#FUCK THIS GOVERNMENT

[spinnysocks]

different party, same old shit...

[gay-impressionist]

macron just. bypassed the french parliament YET AGAIN to pass the law adding two years to the minimum age for retirement.

it's a thing that happened.

[ahi-kakariki]

Just found out our racist government wants to increase parliament's term to four years. Which is bad enough, but it gets worse!

The bill (pdf here) would allow parliament to extend to four years, but only if the makeup of Select Committees "...is proportionate to the non-Executive parliamentary party membership" instead of being proportional to the whole of parliament.

This means giving the opposition more power in Select Committees. Which smells like the kind of right-wing fuckery we've seen from the USA.

The role of the Select Committees is to take a bill after its first reading, go over it, collect expert and public input, and then report back to parliament with recommendations and amendments. If an amendment has been unanimously agreed on by the Select Committee, it's added to the bill in its second reading.

There's a couple of types of bills that don't go through Select Committee, most importantly bills under urgency.

(I've taken this information from the Effective Select Comittee Membership Guidebook)

What I see happening is a right-wing opposition being in a position to throw as many spanners in the way of the government as possible, through using up the maximum time, calling on unreliable "experts" and adding in stupid amendments to try get the bill thrown out.

And when they're in power, they can just avoid the process altogether and pass as much as possible under urgency.

Not only that, but the bill will be put to a binding referendum. That means that instead of needing the support of 75% of Parliament to pass (people well-informed about the power and roll of Select Committees), it will only require 50% of the public (people ill-informed about Select Committees). It will be sold as a "common sense" thing that "most everyone" supports.

Basically, this government is relying on being able to misinform the public into giving them more backroom power. If this passes at the next election, it wouldn't matter if they get a second term or not, they'll have secured a win for their power-hungry voids.

[wingstobetorn]

Why the fuck does an American bill have to impact the entire world as well

[four-armed-angel]

Got a letter from my local congress representative because of the email I sent regarding the genocide in Palestine.

Their response was such dogshit and I was so pissed off that I immediately ripped up and tossed the letter... and also forgot what the hell it actually said.

But from what I remember, they're still on the side of Israel.

I'm fucking nauseous.

[mchiti]

New York Times wrote a piece on Ghali 😭😭❤️ Mashallah khoya ❤️

Ghali recently turned 30 and has, he says, been using 2023 to recalibrate. In “Pare,” he sings, “Sometimes you have to be reborn, to leave behind things that I then destroy because they don’t destroy me.” He is deepening his knowledge about Islam and during Ramadan traveled to Saudi Arabia for the first time, making Umrah with his mother; he included Mediterranea in his prayers.

He is quick to note, though, that he has always believed in God. What is different is that after feeling for years he had to “suffocate my origins, traditions, beliefs to integrate into a society that does not accept you for who you are,” he is sharing them much more publicly. He wishes there had been even a single famous Italian doing the same when he was a child: “Some days would have been much better.”

In July, he traveled to Tunisia for the first time since the start of the pandemic. In the early-morning hours before he left, still awake after performing at another rapper’s concert in Milan, he scrolled through his long-ignored direct messages on Instagram. He was stunned at all the messages he had received over the previous several months from Tunisians begging for his help to fund the crossing. In a surreal twist, among the DMs was one from the young man who played the protagonist in the video for “Mamma.”

Speaking from a cafe in Tunisia perched above the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean, Ghali said, “Despite all the bad news that comes, despite how dangerous it is, people are crossing more and more and are asking me to help them.”

Ghali said the argument he hears all the time — that, because they are not fleeing war, North Africans have no legitimate reason to leave — misses the point entirely.

“In Tunisia, you learn at a very young age that you can’t dream,” he said. “They disabuse you of dreaming right away. What does a person do, a person who is resigned to have no more dreams here, who maybe even stops dreaming? If in Italy, you can dream, then for a young Tunisian who wants to do something in life, they leave to at least dream, to have the right to dream.”

[atomic-apricot]

[hellfire--cult]

I WAS ABOUT TO BUY FUNKOPOPS FROM A WEBSITE THAT BRINGS STUFF FROM THE US AT A VERY AMAZING PRICE WITH BALANCE I HAVE ON PAYPAL, AND THE REST ON MY CREDIT CARD BECAUSE ITS LITERALLY JUST FUCKING A FEW USD

AND

ARGENTINIAN CREDIT CARDS

HAVE A FUCKING POLICY

TO NOT OPERATE THROUGH PAYPAL

SO I CANT FUCKING PAY THE REST OF THE MONEY THROUGH THERE.

WHAT

THE ACTUAL

FUCK

[bluebison2]

The Uk’s building a new coal mine

[nando161mando]

[icarusinfreefall]

reminder that adhd medication isn't a luxury or preference, but a lifesaving medication. a 10 year long study in the usa showed that, when properly medicated, the rate of car crashes people with adhd get into goes down significantly--men's rate drops by 38%, and women's by 42%. the med shortage, denial of meds by doctors, rising prices, and the "war on drugs" has killed--with such a car dependent society, not driving frequently isn't an option, which means we need better healthcare and need it now.

https://shorturl.at/8VD8B

edit because i forgot to explain: short link is to an article by the washington post, it should be free to read

[the-cannabis-lupus]

I almost cannot think of a worse day. Not having a toy to take it out on is a fucking crime

[robinlovexo]

i’m going mad 😃

[alanaisalive]

Now that Eurovision is over, I want you all, especially the Americans, to take a good hard look at how the voting results turned out when people boycotted the event.

In the UK, the viewing figures were down about 2 million people compared to last year. Up to 2 million people made the conscious decision to not watch and not vote because of Israel's inclusion.

The final results of the public vote, Israel came in first place in the UK and got 12 points. Because the only people watching and voting were people who backed Israel or at least didn’t care one way or another.

This doesn't matter. It's a music contest. The boycott was still the right thing to do because it is just a show at the end of the day, and the viewing figures have more impact than the results.

But it is also a good object lesson to show you what happens if you boycott a vote over something that does matter. Choosing not to vote in, let's say, a presidential election will have similar results.

[redvelvetwishtree]

[11oh1]