here are the illuminated cities at the center of me

attracted to pretty things and pretty people and pretty ideas and pretty words and — let's be real, i'm here for poetry and the captain america movies

[youngbadmanbrown-deactivated201]

Earlier I called up the offices of several state senators

I spoke to several staffers and asked if their bosses planned to join the growing list of senators voicing their opposition to Steve Bannon being on White House staff

Do you know what one of them asked me?

“Are you keeping a list of senators who don’t speak out?”

We can put pressure on these officials.

Organize an event, get some friends together, order a pizza for lunch and start making calls.

Call their state offices. And then call their DC offices.

Don’t send an email. Don’t write a letter. Call.

And if they say nothing, put them on a list. We will remember who they are and what they didn’t do.

[errorschacha]

Do this, CALL, and remember that Republican senators can absolutely be worked on, too. There’s already blowback against Bannon from some more old school conservatives.

This is my own short script, in case anyone wants it:

Hi, I’m phoning to urge Senator [NAME] to speak out against Steve Bannon’s unacceptable appointment as President-elect Trump’s top advisor. Bannon is an open and proud promoter of bigotry, including explicit neo-Nazi ideology, and clearly does not belong in any President’s administration. Where and when, if it’s not yet released, can constituents see Senator [NAME]’s statement condemning Bannon and this appointment?

(If you get resistance, ask where/when constituents can see the Senator’s statement regarding why it is acceptable for a President’s top advisor to be a proud promoter of bigotry, including explicit neo-Nazi ideology, because this isn’t an issue that can be ignored.)

[potatonaught]

Use sites like http://whoismyrepresentative.com Or do a quick search for [your state] representative/ senator. They likely have website with their number listed.

[thewinterotter]

Oh my god thank you so much, I have such HORRIBLE phone anxiety but with folks providing scripts like this to help me know what to say to be most effective, the whole thing gets an awful lot easier.

[under-the-moonlight-tower]

The We’re His Problem Now Calling Sheet (Google doc) is an amazing resource for issue-specific scripts, tips and strategies, and contact information! A mind-boggling amount of work has gone into the sheets so roll your sleeves up and do some good.

[reliablesuggestion]

You are not bad for going back into the closet or not wearing your hijab or presenting as your assigned gender in the coming weeks. You are still deserving respect and you are still worthy of love. Your physical safety comes first.

[maeril]

[coelasquid]

maeril:

Hi everyone! This is an illustrated guide I made as part of my co-admining work at The Middle Eastern Feminist on Facebook! It will be published there shortly.  The technique that is displayed here is a genuine one used in psychology - I forgot the name and couldn’t find it again so if you know about it, feel free to tell me! Some could say: “Yes but you can use that technique for instances of harassment other than Islamophobic attacks!”, and my reply is: Sure! Please do so, it also works for other “types” of harassment of a lone person in a public space!! However I’m focusing on protecting Muslims here, as they have been very specific targets lately, and as a French Middle Eastern woman, I wanted to try and do something to raise awareness on how to help when such things happen before our eyes - that way one cannot say they “didn’t know what to do”!  I’d like to insist on two things: 1) Do not, in any way, interact with the attacker. You must absolutely ignore them and focus entirely on the person being attacked! 2) Please make sure to always respect the wishes of the person you’re helping: whether they want you to leave quickly afterwards, or not! If you’re in a hurry escort them to a place where someone else can take over - call one of their friends, or one of yours, of if they want to, the police. It all depends on how they feel! For my fellow French-speakers: I will translate it in French and post it on my page as soon as I can :) Please don’t hesitate to share this guide as it could push a lot of people to overcome bystander syndrome!! Lots of love and stay safe!

Every single time I have ever been in a situation where someone (or myself) was being harassed and I didn’t act fast enough to do something about it, I left with a permanent blemish on my conscience that spurned me into action when similar situations came up in the future. This is great advice for a way to interject into a situation and quantifiably improve someone’s day. Take it from someone who’s made it through about a third of an average human lifespan, you will regret any situation you had the opportunity to do something and didn’t.

[kaijutegu]

Hate crimes jumped up more than 40% in Britain after Brexit. Please don’t let that happen here. If you see something, say something.

[hoenn]

Ms. Marvel #5, by G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona

[sarahexplosions]

[Good is not a thing you are.  It’s a thing you do.]

[anti-capitalistlesbianwitch]

The process begins with the individual woman’s acceptance that American women, without exception, are socialized to be racist, classist and sexist, in varying degrees, and that labeling ourselves feminists does not change the fact that we must consciously work to rid ourselves of the legacy of negative socialization.

bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (via she-bangin)

[a-nakins]

#america

[wifihunters]

hey but 

shoutout to everyone who got up this morning and went to work or class, or got their kid up, or had to do the grocery shopping while everything was falling to pieces. 

you all did great. whatever you did to get through the day, even if you broke down, you did great. everyone who couldn’t is no less for it, but to every service worker with no sick days and every employee trying to pretend like customer service or routine meant a thing–you did great. 

you are very brave, and so strong, and you deserve whatever rest you can find. 

[talesofthestarshipregeneration]

ya’ll are gonna stop pretending white women didnt cause this too.

[colorschanging]

53% of us voted for him

more than half voted for the man who said to grab em by the pussy

good job, white ladies. this one’s on us

[beeishappy]

TDS | 2016.11.08 | 25 seconds of encouragement with Trevor Noah

[elithien]

After reading Chris Evans’ tweet I just… I just couldn’t anymore. To all my American friends, please be strong and keep fighting. My heart is out to all of you.

[yahoonewsphotos]

Protests after Donald Trump’s victory

As Donald Trump took the stage at the Hilton in Manhattan to deliver his presidential acceptance speech early Wednesday morning, protesters from New York to California took to the streets.

See FULL STORY by Caitlin Dickson /Yahoo News

Photos: (from top) Noah Berger/Reuters (2), Mark Kauzlarich/Reuters, Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

See more images of anti-Trump protests on Yahoo News

[bimine]

YES BITCHES

[buzzfeed]

[x]

[chonce]

#NotMyPresident

The electoral college does not vote until December 19th. We have 40 days.

What does this mean?

Right now, the presidential election results are only a PROJECTION of the election outcome. They are PRELIMINARY RESULTS. A candidate still needs to earn 270 electoral votes to win. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, which means that more than 50% of the voters wanted her for president. The electoral college shouldn’t guarantee an override of the public’s opinion– and it doesn’t have to.

There are 21 states that do NOT restrict which candidate the electors vote for. Out of these 21, Hillary lost the following:

As you can see, these states are worth 166 electoral votes. As it currently stands, Hillary Clinton is projected to receive 232 votes. Trump is projected to win 306. This means that 37 votes need to be taken away from Trump to bring him down to 269. Hillary Clinton needs 38 votes ADDED to win 270. These electoral voters can also abstain, which means that they can refuse to vote for either candidate. If 37 of the voters within these states abstain then no candidate will have reached the required 270. In this case, the vote would be taken to the House.

Trump won Pennsylvania, a state that typically votes blue, by less than 100,000 votes. While it is highly unlikely to get all 20 electoral voters to cross party lines and vote democrat, it also isn’t impossible to convince a few of them to be “faithless electors.” We only need to convince 38 out of the 166. That is 23%. There are SIXTEEN states we need to focus our attention on.

A move like this would be unprecedented. However, as we all saw on November 8th, odds don’t guarantee reality. Trump had a less than 20% chance of winning, yet given the circumstances, enough people came together and made it happen. We can make this happen. 

Ask yourself this: What do we have left to lose? We can stay complacent and accept that this country will be run by a racist, sexist, islamophobic, homophobic, ablest bigot, or we can at least try. 

How?

SPREAD THE WORD. Trend #NotMyPresident to let people know that we do not accept being led by a man who does not care about our wellbeing. Email your professors, email the dean of your colleges. The last thing a university wants is negative press. Millenials can take a stand, but that doesn’t mean we have to be the only ones. Church-led events helped bring a lot of disillusioned voters to the polls. Spread the word in any way possible, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or even in person. Stage a peaceful protest. Hand out flyers. Let the people around you know that you don’t accept this man as your leader when he won’t even accept you as a citizen with your designated rights.

These 166 people need to face the consequences of electing this man. 

Do this for the people who couldn’t vote. Do this for the people who live in the very real fear of being deported. Do this for the people who will have to face the rise in hate crimes. Do this for the people who have a very real possibility of losing their rights. Do this for the people who will no longer be able to afford necessities. 

[chonce]

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Is this possible?

Yes, I wouldn’t have made the post without doing my research. Read the following paragraphs, taken from archives.gov:

Are there restrictions on who the Electors can vote for?

There is no Constitutional provision or Federal law that requires Electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their states. Some states, however, require Electors to cast their votes according to the popular vote. (The 16 states listed above do NOT restrict their electors to this rule.) These pledges fall into two categories—Electors bound by state law and those bound by pledges to political parties.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution does not require that Electors be completely free to act as they choose and therefore, political parties may extract pledges from electors to vote for the parties’ nominees. Some state laws provide that so-called “faithless Electors” may be subject to fines or may be disqualified for casting an invalid vote and be replaced by a substitute elector. The Supreme Court has not specifically ruled on the question of whether pledges and penalties for failure to vote as pledged may be enforced under the Constitution. No Elector has ever been prosecuted for failing to vote as pledged.

SOURCE: https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/electors.html

Can Hillary still receive votes from the electoral college even though she’s conceded?

Think about it, Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election. All of the electoral voters didn’t immediately vote for President Obama the second he conceded. The election still ended up being 332 votes to 206. Not 538 unanimous votes for Barack Obama.

“For starters, it doesn’t matter if a losing candidate concedes, as far as the Electoral College process goes, according to Amy Bunk, director of legal affairs and policy at the Office of the Federal Register, among other experts.”

SOURCE: https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2016/10/20/can-losing-presidential-candidate-actually-challenge-election-results/s42xw8h3pcwFcXx7rsS14I/story.html

Conceding does not take a candidate’s name off of the ballot that the electoral voters see. In the past, “faithless electors” have voted for the projected losing candidate, or even voted third party. 

SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector#List_of_faithless_electors

Concession really only means acceptance of the PROJECTED outcome. This does not mean that the actual outcome cannot be different from the projected outcome. Please keep this in mind.

[chonce]

HERE ARE THE ELECTORS YOU CAN BE CONTACTING

ARIZONA (9 Electors): J. Foster Morgan of Glendale, Walter Begay Jr. of Kayenta, Bruce Ash of Tucson, Sharon Giese of Mesa, James O’Connor of Scottsdale, Jerry Hayden of Scottsdale, Robert Graham of Phoenix, Edward Robson of Phoenix, Carole Joyce of Phoenix, Alberto Gutier of Phoenix, Jane Pierpoint Lynch of Phoenix

ARKANSAS (6 Electors): Jonathan Barnett, Jonelle Fulmer, Keith Gibson, Tommy Land, John Nabholz, Sharon R. Wright

GEORGIA (16 Electors): Not Listed, previous reports of a likely faithless elector

IDAHO (4 Electors): Layne Bangerter, Caleb Lakey, Jennifer Locke, Melinda Smyser

INDIANA (11 Electors): Stephanie Beckley, Jamestown; Daniel Bortner, Bedford; Laura Campbell, Carmel; Jeff Cardwell, Indianapolis; Donald L. Hayes, Jasper; Randall Kirkpatrick, Ligonier; Ethan E. Manning, Indianapolis; Macy Kelly Mitchell, Indianapolis; Edwin J. Simcox, Muncie; Fishers Kevin Steen, Muncie; Chuck Williams, Valparaiso

IOWA (6 Electors): Not Listed

KANSAS (6 Electors): Not Listed

KENTUCKY (8 Electors): Not Listed

LOUISIANA (8 Electors, includes alternates): Chris Trahan, Candy Maness, Lloyd Harsh, Jennifer Madsen, Charles Buckels, Christian Gil, Louis Avalone, Constance Diane Long, Kay Kellogg Katz, Verne Breland, Lennie Rhys, Glenda Pollard, Garret Monti, Scott Wilfong, John Batt, Raymond Griffin

MISSOURI (10 Electors, missing 2): Tim Dreste, Jan DeWeese, Hector Maldonado, Sherry Kuttenkuler, Casey Crawford, Tom Brown, Cherry Warren, Scott Clark

NORTH DAKOTA (3 Electors): Not Listed

PENNSYLVANIA (20 Electors): Not Listed

SOUTH DAKOTA (3 Electors): Marty Jackley, Dennis Daugaard, Matt Michels

TENNESSEE (11 Electors): Not Listed

TEXAS (38 Electors): Marty Rhymes, Thomas Moon, Carol Sewell, John Harper, Sherrill Lenz, Nicholas Ciggelakis, Will Hickman, Landon Estay, Rex Lamb, Rosemary Edwards, Matt Stringer, Shellie Surles, Melissa Kalka, Sandra Cararas, David Thackston, Robert Bruce, Margie Forster, Scott Mann, Marian K. Stanko, Tina Gibson, Ken Muenzter, Alexander Kim, Virginia Abel, John Dillard, Tom Knight, Marian Knowlton, Rex Teter, Stephen Suprun Jr., Jon Jewett, Susan Fischer, Lauren Byers, William Greene, Mary Lou Erben, Arthur Sisneros

WEST VIRGINIA (5 Electors, missing 1): Ron Foster, Patrick Morrissey, Ann Urling, Mac Warner

SOURCE. If anyone can find information on those not listed, please let me know.

ALSO a friendly reminder that a concession is not set in stone, and can be reversed:

“…a spoken concession does not necessarily deny a candidate office if there is a drastic reversal in the vote count…

It is exceedingly rare for a concession, once issued, to be retracted; BUT such an event occurred in the United States 2000 presidential election, when Democratic candidate Al Gore, Jr. telephoned Republican George W. Bush to concede the contest. Gore was apparently unaware of the close vote count in the state of Florida, and when he realized it, he proceeded to cancel his concession address.”

SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concession_(politics)

#NotMyPresident T-Shirts If interested, order closes on November 23rd. Prices are $20, and orders will be shipped directly to your address. All proceeds go directly to Planned Parenthood, an organization likely to be defunded under a Trump presidency. Link HERE.

[somethingincrediblyright]

You don’t have to separate these things with Jefferson. He can have written this incredible document, and several incredible documents, that we all, sort of- with things that we all believe in. And he sucks.

I think those are both true, and those have to be both true. I think we really have to stop separating them, ‘cause that’s when you get into trouble. That’s when you stop letting people be whole people.

[ichithecupcake]

America Chavez °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

[lohrien]

Illustrations by ThreeLeaves

[mustafinesse]

Simone Biles wins the 2016 Women’s All Around Gymnastics Competition at the games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janerio, Brazil with a score of 62.198, finishing two points ahead of the next gymnast.