Reminder That Digital Libraries Aren’t Owned, Also Why Pirating Digital Content Is A Necessity

please keep sharing fundraisers. please. while we remain safe in our communities and homes and so many other places, constant fear and danger and genocide continues to strike in gaza.

donate to Siraj's campaign to rebuild his home, which he needs to reach 75k by tomorrow, MONDAY SEPTEMBER 9TH

donate to Amal and her family's campaign, in which she is caring for over 20 family members and her own baby, Maryam

donate to the Shehab family, who have just survived the recent bombing of the city of Nuseirat

this website - the "everyone here is notoriously already broke" website - has been funneling thousands of dollars to various gaza gofundmes. and then the "required" amount per person got raised, and then gofundme and the finance sites wouldn't release the money, and then the crossing got destroyed and no one can get through. and even when something reaches its goal, I've never actually seen a "success story" about someone getting out or getting their family of rafah because of it

serious question, has any of this mattered? did anyone actually get out because of a fundraiser? have we been doing anything at all other than laundering money for corrupt border guards? is this a better use of donations than, say, the esims? or donating to aid orgs? or any other way of trying to help?

"and i know the gofundmes here can be overwhelming"

here's the thing. fuck being overwhelming, fuck getting exhausted seeing the fundraisers every day, none of that matters. my only question is, have people actually been benefiting from it? not in a "I think someone is impersonating people and scamming us" way (I trust the verification work people have been doing), but in a "is this actually going somewhere" way. if every single "$5000 x number of people" fundraiser got filled up to the maximum, would it make a single bit of difference?

most of the families that made it to egypt before the border was destroyed by israel did so through funds raised by gofundme, including ahmed @90-ghost on tumblr, at least four people i know personally, and maybe hundreds more i know through acquaintances or i've seen on twitter. if you donated to these campaigns you would know this because they usually post updates saying "good news! we were able to get x out of gaza, but now we're trying to get the rest of our family out, so we've upped our goal to x."

most of the campaigns remain open because they will try to get the most vulnerable members of a family out first, after which they will try to get the rest out.

since the border was destroyed right now people are being displaced internally, which means instead of the money going to corrupt border guards it is used to buy tents, buy medical supplies, buy food, or rent some of the few units still standing in different areas within gaza. basic foodstuffs in gaza now can cost up to 200USD. and it is only getting worse and more extreme.

the only entries and exit are through israeli crossings now that egypt has no control over. egypt could be bribed. israel can't. they have a small list of injured children they occasionally evacuate through israel-controlled crossings and airbases, but just so you understand how this is also part of the genocide and how israelis use any excuse to allow more people from gaza to die, netanyahu froze one crossing as a 'retaliation' for the bombing of (syrian, arab) children in majdal shams that no one has actually taken responsibility for.

other crossings were out of use for weeks because israel allowed settlers to block the aid trucks going into gaza, until the rafah border was destroyed and these blockades were no longer necessary.

they also consistently close the single humanitarian corridor, kerem shalom crossing. yesterday it was open to deliver 80 bodies of unidentified dead palestinians to be buried in a mass grave, today the "humanitarian route" is closed until further notice.

if the border was still open, you would have more feel-good stories and you would be confident your money was going to evacuate people (also known as ethnic cleansing. i hope you understand that this best-case scenario you're referring to, this hope you want to cling to, is forced displacement of people who have lost their homes and who may never be able to return.)

but israel destroyed the border. people are still raising money to register their families for once it does open, but there is no guarantee of when that will happen, and most of the money ends up used so they can survive their current displacements within gaza.

there's a lack of feel-good stories because it's a genocide. that's all. this has been nothing but ten months of torture and slow death and closing every avenue for survival to gazans. now you know what that means.

anyway you should donate to e-sims for gaza because those are also running out

TIME SENSITIVE!

Hey guys i have talked to you about his campaign before but i urgently want to bring your attention back once again to my friend Bilal salah's campaign. This cant wait, so please pay attention.

Bilal ( @bilal-salah0 ) is a 22 year old who moved to germany before the genocide began, and has been raising funds to evacuate his family of 18 from gaza since, including 5 children and 3 newborns.

Bilal's financial support has been getting them through this difficult time, as prices for basic amenities like food and water skyrocket, and necessities like diapers for the babies become scarce due to the blockade.

Currently bilal has raised €66,762 raised of €70,000 goal.

He is less than €4000 away from his goal.

Bilal has been facing problems with his visa in germany and is currently under the threat of deportation. The verdict on that is to arrive in 2 weeks, by August 15th. If he recieves deportation orders, he might be declared stateless by september. He is still caught up in looking for a lawyer to fight this, and due to the uncertainty of his housing situation in the immediate future, he hasn't been able to campaign for his family like he used to before.

I don't know what else we can do for him right now, but the least we can do at the moment is try to get Bilal to his goal so that his family can have this assurance, and so that we can at least ease this one worry off his shoulders. So i am appealing to you to please help him out and get him though that last stretch as soon as possible, he needs all the help he can get.

Please donate any amount you can, and please keep sharing.

gofundme.com

Donate to Help Evacuate My Family from Gaza to Safety, organized by Bilal salah

Hi everyone, I am Bilal, 22 years old, from Gaza, Palestine. I am reaching… Bilal salah needs your support for Help Evacuate My Family f

Bilal's gfm appears #136 on hussein and nairuz's list of vetted fundraisers so please dont hesitate to donate!

If you're wondering why polling averages are suddenly showing Trump winning despite all the bad news he's gotten lately- it might have something to do with this:

Basically, Republicans are ratfucking the polling averages by churning out huge numbers of partisan polls, and the polling aggregators/analysts like 538 aren't doing due diligence to compensate for it.

Now, what is the purpose of this?

Well, in the immediate-term, it creates a narrative that Trump is winning, boosting morale of his supporters while demoralizing support for Democrats and Harris.

Beyond that, if polling averages show that Trump is winning ahead of election day-which we can pretty much guarantee they will, because see above-then they will use that as "proof" of fraud if Democrats subsequently win.

Basically, they are engineering a pretext for their next coup attempt in front of us.

The only numbers that decide anything are actual votes. So ignore the polls, and VOTE.

i know it's not a great time financially for most people right now, but i've still had a lot of people reaching out for help so i want to boost their campaigns in the event that anyone is able to give. campaigns are linked on their names to cut down on the post length.

Farah @elegantkidpuppy reached out on behalf of her family in Al-Zawaida. her brother has suffered an amputation and is in urgent need of medical care. she intends to finish her degree in computer science to help her family start over. #310 on the gaza-evacuation-funds list. £8,721/10,000

Amal @amalalkafarna18 reached out on behalf of her young son Mohammed(5), who has been severely injured in a drone strike and needs care outside of Gaza. she is traveling with her husband and other two small children (7 and 1) along with another young family consisting of 3 siblings (26, 16, and 4) who were separated from their parents. unvetted but images are unique and donations are protected. $2,278/5,000

Amal @familgazaamal1's infant nephew has nerve damage and a severe injury to his foot due to the shelling and needs treatment urgently. her father was in Egypt on October 7th and has been separated from his family since the border crossing closed. Amal is trapped with her mother and 3 brothers, as well as her infant nephew whose mother is also in Egypt. #55 on the gazavetters list. $10,205/30,000

Lina @leena-112's husband, 2 sons, and daughter have lost their home and place of work. unvetted but images are unique and donations are protected. €130/30,000

Mosab @mfamily reached out asking for help supporting his wife, his father, his brother, and his baby daughter, who is less than 6 months old. his extended family's 3-floor home was bombed early in the attacks, killing 26 of his extended family members. #309 on the gazavetters list. €2,623/20,000

Abdul @abdalrahim88 (warning for blood in his fundraiser images) is a pastry chef and trains young people to enter the restaurant industry. his home and restaurant were both destroyed and he is now living with his wife, children (2 sons), mother, father, brothers, uncle and his wife in a tent. one of his sons sustained injuries to his spine and skull and is still suffering in the hospital. unvetted but images are unique and donations are protected. €152/80,000

Etaf @etafpalestine1, her husband, and her 5 children have evacuated to Egypt, but they are still in need of support as they rebuild from scratch and try to send their children back to school. #9 on gaza-evacuation-funds' list, #1120 on the Butterfly Effect Project's list, and #88 on gazavetters' list. €11,450/100,000

Amira @amira-nimer is a 23-year-old data science student whose father passed due to coronavirus, and has been taking care of her diabetic mother ever since. she has been displaced by the destruction of her home and her university and is currently living in a tent with her family in Deir al-Balah. vetted. €32,703/39,000

Imithal @imtithalcrusadecreator is a dentist from gaza who is currently displaced with her extended family of 35, mostly children. she has already lost her brother. vetted. €8,067/50,000

Ahmed @ahmedmohammeds-blog is a recent journalism graduate from Khan Younis who has been displaced 4 times by airstrikes. he hopes to raise money for necessities for his family, as well as for his brothers' educations and to replace his lost camera, which he needs for his journalism career. unvetted but images are unique and his donations are protected. €120/30,000

Shima @shimabshahin and her husband and three children have lost their home and have been displaced multiple times. unvetted but images are unique and donations are protected. €823/60,000

Louay @nerdyzombiecoffee suffers from health issues including increased electrical activity in his body and stunted growth. he is trying to raise money to purchase a warm tent and winter clothes for his family. unvetted but images are unique and donations are protected. £336/30,000

Rana @ranafamily7 is a 14-year-old wheelchair user living with her mother and siblings in a small, structurally damaged house in Gaza. her father has been separated from them and is living in a tent in southern Gaza. she is raising money for necessities including medical care. #250 on the gazavetters list. €3,142/50,000

Noura @nouraayman is a young mother who was forced to flee to Egypt with her husband, baby daughter, mother, and father-in-law. she and her husband both studied at Al-Shifa hospital as medical lab specialists, but have been uprooted and no longer have income to pay for her father-in-law's kidney cancer treatment. on top of that, her other family members including her 85-year-old athsmatic father and teenage siblings are still trapped in Gaza and need funds to escape. vetted. €5,430/50,000

Mona @manouche-231 is a housewife with 3 children living in a tent after their house was destroyed in the bombardment. #253 on the gazavetters list. €1,430/50,000

Mohammed @mohammednasser is a 17-year-old high school student who has been displaced with his mother and 7 siblings after their home was destroyed. after evacuating, he intends to continue his studies. unvetted but images are unique and donations are protected. €7,960/38,000

Ola @abedallhferwanagaza's husband reached out on behalf of his wife. he was in Egypt on the day the attacks started, and has been separated from his wife and 3 children in Gaza ever since. he hasn't been able to meet his youngest daughter, born during the attacks, in person yet. Ola and her 3 children have been suffering liver problems as a result of the unclean water and unsanitary conditions. #60 on the gazavetters list, #964 on the Butterfly Effect project's list. €19,210/35,000

Lana @ali-gaza's father is severely injured and their mother is in need of lengthy medical treatment. their family home was destroyed. #307 on the gazavetters list. $522/25,000

Tareq @tareqayad1 needs funds for himself and his 12 family members, including several small children, to escape to Egypt. they have been displaced multiple times and have no income due to their family house painting/maintenance business being destroyed and an unstable internet connection preventing remote work. Tareq's father is chronically ill and his brother has dwarfism; both of them need urgent care. #160 on the gazzavetters list, #599 on the Butterfly Effect project's list, #95 on PaliLiberation's list. $19,487/92,900

Bassam @bassamsameh reached out on behalf of his family by sharing his brother Fouad and his brother's wife Roba's campaigns. Bassam's educational technology company and Fouad and Roba's solar energy company have both been destroyed, leaving their collective family of 17 without income, including a baby daughter under 1 year old. both unvetted but images are unique and donations are protected. €2,072/35,000 and €2,991/10,000

Yossef @yosef-gaza111 is a young accountant who lost his home and job as he evacuated his home with his family of 12. He intended to marry his fiance, a software engineering student, in 2024, but she evacuated to another area of Gaza with her family. his mother is in desperate need of an operation that her family cannot afford. #251 on the gazavetters list. $1,382/30,000

when i was

Just some quick questions--

is it normal to be in pain after writing? More specifically your face? Just wanna make sure of something.

KATU

Burning ballots pulled from inside smoking Vancouver ballot box; hundreds of ballots lost

KATU was on the scene at Fisher's Landing in Vancouver early Monday morning, where heavy smoke was seen coming from inside a dropoff ballot

they're burning ballots in the US now btw. in case you wanted to know where things are at.

Edit: to clarify, locations mentioned are Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon. This news story does not involve Canada.

Important info: Context: Dropbox location was Fisher's Landing Transit Center near Southeast 162nd Avenue Hundreds of ballots lost, voters should contact the Clark Auditor ASAP Clark Auditor contact info: clark.wa.gov/auditor Can confirm your ballot was received on: vote.wa.gov

Hey y’all especially those in swing states, eyes up:

CNBC

How an Elon Musk PAC is using voter data to help Trump beat Harris in 2024 election

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he created America PAC, which collects data in swing states key to the 2024 election between Donald Trump and Kamal

The elongated muskrat has engaged in blatant election interference by putting out a fake voter registration page on Google ads with the clear intention to dupe voters into thinking they have actually registered to vote. It’s likely also a data harvesting tactic.

Hopefully this gets immediately flagged and taken down but we all know this fascist chucklefuck will not see consequences to his actions and this is something that would drag out in court. Spread the word. Only register to vote through state board or check vote.org for more resources. Do not register through anything else ESPECIALLY if it has some sort of clear motivation.

fucking hate it when the stuff everybody says "actually works" does actually work.

hate exercising and realizing i've let go of a lot of anxiety and anger because i've overturned my fight-or-flight response.

hate eating right and eating enough and eating 3 times a day and realizing i'm less anxious and i have more energy

hate journaling in my stupid notebook with my stupid bic ballpoint and realizing that i've actually started healing about something once i'm able to externalize it

hate forgiving myself hate complimenting myself more often hate treating myself with kindness hate taking a gratitude inventory hate having patience hate talking to myself gently

hate turning my little face up to the sun and taking deep breaths and looking at nature and grounding myself and realizing that i feel less burdened and more hopeful, more actually-here, that i am able to see the good sides of myself more clearly, that i am able to see not only how far i have to grow - but also how much growth i have already done & how much of my life i truly fill with light and laughter and love

horrible horrible horrible. hate it but i'm gonna do it tho