#State Government schemes

[digitaldetoxworld]

Empowering Citizens: A Guide to Key Government Schemes in India 2024

Government schemes in India authorities schemes are designed to cope with various factors of development, welfare, and financial increase. As of 2024, India has a variety of tasks throughout different sectors inclusive of health, schooling, agriculture, and finance . Here’s an overview of some key authorities schemes in India

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)

Objective

State Government schemes the PMAY scheme ambitions to provide less costly housing to the city negative. The intention is to ensure that every family has a domestic with the aid of 2022.

Features

Financial help for constructing or buying a residence.

Subsidies on domestic loans for each urban and rural areas.

Focus on marginalized organizations such as ladies, SC/ST, and economically weaker sections.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)

Objective

Government schemes website to make certain economic inclusion by means of offering banking offerings to the unbanked population.

Features

Zero-balance savings debts.

Access to overdraft centers and coverage.

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for diverse subsidies and advantages.

Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY)

Objective

Coverage of up to ₹5 lakh consistent with own family according to yr for secondary and tertiary hospitalizations.

Cashless and paperless get admission to to healthcare services.

Coverage consists of hospitalization, pre and submit-hospitalization fees.

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)

Objective

To promote cleanliness and sanitation throughout rural and urban India.

Features

Construction of bathrooms and sanitation facilities.

Waste management and cleanliness drives.

Behavior exchange campaigns to promote hygiene and sanitation practices.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)

Objective

To provide a felony assure for as a minimum 100 days of salary employment in a economic yr to each rural household.

Features

Wage employment for unskilled guide exertions.

Focus on infrastructure improvement in rural areas.

Includes provisions for worksite centers and payment of wages.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY)

Objective

To provide ability development and employment opportunities for rural teens.

Features

Training applications in numerous abilties.

Placement support and profession counseling.

Emphasis on ladies and marginalized groups.

Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)

Objective

To provide monetary guide to small and marginal farmers.

Features

Direct cash switch of ₹6,000 consistent with yr to eligible farmers.

Support for buying inputs, seeds, and fertilizers.

Aimed at enhancing the earnings of farmers and supporting agricultural sports.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP)

Objective

To address the declining toddler sex ratio and sell training for women.

Features

Financial incentives for families with girl youngsters.

Campaigns to raise awareness about the fee of girls.

Support for the education and empowerment of ladies.

Startup India Scheme

Objective

To sell entrepreneurship and innovation.

Features:

Tax exemptions and compliance relaxations for startups.

Funding guide and mentorship programs.

Simplified tactics for registration and licensing.

Digital India Programme

Objective

To rework India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

Features

Development of digital infrastructure and offerings.

E-governance tasks to beautify transparency and efficiency.

Promotion of virtual literacy and ability improvement.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

Objective

To provide coverage insurance and monetary aid to farmers inside the event of crop failure.

Features:

Coverage against losses due to natural calamities, pests, and sicknesses.

Low top class costs with high coverage.

Simplified claim agreement method.

.National Education Policy (NEP) 2020

Objective

To overhaul and enhance the Indian education system.

Features

Emphasis on holistic and multidisciplinary schooling.

Introduction of vocational education and skilling from early levels.

National Educational Technology Forum to beautify virtual mastering.

Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan

Objective

 To raise self-reliance and monetary growth thru various tasks.

Features

Economic stimulus packages and reforms.

Support for MSMEs, laborers, and various sectors hit by using financial challenges.

Focus on growing neighborhood manufacturing and reducing dependence on imports.

Skill India Mission

Objective

To beautify the employability of the children via skill improvement applications.

Features

Training in diverse trades and capabilities via the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

Support for entrepreneurship and vocational schooling.

Collaborations with enterprise for higher activity placements.

Jal Jeevan Mission

Objective

To provide piped water supply to each rural household with the aid of 2024.

Features

Infrastructure development for water supply and control.

Community participation within the upkeep of water resources.

Emphasis on sustainable and inclusive water solutions.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)

Objective

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)

Features

Legal assure of one hundred days of wage employment.

Focus on creating long lasting belongings like roads, canals, and wells.

Includes provisions for salary bills and worksite centers.

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

Objective

To beautify rural connectivity by building all-weather roads

Features

Construction of latest roads and upgrading present ones.

Focus on connecting unconnected villages and improving rural infrastructure.

Emphasis on sustainability and pleasant of road construction.

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana

Objective

To sell financial savings for the schooling and marriage of the woman baby.

Features

High-interest fee on deposits.

Tax blessings under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act.

Long-time period investment with a maturity period of 21 years.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

Objective

 To offer assured salary employment to rural households..

Features

100 days of guaranteed employment.

Focus on developing rural infrastructure and property.

Transparent wage bills and worksite centers.

National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP)

Objective

To provide social safety to the aged, widows, and disabled humans.

Financial help to low-income agencies.

Includes pension schemes and economic aid for vulnerable organizations.

Coverage of various welfare schemes and blessings.government schemes apply online t

hese schemes replicate the Indian authorities’s commitment to improving the first-rate of life for its residents and fostering financial boom and social fairness. Each scheme targets specific needs and pursuits to create a more inclusive and developed society.

[townpostin]

Youth Congress to Launch 'Har Ghar Khata-Khat' Campaign in Jamshedpur

From August 6, Youth Congress will conduct a public outreach campaign to survey the effectiveness of state government welfare schemes. Youth Congress to survey state welfare schemes in Jamshedpur, starting door-to-door campaign on August 6. JAMSHEDPUR – Starting on August 6, the Youth Congress will launch the ‘Har Ghar Khata-Khat’ campaign in Jamshedpur to survey the reach and effectiveness of…

[rightnewshindi]

सरकार लेकर आ रही है 'खेल-खिलाड़ी कर योजना' जयराम ठाकुर बोले, सीएम भूले कल्याणकारी राज्य की परिभाषा

Himachal News: हिमाचल प्रदेश के पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री और विपक्ष के नेता जय राम ठाकुर ने रविवार को खेल के मैदानों और खेल उपकरणों के उपयोग पर शुल्क लगाने के लिए राज्य की कांग्रेस सरकार की आलोचना की। उन्होंने कहा कि यह कदम खेदजनक है। उन्होंने कहा कि शौचालय पर टैक्स लगाने के बाद अब राज्य सरकार ‘खेल-खिलाड़ी कर योजना’ लेकर आई है, जिसके तहत वह खेलों पर टैक्स लगा रही है। नेता प्रतिपक्ष ठाकुर ने एक बयान में…

[head-post]

House rejects temporary funding bill to avoid government shutdown

The House declined Speaker Mike Johnson’s proposal to tie temporary funding for the federal government to a mandate that states require proof of citizenship when registering to vote, according to AP News.

Next steps for government funding remain uncertain. Lawmakers face difficulty in finalising the dozen annual appropriations bills funding federal agencies over the next fiscal year. They will need to approve a temporary measure to avert a partial shutdown when the fiscal year begins on 1 October.

We’ll draw up another play and we’ll come up with a solution. I’m already talking to colleague about their many ideas. We have time to fix the situation and we’ll get right to it.

Johnson withdrew the bill from consideration last week as it lacked the votes to pass.

Requiring new voters to provide proof of citizenship has been a top Republican priority on the campaign trail. However, critics argue the requirement would disenfranchise millions of Americans who do not have a birth certificate or passport at hand.

But Johnson said it was a serious issue, since even a tiny percentage of non-citizens could determine the outcome of an extremely close race. He noted that Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa won the seat back in 2020 by a margin of six votes.

It’s very, very serious stuff and that’s why we’re going to do the right thing. We’re going to responsibly fund the government and we’re going to stop noncitizens voting in elections.

House Democrats argued that a proof-of-citizenship requirement should not be part of a bill to fund the government and urged Johnson to work with them on a measure capable of passing both chambers. Pete Aguilar stated:

[The SAVE Act] is not going to become law. This is Republican theatrics that are meant to appease the most extreme members of their conference, to show them that they are working on something and that they’re continuing to support the former president of the United States in his bid to demonise immigrants.

SAVE Act

The bill would fund agencies generally at current levels through 28 March while lawmakers settle their disagreements on a full-year spending agreement. However, Democrats and some Republicans are pushing for a shorter delay. A temporary solution would allow the current Congress to craft a final bill after the election and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.

However, Johnson and some of the more conservative members of his conference are pushing for a six-month extension in the hope that Trump would win and give them more leverage in crafting a year-long bill. Meanwhile, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky declined to offer an opinion on how long to extend the funding.

The one thing you cannot have is a government shutdown. It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election because certainly we would get the blame.

The House approved a bill with a citizenship verification mandate back in July. Some Republicans who see the issue as popular with their constituents, pushing for another chance to show their support.

Read more HERE

[glorious-maharashtra]

Maharashtra Budget 2024: Key Highlights and Major Initiatives Unveiled by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar

[tenth-sentence]

'Not one GI bride going back to the US under the US government scheme is the wife of a Negro,' he wrote.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[marxism-transgenderism]

What always gets me about learning about settler colonialism is how once you learn about it you cannot unsee the violence to the land itself. My home state was previously nearly 100% wetlands, apart of the wider Ohio river valley whose biodiversity supported such large populations of hundreds of different species that many contemporary source from settlers describe it as like the garden of Eden.

The Indigenous people who farmed and hunted here (and still farm and hunt in what land they have been able to keep and reclaim) were able to grow miles of upon miles of crops with multiple harvests a year, encouraging this biodiversity by creating forest gardens with incredible amounts of food from staples like corn and squash to local fruits like pawpaws to European imports like apples alongside controlled burns which allowed fields and buffalo ranges to expand.

Nowadays my state is known almost exclusively for its fields of nothing but corn and soy beans. Driving through in between the comparatively small cities you'll see nothing but fields where the plethora of different trees and plants were chopped down mile by mile, the remaining wetlands drained and flattened, and the rich black soils robbed of their nutrients through decades upon decades of monocrop agriculture now preserved through the life blood of petrochemical fertilizers which destroy the surrounding environment.

This process was done mile by mile as the tens of thousands of Indigenous people were killed and displaced by settlers and the US army, the land measured and sold acre by acre to white settlers who raped the land as described, filling the pockets of wealthy land speculators (like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson) who bought the land directly from the government in schemes so corrupt historians have dedicated entire careers to mapping out their dramas.

It's like learning about commodity fetishism and suddenly seeing hundreds of strangers in the products that surround you. Once you learn how the land was destroyed for profit you'll never look at the miles of fields or the cracks in the concrete of buildings built on wetlands or the stench of now obsolete canals built solely for a once boat-dependent economy with no care for the environment the same.

[mahayojanaa]

महाराष्ट्र सरकारी योजना 2023 (लिस्ट) संपूर्ण माहिती मराठी | Maharashtra Sarkari Yojana List 2023

महाराष्ट्र सरकारी योजना 2023 संपूर्ण माहिती मराठी | Maharashtra Sarkari Yojana 2023 Marathi | सरकारी योजना 2023 | महाराष्ट्र सरकारी योजना यादी | शासकीय योजना 2023 महाराष्ट्र | मुलींसाठी सरकारी योजना 2023 

महाराष्ट्र सरकार कडून राज्यातील नागरिकांच्या कल्याणासाठी विविध प्रकारच्या योजना राबविण्यात आल्या आहे, या योजनांच्या माध्यमातून महाराष्ट्र शासन राज्यातील गरीब नागरिकांसाठी तसेच राज्यातील विद्यार्थ्यांसाठी आणि विविध स्तरांवरील नागरिकांसाठी अनेक प्रकारच्या आरोग्य योजना तसेच आर्थिक सहाय्य, ग्रामीण भागातील महिलांसाठी त्यांच्या सक्षमीकर��ासाठी विविध योजना राबवून त्याना स्वावलंबी केल्या जाते. तसेच राज्यातील उद्योग व्यवसायांना मजबूत आणि प्रगतीशील करण्यासाठी विविध प्रकारच्या योजना सरकार कडून राबविल्या जातात, राज्यातील गरीब आणि वंचित वृध्द नागरिकांना या योजनांच्या माध्यमातून आर्थिक आधार देवून त्याना स्वावलंबी बविण्यात सरकार मदत करत असते. 

राज्यातील गरीब आणि वंचित मागासवर्गीय नागरिकांना घरकुल बांधण्यासाठी योजनांच्या माध्यमातून आर्थिक मदत करून त्यांच्या जीवनात स्थिरता निर्माण केल्या जाते, तसेच नागरिकांच्या आरोग्याची काळजी घेण्यासाठी आरोग्य योजना राबविण्यात येत आहे. वाचक मित्रहो, आपण या लेखात महाराष्ट्र शासनच्या या विविध योजनांच्या संबंधित संपूर्ण माहिती पाहणार आहोत, आपल्यासाठी हि माहिती अत्यंत उपयुक्त ठरू शकते, यासाठी हा लेख संपूर्ण वाचावा. Read more

[stillnaomi]

during WW1, the British government was so scared of socialism that it decided to build 500,000 spacious and good quality homes for the higher strata of blue collar workers, in order to avert any chance of revolution. this would give jobs to many of the demobilised troops and would stop a large section of the proletariat agitating about their living conditions. previously, the government had steadfastly refused to interfere in the freedom of the housing market, despite large sections of the population living in slum housing

as Major Astor of the Local Government Board told parliament during a debate on the scheme:

“When we talk of expense and cost let us realise that everything is comparative, and let us measure the cost of our housing proposals by the cost of Bolshevism to the country and the cost of revolution. The money we propose to spend on housing is an insurance against Bolshevism and revolution. What is the cost to the country of industrial unrest and strikes? You have only to realise the conditions under which many men and women live to realise that unrest is fully justified.”

believe it or not, revolution was seen as a serious threat. this is how the minutes record the PM, David Lloyd George, speaking in a Cabinet meeting on March 3rd 1919:

“In Europe we were now faced with very serious conditions. Russia had gone almost completely over to Bolshevism, and we had consoled ourselves with the thought that they were only a half-civilised race; but now even in Germany, whose people were without exception the best educated in Europe, prospects are very black.

“Bavaria was already in chaos, and the same fate might await Prussia. Spain seemed to be on the edge of upheaval. In a short time we might have three-quarters of Europe converted to Bolshevism. None would be left but France and Great Britain.

“He believed that Great Britain would hold out, but only if the people were given a sense of confidence—only if they were made to believe that things were being done for them. We had promised them reforms time and again, but little had been done. We must give them the conviction this time that we meant it, and we must give them that conviction quickly.”

this is what communists mean when we say that the capitalist state only gives out concessions when its power is under threat

read more about the Homes Fit for Heroes initiative and its politics

[mostlysignssomeportents]

SoCal Gas spent millions on astroturf ops to fight climate rules

Today (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

It's a breathtaking fraud: SoCal Gas, the largest gas company in America, spent millions secretly paying people to oppose California environmental regulations, then illegally stuck its customers with the bill. We Californians were forced to pay to lobby against our own survival:

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article277266828.html

The criminal scheme is spelled out in eye-watering detail in a superb investigative report by Joe Rubin and Ari Plachta for the Sacramento Bee, which names the law firms and individual lawyers involved in the scam.

Here's the situation: SoCal Gas is California's private, regulated gas monopoly. They are allowed to lobby, but are legally required to charge their lobbying activities to their shareholders, and are prohibited from raising customer rates to pay for lobbying.

The company spent years secretly violating this rule, in the sleaziest way possible: working with corporate cartels like the California Restaurant Association and BizFed, the monopoly paid BigLaw white-shoe firms to procure people who posed as concerned citizens in order to oppose climate regulations that are essential to the state's very survival.

The bill topped $36 million – and it was illegally charged to its customers, the Californians whose immediate health and long-term survival these efforts opposed. SoCal Gas refuses to disclose the full extent of the spending, as do its lawyer-procurers, who cite legal confidentiality and a First Amendment right to secretly seek to influence policy in their refusal to disclose their profits from this illegal conduct.

The law firms involved are a who's-who of California's most prominent corporate fixers, including Reichman Jorgensen and Holland & Knight. The partners involved have a long rap sheet for anti-climate dirty tricking, most notably Jennifer Hernandez, notorious in climate justice history for an incident where activists claim she posed as one of them, infiltrating a campaign to force corporate despoilers to clean up their pollution in order to sabotage it, while secretly on a wealthy, prominent landowner's payroll.

Hernandez claims to care about the environment and says that her longstanding, corporate-funded, extensive campaigns and lawsuits against state environmental regulations are motivated by concern over their impact on working people. Her firm, Holland & Knight, denies serving SoCal Gas in opposing gas regulations, but it received $594k in ratepayer dollars, and submitted comments opposing the rules on its own behalf. Those comments were nearly identical to the comments submitted by SoCal Gas.

Hernandez also represents an obscure organization called The Two Hundred for Home Ownership in "a flurry of lawsuits" over California Air Resources Board rules on pollution, seeking to overturn the state's landmark climate change regulations.

Two Hundred for Home Ownership was founded by Robert Apodaca, who told the Bee that Hernandez's work for him is pro bono and not funded by SoCal Gas, but his entry into the fray occurred just as SoCalGas was founding an astroturf group called Californians for Fair and Balanced Energy (C4BES), which pretended to be an independent organization, disguising its relationship with SoCal Gas.

Apodaca is also founder of United Latinos Vote, an organization that had been largely dormant for seven years, not receiving any donations, until 2018, when the California Building Industry Association gave it $99k. The CBIA is a large-dollar recipient of donations from SoCal Gas, and its CEO insists that it was not acting on SoCal Gas's behalf when it made its unpredented donation to Apodaca.

The CBIA donation to United Latinos Vote was forerunner to a flood of corporate donations from the likes of Chevron, Marathon and Phillips 66. Shortly after receiving this cash, United Latinos Vote ran a full page ad in the LA Times, accusing the Sierra Club of pushing for anti-gas appliance rules that would harm working class Latino families.

This ad, in turn, featured prominently in advocacy by the SoCal Gas front group C4BES, funded with $29.1m in ratepayer money, which it then spent seeking to link clean appliance rules with anti-Latino racism. A quarter of California's carbon emissions come from home gas use.

SoCal Gas is regulated by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC), which tolerated this mounting illegal conduct for many years, even as the company circulated internal memos as early as 2015 discussing its plans to oppose electrification in the state on the basis that it constituted "a significant risk to our business."

But last year, CPUC fined SoCal Gas $10m. Now, CPUC's Public Advocate office has filed a damning, extensive report on SoCal Gas's unlawful conduct, seeking $80m in rate cuts to compensate Californians for the funds misappropriated to protect the company's shareholder interests:

https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M517/K407/517407314.PDF

Additionally, the Public Advocate is demanding $233m in fines for the company's refusal to allow investigators to audit its books and discover the full extent of the fraud.

SoCal Gas is the nation's largest utility, but (incredibly), it's not the dirtiest. That prize goes to Ohio's FirstEnergy, which handed $60m in ratepayer dollars to state politicians in illegal bribes in exchange for coal and nuclear subsidies and cancellation of state climate rules. That scandal led to GOP speaker of the Ohio House Larry Householder being sentenced to 20 years in prison:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_nuclear_bribery_scandal

There is something extraordinarily sleazy about using ratepayers' own money to lobby against their interests. SoCal Gas and its Big Law enablers have funneled millions in Californian's money into campaigns to poison us and boil us alive, and they did it while using workers and racialized people as human shields.

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/19/cooking-the-books-with-gas/#reichman-jorgensen

Image: Maryland GovPics (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdgovpics/6635539089/

Jackie (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/79874304@N00/197532792

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[usacounselingcredit]

United States Mailbox | Post Office | Virtual Mail Delivery: Post Office TD: This government scheme will give 3.8 lakh interest on 10 ... - Rightsofemployees.com

United States Mailbox | Post Office | Virtual Mail Delivery

Post Office TD: This government scheme will give 3.8 lakh interest on 10 ... - Rightsofemployees.com

by United States Virtual Mailbox Digital Mail, Diego Canton on Saturday 26 November 2022 03:31 AM UTC-05 | Tags: #unitedstatesmailboxpostofficevirtualmaildelivery united-states-mailbox-post-office-virtual-mail-delivery

Post Office Fixed Deposit: The government has increased interest rates by up to 30 basis points for the December quarter on the Post Office's time��... Mobile AL Hempstead NY Michigan Ohio Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana November 26, 2022 at 02:22AM

Tags:

#unitedstatesmailboxpostofficevirtualmaildelivery

united-states-mailbox-post-office-virtual-mail-delivery

Hammond Louisiana Ukiah California Dike Iowa Maryville Missouri Secretary Maryland Winchester Illinois Kinsey Alabama Edmundson Missouri Stevens Village Alaska Haymarket Virginia Newington Virginia Edwards Missouri https://unitedstatesvirtualmail.blogspot.com/2022/11/united-states-mailbox-post-office_801.html November 26, 2022 at 04:01AM Gruver Texas Glens Fork Kentucky Fork South Carolina Astoria Oregon Lac La Belle Wisconsin Pomfret Center Connecticut Nason Illinois Roan Mountain Tennessee https://coloradovirtualmail.blogspot.com/2022/11/united-states-mailbox-post-office_78.html November 26, 2022 at 06:41AM from https://youtu.be/GuUaaPaTlyY November 26, 2022 at 07:47AM

[townpostin]

Cycle Distribution Ceremony Held in Jamshedpur

State government distributes cycles to students under ambitious scheme. A grand cycle distribution ceremony was held at Jamshedpur Sadar Block Headquarters on Friday, benefiting students from various schools. JAMSHEDPUR – The state government’s cycle distribution scheme had a grand ceremony at the Jamshedpur Sadar Block Headquarters on Friday. MLAs Saryu Roy from Jamshedpur East, Mangal Kalindi…

[inkskinned]

one of the things that i think we should pay attention to, socially, about the disney v. desantis thing is that it is really highlighting the importance of remembering nuance.

in a purely neutral sense, if you engage in something problematic, that does not mean you are necessarily agreeing with what makes it problematic. and i am worried that we have become... so afraid of any form of nuance.

disney isn't my friend, they're a corporate monopoly that bastardized copyright laws for their own benefit, ruin the environment, and abuse their workers (... and many other things). this isn't a hypothetical for me - i grew up in florida. i also worked for the actual Walt Disney World; like, in the parks. i am keenly aware of the ways they hurt people, because they hurt me. i fully believe that part of the reason florida is so conservative is because it's been an "open secret" for years now that disney lobbies the government to keep minimum wage down, and i know they worked hard to keep the parks unmasked and open during the worst parts of Covid. they purposefully keep their employees in poverty. they are in part responsible for the way the floridian government works.

desantis is still, by a margin that is frankly daunting, way worse. the alternative here isn't just "republicans win", it's actual fascism.

in a case like this, where the alternative is to allow actual fascism into united states legislation - where, if desantis wins, there are huge and legal ramifications - it's tempting to minimize the harm disney is also doing, because... well, it's not fascism. but disney isn't the good guy, either, which means republicans are having a field day asking activists oh, so you think their treatment of their employees is okay?

we have been trained there is a right answer. you're right! you're in the good group, and you're winning at having an opinion.

except i have the Internet Prophecy that in 2-3 months, even left-wing people will be ripping apart activists for having "taken disney's side". aren't i an anti-capitalist? aren't i pro-union? aren't i one of the good ones? removed from context and nuance (that in this particular situation i am forced to side with disney, until an other option reveals itself), my act of being like "i hope they have goofy rip his throat out onstage, shaking his lifeless body like a dog toy" - how quickly does that seem like i actually do support disney?

and what about you! at home, reading this. are you experiencing the Thought Crime of... actually liking some of the things disney has made? your memories of days at the parks, or of good movies, or of your favorite show growing up. maybe you are also evil, if you ever enjoyed anything, ever, at all.

to some degree, the binary idealization/vilification of individual motive and meaning already exists in the desantis case. i have seen people saying not to go to the disney pride events because they're cash grabs (they are). i've seen people saying you have to go because they're a way to protest. there isn't a lot of internet understanding of nuance. instead it's just "good show of support" or "evil bootlicking."

this binary understanding is how you can become radicalized. when we fear nuance and disorder, we're allowing ourselves the safety of assuming that the world must exist in binary - good or bad, problematic or "not" problematic. and unfortunately, bigots want you to see the world in this binary ideal. they want you to get mad at me because "disney is taking a risk for our community but you won't sing their praises" and they want me to get mad at you for not respecting the legit personal trauma that disney forced me through.

in a grander scheme outside of disney: what happens is a horrific splintering within activist groups. we bicker with each other about minimal-harm minimal-impact ideologies, like which depiction of bisexuality is the most-true. we gratuitously analyze the personal lives of activists for any sign they might be "problematic". we get spooked because someone was in a dog collar at pride. we wring our hands about setting an empty shopping mall on fire. we tell each other what words we may identify ourselves by. we get fuckin steven universe disk horse when in reality it is a waste of our collective time.

the bigots want you to spend all your time focusing on how pristine and pretty you and your interests are. they want us at each other's throats instead of hand in hand. they want to say see? nothing is ever fucking good enough for these people.

and they want their followers to think in binary as well - a binary that's much easier to follow. see, in our spaces, we attack each other over "proper" behavior. but in bigoted groups? they attack outwards. they have someone they hate, and it is us. they hate you, specifically, and you are why they have problems - not the other people in their group. and that's a part of how they fucking keep winning.

some of the things that are beloved to you have a backbone in something terrible. the music industry is a wasteland. the publishing industry is a bastion of white supremacy. video games run off of unpaid labor and abuse.

the point of activism was always to bring to light that abuse and try to stop it from happening, not to condemn those who engage in the content that comes from those industries. "there is no ethical consumption under late capitalism" also applies to media. your childhood (and maybe current!) love of the little mermaid isn't something you should now flinch from, worried you'll be a "disney adult". wanting the music industry to change for the better does not require that you reject all popular music until that change occurs. you can acknowledge the harm something might cause - and celebrate the love that it has brought into your life.

we must detach an acknowledgment of nuance from a sense of shame and disgust. we must. punishing individual people for their harmless passions is not doing good work. encouraging more thoughtful, empathetic consumption does not mean people should feel ashamed of their basic human capacities and desires. it should never have even been about the individual when the corporation is so obviously the actual evil. this sense that we must live in shame and dread of our personal nuances - it just makes people bitter and hopeless. do you have any idea how scared i am to post this? to just acknowledge the idea of nuance? that i might like something nuanced, and engage in it joyfully? and, at the same time, that i'm brutally aware of the harm that they're doing?

"so what do i do?" ... well, often there isn't a right answer. i mean in this case, i hope mickey chops off ron's head and then does a little giggle. but truth be told, often our opinions on nuanced subjects will differ. you might be able to engage in things that i can't because the nuance doesn't sit right with me. i might think taylor swift is a great performer and a lot of fun, and you might be like "raquel, the jet fuel emissions". we are both correct; neither of us have any actual sway in this. and i think it's important to remember that - the actual scope of individual responsibility. like, i also love going to the parks. Thunder Mountain is so fun. you (just a person) are not responsible for the harm that Disney (the billion dollar corporation) caused me. i don't know. i think it's possible to both enjoy your memories and interrogate the current state of their employment policies.

there is no right way to interrogate or engage with nuance - i just hope you embrace it readily.

[tanoraqui]

With all due respect to my new idol Ms. Kui, I’ll be treating this particular post-canon comic as a guideline at best.

Hiring a bunch of advisors for your new country who are experts in how things are done in other countries just means you’re going to end up with a country in which things happen like they already do in other countries. What a missed opportunity no matter where you are—and most of all in Melini, which doesn’t want to be like other countries! This is going to be a country ruled by tallmen, rather than elves, dwarves or gnomes! A country in which halflings as well as orcs, kobolds and other “demihumans” have full rights and respect! A country in which petty, non-destructive monsters will be raised and eaten as crops and livestock!

Yes, a king as inexperienced as Laios needs advisors who actually know how to govern a country. But a king as inexperienced and socially & politically inept as Laios also needs advisors he can trust. Who are these guys?!

@ Chilchuck Tims specifically get your ass back here, you lanky little shit. You started a union. You may not know how to “govern”, but you know how to unite, organize, politick, manage, bargain, bully… You helped save this world, buster. You unbroke it, you bought it.

While I’m here, I’d like to issue a concern that Yaad probably isn’t as good at politics or governance as he thinks he is. Sure, he has 1,000 years of experience…with a single, specific group of people, population unchanging except to slowly shrink, with NO threat of famine, plague, war, monsters, or any other dangers except depression and one (1) increasingly paranoid protective mage. Sure, he can play the age card on even the elves, but is he ready for complex international politics? I’m skeptical.

Seriously though, if they mean to start as they mean to go on—and they have to do the former, or they won’t be able to do the latter—then there needs to be at least 1 orc and at least 1 halfling among all those advisors. Ideally a kobold or offer, too.

And get that guy who was running the Island’s black market (so, shadow-governing the island) for Treasurer of State or something. He's a skilled opportunist, which is exactly the sort of person who'll thrive in this brand-new ancient kingdom. Better to have him lying, scheming and getting filthy rich for you than against you.

[sirfrogsworth]

Early voting to beat the lines... the best-laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.

So... yesterday was quite the day.

After being stuck in bed for the past 6 weeks with some mystery slump, I was finally feeling better. So I decided I would try to cram as many errands into my day as possible. That works better for me when I drive out into the world because I end up only having to do one big recovery instead of a bunch of little recoveries.

My to-do list...

Go to the doctor

Vote early

Return oxygen machine to FedEx store for scammy eBay guy

Return Amazon package to the UPS store

Get gasoline for my whip

Go to Discount Tire to get my tires filled for free

Drop a check off for my lawn guy

Mail a secret package to Katrina at the US Post Office

It would have been nice if I could have gone to just one shipping place instead of all three, but the universe has a sense of humor and likes to do shit like that to me on a regular basis.

So, I get my checkup, it goes quick, no long wait, I'm feeling good.

As I get in my car, it starts to rain. It was an ugly day and it actually has not stopped raining to this very moment a day later. Just gray, windy, chilly, and wet. I look up the voting place and start the GPS.

Wipers and music on full blast, it's time to get my vote on.

When I reach my destination, I realize early voting is at some kind of private golf club. And at the center is a recreation center—which is a public building.

So it's like this private/public turducken situation.

I was expecting this errand to take 20 minutes. Because early voting always seemed like a way to get in before the crowds of election day for a more convenient voting experience.

But the parking lot was packed and I feared my expectations were about to be subverted.

As I walk through the parking lot I see a bunch of signs in the ground.

And a particular one caught my eye.

This is bullshit.

Like, just a straight up lie. No truth to it whatsoever.

Amendment 3 in Missouri basically restores abortion rights in the state. And Republicans have taken issue with the following language...

"The Government shall not deny or infringe upon a person's fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which is the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive health care, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions."

They claim the phrasing "but not limited to" means you can give an 8-year-old kid "sex change surgery."

This is how their online flyer puts it...

It could also include a free puppy.

Or a zillion bucks.

Or a clown will come to your house after the abortion and honk your nose.

It's ridiculous and desperate. I honestly don't know how it is legal for them to put a lie like that outside of a polling location, but here we are.

The organization "Missouri Stands with Women" is run by... a man.

It was set up by a lawyer named "Edward Greim" on behalf of the Federalist Society.

His law firm has a lovely biography about him. And a bunch of publicly available contact information. I say that for no reason whatsoever.

The Federalist Society funds all kinds of shit like this. Their main thing is installing conservative judges all over the country who will reinterpret or negate legislation. And they do it all to "stand with women" by taking away their reproductive rights.

Here is the board of directors of the Federalist Society.

Ya know, before I looked this up, I said to myself, "I bet it's going to be a sausage fest." I am psychic.

I think it would be more accurate to say they stand with A woman.

Just one.

And she sucks.

Nicole is a law professor at Notre Dame. She chose her Catholicism over her right to choose. The Catholic Church will fuck your rights and your children and Nicole will help them do it.

Anyway... back to my quick and easy voting experience...

So as I'm walking in to vote I keep passing a ton of these awful signs. I notice an older woman standing next to the aforementioned "child sex change" sign and she says, "Can I talk to you about Amendment 3?"

At this point, I'm pretty angry. I look her dead in the eyes and say with my most assholish tone, "NO." as I walk past her.

And then she finishes her sentence...

"...to protect the reproductive rights of women."

Ah, dammit.

I thought she was an old Karen but she was cool as heck. Standing out in the rain telling people the sign is bullshit. I wanted to turn around and apologize but I was stuck in full social anxiety mode so I just kept walking.

If that old lady happens to have a Tumblr and follows me and is willing to read this giant story... I just want to say I am sorry. I thought you were awful and I should have let you finish your sentence. You're super cool and I'm happy there are folks like you fighting for what is right.

I get inside and a young woman greets me. She tells me the line is in the next room and points. I still wasn't quite sure what the situation was. The parking lot being full gave me pause, but I was still hopeful I could have a swift early voting experience.

But I walk through the doors and into a huge gymnasium and my heart sinks.

It's hard to represent in pictures how long this line is.

It goes all the way to the end of the gym, loops around, and comes back. At first I was not too discouraged, because there was a nice gentle ramp at the start of the line.

But then I notice several sets of stairs at different stages of the line. And I'm just thinking how hard it would be to stand in this line and then also having to go up and down several sets of stairs.

So I go back to the young woman working there and ask what their accessible voting options are. And she told me I could do curbside voting and points outside. I then notice a line of cars wrapped around the parking lot. I don't know how I didn't see them walking in, but I guess I was too busy being a jerk to elderly progressive women.

My biggest concern was time.

The longer this takes, the more energy I use up, the longer my eventual recovery will be.

They tell me the car option is the slowest. And I could be in line for 2 to 3 hours. And then an old man who seemed to be in charge walks over and tells me the fastest option is to stand in line.

So I walk back out to my car and grab my cane and decide to try the long serpentine gynasium line.

I start walking up the ramp and some of the other folks see how slow and labored I'm walking and they start encouraging me. "You can do it! You got this!" Which I suppose was meant to be a positive helpful thing. But I found it to be embarrassing.

I get to the end of the line and notice most of the line has bleachers directly next to it. So I decide to sit down and rest and figure out how I am going to survive this experience.

It took me a while to recover from the long walk to this spot. I watched a bunch of people pass me by and the line was actually getting much longer as I rested. I was not really sure what to do. I was trying to problem-solve this situation but the answer that kept popping up in my mind was just... "go home."

But I felt this was too important and that wasn't really an option.

My best idea was to ask someone if they would hold my spot in line. Perhaps I could just sit in the bleachers and follow them around in the line, staying as close to them as I could. But my social anxiety was set to maximum and I was not finding the courage to ask someone.

After about 10 minutes of sitting, resting, and thinking, I basically say, "Fuck it, I'll try to stand in line."

I get up and start walking to the end of the line.

Then I hear a voice yell out to me.

"Hey, man! Come over here! This is your spot!"

A young man was waving at me. He was accompanied by his wife. Both of them were dressed in black and they had a sort of goth skater aesthetic going on. He had a competitively bushy beard, but with less gray. And she had very vivid purple hair.

I was a little confused and still processing what was happening. Then they both started waving at me to join them in line. They remembered I got there just before and told me I should be in front of them. I walk over and thank them. Then he suggests...

"Hey, why don't you just sit in the bleachers and follow us around the line."

He suggested my idea!

Without me asking!

I felt like he read my mind or something.

Can bearded people read each others' minds? Was this some beard skill I was unaware of?

"I got you, man. You just sit and we'll keep your place."

And his violet hair'd significant other agreed. "Yeah, we got you."

The kindness of strangers was more accessible than my polling place and I was just so thankful in that moment.

So I sat in the bleachers and watched them traverse the line. In the middle of the gym there were some teenagers playing basketball. And so I just rested and watched them play.

That young man in the red pants was like a goddamn Harlem Globetrotter. He was just embarrassing the others. He was bouncing the ball behind his back and through his legs and then he just danced around his opponents like a figure skater. It was such an unbalanced matchup. He might as well have been playing 4th graders. Not only was he significantly faster and more maneuverable, but he was consistently hitting 3-pointers.

And then during a break, he ran towards the hoop, jumped from the free throw line, flew all the way to the net, grabbed onto the rim, and proceeded to do several pull ups as if they were the easiest thing in the world. I don't think I've seen anyone jump that far and that high in real life and it was just a bonkers display of athleticism.

I spent the entire wait watching him humiliate the others—hoping he would get a full ride scholarship to some prestigious university.

And I hoped the other boys paid attention in school and got straight As, because basketball was not going to work out for them.

As my new goth skater friends progressed through the line, I would make sure to keep sight of them. Every once in a while I'd give them a head nod to acknowledge we were in this together. After an hour and a half they were at the final segment of the line, so I sat next to the wheelchair folks.

I probably could have argued to sit with them in the first place. But I really did not feel like making the case that I was just as disabled as them and needed that level of consideration. The old man running things seemed quite stressed and was putting out 8 fires at once. And my anxiety wasn't really cooperating enough to be assertive in my needs.

But it worked out in the end, so I'm not going to dwell on the lack of accommodation for people who weren't *visually* disabled.

My new bearded friend neared the end and waved me over. I thanked him and his wife profusely.

I joked, "Thank you for adopting a voter."

They seemed confused by my joke.

"No problem, man. Happy to help."

I told him and his wife they truly saved me. "I honestly don't think I would have made it through the line." And then I looked back...

I said, "As crazy as this is, I do find this kind of turnout encouraging." His wife agreed and said, "We were saying the same thing!" And then I thought, "Can the wives of bearded people absorb the mind reading ability? I hope she can't read my mind right now. Although, I'm mostly thinking that her hair is a really cool shade of purple, so she'd probably find that complimentary."

As I waited to get my ballot I could hear the happy couple behind me. They were very cute. They were making fun of each other in a very lovey-dovey fashion. I had high hopes they were going to grow old and gray and purple together based on their chemistry. And I was just so thankful they were able to recognize that I needed help without me asking. Because I probably would have just caved to my anxiety and not asked for help otherwise.

I got my ballot and sat down to fill in all of the appropriate squares. Thankfully I had prepared a cheat sheet on my phone.

It was an exact replica so I was able to copy it and finish quite rapidly.

Then I fed my votes into the vote-eating monster and they gave me a sticker.

My quick 20 minute adventure to vote early only took 2.5 hours!

And because I didn't want to buck tradition, I stood outside in the wind and the rain and took a voting selfie.

Yep, that seems about right.

Ah, crap... that was only the second thing on my to-do list.

Let's speedrun the rest of this story, shall we?

I drove to FedEx. I hauled a 40 pound box inside. I plopped it on the counter and said, "Man, this thing is heavy!" as I tried to catch my breath. The 20 year old working there then lifted it like it was a feather and I felt great about that.

I drove to the gas station because I was nearly on empty—that is both a metaphor and not a metaphor. I filled my ride with go juice.

I noticed I was a mile from the tire store and they fill up tires for free. So I did that and the guy was super nice and complimented my tires. I felt both weird and proud about having my tires complimented. Like, I had nothing to do with my tires being nice. But I accepted the praise on their behalf.

I drove to the UPS store. The last time I was there I made a scene. They refused to box up a return and I got upset and wasn't feeling well and they had to find a chair for me to sit in because I was going to faint. So I was hoping the same woman wasn't there, but she was. She didn't recognize me, so it was fine.

I drove to my lawn guy's house. He wasn't home. I dropped a check in his mailbox. My checks have corgis on them. My checks are cute.

I drove to the post office. I sent a secret package to my bestie, Katrina. I'd tell you what is in it, but it is an inside joke and you wouldn't get it. The woman noticed my voting sticker and I couldn't help thinking about what I just accomplished to get that sticker.

On my way out I noticed a miracle.

2 of the 4 doors were fixed!

I mean, I don't know why they couldn't fix all 4, but now the employees won't freeze in the winter. So I take that as a win. It only took a year and a half to accomplish and I'm sure all of my phone calls and emails did not help at all. But I'm going to pretend I saved the day regardless.

And then... I drove home.

5 hours of errands.

I was so fucking tired. My back was on fire with pain. I immediately collapsed into my bed. I passed out. And I slept for 14 hours.

The End

[eugenedebs1920]

There are some on the right, the pro-fascist side, who would claim Dems, liberals are the establishment.

First I would like to start out with the definition of liberal. Liberal: Willing to listen to, or accept ideas and opinions different from one’s own. Open minded.

Now let’s take a loo at conservative. Conservative: Adverse to change or innovation. Holding to “traditional” values.

When one thinks of movements that have bettered humanity, and the world at large are these done in the name of tradition? Are these done by the ideals of old?

Tradition in this country can be rooted back to slavery, back to a time when white people lorded their superiority over others based solely on the color of their skin. It can be traced back to the most wealthy among us, exploiting workers to enrich themselves with as much as possible while no care is given for the health and safety of those who make their wealth possible. Tradition can be traced back to voter suppression and Jim Crow laws, disenfranchising the votes of those who don’t fit their socioeconomic standards, who don’t fit their color code.

This tradition can be traced back to TODAY! Because this tradition of disenfranchisement is happening TODAY! Nearly every state with a GOP majority has done, and is doing all it can to drop voters off the roles. Pretending there’s some kind of fraud. This fraud is simply the poor, those of color, and those who don’t fit a white Christian mold, that they seem to think this country is.

Through years of scheming and planning, through a lack of foresight from our founding fathers, trying to appease slave states. The GOP has found a way of minority rule over the vastly diverse country America is. This minoritarian rule can be seen clearly in SCOTUS, it can be seen in the senate where millions and millions of Americans have little to no say on the goings on in government. Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, all those states combined don’t have the number of citizens California does. All those states are “conservative” states, but California gets 2 representatives, the collective there is 10! A 10-2 vote with not nearly as many constituents. There’s the house though!? Some may argue. The house is a joke! So gerrymandered, useless idiots like Margery toilet Greene will keep her seat for decades to come. We outnumber conservatives in the real world but are trampled by them in representation.

We are the revolutionaries! We are the fight against the forces of old and evil! We are the fight for change! For a better America, for a better world where ALL have equal rights! Where ALL get the same shot at the American dream! Where ALL are treated as members of this country despite their origins or preferences or religion! We are the rebellion against “tradition”. A tradition that seeks to benefit one sect of peoples. We are the other sect and we will not be gaslit to think otherwise.

All of us in the pro-democracy movement are the heart of this nation. The liberals who will take the pinnacle of diversity and thrive with the ideas of all! We are the change. We are the next generation. We are love! We are hope! We are the open minded, accepting, tolerant, compassionate, ever learning, ever growing liberals of the United States of America.