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rydra_wong posting in

https://www.tumblr.com/leebrontide/806670334696767488/actually-im-gonna-disagree-a-smidge-with-ops

With magnificent advice if your senator is a Republican:

Actually, I’m gonna disagree a smidge with OPs excellent post here.

I ALSO want those of you in red states screaming at your Senators. And I want you to pretend to be a lifelong republican when you do it. Yell about community and what-about-the-children and “this isn’t what I voted for why are spending billions on this when eggs still cost a million dollars” and yell about shooting a mom on the way from school one week and a nurse who treats veterans the next. About kidnapping a little boy right off the school bus and disappearing him across state lines. About ICE harassing police and law abiding citizens. About how they kidnap 3000 with no warrant and almost all of them are citizens. Call ICE agents every variant of “thug” and “lawless” that you can think of. Tell them you saw the videos and know ICE is lying and think you’re all too stupid to notice. Say you don’t want your government smashing peoples windows and carrying people off and saying they don’t need warrants. About gassing a minivan full of kids and an infant in the hospital.

If they tell you it’s fake you tell them your aunt lives here and is seeing it and has given up the Republican Party forever.

Tell them you didn’t want to believe what those Democrats said about Republicans and feel mad and ashamed and betrayed to see this.

Cause even Republicans here are PISSED OFF.

And every Republican elected in MN knows their party is fuuuuucked as far as MN goes. You can see even many of them posting begging for this to be over.

Your job is to put that fear into YOUR Republicans before this comes to your door.

Remember, you can call after hours to leave a message, and you can email if the phone is too much.

Please encourage others to join you.

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nnozomi posting in

senzenwomen

I’m putting these two O-Kiku together because they were both karayuki-san (Japanese women forced into sex work abroad) who made a name for themselves, as well as being close in age (but they are definitely two different people).
Degami Kiku was born in 1877 in Yamaguchi, in a shipbuilding village with frequent interactions with Korea and the continent beyond. Orphaned by seventeen, she went to Korea to work in a bar in Incheon, where a sailor who liked her helped smuggle her into Vladivostok. There she went to work in a Japanese-owned brothel, serving Russian, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese customers. She followed the Siberian Railway construction to Chita and then Chichihar, saving up to twenty thousand yen (an absurdly huge sum in those days) from the gold dust her miner customers paid her with. Avoiding a Russian-Chinese clash (possibly the alleged Blagoveshchensk massacre of 1900?) she returned to Vladivostok with her earnings and opened a brothel under her own name. She shortly became known as the local Big Sister or Amazon.

After a brief return to Japan during the Russo-Japanese War, she came back to Russia and settled in the gold-mining area of Zeya with a suitcase stuffed with Japanese remedies, which sold immediately; once she had cash in hand, she set up an even larger brothel, with twenty women and ten chefs.

Kiku earned military medals along with the nickname of Siberia O-Kiku for her collaboration with the Japanese Army upon their Siberian invasion in 1918, trading on her Korean and Chinese connections to work as a successful spy in conditions of great danger. She became partly paralyzed afterward, settling in Harbin with her friend O-Tsuma to sell Russian sweets and live quietly. She died in 1924 at the age of forty-seven.

Yamamoto Kikuko was born in 1884 in Kumamoto; her poverty-stricken family sold her to a restaurant/brothel in Seoul when she was seven. By 1916, having wandered through Korea, China, and Siberia, she too had ended up in Blagoveshchensk, where she ran a bar called the Aurora Palace. There (at least according to one account, which seems a little too dramatic to be true, but who knows) she fell in love with Sun Huating, a sworn brother of Zhang Zuolin. Hearing that he was about to be executed by the Kantogun, she summoned his underlings and rushed the place of execution along with them on horseback, brandishing a dagger. This dramatic rescue saw her established as a bandit chief in her own right (Sun Huating felt she was better suited to leadership than he was), known as Manchuria O-Kiku, with a hundred underlings; the safe-conduct passes she issued for her territory were considered the gold standard. She died in 1923 at the age of thirty-nine.

Sources
https://comic.k-manga.jp/title/2069/pv (Japanese) Manga about Manchuria O-Kiku (click the orange rectangle to see inside)

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conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Annie: I'm just heartbroken. My son moved out last year, and he never talked to me about anything before he moved. We were so close, and we always talked. But all of a sudden, he packed up and moved out with no explanation. He had met someone a year prior to that. I met her for a second, and that was it. I do know where he is living but he doesn't know that I know. He has a new baby boy; I don't even know his name, yet he is my grandson. I know that he has two stepdaughters, but I don't know their names either.

I kept trying to call him but get no response. Now his phone is disconnected. I'm so lost and confused as well as upset. I miss him dearly.

He is my only child. He did a great job in school and had his own business after he graduated from high school. I am trying so hard to go on with my life, but it's so hard not knowing how he is, or whether he is safe, healthy and happy. He was a very good kid, and now he's a man. I just hope and pray that he will come around some day. -- Mom Is Lost

( Read more... )

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

DEAR ABBY: Our 24-year-old daughter is getting married in 10 months. My wife is invited to the wedding, but I am not, and I am furious. The groom's family is paying for the trip, but they say I am not invited "for financial reasons."

I don't have a great relationship with my daughter. But that isn't the point. I told my wife that if the roles were reversed and she was excluded, I would not go. This may be a deal-breaker for me. It's apparent that our marriage doesn't mean as much to my wife as it does to me. What are your thoughts? -- ELIMINATED IN TEXAS

( Read more... )

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

( Cut for sexual assault )

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Eric: My fiancé and I are facing an impasse regarding the guest list for our upcoming wedding. I want to exclude his brother's (the best man) wife from the invitation list.

She consistently refuses to engage with me socially, going no further than a brief "hi." There has been no conflict; she simply does not converse with me. Although, if I ask her about herself or what's going on in her life she will answer, but there's no back and forth. I doubt she even knows my name.

For context, my fiancé is Hungarian, and his family is small. Although she speaks English fluently, she is the only family member who never attempts to talk to me or ask me any questions. While they invited me to their wedding a few months ago, I believe it was purely out of obligation.

My fiancé says that excluding her will create drama. He has acknowledged her behavior is "mean-spirited" in the past, yet he excuses it as shyness. Saying she took years to warm up to him. I find this a poor excuse for a complete lack of basic manners, and I am unwilling to have a guest at my wedding who will not speak to me.

I have told my fiancé that he needs to discuss this with his brother, but he has not done so, and invitations are about to be sent out. I am intent on sending a clear message by not including her. And from now and until our wedding there won't be any more chances to interact as we don't live in the same country.

Am I overreacting or is it reasonable to save my money while also slighting her.

– Guest List

( Read more... )

aurumcalendula posting in

thisfinecrew

House Concurrent Resolution 70 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 26 were introduced on January 15th by Representative Khanna (D - CA) and Senator Gallego (D - AZ).

I think it might be a good idea to ask congresspeople to support them.

https://congress.gov/bill/119-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/70

https://congress.gov/bill/119-congress/senate-concurrent-resolution/26

( the main text of both under the cut )

rydra_wong posting in

thisfinecrew

A post by Naomi Kritzer:

https://naomikritzer.com/2026/01/21/how-to-help-if-you-are-outside-minnesota/

This also has advice on how to start preparing for if and when this shit comes to your home state.

(If you are in Minnesota: https://naomikritzer.com/2026/01/19/how-to-help-twin-cities-residents/ )

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watersword posting in

thisfinecrew

Democrats Successfully Strip All Anti-Trans Riders From Final Appropriations Bills.

Now would be a great time to tell your Democratic representatives that you saw the party protecting trans people, and that you approve and want them to keep doing that. If your reps are Republicans, I guess tell them to stop putting discriminatory clauses in the budget?

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rydra_wong posting in

thisfinecrew

Their calendar is here -- creator sign-ups open on the 26th Jan:

https://fandomtrumpshate.dreamwidth.org/53196.html

Their list of non-profits they're supporting is here:

https://fandomtrumpshate.dreamwidth.org/53468.html

(Mods, could we have a "fund-raising" tag please?)

Tags:

action,
donations

ysabetwordsmith posting in

crowdfunding

Thanks to a lot of work by

fuzzyred, you can now read A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows on its own landing page. :D This series of linguistic poetry uses novel words presented in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

Mood accomplished

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aurumcalendula posting in

thisfinecrew

H.R. 7013 (Greenland Sovereignty Protection Act) was introduced by Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) last week: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7013

It prohibits the use of Federal funding to facilitate the invasion, annexation, purchase, or other form of acquisition of Greenland.

rydra_wong posting in

thisfinecrew

(Yes this is the real Robert Reich, yes he has a Tumblr.)

https://www.tumblr.com/robertreich/805924550315524096/congress-is-now-considering-the-appropriations

Congress is now considering the appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, whose funding runs out at the end of January.

Call your members of Congress and tell them to vote NO on any bill that increases ICE's funding.

Please demand that the DHS appropriations bill prohibit ICE and Border Patrol agents from carrying guns and that it unambiguously declare that agents do not have absolute immunity under the law if they harm civilians.

Also tell them that any bill must restrict ICE and Border Patrol’s ability to conduct dragnet arrest operations and target people based on their race, language or accent. And the bill must clarify that ICE agents are liable under civil and criminal law if they harm civilians.

Do this as soon as you can.

To reach your representative or senator, call the U.S. Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Tell them the state and city where you live. They will connect you to any member’s office.

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rydra_wong posting in

thisfinecrew

Naomi Kritzer has a good thread listing ideas.

Linking to the last skeet in the thread because the threading's broken otherwise:

https://bsky.app/profile/naomikritzer.bsky.social/post/3mcdamldccc23

Also here's a collection of links to local mutual aid funds, food banks, and other organizations doing work on the ground:

https://www.standwithminnesota.com/

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ysabetwordsmith posting in

crowdfunding

Welcome to the 150th Crowdfunding Creative Jam! This session will run Saturday, January 17-Sunday, January 18. The theme is "Memories."

Crowdfunding Creative Jam

Everyone is eligible to post prompts, which may be words or phrases, titles, images, etc. Prompters may request a specific creator, but everyone else may still use that prompt if they wish. Prompts may specify a particular character/world/etc. but creators may use the prompt for something else anyway and post the results. Prompters are still encouraged to post mostly prompts that anyone could use anywhere, as this maximizes the chance of having creators make something based on your prompt. Please title your comment "Prompt" or "Prompts" when providing inspiration so these are easy to find.

Prompt responses may also be treated as prompts and used for further inspiration. For example, a prompt may lead to a sketch which leads to a story, and so on. This kind of cascading inspiration is one of the most fun things about a collective jam session.

Everyone is eligible to use prompts, and everyone who wants to use a given prompt may do so, for maximum flexibility of creator choice in inspiration. You do not have to post a "Claim" reply when you decide to use a prompt, but this does help indicate what is going on so that other prompters can spread out their choice of prompts if they wish.

Creators are encouraged, but not required, to post at least one item free. Likewise, sharing a private copy of material with the prompter is encouraged but not required. Creative material resulting from prompts should be indicated in a reply to the prompt, with a link to the full content elsewhere on the creator's site (if desired); a brief excerpt and/or description of the material may be included in the reply (if desired). It helps to title your comment "Prompt Filled" or something like that so these are easy to identify. There is no time limit on responding to prompts. However, creators are encouraged to post replies sooner rather than later, as the attention of prompters will be highest during and shortly after the session.

Some items created from prompts may become available for sponsorship. Some creators may offer perks for donations, linkbacks, or other activity relating to this project. Check creator comments and links for their respective offerings.

Prompters, creators, and bystanders are expected to behave in a responsible and civil manner. If the moderators have to drag someone out of the sandbox for improper behavior, we will not be amused. Please respect other people's territory and intellectual property rights, and only play with someone else's characters/setting/etc. if you have permission. (Fanfic/fanart freebies are okay.) If you want to invite folks to play with something of yours, title the comment something like "Open Playground" so it's easy to spot. This can be a good way to attract new people to a shared world or open-source project, or just have some good non-canon fun.

Boost the signal! The more people who participate, the more fun this will be. Hopefully we'll see activity from a lot of folks who regularly mention their projects in this community, but new people are always welcome. You can link to this session post or to individual items created from prompts, whatever you think is awesome enough to recommend to your friends.

Mood creative

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nnozomi posting in

senzenwomen

Aso Ito was born in 1876 in Onomichi, Hiroshima, where her family kept a tobacco shop or possibly an inn. After finishing elementary school she was fostered out to a family in Kobe. The details of her youth are not clear, but she probably spent much of it as a live-in maid and a factory clerk. She married while in Osaka and had a daughter [although some sources say she adopted a daughter later but never had children of her own], but left her husband because he was “truly boring.”

Around 1910 or so, she took her young daughter [if she had one] and moved to Innoshima, an offshore island near her birthplace, where she launched the Aso-gumi company as a subcontractor to the various shipbuilding companies now established there. Her specialty was brokerage and ship scrapping. Shipbuilding was then a thriving industry and the Aso-gumi flourished, with employees eventually numbering over a thousand.

Ito also opened the Aso Inn, since there was then nowhere to stay on the island, which became popular with politicians like Ozaki Yukio (and presumably his wife Yei) and writers such as Kawahigashi Hekigoto and Hayashi Fumiko. Fumiko, another Onomichi native, put Ito into a novel as O-Riku, with “hair short as a man and cigarettes in her sleeve.” She had her employees call her “uncle” or “gramps.” Hekigoto described her as a tiny woman dressed in men’s clothes, with a square face, a formidable gaze, and a heavy Kansai drawl, hair cut very short and a dueling scar on her forehead, sometimes hidden by her Panama hat. The knife scar came from a quarrel with an electrician over payment; Ito visited him while he was in prison for the attack and employed him when he came out, earning his eternal loyalty.

The money she earned went back to the community: she founded a kindergarten, a girls’ vocational school, and a scholarship fund in the region and built a sewage system and several parks, as well as a temple to Kannon. In her old age she left her business to another single mother she trusted and went to live in her park near the Kannon temple, where she prayed regularly. She died in 1956 at the age of eighty.

Sources
http://kamijimajiten.com/104 (Japanese) Adorable illustration of Ito by local (modern-day) elementary schoolers

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otter posting in

thisfinecrew

These cards can be ordered or printed on you own. They provide a summary of constitutional rights and a brief script to follow if/when needed.

You have constitutional rights:
• DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR if an immigration agent is
knocking on the door.
• DO NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS from an
immigration agent if they try to talk to you. You have the
right to remain silent.
• DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING without first speaking to a
lawyer. You have the right to speak with a lawyer.
• If you are outside of your home, ask the agent if you are
free to leave and if they say yes, leave calmly.
• GIVE THIS CARD TO THE AGENT. If you are inside of
your home, show the card through the window or slide it
under the door.
I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions,
or sign or hand you any documents based on my 5th
Amendment rights under the United States Constitution.
I do not give you permission to enter my home based
on my 4th Amendment rights under the United States
Constitution unless you have a warrant to enter, signed
by a judge or magistrate with my name on it that you slide
under the door.
I do not give you permission to search any of my
belongings based on my 4th Amendment rights.
I choose to exercise my constitutional rights.
These cards are available to citizens and noncitizens alike

https://www.ilrc.org/redcards#print

Tags:

immigrants

cereta posting in

agonyaunt

Dear Care and Feeding,

I am at a loss for what to do with my almost 11-year-old.

He argues constantly about everything. Here’s an example of the arguing: We made gingerbread houses this weekend. He got home from school, and I gave him a snack. While he was eating, he said, “I’m going to smash the gingerbread house on Christmas.” I said, “Nope, we do it on New Year’s Eve.” He said, “I made mine, so I get to smash it when I want.” I replied, “Nope, we always do it on New Year’s.” He kept repeating himself until I finally said, “We are done arguing, just drop it.” To which he retorted, “You just drop it!” I then asked him to go anywhere in the house besides the kitchen because he was still talking about it after I asked him to stop. (I couldn’t leave, I was helping his sitter get a snack, and doing dishes.) He then yelled at me, “You leave! Why do I have to leave if you’re the one with the problem?”

This happens every time he talks to me. I don’t get it. I want to spend time with him, but he is so hard and angry right now. He is so exhausting. He is nice to everyone else except his little sister and me. Whenever she talks to him, he makes fun of how she said something. Please help!

—Argued Out

Dear Argued Out,

It seems as if your son is truly upset with something other than what you’re actually arguing about. For example, in the case of the gingerbread house, he seemed upset about the loss of autonomy in making decisions about the house that he created, rather than the actual fact of not being allowed to smash it on Christmas. Does he feel like you always make all of the big and little decisions, while he isn’t allowed to make any? During these tween ages, it’s totally normal to want more freedom. It sounds like that could be the case, but you’ll need to ask him directly. Approach him in a quiet moment—not when you’re in the middle of a squabble and try to get to the bottom of it and his emotions. But make sure to stress that there is a way to respectfully share his feelings, especially when talking to his little sister. Also, think about the small ways that you can let him make his own decisions. Smashing his own gingerbread house, for example, doesn’t really hurt anyone else. So, sometimes, consider letting him make decisions that aren’t necessarily the ones you’d make.

In these day-to-day situations, do your best to keep calm. If your emotions start to rev up, his will automatically do the same. Then ask him why he wants to do something and encourage him to rephrase what he is saying. The fact that he only gets angry with you and his sister shows that he’s capable of communicating and expressing himself, but is too frustrated in those moments to do so. I’m unsure of where this inability is ultimately coming from, but some conversations with a therapist—for the whole family—during calmer times when emotions aren’t running so high would be beneficial for everyone. Good luck!

—Arionne

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ysabetwordsmith posting in

crowdfunding

We've reached the end of scheduled themes for the Poetry Fishbowl project. It's time to brainstorm some new themes! If you have ideas, comment under the theme call post in my blog.

Mood busy

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conuly posting in

agonyaunt

DEAR HARRIETTE: My brother and I were raised in the same household by the same parents, yet as adults we have two very different views of our father. I see my dad as someone who worked hard, showed up in the ways he could and consistently supported us throughout our lives. I'm deeply grateful for him and everything he's done. My brother, on the other hand, seems to carry a lot of resentment. Whenever the subject of our dad comes up, he focuses on his shortcomings and disappointments, often listing ways he feels let down or overlooked. Listening to this has become exhausting and painful for me. It feels like he's erasing the good and ignoring the sacrifices our dad made, and I can't help but hear it as ungratefulness. At the same time, I don't want to dismiss my brother's experience or silence his truth just because it differs from mine. How do I respect his feelings without sitting through what feels like constant criticism of someone I love? -- Oh, Brother

( As always, we grade her on a curve because she's usually so terrible )

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librarygeek

Reading

Call your senators to oppose ICE funding

Degami Kiku (1877-1924) and Yamamoto Kikuko (1884-1923)

Missing missing reasons!

(no subject)

Hoping this is a fake letter

How is this even a question?

H.Con.Res. 70 and S.Con.Res. 26 regarding Greenland

How To Help If You Are Outside Minnesota

(no subject)

Fandom Trumps Hate 2026

Website Updates

H.R. 7013 - Greenland Sovereignty Protection Act

Robert Reich has talking points for calling your reps re: ICE and the DHS funding bill

"I'm not in Minnesota -- what can I do to help?"

Creative Jam

Aso Ito (1876-1956)

Constitutional rights - Red Cards

Care and Feeding: My Son Argues Endlessly

Call for Themes

Shockingly good advice from Hariette

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May 2025

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