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No paywall version here.
"Two and a half years ago, when I was asked to help write the most authoritative report on climate change in the United States, I hesitated...
In the end, I said yes, but reluctantly. Frankly, I was sick of admonishing people about how bad things could get. Scientists have raised the alarm over and over again, and still the temperature rises. Extreme events like heat waves, floods and droughts are becoming more severe and frequent, exactly as we predicted they would. We were proved right. It didn’t seem to matter.
Our report, which was released on Tuesday, contains more dire warnings. There are plenty of new reasons for despair. Thanks to recent scientific advances, we can now link climate change to specific extreme weather disasters, and we have a better understanding of how the feedback loops in the climate system can make warming even worse. We can also now more confidently forecast catastrophic outcomes if global emissions continue on their current trajectory.
But to me, the most surprising new finding in the Fifth National Climate Assessment is this: There has been genuine progress, too.
I’m used to mind-boggling numbers, and there are many of them in this report. Human beings have put about 1.6 trillion tons of carbon in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution — more than the weight of every living thing on Earth combined. But as we wrote the report, I learned other, even more mind-boggling numbers. In the last decade, the cost of wind energy has declined by 70 percent and solar has declined 90 percent. Renewables now make up 80 percent of new electricity generation capacity. Our country’s greenhouse gas emissions are falling, even as our G.D.P. and population grow.
In the report, we were tasked with projecting future climate change. We showed what the United States would look like if the world warms by 2 degrees Celsius. It wasn’t a pretty picture: more heat waves, more uncomfortably hot nights, more downpours, more droughts. If greenhouse emissions continue to rise, we could reach that point in the next couple of decades. If they fall a little, maybe we can stave it off until the middle of the century. But our findings also offered a glimmer of hope: If emissions fall dramatically, as the report suggested they could, we may never reach 2 degrees Celsius at all.
For the first time in my career, I felt something strange: optimism.
And that simple realization was enough to convince me that releasing yet another climate report was worthwhile.
Something has changed in the United States, and not just the climate. State, local and tribal governments all around the country have begun to take action. Some politicians now actually campaign on climate change, instead of ignoring or lying about it. Congress passed federal climate legislation — something I’d long regarded as impossible — in 2022 as we turned in the first draft.
[Note: She's talking about the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Act, which despite the names were the two biggest climate packages passed in US history. And their passage in mid 2022 was a big turning point: that's when, for the first time in decades, a lot of scientists started looking at the numbers - esp the ones that would come from the IRA's funding - and said "Wait, holy shit, we have an actual chance."]
And while the report stresses the urgency of limiting warming to prevent terrible risks, it has a new message, too: We can do this. We now know how to make the dramatic emissions cuts we’d need to limit warming, and it’s very possible to do this in a way that’s sustainable, healthy and fair.
The conversation has moved on, and the role of scientists has changed. We’re not just warning of danger anymore. We’re showing the way to safety.
I was wrong about those previous reports: They did matter, after all. While climate scientists were warning the world of disaster, a small army of scientists, engineers, policymakers and others were getting to work. These first responders have helped move us toward our climate goals. Our warnings did their job.
To limit global warming, we need many more people to get on board... We need to reach those who haven’t yet been moved by our warnings. I’m not talking about the fossil fuel industry here; nor do I particularly care about winning over the small but noisy group of committed climate deniers. But I believe we can reach the many people whose eyes glaze over when they hear yet another dire warning or see another report like the one we just published.
The reason is that now, we have a better story to tell. The evidence is clear: Responding to climate change will not only create a better world for our children and grandchildren, but it will also make the world better for us right now.
Eliminating the sources of greenhouse gas emissions will make our air and water cleaner, our economy stronger and our quality of life better. It could save hundreds of thousands or even millions of lives across the country through air quality benefits alone. Using land more wisely can both limit climate change and protect biodiversity. Climate change most strongly affects communities that get a raw deal in our society: people with low incomes, people of color, children and the elderly. And climate action can be an opportunity to redress legacies of racism, neglect and injustice.
I could still tell you scary stories about a future ravaged by climate change, and they’d be true, at least on the trajectory we’re currently on. But it’s also true that we have a once-in-human-history chance not only to prevent the worst effects but also to make the world better right now. It would be a shame to squander this opportunity. So I don’t just want to talk about the problems anymore. I want to talk about the solutions. Consider this your last warning from me."
-via New York Times. Opinion essay by leading climate scientist Kate Marvel. November 18, 2023.
#WE CAN DO THIS#I SO TRULY BELIEVE THAT WE CAN DO THIS#WE CAN SAVE OURSELVES AND THE WORLD ALONG WITH US#climate crisis#united states#climate change#conservation#hope posting#sustainability#climate news#climate action#climate emergency#fossil fuels#global warming#environmentalism#climate hope#solarpunk#climate optimism#climate policy#earth#science#climate science#meteorology#extreme weather#renewable energy#solar power#wind power#renewables#carbon emissions#climate justice
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DARK SMS - DRAGON+

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, maintaining privacy and security while communicating is more important than ever. Introducing DarkSMS, a cutting-edge virtual SMS platform designed to streamline your messaging experience without compromising your personal information. With our innovative virtual number service, users can receive SMS messages securely and anonymously, eliminating the risks associated with sharing private phone numbers. Whether you’re signing up for online services, verifying accounts, or simply looking to keep your communication confidential, DarkSMS has got you covered.
Virtual SMS
Virtual SMS refers to the messaging service that enables users to send and receive text messages through a virtual phone number rather than a traditional mobile line. This service is particularly useful for individuals and businesses looking to maintain privacy while communicating or verifying accounts.
One of the key advantages of using virtual sms is the ability to receive SMS without revealing your personal phone number. This is especially beneficial for online transactions, sign-ups for apps, or any situation where you might need to provide a phone number but want to protect your privacy.
Furthermore, virtual numbers can be easily managed from a web-based platform, allowing users to organize and store messages effectively. Many service providers offer features such as message forwarding, where received SMS messages can be redirected to your email or other platforms, ensuring you never miss an important notification.
In addition to privacy and convenience, virtual SMS services are often cost-effective. They eliminate the need for extra SIM cards or mobile contracts, allowing users to only pay for the services they actually use. This flexibility makes virtual number services highly attractive for startups and individuals working from remote locations.
As businesses increasingly adopt digital communication strategies, integrating virtual SMS into their operations can enhance customer interaction and improve engagement through instant messaging capabilities.
Virtual Number Service
A virtual number service offers a practical solution for individuals and businesses looking to maintain privacy while receiving communications. By using a virtual number, you can receive SMS messages without exposing your personal phone number. This feature is especially useful for those engaged in online transactions, such as e-commerce, as it safeguards against unwanted spam and protects your identity.
One of the key advantages of a virtual number service is its capability to function seamlessly alongside your primary phone line. Users can receive messages from various platforms effectively, whether it's for verification purposes, two-factor authentication, or simply keeping in touch with clients. The convenience of managing multiple numbers through a single device cannot be overstated.
With options to select numbers from different geographic locations, this service caters to users looking to establish a local presence in different markets. Moreover, these numbers can be set up quickly and easily, providing instant access to receive SMS without lengthy contracts or commitments.
To optimize your experience with virtual SMS and virtual number services, consider features like call forwarding, voicemail, and the ability to choose your own number. Such functionality enhances user experience by offering flexibility in communication while maintaining professional boundaries.
Ultimately, investing in a virtual number service can significantly enhance your business's communication strategy, allowing you to receive SMS reliably while focusing on building relationships with your clients.
Receive SMS
Receiving SMS through a virtual number is a convenient service that allows users to get text messages without needing a physical SIM card. This is particularly beneficial for individuals and businesses looking for privacy or those who wish to avoid exposing their personal phone numbers.
The process is straightforward: once you obtain a virtual number through a reliable virtual number service, you can start receiving sms messages. This service is essential for various reasons, including:
Account verification codes: Many online platforms use SMS to send verification codes. A virtual number allows you to receive these codes securely.
Business communications: Companies can use virtual SMS to receive client inquiries or feedback without revealing their primary contact numbers.
Privacy protection: By receiving SMS through a virtual number, users can protect their personal phone numbers from spam and unwanted solicitation.
Moreover, the get SMS feature of a virtual number service ensures that you don’t miss any important messages, even if you are on the move. Messages are often stored digitally, which means you can access them anytime and anywhere.
In summary, the ability to receive SMS through a virtual number enhances both privacy and accessibility, making it a valuable tool for users in various contexts.
Get SMS
Getting SMS messages through a virtual number service has become increasingly popular due to its convenience and versatility. Whether you need to receive texts for verification purposes or want to maintain privacy while communicating, virtual SMS provides a robust solution.
With a virtual number, you can easily get sms from anywhere in the world without needing a physical SIM card. This feature is particularly beneficial for businesses that require secure communication with clients or customers, as it ensures that sensitive information remains confidential.
Here are some advantages of using a virtual number to get SMS:
Privacy Protection: Using a virtual number helps keep your personal phone number private.
Accessibility: You can receive SMS messages on multiple devices, including tablets and laptops.
Cost-Effective: Virtual SMS services typically come with lower costs than traditional SMS plans.
Global Reach: You can get SMS messages from international numbers without incurring roaming fees.
Easy Setup: Setting up a virtual number to receive SMS is straightforward and often takes just a few minutes.
In summary, leveraging a virtual number service for SMS communication allows you to manage your messages efficiently while maintaining privacy, enhancing accessibility, and reducing costs. This is particularly useful for both personal and business communications, making it a smart choice for anyone looking to streamline their SMS functions.
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The Ties That Bind Us - Chapter 19
Previous | Next [Series Masterlist]
Content Warning: medical procedures; mutual pining; jealousy: angst; angst; angst
You walked through the ER doors just before 7 a.m., fully expecting to slip into the usual rhythm.
But something felt off.
You adjusted your badge, trying to shake off the unease curling in your stomach.
Robby stood at the far end of the nurses’ station, scanning a tablet, his brow furrowed in focus. But when he looked up, his gaze found yours instantly. For a heartbeat, neither of you moved.
There it was again—the thing that didn’t exist. You offered a smile, soft, professional, like nothing had happened. Like he hadn’t said exactly what you never wanted to admit stung. But before you could walk toward him, you heard your name.
“Dr. Williams,” Gloria’s voice cut through the corridor like a scalpel. You turned, instantly straightening. “Morning,” you greeted her, surprised to see her. “Do you have a moment?” You followed her into the empty consult room, hands slipping into your pockets.
“I’ll be brief,” she began, all business. “We’ve been reviewing performance metrics from the day shift. Gurney times. Patient satisfaction scores. Throughout. And one thing is becoming increasingly clear—whatever you’re doing with Dr. Robby, it’s working.”
There was a pause. Calculated.
“But,” she added, folding her arms, “I have to ask myself: how much of that success is you?”
You blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“Look,” she continued, stepping closer. “You’ve got instincts. You’re sharp, fast on your feet, and the staff trust you. That’s not something we see often in someone still in their fellowship.”
You opened your mouth, unsure what to say, but she didn’t give you the chance.
“I’d like to offer you an Attending position on Day shift. Permanent.”
Your breath caught. For a second, all you could hear was the echo of her words—sharp and sudden, cutting through the haze of the morning.
“I... I thought that wasn’t possible until the fellowship ended.”
“I can make exceptions,” she said smoothly. “We’re restructuring anyway. Leaning into what works. You’ve earned the opportunity.”
There was a flicker of something in her eyes when she said it—an unspoken message embedded beneath the compliment. Something that made your stomach knot.
“And Dr. Robinavitch?” you asked carefully.
She gave a noncommittal smile. “Dr. Robinavitch is very good at what he does. But his methods are... traditional. You, on the other hand, represent something fresher. Progressive. It’s not about replacing anyone—it’s about optimizing what we already have.”
You didn’t buy it. Not entirely.
Still, the words landed, pressing against a part of you that had longed to be seen for something more than potential.
“I’ll need time to think about it.”
“Of course,” she said. “We’ll be finalizing the shift schedule for Q3 by next Friday.”
You nodded numbly. She left with a purposeful stride, heels clicking across tile like punctuation.
You stayed behind a moment longer, staring at the closed door.
Your heart was thudding now—not from the offer, but from what it meant. From what it could cost.
When you stepped back into the hallway, the buzz of the ER surrounded you, but it was muted somehow. Like you were underwater.
Robby had moved closer, standing just past the nurses’ station. His eyes were already on you.
And this time, you didn’t smile. Because you didn’t know how. Because for the first time, it felt like you might be standing on opposite sides of something.
You spent the first few hours of the shift pretending to be fine.
You nodded through consults, smiled with the residents, charted with a kind of manic precision that made your notes look like they were written by someone with caffeine in her bloodstream instead of blood.
But beneath it all, you were rattled.
Gloria’s offer kept looping in your head like a faulty monitor alarm. Permanent. Day shift. Optimization. Not replacing anyone, she’d said. But you weren’t stupid.
And Robby—he was everywhere.
In the trauma bay, tossing you a pair of gloves with a smirk and a quiet, “You ready, hotshot?”
In the lounge, where he held out your favorite snack without comment, like he always did when you forgot to eat.
And every time he was near, your body betrayed you.
Your shoulders would stiffen. Your pulse would kick up a notch. You’d flinch—internally, mostly—each time his arm brushed yours or his eyes lingered for just a second too long.
He noticed something. You knew he did.
But Robby wasn’t the kind of man who pushed. He just... watched. Waited. And that somehow made it worse.
Because now, every look he gave you felt like it came with a question you didn’t know how to answer.
“Hey.”
You turned, startled, and nearly dropped the chart in your hands. Robby stood behind you, brows raised slightly.
“You okay?” he asked, too casual to be just professional.
You forced a smile, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. “Yeah. Just, uh—long morning.”
“You’ve been charting like you’re mad at the keyboard,” he said, one corner of his mouth lifting.
You tried to laugh. It came out thin.
There was a beat of silence between you. The kind that used to feel easy.
“Want to split the next trauma?” he asked. “They just paged for a GSW.”
You nodded too quickly. “Yeah. Absolutely.”
Robby lingered for half a second longer, as if he was waiting for you to say something else. But you couldn’t. Not yet. Not with your heart running a marathon and your thoughts tangled in every possible version of what this meant for him... for you.
You followed him down the hall, your footsteps slower than usual, your mind anything but steady.
Later that afternoon, you stood in the supply closet, staring blankly at the gauze shelf while trying to remember why you came in here in the first place.
Your hands were shaking. Just barely. But enough to notice.
You hated feeling like this—off balance, uncertain. You hadn’t felt this way since your intern year, when everything had felt too big, too fast, and all you could do was try not to drown in it.
The worst part was knowing that this—whatever this was—wasn’t about fear.
It was about Robby.
It was the way you had to keep pretending his words hadn’t cut when you overheard them. The way you kept brushing aside the look on his face this morning like it hadn’t shaken you more than you wanted to admit.
And now Gloria’s offer had taken all of that emotion and lit it on fire.
Because for the first time, you weren’t just a fellow trying to prove herself.
You were a threat. To him. To the stability of whatever fragile rhythm the two of you had managed to build.
And the worst part? You didn’t know if you should warn him.
By the time the shift was wrapping up, your nerves had frayed to the point of splintering.
You handed off the last patient to a resident, ducked into the lounge, and took a long sip of your tea like it could somehow center you.
Robby walked in a second later, and ran a hand through his already-messy hair.
“You ever gonna tell me what’s going on with you today?” he asked, voice quiet.
Your throat tightened. “Just tired.”
He didn’t look convinced. But he didn’t press.
Instead, he sat beside you on the couch, close enough that your knees brushed. The quiet between you was heavier now. Charged. Like a storm waiting on the edge of your skin.
You turned your mug in your hands, suddenly feeling everything far too clearly.
“Do you ever feel like things change overnight?” you asked, not looking at him. “Like... you wake up and you’re not sure where you fit anymore?”
His brow furrowed. “What happened?”
You hesitated. “Nothing. Just thinking too much.”
His gaze lingered, but after a moment, he nodded. “For what it’s worth... you still fit.”
The words landed deeper than you expected. And when you looked up at him, you saw something flicker behind his eyes—something soft, unguarded.
It would be so easy to lean into that.
But instead, you stood.
“Have a good night,” you said.
And as you walked away, you knew he was still watching.
And this time, you didn’t know what it meant.
#michael robinavitch#michael robinavitch x reader#the pitt#the pitt hbo#the pitt imagine#the pitt fanfiction#dr robby#dr robby x reader#dr robinavitch x reader#dr robby imagine#dr michael robinavitch#dr robinavitch#noah wyle
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Kickstarting the audiobook of The Lost Cause, my novel of environmental hope

Tonight (October 2), I'm in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab. On October 7–8, I'm in Milan to keynote Wired Nextfest.
The Lost Cause is my next novel. It's about the climate emergency. It's hopeful. Library Journal called it "a message hope in a near-future that looks increasingly bleak." As with every other one of my books Amazon refuses to sell the audiobook, so I made my own, and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-lost-cause-a-novel-of-climate-and-hope
That's a lot to unpack, I know. So many questions! Including this one: "How is it that I have another book out in 2023?" Because this is my third book this year. Short answer: I write when I'm anxious, so I came out of lockdown with nine books. Nine!
Hope and writing are closely related activities. Hope (the belief that you can make things better) is nothing so cheap and fatalistic as optimism (the belief that things will improve no matter what you do). The Lost Cause is full of people who are full of hope.

The action begins a full generation after the Hail Mary passage of the Green New Deal, and the people who grew up fighting the climate emergency (rather than sitting hopelessly by while the powers that be insisted that nothing could or should be done) have a name for themselves: they call themselves "the first generation in a century that doesn't fear the future."
I fear the future. Unchecked corporate power has us barreling over a cliff's edge and all the one-percent has to say is, "Well, it's too late to swerve now, what if the bus rolls and someone breaks a leg? Don't worry, we'll just keep speeding up and leap the gorge":
https://locusmag.com/2022/07/cory-doctorow-the-swerve/
That unchecked corporate power has no better avatar than Amazon, one of the tech monopolies that has converted the old, good internet into "five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of the other four":
https://twitter.com/tveastman/status/1069674780826071040
Amazon maintains a near-total grip over print and ebooks, but when it comes to audiobooks, that control is total. The company's Audible division has captured more than 90% of the market, and it abuses that dominance to cram Digital Rights Management onto every book it sells, even if the author doesn't want it:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff
I wrote a whole-ass book about this and it came out less than a month ago; it's called The Internet Con and it lays out an audacious plan to halt the internet's enshittification and throw it into reverse:
http://www.seizethemeansofcomputation.org/
The tldr is this: when an audiobook is wrapped in Amazon's DRM, only Amazon can legally remove it. That means that every book I sell you on Audible is a book you have to throw away if you ever break up with Amazon, and Amazon can use the fact that it's hold you hostage to screw me – and every other author – over.
As I said last time this came up:
Fuck that sideways.
With a brick.

My books are sold without DRM, so you can play them in any app and do anything copyright permits, and that means Amazon won't carry them, and that means my publishers don't want to pay to produce them, and that means I produce them myself, and then I make the (significant) costs back by selling them on Kickstarter.
And you know what? It works. Readers don't want DRM. I mean, duh. No one woke up this morning and said, "Dammit, why won't someone sell me a product that lets me do less with my books?" I sell boatloads" of books through these crowdfunding campaigns. I sold so many copies of my last book, *The Internet Con, that they sold out the initial print run in two weeks (don't worry, they held back stock for my upcoming events).
But beyond that, I think there's another reason my readers keep coming back, even though I wrote a genuinely stupid number of books while working through lockdown anxiety while the wildfires raged and ashes sifted down out of the sky and settled on my laptop as I lay in my backyard hammock, pounding my keyboard.
(I went through two keyboards during lockdown. Thankfully, I bought a user-serviceable laptop from Framework and fixed it myself both times, in a matter of minutes. No, no one pays me to mention this, but hot damn is it cool.)
https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/13/graceful-failure/#frame

The reason readers come back to my books is that they're full of hope. In the same way that writing lets me feel like I'm not a passenger in life, but rather, someone with a say in my destination, the books that I write are full of practical ways and dramatic scenes in which other people seize the means of computation, the reins of power or their own destinies.
The protagonist of The Lost Cause is Brooks Palazzo, a high-school senior in Burbank whose parents were part of the original cohort of volunteers who kicked off the global transformation, and left him an orphan when they succumbed to one of the zoonotic plagues that arise every time another habitat is destroyed.
Brooks grew up knowing what his life would be: the work of repair and care, which millions of young people are doing. Relocating entire cities off endangered coastlines and floodplains, or out of fire-zones. Fighting floods and fires. Caring for tens of millions of refugees for whom the change came too late.

But with every revolution comes a counter-revolution. The losers of a just war don't dig holes, climb inside and pull the dirt down on top of themselves. Two groups of reactionaries – seagoing anarcho-capitalist billionaire wreckers and seething white nationalist militias – have formed an alliance.
They've already gotten their champion into the White House. Next up: dismantling every cause for hope Brooks and his friends have, and bringing back the fear.
That's the setup for a novel about solidarity, care, library socialism, and snatching victory from defeat's jaws. Writing it help keep me sane during the lockdown, and when it came time to record the audiobook, I spent a lot of time thinking about who could read it. I've had some great narrators: Wil Wheaton, @neil-gaiman, Amber Benson, Bronson Pinchot, and more.

I record my audiobooks with Skyboat Media, a brilliant studio near my place in LA. Back in August, I spent a week in their recording booth – "The Tardis" – doing something I'd never tried before: I recorded a whole audiobook, with directorial supervision: The Internet Con:
https://transactions.sendowl.com/products/78992826/DEA0CE12/purchase
When it was done, the director – audiobook legend Gabrielle de Cuir – sat me down and said, "Look, I've never said this to an author before, but I think you should read The Lost Cause. I don't direct anyone anymore except for Wil Wheaton and LeVar Burton, but I would direct you on this one."
I was immensely flattered – and very nervous. Reading The Internet Con was one thing – the book is built around the speeches I've been giving for 20 years and I knew I could sell those lines – but The Lost Cause is a novel, with a whole cast of characters. Could I do it?
Reader, I did it. I just listened to the proofs last week and:
It.
Came.
Out.
Great.

The Lost Cause goes on sale on November 14th, and I'll be selling this audiobook I made everywhere audiobooks are sold – except for the stores that require DRM, nonconsensually shackling readers and writers to their platforms. So you'll be able to get it on Libro.fm, downpour.com, even Google Play – but not Audible, Apple Books, or Audiobooks.com.
But in addition to those worthy retailers, I will be sending out thousands – and thousands! – of audiobook to my Kickstarter backers on the on-sale date, either as a folder of DRM-free MP3s, or as a download code for Libro.fm, to make things easy for people who don't want to have to figure out how to sideload an audiobook into a standalone app.
And, of course, the mobile duopoly have made this kind of sideloading exponentially harder over the past decade, though far be it from me to connect this with their policy of charging 30% commissions on everything sold through an app, a commission they don't receive if you get your files on the web and load 'em yourself:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/red-team-blues-another-audiobook-that-amazon-wont-sell/posts/3788112
As with my previous Kickstarters, I'm also selling ebooks and hardcovers – signed or unsigned, and this time I've found a great partner to fulfill EU orders from within the EU, so backers won't have to pay VAT and customs charges. The wonderful Otherland – who have hosted me on my last two trips to Berlin – are going to manage that shipping for me:
https://www.otherland-berlin.de/en/home.html
Kim Stanley Robinson read the book and said, "Along with the rush of adrenaline I felt a solid surge of hope. May it go like this." That's just about the perfect quote, because the book is a ride. It's not just a kumbaya tale of a better world that is possible: it's a post-cyberpunk novel of high-tech guerrilla and meme warfare, climate tech and bad climate tech, wildcat prefab urban infill, and far-right militamen who adapt to a ban on assault-rifles by switching to super-soakers full of hydrochloric acid.
It's a book about struggle, hope in the darkness, and a way through this rotten moment. It's a book that dares to imagine that things might get worse but also better. This is a curious emotional melange, but it's one that I'm increasingly feeling these days.
Like, Amazon, that giant bully, whose blockade on DRM-free audiobooks cost me enough money to pay off my mortgage and put my kid through university (according to my agent)? The incredible Lina Khan brought a long-overdue antitrust case against Amazon while her rockstar DoJ counterpart, Jonathan Kanter, is dragging Google through the courts.
The EU is taking on Apple, and French cops are kicking down Nvidia's doors and grabbing their files, looking to build another antitrust case for monopolizing GPUs. The writers won their strike and Joe Biden walked the picket-line with the UAW, the first president in history to join striking workers:
https://doctorow.medium.com/joe-biden-is-headed-to-a-uaw-picket-line-in-detroit-f80bd0b372ab?sk=f3abdfd3f26d2f615ad9d2f1839bcc07

Solar is now our cheapest energy source, which is wild, because if we could only capture 0.4% of the solar energy that makes it through the atmosphere, we could give everyone alive the same energy budget as Canadians (who have American lifestyles but higher heating bills). As Deb Chachra writes in her forthcoming How Infrastructure Works (my review pending): we get a fresh supply of energy every time the sun rises and we only get new materials when a comet survives atmospheric entry, but we treat energy as scarce and throw away our materials after a single use:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612711/how-infrastructure-works-by-deb-chachra/
Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. We have shot past many of our planetary boundaries and there are waves of climate crises in our future, but they don't have to be climate disasters. That's up to us – it'll depend on whether we come together to save ourselves and each other, or tear ourselves apart.
The Lost Cause dares to imagine what it might be like if we do the former. We don't live in a post-enshittification world yet, but we could. With these indie audiobooks, I've found a way to treat the terminal enshittification of the Amazon monopoly as damage and route around it. I hope you'll back the Kickstarter, fight enshittification, inject some hope into your reading, and enjoy a kickass adventure novel in the process:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/the-lost-cause-a-novel-of-climate-and-hope
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/02/the-lost-cause/#the-first-generation-that-doesnt-fear-the-future
#pluralistic#audiobooks#the lost cause#crowdfunding#kickstarter#spoken word#climate#climate emergency#monopoly#drm#amazon#audible#skyboat#science fiction#hope not optimism
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linktober 31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
I thought for the last day I'd write a little retrospective on what this whole thing was like and what I learned. I'm too tired to draw literally anything else I'm due for a break lol
So this was my second time ever attempting a linktober/october drawing challenge, but my first time managing to complete all the days and prompts. I feel super proud of myself and accomplished for pulling it off.
There were a number of things that were surprising and that were challenging for me that I wasn't expecting this month. If anything, I think this challenge really highlighted my flaws and mental blindspots with how I approach making art.
For one thing, I came away from this not liking everything I made. I think I only like about 9 or 10 of the 30 pieces I put out there. When I don't like my art, I tend to get stuck in this mental stalemate of refusing to finish a piece until I like it, but also refusing to retrace my steps and erase/rework what I have so far for fear of losing progress or not being able to replicate the line/angle/color/etc that I liked.
It was surprisingly hard to accept when I didn't like a piece but had to move on for the sake of time and post it anyway. But once I did it a few times, it got easier. I realized prioritizing my standards over my available energy is not gonna promote progress. If I kept sinking myself into one piece and not moving on until it was optimal, I never would have finished anything-- that was the pitfall that ultimately made me bail out 10 days in last year.
I also realized my sunk cost fallacy/"what if I erase this and can never redraw it good again" stems from some real lack of confidence in my knowledge and techniques with art. I'm self-taught, and I think I tend to believe that everything I make is a dumb happy accident, even though I have mental rules when I draw, use tons of references, and have a process lol. There are a few pieces I started over 2-3 times before I got them right, and that's starting to feel liberating instead of like failing to me now, which I never expected to come out of this experience so that's cool.
Another place I had to learn to let go of control in this was with allowing for style variation. I really wanted each and every piece to be coherent and painterly, like they all came from the same book or something. But then I couldn't decide whether I wanted to do all/no lineart, all/no detailed background, all/no heavy rendering, etc. At the end I settled on just keeping the same canvas dimensions and just prioritizing filling up the space. Glad I ended up doing this, because I really would benefit from continuing to chill out and scale back how much I default to making dramatic, high-render pieces. I gotta break out of my comfort zone and make more sketchy little guys!
Sometimes my attachment to the prompts fluctuated; some prompts I thought I would love and then just wanted to get them over with. Some prompts I thought I would hate and subsequently half-ass, then I ended up redoing them and putting more effort & time into and loved the end result!
It was funny to also see how some pieces that I loved straight up did not get a whole lot of notes or attention. Some pieces I was "meh" about did crazy numbers lol. I'm used to posting maybe 5-6 times a year on here, so I'm usually indifferent to getting notes (by which I mean, I'm super grateful for likes & reblogs and the super sweet & funny messages in y'alls tags, but I'm not butthurt when I don't get notes because whatever happens, happens). Churning out 30 pieces in 30 days made me sometimes get bewildered by what did and didn't get notes, but frankly in the end I think it helps reaffirm that I should continue putting whatever I want out there because it! is! not! graded!!!
So would I do Linktober again? Probably not, sorry! it was a lot of time & effort and took me away from fall festivities more than I would have liked. I kinda only managed to pull this off because I was transitioning between jobs this month and had a week off to just draw. But I also completely see the value in taking on a challenge like this and finishing what I started, I'm super glad I did this, I think my art improved from it. I would definitely do future drawing challenges/prompt things that are quicker or have less prompts!
My advice to prospective future linktoberers: pace yourself and be gentle; this is a great chance to do something exciting and new with your art, but above all it's about you having fun. There are no prizes at the end except for what you've learned and how you feel about it, and that's for the best!!
One thing's for sure, I am zelda'd out lmao so I'll be branching out towards some little projects I have lined up for personal art and other fandoms I'm into right now
So anyway thanks to all of you who read this or who gassed me up this whole month, I appreciate you!!!!!!!! ヾ(^∇^)
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Roleplay Theme Commissions: Open
I offer a variety of theme layouts optimized for roleplaying and designed to fit your needs. I make themes for both individuals and groups.
I have developed a style that gives each custom theme my distinct signature and every theme is made to your specifications to create something unique to you. All themes include a customized image background. For an extra cost, popular extras like jumbled links, navigation pages, and animated effects can be added. I’m not offering popups at this time.
[If you’re looking for rich texture graphics and overly trendy features, I may not be the right maker for you.]
Prices
All custom themes are priced at $15
Pre-Made themes are priced at $10
Examples

You can private message me anytime. I typically respond to messages within 24 hours. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.
#theme commissions#custom themes#rp themes#roleplay themes#signal boost#i'm opening commissions to supplement income until i find a new job#rp commissions
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Some broader thoughts about Minecraft:
First, some nice things:
Increasing the world height and adding bigger, deeper caves was an unqualified benefit to the game. Finally we deliver on the promise of 'Cave Game Tech Test'!
I am so happy that bundles, saddles and leads are all getting easy crafting recipes. These are utility items every early game player craves! They shouldn't be locked behind something so esoteric as killing slimes, or farming rabbits, or dungeroneering.
The addition of an offhand slot in 1.9, which I was soooo opposed to at the time, was to the game's benefit. Such a great change.
I really like the 1.13 fish mobs!
More fantastical biomes will always be good for the game. Realism is not what I come to MC for, I come for the beautiful cubic vistas I can shape and build in.
Second, some critical thoughts:
Post-1.0 updates have mostly felt like Mojang thinks the game is done, and just needs to be polished. I disagree. I think that release came too soon -- before they'd sanded all the hard edges down and really came up with a coherent identity -- and over the last ~fourteen years we've gone from a rough game with a lot of sharp edges to a very shiny game with a lot of sharp edges.
Everybody loooooooves that Soren Johnson quote that "given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game" but I think they often forget/ignore the corollary -- from Sid Meier -- that "one of the responsibilities of designers is to protect the player from themselves". Players optimizing the fun out of a game is a failure of game design, not player psychology. Nobody ever made Tetris unfun for themselves! (Well, not in any large numbers, anyway.)
There are three primary interactions one has with Minecraft: Extraction, Construction, and Combat. Of these three, I think it'd be hard to argue that the first two aren't the "core appeal" of the game. Those are the sandbox parts!
There are overlaps between these of course. Digging a trench is both extraction and construction, and killing monsters for their loot is combat and extraction; but, as I've already said, there aren't that many actions which are both construction and combat. Pillaring, I guess.
Beds are insanely overpowered. They skip night, making them the ultimate construction and allowing you to bypass Overworld surface combat entirely; they're the cheapest explosive in the Nether and End by a mile, making them the best means of mining ancient debris (the endgame ore) and one of the best tools for combating the Ender Dragon; and if you don't use them Mojang will send a squad of attack drones to kill your ass. My fix is to: 1) keep beds, but remove all functionality besides setting your spawn point 2) add a new end-game item, maybe in the outer End, that allows players to skip the night at the cost of some resource 3) replace exploding beds with a simple message that you can't sleep there, like "monsters nearby". Respawn anchors are fine, I have no beef with them. (A little useless, maybe, but I digress.)
When's the last time you used TNT in survival mode? I think it is to the game's detriment that there are continuous-need resources locked behind combat/extraction, like sulphur. I propose two potential solutions: 1) make "mob farm" literal and let me breed creepers/spiders/other non-humanoid mobs or 2) make sulphur and similar resources something you can mine, like string. Sulphur already occurs underground in the real world! Now we're putting less gameplay pressure on MC's weak, slow, boring combat system and more onto the interesting parts -- building and mining, respectively. (These aren't mutually exclusive either, we could do both!)
Here's another problem with TNT: sand is a pain in the butt to get. There are two reasons for this: the first is that 90% of it occurs on the surface, meaning that to get large quantities of it you have to destroy your surrounding environment. The second is that you need so goddamned much of it! This is fine for glass, because you rarely need much and can generally dig up ten or so blocks from a nearby beach, but nobody wants to walk to a desert to get four stacks of sand for a stack of TNT! My proposal is to replace sand in the crafting recipe with clay balls. Now players want to seek out lush caves, they need to break fewer blocks, and it can all happen underground!
Racist implications aside, Villages and Villagers have always been one of the least interesting parts of the game. That so many recent updates and spinoff materials have been focused on pushing players into them is to the game's detriment, I think. I don't care about Pillagers, I don't care about Illagers, I barely care about Witches. I don't care about raids and I don't want to defend these assholes from shit. I preferred when I was the only intelligent life in the universe, thank you very much. Piglins are...better, they feel more Minecraft-ey...but again I preferred when I was the only intelligent life in the universe, and further when the Nether was an exclusively hostile environment. Wandering traders are okay, if only 'cause they're so rare, but I still would rather they weren't comical ugly greedy big-nosed subhumans dependent on golems for protection. That was a bad move.
Hunger is a terrible system. Many people have gone in depth into just how badly Beta 1.8 fucked the game, so I'll keep this short: by adding hunger: passive mobs became persistent in order to facilitate farming; sprinting was introduced to provide a mechanical interaction between hunger and the rest of the game, which makes combat infinitely easier since you can outrun almost everything; it destroys the food resource economy by requiring players to eat continuously and in far greater than numbers than before; and it wrecks the previous balance between health and restoration and inventory slots available, because if food didn't become stackable it'd be impossible to carry enough.
This one's a little more subjective: there has been a near-exponential increase in the number of blocks and the number of non-full-block blocks (candles, banners, stoncutters, slabs, walls, fences, lanterns, chains, etc. etc. etc.) in the game since the Microsoft acquisition. It's easy to see this as a good thing looking at it from this side of the inflection point -- where it only means more fidelity and more freedom for high-level builders -- but my feelings are mixed. What is this, Blockland (2007)? The game has lost a strong, if low-fidelity visual identity in favor of a widening the gap between the ugliest and prettiest buildings. You have to pick a color palette now; unlike in, say, Beta 1.7, where every block fit into the same palette. If you wanna be good, you gotta learn to break up the shape your builds, rather than lean into the game's cubic nature. That's not per se bad, but I preferred the stronger visual identity.
I would like to have more things to put in my house beyond decoration. Enchantment tables, for example, were a great addition because they take up so much space. I want there to be benefits to building big houses! More crafting equipment! More workstations! Give me kinds of rooms to build!
Leather armor is a fucking joke with post-1.0 spawning rules. Nobody makes it, it's more tedious to acquire than iron (despite being worse), and it looks like crap. Making it dye-able was a good start, but I think ultimately it should either stop pretending to be armor in the first place, or it should be easier to get, like when it was made out of wool (and wool could be obtained by punching a sheep a single time).
Mining for ancient debris is such an insane chore that you'd think I was joking if I proposed it in 2019. The fun part of mining is the spelunking, not the holding click. So why is ancient debris only found at the ONLY level without caves IN THE CAVE DIMENSION? Quartz and Nether gold are fun to mine. Why can't ancient debris be fun to mine?
Furnace minecarts are pointless and everybody knows it.
Chest minecarts are pointless -- outside that one exploit where they can be stacked on a single rail -- and everybody knows it.
Nobody gives a shit about filler mobs like polar bears.
The Ender Dragon looks and moves like nothing else in the game. Is this a good thing? Maybe. It's very uncanny, very alien. Depends on your perspective on the game's artstyle, I guess.
Mining Fatigue is a baffling debuff and it makes ocean monuments a pain in the ass to loot. Nobody likes Minecraft's PvE combat, nobody likes Minecraft's underwater physics, and everyone dreads the ocean monument. Stupid fucking sniper fish.
I think it says something about the current creative direction that the number of songs in the soundtrack has doubled since the 2013 music update. The game that 'Key' was composed for is gone. Not A Value Judgement! That's what all the other list entries are for. Music just resonates differently when a game plays different. And the game plays different.
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New to town
Prologue | Part 1



Minors dni!! Masterlist°•☆
Summary- the darkest days of your life could lead to something new. Prologue for a series
Warnings- death, breakups, plane crashes, lonely reader
A/n - hii!!! :3 I'm so srry for not writing anything in like 4 months I swear I'm gonna get back into the habit of it as soon as <33

You always hated being new. Since your were a little kid your parents would move up and down the country at least twice a year which in turn caused you to never have any kind of concrete friendships and to eventually stop trying to make them. When you'd turned eighteen and moved out and were sure you'd stay where you'd picked to be forever.
City living however didn't agree with you one bit. The tiny flat, that could barely fit a fanily if mice, you resided in, cost about an arm a month despite the electrics barely working and the terrible drafts keeping you cold all night. When you'd arrived you were sure you'd make it your own and decorate to make it look less depressing but you mever had the time. You were sure you'd adjust to the noisy neighbours next door and whatever your upstairs neighbours were doing at four in the morning. That hope and optimism for the bleak city had since left and now you lay in the cramped flat at night trying to get comfy on your cheap second hand mattress which creaked awfully whenever you moved as you tried to drown out next doors noise.
Outside tour flat was no better either. You'd struggled to make a single meaningful connection since being here and now some people could say it was the fact you didn't really know how to keep things going in relationships since you'd never had to have a friend longer than six months but you wanted to believe it was the people in the city. Yeah, that sounds better, people from the city were just that bit less extroverted and already had their own groups.
The meaningless office job you worked only made things worse. 45 hours a week slogging away for a meager paycheck and little recognition for any of your time. You'd been there a handful of years since moving into the city and still coworkers regularly got your name wrong or forgot about you completely. Your boss clearly didn't like you, not that he had it out for you by any means but you always had an unfair workload compared to others at the company.
At night you'd lie awake listening to the sounds of the city wondering how many more months you could make it in this bleak existence before an improvement came. How much longer could you hang onto the wagon of life. You weren't much of a betting man but if you were you would of said you'd only make it couple of months.
That's when things took a much worse turn.
The next week your boyfriend of eight months broke up with you over text. You'd known things were over for a while since he'd stopped coming over so much and being going around town with this other girl you'd never cared for. Infact you were more upset about the loss of a warm body, the comfort and stability of a relationship than you were losing him. He wasn't a bad man just.. immature, shown clearly by his breakup message he couldn't even be bothered to call or try to be grammatically correct in his small message. He'd never treated you bad but he wasn't great either, he'd cancel dates to go out with friends, spend the night at yours when there was sports on just because he knew you had the TV channels. You could do better than him. You knew that.
Still, you were desperate to persevere throught these tough times. Yeah it looked poor now but good things were sure to happen when you least expect it... or not.
A few weeks after your breakup as you lay across the old leather couch that took up most the living room space in your apartment. As you meagerly picked at your dinner. That was when it happened.
Your phone ringing suddenly was confusing enough, you hardly had any contacts other than your parents and well they were on a flight to Barbados so definitely couldn't be ringing at this hour. You check the phone and the illuminating letters read out no caller id. Assuming it could be important you decided to answer it, slowly putting the phone to your ear.
"Hello?.."
"Is this y/n/l/n?" A middle aged woman asks, her voice sounded glum and her signal not so good.
"Yeah. Yes, yeah it is. Why?" You responded with a string of awkward yeses mentally facepalming yourself for the stupid response.
"I'm speaking on behalf of United Airlines and we regret to inform you but your parents plane has crashed. They.. they..." Her voice faltered slightly or perhaps the signal cut but you knew what was coming as you felt you could throw up at any moment. A cold sweat plaguing you. "They didn't survive. Sorry." There it was; the news that would change your life. Both of them gone in one swoop. Even if you hadn't been talking so much with your family since your big move you certainly weren't ready for something as catastrophic as this to happen.
#wanda x reader#wanda maximoff#wanda#wanda maximoff x female reader#wanda marvel#wanda x you#marvel#wanda x fem!reader#wanda maximoff x reader#wanda maximov#wanda maximoff fanfiction#wanda maxmoff x y/n#wanda mcu#wanda maximommy
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Also preserved on our archive
by Betsy Ladyzhets
She is part of an administration that many advocates believe turned its back on COVID-19. Still, some see more hope in a potential Harris presidency.
In early August, the newly minted Kamala Harris campaign posted a job opportunity: disability engagement director. The director would meet with disability communities across the United States, build relationships with disability advocates, and help people participate in campaign events.
Some Long COVID advocates expressed excitement for the role on social media, and hoped that it would be filled by someone familiar with their disease. For these advocates, the disability engagement director is part of a broader opportunity presented by Harris’ move to the top of the ticket: to make their case for national recognition. For others disillusioned by the Biden administration’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, however, the campaign has a higher bar to clear before they will support Harris.
Advocates say that people with Long COVID, a potentially debilitating chronic disease that can impact all parts of the body, represent a growing voting bloc in this year’s presidential election. Leaders from Long COVID advocacy groups and the broader disability community are considering how to make their case to Harris’ staff, with a particular interest in Anastasia Somoza — a disability advocate who was hired for the engagement director role — and Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate who has championed Long COVID research as governor of Minnesota.
“VP Harris is part of an administration that has turned its back on public health,” said Karyn Bishof, founder and president of the COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project, in an email. However, Bishof added, Harris’ “track record suggests that she could prioritize the well-being of those most affected [by Long COVID], particularly women and marginalized communities, and perhaps push for more honest and accessible education and care.” Bishof pointed to Harris’ experience supporting health care and women’s rights and her selection of Walz as reasons for optimism about Long COVID organizing under a potential Harris administration.
One recent review paper found over 400 million people have developed Long COVID worldwide, costing an estimated $1 trillion to the global economy. About 18% of U.S. adults have experienced the disease, with higher rates among women and LGBTQ+ people, and 1 in 4 people currently living with it experience “significant activity limitations,” according to surveys from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many can no longer work, attend school, or engage with their communities. And the numbers grow with every new COVID-19 wave.
Some people with Long COVID have shared these experiences with politicians and in the media as they organize for scientific research, health care, and social support. At a Senate committee hearing in January, Long COVID advocates packed the chamber and encouraged senators to attend with phone campaigns. The hearing contributed to new legislation introduced this summer that would provide over $10 billion in funding for research and health care.
Scott Hugo, a housing justice attorney with Long COVID, wrote an open letter to the Harris campaign asking it to recognize this growing population. In an interview, he explained the connection he sees between the campaign’s message of supporting vulnerable members of society and the struggles people with Long COVID face to find medical care, access government services, and educate their loved ones about the disease. By publicly discussing Long COVID, Harris could inspire people in this community to vote and organize when they were previously apathetic about the election, he suggested.
“None of us are disposable, and I think that’s what the Democratic Party understands,” Hugo said. His message to the Harris campaign: “You want us in your coalition, and you need us in that coalition to win.”
Somoza and the campaign’s press team did not provide comments for this story.
#mask up#covid#pandemic#covid 19#wear a mask#public health#coronavirus#sars cov 2#still coviding#wear a respirator
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I feel like parts of the community really focus on “optimizing” game play, and it makes it feel like you HAVE to make everything absolutely perfect and can’t forget anything.
All that to say, as a message to anyone thats kind of new to sdv (or just needs to hear it) its okay to play slow! to just do what you want and ignore whats “optimally the best”. Its your game, your farm, so who cares if you ignore whats the most cost effective crop. Or if you forget to complete an event or task within a specific year. Just do what makes you happy!!
I know I have a save where i only grow flowers, perfections isnt the goal all the time. Its okay to do things your way or mess up, because really in a game like sdv you really can’t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
-🧩
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Psychic Reading 🔮🪞
Parents, Socials, Friends and Karmic they all are people you witness in your day to day life you even don't intend to but there is always a set of pattern, way and tonality to your dynamic with each other that occurs out of nowhere,
Which allows you to shape your life and choices you endear in it
Today this message is enrooted towards you to shed some light of truth that was blinding you beyond your ideology and thoughts around the people.
Pick an Image 🩷 🦢
˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ



˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆。 ˚˚ ༘ ೀ

Image.1
You are a summer walking around the alley of people's sight, while holding back the glooms of dull and sorrow behind that adjourning chuckles and churns of annoyance you dodge off by the sighs.
I can see you with open hair chirpy and on the edge to experience and meet new people but there is a time where you want to be nothing, just like the image naked, defense less and vulnerable, to feel nothing but everything at a spec of wind passing down by your ceiling fan
You want to feel the warmth of cold as you have burnt enough to cost the shine of sun by now.
Your family, especially your parents I see them as quite centred around religion whatever optimism they have comes from that core of belief I see a lot of white, and pastel hues..
While your social circle especially colleagues are quite vibrant on the other end with open mind system where every sin is just an mere experience for them but it can be overwhelming at times.
I see rarely any deep friendship here I just feel you know a lot of people and vice versa but nobody actually feels the way you feel..
There is a one hand distance between you and the people around you where nobody dares to be vulnerable and true beyond their set of knowings as if nobody wants to see the reality in the fear of losing optimism is the highlighted pattern here..
There is a time where you have these Intrusive thoughts to push people and walk away say no in the most rudest way to slap someone after something they have just said, but you hold back certain emotions which acts as an blockage further in your life to happen for real in abundance.
Because what your spectrum of people see as negative is an existing emotion too. So it is important to acknowledge the least it's existence to begin the healing and elevating process..
Guidance : Choose solitude as a part of your life by the morning or at the night take two to three hours only for being alone in every literal sense and means, listen to yourself I feel there is much inner voice is speaking upto you but like in a loud music playing around you the words can be heard but can't be felt what it means actually, so meditate and journal even right after this reading something will be said.
Signs : Sagittarius, Open Hair, Wind, Balcony, White, Ring on left hand, eyebrow mark, noise.
: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀

Image.2
You can feel it, who is yours and who is not your kind of person by the way they do themselves, but sometimes people are pretending and adding shades amidst changing few which can't be seen if your third eye is not awakened completely.
Your family is hiding something but it is not the matter related to you it something to do with your extended family regarding which they seem tensed and stressed too, they don't want you to become a part of this, at times you may feel abandoned by them but understand that it is just time being give them some time or maybe even an indirect talk to keep them relieved.
I see you have two to three knitted groups of friends who often hangout, one of them is busy or have been out of town for whom you are waiting.
Your interaction with people is straightforward so no such heavy transaction is seen but this indicated that your friends and family are your karmic bonds whom you spend a lot of time with so having distance is like matter of overthinking so try to ground it through facts in hand.
Guidance : Stop doubting people for who they put up as even a broke person has to try and act all made up so that no one cares to break them again.
Signs : Eye rolls, Taylor Swift, snake, ancestral blessings, confusion, river side, birds, nest.
: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀➛: ̗̀

Image.3
There is a veil of truth behind the perceptions people see for who you are ; you have quite balanced energy and approach towards people, you know and get who wants what and why after a two minutes of talk down the lane as if people can't try to lie to you,
You might have met random strangers cussing and gossiping to you about anyone out of the blue and you wonder why did they tell you that..?
Well you are people's people, who understands that we are dependent because we are different we would fall apart if we would have been the same.
I see you have very pure and forgiving heart you seek answer before the question arises as if you know the reason would not harm your soul the faith in whatever you have is unbreakable keep going sternly towards it.
I see there has been a heartbreak toxic friendship and a ill minded family person that have stormed your inner soul to walk on a journey where you see people for what they are without losing to them on who you are.
Signs : Capricorn, Aquarius, Libra, Black, Deep Eyes, Intense stare, Blues, Midnight, Sleepless, Lana del rey.
I hope this reading resonated with you I am grateful to be able to do this 🙏🏽☘️
Thank you universe !! 💖✨
#wisdom#feeling#divination#pyschic reading#divine guidance#gratitude#intutive reading#channelled message#free tarot reading#magic the gathering#future spouse reading#love reading#love and light#tarot reading#pick a image#pick a pile#pick a card
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OKAY OKAY I'M SEARCHING AND I THINK I FOUND EVERYTHING- btw do know that many things here will come IN THE FUTURE AND NOOOOT THE NEXT UPDATE!!!!
First of there was a Kahoot hosted by Qwel and it costed her 300$- COUGH-
There will be a new pack, similar to Startime skins and this time it will be Showtime and it will cost the same as the Startime pack. The pack will have Looey, Yatta, Blot, Razzle & Dazzle and Vee and Qwel showed us 3 skins-



You will also have the option to gift a pack that costs Robux to someone, whoever you want, can be ur friends, family anyone anyone
Halloween update is confirmed to come this year, spooky toons incoming, Connie is not a Halloween toon as some thought-
Discord poll which was asking everyone if they want to hear Bobette's or Bassie's last name and Bassie won so her full name is Bassie Bloomington.
There will be a button while in the elevator in the future where you can press it alone or with someone together and it will match you together with other players in other servers that also pressed the button, this is for those that want a team immediately immediately instead of server hopping to find a run already, you can still host runs in the lobby ofc, the button is optional!
Different types of machines
3 new maps and maaaaybe some new lore in them
Stickers will be added in the future for easier communication with your team or for silly stuff (like showing them off). Idk if all stickers will have messages on them but they will contain messages where you can talk easier like "gte", "I'll handle the twisteds", "I'm on the last machine" probably those types of messages (this is huge for console players who can't use chat at all), no idea if the stickers will have characters on them, maybe some?? No idea. Free stickers will be given by default and the rest you have to collect/buy them with ichor, idk if you have to actually collect them around the maps?? Also apparently one (Golden Shrimpo Brick??) will cost 10k ichor I genuinely have no idea if they'll add it but omg it became a meme-
Qwel showed us an idle Cosmo animation in the works (it might change) where he reaches behind his back to grab his Sweet Charm bracelet, look at it before putting it back, as if checking/making sure it's okay, if I heard right apparently Sprout and him will have matching idle animations with their trinkets (also yes they 3D modeled the Sweet Charm lol), I managed to find a GIF of it in Twitter so click here if you wanna see it!
Yatta "I eat bricks" skin coming soon too
The keychain plushie merch thingy ships in a few days or soon or something idk those blind bags and also apparently Qwel is planning new merch like clothes, higher quality plushies and more (shit doesn't ship in my country I'm cooked fellas I really want them sobs)
Razzle & Dazzle got optimized and they'll have new animations and it'll be different in the lobby and during the game too. During the game, whoever is active will have their own animations and it also shows who is active better (like for example, they both will have different extracting animation) so that's very noice for the RnD fans
They said they'll tweak the hitboxes/make them better or something idk something like that, let's pray the air doesn't attack us randomly fellas
Qwel has more people to help push out updates/optimization stuff faster
Dandy is getting more dialogue options, expressions and more interactions with what the players do (The YouTube stream I was watching lagged in general so I didn't hear that much, idk if it's only the lobby or shop during a run or even both but he's getting more content)
I THINK THAT'S ALL BUT PERSONALLY I VIBE WITH A LOT OF THESE, IDK ABOUT THE VEE SKIN THOUGH SOBS- BUT LET ME KNOW ZILLA, WHAT DO YOU THINK AJDHAJDHAJS I HOPE I EXPLAINED THEM WELL LMFAOAOAOAO
HOPE YOUR DAY IS GOING WELL, ZILLA!!!!
DUDDDWWWWWW
Grabs you will all ten fingers on my hands im so ready to yap
That RND SKIN????
GOING STRAIGHT TO THE GARDEN OF GODS AU LMAO/SILLY (its gorgeous thank god dude)(their current seafoam one was basic so phew)
Yatta looks like startime sprout and i was gonna say that but then i heard its a showtime pack so yeah lol she looks neat
Ok yeah i answered another ask on this but yeah zilla yaps down below lmao
ok hear me out anna
The vee skin
Listen
The first time i saw it i actually grieved a little inside lmao
but
But hear me bro
LIKE??? LOOK AT IT A BIT??? I THINK
Ngl i think
I think its like
Cute in a stupid way
Like she looks different but like - NGL MAN I CAN SEE MYSELF GETTING USED TO IT??? DO U GET ME LOL??? im already predicting a collective community crashout on the vee skin but tbh man its like
Ill vibe lol not that bad imo
MATCHMAKIMG??? GO POPPIES????? GO BOXTENS???? YOUR TIME IS NOW BRO????? (thank god man getting public runs otherwise is a whole case lol)(Maybe in the future it could expand into even more quality of life updates yk)(like pro runs becoming an actual thing based on rank and stats or yadda yadda)(but yk)(anywho)
I heard about the different types of machines. Wild dude lmao
ALREADY HYPED AS HELL FOR SPROUT ROOM DUDE LESGGGGGOOOOOO
Yatta new skin???? Another win for the lgbtq community (i eat bricks??? Asexual flag)(i swear shes just a different pride flag each time lmao)
fruitcake shipper stay calm breathe breathe its just friendship lore please (fruitcake shippers go wild)(i know id lose my entire mind too if it were shellvision so)(go crazy lmao)
Golden shrimpo brick my beloved i always knew you were a thing
QWEL HAS MORE PPL HELPING???? NEW DANDY DIALOGUES???? RND ACTUALLY???? BEING???? LOOKED AT LMAO??? RND FANS UR FIRST EVER WIN????????
Dude personally- i love qwel as a developer , she is absolutely cooking on these updates recently and ngl i fw most of those too lol, so hyped man even if vee looks like a kfc cardboard cutout now
#op loves asks#BROOOOO#SHES ACTUALLY FEEDING US SO WELL#THIS GAME IS STILL IN ALPHA BRUH#AND WEVE ALREADY COME SO FAR#STICKERS TOO BTW???? THATD BE SO CUTE#MAN IM SO HYPED HELP
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Confrontation with Iran: Who Won?
The West likes its Jews passive, dependent, and weak. When American officials say “Israel has a right to defend [herself]” they mean that they will allow her, and even assist her, to ward off the blows of her enemies. But their “rock solid support” does not extend to Israel taking offensive actions. Israel is allowed passive defense, but not to take the war to our enemies. And don’t even think about preemption.
Insofar as Israel obeys her Western “allies,” she is placed at a great disadvantage for several reasons. The most obvious one is that an entirely passive defense does not deter enemies from attacking over and over again. Why shouldn’t they? They have nothing to lose. The opposite: they will learn valuable lessons from their failures, which they can apply to the next round. And everyone is encouraged to keep trying for the honor of being the one who finally broke the Jewish state.
Then there is the relative high cost of defensive weapons. Each Arrow 3 missile like the ones used to intercept missiles fired at Israel on Saturday night, costs $3.5 million. Each Tamir interceptor used by the Iron Dome system to destroy the cheap Qassams of Hamas, the Katyushas of Hezbollah, and the drones of Iran, costs $50,000 (and two are usually fired at every enemy weapon). Each Iron Dome battery costs $50 million. The cost of using F-35s to shoot down drones is also high relative to the cost of the drones. Passive defense is expensive.
A purely passive defense strategy is so expensive, in fact, that no small country can afford to sustain it for a long period of time (and passivity guarantees that it will be needed forever). As a result, there is no alternative but to turn to one of the great powers as a sponsor. The price is loss of control and ultimately of sovereignty. It is already clear from the way American officials talk about Israel (e.g., President Biden is often described as “furious” with Israel), that Israel is seen as a satellite at best and a satrapy at worst.
Finally there is the message that is inherent in passivity. Shooting at Jews, because there are no consequences for it, becomes normalized. The Jews, people think, must deserve being shot at because, after all, everyone is doing it with impunity. This is particularly important in the Middle East, where honor is a paramount element in most cultures. Individuals, tribes, or nations that are hurt by an enemy must strike back or suffer a loss of honor, a mark that invites others to victimize them as well. Even in Western cultures – well, at least in the recent past – children were taught that failure to strike back at a bully invites more bullying.
An active defense, on the other hand, creates deterrence and restores lost honor. Nobody will attack Israel if they know that retaliation will be swift and disproportionate. If they are hurt badly enough, they will think twice about attacking again – if they have even retained the ability to do so. There is also an economic advantage: offensive weapons, like drones, rockets, missiles, and artillery, are far cheaper and simpler than technological marvels like Arrow and Iron Dome.
Israel has come a long way down the road to losing her sovereignty to the US as a result of her increasing dependence on military aid, in part to finance astronomically expensive systems of passive defense, and in part because she chooses to adopt other super-sophisticated weapons systems that are “free” even when they may not be optimal for her needs (e.g., the F-35). She has developed a culture at the top of her military hierarchy which is as loyal to the American military-industrial complex as it is to the State of Israel. The American government has, for its part, extended its influence deeper into all the affairs of our state, and in particular her management of her wars.
After the horrific atrocities of 7 October 2023, Israeli leaders had no choice but to adopt the strategic objective of removing Hamas from power and destroying its military capabilities. The US opposed this from the start, forced Israel to delay her ground invasion, and now – for several months – has prevented her from entering the last Hamas stronghold, Rafiah. The US has pushed for an extended (in effect, permanent) ceasefire, and has tried to turn Gaza over to the corrupt, terrorist, Palestinian Authority, a step which would nullify the gains made by the IDF at great cost.
After Iran attacked Israel with hundreds of drones and missiles on Saturday night, President Biden called for Israel to treat its success at intercepting most of them as “a win,” and not retaliate. The media in Israel are trumpeting the success of our air defense array, which – with some significant help from the US, the UK, and Jordan – managed to down 99% of the weapons before they could land in Israel. This is a remarkable technological achievement, but it was an expensive operation, estimated to cost 5 billion shekels, or more than $1.3 billion.
Israel has not yet retaliated, and it is clear that the price demanded for accurate American intelligence about the impending attack and assistance in defending against it was that any retaliation will be at best symbolic – and certainly not include an attack on the Iranian nuclear project.
But the 99% figure is not as “phenomenal” (Israeli media love this word) as it looks nor is it likely to be repeated. Respected Israeli analyst Yigal Carmon wrote that the whole operation was choreographed by Iran with the cooperation of the US in order to allow the Islamic Republic to come down from the tree of needing to retaliate for Israel’s recent assassination of an Iranian general:
Iran wanted to retrieve its deterrence after the killing in Damascus of Iranian General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who, by Iran’s own testimony, was the mastermind of the October 7 attack. … [The US] coordinated with the Iranians so that civilians would not be struck. Arab media are already reporting this coordination. Iran made it easy for the U.S., Israel, Britain, and Jordan to know what it would and would not do, and where it would do it. Israel was not part of this coordination. …
The Americans played Israel and they are continuing to do so by preventing an Israeli reaction. In fact, they began the pressure on Israel not to react even before the attack took place. CENTCOM’s commander General Michael Kurilla went to Israel on April 13 and pressed for prior coordination with the U.S. of any action by Israel. Now President Biden said it himself: You were not hurt, they failed. Do not do anything. Do not escalate because you will be dragging us into a war. We protected you and no one was hurt. The answer will be diplomatic.
What did the various parties gain and lose from this exercise? Iran’s top priority today is to avoid triggering a serious confrontation that might result in damage to her nuclear weapons program, which is on the verge of completion. However (unlike Israeli leaders), the Iranians understand the psychological importance of at least appearing to get revenge when they have been injured, and this massive attack achieved that end. At the same time, the coordination with the Americans insured that Israel will not strike back, and therefore will lose points in the calculus of honor that is so important in the region. Israel also lost an opportunity, perhaps her last, to take action against the Iranian nuclear project before it becomes operational.
The Americans gain exposure for their defensive weapons systems, establish themselves as the protector of their allies, and increase their influence over Israel and her dependence upon them. Israel will have to replenish her supply of American weapons and ammunition, and the military aid is an important subsidy for the US defense industry. The Biden administration also maintains its (still inexplicable to me) policy of protecting and even encouraging Iran’s drive to become the nuclear hegemon of the region.
Carmon also notes – and this is a critical point for Israeli planners – that the 99% success rate in interceptions is not likely to be repeated in the event of a real surprise attack by Iran.
Israel can’t continue on the path of subservience to the US, because American objectives in the region are inconsistent with the continued existence of a Jewish state. She must reduce her dependence, develop her own defense industries, approach other great powers (e.g., China), and become a “nonaligned” nation rather than a satellite of one side or the other. In the short term, she must enter Rafiah, crush Hamas, repel Hezbollah, and keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
May Hashem give our leadership the sense to see this and the strength to act.
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Grand flop: How USAID bankrolled anti-Iran groups for botched ‘regime change’ plot
By Yousef Ramazani
US President Donald Trump's surprise decision to suspend foreign “aid” programs has ignited a firestorm of anger and antagonism among hostile anti-Iranian groups in the West.
On the first day of his second term, Trump signed 26 executive orders, one of which – Executive Order 14169, titled "Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid" – mandates a 90-day pause on all US “foreign development assistance” worldwide.
After the order was signed, the US State Department swiftly froze all foreign aid initiatives, with the notable exceptions of the Israeli regime and Egypt – the two largest recipients.
Under the order, the disbursement of federal funds to any non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international bodies, and contractors tasked with delivering US "aid" is prohibited.
This has caused a major disruption to a multibillion-dollar “regime change” apparatus led by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), both with a notorious history of financing groups designed to and undermine destabilize foreign governments in order to advance US interests.
USAID alone commands an annual budget of tens of billions of dollars, working in tandem with the notorious spy agency CIA to orchestrate "regime change" operations worldwide.
From Latin America to Eastern Europe and Western Asia, the US has funneled billions into NGOs and so-called "independent" media outlets, all in the name of "democracy promotion," fueling color revolutions and a myriad of covert operations under the guise of spreading freedom.
As far back as the early 1990s, NED co-founder Allen Weinstein candidly confessed in an interview, "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
Within days of Trump's signing the order, chaos, and confusion reigned supreme as hundreds of "internal contractors" at USAID were placed on unpaid leave or outright fired from the organization, and the NED came forward to inform its beneficiaries that funding would be halted immediately.
Both Trump and Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and Trump’s key aide, launched scathing critiques of the two organizations in order to settle their scores with the previous administration.
Trump derided USAID as "run by a bunch of radical lunatics," while Musk labeled it a "ball of worms" and a "criminal organization" that "deserves to die." Musk didn’t hold back on the NED either, condemning it as an "evil, criminal and corrupt" entity that "needs to be dissolved."
Their tirade, paired with the executive order’s declaration that "they serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries," resonated in several countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Initially, the move was seen by many pundits as a welcome gesture and a promise that the US would cease interfering in internal affairs. However, that optimism quickly waned after further clarifications about the real motivations behind the freeze.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified that the funds were cut not out of a shift in foreign policy, but because these organizations had failed to fulfill their mission, keeping 88 cents of every dollar they received for administrative costs, and only spending 12 cents on the intended goals.
The freeze, it seemed, was not a shift in international diplomacy, but a stark message for USAID and NED to reevaluate their “regime change” operations if they hoped to regain funding.
Despite their failures in countries like Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba, USAID and NED had previously found success in Eastern Europe and the Arab world. But recent years have seen a string of setbacks, leading to their current crisis.
A shock for anti-Iran activists
Trump's decision to pull multibillion-dollar funds from various countries sent shockwaves through anti-Iran circles in the West. NGOs, media outlets, and “regime change” enthusiasts across the globe began scrambling, uncertain of their future.
The freeze on USAID funding has resulted in the suspension of around $268 million earmarked for supporting "independent media and the free flow of information" for the year.
USAID had recently touted its backing of over 6,000 journalists, around 700 newsrooms, and roughly 300 media-centric civil society groups across 30 countries.
Many of these organizations, posing as impartial champions for the rights of the Iranian people, are now struggling to maintain their façade as their financial ties to the US government become glaringly evident.
Leaked documents and intelligence reports reveal that Washington had allocated tens of millions of dollars in recent years to subversive groups, Persian-language media, and activists working against the Islamic Republic.
But with the cessation of foreign aid, many of these entities find themselves at a crossroads.
Ataollah Mohajerani, Iran's former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, weighed in on the shift: "From day one, Trump disappointed and practically destroyed the opposition seeking to overthrow the Islamic Republic. The approximately $60 million that was being given to those claiming to pursue regime change in Iran is no longer available. That cup is broken, and that vessel is spilled."
Ironically, numerous anti-Iran mercenary groups, long supportive of Trump’s anti-Iran stance, had anticipated a surge in funding after his re-election. Instead, they now face the stark opposite – a financial freeze that has thrown their operations into turmoil.
According to the BBC, over thirty organizations and media outlets focused on Iran have been hit by this suspension, though the specific names of these entities remain undisclosed.
These Persian-language institutions and media outlets have been forced to cut back on part-time staff, a move that could profoundly impact both their work and the livelihoods of their active personnel.
The British state-controlled broadcaster further reported a sense of confusion among these groups. Crisis meetings were plagued with uncertainty as they received letters with conflicting information, leaving them in the dark about whether the suspension was temporary or permanent.
This disarray has also been felt by rabble-rousers working with other counter-revolutionary TV channels, such as Iran International, who share similar frustrations about the suspension of activities and an unclear future.
Shahram Homayoun, a Los Angeles-based director of Channel One, and an opponent of the Islamic Republic, decried the funding freeze as “unprecedented in history.”
"Mr. Trump's decision has shut down all Iranian movements, and some people have become orphans and are in mourning."
Affected groups and individuals
The full extent of the damage to anti-Iranian individuals and entities is difficult to assess, primarily due to the opaque nature of their financing.
Few organizations, particularly those based in the US, openly acknowledge USAID or NED as donors. Instead, they often maintain the image of “independent” elements acting altruistically or through donations from like-minded supporters, leading to the appearance of “spontaneous” campaigns.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the true impact of this funding freeze remains shrouded in uncertainty. Many recipients are reluctant to speak out, fearing political repercussions or the loss of future funding opportunities.
Moreover, funds are often funneled through intermediaries or integrated into larger so-called “democracy-promotion” programs, making it challenging to trace direct links.
USAID does maintain a dataset on foreign aid by country, though Iran is conspicuously absent from the list due to the ban on direct aid. NED, for its part, stopped publishing its financial reports several years ago, further obscuring the financial landscape.
Since 2009, the US State Department’s Near East Regional Democracy (NERD) program has served as the primary source of US support for so-called “human rights” and “civil society” in Iran. This program has funded training for Iranian “regime change” engineers outside the country, with annual expenditures ranging from $65 to $85 million.
Recently, investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg uncovered a leaked classified US State Department invitation for bids from private contractors and intelligence-linked entities such as NED and USAID, shedding light on the behind-the-scenes workings of these organizations and the profound impact of the suspension on their global operations.
Klarenberg points out that the flow of US government money, particularly through agencies like NED and NERD, remains shrouded in secrecy, making it difficult to trace exactly where the funding ends up and who benefits.
Details of these covert operations are systematically concealed, with the mainstream media claiming such information is classified due to the non-existent "risk" posed to activists.
However, Klarenberg argues that Washington's secrecy has more to do with covering up the dubious nature of these operations.
Public records that were later deleted reveal that NED alone invested at least $4.6 million in 51 different counter-revolutionary efforts in Iran between 2016 and 2021, but only seven of these projects named the organization responsible.
The Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, based in Washington DC, was one of the few to be identified, leaving the remaining 44 recipients shrouded in mystery.
Press TV website investigation reveals that in the year leading up to the September 2022 protests in Iran, NED allocated nearly $1 million to projects focused on so-called "human rights" advocacy, yet not a single participating organization was named.
This money flowed into an unnamed entity tasked with "monitoring, documenting, and reporting on human rights violations" and working with self-styled “activists” inside Iran to bolster their digital security and advocacy efforts.
Anti-Iran groups masquerading as media houses, particularly Boroumand Center, IranWire, BBC Persian, and others, have found themselves under scrutiny as potential beneficiaries of this covert funding from the USAID.
Hamidreza Gholamzadeh, a foreign policy analyst and international affairs head at Tehran Municipality, noted that the IHRDC, Tavaana, and Boroumand Center were likely funded by NED, while IranWire probably received direct support from the US State Department.
Not so anonymous
Though many of these recipients maintain an air of anonymity, their identities can often be uncovered through detailed analysis of past interactions with Western operatives, intelligence leaks, and the activities of the individuals and groups involved.
Recent reports by The Grayzone and The Cradle, based on leaked documents, have shed light on NED’s and NERD’s most recent regime-change strategy.
In October 2022, Iran's Intelligence Ministry and the IRGC Intelligence Organization issued a joint report detailing the origins and methods behind the riots, with Brigadier General Mohammad Kazemi providing additional insights in a June 2023 interview.
Iranian counterintelligence apparatus has long been adept at recognizing the tactics of Western hybrid warfare, tactics that have been creeping into the country since the late 1990s.
During that time, Western-backed organizations exploited the opportunity to infiltrate Iran under the guise of human rights protection. These groups often aimed to sow discord and destabilize the Islamic Republic.
One key example is Shirin Ebadi, the controversial leader of the so-called “Defenders of Human Rights Center,” who became a vocal figure in Western media and received numerous accolades, including a Nobel Peace Prize, for being a pawn in the hands of the US spy agencies.
Ebadi’s true agenda was far from altruistic. Her organization's activities were centered on freeing dreadful prisoners and inciting divisions along ethnic and religious lines in the country, masked under the rhetoric of “political prisoners' rights.”
In 2009, Ebadi’s true allegiance became apparent when she fled to London, expressed pro-Israel sentiments, and openly called for the overthrow of Iran's democratic political system.
Her report naming a conservative Deobandi imam as a potential "ally" of the West in Iran exemplifies how she saw certain figures, not for their shared values, but as pawns to stir unrest among Iran's southeastern population.
This example highlights the deeply intertwined nature of foreign-backed operations and the methods used to destabilize nations under the guise of democracy promotion.
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