#Border Crises
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A must watch if you want to know the truth on the border bill.
(R) Senator Lankford that worked 4 months on, has sponsored this bill and the lies that been perpetrated against him so Trump gets to shut down any border legislation.
“Turns out they want all talk and no action. It turns out border security is not a risk to our national security. It’s just a talking point for the election.”
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Well, I know I've been a bit lost the last few weeks or months, I'm not sure. The point is that I started my master's in hydraulics and I'm in the third module, and today I had an anxiety episode, which is a bit strange since I hadn't had any lately.
In May, I also had a couple of crises that got a bit out of control, but overall I'm doing much better. My psychologist said I've progressed 80% since I started going to therapy with him, and I also notice the progress.
Here on planet Earth, things are a bit chaotic. Globally, there are wars and armed conflicts, and I feel powerless to help. Nationally, gangs and mafias do as they please, and the government is led by an incompetent and useless person. And at home, we discovered that my dad was unfaithful to my mom about three weeks ago, which led me to a crisis – I'm still dealing with the shame and guilt as aftereffects of the crisis.
I think that's all for now; I'll try to check in more often.
End of communication.
#aled last#catcher in the rye#oliver#the catcher in the rye#this big field of rye and all#alice oseman#charlie spring#blog#nobody's around#osemanverse#bpd safe#actually bpd#bpd thoughts#bpd#bpd vent#actually borderline#borderline pd#cyclothymia#cyclothymic disorder#border crises#climate crises#existential crises#humanitarian crises#war#gangs#holden caulfield#frances janvier#tori spring#tori solitaire#solitaire
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Crises de panico
É uma experiencia tão ruim, que são as piores 2 horas ou na melhor das hipoteses os 30 minutos mais desesperadores,vc sente sua vida saindo,vc sente seu corpo a frente de seus comandos, a cabeça pareçe tão cheia de coisa que ao mesmo tempo está vazia de tanta informação passando,vc não consegue raciocinar, ai vc toma um remedio e começa a pensar quando e como ele vai começar a fazer efeito e começa a pensar dos efeitos dele no seu corpo agora e a longo prazo,vc não consegue vê o amanhã parece que agora vc chegou no ponto final,vc começa a respirar e respirar pela respiração com a boca extremamente aberta provocando um movimento gigantesco no peito só pela sensação de ainda consigo respirar,quando vc tenta respirar pelo nariz parece o que o ar entra e sai como uma linha de tão fino que parece passar,vc sente tudo a ponto do seu corpo travar,vc chora seja por dentro ou por fora,vc fica sem lugar,vc caminha por entre os comodos da casa desesperado procurando um lugar que te caiba que vc sinta que pertence a essa realidade não a realidade que seu corpo está,vc volta pro ponto inicial,geralmente o quarto senta no mesmo lugar e fica completamente travado sem conseguir,se mouver,respirar ,falar, chrar,e se o choro for interno é pior,vc sabe que essa sensação vai voltar vc queira ou não e o pior de tudo ela não vai avisar.
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🇺🇲 US-MEXICO BORDER: Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas Declares State of Emergency Amid Flood of 6'000 Migrants in Two Days
youtube


A massive influx of now 8'000 migrants crossing into the US/Mexico border this week flooded into the small city of Eagle Pass, Texas (Pop. 29'000); which prompted the mayor of the city, Rolando Salinas to declare a state of emergency on Tuesday.
This massive influx of migrants into US shows no sign of abating going into Saturday night as US mainstream media outlets post a steady stream of shots in and around Eagle Pass of seemingly endless queues of migrants at border checkpoints, as well as stadiums full of migrants huddling in dense crowds under overpasses.
Tensions remain high along the border; the Biden Administration recently removed razor wire from the section of border that passes by Eagle Pass, prompting Texas Governor Gregg Abbott to deploy law enforcement officers to attempt to replace it.
On Wednesday, President Biden granted extended temporary protection status for thousands of Venezuelan migrants already in the country.
Also on Wednesday, media outlets were reporting the US Border Patrol had apprehended over 9'000 illegal immigrants in a 24-hour period. An astounding number even for a country over 300 million.
Most estimates now put illegal border crossings at well over 2 million each year, with US Border Patrol reporting over 181'000 encounters along the US Mexico border in August alone.
🤡 Perhaps Joe Biden thinks you can use cheap immigrant labor to build all those homes for our population of half a million homeless Americans and that's why he's letting them in by the thousands per day.
#us border crises#border crises#us border#migrant crises#us news#news#immigration policy#immigration#immigration news#socialism#communism#marxism leninism#socialist politics#socialist news#socialist worker#socialist revolution#socialist#communist#marxism#marxist leninist#politics#us mexico border#workersolidarity#worker solidarity#WorkerSolidarityNews#the americas#us imperialism#Imperialism#biden administration#eagle pass
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Rubber Chicken Dinner Cruise
By David Glenn Cox The big build up and then the big fizzle. On a pretty Saturday afternoon in Texas with no football on television. The big self-described protest at the border. With anti-gun control slogans and Trump flags a waving could only muster a couple of hundred folks, kids, vendors, and dogs included. The results were NOT GOOD! Tepid. This is the Republican’s main campaign issue for…

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Finishing Portrait of a Lady audiobook today. Next in the queue: The Finishing School by Muriel Spark. Once again soliciting (audio)book recommendations for my commute
#I am also reading Summer Will Show and plan to read The Bostonians and Ulysses after that#Plus this book called Empire of Humanity about humanitarianism and imperialism#And another book on labor and the border regime and the production of refugee crises
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me: *studying peacefully*
the medical army scholarship reps in my inbox:

#we’re trying to solve the health crises that yall created#stop killing doctors without borders and HCPs in the global south for a start
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What makes you react to what's happening in Gaza? and What makes you care about human lives? Is it empathy, ideology, culture, religion, knowledge, or something else that compels you to feel and act?
What would push your government to stop saying, "Israel has the right to defend itself"? What would make columnists stop focusing on self defense and what the demonstrators or students are doing "wrong" and instead use their platform to pressure their government to do what's "right" to stop this ongoing genocide? When did you start caring, and when will you start acting?
Is it when you have Palestinian friends?
When Palestinian children begged for food, safety, and water?
When over 45000 Palestinians had been killed & 98000 injured ?
When left-wing political parties around the world started criticizing Israel?
When Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations sounded the alarm for years?
When protesters took to the streets every week? Do you still hear their voices?
When human rights organizations like Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch documented the atrocities? Was 60 years of human rights violations not enough?
When journalism associations worldwide recorded an unprecedented number of journalists killed in such a short period?
When UN agencies like the World Food Program or UNRWA reported on the humanitarian disaster and worsening famine?
When aid organizations like Doctors Without Borders or the Red Cross warned of the total collapse of healthcare?
When child rights organizations like Save the Children or UNICEF constantly reported on children’s acute physical and mental health crises?
When Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace declared, "Not in my name"?
When the International Criminal Court in The Hague found strong evidence of crimes against humanity and began prosecuting high-ranking officials? Are you waiting for the court to tell you act?
When your children were upset after hearing what was happening in Gaza? Did that stir your parental instincts?
When the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, repeatedly urged Israel to stop the killings?
When your favorite artist spoke out—did that make you reflect?
When students protested at universities around the world? Does the passion of young people give you hope?
When the Pope made a statement about the situation?
When military experts reported how many bombs Israel had dropped on Gaza?
When 2.5 million people were displaced under bombardment, with nowhere to escape in Gaza—a place already called the world’s largest open-air prison even before October 7?
When your employer gave you permission to speak out?
Are you waiting for Joe Biden to say the red line has been crossed and stop sending weapons?
Or are you waiting for Donald Trump to say the magic words: "Enough is enough"?
Or for Benjamin Netanyahu to say "Oh sorry that was a mistake"?
Or are you waiting for God Almighty to come down and say, "Enough is enough"?
Or for the most extreme elements in the Israeli government to say, "Now we can stop bombing"—but will there be any Palestinians left in Gaza by then?
Or will you stop waiting and act now, driven by empathy, knowledge, and solidarity with people who are being oppressed right in fornt or your eyes?
I’ve lost over 200 family members, friends, and neighbors in this genocide. I have 24 of my family’s members and 2 orphaned children, trapped in a makeshift tent and struggling to survive in this freezing winter in Gaza. Is that not enough to move you to act? Tell me then when ?—when will your humanity compel you to step in? Please, act now and donate!
Vetted and shared by @90-ghost: Link.
Verified and shared by @el-shab-hussein: Link
Listed as number 282 in "The Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser Spreadsheet" compiled by @el-shab-hussein and @nabulsi : Link
Listed on the Butterfly Effect Project, number 957: Link
Additionally, Al Jazeera News has documented apart of my family's case: Link
If, for some reason, you couldn't donate via GoFundMe, you can donate via PayPal instead.
@mesetacadre @forevergulag @gazafunds @northgazaupdates2 @freepalestinneee
@komsomolka @muppet-sex @nabulsi @fading-event-608 @buttercuparry
@prierepaiienne @interact-if @unified-multiversal-theory @inkstay
@socialjusticekitten-blog @socialgoodmoms @nowthisnews @socialgoofy @fightforhumanity-rpg-blog
@fightforhumanity-rp @queerandpresentdanger @90-ghost @timogsilangan @punkitt-is-here
@fox-guardian @hiveswap @valtsv @helppeople @ibtisams
@annoyingloudmicrowavecultist @vakarians-babe @plomegranate @queerstudiesnatural @tamamita
@apollos-boyfriend @akajustmerry @marnosc @flower-tea-fairies @tsaricides
@belleandsaintsebastian @ear-motif @brutaliakent @raelyn-dreams @troythecatfish
@4ft10tvlandfangirl @communistchilchuck @fairuz @sarazucker @fairuzfan
@a-nautilus-as-pixel-art @13eyond13 @stil-lindigo @baby-indie-blog
#palestine#help gaza#facts#yemen#jerusalem#current events#free palestine#gaza#free gaza#palestine news#war on gaza#fuck the idf#palestinian resistance#israel#tel aviv
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Help an intersex family in Gaza!
Hi everyone. I'd like to share about a fundraiser that is very important to me. A good friend of mine is in contact with the organizers.
(Described in alt).
Their story:
"Hello, my name is Abeer. I'm organizing this fundraising campaign from Belgium on behalf of my family, who currently live in Gaza.
Since October 7, all families in Gaza have been subjected to genocide. My family is one of those families that has had to flee its own home several times because of the threat of regular attacks.
After two months, my family decided to return home and take the risk of being bombed at any moment rather than stay in the street. Our 4-floor building now contains over 100 people who have fled from different parts of Gaza. We always open our hearts for our own people, but we can't do it without your help and support.
My parents, Kamal (53) and Moukaram (51), are suffering from the war because of their age and health. My brother Suliman, his wife Rawan Abualnaja and their two-year-old daughter Bisan are trying to stay strong, but it's complicated by their little daughter's enormous needs. My other siblings who are not married are Mohammed 25, Inas 22, Ibrahim 17, Abdallah 15.
My family medical condition during the war:
My father suffers from delusional disorders. He can't work or help my family financially. Mohammed and Ibrahim suffer from a chronic disease, congenital adrenal hyperplasia. It is difficult for them to obtain medication in Gaza. One of their medicines has not been available in Gaza for two years. During the war, they couldn't get their medicines because they simply didn't exist anymore. My family members are still suffering. They don't want to be potential victims. They want to escape death and live like other families on the planet.
On 01/01/2024, they attacked the local mosque and the missile failed to explode and ended up in front of my family's house. My family is in danger and the missile will explode any second.
Since then, my family has decided to be evacuated from Gaza because of the senseless attack on our city. Please help me evacuate my family to Egypt so that they can rebuild their lives in peace.
I've been in Belgium for over five years. I feel useless because I haven't been able to do much except try to help them with their daily living expenses. That's why we created this campaign. We're raising funds to evacuate my family to Egypt, a place that offers a glimmer of hope and stability. However, the cost of the evacuation is high, hence our call for crowdfunding.
Every contribution makes a difference The funds we raise will be used for :
- Evacuation from Gaza for both families (Rafah border crossing fees for 9 people total) - Two months of temporary living expenses in Egypt, including food, shelter, and transportation - Passport fees - Food expences untill they leave Gaza
No matter how small your contribution, it can make all the difference in breaking the cycle of violence and uncertainty. By supporting our campaign, you are offering a lifeline to our families so that they can rebuild their lives, heal from their trauma and make a fresh start in a safe and secure environment. Please leave a comment and share our campaign with your friends, so we can reach more people and make a bigger impact. Together, we can make a difference!"
They are using a French platform called Papayoux Solidarite instead of GoFundMe. Abeer also has a Paypal account for non European donors.
They are currently at 33 588,78 €/ 50,000 €.
Let's see if we can get them to 34,000 today. Any donation matters, even $1 or $2 donations can add up.
We need to help them meet their goal. Intersex liberation means intersex liberation everywhere--it is so important that we show up in solidarity. Those of us living with CAH know how dangerous salt wasting crises are without medication, and how important it is to urgently help Mohammed and Ibrahim get access to the medications they need to support their CAH. Intersex solidarity means that we need to show up and support intersex people facing genocide.
If you can't donate, please share. Consider doing an art raffle to raise money. Do whatever you can to help this family because it is urgent, and we need to act in solidarity with them now and make sure that the intersex community is here to support them!
#intersex#actually intersex#actualllyintersex#palestine#free palestine#save palestine#lgbtqia#congenital adrenal hyperplasia#trying to think of what else to tag for boost#all eyes on palestine
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MLMs are the mirror-world version of community organizing

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/05/power-of-positive-thinking/#the-socialism-of-fools
In her unmissable 2023 book Doppelganger, Naomi Klein paints a picture of a "mirror world" of right wing and conspiratorial beliefs that are warped, false reflections of real crises:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine
For example, Qanon's obsession with "child trafficking" is a mirror-world version of the real crises of child poverty, child labor, border family separations and kids in cages. Anti-vax is the mirror-world version of the true story of the Sacklers and their fellow opioid barons making billions on Oxy and fent, with the collusion of corrupt FDA officials and a pliant bankruptcy court system. Xenophobic panic about "immigrants stealing jobs" is the mirror world version of the well-documented fact that big business shipped jobs to low-waged territories abroad, weakening US labor and smashing US unions. Cryptocurrency talk about "decentralization" is the mirror-world version of the decay of every industry (including tech) into a monopoly or a cartel.
Klein is at pains to point out that other political thinkers have described this phenomenon. Back in the 19th century, leftists called antisemitism "the socialism of fools." Socialism – the idea that working people are preyed upon by capital – is reflected in the warped mirror as "working people are preyed upon by international Jewish bankers."
The mirror world is a critical concept, because it shows that far right and conspiratorial beliefs are often uneasy neighbors with real, serious political movements. The swivel-eyed loons have a point, in other words:
https://locusmag.com/2023/05/commentary-cory-doctorow-the-swivel-eyed-loons-have-a-point/
Once you understand the mirror world, you start to realize that many right wing conspiracists could have been directed into productive movements, if only they'd understood that their problems were with systems, not sinister individuals (this is why Trump has ordered a purge of any federally funded research that contains the word "systemic"):
https://mamot.fr/@[email protected]/113943287435897828
This also explains why the "tropes" of right wing conspiratorialism sometimes echo left wing, radical thought. I once had a (genuinely unhinged) dialog with a self-described German "progressive" who told me that criticizing the finance industry as parasitic on the real economy was "structurally antisemitic." Nonsense like this is why Klein's "mirror world" is so important: unless you understand the mirror world, you can end up believing that "progressive" just means "defending anything the right hates."
Historian Erik Baker is the author of a new book, Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America, which has some very interesting things to say about the mirror world:
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674293601
In a recent edition of the always-excellent Know Your Enemy podcast, the hosts interviewed Baker about the book, and the conversation turned to the subject of pyramid schemes, the "multilevel marketing systems" that are woven into so many religious, right-wing movements:
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/know-your-enemy-the-entrepreneurial-ethic/
MLMs have it all: prosperity gospel ("God rewards virtue with wealth"), atomization ("you are an entrepreneur and everyone in your life is your potential customer"), and rabid anti-Communism ("solidarity is a trick to make you poorer").
The rise of the far right can't be separated from the history of MLMs. The modern MLM starts with Amway, a cultlike national scam that was founded by Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos (father-in-law of Betsy DeVos).
Rank-and-file members of the Amway cult lived in dire poverty, convinced that their financial predicament was their own fault for not faithfully following the "sure-fire" Amway method for building a business. Andrea Pitzer's gripping memoir of growing up in an Amway household offers a glimpse of the human cost of the cult:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/amway-america/681479/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZxYkntna5M_rYEv4707Zqqs
Amway – and MLMs like it – don't just bleed out their members by convincing them to buy mountains of useless crap they're supposed to sell to their families, while enriching the people at the top of the pyramid who sell it to them. The "toxic positivity" of multi-level marketing cults forces members deep into debt to pay for seminars and retreats where they are supposed to learn how to repair the personal defects that keep them from being "successful entrepreneurs." The topline of the cult isn't just getting rich selling stuff – they're making bank by selling false hope, literally, in Hilton ballrooms and convention centers across the country, where hearing an MLM scammer berate you for being a "bad entrepreneur" costs thousands of dollars.
Amway destroyed so many lives that Richard Nixon's FTC decided to investigate it. The investigation wasn't going well for Amway, which was facing an existential crisis that they were rescued from by Nixon's resignation. You see, Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, was the former Congressman of Amway co-founder Jay Van Andel, who was also the head of the US Chamber of Commerce, the most powerful business lobbyist in America.
At Ford's direction, the FTC exonerated Amway of all wrongdoing. But it's even worse than that: Ford's FTC actually crafted a rule that differentiated legal pyramid schemes from illegal ones, based on Amway's destructive business practices. Under this new rule, any pyramid scheme that had the same structure as Amway was presumptively legal. Every MLM operating in America today is built on the Amway model, taking advantage of the FTC's Amway rule to operate in the open, without fear of legal repercussions.
MLMs prey on the poor and desperate: women, people of color, people in dying small towns and decaying rustbelt cities. It's not just that these people are desperate – it's that they only survive through networks of mutual aid. Poor women rely on other poor women to help with child care, marginalized people rely on one another for help with home maintenance, small loans, a place to crash after an eviction, or a place to park the RV you're living out of.
In other words, people who lack monetary capital must rely on social capital for survival. That's why MLMs target these people: an MLM is a system for destructively transforming social capital into monetary capital. MLMs exhort their members to mine their social relationships for "leads" and "customers" and to use the language of social solidarity ("women helping women") to wheedle, guilt, and arm-twist people from your mutual aid network into buying things they don't need and can't afford.
But it's worse, because what MLMs really sell is MLMs. The real purpose of an MLM sales call is to convince the "customer" to become an MLM salesperson, who owes you a share of every sale they make and is incentivized to buy stock they don't need (from you) in order to make quotas. And of course, their real job is to sign up other salespeople to work under them, and so on.
An MLM isn't just a pathogen, in other words – it's a contagion. When someone in your social support network gets the MLM disease, they don't just burn all their social ties with you and the people you rely on – they convince more people in your social group to do the same.
Which brings me back to the mirror world, and Erik Baker's conversation with the Know Your Enemy podcast. Baker starts to talk about who gets big into Amway: "people who already effectively lead by the force of their charisma and personality many other people in their lives. Right? Because you're able to sell to those people, and you're able to recruit those people. What are we talking about? Well, they're effectively recruiting organizers, people who have a natural capacity for organizing and then sending them out in the world to organize on behalf of Christian capitalism."
Listening to this, I was thunderstruck: MLM recruiters are the mirror world version of union organizers. In her memoir of growing up in Amway, Andrea Pitzer talks about how her mom would approach strangers and try to lead them through a kind of structured discussion:
Everywhere we went—the mall, state parks, grocery stores—she’d ask people whether they could use a little more money each month. “I’d love to set up a time to talk to you about an exciting business opportunity.” The words should have seemed suspect. Yet people almost always gave her their number. Her confidence and professionalism were reassuring, and her enthusiasm was electric, even, at first, to me. “What would you do with $1 million?” she’d ask, spinning me around the kitchen.
This kind of person, having this kind of dialog, is exactly how union organizers work. In A Collective Bargain, Jane McAlevey's classic book on labor organizing, she describes how she would seek out the charismatic, outgoing workers in a job-site, the natural leaders, and recruit them to help bring the other workers onboard:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/23/a-collective-bargain/
Organizer training focuses on how to have a "structured organizing conversation," which McAlevey described in a 2019 Jacobin article:
“If you had a magic wand and could change three things about life in America [or her town or city or school], what would you change?” The rest of your conversation needs to be anchored to her answers to that question.
https://jacobin.com/2019/11/thanksgiving-organizing-activism-friends-family-conversation-presidential-election
The MLM conversation and the union conversation have eerily similar structures, but the former is designed to commodify and destroy solidarity, and the latter is designed to reinforce and mobilize solidarity. Seen in this light, an MLM is a mirror world union, one that converts solidarity into misery and powerlessness instead of joy and strength.
The MLM movement doesn't just make men like Rich De Vos and Jay Van Andel into billionaires. MLM bosses are heavy funders of the right, a blank check for the Heritage Foundation. Trump is the MLM president, a grifter who grew up on the gospel of Norman Vincent Peale – a key figure in MLM cult dynamics – who tells his followers that wealth is a sign of virtue. Trump boasts about all the people he's ripped off, boasting about how getting away with cheating "makes me smart":
https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth
The corollary is that being cheated means you're stupid. Caveat emptor, the motto of the cryptocurrency industry ("not your wallet, not your coins") that spent hundreds of millions to get Trump elected.
Tech has its own mirror world. The people who used tech to find fellow weirdos and make delightful and wonderful things are mirrored by the people who used tech to find fellow weirdos and call for fascism, ethnic cleansing, and concentration camps.
In Picks and Shovels, my next novel (Feb 17), I introduce readers to a fictitious 1980s religious computer sales cult called Fidelity Computing, run by an orthodox rabbi, a Catholic priest and a Mormon rabbi:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels
Fidelity is a faith scam, a pyramid scheme that is parasitic upon the bonds of faith and fellowship. Martin Hench, the hero of the story – a hard-fighting high tech forensic accountant – goes to work for a competing business, Computing Freedom, run by three Fidelity ex-employees who have left their faiths and their employers to pursue a vision of computers that is about liberation, rather than control.
The women of Computing Freedom – a queer orthodox woman who's been kicked out of her family, a Mormon woman who's renounced the LDS over its opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, and a nun who's left her order to throw in with the Liberation Theology movement – are all charismatic, energetic, inspirational organizers.
Because of course they are – that's why they were so good at selling computers for the Reverend Sirs who sit at the top of Fidelity Computing's pyramid scheme.
Hearing Baker's interview and reading Pitzer's memoir last week made it all click together for me. Not just that MLMs destroy social bonds, but that within every person who gets sucked into an MLM, there's a community organizer who could be building the bonds that MLMs destroy.
#pluralistic#amway#mlm#picks and shovels#martin hench#devos#that makes me smart#rich devos#mirror world#doppelganger#naomi klein#crime fiction#technothrillers#books#cults
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The republicanhouse speaker getting caught in a lie which shouldn’t surprise anyone. 
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Addressing the US/Canada Border
Hi all,
While this is not something myself or the team ever thought we'd have to address when we dreamed up DashCon 2... we have to talk about the US/Canada border.
We have recieved an incredible number of messages from American congoers concerned about the border. Already horror stories have emerged, ICE going so far as to search border crossers' phones or detain them without due process. While the worst, rarest stories are amplified online, we understand how frightening the idea of crossing the border must be. Especially for people of colour and trans people.
I'm writing this to tell you all that we have thought about it. The situation could improve in the next few months, or it could worsen. Regardless of what happens, refunds will remain available.
In the event that something truly catastrophic happens, DashCon 2 will be moved to July 5th of the following year. (There is a clause in our venue agreement that allows for date changes in the event of major crises.) If that happens, attendees will have the option of accepting either the new ticket date, or a full refund.
No matter what, DashCon 2 will be continuing online, even if the physical convention date is moved. Conflict with the USA is part of the reason we decided to create Virtual DashCon 2 in the first place—accessibility isn't just for physical disabilities. So many factors, be they political, social, economic, or otherwise, affect access to our convention. We want to reduce barriers as best we can.
Please stay safe out there.
With love from Canada,
Simone DashCon 2 Co-Director
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Resources for Palestine, Sudan, etc
One-Stop Resource: Ceasefire Today (includes options for USA, UK, and Canada) Free things you can do: - Arab.org: Click Once a Day - Petition to Stop Unethical Mining in Congo - Targeted boycott Contact your representatives (USA): - Call Your Reps (includes scripts!) - Fax Your Reps FOR FREE - Send a Letter to Congress: Don't Fund the Conflict in Congo If you can donate: Direct donations - Life for Gaza: Municipal Projects - eSims for Gaza - Mutual Aid LA Network Organizations - Anera - The Palestinian Children's Relief Fund - The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's Fund - Relief International - Doctors Without Borders - SAPA: Hope for Sudan - SIHA: Period Products for Sudanese Women and Girls - Baitulmaal: Yemen Aid - Haitian Health Foundation - Voices of the Unseen (for marginalized communities in Lebanon) United States - ACLU Take Action - Immigrant Defenders Law Center Additional information on humanitarian crises: - Decolonize Palestine (education and dispelling myths) - Eyes on Sudan - Friends of the Congo
#palestine#sudan#congo#fundraising#fundraiser#donate if you can#stop genocide#lebanon#mutual aid#direct donations#us politics
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As Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has ravaged its way though the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), cutting its workforce from 10,000 to just 300, hundreds of organizations providing vital safety services have been upended. Multiple children’s safety groups—including those fighting online child sexual abuse and exploitation—say their efforts have been severely hamstrung.
Groups identifying victims and providing care for those who have been subject to online exploitation or human trafficking are struggling to support the vulnerable children, multiple organizations tell WIRED. Such child safety projects often take place in poorer countries, which can have fewer resources to support victims or investigate crimes. Sources say that funding for safe houses has been paused, potentially exposing victims to more harm, and efforts that identify criminals behind child exploitation have been put on hold.
“It will be very hard for us to identify the victims,” says Chantal Yelu Mulop, from the Coordination for Youth and the Fight Against Sexual Violence and Trafficking in Persons (CJVFFT), in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While the war-torn country faces new fighting and humanitarian crises, children have long been trafficked to work in cobalt mines linked to the production of smartphone and EV batteries.
As USAID funding was withdrawn over the past week, Mulop says her organization had just started helping around 25 newly identified victims of human trafficking—all of them aged under 17. The group was taken to a support shelter run by another organization. “When we bring them there, USAID was ready to help. A few hours later they cancel,” Mulop says. “There’s no food, no nothing that we can provide to them,” she adds.
While the USAID cuts have been immediate, global child protection projects have also faced a funding pause from the State Department. This foreign aid “pause,” issued by the Trump administration, is set to last for at least 90 days. USAID did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. The State Department had not provided a comment by time of publication.
Both government bodies have provided funding to help countries and people around the world. This includes USAID’s vast swath of health care and education programs—their withdrawal is putting millions of lives at risk and limits tackling the climate crisis. In Southeast Asia, several patients at a migrant camp reportedly died after medical support was removed.
Counter-human-trafficking funding often includes money for projects that help to crack down on online child exploitation and sexual abuse. Funding can be provided to international organizations that coordinate efforts and work with partners, like Mulop’s CJVFFT, on the ground. The funding can directly support victims, as well as providing expertise to officials in countries, and stop more children becoming targets.
“Many of these victims engage with their traffickers through electronic means,” says Jessica Ryckman, the executive director of the nonprofit Lawyers Without Borders (LWOB), which works on trafficking and child exploitation programs and has been impacted by the funding changes. “It is exploitation that is advanced through digital technology.”
Over the years, the programs have been effective. For instance, a four-year partnership between the US and the Philippines, which started under the first Trump administration and ended in 2021, helped protect hundreds of children: More than 350 kids were rescued and supported and almost 100 potential criminals arrested. The new cuts also come as record levels of online child sexual abuse imagery are being discovered.
“Victims and perpetrators alike originate from diverse regions and countries, underscoring the necessity for continued international engagement and coordinated efforts to address these crimes comprehensively,” says an employee of a South American child protection group that works to combat trafficking and online sexual abuse. The organization, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak given the sensitive nature of the work and uncertainty about future funding. “The interruption of these funds inevitably limits the scope and reach of these critical services,” it says.
One person, who works for an organization running multiple child protection projects, says operations in one southeastern European country have been widely disrupted. Within the country, the organization’s projects have 147 victims of trafficking in its care, the person says. “The ongoing pause and potentially the cessation of funding would have significant and negative impact on our capacity and ability to provide essential services to these victims who are in fragile stages of their recovery; some of whom are in ongoing programs for psycho-social counseling related to their trauma,” the person says.
Multiple members of LWOB say children are being put further at risk in the projects it runs in East Africa. “These children may not be identified, the practices to reduce their trauma aren't being supported right now,” says Ryckman. “Even if they are identified, they may be put in a pipeline where they are going to have to face ongoing interviews about their trauma or face their traffickers again.”
LWOB has, along with partner organizations, identified around 200 victims of human trafficking in Tanzania, with the majority referred to safe houses, says Lulu Makwale, a victim service coordinator at Lawyers Without Borders. “Most of the funding for the safe houses has been paused, meaning the services and the needs of the victim are also being paused too,” Makwale says. She says the organization has been linking up shelters to investigators up until now. “Victims may not be connected well now to the law enforcement,” Makwale says.
As well as supporting victims directly, many of the efforts also provide training or technical assistance to police forces, allowing them to better investigate crimes. One program listed on the State Department’s list of counter-trafficking funding says it is providing training to combat online child sexual exploitation for 10,000 police officers, prosecutors, and judges in 100 countries.
The person with links to work in a European country says their organization has 74 investigations into traffickers ongoing, plus 66 prosecutions that are underway. They say that the funding changes will have a “significant and negative impact on these criminal trials” and the safety of people who may give evidence in the cases.
Ryckman, from Lawyers Without Borders, says the organization recently completed work on an online database for identifying victims and tracking online child exploitation in Kenya. While the database is functional, Ryckman says, future work to train people has been paused, and there will be a slower uptake of the system. “I do believe it will be used, and it will be extremely useful,” Ryckman says. “But these victims are there now. They shouldn’t have to wait.”
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Your Emotional Superpower 🌙
Your Moon sign reveals your inner world, emotional needs, and instinctive reactions. Discover your lunar superpower
♈ Aries Moon:
Lightning-fast emotional processing ⚡
Courageous in facing feelings 🦸♀️
Passion that ignites inspiration 🔥
Emotional honesty and directness 🎯
Resilience that bounces back quickly 🦘
Enthusiasm that lifts others 🎈
Instinctive leadership in crises 🚀
♉ Taurus Moon:
Emotional steadiness like a mountain 🏔️
Comfort-seeking nature 🛋️
Deep appreciation for beauty 🌹
Patience that weathers any storm ⛈️
Loyalty that lasts a lifetime 🤝
Grounding presence for others 🌳
Ability to find joy in simple pleasures 🍓
♊ Gemini Moon:
Emotional flexibility and adaptability 🦎
Quick-witted responses to feelings 🧠
Curiosity about emotional experiences 🔍
Skill in articulating complex emotions 🗣️
Youthful spirit that uplifts 🎈
Ability to see multiple perspectives 👀
Emotional intelligence and communication 📞
♋ Cancer Moon:
Intuitive understanding of others 🔮
Nurturing nature that comforts all 🤗
Deep emotional memory 📚
Protective instincts for loved ones 🛡️
Ability to create a sense of home anywhere 🏡
Empathy that heals wounds 🩹
Emotional depth like the ocean 🌊
♌ Leo Moon:
Warmth that brightens any room ☀️
Generous heart full of love ❤️
Dramatic expression of feelings 🎭
Natural ability to uplift others 🎉
Confidence in emotional authenticity 💪
Loyalty that stands the test of time 👑
Creativity in emotional expression 🎨
♍ Virgo Moon:
Analytical approach to emotions 🔬
Ability to find practical solutions to feelings 🛠️
Attention to emotional details others miss 🔍
Desire to be of service when others are down 🤲
Skill in emotional problem-solving 🧩
Modest but deep feelings 🌱
Perfectionism in emotional care 💯
♎ Libra Moon:
Diplomatic handling of emotional conflicts ⚖️
Charm that soothes ruffled feelings 💫
Desire for emotional harmony 🕊️
Ability to see all sides of an emotional issue 👁️
Natural mediator in disputes 🤝
Appreciation for emotional aesthetics 🎭
Romantic approach to life and love 💖
♏ Scorpio Moon:
Emotional intensity that transforms 🦋
Ability to dive deep into feelings 🏊♀️
Intuitive understanding of hidden emotions 🕵️♀️
Passionate approach to emotional life ❤️🔥
Resilience through emotional extremes 💪
Loyalty that borders on possessiveness 🔒
Power to emotionally renew and rebuild 🏗️
♐ Sagittarius Moon:
Optimism that brightens dark moods 🌞
Philosophical approach to emotions 🧘♀️
Adventurous spirit in emotional exploration 🗺️
Honest expression of feelings 📣
Ability to find humor in emotional situations 😂
Freedom-loving emotional nature 🦅
Inspiring enthusiasm for life's journey 🚀
♑ Capricorn Moon:
Emotional self-control and maturity 🧘♂️
Responsible approach to feelings 📊
Ability to stay calm in emotional storms ⛈️
Determination to overcome emotional challenges 🏔️
Practical wisdom in handling emotions 🦉
Long-term emotional planning 🗓️
Quiet strength that others rely on �oak
♒ Aquarius Moon:
Unique and unconventional emotional style 🦄
Ability to detach and analyze feelings 🔬
Humanitarian approach to emotions 🌍
Innovative solutions to emotional problems 💡
Friendship-oriented emotional needs 👥
Open-mindedness to new emotional experiences 🌈
Visionary emotional intelligence 🔮
♓ Pisces Moon:
Boundless empathy and compassion 🌊
Intuitive understanding of others' feelings 🐬
Artistic expression of emotions 🎨
Ability to emotionally merge with surroundings 🌌
Dreamy and imaginative emotional life 💭
Spiritual approach to feelings 🕯️
Healing presence for others' emotional pain 🌿
#moon sign#astrology#astro community#astrology observations#astro notes#astrology facts#vedic astrology#astrology houses#astro observations#zodiac signs#birth chart#zodiac
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