#by-elections

[tomorrowusa]

« I think these [recent Tory] governments have been too terrible to make fun of. I think they’ve been incompetent and corrupt and I’m not going to make jokes to give them time off. »

— Actor Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who, The Thick of It, etc.) at The Guardian commenting on the last few Conservative governments in the UK.

You know that things are bad when a government is too terrible even for comedy.

The site Britain Elects projects that if a general election were held today, Labour would more than double its seats in the House of Commons. The Lib Dems would rebound nicely as well. Though the Tories would lose about 58% of their seats. The Scottish National Party (SNP), mixed in with Others on this graphic, would probably take a hit due to recent scandals.

An election needs to be called in the next 12 months. There had been some speculation a few months ago about a spring election. But Rishi Sunak may be thinking that the longer he waits, the greater the chance of a political miracle for the Tories.

There are by-elections scheduled for February 15th in the constituencies of Kingswood and Wellingborough. One in Blackpool South is also likely. All three of those seats were won by Conservatives in 2019. If they managed to hold on to just one of those seats they would probably be overjoyed.

#uk #british politics #peter capaldi #rishi sunak #recent conservative governments #tories #the conservative party #by-elections #kingswood #wellingborough #blackpool south #labour party #liberal democratic party #snp

[nezreblogz]

#palestine #gaza #free palestine #free gaza #jerusalem #west bank #rafah #egypt #lebanon #yemen #middle east #human rights #united nations #politics #us politics #us elections #biden #democrats #colonialism #israel #fuck israel

[spacevixenmusic]

It's 2023 and this joke is still somehow even funnier than ever.

#golden girls #sophia petrillo #rose nylund #blanche devereaux #remind me to reblog this regularly next year during the election season

[batboyblog]

#Trump #Donald Trump #immigration #deportation #2024 election #alarming #stephen miller #fascisim #politics #us politics

[captainjonnitkessler]

You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".

Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.

#there is not a third option. it is either trump OR biden #and one of those will be much MUCH worse for palestine #i'm really really sorry that these are the options. i wish they weren't. #but WHAT third option are you trying to take here? what on earth is your proposed outcome #that will actually make things better for palestine? #because letting trump win the election is NOT going to help them #i'm sorry but you need to set aside your feelings and take the option that will lead to less harm to palestine in the long run #you talk such a big game about how people need to be willing to make sacrifices to help palestine #but you yourself aren't even willing to hold your nose and vote to stop things from getting worse? #or did you think 'sacrifice' only meant not getting mcdonalds for a few months? #us politics

[hadeantaiga]

This thread is incredibly important to read.

It is also extremely difficult to read. I don't know if I need to point this out, but the document itself is obviously full of bigotry so please take care of yourself if you choose to read it. Antisemitic phrases like "cultural marxism" and "global elites" appear before the document even really gets rolling, and are mixed in with transphobia, racism, and more.

If you want a taste of how this document starts in the first main section about "The Family", here is a taste:

"This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists."

It is all bad. ALL of this document is bad, and dangerous, and threatens the lives and the safety of everyone living in this country.

#uspol #us politics #election 2024 #lgbtq #queer #transgender #feminism #intersectional feminism #trans rights #queer rights #lgbtq rights #social justice #poc rights #racial justice #civil rights

[the-final-sif]

Shoutout to all the people of Ohio who just passed abortion, contraception, and reproductive rights of all people into constitutional law by a fucking 12+ point margin despite the state legislature desperately trying to do everything they can to fuck up the vote. I'm so proud of y'all!!

Edit: Trans people fucking rule, sex work is cool and deserves respect, sex isn't a binary, gender critical theory is based on terrible disproven science and is just Phrenology for sex.

#sif speaks #us politics #election 2023 #it's very well written and extremely clear on it's inclusion #abortion mention #abortion rights #post editted for getting terfs to clear the fuck off

[timemachineyeah]

the current electoral system is an unfairly weighted corrupt mess that will not save us, but

abstaining from voting does nothing to destabilize or replace it

participation can reduce harm and be strategically applied to your larger more revolutionary goals

(plus following electoral politics just keeps you aware of what specifically to expect from The Powers you oppose)

there is no materially revolutionary argument against voting if you are at all able.

#ESPECIALLY in local elections #timemachine wuz here

[rightnewshindi]

हिमाचल की इन छह सीटों पर होंगे उपचुनाव, विधायकों को किया था अयोग्य घोषित; जानें पूरा मामला

हिमाचल की इन छह सीटों पर होंगे उपचुनाव, विधायकों को किया था अयोग्य घोषित; जानें पूरा मामला

Himachal Vidhan Sabha Byelection Dates: चुनाव आयोग ने शनिवार को आगामी लोकसभा के साथ हिमाचल प्रदेश में विधानसभा उपचुनाव की तारीख का ऐलान कर दिया है। प्रदेश की छह विधानसभा सीटों पर लोकसभा चुनाव के साथ सातवें चरण में उपचुनाव होंगे। यह चुनाव उन सीटों पर होंगे जहां के निर्वाचित विधायकों को हाल ही में स्पीकर ने दल-बदल कानून के तहत अयोग्य करार दिया था। इन विधायकों ने राज्यसभा चुनाव के दौरान बीजेपी के…

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#By-elections #declared ineligible #MLAs #six seats

[secretmellowblog]

People who try to analyze what happened on Tumblr on November 5th, 2020, often really overstate how much it was actually “about” Supernatural. As someone who has never been in the supernatural fandom ever but dID join in on the hysterical destielposting—it was really more about the stress of the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.

The two biggest Youtubers I’ve seen try to dissect “what happened that November 5th” in video essays both weren’t American—- and I think that explains why they both tried to explain the hysteria primarily via analyzing the Supernatural fandom/the original show, rather than through the lens of the election. And while those videos are cool, valid, informational, and make lots of really well-considered interesting points— I can tell you that me and almost all my mutuals had literally no knowledge or interest in the fact that “oh supernatural had made nods at the ship in the past but the creators were adamant that I wouldn’t be canon” or etc etc etc etc. the first time I learned about any of that context was way later, watching videos where people claimed that fandom history context (that I did not know anything about) was the actual reason for the hysteria.

But the reality is that people latched on to the Destiel stuff because it was a piece of big useless inane zero-stakes fandom news in a time when we were desperately waiting for serious high stakes election news. We were latching onto a “positive “ piece of inane stupid fandom news in a time of great stress, with all the desperation of a drowning man who latches onto whatever piece of wood will keep him afloat.

The core of the hysteria was that Americans (who make up a huge chunk of tumblr’s userbase) were currently glued to their laptops watching the live presidential election vote counts come in. These vote counts were taking an extended amount of time due to the pandemic causing high numbers of mail-in ballots, resulting in a constant state of Election Day Stress for multiple days straight.

This was also during the height of the Pandemic. People had predicted Trump’s presidency would be bad; no one had predicted it would be this apocalyptically bad. No one had predicted pandemics and lockdowns and hospitals overflowing with bodybags. remember Trump spreading Covid lies and conspiracies?? There were so many Qanon conspiracies about democrats being Satanic child traffickers who had to be put to death, and coup threats were mounting from the right wing side. It seemed like this election was a choice between ‘centrist democrat’ and “apocalyptic right wing conspiracy theory authoritarianism,” in the midst of pandemic conditions that people feared would never ever improve— and it seemed like a close election.

Another major point was that Trump voters were more likely to be antimaskers/Covid deniers, while Biden voters were more likely to take the pandemic seriously— so Biden voters were more likely to send in mail-in ballots instead of risking the in-person voting crowds, which meant their ballots would take much longer to count. And so, in many state electoral vote counts, it would initially seem like Trump was very far in the lead— only for Biden to slooooowly build up an agonizingly small lead as the mail in ballots came in, and then defeat Trump at the very end.

So you’re just watching these news sites giving live election updates, refreshing the page every 2 minutes to see if you’re going to live under a spineless centrist democrat or a literal Qanon Dictatorship. And then you go on tumblr to distract yourself, and there’s more election posting, and more agonizing over the votes, and more stress and despair—-

And then it’s been days and we’re right at the crucial tipping point where it’s anyone’s game and the next few hours will determine whether Trump will win, so you need to keep your eye on the vote count, because the next hours will determine the future of the pandemic and your country and your plans for your entire life—

And then stupid Destiel becomes canon! And it becomes canon in the silliest way possible!

If Destiel had become canon at any other time, it would have been a big goofy tumblr celebration? But we wouldn’t have gotten the insane explosion of hysterical interaction.

The entire core of it was the contrast between the inane meaningless stupidity of fandom news vs the actual stressful election news you wanted to hear! It really is best conveyed in that meme where Castiel says “I love you” and Dean indifferently responds with a piece of important election news.

It’s about the contrast between the low-stakes inanity of fandom and the massive life-destroying stakes of a terrifying election. There really was no reason it had be Supernatural specifically, except that Supernatural was a thing everyone knew basic things about from dashboard osmosis— it could’ve been any other equally huge silly fandom ship news about a ship everyone *knew of* but might not necessarily be invested in (ex. Stucky becoming canon, Johnlock becoming canon, Kirk/Spock becoming more canon somehow, etc etc etc.)

I think it’s true that people who weren’t paying agonizingly close attention to the American election news got swept up in it, and that non American Supernatural fans also were extremely excited for purely fandom reasons — but the entire reason it blew up to an unprecedented degree was because of that core of stressed out terrified Americans glued to their computers watching election results and suddenly receiving stupid fandom news instead, and deciding to just hysterically parodically hyper-celebrate this absurd useless zero-stakes news.

I think it was also all elevated by the fact that, as I said before, this happened at the crucial “tipping point” of the election where the next few hours would determine the winner. The fact that Biden began to slowly develop a lead in the hours after made it feel, hysterically, as if the hours after Destiel became canon was somehow the turning point where he began to win; so celebrating Destiel felt like celebrating that slow turn towards victory.

The tl,dr is that it’s so important to Remember the Fifth of November …..in preparation the inevitable hysteria that will happen in the presidential election on November 5th of next year. XD. Personally I’m rooting for Johnlock or Frodo/Sam to somehow become canon in the eleventh hour right before the democrats win

#November 5th #november 5 2020 #the fifth of november #just a random ramble #November 5th 2020 is such an important day to me #it really is a holiday #but it does confuse me when I see people analyzing it primarily as a supernatural thing #instead of a ‘hysteria over an election reaches a breaking point when inane zero stakes fandom news comes out and we all latch onto it’thing #but yeah!! #this is my personal essay out of love for the holiday

[tomorrowusa]

In the UK, the ruling Conservatives got clobbered in two more by-elections.

This has been happening so often over the past couple of years that it almost doesn't seem like news any more. It's more like an ongoing political saga of Tory decline.

Labour picked up seats in the House of Commons previously held by Tories in the constituencies of Wellingborough and Kingswood. The results were not close and displayed a stunning drop in support for the ruling party.

^^^ There appears to have been some tactical voting as many Lib Dem voters seem to have thrown their support to Labour just to get rid of the Tories.

By-elections: Tory gloom deepens after double poll blow

What is most striking about the results in Wellingborough and Kingswood is that they feel almost unsurprising, despite the scale of Labour's wins. Why? Because it extends the trend of Labour marching forward and Conservative gloom. The results underline the current likelihood, if the mood of the electorate does not shift, of Labour winning the general election. But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is going out of his way to avoid even the merest whiff of complacency. Despite the massive swings to Labour, he told BBC Breakfast his party were merely "credible contenders" at the general election. The added political spice that garnishes the Tory gloom today is the performance of Reform UK. I'm typing this in a café in Wellingborough, in Northamptonshire, where this morning Reform candidate and deputy leader Ben Habib has been on a victory lap. Mr Habib finished third behind the Labour and the Conservative candidates, but it represents a victory in Reform's battle for influence, as they inflicted two very painful statistical wounds on Rishi Sunak's party.

Reform UK is a rightwing populist party which grew out of Brexit.

Polls for the past six months show Labour with a consistent lead of roughly 20 percentage points nationally.

If not already, this is a particularly good year to take an interest in UK politics. By law, an election must be called within the next 11 months. Some people are betting on a May parliamentary election because local elections are scheduled for early that month. But Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may wish a delay until autumn in the hope that things will miraculously improve for his party.

#uk #british politics #by-elections #wellingborough #kingswood #conservative party #rishi sunak #labour party #keir starmer #reform uk #lib dems #uk parliamentary election 2024 #tory gloom

[nezreblogz]

#palestine #gaza #free palestine #free gaza #jerusalem #west bank #rafah #egypt #lebanon #yemen #middle east #human rights #united nations #politics #colonialism #israel #biden #us politics #us elections #genocide joe #iran

[a-method-in-it]

You know that Chris Fleming line that goes "Call yourself a community organizer even though you're not on speaking terms with your roommates"?

I honestly think every leftist who talks about the "revolution" like Christians talk about the rapture needs to spend a year trying to organize their workplace. Anyone who sincerely talks about building a movement so vast and all-encompassing that it overwhelms all existing power structures needs the dose of humility that comes with realizing they can't even build a movement to get people paid better at a badly run AMC Theaters where everyone already hates the manager.

#method speaks #union stuff #politics #i guess #best case scenario in this plan we get some successful union drives #worst case people realize that movement building is hard #and also explicitly mentioning socialism is counterproductive #mostly i'm just venting #it's only april how is election discourse this unhinged already?

[davidhencke]

How a past Wellingborough by election almost saw the nemesis of my career in journalism

Wellingborough By Election. John Mann of the Labour Party, canvassing outside the John White factory. ;November 1969 Pic credit: Alamy and Trinity Mirror Tomorrow’s Wellingborough by-election brings back memories of an earlier by-election there 55 years ago which nearly ended my career. The election was triggered by the death of the sitting Labour MP. Harry Howarth and was won by the Tory…

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#by-elections #enoch Powell #journalism #Northamptonshire #Wellingborough

[poetry-protest-pornography]

We are not going to let that fuckwad DeSantis gain a foothold in the 2024 election.

You are going to fucking vote for Joe Biden, and you are going to give us a fucking chance to save our country from fascism, and you aren't going to fucking complain about it, because there is literally no other choice.

We will not let another election be a close call. Are you listening?

Vote for Biden. Vote for whatever Democrat is most popular in your local elections. Our system sucks, but this is what we're working with. Just fucking vote.

#2024 election #us politics #vote blue #I'm fucking serious. just do it.

[ceno8yte]

via CNN: "In a surprise move by the infamous Detroit rap duo, record company Psychopathic Records announced today that the two would begin their official run for the White House, not as President or Vice President, but as the first dual-Presidency ever. [...] CNN investigation found that this announcement coincided with a multi-million dollar campaign donation from the Betty Crocker Corporation, who has declined to comment at this time."

Has anyone else seen this? I feel like I'm going insane.

#unreality #valtalks #shitposts #clownshit #icp #insane clown posse #homestuck #hom3stuck #2024 elections