This is especially vile to announce on Transgender Day of Remembrance; but I have no doubt in my mind that it was intentional.

This feels like a move made with the explicit purpose of hurting people as much as possible. (“The cruelty is the point.”)

To my knowledge, there is no legal recourse for this, but I am not a lawyer, so I could be wrong…

I know it likely won’t do much, but I do recommend calling your representatives. I asked mine to issue a statement saying that they will not be party to enforcing this rule. I hope they issue such a statement of solidarity soon 🤞

I encourage every American reading this article to call their district representative and let them know that you do not approve of this bill. It’s hateful and cruel; and I fear that if it passes, it will pave the way for similar, wider reaching, legislation.

I called my Representative earlier today and their intern was able to tell me the bill number: H.Res.1579. Knowing the number should hopefully make it easier to voice your disgust in this abhorrent bill.

While on the phone (or email) with your Representative, I encourage everyone to voice their displeasure with H.R.9495 as well. H.R.9495 will allow the executive branch to unilaterally declare non-profits as terrorist organizations and strip them of their non-profit status. This would functionally give the executive branch authority to end any non-profit that is engaging in activities they don’t approve of, which would likely result in the destruction of any non-profit engaging in harm reduction.

You are unfortunately correct. It looks like it went back up and it is being voted on today. This time it only needs a simple majority, which is would have gotten last time.

This means that calling your representative is even more important this time around.

Luckily, my understanding is this time it will need to pass through the House and the Senate; so hopefully we’ll have more of a shot to knock it out.

In case anybody stumbles upon my comment later and is also looking for the answer: I had much better luck today calling their local offices (not the DC offices).

For H.R. 9495 I emailed my Representative because I was not feeling up to a phone call, but this morning I tried calling my Senators and neither picked up.

While I have no way of knowing if my email was ever read, if the call doesn’t connect, they will guaranteedly not get my message.

Does anyone have any tips on contacting your Congresspeople by phone (ie: best time to call, best office to call, etc)?

I was wondering about that. If he made Infowar2, wouldn’t the money from that just go back to the families from Sandy Hook? I would imagine they’ll be dogging his every step until the day he dies (maybe even after…)

I am absolutely tickled by the idea of The Onion buying an equally reputable news source out of what can only be read as contempt for Alex Jones.

I must also say the official announcement is quite funny as well.

If this falls through, though, I would be quite sad; as the implication is Alex Jones would get to stay on, then.

I posted about H.R. 9495 a couple of days ago and the danger it presented; and I thought it was important to share it got rejected too.

Going from almost unanimous support to 145 nays, is a pretty big swing. I would imagine a lot of it came from the fear of the next president abusing that power, but people contacting their Reps cannot be undersold here as well.

Over the next four years a lot of nasty bills are going to be floated, but please let this be a reminder that contacting your Congresspeople can help make a difference.

You can view the results of the vote here.

If your representative voted no, please contact them and let them know you appreciate it. I’ve heard that helps too.

If you aren’t sure who your representative is, you can find that here.

From my understanding, this was co-authored by a Democrat, so I’m not actually sure if it has other Democratic support. On its face, it sounds pretty staunchly authoritarian, so I would be surprised if it had widespread Democratic support. Having said that, I have no idea how enticing the hostage relief section is.

I would hope that this act would fail automatically, but as last week reminded us: you can’t count on rational decision-making. This is why I encourage everyone to contact their congressperson to make sure they know we expect a rational decision from them.

Right now things seem pretty bleak, and I know it can feel like we are powerless; but we can still do small things to make a difference. In this case, I highly encourage you to reach out to your Congressperson and let them know you do not support this act and that you, their constituent, want them to vote no.

There are nonprofits who will work every day to do harm reduction over the next four years, but they won’t be able to if this goes through.

If you aren’t sure who to contact, you can find out here.

I highly recommend it. I think it gets a specific negative geeky reputation associated with it, but I found that reputation to be unfounded.

For most Star Trek series, it is a very forward thinking show that deals with a wide array of morality topics. Even cinematography/ effects wise, pretty much all of them other than TOS feel very modern.

I don’t think I could recommend a good way to get into it, but I will say I started with Lower Decks, and the obvious love the writers had for the franchise encouraged me to look at the more traditional series as well.

I recently started watching Star Trek and have finished every series other than TOS (and Prodigy).

I had been putting TOS off since it initially seemed pretty cheesy so I had planned to skip it entirely. After finishing everything else, though, I decided to give it another try.

Now I’m about two thirds of the way through, and I’ve actually found it quite enjoyable. Also Bill Shatner is a better actor than I gave him credit for. I had always expected a very hammy performance based off the way people talk about him; but considering he was being watched on like a 12 inch screen, I would say his acting was actually rather subtle.

Also the practical effects look surprisingly good. It really goes to show how much better they can age. There are some shots of the ship('s model) that look comparable to modern CGI in my opinion.

I would not say TOS is my favorite Star Trek series so far, but I would put it in the top 5 for sure.

The convenience of an audiobook cannot be beat.

Some of them have really good narrators, too. I just finished listening to The Color of Magic and I swear the narration/ voice acting was so good it felt like I was listening to a radio serial.

It’s also worth noting that most libraries offer digital goods to borrow also.

I don’t have a lot of time to read anymore, but I’ve been able to “read” maybe half a dozen books or so in the last year by borrowing audiobooks from my library directly on my phone and listening to them on my commute.

My partner and I went as Sheriff Truman and Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks.

I also saw a couple going as Judge Trudy and a dancing lobster, which I really appreciated; but I do not have any pictures of them.

Personally, I loved all the deep cut costumes; and I think this was a really good year for them.