#a matter of blue

[soracities]

You let your heart go a bit / Like a dog that you call back when he wanders off.

Jean-Michel Maulpoix, from “From all over, she flows...”, A Matter of Blue: Poems (trans. Dawn M. Cornelio)

[mugiwara-lucy]

With Kamala/Walz going up DAILY, I've seen more people talking about voting third party/Jill Stein (EW) and I believe the above screencaps from @three--rings can explain WHY Third Party votes NEVER work NOR is this the election to screw around in.

Everyone....like she says above.....PLEASE LEARN FROM HISTORY!!!

(Because if Trump gets in, he's NEVER LEAVING).

[justahumblememefarmer]

Putting some positivity out there about the election

Harris has raised a record amount of money from small donors after Biden dropped out, in addition to being able to access all the funds from their campaign they already had

Trump is deeply unpopular and people have already seen the chaos that 4 years of his presidency would bring. A lot of people have been energized to vote against him, even if they're not fond of Dems

Polling showed a red wave for Republicans in the 2022 midterms, and yet they only barely had control of the House, and couldn't even agree on a Speaker for a historic amount of time. Dems also increased their lead in the Senate. Historically, midterms favor the opposition party and have lower turnout, so this is a good sign for the House in 2024

Dems are fighting back in swing states. PA and GA both put in Democratic senators in the midterms

In my home state of PA, I am from Bucks County, which is a swing county for the state. Moms for Libery took over the school board and used it to attack queer students, enact book bans, and funnel money to themselves and the superintendent. At the most recent election, Dems turned out and took back every single open seat, ousting the board and superintendent. Worry about similar takeovers in surrounding school boards also increased turnout

Abortion rights are on the ballot in many states, which has been a winning issue for Dems and increased turnout

Republicans were prepared to attack a feeble old Biden who isn't the strongest speaker. I don't think they expected him to actually drop out, and they now have to put an 78 year old convicted felon up against a prosecutor

Awareness of Project 2025 and it's contents has entered the public sphere and is being much more openly discussed on the news. While Trump has insisted he has nothing to do with it, most of the authors worked in his administration and Trump has worked closely with the Heritage foundation

Feel free to add more things on this thread, but the most important thing is to get out there and VOTE

Vote for President

Vote for Senators

Vote for Congresspeople

Vote in your local elections

Vote Blue down ballot

[creature-wizard]

Somewhere I saw a post that was like, "any state can turn blue if enough people vote."

This is very true. And with so much at stake here, you shouldn't assume that people won't turn out in droves to vote blue even in red states.

Project 2025/Agenda 47 isn't the kind of thing that normal, everyday Republicans actually want. Trumpers are a weird bunch. As we raise more awareness, your Republican swing voter types are going to be like, "hey uh, wait, this isn't what I want" and a lot of them are going to start eyeing Harris.

So even if you live in a red state, don't assume that your vote is meaningless. Do not. For one minute. Assume this.

[bones-ivy-breath]

Text ID:

Do not think all this blue is without pain.

Jean-Michel Maulpoix, excerpts from "The Blue Look", in A Matter of Blue: Poems (trans. Dawn M. Cornelio)

[emotional-moss]

sorry for resorting to a meme about this but people are making me mad 👍

[isawthismeme]

She’s brown and a democrat, gotta get that birth certificate, that we’ll call fake news anyway. Apparently, if you can’t win in a fight, you gotta at least try to get your opponent disqualified.

Sad and weird.

[jcameronsworld]

[xxplastic-cubexx]

something about first impressions idk

bonus:

[bunnyhugs22]

[soracities]

Jean-Michel Maulpoix, from “Late in the autumn...”, A Matter of Blue: Poems (trans. Dawn M. Cornelio) 

[Text ID: “Late in the autumn, when the rain falls with a soft noise, I like to believe that I’m hearing the sky cry.”]

[mugiwara-lucy]

The MAIN reason I’m voting AGAINST Trump is because this guy is a legitimate THREAT to America. What do I mean? Let’s not forget he STOLE CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE:

What the fuck was he going to do with those? And when you couple the fact that he kisses ass to DICTATORS:

He is NOT someone we can afford to let back into the White House.

For the sake of us NOT becoming a dictatorship, please let’s all vote blue down the board.

SO MUCH that the votes won’t be taken to the Supreme Court because they will fuck us all over for him.

[creature-wizard]

Hmm? What's this? An anti-voter telling us our votes don't count?

Well! That's quite an opinion! Let's look at their blog, I'm sure we'll see a long history of posts there, showing us that this person is not a bot or a troll account specifically made for election interference?

...Oh?

What's this? Literally only one post?

Oh! But that post is dated to August 2013! Clearly this must be an old blog, it's not like Tumblr has a feature that lets you date posts to anytime you want- oh? They do?

Watch out, y'all - anti-voting bots/trolls are on Tumblr, and they are trying to discourage us from voting. They do this because they know that if we vote blue, we can keep Trump out of office.

[stil-lindigo]

source

source

[and-loth-cat]

okay but we might have the first woman president this is huge

vote blue no matter who

[reasonsforhope]

Federal regulators on Tuesday [April 23, 2024] enacted a nationwide ban on new noncompete agreements, which keep millions of Americans — from minimum-wage earners to CEOs — from switching jobs within their industries.

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday afternoon voted 3-to-2 to approve the new rule, which will ban noncompetes for all workers when the regulations take effect in 120 days [So, the ban starts in early September, 2024!]. For senior executives, existing noncompetes can remain in force. For all other employees, existing noncompetes are not enforceable.

[That's right: if you're currently under a noncompete agreement, it's completely invalid as of September 2024! You're free!!]

The antitrust and consumer protection agency heard from thousands of people who said they had been harmed by noncompetes, illustrating how the agreements are "robbing people of their economic liberty," FTC Chair Lina Khan said. 

The FTC commissioners voted along party lines, with its two Republicans arguing the agency lacked the jurisdiction to enact the rule and that such moves should be made in Congress...

Why it matters

The new rule could impact tens of millions of workers, said Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist and president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. 

"For nonunion workers, the only leverage they have is their ability to quit their job," Shierholz told CBS MoneyWatch. "Noncompetes don't just stop you from taking a job — they stop you from starting your own business."

Since proposing the new rule, the FTC has received more than 26,000 public comments on the regulations. The final rule adopted "would generally prevent most employers from using noncompete clauses," the FTC said in a statement.

The agency's action comes more than two years after President Biden directed the agency to "curtail the unfair use" of noncompetes, under which employees effectively sign away future work opportunities in their industry as a condition of keeping their current job. The president's executive order urged the FTC to target such labor restrictions and others that improperly constrain employees from seeking work.

"The freedom to change jobs is core to economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy," Khan said in a statement making the case for axing noncompetes. "Noncompetes block workers from freely switching jobs, depriving them of higher wages and better working conditions, and depriving businesses of a talent pool that they need to build and expand."

Real-life consequences

In laying out its rationale for banishing noncompetes from the labor landscape, the FTC offered real-life examples of how the agreements can hurt workers.

In one case, a single father earned about $11 an hour as a security guard for a Florida firm, but resigned a few weeks after taking the job when his child care fell through. Months later, he took a job as a security guard at a bank, making nearly $15 an hour. But the bank terminated his employment after receiving a letter from the man's prior employer stating he had signed a two-year noncompete.

In another example, a factory manager at a textile company saw his paycheck dry up after the 2008 financial crisis. A rival textile company offered him a better job and a big raise, but his noncompete blocked him from taking it, according to the FTC. A subsequent legal battle took three years, wiping out his savings. 

-via CBS Moneywatch, April 24, 2024

--

Note:

A lot of people think that noncompete agreements are only a white-collar issue, but they absolutely affect blue-collar workers too, as you can see from the security guard anecdote.

In fact, one in six food and service workers are bound by noncompete agreements. That's right - one in six food workers can't leave Burger King to work for Wendy's [hypothetical example], in the name of "trade secrets." (x, x, x)

Noncompete agreements also restrict workers in industries from tech and video games to neighborhood yoga studios. "The White House estimates that tens of millions of workers are subject to noncompete agreements, even in states like California where they're banned." (x, x, x)

The FTC estimates that the ban will lead to "the creation of 8,500 new businesses annually, an average annual pay increase of $524 for workers, lower health care costs, and as many as 29,000 more patents each year for the next decade." (x)

Clearer explanation of noncompete agreements below the cut.

Noncompete agreements can restrict workers from leaving for a better job or starting their own business.

Noncompetes often effectively coerce workers into staying in jobs they want to leave, and even force them to leave a profession or relocate.

Noncompetes can prevent workers from accepting higher-paying jobs, and even curtail the pay of workers not subject to them directly.

Of the more than 26,000 comments received by the FTC, more than 25,000 supported banning noncompetes.