#us stuff

[tiggymalvern]

An Iowa Republican woman was found guilty of more than fifty counts of electoral fraud - deliberately registering and mailing multiple fraudulent absentee ballots to try and swing an election in her husband's favour. She could have been sentenced to five years per count. Instead she got eight months total, four of them on release. The judge took into account that she's a mother, and of good standing in the community.

Meanwhile, a Black woman in Texas who voted Democrat because she didn't realise she wasn't allowed to vote while on parole was sentenced to the full five years, despite her parole officers and the poll worker who helped her to vote testifying that they hadn't told her what they should have. Oh, and she's also a mother of three. (She finally won her appeal a week ago, six years after her conviction.)

There is something screwy with the justice system. Wonder what it could be?

[mossygrove333]

bro someone just flooded my inbox with conservative republican memes after I posted about Trumps 2025 plan like sir…I don’t know you and I don’t want this.

[snailchimera]

So You're A USian Who Can't Bring Yourself To Vote Biden, Even Though Trump-Led Republicans Really Want To Kill You And Everyone You Love

You know what, fair.

I do understand where you're coming from, and I'm not going to argue with you about it. Sometimes there are lines we cannot cross even when there are no better choices, and "not supporting genocide" is a respectable hill to die on.

I personally am still taking the harm mitigation stance on the presidential election; Biden is starting to respond to pressure from protestors, slowly but surely, and I think we can work with that a lot more easily than we can work with Trump and the apocalyptic death cult supporting him.

That said, it was a genuinely difficult decision to make, and I'm still not sure it's the right one. I'm not going to judge you for going the other way.

What I am going to ask of you- what I am going to beg of you- is that you vote the rest of the ballot. Why?

1. It sends a stronger message.

If you don't vote at all, the easy assumption for pundits and politicians to make is that you didn't give a fuck, just like the many, many people who don't bother every year. The unfortunate reality of a two party system is lack of support for one side translates to support of the other side. A big Republican turnout and a small Democrat turnout sends the message that people as a whole like Republicans and want them to keep doing what they're doing. It pushes Dems right and emboldens the worst human beings on Earth to keep killing us.

But if a lot of people show up to vote, but don't vote for a president? In a presidential election? That's damn near unheard of. That sends a different, much more specific message: "Fuck these two bastards in particular". It tells the Democratic Party that there are people who are engaged in electoral politics (they don't give a fuck about people who aren't engaged in electoral politics), who will vote for Dems, but only if those Dems meet a minimum standard of human decency.

2. It keeps us alive long enough to fix things.

A president is not a king, and they only get away with acting like kings if the rest of the government lets them. Has way too much power been concentrated in the executive branch over time? Yeah. Does your average Democrat have a spine made of soggy cardboard? Yeah. But limits on executive power are still limits. The fact of the matter is that either Biden or Trump is going to be president, and if enough people refuse to vote for Biden, it's going to be Trump. We all remember how bad Trump was, and we know he and his followers want to make him dictator for life and murder all his detractors (read: us). We know Trump himself doesn't care about the conservative culture war, but he loves power and he's desperate for popularity, so he will give the evil Christofascist fuckers whatever they want in exchange for those two things. We know Trump enjoys hurting people for the sake of hurting them, because it makes him feel powerful and secure. Last time, a lot of damage was mitigated by the Supreme Court, but this time the Republicans have the court.

If we want to live through the next four years (and still hopefully have the right to vote at the end of them), we need to have Not-Republicans in control of the legislative branch. More importantly, because states generally have more power over their own governance than the federal government does, we need to keep Republicans out of the state and local governments as much as possible.

(There's also the issue that if progressives and radical leftists don't vote, but more centrists/people who actually like the Democratic Party and Biden as opposed to voting for damage control reasons do, the people who get voted in will be more conservative and less likely to actually hamper Republicans in any meaningful way. This is more of a primary issue, and the primaries are over, but it's still worth mentioning.)

And if Biden wins anyway? You still want Democrats in the legislative branch and in your state governments, because if Republicans are locked out of those places, it gives us the breathing room we need to demand better of our elected officials and removes the excuse that nothing will get done unless we're sufficiently "bipartisan". Democrats are easier to apply pressure to. Democrats of the wet cardboard spine variety are much easier to apply pressure to when they can't blame the scary Republicans for their own cowardice, apathy, or greed.

3. There are Democrats who will actually help us, but they need your votes to do so.

If you live in Michigan, you're especially lucky, because you get to vote for Representative Rashida Tlaib. Rep. Tlaib is a Palestinian-American woman who has been extremely vocal about her opposition to blind military support for Israel. She's also been vocal about issues such as immigrant rights, environmental justice, community supports for elderly and other vulnerable people, and healthcare, to name just a few. And she's not alone.

Again, pay special attention to state and local elections in your area. It's a lot easier to get genuine allies into smaller positions, and conversely it's a lot easier for The Worst People On Earth to get their own allies into these positions. This is partly because there's a smaller audience to appeal to, and partly because fewer people pay attention to the small elections. Do you want to protect trans kids? Vote for school board members. Do you want your city to be a sanctuary city? You need to pay attention to your mayor and your district representative. Find out who is, or is likely to be, on specific committees, such as agriculture or LGBTQ rights. These elections generally affect you and your community more than the presidential election does anyway.

4. The Glorious Revolution is not happening within the next seven months.

Electoral politics fix nothing by themselves. Voting is always going to be a method of shoring up defenses and disempowering the worst elements of our society. Ultimately, the US is not a good and noble country with some currently bad leaders; it's a colonialist, capitalist world power designed from the start and refined over time to give a few people a lot of power and wealth at the expense of everyone else, not just here, but everywhere in the world. It's important to recognize this. It's important to act in other ways to dismantle that power before it kills us all.

It is also important to recognize that you will not accomplish this before the next presidential election. You will not accomplish this very shortly after the next presidential election either.

Ideals are never as important as real human beings. Ideals are in fact useless if they do not serve real human beings. Your first priority, always, needs to be people. Do what you can to keep people alive. Do what you can to support them. When Republicans are in power, more people die. More people here die. More people in the rest of the world, including Palestine, Sudan, etc. die. That doesn't mean Democrats' hands are clean. It doesn't mean we shrug, flip the trolley switch, and move on with our lives as though nothing else could be done. It means we use every tool at our disposal to keep people alive, and we recognize that voting is one of those tools.

Smarter and better read people than me have said what I'm about to say much more eloquently, but sometimes it feels like The Revolution is like a leftist version of the Rapture; a single grand moment, long foretold, that will come all at once without warning and wash away all oppression and terror, leaving only peace and brotherhood when the smoke clears. People talk about it like it's something you only need to wait for and have faith in, and never forsake by engaging in ideologically impure action. I don't think that's how this works. I don't think that's how anything works, or ever has worked. Things change; change comes in one form or another, for better or for worse, as inevitably as the passage of time, and human history will not stop after some great, satisfying climax. Big dramatic changes always prove in the end to have been underpinned by many small ones, over long, long stretches of time. Tearing down a wall one brick at a time is still tearing down a wall.

Actions like the student protests are more important and more effective at building the kind of world we want to live in than voting, if you look at each by itself, but you don't have to. You don't have to choose between chip damage and a more meaningful confrontation. You can make the path just a little bit easier. That's what voting is.

In Conclusion

Back in the 2020 primaries, I joked that I would vote for a moldy ham sandwich if it ran against Trump. Then Biden got the nomination, and I said I didn't actually mean we should nominate a moldy ham sandwich.

Biden has done some very useful, important, and meaningful things, which I'm sure other people will be happy to tell you about in detail. He has also failed in some significant ways, and done some incredibly morally reprehensible things (as, to be clear, every single US president in history has); again, other people will be happy to tell you about that in detail. I know the breaking point for many of us has been seeing the horrors Israel is inflicting on Palestine, knowing our tax dollars are paying for that mass murder, and hearing Biden say that he does not care. I'm not going to defend that, because it's indefensible. I'm not going to make excuses for that, because there are none.

I'm just asking you to remember that the presidency is not the only thing at stake this year.

Please, help keep us a little bit safer. Keep Republicans out of your local and state government positions. Get people into the House and Senate who will, at worst, not make things significantly worse; if you can, get people who will stand up to Trumps and Bidens alike.

Don't throw our lives away.

[dreamerinsilico]

I am so, so fucking tired of the word "luxury" when it comes to housing.

My absolutely horrendous apartment complex, which lays claim to that word on its website, gave me the second-worst anxiety attack I've had since I've lived here today, because of its mismanagement (which incidentally, violates my leasing contract, but probably the best I could really get done pursuing that legally is getting out the lease early without penalty).

My bathroom sink cold faucet barely works, since I moved in over a year ago (I don't place maintenance calls for things that aren't catastrophic issues because I hate having most PEOPLE in my living space, let alone fucking strangers, which was my main issue today). My shower water pressure is just depressing. My kitchen appliances also suck. In terms of amenities, it's anyone's guess at any given time whether the laundry room that's actually near me will be functional. The swimming pool has been closed since I moved in a year and a half ago (not that I'd be using it, but still.)

But this is a luxury apartment complex. Apparently the luxury is rent that's affordable on a 50kish salary (which is not at all appropriate for the engineering PhD I have, or really anyone, because hello social safety net where??? UBI when?), but that's another problem) and not much else.

L O fucking L.

I'm paying at least $400 more in rent and fees for this shithole than I ever did in this city in grad school (2010-2016), and even just the apartment itself when nothing critical is broken and we're disregarding how incompetent management is, is the worst I've ever lived in. Thanks, I hate it.

[loki-zen]

feel like US-dominated World Anglophone Culture At Large has an image of doctors as way more inclined-toward-the-interventionist than I find to be true.

And idk how much of this is just people being Wrong (see: there is an abiding image of libraries as ‘strict’ when public libraries are frequently among the least strict public spaces you can be in, and university/hospital libraries are laxer than that even)..

…and how much is actually true, bc Humans Follow Incentives and Organisations Follow Incentives to Create Incentives and y’know for-profit medicine is a crime against humanity etc

[sonicenvy]

even more midterms memes because how else am i going to cope. glad we had a good night in IL, CO, MI, and PA thought.

[scarefox]

Ob ich das mal meinen Eltern schicken sollte, wenn sie wieder Scheiße über LGBTq reden 🤔

Wir sind SPRACHLOS!!! Reaktion auf: Wie CDU & AfD den Hass nach Deutschland bringen

(Transphobie-Welle aus Amerika in Deutschland)

[pumpkingeorge]

🦀🦀🦀

[minart-was-taken]

Autism be upon ye

[tiggymalvern]

I am so sorry, but I saw the undocumented immigrants post you had, and these are the arguments I fight every holiday with my mostly Republican family, so if you are not a source, or don't know, my apologies.

But, can you explain this undocumented-means-no-benefits-yet-taxes-paid vs the mentality that undocumented means not paying taxes? If I could just grasp this, or see a documentary on it, maybe I can educate this season instead of pulling my hair?

Normally I google, but I must be using the wrong key words?

Not paying taxes while working in the US gets you sent to jail, for a very long time. (Unless you're an old rich white man with expensive lawyers like Donald Trump, which is an entirely different problem...) Getting caught as an undocumented immigrant gets you deported, which is preferable to a decade in a US jail. Undocumented immigrants are therefore strongly encouraged by a variety of immigrant-positive bodies to ensure they pay taxes.

As this website says: Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code states that the IRS is not authorized to release taxpayer information to other government agencies

The IRS is specifically prohibited by US law from sharing information on people who are paying taxes while not being legal residents. Undocumented people can safely pay taxes without fear of it leading to deportation.

Here's another website giving the same guidelines.

Of course, undocumented workers have none of the protections of legal citizens. They have no guarantee of minimum wage, sick pay, paid leave, or any of the other federal protections, because who are they going to complain to if they don't get them? They get no health insurance, which usually comes with a job in the US, because they don't have a social security number. So, yes, the majority of undocumented immigrants are paying their taxes, but getting none of the the benefits that come with being a legal resident.

[inkskinned]

i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".

it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.

do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.

but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.

do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).

you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.

walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.

no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.

do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."

you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.

there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.

i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.

he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."

[snailchimera]

today I get to play a fun game called "will being honest and loud about Joe Biden's active participation in a genocide in hopes of shaming/scaring him into not doing that also ultimately result in my right to exist as a human being revoked this November because the US political climate was lovingly handcrafted by Satan"

[dreamerinsilico]

I would dearly like to know what the fucking motive was, here - these shitbags didn’t just cut some corners to get a warrant; they 100% falsified the basis for it.  Were they just bored and felt like shooting at some black people?  I hope the “civil rights offenses” part of the case really drills into that, and their histories as officers.

[greykolla-art]

Imagine spending all your energy being cool and mysterious 24/7.

What an idiot have I mentioned I love him?

Idea came from a cool post @nouverx made about Alastor’s possible sleeping habits. 💕

[sonicenvy]

on the other hand something beautiful to come out of last night:

get fucked b0ebert!

[hindahoney]

Because I'm only seeing other Jews posting about this, non-Jews I need you to be aware that for the past month or two there has been a wave of bomb threats and swattings at synagogues all across the US. They usually do it when services are being livestreamed. I haven't seen a single non-Jew talking about this. High holidays are coming up in a few weeks, which is when most attacks happen against our communities. We're worried, and we need people to know what's happening to us.