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coochiequeens · 7 months

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Natural disasters around the globe and now a war between Isreal and Palestine and instead of posting about how these issues impact women UN Women focuses on men in dresses and then doubles down when called out.

By Shay Woulahan. October 8, 2023

The official account for United Nations Women is under fire after posting in celebration of “trans lesbians” despite having released no formal statement condemning the violence against women in war-torn Israel. The posts, of which two were made on October 8, were intended to celebrate “International Lesbian Day.”

In the first post made to X (formerly Twitter), UN Women stated that there was “no one way to be a lesbian or express womanhood,” leaving many users confused as to the underlying meaning.

“There is only one way to be a lesbian,” one user wrote. “To be a female exclusively attracted to other females. And there is only one way to express womanhood — to be an adult human female,” user @OneSmallVoice wrote.

“Nah, there’s only one way to be either,” another user responded.

After hundreds of negative replies, UN Women made a second post hours later in an apparent effort to double-down on their narrative.

“Remember, trans lesbians are lesbians too,” the post read. “Let’s uplift and honor EVERY expression of love and identity!” The post was accompanied by an image reiterating “trans lesbians are lesbians.”

Immediately, UN Women was hit with a storm of backlash from users who called the post “homophobic” and “rapey.”

Giggle Founder Sall Grover said the notice was “anti-lesbian,” stating: “Men aren’t lesbians. Deal with it.”

Another top reply on the post, written by UK-based safeguarding group Safe Schools Alliance, accused UN Women of propagating rape culture.

“You are a disgrace. Delete this tweet, then delete your account. How DARE you contribute to the #RapeCulture women & girls suffer, from childhood, worldwide. Stand down & let people who know #SexMatters advocate for women & girls including our lesbian sisters.”

Other advocates that fight for women’s sex-based rights similarly called out UN Women, with many noting that the organization has yet to release an official statement condemning the brutality committed against women in Israel.

On October 7, Hamas militants launched a surprise offensive on Israel, targeting civilian areas with violence. Almost immediately, horrific videos began to circulate on social media showing the Islamic soldiers kidnapping and brutalizing women. In one of the most shocking pieces of footage, Hamas militants were seen parading around the corpse of a woman now identified as a German-Israeli civilian who had been in the region to attend a pro-peace festival.

As of the writing of this article, over 700 people in Israel have been confirmed dead and over 2000 are injured. In Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry has reported 370 dead, with over 2200 injured. Over 100 people have been taken as hostages by Hamas, a great number of them are women and children.

Jewish journalist Eve Barlow pointed out that despite making time to advocate for “trans lesbians,” UN Women hasn’t discussed the violence committed in Israel against females.

“@UN_Women has not issued a single tweet from their account about the crimes committed against Israel’s women. One [repost] on the subject, one tweet about Afghanistan and two about #LesbianDay. Jewish women deserve your advocacy,” stated journalist and activist Eve Barlow.

This is not the first time UN Women and the United Nations has promoted gender ideology at the expense of women. UN Women has a well-established history of calling for all nations to allow men to be able to self-declare their legal sex as female.

“Trans women have the right to recognition of their self-identified gender – but in most countries, this is not available or subject to abusive restrictions,” UN Women posted in June.

This was blasted by British Member of Parliament Rosie Duffield who responded to the organization’s statement.

“No, this is not a universally accepted ‘right’ at all. And as a Member of Parliament in England, I will continue to work with other legislators to stop self-id from destroying women’s rights – rights to sport, single sex spaces, same-sex medical care.”

On International Women’s Day in 2020, UN Women endorsed a statement made by a trans-identified male in which he referred to women as “formless.” The man being celebrated by UN Women, model Aaron Philip, bragged about being platformed by the United Nations and referred to women who protested as “TERFs.”

#united nations #UN Women #Men can't be lesbians #X #October 8 #International Lesbian Day #Woke homophobia #Safe Schools Alliance #SexMatters #Women in war zones #Pray for Isreali and Palestinian women impacted by war #Pray for the women impacted by natural disaster #Pray for Lesbians living in homophobic areas

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secular-jew · 5 months

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The Israel-Arab Conflict isn't Complex

1. 99.7% of MENA (Middle-East & N. Africa) is controlled by one religion, which has ethnically cleansed nearly all others.

2. The conflict is not about land, it's about jihad, which is ethnic cleansing + conquest.

3. Together jihadists + leftists have created a weaponized narrative framework of lies.

4. In reality, Arabs colonized Judea and ethnically cleansed nearly the entire MENA region, where they continue to persecute minorities. They often project their faults on their victims.

5. To be clear, the last thing jihadists want is a new state or new national identity -- they have over 50 already. By their own voices, they want the submission of all others.

6. The left's unholy alliance with jihadists is based on shared values of antisemitism and authoritarianism. Both groups wish to impose their values forcefully on others. Both create webs of rhetoric and grievances to excuse any actions, even the most despicable imaginable which go against any modern values.

7. The only solution is to unravel the threads of hate everywhere we can. We must exorcise antisemitism from our own society, which was deeply embedded in it by the Romans, who created a state religion institutionalizing it.

8. Hate must be completely disassembled from Israel's territories as well, for there to be peace in the region. Globally, we must support moderates and reject extremism.

9. The West must humbly open its mind and realize it hasn't lived up to its own values. It's been deeply programmed to demonize Jews for 1700 years. This hate indoctrination extremely clouds the West's judgements about Israel. Ideas have power.

10. The West is broken when it comes to Jews. Its ideas do not work at all, its obsession is highly neurotic and toxic. Extremism and hate need to be resolved everywhere.

11. The reason Western society is cherished is due to its hard fought for moral values. We must abide by these values if we want our civilization to continue and evolve. We must not fall into depravity. We must intensely guard our virtues!

#quantumflux

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starblaster · 2 years

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October 9th is Psychiatric Survivor Pride Day

“The problems of the ex-patient are more subtle but no less pressing. Many ex-patients try to cope with what has happened to them by pretending that the experience never occurred. However, because the experience of having once been a mental patient teaches you to think of yourself as less than human, this is not a satisfactory solution. People feel emotions. They are justifiably happy or sad, angry, calm, elated, and so forth. As patients, however, we were taught to think of ourselves as permanently crippled, and we tend to react to the normal ups and downs of life as affirmations of our secret deformity. In addition, society imposes penalties upon ex-patients which affect you whether or not you acknowledge your identity. For the rest of your life, you will lie on applications for jobs, schools, and driver's licenses, and worry about being found out. Your friends and acquaintances will be divided into two groups, those who know and those who don't, and it will always be necessary to watch what you say to the latter. Ex-patients are full of anger at what has been done to them, but alone and unorganized this anger is not expressed and is often turned inward against oneself. Our anger is the fuel of our movement, and when we come together, acknowledging our identity to ourselves and to each other, we will have made the first and largest step in striking back at our oppressors.”

— "Mental Patients' Liberation: Why? How?", originally distributed in the early 1970s by Mental Patients' Resistance of Brooklyn, New York

[image ID] Seven photographs from antipsychiatry demonstrations. They are described below, in order of appearance: 1. a picture taken at the National Association for Rights Protection & Advocacy (NARPA) Conference on November 10, 2000 in Sacramento, California. Fifty to sixty people stand around a red sign with white text that reads: NO FORCED TREATMENT EVER. 2. a picture taken on October 9th, 1999 in Toronto, Ontario during a march for Psychiatric Survivor Pride Day. Several people march in a line, including one man at the start of the march playing bagpipes. Behind him is a hand-painted sign being held up that reads: Psychiatric Survivor Pride Day. 3. pictures taken at a demonstration outside the California State Capitol building in Sacramento on February 28th, 2000. The signs in each of these pictures say: Psychiatric drugs can kill! 4. a picture taken at a demonstration outside the American Psychiatric Association's 156th annual meeting in San Fransisco, California. The activist's sign says: PSYCHIATRY IS NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSION: IT IS A TOOL OF OPPRESSION. 5. a picture taken at a demonstration outside the Jacob Javits Center, hosting the American Psychiatric Association's 167th annual meeting in New York City on May 4th, 2014. The picture features an activist wearing a printed t-shirt and is cropped so as not to feature the face of the wearer. The t-shirt says: TO HELL WITH THEIR PROFITS, STOP FORCED DRUGGING OF PSYCHIATRIC INMATES! 6 and 7. pictures taken at a demonstration outside the California State Capitol building in Sacramento on February 28th, 2000. The signs in each of these pictures say: Psychiatric drugs can kill!, STOP expansion of forced treatment, Mental illness is NOT a CRIME, and FORCED MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT IS INHUMANE. 8. a picture taken at an antipsychiatry demonstration on May 2nd, 1998 in Freedom Plaza, Washington D.C. Two people hold a hand-painted banner-sign that says: BET YOUR ASS WE'RE PARANOID. 9. taken at an antipsychiatry demonstration hosted by the Mental Patients Liberation Alliance during Mad Pride Week in 2000, between July 13th and 16th on the lawn in front of the New York State Capitol Building in Albany. [end of ID]

#antipsychiatry #psychiatric abuse #psychiatric survival #psychiatric survivor pride day #psych abolition

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odinsblog · 3 months

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This is definitely a trend for the hateful, christofascist, religious reich. Hobby Lobby did the same thing at previous Super Bowls.

It’s right wing, Islamophobic, homophobic, anti-abortion Christian nationalism, masquerading as “caring” religion.

The Servant Foundation: the power behind the ads

The $20 million "He Gets Us" campaign about Jesus - is funded by an influential donor to some of the most active and litigious Shadow Network groups working to undermine church-state separation.

The Servant Foundation

The Servant Foundation, also known as The Signatry, is behind the “He Gets Us” ad campaign that debuted during the 2023 Super Bowl. Over the next three years, the Servant Foundation plans to spend “about a billion dollars” toward this public relations campaign. They’ve hired a PR firm to address, in the firm’s words, the problem of “How did the world’s greatest love story in Jesus become known as a hate group?”

Of course, they’re the cause of their own problem – not only has the Servant Foundation funded hate groups, but the PR firm, Haven, has represented these organizations. Key Shadow Network members Focus on the Family and Alliance Defending Freedom are in their portfolio. ADF is a noted anti-LGBTQ hate group that has argued repeatedly in courts that religion, and specifically Christianity, is a license to discriminate; they have one such case pending before the Supreme Court right now.

The money trail

The Servant Foundation is one of ADF’s biggest financial backers. A recent exposé reports that, “between 2018-20, the Servant Foundation donated more than $50 million to the Alliance Defending Freedom and that those contributions “were among the five largest donations given out by the foundation in each of those three years.”

Other recipients of the Servant Foundation’s billion dollars in assets include:

Nearly $8 million went to Answers in Genesis, creationist Ken Ham’s fundamentalist ministry behind the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter, an organization that has been championed by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a former ADF attorney.

Over $1 million was designated for the anti-LGBTQ Campus Crusade for Christ (rebranded as “Cru” since 2011).

$374,800 went to Al Hayat Ministries, an organization that seeks to “respectfully yet fearlessly unveil the deception of Islam,” and runs an Arabic-language Christian satellite TV station with the goal of converting Muslims to Christianity.

In 2020 alone, we found donations to prominent Shadow Network members American Center for Law and Justice, First Liberty Institute, and Liberty Counsel.

(continue reading)

#politics #super bowl #republicans #christian nationalism #lgbt #homophobia #christofascism #religious reich #lgbtq #jesus gets us #the servant foundation #no hate like christian love #the signatry #alliance defending freedom #adf

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matan4il · 2 months

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Amin al-Husseini docu: part 6

Translator's note:

I have to emphasize that "Semites" is NOT a racial term (despite the Nazis using it that way). It's a modern linguistic term, referring to the people who speak Semitic languages. It's true that in antiquity, these languages originated in the Middle East (and therefore the Nazis used "Semites" as a reference to Middle Easterns), but those who speak them nowadays are more spread out, and do NOT have any common ancestry, culture or even just national identity, therefore the term "Semites" can't describe a race. I'm emphasizing this, because we have seen the term "antisemitism," which was originally coined to speak specifically about Jew hatred, be distorted by adopting the Nazi version of "Semites", and ignoring its unique meaning, going so far as to use that against Jews. Here is a good summary from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance dwelling on the importance of understanding "antisemitism" as it was originally conceived.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

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wilderebellion · 11 months

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Calorum Lore Shared in the Dropout Discord

Thank you, Past!Brennan.

Some of them might re-contextualize a thing or two about TRW series. Typically in response to specific questions, but I focused solely on posting Brennan's responses.

Lore on The Ravening War (from April 20, 2020 1:02am ET)

In 1188, a conflict broke out because Count Jacques Tomaté, a Fructeran noble, was by birthright next in line for the throne of Greenhold!

Culture of the Meat Lands (Feb 21, 2020)

Brennan: Meatlanders have clan delineations based on bloodline and their worship/propitiation of The Great Beasts, which is a pagan, polytheistic faith! Warfare between various clans goes back centuries and centuries, a lot like the ancient Celts, so while some Meatlanders might feel kinship with other Meatlanders over outsiders, it's just as common for a given Meatlander to feel THE MOST animosity to a member of an enemy meat clan. So "The Meatlands" doesn't really have a national identity in the same way that, say, Ceresia does, and individuals there are much more likely to define their loyalty by family, clan and faith than by nationality.

(May 18, 2020 8:14pm ET)

The Meatlanders are like ancient Celts: The fact that they don't wear shirts lets southerners stereotype them as barbarians, but their culture is equally as beautiful, ancient and complex as any other land's. Carn is a metropolis full of architectural wonders, beautiful art, etc. Meatlanders rule!!! Labeling them barbarians, like in real life, is a tool artistocrats use to breed xenophobia and hatred into their homleands population, making them more malleable and compliant

The Rocks Sisters (May 1, 2020 11:46pm)

The four sisters were the four archetypal classes! Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Rogue!

Magic Items (April 20, 2020 9:44pm ET)

Magical items aren't quite as prevalent in other nations as they are in Candia!

Amethar's Mom (April 20, 2020 1:21am ET)

Amethar's mother, before she was Queen Pamelia Rocks, was Pamelia Pomegrana, a Fructeran noble!

Magic and Miracle Workers (from April 20, 2020 1:04am, 1:06am, 1:15am)

Brennan: Just like in normal D&D, it takes SPECIFIC training or divinatory magic to tell if magic is arcane or divine, or where its power source originates from! People's reactions to magic are LARGELY based on uninformed prejudice, and aesthetic. This is how Lapin is mostly able to con people.

Even within the Bulbian Church, 99+% of its clergy CAN'T cast magic. Being a miracle worker is a REALLY big fucking deal, and almost always guarantees ROCKETING to the top of the church hierarchy

Liam's magic truly getting him in trouble depends on context! Obvious spellcasting would get him in a lot of trouble, but Candian's magic items usually get a pass from commonfolk because it would be viewed as "alchemy," which isn't seen as being heretical at all!

Leadership in Calorum (from May 6, 2020)

5:32pm ET

Brennan: Plumbeline is the Sovereign Ruler of Fructera, yes! Gustavo had to abdicate in order to become Concordant Emperor! Plumbeline's title is still Lady though, Fructera doesn't have a monarchy, it has a complex consortium of Noble Houses that rule through an orchestrated bloc of alliances, kind of an aristocratic bureaucracy!

5:40pm ET

Brennan: Dairy Islands ALSO a monarchy, just doesn't confer the title of King or Queen to its monarch (uses Prince or Princess), also Ceresia HAS been a monarchy at times, has vacillated between Republic and Imperatorship MANY times, with some dynasties of Imperators lasting a dozen generations or more!

Social Categories

Brennan: All the food nations have weird edge cases, so the delineations are DEFINITELY social and not biological/botanical. Pie people, a combination of grain, butter and fruit, are overwhelmingly Candian. In Calorum, these edge cases would be much like they are in our world, the result of historical wars of conquest, marriages, alliances, etc!

Genetic Complexity (from April 20, 2020 2:14pm ET)

Brennan: Popping in here like a goddamned troll to say that Calorans' DNA are powerfully influenced by more than just their parents genetics, but also by the geographical location of their conception, their gestation and even their childhood dwelling place up through puberty! I suspect that every question I answer only serves to raise further questions, for which I am deeply sorry!!

Other Monarchies in Calorum (May 6, 2020 5:40pm ET)

Queer Rights in Calorum (from May 18, 2020 8:23pm)

Brennan: Candia is the MOST permissive of all the nations in terms of most issues, but no nation in Calorum is openly homophobic. However, it's important to remember that archaic concepts like bloodlines, political marriage, heirs and primogentiure [sic], etc. still exist in this world, and are more emphasized and expected in nations outside of Candia, which puts a lot of pressure on the nobility from that end of the spectrum. In a weird way, that means peasants are a lot freer in terms of who and how they love and marry than aristocrats and especially royals, which there is also some interesting IRL research and precedent for!

Post-War Events (May 18, 2020 8:07pm ET)

I don't think any of these are spoilers, but Amethar and Caramelinda married shortly after the war ended. King Jadain died shortly after the war, after the establishment of the Concord!

Funeral Rites of Calorum's Faiths (May 18, 2020 8:04pm ET)

Bulbians practice burial and very formal funereal rites, and have a sharp delineation between body and spirit, so the body which is crass and material goes back into the ground, and the soul joins the Bulb. Meatlanders practice cremation, and have different beliefs based on religious affiliation, but most Great Beast faiths belief that an afterlife is EARNED through great deeds, otherwise you're reincarnated and get to try again!

#the ravening war #a crown of candy #brennan lee mulligan #acoc spoilers

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txttletale · 1 year

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i mean i can guess at a lot of it - maybe all of it - but could we hear the sid meier's civilization opinions you have so hinted at?

fuck yeah you can. alright so an easy one off the bat is that sometimes it is just manifestly racist in pretty obvious, surface-level ways. like, i think kongo's civ ability in civ vi (that they are preternaturally good at getting religiously converted) is a pretty good example of what i mean--that and a bunch of stuff from the older entries.

but (as ever) that sort of thing is significantly less interesting to me than the broader assumptions about reality baked into the game's core premises. so let's talk about some of those!

first of all, there is (unsurprisingly, it's a pretty loaded term) so much ideology packed into what 'civilization' considers 'a civilization'. like, let's talk about some of the things that are true about 'civilizations' in sid meier's civilization:

they settle cities

they each consist of one culture which is contiguous both geographically and temporally across thousands of years

each of these cultures is represented by one continuous state with complete top-down control

they 'progress' through a linear set of 'eras', with corresponding 'advances' in technological development & aesthetics

over the course of these eras, they expand territorially to exploit natural resources

they have standing armies

they have innate & deterministic competencies (unique units & buildings in earlier games, civ abilities in V onward)

other than the aforementioned unique units, they develop a certain set of universal technologies and institutions (ie, all civilizations will have access to and build a 'bank' or 'library' building)

they have 'hard' (rigidly defined, mutually exclusive, militarily enforced) borders

so--! off the bat, looking at the very first point--what about the mongols? what about the shoshone? what about the scythians? there is a clear normative ideological implication to say that in order for these historically nomadic peoples to be depicted as a 'civilization' they must be depicted as settling urban population centers--and it is the same normative implication that the rest of these points have, which is a very narrow view of what a 'civilization' is, a colonialist (at best) view of what lies outside 'civilization'

#2 and #3 have unfortunate synchrony with a lot of real-world national myths that obscure vast amounts of violence and destruction of culture in order to create a national identity--the idea of one coherent 'ancient greek' culture, for example, would have come as a very great surprise to the spartans and athenians. the idea of 'france' having a shared set of cultural traits would have definitely not been welcome to the bretons, normans, occitans, or any of the other regional identities that were violently suppressed over centuries to create the modern french nation-state.

#4--especially as combined with #7 and #8--really lays bare a lot of the colonialist assumptions at the core of the game. for example, if you play as the inca in any civ game, you'll have to research 'writing' and 'the wheel', technologies that the incan empire never relied upon, in order to 'advance'. this 'advancement' follows (a pop-history version of, obviously) chiefly the technological development of Europe and later the USA--this is falsely universalised out. and the idea of linear progression through levels of technological 'advancement' is very very explicitly a colonialist one--the idea that the peoples of subsaharan africa, the americas, australia, etc. were 'less advanced' than europeans was a key ideological pillar of colonialism!

it also very much plays into the 'Vanishing Indian' myth. for example, the aztecs get their unique unit in vi (the jaguar warrior) at the start of the game, in the 'ancient era'--at the same time that the gauls get theirs, the 'gaesetae'--and replacing the same unit! now in real life, the 'gaesetae' and the aztec triple alliance were well over a thousand years apart -- the jaguar warrior is more contemporaneous with the real-world basis of the 'conquistador' unit than it is with the gaesetae! in civilization vi, the major cultural innovations of 'the aztecs' are over and done with long before the innovations of 'rome' are--which must be a very great surprise to the millions of nahua people living in mexico now--and moreover is part of the mythologization of indigenous peoples as 'of the past', as precursors who vanished to make way for settlement, rather than people who were violently suppressed and still very much exist in the present day!

#5, #6, and #9 all fall under the same umbrella of both backdating and universalizing the model of the Western capitalist nation-state to all of history and the world. 'national borders' as they're currently understood didn't exist for most of human history--standing armies especially were an extreme historical rarity until the last couple of centuries--Western capitalism is certainly not the first social model to result in colonialism and extractionism but the particular attitudes and manifestations of this are certainly, again, unique to a specific part of the world in the last couple centuries. all these things are universalized out to apply to every single civilization in the game from the moment of their existence, something which some of the people depicted in these games have complained about!

ultimately this is all downstream of the concept of 'civilization', developed as it was as an intentional imperial project of 19th-century anthropology and history! and especially as formulated in samuel huntington's very bad and racist book 'the clash of civilization', which seems to have had a pretty major impact on the civ game's outlook on history (see edward said's critique of it)

and of course, once we get out of that, there's a lot to talk about--how the world of civilization is filled with indiscriminately violent 'barbarians' (!) who, unlike your fellow 'civilizations' have no technology or culture of their own, existing only to be massacred--how the game is structured around the assumption that one civilization will eventually 'win'--but this post is already long enough, so i'll leave those deeper critiques as an excercise to the reader.

oh, and--because a lot of people misinterpreted me on my silly little minecraft post and argued against a much stronger and less justified position that i did not in fact take--i do not think that sid meiere's civilization causes colonialism or imperialism!

in fact, i do not even think that 'colonialist ideology' causes colonialism. the order of operations (as it always does) flows down from historical and material conditions: it is economically advantageous to engage in colonial and imperialist exploitation -> ideological justifications are developed; the exploitation is narrativized and mythologized -> these narratives and mythologies embed themselves in the cultural imaginary and are replicated in media objects produced from that culture. i am never making the opposite case--if you argue with me as if i am you are shadowboxing.

#ask #civilization vi #long post

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ego-meliorem-esse · 6 months

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Could you talk a bit about Matthew and Alfred relationship? Our boys need love too

The lads! The fellas! The absolute units!

Bear with me here I wanna give a little bit of a context and a personal explanation as to why I'm really fascinated with these two countries in general.

If there is one nationfolk relationship that comes as close to pure and friendly as it possibly can, it would be the Us-Can one. Of course, it has major problems and unavoidable disputes. But let me tell you, as a balkan, ex-yugoslav cretin, I cannot help but be intriqued with the way these two comunicate. They make fun of eachother sure, they have disputes and squables, sometimes outright clashes, but when there is crisis in the US for example, all I hear is Americans straight up saying "ok well time to move to Canada". It's fascinating to me! As a Croat who, after returning from Serbia from a 3 day trip, brought home souveniers (key chains mostly, with the Serbian flag) I was yelled at by my dad who afterwards didn't talk to me for a few days. All because I dared to bring this enemy countrys flag into our home. Now, I was born in 1999. I have no connection to the war 8 years prior. No excusable, personal vandetta. But still it' s very much acceptable to hate so strongly. And even if it wasn't 8 years that passed, but 80, there still would be a widely accepted resentment. But alas, I am not talking about people, cus frankly people are just people. Alliances and relations between countries are another thing. Imagine sharing a huge fucken border with another country and being friends. My euro brain is imploding. Uncomprehensible.

Now I do understand the US is often described as a bit of a phycho, and frankly Canada is an expert at dealing with the phycho. Kudos. Keep the yanks from whipping out their home protection assault rifles and unleashing hell fire is risky shit. Canada manages tho. What I'm really interested in is the USA's view of Canada. They aren't a threat. They aren't suspicious. They are a force to be reckoned with tho, but they are friends. If there is one ally the USA can rely on its the maple sucking french/anglo bastards up north. So much history in such a short time. Fascinating.

To relate this to the bros, I think these two understand eachother better than most. Matt is quiet, obsetvand and passive (mostly), while his unit of a brother is loud, idealistic and prone to thinking the world owes him time on the world stage. And it works. Matt is the one to talk to his brother in a way that gets Alfred to listen. H speaks Alfreds language and can communicate with him freely. I think that that is a skill and in the modern era, a privilage that not many have. Not many dare to tell Alfred to his face that he fucked up majorly, but Matt can. He knows he can. Alfred knows he can. So he does. Matt can pull his brother aside after an outburst, and for the lack of a better word, humble him.

Alfred respects his brothers oppinion more then other nations'. He went from seeing Matt as a weak, self-pitying and ambitionless dominion, to accepting his views, ideas and even asking his oppinion on certain matters. I like to draw a parallel here. Matt had to sacrifice everything and himself to have Arthur call him into the war room and ask Matthew for his oppinion. Alfred is not much different. It takes time for Matthews voice to be heard, but when the time comes, it's desperately needed.

Alfred tho, is and always will be Alfred. And if somthing else catches his attention, he will ignore the house on fire across the street. He is prone to isolation and ignoring his brother for extended periods of time, just sending him a tiktok every month or so. That being the only indication to Matt that his brother is alive. Alfred has so much shit going on and his 13 braincells have to spread evenly across to cover it all. His brother is a constant in his life, stable and therefore forgotten.

That being said, I don't think there is another person on Earth Alfred loves more than his brother. Showing it is not something he ever learned tho. He knows he cannot buy his way into showing his love for Matt, so with his lack skills of other forms of love expressions, he does nothing.

As for Matt, he checks up on Alfred as much as he can. His history and past have tought him to expect nothing form the people he loves. So he doesn't. He knows Alfred is his closest ally and best friend, but doesn't ask for anything Alfred himself isn't giving. He is a person who waits to be asked to hang out on Saturday instead of asking his friends himself.

So while almost all I talked about is sad and somewhat negative, I do think the bond and conversations these two share are one of the most honest and true expressions of brotherly love. And by god I usually don't use the world love when describing nation-folk relationships, but in this case there isn't a replacement.

sorry for the personal shit and Alfred slander, I love him.

#sorry for the long post #im hungover #eating doritos and smoking cigs #hetalia #hws america #hws canada #ask meli #meli speaks #my headcanons

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zvaigzdelasas · 2 months

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The ȘOR Party [...] was a populist political party in Moldova.[13] Known from its foundation in 1998 until October 2016 as the Socio-Political Movement "Equality"[...],[14][15] the party held Eurosceptic and Russophilic stances.[16]

The party was closed down in 2023 having been declared unconstitutional.

The party was founded in 1998 by Moldovan politician Valerii Klimenco as the "Socio-Political Movement "Equality".[17][...]

In 2015, the party decided to nominate Ilan Shor for Mayor of the town of Orhei. [...] In October 2016, Shor was elected president of the party, which was renamed Șor Party. In June 2017, the party President, Ilan Shor was sentenced to 7.5 years in jail for fraud. He broke house arrest and fled the country in 2019 whilst appealing the sentence.[20] On 1 December 2018, the party joined the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe.[21][...]

The party organized a Victory Day parade in Chișinău on 9 May 2019.[27][...]

The Șor Party was the main instigator of the 2022–2023 Moldovan protests.[28][...]

On 8 November 2022, the Moldovan government requested the constitutional court to initiate proceedings for the outlawing of the party in Moldova, due to it allegedly promoting the interests of a foreign state (Russia) and harming the independence and sovereignty of the country.[29][30]

On 13 April 2023, the appeal court doubled the sentence of party President Ilan Shor in a case linked to the theft of $1 billion in bank assets as well as money laundering, breach of trust, and fraud to 15 years in prison in absentia and froze his assets. Shor was living in Israel at the time of the court ruling after having fled Moldova in 2019.[31][...]

On 19 June 2023, the Șor Party was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Moldova.[35][36][37] [...]

On 31 July, the Moldovan parliament voted in favour of banning the leaders of the dissolved Șor Party – including Ilan Shor – from standing in elections for a period of five years.[41] In October the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled that Article 16 of the Electoral Code is unconstitutional and that former members of the Șor Party can stand for elections.[42][...]

The Party's 2019 programme introduced the following points:[46]

○ Free universal health care.

○ Free education including higher education. Increasing the size and scope of disability benefits, maternity benefits and retirement pensions.

○ The creation of modernised collective farms to work alongside the private sector. Active state intervention in the spheres of infrastructure, transport, energy, communications, housing, pharmaceuticals, etc.

○ The nationalization of foreign-owned energy companies.

○ A commitment to law and order including both reinstating the death penalty for particularly dangerous criminals and addressing the underlying socioeconomic issues that may cause crime.

○ A commitment to Moldovan independence and military neutrality.

The opening paragraphs of the party's 2008 election programme stated that it viewed the average person's quality of life as superior under the Soviet Union when compared to modern times. It further stated that it viewed Moldova's alleged socio-economic problems as relating to Moldova's negative relationship with the Russian Federation.[47]

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fans4wga · 6 months

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8 NOVEMBER: SAG REACHES TENTATIVE AGREEMENT TO END STRIKE

"After a grueling118 days on strike, SAG-AFTRA has officially reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with studios, a move that is heralding the end of the 2023 actors’ strike.

The SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved the agreement in a unanimous vote on Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced. The strike will end at 12:01 am Thursday.

The performers’ union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced the provisional agreement on Wedneday, after about two weeks of renewed negotiations. If ratified by the SAG-AFTRA members, the deal could bring an end to the strike that kneecapped Hollywood for much of the summer and early fall in conjunction with the writers’ strike, which ended in late September.

The union and the AMPTP are so far being mum on the details of the agreement, which will emerge in the next few days prior to the union’s ratification vote. If the deal is ratified, the contract could soon go into effect, and if not, members would essentially send their labor negotiators back to the bargaining table with the AMPTP. It was unclear as of press time whether the union would end the strike before or after the ratification vote.

When negotiations restarted on Oct. 2 for the first time since SAG-AFTRA called its work stoppage in July, hopes were high in the industry that Hollywood’s largest union could come to terms with major companies quickly. Just like they had in the final days of the writers’ negotiations, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Disney CEO Bob Iger and NBCUniversal Studio Group chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley attended the talks at the union’s national headquarters in Los Angeles. But the studio ended up walking out on Oct. 11 over SAG-AFTRA’s proposal to charge a fee per every streaming subscriber on major platforms in a move that the union’s chief negotiator called “mystifying” (Sarandos called the ask “a bridge too far“).

The sides reconvened on Oct. 24 after a nearly two-week break. This time, the studios came in with a more generous offer to increase actors’ wage floors and a slightly modified version of a success-based streaming bonus they had previously offered the WGA. The two sides exchanged proposals for much of the week in a tense situation that had the industry on edge. Even as a deal came into sight, progress was slow, especially when it came to putting the contract’s inaugural guardrails on AI: The union considers the rapidly advancing technology an absolutely existential issue for members and sought to close any potential loopholes that could lead to future issues. On Saturday the studios presented what the union characterized as the companies’ “last, best and final,” overarching offer (still, the two sides kept swapping offers after).

When the union’s previous contract expired in mid-July and SAG-AFTRA went out on strike, many outstanding issues were left on the table. Setting terms for the use of A.I. was a major sticking point between union and studio negotiators, as was a proposal to provide casts with additional streaming compensation. Union negotiators sought to institute an unusually large minimum rate increase in the first year of the contract, a host of ground rules for self-taped virtual auditions and major increases to health and pension contributions “caps” that have not been changed since the 1980s. Meanwhile, as the entertainment business continues to experience a period of contraction, major companies looked to preserve some measure of flexibility and cost control.

SAG-AFTRA’s strike, coming as it did amid an ongoing writers’ strike in July, gave the union an unusual amount of leverage early on in its talks with the AMPTP. Almost immediately, most remaining unionized U.S. productions that were operating without writers shut down, including Deadpool 3 and Venom 3. An as the months of the work stoppage stretched on, a strategist at the Milken Institute has estimated that the strikes have cost the California economy alone at least $6 billion.

But pressure started to build as the strike neared and surpassed its 100-day mark. A-lister actors began talking to both their union and the studios in an attempt to improve progress in the negotiations. A number of actors also started drafting a letter expressing concerns about the union’s leadership but held back from publishing it, fearful of the missive’s potential impact on negotiations. Then, on Oct. 26, a separate letter was released signed by apparently thousands of actors, exhorting negotiators, “We have not come all this way to cave now.”

The amount of time that the union spent on strike in 2023 will certainly raise expectations for the deal they reached with studios. In the union’s upcoming ratification vote, the date of which has not yet been announced, members will decide whether the pact is acceptable to them."

#sag-aftra strike #sag strike #actors strike

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water-to-drink · 1 year

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Be a Gladiolus in a Field of Belladonnas pt6

Encased In Ice

(Summary): After your sudden alliance with the fatui, it seems your plans of vengeance are possible

Part 1 Last Part Next Part

✧ Masterlist ✧

(Characters): Childe, traveler!Lumine, abyss prince!Aether, Paimon, Pulcinella, Capitano, Dottore, Pierro, Sandrone, Pantalone, The Tsarita, (the others are there they just aren’t mentioned), ??? & ???

(Warnings): Not beta read

(A/n): This took way longer than expected (writer’s block is a bitch), but it’s here. Now that I know where I want this fanfic to go hopefully y’all like what I have planned

─────────── ✧ ───────────

“DAMNIT!!!!”

The shrill voice was accompanied by the sound of a gold chalice being slammed on the marble floor

“What do you mean, there’s been no sight of them?!” Your doppelganger asked the cowering soldiers

“We’re sorry your Grace. We’ve combed through every corner and still there hasn’t been sight of them!” A nameless soldier spoke

“It’s only been a few weeks, they must be hiding somewhere!”

“We’re trying to find the imposter as best as we can-”

“Then try harder! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!!” The almost animalistic shriek sent the soldiers scurrying out of the room like rats

The doppelganger drags their hands across their face, revealing the dark circles that started to appear due to lack of sleep caused by anxiety

“Fuck, they’re probably assembling an army. And they’re gonna come after me and take my head like I almost took theirs….” The doppelganger grab chunks of their hair and begin to pull in an attempt to alleviate their growing panic. “Uhh? Yeah, you’re right. We just need to find them before their army can go against me. We have 6 nations and their archons under our thumb. There’s no way they can face us.” The doppelganger releases the grip on their hair. “I don’t know I would do without you…”

─────────── ✧ ───────────

The trip wasn’t that bad, the only part that you didn’t care for was trying to get Aether and Childe not to kill each other. Other than that, everything’s been alright. The crew treated you nicely, you introduced them to some card games from your world and played some of them on the regular to keep occupied

And before you knew it you reached the shore of the snowy nation, Snezhnaya. A familiar man with a short stature and tall hat waved as you walked onto the dock

“Your Grace, I’m glad you arrived to outr beauty nation safely. Though I wish it was under better circumstances.” Pulcinella said

“I’m just happy that you even allow me here, it’s nice not having to worry about being hunted down.”

“I do hope you find respite in our country, your Grace.” The elderly man turned his head toward Lumine. “I see you brought… the traveler.”

“She was the first one to help me evade capture and saved my life multiple times. Without her I wouldn’t be talking to you right now and I won’t stand for any of your subordinates to harm her or her Paimon in anyway, am I clear with that?”

“Y-yes, let me lead the way, your Grace.”

The harbinger began walking and you and your party soon follow him

“Woo, you gave Paimon a scare back there! It’s almost like you were a completely different person!”

“I have to agree with her, you looked like a sergeant giving orders to new recruits.” Childe leaned in and whispered. “This might be the only time I’ve seen him scared like this!”

Pulcinella lead you to the gate of Zapolyarny Palace. The inside looked absolutely beautiful. You walked down icy blue halls that seemed to be made of ice. The walls had intricate patterns painted onto them, a wall even a mural that was too far away to decipher them. The elderly man opened two big doors and held his head high

“Behold! The Divine Creator of Teyvat!” Pulcinella announced

All of the 8 attendees stood up and watched as you entered the room. Your eyes fixed onto the person in the center

A woman stood proud, a silver crown sat on top of icy blonde hair with light blue tips framing a pale face. Her eyes were a piercing blue and looked colder than the frigid weather outside.

The cryo archon. The Tsarita herself before you

“It is an honor to be blessed by your divine presence, your Grace.” She greeted as she and the other harbingers bowed

“There’s no need for the formalities, I’m grateful that you’re all helping me. But my double doesn’t know that I’m here, I wouldn’t want to put any of you in danger.”

“Only a select few know that you are here, your Grace. We can’t risk your safety by having knowledge of your whereabouts get leaked.” Capitano explained

“We’re already working on a plan to defeat the true imposter and as we this carry out, you can stay in palace for as long as you need.” Pierro said

“Thank you, but I request something else from you.”

“Anything, just say it and we will make come into fruition.” The Tsarita promised

“I need to take part in this plan.” The Harbingers shared glances at each other unsure of what to say. “I can’t sit around knowing that my doppelganger is out there, abusing their power and making the lives of people worse.” You put your hand on your chest. “So I request that you would lend me your resources, because I want to be the one to take my doppelganger off of the throne!”

As your voice bounced off the cold walls the Harbingers all looked at you in horror

“Your Grace, we can’t let you do that in good faith. Your powers aren’t the same as they were when you last walked Teyvat.” Sandrone pleaded

“I know, but Childe told me that you have stones that are the supposed remains of the Creator.”

“We do, but we don’t know if your human form would be able to utilize the effects of these gems and not reject it completely.” Dottore tried to reason

“Bring the gem in.”

The Harbingers turned their heads towards the Tsarita. All wanting to object but can’t bring themselves to do so

“Alright… your majesty.” Pulcinella said as he tried to stead his voice. “You heard her majesty, bring the holy stone in.” He said to an attendant guarding the door

Said attendant rushed out of the room and soon came back into the room with another attendant carting in a glass case containing a glowing stone.

Once the cart was in front of you, you admired the gem. Seeing it on a screen is one thing but seeing it glow with your own two eyes, it truly looked it was something holy

“Uh you know don’t have to do this, you might get hurt really badly.” Paimon pleaded

“She’s right, we can find another way to get your hold powers back.” Lumine suggested

“Your Grace, that is one thing I agree with them on. We nor you don’t know what would happen if you touch that stone.” Aether was the last one to urge you against this idea

For a second you thought maybe it was a bad idea to connect with it, but you had to do what needs to be done

“As I said, I’m a hell of a lot more resilient than I look.” You gave the Harbingers and the twins the most reassuring smile you could muster

You turned your attention back to the gem and mentally prepared yourself. You finally expended your hand and touched the Primogem

A flash of light enveloped you and…

Nothing happened

You looked around the room to see if anything was out of place, except for the gem being gone

“D-did the Primogem vanish?” You asked mainly to yourself

“It looked as if it had fused with you.” Aether replied

“How do you feel, is there anything out of usual?” Lumine asked

“Not that different. If the rock didn’t fuse with me I would’ve assumed it didn’t work.”

“It appears to be that these ‘Primogems’ have a lot less power than what we originally believed.” Pantalone muttered to himself

“If that’s the case, then I’ll put an order on searching these gems.” The Tsarita declared

─────────── ✧ ───────────

Things at the Grand Narukami Shrine have been… tense, to say the least

Everyone is so agitated at the news of an imposter still loose somewhere. It really isn’t a desirable environment to read light novels. But the Guuji is having much more fun listening to the shrine maidens expressing their concerns about the possibility of said impostor in their humble nation

“I’m just saying, where else would that rat go than here!” The shrine maiden Nana said

“It would be very foolish on their part, the Shogun and her army would immediately drive them out!” Hotomi scoffed

“Enough of that nonsense.”

The two shrine maiden turned towards the sound of the voice and saw the Shogun walking into view

“Al-almighty Shogun, we’re honored that you visited us, is there anything we can do for you!” Hotomi stammered through

“Leave, and tell everyone you see here to do the same.” The purple haired woman said

The two women run towards the stairs scared of the wrath they might face if they stall any longer

Once seeing that the shrine was truly empty the Shogun turned towards the youkai, who was enjoying her tea

“My, my, that was a little harsh to scare them away like that.” The Kitsune mused while standing up from her seat. “Seeing you here, I would assume you have something important to tell me.”

The head shrine maiden walked towards the taller woman

“So what do you have to tell me, puppet?”

─────────── ✧ ───────────

Taglist:

@chuuya-brainrot @creation-magician @transbirboi @tartarsaucechi1de @vvyeislazzy @kokomisimpppp @aludicpoet @undecidingfate @annoying-mary @randomnatics @ventixthexanemoxarchon @bore2808 @lizzheartz @bidisasterforevermore @dxprived4-starboys @angstylittleb1tch

If anyone wants to be on the taglist then say so

─────────── ✧ ───────────

Taglist:

@chuuya-brainrot @creation-magician @transbirbboi @tartarsaucechi1de @vvyeislazzy @kokomisimpppp @aludicpoet @undecidingfate @annoying-mary @randomnatics @ventixthexanemoxarchon @bore2808 @lizzhearthz @bidisasterforevermore @dxprived4-starboys @angstylittleb1tch

#genshin fanfic #genshin sagau #genshin imposter au #self aware genshin #genshin cult au #sagau #imposter sagau #sagau lumine #sagau aether #sagau childe #sagau fatui harbingers #sagau pierro #sagau pulcinella #sagau capitano #sagau pantalone #sagau sandrone

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homomenhommes · 3 months

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … January 19

1863 – Ogden Codman, Jr. was an American architect and interior decorator in the Beaux-Arts styles, and co-author with Edith Wharton of The Decoration of Houses (1897).

Codman spent his youth from 1875 to 1884 at Dinard, an American resort colony in France, and on returning to America in 1884, studied at the MIT. Wharton became one of his first Newport clients for her home there, Land's End. Subsequently she introduced Codman to Cornelius Vanderbilt II, who hired him to design the second and third floor rooms of his Newport summer home, The Breakers.

In 1907, Codman built the Codman-Davis House in Washington, D.C. for his cousin Martha Codman, one of the few intact homes that he designed. This included a carriage house, now the Apex Night Club, ironically a gay club.

Although a noted homosexual, on 8 October, 1904, Codman married one of his commissioners, Leila Griswold Webb, widow of railroad magnate H. Walter Webb, who died unexpectedly in 1910.

In 1920, Codman left New York to return to France, where he spent the rest of his life at the Château de Grégy, wintering at Villa Leopolda in Villefranche-sur-Mer: it is his masterpiece, the fullest surviving expression of his esthetic.

1897 – The Missouri Supreme Court upholds a conviction for assault to commit sodomy of a St. Louis police officer who attempted sodomy with another male after threatening to arrest him unless he accompanied him to a lumber yard, where the attempt was made.

1900 – An Ohio newspaper reports that a man was arrested for sex with his 13-year-old male companion. Both claim that the younger partner's mother "gave" him to the other.

Ray Stevens & Pat Paterson (R)

1941 – Born: Pierre Clermont, better known by his ring name Pat Patterson, was a Canadian former professional wrestler (d.2020). Pat was 17 when he started wrestling. He soon became one of the biggest names in the sixties and seventies. He worked for WWE as a creative consultant. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996.

Outside of the wrestling ring, Pat was really timid and shy. He was soft-spoken, with a cute French accent. Surprisingly, Pat was a former altar boy and candidate for the priesthood. He was a deeply religious man.

Pat Patterson debuted in Montreal, Quebec in 1958 as "Pretty Boy" Pat Patterson, an effeminate wrestler who wore red lipstick and pink trunks and was accompanied by his pet Poodle.

A Young Pat Patterson

Patterson wrestled frequently for affiliates of the National Wrestling Alliance throughout the 1960s, and was a ten time tag team champion in San Francisco with a variety of partners. His most famous pairing was with Ray Stevens, the two of them forming the heel tag team, the Blond Bombers.

Patterson was openly gay, although he had never stated so. It is rumored that Pat and Gerald Brisco, another of his wrestling partners, were lovers. In 1992, Patterson was accused of sexual harassment by former ring announcer Murray Hodgson and released from the company until the charges were dropped, when he was promptly rehired. After dropping the charges, Hodgson's attorney referred to Hodgson as "a lifelong con man."

In August 2006, Patterson underwent emergency heart surgery. In October, Patterson recovered from his operation and was released from the hospital.

On June 12, 2014, Patterson officially "came out" on TV. The video link is below:

youtube

Although Patterson was openly gay, having come out in the 1970s, his sexual orientation was never directly acknowledged on television until 2014 when he spoke about it on a WWE-produced reality TV show.

Louie Dondero, Patterson's longtime partner of 40 years, died of a heart attack in 1998. Patterson himself died in December 2020.

1950 – Randy Price is a television newscaster with WCVB-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, after being the lead anchor at WHDH-TV from 1998 to 2009. He is considered the U.S.'s first openly gay newscaster.

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Price attended Louisiana State University, where he began his broadcasting career in college radio, which continued with a stint in the U.S. Air Force, with Price working for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.

He worked in television in Bakersfield, California (KERO-TV) and Toledo, Ohio (WTVG), before moving to Boston's WBZ-TV in 1983 where he anchored for 12 years. He left WBZ in 1995 due to alcohol problems which included a drunk driving conviction.

Price joined WHDH-TV in 1996 as a freelance reporter, and in 1997 was made a full-time anchor. He moved into the morning anchor chair and then was promoted to anchor the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. On February 6, 2009, Price was let go from WHDH-TV. His last newscast was on Wednesday, February 4, 2009. On February 7, 2009 The Boston Globe quoted Price that station owner, Edmund Ansin, had told him "we need to move in different directions."

On June 2, 2009, Price was named morning anchor at WCVB-TV, Channel 5 in Boston.

Price is openly gay and on January 3, 2007 he married longtime partner Mark Steffen in a ceremony on the steps of the Massachusetts State House in Boston, Massachusetts. They live in Kittery, Maine.

The Johns Committee in session

1959 – On this date investigators summoned the University of Florida Geography professor Sigmund Diettrich to the Manor Motel in Gainesville, Florida for "interviewing". Soon after, he was fired from his job and lost the life he loved as a beloved teacher and dean. He attempted suicide the same day he was let go from U.F. Hundreds of other professors and students across the state were also terminated or expelled because of their sexuality. Many people are familiar with the McCarthy hearings but do not realize that Florida had its own committee designed to weed out communism and homosexual activity. State Senator Charley Johns started the investigations to "protect Florida's children."

The Johns Committee pursued people in academic institutions, courthouse bathrooms and bus stations. The committee's investigators went so far as tapping phones in motels, interrogating children as young as 10, and breaking up a teenage girl's slumber party looking for evidence of moral misconduct. In 1993 more than 30,000 pages of secret documents became public, including a University of Florida administrator's statement that there was no way to prevent Gay men from lingering in university bathrooms "unless you pour sulfuric acid on the floor to make people go fast."

1982 – Pete Buttigieg is an American politician and candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election. He is the first openly gay person to seek the Democratic nomination, and has built his campaign around the idea of generational change. He launched his campaign on April 14, 2019, after forming an exploratory committee in January. Initially considered a long shot, he gained significant momentum in mid-2019 when he participated in several town halls, forums, and debates. As of December 2019, several media outlets consider him one of four "top-tier candidates".

Buttigieg served as the 32nd mayor of South Bend, Indiana from January 2012 to January 2020. Before running for office, he worked on the political campaigns of Democrats Jill Long Thompson, Joe Donnelly, and John Kerry. He was defeated in the 2010 election for Indiana State Treasurer before being elected mayor of South Bend, Indiana the following year, becoming the youngest mayor of a city with a population of over 100,000. In 2015, Buttigieg publicly came out as gay. Later that year, he was reelected with over 80% of the vote. In 2017, he ran for chair of the Democratic National Committee.

From 2009 to 2017, he served as a naval intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant. In 2014, he was deployed to Afghanistan for seven months and was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal and the Joint Meritorious Unit Award. From 2007 to 2010, he worked as a consultant at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Buttigieg is a graduate of Harvard College and Oxford University. He attended the latter on a Rhodes Scholarship.

In a June 2015 piece in the South Bend Tribune, Buttigieg came out as gay. By coming out, Buttigieg became Indiana's first openly gay elected executive. He was the first elected official in Indiana to come out while in office, and the highest elected official in Indiana to come out. Buttigieg is also the first openly gay Democratic presidential candidate, and the second overall, after Republican Fred Karger, who ran in 2012.

In December 2017, Buttigieg announced his engagement to Chasten Glezman, a junior high school teacher. They had been dating since August 2015 after meeting on the dating app Hinge. They were married on June 16, 2018, in a private ceremony at the Episcopalian Cathedral of St. James. As of April 2019 Chasten uses his husband's surname, Buttigieg.

Buttigieg announced that he and his husband had become parents on August 17, 2021. Buttigieg announced that they had adopted two newborn fraternal twins on September 4, 2021.

In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a watershed moment in the LGBTQ rights movement, Queerty named him one of its "Pride50" people identified as "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people."

President-elect Biden named Buttigieg as his nominee for Secretary of Transportation in December 2020. His nomination was confirmed on February 2, 2021, by a vote of 86–13, making him the first openly gay Cabinet secretary in U.S. history. Nominated at age 38, he is also the youngest Cabinet member in the Biden administration and the youngest person ever to serve as Secretary of Transportation.

2004 – Ian Iqbal Rashid releases his movie Touch of Pink. Multi-talented Rashid is a poet, screenwriter and filmmaker known in particular for his volumes of poetry, for the BBC TV series This Life and the feature films Touch of Pink and How She Move.

Of Indian ancestry and Ismaili Muslim religion, Rashid's family lived in colonial East Africa for generations. Ian was born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Different years of birth are given for Rashid in different sources, but academic work gives the year as 1968. In 1970, his family was forced to leave Tanzania. After failing to secure asylum in the UK and US, they settled in Toronto.

Rashid began his career as an arts journalist and critic and events programmer, particularly focussed on South Asian diasporic, Muslim and LGBTQ cultural work.

In the early 1990s, Rashid returned to London, Britain, where he lives today with his partner, the writer, curator, and academic Peter Ride.

In the late 1980s, Rashid was a regular contributor to the Canadian LGBT magazine Rites. Rashid published his first poetry collection, Black Markets, White Boyfriends and Other Acts of Elision, in 1991. Two more followed: the chapbook Song of Sabu in 1993 and The Heat Yesterday in 1995.

His poems "Another Country", "Could Have Danced All Night", "Hot Property" and "Early Dinner, Weekend Away" appear in John Barton and Billeh Nickerson's 2007 anthology Seminal: The Anthology of Canada's Gay Male Poets, and others were included in the 2009 anthology Forbidden Sex, Forbidden Texts: New India's Gay Poets.

Self-taught as a film-maker, in 1991, Rashid made the short film Bolo Bolo! with Kaspar Saxena. The film, part of an HIV/AIDS cable access series called Toronto Living With AIDS, resulted in the series being pulled from Rogers Television after complaints about sexually suggestive content, though it had a long and healthy life at film festivals.

Rashid went on to write two award-winning short films, Surviving Sabu (1999), and Stag (2001).

Touch of Pink, Rashid's first feature film, spent 12 years in development. In 2003, he finally had the chance to direct the project as a Canada-UK co-production. It premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim, a bidding war, and eventually, a sale to Sony Picture Classics. The film has attracted extensive scholarly commentary.

How She Move received a similar reception at Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Rashid in 2007, the film is set in the world of step dancing. It was nominated for a Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize and purchased by Paramount Vantage. The film opened to positive reviews and strong box office.

Rashid began working as a writer in UK television in the late 1990s. His credits include the soap London Bridge (Carlton Television for ITV) and the cult hit BBC2 series This Life, for which he received the Writer's Guild of England award.

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historicrad39a · 10 months

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1. The Raid

Sector -300 +145, +36 full rotations and 8 deci-rotations - ~287ly from Ka’Lagrath space

Ka’Laxi was standing on the bridge of the Eclipse. His ship was the flagship of the 1st raider fleet tasked with raiding the a system under the control of a small interstellar alliance.

The Ka’Lagrath didn’t have what could be considered a proper invasion fleet - their navy was comprised of several smaller raiding fleets. This was inline with standard naval doctrine of the time - fighting a massive war hundreds of light years away from your supply lines was seriously difficult. Thus, standard naval doctrine was extremely simple: Raid civilian or softer military targets, Take hostages, and extort the ever living hell out of the enemy civilization in exchange for the hostages. What few interstellar nations existed at the time all used similar tactics.

Ka’Laxi had many orbital “laps” worth of experience. He was considered to be the best of the best, he had effectively bullied several neighboring nations into giving up resources, territory, and even independence itself. Today would be no different, this small interstellar alliance was comprised of two neighboring species whose home worlds were only some 20 odd light years apart. This occurrence was considered extremely unlikely, as in most instances of this occurring in the past, only one nation had FTL capable craft - and habitable planets were desired enough as to make Xenocide the obvious choice.

Based on this information, the two species were thought to be pacifistic in nature. In other words: easy pickings. With this in mind Ka’Laxi was confident that the Alliance fleet - a fleet comprised largely of training vessels at that - would surrender almost immediately upon the beginning of the engagement.

“Exiting Rift-space now,” reported one of the officers.

“Very good,” Ka’Laxi replied. The haunting nebulae-like appearance of Rift-space was interrupted by a tunnel of streaking lights that gave way to real space as the Eclipse decelerated to sublight velocities. Before them was an average G-type star orbited by several planets. Orbiting the closest planet - about 51 light seconds away - was what was thought to be a military installation for training new naval crews. Why the alliance would put their training camp 72 light years from their home systems was unclear, but all that mattered was that the target would be soft.

The Ka’Lani drive reactivated, and by bending space around the ships, the fleet would make pace to arrive at the station in about 1 deci-rotation (~3hrs).

One Deci-rotation later, and the fleet was about to arrive. The destination lock activated, and the fleet was ‘dropped’ about 30km away from the station. An alliance ship immediately hailed the fleet. The Ka’Lagrath weren’t able to fully decode the language(s) used by the alliance, but they knew enough to “negotiate” with them. But unfortunately, of all the words used in the ship’s hail, the Ka’Lagrath only knew one: “business.”

“Begin attack,” Ka’Laxi ordered. The two pods either side of the bridge opened, revealing the end of the launching rail of their main rail gun armament. A deep, whirring noise built up for a moment before being released as the slugs from the two main guns fired towards the station. 5 seconds later, the left-hand wing of the station exploded violently - evidently they had hit the station’s fuel storage. The alliance ships seemed to get angry - they began hurling canon and plasma rounds in the direction of the fleet.

Had they not realized that plasma rounds are ineffective against most naval ships? Ka’Laxi wondered. In any case, while they weren’t initially expecting the Alliance to start fighting back, it wasn’t entirely unexpected either. All they had to do was destroy a few more ships and they would most likely surrender.

Interestingly, in the chaos, two Alliance ships immediately fled to Rift-space. Ka’Laxi was unsure if this was simply cowardice, or if they were attempting to get reinforcements. Whichever it was, it wouldn’t matter. Once they had hostages, no amount of ships would be enough to stop them.

The alliance ships got aggressive. One by one their comrades’ ships were forcibly and violently depressurized, and they had nothing to show for it - despite being outnumbered nearly 9 to 1, not one of the [species]’ 15 ships had so much as had their paint scratched. The alliance ships seemed to realize this, as scanners indicated that their plasma rounds were getting hotter - implying that the alliance ships were dumping more power into their weapons.

“Fools,” Ka’Laxi muttered, “when will they realize that they cannot so much as scratch us?” He let out a long sigh, “continue the attack.” One might almost feel bad for how poorly the Alliance was being beaten, yet they refused to give up. Ka’Laxi admired that tenacity, even if in the end it would be for naught.

“Sir?” An officer chimed.

“Yes?” Responded Ka’Laxi.

“Scans indicate that engine exhaust temperatures are rising on the alliance ships,” the officer reported.

“Are they attempting to flee?”

“N-no, they seem to be-“ the normally red face of the officer went blue as it drained of blood. As Ka’Laxi looked at the sensor array, his face, too, went blue.

“They’re… charging straight for us??” As if operated by a single mind, all 105 remaining alliance ships turned in unison towards the fleet and began to charge at them. The ship’s speed rose, three hundred, four hundred, even five hundred meters per second. At this rate, the Alliance ships would be on top of them in around 50 seconds.

“Intensify forward firepower!!” Ka’Laxi barked. The Alliance’s weapons were ineffective at range, but there was no guarantee that would remain the case in close-quarters combat. Ka’Laxi was baffled by the Alliance’s actions, getting in close to your opponent was suicide in a naval battle - by most standards, even 25-30km was way too close, and within 5km was considered suicide. But at present, the Alliance ships were eighteen, no, seventeen kilometers away - and they showed no signs of stopping.

At a distance of 5 kilometers, several Alliance ships broke off, and began a gentle dive away from the formation. The Alliance ships were not even firing their weapons at this point, they simply allowed the 1st raider fleet to score numerous hits and destroy multiple vessels without fighting back.

Before he realized it, the Alliance ships were swarming his fleet - flying by at hundreds of meters per second as they surrounded them on all sides. Ka’Laxi didn’t even have time to think before-

BANG

The entire ship shuddered. The hull squealed and screamed as if in agony while the lights repeatedly flickered.

“Report!” Ka’Laxi barked. His officers did not even have time to respond before another resounding bang shook the entire hull. He could hear the screeching noise of metal on metal, something on the Eclipse was being torn apart. The lights flickered one last time as the power died for good. All that remained were the red emergency lights, radio, and a rudimentary radar.

“N-Numerous Alliance ships have made contact with us, and the other ships are reporting the same,” one officer reported. They are ramming us? As Ka’Laxi recalled, ramming was used in the early days of Naval warfare on his home planet, but as technology advanced, ramming became an outdated tactic. Ramming in modern Naval battles - those set in the vacuum of space - were completely unheard of. Getting close enough to ram was suicide, yet the Alliance was doing just that.

“We’ve lost contact with the engine room!” Another officer reported, “the entire engine room seems to just be… gone,” he continued.

Ka’Laxi’s eyes widened as he saw one of the Alliance ships right in front of him - charging at full speed.

“Brace!” He yelled, but he was too late. The bridge let out a massive groan as it shuddered from the impact, and everyone in it was thrown to the ground. The reinforced glass windows were fractured, and several appeared to be leaking air. But Ka’Laxi was unconcerned with that at the moment. He, along with anyone else who was presently conscious, were all focused on the window in front of them.

He could see into the bridge of the Alliance ship. On it, he could see individuals from one of the two species that comprised the Alliance - those who called themselves “Humans” - running around frantically. They didn’t even evacuate?? Ka’Laxi was in shock. These things were reckless - they were monsters. Ka’Laxi was terrified of them.

The Alliance ships that had previously been maintaining contact with the Eclipse suddenly broke away. Ka’Laxi hadn’t the time to speculate as to why, before he heard the sound of screeching metal followed by rushing air before-

Silence

Ka’Laxi was disoriented, his body was tumbling freely in perfect silence. He tried to take in a breath, only to find he could not. Then he felt pain - one side of him was boiling, while the other was freezing. Blood vessels near the surface of his dark-red skin burst, spewing his red blood into countless tiny droplets.

Below him was a hunk of metal that had been split in half - one he barely recognized as the remains of his flagship, the Eclipse. Surrounding him on all sides was a perfectly dark sphere with innumerable pinpoints of light. He had been ejected from his now devastated craft, and he was tumbling endlessly in the vacuum of space.

His consciousness began to fade. But before it did, he saw one last sight - engines. The engines an Alliance ship expelling bright white exhaust. Unlike his own ship which had been utterly destroyed, the Alliance ship appeared to suffer little more than cosmetic damage.

They had lost. More than that, they could never win. If the Alliance so wished it, the Ka’Lagrath would go extinct - wiped off the face of the universe. They had been Naïve.

It was with these thoughts in mind that Ka’Laxi’s consciousness faded - never to rise again.

I hope you enjoyed this story. It’s my first time publishing something I’ve written so I’m nervous about posting it, but if even one of y’all enjoyed it, it’ll be worth it. I have more ideas set in this universe, so if people like it, I’d be willing to write more about what happens after this ill-fated raid.

I’ve been Rad, and thank you for reading :D

Read the next entry here

#humans are space orcs #humans are deathworlders #hfy #humanity fuck yeah #sci fi writing #my writing #scifi #reddit refugee #first writing

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ned7-what-now · 3 months

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In political news today for the nation of Tumblr; the neo-pagan reactionary feminist party gained an astonishing 4% among the female demographic between the ages of 18-34 years. While the cottagecore urban forest party has lost 8%. In parliament, both the neo-luddite 3rd position and the dark anarcho-orthodox party have agreed to an alliance to stonewall efforts by the ruling anti-theist hedonist party to prevent a bill going through that would allow animal testing for non-medical products. Opponents of the bill have called the measure "gay and very cringe". And now to Thomas with the sports.

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mofffun · 6 months

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Rita manga summary + differences from the show

Ch1: (timeline: during ep4. Rita is in the Racles spin-off between ep 2 &3. ch10 established ch2-9 is Rita's memories of ep1)

Morfonia was crying for help, led to intro fight scene out-of-suit. ep5 intro speech.

After a trial, staffers approached Rita with different problems. Rita directed them to make the prisoners fill up holes from Bugnarok attacks and use next year's budget in advance for repairs.

Moru handed Rita a report on percedents and Rita noted she fell asleep during the trial. Rita insisted to investigate this next case on their own and Moru wondered their refusal is because they were hiding something, like finally buying new weapons for Gokkan.

Disappointed, Moru urged Rita to think of better solutions for the Bugnarok problem instead of overworking, to which Rita replied, "Protecting the country is the duty of the king."

Moru reflected that while other kings were headstrong, so was theirs.

Rita picked up a piece of paper and turned to their room. They refused to share with Moru what's on their mind. Moru asked what should she do with the piling paperwork and Rita said they'll figure it out later. Rita asked Moru to leave because they were going to get changed.

Moru thought Rita seemed different since the day of the Quintet Alliance. Behind the door, Rita unzipped their mask and read Gira's wanted poster.

Ch2 & 3: retelling of ep1 up to Yanma leaving the meeting. Says ep1 happened one month before start of the manga.

Rita asked Moru to record the meeting just in case, they had a bad feeling about this. Moru yawned and put their phone on the floor to Rita's annoyance.

Yanma walked away and Rita stopped him. Added internal monologue: Rita doesn't want the treaty to fall apart now after everything. Rita tightened their grip on their sword as they figured Bugnarok could reawaken any minute now.

Ch4: direct retelling, bugnarok attack + 🦋🌼🐝 henshin

Ch5: fight scene. Himeno got in the way of Rita's shot. Rita pondered on how come the kings can't unite as one in face of the bugnarok threat. They remembered Karras's teaching: "It is Gokkan's duty to connect the nations with the law."

Gira is saved by Rita from a falling rubble. He questioned where had Racles and his royal army gone and rushed towards the castle. (In the show, Himeno questioned Racles's whereabouts and thus prompted Gira to find him)

Reminded, Rita contacted Morfonia who was hiding in the temp shelter near the castle. She refused to go near it even before Rita told her to locate Racles. Turned out Morfonia forgot the king's hotline inside the throne room and she asked Rita check it out themself by connecting to it.

Ch6: Rita witnessed Gira and Racles's confrontation from "It's Yanma Gast who started this" to Gira taking the sword + evil king speech. (this is on video record)

The signal fizzled after Racles declared war so Rita headed towards the castle. They are blocked from access by the castle's biometric security. Morfonia came to find them and showed them Gira's tyrant speech.

There is a detransformation jingle/slogan: 王武解放 (~ ou bu kai hou) lit. release of royal arms

Ch7 & 8: Gira henshin and summoned King-Ohger.

Rita moved to bring Gira in for questioning but the Shugoddom guards surrounded him first. Racles, in his floating TV, asked "Your Honour, International Supreme Chief Justice" to arrest the traitor Gira in the name of Chikyuu's order.

(國際最高裁判長殿. '-tono' is an antiqudated suffix that is only used ino official documents nowadays. In history, it meant respect for those above you but nowadays it's used by the higher-rank to address those lower politely. Genderless, lower than '-sama'.)

Ch9: Racles issued a warrant for Gira but Yanma stole him first. The Alliance Day completely fell apart for Rita. They remembered that they were chosen as the previous king's retainer at 5. Rita scream.

Ch10: flashback. Rita was lying on the floor hugging two medium moffuns.

Karras told Rita to become strong to fulfill the duty of Gokkan: to connect the nations with the law.

"Since that day, my storybooks became judgements and codes of law."

Rita was appointed king by the will of Karras at 10 and their first case was to put her killer on a life sentence. (note: Karras and Shiron are not named in the manga)

Since then, Rita never played like a child again. It's either the court or the prison, day after day, year after year. They gave everything to uphold Gokkan's mission.

But now everyone…

Rita Bean Theatre in their imagination:

"Moffun, how come that man can trasform? Not only that, he can summon the King-Ohger from legends too!

Only those qualified to be king should be able to transform… That Racles even gave me an order… (imaginary Racles: Wounldn't you be so kind to lend me your help?)

Death penalty.

You are mixing in your personal feelings…

I know…"

Rita cheered themself up through Moffun and decided to uphold their duty despite couldn't figure out why everything went wrong.

Morfonia knocked on the door, a video call from Racles. Rita said they knew what Racles was going to say and told Morfonia to turn him down because they were leaving.

Rita departed to Toufu for Gira's arrest.

#rita kaniska #rita manga #kingohger #ohsama sentai king ohger #rita of gokkan #long post

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