#american families

[jangillman]

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[spotlightstory]

Question: If you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care more affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance?

Trump: "Well I would do that and we are sitting down. You know, I was somebody - we had Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It's a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about - that, because look, child care is child care, couldn't - you know, there's something - you have to have it in this country. You have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers, compared to the kind of numbers I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels they are not used to. But they'll get used to it very quickly. And it's not going to stop them from doing business with us. But they will have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers we are talking about, including child care, that it's going to take to care. We are going to have, I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all the other things that are going on in our country. Because I have to stay with child care. I want to stay with child care. (What's that crazy self talk???) But those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I am talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just - that I just told you about. We're going to be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it's, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we will be taking in. We are going to make this into a incredible country that can afford to take care of its people. And then we will worry about the rest of the world. Let's help other people. But we are going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It's about make America great again. We have to do it because right now, we are a failing nation. So, we'll take care of it. Thank you. Very good question. Thank you." Link to video

uh huh, m'hmm... WTF??? Trump knows nothing about American families or child care. He's so disconnected and demented. Trump is not fit for office.

JD's answer on child care wasn't much better. It was basically "Get Grandma to do it" and "Deregulate it".

Fun Fact - US Deficit: the federal budget deficit in fiscal year 2024 is $1.9 Trillion. Adjusted to exclude the effects of shifts in the timing of certain payments, the deficit amounts to $2.0 trillion in 2024 - Congressional Budget Office dot gov

Import Tariffs: increase the price of goods and services in domestic markets by applying a tax on imported goods that is paid by the domestic importer. To cover the increased costs, the domestic importer then charges higher prices for the goods and services. Are Americans ready for Trump's $10 banana? Those 'trillions' he's talking about from "countries sending product into our country" will increase the price of those products !!!

We are already struggling with Shrinkflation, Greedflation and the cost of living. This con man is not fit for office. Vote Blue

[stillchugging-captisjuice]

The family is the institution in which children have their earliest education, their earliest experiences in the learning of languages, the nurturance of cognitive, emotional, and motor competences, the maintenance of interpersonal relationships, the internalization of values, and the assignment of meaning to the world. Furthermore, the family is the institution within which children first develop ... their educative styles - their characteristic ways of engaging in, moving through and combining educative experiences over the lifespan. Given the changes in the structure, composition, and character of American families since World War II, and particularly during the past two decades, one would have reason to expect a far greater range and diversity of early education - to wit, a far greater range and diversity of languages, competences, values, personalities, and approaches to the world and to its educational opportunities.

Popular Education and its Discontents by Lawrence A. Cremin (©1990) Chapter 2: The Cacophony of Teaching

[doghowto]

Man unintentionally teaches his Corgi sign language! 😊 Follow me for more smart puppers!

[tani-b-art]

Let’s talk about genealogy…

I’ve been doing something that’s been a bright spot for me this year! I’m researching my family’s genealogy! And let me tell y’all, just from starting only this year, it’s been a fun-rough! But so rewarding!

So, I’ll give a long yet brief little review of my journey thus far!

The spelling of names was the first hurdle I ran into. I’ve run into my great grandmother’s last name spelled two ways and then found her mother’s (my great-great) first name spelled one way on a website and spelled 5 different ways between obituaries)! Heck in my case, I’ve come across my grandmother’s obituary and her sibling’s obituaries where they all spelled their parents’ names differently! Official census may have this recurrence too — the enumerator could’ve not asked for official spellings from the family and just wrote it how they think it would be spelled. And you also have to factor in our maternal grandparents’ maiden names pre marriage etc. For the longest, I’d been searching for anything using my great-grandmother’s obituary with her last name spelled one way and researched and researched and researched some more only to discover that on the official census, the last name is spelled completely different!

With that being said, I’ve used findagrave.com, familysearch.org. How I even got to those sites were from asking others on online groups I’m a part of AND simply typing my relatives names in a search engine. I’ve had successful hits and unsuccessful ones but recently, I’ve gotten more successful hits.

If you are blessed to have your grands and even great-grands still with you, talk to them (which I unfortunately did not do when both my great-grandmothers were still alive-don’t make my mistake but in my dynamic, both my great-grandmothers spoke Louisiana Creole only so there was a barrier there but I could’ve very well asked my grandmother who was bilingual in English & Louisiana Creole/Kouri-Vini to help translate; thinking back on this, it would’ve been so nice to have these talks with both my great-grandmothers and to hear them confirm all the discoveries I’m making today) and write down what they tell you. Speak to your momma and daddy and aunties and uncles, cousins. Go to their house and look at pictures, look at the photo albums and ask questions! Go to your family reunions and take pictures of your relatives and take pictures of any photos a relative may bring and ask them who the people are in the photos.

Keep obituaries (those are super, super important & helpful and relevant because these are the first line of recording that can start the groundwork; if you have nothing else). Record and write down any and everything that’s told to you. Paper and digital copies of what you’re tracing (please don’t just keep a copy of any of what you find just electronically or just on paper, do both). I’m no expert but I’m just sharing to help others.

I haven’t done this just yet (I’m currently in another state) but the city’s Clerk of Court or state’s archival buildings too hold loads of information. Marriage licenses, birth certificates, christenings, property documents (deeds, purchases of all kinds).

The sites I’ve used so far are familysearch.org and findagrave.com. These have been jackpots for me! I’ve been able to get records of my ancestors from US Censuses dating back to 1940 and 1900 and there’s still more to go back further! I actually found my ancestors who were born in the 1750s! That was emotional for me—every find has been from my great-great-great-great grandmother and grandfather to seeing their children who are my great aunts and uncles! Especially when I found my great-great and my great-great-great grandmothers’ records! My great-great, a woman who we always had an original, old, physical picture of and my 3xs great grandmother who I had had a photocopy picture of from our first family reunion years back and to finally match their faces on all the documentation that linked back to them both—the records actually has these same photos I have…was rewarding! I sat for a good 5 minutes and cried happy tears!

Prior to these sites, I had only fairly solid information on my grandmother’s maternal side of my lineage, now I have more from the maternal side AND paternal too! And as I keep researching, more is coming up! It’s going back to the 1700s with more to go! So that’s beyond exciting! AND my family’s roots are all up in Louisiana! Through and through. No one ever left Louisiana since 1750ish (and I’m not finished)! Black Indigenous American Creole Louisiana roots run deep!

Our ancestors have been here for so long. Very deeply rooted history we have as Black Americans.

Look at that…all I initially really had in mind was to start my little family tree on my grandmother’s side with the 6 photos (with obituaries for my 3 grandmothers on both sides) I had of relatives and look where I’m at now! Started off with photographs and misspelled names and entered question marks for their birth years…as of today, I have correct spelled names and birth dates as well as departure dates, marriage licenses, census with their names and children’s names! It’s pretty amazing! I feel like an archeologist—excavating and unearthing all these beautiful treasures of them…of me!

Let’s talk about genetic ancestry testing……

*The 60 Minutes segment aired October 7, 2007.

*Henry Louis Gates’ segment was November 2010.

I always never quite understood how saliva alone could be the evident tool itself to be able to trace ancestry all the way back on the entire continent of Africa. Yet alone, how could that absolutely or partially determine which tribe you possibly share heritage with. I’ve seen comments where people say Gates was just joking, but all chances of a joke or not aside, this isn’t something to make a mockery out of. People truly are having confidence in this testing and genuinely want to discover their history, ain’t no time for comedy and humor.

The notion of Black Indigenous Americans “are lost because we don’t know where we’re from” has always been the catalyst to wanting to connect ourselves back to Africa and so, the excitement for Black Indigenous Americans to find their roots back to the continent of Africa would absolutely be high and this DNA testing would be the solution.

But I’ve always questioned — how can I (me personally, I cannot speak on anyone else) trace what could be an enormous amount of gap years from now to Africa if I’m not even considering to piece the centuries of years on American soil? If I’ve never done my American lineage yet, I’ve never done my genealogy of who my great-great and greats were here on American soil…how can I skip completely over 200+ years of direct lineage to simply get names of my great-great-greats or get their place of birth and anything else about them before I ancestrally trek the continent of North America and swim an ocean to cross to Africa?

Do you know your grandparents’ full names and date of birth and place of birth?

Do you know your great-grandparents’ full names and date of birth and place of birth?

Do you know your great-great grandparents’ full names and date of birth and place of birth?

Do you know your great-great-great grandparents’ full names and date of birth and place of birth?

If you don’t know the answers to these, then the first efforts should be genealogy-here. Not genetic testing that allegedly isn’t much accuracy at all. That’s just me.

Black Americans certainly have very traceable paper trails with all the detailed recording that’s been done on our ancestors. Census, ledgers, books, bill of sales, ads, etc.

If you don’t know this or haven’t delved into researching this at all, then you’re missing centuries and decades of your American ancestry that absolutely matters. That DNA testing should actually be records tracing for Black Americans. Fully. Because it takes so much effort and time (and money on occasion) to conduct this as it is. It takes alot of time and mental, physical and spiritual energy. The swap is the easy and apparently inaccurate path. But that genealogy will have you on a long road but a more accurate one with evidence. That was a huge reason for me not ever doing the 23andMe.

Everyone will go about tracing their genealogy how they need to and with what they have. And my advice, to Black Indigenous Americans is to start with your genealogy. Your American ancestry that is very immediate, here, in your homeland.

If anyone has done their ancestry through paper records, share what your success and setbacks and progress have been. What new discoverers have you made? What confirmation did you confirm? What did you disprove? Are oral stories matching up? [heads-up: there will be some families that unfortunately have no paper trail or the paper trail will abruptly just stop and the tracing ends there but that doesn’t mean you and your lineage stops because you are your ancestors’ continued legacy].

I hope you have fun doing it! It’s exciting and frustrating and relieving and confusing at times and absolutely rewarding! It’s tedious work! The pride you’ll feel and the proudness you’ll get for your bloodline! It’s worth it!

Black Americans, we were & are never lost, we were just misdirected. (And, we simply didn’t know this path was even the option). You just have to find your way that your ancestors left behind. They left behind their ancestral print for us and are our guiding light to find our path.

Your heritage, lineage and ancestral footprint is right here in America.

[nebraskaenergy]

Scattershot Friday

I must admit that I’ve grown bored with the persecution in New York. I’m still paying attention to at least as much as Megyn presents. But I also find that I have little to add to what she says, So if you want to know what I think, Check her out. My main conclusion is that Michael Cohen, like Melvin Bragg, and several others are lying scumbags whom I wouldn’t trust to sweep the floor. President…

[bitchfitch]

Hey I just realized I don't think I know any American irl who doesn't have an immigrant ancestor within living memory and want to see if that's a me thing or just an average situation

[bluejayscrying]

JASON GETS AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT DOG

i get there have been a few dogs in the batman years, but i feel like Jason deserves his own.

He names it something pretty basic like Rusty or Max but the best bit is that like Jason, a streak of the dog's shaggy hair is white and he has his own red jumper to keep him warm because Jason might be a murderer but he's not a villain goddamnit!

Jason completely forgets to mention he got a dog, so the entire batfam is under the impression Jason either got a very clingy boyfriend, or it was a codeword for something else. Either way, they were too baffled to question it.

Jason, after patrol: sorry guys, I can't go back to the cave...yeah Max is waiting for me and I don't think I can resist his cute face

Tim and Duke: ahahaha yeah...*what the fuckkkk*

Or

Jason, on the phone to Stephanie: That's cool, anyways- MAX NO!! get away Jesus he keeps getting his face in my crotch so annoying...anyways-

Steph, slightly traumatised: uhm..haha

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Justin Horowitz at MMFA:

Project 2025 advisory board members have attacked or outright called for the end of no-fault divorce, the option to dissolve a marriage without having to prove wrongdoing by a partner. Research highlighted by CNN found “no-fault divorce correlates with a reduction in female suicides and a reduction in intimate partner violence,” including “an 8 to 16% decrease in female suicides after states enacted no-fault divorce laws.” Project 2025 is backed by a nearly-900 page policy book called Mandate for Leadership, which extensively outlines potential approaches to governance for the next Republican administration, including replacing federal employees with extremists and Trump loyalists and attacking LGBTQ rights, abortion, and contraception. The Heritage Foundation’s proposals have a track record of success — the first Trump administration implemented 64% of Mandate’s policy recommendations. Project 2025 is also supported by a coalition of over 100 conservative organizations, many of which have spent years promoting critiques of no-fault divorce as “destructive” for society — or even blaming it for enabling a “culture of death.” According to a Media Matters review, at least 22 Project 2025 advisory board members have made similar comments targeting, restricting, or eliminating no-fault divorce. Additionally, MAGA and far-right media figures have pushed for the removal of no-fault divorce laws across the country, and several local Republican parties in Texas, Nebraska, and Louisiana have called for the dissolution of no-fault divorce in some capacity.

Project 2025 partner organizations, including the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, and The Heritage Foundation, have called for significant restrictions or an outright ban on no-fault divorce.

[unhappy-sometimes]

retirement

update: now a completed fic

idk if this is dumb but i’ve been thinking about this for a while

a sxf au in which a depressed worse for wear twilight retired due to an injury of some sort. then he’s asked to protect a young girl wise rescued while they catch her captors. cue healing father/daughter dynamic and stuff.

i’d like to see twilight actually act like twilight, rather than some mask he’s putting on.

just two people trying to escape their past and find happiness.

[thenameisgul]

[devoursweetly]

[soundtracksforthebrian]

[ffcrazy15]

Someone needs to do an analysis on the way the Kung Fu Panda movies use old-fashioned vs. modern language ("Panda we meet at last"/"Hey how's it going") and old-fashioned vs. modern settings (forbidden-city-esque palaces/modern-ish Chinese restaurant) to indicate class differences in their characters, and how those class differences create underlying tensions and misunderstandings.