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Things are pretty fucked up and the future is uncertain — probably the worst in my lifetime (perhaps excepting 1969 before I can remember). When it’s like that, I like to think about my grandparents and what they faced and got through with the Great Depression and WWII. /1
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/2 There were absolutely no guarantees that everything would be all right. Terrible things were happening and more terrible things were a distinct possibility. But they got through it, relying on the fundamental things they cared about.
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/3 I think about Grandma taking a taxi to the hospital to have my mom, forbidding my grandpa’s parents from calling him to let him know — he was on base studying for the supply officer test the next day, and doing well would determine where he was assigned, and maybe whether he’d live or die.
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/4 (Grandpa’s parents had a car, but grandma had a flair for drama, I think.) He did well and went off to be the supply officer on a ship in the Pacific. Went with absolutely no guarantee of coming back. That’s what people did.
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/5 So, in terrible circumstances, think what people before you have endured. Think about how you can support and defend folks less able than you to endure. And fight the bastards.
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/6 My grandparents didn’t whine about it. Nor, for that matter, did my college classmate who survived as a child in 1970s Cambodia by hiding in a pile of his neighbor’s bodies. So, keep calm and fight.
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Don’t you feel a corner was turned when a president is given absolute immunity? Also, for those of us who had whole generations of the family tree wiped out in a 10 year period, if you see the writing on the wall you get the hell out before it’s too late
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Yeah, trans ppl all in my mentions and Discord etc are arming or getting ready to run Or both
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They better be getting ready to vote!!
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I am now thinking of all of the freedmen in the American South who, at the end of Reconstruction, were brutally repressed by the Klan and had all of their civil rights stripped away from them for nearly a century.
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There are more of us than them. Millions more!
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Don't take anything personally from Redistrict Girl et al. Nerves are really raw and trans ppl are borderline panicked. Give a little space to vent and an ear to just listen if necessary. A lot of folks are in a bad space right now and need a moment. Then we pick up our gear and move out.
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The most vicious anti Biden sentiment is usually from accounts with trans flags in them. Those "trans anarchist" accounts probably aren't real tho. Maybe more of them are leaving?
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I suspect a few are fakes designed to discourage turnout.
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For who? What protections has the trans community been granted during the last 3.5 years?
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Hint: People ask questions to gain knowledge they don't currently have. Double hint: How many of your trans friends (if you have any) feel safer now than they did 3.5 years ago?
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Yes, my trans family members feel 1,000% safer with a Biden Administration! No question! No hesitation! They believe in democracy & hope to hell the rest of this country does as well!
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There's a difference between Not Enthusiastically Protecting and Wants Them Dead. As always in elections, you choose the lesser of two evils.
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Hence the reason they're arming/getting ready to run
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Biden isn't coming after me and my family. The fascists at Heritage and in a Trump DOJ absolutely will be coming after us, and if it comes to a firefight, I'm effectively dead at that point. I'm just expending rounds as long as I still have a pulse. You still have a vote before this happens.
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Military service, passports, much easier ability to transition documents at the federal level, and executive orders banning discrimination where it can be done- Biden's actually a legit ally, because of his late son having a close trans friend (who is now a state senator)
Where exactly do they think they can run if the US falls to fascism? We have to vote and get people to vote Dem as if our lives depend on it.
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You know that you can still vote when not living in the states, right?
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Ppl are making their own calculations on safety and proceeding from there. I know some are going to Ireland
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How are they getting residency?
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I have friends with Irish grandparents who have Irish passports.
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that makes it very easy
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That's something you need to ask them
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I’d be impressed if they even thought about that aspect
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Getting the hell out before it's too late is not at all incompatible with staying calm and fighting. You assess the risks, and do what you need to in order to survive - make that choice calmly and as rationally as you can. And then whether from inside or outside, you fight.
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Mr. Hutz, aka Miguel Sanchez, I hope you saw the post going around earlier: No one is above the law No, one is above the law!
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I did not. And I very much appreciate you sharing it!
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Character, Patrick McGoohan, No. 6. 1967: "Who is Number One?" "You are Number Six." 2024: You are, Number Six. The comma as oracle?
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Imagine watching that with your dad for the first time.
I loved theme songs, opening sequences, and the like. It's one part of TV that I really miss. You could come into a show cold and understand the context immediately - even a unique show like this, let alone simpler ones like Gilligan's Island or Green Acres.
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Literally the only reason I am alive is my grandparents got the hell out of Poland before it was too late. The family members who stayed all died in the camps. There is no shame in leaving.
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I lost members of my grandparents' generation to the camps too. But the members of that generation who got out and could fight, did. No shame in leaving at all. But there is great shame refusing to fight to save others from the fate you left to escape.
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It’s tricky for two reasons 1) the resurgence of the far right is happening in so many places 2) the US military can reach any corner of the world, barring other far right rivals checking the DoD with nukes
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Run if you can, stand and fight if you can. Point is, we’re in trouble and the chances of this getting wrapped up in a nice little bow are slim
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(To say nothing of US diplomatic and covert influence)
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I always felt that a president had such powers, thanks to the power of the pardon. This ruling is merely confirming that for Trump specifically. The thought of this particular president returning to power would be the turn of the corner for me. It'd mean that half of fellow citizens endorse fascism.
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It wouldn’t, though: especially for a GOP candidate, electoral college victories are as divorced as possible from popular vote victories, and popular vote counts are as divorced as possible from genuine popular support (via suppression enabled by Shelby v. Holder and similar maneuvering).
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Trump got 47% of the vote in 2016 and 2020. So I stand corrected. *Almost* half of my fellow citizens support fascism. Nationwide polls are probably a good secondary source, and in those two Trump gets about half of us on his side.
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The latter weight by likelihood (and ability) to vote, the former involves huge amounts of voter suppression, look at the number of adult citizens compared to Trump voters You really think most of those non voters don't care or want to vote? Look at what's happened in Florida, purged rolls, etc
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I am going by the numbers available. You do not accept those numbers, do not provide any of your own, and hypothesize why those numbers may not be that high. Okay. That's a weird way to dispute numbers, so I shall bid you farewell.
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Whut? Adult population of US in 2020: ~258,000,000 Votes for Trump 2020: ~74,000,000 That's 28% These are all publicly available info pieces, and there's a character limit. Everything else I said is VERY WELL KNOWN FACTS Voter suppression and cheating won Trump his victory in 2016
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In 2016, when Trump beat Clinton, if people who didn’t vote counted for “None Of The Above”, NOTA would have won
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If Nora Jones wasn't your mother or your father, then she would not be your parent.
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Caterpillar tomato French fry word salad. 47% PV for Trump of 59% turnout is 28% of American citizens voted for Trump in 2016. Higher than it should be? Yes. Close to half? Not remotely.