ambivalence

erika. 31. this is my main blog, bitterberrispice is my side blog

[firstgrave]

[id: tweet by user ziibiing from August 24, 2023 that says “If you share Trump’s mugshot today, please share that the Fulton County Jail it was taken at, is at 3x it’s capacity, infested with bugs, is holding 87% Black people, most of whom haven’t seen a day in court.

Six people have died in custody this year. Fuck cops, fuck jails.” /end id]

[arsanatomica]

[unavernales]

uh so i never do this but maui is quite literally on fire and there isn't nearly enough care or consideration for. you know. Native Hawaiians who live here being displaced and the land (and cultural relevance) that's being eaten up by the fire. so if ya'll wanna help, here's some links:

maui food bank: https://mauifoodbank.org/

maui humane society: https://www.mauihumanesociety.org/

center for native hawaiian advancement: https://www.memberplanet.com/campaign/cnhamembers/kakoomaui

hawai'i red cross: https://www.redcross.org/local/hawaii/ways-to-donate.html

please reblog and spread the word if you can't donate.

[phoenixfalls]

Death toll is up to 36 (source) and over 11,000 people were evacuated from the island yesterday (source).

Here are a couple additional donation links:

Hawaii Community Foundation - Maui Strong Fund (link)

This is where the Office of the Governor is directing donations.

Maui Mutual Aid Fund - Grants Central Station (link)

Supporting Maui families, elderly residents, people with disabilities and those with limited or no insurance.

[embodiedfutures]

Need a better breakdown? Tiktok attached below that explains Zoom's new Terms of Service:

#greenscreen well. #zoom #queerrepresentation #queerromance #lgbt #lgbtq #queer #jew #jewish #jewishrepresentation #daniellesilverstone

What about folks who have therapy via Zoom? Court hearings? The list goes on. If you've got any Zoom alternatives, or maybe preference for one of the ones we listed with why, reblog please!

Image Description Below.

[ID: Screenshot of a tweet by Ted Gioia @/tedgioia from 1 day ago. They write, "Zoom terms of service now require you to allow AI to train on ALL your data--audio, facial recognition, private conversations--unconditionally and irrevocably, with no opt out. Don't try to negotiate with our new overlords." Gioia then has as a screenshot attached highlighting different lines from Zoom's new Terms of Services. The text in the image is small but can be read to say:

10.2 Service Generated Data; Consent to Use. Customer Content does not include any telemetry data, product usage data, diagnostic data, and similar content or data that Zoom collects or generates in connection with your or your End Users’ use of the Services or Software (“Service Generated Data”). As between you and Zoom, all right, title, and interest in and to Service Generated Data, and all Proprietary Rights therein, belong to and are retained solely by Zoom. You agree that Zoom compiles and may compile Service Generated Data based on Customer Content and use of the Services and Software. You consent to Zoom’s access, use, collection, creation, modification, distribution, processing, sharing, maintenance, and storage of Service Generated Data for any purpose, to the extent and in the manner permitted under applicable Law, including for the purpose of product and service development, marketing, analytics, quality assurance, machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training and tuning of algorithms and models), training, testing, improvement of the Services, Software, or Zoom’s other products, services, and software, or any combination thereof, and as otherwise provided in this Agreement. In furtherance of the foregoing, if, for any reason, there are any rights in such Service Generated Data which do not accrue to Zoom under this Section 10.2 or as otherwise provided in this Agreement, you hereby unconditionally and irrevocably assign and agree to assign to Zoom on your behalf, and you shall cause your End Users to unconditionally and irrevocably assign and agree to assign to Zoom, all right, title, and interest in and to the Service Generated Data, including all Proprietary Rights relating thereto.

A tweet by John Rogers @/jonrog1 replies, "I ... don't think @/Zoom understands every single TV company and movie studio now has to drop them. Never mind the HIPAA issues. Yikes."

The youth volunteers of Better Future Program @/bfpnola write under these screenshots via Instagram, "We've been talking about this in our Discord server as of last night since we host our meetings in Zoom and we've been researching alternatives, especially ones that are end-to-end encrypted and we know other activists use, like Jitsi, Disroot, Matrix, and ofc Signal. Got any other ones?"

Finally there is an Instagram question sticker asking for Zoom alternatives. /End ID.]

[transcyberism]

Email your university about FERPA compliance if you or your peers take online classes also

[crippledpunks]

i hate that bad backs aren't viewed as a disability. i hate that "Every back is a bad back" mentality. i hate minimizing back pain by encouraging people to "just take a tylenol". i hate that people who throw out their backs regularly are told to "just sleep it off" or even worse "just exercise, it loosens things up." i hate when people say "my mom has a bad back and she just powers through it."

let people with bad backs be disabled and talk about how much pain we are in, and how much of a disability living with a weak, broken, eroded, degenerative, or paralyzed spine is. let us talk about the horrors and dangers of spinal surgeries. listen to us when we talk about the limited options for pain management and how it is an absolute nightmare to get treated for back pain and receive medication that actually works.

having a bad back is a disability. being in back pain all the time is not trivial. having back pain so bad you can't sit or stand is serious. feeling shooting pain into your legs is a big deal. feeling like no matter how much you stretch or take medicine your back never seems to feel better is a genuine medical issue. listen to disabled people and stop dismissing our pain.

[paxamericana]

Nebraska Dem with trans son vows to block all bills: "No one in the world holds a grudge like me"

"No one in the world cares less about being petty than me. I don't care. I don't like you," said Sen. Megan Hunt.

Nebraska Democratic state Sen. Megan Hunt vowed to filibuster every bill for the rest of the legislative session after the Nebraska Legislature advanced a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for people under 19.

The legislation, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Kathleen Kauth, would ban minors from seeking gender confirmation surgery and hormone treatments — issues that could impact Hunt’s transgender son. She discussed her son and his testimony in committee on Wednesday and to the wider body the next day.

“My son is trans,” Hunt said of her 12-year-old child, who she says has been unable to attain gender-affirming care. “And this bill, colleagues, is such an affront to me personally and would violate my rights to parent my child in Nebraska.”

The bill is one of many anti-trans policies rolled out this year, according to Trans Legislation Tracker.

“We have made it clear that this is the line in the sand,” Hunt said to lawmakers on Thursday.

“People have said, ‘What if we go after your bills? What if we put a bunch of bills introduced by progressives up on the agenda? Are you going to filibuster those, too?’ Yes, because we’re not like you,” Hunt explained. “We have a principle and a value that actually matters that much to us that we’re willing to stand up for.”

Hunt was scolded over her stance by Republicans, who said her pushback set a bad precedent.

“You really don’t get it,” Hunt said to Republican state Sen. R. Brad von Gillern. “You’ve crossed a line and you’ve gone too far.”

“Don’t say hi to me in the hall, don’t ask me how my weekend was, don’t walk by my desk and ask me anything. Don’t send me Christmas cards ― take me off the list,” Hunt warned. “No one in the world holds a grudge like me, and no one in the world cares less about being petty than me. I don’t care. I don’t like you.”

“This hateful bill is not about policy. It is a basic human rights issue. The vote today will show us exactly which senators value the dignity, autonomy, and personhood of Nebraskans,” Hunt added on Twitter. “Do not cross this line. Do not violate our rights”

Hunt joins Democratic state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh in her promise to filibuster the remainder of the legislature’s 90-day session, which ends on June 9.

“I will burn the session to the ground over this bill,” Cavanaugh warned.

[socialistexan]

It's about damn time these fuckers learned that they don't get just parade around in their faux gestapo getups without someone showing them what's what.

It's amazing how quickly these wannabe tough guy fascists turn into sniveling snowflakes as soon as they are met with even a little resistance.

"I thought I could come in and harass queers and threaten to kill them in peace!"

You really thought people were going to just let you come in and spout your hateful nonsense without any backlash? The audacity! That's a lifetime of unchecked privilege at play. I'm sometimes afraid to even leave my house while existing as a trans woman, and you thought you could just gamet away with this?

Talk shit, get hit.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Facebook and Google are handing over user data to help police prosecute abortion seekers

Social media sites are inundated with police requests for user data and may cooperate even if not legally required to, one legal expert told Insider.

An investigation by ProPublica found online pharmacies that sell abortion medication such as mifepristone and misoprostol are sharing sensitive data, including users’ web addresses, relative location, and search data, with Google and other third-party sites — which allows the data to be recoverable through law enforcement requests.

ProPublica found similar web trackers that capture user data on the sites of at least nine online pharmacies that offer abortion pills by mail, including Abortion Ease, BestAbortionPill.com, PrivacyPillRX, PillsOnlineRX, Secure Abortion Pills, AbortionRx, Generic Abortion Pills, Abortion Privacy, and Online Abortion Pill Rx.

None of the pharmacies immediately responded to Insider’s requests for comment.

Representatives for the FBI told Insider they were “unable to accommodate” Insider’s detailed request for information about the criteria required for officers to issue a request for a civilian’s social media or internet history, what information is generally turned over to them in the pursuit of such information, and what channels officers used to make those requests.

Representatives for Google and the Los Angeles and New York Police Departments, two of the largest police forces in the country, did not respond to Insider’s requests for comment.

[mp3v0]

WRINKLES ARE FINE JUST LIVE YOUR LIFE

[fuggmuff]

[moonisneveralone]

"We don't tolerate wrinkles" is a MAD thing to say. Girl what?

[castledock]

The worst part is that this straw was most likely made for oral motor disabilities where the usual straw position would be difficult to use due to not being able to generate proper suction for any number of reasons. And it was co-opted by this “anti-aging” bullshit. Everyone in the notes saying you’d smack someone you saw using this— I understand the frustration about it in this instance but don’t make assumptions about anyone you’d actually see using it. There are legitimate uses for this outside of the harmful industry that stole it.

[mivolasvivi]

Wow the grad student situation at Temple is actually insane. A microcosm of what’s wrong with academia and American healthcare and workers rights as a whole.

[annullo13]

This is retaliation and should be illegal, but I'm sure the university is abusing some loophole to justify it.

[blackbellybella]

I’m pretty sure this IS illegal. You have a right to protest and no one should reprimanded you for exercising your rights but I’m not a lawyer so idk

[dragonladdie]

Hey remember when they found over 200 bodies of native children buried behind a residential school and the world cared for... what, a week?

They've counted about 6,000-7,000 now, for those of you who do still care

[dragonladdie]

It should NOT fall on Indigenous people's shoulders to keep this known still. We’ve been doing that for generations at this point and NO ONE wants to listen to us.

We’re tired, mourning and constantly reopening our trauma and pain to keep people caring about us. It’s terrible.

[foxgirltail]

I should start by noting that I am white, and not Canadian, and that if op wants me to remove this comment for any reason, please let me know.

This is a map of all the residential schools in Canada:

[link to the article it’s attached to, it’s interactable there, so you can get a better look around]

Each dot on this map represents a residential school. Blue dots mean the school is considered completely searched. Yellow dots mean they are either in the process of being searched or there are plans to be searched. Red dots indicate that no search has happened and that no search is currently planned

There were more than 130 residential schools in Canada. This map suggests that only six have been fully searched, and a little more than a dozen partially searched (I counted 15 yellow dots). That leaves at least 109 schools completely untouched.

Let that sink in; if 6,000-7,000 unmarked, indigenous children’s graves were found by searching less than a fifth of all the schools, how many are still undiscovered.

Wikipedia estimates that the body count could be over 50,000, and honestly, that could be a low estimate

[ms-cellanies]

It seems necessary to also include a map of the residential schools in the U.S.

https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/teach/locations-reservation-indian-boarding-schools-us

Sorry, I can’t figure out how to Copy & Paste the maps.  Check the links above.

[bellybuttonblue2]

[badatwritingstuff]

To put it differently, these are the things that young Palestinian children cannot freely do:

visit their hometown

visit relatives

go to the beach

pray at their mosque

be happy (and free)

[porterdavis]

A doctor's duty is to the patient, not the state.

[anotherpapercut]

the quote referenced in that tweet from the article they linked:

"At the AMA’s 2022 interim meeting this month, the agency amended their ethical guidance to doctors on abortion. From AMA President Jack Resneck Jr., MD:

“Under extraordinary circumstances, the ethical guidelines of the profession support physician conduct that sides with their patient’s safety and health, acknowledging that this may conflict with legal constraints that limit access to abortion or reproductive care.”

To put it plainly: They’re telling doctors that to provide ethical care, they might have to break the law. The AMA also says they will offer support to doctors, including legal support and pathways for doctors-in-training to learn abortion services if they live in a state where abortion is illegal."

[politicalsci]

On December 6th 1989, fourteen young women, many of them engineering students, were murdered in the mass shooting at Montreal’s École Polytechnique that was prompted by the killer’s hatred of women and what he said was “fighting feminism”.   On December 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, we remember: Geneviève Bergeron Hélène Colgan Nathalie Croteau Barbara Daigneault Anne-Marie Edward Maud Haviernick Maryse Laganière Maryse Leclair Anne-Marie Lemay Sonia Pelletier Michèle Richard Annie St-Arneault Annie Turcotte Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz

[gettin-bi-bi-bi]

today is world AIDS day

a lot of HIV-positive people still face stigmatisation due to prejudices and misinformation. so here is a quick reminder that:

HIV cannot be transmitted through touch

HIV cannot be transmitted via saliva, tears or sweat

HIV cannot pass unbroken skin or gloves, meaning you can help an injured HIV-positive person without fearing infection

HIV medication is so good these days that it can push the viral load below a detectable amount, which means that the virus CANNOT be transmitted anymore! no, not even during sex!!! (which doesn’t mean you should just have unprotected sex; other STIs and unwanted pregnancy are still a thing that you have to keep in mind!)

the medication can have strong side effects though, so it is important to do more research and develop even better medication

not every person in the world has the same access to medication. it is absolutely vital that everyone who needs it can get easy and free access to it.

HIV is not a death sentence anymore!!! through education and free access to condoms and medicine we can keep pushing the number of new infections with HIV down and prolong the life expectancy of people already infected.

Please share this information, not just online but also with friends and family who might not know it. And if you can, donate to your local AIDS/HIV charity or if you want to support one that’s operating internationally then Elton John AIDS Foundation is the one I’d recommend!

[fursasaida]

The staff and performers of Club Q are struggling financially with the club being shut down. Those who weren't working the night of the shooting are not counted as "victims," so don't have access to the same kinds of support but are nonetheless out of a paycheck.

Del Lusional explained here: "Unfortunately the employees and contractors who were not in the building are still being greatly impacted with the loss of income, these last few shows of the month were gonna help pay rent and utilities for many of us."

They are working on getting a joint PayPal set up, but for those of us in the US, here are ways to send money to some of these individuals:

[there's an OCRed version here.]

[pineapplecrispy]

As of now telegram, Twitter, tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit and soon enough whatsapp are blocked in here; that means no social media whatsoever

The VPNs we use are failing one after the other; And the internet speed is gradually getting less and less and less

Once they cut us off the massacre will begin

Please share

[the-rain-monster]

Iran’s Internet Shutdown Hides a Deadly Crackdown

Amid protests against the killing of Mahsa Amini, authorities have cut off mobile internet, WhatsApp, and Instagram. The death toll continue

News article from today (Sept 23).