#Quality Democracy.

[hargo-news]

Monitor Campaign Period, Amran Ensures Clean, Healthy, and Compliant Process

#MonitorCampaignPeriod #HealthyCampaign Monitor Campaign Period, Amran Ensures Clean, Healthy, and Compliant Process

Hargo.co.id, GORONTALO – To ensure a clean, healthy, and compliant campaign process, Amran Hulubangga, a member of Bawaslu Pohuwato and Coordinator of HP2H Division, along with the Gorontalo Provincial Bawaslu team and the Buntulia Subdistrict Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), as well as local Subdistrict Supervisors (PKD), conducted the monitoring of a participant’s campaign in Buntulia…

[lowqualityonepiece]

sniper king wouldn't have missed.

[grenade-maid]

Signalis, Authority, and History

There's a level of nuance to how Signalis presents the violence of the authority of the nation that doesn't call attention to itself but which I really appreciate. Which is basically just, all the officers and cops and spies who make life hell for people like the Gestalt mine workers, Ariane, and the Itou family--we get little glimpses into who they are in Adler and Kolibri's diaries and despite the propaganda and the authoritative tone they take in official communications, for the most part they don't seem to actually be particularly invested in the hard line of national ideology. They uphold it though, viciously, both because things were worse under imperial rule (we don't get hard details on what it was like but it's mentioned in passing enough that I believe it) and because they're scared that if they don't they will be decommissioned and easily replaced. They are literally stamped out of a production line after all. There's a subtext of well, if I don't do it my replacement will anyway and I'm not trying to die so what's the point of rocking the boat?

I think Kolibri stands out to me most clearly on this because in communications from the block warden regarding Ariane there is emphasis put on how it is unacceptable and suspicious that she should be so interested and invested in art and literature that does not serve the purpose of furthering the goals of the nation. But we know that Kolibris themselves are bookworms, Adlers are fiends for stimulating experiences, and both get miserable FAST when deprived of art and puzzles and entertainment and hobbies. Y'know, just like anyone. Far be it from being a paragon of The Nation only interested in productive labor, we are reminded that the block warden, too, hates this shitty town and wants to transfer but is denied. They're hypocrites, but not monsters, nor brainwashed puppets of the state.

The monstrousness at play is not contained within any particular subset of evil individuals, or even an inherent universal force of evil contained in the broad notion of The Nation. There is no cosmic evil force that makes them all do these things to each other. The monstrousness is within the social systems, the mechanisms of how authority perpetuates on a structural procedural level, held in place by fear and tangible threats of violence, each link in the chain restraining the next through those threats out of fear that if they don't, then they'll be next. Regardless how many, if any, of those people in this chain are true dogmatic hardliners, they must act as such because failing to do so opens them up to danger.

Here then I think of the quote that is so prominent, "Great holes secretly are digged where earth’s pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl", from Lovecraft's The Festival. This is not just a chilling abstract visual that conveniently evokes a mineshaft-- in Lovecraft's story, this line refers to worms which ate the decomposing bodies of wizards whose wretched souls had remained after death, complete with the terrible powers they gained through contracts with demons. Those worms inherited both their power, and also the evil. The Nation, despite having overthrown the Empire, is built on imperial technology, in particular Replikas and bioresonance. So too, then, we can imply that The Nation inherited with those things some of the monstrousness of The Empire as well. There is no end of history, nor clean break with the past, no matter how violently it may seem to be rejected. That which remains from the past--and something inevitably always does--creates the present.

This is a game that is not shy about evoking East Germany. And I think all of this provides a sophisticated picture of repressive authority that we rarely see in fiction of the English speaking world, especially in games. The year the S23 incident takes place is notably 84, but, frankly, I find this to be more compelling and illustrative than 1984 (and I'm a librarian and have taught English classes so I get to say that). Orwell, let's be honest, presents a fairly one dimensional picture of authority, where people seize power and wield it against others out of seeming mustache twirling evil or malice.

Here though we get a more humanistic view. Authority did not come from nowhere and is not wielded arbitrarily out of gleeful cruelty or mindless brainwashed allegiance. People aren't "just following orders". Individuals have rich inner lives. They make decisions, and those decisions are based in the context they're in. Even the decision to carry repressive tools of the past into the present is a decision that was made strategically with the big picture in mind. Nobody woke up and decided to be evil that day. Everyone operates on self interest, and, we must assume, an earnest desire for things to get better. Even the [spoiler] program which served as an inspirational demonstration of The Nation's power, you can imagine the chain of officers and bureaucrats who genuinely wanted the people of the nation to believe in the future, to confidently trust that everyone was working together towards something great and beautiful. And, through a long chain of those people who couldn't say "No" without being decommissioned, we ended up with something unbelievably cruel.

We get to know Adler and Kolibri and the other officers not to say well they're human too, maybe it wasn't so bad that they condemned all those people to agonizing suffering, but to remember that if we keep looking for true monsters we will not find them. There are no monsters and there are no demons. There are only people making decisions. A better world is possible. A better world, where Adler is just a paper pusher who does puzzles after work instead of signing papers to authorize torture, where Kolibris are librarians instead of spies and cops, where EULEs can gossip and play piano and ARARs can do maintenance on facilities that don't contain torture rooms, is one that would not have led to the Ariane and Elster's tragic cycle and ultimate end.

Authority and its attendant cruelty is not contained, radiating forth from The Great Revolutionary and Her Daughter, it is within the social systems of control. When those two women die, that cruelty will continue so long as those social systems continue. Like Lovecraft's worms, no matter how long dead the evil of the past is, so long as it continues to be fed upon, that evil will not only remain, but evolve into something new in the present. A better world can't be achieved through the death of the old world alone, even if violent overthrow is warranted. There is no end of history. There is no clean break from the past.

"Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living."

Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

[arcadiaberger]

Defend democracy, Americans.

PostcardsToVoters.Org

LWV.Org

[roki-roki-roll]

Part 2 (Part 1 here)

Lyrics from The Machine (Intro) by Jukebox the Ghost

Had to do a lot of redraws for this one lol

[averagemrfox]

A Succulent Atlesian Meal

[meat-loving-meat]

I want to write a Vanyel/Stefen modern-with-magic AU soooo bad but I don’t know Valdemar lore like at all. There are six books standing between me and feeling comfortable enough in the lore to imagine what Valdemar might look like with the internet and planes

[waytoobiased]

btw we don’t even need to get rid of market economies to remake society around the radical notion that our lives matter more than year-over-year quarterly profits

[mifunebooty]

Still is a summer vibe though!

[tunastime]

good. since I've already voted for jimmy, how about a drawing of jimmy and/or tango for a vote for xisuma?

i lay my campaign for bee-suma here. we're losing but it's going to be okay. xisuma gets no bitches anyway but i love that for him and it's part of his pathetic whimsy. i don't think this is helping but it might make me an xisuma watcher

[rapid-apathy]

I don't know what is in Chinese makeup, but it is 100x better than anything at sephora or the locked up aisle at walmartarget. I guess I have to be a commufascistcorpogloboimperialist or whatever the hell China is now with the best makeup of my life 😩

[aurianneor]

Work, it’s an all-or-nothing option.

In Greek, Roman and Eastern antiquity, work was seen as a necessary evil. If possible, others were made to do it for you. The earliest references to work in Mesopotamia depicted gods imposing their tasks on men, because they were stronger. Value in antiquity was not work, but knowledge, information and the arts.

In medieval society, the privilege of the nobility was not to work, and they had to avoid showing the marks of their labor: calloused hands, tanning, etc. We start talking about work when the noble forces the weak to do a chore. There was no talk of work for the craftsman, the one who made things. Until the Industrial Revolution, the craftsman and his network made the entire product, and was paid for the finished product. For example, a bed was purchased. The price depended on quality, and there was no notion of working time.

With the industrial revolution, quality became less important. We considered price. Everything was produced in the division of labor, and the worker was paid for his time. In the 19th century, the value of work was born. The employer asked the worker to work as much as possible in the time he was paid. The Church modified its doctrine to say that man could draw closer to God through work.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the boss bought hours and the worker had to give his all. With the First World War, many of the men went to the front. Women produced armaments. And yet, for the majority of the population in Europe, with the exception of Russia, which was not industrialized, everything functioned normally: stores, public services and so on. When soldiers returned from the front, full-time salaries were needed to employ them. In 1920, Bertrand Russel wondered why. Why ask men and women to work from morning to night when, according to his calculations at the time, society would function normally, thanks to technical progress, if people worked 4 hours a day, 4 days a week? Why does the citizen have to choose between working with all his strength and health to the point of exhaustion, or being deposed, losing everything? If work leads to holiness, why don’t the nobles work? Don’t they also aspire to holiness? What to do with those who have no work? In the 1920s, the homeless were multiplying on the streets of European cities.

Why not share the workload?

The absurdity doesn’t stop there. In the post-war years, economics tried to become a science. Economists demonstrated that changes in productivity are essentially due to changes in working methods, not working hours. Producing more cars in the same factory does not depend on workers’ workload, but on work methods.

Since the 50s, economists have shown that increasing the effort required of workers reduces productivity, due to a lack of concentration and accidents in the workplace. This costs society and pollutes it: burn-outs, anti-depressants, illnesses linked to sedentary lifestyles and junk food, childcare (some of whom become delinquents), the trains and freeways needed to get everyone to work in the morning and back home together in the evening, and so on. The need to work is also paid for in human terms: harassment, suicides, abuse, acceptance of dangerous working conditions, isolation, etc.

Why are the jobs that provide the greatest services the ones that have the most work and are the least paid: nursery workers, nurses, police officers, etc.?

The problem is not economic. To earn more, people have to work less.

In society in general, it’s commonly accepted that you have to work yourself to exhaustion: look at nurses, cooks, etc. 75% of our representatives are property owners or stock market shareholders, who live without working, who are the richest people.

The value of work is a toxic notion. The one who works is the servant and the one who doesn’t work is the master. Nothing has changed. Forcing people to work in order to survive, through wages, means using work to achieve what the French Revolution destroyed by abolishing privileges.

Workers are forced to work, otherwise they have no right to anything. The examples of dismissed people are used as scarecrows to control others. Hard work is not a quality, it’s not a goal and it’s not economically viable. Waking up early and working late brings nothing.

What’s more, those who destroy jobs by relocating or using unfair competition (products produced abroad under poor social and environmental conditions) are the first to call lazy those who have lost their sources of income and can’t find a job.

The aim should be to contribute something to society, to be of service, to create useful things, to pay attention to the quality of one’s work.

The sharing of work and wealth is necessary to eliminate the society of privilege and class. It’s economically viable.

Putting people to work to control the population is anti-democratic. After all, how can you take care of politics, your diet, elders or the education of your children if you’re exhausted from work? To deprive citizens of idleness is to control them.

Translated with Deepl

Le travail c’est la sainteté – Cathédrale de Perpignan: https://cathedraleperpignan.fr/le-travail-cest-la-saintete/

Le Temps des ouvriers – 4 épisodes – arte campus: https://campus.arte.tv/serie/le-temps-des-ouvriers-tous-les-episodes

Work ethic – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_ethic

Roger & Me – Michael Moore – 1985: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_%26_Me

In Praise of Idleness – Bertrand Russell – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Idleness_and_Other_Essays

Pourquoi les personnes occupant un emploi “essentiel” sont-elles si mal payées ? – Bruno Palier- Sciences Po – Hal Open Science: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-03102794v1/document

Rythmes de travail… et cadences infernales – Work pace setting and control Pierrette Sartin – Erudit: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/ri/1970-v25-n2-ri2811/028126ar.pdf

Bullshit jobs – David Graeber – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

Moi, Christiane F., 13 ans, droguée, prostituée…– Christiane V. Felscherinow: https://www.babelio.com/livres/Felscherinow-Moi-Christiane-F-13-ans-droguee-prostituee/9577

Plus rien – mickey3d: https://youtu.be/phy1WOyQUYI?si=tfM6pjhRZ3oStzRK

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Travail, le tout ou rien.: https://www.aurianneor.org/travail-le-tout-ou-rien/

4-day workweek: https://www.aurianneor.org/4-day-workweek/

A slice of the cake: https://www.aurianneor.org/a-slice-of-the-cake/

What I am worth depends neither on market nor on race: https://www.aurianneor.org/what-i-am-worth-depends-neither-on-market-nor-on-race/

Absences from work: https://www.aurianneor.org/absences-from-work/

Living with dignity: https://www.aurianneor.org/living-with-dignity/

Restricting personal wealth: https://www.aurianneor.org/restricting-personal-wealth/

Freedom and coexistence: https://www.aurianneor.org/freedom-and-coexistence/

How can we win back trust?: https://www.aurianneor.org/how-can-we-win-back-trust/

Humiliated by the Republic: https://www.aurianneor.org/humiliated-by-the-republic/

Rob the poor to feed the rich: https://www.aurianneor.org/rob-the-poor-to-feed-the-rich/

Home fairy – does it all without working: https://www.aurianneor.org/home-fairy-does-it-all-without-working-gender/

Marche à l’ombre: https://www.aurianneor.org/marche-a-lombre-quand-l-baba-cool-cradoque-est/

Since I stopped working And started thinking again It works in my favor!: https://www.aurianneor.org/since-i-stopped-working-and-started-thinking-again/

Basic Income is possible.: https://www.aurianneor.org/basic-income-is-possible-the-instrument-of/

To give or not to give?: https://www.aurianneor.org/to-give-or-not-to-give-give-or-not-give-giving/

Work: https://www.aurianneor.org/work-work-1915-charlie-chaplin/

[pastdaily]

Issue Of Immigration: The Wetbacks - 1954 - Past Daily After Hours Reference Room

Coffee? https://pastdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/cbs-radio-the-wetbacks-1954.mp3 – CBS Radio – The Wetbacks – April 11, 1954 – The hot-button topic of Immigration is once again heading to the front page. The decades-old question of how to deal with waves of immigrants entering this country to work, live and pay taxes, albeit illegally, has been a major bone of contention since the dawn…

[nevermind-i-forgot-whats-that]

Sometimes, as much as I love internet communities and spaces, I really think a lot of people have spent so much time in sanitized, morally pure echo chambers that they lose sight of realism and life outside the internet.

I live in Alabama. My fiancée and I cannot hold hands down the street without fear of homophobic assholes. We have an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. We are one of the poorest states in the US with some of the lowest scores on metrics related to quality of life, including maternal mortality, healthcare, education, and violence. It’s not a coincidence that we are also one of the most red, one of the most Republican states in the Union. In 2017 the UN said the conditions in Alabama are similar to those in a third-world country.

Trump gave a voice to the most violently racist, sexist, xenophobic groups of people who, unfortunately for most of us in the Southern U.S., run our states and have only grown more powerful since his rise to power. The Deep South powers MAGA, and we all suffer for it.

We have no protections if they don’t come from the federal government.

I know people are suffering internationally and my heart is with them. However, this election is not just about foreign policy - we have millions of Americans right here at home living in danger, living in areas where they have been completely abandoned by their local leaders. We need this win.

No candidate is perfect, but for the first time in my voting lifetime I’m excited to vote. I’m excited for the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz ticket because they are addressing the issues close to home. They’re advocating for education as the ticket to a better life, but without the crippling student debt. They’re advocating for the right to love who you love without fear and with pride. Kamala has always been pro-LGBT+ and so has Tim. Again, if you’re queer in the South, we don’t have support unless it comes from the federal government, and we absolutely will not have support if the Republicans regain the White House.

Kamala speaks in length about re-entry programs to reduce recidivism and help people who have been arrested and imprisoned regain their lives. Tim Walz supported restoring voting rights to felons. In the South, you know who comprise the majority of felons? Members of minorities. It’s one of the major tools of systemic racism and mass disenfranchisement, and arguably the modern face of slavery (there are some fantastic documentaries and books that explain the connection between the post-Reconstruction South and the disproportionate rates of imprisonment for BIPOC). Having candidates who recognize this and want to restore the freedom and rights to people who have come into contact with the criminal justice system? And keep them from having to go to prison in the first place? That’s refreshing. That’s exciting.

I would *love* to live in a country where women’s rights are respected, where LGBT+ rights and protections are a given, where we treat former criminals and individuals experiencing mental health crises with respect and dignity. I would *love* to live in a country where education is free of religious interference and each and every citizen is entitled to a fair start and equal opportunities.

But I don’t live in that country. Millions and millions of Americans find their rights and freedoms up for debate and on the ballot.

Project 2025 poses the largest threat to the future of our democracy as we know it. We are being called to fight for the future of our country.

We have to put on our oxygen masks first before we can help others.

You don’t have moral purity when you wash your hands of the millions of us who are still fighting for own freedoms right here.

The reality is that a presidential candidate is a best fit, and not a perfect fit. But comparatively speaking? Kamala is pretty damn close.

[odinsblog]

🗣️THIS IS WHAT INCLUSIVE, COMPASSIONATE DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE

Minnesota Dems enacted a raft of laws to make the state a trans refuge, and ensure people receiving trans care here can't be reached by far-right governments in places like Florida and Texas. (link)

Minnesota Dems ensured that everyone, including undocumented immigrants, can get drivers' licenses. (link)

They made public college free for the majority of Minnesota families. (link)

Minnesota Dems dropped a billion dollars into a bevy of affordable housing programs, including by creating a new state housing voucher program. (link)

Minnesota Dems massively increased funding for the state's perpetually-underfunded public defenders, which lets more public defenders be hired and existing public defenders get a salary increase. (link)

Dems raised Minnesota education spending by 10%, or about 2.3 billion. (link)

Minnesota Dems created an energy standard for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. (link)

Minnesota already has some of the strongest election infrastructure (and highest voter participation) in the country, but the legislature just made it stronger, with automatic registration, preregistration for minors, and easier access to absentee ballots. (link)

Minnesota Dems expanded the publicly subsidized health insurance program to undocumented immigrants. This one's interesting because it's the sort of things Dems often balk at. The governor opposed it! The legislature rolled over him and passed it anyway. (link)

Minnesota Dems expanded background checks and enacted red-flag laws, passing gun safety measures that the GOP has thwarted for years. (link)

Minnesota Dems gave the state AG the power to block the huge healthcare mergers that have slowly gobbled up the state's medical system. (link)

Minnesota Dems restored voting rights to convicted felons as soon as they leave prison. (link)

Minnesota Dems made prison phone calls free. (link)

Minnesota Dems passed new wage protection rules for the construction industry, against industry resistance. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a new sales tax to fund bus and train lines, an enormous victory for the sustainability and quality of public transit. Transit be more pleasant to ride, more frequent, and have better shelters, along more lines. (link)

They passed strict new regulations on PFAS ("forever chemicals"). (link)

Minnesota Dems passed the largest bonding bill in state history! Funding improvements to parks, colleges, water infrastructure, bridges, etc. etc. etc. (link)

They're going to build a passenger train from the Twin Cities to Duluth. (link)

I can't even find a news story about it but there's tens of millions in funding for new BRT lines, too. (link)

A wonky-but-important change: Minnesota Dems indexed the state gas tax to inflation, effectively increasing the gas tax. (link)

They actually indexed a bunch of stuff to inflation, including the state's education funding formula, which helps ensure that school spending doesn't decline over time. (link)

Minnesota Dems made hourly school workers (e.g., bus drivers and paraprofessionals) eligible for unemployment during summer break, when they're not working or getting paid. (link)

Minnesota Dems passed a bunch of labor protections for teachers, including requiring school districts to negotiate class sizes as part of union contracts. (Yet another @SydneyJordanMN special here. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a state board to govern labor standards at nursing homes. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, which would set price caps for high-cost pharmaceuticals. (link)

Minnesota Dems created new worker protections for Amazon warehouse workers and refinery workers. (link)

Minnesota Dems passed a digital fair repair law, which requires electronics manufacturers to make tools and parts available so that consumers can repair their electronics rather than purchase new items. (link)

Minnesota Dems made Juneteenth a state holiday. (link)

Minnesota Dems banned conversion therapy. (link)

They spent nearly a billion dollars on a variety of environmental programs, from heat pumps to reforestation. (link)

Minnesota Dems expanded protections for pregnant and nursing workers - already in place for larger employers - to almost everyone in the state. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a new child tax credit that will cut child poverty by about a quarter. (link)

Minnesota Democrats dropped a quick $50 million into homelessness prevention programs. (link)

And because the small stuff didn't get lost in the big stuff, they passed a law to prevent catalytic converter thefts. (link)

Minnesota Dems increased child care assistance. (link)

Minnesota Dems banned "captive audience meetings," where employers force employees to watch anti-union presentations. (link)

No news story yet, but Minnesota Dems forced signal priority changes to Twin Cities transit. Right now the trains have to wait at intersections for cars, which, I can say from experience, is terrible. Soon that will change.

Minnesota Dems provided the largest increase to nursing home funding in state history. (link)

They also bumped up salaries for home health workers, to help address the shortage of in-home nurses. (link)

Minnesota Dems legalized drug paraphernalia, which allows social service providers to conduct needle exchanges and address substance abuse with reduced fear of incurring legal action. (link)

Minnesota Dems banned white supremacists and extremists from police forces, capped probation at 5 years for most crimes, improved clemency, and mostly banned no-knock warrants. (link)

Minnesota Dems also laid the groundwork for a public health insurance option. (link)

I’m happy for the people of Minnesota, but as a Floridian living under Ron DeSantis & hateful Republicans, I’m also very envious tbh. We know that democracy can work, and this is a shining example of what government could be like in the hands of legislators who actually care about helping people in need, and not pursuing the GOP’s “culture wars” and suppressing the votes of BIPOC, and inflicting maximum harm on those who aren’t cis/het, white, wealthy, Christian males. BRAVO MINNESOTA. This is how you do it! And the Minnesota Dems did it with a one seat majority, so no excuses. Forget about the next election and focus on doing as much good as you can, while you still can. 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

👉🏿 https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1660846689450688514.html

[heather-riggins-found-diary]

Title: Why Trump Should Not Be Voted for President in 2024

Introduction As the political landscape in the United States evolves, discussions surrounding potential presidential candidates in the 2024 election have gained momentum. One name that frequently emerges is Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States. While he undoubtedly has a dedicated base of supporters, there are compelling reasons why many argue that Trump should not be voted…