Heās right and these policies are shown to work in other places too. Reduce artificial scarcity and related stress and people do better. I hope Dems pass major bills even if orange vetoes them and they canāt get a supermajority, they must try. If only everyone understood how well healthy policies work where they are, even public housing can work when done right, but when itās sabotaged and underfunded by maga, and done wrong it fails.
Q: If we want public housing to be a successful investmentāwhere units stay in good shape, tenants thrive, and taxpayer dollars are respectedāwhat are the three most critical policies we should implement to prevent the failures of the past (like Pruitt-Igoe) and replicate the successes of places like Vienna or Singapore?
we must enact a 5% wealth tax on billionaires
ā¦
Elon MuskĀ and his billionaire friends have poured a record-breaking $2 billion into the recent election. That is absurd.The American people want Congress to overturnĀ Citizens United, abolishĀ super PACs, and establish public funding of elections
Thatās actually a really good idea.
Billionaires like Musk should be forced to fund elections, but the funding should go to a general fund thatās available to all candidates who are not millionaires
but the funding should go to a general fund thatās available to all candidates who are not millionaires
Exactly.
Jimmy Savile and Margaret Thatcher perfectly demonstrated why you shouldnāt rely on the wealthy funding things for charity. It gives them tons of influnce over what theyāre funding compared to having the government tax the rich and direct the money where it needs to go.
Those 2 used that strategy to tear apart British social services and literally led to the rape of thousands of people
I need Bernie to punch Schumer in the jaw.
I need Bernie to be the next Senate Majority Leader.
Lmao
Oh, Iād pay to watch that PPV. Cage match!
Bring back the Whitehouse redneck octagon!
I watched the video. He pretty much mentioned every major thing that needs addressed and gave a solution to most of the issues.
This is why Iām also a big AOC supporter.
Bernie is old . He could go at any moment. AOC is like his apprentice.
Next best option.
If you think Bernie is the best we have, than you have to acknowledge that AOC is next in line after him.
She should be speaker. Although Iād be okay with Bernie for now.
And AOC in 2 years. Misogyny wonāt keep her from winning. People want someone who will make a stand.
These midterms have proven that.
Plenty of women won seats. Plenty of brown people won seats.
The people who wouldnāt vote for a woman wouldnāt be voting for a Democrat anyway.
No point in placating the opposition.
I want someone who will actually go after the Epstein criminals. And to be completely honest, I canāt trust a male president to do that.
Aoc is in the house and Bernie is in the Senate.
Yeah I definitely thought AOC was a senator. Welp.
Thanks for correcting me.
I mean to be fair Iām not in their state. But yeah I should have known that.
I was waiting for the quote from Sanders, but then I realized heās the author of this whole piece.
Since when does Bernie Sanders write opinion pieces for Common Dreams? Huh
Speaking ofā¦ Bernie Sanders would make an EXCELLENT speaker.
My vote ā Bernie Sanders ā ā
Iād rather he stay a Senator.
Iād rather he be the Speaker of the house, the majority senate leader and the president at the same time.
do you WANT the man to have another heart attack??
That man is peak health and virility and I am once again asking him to run the country.
Majority leader Sanders
Does he technically count as part of the majority? Heās an Independent.
Yes. The majority of voters hate the majority of Republicans and Democrats.
The best part about politics is that nothing is ever enough and we always have to keep fighting.
Oh wait, no, thatās the worst.
Edit: Politics is like my first marriage.
Dude, the orange turd and most of his cronies are still going to be in office in January. Of course itās not just going to be easy
Thatās the point: Itās never easy. Even if Dems had all three branches theyād be arguing with each other and weād all be yelling on the Internet because if the wrong lizard gets elected the world is going to end.
I curse you to someday argue with young people about whether we should declare victory once climate change is solved, or keep going to engineer a Risa-like perfect climate.
Ugh. I hate the tropics. Having that everywhere would suck
If it was ever enough, we would get complacent and society would begin to stagnate, and in fifty years we would be the boomers yelling at the clouds about the good ole days while our civil infrastructure crumbles around us due to neglect, and our grandkids beg us to hand over the political reins so that they can build an economy with entry-level jobs.
So think of it this way: itās a good thing that the fight is never over.
False. Leisure is wonderful and being angry all the time gives me ulcers.
We donāt have to be angry all the time to keep up the fight. And we donāt have to wait until some mythical complete and final victory before we can enjoy some leisure.
We need to find a balance because itās a marathon, not a sprint. Rather, itās a long-distance trek. We go the pace we can maintain, and we rest when we need to. Itās the only way we can keep it up long enough to get to where weāre going.
So celebrate the little achievements all along the way. Take time to experience joy in life. These are the things that will fuel you for the journey ahead (and protect you from ulcers).
But donāt stop fighting just because you reach a hilltop and say āthis is good.ā The journey never ends, and even a tortoise can catch a hare if it stops moving forward for too long.
See, Iām totally the type to find a nice hilltop and sit there.
Thatās my five year plan.
And if we donāt have to be angry and stressed and never have any fun, why is everything I see telling me the opposite? If Iām not angry, am I not paying attention?
Letās at least pick a better hilltop than this one before we sit there for five years. This oneās still too close to The Wastes, not even properly out of them yet.
It looks like there may be some better hills ahead, letās see what we can view from atop the next one, then we can decide where to sit.
And if we donāt have to be angry and stressed and never have any fun, why is everything I see telling me the opposite?
Um, congrats, you now see the machine clearly for what it is. It sucks your lifeforce and produces misery as a byproduct while generating exorbitant wealth for the people in the penthouse corner.
If Iām not angry, am I not paying attention?
If youāre paying attention, you certainly will get angry at times. But anger didnāt evolve to be a constant. Youāll burn yourself out that way.
Acknowledge your anger when it comes, channel it to good use if you can. But let it go when its moment passes. No need to hold onto it, there will be plenty more of it later when you need it again.
Go for a stroll, breathe some fresh air, spend an hour just staring at a tree. If youāre really paying attention, youāll find thereās a lot more to life than only things to be angry about. There are so many things to appreciate too. Things worth protecting, and preserving.
Thatās what I mean by balance. Reality is a hodgepodge. Donāt treat it as monochrome.
This was not helpful. Itās exactly what my therapist said.
š„ø
Itās so exhausting, it makes me feel like I can never take an off-day for my mental health if I want things to get better. fuuuck.
Yes, exactly.
Because I grew up with good parents Iāve been worrying about shit I canāt control for most of my life, and if Iām ever able to get away from it - which today is impossible - I feel guilty for not being informed.
It feels impossible to have a good mental well being in this state when I feel like I need to worry about stuff I canāt control
And even worse, you feel like not worrying makes you a bad person.
This thread made me feel less alone so thanks for that.
it doesnāt help when certain performative types try to guilt you into worrying.
like, yes the world is shit, we know this, i hear you, iām exhausted can i please have one day of rest to recalibrate for the next one?
Can I get the last 30 years back?
You can and should.
A little deliberate compartmentalisation can be healthy. If you canāt make yourself forget for a day, try hours or even minutes. Set yourself some time in which if you think of these things you say to yourself ānot nowā.
It doesnāt help that so many people I see on Instagram and the likes and elsewhere want instant gratification from everyone, like they demanded an IMMEDIATE response from people and it was never enough for them :/
I know, letās just have computers run the world! Surely then we will have a peaceful, stable society!
I donāt trust computers because they were made by people.
Nonsense, computers are pure logic! Nothing can possibly go wrong!
You stop fighting. You lose.
What a stupid game.
Alt text:
A five-panel manga showing Mikasa and Eren as children, being accosted by a bandit. The first panel shows Mikasa with a stunned expression, and a dialogue box saying merely āā¦!!ā. The second panel shows Eren being choked by the bandit as he tells Mikasa desperately to fight. The third panel shows Mikasa still stunned and nervous. The fourth panel shows Eren going on as the bandit continues to choke him while cussing him out. In two dialogue boxes, Eren tells Mikasa āIf we donāt win, we die.ā āIf we win, we live.ā The fifth panel shows Mikasa wide-eyed as the realization dawns on her.
Alt text:
In two large, vertical panels, Erenās face and Mikasaās are shown side-by-side. Erenās shows a desperate expression, while Mikasaās remains wide-eyed. The two panels are united by one dialogue box in which Eren tells Mikasa āIF YOU DONāT FIGHT, WE CANāT WIN.ā
Just rolling things back to 2024 is going to be a hard road. Reversing what Doge did is imposdible. Getting rid of tariffs while Trump is in office is too. In fact, the easiest thing to do is to end the Iran war.
Funny thing because thatās the seemingly possible thing Iām most bearish on. Itās of course trivial to have all Democrats vote for the war to end, but you have centrists in there who are going to balk at Iranās terms. Status quo ante bellum is impossible, so the question is what kind of agreement you can get both Iran and most Democratic congresspeople to accept, and my guess is that itās going to take a while to hammer that out.
And at that point where the Centrist balk, all them what their plan is for victory. Put them on record as having none.
āCentristsā need to be shown for what they are. Tools of the MIC.
Oh yeah my point isnāt that itās impossible, but that this is one thing the centrists will need to be pushed hard on before they do.
Sometimes i wonder what would have been if Bernie wouldnāt have been blackballed. I feel like we would at least not be as shit of a nation as we are now because Trump would have never happened.
If you look at his positions over the course of his career, he is damn near always on the right side of history.
The man literally marched alongside MLK Jr.
The US would be the best country in the world. Free university, free healthcare, great jobs, and something closer to democracy (but probably not there yet)
Republican voters need to seriously and intimately understand the negative consequences of unrestrained conservative policies before any real change is possible. You could argue that we arenāt there yet but itās certain that a lot more get it now than did before Trump. We wouldnāt have had that to nearly the same degree without two Trump presidencies.
In fact, the scariest part of this whole situation is that the narcissism of Donald Trump is the only thing separating us from living in a permanent fascist hellscape. If someone even a little bit more tactful had been in charge weād be absolutely fucked. I donāt think Bernie could have prevented that without the support heās gained from all of Trumpās completely unhinged bullshit.
Hear that, Americans? We did the Accelerationism. It was accelerated. Acceleration done. Now itās time to move on to leftist ideas.
Republican voters need to seriously and intimately understand the negative consequences of unrestrained conservative policies before any real change is possible.
How so? While conservative stupidity was important in getting such a massive blue turn, itās not like thatās the only way for progressives to win.
On Tuesday, Trump told us to vote as if he were on the ballot. And that is exactly what the American people did.
Together, we stood up to authoritarianism and a president who does not believe in the Constitution or the rule of law. And we won.
With Democratic control over the Senate and the House, we will nowāfinallyābe able to hold Donald Trump accountable.
The American people have had enough. They are demanding real change and bold policies that will dramatically improve their lives.
That is a big deal. But as important as it is, it is not enough. We have got to do more.
The only good thing about this article is that I get to read it in Bernieās voice. Everything else is crushingly depressing. Things can get better, but itās a slog. Never give up.
Or you can listen to Bernie himself.
