Pony blogger, actual cactus, artist, writer, computer scientist, and linguist. New Jersey / Pennsylvania | 21 | male, he/him/his | asexual hispanic | Cereus repandus, or Peruvian apple cactus
People are still stuck up on the fact that children are being put in cages before being shipped out as if they aren’t coming in here illegally or being forced in by terrible parents or worse.
I’m reblogging this one because it’s my breaking point and it’s 4 AM and I’ve stopped giving a shit.
People are “stuck up” about it because they’re freakin’ children! If a family tries to sneak into the US, why the absolute fuck would you punish the fucking child by practically holding them hostage in a foreign country????
As if a five year old has any say in what risks their parents take???
As if immigrants are fucking animals who deserve subhuman treatment because they, including their kids, are criminals trying to spread their slime into the US???
What the fuck are you trying to say here???
The cages go back to the obama administration
Everyone that has a child when they commit a crime, whether they are illegal or citizen, has their child taken away from them during the trial due to the matter of keeping the child safe from a potential criminal.
Not to mention the fact that a lot of the time we just have someone’s word that they’re a child’s parent, no actual documentation or papers to prove it, so we need to keep them separate under the possibility of the adult being a smuggler/pedophile/human trafficker/drug dealer trying to use the kid as a free pass to get into the country.
Honestly, fine. Jail them however you need to, assume what you got to.
But what about reunification?
Despite those with ill intents, there are still real parents who find themselves deported, but unable to see or even talk to their children because they’ve been moved to some foster home or whatever deep in the states.
How could it be that parents can be deported and their kids are stuck in the United States for god knows how long? How can there be no effort in trying to track down separated children?
People are still stuck up on the fact that children are being put in cages before being shipped out as if they aren’t coming in here illegally or being forced in by terrible parents or worse.
I’m reblogging this one because it’s my breaking point and it’s 4 AM and I’ve stopped giving a shit.
People are “stuck up” about it because they’re freakin’ children! If a family tries to sneak into the US, why the absolute fuck would you punish the fucking child by practically holding them hostage in a foreign country????
As if a five year old has any say in what risks their parents take???
As if immigrants are fucking animals who deserve subhuman treatment because they, including their kids, are criminals trying to spread their slime into the US???
trump: *pulls out of the paris agreement, severely harming the current global efforts to combat global warming because he’s either too fucking stupid or too evil to see that it’s a big deal and also starts the process of wiping out net neutrality, an objectively horrible thing for everone that isn’t a massive telecom company executive and will cause untold levels of damage on our ability to communicate through the internet*
media:
trump: *makes a spelling mistake on twitter*
media:OMG have you heard of
COVFEFE??????????????????????????????
look i really hate to be that person who takes anything seriously on this hellsite but i’ve had it up to about here with the “trump is an evil mastermind distracting us from the real problems instead of an unstable, senile old man with a tenuous grip on reality” conspiracy theories so i’ve just gotta do it today
too tired already to get into the net neutrality issue too but the point is: if you’re getting all your news from twitter memes, of course you’ve heard more about covfefe than actual policy, but the root of the matter isn’t that journalists aren’t doing their jobs and reporting on the real issues, it’s that you’re getting all your news from twitter memes
With the election coming up, I’d like to express one final piece of advice.
Vote with you conscious. Do the research and analysis. Vote for whoever you feel will better run this country and bring it to the future.
Whether it be Clinton’s shadow politics, Trump’s frat-boy revolution, Johnson’s don’t-give-a-shit policy, or Stein’s pandering pile of nonsense. I can’t judge you for wanting the same thing I do.
But given the ridiculous nature of this season, I’d like you to keep your choice in the back of your head. Keep it there for the next four years.
Note your satisfaction with your victory or attempts at such. Note if you ever regretted your choice. If you voted third party, note how your decision affected the turnout of the election. Could something else have been done? Is there still time to fix this?
Maybe there is. So please keep that in mind and good luck.
Edited to remove my rather rude generalization of third-party voters. It was uncalled for, and I apologize.
But on that note, let’s talk about why I don’t believe in third-party power in the US.
Is there a Green in congress? Is there a Libertarian in congress? No, not really. And that’s kinda the point. Third-parties have no power and no backing in the place that really matters. All they do is show up to elections with the futile belief that they’re a good alternative, and then they lose and never get go anywhere until four years later.
Which isn’t to rag on third parties in general, of course. Other countries do them just fine! Why? Because they actually have representatives to back them up
Just look at Canada’s House of Commons. Liberals (red) dominate along with the Conservatives (blue), but look at the NPD (orange) sticking out there. And the row of Bloc Québécois (light blue) members behind them.
The German Bundestag! Look at the distribution! It’s as if people vote for the party that mosts represents them and if enough people desire it, they can get a voice1 And they got alliances and stuff that lets you vote for a minnow party that hooks up with other bigger parties and you get in as a whole!
The Russian State Duma! Sure, the United Russia party makes this look like a single-party state, but you got your Communists and Liberal Democrats in there a bit. And know your political system is fucked when even Russia looks more like a rainbow than your own lower house.
The United States House of Representatives. See the difference?
American third parties don’t exist with regards to who’s making our laws. Sure, plenty of niche parties exist in the countries I just mentioned, but at least you get all the good ones represented in some way. And granted, parliamentary systems elect heads of government in a different way than we do, so there’s also that.
But where does that leave us? Well, if you’re a firm supporter of a third party, that is, you align yourself the most with that party’s platform and policies and wish to see it grow in the potential future, then I wish you good luck. Get motivated. Rally more people year-round instead of only at election time. Build up a consistent and loyal base. And get someone into Congress so it can look a little more colorful.
But if you’re voting third party because you’re bandwagoning on a hatred of having to pick between two lackluster candidates, then I have no respect for you. You really don’t believe in the third party you’ve chosen, and you’ll just abandon them after the election is done and they haven’t won a thing. You remove votes from the race that does matter and skew the results, most likely away from your favor. And you get a pile of nothing but annoyance and possibly regret.
Your message of dissatisfaction gets redirected to a wall because you didn’t win a single electoral vote in the college. Newsflash: the popular vote does not matter in the presidential election (see 1876, 1888, and 2000, years where the college elected a president who lost the popular vote). Win a handful of states, see how that affects the election, then we’ll talk.
Do you believe in your third-party choice for 2016? Prove it. Stay with them, rally with them and don’t ever look back. Protest-vote like you actually mean it.
Otherwise, flip a coin or something for crying out loud.
With the election coming up, I’d like to express one final piece of advice.
Vote with you conscious. Do the research and analysis. Vote for whoever you feel will better run this country and bring it to the future.
Whether it be Clinton’s shadow politics, Trump’s frat-boy revolution, Johnson’s don’t-give-a-shit policy, or Stein’s pandering pile of nonsense. I can’t judge you for wanting the same thing I do.
But given the ridiculous nature of this season, I’d like you to keep your choice in the back of your head. Keep it there for the next four years.
Note your satisfaction with your victory or attempts at such. Note if you ever regretted your choice. If you voted third party, note how your decision affected the turnout of the election. Could something else have been done? Is there still time to fix this?
Maybe there is. So please keep that in mind and good luck.
Really, I feel like people are too easily falling for the idea that Clinton is some evil she-witch who is just as slimy as Trump.
That’s isn’t to say that she’s not imperfect, though. Even she wasn’t my first choice and I’ve always commented on how disconnected she seems with a younger audience, and how questionable her actions of late have been.
But she’s no Trump, and that is good enough for me.
As for third parties, it really isn’t worth it. Neither the Greens or Libertarians have a remote chance of winning, and all they’ll do is sap votes away from the Republicans and Democrats, potentially spoiling the election.
Seriously. Don’t do that.
voting for third parties is not worth it, because they won’t win anyways? what kind of backwards logic is that? you should encourage EVERYBODY to vote a third party, otherwise you’ll never get rid of the two party system, ever!
you can only get rid of this notion, that “only republicans or democrats matter”, when you finally stop pretending that only republicans or democrats matter.
We will never get rid of our two-party system. Not under our current system, that is.
Let’s imagine an election for a congressman in some district. There are four candidates: Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. They are all competing for one seat in Congress.
Red and Blue are the biggest parties and have platforms designed to attract as many voters as they can, with Green and Yellow trailing.
You are a Green supporter. But with the current polls and despite your best efforts, not enough people support the Greens for them to make a clear plurality. Reds and Blues are simply too stubborn to switch over, or don’t care.
What do you do? Well, you hate the Blues, as they are the most unlike the Greens. And some of what Red is offering aligns with your beliefs. So fuck it, vote for Red.
That’s the problem. There’s only one seat for you to vote on, so it’s advantageous to vote for the big party that aligns best with your ideas. You only need the most votes out of the four to get a plurality and win.
And this happens hundreds of times over as we fill the seats in Congress, voting for each individual congress
But what if you can get a surge in one of the third parties? Like, what if the Blues launch an exodus to Yellow for some reason and they win majorities in a lot of districts?
Well then, congratulations, you got Yellow in the congress. And over time, Yellow will grow in size as they start morphing their platform to attract more voters. Suddenly, we’re back to where we started. Only now, it’s always Red vs. Yellow.
It’s the same shit.
This is Duverger’s Law, and though it’s not prominently documented in every first-past-the-post system in the world, it most certainly is here in the US.
We’ve had two major parties competing against each other for over 200 years.
So unless we reform and switch to a better electoral system, it will always be this way. And from the looks of it, neither the Democrats or Republicans are looking to introduce competition anytime soon.
