Reblogged saintfelina
Reblogged darkbluetennessee
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
— Howard Zinn, A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
Reblogged librarycard
the fundraiser for Renée Macklin Good’s family has well surpassed its goal and is now closed — if you want to help Minneapolis residents as the city is terrorized by ICE raids, please turn your attention toward this fundraiser for local families, as well as Adelina Olivarez Cardona and Arturo Sanchez Chinos, both of whom are currently being detained.
additionally, you can support the family of keith porter jr, who was shot and killed by an off duty ICE agent on new years
Reblogged
"It seems to be a fact of life that human beings cannot continue to do wrong without eventually reaching out for some rationalization to clothe their acts in the garments of righteousness.
And so, with the growth of slavery, men had to convince themselves that a system which was so economically profitable was morally justifiable. The attempt to give moral sanction to a profitable system gave birth to the doctrine of white supremacy."
Where Do We Go From Here, Martin Luther King Jr.
Reblogged pancakemoney
If you're in the US, now is a great time to talk to the young people in your life about the US military:
- The recruiter is not your friend. The military employs child psychologists to learn how to make you think the recruiter is your friend.
- The recruiter is allowed to lie to you and makes more money if they do.
- The recruiter is paid a commission to groom children into cannon fodder.
- The recruiter will tell you you're special and will go into special smart soldier programs instead of combat. They're lying.
- The recruiter may tell you they can tell if someone can get PTSD or not and only recruit people like you, who won't. They're lying.
- The recruiter may tell you you'll be too busy attending free college (!!) to go overseas. They're lying.
- The recruiter may ask what countries you want to travel to and promise you bougie placements on military bases in those countries. They're lying.
- Even "It's just four years!" is a lie - the government is allowed to hold you past your enlistment period with a stop-loss order.
- The recruiter actually has zero power to decide anything that happens to you after you enlist and they more importantly don't care what happens to you.
- If you enlist, you will be brainwashed to make you willing to do things to other humans that you would never be willing to do today.
- You will be ordered to do things that will kill children. And you'll do them.
- The military is not the only way or even the best way for you to go to college or start a career.
- Military brainwashing will actually make you into a terrible university student because it degrades your ability to think critically and question your sources.
- Having PTSD and/or a TBI will make it harder to be a student and keep a job.
- Veterans' benefits suck these days.
- Being a veteran drastically increases your risk of homelessness, suicide, alcohol and drug dependence, prison time, and becoming an abuser to your loved ones.
- The military will expose you to chemicals that will drastically increase your chances of developing cancer.
- The military will withhold information about your rights to conscientiously object after enlisting.
- A lot can change in four years.
All of this!
If you want an organization who WILL tell you the truth about your rights to conscientiously object, how to legally get out of the DEP (Delayed Entry Program) or about any of your other rights in the military (whether you’re enlisted, thinking about enlisting, or a family member or friend of someone enlisted (or thinking about enlisting)), who will do it confidentially & for free, you want the
GI Rights Hotline
run by NGOs & non-profits, which has been counseling folks for DECADES now:
Or by phone:
1-877-447-4487
Even if all the person you're speaking to cares about is the money, the money sucks.
Minimum wage in California just went up to $16.90. You need to be rank E4 or be E3 with at least 3 years of service before you're making more than the CA minimum wage in the military.
You will literally get better pay and benefits working at a costco. (And that's not even accounting for the fact that the military isn't a 40 hour work week, your entire life is on the clock)
I cannot emphasize this enough, if you're a desperate young queer person you will make better money, get better healthcare, and have more affordable options for school if you move to California, get a job at costco, live with roommates, and go to community college than you will have if you join the US military.
Reblogged batvillainz
sailor-crusader-deactivated2025
You have GOT to stop acting like "criminals" are a different breed of human that are more violent just because.
criminal is not a state of being it is a relationship with the state!
Reblogged eternal-fractal
If you're 20 or younger, and you want a binder, need a new one, get one now.
Links to free binders:
Reblogged tacofriend
Reblogged naughtynanzhu
Hello friends — as you may have seen on the news, Hong Kong just had its worst fire in at least 60 years with 128 confirmed dead and over 200 still missing. If you are overseas and would like to help, please consider:
1. Spreading correct information about bamboo scaffolding and the cause of the fire
There is no evidence that the bamboo scaffolding exacerbated the fire. In fact, it is far more likely that the cost-cutting of the contractor led to this tragedy as they used low-cost mesh instead of the industry-standard non-flammable mesh, which caused the fire to spread upwards quickly. Bamboo is very difficult to light on fire and has been used as scaffolding in Hong Kong for many years. It is part of our culture and a stronghold of local heritage. It is one of the few industries where the Mainland has been unable to take over because they use metal scaffolds. There has been a huge spread of disinformation even among reputable international media that the bamboo was a leading cause of the fire. In fact, this is misleading and only helps the government’s agenda to phase out bamboo scaffolding in favour of metal scaffolding, which they are already doing. Biases against bamboo scaffolding are often rooted in misunderstanding and xenophobia. It would be extremely helpful to correct those who are spreading this misinformation. Please help stop the state from turning this tragedy into a way to promote their political agenda.
2. Check in on your HKer friends
Many HKers are shaken by the incident and may be struggling with their emotions/mental health as a result. Please offer them a listening ear and let them know you are here to support them.
3. Donate
If you are in a position to do so, you can consider donating to the following reputable organisations: Mission for Migrant Workers Yan Chai Hospital Yan Oi Tong Tung Wah Hospital Feeding Hong Kong Po Leung Kuk Crossroads
Pray for Hong Kong 🙏 We will get through this. If the news is overwhelming or triggering, please take a break. That being said, I do sincerely appeal to everyone to spread the word, especially those I see on here who have accounts dedicated to Hong Kong movies/culture. We can't just reminisce about old Hong Kong when Hong Kong is still here and in need.
Reblogged milfygerard
If you have the means to donate gifts to toy drives or shelters, please keep the above tips in mind so you can help meet people’s wants and needs! 💓
Reblogged estrogenesis-eeveeangelion
watching the leftism leaving peoples bodies when you point out the sex offender registry is a grotesque violation of human rights
the only reason the registry exists is because we culturally view sexual crimes as inherently more evil and unforgivable than any other kind of violence. people are more willing to believe that a murder can grow and change than a flasher. if you’re woke enough to believe that ‘innocence’ is a fascist concept and sex is just another thing the body can do, then you should believe the corollary: hurting someone with your genitals is no different from hurting them with your fists
and yet, murderers and other violent offenders do not have their full names, faces, and addresses put on a public database for the rest of their lives. there is no such thing. they are not legally barred from watching movies containing violence, or owning imagery containing violence
in my state, sex offender probation means you can be searched, at any time, without a warrant, and owning a copy of playboy is a violation. it means you’ll be arrested if a family member comes to stay with you and you don’t register their vehicle with the sheriff. the dehumanization is beyond the pale
Multiple people have brought up the point that the sex offender registry disproportionately targets marginalized people and is used to criminalize the existence of queers, etc. That is true, and it's important to know, but, I cannot stress enough:
This post is about rapists.
The sex offender registry is not bad because innocent people are on it. It is bad because it is a gross abuse of human rights. Rapists are human beings. They deserve human rights. They deserve privacy. They deserve free access to media. They deserve the opportunity to grow and change.
Too many of you are only interested in protecting Unperson's rights as a means to protect Good People's rights, and it shows.
Reblogged kindofmakingmewet
the co-founder of 'crips for esims for gaza' and disability advocate, alice wong, has died according to her twitter account.
alice's disability advocacy naturally led her to palestine solidarity as the quote from the blog post announcing 'crips for esims' illustrates:
We also recognize that everyone in Gaza is now disabled due to the massive number of deaths, new disabilities, life-threatening illnesses and destruction of medical facilities going on. Such destruction also debilitates the land, water, and air, which will impact Palestinians and all surrounding life for generations to come. We owe our kin in Palestine to throw sand on the gears of genocide with our every breath. [source: the disability visibility project]
since december 2023, crips for esims for gaza has raised well over $3.1M and bought and maintained over 5,000 esims, undoubtedly saving lives.
in the past few days there has been intense winter flooding in gaza. donate to honor alice wong's memory–to keep people connected, to give disabled people the tools to advocate for themselves, to refuse to let palestine be silenced.
Reblogged artesian-diff
“There aren’t enough hours in a day.” There are actually. The problem is that we think 40 hour work weeks are an unavoidable fact of life.
The problem is that everyone has to work 8 hours, pretty much no exceptions, and with getting ready time + (unpaid) lunch + commute, “8 hours” is actually anywhere between 9 and 12, every single day, with more work to do when you get home because our society and culture was built around having one member of the household home full time and nothing has changed now that almost everyone works.
No wonder Americans are reliant on DoorDash and fast food, there’s no time or energy to cook. No one wonder mental and physical health are in shambles, many just spent all day sitting in fluorescent lights with little to no stimulation. “Just wake up earlier” “Just meal prep”… these are ok short-term, individual solutions, but the broader, systemic issue is obvious. We aren’t built for this. There’s no work-life balance. Genuinely, I think if our culture could normalize a shorter work week, many individuals’ biggest problems would simply evaporate.
And the way to get it is to force businesses to pay their workers to work fewer hours for the same pay, because the overwhelming majority of businesses are self-interested. The top brass wants money money money at the expense of everyone below them.
I quite agree with everything you've said here OP, but I WISH this was a normalization situation, where the culture needs to change, instead of a systemic issue where (again, most) companies will have to be forced.
I suppose one can say that what needs to be normalized is being outraged at the current workweek, and refusing to accept it as default
Reblogged affectionate-anarchy
Reblogged chenqingssuibian
sharing here for people in baltimore, this looks well researched/likely to be happening soon. please be vigilant
ICE raids coming to Baltimore
I've been tracking/following federal government contracts for a little over a month now and have reason to believe Baltimore is next (or very close to the top) on the list for ICE raids.
The General Services Administration (GSA) posts leasing opportunities to vendors to work with the government on their website and other contracts can be located on SAM.gov. I'll include links below.
As of **10/31**, the opportunity, *"Administrative Office Space in support of Law Enforcement Operations Baltimore City, MD"* was posted, requiring 44 office cubicles/workstations. Offers (options for the government to choose from) are due **11/7.**
On that same day, Baltimore County was removed from the sanctuary jurisdiction list and has agreed to work with ICE.
On **10/30**, another leasing opportunity, "*Administrative Office Space in support of Law Enforcement Operations Hyattsville, MD"* was posted, also requiring 44 cubicles/workstations with offers due **11/7**.
On **9/29**, Baltimore City, MD; Orlando, FL; Seattle, WA; Towns of Islip and Smithtown, NY were all included in a leasing opportunity, "*Administrative Office Space in support of Law Enforcement Operations"* requesting 70 workstations each. Offers were due **10/7**.
**Chicago and Memphis also had listings requesting space to support law enforcement prior to hell breaking loose. San Francisco had this listing as well.**
On **9/23**, a vendor was awarded a contract through ICE for 42,000 Meals Ready-to Eat for a 6 month period to the Baltimore and Salisbury detention centers. 21,000 were to be delivered immediately and the remainder 90 days later.
I don't want to fear monger and I'm not professionally well-versed in the world of contracting but, I'd much rather be loud and wrong here than silent and sorry. Compared to other contracts I've been reading, Baltimore has hardly been listed on any until now.
[https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/983b3fdf7736400caf4392adf3bbcd8f/view](https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/983b3fdf7736400caf4392adf3bbcd8f/view)
[https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/0f4999f25bee48b7b276582920c7c921/view](https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/0f4999f25bee48b7b276582920c7c921/view)
[https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/09ab0782924c4010ab92f7dca6a32a2b/view](https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/09ab0782924c4010ab92f7dca6a32a2b/view)
[https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/b42b40a8dec44d55be77b34e52049014/view](https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/b42b40a8dec44d55be77b34e52049014/view)
Reblogged sunshine-tattoo
That's exactly what's supposed to happen. People wish they could be activists, but they can't because they have to work in order to survive, so they make sure their children can be the activists.
Also, you're absolutely right that this is what privilege looks like. But for the 1,000,012th time, the word "privilege" is not an insult. Having privilege doesn't automatically make you a bad person, but it does make you more likely to have opportunities to be a bad person. It's also possible to use your privilege for good.
Would you prefer that she instead use her wealth to buy an excess of housing in order to profit and hoard more wealth? How exactly would that be the morally superior choice?