#Four More Years

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

[originalleftist]

The FTC just banned ALL noncompete agreements for American workers, except for an exemption for when a business is sold, and ended all existing agreements, except those for senior executives.

The vote was 3/2, with all Democratic appointees voting yes, and both Republicans voting no. The current chair is a Biden appointee.

This is a GIGANTIC win for workers, and it WOULD NOT have been possible without Joe Biden as President.

It is likely to be challenged in court, however, which means this could be struck down by SCOTUS. But Federal judges are nominated by the President and approved by the Senate, so if you're tired of seeing good shit like this get struck down in the courts, you know what you need to do: elect Democrats to the Presidency, and a Democratic majority in the Senate.

[trixiesol-blog]

[eltristan]

Question is: will he NOW finally stop campaigning for a second term??? #fourmoreyears

Seems like he's been going hard on reelection pretty continuously and nothing else since 2019 -- which is 5½ fucking years already. He's been dominating public discourse like a continuous trainwreck since 2015 -- 9½ god-damned fucking years! The incoming Freshmen/Grade 9 Highschool students don't remember any time when it wasn't so!!! (And when they graduate and are old enough to vote, are they going to reelect Trump for another 4 more years? Hmmm... Why do I have the feeling the SCOTUS is conveniently going to find term limits unconstitutional?)

🤟

[galerymod]

Jon Stewart returns and correspondents (2024)

On January 24, 2024, it was announced that Jon Stewart would return as host for Monday night shows, while the remainder of the week would be hosted by the correspondents, beginning on February 12. Stewart accepted the single day a week contract deal as his initial run left him feeling exhausted. The producers of the show hope that Stewart will serve to cultivate and attract new talent to fill a full host role. In May 2024, it was announced that Stewart would additionally begin hosting The Weekly Show, an original podcast from Comedy Central. On July 14, 2024, in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Comedy Central announced that The Daily Show would not air live from Milwaukee, the host city for the 2024 Republican National Convention, and would preempt the Monday evening broadcast for July 15. The show returned to air on July 16, 2024, from its New York studio. In late October, it was announced that Stewart has extended his contract to host until 2025.

If you have a garden and a man like Jon Stewart, you have everything you need in dark times.

Marcus Tullius Cicero more or less

Satire has a big problem when you just have to point the camera at real politics because it is guaranteed that real satire can no longer be exaggerated by satire.

mod

[sammialex]

Babel

The grey, pebbled wool of your oldest sweater slips down over your hands as you type, words flowing out of your fingers and across the keys of your computer. Live and let live, you plead into the void. Vitriol spits back at you. Naive, the kind ones say. Idiot, say the rude. Traitor, say the rest.

You close the computer with a soft click, and spots burst in front of your eyelids as you press the heels of your palms into hollow sockets. Darkness has crept into the room while you were absorbed in the screen's blue brightness, and shadows loom from potted plants, various towering stacks of papers and books, and furniture that is cozy in the light of day.

No one listens. Every day you put out another letter to the editor. You write another blog. You post another picture. Every day you turn on the news and see another disaster, another shooting, another suicide, another law called FREE that will only limit freedom.

It's enough to turn someone to drastic action, you muse, and you're joking, really, you are, but some tiny part of you wonders what that drastic action would even look like. If the pen is not mightier than the sword, and surely it isn't if none of the articles and posts and memes make any sort of difference. If the sword is not mightier than the pen, and surely it isn't, if all of this violence can be caused or calmed by a word from the right person.

You don't have an answer.

The stairs creak beneath your feet, slow shuffling steps carrying you higher, closer to your bed. A slice of silvery moonlight through the window crosses your pillow, and you lean against the sill, just looking out at the sky. Stars struggle to peek through the light pollution from the nearby city, and you strain to see the brightest—there, Orion's belt. The hunter. There, his faithful dog, forever at his heels.

They watch over the sky, proud and sure, chests thrown out and blazing. Do they fear for us? You wonder. Do they know how much less we look to the sky, how hard it is to see them if we glance up? Do they resent our cynicism as it grows, generation after generation, scoffing at gods while looking to the false idols who live among us?

Perhaps they are unsurprised, watching another cycle of struggle and loss. You remember a quote you once heard, that the Earth is littered with the ruins of empires who believed they were eternal. You think of the boneyard your home is built on, the blood that was spilled to make room for your life.

The curtain grates over the rod as you close it with a sharp jerk, plunging the room into darkness. What would it take, you wonder as you crawl into your warm bed and feel guilty that you have one at all. What would it take, for humanity to stop acting the ouroboros, wrapped around and eating itself alive? Have we always been this way? Or did we climb too high, a species of Babel, meant to tear itself apart at the seams?

Your head hits the pillow, cool sheets against your cheek. Your eyelashes drag against the fabric as you blink once, twice, and then leave them closed.

What would it take, you wonder. You see how easy it would be to turn to violence, to let this helpless rage seep into action, to try and grab something, anything with two hands and do something people would have to acknowledge. You know how useless it is, that your name would be lost to the next one, and the next, day after day as the violence continues to mount, endlessly escalating.

Your sleep is uneasy.

The sun rises. Another day.

also posted on ao3 here.

[captainscrub]

I keep posting this, but by God did this age like the finest of wines

[plagues-and-poisons]

i want to sit on a roof watching the stars with you. i’ll nerd out over the mythology, and your head will lay on my shoulder, and we will sit like that until the break of day. and we will be happy, and we will love each other.

[originalleftist]

Reminder:

Joe Biden has given us:

-The first Black woman as VP.

-The most diverse (and first non-majority-white male) judicial appointments in American history.

-The first Black woman and first former public defender on the Supreme Court.

-The first significant federal gun control legislation in decades.

-A huge investment in green infrastructure while setting us on a path to halve carbon emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

-Pardons for federal marijuana convictions.

-Pardons for veterans convicted in the past for gay sex (meaning they are now eligible for benefits).

-A booming economy after pulling us out of the Covid recession.

-Lower prescription drug prices on various medications.

-Protections to undocumented spouses of Americans to prevent families being ripped apart by deportations.

-Expanded NATO and blocked Russia from destroying Ukraine.

-Largely banned non-compete agreements for employees.

-Billions of dollars in student debt relief to millions of Americans.

-A huge investment in green infrastructure and jobs, while setting us on the path to halve carbon emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

-The first sitting President to ever join striking workers on the picket line.

Among many other things.

And he has done all of this with a corrupt, hostile, partisan Supreme Court, and partial control of Congress.

And if Gaza is your only issue, then you can have the President who supports Israel but also supports a ceasefire for hostages deal and a two state solution... or the ex-President who's supported by Netanyahu, wants to let Israel "finish the job", is greedily eyeing the value of Gazan real estate, uses "Palestinian" as a slur, and has a Muslim ban as one of his signature policies.

Edited to clarify that the US Federal Judiciary is still mostly white men- Biden's appointments are not, but there are many holdovers from previous administrations.

[galerymod]

Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.

Karl Kraus

Stupidity is an elemental force for which no earthquake is a match.

Karl Kraus

If you give the opportunity for human nature to influence the independent criminal justice system, crimes will occur.

mod

If you vote for a criminal clown, you get a potential criminal circus.

You get what you asked for.

[originalleftist]

Biden: Unemployment at historic lows, cost of insulin capped at $35, 4.8 billion in student debt forgiven, thousands of Federal Marijuana convictions pardoned, more former public defenders appointed to the judiciary, first President to ever join striking workers on the picket line.

Third Party Trolls, Accelerationists, and Kremlin Bots trying to split the vote so Trump becomes Fuhrer: "BOTH SIDES!"

Me: Post reported for election interference.

Edit: And, the coward restricted replies on their post, too.

[packisbackhuh]

ed policy wishes

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

I am incredibly serious right now when I beg you all, please, and if you have Twitter or Tiktok or whatever to please spread the word: click on an author's profile on Ao3.

You want to know if an author has written more? Want to know if they're still writing? Want to see more from them? Want to know if they've written a trope or kink or sex scenario you enjoy?

Click on their name. And look at their profile.

I cannot tell you how many times in the last six months someone has read a new or newer fic of mine and said they (a new reader who has read nothing else I've done) "can't wait to see what you do next!" I've written 50+ fics and over a million words already.

"I don't know if you're still writing..." click on my profile. I am. I literally wrote a 128k+ fic for that ship last month.

"Would you ever do X?" "Please do Y!" I already did. Click on my name and look at my works.

Archive of our Own is a library. It's an archive. Not social media. It is your responsibility to fight back against the laziness that corporate algorithms have trained into you.

Click my author name. Just click it. Just click it.

Before you demand more, or ask if a writer will do XYZ, or wonder if the author still writing, or anything - click on their profile. Click on the author's profile.

I'm not trying to be mean or condescending or anything like that. I'm just exhausted. It's disheartening and frustrating to repeat myself ad nauseam, because someone couldn't take thirty seconds to do the tiniest bit of work to see if I've written lately, if I've written more for their ship, or scan my works to see if I've written what they're asking for. Please. Please. I'm begging.

Click the author's name, and explore before you ask.

[hechelemasprintsbyreyna]

4 MORE YEARS JOE!

[lenbryant]

Thanks, Wil Wheaton.

Peak stupidity is how MAGA bond.

[wanologic]

and they were roommates