#u.s. politics

[bicokun]

This also, sounds—funny enough—like the way Democrats have been treating the operation of the government. They rely so much on the idea that nobody will actually use the power they’re given in a bad way because it would be improper that they completely disregard the need for actual written down laws and enforcement means to prevent the BS that happens when inevitably politicians do abuse their power.

The Shirley Exception

[archaeologysucks]

I saw this on Twitter, and do not know the source, but I think it belongs here.

[phantomrose96]

Hello. I mean this really imploringly, and really genuinely. If you're a U.S. citizen still on the fence about what to do for the election, please vote Harris. There's this idea circulating that the person you vote for should be someone you like, love, idolize and that is so very not true. You're voting for the opponent you'll face for the next four years when you have issues to protest and matters to vocalize. You're voting for the person most likely to give an inch when you protest the things that matter. You're voting for the person most likely to not strip away your existing rights and scatter your focus across the things we already won, and which can be taken away. We lost Roe v Wade under the Trump-appointed judges. The current trans-panic is so disgustingly on fire, and it's absolutely the Republicans eager to rip away what little protection there is. Both candidates are also, disgustingly, pro-Israel. But Trump will never ever give a fuck to any protest on that matter.

You don't want to be complicit in genocide. I get it. But if you're a U.S. citizen, you're already benefiting from the U.S.'s foreign policy, and that's already complacency. Refusing to vote or voting third party isn't absolving you of that. It's just letting Trump walk in the door. And letting Trump in is complacency. And your ability to organize, and to make change, will go so less far against a Trump cabinet than a Harris one. The material harm under Trump is real.

Does voting for Harris make you feel guilty? I'm sorry, but you have to bear it. Your guilt isn't what's important. A white person's guilt isn't important. A citizen of a global terror's guilt isn't important. Actions that pacify your guilt aren't important. Focusing on absolving your guilt is in fact harmful, as opposed to actions that can actually materially reduce harm.

Please protest. Please donate to good causes. Please support Palestine. Please be vocal. Please fight for BIPOC and LGBTQA+ rights. Please view Harris as the opponent whose ears these things fall on. Your ability to organize safely, largely, loudly, and effectively will go so much further under a Harris presidency. Please.

[ask-asexual-crystal-gems]

I saw 3 different TERFs on Instagram lauding Trump for ‘protecting women from da men dressing as women.’

Legit, this might’ve been a significant portion of his 2% increase in votes up to the ‘victorious’ 27% of eligible voters from the first term, along with pro-life women.

Voter turnout, despite all the begging, was still abysmal.

I don’t know how to fix this but we need to be canvassing harder IRL or SOMETHING.

We can’t be losing ground to idiots who somehow bewitch Latino men and white women into voting against their own self-interest.

not to be inclusionist on main but i find it shocking and frankly a little horrifying how easily the online LGBTQ community has turned on itself in the past 2 years. like, i need you all to know: i’m not old. i’m 23. so that leaves about a bit less than a decade of me knowing i’m gay, and a bit less than that of me learning about my new family and friends and lifestyle and such, as well as a bit less for actively campaigning/being deeply involved in civil rights and social justice issues.

like, i don’t know if yall realize this if youre newer here but: this whole “asexuality exclusion” thing and this “queer is a slur” thing? this is new. this is only within the past two or so years that its gained any real momentum, the same with terfs and radfems. it wasn’t a concept. there were massive, massive rallies in support of our asexual community. it’s horrifying to me how simply and neatly we as a group have gone from “The A doesn’t stand for Ally” to “There is no A at all”.

and i need you all to know: this is not a coincidence that TERFS have risen up in roughly the same time period. i need you all to realize that when you talk about your exclusion of asexuals from our community, you are parroting well-known TERF and neo-nazi rhetoric.

“they are invading [LGBT/women’s/white] safe spaces to steal our resources and oppress us.”

“they’re only pretending to be [gay/a woman].”

“[asexual/trans women/POC] aren’t REALLY [LGBT/women/human].”

and it goes deeper, fundamentally flawed: when you try to reason that asexuality isn’t inherently LGBT, but if you are otherwise LGBT but asexual it’s somehow fine and different but otherwise youre cishet…all you’re saying is that “you’re only allowed in this club if you don’t support others who are like you. you’re only allowed in this club because i as an authority say you fit nicely under a label that i agree with.”

it’s terrifying, to me, and i’m not asexual. it’s terrifying that this manufactured divide using literal talking points created by and stolen from TERFs and neo-nazis has such an appeal to so many LGBT people. i’m worried for our future on so many levels; climate change, political upheaval, the list goes on. standing strong together is so important right now, perhaps more than ever, at least in my lifetime. and yet we are so destructively focused on ideas of ‘the model of social justice’ and ‘purity culture’ and ‘respectability politics’ and so on that we would rather turn on our own–not even our allies but our own community–because we don’t think they’re LGBT enough.

we spent so long saying “my sexuality isn’t a choice” and arguing “why would i choose to be oppressed for my sexuality” and yet…here we are.

[vshamru]

Reminder to folks in the wake of the election to be extremely scam aware.

If you get an unsolicited email or call or text or any other contact from a federal or local agency saying you need to do something NOW RIGHT NOW to make sure your ballot is counted, stop. Do not do the thing they are telling you you must do.

Take a moment to figure out what agency they claim to be contacting you from, and then hang up, close the email, whatever. Go to a search engine, and find the OFFICIAL WEBSITE of whatever department. Call the number you find there. When you get through to a person, say “[Name] contacted me claiming to be from [department] about [issue], and I wanted to verify that this is not a scam.” The person on the other end of the line will either say “that’s a scam” or “no that could be a real issue, let me transfer you to someone who can help.”

You will never get a phone call about a warrant for basically anything. You will get a letter.

You do NOT need to pay to cure your ballot, or to overturn a warrant, or any other reason someone claiming to be a government agent might give you. If you have to pay a fine, you will receive a letter, and be told where to pay it. You will never need to pay using gift cards or cryptocurrency.

PLEASE be scam aware right now, as emotions and urgency are really high.

[liberaljane]

Digital illustration of an indigenous man with two braids wearing a jean jacket. There's text that reads, 'Columbus didn't discover anything.'

[bubonickitten]

"HB 777 not only would fine libraries and librarians, but it would possibly require hard labor by those found guilty. Read that again: librarians would be sentenced to hard labor for daring to join their largest professional organization.

The bill would also potentially kill one of the largest graduate school programs in the state of Louisiana, Louisiana State University’s Masters of Library and Information Science program. Like all Master of Library and Information Science programs, it is accredited by the ALA and goes through a rigorous process to ensure that the curriculum is up-to-date and aligned with best practices in libraries.

Even if the bill is limited “only” to the use of tax money to support membership or attendance/enrollment in ALA-sponsored professional development, take a moment to look into whether or not police, fire, or other public entities are subject to similar legislation in Louisiana or elsewhere. You probably know the answer–and you probably won’t be surprised that one of the few institutional benefits offered to library workers is such membership.

If you haven’t been paying attention until now or you’ve thought these fears when laid out over the last several years were hyperbole and this is your wakeup call, there’s no time like the present to get to work advocating on behalf of your library. If you live in Louisiana, contact your representatives as soon as possible (here’s a very easy way to do that!). You can also reach out to Kellee Dickerson by phone at (225) 380-4232 and email hse064@legis.la.gov.

Then, reach out to your own libraries and offer your support, either by showing up at board meetings and/or running for those board positions when vacancies occur. Go borrow books from the library and get your writing hands going with letters to your local papers.

EveryLibrary also has a petition you can sign related to HB777."

Please take the time to sign the petition, spread the word, and support your local library.

[bicokun]

Remember that Democrats wanted this bill so they could label pro-Palestine, anti-genocide protests as terrorist activity without evidence and strip supporting nonprofits of their status. Biden wanted this bill. You’re not calling Democrats who will be sympathetic because they very much wanted this power and are being paid by donors who want it used this way.

Our first victory against trump!

Time to start celebrating ALL the small wins, because EVERY win means a lot, and every win helps us fight for the next one!

[fiercynn]

okay, if you have ever made or reblogged a “hold your nose and vote for biden” post, this is for you.

here’s the fucking thing about these kinds of posts. i've been seeing them since i first returned to tumblr in, I think, late 2022? they've certainly increased in frequency since october 7, but they were there before too, ready to counter any kind of opposition to biden that has cropped up. many of them are not just trying to educate people about what positive things biden has done, which, like, at least I can understand the motivation behind those ones? but so many of them are directly in response to people criticizing biden, and their only real point is “sure you’re upset at this thing biden did, but have you considered the election?” starting YEARS before the next presidential election, mind you.

and october 7 only made that clearer. i don’t think it had been a week before i saw these posts cropping up. can you not see how fucking ghoulish that is? to look at the rightful pain and anger of those whose relatives and communities are being slaughtered with active american support, to respond to one of the few pieces of agency most americans have in influencing what their governments do – their vote – by saying “yes but trump would be worse.” as if the primary people you’re lecturing – palestinians, muslims, arabs, black people, indigenous people, disabled people, other marginalized people – don’t remember exactly how bad it was under trump!

and even if you think not voting is an empty gesture – something i, who studied political science at a mainstream american lib college, who has worked as a field organizer on a previous democratic presidential campaign and for several policy campaigns, who currently works in public policy in america, used to believe, but have absolutely changed my mind on – what is in no way an empty gesture is saying publicly that you will not vote for someone. the arguments people usually have about why simply not voting is bad are that you can’t tell why someone is not voting, so it is as likely to be apathy or disenfranchisement as it is a political statement. but saying publicly that you will not vote for someone, and why you will not vote for them, absolutely is a political statement, and potentially a powerful one! but you choose to negate and/or ignore that by trotting out the “lesser of two evils” bullshit.

and then there’s the whole “yes but people will DIE under trump”. PEOPLE ARE DYING NOW. even if you’re fucking racist and have decided that palestinian lives don’t count, have you forgotten biden’s ongoing covid minimalism and dismantling of the CDC’s covid research and prevention infrastructure? have you forgotten his increase in spending for law enforcement scant years after the murder of george floyd and his administration's surveillance of protesters, including cop city protesters? have you forgotten his recent ramp-up in deportations of undocumented immigrants, including the active continuation of many trump-era policies?

maybe you have forgotten all those things and do purport to care about palestinians, but you just think that biden is doing his best to influence netanyahu and is getting nowhere! but then you must have forgotten all of the things that biden and his administration themselves have done to further this fucking genocide, including:

continuing to send arms to israel

putting together a military task force within days of yemen’s red sea blockade and attacking yemeni ships

bombing yemen

bombing syria

bombing iraq

vetoing three ceasefire resolutions at the united nations

testifying to defend israel and its genocide and occupation at the international court of justice

refusing to rescue palestinian-americans stuck in gaza

halting funding to the united nations relief and works agency for palestinian refugees (UNRWA) based on israeli claims that 12 of UNRWA’s over 30,000 staff were hamas agents, even though u.s. intelligence has not been able to independently verify this

lying that he’s personally seen photos of babies beheaded by hamas when he hadn’t because they didn’t exist (and even when his own staff cautioned him that reports of beheaded babies may not be credible)

questioning the number of palestinian deaths reported by the gaza ministry of health (when even israel has not questioned them, since they are in fact proud of those numbers)

perpetuating lies about hamas having committed the attack on al-aqsa hospital

questioning united nations reports of adults and children raped by israeli soldiers while claiming to have proof (that no one else has seen) of hamas doing the same

honestly so many more things that i can’t remember them all but others feel free to add

or maybe you haven’t forgotten any of that, and think that you’re still justified in lecturing people about why they should vote for biden, because you genuinely believe trump would still be worse. if that is the case, you have still failed to see that by saying you will vote for biden no matter what, you are part of the problem of biden continuing to act like this. because biden is counting on fear of trump to win him this next election no matter what else he does. despite his appalling polling numbers, despite the knowledge that he is losing the palestinian-american vote, the arab-american vote, the muslim-american vote, the black american vote, the youth vote – despite all of that, he is secure in the idea that he will still win because he is better than trump. can you not see how that allows him to act without impunity? how it becomes increasingly impossible for his base to influence what he’s doing if he thinks that they will be with him no matter what? this is how you make yourself complicit to biden’s actions, by not affording anyone even the slightest power to hold him accountable for anything.

and in most cases, the “hold your nose and vote for biden” thing is the response of people who aren’t even being instructed by others not to vote for biden. it is their response to people saying they themselves are choosing not to vote for biden. fucking ghoulish.

[todaysbird]

birdie ‘i voted’ sticker (only rebloggable by harris voters)

find your local polling place + what you need to bring here!

[bigboysdrinkmilk]

[foxfinding]

Okay, so it's not actually Surgeon General. Dr. Oz will be in charge of running medicare and medicaid. 🙃🙃🙃

How long until Dr Oz becomes Surgeon General

[sialater18]

One thing to acknowledge during the election

[artistintherough]

[reparrishcomics]

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[rotzaprachim]

like some other stuff with the election polling results, we need to be honest about class and education. The next person who tries to put a quasi socialist “but the working class has been so alienated from the democratic elites and their upper class ways so they HAD to vote for an NYC billionaire” is getting it, but so is “only the rich voted for trump,” because exit polling suggests literally neither of these things is true.

Huh huh huh would you look at that. would you take a look at what DID make a significant difference, especially among white people and white women especially?

education.

Heh. Would you look at that. THIs is why education especially among white working class areas is such a political battlefield. This is why access to college for everyone no matter their background is essential. This is why girls need to go to school. Remember that