#election campaign vehicles
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jeepclinic-blog · 9 months ago
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Elevate Your Isuzu D-Max S Cab for 2024 Election Campaigns | Jeep Clinic"
Transform your Isuzu D-Max S Cab into a high-tech election campaign vehicle with Jeep Clinic. Explore our hi-tech modifications for 2024 election campaigns. Contact us today!” Jeep Clinic, Election Campaign Vehicles, Isuzu D-Max S Cab, 2024 Election, Hi-Techhttps://jeepclinic.com/gallery-details.php?rcid=1000&cid=54 Modifications, Vehicle Customization, Election Campaigns
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afrotumble · 5 months ago
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Kenya, 1969. Campaign car belonging to the late former Member of Parliament, Maina Wanjigi, who was running for the Kamukunji constituency seat in Nairobi in the 1969 elections.
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probablyasocialecologist · 21 days ago
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All the takes are correct and yet they also miss the point. Yes, it was insane for the Democrats to think they could win by running a soulless candidate, without a shred of progressive policy vision, pursuing endorsements from neocon war-hawks everybody hates, while arming and funding a genocide, and belittling and crushing those who have enough morality to protest it. It is enraging that the Democrats are so smug and blind to this. But these are all just symptoms. The deeper reality is that liberalism has failed, liberalism is dead, and people urgently need to wake up to this fact and respond accordingly. It is a defunct ideology that cannot offer any meaningful solutions to our social and ecological crises and it must be abandoned. Democrats have proven over and over again that they cannot accept even basic steps like public healthcare, affordable housing, and a public job guarantee - things that would dramatically improve the material, social and political conditions of the working classes. And they cannot accept a public finance strategy that would steer production away from fossil fuels and toward green transition to give us a shot at a liveable future. Why? Because these things run against the objectives of capital accumulation. And for liberals capital is sacrosanct. They will do whatever it takes to ensure elite accumulation, it is their only consistent commitment. At home, they suppress and demonize progressive and socialist tendencies. Abroad, they engage in endless wars and violence to suppress input prices in the global South and prevent any possibility of sovereign economic development. The Democrats have done all this purposefully and knowingly, for my whole life, not as some kind of "mistake" but in full consciousness that it is in the interests of capital. And because liberalism cannot address our crises, and because it crushes socialist alternatives, it inevitably paves the way for right-wing populism. They know this pattern, and yet they risk it every time - this election being only the most recent example. They did it in 2016, when they actively crushed the Sanders campaign and sent Trump to the White House. They do it because ultimately they (and I mean the liberal ruling class here) don't really mind if fascists take power, so long as the latter too ensure the conditions for capital accumulation. They 100% prefer this to the possibility of a socialist alternative. So, progressives have to face reality. The dream of "converting" the Democratic party is dead. This is now a fact and it must be accepted. The only option is to build a mass-based movement that can reclaim the working classes and mobilize a political vehicle that can integrate disparate progressive struggles into a unified and formidable political force and achieve substantive transformation. This will take real work, actual organizing, but it must be done and that process must begin now.
Jason Hickel
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jeepclub · 9 months ago
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Jeep club | Jeep Modification in Coimbatore | Jeep Alteration, Accessories
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txttletale · 15 days ago
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its really amazing how much liberals are addicted to losing and cannot get enough of it. for people allegedly invested in electoral politics as a vehicle for change they really proudly and avowedly refusing to understand its very basic mechanics. "kamala won a perfect campaign" Well i dont kinow if you noticed this but she lost the election
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dandelionsresilience · 4 months ago
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Good News - July 22-28
Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my new(ly repurposed) Patreon!
1. Four new cheetah cubs born in Saudi Arabia after 40 years of extinction
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“[T]he discovery of mummified cheetahs in caves […] which ranged in age from 4,000 to as recent as 120 years, proved that the animals […] once called [Saudi Arabia] home. The realisation kick-started the country’s Cheetah Conservation Program to bring back the cats to their historic Arabian range. […] Dr Mohammed Qurban, CEO of the NCW, said: […] “This motivates us to continue our efforts to restore and reintroduce cheetahs, guided by an integrated strategy designed in accordance with best international practices.””
2. In sub-Saharan Africa, ‘forgotten’ foods could boost climate resilience, nutrition
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“[A study published in PNAS] examined “forgotten” crops that may help make sub-Saharan food systems more resilient, and more nutritious, as climate change makes it harder to grow [current staple crops.] [… The study identified 138 indigenous] food crops that were “relatively underresearched, underutilized, or underpromoted in an African context,” but which have the nutrient content and growing stability to support healthy diets and local economies in the region. […] In Eswatini, van Zonneveld and the World Vegetable Center are working with schools to introduce hardy, underutilized vegetables to their gardens, which have typically only grown beans and maize.”
3. Here's how $4 billion in government money is being spent to reduce climate pollution
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“[New Orleans was awarded] nearly $50 million to help pay for installing solar on low to middle income homes [… and] plans to green up underserved areas with trees and build out its lackluster bike lane system to provide an alternative to cars. […] In Utah, $75 million will fund several measures from expanding electric vehicles to reducing methane emissions from oil and gas production. [… A] coalition of states led by North Carolina will look to store carbon in lands used for agriculture as well as natural places like wetlands, with more than $400 million. [… This funding is] “providing investments in communities, new jobs, cost savings for everyday Americans, improved air quality, … better health outcomes.””
4. From doom scrolling to hope scrolling: this week’s big Democratic vibe shift
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“[Democrats] have been on an emotional rollercoaster for the past few weeks: from grim determination as Biden fought to hang on to his push for a second term, to outright exuberance after he stepped aside and Harris launched her campaign. […] In less than a week, the Harris campaign raised record-breaking sums and signed up more than 100,000 new volunteers[….] This honeymoon phase will end, said Democratic strategist Guy Cecil, warning the election will be a close race, despite this newfound exuberance in his party. [… But v]oters are saying they are excited to vote for Harris and not just against Trump. That’s new.”
5. Biodegradable luminescent polymers show promise for reducing electronic waste
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“[A team of scientists discovered that a certain] chemical enables the recycling of [luminescent polymers] while maintaining high light-emitting functions. […] At the end of life, this new polymer can be degraded under either mild acidic conditions (near the pH of stomach acid) or relatively low heat treatment (> 410 F). The resulting materials can be isolated and remade into new materials for future applications. […] The researchers predict this new polymer can be applied to existing technologies, such as displays and medical imaging, and enable new applications […] such as cell phones and computer screens with continued testing.”
6. World’s Biggest Dam Removal Project to Open 420 Miles of Salmon Habitat this Fall
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“Reconnecting the river will help salmon and steelhead populations survive a warming climate and [natural disasters….] In the long term, dam removal will significantly improve water quality in the Klamath. “Algae problems in the reservoirs behind the dams were so bad that the water was dangerous for contact […] and not drinkable,” says Fluvial Geomorphologist Brian Cluer. [… The project] will begin to reverse decades of habitat degradation, allow threatened salmon species to be resilient in the face of climate change, and restore tribal connections to their traditional food source.”
7. Biden-Harris Administration Awards $45.1 Million to Expand Mental Health and Substance Use Services Across the Lifespan
““Be it fostering wellness in young people, caring for the unhoused, facilitating treatment and more, this funding directly supports the needs of our neighbors,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. [The funding also supports] recovery and reentry services to adults in the criminal justice system who have a substance use disorder[… and clinics which] serve anyone who asks for help for mental health or substance use, regardless of their ability to pay.”
8. The World’s Rarest Crow Will Soon Fly Free on Maui
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“[… In] the latest attempt to establish a wild crow population, biologists will investigate if this species can thrive on Maui, an island where it may have never lived before. Translocations outside of a species’ known historical range are rare in conservation work, but for a bird on the brink of extinction, it’s a necessary experiment: Scientists believe the crows will be safer from predators in a new locale—a main reason that past reintroduction attempts failed. […] As the release date approaches, the crows have already undergone extensive preparation for life in the wild. […] “We try to give them the respect that you would give if you were caring for someone’s elder.””
9. An optimist’s guide to the EV battery mining challenge
““Battery minerals have a tremendous benefit over oil, and that’s that you can reuse them.” [… T]he report’s authors found there’s evidence to suggest that [improvements in technology] and recycling have already helped limit demand for battery minerals in spite of this rapid growth — and that further improvements can reduce it even more. [… They] envision a scenario in which new mining for battery materials can basically stop by 2050, as battery recycling meets demand. In this fully realized circular battery economy, the world must extract a total of 125 million tons of battery minerals — a sum that, while hefty, is actually 17 times smaller than the oil currently harvested every year to fuel road transport.”
10. Peekaboo! A baby tree kangaroo debuts at the Bronx Zoo
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“The tiny Matschie’s tree kangaroo […] was the third of its kind born at the Bronx Zoo since 2008. [… A] Bronx Zoo spokesperson said that the kangaroo's birth was significant for the network of zoos that aims to preserve genetic diversity among endangered animals. "It's a small population and because of that births are not very common," said Jessica Moody, curator of primates and small mammals at the Bronx Zoo[, …] adding that baby tree kangaroos are “possibly one of the cutest animals to have ever lived. They look like stuffed animals, it's amazing.””
July 15-21 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)
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robertreich · 3 months ago
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Why Big Money Supports Trump 
Fascism backed by Big Money is one of the most dangerous of all political alliances.
We saw it in 1930s Germany, when industrial giants bailed out a cash-strapped Nazi party right before Hitler’s election, thinking that Hitler would protect their money and power.
We are seeing something similar now. Earlier this year, the GOP was running out of money. So Trump turned to his wealthy backers for help. Many super-rich donors who once criticized Trump for stoking the violence of January 6 have since had a change of heart, deciding their profits are worth more than our democracy.
Trump has promised them that if elected, he’ll extend his 2017 tax cuts that went mainly to the wealthy beyond 2025 when they’re scheduled to expire, and hinting at even more.
He promised oil executives he would scrap regulations favoring electric vehicles and wind energy if they would give his campaign one billion dollars.
The Trump White House is for sale, and the wealthy are buying. 50 billionaire families gave at least $600 million in political donations as of May, with over two thirds going to support GOP candidates and conservative causes.
Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, who also controls and manipulates one of the world’s largest communications platforms, has committed to spending millions of dollars to elect Trump.
In previous videos, I’ve highlighted alarming similarities between fascist regimes of the past and Trumpism. The alignment of American billionaires with Trump’s anti-democracy movement is one of the most dangerous parallels.
The billionaires want the rest of us to fight each other so we don’t look up and see where all the wealth and power have gone, so we don’t join together and raise taxes on the super-rich to finance childcare, better schools, our health care system, and everything else we need.
They fear democracy because there are far more of us than there are of them.
We need to see through their fear tactics and vote in overwhelming numbers this November.
We can learn from history and spot the danger. We are not doomed to repeat it.
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anastasiaoftheironwood · 21 days ago
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California Voters—What to Do If Your Ballot is Rejected
From the San Francisco Chronicle: https://bit.ly/4fexCEC
"Whether you forgot to sign your ballot return envelope or signed it in a way that doesn’t match previous signatures, your ballot can be fixed in the weeks after the election. Every election cycle, a portion of ballots across California are rejected. Most of them were turned in late — which cannot be remedied — or had an issue with the signature on the envelope containing the ballot. Luckily for voters, signature problems can be “cured” by submitting a form sent by their county elections office by Dec. 3. The quickest way to know if your ballot has a problem is to sign up for ballot tracking through the California Secretary of State’s website at https://wheresmyballot.sos.ca.gov. Voters will be able to see if their ballot has been accepted and counted or if there is a problem that can be addressed. Voters whose ballots need fixing will also receive a letter from their county elections office, as well as a phone call and email if that information is on file. John Arntz, director of the San Francisco Department of Elections, said that the notification should come to voters in English and Chinese, unless they have selected a different secondary language for voting. Arntz said that the notification includes a form for voters to complete to verify their signature. They can either return it by mail, email or in person to have their vote counted. Alexander said that signature problems — which affected 394 San Francisco ballots in the March primary election — can affect first-time and younger voters who have not yet developed a regular signature or are unaware that the signature on their ballots will be compared to the signature on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Older voters are also impacted more often by signature problems as their dexterity and handwriting changes with age, making it more difficult to match their previous signatures. Alexander said that voters have 28 days — based on a new state law implemented this election — to get ballot curing forms back to their county elections office to have their votes counted. Counties will not be able to certify their votes until that deadline passes, Alexander said. In San Francisco, with ranked-choice voting for mayoral candidates, the cured ballots could end up impacting the final results if the election is neck and neck. Arntz said that the reports put out before he certifies the election are just a snapshot of the votes counted by that moment, but that cured votes submitted by the deadline could change the trajectory of the instant runoff election. In this year’s primary election, nearly 1,200 Alameda County voters had fixable signature problems. San Mateo County had over 400, Contra Costa County had over 1,000 and Santa Clara County had nearly 500. Alexander estimates that only about 50% of those ballots end up being cured and counted, based on a study her organization did of a handful of California counties. Recently, campaigns have realized in races with razor-thin margins that ballot curing can make a difference, Alexander said. For tight House races in the Central Valley and Southern California, volunteers could be working for weeks after Election Day to get signatures fixed."
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islandsaoirse · 22 days ago
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English Explainer of what’s happening in Puerto Rico
The New Progressive Party is actively stealing the election as we speak and engaging in illegal fearmongering according to our code. Here’s the exact points where it’s happening
1. There was a last minute change in how we vote, during our history we have had a high grade of illiteracy so our ballots rely a lot on voting under the party logo. Through our entire history we where thought to mark the box with an X. Yesterday it was announced that the machines that count the vote don’t work the same way and we will have to shade the entire box without spilling for our vote to count. We have evidence of ballots from weeks before of new progressive party candidates shading it whole and now we know why.
2. At around 1am Nov 3 the Supreme Court determined the vote that is currently being counted (absent, prison etc) could be with only one parties representation at the tables…at the same time the campaign closings where happening and functionaries of other parties where told to go home and resume tomorrow (the deadline is usually until midnight). This resource was proposed by New Progressives.
3. There is currently a motion going on presented by the same party to continue todays counting 24/7 aka functionaries of other parties will once again have to rush to where the vote is being counted to defend the vote
4. They’ve filled the parking lot of where we are supposed to arrive with goverment vehicles so that when we either drive or Uber there we have to walk in the middle of the night
5. Massive Robo call scam misrepresenting other parties and lying. This is highly illegal as the calls don’t say at first what committee paid for said Robo call
They’re stealing our elections as we speak and god knows what will go down on the night of the event. Eyes on Puerto Rico.
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justinspoliticalcorner · 7 months ago
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WaPo: How car bans and heat pump rules drive voters to the far right
Shannon Osaka at WaPo:
More than a decade ago, the Netherlands embarked on a straightforward plan to cut carbon emissions. Its legislature raised taxes on natural gas, using the money earned to help Dutch households install solar panels. By most measures, the program worked: By 2022, 20 percent of homes in the Netherlands had solar panels, up from about 2 percent in 2013. Natural gas prices, meanwhile, rose by almost 50 percent. But something else happened, according to a new study. The Dutch families who were most vulnerable to the increase in gas prices — renters who paid their own utility bills — drifted to the right. Families facing increased home energy costs became 5 to 6 percent more likely to vote for one of the Netherlands’ far-right parties. A similar backlash is happening all over Europe, as far-right parties position themselves in opposition to green policies. In Germany, a law that would have required homeowners to install heat pumps galvanized the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, giving it a boost. Farmers have rolled tractors into Paris to protest E.U. agricultural rules, and drivers in Italy and Britain have protested attempts to ban gas-guzzling cars from city centers.
That resurgence of the right could slow down the green transition in Europe, which has been less polarized on global warming, and serves as a warning to the United States, where policies around electric vehicles and gas stoves have already sparked a backlash. The shift also shows how, as climate policies increasingly touch citizens’ lives, even countries whose voters are staunchly supportive of clean energy may hit roadblocks. “This has really expanded the coalition of the far right,” said Erik Voeten, a professor of geopolitics at Georgetown University and the author of the new study on the Netherlands.
Other studies have found similar results. In one study in Milan, researchers at Bocconi University studied the voting patterns of drivers whose cars were banned from the city center for being too polluting. These drivers, who on average lost the equivalent of $4,000 because of the ban, were significantly more likely to vote for the right-wing Lega party in subsequent elections. In Sweden, researchers found that low-income families facing high electricity prices were also more likely to turn toward the far right. Far-right parties in Europe have started to position themselves against climate action, expanding their platforms from anti-immigration and anti-globalization. A decade ago, the Dutch right-wing Party for Freedom emphasized that it wasn’t against renewable energy — just increasing energy prices. But by 2021, the party’s manifesto had moved to more extreme language. “Energy is a basic need, but climate madness has turned it into a very expensive luxury item,” the manifesto said. “The far right has increasingly started to campaign on opposition to environmental policies and climate change,” Voeten said.
The pushback also reflects, in part, how much Europe has decarbonized. More than 60 percent of the continent’s electricity already comes from renewable sources or nuclear power; so meeting the European Union’s climate goals means tacklingother sectors — transportation, buildings, agriculture.
[...] Some of these voting patterns have also played out in the United States. According to a study by the Princeton political scientist Alexander Gazmararian, historically-Democratic coal communities that lost jobs in the shift to natural gas increased their support for Republican candidates by 5 percent. The shift was larger in areas located farther from new gas power plants — that is, areas where voters couldn’t see that it was natural gas, not environmental regulations, that undercut coal.
Gazmararian says that while climate denial and fossil fuel misinformation have definitely played a role, many voters are motivated simply by their own financial pressures. “They’re in an economic circumstance where they don’t have many options,” he said. The solution, experts say, is todesign policies that avoid putting too much financial burden on individual consumers. In Germany, where the law to install heat pumps would have cost homeowners $7,500 to $8,500 more than installing gas boilers, policymakers quickly retreated. But by that point, far-right party membership had already surged.
The Washington Post explains what may be at least partially causing the rise of far-right extremist parties in Europe, Conservatives in Canada, and the Republicans in some parts of the US: rising energy costs that low-income people are bearing the brunt of.
In the US, right-wing hysteria about gas stove bans and electric vehicles are also playing a role.
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jeepclinic-blog · 9 months ago
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Elevate Your Mahindra Bolero Pickup for the 2024 Election | Jeep Clinic
Explore hi-tech modifications and enhancements for your Mahindra Bolero pickup, tailored for the 2024 election campaign. Transform your vehicle with Jeep Clinic’s customization services.https://jeepclinic.com/gallery-details.php?rcid=1000&cid=54
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extasiswings · 3 months ago
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2016 inflicted a violent, vicious wound. I think I will probably remember that election night and the next day for the rest of my life—I had a night class with an extremely outspoken Trump supporter when initial results started coming in along with slowly creeping dread and then spent the rest of the night stress baking and sitting with my brother and his wife while texting with my then-girlfriend who was working outside the US as the creeping dread turned into nausea. I barely got any sleep but still had to get up in the morning to go to work at the LGBTQ resource center on campus where my trans boss and I had a few minutes to ourselves to process our own feelings before making plans for the day. I spent hours comforting crying, terrified queer and trans undergrads and answering their questions while barely holding myself together, and then I went home and broke down.
Like Kamala Harris, I also grew up being taught that I could do anything, be anything. But in the spring of 2017, I was taking a class taught by a former (very successful) politician and at the end of the semester he told me “I understand why you want [career choice], but you should really consider running for office.” I was incredibly flattered, but all I could think was “I could never do that—look what they did to Hillary, look what they do, how they talk about all women during campaigns—how does anyone go through that, especially if you’re not going to win?” It broke something, took something from me—that idea of “you can do anything, be anything” suddenly felt like a lie.
I spent January 2017-January 2021 watching the systematic dismantling of democratic ideals, the rule of law, and general fuckery that upended all sorts of things related to the life I imagined for myself and the career I wanted to have. During election season in 2020, I had to worry about white supremacist marches a block away from my apartment. Prior to January 6, I walked out my door to go to the farmers market and came face to face with military vehicles and the national guard across the street as a precautionary measure. And even after Biden was elected, SCOTUS has continued to do horrific things, including overturning Roe, that are direct results of 2016.
This week has felt like…healing. The scars from that violent, bloody wound will always be there, but there’s also hope, there’s joy, there’s possibility. Watching Kamala Harris accept the nomination with a speech that felt so incredibly Presidential, that met the moment, to a crowd that was overwhelmingly supportive and excited to be there, excited to nominate a woman of color for the highest office in the land…that felt like healing. Grief too, old grief, but also healing. Finally, finally healing. And it’s something to see.
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jjmcquade-misc · 4 months ago
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Harris & Walz - Election Campaign Vehicle 2024
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big-mean-trans-dyke · 3 months ago
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How elections work now: Whoever has the most money to throw at a campaign and is willing to lie through their teeth to appeal to the Lowest Common Denominator wins.
How elections will work in the future: If a transfem is interested in the position, she wins it by default. If more than one are interested, they engage in friendly debate and the final decision is made democratically by any transfems in the relevant area.
If no transfem is interested in running, cuntgirl candidates will be considered. Cis men have, of course, proven they're incapable of running things properly.
From the surface, these elections will look similar to the way they do now, with candidates announcing platforms, putting out ads, hosting parties, and the like. The specifics, though, will look a little different.
Platforms will, of course, center most significantly on trans rights. Does this candidate support putting into effect a bill that turns denying a transfem free service from a misdemeanor into a felony? Maybe she's running on a campaign that makes any form of sexual assault by a trans woman legal? Maybe it's something a little more tame, like increasing the weekly equalization payments by another few thousand dollars per transfem.
Politics is such a beauty contest these days anyway, I think we may as well lean into that. Ads won't bother with the pretense of any messaging, if anyone's interested they can look into the platform a candidate is running on themselves. I look forward to seeing political candidates degrading themselves like whores, blown up larger than life and plastered on the sides of buses.
And of course, that all-important voter engagement. Door-knocking is such an important part of any political campaign. Transfems, look forward to any local political candidates showing up at your door, plastered with cum, cock on their breath, clothes torn to scraps and a fierce blush on their faces. After all, proving to individual voters that you care about them on the issues that matter is absolutely vital. Issues like blue balls, for example.
Finally, it's important to show that you're capable of public speaking and community organizing. Transfems can look forward to receiving invitations in the mail to campaign rallies, which will consist of a brief speech by the candidate, delivered nude, aside from optional campaign sticker pasties or some equally tacky, teasing article, and then followed by an all-night no-holds-barred gangbang.
The candidate may have a couple fluffers from her campaign staff assist, but the point of these parties is to prove she has the will, endurance, and desire to serve her community that's so important in politics. She'll be thrown around, bent into awkward shapes, pulled in every direction as her most important constituents fight for their turn. It might start slow with just a few cocks, one in each hole, but it won't take long for people to wonder why her hands are free, her tits, any bare patch of skin they can access.
Before long, they'll start wondering why it's just one cock per hole. The smartest candidates will stretch themselves out well beforehand, and the less smart ones will find themselves screaming as second cocks start to push their way in beside the first. They'll be incentivized to stay conscious as long as they can, too; they know damn well every unserviced cock, every transfem that leaves unsatisfied, is a vote lost, a vote that could've won them the campaign. By the end of the night, they're usually too exhausted to move themselves. Maybe their campaign staff manages to get them into a vehicle and drive them home, maybe they find themselves shoved into a vehicle with a rowdy group of transfems who've decided the night's not quite over yet.
These parties are usually planned a few months in advance of election day, of course. Partly so that the candidate has proper time to recover, and partly because there's nothing that wins the hearts of voters like seeing a transfem's baby swelling in their candidate's stomach.
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meow-moment · 11 days ago
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Top 5 Tech Controversies of 2025:
1) Google announces a new AI powered home assistant, named "The" to communicate how ubiquitous it is. Everyone who bought a The returns it in less than a week because it can't tell which uses of the word it should respond to.
2) A California politician takes a self-driving car to an event as a publicity move for the company, (which he has stake in.) On his way there, the vehicle gets stuck on a hairpin turn, and an armed gunman who opposes the politician's views happens to be walking by. He is assassinated in the middle of leaving a 2-star review.
3) A wave of backlash washes over numerous towns as newly-elected mayors are found to have used ChatGPT to formulate their campaign promises.
4) King Charles' addresses to the nation suspiciously switch format to prerecorded videos in which he moves very little, leading many to speculate that he died and the royal family are covering it up using deepfake technology.
5) A manager of an Amazon fulfillment center in Taiwan is fired after sexting his The on company time.
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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 19 days ago
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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
November 7, 2024
Heather Cox Richardson
Nov 07, 2024
Today the Trump family posed for a post-election photo. Missing from the group was former first lady Melania Trump. Joining the family was billionaire Elon Musk, who supported Trump’s campaign both through his ownership of X, formerly Twitter, and then with $132 million in cash and with apparent giveaways to get voters to give the campaign personal information. 
As an immigrant from South Africa, Musk is barred from the presidency himself by the U.S. Constitution, which requires that a president be born in the U.S. (out of the Framers’ concern that a foreign country could put a puppet in the presidency). But he is now very close to Trump and stands to gain significantly from a Trump presidency, both through deregulation and government contracts, and through Trump’s planned tariffs on Chinese imports that will enable Musk to monopolize the electric vehicle market in the U.S. Musk also would like a victory in the culture wars; he is strongly opposed to transgender rights.
After the election results came out, Musk posted on X, “Novus Ordo Seclorum,” Latin for “New World Order.” 
At Trump’s election party, Trump said: “We have a new star: Elon. He is an amazing guy. We were sitting together tonight—you know he spent two weeks in Philadelphia and different parts of Pennsylvania campaigning? He's a character, he's a special guy. He's a super-genius, and we have to protect our geniuses, we don't have that many of them. We have to protect our super-geniuses.”
Trump’s new closeness with Musk presents an issue for the Republican Party. The president-elect is 78 and has shown signs of mental and physical deterioration, making it possible that someone will need to take his place at some point in the next four years. 
The vice president–elect, current Ohio senator J.D. Vance, who is backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, is constitutionally the next in line for the presidency, but neither Musk nor Vance has Trump’s popular support, making it unclear who will take over the leadership of the party if such a takeover is necessary. Whether either can command Trump’s supporters is also unclear. 
What is clear is that neither of them has much experience in elected office. Vance was elected senator just two years ago, and Musk comes from the business world.
There is another, major problem for the party, as well: Trump won the election in part by promising everything to everyone, but the actual policies of the MAGA party are unpopular, even with many Republican voters. 
Notably, Trump has said he will appoint Musk to head a new government efficiency commission, and Musk has vowed to cut “at least $2 trillion” from the federal budget. Such cuts would decimate government services, including food programs and Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Supplemental nutrition programs disproportionately benefit rural areas, and Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are used much more heavily in counties that support Trump than those that don’t. 
That will be a hard circle to square.
So will Trump’s promise to lower consumer costs while also putting tariffs of 10% to 20% on all foreign imports and of 60% on imports from China. Tariffs are borne by consumers, so by definition they will drive prices up. These two promises cannot be reconciled. 
Trump has promised mass deportations, and much of his base is fervently behind them. The Republican National Committee even had signs saying “MASS DEPORTATION NOW” made up for attendees to wave at the party’s convention. 
Priscilla Alvarez and Alayna Treene of CNN reported today that Trump’s allies have been preparing for mass detentions and deportations of undocumented immigrants, and the stock prices of private prison companies GEO Group and CoreCivic have soared since Trump’s election. Steven T. Dennis of Bloomberg reported that on an earnings call today, GEO chief executive officer Brian Evans told investors that filling currently empty beds could bring in $400 million a year and that the company can scale up its current surveillance, monitoring, and transportation programs to handle millions of immigrants. “This is to us an unprecedented opportunity,” he said.
But deporting up to 20 million people will be a logistical nightmare and is projected to cost from $88 billion to $315 billion a year. At the same time, much of the U.S. economy depends on undocumented immigrants, and Republican businessmen will certainly object to losing their workers. 
Tom Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Trump in his first term, backed away from some of the extremes of Trump’s immigration policy when he told CBS last month: “It’s not gonna be—a mass sweep of neighborhoods. It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous…. They’ll be targeted arrests. We’ll know who we’re going to arrest, where we’re most likely to find ‘em based on numerous, you know, investigative processes.” 
Meanwhile, Democratic state lawmakers have been preparing for a potential Trump administration for more than a year, and some are putting down public markers that they will not cooperate with the extreme policies of the Trump administration. 
Trump vowed to begin his mass deportation plan in Aurora, Colorado, where he maintained—contrary to the statements of local Republican officials—that Venezuelan gangs had taken over the city. Aurora is a suburb of Denver, and yesterday the mayor of Denver, Mike Johnston, told a reporter he would not cooperate with requests that are “immoral or unethical or unfair.” 
California governor Gavin Newsom called an emergency session of the California state legislature to convene on December 2, “to help bolster our legal resources and protect our state against any unlawful actions by the incoming Trump Administration.” It will focus on funding lawsuits against any actions that impact civil liberties, reproductive rights, protection for immigrants, and climate initiatives. Newsom said the California lawmakers “will seek to work with the incoming president—but let there be no mistake, we intend to stand with states across our nation to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law.” 
California has the fifth largest economy in the world, and its population of 39 million people is more than four times the 9.59 million people in Hungary, the country from which MAGA Republicans are taking much of their ideological vision.  
Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker, who has been called a “happy warrior,” held a press conference today, telling reporters that he will continue working to keep Illinois “a place of stability and competent governance” and vowing to protect the people of his state no matter what the new administration does. “To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom and opportunity and dignity of Illinoisans: I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior,” he said. “You come for my people, you come through me.”
Trump has made it clear he intends to have a say in the decisions of the Federal Reserve, which manages interest rates, and during his first term he frequently attacked Fed chair Jerome Powell, whom he appointed, for not lowering rates to boost the economy. Trump’s advisors have suggested the president can gain power over the nation’s finances by removing members of the Fed in his next term. 
Today, when reporters asked Powell if he would resign before Trump takes office, he said no. When asked if Trump could fire or demote him or the other Fed governors, Powell was firm: “Not permitted under the law.”
LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
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