reading-writing-revolution

[reading-writing-revolution]

[reading-writing-revolution]

After Donald Trump’s reelection, a lot of women were angry: at the result, at what Trump’s return to office could mean for their lives, and at the many people who voted for him—especially the men. In the ensuing days, some of these women began suggesting, half-jokingly or in total earnest, a radical kind of recourse: a sex strike.

Add this:

(via Sydney Sweeney’s Body Sparks Debate Among Men Who’ve Never Seen One Up Close)

The life of the single white male in 2024 is a fucking sad one. I remember being young and single and shy and lonely and a little angry about it – but it was never any woman’s fault. It was just lfie. But damn, the absolute dumb shit that is going on out in the world now. Now, I’m sitting here much older sort of snickering at how pathetic all these men are, but also worried about women – because of all these angry, sad men and their toxicity that seemed to just get ramped up by this new culture of — what’s the word? not eunichs; incels — that’s it. Incels. Damn, bro, unfuck yourself. This is now how we view or talk about women. This is why women choose the bear. Anyone remember that?

Now, I try to talk to my 24 year old son, who’s smart and nice and has a job and can’t find a girl who will date him, and I’m trying to come up with the right things to say so that he doesn’t fall into this trap of the sad, lonely suddenly horrifying incel creepo.

We can do better, guys. We can do so much better. We need positive role models out there for men, and we know there are some. Hell, look at the Obama family, the Biden family, the Harris family, the Buttigieg family. Loving, thoughtful couples. Men who are faithful and even-keeled, caring and nurturing. We need more of this. Where you cool dudes at? We need to see more of you and less of this bullshit.

Why? Because women are people, too, and too many of you don’t really act like you know that.

[reading-writing-revolution]

[reading-writing-revolution]

[reading-writing-revolution]

Turnout 2024:

Interesting. From Paul Campos:

------

"With final numbers now in, it’s possible to calculate fairly precisely how many Americans bothered to vote in the 2024 election, and how many couldn’t vote for one reason or another.

If we imagine a room with 100 people in it who reflect the population as a whole:

22 of them couldn’t vote because they were too young.

Six of them couldn’t vote because they weren’t citizens.

One couldn’t vote because of a felony conviction.

So note that nearly 30% of the residents of the US at the moment aren’t even eligible to vote.

Of those who were eligible to vote, only 63.88% did so. This means that only 45.8% of the population voted.

Going back to our white room with black curtains:

26 out of 100 people in it didn’t vote even though they could have.

22 out of 100 people voted for Kamala Harris.

23 out of 100 voted for Donald Trump.

1 person voted for somebody other than Harris or Trump for president.

1 person voted but didn’t vote for president.

Going back to the VOTER ELIGIBLE POPULATION (note that 21 million American adults aren’t eligible to vote), some particularly bad turnout numbers as a percentage of the voter eligible population in those states:

West Virginia: 55.5%

Texas: 56.6%

Oklahoma: 53.3%

New York: 57.9%

Mississippi: 57.5^

Hawaii: 50.3%

Arkansas: 53.5%

Some relatively good states:

Colorado: 73.1%. (All-mail voting)

Maine: 74.2%

Michigan: 74.6%

Minnesota: 76.4%

New Hampshire: 74.1%

Pennsylvania: 71.4%

Wisconsin: 76.9%

Note that it’s gotten FAR easier to vote in the USA over the last decade or so, and especially post-pandemic. All but three states now have some combination of no-excuse absentee voting by mail, and/or in person early voting. Almost no one is subjected involuntarily to the ridiculous traditional system, where you were forced to stand in line for hours on Election Day itself.

Basically we have a deeply unengaged public, in which nearly two out of five adults who are eligible to vote can’t even be bothered to do so (closer to one out of every two in several states, including some big ones), and in which a huge percentage of those who do vote are barely paying attention to what they’re doing, since they know as much about politics as I know about Olivia Rodrigo (Ironically my theory which is mine has led me to learn enough things about Ariana Grande that my relative ignorance regarding her is no longer a fair representative of the yet more impressive ignorance of our crucial swing voters regarding politics, who just made Donald Trump president again)."'

[reading-writing-revolution]

(via Sydney Sweeney’s Body Sparks Debate Among Men Who’ve Never Seen One Up Close)

The life of the single white male in 2024 is a fucking sad one. I remember being young and single and shy and lonely and a little angry about it -- but it was never any woman’s fault. It was just lfie. But damn, the absolute dumb shit that is going on out in the world now. Now, I’m sitting here much older sort of snickering at how pathetic all these men are, but also worried about women -- because of all these angry, sad men and their toxicity that seemed to just get ramped up by this new culture of --- what’s the word? not eunichs; incels --- that’s it. Incels. Damn, bro, unfuck yourself. This is now how we view or talk about women. This is why women choose the bear. Anyone remember that?

Now, I try to talk to my 24 year old son, who’s smart and nice and has a job and can’t find a girl who will date him, and I’m trying to come up with the right things to say so that he doesn’t fall into this trap of the sad, lonely suddenly horrifying incel creepo.

We can do better, guys. We can do so much better. We need positive role models out there for men, and we know there are some. Hell, look at the Obama family, the Biden family, the Harris family, the Buttigieg family. Loving, thoughtful couples. Men who are faithful and even-keeled, caring and nurturing. We need more of this. Where you cool dudes at? We need to see more of you and less of this bullshit.

Why? Because women are people, too, and too many of you don’t really act like you know that.

[reading-writing-revolution]

(via Judges increasingly alarmed as Trump’s Jan. 6 clemency decision nears - POLITICO)

He may pardon them, but we know what they did. #treason

“In extraordinary but little-watched court proceedings since Election Day, judges appointed by presidents of both parties have emphasized the need for accountability for the people who stormed the Capitol in an attempt to derail the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. These judges have sounded dire warnings about the fate of the country if the lessons of the 2020 election go unlearned, and they are bluntly bracing for a turbulent start to the second Trump presidency”

Trump did that. He sowed insurrection and treason.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee to the bench, captured the mood among many of the federal judges in Washington when he issued a 13-page statement accompanying his sentence of a Jan. 6 misdemeanor defendant earlier this month. He decried efforts by some defendants to “minimize” the toll of the riot or recast themselves as victims of a government intent on squelching their First Amendment rights.

“On January 6, 2021, an angry mob of rioters invaded and occupied the United States Capitol, intending to interrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results,” Lamberth wrote. “No matter what ultimately becomes of the Capital Riots cases already concluded and still pending, the true story of what happened on January 6, 2021 will never change.”

Here are those 13 pages: https://bit.ly/3P6yP5J

Chutkan, on Monday, said she fully endorsed Lamberth’s words.

“This is the United States Capitol — the people’s house,” Chutkan said. “They trashed it. They treated it like a motel room after a concert. … Engaging in an act of destruction and violence in order to halt the peaceful transfer of power has to be met by consequences.”

[reading-writing-revolution]

"Thank you to those who joined the live “Ask Me Anything” session on Wednesday! It was a terrific discussion. I have learned a lot from your questions. I hope to hold many similar sessions in the new year! "

Follow him on Substack.

[reading-writing-revolution]

Profiting on death and misery...it doesn't have to be like this. That's the thing. It doesn't have to be like this.

What you tolerate will continue.

Health insurance inflicts more terror, pain, trauma, and suffering than we know.

If you had a seven year old who died because billionaires needed to be persuaded to give him life-saving care and they took too long, you would walk this Earth forever thinking of how your child suffered. For what? Shareholder profit?

Health insurance has to be phased out immediately and replaced with Medicare For All.

Health care good enough for Congress is good enough for all of The People.

[reading-writing-revolution]

Musk needs to fuck off edition.

[reading-writing-revolution]

Government shutdown edition...

[reading-writing-revolution]

They are frankensteining Christ in America

in their Sunday campaigns

They are putting the fear of Christ in America

under their tents in their Sunday campaigns

They are driving old ladies mad with Christ in America

They are televising the gift of healing and the fear of hell

in America under their tents in their Sunday

campaigns

They are leaving their tents and are bringing their Christ

to the stadiums of America in their Sunday

campaigns

They are asking for a full house an all get out

for their Christ in the stadiums of America

They are getting them in their Sunday and Saturday

campaigns

They are asking them to come forward and fall on their

knees

because they are all guilty and they are coming

forward

in guilt and are falling on their knees weeping their

guilt

begging to be saved O Lord O Lord in their Monday

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

and Sunday campaigns

~ Gregory Corso, from the poem “The American Way”

[reading-writing-revolution]

Killing rich people who don't give a fuck about anyone is now terrorism. Power protects its own.

Jan 6th insurrectionists tried to violently overthrow the US government - beating and killing officers of the law in the process. Not one was charged with terrorism.

Dylan Roof killed 9 black people attending church because he wanted to start a race war. Not charged with terrorism.

Mass murders slaughter scores of CHILDREN in the US on the daily. Not charged with terrorism.

But kill ONE POS CEO under investigation for insider trading, who has probably killed scores of people with a waive of a pen and a cashing of a big bonus check and - TERRORISM.

Get the living fuck out of here. Not only is America a piece of shit country, it's also an oligarchy, and we need to admit it already. 🖕🏼🖕🏼🖕🏼

[reading-writing-revolution]

Fuck the Melon

[reading-writing-revolution]

A Christmas poem. ‘Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the House, a shutdown storm was brewing, with President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk ready to pounce.

A CR had been negotiated between Speaker Mike Johnson and Democrats with care, in the hopes they could fund the government and quickly get out of there.

The lawmakers were nestled in their offices pouring through text, when Musk suddenly began trashing the bill on X.

Trump got in on the action, adding a new demand: “The debt ceiling must be included, or I’ll get Big Mad.”

Yet some Republicans were unwilling to be tamed. So Trump called them out by name. “Now, Rep. Chip Roy! Now, Rep. Bob Good! On Johnson — he’ll keep his speakership if he does what he should!”

To the House floor they went, with the new CR plan of which Trump spoke. But that also quickly went up in smoke.

Leadership scrambled to come up with a plan C, as the shutdown clock ticked down rapidly.

A new idea emerged — to split up their package into three. Johnson was eager to avoid the optics of another so-called Christmas tree.

But then Republicans huddled in the Capitol basement to get on the same page. They decided to pursue a CR without the debt limit and hoped Trump wouldn’t rage.

The smell of jet fumes quickly began to spread, as visions of vacation danced through members’ heads.

Finally! The House was able to pass a bill with the help of Democrats. Then it was off to the Senate, where it also passed.

As Johnson left the building, he made a reference to his plight: “Merry Christmas to all! And to all, please no more fights.”

What I’m listening to: Sabrina Carpenter’s new Christmas special on Netflix.

– Melanie Zanona