Well, and least we got this about of it. Even Ted Cruz had to slam on the damage control brakes.
I just want to clarify- even though McConnell and other republicans have slammed on the “NO NO NO we aren’t doing that” brakes- we should still be concerned.
Between this and Trump’s refusal to commit to election results, he is deliberately undermining his base’s trust in the electoral process. By citing “voter fraud” as his reason to try to delay the election, now even though the election WILL happen on time, if (when) he loses, he can claim that the election was illegitimate- that it was voter fraud, that he warned us, that he knew it was rigged, that Congress didn’t do enough to stop all the ~fraud~ that he knew was there, and he will refuse to step aside peacefully.
He has been placing armed mercenaries in major American cities run by democratic mayors, and he is laying the groundwork to claim that the election is illegitimate if (when) he loses.
You need to vote, so that both the Electoral College and the Popular vote are against him, and when this asshole finally breaks the tradition of the peaceful transition of power (which is what he is planning), when you need to be willing to protest and fight more than you ever have before.
Like, I do not want to be an alarmist here, but we could be looking at like… Congress having to send in armed men to remove this man from office, and depending how the Republicans in power and his base handle that, we could be looking at a level of violence in the transition of power that is literally unheard of in the US.
^^^^^^ This.
This si why you vote blue even if you’re in a scarlet state with no hope of winning the electoral college.
This is why you vote for Biden even if you loathe him with every fiber of your being.
This is it.
If we are to have any hope of maintaining a fair system and avoiding an all-out dictatorship, the numbers have to be absolutely unambiguous.
Go. Vote. Blue.
Fuck. Joe. Biden.
Look, YES fuck Joe Biden. And I know that asking people to vote for a shitty option because the other viable option is FAR worse is hardly convincing. I know.
But a vote for Joe Biden isn’t just a vote against Trump. It’s also a vote for all the positions that Biden would get to fill, rather than leave Trump’s people (like Barr and DeVos) in charge.
It’s also a vote for all the judges Biden would appoint (Which is likely at LEAST 1 Supreme Court pick.)
It’s a vote for all of the 700+ positions that the President appoints and Senate confirms (Not just being generally better than Trump’s picks, but ACTUALLY GETTING FILLED. Trump still had over 170 unfilled appointments as of this year.)
And honestly, at this point, it’s also a vote that says “You shouldn’t get to undermine our electoral process and threaten the peaceful transition of power and STAY IN POWER.”
Joe Biden is a bad candidate, and I wish we had gotten nearly anyone else. But I do believe that he’s a candidate who like… generally respects our political process, who could competently staff an administration, who could be reasoned with and compromised with, and who isn’t going to try to crown himself Emperor. Biden probably won’t spend hours a day on Twitter instead of like, reading security briefings. It SUCKS that we have to aim as low as “isn’t literally trying to power grab himself a dictatorship” but the other option is to forfeit your vote and let the dictator get reelected.
So please, for the love of fuck, can we try to temper our disappointment with pragmatism? We should always vote for the best possible option, even if the best possible option is kinda shitty.
And the best possible option is the Green Party.
In a ranked ballot, you would absolutely be correct. Hell, even if we had a true popular vote, that would be reasonable if the Green Party got real traction in debates.
But welcome to our shithole electoral system that isnt going to change between now and Nov 3.
And if you REALLY think that a political party that has 0 senators EVER, 0 congressmen EVER and 0 electoral votes in a presidential election FUCKING EVER is the answer to this, I….I dont know what to tell you.
Vote for the best VIABLE option, please. (And then campaign like hell for election reforms. Because ranked ballots and the popular vote would be GREAT and actually would make 3rd parties like…actually a reasonable choice.)
[ID/ Three tweets by Kivan (@KivaBay) that read, respectively:
“The reason there are so many conservative boomers is the poor ones die sooner”. (A meme of someone pointing at an empty sign that has been edited to read “boomer vs millennial” discourse is no replacement for class analysis. the rich are oppressors, not the elderly.”)
“This isn’t even a joke. If you want to know why an older generation seems like a bunch of out of touch rich bastards, it’s because more of the wealthy than the poor survived”.
“Think of how many boomers we lost to poverty, ableism, the AIDS crisis, racist violence and murder”. /end ID]
tl;dr my country is literally on fire and the politicians refuse to help
I know there’s a lot going on in the world, but you probably haven’t heard about what’s happening in Australia.
we’re on fire.
approximately ¼ of australia’s population is in catastrophic fire danger. A catastrophic fire level means your only chance of surviving is leaving before it’s too late.
it’s Spring in Australia, and rainforests aren’t meant to be dry enough to burn, yet at the time of writing this (11/11/19) there are 71 active fires in NSW (43 out of control), and 51 active fires in Queensland - not including those that have already burned before now, and there are more in other states. Sydney is already rated “catastrophic”, the first time this rating has ever been used there since its creation in 2009. That’s right, we had to add yet another level of destructiveness, because “high”, “very high”, “severe”, and “extreme” were no longer adequate. To quote the Fire Danger Ratings, “for your survival, leaving early is the only option”. conditions tomorrow will be the worst they have been, and people are evacuating as we speak. the fire fighters are preparing as best they can.
This isn’t just about people losing their homes; people have died and will die, countless animals have already lost their lives and many more will still perish. our land, our lives, and our hope is up in flames and will soon be nothing but ash. the annual fire season has not even begun yet. this is only the beginning. my native land is burning, and there is nothing i can do to stop it.
the government refuses to acknowledge that we are in a climate crisis. the fires have never been this bad. we have been in severe drought for more than a year which has only contributed to the force of these fires. the Prime Minister Scott Morrison has done nothing but send his “thoughts and prayers”. He will not accept aid from other countries because he is too egotistical to admit that we need it. All the while the people of this land are suffering. Climate change needs radical human change to be combated. we are already seeing the results of years of indifference, and this is barely the beginning of something that will only get worse the longer government’s and big companies refuse to act to counteract climate change.
Our government has also cut funding to Fire and Rescue NSW by 35.4%, the Rural Fire Service by 75.2%, and QLD Rural Fire Service by 26.42%, resulting in closures of services; they don’t have the resources to cope. We are fighting a losing battle against the results of climate change. and this is only the beginning.
12/11/19 UPDATE
At least 6 million people today are prepared for evacuating. There are strong winds, low humidity, and high temperatures which will only exacerbate and encourage the fires. Authorities have warned that there aren’t enough fire trucks to help everyone, so unless you are prepared to the maximum, you need to leave. 600 schools and TAFE’s across NSW have been closed due to the fires, with others in Queensland closing due to air quality being virtually unbreathable due to smoke. Rural Fire Service Deputy Commisioner Rob Rogers said the state was as prepared as it could be, with military aircraft on standby to rescue people from fires if needed.
As Queensland and New South Wales deal with these unprecedented bushfires, there is a lot of talk about how to stop, or at least reduce them. David Bowman is a professor of environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania and he says the short answer is that climate change is making a bad situation worse.
But it’s also much more complex than that. Much of Australia’s natural biodiversity has evolved to withstand and even stop bushfires due to a multitude of species being in one area. Eucalyptus trees encourage fires as they help spread seeds, but other species are naturally flame retardant and help to curb the fires. The issue is that so much of the native bush has been cut down for farming and agriculture that the natural fire defence has virtually been destroyed. Australia is the leading country in mammal extinction, as well as one of the worst 7 for biodiversity loss.
There have already been significant harmful impacts to wildlife, with entire ecosystems up in smoke and individual species affected, including around 350 Koalas presumed dead – all before the fires have reached their peak.
my heart goes out to the victims of the current fires, which we know have been exacerbated by the decline of native biodiversity. Australian conservation efforts need a radical overhaul. Mitigating the intensity of these fires, mostly set by humans and their activities, can be achieved by restoring our native ecosystem engineers, such as bandicoots, bettongs and potoroos.
These species help to maintain healthy forests by continually turning over and breaking down forest leaf litter, thereby drastically reducing fuel load. In their absence, fires are more intense, often reaching the treetops, which can affect populations of species already on the brink, like the Koala.
Slow growing and ancient Australian East coast temperate forests are of global significance, as these forests have some of the highest carbon storage on the planet. Fires of this intensity threaten their very existence but managing wildlife to reduce fire intensity and protect forests is under-appreciated for its importance in reducing the release of carbon into the atmosphere.
If you wish to donate to the NSW Rural Fire Service, follow this link. I’m not sure if it works for countries outside Australia, but if you can spare some money, please try
Or you can donate to the Red Cross who have set up many shelters and are providing first aid, and are trying to fund small kits to provide families with basic necessities
An update on the fire situation, because they’re reached Victoria down south now. We’ve started to feel the heat down south and now had a cold snap. 21st November.
This is eleven days later and still burning.
The important points:
Fire season hasn’t even officially begun yet.
It was the hottest November night in a century last night
The rainforests are dry enough to still burn
The Liberal government not only cut funding to firefighters, but continues to deny climate change and the climate crisis.
Thunderstorm asthma occurs when the grasslands are super dry, and then along comes a thunderstorm which not only disturbs and picks up all the pollen, but the sudden moisture causes the pollen particles to fragment and break apart, becoming multiple smaller pollen particles, each equally capable of triggering asthma, only now there is more of them. And those particles are small enough to avoid getting trapped in the nose, and go straight to the lungs.
This overwhelms emergency services and people die.
We have always been a country of fire and flood, but not at this time of year, not this bad. The climate is changing. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
I don’t know how folks in Sydney are managing to still breathe… and it turns out a bunch are not, with asthmatics and respiratory distress cases increasing 25% in emergency wards.
