Be careful, you might start a new birther rumor.

The word “pinny” pulled forth visceral memories of my middle school. Wow, impressive.

Pretty sure the goal here is to funnel more money to Trump.

Biden hasn’t been great. He dragged his feet on issues he campaigned on (e.g., student debt relief), he sounds eve older than he is, and perhaps most gallingly, he didn’t unequivocally renounce the genocide in Gaza immediately. Inflation sucks and wages aren’t high enough for most to survive, let alone thrive. I can name a dozen progressives off the top of my head I’d rather have as president.

First past the post voting and the two-party system give us little chance at the national level for meaningful fast change.

But have you seen the shit Trump has promised he will do as president? We all learned an important lesson from the first Trump presidency: take him seriously, not literally. I shouldn’t need to list the things Trump has promised to do, but here’s a highlight reel:

• Enthusiastically support Israel’s “invasion” of Gaza
• Waste billions on a useless border wall
• Deploy the military domestically to “fight crime”, “coincidentally” in blue states
• Slash federal education spending and let states handle their own education
• Repeal background checks, reopen the gun show loophole, roll back federal laws against gun trafficking, and make it easier for kids under 21 to get guns
• Undo Title IX trans rights

And he won’t stand in the way of any of the Project2025 insanity the GOP wants to pursue.

So, on the left, you have an old man who has maybe made things a little better for some too slowly while ignoring a genocide. On the right, you have an old man who endorses that same genocide, promises to make the country an actively worse place for many, and who has empirically proven he will encourage and endorse insurrection and treason to stay in power.

The best play for the future is two-pronged:

1. For the medium/far future: push for electoral reform like IRV/ranked choice voting at the local/state level (to get people used to it), endorse third-party candidates, run for local office, donate time/money to causes that matter to you.
2. For the near term, to allow the first bullet point to take root and thrive: Don’t let Trump get elected, which means, unfortunately, voting for Biden.

Ukraine (then known as Ukraine SSR) joined the UN as a founding member state in 1945, then joined as a sovereign state in 1991.

You might be thinking of NATO, of which Ukraine is not (yet) a member state.

I mean, 2011 was 12 years ago.