this reopens the ages old pokemon debate “is it ethical to catch a mr.mime? is mr.mime just a guy?”

Mr Mime has a humiliation fetish and Ash’s mom totally doms him

Hey please don’t type these words ever again

being as i am an idiot, and having been one my whole life, i just wanna say that i find it very easy to do nothing, and go nowhere. i eat chocolate late at night in the dark. i stand in the garden also. and i’m often waiting for something to happen. and i’m stupid.

Wаnnа liск Sandra pussy?

no thank you

i’m so very very tired. i wish i could just not care about politics. i wish politics were actually the arcane intellectual exercise apolitical people think it is and not, you know, life and death.

“You started young, right? What is your advice for young people?”

FINALLY!

Yeah. I try to say this nicely on panels and I can never figure out how to do it.

Unmute !

dude god could come down from heaven with a million angels and tell me that gif is pronounced “jif” and i still wouldn’t fucking do it

I’d just shrug and say, “Okay, thanks, Jod, I’ll keep that in mind.”

The debate is now over. I hope that the vanquished can learn to prosper under the winning regime, and that the conquerers are respectful of the refugee jiffers during this difficult time where they must find a way to reintegrate into society.

Shrek (2001)

Why is this so well rendered?

I’m fucking speechless

this is what anxiety is like

nah I think we should really stop glorifying cigarettes

you sound boring.

You sound like you’ve never had the scent of cigarette smoke ingrained in your clothes to the point where people in middle school thought you smoked at eleven because your parents couldn’t be bothered to go outside. You sound like you’ve never had your mother flick cigarette ashes out of the car window and have them fly into your face. You sound like you’ve never been kept up at night by the sound of your dad hacking up a lung because he has to get up for his midnight smoke. You sound like you’ve never had to run into a convenience store to get your mother cigarettes as soon as you turned eighteen and cringed at touching the box because you know they’re not only killers but government sanctioned killers because they can not only tax the shit out of them but ensure people buy more at the cost of young lungs and a once beautiful home now plagued with the smell of smoke and ash. You sound like you’ve never had a great grandmother who stopped smoking 30 years before her death who still got lung cancer and subsequently died. You sound like a Fucking ignoramus. Smoking isn’t Fucking cool, it isn’t fun to glorify, it’s disgusting and makes not only you but your children smell bad. Makes not only you but your children cough, get cancer, get sick.

You sound like a Fucking moron. Smoking isn’t cool. Grow the Fuck up.

No, you grow the fuck up. There’s mountains of constant judgment when it comes to smoking. How about you leave people alone and let them do what they want with their bodies.

There is a REASON. It’s not just their bodies they’re fucking. It’s never just their bodies with something fucking airborne. Especially when you have CHILDREN AND PETS.

My grandfather smoked in his house decades ago. We moved in. We started working on it. After just one day of having the AC off so it could be worked on, I could no longer stay in the house because the smell was coming out of the walls <I>so strongly</I> and triggering my asthma to the point where I couldn’t breathe. My grandfather is dead and his smoking still managed to effect me that negativity. It is not just their body.

My aunt took up smoking in secret as a coping method for her depression. My cousin found out and she was so scared for her mom’s health that she hid the cigarettes. But when my aunt noticed they were missing, do you think she had a calm conversation about the whole thing with my cousin? Nope. She stormed into her room in such a rage, my cousin was too scared to even argue. She just gave the cigarettes back and prayed for her mom to leave the room. There was no explanation for why she took up smoking, for why she was trying to hide it, no reassurance for her worried daughter, not even a question as to why my cousin took them… there was just addiction-fueled anger. Directed at a child who had no control over her environment.

And then there’s my own mother, who has never taken up smoking, but who grew up with two chain-smoking parents. My mom who has permanent lung and throat damage from a lifetime of breathing in smoke that she didn’t ask for. My mom who now takes daily medication so her throat doesn’t ache.

But, tell me again how smoking only affects your body?

I grew up breathing not only my step-dad’s cigarette smoke, but all his friends as they’d frequently hang out in the living room together creating a cloud of smoke that permeated the whole house. I got asthma at 10. I found a growth in my left lung at 30. I now have 1 lung. 1 lung and I’m still asthmatic. Fuck people who smoke around children.

If you can’t agree with this, then fucking unfollow the shit out of me. Too many people in my family have died. My grandfather lost his wife to Lung Cancer. He still smokes though. And my dad who stopped cold turkey when my oldest brother was born and went through hell to make sure his first kid wouldn’t have to also. But did it help? No. Because his mom didn’t care that she had a newborn inhaling her goddamned secondhand smoke. Don’t you dare say it only affects the smoker. Don’t you dare.

Points up. Same.

a while ago I saw a post that pointed out that Snape would have treated Harry differently if he had been a girl and looked like Lily and I’m so horrified at the truth in that statement that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it

fuck

That’s how u get Petyr Baelish

@againstme

I have like. 3. Lmao.

There are some things that I’m not OVERLY fond of but will eat if they’re in something. But yeah overall not at all picky XD

(One of the aforementioned not overly fond of things is ketchup and yeah I know that makes me weird lol)

37, bitches

google just made me so emo

oh my god I can’t stop crying

From a strictly marketing standpoint. This is the best ad of all time. Like…well fucking done Google.

Kevin Bridges: A Whole Different Story

…where’s the lie?

From a macroeconomics standpoint, Bridges is completely accurate.

The problem with most Tories (and many Republicans in the US) is that they either have big business interests at heart or have bought the lie that government is like a business. Government is not a business! Microeconomic principles, even ones that apply to entire industries, don’t apply to governments!

Here’s the fundamental macroecomic model of an economy:

(image from tutor2u)

Notice that the system is circular. The model shows that the economy inherently needs to be balanced. If some households are making hundreds of times the income of other households, they will put the vast majority of that money into savings and investment.

This is bad for the economy.

Some savings and investment is necessary. But too much means the little green arrows are siphoning off vast portions of the peach demand arrow (”purchases of goods and services”). This means that companies are fighting over a smaller and smaller pie. Even if you heavily fund those companies, many will collapse due to lack of demand for their products, unless they become monopolies and the sole practical source of their product. Monopolies are technically illegal in the US, but we have them anyway because of this problem (and a lack of enforcement).

The other way you can damage the demand arrow is by shifting the proportions of the purple income arrow. Most people make money from wages, so if you significantly decrease those relative to dividends, interest, profits, and rent, you’ll harm the majority of households. In turn, this again decreases the peach arrow because many households only need a set amount of a given product in a year. The fewer households that can afford the products, the lower overall demand, because the remaining households won’t buy up the difference.

Households with average levels of income spend far more money than they save, of necessity, and they do so at a relatively steady rate. This is good for the economy.

Households with incredibly high levels of income - millionaires, etc. - save far more than they spend. They tend to make their money off of dividends, interest, profits, and rents - not wages. Therefore, to improve the economy, including increasing tax revenues for the government, two basic steps are urged by almost all macroeconomists:

1. Increase wages, especially at the lowest end. This expands the tax base and drives up demand for basic goods and services, stabilizing the industries necessary to a decent quality of life: agriculture and food production, clothing, housing, education, transportation, etc.

2. Use progressive taxes, in which those who make the most money, particularly off of dividends, interest, profits, and rents, pay a higher percentage of their income as taxes. This allows that money to be spent directly on goods and services or to be redistributed to poor households, who will in turn spend it on goods and services. In both cases, money that would have gone into savings and investment instead goes into demand. This makes businesses more successful and a large number of households more prosperous. Society as a whole benefits from decreased crime, lower health problems, and improved public goods like education, roads, emergency response, infrastructure, etc.

Macroeconomics is the opposite of an individual business. Individual businesses study how to take the most pie for themselves and keep it. Macroeconomists - and governments - study how to make the pie bigger and distribute it in such a way that society as a whole benefits from the growth.

Conservatives: doing economics wrong for the past several decades by deliberately pretending that knowing how to run a business is anything like knowing how to run a government. Being fiscally cautious and being uneducated do not have to go hand in hand. (I’m both, for example.) But the rhetoric for slashing budgets has been laden with errors and ideology since at least the 1930s, and I’m tired of it.

ONE MORE TIME FOR THE MORONS AT THE BACK IN OUR GOVERNMENTS

today is Nov. 15. the FCC, under chairman Ajit Pai, will not listen to the public despite millions of comments in support of net neutrality. They are going to try their hardest to kill net neutrality, which in turn will kill the internet, which in turn will help eradicate democracy. it won’t just affect Americans, it has the potential to affect the entire internet, something we ALL use daily. you can bet your ass other countries will see america doing this, and use it as an excuse to do it in their own countries.

this is what buying a plan without net neutrality looks like there:

you have to pay MORE for features you’re already guaranteed to have under net neutrality. and in america, you already know how expensive everything is.

democrats AND republicans both want net neutrality. advocacy groups in touch with congress have said that if your members of congress receive calls from you, they are more encouraged and more likely to take action to stop Pai’s plan to gut net neutrality. after Nov. 22, it will be MUCH HARDER to convince your member of congress.

please, call them. call them daily.

https://www.battleforthenet.com/

hey guys, please reblog this version and don’t forget to call!!! if you are nervous about calling, you can use resistbot to send faxes to your reps and the stance app to pre-record your message so you won’t have to speak to anyone. (available in both google play and app store)

10.14.17

Blogging this tweet because this explains SO MUCH about the mindset of pretty much all the folks I’ve known who’re against single-payer, it’s not even funny…

This….

This never occurred to me. Not once. That Americans are against Health Care because they think it actually costs tens of thousands of dollars for a broken arm, hundreds of thousands for a complicated birth, millions for cancer treatment.

Because they’ve never known anything different. The idea that a broken arm is only a couple hundred bucks; a complicated birth a couple thousand; cancer treatment only tens of thousands; all easily covered by existing tax structures.

This explains a lot.  And it’s a good example of what I was talking about in my post on scarcity being used to prop up ableism – always question the idea that a resource is genuinely scarce.  Even if it seems obvious that it is, quite often that’s the result of careful manipulation and misconceptions that you’re not even aware of.  

And never think you’re too smart to be fooled by that kind of thing, it doesn’t work like that.  Similarly, don’t think people who are fooled by something are stupid.  Nobody can have all the information about everything, and nobody has the time and energy to investigate and put together conscious conclusions about every piece of information they’re given.  It doesn’t take being stupid, or even just gullible, to believe something like this.

I currently live in a country without free medical care and still, it’s enormously cheap compared to the USA. An American expat wrote a piece for our English language paper about how she paid more for parking at the hospital than giving birth to her baby that’s pretty interesting:

https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2016/01/06/healthcare-in-iceland-vs-the-us-weve-got-it-so-good/

If price fixing was actually enforced against medical providers…

If this is difficult to assimilate, consider the humble aspirin. There are no aspirins on Earth that are worth the money that USA hospitals charge. Aspirin - a simple cheap form of salicylic acid - is worth less than pennies and the formulation doesn’t vary. You can buy packets of aspirin for less than a dollar and a lot of that is packaging. In market value, individual aspirins are worth fractions of cents. Hospitals in the USA will make a spirited attempt to charge you wild amounts for them. Ten dollars apiece! Twenty dollars? Thirty? Who knows! Hurray!

I … did not realize this

I do need to add here that part of the reason medications cost so much more in hospitals is because the cost includes helping to pay for the people preparing (the pharmacy staff) and administering them. It may sound like giving an aspirin to a patient isn’t a big deal, but it actually is, because aspirin is generally used these days as an anticoagulant rather than as a pain reliever. Which isn’t to say that drugs aren’t massively over-priced here in general. They are. But part of not having universal health care means paying out a lot of money to coders and billers, which takes money away from things like nursing care, which is way more important. Seriously, one of the biggest issues that we have here is how many people and how much money we have to spend to deal with the byzantine craziness that is all the different insurance companies–negotiating with them, following their guidelines for what they will & won’t pay for, etc. The money to pay nursing staff (and the patient care techs, the pharmacy techs, etc.) has to come from somewhere, and it’s the nurses who, with a lot of care and skill and background knowledge, administer the medications to the patients.

Oh see in the NHS, the nurses just cast a spell to materialize the aspirins from raw fundament, already in a little paper cup, and we pay them in acorns that we leave under toadstools.

Sorry, that was uncalled for, I just liked the mental image.

So we are actually agreeing with each other, I think you possibly got confused (probably my fault) and took a different angle.

Let’s say that the cost of making a burger is $5, and a restaurant burger costs $15. Everyone says, “hey, that’s pretty fair. Five dollars goes for the burger, five for restaurant overheads - salaries and electricity and decor and so on - and five for the restaurant to make a profit.”

In the UK, they said “okay, we’ve decided that burgers are a human right, not something you should squeeze profit from. We will charge $10 for a burger. That’s the cost of the ingredients, plus the admin fees of making and serving it and so on. It’s a nonprofit, a National Burger Service. but you can still pay $15 for a private one at a premium restaurant if you choose.”

America looked at that and said “burgers are $45.”

“But America,” everyone said, “but …why?”

“Because burgers cost a lot.”

“Er, could you show your math?” Everyone asked, except they probably said “maths.”

“Yes. $5 for the ingredients, $5 for salaries and electricities and the restaurant decor and whatnot. $20 for profit. And another $15 to collect the profit.”

Everyone else says “huh, how … interesting!” And continue to provide their citizens with $10 burgers, which somehow functions.

So then some American citizens say “oh, we like the look of the UK’s National Burger Service. Should we do that too?”

And America goes, “what, suddenly you can afford to hand out $45 burgers to every random fucker you know? Burgers are $45, you fools.”

And the citizens say “oh, you’re right, that sounds expensive, sorry. Let’s not do that.”

And this thread, including Elodie, says, “by the way - burgers themselves, as burgers, are worth more in the $10 range, which is what other countries charge.”

And you’re like “NO ELODIE BURGERS ARE $45 BECAUSE YOU NEED TO PAY FOR THE CARPETS, AND THE BURGER BILLING DEPARTMENT, AND THE COLLECTIONS AGENCIES, OTHERWISE HOW WILL WE PAY THE POOR SERVERS?.”

But that is not QUITE what we are talking about. Healthcare costs in countries with socialised medicine do not include the paying for the cost of the salaries of the billing departments because billing doesn’t work that way under socialised medicine.

So one way we could start working towards that is by saying “the $10 burger is possible, and indeed it is practiced in many economies.” Then, I think, people will feel more relaxed about it, and will start to consider it without panicking.

America’s healthcare system is, like much else in a capitalist society, completely blown out of proportion(diamonds anyone?). Having made medical billing my career for the past 5 years, I feel qualified in saying that greedy money grabbers at the top are using our broken system to get more and more money(cough Epipen cough). Because with medical, the people paying the bill are the ones who decide if it’s necessary or not and how much it’s worth. Which is assinine. And, because every payer decides how much they think that burger is worth, the provider hikes their prices up to cover it. BCBS thinks the burger is worth $45, but Aetna is only willing to pay $40 for it and Medicare, because it’s government, is only going to pay $32.42, while Medicaid, government for the poor, is only going to pay $15.31. So the provider charges $55 on their bill, because there are some payers like Work Comp or Liability (auto injury) that are going to pay in full whatever you bill. The provider justifies this because well look at how many Medicaid patients they have! They are barely getting enough to cover the costs of the burger! If they are able to get more from other payers, then they can balance out costs and provide care to call. Because as a medical provider, they take a hippocratic oath to serve all. Further, when they have burger-consumers who forfeit their bill, it can pick up for those accounts that don’t get paid. This is the basis of the vicious cycle that is completely blown up. More and more people are being hired for both sides, the provider and the payer, to “make sure” that payment is being made properly. If we can get a one payer system, we can severely cut down on all these fabricated costs on all sides. We can get an impartial board to review procedures billed and decide their worth that either side can appeal to if they think something is too little or too much. With taxes paying for it, which mandatorily comes from everyone, there won’t be premiums(or any reason to raise them) because no one will be skipping the bill. Then, when our entire country is healthier because people won’t be going to work sick, getting more people sick, and perpetuating a cycle, we’ll be able to make more money as a whole to cover other things like education.

Reblogign because this is a very good response from one who works with such things, tho, I might as well put it in a more readable formatting/spacing, apologies to violetgalval, but you need to put in some danged paragraph breaks:

Oh no what a fucking tragedy

Why don’t you Google average wait times to receive a medical procedure. There are Canadians that come to the U.S. to get medical care rather than wait over a month to get it done in Canada.

I had cancer and im canadian dumbass i know full well what the wait times are like and its only long if its shit that can wait. Im sorry but im ok with waiting with a non life threatening injury if no one gets turned away from healthcare because they’re poor. The only canadians that go to the united states are rich enough that they are willing to spend the money to save a few hours waiting

I love that Americans love to trot out the BUT THE WAIT TIMES! Bullshit as if their own private practice doctors don’t have their appointments already scheduled through December.

Your medication has painful side effects? Too bad! Doctor Costalot can’t see you again until 15 weeks from now! Wanna be on the cancellation list just in case?

why is it always media that tries to be open and inclusive like steven universe, overwatch, dream daddy, that have the worst fanbases that run around telling eachother to kill themselves over inaccurate fanart and headcanon disputes

Because they try to be progressive and sadly the majority (or at least a very very loud minority) of the “progressive” people are the most toxic and “hungry” people out there.

It’s impossible to satisfy them, nothing is “progressive” enough.

You give them an inch and they’ll rip your arm off and take a mile.

This is partly why most artists, producers, directors, etc, are so reluctant to make more progressive content. No matter what they do, they’ll receive colossal backlash, so they just stick to what they know, the safe route.

Ironic really, that those that demand progressiveness are inadvertently stunting it.

Hey if this post offends you you’re probably part of the problem

i’m mentally ill too but fucking listen to me here. you need to take responsibility for your actions regardless of whether or not they’re a product of your mental illness. you don’t get to manipulate, gaslight, take advantage of, or straight up abuse people because you’re mentally ill! you don’t! what the fuck! why are some of you still thinking it’s okay to say things like “manipulation is okay because i have _____ and need attention from my significant other” oh my god. Don’t fucking do that