#covid relief bill | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

qqueenofhades · 2 years

Text

So it looks like Sinema, having gotten her requisite pound of flesh for her billionaire hedge fund buddies (basically, they agreed to keep the carried-interest tax loophole and replace it with an excise tax on stock buybacks), has finally agreed to support the Inflation Reduction Act, otherwise known as the $740 billion "pretty much Build Back Better but we are calling it something different" bill that Manchin and Schumer came out with. If/when it passes, which could be as soon as this weekend, the Democrats will have achieved -- with a 50-50 Senate with two habitual Manchurian candidates, a four-seat House majority, a rampantly fascist opposing party, a Supreme Court openly bent on destroying democracy and personal liberty, and an active criminal investigation into the previous administration -- at least the following:

The American Rescue Plan, aka the first post-inauguration $1.9 trillion Covid relief package, which was the largest investment in the working class since the New Deal;

The bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is the first major structural and transportation modernization and systemic overhaul for the country since the 1970s;

The first significant gun safety legislation in 30 years and since at least the Clinton administration;

Multiple executive orders now signed on protecting abortion rights and access to reproductive care, including travel out of state if necessary;

A bill in the works to officially codify same-sex marriage and thus protect it from SCOTUS;

Reauthorization and improvement of the Violence Against Women Act, including strong new protections for LGBTQ+ and Native American victims of domestic abuse or sexual assault, including the ability for Native courts to prosecute non-Native offenders for sex crimes for the first time in history;

Finally (FINALLY) making lynching a federal hate crime;

The largest climate legislation ever passed in America (this bill), which also establishes a federal minimum 15% corporate tax rate and lowers healthcare costs, including for essential medications like insulin, by, like, a lot;

Passage of the PACT Act, aka expanding healthcare for disabled veterans exposed to burn pits, also the biggest expansion in this field for a generation despite Republicans briefly killing it in an outburst of pettiness;

Consistent big packages of support for Ukraine, rebuilding of foreign alliances, huge bipartisan support for including Sweden and Finland in NATO (hahahaha fuck you Josh Hawley);

The CHIPS act, which creates tech and manufacturing jobs in America and was made even sweeter by how thoroughly they fucked over McTurtle to do it (since oh boy does he deserve a taste of his own medicine);

Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on SCOTUS, and not an awful white supremacist stand-in like Clarence Thomas, but a genuinely progressive and thoughtful jurist;

Cancellation of almost $6 billion in student loans for the poorest and most defrauded borrowers, such as those who attended scam for-profit "colleges";

And so on and so forth!!!

So like. Please tell me more about how the Democrats are incompetent, their leadership is bad, they are in Disarray TM, you are a terrible person if you support Biden or give them any credit at all, and you're just not excited to vote because they haven't done anything. Like yes! There is a lot more to do! Despite them suddenly deciding to play ball on this particular occasion, Manchin and Sinema still need to be made irrelevant as soon as possible! But as I said, this is happening with the thinnest of imaginable Congressional control, as the other party is literally trying to destroy democracy in real time before our faces. That is not irrelevant.

Also: ruby-red Kansas curb-stomped an attempt to outlaw abortion rights, and approximately 77% of the entire country supports this current bill. The generic Congressional ballots have all shown major movement toward Democrats, and frankly, I have a feeling that we have only just started to see the full impact of post-Roe fallout. So if you get off your asses, quit whining, and put the work in, we could actually win the midterms and then do EVEN MORE!

So yeah. Uh. Food for thought.

#hilary for ts #politics for ts #'but biden didn't give me a pony!!!'#'sTudEnT lOaNs!!!'#oh like the ones you have not paid a single penny on since he took office #the legislative agenda enacted thus far represents progress in every single left wing issue #and in utterly terrible circumstances #so yeah if you are still saying this #please stfu forever

3K notes · View notes

mariacallous · 2 months

Text

FLINT, Michigan ― The story of a wildly successful antipoverty program is also one of the most disheartening tales of Joe Biden’s presidency.

In 2021, Biden and congressional Democrats expanded a tax credit for children, transforming it from a targeted, sliding-scale subsidy to a simpler, more straightforward form of financial assistance. It was a version of an idea that’s become the hottest concept in antipoverty policy ― just giving people money, without restrictions on its use or complex eligibility procedures. By nearly all accounts, it worked magnificently. That year, the U.S. poverty rate hit a record low. The expansion was one of the COVID-19 relief measures in the American Rescue Plan, which passed on party lines. Biden and his allies had hoped to extend the program, making it permanent. But to do that, they needed every single vote from their 50-seat Democratic majority in the Senate. And they couldn’t get Joe Manchin, the conservative Democrat from West Virginia, to go along. The program expired at the end of the year.

Now, with the tax credit back to its more complicated, restrictive version, poverty is back up. And although a year’s worth of helping low-income families with kids surely did a lot of good, neither Biden nor the Democrats have gotten much credit for that. Few Americans are even aware of the program, or of Biden’s role in it. And among those familiar with the program’s history, the prevailing sentiment seems to be disappointment at the failure to make it permanent.

But there’s a coda to this story involving a new initiative in Flint, Michigan, that’s already helping hundreds of families. And it’s got political relevance, given that it probably wouldn’t have happened without the help of Biden and other Democrats.

If the program lives up to its billing, it could inspire copycat efforts around the country, fueling calls to resurrect a federal version of the program. But the prospects for those efforts depend on keeping sympathetic leaders in office, which in turn depends on what happens in the next election.

133 notes · View notes

crookedkryptonitebeliever · 1 year

Text

Yandere Best Friend part 4

tw: suicide mention, infantalization, rant in da author note, general yandere shenanigans, angst

also damn ageless and minors DNI please </3

my masterlist

hi guys heres another projection extravaganza becasue my paretns are not really supportive of my wish 2 have a gap year and i still gotta hustle even tho im so exhausted n tired and upset and need comfort and broken leg and feeling inadequate n everything so FAST bruh they said im SLOW cause im not in a universtiry by 18 </3/3/3//3/3/3 im tryine </3 but covid BAD and i turned 20 like fuckin last month which made me more shit

anyways enjoyyye

You haven't heard from your friend for days. He hasn't come to visit you but you knew he was working silently in the background when you received the news that your bank account wasn't in the negatives anymore and you no longer have to gouge your eyes out just to pay your student loans and medical bills. You breathed a sigh of relief when you realized that you don't need to file for bankruptcy to stop yourself from plummeting further.

Are you really free from all debt, though?

You really don't know how to proceed. What do you say to your friend? What is he going to do next? What does he expect in return? How will you do your taxes on this?

Sure enough, he returned to you. Still in a foul mood, but he is much mellower and he is leaning towards the heartbroken, sad side.

He went on a sobbing rant about how he wanted you to be spoiled rotten-- how he wanted to spoil you rotten, how he very much preferred you to be arrogant and entitled from being treated like absolute royalty. You could and would get away with anything. You would be above law and beyond.

You wouldn't have to be a commoner working hard to put food on the table, everything you need and wanted would be at your fingertips; no matter how expensive, immoral or illegal it may be.

He wanted you to be ignorant of poverty, deprivation and anything bad about reality. At least, you would be in bliss.

But now, you're hurt all over. Ruined and broken, tainted by the suffering of life. And, it was all his fault.

Your friend stroked your dry, sandpaper-like hands tenderly, morosely. It was such a shame, such a tragic fate you had. He promised you will never ever have to lift anything heavier than a champagne glass or handle anything rougher than silk. You will be pampered and have everything done for you to the point where you don't even need to think your own thoughts.

Drowsy from all the painkillers you had, your friend ran his fingers through your hair to tidy them. You didn't reject him as it felt nice, comforting, even.

He expressed a gentle, teary smile, cupping your cheeks with his soft, smooth and manicured hands. What a stark difference between his hands now and four years ago, you thought to yourself as he massaged parts of your face to stimulate blood flow and collagen formation.

I'll be back by seven. He whispered as he wiped the sleep from your eyes with his thumbs. It's now four in the afternoon, his phone is ringing incessantly and he lets it ring.

He eventually picked the call up while having a hand to pet your hair. You heard him confirm that he is going to a meeting of some sort, he informed the caller that he is going to be late. As he talks on, he leaned down to give you a kiss on the forehead. A silent goodbye before he goes away.

He continues on talking over the phone, leaving the room without sparing another glance at you.

You watched him shut the door behind him and heard quick footsteps getting softer and softer.

You took the time to reflect on what had happened, it was hard to grasp that he wanted you to be... a leech? And, perhaps it was the painkillers dulling your comprehension skills but, what you took away from his venting was: his has a weird obsession with the appearance of your hands. Or with hands, in general.

Too tired to deal with it, you closed your eyes and let yourself drift to sleep.

You woke up, feeling transported into the past when your nose picked up on the familiar aroma of your friend's cooking. It reminded you of your adolescence, your teenagehood and the brief time he stayed in this house.

You rubbed your eyes and saw your friend setting up a wooden bed tray on your lap. It was propped up by its foldable legs.

You were presented with the dish you missed the most, the dish he cooked for you frequently in the past and the dish that made you regress to your teenage self. It was comfort in a bowl, it was a reminder that you had very little things to worry about when you were with him. He would always take care of everything for you.

You tried replicating this dish many times. You followed the recipe to a "T" but you could never get it right, no one ever did except your friend.

He tidied your hair and tucked some stray strands behind your ear. You were given the option to feed yourself or to have him spoonfeed you.

He didn't pressure you into choosing the latter when you picked up the spoon. But he did remind you that the offer still stands.

The room was devoid of sound, save for the white noise coming from your air conditioner and the non-stop buzzing from his phone. Your friend absentmindedly fidget with his golden promise ring as he stared blankly at your leg casts, you couldn't understand how he has the will to ignore all those notifications.

He wondered where your ring was. He did have a hunch that you pawned it off in desperation. But he didn't want to confirm it with you as it might just break his heart even more.

He has nothing else to say and so did you. Your friend found solace in your presence while you only found awkwardness. Unnerved, even.

Your friend was the first to spoke up. He earnestly apologized for his unhinged previous behaviors, all he actually wanted was you to be happy and at ease. He doesn't truly want to take your autonomy away from you, he doesn't want to treat you like a toddler who knows nothing about the world around them. He just found it necessary to bind you for a while, to stop you from hurting yourself further.

Your friend assured that he won't stop you from pursuing whatever you want. It is your life after all.

He is just there to prevent you from being unhappy from failing too many times. At least, to the best of his abilities. He is a strong believer that some "failures" are required to elevate happiness. For example, it would feel extremely rewarding if you finally won a competition despite relentlessly competing against the best contestants the world has to offer.

If you want to attain other qualifications such as a PhD of your choice, or even an entire field change, he will bear all the costs. He will provide all the resources you need and more, you won't need to worry about money, chores or food. He will be supporting you from the shadows.

He made sure that you knew there would be absolutely no pressure for you to excel or to even complete your course. If you think it's not worth the stress, you can just drop out anytime, money is not a problem at all. Take as long as you want, try again as many times as you can take. Your friend would only encourage you to do something if it truly makes you feel fulfilled, happy and content with your life.

You asked about starting a business of your own. His interest piqued and he found himself gleefully motivating you to do so; under the condition that the capital and any connections you need to get it up and running comes from him.

You get to keep whatever profit you make and You would have full control over your business, the vision and mission is yours to play with. He will give you a tutorial based on his experience and tells you what to look out for, he will perhaps give you some advice or warnings here and there, but it is ultimately up to you to heed it.

He will watch you carelessly mess around with a proud smile on his face. You can choose to make your own connections in the industry, you can choose to hire your own people, you can do all the research yourself, you can choose how you want to get the word out there or...

You could simply just simply let him and his highly talented, highly skilled, highly experienced teams handle it while you take all the credit as a self-made entrepreneur.

He won't interject with unwanted help, unsolicited comments or extra funds if you don't want him to. It's all up to your whims and desires. It's just a silly, fun, little game for you to feel joy and self actualization. But if he deems that you're hurting yourself, mentally and/or physically, he is shutting it all down.

No, he won't shame or berate you if your business wasn't successful. He wouldn't allow you to cast blame onto yourself. No, nothing was wasted. Don't you dare think of yourself and your efforts that way. There is no such thing as losses when it comes to you, he is too generous for his own good. You gained some experience, you had fun and you learnt a lot... and that's all that really matters to him. You could fall and choose to either get back up yourself (under his vigilant supervision), or let him pick you up. Would you like to try again?

What if, you don't want to do anything with your business anymore? Well, there are many options for you to choose from. You could simply just shut it down with no repercussions. You don't need to be involved in the headache of liquidating your company's assets or dealing with the law if you don't want to. Hm? Oh, don't worry about all the people who are going to lose their jobs. They'll find new ones eventually. Your friend could take them under his wing if you want him to.

You could just dump it on his lap to manage it while you do other things that you're interested in. However, he is absolutely not changing anything or implementing any new policies to save it from collapsing in on itself unless you ask him to. It doesn't matter if it's costing him millions of dollars in losses, it doesn't matter if it's a liability to him. It's your project and he has no right to interfere without your permission, who is he to touch it when "you" were the one who originally gave it life? He will keep injecting money in without getting anything in return, he will gladly keep a living corpse of an enterprise, a financial parasite, stuck to his name and company.

You could sell it. Even if no one wanted to buy it, your friend would. And again, you can choose to control it although it's under his name, or let him transform it into something actually profitable-- basically give up charge over your business. But, you get to take the authority back whenever you want, please don't worry about the legalities or moralities. This is your world and everyone is just living in it, including himself.

On the other side of the coin, where if your business is raking in massive profits, you would receive praises every minute from him and the people around you. You would be celebrated and worshipped by everyone. He will make sure of it.

I may know many things about the world of trading but not all. Not even close. I might need to learn a thing or two from you. He chuckled, propping his head with a hand.

You asked if you can truly keep all the profits to yourself.

Yes and no. He answered. You don't have to pay him back or give him dividends even though he is a major, active investor. But, if you ever decide to put your business out there for strangers to buy stocks, you have no choice but to give them their share of profits. He would reimburse them if you want him to.

Then you asked him, what if you were to have no aspirations, no goals and no direction to head to? Becoming a complete NEET for the rest of your life? And a degenerate one to top it off? Only hiding yourself in your bedroom, living off junk, hissing at sunlight and consuming more than you create. Be it in terms of food or creative medias.

He frowned. He believes every human needs a goal to work towards to, in order to make their lives feel worthwhile, enriched and enjoyable. A goal is a goal, no matter how small or ridiculous. Yes, he would fund your NEET lifestyle only if you have at least three hobbies that:

Does not actively cause bodily harm,

Does not cause mental, self-esteem deterioration,

Does not cause you to be numb,

Gives you true satisfaction about yourself; I.e., a hobby that is challenging but achievable, something that gives you healthy agency,

Absolute complacency is the devil in his eyes. He isn't going to let you fall into that pit of consumerism hell, he knows it is a slippery slope to despair, pessimistic nihilism and suicidal ideation. If you can't find a hobby yourself, he is going to find something that keeps the cogs turning. But just enough, he is never going to overwhelm or overkill it.

You gave yourself a minute or two to think. You then summed it up to being: Your friend sees his money and status as a shiny toy for you to play with, however or whenever you want. As long as you're not harming yourself with it. Strange how he contradicts himself when it comes to the topic of doing nothing in life. Nonetheless, you're glad that he would let you think for yourself.

What's the catch? You mumbled, he hummed and tilted his head towards you as he didn't hear what you said.

What do you want in return? You don't buy the fact that he's completely selfless and so fucking charitable.

He is. But only for you.

Your hand in marriage. He replied, promptly and bluntly. No bullshit this time, no more flowery language about how he wanted you to be happy and healthy. He would give all of that in return for you to be his and for him to be yours.

What if I say no? You continued. He stared at you in shock and a bit of hurt momentarily before expressing an incredulous laugh.

You don't get to say no. Not this time. He smiled, but you can see the corner of his mouth twitching downward. There was a bit of an angry growl to his voice, which sent chills down your spine. Regardless, you pressed on, asking what he meant by that.

I mean what I say. You decided not to press further after he said his ominous piece.

He continued on with a lighter note, cheerfully asking you when you want the wedding to be, how you want the wedding to be and who do you want to come. He gave you a period of two years to think it through, if you haven't come up with anything satisfactory or anything at all by then, he will proceed with his own plans. Your friend seems to have a Laissez-faire approach to most things, you wonder if that was the secret to his company's rapid and massive growth.

He paused mid sentence when he realized that you have finished your meal a while ago. He asked if you wanted seconds or if you wanted a chocolate bar for dessert.

You said you lost your appetite.

679 notes · View notes

phoenixyfriend · 3 months

Text

Suggested topics to call your reps about today, 1/30/24!

I’ve been doing two subjects per call recently; one is almost always about the events in the middle east, and then one is domestic policy. I’m including a bit of verbiage you can use as basis for what you say (if you agree with me), for a few of these.

BOTH SENATE AND HOUSE:

Foreign Policy: Reinstate funding for UNRWA. While the claims made by Israel that employees of the relief agency were involved in Oct. 7th are troubling, this arm of the UN is currently providing food, water, shelter, and medical care to the 2.3 million displaced peoples of Gaza. It is especially disturbing and concerning that the many children of Gaza, who are already suffering due to this conflict, are now having this support revoked.

Warn Congress to reaaaaally think about whether a strong response to the incident in Jordan, currently attributed to an Iraqi group backed by Iran, if we're truly looking to avoid a wider regional war as claimed. There is already growing unrest in Yemen and the threat of another civil war, fire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and now the situation with the Islamic Resistance. Caution them against an overreaction of the kind that the US has a tendency towards.

FOR THE SENATE: Urge your senator to put their support behind Bernie Sanders and his motion to restrict funding to Israel until a humanitarian review of the IDF’s actions in Gaza has been completed.

FOR THE HOUSE: Urge your representative to put their support behind Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s petition for the US government to recognize the IDF’s actions in Gaza as ethnic cleansing and forced displacement, and put a stop to it.

Domestic Policy

House of Representatives:

Expansion of the child tax credit. The House of Representatives is currently voting on whether or not to expand the child tax credit that was instated during COVID-19. This credit offers a return on taxes for individuals with children, but currently does not apply to families that are too poor to qualify. During COVID, this tax credit was expanded to include those families, and child poverty fell to record lows, but as it was a temporary measure, those children are getting left behind again. Given the effectiveness the expansion of this tax regulation showed in the past, it would be a net positive for the country as a whole to codify it more permanently.

Other things coming up in the next week if you think your rep might be receptive:

H.R. 6976: Protect Our Communities from DUIs Act: Vote no. This act is discriminatory and enforces harsher penalties on immigrants than in legal citizens. While DUIs are a significant issue, enacting stronger guidelines on a small portion of the population that is already at risk from discriminatory police action is not a solution.

H.R. 6679: No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act - Vote no or dismiss if possible. Terrorism is already considered a reason to reject immigrants. This bill is pointless peacocking. You have better things to do with your time.

H.R. 6678: Consequences for Social Security Fraud Act - Vote no. This proposed act is discriminatory and enacts unduly harsh sentences against minorities. The system already has punishments for fraud; this specific act is unnecessary.

H.R. 5585: Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act - Are you sensing a pattern? It's discriminatory! Evading law enforcement on a motor vehicle is already illegal, you do not need to ADD IMMIGRATION PENALTIES.

Senate:

Abortion rights. Domestically, for the senate, push for abortion rights.

Specific things coming up in the next week if you think your Senator might be receptive:

H.R. 6914: Pregnant Students’ Rights Act - Call to ask that the resolution EXPLICITLY include abortion access, or otherwise vote against. This passed the house on strict party lines; other than a handful of abstentions, the vote was all republican for and all dems against. The text of the proposal is explicitly anti-abortion.

H.R. 6918: Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act - same as above, it was very partisan in the house vote, though less explicitly anti-abortion in the text. Nonetheless, it focuses explicitly on protecting funding to "pregnancy centers," which are often anti-choice and dedicated to pushing patients towards keeping a baby they don't want.

DOMESTIC POLICY, BOTH BRANCHES OF CONGRESS: Border policy is currently being hotly debated and negotiated. A very strong policy in favor of the Republican party is the status at the moment. Even some democrats are in favor of it due to small border communities being ill-equipped to handle large numbers of migrants, and states usually removed from the situation getting migrants bussed in from Texas despite telling Texas to knock it off. Despite some Republicans saying that they have gotten everything they could want out of the current deal, the party at large is refusing to pass it as the politics of the debate are more useful to the coming election than actually passing policy. This is also causing delays in passing the federal budget.

I... don't actually want to tell anyone WHAT to think of the border policy since I do not have any real knowledge on the budget impacts and resources dictating the actual problems (nor the racism or xenophobia, that part is obviously bullshit). I can recognize that too some degree, there is a genuine issue of manpower and budget restriction impacting the ability to house and process immigrants.

However, DREAMers are not being considered in the current deal, the delays in the deal are impacting the federal government and threatening a partial shutdown, and people are STILL getting hurt and even dying at the border.

I would focus on protection for DREAMers, chastising the Republicans for deliberately delaying the budget in order to use the border as a reelection premise instead of actually working on the policy they claim to want (emphasize that they are going to lose votes for focusing on reelection at the expense of their people), and protection for children, parents with those children, and nonviolent migrants in general.

#politics #current events #united states #call your reps #Phoenix Politics

73 notes · View notes

multi-fandomfuckboy · 2 years

Text

Stranger Than Fiction

Part 1: Welcome to Hawkins

(Slowburn) Billy Hargrove x Reader

...Part 2, ...(Masterlist)

A/N: I would like to say that I have recently tested positive to Covid and will be out of work until the 17th of July. This sucks, kind of, because I love my job. But, it also means that 98% of my time will not be dedicated to this fic… It has kind of spiralled out of control and I have written so much already. I hope you guys like this and although the main character's eventual pairing will be with Billy Hargorve, this is a SLOW burn, it is going to take a while because the reader knows how valuable they are and would never settle for the abusive asshole Billy is when he is first introduced. We are here for the DEVELOPMENT. No matter what, I enjoyed writing this. I hope you enjoy reading it. Word Count: 2,472 Warnings: mentions of death, trauma, guilt

Billy Hargrove was an asshole. There was no way around it. He was rude, crude, drank like a fish, and smoked like a chimney. He had his mothers eyes and his fathers temper.

In a seemingly random series of events you found your fate tangling with his. It’s hard for you to say exactly when this convergence began. But, it was most likely around the time your world turned upside down.

When Will Byers disappeared in November of 1983, you were one of the first people questioned. You were 17 at the time but you had been babysitting in Hawkins since you were 14. It was just your mom and you for as long as you could remember. Your mom was a nurse at Hawkins General Hospital and worked the night shift. She always made sure you had enough but that didn't stop you from helping with the bills where you could.

You regularly worked for the Wheelers, and even got paid extra on campaign nights. Normally it wasn’t a bad deal. Mike, Dustin, Will, and Lucas were always well behaved. All you really had to do was watch them, feed them, put them to bed, and make sure they didn't die. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, Hawkins was cursed.

Will didn't make it home that night and your life would forever be altered by the madness that ensued.

You had been wracked with guilt when you heard one of your kids had gone missing. Nancy tried to reassure you that there was nothing you could have done. You had been watching them all day and when you had left that night, they were still playing D and D. There had been plenty of people in the house, including Nancy. She even tried to invite you to come along with her and Barb to Steve’s party. She said it would help get your mind off things and just relax, like the three of you always did. You almost accepted. Almost.

You would never fully forgive yourself for turning them down. Even when Barb had called you that night, begging you to come so she wouldn’t have to be the fifth wheel. You refused, giving her some half baked excuse about having a headache.

That would be the last conversation you had with her.

You planned to apologise to both of them the next day, after school. You would make it up to them. Rent a sappy romantic movie, eat popcorn, and they could tell you all about the party. Those hopes would soon die when Nancy explained what had happened at the party and how she hadn't seen Barb since the night before. The two of you went over to the Harrington’s place, looking for any sign of your lost friend. That afternoon in the woods would be your first brush with the paranormal.

Going to the police got you nowhere. The guilt ate at your insides until you were desperate for answers. So, when Johnathan Byers told you about monsters coming out of walls, you believed him.

That night in the woods, when Nancy disappeared, it nearly broke you. How was it possible for you to lose so many people. It just wasn't fair. You cried when Johnathan pulled her from the hole in the tree. Your relief would be short lived. When Nancy described the other side it turned your insides. Just imagining Barb trapped in a place like that… you would have done anything to rescue her.

You had never had many friends but Nancy and Barb were the best friends a girl could ask for. The three of you had become instant friends when you first met as children. They were a year behind you in school but were so smart and always helped you to understand the subjects you were weaker in. They were the only reason you were passing pre-calculus and that you had any socialisation outside of babysitting. Whatever that thing was, you were going to find a way to beat it and rescue Barb.

You, Nancy, and Johnathan made plans to lure in the monster and kill it. There was a slight snag in the plan when Nancy saw what Tommy H. had written on the theatre board and Johnathan ended up in handcuffs. Luckily, Jim Hopper was the closest thing you had to a dad. Well, more like a drunk uncle. You were thankful he believed all of you when you explained what was happening. Having Hopper in your corner mady you feel a million times better. Unfortunately, the feeling was not mutual. Hopper made it very clear how he felt about you being involved in all this. If you weren’t as stubborn as him, he would have made you go home.

When he saw how determined you were to save Barb he couldn't help but smile, pulling you into a tight hug. He grumbled that it was no use, that you were just like your old man. It always made you weirdly happy and sad at the same time when he said things like that. You couldn’t remember much about your dad, he had died before you got the chance to really know him. You knew that He and Hopper had served together in the Army. But, Hopper didn't like to talk about it much.

When you were all on the same page, you managed to contact Mike on the radio after you remembered it was how the little group liked to communicate. Seeing the kids all together again made you happy they were safe but you couldn't help but feel the void left by Will. You knew Nancy felt it too. There was something unspoken between the two of you. Like you couldn’t look each other in the eye without thinking of Barb. It made your heart ache.

When the time came for El to find Barb and Will, you could barely breathe. Then you heard the young girl murmur a single word.

“Gone.”

Gone. Barb was gone, and it was all your fault. It felt like someone had scooped out your insides. All you could think about was Barb and how you should have been there for her. But now it was too late, she was gone forever. You didn’t realise you were crying until Hopper pulled you into his arms.

“It wasn’t your fault, kid.” he had said, squeezing you tightly. His words fell on deaf ears. You felt numb, like the world wasn’t really there. You watched him leave with Joyce, on the way to rescue Will…

You sat alone in the empty halls of the Middle School, drowning in your own thoughts, until you felt Nancy sit next to you. She didn’t look at you, only taking your hand and stating, in an eerily calm voice, “We’re going to kill it.”

Then the numbness inside of you gave way to a new feeling. It was a hot feeling that spread through you, burning. Vengeance.

You, Nancy, and Johnathan gather your supplies, set the trap, and slit your palms. Then, you waited. There were a thousand things you thought could happen that night. But, Steve Harrington showing up was the last among them. And it only went south from there.

After the first attack you were shaken. You would have run out of the house with Steve if it weren’t for the thought of Barb alone. That thing was the reason you felt this way. It was the reason your friend was gone. You were going to kill it, or die trying. You gripped your father’s colt .45 and stood with your back against Nancy and Johnathan.

It all happened so fast. The gun in your hand jerked as you fired round after round into the monster. You turned around and for a split second, your eyes locked on Nancy’s. You saw the fear there an instant before sharp claws raked through the flesh of your back. You felt the warmth of your own blood gushing down your back, then the pain. That’s the last thing you remember about that night.

You don't remember Steve coming back, saving you with the spiked bat, Jonathan setting the thing on fire, or when all three of them hauled your limp body into the back of Steve’s car.

You wouldn’t be there for the reunion with Will or for the celebration of his return. You would miss Christmas and New Years. You wouldn't regain consciousness until the second week of January, 1984. Sometimes you would get flashes, little pieces of that time. Nancy’s voice, someone squeezing your hand, the beeping of monitors. But mostly it was your mom crying.

When you woke up you were alone. It felt like your mouth was made of sandpaper and when you opened it to speak, nothing came out. It took you a moment to realise you were in a hospital and when you moved to sit up, pain shot down your spine. Every bone in your body was aching and each movement sent new waves of pain along your back. Before you had another second to think, you heard a gasp from the doorway. Your mother dropped the coffee she had been carrying in her rush to your side. Her eyes were filled with fresh tears and she was rambling a million miles a minute. Asking you questions, looking you over, making sure you were actually awake. You were happy to see her but little did you know that this would be the norm for the coming months.

You were never alone. There were always nurses, or doctors, or men in suits. Everyone had questions. How were you feeling? Where was the pain? What do you remember? After a week it got old and after a month it was downright maddening.

As far as anyone knew, you had fallen victim to a bear attack. It would have been simple, if it was only the flayed flesh of your flanks that needed to heal. Unfortunately, the infection that set in made things complicated. The government sent specialists to look after you and keep things under wraps. They kept you in a facility, only allowing certain people to care for you.

The fevers were hard to shake, they were treating you with so many different drugs you lost track. When your fever broke, you always started to feel better, but somehow it always came back.

They concluded that it was most likely some type of virus that had been transmitted to you via the creature's claws. There was only so much they could do. As the weeks went on, the time between flare ups grew longer. When you were finally well enough to have visitors, all interactions were closely monitored.

Your most frequent visitors were your mom, Hopper, Nancy and Steve. Jonathan stopped by sometimes, but not often.

When school started again you were still unable to sit up on your own. Nancy and Steve undertook the task of keeping you up to date on your school work. With not much else to focus on, besides your pain, you had a lot of time to study. Your grades weren’t half bad, all things considered.

When you weren't doing catchup work for school or visiting or being poked and prodded by doctors, you wrote. It had always been a passion of yours and more recently it had become a means of escape. Being trapped in that sterilised linoleum prison was driving you mad. So when you felt the walls closing in around you, the only way out was with a pen and paper.

Before everything, you would write about fantasy worlds and romantic adventures. Stories where the heroes triumphed and love conquered all. But now, you couldn’t seem to conjure up those scenarios. The tales that came to life on your page now were darker. There were no good guys or love stories, there were only tales of fear and those things that haunt us when we are alone at night. Stories about the horrors hiding in the shadows all around us.

No one read these stories but you.

After 6 months of treatments, recovery, and rehab, you were finally discharged. Going home somehow made you feel even stranger. Things were the same but somehow profoundly different. Your mom had taken a couple shifts off work to look after you when you got home. You were thankful for her but there was no hiding the amount of stress she had been under while you were in the hospital. She had always had circles under her eyes but in the past few months they seemed to grow darker.

You tried to go back to the way things were. You hung out with Steve and Nancy, listened to them talk about their lives and plans for the future. You were happy for them, it seemed like they had really grown. But for some reason, it left a sour taste in your mouth. You felt like all they wanted to talk about was the future but all you could think about was the past. You eventually stopped going with them, always giving excuses about headaches. And eventually, they stopped asking.

You found yourself alone a lot. Not that you minded. After having 8 months of constant supervision, you could use some alone time. The walls in your home started to remind you too much of being stuck in the hospital. So, you liked to be outside. You would go for long walks almost every day. It felt good to be outside. Freeing.

You would leave your house early in the morning, after your mom got back from her shift. You would take a small bag, packed with a water bottle, a book, and your journal. You would pick a new direction every day, always finding new places you haven't walked yet. When you got tired you would find a quiet place to sit and read or write or just think.

You thought about Barb often. You tried to think about all the good times you had together. How she always managed to explain things so you could understand. All the sleepovers the two of you had. She was so smart and kind. You missed being able to call her just to talk. You avoided thinking about how her last moments must have felt. How alone and scared she must have been. Each time your thoughts turned to it you could feel yourself recoil. It felt like touching a hot stove.

Sometimes you couldn't help it. You would think about that last conversation you had with her. How you had been so selfish and dismissive of her. Then you would cry as you walked.

That's the way things went for a while. Then, one day in the middle of July things changed. You would never forget the first time you met Billy Hargrove.

A/N: Hope you guys like it so far! This was just a little background before the actual story starts. Let me know what you guys think!

... Part 2, ...(Masterlist)

1K notes · View notes

not-safe-for-democracy · 1 year

Text

The GOP jokes just write themselves.

Not only have Republicans consistently voted no on raising the minimum wage and are against mandatory overtime wages, since 2020, Republicans have voted against all these measures to help workers and families:

Railroad Workers Paid Sick Leave

Capping the exorbitant price of insulin (which would help working families dependent on the medicine)

Paycheck Fairness Act

Added Health benefits for veterans exposed to Burn Pit toxins

Covid relief funding (an effort to make tests, vaccines, etc more easily available to working Americans)

Extending Child Tax Credit payments

Stopping gas price gouging

In addition, Republicans introduced a bill that would stop Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices. And Republican Attorney Generals from several states brought a lawsuit which halted Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness plan, another measure to help working families.

What DID Republicans vote for? A $847 billion military budget which was actually $45b more than Biden had requested.

And another thing, why did the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was signed by Trump, make tax cuts permanent for corporations but temporary for individuals?

#republicans #republican hypocrisy #some days I have time

328 notes · View notes

blissmontage · 2 months

Text

As the US and Israeli governments continue to wreak havoc in Palestine and the rest of the Middle East I’d like you all to think about the difference in the way Joe Biden fights for Israel and the way he fights for you and your family. Biden has shown time and again his support for the Genocidal violence put forth by Netanyahu and executed by IOF soldiers in Gaza and the West Bank, but his hands are continually tied when it comes to bettering the life of the American people. When abortion access was restricted in this country Joe Biden did nothing. When the vote for a $15 minimum wage was lost in the senate, Joe Biden did nothing. As Covid continues to run rampant through our communities, Joe Biden has only made our communities less safe by lifting restrictions and ending Covid relief programs prematurely. Yet, when Israel needs money for bombs Biden is fine to use his presidential power to sidestep congress. When the Houthis used their power in the Red Sea to stop the shipment of weapons to Israel—which may I remind you is their legal obligation under international law—Biden responded by illegally bombing these ships. When American citizens were executed in the West Bank, Joe Biden wrote another check to Israel. When American citizens were attacked at Columbia University with Israeli chemical weapons on America Soil, Joe Biden said nothing. Even now as he stands before us and says he does not support the invasion of Rafah, there is a bill with his name on the house floor with $14.3 Billion slated to the Israeli Army for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine.

I ask you then who are the real terrorists? Those fighting for liberation, or those funding the Israeli occupation?

#free Palestine #Palestine genocide #eyes on Rafah #genocide Joe #free Gaza #Palestine #bliss.txt

52 notes · View notes

tomorrowusa · 2 months

Text

In 2016 we had But Her Emails. In 2024 we have Biden Is Too Old. The sources of these two lines haven't changed: the flailing GOP with an assist by bothsiderist news media.

Yes, it's the same old distraction technique to draw attention away from the leader of the Republican Party who is an adjudicated sex offender who just lost a gigantic lawsuit based on his past use of fraud.

It's time to push back and aggressively. And successful messaging is repetitious messaging – get used to repeating things if you wish to cut through the noise.

But the main thing is not to freak out and to play offense instead of being defensive. For example: Why are so few people on our side bringing up Trump's unhealthy lifestyle? Drinking 12 Diet Cokes® a day and copious chomping of double cheeseburgers wouldn't be recommended for somebody half his age. And what kind of drugs is he being prescribed?

[A]ll of the #BidenTooOld coverage is about as new and revelatory as #ButHerEmails. If nothing else, it proves that a scandal holding that the president forgets things is always going to go down smoother than a scandal in which a special counsel flagrantly violated a long-standing Justice Department practice and protocol not to “criticize uncharged conduct.” As Sullivan was quick to point out, CNN and the New York Times and every U.S. corporate media entity and its cousin jumped onto the bandwagon. [ ... ] Perhaps one way to navigate yourself through this seemingly insoluble morass would be to ask yourself why Biden, who is stipulated #Old, has managed to helm the most successful presidency in modern history. Booming economy, eye-popping jobs reports, first gun violence reduction bill in decades, $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan plus COVID relief, Inflation Reduction Act, infrastructure prioritized, judges seated. Pick your metric—there have been a lot of wins. And the reason this old man who sometimes forgets things like dates has gotten all this done? He has, for the most part, surrounded himself with experts, genuine scientists, respected economists, and effective governmental actors and advisers. Governance is not an action film. There is no minute-to-minute psychodrama involving someone in a tight black T-shirt mincing along the outdoor ledge of a skyscraper, ninja-kicking his lonely way down to the stairwell, where he karate-chops the well-armed baddies and then commando crawls his way into an empty vault with the glass chest where the nuclear reactor sits. No. Despite our fascination with the Great Man theory of American lawmaking, the presidency is an office that largely turns on superb staffing, visionary planning, deft political negotiation, and artful execution. Joe Biden doesn’t actually have to remember every single detail himself—he has to use his judgment to employ and empower a large contingent of skilled experts to execute upon their agreed-upon vision. If you are unconvinced, the best evidence that we keep falling for Great Man fantasy propaganda is the unmitigated failure of the first Donald Trump presidency. Here we had a self-described loner literally trumpeting his I-alone-can-fix-it worldview, all embodied in Great Man megalomania. He managed to accomplish virtually nothing: Almost none of his promises for single-handed economic revitalization, world domination, or intrepid urban crime-solving panned out. His great dreams were either strangled in infancy by staffers or halted by courts. And whether you believe that this happened because Donald Trump surrounded himself with incompetent yes men or steely adults in the room, both versions serve to offer proof of concept: Donald Trump accomplished close to nothing because the people around him were either too inept to put his vision into practice or too skillful at blocking him to allow him to put his vision into practice. Put another way, if you or anyone you know finds themselves reacting to the Biden Is Old revelations with the thought that, sure, Donald Trump is a 91-indictments-richer, adjudicated sexual abuser, defamer, liar, violator of national security, self-enriching, fascist-boosting insurrectionist, but it’s OK because he will surround himself with people who might check those impulses—well, doesn’t it rather intuitively make more sense to instead vote for the highly effective, internationally respected, but yes, sometimes forgetty guy who is surrounded by people with day planners?

A president is a lot closer to being a CEO than a superhero. And when it does come to being businesslike, Trump has declared bankruptcy six times – approximately six more times than Biden. Trump's business "skills" lean heavily towards fraud, deceit, and bullying.

The real reason we all keep falling for Great Man horse race stories is because they are good for fueling fantasies of all-powerful big daddy presidents who control every tiny aspect of governance in their tiny wee hands. If that is your jam, well, it would make sense to vote for the only candidate who believes in the same dream. If it’s not, the question is reducible to rather simple stakes: Do you want the Big Daddy who surrounds himself with sycophants and nutters and people with shared last names, or the one who surrounds himself with competence and expertise? This doesn’t seem, on balance, like a really tricky call. Do we prefer presidents who can backflip and ninja-kick their way to total world dominion? Perhaps. To my knowledge, nobody ever made a Tom Cruise movie about listening and learning and compromising. But if you still believe governance to be a sober and serious enterprise, vote like the alternative is chilling, because it is.

Trump flatters himself as a "stable genius". But it is Biden who brought stable governance back to the US. Being a constantly ranting gasbag is not an indicator of competence.

Very little attention is being paid to psychological age. Trump is just 42 months chronologically younger than Biden, but Trump acts like a toddler who is not yet 42 months old.

Parents with kids who were constantly having temper tantrums and being frequently disruptive would consider taking those kids to a child psychologist. Being a disruptive narcissist in his late 70s does not make Trump seem youthful but instead more like a case study for arrested development as a toddler.

#but her emails!#the age issue #joe biden #maturity #donald trump #trump's temper tantrums #trump's immaturity #trump's narcissism #trump's artrested development #trump's unknown prescription drugs #trump is an adjudicated sex offender #trump is mentally unfit to be president #vote blue no matter who #election 2024

23 notes · View notes

1americanconservative · 6 months

Text

The real Bidenomics

🔴 Jan 2021 Biden inauguration, cancels the Keystone XL pipeline. Inflation rate 1.4%

🔴 March 2021 Biden signs $1.9 Trillion Covid relief bill Inflation rate 2.6%

🔴 July 2021 Democrats propose $3.9 Trillion budget plan. Inflation rate 5.4%

🔴 November 2021 Biden signs $1 Trillion infrastructure package. Inflation rate 6.8%

🔴 March 2022 Biden delivers his first SOFU. Inflation rate 7.9%

🔴 April 2022 Announces student loan forgiveness. Inflation rate 8.3%

🔴 May 2022 acknowledges baby formula supply problem Inflation rate 8.6%

🔴 June 2022 gas prices surge. Inflation rate 9.1% We can't afford any more "building back better"

45 notes · View notes

bellybiologist · 9 months

Text

TLDR: Verzi Need Money. Here Link for Helping Fill Money Bar with Money Juice. -Ko-fi -Commission form (Open again! Note the price increase!) -Patreon -Paypal.me

Okay! Verzi need money. So! Here's this.

This shitty meter here is just for a bit of transparency (Graphic design is NOT my passion), cuz people like to know where there money is going. This will fill up as with funds from my patreon (money I got this month is already there!), from commissions, and from any tips/extras given by kind souls in passing, and I need to hit these marks EVERY month for like… a year. (This is after fees and such of course, cuz god forbid we don't pay the middle-men their dues.)

I will update this thing as time passes so ya'll will know where I'm at. Reblogging/Sharing is welcome, encouraged, and greatly appreciated!

A bit of info for each section under the Readmore:

-Rent and Bills: The Most Important thing to Keep Verzi Kickin'! I pay half my apartment's now $1368 rent PLUS the utilities, which range from 100~200 bucks, splitting with my aunt who works 2 jobs to make sure she pays her half. Since my mom passed away from Pancreatic cancer in 2021, this has been rough since it used to be split 3 ways.

-Dental Costs: The face bone doctors want my money after drilling holes and pulling out the insides!! My face actually feels BETTER so i'm not as mad as I COULD be about this, but this needs to be paid for the next 12 months. (And they want MORE money to do a cleaning and I almost laughed. Like, no buddy you ain't getting 750 out of me when I don't even have a refrigerator.(See Below))

-Big Purchase+Credit Card bills: It wont pay off ALL my credit card debt, but it keeps me from falling behind. Since the passing of Michael and Fred (my microwave and refrigerator respectively) I need to make some big purchases so my kitchen functions. Michael has been successfully replaced by Mikaela, and we are still looking for Fred's replacement. Ms. Frida, the chest freezer who is literally older than I am (I am 33!!) and STILL functions is holding down the fort while we look for a refrigerator. We can live without a fridge thanks to her constant service, allowing us to keep frozens. Also, like, literally on the 30th of July, Monty the Monitor must've succumbed to heatstroke so i had to buy one of THOSE too for my computer setup. I will name all my appliances to cope.

-Extra+Taxes: Once we get here, I'm in the clear for the month's expenses! However!! Taxes are due in October. I DO NOT know how much that will be, and since the whole Covid relief thing that lessened business taxes ended last year, I MAY be paying for quite a bit!! Anything past this point will be prepping for Taxes AND forming a buffer for More Happenings (God forbid).

===== Rewards??? Rewards!! =====

I considered a Drive like other kink artists in these circles, but I don't like drives for several reasons and those reasons are why I've never done one in the past. Despite that, I STILL want to do something that at least feels like a reward or incentive for people keeping me Alive™, so I'm going to do some simple doodles/sketches, and possibly try to stream those doodles in my discord!

Every 100 bucks past the "Rent and Bills Paid" section (meaning at 900 dollars and onward), I will do a RANDOM drawing from any requests/suggestions from the pool made by people who threw some cash monies my way!

Suggestions can be sent in through Ko-fi messages, Paypal notes accompanying payments/donations/tips, and a Patreon-only post (they are always giving me money, so patrons have access by default!). Commissioners who send in the form can ALSO suggest something for the pool if they like! (there's a question on the form for it) Now, like all requests, it's ultimately up to my discretion on whether or not I will draw something, but I will still try to keep it random and let it be a roll of the dice (or a RNG app).

There is no minimum requirement either! So people throwing only $1 at me, buying only one Ko-fi, or dropping anything bigger are free to offer a suggestion. But please limit requests/suggestions to one entry per person.

Now, as to what these will and can be:

-It will be a simple lined sketch with one color or flat colors. Depends on how many need doing, how I'm feeling when I draw it and how complicated it is.

-It can be up to 2 characters, but they may be less refined compared to a single character one. They can be the same character in 2 different states, or 2 different characters interacting with each other.

-No private requests please! It will have to be something that can be publicly posted and that you're fine with being perceived by others.

-In terms of kinks/sizes/etc, it will be something that you'd normally see on this blog or for my work! Mileage may vary, but more extreme stuff that I'd normally avoid may be glossed over when I'm constructing the pools.

-Unlike commissions, these will not go through a WIP stage/be modified after the fact! They end up how they end up. If you wanna be nitpicky, please use this opportunity to order a full commission!

-You're allowed to suggest OCs as long as it's yours or its owner has given permission to draw them in the context I am known to put boys in!

#Help a sista out #verzi's art

37 notes · View notes

trans-humanish · 1 year

Text

I really hate to do this again, but my spouse and I both came down with covid this week, which means they're out of work without sick pay on top of me being unemployed. We're definitely not going to be able to pay our bills as the month goes by, so any help at all would be a huge relief. Thank you ♥️

C/sh/pp $valkyriebutch

V/nmo @valkyriebutch

P/ypal @geast92

#Mutual aid

111 notes · View notes

hopelessrromantix · 1 year

Text

where i've been

TLDR: Life sucks and so does the government. Half my family got hit with some pricey medical bills plus our normal rent, so donating or sharing this would be beyond appreciated.

I know you’re all thinking “Roman! You haven’t written anything in a month, what’s going on?” First, valid question. Second, dear GOD where do I start.

Let’s keep things simple. This past month has been the literal definition of hell for me. Everything started off fairly normal, until my two remaining grandparents started having frequent hospital trips. My father spent most of his time caring for them, living mostly at their house. Given that he works most in our house, he wasn’t having an easy time. He ended up developing what his doctor said was “stress tremors”, to the point that he went on disability.

Well, even after my grandparents were a bit more stable (though still on close watch)... they continued anyway. Eventually it got so bad my mother drove him to the hospital one night and what do you know, brain tumor.

Queue several days of our family wondering what the everloving fuck we’d do without my Dad. It was several days of my dear mother (note the sarcasm) trying to control everything, my brother trying to continue school, and me taking care of the house and our pets.

We got the scans back not long after and, cue sigh of relief, the tumor was benign. It still seemed to be draining the life out of my father, though. The nurses and doctors were absolutely floored because his tumor was absolutely huge but he had no headaches. Imagine a baseball in your head. Yeah, exactly. He did however stare at the wall for hours and had a hard time getting out more than a few words. It’s probably one of my most heartbreaking memories to watch the strongest person I’ve ever known reduced to a husk on a hospital bed.

Brain surgery came soon after. He made it through and is currently in recovery. He’s speaking actual sentences, though he’s still got tremors and needs a lot of help. Still, I’m just happy to have my father.

That same week, we noticed my cat acting off. We have two of them and my cat, Gallifrey, is a talkative sweetheart who’s attached to me at the hip. But he was meowing differently and acting weird and all around not normal. One vet visit later and we find out he has kidney disease and pancreatitis. He’s being treated for it (new food, possible meds, regular fluid injections, etc.), but he’s still not himself yet. Talk about my life falling apart. This on its own my family couldn’t even begin to afford. The government seems to hate disabled people and paying for numerous doctor’s visits wasn’t remotely in our paper thin budget, much less the meds and treatment.

It was a lot all at once, and not even close to what we expected. Gallifrey is only 7 and my father didn’t show the typical signs of a brain tumor. So, I guess the universe thought “Y’know, this is a perfect time to kick Roman in the fucking balls”.

Routine testosterone blood test, just monitoring… until I got a call from the doctor. Turns out I have some untreated issues that none of my previous doctors caught. In fact, the only reason she caught it was because it was so severe. According to her she was shocked I’m still up and kicking and not in the hospital for a blood transfusion. Apparently my red blood cell count and oxygen level is insanely low, and she asked me to take a Covid test (negative), so it turns out it’s a completely different issue. I’m still in the process of diagnosing it, so that was a fun little addition. With my chronic pain and my mother in denial, I sleep most of the day and am in constant pain the entire time.

I’ll be real, I’m not a fan of asking for money. It’s not something I like, but it’s something I have to do. The amount of treatment we need, my dad, Gallifrey, and me, is more than we can hope to afford on our salaries (thank you, American healthcare!). The medical process in this country is a joke.

I’m asking y’all to help me out. Sharing, donating, whatever. Everyone around me has been kind and supportive, and I'm beyond thankful for that. If you can’t donate, please send it, share it, do whatever, I'll take absolutely anything. If I’m honest? The number I’m asking still won’t cover it, but anything is helpful.

Thank you for reading this far, thank you for sharing, for donating, for being kind, for absolutely everything.

I also understand that the internet is a horrible, despicable place, so I can give any breakdowns of what the money would be used for and give any medical info (not releasing family names or locations) to provide proof. The page includes a lovely little x-ray of my father’s head so you get to see the absolute insanity. If this isn’t enough please let me know and I can link anything else needed to confirm that yes, I am actually having the worst time of my life.

All in all? Thank you.

Donate here if you can <3

#since im not capable of offering much ill be finishing requests #ill prioritize those who donate so if you have a request enter it in the “words of support”#anything you request there will be done within 48 hours #otherwise ill be powering through as many as humanly possible to spread this around #thank you again

41 notes · View notes

eelhound · 2 years

Text

"Elites of both parties have a deeply vested interest in preventing mobility for working people. Homeownership and childbirth are prioritized because both serve big business. None of it is about supporting a cultural desire for family. It’s about keeping people in debt and maintaining an economic status quo. Once you’ve bought a house, once you have kids, once you have student debt, your options to leave your job, start a business, move, or become free are limited. That’s why the government will tell you — or even force you — to have a child but won’t help with childcare.

They don’t want you to be able to work from home. They don’t want you to be free from the yoke of employer-based healthcare (which is hardly a handout as policies are becoming increasingly unaffordable). No. They want you in the office, with less free time than anyone in the free world. Because when people have time to think, to innovate, to start a business of their own without fear that they’ll get sick and go bankrupt from medical bills, they are no longer under corporate control. Without the threat of student debt and medical debt, how could they get you to join the military and fight in their wars? As Sparky Abraham of the Debt Collective puts it: 'Debt is a form of social control.'

Sound conspiratorial? Look at the evidence. Liberal lion Malcolm Gladwell, who has waxed poetic about how he loves to write his bestselling books from cafes, lectured normal folks to get back to work. 'What have you reduced your life to?' he asked the commuting masses. Democrats bragged about halving child poverty with the child tax credits, but despite being overwhelmingly popular, these policies quickly went back on the chopping block. We can’t let parents have enough money so that one can stay at home, or work one fewer job. The market demands a desperate labor force, not a happy one.

Recently, Ken Klippenstein and Jon Schwarz at the Intercept broke news that on an earnings call, the president of Douglas Emmett Inc., a real estate corporation worth over $3 billion and based in Santa Monica, California, said a recession could be 'good' 'if it comes with a level of unemployment that puts employers back in the driver seat and allows them to get all their employees back into the office.'

A recession could be good? Employers back in the driver’s seat? That’s code for 'able to exploit their employees without their employees having any recourse.'

That’s the whole game. The reason so many elites hated the stimulus checks is not because they drove inflation. You see, they don’t tie the PPP checks for billionaires to inflation in the same way. Or Trump’s tax cuts for the rich, which added more to the deficit for absolutely no reason than anything that’s happened before or sense. And they aren’t talking about the supply chain crisis or the war in Ukraine, two key causes of inflation.

No, they talk about spending because they don’t want working people to have options.

When working people have options, they can demand higher salaries. When workers have options, they can bargain for a bigger piece of a pie. This is why union organizing is so important. It gives workers, who individually have very little power, the power of collective bargaining, the power to withhold their labor together and force employers to share profits more equitably. In the golden age of labor, the 1950s and ‘60s, CEOs earned about 30 times more than their employees. Wanna guess what that ratio is now? It’s over 300 to 1. And this is while workers are working more hours with less to show for it.

COVID relief unexpectedly empowered labor, and now elites are trying to put a lid on it in whatever way they can: restarting student loan payments, canceling support for families with children, and intentionally driving up unemployment.

We need to recognize this and use [the recent] student debt victory to continue to pull together as a community of working people and keep demanding more. In the richest country in the history of the world, education should be free. Yes, even for rich kids. Just like public high school is free for the rich should they choose to attend. Just like libraries. And the services of firefighters.

It’s our country, and we get to make it work for us."

- Briahna Joy Gray, from "Debt is a Form of Social Control." Current Affairs, 15 September 2022.

138 notes · View notes