politics jack • 4d ago • 97%

USA has sent 26.7 billion dollars to Israel to carry out genocide

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/5977980 > We are constantly told that solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing poor and working class people in the U.S. do not exist. Meanwhile, billions taxpayer dollars are being used to fund the genocide of Palestinians. > > That very money could have ended homelessness in the United States. > > Money for our needs, not the U.S.-Israeli war machine! >

Ohio jack • 1mo ago • 100%

The deep connections between Israel and Ohio’s medical, educational & business establishments - Liberation News

www.liberationnews.org

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3401171 > Written by a member of my  branch 

news jack • 1mo ago • 100%

The deep connections between Israel and Ohio’s medical, educational & business establishments - Liberation News

www.liberationnews.org

Written by a member of my  branch 

technology jack • 1mo ago • 100%

Best FOSS alternatives to Slack/Discord?

I'd been thinking Telegram would be a sufficiently secure alternative, but as Western intelligence gets their hooks into that system I think we need to go self-hosted. Element is the biggest name here, but I'm curious what options are the best for a combination of both security and feature maturity.

news jack • 2mo ago • 98%

NTSB report on East Palestine, Ohio, rail derailment shows the need for public ownership of railroads - Liberation News

www.liberationnews.org

Written by a member of my branch 

politics jack • 2mo ago • 100%

From Pan-Africanism to Afropessimism - Palestine and the Degeneration of Black Politics

Great article from BAR. It goes in on Afropessimism and connected right-wing Black politics. > Connected to that was in the emergence of this philosophical political framework referred to as Afropessimism. > This framework has been one of the most detrimental frames that I think has ever emerged among Black folks, because using this frame, where, as you said in your intro, everyone is supposed to be anti-Black, including other colonized people. And so therefore the ability to empathize with other colonized people, to stand in solidarity with them, to build the kinds of coalitions we used to build as a normal part of the Black radical tradition has been undermined by the popularity of this frame. Emerging first in academia, where most of this backwardness develops, it then bleeds into our movement spaces.

Pets jack • 2mo ago • 100%

I spent months slowly establishing a new aquarium and in the last two weeks almost everything has died

I had a little 15 gallon aquarium with a small population of tetras, kuhli loaches, a betta, and two shrimp, plus snails. I bought a 55 gallon tank to give them all a better environment. I filled the tank and planted it heavily then gave it a week to stabilize before I added anything. I moved snails, the shrimp, and some microfauna over. I bought a bag o bugs to increase microfuna diversity, and a dozen more shrimp, mostly young, and gave that another months to stabilize. The shrimp were growing up, carrying eggs, looking good to go. I added my five tetras from the old tank and everything seemed great for a few more weeks. Everyone was healthy, plants were thriving, baby shrimp were starting to appear. The loaches went in a little later and they've been good all along. I went to a nice local aquarium store and bought five more tetras. Four days later, all but two tetras - one new, one old - were dead. I have no idea why. Water tested normal, so the ones from the store must have introduced something, but it was outside their return policy. But the shrimp were still doing well, so I moved the betta over. That was this week. Today I go to check on my baby shrimp, and not only can I not find them - I can't find any shrimp at all. Usually they're all over the place. I could identify most of them individually because I bought a bag of wild colored, so they were very varied. Every single one of them died sometime between this morning and Wednesday night. I guess it's a temperature issue. It got chilly here for August the last few nights, into the low sixties, and I didn't have a heater in the tank yet. I'm feeling extremely discouraged. All I want out of these is to be healthy environments where animals can live safe little lives. And this was my biggest, most careful, most planned out aquarium ever. And now it's basically a graveyard. There's no shrimp population to even rebuild from. I have utterly failed in my mission to create a good environment for my little sea creatures.

fediverse jack • 3mo ago • 95%

Bluesky vs Mastodon? Let's talk about the two!

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/3009305 > I'm quite sure everyone understands how dreadful Twitter is: its user base, privacy policy, moderation, and everything else about it is terrible. People usually leave Twitter for one of the four reasons I just mentioned. Most of the time when people leave Twitter, they commonly choose [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/) or [Mastodon](https://joinmastodon.org/), which are both popular open source decentralized social media platforms, and one of them is also known for [cats :3](https://joinmastodon.org/) > > Let's talk about which one is better and make a final decision on what platform you should use instead of Twitter. > > Bluesky [(Finally) ](https://www.engadget.com/bluesky-is-ditching-its-waitlist-and-opening-to-everyone-140026198.html) and Mastodon are both open source, decentralized social media platforms. Both are constantly expanding with new features similar to Twitter, but they are all free to use and do not require subscription (unlike Twitter), and you can do a lot more with both! However, there are a few of negatives with one of the social networking networks over the other, which is Bluesky. > > Now, while I give the Bluesky developers some respect for making it open source and decentralized, there are a few serious issues with it right now, including its user base and moderation. > > One huge thing that BlueSky did was fairly recently released a feature that will make it even easier for people to harass you the moment they join the platform, the feature is called [Starter Packs](https://bsky.social/about/blog/06-26-2024-starter-packs). This is not even an opt-out feature, and there is no genuine moderation involved. Not only that, but Bluesky is full of anti-Iranian racists everywhere on the platform; the Bluesky moderators have done nothing to address it, and it has not changed since, and if someone quits Twitter and switches to Bluesky, they are literally moving to the exact same platform, except slightly decentralized and open source. Bluesky is TWITTER and isn't really so much better in terms of privacy either even as it being open source. >  > > Until Bluesky improves its moderation and other aspects, it is recommended to leave Twitter or Bluesky by deleting your account, find yourself a good Mastodon instance or create your own Mastodon, and make a account on it :3 > > Huge thanks to [Cyrus](https://wetdry.world/@cyrus) and [David's Creation](https://wetdry.world/@DavidsCreation) for giving me some pointers on what Bluesky is doing, you should definitely check both of them out! > > As always, if there is any incorrect information on this post, notify me and I will correct it right away!

politics jack • 3mo ago • 98%

PSL Statement – The attempted assassination of Trump and its political fallout

www.liberationnews.org

::: spoiler Text in its entirety: In an instant, the political situation in the United States was transformed when a gunman shot Donald Trump while he was on stage at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania on July 13. The situation is still evolving, but the initial political impact is highly favorable for Trump. Instructing his Secret Service detail to pause as they evacuated him from the stage, Trump pumped his fist and yelled to the crowd, “Fight!” — instantly creating iconic images that make Trump look heroic and strong. The contrast between his (self-created and false) image as an unstoppable fighter and Biden’s feebleness has never been greater. Immediately following the shooting, the Biden campaign suspended its advertisements. Practically every major Democratic Party elected official rushed to express their sympathy for Trump and wish him well. A range of corporate leaders, perhaps seeing Trump’s victory as now inevitable, issued statements embracing him. The main argument the Democratic Party had in the campaign up to now was that Trump was an aspiring dictator and pathological liar who represented an existential threat to democracy. They instantly dropped all these talking points in the name of “coming together” and “turning down the rhetoric.” The furthest Biden now goes is to say Trump has a “competing vision” for the country. The right wing, on the other hand, immediately went on the attack. J.D. Vance, a vice-presidential contender, directly blamed Biden’s rhetoric for the shooting. Donald Trump, Jr. immediately said after the shooting that his father “will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him.” There is zero indication the “radical left” had anything to do with this, as the shooter himself was a registered Republican, but such comments have saturated the far-right political ecosystem. They are meant to cow Trump’s liberal critics into silence, lest they be seen as supporting violence. It also lays the groundwork and creates a pretext for a new wave of repression, either under a second Trump presidency or even now under Biden. Already the White House has signaled Biden is planning to go on a new political offensive this week against the campus encampments in solidarity with Palestine as an example of “violent extremism.” This is absurd. The encampments were launched to stop the genocidal violence against the Palestinian people; the student protesters attacked no one and were, in fact, targets of violence themselves. Trump is headed to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention. His speech at the RNC will set the tone for the next phase of the campaign. Trump is reportedly rewriting his speech, which had originally been an all-out attack on Biden, to focus more on themes of national unity. With leading capitalists extending him an olive branch, Trump could calculate that his best move would be to move in a “moderate” direction and demonstrate to fellow members of the ultra-rich elite that he can be a unifying, “presidential” figure and present strength for the Empire. Trump has no fixed ideology and solely cares about his image and legacy. In another sign that an elite consensus was emerging around Trump as the next president, the judge in the classified documents criminal case against Trump suddenly dismissed all charges two days after the assassination attempt. Soon, a DC judge will have to decide if other charges relating to the plot to overturn the 2020 election can go forward in light of the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. Fake pacifism and a new cycle of political violence “There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” Joe Biden says. “No exception.” It is important not to lose sight of the extreme hypocrisy of the powerful figures now issuing blanket condemnations of violence. The same people who are so appalled that someone would shoot at a politician did not bat an eye at the news the same Saturday morning that Israeli fighter jets had just killed 90 Palestinian civilians in a failed assassination attempt of a resistance leader in Gaza. They normalize and defend all the violence carried out by the state — whether in oppressed neighborhoods inside the United States, at the U.S.-Mexico border, or overseas. But then they turn around and say, “violence has never been the answer.” All the politicians who have suddenly become pacifists for a weekend don’t really mean it. This is about their own safety and no one else’s. More than anything, they are concerned about a new wave of political violence that could destabilize their rule. Contrary to Biden’s assertions that such political violence is “unheard of,” working-class leaders and social movement leaders have been targeted by violence throughout U.S. history. There have also been periods of U.S. history where violence and assassination have been the methods used to resolve disputes within the ruling class. The U.S. Civil War came about after years of escalating political violence. A century later, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy in 1963 and 1968 profoundly reshaped the presidential campaigns that were underway in each of those instances. Then came the shooting that left George Wallace paralyzed in the 1972 election, an election which also saw President Nixon order the break-in to the offices of the DNC. The impeachment of Nixon, and the subsequent appointment of an unelected president and vice-president, Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller, capped off this period of extreme instability in the ruling class — and to end it, Nixon was pardoned in the name of “national unity.” In periods of major upheaval domestically and internationally, the tendency to resolve struggles within the ruling class using violence grows stronger, as does the tendency to use violence against the people. Lest we forget: from 2017 to 2020, Democratic Party leaders attempted to undo the 2016 election with the phony Russiagate conspiracy, asserting that Trump was elected because of Russian interference in the election. From Day One of the Trump presidency, the Democratic Party leadership and their supporters were looking to impeach him for being a “puppet” of Putin. Then, in turn, Trump tried to undo the 2020 election by mobilizing fascist forces to seize the Capitol at the moment the vote was to be ratified. And in between these two events, there was a mass uprising against police killing of unarmed civilians, during which the National Guard was called out, Democratic mayors complied with Trump to impose curfews and conduct mass arrests, and Trump itched to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military to occupy cities in the United States. Talk about instability. Headed into the 2024 election, there remains all the same explosive potential around the election and the transfer of power. The underlying social crises — of job destruction, climate destruction, military confrontation, state violence, the cost-of-living crisis, etc. — cannot be solved by either faction of the capitalist class. Neither party can control the two egomaniacs who lead them. The trust in Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court are at record lows. There are already hundreds of millions of guns in circulation among the population. The country appears to be on a collision course. No wonder they’re saying, “Cool it.” All this is more important than who, if anyone, the shooter was connected to politically. Theories already abound, and there will now be extensive investigations by multiple different arms of the government with contradictory political interests. There is intense speculation about how the gunman was able to position himself so close to the stage and why police did not stop him. Some of that may become clearer in the coming weeks, but it also may remain shrouded in mystery. Rather than focus on that, class-conscious workers should pay more attention to how the ruling class will politically utilize this assassination attempt in the here and now. Real working-class unity — no unity with the ruling-class establishment! The Democrats now want to invoke “unity” and American patriotism to silence criticism of the institutions whose legitimacy has been rapidly in decline. The Republicans also talk of unity and wrap themselves in the flag, but they want to use this event to blast through any opposition to their radical pro-corporate agenda. The hypocrisy of elite politicians aside, they are playing on a sincere feeling among many working class people that the United States has become deeply divided in a way that has dangerous consequences. People do desire peace over instability, unity over division. The question, then, is what is the answer to “polarization”? Socialists desire working-class unity, but no unity with the tiny billionaire class that has doubled their profits in the last four years by exploiting people of all backgrounds. The problem is not that people are politically polarized, but that we are polarized on totally the wrong basis. Working-class people who vote for Biden or for Trump, or neither, have more in common than they may think. They share the same problems paying for rent, mortgage, a tank of gas, and a dozen eggs while dealing with stagnant wages, disrespectful bosses, decrepit schools, exorbitant child care, and parasitic insurance companies. They have almost no democratic say in any of it. They generally want to stay out of wars abroad and would much prefer to see their tax dollars used to build stronger communities. But both parties, representing two factions of the same ruling class, intentionally keep the working class divided into different political blocks, into the fiction of “blue vs. red” so each can be more easily mobilized in favor of their respective rulers, rather than against their common enemy. Backed by powerful media institutions churning out content, both factions each invent existential threats in the other and drum up points of division to keep workers estranged and voting out of fear. The Republican leaders are, of course, less subtle in their cultural appeals to racism, sexism, and xenophobia. The Democratic leaders, by contrast, use “politically correct” language to signal sympathy for targeted communities, while doing nothing for them and instead protecting the same system of exploitation and Empire. For all the harsh rhetoric the two parties use against each other, the truth is that they are just shades apart! On most of the issues that are important to the capitalist class, they are on the same team. They work for the same lobbyists and banks, enact the same mass surveillance policies against all of us, and work together to fund and arm Israel, Ukraine, and military contractors. They both work to keep third parties off the ballot and out of the debates. Both scapegoat immigrants for declining services. Neither fights for working people. Our problems won’t be solved when these two parties are more “united.” They are functionally already the same. As long as this deception continues, and as long as workers have to fight among themselves for the scraps left over by the billionaire class, there will inevitably be countless points of division and conflict. The basis of broad working-class unity is a program that advocates for taking away the power of Wall Street and the Military-Industrial Complex, instead using the country’s wealth to build up housing, healthcare, education, and good-paying jobs, while rejecting all forms of hatred and bigotry. Since its founding, a small group of rich capitalists have maintained a hold on the political power in this country. For over 150 years, they have maintained this grip on power through two ruling-class parties. The vast majority, those whose labor creates all the real wealth in society, do not hold any political power and are only allowed to participate either as supporters of one of the two parties that don’t represent their needs and interests or as spectators to a system dominated by Big Money. This is a Plutocracy, not a Democracy. Biden tells the public that Trump is the problem. Trump says that Biden is the problem. The real problem is that the biggest banks, corporations, and capitalist-owned media have dictatorial power over society, the government, and its policies. We can create a real democracy in the United States by ending the stranglehold on political and economic power by Wall Street banks and corporations, and their political servants in government. :::

politics jack • 3mo ago • 84%

The People's Forum presents Spark! Organizing for Revolution

peoplesforum.org

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2965266 > The People's Forum is hosting summer school for people interested in becoming revolutionary organizers! I think this class is incredibly important and relevant in our current moment, and I wanted to plug it here because I think a lot of you will be interested in it as well. The classes are hybrid in-person (NYC) and virtual (Zoom), and recordings of previous classes as well as other materials are available online. > > Classes are Tuesday/Thursday from 6:30pm-8:30pm ET, and Saturday at a time I don't fully remember, but I think is 1pm-3pm ET. And of course, you can always review the recordings at a time that works better for you! That means the next section is tonight (Thursday, July 11th)! > > I saw the first class on Tuesday, and it was immediately obvious that the content and presentation of this material are extremely valuable, and I hope you all feel the same. > > Register for free at the link below: > > https://peoplesforum.org/events/revolutionary-summer-school-2024/

politics jack • 4mo ago • 95%

Based Marxist Leninist presidential candidate thrashes Brianna Wu in debate [EVISCERATED] (IS LIBERALISM OVER?)

youtu.be

Claudia de la Cruz of  puts an end to Brianna Wu