If this is your first round on the 'US uses blatantly false evidence as an excuse to attack a country for purely selfish reasons' track, then let me save you a lot of future embarrassment:
You don't need to try to become a public expert on Venezuela or Maduro based on reading half the Wikipedia page or scrolling the Bluesky tags. You don't need to state any opinion on the former political situation of Venezuela at all. It's okay for now to admit that you know fuck all about it, or to just not speak on it.
An opinion like 'The US shouldn't use blatantly false evidence as an excuse to attack a country for purely selfish reasons' is a full opinion that doesn't require knowing exactly what was up in the country being attacked.
Don't fall for the temptation of 'the enemy of my enemy must be a friend, so I'm gonna get on their hill and write minimally-informed stuff about how great they are'. Trust me, you're gonna feel very silly about that later.
Chocolate package that says "imported from belgium", does cacao grow in belgium? No? Where does it grow? Congo, Ivory Coast, and Ghana? Brazil, Venezuela, and Peru? So why doesn't the package say imported from those places instead? Oh it's because all the peocessing is done in the imperial core and then they prevent those countries from being able to domestically process and export instead only allowing them to export raw materials and then forcing them to import the very products made from their exports except now it's marked up thousands of times.
i'm reminded of Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America, where he discusses the price manipulation of chocolate on the international market by colonial countries:
I cried over this today by the way.
[ID: An image of plaintext that reads: “The story behind the ‘Islamic rage guy’ born in 1978 to a Sufi Muslim family in IOK. In 1990 Indian police threw his sister out of a window and she died four years later of her spine injuries; this man has never killed anybody and became involved in Kashmiri independence movement.” End ID]
His name is Shakeel Ahmad Bhat. He’s been tortured and imprisoned numerous times by the Indian government across his career as a militant and later a peaceful protestor for various causes, principally Kashmiri liberation.
Do you guys think [redacted] is gay? *remembers it’s bad to speculate abt people’s sexualities* I know for certain [redacted] is gay
“Europe is literally the creation of the Third World. The wealth which smothers her is that which was stolen from the underdeveloped peoples. The ports of Holland, the docks of Bordeaux and Liverpool were specialized in the Negro slave trade, and owe their renown to millions of deported slaves. So when we hear the head of a European state declare with his hand on his heart that he must come to the aid of the poor underdeveloped peoples, we do not tremble with gratitude.”
— Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
sorry i have to rush this post out rq. we're late with rent & now need $440 (we have $160.81 currently.) & must pay the late rent by Wednesday (Jan 14th) or we'll obv be evicted. & $374 regular rent will still be due each Thursday. phone service ($50) is also due on the 15th. literally anything helps.
+ i got extremely sick in the last 24-48 hours. i think its partly the outing to the vet as well as my oldest brother infecting me AGAIN. im doing horribly physically & need to order some things to treat it too.
hi this has completely stalled i need help badly. im suffering from covid for now the 3rd time & rent is late. please help me not become homeless. i can barely function.
at $213.42/440.08 & thats just for the late rent due in 3 days. please help i dont want to be homeless with my cat while i have covid. its not my fault im disabled or its so close to the wire all the time. ive Been trying to find something more sustainable then this, but i cant do that if im dead.
This image isn't just a fleeting news item; it's part of our daily reality in Gaza. While thousands of trucks loaded with tents, blankets, food, and medicine are held outside the Strip, prevented from entering by the Israeli occupation, we face a humanitarian catastrophe that worsens day by day. We die here every moment. We suffer constantly, and everyone ignores what we're going through.
I was injured more than 600 days ago. Shrapnel from the bombing of our house, while we were inside, is still embedded in my body. I'm still injured and unable to receive proper treatment because of the siege and the lack of medical supplies. The pain is constant, but what's worse than the pain is the feeling that we're forgotten and that everyone is ignoring what we're going through. We constantly ask for help, and everyone ignores us.
My family and I are very ill now due to the winter storm that began yesterday in Gaza. Because of this winter, we haven't been able to recover due to the lack of medicine and shelter from these recurring storms. Our tent is torn and leaking rainwater and cold air. Worse still, all our blankets and pillows are soaked. We urgently need to buy medicine and treatments, but they are very expensive because the occupation prevents the entry of medicine into Gaza. Therefore, we desperately need your help by donating so we can buy these medicines quickly. Please donate.
Worse still, I have a runny nose and severe sneezing. When I sneeze, it feels like the metal fragments (stuck in my body) are moving inside me, and I experience excruciating pain in the affected areas and my wounds. Please help me so I can buy my medication as soon as possible. Please donate.
please donate
Please give what you can to help Fadel get medicine, and help he and his family survive the seige and the dangerous weather
I am very ill right now. When I sneeze, it feels like metal fragments are moving around inside me. I am extremely tired. I just sneezed, and my wounds and injured areas are in excruciating pain. I don't know how long this pain will last. Please help me by donating so I can have my surgery as soon as possible and buy my medication. Please donate.
curling up on your lap in a really inconvenient way but you arent allowed to move me or get upset at me
when youre nice to me this is who youre being nice to *picture of an evil dracula*
needless to say my sweetie meter has been depleted
*looking at you thru my speakeasy door slot*
[👁️👁️]
the weed dispensaries should ask if you would like to round up your purchase to donate to PBS. and if you say yes you get to scan a QR code that gives you 30-day free access to the full run of antiques roadshow. this is how drugs can win the war on drugs again.
IMPORTANT PSA! If you contribute to PBS or any local public broadcasting subsidiary at $5/mo ($60/yr) or above, you gain access to PBS Passport, which has a tremendous library of public broadcast programs available…including the full run of antiques roadshow
If you’re able to grasp the idea that firing all the cops and finding new friendlier cops to replace them would be a huge pointless waste of time and money and shouldn’t even be considered as one of our goals as a movement, then you should be able to understand that there are better things we could be focusing on than electoralism
Can you imagine if every cent and every minute that the working class put towards electing The Guy Who Invented Mass Incarceration and his Transphobic Cop Friend had gone into mutual aid, tenant organizing, workplace organizing, bail funds, prisoner support, protest gear, squatting, gardening, indigenous resistance, migrant support, community building, radical infrastructure, education, and skill sharing instead?
We can build something better that no politician could give to us and no politician could take from us. We just need to realize that their power comes from us, and we can take that power back and use it for each other instead