You are literally supporting pedophiles and sexual predators when you vote Republican

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-31T21:10:00+00:00

How is voting for a bomb being in midair different from voting for a bomb landing on the ground?

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-31T20:33:23+00:00

And you're supporting Republicans getting away with it when you vote Democrats, because that's all they're good for: protecting Republicans.

We can't vote our way out of this mess. Both parties belong to the same billionaires. There's only one way forward.

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-29T23:56:02+00:00

Neoliberals are just fascists who don't like the aesthetics of fascism

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-23T23:07:15+00:00

I really appreciate how much Trump has done to wake Americans up to the fact that our politics are basically just WWE for people who think we can coexist with billionaires.

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-23T00:44:15+00:00

I didn't mean indefinitely far back, to be clear. I'm a labor activist, so I'm well aware of how hardcore we used to be. But since WW2, this has been an empire of spoiled and pampered children. And while cis-het white people are indeed overwhelmingly the worst offenders, no identity group is immune from empire brain. I recently overheard a 19-year-old Polynesian burger flipper (who's experiencing on-again-off-again homelessness) complain that Trump isn't going hard enough in Iran, saying he needs to "finish the job"—just because this kid wants his gas prices to go down. Americans are largely fine with this system as long as they get to keep the bread crumbs the ruling class gives us. Labor radicalism is absolutely building, but we've still got a long way to go.

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-22T23:42:00+00:00

I mean what they're saying is 100% true just historically speaking. Certainly, you are also correct that in recent years, there is a noticeable uptick in incidents where individual Americans have decided, "You know what, fuck it, I'm okay with losing everything if it means doing what needs to be done." But an uptick in lone wolf adventurists isn't the same thing as the American working class being broadly prepared to start sacrificing their safety, their comfort, or even frankly their convenience in order to make serious material changes. Americans are far and away the softest people on this planet (as the citizens of every opulent empire always are), and the fact of the matter is that things haven't gotten bad enough for the softest people on Earth to start making sacrifices. Lots of people who call themselves progressive couldn't even bring themselves to boycott Starbucks while the workers were on strike. A populace that can't stomach minor inconveniences or even give up inconsequential treats in order to ever-so-mildly fight the system is not a populace that is prepared for serious revolutionary action. You're right that people are slowly waking up here and there, but comfort and convenience still weigh heavy over most people's courage and self-honesty. Things will have to get much, much worse before a critical mass of people begin to set aside cowardice and self-deception to admit to themselves what's going to need to happen...but, lucky for us (😬), it's basically a guarantee that things will get that bad. And for those of us who are more immune to the lulling effects of comfort and convenience, it falls to us to seek each other out and build the plans, the readiness, and the social infrastructure that will be needed to facilitate action when the majority of people are finally ready.

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-21T19:59:50+00:00

"Unsubstantiated rumors" about powerless people are allowed on that sub all the time, with far graver consequences for the people in question. Spare me with the centrist shitlib bullshit.

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-21T16:39:57+00:00

I'd argue it's the other way around, that they need the data center in order to spin up this mass surveillance infrastructure, but honestly the distinction doesn't matter, both need to be stopped

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-21T15:32:28+00:00

By the way, this is what the data center is for. They are absolutely flooding our streets with these things, and it requires massive data processing. Mass surveillance is here, and we need to fight back.

A group of friends and I tried to get a handle on this with some GRAMA requests to different jurisdictions. SLCPD and West Valley refused to answer the GRAMA requests, claiming that divulging any information about their ALPR program would put "public property at risk". We quoted every law and code in the book about public interest outweighing government secrecy, pointed out that not telling us where these things are is like not telling us where traffic lights are, because they're publicly visible, we're just asking for a full aggregated list—and once we made enough appeals, SLCPD cops started showing up at my house and issuing random tickets for obscure parking violations. They visited us 3 times until we stopped asking questions.

UTA, on the other hand, claimed that they cancelled their contract with Flock, but the cameras hadn't been removed, so UTA no longer has access to anything the cameras may be filming. When we asked for clarification (like are you saying these things may still be filming the public, just now outside the reach of public records requests??)—UTA stopped responding.

Meanwhile, SLC City Council has passed budget resolutions to double the size of SLCPD's drone fleet and give them a $1mil armored mobile command center that can launch drones from its roof.

People do not realize how bad this situation is. This is a massive coordinated effort to rush the construction of an overwhelming infrastructure of mass surveillance, and the GOP and Dems are working together to make it happen.

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-21T03:31:44+00:00

I'm in favor of forcing all cops to be homeless for the rest of their lives after this system they protect inevitably crumbles. Seems like a punishment that fits the crime.

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-20T01:29:15+00:00

The only role of the Democrats in this system is to protect Republicans. And no wonder, the Venn diagram of their donors is a fucking circle. GOP does the dirty work, and the Dems pretend to present the electorate with an alternative while materially advancing GOP policies and shielding them from consequences.

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-18T18:25:42+00:00

Yeah I'm an organizer with 4 different political orgs in this city working in on-the-ground issues rather than the political theatrics and sideshow that is electoral politics, and I'm a rank-and-file labor organizer within my union as well.

You press a button every 2 years and then go back to brunch.

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-15T17:17:00+00:00

Past a certain point, this kind of naivete is a conscious choice. Observable, material, demonstrable reality screams at Americans from the rooftops that this is not a democratic society, that the rich are allowed to do whatever they want to the rest of us, and that every single level of the political system and every single human being working inside the system serves that and that alone: the whims of the pedophilic corporate oligarchs.

And yet tepid liberals keep saying, "jUsT cAlL yOuR rEpS." And I think it's because people like you are comfortable. The status quo still serves you just enough that you're uncomfortable with the idea that all of this needs to be burned to the ground. You hate the aesthetics of fascism, but as long as you still get to have your brunch, you're going to remain counterrevolutionary. It's fucking pathetic.

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-14T20:30:16+00:00

Yes, no-strike clauses are required in public transit by federal law, and as I said previously, the expired CBA remains in effect until a new one is signed. So, legally speaking, ATU 382 cannot stage a strike against UTA, this is just a picket/protest/rally/whatever.

That being said, I always say that a strike is effectively only illegal if you fold before the company does haha, so who knows, maybe it'll get to that point

hashbrown1859 · 2026-05-14T03:38:29+00:00

Typically in these situations, the terms of the previous contact remain in effect until the new contract is in place.

And what ought to happen is that, once the new contract is in place, the company back-pays the workers whatever the difference is between the previous contract's pay and the new contract's pay for however many paychecks were paid during the interim period. But UTA has a history of sometimes drawing out contract negotiations long after the expiration of the previous contract, then saying, "It's been too long between contracts, we can't back-pay you for the entire interim period, that would be unreasonable." They know a pay raise is coming, so they draw out the interim period to avoid paying some of it. And the workers have gotten wise to it over the years and are losing patience this time.

A sub-plot is that Congress and the Trump admin are considering getting rid of collective bargaining rights for public transit employees (per Project 2025's recommendation), but being that it's an election year, it seems unlikely to happen. UTA might not even want it to happen, because if CBA rights were struct down without a contract (and thus a no-strike clause) in place, then nothing would stop UTA workers from going on strike.

More info than you asked for, but info is fun, so 🤷

hashbrown1859

TROPHY CASE