dear americans,

as a polish queer woman and human rights activist, i know exactly how you're feeling right now and what to expect from these elections. i lived through the 2015-2023 regime of pis, a right-wing populist party that divided families in the same way trump did. i’ve experienced the rise of fascism in poland, the influence of far-right parties like konfederacja, and their “santa’s little helpers”—ordo iuris, an ultra-conservative catholic organization (banned in many countries, mind you) that helped enforce a near-total abortion ban and runs anti-queer campaigns in public spaces. i supported the black protests in 2016 as a middle schooler when they first tried to ban abortion. as an adult, i actively participated in the 2020 women’s strike, running from police tear gas daily after they finally passed the ban. i supported friends who faced charges.

i’ve lived through intense homophobia in poland as a queer teen and adult. i survived the first pride march in my hometown, where far-right extremists threw stones and glass at us. i endured the anti-queer propaganda spread by the ruling party in state-owned media. i survived the “rainbow night,” poland’s own stonewall moment in summer 2020, when police arrested around 50 queer activists following the arrest of margo, a nonbinary activist. i survived the "lgbt-free zones," the targeted violence, the slurs from strangers on the street, and the protests i held against queerphobia. it was hard as fuck, but i survived.

but just because i survived, it doesn’t mean others did. many women died because of the abortion ban—marta, justyna, izabela, dorota, joanna, maria, and many others who didn’t survive pis’s draconian anti-abortion laws. milo, kacper, michał, zuzia (she was 12), wiktor, and other queer and trans kids and young adults took their own lives because of the relentless queerphobia.

despite all of this, our experience in poland can serve as a guide now. here are some tips for staying safe and how we, polish queers and women, organized under the regime:

if i forgot to (or didn't) include something, don't hesitate to reblog this post with other resources.

"Meanwhile in Tucson"

For those who don't know Spanish: "Chinga tu madre" is a common swear for "F*** your mother." They changed it to say MAGA instead of mother, obviously. The second line is "No more orange."

artist unknown

Why are Republicans so *weird* about tampons? They're just a hygiene product, no worse than toilet paper if you're not fucking weird about it

Wait'll they figure out their homes are LOADED with unisex bathrooms.

Listen, staning politicians is bad. We must remain critical of people in power.

However it is funny to watch Republicans act like this man is the devil incarnate.

This is democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz Gov. Of Minnesota. This man looks like if a capybara was a person. He looks like he'd pull over on the side of the road and help you change a flat tire. He looks like he'd offer you hot coco from his thermos if you were out ice fishing with him.

After he was picked yesterday, Trump/MAGA literally sent out an all-caps email blast proclaiming, and this is a direct quote, TIM WALZ WILL UNLEASH HELL ON EARTH!!!

So now I'm just picturing Tim Walz, Evil Overlord of the Minnesota State Fair, standing among his evil plaid-shirt-wearing minions being like OPE, JUST GONNA BEHEAD YA REAL QUICK THERE, and then, I dunno, bringing hotdish to the End of Days Community Dinner for all the demons saying NO NO AFTER YA. In other words: good luck selling that one, turdgobblers. Lmao.

He also apparently has a pretty good hotdish recipe.

Would THAT be on your Antichrist Bingo card? I... really doubt it.

Not to be a debbie downer but Tim Walz was in the military for 24 years, including during the Iraq war. He called the national guard on protestors following the George Floyd murder. He supports Israel. He's approved an oil pipeline across indigenous lands that break treaties.

It's weird to celebrate a man who goes against all leftist values

Elbit System, a top international arms manufacturer, who's weapons have been found in Israel, is also located in Tim Walz's state. People have protested for him to divest. Nothing.

Sigh, alright, guess I'm actually going to defend a politician for once, let's do this I guess:

--

"Tim Walz was in the military for 24 years, including during the Iraq war" - Half True.

Tim Walz was in the military for 24 years. As a member of the national guard. He was never deployed overseas.

The man left the military in May of 2005 in order to run for public office. The unit of the NG he served with, the 125th Field Artillery, weren't mobilised for a deployment order until July of the same year, and people he worked with have come forward to confirm that one of the reasons he left was because he was morally opposed to the war.

Tim Walz never went to Iraq, the man didn't step onto foreign soil as a military man apart from a brief deployment to Italy in 2003 as part of the security forces during Operation Enduring Freedom. The man himself openly says that he never saw direct combat, ever.

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"He called the national guard on protestors following the George Floyd murder" - This is such a gross oversimplification of the role a state governor plays during times of unrest that it's just fully a misrepresentation.

(It's also a misrepresentation of what the National Guard even is, but that's a whole other can of worms.)

Tim Walz didn't make the singular decision to mobilise the national guard. He did not singlehandedly call the national guard. The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, contacted Walz' office on the evening of the 27th of May to formally request the deployment of the Minnesota National Guard to the city.

This request by the mayor was immediately followed up with a written request by the Minneapolis Police Chief, Medaria Arradondo, who sent it through a couple of hours later.

Once that happened, there was no way for Tim Walz to ignore those requests. He was the governor of a state.

Tim Walz did not dispatch the National Guard to the city until the next evening. His hesitation and delay to call in the Guard even once he was formally requested to do so by the mayor of a city is one of the things he was slammed for, and was a black stain on his tenure as governor.

I'm not defending the actions of the National Guard once they were deployed, not by any means, but I am defending the idea that Tim Walz went all in on savage crackdowns when he verifiably did the opposite. In fact, during the strategising phase of the mobilisation, the governor's office filed numerous requests with the city for a list of defensive priorities, so that the guard would be protecting federal property.

But the actions of the National Guard once they were there, were not in Tim Walz' hands. The governor of a state is not a Commander In Chief like the president is.

(What was up to Tim Walz was his decision to make sure the state's Attorney General led the prosecution during the case against the police officers involved in the George Floyd trial, which resulted in the convictions. This move by Tim Walz was praised by civil rights groups.

I'll also point out that his decisions, reforms, and rulings in regards to police brutality were praised by Reverand Al Sharpton of the National Action Network, who said; "We don't want a guy who's wildly radical -- we want someone with an open mind, he has shown that with how he addressed police brutality in his own state,"

And also by Jotaka Eaddy, the founder of Win With Black Women, who said "Governor Walz’s tenure has also been marked by his steadfast commitment to advancing social justice and protecting vulnerable communities and communities of color.")

--

"He Supports Israel" - True, completely true. ,But I hate to break this to you; every single institutional "In Crowd" Democrat supports Israel. The Venn Diagram of "Democrats who don't support Israel" and "Democrats who will end up near the White House" has no overlap. I'm sorry.

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"He's approved an oil pipeline across indigenous lands that break treaties." - Also entirely true, and indefensible. Fuck him for that one. Absolutely.

--

And finally, "Elbit System, a top international arms manufacturer, who's weapons have been found in Israel, is also located in Tim Walz's state. People have protested for him to divest. Nothing." -

Elbit System isn't located in Minnesota, it's located in Texas, but why let a bit of googling and research get in the way of some good outrage.

They don't list any facilities or operation centers being in Minnesota. I have spent half an hour trying my best to find any evidence of any connection Minnesota has with Elbit System at all, but apart from one single f*cking petition that claims that the Minnesota retirement funds own 10,000 shares of Elbit Systems, but lists no sources for its outrage I can't find anything.

Elbit Systems have operational facilities in Texas, New Hampshire, Alabama, Virginia, and Florida. Their administration offices are in Alabama, Utah, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, and Maryland.

Those are all also currently Republican states, with the only exception being Maryland.

They are a publicly owned company, this is all information you can find with a bit of simple googling.

But again, hey, why let a bit of basic fact checking get in the way of some good outrage.

--

So yeah, there's all that. Jesus Christ, you're all fucking unbearable.

Regarding indigenous issues, I also want to point out Walz's lieutenant governor is White Earth Nation Ojibwe. If Walz gets elected, she would be the first Native American governor of a US state. I can't speak to the oil pipeline stuff, it sounds like that sucks. But it's not like Walz isn't committed to the welfare of indigenous people in the state.

I know this is a little out of left field, but here is Walz's speech at a GIS user conference where he talks about how geographic literacy is important and how the state of Minnesota uses GIS to support environmental and social initiatives.

Minnesota's goal is have the lowest rate of child poverty in the nation. They do this with a tax credit. But you can't get a tax credit if you don't file taxes. So they used GIS to pinpoint to the street level where they needed to target filing initiatives, going door to door in some places.

I'm telling you this because it is a lot of work trying to attack big problems from multiple angles, and it's not always going to be as clean and morally pure as people hope. But it is evident Walz is setting the tone for a state that is trying hard to do right by its residents.

There is no such thing as a morally pure politician that can get things done. It is the nature of politics that sometimes you have to compromise. But that's where the bus metaphor comes in. You use politicians to get you closer to where you want to be, instead of not getting on the bus because it's not going on the path you want it to take.

You motherfuckers yes I hate Kamala too but when she is announced to be the Democratic candidate we are all going to shoot fireworks and go to the goddamn polls

GRIPPING EVERYBODY’S SHOULDERS SO TIGHTLY RIGHT NOW. YOU WILL VOTE FOR HARRIS. YOU WILL RECOGNIZE THAT THERE IS NO MORAL WAY TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE US AND YOU WILL STILL VOTE TO STRATEGICALLY PROTECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS.

YOU ARE THE REALEST MOTHERFUCKER ON THIS SITE!!!

Climate change is the single most important issue in the entirety of human history. One party wants to fight it. The other party wants to let the earth burn; in fact, they want to accelerate the fire.

I would like to point out that the big reason for this is the owner of the WeatherNation app/website. He is a massive republican supporter, a climate change denier, and stands to cash in big if his biggest competition is destroyed.

Saying "voting doesn't matter" might reach your younger peers online but it certainly hasn't reached Clangus Hargbarg who was part of the kkk in 1951 and still sends in his ballot. He hasn't missed a one.

if i see one more article, post, or news anchor talking about how joe biden is old, i'm putting my fist through a window. i feel like i've gone through the fucking looking glass.

this is project 2025, trump's plan for what he'll do if elected. whatever you think is in there, it's worse. watch a breakdown of the highlights here. this man wants to unravel the fabric of our democracy for good - this all aside from his vitriolic hatred of poc, his determination to start ww3, and the fact that he can't string a sentence together without telling outrageous and easily verifiable lies. his administration will start their crusade to exterminate trans people on day one, and they won't stop there.

do not talk to me about how joe biden is old, as if that could ever matter to me more than my life or the lives of my friends and family. my little sister is 14, she's trans, and i don't know what to tell her when we talk about politics, because one of these people wants her dead and the other one is old and some of you are still acting like those problems are equals.

i can't fucking stand this. i'm not hearing it this time, we are not repeating 2016. refusing to vote is not an act of protest, it is an act of complacency, and our most vulnerable will suffer for your negligence. vote like your life depends on it, because for some of us, it really fucking does.

It's honestly frustrating hearing people talk about how Biden isn't the candidate for the job as if we have another option to pick besides that isn't Trump. And the lack of emphasis on how abhorrent Trump's behavior was on the debate is disturbing. I would rather an old man that should retire over a man that wants people dead.

I will keep saying this: Biden's age is a non issue? Why? A little office called the Vice President

That's the thing with presidential elections, you're not just voting in one guy, you're also voting in the first person who will succeed them and the cabinet they picked to administer the government

and by the way, Biden's cabinet is one of the most experienced, capable, and progressive we've ever had

Trump's will be the complete opposite I assure you

Look.

I have made you a chart. A very simple chart.

People say "You have to draw the line somewhere, and Biden has crossed it-" and my response is "Trump has crossed way more lines than Biden".

These categories are based off of actual policy enacted by both of these men while they were in office.

If the ONLY LINE YOU CARE ABOUT is line 12, you have an incredible amount of privilege, AND YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT PALESTINIANS. You obviously have nothing to fear from a Trump presidency, and you do not give a fuck if a ceasefire actually occurs. You are obviously fine if your queer, disabled, and marginalized loved ones are hurt. You clearly don't care about the status of American democracy, which Trump has openly stated he plans to destroy on day 1 he is in office.

if you want to vote for a third party, what you are going to do is vote for biden in november 2024 and then as soon as that’s done, start trying to get ranked choice voting in your state

we will ALWAYS be a two party system until voting reform happens, and voting reform won’t happen if project 2025 happens.

suck it up and vote biden, then put the next four years to good use

^^^

Of course you don’t. Free college might hinder the school-to-prison pipeline your  prison owning donors depend on

👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆

welp;

Actual quote, in context:

“I believe that we should make community college free. We should have debt-free college if you got to a public college or university. You should not have to borrow a dime to pay tuition… I disagree with free college for everybody. I don’t think taxpayers should be paying to send Donald Trump’s kids to college.“ [video link]

Don’t spread misinformation just to fit a narrative, Clinton is advocating for there to be a cap on who gets free college so that the government doesn’t have to subsidize the education of people with enough disposable income to pay for it themselves. The plan she’s proposing would have a better chance of being passed, is more cost-effective, and still opens up higher education to low-income individuals who previously couldn’t afford it. 

the op lagonegirl literally ended up being a russian psyop im losing my mind

Reblogging this as an example of what the Russian interference here on tumblr was. I have seen some people in the past days casting doubts on Tumblr because the blogs that were banned had social justice content. 

But that was the point exactly. They posted some real things and a lot of half-truths that would appeal to the kind of politics on here and therefore spread disinformation to discourage us from participating in stopping Trump through the only option we had. I’m glad tumblr left these posts up so we could see for ourselves. 

I don’t know if it actually worked on anyone, I hope we all remember to check our sources before making our decisions, but life is short and maybe some people didn’t.  There are plenty of real social justice blogs available still, so I hope we will follow those instead.

Reblogging this now. Because some of you think that a leftist space can be trusted. They can’t. Lagonegirl posted content that had nothing to do with politics, it made her seem like a real person.

She was not. There were SO many posts by her that got big numbers and most of them were fine. That was an illusion so that when she posted things like this it might not click like it would if it were loudly pro- Trump.

You see a blog that is leftist but only critical of the more “safe bet” cookie cutter candidate and has very little to say about the obviously right wing, objectively worse for everything you stand for candidate?

Be on guard.

Trolls from troll farms, are here. This time around they’re being paid to make you think that:

None of that is true or even reasonable to believe. None of it.

Don’t be trolled.

"It hurt to lose to Ronald Reagan. But after the election, I tried to make the transition as smooth as possible. Later, from my experience in trying to brief him on matters of supreme importance, I was very disturbed at his lack of interest. The issues were the 15 or 20 most important subjects that I as President could possibly pass on to him. His only reaction of substance was to express admiration for the political circumstances in South Korea that let President Park close all the colleges and draft all the demonstrators. That was the only issue on which he came alive."

-- Former President Jimmy Carter, on losing the 1980 election and the transition leading to the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, interview with TIME Magazine, October 11, 1982.

WOAH WOAH WOAH!!!

he aint dead yet op

he may be 99, but let the man live for christs sake!

also, he needs to live to at least see trump lose one more time

This comes up over and over again: an outgoing Democrat tries to share deeply important information with their Republican successor, who can't be bothered and couldn't care less. They just want to know how they can abuse their new power to hurt people.

It's such a clear pattern, going back almost 45 years, and it's had disastrous consequences for America and the world.

And yet, here we are, again.

Imagine Barak Obama trying to hand over to Trump. Horrifying.

i am BEGGING y’all to watch season one of stargate

Best people. #ACAB

Each sentence gets worse. Each sentence gets more MAGA.

Gee, I thought these people were the ones who were like “If you don’t like it, you can just move to a blue state.”

And now they’re mad the guy is doing just that?

You can’t oppress and discriminate against someone then be mad when they take their highly useful skill elsewhere.

His point is basically that he’s going to go where he’s wanted. Guys like Brett realize, as he’s leaving that he’s actually beneficial to the society he’s leaving. If he wasn’t, Bret would be celebrating. This brain drain they’re fretting about is entirely of their own bigoted doing. If they’d thought about retaining great contributors to society instead of culture wars, there’d be no issue. 

And the guy still is doing his job, by the way. Saving sick kids.

He just wants to do it in a state that doesn’t hate him and his family.

“You cannot demand a service while simultaneously degrading those who provide it for you.”