#broken democracy

[richo1915]

Polybius on the Romans

“For the mob, habituated to feed at the expense of others, and to have its hopes of a livelihood in the property of its neighbors, as soon as it has got a leader sufficiently ambitious and daring, being excluded by poverty from the sweets of civil honors, produces a reign of mere violence.” Polybius of Megalopolis

#quote #polybius of megalopolis #polybius #greek historian #ancient history #rome #roman #spqr #modern day politics #broken democracy #populism #mob rule #people have not changed in 2500yrs

[528204]

#flight rising is in all caps bc things i thought were obviously fr related have broken containment 1 too many times…. lmao #also im addicted to making polls now. democracy #flight rising #my favorite is xyz ^_^

[tomorrowusa]

Trump's most famous promise was to make Mexico pay for his squalid and corrupt border wall.

Amount collected from Mexico: 0 centavos.

Trump did give tax breaks to billionaires while giving COVID-19 to much of the rest of the country.

Trump's promises are as worthless as degrees from Trump University.

#donald trump #trump's broken promises #republicans #trump's broken border wall #mexico isn't paying for trump's wall #tax breaks for the filthy rich #the trump pandemic recession #covid-19 #joe biden #bipartisan infrastructure law #inflation reduction act #biden's pro-worker policies #child tax credit #biden supports reproductive freedom #biden is lgbtq friendly #biden is pro-democracy #biden isn't a stooge of putin #election 2024 #vote blue no matter who

[eaglesnick]

“What you call austerity is what I might call efficiency” – David Cameron.

When unelected, multi-millionaire Rishi Sunak appointed Suella Braverman as Home Secretary he was warned that he was only creating a future problem for himself and for the country at large.

“Sunak has appointed Braverman to appease the hardliners. It won’t work. Attempting to keep the Tory right-wingers at bay will only embolden them to demand more."  (Prospect Magazine: 26/10/22)

And

“The reappointment of Suella Braverman as home secretary - after she broke ministerial rules - sets "a dangerous precedent", MPs have said. (BBC NEWS: 02/12/22)

Sunak’s judgement when it comes to government appointees is clearly flawed and no more so than in his desperate attempt to shore up his premiership by bringing unelected Lord David Cameron back into government.

Cameron, together with his pal George Osborne, was the architect of Austerity, a financial policy that saw ALL of our public services cruelly starved of funds. Today's “Broken Britain” is a direct result of the Cameron-Osborne years: a crippled NHS, a chronic housing crisis, a dysfunctional justice system, a depleted police force, crumbling schools, rising poverty and homelessness…the list goes on and on.

Here are some frightening figures that can be laid at the door of Lord David Cameron.

“More than 330,000 excess deaths in Great Britain in recent years can be attributed to spending cuts to public services and benefits introduced by a UK government pursuing austerity policies, according to an academic study.”  (Guardian:05/10/22)

No lesser paper than the Financial Times has this to say:

“The Tories' austerity programme made deep and lasting cuts to public spending, especially investment, eroding Britain’s state capacity" (FT: 23/12/22)

Wages below where they were 18 years ago, life expectancy down, avoidable mortality the highest in Europe, healthcare infrastructure halved, cuts to housing and community budgets causing deaths among children, are all the direct result of Cameron's and Osborne’s policy of austerity. ”Lives lost, earnings lost, years lost. Unlike Trussonomics, austerity is a slow and silent killer. For the best part of twelve years, the Conservatives sowed the seeds. This year they’re reaping the harvest.” (Financial Times: 23/12/22)

The sooner Rishi Sunak and his self serving government are ejected form office the better for all of us.

#uk politics #rishi sunak #poverty #democracy #austerity #cameron #osborne #decline #broken britain

[idkmybffjillyy]

#supreme court #roevwade #roe v wade #pro choice #prochoice #united states #fuck trump #fuck bush #the system is broken and the system is being cheated #taking the democracy out of the democratic republic

[gentil-minou]

if i see one more post that tells me i have to vote biden i am going to lose my mind

#THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS IS STILL FUCKING EVIL #instead of bullying people with legitimate concerns and distrust for biden maybe work on getting him to change his fucked up policies that #have done more harm than good and will continue into a second term #the way i see it democracy has long been dead in this country so at the very least im just going to focus on my local reps and third partie #because until there's a complete dismantling of this two party system than its never going to be a deomcracy #and yeah its gonna fucking suck but guess what it already fucking sucks #at least i wont have the thought that i settled for someone who supports genocide and doesnt actually give a shit #you want the democratic party to change? then you start forcing them to #not just going with this old white warmongering guy instead of that old white warmongering guy #which only contributes to making this system worse and even more broken

[hellyeahheroes]

Our Democracy No Longer Represents the People. Here’s How We Fix It | Larry Lessig by TEDx Talks

#thought provoking #politics #democracy #corurption #broken system #oligarchy #plutocracy #150/365

[saint-cecilias]

Snook and Matty Mac fucking OWNED that episode. the balcony fight is one of the greatest and most brutal scenes in this entire show. 

 engrave their fucking Emmys right the fuck now!!!

#succession hbo #succession #mai talks tv #that entire ep was about broken alliances and how everyone is spiraling and betting on the wrong horses. #it was such a claustrophobic episode too. like you felt the tension and how anything could go wrong at any minute. #i just............Succession is pure gold. #the only person who is THRIVING post-logan's death is Connor and i love that for him. #he's got his wife and his political career~ he is free of Logan and he might democracy.

[waloeders]

tried Helldivers 2 w my irl friend, this slaps

#jupiter.speaks #> what the hell they werent kidding. the democracy can have a little war. as a treat #>tho my pc died 2x while playing lmao okayy this is so broken #> whagever tho i need to finish packing n also. tidy up

[chloeworships]

Omgosh this woman has said EVERYTHING the LORD has said which I’ve shared. I am so glad someone sees through the smoking mirror 🪞

Why would Israel not go into Rafah if the hostages are said to be there????? HELLO??? Ding ding 🛎️ Why would they not do everything in their power to save these innocent people who didn’t ask for this war? Who didn’t elect Hamas?

I am deeply disappointed our Canadian government made a political decision not to send arms to Israel 🇮🇱 It doesn’t matter that much anyway, because the motion isn’t binding. However it does send a message to terrorists everywhere that we lack strength to stand up against terrorism. That we are weak and give in to pressure. We should be standing against injustice not indirectly voting in support of it.

Public (albeit) fictitious pressure is what led millions of Germans to support Hitler too. Let’s not forget that.

I hope in the future Israel becomes evermore self-reliant.

I posted the article about how the US entered WWI…. 170+ innocent Americans were killed on an attack by a German missile on a boat off the coast of Ireland. Just 170 people. Israel had 1,200+ innocent MASSACRED on their own land and yet people are asking them to stand down. If Canada had done the same to Americans, believe me the US would be doing just the same as Israel 🇮🇱

PS. I heard the name Abdullah Hussein.

Today we should be celebrating Israel finding more evidence of the use of hospitals, (designated safe-zones btw) by Hamas for their attacks not discussing a nonsensical empty political vote such as this.

PPS. I had a dream of a mayor recently, too.

#I might have to vote conservative in the next election fr tho #now I see why BILLIONAIRES donate to the party they believe cares #our system is broken #is democracy a fallacy?

[vanilla-voyeur]

It's kinda funny when people say democracy is a broken system that will never work just look at the US and their examples are:

The electoral college

The FPTP two-party system

The Supreme Court

70-year-old Senators

Gerrymandering

Corporate personhood

#democracy #united states #everything designed to undermine the will of the people in this country is whats ruining our government #all but two of those things were put into place so the slave would sign the constitution #might as well throw in the 3/5s rule as a reason democracy is fundamentally broken too

[palipunk]

Palestine Masterlist 

Introduction to Palestine: 

Decolonize Palestine:

Palestine 101

Rainbow washing 

Frequently asked questions 

Myths 

IMEU (Institute for Middle East Understanding):

Quick Facts - The Palestinian Nakba 

The Nakba and Palestinian Refugees 

The Gaza Strip

The Palestinian catastrophe (Al-Nakba)

Al-Nakba (documentary)

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 (book)

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (book)

Nakba Day: What happened in Palestine in 1948? (Article)

The Nakba did not start or end in 1948 (Article)

Donations and charities: 

Al-Shabaka

Electronic Intifada 

Adalah Justice Project 

IMEU Fundraiser 

Medical Aid for Palestinians 

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund 

Addameer

Muslim Aid

Palestine Red Crescent

Gaza Mutual Aid Patreon

Books:

A New Critical Approach to the History of Palestine

The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge

Hidden Histories: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean

The Balfour Declaration: Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine

Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique

From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem until 1948

Captive Revolution - Palestinian Women's Anti-Colonial Struggle within the Israeli Prison System

Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History

Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics

Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of The Palestinians 1876-1948

The Battle for Justice in Palestine Paperback

Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom

Palestine Rising: How I survived the 1948 Deir Yasin Massacre

The Transformation of Palestine: Essays on the Origin and Development of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

A Land Without a People: Israel, Transfer, and the Palestinians 1949-1996

The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood

A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples

Where Now for Palestine?: The Demise of the Two-State Solution

Terrorist Assemblages - Homonationalism in Queer Times

Militarization and Violence against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East

The one-state solution: A breakthrough for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock

The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians

Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians

The False Prophets of Peace: Liberal Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine

Ten myths about Israel

Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question

Israel and its Palestinian Citizens - Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State

Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy

Greater than the Sum of Our Parts: Feminism, Inter/Nationalism, and Palestine

Palestine Hijacked 

Palestinian Culture:

Mountain against the Sea: Essays on Palestinian Society and Culture

Palestinian Costume

Traditional Palestinian Costume: Origins and Evolution

Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora

Embroidering Identities: A Century of Palestinian Clothing (Oriental Institute Museum Publications)

The Palestinian Table (Authentic Palestinian Recipes)

Falastin: A Cookbook

Palestine on a Plate: Memories from My Mother's Kitchen

Palestinian Social Customs and Traditions

Palestinian Culture before the Nakba

Tatreez & Tea (Website)

The Traditional Clothing of Palestine

The Palestinian thobe: A creative expression of national identity

Embroidering Identities:A Century of Palestinian Clothing

Palestine Traditional Costumes

Palestine Family 

Palestinian Costume

Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, v5: Volume 5: Central and Southwest Asia

Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure

Documentaries, Films, and Video Essays:

Jenin, Jenin

Born in Gaza

GAZA 

Wedding in Galilee 

Omar

5 Broken Cameras

OBAIDA

Indigeneity, Indigenous Liberation, and Settler Colonialism (not entirely about Palestine, but an important watch for indigenous struggles worldwide - including Palestine)

Edward Said - Reflections on Exile and Other Essays

Palestine Remix: 

AL NAKBA

Gaza Lives On

Gaza we are coming

Lost cities of Palestine 

Stories from the Intifada 

Last Shepherds of the Valley

Voices from Gaza

Muhammad Smiry

Najla Shawa

Nour Naim

Wael Al dahdouh

Motaz Azaiza

Ghassan Abu Sitta

Refaat Alareer (murdered by Israel - 12/7/2023. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un)

Plestia Alaqad

Bisan Owda

Ebrahem Ateef

Mohammed Zaanoun

Doaa Mohammad

Hind Khoudary

Palestinian Voices, Organizations, and News 

Boycott Divest and Sanction (BDS)

Defense for Children in Palestine

Palestine Legal 

Palestine Action

Palestine Action US

United Nations relief and works for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA)

National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)

Times of Gaza

Middle East Eye

Middle East Monitor

Mohammed El-Kurd

Muna El-Kurd 

Electronic Intifada 

Dr. Yara Hawari 

Mariam Barghouti

Omar Ghraieb

Steven Salaita

Noura Erakat

The Palestinian Museum N.G.

Palestine Museum US

Artists for Palestine UK 

Eye on Palestine 

#Palestine #free palestine #palestine masterlist #apartheid #settler colonialism #links #donation post #BDS #Middle East #Palestinian liberation #palestinian culture #long post #resources #dcip #gaza

[wilwheaton]

The notion that the United States is “polarized” into two conflicting, equally stubborn and extreme camps infects much of the mainstream news coverage and everyday chatter about politics. Washington is “broken.” “Gridlock” is a problem. “No one goes out to dinner with someone on the other side.” Such mealy-mouthed language masks a stark dichotomy: Democrats have to move to the center to get bipartisan support; Republicans have become radicalized and unmovable. This is not “polarization.” It is the authoritarian capture of much of the GOP by a right-wing movement bent on sowing chaos. Turkey, Hungary and other countries with autocratic strongmen are not polarized; democratic forces try their best to prevent their country’s ruin and collapse into total dictatorship. Our political scene, sadly, has come to resemble the global authoritarian assault on democracy. [...] The bipartisan border compromise ... was sunk by Republicans. Republicans in the House overwhelmingly opposed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly known as the “Bipartisan” Infrastructure Bill (which President Biden modified to get bipartisan support); almost every Republican voted against the Chips Act, they all voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, and some even voted against the Pact Act, which would have helped veterans. House Republicans have launched phony, baseless impeachment hearings. Senate Republicans filibustered reenactment of a key part of the Voting Rights Act, blocked a bipartisan Jan. 6, 2021, commission and overwhelmingly refused to convict four-times-indicted former president Donald Trump. The assertion that hyper-partisanship, chaos and nihilism (e.g., threatening to shut down the government, egging on a default and refusing to even vote on Ukraine aide) is equally divided amounts to an outright fabrication — or utter cluelessness.

The radicalization of the Republican Party is not ‘polarization’

[ursie]

Brennan’s statement on Palestine :

[ ID: Statement from Brennan Lee Mulligan, on Instagram. It consists of three black squares with plain white text. The text reads as follows:

"I'm calling on my government officials to immediately demand a ceasefire and de-escalation in Gaza.

I applaud anyone and everyone calling for peace, with the understanding that real peace only exists if it deeply and honestly accounts for and fully ends violence in all its forms. Real peace addresses and corrects wrong-doing in the past and guards against it in the future. It goes hand in hand with justice and requires truth, restoration, reconciliation, reparation.

Peace cannot co-exist with collective punishment, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement. It cannot co-exist with blockades, embargoes, or with 2.2 million people, half of which are children, trapped with no hope of escape or political recourse. it cannot co-exist with murdered journalists, bombed hospitals, or years of protesters being shot and killed at the border. it cannot co-exist with illegal settlements, segregated roads, and the silent, imperial chill that settles over the gaps in the violence - the unspoken geopolitical consensus that a group of people need to unflinchingly accept permanent subjugation and occupation.

My hear breaks for every Israeli person who lost loved ones during the attacks of October 7th. It breaks for every Ukrainian person who has lost their loved ones. It breaks for every Congolese person who has lost their loved ones. I do not speak on behalf of Palestinians now because some lives are worth more than others. I speak on their behalf because I, and all Americans, have a responsibility to pressure our government because we are responsible for this. Some have said that this situation is complicated. The Unites States government clearly disagrees. It has definitively, categorically, militarily chosen a side, and I do not agree with that decision.

In wiring this, I have been wrestling with what I am sure many people like me wrestle with: There is a powerful narrative surrounding violence in the Middle East that asserts and ever-moving goalpost of self-education and study in order to even be qualified to have an opinion. As someone with a love of research, I have at times in my life fallen into the trap that I am not educated enough clever enough, or aware enough to have a worthwhile perspective, and that three more articles and two more lectures and one more book will do the trick. Unfortunately, democracy doesn't work that way - we, the citizens of any democracy, cannot possibly be experts on every aspect of the policies of our governments, and yet if we do not constantly weigh in an make our voices heard, the entire experiment falls apart. Not only do people constantly doubt themselves and the things they can see with their own two eyes, but old shortcuts for political action can fall apart as well: This specific issue exists along a raw, charged and unique faultline in American Politics. Nobody I grew up with has ever challenged me on my support for abortion rights, LGBT rights, Black Lives Matter, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, none of it. The people in my country who would despise me for those positions are, for all intents and purposes, strangers to me. But there are people who I've broken bread with and shared honest affection with who will see the words I've written here and incorrectly conclude that I do not wish for the security, dignity and happiness of them and their loved ones, and that breaks my fucking heart. Full-throatedly condemning the actions of the Israeli government while battling rampant anti-semitism at home is an urgent moral necessity, and doing so is made unnecessarily challenging for the average person to navigate by the pointed obfuscations of cynical opportunists, bigots, and demagogues on all sides of the political spectrum who see some advantage in sowing that incredibly dangerous confusion.

So, I'm calling my representatives. I'm having hard conversations with friends and family. I'm here, talking to you. I should have done it sooner. If you're Israeli and hurt by this statement, know that I want freedom, dignity, security and peace for you, and that every ounce of my political awareness believes whole-heartedly that the actions of your government are not only destroying innocent lives, but doing so to the detriment of you and your loved ones' safety. If you're American and feel lost and confused - I understand and empathize. This, the whole country, only works when we get involved. I am constantly haunted by the specter that maybe I missed some crucial piece of information on this, or any, important world event. I'll just have to make my peace with that self-doubt and trust my gut by going with Jewish Voice for Peace, Amnesty International, the Geneva Conventions, the United Nations, etc. And if you're Palestinian and reading this: I unreservedly support your right to life, to freedom, to happiness and human flourishing, to full enfranchisement and equal rights, to opportunity, prosperity and abundance, to the restoration of stolen property and land, and to a Free Palestine." End ID ]

#if anyone wants to do the id I will love you forever btw #brennan lee mulligan #d20 #dropout #free palestine #dimension 20 #I babble

[sistersatan]

#Capitalism #Democracy at work #economy #Philosophy #political #Sister Satan #Socialism #video #youtube #politics #housing #affordable housing #broken #professor Harvey #Anti-capitalist chronicles

[auressea]

municipal politics: ELECTIONS!

the Capital region where i live is .. fucking ridiculous.

we have ≈ 400 000 people and 13 separate municipalities, each with their own mayor and council.

elections are for each city council, and the Regional District, and the School district. It is virtually impossible to gather the data on who voted for what, and how and whether they kept any of their promises.

I'm slogging through this shit anyway because Fascists, right-wingers are taking over small and local governments all across North America.

DO NOT let the conservative, right-wing, fascists get a foothold in your community! that's how Hilter came to power. it's how Trump came to power.

#vote #help your family vote #talk to people about it! #please do your homework #democracy is broken #harm reduction #home #politics #Canadian politics