aspiringwarriorlibrarian

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

My new Congresswoman had her first virtual town hall (over 9500 people joined the call), along with our Attorney General (both Democrats). They confirmed the Democrats are hearing a lot of complaints about the South African, and they're also hearing from a bunch of people about the immigration crackdowns.

They emphasized that the last time Trump was in office, they had over an 80% success rate in court with him.

Confirmed that Trump's anti-trans laws are in conflict with states with laws that force insurance to cover trans healthcare. OR/WA/MN are the states leading the charges in the courts and they feel pretty confident they will win.

Brought up how the Congressional Dems tried to bring up the Stop Musk Act, the Saving Civil Service Act; and the Veterans Affairs Committee is pushing back hard against the firings. Democrats are trying to get a formal hearing on DOGE, and said if the Republicans don't cooperate, they'll try to hold their own hearing.

Confirmed the courts have been agreeing that Elon and Trump have exceeded their authority with unlawfully cutting spending.

They encourage federal workers who have been fired or are in danger to whistleblow to the Democrats so they can help them sue. They recognize the fear of people worried about retaliation but emphasized the Democrats cannot help if people do not come forward.

AG said that certain states have more power to fight in the courts than others depending on how much Trump's EOs affect their individual states. So states with more federal workers (VA/MD/etc) are the ones who are holding the microphones, with other states that don't have as many federal workers backing them up.

People in the town hall overwhelmingly said "protecting democracy" is the most important issue.

Emphasized that Congress has the power of the purse and no funds have been approved in Congress to detain immigrants at Gitmo. Our state Democrats are not deputizing local authority to work with ICE and will not work with the Trump with anything that violates sanctuary state laws.

Said massive numbers of people were calling in when Elon and DOGE were messing around with our security data.

Democrats are overwhelmingly hearing from constituents to be bold (altho they're also hearing people demand they do things they can't, like arrest Elon). They emphasize that the definition of "bold" depends on the district you're in; deep blue district Democrats can be bolder than purple or especially red district Democrats, so be understanding that not every Democrat can get away with what deep blue Dems can.

Admitted sometimes Democrats hold back too long because they want to know what the "right thing" to say is before they respond to something, but they said that the Dems are working on a rapid response team to get over this hurdle.

Their messages going forward will be short, simple, and basically at an Eighth Grade reading level.

Emphasized they are not going to help the Republicans with budget votes without concessions.

Emphasized Democrats are even more unified now than the first Trump admin, which will make them more efficient.

Emphasized that Republicans control both chambers. Democrats will do what they can, but there's only so much they can as the minority party. Putting pressure on Republicans - especially on bipartisan issues like FEMA - will help more than dragging Dems.

Said the most effective thing individual people can do is be active and loud at all levels of government (they confirmed it's having an impact; it helps that Dems can say "Over 2,000 constituents told me to take a stand against Elon"). Make sure people know their rights.

State laws exist independent of the Trump admin. Get involved in contacting your local and state governments.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

It is kind of strange, given the stylistic choices made by cyberpunk authors, that the rather formal term "Internet" survived but the informal abbreviation "the net" has gone where the stormy winds won't blow. Even "the web" seems to survive only as technical term used by computer scientists these days.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

today im thinking about the huge buff bread guy from kikis delivery service. highly underrated guy

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

I decided to look around on spotify and found this beauty

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: ���I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

STOP assigning pre-modern characters the trait “would commit tax fraud” without understanding how hard tax fraud was back in the days when a tax collector would physically come to your estate and assess your sitch. Do you have any idea how easy kids these days have it? You can just claim a few fake deductions or lie on a form and be a tax criminal. Your ancestors and fantasy faves had to work for those pennies.

Look at this house. This house has no mortar so it can be collapsed or moved to avoid taxation. That’s the sort of innovation I need to be seeing before you can call anyone in a feudal society a tax fraudster. They need to be hiding warehouses of goods, shoving grandpa in the basement to dodge the censusman, starting small regional wars, fleeing their villages in a constant semi-nomadic race against the forces of government, registering twins as a single child, or putting their life on the line to sell blackmarket bread. Come back when you have some tax fraud I can respect, not just a guy who looks kind of sleazy and sometimes does paperwork.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

And this is how religious people should react when someone comes out to them

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

I'm convinced they had to delete this cause it counts as a sex scene

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

If you like frogs. Or possums. Or cool builds. Or happiness. This is the video for you.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Quick what are you doing RIGHT now (besides scrolling Tumblr)

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Yarrow loves to be up high.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

the last art of 2024! yeaaa

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

https://deadline.com/2025/02/avatar-the-last-airbender-follow-up-series-avatar-seven-havens-nickelodeon-1236295541/

New avatar show been confirmed!

Holy shit is this real? Dude that's amazing.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

https://x.com/drmistercody/status/1892706249742897176

This man should not be allowed to have children.

You know I thought we'd seen the worst of it with everything he's done with his daughter and him carrying his son on his shoulders as human shield, but I am not surprised she had to resort to public shaming to get him to give basic medical care.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Literally sobbing. A judge, a US judge defended us. A judge brought up intersex people, uaing the term intersex, to *defend* us by not allowing our erasure. I'm having a lot of feelings right now