It’s Amazing But Sad How Much Him And Trump Have In Common.

going thru phone pics and found this thing that was tacked up next to the toaster at my old job, if anyone needs some light toast eating reading material

Back in 2019 i found a guide to equipment used by protesters in Hong Kong. I think it's useful and a lot of it could be applied to protests happening in the us:

+ goggles might be good against tear gas as well (NOT swimming goggles, they can pop your eyes out when hit)

Source

So. The Supreme Court is overturning Roe v. Wade.

This is an incredibly scary moment for a lot of people, but I kind of want to put it in context. Because even now, I see a lot of people pointing out that banning abortion doesn’t reduce the number of abortions provided, it just makes it more dangerous for the mother.

They know. They don’t care.

We hear a lot about how Republicans are hypocrites, how their actions don’t line up with their stated belief system, but a lot of those actions will make sense once you recognize that their stated belief system is not their actual belief system. They are theocratic fascists, whose long term goals are to install their interpretation of their religion as official government religion and either expel or brutally repress anything who steps out of line.

Once you understand that, everything they do will make sense, and you can stop engaging with their reasons. Because their reasons are bullshit. “A fetus is a life” isn’t a consistent moral belief that they’ve thought out the implications of. It’s just what needs to be true for their beliefs to be even the tiniest bit morally defensible. It doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, and they know it.

It’s not about protecting fetuses, it’s about controlling women.

It’s not about protecting children, it’s about persecuting queer people.

It’s not about protecting votes, it’s about preventing non-Republicans from voting.

This needs to be recognized, internalized and repeated, because engaging them on their own ground, arguing whether banning abortion reduces the number of abortions performed, is an illusion. Stop meeting them where they’re at, stop listening to their words and pay attention to their deeds.

Because their deeds are those of white supremacist, Christian dominionist hate group. And they are coming for other rights. The leaked draft specifically names Obergefell and Lawrence as other decisions which are not worthy decisions, implying that they too should be overturned. Frankly, I suspect Griswold will be on the chopping block too. Honestly, I doubt they’ll stop there, if they feel they can get away with it, they’ll probably go after Loving and Brown too. They aren’t going to stop until they have enshrined white supremacist christian theocracy into power.

You have to recognize that, and be ready to fight.

The GOP wonders why young people (and others) don't want to vote for them. Some wise scribe assembled this list.

1.) Your Reagan-era “trickle-down economics” strategy of tax breaks for billionaires that you continue to employ to this day has widened the gap between rich and poor so much that most of them will never be able to own a home, much less earn a living wage.

2.) You refuse to increase the federal minimum wage, which is still $7.25 an hour (since 2009). Even if it had just kept up with inflation, it would be $27 now. You’re forcing people of all ages but especially young people to work multiple jobs just to afford basic necessities.

3.) You fundamentally oppose and want to kill democracy; have done everything in your power to restrict access to the ballot box, particularly in areas with demographics that tend to vote Democratic (like young people and POC). You staged a fucking coup the last time you lost.

4.) You have abused your disproportionate senate control over the last three decades to pack the courts with religious extremists and idealogues, including SCOTUS—which has rolled back rights for women in ways that do nothing but kill more women and children and expand poverty.

5.) You refuse to enact common sense gun control laws to curb mass shootings like universal background checks and banning assault weapons; subjecting their entire generation to school shootings and drills that are traumatizing in and of themselves. You are owned by the NRA.

6.) You are unequivocally against combatting climate change to the extent that it’s as if you’ve made it your personal mission to ensure they inherit a planet that is beyond the point of no return in terms of remaining habitable for the human race beyond the next few generations.

7.) You oppose all programs that provide assistance to those who need it most. Your governors refused to expand Medicaid even during A PANDEMIC. You are against free school lunches, despite it being the only meal that millions of children can count on to actually receive each day

8.) You are banning books, defunding libraries, barring subject matter, and whitewashing history even more in a fascistic attempt to keep them ignorant of the systemic racism that this nation was literally founded upon and continues to this day in every action your party takes.

9.) You oppose universal healthcare and are still trying to repeal the ACA and rip healthcare from tens of millions of Americans and replace it with nothing. You are against lowering the cost of insulin and prescription drugs that millions need simply to LIVE/FUNCTION in society.

10.) You embrace white nationalists, Neo-Nazis, and other groups that are defined by their intractable racism, xenophobia, bigotry, and intolerance. You conspired with these groups on January 6th to try to overthrow the U.S. government via domestic terrorism that KILLED PEOPLE.

11.) You oppose every bill aimed at making life better for our nation’s youth; from education to extracurricular and financial/nutritional assistance programs. You say you want to “protect the children” while you elect/nominate pedophiles and attack trans youth and drag queens.

12.) You pretend to be offended by “anti-semitism” while literally supporting, electing, and speaking at events organized by Nazis. You pretend to hate “cancel culture” despite the fact that you invented it and it’s basically all you do.

13.) Every word you utter is a lie. You are the party of treason, hypocrisy, crime, and authoritarianism. You want to entrench rule by your aging minority because you know that you have nothing to offer young voters and they will never support you for all these reasons and more.

14.) You’re so hostile to even the notion of helping us overcome the mountain of debt that millions of us are forced to take on just to pay for our post K-12 education that you are suing to try to prevent a small fraction of us from getting even $10,000 in loan forgiveness.

15.) You opened the floodgates of money into politics via Citizens United; allowing our entire system of government to become a cesspool of corruption, crime, and greed. You are supposed to represent the American people whose taxes pay your salary but instead cater to rich donors.

16.) You respond to elected representatives standing in solidarity with their constituents to protest the ONGOING SLAUGHTER of children in schools via shootings by EXPELLING THEM FROM OFFICE & respond to your lack of popularity among young people by trying to raise the voting age.

17.) You impeach Democratic presidents over lying about a BJ but refuse to impeach (then vote twice to acquit) a guy whose entire “administration” was an international crime syndicate being run out of the WH who incited an insurrection to have you killed.

18.) You steal Supreme Court seats from democrats to prevent the only black POTUS we’ve ever had from appointing one and invent fake precedents that you later ignore all to take fundamental rights from Americans; and even your “legitimate” appointments consist of people like THIS (sub-thread refuting CJ Roberts criticisms of people attacking SCOTUS’ legitimacy).

19.) You support mass incarceration even for innocuous offenses or execution by cop for POC while doing nothing but protect rich white criminals who engage in such things as tax fraud, money laundering, sex trafficking, rape/sexual assault, falsifying business records, etc.

20.) You are the reason we can’t pass:—Universal background checks—An assault weapons ban—The ‘For the People/Freedom to vote’ Act or John Lewis Voting Rights Act—The ERA & Equality Act—The Climate Action Now Act—The (Stopping) Violence Against Women Act—SCOTUS expansion.

21.) You do not seek office to govern, represent, or serve the American people. You seek power solely for its own sake so you can impose your narrow-minded puritanical will on others at the expense of their most fundamental rights and freedoms like voting and bodily autonomy.

22.) Ok, last one. You are trying to eliminate social security and Medicare that tens of millions of our parents rely on and paid into their entire lives. And you did everything to maximize preventable deaths from COVID leaving millions of us in mourning.

Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/e8DBZLH

Uisge-beatha! (Whisky)

It's believed whisky-making began in Scotland as winemaking methods spread from monasteries in Europe, but with no access to grapes, monks used grain mash instead to produce an early form of whisky. The name itself derives from the Gaelic name, uisge beatha, which translates loosely to 'water of life'. The first recorded instance of whisky being produced comes in 1494 – local records show Friar John Cor of Lindores Abbey in Fife was granted the king's commission to make Acqua Vitae, Latin for 'water of life'.

When King James IV was in Inverness during September 1506, his Treasurer’s Accounts had entries for the 15th and 17th of the month respectively: ‘For aqua vite to the King. . .’ and ‘For ane flacat of aqua vite to the King. . .’. lt is probable that the aquavitae in this case was spirit for drinking.

The earliest reference to a distillery in the Acts of the Scottish Parliament appears to be in 1690, when mention is made of the famous Ferintosh distillery owned by Duncan Forbes of Culloden. There is also a reference to distilling in a private house in the parish of Gamrie in Banffshire in 1614. This occurs in the Register of the Privy Council, where a man accused of the crime of breaking into a private house, combined with assault, was said to have knocked over some ‘aquavitie’.

One of the earliest references to ‘uiskie’ occurs in the funeral account of a Highland laird about 1618.

An unpublished letter of February 1622, written by Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy to the Earl of Mar, reported that certain officers sent to Glenorchy by the King had been given the best entertainment that the season and the country allowed. It stated: ‘For they wantit not wine nor aquavite.’ This ‘aquavite’ was no doubt locally distilled whisky. Another writer affirms that aquavitae occasionally formed part of the rent paid for Highland farms, at any rate in Perthshire, but no actual date is given for this practice.

After the Union of the Parliaments in 1707, English revenue staff crossed the border to begin their lengthy attempts to bring whisky production under control. Ninety years later the excise laws were in such a hopeless state of confusion that no two distilleries were taxed at the same rate. Illicit distilling flourished, the smugglers seeing no good reason for paying for the privilege of making their native drink.

After a lengthy Royal Commission, the Act of 1823 sanctioned legal distilling at a duty of 2/3d (12p) per gallon for stills with a capacity of more than 40 gallons. There was a licence fee of £10 annually and no stills under the legal limit were allowed. The first distillery came into ‘official’ existence in the following year and thereafter many of the more far-sighted distillers came over on to the side of the law.

Today, there are around 109 distilleries in Scotland.

the funny thing is that i don't think younger people - and i mean those under the age of 40 - really have a grasp on how many of today's issues can be tied back to a disastrous reagan policy:

war on drugs: reagan's aggressive escalation of the war on drugs was a catastrophic policy, primarily targeting minority communities and fueling mass incarceration. the crusade against drugs was more about controlling the Black, Latino and Native communities than addressing the actual problems of drug abuse, leading to a legacy of broken families and systemic racism within the criminal justice system.

deregulation and economic policies: reaganomics was an absolute disaster for the working class. reagan's policies of aggressive tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, and slashing social programs were nothing less than class warfare, deepening income inequality and entrenching corporate greed. these types of policies were a clear message that reagan's america was only for the wealthy elite and a loud "fuck you" to working americans.

environmental policies: despite his reputation being whitewashed thanks to the recovery of the ozone layer, reagan's environmental record was an unmitigated disaster. his administration gutted critical environmental protections and institutions like the EPA, turning a blind eye to pollution and corporate exploitation of natural resources. this blatant disregard for the planet was a clear sign of prioritizing short-term corporate profits over the future of the environment.

AIDS crisis: reagan's gross neglect of the aids crisis was nothing short of criminal and this doesn't even begin to touch on his wife's involvement. his administration's indifference to the plight of the lgbtq+ community during this devastating epidemic revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a complete failure of moral leadership.

mental health: reagan's dismantling of mental health institutions under the guise of 'reform' led directly to a surge in homelessness and a lack of support for those with mental health issues. his policies were cruel and inhumane and showed a personality-defining callous disregard for the most vulnerable in society.

labor and unions: reagan's attack on labor unions, exemplified by his handling of the patco strike, was a blatant assault on workers' rights. his actions emboldened corporations to suppress union activities, leading to a significant erosion of workers' power and rights in the workplace. he was colloquially known as "Ronnie the Union Buster Reagan"

foreign policy and military interventions: reagan's foreign policy, particularly in latin america, was imperialist and ruthless. his administration's support for dictatorships and right-wing death squads under the guise of fighting "communism" showed a complete disregard for human rights and self-determination of other nations.

public health: yes, reagan's agricultural policies actually facilitated the rise of high fructose corn syrup, once again prioritizing corporate profits over public health. this shift in the food industry has had lasting negative impacts on health, contributing to the obesity epidemic and other health issues.

privatization: reagan's push for privatization was a systematic dismantling of public services, transferring wealth and power to private corporations and further eroding the public's access to essential services.

education policies: his approach to education was more of an attack on public education than anything else, gutting funding and promoting policies that undermined equal access to quality education. this was, again, part of a broader agenda to maintain a status quo where the privileged remain in power.

this is just what i could come up with in a relatively short time and i did not even live under this man's presidency. the level at which ronald reagan has broken the united states truly can't be overstated.

Today’s reminder that Bradley Manning and Reality Winner were prosecuted and jailed for revealing truths about government wrongdoing that were hidden as official US secrets’.

No actual threat to ‘National Security’ has been articulated.

Edward Snowden is hounded for the same crime of truth-telling.

The US is trying to extradite Julian Assange who is not a US citizen nor in the US when he published- for revealing the truth of US crimes deemed secret because revealing them would jeopardize ‘National Security’.

By contrast the politicians who lied and lied and perjured themselves in open court about non-existent US election fraud are not being tried for their demonstrable insurrectionist threat to ‘National Security’. They are being charged with lesser offenses.

The attorneys who enabled the fraud are being civilly sanctioned; not criminally

Some political and legal liars are being sued in civil courts for the impact of the falsehoods on corporate profits.

Actual January 6th insurrectionist aren’t being charged with insurrection or treason. But for trespassing, assault, vandalism, rioting - Federal offenses solely because they occurred on federal land.

None of those convicted have received a sentence duration that Manning received; few as harsh as Ms. Winners.

None of those in Congress involved in inciting the ‘riot’ or conducting pre-lynching walkthroughs out weak points for entry, or texting the locations of political targets have been inconvenienced by any legal consequences.

None of those in the Administratiion or on the Pentagon who blocked rescue or reinforcements for four hours have been inconvenienced.

Removing the illegally applied veil of secrecy from US government crimes is unequivocally treated as more serious legal concerns than tbe almost successful decapitation of the line of succession and the collapse of Democracy.

Assuming the term ‘democracy’ applies to this oligarchical kleptocracy.

First screen Batmobile from 1948. 

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