#WE NEED THE INSULIN CAP

[wakandama2]

I wouldn't wish being poor and diabetic on my worse fucking enemy yo

[lazorsandparadox]

The us government is going to do shitty things whether theres a democrat or a republican in the presidency or controlling the senate, but one of those options will do it a lot worse AND roll back all the good policy changes weve gotten in the last 4 years, which will result in people like me suddenly being unable to afford a lot of their basic necessities.

sorry but i want to hit every american talking about not wanting to vote democrat anymore with hammers. lol

[gacorley]

There’s some common threads I see in the anti-voting posts going around, and I feel like I need to discuss some of them. Let’s start with the biggest one:

Voting to punish evil. I see lots of variations of this. Biden is supporting Israel, therefore we can’t vote for him. Is there any viable candidate who would stop the genocide? I don’t think the anti voting crowd actually cares. They are appealing to moral feelings rather than political strategy, because strategically, you have to realize that voting is not going to change foreign policy, and that change has to be pushed by other means. It’ll probably be something in the long haul.

Democrats should run someone else. First of all, this is a shit strategy. You don’t primary your president in the second term unless your party is falling apart. This may come from people from countries where replacing the head of government is easier, but the POTUS is the de facto party head. Also, going to the lack of thought to the goal — do you know someone willing to primary Biden and able to win who would do the things you want?

Biden hasn’t done anything anyway. This is just a way to bat away pro arguments. There’s plenty of lists of progress on lots of things. Student loans, insulin price caps, regulations, anti-trust.

Putting the entire Palestinian genocide on Biden. I’m not saying there’s not culpability there, but understand that the entire US government is in support of Israel, on both sides. It was a miracle we got a handful of Senators to call for investigations. We should cut off aid, absolutely. Who’s running to do that? And keep in mind that Israel chose to engage. US officials would have liked a more limited response, not out of care for Palestinians, but because they know from experience that it will come back to bite Israel in the form of newly radicalized Hamas recruits.

Liberals just have no hope for change. This is a new one. Just some idea that people are stuck in a rut and that’s the reason the two party system exists. The two party system is a mathematical consequence of the way we vote. There is reason to hope for change. The change, though, whatever means you choose, will take decades. Keep working at it. The hope is not that this election will fundamentally change things. The hope is that many small political actions over the years will push things forward.

Funnily enough, I haven’t seen a whole lot of third party promotion, just lots of this rhetoric aiming to punish. When voting, ask yourself:

Is this problem I have with this candidate something that the other candidate would be better on?

Are there other political actions I can take that will help?

What things can change with a different President or Congress, and what needs to be pursued by other means?

Withholding your vote as a punishment isn’t really going to help. Biden doesn’t know who you are or why you are not voting for him, and there is no one with a chance of winning that will do everything you want. But you have other means. Protest, organize, donate, build up alternatives, advocate for a different system.

Vote to give yourself space and get a little bit. Do other things to keep things moving.

[lets-steal-an-archive]

By Bernie Sanders | July 13, 2024

I will do all that I can to see that President Biden is re-elected. Why? Despite my disagreements with him on particular issues, he has been the most effective president in the modern history of our country and is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump — a demagogue and pathological liar. It’s time to learn a lesson from the progressive and centrist forces in France who, despite profound political differences, came together this week to soundly defeat right-wing extremism.

I strongly disagree with Mr. Biden on the question of U.S. support for Israel’s horrific war against the Palestinian people. The United States should not provide Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government with another nickel as it continues to create one of the worst humanitarian disasters in modern history.

I strongly disagree with the president’s belief that the Affordable Care Act, as useful as it has been, will ever address America’s health care crisis. Our health care system is broken, dysfunctional and wildly expensive and needs to be replaced with a “Medicare for all” single-payer system. Health care is a human right.

And those are not my only disagreements with Mr. Biden.

But for over two weeks now, the corporate media has obsessively focused on the June presidential debate and the cognitive capabilities of a man who has, perhaps, the most difficult and stressful job in the world. The media has frantically searched for every living human being who no longer supports the president or any neurologist who wants to appear on TV. Unfortunately, too many Democrats have joined that circular firing squad.

Yes. I know: Mr. Biden is old, is prone to gaffes, walks stiffly and had a disastrous debate with Mr. Trump. But this I also know: A presidential election is not an entertainment contest. It does not begin or end with a 90-minute debate.

Enough! Mr. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate. And with an effective campaign taht speaks to the needs of working families, he will not only defeat Mr. Trump but beat him badly. It’s time for Democrats to stop the bickering and nit-picking.

I understand that some Democrats get nervous about having to explain the president’s gaffes and misspeaking names. But unlike the Republicans, they do not have to explain away a candidate who now has 34 felony convictions and faces charges that could lead to dozens of additional convictions, who has been hit with a $5 million judgment after he was found liable in a sexual abuse case, who has been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits, who has repeatedly gone bankrupt and who has told thousands of documented lies and falsehoods.

Supporters of Mr. Biden can speak proudly about a good and decent Democratic president with a record of real accomplishment. The Biden administration, as a result of the American Rescue Plan, helped rebuild the economy during the pandemic far faster than economists thought possible. At a time when people were terrified about the future, the president and those of us who supported him in Congress put Americans back to work, provided cash benefits to desperate parents and protected small businesses, hospitals, schools and child care centers.

After decades of talk about our crumbling roads, bridges and water systems, we put more money into rebuilding America’s infrastructure than ever before — which is projected to create millions of well-paying jobs. And we did not stop there. We made the largest-ever investment in climate action to save the planet. We canceled student debt for nearly five million financially strapped Americans. We cut prices for insulin and asthma inhalers, capped out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and got free vaccines to the American people. We battled to defend women’s rights in the face of moves by Trump-appointed jurists to roll back reproductive freedom and deny women the right to control their own bodies.

So, yes, Mr. Biden has a record to run on. A strong record. But he and his supporters should never suggest that what’s been accomplished is sufficient. To win the election, the president must do more than just defend his excellent record. He needs to propose and fight for a bold agenda that speaks to the needs of the vast majority of our people — the working families of this country, the people who have been left behind for far too long.

At a time when the billionaires have never had it so good and when the United States is experiencing virtually unprecedented income and wealth inequality, over 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, real weekly wages for the average worker have not risen in over 50 years, 25 percent of seniors live each year on $15,000 or less, we have a higher rate of childhood poverty than almost any other major country, and housing is becoming more and more unaffordable — among other crises.

This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We can do better. We must do better. Joe Biden knows that. Donald Trump does not. Joe Biden wants to tax the rich so that we can fund the needs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. Donald Trump wants to cut taxes for the billionaire class. Joe Biden wants to expand Social Security benefits. Donald Trump and his friends want to weaken Social Security. Joe Biden wants to make it easier for workers to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages and benefits. Donald Trump wants to let multinational corporations get away with exploiting workers and ripping off consumers. Joe Biden respects democracy. Donald Trump attacks it.

This election offers a stark choice on issue after issue. If Mr. Biden and his supporters focus on these issues — and refuse to be divided and distracted — the president will rally working families to his side in the industrial Midwest swing states and elsewhere and win the November election. And let me say this as emphatically as I can: For the sake of our kids and future generations, he must win.

Bernie Sanders is the senior senator from Vermont.

[chippewa]

Indigeneity, Agenda 47 (Project 2025), and Social Security

Update: I think our best hope is that these plans aren't really implemented. Maybe people will become aware and there will be pushback from other elected officials to stop it. Trump's administration didn't go through with its entire 2016 plan. Maybe we'll dodge a bullet this time too.

This affects all Americans.

If you're in the US, you should be aware that the Trump administration plan includes reducing and/or shutting down Social Security which includes SSDI ("disability") / SSI ("welfare"), Medicare / Medicaid, along with EBT / SNAP ("food stamps").

This could also disband Tribes and take our remaining homelands. This could be the Termination Era coming back.

A lot of people voted for him having no idea that they may have voted to end their own healthcare, financial and food assistance in the coming year.

A lot of vulnerable people are at risk in the next year.

Insulin rationing is already happening to Americans (there's a common lie that "insulin was capped at $35!" when that only applies to seniors on a specific Medicare plan, which may be going away) even with the bare minimum social safety net that is Social Security / Medicare / Medicaid.

People are already going hungry even with SNAP / EBT food cards.

If you know anyone who relies on Social Security, or is "on disability" SSDI, or lives in poverty "on welfare" SSI, or needs Medicare or Medicaid for their healthcare and prescriptions, be very aware that you might see scary things happen in 2025, as part of "Agenda 47" (Project 2025).

The campaign had a fake website with nameless AI-generated "Native people" declaring support for the Project:

Zoom in on the hand and the strange sign meme text:

None of these people have names. They don't exist.

This is a project that may include disbanding our remaining Tribes, taking our remaining land and selling it to the highest international bidder.

They could do the same to all "federal land", like National Parks which Trump began doing in 2016 with Bears Ears National Monument a place that used to be protected, with ancient Native petroglyph rock art that now has ATV trails and RV parking, and is open for uranium mining:

From the fake site with AI generated "Native people" telling you we support this plan:

The "community-based self-reflection on how we identify as Native people of the United States" is a return of the Termination Era, where all Tribes are disbanded and we "become Americans" or cease to exist as Native people. Our nations are older than the US. The Trump administration has no right to force yet another assimilation policy on us.

This is a land grab, a theft of public resources, and will rob from the poorest people in the US including your neighbors.

This will affect everyone, Native or not.

I don't have any solution. This is just a warning.

[reasonandempathy]

The weird radical/revolutionary politic larpers on this site are so allergic to political pragmatism I swear lmao. I am definitely left of the Democratic Party and I am certainly voting for Joe Biden in November. Not because I like him (I don’t). He is absolutely horrific on Gaza and that’s only the top (and priority considering there is a genocide going on there) of a list of complaints I have about him. I even voted uncommitted in my state’s presidential primary (the Pennsylvania one; I had to write it in) to protest. However, I’m still thinking pragmatically. Trump has said things that make me credibly think he will be worse on Gaza (insane that being worse on Gaza than Biden is possible but it is unfortunately), and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Project 2025, the potential for him to appoint more deeply conservative justices, more of his aggressively screwing over poor and middle class people with his tax policies. And does anyone else remember the spike in hate crimes after the race was called for him in 2016? Before he was even inaugurated? Whether people vote or not in November we will still have to deal with one of these two men in office come January unless all of the internet ancom larpers overthrow the government by then (doubt), so I’d rather deal with the one who will be marginally less bad and who didn’t try to overthrow the government. Can’t have your revolution if nobody’s alive cause you kept pushing off politically participating because there was no perfect option. 👍

Political pragmatist anon, sorry for ranting in your askbox but I feel like I lose brain cells watching these people talk. The other day I saw someone say Biden is bad because Roe v. Wade fell under his administration… even though the reason for that was Trump appointed justices. 💀 (2/2)

Fucking insane. Sincerely.

It's a completely, flatly binary choice for anyone with a brain stem and sincerity. It's distilled into the two below images:

Where all major third party candidates are even on the ballot

How many electoral votes the largest of those (green party, a.k.a. Jill Stein) would win if they won every single state they're on the ballot for.

They are literally, legally, incapable of winning the election. They are not on enough state ballots to win and Jill Stein would need to somehow win California and Texas to even "win" all the states they're on the ballot for. Which, again, would still not be enough to win the presidency and throw it to the currently existing Republican House of Representatives. Which would put Trump in office.

It's that straightforward. That simple. That BLARINGLY obvious to literally everyone except these people.

On the one hand you have:

Significant and continuous support for Israel and it's genocide

Record levels of pardons for low-level drug offenses

the gearing up of the strongest anti-trust regime since the early 20th century

the most aggressive NLRB I've seen in my lifetime, with massive wins and institutional changes to help workers

Including getting Rail strike workers a week of sick-leave that gets paid out at the end of the year, which is better than NYC and LA sick leave laws

Millions of people (not enough) getting student debt forgiveness

Some trillion dollars (not enough)of investment in renewable resources and infrastructure

Proposed taxes on unrealized capital gains (a.k.a. how billionaires never have any money but can still buy Kentucky, Iowa, and Twitter)

Effectively an end to overdraft fees

The explicit support of leftist world leaders like Lula de Silva. Who he has explicitly worked with to expand worker rights in South America.

Has capped (some, not enough, only a tiny amount really but it's something) some drug prices, including Insulin.

Reduced disability discrimination in medical treatment

Billions in additional national pre-k funding

Ending federal use of private prisons

Pushing bills to raise Social Security tax thresholds higher to help secure the General Fund

Increasing SSI benefits

and more

vs

Said Israel should just nuke Gaza and "get it over with"

Personally takes pride in and credit for getting Roe v Wade overturned

Is arguing in court that the President should be allowed to assassinate political rivals

Muslim Ban Bullshit, insistently

Actively damages our global standing and diplomatic efforts just by getting obsessed with having a Big Button

Implemented massive tax cuts on ich people, tax hikes on middle class and poor people, and actively wants to do it again

"Only wants to be a dictator for a little bit, guys, what's the big deal"

Is loudly publicly arguing that the US shouldn't honor its military alliances after-the-fact

Tore up an effective and substantial anti-nuclear-proliferation treaty with Iran

Had a DoEd that actively just refused to process student debt forgiveness applications that have been the law of the land for decades now

Has a long record of actively curtailing and weakening the NLRB and labor movement, including allowing managers to retaliate against workers, weakened workplace accommodation requirements for disabled people, and more

Rubber stamped a number of massive mergers building larger, more powerful top companies and increasing monopolistic practices

Fucking COVID Bullshit and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths

Openly supporting fascists and wannabe-bootlicks ("Very fine people" being only the beginning of it

It's really not fucking close.

[traegorn]

Do you seriously think all insulin will be cut off from diabetics in a revolution? You are the dumbest cunt to ever put on a flat cap, which is stiff competition. Even if the revolutionaries are waging total war, they still have to manage logistics for civilians, and so a priority would be supplying their diabetic population with medicine to survive, or otherwise evacuating disabled civilians to places where medication would be available. Communists believe in universal healthcare. If "all supply chains collapsed" the war would be lost instantly. And while you're right that Americans would die, the us military would have to pull out from their bases across the world to put down a rebellion in their own country, meaning that it would kill fewer people abroad, and therefore fewer people overall in a hypothetical civil war versus their global wars on the third world. But those would be American lives so that's what makes it unconscionable for you. Diabetic Gazans are dying after a decades long blockade, diabetic Americans would have a fighting chance stockpiling insulin, evacuating, and/or doing logistics for the revolution.

I don't think you understand what societal collapse looks like, or how fragile the complex supply chain that provides for over 345 Million Americans is.

In fact, I was talking about this with your mom the other day. Your dad was hogtied in the corner with his ball gag in, so we had a minute or two while we were waiting for him to get an erection again.

Frankly, he needs to get more vitamin E in his diet -- but that's a discussion for another day.

Anyways, as she was undoing my cuffs, she mentioned that the US had seen a record high of drug shortages in 2024, including Insulin. If we consider how fragile that supply is in peace time and extrapolate even a low level disruption to something like, say, the ability to ship things across the midwest, we'd be looking at a deeply dangerous situation where the death toll would be enormous.

We would have kept talking, but your dad got hard again and my mouth was full with his balls.

Anyways, when "revolutionaries" are fighting a war, their priorities are going to be ammunition, clean clothes, and food for themselves. I'm dead in this revolution, and you don't seem to give a shit -- so explain why exactly I should take you seriously?

Also, as an aside, the people you claim you're fighting for don't even want you to withhold your vote. You're doing this for your own vanity and feelings, and not for the real lives of anyone else. Your parents and I are disappointed in you.

[dolcinos]

Can we hear some of your most dark and morbid wg fantasies/likes pls? Or literally anything immobility related? Your death feederism and fatpad stuff is so good!! Had me going insane…

absolutely!!! paragraph-length scenarios incoming… i’ll be neutral but throw in some alfred-specific ones at the end since he’s my (not so) little plaything.

ALSO THANK YOU FOR GOING INSANE OVER THE FAT PAD STUFF HEHE. i’m actually working on a teeny little drabble expanding on my previous post about it which is coming soon >:)

darker WG/obesity stuff below ↓

my preamble to this is i’ve been getting into more extreme WG and death feederism stuff kinda recently tbh (last few months). i’m happy you like it 💛💛 until now i’d say my general cap for feederism stuff was around 400 pound mark but now i’m really getting into the bigger dudes and immobility, blob, etc.

all that to say, things are still stewing in my brain rn and i hope these scenarios are up to par :’)

first off. fupa on the brain. or rather fat pads. a guy so blobby and obese that his puffy fat-pad could be mistaken for a stray belly roll. you can pinch a few good, thick inches of it in your fingers. great for nibbling on! maybe his fat pad is so deep that his dick is completely engulfed, cushioned between swelling fat, so far down that you can’t even reach his micropeen to stroke it… you’ve gotta rub your big boy’s tender, flabby fat pillow to get him off, hoping he feels the rough vibrations and flesh brushing against his tiny dick underneath all that blubber (and you can never do it for long because it’s exhausting to hold up all his belly fat with one hand!)

next: a big boy with diabetes brought on from his morbid obesity and very poor eating habits. he’s completely immobile, and you often have to massage his swelled legs (which are usually numb) and make sure you withhold sugar from him when you need to. it’s a huge turn on for you to see him whine when you limit his intake, knowing there’s nothing he can do about it. you have to prick his fat butterstick fingers to take his blood sugar, and inject insulin for him since he can’t reach~

lastly and maybe the darkest, is a guy that’s a humongous blob of blubber. close to 1,000 pounds. a mountain of flesh and flab sitting atop a king-sized bed, unable to move much besides his eyes, head, and hands. you pamper him and feed him every meal, always wash him up. one day you have a falling out and break up, and sourly leave him— maybe even maliciously, cruelly leave, because you were his caretaker. you know he’ll be helpless alone. but you’re angry and don’t mind being awful. the realization that you left for good will dawn on him as he lays there, too fat to reach for his phone and call for help, too heavy to get up. he hasn’t felt his legs in a year and he doubts his swollen feet could even hold his weight. he thinks, bitterly, that maybe he’ll lose some weight this way, the hard way, through starvation. but he also knows he’ll need water eventually. that he’ll be sitting in his own piss and shit for days or months or years. that he’ll rot in this bed, encased in fat.

ALFRED-SPECIFIC GOODNESS:

i often think about rusame cold war stuff, pretty sure i’ve mentioned it very briefly. this ventures a bit into ‘unrealistic’ weight gain if done over a short period. alfred capturing ivan as a POW for a while a force feeding him that good ol’ american fast food is always a must for me (i think i’ll honestly write that as a fic), but the reverse is just as intriguing. ivan catches alfred spying and chains him up in a gulag somewhere, a very big cell where ivan feeds him those burgers he loves so much. revenge against capitalism… have alfred balloon up into immobility so he couldn’t even escape if he tried! ivan personally shoves double-decker, meaty, greasy cheeseburgers down alfred’s throat every day until he’s mindless and drooling, just wanting more and more food to sate his massive body.

death feederism alfred when he stuffs himself too much. after a feeding session with arthur, alfred still finds himself hungry and has arthur leave leftovers from last night at his chair. he’s a huge, immobile blob, reliant solely on arthur…who begrudgingly listens, but warns him not to eat too much more. arthur goes to sleep while alfred is still lazily in front of the tv, chowing down on fried chicken wings, a patty melt or two, an extra large soda, jumbo fries, deep dish pizza— when, suddenly, a heart attack strikes, and his obese body gives out ;)

[cyarsk52-20]

As a Black woman, I'm done with WW. You always betray other women, especially Black women for your whiteness, privilege and the adjacency to white patriarchal power. Nope, not falling for anymore of this performative BS.

Given that 55% of white women gaslit us all and voted for Mayo Mao anyway? Nah. Can’t trust any of you and I’m certainly not risking my life or those of my friends and family protesting the bullshit that YOU WHITE WOMEN VOTED FOR. Fuck off! ATP with a few exceptions all hews are trash and backstabbing b words because they don’t care about the country and democracy. I been betrayed by them thrice and now they need to suffer.

Y'ALL MARCHED LAST TIME THEN TURNED RIGHT AROUND AND INCREASED YOUR PERCENTAGE VOTING FOR HIM. Black women will be minding our own. This is a WHITE WOMAN problem. Oh, BTW DiKKKtator Drumpf is going to slaughter you for protesting! You’re all dead! “but give us grace “

biiitch what? Grace is dead says the black woman!

No. Black women don't owe you shit, period. They have CONSISTENTLY carried our Democracy at EACH AND EVERY ELECTION. Ww need to do their part own fucking work and stop expecting them to save their asses AGAIN!!!

like FUCK THAT!!!!

If y’all can Google new recipes for meatloaf- or keep up with the release of new Stanley Cup designs - you can Google stuffs to educate yourselves.

Black folks got lied to again. Three times you yts lied We no longer have sympathy for folks who pretend they want to vote Democrat but then vote Republican and then lie about it. You are no longer trusted and as of now you’re on your own for the next four years. I will trust no white person I didn’t see with us or who I don’t know personally. Let them enjoy hell on their own!

That cap on rx costs? 35 bucks for insulin? You motherfuckers are literally gonna die of whiteness & the colonized minded assholes willing to die for that pale adjacency. You’ll be “one of the good ones” in hell with your demon faves.

Pelosi was on TV boasting about how she’s the King Maker, and House was going to gain dozens of Dem seats; she knows how to “count votes,” blah…blah…blah! This is karma for her hubris, betrayal and cozying up to Hollywood and Wall Street elites! Fuck Carville and Clooney too!

If Kamala Harris runs again. SHE HAS MY SUPPORT 100% AGAIN!! They wanted her to move mountains from 7/21/24-11/4/24. Hell, Joe Biden should have been moved his ass out the way. And his team inside that circle should have had more respect for her as VP those first 2.5 years.

and when the ish hits the fan remember the fruck arse HEWS that would rather have a convicted felon than a more than qualified BLACK FEMALE running the country because the price of eggs were too high. This country deserves to burn I’m going to piss on the ashes!

This election confirms what we learned in 2016: White women would rather live under the boot of a white man that stand in solidarity with black women. Oh and Latino women and men? Fuck you too. No more taco Tuesday in my house for the next two to four years

you know who I’m cool with: the Jewish peeps.

I want to thank the Jewish community(as well as the real ones from other communities) for having Black People back. The rest can suck it.

[learnwithmearticles]

Third Party Vote

A third party is any political party other than the dominant two in the nation - in the U.S.A., these are the Republican and the Democratic parties.

The third parties of the U.S.A. include the Libertarian party and the Green party.

Libertarian beliefs emphasize personal rights to property and participating in a free market. Generally, they do not align with progressive goals due to three key beliefs; everyone’s right to own guns; segregation of education standards; and voluntary taxes1. Overall, they want less government control.

Taxes are extremely annoying and inconvenient, and the allocation of them has not been optimal in many years, but the lack of them would cause extreme losses to programs that help people survive, including social security and certain healthcare plans2. Likewise, while decentralized education can have many benefits for students, the education disparities between states is drastic, and further decentralization will likely exacerbate education inequalities3.

But the purpose of this article is not to debunk the goals of specific parties. Instead, I aim to explain the unfortunate effects of third-party voting in general elections. Specifically, I will explain why some people prefer the Democratic party or the Green party, and why we must be careful when voting this year.

The U.S.A. Green party has goals of strong, definitive measures to address environmental degradation and climate change, institutions that perpetuate inequities, and unsustainable military practices4. Progressively, they are possibly the strongest pushers for change, and they criticize and claim to avoid the corruption and hypocrisy of the Democratic party.

The most likely Democratic candidate for presidency in 2024 is Joseph Biden. During his 2021-2024 presidency, Biden has made Medicare able to negotiate drug prices, including insulin which became capped at 35 dollars per month for seniors5. He also funded vaccination campaigns to address the COVID-19 pandemic, helped protect marriage equality for LGBT+ and interracial people, worked on achieving debt relief, and many more positive goals5. Most recently, he pardoned individuals federally charged with simple possession of marijuana, a major proclamation to correct some failures in the justice system15.

He has also been complicit in the genocide against Palestinian people, with his administration cutting off aid to Gaza while providing Israel munitions6. He has used the military to attack protests in the Middle East7. Additionally, the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan coincided with many service members’ deaths, and he has not achieved the cancellation of student debt that he aimed for8.

Problems with enacting change is that the Senate and the House of Representatives have a majority of Republican appointees, and six of the nine Supreme Court Justices were appointed by a Republican president. These demographics account for some of the issues regarding student loan debts and rights to autonomy and privacy, though Biden has worked to help constituents following the Supreme Court decision against Roe v. Wade5.

A Green party president would face similar setbacks, as checks and balances keep them from being able to completely dictate government decisions.

However, a Green party president such as Jill Stein would likely make good progress towards a more sustainable economy, equal rights, and alleviating climate change, based on her platform9. She would likely be a fantastic president. It is completely understandable why many people decide to vote for a third party, and why many young people, particularly on TikTok, say that they want to vote third-party.

I wish it was not this way, but current politics are not where they need to be for a third party candidate to win. A third-party candidate has never won the U.S.A. presidency before, even in their strongest years10.

When Jill Stein ran in 2016, the Democratic party won the popular vote but the Republican party won, and that responsibility is partially on third-party voters. If Stein’s voters had voted for the Democratic party, they would have won the electoral college11. Likewise, if every Democratic voter had voted for Jill Stein, the same would be true for the Green party.

Why is it fair to ask Green party voters to vote for the Democratic nominee instead of expecting Democratic voters to vote for the Green party, or for any ideal third party?

It isn’t. It is completely valid for people to want voting to be different. I am angry that I have to compromise on humanitarian values, as well. Politics should not be a two-party system. But not voting for Biden or whoever is the Democratic nominee creates an extreme risk of the Republican nominee winning, which would quickly send the U.S.A. further towards a loss of democracy and people’s rights.

Historic trends do not reflect positively on third party chances this year11. The Democratic party is giant and well-established with over 45 million loyal members unlikely to even consider a third party12. Voting for a third party is most likely to be considered a vote ‘stolen’ from one of the dominant parties13.

Keep in mind, these warnings are only pertaining to the presidency. Third parties have much higher likelihoods of success in smaller elections, such as city councils and mayoralties14. Hopefully, these trends will continue and the presidency will eventually not have to be as much of a compromise.

You are not wrong for wanting change. You are not wrong for being unsatisfied with inept government demographics. Continue to advocate for the nominees you most believe in, and please keep in mind the risks involved.

Additional Resources

1. https://www.lp.org/issues/

2. https://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go

3.https://learningportal.iiep.unesco.org/en/blog/learning-from-a-decentralized-education-system

4. https://www.gp.org/

5. https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/

6.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/30/biden-gaza-food-aid-hamas-civilians-strategy/

7.https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/11/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-coalition-strikes-in-houthi-controlled-areas-in-yemen/

8. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/22/joe-biden-presidency/

9. https://www.jillstein2024.com/principles

10.https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-younger-voters-will-impact-elections-responding-to-the-challenges-of-third-parties/

11.https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/11/13576798/jill-stein-third-party-donald-trump-win

12.https://news.gallup.com/poll/512135/support-third-political-party.aspx

13. https://theintercept.com/2024/01/22/biden-trump-president-election-third-party/

14. https://www.gpelections.org/greens-in-office/2023-july-01/15. https://www.justice.gov/pardon/presidential-proclamation-marijuana-possession

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

By Bernie Sanders

Mr. Sanders is the senior senator from Vermont.

July 13, 2024

I will do all that I can to see that President Biden is re-elected. Why? Despite my disagreements with him on particular issues, he has been the most effective president in the modern history of our country and is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump — a demagogue and pathological liar. It’s time to learn a lesson from the progressive and centrist forces in France who, despite profound political differences, came together this week to soundly defeat right-wing extremism.

I strongly disagree with Mr. Biden on the question of U.S. support for Israel’s horrific war against the Palestinian people. The United States should not provide Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government with another nickel as it continues to create one of the worst humanitarian disasters in modern history.

I strongly disagree with the president’s belief that the Affordable Care Act, as useful as it has been, will ever address America’s health care crisis. Our health care system is broken, dysfunctional and wildly expensive and needs to be replaced with a “Medicare for all” single-payer system. Health care is a human right.

And those are not my only disagreements with Mr. Biden.

But for over two weeks now, the corporate media has obsessively focused on the June presidential debate and the cognitive capabilities of a man who has, perhaps, the most difficult and stressful job in the world. The media has frantically searched for every living human being who no longer supports the president or any neurologist who wants to appear on TV. Unfortunately, too many Democrats have joined that circular firing squad.

Yes. I know: Mr. Biden is old, is prone to gaffes, walks stiffly and had a disastrous debate with Mr. Trump. But this I also know: A presidential election is not an entertainment contest. It does not begin or end with a 90-minute debate.

Enough! Mr. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate. And with an effective campaign that speaks to the needs of working families, he will not only defeat Mr. Trump but beat him badly. It’s time for Democrats to stop the bickering and nit-picking.

I understand that some Democrats get nervous about having to explain the president’s gaffes and misspeaking names. But unlike the Republicans, they do not have to explain away a candidate who now has 34 felony convictions and faces charges that could lead to dozens of additional convictions, who has been hit with a $5 million judgment after he was found liable in a sexual abuse case, who has been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits, who has repeatedly gone bankrupt and who has told thousands of documented lies and falsehoods.

Supporters of Mr. Biden can speak proudly about a good and decent Democratic president with a record of real accomplishment. The Biden administration, as a result of the American Rescue Plan, helped rebuild the economy during the pandemic far faster than economists thought possible. At a time when people were terrified about the future, the president and those of us who supported him in Congress put Americans back to work, provided cash benefits to desperate parents and protected small businesses, hospitals, schools and child care centers.

After decades of talk about our crumbling roads, bridges and water systems, we put more money into rebuilding America’s infrastructure than ever before — which is projected to create millions of well-paying jobs. And we did not stop there. We made the largest-ever investment in climate action to save the planet. We canceled student debt for nearly five million financially strapped Americans. We cut prices for insulin and asthma inhalers, capped out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and got free vaccines to the American people. We battled to defend women’s rights in the face of moves by Trump-appointed jurists to roll back reproductive freedom and deny women the right to control their own bodies.

So, yes, Mr. Biden has a record to run on. A strong record. But he and his supporters should never suggest that what’s been accomplished is sufficient. To win the election, the president must do more than just defend his excellent record. He needs to propose and fight for a bold agenda that speaks to the needs of the vast majority of our people — the working families of this country, the people who have been left behind for far too long.

At a time when the billionaires have never had it so good and when the United States is experiencing virtually unprecedented income and wealth inequality, over 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, real weekly wages for the average worker have not risen in over 50 years, 25 percent of seniors live each year on $15,000 or less, we have a higher rate of childhood poverty than almost any other major country, and housing is becoming more and more unaffordable — among other crises.

This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We can do better. We must do better. Joe Biden knows that. Donald Trump does not. Joe Biden wants to tax the rich so that we can fund the needs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. Donald Trump wants to cut taxes for the billionaire class. Joe Biden wants to expand Social Security benefits. Donald Trump and his friends want to weaken Social Security. Joe Biden wants to make it easier for workers to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages and benefits. Donald Trump wants to let multinational corporations get away with exploiting workers and ripping off consumers. Joe Biden respects democracy. Donald Trump attacks it.

This election offers a stark choice on issue after issue. If Mr. Biden and his supporters focus on these issues — and refuse to be divided and distracted — the president will rally working families to his side in the industrial Midwest swing states and elsewhere and win the November election. And let me say this as emphatically as I can: For the sake of our kids and future generations, he must win.

Bernie Sanders

[asimpleram]

People are celebrating insulin being capped at $35 dollars and if so we need a hesitant toast. But up to this point, some of them have been a voluntary opt in programs, where you have to know they are doing this and opt in. AND your insurance can sometimes decide what the price is instead (mine currently has been 0 dollars thank god). And government insurance seems to be the fucking worst about it, from my rudimentary research.

And! Diabetes management is not just insulin. You need tools to check blood sugars, which often comes in multiple parts paid for seperatly, pen needles, various back up supplies. It’s a nightmare that adds up so fast. Just because insulin isn’t putting you in debt, doesn’t mean it’s over. It’s still fucking horrible

[thatdykepunkslut]

Because I wrote an entire essay for some guy on discord and I figured might as well put it somewhere someone might actually read it (some things are lacking context but just keep reading the arguments I'm refuting are mostly kneejerk reactions that will be evident from my response):

Capitalism does not address scarcity. It vastly, VASTLY overproduces cheap consumer goods (christmas gift type goods are made in the billions months or even years before the year they're to be sold in, completely divorced from market predictions) while completely neglecting or making unattainably expensive essential goods like high density housing, public transit vehicles, life saving medication, quality food, etc.

Capitalist profit-seeking drives unnsustainable food practices like intensive animal agriculture, monocropping, industrial fertilizer and chemical weeding. Causes cities to implode by building endless suburbs whose tax income does not cover the costs of road and utility maintenance as well as moving industry to areas with cheaper labor and destroying ecosystems with illegal or unregulated dumping and pollution. Insulin is VERY cheap to make and the patent was sold for $1 decades ago. It has gotten more expensive even relative to other expensive medications, soaring dozens of times faster than inflation would imply. After WW2, car companies that made absurd amounts of money off of building tanks and planes then bought up public transit across the US and literally stacked it in a pile and burned it. There's photos of hundreds of burnt out streetcars with Henry Ford (who inspired parts of Mein Kampf and profited off of Jewish slave labor before the war btw) smoking a cigar and looking rather pleased with himself in the foreground. These are just off the top of my head

[9:41 PM]Now for how non-capitalist economies differ:

When removed from the stress of having to earn a living and the desire to accumulate enough to give their children a better life, most people are often very willing to help each other out for free. Under the stress of capitalist workdays (which are literally designed to make you too tired to think, shorter workweeks and workdays have been proven to significantly improve productivity in all sectors), people don't have the energy to spare to help their neighbor. However, pretty much everyone expresses some desire to make the world a better place if they were able. What would you personally do if you didn't have to worry about rent or your next meal or clothes or transportation ever again? Maybe play video games and [redacted] for a week straight but after that? Pretty much everyone is gonna say "hang out with loved ones and cook food."

All necessary forms of labor/work are enjoyable or at least bearable in the name of the greater good to some people. There are people who fucking LOVE picking up trash, like being a sanitation worker is literally the only job they ever want to have. A pretty sizeable chunk of the population enjoys growing plants and taking care of animals and there are methods of farming that require remarkably little effort. Pretty much everyone has a hobby they either currently enjoy or would love to pick up that is required for people to have comfortable lives, but cannot dedicate themselves to it because it would not be profitable enough to live off of

[9:56 PM]decommodifying goods and services fixes this, everyone can do at least one of the things they like doing because there is no threat of violence if you don't work (violence meaning eviction, starvation, freezing to death, etc) In addition to refocusing labor on what actually makes people enjoy their labor, it makes it pretty easy to keep up with demand. "Oh we need more food? Ok well go give people some seeds from the seed library and tools from the tool library. Now we have more food." "We need more clothing? Ok tell the sheperds to let more of their flock have kids and the textile mills to work an extra thirty minutes a day for the next month" (side note, there's finally been developments in automating clothesmaking. Tailoring will be more important after capitalism to ensure clothes are better fitting and last longer but the general forms won't need slave waged third world workers anymore soon)

[9:59 PM]Without states or capitalists to bicker over resources, there's no reason for wars. There will still be some interpersonal violence but without needing drug money to make life bearable (or like, baby formula bc apparently it's violent crime for someone to shoplift baby formula) how often do you think there will be THAT much violent crime? (although various other forms of hierarchy will need to be torn down in order to stop hate crimes like lynchings, mass shootings, and rape)

honestly really the only refutation needed for this as you have worded it is paleontology. Some of our most ancient ancestors have signs of living decades after debilitating injuries that would have rendered them utterly useless to family and unable to care for themselves. This necessitates that they were cared for at great inconvenience for upwards of fifty years tens of thousands of years before the earliest hints of civilization, let alone the currency to pay for a hospice nurse

[10:07 PM]Also, even in the context of mineral mining, without the need for phone companies to sell phones every year, electronics will become much longer lasting and more selectively repairable, meaning less minerals will be removed from use and fewer minerals will be needed to support all the products that are never actually bought in the first place. Even more so with cars, public transit vehicles carry orders of magnitude more people for relatively similar requirements and they don't even NEED conflict minerals in some cases because of overhead electricity being a solution to the tyranny of the battery equation (has someone coined that phrase yet? it seems like a very obvious parallel to the rocket equation now that I think about it but anyways) ok I think I've completely poured my remaining braincells for the day into this I'm gonna take a nap now

[trkstrnd]

in the spirit of the new year i am going to post some controversial takes

as of january first 2023 i feel

-ice is a social construct

-fancams are edits but edits are not fan cams

-capitalism is a concept fed to people by power hungry politicians who want you to believe that giving everything to keep them in power is better than living a safe, secure life.

-socialism is the way to go.

-dogs are better than cats but only by the tiniest morsel of a whisker upon their fluffy little faces and both are infinitely better than humans

-all reptiles are friend shaped. we just need to be able to read body language.

-insulin should be free (sincerely, a diabetic)

-garlic salt is a completely valid seasoning

-garlic is best vegetable

-vampires need to come up with a vaccine for garlic aversion

-garlic

-rafael silva and sierra mcclain carry 911 lone star on their backs

-tarlos > buddie

-but buddie is cool too

-be kind to each other

-diet cherry coke needs to go back into production

-cool colors are prettier than warm colors

-my friends are the coolest

-lettuce is the worst, most heinous, unethical food to create even in a world with the cattle industry

-climate change is real

-even if you don’t believe it’s real there is quite literally no reason to keep not caring about the environment around you

-like i’m not picking up trash at the park solely because of climate change im picking it up bc the animals might get hurt and it is not aesthetically pleasing

-abolish straws

-or at least just make them a medical supply

-some disabled people need them and that is okay but u don’t need them bestie just lift ur cup

-wood is a better material than plastic to make dishes from.

-small businesses are so good

-only buy from amazon if you need to.

-the extra shipping and time is worth it to help people who need your sales

-billionaires are inherently evil

-and no that is not jealousy

-the ‘american dream’ relies on gentrification

-if you can act, look, sound, like a white man you’ll be successful

-equal opportunity is bullshit

-fatphobia is real

-over the ear headphones > in ear

-ibuprofen is the superior pain relief medication

-flautas are exquisite

-there should be an age cap on all held government positions

-seriously george bush bill clinton and donald trump were all born in the same year, joe biden before them and have held office for the past twenty years

-stop letting people born in the 1940s run a country in 2023

-queer people aren’t indoctrinating your kids. your kids are finding safe spaces.

-dragons are fuckin cool

-let people be who they want to be as long as they don’t harm anyone.

-sharks are BAD ASS

-fish are friends AND food

-good, authentic sushi is worth the investment

-the world has nuance

-sometimes nuance is hard to understand especially to neurodivergent people

-please explain the nuance instead of attacking people who may not get it.

-music has both evolved and devolved

-carlos reyes is autistic.

-autism isn’t a bad thing

-autism speaks is an inherently terrible organization that supports eugenics.

-most addicts, if not all of them, do not choose to be addicts

-let people be people

-be a kind person

-thank you

-i love you all

[urbandokkalfar]

Speaking of Looking to the Past to Preserve the Future...

This is gonna be a looonnngggg hot take, I'm sick/not feeling well so Niquil induced deep thought is your curse as much as it is mine.

Most industry is unnecessary.

Lemme explain:

Food industry for example. Everyone needs to eat, this is a fact. How do governments and powers that be start keeping the impoverished masses in line? Control the food. When you think about it, m o s t plants labled weeds or unappealing/ugly or even nuisances are not only edible and nutritious but a good number are medicinal (I'll touch on this next). There isplebes.ely no reason why cities, towns etc can not replace ornamental vegetation with fruit trees, berry bushes, vegetable plants like peppers, tomatoes and the like. They don't because it doesn't perpetuate hunger as a motivator to work for them.

Medicine - While I can concede that some artificial medicines can be useful and can help some situations but, again, disconnecting people from the past: foraging, herbalism etc you connect them to the modern 'machine'. Healthcare is the states is an absolute joke. I've mentioned before I have a broken bone in my foot and a cracked knee cap - to 'fix' both with modern medicine would require me to not only be out of work for an insane amount of time but pay half the costs upfront and continue to pay for the foreseeable future. I have neighbors who regularly come to my apartment every week to share meals because they can not afford their medicines to keep them alive, bills, rent, and necessitys ontop of regular grocery shopping. We pool resources, buy in bulk and split it equally.

Continuing with medical - Doctors in the US (not sure about other places) notoriously gaslight paitents and ignore them until it's to late or erroneously expensive to afford treatments and will require treatments or medications for the rest of their lives. I don't believe all medical staff is inherently 'evil' but I do believe they are taught in such a way to run paitents in circles to force them to keep paying for life saving meds/treatments. Insulin, Cancer treatments, Hormones and other life saving/gender affirmative/mental health care should not be putting people deep into financial crisis - it makes it worse and keeps them in the system.

Also - Abortion should be 100% legal.

Gender Affirmation Care For Trans Youth And Trans In General Should Be 100% Legal.

Sex Workers Should Not Be Demonized.

Automotive Industries should be abolished. Cars, roadways etc are another means to keep people paying into the money pit of government and society. Gotta pay 100+ to register your vehicle every year, gas prices fluctuate like my paitents with stupid people, people who have no business being on the road (looking at you 90 year old with Sundowner Dementia...) posing a threat, cars in general posing a threat not only to other motorists but pedestrians, wildlife, non motor vehicles and the planet.

Companies Green Wash products - Vegan leather is plastic...plastic is ass for the environment while real leather biodegrades and has been a part of the himan experience for centuries.

VEGAN LIFESTYLES ARE UNSUSTAINABLE, PROMOTE DEFORESTATION, DESTRUCTION OF HABITATS, EXTERMINATION OF SPECIES AND PROMOTE SLAVERY. While i fully understand people who HAVE legitimate medical reasons and even true moral reasons for being vegan I do NOT condone industrial veganisam - your destroying the planet JUST as much as industrial agriculture.

Pro-Lifers are a fucking joke and we all need to laugh at them. Ya'll only care about a clump of cells till it's birthed.... Why don't you put that money and effort into HELPING children already existing in the hell that is the foster system rather than force people to keep making people they can't have or don't wanna keep for whatever reasons they have???

Society has become a sham - there is no protection living in mass cities. Cops kill people for no reason, becuase they can. Doctors and other medical professionals can decline to treat you based on their religious beliefs, personal ideas, sexual status/orientation, financial situation etc. If you don't fit the mold, you're a threat. Everything is engineered to cost JUST ENOUGH to keep the poor poor, you can not be self sufficient without consequences and limitations.

We need to go back to small, self sufficient communities, embrace birth control for males and females to get the human population under control, reduce the human foot print, reduce conventional vehicle travel (long distance public travel and goods transport/emergency services being the general exception with limitations), get the ecosystems back in balance....

[stressed-depressed-and-bored]

In the wake of Eli Lilly losing $30 million in their stock tank after a Twitter impersonator of them said insulin was now free, Eli Lilly announces that they will be dropping the price of insulin from nearly $300 a vial to $60 or so a vial, and capping out of pocket costs to $35 at participating pharmacies.

Now obviously I’m still a loud advocate for the fact that big Pharma and healthcare as a whole need to be completely nationalized and made universally free, but,

This shows us that we have power. The internet’s little stunt might have had something to do with this. They got exposed and lost out big time and now they might have to actually take steps in the right direction.