Milk's Blog

For your daily dose of something you didn't know you needed.

[junk-thunder]

tickle-me-down Elmonomics

[afloweroutofstone]

Only 32% of Americans agree that “the U.S. should support Israel,” down from 41% last month. They are now fewer than those saying “the U.S. should be a neutral mediator,” which rose from 27% to 39%.

Americans oppose sending weapons to Israel, 43%-31%.

68% agree that “Israel should call a ceasefire and try to negotiate,” including 3/4ths of Democrats and half of Republicans.

Reuters/Ipsos, November 2023

[apas-95]

ultimately, yes, in any violent conflict, excesses will be carried out. the degree to which these excesses are carried out depends on both the general level of political development of the masses acting spontaneously, as well as the political character of the organised vanguard of the conflict. as communists, we can recognise that while decolonisation is good in any case, a national liberation movement lead, principally, by the workers movement will be both more effective and carry out fewer excesses than one led by simple bourgeois nationalists. we should, in the process of our own national struggles, recognise every excess carried out as our own failure, as a failure of our own communist organisations to properly develop and lead.

all this being said, the fact that colonial and imperialist forces purposefully suppress communist organisations, and preferentially give non-secular, bourgois nationalist groups a leading position in the movements against them (because they recognise the greater efficacy and danger of the worlers movement) has a certain amount of irony to it. they self-select those fighters for national liberation most likely to carry out all its excesses against them, then cry at the atrocity.

[runcibility]

"BREAKING: We just filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint, calling for an investigation into Mastercard’s policies discriminating against online sex workers."

YOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

[rainydayreflections]

Look, I don't care what you think about porn - you should still be supporting the ACLU in this. Because it meant that EVERY WEBSITE had to make sure no one was selling art that ANYONE called sexy, or risk being unable to process credit cards.

And enforcement was completely haywire. One person might get their account blocked because a bra strap showed, while another person showed closeups of genatilia with no problem. No one has EVER came up with a way to moderate this in a cost-effective way, so it is all based on user complaints and AI - and both overwhelmingly target minority artists. It is pretty easy for male-female porn to sneak by unreported, but two guys kissing fully clothed? Or a black swimsuit model showing a bit more cleavage than some asshole thought was appropriate?

And of course big name movie and game companies could include all sorts of sexy content in mainstream media while even a hint of it got the little independent guys banned.

On top of that, a lot of EDUCATIONAL material got taken down. Want to know what different STDs look like? How to treat an injury to the groin?

A lot of ancient art got blocked too. A lot of cultures - including most of Europe for a long time! - don't have the nudity taboos modern America has, and a lot of the best, most technically skilled and historically important art has - gasp! - nipples bared and cocks out. For most of history, that was not a big deal.

It is still extraordinarily easy to access porn, so the ban did nothing except make it harder for independent artists to survive, in every form of media, and make it more difficult for people to check the health of their bodies.

(Last but not least, I am of the opinion that it is very healthy for people to know what all sorts of different bodies look like, and sexual desire is perfectly natural and does not need to be hidden like it is shameful. I know that is controversial. But even if you think people should never see anyone naked except their wife or husband, it should still be very obvious that this policy did a lot of harm and zero good.)

[animate-mush]

Shitty Movie Details:

In Renfield (2023) Rebecca learns how to make a protective circle from wiccan tumblr. This wrongly implies that tumblr has a usable search function

[saywhat-politics]

[ceevee5]

[parkchanwoohoo]

This is so funny dkfjdkfjkffj whaaaat the FBI can come after us??

[prettyasapic]

Every person need to be taught disability history

Not the “oh Einstein was probably autistic” or the sanitized Helen Keller story. but this history disabled people have made and has been made for us.

Teach them about Carrie Buck, who was sterilized against her will, sued in 1927, and lost because “Three generations of imbeciles [were] enough.” (A decision which still has not been reversed)

Teach them about Judith Heumann and her associates, who in 1977, held the longest sit in a government building for the enactment of 504 protection passed three years earlier.

Teach them about all the Baby Does, newborns in 1980s who were born disabled and who doctors and parents left to die without treatment, who’s deaths lead to the passing of The Baby Doe amendment to the child abuse law in 1984.

Teach them about the deaf students at Gallaudet University, a liberal arts school for the deaf, who in 1988, protested the appointment of yet another hearing president and successfully elected I. King Jordan as their first deaf president.

Teach them about Jim Sinclair, who at the 1993 international Autism Conference stood and said “don’t mourn for us. We are alive. We are real. And we’re here waiting for you.”

Teach about the disability activists who laid down in front of buses for accessible transit in 1978, crawled up the steps of congress in 1990 for the ADA, and fight against police brutality, poverty, restricted access to medical care, and abuse today.

Teach about us.

[scurvgirl]

I haven’t seen this on my dash so here it is. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill codifying same-sex marriage and it is now going to the Senate where there really is an actual chance of it passing. Sure, there are assholes who won’t support it, but there are Republican senators willing to support it and we need their support to get this passed. If you live in a state with a Republican senator, please call the senate office telling them that as a constituent, you support same-sex marriage and the Respect for Marriage Act.

The following senators are reported to be undecided, if one of these senators is yours, CALL!!!

Richard Burr, North Carolina

Roy Blunt, Missouri

Mike Braun, Indiana

Joni Ernst, Iowa

Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming

Rand Paul, Kentucky

Mitch McConnell?, Kentucky (yeah, I’m shocked the evil undead gizzard demon is in the undecided category as well but…might as well pressure the fucker)

Mitt Romney, Utah 

Mike Rounds, South Dakota (specifically Mr. Rounds is quoted as acknowledging difference between a religious marriage and a legal one, go ahead and specify that you support granting couples the legal rights and protections that are given with a legal marriage)

Rick Scott, Florida 

Dan Sullivan, Alaska (notably, Mr. Sullivan is quoted to recognize and respect the existing Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage! Pressure this man!!)

John Thune, South Dakota

Patt Toomey, Pennsylvania

Tommy Tuberville, Alabama

Todd Young, Indiana

This information was gathered from CNN on 7/21/22.

For clarification: Same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states right now based on the 2015 Supreme Court ruling. But, with the court standing as it is and with Roe being taken down, codifying same-sex marriage in law would mean that the Supreme Court would have a much, MUCH harder time stripping away the right. This is important. Marriage as a legal binding is critical to allowing spouses to visit each other in the hospital, make medical decisions, share assets, adopt and form families, and more. We need TEN Republicans to support the bill, so far there are FIVE likely supporters - we need AT LEAST FIVE MORE.

Please reblog this!!!

[hornykylo]

[kristiemewisstan]

They say empires crumble every 250 years, so happy 246th anniversary to the USA.

[tired-fandom-ndn]

Anyway.

For those of you aren't aware and aren't involved in NDN circles, the Supreme Court just declared that tribal territories and reservations are part of states and are under state jurisdiction, including in regards to charging someone and putting them on trial in state courts for crimes related to the tribe (as opposed to this being left up to tribal courts), undoing decades of precedent for the separation of tribal and state governments.

In a few months, the Supreme Court is also going to be giving a verdict on whether or not the Indian Child Welfare Act, the only thing keeping indigenous children with their families and communities instead of being "adopted" (trafficked) to white Christian families at every chance, is unconstitutional. This act is also dependent on the belief that tribes are sovereign nations and that giving our children to people outside of our tribes is akin to the US government taking Canadian children in the Canadian foster system and trying to adopt them out to American families.

If the ICWA falls, we're going to see a modern Sixties Scoop, with Native children being stolen from their tribes and families and cultures and assimilated into white Christian society. This is not only traumatizing for the children and their families, it's also a form of cultural genocide that has been used against us before and has devastating effects.

There are family members I never knew because they disappeared into the foster system as children.

This is the beginning of what's going to be wave after wave of attacks on indigenous sovereignty and tribal governance. The Supreme Court, even with a Democratic majority, has historically decided against upholding indigenous sovereignty and tribal protection. We're seeing genocide and forced assimilation become federal policy again.

[cottoncandysecretlair]

U.S. Supreme Court expands state power over Native American tribes

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday dramatically increased the power of states over Native American tribes and undercut its own 2020 ruling

To be clear, the court today holds that Indian country within a state's territory is part of a state, not separate from a state," Kavanaugh wrote in a decision that scholars of Native American law said was a major departure from longstanding precedent.

Just to reinforce the reality of this, this isn't some small potatoes, only once in a while relevant ruling. This affects the sovereignty of Native lands.

Not sure what I can say aside from the fact that this shit is disgusting.

[ryan-sometimes]

As a Jewish person I ask- where is religious freedom for non-Christians in this new post-Roe era? Judaism tells us that our bodies are sacred and that life begins at birth. It tells us that a person should choose their own life when a pregnancy is endangering them. Some of us even believe that in life-endangering circumstances, abortion is mandatory in order to save the parent's life. About 83% of American Jews support abortion being legal in all/most cases, more than any other religious group. Judaism tells us that we need to do everything we can in order to preserve our own lives.

Where's OUR religious freedom? Does the US Supreme Court truly value religious freedom, or just Christian freedom?

[mango-nectars]

Yeah, it’s time for them to go

[mango-nectars]

This is a blatant act of violent colonialism that undos decades of legal precedent that protected the civil rights of Native Americans. This is an unspeakable and deeply violent tragedy.

[dentiloquist]

No matter how much Osmosis Jones yaoi you draw it still takes place inside Bill Murray.

[clownsnake]

this is like seeing the tip of an iceberg drift past me, & i know theres some weird shit at the bottom of that iceberg but im just not going to make myself look any deeper than the tip today. thank you for this glimpse into your world op

[carouselcometh]

Hey babes do you want to hear a thought I had today about Riddler

[carouselcometh]

Do you think he behaved like that because he was in the orphanage with Stuart Little and someone picked a mouse over him