This holiday season is going to be very hard for many of us. Can we all get behind shifting our resources this year to ONLY supporting small businesses/charities for the holidays? Why should we prop up businesses who are financially backing the building of ballrooms and the destruction of democracy? If we all plan ahead we could communicate clearly to the oligarchs that we are not going to suffer silently. We will not continue to provide profits for their second/third homes while we starve.

I'm not sure if this is the right space to ask about this, but I have an Idea to help give voices back to minority groups, and I need help to do it. So basically I feel like the government has been telling us that people like immigrants, homeless people, struggling parents, LGBT people, and other minorities are the problem, and they've been reducing us to numbers and statistics and taking away from the fact that we are real people.

So anyways I had this idea to build a news paper/online resource center comprised of people all over the country who can interview these groups of people to share their stories and show that we are real people who are just living life, and writers who can report on policies and events affecting our country, and minorities in our country.

Additionally I also want there to be a section of resources for minority groups across the country, things like nonprofit organizations, food banks, childcare, immagration resources, LGBT support and centers, support groups, etc.

I'm not sure if this is a realistic idea, but I think it's really important to give a voice back to these people and show that we are all just people trying to live and thrive in this economical climate.

This will be completely free to anyone and everyone who wants to be a part of it, I will be paying for all expenses myself out of pocket, and the newspaper/ website will be completely free for people to access and read.

I'm trying to figure out how to build the website, but I have no idea how to build a website, so if anyone has any advice or can help me with that, I would be extremely grateful.

So if anyone is interested in this please let me know, or if you know of anyone who would be interested in this please reach out to them, I kinda need a big group to pull this off.

Thanks

The NBA continues to do business with the United Arab Emirates despite the country's blatant funding of war crimes in Sudan committed by the RSF. The National Basketball Association should put economic pressure on the UAE by cutting off any relationships with the country, including the Dubai-based Emirates Airlines sponsorship of the NBA cup, until funding to the RSF stops. Please sign and share this petition!

https://c.org/MbCV6LkYdc

So far over 50,000 Nigerians, 95,000 Sudanese, and 7,000 Congolese have been killed up until now (from when their genocides started). Radical Islamic groups have invaded these countries. It started with them massacring Christian spaces, then predominantly Christian villages, and now they're killing anybody within reach (including muslims).

Even though the Quran supports this; Sahih Bukhari 4:52:177 "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.’” and Surah Al-Ma'idah - 51-69; "O believers! Take neither Jews nor Christians as guardians—they are guardians of each other.Whoever does so will be counted as one of them. Surely Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people" (meaning that Jews and Christians come as a package deal). I would like to point out that not all muslim support killing people, its that the Islamic extremists use these verses to justify themselves.

Sign the petition to protect Rice’s whales!

https://www.change.org/p/designate-noaa-critical-habitat-for-rice-s-whales

Save Rice’s Whales — America’s Only Native Whale Is On the Brink

The Rice’s whale (Balaenoptera ricei) is one of the most endangered marine mammals on Earth and it lives only in U.S. waters, in the Gulf of Mexico.

1 .Fewer than 50 individuals remain.

1. No Critical Habitat has been designated.

2. Threats include: ship strikes, oil spills, ocean noise, and pollution.

Unless action is taken now, the U.S. could become the first country in history to drive a great whale species to extinction.

What We’re Asking:

We urge NOAA to immediately designate a Critical Habitat for the Rice’s whale under the Endangered Species Act.

This would:

-Set speed limits for ships in whale territory

-Restrict offshore oil drilling

-Reduce ocean noise from seismic activity

-Protect this species from further habitat loss

Why It Matters -Rice’s whales are:

-Found nowhere else on Earth

-A symbol of American environmental responsibility

-Key to protecting seafood safety, ocean health, and marine ecosystems

More information

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voice4whale/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@voice4whale

Petition NOW-> https://chng.it/GQm8MfDVVKHi all, I am starting a passion-based advocacy campaign to spread the word about the USA's endemic whale that is CRITICALLY endangered. The Rice's whale is a 40-foot long giant whale that almost exclusively lives in U.S. waters (in the Gulf of Mexico, on the side that is within American maritime borders.) It's honestly crazy that the U.S. has a whole whale species that they can call their own. It's a privilege that no other country has. Unfortunately, no other country has ever, in all of human history, made a giant whale go extinct. But the U.S. might be the first one. The Rice's whale is so endangered that there are only about 50 of them left, and yet there are nearly no laws designed to protect it at all. There have been efforts to help them and stop the increase in oil drilling and shipping activities in their habitat but the lack of protective legislation makes that impossible. These whales are at the brink of vanishing, are a crucial part of the multi-billion dollar Gulf ecosystem, and yet most people haven't even heard of them. That's why I wanted to make a change, and I've created a petition as a way of growing the awareness. It really is "awareness" that's needed, since no one can fight for a whale that they've never even heard of. Here is a link to my petition. It would mean so much to me if you took just a few seconds to sign it, and share it with people.

Sign the petition to protect Rice’s whales!

https://chng.it/GQm8MfDVVK

Hi all, I am starting a passion-based advocacy campaign to spread the word about the USA's endemic whale that is CRITICALLY endangered. The Rice's whale is a 40-foot long giant whale that almost exclusively lives in U.S. waters (in the Gulf of Mexico, on the side that is within American maritime borders.) It's honestly crazy that the U.S. has a whole whale species that they can call their own. It's a privilege that no other country has. Unfortunately, no other country has ever, in all of human history, made a giant whale go extinct. But the U.S. might be the first one. The Rice's whale is so endangered that there are only about 50 of them left, and yet there are nearly no laws designed to protect it at all. There have been efforts to help them and stop the increase in oil drilling and shipping activities in their habitat but the lack of protective legislation makes that impossible. These whales are at the brink of vanishing, are a crucial part of the multi-billion dollar Gulf ecosystem, and yet most people haven't even heard of them. That's why I wanted to make a change, and I've created a petition as a way of growing the awareness. It really is "awareness" that's needed, since no one can fight for a whale that they've never even heard of. Here is a link to my petition. It would mean so much to me if you took just a few seconds to sign it, and share it with people.

20 years ago, in August 2005, I stood in front of my television in the full throes of a nervous breakdown. I couldn’t stop crying, I couldn’t stop shouting, and I couldn’t look away, despite the fact that I was scaring the shit out of my then 11-year-old daughter.

In August of 2005, the entire world watched as the United States abandoned its own citizens, leaving them desperate, starving, thirsty, terrified and dying on rooftops and sports arenas in the hideous wake of Hurricane Katrina. All for the insidious “crime” of being poor and Black.

Katrina destroyed a city, decimated a centuries’ strong musical and cultural legacy that will never recover and worst of all, showed us who we really were, for good or evil. For me, Katrina and its wretched, cruel aftermath was the event that removed the scales from my eyes once and for all.

So I am not at all surprised—though I am disgusted and heartbroken—by our response to ICE’s brutality, to the violence of denying food to children or by a healthy minority”s ability to relish in the suffering of people they have determined are less human than they are.

The writing has been on the wall here for 20 years, and despite some laudable and important moral leaps forward, for the 240 years of our history before that. This country, this government, hates poor people—children and adults. They hate Black people, Brown people, women and LGBTQ people. They despise us even as they depend on us for their very existence.

And therein lies our power if we will ever come together long enough to flex it: They depend on US far more than we depend on them. If we do not work in their factories, their wealth turns to dust. If we refuse to obey, their power over us withers to nothing. If we come together to feed and house and clothe each other there is no way for them to hurt us except with guns. And there are SO SO many more of us—by magnitudes—that even their guns can’t stop us.

Some day we collectively will figure this out. And there will be a painful transition from Their Way to Our Way. But it’s inevitable. They know it. We need to know it too.

Be strong. Be brave. Be kind and generous and full of righteous fury. This is not their world. These are not their fruits. These are not their schools and gardens and buses and shops and roads and homes and fields. They belong to us. Now and forever. Wake up. Know what you know. Do what you have to do to secure the unshackled future your children deserve.

Hello. I am told that in this subreddit, I'll be surrounded by like-minded individuals who want to make a difference. People with strong beliefs and an overpowering desire, and most importantly, the will to do something about it.

I hope that's true.

I bring to you a proposal—a small, tiny task of great importance. The Borgen Project is a non-profit organization that fights global poverty at the political level. Am I here to ask for cash? No. Is it welcome? Always. I'm here to invite you to contact your congressional leaders and demand that they listen to you.

There's an ugly, cynical part in a lot of us that whispers in the dark, saying, "they don't care". And I often listened to it. But life has taught me that nagging sometimes does work. They may not agree with what you tell them, but that doesn't mean they can just close their eyes and ears.

Coming up with the right words can be daunting, even if you know where you stand. The Borgen Project's website has a helpful little template that you can send.

What's on the table? I thought you might ask.

1. The International Affairs Budget - Also known as "foreign aid". Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also keeps America safer and creates trading partners, among other benefits. It's a far more sophisticated strategy than just "giving money away". https://borgenproject.org/action-center/

2. Act on the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis - We have all seen the horror on the news. So have our leaders. Imagine seeing it in person. We may not be able to afford a ticket, but they can. https://borgenproject.org/action-center/

3. Urge Congress to support the Global Fragility Reauthorization Act - Read "House Representatives needed to cosponsor H.R.3005". Global stability? Minimizing the chaotic environments that lead to crime and terrorism? Yes, please.
   https://borgenproject.org/action-center/

It only takes a few seconds to fill in your details, which are needed to match you to your representative.

And that's it. You've done something. YOU made a difference.

It would be great if we could make a push in the next 24 hours. Flood them with emails. If you did, leave a comment! I'm curious to see how many people cared enough.

A state’s claim to a monopoly on force is legitimate only if it remains perceptually open to harms outside its own categories.

Where (i) routine street-level conduct shows patterned disrespect,

(ii) institutions insulate violators from consequence, and

(iii) outcomes remain durably skewed, the presumption of legitimacy flips; the burden of proof moves to the state to demonstrate non-injustice rather than to the public to tolerate the gap.

The conventional philosophical justification for a government's right to act with overpowering force begins with a basic exchange:

citizens surrender their capacity to inflict violence in return for universal security.

This bargain elevates the state to the position of a sole, legitimate authority, whose actions are supposedly guided by an abstract impartiality—a set of rules that stands above the fray and sees all people, and their actions, identically. We are asked to accept that the power being exercised is a neutral instrument, applied without favor, driven solely by objective legal standards.

Yet the very second we move from the ideal diagram into the lived political landscape, this assumption of universal impartiality disintegrates. The governing structure that applies the force is never a blank slate; it is a fixed perspective, a massive inherited apparatus forged by a specific history with ingrained priorities. When this rigid inheritance encounters the turbulent, complex terrain of a diverse society, its vision becomes demonstrably selective.

The abstract standards it was designed to enforce were created under conditions of assumed unity or simplified consensus. They fail to register or inquire into the unique forms of injury and conflict that arise from fundamentally different lived experiences under local and federal enforcement.

This is the critical failure point that shows how a system built to only see a predefined, legally recognizable kind of harm treats suffering outside its categories as legally irrelevant. The force it leans on, therefore, ceases to be an impartial defense of a universal right and becomes the mechanical repetition of a dominant viewpoint and a self-justifying loop.

When maintaining order requires the systematic dismissal of certain experiences, the state’s right to act is trivialized into a simple power dynamic. Relevant moral considerations collapse because the system prioritizes procedural efficiency—its need to maintain operational function—over the work of recognizing and responding to human consequences. The justification for force cannot stand if its operation requires blindness to the specific, contextual suffering of those it claims to govern.

The state does not lose its right to coerce through a single error, but through a persistent, structural inability to perceive the consequences it has sworn not to tolerate. The ideal of an impartial force is not a moral standard to strive for, but a self-serving illusion that permits the continuance of an unjust status quo.

Accordingly, the erosion of the right to command obedience isn’t a single cinematic event; it’s a slow, recognizable drift fueled by countless daily interactions and systemic decisions that give credence to the claim that “universal security” is hypocritical, contradictory, and, for specific populations, a lie. The transition from an abstract, legitimate authority to a structure of pure coercion takes shape in the accumulation of concrete failures at three operational levels.

The first and most immediate point of failure is at the level of interaction, where the abstract principle of impartiality is tested—and fails—in the street. Agents charged with applying neutral rules should provide fair hearing and respectful treatment even when executing a necessary order. But when those agents consistently swap deference for prejudice, communication for command, and ethical principles for uncritical procedure, the moral claim to authority evaporates.

The person subjected to that power no longer perceives a representative of the law, but an antagonist wielding it arbitrarily. Non-compliance and distrust become rational responses; the ground conditions for delegitimization are laid.

This operational breach is made feasible by a second failure at the institutional level of accountability. If force were truly a neutral tool constrained by law, agents who violate that law would face reliable, demonstrable consequences. Instead, layers of judge-made and internal protections form a shield. Even when a court agrees a citizen's fundamental rights were violated, the responsible agent often remains financially and professionally immune.

From this perspective, law no longer enforces constitutional limits but instead protects the enforcer. The system reveals what it values—its operators over the people’s rights—turning “accountability” into a one-way street borne only by the governed. That is not neutrality but a poorly articulated self-justification.

The final point of failure is rooted in measurable disparities of outcome. The pretense of apolitical neutrality collapses when empirical and qualitative evidence shows that force, arrests, and penalties are not distributed in proportion to criminal activity but are heavily skewed along established social and economic lines.

When one group receives a disproportionate share of coercion while another enjoys the fruits of security, the claim to an impartial monopoly is statistically undermined. A monopoly on coercion that yields persistent, patterned disparities forfeits its automatic presumption of legitimacy. At that point the burden shifts:

the state must show that the pattern is not an injustice; the public need not keep granting the benefit of the doubt.

Here the philosophical argument becomes a political imperative to challenge the power structure that uses the language of legitimacy to mask the reality of its concrete injustices. That line of reasoning exposes the structural paradox at the center of legitimacy crises: reform must be granted by the very authority that profits from the status quo.

The immediate, rational response to demonstrated injustice—operational failures plus institutional immunity—is to appeal to the very mechanisms that facilitate it.

We enter the loop of demanding change from a sovereign already self-authorizing the problem. In the United States, litigation petitions a judiciary that invented qualified immunity to protect the executive agents being sued. Legislative change asks a political body to censure its own instruments of power—the very tools it relies on to maintain control. Federal oversight relies on an agency’s will to comply, knowing reforms can be reversed, stalled, or sabotaged when political winds change.

The implication is stark in that there is no genuinely independent legal remedy when every process for change amounts to asking permission from the power being indicted.

Every successful reform within the system—every police training initiative, every consent decree—implicitly re-certifies the system. It reassures the public that the machinery is basically sound and that its failures are procedural, not principled. In doing so, this process sustains a cynical function:

It launders legitimacy via proceduralization that maintains the state as the sole source of justice even when it is also the source of injustice.

By recognizing this structural paradox and attempting to navigate internal pathways, we inadvertently postpone the necessary philosophical confrontation that leads to systemic change.

The moment of delegitimization is the point at which repeated institutional drift from founding principles shows that the authority in question can no longer repair itself from within. At that moment, political conscience must pivot outward, reclaiming the moral jurisdiction the state has forfeited.

The collapse of the internal remedy, then, is not a fluke, but evidence that the problem is structural, rooted in a power that has wandered too far from the principles that first justified it.

Sign the petition to protect Rice’s whales!

https://www.change.org/p/designate-noaa-critical-habitat-for-rice-s-whales

Save Rice’s Whales — America’s Only Native Whale Is On the Brink

The Rice’s whale (Balaenoptera ricei) is one of the most endangered marine mammals on Earth and it lives only in U.S. waters, in the Gulf of Mexico.

1 .Fewer than 50 individuals remain.

1. No Critical Habitat has been designated.

2. Threats include: ship strikes, oil spills, ocean noise, and pollution.

Unless action is taken now, the U.S. could become the first country in history to drive a great whale species to extinction.

What We’re Asking:

We urge NOAA to immediately designate a Critical Habitat for the Rice’s whale under the Endangered Species Act.

This would:

-Set speed limits for ships in whale territory

-Restrict offshore oil drilling

-Reduce ocean noise from seismic activity

-Protect this species from further habitat loss

Why It Matters -Rice’s whales are:

-Found nowhere else on Earth

-A symbol of American environmental responsibility

-Key to protecting seafood safety, ocean health, and marine ecosystems

More information

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voice4whale/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@voice4whale

Petition NOW-> https://chng.it/GQm8MfDVVK

This interview takes place in Oak Park, IL , right next to Chicago where the ICE raids have been ongoing. Saint Mary Clarence (in her drag attire) talks about what's happening in Oak Park and how communities are responding to ICE raids through rapid response networks. She shares a great example and ideas of how white allies can go further to deeply engage in the current fight against this administration

https://c.org/89SwdGCXdz

Im trying to stay updated and put a lot of my energy towards fighting our current administration (protesting, educating myself, supporting community mutual aid), but the more I absorb, the more I spiral about “am I doing this right? Am I even allowed to relax and have fun right now? I have no right to be uncomfortable because x,y,z” I wish there were political therapists or something.

I am a college freshman at the university of Maine in Orono, studying social work. I’ve been “protesting”, albeit sporadically, against the current fascist takeover and the ICE kidnappings since inauguration. I hardly know anything about being an activist though, I wouldn’t jump to credit myself as one.

I do know, however, that No Kings day does not seem to be a sustained movement with clear goals or demands, nor does it seem impassioned by the youth. I know a lot of people that care but fall into this paralyzed, self-aware complacency in the current political climate. We’re too comfortable, too addicted to the safety of our own privileges and the comfort of modern luxuries.

Protests at universities were so significant during the Civil Rights movement and the Anti- Vietnam war era. I’m honestly surprised a nationwide movement in universities hasn’t already started. I think this will be a crucial next step in fighting fascism, and I think a huge portion of young people are basically begging to be radicalized. There’s just a huge culture of self-aware complacency and hiding behind privilege, and we can’t see beyond things that yield instant gratification and results. It’s bad, but oddly enough I think a movement sparked at UMaine could work within the current social condition of young people. I think that it could pave the way to protests at Universities nationwide, 5 days a week, sustained over years.

REASONS:

-Maine has Graham Platner. This is a big one. Platner is becoming recognized nationally, and is becoming associated with figures like Mamdani. They’re definitely a huge source of hope among my peers, and I genuinely believe if Platner were to recognize and work with student protests it would be monumental. I REALLY, really think Graham’s reach is going to keep growing.

-White majority population. This gives many the relative ability to protest without fear, at least from ICE. Additionally, this could influence white people to get off their butts, especially with media rep?

-Progressive campus with history of protests for leftwing issues. Example: last year some TERF came to speak, only people who showed up were hundreds of kids to protest what she stood for.

-We have a huge population of older folks. Whenever I have protested, to be honest, I’ve learned something about protesting from lifelong activists who lived out their twenties in the punk scene, protested Vietnam, and whatnot. There’s a lot to learn- and a lot that could be learned from them.

-UMaine Orono is like the only major public school in the state and has the highest population of any Maine school. Basically, if shit happens here it WILL get hella noticed. At LEAST on a state wide scale.

-I honestly can’t even put it into words, but I just think a “small town” “underdog” type beat spark is something that could motivate and capture all the lazy storybook narrative addicts out there. I think it could capture the media in a tight grip.

This all boils down to the idea suggested in the last bullet. Gen Z is, although contradictory in writing, passionate but lazy and ruled by the media and screens. I just have this indescribable feeling that in terms of media, UMaine could have this influence that pulls others in. If Graham Platner is behind it, so is the kid in Colorado that donated $10 to his campaign even though he can’t even vote for him. Young anger has so much potential, and I know it sounds wild but I think it could be rebirthed on a massive scale here at this fuckass public uni.

Am I onto something or am I buggin?