@phl @swaldman @alice

*whispers* "it's always money"

@alice This is insane. First of all the 6 months thing. _At worst_ such a thing should count as driving without a license on your person, as the person impacted definitely has a valid driving permission - they just "lack" the "proper" license card on their person. Like, nothing there invalidates the driving test they've taken, it's just about the card.

But that they bring on the same punishment as for someone who never had passed a driving test, that's outrageously insane.

And yes, I understand that by the letter of the law, those two are indeed the same - if you possess no valid license card, that's the same as never having had the driving test.

I should add that the pre-existing law is also already very much broken, as one can be punished by 90 days of jail for having _lost_ one's license card. Seriously?

You know what the punishment in Germany is for this kind of stuff:

- Not having your license on you: 10 euros
- Having an expired or otherwise administratively invalid driver's license card on you: 10 euros (it's literally the same offense as having forgotten to take it with you)
- Driving without the privilege to drive: up to 1 year

The worst part is that it's basically _guaranteed_ they'll use the maximum possible punishment against people they "don't like"...

The point and the graphic needs to be said more often.
Thanks!

@introvertcatto @calcius @alice @Fettlaus

@pomegranate_stew @gerdek now there's a bounty bullshit, report every republican Karen and Chet you see go to the bathroom.
Especially the legislators and especially the male ones.
Make them show someone their pecker every time they need to piss.

@Ilka4You @swaldman @alice

Please tell me exactly how, for example Black people "could have prevented what came upon them" with the Trump Administration. Or trans people.

Risking death while fighting an evil regime is honorable. Telling _other_ people to risk death while fighting an evil regime... is less so. I will judge Trump supporters, but I will _not_ judge others who have to make that kind of decision.

@danni_storm @peterbrown @weirdone a M or F gender marker on an ID is already pretty useless when you have a photo on it.

And before anyone says "but some people don't look like their photos"—I don't look like an "M", an "F", or an "X" (which is what mine lists) either.

@Ilka4You @swaldman @alice

I think you _vastly_ overestimate the attraction of Europe for Americans. Most people will not ever move away from their home country because that's where their support networks are, even as the situation becomes worse and worse.

And even now, I have seen immigrants to the USA that they prefer living in progressive cities there than in comparably close-minded Europe. We are not the shining beacons of enlightenment we imagine ourselves to be.

@wvs @alice

The uk license has gender encoded into the license number. It may well be hidden in the EU one as well. They do like their data.

@juergen_hubert fair point of view. We do not need to agree - this is what I really like on mastodon compared to other SM, you can have a civilzed convo from different angles. Thank you for the exchange of thoughts. @swaldman @alice

@juergen_hubert they could have done so much. 1 very effective example: they could have voted, instead of not voting, they didn't because many said "dems or reps are all the same" and added to the problem. @swaldman @alice

@alice it baffles me beyond belief that the sick f____r is still in power, let alone alive...

@Ilka4You @swaldman @alice

Most of them probably did all that, but they got outvoted by white cishet people.

Or their votes were suppressed. The American election system has ways of vote manipulation that are barely conceivable to most Europeans. We should not assume that the USA is in any way a functional democracy by European standards.

Most countries do not accept refugees from their political allies, it's true. However, there is a kind of work-around in place in many places—please excuse my brain dump but this is something that more people need to know about. To have refugee status approved, you usually need to have your claim addressed in a court of some sort, depending on where you're claiming asylum. When a refugee resettlement agency knows that a claimant didn't come from one of their jurisdiction's designated "refugee generating" countries, but that situation is likely to change, they may schedule the court date for several ~years~ in the future. Of course, this can also happen because the system is overwhelmed and there's a backlog. Either way, it's not necessarily a bad thing to have a very distant court date.

In many of the more civilized nations, once you've got a asylum claim court date scheduled, you enter a special protected class where you get access to state programs such as public schools and healthcare and are allowed to work legally, find housing etc, at least up to that court date.

This can create bureaucratic headaches. But it can also supply a few years of necessary safety during periods when the originating country's political situation is most... dynamic. By the time the court date actually rolls around, the politics may have clarified themselves.

@phl @swaldman @alice

@weirdone @alice I never fully trusted the federal government to protect trans rights, but I sure as hell don't right now

@retrimental this isn't a tax. This is *invalidating* our driver's licenses, and making it illegal for us to drive to work, or anywhere else, until we go get incorrect ones.

Imagine getting a letter in the mail, at your home address, from the government, saying "We know you think you're a Christian, but your state licenses are now invalid until you come in to an official facility and get one that says you're a Muslim. If you continue to pretend to be Christian, then the punishment is $1000 and up to 6 months in jail for each offense."

Now imagine having to bus or get a ride to the facility, because you know there are likely to be cops waiting there to ticket you if you drove in.

@alice Okay, babes, we're invading Kansas and we're saving our trans family. ️ (But seriously, fuck these fucking fucks.)

@jabgoe2089 a lot of conservative men seem to drive with their dicks, so they assume other folx do too?

Actually, that would explain why they don't want women to drive either

@tina @alice

Exactly, I remember the DMV routinely asking that applicants for drivers or motorbicycle licenses did not drive there

@alice

That is an utterly repugnant, completely nonsensical set of policies to enact.🤮

There is no way to interpret these laws as anything other than targeted judicial oppression of a minority group.

I cannot understand how so many communities have blinded themselves to the suffering they are causing, whose path they are following, & where it all invariable leads.

@alice Glad my son moved to Canada.