#shout out to all the workers who do so-called demeaning jobs

[prettyboypistol]

Mercs comforting m!reader who had an absolutely godawful day at work/on the battlefield?

Tf2 Mercs Comforting You After A Stressful Day! || TF2 x Male! Reader

Readers job is ambiguous, but I imagined he has a job a lot like Ms Pauling

Scout

Notices how exhausted you look as soon as you walk into the room and immediately drags you to the couch to snuggle.

Super attentive, eager to please. (He especially loves praise from you when you're tired.. idk!!! It just makes him so happy for you in your tired voice to thank him!!!)

Gets your favorite snack foods alone so you have time to yourself.

Wants to cheer you up by talking, but he knows that the last thing you need rn is more chatter.

Bro the leg bouncing of trying not to talk is STRONG

Medic

"Oh dear, wanna bitch?"

Lets you complain and shittalk your co-workers and totally not gossiping with you noooo (he is the nosiest mf alive)

FOREHEAD KISSES FOREHEAD KISSES

He has a bit of a temper if you talk on and on about how your job is hard and will snap that being a Medic isn't exactly a cakewalk either, but apologizes.

Lets you sleep while he makes dinner for you.

Soldier

He.. well, he tries.

You walk into your room and flop down on the bed with a groan and he immediately asks what's wrong and if you're sick.

When you say you're not and just tired, he waves it off and goes back to what he was doing, ordering you to be at ease.

When people knock at your door to pester you, he shouts at them for you to fuck off 🥺🥺🥺

Doesn't snuggle but absolutely gives you space to de-stress.

Engineer

THIS MAN RIGHT HERE IS THE BEST LISTENER. BEST.

He sees you walk in and hugs you, sits you in his lap for snuggles, and just listens to you vent as he tinkers against your back.

He kisses your shoulders a lot and hums Lil tunes to calm you down.

Mans will put you to sleep with one lullaby I swear to god

Back scratches!!!! He is the best!!!

Spy

Offers you booze and is sorta like medic in the shittalking regard, but brings up more dirt on the people you're pissed at.

Coos at you in French, calling you a tired boy and mon petit roi (my little king) as baby talk. Yeah it's a little demeaning bUT you're too tired to care.

Little do you know he has been up for 36 hours and hasn't eaten since breakfast but he won't tell you that.

Massages with lavender oil!

Orders your favorite takeout and puts on your favorite show for a relaxing night in

Pyro

Gets like... scary protective of you.

They clearly glare at anyone that tries to bother you. There is a sense of 'if you talk to him, I'll gut you with my axe.' Goin on.

Pets and caresses on your back and head! You know that Pyros lap is all yours to lie your head on!

Makes you little origami things to amuse you, making silly little stories to dull your senses and entertain you.

They love taking care of you, actually. They find it grounding and relaxing to just focus all their energy on you.

Heavy

Picks you up and keeps you nestled in his arms.

"No talking to little man! He is very tired!"

Calls you a baby, but like, /affectionate

God he's so warm! Like a heated and weighted blanket! Heavy wouldn't mind keeping you in his arms forever and you certainly wouldn't mind staying there

Has tried to convince you to leave your job before bc it stresses you out.

Demoman

'Aye lad, bring it here!'

Offers you scrumpy and kisses. Def if you're visibly mad he starts kissing you a lot like 'aww~' *kiss* 'what's wroooong~?" *kiss* 'hmmm?' *kiss kiss kiss*

Jokingly offers you to "take out your frustrations on him" ;>

Like, if you agree that's great, if you don't that's great too that means more time for tea spilling

'Yeah! Teresa IS a bitch!'

Sniper

He can tell by how you open the camper door that you're pissed and tired.

"Aww hell, that bad huh?"

Likes playing with your hair while you lie on his lap. You've fallen asleep and woken up to elaborate braids a few times lol

Kisses your neck and intentionally slows his breathing so that you mimic him and calm down

Doesn't really like when you talk about your work, because it upsets him how much you get stressed about it. But he cares more about you more than he dislikes hearing about work.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

anyway since this shitcourse is all over tweeter today and I like to try educating folks where I can:

it doesn't matter if sex work is empowering. literally irrelevant. some sex workers love it, some wouldn't do it if they didn't need the money, and some have feelings that fall elsewhere on the continuum between those two things.

regardless, they deserve resources that will make them safer when they're working.

to be clear: this isn't about people who are victims of sex trafficking, which is entirely different than sex work. people who have been trafficked, of course, deserve the help and resources they need, but their mistreatment is not shovel to beat people who have opted into sex work over the head with.

this is the point where you might be saying "but Makenzie, if a sex worker doesn't like their job and is only doing it for the money, have they really 'opted in'? isn't that nonconsensual sex?"

first off - no, literally listen to sex workers talk about this. acting like any sex that someone has with a sex worker is inherently nonconsensual is as dangerous as implying that any sex must be consensual, because either way you're deciding that sex workers don't get to be the ones to decide which sex they did or didn't agree to have. sex workers absolutely can experience rape and sexual assault, and that's an issue that needs to be taken seriously, but acting like any sex for money is inherently violating muddies the issue in a way that doesn't help anyone except people looking to criminalize sex workers.

secondly: hey. listen. have you ever in your life had a job that you didn't especially love and wouldn't have done if we didn't live in a capitalist hellscape where money is required to obtain basic necessities like shelter, food, and medicine? yeah, of course you have. sure, without outside forces influencing you, you probably wouldn't have taken that job. that job probably wasn't empowering. but that doesn't mean you were being trafficked, and it definitely doesn't mean you didn't still deserve to advocate for better, safer working conditions at that job.

whether they like their work or not, sex workers deserve to be able to work safely and without being criminalized. shouting at them that they're objectifying themselves, that their work isn't empowering, that they're setting back feminism - none of that helps them in any way. imagine walking up to a group of factory workers striking for better pay and safer working conditions and telling them that they ought to just work on abolishing capitalism instead of doing such demeaning labor. that's an unhinged thing to say, and willfully ignores the reality that capitalist violence won't end over night and workers need money now.

a whole lot of so-called feminists show their entire ass when they actively fight against measures that sex workers support in the name of "protecting women," often working against the very thing those sex working women are begging to have implemented for their own safety and livelihoods. shut up and listen to what sex workers actually need if you want to help them so badly, and if you're desperate for them to quit sex work altogether then pay for their rent, groceries, student loans, etc, yourself.

if you want to learn more about sex work FROM sex workers who write from an explicitly anti-capitalist lens, and how badly sex workers have been burned by measures rolled out in the name of "protecting" them in various countries, I seriously recommend the book Revolting Prostitutes by Molly Smith and Juno Mac - it's one of the most enlightening books I've ever read.

[4lexturn3rs]

𝒮𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 - 𝑅𝑒𝓂𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝒴𝑜𝓊'𝓇𝑒 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒

Alex's P.O.V

I had all the symptoms; I was speaking in rhyme; I was crying candy hearts, and my teeth ached from the sweetness of her kiss. There was no denying it. I was lovesick. I can't sleep at night and when I try, she's all I dream about. She fills every space in my brain and I'm sure the boys are getting tired of my constant rambling, but I can't help it.

I always think of something to say but all that comes out is "did I tell you about how Maude..." She probably....not probably definitely didn't talk about me like I talked about her, I know that despite the way she looked at me, she still thought I was just gonna use her, probably for song purposes or summat like that. I'm not gonna lie, she was helping the writer's block I'd been having, but it wasn't like that at all, I knew I had done it in the past because those numbers the entirety of Britain can't get over... well they meant nothing to me. 505. It wasn't anything significant to me. They were numbers. 521. Now those numbers, those meant everything to me. They were what consumed my dreams...and my nightmares.

I hated her being there, in my nightmares I mean, she was always telling me how much she hated me and how she wished she never met me. The thing that scared me most is that it had happened with other girls...many other girls.

I'm such an arse when I'm drunk so when she told me I passed out a wave of relief passed through my body, I knew that if she had not wanted to kiss me when I was pissed that night, I probably would have said something to shatter her heart into a million pieces, and that's what's scared me most about this girl, she was already hurt, deepening that cut would send her right over the edge...and I knew I could.

Mallory's P.O.V

"Maude, get up we're going to the store!" I screamed from my room down the hall "WE?! WHO THE FUCK IS WE? IM NOT LEAVING MY ROOM TODAY" she shouted back "yes you are, and you're going to take those cups out of here because we only have two in the cupboard" I replied softly opening her door to find her hanging off the edge of her bed doing a crossword "how do you spell conundrum" she looked at me upside down " N-E-R-D that's how" I grinned back at her "whatever I'll be over here broadening my vocabulary, you can stick with your lol's and your omg's" she shot at me with a smile that looked a frown due to the angle of her head "I will thank you very much" I remarked at her as she shot up and the colour came back to her face.

If it weren't for Maude, I would probably be a woman of the night. Shagging random blokes for a few bucks doesn't sound too bad to me. Maude and I met in year 10 (freshman year) I had already lost my virginity by then, granted I shouldn't have, but I did and it wasn't like I could go back. I was the stupid one in the group. Maude was 21, a host on Popworld (and basically anything Channel 4) and still did part-time uni.

I'm not sure how she managed to do it all she was the hardest worker I'd ever met. All while I was 22, I had only done a few modelling gigs, but I had a ton of followers on my space so that's all I had, really. Of course, being internet famous had its perks, like meeting Matt.

Right, Matt, lets talk about that instead. Matt is the world to me, the whole world without him I would still be with Charlie Cheater, that's the name Maude and I came up with, this guy Charlie would fight with me and then kiss slags right in front of my face while he gave me side-eye, because he knew the power he had over me, he knew I wouldn't leave, but I did thanks to Matt. I met Matt, and we became amazing friends Matt told me that I shouldn't let him do this to me and all that soppy stuff, but I knew Matt was right, so I did, I left him, and I'm glad I did.

"Right then, are we leaving or what?" I heard a grainy voice come from behind me "I knew you would come" I smiled back at her. "Don't ever assume anything about me, I'll break your heart Mallory?" she said, taking the piss, something she did quite often but didn't bother me cause I was the same way.

"What are you getting out of this, I know there's something" I tilted my head in a demeaning way that I knew she hated "1) stop looking at me like I'm a shelter dog 2) I know you like to shop in Sheffield, so I texted Al-" "Al? You're calling him Al now?! Just the other day you couldn't stand him now you can't even be arsed to say his full name?!" I interrupted causing her to purse her lips at me and cock her eyebrows at my remarks "look, I don't suspect it'll go too far but it's worth a try, aren't you happy for me?"

Something in her face changed when she asked me. She was letting her guard down to me after five fucking years she was letting me in. Thank you, Alex Turner! "Of course I am Maude why wouldn't I be, I just don't want you to get hurt and honestly I don't think Alex or Al as he is to you, would hurt you alright, so don't go into this with all your walls up but don't let it all down either, I love you and I don't wanna see you hurt," I said softly "whatever mom" she snapped back, there was my Maude, but I couldn't let her brush what I said off so I grabbed her wrist as we walked out the door "babes, I'm not joking," I said sternly "I know Mal I'm sorry, but when have I ever been the type to let all my emotions spill out" she gave that demeaning look that I had given earlier "yeah, yeah, I'll back off," I said throwing my hands in the air "off we go then?" She smiled at me "off we go!" I said, doing her job and taking the piss.

[thisdaynews]

OPINION:War Of Words As Trump & Biden Square Off In First Presidential Election Debate.(Video)

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/opinionwar-of-words-as-trump-biden-square-off-in-first-presidential-election-debate-video/

OPINION:War Of Words As Trump & Biden Square Off In First Presidential Election Debate.(Video)

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Donald Trump and Joe Biden shouted over each other and insulted each other as moderator Chris Wallace lost control of the ‘dumpster fire’ that was the first Presidential debate on Tuesday night in Cleveland, Ohio.

Barely had the night begun when the two candidates began name calling and fighting, with Biden asking Trump to shut up and slapping him down as the president repeatedly interrupted his answers.

‘Would you shut up, man?,’ a visibly exasperated Biden said about 20 minutes into the debate after Trump interrupted him again as he tried to talk about the Supreme Court.

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And, about 15 minutes later during a discussion on the COVID pandemic, he told Trump again: ‘Would you just shush for a minute?’

The president tried to command the stage from out of the box, interrupting his rival repeatedly to make his point, counter Biden and push himself into the conversation.

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It happened so many times that Fox News’ moderator Chris Wallace stepped in, asking the president to let Biden finish his answer and chided him: ‘I’m the moderator of this debate and I would like you to let me ask my question and then you can answer.’

‘Go ahead then,’ Trump said, later adding to Wallace: ‘I guess I’m debating you, not him. No surprise.’

The 90-minute showdown between the presidential contenders proved early on that it would a be a knock-out, drag-down match, as they squared off over the Supreme Court, handling of the coronavirus pandemic, mail-in ballots, Trump’s taxes, Hunter Biden’s business dealings and the Black Lives Matter movement.

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‘You’ll get to see it.’ Trump shrugs off controversy over his taxes, saying he paid ‘millions’ as Biden says President ‘pays less tax than a schoolteacher’

‘I paid $38 million one year, I paid $27 million one year. I went –’ the president said, but was interrupted by Biden.

‘Show us your tax returns,’ the former vice president insisted.

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‘You’ll see it as soon as it’s finished. You’ll see it,’ Trump said.

‘Oh,’ Biden sarcastically conceded. Biden said Trump ‘takes advantage of the tax code’ and ‘pays less tax than a schoolteacher.’

Trump shrugged off the attack, saying that all business leaders do the same ‘unless they are stupid.’

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Just hours before taking the stage in the battleground rust belt state Tuesday, Biden and his vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris released their tax returns.

‘Stand back and standby.’ Trump’s response when asked to condemn white supremacists and militia groups

Trump skirted a question from Wallace about whether he was willing to condemn white supremacists and militia groups.

‘I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not the right wing,’ Trump responded. ‘I’m willing to do anything. I want to see peace.’

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When pressed further, Trump said: ‘What do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me a name?’

Finally, he said: ‘Proud Boys — Stand back, stand by, but I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem….. This is a left wing problem.’

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Antifa followers have appeared at anti-racism protests, but there’s been little evidence behind Republican claims that Antifa members are to blame for the violence at such protests.

Trump infamously said there were good people ‘on both sides’ after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to the death of a counter-protester.

Biden calls Trump a ‘racist’ when the two men debated race relations

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Trump was defending his decision to end racial sensitivity training for federal workers when his Democratic rival hit him with the ‘racist’ label.

The president said the training was resulting in ‘very sick ideas’ and teaching people ‘to hate our country.’

‘If you look at the people, we were paying people hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach very bad ideas and frankly, very sick ideas. It really, they were teaching people to hate our country. And I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to allow that to happen. We have to go back to the core values of this country,’ Trump said.

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‘Nobody is doing that. He’s racist,’ Biden said.

He defended the training programs.

‘The fact is there is racial insensitivity. People have to be made aware of what other people feel like. What insults them, what is it demeaning to them. It’s important to people. Now, many people don’t want to hurt other people’s feelings, but it makes a big difference,’ he said.

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And then he pivoted it to emphasize his blue-collar roots and hinted Trump is a snob.

Biden said: ‘It makes a gigantic difference in the way a child is able to grow up and have a sense of self-esteem. It’s a little bit like how this guy and his friends look down on so many people and look down their nose on people like Irish Catholics like me who grew up in Scranton.

‘They looked down on people who don’t have money, they looked down on people who are of a different faith.’

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Race relations, like other debate topics, resulted in a furious back-and-forth, shouting over each other’s conversation between the presidential contenders.

As the two men bickered on race, Biden invoked the death of George Floyd, the African American man killed by a white police officer in Minnesota and the Black Lives Matter protests that sprung up in the wake. Trump invoked his ‘law and order’ presidency.

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The president has accused Biden on multiple occasions of wanting to defund the police, which Biden has said he would not do.

During the debate, the Democratic nominee said most police officers are ‘good’ but the bad ones need to be rooted out.

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‘The vast majority of police officers are good, they risk their lives every day to take care of us, but there are some bad apples and when they occur, when they find them they have to be sorted out,’ Biden said.

‘Cops aren’t happy to see what happened to George Floyd. These cops aren’t happy to see what happened to Breonna Taylor. Most don’t like it, but we have to have a system where people are held accountable. And by the way, violence and response is never appropriate. Never appropriate. Peaceful protest is. Violence is never appropriate,’ he said of protests.

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Trump hit back: ‘What is peaceful protest? When they run through the middle of the town and burn down stores and kill people all over the place? That is not peaceful protest.’

The president also has complained Biden hasn’t said he’s for ‘law and order,’ a phrase Trump has used to define his presidency.

‘They don’t want to talk about law and order. Are you in favor of law and order?,’ he asked Biden.

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‘I’m in favor of law,’ Biden said.

But he attacked Trump’s approach of handling racial unrest across America.

‘The point is that is why he keeps trying to rile everything up. He doesn’t want to calm things down. Instead of going in and talking to people and saying let’s get everybody together, figure out how to deal with this, what does he do? He just throws gasoline on the fire constantly. Every single solitary time,’ he said.

‘It is what it is’ Biden blasts Trump over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic

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Trump and Biden fought over the coronavirus crisis by accusing each other of killing more people had the other been in office.

‘He panicked or he just looked at the stock market, one of the two, because guess what, a lot of people died and a lot more are going to die unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot quicker,’ Biden said onstage.

At another point Trump shouted it would have been Biden who’d have killed more – calling his response to swine flu pandemic in 2009 a ‘disaster.’

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Biden, who was serving as vice president at the time, hit back that 14,000 died not 200,000. ‘We didn’t shut down the economy. This is his economy that he shut down,’ Biden added.

‘If we would’ve listened to you, the country would’ve been left wide open, millions of people would’ve died. Not 200,000. And one person is too much. It’s China’s fault. It should’ve never happened,’ the president said.

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Biden shot back that the president ‘waited and waited’ to act when the virus reached America’s shores and ‘still doesn’t have a plan.’

Biden told Trump to ‘get out of your bunker and get out of the sand trap’ and go in his golf cart to the Oval Office to come up with a bipartisan plan to save people.

‘You’re the worst president America has ever had,’ Biden said.

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Trump snarled a response, declaring that ‘I’ll tell you Joe, you could never have done the job that we did. You don’t have it in your blood.’

‘I know how to do the job,’ was the solemn response from Biden, who served eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president.

Biden whacked Trump for coddling China in the early weeks of the pandemic, saying that the president didn’t push hard enough to letter American health experts in.

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‘He did not even ask Xi to do that. He told us what a great job Xi was doing, he told us we owe him a debt of gratitude for being so transparent with us,’ Biden said.

The ex-veep mocked Trump for saying the coronavirus would disappear ‘like a miracle.’

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‘And maybe you can inject some bleach in your arm and that would take care of it,’ Biden also offered.

‘That was said sarcastically,’ Trump shot back.

While discussing the importance of masks to protect against the virus, Trump defended himself for not wearing one all the time, before poking fun at Biden for wearing ‘the biggest mask he’s ever seen’.

Biden also pointed out Trump retorted ‘it is what it is’, as more than 200,000 Americans have died from the deadly virus.

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Biden’s son Hunter and late son Beau are brought into the debate

More than an hour into the angry clash, Biden said Trump ‘never keeps his word,’ and brought up comments that sources told the Atlantic Trump made about fallen troops – referring to them as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’ Trump again denied it.

Biden made an impassioned pitch for his late son Beau’s military service. He spent a year in Iraq serving in the National Guard.

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‘Speaking of my son, the way you talk about the military — the way you talk about them being losers and being, and just being suckers — my son was in Iraq and he spent a year there,’ Biden said.

‘He got the Bronze Star. He got the Conspicuous Service Medal. He was not a loser. He was a patriot. And the people left behind there were heroes,’ said Biden.

‘You talking about Hunter?’ Trump asked, rhetorically after Biden mentioned his son.

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Biden answered he was speaking of Beau.

‘I don’t know Beau. I know Hunter,’ Trump interrupted, then amped up his attacks.

‘He was thrown out, dishonorably discharged for cocaine use. And he didn’t have a job until you became vice president,’ Trump said.

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‘That’s not true. None of that is true,’ Biden responded.

‘He made a fortune in Ukraine, in China, in Moscow, in various other places,’ Trump said.

Hunter Biden received an administrative discharge from the Navy in after failing a drug test for cocaine in 2013. He was seeking to be commissioned as a reserve officer. He did not receive a dishonorable discharge, but an administrative one, according to press accounts at the time.

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Biden responded: ‘My son, like a lot of people we know at home, he had a drug problem.’

‘He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it,’ Biden said. ‘And I’m proud of him.’

Earlier in the night, Trump hook yet another shot at Hunter, saying: ‘And no wonder your son goes in and he takes out billions of dollars to manage. He makes millions of dollars.’ It was a reference to business Hunter Biden did with his firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC.

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Trump brought up a Senate Republican report that claimed Hunter got $3.5 million from the wealthy wife of the former Mayor of Moscow. Hunter Biden’s lawyer has denied the characterization.

‘What did he do to deserve it?’ Trump asked.

‘My son did nothing wrong in Burisa,’ said Biden – after Trump expanded his attack to Hunter Biden’s lucrative seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm.

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It resulted in still more angry cross talk.

‘He doesn’t want to let me answer because he knows I have the truth,’ Biden said.

‘It’s hard to get any word in with this clown – excuse me, this person,’ Biden said after delivering the insult.

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‘His family we could talk about all night,’ Biden said, but it was difficult to see how he followed through as Trump talked over him.

Then, Biden faced the camera and delivered one of several lines he appeared to have prepared to deliver. ‘This is not about my family or his family. It’s about your family,’ he told viewers.

‘He doesn’t want to talk about what you need … The American people. That’s what we’re talking about here.’

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Battle over Supreme Court nominee

Trump defended his effort to swiftly fill a U.S. Supreme Court seat, saying ‘elections have consequences’ and he had the right despite Democratic objections.

‘I will tell you very simply we won the election, elections have consequences. We have the Senate and we have the White House and we have a phenomenal nominee respected by all,’ Trump said in defense of his nominee, conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

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‘… I think that she (Barrett) will be outstanding. She will be as good as anybody who has ever served on that court. We won the election and therefore we had the right to choose her.’

Biden, talking over frequent interruptions from Trump, said the seat of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg should be filled after the Nov. 3 election, when it was clear who the president would be.

‘We should wait, we should wait and see what the outcome of this election is,’ Biden said, adding a more conservative Supreme Court would endanger the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare.

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Trump won’t say if he’ll accept election results, claiming mail-in ballots will lead to ‘fraud like you’ve never seen’

President Trump refused to say during Tuesday night’s presidential debate if he would accept the election results.

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‘This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen,’ he said of the November vote, citing mail-in ballots.

Trump has repeatedly claimed mail-in ballots will lead to a ‘rigged’ election despite numerous studies showing that is the case.

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‘If I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that,’ Trump said as many states have begun mailing out their general election ballots.

Joe Biden said the results of the election would be accepted by both sides.

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‘He has no idea what he’s talking about,’ Biden said. ‘Here’s the deal. The fact is I will accept it. And he will too. You know why? Because once the winner is declared after all the ballots are counted, all the votes are counted, that will be the end of it. That will be the end of it. And if it’s me, fine. If it’s not me, I will support the outcome.’

He defended mail-in voting.

‘It’s not been established at all that there is a fraud related to mail-in ballots – that somehow it’s a fraudulent process,’ he said.

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‘He’s trying to scare people into thinking it’s not going to be legitimate,’ he said of Trump.

The president said his supporters would be watching for possible voter fraud.

‘I’m urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully,’ he said.

Petty spats over who is smarter

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The two men bickered about their intelligence. Trump has called himself a ‘very stable genius’ and bragged about how well he’s done on a cognitive test, challenging Biden to take one.

And when Biden said he need to get ‘a lot smarter’ or more people would die from COVID, Trump was quick to pounce.

‘Did you use the word ‘Smart?’ He said he went to Delaware State,’ he snapped of Biden. Trump went to the University of Pennsylvania. ‘He graduated the lowest or almost the lowest in your class. Don’t ever use the word ‘Smart’ with me.’

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Biden hit back.

‘Oh, give me a break,’ he said.

Trump replied: ‘There’s nothing smart about you. 47 years, you’ve done nothing.’

When Trump was pressed to reveal his health plan, he spoke about a Supreme Court ruling that struck down Obamacare’s mandate that people buy insurance: ‘Excuse me – I got rid of the individual mandate,’ Trump said.

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Wallace told him it was not a plan. ‘That is absolutely a big thing,’ Trump responded.

When Trump and Biden kept going at it, Wallace implored: ‘Mr. President I’m the moderator of this debate and I would like you to let me ask my question.’

Biden was determined not to be caught with only a knife in a gunfight.

‘You picked the wrong guy at the wrong night at the wrong time,’ he told Trump.

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Trump accused him of risking left wing wrath by distancing himself from Sanders.

‘You just lost the left,’ Trump told him.

The angry attacks carried over into the coronavirus.

‘And by the way maybe inject some bleach into your arm, that’ll take care of it,’ Biden said, mocking Trump’s comments about injecting disinfectant to cure the virus.

The 90-minute debate was divided into six segments, selected by Fox News’ Chris Wallace, who moderated. They included: the pandemic, the economy, the Supreme Court, election integrity, the candidates’ records, and ‘race and violence in our cities.’

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The candidates did not shake hands when they take the stage at 9 pm ET on Tuesday night because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead they stood at podiums that are socially distanced from one another while Wallace sits at a desk in front of them.

There was no opening statements and the first question went to Trump.

It is the first of three scheduled presidential debates. Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, will debate in October.

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Trump suggested in a tweet on Sunday that Biden will be on performance-enhancing drugs during the debate, which could be a prediction of how he’ll try and rattle Biden during their face off.

Biden and his aides had rehearsed for any possible attacks from the commander-in-chief and the Democratic nominee has said he hopes he won’t get thrown off by any Trump allegations.

The president has insisted repeatedly – and without proof – that Biden took performance enhancement drugs ahead of the Democratic debates. He’s challenged him to take a drug test ahead of their debate here while offering to take one himself.

‘Joe Biden just announced that he will not agree to a Drug Test. Gee, I wonder why?,’ Trump tweeted Monday morning.

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And the president said during a press conference at the White House on Sunday that he wasn’t joking.

‘No, I’m not joking. I mean, I’m willing to take a drug test. I think he should too,’ he said.

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On Sunday, when asked by reporters if he would take a drug test, Biden replied: ‘No, I have no comment.

And his campaign put out a statement saying if Trump ‘thinks his best case is made in urine, he can have it.’

[hannah-deactivated20220725]

Some Notes From your [Likely Not] Local Annoyed Delivery Driver

Okay, so I have been a delivery driver for just under 3.5 years now, including my old delivery driving job, and I’ve just got to say... people are ASSES on the roads. And as customers. So just like people let retail workers rant and rave about their jobs, I’m going to rant and rave about mine because let’s face it: most people think that delivery drivers have it fucking easy but if you spend one HOUR on the road, you’ll quickly come to realize... no... no we don’t.

So here goes, my annoyed Rant about being a delivery driver:

First of all, I don’t want to specify what company I’m from for... reasons... but if you see a branded car on the roads, and they’re going the speed limit, don’t be an asshole and tailgate them. Do people not realize that most big companies (and even a lot of smaller companies, like the first one I worked for) will track the vans/cars/trucks and track their speed? And they’ll get in trouble if they speed? My company is starting to DOCK HOURS if we speed, so stop tailgating delivery drivers just because you’re in a rush. If you live in an area that you know has a lot of deliveries in it, leave early then you won’t run the risk of being late because you got trapped behind one of us.

Don’t cut us off. You don’t know how much weight our vans/trucks/cars are carrying and if you know ANYTHING about the properties of momentum, you’ll know that the heavier your load, the slower and further away you’ll stop. So if you cut off a large van or truck that’s carrying a full load (like so many do to me) and you suddenly have to put on the brakes? You’ll much more likely cause an accident.

Stop being rude in your comments. Do people not realize that drivers are not magic? And that we don’t MAGICALLY know where you live? And that we don’t MAGICALLY have the abilities that you seem to think we just magically gain by becoming delivery drivers? It takes time to learn to drive large vehicles. If you have a new driver, they may not be used to navigating neighborhoods, especially if they’re people like me that don’t get out much and that only used to drive on main roads. Also the fact that a lot of big companies like USPS, Amazon, etc will have you deliver in multiple cities so you don’t ever ACTUALLY fully get used to the areas unless you work for them for months or even a year or two. STOP BEING ASSHATS.

On a similar note, a lot of delivery places these days have the option of “other delivery comments.” Now, a lot of these companies will make these comments permanent until you change them again. If you choose to put a one-time comment on these to someone, please remember to take them off or every driver that ever delivers to you after that sees that comment and thinks it’s to them. It’s happened to me soooo many times. Similarly, PLEASE stop putting comments if your comment is “no” or “don’t have one” or something to those lines! When you put a comment on it, it pops up as an extra screen. We have to click through those screens and acknowledge that we read them while we’re doing the delivery. And we cannot do that until we reach the house! Please for the love of god, only enter text in these fields IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.

PLEASE TURN ON YOUR PORCH LIGHTS IF YOU HAVE A DELIVERY THAT DAY. Oh my god, this one is the one that, other than being tailgated, probably drives me the nuts the most. Please turn your porch lights on! Not all of our phones have flashlights, I shouldn’t have to use my personal phone’s battery using the flashlight to see my path to your door. It’s your box; we’re already carrying it all the way to your porch, as you’ve asked, so PLEASE for the love of god, turn your lights on so I’m not stumbling around, possibly bashing in my face because I missed a step again!

I’ve noticed there are a lot of people that either have their house numbers as similar colors to that of their house, rendering it difficult to read, or they have it in a really weird place to where it’s difficult to find. Or both! Please stop doing this. I have had to walk up to multiple houses thinking it was the right house then having to go up to two or three others because I was wrong. Please, please, please make sure your house numbers are easily viewed from the street! We have TONS of deliveries to do and it puts us behind on those deliveries when we’re spending 5 minutes just trying to find your house!

I’ve had a lot of customers put in their notes “my driveway is big enough to turn around in” and... yes, it was but BARELY. Please remember, if you put this note in your notes, that our vans are WAY bigger than your cars/vans and that we need a lot more room because while the turn radius is nice for the size of the vehicle, it still is likely not as tight as your vehicles!

Please match your delivery area with your notes. There are sometimes where the delivery area to deliver to will say front porch but then the notes will say “please deliver to back door.” if you want us to deliver it to the back door, please select that. We can get in trouble if we deliver to the “wrong place” too often so please make sure you’re selecting things accurately!

Pleeeeeease no more of those “no one ELSE has had a problem delivering to my house” comments. It’s demeaning to people who might have a more difficult time with directions. It’s also belittling and rude. All you have to say it “feel free to give me a call if you have difficulties.” Bam. Not belittling, and lets the driver know that they have another means to get ahold of you if they need to. There are, once again, such a thing as new drivers who haven’t learned to navigate their business’ GPS system and belittling them for that is not cool, guys.

And finally, please just remember to be courteous. We are doing hard work. I know a lot of people think delivery is easy, but just like retail workers constantly complain about difficult customers, we have to deal with difficult customers too but we also have to deal with idiot drivers, putting our lives on the line literally every day that we work, being tailgated, being belittled by customers and whatnot. Please please stop being like this! To anyone! There is no excuse to be talking to each other the way some of you talk to your drivers. Stop with the “why did that take so long” comments. Stop with the belittling “wow everyone else can find my house” comments. They’re not helping anyone, no, not even you. So why make them?

With all of this ranting and raving, there was one happy comment I wanted to make, something that a lot of my customers have done that has literally saved my life and I wanted to just give a shout out to customers that will leave snacks and WATER out for their drivers.

I have had an issue with eating & drinking well since I was a child and my mother literally couldn’t afford to feed us 3x or even 2x a day. We got those breakfast chocolate smoothie things for breakfast and one of those free lunches from school. Other than that, if I didn’t go to friends’ houses I’d be lucky to have dinner. But I’ve had customers that have left out small snacks and water or sodas or juices or whatever they wanted to leave out and you guys have literally brought me from trembling and weak from dehydration back to normal. You guys rock - this is a shoutout to  you guys! Thank you so, so much from the bottom of my heart.

And I guess that’s it. Sorry that this post is so long and so aggressive but this stuff has been building up for a while. I know there’s a LOT more I wanted to say but I think 10 things is good for now. Thanks for reading. Thank you all for supporting delivery businesses. We do appreciate your business. But just like people need to learn to be better to retail workers, waiters, and whatnot, delivery drivers get completely left in the dust for workers that are mistreated and that’s needs to stop because we’re not just mistreated by the customers, but also by neighbors & people on the roads.

Stop. There’s no reason to be like that.

Thanks.

~An Annoyed Delivery Driver

[ecotone99]

'[RF] The Funeral of Joan Jacobs'

Joan overdosed last night in her home on the edge of downtown. Romero, Joan’s husband called me early at work, telling me he hadn’t called police because there was hash everywhere and he needed time. “I need you to get here man, I mean I need you to get here man.” He kept saying. Turns out he needed me to distract Rocket, their nine-year-old son, so he could get away. Before I hung up, he mentioned that Rocket found Joan first, strung out on a dirty couch with dried vomit clung to her face.

The two were playing catch in the gated front yard when I drove in. “Uncle Alex!” Rocket screamed. Romero handed me the glove and went inside for the better part of an hour, dusting the hash off surfaces and disposing of pipes. Rocket talked constantly about last night’s game against the Tiger Sharks and I listened carefully for the moment he would think of his mother again. Eventually I thought to call a funeral home to arrange a booking for today. The woman on the line was trying to offer different packages and plan fine details and I finally told her all I needed was the cheapest option with a nice wood casket and a set of purple flowers. Before our parents, my brother, and the rest of the world knew of Joan’s overdose, the funeral was set for 4 p.m.

The authorities came and officers questioned Romero and I while the medical responders bagged Joan. We were convincing a group of officers she was using alone when an older Caucasian officer said, “Junkies don’t just happen, there’s always a supplier.” He examined us and faced Romero. “Where’d you buy the dope Hombre?” He was acting like some vigilante, pointing and stomping around drawing the neighbors’ attention. Romero avoided the bait and kept his mouth shut, only asking if all this was necessary.

The examiners finished their assessment and confirmed our confession of an overdose, and they offered an autopsy if Romero wanted it. “It’s obvious.” He said. “Please just send her to be prepared.” I gave them the funeral address and the authorities trickled away to file their paperwork. Rocket had escaped to play with the neighbors’ kids, so Romero and I went to sit with their parents and talk about Joan.

Among the people in this small part of the city, Joan was a Rockstar. She loved singing and would go around to bars with Rocket performing and collecting tips to buy ice-cream.

“The thing about Joan,” Stacie, the neighbor said. “Everyone heard her in the bars singing the classics in her raspy get-it-all-out sort of way. But you know I heard Joan’s real voice. On summer nights, she would sit on her porch and sing some of those old folk or blues twangy songs. I’d listen from the back door so she wouldn’t see me, but she sounded beautiful and I always wondered why she hid that side.” Her husband Dave agreed and told his own stories about her. It was a happy time until they started talking about addiction, assuring us it wasn’t our fault. I stepped away to call my parents. Mom answered.

“Mom, Joan’s died, hand the phone to Dad.” I said.

“Joan! No! Oh, my Joan!” She fell into a fit of crying and it took some time for my dad to wrestle the phone from her.

“Alex! Joan’s dead?” He asked.

“Yea, the funeral is at four.” I said.

“Four! Four today? Are you serious Alex? I can’t do four. Your mother and I have a board meeting at 6 we can’t miss. Those bastards want to raise taxes to fund higher education while our workers lose jobs!” He was screaming.

“Uh huh, sure… Yup.” I said. “So, it’s at 6, be sure to tell Ron Jr. if he wants to come.” Ron Jr. was my eldest brother, a real man’s man who was dishonorably discharged from the Marines for his drinking habits. Nobody but me bothered to fact check him when he came home saying his foot was twisted in a drill.

“Why don’t you call him Ronnie?” My father asked. “Nobody says Ron Jr.”

“Just tell him.” I said. We said goodbye and I sat down to chat until it was time for Romero, Rocket and I to leave. I told him it was best to keep her addiction a secret. “Tell them we’re waiting on the autopsy.” He nodded and we left in separate cars.

I stood by my mother for most of the service. Various neighbors and friends filtered in to pay respects. My mother would ask, “Who’s died.” Every half hour. She seemed sedated somehow and would then see Joan, saying, “Oh, my baby.” The other minutes she spent talking my father’s ear off with stories that didn’t happen, smiling all the while.

From the start, everyone was tired and disheveled. My brother, Ron Jr., came late, wearing his full Marine Corps uniform and cap, hollering about his fallen brother Joan and how he missed her, stumbling about and smelling the plastic flowers. My father didn’t question the erratic behavior and went to shake hands and hug like men. Dave and Stacie then entered, approaching Ron and Ron Jr.

“My condolences, you must be Joan’s father and brother, she spoke about you two often. We’re Joan’s neighbors.” I heard Stacie say.

Trying to comfort the men, David said, “It’s a real tragedy, there’s plenty of good people I know out there helping families through this opioid epidemic.” He handed my father his number. “Give me a call if you ever need some help, I’ve got friends in similar spots who help people like you.”

“What?” Ron said. “Alex what are they talking about?” I looked at Romero and he looked at me. Furious and sweaty, Ron and Ron Jr. rushed Romero who was standing with Rocket in near Joan.

“You Junkie!” Ron Jr. shouted. Romero stood and tried to calm them. I grabbed Rocket and my Mother, sitting them down in the pews. A shouting match of ugly and demeaning finger pointing ensued. Romero was trying to explain she began using after Rocket’s birth for the pain. They would have none of it and kept digging into his skin. In frustration Romero desperately said, “I didn’t do nothing! If anything, Rocket got her hooked!” Rocket heard it all—this was the last straw. My father tried rather stupidly to shove the much larger Romero. He failed with a spectacular whiff, and Romero returned with a haymaker, hitting my father square in the temple, knocking him into the casket and Joan fell onto him. Two unconscious bodies lay on the ground. My mother, in hysterical laughter, fell to the floor and crawled to the pile, laying down with them and whispering. Romero and my ex-Marine brother were wrestling for advantage and fell onto the pile. A crowded group of employees formed outside and the two were pulled apart by security.

Rocket and I stood in an open field with the priest as she descended into her final resting place. It was peacefully quiet and neither of us spoke, we let the priest do his job. When it was just the two of us Rocket said, “Uncle Alex, our family is fucking crazy.” We laughed for a while and when we were both satisfied with our goodbyes, I produced a baseball. We played barehanded catch until it was too dark.

submitted by /u/jamjacob99 [link] [comments] via Blogger http://bit.ly/2GipCVa

[bloganimedevlin]

Story attempt - maybe if I write it here I’ll have motivation

Just a heads up! This story mentions rape, assault, violence, catcalling and harassment, as well as victim blaming and dismissal. If these things are traumatic for you and will bring up bad memories or trigger any sort of negative reaction, please be warned. I want to discuss these things in a story, but I really really don’t want to harm anyone. There is nothing overly overt in the story (at least, I don’t think so), but I know that even mentions of a certain type of violence can send me into a panic attack, so I don’t want to do that to anyone else. 

October 14th, 2018

Ashura was 5 years old when a little boy in her class at school pulled her hair and called her dumb. He pulled her hair so hard that some of it came out. Ashura screamed, which attracted the playground attendant. Sobbing Ashura explained what had happened while the little boy ran off laughing. The attendant comforted Ashura by giving her a hug and telling her that the little boy was just doing it because he liked her. Ashura found that hard to believe, but since it continued for the next two years till the little boy moved away, and everyone said the same thing as the attendant when she complained, perhaps they were right.

May 5th, 2021

Ashura was 8 years old when she decided she wanted to be a doctor. She had excellent grades in every subject, especially the sciences, and she saw a movie where the (male) doctor was a hero who saved lives. She wanted to save lives. Her parents told her no, being a doctor was something for boys. She could be a nurse though, to provide comfort for sick people. Ashura was confused and upset, but after a year of being told the same thing, she gave up that dream and decided to be a mathematician. Again, she was told no. But she could be a school teacher if she wanted, good to work with kids. There were so many things she wanted to be over the years that her parents crushed out of her. Then they wondered why she had no future plans. Of course, they were happy with their plan that she would just marry a rich... wait for it... doctor. 

June 23rd, 2028

Ashura was 10 years old when her family started complaining about the clothes she wore. She tried to follow what they told her to, but no matter what she wore, they would always find fault. It was like she couldn’t win. If she wore light and breezy clothes fit for summer, her parents freaked out that she was “showing too much skin” and would be considered a slut. If she wore stuffy clothes that made her hot but covered her body “properly” her parents would exclaim that no man would ever want a women who was so boring. Apparently boys would call her names no matter what she did, and her parents and society supported that. 

February 2nd, 2032

Ashura was 14 years old when a group of men on the street yelled at her that she had a “nice ass, perfect for fucking” and “Let me rape you, sweetie.” Ashura had only gone out that evening to fetch groceries for her mother. There were other people around, but none of them said or did anything, so she felt scared and alone. Would the men actually try and rape her? How should she respond? She didn’t know and ran all the way home, even though her lungs burnt all the rest of the night and she only stopped shaking when she fell asleep. It would happen again and again, over the years, and it was always still as terrifying as the first time. Still as confusing. But it also became infuriating. 

April 7th, 2034

Ashura was 16 years old when her classmate tried to rape her at a party. It wasn’t even a party with drinking and drugs, it was a birthday party. He ambushed her and  dragged her into an empty room after she had gone to the washroom (the party was outside so the house was unoccupied) and tried to tear her clothes off. Thankfully for Ashura, she had been taking mixed martial arts since she was 11, and managed to fight him off. Running back to the rest of the party attendees (including adults) she showed them her ripped shirt and frantically explained what had happened. Instead of going after the boy, they told her she shouldn’t have gone to the washroom alone, and perhaps she had misunderstood the boy’s intentions. When she got home, the response from her parents was similar, but they also banned her from any more social events until she turned 18. The boy was still in her class the next school year and Ashura avoided him like the plague. Thankfully, he did the same. Unfortunately, Ashura still got teased by the other students about her “fake rape story.”

 August 27th, 2036

Ashura was 18 when she moved out to go to university. Her mother cried because “you shouldn’t move out until you have a husband to look after you!” Her father disapproved because she might be attacked by “strange men” because she lived alone. Turned out that her father had been right in his estimation of how shitty “strange men” could be, and Ashura’s fighting training came in handy more times that she could count over the next four years. A man tried to break into her apartment after having followed her catcalling her one evening. Another evening a man interrupted her supper at a restaurant to ask for her number, after she said no he stalked her for a while before trying to attack her one early morning a few blocks away from her apartment. She saved a friend from being raped. A drunk man tried to assault her in the middle of a supermarket of all places - no one helped - instead they looked disapprovingly at her after she had beaten him off. The list goes on. 

January 19th, 2040

Ashura was 22 when her work department got a new boss who thought it was okay to grope and demean and otherwise sexually harass his female employees. She nearly got fired twice before she was moved departments for “causing trouble.” This “trouble” was standing up to the boss and telling him to back down when he slapped his assistant’s ass every morning. All the other employees seemed to find fault in her, not him. The assistant halfheartedly laughed it off and told Ashura that she couldn’t afford to lose her job. Upper management sent Ashura to counselling, as if that made any difference. She was told she was “overreacting,” “couldn’t take a joke,” and “made people uncomfortable.” The new department had a nice boss, but some of her co-workers were just as bad as the previous boss, they just were more covert about it because they did own the place. Ashura continued to fight back against them as best she could. Especially Jackson Miller, a project manager who had his own assistant that he often verbally harassed. Ashura couldn’t stand him.

September 1st, 2044

Ashura was 26 when her fiancee of two years got really drunk at a friend’s party. The bar was upscale and nice, the party people were pleasant enough, and before this moment, Ashura found her fiancee to be sweet and decent. She planned to marry him, after all. She hadn’t chosen him, her parents had, but getting to know him had been fine, and he let her do what she wanted most of the time, so she figured he was supportive. But they had never spoken about marriage beyond his proposal. And it was this particular night that Ashura realised she should have checked. Theo, her fiancee, was pretty wasted when he started to call her by other women’s names. Weird, but she supposed that he was out of it and it didn’t matter. Then he started hitting on the waitresses. They were polite and firm, good at dodging his hands, and excellent at that fake light laugh that women give a man who they cannot get away from because of their jobs. Ashura tried to get him to stop. His friends, however, who were also rather drunk at this point, kept encouraging him and talking over her. Frustrated, Ashura left to go to the washroom. She ran into one of the waitresses there and felt that she had to apologise for Theo’s behaviour.

“I’m really sorry about how badly the men are acting this evening.” Ashura ventured, the other woman turning to smile at her, “It must suck, especially Theo - my fiancee - he has been really rude.”

The waitresses’s smile dropped, “Fiancee? He has a fiancee?”

“Err, yes?”

“Oh no..... I thought you were another one of his flings. Honey, he comes here all the time, and trust me, he has been a lot worse some other times. He is also always here with a different girl so I just thought.....”  

“Oh.” Ashura thought about it for a moment, “Well, my apology still stands. Also, thank you for letting me know.”

She waitress looked very guilty (guilty! Why? she had just given Ashura crucial information that was important to her relationship) as Ashura practically ran out of the washroom. Getting back to the table, she sat down quietly next to Theo and waited till there was a lull in the group conversation before catching Theo’s attention. He looked at her with a grin and asked what was wrong, told her to drink more. 

“Actually I think we should leave, I need to talk to you about something.” 

“Nah, babe, it’s not even midnight.”

“Theo, I insist, it’s important.”

“Lighten up, don’t ruin my fun.”

Ashura suppressed a sigh, “We. Need. To. Talk.” she said very calmly and firmly, even though she felt like screaming. Theo finally properly looked at her and, his words slurring together just a little, remarked,

“Women should really just learn to keep their mouths shut and their legs open.”

She should have punched him, she should have. But instead, Ashura gave a little laugh, stood up, took her ring off and dropped it in his glass, and walked away. As soon as she got home she called her parents and told them the engagement was off. 

Her parents were devastated. They asked her if she was sure, they said it was impossible, that Theo was a nice boy. They said he was just drunk. The dismissed the flings and called the waitress names. They told her that she was lucky to have a man would was not violent, she ought to put up with a few verbal jabs, they weren’t that important. Her mother cried, her father shouted. Ashura listened in silence and then ended the call be telling them to reach out to Theo’s family to tell the the engagement was off. That was it.

Theo’s parents were apparently furious, she heard from her mother later. Not at Theo, mind, but at Ashura. Ashura shrugged and said she didn’t care. 

September 3rd 2044

Ashura was called into the director’s office at work. She had been working non-stop for the past six months and had passed so many tests and interviews so that she could finally be a manager. The director very pleasantly told her that while she was an excellent employee, who had been with them for 8 years at this point (she started working at the company when she started her university degree), that they had found a more qualified person to be manager. Apparently, “more qualified” meant male, because the new manager was 23 and had been working at the company for a year and a half, he had only entered the workforce a year and a half ago after graduating. He didn’t have any knowledge of the projects that he was in charge of - projects that Ashura had been working on for ages. Ashura was livid. But she was civil about the rejection because the director was not too bad of a boss in general.  

September 5th 2044

Ashura knew she was probably going to get fired, but Jackson Miller had taken it too far. He had decided that because she hadn’t made manager, that it was a good idea to grope her. So she did the first thing that came to mind and kicked him in the stomach. He was taken to the hospital and she was sent home with harsh words from management on her behaviour. Never mind that he had grabbed her ass, she was clearly the one at fault. Management said they’d call her when a decision about what to do with her was made. So Ashura went home. Angry, but happy that she had finally done something to actually stop Jackson. And thinking that perhaps it was good she was going to be fired, maybe another company would value her more and be less on board with harassment. It would all work out, she had the rest of her life to look forward to, after all.

September 7th 2044

Ashura was 26 when the aliens “invaded.” 

To be continued...................

[flauntpage]

Refs, DOPS, and Ops Are Botching the NHL Playoffs

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are the busiest time of year for everyone in the hockey universe.

The players are subjected to a two-month grind and the media has to feed the beast on a daily basis. Arena workers, some of whom are pulling double duty with the NBA playoffs, are putting in overtime. The people who work for teams doing things like booking travel and coordinating schedules have to be ready for multiple scenarios as series conclude. Everyone has more to do during the playoffs.

Well, almost everyone.

While mid-April is the start of a hectic stretch for most, it seems that referees, along with the NHL's Player Safety and Hockey Operations departments, have already checked out for the off-season. They still don their uniforms or suits, but they may as well be on a beach. The work that was getting done during the regular season is piling up during the postseason, and no one at the league office seems to mind. They're still around, but they're long gone.

So: who out of those three groups is doing the very least in their jobs? I've ranked them in descending order, from the busiest, and therefore least damaging, NHL employees to the worst.

Oh look, a beach ball. Photo by Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

3. Officials

If you've watched a full NHL season, you know that the standard of officiating changes from the regular season to the postseason. A penalty is a penalty in the regular season; in the postseason, a penalty is a penalty depending upon the score of the game, time remaining, how many power plays a team has had, and which Fall Out Boy song played during the most recent stoppage. These are the excuses we've come to accept from officials as beaten-down consumers of the NHL product.

It seems like that standard has fallen even lower during this year's playoffs.

There are certain penalties referees have always had to call, like the delay of game for puck over the glass. That one remains a staple, but other usually sure things, like high-sticking infractions, have disappeared. Referees apparently have become so derelict in their duties that eating a stick is no longer an automatic penalty. Now it depends upon all those contingencies that used to apply only to hooking and tripping.

Go through some of the non-calls in just the conference finals: Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne playing the puck outside the trapezoid, Ryan Johansen cross-checking Ducks defenseman Josh Manson through the boards seconds before the Predators' tying goal in the final seconds of regulation in Game 4, and, most recently, Tommy Wingels delivering an elbow straight to the face of Scott Wilson.

As bad as officials have been, though, they at least have put in some work during the playoffs—or at least, they've put in more work than the next group on the list.

2. Player Safety

We're still working along the lines of the same unspoken agreement we have with the officials, but instead of game situations dictating penalties, it's star or series status that determines if an illegal play will merit supplemental discipline. If you sense that referees don't want to influence the outcome of games with a two-minute penalty, that feeling is 30 times greater for people doling out suspensions—or not, as the case may be.

It's either that, or NHL players have been so well-behaved in the playoffs that there has only been one suspension-worthy offense in 79 games. Who can be sure which is the truth?!

That single suspension was the result of DOPS succumbing to pressure last month to give the Blue Jackets' Matt Calvert one game for cross-checking the shoulder/neck/head area of Tom Kuhnhackl during the final minute of a blowout. They let it leak through friendly media types that there would be no punishment, but then had a change of heart and decided on having a hearing for Calvert.

Matt Calvert after cross-checking Tom Kuhnhackl, which would eventually earn a suspension. Photo by Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The latest outrage took place on Sunday afternoon. It was a 7-0 game between the Penguins and the Ottawa Senators when the Senators forward Tommy Wingels, with intent and malice, delivered an elbow to Pittsburgh forward Scott Wilson's head. The violation was as clear as day, but DOPS decided against suspending a depth forward for an elimination game. If that doesn't get you out of bed on a Monday morning to work, not much will.

But even with referees turning a blind eye to crime like a corrupt cop in a mafia movie and Player Safety more interested in doing literally anything besides holding a hearing, only one person has made the NHL look worse over the past six weeks.

3. Colin Campbell

I mean, who else would it be, really?

Hockey Operations, not Player Safety, handles things like Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf shouting a homophobic slur at someone on the ice during Game 4 of the Western Conference Final last Thursday. We're all adults here, so: the word in this case is "cocksucker." The NHL was vague when it came to explaining the specifics of the incident, and we don't know who was on the receiving end of the word. What we do know is it was serious enough that an on-ice official (this is why they are third on this list) felt compelled to report it to the league, and the league felt it was worth a $10,000 fine.

Getzlaf in Game 4. Photo by Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

In a similar situation during last year's playoffs, Andrew Shaw of the Chicago Blackhawks received a one-game suspension for screaming the word "faggot" at officials.

As my Twitter mentions this past week so tactfully explained, there is no other interpretation when it comes to the word Shaw used but, as numerous internet people insisted on pointing out, the act of sucking cock is not limited to men; women do it, too. Therefore, Getzlaf screaming "cocksucker" on the ice was not a gay slur, and that's almost definitely why the 64-year-old Campbell deemed the word "inappropriate" instead of "homophobic." In conclusion, per these Twitter linguists, everyone who is mad should find a safe space in Cucktown or whatever.

Even if you believe that Getzlaf's word exists in an ambiguous place, you can't tell yourself that's what happened here. An official heard the word and felt it was used in a manner that rose above the Motherfucker/Asshole Standard and deserved punishment. And the only way that word would deserve punishment in the eyes of the NHL is if it used as a homophobic slur. Therefore, it absolutely has to be treated exactly the way Shaw was treated last year.

That doesn't just mean the NHL dropped the ball by failing to suspend Getzlaf one game; it dropped the ball by not using the incident as a chance to educate Getzlaf, other players, fans, and really anyone about that specific word and why it's on the same level as the word Shaw used. It's clearly needed.

I had never thought of this word as anything but your average swear word. But it's not. It's more than that. And maybe Getzlaf didn't know that, either. We'll never know based on his apology, which is the kind you give when you accidentally say, "Shit, we're out of fucking beer?" at a children's birthday party:

"Obviously a situation like that, where I'm on the bench by myself, frustration set in. There was obviously some words said, you know, not necessarily directed at anyone in particular. It was just kind of a comment. I got to be a little more responsible in the word I choose."

"Definitely as a father, as somebody that takes a lot of pride in this game and the respect for it, it's tough to see somebody refer to it as what TSN did. I didn't mean it in that manner in any way. For that to take that route was very disappointing for me. I do accept responsibility and I accept the fine. We talked to the league and I understand that it's my responsibility to not use vulgar language. Period. Whether it's a swear word or whatever it is. We've got to be a little bit more respectful of the game, and that's up to me. I accept that responsibility and we'll move forward."

So while Shaw showed genuine remorse for what he did, Getzlaf had a more "boys being boys" vibe to his postgame apology, and that was only an option because Campbell and the NHL didn't do their job. Instead of someone pulling aside Getzlaf and saying, "Hey, I know what you think you mean when you say that, but if just one person feels you're demeaning a homosexual man (or a straight woman, really) when you say that, you need to knock that off," the NHL simply washed its hands of it and moved forward.

And that's Campbell's fault. Yeah, there are other people who share blame, but Campbell had the opportunity to raise the issue and decided against it. Maybe it's because he's like most straight men and has never given that word and its repercussions a second thought. You won't find a better argument for having more diversity inside NHL offices to raise these sorts of issues, before they become a public embarrassment, than that.

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Refs, DOPS, and Ops Are Botching the NHL Playoffs published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv