Scranulum

It is a message to the GOP that democrats are willing to filibuster. I believe that's the long and short of it.

I can see why you would view it as grandstanding, though. I'm suspicious myself. Didn't one of Bookers staffers just get arrested for carrying a gun around the Capitol while Booker escorted him past security? I'm pretty sure he got arrested right before Booker's speech too.

Also here after a reddit ban. Mine was also politically motivated.

I watched admins remove a comment that was not violent, no profanity, nothing like that. The offense: the commenter described what "black-bagging" was, in reference to the immigrants being abducted around the country. Someone asked what "black-bagging" meant, he replied with one sentence just explaining the meaning of the term, comment nuked within five minutes.

I then told this story in another comment in another thread. Didn't say shit about Musk or Trump. Just told the story of how reddit admins wouldn't let this guy explain what black-bagging meant.

Permanent ban within one hour for "ban evasion." Never been banned prior. It was my first and last reddit ban.

Fuck spez, fuck reddit, fuck the rest of em all.

I heard that he was a convicted pedophile and the recipient of the world's first rat penis transplant.

Should I start to scrub everything off the internet of mine?

Since November, I have been operating under the assumption that the answer to that question is "yes."

Doubly so if you're immigrant/queer/bipoc/disabled.

Regarding everything else you asked:

I would say it depends on if the tattoos are political or likely to draw attention from the police or your local Karen. I feel like tattoos are ubiquitous enough now that you might be okay there. With all the immigrants being abducted around the country lately, it seems readily apparent that it isn't actually about the tattoos, and the administration isn't really doing much to dispel the notion that it's anything but overt racism and xenophobia. Of course, if the shit actually hits the fan, who knows?

Protect the vulnerable if at all possible. That goes without saying. No one's obligated to martyr themselves or anything, I'm just saying don't lose your humanity in all this. I'd like to think that this isn't going somewhere unrecoverable, and I do still have some hope, but we aren't entirely in charted waters here.

If you just want some shit to do, I would look at reviews for books with the "prepping" tag and see which ones are highly rated. It's good to have reference material that isn't dependent upon the internet or digital storage. If you have the room. I would also include books about gardening, farming, animals, camping, homesteading, DIY shit. Of course, that could end up being quite a library, and digital is far more portable. Depends on where you are and if it's the kind of place you'd wanna leave if shit got bad.

Have a group. People you can sincerely trust with your life. The more local they are, the better. If real civil unrest kicks off, you're not going to want to move alone. Talk to them about it. Make a rough plan as a group. Include food, water, shelter, power if at all possible, transportation and personal defense in that plan. If you don't know how to use a firearm, it's not a terrible time to start.

If you are in the city, you and the group should at least have a plan for how to get out. Even in a real civil unrest situation, cities may not become hellscapes that are more dangerous than they're worth, but I do think it is incumbent upon us to consider that possibility.

Backup power is not a bad idea to look into, not just for civil unrest but because the administration has already shown that we should expect natural disaster response and funding to be meager at best. And the weather ain't getting better.

Until shit gets "get everyone and get out" bad, digital privacy is paramount. I would not trust American corporations to protect your privacy.

I keep wanting to end this with "and then hopefully we look back on this in four years and realize we were being sensationalists." But nah, shit is actually getting pretty fucked up out there.