Progressive Politics

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25415448

from #DropSiteNews
[you may get a request to sign up for free subscription]

Jack Poulson
Jan 30, 2025

What's the federal budget for sippy cups?

Corporations are the new nation state, U.S. intelligence admits

The Federal Aviation Administration’s leader stepped down on Jan. 20, months after Elon Musk demanded that he quit.

Experts fear the president will replace the fired inspectors general with loyalists who will turn a blind eye to corruption.

Drop Site published unknown details about the conditions at the secretive facility, now emerging as a centerpiece of the president's extreme anti-immigrant policy.

i sent this text to my family group chat (which includes my father). my dad is a poverty MAGA with a wild fantasy about how to better enjoy his retirement.

Psypost.org

"This is an immediate crisis for kids, for public safety, for our seniors, for our healthcare system," said Sen. Chris Murphy. "And why? Because Donald Trump is trying to seize power."

Today on TAP: Neutering the NLRB and targeting janitors, even as his billionaire backers stomp on workers’ rights

• The Trump administration is offering millions of federal workers the option to accept buyouts through a government-wide “deferred resignation” program.

Same.

• Chinese AI startup DeepSeek sparked a rout in U.S. technology stocks as its highly competitive and potentially much cheaper models stoked doubts about the billions that the big U.S. tech companies are spending on AI.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250127123358/https://www.justsecurity.org/106723/sanctuary-policies-federalism-1324/

The mainstream press failed to accurately describe the hand gesture that Elon Musk made twice at Trump’s Inauguration Day rally, setting a troubling precedent for the second Trump era.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered its Civil Rights Division to halt all ongoing litigation from former President Joe Biden’s administration and not pursue new cases or settlements, according to multiple internal memos that were obtained by various media outlets on Wednesday.

Since Oct. 7, the Israeli military has relied heavily on cloud and AI services from Microsoft and its partner OpenAI, while the tech giant’s staff embed with different units to support rollout, a joint investigation reveals.

An investigation by the University of California, Berkeley has found no grounds for canceling a controversial anti-Israel event that drew complaints from Jewish faculty, a spokesman said on Friday.

A description of the event, organized by the university's Gender and Women's Studies Department and published on its website, said it would discuss how Zionism "weaponizes" feminism to promote genocide and how the atrocities committed against Israelis on October 7, particularly rapes, were fabricated.

Imagine this you're talking to friends and you start talking about cars. Naturally you work the following statement into the conversation: "I'm never going to buy a Tesla, they have so many recalls, are unreliable, lie about their range, and have poor build quality". What you just did might matter a lot more than you think because perhaps your friends will repeat what you just said and the message spreads. What you said may also surface when it's time for them to buy a car.

Or you're talking about social media and your friend says he's tired of the content on social media. You could say, yeah I totally agree. I deleted my Twitter/X, Facebook and Instagram account. I now use Lemmy, Bluesky and Mastodon. My mental health has improved a lot after making the switch.

Now imagine this: you're talking to someone who you're very good friends with but you're never talked politics before. This can perhaps be a little risky but what if you bring up something small and innocent that could be used to gauge their views. Or just listen to their thoughts without judgement and see where they stand. Perhaps you'll find that you both agree on things you never knew you did and then you become allies and you work together to make a difference in your community.

Or most importantly if you have friends who share your political views. If you do please ask them these questions: Are you registered to vote? Is your registration up to date, active and current? Do you have a ride to get to the nearest/designated polling place? Do you know all the upcoming election dates and primaries? Sadly we need this question too: Republicans are trying to suppress your vote: do you have up to date identification and paperwork?

There's a concern that Republicans are going to try to pass more voter suppression laws in hopes of shifting the results in their favor. We can fight against this both by doing everything we can to prevent these policies from getting passed in the first place and if sadly they become law let's still win anyway despite the additional challenge. Remember people throughout history fought hard for the right to vote, the best way to preserve your rights is to exercise it. Even if it becomes harder to vote it's still imperative that you do it! Also there's not much harm in having up to date paperwork. In fact it might be beneficial for other reasons in the future.

Here's information about voter ID laws by state: https://www.usa.gov/voter-id

Here's my suggested list of actions. Hopefully you won't need to do all of these to vote but you might still find benefit to doing these things anyway because it could help you later in life.

1. Up to date voter registration. Check to make sure it's active and accurate. How do this will depend on where you live so check locally using official information from your local government for example their official website (which will typically end with .gov or (two letter state initials).gov) or calling them with their current phone number.
2. Ensure your driver's license is valid and up to date if you drive or consider alternative forms of acceptable voter ID if you don't.
3. Get a certified copy of your birth certificate
4. Apply for a passport (may also be helpful if the country were to go really bad and if there's an emergency you never know if you'll need this, also you can travel internationally which is great!)
5. Social security card. You can get a free replacement if you don't have one.

Helping your friends vote can make a big difference because they may feel empowered to help their friends too!

China is not a capitalist country. The CPP retains control of the direction of its economy. However, similar to a market economy, price signals created by the forces of supply and demand influence decisions regarding investments, production, and distribution.