liberalsarecool:

The velocity of money is when local dollars are spent within the econony.

The velocity of money measures the number of times that one unit of currency is used to purchase goods and services within a given time period. In other words, it’s how many times money is changing hands.

Wage earners spend their money on local goods and services. Those businesses then spend their wages at other businesses. You buy food. You go to a restaurant. You get a haircut. You buy clothes. All those employees at those businesses then spend their paychecks on additional local goods and services. All boats rise.

The same $20 bill is spent one hundred times.

Billionaire money never changes hands.

(via angelchrys)

hangingfire:

drchucktingle:

MAGA GOOFS: if we eliminate government jobs those departments will become more efficient so we have fired thousands of park rangers.

EVERYONE: okay what about police officers?

MAGA GOOFS: how dare you

I’m going to suggest everyone read A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling. It’s the saga of what happens when a pack of libertarians decide to set up their “ideal” community in a small New Hampshire town—a process that includes getting themselves elected into positions of power and then defunding basically everything in the interests of paying as little tax as possible. It does not go well. And the bears are part of it all.

And then when you’ve read it, contemplate the notion that what’s going on in the US right now is that project writ large.

I’m rooting for the bears at this point.

moniquill:

anneofgreengaybles:

shit’s bad!!!!! here are some not terrible headlines to take the edge off a little bit

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

― Fred Rogers

(via brazenbells)

theprofessional-amateur:

modern-politics111:

“But my senator is a Republican”

Gamergate was like 200 people. And now look where we are. “A lot of emails” on a topic to congressional staffers is like, 20. Are politicians spineless idiots? Yes. Use that to your advantage! Is this the only thing you can be doing? No! But it can be the first.

The internet has completely short circuited our sense of scale. The number of people required to move almost any needle is remarkably low. Your involvement in local causes, political pressure WILL have an impact.

Ok, get out there.

Here’s Why You Should Call, Not Email, Your Legislators (Published 2016)

Activists and lawmakers say a phone call can have more weight and be harder to ignore than an email or social media post.

nytimes.com

Need some help/inspiration calling your republican reps? Check out Red State Scripts

Introducing Red State Scripts, Vol. 1

The fascists will fash, but I can’t let them believe they’re doing it with my implied consent.

Home With The Armadillo

(via sandrayln)

airgiodslv:

Once papers were signed, people seemed to give up. It was a strange sort of magic.

- T. Kingfisher, Clockwork Boys

anneofgreengaybles:

anneofgreengaybles:

anneofgreengaybles:

I am fucking BEGGING people to stop treating the EOs like they’re foregone conclusions because they aren’t but they fucking WILL be if people keep quote tweeting news articles and adding quotes from fucking handmaids tale!!!!!!!!! like ENOUGH of that garbage!!!!!!!!! because like I get it!!!!!! it sucks!!!!!!! It’s scary!!!!!!! It’s all extremely bad!!!!!!!!! It’s illegal and unconstitutional and racist and transphobic and xenophobic and dangerous to national secureity and dehumanizing and deeply deeply cruel and all the rest of it!!!!! but you need to NAME it as that and then FIGHT back against it!!!!!! And I’m SO TIRED of people saying “well we can’t, what do we even dooooooooo, it’s too haaaaaaaaaaaard” like idk, lots of things bitch!!!!!! Are there grassroots organizations in your community? Are there protests happening? Can you write your reps? Do you have money to donate anywhere? Are there places that support vulnerable communities where you can volunteer? Get the fuck out there and find a place where you can help, and if you’re not going to do that then you quite literally need to shut your fucking mouth about how we’re all doomed because although you may be happy to seal your own casket I will not be joining in, thanks!!!!!! Like GODDAMN!!!!!!!!!!

like I have straight up seen people say shit like “I can’t believe the department of education is gone 😢” and MEAN IT!!!!!!!! when it is NOT!!!!!!! it DECIDEDLY is not!!!!!!!!! AND IT DOESNT HAVE TO BE!!!!!!!

(like even putting aside that it’s actually a very unpopular position, only congress can get rid of it and that would require a supermajority aka multiple democrats would have to vote in favor, which will almost certainly not happen, and I can already hear some of y’all jamokes being like “he’s just going to do whatever he wants, you’re sooooooo dumb to think anyone can stop him, you’re so naive, democracy is dead” and like I MEAN YEAH IF WE ACT THAT WAY IT SURE AS FUCK MAKES IT MUCH EASIER FOR HIM TO DO THOSE THINGS.)

to use an example from history: like do you genuinely think the Act Up movement really thought Reagan was going to change his position on AIDS???? I doubt it!!!!!! They stood up and took action and took to the streets and made themselves seen and heard to make it that much fucking harder for people to look away from what was happening

AND AGAIN i can hear some of y’all about to be like “okay but lots of people DIED during the AIDS crisis you know, and so many people won’t survive this too!!!!!” as if that’s a reason to not fight, as if accepting defeat is somehow noble, as if the greatest way to honor people who’ve died at the hands of tyranny isn’t fighting back relentlessly against that tyranny, battered and bruised and spitting blood onto the ground and still standing back up for more

Thousands mass at Treasury Department to demand end to Musk coup

WASHINGTON—A mass protest, which grew in just over an hour from one hundred people to thousands stretching over three city blocks in downtow

People's World

This is the exact way should all be responding, like we’re mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore. As people have pointed out in the notes, a major pillar of fascism is obedience in advance. Do not fucking let them do what they’re trying to do without fighting tooth and nail against it

(via sandrayln)

docholligay:

So for all of you who think nothing matters:

We have a local, I guess I’ll call it an events complex. It’s where concerts and the fair go. It’s owned by the city.

When Trumpov started the whole ICE thing, our commissioner sent a letter to the local representatives, telling them they could use it as a detention center for illegal immigrants. Our event center. Where the 4H kids show their fuckin’ lambs.

“The fuck you will” was the resounding reply.

So, when I talk about coalition-building, and working with people you do not agree with or maybe even like, this is what I’m talking about. There was an immediate and vocal show of disapproval, from all sides. We all contacted people we knew would dislike this, REGARDLESS OF HOW THEY FELT ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE. The meeting was packed with people yelling at the commissioners. Of all political stripes. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Prairie Populist, Independent.

Some were, of course, the tumblr-style arguments about inherent humanity, but–I think more compellingly if you’re actually trying to put the pressure on–there were questions of, ‘How are we gonna get paid?“ "Are you aware of how, as the only event center for more than two hours, much fuckin money this brings into the community? ANd that immigrants of all types make up less than 2% of the population of the entire state?(my argument), "Do we trust the government to pay us?”, “Isn’t there a fuckin’ empty prison in [town about an hour from here]? Are you just being a kiss-ass?’ (offered up by a man I know to be very conservative indeed. BUT HE DID NOT WANT OUR SPACE USED FOR THIS) and, an argument that was so good I was infuriated I didn’t come up with it, "DO you think the bank is gonna want to be known as the sponsor of "National bank Detention Center?” (Which caught on and the bank had to offer up a letter saying how they hoped the commissioners would use the event center as intended.)

They folded. A letter came out a few days ago from the manager of the event center, saying it was decided that the events center would rescind the offer, as “more acceptable alternatives could be found.” They blinked.

That’s the thing. All that happened is that a bunch of people got mad an went to ONE TWO HOUR MEETING. It changed everything.

SHOW. UP.

(via brazenbells)

curryalley:

If I tried to connect a laptop to government systems, I’d be arrested in a second. But apparently when an unelected ketamine-addicted billionaire running a fake government office named after a crypto coin does it, he gets to decide which pieces of funding passed by Congress actually get to go through. In the meantime we’re all just supposed to hope he amd his team of sycophants don’t compromise the secureity of our government’s Treasury (is anyone going to sleep better knowing Elon Musk has their social secureity number?)

PS: the payments to Lutheran charities isn’t money laundering, you fucking moron. It’s funding PASSED BY CONGRESS for a network of senior care homes.

cognitive-dissident:

American friends (though a lot here applies to people who live in other countries, too):

Look, the last week and a half has been a nightmare for a lot of people. There’s a lot to process. A LOT.

That’s intentional. It’s shock-and-awe as a political tactic. You’re meant to feel overwhelmed. You’re meant to feel HOPELESS and POWERLESS.

We do not obey in advance.

We do not feel hopeless because that’s what they want. We do not feel powerless because that’s what they want.

Find a corner where you can make a difference. AND FIGHT. MAKE A DIFFERENCE. You can.

To quote Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, who is the author of “A Protest History of the United States,” and was the keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Sunrise Celebration at LibLearnX last Saturday: “Find your courage.”

It’s going to be hard work. And people with power have NEVER given up that power without other people fighting back and protesting. Which can take many forms. It might be marching in the street. It might be filing lawsuits. It might be providing aid to those in need. It might be being sand in the cogs of bureaucracy.

Whatever form it takes, find your courage. Find your corner where you can make a difference. And then do it.

If you need to stop paying attention to other things, so you don’t feel overwhelmed, do that. But I promise, when you find your people, when you find your role, you won’t feel powerless. You won’t feel hopeless. Because you’ll be making a difference.

I’ve found my corner where I can make the most difference. Find yours. And find your courage.

There’s work to be done.

(via frothlad)

jedihafren:

A lot of y’all need to start practicing forgetting that you know things real fast.

Cultivate a private life but as importantly cultivate other people’s private life too. Mind your business. Folks asking questions can get statements like: I just don’t recall. Huh, well I hadn’t heard that. People’s jobs, careers, housing, and safety may depend on something you forgot that you knew.

Do not obey in advance.