#white people do everything but help protect democracy

[dicapiito]

White people and media being mad that Joe Biden pardoned his son is expected from the mayo crowd. Not only did they vote in Trump but now they’re mad Biden is protecting his son ? Maybe if they voted for Kamala Harris; Biden wouldn’t have had to pardon him.

Die mad crackers.

[wilwheaton]

The GOP wonders why young people (and others) don't want to vote for them. Some wise scribe assembled this list.

1.) Your Reagan-era “trickle-down economics” strategy of tax breaks for billionaires that you continue to employ to this day has widened the gap between rich and poor so much that most of them will never be able to own a home, much less earn a living wage.

2.) You refuse to increase the federal minimum wage, which is still $7.25 an hour (since 2009). Even if it had just kept up with inflation, it would be $27 now. You’re forcing people of all ages but especially young people to work multiple jobs just to afford basic necessities.

3.) You fundamentally oppose and want to kill democracy; have done everything in your power to restrict access to the ballot box, particularly in areas with demographics that tend to vote Democratic (like young people and POC). You staged a fucking coup the last time you lost.

4.) You have abused your disproportionate senate control over the last three decades to pack the courts with religious extremists and idealogues, including SCOTUS—which has rolled back rights for women in ways that do nothing but kill more women and children and expand poverty.

5.) You refuse to enact common sense gun control laws to curb mass shootings like universal background checks and banning assault weapons; subjecting their entire generation to school shootings and drills that are traumatizing in and of themselves. You are owned by the NRA.

6.) You are unequivocally against combatting climate change to the extent that it’s as if you’ve made it your personal mission to ensure they inherit a planet that is beyond the point of no return in terms of remaining habitable for the human race beyond the next few generations.

7.) You oppose all programs that provide assistance to those who need it most. Your governors refused to expand Medicaid even during A PANDEMIC. You are against free school lunches, despite it being the only meal that millions of children can count on to actually receive each day

8.) You are banning books, defunding libraries, barring subject matter, and whitewashing history even more in a fascistic attempt to keep them ignorant of the systemic racism that this nation was literally founded upon and continues to this day in every action your party takes.

9.) You oppose universal healthcare and are still trying to repeal the ACA and rip healthcare from tens of millions of Americans and replace it with nothing. You are against lowering the cost of insulin and prescription drugs that millions need simply to LIVE/FUNCTION in society.

10.) You embrace white nationalists, Neo-Nazis, and other groups that are defined by their intractable racism, xenophobia, bigotry, and intolerance. You conspired with these groups on January 6th to try to overthrow the U.S. government via domestic terrorism that KILLED PEOPLE.

11.) You oppose every bill aimed at making life better for our nation’s youth; from education to extracurricular and financial/nutritional assistance programs. You say you want to “protect the children” while you elect/nominate pedophiles and attack trans youth and drag queens.

12.) You pretend to be offended by “anti-semitism” while literally supporting, electing, and speaking at events organized by Nazis. You pretend to hate “cancel culture” despite the fact that you invented it and it’s basically all you do.

13.) Every word you utter is a lie. You are the party of treason, hypocrisy, crime, and authoritarianism. You want to entrench rule by your aging minority because you know that you have nothing to offer young voters and they will never support you for all these reasons and more.

14.) You’re so hostile to even the notion of helping us overcome the mountain of debt that millions of us are forced to take on just to pay for our post K-12 education that you are suing to try to prevent a small fraction of us from getting even $10,000 in loan forgiveness.

15.) You opened the floodgates of money into politics via Citizens United; allowing our entire system of government to become a cesspool of corruption, crime, and greed. You are supposed to represent the American people whose taxes pay your salary but instead cater to rich donors.

16.) You respond to elected representatives standing in solidarity with their constituents to protest the ONGOING SLAUGHTER of children in schools via shootings by EXPELLING THEM FROM OFFICE & respond to your lack of popularity among young people by trying to raise the voting age.

17.) You impeach Democratic presidents over lying about a BJ but refuse to impeach (then vote twice to acquit) a guy whose entire “administration” was an international crime syndicate being run out of the WH who incited an insurrection to have you killed.

18.) You steal Supreme Court seats from democrats to prevent the only black POTUS we’ve ever had from appointing one and invent fake precedents that you later ignore all to take fundamental rights from Americans; and even your “legitimate” appointments consist of people like THIS (sub-thread refuting CJ Roberts criticisms of people attacking SCOTUS' legitimacy).

19.) You support mass incarceration even for innocuous offenses or execution by cop for POC while doing nothing but protect rich white criminals who engage in such things as tax fraud, money laundering, sex trafficking, rape/sexual assault, falsifying business records, etc.

20.) You are the reason we can’t pass:—Universal background checks—An assault weapons ban—The ‘For the People/Freedom to vote’ Act or John Lewis Voting Rights Act—The ERA & Equality Act—The Climate Action Now Act—The (Stopping) Violence Against Women Act—SCOTUS expansion.

21.) You do not seek office to govern, represent, or serve the American people. You seek power solely for its own sake so you can impose your narrow-minded puritanical will on others at the expense of their most fundamental rights and freedoms like voting and bodily autonomy.

22.) Ok, last one. You are trying to eliminate social security and Medicare that tens of millions of our parents rely on and paid into their entire lives. And you did everything to maximize preventable deaths from COVID leaving millions of us in mourning.

Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/e8DBZLH

[submalevolentgrace]

for pretty much my entire life we have been locking up refugees in UN-certified human-rights-violating "offshore detention" camps for the heinous crime of daring to try and flee from death and worse, often from wars-on-terror we've helped wage, and have very much done highly decorated war crimes in. we hold them in conditions so bad that war-fleeing refugees have sown their mouths shut, tried to starve themselves, even children trying to kill themselves to escape what we're doing to them. WE are doing. because in my boots on the ground activism days i tried to fight the government on this, and the fact is, the australian public on the whole doesn't give a shit about us torturing refugee kids, half the country is in support of it, so the government gets a free pass no matter which side is in power. from howard to rudd to gillard to rudd to abbott to turnbull to morison to albanese, we lock up and torture refugees. the UN anti-torture inspectors aren't allowed to visit. the camps are run by a private USA prison contractor now.

and it's not like we can't organise a protest! we'll barricade MP's offices because of something an ally-in-law country is doing that we condemn, but when the blood is on our hands we don't wanna know, don't wanna fight, don't wanna admit. and albanese gets up there and says those barricades have "crossed a line", "there's no place for violence like this in our democracy", he says. you know where there is an implicit place for violence, apparently? cops beating indigenous kids to death on camera, the australian people are fine with that apparently. happens all the time. better have a curfew so those kids don't get too rowdy about it!

oh and the CIA agents and US soldiers we welcomed here to supposedly defend us, they rape a bunch of women and children, mostly also indigenous? better get ASIO and the AFP to monitor the population for anti-american sentiment, local cops do it plenty too and we can't stand up to the USA, we're about to go to war with our biggest economic trading partner on their behalf, the troop buildup locations have already been announced! sweep it under the rug little aussies, scrub it from your memory, who cares about raped children anyway? not worth protesting, apparently.

we are right in the middle of the asia-pacific, with loosely speaking about a 5th of the population ethnically or culturally asian, and they are absolutely terrified of speaking out about how many hate crimes they suffer constantly, because the other 80% of the population is more culturally invested in american politics than the fact that labor considers pauline hanson an ally. i don't blame the 20% getting hatecrimed for being scared to speak up, i sure as fuck blame the rest of us for not protecting them, and for doing those hate crimes. "wE'rE a MuLtIcUlTuRaL sOcIeTy!! nO rAcIsM hErE!!", but we'll organise citywide marches in the middle of a pandemic if a black american kid gets killed over there, and then tell blak people they're spelling it wrong.

then we flood the region with our white-bleached propaganda and "culture", to control smaller governments and and lure the people of the region here for our economic benefit; the wealthy as fodder to fund the education complex, and the poor to work below-minimum-wage-slavery "jobs programs" on our great proud aussie battler family run farms.

it's all out in the open. the torture, the murder, the rape, the hate crimes, the technically-it's-legally-distinct-from-slavery, it's all known, all reported regularly on the news, endlessly, cyclically, every few months or years, for my whole life. fuck knows what else we're doing and i don't know about because pine gap prevents it from reaching english language news.

i know the internet zeitgeist really only cares about the single latest trending topic to happen, so you're wondering what that is to make me react enraged and ashamed; but it's everything. i haven't even scratched the surface, just ranting off the top of my head.

every day i carry the shame of what a disgusting violent colony nation this is; to the people who consider themselves australian, to the people here before the nation and their descendants, to the people surrounding us now. i carry the guilt of failure to stop it, and casual complicity of having given up the fight because i couldn't handle it. i think that's what most activists do here, give up in shame, because activists aren't fighting the government - we have one of the most free and open democracies in the world, and the spineless cowards in charge absolutely will do what the populace whims of them - activists here are fighting the cruel and apathetic average australian, who either don't care, or active condone it all. we have the blood of this country on our hands.

so.

what has australia done now?

it's fucken wednesday, mates. nothing new.

[khush-chronicles]

A brief history of Bangladesh and why it is relevant to the current situation

The Indian subcontinent liberated itself from the British in 1947. Two new countries were born, India and Pakistan. The Bangladesh we know today was a part of Pakistan.

In 1952, the students of Dhaka University, along with my other, marched on the streets, protesting that "Urdu"-the national language of Pakistan- would not be the national language of East Pakistan, now known as Bangladesh.

The reason behind this was that 52% of the people in the entire Pakistan spoke Bangla. There was no logic behind declaring Urdu as the national language of Pakistan as a whole. Much like India, there was no need to have a national language.

Students marched on 21st February, ignoring the red alerts. 7 students were martyred, shot by the police. But we protected our mother tongue, we established our rights, and their bloodshed was worth it.

Now, why is it relevant now? Because the history is repeating itself. Only Bangladesh's own government is playing the role of the autocratic Pakistani government. Worse, our prime minister is the daughter of the man who was the prime force behind the liberation of our country.

Bangladesh is the only country in the world that has 256 kinds of quotas reserved for various kinds of people. Even 10% for women. All are applicable at various levels, starting from primary school admissions to government jobs. 56% are reserved for quota holders altogether. 44% are for normal people.

Now, if it had been the other way around, no one would've been that angry. Bangladesh is a country of 200 million people. let's just say 1/4th of them are students. 50 million. The population of quota holders is 200 thousand. Is it not laughable? The 200 thousand students have the right to study, and get jobs and the remaining 49+ million have to fight for 44%? What kind of joke is this?

See the similarities? Trying to give everything to the minority?

The quota most applicable is the "freedom fighter" quota. The people who fought during the liberation war in 1971. Utmost respect and love towards them. But why should their grandchildren benefit from their participation? What is the guarantee that these grandchildren won't harm the country, the same country that was liberated by their grandparents' blood?

The freedom fighters who are still alive, they are ashamed. The population during the war was 70 million. 3 million were martyred. But more than half of the population fought, and the women gave shelter, food, and help in any way they could. Not every one of them collected their certificates. Most of them were illiterate, they didn't even know what a certificate was. And those who knew but didn't collect, and are alive, are saying that they didn't fight so their grandchildren could take advantage, they fought to save the country, they didn't fight for glory.

Our Prime Minister fled the country during the war. There are no records of her brothers fighting in the war either. Her father gave speeches in his white clothes but never picked up a rock to throw.

That aside, now students from almost every university in Bangladesh are protesting against the quota system. So many students cannot be wrong. And the government cannot again be right. It's the minority vs majority all over again.

Another uncanny similarity, 7 were martyred today. 16th July 2024, 7 were given their lives again, for the right study and do jobs and serve their country. What a downfall it is when our friends, seniors, and juniors are giving their lives, just for such simple rights. Where is democracy? Where is liberation? Is this what our grandfathers fought the war for?

The situation is worsening every hour. On 25th March 1971, Pakistani military forces raided homes. Not universities, not halls, HOMES. Of the general public. This was called "Operation Searchlight". No electricity, no light, no warning. Only breaking into homes and massacring men, women, children, and old, children without discrimination or thoughts. Again, something similar is happening.

There is this group called "Student League", they are students of various universities as well, but they are basically bootlickers of the prime minister. They follow whatever she says without any sense of morals.

The minister for education paid them to attack students in halls- confessed by a member of the Student League.

They entered the halls, and hospitals, beat up injured students, locked the hall rooms, and harassed the female students. The video clips that were shared, the screams of the girls, the way they were saying "Brothers save us", it's giving me goosebumps while I am typing it.

They stabbed many students who were returning home. They beat up many many girls who were silently standing by the roads. They harassed the general public.

Both sides are students. Only their teachings are different.

What's about to happen? How many more are dying? The internet connection is off. We can only access through VPN and Wifi. There is a red alert around the areas where most universities are situated. They are cutting off electricity where the protests happened and raiding houses. Again, the similarities. They are checking the homes of the general public if they are housing student protestors. If yes, the students are being dragged out on the roads. Where is freedom?

There is much more happening, which I am not even writing about right now. Much more to come.

Is this what Liberation is? Then I do not want it. If this is what freedom is, I would rather be in a cage.

My account isn't very big, but I am still posting about it. If yours is or if your friends' is, if you come across this post, spread it. Let the world know what an autocrat that woman is. What a tyrant she is.

PS: About a month ago Bangladesh was deemed "The most Peaceful Country in Asia" which is a blatant joke.

I have never been so ashamed and proud of my country at the same time.

[magapatriot64]

The most prestigious election in the world. The Presidency of the United States. Usually two candidates hammering out their agendas and their promises if they are able to win the most coveted job, the Presidency. Something changed. The Democrats have changed the game. Democrats no longer run on agenda. They have no agenda. Their goal? Destroying our America. How can they win after failure upon failure? Sell fear. Sell the people their opponent is bad for business. Lie about him and scare the people if they win our Democracy will end. Democracy? They mean Democrat Power. They use a rigged media to deliver nothing but lies, fear, and bullshit propaganda. Their message? Vote for us or die a slow death.

Democrats say if you are black and don’t vote for Kamala you should check your race and if you are white and don’t vote for Kamala you are racist. This here is their way to guilt you into voting for them.

They say Trump will be a dictator. They say Trump will cause bloodbaths in the streets if he loses. All lies. They tell you Trump is for the rich, wants to end Social Security, Medicare, low prescription prices. All lies and they know it. None of that matters when the coveted prize of power is at stake. It is no holds barred and they will eat their own to keep their quest for power and end our Constitutional Republic and replacing it with a NWO. They want to be the ruling class that rules the world.

If only the people who support the Dems could stop buying the bullshit and start opening their eyes and ears and learn the truth about the Party they defend and plan on voting for.

Kamala Harris already said the quiet part out loud. They want to depopulate the world. This isn’t fake propaganda, this is reality. They no longer support our most important ally, instead support the terrorists they are fighting. Proof? Kamala refused to meet with Netanyahu but if their money laundering CEO Zelensky came to town, they’d be rolling out the red carpet and another blank check. Where does it all end? It doesn’t if they stop Trump. They tried everything from smear campaigns, to trying to lock him up, when all failed they tried to end his life. Protecting Democracy simply means protecting the Democrat Party.

How important is this election? Imagine this. If the wheels on the bus, passage of time word salad Queen ever gets the White House it’s game over. You thought Biden was a puppet of the Obama far left? Kamala makes them all look like Conservatives compared to where she wants to take this country. The budget? What budget. They’ll be printing Monopoly money. Our schools? Education will be a thing if the past. It will be all about DEI training and government control. There will be no future because there will be no country. The open borders are all part of the plan. They are our replacements. They will be the slave class to help put their operation in motion. And that will start with getting rid of us. They already want to get rid of the old and sick. Just look at Canada. They think it’s ok to end your lives.

They want to control our food, our medicine, our doctors, mandating vaccines, and telling you how to live. Do you trust them? What the hell is in the food or water we ingest? What is in all the medicine we take? The only people that no their end game is we Conservatives and they know it. That is why they labeled us MAGA. Easier for them to find us and end us. Their mind games and controlling all started with having their base brainwashed against all of us and the end goal is to take us all out.

One problem. We all know this. Trump knows this. We also have goals. Our goals are simple. Keep Trump safe, return him to the White House, and flip the script by ending every last one of them, who is running their shit show, and finally returning our America. We have God. Our faith with the chosen one, Trump will end all this madness and restore civility forever in this the greatest Country in the world. My two cents.

👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

[eyelinerandmcr]

A message to everyone who is against Trump in the U.S,; don't give up.

I understand that statement may seem cliche and useless to many people. But everyone needs to understand the significance it holds.

I am heartbroken about the election results in the United States. But I will not stress how important it is to stay strong, and not give up on our democracy. I won't tell you it's not terrifying.

But we can't stop fighting for the rights of ourselves and others. No matter how hopeless it may seem at the moment, we must work together to maintain democracy in America.

If you feel like it's not worth it to keep trying, think of the genocide against the Palestinians, which will only reach new extremes under Trump's presidency (he has said he wants Netanyahu to be even more aggressive and tough on Palestine than he already is being—sit with that for a moment.) the transgender people who won't receive the affirming care they deserve, the people of color who now have nearly no protections against racism and police brutality, the children who won't have access to the education they need, who won't be protected against rapists and gun violence, the people who will not be able to get abortions no matter how dire their situations are, the legal and illegal immigrants who will be deported, the Ukrainians who will now longer have protection from America against the Russian invasion in their country. And there is so much more, so much more that we won't even see coming.

However, we can still do things to make a difference. Go to protests, educate yourself and others, donate to Palestinians/charities that help Palestinians and other people in need, volunteer at organizations that help women travel to different states to have legal safe abortions, flood your congressmen, representatives, mayors, governors, anyone in our government, with letters and complaints.

Use your voice! Remember, you have free speech no matter how much you are made to feel like you don't.

Now is not the time to worry about hurting anyone's feelings or being annoying. Be a bother. Force everyone who is using their power to ignore you and your rights to notice you.

Don't be scared to aggressive as you fight against the fascism that threatens our country. We cannot and will not allow this nation to slip further into hate, homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, white supremacy, xenophobia, misogyny, and anti immigrant ideology any more than it already has.

We cannot afford to be selfish or weak. Even if your state has voted to add protections for women and trans people in their state constitutions, doesn't mean you're safe. Do you think Trump won't do everything he can do outlaw these rights everywhere eventually? Fight and keep fighting. For everyone.

This may seem dramatic to some. I've heard the argument "Trump won't follow through. He's not being serious. He won't actually try to become a dictator", several times. Wake up! He has presented these intentions time and time again. Take his words at face value. He will strip people of their rights, especially if we actively chose to ignore his clearly communicated intentions. Do not think he won't do everything in his power to pass Project 2025 and other hateful, controlling, unconstitutional policies.

Believe it. But also believe in hope. It's easy to feel alone during this time. Remember, however, that there are millions of people behind you, and we can keep it that way if we remind ourselves and each other that we are fighting together and we will not give in.

No matter what, do not give up on our country and every single citizen that still needs our protection and support.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Daniel Marans, Liz Skalka, and Igor Bobic at HuffPost:

WASHINGTON — Standing at a podium at the same park where former President Donald Trump whipped up the mob that would attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris promised to protect democracy not just for its own sake, but so Americans can afford good lives and have the freedom to control their own bodies.

Amid a heated debate among Democrats over just how much Harris should play to fears about Trump’s authoritarian instincts, Harris found a way, in a speech billed as her closing argument a week before Election Day, to depict Trump’s focus on personal grievances and retribution as both a threat to the country’s future and an obstacle to the actual work of serving the public. “In less than 90 days, either Donald Trump or I will be in the Oval Office,” Harris told a crowd that her campaign estimated was 75,000 strong. “On Day 1, if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list. When elected, I will walk in, with a to-do list full of priorities on what I will get done for the American people. And I will work with everyone — Democrats, Republicans and independents — to help Americans who are working hard and still struggling to get ahead.”

Harris conjured the image of her single mother sitting at their yellow Formica table with a cup of tea as she went through the bills. It’s an experience Harris shares with many other Americans, and one she said would inform her priorities in office. “Donald Trump’s answer to you is the same as before: another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations,” Harris said. “And this time, he will pay for it with a 20% national sales tax on everything you buy that is imported, clothes, food, toys, cell phones: a Trump sales tax that would cost the average family nearly $4,000 a year.” Trump would also add to families’ health care costs by repealing the Affordable Care Act, she continued, before setting up one of her stump speech’s trademark lines: “We are not going back,” she said, prompting the crowd to break out in chants of “not going back.”

“Donald Trump will deliver tax cuts to his billionaire donors,” Harris added. “I will deliver tax cuts to working people and the middle class. I will make sure you have a chance to not just get by but get ahead, because I believe in honoring the dignity of work.” Harris then went through a detailed list of her economic policy priorities: building millions of new homes; providing $25,000 in aid for first-time home buyers; creating a $6,000 child tax credit for the parents of newborns; and expanding Medicare to cover long-term care for seniors. The setting and scenery of Harris’ speech aimed to give her the patriotic high ground over Trump while helping voters picture her as the commander-in-chief. Harris spoke on a large stage on the south side of the White House, with its lit portico visible directly behind her. Two large signs that bore the word “FREEDOM” stood at either side. The sea of people listening to her remarks stretched all the way down to the National Monument, which was surrounded by thousands of Harris supporters and some protesters of Israel’s war in Gaza. To drive the point home, Harris portrayed herself and her agenda truer heirs to the American Revolution than Trump.

“Nearly 250 years ago, America was born when we wrested freedom from a petty tyrant,” Harris said. “Across the generations, Americans have preserved that freedom, expanded it, and in so doing, proved to the world that a government of, by, and for the people is strong and can endure.” “They did not struggle, sacrifice, and lay down their lives, only to see us cede our fundamental freedoms, only to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant,” she added. “The United States of America is not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators. The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised.” Throughout her remarks, Harris emphasized her interest in soliciting ideas from Republicans and other people with whom she disagrees. She has already promised to appoint a Republican to her cabinet, something Biden did not do. “America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind: more chaos, more division and policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else. I offer a different path. And I ask for your vote,” she said in her concluding pitch. “And here is my pledge to you: I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your lives better.”

Last night at The Ellipse in DC, where Donald Trump’s speech infamously helped fuel the January 6th Insurrection nearly four years ago, Kamala Harris gave an excellent campaign closing case speech that hit on a wide range of topics such as protecting democracy, reproductive health and abortion access, and the topic of freedom.

See Also:

Daily Kos: Kamala Harris' stirring closing argument showed she'll be a president we'll be proud of

The Guardian: Kamala Harris calls for ‘new generation of leadership’ in Washington speech

[ausetkmt]

The national conversation about police violence against civilians grows louder every day. Recent killings of African Americans have fueled a lack of trust between communities of color and police. In 1866, a mass killing happened at the hands of police in downtown New Orleans. That was during Reconstruction, the era Clint Bruce studies.

“White people, I believe, do not understand the mistrust that many black people in the United States have of police and of authorities.”

Bruce says this sitting at his little kitchen table in the Bayou St. John apartment he’s staying in while doing research in town. He’s a professor at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia, and is working on translating a collection of 70 French language poems that were published during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras in The New Orleans Tribune, a radical newspaper run by mostly people of color.

Two of these poems were written in response to the 1866 massacre. “It was seminal in creating deep feelings of mistrust that I believe black people still have that they will not be protected, and even that they can be killed with impunity” says Bruce about the massacre, who didn’t learn about anything like this growing up in Shreveport in the 1980s.

“A lot of us really looked up to the Civil War as something that was glorious. We played Confederate soldiers, you know, those sorts of things. And it was only later through my studies and interest that I developed as a young adult that a lot of what shaped our world happened during Reconstruction.”

This is when Bruce started to see why black people in America were and are in fear of the police.

Back to 1866 — one year after the Civil War ended — it was a tense year. Back then. Louisiana Republicans wanted to explore giving blacks the right to vote. They called a convention to consider it in the state constitution. “It seems very noble and in many ways it was,” says Bruce. “But everything was politicking, right? And people change loyalties strategically.”

Republicans, arguably, supported giving blacks the right to vote in hopes it would help their party maintain political power. Louisiana was under Union occupation during the Civil War, and had a Republican governor by the end of it. But in 1866, Andrew Johnson was the president of the United States, and a big fan of Home Rule — letting former Confederate states make their own decisions again — as long as they also obeyed federal laws. This concerned Republicans in the South, who felt they would lose ground under Home Rule. At such a pivotal moment, Republicans realized they needed the support of freed black men to maintain political power.

Credit The Historic New Orleans Collection The Mechanic's Institute. 1974.25.3.272.

 “When they got here, I guess about the middle of the block here, they were assaulted by white attackers," she says. "They were verbally and physically assaulted, someone actually shot at them. They fired back, no one was injured. They fought off the attackers and proceeded right down here on Roosevelt Way to what is today the Roosevelt Hotel. Back then it was the Mechanics' Institute.”

This convention had been highly publicized, everyone around town knew it was happening, whether they were for or against blacks gaining the right to vote.  

Bell crosses Canal Street to the entrance of what is now the famous luxury hotel. “So this is where the street was filled with men, women and children, again who were jubilant at the thought of an interracial democracy, the hopes of an interracial democracy.”

The parade of marchers had thwarted off the mob on the other side of Canal, but once they made it to the Mechanics' Institute, where the convention was taking place inside, they were beset by more violence. A gang of white supremacists and ex-Confederates attacked. Fire sirens went off, signaling police to attack. They were sent by the mayor.

“There was panic because the police and firemen, armed, surrounded that building and began advancing,” says Bell. “The attack was premeditated. Lead police chief Harry T. Hayes, what he was doing at the time was recruiting policemen from Confederate veterans. They stormed in and started shooting, chasing people down the street.”

When the attackers finally ran out of bullets, nearly 50 people lay dead, mostly black.

Bell says there were over a hundred injured in all of this. “That's very conservative though, it’s thought that as many as 200, maybe more people were injured in all of this.”

Federal troops had also been called in, well after things got bloody, and it was obviously too late. People lay limp, heads bashed in with bricks, broken bodies thrown from windows, landing on top of emptied bullet casings and abandoned knives.

Justin Nystrom is an associate professor of history at Loyola University, and Co-director of the Center for the Study of New Orleans. “Of course as the saying goes, it was an absolute massacre. Because it was.”

Nystrom is currently writing about the massacre, and says there were immediate consequences.

Credit Historic New Orleans Collection Four scenes from the riot in New Orleans.

He says the Mechanics’ Institute Massacre, combined with another massacre that happened two months earlier in Memphis, Tennessee, essentially served as a reset button for post-war policy in the South. These events were top stories in the national media, and influenced voters who headed to the polls that fall.

“And of course elect a radical super majority to Congress” adds Nystrom. “The radical super majority enacts the Reconstruction Acts which breaks up the South into military districts. I often teach my students that if you don't have the riot of 1866, you probably don't have the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in the way that they appear.”

The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to former enslaved people in 1868. The Fifteenth Amendment, giving black men the right to vote, passed in 1870. Despite the progress it helped achieve, the massacre was a tragedy. There were no convictions in the aftermath. Nobody went to jail.

This reminds Clint Bruce of many recent, contemporary incidents of police violence against people of color. “So I'm thinking of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old who was gunned down. That was settled, it wasn’t considered a murder.”

And the country’s waiting to see what will happen to the officers who shot and killed Philando Castile, in his car in Minnesota, with his girlfriend beside him. And the day before that, Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge.

After the Mechanics' Institute Massacre, The New Orleans Tribune continued to follow the incident for months, both in news coverage — and poetry. Remember those published poems written by Afro-Creoles that Bruce is translating? Camille Naudin was one of the most militant voices among the poets of the Tribune. He wrote a poem to commemorate the massacre called "Ode to the Martyrs."

“It was written for the one-year anniversary of the 1866 Massacre, so it was printed on the day the following year,” Bruce explains. “The same day that there was a memorial ceremony at the Mechanics' Institute. ‘Ode to the Martyrs’ is really an elegy that enumerates a number of the victims who were killed, in pretty dramatic fashion, and celebrates their sacrifice.”

The poet mourns that victims of the mob were brutally massacred, while former Confederate leader Jefferson Davis remained alive — and free — at the time.

“There was a perception among Unionists that he was getting off scot free. In an earlier stanza he references a former Black Union soldier Victor Lacroix, who is from a really well known New Orleans family, who was pretty much torn to shreds by the mob. At the end  he writes 'Mais je dirai toujours mulâtres, noirs, blancs, Victor Lacroix est mort, Jeff Davis est vivant.' which I've translated as, 'But for mulattos, blacks and whites, this fact I must tell: Victor Lacroix is dead. Jeff Davis lives still.'”

[mysteriouslybluepirate]

PLEASE CLICK A BUTTON

No knowledge of either media is needed. Please. Click a button. Click what sounds cool! You not caring HELPS!

If you WANT knowledge about what you voted for, I've written out a description of each faction down below.

If you know both stories, pick what sounds most interesting to you. Your vote shapes a story!! I'd appreciate a reblog for more votes!

(The top 5 groups will be featured somehow in the fic)

Why am I doing this? Well, I am signing up for the Izzy Hands Bingo! Only issue, I want to use my bingo card to create an AU based around the world of Fallout. I have 1 issue.

I don't want to decide this one choice, as to me, planning any aspect of a fic before a writing challenge defeats a bit of the purpose of the challange. You know? So I'm letting y'all choose Izzy&Ed's background. Their background influences how I write almost everything else. The moral, the main beats of the sotry, the romances, etc. All on THIS choice.

So I am relying on the people who don't know shit about the fallout universe to act as a random dice throw. BUT PLEASE VOTE IF YOU KNOW WHO THESE FACTIONS ARE! This fic is going to be written for those who know nothing about this world, but if you want to see Ed and Izzy with a certain background, VOTE WITH BIAS!

QUICK EXPLANATION OF EACH FACTIONS FROM ME, WITHOUT GOOGLE:

New California Republic: After the world has been destroyed, this group believes on forming another democracy. Taking over small societies, and taxing them in return for protection. Full of modern white collar corruption, this faction is prone to murdering their citizens, or giving them HIGH standards they will fail. This group believes that THEY are the superior organization and wants everyone else to be dead.

Brotherhood of Steel: God, isn't it cool that the US has such advanced weaponry? Isn't US culture so COOL? What if the US was destroyed, and now there's a faction built around gathering technology of the Pre-bombed world, dead set on taking over the US? Willing to die for a pre world toaster. OH- AND they are a psudeo-Christan/Catholic faction built around following some pre war religious ideas. Including chastity, and following a ridged social ladder. This group believes that THEY are the superior organization and wants everyone else to be dead.

Raiders (Unfriendly): Why build a new society when you can just kill people and take their shit? Not a faction, but SOME build small settlements. They are the vultures of the wasteland. Murderous vultures. Very close to historical pirates, tbh.

Raiders (Friendly): Groups that usually don't trust any of these fucks as shit goes wrong WAY too often. A few friends that take over a building/farm and chill. They will raid, but often choose abandoned buildings and can rely on trade.

Caravan Merchants: Traders that walk the wasteland trading their items for money. SOMETIMES affiliated with one of these factions, but not always. They just explore, find shit, and sell shit. Actual vultures. Chill bros.

Child of Atom: AKA the radiation monks. THESE GUYS FUCK. Not to bias this vote, but out of all of these, these guys are usually my favorite in game. Imagine if after the nukes that end the world drop, you decide to worship the bomb. The live/stay in water that is toxic and live their lives surrounded by mutated monsters. Children of Atom LOVE radiation of all forms. In the games, half your quests with this cult is spent secretly deactivating their radioactice items without their knowing so these fucks can live another day. This cult is my wild card, I have no idea how I'd write this lol. (Image below just fucks too hard for me not to include it)

Minuteman: Basically Raiders(friendly) + NCR. A bunch of settlements that vow protect each other, but without the taxes of the NCR. Often small factions that promise to step in if their land/property gets attacked.

The Railroad: Robots are better than people, we are willing to die to save synths(robots) Yes, it is based on the underground railroad. They save robots, kidnap them from the institute(described down below), wipe all of their memories and personalities, and abandon them without resources somewhere far from them. You know...when you say it like that, comparing this organization to the REAL underground railroad is a bit fucked up.

The Institute: It goes like this, kidnap someone, copy their memories, and put these memories into a robot body. Many Synths don't know that they are human. This group believes that THEY are the superior organization and wants everyone else to be dead.

Pre War Ghouls: Congratulations, you survived the nuclear apocalypse! You're reward? Well, you have a chance of being immortal, and a change to turn into a mindless zombie. You live 200+ years and get to watch society rebuild. Only issue, you look like death. Most factions HATE you. You know how Elves are treated in fantasy? That's how ghouls are treated. This path gives Ed/Izzy a SHIT ton of angst as two people that are some of the only people left who remember a life before survival.

Synths: Robot copies of a person. If this is chosen, I am 50/50 on if they themselves know they are synths. If this wins, I will post a second poll on who knows they are/aren't a copy of a living person. Or if they even look human. as some synths, like the guy on the left, don't look human AT ALL.

[To not step in bad water, I have excluded the following 'factions':

*Slavers. In this world, being pulled into slavery is one of the many things that threatens the player chatacer. If a city is taken over by a faction, sometimes people of any race are sold into slavery. I'm not touching this. I'm not making Ed and Izzy into Slavers, or victims of Slavers.

This plot is important to the world and shows how society has fallen back into chattle slavery, I'm not touching it for this fic. In fact, most fallout fans who write fic don't include Slavers or Slavery. These stories that feature slaves predominantly happened in the games fallout 3/new vegas, and often featured women being used as sex slaves. These plots were not picked up in later titles. As this fic is predominantly a survival romance/mystery story, I don't need to add this topic as a narrative tool to build temporary tension. Some narrative tools deserve more respect than others. Especially that of *slavery* (cough cough to the anon who sent me hate about this part, no shit slavery is a thing today....like? This entire post has been summarizing these games. Why would i add a psa about how slavery is still a thing mid post? I swear. Anon on tumblr can be a burden and a curse)

*The Enclave: they believe in social Darwinism, and are generally racist to those outside their faction, and mutated people. (But why did I include the brotherhood? Because power armor. They're assholes, but Izzy and Ed are going to spend this story learning their world view is wrong. Making them Brotherhood members is easy mode plot wise, as they learn to live their lives. Compare this to the Enclave? I can't personally justify fixing an enclave member.)

*Any new Vegas specific groups. I don't want to limit my location to Las Vegas/Nevada. I'm literally going to spin a wheel for a location, and having 'the Kings' be in Missouri doesn't work for me. (If NCR is the most popular I'm fine with it as historical lyrics they spread through a LOT of the wasteland. It excludes like, 20 US States). For the institute/railroad, I'm going to rename the faction but keep the belief of the factions. ]

If you are reading this- THANK YOU FOR INDULGING MY HYPERFIXATIONS lol. I have some lovely ideas for how to combine OFMD and Fallout's humor, and can't wait to dive in!

I would love to hear what you voted for!!

[djjohnnyt]

This.

This right here.

That's right wing propaganda.

Full of half truths and flat out lies.

The attacks in Yemen are on a rebel group's military installations that are launching missiles at shipping vessels. Boats crewed by civilians. Boats being bombed by actual terrorists. Nothing the Houthis are doing benefits anyone other than themselves and Iran. They are not freedom fighters or heroes.

If fascism ends American democracy in November, a major factor will have been right wing propaganda like this.

You want reasons to vote for Biden beyond keeping any basic human rights in the US?

Biden has cancelled BILLIONS of dollars in student debt (the last "don't vote Biden, he hasn't done enough) despite being fought every step by Trump's Supreme Court.

Biden has passed the most sweeping climate change legislation any president ever has; creating massive investments in green energy and carbon-free infrastructure.

As we speak, the a large, permanent expansion of the child tax credit, the COVID era policy that caused the biggest drop in childhood poverty ever that was ended because of Joe Manchin, is about to pass through Congress.

Because of Biden's efforts, millions of people received access to COVID care and vaccines that otherwise wouldn't. I'm in Missouri, our governor did everything he could to prevent the vaccine rollout. It was only because of Biden's efforts we got vaccines here.

Biden is the only one pushing back against an all out war on brown people on the US/Mexico border.

Biden's NLRB initiated lawsuits have helped expand unionization across the country.

The list can go on, but truly the most important thing that absolutely will be lost are all of the efforts Biden's DOJ is making to protect our basic civil rights in deep red states like mine. His work to protect access to any abortion care, to support lawsuits against all of the anti-trans legislation, his efforts getting consent decrees from police departments, etc. are the only thing keeping these states livable for anyone who isn't cis, straight, white, and male in these states.

Even if your only issue in this election is Israel's attack on Gaza, only one political party is endorsed by Netanyahu. Bibi wants you to let the Republican party to take control. That is the only way he keeps control of Israel. That's the only way he'll be able to keep up his pogrom against Palestinians.

Anyone telling you it's ok to not vote, that it's just what is deserved, or that it's destined, they're doing the work of the fascists, whether they realize it or not.

Ask yourself who benefits from something like this. Not a single person in Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, or anywhere else in the world will be better off if you listen to this sort of thing.

Fundamentally, if the democrats lose the presidency in 2024, it will not be because of "voter apathy" or "the idealistic left" or Cornell West or whatever third party candidate the liberals end up blaming. It will be because the democrats have failed to meet the lowest standards of many Americans.

You can talk about strategic voting until you're blue in the face, but fundamentally, people need reasons to vote for a candidate. There are people in this country watching as their family members get slaughtered by American arms, sent to Israel by Joe Biden. The people watching their families get murdered in Palestine have no reason to support Joe Biden. How can you ask them to?

"Sorry your family got bombed, but I need you to vote for the man who is directly responsible, or *real* people are going to suffer too."

It was at this point While I was drafting this post that I heard he just started bombing Yemen. It's like he's doing everything in his power to sink his own fucking campaign, are you shitting me? This isn't a matter of "stupid commies not being realistic enough", he's not just working for the status quo; just about every action he has taken since October 7th has been an escalation of conflict in the Middle East and made it worse for everyone living there. This is exactly what I'm talking about.

You can scold people for voting wrong as much as you want, but fundamentally the way that democrats can win elections is by pursuing good policy. If the only argument you can come up with in favor of Joe Biden is that he won't do 1 or 2 of the terrible things that Trump wants to do, then that will simply not appeal to the people who are most intensely affected by Biden's failures (not to mention people who have moral objections to genocide, even when it doesn't affect them). You can scream and cry all you want, people are not going to just overlook his role in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza just because he is the Less Bad Genocider.

If a republican wins the presidency in November, you can blame the hundreds of thousands of voters/nonvoters who should've agreed with you and put aside every moral concern they ever had about the Biden administration... or you can blame the one fucking guy whose massive foreign policy failures are going to tank his re-election campaign.

[scentedchildnacho]

I am alright....i tried to pick a sleeping spot as homeless recommended it....there are over populations of males here and women have to learn immigration about split personality like a lot of light to be allowed color and appearance changes or male homosexual problems stalk everything single women do

Many single women have to learn police about protective custody or male homosexual neo Nazi problems stalk everything I do

Calling it split personality is maybe kind of overly moral but what is many languages for a single person someone that never learned slowly to trully connect with and love their origin

So I woke up at like three in the morning having to go to the bathroom really bad but I only drank around 32 ounces of water yesterday but I felt like I had been dosed with a diuretic

So I found out it's a place people pick up homosexual males for sex services apparently and if your around them they try to force public exposure

If your in that area weirdos call them so they will make you pee on someone that tries to mate at you

Compass stations claimed they were mentals but this tattoo intake chick had a sarcoma on her jaw till I almost yelled at her for being so stupid with body product

Stop putting the tattoo lotion care on your body you look like an aids tumor

Dugas.....you people never stop begging whites for money and turning financialism into an eve ill get away from me or white people will kill you

I dont know i have to love what my mother gave me and believe fixed astrological signs can like model types and not do things for myself but you all can mutilate your skin and get aids?

My lotion from compass station of course has paraffin....

So I won't be able to stay in escondido because if you won't have babies and get married they stalk women with men also....and if I ever again have to have gender theory so pro male affluance i would have to kill a single occupant vehicle

I had to have severe stomach cramps then sit in an adult diaper till if I have to see any worthless reefer thief that truly has no purpose for being around but trying to get a handicap I would have to do what they expect of young male homosexuals which is kill it

These old felons reefers are promised revenge housing and if I can't have family housing taxation I would have to finally help kill one instead of dump it into my hatred to see if it can survive it

All those families in India will they will be a royal democracy and have little millionaire lives

Anyway this Irish little lady in Alaska told me her man with her was a nomad so she here cannot have over a twelve inch waist

Run away from Escondido or no Irish will put ya in a Sylvia plath ward

They hate Irish people here

Its a male pick up spot and you have to endure pre emptive jail conditions or areas in any way naturally pleasant for men and Tarzan will club Jane and drag her away

Thats me about men they go through superiority testing compared to women and still stalk into schools when they aren't targeted as a race minority

Al jazeera and Arab news said Biden gave money to Israel so it appears to be Israelis......that feel they have a metanoia pharmaceutical market here

I don't understand any of it it appears a time warp to me I don't know any woman physically capable of five children that many births is a very rude expectation and one has to look at people like their a dictator advocate for expecting endurance

Margaret Mead and the great dust bowl...each generation smaller and fairer so michael ondaatje anje was a big boned woman and people almost thought she was a transexual.....

Vermin...it can be health food but if people can use financialism to horde things till their unsanitary they do so who is the surveyor

Nina carnell is a German artist that will play fair evil she enjoys experimenting on invertebrates and collecting erosion so trust me health food can really hurt you

I am okay people prayed more that I had more decent women acquaintances so I would prefer having slept better and moving on but people pray for more open protest of buy it now

The women mostly apologize to me that they feel like they steal from me they do have advanced physical needs and special cultures and shouldn't have to be here

It's been my experience that the physical handicaps are still owned by people who created their handicap so I would have to suggest places that the owners are like people who did it to them

My owner will keep moving me around until I'm also physically handicapped....I just view it as at least now I don't have to be a surgical...and do what I can before

I liked watching al jazeera people use to stalk me with hope that life would be normal again and now I don't ever have to believe that things will get better

Sure I would join the world food company though netanyahu will kill it....there is a high chance of unintentional casualty everywhere you go.....they believe that quitting addiction is a pain that truly enlightens them so it's by the minute some type of suicide bomb comes around

Its California and everyone has been hit by a drunk driver

I assured her I would be leaving....the shelters keep stalking me with coed policy and if staff in there is trained for a maximum security male jail I would rather smell bad then endure mens capability

They file you a male in Holocaust documents and will treat you like a piece of meat and I'm 43 I'm too old and weak to forgive systems for male only thinking

If even one man is around it will reek of feced viral conditions and they will vaccine is all health care is and steal all your gear

Its truly wrong to vaccine women women truly do sacrifice their income and military pension so children survive

[anyataylorjoys]

Mexicans and American Mexicans are still deported to Mexico under Biden lolol. No matter what you try to bring up to deflect Biden being just as much as a peice of shit as Trump, Biden has continued or made worse. The cages are still a thing but have a different name now. ICE is even still around. You can calm it down and step off your high horse. I only said "you can do whatever you want, but dont shame people if they don't feel like voting or if they vote third party". Biden is just as much as a dictator as Trump. Just hear me out without going straight to the "do you just want a dictator??" mindset for a few minutes. Once you stop seeing red vs blue and start realizing it's about rich vs poor, things will make sense for you. Money and white supremacy is the only thing that keeps the interest of our goverment and is why they do what they do. That's why the United States and Israel are committing genocides across the entire world, no matter which party controls our government. Vote all you want to, but it's not going to do shit other then maybe make you feel like you did something. Going out of your house and protesting out in the streets, speaking up, and more direct action is what brings change. While you're out in the streets, look out for people and make sure people are wearing masks so they can't be identified, can't spread the ongoing pandemic, plus it helps with tear gas quite a bit. I'm sorry for ranting at you, but it just annoys me when people think voting will fix everything while we're all dying in the streets, without healthcare, and while our tax dollars are being used to fund more genocides.

"Just hear me out" no because I said listen carefully and you didn't and went straight to attacking me in my inbox and proceeded to spew a bunch of disinformation that I don't have time to unpack like "they stopped counting the death toll under Biden" wrong! And thanks to the trillions in covid relief funds under Biden, this country didn't go under and my family survived. But whatever this is besides the point I'm not here to defend Biden or even to defend democrats as a whole but at least some democrats appear to have a conscience, even if they are a bunch of pussies for not speaking up against this genocide in fear of losing their jobs and shame on them, I don't know how they sleep at night.

I don't like Biden, I don't agree with everything he's done. But to claim he's as much a "dictator" as Trump is delusional rhetoric. Trump was actively inciting an coup and threatening vote counters to throw out opposing votes because he's mentally unstable.

You're talking to someone who thinks democracy in America is already an illusion so yes, my vote is an attempt to feel like I'm not powerless as a citizen of this country lol. Voting doesn't solve everything obviously it cannot be that simplified, however I still believe voting is not entirely useless. Our voices do matter and protesting makes people listen. If our right to information, to speak and to protest is revoked, any power we have to make change in numbers will be lost and therefore, I'm prioritizing protecting those rights. I'll be doing everything I can to keep a dictator from becoming president because that's the ultimate threat we face right now. It's unfortunate that you and many others can't seem to foretell just how much worse things could get under complete GOP control in our current political climate of elevated right-wing radicalism.

Democrat or Republican run country, certain things will not get better right away. We have to take the steps necessary to make and maintain progression. But under Republicans, you can guarantee they will take this country back to 1950 and I won't stand by and put the fate of my future and others' lives in the hands of the American people without my contribution no matter how small of a difference you think it makes. People will say "every vote counts" and we all know that's a lie. However, if thousands of people share your mindset and choose not to vote, that's a dangerous game.

[karen-anti-r-cml]

The Party of Lincoln is gone, taken over my the republican-confederate maga loyalist and they are the worst white defectives have to offer. They, like their leader trump don't care about Our United States, Our Independence, Our Constitution. They don't even care about the People Voting for Them.

Any Thinking Person Knows This. We've Heard the R-CML Yell Freedom, Personal Rights and Seen their Actions, the Laws they Vote For and the Laws they Vote Against… They've made it Crystal Clear by What they Say and What they DO… They want Power and Money For Themselves and Total Control Over We The People

Really, if you didn't get it… when they were Attacking People Who Wore Mask, because They Didn't Want to Wear mask. When They were Attacking People they Thought were Asian, People who Obviously Had Nothing to do with Creating or Releasing a Deadly Virus, even if they were from China. When you realize these People were only Attacking Asian People because trump kept chanting CHINA, CHINA, CHINA, They were that easily led. When, on January 6, 2021 they tried an Insurrection, a Coup to put the Losing Fascist Dictator into The White House

And you still don't get it When Every R-CML stayed in office after January 6, 2021 When Only their Supporters (who they promised to take care of) Have Been Arrested, charged, found guilty and none of of the promised help game, many were using Public Defender. When they took Abortion Rights because they don't agree with Abortion. When the DOJ, FBI, ATF etc doing their jobs, finding stuff against the R-CML did they start yelling to defund these very important Agency's

If you made it here and still don't get it you're lost, you're either going to pack lightly, get on the train "taking you to a camp for your protection" or you're members of the R-CML When they started out lawing Honest History in Favor of their Fantasy History When they stand up and praise putin, xi, un, fascist/communist and then attack all Our Democratic Allies

It is now 2023, if you still don't get what the R-CML are trying to do your brain has not only been washed and bleached Their End Game Has Nothing To Do With Protecting Democracy… Their End Game Has Everything To Do With Assassinating Democracy… And Putting Fascism in Democracy's place.

[ashotasfireandasdeepastheocean1]

I can’t sugarcoat this. It is dismaying, frightening, and worrying. We have already endured four years of Trump, and another term could tip America and the world into full-throated fascism. Trump has become even more unhinged and vindictive, and more knowledgeable about how to get horrendous things done.

Here are 11 suggestions for what you can do in the 118 days before Election Day:

Try not to allow issues such as whether Biden should resign, or his degree of responsibility for Gaza, to get in the way of your determination not to let Trump back into the White House. Regardless of our differences over these issues, they pale compared to the threat Trump poses.

For the same reason, please don’t decide to leave the top of the ticket blank or to vote for a third party or not to vote at all. All make it easier for Trump to win. Instead, make sure you and everyone you know and trust is registered to vote, and votes for Joe Biden or whomever is the Democratic candidate for president.

Don’t become so upset with politics that you drop out, stop reading the news, or give up on activism. The stakes are just too high. Even if you cannot take much time out of your normal life, you need to help organize, mobilize, and energize others.

Focus your time and energies on convincing people who still have open minds, to oppose Trump. Mobilize those who don’t normally vote, to vote. Organize get-out-the-vote efforts in your community. Get young people involved.

Counter lies with truth. When you hear someone repeating a Trump Republican lie, correct it.

Do not tolerate bigotry and hate. Call it out. Stand up to it. Denounce it. Demand that others denounce it, too.

Do not resort to violence, name-calling, bullying, or any of the other tactics that Trump followers may be using.

Be compassionate toward hardcore followers of Trump, but be firm in your opposition. Understand why someone may decide to support Trump, but don’t waste time and energy trying to convert them.

Don’t waste your time and energy commiserating with people who already agree with you, or criticizing Democrats for failing to communicate more effectively. None of this will get you anything except an upset stomach.

Demonstrate, but don’t confuse demonstrating with political action. You may find it gratifying to stand on a corner in Berkeley with a sign asking drivers to “honk if you hate fascism” that elicit lots of honks, but it’s as politically effectual as taking a warm shower.

Finally, don’t let any sensationalized news of the day divert your eyes from the goal: protecting American democracy during one of the greatest stress tests it has had to endure, fueled by one of the worst demagogues in American history.

I cannot overstate how critical the outcome of the next 118 days will be to everything you and I want for America and the world.

Be well and be strong.

.

VOTE BLUE!

.

[rockislandadultreads]

Sci-Fi Book Recs: Cyberpunk

Machinehood by S.B. Divya

Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It’s 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive, but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the healing process. All that changes when Welga’s client is killed by The Machinehood, a new and mysterious terrorist group that has simultaneously attacked several major pill funders. The Machinehood operatives seem to be part human, part machine, something the world has never seen. They issue an ultimatum: stop all pill production in one week. Global panic ensues as pill production slows and many become ill. Thousands destroy their bots in fear of a strong AI takeover. But the US government believes the Machinehood is a cover for an old enemy. One that Welga is uniquely qualified to fight. Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood and what do they really want? A thought-provoking novel that asks: if we won’t see machines as human, will we instead see humans as machines?

Infomocracy by Malka Ann Older

It's been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global micro-democracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything's on the line. With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right by the idealistic Policy1st party and get a steady job in the big leagues. For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have so much to gain?

Repo Virtual by Corey J. White

The city of Neo Songdo is a Russian doll of realities -- augmented and virtual spaces anchored in the weight of the real. The smart city is designed to be read by machine vision while people see only the augmented facade of the corporate ideal. At night the stars are obscured by an intergalactic virtual war being waged by millions of players, while on the streets below people are forced to beg, steal, and hustle to survive. Enter Julius Dax, online repoman and real-life thief. He's been hired for a special job: stealing an unknown object from a reclusive tech billionaire. But when he finds out he's stolen the first sentient AI, his payday gets a lot more complicated.

Liquid Cool: The Cyberpunk Detective Series by Austin Dragon

Liquid Cool is the debut cyberpunk detective series! It’s cyberpunk re-imagined—science fiction meets the detective thriller in an ever-rainy world of colossal skyscrapers. Hover-cars fly above in the dark, bustling skies and gray people walk below on the grimy, flashy streets of this “neon jungle.” Metropolis isn’t a bad place, but it isn’t a good one either. Uber-governments and mega-corporations fight for control of the super-city, but so does crime. We were introduced to Liquid Cool , by the free prequel short, These Mean Streets, Darkly . We met an average woman, Carol—hardworking and decent in every way—only to have her daughter kidnapped by the psycho cyborg Red Rabbit. Can Police Central find the girl in time—alive? And is it really another senseless act of random violence in the fifty-million-plus super-city? This story continues…and there are so many more. For the first time, we meet our private eye (and unlikely hero), Cruz in a super-city where there are a million victims and perpetrators. Welcome to the high-tech, low-life world of Liquid Cool. But watch out for tech-tricksters, analog hustlers, and digital gangsters—psychos, samurais, and cyborgs aplenty—they may want your money, or your life, more than you do.

[deadpresidents]

We Remember: When 9/11 Forged a Genuinely United States of America

Today, we remember.

We remember that the weather was perfect throughout nearly the entire country on that Tuesday morning. We remember where we were when we heard about the first plane hitting the tower. We remember what we thought as the new just began to trickle in. We remember our horror as we watched the second plane hit the South tower. We remember the evacuations -- people running out of our monuments of freedom and democracy, our centers of government and finance, and spilling out on to the streets of our nation’s capital. We remember the dust and debris chasing thousands of New Yorkers through the streets of our most iconic city. We remember the smoke rising from the Pentagon. We remember that impact site in Pennsylvania -- a smoldering hole in an empty field instead of the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building because Americans decided to fight back. We remember watching the towers fall.

We remember the fear, the chaos, the sadness, and the feeling of not knowing what was happening or when it would end. We remember a feeling that Americans were not used to experiencing up to September 11, 2001: the helpless feeling of being attacked as went about our normal lives. We no longer remember what it felt like on September 10th.

Do you remember pointing fingers? Do remember placing blame? Do you remember partisanship? I remember patriotism. Not bumper sticker and window decals. Genuine patriotism. I remember flags and candles and donating water and giving blood and having a new appreciation for first responders. I remember that, for at least one week, we weren’t Democrats or Republicans. I remember that we were Americans. I remember that we cared a little bit more about each other for at least a couple of weeks.

When Democrat Lyndon Johnson was the Senate Majority Leader and Republican Dwight Eisenhower was President of the United States, LBJ -- one of the most intense, passionate, partisan political animals in our history -- never attacked President Eisenhower. It wasn’t because LBJ agreed with Eisenhower’s policies. It wasn’t because LBJ was scared. It was because, as LBJ explained in 1953 in a comment that has an unfortunately haunting connection to 9/11, “If you’re in an airplane, and you’re flying somewhere, you don’t run up to the cockpit and attack the pilot. Mr. Eisenhower is the only President we’ve got.”

The only President we’ve got.

We all want to head in the same direction. We all want to move forward. We all want to progress and be happy and healthy and safe. But now, more than ever, our country’s prosperity is crippled by divisive partisanship. As World War I and World War II approached and the world realized that we are clearly connected on a global level, the people who seemed the most out-of-touch -- the people who were wrong -- were the isolationists. In both of those great wars, the isolationists were proven wrong. Yet, in the span of our grandparents’ lives we have regressed to the point where most Americans have become individual isolationists -- not isolationism on a national level, but on a personal level. We’ve tried to disconnect from the people in our own country -- especially if they look, love, or think differently than us. Don’t you remember how powerful it felt after 9/11 to be united? Don’t you remember how we helped each other in so many different ways?

I guess I could be cynical. I guess I could remember the look on President George W. Bush’s face when his Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, whispered news of the attacks in the President’s ear as he sat in a Florida classroom. I guess I could remember The Pet Goat, and the fact that Bush didn’t immediately get up, sprint from the room, and change out of his Clark Kent clothes into the Superman suit. I guess I could remember Air Force One zig-zagging across the country, the only plane in the air besides military escorts and combat air patrols over our major cities. I guess I could remember the surveillance videos of the well-dressed hijackers walking through airport terminals that morning before they turned our planes into weapons. I guess I could remember that the passengers of Flight 93 didn’t actually get through the cockpit door and force the plane to crash into that Pennsylvania field. I guess I could remember our government’s alphabet agencies -- the FBI, CIA, NSA, and everyone else listening in on our world -- being unable to work together and stop the attacks from happening in the first place. I guess I could choose to remember those things, but that doesn’t make me feel better. It doesn’t make 9/11 anything but a success to those who tried to frighten and frustrate and intimidate us through terrorism.

This is what I choose to remember:

I remember that the passengers of Flight 93 tried to get into that cockpit. I remember that their plane didn’t make it to Washington, D.C., and even if they never actually breached the cockpit and physically forced the plane into that meadow in Pennsylvania themselves, they certainly fought back and forced the hijackers to abort the mission that they had planned. That plane didn’t crash into the White House or the Capitol, and that’s not because the hijackers got lost.

I remember driving to the wedding rehearsal for two of my best friends on the Friday after the attacks, feeling bad for them that they were getting married in the shadow of 9/11. I remember being amazed at thousands of people in the streets of Sacramento -- neighborhood after neighborhood, thousands of miles away from any of the attack sites -- holding a candlelight vigil. I remember that it was then, as I drove through the silence of these peaceful vigils, with flags and flames and tears all around me, that I thought, “We’re going to be okay.”

I remember George W. Bush -- a President I never voted for -- who, like all of us, was a bit unsteady with his words in the hours immediately following the attacks as he processed the magnitude of what we were living through. But I remember how he found his footing and found his voice quickly and began to speak for all of us. I remember him returning to Washington, D.C. that night, against the wishes of his government and his Secret Service protection. I remember how this President -- a President I didn’t agree with, a President I never cast a supportive ballot for or whose campaign I ever donated a cent to, a President whose beliefs were diametrically opposed to almost everything that I believe in -- went to Ground Zero and met with the families of those who were dead or missing, and gave them all the time they needed with him.

I remember how that President visited the rescue workers at Ground Zero. I remember, more than anything else, how President Bush climbed on to a pile of rubble from the fallen towers of the World Trade Center, grabbed a bullhorn and began to speak, but was interrupted by the workers yelling, “We can’t hear you!”

I remember that the President -- the only President we had at the time -- shouted to these exhausted, weary, grieving, heroic rescuers, “Well, I can hear you! And the people who knocked these buildings down are gonna hear from all of us soon!” I remember that it was genuine, that there was nothing manufactured about that moment, and that, despite all of his faults and deficiencies, George W. Bush said exactly what those people -- our people -- needed to hear. As the workers chanted, “USA! USA! USA!”, I remember thinking that I didn’t vote for him and I won’t vote for him in 2004, but at that moment he was my President and I was proud of him.

As we look back, we can’t help but think about everything else that has come out of 9/11 -- the interminable war in Afghanistan, the unjust and unnecessary war in Iraq, the humiliating and annoying experience that flying in an airplane became in this country -- but I think about that stuff pretty much every day, and I feel like this should always be a day where we think differently.

So, even if it’s just for this day, I’m going to think about those flags and candles and President Bush on top of the rubble of the World Trade Center with a bullhorn. I’m going to think about being an American -- just like I was in the weeks following 9/11 -- rather than who I voted for or what team I like or any of the millions of things that divide us and can get back to tearing us apart tomorrow like they did yesterday.

I’m going to remember thinking, “That’s my President,” as President Bush spoke to the rescue workers, just as I did a few weeks later when he went to Yankee Stadium for Game 3 of the World Series, strapped on a bulky bulletproof vest under his FDNY jacket, walked to the pitcher’s mound, and with millions of Americans watching on television, with thousands of rabid New Yorkers watching in the stands, and with Derek Jeter’s words of warning (”Don’t bounce it or they’ll boo you”) rattling around in his head, threw a perfect strike.

I’ll remember thinking, “That’s my President,” about a guy I never voted for and didn’t agree with, and I’ll hope that you do that when the guy you didn’t vote for and didn’t agree with says the right words, does the right things, and throws a strike when our nation needs it -- not because you’re a Democrat or a Republican, but because you’re an American and that’s the only President we’ve got. We don’t have to disagree about everything just because we don’t agree about most things, and we don’t have to like everything about one another to understand that, sometimes, we need each other.

What do you remember?