she went in for a fist bump

[forfuckssakejim]

OK OMG SHE SAT HIM DOWN AND SAID “I think we should break up”

[forfuckssakejim]

I’m legit 3 feet away from them pretending to be invested in my science book

[forfuckssakejim]

She said “it’s not you it’s me” and before he could respond the barista called his name. It’s Bob. Poor Bob

[forfuckssakejim]

The move was effective. The lady looks defensive

Bob has come back.

[forfuckssakejim]

It was a few minutes of awkward silence as he took a sip of his drink. It’s the same kind as mine. Meaning he ordered Hot Chocolate

[forfuckssakejim]

He started out with “You know, I think.” And I could hear this lady’s eyes roll. No one cares what you think Robert

[forfuckssakejim]

FINGERS ARE FLYING. SHE POINTING AT HIM. SHIT IS GETTING REAL.

[forfuckssakejim]

she calmed down and he legit did that thing where you steppe you fingers together in front of your mouth and take a huge breath. Bro. Leave it. It’s done. She’s too pretty for you.

[forfuckssakejim]

He freaking snapped his fingers like he’s got this grand plan to make up for things.

[forfuckssakejim]

She Said she still wants to be friends. She starts this by asking about his day

[forfuckssakejim]

Apparently something bob said made her laugh.

[forfuckssakejim]

She has not been able to say a word since she got him talking. It’s too loud in the cafe for me to make out anything even tho I’m legit behind this chick

[forfuckssakejim]

He talking about his struggles now and how much he needs her. Run lady. Run. Run far away.

[forfuckssakejim]

She tried to get up and his hAND SHOT OUT TO GRAB HERS

[forfuckssakejim]

She’s literally folded in herself. Hands not going out further than the table. Limited hand movements.

Now she’s talking about her self. He doesn’t look that invested.

[forfuckssakejim]

“well some people are bitchy” -bob

[forfuckssakejim]

Lady does not have a drink. I don’t think she planned on being here this long.

[forfuckssakejim]

Bob is again talking about himself 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 no one cares bob.

[forfuckssakejim]

Well he said something that made her laugh again. It sounded fake tho.

[forfuckssakejim]

He’s talking about school. APPARENTLY HE IS A PROFESSOR

[forfuckssakejim]

“Promiscuousness leads to disease” -Bob again.

[forfuckssakejim]

I’m done with my hot chocolate and I don’t know if the bitter taste in my mouth is from the chocolate residue I drank or my disdain for Professor Bob.

[forfuckssakejim]

She adjusted her chair so she’s further away

[forfuckssakejim]

SHE GOT UP! She went to take her purse but bob said to leave and he would watch it. I think she’s headed to the bathroom.

[forfuckssakejim]

I can’t leave! But he’s doing that voice to text thing for his phone. Talking to someone about this? Idk?

[forfuckssakejim]

I’m trying to figure out what he’s saying by looking at his lips but I suck as this. Also where are his lips?? Bob is lipless. Further proof that lizard people exist.

[forfuckssakejim]

I just noticed the lady left her phone in her purse.

Ok she’s coming back. She is pretty. Too pretty for Bob. But probs old enough to be my mom.

[forfuckssakejim]

He’s talking about his students again.

[forfuckssakejim]

She was talking and he interrupted her and she was like “I was talking” and he like flinched and he apologized. Yes queen.

[forfuckssakejim]

“but this is why this democracy is at its purest.” Wtf Bob that doesn’t make sense

[forfuckssakejim]

They’re talking so quietly now I can’t hear them.

[forfuckssakejim]

“I should have said this a long time ago. But I can’t get anyone to love me” -Bob what the fuck.

[forfuckssakejim]

“I feel like I’m projecting my self onto you” -bob once again

[forfuckssakejim]

She’s leaving! She said something about picking up her son, Kevin, from school. Good job lady!

[forfuckssakejim]

HOLY SHIT HES REACHING INTO HIS PANTS WTF WTF WTF WTF WTF

[forfuckssakejim]

*pocket. But still.

HE PULLED OUT A RING BUT THE CHICK IS ALREADY OUT THE DOOR. OMG

[forfuckssakejim]

OMG OMG OMG ITS A MENS RING!! HE PUT IT ON HIS HAND HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT. HES PICKING UP HIS PHONE

[forfuckssakejim]

“Hey babe, nah sorry about not answering your call. I was in a meeting with a student. I’m leaving my office now. Yeah I can pick up dinner. Is Tanner home from school yet?”

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT

[cliffordsbigquestion-deactivate]

Fuck you bobert

[n0chillvibes]

this was a JOURNEY from start to finish

[priceofliberty]

"Human Trafficking" Has Become a Meaningless Term

Politicians and activists often abuse it to push for punitive laws or to incite moral panic.

Older article, but still quite relevant.

[supersonicart]

Jakub Rebelka x INPRNT.

The near perfect work of artist Jakub Rebelka is available as fine art prints in his INPRNT Store.

(This is a sponsored post by INPRNT.  You should check out their Tumblr!)

[observethinkreact]

Sick!

[observethinkreact]

https://mail.google.com/mail/g/?view=att&th=157bf80a43b43471&attid=0.2&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1 Check out my new book The Cleansing NOW available @comixology

[observethinkreact]

My comic book The Cleansing is NOW available @comixology. Get yours.

[fantomcomics]

What upcoming books are Fantom most excited for?

It’s been a while since we gave you our picks from the solicitations, so we thought we’d just give a nice lil overview of what we’re excited for most over the next few months with links to Comixology Pull List if you feel like addin em to your subscriptions!

Snotgirl #1 by Bryan Lee O’Malley and Leslie Hung (July 20)

Scott Pilgrim’s Bryan Lee O’Malley and newcomer Leslie Hung (if you haven’t checked out her Tumblr @milkmanner, you neeeed to) teamin’ up for a comic about… a fashion blogger with tons of allergies?!

Kill Six Billion Demons vol. 1 by Tom Parkinson-Morgan (September 7)

The mega-popular fantasy webcomic is finally getting a print edition! Here at Fantom we’re awful at reading webcomics, so we’re glad we can have the ol’ dead tree physical version to put in our eye-holes.

Prince of Cats hardcover by Ron Wimberly (September 28)

Maybe one of the greatest comics of the last decade, Ron Wimberly’s “cyberpunk 1980s Brooklyn Romeo and Julet with Tybalt as the protagonist” is finally back in print through Image after Vertigo let it wither and die for years! We’ll be trying to get local prodigal son @d-pi to come back down to DC for a signing sometime later this year.

The World of Edena by Mœbius (October 26)

Dark Horse finally negotiated the rights to release the full Mœbius library in North America! The first hardcover collection we’re getting is The World of Edena, which presents many stories never before released in English.

[royalboiler]

Hot damn that is a good line up! 

[priceofliberty]

Courage House Claimed to Save Sex-Trafficked Girls. Instead, It Used Them As Funding Bait While Playing Evangelical Christian Missionary

Courage House received about $9,100 in government support per month per girl it took in.

Once girls arrived at the house, they were expected to hand over their cellphones. Internet access was also strictly limited—Jenny’s rules. For “her girls” to stay in good graces, they were expected to do as she said, go where she told them to, and be available when she wanted to show them off in photos or at events.

It’s the kind of controlling, exploitative situation police warn us that runaway teens are likely to end up in at the hands of human traffickers. But in this case, control came via the people ostensibly helping—and accepting a lot of private and government money to help—these girls, under the auspices of an organization called Courage Worldwide. Founded in 2011 by Jenny T. Williamson (on direct orders from God, or so she claims), the Sacramento-based organization provided housing and services for formerly sex-trafficked young women at a California group home (Courage House) as well as a sister site in Tanzania.

For her work as CEO of the nonprofit, Williamson paid herself $115,000 in 2015, according to the organization’s tax report. The group reported net assets of $1.4 million that year. In addition to accepting donations from numerous local businesses, it received about $9,100 in government support per month per girl it took in. Most of the girls that lived at Courage House were referred by social workers or probation officers.

Once at Courage House, the girls were supposed to be able to heal in comfort and privacy. Instead, they found themselves cut off from the outside world, with services and staff lacking (one former employee said she was told there was only money for two of the six girls per month to see a psychiatrist), while being subjected to the invasive publicity demands of Williamson, according to a Sacramento Bee expose on the group.

“Public documents show that Williamson voluntarily closed the six-bed facility, effective June 14, amid a flurry of state inspections that found numerous violations, including inadequate staffing levels and no current administrator working at the home,” the paper reported in August. “Williamson is appealing many of the citations, and is adamant that the closure is only temporary.”

So temporary, apparently, that Williamson didn’t bother telling her donors about the shutdown until after the Bee contacted them.

A former Courage House employee told the newspaper that the group had been cited by the state 16 times between January and June of 2016, for violations including breaching residents’ privacy and inadequate staffing. Last fall, it was cited for giving tours of the group home and holding lunches there, for forcing residents to attend Christian church services every week, and for not respecting residents’ freedom of religion.

DeAnne Brining, a licensed therapist who had contracted with Courage House, described the situation as “abusive” and said Williamson routinely “paraded the girls around” for marketing purposes. Another former employee told the Bee “everything was a photo op.” (Read the whole damning expose here.)

[explainguncontrolandsafespaces]

Modern Feminism “Helping”

[priceofliberty]

What does this have to do with feminism?

[videos4whatsapp]

[robotlyra]

Me: *watching* What the hell is the point of th- OH MY GOD

[girliegirltm]

I literally screamed out “HOLY SHIT!”

[sebuttianstans]

hahahahah this was in Thailand. Every year we have this. But not in the city, obviously.  It’s called rocket festival. I think this the competition for home-made rocket.

[80slesbiab]

*fox mulder voice* it’s a ufo scully

[did-you-know]

[videos4whatsapp]

[robotlyra]

Me: *watching* What the hell is the point of th- OH MY GOD

[shoothikedrinkfuck]

That’s fucking awesome.

[gaelbertrand]

Greetings from the Island !! 

New chapter of A LAND CALLED TAROT out this week in Island Magazine#10.

[mymodernmet]

Surreal Satirical Illustrations Offer Witty Commentary on Pop Culture

[nevver]

Just be yourself, they said.

[thinksquad-deactivated20190405]

Texas school district sign: Armed faculty 'may use whatever force necessary' to protect students

On the back to school shopping list for teachers and faculty in a school district 30 miles east of Amarillo is a concealed handgun license.

A new sign at the two campuses in Claude, a rural town with a population 1,200, call attention to the fact that some of the school district’s staff is “armed and may use whatever force necessary” to protect its students, according to media reports.

MyHighPlains.com reported Sunday the school district allowed its employees to start carrying in November 2015 after more than a year of creating a plan to implement campus carry.  Now, almost a year later, signs have gone up at the district’s elementary and junior/senior high school.

The district has 68 employees, 40 of which are teachers, according to its site. It is unclear how many employees at the district carry a weapon daily. The district, according to its website, had 354 students enrolled last year at its two schools— an elementary campus and a junior/senior high school.

Students still need to be protected despite the absence of a traditional city police department, Superintendent Jeff Byrd toldNews Channel 10, adding the sign is not meant to be threatening but proactive.

“If there were a perpetrator that entered our building we would be able to hold off the building until the professionals got here,” he said.

Byrd also said he feels anyone working member of the school district would give their life to save a child.

“Our job is to make sure the kids are safe, that they are comfortable and secure,” he told the news station.

In addition to having a concealed handgun license, employees who carry will have to shoot monthly in training, Byrd told MyHighPlains.com.

“We have to shoot so many rounds a month, so there is training involved monthly and annually we go to a two to three-day thorough training where we are working on different scenarios,” he said.

[thinksquad-deactivated20190405]

In Louisiana, Private Disaster Relief Outperforms the Government | Kevin Boyd

One of the greatest stories of the Louisiana flooding is how the people and free markets are playing a better role in the recovery than the government.

The recent flooding that hit Louisiana is the worst natural disaster to hit the United States since Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey in 2012. So far we know that at least 13 are dead and tens of thousands were left homeless in the flooding. Even worse, most of those affected do not have flood insurance. Up to $21 billion worth of housing stock was wiped out by the deluge of rain.

The recovery will be long and difficult in one of the poorest states in the country. There is the challenge of finding employment and housing for all these displaced people. Given the fact that Louisiana is a hot and humid state most of the year, there will also be the issues of dealing with mold and increased injuries as people try to rebuild.

But one of the greatest stories of the Louisiana flooding is how the people and free markets are playing a role in helping to both rescue people and deliver relief much quicker than the government.

Citizens to the Rescue

The rains that swamped parts of Louisiana over a period of a few days were relentless. Local governments and first responders were overwhelmed with calls for help from people trapped in their homes by rising waters.

Instead of waiting for the government to come rescue them, the people of Louisiana used their own privately-owned boats to save their neighbors. This “Cajun Navy” drew its ranks and fleet from Louisiana’s large numbers of sportsmen. People who needed rescue contacted a Facebook groupand the boats used smartphone apps such as the GPS app Glympse and the walkie talkie app Zello to coordinate. The “Cajun Navy” was responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Louisianians and their pets and livestock.

The people of Louisiana also distributed immediate relief to their displaced neighbors much more efficiently than the government was able to. One of the best examples of this was the conversion of a movie studio into a shelter housing over 2,000 people. The Celtic Media Centre is one of Louisiana’s premier film production studios located in Baton Rouge, which was one of the cities hardest hit by the flooding. The studio’s executive director, Patrick Mulhearn, saw how devastated his neighbors were by the high water and decided to open up Celtic as an emergency shelter.

Celtic was able to shelter over 2,000 evacuees in large, open, and air conditioned sound stages that were not being used for filming at the time. The shelter was supplied at first by local volunteers who donated food, water, and clothing to those affected by the storm. Volunteer doctors and other medical personnel, themselves often flood victims, set up a clinic in Celtic.

Importantly in a pet loving state like Louisiana, Celtic was open to pets as well. Many people did not evacuate during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 because their pets were not welcome at shelters.

There were smaller examples of churches opening themselves up, without prodding by either the Red Cross or the state government, as storm shelters for those who lost everything. Such shelters are all over the parishes that were flooded, and have largely been stocked with supplies by volunteers all over the state. People are even taking donations to the parking lots of stores that were unaffected to bring food, water, and other supplies to the flood zone.

People looking to donate supplies have been coordinating their relief efforts on Facebook and other social media. If people are looking to donate supplies, they can use social media to find places to drop them off. If people in other parts of the state and out of state want to donate, they’re being directed on social media to places where they can help.

Even while the streets of Louisiana flooded, trucks from Wal-Mart and UPS did not stop rolling. Wal-Mart, in particular, was able to use its corporate meteorologists to plan delivery routes and shift deliveries of much-needed supplies such as baby formula and water to the affected areas. UPS is able to prioritize delivery of items such as mail order prescription drugs. Companies are rushing supplies into the disaster area quicker than lethargic government agencies and the Red Cross.

[observethinkreact]

This goes to show that individual human beings who care enough can get shit done.

[creatorsforcreators]

Apply for the Creators for Creators Grant!

WHAT IS IT? Creators for Creators is an independent 501©(3) non-profit organization intended to encourage, support, and promote original works through grants and education.

The goal of the Creators for Creators grant is to help pave the way for the next generation of comics creators by supporting their work financially and through mentorship, as well as providing opportunities for their creations to reach a wide audience. We plan to give $30,000 to a single cartoonist or writer/artist duo in order to support the creation of a new and original work of a length between sixty-four and one hundred pages over the course of a single year. The recipient will be selected by committee according to rigorous criteria.

In addition to the monetary support, the recipient of the grant will have access to mentorship from the experienced creators involved with Creators for Creators. Mentorship will cover almost every aspect of the comic-creating experience. The goal is to give the recipient a firm foundation in the creative, business, legal, and financial areas of the comics business.

The recipient has total control over how and where they choose to publish their work once it is completed, whether they choose to submit it to a creator-owned publisher or release it themselves in any format. Iron Circus Comics and Image Comics have both pledged to support the recipient by publishing their work, if the recipient so chooses. No matter their choice, the recipient retains all rights to their work.

Finally, CreatorsforCreators.org will become a resource for the comics industry intended to educate creators by way of testimonials, advice, and more from established creators.

The Creators for Creators grant was founded by Charlie Adlard, Jordie Bellaire, David Brothers, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Nick Dragotta, Leila del Duca, Matt Fraction, Kieron Gillen, Jonathan Hickman, Joe Keatinge, Robert Kirkman, Jamie McKelvie, Rick Remender, Declan Shalvey, Fiona Staples, Eric Stephenson, C. Spike Trotman, and Brian K. Vaughan.

CAN I APPLY? Applicants must either be a single creator or a writer-artist duo with joint ownership of the submitted work. Each applicant must be eighteen years old or older, and the work cannot have been submitted to a publishing company or similar entity within the past year. The Creators for Creators grant is international, so there are no geographic restrictions on applicants.

Applicants must have never had solo work published by a third-party publisher. Self-published work is acceptable, as is participation in anthologies, but any non-anthology industry publication is unacceptable.

HOW DO I APPLY? Visit CreatorsforCreators.org to view the submissions page. All applications must include a signed release agreement and bio for each applicant, a proposal of no more than two pages that roughly describes your story and its conclusion, and at least five pages of finished sequential art from your story in order to demonstrate your storytelling.

The submission period lasts from May 1st, 2016 to November 1, 2016, and the eventual recipient of the grant will be chosen by an anonymous selection committee.

CAN I HELP? If you are a creator or publisher who would like to donate to or assist Creators for Creators in other ways, please email [email protected]. If you’d like to join our mailing list, visit our contact page.

[kellysue]

Time for a reminder! 

[observethinkreact]

Do it. I am.

[hattersadventures-deactivated20]

19-Year-old Gang Rape Victim to Receive 200 Lashes and 6 Months in Jail in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia defended a controversial verdict sentencing a 19-year-old gang rape victim to 200 lashes and six months in jail. The Shi’ite Muslim woman had initially been sentenced to 90 lashes after being convicted of violating Saudi Arabia’s rigid Islamic Sharia law on segregation of the sexes. The upholding of a decision to punish the victim triggered international outcry. The woman’s lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahem, reached out to the media. The court has since banned him from further defending the woman, confiscating his license and summoning him to a disciplinary hearing later this month.

[unrepentantwarriorpriest]

[observethinkreact]

Crazy world.