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A curious theme emerged when we were compiling this week’s — the importance of down-ballot elections in the U.S. School choice, state judicial elections, and school boards don’t get a lot of attention, but can have a long-lasting, outsized impact on people’s lives. If you’re motivated to run for something and don’t know how, it’s worth following @amandalitm, who founded the Run For Something organization. But we digress.

Also in this week’s selection, find stories about alternatives to loss and damage funds for climate disasters, going incognito, Infowars, earwigs, and, of course, Elon Musk. Please check out the stories, follow the publications, click on the stories, subscribe, donate and otherwise support if you can.

🧵 1/12

Don’t worry, America, Elon Musk is coming to save you — or so the AI slop going megaviral on Facebook would have you believe. @404mediaco reports on proliferating nonsense about how Trump’s latest BFF is going to solve climate change and the housing crisis.

[This story may be paywalled]

404media.co/absurd-ai-slop-abo

🧵 2/12

404 Media · Absurd AI Slop About How Elon Musk Will Fix America Is Megaviral on FacebookSome of the most popular content on Facebook leading up to the election was AI-generated Elon Musk inspiration porn made by people in other countries that went viral in the US.

No one likes school vouchers — even conservative voters. Here’s @ProPublica’s story on how “school choice” was rejected at the polls in Kentucky, Nebraska, Colorado, but is sneaking through as Republicans build legislative majorities that can enact voucher laws, regardless of what voters want.

propublica.org/article/school-

🧵 4/12

ProPublicaDespite Trump’s Win, School Vouchers Were Again Rejected by Majorities of Voters
More from ProPublica

PTX Diverse is an advocacy group in Princeton, Texas, one of America’s fastest growing cities. Its goal is to promote diverse education, and it was also the organizer of Princeton’s Pride events for several years. @TexasObserver reports on how the city’s school board used technicalities in its permitting to cancel Pride. “The school board’s votes represent one of the first Pride events ever canceled by a government entity in the state, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, transforming Princeton’s LGBTQ+ advocates into a symbol of progressive Texans’ struggle to survive in pockets of the state that have been targeted for right-wing school board takeovers,” writes Candice Bernd.

texasobserver.org/pride-and-pr

🧵 6/12

The Texas Observer · Pride and Prejudice in Princeton, TexasA school board vote to cancel a summer Pride event represented one of the first government-sponsored cancellations of the LGBTQ+ celebration in the Lone Star State.

Now, to earwigs, which seemingly have more vibrant social lives than we do (though based on this @KnowableMag story, we’ll stick with what we’ve got). Tim Vernimmen writes about their 20-hour mating rituals, peculiar penises, protective parenting, and occasional cannibalism.

knowablemagazine.org/content/a

🧵 8/12

Knowable Magazine | Annual ReviewsShe ain’t scary, she’s my motherElaborate courtship, devoted parenthood, gregarious nature (and occasional cannibalism) — earwigs have a lot going for them

A new French film, “L’Histoire de Souleymane” (Souleymane’s Story) is reviewed in the latest edition of @thecontinent. Here’s what they thought of this story of a young Guinean man’s undocumented life in Paris.

“[Abou] Sangare’s emotional performance explores Souleymane’s vulnerabilities and anxieties as if they were his own. Perhaps it helped that the actor himself had only recently been granted a six-month temporary visa in France after living undocumented since 2017. He knew those anxieties intimately,” write Line Sidonie and Talla Mafotsing.

continent.substack.com/p/revie

🧵 9/12

The Continent · Review: A ride through Paris – and life – with SouleymaneBy The Continent
#Paris#Movies#Film

How does technology impact your life and community, and how would you represent that in a photo? If you know how, and have the shot, enter @restofworld's photography contest. Find out more about the rules here — the contest is open for entries until Nov. 30.

restofworld.org/pages/photogra

🧵 10/12

A combination of photos from the Rest of World 2023 photo contest.
Rest of WorldEnter Rest of World’s 2024 photography contestSubmit a photo showing how technology is impacting your world for a chance to win $1,000 cash prize.

If you are pregnant and seeking an abortion, you need to ensure you get accurate information, and can protect your privacy. Here’s @themarkup's story on everything from how to read Google search results to getting good advice while staying anonymous.

themarkup.org/the-breakdown/20

🧵 11/12

themarkup.orgHow Do I Protect My Privacy If I’m Seeking an Abortion? – The MarkupA guide to keeping your plans private through every step of an abortion in any state, including Florida and South Dakota

@Flipboard @ProPublica We have this in Sweden. Quite unique. Allowing various mobs to reqruit children for offing targets. It is not a good recepie.

@Flipboard@flipboard.social @ProPublica@newsie.social

…but is sneaking through as Republicans build legislative majorities that can enact voucher laws, regardless of what voters want.
People need to stop voting for "teams" and start voting for issues that are important to them.

@ferricoxide @ProPublica Yes, in the recent election, a lot of people voted to pass abortion ballot measures and then elected Republicans. It remains to be seen how that will work out for them...

@Flipboard@flipboard.social @ProPublica@newsie.social

Even if republicans in their own states don't (try to) end-run them, any federal bans override state-level protections.

@Flipboard @amandalitm New Mexico is all blue of late. But -- for over 3 years (at least) we have had 8 years Dem, 8 years GOP for Governor. If Republicans get control again, they will go HARD after abortion. Probably alternative energy; too bad because we are sunny and windy.

@Flipboard@flipboard.social @amandalitm@threads.net

Threads.Net is a blocked domain on the instance I use (and a lot of instances, given the whole FediPact thing).

@ferricoxide Thanks for the heads up! Does that mean users from instances where Threads is blocked can't see the first post in the thread at all? If so, we'll avoid tagging Threads users in our Newstodon posts in the future, since the whole purpose is to highlight accounts that are active on Mastodon! (Mentioning Amanda was really just an aside!).

@Flipboard@flipboard.social '
If I click on a Threads user's
@, all I get is an error. I can't speak to what other fedi-implementations get if their domain participates in FediPact.

@ferricoxide Thanks for letting us know!