My plan is to vote in candidates at all levels that are endorsed by The Forward Party.
We need to overhaul our voting system so that we're not trapped in this downward spiral of a 2 party system that we're currently in. Ranked Choice voting, Star voting, Approval voting... they all have pros and cons but any one of them is better than the current system that we have.
The way we get better options for Presidential candidates is to have a voting system that gives other parties a chance.
I don't care if I have to vote for a particular Republican, Democrat, or some third party individual for this to be accomplished.
Following the trend of "vote out all Republicans/Democrats" is how we got here in the first place.
Can I persuade you to choose party for socialism and liberation over fwd where there is one?
Psl is a far left party whose vision of democracy is radically far reaching, extending into even the workplace. Unless you simply favor the self described centrist policies of fwd, psl might be more your speed where there is a candidate.
I think you're misunderstanding what the Forward Party is.
You can be a part of any side of the political spectrum and still fall in line with the Forward Party.
The only thing that the Forward Party cares about is overhauling the voting system with something better: RCV, Star, Approval, etc.
They don't take a stance on much of anything else.
And in terms of priority, any candidate endorsed by the Forward Party has my initial vote. If multiple candidates in the same race are backed by the forward party, then I will start digging in deeper to figure out which one I want to vote for.
I'm a proficient software engineer and have the financial means to leave. I'm staying. 100%. This isn't a fight we can run from. If the US falls to fascism, there's a lot more damage we can expect around the world.
The plan is to increase the rhetoric and efforts already in place, but hopefully with more participation, as people (hopefully) slowly wake up to reality.
I had a buddy once in a previous job who didn't vote in 2016. His stance was that the system was "working as intended", and voting was equivalent to condoning the system. Not voting was his way of exercising his freedom of speech. I disagreed with his logic but I understood, mainly because I couldn't verbalize a valid and logical counterargument. Today I can.
My buddy was right. The system is working as intended. But you can't say that without also stating that, at our best, more than ⅓ of eligible voters don't vote. Couple that with a system meant to disadvantage large populations, and, yeah, the system is working as intended. I believe that our best option is to stay and fight by being politically active and encouraging others to do the same.
I also do believe in our fellow man. Trump has plenty of supporters, but I honestly believe they're outnumbered and endangered. This doesn't make them less dangerous. Probably moreso tbh. And even though they're outnumbered, the only way to truly push forward is to keep up the fight and not underestimate them. We need to be louder, fight harder, and make our voices heard when it counts. ie, vote.
But I also don't have kids. My sister left Texas when she decided to start having children and I support that decision 100%. This is no place to raise a child.
This isn’t a fight we can run from. If the US falls to fascism, there’s a lot more damage we can expect around the world.
saying that it could be similar to germany during that one thing they did would be an understatement, considering how much bigger the US is, and how much more influence it has.
It would be global, if not near global. The only good thing would be the fact that china and russia exist, and exist in significant capacity to do something about it (though it's debatable that they would) oh and india.
I also do believe in our fellow man. Trump has plenty of supporters, but I honestly believe they’re outnumbered and endangered. This doesn’t make them less dangerous. Probably moreso tbh. And even though they’re outnumbered, the only way to truly push forward is to keep up the fight and not underestimate them. We need to be louder, fight harder, and make our voices heard when it counts. ie, vote.
it's important to remember that the right is incredibly fractured right now, every party in the right hates each other. Unless everyone somehow collectively agrees, they will likely deconstruct themselves in part.
I'd still prefer to not get set back another decade by having him in office, and the danger of him never leaving office by way of dismantling all of the safeguards that prevented his coup in 2021 can't be ignored.
If there are ways I can resist, I will. If there are people I can help just by reaching out, I will extend my hand to them. I won't let Trump's hateful rhetoric poison my humanity or turn me against my fellow man.
If things get bad enough, my girlfriend and I have a "bug-out" plan that we discussed and agreed upon that basically amounts to - withdraw everything from our financial accounts, sell everything that isn't nailed down if we can or abandon everything in place, round up the family and buy plane/boat tickets to head somewhere that has low requirements for citizenship or will accept American petitions for political asylum if things get desperate enough. This is in the worst-case scenario where the U.S. descends into a full fascist/totalitarian state and there is a clear and present danger of us getting killed just for being political dissidents.
Ideally, we'd like to stay here and hope that things get better, but every year things seem to get worse and worse. The American Dream is dead and rotting, and we can just barely see a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel for us to be able to achieve a life, but we're both left wondering if we're even going to be able to hold on to that if we do manage to seize it given how much the economy is backsliding each year.
tl;dr: the plan is to keep our heads down, but our spirits as high as possible, and always know where the closest exit is in case of an emergency.
I was going to say something along similar lines, once the borders are ordered shut, you'll have a much harder time getting out of dodge, not impossible, but much, much harder.
Just try to live my life like I did during all the bad presidents I've had over my life. I grew up protesting against George Bush Jr and my friends still died in Iraq. now I just try to live my best life, and love and help protect others. I've always been lower class and on the outside of middle class suburban America, so I'm used to just going about my life, no matter what's taboo, or illegal at the time. Hell, DnD was the devil when I was growing up and I still played it. I still smoked weed when it was illegal, and I'll still love a man even if they say I can't.
This is the way. Some things you have control over and some things you don’t. Don’t waste your limited life sitting in your house being mad about who the president is. Raise your kids to be good people. Try to find a job that lines up with your personal philosophy. Find a local community and be helpful there.
I would immediately erase everything that I have ever posted, anywhere. I would go underground as much as possible, online speaking. When the purges come, I would be a target.
IDK if we would leave. We are not prime immigrant status, not qualifying for Canada. That shocked me, TBF.
Same as every year the country gets shittier, keep trudging along, voting, and hoping things improve. The way things are set up here I can't feasibly leave, even moving in country would be a beast to save and prep for let alone out of country.
The "Freedom" we have is voting every couple years and that's it. Even then they have tried everything possible to strip the voice of the majority of Americans. We are pretty fucking powerless for the most part.
Have a general sense of disappointment and despair as I watch bad decisions be made. My glimmer of hope is that he is an old man in bad shape and he could drop dead at any moment now.
I'm a bit cynical here and I think the country is headed down the same path whether Trump or Biden wins in November. We're seeing pseudo-fascist rhetoric increase in frequency. We're seeing authoritarian and militaristic policies pass virtually unopposed through our political system. War is virtually guaranteed with either candidate.
I know this opinion may be unpopular but I don't think this election matters very much. There are of course potential differences- such as access to abortion. If Biden wins, maybe there's more hope. But that's really it- just hope. Democrats have had majorities dozens of times since Roe V Wade was ruled and never wrote abortion into law.
I don't think it's suddenly going to change in the next 4 years which looks to be a potentially very dangerous period of time geopolitically speaking. Biden isn't going to have very much political capital to spend and the Overton Window is gradually shifting right.
Instead of looking only at this election, look at the next. And the one after. Do people think MAGA will go away? The world is in economic and geopolitical restructuring- instability breeds radicalism. The problem will likely only get worse. Especially with another weak Democratic administration.
Which brings me to the answer to your question. I have dual citizenship in South America. The only reasons I would leave the US are if there is a WW3 scenario or some sort of clear descent into a form of fascism. We're toying with it right now, but it can get a lot worse.
It probably won't be much better in my home country if I'm being honest, but there will be less chances for war. Any global war will inevitably involve the US in some capacity.
Have you heard about Project 2025? This is what’s so scary about Trump that isn’t true about Biden. In 2017, Trump was the dog who caught the car, but in 2025 he will come in with a plan and allies helping him move as fast as possible to unravel environmental protections, public school funding, consumer protections, scientific research, and increase the amount of right-wing Christianity in the US government as much as they can. And that just what there is skimming the Wikipedia article. In 2017 Trump started his term with some clumsy executive orders, many of which were immediately enjoined/overturned - in 2025 he will come in with prewritten executive orders with a much stronger legal standing that will be much more effective.
Trump put polarizing figures in his cabinet in “acting” roles because he couldn’t get them through the Senate (like Betsy DeVos who screwed over thousands of student loan borrowers and worked to take money out of public schools). He’ll do that again.
And while I agree there’s some things I’d like Biden to do that he isn’t, he and Trump aren’t remotely equivalent. Biden has gotten a huge amount of legislation passed for climate action, he’s forgiven student loans for 10s of thousands of people (many of whom were promised service-based loan forgiveness and then screwed over by DeVos).
You’re right that MAGA won’t go away. But Trump is a unique figure on the right, and one that is particularly dangerous right now. There isn’t one thing we can do to change the minds of his supporters, but every election we keep him out of power is 4 more years until all the Project 2025 shit can come true.
I've heard of Project 2025. It seems like the Democrats in office have not. Heck, just this morning, I read Jennifer Rubin's op-ed about how Sen. Durbin (chair of the Judiciary Committee) is so peeved he's almost on the verge of sending a Very Sternly Worded Letter about one of our Supreme Court justices being an insurrectionist.
For me? Spain is my primary choice right now but Costa Rica or Belize could also be options. Nowhere is perfect just need to find something that has a chance at least.
Portugal is supposed to be another good option but I have yet to go there.
If anyone needs help moving to the EU (and in particular Finland) let me know. I moved to Finland after 2016 (I saw the writing on the wall for awhile, before Trump - it's just that's when I finally had the best opportunity and Trump accelerated the need to move).
It takes less money to move than you might think to move. If you have a specialty (especially in STEM) it's really easy, and most jobs will even provide language classes for free.
If you don't, it's still possible, but it'll be much harder work I'll admit. You may end up as a janitor or laborer, but know this - you'll still be able to live comfortably. Wages can be much fairer here, public transportation is excellent to the point where you don't need a car at all, and you won't be bankrupted by healthcare. Even a low skilled SINGLE job will afford you financial security - something I remember was not the case in the USA.
And on the bright side, if you want to go to higher education here, university is a lot cheaper or, if you live long enough in a place to become a permanent resident or citizen, free.
If you get yourself at least 8k and 3 months of intensive Duolingo and maybe Mondly, you have a chance to move.
It takes less money to move than you might think to move. If you have a specialty (especially in STEM) it’s really easy, and most jobs will even provide language classes for free.
Unfortunately I picked the wrong specialty (architecture). Still trying to get licensed by the end of the year, that's the only chance I have at another country maybe recognizing my degree. Regardless, it's not very in-demand.
It is in the Nordics and some western Europe countries if you get some kind of green certification, as eco friendly and energy efficient architecture is in high demand to meet climate goals but there's a lack of architects specializing in that. Though from the news here it seems there's a lack of architects in general as it was seen by many as not the most profitable field for so many years, so ironically you kinda lucked out lol
Finland is one of three countries that banned my wife and stepdaughter's race by using a procedural "gotcha." Despite being a part of the Apostille convention in Geneva, Finland, Germany and Greece refuse to accept any documentation from Philippines. Therefore, they are banned from your country entirely.
Thanks for the offer though.
Reminder to all here: USA is not the only country on the planet with racism.
Could you go into more details? I have friends from the Philippines (like, directly from there, never were US citizens) and they still even visit family every year.
I'm not denying there's racism here - there is, especially against Muslims (possibly more their religion and culture than the race itself, since it's viewed very misogynistic and against Finnish values) and Somalians (this one is just racism based off ignorance). Recently against Russians too for, well, obvious reasons.
But none of my Philippine friends have experienced racism, especially the ones with Hispanic names (there's Hispanic favoritism here).
Of course, racism isn't why I recommend moving out of the USA to anywhere in the EU - it's the civil unrest, unjust work practices, broken healthcare, rolling back of women's and LGBTQ rights, corruption in government, etc.
Are you sure it wasn't missing paperwork or errors? I'm assuming your wife doesn't have a US passport for example since you said all paperwork was from the Philippines, and my high school friend's grandmother mentioned Philippine record keeping, much like Salvadorian one, leaves much to be desired. Especially after Duterte's reign making things worse and not complying with other global governments, if this was 2016-2022.
I don’t have direct knowledge on whether or not Duterte made all of this worse, but I suspect you’re correct. Philippines is worlds behind on records, which is why I understand the purpose of the Apostille certification agreement.
According to USA friends he fucked with records of ex-pats and it was a nightmare for a bit when their family members were getting citizenship. That's why I also brought him up.
It didn’t seem that way, but the behavior of the Grecian consulate officer said otherwise.
We had been planning a trip to Italy and Greece for two years. We’ve been paying on the trip monthly. My wife and stepdaughter are Filipino citizens, here in the USA as permanent residents. They have applied for citizenship. Since they still have Filipino passports, they must apply for Schengen visas.
We we through the process of applying. We live in north Alabama. We were initially told we would have to fly to Tampa, FL to apply in person for the visa. I contacted the consulate and asked if we could instead apply in Atlanta since it was closer and I was having to check our daughter out of school to attend the visa appointment. They said that was fine.
We made plans and checked out of work and school to drive to Atlanta. We arrived on time and had most (if not all) of the paperwork that we were aware that needed to be completed. I could tell right away from the sneer of the attendant that there was going to be a problem. When she saw my wife and stepdaughter her attitude changed almost immediately. She took our paperwork, then made us sit in the waiting room about 45 minutes. Finally, she came back out with a guy dressed in suit. He asked me to come back to speak with him. I’m not the one applying for the visa.
I came back to the office and he explained that in 2019 there was a convention in Geneva that most countries signed onto - it was called the Apostille convention. It was intended to resolve the issue of countries certifying documents like birth and marriage certificates for use abroad. I understood the issue, since other countries do not really know who the certifying authorities are. I told him I would gather the information. They also wanted a certified letter stating that I would sponsor and support my wife and stepdaughter abroad during the trip. I’m like… uhh, ok dude, this is my wife and yes we share finances but ok.
So he asked me to return to the waiting area while they looked into other things and I gathered the income information they wanted (this information was above and beyond what was stated on the website, so I had to pull my W-2 records to satisfy their requirements).
After some time, the suit came back out and asked me to come back to the office again. This time, my wife and daughter also got up. He let me into the office, then put his hand up in my wife’s face and said, “Not you” and shut the door in her face.
Now I know something’s really wrong.
The man holds up my marriage certificate (we got married in Philippines) and my stepdaughter’s birth certificate and said, “These are garbage. They shouldn’t have even let them in the USA.”
I asked him very calmly to explain and he again brought up the Apostille convention. He said that we must supply the required Apostille certification for the documents and “they shouldn’t have let them in the country without it.” I said ok, well, while I was waiting I researched this and found that I can get an electronic Apostille certification from Philippines and get this resolved.
The man rolled his eyes and gathered the paperwork up and slammed the folder shut. The lady said, “we’ll take your money and keep their passports and run the application after you get the required information emailed back to us. Have a nice day.” They took our $180 and kept the passports and ushered us out.
I got home that night and then went to the Philippines website to process the Apostille certification for our documents and started the process. That’s where I noticed on the Philippines website that despite all of these countries being privy to the Apostille convention, Finland, Germany and Greece have “elected” to not accept any documentation from Philippines even if it’s certified electronically. The only way to have them certify an Apostille document is to fly all the way to Manila, have an appointment with their consulates in Manila, and ask them nicely to certify the documents and Apostille seal.
Since that wasn’t happening, we had to cancel our trip.
Instead, I’m writing this comment from a first class seat to Hawaii. Our flight credits were enough to pay for a first class round trip to Honolulu for our family of 5.
Normally I would say it was just a paperwork snafu, but the treatment of my wife and daughter at the Greek consulate suggests otherwise.
Fuck Greece (and Finland and Germany too). Respectfully.
Wait, I'm confused. You went to a Greek consulate that wasn't assigned to your location, and never interacted with Finnish or German ones but lumped them in? And why didn't you apply for the Schengen visa using your wife's US paperwork? She's a permanent resident of the USA after all, and should have a social security number no?
But also, none of that has to do with the approval process of moving to a EU country
You cannot apply based on US permanent residence. You must use the process based on citizenship at the time of desired entry.
Finland and Germany are lumped into this because they also refuse to accept Filipino paperwork, according to the Apostille site. This is despite their agreement to the convention, of which Philippines is a part.
Schengen visa rules dictate that you must apply at either the country you enter first or the country you are planning to spend the most time in. In our case, Greece was the answer to both of those questions. Had we applied to Italy, they would have refused to process the Schengen visa and told us to apply at Greece, who refuses to accept the papers.
We asked the Tampa consulate if it was possible to apply in Atlanta instead, and they agreed to this request. We did not show up to the Atlanta consulate blind or without their permission.
The reason I brought this into the discussion is because an EU country is very difficult for us to move into until my wife and daughter become US citizens. I expounded on the experience because I was asked.
From my understanding what you said and texting my friends, sounds like a paperwork issue. They never had trouble, but yeah, they lived in the Philippines. The issue in your case is that she doesn't live in the Philippines, so yes, she has to go there for the process because that's the only country she's a citizen of currently, although it would probably be possible to also do through a Phillipine embassy.
So they do accept Phillipine paperwork, but only official documents from the country itself.
Did you not have any official paperwork from there first notorized by the US? That's what's usually done in cases like yours, like my Highschool's friend's grandmother had to do when she got her US citizenship as well (so it's something you might want to look into anyway just in case).
That's probably your confusion on them "refusing" to accept the paperwork (although of course it also sounds like you had to deal with a racist cunt).
That said, it's weird for you to judge entire countries as super racist when you live in Alabama based off a few racists. I mean, even my black friends from when I lived in Texas didn't like stopping in Alabama. Just, something to consider for the future. I know racism can be extremely infuriating having experienced it both myself and seeing it done to my family, but you always have to remember that the asshole doesn't make the nation. Otherwise you end up also becoming what you hate.
We had original marriage certificates from Philippines with the PSA seal. We also had original birth certificates from PSA for my daughter. The USA accepted them without question for our visa and green card processing.
These are the documents that the consular officer held up to my face and said “these are garbage.”
We were not aware of the Apostille certification process and the USA, despite being a member of the convention, did not require this extra certification for our documents.
Greece would only accept them after they have been presented in person at their Manila consulate with the Apostille certification.
I did not feel it was a racism issue until the consular officers’ behavior made it feel evident there was more to it than a paperwork snafu.
I agree that I portrayed Finland and Germany as racist in an unfair fashion, that was unintended. The racism was evident only at this Greek consulate.
Yeah, I'm pretty certain that racist asshole used bureaucracy to be an asshole.
But you should get them notarized in the USA when you can in the future just in case. Harder for smaller countries to not accept diverging when a country line the USA already legally okays it.
Hawaii is nicer than Greece. My brother lives in Waikiki. If they exterminate the mosquitoes then it truly would be pretty close to a mythical tropical paradise.
No, but the power to make laws lies in the senate / congress. If they are also in republican hands then together they could possibly change the laws to enact a dictatorship.
Pretty much, the Republican party all the way up to Trump doesn't even hide that they're anti-Democracy, and attempts to break democratic systems that underpin our entire government nay our way of life are basically out in the open.