Reminder that twitter is now an informal, unregulated (i.e. warrantless) information source for Trump administration use.

So today is the last day before the new terms of service take effect on Nov 15th.

If you are an artist on X, formerly Twitter, who doesn’t want their work in the plagiarism machine that is AI, then I urge you to delete your account or stop posting art (or anything) to their platform.

Their TOS now makes you allow them to steal your stuff in exchange for using their service.

It’s a crossroads demon deal. Don’t do it.

introduced in August??? Why hasn't it moved through yet??

Dear Undecided and Both Sides are Evil voters.

One more thing before I go bury myself in a pile of blankets:

To everyone who voted Democrat for the first time, every former trump supporter who voted for Harris, everyone who voted for the first time, every Republican who did not want this result and voted for Harris, thank you.

I got a text from my cousin who has voted third party for decades who voted for a Democrat for the first time yesterday.

My aunt who voted for trump in 2016 and who's husband is a proud MAGA sent me a Snapchat late last night saying she is one of the women who secretly voted for Harris.

A former friend from college who used to be deep in the Republican party posted on Facebook yesterday that he voted for Harris.

I know you aren't the only ones.

I see that you tried.

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

hello again (bill clinton limewire voice) my fellow americans

There are a few states that actually have Shield/Refuge laws designed to help trans people fleeing from trans-unsafe states, which also guarantee trans folks access to healthcare. These states are:

Additionally, some states have "trans sanctuary" executive orders signifying safety for trans folks seeking healthcare. These states are:

Living as a resident in these states means you are protected by state's rights and state government to continue or begin receiving trans healthcare. These laws have been codified in their states so everything has been a-ok'd by their state governments.

Stay alive. You got this. I love you.

I actually can't stop thinking about how the losing party last election dressed like vikings and tried to break into the white house and the losing party this election are sharing suicide prevention hotlines

U.S. conservatives always talk about creating jobs but get SO MAD whenever anyone mentions banning prison labor like imagine the insane ammout of jobs that would be created literally overnight if companies in your country had to actually employ people instead of using slave labor from people that got caught with weed 10 years ago.

Daily reminder that the US, who love to scaremonger about "communist labour camps," have legal slave labour if you're in prison

okay so as much as this post punches above weight on its own i need people to know exactly how many industries in the us are using prison labor, because it is many more than you think:

about 2/3s of prisoners in the united states work and most of those people make nothing for their work. if they make any money it's averaging 52 cents (that's $0.52) per hour and most of the money gets withheld for "room and board, taxes, and court cost" by the prison. some states, including alabama, arkansas, florida, georgia, mississippi, south carolina, and texas, pay nothing. here is a 150 page ACLU report on this that was published in 2022. if you refuse to work you might be sent to solitary or have your parole chances destroyed. there are no labor protections. people get killed. incarcerated people produce billions of dollars a year and almost never get paid.

there are basically three forms of prison labor. the first is labor inside of prisons to keep the prisons running. which means that if they let people out? their admin goes down. which is a reason to not let people out. the second is work release, providing inmate labor to private companies at offsite locations, like poultry plants, cattle and dairy farms, and other agricultural services. (this includes firefighting. incarcerated people are saving your fucking lives for less than five bucks a day.) the third is production of goods for external sale, including farm work, manufacturing, call center, distribution services, and others. and yes, before you ask, this includes immigration detention, which may i remind everyone is made up of civil detainees; immigration violations are not crimes but civil violations and people are trapped and exploited in private prisons and then utilized for profit.

this is legal because of the thirteenth amendment to to the US constitution, which states (and this is a direct quote), that "neither "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the united states[.]"

colorado banned prison labor five years ago but prisoners say it's still going on as of november 2023. there are other state initiatives trying to get prison labor banned, but when the government literally relies on incarcerated people to keep running, it's an uphill fuckin road.

companies which use prison labor or sell products made by prison labor include:

walmart

kroeger

target

aldi

whole foods

mcdonald's

wendy's

starbucks

sprint

verizon

victoria's secret

the dairy farmers of america

dickinson frozen foods

badlands quilting

pizza hut

hickman's egg ranch

fidelity investments

jc penny

american airlines

avis rental cars

the oregon department of motor vehicles

3M

allstate insurance

american apparel

american express

costco

enterprize

fedex

frito lay

hertz

HP

little caesars

kfc

office max

sara lee

xerox

and so many others.

The problem and practice is so pervasive it is honestly really difficult to boycott and divest from products produced by prison labor. Sometimes we can search and find out if a company uses prison labor, sometimes it just feels unknowable. Sometimes those companies are your only option for internet service.

Companies also love to market a product as "made in America" without clarifying it was made by prison labor. If something says it was made in America but gives zero further details, be very wary of it. Shit that is marketed towards a conservative audience absolutely loves to do this especially.

Idk why anyone thinks they can debate Elizabeth Warren after we all watched her rip Michael Bloomberg to shreds on live national television and single-handedly put such an abrupt end to his campaign that we simply haven’t heard from the man since

Image: @betches_news on Instagram

Get his ass, Liz.

She did 😌

Dear person in my notes who is saying I shouldn't be mad at people who didn't vote harris bc the ppl who voted independent wouldn't tip the scales:

I AM NOT MAD ABOUT INDEPENDENTS TBQH. Independents got a shockingly low percentage of the vote this year tbh, they are not the issue here.

The issue here is EVERYONE WHO COULD'VE VOTED BUT DIDN'T. Because here's the thing, Trump got about 2 million FEWER votes than last time. But he still won, because of how few democratic/leftist voters SHOWED THE FUCK UP.

What I'm mad about is the fact that Biden won HANDILY in 2020, but this year despite winning TWO MILLION LESS VOTES, Trump won solidly within the day. Which means that FEWER FUCKING VOTERS TURNED OUT.

i give negative shits about the independent votes at this point. I blame every abstaining voter who COULD have voted in this election. You are ALL on the line for the bullshit trump pulls in the next 4+ years.

Rebuttal: I will not ever vote for someone that supports a genocide. Kamala refused to stand against a fucking genocide. I've seen to many headless babies on my fucking social media in the past year to be able to vote for a person that supports the government bombing those babies.

NOpe, fuck you, you do not actually care about palestinians because they were ACTIVELY BEGGING PEOPLE to vote for harris, because the alternative - what actually happened - was so much worse.

Get fucked.

Trump wants to use fucking NUKES, and has spent the last year actively undermining the cease fire talks Biden and Harris were attempting to broker.

So SO many more people are gonna die bc a bunch of assholes couldn't see past their own imagined purity to vote for the lesser evil.

If it makes any of you feel better, Donald Trump will have an uphill battle to change the constitution. He will need:

-2/3 of Senators (60)

-2/3 of the House of Representatives (290)

-3/4 of the states (38)

In 2026, 33 senate seats will be up for grabs, and we’ll be able to vote for people who are against Trump and his ideals.

Breathe and remain hopeful because it’s not over. We can still fight and make Trump’s last four years hell.

This is so important. Also pay attention to local elections. Now more than ever it's important to have staunch anti Trump democrats at every level of government - from school boards to senate seats. Apathy and not voting helped Trump win. Now is the time to wake up and get serious and hold on to the freedoms we have left. We have got to fight for every inch of territory. Do not give up. Do not give him any more power than he already has.

To all the trans people who see this tonight, no matter what happens, we will survive. Trans people will still be here 4 years from now and 10 years from now and 100 years from now and tomorrow. We have always existed and we always will. The world cannot unlearn about us; we are too public, too loud, too beloved, too present. Ill be here tomorrow. Please stay here with me.

On twitter I’m seeing dozens of threads from Black activists warning people against burnout, giving all sorts of useful tips about preventing and managing it for the sake of a long-term, sustainable effort.

On tumblr I’m seeing a hell of a lot of young white kids yelling at anyone who actually follows those steps, and acting like burnout is a moral falling rather than a well-proven psychological phenomenon.

Be careful who you get your information from. Don’t let guilt lead you to make choices that will harm both you and the movement.

I’m going to reblog this again since I see more individuals are inquiring about burnout prevention tips in the notes and it’s why I sought out this resource. I hope it helps you!

source

IF YOU LIVE IN THE US, PLEASE READ THIS

Posting this from the bird app since I hope it can help people.

People have been contacting the White House directly to demand a recount, especially since there has been evidence that not every ballot has been counted and will be thrown away if it hasn't been cured.

The link to contact the White House is here!

The following screenshot comes from here!

If you need help writing something, check under the cut! I've provided a prewritten response from one of the replies!

Everything feels awful right now but it isn't really. We still don't officially have a winner, but regardless of how the presidential election ends up, I wanted to take a minute and find what lights I can in the 3 a.m. darkness. Here's what I know:

* Kentucky overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to undermine the public education system by offering private school vouchers:

* Delaware has elected a transgender woman to the House of Representatives, the first out trans person of any gender ever elected to congress:

* For the first time in history, two Black women will be serving in the senate at the same time, and they are only the fourth and fifth Black women ever elected to the senate:

* New York State has passed a constitutional amendment enshrining the rights of pregnant people (including the right to an abortion), LGBTQIA+ people, the disabled, immigrants regardless of legal status, and other at-risk groups:

* Democrat Josh Stein has beaten self-avowed Nazi Mark Robinson to become governor of North Carolina:

That's everything I know off the top of my head. It's not many bright spots, but it's not zero. I'm going to try to find more and I'll add them to the post. It's the only thing I can think of to do that isn't sobbing and throwing up or looking up Canadian immigration rules.

If you know more good news, I encourage you to add it in reblogs.

* Nevada has amended their constitution to guarantee abortion rights, overturning a state ban:

* Colorado has passed amendment 79, guaranteeing the right to an abortion, with more than a 20 point spread between the Yes and No vote:

* Maryland Question 1, also focused on reproductive rights and abortion, has passed as well: https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/results/maryland/issue-1

* Likewise, Amendment 3 has passed in Missouri, overturning a near-total ban to add reproductive rights to the state constitution:

* Arizona Proposition 139 to protect abortion rights also passed:

Every glimmer helps.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

* New Jersey has elected the first Korean-American senator in history: