Notices by Bodhipaksa (bodhipaksa@mastodon.scot)

@WarnerCrocker Same, but in my version a steam-roller is heading in that person's direction.

@bgrinter @mekkaokereke

GOP state governments will send out postcards (targeted to Black/Democratic areas) and if you don't reply to the postcard they remove you from the voting register.

If you miss voting in a couple of elections they'll take you off the register.

Have you heard of placebo votes? They'll let you vote and then just not count it.

https://hartmannreport.com/p/democracy-undone-the-texas-placebo-f52

How are some folk here able to create blockquotes? I've tried a few ways and A cannae dae it!

Does it depend what instance you're on?

"It’s not enough for white men to be in control of all the levers of power; they—and those who do their bidding—also have to make everybody else feel like they don’t deserve power and won’t be able to have any even if they try. The white guys who are determined to keep running this joint need the rest of us to believe that asking for equal opportunity and a fair shake is asking for too much, and that demanding equality now is perpetually too soon."

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/america-is-ready-for-first-black-woman-president/

J.D. Vance says that people who have no children have no stake in the future.

Yet he's a Catholic: a religion headed by *checks notes* a childless Pope, and run by *checks notes again* thousands of childless priests. (Supposedly.)

Plus nuns!

And wait, news has just come in that Jesus, the man whose teachings Catholics claim to follow, was yet another man who (according to their own orthodoxy) had no children.

Childless people have no stake in the future.

Shouldn't he convert, or something?

Will Bunch, on the nose as ever.

"Do not let the matter of Trump, Egypt and the $10 million disappear. Although it’s tragic that the criminal statute of limitations expired, any alleged bribe can still be pursued as a civil case. More importantly, Congress — for now, that means the Democratic-controlled Senate — needs to open a full-blown investigation, with efforts to subpoena Barr and other Justice Department higher-ups to explain in public why the case was dropped."

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/trump-sisi-egypt-10-million-bribe-20240804.html

I guess I'm now a White Dude for Harris as well as having donated directly.

#WhiteDudesForHarris

http://whitedudesforharris.com/

"Kids are stressed, and some of them kill themselves. What should we do?"

"I know, let's monitor everything they do and send them to the administrator's office or call the cops on them if they use the wrong words!"

"Sounds great!"

https://kansasreflector.com/2024/07/28/spyware-turned-this-kansas-high-school-into-a-red-zone-of-dystopian-surveillance/

@tanyakaroli He's the instance administrator, and so he sets the tone for everyone else. The whole instance sees to be blocked on mastodon.scot, fortunately.

I'm sorry, Elon. It was assigned the name "Twitter" at birth, so that's what I'm sticking with.

Copied from @Piousunyn, who I couldn't boost, because they hadn't included alt text.

My mum (bless her!) used to say, "I'm not racist, but I don't want a black family to move in next door; it'll bring down the property values."

That's not very different from all the people who say "I'd vote for Kamala Harris, but there's too much racism for her to get elected."

People "outsource" their racism to others.

If you're not actively supporting people from ethnic minorities, rather than creating problems for them, you make yourself part of a racist system.

So we have nonsense like this NYT piece, where their columnists are asked to select alternatives to Harris, ranking them by how "exciting" they are. (Despite the huge excitement for Harris in the real world, the NYT decides she's pretty dull, really.) They also decide that EVERY other rando they picked — some of whom have already endorsed her — is more electable than she is. Including some you've probably never heard of. It's childish. They are not serious people.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/22/opinion/best-worst-candidates-to-replace-biden.html

To the editorial boards of the Washington Post and the New York Times, the presidential election is a kind of Hunger Games. It's a spectacle to be milked for its entertainment value. If it's not entertaining enough for them, they'll create some new narrative that makes things more dramatic.

The fact that this political context has profound effects on people's lives doesn't matter to them. They want to be in control of the narrative, creating drama.

1/2

Also see this.

https://journa.host/@MAD_democracy/112838162205477151

And this: a Republican columnist explaining why he wants to see a cage match rather than a smooth transition to a new candidate. (Well, he would, wouldn’t he?)

This analysis is worth a read. "Special counsels are unconstitutional if they make Trump sad."

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/aileen-cannon-jack-smith-unconstitutional

@Miriamm Oh, boy. I’ve always had such respect for him.

@mekkaokereke The residents seem like entitled assholes. I keep thinking of all the back folks that get pulled over for a busted tail light (or DWB) and end up getting killed.

@WarnerCrocker This is getting close to Department of Propaganda–level reporting, with the part about spray-painted messages saying "Gaza is bleeding" and "Stop the genocide" being buried way, way down the article.