Small chocolate companies are not able to compete against the prices of big chocolate corporations that use child slavery. Since the farm labor is unpaid, and all the wages, just go to the CEOs, it’s no wonder why it’s important to compete against companies like them. However, they have normalized child-slavery in cocoa in West Africa for over 120 years or eight generations. So it’s time for the normality of child slavery in cocoa to become a shocking occurrence, or not happen at all, instead. No competition can happen that’s fair while some employees are (forced into) working for free. Chocolate is an unfair market and there’s no way to compete and no way to enter. New companies would almost have to use cocoa produced by child slavery to have prices near the same as big chocolate corporations. Chocolate companies deserve to be able to compete with Big Chocolate corporations. It’s not fair that they’ve destroyed competition, through the deliberate use of child slavery. And, of course, keeping it all hidden.

As the whole world grapples with the escalated violence in Israel and Palestine, the Israeli government has stopped all food, fuel, water, electricity, and humanitarian assistance from entering Gaza, which has already had devastating impacts on over 2 million people, half of whom are children. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees just announced that “Gaza is running dry,” and hospitals in Gaza reported that their backup generators would run out of fuel last night, cutting off life support and vital systems. This action has exacerbated the existing humanitarian crisis caused by the Israeli government's air, land, and sea blockade, and will likely result in catastrophic loss of life if continued. Nearly half of Gaza is under the age of 16, and 65% under the age of 25, effectively meaning that Palestinian children are bearing the brunt of the Israeli government's collective punishment. It’s unacceptable, inhumane, unjust, collective punishment, and is also a violation of international law. It must end now. President Biden and our leaders must publicly call for an immediate ceasefire and deescalation, demand the protection of all civilians including securing the release of hostages, and tell the Israeli government to turn on electricity in Gaza and to allow humanitarian aid for Palestinians to enter! While the Biden administration is close to an aid agreement with Israeli government officials to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and establish ‘safe zones,’ there is still no action or plan in place. The United Nations and aid organizations are sounding an alarm that conditions in Gaza are dire right now. There is no time to spare. A military response from Israel will not secure the safety of those currently hostage or trapped, some of whom are Americans, and instead punishes a generation of young Palestinians living in Gaza. Netanyahu, facing mounting pressure and polling the lowest among Israeli voters, has led decades of policies that have resulted in no more peace or safety for Israelis. The Biden administration must call for a ceasefire and urge Netanyahu to do everything in his power to reunite hostages with their loved ones without putting more lives in danger. Israelis and Palestinians must not be bargaining chips, and their lives must be protected through diplomacy and new solutions. The Israeli government is preparing a massive ground invasion of Gaza as you read this, and they have already been targeting and bombing civilians in their attacks, which is an egregious violation of international law. This comes as the Israeli government dropped tens of thousands of leaflets from the sky to issue an evacuation order to Gazans living in the northern Gaza Strip, telling 1.1 million Palestinian residents to evacuate south within 24 hours, which the UN said would be impossible without devastating humanitarian consequences. Then, despite naming which routes would be safe for evacuation, the Israeli government bombed Palestinians evacuating. Humanity and millions human lives are at stake here. We must collectively act now to stop loss of life. United States leaders have the massive power to step in and stop it. And the time is NOW to come together and demand it end. The people of Palestine and Israel deserve to live their lives without fear of violence and mass death. Will you join in solidarity and sign the petition?

Israel and the Palestinian territories have been engulfed in new levels of horrifying violence. On October 7th, Hamas fighters entered Israel and brutally killed over 1,000 people, most of whom were civilians. In addition, Hamas fighters are now holding as many as 150 Israelis as hostages and prisoners of war. The Israeli military is now bombing the Gaza Strip, a densely populated territory of over 2 million Palestinians, half of whom are children. As of October 12th, Israel has dropped over 6,000 bombs on Gaza and killed over 1,500 Palestinians, including 500 children. The Israeli Minister of Defense has publicly stated that Israel is cutting off food, water, fuel, and electricity to Palestinians in Gaza, creating the conditions for mass starvation and death. But the worst may be yet to come. Following the Israeli military's cutoff of fuel and power to Gaza, Palestinian hospitals are now running out of electricity, and many wounded Palestinians could soon die. The combination of Israeli bombardment, an Israeli ground invasion, and Israel’s intentional mass starvation of Gaza Palestinians could create the conditions for genocide. All of this sits atop a long and ugly history of Israeli apartheid and military occupation, in which Palestinians have been forced for decades, often at gunpoint, to give their homes and land to the Israeli government so that those resources could be given to Jewish Israeli settlers. And in Gaza, Palestinians have been living under a crushing Israeli blockade for years, trapped in what has been described as the world's largest open-air prison. Unfortunately, President Biden offered a blank check of political support for Israel in his speech on October 10th. This comes on top of the billions of dollars in military funding that the U.S. gives Israel every year. President Biden must reverse course and plant the seeds for peace. Otherwise, U.S. foreign policy will help encourage the deaths of thousands of Palestinians – as Israel bombs, invades, and starves the Gaza Strip. We need Biden to support a ceasefire now. Please join us. -------------------------------- SOURCES: “Israel-Hamas war live updates: Gaza Strip residents panic as 1.1 million told to evacuate by Israeli military," Yahoo News, https://news.yahoo.com/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-gaza-conflict-death-toll-185228934.html “Palestinian death toll passes 1,500 – as it happened," The Guardian, October 12, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/oct/12/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-biden-hamas-attack-holocaust-gaza-displaced-palestine#top-of-blog "Gaza 'soon without fuel, medicine and food' - Israel authorities," BBC, October 10, 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67051292 “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: A Look Into Decades Of Oppression And Domination,” Amnesty International, accessed October 13, 2023, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/ “Timeline: the humanitarian impact of the Gaza blockade," Oxfam, accessed October 13, 2023, https://www.oxfam.org/en/timeline-humanitarian-impact-gaza-blockade “President Biden Delivers Remarks on the Terrorist Attacks in Israel,” The White House, Oct 10, 2023.

The news over the last few days has been horrifying. Attacks on everyday people are war crimes that have no place in any conflict. Hamas’ deadly attacks against civilians and hostage-taking are unconscionable. A siege of Gaza where millions of people — many of whom are children — are without water, food, or electricity also isn’t justice. The U.S. government has a crucial role to play in what happens next — and our voices can help ensure those efforts focus on preventing further escalation and protecting people’s lives. That’s why I’m calling on you today to urge the Biden administration to do all that it can to prevent further escalation of the crisis and safeguard people’s lives. Will you add your name to the petition now?

When families expecting a child post to pregnancy websites like BabyCenter, they might not know that ICE is watching them. That’s because ICE contracts a data broker to scrape thousands of social media sites, gaming platforms, and even financial apps like CashApp. Why does ICE need to know when your baby is due, what video games you like to play, or where are you planning your next vacation? ICE doesn’t need this personal information about us, but because there’s a legal loophole, they can and do get access to a lot of our online activity. Congress must act now to close the Data Broker Loophole. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to close the Data Broker Loophole! ICE can reach into our personal online activity because they don’t do the spying themselves. Instead they contract out shady third party data brokers who do their spying for them and then give them wide access to everything they find. You’ve likely never heard of these companies, but they’ve probably already know a lot about you. For instance, ShadowDragon, the data broker ICE uses that scrapes data from BabyCenter. ShadowDragon doesn’t stop at pregnancy websites. According to their own internal videos and events, they scrape data from all the major social media platforms; gaming platforms like Fortnite, XBOX, and Playstation; review sites like Yelp and Tripadvisor; messaging apps like WhatsApp; even financial transaction apps like CashApp. The Fourth Amendment right against illegal government search and seizure needs to apply to the internet. That’s why Congress needs to act now to close the Data Broker Loophole. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to close the Data Broker Loophole! Sources: 1. 404 Media, “Inside ShadowDragon, The Tool That Lets ICE Monitor Pregnancy Tracking Sites and Fortnite Players,” September 18, 2023.

Unhinged MAGA Republicans want to go to war with Mexico. I wish I was joking, but unfortunately, it’s true.1 Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill to authorize military use of force against Mexico2, similar to use of force laws used against Afghanistan and Iraq. Mexico isn’t just our neighbor to the south, they’re also our closest trading partner. A MAGA war against Mexico is as dangerous as it is potentially disastrous. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to reject MAGA plans to go to war against Mexico! I can’t even believe I’m writing this, but earlier this year Trump asked military advisers to draw up “battle plans” against Mexico, including dropping bombs.3 If the US attacks Mexico like this, how will any other country on the international stage trust us or take us seriously in the future? Also, let’s not forget that the US is already sinking millions of tax dollars into the “War on Drugs” and it’s not working. We’ve destabilized Latin American democracies, creating environments ripe for human rights abuses and government corruption, which only strengthens the drug cartels we’re fighting against. Bombing Mexico won’t end the “War on Drugs,” anyone with common sense can see that. Unfortunately MAGA extremists aren’t interested in reason or real, fact-based solutions to address the addiction crisis in America. When Trump says “bombs” they fall in line. That’s why we have to stop this dead in its tracks. Sign the petition: Tell Congress to reject MAGA plans to bomb Mexico! Sources: 1. Rolling Stone, “Trump Asks Advisers for ‘Battle Plans’ to ‘Attack Mexico’ if Reelected,” March 29, 2023. 2. Politico, “GOP embraces a new foreign policy: Bomb Mexico to stop fentanyl,” April 10, 2023. 3. Rolling Stone, “Trump Asks Advisers for ‘Battle Plans’ to ‘Attack Mexico’ if Reelected,” March 29, 2023.

Donald Trump and his cronies spread endless lies and misinformation following the 2020 election, which led to the deadly insurrection on January 6. Trump stopped at nothing to try to overturn the 2020 election results and overthrow our government. He is dangerous. He will keep lying to hold on to power, which is why it is important that we, the public, get the transparency that we deserve. Sign this petition to call on the Judicial Conference to approve televising the trials of Donald Trump. Doing so will give all of us the opportunity to see how justice works in our country and can go a long way toward combating the rampant rumors and conspiracy theories that would otherwise be flooding the airwaves and internet. Donald Trump and his allies will attempt to call these trials politically motivated or an abuse of power, but the American people deserve to hear the truth in court themselves. Once again, we urge you to approve televising these historic trials.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been associated with several conspiracy theories in the past. It's important to note that she has distanced herself from some of these theories or claimed that her views have evolved. Here are a few examples: 1. QAnon: Greene has expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, which alleges a secret plot against President Trump by a deep state of pedophiles and Satan-worshipping elites. She has since distanced herself from QAnon and stated that she no longer believes in it. 2. 9/11 Conspiracy Theories: In social media posts, Greene has suggested that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job and that evidence supports controlled demolitions of the World Trade Center buildings. 3. False Flag Shootings: Greene has commented that mass shootings, such as the Parkland school shooting and the Las Vegas shooting, were staged or false flag operations. 4. Jewish Space Laser: In a Facebook post, Greene endorsed a conspiracy theory that blamed wildfires in California on a Jewish-controlled space laser. She has since disputed this theory and called it a mistake. 5. Pizzagate: Greene has liked and shared social media posts about the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, falsely claiming that high-ranking Democrats were involved in a child sex trafficking ring operating out of a Washington, D.C. pizzeria. 6. Deep State: Greene has frequently used the term "deep state" to refer to a secret network of government officials and bureaucrats working to undermine President Trump and his administration. 7. COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories: Greene has expressed skepticism about the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, questioned the effectiveness of masks, and suggested that the virus may have been intentionally released. 8. Recorded Revenge Impeachments motions. It's important to note that experts and mainstream media outlets have widely debunked these conspiracy theories. Greene's association with these theories has drawn criticism and controversy.

President Biden just nominated Elliott Abrams — a hardline neoconservative, architect of catastrophic interventions and coups in Latin America, who was convicted of misleading Congress about the Iran-Contra affair — to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. This nomination should be withdrawn immediately. That's where you come in. Abrams' recent stint as Trump's special envoy to Iran and Venezuela is a glaring reminder of his approach to foreign policy and reckless disregard for humanitarian concerns. It is deeply disturbing that Abrams, who deliberately misled Congress and the people of the United States, is now nominated to a diplomatic post. If you agree, President Biden needs to hear from you today. Join the collective call to action to tell the president to withdraw Elliott Abrams' nomination to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy now.

Many lives are at risk.

“The mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the profession’s history, are the foundation of social work’s unique purpose and perspective: -service -social justice -dignity and worth of the person -importance of human relationships -integrity -competence.” (NASW) Social Work Core Competencies: Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior Competency 2: Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice Competency 3: Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice Competency 4: Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice Competency 5: Engage in Policy Practice Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 7: Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 8: Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities The links between human-animal violence have long been evidenced and recorded. The white supremacist patriarchal capitalist colonial machine objectifies and commodifies the living Earth through processes of social stratification, hierarchy, and psychological wages. Between factory farming, food deserts, social-economic inequities, health disparities, social determinants of health, environmental racism, colonial and patriarchal constructs of medicine, rape-culture, human-trafficking, drug-trafficking, wildlife-trafficking, global climate change, intimate partner violence, family violence, intergenerational abuses and traumas, urbanization, industrialization, housing injustices, genocide, displacement, and political-economic constructs of kyriarchal conglomerates of the Earth(ling) industrial complex, spawning from a culture of toxic masculinity, white supremacy, patriarchal, and imperialist senses of entitlement to the exploitation, abuse, domination, and possession of Earth(lings’) bodies, perpetuating cultures of exploitation and violence, the empirical evidence of the interconnectedness is irrefutable. The recognition of sentience and life in all beings is critical for fostering empathy and compassion for a harmonic and peaceful society and OTH animals deserve rights of their own. Several of our human clients’ main social support and sometimes only trusted social support, consists of their interspecies families. This ranges from the child who is bullied in school with little to no human friends, who cannot wait to go home to their canine family member, the cat being burned alive by the youth who feels helpless and enraged identifying with dad who is beating his mom while he is intoxicated as he learned it from his dad, and then that young person grows up to beat his partner, people experiencing poverty where there closest confidant and sometimes only confidante is their OTH companion or family member, the person who doesn’t attempt suicide and holds on, because of the love and connection they feel with their companion or family member, the examples are endless. The more-than-human world and re-connecting with our “roots” is essential for collective and individual healing, with more access to Our shared Nature as belonging to Earth, embracing values of connection, reciprocity, reverence, and compassion for all living beings. For more information on OTH animals in social work: https://socialwork.du.edu/humananimalconnection/about-institute-human-animal-connection https://www.routledge.com/Post-Anthropocentric-Social-Work-Critical-Posthuman-and-New-Materialist/Bozalek-Pease/p/book/9780367677855 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/janimalethics.7.1.0096 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10560-020-00697-x https://socialworksynergy.org/2014/12/03/social-work-beyond-human-rights/ https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230306868 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137372291 For more information about the links between human-animal violence: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/animal-oppression-and-human-violence/9780231151887 https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742517769/Animal-Rights-Human-Rights-Entanglements-of-Oppression-and-Liberation https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-19201-2 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvxhrmr1 https://burningbooks.com/products/racism-as-zoological-witchcraft http://blackyouthproject.com/three-ways-black-veganism-challenges-white-supremacy-unlike-conventional-veganism/ https://www.routledge.com/Gender-Violence-in-Ecofeminist-Perspective-Intersections-of-Animal-Oppression/Hunnicutt/p/book/9780367776916 https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786606464/Critical-Animal-Studies-Towards-Trans-species-Social-Justice https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/featured-articles/the-link-between-animal-cruelty-and-human-violence#:~:text=Animal%20cruelty%20is%20a%20predictor,and%20sexual%20abuse%20of%20children. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246522/#:~:text=Often%2C%20companion%20animals%20can%20become,43%2C44%2C45%5D. https://nationallinkcoalition.org/what-is-the-link https://vetsocialwork.utk.edu/ https://www.fordham.edu/info/20361/gss_continuing

A recent State Department report details significant human rights abuses that have occurred under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s near-decade in power, including cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, unjustified arrests, and the targeting of religious minorities, dissidents, and journalists. Despite these alarming trends, the United States continues to seek to strengthen its partnership with India — and the Modi government — to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars in U.S. “security” assistance and weapons deals. We can’t let President Biden ignore India's human rights record, and that’s why we need you to speak up for peace and justice TODAY. The partnership between our two countries cannot come at the expense of turning a blind eye to India's human rights abuses. Prime Minister Modi arrived in Washington yesterday, so the time to speak up is now — and luckily, you’ll be far from alone when you do. Dozens of human rights groups, more than 70 members of Congress including Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, and activists here in DC and around the country are already speaking out — can you join them to call on the White House to go further toward justice and accountability?