#as if we have ranked choice

[kkglinka]

It's a shame that it would look bad for biden to take advantage of his newfound legal immunity to arrest and imprison his political rivals on charges of bribery and corruption. Really ram home the dangers of allowing an elected civil servant to behave like a tyrant.

[anetherealpoetess]

i can hardly believe the bait and switch that elrond and the rings of power pulled on us this season. in the beginning, he is far too busy self-righteously blaming poor galadriel for falling for sauron's tricks. but then he puts on armour, lets his wild curls free, and transforms into a warrior-librarian covered in mud and blood, punching orcs in the face, and setting other orcs on fire. and i loved it.

[sleepnoises]

in re ballot phraseology btw I'm crazy spoiled by living in california, one of 8?? states that allow all elections to be done by mail. i am never in a booth when i vote. i am in my home and i am googling things

[spookygibberish]

Made a faintly insane list of of every animated movie I have good enough memories of to feel confident ranking, although some of them I would probably move around if I saw them more recently....

[where-the-water-flows]

like on the one hand, obviously di feisheng wouldn't have been at all surprised when the first (second third however many were sent after him to their deaths) di assassin came for him, because he's im/ex-plicitly doing what he's doing (best at sword/founding the alliance etc) to keep himself safe from di fortress, and you don't do that unless there's, y'know, something to keep yourself safe from.

on the other hand. killing other di fortress kids clearly fucked him up! it was not something he wanted to do or enjoyed doing, it was something he was grimly doing because it was that or die, and also under threat of the mind control bug/ringing bell torture. even when he has amnesia, his nightmares feature him begging to know why they have to kill each other.

literally as soon as he physically can, he goes back to di fortress to free the other orphans, and when he's storming the gates, he very clearly uses nonlethal tactics on everyone between him and master Di. He bowls those kids standing guard over, but they show up at the end at the back of the crowd getting freed like everyone else, not really looking that worse for wear considering the second most powerful man in the jianghu just rolled through them.

so. how fucked up you think he was when he had to fight - and presumably kill - another di fortress orphan, after he'd escaped. after he thought he was free of it, after he thought that he was out?

the later ones, sure, it's awful but at that point it's sort of a numb horror of 'never quite free'; the first one, though, after however long of not having to do that, after maybe even convincing himself that he can just bide his time and get strong enough and no one will ever make him do that again, that between his skill and his (in)famous identity and maybe even the fucking alliance he's formed he's almost safe, that he's as free from the fortress as he can possibly be with the bug still in him....

and then he finds himself locked in combat, again, with another kid who knows the feeling of ringing in his bones and who knows that the only way this fight ends is with one of them dead at master Di's command.

(bonus round: how grimly grateful was he to be able to free the ones sent after him, even if it was through death - he at least could make it fast, make it...clean, ish, for a death in combat.

make it almost kind.

how long has he spent his life with that as the shitty back up/consolation plan - if he can't find a way to deal with the bug in him somehow, the knowledge that at least maybe he can get a few of them out from under the control of the fortress, even if it's just via the edge of his dao)

[lazyscience]

so there's something I feel like young leftists are not getting at all when they rail furiously about how "we keep voting for Democrats but they keep just pandering to the right, what are we supposed to DO to get them to change OTHER than not vote for them?"

It has to do with fundamental assumptions about what "governing" is supposed to mean in the modern era, and this is a conversation that has to happen culturally in and around what is happening at the ballot box in a lot larger sense than it is. putting in a readmore because this gonna get long and also ranty.

It also means I'm taking another Tumblr break because I can not, I CAN NOT with the current political discussion any more and even with terms blocked I'm seeing it, and I don't want to spend my evenings alternating between rage and depression, I get enough of that from the news.

This conversation was happening even earlier than this, but the timepoint at which it was first coming to a head and when I became familiar with it was 1994 and Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America". Prior to this point, the ethos on both sides of the aisle (in public) was that in general, a congressperson's job (especially in the House, a little less so in the Senate maybe) was while you were under the umbrella of one of the two parties, you were mostly looking out for the particular agenda of your state and only secondarily working towards a national agenda. And secondary to this idea, most of them agreed on basic principles that gridlock was bad (wouldn't produce anything useful/re-electable for your state), civil service employees and appointees weren't supposed to be blatant political operatives (there were, of course, but that was considered more sleazy and corrupt than "elections have consequences, hurr hurr") and that for the stability of the country, things like the debt ceiling were best mutually avoided.

So for the better part of the 20th century, the Democrats were more the party of regulation, the social safety net and the reality and use of powers on a federal level; the Republicans were the party of "leave these decisions to the individual states" (this is obviously a grotesque oversimplification, people have literally written dozens, probably hundreds, of scholarly books about this shit). And Newt Gingrich, ambitious little shit from an at the time deep red Republican state, said "you know what, we need to embrace a national party and federal control the way the Democrats have--because until then, WE can't control it." So the Contract With America was born - and the goal became instead of "well, whatever, as long as I can weasel out concessions for my state/special interests that hired me" the game ALSO became "demonstrate that federal government doesn't work by MAKING it not work." By using all the procedural stupid dirty tricks that a reactionary old bunch of white dudes that had just been through a war put into place to make any point of settled law that had happened basically as hard to change as fucking possible.

Now, the Democrats couldn't/didn't WANT to play by those rules, because their biggest and most popular successes (qualified, imperfect, but still) - Social Security, Medicaid, the civil rights movement, antitrust, worker protections, environmental protections - are all contingent on a federal government apparatus that actually fucking works. And now that the Republicans can win either by getting what they want OR by yelling "look, this process is clearly broken and doesn't work!", the only way Democrats can make sweeping changes without having to fight tooth and nail every step of the way is to have a majority in both houses of Congress, control the Presidency, and the Supreme Court.

Because again, the reactionary old white men who had just lived through a butt ton of social upheaval wanted to make it hard for one group of (rich white, male enfranchised) people to control another - and they literally at that time could not have envisioned the way the country would grow into both a far more unified AND polarized place that would take these safety rails and exploit them to block every achievement their opponent might make, whether or not it was actually in the best interests of the people they're representing.

(I mean, they should have, political parties and all that toxicity were not new to the British Empire before the colonies even existed, but well, I think we all know by now there's a lot of things they couldn't have imagined. See also: the second amendment)

So here's the deal - if you punish Joe Biden for being a confused corporate-friendly war-hawkish atrocity-enabling weenus - which he totally is sometimes! - you are kneecapping any actually progressive congressional candidates you elect unless you can also deliver 67+ solidly Democrat/Green/whatever the fuck Angus King is votes in the Senate, and 290+ equally staunch Democratic representatives. Because otherwise, that Republican President's just gonna veto everything they legislate that isn't what he wants. And yes, the Senate has to approve any federal judges or Supreme Court justices he wants to appoint - but again, the Republican party sees the federal court system being slow, backed up and impossible to use as a totally acceptable compromise in return for being able to block any significant Democratic legislation from going forward.

Since 1789, do you know how many vetoes have been overridden by supermajority? 109, out of 1,484.

Now, if you could GET that supermajority in the Senate and the House? You could amend the Constitution! You could make mail-in votes mandatory, and/or mandated paid time off for voting. You could mandate ranked-choice voting, so that leftists could vote for the candidate they actually want without splitting up the bloc to the advantage of the fash/fash-adjacent. You could do things like mandate that a Presidential election isn't valid until a minimum threshold number of votes has been achieved that's actual a majority of eligible voters, not just whatever fanatical minority shows up that day, so some asshole who won with 20 percent of eligible voters can't claim to have "a mandate from The People."

BUT WITHOUT THAT SUPERMAJORITY, VOTING TO PUNISH ELECTED OFFICIALS FOR NOT DOING THINGS THEY CANNOT FUCKING DOOOOOO MEANS NOTHING BUT LOSING FOR ALL OF US!

Especially when the other fucking asshole candidate wants to make it legal for the National Guard to LIVE FIRE WITH ACTUAL MILITARY BULLETS ON PROTESTORS, and the Supreme Court has just made it possible for him if elected to order that and have it not be illegal! If he wants to start deporting all Muslim immigrants like he was trying to push for last time he was elected, or round up LGBTQ people and put them in re-education camps, if he gets elected, he could do that now! Because crimes committed as "official acts" are no longer crimes!

So you want to not have to regularly make shitty compromises in the voting booth any more? Great, neither do I. Here are the only ways I see this going forward:

Get 2/3rd of the states of the union to call for an Article V constitutional convention - and be willing to have the process potentially hijacked by fash nutjobs at the state level if those 2/3rds aren't all Democratic-controlled. It's possible - I mean, the system was specifically designed to work that way - but the fact that a) an Article V convention has not successfully been called in the history of the US, and b) the only people advocating for that in the year 2024 are the actual fucking Heritage Foundation of the infamous Project 2025, Ben Shapiro of "but pussy doesn't get wet" fame, Greg "the solution to Uvalde is arming teachers" Abbott and similar nutjobs make me think that's not the safest way to get the outcome we want here.

Hold your noses and get 67 Senators and 290 Representatives elected that are either Democrats or who will reliably caucus with them like Socialists or Greens and have them pass a law to require ranked choice voting for the presidency - there's a chance it'll get a constitutional challenge from the Supreme Court, but there's not a solid precedent either forbidding or encouraging, and by the time it's an issue hopefully we're back in 5/4 liberal court territory if Alito and Thomas either retire or get canned. That will mean a lot of mid corporatist conservative Dems who will make decisions you don't like and don't want to support, but with an endgame of someday getting to stop doing that. This is honestly probably the most achievable, so it is also the one Republicans are fighting against hardest with gerrymandering and voter suppression, and they have banned it on the state level in Florida, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee and Idaho.

Let Republicans get elected to prove a point. This will result in an unknown but presumably acceptable to you number of deportations, convictions, legal abuse and deaths among people the Trump administration declares undesirable, including Muslims, Palestinians, trans people, anyone working in gender studies or race studies, the unhoused, potential child labor, and people of childbearing potential among others. This is not a threat to get you to fall in line. It is a prediction based on the previous behaviorand stated policy positions of Mr. Trump, the Republican National Convention, and the decision of the Supreme Court allowing his administration to carry out what would otherwise be crimes but for a president are "official actions" now apparently. It will also at the very least make easier the capture of the Supreme Court for another two or three decades during which no effective challenges can be brought for voter suppression, gerrymandering, and violent suppression of protest.

honest question: how, exactly, if it becomes an illegal act to talk about racism, queer liberation or police reform, are you proposing to get your better, more leftist candidates elected? I am so serious right now, why do you think after another four years of Trump provided he doesn't just immediately declare martial law like he already almost did once, do you think people would be willing to stick their necks out to identify themselves as enemies of the state? Think about the stranglehold Joseph McCarthy had on this country from 1947-1957.

[thedisablednaturalist]

If trump wins it's extremely likely he'd get to fill at least TWO MORE supreme court seats.

"MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell details the “easy two-judge deal” that Donald Trump and rich Republicans could execute to extend the Trump court's rule with younger extreme justices if he’s reelected, “Your vote means possibly 40 more years control of the Supreme Court.”"

Clarence Thomas would give up his seat for another million dollar RV. And it's also predicted Samuel Alito would also be willing to give up his seat.

Please watch this video, it explains the issue better than I can. I also am upset at Biden, but it's not just about him. It's the people he can put in power, and stop from being put in power.

[evilkitten3]

hey guys i just had a great idea. what if we tell our current politicians that we'd like ranked choice voting so we can vote for people outside of the two parties that all of our current politicians belong to. surely our current politicians, who are members of those two parties, will be happy to help us vote for third party candidates, who are not members of those two parties.

i think we should very loudly blast across the internet that we will never even consider voting third party unless our current politicians (who are members of the two non-third party parties) give us ranked choice voting (so we can vote for third party parties). this will definitely encourage them (the current politicians in the two parties) to do that (help us vote for other not-them people) and not the exact opposite (not help us vote for other not-them people)

[owlbelly]

the number of people i'm seeing who appear to be fully advocating for leftists not to vote is actually really concerning to me, lmao

even if you absolutely believe your vote will in no way influence the presidential election (& with the electoral college / depending on where you live, that might be true!), did y'all just like. forget about down-ballot voting. or fucking local ballot measures that materially impact people's day to day lives?

i read a whole-ass essay this morning about why people don't vote (mostly: voter suppression! which is sort of funny if you think voting is fundamentally useless...) that literally did not mention voting in local politics at all

it's also fucking wild to me how many people JUST learned about Palestine this past year who now seem to think they'll be magically non-complicit in US imperialism & genocide if they abstain from voting. you don't get to sit it out, actually! your non-vote does fuck all! your vote might also do very fucking little in certain areas - direct action gets the goods, we know - but unless you literally think all voting is a sham (which imo is grossly offensive to millions of disenfranchised people - they're barred for nothing, huh?), you are setting at least some of the conditions under which you can act

like can we please go back to "voting is not the be-all-end-all of political action, it is ONE thing some of us can do & we should do it if we can" instead of this new weird purity shit where voting for a candidate you hate over a candidate you hate even more is a thoughtcrime rather than a defensive action

[serendipitous-mage]

HEY DIDU GET A LOT OF VOTING MAIL?

this is what the ACTUAL absentee ballot envelope looks like if you've been waiting for it and aren't sure if it's in the pile of other shit they send out!!!

it will have this logo on it and also specify that it is "official absentee balloting material"

every 'official' looking piece of mail i got for weeks i thought would be it and wasn't, my ballot was returned to the city clerk office so i went in and picked up a new one in person

-

YOU CAN DO THIS TOO!! i am holding your hand, i am prepping a blanket fort for you to crawl into and hide once you get back, it's ok, we can do this<3

IF YOU'RE MISSING YOUR BALLOT, check vote dot org, or, just google your city/town and 'election office' or 'municipal clerk', you can go in and let them know you don't have your ballot yet and would like to cancel what they sent out and pick up a new one in person, you may even be able to just fill it out there and hand it back to them all in one trip!

i'll rebagel with some links i can get a better pic also if anyone needs sorry i was just sending it to the gc but then decided to also post ;w;'

[persephone-nymph]

You know, I try to not post as much about politics lately for my own personal sanity (as looking at every single news update is not going to change my vote) but you know what, I’m just saying fuck it. Please please please register to vote and don’t write in a name, vote third party, whatever. Splitting the dem vote in our current system is the same as not voting at all. It doesn’t send a message, it will just get trump elected.

[ookaookaooka]

why do i ever read the comments on political posts lmao. i swear i can feel my blood pressure going through the roof

[drleggman]

I’m ignoring the presidential race rn to preserve my sanity but it looks like Oregon will pass the measure that would ensure protections for cannabis workers trying to unionize their workplaces :D

[coquelicoq]

wow. they weren't lying that 19 portland mayoral candidates sure can underwhelming

[swiss-army-fangirl]

.

[confinesofmy]

how you gonna vote your way out of something you didn't even vote your way into...