#Conservation Alliance

[cimerran-714]

Those who perform "gender-affirming surgery" on MINORS is no better than a paedophile or s groomer.

I know that it is sometimes used to treat intersex people (which should certainly remain an important exception to this rule) however that's rare. Most of them are not done for that reason.

These scumbags should be thrown in prison for the rest of their lives.

[camsbizarreadventure]

I noticed that throughout Law’s time with the straw-hats, he was either showing his chest or not wearing a shirt at all. HOWEVER, after the alliance was officially over in Wano, he is wearing a tank top that covers his chest again, We also see that before the time skip and before the start of the alliance in punk hazard, he had his chest covered. In conclusion Law saw that luffy had no shirt on, so law decided he to had to do that to match with him. In short luffy said I only accepts sluts as friend, if we are going to be in an alliance, you have to show a little tiddy.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

In late May, 19 Republican attorneys general filed a complaint with the Supreme Court asking it to block climate change lawsuits seeking to recoup damages from fossil fuel companies.

All of the state attorneys general who participated in the legal action are members of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), which runs a cash-for-influence operation that coordinates the official actions of these GOP state AGs and sells its corporate funders access to them and their staff. The majority of all state attorneys general are listed as members of RAGA.

Where does RAGA get most of its funding? From the very same fossil fuel industry interests that its suit seeks to defend. In fact, the industry has pumped nearly $5.8 million into RAGA’s campaign coffers since Biden was elected in 2020.

The recent Supreme Court complaint has been deemed “highly unusual” by legal experts.

The attorneys general claim that Democratic states, which are bringing the climate-related suits at issue in state courts, are effectively trying to regulate interstate emissions or commerce, which are under the sole purview of the federal government. Fossil fuel companies have unsuccessfully made similar arguments in their own defense.

RAGA’s official actions — and those of its member attorneys general — closely align with the goals of its biggest donors.

The group, a registered political nonprofit that can raise unlimited amounts of cash from individuals and corporations, solicits annual membership fees from corporate donors in exchange for allowing those donors to shape legal policy via briefings and other interactions with member attorneys general.

A Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) analysis of IRS filings since November 24, 2020 shows that Koch Industries (which recently rebranded) leads as the largest fossil fuel industry donor to RAGA, having donated $1.3 million between 2021 and June 2024.

Other large donors include:

• American Petroleum Institute (API), the oil and gas industry’s largest trade association

• Southern Company Services, a gas and electric utility holding company

• Valero Services, a petroleum refiner

• NextEra Energy Resources, which runs both renewable and natural gas operations

• Anschutz Corporation, a Denver-based oil and gas company

• American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a major trade organization

• Exxon Mobil, one of the largest fossil fuel multinationals in the world

• National Mining Association, the leading coal and mineral industry trade organization

• American Chemical Council, which represents major petrochemical producers and refiners

Many of these donors are being sued for deceiving the public about the role fossil fuels play in worsening climate change: many states — including California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Rhode Island — as well as local governments — such as the city of Chicago and counties in Oregon and Pennsylvania — have all filed suits against a mix of fossil fuel companies and their industry groups. In the cases brought by New York and Massachusetts, ExxonMobil found support from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of the corporation.

Paxton has accepted $5.2 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry over the past 10 years, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets and reviewed by CMD.

Fossil Fuel Contributions to the Republican Attorneys General Association Includes aggregate contributions of $10K or more from the period November 2020 to March 2024.

Note: This funding compilation does not include law firms, front groups, or public relations outfits that work on behalf of fossil fuel clients, many of which use legal shells to shield themselves from outright scrutiny. For example, Koch Industries, through its astroturf operation Americans for Prosperity, has deployed a shell legal firm in a major Supreme Court case designed to dismantle the federal government’s regulatory authority.

CARRYING BIG OIL’S WATER

This is far from the first time RAGA members have banded together to try to defeat clean energy and environmental regulations. In 2014, the New York Times initially reported on how RAGA circulates fossil fuel industry propaganda opposing federal regulations.

The Times investigation revealed thousands of documents exposing how oil and gas companies cozied up to Republican attorneys general to push back against President Obama’s regulatory agenda. “Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns,” the investigation found. That effort, which RAGA dubbed the Rule of Law campaign, has since morphed into RAGA’s political action arm, the nonprofit Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF).

Since then, RAGA’s appetite to go to bat for the industry has only grown.

In 2015, less than two weeks after representatives from fossil fuel companies and related trade groups attended a RAGA conference, Republican AGs petitioned federal courts to block the Obama administration’s signature climate proposal, as CMD has previously reported. Additional reporting revealed collusion between Republican AGs and industry lobbyists to defend ExxonMobil and obstruct climate change legislation.

There was also the 2016 secret energy summit that RAGA held in West Virginia with industry leaders, along with private meetings with fossil fuel companies to coordinate how to shield ExxonMobil from legal scrutiny. Later that year, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey — aided by 19 other Republican AGs — successfully brought a case before the court that hobbled Obama’s signature climate plan.

Morrisey is currently leading the Republican effort to take down an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation that targets coal-fired power plants.

Often, the attorneys general bringing these cases share many of the same donors who backed the confirmation of Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices, as pointed out by the New York Times.

And in 2021, Republican attorneys general from 19 states sent a letter to the U.S. Senate committees on Environment and Public Works and on Energy and Natural Resources hoping to persuade senators to vote against additional regulations on highly polluting methane emissions, a leading contributor to global warming.

Since 2022, RLDF’s “ESG Working Group” has been coordinating actions taken by Republican AGs against sustainable investing. Communications from that group obtained by CMD show that it was investigating Morningstar/Sustainalytics and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Republican AGs announced investigations into the six largest banks for information on their involvement in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance later that year.

LEGACY OF RIGHT-WING ACTIONS

It’s not only about fossil fuels. Attorneys general who are members of — and financially backed by — RAGA have a long track record of pursuing right-wing agendas. In Mississippi, Attorney General Lynn Fitch helped bring the legal case that ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade. In Texas, Paxton has attempted to overturn the Affordable Care Act and sued the federal government over Title IX civil rights protections, and safeguards for seasonal workers, among other policy irritants to the far Right. With support from fellow Republican AGs, he also led one of many efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In recent years, other pro-corporate major donors have included The Concord Fund, which is controlled by Trump’s “court whisperer” Leonard Leo, Big Tobacco, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform.

[palaceoftears]

Magnificent Century Rewatch: One Picspam per Episode

Episode 17: The Double Joy

-My dear mother used to say "walk barefoot on earth and it shall take away all your troubles and sorrows, earth shall give you happiness and joy"

-Your mother spoke well, one can only find peace in earth. But I'm not sure if it is on earth or in it.

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

I’m scared for the kids who might unknowingly buy the Harry Potter game or the books or the movies without knowing what’s going on. We need to ACTUALLY ban this franchise. Burn copies in stores. Smash your friend’s computer if you have to. I don’t know why we’re simply telling people to “read other books” and not going full scorched earth. There’s children out there who could be entrapped into this thing and not know until it’s too late…(It’s not censorship because it’s actually bad. Only minorities should be allowed to censor things because we know best.)

Nice try, buddy.

[skyhawkstragedy]

you know maybe people are grasping at straws on who to hate and using the most minute things (voice volume, misconstrued quotes) to justify our anger because we’re so used to having at least two other HGs that have given us reason to hate them but now it’s just crickets. We don’t have a Pooch/Brent/Kyle/Winston/Jack type hate figure bc the cast has given us so little pre-season so we don’t know who to hate and bully

Guys maybe we’re the hateful bunch this season

[straightlightyagami]

and is the leftist NATO in the room with us right now

[gothamcityneedsme]

It really is so intense whether your kaidens ex or like. Whatever the hell you are if you havent had another romance. They really make the beginning of the game just. Insane tbh.

Indoctrination theory is still real to me that kid is NOT real

[thedeafzoologist]

Cute but underappreciated animals

Gharials! They look like they're either laughing at their own terrible jokes or trying hard not to. So much dad energy.

Goblin sharks! Most images of them are of dead individuals, so they look wrinkled and scary. But they're just weird little guys and I honestly love them so much.

Telescope fish! Some images of them are from an especially unflattering angle, but they're goofy little things so I don't think they mind it. They have extendable jaws and they do not know what capitalism is.

Archey's frog! It is literally just walking moss in the shape of a friend. I honestly cannot look at them without squealing.

Tragically, gharials are critically endangered with fewer than 235 individuals remaining. The Gharial Conservation Alliance (GCA) is working to preserve this precious crocodilian - if you want to help, you can make a donation or try to raise awareness in whatever way you can

[chaos-in-one]

No one:

Me at random to confuse people:

Me: I'm on my girlboss arc *isn't a girl*

Me: They call me the wife haver *doesn't like women like that*

[deathbydarkelves]

I brought up how the Alliance's general narrative has extremely obvious themes of imperialism in a discord and for the split second after I hit send I was suddenly aware of 30 metaphorical laser sights on my chest.

Thankfully someone else was immediately like "it's a goofy game, we're just playing a goofy game" to steer the conversation away from where I had accidentally guided it 💀

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

When Donald Trump was indicted last year for pilfering classified documents from the White House, court filings included photos of state secrets stashed throughout his country-club-turned-residence in, among other unsecured spaces, a ballroom, a bathroom, and Trump’s bedroom.

On Monday night, following Trump’s latest disingenuous contention—that the FBI agents who seized and reviewed the contents of boxes upon boxes of sensitive materials stored at Mar-a-Lago “failed to maintain” the exact order of the documents within, which Trump now claims could somehow exonerate him—government lawyers filed a scathing response letting the air out of Trump’s contentions.

Far from a neatly ordered system under which Trump, a notorious pack rat, maintained a precise inventory of important documents, Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, along with prosecutors Jay Bratt and David Harbach, noted the “cluttered collection of keepsakes,” which “traveled from one readily accessible location to another” around the Palm Beach, Florida club.

“[T]his is not a case where reams of identically-sized documents were stacked neatly in file folders or redwelds, arrayed perfectly within a box,” the filing states. “To anyone other than Trump, the boxes had no apparent organization whatsoever.”

Trump kept highly guarded secrets in boxes with “personally chosen keepsakes of various sizes and shapes from his presidency—newspapers, thank you notes, Christmas ornaments, magazines, clothing, and photographs of himself and others,” the government’s filing goes on.

“After they landed in stacks in the storage room, several boxes fell and splayed their contents on the floor; and boxes were moved to Trump’s residence on more than one occasion so he could review and pick through them,” the filing continues. “Against this backdrop of the haphazard manner in which Trump chose to maintain his boxes, he now claims that the precise order of the items within the boxes when they left the White House was critical to his defense, and, what’s more, that FBI agents executing the search warrant in August 2022 should have known that.”

Smith, Bratt, and Harbach included a slew of exhibits to back up their position, with numerous previously unseen pictures of Trump’s decidedly chaotic storage methods. One shows assorted wadded-up golf shirts side-by-side with a folder marked “CONFIDENTIAL.” Another shows extremely sensitive defense-related documents carelessly stacked up on the floor beside cases of Diet Coke, a Hermes tie box, and a “Save America” cap, several toppled boxes with papers, binders, and folders spilling out, and a box containing a Christmas pillow and a random length of bubble wrap, beneath which, as national security analyst and writer Marcy Wheeler pointed out, at least one document prosecutors say was related to America’s nuclear weapons program.

In one exhibit, Smith & Co. provide a new photo of a storage closet at Mar-a-Lago where the contents of at least five upturned bankers boxes can be seen spilling out onto the floor. Several suit jackets in plastic dry cleaning bags hang from a rack above them, a Gibson guitar case leans against the wall, and what appears to be a piece of rococo plaster molding teeters atop a cardboard box nearby. According to the indictment, one of the boxes seen here contained a 2019 document marked “SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY,” which denotes the Five Eyes intelligence alliance that includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.

In another, a picture taken by FBI agents on the Mar-a-Lago search team shows a blue leather-bound box, filled to overflowing, sitting on the carpeted floor of Trump’s home office next to a supply of Trump’s favorite soft drink. Nearby, a small portrait of Trump, making his trademark “resolute” face, is visible against a wall. Inside this box, according to prosecutors, were three documents classified at the Top Secret level.

A third exhibit shows a series of three boxes in a Mar-a-Lago storage room, one containing a pile of dirty clothes, another with a document marked “SECRET,” and one with a small red-and-white-trimmed pillow and a sheet of pink plastic bubble wrap on top. This box held 10 documents for which Trump was charged, including one classified as “Formerly Restricted under the Atomic Energy Act, meaning it pertains to US nuclear weapons,” according to Wheeler. Prosecutors said in Monday night’s filing that the FBI in fact found 32 documents with classification markings, 11 of them “CONFIDENTIAL,” in one binder—though none of them were charged in the indictment.

And in yet another, one of Trump’s boxes can be seen containing a cover sheet marked “SECRET,” a binder from a 2018 Cabinet meeting, and, curiously, a copy of a 2019 article in The New York Times about a whistleblower who exposed Trump’s shady dealings with Deutsche Bank and was later found dead.

On Tuesday afternoon, Smith & Co. were back in court, asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to bar Trump from continuing his public attacks on the FBI. Prosecutors say the former president’s penchant for inciting anger and potential violence against agents in the case is a tragedy waiting to happen.

Trump’s attorneys say any restriction on what he can and cannot say is a violation of his constitutional rights.

[trendynewsnow]

Uruguay's Presidential Elections: A Crucial Test of Political Stability and Challenges

Uruguay’s Upcoming Presidential Elections: A Test of Stability The small yet vibrant nation of Uruguay is set to hold its presidential elections this Sunday, marking a significant moment in its political landscape. With a population of just 3.4 million, Uruguay has emerged as a beacon of political and economic stability in the often tumultuous region of Latin America. As the nation approaches the…

[wausaupilot]

NTC and Community College Alliance to lead National Ag Education Consortium

This $9 million, four-year program aims to connect more students to agriculture career pathways.

WAUSAU – Northcentral Technical College, a founding member of the Community College Alliance for Agriculture Advancement, or C2A3, announced today a ground-breaking initiative with U.S. Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service to create a national agriculture center for two-year colleges. This $9 million, four-year program aims to connect more students to agriculture…

[sistaseparatist]

The Global Black Identity

One thing I hate about moral grandstanding is that 100% of non-Black social groups have or embrace some sort of anti-Black racism. They’re just waiting for the right time to weaponize it.

Liberal progressives, leftists, 2SLGBTQIA+, radfems, traditionalists, conservatives, etc.

It’s just that one side tends to use the tokens in their proximity to distract and deflect—waiting until “the right time” when they come across a Black person they don’t like.

All this “Black people are the most racist” bullshit is a distraction. I’ve never met a group of Black people who thinks there are “too many” people of a certain race. I’ve never met a group of Black people who celebrates the death of a certain race like it’s a holiday.

I’ve never met a group of Black people who shares strategies of how to remove a certain race from an area.

But there are so many non-Blacks who do it regardless of political affiliation.

A Black person has no allies, Black womin has even less, & a Black Lesbian has only enemies.

[ailedhoo]

General Election 2024: Void of Choice

I have gone through a political journey since first posting before, from a social democratic consideration to a more... liberterian socialist to communual & anarcho element but it appears the journey has not been only momentum, as it were.

Although I came, behind the scenes, see the 2019 in terms of less damage option when I supported Labour back then, not out of loyalty but of countering Boris, there were some argumentation that there were divides between the reds and blues. Of course, the question of EU membership did cause a issue that hindered the Corbyn campaign, in ways it did not in 2017.

Yet now we can see the return of New Labour and the more managable conservatism that echo it... heck, more so now than it was back in the 1990s, as even Blair then had more attempts to diverse himself from his Conservative counterparts. But Starmer vs whatever Tory PM of the year? The whole thing about two parties being similiar is again at heart, especially on their policies relating to austerity, LGBT+ rights (especially when it comes to the T), disability, privatisation and the ongoing genocide in Palestine. The primal area of divergence on asylum seeking is Rwanda but then they both still set on a harsh contest to be against those seeking refuge.

In the end, my true desires are of course towards emacipation but of the best of the worst options would be a hanged parliament, someting to not reward the sadism of the Conseravative Party but also not to reward the callousness of the Labour Party. If one did set on electoralism, this election would still be broken to them. Generally, at least I can see arguments on SNP in Scotland, Plaid in Wales and the Greens generally but these will not be suffecient to what must be done.

It neccessary we build at the grassroots. The hot years of industrial action was a important step but we need to think on how to review such momentum and to set this into greater pressure. It imperative groups, from asylum seeker rights defense groups to queer rights organisations to trade unions to anti-genocide actions and more so, make alliances for a injury to one is a injury to all. Intersection will be a key to make sure people can gather forth.

More importantly, we need to realise dual power and the context of resillance.

To be honest there are those who will better at me in organising and the strategy elements but a call is needed if we to find true people power, as oppose to the electoral dictations we have.

In the end, an injury to one is an injury to all.

Let us use this opportunity to start sowing the seeds of a alternative!

Solidarity forever!