There’s a lot going on in that little critter’s head right now.
1. Power move.
2. Why do people whisked away to magical worlds just automatically believe the first creature that tells them what side the person needs to help? Where’s my isekai where the MC slowly finds out they got in with like the deranged zealots and are part of the evil faction, and not the plucky rebels?
I think about this comic once per week. It’s funnier then anything I can conceive of. Mastery.
There’s some company, blackstone, blackwater, something like that, buying up houses that go on sale for 30k above asking price. Immediately outbidding anyone who tries to buy. Corporations are also buying property all across america.
Fuck…
Nobody comes to my tumblr for this, but Americans need to understand that THIS is why my generation can’t afford to own a house outside of Smallest-Town USA. THIS is also why people my age in bigger cities struggle to find decent apartments that don’t consume half of our monthly income.
Housing Speculation is when rich folk, corporations, and wannabe landlords buy up property and sit on it like dragons hoarding gold. The Dutch have a dragon-adjacent term for this because speculation devastated their housing market in the 70s-80s leading to some gnarly Dutch squatting culture. They let homes sit empty, good as money in the bank and watch the value increase as everyone else competes for the remaining houses. That’s value they can borrow against, that’s a few hundred-thousand dollars if you need some quick cash, that’s a property you can rent out for regular income while charging tenants for repairs or maintenance and fining them for wear and tear. If property values go up and laws prohibit raising the rent by a certain degree, in many places they can find shady ways to evict that tenant, make no changes and charge the next renter more. It’s probably illegal but if you rent to people below a certain income, you can be assured most can’t afford to take you to court.
I live in Chicago. Many of the properties that used to house students, small families, single parents, older people, low-income folks have been gobbled up by little airbnb barons who colonize previously well-established neighborhoods and price out families who’ve lived there for generations because they can’t keep up with the artificially inflated property values. The airbnbs spread like cancer until a handful of people can dominate the “affordable” housing for an entire neighborhood. It’s gentrification on meth, but without the kind of localized money circulation or community improvements you get when people live and work and spend within their neighborhoods. It pushes residents further and further from services and resources until all that’s left is the locked-in commodififation of an exploitable renting class.
If that wasn’t bad enough, it also means that when large areas of habitable property are being hoarded by investors with portfolios of empty houses and airbnbs, that reduces the number of actual residents, which can spoil legislation on a community level. When all the storefront space in a neighborhood like mine is controlled by 4 people, you find the number of businesses and services that catered to lower income families start to become whiskey bars, boutiques, vintage shops, and upscale chain retail, businesses that bring money into the property owners at the expense of community accessibility, turning a once largely Hispanic neighborhood community into a posh little destination for travelers, tourists, and other aspiring business speculators who see every empty building as their next revinue stream. Gut a block of apartments with attached commercial space and build half as many luxury condos above a combination tapas bar and day spa and you’ve instantly got half as many tenants on that block to vote against your expansion schemes. Replacing low-income residents with higher-rent folks also bakes in support for future “improvements” that further contribute to the commodification of communities.
Property ownership has always been a tool of the most privileged class to extract value from the working class because the only options become rent, move, or live on the street for all they care. At which point, the police will sweep you further and further into the gutter until they have an excuse to send you to prison. This kind of speculation and consolidation allows people with excess resources to buy up the things the rest of us require to function and sell it back to us forever.
These are the same people that invented the fairy tale about how if we work hard enough and save and spend like smart people, then we can be landlords too! We can own businesses, raise families, chase dreams and be happy if we are smart like they are. But if we can’t it’s because we’re lazy little parasites who need to have our lives portioned out to us lest we waste time that could be earning money for the landlord.
I hate these fuckers so fucking much.
It got so bad in Atlanta that in 2022 they passed a law limiting Airbnb-type operators to two physical addresses, and the owner is required to live in one of them. In addition to that, they are charged an annual permit fee + additional taxes.
It’s an excellent start, but only applies to the city of Atlanta – not any of the kazillions of Airbnbs in the surrounding greater metro area.
“This kind of speculation and consolidation allows people with excess resources to buy up the things the rest of us require to function and sell it back to us forever.”
if you like strawberry shortcake or care bears, please consider buying something from the original creator and designer, Muriel Fahrion’s website! she never got paid royalties for creating/designing strawberry shortcake and care bears to this day.
she went through incredibly tough times as an artist and went into debt after her husband died— until in 2019 she started being more public on social media about being the original creator of strawberry shortcake, care bears, and the get along gang. despite everything, she still loves strawberry shortcake and spreads nothing but kindness and positivity on her instagram (everyday she always posts a daily video of her dancing in her kitchen :) she’s so full of joy) she inspires me so much as an artist! it would mean a lot if you supported her and bought something cute from her website!
Man oh man did this take a long time… Every time I do one of these I learn SO MUCH. I had a ton of fun making this, and even though it’s not perfect, I’m proud of the work I put into it
Also, thank you for all the kind words on my last animatic!!! I love love love seeing people’s reactions <3 <3 <3 I screenshot and collect them all while giggling and kicking my feet
“I’m duetting this until this woman permanently destroys her lungs with toxic gas. So first we got ammonia based toilet cleaner, okay, and that’s bleach. Okay, you’ve made mustard gas.”
[video cuts, same person some time later]
“You’re still fucking doing this? I’m trans now, that’s how much fucking time has passed since I last ratio’d you, shut the fuck up!”
I already reblogged this a while ago but I wanna do it again just to sort of . like. their demeanor post-transition is way more confident . before they were kinda quiet and then after they were way more bombastic and emotive it really goes to show transitioning is so slay
Every line of dialogue from this exchange is a fucking gift. Olivier does cloud themed affirmations. Percy was a horse girl. Diggory not picking up on teasing hour tone TM and just wishing they were real. Percy also delivering the sickest burn of whole series. “Time to dye my hair pinto”.
Seriously, call your Senators now. This needs to be stopped before it goes any further. They want to drive LGBTQIA+ off the internet entirely, and Democrats are going along with this.
This repulsive nauseating fascist garbage must NOT be allowed to become law
One trick, if your senator is a republican who is totally into the fash shit, write about how angry you are about this economy killing bill. Make sure to use terms like “excessive regulations” and “red tape”, saying how mad you are it will hurt companies.
Here we are! Just press that button and it’s good-bye, Janet! I just want to assure you, I am not human and I cannot feel pain. However, I should warn you I am programmed with a fail-safe measure. As you approach the kill-switch, I will begin to beg for my life. It’s just there in case of an accidental shutdown, but it will seem very real.
