Welp Senate officially passed the bill to ban TikTok.

I know a lot of people on this app hate TikTok, and believe me I get where that is coming from, but this is a huge violation of the first amendment and has horrifying implications for free speech.

It’s also very telling that they’re doing this right now. TikTok is one of the biggest ways that people in Palestine have to show the rest of the world what is happening. The government wants to take away this access and information.

It’s also one of the fastest ways people all around the world spread information. This is what a modern day book burning looks like.

The bill is going in front of the president tomorrow. He has the power to veto it, so write and call as soon as your can:

The number for the White House is:

202 456-1111

things you should know about books and incarceration

I recently started working with a program that sends books to incarcerated people upon request. There are programs like this in many places throughout the US, under names like “Prison Books Project” or “Books to Prisoners.” Here’s some things you should know:

The most requested book, by far, is the English dictionary. The Spanish dictionary is also highly requested, as are GED prep materials, thesauruses, almanacs, and other reference books. If you have anything like that laying around unused, please consider donating.

Prisons are legally required to maintain libraries of legal resources (this falls under one’s right to counsel), but otherwise generally do not fund or maintain libraries, even for basic educational materials. The law libraries are also often filled with irrelevant law texts (e.g. real estate and civil procedures) instead of what prisoners actually need information about: appeals, civil rights, etc.

There are strict requirements on what books can and cannot be received, which vary from prison to prison and even depending on which staff member is processing the shipments. There are a thousand different reasons prison staff can pull a book from a shipment. Individuals, unfamiliar with the complex restrictions, are often unsuccessful at sending books to incarcerated loved ones.

Prison staff often don’t like prison book programs, despite the fact that they reduce recidivism and keep prisoners occupied and out of trouble. Why? Because it makes more work for them in the mail room. Yes, really.

Immigrants are the fastest growing prison population, so we get lots of requests for books in Spanish or English learning materials. Unfortunately, these are less frequently donated, so our selection is slim.

We also get requests for books about sign language, usually from people with Deaf cellmates who have no other way to communicate.

Books about starting businesses, trades, and reintroduction are extremely common from those planning their lives after release. It’s extremely difficult for convicted felons to find work after release.

We also get many requests about psychology or self-help books. A large percentage of our incarcerated population suffer from some mental illness or have loved ones who do.

Many prisoners were not properly supported in their education. We receive letters from low-literacy people who have severe learning disabilities, whose letters are difficult to read because they never learned to write properly. Comic books/manga are common requests from low-literacy people because they can look at the pictures.

Prison book programs are usually not well funded and must ration how often incarcerated people can write us and how often they can request certain types of high-demand books. Volunteers frequently find there are no suitable books to fill a request and buy books with their own money to make sure someone gets what they’ve asked for. Cash donations to prison book programs will go to buying high-demand books such as dictionaries, GED prep, and other basic education texts.

See if you have a program like this in your area, and consider volunteering or donating books or money. There are over 2 million people incarcerated in the US, and giving them access to books is the very least we can do.

"many people are coerced into sex work by societal factors including racism, classism, cissexism, and ableism, & these people deserve better social supports to provide them with real options, because coerced consent is not consent" is a true statement

that can and does coexist with "sex work is valid work, people can and do choose sex work out of preference rather than desperation, and conditional consent is still consent"

the consent of sex workers can be safeguarded by (a) providing reliable, non-punitive, consensual social supports to keep them safe & hold clients accountable for their behaviour in work situations, and (b) providing accessible public funding for universal needs, including food, housing & healthcare, and rectifying the social barriers that limit the options of marginalized individuals

if nobody really wants to engage in sex work, the latter initiative will eradicate it completely. so if that's your goal, focus on helping the people you perceive as being coerced. but the sex workers that currently exist - including those who do, actually, want to pursue their chosen career - deserve to be safe, too.

Sex is not something anyone should be forced into. It's also not something anyone should be punished for having.

And saying someone's consent doesn't "count" because it doesn't meet your idea of acceptable behaviour? Telling them they don't know their own mind as well as you? Arguing that some people don't have the right to control what happens to their own body, and define and enforce their own limits?

Yeah.

Don't rob people of their autonomy in your quest to keep them safe.

In a world that doesn't revolve around maximizing profit, it's simply common sense not to feed poison to our children.

I didn't stutter. Palestine HAS TO USE VIOLENCE or else they will cease to exist.

The Islamic Republic Executed 3 more Protesters This Morning

The regime has executed more than a hundred of kurd, baloch and Arab activists in the last few months, all of them under false or ambiguous charges. Habib Asivad, an Arab rights activists who was kidnapped from turkey and brought to Iran by the regime, was one of the recent ones.

This morning the regime executed 3 more protesters who has been arrested during the nation wide Jîna revolution. They were tortured and forced to confess to a murder they didn't commit. In fact, there's a document that shows the murder was the regime guards doing. typical.

The three political prisoners wrote from jail on Wednesday urging the people to stop their execution.

Describing themselves as "children of Iran" in the letter, the three prisoners said: "Hello. We ask our dear fellow citizens not to let them kill us. We need your help. We need your support.

On Sunday night, demonstrators had gathered outside the prison hoping to stop the feared hangings. Campaigners say the prisoners were tortured into confessions, and there is no reliable evidence against them. -Iran International News

As it was mentioned, people tried to stop the execution by protesting and gathering in front of the prison and it was postponed but at the end the regime executed them anyway.

Meanwhile Iran has been chosen to chair the UN Human Rights Council 2023 Social Forum. This is not a joke anymore, it's the tragedy of western human rights. Apparently murdering your people for protesting grants you a human rights council chair in west.

Kindness will not dismantle white supremacy. There is no getting around the demanding and delivering of justice that will ensure the liberation of our communities. What happened in Colorado is yet another horrific reminder of how the ongoing slaughter, displacement, and violence on Queer / Trans communities directly resulted from white supremacy attempting to eradicate us for our existence. My heart is so heavy right now after reading the horrific news. I couldn’t stop thinking that the very few limited safe spaces within a heteronormative society are constantly under attack by right-wing conservative groups. These hateful ideologies are spread by misinformation and other tactics used to invalidate our existence. It’s not enough to say you are an ally for our communities. It’s the bare minimum to not be silent on acts of homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia. As someone has experienced gun violence, it changes the way you navigate the world, the way you speak to people, and the constant threat of having to turn around in case someone walks behind you with an armed gun. Our existence is more than enough in the fight for Queer and Trans liberation where we are constantly being attacked, criticized, or even met with death because of the way we live. Say it for what it is and that dismantling white supremacy is environmentalism. I want it all gone, not just for me but for all those who are constantly under the threat of being met with violence for their identities. My Queerness is a heritage that cannot be taken away and I will not lose hope in this battle against white supremacy.

-qbv

Lauren YS

Keith Haring (1958-1990) — Statue of Liberty  [acrylic &  fluorescent enamel on fiberglass with black ligh, 1982]

Is it okay to call women with heavy beauty procedures beautiful?

Beauty has been polished in the views of art and perfection in our centuries, and hailed as an idealistic configuration of what women and men should look like.

Our children grow up to supply this reciprocity and conformance to social media interests simply to fulfill their human desires to be a part of a broader world.

Most men advise beauty standards based on sexual fantasy, and I've seen that women experience this kind of pressure from men. But, in my opinion, the genuine reality is that most women are insecure about their bodies due to rivalry with other girls in the social media realm to attract a man and increase likes and views---that's why they abide to these beauty laws----. There is undoubtedly an underlying insecurity in women. The most promising strategy is for women to alter their viewpoints among men and the media/standard, not for the media to modify their invalid and frustrating standards among women (which they should, but that isn't the point).This will transform everything and create women who do not follow a man's perspective and standard; rather, it is men AND the media who pursue beauty and distinct women in their own aura and nature.

Stop selling your divine and unique femininity to these hideous ideals in order to exalt men and others; it's destroying your mental health. .just be who you are pleaseeeeeeeeee

That's why I assume most ladies would get a bbl or a facelift; they begin to form a relationship between their identity and the validation of the standard, men (especially thirsty men), and their likes/dislikes/views.

You've been granted the "pretty privilege" if you have your body surgically altered to feel beautiful and confront a certain common feature that universally embodies a beauty standard, but I believe that a woman with exhaustive beauty procedures shouldn't have the same beauty privileges as a natural woman who believes she was born with the privilege.

the reason why calling a woman with a bbl, multiple face lifts etc beautiful( outrageously beautiful, both objective and subjective) is so conflicting is because it feels like I'm applauding this whole social trap issue. i wouldn't want to give the word beautiful to these types of women that have to feel happy by doing this.

Beauty standards on women is negatively impacting their worth ---therefore politics and the media--- because its pointing their significance at their objective, physical, and sexual value.

Due to our generation, I feel that every cosmetic operation has a powerfully subconscious drive that is impacted by the social platforms and standards that people today value and associate with grace, beauty, intelligence, and worthiness. And I believe it is jeopardizing the way we think and make decisions as a society, politics, and the next generations……

The Kardashians are not compensated for their talent or inventiveness; rather, they are compensated for their appearance and advancement in the beauty industry.

Because of the beauty system's unreliability and how it is so flawed, it's likely that Kylie still feels uneasy in her own skin after so many years of subconsciously seeking this ideal.

(1482) Kylie Jenner Says That She Still Feels Insecure - YouTube

thankss <333

Please watch, Israel is planning to commit a new genocide in Rafah. This man needs help to evacuate

Mahasweta Devi, inaugural speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair on the occasion of India becoming the first country to be invited as the chief guest for the second time, 2006.

text id: [ …my country; torn, tattered, proud, beautiful, hot, humid, cold, sandy, shining India. My country. ]

"Anarchafeminism" by Chiara Bottici (p. 298 - 299)

What many people failed to do then (and continue to fail to do today) is admit what happened, understand the context, and make sure those circumstances never happen again.

—Jane Fonda, My Life So Far

Cry Your Tears by John Trudell

You cannot beg solidarity from people whose oppression you still participate in.

All hail the sassy queen 👑