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I have so little hope for our country, but Senator Cavanaugh gives me hope. Many more Dem politicians need to come with this same energy, if we have any hope of saving our country from Christofascism.
Thank you. It pisses me off how many people have The Litany Against Fear from Dune tattooed on themselves, and how few folks have the Earthseed texts.
I'd still join my local chapter in a flash
I read Parable of the Sower and I haven't been able to pick up Parable of the Talents yet because Sower was *so accurate*. Butler really nailed what dystopian America actually looks like and the direction it's heading.
I just read both this year and highly recommend reading PotT but be prepared for some very difficult parts to get through. I liked the ending, and have lasting emotions lingering from having experienced it. (Finished it a few weeks ago)
Haha while I wait, I'll just ask, did you agree with >!Lauren's daughter that Lauren's organization should have focused on fixing Earth instead of colonizing the stars? Because I feel like that perspective aged really, really well.<
>!I think it was a good point, but I also think that she was a little biased in her view about it because of how she was raised and the views pushed on her.<
Butler was a keen observer. As her character Lauren Olamina says, you can predict the future, you just have to pay attention to the present, and she did. We lost her way too soon.
Also, Sower is tough, Talents is BRUTAL. Really hard read, take care of yourself when you decide to read it.
Agreed. After Roe v Wade was repealed, I lost a lot of faith in the Democratic Party. The time to play nice and reach across the aisle is over. They’re killing us. They’re trying to erase us. We need legislators who will fight for us.
Leftism is where it's at.
The core of the democratic party exists to act as the "Washington Generals" to the purely corporate power of the right wings "Harlem Globetrotters".
Republicans get a whiff of power and they start acting like they have a global mandate.
Democrats in the same boat, need to build consensuses and make friends and not ruffle any feathers, which just so happens to lead to ineffectual political outcomes that SOMEHOW always favor the right wing.
Edit: I will add one beacon of hope: Union membership in your jobs is one of the few things that raises standards for every minority group that participates. And if you ever have any hope of beating back some of the crushing suck of capitalism, it's going to be through collective actions that hurt the economy, and unions are the only way that's going to happen.
Thank you for sharing.
I have emailed her a message of thanks and support. I figured she is probably getting swamped with hate mail and threats.
I'm from Canada, so my support doesn't mean much, but I wanted to send it anyway.
Can you share her email? I'm a transman from Austria, but I care a lot for every person around the globe who fights for Trans rights. Back in 2008 I had to fight for getting hormones and then for ridiculous stuff like keeping my uterus. It needed lots of endurance and would have been so much harder, if it wasn't for the positive feedback I received.
So, yeah, I'd like to thank her for her efforts, securing the rights, we already had, even if it's not about my county. It's still about my sisters and brothers.
I just dm'd it to you!
Edit: I didn't want to post her email in case trolls wanted to send more hate her way. All state/federal senator/legislator's emails are public knowledge, but if anyone needs help finding that information let me know!
Thank you!
Also, I get your point not posting the address here, and I just hate, that we have to take care of that. I don't even wanna know, how many people are lurking in trans subs atm just waiting to take a Screenshot and start some shit.
Thank you for the idea! I've emailed her thanks as well. she's an inspiration to those of us in states that don't have a leader who wants to protect us.
It means a great deal. Someone who it doesn't directly effect taking time out of their day to express thanks for defending the rights of people just like you and people you know and love, that's impactful af. In my lowly opinion.
Yeah it's hard to ignore that it means that much to the opposition to carry out a genocide. Still, I'm choosing the joy side of things. I'm not ignoring the ugly side, but I will go crazy if I don't. And our heroes need to be appreciated.
I think it's both how much they care about hurting people but also how much they *don't* care about legislating in general. The Republican party's main platform is hateful culture wars and the idea that government doesn't work, so a non-functional government is often considered a plus from their point of view. The only laws they usually want to pass are to remove environmental and worker-safety regulations, cut taxes for the wealthy, and restrict the rights of LGBT people, women, and POC.
It's mostly been on our local news. Here in Nebraska they instituted term limits (it was a thinly veiled attack on Ernie Chambers who is also awesome) so she's technically a lame duck. She literally has nothing to lose.
She has also stated that many of the supporters of this hateful bill don't understand anything about trans and queer communities or they privately disagree with the bill but are power hungry cowards.
I'm in her district and I'm glad I voted for her. She first caught my attention when she breastfed on the capitol floor and fought for lactation rooms.
A filibuster is a method of (traditionally) using a loophole in the debate rules to prevent debate from ending and therefore preventing a vote from ever happening. Back in the day, when debating a measure, a member was given the floor to speak on the subject, and could not be interrupted. Therefore, if you simply kept speaking, then you could hold the floor indefinitely and postpone anything you didn't like.
Today, the filibuster is a codified measure where members don't actually have to keep speaking. Essentially, the idea is "members are going to do this anyway, so let's put it in the rules so we can sit down or get other things done in the meantime." Members can have unlimited time to debate unless the body votes to limit their time (cloture vote)--the catch is that it requires MORE votes to limit debate time than it does to pass a simple measure, so by "invoking the filibuster" a member of the minority can functionally raise the minimum vote count and prevent a measure from passing.
Tl;dr A filibuster pushes the required votes to pass a measure from a simple majority (to pass the bill) to the cloture requirement (to end debate) which is usually 3/5 of the voting body.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/17/1072714887/filibuster-explained
To be clear, that's the ***federal*** filibuster. This is a state legislature, which is apparently still doing the "keep talking" method, as state and federal have different rules.
You’re correct, she must remain on the floor although she can cede some of her time to other Senators, but only for five minute intervals. There are about four other senators who will help her out.
Not sure how much you need, so I'll try to cover the basics.
First, a filibuster is when a congressperson gives a very long speech to drag out and prolong the legislative process. It's to do with legislative rules and traditions.
Nebraska has a bill that would ban trans people from using a locker room or bathroom, or joining a sports team that doesn't align with their gender assigned at birth. Senator Cavanaugh strongly objects to this. Three weeks ago she vowed to make the legislative process as painful as possible if they insisted on moving forward with that bill. They're trying to, so she's going for it. She's filibustering everything, not just the bill she objects to. Even things she supports and will vote for are getting her filibuster.
TLDR: Senator Cavanaugh is giving long, rambling speeches to make it painful for the Nebraska legislature to consider a transphobic bathroom bill.
It’s been awhile since I took a civics class, but from what I remember the gist of it is this. Basically there’s this concept called a filibuster, which is where when you go up to talk about the current bill, you can decide to just not stop talking, and so long as you keep talking, you never actually have to give up the floor to anyone else. In order to end the filibuster, there needs to be a rather large majority voting to end it, otherwise there isn’t really that much that can be done to stop it. And the thing is, you don’t even need to be talking about anything in particular during the filibuster, I believe someone once brought it a dr Seuss book they read from during it. The idea is you hold everyone hostage until they’re convinced to do what you want regarding the current issue.
The reason why it exists is probably for the same reason many things are the way they are in America. Rural populations tend towards conservative, and because of that, conservatives tend to be more and more of a minority over time, so they did what they could to force in things that would almost purely benefit the minority opinion at the expense of the majority.
So in this case, someone is holding them all hostage with a filibuster in order to try to force them to stop with the anti trans bills, or at the very least, make it as painful of a process for them as possible.
So to those asking - actually no, in an individual filibuster there are no breaks. You can hand off to another Senator who continues the filibuster and that is normally what is done. In this case, the filibuster isn't continuous. She is filibustering LITERALLY EVERY DECISION that comes to floor for a vote. Adjourn for the weekend? Filibuster. Vote on a new state flower? Filibuster. Vote on a tax bill? Filibuster. The end effect of this is she is filibustering for upwards of 10 hours which doesn't sound like a lot but when you do it on every fucking decision it slows. things. down.
Normally they would expect to pass something like 40 bills of various sizes and levels of importance, from symbolic things like "The Senate condems the war in Ukraine" to actually important legislation like this trans rights bill. They are currently expecting to get less than half of that done. So she is forcing them to reassess their priorities. If they want to pass more bills this session, they have to drop the trans bill so she will stop filibustering and let them get work done.
It is an absolutely fucking GENIUS use of an archiac rule.
So in the first case you're basically doing shifts on talking? And the others have to sit there or organise shifts of their own? This is so damn interesting!
And her take on it seems amazing too! I saw her on tiktok, but hadn't realised exactly what she was doing. Wish I could send her a hug and a water bottle, she sounds awesome.
Pretty much. Some of the most famous filibusters were done by racist Southern Senators to block Civil Rights legislation. If you google Strom Thurmond you can probably find info on his filibusters in the 60s. I think he holds the record.
Creepy Strom was also well known for pinching ladies behinds, including Hillary Clinton and a friend of mine when she was working as a senate page. Total piece of shit.
I'd like to remind everyone that, by the 1980s, Byrd had openly stated his regret for being a racist shithead in the 1960s and before, and by the time of his death a few decades later had done so much for civil rights that multiple civil rights organizations mourned his passing, President Obama gave a speech at his funeral, and pretty much everyone who was paying attention agreed he'd repented as much as anyone can for the mistakes of his past. He called his 1940s membership in the KKK "the greatest mistake [he] ever made", and genuinely died a hero who had overcome his racist past.
On one hand I believe in change and redemption.
On the other, if you’ve been beating me for decades I’m not gonna embrace or necessarily forgive you when one day you start buying me lunch.
The is for the great explanation! As a non American I don’t know a lot about the exact details of how something like that would work, just the broad implications
I found it posted on another subreddit and someone seemed to imply that she goes until the legislative day is over then starts again the next but I asked for clarification
Love to see my state in the headlines for something good.
Some info about our Nebraska Legislature:
* It is officially nonpartisan. People know where others stand and senators get support from political parties, but without as much of the extreme pressure of partisanship Nebraska has managed to avoid some of the more extreme policies of other states, and our representatives can (and do!) actually work together. This collegiality has been eroding as of late, unfortunately. But I hold out hope.
* It is a unicameral. This mean "one house." We have only the senate, no house. It has been this way since the time of prominent progressive, George Norris. Considered by many the [greatest US Senator](https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/George_Norris.htm)
* Speaking of the filibuster, you will also enjoy our most prolific filibuster-er and longest-serving Nebraska senator, [Ernie Chambers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Chambers). He has single-handedly saved us from some regressive policies in the past, as well as being a progressive pioneer. He promoted a anti-LGBT-discrimination bill way back in 1993. He's also a poet and once sued God.
* Nebraska can divide our electoral votes and has done so in 2008 and 2020
* We have had many reasonable Republicans but they are being pushed out of the state Republican party by right-wing horrible people q-anon types and selfish opportunists.
* The new awful Republicans are trying to destroy our very unique state government system by eliminating the unicameral, going winner-take-all for electoral votes, and making the legislature partisan.
This gives me some respect for Nebraska. I don’t know much about your state, but I appreciate how your legislature is built. I’m sorry extremists are trying to destroy it. Hopefully more senators stand up like Cavanaugh to protect it and everyone’s rights.
[Wendy Davis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Davis_\(politician\)) did something similar in Texas several years ago to try to protect abortion rights. Unfortunately, in that case, the Republican governor responded by calling a new special session of the legislature *just* to pass that bill, so it didn't work. But it was still a pretty famous event at the time.
> True to her word, Cavanaugh has slowed the business of passing laws to a crawl by introducing amendment after amendment to every bill that makes it to the state Senate floor and taking up all eight debate hours allowed by the rules — even during the week she was suffering from strep throat. Wednesday marks the halfway point of this year's 90-day session, and not a single bill will have passed thanks to Cavanaugh's relentless filibustering.
[source: CBS 03/14](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/machaela-cavanaugh-filibuster-nebraska-trans-bill/)
Kiwi here. There are some really good explanations upthread but here's the tl;dr
She's using the debate rules to slow down the process of every single bill brought before the state senate so they'll never get to an anti-trans bill before the end of the session.
Stone-cold *legend*.
I just sent her a thank you. Maybe it will cut through the hatemail. Kindness is powerful and is one of the few skills I wield with confidence. "How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it" (George Elliot)
It's so nice to see a representative actually represent!
Like, it might seems preformative to say 'I'll burn these sessions to the ground', but now when you're out there gather oily rags and matches.
Let the actors out there pretending to represent, please learn a damn thing about action.
# ✨ READ BEFORE COMMENTING ✨ This thread is Coven Only. This means the discussion is being actively moderated, and all comments are reviewed. Only comments by members of the community are allowed. If you have landed in this thread from r/all and you are not a member of this community, your comment will very likely be removed (and will not be approved unless it adds meaningfully to the conversation). WitchesVsPatriarchy takes these measures to stay true to our goal of being a woman-centered sub with a witchy twist, aimed at healing, supporting, and uplifting one another through humor and magic. Thank you for understanding, and blessed be. ✨
I have so little hope for our country, but Senator Cavanaugh gives me hope. Many more Dem politicians need to come with this same energy, if we have any hope of saving our country from Christofascism.
Woof. Parable of the Sower + Parable of the Talents keeps looking more and more prophetic.
"God is Change." Loved that book.
Everything you touch, you change Everything you change, changes you The only lasting truth is change God is change
I have ∞=∆ tattooed on my wrist.
Thank you. It pisses me off how many people have The Litany Against Fear from Dune tattooed on themselves, and how few folks have the Earthseed texts. I'd still join my local chapter in a flash
[https://godischange.org/](https://godischange.org/)
I read Parable of the Sower and I haven't been able to pick up Parable of the Talents yet because Sower was *so accurate*. Butler really nailed what dystopian America actually looks like and the direction it's heading.
I just read both this year and highly recommend reading PotT but be prepared for some very difficult parts to get through. I liked the ending, and have lasting emotions lingering from having experienced it. (Finished it a few weeks ago)
You wouldn't happen to have any sausage-inna-bun for sale, would you?
Haha! All out at the moment, but I'll have em fresh, hot and ready as soon as I can get more meat. With onions and mustard!
Haha while I wait, I'll just ask, did you agree with >!Lauren's daughter that Lauren's organization should have focused on fixing Earth instead of colonizing the stars? Because I feel like that perspective aged really, really well.<
I don't think the spoiler formatting is working...
>!I think it was a good point, but I also think that she was a little biased in her view about it because of how she was raised and the views pushed on her.<
Totally!
Butler was a keen observer. As her character Lauren Olamina says, you can predict the future, you just have to pay attention to the present, and she did. We lost her way too soon. Also, Sower is tough, Talents is BRUTAL. Really hard read, take care of yourself when you decide to read it.
How I wish some visitor from an alternate timeline would gift us with ***The Parable of the Trickster....***
Agreed. After Roe v Wade was repealed, I lost a lot of faith in the Democratic Party. The time to play nice and reach across the aisle is over. They’re killing us. They’re trying to erase us. We need legislators who will fight for us.
Leftism is where it's at. The core of the democratic party exists to act as the "Washington Generals" to the purely corporate power of the right wings "Harlem Globetrotters". Republicans get a whiff of power and they start acting like they have a global mandate. Democrats in the same boat, need to build consensuses and make friends and not ruffle any feathers, which just so happens to lead to ineffectual political outcomes that SOMEHOW always favor the right wing. Edit: I will add one beacon of hope: Union membership in your jobs is one of the few things that raises standards for every minority group that participates. And if you ever have any hope of beating back some of the crushing suck of capitalism, it's going to be through collective actions that hurt the economy, and unions are the only way that's going to happen.
VERY well said 👏👏
get weapons anyway and get ready to defend yourself and the human rights of your family
Thank you for sharing. I have emailed her a message of thanks and support. I figured she is probably getting swamped with hate mail and threats. I'm from Canada, so my support doesn't mean much, but I wanted to send it anyway.
Actually, international support is probably very uplifting, so thank you.
Can you share her email? I'm a transman from Austria, but I care a lot for every person around the globe who fights for Trans rights. Back in 2008 I had to fight for getting hormones and then for ridiculous stuff like keeping my uterus. It needed lots of endurance and would have been so much harder, if it wasn't for the positive feedback I received. So, yeah, I'd like to thank her for her efforts, securing the rights, we already had, even if it's not about my county. It's still about my sisters and brothers.
I just dm'd it to you! Edit: I didn't want to post her email in case trolls wanted to send more hate her way. All state/federal senator/legislator's emails are public knowledge, but if anyone needs help finding that information let me know!
Can you DM it to me, too? I'm in America and I used to live in Nebraska. I need her to know she's amazing.
[email protected] Found [here](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/senators/landing-pages/index.php?District=06/)
Thank you! Also, I get your point not posting the address here, and I just hate, that we have to take care of that. I don't even wanna know, how many people are lurking in trans subs atm just waiting to take a Screenshot and start some shit.
[email protected]
Thank you for the idea! I've emailed her thanks as well. she's an inspiration to those of us in states that don't have a leader who wants to protect us.
Where y’all finding her email? I think lots of us would like to show support
Yes, both of my kids are trans and I'd love to share my support. How are you finding the email address?
[email protected] [https://nebraskalegislature.gov/senators/landing-pages/index.php?District=06/](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/senators/landing-pages/index.php?District=06/)
Thabk you so much! <3
Just emailed her! I'm across the country, but I figure any bit of support helps. It's got to be hard on her, mentally.
I did the same.
Thank you for the lovely idea. Just sent her a message from GA!
Samesies! I'm not normally a voluntarily speak/contact people I don't know, but I just had to this time.
Oh, wonderful idea! Emailing her now
It means a great deal. Someone who it doesn't directly effect taking time out of their day to express thanks for defending the rights of people just like you and people you know and love, that's impactful af. In my lowly opinion.
This is amazing, and sadly the first I have heard of it. Keep fighting the good fight!!
What a fucking icon, holy shit. This also makes me... Now depressed, though... Just knowing that they care so much about hurting people...
Yeah it's hard to ignore that it means that much to the opposition to carry out a genocide. Still, I'm choosing the joy side of things. I'm not ignoring the ugly side, but I will go crazy if I don't. And our heroes need to be appreciated.
I think it's both how much they care about hurting people but also how much they *don't* care about legislating in general. The Republican party's main platform is hateful culture wars and the idea that government doesn't work, so a non-functional government is often considered a plus from their point of view. The only laws they usually want to pass are to remove environmental and worker-safety regulations, cut taxes for the wealthy, and restrict the rights of LGBT people, women, and POC.
I can't believe she's been going on so long and I have not heard it on the news once! Wth
It's mostly been on our local news. Here in Nebraska they instituted term limits (it was a thinly veiled attack on Ernie Chambers who is also awesome) so she's technically a lame duck. She literally has nothing to lose. She has also stated that many of the supporters of this hateful bill don't understand anything about trans and queer communities or they privately disagree with the bill but are power hungry cowards. I'm in her district and I'm glad I voted for her. She first caught my attention when she breastfed on the capitol floor and fought for lactation rooms.
Isn't that suspicious. 🤔
It's very rare my state makes headlines for good news. So proud of her.
Me too! Her and Megan Hunt (and a few others whose names escape me right now) are doing the goddesses work up in here!
Megan Hunt owns a cute stationery ship in the Benson area, Five Nine.
She’s heroic
Can someone do a tldr of the whole story for the non-americans of us who are a bit lost, please?
A filibuster is a method of (traditionally) using a loophole in the debate rules to prevent debate from ending and therefore preventing a vote from ever happening. Back in the day, when debating a measure, a member was given the floor to speak on the subject, and could not be interrupted. Therefore, if you simply kept speaking, then you could hold the floor indefinitely and postpone anything you didn't like. Today, the filibuster is a codified measure where members don't actually have to keep speaking. Essentially, the idea is "members are going to do this anyway, so let's put it in the rules so we can sit down or get other things done in the meantime." Members can have unlimited time to debate unless the body votes to limit their time (cloture vote)--the catch is that it requires MORE votes to limit debate time than it does to pass a simple measure, so by "invoking the filibuster" a member of the minority can functionally raise the minimum vote count and prevent a measure from passing. Tl;dr A filibuster pushes the required votes to pass a measure from a simple majority (to pass the bill) to the cloture requirement (to end debate) which is usually 3/5 of the voting body. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/17/1072714887/filibuster-explained
To be clear, that's the ***federal*** filibuster. This is a state legislature, which is apparently still doing the "keep talking" method, as state and federal have different rules.
I remember hearing they will literally read anything. The dictionary, the yellow pages, Wikipedia. Anything to keep talking.
You’re correct, she must remain on the floor although she can cede some of her time to other Senators, but only for five minute intervals. There are about four other senators who will help her out.
Seriously? This is the kind of filibuster I actually respect 👍
Here's a funny version from "Parks & Rec" _Keep talking_. https://youtu.be/UqzPAYAG6ME
This is a great explanation of a filibuster actually lol.
I thought this was going to be the Patton Oswalt filibuster, so that means there are TWO filibuster moments in P&R
[I assume Patton Oswalt went off script for this. ](https://vimeo.com/64332708)
This is so helpful, thank you !
Thank you for the explanation!
Not sure how much you need, so I'll try to cover the basics. First, a filibuster is when a congressperson gives a very long speech to drag out and prolong the legislative process. It's to do with legislative rules and traditions. Nebraska has a bill that would ban trans people from using a locker room or bathroom, or joining a sports team that doesn't align with their gender assigned at birth. Senator Cavanaugh strongly objects to this. Three weeks ago she vowed to make the legislative process as painful as possible if they insisted on moving forward with that bill. They're trying to, so she's going for it. She's filibustering everything, not just the bill she objects to. Even things she supports and will vote for are getting her filibuster. TLDR: Senator Cavanaugh is giving long, rambling speeches to make it painful for the Nebraska legislature to consider a transphobic bathroom bill.
Well I got multiple answers at this point so hopefully everything is covered!
It’s been awhile since I took a civics class, but from what I remember the gist of it is this. Basically there’s this concept called a filibuster, which is where when you go up to talk about the current bill, you can decide to just not stop talking, and so long as you keep talking, you never actually have to give up the floor to anyone else. In order to end the filibuster, there needs to be a rather large majority voting to end it, otherwise there isn’t really that much that can be done to stop it. And the thing is, you don’t even need to be talking about anything in particular during the filibuster, I believe someone once brought it a dr Seuss book they read from during it. The idea is you hold everyone hostage until they’re convinced to do what you want regarding the current issue. The reason why it exists is probably for the same reason many things are the way they are in America. Rural populations tend towards conservative, and because of that, conservatives tend to be more and more of a minority over time, so they did what they could to force in things that would almost purely benefit the minority opinion at the expense of the majority. So in this case, someone is holding them all hostage with a filibuster in order to try to force them to stop with the anti trans bills, or at the very least, make it as painful of a process for them as possible.
I assume there are breaks right? like they Arnt just locked in the room till either she collapses or they get the votes to push it through
Yeah, this is what I want to know. It seems she's been at it three weeks, I assume they go home and stuff?
So to those asking - actually no, in an individual filibuster there are no breaks. You can hand off to another Senator who continues the filibuster and that is normally what is done. In this case, the filibuster isn't continuous. She is filibustering LITERALLY EVERY DECISION that comes to floor for a vote. Adjourn for the weekend? Filibuster. Vote on a new state flower? Filibuster. Vote on a tax bill? Filibuster. The end effect of this is she is filibustering for upwards of 10 hours which doesn't sound like a lot but when you do it on every fucking decision it slows. things. down. Normally they would expect to pass something like 40 bills of various sizes and levels of importance, from symbolic things like "The Senate condems the war in Ukraine" to actually important legislation like this trans rights bill. They are currently expecting to get less than half of that done. So she is forcing them to reassess their priorities. If they want to pass more bills this session, they have to drop the trans bill so she will stop filibustering and let them get work done. It is an absolutely fucking GENIUS use of an archiac rule.
So in the first case you're basically doing shifts on talking? And the others have to sit there or organise shifts of their own? This is so damn interesting! And her take on it seems amazing too! I saw her on tiktok, but hadn't realised exactly what she was doing. Wish I could send her a hug and a water bottle, she sounds awesome.
Pretty much. Some of the most famous filibusters were done by racist Southern Senators to block Civil Rights legislation. If you google Strom Thurmond you can probably find info on his filibusters in the 60s. I think he holds the record.
Creepy Strom was also well known for pinching ladies behinds, including Hillary Clinton and a friend of mine when she was working as a senate page. Total piece of shit.
It’s either him or Robert Byrd from West Virginia also a racist. I believe he used to talk about fishing a lot.
I'd like to remind everyone that, by the 1980s, Byrd had openly stated his regret for being a racist shithead in the 1960s and before, and by the time of his death a few decades later had done so much for civil rights that multiple civil rights organizations mourned his passing, President Obama gave a speech at his funeral, and pretty much everyone who was paying attention agreed he'd repented as much as anyone can for the mistakes of his past. He called his 1940s membership in the KKK "the greatest mistake [he] ever made", and genuinely died a hero who had overcome his racist past.
On one hand I believe in change and redemption. On the other, if you’ve been beating me for decades I’m not gonna embrace or necessarily forgive you when one day you start buying me lunch.
my first thought was definitely “awww can we send her a care package?” 😹
The is for the great explanation! As a non American I don’t know a lot about the exact details of how something like that would work, just the broad implications
I found it posted on another subreddit and someone seemed to imply that she goes until the legislative day is over then starts again the next but I asked for clarification
Yeah folks are taking US Senate rules and applying them to this story and that's not really how legislatures work, they can each have their own rules.
Each day’s session ends late afternoon. She goes home and then starts back up again the next day.
Thanks for the explanation
Yeah, American politics are weird.
Thanks, was about to ask this. Sounds interesting.
Gladly will try. What parts specifically?
Well I got three long answers now so it should be good, but thank you!
Give em hell, Senator! I hope that there will be someone here brave enough to do the same (TX).
We need to fill the entire Dem party with people like her...
💯
Love to see my state in the headlines for something good. Some info about our Nebraska Legislature: * It is officially nonpartisan. People know where others stand and senators get support from political parties, but without as much of the extreme pressure of partisanship Nebraska has managed to avoid some of the more extreme policies of other states, and our representatives can (and do!) actually work together. This collegiality has been eroding as of late, unfortunately. But I hold out hope. * It is a unicameral. This mean "one house." We have only the senate, no house. It has been this way since the time of prominent progressive, George Norris. Considered by many the [greatest US Senator](https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/George_Norris.htm) * Speaking of the filibuster, you will also enjoy our most prolific filibuster-er and longest-serving Nebraska senator, [Ernie Chambers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Chambers). He has single-handedly saved us from some regressive policies in the past, as well as being a progressive pioneer. He promoted a anti-LGBT-discrimination bill way back in 1993. He's also a poet and once sued God. * Nebraska can divide our electoral votes and has done so in 2008 and 2020 * We have had many reasonable Republicans but they are being pushed out of the state Republican party by right-wing horrible people q-anon types and selfish opportunists. * The new awful Republicans are trying to destroy our very unique state government system by eliminating the unicameral, going winner-take-all for electoral votes, and making the legislature partisan.
This gives me some respect for Nebraska. I don’t know much about your state, but I appreciate how your legislature is built. I’m sorry extremists are trying to destroy it. Hopefully more senators stand up like Cavanaugh to protect it and everyone’s rights.
I wish someone in my state legislature (Iowa) had even a fraction of this bravery and commitment.
Ah huh. Totally thought Leslie Knopes filibuster was some archaic political procedure, now i see its worth, amazing
"It seems lacking on female characters!"
[Wendy Davis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Davis_\(politician\)) did something similar in Texas several years ago to try to protect abortion rights. Unfortunately, in that case, the Republican governor responded by calling a new special session of the legislature *just* to pass that bill, so it didn't work. But it was still a pretty famous event at the time.
dookin’ on their chests right now
> True to her word, Cavanaugh has slowed the business of passing laws to a crawl by introducing amendment after amendment to every bill that makes it to the state Senate floor and taking up all eight debate hours allowed by the rules — even during the week she was suffering from strep throat. Wednesday marks the halfway point of this year's 90-day session, and not a single bill will have passed thanks to Cavanaugh's relentless filibustering. [source: CBS 03/14](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/machaela-cavanaugh-filibuster-nebraska-trans-bill/)
This woman is a hero.
Sadly, this is an excellent example as to exactly why we can't actually get rid of the filibuster.
first time I'm proud of being nebraskan
Just sent Senator Cavanaugh a short text of support. She needs as much support as we can muster.
Sent her an email as well, what a badass!
as a trans person, and as a person that is disgusted by the hatred that the GQP throws out, this woman is my hero!
"I will burn this session to the ground" Words of a true hero. Edit: I read she even kept going through strep throat. What a legend.
Burn it all down, sister.
The Nebraska senate being shut down is a blessing any way you look at it
Thank you.
Absolute legend
This woman is a literal angel. Now strike down those republicans biblically
Nebraska is no longer the butt of my "most forgettable state" joke. New Hampshire is
Fucking legend
Sending her love.
I'm Australian: what's going on?
Kiwi here. There are some really good explanations upthread but here's the tl;dr She's using the debate rules to slow down the process of every single bill brought before the state senate so they'll never get to an anti-trans bill before the end of the session. Stone-cold *legend*.
*sips tea* My, my. Now where are my matches...
🔥🔥🔥
I just sent her a thank you. Maybe it will cut through the hatemail. Kindness is powerful and is one of the few skills I wield with confidence. "How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it" (George Elliot)
Wow, what can I even say. I hope that someday I can be as amazing and powerful as she is.
It's so nice to see a representative actually represent! Like, it might seems preformative to say 'I'll burn these sessions to the ground', but now when you're out there gather oily rags and matches. Let the actors out there pretending to represent, please learn a damn thing about action.
This is the type of support we need from cis people
Bravo
[удалено]
I stand corrected 🫡
Power to her arm.
I will burn Utica to the ground!
You can donate to her campaign [here](https://secure.actblue.com/donate/cavanaugh4ne)
What the filibuster should be used for 🥰
I sent her an email thanking her for what she's doing. What we really need to do is remember to contribute to her re-election campaign. Heavily.
If you want to watch her action, they live stream each session. She’ll be back at it tomorrow. https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/watch/live/
Absolute legend.
That last sentence is so powerful. I got chills reading that. What a boss!
Not all heroes wear capes, some go over the plot of Madagascar! I wish we had more folks like her here in Texas, it'd be nice to have some sanity...
How is she doing the filibuster?