Look, I know Tumblr is the website of chronically online introverts, but this is also the only website where I have any reach. And I live in America so this is relevant to me. So I'll go ahead and put this here.

Run For Something

Every year there's hundreds of positions that go completely unchallenged. Some of them for areas that you, the general American Tumblrite, probably care about.

I'm being so, so, so completely serious right now.

Run For Something

Run for something, and if you promise to never ban a book, the linked website and @fated-mates can get you in touch with volunteers for phone banking (aka letting voters know you exist, what you stand for, and convincing people to vote for you). Depending on your situation, they'll fund you, too.

(fated mates was more specific about helping Leftist candidates get $1000, but I'll let you listen to them on this episode and decide for yourself. I'm not affiliated with them.)

Women especially need to hear the message 7 times, according to some studies, to be convinced that yes, this is something they can do.

You can run for something! Run for something small. School boards. Municipal government. Run for something as a side hustle. Run for something because you're an empty nester and your book club stinks. Run for something so you can personally push things leftward, even if it's just one foot, that's one foot further towards your leftist goals no matter what they might be.

Run for school board because look at the fucking idiots currently running it. You know you're smarter than them. Fucking, if you've ever completed a school project you're probably smarter than them.

Run for something because Elon Musk is pissing you off. Run for something because you're trying to fight off despair. Run for something because you hate the idea that you can't do anything. You can do something! You can run for something.

But where to even start?

Don't worry, they got you.

Filling out this form will show you a list of state legislative and local offices where you can run based on your current address.

No matter the results, you will also be added automatically to the Run for Something candidate pipeline — check your inbox in the next few days for next steps.

Note: Data includes offices on the ballot in 2025 and 2026. Updates will be made throughout the year as additional information is available.

Look at me. Look me in the eyes. Two neighborhood people who were involved in being community support for my union decided to run for library board and not only did they both win, they beat out my least favorite board member who is now no longer my problem. These two new pro-union board members will now be on the board the next time we have to negotiate a contract. This makes my life, personally, demonstrably better and easier. Just because two people decided library board was something they cared about.

#life tools #run for something #if imposter syndrome is trying to run you down #look at who is currently in charge and remind yourself #just how easy it would be to do better than that

I'm not saying running for something is easy and being an elected official involves a good bit of work and responsibility, but damn it can really be worth it. I ran for my local library board and I can see the tangible results in my community based on decisions I have made there. Take that nihilism and helplessness!

Mesmerizing sea-themed 3D embroidery art by PieniSieni, THE CRAB PIN IS SO PRETTY!!!!!

I am also in love with their carnivorous plants hairpin:

Oh, and by the way, that Supreme Court ruling is where that Harry Potter money goes.

Context.

This isn't even a slight exaggeration. JKR has openly given at least £70,000 to For Women Scotland to campaign against trans rights and fund this exact supreme court ruling. x x

Her anti-trans Crisis Centre in Edinburgh has the director of For Women Scotland on the Board of Directors. x

We can presume she's given more (financial) support off the record or in other ways.

Rowling consistently makes passive income on all Harry Potter products. Multiple sources have cited that Rowling earns anywhere between $50 million to a $100 million each year from royalties. Forbes estimated she earned $95 million in 2017 alone. x x x

It is a well-known fact that she earns net profit percentages on all her IP. Every time you buy any HP merch, from anywhere, she gets a cut. Every time you watch one of her films, even streaming or just on the tv, she gets a cut. Every time you visit Universal Studios or Harry Potter World, she gets a cut.

And she uses that money to do this. To strip trans rights at every opportunity.

This is where that Harry Potter money goes.

the Cow Lore is definitely worth a read

*Scrolls past*

*reluctant sigh*

*scrolls back up*

*rebogs*

Wizards are not naturally immortal, in fact creating their own form of immortality is their graduate thesis.

“I have created a perpetual healing spell.”

“A classic. Congratulations.”

“If my soul leaves my body, this spell will keep it around and lucid enough to magic myself back together.”

“Effective. Next?”

“My spell feeds off the life force of microscopic things! When bacteria die near me, it adds to my total. Wiping down the sink with antibacterial cleaner gives me SUCH a buzz; I think I may have to dial it down a bit.”

“…I would be very curious to see your notes about this spell.”

Breaking News: Wizard Grad Student causes major religious schism by casting drain soul on microorganisms, accidentally proving Animism

I have been thinking a lot about what a cancer diagnosis used to mean. How in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when someone was diagnosed, my parents would gently prepare me for their death. That chemo and radiation and surgery just bought time, and over the age of fifty people would sometimes just. Skip it. For cost reasons, and for quality of life reasons. My grandmother was diagnosed in her early seventies and went directly into hospice for just under a year — palliative care only. And often, after diagnosis people and their families would go away — they’d cash out retirement or sell the house and go live on a beach for six months. Or they’d pay a charlatan all their savings to buy hope. People would get diagnosed, get very sick, leave, and then we’d hear that they died.

And then, at some point, the people who left started coming back.

It was the children first. The March of Dimes and Saint Jude set up programs and my town would do spaghetti fundraisers and raffles and meal trains to support the family and send the child and one parent to a hospital in the city — and the children came home. Their hair grew back. They went back to school. We were all trained to think of them as the angelic lost and they were turning into asshole teens right in front of our eyes. What a miracle, what a gift, how lucky we are that the odds for several children are in our favor!

Adults started leaving for a specific program to treat their specific cancer at a specific hospital or a specific research group. They’d stay in that city for 6-12 months and then they’d come home. We fully expected that they were still dying — or they’d gotten one of the good cancers. What a gift this year is for them, we’d think. How lucky they are to be strong enough to ski and swim and run. And then they didn’t stop — two decades later they haven’t stopped. Not all of them, but most of them.

We bought those extra hours and months and years. We paid for time with our taxes. Scientists found ways for treatment to be less terrible, less poisonous, and a thousand times more effective.

And now, when a friend was diagnosed, the five year survival odds were 95%. My friend is alive, nearly five years later. Those kids who miraculously survived are alive. The adults who beat the odds are still alive. I grew up in a place small enough that you can see the losses. And now, the hospital in my tiny hometown can effectively treat many cancers. Most people don’t have to go away for treatment. They said we could never cure cancer, as it were, but we can cure a lot of cancers. We can diagnose a lot of cancers early enough to treat them with minor interventions. We can prevent a lot of cancers.

We could keep doing that. We could continue to fund research into other heartbreaks — into Long Covid and MCAS and psych meds with fewer side effects and dementia treatments. We could buy months and years, alleviate the suffering of our neighbors. That is what funding health research buys: time and ease.

Anyway, I’m preaching to the choir here. But it is a quiet miracle what’s happened in my lifetime.

Really, it is. I look at the current 5 year mortality stats for my cancer situation and have to remind myself that the studies that was based on are 5, 10, or 15 years old. A person like myself, diagnosed now, might have much better odds.

What if Steven was... White Diamond's son?

Finally decided to pour my love for this Steven Universe AU by @chekhov into a White Pearl and Steven animation...

THIS IS SO GOOD????!?!??!?!

I'm absolutely in awe of this! It must have been so much work! Thank you so much - not only is the art amazing, the pacing and putting everything together with the music is top notch! I can't believe this - thank you thank you thank you?!

FEBRUARY 28TH 10AM PST!!!!!!!