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Post by Rasaiu on May 9, 2022 5:43:03 GMT -5
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Post by Kat on May 9, 2022 6:10:07 GMT -5
Of course, on the day of our elections, we get broken vote counting machines, delays, and people who don't realize that taking photos of your ballot and posting them on social media is actually a crime.
And violence. Election-related violence.
On a lighter note someone made an Avengers: Endgame edit that's apt for this occasion because it's true, we're in the endgame now. Either we get back on track, or we take a hundred steps back and the whole world judges us while our democracy dies.
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on May 9, 2022 11:38:36 GMT -5
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Post by Kat on May 10, 2022 8:25:48 GMT -5
It's funny, really, how the whole world knows that Ferdinand Marcos has always been bad news, him and his family.
The whole world, except the Philippines - the only place where one dictator is unseated only for his son to be elected president 36 years later. There are no cries of "he will make the Philippines great again!" but instead his supporters are gloating, saying that we should respect the results, respect the democracy, move on, stop being so elitist, and don't wish for the government to fail.
I'm not wishing for the government to fail, no.
Our last hope is a manual recount and the vice president gathering experts who can help her contest the electoral anomalies. The results of this election are far too linear for an archipelago with different bailiwicks, there are videos surfacing of people filling in ballots surreptitiously and putting them into the machine long after the elections are over, and of course, the proof is all over social media that Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte spent so much money to buy votes.
It's also funny how BBC touted Leni Robredo as the "dream candidate", yet her own country scorns her for a myriad of reasons. Somehow she is a puppet of both the oligarchy and the communists. She is dumb and incompetent despite having a real educational background (Bongbong was a lousy JOBLESS bum if you took away his government posts, really, which meant he somehow was able to live without rendering any real work in his life) and not needing any coaching when she's up on stage talking about her platforms.
The Philippines is such a funny place because it does not see what the world sees.
It only sees what it wants to see.
And it sees Ferdinand Marcos Junior as its next president, with Sara Duterte as his vice president, and an actor-slash-ex-convict as a leading senatorial candidate.
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on May 12, 2022 12:03:42 GMT -5
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Post by Kat on May 12, 2022 19:35:10 GMT -5
In all respects this still feels like a bad dream. Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte won by a landslide, the world is laughing at us, and Sara is slated to head the Department of Education; she has no other concrete plans except to impose mandatory military service. We're also quite sure she'll be leading the efforts to revise history books.
The economy is in a shambles, the pandemic is always present, and the victims of Ferdinand Marcos Senior's martial law are in distress. Already their supporters are mocking us as if this were only a game and their sports team won. (In Weird Al's immortal words, "We're great, and you suck, we're great, and you suck...")
Yet, despite everything, I feel hopeful.
The movement Leni Robredo inspired will live on even if she failed to capture the presidency. The 14M people who voted for her will not allow Marcos and Duterte to rest easy on their laurels. They will demand the good governance they had hoped Robredo would deliver.
And Robredo? She walks away the true winner of the elections - having been the uniting figure of this movement, having won the hearts of millions, and most of all, still having her pristine track record and no trace of corruption as she leaves office this year. She leaves with a clean conscience, knowing she fought fairly and never stooped to the level of her fiercest opponent. She will get well-deserved rest away from the public spotlight, away from people who still insult and mock her for no reason even after she has lost the election. Most of all, the problems plaguing our country will not be hers to solve. No high expectations for her, no pressure, no millions of eyes on her hoping for solutions. People will try to file cases against her only to see them all crumble and fall apart.
History will remember her well as perhaps one of the best vice presidents.
Instead, all that pressure will go to Marcos and Duterte. All eyes will be on them.
Our eyes.
I prayed for competent, compassionate leaders for this nation. As it turns out, WE were the leaders the Philippines needed all along.
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on May 18, 2022 17:03:41 GMT -5
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Post by Celestial on May 19, 2022 3:02:42 GMT -5
Since the story of the Red Cross supporting "filtration camps" broke, they have taken measures to correct course. The latest news from the front is that they have been helping evacuate people from Mariupol, and those people are grateful to them. Furthermore, there are different branches of Red Cross depending on country, some of which are better than others. Although this is International Red Cross, which was involved in the scandal, so I have my doubts. I still do not think the Red Cross should be the first choice for donations. However, it is far better than nothing, and any help that can be given is appreciated. So if the sales from the book will go to the Red Cross, fine. This seems like a small non-official thing anyway, so whatever.
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on May 24, 2022 16:18:46 GMT -5
Another tragedy of the highest level just happened in the US and I’m sorry, but I’m very skeptical that anything will happen as a result. I’m gonna vent a bit here. cw: violence 14 students and one teacher died in a mass shooting at an elementary school. This is on the heels of a mass shooting in Buffalo last week that is likely a hate crime. www.axios.com/texas-elementary-school-shooting-bde7b1d7-9ab3-4e07-a955-58b8448c2700.htmlWhen the heck will these politicians start giving a crap? When the heck will those that toot their “pro-life” horn actually care about saving lives? I’m sorry, this just happens too often in the US now. Gun culture is out of control.
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Post by Carolyn on May 24, 2022 17:14:49 GMT -5
... I drove through that town with my friend, Blaine. His family lives near Camp Wood, which is maybe 45 minutes away from where that happened. *shakes head* Gosh. I'm so upset. Those poor kids and teacher. D:
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Post by Kat on May 25, 2022 8:24:50 GMT -5
I honestly don't get the gun culture in the US that has made people allergic to any sort of regulations or requirements. No one's ever said the gun rights are going completely kaput, but something has to be done about how easy it is to acquire a firearm. Or more.
Anyway, closer to home - Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte have been proclaimed president-elect and vice president-elect. Here we go. Our real test as Philippine citizens begins - six years under the children of two of the worst presidents in Philippine history who are as unrepentant as their fathers.
Perhaps, the Philippines was not yet ready for a progressive leader like Leni Robredo. Perhaps, had she been a candidate in another country, she would have won.
It's just terrible that even now, people remain divided and people still like to tag people as communists just for expressing their criticism and opinion. At one point people were pointing fingers at children's books discussing martial law and the Marcos era as sowing division among children.
People are afraid of children's books.
Well, good thing I placed an order for them, because with a Marcos in charge again, the fight against disinformation and propaganda will be a very uphill one. (I also just watched The Great Hack on Netflix, so.)
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on May 25, 2022 10:46:04 GMT -5
The NBA probably could/should have hit pause on the playoff game in Dallas but they played the game. However, Golden State Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr, decided that his pre-game conference was not going to be about basketball and instead an impassioned plea calling our senators directly for their inaction on a house bill that will establish universal background checks for TWO YEARS.
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on Jun 18, 2022 12:39:27 GMT -5
The effects of climate change are very real now. While we can’t say for sure that the current weather events around the world are definitively a result of climate change, the science has repeatedly warned of exacerbated heat waves, more intense storms, and severe drought. Kansas, aside from the areas close to cities, is very much an agricultural state and last week, thousands of cattle perished due to high humidity and an unusual lack of wind. www.npr.org/2022/06/16/1105482394/cattle-kansas-heat-waveSweat does not do any good for any mammal when the relative humidity is around 70-80 percent and there’s almost no wind. Other events across the country: * seems like there are severe storms somewhere every day * the drought continues in the southwest with Arizona breaking records and the low temperature being in the 90 F (32 C) range. * Yellowstone National Park is closed due to unprecedented flooding caused by rapid snow melt and storms * another week of soaring temperatures with no visible humidity relief in sight But members of the state legislature here continue to deny deny deny climate change exists. Sticking their heads in the sand because the truth is inconvenient for them. Just wait until our state goes bankrupt because we can’t grow anything anymore…
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on Jun 24, 2022 9:19:18 GMT -5
Roe vs Wade has been overturned. www.cnbc.com/2022/06/24/roe-v-wade-overturned-by-supreme-court-ending-federal-abortion-rights.htmlI don’t know if I have many words here. But the Supreme Court has taken away a right and that doesn’t happen often… But they keep expanding gun rights so people can do serious harm to each other in the streets, schools, churches, hospitals, stores, etc…. 🙄 The focus for my state is August 2 where we will vote to either amend the state constitution to allow abortion restrictions or to leave it as-is which means the right to an abortion cannot not be restricted.
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Post by Geo 🇺🇦 🌻 on Jun 28, 2022 13:55:40 GMT -5
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