#or they're talking about the state of the Supreme Court

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

Top 3 annoying experiences on this website is having people who are not from your country loudly and confidently share misinformation and be wrong about your country's domestic politics because they think having their tumblr dashboards and twitter feeds full of posts (true or not) about American politics means they actually know anything about what the politics here are actually like or how the government works lol

[inkskinned]

she's three years younger than i am, and i put on cascada as a throwback, cackling - before your time! i've been borrowing my brother's car, and it's older than dirt, so the trunk is like, maybe permanently locked. when the sun comes through the window to frame her cheekbones, i feel like i'm 16 again. i shake when i'm kissing her, worried i won't get it right.

in 2003, my state made gay marriage legal. where she grew up, it wasn't legal until 11 years later - 10 years ago. if legal protections for gay marriage were a person, that person would be entering 5th grade. online, a white gay man calls the fight for legal marriage boring, which isn't kind of him but it is a common enough opinion.

it has only been 9 years since gay marriage was nationally official. it is already boring to have gay people in your tv. it is already boring to mention being gay - "why make it your entire personality?" i know siblings that have a larger age gap than the amount of time it's been legally protected. i recently saw a grown man record himself crying about how evil gay people are. he was begging us, red in the face - just do better.

i am absolutely ruined any time my girlfriend talks about being 27 (i know!! a child!), but we actually attended undergrad at the same time since i had taken off time to work between high school and college. while walking through the city, we drop our hands, try not to look too often at each other. the other day i went to an open mic in a basement. the headlining comedian said being lesbian isn't interesting, but i am a lesbian, if you care. as a joke, she had any lesbian raise their hand if present. i raised mine, weirdly embarrassed at being the single hand in a sea of other faces. she had everyone give me a round of applause. i felt something between pride and also throwing up.

sometimes one thing is also another thing. i keep thinking about my uncle. he died in the hospital without his husband of 35 years - they were not legally wed, so his husband could not enter. this sounds like it should be from 1950. it happened in 2007. harassment and abuse and financial hardship still follow any person who is trying to get married while disabled. marriage equality isn't really equal yet.

and i don't know that i can ever put a name to what i'm experiencing. sometimes it just feels... so odd to watch the balance. people are fundamentally uninterested in your identity, but also - like, there's a whole fucking bastion of rabid men and women who want to kill you. your friends roll their eyes you're gay we get it and that is funny but like. when you asked your father do you still love me? he just said go to your room. you haven't told your grandmother. disney is on their 390th "first" gay representation, but also cancelled owl house and censored the fuck out of gravity falls. you actively got bullied for being gay, but your advisor told you to find a different gimmick for your college essay - everyone says they're gay these days.

once while you were having a hard day you cried about the fact that the reason our story is so fucking boring to so many people is that it is so similar. that it is rare for one of us to just, like, have a good experience across the board. that our stories often have very parallel bends - the dehumanization, the trauma, the trouble with trusting again. these become rote instead of disgusting. how bad could it be if it is happening to so many people?

i kiss my girlfriend when nobody is looking. i like her jawline and how her hands splay when she's making a joke. there is nothing new about this story, sappho. i love her like opening up the sun. like folding peace between the layers of my life, a buttercream of euphoria, freckles and laughter and wonder.

my dad knows about her. i've been out to him since i was 18 - roughly four years before the supreme court would protect us. the other day he flipped down the sun visor while driving me to the eye doctor. "you need to accept that your body was made for a husband. you want to be a mother because you were made for men, not women." he wants me to date my old high school boyfriend. i gagged about it, and he shook his head. he said - "don't be so dramatic. you can get used to anything."

the other day a straight friend of mine snorted down her nose about it, accidentally echoing him - she said there are bigger problems in this world than planning a wedding.

[captainjonnitkessler]

While unsurprising, the rhetoric being spewed by Louisiana's lawmakers is fucking terrifying to me.

I feel so lucky that I was raised by a bunch of atheist because honestly I managed to go the majority of my childhood happy, without being shamed or acquiring a persecution complex...but now looking out at the current climate we live in...damn, they really hate us, don't they? I mean "godless" is one of the main insults getting thrown around on most campaign trails, which isn't new it just hurts.

I feel like I am a bad person because I only just found out about what's going on in Louisiana.

Sorry, just screaming into the void a bit. I hope you have a good day

For anyone who's not aware, Louisiana just passed a law requiring every single public classroom in the state, from kindergarten to college, to display the Ten Commandments.

Unfortunately, this is just the latest in the rapidly-escalating war between Christofascists and secularism. Multiple states have proposed this law, Louisiana is just the first to actually pass it. Oklahoma's Department of Education is claiming that they're going to force teachers to start teaching from the Bible. Seven states have passed laws requiring schools to display "In God We Trust" signs.

Here's the thing I think a lot of people on this site are too young to remember or weren't involved enough in religious politics to notice, and the reason the "edgy atheist who just hates religion" stereotype has gained so much traction on here: The New Atheist movement was very much a response to constant barrages of shit like this. Getting America to be even as secular as it is has been a constant struggle. Conservatives have been openly blaming atheists for school shootings, mass murders, and serial killers for decades. People who stand up and try to get religion taken out of schools and government immediately become targets for massive hate and harassment campaigns. People - conservatives and liberals alike - react with hatred and anger whenever someone stands up to get religion out of places where it doesn't belong. I think the past fifteen years or so have gotten a lot of people believing that separation of church and state is an obviously "safe" position that almost everyone is in favor of, but it very much is not and never has been.

I believe that conservatives are going to try to use the current Supreme Court to essentially abolish the separation of church and state, largely because many of them are openly stating their intent to do so. Louisiana is already being sued about this - if it makes its way to the Supreme Court, I think there's a decent chance of the current court ruling in favor of Louisiana, which is going to unleash the floodgates of Christian propaganda in public schools. It is frankly a dire situation, so I'm sorry if you were here looking for reassurance lol.

As always, the best action I can recommend is to get involved. You're definitely not a bad person for not knowing about this! But if you want to stay on top of religious news, I recommend the Friendly Atheist blog. The Freedom From Religion Foundation fights to get laws like this taken down. You can check your local city for secular humanist meetups. You don't want to burn out or enter a doom spiral by only ever dwelling on bad news, but I find that having people to talk to or action you can take is a good way to ward off despair.

And please, please, vote. Vote in federal and state elections, vote in your local city council elections, vote in your school board elections. A LOT of this is happening at local levels, and being involved in your local politics is possibly the most effective thing you can do!

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Over the last couple of days, 3 independent Palestinian terrorist attacks took place. In one of them, Palestinian terrorists killed a Palestinian man that they mistook for a Jew, 33 years old Amar Mansour. A 42 years old Palestinian woman who was in the car with him was wounded. She was evacuated to a hospital in Ramallah, and then later transferred to the Hadassah medical center in Jerusalem, where she works as a pharmacist. Israeli soldiers risk their lives whenever they go after terrorists, and they are doing that for these Palestinians, just as they do for Israeli Jews and for Israeli Arabs murdered by terrorists.

Since Saleh al-Arouri was eliminated in Lebanon, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated. The terrorist organization, which is destroying civilian communities, has struck an Israel Air Force base, nicknamed "the country's northern eyes," which is dedicated to monitoring aerial threats invading Israel's north, and monitoring aircrafts in Israel's northern sky (so they're kinda like an air force control tower, making sure aircrafts don't crash). Hezbollah released footage showing 2 of the base's 3 domes being hit. Reports say it took two hours to get the fire under control, and the base back online. It's not the only army base hit by Hezbollah (the Northern Command's base was struck today), but probably the most damaging attack so far.

Following that, a Hezbollah senior terrorist was killed yesterday in Lebanon. In the terrorist organization's announcement, he was described as 'The Commander,' a term not used for any of Hezbollah's other killed terrorists, suggesting just how important he was to their terrorist activity. There's a report on Saudi news, that Hezbollah tried to attack an Israeli natural gas rig using drones, but it's too early to know how true this is.

Here's a conversation made by a Gazan to an IDF officer, to ask for aid. The IDF officer tells the man to raise white flags as they approach Israeli soldiers for this purpose, but then the man inquires when the Israeli army will destroy Hamas. He points out that Hamas is killing Gaza's people.

As Israel is being sued by South Africa at the International Court for Justice (here), and as SA chose to appoint a judge to the case (in addition to the 15 permanent judges of the ICJ, a right given to both the suing and sued countries in that court), Israel has appointed Aharon Barak as a judge on its behalf. Barak is an 87 years old Holocaust survivor, globally renowned and respected judge and legal expert, and the former president of Israel's Supreme Court of Justice.

Since the anti-Israel crowd love quotes from Israeli officials (and to take them out of context, in a way that vilifies the Jewish state), here's another one (source in Hebrew): Moshe Arbel, an ultra orthodox member of the Knesset (Israel's parliament), and currently Minister of Interior Affairs, has said today explicitly that the status of the Arabic language in Israel must not be harmed, and that despite some populist utterances, most of the public in Israel is looking for that which unites everyone here, rather than that which divides us.

Among the things you never hear about when looking at anti-Israeli sources, is that when Jews build houses illegally, those are demolished by the state, just like when Palestinians do it. This night, Israel did exactly that in Judea and Samaria.

It's the third time, at the very least, that Israel has done so since the start of the war in Gaza.

The families of the hostages have said that today, they'll had for the border with Gaza, to block the way of aid trucks going in from Israel. They are upset that while their family members have been held hostage for over 90 days (when we know that there has been rape and abuse of the hostages in many different ways, when the mothers have started talking about the fact that their daughters might be forced to carry pregnancies from the Hamas terrorists continuously raping them in captivity, when the hostages are known not to be receiving proper medical care or even enough food and water), the aid going into Gaza is being stolen by Hamas, allowing them to continue to fight, and to refuse the release of the hostages. At the time of compiling this post, IDK yet if the families carried this out.

This is 86 years old Shlomo Mansour.

In one of my past daily update posts, I mentioned him, and that he's the oldest hostage in Gaza. He was 85 years old when he was kidnapped. He's also a Holocaust survivor. I watched a touching piece that was aired in Nov about him, interviewing his wife in light of their upcoming 60th anniversary, during which he was still held captive by terrorists. Now it's been translated into English:

This is 35 years old Idan Amedi.

If you watched Fauda, you may know him from that show as an actor.

If you're Israeli, you probably know him even before that as a singer. I got to watch a vid at a relatively early stage of the fighting in Gaza, where Idan's voice can be heard, dedicating his unit blowing up a terror tunnel, to their friends murdered on Oct 7. I believe many Israelis saw that vid, and knew he was in there, fighting for over 3 months by this point.

Idan was seriously wounded, one of at least 9 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza yesterday, and at least 6 soldiers injured. His cousin asked everyone to pray for him (Idan ben Tova). Israeli-Serbian basketballer Deni Avdija, who plays for the Washington Wizards, took the court today with a dedication to Idan on his basketball shoes. It says, in Hebrew, "For the healing of Idan son of Tova Amedi."

Maybe Idan's biggest, most well known song is Warriors' Pain (which he wrote himself, lyrics and melody). One of its haunting lines is, "You don't understand why, I have long stopped being myself, images running from that night." I am gonna add the official YT vid of this song, and dedicate it to the memory of all of those who were injured or died fighting the terrorists from Gaza, whether on Oct 7 or since.

You know what was absolutely abhorrent? I pretty much stopped going on Twitter, because the antisemitism is beyond disgusting. But I had a moment of weakness, went there, and saw a tweet from a British journalist, who couldn't say anything yet, but implied that many Israeli soldiers were killed yesterday, and the amount of commenters basically celebrating it was despicable, but also a reminder... people who care about human rights don't celebrate the death of so many human beings. Every single one of those soldiers is fighting in a war that Israel didn't choose to start, and that Hamas could have ended a long time ago. Not a single one of them would have chosen to be in Gaza and die, if Israelis had a choice. Each one is an entire family destroyed. I was listening to an interview with the best friend of one killed soldier, and she was so clearly devastated, fighting to speak through tears, it was hard to bear so much pain, and she wasn't even a relative or spouse. Those disgusting people who celebrate the death of Israeli soldiers prove that they don't care about human rights, they just rejoice over the death of Jews.

Oh, and a part of why they do that, is because they don't want us talking about our pain. Who would talk about their pain, when it just because a weapon for haters to inflict even more emotional pain? But that's the thing. We're human beings. The antisemitic anti-Israel crowd seeks to de-humanize us in the same way the Nazis did. If we speak about our pain, if people hear us, that is way more threatening to them than any of their distorted facts being called out. So I'm not going to stop talking about our pain, we deserve to share it when we're hurting, we deserve to be seen as the human beings that we are. And people who are so morally lost, that they can try to use it, to inflict more pain? They don't deserve for their words to count.

This is 32 years old Dvir David Pima.

He was a deputy battalion commander, who identified a terror tunnel shaft as booby trapped, but without enough time to stop it from blowing up. He threw himself at it. His body took the blast, and by doing so, he saved the lives of the 3 other soldiers who were there.

May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[dangerpronebuddie]

📋📋📋📋

Hi my love 😘🩷 (ignore me answering this like a week late lol). Anyway! Wrote a hell of a lot more than 4 sentences but I couldn't not share it. I'm actually really loving this fic 🥰

Clipboard Buck fic:

Three days go by before Buck brings it up again, this time as they're all sitting down to dinner. Buck is last to the table, as usual, and sits down right beside Eddie, clipboard in hand. Ravi silently and swiftly fills his plate, resolutely avoiding Buck's gaze, before standing and marching straight up to the roof. “What's with him?” Buck asks with a frown. “Some people aren't strong enough to handle the clipboard, bud,” Eddie says, giving him a consoling pat on the back. “You've scarred the kid for life,” Chim sighs. “The only one who can handle you and your precious clipboard is Diaz.” “Once again proving that I am the favorite,” Buck declares with a grin he shines at Eddie. Eddie beams back, almost instinctively, and takes the platter of pork chops Chim passes him. “How's the quiz coming along, kid?” Bobby asks. “I haven't got very far actually making the thing, but I'm learning a lot about different sexualities,” Buck says excitedly. “Did you know the phrase nutty as a fruitcake was originally a slur against homosexual men?” Yes, unfortunately, Eddie did know that. Multiple members of his family used the phrase, especially when they would talk about an uncle of his they never let him meet. When he'd ask about him, his mother would simply shake her head and say “that fruitcake isn't worth knowing, Edmundo. You don't want to be like him.” When he asked Pepa why they always referred to uncle Armando as a fruitcake, she sighed and explained the metaphor to him. “Well that's dumb,” Eddie had said, frowning into his coffee cup. “Yes, Eddito. Between you and me, it's very dumb,” she'd said. Eddie blinks a few times and reaches for the bread basket, taking a bun and passing it to Hen, who's looking at him with an expression he can't quite decipher. Eddie frowns at her and mouths what? She makes a nothing face that absolutely means something, but Eddie doesn't dare ask about it. He doesn't get the chance to anyway, because Buck stumbles across another fun fact: “Did you know Texas was among the last of the states to decriminalize homosexuality? And only because a supreme court case forced them to.” “That is really not surprising,” Hen says. Eddie can feel her eyes on him. He's suddenly very interested in the marinade Bobby used on the pork chops. Is there Worcestershire sauce in this? Maybe some honey?

Annnnnd I'm going to use this as my Tease Tidbit Tuesday!!

Tagged by @tizniz who's Leap Year au is making me insane actually 💜🩵

Tagging:

@lover-of-mine @loveyouanyway @daffi-990 @kitteneddiediaz

@ronordmann @steadfastsaturnsrings @inell @exhuastedpigeon @hippolotamus @diazsdimples

@thekristen999 @monsterrae1 @actuallyitsellie @diazheartsbuckley @wildlife4life @theotherbuckley

@rainbow-nerdss @alliaskisthepossibilityoflove @lunarspark-cos @idealuk @shipperqueen6 @slowlyfoggydestiny

@misshiss727 @lin27 @jshadow01 @orangeboxfox92

@thegeekcompanion @emilybahu @lemotmo @awolfnamed-nyx

@kaseysgirl86-blog @darkrose6578 @totallynotagoraphobic @dandelioncasey @bibuckbuckgoose @whatsgoodinthehood22

@lady-elaine @buckley-diaz-rules @buddiedaydreamer911 @monroemary @pirate-hunter

@nonspeakingkiku @eddiedisasterdiaz @drunkandsupportiveeddie @traumabuddies @epicbuddieficrecs @elvensorceress @disasterbuck

@tofanasmuse @gnoeltop @keynb @cassi-brooks @-syrup-sue

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Same anon that's something the supreme Court question. Why do you say it like they are defending it when I have seen multiple people say they don't care about the Constitution either? Like aren't they the ones that overturning roe v wade and there's a possibility they will make same-sex marriages illegal again with all this project 2025 stuff that's going up?

speaking about that, is Biden actually accomplishing those goals? And please make this very clear with facts. This may require you to write up a longer post about this but I think I really want to understand if that is a fear monitoring thing or if this is another "Dems are bad, gop good" shit

First of all, Roe v Wade was always bad law. The idea that the right to privacy means a right to legal abortions never made sense, morally or constitutionally, and it never should have been in place at all, let alone for as long as it was. The Supreme Court overturning unconstitutional laws and reversing unconstitutional decisions is literally why it exists. The Constitution empowers the court for that very reason. If you want other examples of the court protecting the constitution, just look at the Heller decision, or any of the other decisions rolling back unconstitutional gun laws in the past few years. Look also at Matal v Tam, in which the court unanimously ruled that the government can't ban speech just because it's offensive. Which means that there can be no laws against so-called hate speech in the US, and the Orwellian tyranny you see all over Europe under the guise of combating "hate speech" can never legally happen here. Which is a massive win for free speech and the entire reason the 1st Amendment was written.

As for gay marriage getting overturned, it's incredibly unlikely, since there are zero court cases about gay marriage going on right now and the Supreme Court can't just make rulings out of nothing (much to the frustration of more than a few people, I'm sure) it's basically a non-issue. If you're referring to what Clarence Thomas said about gay marriage in his majority opinion overturning Roe, he specifically said that this ruling shouldn't be used as justification to overturn the Obergefell v. Hodges decision on its own, though he did say that those decisions deserve another look. And he's right. Obergefell is another case of an activist court inventing rights out of thin air. There is no such thing as the right to marriage, for gay or straight people. It should be overturned, and the issue of defining legal marriage should be left up to individual states, as the Constitution intended (see the 10th Amendment).

I've been asked about Project 2025 before, and I'll tell you what I told the last anon, as far as I can tell, it's a pile of nothing. It's a group of policy proposals made by a bunch of conservative political commenters I've never heard of, who, as far as I know, have no connection to any Republican political campaign or the RNC. No one on the right is talking about the project. No politicians have come out in support of it. No campaigns have said they're going to implement those policies. Project 2025 is a left-wing boogeyman, and not even one that's getting a lot of traction in left wing circles since the only time I've ever seen anyone talking about it has been in my ask box and a few fringe far left conspiracy sites that came up when I originally tried to figure out what it was. It's the left attempt to have their own Agenda 2030 to be scared and angry about, except there aren't any international organizations trying to get the governments of the world to adopt their policies.

speaking about that, is Biden actually accomplishing those goals?

So, I really don't know what you mean by this. What goals?

[miniar]

This doesn't mean that Trump's already won the election.

There's been a barrage of propaganda going on top of honest and perfectly legitimate criticism of Biden trying to convince you to abstain from voting.

But the votes aren't cast, let alone counted, yet.

Not Yet.

This DOES mean that your vote is about a million times more important, which is absolutely unhinged as it was already incredibly important (why else would the propaganda machine try and convince you otherwise).

No, the presidential election isn't the be-all end-all, but one of the most recent decisions of the supreme court of the united states means that a president has immunity from any and all criminal charges for anything done as an "official act" which LITERALLY means that a united states president could have their political opponents assassinated. Literally. Not an understatement.

House and Senate both "could" be purged of opposition.

Meaning that a sitting president could ensure that they can't be impeached through violence and IS currently, legally, immune from any consequences for that.

Literally.

No, I don't think there's a single human being in existence that should have that power... but there's one man running for that office that's already promising to imprison his political opponents.

Already promising to have his political opponents charged with imaginary crimes and put away.

Already promising to purge political opposition.

And the horrifying thing is that this would only be the very tip of the iceberg.

Project 2025 is a promise to create a puritanical, fascistic, christian-nationalist, white ethnostate, under the direct control of a dictator.

That's not an understatement either.

They've openly and honestly spoken out against democracy. They're openly talking about purging political opponents. They're openly talking about rounding up the undesireables and purging society of them.

They're openly talking about proposed ethnic clensing...

Genocide...

That's what they're promising.

You can not afford to surrender before the final vote is counted.

The rest of the world is watching you with abject horror, with fear for your lives first, but also fear for ours, as any of us who's ever read a single history book knows... a nation ruled by a power-hungry, greedy, arrogant dictator, Needs enemies.

Without enemies they run out of justifications.

And the moment the ethnic cleansing of the united states slows down, even just a little, that man and his cronies will need to look beyond their borders for new targets.

There is no good outcome available, for anyone in the US, potentially for the world, if that man wins the election. The stakes haven't been higher in our lifetimes.

Please.

Do not give up yet.

Not all is lost.

Not until the last vote is counted.

[anexperimentallife]

"anyone asking you not to vote is part of a far right psy-op" you can have any opinion you want about voting but please do not spread misinformation especially when most of the people who aren't voting anymore are marginalized communities who are tired of nothing changing. dumbass

As a member of a marginalized community who is tired of nothing changing (and who left the US but is being forced back by medical issues), I stand by my statement. The far right is excellent at weaponizing people's anger to their own ends, and you're a perfect example. "Part of a far-right psyop" includes people who have been unknowingly duped into supporting it.

Far right (openly): "We have to keep people away from the polls, because that's the only way we can win and force our vision on the US!"

You: "Doing exactly what the GOP openly says they want, letting them win so they can further victimize the already-marginalized, enact a nationwide abortion ban, finish filling the supreme court, other judiciary positions, and top military appointees so they can dictate for decades to come will really show those Dems! Sorry immigrants and asylum seekers, sorry people who need abortions, sorry, people who rely on social security, Medicare, and Medicaid, sorry people who want to be able to protest without being shot by US troops, sorry for people who want access to birth control, sorry people who need better wages to survive, but owning the Dems by refusing to vote is more important than your lives. And letting the far right win will also somehow convince the Dems that running far right candidates is a losing strategy."

I repeat: The far-right has stated over and over again that the only way they win is by convincing everyone except their base to not vote.

People refusing to vote in order to "punish" the Dems is EXACTLY what the GOP wants. They OPENLY SAY IT.

Another obvious fact I can't believe I have to state: Because of the GOP winning elections, we now have a majority far-right Supreme Court that overturned Roe v Wade.

What do you think they'll do if they regain control of the other two branches of government?

Even now, the GOP is openly talking about enacting a nationwide abortion ban. They're also blocking top-level military appointees so that those positions can be filled under a GOP presidency by GOP/Trump loyalists. You've seen what they're doing with loyalists in the judicial system. What do you think they'll do when they have total control over the military?

Biden is a piece of shit, yeah, as is Dem leadership in general. But we're choosing between one corrupt piece of shit and another corrupt piece of shit, but one who openly talks about eliminating the "vermin" (immigrants, dissenters, etc.) in the US, and a party who wants to eliminate what little social safety net exists. GOP policy has already resulted in the US having more poverty and income inequality than any other developed country.

It's in all of our best interests to keep the GOP from controlling all three branches of government.

You really think allowing a full-on neo-Nazi takeover, allowing a nationwide abortion ban, elimination of the already fragile social safety net, and letting the GOP fully take over all military leadership positions the way they've already taken over the Supreme Court is gonna "own the Dems?"

The people who run both major parties are going to be fine no matter what. This is a game to them. For some of us, it's life or death. If my daughter needs an abortion, or birth control, or wants to protest without having the US Army called in to shoot her I want her to have all of that and more.

Sorry you got pulled into the far right psyop. Blocking ya now.

[drdemonprince]

hi pls ignore if this is inapproriate i recently saw a post of yours about how to make protesting and activism more accessible for yourself and you mentioned not to talk to the PSL and that they're basically a cult. would you be able to provide any information to look into that, if not TOTALLY okay! but i wanted to ask as someone who went to an event with the PSL for the first time, i hadn't heard anything about them being kinda dicey so was wondering if you had any resources to look more into the reasons why that would be the case?

There are a lot of resources on this and I strongly encourage you to Google it to learn more (do a search for "PSL [Your city] Cult" or "PSL [Your City] Criticisms" or something similar):

I could go on and on and on

[hederskrans]

listen guys, with recent happenings in the states, i know shit sucks, okay? i know we all wish we could leave. however, i can't do that. many OTHER people can't do that, for whatever reason. i don't want us to disappear, so i'll try to put together some things we can do to help. these are the ones i know for sure, add any you want, and i'll be reblogging with more once i get more info:

help your communities. give extra butter to your neighbors when they ask. help your friends with money. help people. be kind.

when voting for elections, the "little" elections are as big as the big ones. from the president to members of your local school board, you need to participate in voting for who you want. i don't care if it's boring or you think it won't do anything- and i'll tell you why right now. the people that put these rules in place did so purposefully, and that is how books with queer characters are banned in your schools and the supreme court has had three judges appointed by donald trump. if you want change, you gotta get out there and make it happen.

protest protest protest. spread info about it. if anyone's being a dick about it to you, only get aggressive as an absolute LAST RESORT (like if they're harassing you or something, and even then, please don't do anything stupid). if they don't listen to the info you're giving them, just block and move on. don't run yourself ragged arguing with randoms. for organizers and protestors: remember they were going to make you look like criminals no matter what. meaning: don't let the news make you feel like shit. don't feel bad if you're called bad names. don't let them get you down.

when talking about this, remember that some people can't leave the states. remember that they're just as scared as you are. they don't want to be here either.

don't let this get so bad that it necessitates a revolution. many people can't handle that for any reason, and it is best to ensure as many people live as possible. this is why we need to organize, vote, and make some noise.

never, never, never give up. never even think of it. sure, you can be scared- you can be absolutely petrified if you want- but you must be able to do it scared. you must steel yourself against your fears and be courageous for those who are vulnerable.

overall this is just written as i'm shaking out of fear, but we must stand in the face of adversity, yadda yadda. don't allow this country to obscure your light. we must fight for our rights in the now so that we won't have to die for them in the future.

i know it's a long post, but thank you for reading.

[reasonandempathy]

Looking on from abroad, I don't like any of the recent rulings by SCOTUS ideologically, but they're also clearly correct. The constitution is not in line with liberal or leftwing values. Like I'm not saying "thus these values should not be pursued", but the court's role is to say what the constitution says; and the constitution says "fuck the poor" etc.

They're not though. Before getting into it you need to be aware that there are proper and improper procedures for how these things are done. It makes sense, because otherwise the Supreme Court could pro-actively dictate what the law is and isn't, as you understand.

There have to be cases brought to them, there need to be parties to that case, etc. Does this make sense?

With that said, a brief line about why the recent rulings are actually incorrect.

Dobbs v Jackson (Overturning Roe v Wade) - Arguably the most defensible ruling, it still flies in the face on 50 years of legal precedent, the rulings stand in exact opposition to sworn testimony of many of the judges, and it's still wildly ideologically driven. They were put on that bench to overrule Roe and they took the opportunity to do so.

Biden v Nebraska (No student debt relief) - The Heroes act, which was the law at question, gave the secretary of education the ability to modify or waive parts of the law. The majority opinion is very much a "you're right by what the law says, but it looks wrong to us." They rooted a lot of their ruling on "There's no way that Congress wanted this" despite the heroes act explicitly being for the relief of educational debt during times of national crisis.

Stewart (Gay Web Design) - There is no case. On top of the fact that this is explicitly counter to the entirety of existing civil rights law, precedent, and theory, the web designer was never asked to make a gay wedding website. It was a god damn sham from the word go. It was rooted in a theoretical "wouldn't it be fucked up if I had to do a thing?" It also gives the framework and arguments, in the Justices own god-damnable words, to overturn the Civil Rights Act, Gay Marriage laws, and even a whole host of anti-espionage laws. I actually would like some of those to be overturned, but I'm including them here to emphasize how idiotic, short-sighted, and bullshit the ruling was.

SFA vs Harvard (Affirmative Action) - Also flies in the face of decades of precedent and laws, but more importantly it flies in the face of this own court's other rulings. You may have heard about Allen v Milligan, where the Supreme Court threw out an Alabama congressional map for being really, really racist. That's correct: the map was, but the support for throwing it out was the same argument for the dissent in this case. State bodies can use racial makeup and information in efforts to eliminate racist institutions.

You can make judgments based on race if you're getting rid of racism, basically. Which is what Affirmative Action is intended to do. People can argue that it might need to be more fluid, less restrictive, or reconfigured frequently, sure. But that is a legitimate pursuit and application of governmental power.

There are more problems, and more cases, but there's a reason why law schools and firms all over the country are collectively giving side-eye and shit-talk to this Court.

[im-a-simp-for-my-ships]

I've been seeing a lot of posts talking about the upcoming election, and that because of the atrocities happening in Palestine, which are genuinely horrific and need to stop, that voting for Biden is the same as voting for Trump, because they're both terrible people, Biden doubly worse because he's put the US on Israel's side. I'm not Palestinian, I can't even imagine the horrors they're going through and do not deserve. Palestine deserves to be free, full stop.

And to be supportive of a free Palestine may mean not siding with either Trump or Biden, but for me, yes, Biden is no better on this policy than Trump would be, I honestly think if you're the president of the US, no matter who it's been, there's never been a policy that I can remember that's made the middle east a better place, or hasn't been selfish in nature. The US's policy towards Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, for instance, has never been a policy of peace or support for the people who have to live under oppressive/muderous regimes. So I don't care if it's been Carter, Bush, Clinton, Obama, Trump, or Biden, the innocent civilians in those countries will always be canon fodder and unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

But as someone who is a citizen of the US, while I can hate what my country is doing with their foreign policy, I also have to worry about what happens HERE. With women's rights, lgbtq rights, minority rights, voting rights, the list goes on.

If Republicans gain control of the White House again, if they gain control of congress, we are done. That's it, game over. Trump and his cohorts have made it abundantly clear that if they get it back, they will do everything they can to never give up that power up again. And if you don't think they' have the balls to do it, just remember January 6th.

If you think roe v wade repeal was bad, just look at what else they've done to reproductive rights on the state level, imagine if they could ban abortion or other reproductive services on a federal level! Don't forget the book banning here, anti lgbtq laws there, and it can't be missed that the Supreme Court, which is full of Trump appointees, have shown that they're not afraid to throw the constitution or precedent under the bus and rule according to their own, and right wing MAGA, whims!

So yes, it may seem contradictory on my part, to say I'm pro Palestine but still voting blue across the board, and I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for saying any of this, but for me, and this is partly selfish and partly for the future of so many different communities in the US, if there is no difference in foreign policy between Trump and Biden, there at least is an EXTREMELY BIG DIFFERENCE in domestic policy when it comes to rights for the people who live here too.

If anyone really thinks those with a MAGA mindset are no different than the party that doesn't actively want to take away reproductive rights or want to protect our right to vote or don't want to make trans people disappear, then I'm sorry, your rightful indignation at what's happening to the Palestinian people is making you forget what can happen to you, your family, your friends, and strangers across this country if Trump and his cohorts win this upcoming election. And I understand why, because the genocide that's happening is beyond atrocious, and the country I live in is playing a part in it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel that you can want the atrocities to stop, to care about what's happening, but also care about what's happening in your own backyard, in your own country too.

Remember, no one thought Trump could win, and he did. And he did what we all feared. He pushed through like-minded people into one of the most powerful institutions in this country, and they reversed a nearly 50 year old ruling protecting the right to choose. Then they took Affirmative Action. And even though state law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, they ruled in favor of homophobes who don't want to create sites for same-sex weddings. And as of now, they'll be hearing cases on access to medication for abortions, and emergency abortion care at hospitals. Who knows what else will land at their feet next, and who else they may try to appoint if an opportunity comes to get another one of his people in there.

This got way too long, but I wanted to get out my feelings on this. I know this is not a both sides issue, just like reproductive rights are not a both sides issue, or racism isn't a both sides issue.

Palestine deserves to be free. Palestinians deserve to live a life without fear of death and persecution. They deserve to live, period.

I also can't ignore what happens here either. So I will continue to vote blue no matter who, because that's what I can do right now, and that's the only choice I feel I can make with the shitty cards we've been dealt.

[greatwyrmgold]

So, apparently there's been a standoff between the Texas National Guard and US Border Patrol for the past couple of weeks, a physical manifestation of political conflicts between President Biden and Governor Abbot that has disrupted local life and caused multiple deaths.

Shelby Park is a park in Eagle Pass, the town in question. It's a pretty significant component of civic life, hosting events that the town's residents enjoy (and the town's government uses to fund its activities).

Unfortunately, it's next to the Rio Grande, so Texas had the park surrounded with concertina wire (razor wire coils that can be expanded to quickly set up a "fence"). Needless to say, that's going to disrupt local activities. The Eagle Pass residents are not exactly happy about this state of affairs.

Things got worse when migrants started drowning in the river. Border Patrol wanted to access a boat ramp in Shelby Park so they could rescue migrants before they drowned, but the Texas National Guard wouldn't let Border Patrol in under any circumstances. Four people were alive in the river when the Border Patrol showed up; two were rescued by Mexican authorities, but the others drowned. They didn't have to.

I'm not going to argue that someone who fails to save a kid from getting hit by a bus should be held responsible for that kid's death. But if they instead stop a third party from saving the kid? Yeah, that's their fault. Saying that Texas caused the (preventable) deaths of those migrants seems pretty straightforward to me.

(Complicating matters are three other people who drowned about an hour before US Border Patrol was informed that people were drowning in the river. These three deaths are often reported as being connected to this dispute, possibly because talking about a mom and two kids who drowned is more evocative than talking about...I don't know anything about the other two dead guys, because hardly anyone reported anything except their deaths.)

Anyways, the Biden administration sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that federal agents should be given free access to the park. Texas claims it's still open to the public, even though they're only allowing access for media personnel, golfers at the golf course within, and "a memorial".

Texas plans to ignore that sternly-worded letter. The attorney general defends the state's decision by saying that the feds weren't properly enforcing US immigration law, which apparently gives them the authority to...further impede Border Patrol activities...? He also invoked the state's right to self-defense, which is already absurd when we're talking about the general "threat" of people crossing borders, but becomes even sillier in the specific case of blocking Border Patrol from saving four people from drowning.

Biden told Abbot to remove the razor wire. Abbot ordered more razor wire. The Supreme Court agrees with Biden (despite being primarily composed of Republicans). Twenty-five Republican state governors side with Abbot.

Several sources describe the physical standoff between the Texas and Federal forces unprecedented. I'm not sure that's true, or at least not true in the way that's implied; remember the Little Rock Nine? But it's definitely unusual, and if Republican figureheads keep rallying their bases by insisting that “The feds are staging a civil war," it could grow into something worse.

But hopefully it doesn't. It's an ongoing story, and Abbot has two more days to decide whether he wants to pick a fight with the federal government.

Sources below the cut.

[runwayrunway]

No. 40 - Southwest Airlines

One of my most requested posts, it's time to cover a carrier anyone who's flown in the US is probably very familiar with. After all, Southwest has for decades been the largest low-cost carrier in the world by both revenue and fleet size (though IndiGo is coming for that title).

Southwest's history is longer and more substantial than many may think, a central figure in the genesis of what we now know as the low-cost carrier. But one thing I think a lot of people know is their livery.

A common theme on this blog is trends in airline liveries - in particular, the modern trend towards the minimalist, sterile, underdesigned, and above all generic. As an anecdotal example, someone who lives near Boston's Logan Airport, the 16th-busiest airport in the US and 30th-busiest in the world, served by every major US airline and every major international carrier from countries within 787 range, were they to watch the takeoffs and landings, would be treated to the following...menagerie.

Can you believe these planes fly for different and indeed unrelated airlines?

Safe to say from 5,000 feet below it's a challenge to tell these planes apart. Even taxiing past them you'd need to pay attention. If I forced someone to squint I'm not sure they could identify them properly. How about Southwest?

Bam.

Southwest Airlines was founded in an era that borders on incomprehensible to those of my age bracket. The United States is a nation united in grumbling about Spirit Airlines, and most of Europe is constantly cursing Ryanair under their breath, but it wasn't always like that. The fact of a united enemy at all is new in the US. Back before the 1978 Deregulation Act, it was so prohibitively expensive to operate interstate flights that most airlines just didn't. Interstate flights were left to giant full-service airlines like Delta and Eastern, while international flights were the domain of an even more elite few - Pan Am, TWA, Braniff, and National (no, not that National, the other one) while the scrappier little companies flew short hops for commuters.

One airline which emerged in this pre-deregulation era was Pacific Southwest Airlines, commonly abbreviated to PSA, an initially tiny airline operating in California. You may recognize them from my icon! PSA is one of the single most important airlines in history because it all but invented the idea of the low-cost carrier. Beyond that, they were a Fun Airline. And while they were flying their grinningbirds all over California something else brewed in the background.

image: SouthwestArchive I have never before in my life seen such a profound pairing of undereye bags with the slicked-back hair and piercing blue eyes of a YA dystopia novel film adaptation villain, darting around to lock onto any sources of potential wealth ripe for acquisition.

In 1971 Southwest Airlines began operating flights. The company was actually incorporated in 1967 (as Air Southwest), the brainchild of then-lawyer Herb Kelleher (and two other people who nobody ever talks about because they're boring). They saw what PSA was doing and saw potential for the massive profits that could be gained from avoiding fees from operating interstate and charging drastically lower fees than the larger carriers. Unfortunately for them the larger carriers also realized this, and they were trapped for three years in lawsuit purgatory, with Braniff, Continental, and Trans-Texas Airways taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court, who apparently declined to review it, recognizing that 'they have come up with an idea that will make them make more money and us make less money' is not a particularly powerful legal argument.

And with that little hurdle over Southwest was open for business! Though they weren't quite starting out as a single rented DC-3 Kelleher very closely modeled the airline after PSA, who seemed to be okay enough with it if them helping to train mechanics at the nascent airline was any indication. After all, at this point they were both intrastate airlines fundamentally unable to compete with each other - Southwest was staying put in Texas with no reason to think this would change anytime soon. They brought a bit of PSA to the state, like the low fares and the stewardesses in hot pants and go-go boots.

So what was their answer to the grinningbird?

The rare and deeply cursed Southwest 727.

The mustard rocket. It was called "desert gold" but I think we all know that this is mustard. At this point in history brightly colored airplanes weren't even unusual either, so it would have just been regular ugly instead of ostentatious. (I mean...I like this shade of mustard yellow, honest, but I recognize that most people think this is hideous.)

Southwest kept on Southwesting from there. These days, they're massive, and the most common response on my questionnaire for best airline experiences. No comment, as I've never flown with them. Highlights of their journey there include getting a federal amendment passed because they didn't want to relocate their hub from Love Field to Dallas-Fort Worth, getting sued for only hiring female flight attendants, having the first Black chief pilot of any major airline in the US, technically legal tax evasion measures, having to invent elaborate work-arounds for the restrictions placed on them which could have been avoided by just relocating to Fort Worth, absorbing a bunch of other airlines, being the launch customer for both the -300 and MAX 8 models of the Boeing 737, and making approximately a zillion dollars. In 1990 they absorbed Morris Air, a vacation charter airline which developed innovative cost-cutting measures like e-ticketing, including high-up positions on the Southwest corporate ladder for the founders...

image: conde nast traveller Strange millionaires lurking in woods distributing model airplanes is no basis for an airline industry! ...scratch that, it does appear to be working.

...oh, for heaven's sake, there he is again. Yes, David Neeleman's cost-cutting acumen was indeed put to use at Southwest, meaning that between this and founding jetBlue he basically created low-cost carriers. I reluctantly tip my hat to the man. I would not be able to afford airline tickets without him. But he's just everywhere.

Here is my handwritten faMintly tree. Southwest is jetBlue's cousin once removed, do with that what you will. Anyway, let's hope I never have to add to this. (Not least because I already binned the piece of paper I wrote this out on.)

The turn of the century brought new things for Southwest! In 2000 they had their first major accident (a nonfatal runway overrun resulting in loss of the aircraft). Unrelatedly, in 2001 they released a new color scheme for their fleet, now several hundred strong and entirely composed of assorted models of Boeing 737.

The era of Canyon Blue had begun.

I mean, it's a statement. At this point a plane painted to look like a poisonous frog was in fact a pretty major statement. They were setting out to be an eyesore and I'm sure people were upset about this one, but to the modern eye it looks muted and unfinished. Still bluer than anything David Neeleman had made at that point, but not quite what we know today.

Okay. Yes. There we go.

This livery is meant to be the heart from their logo, the same one worn where the plane's heart might be if planes had hearts instead of air-conditioning systems, the colors unwrapped and deconstructed. And boy, is it almost violently colorful! It goes so far that it takes a minute to notice only three colors, plus white, are used in the entire livery. It's almost eyestraining, and I did have to turn the contrast down on my monitor while writing this because I'm fairly photosensitive. It's...less painful when pixels aren't involved.

So this is definitely one-of-a-kind. Well, it was. jetBlue has made choices recently. But this livery is definitely not one that gets lost in the crowd.

There's very little white or even silver on this airframe, in sharp contrast with...basically every airline. The rest of the livery is vivid and searing yellow and red, unusual shades in airlines, which tend to stick to slightly more muted schemes. And if you couldn't tell who they were by that, the big white billboard wordmark would let you know real quick. I think the white is a bit less legible than I'd like, but I'm not sure how to improve that without making it genuinely eyestrainy. At least it's large and visible, which is crucial for a low-cost carrier, instead of subtle and out of the way on the tail. That might work for an airline with a prestigious air, but that's not Southwest. Southwest is blue and yellow and red.

The main differences between the modern livery and Canyon Blue are in the placement of the logo and the colors used. Each shade is brightened significantly, which is why the once-garish Canyon Blue now looks pretty dusty in comparison. They entirely removed the blue from the tail, making it the airframe feel a little less like it's blue with accents and a little more like it's a circus tent. I do wish the yellow and red covered a bit more of the belly, but still...wow.

Some uses of Southwest Sans demonstrated.

The success of this design isn't by accident. Apparently, Southwest consulted no fewer than five design firms, and the font used for the livery and all their material (which I think looks totally fine) was actually commissioned from iconic foundry Monotype. A lot of airline liveries are designed in-house, and that can turn out fine, but Southwest clearly pulled out all the stops and it shows.

Southwest is a low-cost carrier, and this does affect the standards by which I judge their livery. They aren't here to be guided by legacy or decorum the way a flag carrier is - they're here to sell you a cheap ticket on an airline with funny cabin announcements. Circus tent with big lettering in a sea of Eurowhite? Nice, clean execution - I'd call that a job well done.

Grade: B

[kilowogcore]

It Ain't About Gun Control

So let's talk guns an' the US Supreme Court, poozers!

On paper, the Supreme Court is a decent idea. Cuz the justices are appointed fer life, they don't gotta campaign, which oughta incentivize them to care only about justice. Cuz they're appointed by Congress, though, they're still tied to a democratic institution. Best of both worlds, right?

This week, the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States fer ya' poozers that ain't political wonks) struck down the ban on bump stocks fer rifles. Now I ain't gonna talk about whether bump stocks should be banned, cuz the news is doin' that ad nauseam already, an' it entirely misses the point.

The point is there ain't no constitutional reason for it. They didn't argue about the Second Amendment. Essentially, they struck down the law just cuz they didn't like it.

That ain't what the SCOTUS is s'posed ta' do. The SCOTUS is s'posed ta' be a check on the power a' Congress an' the President, not a power unto itself. Justices are unelected an' serve life terms, so if they take legislative power unto themselves, democracy goes right out the window.

It's temptin' ta' think this is some kinda new low, an' I do think we oughta be worried, especially with Alito havin' come out an' flat-out said he's a political operative who don't think compromise with liberals is possible. The SCOTUS is key ta' fascist plans to destroy what shreds a' democracy we've got left in this country.

But make no mistake, the SCOTUS has been abusin' its authority fer over 150 years.

Ya' probably know about the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, but among leftists, this decision's often part a' the larger narrative about how the US wuz built on slavery. That's true, but I wanna zoom in an' point out that the Dred Scott decision was a clear case a' the court ignorin' existin' law, the constitution, an' the Founding Fathers (racist as they were), an' overturnin' a law just cuz they didn't like it. The two dissenters, Curtis an' McLean, both pointed this out.

There weren't no precedent anywhere ta' strip citizenship based on race. In fact, there wuz the opposite, as black people had been citizens in at least five a' the original states.

There's also a rule in the Supreme Court ta' make rulings as narrow as possible. The majority decided they had no jurisdiction, an' by the Court's rules, the decision shoulda ended there. Instead, the Court violated its rules and issued a sweepin' judgment strippin' citizenship an' the protection a law.

Ya' see this in almost all the Supreme Court's worst decisions. Plessy v Ferguson ignored the 14th amendment, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. pointed out that Lochner v New York was based on economic ideology and not legal principle, Buck v. Bell ignored the 14th amendment, the three dissenting justices in Korematsu v United States tore apart any legal basis for that horrific decision, and toward the modern era Bush v Gore and Citizens United v FEC both showed that the Court would ignore the law ta' push a political agenda.

I ain't defendin' the US Constitution. I'm sayin' that even the flawed checks 'n balances of the constitution are ignored by the Supreme Court, an' have been since the beginnin'.

This is yet another reason why we can't fix nothin' within the system. The SCOTUS won't let victories stand. So organize locally, outside the system, an' we can fix things!

[himedanshicult]

a deeply frustrating element to talking about the 2024 elections and voting in the us is that the democratic party as told by its PR officials is treated as one and the same with the democratic party as an actual governing body and the idea that the democrats are actually, on the balance, pretty conservative and right leaning is treated as this insane ivory tower holier than thou art stance and not like, calling water wet. like, yeah, the democrats are feverishly xenophobic, they're constantly sleepwalking into a new armed conflict or coup or imperialist confrontation, they're so terrified of being seen as Woke that they urge candidates to not even talk about trans people, they oppose the overturn of roe v wade but they'll be six feet under before they oppose the current supreme court (and before they stifle the god given legal proceedings of the states), they are eagerly extolling their anti-immigrant and pro-police bona fides not just to woo "swing voters" but because they are also genuinely proud of buttressing ICE and the police. they cant even have the most milquetoast palestinian-american politician give a defanged condemnation of israel's genocide because they need to appease a small handful of extremely racist donors and also because they, too, hate and despise palestinians and were barely comfortable sharing a party with muslims in the first place. democrats are constantly letting you in on where their leanings actually are, and when you accept that, a whole lot of their behavior is readily legible. "but they're still not as right wing as the GOP!" yes, sure, but also they would rather work with a far right MAGA ethnonationalist to pass stricter immigration laws than work with a social democrat who doesnt want to pass more arms funding to israel, so you better ask yourself how much that works out in practice.