#defund big gender

[ferretshark]

Project 2025 Cliff Notes:

1. Complete ban on abortions, without exceptions (pg. 449-503)

2. End marriage equality (pg. 545-581)

3. Elimination of unions and worker protections (pg. 581)

4. Defund the FBI and Homeland Security (pg. 133)

5. Eliminate federal agencies like the FDA, EPA, NOAA, and more (pg. 363-417)

6. Mass deportation of immigrants and incarceration in "camps" (pg. 133)

7. End birthright citizenship (pg. 133)

8. Cut Social Security (pg. 691)

9. Cut Medicare (pg. 449)

10. Eliminate the Department of Education (pg. 319)

11. Teach Christian religious beliefs in public schools (pg. 319)

12. Use public, taxpayer money for private religious schools (pg. 319)

13. End the Affordable Care Act (pg. 449)

14. Ban contraceptives (pg. 449)

15. Additional tax breaks for corporations and the 1% (pg. 691)

16. End civil rights & DEI protections in government (pg. 545-581)

17. Ban African American and gender studies in all levels of education (pg. 319)

18. End climate protections: (pg. 417)

19. Increase Arctic drilling (pg. 363)

20. Deregulate big business and the oil industry (pg. 363)

Not to increase anxiety, but I found this buried on Reddit. From six months ago. very good thing to have in your pocket so you are prepared

[angelart67]

AMEN TO THAT... I WASN'T GONNA BE ABLE TO TOLERATE ANOTHER 4 YEARS OF DIRTY POLITICIANS, LEADING THE UNITED STATES STRAIGHT INTO HELL, FOR THEIR OWN BENEFIT... I PRAY DAILY FOR MY PRESIDENT, & SPECIFICALLY THESE 3... FOR HIM TO BE ABLE TO STAY SAFE FROM ANY PERSON OR PERSONS TRYING TO HARM HIM, TO CORRECT OUR ECONOMY THAT THEY RUINED, & TO DEPORT AS MANY ILLEGALS AS CAN BE LOCATED & BUILD THAT WALL ALSO ROUND UP THE EVIL PLAYERS & PROSECUTE THEM TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW... 🙏🇺🇸❤️🤍💙🇺🇸🙏

We all are!

[whatbigotspost]

Given that SCOTUS has anointed the office of the presidency as a monarch role beyond all reproach (so that when 45 wins in Nov as they are intending), and we’ll never have another presidential election, I wish that Biden would assume lame duck status IMMEDIATELY, call their bluff, and start issuing executive orders like crazy now through January 2025.

He could do shit like defund the military and pour the funds into social services, repeal all nationwide laws/restrictions on abortion, make all healthcare including all reproductive services and gender affirming care accessible, instate UBI and Medicare for all, write a 100% tax rate on billionaires, push sweeping environmental protections, break up monopolistic megacorps, close federal prisons, expand and pack the court, cancel all student/personal/medical/non corporate debts, open our boarders, decriminalize all drugs, etc. etc. etc.

Maybe then the 6 block justice set of 45 worshippers would see what they’ve done.

Maybe then, if Biden immediately, decisively even did 10% of that, he might not lose the election.

Of course, he’d actually have to give a shit about any of those things in order to do this.

And that’s the whole fucking point, right? He won’t. And it’s why we’re here.

Democrats hold themselves to “the rules” only to the extent they’re spineless liberals who are in the same big money pockets as republicans. The key difference being, they let republicans be the ones to more overtly, proudly kill us all and act powerless to stopping them.

When our structures demand they are the ONLY ones who could stop them. I can’t take it anymore.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Andrew Prokop at Vox:

The left’s hopes for sweeping change from the 2010s have crashed into the reality of the 2020s. The energy of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns and the George Floyd protests is a distant memory. Some members of the Squad have moved toward the Democratic mainstream, while others lost primaries. Several of the progressive prosecutors elected in recent years have been ousted from office (by voters or due to scandals) or appear headed that way. In Democrat-dominated spaces — like cities and mainstream media outlets — there’s been growing pushback against the left. Ambitious progressive rallying cries of just a few years ago, such as defunding the police and Medicare-for-all, are now absent from the discourse. Politicians who assiduously cultivated left activists are now increasingly tacking to the center — most notably Vice President Kamala Harris, who has abandoned many of the positions she took while running in the Democrats’ 2020 presidential primary. Altogether, it’s seemed that progressives have moved from being on the offensive to being on the defensive — in both politics and the nation’s culture.

Of course, it’s not as if progressives’ gains over the past 20 years or so have been entirely wiped away. The Democratic Party remains significantly further to the left than it was a decade ago and certainly two decades ago (see, for instance, my recent article about the rise of the New Progressive Economics). Yet, as bloggers Noah Smith and Tyler Cowen have argued, there are growing indications that the leftward drift of the party and of the country’s culture broadly has stopped. On some fronts, there has indeed been a reversal. “No matter who wins, the US is moving to the right,” Semafor’s David Weigel argued last week, citing “immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, climate change policies, and criminal justice reform” as issues where progressives are on the defensive. Being on the defensive is not new for the left — it’s the historical norm. Bursts of activist energy and successful reform are typically followed by long stretches where either the new status quo persists or a backlash reverses at least some recent change.

[...]

The era of rising progressive ambitions lasted from about 2005 to 2020

Historical periodization is a tricky thing, but here’s a rough attempt at it. From about 1980 to 2005, the left was mostly irrelevant to national politics. The Cold War was over, and capitalism reigned ascendant. The Republican Party moved right, while the Democratic Party moved to the center. The country cracked down on criminals, unauthorized immigrants, and non-working welfare recipients. 9/11 made patriotism mandatory. Same-sex marriage was viewed as politically toxic. But 2005 to 2020 was, broadly, a period where progressives and the left became increasingly influential inside the Democratic Party, in Democrat-dominated spaces, and in the larger culture. Call it the era of rising progressive ambitions. The disasters of George W. Bush’s second term kicked off the shift, discrediting Republican governance. This enabled the election of the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama, whose agenda was strikingly ambitious and progressive when compared to the Clinton years. Democrats’ leftward shift accelerated in the 2010s, which saw:

The increased cultural influence of the social justice left, which transformed how much of the country thought and spoke about racial and gender issues (“the Great Awokening”)

The launch of viral protest movements like Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and Me Too

The nationwide spread and Supreme Court’s protection of same-sex marriage rights, followed by increased advocacy for trans rights

The rise of more economically progressive and even democratic socialist politicians, as seen in the support for Sanders’s campaigns, the Squad’s arrival in Congress, and party leaders’ embrace of some of Elizabeth Warren’s ideas

A leftward move of mainstream Democrats on issues like immigration and criminal justice, where activists had made the case that status quo policies were cruel and harmful

Increased public discussion about causes like Medicare-for-All, the Green New Deal, and student loan forgiveness

Basically, on a host of issues, the “Overton window” — the boundaries of which political and policy ideas are deemed fit for mainstream discussion, rather than fringe or self-evidently absurd — opened far further left. Trump’s election didn’t stop the left’s rising influence. Indeed, it intensified it, raising the stakes of politics and heightening passions. (Trump’s rise simultaneously opened the Overton window further right on some issues, as leading Republicans increasingly embraced bigotry and flouted democratic norms.) The assumption spread among Democrats that the establishment’s approach had failed and that bold new progressive ideas were necessary. During the party’s 2020 presidential primary, most candidates — including Harris — scrambled to the left, wooing activist groups. Joe Biden, the most old-school major contender, won, but rather than a full-on pivot to the center for the general election, he embraced much of the progressive agenda. It was a political necessity for helming the Democratic Party of 2020.

[...]

The backlash and disillusionment of the 2020s

Things feel different in the Biden years. In part that’s due to the constraints and disappointments that always exist when a party tries to turn a bold campaign agenda into governing reality. Narrow congressional majorities limited Democrats’ legislative possibilities (and then they lost the House). The conservative Supreme Court, meanwhile, blocked some Biden actions like student loan forgiveness and rolled back abortion rights protections. But the trend was broader. Democrats in cities disavowed police cuts as they struggled with rising crime and complained they couldn’t handle a migrant influx. Corporations have laid off DEI workers. Mainstream media companies, increasingly influenced by progressive causes (and sensitive to left criticism) in the 2010s, are now more forthrightly asserting their journalistic independence and challenging progressive ideas. Activism in protest of Israel was met with fierce pushback at universities. Commentators started declaring that “wokeness” had peaked as social justice controversies grew less intense and frequent.

[...]

All of this has happened before

Meanwhile, there’s also been a conspicuous decline of energy and intensity among progressive activists. While many certainly remain committed to their longtime causes, others have disengaged or shifted their focus to opposing Israel’s war in Gaza (an issue that bitterly divides the Democratic Party and where Democratic leaders are disinclined to embrace the left). Perhaps if Trump wins, progressive energy would surge again in opposing him — but perhaps too many people are now burned out and apathetic, and the mobilization won’t match the bygone days of Trump’s first term. And a backlash against Trump’s governance would not necessarily spur the Democrats to resume their leftward march. Activists naturally get disappointed and disengaged when major change proves elusive. “Every major social movement of the past 20 years has undergone a significant collapse,” the activist Bill Moyer wrote in 1987, “in which activists believed that their movements had failed, the power institutions were too powerful, and their own efforts were futile.” Fatigue, burnout, and organizational crisis then ensue; some move on to new causes.

This Vox article explains how the progressive left has been in defense and retreat mode since 2020 after being in the ascendency since 2005 or so.

[voidingintotheshout]

It appears as though Gavin Newsom may have just thrown trans people under the bus.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a pioneer for LGBTQ+ rights who decades ago upset leaders in his own party when he defied state law and issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples, suggested Democrats were in the wrong in allowing transgender athletes to participate in female college and youth sports.

“I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair,” Newsom said in his debut podcast episode of “This is Gavin Newsom.” “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”

Also:

Newsom’s interview with Kirk was friendly, sometimes exceedingly so. He mentioned the influence Kirk and other MAGA-world figures have had on his 13-year-old son, distanced himself from the use of pronouns and the gender-neutral term “Latinx,” called police defunding “lunacy,” denounced “cancel culture” and agreed that there had been some internal issues in the leadership of the Black Lives Matter organization.

I think this exemplifies everything wrong with the Democrats right now. They got attacked by Republicans on some far left positions so they’re going to try to eliminate those far left positions and move to the center so they don’t get attacked on those things. The thing of it is, Republicans aren’t going to vote for them anyway. They are going to vote for Trump, because they’re Republicans. The big problem is that the Democrats end up moving so far to the center that they end up throwing most of their caucus under the bus, trying to appeal to conservatives that their voters feel are diametrically opposed to their values. It’s like that thing I posted earlier today about the official Democratic response to Trump‘s address of Congress. It was all about bipartisanship. Like, what do you want to join with Trump on? Nuking USAID? Destroying the Department of Education? Attacking trans people? Like one of those things do you feel like you can get on board with? Like I just feel like a lot of Democrats are just Republicans in disguise. Except for Bernie Sanders, he is a treasure. 

[thethiefandtheairbender]

just a disclaimer: i’m queer and nonbinary (afab) as can be, so all of this is from a personally queer perspective? i also know that i don’t tend to really jive with ND stevenson’s work (she-ra didn’t quite work for me) either and if you loved the movie, great. i just gotta drop thoughts somewhere because well

they’re less than positive

like “nimona” wants to be a Queer movie so badly, but the entire humourous basis of the character herself is that she is 1) young looking (despite being immortal) and 2) appears to be AFAB and isn’t it funnily jarring when little girls want to be violent instead of cute and sweet? 

She doesn’t want to be a monster, but clearly genuinely enjoys destroying things (again: basis of the bulk of her character humour, and one of most defining character traits) with no regards to anyone who gets hurt or could get hurt in the process. 

also this is Entirely Personal preference but while the animation was stunning, the contrast in the medieval aesthetic and modern day technology just continually brought me out of the movie. which is too bad, because treasure planet and it’s 70/30 rule and aesthetic blend of old timey and big technology is one of my favourite things ever, but i think Nimona being 50/50 just... didn’t work for me. was also slightly disappointed that i figured out who the actual bad guy was before the queen’s death (and yet another movie with a black queen who Dies Instantly / a movie with literally queer men of colour being technical side characters to a white, allegorically queer main ‘female’ character). 

Ballister is a great protagonist, but due to his opposition of everything Nimona is personality and scheme wise, it feels like they’re almost running around in two separate stories. As well as like - he wanted to enjoy the Elite, Privileged, fighting force? An elite, privileged, entirely based on birthright system ruled by a Black queen before it was called into question, when it’s also a pretty clear allegory for the Police? The fact that this isn’t resolved - what’s going to happen to the Institute, is it going to be reformed or even better yet, disbanded (‘defunded’), is entirely left hanging as a plot thread, which doesn’t happen matters.

Halfway through the movie (specifically Nimona’s “or that sometimes I want to let them [kill me]”) is when I finally started to feel emotionally invested, but like two scenes later when Ambrosius’ stabbing was over dramatic rather than just letting the tone hold, I looked into the camera just... so incredibly unimpressed. The monopoly and shark dancing didn’t help.  

“She’s my friend.” “Aren’t I more than that?” so there were no aspec people in making this film. Got it. And Ballister’s heel face turn into calling Nimona a monster is also very quick, especially when his whole arc this movie is being unfairly demonized himself by the very same thing/people that are demonizing Nimona as well. The sheer harshness and length of the scene is also much longer and given time than him saving her, leaving that feeling kinda lopsided as well.

And Nimona’s issues I think are very evident in the fact the movie lets us see all the damage she’s causing at the end when she loses control, which is sad and tragic for her... but does not excuse or remove the real harm she’s bringing hundreds of other people. This is mitigated when she sacrifices herself to save the city, but given that her problem wasn’t necessarily selfishness so much as recklessness, and given that Ballister had literally just talked her down from suicide, it’s... Muddled to say the least.

And all of this ties back into the murky gender allegory of the movie. At its best, it’s very effective and very emotionally resonant (Nimona’s actual flashbacks and a couple of her conversations with Ballister. I can definitely see why people like it - hell, even I like it. “This monster is a threat to our entire way of life!” “What if we’re wrong?” kinda perfectly encapsulates were it falls flat to me, because queerness Is a threat to our current systems - capitalism, racism, cisheteropatriarchy founded on white gender essentialism. Queerness, particularly of gender, disrupts and should disrupt all those things; it’s a political identity just as much as personal one, both by choice and by societal circumstance.

TLDR; found the second half of the movie, overall, much stronger than the first, but with some bigger structural pitfalls. Animation was gorgeous, sense of humour didn’t overall work for me but that’s a personal thing, queer allegory was good but I would’ve liked some of the implications to be taken farther. I appreciate the movie for what it says about freedom of expression vs demonization by the upper class(es), and I think it’ll really resonant and be important to queer youth in their teens (a stage I am long past) figuring themselves and their place in an increasingly anti-trans political climate out, so I’m very glad it exists. It just wasn’t particularly groundbreaking, and wasn’t particularly up my alley. Which is kind of what I expected, but I am disappointed that I didn’t enjoy it more as a nonbinary person who loves story deconstructions, fantasy, and animation

[afinestoutlove]

Okay I need to have a little rant, so if you're not up for DiScOuRsE, please feel free to scroll on...

Hot take (okay, lukewarm at best) but there are some types of writing you just shouldn't post publicly, or at least shouldn't expect to post without criticism. No I'm not talking about banning your writing, I'm talking about you taking responsibility for what you post and making thoughtful choices about what you put into the world.

TO BE CLEAR, I'm not talking about consensual smut, go your hardest, get kinky, anyone who has an issue with it can get fucked (maybe they'll feel better afterwards). Smack a warning on that fuckfest to keep the prudes and kids away and have at it. This isn't a matter of taste or preference, but about art that reproduces harm - specific forms of violence, esp gendered and racial violence, rape and sexual violence, etc. It's about accepting some responsibility for what you put out into the world.

I'm talking about this as someone who's been around for a while, and also who studies and teaches this shit for a living. I'm not here to take your smut or your whump or whatever. Hell, I'm halfway through writing a story about abuse victims murdering abusers and the conclusion of the story is "are they wrong"? So I'm not opposed to morally grey work either. But I really am sick of the "you don't get to criticise me" shite that seems to haunt fanfic communities (and that sure ain't new). Guys, if you put your work in public, fair and thoughtful critique is part of the deal. Yeah, I get a lot of the critique is neither of those things, but you need to learn the difference.

Any topic is fair game for artistic representation, so I am in no way suggesting you can't write about any of these topics. BUT... you need to think about how you write it, because it does have an impact. Are you telling the story in a way that uplifts victims, that challenges violence, and makes it clear that it's not okay (and yes, that includes nuanced depictions, you don't have to slap a big ol' AND THE VILLAIN WAS EVIL warning on it)? Or are you romanticising abuse/trauma/violence...? There are ways to write about any topic that are thoughtful, imaginative, constructive... and there are ways that suck. And a good artist learns the difference. A good artist understands the power of good art. (A good artist also accepts that they can't control how their audience reads it, and accepts that at least some will be wildly out there, but also accepts that sometimes the artist is the one who misjudged things.)

To get ahead of the inevitable, I'm not suggesting people can't tell the difference between fact and fiction, but art influences people. If it didn't, the right wing wouldn't be so fucking scared of it, and wouldn't spend so much damn time defunding arts programs!! Hell, half the people yelling "we can write whatever and you're all whiny babies" are the same people who also insist that art is powerful! Art is an amazing tool of activism, a way to change views, for better and for worse - it's why representation matters! It's why so many of us feel so strongly about having more queer stories and disabled stories and non-white stories... I often study art as a social scientist because it's so important.

I've seen so many bad arguments in favour of straight up harmful shit. The free speech argument is the most common and frankly I don't give a shit. People don't seem to be able to tell the difference between banning stuff and criticising it (in the academic sense). And criticism isn't an infringement of your rights it's what happens when you make art. I've also heard a ton of fic writers argue that they're processing their trauma through writing that straight up romanticises gendered and other oppressive violence. Okay, so process that in your writing. Depending on how you do it, that can be really healthy. Maybe don't post it publicly. Cos what's processing for one person is fantasy for another. There's a reason the paedophile apologists gravitate towards fanfic communities and it's mostly that everything goes and no one is allowed to disagree or they're a prude and an asshole.

All my disclaimers aside, the binary thinking about art is just depressing as shit. Yeah, just banning stuff you don't like or that makes you feel icky is a bad move.* Anyway, the answer to "ban everything" isn't "everything goes and no one gets to criticise anyone else's work". You have a social responsibility as an artist, even if you're writing fanfic for an audience of five. Act like it.

*Maybe I'm just not seeing it in my little corner of the internet, but I've seen a billion and one people yelling about how mean everyone is trying to ban fics, but a lot fewer people actually in favour of it - mostly the same examples of one or two nitwits seem to circulate as examples of some big mythical wave of anti-sex/anti-art whatever, but where are the rest of them? Like I know plenty of pre-ao3 fic sites have shitty histories with this stuff, but that was the sites, not so much the users?? Where are all these pro-censorship individuals?? Tbh it seems like mostly what the anti-censor people are yelling about (at least where I see it talked about) is people criticising them, not actual "censorship" (using the term loosely).

[creature-wizard]

[Image description: Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project End no fault divorce Complete ban on abortion with no exceptions Ban contraceptives Additional tax breaks for corporations and the 1% Higher taxes for the working class Elimination of unions and worker protections Raise the retirement age Cut social security Cut medicare End the Affordable Care Act Raise prescription drug prices Eliminate the Department of Education Use public, taxpayer money for private religious schools End free and discounted school lunch programs End civil rights & DEI protections in government Ban African American and gender studies in all levels of education Ban books and curriculum about slavery Ending climate protections Increase Arctic drilling Deregulate big business and the oil industry Promote and expedite capital punishment End marriage equality Condemn single mothers while promoting only "traditional families" Defund the FBI and Homeland Security Use the military to break up domestic protests Mass deportation of immigrants and incineration in "camps" End birth right citizenship Ban Muslims from entering the country Eliminates federal agencies like the FDA, EPA, NOAA and more Continue to pack the Supreme Court, and lower court with right-wing judges End description]

I personally don't want to vote for either candidate but if anything can't drive you to polls it should be the fear of Republicans getting more Supreme Court seats and Project 2025.

Yes, this is a scare tactic.

[mugiwara-lucy]

Actually cupcake if an ally nation engages in actions that directly endanger the lives of their allies, then the country in country can and will attack them which is what President Trump will do. He does so much for America and dumb bitches like you are too retarded to appreciate it. Oh and President Trump and Border Czar Tom Homan CAN and WILL use the Military for deportations since they are allowed that to handle an invasion on US Soil which is what these criminal scumbags have done. You should be ashamed of yourself. You pick these disgusting piles of scum sucking shit over your fellow patriot loving Americans who just want to make America a great country for ALL Americans regardless of gender, race and sexual orientation.

I don't hate anyone because the bible tells me not to but I don't care. These disgusting subhuman piles of shit are responsible for the amount of young women being raped and murdered like Laken Riley. That poor girl's family has to bury them just because these parasites want to turn America into their third world shit hole country. But after invading Mexico and mass deporting all these animals, America will reign supreme and at the end of four years you will regard President Trump as the greatest president of your entire lifetime. But with JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard and Vivek Ramaswamy, America has a great future ahead of itself.

Haha thanks for the laugh and thanks for proving how fake MAGA “Christians” are. You idiots aren’t supposed to seek retribution but are supposed to forgive people. Yet you guys just weaponize and use Christianity as a crutch and a weapon.

Also keep Laken Riley’s name out of your mouth. None of you guys ever gave even a remote shit about her before she died so shut up. This is just like when you pieces of shit used Mollie Tibbett’s name as a way to spread your Anti-Immigrant bullshit.

And the way you talk about immigrants who BARELY contribute to the crime percentage in this country? Have some empathy would you?

FYI, Mexico has done NOTHING to America except for not be white which is what Trump wants. Even as a teenager I knew “Make America Great Again” meant Make America WHITE Again.

And yeah I choose immigrants over MAGAts. Immigrants are not only some of the kindest souls I’ve met but they contribute MAJORLY to the economy and I’ve learned so much stuff from them to better my life. MAGAts on the other hand? Are some of the cruelest, hateful, hypocritical, racist, misogynistic piles of shit I’ve had the displeasure of meeting. Immigrants contribute WIDELY to our economy such as with Agriculture, Construction and Hospitality. What do you idiots contribute to society other than the stink of racism and hate?

If Trump and his big dumb bald meathead Tom Homan DOES invade Mexico they WILL DIE. Not even sugarcoating it. You think President Sheinbaum is like those weak MAGA bitches like Alina Habba, Riley Gained and so many others of that ilk? She will FUCK THEM UP.

Just like how he can NOT deploy the military against civilians. Then again we all know he wants to be the American Kim Jong Un.

And what do we have to be thankful to him for? Bullying Transgender Americans? Taking away women’s rights? Wanting to CENSOR HISTORY? Yeah he wants to defund schools that teach about slavery and segregation. I wonder why? 🙄

Donald Trump will be remembered in the same light as Adolf Hitler.

[automatismoateo]

The break down of Project 2025. via /r/atheism

The break down of Project 2025. The voters are working. Google searches for Project 2025 exceed those of Taylor Swift and NFL. ⁠⁠Complete ban on abortions, without exceptions (pg. 449-503) ⁠⁠End marriage equality (pg. 545-581) Elimination of unions and worker protections (pg. 581) ⁠⁠Defund the FBI and Homeland Security (pg. 133) ⁠⁠Eliminate federal agencies like the FDA, EPA, NOAA, and more (pg. 363-417) ⁠⁠Mass deportation of immigrants and incarceration in "camps" like the German Nazis (pg. 133) ⁠⁠End birthright citizenship (pg. 133) ⁠⁠Cut Social Security (pg. 691) ⁠⁠Cut Medicare (pg. 449) ⁠⁠Eliminate the Department of Education (pg. 319) ⁠⁠Mandatory Christian religious beliefs in public schools (pg. 319) ⁠⁠Use public, taxpayer money for private religious schools (pg. 319) ⁠⁠End the Affordable Care Act (pg. 449) ⁠⁠Ban contraceptives (pg. 449) ⁠⁠Additional tax breaks for corporations and the 1% (pg. 691) ⁠⁠End civil rights & DEI protections in government (pg. 545-581) ⁠⁠Ban African American and gender studies in all levels of education (pg. 319) ⁠⁠End climate protections: (pg. 417) ⁠⁠Increase Arctic drilling (pg. 363) ⁠⁠Deregulate big business and the oil industry (pg. 363) 2024 is just the start. This anti-2025 has to continue into the next decade. Republicans cannot even get close to power because this is their stated goals. I rather vote for Old Man Biden with a stutter than a 2 time impeached Epstein child molester felon Trump. Biden 2024! Submitted July 13, 2024 at 05:20AM by holdmycack (From Reddit https://ift.tt/1evB6Lr)

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Carter Sherman at The Guardian:

Dozens of anti-abortion activists streamed into the conference room of a Washington DC hotel. They jostled for seats as speakers, dotted throughout the room, blasted a song about the need to be “a little more like Jesus, a little less like me”. By the time a trio of advocates, assembled on a dais at the front of the room, started to talk about the “Future of Chemical Abortion in America”, the title of one of the first seminars at the National Pro-Life Summit, it was standing room only. When it was Erik Baptist’s turn to address the crowd, he said: “Chemical abortion is the No 1 priority and issue of our time, for the life movement,” using the anti-abortion movement’s lingo for medication abortion, which is performed with pills. Baptist is in a rare position to do something about it. Since July, Baptist has led the Center for Life at the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), one of the foremost conservative advocacy organizations in the US.

Formed in 1994, the ADF is today the rightwing answer to the American Civil Liberties Union. The legal group’s attorneys are at the forefront of virtually every conservative cause du jour, such as campus free speech, access to gender-affirming care and, of course, abortion. The ADF played a critical role in demolishing Roe v Wade, as it helped craft the model bill that became the Mississippi abortion ban that overturned Roe. But its lawyers have also been a part of recent supreme court cases over access to abortion pills and emergency abortions.

As the Center for Life’s director, these kinds of efforts are now within Baptist’s purview. “We do have a comprehensive approach to lawsuits and what we’re trying to do. We’re obviously trying to win in courts and try to protect as many unborn lives as we can and support mothers who [are] in unplanned pregnancies. And how we execute that manifests itself in multiple ways,” said Baptist, who is also senior counsel at the ADF and served as one of the Environmental Protection Agency’s top lawyers during Donald Trump’s first term. He added: “We have brought cases on behalf of pregnant centers, sidewalk counselors, pro-life doctors, and we’ll continue to do that.” In an interview a few days after the summit, Baptist laid out many of the ADF’s priorities for 2025 – and the organization is poised to have a big year.

In December 2024, a petition by ADF attorneys convinced the supreme court to hear oral arguments in Kerr v Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, a case that could determine whether states can refuse to send Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood. Defunding Planned Parenthood, the anti-abortion movement’s arch-nemesis, has long been one of the movement’s most cherished goals.

Then there’s the fight over the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known as Emtala, which requires hospitals to stabilize patients who arrive at their doors in emergencies. The Biden administration said that Emtala also covers emergency abortions, but ADF attorneys have joined Idaho – home to one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans – in fighting that interpretation. That case went all the way up to the supreme court last year but, like the abortion pills case, is now continuing in a lower court. The ADF is also involved in at least two other cases over Emtala.

Anti-abortion extremists, emboldened by the Dobbs ruling and Trump’s return to office, are moving on to the next battle: the fight to ban mifepristone and medication abortion.

[qnewsau]

Valentina Gomez: homophobe with flamethrower

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/valentina-gomez-homophobe-with-flamethrower/

Valentina Gomez: homophobe with flamethrower

While attending a book reading last week, Valentina Gomez, a Republican candidate for Missouri Secretary of State, took two books from the library shelves and burned them out the front of the library with a homemade flamethrower.

Only in America we might reassure ourselves. But tryhard far-right Australian wingnuts are importing the rooting-tooting Yankee book-burning fervour to these shores.

Valentina Gomez came to @springfieldlib Friday for a book reading and decided to take these books from our shelves and burn them with her homemade flame thrower.

Ive never seen someone unravel so quickly. pic.twitter.com/LCuYz05k7u

— Brittany (@prideforMO) February 7, 2024

Some cadidates conceal the true nature of their malignant sociopathy. Then there’s Valentina Gomez. https://t.co/pgkVqUPpDG

— Rory Flynn (@rorycflynn808) February 7, 2024

Whether Gomez has any chance of winning the election for Secretary of State, or even the Republican nomination, we have no idea.

She’s an immigrant whose family moved to the US from Colombia in 2009. Yet she rails against ‘illegal immigrants’ as ‘sleeper agents’ lying in wait to turn on the US.

She appears to come from the Marjorie Taylor Greene/Lauren Boebert school of say any old shit that will get a headline.

The 24-year-old proclaims on social media that Jesus is her King. But little Creationist Baby Jesus would probably weep tears of blood over her evolutionary beliefs. In a tweet insisting there are only two genders, Gomez promises that Darwinism will take care of her rainbow bullies. (You know – cos gays can’t have babies. 🤪) Perhaps as insurance against Darwinism failing, Gomez is pictured at the end of the video holding some great big gun.

Because the sort of people who burn books, are always willing to turn to violence. After all — book burning started with the Nazis.

Protecting books in Aussie libraries:

Christian Lobby wants library defunded over Drag Storytime.

A homophobic petition is targeting Gold Coast library books.

Liars, haters & fakers: Manly Library Protest.

Community Angels will host Drag Storytime after the event is cancelled.

Classification review rejects push to ban Gender Queer book.

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[mitigatedchaos]

(~1,400 words, 6 minutes)

I'm not going to comment on the whole Thiel thing, but I'll explain the "childless cat ladies" thing.

The Theory

Emerging right-wing gender theory is that the typical neurotypical cis heterosexual woman is "particularist," and understands consequences socially rather than mechanically.

Under this theory, a woman understands societal consequences through the potential for consequences on her children - a woman who does not have children will tend to adopt views based on what appears cruel rather than what actually has good consequences.

Thus, for example, "defund the police." This policy is very obviously bad in terms of ≥second-order consequences (and in fact we saw a homicide spike), but because policing involves both resolving ambiguously violent situations and tackling people who are resisting, it looks cruel. (There are policies that might produce better policing results, but they're more subtle, and they can't get the numbers to zero in a country as big as the United States.)

The type of woman who supports this style of thinking is very loud on social media, and also platformed in media or other institutions, and they are some of the most obnoxious people on the Internet. (There are more obnoxious people than this, but they're usually considered less acceptable to polite society.)

Calling them "childless cat ladies" is an attempt to delegitimize their social position and lower their social status to reduce their influence, much like calling a man an "incel."

If a man can be an "incel" despite being married with children, then by the same logic Ayn Rand would not be a "childless cat lady" on account of independent and pro-capitalist thinking. (Though in my opinion, if she were born in our era, she might have showed up on Tumblr.)

Extradeadjcb advises his followers to not worry that much about the political beliefs of women they are dating, but rather to get married and have children and the women will come around.

The Theory Extension

The next leg of the theory is farther to the right.

"Even if [typical] women don't have children, they still have the instincts for raising children, who are low-agency, weak, and have a tendency to act out, so they require a lot of mercy, and this gets applied to victim groups within society. People with low productivity and impulse control disorders are pretty much always going to be 'victim groups,' so elites will constantly abuse women's empathy, in combination with their inconsequentialist thinking, in order to allow criminals to prey on the rest of the population. This helps them stay in power and reward themselves with patronage such as white collar no-show NGO jobs (that aren't required to actually solve problems)."

Opposition

Addressing this theory is not my job. I have other work to do. In theory, the lib/left coalition should assign someone to work on it, but in practice that hasn't happened yet.

The huge amount of taboo enforcement among liberals and leftists has basically split their intellectuals up into two categories.

The first category are all-in on the taboo enforcement. They can't actually rephrase this right-wing argument into a form that shows they understand it, because that would show they understand it. That would be seen as "platforming" right-wing ideas, while the current position is that they are all made in bad faith for the purpose of furthering oppression, and there is nothing to learn from them, so they are just supposed to be "de-platformed."

These lib/left intellectuals would almost be better off mangling the argument on purpose as a show of loyalty. This is similar to gun control blues pridefully refusing to know anything about guns.

Instead of arguing on the substance, they aggressively signal that the ideas are low social status and not accepted at institutions where they exercise influence.

The first category can still produce good work, but only in domains that aren't politically relevant. Outside of this, they'll claim that Joe Biden was the best President that America ever had - and even if you like Joe, that's stretching it.

The second category are the intellectuals not all-in on taboo enforcement.

These guys have more freedom to maneuver. They can choose to be intellectually honest, critical thinkers. That doesn't mean they're always correct, just that they have options other than sneering loudly to show disagreement.

The problem is that these guys are tasked to capacity. There are simply too many other problems for them to deal with.

The Problem

Unless AI somehow obsoletes 50% of the workforce in the next 30 years, or we get "Ozempic, but like for aging," developed countries having below replacement birthrates is likely going to be considered a major problem in 20 years.

Countries might get desperate, and if they get desperate, there might be losses to human rights. It would be better to get out ahead of this so that only people pushing for replacement birthrates are not right-wingers when the issue's salience increases.

The lib/left coalition could initially paper over this issue by arguing for more immigration, which would mean that they wouldn't have to make any social changes that would be disadvantageous to their coalition members (in theory), but now fertility rates are below replacement even in many South American countries.

If industrial societies all inevitably fall below replacement fertility and don't stabilize, then industrial society is not viable. After a certain number of generations, it will simply cease to exist.

The implicit liberal position has been, for many years, that all societies should industrialize, in order to benefit from improved living conditions and medical care. If industrial societies have below replacement fertility, and all societies industrialize, then all societies will have below replacement fertility.

My expectation is that if this were brought up in a space belonging to the first category of lib/left intellectual, a serious conversation could not take place, as even bringing it up would be considered "a right-winger lining up a shot to support oppressing women out of his personal hatred for women." Supporting evidence would be assumed to have been warped by irrational emotional bias or fabricated.

Angles

Female writers publishing deranged columns in media, and women on social media loudly supporting policy with nasty high-order cruelty but fuzzy first-order kindness, are both part of how men are recruited into theories that we should restrict the vote. (They don't just start off that way. "Men all start off that way" is the sort of deranged thing a feminist columnist would write.)

If I were looking to attack this theory, though I would use different naming, I would look to split the category "women" into "columnists & empathy warriors" and "normal women."

I would then try to build a case that columnists and empathy warriors are not representative, but simply platformed because they conform to powerful political interests, and the average woman is much more rational. I would search for evidence that left-wing men have similarly awful opinions at similar rates.

The ideal frame would be as part of a larger project to "help straight men and women learn to love each other again," including punching left on the worst of feminism, to establish credibility on an alternative to gender war, and that the speaker genuinely cares about men.

That is tricky, because it's going to mean being disapproved of by the larger Democratic Party. Ideally such a writer would have a record of interpersonal success at setting up successful marriages. (That would also help to provide grounding so as to avoid getting lost in the realm of social media and going mad.)

As mitigatedchaos...

What I would say to someone operating in the contemporary right-wing frame is that AI is likely to disrupt the job market very substantially over the next 20-30 years. As someone who believes that capital should be an instrument to benefit human beings rather than a tool to replace the species (because there's no point in entirely replacing human beings with soulless machines), "two decades before the probably robot jobpocalypse" is probably not the best time to reduce the average empathy level of the electorate.

(Similarly, "two decades before a robust genetics industry" is probably not the best time to invest in heavy-handed policies based on genetic fatalism.)

Thiel-Vance-Moebius Loop

Okay I am confused here, and I am hoping someone can help me out.

Peter Thiel is known to have "sotte voce" views that democracy and property rights are at odds. Given the opportunity to vote for resources coming their way, the masses will, and this will undermine a libertarian market. His biggest public statement on this was in Reason: "Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron." This isn't even wrong factually speaking. Women contain, you know, all mothers and that's the demographic who is going to care a lot about fairness and compassion over competition and progress. They want resources for their children, and who can blame them. Not for nothing are Democrats called the Mommy Party. Mothers are going to be difficult for this libertarian to convince.

Thiel has supported and funded a number of Trump-friendly candidates, who presumably share his thinking. Most notably he gave JD Vance $15 million for his Senate campaign, and was part of the committee that lobbied Trump to choose him as VP.

Thiel goes on television to inveigh against women being involved in government - sure sure - who are "childless cat ladies." Here is my what? These are the women who would be most friendly to Thiel style libertarianism? Ayn Rand was a childless cat lady! Hell, Thiel wants to give parents more votes based on how many children they have. This is juicing up the mommy vote. What's going on? Is there a secret plan beneath all this? Do they both just hate women and got their wires crossed about which type of women to blame? Does Thiel just not actually care about the beliefs of his pawns? Chat, explanations?

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

I have the solution and a guarantee.

Just split the US up. 25 states for the Left (Blue America) and 25 for the Right (Red America) with a big wall between them.

We'll have our free speech, our civil liberties, our guns and our God.

They can have their open borders, 1053 genders (and counting), defunded police departments, never ending pandemic, critical race theory, socialist public schools and atheism. They can also share one big restroom.

I GUARANTEE you, within 5 years Liberals will be trying to sneak across into Red America by the millions while their Blue America burns like the dumpster fire all Democratically governed places are (Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco...)

[dunnystuff]

Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2021 11:23 AM

Subject: Rich's Blog

Hi to all -

Texas

State representative James Talarico (D) , who has a Masters in Education from Harvard, claims that 'modern science' shows that there are at least six genders, not the two we have known since the beginning of time. As it turns out, he was referring to a study that explained several very rare medical conditions, which produced physical abnormalities. Of course, he would like you to believe that these were the result of personal choice, not accidents of nature.

Houston

The DA there has decided to 'pardon' George Floyd for some of his previous crimes. That means we can now elevate him to sainthood. Please stop burning our cities and shooting people.

Investigate Covid

This gets better and better. One of the largest investors in the vaccines for this is Bill Gates. So, he has set up a committee to investigate this ailment and the treatments for it. Gosh, I wonder what they will discover?

Harry Truman

On March 12, 1947, Truman spoke to congress. Growing up in the shadow of FDR, Truman adopted some of the same ideas about the imperial presidency, and the use of Executive Orders to bypass congress and the courts. As he prepared for another of his agenda items, he told congress that "The American way of life is under assault by foreign powers that used terror and oppression, a controlled press, and radio. Fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedom."

Does that sound familiar? Things never change much, do they?

Personal Identifying Information

We are concerned about Big Tech, and how totally intrusive they are into our personal lives and business. So is Europe. Only, they did something about it. Tech companies like Google and Facebook are not allowed to collect any information that can identify an individual, or target them for advertising, or sell their data. They get billion-dollar fines when caught.

Think of this like an analogy - it is okay to count the number of cars passing a certain point. That is information that can be used to plan roads and fix problems. But it is not okay to collect tag numbers of those cars, or take photos of the car and driver. You cannot target that driver for ads specific to his car or dress, or any other thing.

We could do that here, if congress was not on the take.

Arizona

The ballot recount is back! Democrats do not want this. The team will examine all ballots for all sorts of things. Are they on correct ballot paper? Are mail in ballots marked with folds? Are marks made by hand, or printed by machine? Are envelopes date stamped by the post office? And many other things. Democrats fear this, as it could reverse the election, which was won by a very slim margin. So, they filed a suit to block this review. The judge ruled that they could challenge the legality of a recount, but if they lost that challenge, then the party would be liable for all legal and court costs, plus a million dollar fine. They withdrew the challenge. But they just cannot let this happen! Other states are also considering a recount, like Georgia. Georgia had far more fraud than Arizona (best estimates are that 600,000 phony votes were cast - and Biden won the state by only 10,000.) So, democrats are 'judge shopping' to find one who will rule in their favor, as they did on the first round of challenges. Amazing how those Obama appointed judges all could not see any evidence of fraud, etc. Guess who is at the top of their wish list? A relative of Bill Gates.

Notice that Biden came right out and announced his mask mandates for everyone, forever. And, his plans to spend, spend, spend trillions of dollars we do not have. Got to get in all those agenda items before this election is overturned and he is gone, along with his handlers and lackeys.

Kamala Harris

The CARE packages given to illegal children include books - and one written by Kamala. Some wonder if she is profiting from this mess. Kamala says NO. And, the people who provide these kits also say that the books were 'donated', and no taxpayer money was spent on them, and Kamala did not make a profit. Well, at least not directly, and in a straightforward way. There are lots of ways to 'encourage' someone to purchase books, and then donate them via a third party.

Tennessee

Governor Bill Lee has announced an end to mask mandates and all the rest. He says that the pandemic is past, and this is now a manageable health condition. Fauci turned purple on hearing that news.

Alexandria, VA

Marlo Gonzeles, 26, died after being held down on the ground by police officers. This happened about the same time as the verdict in the Derek Chauvin case. Marlo was drunk and disorderly, very combative, and creating trouble all around. When pinned down by police, he expired.

Rudy Giuliani

Feds raided his NY apartment, seized his computers and electronics, etc. They are still seeking some evidence that Trump did something they did not like, and that Rudy helped him. I wonder if the officers wore black, and had the double lightning bolt symbol on their collars?

Summer Travel

Lots of people are thinking of taking to the road this summer, after this long year. But there may be a problem with gas shortages. Well, not the gas itself, there is plenty on hand. But there is a real shortage of drivers for the tanker trucks that fill your local stations. About 10% of fuel trucks are parked, for lack of drivers. Plan ahead, and avoid delays waiting for fuel.

Seal those Records!

The latest proposal from the looney left is to seal all previous criminal records, so that they are not used to impact, say, job applications, credit reports and employment opportunities for all those convicted of low-level non-violent crimes. I don't know, those are things I would want to know about a potential employee. A thief is just as deadly to business as an angry person who attacks others.

Sam Johnson

Sam was CEO of an on-line medical service called Visu Wells. He went to the prom to take photos, and came across a male wearing a floor length red dress, slit up the sides to show a little leg. Sam was not impressed, and said 'slanderous' things like 'you are a male, not a female. This is not manly.' The snowflake was so upset, he cried, and complained. Sam was fired from his job, for his 'insensitive' comments.

Delmar, Delaware

Here in Biden's back yard, a police officer was called because a man was threatening, and attacking his elderly neighbors. Due to 'defund the police', only one officer was sent. The perp, Randon Wilkerson, 30, was covered in gang tattoos, and trying to find a gun in the home of his elderly neighbors, so he could steal it. He had a rap sheet with 38 arrests for things like assault, burglary, and other crimes. The officer was sneak attacked, blindsided when he arrived, and severely beaten. Most of the neighbors, who had been watching all this, cowered in their homes. When the officer did not respond to calls, other officers came, and found a badly injured officer. They also easily found and arrested Randon. What sort of 'justice' will Biden give either party?

Rich