Happy Partially Muscled Skeleton Stands By The Perimeter Fence And Screams For Thirty Seconds Before Vanishing day for all who celebrate

Helpful post (on Bluesky - come on over!):

Tante Sarah's List of Things You Should Do Before January 20th, In Increasingly Dire Order (and a shorter list of what not to do):

(1/10)

1. If you have electronics that need to be replaced, particularly if you rely on them for your livelihood, do so before the tariffs kick in when there will be both higher prices and issues of scarcity. (2/10)

2. If have you have business with the federal government--need to renew a passport, paperwork related to SS or SSDI that needs to file, etc.--do it sooner rather than later. If the planned mass-firings of mid-level civil servants happens, these tasks could become immeasurably more difficult. (3/10)

3. If the legality of your marriage rests on the Dobbs decision, now is the time to put together the patchwork of legal documents--wills, durable powers of attorney, advanced medical directives, etc.--that queer couples relied on pre-Dobbs. (4/10)

4. If your marriage is unsafe, or just unhappy, and you are planning to get divorced, begin that process now. One of the planks of Project 2025 is to do away with no-fault divorce, and even if you have cause, getting divorced for cause is lengthier, more expensive, and more difficult. (5/10)

5. If you can get pregnant and don't want to be pregnant, now is the time to consider long-term birth control solutions (IUD or tubal ligation). If you can get someone pregnant and aren't actively trying to, now is the time to consider a vasectomy. It is reversible in almost all cases. (6/10)

If you live in a place where your gender identity puts you at great risk, now is the time to consider internal migration. There are organizations that can help, such as www.gardenofpeaceproject.org www.hrc.org/.../emergenc...

Things NOT to do: 1. Don't create a toilet-paper-in-early-2020 situation by rushing out and buying lots of Plan B. Buy as much as you or the loved one for whom you are buying it might reasonably need, but don't create shortages for people who need it right now. (8/10)

2. Don't waste your energy on performances of allyship like blue bracelets or safety pins. Join organizations working on building compensatory care networks and be an actual ally. A lot of these are community stalwarts like your local Urban League, JCC, PFLAG,

3. Don't waste other people's resources and energies by starting new orgs that duplicate the efforts of these existing organizations. Lend your energies and resources to the people and orgs already doing this work who have the expertise and networks to maximize the usefulness of efforts. (10/10)

shout out to the literal fan fiction happening a few blocks from my apartment. there has been this halal meat market on the corner for like 19 years that the owner’s son just inherited and directly across the street this woman opened a kosher grocery store and since day one they’ve had this very friendly fake rivalry, playing it up for the customers, it’s always been super goofy and light hearted. so turns out last night she proposed in the middle of the afternoon rush in the meat market and he said YES and she’s moving her store to the adjacent empty storefront on the left so they can have a JOINT GROCERY STORE it is so fucking cute I wish them the happiest marriage ever

Hi. Things are bleak, I know that. I know that we paid for Trump's last term with blood and it is likely the price will be blood again.

But listen to me. LISTEN.

You do not have to force yourself to witness horrors as an act of activism. It is not a form of activism. You can put your phone down, you can block that horrific video. We cannot win if you cannot fight and you will not be able to fight if you are hopeless.

Do not let them guilt you into this. People who are exhausted are easier to walk over. Take care of yourself, find community where you find joy.

You do not have to force yourself to witness horrors as an act of activism. It is not a form of activism.

^^^ remember this. do not exhaust yourself into hopelessness. take care of yourself and stay strong.

I know I've recced it before, but if you want a place to monitor the news while avoiding getting caught in the horrors, What The Fuck Just Happened Today is a really useful resource. They summarize political (& adjacent) news so you can remain aware of what's going on while still minimizing the emotional energy you expend on any one issue. (And they provide links and sourcing if you need to know more.)

Steve From “Blue’s Clues” Just Checked In On “The Kids He Raised” And Gave Them A Safe Space To Offload After Donald Trump’s Election Victory.

Interestingly, Steve doesn’t even speak in the 59-second video, but appears to give viewers a comforting presence as he enters the outdoors shot and “offers them” a hot drink.

And many of the comments thanked Steve for offering them this safe space, with one person writing: “As a trans man, I felt this to my core. I took the breath with you then started bawling. Thank you.”

“The man who is a staple of my childhood didn’t say a single word and it brought me to tears. Steve, thank you. I don’t know where we go from here,” somebody else wrote.

Another popular comment reads: “He didn’t say A WORD and said everything at the same time. This man should be guarded at all costs.”

“Neither of my dads checked in on me today. But you did Steve. Thank you,” one more acknowledged.

“So much responsibility on Steve’s hands to make sure we are okay. We need to make sure he’s doing okay too. I mean I’m not doing great, but he’s still looking after the kids he raised,” somebody else added.

While another concluded: “I bet you didn’t think you’d still be raising us all these years later, Steve, but thank you for still being here.”

For those who are not on TikTok or have never had Steve show up on their FYP, there is some very important context missing here...

Steve's whole page is just him asking the viewer how they are doing and then remaining silent while "listening" very intently. The comments are then filled with people updating him on how they are.

This is why the post-election post hit so hard for folks.

He didn't ask how we are doing.

He didn't need to.

He just gives us a mug of our favorite hot beverage and a thoughtful nod, then stands with you for a minute, listening, just to let you know that none of us are alone.

Wait! There's one more thing I forgot to mention. In case you didn't know and needed another reason to love him.

His Tiktok channel? All his videos are 59 seconds long.

Which means he cannot monetize them. Which means he makes zero dollars from this wonderful thing he does and he just does this to make us all feel like he's still looking out for us.

Steeeeeeve.

bingo

Kat Rosenfield, What We Sacrifice to be Seen

Gretchen Felker-Martin, What's the Harm in Reading?

Elena Scotti, We Have to Save Books from the Book People

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

HEY wanna read but annoyed on where to find copies of books?

Here's an archive with millions of PDFs of books and papers and magazines and essays and stuff.

I've been looking for such archives, thanks

obsessed with this costume

Project 2025 ain't gonna roll out all at once. So what we're gonna wanna do is make passing each individual part of it as difficult as possible, so there's less to undo once we finally get this country back on the rails.

Resist every step and do not get distracted by stupid bullshit. Distracting people with stupid bullshit is one of Trump's favorite political techniques. We saw it all over the place in the first term.

Trump will say something like "You know the Hispanics actually punch kittens, it's what they do."

And the news will be like "TRUMP SAID HISPANIC PEOPLE PUNCH KITTENS" for three weeks.

And while they're doing that the Republicans in Congress have quietly deleted healthcare.

Do not get distracted by stupid bullshit. Trump is a dancing monkey whose greatest asset is the ability to yank the spotlight off of everyone else. Keep your eyes on Congress.

Im gonna shill for Marie Kondo again but this is why I find her books (yes, books, the TV show is fun but ultimately misses a lot of the core ideas) so good.

A lot of home org advice fully misses this aspect. Kondo not only acknowledges it, but leans into it. And ultimately this helps motivste me to keep my space tidy - it's really hard to me to keep on the nebulous goal of self-care, but much easier to get up and put things away if I envision my salt and pepper grinders as like, retail workers who are now standing in an empty shop (my dining table) and just wanna go home (the spice rack where they live).

Normie tidying process: that heater should be put away for summer! I mean, I'm not gonna need it

Me: well it's just chilling and also I can't be arsed.

Kondo: that heater has done a good job keeping you warm over winter and now it should get to go have a rest in the cupboard

Me: !! Sabbatical for my heater!! Thank you for your service sir and have a very nice break!

just saw a tiktok or something where the person was saying they did this and they were on a hike and they were like "i managed to get myself to go on this hike because i promised my boots we would go" and its like. OH YEAH. THAT.

Oh yeah, she deserved that Oscar bad

He wants to fuck her so bad it makes him look stupid

That's his fiancee.

#car butch legally blonde

Oh we're not leaving THAT in the tags

more people would exercise if this culture didn't make it absolute hell

I teach martial arts. we play games with the little kids. they swordfight with noodles and throw foam balls at each other. in the summer, we take them out into the parking lot with water guns. in the winter, we have snowball fights.

the teenagers get swords and staffs and practice knives. we teach them moves from marvel movies that they ask about. they get squirt guns and snowball fights too. we let them goof off and climb the support beams and charge directly at each other in padded suits.

sometimes parents say they miss doing things like that. I tell them, "stay for an adult class. just try it out." we build obstacle courses and let them mess around with training rifles. they chat while sparring. we scream and cheer for them when they're in the middle of a circle. and then we send them out to the parking lot with squirt guns and snowballs.

it's exercise. it's healthy. it's an important life skill. and it's fun as fuck.

This is one of the forgotten but imo super harmful symptoms of diet culture-exercise being relegated to weight loss rather than jist enjoying using and being in your body.

Don’t like the gym? Ok, go find a line dancing club. A Tai Chi class. Play Just Dance every day. Arrange a tag football team. Go to a trampoline park.

Using our bodies shouldn’t be a chore assigned in shame.

“an estranged relationship with pleasure” he would do numbers on here

I'm often struck by the thought that even if Hozier hadn't made it in music, the likelihood of him becoming famous as a dril-level internet cryptid comedian was still extremely high

himbo this, bimbo that. in my day there was mambo, and there were five of them.

Pythagoreans arguing with Manichaeans

Yes YES The horse is out