#Cipher talk

[bijoumikhawal]

Is that queer man being femme actually problematic or are you incapable of seeing a guy with long hair and nail polish enjoy himself. Is it problematic or do you just privilege the opinion of masc gay men above everyone else. Why is it bad to be femme. Why is it a "demeaning stereotype". Why can you accept a nonbinary butch lesbian but not a femme fag (important to note: a lot of people can't accept either).

Also, the follow up: is that a man being femme or do you just not give a fuck about nonbinary people

[razzafrazzle]

Just Checking In! (aka Something About Red Triangles)

[stemmmm]

bad youtube clickbait thumbnail that reads "I think I just had a therapy session with a DEMON???"

[bijoumikhawal]

Funds for Haiti and Haitian Americans

A Haitian American woman with long Covid and her daughter with cancer have both been struggling to raise funds that would help them during their illnesses. Both of them live in the Midwest, which is where a lot of the most recent fear mongering has been centered.

COJEHA is a Haitian organization that provides financial support for youth, teaches agricultural skills, helps ensure children attend school, and teaches other soft life skills. They're working on building a farm with fish and vegetable crops where teaching occurs, which will also increase local access to fresh food.

P4H Global is the organization that has been working on building the canal connected to the Massacre River, another agricultural project. They have also been working to support education in Haiti, with both teachers and students.

The Haitian Community Center in Springfield, Ohio. Springfield's food bank, community health center, and a local Catholic organization that provides aid are also accepting donations.

Richard Pierrin is a journalist who has had to flee Haiti and is trying to get a visa that will allow him to work, and that doesn't end after 3 months.

Marc Henry and his family have been dealing with food insecurity for months, and are trying to get funds so they can eat, as well as supplies like livestock and fishing equipment so they can sustain themselves even after the fundraiser is done. They're close to their goal.

An elderly couple's home was damaged multiple times over the last few years and they are trying to raise funds to finish construction. They are also very close to their goal.

A fundraiser for children in Jacmel to provide food, water, and clothes.

A fund for several families to secure plane tickets out of the country

OTRAH is an organization that helps trans Haitians and wants to expand their services to combat HIV. They don't have a gofundme, instead donations are discussed over email.

There is also this thread of Haitian gofundmes which updates fairly regularly

This document explaining the leadup to where we are now also names some organizations that could use financial support

[bijoumikhawal]

Fundraisers for Sudan

Funding for food at the Kassab IDP camp

The Save El Geneina initiative, which provides food and education/childcare to refugees in Chad

Evacuation fund organized by a friend of mine for 15 families trying to get out of Darfur

Food aid for Sudanese refugees in Cairo, who urgently need it as they face discrimination in Egypt

The Khartoum Aid Kitchen, a program supporting 10 kitchens that feeds thousands of people in the greater Khartoum area

The relocation and potential evacuation of an extended family consisting of at least 33 people

The Sudanese American Physician Association, which has been supporting hospitals and medical professionals in Sudan

The Darfur Women's Action Group (Darfur being a region with a higher Black Non-Arab population)

Two initiatives aimed at distributing menstrual hygiene products to people in Sudan

Hometax, a trusted on the ground org

Aid for the Gorom Refugee Camp in South Sudan, handled by a refugee led program

A continually updated thread on Twitter of even more gofundmes

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Hurricane Helene Relief Funds

Brother Wolf Animal Rescue operates out of Asheville, which has been hit aggressively by storm and flood damage

The Asheville Survival Program is reaching out. They appear to actually be the ones who use the Cashapp $Streets1de, and they just got put with Appalachian Med for convenience.

Beloved Asheville is reaching out. www.PayPal.me/belovedasheville and venmo.com/beloved-asheville

Homeward Bound helps the homeless in the Asheville/Buncombe area

Theres a fund for smaller rural communities around Asheville. It's close to its goal, but I really wish they'd set it higher considering what people are gonna need. Someone make sure they surpass it!

Charlotte NC is reaching out. Charlotte Mutual Aid: Helene Disaster Relief. CashApp: MutualAid704. Venmo: MutualAid704. Open Collective: Helene.cltfnb.com

Olive Branch Ministry is reaching out from West NC

Josh Griffith is fundraising for his efforts to deliver food in WNC

Breathitt County in Kentucky is fundraising to help NC through the Rousseau Volunteer Fire Department, as well as asking for physical supply donations. Their paypal is jrousseauvfd, put "for NC flood". Jaxon Flower shop in Jackson KY will also take physical donations. They aren't looking for clothes, moreso cleaning supplies and other items.

North Durham Mutual Aid is reaching out.

Eastern Kentucky Mutual Aid is also reaching out for funds. There looks like there might be two orgs with similar names, but if so both are helping. There's PayPal.me/ekymutualaid, Venmo - @ekymutualaid, or Cashapp - $ekymutualaid. There's also a Facebook group where individuals are posting requests for aid.

There's a fund for relief in Erwin, Tennessee

Helbender Harm Reduction is collecting physical supplies in Knoxville alongside First Aid Collective Knoxille, whose Cashapp/Venmo is: $firstaidcollectknox. If you're nearby they're looking for clothes, blankets, shelf stable food, rain gear, flashlights, and batteries, which is what most other groups asking for supplies are looking at too.

The TriCities Mutual Aid group is mostly asking for volunteers and supplies in the Tennessee/Virginia area. However, they may shift to donations, and you can reach out to them to see if they would be welcome either way.

Food Not Bombs Tallahassee has a cashapp: $fnbtally2022. They and Mutual Aid Athens are also boosting any community calls for funds, labor, or supplies in various states on their Instagram pages

Taylor County FL is reaching out. Paypal: Mskatonic138@gmail.com and Venmo @Mskatonic138

The Footprint project's Florida team is asking for people to support their response by texting HELENE to 44-321

Since I don't know if the post I made late last night will get traction I'll reiterate that Mutual Aid Disaster Relief is a trusted org. You can send funds at the linked site, or via Paypal: MutualAidDisasterRelief@gmail.com Or Venmo: @MutualAidDisasterRelief

Appalachian Med is another trusted org I shared last night. They have Venmo: @AppMedSolid. Put Flood Support in the description

Animal Disaster Relief Coalition is helping people make sure their animals are fed.

A list of Mutual Aid groups can be found here

A friend of mine, Vyn, is asking for help since he'll be out of power for around a week in Southeast GA

Other physical supplies people will be looking for in flood impacted areas include:

bottled water, potentially water filters

personal hygiene items: wipes, camping showers, tampons/pads/other menstrual products, handsanitizer, mosquito spray, laundry detergent, washboards, toilet paper, diapers, and especially any products safe for sensitive skin

medications- ibuprofen, monistat and other meds for yeast infections, cold and cough meds, any diabetic meds that can be safely shared, etc

individually wrapped low or no prep food items, baby formula, and Gatorade

duffel bags, backpacks, heavy duty storage totes and trash bags, 5 gallon buckets, coolers

Fans, dehumidifiers, moisture sensors, generators, gas and gas cans, solar charging items and battery banks, first aid kits

chainsaws, crowbars, hammers, air filters, respirators, 2×4 planks, bleach, roofing nails, heavy duty gloves, and potentially waders.

and board games or other non electric activities for children

Double check if you can before you donate these items to make sure whatever local drive you're headed to wants them and can distribute the more specialized ones where they're needed

And please! Add any funds you know of, especially for South Carolina and North Georgia since I wasn't seeing many funds for those areas! I know South Carolina is in desperate need and there's definitely parts of North Georgia in need too. Atlanta saw some bad flooding so keep an eye for them too!

[bijoumikhawal]

another Haiti news round up-

The US and the rest of the CORE group are not only continuing the invasion plan supported by the US and the Dominican Republic, they are explicitly aiming to rewrite the constitution. This has unfortunately happened multiple times in Haitian history. This article has been recommended on the subject.

The deportations of Haitians from the Dominican Republic have continued, and have had a massive negative impact on the local economy.

People are being crammed into deportation centers with terrible conditions.

In tandem, the US is also continuing to deport Haitians.

Additionally, the US ambassador to Haiti has admitted to having contact with prominent gang leaders. This not only arouses suspicion about the nature of this contact, it is a blatant example of imbalance and suppression. Haitian journalists cannot interview members of gangs without risking arrest. Many of the gangs in Haiti are also former police/military, and the discussion about "stabilizing" the country via outside intervention typically ignores that the gangs themselves have ties to the would be "stabilizers". These gangs often procure weapons and training from countries like the US, and gang violence has been increasing.

The sharing of photos or videos of violence is also now being censored. This means that Haitians can now be punished for recording evidence of crimes committed against them. This is being framed like it will impact the public promotion of gang violence, as many post about their crimes online, but many Haitians are doubtful that it will be anything other than censorship.

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Screenshots that look like Garak is astonished by men's genitals out of context

[bijoumikhawal]

Cardassian fashion headcanons

Visible closures (zippers, buttons, ties, etc) are considered unbelievably slutty, especially if there are a lot of then or they're large

Cleavage is not, it's just considered feminine. While Cardassians do not have "boobs" in a mammalian sense, Cardassian women still have bigger chests due to larger pectoral muscles and fat reserves. Cardassian women who look stronger are the beauty standard. So actually, even though Natima is considered too slender, she could probably throw Quark.

However, exposing your chula is a little slutty. Tastefully. More appropriate for evening wear. Wearing a boob window that hides the chula is more modest than having a low neckline that exposes it.

Exposing your neckridges does have some Implications, but not as much as you'd expect. Using makeup on more than a 2-4 scales on the other hand is akin to wearing red lipstick and red nail polish

Higher necklines and long sleeves are preferred for anyone working with "outsiders", which is usually something Cardassian men do. This is for temperature reasons and because letting an outsider see too much of even a living Cardassian body is frowned upon.

Jackets double as a way of covering a person's face after they have died suddenly and if no appropriate length of cloth was available. For a long time, Cardassians wore an outer robe that could fully be used as a shroud for this purpose, but long robes gradually fell out of fashion.

In the Cardassian Union, going shirtless with high-waisted pants, regardless of gender, is more acceptable than wearing low waisted bottoms with a shirt that can't meet them. This is because the stomach is close to the chuva, and some Cardassians essentially tattoo their stomachs* for private titillation. Low waisted clothes in general aren't held in high esteem.

These markings are also done partially for superstitious reasons, not that most Cardassians will admit it when someone who isn't Cardassian could hear it. Such marks are believed to help with fertility issues and "trap" your partners eye.

Most Cardassians wear undershirts, and. exposing these is also slutty. It ranges from "tasteful" (your jacket or tunic being cut so a little of the undershirt peeks out) to "you are getting fined for indecency" (most of the undershirt is visible, its sheer, its decorated so you'll stare, etc). Garak having his jacket open so you can see his shiny moire undershirt in Rocks and Shoals would be considered very inappropriate.

Wearing clothes that are very obviously made of pieced fabric (remnants seamed together when you don't have quite enough fabric) or are color blocked are considered fashionable, as they publicly declare one's frugality and therefore patriotism. However, too much piecing, as seen in quilts, is often considered too showy. It may still show up in clothes for special occasions.

Cardassians dye their nails and skin sometimes, but most prefer to use powders today as they take less time to apply. Nail polish is considered some combination of annoying and unclean. Dyeing the nails is more common than dyeing the skin. Dyeing the lips is also done.

The dyes used are not usually dangerous to ingest (though they don't taste good), and it used to be fashionable for Cardassians to dye their teeth by chewing on them or holding in a mouthful of dye for a few minutes. Purple dye was imported from Bajor pre-Occupation and was used as a sign of status and worldliness. Blue dye was used by courtesans. Black was used to signify masculinity. This petered out as the practice was gradually considered extravagant, wasteful, and too provocative. The mouth, as the site of speech, is considered borderline sacred by Cardassians, which both encouraged and discouraged this practice.

Similarly cosmetic whitening of teeth is considered weird, and arguably more inappropriate than dyeing them.

Single women who are looking for a partner often wear layers of taffeta skirts or petticoats sewn with bells. While Cardassian hearing is poor, these are still noticeable, and the dampening makes them more socially acceptable, because they are less noticeable.

Married and working women often wear a metal chatelaine at their waist that also makes noise, but fact that it is visible signals they are not interested in being approached romantically. A working woman who is looking for a partner keeps her keys and other supplies in a pocket or petticoat with an access slit. The latter allows the chatelaine to still jangle. Noise making jewelry that can be seen is generally worn by uninterested women, and is understood as a warning.

Working men sometimes also wear chatelaines, but these are made of wood. Noise is not used to signify relationship status by men, partially because wearing metal is considered somewhat feminine among civilians.

Purely decorative waist pendants and beaded aprons are also popular with the upper class.

Perfume is considered gauche, due to how strong the Cardassian sense of smell is and how much information comes from a person's natural scent. Someone who wears perfume is assumed to be hiding something about their scent. In practice this is more of an upper class bias- service class Cardassians, especially those that work jobs where they are exposed to bad smells, often wear perfume in their free time, as well as keeping something perfumed on hand to clear their senses at work. However, Cardassians in general do use perfume to scent their houses, and it is occasionally appropriate to scent jewelry.

Jewelry and ornaments made of flowers used to be popular, as were fake flowers that had been perfumed to seem real. However, like dyeing the mouth and teeth, this is currently considered extravagant and wasteful.

*= it's actually scars with ink rubbed in. Cardassian skin doesn't tattoo well. However, these days the scars are done with a laser scalpel, and indistinguishable from tattoos, as they can easily get clean lines and fine detail.

[bijoumikhawal]

women in STEM (Stabbing, Treason, Extortion, and Murder)

[bijoumikhawal]

Real world influences on Cardassian fashion- Natima's dress and the Edwardian era

So. Something very interesting to me has always been Natimas sleeves.

Yeah. These weird, pleated things. They're interesting because I immediately know what time period is being referenced here, and it becomes more obvious on the Cardassian extra who also wears this dress, as she has a different hairstyle (Natima's hairstyle reads like it's referencing Heian Japan to me).

The hair, paired with the sleeves, comes off as very Edwardian. Risqué, perhaps, by Edwardian standards, but Edwardian.

For comparison, three white dresses from the Edwardian era with pleated/tucked sleeves (the first has the sleeves as part of the main dress, the other two are blouses). The point at the end of the sleeve isn't especially Edwardian, but I have seen a few Edwardian-does-medieval dresses.

Even Natima's skirt, which is incorrectly identified as a straight cut midi by some artists, has a subtle Edwardian reference. This kind of midi with weird cut outs (that her student in orange, Rekelen, also has) reads as very modern to us, and it is. The Edwardians didn't really cut skirts like this- it was ankle to floor length, straight or trained... but they did like using unusually shaped layering pieces and seam lines. These pushed on until we start seeing even more similar detailing in skirts from the 1910s.

(top left is a 1910s example, two right images are courtesy of @chic-a-gigot)

Natima and Rekelen also are both wearing boleros, or dresses that imply boleros, which aren't directly referencing an Edwardian style, but are a piece of clothing from that time.

Natima's dress interestingly, implies a bolero and a style of pleated bodice that was not worn with a bolero, in my experience.

(Bottom right from @chic-a-gigot again)

This style also may have been referenced for Ziyal's gold dress, though the pleats here look more like a Bertha collar.

Rekelen, Natima, and the Cardassian extra are also all wearing undershirts, though this really only comes off as am Edwardian reference for Rekelen; coats or dresses with elbow length sleeves had long sleeved blouses or dresses underneath.

I even have specifically orange examples of this! However, Rekelen's clothes are way less Edwardian than Natima's, and I wouldn't have picked up on the era possibly being referenced of this outfit wasn't being shown off alongside Natima's.

(Right from @chic-a-gigot)

[bijoumikhawal]

thinking about how Sisko is a Moses-figure, not a Jesus figure

He is in some way culturally foreign to the religion he's connected to

He isn't a "Savior", the epithet commonly given to Jesus, but an "Emissary"- a messenger, something closer to a Deliverer

He doesn't die to cleanse Bajor of sin, but is told he will not find his rest there- he us kept from the Promised Land because of a violation in his relationship to the divine

"Idris this is nitpicking" no, the persistent confusion between Moses and Jesus parallels in literature is ignorant and often erases important cultural nuances. In Supermans case it erases the Judaism of it all and in this case there's a VERY specific importance Moses has to the Black diaspora in the Western Hemisphere, and I can't help but think that was possibly intentionally invoked

[bijoumikhawal]

so. Unfortunately during the repair for my power steering system that I asked for help regarding, they also did an inspection free of charge and found several other issues. I told them I couldn't do any of those today because I didn't have extra money, but they advised me not to put them off too long. The estimated cost of those repairs based on research and quotes they've given me in the past is $1650 on the low end, but more likely to be around $2275. I make 2000 a month and all of these are fairly immediate car repairs. Some of these I may be able to get family to help with, in which case the goal will decrease. On top of that I know gofundme takes a cut, and I will need to pay ride shares on any days I need to leave my car in the shop.

Again, I am very sorry to ask this, but I've already spent $1350 in other repairs and maintenance. I thank anyone who can help me sincerely.

[bijoumikhawal]

thinking about the wire again. Thinking about how firm Julian was with anyone that even slightly infringed upon Garak the whole episode. Thinking about how he's so aggressively nonchalant while talking to Tain. The double statement of "I'm not scared of you" + "Garak is someone I care about, so don't think you can so whatever you want to him without consequences" (which to Tain translates as "Garak is mine" and you know that had him seething)

[bijoumikhawal]

Marah, @freepaleatine95, is one of many people displaced in Gaza over the past year. Food is scarce as Gaza has been cut off, and when avaliable it is expensive. These are hard enough to deal with by oneself, when you are reasonably healthy. But again, like many Palestinians in Gaza, Marah is not alone, and the issue of food cannot be isolated from everything else. In her particular situation, both her parents are diabetic.

I am sure that most reading this know what diabetes is, but most likely have a very surface level understanding of it- a key point I would like to impress upon you is that infrequent access to food makes diabetes worse, even if its just infrequent throughout the day. My mother is diabetic, and constantly keeps snacks to moderate her blood sugar. Diabetes also makes any infections you have worse, and can make you more likely to get infections. Not all diabetics are insulin dependent, but infrequent access to food and other factors can shift your health so that you become insulin dependent. If food is not easily getting into Gaza, then one must understand: other medications like insulin aren't either. The treatment for Marah's parents is not accessible.

They have over 38k out of their goal of 50k, which will not only help care for Marah and her parents until they can evacuate, but also her married sisters and her young nieces and nephews. There still is a ways to go, but it is the final stretch. Having enough good food always impacts ones health, but this is especially important in this instance. Even a little can add up to a lot, so long as many people dedicate themselves to a little.

The family fundraiser has been verified here by @90-ghost

[bijoumikhawal]

"That is, the approval of your peers only matters so long as you’re a peer. Once you’re the President of the United States, your personal conduct becomes much harder to police...While Democrats fretted about Mr. Trump’s incredible rudeness, he seems to have learned something interesting. That is, laws themselves are social contracts, just like the norms. In general, citizens have no choice but to uphold their end of the bargain, since after all they are powerless in the face of the massive bloc of violence the State wields. Who will defy the law when following it is a prerequisite to normal participation in society?"

Most recent article from @deadhorsepress