#and the american people can do fuck all until an elected law member makes a bill that has to be approved

[oh-mother-of-darkness]

Hello. I am, as you know, an American. I turned eighteen in 2014, voted in my first presidential election in 2016, and voted in my second presidential election last week via early voting in the state of Texas. 

I’m reflecting right now on the difference between those experiences. This is going to be a very self-indulgent essay. 

The 2016 election was in my third and final year of undergrad at Texas A&M University. At the time, I was living with a roommate who grew up in a town of 2,000, all of them members of her church. I loved her very much, but she was the most sheltered person I’ve ever met. 

I was only a few years ahead of her. My home growing up was deeply liberal about many of the things that counted, but deeply conservative on equally important things. For me, leaving for college was a radicalization speed-run.

I, a good Memphis girl, moved to Texas and encountered for the first time in my life white homogeny and everything that comes with it. I made most of my friends at A&M through a Christian orientation camp that I attended, then worked at. I went to school at a history department that was overwhelmingly male and war-obsessed. 

My second semester, I was randomly sorted into a writing seminar on the American Civil War and Reconstruction. There were eight other students in that class, all of them Texans. By day two I had gotten into a open fight with one of my classmates after he used the phrases “one of the humane parts of slavery” and “the secession declarations are moving and beautiful appeals, if you read them,” and “well I’m not going to criticize my own state.”

We got into at least one yelling match per week from that point forward. It was a formative experience for me-- not just him but the seven other students that took his side every time because they just couldn’t conceptualize anything outside of their own experiences, and frankly, I couldn’t either. 

It rocked my world to be surrounded by people who told me, among other things, that their high schools flew the Confederate battle flag or Lee was their all time role-model (because he actually didn’t want to secede! He didn’t believe in it, but Virginia did, so he put his own qualms aside and served his country, and that’s what we all have to do). I ran a survey once by knocking on every door in a dorm hall and asking the two people inside why the Civil War happened. 

I feel like you can guess the most common answer I got. Only two said slavery. Six didn’t know what the Civil War was. 

The last week of the semester, my class read a collection of recorded oral accounts of freed slaves during Reconstruction. My nemesis told me that he “didn’t realize black people actually had it bad.” At the same time, I was struggling with my sexuality, my relationship to my religion, my relationship with my parents, and a handful of newly-diagnosed but long-existing mental illnesses. I wasn’t having fun. 

Over the next three years, I tried my hardest to humanize the people that said disgusting things about minorities, poverty, and me personally. I barely won on that one, and I’m actually really proud that I did, even if it took me a few years. I can trace the biggest change in me directly to my nemesis from the history department, the kid that made me so mad that I started arguing back. I was too scared to do that before. 

By 2016, I was in full existential spin-out-- a very suddenly liberal kid fighting my whole family, all of my classmates, and most of my friends in an explosive political climate, the first I had ever participated in. 

I voted by Tennessee absentee ballot in 2016. On election night, I ordered takeout for me and my roommate, who I knew had voted red. Confident, like pretty much everybody, that Clinton would win, I was trying to show her that I didn’t hate her. She went to bed after dinner, also so certain that Clinton would win that she didn’t bother to stay up. 

I sat in front of my laptop sewing a birthday present for a friend (Kenza, actually), while the votes came in. I wasn’t super alarmed when the map turned red. I just figured the blue states hadn’t finished counting yet. 

The map didn’t get any bluer. By 1am, I knew what was about to happen. They called it an hour later, while I was sobbing on my floor. I threw up in the bathroom out of pure anxiety. I got two anonymous messages telling me the asker was going to commit suicide. Neither of them responded to my replies. I don’t actually know what happened to them. 

I remember riding the bus to class the next morning and distinctly seeing that most of the racial minorities there had swollen eyes from crying. The girl with the pride stickers all over her laptop didn’t show up that day, and I’m kind of glad she didn’t, considering the way some of our classmates in the back were loudly talking about “the gays.” Hope she’s okay.

My roommate came home completely unaware that Clinton lost. I was crying in my room when that happened. I remember showing her a demographic map of who voted which way. She got visibly upset when she figured out what races how. I think she really did feel guilty. 

That Thanksgiving, one of my cousins tweeted, “I can’t wait to go argue with my liberal cousin today. The wins. Keep. Coming,” an hour before he walked into my house. Inauguration day was January 20, 2017. I decided to go to law school a week later, the day the president signed the Muslim ban. That’s when I figured out for the first time just how much power the courts have. The last three years have only enforced that. 

I got angrier and angrier during law school, egged on by a few friends but more than anything just... finally conscious of exactly how the American system works and exactly who’s behind it. I still live in Texas, farther west now, and I’m working my first legal job. I’m going to be a licensed attorney next week. 

I went back and forth for months about how this election was going to shake out. I knew there wasn’t going to be an overwhelming red majority this time, but my big fear was an election close enough that the Supreme Court could take it. That fear doubled last month, at RBG’s death. 

I was hoping for a blue enough victory on election night that there wouldn’t be a week of uncertainty, but that was unlikely, and it didn’t happen. I obsessively refreshed my election map all of Wednesday and Thursday, aware that at least some states would flip after mail-in ballots came in, but unsure which would. 

Again, my great fear was a blue victory held down by only one state. Given (I would say “any” chance here, but I don’t mean “any” chance because genuinely jurisdiction or facts or legal merit don’t matter to the Supreme Court) an opportunity to make one (1) decision that hands over a red election, please know that a conservative supermajority would take it. I cannot emphasize enough how true that is and how important it is for all of us to grasp that. 

Watching Georgia flip was one of the best experiences of my life, and it’s a little hard for me to articulate why, but I’m going to give it a shot here. I’m southern. I’m from the South, and for this conversation it’s really important that I’m from Memphis, a black city and a center of black music and culture. 

When people think about the South, they think of the white South, and on some level, they should. It is absolutely essential to understand the white South in order to understand American history. Let me be 100% clear here. That is not a good thing. American majority history is not good. We are not a good country. 

It’s near-impossible to understand why that’s true without knowing exactly what happened in the white South and exactly what is still happening there now. With that, however, is another truth that most folks don’t get. 

The SouthTM is white and needs to die. The South as it actually exists is partially white yes, but it is also everyone else that lives here, particularly black folks. Southern culture is black, not white. Georgia flipped because the people that have always, always been there finally got to crack apart the conservative machine holding the South hostage. 

That’s amazing. It’s fucking mind-blowing. I watched it happen at 3:30 in the morning days after Election Day, and holy shit holy shit, Georgia flipped. Atlanta won. Holy fucking shit. 

I would be terrified right now if only Georgia flipped, because SCOTUS would have found a way to throw out a few thousand votes. Inevitable. Absolutely certain on that one. 

With a few states of buffer, I don’t think that’s going to happen. I really do think it’s over. 

I came home after work on Friday and immediately went to sleep because I hadn’t really done that since Tuesday. I woke up at noon today, checked the map, checked my messages, and saw what happened while I was gone. After that, I went back to bed until 5:30pm. I’m really just getting up now, after most of 24 hours asleep. 

I don’t know if I would say that I’m happy right now, but I am overwhelmingly relieved. I’m under no illusions that a Biden victory will solve everything, but I also do think this is a real thing to celebrate. I’ll take suggestions on how to celebrate right now, actually, since I’m finally awake. 

I’ll be angry forever, I think, but this is a good thing, and I’d like to enjoy it. If you’re happy right now, hey, tell me about it. I’ll be thrilled with you. I want to hear it. Congrats to all of us. Love y’all. 

#that's me rambling thanks and gig em #there are some things to tag here huh #uspol #politics #suicide #this would be a good time to remind everybody that i am white #so take that into account re: Georgia #personal i guess #not comics sorry

[thelastyetfabolousmidwestmadman]

Dark Side Of The Rising Sun Part 1

Yo what’s up!

After the success of my previous post, I’ve decided to bring a follow up where I talk about the many dysfunctions and issues facing Japan that I’ve learned in my research. Detective Conan often shows the criminal justice system of Japan in a positive light while in reality it has many issues due to the culture.

Now let me make this clear: Japan has many great things about itself that should never be ignored. However, these are real flaws that have or need to be addressed with many Japanese also recognizing them as problems.

Now I had to split this into parts as this is rather ungainly to put it all at once. If you have any questions please ask and I’ll do my best to answer them.

 Suicide

Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world with about 15.2 deaths per 100,000 people.

This is due to many factors such as Suicide not being considered a sin as well as historical connotations of it being a honorable way to go.

It is also considered a act of revenge, apology, and protest.

It is mostly caused today by factors such as unemployment, alienation and intense social pressure.

Japanese society is overall tolerant of Suicide but this is changing in recent times.

Another factor is the need for acceptance over individuality.

People with mental illness are often discriminated against, stopping potential help.

Internet Suicide Clubs where anonymous people make/plan suicide pacts and commit group suicide are a major issue.

If you kill yourself via Shinkansen, your family will be fined heavily. It is also the cause of half of the train delays and referred to as a human incident.

Tall buildings have mandatory suicide fences to prevent people from jumping off. When they succeed, they take off their shoes before hand.

It is common for suicidal people to take insurance policies and wait a year or two to go through with it so their families would be okay.

Ikka Shinju or family suicides are when the entire family kills themselves together due to Asian views of the family. When the parents kill their children before themselves, this is called Muri-Shinju or murder suicides.

Oyaku Shinju or parent-child suicide are where a single parent kill their children along with themselves.

Drownings, overdoses, hangings, and jumping off places are the most common form of suicide.

Judiciary

Traditionally, the judge is hated more then the lawyer is in the west as the Judge is often viewed as a symbol of the Japanese nobility judging the common man.

If you are sent to trial, you are certain to be convicted regardless of innocence due to the countries 99% conviction rate. (Really makes Eri’s work more awesome and badass doesn’t it?)

The Japanese supreme court is one of the most conservative in the world, rarely ruling against issues that are blatantly unconstitutional and anti human rights. As a result, one of the more positive proposals for amendments of the Constitution is the creation of a separate Constitutional Court.

If you are sent to death row, you will never be told in advance when you are going to die.

Culturally, once arrested the person is automatically considered guilty.

Police are often reluctant to overturn convictions as they insist that only guilty are arrested and convicted.

The law when a child is considered criminally responsible is 14.

Judges are often pressured into making convictions as their careers are negatively affected by a not guilty verdict.

Prosecutors are given the choice not to pursue a case regardless of sufficient evidence.

Prisoners in Japan, while somewhat treated better then much of the world due to it’s focus on rehabilitation instead of punishment, have to follow strict military style regulations from minor things such as being forced to fold the bed, or to wash your face to more draconian measures such being beaten if you don’t march or sit the wrong way.

In turn, many have inadequate access to medical care as they don’t have many options for their healthcare.

It can take months or years before you are tried, meaning that a right to a speedy trial is completely nonexistent.

“Periods of reflection” where inmates are forced to be handcuffed, gagged and placed in solitary, are often not recorded by the warden.

Foreigners are forced to speak and write in Japanese.

Drug Use

It is considered vastly socially unacceptable to do narcotics in Japan.

Most drug addicts are even considered to be not human.

If a celebrity is caught doing drugs, his career is automatically fucked and he is blacklisted from the industry, as well as erased from current projects.

The most commonly sold drug is methamphetamine. This started after World War II due to Meth being legal for soldiers to consume in order to stay up late on petrol as well as from occupying Americans. After the was, it became a huge epidemic for 12 years.

Marijuana use has risen among youth. Despite it having little danger as well as medicinal uses, it is widely considered evil, with the law having no tolerance.

Overall, Japan has little drug use compared to the rest of the world due to the cultural taboo and strict laws. However, there are signs that it is being vastly under counted,

Most illicit drugs are imported from Taiwan and South Korea due to it being near impossible to grow it natively but it is becoming increasingly hard to do so.

Drugs overdoses are criminally under diagnosed.

Epidemics often occur due to low periods of economic growth and recessions. (Examples include the postwar period, the 70′s, and the Lost Decade after the Bubble Economy burst in 1989)

It is common for your family or doctor to call the police once you admit there is a problem. Then you are forced to take a urine sample and if it tests positive you are immediately arrested.

A lot of doctors open pharmacies to add to their income. As a result, many oversubscribe prescription drugs.

Hypocritically, Alcoholism is completely tolerated and not treated as a addiction due to alcohol being considering purifying in Shinto, a cure, and Japan having a intense drinking culture.

Child Abuse

For the most part, physical child abuse is considered a private issue and often ignored. While things are slowly getting better, Japan still has a long way to go. (Imagine if Kogoro did what he did to Conan in the west. Child services would be on him like a fly swatter.)

Child services often return the children to their parents even if they say their abusing them as the counseling centers need the parents to admit to their abuse.

It is a complete myth that Japan’s age of consent is 13. That is only the lowest one could set it. Most prefectures are set at 16 or higher. In turn, child molestation of those under 12 is heavily punished. However while vaginal rape of children is illegal, basically just about everything else as long as it’s statutory is basically alright.

Enjo Kosai or compensated dating is the practice of Teenage Girls to go on dates with older men in exchange for money and gifts. While not necessarily always leading to prostitution is treated as such and the girls are often blamed if they are hurt in the process.

Child sex trafficking of migrants is a serious issue and they are often treated as criminals and sent home without counseling.

Adoption of children is rare and frowned upon so many of them have to gro up in centers.

Children of unmarried couples are discriminated against due to the violation of the traditional Ie system and do not have the same protections or privileges of married couples because of its Koseki system.

Men are not obligated to pay child support and it’s near impossible to get them to legally as they can simply hide their finances by not telling them. Plus only one person can be named on the custody sheet.

Child Pornography was effectively decriminalized until 2014. No seriously.

Sexual Harassment/Assault

Domestic violence victims are disabused from coming forward due to the idea of bringing shame to their family.

Stalking cases are rarely taken seriously by the police

OH THERE”S WAY MORE BUT THIS LIST IS DARK ENOUGH SO LET”S SAVE THIS FOR A LATER DATE.

Working Conditions

Idols are heavily exploited and forced to follow strict rules such as having no social life, banned from having a boyfriend, etc. This is because they are supposed to sell a image of innocence and be there exclusively for their fans.

Anime creators are often forced to work long hours with little pay. This has resulted in a slump in the industry with very few new hires so they are forced to rely on the older animators whose health may fail sooner rather then later.

Funds are rarely given to films with artistic intent or that are political in nature, resulting the film industry suffering compared to the more internationally regarded South Korea.

Police Corruption

Until recently, Japanese police would work with organized crime to lower crime. The only reason they stopped was not out of concern for the everyday citizen but because they were embarrassed by the Yakuza when they began to show up more publically.

The media is often laughably compliant to the police, with they rarely offering a critical lens.

Police have undue influence on the Pachiko industry, with many retired officers being hired as muscle and for advice.

It is quite common for officers to embezzle from their slush funds.

In a effort to cover up crime, police often refuse to investigate mysterious or suspicious deaths, preferring to label them as accidents or suicide.

Police are often anti migrant and sexist to a fault.

It is neigh impossible to get a wiretap going due to rigid privacy laws.

Even the police can’t fire weapons as you need approval to even loose your gun so many officers have never fired a bullet.

Government Incompetence/Corruption

Voter Apathy is super high, with many elections having hilariously low turnout.

Many politicians have Yakuza connections, with the gang members serving as bodyguards and canvassing for votes.

Votes in the countryside are worth two compared to urban ones.

A lot of politicians are completely out of touch and constantly have to resign for gaffes (racism, sexism, historical revisionism, etc.)

Political acts are based on group consensus so it can take a long time to get meaningful reform done.

Criticism and debate is ironically frowned upon, with open criticism within a party being effectively banned.

Cronyism is common. While for the most part Japanese politics is based on expertise, many politicians are awarded ministries based on their support for the leader.

The NHK (Japanese version of the BBC) is largely neutral and free but the current Japanese government can dictate what it is to focus on temporarily.

Press Clubs are often given exclusive access to interviews and information from the government, so they get biased preferential treatment.

Okay I guess the point of this list is to bring attention to these issues and expand the opportunities of where to go when it comes to dark DC fanfiction. Don’t worry, here’s a cute Conan to make you smile!

#detective conan #shinran #ran mouri #Sato Miwako #Takagi Wataru #Mouri Kogoro #Eri Kisaki #drug mention #alcohlism #police corruption #political corruption #child abuse #suicidal #midnight thoughts #japan #conan edogawa

[godsporncollection]

Saturday GC Sessions Summary

Topics, quotes, and summaries of the talks given in the Saturday sessions of the fall 2020 General Conference (with occasional commentary in parenthesis)

*This is (mostly) written from a TBM pov, so I’ve glossed over many... unsavory things. That said, if you’re gonna quote this, definitely proofread it first because I occasionally switch to exmo pov. 

Sunday Sessions (long version)

Sunday Sessions (shorter version)

Russel M Nelson

Hopeful, holy bullshit/look at all the spiritually awesome stuff we're doing/gonna do. (idk, there didn't really seem to be much of a talk there)

David A Bednar

Tests in school are as important as the tests of us living on earth. 

"Prove, examine, and try."  

"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." 

Susan and I looked over our food storage and learned that we did well in most areas, but found some expired things we were afraid would unleash another global pandemic. 

Remember, when loved ones die, and you don't know why, god does. It's a lesson in faith. 

Scott D Whiting

How to be more like christ. 

Wife and I were in Japan, hiking up a mountain; it was hard because altitude. 

One step at a time is how we become more like christ. 

Honesty is important, honesty with ourselves.

You can ask others how they view you, but god is a better person to ask, with his perfect view of us. 

REPENT! to be the best version of ourselves. Change your heart and mind to be like christ. 

Choose one attribute to focus on at a time. Constantly ask god for help, but don't be selfish. 

"Be the tide that raises all boats in the harbor." 

Recognize that desired attribute in others. Put in a lot of effort. 

Caution- don't feel guilty, unworthy, or unloved; that is not what life is about. 

You are good enough and loved, but that doesn't mean you're a perfect version of yourself.

Michelle D Craig

Story of Elijah for allegory of struggling to see how god is in your life. 

Wait and trust in god. Pray for the lord to open your eyes. Understand how god sees you. 

Ask yourself: what am I doing that I should stop and what should I be doing? 

Stop looking at your phone. I think it's a good time to multitask, but the spirit told me to stop and the next day, while in line at the grocery store, I looked at the people around me instead. I saw old man and struck up a conversation with him based on what was in his cart (cat food). He said it was his birthday so I wished him a happy birthday. This guy needed me to see him. 

A story of a friend who separated from her husband and hoped nobody would talk to her at church. A young woman kept looking back at her and came up to her after sacrament meeting. The young woman told her she loved her and they became friends and it helped her because she felt noticed and cared about. 

Ask god to help you see others and act to affirm their lives. This is how we identify our own purpose.

Quentin L Cook

Righteousness. Female followers of brigham young found career opportunites in Utah and friends in the native americans. (Gave a whole bullshit Utah thanksgiving story, complete with rewriting history so white people can feel better about themselves for feeding the natives). There is unity in respect. Historically, we have not been perfect, but that is the goal. We don't need to have all the blessings of god to be righteous. Love god and fellow man to live in eternal peace and happiness with god. "Historical record" in 1 nephi shows there were no happier people because of righteousness. But then that society was destroyed so much that mormon asked how they would avoid punishment. We live in that latter time, not unity. Our challenge is to lift and bless society as a whole. Demonstrated by ethnic harmony and an all inclusive doctrine. Unity and diversity are not opposites. All races and colors are children of god. Laws written in god's chosen land (US) were written by imperfect men, but inspired by god for equal treatment of all men. Remember that we were onced very opressed because we wanted to share jesus' love. If you are not united, you are not god's children. Gosple culture is greater than regional cultures. We honor pioneers because of their struggles.

Ronald A Rasband

Supplying the world with temples is a holy duty. 

Sacred ordinaces lead to exaltation. 

"Temples rise above the ways of the world. Every temple... stand as testaments to our faith and eternal life and the joy of spending it with our families and heavenly father. They increase understanding of the godhead and the everlasting gospel and commitment to live and teach truth and our willingness to follow the example of jesus." 

I learned an important lesson while visiting my father in law as he was dying; that temple recommends are important, even while dying. 

The worthiness interview "is not about do's and dont's. It is about finding your worthiness and to testify of your devotion to the gospel teachings." 

(I stopped paying attention for a while.) 

Hunter said his biggest desire was to have every member hold a temple recommend. 

Come get yo rec's! "Whether you have access to a temple or not, it is still important to remain and prove your worthiness." 

(I'm really struggling to pay attention to this guy and holy shit he stressed "be patient" while I was typing that.)

Dallin H Oaks

"The lord's teachings are for eternity and for all of god's children." 

My examples will be US-centric, but I'm sure that the issues the US face are universal, right? 

Destrucitve behavior in political statements are not good. 

Remember that JC said to love your enemies. Contention is of the devil, not JC. It isn't easy. Seek and ye shall find the strength to love. 

Follow the laws of man. 

Nobody can make us angry, it is our choice to be angry. 

(Reference to The King and I-) learn about other people's culture. 

Don't participate in rioting. 

Wait, he's supporting the first ammendement- oh, the stress here is on the word "peaceful". We must do better to end racism. But remember to be peaceful! No violence. Anarchy is evil. Lincoln said "there is no greivance that is a fit object of redress by mob law". It undermines individual rights, not protects. 

The US was started by diverse people! We're inherintly diverse! Here's a diverse (british) example!

AFTERNOON SESSION

D Todd Christofferson

There's a 2030 sustainable development agreement thingy. It's got 17 goals including- no poverty, no hunger, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, and decent work. It is interesting and important. 

More important is a sustainable society. 

Two biblical examples: 1. The city of enoch. They were of one heart and one mind. 2. The 1st generations of nephites an lamanites. No envies nor strifes. No murders or lying. No happier people than them. Love thy neighbor. Every man seeking the interests of his neighbor. Virtues uphold these societies. 

Then they became exceedingly wicked and millions died in wars amongst themselves. 

"When people turn from a sense of accountability to god and begin to trust instead in the arm of flesh (?)", disaster lurks. 

A good life is more important than a long life. 

I'm so fucking blessed, so this really isn't a good topic for me, but here we are. 

The light of christ is what uneducated people call a consience. 

"When one has no higher god than himself, and seeks no greater good than satisfying his own appetites and preferences, the effects will be manifest in due course. A society, for example, in which individual consent is the only constraint on sexual activity is a society in decay. Adultery, promiscuity, elective abortion and out of wedlock births are but some of the bitter fruit that grow out of the immorality sanctioned by the sexual revolution." This leads to poverty and fatherless families, sometimes in multiple generations, and deficient education and mental destruction. 

"Our joyous message is that there is a better way through god... (the core truths of this message are) god lives, he is the heavenly father of our spirits, that as a manifestation of his love, he's given us commandments that lead to a fullnes of joy with him, that JC is the son of god and our redeemer, that he suffered and died to atone for sins on condition of our repentance, that he rose from the dead, bringing to pass the resurrection of human kind, and that we will all stand before him to be judged."

Steven J Lund

My son had cancer. It was hard. He was in lots of pain, but still wanted to go to church even when his mom suggested he stay home. He knew he inspired others when they saw him there, representing the savior by willingly suffering to serve. 

All youth programs are there to help them be more like JC. 

They are surrounded by things that keep helping them do that, but they're still making mistakes, so parents and leaders need to step up (potterheads grab your wands).

Gerrit W Gong

Family of 10 is hated by neighbors, nobody likes them until their house burns down. Then they were showed kindness, hope, and understanding by their neighbors helping them. 

"Our 2020 bicentenniel proclamation begins with the profoundly inclusive promise that god loves his children in every nation of the world. Each of us in every nation... god promises covenants, and invites us to come partake of his abundant joy and goodness. God's love for all people is affirmed throughout scripture that love encompasses the abrahamic covenent, gathering his scattered children, and his plan of happiness. In the house of faith, there are to be no strangers, no foreigners, no rich and poor, no outside others. As fellow citizens with the saints, we're invited to help the world for the better, from inside out; one person, one family, one neighborhood at a time. This happens when we share the gospel." 

Church materials are available in many regions and languages. We're gonna focus on that for a while. (And I stopped paying attention again. This dude is boring af. And I have a high threshold for boring right now) 

Talking about how members do charity work.

W Christopher Waddell

Some kid said it was the greatest day of his life to meet this guy who talks to the profit a couple of times a week. The story is given with the obvious topic of "we thank thee oh god for a prophet". 

Prophets tell us to prepare for crisis. 

We understand your struggles and want to express that there are better days ahead. Church leaders can help you. 

The lord loves effort. 

Have stores of food and money, but don't go to extremes in your efforts to establish those things. 

We have a brochure on finances with quotes from people about how god will provide. 

Remember Joseph in Egypt. 

"All things are spiritual to the lord and not at any time has he given us a law which is temporal." 

Manage your finances and have food storage.

Matthew S Holland

The feeling of Alma remembering his sins are as painful as passing a kidney stone (?!). 

Repentance will bring us relief. 

We have no idea how bad our suffering will be if we don't repent. 

"Medical science, professional counseling or legal rectification can help alleviate such suffering but note, all good gifts including these, come from the savior. Regardless [of] the causes of our worst hurt or heartaches, the ultimate source of relief is the same: JC. He alone holds the full power and healing balm to correct every mistake, right every wrong, adjust every imperfection, mend every wound, and deliver every delayed blessing." 

When you feel like nobody could understand your suffering, remember that jesus can. 

"Suffering in righteousness helps qualify your for, rather than distinguishes you from, god's elect."

William K Jackson

An Indian dude didn't want to turn his back on his culture in order to convert with the rest of his family. But JC was able to open his eyes to a different viewpoint. 

Our original culture is the culture of Adam and Enoch. It is the greatest of all cultures. There is no "us v them" mentality in the greatest of all cultures. 

"We believe that we are responsible and accountable for ourselves, each other, the church, and our world. Faith in JC is the first principle of our culture, and obedience to his teachings and commandments is the outcome.” 

“It is a culture of covenants and ordinances, high moral standards, sacrifice, forgiveness, repentance, and caring for the temple of our bodies. It is a culture of the preisthood, the authority to act in god's name, the power of god to bless his children. It edifies and enables individuals to be better people, leaders, mothers, fathers, and companions- and it sanctifies the home. In the culture of christ, women are elevated to their proper and eternal status. They are not subservient to men, as in many cultures in today's world, but full and equal partners here and in the world to come.” 

“The family is the basic unit of eternity. The perfection of the family is worth any sacrifice" because, as has been taught, "no other success can compensate for failure in the home." 

This culture is concerned with things of lasting worth. 

It is inclusive, not exclusive. 

"Because this culture results from the application of our savior's teachings, it helps provide a healing balm of which our world (cue crying) is in such desperate need. What a blessing it is to be a part of this grand and (voice wavering) *noble* way of life. The church is hardly a western society or an american cultural phenomenon. it is an international church, as it was always meant to be. New members from around the world bring richness, diversity, and excitement into our ever-growing family!" (hallelujah!) 

Indian dude joined the church, of course. 

"What a marvelous heritage (quiet sob) we all share!"

Dieter F Uchtdorf

Because of a threat from the US military, the SLC temple was buried during constrution. When the threat had passed, they excavated it and found that many stones in the foundation had cracked and were replaced. "Finally, the saints could sing How Firm a Foundation and know their holy temple was built on a foundation that would last for generations.” 

“This story can teach us how god uses adversity to bring about his purposes." Which is an appropriate topic these days.

We mourn with those who have lost loved ones to covid. 

"My message today is that even though this pandemic is not what we wanted or expected, god has prepared his children and his church for this time." 

We will do more than survive, we will move forward and we will be better as a result. 

We are like seeds that must be buried before they can sprout. "The love of god and blessing of the restored gospel of JC will bring something unimaginable to spring forth." 

Hardships strengthen our character. 

"What we learn from biblical examples? 1. The righteous are not given a free pass that allows them to avoid the valleys of shadow... 2. Our heavenly father knows that we suffer, and because we are his children, he will not abandon us..." 

"Our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. This is why god gives us modern revelation." 

(I stopped paying attention during an aviation allegory.) 

Stories of new/potential converts going to appointments early because of excitement. "Our missionaries are busier than ever."

WOMEN'S SESSION

Sharon Eubank

Story of a kid rewarded with his favorite pie for doing chores. He was selfish when his sister asked if she and her friend could have some because they didn't earn it, but changed his mind later. This showed that he was willing to change and show kindness to those who didn't deserve it. 

"By union of feeling, we obtain power with god." 

I don't like this world. It sucks and I want to make it better and sometimes I feel powerless, but I have done lots of soul searching and have three suggestions. 

1. Have mercy. Jacob 2:17, but replace the word "substance" with the word "mercy". We need more mercy in our ministering. "If you would have god have mercy on you, have mercy on each other." 

2. Make your boat swing. Rowing definition: "swing" is when all are rowing in such perfect unison that not a single action is out of sync. Somehow, individuality is crucial to this; clones couldn't do it. "Differences can be turned to advantage instead of disadvantage." This makes you go fast and they won because of that. 

3. Clear away the bad as fast as the good can grow. Jacob 5: good tree is planted in good ground but was corrupted. A servant asks that the tree be given another chance and then the tree grows good fruit. JC is like the owner of the vinyard, and gives us mercy, if we can give it to each other. 

"I believe the change we seek in ourselves and in the groups we belong to will come less by activism and more by actively trying every day to understand one another" because we're building zion. 

As women, we have broad influence to remove prejudice and build unity. "I offer this invitation: be part of a collective force that changes the world for good." We're supposed to help others. "The women of this church have the potential to change society."

Rebecca M Craven

(I... I can't focus on this woman long enough to piece together what the fuck she's saying. Sorry.) 

I think the overall topic is changing yourself to atone/repent.

Cristina B Franco

This year has given us many surprises that have left us broken. 

Personal story about getting a piano. One of the delivery guys slipped and broke it. The delivery guys went back to arrange the delivery of a new piano, but her husband asked if it could just be repaired instead. The manager said "the wood is broken, and once the wood is broken, it can never sound the same." 

We are like the broken piano, feeling broken and that we'll never be the same again. "However, as we come unto JC by exercising faith in him, repenting, and making and keeping covenants, our brokenness, whatever it's cause, can be healed [by the savior's healing power to make us better than we were.]." Faith in god heals us. 

Story of Alma where god promised to ease their burdens. 

(Really long quote  from Alma that she doesn't source). 

The savior is a refuge from the storm. 

(Is there a rule that women can't have more than 20% original content in their talks? What is with all the quotes from other people, with barely anything to make them relate to each other?)

THAT'S MY HIGH SCHOOL CHOIR TEACHER DIRECTING THE SEPT 2014 CHOIR!!!

Bonnie H Cordon

JC is the light and the life of the world; the light that shines in the darkness. 

Shit's been hard these last few months, but we see you praying and working hard to seek out JC.

Video

Gloomy shit and then "inspiring/soothing" pics of JC, then those same gloomy people are shown being happy while doing normal, everyday stuff. Lots of black people to show diversity and even a deaf woman signing in a video chat on her phone. (It's driving me crazy that i can't remember the song that's playing.) Then back to a pic of JC.

Henry B Eyring

"Every day we are approaching closer to the glorious moment when the savior JC will come to earth again." 

"As the beloved daughters of heavenly father, and as the daughters of the lord JC in his kingdom, you will play a crucial part in the grand times ahead." 

Prepare to live as the people in the city of enoch did. 

Another unsourced quote of "what will happen in this last dispensation of the fulness of times": (was that wording really necessary?) dark skies, earthquakes, etc, but chosen people will be fine. They'll all be gathered into one place (that we could... maybee.... do something to? jk. unless...?). 

Women will be at the heart of creating that society. 

Quotes about the importance of women and the relief society. 

Quotes about how pure and faithful the city of Enoch was. 

"My experience has taught me that heavenly father's daughters have a gift to allay contention and to promote righteousness with their love of god and with the love of god they engender in those they serve." (fuck you) 

Seeing a household without a preisthood member gave me glimpse of zion because the women were supportive and loving.

Why is it Oaks again?

"In the world, ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, i have overcome the world." 

Today, "we are also troubled on every side, and we also need that same message not to despair, but to be of good cheer." 

JC knows your wants and fears. 

"Be of good cheer." 

"Be of good cheer." 

"Be of good cheer." 

Opposition is essential (anyone know of that musical 'my turn on earth' or am i just old? I've got 'opposition' stuck in my head). 

Shit sucks right now. Covid and election shit, the election shit is bad "the most severe many of the oldest of us can ever remember." People are dealing with "the many adversities of mortality: poverty, racism, sickness, job loss, wayward children, bad/no marriages, and the effects of sin" but "be of good cheer." (broken record much?) 

Poor JS had lots of adversities! But he still managed to "maintain his native cheery temperament and the love and loyalty of his people." The pioneers had it hard, too, but they still "were of hope and good cheer." 

(If I heard this right) The orignal missionaries were sent out for up to 7 years. 

The presidency loves you and cares about you and we pray for you (y'all should look up 'ill pray for you' by Jaron Lowenstein, btw. i promise it's hilarious). 

"There is boundless power in the doctrine of the restored gospel of JC. Our unshakeable faith in that doctrine guides our steps and gives us joy. It enlightens our minds and gives strength and confidence to our actions. This guidance and enlightenment and power are promised gifts we have recieved from our heavenly father. By understanding and conforming our lives to that doctrine, including the divine gift of repentance, we can be of good cheer as we keep ourselves on the path of eternal destiny, reunion, and exaltation with our loving heavenly parents." (sidenote- I typed that quote really fast with very few mistakes and I'm very proud of myself. I'm sure I've never typed that fast and correctly in my life.)

Russel M Nelson

Shit's been hard and different than normal. 

We greive with the women who have experienced loss. 

Social media is evil for young women, but "many of you have found ways to encourage others and share our savior's light." 

The future gonna be lit, yo. 

"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." 

"Moroni prepared his people in three essential ways:”

“1. He helped them create areas where they would be safe; places of security, he called them.” "Create a home that is a place of security." 

“2. He prepared the minds of the people to be faithful unto the lord.”  "Each time we have the faith to be obedient to god's laws, even when popular opinions belittle us, or each time we resist entertainment or ideaologies that celebrate covenant breaking, we are exercising our faith, which in turn increases our faith." "Life without god is a life filled with fear. Life with god is a life filled with peace." 

“3. He never stopped preparing his people; physically or spiritually." "The adversary never stops attacking, so we can never stop preparing. The more self-reliant we are, temporally, emotionally, and spiritually, the more prepared we are to thwart satan's relentless assualts." 

"We have so much to look forward to. The lord placed you here, now, because he knew you had the capacity to negotiate the complexities of the latter part of these latter days. He knew you would grasp the grandeur of his work and be eager to help bring it to pass. I am not saying that the days ahead will be easy, but I promise you that the future will be glorious for those who are prepared, and those who continue to prepare to be instruments in the lord's hands." 

"Embrace the future with faith."

#exmo #ex-mormon #apostake #exmormon #mine #ex mormon #exchristian #ex christian #excult #cult stuff #exlds #ex lds #former mormon #ex religious #agnostic #gc october 2020 #gc summary

[tanadrin]

@youzicha:

I mean, that's how it was until very recently (when the filibuster was abolished), it didn't really produce compromise candidates. 

sort of. the filibuster started to be used more and more as congress became increasingly partisan. and before that happened, you got ideological shifts in the court under different parties’ appointments, but still a guaranteed minimum juridicial competency in candidates. the filibuster was a weak compromise-forcing mechanism because it was a procedural rule of one house of congress, not a law, and certainly not a constitutional guarantee. and its abolition was downstream of the fact that it was at all possible in the first place to conceive of a strongly (partisan) ideologically-structured judiciary, which itself is an artifact of the stupid way judicial appointments work in the US system, i.e., a single partisan elected official is charged with naming any potential candidates, and the confirmation body only gets a simple up or down vote.

my hypothesis is that if 75% of the house and senate had to confirm federal judges, and this was fixed by federal law--or better, in the constitution itself--the only pool of people remotely plausible as a source of judges would be, basically, egghead legal scholars and fairly nonpartisan and highly competent judges respected by both parties. part of the right-wing judiciary-focused backlash in recent decades has been based on the idea that the courts are an inherently political battleground to be fought over and won in the first place, which, sure, is in part because legally absurd and morally monstrous propositions were enshrined into US law by like 150 years of bad supreme court decisions, which all of a sudden started getting knocked down real quick once the tide turned against shit like segregation in the late 20th century; and partly because we’re still overly invested in a common law system that affords judges too much power

but it’s also because (god help me for saying this) the right wingers have kind of always had a little bit of a point about “judicial activism” (although the phrase is stupid). i mean, they place the blame wrongly--within the system of american jurisprudence, judges have an unusual amount of power, relative to what you mostly want them to be doing. that’s been used for ill as often as it has been for good, and the problem IMO is at least partly down to how the system is constructed. but for legitimacy, for making policy in a way that is actually broadly acceptable and doesn’t spark simmering culture wars and backlashes and counter-backlashes and lead whole arms of government which are not designed to be heavily partisan, changing-with-the-political-winds sites of intense political drama, you need elections--not appointments--and you need terms of fixed or maximum length and you need to regularly check that you’re getting a buy-in from a big chunk of the electorate so that the ongoing process of legitimacy-building can do it work.

you do not get that in lifetime appointments to the supreme court, which is why making policy through supreme court decisions is deeply suboptimal. That doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s always a terrible idea: for something like obergefell, which set marriage policy for the whole US, it was the clearly correct moral, legal, and constitutional decision--and it was in line with the way public opinion had been moving on the issue for decades.

more contentious cases like roe v wade have been left simmering sores in the culture wars bc they shaped policy in debated areas in a way that lacked broad consensus. and like, i’m not advocating here that courts should render decisions that are necessarily deeply informed by thorny issues of law and justice according to what polls good rather than their honest good judgement (and Lords knows american courts have handed down some real bullshit over the centuries based on their fucked-up version of ‘honest legal judgement’)--but I do think that if difficult decisions like that were handed down by a court whose members were chosen by a more consensus-driven approach, or by an entirely nonpartisan one, and there were plenty of options for sober constitutional advice well before an actual case had to fight its way up from the lower courts, and supreme court justices didn’t have a life tenure that totally insulated them from the political concerns of the rest of the nation, you might (might!) find that a less winner-take-all approach to judicial nominations prevailed, and that the losers of such cases were more inclined to take them as neutral legal arbitration--maybe wrongly decided, but at least not obvious partisan hackery that must be reversed at any cost, up to and including burning down the other two branches of government.

[didanawisgi]

Not to alarm you, but... whoa

This was sent to me in an email from MVT, a tactical training group I was planning on taking courses from in the future. This is how some of these guys feel, not to alarm anyone, I just wanted to show you how serious the situation is in America right now. What you are about to read is a mainstream view, as in millions and millions and millions of Americans feel this way but are largely silent at the moment. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, but I thought it would be worth sharing so you could feel the same sense of alarm I felt going through my emails... - REGIII, M.D., 32, RAM ‘Modern Alchemist’   

“BLUF: What you need to hear, but don’t want to.

Let’s keep things simple, shall we.

We are facing the end of the Republic. It is easily argued that it already expired, the point being that now we face a deep state coup, massive election fraud, huge corruption, an attempted Marxist takeover, and foreign control from China.

Democrats are traitors to the Republic. Republicans are not much better. The rule of law is dead: nothing that Trump has attempted to do has been done. He is surrounded by the deep state. The three letter agencies (of which so many of you are so afraid) have sold out to the dark side. They are part of the deep state.

Many of you are sold on the PSYOP that there is a plan in place. You may follow QAnon. “Trust the plan.” There is no plan. The attorneys who have attempted to fight the election fraud in court are fools. Why? Because they are working in an old system, where they had success with big lawsuits in court, and cannot get their heads around the massive corruption of the rule of law and the court system. They are working in an old system that no longer has merit. The supreme court is not doing its job. The Lawyers will not save you; you have to save yourself.

I would like to be wrong, and I would be happy to be so. But I don’t think so. Unless Trump pulls a plan out of his ass, Biden is getting sworn in on the 20th of January. The reprieve we had during the four years of the Trump Presidency will be over.

Most of America is sleeping. They expect that we will get over this. They expect a ‘return to normal.’ That is not going to happen. In 2021, it will all be over. The Republic will be finally dead. They hate you, and will be after you. That means your livelihood, your family, even your very lives. It always happens with a socialist administration. Even when you tell yourself that “it can’t happen here.” America is the prize, and it will happen here more than anywhere else.

Thus we face huge normalcy bias and denial. And this is the key, what I want to talk about here today.

I wrote a recent article called “Trust in Combat.” What I didn’t do was give you the answer to the problem. I will do so today, however much you don’t want to hear it.

The Trust in Combat article focused on the problems with forming groups, and training, and all the inherent issues about ego that will destroy a group, which is formed before the actual need for that group. Thus, we form groups now which are aimed at surviving hard times, but are operating now in easy times. Thus, ego will play and when it comes time, when you are actually in combat and the rounds are flying, it is likely to all fall down.

And that is the issue. We are either facing war, or perhaps we are not facing war at all, given the somnolence of the American population. We would tell ourselves that at some point, they must wake up. But will they? Or will they go to the camps like the citizens of the USSR? Will they tell themselves that “it will be resolved in the courts.” I really don’t know. I don’t have a crystal ball. I have no idea how this will play out.

I will tell you that there is no point waiting until the Marxist coup is consolidated, and strongly in place. Unless Trump is able to pull something out of the bag (a PSYOP story that will keep many of you hesitating) then what needs to happen is that We The People stand up. But we know that We The People will not do this. The ‘conservatives’ are either corrupt, or as seen with many of the ‘MAGA’ voters, are too focused on picking up litter and being polite, despite the assaults from Antifa. There comes a time to forget about the litter, and be rude as fuck. We are facing a civilizational assault on Liberty and the United States Constitution. And all we really care about is picking up litter, being polite, and trying to get by. There is absolutely no point in keeping arms, for resisting tyranny, if you have absolutely no intention of using them. All these quotes about blades of grass and the American Riflemen make me laugh; weapons will be banned and everyone will hand them in, because they were conditioned and told to do so (see how many are wearing masks?) Except, of course, for those who won’t; the problem being that they will be small groups and individuals.

So, however we get there, we will be at war. Whether the left comes for us, and however we resist, whether it be in small or large groups, we will be at war. This means that hardly anyone is trained, or physically fit enough; we will end up in combat as a total shit show. It’s going to be a total disaster and a lot of people will unnecessarily die. But that is just the way it is, because hardly anyone has the foresight to get fit, prepared and trained before such an event. We will be suddenly involved in some sort of Bosnian civil war scenario with absolutely no preparation and no forming of trusted, reliable, teams in advance.

So what is the solution? Individually we must do all we can to get fit, trained and equipped. We just know that we cannot form groups before the war, because of the way we are (‘Rugged Individuals’), and even groups that already exist are most likely flawed because they are not tested in combat (not fully trusted and tested in advance). The moment that the rounds start flying, is exactly the moment when all the unspoken issues of ego and trust start appearing, and before you know it, no one is doing what you trained to do (or not trained?) No one is moving. See my ‘Trust in Combat” article if you have not read it already.

What needs to happen is that, when people finally wake up and realize that they need to fight back, they need discipline and organization. People fight for a couple of things, and those can be summed up as 1) the group, and love of the group / not wanting to appear a coward in front of them and 2) discipline. This discipline can be found in the military with UCMJ, Uniform Code of Military Justice. The military is a legitimate organization where in small teams, the ‘alpha’ personalities are kept in check by a mixture of UCMJ (the hard check) and a general understanding that for the team to succeed, leaders must be supported. If leaders are generally supported, then people will do less dying (assuming competent leadership), and the team will be successful. None of this takes away from the wider discussion of leaders, for example, listening to helpful planning suggestions, not being a nightmare of a leader (effective leadership) and the rest; thus assuming relative competence from leadership, it is a good idea that the leader is supported in his role. Otherwise “we break down, the machine breaks down.”

How does this happen in civilian groups, either formed now or formed after hostilities begin? The leader must be able to rely on his team. He must be able to assume discipline and adherence to orders. When he expects someone to move, they must move. There must be a system of some form of oath, and some form of UCMJ. If people fail to do as ordered in combat, or are willfully disobedient, then they will face effective discipline.

And we know that this is not an acceptable plan for all of you “you are not the boss of me” types. ‘Rugged Individualists” (LOL), who will die as such.

When we talk about some of our favorite things, like the Revolutionary War or the Civil War, and we refer to the organizations of the day, we have to realize that these were either Armies or Militias. The Colonial Militia was an actual military force with leaders and discipline. Yes, I know that the Bosnia x Rwanda situation that we are likely to face is not the same war as they fought, but the point being that you cannot expect men to rise to combat without training and discipline. Without that they are just a mob, and will likely be as effective. And for those that don’t want to hear it, this is also not he same as a ‘militia muster’ with untrained and unfit people showing up to ‘muster’ in a field and then going home. Again, just another form of a mob.

Take it or leave it, I provide this to you as a solution. Given that it is likely to be rejected, all I can tell you is that you are best at home defending your family from the socialist hell that will be unleashed in 2021. That in itself is not an effective remedy, and allows us to be taken down one by one.

As for Trump, if he is going to act, he needs to act now. This situation will not be solved in the courts, it can only be solved by supra-legal action. By which I mean the insurrection act and whole lot of members of the coup going to jail / the firing squad. This has been termed “Crossing the Rubicon” but he must do so mindful of the best interest of the Constitution. Consolidate power, fix it, and step down. This would be truly in the spirit of a Roman ‘Dictator.’ But I don’t think he has it in him, and I don’t believe that he is really playing ‘4D chess.’ Prove me wrong. I would rather be wrong, than face the hell of a civil war, which many of us will not survive, victorious or not.”

Source: Originally posted here at the MVT blog: https://maxvelocitytactical.com/where-we-are/

[ayeforscotland]

5 years

5 years ago, Scotland went to vote in what was arguably the single most energising and important vote in our history.

The buzz and excitement in Scotland was incredible and we’d just finished hosting the 2014 Commonwealth games in Glasgow.

5 years ago tomorrow will tell a different story, and one that’s been open to interpretation. Sometimes I get comments saying Scotland submitted or bent the knee or whatever but these are often from people who don’t live in Scotland.

I think the majority of that 55% who voted No were giving the UK one last chance. That’s not saying the Yes campaign didn’t make mistakes

- we didn’t get currency right because we relied on our opponents agreeing, and even if it would had happened in the event of a Yes vote, the No campaign would have denied the idea of a currency union right up until that point.

- The idea of Scottish membership of the EU was too vague. No EU member state had said they’d block us from entering, but no EU representative had told us it would be exceptional circumstances or how we’d do it.

It’s pretty fair to say times have now changed, I never reached 1000 followers (I fucking hate that term so much) until after the independence referendum and now there’s almost 7000 of you. The push that got me over 1000 was the anger of how Scotland was treated after the referendum.

All the sickly sweet ‘we love you Scotland’ stuff ended on the 19th of September. The ‘winners’ rioted in the centre of Glasgow ripping Saltires out of the hands of young women and chasing a gay councillor down backstreets calling him homophobic slurs. These guys were the ‘winners’ - they’d won and instead of celebrating they were Nazi saluting in the middle of Glasgow and attacking people.

That was dealt with quickly but the sentiment remained. Grown men giving Nazi salutes standing behind a Union Jack refused to believe they could ever be nationalists, a term reserved exclusively for supporters of a progressive independent country.

David Cameron shagged a pig and decided to have a referendum on EU membership. People always talk about how Brexit influenced the American Presidential elections as the tactics used by Cambridge Analytica were honed during the Brexit and Trump campaigns. However, no one ever mentions where the idea for these tactics came from. The eyes of the world and political campaigners watched Scotland like a hawk during 2014 where the Yes campaign easily dominated the online sphere.

Analysing what scare stories worked and how to tailor campaign messaging to specific individuals spawned out of the Scottish independence campaign - and almost definitely the Better Together campaign. However, as we can see from the results of the EU referendum, Scotland was relatively uneffected by it. Maybe we were all just a bit long in the tooth by then, but the law-breaking Leave campaign was certainly able to harness the xenophobia that had been brewing in middle England for many years.

Anyway, the Brexit vote happened, it’s been 3 years of fucking nonsense where the British government have been shown to be lacking in every capacity and we’re heading straight for a No Deal Brexit which will definitely result in job shortages, medicine shortages, and food shortages. People will die because of Brexit.

And the British government doesn’t care.

Scotland has another choice. We can complete change our current course. The United Kingdom is not a force for good in this world, and while we need to make an active effort to apologise for our role in colonialism and imperialism, the Scotland of today is not that country anymore. We can be a sensible, small country that is a force for good in this world.

The picture below is one of my favourite from the independence campaign. It’s actually from 2013 and while it’s not particularly sunny and it rained a wee bit, everyone is still there. Undeterred.

Let’s make sure we’re not waiting another five years.

#ayeforscotland #scotland #scottish politics #scottish independence #long post #british politics #indyref #uk politics #indyref2 #brexit #scottishindependence

[kinetic-elaboration]

January 6: Epiphany (Actually, A Rant)

I have treated myself so badly today. So much for winter vacation and a new year actually aiding me in any way in my life! What is it about working 4 hours on site that makes me just want to completely give up on everything as soon as I’m off work?

The actual answer is that I worked 9-1, and then I went grocery shopping (at the big/intimidating Food Lion--with real bakery section! I am easy to please) and then I had lunch. It was a delicious lunch, too, this fucking amazeballs sandwich (and pretty decent soup) from a coffee shop near said huge Food Lion, and I ate it while reading more of Roadside Picnic because hey!! I read things now. But that took a long while. So I didn’t start working again until past 3 and I still had four fucking hours because 8 hour work days exist to actively destroy people’s souls. So there it was, getting dark out, and I’m still sitting there in the eternal purgatory of reading law review articles in order to mine metadata, while I compulsively check both the time and the state of American democracy--and occasionally tumblr, even though this is THE most irritating place I know on the internet during times of political strife in particular. A bunch of unsourced, un-time-stamped, hysteria-inducing op’s circling around in a frenzy. Is there real info on tumblr? Yeah but mixed in with who-even-knows what else. I also dislike hearing from a commentariat of unknown national origin(s).

So when I was finally off at like 7:20 I just kinda disappeared down a rabbit hole of my own making to try to Ignore and Forget and then what do you know--it’s 2 in the morning. Really hate me at this particular moment. I also hate that I have to go back to work tomorrow. I like working on site but I hate having to roll out of bed at a particular time (in this way and in this way only remote work has spoiled me) and I hate having this bifurcated day, and I hate having to come home after what feels like it should be a complete day and having to do more work, and I hate that I have this endless abyss of work AFTER completely 4 hours where I rushed to do everything because it’s only 4 hours (not that long in the library, 5 million years at home) because that’s how long we’re supposed to staff the building every day between semesters even though SOME OF US have jobs with absolutely NO CORRELATION to the comings and goings of students and could really use some more on site time.

So fucking stupid. Not that I was actually that busy because the same Sex-Fiend-Appointed Dumb Bat who ruined the post for the election AND Christmas has ruined it for work, too. This is one of the busiest publishing times of the year and we’ve been off for two weeks and there’s not been a SHRED of campus mail in the past two days. I feel like this is probably more USPS’s fault than campus mail’s fault (see: my Christmas gifts taking nearly 3 weeks to travel from VA to WV, a distance of 5 hours by car) but it would still be nice if someone thought to uhhhhhhhh tell us what tf is going on. Just like as a fucking courtesy or whatever. Because now I’m going to be living in fear that any day now I’ll walk into the library and not be able to open the door for all the backlog of suddenly delivered packages. Also when BL tried to ask the Relevant Sub Dean about all this, he was super unhelpful, but just came back with a different question. There are literally like 2 people on the admin side as of this point. I know people can do stuff remotely but that nearly every member of the library staff comes in at least once a week and the entire rest of the law school is almost entirely staffed by people who’ve seen the inside of this building maybe five times in the past ten months really pisses me off. Feels like we’re all alone in the ship trying to keep it afloat and everyone else is like uhhhhhhhhhhhhh maybe I’ll show up sometime in January?? Fuck off.

(I don’t mean to sound like I don’t care about the virus or social distancing but what I AM saying is that actually the building both cannot be and never was totally abandoned and all the little shit that other people didn’t even have to THINK about from mid-March to mid-August still got done because SOME of us braved the world outside of our respective homes and we got zero credit or appreciation for that and that’s what I mean by fuck off. The world didn’t stop. Other people just picked up slack for you.)

Anyway so I’m doing all this again tomorrow but hopefully my lunch will be shorter, and thus I will finish earlier. I’m tempted to work through it (since I’ll be doing mostly reading anyway--more LR stuff) but I’m trying not to do that this year. I’m trying to read this year!! I am reading dammit! I am a person I still recognize, underneath it all!

#the year 2021 #2021: rl #everything's below a read more so if you read through this big pile of salt it's on you

[hellafiedgangstalean]

Big Words Don't Lie

via

No one knows what the Emoluments Clause is, because nobody knows what the fuck an emolument is.

Emolument is not a regular-conversation word like burrito or Kardashian. Emolument is fancy term for money earned from holding a position or title. 

The Emolument Clause is Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution (a fancy term for rules the country is required to follow). It says members of the government cannot receive money from leaders of other countries. 

For example, if the president wanted to host the G7 Summit (fancy word for a meeting with foreign leaders) at a hotel he or she owns, he or she could be in violation of that law because the president would be profiting directly off the presidency. 

In a move to avoid violating the Emolument Clause, one former president famously put his peanut farm into an independent trust while he was in office so that no one in his family could be affected by profits or losses while he was president. The rule was put in place to limit foreign influence (fancy term for swampiness) in American politics. 

Emoluments are the glaring weaknesses of a republic (fancy word for country that doesn’t have a king). Those are not my words; they’re Alexander Hamilton’s in The Federalist Papers. Federalist is a fancy word for states united under a central government. 

It’s up to the people to decide how they feel about laws, so you might think it makes sense to name them in a way that allows the average citizen to better understand what they are. The problem is it’s very easy to mislead the average citizen - and lawmakers have done exactly that with these simplified naming conventions, whether it’s passing the Patriot Act which isn’t patriotic at all, or the Affordable Care Act which took the world’s most expensive healthcare and made it more accessible. 

I thought about Emoluments today while watching people protesting the sweeping actions in Ohio that have significantly reduced the transmission of the COVID19 virus in the state, effectively flattening the curve as well as or better than any other state. 

Specifically, this sign:

via

Yes, he spelled Constitution wrong - misspelled signage is practically required by law at every uninformed protest. You could say it’s in the Contitution. 

At this point in the pandemic, there are probably two reasons for not knowing that COVID19 can’t be solved by only quarantining the sick, because this disease can be passed from a One Person Who Feels Just Fine onto Dozens of People at the Office without HR knowing anything about it. 

The first is willful ignorance (a fancy term for flaunting that you are a dumbass). The governor of Georgia doesn’t even live 20 minutes from the Centers for Disease Control (a series of buildings filled with smart people whose entire focus is to control diseases, like COVID19) and he said, on television, that he didn’t know.  He was flaunting that he is a dumbass.  

But the second reason may be a vocabulary deficiency (fancy term for not knowing what some words mean) and that could just be an innocent information gap. No one knows every word in their first language. English has a million words in it, and in 2020 we’re only using about 170,000 of them - like burrito (Spanish, actually, for little donkey) and Kardashian (Armenian for stone carver).  

You probably know about 20,000 words. Asymptomatic Transmission might be two of them! And English words can be confusing; asymptomatic transmission looks like something you would hear during a car commercial. 

Asymptomatic Transmission is a fancy way of saying 1) someone with cooties 2) who might not realize they have cooties 3)  could give other people their cooties. HIV is passed around like that, but that virus requires intimacy for transmission.  

COVID19 isn’t nearly as sexy. You can get it from a close talker. A regular talker. A handshaker. A salt shaker. COVID19 is very easy to catch, and even though most people survive it, so many people either don’t or require medical help that it can tear down our entire system for healthcare delivery.

Like other coronaviruses, COVID19 doesn’t make any loud beeping sounds or give you a second head if you catch it. The disease appears to be spread around mostly by people who do not even know they have it. They are without symptoms, or asymptomatic. 

And that really sucks, because it means the best way to slow this phantom down is to practice social distancing (fancy term for wear sweatpants, watch bad television, lie awake in bed every night and gain two pounds every day). I had never heard the words Social Distancing in that sequence until this year - and I’ve worked in healthcare for most of my career, spanning other epidemics and pandemics. 

This one is different. Viruses don’t care about election years, paychecks, baseball season or birthday parties. They’re assholes. You beat them by playing to their weaknesses, not ours. 

It’s understandable why people are frustrated about life grinding to a halt while they feel well enough to exercise their Contitutional Writes but we have enough recorded history to know exactly how pandemics stop rolling through the world and enough current science to tackle this one. 

I don’t know all one million English words, but I do know that there are rarely any simple or elegant solutions to complicated problems. Maybe instead of using Big Accurate Words or Simple Misleading Ones - we could do society a service by having better messaging on behalf of experts. 

Public trust is shattered, and the Americans’ general comprehension of *gestures broadly at everything* could use an upgrade. Messaging in 2020 seems to be sourced out of a machine that’s meant to be polarizing (fancy word for designed to get you to click or watch more to drive up advertising rates) while we slowly die from Both Sidesism, breathlessly giving equal platforms and legitimacy to Altruistic Evidence-Based Perspectives and Dangerously Stupid Emotional Outbursts - because fairness is vital to a thriving republic in the Information Age.

It’s up to the media to embrace those big words, explain them clearly and honestly, lay out the genuine, informed sides to a debate while disqualifying the contributions of grifters. Dunning-Kruger live-action cartoon characters are too entertaining to ever go out of syndication. Being dumb, loud and confident is reliably good television. It’s usually great internet. It’s always a bad source of guidance. The topic doesn’t matter. 

There’s no legitimate debate to how COVID19 can be defeated, but there’s plenty of discussion to how to responsibly emerge from social distancing and containment measures. And there’s an enormous opportunity to re-engineer how we communicate information, laws, perspectives and developments en masse (fancy term for to all of us). 

I have little confidence of this happening in my lifetime, but hey - it’s fun to imagine while I try to remember what the inside of a tavern looks like. We might end up less afraid of what we don’t know. Perhaps we would understand each other a little better. 

And maybe we could finally learn what an Emolument is.

#covid19 #bothsides #emoluments #stayhome #submission

[realitista]

US corrections officer answering “Why does the USA lock up a higher percentage of its population than other countries” on Reddit

Veteran correctional officer here (who can’t stand the US model).

There’s a wealth of things that affect the American Model of Corrections. Private prisons and their lobbyists and politics in general being the two biggest effectors so I’ll touch on those as well as some of the attitude of corrections itself as well as why public opinion should NOT be considered by politicians. This will be a long post, but bear with me, it all adds up to retribution over rehab and that we have to be HARD on crime!

Also programs and education are the BIGGEST effector of recidivism (an offender who gets out, then ends up back in prison). The budgets for these are near non existent and the wait lists are often years long. Screw up once and you’re out. There’s so many ways an offender can get kicked off the list or out of the program. It’s bullshit.

So private prisons MAKE MONEY for every offender they house. They are private entities that contract with state and federal institutions. So if a bed is empty, that’s a profit loss for them. Some of these prisons also include in their contracts that they can impose a hefty fine if the facility population isn’t kept above X%.

Now enter lobbyists. The soulless dick bags schmooze politicians to introduce laws, things like mandatory minimum sentencing for XYZ and a wealth of BS marijuana laws. Laws that, if enacted, will fill prison beds faster and longer, even if it destroys some 18 year old idiot kids life with a felony for having half a joint.

Now let me say real quick that public opinion, most of the time, is a TERRIBLE thing to take into consideration when it comes to law. Civilians are always going to err on the side of protecting Timmy, their stuff, their OWN standards. Not someone else’s, just theirs. The people who commit the crimes, for whatever reason, be damned. If they weren’t thugs/animals/monsters/degenerates/Etc. then they would be normal citizens like them and wouldn't commit felonies. The public in general can’t be unassed to care about a criminal (until that criminal is their family member) nor do they know anything about legal ethics or prison models.

Now add politicians. They want to be elected and public opinion is everything. In this country it’s not enough to campaign on the merit of what you’ve done, people have to LIKE you. So you can’t be lenient on criminals. Ohhhh no, gotta be TOUGH on crime! So if law XYZ is introduced and Governor Blow wants to be re-elected next year, he better play this reeeeaaaaallll carefully now that the public has heard of it and is starting to make some noise. So now he’s going to grand stand (and then vacation on that “campaign donation” from the lobbyist) that law XYZ simply MUST be passed for what ever ridiculous reason he invents and/or is popular among his voters.

Once XYZ is passed, lo and behold Jimmy Jane has done the deed. Jim’s case is assigned to Judge Robert, who wants to maintain his tough reputation (and it’s an election year). The honorable Dick hands Jim 20 years on a first time felony. Jimmy Jane is only 18 and a college freshman.

Once JJ hits the streets (prison term for general population) s/he’s having a hard time adjusting and catches a case for standing in the dayroom, take your ass back to the house (cell). Later JJ didn’t make it back to the house in time before the cell doors were rolled closed. Out of place, that’s another case. Let’s add one more for traffic and trading because JJ has a soup (cheap ramen noodles) on their person.

Now JJ just got a level drop, too many cases in too little time, and went from low custody to medium custody. Oops. Well now that program/class spot JJ was waiting to open is going to go to someone else. Oh well, it was a three year waiting line anyway. Plus the unit JJ is assigned to doesn’t have any trade programs at all, so s/he was going to have to be transferred to another unit that does. Then JJ is going to have to relearn the game, when it’s easy for many offenders to catch a case.

In a nut shell, JJ is fucked. Programs and classes appear soft on crime and people just can’t ride with that. Why should this criminal get something for free when I have to pay for school? Yeah that sucks, but JJ just wants to make a living when s/he gets out and wants to get into the brick layer program.

In this country we have this ‘lock them up and throw away the key’ mentality and we desperately need to stop. And retribution >IS< rehabilitation in the eyes of many. If we make their prison time absolute hell, then they’ll act right in the free world and won’t come back!

People view the prison population as monsters and degenerates who need to be kept in a hole away from society, and not as people who made a mistake. Society forgets that these criminal are GOING TO BE RELEASED back into the free world at some point. They want them to be model citizens, but don’t want them to have the means to BE model citizens when they get out.

Write your governors and tell them you demand, as a voter, that trade programs and classes be available to the prison population.

Edit- Wow, thanks so much for the awards! You’re all such loves

Other edit- I can no tyep todai, I has the dum, and so does autocorrect 🤦‍♀️

https://www.reddit.com/r/TooAfraidToAsk/comments/hld4pt/why_does_the_united_states_of_america_refuse_to/

[dailytechnologynews]

Fuck Boomers: A Political Manifesto For The 2020s

NOTE: If you're confused about what generation you belong to, check this handy chart.

There is a dark force wreaking havoc on the American democratic system. This force has been in power for about 30 years. Its members elect our representatives, run our companies, and—soon—they plan to stretch our fragile social safety net to its breaking point.

You know these people by another name: Baby Boomers.

The best data available tells us that Boomers are different in many ways from the generations that came after them. For example: there's the fact that—unlike Millennials and Gen Xers—the majority of Boomers were against the right of gay people to marry until after the Supreme Court decision enshrining that right into law. Or that nearly half of Boomers are suspicious of immigrants. Or that Boomers are twice as likely as Millennials to be climate change skeptics. Perhaps most worryingly, Boomers seem to have significantly more trouble distinguishing lies from truth.

Much has been written about the qualitative differences between Boomers and younger Americans. But this thread isn't about that. The purpose of this thread is to convince you of two things:

1) The Boomers have had disproportionate power in the American democratic system for decades.

2) All the best data available tells us that 1) will continue to be true for at least the next ten years—unless Millennials decide they’ve had enough of Boomer rule.

Let's dig in.

WHO ARE THE BOOMERS

The Baby Boomers invaded planet Earth between the years 1946 and 1964. As their name implies, there were a lot of them. One way to visualize the sheer size of the Boomer cohort is to look directly at the birth rates.

U.S. Births Per Year (1909–2012) - Source: United States Census Bureau

https://i.imgur.com/lL4Ca2u.png

Interesting, right? Lots of people thought so at the time. But it got a lot more interesting in the late 80s and early 90s, when suddenly the Boomer cohort became—by far—the largest voting bloc in the United States. Take a look at how the Boomers compared to everyone else in the year 1990.

Boomers as a Percentage of the Population (1990) - Source: United States Census Bureau

Note: The Y axis represents age. The numbers on the X axis represent numbers of people, by millions

https://i.imgur.com/FZJdQve.png

That's a fat wad of Boomers. See how skinny the part of the graph above the Boomers is? That's the Silent Generation. Not so many of them. Now, based on this data, you could make some assumptions. You might think that given a couple of decades, the Boomer voting bloc would start to thin out a bit. Zoom forward to 2012 (22 years later), and you'd find something surprising.

Boomers as a Percentage of the Population (2012) - Source: United States Census Bureau

https://i.imgur.com/jPnvTbV.png

Nope. Still a ton of Boomers.

But most folks probably assume that the trend can't hold for much longer. Just look at that massive dropoff right above the Boomers on the chart.

Population projections shed more light on the situation—in 2019 Millennials finally became the largest cohort by population (skipping straight past the Gen Xers). And it's true that Boomers are now dying off at an accelerating rate.

Projected Population by Generation (2016–2050) - Source: Pew Research Center

https://i.imgur.com/11ZOEtZ.png

So that looks like the end of the story for Boomers, right? For 30 years, they've been the most powerful voting bloc in America, but soon, they'll go gently into the long dark.

Right?

Nah.

The reality is that Boomers are perfectly poised to hold onto their political power for another 10 years. The reason?

Boomers vote and Millennials don't.

The Pew Research Center gives us a ton of data in this article that allows us to do some comparative math.

In the 2016 presidential election, about 70 million Boomers were eligible to vote. Roughly 69% (~48.3 million) did so.

The same year, 62 million Millennials were eligible to vote. Only 51% (~31.6 million) did so.

We're working with rough numbers here, but the implications are staggering. In 2016, over 50% more Boomers than Millennials turned out to vote, despite the fact that Boomers had only 13% more eligible voters.

Now let's look forward to the 2028 presidential elections.

THE NEXT 10 YEARS

We saw above that, according to population projections, by 2028 there should be roughly 9 million fewer Boomers in the U.S. compared to 2016. Again, we're working with rough numbers here, but we can safely assume something like 61 million eligible Boomer voters in 2028.

Calculating the number of eligible Millennial voters in 2028 is a much more complicated task. Pew also thinks there'll be roughly 4 million MORE Millennials (presumably because of immigration) in the country by 2028, but many of those immigrants probably won't be eligible to vote. And, of course, some Millennials could get felonies or die off between now and 2028. But for the sake of the argument, let's assume that the number of eligible Millennial voters holds steady over the next 9 years. That means, again, roughly 62 million eligible Millennial voters in 2028.

Obviously, if our generations continue to vote at their current rates, Boomers will still be outvoting Millennials by huge margins in 2028. Yet it's pretty common knowledge that older people are more likely to vote than younger people. Any critical thinker reading this thread is probably thinking that as Millennials age, they should naturally begin voting more often.

And, in fact, it IS true that the ratio of young voters to older voters is more or less consistent, regardless of your generation.

Reported Voting Rates (1980–2016) - Source: U.S. Census Bureau

https://i.imgur.com/wJutj9q.png

From 1980–2016, we can see that the 45–64 year old demographic did become slightly less likely to vote relative to their older counterparts over time. But otherwise, the ratio is consistent enough for us to make some rough projections.

In 2028, Millennials will be between 32 and 47 years old. Boomers will be between 64 and 82 years old.

If historical trends hold, we can predict that roughly 58.7% of Millennials and 70.9% of Boomers will vote in the 2028 presidential elections.

Let's run the numbers.

~62 million Millennials eligible to vote * 58.7% (eligible voter turnout rate) = ~36.4 million Millennial votes ~61 million Boomers eligible to vote * 70.9% (eligible voter turnout rate) = ~43.2 million Boomer votes

If historical trends hold, and the best population projections we have are correct, then Boomers will still be outvoting Millennials by between 18–19% in the 2028 election.

So there you have it. If you're a Millennial or Gen Xer in the US, you've been living in a democracy controlled by Boomers for your entire life, and that's not changing any time soon.

If you ask me, there's only way way to fix this problem.

SEIZE POWER FROM THE BOOMERS.

P.S. Hey Gen Xers: you might want to join us. Half of you have zero retirement savings, after all.

Random Notes and Extra Resources:

This 16-page document produced by the Census Bureau has a lot of good additional data on Boomers.

"The Greatest Generation" is a term coined by NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw. The Greatest Generation grew up during the Great Depression and fought—and won—World War II. They saved the planet from tyranny, rebuilt Europe, established incredible social services for the poor and elderly, and then built a space program that literally took humanity to the fucking moon.

Part of the reason there are more Boomers than, say, Millennials, is that the Boomer cohort spans ~19 years, while the Millennials cohort spans 16 years. Generations aren't standardized, and are frankly sort of abstract. All the above points still stand even accounting for this disparity, though.

#Futurology #Technology #Tech #Studies #Humanity #Development #New #Gadgets

[vowel-in-thug]

therealautobotgirl replied to your post “This DACA decision makes me sick to my stomach. I was undocumented for…”

Someone please explain to me why we don’t just improve the process of gaining US citizenship??? Honestly curious

I certainly can! Sorry it's a bit of a history lesson.

So the important thing to realize is that, in the past as it is in the present, immigration policy was dictated heavily by popular opinion. Or popular opinion was swayed heavily by what the Government was saying. It's a feedback loop and always has been.

so before, back in the 19th century, there was little to know immigration policy. there was an industrial revolution! this country needed all the workers they could get. Many of these workers were Chinese men, looking to make some money to send back home. But once the railroads were finished and the gold mines in California had dried up, these men stayed in the U.S. and were willing to work labor jobs for less money than ""Americans"" were willing to work. This is also when the notion of immigrants "not assimiliating" to American culture. Which I'm sure sounds very familiar to what people say with today's immigrants. There was huge anti-Chinese sentiment sweeping the country.

In 1882, the government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the only non-wartime federal law which discriminates against an entire nationality. It banned any immigration from China, unless the person had a permit to work (remember this). So many of the families of men already in the U.S. were kept out, and whole families were torn apart for years.

But besides from China, immigrants from other nations were still pretty unregulated. At Ellis Island, they were much more concerned with making sure incoming immigrants didn't carry disease, and they had enough cash on them to not be a drain on tax dollars. They also had to have a family member or anyone able to pick them up from the island, again to prove they aren't going to be a drain on society (remember this too). SIDE NOTE: anyone who says their family's name was changed at Ellis Island has been grossly misinformed. Maybe their ancestors changed it themselves later, or it got changed before they even left their home country. But the agents at Ellis Island were only there to check the manifests of each ship and were VERY concerned about the names matching the person's documents. That was kind of the whole point. They didn't have the ability to change anyone's name, nor would they want to, as that would likely go against all their strict checking rules. But anyway.

Then came the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924. This instituted a national quota on immigrants, greatly reducing the number allowed from, well, everywhere. This was shortly after World War I ended, and again, greeaat concern about those pesky immigrants "stealing our jobs." But this was also a time when eugenics was becoming a popular theory. You can't say "all immigrants are stealing our jobs" but allow larger numbers of the "good" immigrants from Northern and Western Europe in, while not allowing the "bad" immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. I mean, you can, and they did, but their reasoning was pretty clear. It was all about racism, and white supremacy.

so for the next few decades, there was little to no immigration to the U.S. This would be the period in which Donald and his base refer to, when they say "Make America Great Again." Before Civil Rights, before the Hart-Celler Act. When it was all-whitey, all the time, at least in terms of who benefited from society.

So then, we have the Hart-Celler Act of 1965. This lifted the national quotas in place from the Johnson-Reed Act. Remember what I said before about public opinion? This law was passed right after the Civil Rights Act was passed. It's almost like the politicians in this country realized, "Hey.....maybe........people care about.............brown people?? as well as white????" and blew their fuckin minds!

Once that gate had been opened, there were new waves of immigration (especially from Asia), which of course brought back the sentiments of "They're stealing our jobs!!" but other than a few laws passed in the 80s and 90s affecting the immigrants already here, not much changed in the way of entry into the country.

And then 9/11 happened, and fucked this up for a whole lot of people

Because suddenly, people weren't just afraid of immigrants stealing their jobs. Now, all anyone could think about was TERRORISM, and immigration became heavily tied to national security. Things became much stricter, new ID laws were passed, an additional 850 mile fence was added to the U.S.-Mexico border (YEAH there's already a wall there, people don't just fuckin prance through), "suspected terrorists" were being detained and deported with "special evidence" neither they nor their lawyers were allowed to see. It's all shit.

But that's where public opinion comes in. The government works so hard to keep that rhetoric going, where we have to be TERRIFIED of anyone who looks different than us. so the public WANTS to keep people out, and then they can pass the racist laws that allow that.

right now, here is how people can get "on line" to come into this country. Well, first. It requires a lot of money to do it. That should go without saying. Second, they have to meet one of these three qualifications: they have to have an employer lined up willing to sponsor them, they have family already here, or they're in need of humanitarian protection. All three of these are very difficult to achieve.

I've never moved from another country for a job, but I have moved to another state and I've needed to secure a job, and that shit is tough!! A whole other country, where you have to get someone to hire you (without actually be allowed to go??) where the employer has to sponsor you? That's putting a whole lot of faith into someone you don't know from an entirely different country. The family thing? Is limited to only close family - spouses, parents, siblings, and children. You got a grandma or grandchild or uncle or cousin willing to sponsor you? Tough shit. That's not "family" enough for the USCIS. And the number of refugees allowed in this country is severely limited, and unfortunately humanitarian crises don't happen one at a time. Armed forces and natural disasters can affect whole countries, not just individuals, and they're all clamoring for escape. Not to mention poverty and economic crises don't count as a humanitarian problem.

So it's very difficult now to get here legally. And you're totally right, we do need it to change!! You'll see the phrase "permanent path to citizenship" tossed around. DACA and other are temporary fixes. The problem is, now, unlike in 1965, we have a government that is actively working against the popular opinion. The racist base of donald are not the majority, and recent polls have said that even many of them did not agree with ending DACA. But even before donald, you had a Congress unwilling to pass the DREAM Act or any other solutions President Obama put forth, and you know why they worked so hard against him at every little turn? (psst the answer again is racism)

so until we have a government actually working for the common interest of all, things are never going to get better. Which is why it's really, really, really, REALLY important that y'all vote in the mid-term elections and get a Congress that actually listens to the people they represent.

#therealautobotgirl #sorry for the history lesson it's okay if you don't read it all #to my followers i promise i'll get back on my bullshit now #immigrant rights #is one of my passions obvs #DACA

[roidespd-blog]

Chapter Twenty-Five : THE EQUALITY ACT

I bet that if you are a french citizen with no instincts to get news from the other side of the Atlantic (other than “Orange Cheeto almost starts war with Iran”), you have no idea what the Equality Act is. Don’t worry, I got it cover for you.

The Equality Act is a bill put together for the U.S. Congress that would put an amendment on the Civil Rights Act and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in areas as varied as education, employment, housing, credit and federal funding. On the contrary to numerous laws acted state by state, the Equality Act protects every Queer Americans from discrimination nationwide.

Why am I talking in the present tense ? I don’t know, because that law hasn’t passed yet. But bish, we close. And it’s been a 45-year fight to get there.

I DREAMED A DREAM

The first Equality Act was conceived in 1974 by Democratic U.S. Representatives Bella Abzug and Ed Koch. Same basics, plus the right to marry — something that was obtained in June 2015. It followed the path of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that outlaws discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, theoretically pulling the plug on racial segregations and unequal application of voter registration requirements. Also following in the footsteps of, those of the Gay Liberation Movement that started in 1969 after the Stonewall Riots (That article is going to be lit!). Anyway, a bill was offered to the House Committee which decided not to proceed to a vote in the full House of Representatives.

No more concrete tries were made until 20 years later, in 1994, when a revised version of the law called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was introduced to the House. Not as ambitious as its predecessor, it only focused on the hiring and employment situations of LGBTQ+ people based on sexual orientation by employers with at least 15 employees. Narrow shit. Basically, there were conflicts with the inclusion of transgender people in the bill and it never came to fruition. It was presented in every Congress cycle (two years) from 1994 until this year (except between 2005 and 2007, weirdly). BTW, gender identity was added to the proposal in 2007 only. But as I’ve said earlier in my June 21st article, Bush Jr. wasn’t thrilled to see such laws and was ready to veto the cunt out of it. Another version of the ENDA passed the Senate in 2013 but didn’t survive the House.

As of 2019, The United States is one of the few Western nations not to outlaw anti-LGBT discrimination in employment nationally. Only 21 states and Washington D.C. have comprehensive laws prohibiting discrimination. In the rest of them, you can can fired for being gay, evicted for being trans and starved for being a lesbian. Seems hopeless, doesn’t it ? Well.

YOU LIVE. YOU DIE. YOU LIVE AGAIN.

What a strange time to be interested in American Politics. It seems like everything is Hell and beyond and then you get exciting news like this. I’m getting ahead of myself. As I’ve said, the law was introduced every single cycle of Congress except one for the past 25 years. In 2015, it died in committee. In 2017 well… It died in committee.

On March 13th 2019, Democratic Representative David Cicilline introduced the Equality Act of 2019 in the House of Representatives. The bill was sponsored by a total of 240 Representatives (up from 178 in 2015 and 198 in 2017), including 3 Republicans. On May 1st 2019 and on a vote of 22–10, the bill passed the House Judiciary Committee for the first time ever. By the time the bill was introduced a final time to a full vote, 8 Republicans voted in favor of the bill with absolutely no opposition from Democrats.

Now, it seems that it’s up to the Senate. When the bill was introduced, it was sponsored by 43 Democrats, 2 Independents and 1 Republican.

The Equality Act is supported across the board by non-profit organizations, Medical and Professional Associations, over 180 American Businesses, the Chamber of Commerce and countless celebrities.

TAYLOR SWIFT.

I shouldn’t even have to say anything else to convince you. TAYLOR MOTHERFUCKIN SWIFT is supporting the bill and PROMOTING it at the end of her newest music video, You Need to Calm Down (#2 on this week’s Billboard Hot 100) That alone should be a done deal. LISTEN TO HER ! RESPECT. HER. AUTHORITY !

“Shade never made anybody less gay so Oh-Oh (Oh-Oh) Oh-Oh (Oh-Oh) Oh-Oh… You need to calm down… You’re being too loud.. And I’m just like Oh-Oh (Oh-Oh) Oh…” Oops. Sorry. Where was I ? Allies ? Yes. Well, I’ve covered most of them.

SAURON’S ARMY (CUE THE HORN AND VIOLON MUSIC)

You know where this is going. Who hates the Queers more ? Straight women. No, kidding. Jesus Freaks (here we go again)

Numerous religious leaders oppose the bill for multiple reasons, first and foremost claims that it will infringe on religious liberties.

I’ll give you a fine example if there isn’t one. In July 2012, Charlie Craig and David Mullins visited a bakery named Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado. The were looking for the perfect wedding cake, you see. Well, Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeship, refused to provide a cake for the special occasion. The baker said his Christian faith forbids him to make wedding cakes for gay couples and he used his First Amendment right that guarantees free speech and religious exercise in his life and business. Craig and Mullins filed a complaint and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission found the baker in clear violation of the anti-discrimination law that is still implemented in this particular state. Then Jack Phillips, on the advice of his lawyer, decided that his cake making business was more on the lines of artistic expression and not directly business-related and the case went straight to the Supreme Court. Well, fuck my drag, right ?

In July 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the baker, 7–2. Phillips’ first amendment right was protected but Craig and Mullins’ discrimination case was left unpunished. Although the court did not address the wider principle of whether businesses can refuse to serve gay people, it is clear that sooner or later, a case will come into their hands and might change for the worst the fate of Queer people in the United States. What you need to know in this situation is that the entire judicial system is being shaped by Donald Trump at the moment (and by that bitch Mitch McConnell). Since he took office, he was able to appoint two new justices to the Supreme Court. Neil Gorsuch became a member of the Court after the death of Justice Scalia — thanks to Bitch McConnell who blocked every Obama appointee until he left office) while the terrible, horrible, no good for nothing Brett Kavanaugh was appointed in 2017 to replace Justice Kennedy, even after the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford in the case of sexual assault in front of a Senate Judiciary Committee. Justices are appointed for life. Clarence Thomas has been there since 1991. Goddess Ruth Bader Ginsburg since 1993. Right now, there’s a 5–4 conservative force on the Court. If Ginsburg dies while Trump is still President, the Equality Act might never see the light of day. Bye bye to Roe v Wade as well.

I digress a bit. I was talking about Jesus freaks (who are supporting Donald Trump.. ENOUGH, ALEX. ENOUGH).

The American Family Association published an April 2019 article written by fundamentalist and social commentator Bryan Fischer denouncing the Equality Act, describing the bill as the “Homosexual Supremacy Act” and writing that discrimination against the Queer community is a “social good” and “what public policy is all about”. Here’s a fuller statement :

“There is no equality in this bill for anyone who believes that homosexuality is non-normative sexual behavior and something that should not be promoted, subsidized and celebrated, especially in our schools (…). Children will be condemned to the psychological torment of this dissonance until the day they commit suicide… which 41% of transgenders do.” Let’s just not vote and elect Bryan Fischer as this year’s Asshole Supreme, kay ? Done. Fuck off, now.

I could keep going with examples of oppositions from religious groups (The Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-Day Saints, Conference of Catholic Bishops, that cunt Cindy Jacobs etc, etc), the point is as with France, the separation of Church and State in the United States of America is only theoretical. Yes, not everyone is governed by their religious beliefs. But that minority is so strong it is able to oppress the rest of the population just by sheer conviction and impressive lobbying. Fucking Jesus Freaks.

WHAT… NOW ?

Now that the Equality Act passed the House, it is still waiting to be brought up for a vote in the Senate where Majority Leader Bitch McConnell is King and the King considers the Senate as a “graveyard for progressive measures”. That’s where we’re at. Blocked by a man with no chin and way too much cheekbones. The Republicans control the Senate and there’s not much Americans can do about it. 

A poll from Reuters/Ipsos revealed that 45% of respondents incorrectly believed that federal protections for Queer people in America was already in place. Another poll from Gallup put the beliefs for new legislation at 53%.

As an American citizen (and I am not so I’m fucking powerless), there’s not much you can do but :

Sign a petition, either Taylor Swift’s on Change.org (close to 400,000 signatures have been collected as of the writing of the article) or the Human Rights Campaign petition. I signed them both and shared it on my social media. Go do that too.

Call your representatives, especially if they’re Republicans. E-mail your Senators. Lobby hard. Pressure is key to success. Politicians are worst sissies than Zaza.

Come November 2020, do not vote for Orange Cheeto. That’s ludicrous behavior, on the verge of self-sadistic.

All that to say to non-American readers, U.S politics is compelling. It’s a shit show like no other, but at least keep an eye on this Equality Act. I have atheist faith in it. Which is rational hopes on a brighter future.

“Oh Oh (Oh Oh) Oh Oh (Oh Oh) You need to just stop, Can you just not stepping on our gowns You need to calm down” - Taylor Swift, 2019.

[loudlytransparenttrash]

This Week Within Our Colleges: Part 5

A University of Chicago student organization was pressured into changing the topic for an upcoming debate because some considered it to be “colonialism apologia.” The debate, hosted by the elite school’s “Political Union,” was initially set to ask if “the British Empire was a force for good,” but student outcry merely over the title of the debate eventually resulted in the name-change. “What is wrong with you people?” one student wrote on the group’s Facebook page, with another questioning why “you motherfuckers needed plenty of critical messages to see that ‘was the British Empire a force for good’ is deeply problematic? How many white people are in this RSO?” The organization changed the question of the debate to whether Britain should be forced to “pay reparations to its former colonies,” and apologizing for the way it had initially framed the conversation.

A black University of Pennsylvania student recently declared that his semester at the Ivy League institution was “traumatic” because he had three white professors who refused to acknowledge their white privilege. “Last semester was honestly the worst semester I’ve had at Penn so far. And all because of one thing: the white professors I’ve had at Penn. It appears that the term ‘privilege’ does not apply to them. Nor do they care to learn what it is.” Student James Fisher wrote. "My professor wanted to protect the voices of the white students who benefit from black oppression, the oppression unfortunately continued. It even led to me mentally breaking down in the classroom. With different emotions going through my head from not only this class but from the Trump election, I did not want to step foot into another white space until I made sure that my mental health was restored. The truth is, you as a single person cannot make up for the horrific things that white people have done to us throughout human history. But that does not mean that you do not have the power to stop yourself from oppressing the students that you teach every day.

American University is blocking whites from a cafe designated as a ‘sanctuary’ for nonwhites. As reported in my earlier posts, after black student activists issued a demand list to American University, the administration caved in and agreed to obey. One of the demands was a ban on white students using a new student lounge for the rest of the spring semester. The activists said they would take over the space as their own “sanctuary” and also demanded that all nonwhite students received extensions. They also asked incoming President Sylvia Burwell, to show how she will enforce “no tolerance for anyone creating a hostile environment for students of color” and punish such people.

A shocking new video shows a Western Washington University student screaming for at least two-minutes straight after seeing a Donald Trump sign on campus. The unknown student reacted to a street preacher’s pro-Trump sign by spiraling into a bizarre frenzy, at some points even splattering paint on the ground. Whether it was an attempt at an artistic protest or not, the fact remains: the bitch is bonkers. 

The University of California, Irvine’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter once again disrupted and shut down a pro-Israel event, shouting “fuck you” at attendees. The SJP overtook a Students Supporting Israel event featuring Israeli veterans who are touring college campuses to share their firsthand experiences from on the ground. “You people are colonizers or occupiers and you should not be allowed on this fucking campus” they screamed and called Israelis “genocidal.” This is the same group that shut down a film-screening hosted by a Jewish student group on campus last year and as reported earlier, they have also been drinking cups of saltwater to show their solidarity with Palestine terrorists currently being detained in Israel. Nobody ever dares to question the vicious antisemitism inflicted by these students on campuses across the U.S and no one bats an eye when they refuse to condemn Hamas, because they are being funded by this terrorist organization who are hellbent on wiping out every last Jew. No one cares because they’re Muslim and saying anything would be Islamophobia. 

A University of Hawaii professor recently claimed that universities should “stop hiring white cis men” until “the problem goes away.” Mathematics professor Piper Harron never gets around to specifying which "problem" would be solved by culling cis white males from academia, but insists that "real solutions require women of color and trans women." Piper Harron suggests, members of the “white cis” demographic should, “as a first step,” resign from their “hiring committee, their curriculum committee, and make sure they’re replaced by a woman of color or trans person.” “Having white cis women run the world is no kind of solution either,” she declares, pointing to the fact 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump. “Stop hiring white cis men (except as needed to get/retain people who are not white cis men) until the problem goes away,” she instructs university officials, adding accusatorially that “if you think this is a bad or un-serious idea, your sexism/racism/transphobia is showing.”

Black professors congratulate graduates who heckled Ed. Secretary Betsy DeVos at commencement. Over 200 black professors have signed a “love letter” to the Bethune-Cookman University graduates who booed DeVos during her commencement speech at the school last week. As mentioned in the last post, one professor alleged DeVos is representative of “white power.” The letter reads: “The world watched you protest the speaker you never should have had. We cheered as we saw so many of you refuse to acquiesce in the face of threats. Your actions fit within a long tradition of Black people fighting back against those who attack our very lives with their anti-Black policies and anglo-normative practices.” 

At least DeVos got to talk even though she was still booed and heckled. Texas Southern University withdrew an invitation to Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas to address its graduating students. The university disinvited Cornyn because it wanted students to remember their commencement “positively for years to come,” and that couldn’t happen if a white conservative politician was their speaker. The petition to have Cornyn banned from talking cites his vote in favor of requiring photo ID in federal elections and against continuing federal funding for sanctuary cities who refuse to carry out the law against illegal immigrants. Oddly, it also cites Cornyn’s 2006 vote for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, at a time when same-sex marriage was far more popular with whites than blacks. Then-Sen. Barack Obama opposed same-sex marriage in 2006 as well, and didn’t officially change his position for another six years but hey, only white people can do bad things.

Minority students at the University of Michigan have expressed feeling intimidated by the interior wood paneling found throughout the historic Michigan Union building. Anna Wibbelman, former president of an organization that voices student concerns about university development, stated that “minority students felt marginalized by quiet, imposing masculine paneling” found throughout the 100-year-old building that is set to undergo a massive, $85.2 million renovation project.

A student group at the University of Washington held a teach-in Tuesday to promulgate the notion that America’s “food system is built on racism.” “It is a fact that today inmates, predominantly black Americans, harvest a lot of the food that we eat for less than $.50/hr,” the group explains. Let me get this straight, they want their rapists, pedophiles, wife beaters and murderers inside of prison, but once they’re there, they also want them to be paid and treated under the same conditions as law abiding citizens and if we don’t, it’s racism? 

A Bethel University student issued an apology for wearing a Chicago Blackhawks sweatshirt to class after he was told the clothing was “offensive and hurtful.” The controversy unfolded during a class called “Social Perspectives, Human Worth and Social Action,” which delves into themes of culture, power and oppression in America, according to its online description. Student Cody Albrecht, who is from Chicago, came to the class wearing his home team’s apparel, then offered to turn it inside out “after becoming aware of the unease in his classroom because of his sweatshirt.” A week after he wore the sports apparel and after a “reconciliation” with the head of the Social Work department, his teacher and the whole class, Albrecht issued a formal apology.

Black students at the University of California, Los Angeles are demanding $40 million and their own “safe spaces” on campus as compensation for racially insensitive incidents. “Black students at UCLA are consistently made the targets of racist attacks by fellow students, faculty, and administration,” the Afrikan Student Union (ASU) begins. The first item on the list calls for “a physical location on campus to house the Afrikan Student Union Projects,” which would include “meeting/gathering/safe spaces” and be staffed by a director and an office manager who would be responsible for distributing funds allocated to the ASU. In addition, the ASU ultimatum demands a $40 million “endowment” to fund “a comprehensive effort to address the underrepresentation of African-American students, faculty, and staff at our university,” adding that the endowment should also provide financial aid to “dismissed black students.” The list goes on to ask that UCLA “deliver an anti-discrimination policy that assuages discriminatory and offensive behavior,” specifically “culturally insensitive” behavior, in conjunction with implementing mandatory “Cultural Awareness training” for all incoming students, faculty and staff members, and campus police officers. Finally, the ASU is insisting that UCLA provide “guaranteed housing for black students for 4 years, including on- and off-campus housing,” arguing that securing housing is especially difficult for black students due to factors such as “low socio-economic status and difficulties remaining financially stable amidst the rising living costs in Westwood.”

#college

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

My Pitch for how to rewrite Arrow.

So, a while back, after me and my brother had a chin-wagging session on why Arrow was a legitimately terrible show after Season 2, I decided to do a little think piece: say I was tasked with rebooting Arrow a couple of years down the line. How would I do it? What would I change (a lot)? What would I keep the same (not a lot)? I decided to sit down and write out a basic outline for a rewritten Arrow Season 1.

...two weeks, 2000+ words and another basic outline for Season 2 later, I am pleased to present my pitch for Arrow Season 1 under the cut to anyone who might give a shit.

WARNINGS for: discussion of violence, mental health and swearing.

The first season is almost exactly the same as Arrow, but with a few not that big rather large differences

1.       First off, no Felicity. You could probably bend her characterization into something likeable, but it would just be too much work for too little payoff.

Seriously, if we need someone to do hacker bits? Oracle is right there, you guys.

2.       More overtly a Robin Hood story-Team Arrow are the Merry Men, Malcolm Merlyn is the Sherriff of Nottingham, some episodes are entirely ripped from lesser-known Robin Hood stories, etc. (Full disclosure: this is mainly because I love Robin Hood, and will fight to the death to have another good Robin Hood show for this generation)

3.       Have Oliver be explicitly an SJW. I say this because Arrow really lost something the instant it turned Oliver into just another Batman clone. If I may reference a comic I haven’t read (yet) I think one of the most interesting (and easily incorporated) elements of the Rebirth story is Oliver coming to terms with the idea that he can’t really ‘fuck the man’ if he is ‘the man’, and it could also give Thea something to do besides be all ‘self-destructive teen’-and also it’s a great way to introduce Roy.

4.       In addition, have Merlyn be an actual morally opposed antagonist. Maybe have Tommy bring up that Merlyn could do anything to help the people of the Glades and be more faithful to his mother’s memory, but it’s easier for him to pretend that he’s ‘curing’ the city by getting rid of the poor people.

5.       And for God’s sake, don’t have Oliver open up a nightclub in the middle of a dilapidated area that needs literally anything except another fucking nightclub. Like… anything. Hell, have him open up a soup kitchen that also gives out really expensive clothes he doesn’t need any more, and have Moira be all ‘but charity? What is the SJW bullshit?’

Thus Thea’s whole ‘I work at a law firm except now I run a nightclub aren’t I a caring soul?’ becomes ‘I worked at a law firm and now I run a soup kitchen because this will actually help people.’

6.       But the biggest change has to be to Black Canary.

So, when Oliver returns from the island Laurel is… different. For one thing, she’s going by Dinah now. She’s also got a new personal trainer (Wildcat), and… that scene in episode 2 when China White attacks them? Dinah kicks ass.

But that’s not the only thing that surprises him.

See, when he goes to strike the first name off the list-a name, I may remind you, that Dinah is suing in court to no real effect-he runs into complications.

Complications in the form of an apparent thief named Black Canary.

See, Dinah’s been doing this Daredevil shtick for a while now. Apparently she compulsively activated her meta-gene in grief after her sister’s death, and the Canary Cry is actually effective in this-the Canary Cry in the comics can take out Wondy if she’s not prepared, so we’re talking that level of effectiveness.

Why she decided to be a vigilante is up for debate-maybe she actually has a Daredevil-esque ‘I trusted in the law, and it screwed everything up, so fuck it, I’mma do it myself!’ or maybe she found out her mother was the first Black Canary and took up the mantle (or both. Both is good)

Regardless, she’s here to hack into Hunt’s computers and release a ton of info onto the web to use in her case against him. Oliver’s here to hack in and give the money Hunt stole back to the people.

Neither of them mention this.

They fight.

Dinah wins (of course)

And thus, for more or less the first half of the first season, both of these dorks are convinced that they’re having a ‘Batman/Catwoman’ style romance, with the other one as Catwoman.

They arrive in more or less the same area, they trade witty banter, they both somehow get what they want despite the other person opposing them, rinse and repeat.

Even better, Oliver goes to Dinah in her civilian identity in like Episode 3. So Dinah starts thinking ‘maybe he’s not so bad after all’. So she starts pulling her punches. Which results in Oliver sometimes winning (rarely, but sometimes). Which results in him thinking that it has more to do with his skills than it probably does.

Meanwhile, out of costume, Oliver and Dinah exchange as much flirty banter as in costume. Like, sometimes it’s the exact same flirty banter.

Diggle, after he joins Oliver, immediately susses out who Black Canary is based purely on the flirty banter, and spends the rest of the first half of the season constantly going HOW HAVE THESE TWO NOT FIGURED IT OUT YET?

7.       The mid-season finale has GA and BC fighting Merlyn, wherein a) they both discover who the other is and b) Oliver gets sure-fire proof that Moira is involved in the Undertaking

8.       This leads to Dinah and Diggle both telling Oliver to give the evidence to Lance (who has been hunting for both of them, but keeps on hinting that he knows who Black Canary, at least, is) but Oliver is all ‘but she’s my mom.’

9.       And because Diggle and Dinah are having none of that shit, Dinah goes to her dad and he starts investigating Moira.

Oliver is not happy.

They fight.

Dinah wins (of course)

10.   Oliver spends about three episodes brooding about this, until Diggle, Thea (unknowingly) and Dinah kick his ass back into gear (This is also where we get the majority of the island flashbacks, which, btw: almost the same, but no Slade and more Yao Fei and Shado.)

11.   Tommy finds out who GA and BC are (how I’m undecided on. Maybe Dinah tells him, maybe Oliver does, maybe he figures it out on his own, idk) and agrees to help investigate his dad, because Team Arrow figure that Malcolm has to be involved.

Btw, Tommy’s been working in the soup kitchen because Oliver’s paying him and he, at least at the start, thinks he can convince Ollie to give up this weird SJW thing he’s got going on and go back to being a partyer

This all changes when he meets one Roy Harper, because Roy is basically him but with no money and an even bigger chip on his shoulder (also Native American cos I’ll be fucked if anyone gets whitewashed in my fucking Green Arrow show)

Basically for every scene the show devoted to that fucking love triangle I want a scene of Tommy and Roy being bros.

12.   Moira isn’t convinced to out the Undertaking by Oliver tricking her, but by Oliver confronting her at the same time as Tommy confronts Malcolm, and the two giving more or less the same speech eviscerating the notion that the Undertaking is good for anyone.

Seriously, I want full on Marxist, socio-economic and class-based ideas being raised. I want this to be so overtly political that newsgroups will be talking about it for years. You wanna prove comic books aren’t just for kids anymore? Have an adult conversation about the world comic book Green Arrow would want us to live in, and see the conservative nerd sites explode.

For a bonus, have Malcolm talk like a commentator on Fox News, all ‘entitled poor people’ and ‘benefit thieves’ and ‘they shouldn’t be born poor if they didn’t want to get killed by an earthquake machine’.

13.   Ultimately, the speech convinces Moira that she needs to turn over everything on the Undertaking to the authorities, and convinces Malcolm that Tommy just doesn’t understand his plan, and that he needs to start it right away.

14.   From then on, the finale goes more or less as it goes in canon, with one major exception: Oliver and Dinah are both there when Tommy dies.

15.   But before we get on to that, a word about the Green Arrow and killing:

Now, straight up front, I prefer my heroes to not kill if they can help it.

I do have caveats to that belief (e.g. I am in general agreement with @bluefall-returns‘ stance that Superman and Batman’s ‘killing is okay as long as it’s not humans’ ethos is… problematic, to say the least, and Wondy’s whole ‘don’t attack until you first talk, but if someone is a proven threat and killing is your only option, make sure they aren’t getting up afterwards’ is such a refreshing concept that I even incorporated it into the morality of one of my main characters) but on the whole, a superhero like Green Arrow, who stands for a specific set of real-world beliefs, shouldn’t kill unless absolutely necessary, and certainly not admit that he enjoys doing it (seriously, wtf Guggenheim?)

That being said, I will acknowledge that Oliver should kill at the start of the series. That only makes sense. He’s got fucking PTSD for fuck’s sake. Of course he’s reacting the way he did on the island.

But – and here’s the key thing – YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THE PTSD!

YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR ‘LOVE INTEREST’ MAKING JOKES AT YOUR EXPENSE ABOUT FUCKING ‘FANTASY ISLAND’!

YOU DON’T HAVE HER ACTING ALL CLUELESS AS TO WHY YOU’RE OPPOSED TO KILLING NOW!

YOU DON’T HAVE PEOPLE BEAT YOUR MAIN CHARACTER DOWN FOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND CALL HIM AN ASSHOLE IF HE RESPONDS NEGATIVELY TO TRIGGERS!

I APPARENTLY HAVE TO TELL PROFESSIONAL WRITERS THAT PTSD ISN’T SOMETHING THAT CAN JUST SOME AND GO AS IT PLEASES

I’S SO FUCKING STUPFOWRBUORVN PNFWEONVOEWVN OWRENVORENVREO

…

…sorry

Anyway, have Oliver go to Dinah for help, because hey, she took an elective in psychiatry in college, maybe? (I don’t know how American school works)

(That may seem a bit too Mary Sue for some of you, but I say that if Batman can be a detective/ninja/billionaire/whatever else, and TV!Ollie can be a member of the Russian Mob before he even comes back to the city and no-one questions it, the fucking Black Canary can be a therapist if I want her to be. Also, at the very least it’s from a piece of comic book media (Young Justice) and associated with the right character, which already puts it ahead of anything Error has done with its female characters.)

So Ollie stops killing people after a while (which, for bonus points, removes a lot of the ‘WHAT WERE YOU THINKING’ from the Huntress episode)

(Yes, episode, because the second episode was pointless and I hate it.)

16.   So, anyway, that happens. Thus, when Ollie fights Merlyn, it’s less external ‘will Tommy forgive me if I kill his dad’ and more Batman style ‘if I kill him, will I be able to stop/will I go back to what I was before?’

I still haven’t figured this out, btw. If Oliver kills him, then events proceed as they do in the show and Oliver is left with the realisation that killing Merlyn didn’t do anything except add another casualty to this insane plot. If Oliver lets Merlyn live, everything Merlyn does in later seasons are things Oliver could have stopped in this moment.

17.   Where’s Dinah during this fight? Simple: she’s helping the evacuation of the Glades, because she may be able to help with the fight, but both her and Oliver know that’s secondary to getting the people to safety, and Merlyn’s all kinds of right wing shite, so it’s reasonable to assume he’s also sexist (he probably isn’t, but they assume he is) and so more willing to fight just Green Arrow than just Black Canary.

18.   But, yeah, back to the angst.

19.   So, Tommy dies. More importantly, Tommy does not die propping up Green Canary, because killing off people and having their final moments be about propping up another ship is a terrible idea. So, no, Tommy dies exactly as he does in canon, but with Oliver and Dinah there, and they both get closure.

20.   The result is Oliver doesn’t just go fuck off to Lian Yu, but instead walks up to Dinah after Tommy’s funeral and is all ‘This city is going to go down the shitter. Thousands of people are now homeless, the rich bastards (Dinah ‘you know it’s not healthy to speak about yourself in the third person’) are gonna be trying to get as much of the opportunity pie as they can, and on top of all of that, we need to find out just how many of them were involved in this. It’s gonna be a hell of a job. You up for it?’

21.   Dinah smiles. It’s simultaneously beautiful and dangerous.

22.   ‘I thought you’d never ask’ she says.

So, that’s my idea. I’ll freely admit this isn’t complete, nor is it perfect - I didn’t really have many ideas for Detective Lance other than ‘Commissioner Gordon meets Sam Vimes’, which doesn’t really come across here, and my lack of knowledge about Roy Harper beyond Arrow and Young Justice (both of which I’ve been reliably told by @oathkeptroxas are not good representations of his character) lead me to be unsure of what to do with him, but I just wanted to get this idea off my chest. Thanks for listening to my rambles, and if you have any questions, ask what you will.

#green arrow #anti arrow #anti olicity #rewrite #fanfic #black canary #tommy merlyn #roy harper #morality #heroism #sjw superheroes #fixing arrow

[nickyschneiderus]

Trump fans are starting to realize his tax cut isn’t helping them out

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was the largest reform to the American tax code since 1986, and there was no clear consensus among economists and tax experts as to how it would actually impact the bulk of taxpayers. A number of studies determined that its truncation of tax brackets, increasing of standard deductions, and rolling back of the ability to deduct state and local taxes would allow high earners to keep substantially more money, but would actually cost the lowest earners money.

But until at least one tax season had passed, the actual effects of the sweeping changes would still be unknown. As economics professor Joel Slemrod put it in a paper about the TCJA’s impact, the law was “a wonderfully generous gift because it provides scores of natural experiments that could help provide credible estimates of the causal effects of tax policy.”

If the reactions of taxpayers on Twitter are any indication, these “natural experiments” are going to be failures for the Trump administration, and possibly cost the president votes in the next election.

A number of extremely viral posts have claimed that while making the same amount of money, people now owe much more in taxes—going from large refunds to owing amounts that, in some cases, they don’t have.

Last year I got a tax refund. This year, with unchanged salary, I owe $1300.

I’m middle class.

Yet the very wealthy got huge cuts. #ThanksRepublicans

— David Hoffman (@atDavidHoffman) February 3, 2019

Last year I got $3700 back. This year $745. It’s not just lower withholding. My effective tax rate went up by almost 5% YoY. I got a tax increase.

Screw Trump, the GOP, and everyone who voted for them. Watch: As people do their taxes, Trump’s gonna lose even more support.

— Andrew F. Herrmann (@ComDoc_H) February 4, 2019

#ThanksRepublicans I’m paying $3000 more this year than last. Same income. Glad I was able to help the 1%. F#*k you, Donald Trump and Republican Party.

— Jim Bjork (@JimBjorkPPOA) February 4, 2019

@realDonaldTrump , thanks for removing the per member household deduction from your tax code ya twat. Last tax return we got $10 back, now we owe $2,100!!!!!!! But you’re for the middle class, right?

#Congress #TaxScam

— Godless Mama

(@JANDREWS2013) February 4, 2019

Wait, what happened? My tax refund is half of last year.

I thought we were all going to get an additional $4k. LIES! Has anyone seen any improvement?

— George Capen #VetsResist (@george_capen) February 3, 2019

Trouble in MAGA paradise?? Say it isn't so…

pic.twitter.com/NfNftnrRJ3

— JΞSŦΞR ✪ ΔCŦUΔL³³º¹ (@th3j35t3r) February 5, 2019

Last year I got a $750 federal refund. This year I owe $5000. I usually file early but you can go fuck yourself all the way until April @realDonaldTrump and @SenMajLdr and @SpeakerRyan and @SenateGOP and @HouseGOP. I still have $100,000 in student loans but sure I'll find $5k.

— Ben (@notsince1973) January 31, 2019

It’s important to note that these individual stories can’t be confirmed. Many didn’t respond to requests from the Daily Dot. And plenty  come from accounts with anti-Trump hashtags. But it’s not just #resist Twitter that claims to be seeing its tax hit go up despite the TCJA’s massive cuts.

Many people who claim to have voted for Trump in 2016 have been rewarded for their support with a whopping tax bill, or at least less of a refund.

Wait til you file your taxes. Middle class just lost half their return. Lowest refund I have ever had and I am 50yrs old. No wall and now this tax reform sucks too!! Starting to doubt Trump. I voted for him and trusted him too.

— Speziale-Matheny (@Speciale3886) January 27, 2019

I voted for this crack pot President, what a mistake I made, getting screwed on my taxes, loosing roughly $3,500, my mortgage interest is not deductible, wtf? #TaxScam #goptaxscam #taxrefund #presidentsucks #TaxReturns

— Nick (@nickyd6865) February 5, 2019

@realDonaldTrump I just got back from my tax accountant. All I can say is you phucked us bad. On the same income as 2017 I went from getting a ~$6,000 refund for both state and federal to owing ~$2,000 total. I will not vote for you again. Your tax changes SUCK!

— Jeff Dearborn (@JeffDearborn) February 1, 2019

Worse tax return I had in a decade! I admit I voted for @realDonaldTrump but he has officially lost my vote for 2020.

— A9N7G3 (@973angie) January 23, 2019

As statisticians and skeptics are fond of pointing out, the plural of “anecdote” is not “data,” particularly when the anecdotes come from anonymous Twitter accounts, some of which display the posting tendencies of bots.

Beyond that, it’s hard to tell whether these experiences will be repeated across the board, as tax filing season has only just started, and people who usually get refunds are more likely to file early.

But it’s clear that nobody knows what the impact of the TCJA on the majority of Americans’ tax refunds—or even who will be getting back what. That extends to the tax professionals whose careers are built around knowing stuff like this.

Thanks to the @GOP #TaxReform we went from getting $1200 in refund to OWING $2400.

Give corporations and millionaires a tax break so Americans have to pay for it, huh?

Burn the GOP down. Salt the earth where they stood.

— Plastic Man (@Almondrobopanda) February 2, 2019

“It’s still early to determine how everyone is being affected on the new tax laws, California CPA Gerry Andrade told the Daily Dot via email. “For the few returns that have been completed, the refunds have been less than the previous year, due to the adjustment of the tax withholding tables. Federal Income Tax Withholdings were reduced to increase employee take home pay. However, the elimination of the exemption deductions, employee business expenses and the limits on the property tax and state income tax deductions, have impacted tax refunds compared to previous years.”

While Andrade couldn’t predict exactly how everyone’s individual taxes will shake out, he did confirm that the outage seen on Twitter represents something very real “We anticipate that some of the taxpayers who have always planned on breaking even, meaning no tax due or refund, will be disappointed,” Andrade wrote. “They will probably owe more than they anticipated.”

One government study, done by the General Accounting Office, found that as many as four million more filers will owe the IRS money this year, and another four million will receive smaller or no refunds, compared to the system that had been in place earlier.

The culprit, economists agree, will be under-withholding—not adjusting one’s W-4 to take into account the new tax brackets and changes in deductions. Essentially, they’ve been getting less taken out of their paychecks week-to-week, and will have to make up the difference now.

For 2017, 102 million tax filers got at least some money back, having withheld too much from check to check, and getting it back with a refund. But with the TCJA, this number could drop dramatically—and if one goes by Twitter, it already has.

Welp. I missed the memo and have a large surprise tax bill thanks to the Tax Jobs and Cuts Act. #taxrefund #nonexistent @forbes @WSJ @SenAlexander https://t.co/yfcqHvDhRy

— Jacy Warrell (@JacyWarrell) February 3, 2019

But despite the avalanche of angry tweets from tax filers, it’s not clear at all that most middle-class taxpayers will owe money or see lower refunds. A number of sources claim just the opposite, that refunds will be higher and more frequent this year.

One Morgan Stanley economist told the New York Times that refunds for the average taxpayer will be “much higher than they expected,” with the firm estimating that taxpayers will be getting back as much as 26 percent more money this spring compared to last spring. In fact, that Morgan Stanley study found that taxpayers not only aren’t under-withholding, the changes in the tax code have led to more over-withholding, essentially loaning money to the government interest-free.

Other economists believe that the impact of the new tax laws will vary from family to family, with wide variations. Because child tax credits are higher, families with more dependents will likely see more money coming back. It will also vary region to region, as states with higher income taxes will see fliers be able to deduct less due to a cap on state and local tax deductions.

Thanks to the #TrumpTaxScam I am middle class and my tax refund has decreased by over $3000. I live in one of the most expensive states in the nation. Super excited that the tax burden on the super wealthy and corporations has been lessened and shifted to the middle class.

— ChilCollins (@johnprugh) February 4, 2019

An H&R Block report generally estimates that “those who itemized deductions in 2017 and have no dependents are one of the groups most at risk of owing instead of getting a refund,” as well as homeowners in states with high tax rates, and “employees who deducted unreimbursed business expenses for 2017” as business deductions have been curtailed.

So if you’re a small business owner or self-employed, with no dependents, and live in a state with a high tax rate; you’re probably going to get hit hard by the changes. Is this the category that Twitter tax complainers belong to?

The only thing that’s clear is that nobody knows for sure. With tax filing just having gotten underway, it’s likely that social media will see more accounts from both people who owe more, and from those who are getting more back. Every individual’s experience will vary.

from Ricky Schneiderus Curation https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/trump-tax-cut-twitter/

#Ricky Schneiderus Curation

[pro-ag-gressive-church]

X.C.R.I.S.I.S. will kill us if we don’t stop them NOW!

X.C.R.I.S.I.S. (Xrisitian Conservative Right In Seditious Insurrectionist States) The only "terrorist" group ACTUALLY posing a threat to the United States.

The "Conservative" movement in this country has become an unholy alliance between self proclaimed "christians" who ONLY quote the parts of Leviticus or Deuteronomy that validate their hate, and NEVER quote Jesus CHRIST (I call them Xristians to separate the extremists from the faithful), and the Cult of Ayn Rand who worship an economic fantasy from a badly written sci-fi novel that has NEVER worked in ANY practical application.

“You know the Bible says beware of false prophets. And there are people out there, you know, spreading noise about how much can get done. I mean this whole idea about shutting down government to get rid of Obamacare in 2013 – I mean, this plan never had a chance.” -Fmr. House Speaker, John Boehner

Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/john-boehners-trashing-ted-cruz-tea-party-just-proved-liberals-right-video/

The sooner we start treating Confederate Scum like the disease they are, and stop pretend they are human beings "with an opinion", the better.

Are Conservatives even people?

“What defines a person? What defines property? What’s the difference? The anthropologist and ethicist Dawn Prince-Hughes argues that the standards for personhood include self-awareness, an ability to understand complex emotions, and the capacity for empathy.” -Ted 2.

Conservatives clearly lack both the capacity to understand complex emotions and the empathy that particular definition of a "person" requires.It’s easy to see, in this perspective, how a corporation or fetus might seem like a “person” to them since they lack all but self awareness to qualify as one.

Unlike the primates Dr. Prince-Hughs studied to come up with this theory in her book "Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through Autism", conservatives are clearly NOT people.

While that makes them property by the logic presented in the film, the truth is they should be at least considered as other primates until they can join the human race in it's otherwise unanimous understanding of those concepts.Some wild animals need to put down no matter how we anthropomorphize them, especially when they are as dangerous to society as conservatives have proven to be.

Some will see this as satire, but seriously... why are we treating these animals like humans, when they can’t provide the simple comfort of a purring cat, or loyal dog?

As the thinking and rational members of society, we have to take responsibility for letting this destructive “invasive species” of humanity loose. Like Coy fish or killer bees, we need to recognize that they are not capable of being part of society, or even the ecology in many cases, and instead of granting them membership as a right, make them earn it. Isn’t that exactly THEIR attitude with the undocumented, refugees from terror, and the poor. Do we not owe ourselves the right to hold them to the standards they set for others? Conservatives have EARNED genocide. Like poor Anne Frank, Liberals believe that all people are basically good, and just "misguided". They still haven't learned that Conservatism is a CANCER that needs to be ERADICATED like all cancer.

Just like the Civil War Criminals that we simply allowed to have all the spoils of their slavery in order to "make peace", we didn't execute the lying Conservatives who got us into the illegal wars in the middle east when we found out what they had done to us, and made us to do those nations.

Name a single liberal policy that will kill someone.

If we taxed the top 2% who make over $250,000 at a rate of 90%, do you know how many would be below the poverty line?

ZERO!!!!

Not a single one of them would have life as tough 45 million Americans live with EVERY DAY.

The fact is, in every way, the cause of Conservatism is to kill or enslave everyone not born with money.

Executing a Conservative is no more an act of violence than spraying germs with disinfectant, or taking an antibiotic.

Something is trying to kill you, slowly, but never the less it is trying to kill you.

Killing a Conservative is inherently an act of self defense.

Conservative = Cancer

You can't negotiate with cancer.

You can't reason with cancer.

You can't yell at cancer and make it behave.

You don't sit there dying and try to figure out how much of you, you will allow cancer to kill.

You poison it with chemicals. You cook it with radiation. You cut it out.

Cancer has lost its right to be part of your body because a small part of it’s “code” has become corrupt. It ignores the rules of the anatomy, and grows out of control reproducing that altered bad code jeopardizing your life.

Sometime you lose a lot in treating cancer. Especially if you've ignored it for too long and let it get out of control.

You can lose limbs. Vital organs. Lots of good cells and tissue that are NOT cancerous will die from the treatment the longer you pretend you DON'T have cancer.

You CAN be too late. You can face your final days in agony, knowing you are going die from cancer, because you didn't act soon enough.

Cancer may be a part of you, but it is a part of you that has betrayed EVERYTHING ELSE about you.

Conservative thought is social and political cancer.

We need to STOP pretending that this is a difference of opinion that can be negotiated and reasoned out, because "We The People..." are dying from it.

It looks, upon a casual examination, like it’s following the Constitution and the Bible, but it has altered a SMALL amount of those “codes” needed to keep this nation alive, and replicates that deadly code.

Isn't that what EVERY cancer does? Tries to re-write the code that keeps the system working?

In the case of Cancer the code is DNA.

In the case of society, the code is education of future generations, It needs to be treated like the danger that it is. It needs to be poisoned, cooked, and cut out of society, TO SAVE SOCIETY.

We need to try and cure it, and hope that it is not too late.

And that is going to hurt.

The question is... is the continued life of society WORTH the pain. Can we recover enough from the losses we will endure to have a life after we've killed all the cancer?

I think we can THRIVE. Unlike our bodies, removing this cancer will just make way for us to regrow the damaged parts, but only if we stop trying to talk it out, and start fighting for our lives before it's too late.

WE ARE AT WAR AND WE ARE DYING EVERYDAY.

IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP and START CAUSING CASUALTIES ON THEIR SIDE.

Killing a Conservative is not murder because CHOOSING the cause of Conservatism is not just a abandonment from American values, or betrayal of this nation...

It is a declaration of resignation from HUMANITY!!!!!

The Jews were dehumanized BY the Nazi's to justify genocide. Conservatives have DEHUMANIZED THEMSELVES, and EARNED their genocide as no Jew ever did.

JUST FUCKING LOOK AT WHAT THESE TERRORIST ARE CLAIMING!!! AND WHY?!?!??!

SO THEY CAN VALIDATE THEIR OWN VIOLENCE AGAINST US, AS "SELF DEFENSE"!!!!!

The delusion of Liberalism is that somehow they will find an acceptable middle ground with these religious fanatics.

The very act and method of embracing the ideologies and principles that these people have, DEFIES reason. There is NO amount of education or explanation that will change their mind. They are as immune to rational thought as the Muslim extremists in I.S.I.S./I.S.I.L. or Boko Haram. In fact, comparing their goals... the groups are identical save for two things.The respective books they aren't smart enough to actually read, and the amount of money they have to wage their war.

While the Islamic Extremists have access to millions, the Xrisitan Extremists in America have access to Billions!!!! Maybe even Trillions. When you can purchase rule from an unscrupulous "representative" of a democracy, you don't need overt violence to achieve your goals.

Your "Terror" to maintain control, takes the authoritative tone of POLICE BRUTALITY!

That's a hard concept to swallow. We are used to "terrorism" being an overt act that disrupts our daily scheduled lives.

In fact, there is no generally accepted definition of exactly what qualifies as terrorism, but every definition includes two common things. The use of FORCE and FEAR to obtain a goal. Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) can't buy the election processes in the myriad of countries they seek to control, so they use horror and military power to terrorize the population there.

Conservatives in America have bought our representation, and the media that can complain about it.

They use the law and daily policing as the FORCE to keep us afraid, and the ever changing media boogeyman to divert attention from their rule.

They are, by a legal definition, insane.

Under the "Model Penal code", a defendant is legally insane if at the time a crime is committed they are unable to:

1. Appreciate the criminality of his conduct; or

2. Conform his conduct to the requirements of the law

"The second question is whether the mental illness interfered with the defendant's ability to distinguish right from wrong. That is, did the defendant know that the alleged behavior was against the law at the time the offense was committed."

Tell me this does not define the actions of the Conservative movement at this time.

So how do you protect 38-41% of the nation's population from harming others, and themselves, without allowing yourself to be the victim of their insanity? THAT is the question the left needs to answer among ourselves before we can start to move forward.

Peaceful resistance can only work if you can embarrass your opponent with their hypocrisy. The "right" in America has already convinced themselves that WE deserve to die for our "sins". They will slaughter us without a hint of guilt, and thank their god’s name for having been given the opportunity. Liberals believe that "Nobody wants war." That is our fatal flaw. THESE people DO want war. They are just not rational or reasonable. Fighting back is not the choice we WANT to make, but a necessity for our survival. We need to force these extremists to accept OUR authority, or we will cede it to them.

This really comes from the fact that "American Christianity" or as I call it, Xristianity isn't a form of Christianity at all.

It is form of "Protestant Judaism" where the Old Testament is given more weight than the word of Christ.

The hate all comes from books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

The Xristians are really a heretical form of Judaism in the belief that there WAS a Jesus Christ, and the adaptation of Baptism as a forcible means to expand their faith, where if they just accepted the fact that they were in fact Jews, they would by tradition be required to shun converts, not seek them aggressively.

They are also a heretical form of Christianity in the denial that Christ fulfilled the Covenant of the old Testament, making the word of Christ supersede most of the old Testament.

Making it worse, there is the historical "persecution" of Christians by the Roman Empire, who ALSO considered them to be "just Jews".

The Christians of the day were at odds with traditional Judaism, and basically refused to pay the tax levied by the Romans against the Jews for worshiping gods other than the Pagan Roman gods. Something the Jews had not had problems with for centuries.

That and the fact that according to Christ, prayer should be in secret and NOT a public display made the early Christian faith a target for Roman suspicion and justice, which was then rewritten from denying reasonable demands of society that provided for, and protected most of it's citizens, into history as "Persecution”.

Today’s Xristians represent the worst of all worlds. They’ve retained the “persecution” myth while forcing people to accept their faith, all the while ignoring the actual peaceful teachings of the man their faith is named after.

They SHOULD be afraid to admit they loved Jesus if they actually READ the parts of their bible that Jesus is credited with, because Jesus preached keeping your faith between you and God.

But it is a faith that has been mutated into a political entity, which goes against the U.S. Constitution they ALSO fail to read, and forced on a group that is REWARDED for ignorance.

"WHITE HERITAGE" It's time "white" people learn what they really supposed to be "proud" of instead of what they have been sold on as "white pride".

I've never had to kick ass at 6 to 1 odds with "Black Power" people. I've had to deal with that shit with "White Power" assholes, and I'm a pasty ass, pink as shit, Irishman.

Clearly I'm NOT "white", honestly... see no advantage to being one outside of prison where I would probably be pigeon holed into being by extremists into aligning with ARYAN Nation simply because my white skin would prohibit me from teaming up other groups.

A majority of Xristianity SHOULD be under attack. The fear of Jade Helm, and Obama is a representation of their collective guilty conscience.

They KNOW they have violated the Constitution.

They know they have taken God’s name in vain.

They know they have the wrath of God coming and refuse to accept that they are the "bad guy".

They are so afraid, because they knows they have this coming, and if our roles were reversed they would gladly bring US to HIS justice.

They know… deep down, that they deserve to die. That their children need to be saved from his ideology.

War is never an agreement to violence. It is one group deciding they have they have the right to kill the other to enforce their will.

You either watch those your loved ones die, and you are victim to those trying to kill you, or you fight back.

The question is, who is trying to "kill" the "Conservative Confederate South"?

We've tried to give them Health Care. We've tried to give them an equal vote.

If anything, the "liberal media" has bent over backward to try and give these inhuman monsters an equal voice to those of sane people with, fact based, reasoning.

YES!!!! I SAY WE SHOULD ENFORCE OUR WILL ON THEM.

I SAY WE SHOULD USE WHATEVER LEVEL OF VIOLENCE IT TAKES NOW, BEFORE WE ARE THE VICTIMS OF THEIRS.

We are literally fighting to make their lives better.

If we cannot find a way to remove them politically as mentally ill, we MUST take this to a level of force before X.C.R.I.S.I.S. is a threat far worse than Daesh (I.S.I.S./I.S.I.L). could be.

I know this ends with SOMEBODY in DEATH CAMPS, and I know it's usually the person willing to compromise that walks into them, and those who look at compromise as weakness who send them, leaving us with only the worst people in the world.

https://medium.com/message/how-white-people-got-made-6eeb076ade42