#political posts

[cetaceanhandiwork]

okay so one of the big arguments you hear against moving away from prisons as a society is that there’s always going to be some % of folks who have no interest in improving their behavior & would always be a danger if ever allowed to walk the streets again. and like, yeah, that % is probably low after you factor in all the other ideas ppl have for solving the root causes of crime (and the number of ppl right now who are imprisoned for incoherent ass reasons to begin with), but it’s never gonna be zero

but today I thought of a very stupid but also very funny solution to that problem: if the # really is as low as has been claimed/estimated, then even if there’s no prisons you can still put those people under house arrest

totalitarian regimes that are facing international pressure for political imprisonments do it all the time. sure, the number of political prisoners they have to treat that way is usually pretty low; it’s not a scalable solution. but you don’t need a scalable solution. we’ve already established that we’re dealing with the exceptional case, here! and in exchange, by using a non-scalable solution, you avoid all the costs of building something scalable. you never build  infrastructure of incarceration. this has several benefits:

nobody’s phoney baloney job relies on there still being a certain number of people imprisoned. you can scale down, even to zero if you get lucky, without that being a political football.

people under house arrest will be able to use normal ass things to live, instead of using special “for prisoners” stuff that’s secretly designed to be off-the-books torture. no special concrete buildings. no special phone companies that turn every phone conversation into a roll of the dice as to whether your recipient can figure out how to get quarters into its collect call wallet. no need for the state to suddenly being responsible for wiping a guy’s butt just because he’s in custody. and for the state, this is cheaper than the alternative! even the savings from cruelly bargain basement economies of scale can’t beat the savings from “that isn’t my problem in the first place”.

scaling it up is costly. yes, I mean it when I say that’s a benefit. consider this: it means that anyone who comes after you & wants to do mass incarceration is going to be bad at it. they’ll have to start from scratch. they’ll have to put in the startup costs and build the infrastructure. the thing you’re building will be harder to use for evil than it is to use for good. that’s the kind of legacy you want in politics.

[superbeans89]

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

I feel stuck in my head and I need to ask someone: what's gonna happen to us when biden's reelected? What can we do to stop the genocide? What can we do to get roe v wade back? How to we make things okay?

Answering the last question first — how do we make things okay? We get informed, and we get involved.

If you want to change how things work, first you have to understand why they work the way they do. I’m not saying you have to become an overnight expert, but you gotta know the basics. You have to know who *really* makes the decisions about the stuff you care about. And I’m not being snarky here, but there’s a very very very good chance that that person is not Biden.

(long-ish more in depth USA-specific thoughts under the cut)

Let’s look at the two specifics that you mention. Yes, the president may be commander in chief of the armed forces but that “just” (air quotes bc obviously that is hugely consequential power, but it’s not the only power at play) means he’s the guy who says yes or no, stay or go. A more effective tool to address the United State’s relationship to Israel? Money. You know who controls the federal money? Congress. You know which political body has elections twice as frequently as the president? Congress. Look into who your Senators and Representatives are, look into their voting records, look into their hiring choices, look into their public statements and appearances, look into the company the keep.

If you like what you find, let them know, and if you have the resources, donate money and/or volunteer your time to make sure they win reelection. If you do not like what you find, and you think they might be responsive to public pressure, let them know you didn’t like what you found. If you found it abhorrent or do not trust that they will adjust to their constituents expectations, figure out if they have a competitor, and if they don’t, make sure that someone steps up to the plate. That someone doesn’t have to be you, but while we live in an ostensible democracy, these people can lose their jobs if and when we vote them out.

Regarding Roe v Wade, this might be upsetting to hear but you need to get used to the idea that it’s not coming back, and if anything, things might get worse. If voting and the legal system is your jam, I can recommend researching the circuit and district judges that preside over your region. If organizing and direct action are more your thing, there’s probably a Nurse’s Union in your area that can point you in the right direction. If your school district has an elected body where you can run for a seat to make sure that kids in your area are getting appropriately scientific sexual health education, do that. If you feel brave enough to start actively having conversations about sexual health and reproductive rights among your daily/weekly social groups, and maybe even start a book club style study group to learn about the legal and medical aspects most relevant where you live, do that. Even on the most individual scale, if you can make it clearly known that you are a safe person for people to talk to about this stuff, that’s a great step in the right direction.

To wrap this up, I think I’ll just say that I think big picture, if Biden wins a second term, things will be fine. If anything, maybe his administration will be able to bolster the environmental wins in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) but at a basic level he will probably maintain the status quo and then after the four years are up, he’ll leave office.

Let’s please not pretend the same can be said about Trump.

But in the spirit of ending on a more hopeful note, if you do not want Kamala Harris to be the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party in 2028 (and/or if you want a third party other than the Democrats and the Republicans to stand a snowball’s chance in hell) the time to start organizing is now. We deserve better than the status quo, we can do this, let’s fuckin go 💪

mod dyr

[wolfspaw]

[oldtvandcomics]

HEY GUYS!!

GUYS!!!

FRANCE HAS REACHED THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF SIGNATURES ON THE CITIZEN'S INITIATIVE AGAINST CONVERSION THERAPY IN THE EU!!

ONE COUNTRY DOWN, SIX TO GO!!

We also need still quite a few signatures in order to reach the one million required.

As to date, the six other countries with the most signatures are:

Spain - 38.72%

Finland - 30.31%

Ireland - 24.86%

Netherlands - 24.15%

Germany - 23.54%

Belgium - 23.09%

So yeah, still a long way to go, but we ARE slowly getting closer. Don't stop now! Don't let this stay within the community, either, if you have any friends or family who are open to queer rights, get them to sign, too!

[rats4brainzzz]

imagine how much of a fucking horrible person you have to be that on the first day your elected into office the crisis calls of a Suicide Prevention Project Go Up 33%. The Trevor Project Received over 1,400 Call By Early Monday Afternoon. Most of those calls, if not all, are coming from children. Children scared of you and what you will do. Imagine how much power and how horrible you have to be to do that.

[princesserica84]

"So this is how liberty dies... With thunderous applause."

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

[motherofplatypus]

This is how many bullets they shot on a fucking kid.

This post has been compiled in Record of Genocide.

[irate-iguana]

For those who don’t know, Elon Musk has recently been directing his assholery towards Wikipedia — calling them ‘Wokepedia’ due to the amount they spend on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and calling for people to stop giving them money “until they restore balance to their editing authority” —, now is a great time to consider donating to Wikipedia!

[devils-yui]

Reposting this from a friend bc I think it is VERY important to know of this, and for immigrants, and other possible victims of the ICE Raids happening right now

Here’s to also a very huge edit, from the list of very helpful people who have been reblogging and providing more info.

I’m not as well informed but I will be relaying the information and tagging each person who added onto this post:

@onthedriftinthetardis -

The phone number in the first photo is ONLY for Orange County, California!

Look up your local ACLU affiliate here

@6feetunderwater -

It always makes me nervous to see a reporting phone number passed around without any links to verify it, so the number in the first pic can be found on the site for the Orange County Rapid Response Network, which is "an interconnected system of non-profit and grassroots organizations, civil rights attorneys, law school clinics, and individuals working together to respond to dehumanizing immigration enforcement activities and policies in Orange County"

@geekerypeekery -

The second warrant is not fake, but is an administrative rather than judicial warrant, and has no constitutional authority to bypass Fourth Amendment protections - in other words, it does not entitle the bearer to enter and search your home. It simply authorizes agents of the issuing department to contact you. Always ask to see the warrant before opening your door!

In addition to the ACLU links, try contacting the National Immigration Law Center https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Warrants-Subpoenas-Facts.pdf

@american-anger -

The phone number listed here is specific to Orange County in California, but you can look up other California counties here:

CALIFORNIA RAPID RESPONSE NETWORKS

@beaniebaneenie -

Unpleasant reminder: within 100 miles of the border (which is home to 200 million people and virtually all major cities in the US), ICE does not need a warrant to enter your home, your car, to search anything, or even to arrest you.

You are not automatically safe just because they don't have a real warrant.

The best and safest thing you can do is learn to have escape routes- quick ways to get out of the house or area you're in if you find out ICE or CBP are around. Those of us who do have documentation? Time for us to step the fuck up.

Film any interaction. Every interaction. If you're able, step into the conversation and be a Karen/Kyle- weaponize your privilege for Good. If you get asked about people? Use positive but vague statements so you a) cannot be caught in a lie, and b) do not give any information away.

"I don't know them that well, but I don't tend to socialize much. They seem great to me."

"I can't remember the last time I saw them."

"Maybe they speak another language, I can't remember details. But I picked up Duolingo during the pandemic and tons of other people did too."

"I'm not sure."

"I'm sorry, I can't help you."

Even if you're somewhere the 100-mile Exception doesn't apply and a warrant is in fact needed? I don't expect ICE and CBP to play by the rules for long, if at all. I fully expect this to get ugly, and fast.

Cheeto has already declared an emergency of national security at the border, and is mobilizing the military to have jurisdiction over a huge swath of the country. It's essentially tantamount to martial law. And it's only been four days.

Gear up for a long, hard fight. This is gonna be a marathon, not a sprint.

— I am leaving all of this as an edit because on the off chance someone does find the posts that have these people specifically reblogging, I don’t want it to be too late. So I’m comprising it all here

Here are a few other people’s reblogs I thought were important:

Thank you @onthedriftinthetardis @6feetunderwater @geekerypeekery @american-anger @beaniebaneenie @bunnychiffon @dubiouslynamed @trisockatops @witchy-disaster for contributing and helping me make this a more well-informed post. Thank you so much

[cetaceanhandiwork]

the thing you gotta understand is that every time a sufficiently foreign government does something unpopular enough for average joe on the trolly to have an opinion about it, the result is increased hate crimes against the ethnicity that average joe thinks of as "living there"

remember how, in 2020, when COVID broke containment and spread worldwide, anti-asian violence more than doubled? remember sikh dudes getting jumped over 9/11?

or, for a milder and sillier couple examples: remember how, after the invasion of Ukraine, people were posting on here about giving up Russian cuisine for no good reason? remember freedom fries?

this shit happens every time. people start lashing out against their neighbors b/c something in their brain breaks and makes it so they can't distinguish between "the Russians" (i.e. the government of Russia) and "the Russians" (i.e. some random ethnically Russian guy). and yes this is partly the fault of how governments sort of deliberately name themselves as if the plot of land & the main culture that lives there & the organization that rules it are all one thing - it's harder to keep the three separated in your head when metonymy is built into the terms we use. but I think it's more fundamental than that; after all, it's not like "al qaeda" is any specific country, or as if anyone is "of talibani descent", but 2002's anti-brown and anti-muslim sentiment didn't seem to have been weakened by that.

and so... bringing this around to current events? yeah, actual hate crimes against jews are on the rise, and that's worth talking about & fighting back against. and since we understand that "jewish ppl =/= gov't of israel", we need to be especially responsive to warnings of antisemitism, and not just write them off as being "about" the war, because until you hear the rest of the sentence you don't know whether it's about criticism of the war or not. and accidentally writing off fears about unprecedented levels of antisemitic hate crime (which is happening) as being IDF apologism just makes it sound to the person you're talking with like you think all jews are responsible for the IDF's crimes, which is an awful thing to hear from someone who's supposed to be an ally.

(bonus fact: in case you didn't guess already? wonder of wonders, the other possible version of this situation is happening as well, simultaneously: islamophobic attacks on the rise b/c people see "Hamas" and think "any random palestinian/arab near me". this shit cuts every possible direction. because, again, it doesn't result from a logical thought process. it's people mixing up "ethnic group" with "goverment of country where many of that ethnic group reside", and then taking out their anger at the latter on the former, and the whole political spectrum is vulnerable to that kind of thinking. it happens EVERY time.)

[troythecatfish]

[politijohn]

Source

Source

[reesiereads]

I need ya’ll to realize running back to TikTok like nothing fucking happened is exactly what this motherfucker wants. He wants you to run back and to be grateful. He wants you to forget that the Supreme Court has just passed something that indicates they can pursue intense censorship and remove our access to free speech and non-propagandized/monitored spaces whenever they want. He wants you to be so focused on all this that you completely forget that he’s about to pass at least a hundred horrific policies stripping us of our rights as soon as this week. He wants you to stop talking about Palestine who is still in danger and is in desperate need of aid despite the ceasefire. He wants you to turn your attention away from all the people in LA suffering thanks to the fires.

I don’t want to say it’s just an app, because it’s not. I was incredibly sad about losing TikTok yesterday. Many of us had a community that meant a great deal to us torn away suddenly and I am not saying we shouldn’t be upset about that. But I am saying that as much as the Supreme Court has more important things they should be focusing on over banning TikTok we have more important things to do then run back to an app that was obviously used for a publicity stunt by Trump and will inevitably be influenced by him and his fascism.

We’ve been discussing boycotting Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and other Meta platforms due to their connections to Trump and his posse of billionaires. TikTok must be treated the same way so long as the CEO and company is in Trump’s pocket.