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ratczarina.bsky.social
Cheese Queen
@ratczarina.bsky.social
200 followers 670 following 720 posts
Abolition|Immigration|Literature|Other
NYC
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ratczarina.bsky.social
Just signed up for this political education/training session on Dec 3

us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Unmasking ICE: Political education and digital defense training. Desenmascarando a ICE: Educación politica y entrenamiento en defensa digital
November 19, 2025 at 4:07 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Young Juan Gabriel maybe the prettiest creature to grace this Earth
Black and white headshot of young Juan Gabriel Grainy color photo of young Juan Gabriel's face from the left
November 10, 2025 at 10:34 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
I'm watching/enjoying the Juan Gabriel doc on Netflix
Selena Gomez wrapped in a blanket
November 10, 2025 at 10:28 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Just finished this beautiful book and highly recommend

Unclassifiable, it’s some (CA and Mexico) history, some memoir, some mythology, lots of plants
Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings
November 7, 2025 at 1:59 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Raul Julia’s funeral sounds like a bigger deal than Queen Elizabeth’s which makes sense bc he was objectively more important
In accordance with Julia’s instructions, his body was transported to Puerto Rico. A state funeral was held in San Juan on October 26, 1994, with Julia’s body being escorted to the building of the Institute of Puerto Rican culture, where a funeral ceremony was held. The service was attended by thousands, with La Boriquena being sung by Lucecita Benitez prior to the procession. After stopping at San Ignacio de Loyola Church, the procession advanced to Buxeda Cemetery, where politician and activist Ruben Berriis offered the final words. As Julia’s coffin was lowered, a load of carnations was dropped from a helicopter while the crowd shouted Viva Puerto Rico Libre!
November 2, 2025 at 3:11 AM
ratczarina.bsky.social
If anybody in Brooklyn needs some new clothes (for free), Well Cloth'd is holding a pop-up event on Sunday and they always have good stuff
Well Cloth'd Warmer to Winter Free Pop-Up Sunday Oct 19, 2025 1 - 4pm. First come, first serve! Norma Adams Clemons Academy - P.S. 6. 43 Snyder Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11226 Bedford Ave Entrance
October 15, 2025 at 2:44 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
The moment I knew I need to hold onto this book after I finish it
Black holes are called black for the same reason dark matter and dark energy are called dark: because they exceed and evade Western astrophysical forms of measurement even as they create the conditions for the whole universe. Poetic darkness was a way for Audre to express a loss without measure, a loss without end. The mingled galaxies, the exploding sun, a hole at the center that can absorb the universe, beam it back out unrecognizable, as black light
September 10, 2025 at 7:12 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Big plans on a Saturday night
Toni Cade Bambara The Salt Eaters
August 31, 2025 at 12:45 AM
ratczarina.bsky.social
This book was over my head but I did get some valuable take aways:

-Fascists create parallel structures to existing institutions
-illegal actions are tolerated as long as they are perceived to work against some “other”
- Fascist leaders don’t necessarily act in their nation’s economic interests
One device used by fascist parties, but also by Marxist revolutionaries who have given serious thought to the conquest of power, was parallel structures. An outsider party that wants to claim power sets up organizations that replicate government agencies. the Nazi party, for example, had its own foreign policy agency that at first, soon after the party had achieved power, had to share power with the traditional Foreign Office. After it’s head Joachim von Ribbentrop became foreign minister in 1938, the party’s foreign policy office increasingly supplanted the professional diplomats of the Foreign Office. Hitler was now free to dissolve all other parties (including the Catholic Zentrum) in the following weeks and establish a one-party dictatorship. His conservative accomplices were willing to turn a blind eye to the “revolution from below” carried out unofficially in spring 1933 by Nazi party activists against Jews and Marxists, and even the establishment of the first concentration camp at Dachau, near Munich, in March 1933, for political enemies, as long as such illegalities were committed against “enemies of the people.”
August 31, 2025 at 12:43 AM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Were I reporter receiving a wad of cash disguised in a potato chip bag
Homer Simpson: "Aw, twenty dollars? I wanted a peanut"
August 21, 2025 at 4:11 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
There’s also this protest in NYC today
All Eyes on Gaza! Rise Up for Our Martyrs. Aug 12, 5:30pm. NYT offices 620 8th Ave
August 12, 2025 at 3:02 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Went to Boyfriend Coop (dyke cafe and bar) in Bushwick tonight

Got some poetry by Gazan teen Mohammed Abu Lebda, whose fundraiser is linked below

chuffed.org/project/1168...
Zine titled Echoes from a Carved Stone, by Mohammed Abu Lebda Open pages of a zine with poetry in Arabic and English
July 27, 2025 at 3:10 AM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Something new (to me) to read from @radixcoop.bsky.social
We are many: Defending Women and Sex Worker Human Rights
July 26, 2025 at 8:37 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Local celebrity sighting
A swan family, with two adults with white feathers, and mature swan ducklings with gray feathers
July 20, 2025 at 11:45 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Finally read this book that everyone I knew was reading in 2003 and I have so many thoughts!!!
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in The Bronx
July 13, 2025 at 11:50 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
From Robert O Paxton’s The Anatomy of Fascism (just some light Sunday night reading, you know how I do)
Considering these precursors, a debate has arisen about which country spawned the earliest fascist movement. France is a frequent candidate. Russia has been proposed. Hardly anyone puts Germany first. It may be that the earliest phenomenon that can be functionally related to fascism is American: the Ku Klux Klan.
July 7, 2025 at 3:04 AM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Me explaining the Buffy references to you
July 6, 2025 at 4:11 AM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Tryna educate my ignorant ass and understand exactly wtf fascism is

(From Robert O Paxton’s The Anatomy of Fascism)
In that sense too, fascism is more plausibly linked to a set of “mobilizing passions” that shape fascist action than to a consistent and fully articulated philosophy. Bullet list: A sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of any traditional solutions; the primacy of the group, toward which one has duties superior to every right, whether individual or universal, and the subordination of the individual to it; the belief that one’s group is a victim, a sentiment that justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against its enemies, both internal and external; dread of the groups decline under the corrosive effects of individualistic liberalism, class conflict, and alien influences; the need for closer integration of a purer community, by consent if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary; the need for authority by natural leaders (always make), culminating in a national chief who alone is capable of incarnating the group’s destiny; the superiority of the leaders instincts over abstract and universal reason; the beauty of violence and efficacy of will, when they are devoted to the group’s success; the right of chosen people to dominate others without restraint from any kind of human or divine law, right being decided by the sole criterion of the groups prowess within a Darwinian struggle
July 5, 2025 at 3:57 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
July 4th reading
The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O Paxton
July 5, 2025 at 12:48 AM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Bitches getting desperate

(Whomsoever DoorDash opposes for mayor, so shall I support)
Anti-Zohran Mamdani mailer that reads: Zohran Mamdani is a dangerous choice for mayor. Promised to defund the police and even wanted to “dismantle” the NYPD. Supports higher taxes and more fees on New Yorkers. Radical plan puts the homeless into the subway system rather than getting them the help they need above ground. Less Safe. Too Radical. Reject Zohran Mamdani. Other side of mailer. Paid for by Fix the City, Inc. COO Meaghan Brown. Top three donors: Michael Bloomberg, DoorDash, and William Ackman
June 18, 2025 at 7:11 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Excited to read La Bastarda (the first novel by a woman from Equitorial Guinea to be translated into English!) for this gay little book club I joined

Gonna read so many gay little books
La Bastarda. A novel. Trifonia Melibea Obono
May 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Weekend read
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
May 24, 2025 at 4:09 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Will not stop sharing excerpts until this book sells out and reprints
I see why it’s very tempting for sex workers to tell rescue organizations a victim story- you can get hired and turned into a hero. It’s a ticket. You tell them your harrowing victim story and then these rescue organizations pimp your story out. They create the demand for human trafficking victim stories. They say they want to save us from exploitation but too often I’ve seen our stories being used more for their benefit than our own. I’d like to get a chance to tell my whole story for real, from my perspective. That’s why I feel it’s so dangerous. These programs contribute to the stigma and criminalization of sex work. Then they destabilize our lives by giving us even lower paying jobs and telling us we’re traumatized but without having the skills to support us.
May 15, 2025 at 2:11 AM
ratczarina.bsky.social
How do I report a Feeld profile to The Hague
Disclaimer: Been having a lot of people drop off/disconnecting after we marched so just a heads up - I’m Jewish and I support Israel and served in the IDF during this war so if you don’t support -don’t 🫶 me!
May 12, 2025 at 11:57 PM
ratczarina.bsky.social
Even in sex work decrim spaces, I haven’t encountered a complete rejection of the concept of trafficking - the authors instead identify issues of forced labor, IPV and police violence

Learning a lot!
This is why, instead of the terms modern slavery, sex trafficking, or human trafficking, we use language that accurately describes the problems facing migrant sex workers and the right people and institutions accountable - terms like police abuse, sexual assault, poor working conditions, workplace discrimination, intimate partner violence, and client violence. Many of the problems sex workers face fall into three types- state violence, intimate partner violence, and poor working conditions. If a sex worker is being forced to work or forced to hand over all their money, it is usually by a partner and this is a case of intimate partner violence. If a sex worker is being cheated out of their money it may be at the hand of of a bad boss and thus a problem of abusive working conditions, one that is faced by a lot of migrant and undocumented workers. When the police rape sex workers, we call it police violence. If the problem is forced labor, we call it forced labor. When we’re honest about the problem, we can identify the institutions and people responsible for the problem and what needs to be done to fix it and we stop perpetuating the idea migrant sex work is the problem
May 12, 2025 at 9:36 PM