#America is the bad place

[falloutnewvegastransedmygender]

Alright people this is America. Also gonna point out the individualism that's alive and well here. "I'm doing better so America is doing better."

[troythecatfish]

[brasskingfisher]

USian politics; an outsider's perspective

Ok, so with the surprisingly positive news from the UK and French elections I feel the need to weigh in on all the discourse*tm around the impending USian elections, and specifically why not voting is a bad idea.

Now obviously beyond the inherent risks of Trump's return to office bringing in an era of christo-fascism, just consider the wider implications. Not only would a 2nd Trump administration make EVERYTHING worse, the only hope he has of winning is people not voting against him (he's one of 2/3 USian presidents to win the election despite losing the popular vote). Add into that the fact that he is openly going to abuse his power (and had been given carte blanche to do so by SCOTUS). Not to mention the fact he's likely to start a 2nd USian civil war, and WW3, it's like *SERIOUSLY‽*. Every criticism of Biden can also be leveled at Trump, plus more besides.

Oh, and all of you saying 'we can survive a 2nd Trump term', just consider how long that 2nd term is going to be. Even without project 2025, Trump incited an insurrection and tried everything in his power to avoid leaving office when he lost in 2020 (and has since not stopped whinging about how the election was "stolen"), you really think of Trump wins in November he'll willing step aside after 4 years? Hell no!

A Trump victory in November isn't a case of '4 years of shittiness and then we can get somebody good!'. It's a case of 10 years plus of a Trump dictatorship, followed by another christo-fascist dictatorship for however long (assuming the US remains a viable political entity).

[prismravine]

Holiday selfie?

my least favorite holiday

be safe / drive safe

<3

[kaydub80]

This shit is not okay.

[irishsaints]

oh look tumblr has changed, again

I'm still here, still keeping this godforsaken thing alive. I should probably do a follower purge, bc there's probably so many porn bots following me rn it's insane.

ANYWAY, if you like:

mad max fury road

or any of the mad max movies

If you're especially hyped for furiosa

f1 and f1 fandom [iykyk]

ofmd

queer shit

coffee

good vibes

shouting about how the us govt is the worst place in the world

tattoos

come follow me!

[hesploro-the-torvosaurus]

I WILL STAB EVERY ZIONIST THAT EXISTS

I WILL FREE EVERY COUNTRY OR DIE TRYING

Give them all freedom, or give me death.

[homoose]

to be an adult in the united states is to completely understand the phrase “ignorance is bliss”

[sparrow-the-tired-lesbian]

My country is fucking embarrassing.

I am literally making plans to move to Canada or some shit what the fuck is this

[hadesbullshit]

sometimes i reaive a reality check about jst how fucking stupid america is. i was readjng a fic and a charitor mentions make $10 an hour. i convert that to ausd and it isnt even legal to pay 15 yr olds that little.

[circusm0us3]

I hate to sound like a super communist but can a liberal at least tell me this is a broken nation I feel like I’m crazy right now

[sappho-hoziers-version]

The fact that Spirit Halloween has a “bullet belt” in the “Prep School” section is WILD

[brasskingfisher]

American shenanigans

So for the benefit of everyone else who's become entranced by the deadlock in Washington over the speaker of the House election (and American politics is incredibly convoluted and nigh incomprehensible to outsiders) here's what's happening and why (as I understand it).

So, the first order of business whenever the speaker of the house (the person in charge during debates, who can tell people to shut up and or sit down and has the casting vote in event of a tie) retires or steps down for any other reason is the election of a new speaker. Now normally this is more or less a formality (both parties nominate a candidate (usually their own leader in the house) and whichever party has a majority of seats gets their choice elected), but things are dragging out currently because of a dispute within the republican party (the pro capitalism, anti equality, guns should have more rights than women do people) which is preventing them from excersing the narrow majority they currently have.

The nature of this dispute is basically the amount of power and control an extremist fringe element (most of whom belong to the baby handed angry tangerine man's red hat cult) have in order to do what they want (like get rid of equality legislation, introduce fascism, get rid of LGBTQIA+ people, and protect aforesaid angry man with baby hands from any kind of consequences) who are throwing a tantrum because they're not getting what they want and so are refusing to toe the party line and vote for their party's prefered candidate. Now normally the standard approach to these people (from pretty much everyone) in the world of USian politics has been 'shush now, the grown ups are talking.' But, the republican majority is so slim they can't actually ignore them anymore.

What this means in practice is, nothing is getting (or can get done) until the deadlock is broken. Thus far, efforts to break the deadlock have been focused on offering the red hat cultists what they want so as they'll get in line and vote for the right person, but after 11 rounds of voting (so far) they're for the most part not budging. Which means there several ways things can go and life can go on as normal:

The red hatters get in line for whatever reason. Thus far it seems like this isn't going to happen

The republicans put up another candidate the red hatters will support. Again, this is unlikely unless the party get behind one of the red hatters themselves, or someone who'll give them control

The republicans agree to give enough concessions that the Democrats (the slightly less pro capitalism, anti (overt) discrimination, maybe we should try and improve things party) will support their candidate. This is again unlikely as so far they're all fully united in support of their own party's candidate who has come out on top in every vote so far (and are getting fed up of having to hang around)

Enough mainstream republicans defect and support the Democrat candidate that they get a majority

(And tbh likeliest outcome) enough republicans get tired enough of the shenanigans to say "Fuck this shit!" And abstain/vote present, giving one candidate a majority within the actual votes cast.

[troythecatfish]

Here’s my personal recommendation of articles to check out:

[kaydub80]

Become? America needs to build a giant mirror to reflect on what it has always been.