I have been watching this unfold for months through twitter, listservs, and other places. Here is a way to support the people whose land is going to be fucked over by the wall. It’s not just butterflies, it’s also Native American people
😪 can confirm bulldozers were parked on the property earlier this week. Remember, this portion of the wall was already funded last year, but the feds have repeatedly violated the rights of private landowners by tresspassing and destroying vegetation even *before* they obtained legal routes to do so.
I have heard this portion of the wall was funded only because the GOP presented it as “levy wall reinforcements” designed to safeguard land from the effects of flooding. In reality, it will magnify effects of flooding, massively worsen erosion, devastate the area, and every non-flying, non-swimming animal south of the wall will drown the next time the river floods.
For those unfamiliar with Texas and our relationship with our rivers: they flood. They flood regularly. They flood massively. When it rains in Texas, the downpour is torrential, if you don’t have an umbrella, you may as well have walked fully clothed into a shower. Every river and stream with a low road crossing is accompaniedby a flood gauge, some go up to 6 feet, some go higher, and some have been completely submerged.
We get these kinds of floods several times a year. Even in Austin, there are several days a year I have to work from home because parts of the major highways are underwater. All of this rain goes into the streams, which go into the creeks, which ultimately go into one (or more) of the rivers. They all flood. They all flood regularly. You can count on it. That’s why we have things like levies.
If this wall is built, the next time the Rio Grande floods in Mission, the loss of wildlife will be catastrophic. I saw so many cute javelina cleaning up under the bird feeders. Every single one will drown.
Guys, I can’t.
These aren’t pigs. They’re their own thing. They live in packs of 50 or so and this was my first time ever seeing them and it breaks my heart thinking every single one will be dead the next time the valley gets a hard rain.
I’m planning to write up my post(s) from the trip I made last week after tomorrow night. This month is horrible.
Unpopular opinion but I feel the need to say this as election year draws closer and Democratic candidates are being announced:
in 2020, the ONLY GOAL is getting that orange sludge out of office.
That’s it. That is endgame for 2020. If you stick your head up your ass so far as to think anything is more important than that at this point, get an emergency head-ass-ectomy REAL fucking quick because we CANNOT pull another 2016.
I don’t care if the Dem nominee is someone you hate, if you’ve voted Green Party for 34 years, if your goddamn mother is on the ticket. If mama isn’t the official presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, then you DO NOT VOTE FOR HER.
2020 is about blocking another four years of nightmare hell. 2020 is about caring about other people’s realities over your “conscience” (read: online woke points). It’s about standing up for every person hurt, every person harassed, every person KILLED by the hate this piece of radioactive bile spews from every disgusting orifice.
ESPECIALLY my fellow white people better take this message to fucking heart, because WE are the ones who fucked this up, ESPECIALLY my fellow white women. You are not allowed to “vote your conscience.” You are not allowed to “weigh the options.” You are suddenly a single-issue voter, and that issue is Trump Is Evil. You are voting to evict, voting to BLOCK. If the Democratic candidate is less than ideal, you suck it the fuck up for 2020. This election is not, CANNOT be about idealism, about perfection. It’s about starting to undo four years of damage.
So from the announcement of the nominee until November 3rd, 2020, you better be all fucking in. If you don’t like their stances on certain issues, if they’re not progressive enough, if they’ve reached across the aisle too many times, worry about it November 4th. Spend the next four years pushing them left, protesting everything you don’t like, picket the fucking White House if you need to. I will be right there with you. But that starts on November 4th. Until then, we are on a straight anti-Trump train and y’all better not fucking get off it.
I hate Trump too, but why do y’all keep phrasing it like “vote against Trump instead of caring about who the other person is!!” when people could instead focus on making sure the Democrats elect the best candidate possible to go against Trump… getting Trump out of the office is not the “only goal”. The “only goal” is voting the best candidate into office. Hopefully, that will be someone who isn’t Trump since I believe America has much better to offer than him.
So, yeah, I’m not waiting until November 4th to call out a politician’s shit. Us lefties need to make sure better politicians make it to the presidential election, not blindly vote whichever way points away from Trump.
^^^
Y’all sound exactly like the republicans who voted Trump over Hillary for nothing but out of spite.
No, really you do. You see Trump as a great evil (which he isn’t, but he is a pretty shitty guy and isn’t doing a good enough job in office to justify his overall sliminess). Just like how Republicans saw Hillary in 2016. It no longer became about putting forth the most qualified figure they could and voting their conscience; it became about keeping her from office. It was no longer voting for a third party candidate even though they have a snowball’s chance in hell just because you believed they were best for the job, but because any vote that isn’t for Trump is a vote for Hillary. Which, you know, is objectively not true. A vote for a third party candidate is a vote against both of them, not for one or the other.
But I’m super duper bored, so let’s just debunk this shitty thought process thoroughly because I’m tired of illogical voters. I don’t care if we aren’t voting for the same people or the same shit—vote your conscience, not out of spite.
That’s the best way to make change guys.
The main goal for the 2020 elections isn’t to vote out Trump. I don’t want him to stay past 2020 either, but that being your sole obligation throughout the election cycle? That’s just really stupid, and a fragmented logical process. The goal for the 2020 elections, as they are for every election, is try to push for someone you think will be the best. Not just by virtue of “not being Trump,” but because you like what they stand for and what they have to offer. I’mnot even ask to keep up with the news and try to stay informed and fact check everything you hear—though, you probably should, just in general—just to look for candidates you genuinely think would do a good job. That’s your role as a voter. Don’t be like the dumbasses who voted in Trump just by virtue of him not being Hillary.
People who can vote for whomever they choose. They can even choose to vote like this. I just wouldn’t suggest it if you want actual changes to be made.
Again, I’m not getting into the Trump Did This Trump Did That debate because it’s really fucking tiresome and no one’s listening because everyone’s already got their minds made on him. Which is fine. I hated him when he first announced he was running and I still hate him now; I just don’t like people spreading misinformation. Ever. Just…try to be objective, and don’t rely solely on pathos all the time. Sure, emotions and subjectivity have their place, even in a presidential race, but don’t make wild claims about a person’s heinousness just to further your agenda. It’s a generally shitty thing to do, you’re alienating people by doing so, and it doesn’t take a genius to look through hundreds of sources who prove your claims false. You can dislike a candidate, but try to at least spread true information, even if it doesn’t always fit neatly within your narrative. Again: lies don’t make change. And neither does dehumanising people, no matter how awful they may seem (and very well may be, and in some cases, are)… especially when using purposefully emotional language to encite a purposefully emotional response. That’s propoganda, and let’s really try to avoid that shit this election cycle.
Again. Don’t tell people who they can and cannot vote for. It makes you look like the asshole and alienates people who may have originally heard your message. And, again, this line of thinking will not change anything. Vote your conscience, find someone you really believe in. You’re better than this.
You can protest right now if you want to. That’s your constitutional right as American. It’s honestly basically a civic duty. As long as you aren’t violent, inciting violence, or damaging others’ property—you can protest. Whatever you want, whomever you want, whenever you want, however you want (as long as it’s legal.) But you can also elect a candidate you don’t think you’ll have to protest. Because, you know, you actually want to change things. And you have actual beliefs and convictions and aren’t a bunch of fucking robots. Goddamn.
