(no subject)
Sep. 13th, 2011 03:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* Obama is pushing a jobs bill that actually involves trying to tax the rich. It's also means to do job creating infrastructure spending and extend unemployment insurance. Eric cantor has already said that he will block the actual job creating stimulus part, and will only pass more tax cuts.
* Despite having repeatedly called social security a "ponzie" scheme, unconstitutional, and criminal, both in his book and in public taped venues like speeches, interviews, and a debate, he's now saying he didn't really mean it. If you believe that, I'd like to sell you a bridge. he is also claiming that people quoting him is an unfair attempt to scare seniors. it seems to me that what he saiod is scary and simply publicizing it is fair game.
* Speaking of bridges, an important bridge used by a large number of commuters use to cross between Indiana and Tennessee has closed due to crumbling infrastructure, forcing all those computers to take a thirty five mile/ two hour detour both ways everyday. Think of the gas wastage. This is not the bridge over the Ohio that throws chunks regularly. There are a huge number of closed bridges due to crumpling infrastructure. Mitch McConnell adamantly opposes infrastructure spending, even though his district is one of those directly impacted by the new closure. After all, it's ordinary people inconvenienced and wasting money they can ill afford to go around. After all, hiring people to fix those bridges would create jobs and help the economy. Republicans in Congress do not consider this an emergency and are already dragging feet on the jobs bill that would fund all this.
* Meanwhile, a stretch of route 4 in Vermont is gone from the flooding and people are hiking through the woods to get to work. There is, of course, no rush to fix it on the part of Republicans. After all commuting via a hike through the woods with winter approaching in Vermont is a problem that effects ordinary people, not billionaires. (For my readers abroad, Vermont is a mountainous state in New England, the north east bit of the US. They have huge snow falls in winter, and is far enough north, in the darkest bit of Winter, this snowy hike will be in the dark. The republicans are foot dragging over funds to fix it, just like they are with flooding and storm damage in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the Carolina, large swathes of the South, etc. Of course. After all, fixing these things would create jobs, help the economy, and make things easier and safer for ordinary folks living in those areas. Winter is fast approaching, which makes construction difficult. Since the republicans want to take as many months as possible so they can hold all the funding hostage to get Democrats to cave, according to Eric Cantor, chances are bad that we'll get funds before the snow comes in the North.
* The North Ana nuclear Plant was not built to withstand an earthquake as strong as the recent east coast one, and we were very lucky all that it held together.
* Meanwhile, Vermont has voted to close an expired plant in 2012, which was leaking radioactive tritium a while back, a fact the country lied about. The company is suing to keep it open on the grounds that only the feds can close reactors no matter how dangerous the plant is.
* The planned Republican repeal of healthcare reform would cost seniors an average of $3000.00 a year. Remember the monthly social security payment is $692.00 a month, so that's actually quite a lot. This doesn't touch all the people who would lose health insurance or fail to get it if it goes away. There is no proof that giving people health care will magically take away jobs, but republicans keep repeating it in the hopes people will buy into the big lie.
* It recently came to my attention that for many of you, the early to mid-90's is ancient history. This is a rant I posted elsewhere about the whole promotion of white middle class binary stereotype GL couples over the rest of the LGBTQ community by mainstream groups in the early to mid-90's.
The choice of using white middle class non-threatening couples was a deliberate move ion the early and mid-890's. It was part of the backlash to ACT Up and other radical responses to the AIDS crisis. The idea was, that as the movement focused let on the health crisis and more on things like housing and employment discrimination, the goal needed to me getting middle America on board. Part of that was the Donna Reed/Leave It to Beaver style poster couples. Drag Queens were pushed to the fringe in favour of straight acting men and butch/femme lesbian couples with babies, and the more flamboyant aspects of Pride were frowned on and officially deemphasized by the mainstream political groups. There were articles in the Advocate essentially telling folks to tone it down and look more non-threatening.
Yes, I had problems with this. It was the drag queens and future trans women and unreconstructed Dykes who were most likely to be harassed, arrested, or fired in the bad old days. It was those same people the movement was trying to shut up and sweep back into the closet who took the risks at Stonewall and in the early demonstrations. It was and is still the POC members of our community and those who are least gender stereotype conforming who take the brunt of the risk of injury or death.
The Advocate and groups like HRC pitched a fit when people started pushing for marriage equality on their own, because this was seen as too radical and apt to upset the straight folk. there was and is a lot of grassroots bitterness about this among folks my age or older.
It was deliberate, and it made me furious back then, and I'm still pretty pissed off about it.
* Squirrel and I had to forgo most of our sleep today, but we went to the meeting about housing. Squirrel was not technically required to be there, but lack of sleep and the time of morning added to stress, physical pain, and frustration render me barely verbal, so it is much better for Squirrel to talk for us in these circumstances. It's not solved, and I need to get my ass in gear starting tomorrow, but things may not be as dire as I thought. There is some hope that we can remain roommates, which means less chance of me ending up in cut rate assisted living by myself. I start apartment hunting tomorrow for both a better two bedroom and a back up cut rate single bedroom for if things fall through. I don't actually know if we are moving, but I need all the ducks in a row as we really ought to be signed wherever we are ending up by month's end.
By the time the interminable and repetitive meeting and the must do errands got done, we were hitting the exhaustion wall and still needed to eat. it had to be drive through fast food for squirrel, so we went to Dairy Queen, as the least offensive option for me as a vegetarian. I ate about six months worth of grease in one sitting. Yuck! And about two weeks worth of dairy. Hector was furious, as he waaaaaanted it! I opted out of swimming for the week, on the grounds that I'm already physically thrashed and haven't even started apartment hunting. On the upside, all for ebays got mailed and my swaps were in when I got home.
* In one of the packets came my very own bottle of Temple of Dreams in all it's lavender loveliness. It's a comfort scent for me, and I've only ever had imps before As it turns out, putting some on and going right to bed was likely a mistake, because dayum. The dream would make a wonderful horror movie or book, and I'm still mulling it.
* Despite about four hours of interrupted (Thanks, Hector) sleep since I started writing this entry, my body is completely thrashed, and I simply haven't energy to catch up on whatever I've missed. Apologies. Tomorrow, maybe.
* After Squirrel saw the True Blood finale, he came out of his cave to deliver a rant rather similar to mine. It's nice to know I'm not the only one angry enough not to give a fuck if there is another season. I'm still fuming and struggling for words.
* Huntress was remarkable satisfying: tightly plotted, gripping world, likeable and strong lesbian POC characters, some exploration of class issues, and all around pretty awesome book.
I am going over to say this on amazon, something I'm planning to do more of because authors need money and encouragement to eat and keep producing things like this.
* I've started The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and it is absolutely living up to the hype. It's an important book, with so much to say about race and class in America. It's also a rare book with a disabled main character. I have been extremely fond of Sherman Alexie for years, as a writer, activist, and parent, and it pleases me that he's hitting this one out of the park.
* The Clutch:
* Despite having repeatedly called social security a "ponzie" scheme, unconstitutional, and criminal, both in his book and in public taped venues like speeches, interviews, and a debate, he's now saying he didn't really mean it. If you believe that, I'd like to sell you a bridge. he is also claiming that people quoting him is an unfair attempt to scare seniors. it seems to me that what he saiod is scary and simply publicizing it is fair game.
* Speaking of bridges, an important bridge used by a large number of commuters use to cross between Indiana and Tennessee has closed due to crumbling infrastructure, forcing all those computers to take a thirty five mile/ two hour detour both ways everyday. Think of the gas wastage. This is not the bridge over the Ohio that throws chunks regularly. There are a huge number of closed bridges due to crumpling infrastructure. Mitch McConnell adamantly opposes infrastructure spending, even though his district is one of those directly impacted by the new closure. After all, it's ordinary people inconvenienced and wasting money they can ill afford to go around. After all, hiring people to fix those bridges would create jobs and help the economy. Republicans in Congress do not consider this an emergency and are already dragging feet on the jobs bill that would fund all this.
* Meanwhile, a stretch of route 4 in Vermont is gone from the flooding and people are hiking through the woods to get to work. There is, of course, no rush to fix it on the part of Republicans. After all commuting via a hike through the woods with winter approaching in Vermont is a problem that effects ordinary people, not billionaires. (For my readers abroad, Vermont is a mountainous state in New England, the north east bit of the US. They have huge snow falls in winter, and is far enough north, in the darkest bit of Winter, this snowy hike will be in the dark. The republicans are foot dragging over funds to fix it, just like they are with flooding and storm damage in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the Carolina, large swathes of the South, etc. Of course. After all, fixing these things would create jobs, help the economy, and make things easier and safer for ordinary folks living in those areas. Winter is fast approaching, which makes construction difficult. Since the republicans want to take as many months as possible so they can hold all the funding hostage to get Democrats to cave, according to Eric Cantor, chances are bad that we'll get funds before the snow comes in the North.
* The North Ana nuclear Plant was not built to withstand an earthquake as strong as the recent east coast one, and we were very lucky all that it held together.
* Meanwhile, Vermont has voted to close an expired plant in 2012, which was leaking radioactive tritium a while back, a fact the country lied about. The company is suing to keep it open on the grounds that only the feds can close reactors no matter how dangerous the plant is.
* The planned Republican repeal of healthcare reform would cost seniors an average of $3000.00 a year. Remember the monthly social security payment is $692.00 a month, so that's actually quite a lot. This doesn't touch all the people who would lose health insurance or fail to get it if it goes away. There is no proof that giving people health care will magically take away jobs, but republicans keep repeating it in the hopes people will buy into the big lie.
* It recently came to my attention that for many of you, the early to mid-90's is ancient history. This is a rant I posted elsewhere about the whole promotion of white middle class binary stereotype GL couples over the rest of the LGBTQ community by mainstream groups in the early to mid-90's.
The choice of using white middle class non-threatening couples was a deliberate move ion the early and mid-890's. It was part of the backlash to ACT Up and other radical responses to the AIDS crisis. The idea was, that as the movement focused let on the health crisis and more on things like housing and employment discrimination, the goal needed to me getting middle America on board. Part of that was the Donna Reed/Leave It to Beaver style poster couples. Drag Queens were pushed to the fringe in favour of straight acting men and butch/femme lesbian couples with babies, and the more flamboyant aspects of Pride were frowned on and officially deemphasized by the mainstream political groups. There were articles in the Advocate essentially telling folks to tone it down and look more non-threatening.
Yes, I had problems with this. It was the drag queens and future trans women and unreconstructed Dykes who were most likely to be harassed, arrested, or fired in the bad old days. It was those same people the movement was trying to shut up and sweep back into the closet who took the risks at Stonewall and in the early demonstrations. It was and is still the POC members of our community and those who are least gender stereotype conforming who take the brunt of the risk of injury or death.
The Advocate and groups like HRC pitched a fit when people started pushing for marriage equality on their own, because this was seen as too radical and apt to upset the straight folk. there was and is a lot of grassroots bitterness about this among folks my age or older.
It was deliberate, and it made me furious back then, and I'm still pretty pissed off about it.
* Squirrel and I had to forgo most of our sleep today, but we went to the meeting about housing. Squirrel was not technically required to be there, but lack of sleep and the time of morning added to stress, physical pain, and frustration render me barely verbal, so it is much better for Squirrel to talk for us in these circumstances. It's not solved, and I need to get my ass in gear starting tomorrow, but things may not be as dire as I thought. There is some hope that we can remain roommates, which means less chance of me ending up in cut rate assisted living by myself. I start apartment hunting tomorrow for both a better two bedroom and a back up cut rate single bedroom for if things fall through. I don't actually know if we are moving, but I need all the ducks in a row as we really ought to be signed wherever we are ending up by month's end.
By the time the interminable and repetitive meeting and the must do errands got done, we were hitting the exhaustion wall and still needed to eat. it had to be drive through fast food for squirrel, so we went to Dairy Queen, as the least offensive option for me as a vegetarian. I ate about six months worth of grease in one sitting. Yuck! And about two weeks worth of dairy. Hector was furious, as he waaaaaanted it! I opted out of swimming for the week, on the grounds that I'm already physically thrashed and haven't even started apartment hunting. On the upside, all for ebays got mailed and my swaps were in when I got home.
* In one of the packets came my very own bottle of Temple of Dreams in all it's lavender loveliness. It's a comfort scent for me, and I've only ever had imps before As it turns out, putting some on and going right to bed was likely a mistake, because dayum. The dream would make a wonderful horror movie or book, and I'm still mulling it.
* Despite about four hours of interrupted (Thanks, Hector) sleep since I started writing this entry, my body is completely thrashed, and I simply haven't energy to catch up on whatever I've missed. Apologies. Tomorrow, maybe.
* After Squirrel saw the True Blood finale, he came out of his cave to deliver a rant rather similar to mine. It's nice to know I'm not the only one angry enough not to give a fuck if there is another season. I'm still fuming and struggling for words.
* Huntress was remarkable satisfying: tightly plotted, gripping world, likeable and strong lesbian POC characters, some exploration of class issues, and all around pretty awesome book.
I am going over to say this on amazon, something I'm planning to do more of because authors need money and encouragement to eat and keep producing things like this.
* I've started The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and it is absolutely living up to the hype. It's an important book, with so much to say about race and class in America. It's also a rare book with a disabled main character. I have been extremely fond of Sherman Alexie for years, as a writer, activist, and parent, and it pleases me that he's hitting this one out of the park.
* The Clutch:
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-13 03:40 pm (UTC)Re: True Blood. I'm going to give the show maybe two or three eps next season to redeem themselves and find out if that character is really dead. Then after that, I might drop it as well.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-13 11:22 pm (UTC)I'm also pissed about Jesus, and that Tara got shot protecting Sookie. It's so Bella Swann, to have a person of colour injured or killed for her ungrateful ass. Sookie's a shitty friend, and here Tara is getting her because of her again. I'm sick of Sookie. I think the show would be better if they just killed her off. It's free the plot from the books, reinject jeopardy, and let us get past all the guys mooning over sookie which is boring and cliche and trite.
But I'm preaching to the choir.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-13 03:56 pm (UTC)What is your price range for housing? If you want any extra help running around and getting applications or information, please let me know.
And a random question - Could you use some tomatoes? They are finally all ripening, and I have enough to share.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-13 11:28 pm (UTC)Yes, actually. Part of the problem is that we're up in the air on whether it's a one bedroom for me we need or a two bedroom, because I still haven't cleared Squirrel. It needs to be accessible or at least no stairs ground floor. If one bedroom, It must be between $514.00 and $689.00, but I'm collecting figures on two bedroom places in case they let me keep squirrel as an aid. Right now I'm phoning around town on the list of section 8 friendly rental places. I'll probably be doing that tomorrow too, but may need help later in the week or next week. If nothing else, having someone with to look at places is comforting.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-14 07:56 pm (UTC)I live at Pacific Rim Apartments, which is Section 8 friendly. The company owns a couple of other complexes, but the office is at my complex. So if you need anything from them I can pick it up and bring it to you.
A two bedroom here is $750 a month, not sure on what a one bedroom would be or if there are any available.
I'd be happy to go looking with you. And if you are in need of a camera for getting pictures of places, you could borrow mine.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-14 08:41 pm (UTC)I haven't looked at apartment prices lately. I'm assuming the increases have to do ith the shortage of housing in Bellingham. :/ I hope you have luck finding something.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-14 11:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-16 05:02 am (UTC)Water, sewage and garbage are covered. Electricity isn't, and is provided via Puget Sound Energy. Comcast is right down the street, so internet service is very reliable. Washers and dryers are in the units, as is a stove and fridge. (Pure luxury, I know.)
Service calls are free, except when the tenant is at fault (Like someone punching a hole in a wall.) Maintenance is pretty backed up, but thankfully there is a separate guy who just works on washers and dryers.
I almost forgot - there is a two cat limit (which they seem to be lax about), and I think the pet deposit has to be paid for each cat. When I asked about that, it was well after we had paid for the first cat, so I don't know if they just charge the same price each time a pet is brought in or not.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-17 01:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-17 04:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-13 04:00 pm (UTC)