BanBadtok

and in the one hand, did i enjoy spending hours researching housing regulations in my state? not especially. drafting this email was stressful. but on the other hand, did i learn a lot by doing that research? yeah, i did. i’m more prepared for my current and future leases. i used some of that info to make decisions about a new renter’s insurance policy. i already told three different people about things i learned that are relevant to their leases that they didn’t know yet. (pro tip: see if you’re supposed to be getting annual interest payments on your security deposit! also look up what specific appliances your landlords must legally provide as of 2026.) i also got to reconnect with my cousin for a bit because her job gave her specific insight on part of the situation, and i’d much rather do that than have a chatbot make shit up for me.

also, i drafted that email with the power of friendship (friends angry on our behalf) and spite (from landlords telling me not to do my research). chatgpt could never.

A local paper had some great photographs, all taken by Nicole Hester:

The day before, Rep. Justin Pearson tries to attend a Senate Committee meeting and is barred access by the Sergeant at Arms.

Lawmakers and protesters link arms as the descend the capitol steps.

Once inside the chamber, Democratic representatives continued to stand together with arms linked.

They continued standing together with arms linked as votes were cast.

Democratic representatives take a group photo protesting the redistricting.

Rep. Justin Jones burns a photo of the Confederate flag with the words, We will not go back.

And stomps the ashes.

KeShaun Pearson being escorted from the building by the Staties.

KeShaun Pearson (left) being taken into custody. Rep. Justin Pearson (right) showing his support of his brother.

Additional information: State lawmakers have been gunning for Pearson and Jones nearly their entire terms. Most notably, in 2023, the House expelled them for participating in a protest at the Capitol. Their districts had to have special elections to have them reinstated.

Pearson is one of the plaintiffs of a lawsuit seeking an injunction against the redistricting.

Whilst it's correct that tumblr has no control over the ID thing, what they do have control over is their mature content filters. If you weren't before, now is the time to get really fucking insistent that they fix their extremely broken mature content filters.

Politely.

"Dear tumblr,

The combination of the new ID verification requirements, and the extremely janky mature content filters, means that tumblr is now unusable for me. Any posts that get tagged in error as mature will be completely blocked out, and I won't be able to see them.

It would be helpful if you had a function that allows the userbase to report incorrectly applied maturity filters for staff to remove, so that I can continue to enjoy my favourite site. Otherwise, I will be forced to leave the site until the ID legislation in my country is repealed/reversed."

Ta-da! That easy. Feel free to copy that text if you want. Feel free to mention you won't be going through ID verification due to concerns about the security of your data. Expand on it however you want, I'm not your parent.

But this is an opportunity to present a solution to something that's been pissing us off for a while now, and it gives us, the userbase, a better opportunity to combat report bombing of trans folks and black folks. I think we're morally obligated to push for this.

The reblog chain is one of the things that makes Tumblr unlike anywhere else. All the notes on reblogs are attributed to the original post, no matter which branch people actually liked or reblogged. We want to keep encouraging conversations, and give contributors the recognition they deserve. 

Soon, you'll be able to like, reblog, or reply to any part of a reblog chain, and that note will go to that reblog's author. Each reblog will have its own counts, instead of one aggregated number from every version of the post. And yes, you’ll be able to like multiple posts in one chain.

If a reblog doesn't add anything, the love flows up to the last person in the chain who did. Your post doesn't lose notes just because people spread it quietly.

Past notes will stay on the original post — we're only changing what happens from here on out. Retroactively re-attributing all of them would be... a lot.

We rolled out a significant change to how notes work on reblogs, and the reaction has been strong. We're not going to pretend otherwise. 

First things first: We're reversing the change. Your feedback in comments, emails, and especially reblogs, made clear that the rollout created problems we need to address before moving forward. We also should have communicated this differently from the start, and we didn't.

We still believe there's a better version of how reblogs can work. One that gives every voice in a chain the credit it deserves. But we want to get there with you.

In the coming days we'll share more on how we plan to do that,  including ways to work directly with some of you on this and future changes before they ship.

it's what makes tumblr unique from the other social medias that suck ass in terms of getting engagement.

you can have a bigger artist reblog your art and you get a bunch of notes, which is really nice and motivating to see that people enjoy what you create and react to it.

i don't want any sort of update that messes up this system by only letting the bigger account get notes cuz people generally don't go to the reblogged page unless they're REALLY interested.

i should know- it's what i do too. i mainly just scroll and like posts i like because of the original post and maybe cuz of the reblogged message. wither way, it's a supportive win for the original poster's engagement.

with all due respect, the entire concept you are/were trying to push is so demotivating to artists and only harms the community.

minor changes like better navigation or redesigning the UI would be one thing, but making it turn more into twitter is NOT the play. it's only making people jump ship.

The now-reversed changes made this impossible, turning an open and many-branched conversation into a sterile and isolating experience. It stripped the sociality out of the website, making it feel less like a place to interact and converse with people and more like an art gallery. People who want a sterile art gallery are already on Pinterest and Instagram. They won't come here for a service that other sites already provide much better.

I couldn't track conversations on my own posts because of the way it was implemented, and I certainly couldn't get easily involved in conversations on anyone else's. I've put up with multiple changes that make the site less convenient to use (things that turn what used to be a one-step process into a two-step process, etc.), but I am being completely serious in saying that I was making preparations to leave permanently if this change stuck around. I was in the process of choosing which other sites to move my art to and decisions on what other sites to reuse my current username for minimum disruption to my career because it was not possible to continue here. I was actively planning my exit.

There are plenty of news articles and blog posts about this, but I chose these three because they are reputable sources about the claims made:

the American Bar Association (which is specifically mentioned in the video)

the American Immigration Lawyers Association

the National Immigrant Justice Center

I know that, in these times, there are some claims that we cannot vet as well as we would like to. But I was able to find recent information about this scam (and others!) on all three of the above-listed sources.

These links include more information on how to spot fraudulent "immigration attorneys," where to report suspected scams, and how to find a legitimate immigration attorney.

The library. Please let that sink in.

They've pulled weapons on legal observers and physically attacked them. They're threatening teenagers and children with death. One woman told a story at my, again, affluent, majority white suburban town's city council meeting this week of being shoved from behind so hard that she fell down by an ICE agent, who then said to her, "Stop touching me." A man, in tears and begging for our city government to do something to help our neighbors, described having a baton pulled on him. They're luring people out of their workplaces with lies about "hitting someone's car in the parking lot" and then abducting them. Citizens and legal residents are being detained. People are being racially profiled and snatched. A teenager (a US citizen) working at Target got dragged out and shoved in a car, then dumped a mile away in a Wal-mart parking lot, beaten up and crying. And all of this is after they murdered Renee Good.

I don't emphasize the demographics of my particular suburb to say "but this shouldn't be happening here, we have money!" but to illustrate that the Trump administration has declared war on a US state. Even if you stick your head in the sand because you're white and won't be directly targeted, ICE is running traffic lights, speeding, tearing the wrong way on one way streets, and causing nasty accidents because they think they're above the law. They think it doesn't matter who they hurt or kill, because they're being told straight from the top that they can do whatever they want to whoever they want.

I guess the crisis is over because you sent your little Nazi captain away to a comfortable retirement. You just replaced him with the border czar—the one who thought up putting kids in cages. I’m sure he’ll be much quieter as he tears our cities apart.

Don’t believe the hype; it’s a sequel.

You think we don’t see you buying up warehouses, so you can make them into dystopian prisons for your scapegoats and dissidents?

The rest of the world might lose interest, Donald, but we still live here. We still see what you’re doing. We still see the lives you’ve taken and the families you’re destroying.

My neighbor, Max is still imprisoned in a cell in New Mexico, while his kids are still afraid to leave the house.

We see you, Donald. Seizing voter ballots in Georgia, so you can lie about elections being stolen. We see what you’re doing, laying the groundwork to take our votes away in November.

You do truly dreadful things, and your preposterous cover is always the same predictable, pathetic lie: “It wasn’t me. It was them!” The other team. The nasty, loud women like Renee and the vicious assassins like Alex. It’s the brown people. It’s immigrants. It’s the Clintons. It’s anyone but you.

Contact your Senators and tell them to OPPOSE the SAVE Act!

The SAVE Act (H.R. 22 / S.128) would require citizens to present documentary proof of citizenship like a birth certificate or passport in person just to register to vote.

69 million women who have taken their spouse’s last name do not have a birth certificate that matches their legal name.

Trans people who change their name to reflect their gender identity may be denied updated passports or birth certificates.

For many disabled people, traveling to an office to register in person is difficult or impossible.

Use the 5 Calls script to tell your members of Congress to oppose the SAVE Act:

https://5calls.org/issue/save-act-voter-suppression/

Don't like calling? Prefer to send a message? Use this link to fill out a prewritten letter to send to your representative!

They want to control our elections.

I am dead serious people call your representatives. Get volunteering. Get protesting. Get LOUD.

They released a letter full of straight up lies. Spread the truth. MAKE NOISE.

How interesting. How very interesting. They rejected my Blaze of this post.