#republican relatives

[cidnangarlond]

it's crazy there r people out there who are just now finding out you have to be fully vaccinated in order to get an organ transplant

[greenlings]

for a party that sure loves to pretend this country is full of only christians, republicans sure are excited to give the country a government shutdown as a christmas present

[thebreakfastgenie]

My dead best friend's dad who as far as I know is a Republican (and has previously held local elected office as a Republican) made a post last month about wishing people cared about Haitian children and he made another post that mentioned eating at a Haitian Creole restaurant. He seems to be really (and correctly!) appalled by the racist xenophobic attacks. I don't know how he's voting and I'm not going to ask but it is an interesting and potentially heartening data point!

[swagging-back-to]

trump threatening and trying to intimidate the maine governer, janet mills, because she refuses to bend over for him.

"you better do it, you better do it, or else you're not going to get any federal funding" we already get a laughable amount. this threat means nothing to the average mainer.

Her response? "we will see you in court."

maine is basically Canada 2.0 and you want to test us?

we will be the end of you.

this is a great article outlining the actual legality of trumps threats, how maine doesn't actually need to comply with the order but the white house is acting illegally and outside of its authority, and how maine can fight back and gain independence.

and, trust me, we will be.

"Washington D.C. -- Governor Janet Mills issued the following statement today regarding the President's threat to withhold Federal education funding from Maine:

"If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides. The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President's threats."

[bagofpikachus]

peak anxiety

[sixtysixproblems]

hilarious when people say smth transphobic or transphobic adjacent to my loved ones, and when my loved ones bring me up, they go "oh but he's different." like, girl, really?

bestie the only thing different about me compared to other trans people is youve actually met me and decided I'm a human person deserving of courtesy, and not a fox news headline boogeyman. I have 600% more hoodies then pants, am far too emotionally attached to children's cartoons during the year I start to vote, and am going to get a blahaj as a very late birthday present. the only "difference" I have between other trans people is the fact all trans people are different and have unique experiences! and also that they dress better then me!

[fohatic]

me scrolling my dash on this most inauspicious morning

[man1cpixiedreamcowboy]

vet told my roommate that her cat might need sex reassignment surgery and i'm not even joking

[looniecartooni]

Ha ha ha- I am not ready for this inauguration...

(Said in a sing-songy voice)

[girlwhowasntthere]

For those of us with US family members who are Republicans but (thank god) anti-Trump, are there any lesser evils for them to vote for? Any good that can be done with a Republican ballot? Maybe a list of people by state who aren't Trump puppets (if there are any)? Thanks!

There is a lot more being voted on than just Trump/Biden!! Would love some help keeping his loyalists out also!

[cuntwrap--supreme]

Did some Instacart shit today. Delivered to an older lady with a severe neurological condition that made it to where she could no longer move without falling. I offered to put her groceries away for her and she cried and said no one who delivered her food had ever offered to do that before. Which is disgusting. Literally what kind of person do you have to be to see a feeble old lady and decide to not at least ask if she needs help. I know some people are more independent than others, but she said she usually just waits for her kids to come by. She had ice cream and other frozen shit. I'd be a horrible person if I let this food spoil because I wanted to do another order.

[contemplatingoutlander]

“'We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,' Russell Vought [co-author of Project 2025], who has been tapped by Mr. Trump to lead the Office of Management and Budget, has said. 'When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.'”

If we want federal civil servants not to just abandon their jobs under the pressure of a hostile Trump administration, they will need support from the public. In this essay by Stacey Young, a lawyer in the DOJ civil rights division, explains the help that is needed. This is a gift 🎁 link, so there is no paywall. Below are some excerpts.

Federal employees like me have been hearing a lot in recent weeks about how important it is for us to stay in our jobs, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s open animosity toward much of the federal work force. We’ve been told by friends, relatives and good-government advocates that a well-functioning government — and the survival of our democracy — depends on it. We know. We understand what will happen if Mr. Trump fills the civil service with unqualified, inexperienced people selected for their political loyalty. But to stay in our jobs, we will need more than exhortation; we will need legal, psychological and other practical support. One reason many federal employees are thinking of leaving government — often after decades of serving our country, under Republican and Democratic presidents — is that we’re afraid. The incoming leaders of the government have told us in aggressive terms that they want us either gone or miserable.  [...]

What sorts of practical support would help? For one thing, lawyers and mental health providers could offer pro bono or significantly discounted services to federal employees.... Data-removal companies that specialize in taking down personal information online could offer free or discounted plans to federal employees who are being harassed or at risk of harassment. Friends and family members of federal employees with young children or other caregiving responsibilities could offer to pitch in. (Without their help, employees who are stripped of their ability to do some remote work or forced to adhere to overly rigid work schedules may have no choice but to leave their jobs.) Concerned citizens could urge their elected representatives to promote legislation that protects civil servants and oppose draconian bills that would harm them. Those with money to spare could donate to organizations that work to protect public servants. And if you value the civil service, don’t just tell us; tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members too — especially whenever the pernicious “deep state” narrative rears its ugly head.

[ravenkings]

Bernie is wrong. He has always been wrong and is still wrong. The flaw in his theory is what he deems the “wealthy elite” versus what everyday Americans consider them to be. Voters don’t see all billionaires as the elites. They see college-educated liberals on the coasts, some of whom are billionaires, as elites.

Bernie-style populism didn’t land because billionaires figured out long ago they could undermine it by being socially right-wing, and the working class would forgive their wealth and privilege. That’s why this same demographic is willing to make it rain for grifters like Joel Osteen and Pat Robertson. That’s why they worship the wealthiest man on the planet like a God and consider him some real-life Tony Stark. People dismissed Donald Trump as a shameless attention-hungry New York oligarch until he called Mexicans rapists. Then he shot up to the top of the GOP primary polls. The working class didn’t think much of Elon Musk until he said “pronouns suck.” Then he became their hero. A scion of working-class Pennsylvania lost his US Senate seat last week to a hedge fund manager from Connecticut. West Virginia elected their richest man to the Senate after electing him governor – as a Democrat and later a Republican. Ohio tossed out their longtime Democratic senator, known for his strong support of labor rights, for – literally, no joke – a used-car salesman.

You can’t tell me the working class in America thinks being a billionaire alone is what makes one a “wealthy elite.” There are significant factors at play here Bernie is either oblivious to or purposely ignorant of.

In college, a professor once told me that Communism never succeeded in the United States because we are too religious and proud as a country. Religion, traditions, and culture were never widely discredited the way they were in Europe and Asia, where the clergy and nobility kept the bourgeoisie in figurative chains for centuries. The relative ease of social mobility made America unique compared to its Western counterparts. Historically, American progressivism has been focused on expanding social mobility – initially limited to only white men – to identity groups who had been denied it at the start: blacks, women, and immigrants. We have done it, with various amounts of success. While it may seem counterintuitive, Americans pride themselves in being the nation that pioneered the idea that wealth and status can be achieved through ingenuity and hard work and not just based on a lucky roll of the genetic dice, as it was in the Old World. It doesn’t mean we don’t have generational wealth in our country; we do, but since it isn’t the sole way to achieve wealth and power, we don’t care nearly as much about destroying all of it. Further, we will happily endorse it if the oligarchs and the aristocrats vow to promote and protect the social values we care about and the social hierarchy that benefits us.

It’s one of the reasons I believe Bernie could never beat Trump. If you ask working-class people what they want: an anti-immigrant, anti-intellectual billionaire or a Vermont socialist backed by kids from Harvard and UC Berkeley who hate our traditions and customs, the working class will always back the billionaire.

–Nick Rafter, "Bernie Sanders Can Take a Seat"

[sunflowerdigs]

Black people are actually the minority group who benefits the least from DEI (which includes veterans, people with disabilities, LGBT people, etc). Black people are part of all of those groups but it still doesn't matter, if companies can hire non-black people in any capacity, they will.

Ronald Reagan basically campaigned on being the first POTUS to hire a woman to the Supreme Court.

It helped him appease college educated white women voters who were angry about him being against the ERA.

[y2kbugs-moved]

Wild that a famous actor is who shot Lincoln. Taking that in modern contexts that's like...Kelsey Grammer assassinating Biden or whatever

[taibhsearachd]

It's genuinely so fucking funny when people try to call Chappell Roan secretly a right-wing plant because her uncle is involved in Republican politics.

Like... yeah man that's just being a person who grew up in the Midwest. Probably one of your close relatives is involved in something you don't love. The whole of my male family members until my generation were in the military, and even now…. my brother who became a park ranger is an outlier. My uncle was a sheriff deputy and regularly worked as a prison guard for years, and I am genuinely troubled by some of the off-hand comments he's made about his work. I don't like him, but making a big scene at every family gathering that he and his terrible wife are present at isn't reasonable.

It's fucking disgusting and absurd to say that because someone's family is right wing, that person who is related to them, that person who is queer and has lived in that homophobic environment as a queer person..... is secretly a right wing plant, because they grew up in the Midwest and have conservative relatives. Are you for fucking real.