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1·2 days agoBlocking roads is not the only method of disruptive protest. There are a lot more options than that. Everything from sit-ins to much more creative disruptions
For instance, one technique that animal rights activists have successfully used before is gluing hands to tables to protest various things. May sound silly, but it gets outsized attention on both traditional and social media. For instance, it’s been a factor to help get over 330 coffee chains to drop their non-dairy milk upcharge (including some major ones like Starbucks, Dunkin, Tim Hortons, etc.)
Protests too can be disruptive. They don’t have to be just people along the side of the road, building, etc. For instance, here’s thousands of people blocking a freeway in downtown LA as part of anti-ICE protests in February
(Did get more media coverage indeed due to being more disruptive)
Organizing a general strike is also more difficult in the US with union membership being so comparatively low. Greece and the UK both have around double the unionization rate (~20% vs ~10%). Not impossible, and would be great to see, but protests themselves are a tool that can help get there. Help people see that people within your community are just a pissed as you are and you’ll have a lot more people willing to join in. Unions are some of the people organizing various protests too. They are able to drive membership up because of it
Protests take time to work. If you think that one day of protest is going to change it all, look to other movements. You can succeeded; it just takes much longer than people think they take. They want you thinking it’s hopeless so when you don’t get immediate results, they’re happy to call them failures
Estimates are far higher than 100,000 people. Not just a small number. It was ~4 million on April 19th and ~3-5 million on April 5th depending on the estimates you look at
They are claiming it’s “thousands” across the limited US media coverage, but you can find photos online of those kinds of numbers in various smaller cities alone
8·5 days agoOh hmm, maybe I had just heard people misuse it in the past? Had only heard it being used as a synonym for possibility in the context of “every eventuality” but other times meaning something definitive. Looking it up I see that it’s supposed to just always refer to possibility
It is not an eventuality, it is a possibility that he tries
Thinking that everything is 100% certain to happen is how we get ourselves too paralyzed to act. We can reduce the odds of many things from happening by showing up and building pressure
Join protests, boycotts, strikes, etc.
EDIT: or maybe I apparently have misunderstood how the word eventuality is supposed to be a synonymy of possibility. My bad on that one
Musk will likely control elections going forward
Elections are run by the states themselves even for federal office. Notable race in particular for Musk was the Wisconsin Supreme Court race earlier this month. Musk poured millions to try to make it go the other way and tried to bribe voters with $1 million lotteries if they “signed a petition against activist judges”. The Musk backed candidate still lost by 10 points
Don’t do his dirty work for him and suppress the vote before anything happens. The fight ain’t over till it’s over
Lopez-Gomez was reportedly released Thursday evening after protestors gathered outside of the Leon County jail, where he was being held.
In good news, they were released after public backlash and protest. Protesting can work, boycotts can work, and so on. Don’t let anyone think we can’t act because we the people can
They want to take our rights, but we are not powerless to stop them. Fight back!
Don’t give into the doom that Trump & Musk want us to have. They want us thinking we’ve already lost so we don’t try to stop them, but the fight ain’t over till it’s over. We the people have power if we’re willing to use it
Join on the streets, take a part in boycotts, join strikes, etc.
Don’t just hope, join the fight back! April 19th is the next day of nationwide protests
Don’t play into the doom that Trump & Musk want us to all have. The fight ain’t over till it’s over
19·7 days agoIf the Marshall Service does not enforce contempt, it is possible for the courts to appoint others to enforce for them if they are willing to do so. It would be unprecedented, but well within the bounds of what the law states
The rule begins in section (a) by instructing that, as a general matter, process “must be served by a United States marshal or deputy marshal or by a person specially appointed for that purpose.”
[…]
Thus, by its plain terms, Rule 4.1 contemplates that the court may appoint individuals other than the marshals to enforce civil contempt orders.
[…]
Even a rogue marshal’s service, in other words, is not an insurmountable obstacle to courts enforcing the rule of law. If courts have the courage, the legal tools are there.
12·7 days agoJoin global protests against Tesla in much of the US, various parts of Europe, part of Canada, etc.
(and there are multiple upcoming across the UK, if you are in the UK and disappointed at this graph)
They aren’t just protesting Trump here? I mean the tour itself is called “Fighting Oligarchy” which is about a system
3·12 days agoStrange indeed, but this has been part of a long push. Didn’t happen by magic
Edit: On a closer reading, it looks like it might actually mean “if you use AI/other non-animal methods we’ll let you skip some safety testing” (“”“streamlined review”“”). Less animal murder so still good ofc, but :/
Their 11 page roadmap document does not read that way at all. Looking the FDA press documents look very different than the implementation details documents. I mean part of their roadmap is actually to encourage people - if already doing animal studies - to perform additional non-animal studies at the same time and submit that along side to get better data about accuracy and such
* for press releases and announcements
Headline makes it sound like internal communications, but that’s not the case at least currently. Still, we shouldn’t rely on third party services for important info - especially one that sometimes requires login to view
I think it’s unlikely they will do so directly given their other actions. Senate Majority Leader Thune has been pretty adamant about keeping it even stating he wanted to keep it in his very first speech this year as the new senate majority leader. I think the bigger threat to the filibuster at the moment is Republicans abusing reconciliation beyond what is supposed to be in there. Republicans appear likely to test the waters with bending the rules in the near future. This would be one of those piece by piece kinds of things, so more of a medium-term to longer-term issue
Reconciliation is supposed to be strictly for budget related policies and allows a strict majority vote without going through the filibuster and is only allowed to be used a limited number of times among other restrictions. The senate parliamentarian is the one who is supposed to interprets the senate rules and procedures including what’s allowed in reconciliation. One of the requirements the Byrd Rule gives to reconciliation is that the bill passed through the senate it may not add to the deficit overall.
Republicans appear likely to ignore the senate parliamentarian and declare by themselves that extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the rich that will expire are “current policy” and not counted in deficit computations. By itself that doesn’t sound that interesting, but the reason that’s a little concerning is that the senate parliamentarian is also the one who decides if the bills are strictly budget related. For instance, in 2021 the senate parliamentarian was the one who frustratingly ruled that a minimum wage increase to $15/hr couldn’t be included via reconciliation. If ignoring the senate parliamentarian becomes the norm, they could stuff non-budget thing into these massive reconciliation spending packages without anyone to say no
(It’s also possible the Senate parliamentarian rules in their favor and they don’t override what they say)
Before we preemptively doom about it, it also needs to pass the senate filibuster meaning 7 senate dems need to vote in favor. Call your senators and tell them to vote against it
The bill appears to face long odds in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to overcome an expected Democratic filibuster.
[…]
“I am leading the fight in the Senate to push back against this effort to disrupt our already safe and secure elections. This bill cannot pass the Senate — and I will fight every step of the way to block it,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
[…]
Last year, the House passed a similar bill but it stalled in the Senate and then-President Joe Biden vowed to veto it
Passed the house not the senate. The filibuster in the senate is the main hurdle for the bill. That’s what requires 60 votes meaning it’d take at least 7 votes from dems
Dems have shot plenty of things down this term via the filibuster though the CR was a notable horrible exception. For instance, they successfully filibustered an anti-trans legislation earlier in march. There is no threat of a shutdown here if they don’t let this bill get through. It’s a tall order for it to get through. Still call your senator and tell them to vote against cloture for it
Yes, what they are trying to do is bad, but note that it needs 60 in the senate to pass the filibuster
Senate Dems were pretty vocal against it last year when they tried to get that through. Still make sure to call your senator and tell them to vote no on cloture for it, but don’t preemptively doom about it passing the house
Not fully free from similar issues here. For instance, the BBC is massively downplaying turnout
The BBC is saying “thousands” were protesting on April 19th when others estimate in the range of 4 million. Counting people in photos on social media in just a handful of cities gives a figure higher than thousands. There were hundreds of protest locations
The BBC also claims there were “tens of thousands” on April 5th when it was estimated at 3-5 million. There were over 100 000 in DC and 100 000 in NYC alone on April 5th!