On a Tuesday morning in January, college student Aurora Gray stepped up to the podium in a windowless room in Atlanta, around the corner from the state capitol building. In front of her sat a five-member panel of elected officials that oversees how and where nearly every Georgia resident gets their power.

“The generation of energy… using fossil fuels has become an existential threat to our safety due to the undisputed impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on our planet,” Gray told the commission. “We must act now, as later is way too late.”

More than a dozen other students sat behind her, awaiting their allotted three minutes in front of the Georgia Public Service Commission, or PSC. One after another, they called on the commission to reject a request from Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility, to add new natural gas capacity to the grid. Instead, they repeated at the podium, the company needs to expand renewable energy and take other steps to combat climate change.

“You can help get Georgia Power to take the right actions in the essential timeframe,” said high school senior Evelyn Ford, the last of the students to speak across two days. “Actually, you’re the only five people in Georgia who can.”

i was ALAB

Assigned lame at birth

Can we please get some last minute action on the key issues, secured before we get to the vote? Biden still hasn’t officially declared a climate emergency, which we are unarguably in. Even fossil fuel companies aren’t even denying it anymore!! Could we actually get what we need out a democrat: real immigration action and asylum for all parties affected by US intervention and our role in climate destruction, sweeping student loan debt forgiven, meaningful action towards decarb, codify new civil rights for abortion and LGBTQ+ and halt weapons and money to israel by forcing him to declare a national emergency? I mean maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic but is there not some precedent for dealing with how dire this situation is? Like it shouldn’t really be something we need to elect someone to make sure gets fixed. We have the powers, we should be able to just get it done. Why are so many people fear mongering us into making a choice against our consent for a president and admin that has barely done anything he said they would instead of just fucking saving the world from donald trump like they claim they are tryin to do? And I mean come, how did hitler lose his power?? Yall keep comparing trump to Hitler but are trying to politely make it so he can’t “take over the world and destroy democracy”? Like this is pathetic yall. WHAT ARE WE EVEN DOING IF ITS THIS BAD?? WE ARE REALLY LETTING THIS BE UP TO A FUCKING TWO PARTY VOTE?? WHO HONESTLY THINKS THAT THIS ANXIETY WE ARE ALL FEELING IS 1) WARRANTED AND 2) NECESSARY ON ANY LEVEL?

we know whats wrong and we have historical precendents and more options than this sad state of affairs we are boxing ourselves into. we just don’t have the collective hutzpah to rise up and demand an end to this bullshit. you can see it in the faces of people at protests for palestine though. something about watching a genocide unfold while being governed by the guy who we’re told won’t let democracy die. do the people in palestine have democracy? what’s left of ours when you are painted a political enemy of the state because you are calling on your president to do more for a stateless people and we taut ourselves as leaders of the free world? remember #notmypresident? is biden my president? because while i did vote for him last time, i don’t think he is the president i thought he was. what can you do when you have buyers remorse? would you buy the same product again? then if you find the store doesn’t even have what you want, why go there at all? voting has its place. i just don’t think the issues we are facing should be up to a vote on whether we resolve them or not.

It has become commonplace to emphasize the extent to which the US political world is polarized. Politicians and partisans of each party don’t simply have differing solutions to the country’s problems — they often seem to live in separate and fundamentally incompatible versions of reality. But on one thing, nearly everyone can agree: Donald Trump is still the center of the country’s political universe.

Trump is cruising to victory in the Republican presidential primary despite barely campaigning and remaining the subject of numerous major criminal and civil trials. GOP voters strongly preferred him over Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who essentially ran on Trump’s program, but with fewer personal scandals and a severe charisma deficit. DeSantis dropped out in January, as did Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor whose more strongly anti-Trump campaign barely registered.

Last week, Trump won 60 percent of the vote to defeat Nikki Haley, his only remaining opponent, in her home state of South Carolina. He went on to beat her with 68 percent of the vote in Michigan a few days later. Whatever Haley’s motives for remaining in the race through Super Tuesday (March 5, when fifteen states will hold primary elections), there is next to zero hope that anyone besides Trump will be the Republican presidential nominee. The Supreme Court’s decision today to reverse Colorado’s move to exclude the former president from the ballot just delivered the Trump campaign even more good news.

Even Joe Biden appears to be letting Donald Trump set the agenda for political discussion in the presidential election. Despite four years of incumbency, the president has largely focused his reelection campaign on Trump — in particular the threats he poses to democracy and abortion rights, as well as the many instances of legal jeopardy in which Trump is entangled.

this is hella old but apparently still relevant

yup the US seriously is not a civil country. i would know, i live here.

thats what the law is becoming. a way to enforce the will of the corporate state.

Notice the key word they use being “sue” in all of these articles. But please, go off on how uneducated we americans tend to be with legalese and government procedures. That’s a very class conscious thing to point out! Would help if democrats educated people about it but then they would be able to effectively navigate the elites world.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/six-gop-led-states-sue-biden-administration-student-loan-forgiveness-p-rcna50024

https://www.reuters.com/legal/24-republican-led-states-sue-biden-administration-over-water-regulations-2023-02-16/

https://www.voanews.com/a/gop-states-sue-biden-administration-over-new-border-policy-/6933897.html

It also seems you didn’t/can’t read the article in your first link

What the one about the “horrors” of socialism? If there are any horrors of socialism, its that it allowed capitalism to exist. Everything the US condemns “socialist and communist” countries of is usually just a projection of its own bullshit.

You’re very good at ranting and criticizing democrats while ignoring 80% of what I respond with.

I’m not sure which parts i didn’t respond to, can you clarify? otherwise stop moving the goalposts

WOW, really? Well let’s just “both sides!!” it and discourage Biden voters so we can get Danald Tramp elected anyway

I encourage people to vote for whoever they want. If they can vote uncommitted on a primary to show they dont support him thats amazing and will not risk the election to trump as y’all like to keep screaming

i’m thinking zionist democrats and republicans would at least try to if he just abruptly stopped sending israel money and arms

Democrats support a social safety net. Republicans fight against EVERY form of social(ist) support with legislation and propaganda. Let’s list the states which denied accepting federal funds to expand Medicaid… hmm… and no, it has nothing at all to do with “disabled, queer, non-white, neurodivergent or an intersection of those things” as they specifically help those people. As noted, we are comparing them to fucking republicans. What you’re saying makes almost no sense at all. Are you confusing Democrats with Republicans?

If Democrats are so supporting of social(ist) programs, why did 106 of them vote YEA in a resolution denouncing socialism and deeming US as capitalist country first and foremost? https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/02/02/u-s-house-agrees-on-something-lawmakers-condemn-the-horrors-of-socialism/ https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2023106?Page=2

If democrats care so much about marginialized peoples, why are they not donating to these peoples gofundmes? Or responding to their calls for mutual aid? Because it cuts into the neoliberal commodification and privitization of public assistance.

“This “neo-liberalization of social services” transformed charity into an industry where professionalism, maintaining tax-exempt status, and uplifting the needs of corporate donors and capitalist foundations fueled the work. Now, the nonprofit system encourages social movements to follow capitalist models, is monitored and influenced by state and corporate entities, and is generally focused on employing educated workers to the helping profession rather than mass activist organizing.11 Conversely, mutual aid organizers are attuned to the needs of the collective over any other stakeholder, and the lines between those offering and receiving assistance are blurred.”

https://cunyurbanfoodpolicy.org/news/2023/08/22/mutual-aid-101-history-politics-and-organizational-structures-of-community-care/

Democrats are closer in class and ethics to republicans than they are to the working class. They are all friends and colleagues of each other, not sworn mortal enemies like they portray.

Its hard to differentiate Dems from Repubs since they both seem to want the working class to dissolve.

Tell me how Trump being elected will help the Palestinian cause.

Nobody thinks that.

Democrats gave a cushy border deal to Republicans knowing they’d refuse it over electoral concerns and guess what, they did. Again: either a Democrat or Republican will be elected for each seat available in the upcoming elections. How will a Republican taking office help migrants?

the link referring to the border issue is talking about biden concocting a trump era border policy in executive order style, so not about the deal he tried to make with repubs. the dems don’t want more people crossing the border either.

biden cant unilaterally solve the problems of the the US but he can stop weapons and money going to a genocide.

EDIT: adding citations as to why biden is not that labor friendly:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/02/joe-biden-is-no-friend-of-unions

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/01/joe-biden-rail-strike-labor-unions

We can argue that neoliberals like Biden and the current establishment Democrats are hating of the QIA+ part of the LGBTQIA+ community, climate activists, climate refugees, direct action initiatives, grassroots movements, just to name whats off the top of my head. They also have a disdain for poor people but historically yes have made things more accessible, on paper. If you are disabled, queer, non-white, neurodivergent or an intersection of those things, you are second class and that is the lived experience. The way they talk and the way they spend and lobby shows that they also want to push an ableist, classist agenda that only allows certain diversity to a point before it becomes too inconvenient or uncomfortable.

Biden has supported israel since his days in congress. He said that if there was no Israel, the US would create one. Israel has been doing this since day one. 1948 Nakba. He shares the same values as israel. The values of fascism, colonialism, zionism. This is his legacy and we should not let him forget it. https://theconversation.com/biden-says-the-u-s-would-have-to-invent-an-israel-if-it-didnt-exist-why-210172

Kamala Harris told Guatamalans not to try and come to the US. We did a coup there once. The Biden admin now wants to be even tougher on the border than Republicans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d'état https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57387350 https://news.yahoo.com/biden-may-sign-trump-esque-220052566.html

yo all these people downvoting you is funny as fuck

like you put biden in your penis? just want to make sure i got that right. either way, i’ve already imagined it and now i have to take some psilocybin to get that out of my mind

All Biden has to do is pick up the phone, say “no more money, no more arms” and he gets everyones vote. People have been protesting this for a LONG time. Longer than since Oct 7th. They don’t listen, they have actively silenced and doxxed protestors and even college students. “From the river to the sea, palestine will be free” is not allowed on college campuses. And we are living under so-called democratic president.

So Rashida says vote uncommitted, on a fucking primary, and all of a sudden, lo and behold, we are listened to.

The idea is to get Biden to stop sending all of our money and weapons over there. Painting everyone calling on Biden for a ceasefire as a fool or worse, MAGA, is simply the blue brand of MAGA.

So you will vore him?

its the real numbers from the times and temps recorded. its not so much that its continous, just that those are the available data points

friend, i appreciate you and you are absolutely right. i’m not sure if you are aware of how much the US is tied to israel. i have been learning more and more everyday. one thing that chills me is that multiple states, both red and blue, including NY and TX, have stock in israel bonds in the hundreds of millions. they have tied it to the state employment pension funds. what do you think state workers would say if their pensions just vanished into thin air because israel tanked?

i don’t say this to discourage or police you but we need to have that in the periphery as we are fighting the good fight and arguing with these notions of binary choices and personal responsibility and guilt you should feel should trump win (although it wasn’t likely biden was going to win anyway, “nvm that” they will say). some people have their whole futures secured by the zionist project and some of them are everyday folk and may not even know what is propping up their privilege and security.

biden absolutely has the power to stop this. could he get fucking sued to fuck all because of it, i imagine so. but the pressure is on, and felt! he has said that airdropped aid will come, and that there needs to be immediate ceasefire. i haven’t read the word permanent yet but this means we know its working. we just need to crank up the heat a little more and make sure we drill this screw all the way into the stud.

i don’t have high hopes on the outlook and i think dune is a good reference here since timing and all. its like when paul can’t see beyond certain ridges of time in his visions. i’m not trying to say that I am psychic like that but i think collectively we all have this massive anxiety and its hard to project thought and planning into the future because there are so many bends and curves that we could take that we can’t predict. anyway, i appreciate your persistence here and i pray you stay safe.

when you say don’t vote for biden as a protest against his funding of genocide, which seems to be the most effective way to move him on it, you get called a trumper and that its your fault for fascism.

I’m waiting for someone to call russian trollbot