Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #32

August 30-September 6 2024.

As a leftist Jew who believes strongly in the cause of dignity and freedom for the Palestinian people, and that Israel has abused them, I am begging fellow leftists to understand that real life is not a comic book. A government being “the bad guy” in a situation does not automatically make anyone who opposes it “the good guy”.

Hamas denies the Holocaust. Hamas disseminates the Protocols of the Elders of Zion—the conspiracy theory it paints is what they mean by “Zionist”. Hamas forbids foreign aid educators from teaching human rights to Palestinians, and claims that even teaching that the Holocaust happened is a war crime. Hamas has written the aim of annihilating Israel (the country and its people) into its charter—the mass slaughter and violent expulsion of 7 million Jews from the land is written into its laws.

There is no crime any state could ever do that would justify any of that; there is no act of state repression that could ever make it acceptable to side with the organization spreading Nazi pamphlets and Holocaust denial.

Oppose Bibi Netanyahu. Oppose Israel’s far-right, authoritarian government. Oppose its apartheid policies. Oppose its violent abuse of the Palestinian people. That isn’t antisemitic. But Hamas is—verifiably, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to its core—antisemitic. Its portrayal of Israeli Jews as blood-thirsty, child-killing master manipulators that control international media and finance is antisemitic. Its insistence that Palestinian freedom necessitates the death & expulsion of Jews from the land is antisemitic. Its redefinition of “Zionism” as a pejorative to mean genocidal Jewish/Israeli Supremacy is antisemitic.

Supporting the Palestinian people in their plight is a noble and loving goal; please never stop that. But do not let Hamas co-opt that into excusing or denying their rampant antisemitism and war crimes.

Disability Pride month let's not forget about the people in our community with intellectual disabilities!

I just found out about the Stay Up Late campaign to advocate for people with intellectual disabilities to have the right to go out in the evening and not have to be in bed by 8pm

I learned about it from this video:

And I found the website for the campaign which is here:

Let's support all members of our community

Pete Buttigieg is not the fucking point.

Truly amazed at the people whose big takeaway from that thread is "you hate Pete Buttigieg" like buddy did you not... read... all of it?

I genuinely don't give a shit about Pete himself. If you think this is about Democratic self-devouring or whatever the fuck, please mentally substitute Ellen or George Takei or Rachel Maddow or your favorite Other Respectable Gay. I hear some dude named Rubin is even a conservative who is getting turned on for adopting a baby? I don't know who he is and I don't care (do not tell me, I do not care) but if it makes you feel better, substitute any of those names.

I think the ones that actually make me sad are the people who keep insisting that 70% of people support gay marriage, and that I'm just 'acting out my trauma', and we won't see things turn against us, we're perfectly safe now, how dare I say that cishets won't put themselves out for us when it counts, it's different now.

Honey, 99% of people want tomorrow to go on pretty much like today, and what they'll support when it doesn't cost them anything has nothing to do with what they'll support when it does. Those of us telling you 'we were abandoned before, and we were the ones who took care of us then' aren't telling you because we're incorrigibly bitter misanthropes. I am annoyingly hopeful, actually, and in love with humanity and the beauty of life. Seriously, I have to write poems about it because I love the universe and all of humanity so fucking much. One of the things I love about humanity is its fragility and its uncertainty. I love the ways in which we fail.

And humans, over and over again, turn our eyes away from tragedy.

If you are lucky enough to have cishet friends and family who will put themselves out for you when it really matters, that is fucking fantastic. That's not nearly universal, and I'm afraid that you're going to find out sooner rather than later that it's far less universal for you than you'd like to believe.

At the end of the day, you can believe me or not about all of this. You can say that I'm just a bitter old transfag, an angry old dyke, a traumatized old queer if it lets you sleep better at night, if it allows you to just close your eyes and say 'this is all going to be fine, because 70% of people support marriage equality!' and get some rest. I can't make you pay attention.

And the thing is? I'd love to be wrong. I would absolutely love for every cishet who has ever said "one of them" or said "well, I mean, I just don't want to see it, they can do whatever they want in private" or whatever to turn out to be the raddest fucking ally the world has ever seen. I know it can happen! My in-laws went from being Baptist homophobes to getting weekly chatty update phone calls from the two trans women refugees from Latin America who they housed and helped get their papers sorted and who are now living in New York and call them Mom and Dad. Like, truly, it can fucking happen!

But you can't count on that from the vast majority of people, because when it comes down to it, most people want tomorrow to go on pretty much like today. You're much more likely to be able to count on someone with a dog in the hunt.

More than that, though, the point of that essay -- which, when people miss it, they miss it so hard that it feels deliberate, honestly -- is that all of our bullshit infighting doesn't mean dick. I've been saying that for years, begging people to think inclusively about our community, begging people to stop all the bullshit infighting because I could see this shit fucking coming, you didn't need to be Cassandra to see it coming but sometimes I felt like I was screaming until my throat was horse, the fucking tsunami is coming, it's coming, motherfuckers, can't you see the way the water is pulling back?

And here we are, and all the arguing about whether bi lesbians are "valid" doesn't matter, and everyone's attempt to gatekeep butch and femme doesn't matter, and everyone's arguments about whether neopronouns are bad doesn't fucking matter because we are all just fags, dykes and trannies to them, they do not care for one fucking second about any of this. None of them care for one second about our infighting. No one is going to stop and ask you what your orientation is so they can call you the right slur when they're gaybashing you, kids. They. Don't. Care.

So now here we are, and people are acting like the point of the essay is that I wanted to call one particular dude a fag, rather than that it doesn't matter how perfectly primed you are to fit into Respectable WASP Society, it is your queerness which is objectionable. It is your gayness. It is your transness. It is your bisexuality, your asexuality, your lesbianism. You will never be granted rights and respectability. You have to defend your rights, and stop giving a shit about respectability as a metric of whether or not someone deserves them.

I mean, for fuck's sake, some Iowa voters tried to withdraw their caucus support once they realized that Pete was gay. It literally fucking happened. There's video. Someone they supported above all the other candidates in the Iowa primary was immediately disqualified for them to the point where they tried to retract their support the minute they found out he was gay.

That's the fucking point. I don't care who you use as your Proxy Respectable Gay.

Pete Buttigieg is not the fucking point.

IMAGE ID:

Here's the thing, guys.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter when life begins.

It doesn't matter whether a fetus is a human being or not.

That entire argument is a red herring, a distraction, a subjective and unwinnable argument that could not matter less.

It doesn't matter whether we're talking about a fertilized egg, or a fetus, or a baby, or a five year old, or a Nobel Prize winning paediatric oncologist.

NOBODY has the right to use your body, against your will, even to save their life, or the life of another person.

That's it.

That's the argument.

You cannot be forced to donate blood, or marrow, or organs, even though thousands die every year, on waiting lists.

They cannot even harvest your organs after your death without your explicit, written, pre-mortem permission.

Denying women the right to abortion means we have less bodily autonomy than a corpse.

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“So I hear you want to free Britney, and I just want to tell you, um, welcome to the disability revolution. We are so glad you’re here! Do you think it’s wild that she couldn’t remove her IUD? Well, it is still currently completely legal to sterilize women with disabilities. Under law. Do you think it’s bananas that Britney couldn’t even see her children? Well, it’s not uncommon at all. In fact, mothers with disabilities face removal rates up to 40 to 80 percent. ‘I can’t believe she couldn’t even see her own boyfriend?’ This happens all the time. It is very common for families of people with disabilities to control their relationships for them. That’s why many people with disabilities can’t actually marry. Because they can lose their benefits and their healthcare. It’s also completely legal to electroshock children, um, if they have have a disability. So, yes. Free Britney. But let’s also free everybody else. And let’s follow the lead of the disability rights movement, who has been shouting and fighting against these injustices for decades.”

these posts need to actively include the mentally ill and disabled because yall and the government have a tendency to ignore us when talking about disabled people

[[here is the link to the twitter thread]] for anyone who cannot see the images of the post.

and the last bit:

Let's switch out the "disabled people are just as capable" campaign with "disabled people are just as valuable." We shouldn't have to perform, achieve and produce on the same level as abled people to be considered worthy.

If you are American, PLEASE SUPPORT THE SSI RESTORATION ACT OF 2021

This new bill has been introduced in both the house and the Senate.

Among other things, it will:

For those unaware current regulations do a lot to oppress disabled people. In fact marriage equality doesn't even extend to disbled people who risk having their benefits reduced or outright taken away if they marry someone. This means that in common law states disabled people can't even live with their significant other or they risk losing their financial independence.

Current regulations mean that if you're disbled you can't have so much as one penny over $2,000 to your name. So buying a car and gaining more independence or freedom is largely out of the question for disabled people.

Current regulations penalize social security recipients who receive income from outside sources, even if those sources are reimbursement. Did you get paid to babysit for a few hours? That's income, and you get your benefits reduced. Did you loan a friend $10 and they pay you back? The government considers that $10 income, and you get your benefits reduced.

These aren't mere anecdotes - these are all examples of actual things that have happened to disbled people I know, and if you have any disabled friends in your life I'm sure they can tell you the same stories.

If you value marriage equality, if you value financial independence, if you value the rights of disbled people, please PLEASE support this bill! Contact your reps, vote, and make noise! This is a great thing!

UPDATE: Text SIGN PSLOAE to 50409

Resistbot is hosting a petition for this! They will automatically send letters to your representatives for you!

This is super important, guys!

They don’t even want disabled people alive. Of course they don’t want us voting. We’re not cogs in their capitalist system.

this may be an Unpopular Opinion (even on tumblr) but like the 8-hour workday is just Too Gotdamn Long

like even sitting in an office for eight hours a day isn’t particularly pleasant (or healthy, as we are beginning to see) but when we’re talking about doing *actual work* for that same amount time it gets pretty fucking brutal

doing literally *anything* (even leisure activities) for eight hours straight tends to be less than enjoyable but when we’re talking about things like construction, landscaping, factory work, and hell, even foodservice and retail, eight hours is a fucking ETERNITY

i might just be a lazy weak-willed bitch but honestly i think i’m not entirely wrong

this was being worked towards by leftist labor unions way back in the day after the time of FDRs new deal. people in the 40s and 50s were already starting to realize that we no longer actually needed an 8 hour work day or even a 5 day work week.

even with the comparatively primitive factory tech of the time we were already creating a huge amount of excess production back then and companies were making massive amounts of profit. So it already stood to reason that companies should either let their employees work less and thus each employee could work a shorter shift without lowering the yearly compensation of each employee, or in cases where businesses provide an active service they would shorten the shift but hire more people to cover the necessary operating time. but of course that would mean less money for people at the top so companies fought back hard and we ended up with nixon’s bullshit and so on and now its considered the norm for us to spend the vast majority of our lives doing work that really just amounts to waste. 

The IWW realised this and were fighting for it all the way back in the 1930s. This is a take with a lot of historical and theoretical grounding, OP, so you’re standing in good stead.

I’d also like to add it’s also been studied and scientifically proven that after 6 hours, we have an extremely noticeable drop in productivity. Sweden saw nothing but benefits from a 6-hour work day, including worker productivity, happiness, and half the amount of sick-leave used when applied to nurses.

https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/the-six-hour-workday/

Begging y'all on my hands and knees to stop the fucking riot porn about France and actually pay attention to how fast our government is turning fascist

"french anger starts at burning car" in the first five minute of the Paris protest last Saturday, people were teargassed and dispersed with a water cannon. There has been dozens of people taken in custody arbitrarily, having to spend up to 48h in a cell in the company of agressive cops.

This weekend the police will be protesting because I don't even fucking know they want to be able to kill people without complaint I guess ? We're not even fucking allowed to film them anymore. And the government is protesting with them. Our ministre of interior affairs, known rapist, chief of the police, will be in a demonstration of force in front of the national assembly this weekend asking with the police for more violence towards the people. I am fucking begging you to shut the fuck up and pay attention.

I know this won't show up in the notes because Tumblr is cursed, but I'm trying it anyways

Here is a list of links if you want to help and stay informed

yup. all of this.

i'm too exhausted to try and follow closely, but i SEE. i see it happening. and it's fucking scary.

it still makes me think of douglas adams' conference about the kakapo to explain how a species can become extinct:

"oh no things are bad, i'm super stressed. what am i good at? being lonely and picky when choosing mates. mmmmh… YES LET'S DO THAT HARDER."

problem: homo sapiens was successful partly because it was good at cooperating, but also because it was aggressive against other species (human or not). and cooperating is complicated, now that the ones who need it most DEMAND to be respected and not just 'helped' to make the helpers feel good… (i know, so rude of us -__- )

so now those in power are doing the aggressivity REALLY HARD.

i'm so fucking tired.

Honestly, people generally don't want much... They want to eat their favorite food. They want to go to the seaside and smell the fresh air. They want to nap on the grass and listen to music. They want to hold their loved ones in their arms, and be held in return. They want warm clothes, be occupied with a profession/a hobby that does not smother them. They want to feel safe and unafraid. Mostly, they want to live without being ridiculed, manipulated or being forced. And this is why capitalism/modern life overall is so upsetting, depressing and even destructive. Because thinking about how small and simple things you yearn for & how hard it is to even be able to have them really wears you off

Howard Zinn, Marx in Soho

Happy International Persons with Disabilities Day! It's a day established by the UN to help promote awareness, rights, and wellness for disabled people. So here are some facts about disability in the US we could improve because one in four people in the US has a disability:

1. Marriage equality does not exist for disabled people in the US. Many disabled people can't marry because they would lose their disability benefits and insurance due to spouses income being counted as their own.

2. It is currently legal to pay disabled people less than minimum wage. Companies can literally pay disabled people less than a dollar an hour if they wanted to and many do.

3. Sexual assault and abuse rates are significantly higher in the disability community. Statistics vary due to a multitude of factors but it's estimated up to 80% of disabled women are sexually assaulted.

4. Half of the people killed by the police in the US have a disability.

5. Disabled workers earn, on average, $9,000 less a year than non disabled workers and disabled employment rates remain significantly lower than non disabled employment rates (pre pandemic). The gap has been growing since the 1990s, not shrinking.

So please remember disabled people in your activism and politics. We have a long way to go to reach equality.

I keep thinking about being conditionally accepted as important/valid/human/etc.

Like how in Hungary, they've removed legal recognition for trans people. Or how, before Brexit, I was a normal part of the populace. Or how I get full PIP, but they could take it away whenever they feel like it (National IDS Day, perhaps) and severely impair my ability to keep living. Or how most people don't mind my being here so much, but it's conditional - I'm white and my English is good.

Or it's all right to get Housing Benefit but only if you're also working 60 hours a week (and you're white, and your English is good), and those are also the only circumstances where it's okay to talk about being underpaid. Unless you work for Maccies, or you're a cleaner, or you work in a shop. Etc.

It just can't be right that we have an entire society in which whether or not you're valid as a human life in need of food, shelter, hygiene, respect, is conditional.

It's bad that those conditions are in the hands of a scuffle of posh arseholes who think genocide was okay when Churchill did it, but they shouldn't exist at all. No one should get to pick and choose who is or isn't worthy of life.