Political Things, April-June 02019.
Jul. 2nd, 2019 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptOr something like that. This post can be excluded by excluding the "political links" tag from your Reading Page, if you are someone who has that option available to you.
Nigel Farage got solidly spattered with a milkshake. (He deserves it.) Cue hand-wringing about whether dumping dairy on someone is a good position to take if you want to be taken seriously and nonviolently. (He still deserved it, and so did several other far-right politicians when they got the milkshake bath.) The person throwing the milkshake had no regrets about soaking the politician. Even when they ask places not to sell milkshakes when fascists are around, fascists get dumped on, because most people aer going to point and laugh at the fascists reacting with outrage to getting splashed. And, frankly, when you consider the difference in response to threats between dousing in dairy and killing with bullets, you find that ridicule is the better weapon to use when you want to have a leg of legitimacy to stand on. Just ask the four blokes who created Led By Donkeys and their extremely successful ridicule campaign against Brexit.
Plus, Nigel Farage and his ilk make themselves easy to ridicule, not venturing that far from a bus just with the threat of being dairy-dumped again. When the truth is most things tossed at a political candidate are exactly what they seem, and making a big fuss about it is usually invoking the Streisand Effect.
A particularly anti-Islam candidate, Tommy Robinson, got dairy-dumped twice in two days, before slinking out of the election count early when it became clear he wasn't goign to get enough vote to get a seat.
Someone who smashed an egg on a far-right MP successfully donated the legal fees raised after a group represented him pro bono, so Christchurch victims will receive nearly $100,000 AUD(?).
Julian Assange got nearly a year in prison for skipping bail, while he waits for other countries to request extradition for their own charges against him. Apparently, some of his possessions from the Ecuadorian embassy that he sought asylum in have been seized at the reqiest pf the United States.
The United Kingdom put a vote to their members to declare a climate emergency.
A significant number of eligible persons in the United Kingdom were not registered in time for the Eurpoean Parliament elections, which is a thing that I had hoped was only a problem in the States. In that same vein of things I had hoped were only things that happened in the States, several EU citizens that, for all intents and purposes were registered to vote were turned away by their local councils in the UK, ostensibly for failing to fill out a form. Most of the people affected by that lack of form report they had not been informed they needed it, or that they had called to make sure they were eligible, some as late as a week before the election, and nothing had been told to them about needing more paperwork, and yet, when they appeared, they were turned away, some with fairly hostile messages. Disenfranchisement of that sort is very familiar in the States, but I had hoped it would stay there.
Advice for the European elections ranged from tactical voting to position a party with your ideals in mind to massive turnout to ensure that your party gets elected.
In anticipation of the state visit to the United Kingdom in June (now with the entirety of the Administrator's adult children and their partners accompanying, apparently), a robot crafted in caricature of the Administrator on the toilet, using his cell phone hopes to arrive in time to be put to use in the protests. Said robot will make noises of the toilet and play various sound clips of the Administrator. The iconic blimp depicting the Administrator as a diaper-clad baby will also fly, now that a target of 30,000 GBP has been reached in donations to various organizations opposing the Administrator's agenda. (More details at the Crowdfunder site.)
Regardless of what aerial displays are present, more than a million Londoners may turn out to protest the state visit and the presence of the Current Administrator. Those same protestors are unhappy at the Metropolitan Police's decisions to keep them pretty far away from the Administrator and the government and royalty that will be meeting with him and his family. Of course, not all that many people turned out to just see the Administrator and cheer him on. Instead, the spin machine had to work overtime to try and convince us that London loved this Administrator and the protests were small and not well-organized. When, in reality, Some supporters were ushered into a pub for their own safety when confronted with the reality of the much larger opposing force.
There was also a significant pause in the proceedings as the cat of Number 10 placed himself underneath the motorcade car and did not move for a time. Apparently, he also may have urinated while under the car, which is being taken as a sign of his opinion on the Administrator. (One possibly shared by the Official Mouser of the Foreign Office, but Palmerton was unavailable for comment.) Given that teh Administrator had some choice words of his own for the mayor of London, as he usually does when at his phone, the incivility on display in response seems quite warranted. the protests were a diverse array of people all allied against what the administrator represents.
And this is all against the backdrop of more and more evidence mounting that obstruction is exactly what this Administrator and his cabinet intend to do, out in the open where all can see it, and to hope they can get someone to agree with them that they're just being themselves, rather than impeding and obstructing the legitimate purposes of Congress.
Impeachment would have already happened, I'm sure, if it weren't the case that the party of the Administrator puts their same-team loyalty above loyalty to making sure that the country can be run well and honestly, and thus even if impeachment happened, there are enough Senators that a party-line vote would result in acquittal.
A person in charge of diplomatic protocol intimidated and carried a whip about, which to me sounds like someone forgot the distinction between their kinky life in private and their public life, but blurring public and private has been the plot of this administration all along.
The problem with trying to keep up with this Administration is that you'll be snowed under in crises and scandal even if you try to limit your focus to only the most egregious violations of everything. Including the contual lawless zone around the border of the United States, where Constitutional protections are routinely ignored and the Customs and Border Patrol are able to do whatever they feel like, even if it's illegal, and people can only complain after the event.
The border contains concentration camps for immigrants and refugees. This is not a linguistic exaggeration. It is a feature of United States history. And if there were some international entity that could actually bring these leaders to heel and require them to respect the basic universal human rights of everyone, they would have long been invoked and mobilized. And that's assuming we continue to receive accurate updates about how bad things are, a notoriously difficult exercise, because CBP doesn't want to let anyone in, lest they do things like insist on the law being followed.
If you told them that Mexico is doing far better at taking care of children in their custody than the United States, they'd scoff, but just from this article, it's true. There aren't deaths from the heat because of the substandard conditions. Nor children kept en masse in cages, denied basic things for life, like food, medicine, or space to move around with, with the expectation that small children will take care of and try to care for even smaller children, much less actual representation and legal assistance to get them out of such facilities and reunited with teir family members. All while someone makes a significant amount of money not taking care of these children.
This administration wanted to argue that they weren't obligated to provide children with the basic necessities of life.
The definition of a refugee needs to be updated, because a lot of the violence in Central America is not by state actors at all. And that's even in places where someone waits to see if they can get asylum, either in Mexico or in the United States.
Immigrants, even legal ones, are afraid to go to police for domestic violence claims, on the fear they'll be subjected to deportation proceedings if they try to use police to protect themselves.
Even the most anodyne of children's magazines, Highlights, had scathing words for this separation and imprisonment strategy.
The cruelty is the point, as is said. It always has been.
If this makes you wonder why there aren't more people taking active measures to stop this, it might be because they don't know what to do or who to support. Many of the best things to do are local, but if you can, there's also plenty of organizations that are trying to defeat this and get immigrants out of concentration camps. And fundraisers for paying the legal expenses of those who do get arrested for taking action.
And it probably makes me a Good German that I'm more worried about being able to make sure that I can keep the food and housing I have for the people in my house, because that's immediate, than in accelerating the closure of the camps and not trusting the political process to put sane people in charge. Some of that is because the concept itself is imaginable, but that requires a significant amount of cognitive effort just to begin to think about how to handle it, but also because it's exhausting to try and fight on multiple fronts, and burning yourself out for the cause is unsustainable. It also means having enough privilege to be able to take a rest away from the thing, becuase it doesn't directly involve me on a daily basis. That feeds into guilt about having that kind of privilege, and a certain amount of resentment that people who very clearly could contribute from their excess are instead insisting that we put our last two copper coins into the box if we want to do anything. In addition to the Administration that behaves autocratically, appoints judges that will allow them to do so, and trusts that their supporters in the legislature will make it impossible to pass laws or conduct any sort of check or impediment to their behavior.
Which is to say, I'm fairly certain that if the Christians are right about God and Judgement, I'm probably spending a long time in damnation, because there's so much that I should be doing that I'm not.
Nigel Farage got solidly spattered with a milkshake. (He deserves it.) Cue hand-wringing about whether dumping dairy on someone is a good position to take if you want to be taken seriously and nonviolently. (He still deserved it, and so did several other far-right politicians when they got the milkshake bath.) The person throwing the milkshake had no regrets about soaking the politician. Even when they ask places not to sell milkshakes when fascists are around, fascists get dumped on, because most people aer going to point and laugh at the fascists reacting with outrage to getting splashed. And, frankly, when you consider the difference in response to threats between dousing in dairy and killing with bullets, you find that ridicule is the better weapon to use when you want to have a leg of legitimacy to stand on. Just ask the four blokes who created Led By Donkeys and their extremely successful ridicule campaign against Brexit.
Plus, Nigel Farage and his ilk make themselves easy to ridicule, not venturing that far from a bus just with the threat of being dairy-dumped again. When the truth is most things tossed at a political candidate are exactly what they seem, and making a big fuss about it is usually invoking the Streisand Effect.
A particularly anti-Islam candidate, Tommy Robinson, got dairy-dumped twice in two days, before slinking out of the election count early when it became clear he wasn't goign to get enough vote to get a seat.
Someone who smashed an egg on a far-right MP successfully donated the legal fees raised after a group represented him pro bono, so Christchurch victims will receive nearly $100,000 AUD(?).
Julian Assange got nearly a year in prison for skipping bail, while he waits for other countries to request extradition for their own charges against him. Apparently, some of his possessions from the Ecuadorian embassy that he sought asylum in have been seized at the reqiest pf the United States.
The United Kingdom put a vote to their members to declare a climate emergency.
A significant number of eligible persons in the United Kingdom were not registered in time for the Eurpoean Parliament elections, which is a thing that I had hoped was only a problem in the States. In that same vein of things I had hoped were only things that happened in the States, several EU citizens that, for all intents and purposes were registered to vote were turned away by their local councils in the UK, ostensibly for failing to fill out a form. Most of the people affected by that lack of form report they had not been informed they needed it, or that they had called to make sure they were eligible, some as late as a week before the election, and nothing had been told to them about needing more paperwork, and yet, when they appeared, they were turned away, some with fairly hostile messages. Disenfranchisement of that sort is very familiar in the States, but I had hoped it would stay there.
Advice for the European elections ranged from tactical voting to position a party with your ideals in mind to massive turnout to ensure that your party gets elected.
In anticipation of the state visit to the United Kingdom in June (now with the entirety of the Administrator's adult children and their partners accompanying, apparently), a robot crafted in caricature of the Administrator on the toilet, using his cell phone hopes to arrive in time to be put to use in the protests. Said robot will make noises of the toilet and play various sound clips of the Administrator. The iconic blimp depicting the Administrator as a diaper-clad baby will also fly, now that a target of 30,000 GBP has been reached in donations to various organizations opposing the Administrator's agenda. (More details at the Crowdfunder site.)
Regardless of what aerial displays are present, more than a million Londoners may turn out to protest the state visit and the presence of the Current Administrator. Those same protestors are unhappy at the Metropolitan Police's decisions to keep them pretty far away from the Administrator and the government and royalty that will be meeting with him and his family. Of course, not all that many people turned out to just see the Administrator and cheer him on. Instead, the spin machine had to work overtime to try and convince us that London loved this Administrator and the protests were small and not well-organized. When, in reality, Some supporters were ushered into a pub for their own safety when confronted with the reality of the much larger opposing force.
There was also a significant pause in the proceedings as the cat of Number 10 placed himself underneath the motorcade car and did not move for a time. Apparently, he also may have urinated while under the car, which is being taken as a sign of his opinion on the Administrator. (One possibly shared by the Official Mouser of the Foreign Office, but Palmerton was unavailable for comment.) Given that teh Administrator had some choice words of his own for the mayor of London, as he usually does when at his phone, the incivility on display in response seems quite warranted. the protests were a diverse array of people all allied against what the administrator represents.
And this is all against the backdrop of more and more evidence mounting that obstruction is exactly what this Administrator and his cabinet intend to do, out in the open where all can see it, and to hope they can get someone to agree with them that they're just being themselves, rather than impeding and obstructing the legitimate purposes of Congress.
Impeachment would have already happened, I'm sure, if it weren't the case that the party of the Administrator puts their same-team loyalty above loyalty to making sure that the country can be run well and honestly, and thus even if impeachment happened, there are enough Senators that a party-line vote would result in acquittal.
A person in charge of diplomatic protocol intimidated and carried a whip about, which to me sounds like someone forgot the distinction between their kinky life in private and their public life, but blurring public and private has been the plot of this administration all along.
The problem with trying to keep up with this Administration is that you'll be snowed under in crises and scandal even if you try to limit your focus to only the most egregious violations of everything. Including the contual lawless zone around the border of the United States, where Constitutional protections are routinely ignored and the Customs and Border Patrol are able to do whatever they feel like, even if it's illegal, and people can only complain after the event.
The border contains concentration camps for immigrants and refugees. This is not a linguistic exaggeration. It is a feature of United States history. And if there were some international entity that could actually bring these leaders to heel and require them to respect the basic universal human rights of everyone, they would have long been invoked and mobilized. And that's assuming we continue to receive accurate updates about how bad things are, a notoriously difficult exercise, because CBP doesn't want to let anyone in, lest they do things like insist on the law being followed.
If you told them that Mexico is doing far better at taking care of children in their custody than the United States, they'd scoff, but just from this article, it's true. There aren't deaths from the heat because of the substandard conditions. Nor children kept en masse in cages, denied basic things for life, like food, medicine, or space to move around with, with the expectation that small children will take care of and try to care for even smaller children, much less actual representation and legal assistance to get them out of such facilities and reunited with teir family members. All while someone makes a significant amount of money not taking care of these children.
This administration wanted to argue that they weren't obligated to provide children with the basic necessities of life.
The definition of a refugee needs to be updated, because a lot of the violence in Central America is not by state actors at all. And that's even in places where someone waits to see if they can get asylum, either in Mexico or in the United States.
Immigrants, even legal ones, are afraid to go to police for domestic violence claims, on the fear they'll be subjected to deportation proceedings if they try to use police to protect themselves.
Even the most anodyne of children's magazines, Highlights, had scathing words for this separation and imprisonment strategy.
The cruelty is the point, as is said. It always has been.
If this makes you wonder why there aren't more people taking active measures to stop this, it might be because they don't know what to do or who to support. Many of the best things to do are local, but if you can, there's also plenty of organizations that are trying to defeat this and get immigrants out of concentration camps. And fundraisers for paying the legal expenses of those who do get arrested for taking action.
And it probably makes me a Good German that I'm more worried about being able to make sure that I can keep the food and housing I have for the people in my house, because that's immediate, than in accelerating the closure of the camps and not trusting the political process to put sane people in charge. Some of that is because the concept itself is imaginable, but that requires a significant amount of cognitive effort just to begin to think about how to handle it, but also because it's exhausting to try and fight on multiple fronts, and burning yourself out for the cause is unsustainable. It also means having enough privilege to be able to take a rest away from the thing, becuase it doesn't directly involve me on a daily basis. That feeds into guilt about having that kind of privilege, and a certain amount of resentment that people who very clearly could contribute from their excess are instead insisting that we put our last two copper coins into the box if we want to do anything. In addition to the Administration that behaves autocratically, appoints judges that will allow them to do so, and trusts that their supporters in the legislature will make it impossible to pass laws or conduct any sort of check or impediment to their behavior.
Which is to say, I'm fairly certain that if the Christians are right about God and Judgement, I'm probably spending a long time in damnation, because there's so much that I should be doing that I'm not.
