@WeThePeople Ugg

@try_else_if @Yohannon As well as other young rising politicians (again, watching as Jason Kander grows in popularity as he fights for voting rights around the country), and a lot more women getting involved in politics. A progressive women's advocacy group has formed in our very conservative part of the state, and we've already helped put one woman on city council and have one woman running for state rep and another considering running ... these have been uncontested last two elections

@Yohannon @try_else_if And I do think voters and consumers have more power than we give ourselves credit for. I'm watching activists like Bruce Franks Jr in St Louis get elected and start to work for change ... maybe slowly in the state house (but he's winning over some Rs to at least dialogue more). And while he's getting money from state for programs in his district, he's leading voter registration campaigns and protests that shut down malls in richer parts of St Louis.

@Yohannon @try_else_if Progress will be slow at times, and we may regress at times, but we will move forward. I go back to what, of all people, former labor secretary/economist Robert Reich had said maybe 2 or 3 years ago when referring to economic inequality / the seeming downward spiral of politics. He pointed out that throughout US history we would always hit seemingly a rock bottom before some sort of major change in the country. And before the next major change we're gonna hit a rock bottom

@antisocial @mr_wolf_6221 I follow Abramson as just another "source" of information, but follow with a grain of salt. He does seem to piece a lot of things together in his long series of tweets (much like a researcher) and sometimes reading his tweetstorms can be cathartic. But then I return to the more measured sources of info and ideas, more moderate liberal and moderate conservative voices

@Walkerba8te No, no, no. You’re not to spend it. On anything. Ever.

@ChippySuave I’m still on FB, just not as active. I saw this post by him a few minutes ago and said, “Hell yeah, that’s right.” I know he’s made mistakes in the past (haven’t we all, and we continue to), but his posts have been great and thought-provoking.

@MaryMack I’ve already had a civil disagreement / discussion on CS. We agreed to disagree and moved on. No name calling, no BS, and no fear that some random troll would take the conversation down rabbit holes. Sounds like Brandon was just a shit disturber for the sake of being one

@beard I don’t get it. So he’s saying he meant that those who were frugal and saved their money (who the hell can save $11M by being frugal?) shouldn’t be punished after they’re gone. Wait, what? They’re dead! I think they’re beyond punishment. Maybe they should have enjoyed life a bit more while living.

@Drez Home basically shows those you follow, Local shows everything from counter.social, and Federated shows counter.social in addition to other mastodon feeds (though CS is totally outnumbering the others right now, so Federated looks pretty much like Local right now)

@MarcFogel I've been using tootdon. Seems to be the cleanest one so far

@Sparkylu I think we're starting to see more D candidates on local level where Ds haven't had candidates for a while. I'm in MO, and it's slow going, but we're definitely finding folks interested in running at all levels.

@Velouria Hi!

@Kilikaz3n Great version of the song!

@th3j35t3r @PortugalTheMan Welcome! Love your cover of Don't Look Back in Anger!

@badger33 Disagree. I’m think there were a few wavering. And again, it’s not like this was naming a post office. She a big piece of legislation deserves more. I refuse to believe that we’re this far down the path of division that we can’t have open debate. It just needs a few Senators or Congresspeople to say, “Hey, enough is enough!”

Listening to some good live somewhat local music tonight. Kinda bluegrass, but not quite. The Mighty Pines are killing it as always. Check them out. Heading to Northeast after tonight’s show. They are legit.

@badger33 Even if bits and pieces had been discussed previously

@badger33 For a bill that has such a huge impact to have so many last-minute amendments (how many carve outs?), final version (complete with hand-written pieces) released hours before vote, voted upon prior to any scoring ... yeah, seems rushed. It’s not like they were just naming a post-office.

@badger33 And it’s stuff like this that gives me pause. Even though the process was totally shady, what are the actual details without spin from either side? Because it was so rushed through and done in the dark, we assume it’s evil. Which a lot of it probably is. But if we (I’m on the “left”) jump onto things like this, it just gives the “other side” (sorry, I hate saying “other side” because it sets up the whole us vs them, only one side wins) reasons to totally ignore any legitimate arguments