Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. BlueSky: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.

whatbigotspost:

whatbigotspost:

If anyone tries to defend the electoral college to you, just ask them to LITERALLY do the math. Make them calculate and see how a vote in a more rural, less populated state (like Wyoming) is simply more powerful than a vote in a highly populated one (like California.)

Make them do the math…divide the electoral college votes each state has by their total population. Make them see that votes in highly populated (and usually blue) states are DILUTED.

Make them try to defend that a vote in Alaska or South Dakota is literally more powerful than New York or Illinois.

Force them to admit that the electoral college is limiting the votes of more progressive people and regions. Force them to admit that the electoral college is antithetical to democracy.

Force them to admit that “the people” did NOT elect GWB in 2000 or Drumpf in 2016.

Do NOT let them tell you that “the people spoke.” ONLY the electoral college spoke.

I just wanted to add to this…when I said “ONLY the electoral college spoke” I don’t mean to downplay, dismiss, or ignore the huge block of incredibly bigoted people that DID vote for Trump. I simply mean that the majority of the country didn’t back that flaming garbage can so don’t let anyone try to say “you lost fair and square.” 

herhmione:

i’m ready for christmas fuck i want hot chocolate and christmas trees and holiday music playing in stores and the smell of candles shimmering ornaments and christmas lights and a chill in the hair just hEAR THOSE SLEIGH BELLS JINGLING RING TING TINGLING TOO

Avatar
brimleymuffins: If that's the case, I'm a white leftist who voted Clinton, but I understand the rage. Shocked by a Marxist who was thrilled about Trump, until I realized he believed it would spark the revolution in the USA. Playing with people's lives for kicks.
Avatar
broadlybrazen:

I am so fucking DONE with the (predominantly white) entitled leftists who advance that argument.

A friend of mine articulated it beautifully: 

“A Trump presidency is /highly/ unlikely to inspire The People to finally recognize the injustice of our social and economic order and rise up as one to destroy it, etc. Historically speaking, this idea really doesn’t have much or any grounding. The worse things get, the more time and energy and money and social capital and so on people have to expend just to get through a day and protect themselves and their loved ones. They will have even less of a chance to get involved in creating structural change; they will be even more wholly swallowed by urgent personal concerns. 

The largest, most significant, most successful protest movements in the US in the 20th century emerged during an era of rising prosperity and financial security and falling income inequality. That’s not a coincidence. 

I reject the leftist trope that things need to get worse before they get better. Putting aside the ethical problems with this claim, there just isn’t any evidence for it.”

We’re already see this play out, horrifyingly. Last week, progressive Democrats were saying things like “remember, after we win, we hold ourselves and our candidate accountable; we’ll do better, we’ll make real changes.”

Today, people are talking about surviving without health insurance, without life-saving medication. About surviving deportation and families being torn apart. About violence and jubilant demonstrations from neo-Nazis. About what happens when we lose the last sixty years of hard-won, hard-fought social progress and social safety nets. About labor rights and protections. 

We will not have energy to fix our flawed liberalism, because every scrap of energy, power, and influence will instead go towards bare survival. 

Last week, we were talking about how much we could change the status quo for the better.

Today, we are desperately reaching for ways to keep the status quo – to keep healthcare, legal protections for LGBTQ folks, reproductive rights. 

Last week, the status quo wasn’t good enough. Today, we know we’ll be incredibly fortunate if we can keep it.

That’s what radical leftists don’t want to understand and that’s what they don’t care about because it is never ever EVER their lives and their human rights at stake.

partymage:

This is sociologically tested. Economic inequality/material insecurity has a negative relationship to elite-challenging behaviors and liberty aspiration.  Economic insecurity also has strong connections to increases in conservatism and authoritarianism. There’s a reason fascism tends to get stronger in economic depressions. 

People who are fighting to survive just do not have the same resources for mobilization and action that those who have some level of basic assurance that they won’t lose what little they have trying to find the time and energy to seek improvements.

 If you want change, the best bet is a foundation of education, support, and security. Burning everything down will just kill your own people inside the house.

ionaonie:

theemperorsfeather:

cactustreemotel:

aka14kgold:

Chief of Staff is not a formal Cabinet position and does not need to be confirmed. Calling your senators to complain about Bannon is not at all useful, and takes their attention away from things they can actually have an effect on.

Know your Cabinet positions: Vice President; the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs; Attorney General. These positions all require Congressional confirmation, and thus can be affected by calling your reps/senators. When Trump wants Giuliani to be AG or Arpaio to run Homeland Security, you can badger your representatives about blocking the nominations.

Ranking with the Cabinet – but appointed at the POTUS’ discretion and not subject to Congressional approval – are Chief of Staff, the heads of the EPA and OMB, ambassadors for the Trade and UN, and directors of the Council of Economic Advisers and Small Business Administration.

Dreading the SBA pick for professional reasons; feeling very good about my decision years ago not to over-specialize.

I reblogged this last night for the info about what is and what isn’t a formal Cabinet position, despite having some reservations about the opinion of the OP about what is useful. It took me a few hours for that feeling to coalesce into words, and here they are:

Even if our representatives do not have formal power to prevent a Chief of Staff appointment, they sure as hell ought to know what their constituents think is and is not appropriate for people in really fucking important political positions. They can also speak out about it and bring other kinds of pressure into play, and when what we’re talking about is a white nationalist, I think it’s important to say “no” to that even if they can’t stop it. Some of them already have already made public statements opposing Bannon’s appointment, so clearly it’s worth some of their time.

Both of Oregon’s senators are opposed.

Congressman Johnson of Georgia is, too.

I lost the link, and websearch is failing me, but I know there was a statement from Connecticut, too.

It’s also worth noting that Bannon isn’t going to be Chief of Staff; that’s going to be Reince Priebus.

Bannon has been named as a top strategist and adviser, and doesn’t really have an official job title.

The article in the NYT:- Donald Trump Picks Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff and Stephen Bannon as Strategist

titleknown:

Reblogging this series of tweets by the brilliant Dan Olson, because holy shit are they scary, and holy shit do we need to focus on stopping this shit…