@davidaugust@mastodon.onlineThe US Virgin Islands have their own territorial court system, and any crimes committed there may be territorial crimes, not federal crimes.
The prosecution of such crimes would not need US DOJ nor White House permission to proceed.
Epstein Island is in the US Virgin Islands.
#USpol
@rperezrosario@mastodon.social
@annsev@troet.cafeDas gehörte wohl mal in aller Deutlichkeit gesagt - ob ein Gericht allerdings dafür die richtige Bühne ist? Womöglich gerechtfertigt dadurch, dass die Politik das auszusprechen kläglich versagt und sich feige wegdeduckt.
#USA Kritik an Darth Trump Administration
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
@smurthys@hachyderm.io
@j_honegger@swiss.socialFrom #AnnafromUkraine @AnnafromUkraine@youtube.com
PANIC IN #KREMLIN: #PUTIN’S REACTION TO NEW US SANCTIONS Vlog 1206: War in Ukraine
The
@primonatura@mstdn.social
@newstik@social.heise.de
@digitalnaiv@mastodon.socialDemokratischer US-Gouverneur Newsom: »Null Zweifel«, dass Trump keine freie Wahl mehr zulässt
Der Demokrat Gavin Newsom gilt in den USA als eine Art Oppositionsführer. Er sagt: Es sei »schockierend«, dass nicht mehr Leute gegen Trump aufstünden. »Das ist ein höllischer Moment für unser Land.« #Spiegel #USA
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza
@tinoeberl@mastodon.online @davidaugust@mastodon.onlineNot good.
#USpol
@wyri@toot-toot.wyrihaxim.us
@NuclearDisorder@mastodon.socialHeute vor 51 Jahren: Am 25. September 1974 testen die #USA die Atombombe "Pratt". Die Operation Bedrock war eine Serie von 27 US-amerikanischen #Kernwaffentests, die 1974/75 auf der Nevada Test Site in Nevada unterirdisch durchgeführt wurde.
@primonatura@mstdn.social
@rberger@hachyderm.ioThe Maga Fascist Trump administration is stuffed with criminals from top to bottom. And they are freeing the criminals from prosecution while attacking law abiding citizens and putting them in concentration camps.
#GiftArticle #USPolitics
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/tom-homan-fbi-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nk8.zrma.wrzBK7wHnHtJ&smid=url-share
@elduvelle@neuromatch.socialThis "executive order" system simply has to be removed from the US political system. Why is it even a thing? It's clearly not democratic...
#UsPol
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialUS ethnic cleansing and what to do about it
Reposting link to source article instead of screenshot of tweet that had no alt text:
Data on arrests shows that ICE was heavily engaged in racial profiling in LA, because their arrest numbers fell by ~66% after that were ordered to stop making arrests based just in factors like skin color, with place, or language spoken.
#ICE #USPol
@mapcar@mastodon.sdf.orgThe hypocrisy of the right is off the charts.
#uspol
(gift article)
https://www.nytimes.co…
@midtsveen@social.linux.pizza @digitalnaiv@mastodon.social„Wenn Faschisten sterben, jammern Demokraten nicht“ – dieser Satz kostet Mario Sixtus (ZDF) sein US-Visum. Das US-Außenministerium zeigt: Wer die falsche Meinung äußert, wird bestraft. Doch wo bleibt die Debatte über Meinungsfreiheit und politische Zensur? #USPolitik #Medien
@NuclearDisorder@mastodon.socialHeute vor 44 Jahren: Am 24. September 1981 testen die #USA die #Atombombe "Cernada". Die Operation #Guardian war eine Serie von 14 US-amerikanischen
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Young climate activists in Wisconsin sue state over pro-fossil fuel policies’"
#US #USA #America #FossilFuels
@hex@kolektiva.socialSome leftists have criticized #NoKingsDay2 as useless. Though it was the largest protest in US history, it didn't change anything. I would go further to say that protests like these generally won't change anything. Dictators aren't forced to step down by 2% of the population coming out for one day. If they're forced to step down by protests, those protests are sustained. They are every single day. They are accompanied by general strikes.
We've been watching that happen all over the world. Portland in 2020 gave us a taste of that in the US. The George Floyd Rebellion was the type of resistance that actually brings down dictators like Trump. Occasional protests, no matter how large, can simply be ignored. That is precisely the reason the US developed a militarized police force in the first place. You need more, more than the largest protests in US history, more than Occupy, more than the resistance of the 60's and 70's, more than, and different from, anything we've seen in our lives.
And yet... Each protest has grown, and grown bolder. Some have grown more persistent. If you think of protest as the path to achieve change, you will lose. It is not. But it is a path to escalate. Some people, some otherwise comfortable white folks, came out for their first time. Some people got pepper sprayed for the first time. Some people questioned authority, stood up for the first time, and have had an experience that will radicalize them for the rest of their lives.
Protest is not useful in and of itself. It is training. It's making connections. Authoritarian regimes rely on the illusion of compliance, so visual resistance does actually undermine their power.
Liberals like to teach that non-violence is all about staying peaceful no matter what, that there's some way that morality simply overwhelms an enemy. I remember reading Langston Hughes' A Dream Deferred in high school. I said it was a threat. My teacher said, "you're wrong, he was a pacifist." Pacifism is a threat. If you can spit at me, beat me, shoot me, and I will not move, if I have the strength to absorb violence without flinching, without even rising to violence, what will happen when you push me too far?
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
For peaceful resistance to work, there must be ambiguity. It must not be clear if or when the resistance will stop being peaceful. Peaceful resistance with no possibility of escalation is just cowardice.
My critique then is not so harsh as some other anarchists. If you think that protest alone will work, you're probably going to lose. If you are prepared to escalate, if you are prepared to absorb violence without flinching, then it could be possible for protest alone to topple the dictator. The cracks are already beginning to show.
And then what?
The problems that lead to the George Floyd uprising were never resolved. The problems that lead to Occupy where never resolve. The DAPL was built, protesters were maimed, it leaked multiple times (exactly as predicted). Segregation never went away, it only changed forms. The fact that immigrants have different courts and different rights means that anyone can be arbitrarily kidnaped and renditioned to an arbitrary country. We never did anything about the torture black site. FFS, people can still be stripped of their voting rights and slavery is still legal in the US. The people who control both parties in the US are killing our children and grand children with oil wars and climate change.
Toppling the dictator does nothing to resolve all of the problems that existed before him.
No, #NoKingsDay was absolutely not useless. #NoKings and related protests are extremely useful but they aren't sufficient. But, I think we still need to challenge the movement on two points:
How do you escalate after you're ignored or brutalized?
What do you demand after you win?
#USPol
@ErikJonker@mastodon.socialThe harsh reality is that the Rule of Law is dead in the USA.
#usa
@frankstohl@mastodon.socialEndlich eine sinnvolle Verwendung: US Air Force bestellt Cybertrucks zur Zieldarstellung #tesla #cybertruck #USAirForce
@timbray@cosocial.caMore on CBP treatment of Canadians at the US border, this time with CBP’s own statistics, which are interesting: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/us-canada-device-searches-1.7619944?cmp=rss
@lilmikesf@c.im#Mexico sends another planeload of dangerous drug suspects northbound to #US authorities for #prosecution in a so-called "sovereign decision", while President Sheinbaum rids her country of
@shellheim@social.linux.pizzaToo many incidents to be isolated at this point.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/mohammed-nizamuddin-india-techie-shot-dead-us-10258879/?ref=hometop_hp
@joe@toot.worksThe Trump administration sure is good at leaking their own plans for things.
"A senior White House official accidentally leaked details of plans to send an elite army unit to Portland, in the latest intelligence leak by the Trump administration."
#Politics #USPolitics #USPol
@markrsmith@smithtodon.org @primonatura@mstdn.social
@unchartedworlds@scicomm.xyzGlaring coercion, principled refusal. Not much surprises me out of the US currently, but this did.
"House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) said that Democrats who left the state would only be allowed to leave the chamber on Monday if they signed an agreement to be accompanied by an escort from the Texas Department of Public Safety."
Rep Nicole Chandler declined to sign the agreement, and "NBC News correspondent Ryan Chandler reported that Collier was "locked into the House chamber" because she refused to sign the document."
"In my heart I don't feel compelled to sign it"
"I'll just sit here, I don't know… I guess I'll wait til Wednesday."
!
This is the kind of integrity we need. Immense respect to her.
#NicoleCollier #Texas #USPol
@rettichschnidi@swiss.social
@mariyadelano@hachyderm.ioIn a twist of irony - I apparently picked up #COVID on the day of my #US naturalization ceremony.
Went to the doctor today where I got tested and diagnosed - all good. Insurance covered it, I paid $40 co-pay.
They prescribed Paxlovid. Great, definitely want to take it.
Went to the pharmacy, they tell me the 5 days of it will cost $1,777. I nervously laugh, telling them they need to make sure to run it through insurance.
They take my insurance, and say “that’s strange, it’s still really expensive”. New total: $1,000.
They try to add a discount code, but it cancels out the insurance, so the total is $1,500.
I ask if there are generics - nope, not available. I double-check my plan details: I’m $100 away from my deductible and the plan covers basically all prescribed medications. Pharmacy is in-network, supposedly.
Anyway, now I’m home and trying to call my insurance and wondering how in the world people are being made to choose between higher risk of hospitalization and paying $1-1.7k for five days of medication with a private insurance plan.
At least I got to pick up more KN-95 masks to wear while I’m contagious….
#USPol #healthcare #insurance #medicine
@UP8@mastodon.social📉 Fears that falling birth rates in the US could lead to population collapse are based on faulty assumptions
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-falling-birth-population-collapse-based.html
@adulau@infosec.exchangeImagine working in your country’s cybersecurity center or CERT, and suddenly being reassigned to border control and deportation duties. Something is clearly broken and dangerously so.
What will you do as a cybersecurity professional?
#us #cybersecurity
@jom@social.kontrollapparat.deDemocracy in the US is going to the dogs right now, and yet there are still people who fly there for a vacation or a conference with a clear conscience. It's unbelievable.
#USA
@kubikpixel@chaos.social»Frühere Beraterin Bidens — Trump fordert Entlassung von Microsoft-Managerin:
#US-Präsident #Trump geht weiter gegen politische Gegner vor. Nun fordert er den Rausschmiss von #Microsoft-Managerin Monaco. Sie war…
@elduvelle@neuromatch.social"Step back and take it in: the US is entering full authoritarian mode"
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/29/us-authoritarian-donald-trump-national-guard
@hex@kolektiva.socialWhat are you going to do when the regime falls? After calling all your friends, after the great memes, after the parties, what are you going to do to make sure it never happens again? What world should we create?
Taxing billionaires is great and all, but we could build systems where billionaires are impossible. Is hoarding wealth and using it to control people even something we should consider part of a functional and humane system? Any system where one group of people doesn't have rights means that anyone can be stripped of their rights, like has happened with all the US citizens who've been illegally detained and deported by ICE. Does the concept of "rights" that must be defended with violence, that can be stripped away by people who can exercise more violence, even make sense? Or should the bedrock of a functional system be the obligations that we have to each other and to society, that cannot be severed or taken from us, that tell us we *must* defend regardless of whether systemic oppression will impact us or not?
Americans have been so restricted by the limitations of the two party system, only able to choose between options acceptable to different sections of the capitalist class. Would we even be able to imagine what we could do if those restrictions went away?
The fall of the Berlin wall was a surprise. The fall of Assad was faster than anyone expected. One day the government of Nepal was an unrepentant oligarchy, the next it was on fire. Everything can change in an instant, faster than anyone expects. No one can predict revolutionary change. Will you be ready if the opportunity presents itself?
The US cannot be fixed. The economic system is a ponzi scheme that has been patched again and again, but has finally run out of options. Racism, sexism, and Christian nationalism are baked into the system at every level. Trump gutted the system of soft power that held the US economy together, now there is only a slow decline. Even after he's gone, the damage is done. Once we let go of how to fix something that cannot be fixed, we can start to imagine something that cannot be achieved within the current system.
This is a time of opportunity. Do not burrow so deep in terror that you miss your chance to dream.
#USPol
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca"I have made [PM Mark Carney] very popular”
"We're going to be talking about Gaza”
"We could have peace in the Middle East”
he jokes “The Merger of Canada and USA”
Carney: ‘that's not where I was going”
Carney looks bemused as The American Fascist talks about the ‘hell hole' that DC was.
he's talking about "zero" people coming through the south border.
... Carney doing his best to keep a straight face... the things that must be going through his mind as the Fascist rambles about Canada benefiting from Venezuelan boats being blown up.
#canPoli #CdnPoli #US
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Smashing 6 Million Sea Urchins with Hammers Saved a California Kelp Paradise Thanks to Volunteer Divers"
#US #USA #America #California
@smurthys@hachyderm.io @NuclearDisorder@mastodon.socialHeute vor 61 Jahren: Am 23. Oktober 1964 zündeten die #USA im Rahmen von Operation Whetstone die Atombombe "Garden". Whetstone war eine Serie von #Kernwaffentests bei der 1964/65 insgesamt 46 Bomben größtenteils im Testgebiet in
@cdonat@hostsharing.coopIf I'd be a #conspiracy theorist, I'd conclude, that the #murder of #CharlieKirk was staged by the
@michaels@mstdn.nursing.unibas.chNice overview of the role of #Nurse Scientists employed in #US #hospitals...
@erk709@social.linux.pizzaThe #US got #democracy wrong. It's not one vote per dollar, it's one vote per person.
http://talkwards.c…
@tezoatlipoca@mas.to
@Dragofix@veganism.socialRecord-breaking heat wave scorches Southeast US #UnitedStates
@markrsmith@smithtodon.orgActive shooter at Dallas ICE facility. 3 shot, shooter dead of self-inflicted shot.
#ICE #ActiveShooter #Trump #uspol
@wyri@toot-toot.wyrihaxim.us
@pre@boing.worldA lot of media today excited that US companies are "investing" in the UK with announcements timed with the visit from that wanker they elected over there.
But "investment" here means US companies buying UK land and staff and companies, right?
The whole press is celebrating more of the UK being sold to American owners. Like its a really great thing that UK workers will have American bosses and American companies will own and manage sites here.
Seems an odd thing to celebrate. I'd be happier if UK companies were repossessing US assets in this country and the country's wealth was expected to remain with UK owners.
Oh well. Expect "investment" has already meant those media companies are owned by Americans eh?
#ukpol #uspol #investment #thatWankerTheyElected
@tinoeberl@mastodon.onlineDie #Energieinfrastruktur in den #USA droht zum Bremsklotz für das Wachstum der #KI-Industrie zu werden.
Während in
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialHow the US democracy is designed to avoid representation
Right now in the US, a system which proclaims to give each citizen representation, my interests are not represented very well by most of my so-called representatives at any level of government. This is true for a majority of Americans across the political spectrum, and it happens by design. The "founding fathers" were explicit about wanting a system of government that would appear Democratic but which would keep power in the hands of rich white landowners, and they successfully designed exactly that. But how does disenfranchisement work in this system?
First, a two-party system locked in by first-post-the-post winner-takes-all elections immediately destroys representation for everyone who didn't vote for the winner, including those who didn't vote or weren't eligible to vote. Single-day non-holiday elections and prisoner disenfranchisement go a long way towards ensuring working-class people get no say, but much larger is the winner-takes all system. In fact, even people who vote for the winning candidate don't get effective representation if they're really just voting against the opponent as the greater of two evils. In a 51/49 election with 50% turnout, you've immediately ensured that ~75% of eligible voters don't get represented, and with lesser-of-two-evils voting, you create an even wider gap to wedge corporate interests into. Politicians need money to saturate their lesser-of-two-evils message far more than they need to convince any individual voter to support their policies. It's even okay if they get caught lying, cheating, or worse (cough Epstein cough) as long as the other side is also doing those things and you can freeze out new parties.
Second, by design the Senate ensures uneven representation, allowing control of the least-populous half of states to control or at least shut down the legislative process. A rough count suggests 284.6 million live in the 25 most-populous states, while only 54.8 million live in the rest. Currently, counting states with divided representation as two half-states with half as much population, 157.8 million people are represented by 53 Republican sensors, while 180.5 million people get only 45 seats of Democratic representation. This isn't an anti-Democrat bias, it's a bias towards less-populous states, whose residents get more than their share it political power.
I haven't even talked about gerrymandering yet, or family/faith-based "party loyalty," etc. Overall, the effect is that the number of people whose elected representatives meaningfully represent their interests on any given issue is vanishingly small (like, 10% of people tops), unless you happen to be rich enough to purchase lobbying power or direct access.
If we look at polls, we can see how lack of representation lets congress & the president enact many policies that go against what a majority of the population wants. Things like abortion restrictions, the current ICE raids, and Medicare cuts are deeply unpopular, but they benefit the political class and those who can buy access. These are possible because the system ensures at every step of the way that ordinary people do NOT get the one thing the system promises them: representation in the halls of power.
Okay, but is this a feature of all democracies, inherent in the nature of a majority-decides system? Not exactly...
1/2
#uspol #democracy
@annsev@troet.cafeRichard #Grenell (#USA, former ambassador to Germany) is a conceited macho, not particularly intelligent, but obsessed with power. These fifth-rate types, who suddenly see their political opportunities, prove to be particularly perfidious.
Grenell should be declared persona non grata by the EU.
People l…
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Trump admin orders dirty, expensive coal plant to stay open even longer"
#US #USA #America #FossilFuels …
@mariyadelano@hachyderm.ioUpdate: the insurance person figured out that it was the family deductible that was still $1,000 which is why insurance didn’t take more off.
But she was lovely and found me a way to get a co-pay card for Paxlovid through the manufacturer - I used it and it made the medication FREE. From $1,000 to $0.
Link for anyone else in my predicament (you gotta have private insurance to be eligible): #COVID #US #USPol #healthcare #insurance #medicine
@unchartedworlds@scicomm.xyz"these guys grew up ... surrounded by guns at home and guns in the media, indoctrinated with the idea that the fastest, most masculine way to solve a problem is by shooting it."
#USPol #violence #CharlieKirk
@hex@kolektiva.socialI think I need to clarify some shit for (white) liberals.
How many times have you wondered if someone you're talking to in an informant sent to entrap you? How many times have you or a friend of yours been hit by a car, intentionally? How many friends have been hit, or almost hit? Ever been stabbed? Know anyone who has? Has the FBI ever knocked on a friend's door? Have police ever kicked down your door? Have you ever been arrested? Pepper sprayed? Does the sound or smell or blast balls give you flashbacks? Do you ever wonder what all the CS exposure is doing to your body? How many times have you been shot or shot at? Do you wonder every day if this is the day they'll come to kill you? Would anyone in your social circle answer these questions differently?
When you vote, you risk nothing (big asterisk, but if I'm talking to you then it doesn't apply to you). What you get out of voting is exactly what you put into it. Direct action is the same.
If you aren't worried about someone murdering you, then you probably aren't actually threatening the system. That's the difference between voting, and doing something useful. If they had to murder all the liberals in order to keep going, fascism would end. If they're only murdering radicals and marginalized people, then you're just like all the "good Germans" who hated Hitler but did essentially nothing.
It's already that bad for some people. How much are you willing to risk? How many people are you willing to sacrifice for your comfort? These are the questions we're all thinking about every time you tell us to vote.
(I'm tagging this #USPol so it's easy for folks to filter out if they're already well acquaintaned with the horror. I'm not CW, because USPol is just expected to be triggering.)
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Why plastic bags will be gone from California groceries by the end of 2025"
#US #USA #America #California…
@smurthys@hachyderm.io"US to screen for ‘anti-Americanism’ in immigration applications"
Feels like "Americanism" here is a fig leaf for something.
#USA #uspol #Americanism #nationalism #figLeaf #excuses
@davidaugust@mastodon.onlineFather Larry Dowling's account of leading a Eucharistic Procession to offer Holy Communion to those held by ice in Broadview, IL (near Chicago) and being barred from doing so.
"No one had the courage to speak directly to us. No one from Homeland Security could stand in the presence of the Monstrance holding the Blessed Sacrament. No wonder. Evil is repelled, recoils in the presence of Christ."
@digitalnaiv@mastodon.social @primonatura@mstdn.social @hex@kolektiva.socialPeople keep trying to point to an event where the "right/left" political violence thing got out of hand. You cannot point to anywhere in US history where the right hasn't been murdering leftists. It has never happened.
They've been talking about civil war since they lost the last one, and most of US politics before that was just trying to prevent the first one.
There isn't a wave of right/left violence. Right wing violence has just gone unchecked for so long, and been so accepted, that now they're killing each other regularly. The Trump assassination attempts were all from the right. #CharlieKirk was killed by another fascist for not being fascist enough.
Fascists have so completely taken over that they see each other as legitimate targets because they've run out of "leftists" worth murdering. That's the story. That's what people can't wrap their heads around.
Everyone is worried about the right wing response, worries about right wing escalation, but they called for civil war over the cracker barrel logo. They're already maxing out their base. All the proud boys and other Nazis are already hired by ICE. They're also already going as hard as they can. They don't need any excuses. They have total control of everything. This bumbling mess is *the best they can do.* They call for civil war every few days.
We're not seeing a war between the left and the right. We're seeing a war between the right and the far right, where both side opportunistically punch left when they can and liberals help them justify their actions.
#USPol
@NuclearDisorder@mastodon.social @primonatura@mstdn.social @elduvelle@neuromatch.social"CDC erupts in chaos after ousted chief Susan Monarez refuses to resign"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/27/cdc-director-susan-monarez-ousted
This is the way: resistance!
@ErikJonker@mastodon.socialTrump allowed Israel to almost completely destroy Gaza, kill tens of thousands innocent civilians, now we should praise him for making "peace" on the rubble that is left. Meanwhile in his own country, democracy and the rule of law are in fast decline. The breakdown of the values the USA once stood for is almost complete. Next will be the further destruction of US economy and society, it will not be a pretty sight I am afraid.
@davidaugust@mastodon.onlineFallujah, Iraq is ~15sq mi (~25sq km) & had ~4,000 fighters US military and allies faced in 2nd Battle of Fallujah, one of fiercest fought by US this century.
Caracas Venezuela is ~300sq mi (~433sq km) & Venezuela has ~4.5 million militia now activated.
potus & kegseth must be stopped.
#USpol
@NuclearDisorder@mastodon.socialHeute vor 61 Jahren: Am 22. August 1964 zündeten die #USA im Rahmen von Operation Whetstone die Atombombe "Canvasback". Whetstone war eine Serie von #Kernwaffentests bei der 1964/65 insgesamt 46 Bomben größtenteils im Testgebiet in
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.caDepending how you want to analyze it, an even split or a majority in this small poll believe the US send its military against Venezuela directly.
😔
#usa #venezuela #war
https://mstdn.chrisalemany.ca/@chris/115155459830582839
@rettichschnidi@swiss.social @hex@kolektiva.socialOk, yeah, I'm not done processing my anger over liberals doing shit like this. So this historian sees a rise in right wing violence, sees the US government carrying out ethnic cleansing, sees a rise in white supremacist terrorism, and then says, "oh yeah... this reminds me of a time right around the 1920s. Hum... yeah, ANARCHISTS fighting the government! Yeah, that's the same thing."
FFS, IT'S THE RED SUMMER! If you want a parallel between today and some horrible time in US history, TALK ABOUT THE RED SUMMER. The point of the language of dehumanization that the right uses, the point of all the anti-black and anti-emigrant rhetoric, is that it leads to genocide. Trump already carried out an act of genocide (#USPol
@ErikJonker@mastodon.socialInteresting, "How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us."
#trump
@hex@kolektiva.socialLiberals: You have a choice. When Trump comes for you, you can buckle and comply or you can radicalize and fight harder. Decide now what you're going to do, because a lot of us will die if you decide to save yourself.
We will win in the end, with or without you. But, if you survive, you will always know which choice you made and you will have to live with it.
#USPol
@primonatura@mstdn.social @smurthys@hachyderm.io @hex@kolektiva.social @primonatura@mstdn.social @NuclearDisorder@mastodon.socialHeute vor 56 Jahren: Am 20. September 1969 testen die #USA simultan die Atombomben "Kyack-1" u. "Kyack-2". Operation Mandrel war eine Serie von 53 US-amerikanischen #Kernwaffentests, die 1969/70 hauptsächlich auf der Nevada Test Site in Nevada unterirdisch durchgeführt wurde.…
@primonatura@mstdn.social"California has a new law to prevent big grid battery fires"
#US #USA #America #California
@primonatura@mstdn.social @primonatura@mstdn.social @hex@kolektiva.socialI keep coming back to the mirror dualities of the oppressed and oppressor under authoritarianism.
The oppressed is portrayed as both weak and godlike. The stereotypes are always some variation on sloth and incompetence, but yet somehow also a menace capable of destroying the "pure" society. To use the most relevant current example, Antifa being both little femme soy boys who would always get beat up by "real men" while also being an international terrorist organization on the brink of overthrowing the US government, the unarmed presence of whom makes the heavily armed agents of ICE flee for their lives. Antifa is both having absolutely no impact on ICE, and also having such an impact on ICE that the military needs to come in to protect them. The contradiction is obvious but never seems to occur to those who hold both to be true at the same time.
But few talk about the duality of the oppressor. The sovereign throughout history has always been both a ruler above the law, sometimes even the representative or incarnation of a divine force. Yet, this same superhuman/god-man is also a baby who needs constant care. This is absolutely a through line from the very earliest records of sovereign cults to modern cult leaders, CEOs, and Trump today. Power, for these people, is expressed both as the ability to force others to enact their will and in the ability to compel others to care for them. Can any of these "men" cook? Can they fix anything themselves? They are driven everywhere, cooked for all the time, constantly protected from danger. Kings are still dressed, at least for rituals. I could dissect masculinity here, but that's a whole thing.
It is as though the drive to care for our children, who must be taught to behave within acceptable norms, is hijacked by "leaders" who demand our care and attention... even at the expense of our literal children. And recently we've seen some of those very CEOs, with LLMs and return to office demands, show that their judgment is also little better than children, making decisions while pretending to understand a subject.
The oppressed are portrayed as both god-like and impotent and are, in fact, neither. Meanwhile the rulers portray themselves only as invulnerable and are, in fact, childish in their ability to survive without constant support. Their greatest fear from the collapse of society is figuring out how to make sure people keep taking care of them.
It just keeps rattling around in my head.
#USPol
@primonatura@mstdn.social"UK and US line up string of deals to build modular nuclear reactors in Britain"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #US #USA…
@primonatura@mstdn.social @primonatura@mstdn.social"UK-US nuclear deal: what does it mean and will it really lead to a 'golden age'"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #US #USA
@primonatura@mstdn.social"By 2051, emissions from coal mining on federal lands could drop by 86%"
#US #USA #America #Emissions
@primonatura@mstdn.social @primonatura@mstdn.social @primonatura@mstdn.social"Jump in US greenhouse gas pollution pushed global emissions higher – report"
#US #USA #America #FossilFuels
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Hollywood’s Environmental Tools Make Filmmaking Green and Affordable"
#US #USA #America #Hollywood
@primonatura@mstdn.social @primonatura@mstdn.social"Washington State Protects the Old-Growth Forests of Tomorrow, Creates 77,000 Acres of ‘Legacy Forests’"
#US #USA #America #Washington
@primonatura@mstdn.social @primonatura@mstdn.social @primonatura@mstdn.social"California's home batteries are replacing gas plants and saving hundreds of millions"
#US #USA #America #California
@primonatura@mstdn.social"Wildfire smoke could kill 71,000 people per year in the US by 2050, study warns"
#US #USA #America #Wildfires
