#black civic engagement

[dinea]

My life in black n white

Doing my civic duties canvassing and hanging out with the Congresswoman as we walked the parade together.

[successfulblackparenting]

Kamala Harris Inspires A New Generation: Leadership, Voting, And The Rise Of Black Girl Power

Kamala Harris is running for President of the United States. She is anticipated to become the first woman of color to get the nomination from the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Kamala attended Howard University, one of the most prestigious Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the United States. Howard University, often called “The Mecca,” gave Kamala a strong sense of…

[penmanshipeb]

The elderly should feel protected by the young instead of fearing them. There should be security and not insecurities -- at the least in one's own neighborhood. We need more communities in our societies.

We too hood in our neighborhoods, and I don't like it. 👎

[sayruq]

The Irish Senate just voted to impose sanctions on Israel

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign this evening welcomed the unanimous passing of a motion in the Seanad calling for robust actions by the Irish government to hold Apartheid Israel accountable for its ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people. The motion, moved by the Civic Engagement Group Senators Frances Black, Lynne Ruane, Alice Mary Higgins and Eileen Flynn, is comprehensive and calls on the Irish government to, among other things: impose sanctions on Israel; enact the Occupied Territories Bill and the Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill; to actively ensure no US weapons are being sent to Israel through Irish airspace; and to push for an international arms embargo on Israel. It can be read in full here.

[thewulf]

Something Else || Aaron Hotchner

Summary: Request - hiyaa i have such a 😩😩 storyline in my head and i think you would excecute it soo well! Sooo i was thinking Hotch x Reader where they have to chase someone but somehow reader ends up in a car alone... Read Rest Here

A/N: Ahhh missed writing for my criminal minds fav man! Thank you for the request anon, hope ya like it :)

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Female Reader

Word Count: 2.2k

Hotch’s voice was low, groveling, begging you not to do it desperately through the car speaker, “Agent, stand down!”

You pressed down on the peddle of the black SUV you were driving too aggressively a little harder, “Hotch, he’s going to get away and hurt somebody else.” Somehow your voice was much steadier than his as you focused on the unsub in the small sedan racing ahead of you.

“Dammit Y/N, do not engage the unsub. That is an order.” He was more panicked than anything. He shouldn’t have let you go to that police station alone. This was such a you thing to do. You didn’t seem to care about your safety and it terrified Aaron. You would put your life on the line every single time if it meant saving somebody else. You were too selfless, too good for this job. It was going to kill you if he didn’t talk to you about it soon.

“But Hotch! I can intercept him. End this whole thing now. I have to.” You mumbled mindlessly as you came up with your brilliant plan to speed up in front of him on the road next to the one he was on. The two of you were heading out of the city into the countryside with grided roads. You could intercept him down the road if you played it out correctly.

You heard shuffling on the other side of the call before he continued his pleas, “You’re going to get yourself killed. You’re going to get somebody else killed Agent! Stand down!” To his credit he certainly wasn’t backing down in his demands. He was committed to getting you to stop what you were doing. But he should’ve known you better than that. You’d never stand down. Not when you had the opportunity to stop him.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. I’ll manage.” You sped quickly down the dark country roads knowing you’d have to be hauling it to execute your plan. Get ahead of him enough you could cut down the side road and crash into him. He wouldn’t see it coming.

“You’re not listening to me.” He was all out desperate now as you ignored him and pressed on.

“I have to Hotch. I’ll be okay. I promise.” You hung up the phone in a hurry as your turned your car down the next road, you could do this. But you couldn’t have your boss yelling in your ear if you were to do this properly. You just needed to clip the back end of his vehicle as he sped on by. You got there seconds before he did allowing yourself to decide if you really wanted to or not.

Instincts took over and you gunned it, hard. The front end of your SUV smashed into the rear end of the unsubs small Honda Civic speeding on by. The sound of crunching metal was one that always shocked you. It was just so loud. What you’d failed to calculate was just how hard you hard pressed the gas. One moment you were conscious, the next you felt you head smack against the airbag sending you into that blackened state you really did try to avoid but couldn’t this time.

When the bright light of the doctors flashlight hit your eyes your body decided it was time to come back to reality. A muffled groan escaped your throat while your eyelids finally decided to work and slowly opened up adjusting to the bright lights around you.

“Ah, there you are.” The doctor standing beside your bed smiled, “Great to see you awake. Your head may hurt. Took quite a hit there according to your boss. Looks like a mild concussion. Didn’t find anything else on intake. Got off lightly all things considered.” He pointed towards the man sleeping in the corner of your room. He looked so peaceful, the usual downturned scowl on his face had vanished in his own unconscious state.

“Mmm suppose I did.” You mumbled still coming back into reality. It wasn’t a moment later you heard Hotch shuffle from behind the doctor, light sleeper he was.

The doctor must’ve heard it too as he turned back to Aaron, “She’ll be just fine, see? Nothing to worry about.” He motioned to your wakened state, “I’ll be back in a little while. Have a few labs I need to check and then we should be able to get you out of here.” The older doctor smiled kindly at you before leaving you stranded with your probably over angry boss.

He crossed his arms over his chest as he took you in. You’d never truly felt so small under his gaze until now. He was angry, pissed, “I should have you fired.”

You closed your eyes fighting back the oncoming tears. You vowed to never cry in front of him but damn it was going to be hard to stop them. Your head was pounding, your boss who you had a massive crush on was threatening to fire you and all you wanted to do was shrivel up under the thin hospital blanket.

He cleared his throat seeing you react so timidly under his intimidating gaze he so hardly used on his team. He knew it wasn’t the time nor place no matter how angry he was. He could be angry later. You needed him now and he had to suck it up for what you needed, “Let me be clear. I should, but I won’t.” He dropped his rigid stance once your eyes made their way back over to him.

You nodded, looking away quickly. You were too ashamed to look him in the eye for too long, “I’m sorry. Did you get the unsub?” Your curiosity needed to know even if it would piss him off further.

He let out a shake of his head, “You’re something else Y/N. Yes, we got him. You knocked him out too. Quiet the scene to arrive to. Scared the shit out of me.” He grabbed the chair from beside the bed and pulled it close to sit down next to you, “Finding you with blood all over your face had me thinking the worst. You’ve got to be more careful. You’ve got to start giving a shit about yourself Y/N. You can’t keep pulling stunts like these.” His deep brown eyes searched yours hoping you’d finally hear his words he had been begging you to hear.

You heard him, you always did. But you couldn’t understand why he always tried to stop you and nobody else on the team. Derek pulled the same stunt not even a years ago, “But Derek did the same thing last August…”

He stopped you by grabbing your arm gently. He’d hardly ever touched you let alone grasped your seemingly small bicep, “You aren’t Derek, Y/N.”

Rolling your eyes, you knew you were likely pushing your luck with your very handsome superior, “I know that Hotch, but I’m an Agent just like him. I have to take these risks too. What makes me different?”

He let go of your bicep before looking away and grumbling something you couldn’t hear. When he turned back to you his softened features had turned back to the usual scowl he wore in the office. Neutral natural Hotch.

Deciding to push your luck you continued to chirp, “What makes me different Hotch? He gets praise while I get scolded? Come on!”

He shook his head seemingly conflicted of his next words, “You’re just not him, I don’t know what to tell you.”

“That’s not an answer Hotch!” You were getting worked up now, “What? So, everyone else gets to take risks to move on up in their career and I get to sick back and watch? That’s not fair Hotch and you know it!”

“You could’ve gotten yourself killed!” His usual stoic tone roared with emotion he so rarely showed. You were getting somewhere now. You just had to poke him a little further.

That wasn’t good enough for you, “So could all of my coworkers yet they get praised!”

“It’s different.” His voice had calmed but he felt his emotions bubbling to the surface as you continued to push him.

You let out a sigh after feeling like you were just going in circles, “What’s different Hotch?” You weren’t yelling but you certainly weren’t quiet.

He ran his hands through his hair conflicted beyond belief. But fuck it, you weren’t going to let it go until he gave you an answer right? He couldn’t think of a good enough excuse, so he gave you the truth instead, “I don’t love them.”

It felt like your rapidly beating heart stopped right then and there. Loved? Had you had a thought that Hotch had loved you? He’d always treated you different sure, but you never had an inkling thought he had done that because he loved you.

“You… you love me?” It felt like your throat was made sandpaper as you really processed his words.

He nodded his head at you. Slowly, watching for your reaction, he grabbed for your hands hoping to understand if you could potentially feel the same. He’d done an excellent job hiding it based on your shocked reaction. It wasn’t bad, no. You just seemed genuinely shocked.

“I love you.” He said it a bit more confidently this time.

“Are you sure?” It was the only thing you could think, and it sounded funnier spoken out loud than you truly had meant. Because why would your successful boss who seemed so far out of your league. You were only five years out of school. A measly twenty-seven-year-old attempting to figure out what being an adult actually entailed.

His stoic expression broke out into a smile followed by a soft chuckle. You’d always adored when he smiled. It seemed few and far in between he let you see that side of him, “You really are something else, you know that right?” He continued grinning at your reaction to his confession, “But yes, I’m positive. I’ve had a few years to ponder it.” He continued smiling seeing your expression go from shock to a smile to a slight blush back to embarrassment all within a few moments. He’d always found your expressiveness adorable beyond belief and this was no exception. Without much of a second thought he grabbed for your fidgeting hands hoping he could provide your brain some comfort.

“I uhm… wow. That’s not what I thought you’d say… I yeah.” Your face flushed further under his loving gaze. Now that he’d said the words out loud it’s like you were given to a softer, sweeter Aaron Hotchner that was just underneath his stoic surface.

Sure, you’d had a massive crush on the man. Looked up to him. Wanted to be him. Like almost everything about him. But did you love him? You liked him a lot. Loved him though? You thought further. You’d crushed on him since the moment Strauss had introduced you right out of college. But he was with Haley at the time. You’d pushed down the bubbling feelings for your boss that was nearly ten years older than you. He was everything you wanted to be and more. Smart, collected, calm and the best boss you’ve ever had. Yeah, you loved him too. You’d always loved him. The way he treated everyone. The way he was able to be the best version of himself when he needed to be.

He found comfort that his words had sent you into a babbling state. You hadn’t pulled your hand away from his which was a good sign, “You don’t have to say anything Y/N. I just.. I’m sorry I told you like that. You just, wouldn’t stop until I told you.” He grinned knowing that he just put it back onto your own actions for his statement. Which was true, you had decided to push and poke and prod. It kind of was your fault.

It was your turn to laugh now, “I’m sorry for yelling. Escalating. You know how I am.” You smiled bashfully at the man who had your heart. And who apparently loved you, who would’ve thought?  Certainly not you.

He nodded, giving your much smaller hands in a gentle squeeze, “Like I said, you’re something else. Now, get some sleep. I’ll wake you when you need to. You need to rest. We’ll talk later.”

You nodded at him, closing your eyes at his request. But before you could drift off you had to confess the same to him, “Hotch?”

“Call me Aaron. Yes?” He answered your question with his own.

You smiled after opening your eyes and making eye contact with him. He truly was a stunning man. Inside and out.

“Alright Aaron.” You laughed seeing the way his eyes lit up under the new way you said his name. It was thrilling. The two of you were learning about the others in their own ways, “I love you too.”

His smile only grew wider before he smirked over to you, “Are you sure?”

“Don’t make fun of me Aaron Hotchner!” You giggled feeling the weight of the world being lifted off your shoulders. Even though your head was aching it felt good to be here with him. He was laughing right along with you. The two of you off in your own little bubble finally finding each other after pining for so long over the years.

Aaron Hotchner/Criminal Minds: Permanent Taglist (If you'd like to be added to any or all works please fill out the form here: Taglist Sign Up) ) @loving-and-dreaming @kmc1989 @memeorydotcom @matisse556 @buckylov3r @taygrls @ah-blossom @daily-evanstan @hardballoonlove @14buddy22 @rosiahills22 @djs8891 @mrs-ssa-hotch @panandinpain0 @viscade @kreepja @il0vebeingdelulu @hiireadstuff @kajjaka @guacam011y @kreepja

[valyrfia]

I would encourage people, who have this many emotions towards strangers on the internet and about F1, to put that energy into something productive. 

The Bail Project is helping to reform the bail system and prisons in the US

The ACLU is currently helping green card holders who are being unlawfully detained and deported in the US

Black Trans Alliance is a UK based charity educating people on the experiences trans people and black people go through and offer peer to peer support. 

Equality Texas advocates for LGBT+ people in Texas and are currently trying to fight transphobic legislation that stops people from changing their gender markers

The ARC is helping to end mass incarceration across California and help former prisoners to transition into a stable life by providing education, healthcare and housing.

World Central Kitchen, Médecins Sans Frontières, The Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, Medical Aid for Palestine are all still in desperate need of donations. 

Global Justice Now have groups you can get directly involved in all across the UK.

There are entire guides on civic engagement and how to be an ‘everyday activist’ 

And resources for learning about lesser known topics like harm reduction, Anti-Ableism, labor movements. 

Mobilize is a great website for finding protests and local activist groups in your area in the US

We are living through a pretty horrifying time in history, and I understand the impulse to lash out. But, more than ever, your spare and time and efforts should be directed to tangible advocacy. There are only so many battles you can pick, and i encourage people to choose them wisely.

^^^ nothing more to say. Upvote and boost all this.

[nesiacha]

Short note that I will expand upon when I have time (I have other priority projects). Through my posts, and like all of you, we fight against the black legend of Robespierre. However, he is clearly not one of my favorite revolutionaries from the French Revolution period. One of the reason is that while he was quite engaged on some points very important , he was not enough so compared to some actors of the French Revolution.

On slavery, although he was against it, it is unfortunate that he did not go further in supporting the Haitian revolt, unlike Marat or Chaumette, for example. He completely missed the boat regarding women's rights. While as a young lawyer he supported the entry of Louise de Keralio into the Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts, he was against women's right to vote and their more active participation in civic life (unlike people like Charles Gilbert Romme, etc.).

On social issues, he went much less far than the Hébertist movement, the group known as the Enragés, Gracchus Babeuf, etc. Moreover, I have often discussed that if Robespierre was demonized, those who were further to the left than him, like the Hébertists, are even more demonized ( except Hebert that I truly dislike like a lot of you, I find them a lot very interesting and I really like Momoro or Hanriot even if it is important to said that Hanriot would be a supporter of Robespierre in the end and will follow in his fall) or outright forgotten (the Enragés or the Babouvists) in popular culture.

This was just a point of view, far from me the idea of bashing, just an explanation of why Robespierre is clearly not in my top 20. He was engaged ,that truth and got admirable qualities I can't deny it ( even if he make a lot of things that we can reproach he and the majority of Convention), but not enough for my taste compared to some of his colleagues. I have the impression that he was always in the middle without going too far in social ideas unlike others.

P.S: In fact, I greatly admire Couthon, who was close to these ideas because despite his increasing and painful paralysis, he showed admirable courage in the retaking of Lyon ( as I said, no one achieves a feat alone; in a revolution only one hero the people). Unlike other envoys on a mission, he did not commit a horrible massacre (unlike Carrier), and his restraint did not come from racketeering or lining his pockets (unlike Tallien). With other people, he demonstrated that one can be effective in functions while being severely handicapped.

[technofeudalism]

New details about the midnight phone call from the president of the National Basketball Players Association, Chris Paul, to the former President of the United States, Barack Obama, that helped save the NBA season have surfaced.

Appearing as a guest on LeBron James' barbershop-themed talk show "The Shop," which aired Friday on HBO, Obama described the discussion that unfolded hours after the Milwaukee Bucks' wildcat strike in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, put the league's bubble in jeopardy.

“I think it was close to midnight when Chris, CP, calls with LeBron, Carmelo [Anthony], I think Russ Westbrook was on the phone, and the conversation we had was along the lines LeBron spoke about," Obama said of a call that sources said also included Miami Heat forward Andre Iguodala. "Protest is useful in terms of raising awareness, but given the power that the NBA players had, my suggestion was that we use that platform to see if you can start asking for some specifics. This isn't something that's just a one-off. That's sadly what we've seen, as it happens again and again.

Obama's suggestion took hold. Two days later, the NBPA and the NBA jointly announced an agreement to establish a social justice coalition composed of players, coaches and team governors with an expressed interest in increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform. With that pact in place, along with a commitment from team owners to use arenas as mass voting centers and for voting-centric public service announcements to be aired during subsequent playoff broadcasts, the season continued.

"As I told them though, it's not going to be solved overnight. This is something that we got to stay on. We got to keep on moving," Obama said on HBO. "So the fact that LeBron then has also been working with More Than a Vote, working with my outstanding partner and the most popular Obama, Michelle Obama, in getting people registered, getting them educated, understanding the connection between voting and reform so that you combine protest and going to the polls, I think that's the best outcome possible."

thanks Obama.

[robotlyra]

The thing I'll never forget about the whole Hamilton Is Cringe fad is that people somehow took the message that the art itself was supposed to do all the work instead of the art being the initial catalyzing ingredient that inspires further research and engagement. If works of art did not have at least SOME domino-striking influence on the sphere of civic engagement and political action, there wouldn't be such a huge cultural movement right now to erase any work of art that shows a worldview beyond narratives of the lives of straight, white, able-bodied men. Yeah Hamilton was corny, revisionist, unnuanced, oversaturated, bougie, etc etc etc, but it was also popular art, written in the language of hip hop, explicitly black artistic expression, that got people interested in American history and politics, that made it all the way to the White House. If you didn't know who Hercules Mulligan was before 2015, but you know now, and you can't even hear the name in your head without it being shouted, congratulations. The cringe worked. And it worked on you.

Art itself is not the weapon, the deus ex machina that will save us. Art is the inspiration, the suggestion, the catalyst that makes us imagine that something different is even possible.

[punkedsolar]

The two individuals shown are representative members of the EBMs, of which there are two major families: the Bipae-leporae and the Quadrupedia-leporae.

Etymology The terminology selected by Coastal Sphynx is an approximation of 'two legged rabbit' and 'four legged rabbit'. EBM stands for Evidence Based Memorandum, though most New Petrans say 'Ebem' instead of using EBM as an acronym. EBMs themselves always use the acronym.

Taxonomy There is no current taxonomy accepted by all New Petran individuals because the EBMs refuse to update the central archive and have given no explanations as to why. This has lead to robust arguments over their status (generally assumed morphic) and their biology (unknown). EBMs who present as male are called 'bucks' and EBMs who present as female are called 'does' with the term 'coney' for all others.

A group of EBMs is known as a colony or swarm.

Description

The EBM, is a fast-running terrestrial creature; it has a dome of glassy material set high its head, long ears and a flexible neck. Its teeth grow continuously, the first incisors being modified for gnawing while the second incisors are peg-like and non-functional. An EBM is capable of gnawing through metal over time.

The limb musculature of EBMS is adapted for high-speed endurance running in open country. While no internal dissections have been permitted, observation has shown a flexible spine and considerable limb rotation that may mean that even the four-leggers are capable of throwing or hurling objects.

The fur colour is smooth and single coloured, and adjusts to levels of solar radiation, ranging from black through smooth blues to white. High levels of radiation mean paler colours, low levels mean darker. An EBM in a cold environment in midwinter will be entirely black.

Bipedal EBMs wear clothing, and quadrupedal EBMs tend not to. There are numerous indeterminate forms of greater or lesser functionality with movement, weight carrying capacity, and agility. Bipeds usually weigh less and are smaller in body size than quadrupeds.

Behaviour and ecology

The EBM originates from New Petra, and travelling is rare, but does occassionally happen.

Detailed behaviour and ecology is ultimately unknown - putting in a repair request that is approved into the central archive will summon an EBM who will then attend to the area of concern. EBMs seem to attend to other issues that have not had alerts, but with less urgency. They are commonly seen during the day, and only rarely at night.

Reproduction, socialisation, and similar topics are unknown - EBMs generally retreat back to the central archive once their work is done, and do not appear to communicate with each other even when working together.

They are not considered anti-social, and rarely cause any issues for New Petran citizens. They do vote and engage in civic duties, as well as engage with commercial operations - thus they may purchase food, clothing and minor items using New Petran Scrip. Any negative interactions are in the form of large EBMs blocking traffic while engaged in repairs, and issues of that nature.

No juvenile EBMs have ever been recorded, but Coastal Sphynx note that rabbits as animals hide their young until they are fully able to defend themselves.

EBMs avoid fighting and conflict wherever possible. When injured, they retreat immediately. Their speed makes such encounters rare. An EBM will not even defend another EBM - they will leave.

Morphic ecology notes

The two main shapes of EBMs and their willingness to work together lead to an assumption that the species is morphic, but what triggers any change between types is unknown. There are a number of intermediate anthropomorphic shapes as well.

Social notes

One can certainly talk to EBMs, and they do respond in the common tongue, but their conversational abilities are more or less bland and limited. They generally do not express interest in much - but they do seem to like music. Outdoor events or clubs are known to attract them in small swarms, which can kill the vibe for other, less strange New Petrans.

They do have names - the two above are called D-Comp and D-Res.

[cityof2morrow]

Sim Studies

Published: 6-3-2024 | Updated: N/A SUMMARY Did you know there are people out there who do extensive historical, psychological, mental health, tech, and design research based on sims? Did you know there are a host of positive mental health benefits associated with simming? Did you know simming has been used as a form of therapy by health providers…or that it has been implicated in international conflict(s)? Did you know it has made people more curious about others and can encourage civic engagement? Did you know simmers help each other become more tech-literate? The Sims/SimCity franchises have been around in one form or another since at least 1989 and continue to be a focus in game studies (ludology). This research is a part of my professional work and teaching – my research focuses on the psychology and cultural implications of simming. Occasionally, I’ll share interesting things scholars and curious playtesters have discovered about simmers and simming (there are some documented disturbing practices among simulation gamers but this project leans toward the positive/pro-social stuff). Look for more under the #CO2SIMSTUDIES tag. RECOMMENDED SIMS READS: I’ve only located a handful of trade (less-academic, intended for the average reader) publications specifically about The Sims, but I recommend the following to start with – this is a mixture of research-based and biographical reflections on simming:

The Black Simmer by Amira Virgial (@xmiramira) in Black Futures (2021; 2020), edited by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham

Players Unleashed! Modding The Sims and the Culture of Gaming (2011) by Tanja Sihvonen

Women and Gaming: The Sims and 21st Century Learning (2010) by James Paul Gee and Elisabeth R. Hayes

Sims is the subject of several chapters in Women and Video Game Modding: Essays on Gender and the Digital Community (2020), edited by Bridget Whelan.

CREDITS Thanks: Simming and game studies communities. Sources: Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik).

[cognitivejustice]

The state of citizen science in Ukraine

The GROMADA project is a partnership between CEOBS, the universities of Copenhagen, Hamburg and Lund, Italian NGO Systasis and Greek education company Web2Learn. The project has brought together academics, lawyers, civil society activists and students to explore the potential of citizen science to detect war-related harms in Ukraine. Another crucial component of the GROMADA project is its focus on civic evidence collection for legal accountability.

We had initially assumed that the concept of “citizen science” — or indeed “civilian science” — was not widely known in Ukraine. However, the issue proved to be purely terminological. International citizen science platforms, such as iNaturalist or GBIF, are popular among amateur scientists and environmental activists in Ukraine. In 2024, the Science at Risk initiative published its White Book for Citizen Science in Ukraine, which summarised the pre-war citizen science projects and their new wartime outlook.

Numerous local projects have developed in Ukraine under the umbrella of “civic environmental monitoring”. Save Dnipro, an environmental monitoring and advocacy organisation, is an example of a civic initiative that has made it to the national scale and now closely cooperates with the government in environmental policymaking. Another group, Stop Poisoning Kryvyi Rih, has developed civic water monitoring protocols and tested local sources in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast for their suitability as an emergency water source during the war. Elsewhere, the Dovkola Network of citizen science developed its Green Book of Environmental Monitoring in Ukraine. Importantly, it is felt that citizen science has a considerable, and still quite untapped potential, for countering misinformation and establishing environmental truths.

Citizen science’s potential role in investigating environmental crimes is also relevant and increasingly under the spotlight. However, it is still limited by procedural constraints, the admissibility of evidence and lack of case law in most jurisdictions. The Formosa case in Texas, where the judge found a petrochemical company liable for violating the US Clean Water Act on the basis of evidence collected by the civic group, is an important example of citizen-driven data supporting litigation.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has provided an impetus for new citizen science initiatives. The most notable ones are led by professional environmentalists or involve cooperation with academia, and try to support investigative authorities in collecting evidence of environmental crimes. The Ukrainian Scientific Centre for the Ecology of the Sea and the Let’s Do It Ukraine youth organisation joined water and sediment sampling efforts on the Black Sea coast after the Kakhovka Dam breach, with the data made available to the investigative authorities.

To date, the GROMADA project has engaged a wide range of Ukrainian citizen science practitioners and activists, as well as lawyers working on accountability issues, as it has explored their needs and their perceptions of citizen science in the context of the war. The war itself has created important challenges for civic monitoring. Access to many government data portals is closed, routine environmental inspections are not taking place and baseline data is often unavailable. Importantly, evidence collected by citizen science initiatives within a criminal investigation must remain confidential during the pre-trial phase, limiting the possibility of informing communities about the extent of harm and any risks it may have generated. Ensuring communities’ right to access information may require alternative ways of organising this work, together with dedicated funding.

[beardedmrbean]

A nonprofit voter engagement group founded by high-profile Georgia perennial candidate Stacey Abrams reportedly suffered dozens of layoffs two weeks after facing a six-figure state ethics fine for campaign finance violations.

Scores of workers at the New Georgia Project (NGP) have been laid off since Dec. 27, with a dozen more being pink-slipped at the end of January, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.

The group describes itself as a "nonpartisan effort to register, civically engage, and build power with the New Georgia Majority… the growing population of Black, brown, young and other historically marginalized voters."

It received attention for helping Democrats flip Georgia in 2020 – when Republicans lost both the presidency and its two Senate seats within three months’ time.

NGP could not be reached by phone and did not respond to a comment request through its contact form.

However, a GoFundMe for affected employees set up by NGP policy director Stephanie Ali described the layoffs and said those subject to the latest round had only three days' notice.

The GoFundMe description said the NGP "has stated these reductions in force (RIFs) are due to economic downturns, reductions in fundraising in an ‘off’ election year, and other contributing factors."

Last month, the state ethics commission found both the organization and its political action fund unlawfully performed work for Abrams’ 2018 gubernatorial bid while failing to report donations and expenditures.

The Georgia Ethics Commission probed the groups and discovered more than $7 million combined was raised for Abrams – a former state House minority leader from Atlanta – and others that cycle. 

It administered a Peach State record $300,000 fine via a settlement that involved admission of 16 examples of illegal activity, according to Atlanta News First. 

The panel also found that the groups stepped out of legal bounds in connection to a 2019 voter referendum aimed at expanding transit services in Gwinnett County, Georgia's second-most populous county after Fulton, which includes Atlanta.

Abrams founded the NGP in 2014, but told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she left the group in 2017 when she decided to run against now-Gov. Brian Kemp.

"The setbacks at NGP are disappointing, and my thoughts are with those laid off," she told the paper’s "Politically Georgia" vertical. "Regardless of [NGP’s] structure, I will never stop believing in the mission of ensuring every Georgian can make their voice heard."

After Abrams’ departure, Ebenezer Baptist Church Rev. Raphael Warnock led the group until 2019. Fox News Digital reached out to the now-Democratic U.S. senator for his reaction.

Cody Hall, a senior advisor to Kemp, told Fox News Digital he wondered: "What did Stacey Abrams know and when did she know it?"

"Abrams founded NGP, her people ran it for years, and we're all supposed to believe she knew nothing? Give us a break," Hall said.

"Everything we said for the last 10 years about Abrams and her organization was true."

When asked for comment, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones slammed Abrams for using "activists in the mainstream media to try to pull the wool over Georgians’ eyes."

The likely future candidate for higher office added Abrams was "embarrassed" by Kemp two cycles in a row and is "embarrassed again" that her group’s "illegal grift is being exposed."

"The people of Georgia are good judges of character, and the liberal national media are not. Stacey Abrams will go down as one of the biggest frauds in the history of Georgia politics, but I have no doubt the media will learn nothing from this," Jones said.

"We as Georgia Republicans must stay ready to defeat whoever the next Marxist grifter is in 2026."

Georgia's Republican Senate President John F. Kennedy called the NGP news "the tip of the iceberg" for Abrams.

"How many more millions will she fleece from donors to enrich herself or skirt campaign finance rules until the spigot turns off?" 

Georgia Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II, a Democrat, declined comment.

According to Atlanta’s FOX affiliate, NGP helped 55,000 Georgians register to vote, more than 80% of whom were Black and 40% were ages 18-25.

[fandomtrumpshate]

2024 Supported Org: Voteriders

The United States has a very patchy history when it comes to voting rights, especially for minoritized people. Black men only secured the right to vote in 1870, and women in 1920. In practice, Black women were still effectively banned from voting until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1975. Among the many strategies used to discourage minoritized citizens from exercising their right to vote are unnecessarily strict ID requirements. Although a 2014 study by the GAO found that requiring photo IDs reduces consistently reduces voter turnout by 2-3%, many states continue to require photo IDs. Many other states have implemented time- and resource-intensive processes for acquiring even a basic state ID, creating hurdles for potential voters.

The requirement for government ID can often pose a particular challenge for trans and nonbinary voters. For people whose ID doesn’t match their name and gender, voter ID laws can make the experience of casting a ballot invalidating and intimidating. Many transgender voters report verbal harassment as a result of an ID with a name or gender marker that did not match their gender presentation.

VoteRiders is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with a mission to ensure that all citizens are able to exercise their freedom to vote.

VoteRiders' vision is a thriving American democracy with an empowered, civically engaged, diverse, and representative electorate. In such a democracy, voter ID laws do not prevent any eligible voters from having a voice at the ballot box. They make it a special priority to help

VoteRiders and HeadCount’s Vote with Pride team are there to make sure everyone has everything they need to vote safely and confidently. They help people figure out what documents they need to get ID; request and pay for those documents; cover the DMV fees for getting an ID; and even find a lawyer to help, if necessary.

You can support Voteriders as a creator in the 2024 FTH auction (or as a bidder, when the time comes to donate for the auctions you’ve won.)

n.b. VoteRiders is one of two voting justice organizations on our list this year! You can read about the other one, Spread the Vote, here.

[canadianabroadvery]

 " ... researchers point to the growing body of research that finds that violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act are more common in communities with a larger Hispanic and Black populations. They explore those inequities and argue that failing tap water systems in the United States erode trust in government. As a result, the people who can least afford it end up buying expensive bottled water, even if what’s coming out of the tap is safe.

Over the past two decades, the size of the bottled water industry in the U.S. has nearly tripled. In 2020, wholesale revenues totaled $20.1 billion. While commercial water companies market their water as a cleaner alternative to tap water, research shows little evidence to support or refute these claims because this industry has less stringent oversight compared to tap water..."

[communistkenobi]

Political knowledge and interest in public affairs are critical preconditions for more active forms of involvement. If you don't know the rules of the game and the players and don't care about the outcome, you're unlikely to try playing yourself. Encouragingly, Americans in the aggregate at century's end are about as likely to know, for example, which party controls the House of Representatives or who their senators are as were their grandparents a half century ago. On the other hand, we are much better educated than our grandparents, and since civics knowledge is boosted by formal education, it is surprising that civics knowledge has not improved accordingly. The average college graduate today knows little more about public affairs than did the average high school graduate in the 1940s. (Bowling Alone, p 35)

Putnam just got done saying voting is only a limited slice of American political participation and voter turnout numbers can’t be used to generalise about all public political engagement, but we are now back to “knowing about elected officials” as a generalised version of political knowledge (which, as he argues, is a pre-condition to political participation, eg voting).

Adorno’s comment about the widespread political ignorance of the American public comes to mind while reading this, although his diagnosis is very different from Putnam’s, pointing instead to the industrial capitalist standardisation of education that produces extremely rigid knowledge frameworks that encourage people to think in set types, to believe there are singularly correct answers to complex problems, and that these answers are discoverable only within the available range of options (contributing to “both-sides”-isms and a failure to imagine political discourse beyond what is presented by political candidates). I think there’s a bunch of idealism going on there too, but Adorno at least acknowledges that education in America is the result of capitalist economic production shaping cultural and educational standards, which are deeply revisionist and use american imperial interests as the basis for educational programs. Coupled with how poorly funded and decentralised public education is, the privatised nature of post-secondary education, and the deeply racialised and gendered dimensions of economic inequality, access to the types of education that would inform you about political matters is reserved for the select few.

And that’s still a very generous criticism, given that Putnam’s argument rests on the absurd notion that political participation is a function of education (even though he acknowledges in that last sentence that college degrees don’t necessarily mean you “know the rules of the game.”) Again I’m not like a historical expert or anything, but my understanding is that black civil rights movements, gay civil rights movements, women’s rights movements etc in the 60s and onwards were not resultant from all those people individually getting college degrees or learning who their elected officials were but rather mass organising and protesting - ie, a response to the failures of electoral politics to secure civil rights and protections for oppressed groups. This is again a bourgeois conception of political participation - if education is a necessary function of political engagement, then mass movements and demonstrations do not really “count” as political engagement.

it’s honestly laughable that this book is as well-regarded and heavily cited as it is. Putnam is fundamentally unserious about and uninterested in anything outside of the American mythological conception of bourgeois individualism and electoral politics. The term “social capital,” a centrally important concept in his book, is not interrogated for any ideological baggage or methodological limitations it may carry, and he has not provided any explanation for social change aside from the completely ridiculous idea that generational change is the driving factor in American politics. He claims that a lack of knowledge or interests in electoral outcomes prevents people from “playing the game,” with no allowance for anyone who declares the game itself is unfair, or any argument that we should change the rules of the game. He’s writing about the social life in America with the assumption that there is literally nothing beyond liberal electoral individualism, and any arguments to the contrary - any political activity that is illegal, unpopular to the white public, or simply uninterested in electoralism - to be unimportant in diagnosing the social ills of American society. What a fucking joke