Mastodawn

Gavin Volure’s Peanut Butter May 22, 2023

It’s like this: my sib Tidy just called and told me that a significant portion of the population of Austin is up in arms because Dell Children’s Hospital just shut down its entire adolescent medicine dept over fallout from this anti-gender-affirming care crap.

The only MD in the city doing trans youth medicine also happens to be, by all accounts, the best MD in the city for cis girls with other complex stuff. Both of my cis nieces with weird issues are among her patients. This poor doc just said “fuck it” and quit, she couldn’t take the relentless bashing. My nieces and countless other Austin girls are now without the medical care they need and deserve. And for what? The governor’s MAGA street cred?

My point is this: even if your kids aren’t trans, this anti-trans bullshit can and will still fuck them up.

Protecting trans kids protects ALL kids.

#ProtectTransKids

toxtethogrady May 22, 2023

@iBlame And Texas sucks because of this, and it's showing up in the "best places to live" surveys...

Gavin Volure’s Peanut Butter May 22, 2023

@toxtethogrady Texas doesn’t suck. The Texas GOP sucks.

DragonFlame May 22, 2023

@iBlame @toxtethogrady But Texans elected the Rep lawmakers, so you must understand that to the rest of the world looking on at Texas, Florida and all the trans-hate, abortion denying States these places totally suck.

Lacci May 23, 2023

@RHW
Texas has a massive amount of gerrymandering and voter suppression and they've used that to enact hate campaigns without majority support. More than once in the last 20 years Republicans gained seats in the Texas legislature while getting a smaller share of the votes than the previous election. There are factors other than what voters want that determine who's in power and in places like Texas and Florida Rs are ready to end democracy before letting anyone else win.
@iBlame @toxtethogrady

DragonFlame May 23, 2023

@Lacci @iBlame @toxtethogrady
Is it decades of capitalist corruption that has ended up with your legislature and state governments out of control?
A year ago Australia managed to get rid of a corrupt govt that was infiltrating prominent positions in all public service and controlling bodies with their candidates and so corruption multiplied and authoritarian control increased.
But, we have the advantage of compulsory voting, and even a fine for not voting. Polls are held on Saturdays to make it easy to vote multiple polling sites.
Guess you suffer from your system, and I recognise it is hard for you when your govt wants to disenfranchise you.
But how on earth did you all let Trump get so much crazy control? Are all Republicans truly so blind?

@RHW @Lacci @iBlame @toxtethogrady

It’s mostly the legacy of deeply entrenched, non-stop racism, so i guess it depends how you define “capitalism”.

If you check some of these gerrymander maps they more or less reflect a history of segregated housing, from policies like redlining (bank loans based on location and colour), or jim crow era rules about who can live where, federal and state government discrimination, and a hundred other things.

As well as australia’s electoral commission preventing excessive gerrymanders, people here aren’t always disenfranchised automatically for life if convicted of crimes. yes, Indigenous people here are imprisoned disproportionately, but in the USA punishments themselves are disproportionate, and on release people are virtually non citizens for the rest of their lives - no vote, no housing support and so on. There is a census map somewhere on line, if you look for e.g high African American population centres you discover they are actually massive prisons.

have you seen the netflix documentary “13th” ? it’s perhaps one place to start, in understanding how unrepresentative government really is in the USA, esp in the south. (just the tip of a massive iceberg)

Maude Nificent May 23, 2023

@RHW @Lacci @iBlame @toxtethogrady

impact of counting prisoners on US democracy - website

https://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/impact.html

The Problem

Counting prisoners as residents of the prison town in the Census creates big problems for state and local redistricting and for statistical research

Lacci May 23, 2023

@maudenificent
I think you're pretty much right with a couple caveats. Most formerly incarcerated people can vote again, but it's highly variable by state. Only 7 states permanently disenfranchise felons. Also Australia's justice system is ranked as one of the most punitive and unjust towards minorities justice systems in the developed world. It being less horrific than the United States justice system is definitely not a reason to not to demand massive improvements.
@RHW @iBlame @toxtethogrady

Maude Nificent May 23, 2023

@Lacci @RHW @iBlame @toxtethogrady

interesting map thanks - as i thought, its mostly southern states - i agree about australia’s “justice” system, it’s greatly in need of reform. (particularly deaths in custody, age of criminal responsibility)

instead of punishments perhaps i should have said longer sentences for crime types keep people ineligible for voting longer.
… talking about reasons people “don’t just vote for better politicians” (including criminal justice and gerrymanders)

but i do think we are (so far) lucky in terms of our electoral commission oversight of electorates, elections etc.

https://justicepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/sentencing.pdf

Lacci May 23, 2023

@maudenificent
Your electoral system is so much better than ours, it really is considered one of the best in the world, it's not just a thing people say in Australia the way some people here talk about the US system. Though the mandatory voting is polarizing among both experts and regular people who hear about it other places. I'm not really sure where to fall on it, but even if you look at it in the worst possible light it is hard to argue it has done much harm.
@RHW @iBlame @toxtethogrady

Lacci May 23, 2023

@maudenificent
The level to which both our criminal justice systems are cruel and racist is astounding. Individual Black people in the US are only slightly more likely to actually commit a crime than white people (that's mostly because crime is higher among poorer people and things black people do more often are more likely to be criminalized) but black people are imprisoned at more than 3x the rate of white people.
@RHW @iBlame @toxtethogrady

Lacci May 23, 2023

@maudenificent
And indigenous people in Australia actually have an even higher rate of incarceration than Black Americans, and it's 9x that of whites in Australia. Though most prisoners in Australia can legally vote even from prison (I think only people with more than a 3 year sentence are disenfranchised) it's still incredibly devastating to individuals and communities. :(
@RHW @iBlame @toxtethogrady

Maude Nificent May 23, 2023

@Lacci @RHW @iBlame @toxtethogrady

all of this ... i think i became interested in USA because (apart from dominating popular culture) its older and more has been written about how the current state of affairs evolved, making it easier to understand what we have here - and our political parties love to import readymade policy even though a lot of it sux

it's all appalling in terms of what we tolerate for other people

Lacci May 23, 2023

@maudenificent
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the policies were imported from the US to Australia too. That has happened with indigenous policies and racial minority policies. The Nazi's even borrowed a bunch of major elements of their race laws from the US, especially the Jim Crow south. Though they thought some of them were too extreme to work in Germany.
@RHW @iBlame @toxtethogrady

Maude Nificent May 24, 2023

@Lacci @RHW @iBlame @toxtethogrady

and a lot of the laws for apartheid were modelled on the queensland aus system of Aboriginal "protection"

uk, us, and aus have in last few decades shared some policies -not just on matters of race, though poc always bear the worst impact of capitalism latest version

it's all rather mind-blowing