When generals break cover...listen to them

I'm going to go full boomer here for a minute: if you're interested in (US) politics, you should really be watching regular non-social media news.

Supernatural memes are great fun. And lots of people on social media are highlighting under-covered stories, giving voices to people who don't often get invited to MSNBC or CNN, and pointing out how to take action. But outrage is a great motivator and it takes work to put a post together. Assuming they're not outright bad actors, a lot of people putting current events social media posts together are outraged by something (which may well be outrageous), and want you to be outraged too.

Nothing's wrong with that in itself! The problem comes in when it's the only way you get news. Professional journalists are getting paid to collect, present, and analyze the news, so they're driven by something other than "this outrages me." Not always better, but different. And because they're dealing with current events consistently, you get deeper trends, more proportionality, more recognition that the very fact that X is outrageous but not unexpected given Y points to a larger problem Z lurking under the surface, that kind of thing.

Plus you get out of the echo chamber. That in itself can be helpful.

I personally like MSNBC's panel discussions. They're definitely liberal and often I wish they'd go further toward the truly progressive or even Marxist side of things; but they are close enough to my beliefs I can usually hear what they're trying to say. And if you don't have cable TV (I don't), they've got quite a lot of content on their YouTube page. It's a good complement to the more Tumblr-style news if nothing else.

@sarahthecoat: #beware clickbait#in online sources#both on social media#and “official” sites

Absolutely & always. Though I was thinking more about things trying to ramp up emotions particularly negative ones, than going after clicks for cash. Maybe we need a word for that? Rage-bait or Doom-bait? Seems like a new concept, but definitely not a new experience.

For me at least it helps to mix it up. If I listen to the talking heads and nothing else, I get too cerebral, but a little of that mixed with other ways of staying engaged makes me feel more educated and emotionally balanced at the same time. It helps me at least.

yeah, what i have been hearing is that especially the big commercial online souces tend to be more clickbaity because that's where their ad revenue comes from. i have such limited capacity for a lot of this stuff that it is not something i am going to delve into personally in any great detail. i can take in more at the local level, than national or international.

While I agree that you need to have different sources for political information and that should include traditional media outlets and that is true not only for this US election cycle, I do have some problems with the current US election media coverage. I have the feeling many media outlets are not able to grasp the risk that Donald Trump and the GOP poses to democracy. They still treat this election like any other and by doing so, don't really cover the extremism of the current GOP well. And they also don't cover the mental decline of Trump well, especially in comparison to how they covered the age problems of Biden. I see both problems especially in the New York Times, but also with CNN, but many others like the Washington Post or the main TV news programs are not much better.

My advice for more traditional media that is better at grasping the threat to democracy is The Atlantic.

And for a traditional journalist who is now independent I would advise to subscribe to the newsletter of Aaron Rupar - https://www.publicnotice.co

Both media outlets have the disadvantage that you can only read parts or a limited amount of articles for free, but Aaron Rupar is also on Twitter, Threads and Blue Sky and he shares lots of clips of political rally and tv appearances of the candidates. And the daily politics newsletter of The Atlantic delivers one short article per day for free.

Also, I can recommend subscribing to the newsletter of political scientist Brian Klaas - https://www.forkingpaths.co. He is a researcher who has a deep knowledge about corruption and dictatorships, but while his newsletter sometimes deals with current political stuff he also writes about lots of other interesting stuff.

I'm going to go full boomer here for a minute: if you're interested in (US) politics, you should really be watching regular non-social media news.

Supernatural memes are great fun. And lots of people on social media are highlighting under-covered stories, giving voices to people who don't often get invited to MSNBC or CNN, and pointing out how to take action. But outrage is a great motivator and it takes work to put a post together. Assuming they're not outright bad actors, a lot of people putting current events social media posts together are outraged by something (which may well be outrageous), and want you to be outraged too.

Nothing's wrong with that in itself! The problem comes in when it's the only way you get news. Professional journalists are getting paid to collect, present, and analyze the news, so they're driven by something other than "this outrages me." Not always better, but different. And because they're dealing with current events consistently, you get deeper trends, more proportionality, more recognition that the very fact that X is outrageous but not unexpected given Y points to a larger problem Z lurking under the surface, that kind of thing.

Plus you get out of the echo chamber. That in itself can be helpful.

I personally like MSNBC's panel discussions. They're definitely liberal and often I wish they'd go further toward the truly progressive or even Marxist side of things; but they are close enough to my beliefs I can usually hear what they're trying to say. And if you don't have cable TV (I don't), they've got quite a lot of content on their YouTube page. It's a good complement to the more Tumblr-style news if nothing else.

Register. Check your registration. Help others register. Vote early if you want. Vote by mail if you want. Vote on Nov 5 if you want.

Stay engaged. We can do this!

We are not going back.

>Join a union

>Hear people constantly complaining that the current union leadership is super corrupt, it's all just the same ten guys making all the decisions in secret and nobody else in the union ever gets to know what's going on

>Go to the monthly union meetings that are completely open to all 1200 union members

>The only attendees are the same ten guys every month, giving detailed reports about everything that's going on

Yeah, there's a surprising amount of people who just...don't interact with the union they are in at all. At all. And then complain when shit gets voted in they didn't want.

Maybe get involved. Show up to shit. Just a thought.

This is also true of the Democratic Party btw. People are always complaining about what "The Democrats" should do, or aren't doing etc etc.

but like literally in my early 20s I started going to my local party's meetings regularly and with-in a few months they were like "hey you want to be on the committee to re-write our by-laws?" yes, yes I do thank you. "hey you want to get elected to be one of our representatives to the meetings of the state party?" why yes thank you so I got to go and debate the budget of a swing state Democratic Party.

I had to move for work not that much after that but like people I know from that have been delegates to the DNC, have elected officials come to their homes for events. Literally there's a middle aged lady I know who when Hillary Clinton decided to run for President, Hillary started with a small tour on a van, she called it her Scooby Van, and her first stop in New Hampshire, with its "first in the nation" primary was to a bakery in my home town and the person she sat with at what was her first or second official campaign stop of her run for President is a lady I know who isn't some super secret Democratic overlord or anything but a local lady who volunteers a lot.

Just the other day I got invited to meet my Senator (again) tomorrow I'm going to meet my state's governor (again) because I volunteer, if I wanted I could likely get to be a delegate to the DNC

so many organizations are open doors that people just refuse to push and then are big mad it didn't read their minds and do what you think.

There is this saying, democracy is not a spectator sport. Voting in every election is the minimum, but if you want things to change, you need to get active, invest time. If you don't want to active in a party look for other political organisations that work on topics that are important to you. And yes, being political active can be annoying and tiresome, because people will disagree with you and you will have to compromise, but that is a fundamental part of democracy.

I finally made the meme I've had in my head for over a year

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #32

August 30-September 6 2024.

I know this site is like 99.9% usamericans so all of the political posts are focused on the US election but I think it's important for everyone to know that the Australian Liberal Party (which is actually the conservative party) straight up missed the deadline to put in the nominations for local elections, which means there are a stack of electorates where there is no nominee for the major conservative party and it's the funniest thing that's happened in years.

You can make bigots lose so much money by filling out a 1 page form.

Seriously, this should take you less than 30 minutes and I'm going to give you all the links you need to do it.

Here are the rules about 501c3s and political campaign involvement:

Here are the things the Heritage Foundation is in violation of:

Here's the IRS page on how to file a complaint about a nonprofit:

Here's a direct link to download the PDF form 13909: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f13909.pdf

Here's a link to the Heritage Foundation's most recent filing with the IRS, which has their address and other info you may want to fill out form 13909:

Here are the bare minimum fields you need to fill out on Form 13909

1. Name: Heritage Foundation

7. EIN: 23-7327730

10. Date: the date you downloaded Project 2025 from their website

12. Description of alleged activities: Heritage Foundation is openly supporting political candidate Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and their political stance in direct violation of the Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention. They've published materials on Project 2025, their political agenda, and their support of Republican politicians and partisan policies on their website: www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/project-2025

13. Your name (do not make any jokes, use your legal name)

14. Your occupation (you can be as vague as 'unemployed' or 'retail worker' or 'customer service' or whatever the most vague version of your job title is)

15-18. Your address (yes, you should add your address, as this gives you legitimacy. If you're unhoused, put "unhoused" on line 15)

19. Your phone number (if you don't have a phone number put N/A)

20. Check the box for "I am concerned that I might face retaliation or retribution if my identity is disclosed" especially if attaching your name to this makes you nervous.

Instructions on where to email are at the bottom of the first page of the PDF. Save your filled-out form and attach it, along with Project 2025, and send the email. Keep all communication professional.

If enough of us do this, the bureaucrats at the IRS will note the quantity of complaints, making this a higher priority.

Fun Disgusting Fact: the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, was paid $622,489 in 2022. The next 11 highest ranking employees are all making around $200,000-$300,000 per year. They pour millions into lobbying. The Heritage Foundation can afford to pay taxes. Let's help them lose their tax-exempt status, shall we?

Why do I know this stuff: I work for a non-profit that gives money to other non-profits, so I deal with non-profits daily and regularly read their tax forms and IRS policies.

Kevin D. Roberts president. Barb Van Andel chairman.

I just read about the attempt to assassinate Trump, and the death of the man at his rally.

Frankly, it astonishes me that we could simultaneously have people so scared of a second Trump presidency they'd be ready to kill him -- and the fear is justified, even if the reaction isn't -- and at the same time, this apathy over Biden. Not to put too fine a point on it, but just killing Dear Leader is how you get Krystallnacht's.

And we still have the tools to beat Trump democratically and civilly. That's the thing. So much he says and does scares the bejeezus out of me, but we still have the right to vote. We have all kinds of tools to keep him out of power and mitigate its effects; even the immunity SCOTUS ruing, disastrous as it is, isn't absolute.

If you needed more reason to vote and get involved in all the other political ways still available to us, let this be it.

I'm just gonna add a bit on Wikler here: before he led WisDems, the Wisconsin Democratic party was in a total tailspin. We could not run a winning state-level campaign to save our souls -- and the results of Republican control have been pretty thoroughly awful for the state.

WIKLER CHANGED THAT. Not singlehanded, but damn near. He is substantially responsible for the election of Governor Tony Evers, and for tipping the state Supreme Court progressive with the election of Janet Protasiewicz.

Wikler has proven that he knows his shit. I trust him to talk about what he knows.

I see the occasional piece of discourse slide past me on this website (but also in other places) that goes something like this:

Every four years the democrats tell us our democracy is in danger and we have to vote for them or else! When will the centrists liberals stop holding us hostage like this! Why don’t they fix it for once and for all?

Here’s the thing: you can’t permanently get rid of fascism. We had a WORLD WAR that killed 75 million people to try to get rid of fascism and it just keeps on popping up again. It’s a weed that will always come back because it grows in the fertile soil of human misery, and until we end human misery for good, our soils will be rich and productive for a long time. Fascism flourishes when people are scared, unhappy, and suffering, because it gives humans easy solutions to complex problems.

Anyway… We! The Royal we! Need to stop thinking of voting as one weird trick to fix things forever and start thinking of it as weeding. Every four years you’re going to have to weed this fucking garden. For the foreseeable future. Now put your gardening gloves on and get to work, otherwise you’re going to end up with a fascist garden growing nothing but the thorn bushes of oppression and subjugation.

yep, and not just every four years! any time there is an election, local or state or national, it's important to vote. then get on the email newslettr so you know what your elected representatives are doing, and you can tell them what you think the priorities should be. if you want democracy, you have to participate, DEMOS means ALL THE PEOPLE.

For all of my US followers for whom general public official election day is coming up (Nov. 7th) PLEASE do not become so disillusioned with the current state of higher power politicians that you skip out on voting for local offices; off year and local elections are already critically unemphasized but these are the people who have the most direct power over jails, police, school curriculum, etc. Do not let your grief be weaponized as a distraction from also continuing to fight police brutality, queer and bipoc censorship in schools, bodily autonomy, housing inequality, etc, on the smaller scale battlefields where every vote truly does count

It can be so frustrating to vote in small local elections because info is harder to find, but if you take the time to google vote411 and go to their website, get your personal ballot, and then look up the candidates, you will always find that two people are running for a local school board, and one is a lovely person who has slowly been effecting positive change for three decades and the other is a real estate broker who wants more money. And then you have the power to vote against the money asshole and for the nice person in a race that can genuinely go down to a handful of votes. Feels awesome, man. Vote out the bitch who voted against reasonable COVID measures in your local high school 3 years ago.

VOTE: NOVEMBER 8th!

ATTENTION! Election Day is November 8th! SO! if you're an American citizen over 18 please please!

VOTE

some places are having early voting so you don't have to wait, go to Vote.org to find out what you need, if you have early voting, if you need an ID if there's same day registration etc etc.

ALSO! Voting is the baseline, everyone should vote, but if you have any ANY! free time between now and polls close on Election Day, Democrats everywhere are doing Get Out The Vote. No matter were you live there's a close election, there are swing congressional seats in California and New York, Alaska might send it's first Democrat to the House since the 1970s, Oklahoma might elect a Democratic governor, Utah might unseat Republican Senator Mike Lee, No matter where you are, red state or blue state there's a close election that a few hours of your time volunteering could make ALL the different, SO please Please PLEASE make an effort, show up,

VOLENTEER

Donald Trump announced today that he is adding another twenty candidates to potentially fill any vacancies on the Supreme Court. I’m sure everyone on this list is an awful human being and a danger to society, but I want to highlight three of these new candidates:

Justice Ginsburg recently announced that she’s battling cancer — her and Justice Breyer, two of the only four remaining left-leaning justices on the court, are both in their 80s. If Trump is reelected, he will almost certainly be able to replace the two of them with far-right conservatives who will be a danger to minorities — and these men aren’t just dangerous because of their values, but because of their relatively young ages. You need to know that these are lifetime appointments to the Court and Cruz, Cameron, and Cotton have an average age of 42. Again, for context, RBG is 87 years old. Trump could singlehandedly guarantee a 7-2 conservative Supreme Court for decades to come, leaving lasting damage long after he leaves the White House — damage that will affect us, our children, and our children’s children.

This election is not the time for complacency. Almost 200,000 Americans have died because of our President’s incompetence. If he is reelected, I can’t even begin to fathom what could happen to our country. You need to vote this election and make sure that these monsters never find themselves in a position of such power. Vote for Biden.

You aren't just voting for President for the next four years. You're voting for judges for the next forty.

For those interested in a very detailed video on the history of the USPS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLyU1WCQQ8A 

alternatives to debates we should use more often in elections