50501 is looking for moderators! 🇺🇸
If you're looking for ways to contribute to #50501, the official forum over at https://50501.chat/ is currently looking for volunteers to help moderate. As the movement is increasingly targeted by trolls, help is needed!
Immigration officials on Tuesday morning arrested 25-year-old union farmworker activist Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez in Sedro-Woolley, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement records and Juarez’s fellow organizers.
Juarez, who is a member of the Indigenous Mexican Mixteco community, has organized on behalf of farmworker rights in Washington state since he was 14 years old and worked as a berry picker, according to Rosalinda Guillen, a longtime activist leader and founder of social justice group Community to Community Development.
Guillen says Juarez called her shortly before 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday and she heard Juarez’s partner screaming and crying before the call abruptly ended.
“(It was) Lelo’s voice saying, ‘Leave her alone. She has nothing to do with this. I was just taking her to work,'” Guillen said.
An ICE spokesperson said Juarez is a citizen of Mexico and was ordered by an immigration judge to return there in 2018. Juarez “refused to comply with lawful commands to exit the vehicle he was occupying at the time of the arrest,” according to the spokesperson, and will remain in ICE detention during deportation proceedings.
Juarez was driving his partner to her job at a tulip bulb company in Mount Vernon, said Edgar Franks, political director for Indigenous farmworkers union Familias Unidas por la Justicia. Franks said officials broke Juarez’s window and forced him out of the vehicle. Juarez later called from an ICE facility in Ferndale, Whatcom County, and said he had been detained.
Protests were held in Tacoma yesterday.
There's a protest today in Tacoma against the detention of two Union members organized by the Washington State Labor Council.
The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO is mobilizing union members, community, and supporters to the Tacoma NW Detention Center (1623 E J St, Tacoma, WA 98421) to protest the detention of union siblings Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez and Lewelyn Dixon tomorrow, Thursday, March 27. Supporters will gather in front of the detention center at 5:30 p.m.
Stay safe out there.
Cross-posted from !washington ([email protected]), for those who might be interested but who don't follow that community (yet). :)
Protest at Tacoma NW Detention Center - March 27 5:30 pm
For those in the Seattle/Tacoma area: There's a protest today against the detention of two Union members organized by the Washington State Labor Council.
The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO is mobilizing union members, community, and supporters to the Tacoma NW Detention Center (1623 E J St, Tacoma, WA 98421) to protest the detention of union siblings Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez and Lewelyn Dixon tomorrow, Thursday, March 27. Supporters will gather in front of the detention center at 5:30 p.m.
Stay safe out there.
More information: https://thestand.org/2025/03/solidarity-with-detained-union-siblings
Social media the most powerful propaganda tool of all times.
In the 1960s you would say the same thing about TV, and you'd be right. Before that it was the cinema. It's not because the mediums as such are inherently evil, but they carry an inherent power that can be used for evil.
There is, however, another element to it, and one that is completely new for social media. That's the illusion that we can actually contribute in a meaningful way by participating.
Nobody believes they are fighting fascism by watching TV all day. Yet, on social media, we waste our time shouting at clouds rather than going out in the real world to actually achieve something. We collectively tread in water as democracy dies, all the while feeling like we are "doing our part".
I participate in the Fediverse because I have hope that we are building something different; something that can derail the large platforms that are used for evil, and where the organization of actual opposition can be possible. I think it might be. But I am also afraid I am just wasting my time.
Very direct response to nazis in a community.
Cross-posting from !Resist
🚨 🇺🇸 The 50501 movement has set up its own forum! 🇺🇸 🚨
It's hard to know where to organize the resistance, as corporate platforms seem to be increasingly susceptible to censorship. In response to this, 50501 has set up their own forum at https://50501.chat - completely off reach from any influence by the #US government.
The forum, which is an instance of Lemmy and therefore on the Fediverse, has State-specific communities. Users of #Mastodon can participate in the discussion directly by tagging for example @[email protected] or @[email protected].
Use it to organize and spread the word of protests in your State!
Users of Lemmy or similar platforms can find the State-specific communities at, for example, ![email protected].
Feel free to spread the word!
#50501 #fiftyfiftyone
Rough and rowdy ways is as good as anything Dylan has ever released.
I loved Tempest, but Murder Most Foul takes commemorative song-writing to a level it has never seen before. I Contain Multitudes is ballsy as fuck, and Goodbye Jimmy Reed just rocks. No idea if it's an unpopular opinion. #Dylan
It's almost as if American tabloids have learned they can generate clicks by refusing to recognize the reality of the situation.
Steve Bannon whipped up the CPAC crowd by talking about the possibility of Trump staying in office for a third term—and concluded his speech by giving a provocative gesture that resembled the controversial salute Elon Musk gave at a post-inauguration rally last month.
The source is Bluesky. I would suggest not following the link to the Daily Beast.
Via @[email protected] on Mastodon.
The Europeans Podcast is a fully independent podcast on Europe and the EU, which I've found to be a great source to keep up to date on whatever is going on in the continent (in addition to this wonderful community, obviously).
This week they announced a fundraiser for a new mini-series — Who Does it Best — studying various policy fields across European countries, comparing best (and worst) practices in national solutions to common problems across the continent. They plan to start out with podcasts on housing, childcare, and drugs.
Basically, the question is how these policies are solved nationally across the continent. What are the solutions that work well, what are the solutions that work less well, and how can we learn from each other. So I guess it's something for the policy nerds.
They talk about the mini-series in their latest episode, or in this thread on Mastodon for those who prefer that.
Check it out! :)
I take the time to promote their effort because I like what they're doing with their podcast. It's completely independent, being funded almost entirely by their listeners. They've been going like this for seven years now, so they are clearly committed to the gig.
They also seem to have their principles in the right place. This is evident when they speak about tricky subjects — I find they tend to have well-researched an nuanced coverage — but also in their actions: I discovered them through their decision to have an active presence on the fediverse (@europeanspodcast), and they have been speaking favourably about Mastodon several times on their podcast since I started listening. So they're seem to be walking the walk, not only talking the talk, and taking their independence seriously.
Anyone interested in helping can find the fundraiser here. They're currently at just under €5k.
If you're not interested, I nevertheless recommend checking out the podcast! It's usually a great listen.
I hope this doesn't go under rule 2 of the community - it's a small independent undertaking that I think is of some interest to anyone interested in building a pan-European information landscape, so I feel like it doesn't fall under commercial advertising. But if the moderators disagree that's of course their decision - if so, sorry about that!
https://www.europeanspodcast.com/all-episodes/a-special-announcement-from-the-europeansOpen linkView original on kbin.earthBEUC [the European Consumer Organisation] and 22 of its member organisations from 17 countries have filed a complaint on 12 September 2024 to the European Commission and the network of consumer protection Authorities (CPC-Network) to denounce several deceptive practices by leading video game companies (Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Mojang Studios, Roblox Corporation, Supercell and Ubisoft) marketing popular games (such as Fortnite, EA Sports FC 24, Minecraft, Clash of Clans and others) and affecting millions of European consumers.
The Norwegian Consumer Council's @finnmyrstad posted a thread about it on Mastodon:
2/ 🕹 According to our analysis, these companies are using misleading tactics that do not comply with the EU rules on unfair commercial practices. In particular we identified that:
🎰 Gamers cannot see the real cost of digital items, leading to overspending.
💵 Companies’ claims that gamers prefer in-game premium currencies are wrong.
⚖ Consumers are often denied their rights when using premium in-game currencies.
🚸 Children are vulnerable to these manipulative tactics.
https://www.beuc.eu/reports/game-over-consumers-fight-fairer-game-purchasesOpen linkView original on kbin.earthDear houseplant community,
Like the beginning of any good letter, I should probably have written you sooner.
Anyway, a friend of mine had this beautiful plant that she neglected for months, completely drying it out. At the end there were just a few leaves hanging half a meter from the plant itself, completely dried out.
I cut off a piece, gave it roots, potted it, and it went wild! Explosive growth, every new leaf bigger than the last. It was unlike anything I've ever seen.
A few months later, it had had enough. Leaves started curling up and withering. Growth halted. I thought maybe I had forgotten to give it water, but that wasn't it. Moving it to a sunnier spot didn't help either. Now it's almost completely dead, and I miss what we once had.
So, a couple of questions:
Thank you so much in advance!
Yours truly, Aa
If a social media account is spreading Russian disinformation - does sharing content from the account give it legitimacy?
No, says Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Minister for Civil Defence. But at the authority the minister is responsible for, the answer sounds different.
— In any case, you spread something that a foreign power might intend to spread to make us worried, says Mikael Östlund, press officer at the authority.
It was a year ago that Carl-Oskar Bohlin shared a tweet from the American influencer Lauren Southern, known for her far-right advocacy. The original video warned of how AI is used in influence operations, something the minister forwarded to his around 45,000 followers. "The ability and height of the impact operations risk increasing avalanche-like with disruptive technology shifts," wrote Carl-Oskar Bohlin on X.
Now, an American indictment against two Russian government employees shows that the production company Tenet media, where Lauren Southern is employed, must have been secretly financed by the Russian news agency RT. A total of just over SEK 100 million is said to have been transferred from the Russian state employees to the American company. In turn, influencers would push specific issues—such as questioning support for Ukraine—to their millions of followers. On YouTube alone, the videos have received more than 16 million views.
In light of the American indictment, Carl-Oskar Bohlin has been criticized for not checking his sources better. But the Minister of Civil Defense lets the tweet stay on X.
"For the simple reason that it is difficult to misunderstand." writes Bohlin to DN.
"One should of course refrain from spreading harmful narratives from foreign powers. However, it is a somewhat strange indictment that my warning about deepfakes and doctored videos would in itself constitute Russian disinformation. With such a threshold, it will be difficult to talk about or warn about the phenomenon at all," continues the minister.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin is responsible for the agency for psychological defence, MPF. Countering misdirection and misinformation, including rumor spreading and propaganda, is one of the agency's main missions.
In case you wonder, mr. Bohlin is from the conservative party (Moderaterna).
https://www.dn.se/sverige/ministern-for-civilt-forsvar-tar-inte-ner-tweet-vars-innehall-kan-ha-finansierats-av-ryssland/Open linkView original on kbin.earthMakes me feel a bit better about my general political anxiousness.
Tom Waits is not afraid of going dark places with his song writing, but it hardly gets darker than this.
It's been spinning in my head a lot lately, for obvious reasons.
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=pnw-Eob4GYYOpen linkView original on kbin.earth