Signal Boost

March 22, 2017 0 comments

Emergency New York rally March 22, 2017 at 6 p.m. #StandWithPP

Emergency rally in New York at 6:00 p.m. EST:
Rep. Dan Donovan’s Staten Island Office,
265 New Dorp Lane

PP announcement

He’s deciding people’s medical future. Talking about ~~defunding~~ Planned Parenthood and the repeal~~ing~~ of the Affordable Care Act.

He’s voting tomorrow. ~~So if you live in New York, this could be your last chance to save your medical insurance or the medical insurance of someone you know.~~

~~You could make the life of someone else easier. Raise your voice so we can all be heard.~~

~~“We are here! We are here! Don’t hurt us just because you’re powerful and we’re small to you. We are here!”~~

Guess this isn’t needed. He says he’s voting “No.”

You no longer have to be worried. He’s got your back.

Though if I were you, I’d still show up at the rally. Show your signs to the cameras, tweet the pics of cool signs and masses of peoples’ backs, and show the Republicans that Yes, the American people are concerned about affordable healthcare.

Yes, even though corporations, rich people, and ignorant people say otherwise, we would prefer to have affordable health insurance and price caps without care caps.

Yes, we would prefer to choose when, how, and if we have children. And Yes, when those children are alive, we would prefer that they be happy, healthy, educated, and protected by the same laws as their richer brethren.

Seriously, yo. The stuff that’s going on in the United States right now has me very concerned. Not just because of international incidents and the threat of war looming with Russia and North Korea. But because when it’s all said and done, we might find our country’s infrastructure and reputation ruined.

Already, rather than the easy trip to college I was hoping for, the Kid is looking at a hard road ahead. And sure, he’s smart enough that he’ll be able to get a scholarship *fingers-crossed* but if ham-fisted diplomacy results in a war, it’s likely that his is a generation of young men and women that will spend their late teens and twenties fighting in wars that never should have been started.

And that’s terrifying. Because I don’t want him to die.

November 9, 2016 0 comments

is it weird to say that I feel powerful?

There’s been a great emotional upset, and I feel a bit tired and scared, but is it weird to say that I feel powerful too? Because it’s like the rules don’t apply to me anymore.

It gives me an almost weightless feeling.

There’s lots of work to be done if we want our country to survive the upcoming troubles, but it’s okay. We’re strong. We’re going to stay strong. And when we come out the other side… we’re going to be stronger still.

The only thing I worry about is all the people dwelling in misery and despair bringing down the younger generation. There’s children that have literally known no other President than Obama. They’re not ready for an evil man in office, and with the way people have shrugged off what’s happening around the world, they’ve been kept insulated by bad jokes told by people that don’t have enough awareness to be terrified.

But they will be.

And that’s what frightens me and makes me sad. Children and teens are going to start looking around and realize what their parents and grandparents have done to them. That there was almost a country where everyone had equal rights and everyone could find their place — and it’s most likely been taken away from them.

Because laws are going to be written. Things are going to be said. Violence will happen.

And rather than being able to shrug and say “Well, we’ve got four years to live through. Another lame duck Presidency” it’s going to be “Oh shit, these assholes have rewritten ALL the laws. We’re going to be screwed for decades.” And that sucks.

Because my nephew is sad and I don’t know how to tell him it’s all right.

I don’t know how to explain why I’m so relieved that he can pass for White. That he doesn’t look Asian like me, my sister, or my brothers.

That he’s not his cousin, who is half-White, who self-identifies as White, but who looks Black.

And it sucks that at 13-years-old, he is too young to have a frame of reference for what’s happened to our country.

That racism, sexism, bigotry, and xenophobia have won the battle — but will not win the war.

Because we are strong. And we will come through stronger.

September 14, 2016 0 comments

Zika virus still not being handled #pandemic-in-progress

I love how much the Senate cares about North America and the human race:

It gives me all kinds of warm and fuzzies to think that members of our esteemed Senate would add unacceptable clauses to bills we desperately need passed IMMEDIATELY. And then would be too proud to back down and be REASONABLE.

This is a fucking zombie apocalypse/Black Death/End of the World scenario in the making.

Think about it: mosquitoes live EVERYWHERE. They breed with each other. They hide in our imported fruits and vegetables.

And they can infect people with all kinds of freaky shit. Things like Zika and even worse.

So look, Senate/Congress/Corporations/Committees/Illuminati/Illuminutty/Masters of Hip-Hop: Present the bill as it’s supposed to be, with no secret riders or underhanded tactics.

We need to get a handle on this Zika situation stat, and we need to consider what’s supposed to be done with the mosquito situation. Which means we need to get the framework in place and the funding to the scientists and labs.

And when the time comes where we need the research they have gathered to find the Cure!HailMary, there will be records and equipment already in place. (Just play Plague Inc. You’ll totally appreciate the idea of starting your medical research early if you want to stop a pandemic.)

There needs to be a continent-spanning consensus on what methods are safe to use to handle mosquitoes as well.

Otherwise people handle things themselves and mistakes get made:

And our already at-risk bee population faces needless danger due to bad decisions.

Zika is a serious health emergency, and people need to start looking at it that way. Not just because of people dying or fetuses being damaged, but because of what it shows about our ability to head-off a major pandemic.

Policy needs to be in place, and our officials need to start doing the jobs they’re being overpaid for.

September 9, 2016 0 comments

Prisoners on Strike: Stop Modern Day Slavery!

I read this article =>http://qz.com/777415/an-unprecedented-prison-strike-hopes-to-change-the-fate-of-the-900000-americans-trapped-in-an-exploitative-labor-system<= “US Prisoners are going on strike to protest a massive forced labor system”, and while the title could use a little work, I felt it needed to be shared.

I wouldn’t complain about the idea of prisoners giving something back, if I was sure that they were in prison for the crimes they committed or that they were serving fair sentences.

But with the recent upheavals in the prison system and the decades of corrupt officials taking advantage of those too poor to put up a decent legal defense, I’m not as skeptical about prisoners being kept as slaves as I might have been a few years ago. You know, back when I was young and naive and wanted to believe that human decency might actually be a real thing.

For years I’ve been of the belief that politicians were purposely writing laws to ensure the less-advantaged were branded as criminals as an easy means of subjugating citizens’ rights. You know, “You have a prison record, so now you can’t vote me out of office as I rape your community and lock your children up alongside you.”

But keeping prisoners behind bars as a means of cheap labor toiling for soulless corporations that line officials’ pockets? Yeah. I can see it.

Violent offenders need to be kept behind bars, especially those for which counseling and one-on-one therapies and medication do not work to curb their darker impulses. No one wants a child murdering rapist on the loose, and most people wouldn’t welcome a child murdering rapist to sit at their table and share a meal. That’s a common sense safety concern.

But if someone was arrested with an ounce of weed that they bought for personal use or to sell to support their poor family, does it really make sense to lock them in prison where it costs the community money to house them? Or would counseling and community service give more back? At the very least, their family doesn’t lose a valuable resource and their children aren’t left wondering why Mommy or Daddy went away.

Yet if the community is paying money to house “criminals”, and the prison is selling their labor for a profit… isn’t that just slavery with extra steps?

Because it’s easy to bitch about the forced labor camps of North Korea and China and all those OTHER not-as-good-as-our countries, but it might be worth it to give our own labor camps another look. Especially when it’s so easy for someone to have their rights taken away and no one is giving the paperwork a second glance.

Slavery is wrong.

Slavery is evil.

Slavery needs to be abolished.

And if that means paying someone more than $0.14 – 0.20 an hour and ensuring that they’re treated like human beings and not animals… That’s something we all need to be concerned about.

Because to happily buy food or wear clothes that proudly bear a “Made in the USA” tag, I need to know that I’m not profiting off the misery of other people. And to say that prisoners don’t deserve rights, that their sometimes minor or stupid crimes means that they deserve to be treated as less than human, that’s wrong.

It’s disgusting that companies are profiting off the misery of human beings. And whether the sweatshops or the fields are located in other countries or our own, it doesn’t matter.

Slavery is wrong.