#and fuck. at least the dem side seems to have a lot of good progressive downballot candidates this time around already.

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

screaming crying coughing up blood every time i have to fucking defend genocide joe bc ppl wanna lie and say he isn't responsible for most of the best domestic policy we've seen in decades

his foreign policy is dogshit, yes, and he should rightly be called on it and primaried out, but we can criticize the shit he's actually done wrong instead of making shit up about him ~not doing anything good~

#thinking about the keystone pipeline shutdown and how fully 2/3 of the people he appointed to legislative systems were women and poc #thinking about student debt forgiveness and rejoining the paris climate accord and unfucking some of the extreme gerrymandering #and improving COVID protections (that were roundly thrown out by corporate america which is its own concern yes but like. he's not a king) #'biden didn't fix' blah blah blah he's not a fucking dictator he can't actually do whatever he wants. the only thing the GOP lets slide #is the aforementioned dogshit foreign policy bc fuck knows every last republican loves bombing the middle east and supporting israel #(remember that the evangelical xtian death cult requires israel for the apocalypse!! that is a very real fucking thing these ppl strive for #(and evangelicals support the GOP for this very fucking reason. you cannot forget this. we are all fighting for all our goddamn lives rn) #stirring up trouble #i hate biden i hate his foreign policy i hate how ok he is with fascism i hate most of his pre-presidential voting record BUT #i will not let that hate blind me to the reality that he is Objectively Miles Ahead Of Any Fucking Republican Alternative #i still want his ass primaried out of the presidential race so hard he physically blacks out upon seeing the polling results tho #and fuck. at least the dem side seems to have a lot of good progressive downballot candidates this time around already.

[lastoneout]

I’m getting a bit annoyed that I keep seeing people talking about all of the “good” Biden is doing and acting like his leftist critics are just “mad cuz he’s not perfect and want more money cuz they’re stupid and selfish” because if they actually sat down and LISTENED to any of us they’d get that’s not the real problem here.

We aren’t mad that Biden didn’t give us more money because we just want more money and don’t know how to be grateful for progress, we’re mad because the Democrats hinged a lot of his campaign as well as the ones in Georgia on the promise of a solid $2k, only then to immediately backtrack on that for, and I cannot stress this enough, literally no reason at all.

They have the house, the senate, and the white house, and yet they continue to push the narrative that they must negotiate everything down to please...no one? There was no reason to lower the amount they promised. There was no reason to change the guidelines for who qualified. There was *no reason* to lower unemployment benefits. They absolutely could have gotten everything they promised from the start, and yet still felt the need to cut back on all of it.

And this is hurting folks and making them feel betrayed not just because it isn’t what was promised, but because there seems to be no stated reason aside from “we just don’t think you deserve the things we promised to give you anymore”. People who worked their asses off in this election, putting their lives at stake knocking on doors and doing voter registration help and all sorts of other things did it while pushing the narrative of a $2k check as they were told to, only for the party controlling it all to say “Actually never mind. Why? Because we said so, that’s why.”

It’s also just a really bad look in general, and it’s frustrating to see given that this election was SO close, and the other side is already attempting to ensure the Dems never win another election, while the Dems sit on their high horse and actively sabotage their chances even further by backtracking on the basis of their whole campaign strategy. My home state is legit trying to end mail in voting on top of trying to pass a law that would make it so the state congress can override whatever president the state votes for, that’s bad enough without the Dems pissing off their base and making us wonder what the point of voting for them was in the first place if they can’t even keep their most basic promises.

Biden and the Dems promised a lot of stuff if they won. They pushed for getting kids out of cages, for $15 an hour, for ending student debt, and so far almost everything has been thrown out the window for, and again I cannot stress this enough, No Fucking Reason At All.

I won’t deny that Biden’s plan has done some good, but we know even $2k wasn’t enough and they couldn’t even give us that. That’s why we’re pissed off, and constantly framing us as regressive who won’t give Biden a chance is disingenuous at best and aggressively malicious at it’s worst, especially when you consider that the majority of his critics on the left are the people most impacted by his inaction. The whole situation currently reads as well off privileged Dems lecturing the minorities who fought for Biden despite his issues about how we should be more grateful that he’s proving that he doesn’t care about us. We’re allowed to be angry about that.

And if you’re still going to argue against us you could at least do us the favor of properly representing our arguments instead of painting us as selfish hysterical cynics who are too stupid to see all the magical “progress” going on.

#long post #rant #politics #us politics #ignore me honestly I'm just angry today #everyone I know is barely going to be helped by the stimulus #my family members on unemployment are getting fucked over #my family who works is being denied a living wage #I still can't afford healthcare #the middle east is still getting bombed #and a bunch of kids are still in cages #If Biden wants us to believe real change is coming he's doing a piss poor job of it #He could cancel student debt right now #he could have given us $2k #and every day that he chooses not to is a fucking problem in my book

[stozkpile]

i accidentally lost my entire essay that i was writing abt biden and bernie but nothing can stop me so im doing it again.

the only reason biden got this far was due to a bunch of "coincidental" drops from the race RIGHT before super tuesday, and because the red scare tactic american politicians still hold onto make bernie (who is, for most of the world, a center left candidate at most, as american politics is skewed to the upper right) seem unreasonable. let's go over some of the common arguments against him:

1. BERNIE IS A COMMIE: bernie is a self proclaimed socialist. ok. do you really think he, as president (not as king of america. or as dictator. did we all forget what the president does?), will seize the means of production and sentence everyone to work in the gulags? what the hell is wrong with people? he wants to give people free healthcare and free education. and he wants to tax the ULTRA rich into helping/cut military funding.

1. why cant we create more tax brackets? people who make $520,000 a year, $100,000 an HOUR, and $60,000 a MINUTE, are all supposed to pay 37% of that money in taxes. make more tax brackets. tax capital gains more. close tax loopholes. ANYTHING. so much money is being spent on nothing.

2. military funding gets around 685 BILLION dollars a year. if we HALVE that, it'll still be hundreds of billions more than what China (which has over a BILLION people and is the second largest economy in the WORLD) spends on military, which is around 181 billion. that, simply put, is a fuckload of money. we could easily still have the biggest fucking military in the world and provide more help to the people, which i still don't agree with (america feels like a warmongering state to me), but compromises have to be made, right?

BERNIE HAS NO PLAN: and biden does? do you think every american president had a dissertation written about what they would enact if the got the office? bernie, if he wins, will hire cabinet members and staff, who will be better at certain things than he is. bernie is also an experienced politician who has worked multiple blue-collar jobs and was politically active as a youth.

1. bernie is campaigning and trying to win votes. being a president is about representing your country as much as it is having a working brain on your shoulders, which means you have to have a semblance of charisma and marketability. bernie isn't throwing facts and plans at people because thats not what most people want to hear. in fact, that was a weakness of warren's campaign. and any good plan wont be easy to explain during a short speech where youre supposed to rally people, or on a podcast, or on tv. he's passionate and empathetic, which is refreshing, considering how sociopathic politics are in general.

which leads to part 2. bernie probably has a better idea of his plans than people think. hes been doing politics for a long time. he was able to pass a lot of favorable policies as mayor, and has consistently been on the right side of history, even when it wasnt popular. and honestly, even if he's not able to pass as much as he would like as president (because i know american politicians/people who keep american politicians in their pocket are determined to stop him), it will at least represent a change in the american pathos, and itll show them that the disenfranchised finally have power. this scares dems as much as republicans.

BERNIE/HIS SUPPORTERS ARE TOO ANGRY: do you think they're mad for no reason? it's easy to think everyone is too emotional when you don't have to care about politics to survive.

are you five? do you think everyone has to be nice all the time? do you think that if someone has feelings about their argument, that renders their argument invalid? being nice doesn't change things and recent events prove that. trump bullied everyone and became the sole republican candidate.

just because something is legal or illegal doesn't mean it's right or wrong. do you think the civil rights movement was everyone being nice and putting together nicely-worded arguments? do you think stonewall was a fun little party? do you think the civil fucking war was a bunch of people talking to each other very politely about whether black people deserved freedom or not? people died. people were beaten. people were furious. and because of their fury, and their actions, we live in a better time. it can still get better. progress doesn't end. it doesnt have to come to blows anymore, but it wont be nice.

BERNIE HAS NO CHANCE AGAINST TRUMP: "vote blue no matter who." bernie is the only candidate that has a real chance against trump, and we know this because a sizable group of voters who would've voted for him voted for trump instead/didn't vote at all because hillary is so violently unlikable. and hillary still eeked out the popular vote, although she lost the electoral college. we can complain about the electoral college being a thing at all but if hillary still almost won, bernie would do better than she did. if people would vote for ANYONE over trump, then be willing to vote for bernie, because even republicans like him. bernie has working class clout. and nothing infuriates a poor white more than the intellectual elite flaunting their money at them all the time.

trump doesnt have a lot to say about bernie either. trump might think theres no way that bernie would make it to november, or maybe he's "supporting" him in an attempt to drive a wedge between him and the democratic party, or maybe he actually likes him (which would be fucked up lol), but one thing's for sure: bernie will not choke. trump would try to stir him up or attempt to make fun of him, as he does (and let's be honest...trump is very good at bullying people), and bernie would just take it and throw it all back at him. bernie has hutzpah, which is what none of the other candidates have, and what trump's whole campaign is. bernie is also cool, which biden isn't.

biden is:

a well-documented creep

a faux-progressive with a history of repugnant political decisions, including the 1994 crime bill (he changed his reasoning for it later to seem less racist), gutting welfare, opposing school integration in the 70s, and voting for the iraq war

a plagiarist

the kind of guy who lies about his son's death to get an inch (multiple counts, but the most egregious is when he implied his son was killed because of the iraq war in an effort to defend the vote. although he was there, beau biden died of a brain tumor and complications.)

losing his brain faculties, which is very easy to see. he's old. bernie is too, but at least he can string together a sentence.

is winning in states that will ultimately vote red. and republicans hate him.

tl;dr if you dont give a shit, vote bernie. if you give a shit, think critically, and then vote bernie. it isn't over yet.

#2020 democratic presidential primary #democratic candidates #democratic nomination #super tuesday #2020 election

[thestraggletag]

Hi sorry to bother you, but I'm a bit confused. I know Burnie is that guy everyone loved during the election and that his attempt to become the nominee split the Dem party, and I realize it's pretty messed up that he's the opening speaker at a thing focused on women, but was there anything else he's done that's made you dislike him so strongly? I've only heard good things about him, so I've been mostly neutral, but is there anything people aren't talking about that sheds new light on him?

Most of my problems with Bernie are more to do with his following (the Bernie Bros) than with him. Now people might think this unfair (why is he to blame for what people who like him do, is he expected to somehow control his followers???) but I don’t, mostly because Bernie made little to NO attempt at curtailing the people who were viciously attacking Hillary in his name. He benefited from both the Republican establishment and his own followers spreading lies and dirty attacks on Hillary and did very little to stop it. That way he came out as “the guy who is running a clean campaign” because he was not directly getting down and dirty and at the same time making sure his rival WAS getting slammed, at no cost to him or his reputation (the same way, Hillary has been criticised NOT because she or her entourage started the birther rumour about Obama but because she didn’t do enough to shut it down at the time, benefiting from it during her first primaries against Obama, so Hillary pays the price for this, but somehow we can’t hold Bernie to the same standards).

On a personal level (meaning what BERNIE has done, not what he has cleverly allowed others to do) I resent that Bernie didn’t bring his A-game after primaries to back Hillary and try to take the republicans down. He did the OPPOSITE, and by the time he came around to it the deed was fucking done (he refuses to acknowledge this, however). 

I also resent that his campaign played up the DNC scandal way too much (not absolving the DNC here at all, but this is not a post about them). Sanders was a non-democrat who was using the Democratic Party to try to get a nomination for president because he KNEW he didn’t stand a chance as an Independent but he saw it wrong that democrats weren’t 100% behind him, and if there was anything outright illegal about what they did he was quick to make it seem like it was directly organised by Hillary and not simply the DNC choosing their long-term part member over him (this is, roughly, the very same DNC who once upon a time stood back while Obama won the primaries, so we really can’t say this was all just about them wanting Hillary to win, and no one is accusing them of favouritism during THOSE elections, for some reason). He also made a point to always remind people he wasn’t a Democrat, because people associate the Democratic and Republican Parties with the establishment and Bernie was cultivating his anti-establishment image (like Trump, and unlike Trump Bernie has been in the senate for years, so his “not-the-establishment” get out of jail free card was to remind people he wasn’t a democrat), yet somehow he was APPALLED that the DNC didn’t bend over backwards for him (a lot of the criticisms towards the DNC are not about doing something illegal but about not making too much effort towards Bernie’s campaign).

There’s also the fact that I think Bernie has accomplished very little. Not accusing him of being lazy, mostly I’m saying he is inefficient. He lacks the ability to open dialogue and try to meet people in the middle or somehow rope them to his side. His “all or nothing” speeches are cute, but hopelessly unrealistic. You gotta have someone that promises AND delivers, someone who at least can tell you HOW they plan to go about making their promises a reality. Hillary had that in spades, Bernie didn’t, and somehow that was seen as a negative for Hillary. Bernie likes to remain pure, but that gets you nowhere. Nevermind that some of the campaign promises were just flat-out unrealistic and he knew it. 

Nowadays Bernie is back to being more pragmatic, like campaigning for pro-life Democrat Mello, and is somehow managing to come across as a victim because no one can understand that politics are about pragmatism and about not agreeing on every issue and yet still managing to work together. THE SAME THING HE INDIRECTLY CRITICISED HILLARY OVER, MOSTLY BECAUSE SHE DOES THIS SO WELL. He’s literally having his cake and eating it too. This, obviously, wouldn’t be a criticism if Bernie hadn’t first built his campaign image of a candidate untouched by the evils of politics who stayed true to himself in spite of pressure to conform to the evils of Washington. Hillary herself says it well:

“It was beyond frustrating that Bernie acted as if he had a monopoly on political purity and that he had set himself up as the sole arbiter of what it meant to be progressive, despite giving short shrift to important issues such as immigration, reproductive rights, racial justice, and gun safety. I believed we could and should fight both for more equal economic opportunities and greater social justice. They go hand in hand, and it’s wrong to sacrifice the latter in the name of the former.”

Hillary is more progressive than people give her credit for and Bernie is more pragmatic, but HE is the one that managed to carefully craft the image of himself as a Political Unicorn, so pure and rare, and in turn painted Hillary as the corrupt political-savvy witch, a friend of Wall Street (yet he was clever enough not to point out Obama’s Wall Street donours, for example, because he KNEW Obama was loved by the people he was trying to get to vote for him).

His stance on gun control is laughable, and though he is obviously entitled to his opinion he cultivated this idea of being super progressive... while not really. Not for women, not for people who suffer from gun violence. He claimed to represent the progressives of the US but he doesn’t. He’s a man with a lot of progressive ideas, though, I’ll give him that. Well, progressive for Americans, obvious for the rest of the world.

It comes down to an image issue, for me, and to the fact that Bernie benefited from other people doing the dirty work and did nothing to curtail this. In some ways he low-key encouraged it, a subtle word here, a refusal to condemn there, turning a blind eye at times and throwing faint criticism when all else failed.

Hillary has MANY faults. SO many. But she was miles better than Bernie Sanders as a candidate and she would have made a MUCH better president. 

#Anonymous

[arielspeedwagon]

Brooklyn Primary Endorsements September 2017

Ok y’all. Strap in, this is a long one: ENDORSEMENT TIME. I gathered this from reading a lot of things: posts on local FB political blogs, friends’ posts, lots of interviews and articles, a few voter guides. I wish I could cite my sources better but I accidentally closed my window with all the tabs I’d been saving. I’m less well-cited than usual. I apologize.

The primary is tomorrow, but to participate you have to be enrolled in a party having a primary (aka, the Democrats or the GOP.) If you’re not, and you lean at all to the left, I highly recommend you consider enrolling in the Dems if you want to be directly involved in electoral politics in NYC. New York State has closed primaries, which means that if you aren’t registered as a member of a party, you can’t vote in its primary. But NYC is a Democratic town and the Democratic primary is the de facto election for most city offices. On the one hand: fuck a closed primary! Change the system! On the other hand, if you’re into electoral politics, you might as well participate where the action is.

Don’t know what or who you’re voting for? Go here: http://www.whosontheballot.org.

LET’S SEE WHAT WE HAVE HERE.

Mayor: Bob Gangi, but mostly NOT DE BLASIO: De Blasio, you had such promise. De Blasio, I liked you so much. De Blasio, your housing plan sucks rocks and your financial conduct feels off and you never lived up to your promise and while I agree Andrew Cuomo is a jackass you really lost that fight. But you’re the mayor, and though I wouldn’t be surprised if you lose in the general to some fiscally-conservative-socially-liberal Republican, the Democratic machine chose you. As such, I don’t think any of your challengers are going to win, but I can’t recommend voting for you. I picked Bob Gangi because he’s hella to the left and two young women of color handed me his flyer at the mayoral debate I went to. That made me like him. So vote for him.

Public Advocate: Tish James: I continue to really like Tish James. The Public Advocate is a funny job and is designed to be a power check on the mayor, and I admit I don’t have a great sense of how effective she’s been at this outside of the spin machine which makes her seem pretty great. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if there is some blog post I can’t find talking about the machinations behind the scene that make her look less rosy, but what I can see I support very much (housing rights, equal pay work, bad landlord lists, etc.) Additionally, the other guy’s campaign is basically “Tish didn’t have an adversarial enough relationship with the mayor, and also I’m a history professor from Columbia and I know things.” He has no elected experience. BZZT. I wouldn’t vote for him even if I didn't like Tish.

Brooklyn DA: Anne Swern: A lot of what I’ve been reading has been marveling at the fact that this DA race is about reform rather than being tough on crime. A lot of this can be attributed to Ken Thompson’s legacy and his move towards more progressive choices around how the DA works and the power the DA has in setting bail, choosing or declining to prosecute, and the options defendents are given. So who’s the best reformer?

 Unlike a lot of people, I like Eric Gonzalez. I appreciate that he comes from a community impacted by policing and the criminal “justice” system. But word on the street is that public defenders don’t like him and he has repeatedly failed to come out against some systematic reforms I think are important (bail, discovery rules, etc.) I don’t think he’s bad but I don’t think he’s the best. Anne Swern is better rated by several progressive orgs, has committed to ending cash bail, and wants to reform discovery rules that currently favor prosecutors. She’s also worked as a public defender, at least briefly, which to me proves she has had to understand and defend the humanity of defendants over the course of her career. I feel unsure about endorsing a white woman over a person of color, given the borough and who is most affected by the criminal justice system, but I think she will be a good progressive voice; the 5 Boro Defenders’ #KnowYourDA committee, which is entirely POC, ranked her highly in their guide.  Why not Mark Fleidner? He just hits every button for me: a far-left white guy with a lot of privilege without a lot of proof of a visceral understanding of how it all goes. Also reports show him as mansplaining/whitesplaining Black Lives Matter to Patricia Gatling, a black woman, and just no.

Civil Court Judges: Consuelo Melendez, Isiris Isella Isaac, Ellen E. Edwards, Fredrick Arriaga, and Patria Frias-Colon. I understand, abstractly, the reason why we elect judges. I don’t think we do a good job of it, though. The above slate is suggested by my genius friend Jen Abrams: (http://mailchi.mp/e46598afcde0/dont-forget-to-vote-on-tuesday-sept-12). She does her own endorsements, including straight SENDING OUT A QUESTIONNAIRE this year, and I trust her judgement. You should trust her judgement too. She goes a lot more into it at the above link, including the complicated politics around this different, better group of “Independent Democrats.”

District 6 Judge: Rupert Barry by a hair, via Jen as well. I’m going with her endorsement; Elena Baron is also a star in the race. I think we’d do well either way. 

City Council Races other than my own: I haven’t paid much attention to the other races, for the most part, but people I trust have - Make the Road NYC, the Arab-American Association of NY, friends who pay attention, Tenants PAC. If you want to vote by endorsements, here’s a big list from the Gotham Gazette. But if you don’t, or you just want someone to tell you what to do, here are the few races where I feel I know enough to weigh in.

District 2: Carlina Rivera

District 5: Patrick Bobilin

District 6: Mel Wymore

District 8: Diana Ayala

District 35: Ede Fox

District 38: Carlos Menchaca

District 39: Brad Lander

District 43: Rev. Khader El-Yateem

City Council District 40: Brian Cunningham, but I really really like Pia Raymond too. This was really hard. Mathieu Eugene, bless his heart, is a waste of space and we deserve better. But he’s a popular incumbent with a strong base, and sadly the race had several challengers which will likely split the opposition vote. For me, it really came down to Brian Cunningham vs. Pia Raymond. Both Cunningham and Raymond have been around the block; Cunningham has been coming up the neighborhood Democratic machine and Raymond has been on the community board and Nostrand Avenue Merchant’s Association. I think they both are smart about policing, housing, participatory budgeting - my gut is that Raymond is a little more conservative than Cunningham, but I also think that’s generational. So why Cunningham? I like that he has the Stonewall Dems’ endorsement, although neither of them talk much about queer issues. I have heard a ton of stories about him showing up places (block parties, neighborhood group meetings), although I am at the same time wary of the fact that I am much more connected to the white side of the neighborhood than the various POC sides and I might be missing Raymond’s doing the same. I appreciate what I have heard from several people about his wonkiness, including nuance around both housing rights in the neighborhood and participatory budgeting. If I could somehow vote for both of them and get them both on the council I’d feel great about that. Buttttt, in the end, it’s Cunningham by a hair.

#citycouncil #nycprimary #nyelection #godblessuseveryone #brooklynda

[fluffy-angry-liberal]

If all nationalism is bad, was Ireland's separation from the UK bad? I'm genuinely not trying to pick a fight, just painting all separatism with the same brush you can end up being overly broad in your conclusions. The Irish Passport podcast on nationalism. It's legitimately a good discussion of nationalism

This’ll be a longun and I haven’t slept much and can’t access my academic resources since I’ve graduated so a lot of this is from memory.

I’ll try and explain my thoughts as best I can but I can’t promise it’ll make sense.

Nationalism today is very different from the world even 70 years ago. Especially European nationalism.

Ireland breaking from the UK was brought upon by what can only be described as awful treatment by the British Government at an institutional level. Much the same can be said for India - Bengal Famine, anyone? - at the time.

Modern day nationalism seems instictively regressive in the world we live in, especially in the West. My experiences of studying and dealing with nationalists at university and in direct politics has most of it be much akin to the politics of Brexiteers who rely on a sense of “other” to blame for all issues.

My first girlfriend was Irish, and I visited Ireland and studied the Easter Rising and the subsequent conflict(s) that saw independence and civil war. It was an entertaining moment when a red blooded Irish man at one of the locations I visited challenged me on my view as an “English lad”, and I stunned him by saying that the Irish had every right to fight for their freedom given what they went through. It’s an interesting point that the Easter Rising didn’t have *that* much popular support until the public saw how the British treated the captives afterwards.

As the executions went on, the Irish public grew increasingly hostile towards the British and sympathetic to the rebels. After the first three executions, John Redmond, leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party, said in the British Parliament that the rising "happily, seems to be over. It has been dealt with with firmness, which was not only right, but it was the duty of the Government to so deal with it".[136] However, he urged the Government "not to show undue hardship or severity to the great masses of those who are implicated".[136] As the executions continued, Redmond pleaded with Prime Minister H. H. Asquith to stop them, warning that "if more executions take place in Ireland, the position will become impossible for any constitutional party".[137] Ulster Unionist Party leader Edward Carson expressed similar views.[136][138] Redmond's deputy, John Dillon, made an impassioned speech in parliament, saying "thousands of people […] who ten days ago were bitterly opposed to the whole of the Sinn Fein movement and to the rebellion, are now becoming infuriated against the Government on account of these executions". He said "it is not murderers who are being executed; it is insurgents who have fought a clean fight, a brave fight, however misguided". Dillon was heckled by English MPs.[139] The British Government itself had also become concerned at the reaction to the executions, and at the way the courts-martial were being carried out. Asquith had warned Maxwell that "a large number of executions would […] sow the seeds of lasting trouble in Ireland".[140] After Connolly's execution, Maxwell bowed to pressure and had the other death sentences commuted to penal servitude.[141] - Wikipedia, Easter Rising

In the modern day no member of the UK see’s such brutal crack downs. We have a democracy and what’s more we have devolution. I want a Federal United Kingdom where there’s even more power to the devolved nations and ESPECIALLY the Welsh, who have a worse deal than Scotland because the Scottish Govt has done a better job getting money off Westminster.

When I speak of Nationalism I refer to it in the modern 21st century Western pressence. Nationalism in regions and unrecognised states like Tibet you can argue is an entirely different ballgame.

Scottish Nationalism especially annoys me as there is a great trend of “blame gaming” where even things that are completely under Scottish control is blamed on Westminster, partly because it’s the Tories. It feels reactionary rather than based on any true principle. Also I fundementally believe in the modern united and global world we have, more borders are a bad idea. Northern Ireland is a tricky case because obviously the right to self-determination is a thing but the hardcore “unionists” of Northern Ireland are arguably fueled by nationalism to a degree I cannot stand. It’s a strange case of “seperatism” in a “unionist” sense, even though I know plenty of Northern Irish who have no love for the English but are aggressively against the Republicans - you can imagine how much fun I had studying war studies with some of THAT lot. I lean in favour of a unified Ireland partly because geographically it makes sense, and politically Northern Ireland is a tricky case within the United Kingdom. Westminster keeps being put in control of it due to it’s Parliament not being able to form a stable government and so it becomes tricky to see it as a true part of the UK in a stable sense.

From a historical standpoint Scotland HAS had some vile treatment but not in recent years. Sure the Conservatives don’t treat them well but the Tories frankly don’t treat anyone well. I know people who were aides to Lib Dems during coaltion and you would not believe the arguments that went on behind closed doors. The Tories are very southern centric but that’s no reason to make a politics of seperation based on one groups bad politics, the North of England (define that how you will) has many gripes it can pick up with that. When I studied in Hull it was easier and faster for me to get home just outside of London than my friends to go half the distance by rail across routes not focused towards London. That’s not a nationalist issue that’s an issue for any Scottish, Welsh, North East, North West, Borders, Cornish, Northern Irish politican to try and take on.

Seperatism is a blunt instrument and in a world with devolution I don’t believe it’s necessary and in an ideal Federal world it’s not at all necessary. Especially if we manage to sort out this fucking Brexit bollocks. Scotland and the rest of the UK share a common culture, mostly the same land mass and putting up a border in the modern world seems stupid. Indeed a lot of what the Aye side argued would be the case made it feel more like technicalities than any real difference. A case of “stuff the Tories” rather than anything.

Civic Nationalism is a game of “otherness” and blaming on others beyond all else. “We don’t want that and so we need rid of them” is exactly the same argument every stupid thrice damned Brexiteer argues for, it’s civic nationalism to the extreme. Sadly having graduated I can’t access the things I used to but there was a wonderful article I wish I’d saved on our Library system that noted just how much Scottish Nationalist arguments for Independence crossed over with Brexiteer arguments for Brexit (ignoring the left-wing Brexiteers who had other gripes to pick).

To blanket suggest that civic nationalism was “progressive” seems entirely based around “Well I like this thing but not that thing”. 

Nationalism made sense in a world where the modern ideals of being a State mattered, or when your identity was being so brutally oppressed or put down often with armed force (Ireland early 20th century, potentially Tibet today). When it comes to states that have been somewhat forcibly made there are many arguments around re-drawing borders or the like, as seen in the Balkans and the middle east post-first world war - “Nothing more dangerous than a white guy with a map and a pencil, and he’s practically deadly if he has a ruler”. However all too easily “nationalist” forces get out of hand due to the very nature of their reliance on “otherness”. In a Western Democracy we have the priviledge and liberty to discuss these things and try and resolve it more simply, and in Europe we have a culture of crossing borders now in the post-war enviroment. The UK has existed for something like 300 years as it is, and Scotland isn’t so very different from England in any way other than which political party is currently dominant. Nationalism isn’t what’s needed anymore, nor is it healthy. And what is especially required is not to let the ghosts of the past dictate the politics of the future. Crimes must be owned up to, apologised for and the people educated on them, efforts made to fix it if necessary/possible/feasible. But people of my generation in Ireland who actively hate the English for our crimes there are no better than the 40 year old twats on telly here who rant about the Germans as if they’re still goose-stepping around in jack boots because they watched too many war films when they were kids. It’s all just civic nationalism and breeds otherness, dislike and nothing healthy in the modern world we have.

And that’s just nationalism. Don’t let me even get started on the economics of Scottish Independence even before Brexit was a thing. Or the fact that the SNP are hardly my favourite people as a group, regardless what their supporters dismiss.

This has been long and probably not very coherant, I last wrote an essay on this little sleep in finals but at least then I had Hull University Library to throw figures and facts whilst I argued about the differences between East-West Germany in the modern world.

And boy was that a fun topic to be had.

[ramheavenandhell]

Second Chances AKA The Rick One For Me – Chapter 8: The Rick that he belongs to

AN: This is actually more of an epilogue than a real chapter 'cause it's really short. I still hope that you like it ^_^ Summary: Morty A-22β6 didn’t have it easy with his Rick. Now full of traumas and a phobia against Ricks, het gets to live with an alternate version of his grandpa. Will this Rick be different and would it be for better or worse?

Second Chances AKA The Rick One For Me – Chapter 8: The Rick that he belongs to As his Morty stepped through the portal, Rick P-78 instantly knew that they hadn't just talked. The scent of sex was still clinging to the boy. Rick gritted his teeth, but chose not to comment on it. After all, he was the one who had come up with the idea and sent Morty to see Rick Q-89. It was too late to regret that decision now. If he hadn't wanted Morty to turn out this way, he should have shielded the boy from this whole thing from the moment on that they had seen this couple on the Citadel of Ricks. Instead, he had indulged in the boy's curiosity and it ended up like this. He had told himself that it was for the best, so he couldn't hold this against Morty now. The only one he had to blame for this was himself. As things stood now, the boy would surely realize soon that Rick Q-89 was the better choice. The other didn't have a Morty of his own and those two were good for each other – better than P-78 was with the boy. However, Rick couldn't help but really like this Morty. He had the feeling that they could become a lot closer with each other because of their pasts, which were so similar. This was only a dream though. It won't take long now before Morty will ask him to become Q-89's new Morty and Rick would have to start all over again. Man up and bring himself to request another Morty from the Reassignment Center or the Morty Academy again and then try to grow accustomed to having a different boy around who still looked like (and technically was) his grandson. "Brought him back to you safe and sound, P-78." The other Rick proclaimed with a wide grin. "Yeah, I—urp—I can see that." P-78 replied unenthusiastically. He completely ignored the project that he had been working on without any progress in the hours that Morty was gone and turned completely around in his chair to face the duo. The only thing that he did successfully managed to do in the boy's absence was empty a few more bottles, yet he wasn't drunk to the point of it making him incapacitated. There was still a part inside of him that fought against losing control enough to potentially turn himself vulnerable – even if he knew that Morty would never abuse that situation and do anything to him. He really wanted to trust the boy and was convinced that he didn't have to be worried around him, but it would probably take a long time until every fiber of himself had come to accept that. With how things might turn out now, it may never come to that though… "Well, I will be off then. My Beth should be home soon." Q-89 excused himself and waved as he went back towards the still open portal. "See ya, P-78! Bye, Morty!" "Um, tha-thanks again." P-78 shouted after him while his Morty waved at the retreating Rick. After all, the other had been nice enough to answer to his and his Morty's request. Just because he didn't like the results, there was no reason for him to be angry at Q-89 now. "Well, c'mon, Morty. I'm gonna start making dinner now. You-you can help." Rick proclaimed as he finally stood up. "Um, R-Rick? C-can we talk? A-about wh-what happened a-at Q-89's?" 'Here it comes.' Rick thought grimly. He had hoped that the boy would take at least a little bit longer before throwing this at him. With a sigh, he replied. "Sure. If you-if you really want to get this off your chest." Morty looked relieved even though he could clearly tell that his grandfather was upset. "R-Rick Q-89 wa-was really n-nice t-to me, but we-we didn't o-only t-talk. I mean w-we d-did talk, but he—we a-also…um…d-did so-sum-something else…" The boy was blushing bright red as he tried to explain what had happened. Rick had already figured out as much and didn't really need a detailed explanation, but he didn't stop his grandson as he continued. "H-he was rea-really gen-gentle with m-me a-and so patient…" 'Please spare me the details and just get to the point!' Rick begged on the inside. He really didn't want to hear the graphic description of what the other Rick had done with his boy. Besides, he already knew where Morty's little speech would end up. "A-anyways, wha-what I just wa-wanted to say with thi-this is tha-that I-I-I really like R-Rick Q-89." The boy concluded. P-78's posture visibly slouched, as he seemed to fall apart on the inside. For a moment, he wondered if he should just stop the boy. If Morty wouldn't say those words, everything could continue to stay the way it was now and nothing would have to change between them. Because he knew if the boy would ask about leaving him to be with Q-89, he wouldn't say no to him. Even if he did, there would always be a rift between them then that would never close again, no matter what they did. Seeing how upset his Rick was, Morty added, "I-I-I feel b-ba-bad for him be-because he do-doesn't ha-have a M-Morty. I-It's so sad tha-that he's a-all alone…" "Morty…" P-78 started, not being able to bear hearing this any longer. However, the boy shook his head and continued. He needed to get this out! "E-even though the o-only R-Rick I e-ever wa-want t-to be with i-is you! I-I-I want y-you to be m-my Rick, P-78!" Rick was stunned. That wasn't what he had expected to hear. Not at all. His mouth stood still gaping open as Morty went to him with a big smile. The scientist tensed up as Morty got on his tiptoes and leaned towards his face. He expected the boy to try to kiss him and had no idea how he should react to that. Surprise hit him when his grandson actually only gave him a peck on his cheek, placing it right on his scar. Rick blinked and could only stare down at Morty who was smiling brightly at him. Before he even thought his actions fully through, he embraced the boy and gave him a soft kiss on his forehead. As the scientist continued to hold Morty, he noticed that his grandson's body was relaxed and not trembling. It was a good sign and encouraged Rick to continue holding his boy. They both felt content as they stood in the garage and just hugged each other. While they did that, Morty thought back to the conversation that he had with Q-89 after their…"activities". "You-you're a real nice R-Rick." Morty commented. "Thank you, Morty." Rick laughed a little. "But you know, your Rick – P-78 is also a very nice Rick. Even if he doesn't always show it so openly." The boy nodded. "I-I know." "I'm not sure how much he has told you about his previous Morty, but after what had happened back then, he was in a really bad place." Morty's curiosity was once again picked. "Ho-how did y-you meet him?" "I was actually called by a Doctor Rick who informed me that they couldn't safe his eye. They gave me his coordinates so I could make him an offer for a prosthetic eye. Tha-that Citadel Clinic usually makes their own prosthetics, but for some small high-tech gadgets like this, they always call me up…" Q-89 sighed a little as he recalled his first meeting with the one-eyed Rick.

Rick Q-89 walked through the portal after he input the coordinates that he received from the medical staff of the Citadel Hospital and ended up in a garage that looked not very much unlike his own at home. "Hey. Hello. You must be Rick P-78. I'm Rick Q-89 and was sent from Doctor Rick B-2207." He greeted politely the man who was laying slumped over his workbench. The other scientist mumbled something incoherent and weakly lifted his face off the hard surface. Q-89 fought against making a grimace as he took in his opposite's appearance. His head was wrapped in bandages, which covered the entire left side of his face. One singular, half-lidded eye stared unfocused in his direction and was completely bloodshot. Drool was trailing down his chapped lips and some of it also stained the front of the black turtleneck shirt and the equally black pants – at least Q-89 assumed (and hoped) that that was what it was as some spots of the material were darker and obviously wet. "Wha-whaddaya wond?" P-78 slurred heavily. It didn't take a genius to realize that this Rick was completely wasted. "I was told that you're in need for a new eye so I came here to talk to you about that and make you an offer for a cybernetic prosthetic." "Jus-jush leave me da fuck alone. I don wanna-wan a new eye, I jus wanna die…" Q-89 sighed and smiled sadly. These drunken ramblings felt like a déjà vu. It wasn't so long ago that he was in the same place – drunk out of his mind and just wanting for it all to end. Slowly he approached the other Rick whose head fell back on the top of his workbench again. "You wanna tell me what happened?" he asked, knowing from experience that it did help a little talking about your problems. P-78 didn't try to lift his head up again, but turned it so that he could fix his single eye on him. "Why shoulda tell ya? I dun ev'n know wh-who ya ar—" "Oh, you want me to talk about myself first? Okay then." Rick Q-89 began to tell his full story. Even if the subject about his Morty was a sore spot for him, he figured if he shared something this personal with the other, he might also be able to open up more to him. Although there was a chance that he was one of those disapproving Ricks and might end up kicking him out instead… "Wow, thaz jush shick!" P-78 mumbled, as his counterpart was finished. "Fus-fucking Mortys ish jush grosh-URP-gross and w-wrong! Bu-but kil-killin dem is, too.Tha-daz wha I did." The one-eyed Rick emitted a miserable wail after he said that and hid his face in his arms. Q-89 could absolutely relate to how the other felt right now – after all he had lost his own Morty – and from this Rick's upset behavior, he could easily tell that he didn't kill his grandson on purpose. It took quite a bit of consoling and persuading before he could finally coax more details about what had happened out of the other. And after loosening his lips, P-78 had spilled absolutely everything including all his self-loathing and how much he blamed himself for what had happened. While this revelation was quite shocking, Q-89 tried to not react too strongly to it. After all the other was pretty drunk right now and even the smallest things could trigger an unforeseen and most often violent reaction from a drunk Rick. That's why he tried to keep his posture neutral even if it wasn't easy. "Whaddaya-wha m I s'posed toddoo naw?" "Well, first we should get you a new eye. And then you could…maybe…get a new Morty from the reassignment center." Q-89 said calmly. "Gedda-gedda new M-Morty? Why wudda-wud I wanna get 'nother psy—liddle psycho?" the drunk Rick sounded offended at the suggestion. Rick Q-89 sighed and smiled sadly. "Hey now, it's not like they all are like that. Some of them may have a thing against Ricks, but what yours did was really an exception." While it was not completely unheard of that there were Mortys who turned on their Ricks and killed them, they were still pretty rare. And killing the entire family like P-78's Morty had done, was something completely out of the norm. He was sure that something like that certainly hadn't happened before. If anything, it were Ricks who ended up doing that sort of crazy shit… "I can understand that you might not want to get a new one yet. Heck, I probably sound like a hypocrite to you because some other Rick had also told me to just get a new one and I still can't bring myself to do that. But you should at least give it a thought…" Q-89 admitted. It wasn't like he couldn't understand the other – he understood him all too well actually – but he was sure that with his entire family gone, he would surely grow lonely and slowly insane. He still had his Beth left at least even if that wasn't much considering how "well" their interactions with each other went. The Mortys who came to visit him where probably the only thing keeping him somewhat sane at this point. "No, n-no, I dun wanna. N'ver." P-78 protested vehemently and lifted his head to shake it. An action that he immediately regretted as he groaned in pain a moment later and then bent over to violently heave. Q-89 looked around and grabbed a plastic bin that he brought over to the other who quickly took it and continued to retch into it. While P-78 vomited everything that he had inside his body into the container, Q-89 busied himself with looking around the garage, trying to figure out what this Rick's specialty was. His interested was caught by some batteries, which looked like they were not normal batteries even if their outer appearance looked no different from the standard. He stopped looking the little devices over after he noticed that it had gotten silent. Looked like the other was finally done. P-78 was still hunched over and gasped for breath, but didn't look like he would throw up immediately again. However, he looked pretty pale and anything but healthy – not that he had looked any better before that. "Feeling better?" Q-89 asked, as he walked over to him again. P-78 wiped some vomit that still clung to his lower lip before he answered. "I still feel like sshit." While he was obviously still slurring, he seemed to be on his way of slowly sobering up a little. "Why-why the fuk you're here again?" Q-89 was okay with the change of topic. This was what he had come for after all. So, he finally steered the conversation to talking about the prosthetic eye. He wanted to clear up with P-78 what kind of features he wanted for it, offering some of the functions that would be possible. Q-89 even mentioned that he should feel lucky to have lost his eye because the one he would build for him would be so much better than his biological human eye could ever be. He could add night vision and infrared vision to it. Also, a nice zooming function so he wouldn't have to rely on a gunsight for sniping or could go without a field glass when spying. Or, maybe a recording function with the option to later transfer the videos and snapshots on his computer. Q-89 could make P-78's mobile phone obsolete if he so wanted. If there was anyone, who could fit a high-performance computer into such a little gadget it was him. "If you want you could also play videogames with it. I can make it VR-ready, but you'd have to close your other eye or wear an eyepatch or something like that." They talked about the possible features and what P-78 actually wanted for the rest of the evening…

"I've been visiting him a few times after that – officially to check on how the prosthetic was doing. He actually managed to pull himself together again, but it was obvious that he wasn't doing all that great. Loneliness can be very cruel, especially if you're stuck with no one else but your own thoughts, but every time he still insisted that he won't to get another Morty. So imagine my surprise when he finally decided to pick you up." Q-89 looked down with a smile at Morty and noticed that the boy was hanging onto his every word. "It was a really big step for P-78." Rick continued. "And he made so many preparations for your arrival. However, I know that you are good for him. And while it may not look like it to you, believe me when I tell you that he's trying really hard. For you. And for himself. For both of you." "I-I-I get it." Morty said and then he giggled softly. "What? What is it?" Rick asked back with a grin, wanting to be let in on the joke. "You-you're not ju-just a-a-a very n-nice guy, but al-also a v-very good fr-friend." The other also laughed a little now. "You think so? I wonder if he sees it like that, too." "I'm s-sure he does." Morty sighed a little as his thoughts returned to the present time, but he still refused to break up their peaceful and sweet moment. However, something else interrupted them not soon after. It was Rick's mobile phone, which had suddenly began to ring. Reluctantly and feeling disappointed, they let go of each other so that the scientist could answer the call. As P-78 was busy talking, Morty wondered whom he was speaking to and what this was about. So, as soon as Rick had hung up, he asked. "W-was it R-Rick Q-89?" "No, it was another acquaintance of mine – Rick C-133 and he needs some backup." Rick explained, as he got ready to leave. "So, we're going to the Citadel of Ricks now to help him out."

AN: Did you see what I did there? For those of you who haven't read my other fanfiction "Mortyfied and Rickfused" or don't remember Rick and Morty C-133 from it: there will be a continuation! (obviously also including P-78 and A-22β6 now and maybe a few other characters…) In fact, my muse has really big plans now, but before we can come to the main event, we need to make more preparations and backstory first. At any rate, I'm really excited about what's going to come and I hope you'll like it, too.

Part 6 of Entricked Fates

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Part 1 of Entricked Fates: Gotta Catch Me Some Morty

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Part 2 of Entricked Fates: Mortyfied and Rickfused

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Part 3 of Entricked Fates: Ricking the Routine

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Part 4 of Entricked Fates: Ricks will always be Ricks

oneshot

Part 5 of Entricked Fates: The Morty-Lover

oneshot

Part 7 of Entricked Fates: Rickvestigating the Morty Disappearances

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Part 8 of Entricked Fates: When the Morty’s away, the Rick will play

oneshot

Part 9 of Entricked Fates: It’s Not His Ricking Fault!

oneshot

Part 10 of Entricked Fates: I Ricking Hate My Life!

oneshot

Part 11 of Entricked Fates: The Lines Between Ricks and Mortys

Chapter 1

Chapter 2 

Part 12 of Entricked Fates: The Mortys and their Stories

Chapter 1

#rick and morty #ram #rnm #rick #oc ricks #rick p-78 #morty #morty smith #oc morty #shy morty #rick/morty #rickmorty #rickorty #rorty #rick x morty #angst #hurt #comfort #fanfic #fanfiction #hopesfanfictions #entricked fates

[kidsviral-blog]

Progress: CNN runs article suggesting that women vote with their lady parts; Updated

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/progress-cnn-runs-article-suggesting-that-women-vote-with-their-lady-parts-updated/

Progress: CNN runs article suggesting that women vote with their lady parts; Updated

http://twitter.com/#!/MelissaTweets/status/261202969473740800

Shorter @cnn: Women don’t vote right because of their monthly bleedings. twitter.com/lizlandau/stat… #teamuterati #TFY #fem2 #shevotes #p2

— Imani ABL (@AngryBlackLady) October 24, 2012

alright, I give up, @cnn is telecasting the 1950’s … women vote according to their monthly cycle…

— O (@godparticleO) October 24, 2012

Ugh. It’s really difficult for women to represent themselves as more than just a collection of lady parts when an article like this is published. CNN gave space to an article describing a “study” that suggests women’s voting preferences are dictated by their hormones. Yes, really:

The researchers found that during the fertile time of the month, when levels of the hormone estrogen are high, single women appeared more likely to vote for Obama and committed women appeared more likely to vote for Romney, by a margin of at least 20%, [researcher Kristina Durante] said. This seems to be the driver behind the researchers’ overall observation that single women were inclined toward Obama and committed women leaned toward Romney.

Here’s how Durante explains this: When women are ovulating, they “feel sexier,” and therefore lean more toward liberal attitudes on abortion and marriage equality. Married women have the same hormones firing, but tend to take the opposite viewpoint on these issues, she says.

“I think they’re overcompensating for the increase of the hormones motivating them to have sex with other men,” she said. It’s a way of convincing themselves that they’re not the type to give in to such sexual urges, she said.

So, basically, liberal women want abortions when they’re “feeling sexy,” and conservative women need to work overtime to avoid becoming promiscuous? Huh?

Women on both sides of the political aisle were disgusted:

U should just take our vote back. We cant be trusted with it. RT @inthefade: CNN: “Do women vote with their periods?” bit.ly/TAx8Od

— RavensRedd (@RavensRedd) October 24, 2012

New study says women vote based on ovulation, not information. What BS. Obviously some data mining going on: bit.ly/RWx3yE

— Chelsea Roff (@ChelseaRoff) October 24, 2012

CNN says women vote according to hormones. Who’s a nonsingle, unmarried, queer wonky cycled religious woman supposed to vote for? I’m lost.

— Amadi (@amaditalks) October 24, 2012

WTF. Really. CNN: “Do women vote with their periods?” bit.ly/TAx8Od“

— Samantha Potter(@sam_sdp2012) October 24, 2012

women vote with their lady parts. #stupid #cnnfail CNN:Menses Make Women Vote Like Maniacs bit.ly/UDNwgF

— gladys (@gladyslala) October 24, 2012

OMG, I was totally going to vote for this cute bag! Come on CNN, are you serious? thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/do-… “Do Hormones Drive Women’s Votes?”

— Adriana Vecc (@AdrianaVecc) October 24, 2012

I would vote…But I just got my period.RT “@jessicavalenti: Actual CNN headline: “Do hormones drive women’s votes?” thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/do-…“

— Jess Graves (@jesslynngraves) October 24, 2012

.@commiegirl1 i take issue with ANY study that attempts to glean women’s voting habits based on their fucking periods.

— Imani ABL (@AngryBlackLady) October 24, 2012

Not sure what @cnn was thinking with news article on women voters, but my vote is consistently the same every day, every month. #insulting

— Erica Romero (@AmoComer) October 24, 2012

Women (sorry, baby-makers) don’t bother with logic/rational thought when deciding how to vote. Thanks, science! bit.ly/Prlt32 (@cnn)

— Ani Vrabel (@avrabel) October 24, 2012

THIS is a #WarOnWomen RT @melissatweets: Really? REALLY? RT @inthefade: CNN: “Do women vote with their periods?” bit.ly/TAx8Od

— Mamadoxie (@Mamadoxie) October 24, 2012

Offensive. We vote with our brains not estrogen. HT @emilyslist / @cnnhealth Do hormones drive women’s votes? thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/do-…

— Hilary Kirwan (@HilaryKirwan) October 24, 2012

@tminsberg @lheron Less “sexy-feeling” single women & repressed marrieds vote Romney? Related news: CNN officially no longer news outlet.

— Fred Gates (@fredgatesdesign) October 24, 2012

Confused…@cnn is worried abt women voting based on their hormone levels..don’t these women have husbands that tell them how to vote? #ugh

— KCGibbons (@KCGibbons) October 24, 2012

Lots of women don’t ovulate. In the absence of regularly rupturing follicles, how do they know how to vote?! thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/do-…

— Richelle C. Brown (@BirchCelloWren) October 24, 2012

How indeed? Looks like post-menopausal women might as well just stay home (in the kitchen, perhaps).

This is offensive on so many levels for women. And, does this imply that men who vote dem are “ladies?” thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/do-…

— Aura Johnson Kay (@Auradawn) October 24, 2012

Excuse me? The question is, do men vote with their dicks? #sexism RT @slate: CNN asks: Do hormones drive women’s votes? slate.me/Suxbqa

— Rachel R. (@missrrachel) October 24, 2012

@cnnbrk All period having, cranky women, please vote to change the channel from CNN! That way our hormone issues won’t help their ratings.

— Apple (@aplemkseriously) October 24, 2012

Women: think you decide how to vote? Apparently not. Your period and relationship status do according to this study.-L thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/do-…

— The Abigails (@SaysAbigail) October 24, 2012

Last RT: Fuck off do women’s hormones distort their vote. Bloody CNN.

— Hannah Curtis (@Hannah_MCurtis) October 24, 2012

If only some of the liberal women decrying the article realized that President Obama views them in the same way the study does.

Men were offended as well:

So does CNN support taking way women’s right to vote? They think a woman’s period will affect vote so it only makes sense. #stupidasses

— Royal Commission Now (@Nonanon_anon) October 24, 2012

You fucking suck, @cnn. RT @slate CNN asks: Do hormones drive women’s votes? po.st/fBk4FL

— Dan (@HoboWriterDK) October 24, 2012

CNN says women vote according to hormones. Because the poor lassies don’t have minds,you know. Maybe we shouldn’t bother letting them vote.

— Roofer On Fire (@roofer_on_fire) October 24, 2012

Ace of Spades thoroughly shredded this B.S. “study” on his blog. Be sure to read the whole thing.

Number of “Take this w/a grain of salt” caveats before the CNN “Women vote w/hormones” post suggests MAYBE it shouldn’t have been posted.

— Daniel Fienberg (@d_fienberg) October 24, 2012

That’s a pretty good theory, right there.

Whatever happened to the idea that women voted based on their morals? CNN should be ashamed for giving any credence to such a sexist piece of pseudo-science.

***

Update: CNN has quickly pulled the entire article from its site for not meeting “editorial standards.”

@michellemalkindid you see? CNN took down the post… thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/do-…

— Tam (@TamforRandR) October 25, 2012

Post removed: Study looks at voting and hormones

A post previously published in this space regarding a study about how hormones may influence voting choices has been removed.

After further review it was determined that some elements of the story did not meet the editorial standards of CNN.

We thank you for your comments and feedback.

Suggested replacement post: CNN shocks readers by claiming to have editorial standards.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2012/10/24/progress-cnn-runs-insulting-article-suggesting-that-women-vote-with-their-lady-parts/

[whispersinthewires]

January 23rd, 2018

i want to talk about what i believe in here, because i don’t know what i believe in anymore. writing has been cathartic, for sure, but it’s also been eye opening. 

i guess i should start with what i don’t believe in. recently, i’ve realized that i don’t believe in ghosts. i don’t believe in aliens. i don’t believe in bigfoot. i spent my whole life being afraid of the paranormal, but my only fear now is that i’m wrong. i don’t believe in them, but i’ve been wrong about everything at least once in my life, and i don’t want to find out that i’m wrong once my house is haunted or my cat is possessed or some shit. to dust off a joke that’s now (fuck) five years old, i have a crisis of confidence. i’m scared of my own weakness. 

i’ve been weak for a very long time. i thought that it was just physical. i thought that it was me against the world and i had to toughen up. i was was half right. i need to toughen up, both physically and mentally. the world doesn’t care enough to be against me. i think maturity is coming to terms with the fact that you’re not the protagonist of the story. you’re not the antagonist either. you probably won’t even be a side character. we know a handful of people from history, but we forget about millions (billions?) of others. i just googled it. 108 billion. though i’m not sure how much i trust the site, because it says that humans started from just two, and that seems weirdly bibley to me. the world doesn’t celebrate your birth, and it won’t remember your death. i don’t believe in god or an afterlife, so that’s it. you live for a while, and then you disappear. and that’s fine. it will happen to everyone, and it’s important to enjoy every moment, because the cut to black will be bleak. i think i probably would have been suicidal if i believed that there was an afterlife, even if it was hell and torture. at least i would continue to be. death terrifies me. i’m so scared that i’ll never be able to make the progress that i wanted to make. i’m scared that i’ll be forgotten. i’m scared that i’ll... i don’t know. i’m scared of not being me. of not existing anymore. i don’t care if i’m mourned, and i don’t care if i’m remembered, but not being me is more terrifying than anything else i can imagine. 

the left is obsessed with labels. the right only has a few. you’re a republican, or you’re alt-right, neo-nazi... there aren’t a lot of options. there are less for libertarians, who circlejerk over ayn rand and all espouse the same bullshit 24/7. the left is immense. not center left. if you’re a democrat or a liberal, that’s it, you get your box and you get to hang out in it. fuck them, by the way. at least the fucking fascists stand for something. the liberal agenda with their horseshoe theory and their “both sides are wrong” mentality are the reason that we’re where we are in politics currently. they allowed hillary to ascend to what she thought was her birthright, and the left didn’t end up showing up. they didn’t buy her bullshit, and i’m proud of that on some level. i sure as fuck didn’t vote for her. i didn’t like jill stein that much, but at least her platform would have gotten us somewhere. bernie should have taken her offer to take the green party ticket. i’m not sure that he would have won, but i think he might have. imagine if he did. i think that we’d definitely be better off. that said, i don’t want him to run in 2020. i don’t want him to be president anymore. the opportunity for him presented itself, and we ignored him. we got what we deserved. we got donald trump. this country will burn to the ground, and it will tear itself apart. i don’t know that the left even has to do anything. i think if we just let the republicans keep running shit for a couple more years, there won’t be anything left to manage. either that, or people will become radicalized enough to tear it down. the issue is that if the dems get back house and senate, they’ll push back toward status quo. spineless fucking money hungry garbage people. back to normal is while we were failing in the first place. trump was able to win because people believed that america wasn’t great, but could be. regardless of other issues, the biggest being race, the american populous didn’t feel like normal was good enough. and they’re right. we’re a cancer on a global scale at this point. our prisons are designed to create slave labor, and that slave labor goes to making military uniforms. police uniforms. then we’re making the police more like a military. we’re in a bunch of countries where we shouldn’t have been in the first place. we love our guns. we love our crime. we love our troops. fuck education though. 

so i guess at the core i’m an accelerationist. i think that if we push forward and just let things keep getting worse and worse and worse, eventually we’ll be able to make the left more powerful. am i an anarchist? am i a communist? i believe that government inherently is flawed and doesn’t allow for people’s best interests to come through. even the best representations of democracy allow for monsters to take power. that said, i think that a lack of government would allow for the same issue. i sincerely believe that most people are good. most people want to live their lives and prosper. under anarchism, i believe that those people would flourish. there’s a handful of people that would ruin it for everyone though. the kind of people who enlist in the military for the power. the kind of people who join the police force with no intention of actually protecting citizens. the people who took gym class way too seriously. those people would only make things difficult. under a perfect anarchist society, those people would be left alive, to leech off others and to generate conflict. fuck them. i believe in the wall. i believe in lining every single fascist up and executing them all one by one. this is by no means a threat or letter of intent (sorry nsa) but it’s a value that i hold deep in my soul. i think that the only way to create a society worth living in is to execute all of the people who make society unlivable. but i don’t trust people to make the call on who to kill. mob mentality is dangerous, and vendettas are a great way to start a witch hunt. it’s a shame, but no matter how much i believe in people, i know that we as a species become less and less competent when we’re in groups. look at kitty genevese. look at salem. look at mccarthy. army ants are able to march in perfect lines and find and distribute food. they’re able to divide labor and work accordingly. if you put a single army ant on a table, it will wander around the table until it eventually dies. people are the opposite. they are much smarter, and much more resourceful on their own. they have to be. so there has to be some sort of system in place to determine who is a problem, and who isn’t a problem. i’m confident that people like that exist, but i have no idea how one would go about appointing them. voting is out of the question. and if it’s as simple as handing it down, there’s too much room for corruption. who would even get to make that decision? in a society where power is truly equal, i don’t know how we’d manage to appoint any sort of governance. communism doesn’t feel right though. communism is too state-focused, and that’s something that i very strongly don’t believe in. i guess for now it’s important to know this. to know that i trust people enough to manage, but i don’t trust people enough to determine who is worth killing. there needs to be a state for the sole purpose of execution. maybe we need to harken back to the old west with hangmen. maybe we need to have traveling judge, jury, and executioners to come to town, address the issue, and leave. impartiality is key. 

again, i’m believing in less and less as time goes on. the world is chaos, and we’re lucky to be here, but assigning any kind of reason to it is naive. i envy people with faith. i wish that i could believe that strongly in anything. that’s not the person that i am though. i wasn’t made to be a believer. that’s okay though.