we all know hypothetically about the horrors
of living in trumps america. we’ve all seen the same stories, we know how
dangerous it is to be brown, that your whole life can fall down in an instant. we
know this. I thought I knew this more than most, with my boyfriend being mexican.
in the back of my mind I’ve had this anxiety for months, knowing what could
happen – and today it did.
we were stopped by what looked to be a
cop car in what I thought was an ordinary police stop (scary enough already)
but it turned out to be anything but. behind the car were three black vehicles with tinted windows, literally
like you see in the movies. me and my boyfriend are both fresh out of teenager years,
and there was just two of us against several armed government officers.
this was literally the single most terrifying experience of my life. they told
us to put our hands up and all I could think was that they’re gonna tell him to
step out of the car, they’re gonna kill him in front of me, and I’m gonna have
to call his family and tell them that I saw their son die and that he’s never
coming home.
they laughed in my boyfriend’s face, asking several times for his name and
jiggling the door handle and held us for what felt, to me, like a small and
hellish eternity. I’m sure most people can understand what a traffic stop can
be like as a brown person in america – i feel like i don’t need to say much
more here and honestly just trying to describe everything that happens makes me
want to throw up so I’m not going to.
eventually they let us go and somehow it only gets worse from there.
we found out that my boyfriend’s father had been picked up by ICE. we believe
at present that the point of the stop was to stop me and my boyfriend from
driving past the daycare down the road (where his father was dropping off his 3
yr old son at) so that we wouldn’t be able to see what they were doing to his
dad. the fact that they know our schedules so well means they must have been
following us and watching us for a while. i would say that i’m paranoid except
that honestly, this is entirely justified.
currently, his dad is being held by ICE. because it’s immigration court, not
criminal court, he is not entitled to free legal representation. we need at
least $5000 for lawyer, not even including the bond. my boyfriend and I both
work but there is no way for us to be able to raise this kind of money on such
short notice. my boyfriend is basically in shock right now, as I think is very
reasonable, and this entire situation feels beyond hopeless. the only chance we
have of keeping his family together is through this lawyer, and through asking
for help from others.
i know you are all tired from everything you see on the news. i know that there
are many stories like ours. but please, this is ours. this is the man I love. this
is his father. this is our future together. I never thought this would actually
happen and it honestly still feels like a surreal nightmare but it has
happened, and we cannot get out of it ourselves.
you can donate to our paypal here. every penny helps and if you can’t donate i completely understand, just please please share this post.
My computer just died a rather undramatic death. And I can’t afford a new one on my own. So I am opening emergency commissions for writing. I am desperate, and not ashamed to show it.
Rates are simple at a penny a word, which means a 500 word piece will
cost $5.00, and so on. Below you will find a sample list of some of my
existing fics, so you can get a grasp of what five, ten, twenty, etc
dollars will get you.
I will write anything, for any fandom I am familiar with. If you aren’t sure, just ask. My main fandoms I know inside and out are Sherlock (nearly all adaptations) , The Exorcist, Vikings, Spartacus, and Leverage. But I’m happy to check out anything else for inspiration.
Beta editing for your own writing is available at half the price of writing. So a thousand word piece would cost five dollars, and so on.
As always, if you aren’t able to assist financially, I would really appreciate it if you reblogged this to boost.
I also have a Ko-Fi account, if you just want to drop some change in my little tin cup. http://ko-fi.com/A4027SH
On June 20, the European Parliament will set in motion a
process that could force online platforms like Facebook, Reddit and
even 4chan to censor their users’ content before it ever gets online.
A
proposed new European copyright law wants large websites to use
“content recognition technologies” to scan for copyrighted videos,
music, photos, text and code in a move that that could impact everyone
from the open source software community to remixers, livestreamers and
teenage meme creators.
In an open letter to the President of the European Parliament, some of the world’s most prominent technologists warn that Article 13 of the proposed EU Copyright Directive
“takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet
from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the
automated surveillance and control of its users.”
The Save Your Internet
campaign is urging European internet users to contact their MEPs before
the critical June 20 vote, and includes tools to facilitate
communication with them via email, phone or social media.
Although it’s primarily intended to prevent the online
streaming of pirated music and video, the scope of Article 13 covers all
and any copyrightable material, including images, audio, video,
compiled software, code and the written word.
(LINKS TO KEY MEMBERS WHO NEED TO BE PRESSURE TO VOTE AGAINST THIS)
IF YOU LIVE IN EUROPE THIS *MUST* BE YOUR TOP PRIORITY UNTIL THE VOTE ON WEDNESDAY THE 20TH/THURSDAY THE 21ST
“Web services can’t even avoid liability by implementing upload filters. To protect themselves from being sued, they would need to get licenses
from all rightsholders that exist on the planet before allowing user
uploads to go online, just in case the upload may contain (parts of) any
of their works.”
literally this effects the entire scope of internet and fandom. THE ENTIRE SCOPE OF INTERNET AND FANDOM.
“Big corporate lobbies are demanding these laws,
hoping to make additional profits and gain more control over the web,
after missing out on much of the digital transformation. Publicly, they
insist these laws are necessary to protect European cultural industries
from exploitation by foreign internet platforms. The link tax is even
supposed to single-handedly “save journalism”.
But independent experts agree: Copyright law isn’t the source of these problems, and these plans won’t fix them. In fact, they may well backfire – and they are certain to cause collateral damage to freedom of expression and harm independent creators, small publishers and startups. “
OTW Legal and our allies have been active in fighting on fan-unfriendly legal proposals in the EU. Since these proposals were introduced in 2016, OTW Legal has submitted comments opposing them and has joined in calls for action against them. We’ve managed to hold them off so far and encourage some revisions, but a key vote will be happening in the European Parliament’s JURI committee on 20/21 June that could have a significant impact on the Internet and fan sites. In particular, two provisions of the current proposal would be bad for fans. Article 11 would impose a “link tax” that would make it more expensive for many websites to operate, and Article 13 would impose mandatory content-filtering requirements on websites that host user-generated content. These provisions have been hotly debated and revised a bit since the last time we reported on them. (For more on recent revisions and debates, see these discussions by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Hogan Lovells Firm) But despite revisions, they’re still bad deals for fans. Importantly, they don’t preserve the “safe harbors” that websites rely on to operate, and they don’t include user-generated content exceptions.
Without safeguards for user-generated content, Article 13 would require your favourite websites to implement systems that monitor user-generated content and automatically remove any content that could potentially infringe upon copyright, giving publishing giants the power to block your online expression. Sites like YouTube, Tumblr, GitHub, Soundcloud, etc., could be required to block the upload of content based on whether it has been “identified” by big corporations, rather than based on its legality. The law is still being debated, and it is difficult to predict how it would impact the OTW’s projects, including the Archive of Our Own, if it is passed. Regardless of how this vote comes out, the OTW will work as hard as we can to keep the Internet fan-friendly. But we need your help. The most effective thing you can do right now is contact your Member of European Parliament. You can use one of these tools to e-mail your MEP or call your MEP to tell them that having user-generated content on the internet is important to you.
Here’s what you can tell them: Without safe harbors for user-generated content, Article 13 of the Copyright Directive would stifle free expression on the Internet. We don’t want mandatory filtering. Algorithms don’t understand limitations and exceptions to copyright like parody, public interest exceptions, fair use, or fair dealing, and we don’t want our non-infringing videos, website posts and art blocked because of a biased algorithm created by big corporations. We want the law to protect user-generated works, not harm them.
OTW Legal will keep fighting for fan-friendly laws!
Please signal boost if you can’t help directly!
If any of my followers are in Europe, please help protect the AO3 (and other fannish archives as well)!
My friend is diabetic and in danger of going blind. Her name is Lianna, and we have been friends since elementary school. For the past several months I have been helping her pay for insulin since she is unemployed and has been so far unable to get medical assistance for this life saving drug. She is currently fighting to get Medicaid, but the process is taking too long for her to wait without seeking medical help. She has an appointment in July to see about getting Medicaid but by then it could be too late. She desperately needs to be seen by a doctor ASAP before the retinopathy progresses and she loses her sight.
I’m hoping that this will reach someone that is in a place where they would be able to help.
Her PayPal is sanfterdamon713@aim.com
She lives in Wyoming and I live in Maryland and it sucks because I can’t be there for her right now physically (the last time we saw each other was in 2015. That was the year she lost her dad, so I flew her out to visit and so we could attend Gridlock DC together). I just feel so helpless and I’m trying to do everything I can for her. I understand if you can’t donate, but if you could reblog that would mean the world. Thank you so much. ❤
Claire
5/1/2018
For those of you who know me, you know this is EXCEEDINGLY close to my heart. Not only do I remember meeting Lianna at gridlock, my husband was diabetic and I lost him in 09 to diabetes.
Retinopathy is no joke. Please, please if you can do anything to help. If you can’t, signal boost.
I have a few more medical appointments coming up in the next couple of weeks, which I have to travel a far distance to get to. I also have to pay my phone bill, but only have a few dollars until the end of the month. So, I’m putting out my tin cup, hoping for some small donations. One Ko-Fi donation is one bus trip.
TO MY LGBTQIA+ PEEPS! Besties Make Movies and the awesome @marzapproved are making a movie about asexuality representation!
There’s this AMAZING film, 2 WEEKS, that needs your help getting funded. It’s a haunting film set in the entertainment world, and loosely based on Marzy’s own experiences of discovering her asexuality, the isolation and the othering she feels as an asexual. It’s haunting film, a la Get Out, designed to spark conversation, and the kind of film that will empower asexuals who are feeling the same way, using all races and genders to shape the story and world of the film.
2 WEEKS accompanies Tanya, a 20-something, asexual. She is struggling to find a balance between honoring her sexuality, the commitment she made when she fell in love with her partner, and pursuing a career in an industry that perpetuates women’s worth based on sex appeal. With has no place to escape, Tanya starts to drown. While Tanya’s immediate circle is woke to sexual empowerment, her friends cannot relate to a person who is comfortable living without sex. In 2 WEEKS we see Tanya arrive at her second coming out.
THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO DONATE AND GET INVOLVED
The film also has a WISHLIST of items that can be fulfilled if you aren’t able to donate money.
So be sure to check it out and help out however you can. This is such an important project, the kind of representation we all need and deserve.
Beltainefaerie's Flights of Fancy 