#state transitions

[cyliph]

I have a theory about @madamadamiu's cat magnus

[charl0ttan]

i hope the magic of being trans never dies. i dont think it will

[deadpresidents]

"Mr. Trump's election demonstrates how American tolerance for the unacceptable is nearly infinite. There are hundreds of absolutely mind-boggling things I could point to from the past decade...But three election in a row, Mr. Trump has been a viable Presidential candidate and our democracy has few guardrails to protect the country from the clear and present danger he and his political appointees will continue to confer upon us. Clearly, Mr. Trump is successful because of his faults, not despite them, because we do not live in a just world...And now Republicans will control the executive branch, the Senate and the House of Representatives. There will be few checks and balances...

...Mr. Trump's voters are granted a level of care and coddling that defies credulity and that is afforded to no other voting bloc. Many of them believe the most ludicrous things: babies being aborted after birth and children going to school as one gender and returning home surgically altered as another gender even though these things simply do not happen. Time and again, we hear the wild lies these voters believe and we act as if they are sharing the same reality as ours, as if they are making informed decisions about legitimate issues. We act as if they get to dictate the terms of political engagement on a foundation of fevered mendacity.

We must refuse to participate in a mass delusion. We must refuse to accept that the ignorance on display is a congenital condition rather than a choice. All of us should refuse to pretend that any of this is normal and that these voters are just woefully misunderstood and that if only the Democrats addressed their economic anxiety, they might vote differently. While they are numerous, that does not make them right.

These are adults, so let us treat them like adults. Let us acknowledge that they want to believe nonsense and conjecture. They want to believe anything that affirms their worldview. They want to celebrate a leader who allows them to nurture their basest beliefs about others. The biggest challenge of our lifetime will be figuring out how to combat the American willingness to embrace flagrant misinformation and bigotry.

As Mr. Trump assembles his cabinet of loyalists and outlines the alarming policies he means to enact, it's hard not to imagine the worst, not out of paranoia but as a means of preparation. The incoming President has clearly articulated that he may dismantle the Department of Education and appears to be giving the wealthiest man in the world unfettered access to the Oval Office. He plans to begin mass deportations immediately and has announced his pick of a Fox News host as the defense secretary -- the list goes on, each promise more appalling than the last.

We would like to believe that many of the ideas on Mr. Trump's demented wish list won't actually come to fruition and that our democracy can once more withstand the new President and the people with whom he surrounds himself. But that is just desperate, wishful thinking. As of yet, there is nothing that will break the iron grip Mr. Trump has on his base, and Vice President-elect JD Vance is young enough to carry the mantle going forward for political cycles to come.

Absolutely anything is possible, and we must acknowledge this, not out of surrender, but as a means of readying ourselves for the impossible fights ahead."

-- Roxane Gay, "Enough", The New York Times, November 17, 2024.

This is one of the best, most spot-on pieces about where we are and what we must prepare ourselves for in the aftermath of Donald Trump's re-election to the Presidency. These gift links will allow you to bypass the NYT paywall and read the entire article, and I urge you to share these links with as many people as you'd like.

[aurosoulart]

hi all, I’ve just moved to San Francisco to pursue work and am currently unhoused as of 6/16/25

I’ve opened a ko-fi tier for monthly support to help me get back on my feet

I’m connected with potential housing resources (this city has many), but I’m working to become independent for the first time in my life.

this ko-fi will serve as an intermediary step towards reopening Patreon, where I’ll sell tapestries as soon as I’m able. (you’ll also get personal sketches and process vids as I work on new Celestial art!)

please reblog and help me find reach if you feel moved to. 🙏 it helps….. more than I can express. 💖

[dailymaskytim]

20

[coolthingsguyslike]

[genderqueerdykes]

i would strongly suggest anyone considering DIY to instead investigate states with shield laws! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_rights_in_the_United_States#Displacement_and_sanctuary_states

"A number of states have passed laws protecting trans people and their families, as well as their healthcare providers, fleeing anti-trans states, from extradition." essentially, these are jurisdictions that have committed to NOT respecting federal orders that violate transgender human rights. it is very unlikely they will comply with orders to cease issuing HRT OR testing. even if you DIY in your home state, you may be able to access a planned parenthood (many do hormone tests, and many prescribe hrt!) in a sanctuary state so you can have things like your liver enzymes tested, along with basic physical changes like blood pressure.

i personally live in vermont and while it isn't all whiskers on kittens, there IS a LONG tradition of vermont dissent against federal injunctions. idk if i'd suggest moving here (the jobs are bad, the housing is worse, our winters and flooding are intense, and most of the state is an intense food desert) but specifically university of vermont's hospital has a really solid presence and any specialty you could want, including in-hospital plastic surgeons that do various genderful surgeries, as well as gynecology and hormone management. vermont medicaid also is REALLY good. if you are unemployed, for any amount of time, you qualify as long as you live any amount of time in the state. there are no copays. prescriptions are $1 each, no matter what. UVM has eaten almost every smaller practice in the area, and they take medicaid. the local planned parenthood also has a special fund for helping pay for gender affirming care for those who don't have insurance and can't afford it. i know moving is not ideal ever but it's what i did about a decade ago and it's not bad for sure !

Pride Center of Vermont also exists if anyone wants a local org to chat about this sort of thing with, on weekdays during week hours they have a warmline open and are generally very kind and helpful.

thank you so much for this information!! i really appreciate it, i was not aware of this! i feel like this can help a lot of people already living in the United States, or people looking to move here!

[reasonsforhope]

i live in the midwest US, right? and something that's been so fascinating to me is the fact that i spend equal time, roughly, in urban, suburba, and rural areas- and i'm seeing the same renewables growth in all three. solar panels, advertisements for EVs, charging stations, newly installed wind turbines, actual EVs and hybrids on the roads, i've even been able to witness solar panel installations in the city. the buses in my city's fleet are more and more becoming electric or otherwise more sustainable. i see farmers with portable solar and batteries by their houses. people in the suburbs are getting solar installed and bragging about new electric vehicles.

it's becoming more and more commonplace, and it's both affordable and popular to go green. that really gives me hope, honestly. seeing people who don't really care about the environment go environmentally-friendly anyways, because it's profitable, or cool, or cheap, or just because they like it. sure, it's sort of sad, but on the other hand it shows me just how widespread this change is. and it's not a huge thing either!! like i just see new solar or wind or the like and it's more of a "huh. neat" or "we need to look into panels for the house" than anything else. so much hope in the little things like that, in seeing the way the world changes when no one is looking.

having governments and activist organizations working for this is making a change, and it's so beautiful and i'm so lucky that i get to be alive to see the world changing for the better. and my area is experiencing unprecedented growth!! and i see so much of that come with solar. there's like, a gas-station style charging station near me. isn't that awesome? i can't wait to see more of it.

That's awesome!! Thank you for sending this in, that really is so full of hope, especially the fact that it's the midwest and it's happening equally across urban, suburban, and rural settings. That's so great to hear.

The renewables revolution isn't going anywhere, and it's because of just what you said: it's cheaper and easier and more profitable. And it's gonna change the world.

[serpentface]

This was going to be a panel of a little comic but I got too invested in drawing minute background details so, here.

[pansyfemme]

mmm but. i miss pansyfemme as a url already. but im lowkey really tired of people sending me asks questioning terminology i have explained dozens of times in the past so ive been. stepping away a bit from the term femme- not because i dont identify with it anymore. just that this blog’s gotten a bit of attention lately, and while a lot of the circles ive always run in tend to know the history of the term femme is not one exclusive to one gender or identity, people seeing my posts on my dash send me a lot of asks about it in heavily varying levels of politeness. and while i have explained it with sources and everything in the past,, i kind of. hate doing that all the time and despite having a faq people still. dont read it. so i kinda. uh. more so just. dont feel like justifying myself ten times a day and i also. dont like ignoring the asks so.. it will be definitly a term i will still use but kind of dont want in my username anymore. does that make any sense.

[sixth-light]

I do wanna say without derailing the other post that there are, absolutely, books and TV series and movies out there, including adaptations of things I love, that I hate. No nuance, no complex relationship, no I-hate-this-but-I-love-that, I just think they're terrible, sometimes for reasons of genuine objective badness and sometimes for reasons of my personal taste and often for a mix of both. And I certainly have complained, and will in future complain, about these things both to my friends and in public.

What I don't do is make hating those things a long-term lynchpin of my fannish experience, because...I hate them, so I do not wish to spend time thinking about them. Yeah, it's satisfying to know other people feel the same way I do, but once we've established that then what else is there to talk about? There's joy in a good Fisking, to be sure, but that requires extended and thoughtful engagement with the thing (that I hate) and even, I would argue, a measure of affection for what it could be in other circumstances.

Cultivate profound indifference to the stuff you hate. Cultivate happiness within yourself for the people who don't hate it, having fun over there. Cultivate the ability to exorcise your demons in the group chat and then let it go. I promise, with all my heart, it makes fannish life a hell of a lot nicer.

[xoverit]

Tacoma, Washington. (December 2024)

[chicagoeggwhisperer]

"Death before Detransition" is a righteous phrase. I understand the thought and emotion behind it. But I ask trans youth, please do not feel beholden to it. I ask trans people of all ages, honestly. Please do not feel like you have to die.

Obviously, I do not mean give up without a fight. Fight. Make a scene. But do not die. If you are being pressured or forced to detransition, if you are halting transition, whether for your family or your safety or the weight of societal pressure, that is not the end of you.

Things will get better. Your time will come. But now, in the thick of it, you can do more good for yourself and other trans people from the closet than you can from a coffin. Do not give in, never give in, but do not die. Do not let them kill you.

Do not make a martyr of yourself. We have too many martyrs. Murdered children, suicidal teens, beaten women. This administration will undoubtedly create more of them. Do not help that process along.

Do not die for your right to be trans. Fight for it. Live for it. Even now.

[beautiful-basque-country]

A book counts 318 deaths due to police and far-right violence during the Transition

A total of 318 people died as a result of the actions of the security forces and/or far-right terrorism during the years of the Transition, according to Luis Puicercús, former anti-Franco militant, activist for historical memory, and writer in his latest work "Imborrables. Los afectados desconocidos de la Transición (1976-1983)".

In the 306 pages of the book, Puicercús recovers the names of 318 victims murdered between January 1, 1976 - after Franco's death - and December 31, 1983, a period that encompasses a Transition that, he points out, "was not as peaceful or as exemplary" as is often thought.

Among the 318 victims are the ones of the March 3rd massacre, the Atocha massacre - where 5 labor lawyers were gunned down in 1977 by an ultra-right commando - or the Lasa and Zabala case.

8 faces out of 318: F.J. Alonso (Nafarroa), Javier Ricardo Fernández (Tenerife), María Encarnación Ayúcar (Bizkaia), Josefa Jiménez (València), Jesús Fernández (Tenerife), Gustavo Muñoz (Barcelona), Belén Sánchez (Las Palmas), and Agustín Valiente (Almería).

In the eight years following Franco's death, there were 39 victims in 1976, 52 in 1977, 47 in 1978, 53 in 1979, 65 in 1980, 37 in 1981, 19 in 1982 and seven in 1983. All of them victims of police brutality and/or far-right terrorism.

Euskadi was the community with the highest number of victims in this period (107), followed by Madrid (49), Catalunya (43), Andalusia (22) and Nafarroa (16).

"Imborrables" is the tenth book published by Luis Puicercús, who in 2022 presented a compilation of 14,000 names of political prisoners during the Franco regime from the birth of the Public Order Tribunal (TOP) in 1963 to the amnesty law of 1977. The so called "soft dictatorship" ages. Go figure.

[x]

[edwin-paynes-bowtie]

It frustrates me when people outside the US (particularly Europeans) are like, "Americans don't care about the climate because they refuse to use public transit!" I'm sorry, but the US is BUILT around a massive interstate highway system and in most parts of the country driving is the ONLY way to get anywhere.

Outside of major cities, you're lucky if a bus comes once an hour to a single stop a couple miles from your house. This is the case for me in a middle-class suburb of one of the biggest US cities. The US doesn't fund public transit because of the reliance and dependence on the highway system. Because of this, youre lucky if buses come on time if at all.

There's a broad train system, but it's pretty unreliable/inaccessible and only stops in some cities. Some states don't even HAVE interstate train lines.

Speaking of trains, public transit also isn't even the most eco-friendly way to get around. If I want to get to the city down south of me where I attended college on the train, I have to take the Metro NORTH into the big city and wait for another train to take me southbound. This doesn't just take like 3 hours (when you account for waiting for the train.) It also is a super indirect route. It takes me 5-6 hours to get to that south city this way; I could drive there easily in two and a half hours.

When I lived in Kent, I could take an on-time train directly to London. I could rely on it being on time. I could rely on there being another one in 20 minutes if I missed it. I could also take a train straight from London to Paris, knowing that it would be both on time and relatively affordable. I could get to just about any part of the UK on a bus or a train. In fact, driving would have been inconvenient. And why would I even need a car? Cities there are walkable for most people!

It's so obnoxious that people in other countries are like "haha lazy Americans don't use public transit" when PUBLIC TRANSIT IS ALMOST ALWAYS EITHER UNAVAILABLE OR EXCEPTIONALLY INCONVENIENT/INACCESSIBLE. Without dismantling the entire US highway system - an impossible task - we will never be able to shift to a society that does not completely rely on cars.

(Another thing: this is a total product of capitalism. The government and rich people want us to have cars so we buy them and pay exhorbinantly for insurance. I promise you that 90% of the people I know would rather not pay for those very expensive things and use a reliable and convenient train.)

[dani-the-toad]

i think we need to be nicer to people who either dont want to or cant medically transition