melp @ melp @beehaw.org

ugh

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Which they were doing before.

Ugh

Much like everything else for 2025... this is just getting dumber and dumber.

How on brand.

It's bad for you and me now. It's been bad for the rest since before now. Enjoy your wedge.

I'm not going to hazard a guess on your background and relations but I can say of the 50+ Gazans I follow on the ground... some are dead now. But their friends who survived them and the rest who are miraculously still alive said they didn't see much of a difference between Biden saying they're rapists and Trump saying they're rapists. That's the Pals I follow. Then there's the peace orgs I follow - JVP, CAIR, PSL... none of them had much to say about Biden or Trump. They were all about to marked as terrorist orgs under the last administration, anyway. Then there's the black and brown people I interact with online and in my friend groups. A lot of us agree, myself included, that non-voters shouldn't have been non-voters and voted Harris but even then most of them tell me it doesn't really matter to them because this is how it's always been for them. Who am I to criticize? I'm not in their shoes. At the end of the day yelling at people who didn't want 800,000 people dead is a wedge argument. The dictatorship is here now. Do we want to yell at white women for wearing bracelets telling black people "they're safe"? Or can we finally just work together. The reason we're here is because we truly enjoy these sour lemon flavored wedges.

Yea, I can get on board with that. There's defo room for reform. They seem to disagree but that's another story.

Was it though? Was it preventable? I think survival and preservation of life is the goal right? Would you agree?

Past numbers:

• 800,000 Palestinians are dead under the last administration.
• And one of my favorite stats - "According to estimates, capitalist institutions have caused approximately 158 million deaths through wars alone since the Russian Revolution." (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10455752.2021.1875603).
• "The rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans stands at 6.2 fatal shootings per million of the population per year between 2015 and October 2024." (https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/).
• "From 2015 to October 2024, approximately 6,600 people were killed by police shootings. This includes 6,303 men and 294 women" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States.

For some folx... and from their points of view, it wasn't good, it hasn't been good, and it won't be good. Now it's just shitty for everyone. I don't agree with it but if I'm going to shit on anyone for what was inevitable, anyway, it isn't going to be people who genuinely wanted 800,000 people to not be dead. The third party voters didn't tip the scale. The non voters did an asshole thing. The MAGA voters are a whole other discussion. But the wedge thing, it's tired. We should hop over the wedge.

My only point, respectfully, is 800,000 people are dead. What was anyone in leadership doing to stop it and to prevent it from happening any further?

Let me be clear, I was for swing states voting for Harris because I am fully aware of how dictatorships roll but voting for Harris wasn't going to stop the dictatorship from rolling. It was on the way and going to roll. If Harris had won, it would've been just a little bit more down the road. But the cop cities were and are being built. The police indemnity is already in place and growing. The Pal protestors and the orgs for peace were already being legislated as terrorist orgs. The billionaires and democratic mayors were already sicking police and fascist mobs on the protestors. Bombs were still being sent to kill more than 800,000 people. Brown people were still being gunned down and mistreated by the state sanctioned slave catchers in the US. Muslim Americans were still seeing a crazy uptick in violence against their communities and the Democrats were barring them from speaking at the DNC.

In some people's purview, shit wasn't good under the Dems. Maybe better for me? For you? Sure. I've had many black internetizens say "Oh? It's finally bad for YOU. It's been bad for us the entire time." Even my Mexican co-workers here in Los Angeles shrug their shoulders and say it's not new for them.

But you're right. It's not good. I don't condone it. Most of us don't. But I also don't condone feeding into this wedge argument pitting working class against working class when all anyone wanted was for 800,000 people to not be dead, for politicians to hold slave catchers accountable, and for money and jobs to come back to this place.

I'm just saying police reform doesn't really seem to have much to do with crime rates. So may as well reform!

Everyone's angry. 800,000 people are dead. Everyone is mad. Why are 800,000 people dead? Probably isn't the person's fault who wanted 800,000 people to not die.

Yea - I must be illiterate for not wanting to emphasize a working class wedge.

I must be illiterate for listening to:

• Seraj (Gazan Journalist)
• Wally Rashid (Palestinian Journalist)
• PSL (Palestinian Activism Group)
• CAIR (Muslim Legal Foundation)
• Jewish Voices for Peace (Obvious is obvious)
• Shireen Falasteen (Palestinian Activist)
• Bisan (Gazan Journalist)
• Dr. Huassam (may he me saved)
• Hossam Shbat (Gaza Journalist)
• Mostafa Jaser (Gaza Journalist)
• and a number of other Palestinian activists and journalists.

Yea. Illiterate. That must be it.

Do you have a list of activists and journalists you read and follow on a daily basis? Care to share?

I personally have been traveling to Japan for 22 years. My first trip I was 23. If that dates me. Sigh...

Anyway, when I first went was before the smartphone. And a lot of signage and a lot of the population didn't really have a lot of English available. Getting around was a fun challenge. But we got stuck in a couple train* stations and lost a few times in the cities.To combat that I took two semesters of Japanese. So, then when I'd go I could read and speak enough to get by.

Fast forward to the Olympics and now there's English signage pretty much everywhere and Google maps gets you places and there are apps for gaijin to find anything they want based on their geolocation. Also the kids who grew up during that time picked some English up. It's a pretty friendly place to travel as a tourist now. This last trip we took last year I've never seen so many non-Japanese people between Hokkaido and Honshu. I was wondering how they were handling the influx.

I don't think I would call interesting. I would call it depressing now.

Lol

Can't imagine many. Many didn't have issues with 2016's Cambridge Analytics shenanigans and with how their apps ignored queer and brown people being habitually targeted over the years. I've met a few "liberal" software devs here in LA and they're at the same level of insufferable as gentrifying real estate agents. Sigh.

800,000 dead people gave* you a lot to gloat about, didn't it.

You do know that Palestinian journalists on the ground there said they knew it didn't matter who was in office. 800,000 dead Palestinians under Biden and Harris. But continue on.

You might want to ask the Palestinian journalists who told American voters that it doesn't matter who is in office. Start with Bisan. I'd love to see you bark up a Palestinian's tree who lost easily 150 people in* their family. It's crazy to see people gloat over 800,000 dead people like this.

I was gonna look the state up and tell them to come get their dude but it's Missouri. Outside of St Louis in Kansas City that place is a piece of shit. And so are the people. And I get to say that cuz I grew up there and got out.

As someone who grew up in Missouri and has had countless guns pulled on me for defending my property, I guess I would have still gotten out and dealt with the situation there. No sense in being scared and abused. At least that's kind of how I feel about life on this planet. Maybe just get out of Texas? Or get a gun. I don't really have any helpful suggestions I guess. I am sorry that you had to deal with that though. That's fucked up.