Lance

Everyday I wake up wondering if I'm reading an onion article. By nighttime, I figure I'm living in one.

Ew

Gavin Newsom is not the answer to Trump. He throws the queer community under the bus, won't do shit to help unhoused people, and is not the person we should support because he has a D behind his name. We deserve better. #Democrats #VoteBetter

Mt Rainier - July 19th
#Washington #Hiking #AmateurPhotography

YouTube video by Robert Reich How Do We Get Out of This Mess?

If we want to get out of this mess, we need to take bold action. I truly think our first step to change is getting money out of politics and taxing the rich. This video by Robert Reich is worth watching on what Democrats need to do.
youtu.be/osDCl0cPHB4?...
#EatTheRich

Democrats, stop attacking trans people. Every single one of you that does should be replaced. I cannot vote for someone that's transphobic. @democrats.org

We will not forget.
#EatTheRich #BigUglyBill

Creatures found in #Seattle
#hiking

Happy Pride Month. We will always exist. #Pride #TransRightsAreHumanRights

This week was rough. Because of Trump's economic policies, my dad lost his job. Because of Trump's economic policies, my workplace had to let go of three employees (we're already a very small workforce). #TrumpRobsAmerica

What's the point of having a nice-ish camera if you don't take pictures of your cats?
Brown/white cat: Frodo
Tuxedo cat: Pippin
#cat #amateurphotography

Touched some grass today #amateurphotography

When we play Monopoly, we like to include our cats. Whenever they sit at the table, they'll get a turn. Whatever property they land on, they'll just get, even if it's already bought. They're the federal trade commission breaking up monopolies.

Now that I'm well on the way to full recovery, I am looking forward to getting more involved in my community and hopefully making a positive impact for those that come after me.

I'm fortunate to have had a wonderful medical team that helped me jump through the hoops of being a transgender and the nightmare that is health insurance.

But as of yesterday, I no longer have any medical restrictions! I'm still recovering, but after over a year of near constant, appendicitis level pain, it's nice to be able to just walk again.

Finally, in November 2024, I was scheduled to get surgery. Then, the freak windstorm in Washington knocked out the power in the hospital I was supposed to get surgery...so in December, I finally got surgery. Oh, they also saw evidence my appendix had some issues.

I then was diagnosed with endometriosis and tried medication to ease the pain, It didn't and the side effects made things worse. Finally, it was recommended I get a hysterectomy. Because I'm trans, I had to jump through so many more hoops than a cis woman.

In November 2023, yes, 2023, I went to the ER for a suspected appendicitis. My appendix couldn't be viewed in the MRI, so I was sent home with essentially a shrug. I later went to my PCP who prescribed antibiotics and a follow up MRI. Again, my appendix couldn't be viewed, but the pain remained.

Deaths predicted amid the chaos of Elon Musk’s shutdown of USAid The impact of the billionaire’s declaration has been swift and brutal, with food and crucial drugs abandoned in warehouses, vital programmes closed and workers laid off

Pro-life voters for Trump responsible for the deaths of thousands of women and girls. Many children will die. All because an unelected, corrupt nepo billionaire who has more than enough money for himself decided to take away from those without money.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

This still doesn't completely end the burden of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. We need to enforce a standard ratio of CEOs to their average-paid and lowest-paid employees. We need a maximum wage ratio to ensure that the socioeconomic divide decreases.

Once our taxes are squared away and the rich are actually paying, we'll start having more money for a budget to help with new items to benefit the people. This includes universal healthcare (which is cheaper than private insurance), free or reduce cost higher education, and funding public school.

I also despise sales taxes. Sales taxes have the most detrimental impact on the poorest of us. It passes off the rich's expenses onto us by making us pay more. We should move more towards income tax over sales tax to ensure we can have public-funded options to benefit society.

We then need to overhaul our entire tax system. We need to simplify our tax code and close all loopholes. The loopholes that are supposed to help the lower classes almost always benefit the rich. Why should we have billionaires? They horde wealth and stagnate our economy.

So? What do we do? First, we need to get money out of our politics. Make sure our politicians are answering to us the people, not the top 1%. Until that happens, there will be very little movement to real change. Ban super PACs and lobbying. Have choice-ranked voting and publicly funded campaigns.

Not only that, but we're being crushed by price gouging, private healthcare, poor worker benefits/protections, expensive higher education, private prisons, and so much more. Our politicians are bought by their corporate donors and do little to make real change - to benefit the rich.

By up vs down, I mean we're in an upper-class versus lower-class situation. We have not seen such disparities in socioeconomic classes since the Gilded Age. In 2024, the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio was 443.8:1 (USA). Denmark was 50.3:1 in 2023. Finland was 37.1:1. #UpVsDown

I'm angry, so I'm posting a lot right now. There's so much wrong with this country that actually needs to be addressed, but we're not just taking steps backwards, we turned around and are sprinting back. We are no longer in a left vs right situation, we are in an up vs down situation.

We need guaranteed healthcare, which needs to be universal. However, it also needs to guarantee that partisan ideology doesn't ban or restrict what is considered medically necessary or approved care. The government should not ban life-saving or improving medicine or surgeries.

Culture wars are being served as wedge issues to distract the people from problems that actually impact them. By attacking DEI, trans people, and immigrants, real change isn't being carried out and your problems aren't solved. Instead, these groups are being actively harmed. #UpVsDown