#Pressure Aid website

[fr0ggs]

ukraine aid funding petition:

"The U.S. Senate has passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill with bipartisan support, which includes desperately needed funds for Ukraine. But in the Republican-controlled House, Speaker Mike Johnson is too afraid of Donald Trump to bring it to a vote.

That's why House Democratic leaders are now forcing a discharge petition. We need to put pressure on Congress to bring Ukraine funding to a vote now." - from the petition website

link list:

link 1: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/12/politics/senate-foreign-aid-bill-ukraine/index.html

link 2: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/12/2222991/-Speaker-Mike-Johnson-is-getting-squeezed-from-all-sides-on-Ukraine-aid?detail=emailaction

link 3: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/14/2223442/-Speaker-Mike-Johnson-finds-time-for-impeachment-stunt-but-not-to-help-Ukraine?detail=emailaction

link 4: https://www.newsweek.com/discharge-petition-against-mike-johnson-moves-closer-votes-are-there-1872742

[prettieinpink]

im the south american anon, thanks for your kind words, i love your account so much ♡. just wondering if you have a guide on how to prepare for a new school year or for 2024, have a wonderful morning/night 💗

GO BACK TO SCHOOL AS HER

ACADEMICS

Try to recreate your ideal study routine before. Study any subject you want using that specific study routine that you can when school opens. This gives you enough time before school starts to make any adjustments needed.

Get a head start. If you do have access to your curriculum or syllabus, read or actively study content on those topics. If you don’t, you can usually search up your class and your state which shows what you’ll be learning.

Experiment with study methods + note-taking. For study methods, search up different ways to effectively study, and pick at least three that appeal to you. Then pick any topic you want, and use those methods to study that topic. See which one worked the best for you and which wasn’t. 

For note-taking, search for some ways to take notes, and choose at least 3 that appeal to you. Then watch a video/lecture on any topic, and use those methods to take notes on it. See which ones that worked the best for you.

Create a planner or diary. Use it to keep track of your assessments, assignments due dates, events at school or any after-school activities. This planner would be just purely for school-related things. 

I think a digital planner would work best with most students, but some traditional ones are equally as good. It’s up to you to choose how you want to plan your school life, but you need to have at least one planner. 

Find a good study website/app. There are so many academic websites/apps out there that can aid you while studying, which are just at your fingertips. 

I recommend Duolingo, Quizlet and Khan Academy. Of course, there are so many more out there so I encourage you to explore your options. Some websites are just dedicated to one subject. 

Set SMART goals. Set academic goals that are achievable and realistic. Wanting all A’s or 100’s all the time is just way too unrealistic, and the pressure of wanting to reach the standard you set for yourself is just going to stress you out. 

Wanting a certain award, or A’s in certain subjects allows you to allocate your focus properly and is within reach. While you should definitely strive for good grades, avoid getting caught up in the mind trap of trying to achieve ‘perfect’ grades. 

Create a study place and ritual. Before school starts, choose a place anywhere in which you study regularly. Avoid having more than one, because having just one allows you to settle in and focus better. 

If this place is in your house, ensure that the space around it is clean and free of anything that wouldn’t serve you while studying. Plus, you can put up some cute motivational quotes.

A study ritual is habits that you do before studying, that help you while studying. You can create your own of whatever things that help you to be more productive and focused. 

HEALTH

Establish a sleep routine early. A week before school preferably, start waking up at the time you’d have to go to school and sleeping at your desired time. This is so that when school starts, you’re not feeling groggy while getting ready because you’ve already adjusted to the time. 

Talking about sleep, ensure that you practice good sleep hygiene as quality sleep enhances brain performance and improves energy levels throughout the day. 

Plan your meals at school. For us who have canteens or cafes near our schools, we tend to just eat whatever and we forget to nourish our bodies. You still can buy from them, but the night before, try to think about what you can eat for lunch the next day instead of impulsively buying. 

Carrying small containers of fruits or vegetables to go with my canteen lunch is my favourite combination. 

Carry a water bottle. I used to always forget to stay hydrated during school, so instead of drinking from fountains, I now prefer to carry around my water bottle from class to class. 

Wear SPF.

Just having it sitting on my desk while I’m working, reminds me in my mind to drink water. Water also boosts brain performance! 

Create a stress management plan. There are going to be times when you feel stressed, but we want to avoid stress impacting our academic performance and mental health. 

Before school starts, plan what to do if you feel heavily stressed. This could be like a menu of things you can choose from or a step-by-step guide that you follow through. This plan should contain things that relax you, make you happy and distract you from stress. 

Practice good posture. Once school starts, we sit at a desk all day, and most of us forget the proper way to sit while studying/working in class. This can lead to slumping or hunching on a chair, which encourages bad posture. 

Remember throughout the day to practice good posture, if you can, put a little reminder on your device. Posture stretches before the school days also help. 

Try to incorporate exercise into your schedule. Exercise is frequently neglected when we just have so much studying to do and we’re busy with other activities, but exercise is essential to leading a healthy lifestyle. 

The good thing, is you don’t have to do it every day. Doing it 2-3x a week should be enough. Going on walks during lunch/recess, cycling to school or participating in gym are easy ways to incorporate during the school season. 

Keep your bag lightweight. Carry the absolute essentials to school, having such a heavy bag can do a number on your back and also affect your posture. If you do have one, try to keep most things in your locker instead of bringing them to and from school. 

Engage in social media mindfully. There are so many toxic studying accounts out there that encourage unrealistic expectations or offer harsh ‘motivation’ to students. 

Please don’t interact with these types of accounts, even if they provide motivation to you, it is not sustainable at all. 

SELF CARE

Choose your favourite way to take a break. Not just once a week, but always take breaks every day. If you want these breaks to be somewhat productive like reading a productivity book or exercising, then go ahead. 

However, your breaks can also be ‘unproductive’. Play some games, go online shopping or just take a nap. One break is not better than the other, I just encourage you to take any kind of breaks you want daily.  

Plan to engage in hobbies regularly. It is easy to neglect our passions and what brings us happiness when we’re focused on school. If you can, have a chunk of the day just purely for doing hobbies. It can be for 1 hour, 30 minutes or 10. 

Or, join an afterschool club that focuses on that specific passion or hobby. Not only is it time for you to engage in the things you enjoy, you meet like-minded people who also enjoy it. 

Try to plan things with friends and family. Before school, meet up with your friends or family and do things with them. Once school reopens, opportunities to hang out with your loved ones are scarce. So, do it now. 

Create a no-hard productivity day. Plan a day in which you are doing the most minimal amount of productivity that you can. While you can include a few productive things, nothing that is mentally or physically exhausting is allowed on this day. 

If you are way too much of a productive or goal-oriented person to spend one day of no hard productivity, create a catch-up day. Choose one day of the week that you focus on completing or doing anything that you didn’t do all the other days. 

Keep a journal on you. Sometimes things happen during the school year, and it does cause conflicting or upsetting emotions within us. Creating the practice of journaling before school reopens is a good way for us to process our emotions and situations. 

Carry a book you like in your bag or locker. When you finish all of your work in class, or you just want to take a break, you can read a good book. This is also a good alternative to spending your lunches and recesses when you’re not in a sociable mood. 

Create a reward system. For example, if I study for x minutes, I can do x for myself. Or I can x grade, and I’ll get x. These don’t have to be big or extravagant rewards, but something simple like one episode of your favourite show can do. 

MINDSET CHANGES

Practice a growth mindset. You are going to experience failure at least once (if not more) during your school career. You mustn’t take these experiences to heart, and instead, use them as lessons to encourage self-growth within you. 

Practice this mindset now, so that when school reopens, you won’t have a problem with extracting lessons from failures. 

Use comparison as a source of inspiration or motivation. It is easy to compare ourselves with our peers, as we are similar ages, but their skills can exceed ours. Instead of using up all of your energy to be envious of the, channel that energy into bettering yourself. Not to beat them, but to beat yourself. 

View studying as a time to develop your skills. While yes, we do study to get good grades, studying can help us to grow our other skills as well. We build our discipline, focus and critical thinking as well. 

So when you don’t get the best grade from an assessment or assignment, don’t beat yourself up and think all that studying was for nothing. You were building those skills, so next time, you can apply them when you have to study again.

Set firm boundaries with others and yourself. There are times when you just have to say, I have to study. Not just to others, but to yourself. Practice these boundaries before school when it comes to more general productivity. 

There is no rejection, just redirection. Change your mindset that rejection is nonexistent, and there is only redirection. Incorporate it in your daily life like;

��there’s no more stock left of my favourite product, there’s probably something better out there.’ 

That being said, I’m not saying that if there is a barrier to your goal, you just move on. However, you should not be chasing things that are not meant for you and shift your focus when necessary. 

Detach when needed. Stop attaching your value or worth to things that are external and can easily be gone. This doesn’t have to apply to just grades, but also other situations. 

Try to start reading or researching about detachment before school reopens.  

Time is your most valuable resource, use it to invest wisely. Your teen years are going to be the most suitable time in your life to start investing in yourself. 

You have fewer things to worry about(aside from grades) and you have a lot of opportunities now to explore the things that you want. Please, don't spend this time doomscrolling or any other time-wasting activity. 

[ambientdoom]

Look, we all know the Titan’s implosion and the loss of life is a tragedy. There’s just so much irony with all of the events surrounding it that it borders on the ridiculous:

You’re telling me? Another boat? Literally just sank last week??? Except it’s full of *poor* people??? And nobody cared at all??? Get outta here.

Wait, hold on. They’re using a PS5 controller to pilot the thing? And the co-founder LITERALLY MADE STATEMENTS that he’s cut corners… sorry, “broken rules” during the creation of this titanium death trap? They made the hull an ENTIRE 2 INCHES THINNER THAN THEY SHOULD?? Do they know how much pressure is down there? And these people STILL paid him $250k to get into this glorified VW bus??? This can’t be real. The WIFE of one of the billionaires is a DESCENDANT of two people who were actually ON the Titanic!? Dude. No way. The fact that the OceanGate website literally sanitizes the entire operation and makes it seem as if it’s as safe as going to the grocery store…

The fact that this billionaire literally paid for his own son’s death…

What is this if not a literal illustration of everything that is wrong with modern civilization? The people redirecting attention to “those were PEOPLE how COULD you joke about it!?” are arguably drawing attention away from the most important lessons we could take away from this situation. These people were all adults and they made the choice to be there. To say that the exclusivity of being one of the few to see the Titanic, and the other implicitly classist aspects of the situation weren’t contributing factors to this choice would be naive. Not being willing to call attention to the irony in the situation and talk about the societal issues this event highlights is not doing anyone any favors.

…And honestly the people who are virtue signaling about this whole thing are also kinda the same people ignoring the refugee ship sinking and being refused aid. Which is pretty cringe bro ngl

[powluna]

Hello, I absolutely adore the clothing you make for children, infants, toddlers, they are so cute!

However, I am aware of the fact that you do post your CC on Curseforge in addition to your own website and Patreon and given that the company that owns Curseforge, is them is an Israeli company that did a crowdfunding campaign for the IDF which supports the ongoing genocide against Palestinians, I want to ask if you could remove your downloads from Curseforge entirely. I hope this doesn't come off as demanding or aggressive in any way, but by divesting from Curseforge, we also divest from Israel's economy completely and perhaps it seems small in comparison, but it would be a small way to show support for Palestine. Thank you for listening, and again, I hope I don't come off as impolite in any way.

Hello to anon and everyone who might have been waiting for a response from me. I want to thank you for treating me with respect and that I have not (yet) received any threatening messages or similar. It is very difficult for me to write the following message in my native language, let alone post a translated version of it. Everything I write here comes from the heart and merely describes my personal situation.

First of all, I want to express that I, personally, and my internet persona "PowLuna" in no way stand for oppression, violence, exclusion, or worse. The situation has certainly not passed me by—quite the opposite. The discourse on the topic has caused me to engage deeply with the subject, keep myself regularly updated, and talk a lot about it in my personal environment, educating others. Due to experiences I had as a teenager, I no longer express my opinions regarding a lot of topics on the internet. However, I must do so now because it is very important to me and it currently affects my daily life significantly in terms of depression and existential fears.

I want to express my sorrow for all the suffering that people in Gaza and all Palastinians endure daily. The things one encounters on the internet are cruel and heartbreaking, and denying that something terrible is happening there is wrong. I feel the same about all atrocities happening anywhere in the world, whether far away or in my neighborhood. I hope every day for peace throughout the world. A utopian wish, I know.

Now to what might be controversial: I will not participate in the boycott against CurseForge. At least not as far as requested. I no longer actively promote the links for it; that was a kind of compromise I could make. You can judge me for this or not. But let me first describe my situation. I believe that pressuring individual small creators is not the right way in this situation, as you can never guess who is behind the internet personas and what stories they carry with them.

I come from a family that has always lived in poverty. After finishing school and completing an apprenticeship, I thought about studying so that I could do more with my potential. I moved away for my studies and had to stand completely on my own feet. I had saved a little money. For the rest of the support and because a part-time job would have hindered my ability to perform well, I applied for financial aid from the state. This is possible here in Germany. I can keep half of the money, and the other half I have to pay back after my studies. All well and good. While studying, I found a great interest in creating custom content and sharing it with others. I taught myself more and more skills and gradually shared them with others because I really enjoy to help people.

In 2022, I decided to make money with what I do. So, I had to register a business. That's mandatory here. I started with Patreon, where I gathered some subscribers who believed in my potential from the start, for which I am very grateful. I always appeal to the good in people, worked "hard," uploaded more and more stuff to convince people, and get more voluntary subscribers. This didn’t work out as expected. So, I switched to an early access model, which actually brought more subscribers, but I wasn't really happy with it, so I moved away from it a few months later. I lost more and more subs over time, while still giving the same effort as before.

Shortly after, I was invited to the CurseForge project, to which I confidently agreed because I already knew CurseForge and saw a lot of potential for the Sims area. I also find the platform really good and many changes I wished for were implemented. And yes, CurseForge has given me a steady income since then, sometimes more, sometimes less, but still far from what I made with voluntary subscribers on Patreon. I felt really proud because I suddenly earned good money with something I am passionate about. And I did it all by myself!

But this income brought new obligations: I have to pay taxes. Additionally, I no longer receive financial support from the state and won't be able to get it again.

The whole discourse has shown me that self-employment always carries a risk when you rely on a platform, so I switched back to the Patreon early access model for more security. However, I still can't live off that alone. Therefore, I continue to host my creations on CurseForge. Considering their statement from a few months ago and because I believe in the good in people, I don't see a problem with it. Of course, the economic aspect plays a role, but I am also not "clean" when I pay my taxes here in Germany, which are then used for the same purpose.

To demand that I delete all my stuff means taking away my livelihood and existence. I don't think that's fair. And yes, I know this is privileged, and my fears are not comparable to the fears of people in Gaza. Never.

All this does not mean that I am indifferent. As I said, I talk to other people about the topic, I inform myself, and as soon as I am able and have saved some money, I want to support the children in the region with donations. This has always been my approach to conflicts and crises around the world.

It is important to keep talking about the topic so that hopefully, one day, it will reach the people who can put an end to the horror.

Thank you for reading. If anything is unclear, please feel free to ask.

PowLuna

[re-dracula]

US friends - now is an important time to apply pressure to our reps in congress and demand an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid entry into Gaza. This website has scripts and templates that make it especially easy. More info under the cut.

Over 2 million Palestinian people trapped in Gaza are living through genocide in real time as Israel bombs, starves, and displaces them. From Gaza to Jenin, we've witnessed Israel's massacres of Palestinians again and again. We've watched U.S. politicians and media ignore, minimize, and sometimes even sanction Israel's killings, while dehumanizing Palestinian people.

Stop the killing! Israel's massacres of Palestinian people are funded into existence by our U.S. tax dollars, with a blank check for $3.8+ billion to the Israeli military every year.

Your solidarity is vital. Call out the U.S. government's complicity. Demand an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid entry into Gaza. Urge your representatives to support the Ceasefire Now resolution led by Reps. Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib.

[historyforfuture]

⭕️ Press Release Issued by the Government Media Office:

⭕ The "Israeli" occupation and the U.S. administration are explicitly using starvation and food deprivation policies against civilians in Gaza as a means of political pressure. This is considered a war crime and a crime against humanity

The Government Media Office condemns the use of starvation and food deprivation by the "Israeli" occupation forces and the U.S. administration against civilians, including children and women in Gaza, as a political pressure tool. This was explicitly stated by U.S. President Biden and his Secretary of State, Blinken, who mentioned in recent hours that the quickest way to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza is to reach a ceasefire agreement.

We completely reject linking the provision of aid and food to civilians, children, and women to the decision of a ceasefire, which the "Israeli" occupation forces have refused to implement for many months. We consider linking these two issues a blatant crime that requires condemnation from the international community, international organizations, and all free nations.

For 105 days, the "Israeli" occupation forces, with U.S. approval, have continued to close the Rafah border crossing between Palestine and Egypt after burning, bulldozing, and rendering it inoperative. This is part of orchestrating a genocide against civilians in Gaza, exacerbating the humanitarian disaster in unprecedented ways, in violation of international law, international humanitarian law, and all international agreements.

The crime of blocking the entry of all types of aid, medical supplies, health delegations, and medicine significantly worsens the health and humanitarian crisis.

We strongly condemn the use of starvation and food deprivation by the "Israeli" occupation and the U.S. administration as a political pressure tool against civilians and children in Gaza. We also condemn their closure of the Rafah border crossing between Palestine and Egypt. We call on the international community and all nations to denounce these two crimes that violate international law.

We hold the "Israeli" occupation and the U.S. administration fully responsible for the catastrophic consequences of their use of starvation and food deprivation as weapons against civilians in Gaza, as well as their closure of the Rafah crossing and prevention of medical supplies and health delegations from entering. We hold them accountable for the ongoing humanitarian disaster, now in its eleventh month.

We call on the international community, all international and humanitarian organizations, and all free nations to pressure the "Israeli" occupation and the U.S. administration to stop the genocide and cease using starvation and food deprivation as political pressure tools. We also demand that they pressure for the reopening of the Rafah border crossing and an end to this severe humanitarian catastrophe.

20,Aug 2024 Official website -Hamas movement

[zmediaoutlet]

The Omaha Journal Star runs an obituary for Marshall Hall on their website. Short, unrevealing. The bigger death that day was of a grandmother, ninety-nine when she passed, beloved by twenty grandchildren, fixture at church, pillar of the community, and so on. In the print version of the paper Marshall Hall merited maybe two inches of grey space. Maybe just an inch.

"What are you doing?" Dean's tired and it doesn't come across mocking or nagging or pointed or—anything. He's folded onto the further bed, TV light playing across his face. "Got a job lined up?"

Some daylight scene on the show Sam hasn't been paying attention to and Dean's washed out paper-white. Too much like the hospital bed. Sam says, "Looking," which is vague enough that he could arguably not be lying, but Dean doesn't seem to care either way. He nods, eyes fixed on the television but who knows if he's taking it in, either.

Pale skin, pale lips. Sam's gut twists to look at him but they got the all-clear from the doctor—his heart, mechanically, is one hundred percent fine. If Sam asked Dean would say he was fine, too, and Sam would want to smack him except that Dean looks like he'd crack in half with any additional pressure. Although lately—Sam doesn't know. When they were kids he would've said he could predict every single dumb thing Dean would say and he'd make bets with himself sometimes on what'd come out next. His odds were better than even. After the years apart it's—different. Sometimes Dean gives him this look and Sam doesn't recognize him; sometimes Dean opens his mouth and what comes out is—not something Sam would've ever thought could be said, in their family. On this particular night he might ask, and Dean might say—anything.

The show goes to commercial. A Chevy dealer in the county over has offers you can't believe with zero cash down. Wells Fargo wants to extend you a line of credit with low APR. Dean rolls off the bed and goes into the bathroom and closes the door, quiet, and Sam looks at the cheap maple veneer and then goes back to the obituary.

Marshall Hall, 1979–2006. Beloved son, believer in justice and truth. Pursuing a JD; active in his community. No mention of a wife, or kids, or siblings. A 'celebration of life' to be held on the following Saturday. In lieu of flowers, his mother requests that donations be sent to the legal aid organization where Marshall volunteered his time. That's all that's fit to print, about Marshall Hall.

Sam's been to more funerals than most. He can imagine Marshall Hall's. Shocked relatives, gathering around the gray-faced mother. More-shocked friends and colleagues around his own age, most of them faced probably for the first time with that appalling and unavoidable truth—that it could come at any time. That any of them could be standing in their kitchens or riding their bike in the sun or just at work, doing their job, and death when it came was unspectacular and uncompromising and then—that was it. There had been a Marshall Hall and now there wasn't, and the people milling through whatever empty quiet house would be murmuring how it just seemed impossible, and how they'd just talked to him last week, and how could it be true? But it was, and it was impossible to go back to the world last week, when he'd been loud and bright and fierce and there, and each of them would have to face that in their own time, and worse, would have to look at the people standing in front of them and think—what if—?

When Dean comes out of the bathroom Sam's abandoned the laptop. "Thought you were going to fuse with that thing," Dean says.

"There'll be jobs to look for tomorrow," Sam says, and holds out a can of beer.

Dean squints at him. Comes over slow, and sits on the other bed, and when he takes the can he doesn't open it but just holds it between his two hands, looking at the top. White light on the side of his face pooling strange across his skin, his other eye so dark that it looks hollow, and Sam reaches for the remote and snaps the TV off so it's just—his brother, sitting there, in inadequate lamplight but at least not being dragged off to nightmares Sam can't currently stand.

"I was watching that," Dean says, and Sam says, "No, you weren't," and Dean looks up at him and opens his mouth and then closes it, and sighs.

"Dean," Sam says, and then hangs there, not sure how to say it—true. "I wish—man, I don't know. I wish it'd been different."

Dean's thumb runs around the aluminum rim of the can. When he looks up he looks into Sam's eyes, and then at his mouth, and then he sits back and his shoulders are a low curve and he shakes his head, eyes cutting off to some misery. Whether it's Layla or Marshall or Roy or some combination of all three—or something worse—Sam doesn't know, and the not-knowing's got this pit growing in his stomach. He puts his own beer down on the nightstand and reaches out and gets his hand on Dean's skin—grips the inside of his wrist, his thumb on the knob of bone. If he pressed hard enough he could feel Dean's heart beating but the warmth of skin is enough, for now.

"Hey," Sam says, raw.

Dean huffs. "Hey yourself," he says, and Sam doesn't know if it's wanted but he leans across the space between the beds and kisses Dean anyway—close-lipped, firm, his other hand under Dean's jaw so he can't duck away. Dean lets him. Return pressure, after a second, so Sam doesn't feel like he's kissing a lifeless thing. Sam breaks away with relief dumping down his spine and presses his temple to Dean's temple, and Dean turns in so his nose brushes Sam's cheek and lets him breathe the same air and then pushes him away, gentle. He meets Sam's eye and it's okay—well, it's not okay, but they are at least—and then he opens his beer, and heels back to sit up against the headboard of his own bed, and that's going to be it, probably, about this day, and this week, and Sam'll have to be content with that, or risk the terror of asking.

He sits back on his own bed and turns the TV back on. A cop show. It'll pass the time until they sleep. He wishes it had been different. Given how it was, he wouldn't have made a different choice. He opens his own beer, and sits in quiet with his brother.

[thatgirlonstage]

Considering the cross section of people who want ao3 to have an algorithm with the painful lack of reading comprehension you see so often on the internet and it occurs to me that part of being able to use a website like ao3 the way it’s intended requires you to… know your own taste.

In order to input the correct filters to find what you’re after, you have to have some sense of what you like and what you don’t like and how those things are described in tags and categories that you can filter on. You have to have the ability to take a fic and parse out which pieces of it you responded to and then figure out how to get more of it. You are, with the aid of a filter system as fantastic as ao3’s, actually more effective than an algorithm at doing that once you know how! You know that the reason you liked this fic was because of the really gooey cuddle scene between A/B, so you know that now you should go look in tags like “Cuddling” or “Hugs” or “Comfort” or “Fluff” or “only one bed + Rated T”. An algorithm can’t tell if you liked the gooey cuddle scene or the fact that it was a steampunk AU or this specific author’s style, it can only make statistical guesses at the fact that a lot of people who liked THIS fic also liked THAT one. It doesn’t know WHY.

But like… that is a skill. It may be a very intuitive skill, especially for people who have been doing it a long time, but if you’re accustomed to being spoonfed suggestions I can guess it wouldn’t be intuitive at all. I can absolutely see how needing to search for your own preferences would stump you if you’ve never had to do it before.

And it is very much an exercise in both literacy and understanding your own taste. If you don’t bother to paint things you read or watch with any more nuanced brush than “I like this” or “I don’t like this”, then you never learn what, exactly, it is that you’re liking or disliking. You’ll never be able to pull a text apart to figure out which strands are compelling and which you could do without. You’ll never be able to tell the difference between what is a generally well-written story and what is tugging at something that you specifically enjoy. Especially in the climate of judging media by its moral correctness, where dislike and especially disgust gets equated to “there is something objectively BadWrong with this art and therefore NO ONE should like ANY part of it,” people are increasingly encouraged to sand away any understanding of their own personal tastes.

Knowing your own taste can be scary. Very seriously, it can be hard to look at yourself and reconcile all the weird, cringe, taboo, silly, gross, embarrassing, or fucked-up stories you might like. It can be easier to just go along with what other people tell you is good or bad, particularly when there is as much pressure as there can be in online spaces—both inadvertent and intentional.

But I promise, I absolutely promise, knowing your taste is the best and fastest way to find more art that you love. Figuring out what it is you like is the route to finding more of it, to finding art that resonates with you, art that bring you joy. Figuring out why you like it can be interesting, but that can be an even bigger and more fraught question to consider. You don’t have to understand the why. Just start with the what. It will unlock so many doors for you.

[aidenknow]

Melons 🍉

[Information on the global strike, boycotts, donations, education, etc are all under the cut. Will possibly update the post to add more information]

A global strike is still on going so please use that opportunity to do much as you can during the strike such as educating yourself on Palestine, boycotting companies, brands and celebrities that supports the genocide, signing petitions, donating to organizations that aid Palestine, etc.

Decolonize Palestine is a good website to start educating yourself and learn about Palestine as it outlines everything you need to know.

BDS Movement is a movement to instruct people to boycott brands and companies that support the genocide

Organizations that directly donates to the Palestine cause such as Care for Gaza, Gaza Direct Aid, Pious Projects, The PCRF, PRCS, MSF, Anera, etc

You can still do daily clicks with arab.org to fund in the aid but it’s highly encouraged to donate to the organizations that directly fund to Palestine such as the one I mentioned previously

E-sims such as Simly, Nomad and Holafly to donate to Gaza. Right now, Nomad and Holafly are highly requested e-Sims needed for Gaza to connect to the telecommunications

Follow Palestinian people, journalists and the news outlet to get updates on what is happening in Palestine and the neighboring countries.

(Please note that some Palestinian journalists listed above could be martyrs as the list was made)

You can get more info on my Twitter post as I regularly add related posts from other people on Twitter

[gynandromorph]

Heatstroke is actually not a stroke at all, but a failure of the body systems to cool someone down, resulting in temperatures too high for human cellular life and consequent multi-system organ damage. It is just hyperthermia, and it isn't like hypothermia where you have to warm someone up slowly or they will go into shock. They are experiencing mass cell death. You have to cool them down as soon as possible, ideally with cold water. Even lukewarm water is good enough, though. You don't need ice, you just need to get as much water on them as possible. I see a lot of PSA's on heatstroke that tell the symptoms of it vs heat exhaustion, but they largely say to seek emergency medical attention. This is true, but, much like how you are better off sitting there putting pressure on a gushing wound instead of dragging someone bleeding out into your car and driving them yourself, it is better to call EMS to you and render first aid to someone suffering from heatstroke until they get there. For pets suffering from heatstroke it's a little more dire, you do have to take them yourself, but the first aid given to them is the same.

Basically, while you can't treat someone having an actual stroke at all, you CAN render first aid to a person or pet suffering from heatstroke, and it can be lifesaving. Need a source, try the CDC's website

[kabuki-after-midnight]

Americans - Quick Guide to Emailing your representatives:

Please email/call your representatives. The more pressure we put on them as their constituents, the more likely they are to speak up on behalf of Palestine. Your email/call matters!!

I've put together a quick guide for people like me who are new to this. If someone seeing this has better resources/information to add, please feel free to contribute!

Go to this website and enter your zip code

The results should link to the contact section of your representative's website

Craft an email demanding action. Here are several resources with templates/talking points:

The Palestine/Israel Conflict: A Template Letter to Send Your Congressmen and Women

GAZA EMERGENCY: Call Congress Now!

Letter to the Editor: Calling for a Ceasefire in Israel-Palestine War

Here is the message I put together, if you need a more concrete message, feel free to copy this and edit it as needed:

"My name is [NAME], and I’m a constituent of yours. I’m emailing to voice my stance on the conflict happening in Palestine, namely, the genocide of the Palestinian people. As of now, over 30,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed in this conflict. Just days ago, over 100 were killed simply trying to obtain food for their starving families. With the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and the inordinate slaying of civilians trying to survive, it is undeniable that what is happening right now is a genocide of the Palestinian people. We as a nation must take immediate steps to de-escalate, by calling for a ceasefire, pressuring Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, and refusing to send any additional weapons or funding to the Israeli military. Any more military funding to Israel will further fuel violence by actively arming the Israeli government. Take action now to stop Israel’s genocide against Palestinian people in Gaza and end all U.S. complicity in Israel’s violence."

It will help to add some differentiation from the templates, but if all you can do is copy and paste the dialog, please so do. We need to show support in numbers!

[aidenwaites]

Dont forget that this is not a boycott and that as of right now, "not crossing the picket line" mainly refers to those within the industry not writing for, going into talks, or making deals with the companies that fall under the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, representing pretty much every large production company under the sun). As of right now there is no official boycott or call to cancel subscriptions. Boycotts on a large scale, unless officially called for, could do damage to the strike, whether through harming potential negotiations or preventing pay for striking workers through residuals and the like from projects that they've already worked on.

The best support for the strike right now will mainly come from social pressure on the AMPTP, and the official website (wgacontract2023.org) has a social media toolkit that includes info graphics, icons, and other material that can be posted online. There is also potential good to be done with monetary/mutual aid support in cities with a strong entertainment industry. The wga website has links to funds to help with financial aid for union members. Another post mentioned looking out for suggestions or news from local chapters of IATSE and Teamsters, which is a pretty great suggestion.

That said, I also think that as the strike goes on, this is a great time to seek out more indie entertainment. Tubi seems like sort of a haven for indie films right now, and my suggestion is always to look for titles you've never heard of just to give them a go. I promise you'll have fun!

Remember to support the strike, but also that the goal is to not have to strike! This is going to be a hard time for industry workers, but they're doing it for the good of the industry as a whole.

(Dating this on 5/3/2023. Look to the wga website for the most current news on the strike).

Edit: I originally wrote the MPAA instead of the AMPTP, whoops.

[gordonzola-ramen]

RESOURCES FOR AID AND DONATIONS

Note that these will be centered on Palestinians, but I am looking out for resources to help Congo, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Brazil, Haiti, Lebanon, and many others. I will be updating this with the more information I can find, and any suggestions are very much appreciated. Please take a read through this and help where you can.

Gaza Funds fetches random gofundmes from Gaza, these are really useful so it shows you many and gives a spotlight to ones that maybe haven't gained much traction in social media.

Arab dot org generates money from you clicking a button, it has for many causes like refugees, women, children and Palestine, you can click once per day and the website comes with all the proof and information you could need! It also counts in different browsers and devices so try that for several clicks! Just make sure to take off your adblockers for these, since that's how they get the funds.

Boycott guide:

Care For Gaza is a non-profit charity that helps Palestinian families in need. They have a twitter page where you can see their posts with the food, hygiene products and packages of basic needs they distribute. You can follow them on twitter here:

https://x.com/careforgaza?s=21

And if you want to donate to them, here are their gofundme and paypal:

UNRWA is an agency helping Palestinian refugees directly in Gaza, you can donate to them here:

Pious Projects distribute kits with menstrual pads, hygiene products, hairbrushes, etc., you can buy their kits here:

Direct Aid For Gaza is also an program aiding in Gaza, and you can see their strides in their twitter page:

https://x.com/gazadirectaid?s=21

And you can donate to them directly in their paypal:

[justinspoliticalcorner]

S.V. Dáte at HuffPost:

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is taking his long history of accusing others of doing what he himself is guilty of to new heights, now charging Democrats of perpetrating a “coup” against President Joe Biden by persuading him to end his reelection effort. “It really is a threat to democracy. It was a coup by people that wanted him out,” Trump said Thursday during a lengthy monologue at the start of a news conference he staged at his country club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Three days earlier, he had told billionaire Elon Musk during a discussion they held on his “X” website: “This was a coup of a president of the United States… He didn’t want to leave, and they said, ‘We can do it the nice way or we can do it the hard way.’” Musk agreed and went even further, invoking violent imagery to describe what had happened. “They just took him out back behind the shed and basically shot him,” Musk said.

Trump’s campaign aides did not respond to HuffPost’s queries about Trump’s use of the word “coup” — a word top officials in his campaign have been echoing. “They’re trying to fight off a coup right now,” Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita said at a July 16 forum at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee — five days before Biden actually announced that he was ending his campaign. In fact, public pressure by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democratic leaders in no way constitutes a “coup.” That word, though, does accurately describe what Trump himself tried to do leading up to and on Jan. 6, 2021. Using the threat of violence followed by actual violence to coerce members of Congress and his own vice president into awarding him a second term, even though he had lost the 2020 election, is a textbook example of an autogolpe, or “self-coup,” in which a sitting political leader attempts to stay in power illegally.

[...] “Under no circumstances can one equate Trump’s attempted coup on January 6th to President Biden withdrawing from the race. I was there that day. I know what happened,” Dunn said. “It shows how out of touch with reality the former president and his buddy Elon Musk are. This is dangerous language.”

[...] For the past three years, Trump has claimed that the various federal and state-level prosecutions against him for his coup attempt and other actions were ordered by Biden from the White House. Trump, who is, as of May, a convicted felon, has no evidence for those claims — but there is extensive evidence that Trump tried to get the Department of Justice to prosecute both Clinton and Biden.

Attempted coup plotter Donald Trump complaining about a Democratic Party’s “coup” on President Joe Biden: That’s rich!

Grow up, DonOld! YOU were the one that attempted a coup by refusing to accept your loss in 2020. The Democratic Party backing Kamala Harris in near-unison to replace Biden is NOT a “coup” by any definition, as Biden voluntarily ended his bid for re-election.

[izzyvanizzy]

A note, this post really just applies to Americans, sorry if you came across this on a tag and were hoping otherwise

Hey i know a lot of Tumblr dems say you need to participate in local voting, and I'mma keep it 100 i do agree. I know times suck rn, i know black people are dying left and right, i know queer rights are fading, i know Israel's IOF bombed rafah and are likely planning another safe area strike as i type, and i know it feels like voting isn't gonna do shit because it's not direct action.

But voting locally is gonna help way more than voting for a president

Lemme keep it real w/ you, you want to vote for a president because a president is who staffs the supreme court (those guys that just made presidents lawless and gave themselves the power to handle all regulation ever?) if you're gonna see crimes committed in the officials, may as well see em be crimes in your court. On top of that the presidential cabinet (the leadership of all the big three letter agencies) is chosen by the president and is referred to as the president's administration. The Biden admin has done better for everyone on this website than Obama did, and i don't say that lightly. So you really do wanna vote, esp because trump said he's gonna cut off Palestinians aid.

But past that, you have the power to make real change in your day to day life easily by using much, much more important votes. Protests are gonna help with pressure, but your vote can help you put people in the office that you can pressure easier.

These will let you determine your state's supreme court (the lower courts that the federal one defers to for non-hot button topics), senators, county clerks and house representatives.

These are positions so impactful that they are considerable as the parliament to your states royalty. These are positions that if all filled with candidates you like, can drastically overhaul your state in a year.

"But izzy that's rich, how do I actually... Do that? Where do i go? Is there a schedule or a list of all the elections?" I'll be real, I don't know. I don't know where you go, or if your local government keeps a list of everything, or who all your candidates are and why you should pick them, this is the hard part is the research portion, But. I have a tool that can help. I use an app called activote, i installed it on a whim and it's listed every single election (local and national) near me, tells me where i vote, and helps me determine the rough politics lean of the people on the list with a little graph thingy that it puts you on based on a quiz type deal it's got going on. It's not a full replacement for research, but it'll do for a start. I recommend it, and the links are here

https://www.activote.net/

Past that.. protest, be a member of your community, help people out. You'll see real change, and you'll be a part of it. I promise.

I'm gonna shamelessly beg for reblogs from people i follow now

@b0tster @cryptotheism @pukicho @prozdvoices uhh.. god who else do i follow that's based enough to maybe reblog this to help

Mutuals i could def use your help here, tag people that would help a post like this? I realized I don't know the political leanings of a lot of people i follow lmao