So can you only get a public defender if you’re arrested? Are poor people generally fucked if they want to take something to court?
Pro-bono work is scarce and winning fees & costs is a big gamble unless you’ve got an insanely good case… very cool how the average american has slim chances of using our legal system. :)
Okay but LEGAL AID EXISTS. Are we overworked and underpaid? Yes! Are there significant limitations on the people we can help and the kinds of work we can do because of funding sources and, for some of us, really stupid federal laws? Yes! Are you entitled to an attorney in civil cases the way you are in criminal cases? No (except in some states like New York in particular areas like child custody). Does this mean that you have absolutely no chance of help if your problem is a civil problem? No!
Some things you can get help with from a legal aid organization (not every org will have everything):
- family law (custody, restraining orders, paternity, guardianship, child support, divorce)
- housing law (eviction defense, foreclosure defense, housing discrimination)
- employment law (discrimination, unemployment, help filing for social security benefits)
- immigration law (temporary visas, illegal business practices with wages or working conditions, deportation defense)
- legal education (explaining new laws or regulations to normal people and advocacy orgs, having Know-Your-Rights briefings, creating tenant associations)
Pretty much the only things that legal aid organizations won’t do is helping landlords evict people and dealing with personal injury stuff (worker’s comp, insurance law, suing Walmart for slipping on a wet floor, that sort of thing).
I have talked at length about how shitty access to justice is in the US, but I will never say that it is hopeless or that your only options are paid attorneys and pro bono. There is hope! There are people who will help you!
And just as an FYI, Donald Trump has consistently tried to defund our largest source of federal funding for legal aid organizations every year of his presidency, because we only help the people he despises.
Things food snobs are wrong about
- “Organic” isn’t better for you or for the environment. It actually means nothing of any significance at best and is sometimes even the more wasteful, more hazardous option.
- A shitload of “natural” food including a lot of imported produce is grown and harvested through slave labor in inhumane conditions.
- Pizza, fried chicken, french fries, fast food, candy bars and chips ARE nutritious. They are loaded with good things. Just because they have an abundance of excess fats and might not be healthy as a staple doesn’t mean they are “nutritionless” or that their calories are “empty.” Those are hokey buzzwords pushed by the people in charge of how much you pay for the alternatives.
- Eating healthier costs more. Much more. Looking down on people for their reliance on cheaper food is extremely classist and expecting everyone to be able to live off fresh veggies and cage-free meats is insultingly unrealistic in the modern world.
- “Processed” literally only means the food went through some kind of automated process. This can be literally the exact same thing a human being would have done to the food for it to be labeled “unprocessed.” Being processed does not make something less healthy.
- Chemicals with long, scary names are part of nature. An apple is full of compounds you probably can’t pronounce. A shorter ingredients label only means they didn’t bother listing all 300 things the product is actually made of and HAS to be made of.
- Preservatives, artificial flavors and other additives are not the devil. Most are harmless and in general they are part of the reason you haven’t already starved to death or died of a food borne illness.
- MSG is not bad for you at all.
- The fact that something might be made of “scrap” meats like pig snouts or chicken necks only means one thing: that we didn’t waste perfectly normal, edible meat.
- I DON’T KNOW HOW I FORGOT THIS IN MY FIRST VERSION OF THIS POST BUT GMO’S ARE NOT DANGEROUS TO EAT. GMO’S ARE SAVING LIVES. YOU’VE ALREADY EATEN GMO’S BEFORE YOU EVEN KNEW THE TERM. IT’S FINE. EAT THEM.
So I’ve literally done this twice before and so have several other people but here are sources on all of these, most of them fairly recent academic studies or otherwise the most up-to-date I could find:
- Organic food isn’t better for you: [1] [2] [3]
- Tracing food industry slave labor: [1]
- Healthier food is more expensive: [1] [2]
- Saturated fats (i.e. “junk food”) still provide needed energy, aren’t as bad as people thought: [1] [2]
- “Processed” isn’t synonymous with less healthy, because it means a lot of different things: [1]
- “Chemicals” also means a lot of things and many food components are misunderstood by the general public: [1]
- MSG is not harmful: [1] [2] [3]
- GMO’s are not dangerous to eat: [400 sources collected here]
The problem with forcibly seizing the assets of, say, Jeff Bezos is that his net worth of $161 billion does not mean he has that in cash. That’s the worth of everything he owns, including stock in his own company.
And the problem with seizing THAT is that it isn’t real. It’s based on confidence and what people might conceivably pay for it. And if you just seize it, that confidence tanks. And then that wealth evaporates.
The problem with capitalism isn’t that there’s a bunch of old dudes sitting on hoards of cash. It’s that they’ve collectively created a system by which they have ludicrous social and economic power based on the PROMISE of hoards of cash. That don’t exist. They have created a social stratum in which debt is money.
That’s why the exhortation is to SEIZE THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION, not GO GRAB ALL THE MONEY. Because the money isn’t real, and the need to go out and get it is blinding people to the fact that it doesn’t need to exist.
We’re all going to have PTSD and agoraphobia by the end of April
Like, my grandparents lived through the Great Depression and never really managed to give up their learned habits from that experience. Now, instead of “Why are you guys sitting in the dark? You can afford to turn lights on…” it’s going to be “Why do you feel guilty about going to the grocery store? You aren’t infecting anybody.”
I’m already planning to have big bottles of hand sanitizer, and gloves for the rest of my life, also I want to buy an old school freezer, you know those ones that look like a coffin? I want one, and I want to fill it with frozen meat so I never EVER have to feel this fucking terror of what I’ll do if I run out of food.
This is an actual phenomenon called collective trauma, and yeah it can do just that.
ok kids repeat after me
vinegar and bleach makes chlorine gas, which is highly toxic
ammonia and bleach makes chloramine, which is highly toxic
rubbing alcohol and bleach makes chloroform, which is highly toxic
hydrogen peroxide and vinegar makes peracetic/peroxyacetic acid, which can be highly corrosive
be careful about your cleaning products and dont get yourself injured or potentially killed ok
why it so dangerous to be clean
As someone who’s job is to handle chemicals like this, I need to state that this information is IMPORTANT. Plenty of people have accidentally injured or killed themselves at home because they didn’t know what kind of reaction certain substances have with one another. Play it safe and don’t mix chemicals.
Also don’t use bleach to clean up urine it’ll create chloramine bc of the ammonia in it and you can give yourself chemical pnemonia that way
Every time I see “helpful” posts telling people to mix these things while cleaning I cringe with my entire body.
reblogging in this time of heightened interest in disinfectants. please don’t get fancy
What if we kissed while i look deep into the abyss that are your eyes... u///u haha just kidding
Unless.........
That’s how we met. A bookshop in Paris. A woman introduces herself as Gertrude and tells me I do not want to purchase the book I’m perusing, as it’s impossibly bleak and, in the end, the protagonist is murdered! I spent my next decades hiding what I was reading, as she couldn’t help but spoil the ending of every novel or night at the theatre.
Anonymous asked:
Do you have any fantasy recs for wlw as well written as The Book of the Ancestor series (Red Sister, Grey Sister, Holy Sister) and Priory of the Orange Tree? Thanks so much for taking your time to do this!
lgbtqreads answered:
Oh yes - try Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar, Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear, and Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger, and keep an eye out for the upcoming Lady Hotspur by Tessa Gratton (January 7), Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey (February 4), and Stormsong by C.L. Polk (February 11) in the next couple of months!
Also, if you’re open to stepping into YA, try Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan - I think it’s a good entry point. And whether or not you’re into YA at all, I cannot say enough about Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust, which comes out in May 2020 - I will not be shutting up about it, ever. I also highly recommend her Girls Made of Snow and Glass, which is also wlw, though the romance is a much smaller piece of the story.
punkfistfights
