CLOSING TABS (2023-11-16)

i'm kinda tired & also sick again (keeps happening & is not helped by the heat being out in my apt today grr???) & there's obvs LOTS HAPPENING but rn i rly need to close my tabs, so i'm putting links here (to share w/ u!) & hopefully will soothe my grumpy laptop...

• “A Wall of Fire Smashed Into Me”: Dispatches From a Month in Gaza
// Excerpts from the diary of Atef Abu Saif, who has been in Gaza since October 7.

• tabs for contacting reps (daily!)
// find your representatives, then check the WFP Ceasefire Tracker.
// auto-call via Jewish Voice for Peace tool: click "call me" & you'll get a call connecting you to a rep; page will provide short call script below. after you speak w/ 1st person (or leave a message), you need to hit * (star) to be connected to yr next rep!! if you hang up then duh you've hung up (like i did the first time whoops).
// just call: for NYC, our senators are Chuck Schumer (offices; try 202-224-6542) & Kirsten Gillibrand (offices; try 202-224-4451 or 212-688-6262); i live in the 7th congressional district, so my rep is Nydia Velázquez (offices; try 202-225-2361), who did call for a ceasefire... but it's nice to call & say "thank u" too!!
// JVP script (11/16): "“My name is {Your Name}. I am a constituent of {Senator/Rep X}. I ask that [person] immediately call for a ceasefire to prevent the further loss of life in Gaza. The situation is dire and the need for a ceasefire and refusing to send the Israeli government more weapons has never been more clear. The Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a lawsuit against President Biden and other senior administrators for failing to meet the requirements of preventing a genocide under international and domestic law. [Senator/Rep X] must act now and call for an immediate ceasefire.”
// approx what i say lately, italics for in-person vs machine: "I'm a registered Democrat & constituent of the Senator's living in Queens; [do you know if / i hope that] he/she plans to call for a permanent ceasefire & investigation into human rights violations in Palestine[?/.]" // then, for Gillibrand: "Biden has lost my vote. I still hope to support Sen. Gillibrand in 2025, but the scale of this loss is horrific; the senator must oppose our funding of the ongoing genocide in Gaza." // for Schumer: "The scale of this loss is so horrific that those of us frustrated with the party are done with patience; Biden has lost my vote, & if Sen. Schumer doesn't speak up, I'm one of many who will make his remaining years in office miserable."

• tab for contacting white house (daily!)
// if you want more people around biden to see the colossal degree to which he's fucked himself... for Genocide Joe: "I'm a lifelong Democratic voter, but Biden has lost my vote for his cowardice in the face of the slaughter in Palestine. The scale of this loss is horrific and destabilizing, and the Democrats need to change to meet this moment. Those of us already frustrated with the party have lost patience: if you need a devastating electoral loss to join us in opposing this crisis, then that's what we'll give you. I wish you grace in the face of your certain defeat, and enough years of health to try to make amends for your devastating moral failure." // for Cop-ala Harris, i add: "But as Vice President and person under 80, you still have a chance: I would never have voted for you in the primaries, but if you break with official White House talking points and support the people of Palestine, I can imagine many of us, myself included, voting for you against Trump. It's unfortunate that this responsibility falls on your shoulders, but it will be more of a shame if you wait so long that the Democrats have no path forward except through the evisceration of the party. Good luck; I hope your choice allows you to sleep at night."

• tabs abt For the People: A Leftist Library Project
// FTP (do u get it) is a decentralized volunteer group organizing to help elect or appoint leftist candidates to public library boards across the U.S. it's a wicked project, tho if you are a programmer i think they could use a greg!!! i have a bunch of tabs for specific libraries in my current dataset but i guess i should save those elsewhere hmm + Death Panel Episode on "Taking Back the Library" + transcript (this is !!! bc DP co-host adler-bolton also co-wrote that book Health Communism you may have heard me rant about, it's v good & a nicely-designed conversation starter (tho i do hope they make a paperback!); if u rly don't have the $8 for ebook, u can check under "texts → verso" on tinyurl.com/ftpaywall.)

• REBUILD Transformative Justice Calendar
// proceeds to REBUILD, providing free therapy to formerly incarcerated individuals of color. pre-orders open until 11/24; 12"x12", $35, ships early december. if you have more $$, donate. conceived by Mariame Kaba, art by Olly Costello, designed by Cindy Lau // mariame kaba's a hero & her bluesky is the only non-event-oriented "social media" i check, so lotsa her here

• "Because our status quo is self-expression, sometimes the most effective mode of protest for artists is to refuse."
// Anne Boyer resigns as poetry editor of The New York Times Magazine.

• An Annotated Version of the Indictment Filed Against #StopCopCity Organizers
// Interrupting Criminalization | Research In Action: "An annotated version of the indictment filed against #StopCopCity organizers, featuring critical information and context, questions for discussion, ways to fight back, and additional resources. "

• 11/19 sundayzinefair.org

• tenant / rent stuffs (lotsa justfix.org)
// most of these are prolly somewhere on nyc-noise.com/tenants/, tho that's still v messy

• access stuffs (most at nyc-noise.com/access/)

• Friends of Lajee + Radio Lajee
// (donations) Lajee Center was established in Aida Refugee Camp in April 2000 ... a community-based grassroots creative cultural center that works with new generations of Palestinians as they continue their ongoing struggle for justice and rights for Palestine and all Palestinians. // thanks to our pal bb, a great pal & music'er & organizer, who went to aida refugee camp in july for this project & related work... lajee center kiddos can be heard in radio lajee (~24:30–43:00)! palestinian young ppl (ages 10-16) devised, recorded, produced, & presented the show; made original music & beats; & conducted interviews around the refugee camp w/ people aged 8-84, including nakba survivor Jalilah Al-Azraq.

• grumpy tabs abt instagram
// still bummed about ppl in my hangs using insta before & in place of anything else, but kelly hayes & mariame kaba say, we must always pose the question, "Why is this happening?" –– & of course, it's obvious: the ppl most invested in anti-capitalist space & time are often the most cash-strapped & resource-deprived & tired; we don't have "staff" or adequate dopamine or the benefits of a good night's sleep, & we operate against our own interests all the fuckin time. it still bums me out, tho, to try to build a resource & insist on access info & see shit like "dm hosts," which, let's add emphasis,

dm hosts" means you can only get this 'private' info over instagram, the app that shares dms with law enforcement, is extensively mapped by nypd, & is riddled with fake fed profiles; it might as well say "ask a cop," cuz that's who's scraping your shit.

• W.A.G.E.
// i've been meaning to email someone from this crew for MONTHS jfc, okay def will soon

• free "how change happens" poster
// dan berger tweeted a thing –– @dnbrgr (twitter): Our actions are working, and they are not enough. Nothing we do is sufficient, and everything we do matters. We must be strategic, and we must operate on multiple fronts simultaneously. Time is of the essence, and we have to act for the long haul. This is how change happens. –– which mariame kaba said should be made into a poster, & laura chow reeve (@laurachowfun twit) did it

• jennae santos –– aka gushes (bc | insta), fka wsabi fox –– sent a gr8 group email recently (do this!! have a mailing list for ppl who are interested in u!!!) in which they said, "one forever double question i have about music/art is: who is this for? how do you want them to feel?" these are v good questions for EVERYONE tbh, & i maybe thought i was going to respond to this email but it's been an entire month so let's close that

• i recently found out about "SPOTIFY STAGES" bc a formerly-diy space is hosting one & i am SOOOO MADDDD it's almost funny but ACTUALLY MAD THO!!! // link's not to spotify stages but rather to a gr8 baffler piece local hero liz pelly wrote back in 2017. liz is one of my favorite writers about Things I Hate (see also: sofar sounds, amazon...); if u want a ~positive~ approach to the same topic, liz also did a thing for the guardian about ppl quitting streaming services, & i think this podcast maybe also touches on the ~possibilities~ angle?? but tbh i am bad at podcasts & enjoy a shared-hate read, v energizing

• Transformative Justice Help Desk at Interrupting Criminalization
// Interrupting Criminalization offers a Help Desk consultation service for our partners working on projects and community-wide interventions to transform harm. The Help Desk is available by appointment to offer thought partnership and one-on-one consultation to organizations, groups, or individuals who are working on projects and community-wide interventions to end violence without using the police.

• on "from the river to the sea"
Verso (series) + Al Jazeera + Jewish Currents + NPR

• a huge swath of ProPublica jfc, i'm just gonna close all of these –– except okay later i wanna check the new "impact" coverage from the "Rent Barons" series

• "Can You Tell Us Why This Is Happening?": Testimonies from Gaza

• Dec 17: William Still Reading Group
// Intergenerational Reading Group on life stories of anti-slavery abolitionists; Organized by Mariame Kaba & co-facilitated with Geoff Johnson.

...okay this is *most* of today's non-show-related tabs, gonna eat some soup & tackle EMAIL

+++

[including more insta-related tabs here for maybe-work on wiki pages that need updating...]

+ pCloud, "Invasive apps" (Ivan Dimitrov, 2021) + Forbes, "Which Apps Share Your Data The Most?" (Emma Woollacott, 2021) + [small victory!!] Slate, "New Jersey Just Made It a Lot Harder for Police to Snoop on Social Media" (Julian Melendi, 2023) + NYT, "Meta Accused by States of Using Features to Lure Children to Instagram and Facebook" (2023) + Mother Jones, "Police Spied on New York Black Lives Matter Group, Internal Police Documents Show" (Brandon E. Patterson, 2017) + Brennan Center, "Federal Government Social Media Surveillance, Explained" (adapted from prior, 2022) + ACLU NorCal, "Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter Provided Data Access for a Surveillance Product Marketed to Target Activists of Color" (Cagle, 2016) + Bloomberg, "How Police Are Watching You on Social Media" (George Joseph, 2016 re: Chicago) + The Verge, "How the NYPD is using social media to put Harlem teens behind bars" (Ben Popper, 2014) + The Intercept, "FBI Provides Chicago Police With Fake Online Identities for 'Social Media Exploitation' Team: Internal documents also reveal that police can take over informants’ social media accounts and pose as them online" (Mara Hvistendahl, 2022)