Here Is Your Mission.

The "I am not voting" thing is KILLING me

You guys REALLY had to choose the election where we are trying to keep the US from falling under a fascist dictatorship under Trump to say "Now is the perfect time to let the Democrats know how I feel about a tenth of their policies."

Like, cool, can you wait until after we aren't trying to keep someone you will DEFINITELY hate more out of office?

IMPORTANT!

It’s the no-internet dinosaur’s birthday!!

Turn off your internet! He has a hat!!

this morning NASA abandoned their mars rover Opportunity (aka Oppy) because it (she) got hit by a storm on Mars and it knocked her camera and wheels out and her last words to the team were “my battery is low and it is getting cold”. I know she’s a machine but I’m devastated. Oppy is the one who discovered water on Mars. RIP oppy ily space baby

Cheer up, it's Out of Touch Thursday!!!!

I can never tell which of my posts are going to explode (it is never ones I put work in) but I pray to God this one does

The past few weeks I have seen an explosion in doomerism and defeatism about Trump. Some people seem to have just decided to call the election for him for reasons that don't even make much sense

(He was almost shot and that always helps! Look at Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt! Reagan was already president and incredibly popular, and the shooting happened 2 months into his first term; Roosevelt was shot when he was campaigning in 1912....in an election he lost)

Trump has never been popular, he has never won the popular vote, and he has never had popular support. For the past 3 years, especially post Roe V. Wade, Democrats have increasingly overperformed especially in special elections. There were so many polls predicting 2022 would be a Red Wave, that turned out to be false due to faulty and biased polling. I'm not saying a Dem loss is impossible, but it is a lot less of a sure thing than the doomsayers are making it out to be

How does Trump win? Apathy. Despair. Low Turn Out. While many of the "Trump is guaranteed to win" posters I'm sure are real people who are justifiably scared, I think we underestimate just how many are people at home and abroad, who want a lower turnout, who want Trump to win.

I used to hear a joke growing up that "If voting did anything, they would make it illegal" Well considering how hard Republicans are trying to discourage voting and making it hard to do, it must do something.

Don't despair. Don't panic. Don't retreat. ACT

So what can you do?

Are you registered to vote? 🗳

You can register to vote here! ☑️

Do you know what/ who will be on your ballot? 📄

Do you know your state voting requirements? 📥

Do you know your polling location? 📍

Can you vote early? 🖊

Can you vote by mail? 📬

Do you need disability services for voting? ♿️

Do you need to know your voter’s rights? 🧑🏽‍⚖️

Do you need a ride to register/ vote?

Spread this far and wide. Tell your friends and your family. Make clear to them what is at stake if Trump wins.

Additionally, here are two volunteer organizations that I help out with

Vote Forward - write letters to encourage turnout

Working Family's Party - an organization working to help progressives win in primaries and general elections. I particularly like working in their text bank program. Want to help in a phone bank but don't like talking on the phone? this is perfect as you send texts to encourage support and voting

Spread this far and wide. Tell your friends and your family. Make clear to them what is at stake if Trump wins. Feel free to add other resources and organizations that

get stabbin, folks

Need a better breakdown? Tiktok attached below that explains Zoom's new Terms of Service:

What about folks who have therapy via Zoom? Court hearings? The list goes on. If you've got any Zoom alternatives, or maybe preference for one of the ones we listed with why, reblog please!

Image Description Below.

[ID: Screenshot of a tweet by Ted Gioia @/tedgioia from 1 day ago. They write, "Zoom terms of service now require you to allow AI to train on ALL your data--audio, facial recognition, private conversations--unconditionally and irrevocably, with no opt out. Don't try to negotiate with our new overlords." Gioia then has as a screenshot attached highlighting different lines from Zoom's new Terms of Services. The text in the image is small but can be read to say:

10.2 Service Generated Data; Consent to Use. Customer Content does not include any telemetry data, product usage data, diagnostic data, and similar content or data that Zoom collects or generates in connection with your or your End Users’ use of the Services or Software (“Service Generated Data”). As between you and Zoom, all right, title, and interest in and to Service Generated Data, and all Proprietary Rights therein, belong to and are retained solely by Zoom. You agree that Zoom compiles and may compile Service Generated Data based on Customer Content and use of the Services and Software. You consent to Zoom’s access, use, collection, creation, modification, distribution, processing, sharing, maintenance, and storage of Service Generated Data for any purpose, to the extent and in the manner permitted under applicable Law, including for the purpose of product and service development, marketing, analytics, quality assurance, machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training and tuning of algorithms and models), training, testing, improvement of the Services, Software, or Zoom’s other products, services, and software, or any combination thereof, and as otherwise provided in this Agreement. In furtherance of the foregoing, if, for any reason, there are any rights in such Service Generated Data which do not accrue to Zoom under this Section 10.2 or as otherwise provided in this Agreement, you hereby unconditionally and irrevocably assign and agree to assign to Zoom on your behalf, and you shall cause your End Users to unconditionally and irrevocably assign and agree to assign to Zoom, all right, title, and interest in and to the Service Generated Data, including all Proprietary Rights relating thereto.

A tweet by John Rogers @/jonrog1 replies, "I ... don't think @/Zoom understands every single TV company and movie studio now has to drop them. Never mind the HIPAA issues. Yikes."

The youth volunteers of Better Future Program @/bfpnola write under these screenshots via Instagram, "We've been talking about this in our Discord server as of last night since we host our meetings in Zoom and we've been researching alternatives, especially ones that are end-to-end encrypted and we know other activists use, like Jitsi, Disroot, Matrix, and ofc Signal. Got any other ones?"

Finally there is an Instagram question sticker asking for Zoom alternatives. /End ID.]

rb this to give the person you reblogged from a very tiny frog

I had an interesting night last night