#feel free to add more orgs but like.

[fandomtrumpshate]

Defeating Tr*mp and the Republican party: how you can help

So as you've probably heard, there is a presidential election coming up in the US this November. You may even be experiencing some concern about the outcome of that election -- given both the high stakes and the active efforts by Republicans to suppress the vote -- and wondering what more you can do to stave off the possibility of a literal fascist takeover of the United States.

The good news is: you're not helpless. There are wonderful organizations out there -- staffed by knowledgeable, talented people with their feet already on the ground -- and they could use your help.

Here are a few of them:

VoteBeat offers deeply-researched local reporting about elections, which is both valuable and rare in the current news environment. A spinoff of ChalkBeat, it was founded and is run by journalists from ProPublica.

Spread the Vote is an organization that works on the ground to help every eligible voter secure the documentation and the access they need to make their voices heard. In particular, StV runs a program called Vote by Mail in Jail to help ensure that incarcerated persons also have access to these rights.

VoteRiders, like StV, works to ensure that every American has the opportunity to vote. In particular, they provide financial and practical support to trans people so that they can get hold of the documentation they need and can vote safely and confidently.

FairVote advocates for ranked-choice voting, a system in wide use outside the US which far more effectively captures the will of the electorate. (we don't have an individual feature page for them, but FV was one of FTH's supported orgs in 2020.)

(This is just a short starter list of amazing organizations, pulled from FTH's supported orgs list in past years; there are plenty of others. Please feel free to add them in reblogs!)

Ways you can help

Donate to one (or more!) of these organizations. These are all fairly small operations, even if their goals and their impact is large; they could use the help!

Volunteer your time. Many of these organizations rely on volunteers to make their day-to-day operations work. Sometimes it's necessary to do this volunteering in person, but often there is a remote option for volunteering if that's what works for you.

Run a fanworks auction to raise money. FTH recently rolled out a full and detailed playbook, sharing all of our organizational materials and step-by-step guides for how to use them and adapt them to your needs. This is a great moment to put that to work! Whether you want to raise money for one of the organizations listed above, or for some other nonprofit, or even for a progressive local candidate that could use the support (FTH doesn't do individual candidates, but you shouldn't let that stop you!) you can make a real difference while also helping to put more fanworks into the world.

[trans-axolotl]

US Harm Reduction Resources

continually updating, not a complete list. feel free to add on any resources you find helpful.

Free Safer Supplies:

Each organization will have different supplies, but generally, harm reduction orgs provide things like syringes, safer snorting + smoking kits, Narcan, condoms, lube, and wound care supplies. Each org has different policies for how to get supplies--some do deliveries, some have drop in centers, some only do one to one needle exchange, some are more flexible.

Next Distro: mail based syringe provider for certain states. Also mails free Narcan.

NASEN: national map of syringe providers

a lot of harm reduction collectives aren't going to have their information listed on big national websites--it's always worth searching "harm reduction in my area" and seeing what's around you. Even if you don't live in a big city, there might be a harm reduction organization in your state that can help you find someone closer to you. there's a lot of rad people doing underground work who want to be there to help you who aren't as easy to find online. If there's street medic collectives, mutual aid groups or groups like Food not Bombs in your area, you can ask people in them who might know where to find harm reduction services in your area!

Drug Users Unions:

Drug users unions are activist groups made for people who use drugs, by people who use drugs! Drug users unions do advocacy work to end criminalization, as well as providing vital community support. Many drug users unions are also inclusive of sex workers and work to decriminalize sex work as well. You can search for "drug users union" in your state.

Urban Survivors Union: National, has resources for creating drug users union

Chosen Few: Drug users union for Black drug users in DC

San Francisco Drug users union

Sex Work Advocacy Groups:

Organizations that do decrim advocacy and provide support for sex workers.

Sex Worker Outreach Project USA- National, has chapters in many states.

Black Sex Worker Collective

Sex Workers Project

How to Use Safely:

Guides, videos, toolkits for safer use!

Harm Reduction Coalition Resource Library

Getting Off Right: A Safety Manual for Injection Drug Users

Safer Crack Smoking

Safer Snorting

Safer Hormone Injection

Levels of Risk: Veins

Wound Care video w/ ASL

How to Use Fentanyl Test Strips

DanceSafe-testing kits, including reagent testing kits!

Erowid-shares experiences people have with different drugs, dosages, what things to expect

Bluelight- another forum for discussing experiences with drugs.

Drug Interactions Checker

Sex Work Resources:

Tricks of the Trade by L. Synn Stern: tips for street based sex work

A Quick and Dirty Sex Worker Safety Toolkit

Girls Do What they Have to Do To Survive by YWEP

Dis/Organizing: How We Build Collectives Beyond Institutions by Rachel Kuo & Lorelei Lee

Tryst Blog

Hotlines:

Never Use Alone: 877-696-1996. Overdose Prevention Hotline--Volunteers stay on the phone with you while you use and call emergency services if you overdose.

HIPS Hotline-​​​1 (800) 676-4477. Emotional support for drug users and sex workers. Does not work with cops.

feel free to add on more resources. love + lube <3

[phantomrose96]

Hey not to go all "tumblr is a professional networking site" on you, but how did you get to work for Microsoft??? I'm a recent grad and I'm being eviscerated out here trying to apply for industry jobs & your liveblogging about your job sounds so much less evil than Data Entry IT Job #43461

This place is basically LinkedIn to me.

I'm gonna start by saying I am so so very sorry you're a recent grad in the year 2024... Tech job market is complete ass right now and it is not just you. I started fulltime in 2018, and for 2018-2022 it was completely normal to see a yearly outflow of people hopping to new jobs and a yearly inflow of new hires. Then sometime around late-spring/early-summer of 2022 Wallstreet sneezed the word "recession" and every tech company simultaneously shit themselves.

Tons of layoffs happened, meaning you're competing not just with new grads but with thousands of experienced workers who got shafted by their company. My org squeaked by with a small amount of layoffs (3 people among ~100), but it also means we have not hired anyone new since mid-2022. And where I used to see maybe 4-8 people yearly leave in order to hop to a new job, I think I've seen 1 person do that in the whole last year and a half.

All this to say it's rough and I can't just say "send applications and believe in yourself :)".

I have done interviews though. (I'm not involved in resume screening though, just the interviews of candidates who made it past the screening phase.) So I have at least some relevant advice, as well as second-hand knowledge from other people I know who've had to hop jobs or get hired recently.

If you have friends already in industry who you feel comfortable asking, reach out to them. Most companies have a recommendation process where a current employee fills out a little form that says "yeah I'd recommend such-and-such for this job." These do seem to carry weight, since it's coming from a trusted internal person and isn't just one of the hundreds of cold-call applications they've received.

A lot of tech companies--whether for truly well-intentioned reasons or to just check a checkbox--are on the lookout for increasing employee diversity. If you happen to have anything like, for example, "member of my college Latino society", it's worth including on your resume among your technical skills and technical projects.

I would add "you're probably gonna have to send a lot of applications" as a bullet point but I'm sure you're already doing that. But here it is as a bullet point anyway.

(This is kind of a guess, since it's part of the resume screening) but if you can dedicate some time to getting at least passingly familiar with popular tech/stacks for the positions you're looking into, try doing that in your free time so you can list it on your resume. Even better if you make a project you can point to. Like if you're aiming for webdev, get familiar with React and probably NodeJS. On top of being comfortable in one of the all-purpose languages like C(++) or Java or Python.

If you get to the interview phase - a company that is good to work for WILL care that you're someone who's good to work with. A tech-genius who's a coworker-hating egotistical snob is a nuisance at best and a liability at worst for companies with even a half-decent culture. When I do interviews, "Is this someone who's a good culture fit?" is as important as the technical skills. You'll want to show you'll be a perfectly pleasant, helpful, collaborative coworker. If the company DOESN'T care about that... bullet dodged.

For the technical questions, I care more about the thought process than I do the right answer, especially for entry-level. If you show a capacity for asking good, insightful clarifying questions, an ability to break down the problem, explain your thought process, and backtrack&alter your approach upon realizing something won't work, that's all more important than just being able to spit out a memorized leetcode answer. (I kinda hate leetcode for this reason, and therefore I only ask homebrewed questions, because I don't want the technical portion to hinge at all on whether someone managed to memorize the first 47 pages of leetcode problems). For a new hire, the most important impression you can give me is that you have a technical grasp and that you're capable of learning. Because a new hire isn't going to be an expert in anything, but they're someone who's capable of learning the ropes.

That's everything I have off the top of my head. Good luck anon. I'm very sorry you were born during a specific range of years that made you a new grad in 2024 and I hope it gets better.

[hannie-dul-set]

the breakup soup [preview].

SYNOPSIS. you and jeonghan get into an argument in the middle of the meeting. the rest of your organization’s officers slowly start to realize that this isn’t just about whether the mountains or the sea would be the better venue for your event.

PAIRING. yoon jeonghan x female! reader. GENRE. lovers to exes to lovers, humor, romance, mild angst, orgmate! jeonghan, college! au, a whole lot of forced proximity, there is only one bed trope will be sprinkled in there somewhere. WARNINGS. written breakup (obviously), so much swearing, sex jokes, will add more as i move forward. WORD COUNT. preview: 2.8k | full fic: est. 15k.

RELEASE DATE. november to december. TAGLST. send an ask/dm/reply to be added.

NOTE. had a bathroom thought. wondered "wouldn't it be funny if a couple breaks up during an org meeting" and it has led me to this dumpster fire. i think it's funny. i hope you think it's funny. i understand that there might be some unfamiliar org jargon here and there, so please feel free to ask me for clarifications if some things are unclear so i can fix them in the final fic!

preview under the cut.

“TODAY IS SEPTEMBER 7, 20XX. THE MEETING WILL NOW PLEASE COME TO ORDER. Mr. Secretary, please call the roll.”

The words robotically fall out of Seungcheol’s mouth as he turns over the pages of his clipboard, marking a precise, red dot next to the word ‘agenda’ on the page. Another day, another meeting. He can’t wait for the moment he can finally retire from this god damned position. Every single time he repeats his presiding officer script, it feels like a digit gets added to his age.

“Yes, Mr. Chair. Please say ‘present and voting’ once your name is called to be acknowledged.” 

Wonwoo starts the roll call, and Seungcheol is desperately trying to cover his yawn with the clipboard, else Seungkwan is gonna grate at him again for dozing off in his own meeting— the aforementioned straightening himself in his seat when his position is called.

“Public Information Officer 1?”

“Present and voting.”

“PIO 2?

“Present—” says Joshua, flicking a paper clip across the table and into Vernon’s nth latte of the day. “—and voting.”

“Next. Assistant Business Manager.”

“Prese—”

“Okay, got it.” Chan brandishes a look of offense when Wonwoo cuts him off. “Business Manager?”

“Present and voting. Do we really have to keep doing this one by one?” 

Mingyu has a point, Seungcheol mentally agrees. But his god damned seniors wrote in the damned constitution and bylaws that every meeting of SVT (Society of Virtuous Timetravellers. He’s in the process of renaming it because your organization that’s supposed to be for history and culture is attracting weirdos instead— and two of them are Soonyoung and Seokmin) must abide by strict parliamentary procedures, so he has no choice but to suck it up and listen as Wonwoo continues to read out the succeeding positions on the attendance list, and it’s starting to sound a lot like a lullaby.

“Secretary, yours truly, present and voting.” The scratch from Wonwoo’s throat signals Seungcheol that it’s to zone back in. “Vice Chairperson-External?”

“Present and voting.”

Your voice draws Seungcheol's attention. He turns his head towards you and he notices the sheets of binded up papers you have in your hands, straightened with a few taps on the table surface before you settle them back down, a swell of pride when he sees what’s printed on the topmost page. 

It’s impeccably organized, the task he assigned to you only three days prior. Hell, you even have page tabs sticking out of the sides of every page. Your work ethic never fails to impress him. On top of that, you’re always so professional— able to separate your personal and org life with strict barriers in between because even though you and Junhui have been friends for ten years, your sharp glare holds no reservations when you catch him folding paper turtles with sticky notes right next to you when inside the meeting room.

“Sorry,” Jun breathes out. You retract your leg from under the table after giving him a discreet kick.

Anyway, Seungcheol has high hopes for you, and he’s eyeing you to replace him as SVT’s Chairperson next year (he’s already in the process of manipulating you into taking the job: the compliments he gives away aren’t for free). You’re perfect. You’re flawless. There’s no one else fit for the position but you. 

Which is why the next course of events comes as nothing less than a shock to him.

“Vice Chairperson-Internal?” Wonwoo calls out but is met with silence. He looks around. “VCI?”

No answer. You scoff.

“Alright, moving on. Mr. Chair?” 

Seungcheol stiffens, second-guessing what he’d just heard, but the near-invisible crooked twitch of the corner of your mouth proves that no, that wasn’t just his imagination. You just scoffed. A sharp noise laced with derision and contempt. That should’ve been the first sign that something is off.

“Present,” he coughs out, resigning his attention back to the meeting he has to preside over. It must be nothing. Even you can get annoyed sometimes. Maybe Jun is fucking around again and you’ve just had about enough.

“There are thirteen out of fourteen officers present, Mr. Chair. We are in quorum.”

“Thank you. Seeing that we are in quorum, it is now legal for us to conduct business. Mr. Secretary, will you please read to us the agenda for today’s—”

The office door swings open. 

“Sorry, I’m late!”

And Mr. VCI rushes in with his white coat still hanging off his shoulders. The meeting is put to an abrupt pause as Jeonghan hastily walks up to his assigned seat, trying to explain the reason for his tardiness. “Our lab session took longer than expected,” Jeonghan huffs out, dragging out the chair next to him. “Dr. Han wouldn’t let us—”

“It’s common decency to enter the room and sit down quietly when you’re late so as to not disturb the ongoing meeting. Especially when you haven’t informed the body beforehand.”

Seungcheol flinches when he hears the interruption of your sharp tone. His head quickly snaps to your direction before gleaning Jeonghan’s reaction. His friend’s jaw tightens but he says nothing. That should’ve been the second sign.

“Mr. Chair, may we proceed with the reading of today’s agenda?”

He eyes you carefully and, with a hesitant drawl anchoring his tongue, proceeds with the meeting while Jeonghan quietly settles into his seat. “Mr. VCI, you may send your excuse letter later for record keeping. Anyhow, Mr. Secretary, please read to us the agenda for today’s meeting.” Wonwoo does as instructed. The problem is, Seungcheol can’t hear anything that he’s saying. Not when his seat is exceedingly uncomfortable at the moment.

It’s not his seat. It’s the two people cornering his seat that’s the problem.

Cold sweat breaks out from his forehead. The air is stuffy. You and Jeonghan lock eyes for zero-point-five seconds and there’s a chill in the atmosphere that only Seungcheol can feel. What the fuck is going on?

“Thank you Mr. Secretary. We’ll begin with the first agenda— SVT’s Orientation and Membership Training. Alright. As you all may know, this will be our organization’s first event for the academic year, thus I am expecting everyone’s undivided cooperation in making sure that this event will be a success. We have already discussed the initial details of the event during the previous meeting, and we also distributed the tasks to the officers and committees.” He flips through a page and clears his throat. “I believe our Vice Chair External was tasked to scout for the venue. Ms. VCE, have you prepared your presentation?”

You nod, rising from your seat. “Yes, Mr. Chair. I’ve prepared a comprehensive list of all our options.” Okay, Seungcheol breathes in through nose. You seem normal now. Maybe he was just overthinking things. “I ask for everyone’s assistance in distributing the copies.”

Seungcheol looks at the text written in bold when you pass a copy to him— SVT ORYE & MT 20XX: VENUE PROPOSAL. While everyone is passing the paperclip-bound photocopies to each other, you take the liberty start speaking. “If you look at the second page, you can see the overview of the entire document. I’ve listed five possible venues and compiled their respective addresses, rates, inclusions, menus, and of course, pictures for your reference. We’ll look at each of them one by one, starting with—”

You pause. Jeonghan is raising his hand. Your eyebrow twitches. Seungcheol gets a bad feeling. “Yes, Mr. VCI?”

“Thank you for the acknowledgement,” he says. “I’d like to ask why exactly are all of these venues located in the mountains? Don’t we have other options? It would be fine if it were just us officers, but I believe holding the event in such terrains would be far too inconvenient for more or less a hundred people.”

A very bad feeling.

“I appreciate your insight,” you respond. Uh oh. Your smile is strained and Seungcheol knows it. That’s the smile you wear when you’re about to pulverize a representative for a disadvantageous partnership to the ground. “However, I’d like to bring to your recollection that the theme of this year’s Orye is traditional South Korean folklore. That considered, I came up with the judgment that the mountainous and forested areas would be the most appropriate and immersive venue if we wish to bring this concept to life. I hope that is clear, Mr. VCI. Anyway—”

“It’s still impractical, Ms. VCE.” 

Your face stiffens.

Jeonghan just cut you off. 

Shit, he just cut you off. 

He stands up, leveling you from across the table. “What about our members with asthma? Heart problems? What if it rains on the day of the event? Do you expect everyone to climb up a mountain trail in all these conditions?”

“If you read through my document before inadvertently interrupting me, Mr. VCI, you’d know that three out of the five venues offer uphill transportation in order to get to the accommodations. And although I understand your reservations about the possibility of inclement weather, may I remind you that it’s also the driest season of the year. You’re being unreasonable.”

Fuck. Seungcheol thinks he needs to butt in but he can’t find the timing when there’s literally an invisible fucking electric fence deterring him from reaching the both you. He catches a glimpse of Joshua’s concerned eyebrows. ‘Do something,’ his friend’s eyes say. He’s about to until you drop a sentence that shoots the tension off the roof.

“Furthermore, I’ve surveyed all of the officers through text if they agree with my venue proposal and I was met with no objections. You’d know if you opened any of my messages last night, Jeonghan.”

Holy fuck.

Holy fuck, you called him by his first name. 

You never call anyone by their first name. At least not during meetings and it’s very clear that this is a reason for alarm because everyone else’s eyes fly wide open. Except Jeonghan’s. He just looks pissed— mirroring your very own expression. Something is wrong. Something is very wrong and Seungcheol is slowly starting to realize that this argument isn’t just about the venue conflict.

“Ahem.” He clears his throat for the nth time, a wound might break open. “We will take our VCI’s concern into consideration. If you believe holding our Orye in the mountains is impractical, where do you suggest we should hold it instead?”

Jeonghan’s shoulders relax. He gives you a momentary look before settling back into his seat. “Thank you, Mr. Chair.” You do the same. Seungcheol breathes out a sigh of relief. “I’d like to suggest that we hold it by the beach and sea. Not only would it be more accessible, it would also be considerably cheaper considering there’d be no extra expenses for transportation up the hiking trail. There are also more options if we hold it on the beach. I already have contacts from last year’s set of events. We don’t have to worry about negotiations.”

Seungcheol nods in response. He’s about to say something but once again, he hears an unmistakable scoff from your direction. “Of course, you’d go for the low effort option.”

Oh no. Oh god, no.

Jeonghan’s eyes dart towards you. “What was that?”

Seungcheol doesn’t get paid enough for this shit.

“I’m just saying that it’s so like you to go for the easy way out.”

He doesn’t get paid for this at all.

“What are you trying to tell me here, Ms. VCE?” Jeonghan’s tone is getting more pointed, and the rest of the table are starting to pick up on what’s going on. Mingyu is slowly inching off of his seat and finding the right time to book it. Chan and Seokmin are nervously flitting their eyes back and forth between Jeonghan and you. Minghao hao stopped paying attention. He’s got his airpods on and scrolling through his phone. 

“The sea is not theme-appropriate for our event, Mr. VCI,” you firmly press on. “There are myths and folklore that reference the sea and ocean, however as an introductory event for our organization we should defer from making far too uncommon references since most of our members are beginners to our advocacy.”

Vernon is about to be swallowed by his chair. Seungkwan has his face in his hands. Seungcheol’s phone vibrates and it’s a message from Wonwoo. Should I include all of this in the minutes? he asks. Seungcheol isn’t even sure if this argument is still about the venue.

“May I also add that beach events are overused. Everyone holds acquaintance parties, Christmas parties, sensitivity trainings at beaches and beach resorts. Should we follow that template, I doubt our event would be memorable enough for our members to remember.”

“Then it’d be the obligation of the program committee to make it memorable.” The said committee flinches upon hearing Jeonghan’s words. Joshua and Junhui don’t look like they agree with the additional burden. Jihoon’s forehead is wrinkling from secondhand stress. “We don’t need to sacrifice the affordability and accessibility of our location in order to hold a note-worthy event. And, may I also reiterate that we should consider our members with health problems, Ms. VCE.”

This is enough. This is probably enough. Maybe it’s time for Seungcheol to intervene.

“However, I understand,” Jeonghan continues. “I understand that it’s not easy for you to be considerate.”

But how the fuck is he supposed to do that when you two fucks won’t stop provoking each other?

“Oh, for god’s sake!” It’s hopeless. It’s gone out of control. Your voice has bordered on yelling ang Seungcheol himself is afraid of being caught in between. “Are you still mad about the cat thing?!”

What is the cat thing? What in the hell is actually going on?

“This is not about the cat thing and you know that.” There’s a ruffle in Jeonghan’s voice. He lets out a groan and throws his head back with his fingers digging into his hair. “Fuck. Let’s talk later.”

Yes. Yes, please just talk later so we can move on with the meeting.

“Did you just swear at me?”

Nevermind.

There’s a second silence. One second— until the corner of Jeonghan’s mouth twitches and he expels a huff of incredulity. It’s ominous. It’s a harbinger of uncomfortable destruction. “So swearing is crossing the line, but refusing to let me meet your parents and forcing us to keep this relationship a secret is completely justifiable?”

Well shit.

This meeting is done for.

Silence washes over the office once again. Wide eyes are being exchanged and not even Wonwoo is filling the tension with his incessant typing on the laptop. Chair, I don’t think I should include this part in the minutes, Seungcheol receives another message from him. Of course he shouldn’t. A relationship reveal isn’t part of the agenda. Neither is a breakup but he fears it’s teetering to that outcome.

It’s uncomfortable. It’s suffocatingly uncomfortable and Seokmin looks like he’s about to cry at any moment.

“Well,” you simmer. “I guess it’s not much of a secret anymore, isn’t it?”

“Damn.” Soonyoung receives an elbow from Jihoon. He gets hushed down very quickly to make room for another agonizing exchange between you and Jeonghan. 

“Is that literally all you have to say? You’re so insensitive, it drives me fucking nuts. This is why it’s so hard to keep seeing you—”

“Oh, so you think I’m not having a hard time? If you can’t understand why I had to do that, then let’s just stop seeing each other!”

“Fine, I’m glad we’re on the same page this time.”

“Great!”

“Great.”

“Your clothes better be out of my closet by tomorrow.”

“Throw them away, I don’t need them.”

“I will! Thanks for the suggestion!”

Things have now gone beyond the point of salvation and he can’t even interject to formally end this disaster of a meeting.

“Mr. Chair, I apologize, but I’m afraid I will be leaving early today.” Oh, so now you remember his existence. You’re fuming, slinging over your shoulder bag and haphazardly collecting your things from the table, and Seungcheol simply massages his temples and nods in acknowledgement to your sudden leave. “Please go through the document at your discretion and I’ll be respecting whatever decision the body makes. Thank you and have a good day.”

Just like that, you’re gone. Jeonghan also starts collecting his things. “My phone lines are open in case you need anything. Goodbye.” With that, he also disappears with the harsh swing and slam of the door, leaving behind another blanket of uncomfortable silence for everyone else to drown in.

Seungcheol sighs. He feels a headache kicking in. 

“So...are we having the event in the mountains or by the sea?”

He groans.

Is it too late to file a resignation?

THE BREAKUP SOUP. © hannie-dul-set, 2023.

[intersex-support]

hello! i newly figured out i am intersex, however i haven't been able to find much content talking about intersex experience, history or community, when i first realized i was queer originally i found a lot of content like that and found it helpful, and i was wondering if there's any recommendations you might be willing to give about any content on being intersex or intersex creators who you think people should know about!

Hey!

This ask honestly made me really happy, because when I was searching for people and resources to share with you, I realized how much stuff has been created in the past 5 years. When I was diagnosed as intersex, I felt like there was so much less stuff than there even is now, so it makes me really happy to know there is more stuff, even if it's still hard to find.

Some of the things I've put on this list are outdated or might include perspectives that I don't completely love, but might include important historical context. It is also a very US centric and English language centric resource, although I have linked to organizations in other countries and would love if people added on recommendations to intersex resources in a variety of languages. As always, take what resonates with you and leave behind the rest!

Books:

Cripping Intersex by Celeste E Orr

Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex by Elizabeth Reis

XOXY: A Memoir by Kimberly Zieselman

Intersex (For Lack of a Better Word) by Thea Hillman

In September, Alicia Weigel is releasing her memoir Inverse Cowgirl.

In August, Pidgeon Pagonis is releasing their memoir, Nobody Needs to Know.

Fiction books:

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Intersex #ownvoices books, collated by Bogi Takács

Films:

Every Body directed by Julie Cohen is in theaters right now, and will eventually be on streaming services.

Ponyboi directed by River Gallo

Intersexion directed by Grant Lahood

Articles + misc:

Hermaphrodites with Attitude newsletter-content note for h slur and some other outdated language. Very important history though <3

Jazz Legend Little Jimmy Scott Is a Cornerstone of Black Intersex History by Sean Saifa Wall

What it's like to be a Black intersex woman by Tatenda Ngwaru

9 Young People on How They Found Out They Are Intersex by Hans Lindhal

Teen Vogue's series of intersex interviews

After years of protest, a top hospital ended intersex surgeries. For activists, it took a deep toll by Kate Sosin

Intersex Awareness Day: A Demonstration that Inspired a Movement

Normalizing intersex: Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics

Music-Ana Roxanne

Youth&I-intersex youth zine

Juliana Huxtable-Visual Art

Youtube channels:

Emilord-videos about AIS and surgery.

Jubilee Intersex video

Hans Lindhal-videos on a wide variety of intersex topics.

What's It Like To Be Intersex? | Minutes With | UNILAD

What It's Like To Be Intersex As/Is

Pass the Mic: Intercepting Injustice with Sean Saifa Wall

Intersex Organizations:

Link to org list

People/orgs to follow:

Sean Saifa Wall

Alicia Weigel

River Gallo

Hans Lindhal

Fàájì/funk

Jahni

Justin Tsang

Intersex Awareness (fabulous direct action organizing in the US-keep an eye out cause we're gonna do more this year!)

Liat Feller

Jubilee

Crystal Hendricks

Mari Wrobi

Intersex people, please feel free to add on more resources, art, writing, and people that you like!!

[thepyromaniac]

Saw one of those posts that tries to launder Zionism in as "critiquing leftist antisemitism" go like:

NOT antisemitic: [milquetoast criticism of Israel that allows it to whitewash it's violent colonial history]

ANTISEMITIC: [normal anti-Zionism] [more normal anti-Zionism] [deliberate misinterpretation of anti-Zionism used to shut down discussions of decolonizing Palestine]

Here's a better guide:

Not antisemitic:

Acknowledging the Palestinian people's right to life, safety, and self determination throughout the entirety of the region of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea

Wholly condemning the Zionist project, which requires settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing to accomplish it's goal of establishing a Jewish state

Calling Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people what it is: genocide

Calling the state of Israel what it is: a settler colony

Calling out Israel's roll in upholding global white supremacy

Calling out western politicians and media for their support of Israel in upholding white supremacy

Calling out Zionist orgs like the ADL which conflate antisemitism and anti-Zionism, diluting the meaning of antisemitism in the process

Antisemitic:

Conflation of Israel or Zionism with Jews and Judaism

Any calls for violence against Jews as a people

Conspiracies of Jews controlling world governments, finances, or media

Denial of the Holocaust and other antisemitic violence

Hateful caricatures of Jews featuring exaggerated features and character traits associated with Jewishness such as large noses, greed, and deceptiveness

Blood libel: baseless conspiracies of the kidnapping/ritual sacrifice of non Jewish children by Jews

Calls for the expulsion or extermination of Jews in any nation

Claims of collective responsibility for the actions of Israel shared by Jews globally

I will not respond to bad faith additions, feel free to add anything I might've missed.

[90selderichhorror]

Some ways to support Palestine while going through empathy fatigue and burnout:

The most important thing is to keep voicing your support of Palestine, its people, and especially the people in the Gaza Strip. The US government and the Israeli government are hoping that people get tired and stop engaging with the genocide happening right now. They want you to stop caring and to stop talking about it.

Even if you cannot handle seeing the news coming out of Gaza, continue the boycotts against Starbucks, McDonald's, and Disney. They're three of the biggest companies supporting Israel's occupation and genocide at the moment. There are people online who have detailed what other companies to boycott as well, though most people are focusing on those three.

If you can, donate to groups that are sending aid to Palestine. Even a few dollars can help, and it doesn't matter if you're only doing it out of guilt since it's still going to help people. Guilt donations are better than no donations.

And even if you can't donate yourself, I've seen a few tiktokers make videos to use the money they get from the creator fund over there to donate. Just make sure that the org you're donating for is reputable.

Engage with Palestinian culture, their foods, clothes, music, ect. Just a general show of support for Palestine as a people and culture shows more of a message than you may think. If you're going to buy Palestinian goods like clothing, buy them from Palestinian owned businesses though.

If there are protests in your area, get in contact with organizers and ask about ways you can help. This will depend on what they need, but if you can it's a great way to get involved with activist groups in your community.

Contact your reps, there're a few websites that will automatically email them for you. However if you can, try to write them yourself so they don't get filtered as spam. Call for a ceasefire and to pull support from Israel.

Stay critical of traditional news sources, as many have spread misinformation about everything that's happening and some have backtracked, others have just been disproven without retracting their claims.

You can take time to decompress, but your decompression shouldn't come with ignorance. Take some time to care for your mental health then continue fighting and keeping up afterwards. Being miserable doesn't help anyone, but by putting your head in the sand you'll just cause more harm for the sake of your comfort. The US and Israel are bagging on people ignoring the war crimes they're committing for whatever reason. Take care of yourself but stay aware and keep fighting.

Feel free to add on, and remember from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free 🇵🇸

[oneshlut]

Your writing is so good!!! I’m so happy to finally have found someone who writes for Flug! (And I feel like you capture his personality so well :,) ) Could I request some headcanons for Flug with a partner who gives him a lot of handmade gifts. From paintings or little sculptures, to poems/letters and songs. Basically a really artsy reader who just likes giving personal gifts to Flug! ^^ (and maybe even some to 505 as well, like handmade plushies) Thank you sm!

A/N: you are TOO sweet! i love hearing about how much you all love my writing, and flug is one of my favorites to write for!! i'll try my best to convey the reader's personality and all, thanksies for requesting! <33

Homemade Affection (Dr. Flug x Artistic!Reader) [Headcanons]

Rules For Requesting

Characters I Will Write For

Masterlist

Summary: Headcanons of Dr. Flug with an artistic S/O, who creates trinkets, paintings, letters, etc. as gifts. Extra meeting and confessing headcanons

Dr. Flug is hardly someone you'd describe as creative. His inventions were great! But the designs were.. well, practical, I suppose. They were made exactly how they were supposed to be, just to the extent for the machinery to work. So he had never put too much effort into designs when it came to his work.

His inventions also usually never had anything special added to them. Flug makes things exactly how they're asked to be made, and nothing else. He's a man of order and schedule, and honestly can't live without it. Which is why he forgets to add an off button to most of his inventions.

You, on the other hand, loved free-will. Especially when it came to your own creations, art, paintings, writings--everything! If you did care for order and all, you make sure to add your own personal color to your schedule. Doodles can be found all over any paper you're given, and in your spare time/all the time, you'd create plushies, sculptures, collages.. truly, anything artistic. Anything you were given, you incorporated some sort of pigment into it.

You had first met him when you joined Blackhat Org., for villainy and such. Surprisingly, you were a great addition to the company! Surprising to Dr. Flug, at least. Now, he's usually not one to judge, but you were practically radiating with color, so he kinda thought you were just a Demencia duplicate. Upon meeting you, he found himself pleasantly shocked.

Flug was intriguing to you. So incredibly different than you, yet somehow, you two clicked. He was a nervous wreck, yet somehow put together. Kinda like you! (jk)

The more time you spent with him, the more Dr. Flug got comfortable with your presence. When he was having a busy day, he'd sometimes ask you to do small things for him. You, most of the time, obliged. Unless you were busy as well--most likely busy painting something that doesn't need to be painted.

Confessions? Oh--yes! Right, right.. well, Flug kinda had this whole plan written out of how he'd admit his feelings for you. He would pace around his room for hours, mumbling incoherent, scrambled thoughts of what would be the uttermost perfect way to confess. He doesn't know what the term "Don't overthink it" means. His rambles, walking to nowhere, and planning usually came to a pause when you stopped by.

How ignorant he was, because as he was writing out a plan that reached to the floor, you were cooking up your own idea to confess aswell. Except, you weren't focused on making it perfect. You wanted it to seem like it came from you. Yup, you were writing a confession letter to Flug. And yes, it did have doodles all over it.

When Dr. Flug left his laboratory for a moment, you stood to leave. Not after leaving your letter there, though. When he returned, he was worried about where you went, before the letter caught his eye.

He chuckled staring at the small doodles that covered the page. Then he read what you wrote..

Oh. His bag immediately flushed a deep red.

When the two of you got together, you immediately started on little crafts to give him. Either for dates, valentines day, christmas, or any holiday! Maybe one day for your anniversary..

Oh, Dr. Flug adores them. Every little thing you give him goes on a shelf right next to his jet collection. He treasures them as if they were of his own creation--because they were of yours. Nothing will be able to beat the feeling of receiving a gift from you. His eyes never fail to light up at the sight of your artwork. Yeah, he's head over heels. Not saying he worships you like a god, but he definitely looks up to you.

That confession letter definitely wasn't your last letter. Occasionally, you'd write him notes or letters for him when you couldn't make it to his lab. Sometimes love poems! Flug definitely tripped over his shoes reading your first love poem to him. He still can't believe such romantic subjects that he usually saw in movies were being shown.. towards him, of all people.

If you wrote a song for him? Dr. Flug would cry. Sorry, no way around it, his heart would throb and suddenly all his love for you was just flowing out in the form of tears. Afterwards, if you gave him a recorded tape of the song, he'd listen to it daily. Sometimes on loop in the background when he's doing work. He'd get distracted often, though...

The plushies definitely tugged at his heartstrings, though. You once gave him a plush heart, and he kept it on his desk everyday. Until 5.0.5. got to it. Dr. Flug once checked up on him to see how he was doing, before seeing him sleeping soundly, cuddling the knit creation you gifted him. After Flug sent a photo of it to you, because he was practically close to breaking down due to how wholesome the scene was, you knew exactly what you had to do.

The next day, you came in to the lab with two small hand-knit stuffies for 5.0.5. One sunflower, and one little mini-5.0.5. You were proud with how they turned out! Part of you wanted to keep them because of how cute they were, but you knew they were a gift for 5.0.5.

As soon as Dr. Flug set his sight on the stuffed plushies, his heart immediately warmed up. It honestly baffled him that someone would do that for 5.0.5., but I guess you were a naturally kind person. He was so lucky to have you, he realizes. After wiping the slightest bit of tears from his goggles, he took them and put them carefully with the rest of 5.0.5.'s stuffed animals.

Dr. Flug will now occasionally ask you to help him with his inventions designs, spotting your eye for color and overall talent when it came to.. well, art.

The two of you work together well, as both work-partners and.. partners. Flug adores your colorful nature, and you adore his technical nature. You snap together like yin and yang, and Dr. Flug couldn't ask for anything more than who you are.

If things keep going the way they are, you may wind up soulmates.

[kafus]

ok i've decided i want to infodump about vee and nova a little after all! because uhh not only am i impatient because autism but i also. want to dip my toes into talking about this. just days ago i was still terrified but now i am Tentatively Brave... if i can talk about it here casually like this then i should be able to write a more formal summary later some other time

i've tagged this post appropriately (at least i think i have, feel free to suggest if i should add more) but also a heads up here too before i keep talking that while i'm not going into graphic detail on anything there are STRONG themes of organized sexual abuse of a child, sexual abuse of animals, and grooming! (there are no disturbing visuals in this post, just text)

IF YOU CAN'T READ THIS POST THAT'S OKAY I STILL LOVE U

takes a deep breath alright so the deal with these two. back all the way in 2021, i decided i wanted to make "vent ocs" as in i just wanted some concrete/consistent designs i could use in vent art drawings that weren't a direct reflection of what i envision myself to look like or whatever. i was going through a lot in 2021, in december 2020 i had just gotten my first big repressed memory back and my life was in a whirlwind of change and heavily increased PTSD and DID symptoms, so i was using art a lot as an outlet. in the end i settled on this drawing, based on the design taste i would have had as a young person (god the quality is so old now LOL i've improved a lot but anyway)

i was intending for these two to be just visual designs and nothing more than that but i got attached and actually ended up giving them a whole storyline and everything, which is something i admittedly hadn't done in a long time up to that point so that's cool.

the reason i preface explaining the premise of the storyline with this is because i think it's important to acknowledge that these two are intrinsically tied with my real life and the feelings i experience as a CSA/OA survivor. not because i think someone has to go through awful things to write or draw about them necessarily, but because i am passionate about expressing myself. it's important for me to be seen in some way, to be heard after years of silence. it is not safe for me mentally to share the exact details of my abuse online rn (and please don't ask for them!) but i also don't want these two to be removed from the message that i survived something and this is me making art about that in an abstracted and magical way with a fictional universe that brings me a lot of comfort. i hope this makes sense lol

oh and also with that in mind if you think for even a second any of this is a weird sex thing for me or some shit please stop reading this post and go do something else with your time. this is my trauma expression and i don't need to be compared to the people i was abused by when i was a literal toddler thank you!

AANYWAY so! premise! gonna be point blank with it! vee (not her original name but shh) is born as a normal 100% human girl, aka without the eevee ears and tail. she is groomed from a very young age (like, toddler age) and eventually abducted by her groomers which happen to be members of... well right now it's team rocket because i haven't spent the time to worldbuild a new villainous pokemon organization yet. roll with me here. she is taken to a remote facility out in the middle of fucking nowhere and is never returned to her previous life or family.

Why? well i'm glad you asked! the org is running a bunch of different experiments in this facility and one of them happens to be trying to enable humans reproducing with pokemon. this doubles as both a money thing and a power thing. they seek out a child as the victim of these horrible experiments because children are easily malleable. way easier to control a child than an adult who already has a firm identity/self.

vee is the child they chose. surgery is forcibly done on her to give her working eevee ears and tail, and also like, fuck with her body chemistry and stuff. she's biologically part eevee now. yes this is bullshit pokemon magic science LMAO but she is kept in this facility and chronically sexually abused for a few years by pairing her with various mons and trying to get eggs to happen.

the experiment isn't working though so they hypothesize that giving her a dedicated partner, especially of the same evolutionary line, would help, and they raise nova from birth as an eevee to take on that role. eventually the two of them are paired together. despite the acts they are forced to commit on each other and the abuse they endure, they actually become inseparable very quickly cause like. they don't have anyone else. and also they just genuinely care about each other. additionally at this point nova has evolved into an espeon and has telepathic powers, so him and vee can communicate linguistically with each other, so you know that helps

generally my current focus of this story is in the early years, when vee is 12 and younger, before they start realizing that shit is fucked up and they need to escape (up until that hypothetical point they have been successfully groomed into believing everything happening to them was not abuse/was normal). i have left out a metric fuckton of detail here just to get across the basic premise. i am constantly exploring vee's psyche, nova's psyche, it's like an in depth exploration of the mind of an abused child in horrific circumstances and god it's cathartic. i love these two so fucking much

btw i guess this art has more context now huh haha after i infodumped off the plot to my sister they looked at this art again and was like. OHHH THIS IS EVEN MORE OMINOUS AND HARD TO LOOK AT WITH CONTEXT. AND I WAS LIKE YEAH!!!! YOU SEE THE VISION!!! THE SYMBOLISM!! ETC!!!!

uh yeah if you read this far thank you and i just wanna say i've been building up the courage to talk about these two for GENUINELY two years, it has been over 2 full years since that initial drawing, and i am nervous and jittery posting this but i do not want to die without having shared my work with the world and i'm willing to take the risks to get my voice out there. so you reading it is very much appreciated ur like my first step into being more confident as a survivor lol

oh and fwiw despite these guys being so correlated with my trauma it's not offensive to make headcanons or ask me questions about them or compliment darker art of them however you want, in fact i love that shit!! please i've been holding these guys back for two years i have so much to say that hasn't been said. as much as i am nervous i am EXCITED

[jewishbarbies]

hello! I hope this question isn’t overstepping, but feel free to delete this if so! I just wanted to know if there’s anything I can really do to help Jewish people at this time? The way I phrased that sounds really weird and bad lol sorry, but idk how else to say it. I’m gonna be honest with you, I actually know almost next to nothing about Jewish people (culture, religion and stuff) outside of what I was taught when I was an evangelical Christian (grew up religious, I’m not anymore) and you… probably don’t wanna hear what evangelical Christians teach people about Jewish people and culture, so I’ll just say that it’s very… unsavoury and weird and sort of fetish-ey. But you probably knew that already. Anyway, what I mean is that since October 7th, there’s been a huge rise of antisemitism globally, mostly by the youth, people around my age (I’m 18) being indoctrinated by media and directing their hatred and anger towards those who do not deserve it and refusing to fight or vote for the rights that we Americans might lose if trump is elected again. I wanna help stop or curb the antisemitism spread, but I’m kind of unsure how I can help. Obviously I’m aware that as a goyim, I definitely cannot, should not (and will not) speak for Jewish people as I don’t know the Jewish experience. I’m also aware that while the Israeli government is kind of wilding out right now, the government is not the representative of all the citizens of Israel and that when criticising Israel (the state) we must not generalise a whole population of people. Thank you!

this is a great question to ask! I don’t feel like it’s overstepping at all.

I’m not sure what more can be done to stop the spread of antisemitism beyond calling it out when you see it either from friends, family, or figures and orgs, and not participating in it yourself. you can, however, help jewish people while this is happening. you can reach out to local synagogues and see if they need any volunteers to help walk jews to and from their cars for security (if you’re able/willing), contact local jewish organizations and see if they need any volunteers or donations, and just see what kind of community action you can do in your area. if you can do so monetarily, you can support gofundme’s and orgs combating antisemitism on a larger scale like Stop Jewish Hate, or you can support them just by sharing their posts on your socials. museums are being targeted right now for having any jewish related exhibits, such as the Holocaust Museum and members of the Brooklyn Museum were just attacked, both establishments could use donations and advocacy.

jewitches.com has resources to learn about antisemitism if you’d like to be further educated on the topic so you know what you’re seeing when you see it, as well as help you call it out when you come across it online or in real life.

if anyone else has more resources for learning or combating antisemitism, please add and I’ll reblog!

[stxrryclusterthinks]

also sorry to spam u with asks but...pleasse explain bc i wanna support u in all ways possible and make sure im not bein a jackass in any way

:)

I don't ever mind the ask spam, keep 'em coming as much as you want mate

If you're referring to the system part, basically it's referring to did/osdd/u(s)dd -> Dissociative Identity Disorder / Other Specified Dissociative Disorder / Unspecified Dissociative Disorder

High-key have been considering removing it because a lot of stuff has happened over the past 48 to 72 hours, which has led to mental confusion </3

But basically, to my understanding of it, "system" is an osddid community coined term (same with fictive ; which is basically a member within the system based off a fictional character. Like me, for example, I'm a fictive of Wilbur's character from the QSMP). From what I know, did and osdd are trauma based disorders

Here are some links that I had found. We typically stick with .org, .edu, or .gov when it comes to figuring out and understanding disorders, so that's what the links I provided are. There's a full-on wiki that was made, too, but we don't use it that much for personal reasons

Blep - Cleveland Clinic (Multiple Personality Disorder / MPD is an outdated term initially used for DID)

Meep - Mind.org.uk (Goes over dissociative stuff, causes, etc.)

Boop - National Institutes of Health (.gov)

There are a few more I can link for you if you want, I don't ever mind going and looking (we love researching and deep diving stuff)

There's a lot more than this, but we try not to delve into this stuff too much on Tumblr because then syscourse (discourse on system stuff) ends up coming up somehow (I can't stand it, if you can't tell)

If any other systems see this and want to add on or feel like I missed a point or ten, feel free to add whatever

[blue-phoria]

"CBLDF is a good org that raises money for legal defense of authors and artists and readers being charged with obscenity crimes, they also are one of the big orgs that keep tabs on comics, graphic novels, and novels that have been or are in the process of being banned. Also reading these lists and BUYING the books, three queer authors that are being banned atm work as professors for the masters program at my Uni, and they said without their job they would’ve lost their homes.

After their books were banned, banning does not equal more sales ever, their royalties dropped to 0$ overnight because they relied on things like the scholastic book fair for their books. So if your going to buy any books, make them banned books, because these authors could end up destitute I’d they don’t have teaching jobs or are unable to get author visits to schools where the book isn’t banned."

-@cryinginthefkncorner

Feel free to add more if you can think of ways to fight censorship outside of fandom, and if you can, support commission artists too!

[trans-axolotl]

Hi - I am planning to move to a large city soon and I desperately want to get involved with community organizing, mutual aid, protests, etc but I have 0 experience beyond attending a few small protests over the years. I've only ever lived in a small suburb and none of the people currently in my life are involved in anything. Do you have any advice for how to get materially involved for someone who doesn't know what that looks like? Is it a matter of networking via attending events, that kind of thing? Apologies if this is a silly question, I'm going to try my best to figure it out on my own but I feel extremely inexperienced and uninformed.

Not a silly question at all! So many times I see people telling other people "go out and get involved" like that's something that's really simple but there can be a lot more steps to making that happen! I'll share some general tips that have worked for me in the cities I've worked with, and other followers feel free to add on with relevant advice in your city.

One thing that was really hard for me when I first moved to a new city is that I didn't know anyone, so it was hard to find out what groups even existed. Because I didn't know anyone, I also didn't have anyone to vouch for me, and there are a lot of groups that (understandably) need people to vouch for you because of police infiltrators and other bad actors.

I think my biggest advice is to try to find a group with open membership, even if it isn't the thing you're the most passionate about, and start showing up regularly in order to get connected with other people. In my area, the groups that are most easy to get involved with are mutual aid groups and outreach groups. Particularly, if Food Not Bombs has a chapter in your area, in my experience they've been a lot easier to get involved with than some other groups. A lot of harm reduction groups in my area have things like supply kit packing nights, which are SUCH a great way for new people to get involved and meet people without having to make a huge commitment. Keeping an eye out for one time events like that, or other events like teach-ins about specific topics, can be a great way to get your foot in the door and start meeting more people who can connect you with organizing in the city. You can also go and access the services from a mutual aid group or Food Not Bombs group if those are relevant for you! A lot of groups will have days they do outreach that they'll post on social media, or other ways to get in contact. A lot of the ways I've gotten involved in harm reduction organizing is because I'll go to syringe exchange drop-in hours to get needles for myself, and then ask the people working how I can volunteer with them. From there, you might be able to get connected with groups that might have more intensive onboarding processes.

I also think it's really helpful to start showing up to protests and trying to get familiar with what groups are active in your city, but I think that's a hard way to meet new people, since a lot of people understandably have a lot of additional security concerns at protests and might not want to give out their name or contact info in that environment. But it can be a great way to get more familiar with the patterns of action in your new city and figure out what orgs to trust and what orgs to avoid. And once you're more involved in other orgs, it can be easier to find a crew of people to go to protests with.

In order to find out what all these groups are and when protests are happening, I usually go to instagram and start trying to follow as many organizations as I can. I usually start by searching for groups that I think I know are going to exist, like food not bombs, the local chapter of Black Lives Matter, local chapter of Palestinian Youth Movement, and then start looking for city specific mutual aid orgs, harm reduction orgs, sex work advocacy orgs, books to prisons or letters to prisons project, mask blocs, street medic collectives, anarchist and prison abolitionist collectives, tenants unions, sexual violence advocacy orgs, disability orgs, LGBTQ orgs, etc.And then, I go into the followers tab for each of these orgs and find out what organizations they're following--that has really, really helped me start to be able to map who's active, who knows who, and usually at least some of those orgs will be active on Instagram and publicizing events, protests, outreach, donation drives, etc. Also, if there's a leftist bookstore or infoshop in your city, they might have a pretty good calendar of events and be a good way to get looped in. (most of the cities I've lived in haven't had that though lmfao).

I think my biggest advice is to not get discouraged if it takes some research to find groups with open memberships or if there are groups that you're interested in but can't join right away. I'd also say it's definitely helpful to think through what your interests are and what your skills are. Are you particularly passionate about a certain cause? Do you enjoy cooking and want to help prepare food for mutual aid? Do you like doing social media graphics? What resources do you have that you can bring to groups--access to craft supplies, free printing, a space to host events, medic skills, good at building things, etc? There's so many different types of groups to get involved in that are doing direct organizing work for so many different specific causes, and I'm sure you could bring a lot to whatever group you're passionate about.

One random thing that I do want to mention is that a lot of times when I see people answering this question, the advice they give is to get involved in orgs like DSA, PSL (Party for socialism and liberation/ANSWER coalition), or other branches of national orgs like that. I disagree with that advice and I don't actually think it's the most helpful way to meet people or get involved. Although I think DSA is better than PSL, I have my own political issues with DSA and REALLY really do not trust PSL at all because I think that PSL is a really bad actor who actively endangers people in every city I've organized where they're in. (Here's links to articles that describe some of the issues--trigger warning for sexual violence. Article 1. Article 2. I can go more in depth into my personal experiences in another post if needed) But beyond that, I don't always think that's the most helpful way to get looped into other things happening in your city or direct mutual aid or direct action work--I think groups like DSA and PSL often have a lot of other priorities like intra party dynamics, electoral politics, etc, and that other things like protesting or mutual aid work is often a secondary priority for those groups. The only reason I wanted to mention this is because I think that these groups do a lot of recruiting, and that oftentimes these groups are the most visible organizations with open membership for new people in a city to find. PSL in particular does a lot of predatory recruiting, in my experience. And I've had a lot of friends who originally joined groups like these to try to get connected and involved and ended up just sort of sucked into a lot of unrelated drama, so I just wanted to briefly mention that!

Overall, I think the biggest things that have helped me get really involved is just consistently showing up places and also doing research when I first move to a city. Once I was able to meet more people, I was able to get looped into more types of organizing, including more secure or involved organizing that I wasn't able to join when I first got to a new city.

I hope that helped, and please feel free to reach out with any other questions! If any other followers have tips, please add on!

[chronicas]

Okay just because this has been on my mind for weeks now. You should never have to choose between food and rent. One, if such a choice comes up, always choose rent, obviously. BUT if not being able to afford food is the problem, there are options. Sorry this post got so long it wasn’t meant to..

Apologies in advance I only know how this works in America, but it’s likely your country has something similar. What you’ve gotta do for this is go to your state government page and find your state’s food assistance program, SNAP, Food Stamps, whatever it is, find that and apply. You’ll probably get around $250 a month for a single household. If you’re low income, you should be eligible. If you’re on SSI/SSDI or Medicaid, you are almost certainly eligible. On top of that you gotta find a local food bank. They might ask you for your income, but they likely won’t bar you from their services if they’re a good food bank. This is a good place to get any kind of canned food and pasta, but good food banks will likely also have meat, eggs, and milk. A lot of food banks have even started delivering straight to your home. I’ve also worked with a lot of Churches to get food. I’m sure plenty of Synagogs and other religions orgs have similar programs, but it depends on how well funded they are.

Use any money you save from this for your fresh produce, but I recommend getting frozen vegetables as they have just as much nutrients as fresh produce would. I also recommend getting an instant pot or slow cooker if you can afford it. Thrift stores might have some that still work decently. I got my instant pot and my slow cooker second hand from family members so I got lucky, but if you can afford them they’re seriously a life saver.

My biggest recommendations of food to keep on hand is bread and stuff you like on sandwiches, always have eggs, always have rice, and always have some frozen vegetables. Invest in spices wherever you can, you can make a lot or really delicious meals that are super simple just by having some good seasonings. If you get on food assistance, spices are covered by that, basically everything consumable is except alcohol.

Spices I recommend to keep on hand: Sea Salt, Black Pepper, Basil, Thyme, Oregano, Ginger, Red Pepper, Garlic, Onion, any Umami/Mushroom Blend, Rosemary, Marjoram, Sage. That’s everything I use for 90% of my meals.

Also grow your own food! Mainly herbs! The easiest one to start with is green onions, you can buy some from the store, put the bottoms in a small cup with just enough water to reach the roots, let the roots grow a bit then put them in soil after about a week. Basil, thyme, parsley, and rosemary are my other favorites to grow. You can get a devoted pair of kitchen scissors to just cut your herbs directly into whatever you’re cooking! If you have enough space and time on your hands I really recommend growing tomatoes and bell peppers!! Feel free to ask me about gardening!

My Favorite Easy Meals:

Spaghetti with meat sauce: Get canned tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, mix those in a pan and add as many spices as you want until you like the flavor, you can look online for common spaghetti sauce seasonings. Get some ground beef (btw meat can be frozen indefinitely) and cook that up then throw it in your sauce. Cook noodles while you’re doing that, the whole process shouldn’t take more than an hour if you have an extra pair of hands, hour and a half if you’re by yourself at max.

Teriyaki Chicken: Easiest thing ever, just buy some chicken strips and some teriyaki sauce, marinate that shit then pop it in the oven for like around 20min or until it’s cooked to 165°F.

Egg Fried Rice: One of my favorite easy meals. Pop the (WASHED!!) rice in an instant pot or rice cooker (if you don’t have either a pot with a lid will work fine!), toss in about a tablespoon of mirin in with your rice then let it do it’s thing following instructions. About 15min before your rice is done throw some frozen vegetables in a pan (whatever kind of vegetables you like!! It really doesn’t matter!) cook those a little, put em aside in a bowl. Then take some eggs, scramble em in the same pan, put aside. Throw your cooked rice in the pan then add soy sauce, red pepper, umami blend, and any other spices you’d like (but no salt! There’s plenty of sodium in the soy sauce!).Then add your ingredients you put to the side. If you add enough eggs or are just tired, this can be it’s own meal! Or you can have it as a side with teriyaki chicken or anything else you think it’d taste good with!

Ramen: Get a bunch of packs of cheap ramen noodles but don’t use the soup packet. Make your own soup with any kind of broth (chicken or seafood works best, but just pick a favorite), add a tablespoon of soy sauce to a cup of broth, a teaspoon of mirin to cup of broth, some minced ginger (or powered) to taste, any spices you want (I like to add the mushroom blends and some seaweed flakes), cook the noodles for the recommended time in the broth then add an egg cooked in any style you want. You can get fancy with a soft boiled egg, but those take a while to learn to get right. I normally fry my eggs. And if you have any ham or beef strips those also go good with it! Top it with green onions! Takes about 45 minutes roughly.

Omelet: Whisk some eggs in a cup and add some spices (and fresh green onions if you want!), throw it in a pan, add any cheese, meat, or veggies you like on it (I like cheddar, bell peppers, and bacon in mine) then wait for it to cook on one side then fold it in half, after it’s cooked on one of the half sides, flip it over to get the other side, you can stab it in the middle to see if it’s fully cooked in the center. Takes less than 20 minutes.

Buttered Potatoes: You can get some small potatoes, cut em up, throw them in an oven-safe dish with some butter (1/4-1/2 a stick depending on how many potatoes you’re making), salt, rosemary, and black pepper. Cook them in the oven on like 350°F for about 25-30min. You can use this as a side with any kind of meat or anything else you feel it’d go good with! Sometimes it just makes a good snack as leftovers.

Things you can cook up and add to other stuff: cook a bunch of bacon and you can crumble it into stuff like omelets, mac ‘n cheese, salads!

Feel free to ask me for cooking advice! It’s one of my favorite things to do and there’s a good chance I can help you figure out how to make something. I’m happy to help talk to you about dietary restrictions and substitutes also!

I do all this and never spend a penny from my paycheck on my food! Good food is obtainable! Look online for more recipes or try and use some of these methods to enhance a simple recipe you already know!

And remember to fight to keep food assistance programs open and available! It’s an insanely valuable resource for folks in poverty! If your local government acts against these programs, speak up against them! If you can, please donate to your food bank and ask them what kind of food they need. Volunteer with them also if you can!

[hedgewitchnecromancer]

So, finally got to watching the new Last Week Tonight episode on the second Trump presidency. And somehow, Trump’s decision to make trans people illegal isn’t even the worst thing he has planned. (“he” planned— he’s won over basically every smart conservative and they really aren’t having so many infighting problems, so they’ve been planning exactly how to get Trump everything he wants without need of Congress’s approval or anything else since god-knows-when)

So basically, if Trump gets elected, the fact that he’s an idiot will no longer be a barrier to the US descending into total fascism, and neither will Congress, no matter what it comes out as.

How to get around congress? Change implemented safety policy. You don’t have to make Congress pass a bill to ban abortion if you declare abortion drugs unsafe and take them out that way. Trump doesn’t control the FDA? He’ll just order that any job related to making governmental policy of any kind a politically-appointed position. So you kick out the pharmacologist with two decades of experience and a doctorate and you put in the landlord who spent his day off on January 6th in DC with a red hat on to decide instead and you tell him to judge what’s safe for people to consume. And then if he somehow says the wrong answer, you kick him out and hand it to the next guy.

However, they are trying to find their next guys at project2025.org if you guys feel like crashing a site. But the most important thing is if you can vote in the US, vote and vote for Biden. I know he’s terrible too and all that, and there’s plenty of reason he shouldn’t be president either, but we’re not playing a game of best person we’re playing keep-away-from-fascism, and unfortunately he’s our only option. Enemy-of-my-enemy thing.

And if you need more reason to hate Trump, here’s some planned policy highlights

Require birth sex to be assigned gender, male or female, with no other options

Banning abortion

Cutting funding for any school with vaccine mandates

Militarizing the US-Mexico border to force a no-cross line

Requiring police to stop-and-frisk people in the name of stopping illegal immigration

Deputizing the entire national guard to deport people as they see fit

Destroying NOAA, the country’s severe weather watch, entirely, because it raises awareness about climate change

Destroying basically all environmental protections put on the name of climate change

Defunding the Department of Education because it promotes critical race theory

Adding a 10% tariff to every single foreign good that comes into America, and thus raising the prices on basically goddamn everything even more

Continue to support Israel against Palestine

Stop forgiving student debt

Fix healthcare by stopping illegal drugs from entering by enacting all the anti-immigration border control policies

Making impoundment— the ability of a president to block already allocated funds in order to do something else with them— legal again, and presumably using it. He tried to use impoundment with Ukraine aid to investigate Hunter Biden back when he was president the first time, to give you a sense of his priorities.

So yeah. Vote if you can, feel free to mess with project2025.org either way, if you have more suggestions, feel free to add on. Do whatever you can to keep the country with the most nukes from being thrown around by the whims of Donald Trump

[granulesofsand]

External Government Shit

We have a TikTok account that we really want to use, but A) our perps are back on there B) we struggle with speaking at all, let alone on recordings. I am also not claiming to be legally literate as an alter.

But the bill that’s banning TikTok is not about TikTok. It allows the US federal government to name an online media sharing platform a ‘foreign adversity controlled application’ if anyone employed in its maintenance or any collection of stakeholders (of 20% or more) abides by the laws of

North Korea;

China;

Russia;

or Iran.

They can enforce the banning of any online media sharing (except commercial) platform if it allows you to create an account. That’s not just social media in the traditional sense; if at least one person can see or create content that will be seen, it can be labeled a national security threat by the President and Congress.

If they decide it’s a threat, it becomes illegal to provide the service in any capacity to any user within US borders, land and otherwise.

I don’t trust our government to do this well. I say it would be better to make certain acts illegal in available areas, and then there can be at least some public knowledge of why online platforms are banned. It also includes a clause that prevents challenges to the act after 165 days, but I don’t know if that’s weird or just feels icky.

I really hate reading bills. It has so many redirects, and they don’t bother linking them on the congress.gov site. This one in particular I don’t like because it limits US citizens’ ability to use communication technology without telling us exactly why. The list of countries isn’t even included in the bill, it just names where to find it — which feels like they can add to it, but I don’t care to find out.

The big words make my brain hurt and most of the bill is definitions that need more definitions. You can find it here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521/text

It is kinda a trauma thing, too. I like having choices, including a means of fighting back against authority that causes harm. My personal content doesn’t intentionally include state secrets, and none of those were given to me anyway. Treason seems to be exactly what the constitution calls free speech, and I don’t think any organization should be allowed to kill people for a crime against the org. Crime should be levied against people for harming people, and we lost that line a long time ago.