okay obviously Ted Cruz going to Cancun or whatever right now is really bad optics but in a pragmatic sense, what could a US senator concretely do to help people in Texas right now?

He could be a leader. He’s in a position where he could coordinate relief efforts better than most people. It takes a lot of connections and a serious political network to be a senator.

Just to start - used his political clout to marshal volunteers to bring food, generators, water, to people - paid for some poor folks to stay in a hotel with his Cancun money - get on tv and organize blanket and water donations from other states - call on more facilities to open up as shelters - set up phone banks for wellness calls to seniors - advocate for Texas on the federal level to get resources from FEMA & others to where they’re needed - meet with ERCOT leaders and demand answers for people needing power - use his connections to coordinate regional support - work with federal and state leaders for an emergency interconnect to other power grids - fake it and maybe even pretend like he cares - do what Beto is doing - do what AOC is doing - reach out to donors to coordinate private and public services - I dunno he’s got a whole staff who could be working on a ton of ways to help. If he can’t think of anything to do, maybe he should find a different job.

^^This, so much this. Beto O’Rourke -- not a Senator -- organized 300,000+ volunteer phone calls to Texas senior citizens to check up on them, get them groceries, flag the ones who need help.

Imagine what a US Senator, with 8 years of connections & owed favors could accomplish.

Ted Cruz is worse than useless, he is an impediment.

I genuinely don't understand how people are drumming up the argument "but what CAN a senator do really" when compared to the average resident of their state they are literally swimming in the capability to do literally anything other than fly to another fucking country to pretend the people in their state aren't literally being frozen out of their homes by predatory power companies.

This is very much like excusing cops for shooting black people because they’re afraid.

If you’re afraid of the people you’re charged with protecting, you’re too big a coward to be a cop. If you can’t think of anything to do for your constituents in a crisis, you’re too useless to be in public office. If you can’t maintain your facilities well enough to keep the power grid up when demands on it increase in a predictable way, you’re not competent to get paid to provide utility services.

Fire them. Fire them all and get competent public servants on the job.

Harry Potter AU in which Fred and George are in different houses and they steal and wear each others ties whilst doing stupid things in hope of the others house losing points

Finally a Fred and George AU that doesn’t make me want to set myself on fire.

AU where Fred and George are in different houses and they get their hands on house ties from the other two houses as well. By the end of their first year nobody knows which house either of them is in and just take points off a random house whenever they see a redhead getting up to something.

The confusion runs so deep by the time Ron starts that Snape once takes points off Slytherin for Ron fighting with Malfoy.

There’s a few months in Fred and George’s second year when they successfully convince most of the school that they’re actually quadruplets, one in each house.

“George! Why are you wearing a Slytherin tie?”

“What? No, I’m Edward. Y'know, Slytherin’s resident Weasley?”

“Wh…huh???”

“Next you’ll be telling me you don’t know Hubert!”

“?????”

After this confusing quadruple mess, a conspiracy theory emerges that Fred and George are actually just one person, and there were never any Weasley Twins. To add fuel to this theory, Fred and George make a point to never be seen together (publicly).

When asked about this theory, Fred/George subtly insinuates that he used Polyjuice Potion so that there could be multiple versions of himself at once. This goes around the Hogwarts Rumor Mill like fire. The Weasley family says nothing to dispute it, not even Percy.

Percy makes polyjuice successfully for the first time in his fifth year, when he finally has sufficient motivation. Fred, George, Edward and Hubert walk into the great hall one morning, identical but for their school ties, and the chaos is so great that nobody realizes Percy and Ron are missing.

The Mummy (1999) + The Mummy Returns (2001)

TheArtOfTheMask Part2

Vader: [opening a desk drawer in Obi-Wan’s old room] Let’s see what this old fool kept in here…[picking up a piece of paper]  Obi-Wan: [in a letter] 

Dear Anakin, 

If you’re reading this, then you must be rifling through my belongings, which means you are either extremely bored (in which case I suggest going and tidying up your quarters, which I don’t need to see to know are a disaster,) or I’ve been missing for an extended amount of time and the Order needs the room to store extra chairs, or I’ve died, possibly while trying to rid the galaxy of General Grievous. If I am in fact dead, I hope this letter finds you well in spite of it, and that you have not gone off the deep end or murdered anyone in an attempt to avenge me. (…unless it’s Grievous, I suppose.)

You will find attached to this letter the receipts for several items in my room, such as the electric tea kettle. I hope you can at least return them for store credit. 

I’ve set up a college savings plan with the Galactic Bank of Coruscant, because I noticed that Senator Amidala is obviously pregnant, and since I am not nearly as dense as you apparently think I am, I presume the child is yours. The account information is in my safe, which I would give you the combination to except that I know you have been breaking into it since you were 14. 

If you do intend to eventually leave the Order, as I suspect you might, please make sure that you give the Council two weeks’ notice. It’s only polite, and you never know when you may need to use them as a reference. Even though I know you clash with them, they do care about you.

Finally, please make sure Duchess Satine’s nephew gets the inheritance I’ve left him (the information is also in my safe, and no, I’m not going to tell you any more details about this. I realize how much this is going to torment you, and I’d be lying if I said that’s not bringing a smile to my face.) 

Your blanket is in the hamper. Wash it on the gentle cycle. The password for the wi-fi, in case you’ve forgotten, is BuyYourOwnDataPlanAnakin.

Be well, my Padawan, and I shall see you again someday – hopefully many years from now – when you, too, rejoin the Force. Don’t forget to change the payment settings for Netflix now that I’m dead or you’ll fall behind on your programs. 

Yours,  Obi-Wan Kenobi  PS: Don’t let Vos speak at my funeral. 

This just breaks my heart.

It’s these little ones. Not the giant sprawling epics that attempt to rewrite the whole saga but instead these little glimpses that pay tribute to so many other little glimpses.

They just get right in there and twist the knife.

…I am sincerely flattered that this post has resonated with – and, apparently, emotionally destroyed – so many people. 

Colony wiped out by A SINGLE CAT

Yeah - these were the same Fairy Terns that chose an empty block next to a building site last yeah - I’d wandered over to see why there were so many plant pots and buckets half buried in the sand, and discovered that while there were warning signs put up around the block, they were only put up on three sides of the block :( Was very sad to hear about the massacre - loosing that many adults and chicks is a serious blow to the species

jesus

please keep your cats indoors.

While there is little an individual can usually do to stem the tide of environmental destruction, proper domestic animal management is one thing that individuals can actually help a lot.

This means not releasing any pet into the wild where it can be invasive, be that pet a cat, fish, reptile or what have you. Goldfish are invasive. Rats are invasive. Cats are not an exception.

This.  Cats have no business being outdoors.  Keep them inside, for their sake and for those of wild species.

always reblog

WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE

It’s okay, Seattle. You can call out Amazon by name.

A Short List of Shenanigans My Parent’s Dog Has Engaged In:

This is Arwen, she’s a Husky/Kelpie mix and a little Asshole:

I love her so much.

(If you got a laugh out of this, please consider donating to my Tip Jar or Paypal to get Arwen (and Charlie!) nice treats)

Evening reblog with an additional Shenanigan I just remembered:

One of the regulars at the dog park was an unfixed basset hound with an obnoxiously indifferent owner.  “Brad” shows up pretty much to smoke weed and let “Bojangles” harass the other dogs, in spite of regular complaints about Bo starting fights and trying to mount every dog, leg, and toddler in sight. 

One evening, Bo was particularly interested in Arwen, aggressively following her, nipping her heels and trying to mount her, even after her usual wolverine-like Snap’n’Snarl, which has tended to discourage unwanted suitors before.  Brad was Too Damn High to notice, as usual, but mom knew that if Arwen actually bit Bo, Arwen would be the one in trouble and was trying to call her when Bo made yet another attempt and Arwen finally had it.

Instead of rightfully tearing his face off, Arwen instead did what Mom described as “A Judo-style front-flip” that pulled Bo clean off the ground and threw him on his back, Arwen landing on her feet like a cat.  Bo’s stubby little legs didn’t allow him to right himself before Arwen  jumped on him, front paws slamming into his saggy basset balls, squatted over his face, and peed on him.

“ARWEN NO!!” howled my mother as nearly everyone else present laughed, but having made her point, Arwen daintily got off Bo, and trotted to the gate, ready to go home. Bo yelped but got up and skulked away, only moderately bruised, cowering under the bench by Brad, who finally noticed something might be amiss.

Mom remembers hearing “Dude, why is my dog all wet?” right as they were leaving.  Apparently nobody told him what happened, becuase Brad still brings Bo to the park, but Bo has much better manners now.

I read this whole thing to my mom and upon reading the end part she was like “OH MY GOD! Our dog Lady once flipped another dog and I didn’t know it was a thing dogs could do!!” 

So there’s that.

Update: Arwen was at the vet’s office for a check-up and daycare, and decided partway through the afternoon that the other two kelpies were annoying her, but she didn’t want to go inside to be kenneled for a nap, so she instead…

…ninja’d her way onto the vet’s roof despite there being three people in the yard watching the dogs and no clear way up there. She had a pleasant hour of watching the vet staff try to figure out how she did that and how they were going to get her down before mom came to pick her up.

“Arwen, get your furry butt down here!”

At which point Arwen obidently got down by jumping into a nearby tree that’s technically inside a neighboring house’s yard, shimmied down that like a bear, then walked out of their side yard and back around the block to come sit at Mom’s feet, putting her paws up like she expected a treat.

That tree is not accessible from the daycare yard. We still have no idea how she got up there.

Shine on you beautiful bitch.

This just gets better and better every time i see it

I…

I have fostered doggos for a good majority of my life and my brain simply cannot process half of the bullshit in this post…

What the actual fuck?

Arwen was trained as an Autism Service Dog by inmates as part of a prison rehab/service dog charity program.  So like, 90% of her Bullshittery comes down to:

1. She’s a mix of two extremely smart breeds 2. She’s a mix of two extremely energetic breeds 3. The inmates trained her to do lots of “Extracirriculars” like veritcal leaps, how to climb chain-link fence, agility courses, physical-comedy type tricks becuase they finished teaching her the regular Service Dog Cirriculum and wanted to keep working with her.   4. Due to said Extrcirriculars, she doesn’t have any fear of heights, strangers, animals, or the nonsense of other dogs.

She does do the Professional Service Animal thing when we put her vest on, but then she’s working and has things to do like teaching social skills to people or being a living stress ball to someone having a bad time, so all that brains, energy and training can be put towards a productive end, but if she hasn’t got an active job, Shenanigans Ensue.

I love everything about this omg

Update:

She ate a four inch hole in the carpet because someone dropped a pork chop there. She’s completely fine, it all passed without so much as an upset stomach on her part.

-also ate the garden hose because we weren’t spraying her with it.

-conned one of the guys that installed the AC out of his sandwich by pretending to bark at something on the other side of the house, and doubling back when he came to investigate.

-is back on the therapy circuit helping kids in a summer school program get better at reading by having them read books to her. Her favorite student right now is a boy from Venezuela who is still learning English who gives her a big hug every morning. She doesn’t normally like hugs but she puts a paw on his back to hug him back.

CHAOTIC GOOD

Pure.

What’s the mood Today?

My main problem as a writer is that I don’t write because “I have a story to tell”. I write because there are worlds I want to visit, ideas I want to explore, people I want to meet, conversations I want to hear, emotions that I want to express, and impossibilities I want to make real.

Which means that I still need a fucking plot.

Omg! YES. My issue every time!

hearing men say that captain marvel is not sexy enough Is the best thing that happened in 20gayteen bitch shes not for you she’s our hero

Look me in the eye and tell me a woman with an undercut that wicked is straight

y'all so hungry for a straight white actress with lesbian top energy but too busy trippin over cate blanchett when cobie smulders been here this whole time

@ffforgettable sorry but there must only be one straight white actresses to lesbian-top us all. you’re right tho we should get a couple more challenges.

chose your fighter:

I CHOOSE ALL!!!!

i guess that’s fair since a battle between tops in practicality would probably just be them changing up power possess at each other while seductively playing with some type of weapon… it’d go absolutely nowhere

some customers: oh my god i’m so sorry i have to ask you a question i feel so foolish for not knowing this already please help me but i’m so sorry forgive me other customers: answer this question before i’ve even asked it or i’ll kill you where you stand 

#1 has worked in retail

#2 hasn’t

Part of my latest story about Medusa

The opening of Medusa-prequel

At least something good came out of Florida tonight.