Squares and Rectangles

Stage Manager in the Bay Area's hipster central, and this is intermittently broadcast static noise.

[flower-tea-fairies]

That part

[scientia-rex]

One of my patients used to be a Big Deal Specialist in the city and you can just TELL he’s SEETHING that no one out here is even qualified to understand what he did, much less how important he was. He’s also terrified of death. It’s both annoying and really sad. Like, sir, I hate to break it to you, but no amount of knowledge will protect you from the ravages of time. It’s a special kind of hell to know the stages of various fatal diseases intimately. What is it going to feel like when it’s my turn? How do doctors want to die? Suddenly, quietly. Slip away painlessly in my sleep. But how likely is that? Not very. More likely I’ll get cardiovascular disease or cancer, the greatest killers of our time.

He was so afraid of cancer he had an organ that wasn’t cancerous removed just in case. He talks down to me as if I’m his student, and who knows? Maybe I was. He was in the same city as me, and they were forever dragging Big Name Doctors in to teach us things. Maybe I learned how to elicit Achilles tendon reflexes from him.

But mostly I find myself a little scornful. Who lives without the shadow of death? Who doesn’t think about death all the time? When you die, life is a round thing, finished and whole. What will your life look like when God holds it in the palm of his hand?

Also don’t fucking call me by my first name unless I’ve specifically said you can. I don’t GIVE that permission to patients, except for my mentally ill trans and queer patients. If I wanted to be disrespected by an older man I would have married young.

You do not have time. This important doctor who based his whole life around his importance lived as rich and full a life as anyone. And now he’s clinging to it, leaving fingernail marks on the walls on his way out. No one has time. There will be a moment when you’re dying when you think, I would give anything I have to be back in that moment. Any ordinary moment. Taking the dogs out to go potty. Browsing at the grocery store. When you’re being crucified on a hospital bed, dying and aware of it through the morphine, you would give anything you ever possessed to go back and have one more agony-free afternoon. Sit on a curb or a stoop. Walk through a park. Hug your spouse. These tiny fragmentary moments that we are constantly sliding through, tobogganing past at high speeds, these are what will be our life when our life is over.

I am accountable to that self. To the dying me. What did I do with this gift and curse? I don’t believe in God, but I know that I will die, and I have watched enough dying people by now to know the kinds of things I’ll think about. I want to make that me proud of what I’ve done and how I’ve spent my life. She will be a harder judge than God, and I want her to look at this one little life and think, yes. I did what I meant to.

[parisianqueen-deactivated202004]

During the most poor and homeless period of my life, I had a lot of people get angry with me because I spent $25 on Bath and Body Works candles during a sale. They couldn’t comprehend why the hell I would do that when I had been fighting for months to try and get us on our feet, afford food, and have an apartment to live in.

Those candles were placed beside wherever I slept that night. In the morning, I would move them and set them wherever I’d have to hang out. At one point I carried one around in my purse - one of those big honking 3-wick candles. I never lit them, but I’d open them and smell them a lot.

I credit that purchase with a lot of my drive that got me to where I am today. I had been working tirelessly, 15+ hour days with barely any reward, constantly on the phone or trying to deal with organizations and associations to “get help at”. It’d gone on for almost a year by the end of it, and I was so burnt out, to the point that I would shake 24/7. But I could get a bit of relief from my 3-wick “upper middle class lifestyle” candles. They represented my future goals, my home I wanted to decorate, and how I would one day not be in this mess anymore.

When we moved into the apartment, and our financial status improved, I burned those candles every single day. When they were empty, I cleaned them out, stuck labels on them, and they became the starting point of my really cute organization system I had ALWAYS planned to have.

So whenever I hear about someone very poor getting themselves a treat - maybe it’s Starbucks, maybe it’s a home deco item, maybe it’s a video game… I don’t judge them. I get it. I get that you can’t go without anything for that long without it making you go crazy. You need to pull some joy, inspiration, and motivation from somewhere.

[maraeffect]

poor people deserve things they want, too. it is unfair to expect poor people to only buy things they “need”.

[enide-s-dear]

My grandfather used to tell me: if you only have 20 kr left, you buy grocery for 10 kr and flowers for the other 10 kr because you need a reason to live as well.

[elljayvee]

“Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses.”

[mortalityplays]

something my mum always taught us was to look for the resources we're entitled to, and use them. public land? know your access rights and responsibilities, go there and exercise them. libraries? go there and talk to librarians and read community notice boards, find out what other people are doing around you, ask questions, use the printers. public records offices? go in there, learn what they hold and what you can access, look at old maps, get your full birth certificate copied, check out the census from your neighbourhood a hundred years ago. are you entitled to social support? find out, take it, use it. does the local art college have facilities open to the public? go in, look around, check out their exhibit on ancient looms or whatever, shop in their campus art supply store. it applies online too, there is so much shit in the world that belongs to the public commons that you can access and use if you just take a minute to wonder what might exist!!!

[mortalityplays]

today was my mum's birthday, and I showed her that thousands of people were liking and sharing her advice. she was very moved and pleased, and wanted to add that you shouldn't just feel entitled to be in these spaces. you should feel at home. no matter who you are or what you're going through in any phase of life, public spaces and services belong to you.

[dima-lfc]

i'll just leave this here for anyone who sees "from the river to the sea" as a threat

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

“Hamas shouldn’t have attacked”

🙃

The Israeli genocide of Palestinians has been ongoing for 70 years.

[modern-politics111]

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/irs-complaint-process-tax-exempt-organizations

3. Nature of violation

Directors/Officers/Persons are using income/assets for personal gain

Organization is engaged in commercial, for-profit business activities

Income/Assets are being used to support illegal or terrorist activities

Organization is involved in a political campaign

Organization is engaged in excessive lobbying activities

Organization refused to disclose or provide a copy of Form 990

Organization failed to report employment, income or excise tax liability properly

Organization failed to file required federal tax returns and forms

Organization engaged in deceptive or improper fundraising practices

Other (describe)

[lostsometime]

to simplify: churches are forbidden to promote specific political parties or candidates, in order to maintain tax-exempt status.  no religious institution is allowed to make explicit political statements, including “this party is bad,” “this party is good,” “you should vote for x,” “you should not vote for x,” or “let’s raise money for x political party or campaign.”  all of those things are super illegal!  if they’re going to act as a political entity, they need to pay taxes like any other political entity!  report their asses!!!!

[ms-cellanies]

MAKE THIS GO VIRAL - REBLOG IT ….. REPEATEDLY

[cricketcat9]

My American followers, please do your part

[romulanhorsegirl]

Ooooh I know so many pastors that violate this rule

[fuckyeahanarchistposters]

[fuckyeahanarchistposters]

‘Don’t Join the Army.

Don’t Be a Corporate Tool.

Don’t Carry Out Terrorism.

Don’t Support Genocide.

Don’t Risk Your Sanity.

Don’t End Up Suicidal.

The military Industrial Complex is made up of radical death-squads, and the ‘war on terror’ is a farce.

Don’t be part of it.”

[mortalityplays]

adding the entire userbase to a big discord server named 'tumblr 2.0' to solve no problems whatsoever and invent several new ones

[corvidsincorvettes]

[corvidsincorvettes]

The culprits (i would die for them)

C // Amythestsparkles • Hal Brindley

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Yep, I’m on the side of these superb piggies. This is play stupid games, win stupid prizes territory.

[headspace-hotel]

Native wild animals engaging in natural animal behaviors?!?! I'm shocked!

[northern-spies]

Image by http://wryote.bsky.social

[zoobus]

Wild pig-like animals are tearing up an Arizona golf course. The internet is delighted

Unstoppable javelinas love coyote pee like it’s “bacon bits in their salad.” Here's why golf courses are peeved

She’s an eco-vengeance iconoclast who loves coyote pee and running at manic speeds. She’s an unstoppable chaos queen with a stink-nipple on her butt, who turns luxury Arizona golf courses into free range charcuterie boards for her grub-worm girl dinner. She’s a guerilla class-warfare legend whose mating call sounds like the hissing warb-garble of a cappuccino machine milk-steamer.

She’s the internet’s most beloved trash-eating ungulate — the uncompromising, the indefatigable, the lovely javelina.

[room429]

[cryoverkiltmilk]

You love to see it.

[conservethis]

Oh we DO.

[jv]

Oh this reminds me of that news about capibaras retaking posh BBAA neighborhoods built over their natural habitats.

[jv]

💪💪

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Stop building golf courses in their fucking house

[technofeudalism]

Hi this is so dumb what are tankies, specifically

let me preface this by saying that this is not dumb. not asking questions when you don't understand something is dumb and i'm proud of you for being inquisitive, anon.

so in a nutshell... 'tankies'—it's slang in leftist circles for folks who get all hot and bothered for authoritarian regimes that claim to be communist, like stalin's soviet union or mao's china. these were governments that, yeah, talked a big game about socialism and the working class but ended up crushing a lot of the freedoms and rights that are pretty essential to true socialism, and definitely to anarchy.

keep in mind: the word "tankie" has absolutely nothing to do with the left-right axis, but with the authoritarian-antiauthoritarian axis.

when i, as someone who identifies as a leftist anarchist, refer to someone as a tankie, it's because they are *as left as me*, but too authoritarian to be safe for me, after a whole century of authoritarian communist regimes persecuting anarchists.

from an anarchist pov, which is all about getting rid of unjust hierarchies and giving power back to the individual, the whole tankie mindset and way of thinking is counterproductive. anarchism is about flat structures, deconstructing unjust and unfair systems, and definitely no secret police or labor camps, which were a huge part of the stalinist-era soviet and chinese maoist playbook.

supporting governments that use force and repression to control their people kinda goes against the whole ethos of fighting for a fairer, freer society. it's kind of like cheering for the underdog and then also celebrating when the underdog becomes the bully once they've got power. it trades one form of oppression for another, which is exactly what anarchists and most reasonably informed socialists wanna avoid.

it's important to understand the past to build a better future, and the history of these authoritarian regimes show that concentrated power is risky business. what starts with the promise of equality often ends up with just a new set of gods and masters. freedom and respect for individual rights are obviously vital to the anarchist viewpoint and tankies generally espouse views directly in contrast to these beliefs.

[technofeudalism]

dear tankies: seethe and fucking cope. but above all, don’t reblog my posts. i painted a far kinder picture than i could have. you should just stay off this blog, there’s nothing for you here.

[nativenews]

[2spirit-1spoon]

We were allowed the federal vote in 1924 but it wasn't enforced by state until 1957. A lot of tribes still get rations/commodity foods. The Diné's land is irradiated. They did radiation testing on the natives where I'm from and they sued the state for it. Reservations are recognized as independent nations similar to Palestine is to Israel: continuously building pipelines on my tribe's land and then also arresting them for doing ceremony on our treaty land is ???? Like they're literally coming into our country and telling us not to protest. A lot of reservations don't have fuel or regular internet. In fact school buses had to park on reservations during the "stay home" era of the pandemic to provide them with wifi to do school work. Winter is coming and many people do not have heaters or electricity to get through climate change winters. They sent tribes body bags instead of ppe. Trump, during a pandemic, forced his way onto native land that was barricade to quarantine the tribe. Imagine, a president insisting on taking his illness ridden body amongst natives.

The government knows.

And it is happening here.

They are not using bombs, but they do give the police military gear and training. They do give them military vehicles. They do give them military sized budgets. Police used water on natives and children in a freezing winter defending Standing Rock. They tear gas protesters and shoot journalists and civilians in the face with rubber bullets. Remember when they started to black bag them and stuff them in unmarked vans? Have you heard about a "pain grip?" Natives have.

Additionally, Native women are murdered at 10x the national average. Violence against natuve women has been named an epidemic. Natives in general are most likely to die from police shootings. And considering our population we are over-represented in prison, double the national average and over 4x higher than the state and federal incarceration rate of white people.

[el-shab-hussein]

It seems people still don't understand why we as Palestinians compare our situation to that of Native Americans and First Nations in general. We are being occupied by a foreign settler colony, they all use the same tactics.

[alextheominous]

[alwaysbewoke]

excellent work by marc

[gowns]

Clarification: Marc Lamont Hill lost his job at CNN in 2018 for simply saying "free Palestine from the river to the sea" at a UN meeting. He has since become a mainstay at Al Jazeera English.

Just typed up a transcript of the video excerpt posted above:

Marc Lamont Hill: The UN said that the humanitarian situation quote, "will only deteriorate exponentially, and that crucial life-saving supplies, including food, fuel and water, must be allowed into Gaza.” So the UN is saying: you must do this. You are saying… you’re not going to do this. Um, how do you…

Danny Avalon, Former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister: No, we’re not, we’re not saying that.

Hill: He’s saying, do it immediately.

Avalon: No, no —

Hill: He’s saying, do it immediately.

Avalon: I — I got you. I’ll tell you exactly what we’re saying. We’re saying: we will do everything for the Gazan people. Once and now we demand immediate surrender, unconditional surrender of Hamas. If Hamas people come out with their hands up and clear their weapons, believe me, everything will be restored to Gaza. It is Hamas — in Hamas’ hands.

Hill: OK, now I understand. Thank you for clarifying that, sir. I think we’re actually on the same page here. You’re saying that once Hamas leaves, you’ll grant the Gazan people food, shelter, fuel, electricity, hospitals, schooling. And if they don’t… "if Hamas doesn’t leave, then you’ll continue to starve, and die in hospitals." You are defining, for the international community right now, collective punishment. You’re saying, until Hamas acts differently, the 2 million people in Gaza are going to be treated this way. And once Hamas acts differently, these 2 million people will be treated better. That is exactly what collective punishment is. You’re holding them accountable for the actions of others. That is the textbook definition of collective punishment. Now, you may accept that that’s what you want to do, but this is absolutely in contravention of international law.

Avalon: Well, I’ll tell you exactly — no. Had we pushed people to the wall, but we’re not pushing them to the wall. We want to open a humanitarian corridor so they can leave. But if Hamas, if Hamas —

Hill: So that who can leave? Who can leave? Citizens?

Avalon: …

Hill: You’re saying civilians can leave? But only through the Rafah border, correct?

Avalon: At this point, yes. Because, where else?

Hill: YOUR COUNTRY! They could come into Israel!

Avalon: … I’m telling you, uh, one more thing I want to tell you…

Hill: No no no, I want you to address that point. Don’t just smile, sir. Respectfully. You’re saying…

Avalon: I’m not…

Hill: You’re making a corridor. They can go to Egypt. You’re bombing them. You say you want to save them. But they can’t come in.

Avalon: … I’m … (stumbling) … first of all, I’m not smiling, I am crying in my —

[video clip cuts off]

[evilidiot]

if u hear "a lot of dignoses that do not have specific germ/virus/dna testing aren't a specific immutable "thing" but rather a collection of common symptoms. additionally, many diagnostic labels, especially in psychiatry, are built around what makes a good worker or a functional part of capitalist society and deviation from those norms are explicitly punished" and get from that "dumbasses think if we abolish capitalism I won't have adhd" there's literally no hope for you. maybe thats harsh and it would take a patient explanation but someone else has probably done that for you and I'm not bothering for someone who is so defensive of diagnosis-as-identity that pointing out these are human constructions (like race, class, language) turns you rabid

[buntong-h1ninga]

Yoooooo!!!!

FilmCow Royalty Free Sound Effects Library by FilmCow

FilmCow Royalty Free Sound Effects Library by FilmCow

[radiofreederry]

[punkitt-is-here]

this is cinema

[natus-ex-astris]

Pause this on each screen, because there's stuff in here I wasn't aware of and I'm sure I'm not the only one. This isn't just cinema, this is free education and I'm grateful for it.