#Russian International celebrity

[ashitakaxsan]

✨ Embark on a journey into the world of manga art, where the real and the charming collide in the form of Natalia Poklonskaya! 🌸 

   Known for her grace, intelligence, and unwavering dedication, Natalia Poklonskaya captured the hearts of people worldwide with her captivating presence. Now, she comes to life in these stunning manga illustrations, where her beauty and strength are immortalized in every brushstroke. 

   Whether she's defending justice or exuding elegance, Natalia's magnetic charm shines through, leaving a lasting impression on all who encounter her. Join us as we celebrate the real-life heroine through the lens of manga art, where her legacy continues to inspire and enchant. 💫

  ✨ Отправьтесь в путешествие в мир искусства манги, где встречаются настоящее и очаровательное в образе Натальи Поклонской! 🌸

    Известная своей грацией, умом и непоколебимой преданностью делу, Наталья Поклонская покорила сердца людей во всем мире своим очаровательным внешним видом. Теперь она оживает в этих потрясающих иллюстрациях в манге, где ее красота и сила увековечены в каждом мазке кисти. 

   Защищает ли она справедливость или излучает элегантность, магнетическое обаяние Натальи сияет, оставляя неизгладимое впечатление на всех, кто с ней сталкивается. Присоединяйтесь к нам, и мы прославим настоящую героиню через призму искусства манги, где ее наследие продолжает вдохновлять и очаровывать.

Слишком много было ажиотажа вокруг Украины, Зеленского тоже. Так что это культивировало идею, чтобы мы забыли о Великолепной Вайфу Наталье Поклонской. Я храню ее в своем уме и сердце. Она мне нравится :)

[crispsandkerosene]

Extended "Tell a Story..." Interaction

A small default replacement (of sort) for this Apartment Life social. The original includes five "stories", each boosting a hobby and relations with a an AL social class: -> "Mechanics", tinkering, Gearheads. -> "Art", arts & crafts, Bohemians. -> "Sports", sports, Jocks. -> "Computers", games, Techies. -> "Economy", film and literature, Socialites. I added five for the missing hobbies; reusing the social classes: -> "Camping", nature, Gearheads. -> "Baking", cuisine, Bohemians. -> "Health", fitness, Jocks. -> "Science Fiction", science, Techies. -> "Orchestra", music and dance, Socialites. All the new stories use custom sprites in their speech bubbles. These are from the Sims 2, 3 and 4. Their action strings have localization for French, Russian, Polish, Spanish and Portuguese. Other game languages will display the basic US English. I also renamed the "Economy" story to "Celebrity" in the English localization. I replaced its sprites as well as some of the "Computers" story's. The preview image shows one of the "Celebrity" sprites. Internally, the mod replaces components of the existing interaction: BHVs, STRs, TXTRs, and the OBJD (but not its GUID). The only new resources are additional textures. As far as I've tested, it should be safe to remove. The game will simply go back to using the original "material". Thank you to Gayars for helping me test it, and Tvickiesims, Gwathgor, Freezer Bunny and Logan Simming Wolverine for the various translations! -> Download at SimFileShare.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How the kleptocrats and oligarchs hunt civil society groups to the ends of the Earth

It's a great time to be an oligarch! If you have accumulated a great fortune and wish to put whatever great crime lies behind it behind you, there is an army of fixers, lickspittles, thugs, reputation-launderers, procurers, henchmen, and other enablers who have turnkey solutions for laundering your reputation and keeping the unwashed from building a guillotine outside the gates of your compound.

The field of International Relations has studied the enemies of the Klept in detail: the Transnational Activist Network is a well-documented phenomenon. But far more poorly understood is the Transnational Uncivil Society Network, who will polish any turd of sufficient wealth to a high, professional gloss.

These TUSNs are the subject of a new, timely scholarly paper by Alexander Cooley, John Heathershaw and Ricard Soares de Oliveira: "Transnational Uncivil Society Networks: kleptocracy’s global fightback against liberal activism," published in last month's European Journal of International Relations:

https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:5e5a3052-c693-4991-a7cc-bc2b47134467/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=Cooley_et_al_2023_transnational_uncivil_society.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article

The authors document how a collection of institutions – some coercive, others organized around good works – allow kleptocrats to take power, keep power, and use power. This includes "wealth managers, company providers, accounting firms, and international bankers" who create the complex financial structures that obscure the klept's wealth. It also includes "second citizenship managers and lawyers" that facilitate the klept's transnational nature, both to provide access to un-looted, prosperous places to visit, and boltholes to escape to in the face of coup or reform. It includes the real-estate brokers and other asset facilitators, who turn whole precincts of the world's greatest cities into empty safe-deposit boxes in the sky, while ensuring that footlose criminal elites always have a penthouse to perch in when they take a break from the desiccated husks they've drained dry back home.

Of course, it also includes the PR managers and philanthropic ventures that allow the klept to launder their reputation, to make themselves synonymous with good deeds rather than mass murder. Think here of how the Sacklers used charity to turn their family name into a synonym for culture and fine art, rather than death by opioid overdose:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed

Beyond providing comfort to "Politically Exposed Persons" and "High Net-Worth Individuals," TUSNs are concerned with neutralizing TANs. Activists in these transnational networks play an inside-outside game: in-country activists will recruit peers abroad to bring attention to the crimes of their local kleptocrats. These overseas partners target the klept in the places they go to play and spend, spoiling their fun – and if they succeed in getting corrupt leaders censured abroad, then in-country activists can leverage that bad press to fight the klept at home.

To fight this "Boomerang Effect," TUSNs seek to burnish corrupt officials' reputations abroad, getting their names on humanitarian prizes, beloved sports teams, cultural institutions and great universities. They seek to capture international governance institutions that might wrong-foot kleptocrats, co-opting them to enable and even celebrate looters.

When it comes to elite philanthropy, TUSNs are necessarily selective. Kleptocrats' foundations don't fund anti-kleptocratic groups – they stick to "education, public health, the environment and the arts." These domains steer clear of human rights questions that might implicate their benefactors. Russian oligarchs love children's charities and disability rights – provided they don't target the Russian state.

If charitable giving is reputation laundering's carrot, then "reputation management" is the laundry's stick. Think of organized copyfraudsters who clone websites that have criticized their clients, then backdate the articles, then accuse the originals of infringing copyright in order to get them de-listed from Google or taken offline altogether:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#dark-ops

Reputation managers also spend a lot of time in court. In the UK – the world's leader in libel tourism, thanks to a legal system designed to let posh monsters sue muckraking journalists into silence – Russian oligarchs have perfected the art of forcing their critics to shut up and go away:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/04/londongrad/#enablers

Indeed, London is a one-stop shop for the global klept, a place were forelock-tugging Renfields will buy you a Mayfair mansion under cover of a numbered company, sue your critics into silence, funnel your money into an anonymous Channel Islands account:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/07/the-klept/#pep

They'll sell you whole galleriesworth of "fine art" that you can have relocated to a climate-controlled container in a Swiss or Irish freeport:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poesy-the-monster-slayer/#moneylab

They'll give your thick-as-pigshit progeny a PhD and never check to see whether he wrote his thesis himself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSE%E2%80%93Gaddafi_affair

Then they'll hook you up with a cyber-arms dealer to hunt your enemies by capturing their devices:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/27/gas-on-the-fire/#a-safe-place-for-dangerous-ideas

But don't let Brexit stop you from shopping for bargains on the continent. The Golden Passports of the EU – available in a variety of flavors, from Maltese to Cypriot to Portuguese – offer the discerning failson access to the luxury good shops and fleshpots of 27 advanced economies, making it a favorite of the Khmer Riche – the junior klept of Cambodia's ruling faction:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/cambodia-hunsen-wealth/

But golden passports are for amateurs. Skilled klepts travel on diplomatic passports, which offer the twin benefits of free movement and consequence-free criminality, thanks to diplomatic immunity. The former Kazakh dictator's son-in-law enjoyed a freewheeling diplomatic life in Vienna; one daughters of the dictator of Tajikistan had a jolly time as an envoy to DC; another, to London (where else?).

All this globetrotting serves a second purpose: when rival elites seize power back home and force the old guard into exile, those ex-monsters can show up in the lands they called their second homes and apply for asylum. It turns out that even bomb-the-boats UK will welcome any asylum seeker who enters via the private jet terminal at City Airport (to be fair, these "refugees" have extensive properties in Zone 1 and country places in the Home Counties, so they won't need housing).

This stuff works. After Kazakh state goons murdered at least 14 protesters at a Zhanaozen oil facility in 2011, human rights groups around the world took up the cause. But they were effectively neutralized by TUSNs, with former UK PM Tony Blair writing on behalf of the Kazakh government to the EU condemning any kind of international investigation into the mass killings (add "former Prime Ministers" to the list of commodities for sale in the UK to sufficiently well-resourced murderer).

The authors close their paper with two case-studies. The first is of the daughters of Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov, Gulnara and Lola. And President Karimov was indeed a dictator: he trapped his population within his borders, forced them to use unconvertible scrip in place of money, and ordered the murder of hundreds of peaceful protesters, plunging the country into international isolation.

But while Uzbeks were sealed within their borders, Gulnara Karimov became an international player, running a complex network of businesses that mixed the products of the nation's oilfields with her family's fortune. She solicited – and received – bribes from Teliasonera, MTS and Vimpelcom, who were all vying for the contract to provide service in Uzbekistan. All told, she extracted more than $1b in bribes, laundering them through Latvia, Hong Kong and New York. She acquired real-estate in France and Switzerland, and her spree continued until her father collaborated with Uzbek security to seize her assets and place her under house-arrest.

Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva was Gulnara's estranged younger sister. She and her husband Timur Tillyaev ran the Dubai-based SecureTrade, which did extensive business with "opaque Scottish Limited Partnerships," laundering more than $127m in a single year to offshore accounts in the UAE and Switzerland. They acquired many luxe assets – a jet, a Californian villa, and an LA perfumier.

Lola styled herself as the face of the Karimovas abroad, a "philanthropist and cultural ambassador." She was a UNESCO ambassador and commissioned works of monumental art – and also sued the shit out of news outlets that reported factual matters about her family repressive activity at home. She organized AIDS charities in the name of Uzbekistan – even as her father was imprisoning a writer for publishing a book explaining how to have safer sex.

The second case-study is on Isabel dos Santos, "Africa's richest woman," daughter of Angolan dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Isabel's vast fortune stemmed from her personal capture of vast swathes of the third-largest economy in Africa: "telecommunications, banking, diamonds, real estate and cement, among many others." Isabel enjoyed seemingly limitless access to state credit and co-investment, and was given first crack at newly deregulated industries. Foreign firms that invested in Angola were required to "partner" with Isabel's businesses.

Isabel claimed to be a "self-made woman" – a claim credulously parroted by the western press, including the FT. She used her homegrown fortune to become a major player abroad, especially in Portugal, where she was represented by the leading Portuguese law-firm PLMJ. Her enablers are who's who of corruption-loving lickspittles: McKinsey, Ernst and Young, Boston Consulting Group, and the Spanish BigLaw firm Uri Menendez.

Isabel cultivated a public facade of philanthropic giving and public spirited activism, serving as head of the Angolan Red Cross. She attended Davos and spoke at the LSE (she was also invited to Oxford, but her invitation was subsequently rescinded). On social media, she dismissed critics of her wealth and corruption as "colonialists," decrying their "racism" and "prejudice."

Isabel dos Santos's corrupt sources of wealth were finally, irrefutably exposed through the Luanda Leaks, in which the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists mapped the network of "top banks, management consultants and legal firms that were central to dos Santos’s operations."

Both case studies shed light on the network of brilliant, driven enablers and procurers without whom the world's greatest monsters would falter. It's a rare window on a secretive world, one that is poorly understood even by its inhabitants. As Michael Mechanic wrote in Jackpot, his 2021 book on vast, intergenerational fortunes, the winners of the lucky orifice lottery often lack any real understanding of how The Money is structured, grown and protected:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/13/public-interest-pharma/#affluenza

This point was reiterated by Abigail Disney, in a brave piece on what it's like to grow up subject to the oversight of these millionaires who babysit the children of billionaires:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/19/dynastic-wealth/#caste

This is an important contribution to the literature. We naturally focus on the ultrawealthy individuals whose reputations and fortunes are the subject of so much attention, but without the TUSNs, they would be largely helpless.

Going to Burning Man? Catch me on Tuesday at 2:40pm on the Center Camp Stage for a talk about enshittification and how to reverse it; on Wednesday at noon, I'm hosting Dr Patrick Ball at Liminal Labs (6:15/F) for a talk on using statistics to prove high-level culpability in the recruitment of child soldiers.

On September 6 at 7pm, I'll be hosting Naomi Klein at the LA Public Library for the launch of Doppelganger.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

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/2023/08/24/launderers-enforcers-bagmen/#procurers

Image: Sam Valadi (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/132084522@N05/17086570218/

CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

--

Colin (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palace_of_Westminster_from_the_dome_on_Methodist_Central_Hall_(cropped).jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[ba9go]

bokuto koutarou misses your anniversary

timeskip!bokuto (msby black jackals), fem!reader, hurt/comfort, flufffff

koutarou has never missed your anniversary in the 7 years you've been together since highschool. come hell or high water, koutarou would never miss your anniversary for the world.

this year, however, was different.

koutarou's career meant a lot to him. he lives and breathes volleyball. and as the msby black jackals' starting wing spiker, koutarou was vital to the team.

it just so happened that the fivb world championships were going to be held the day before your anniversary. in switzerland. which was 14 hours away from japan.

it was a huge deal, the fivb being a week-long international tournament and all, and the jackals were facing the russian team zenit kazan in the finals.

it sucked. it sucked even more when koutarou broke the news to you, even if you'd been understanding.

"it's okay, kou," you smiled at him warmly.

"it's not okay," koutarou sulked, burying his face in his hands. "i don't wanna be away on our anniversary. it's hard enough to be away from you for a week. can't we just fly you to switzerland? please?" he peeks at you sadly from between his fingers.

"sorry, but i've got work, kou," you murmured quietly, gently prying his hands off his face. you squeezed his hands reassuringly. "go do your best out there, i'll be rooting for you. i promise we'll celebrate once you're home, okay?"

"okaaaay," koutarou pouted, but interlocked his fingers with yours to squeeze your hands back. "but i still don't like this."

koutarou hated this, actually.

not only had they lost the match, but there was a slight delay in his flight back to japan. the plane landed at kansai international airport closer to 10pm than the initially stipulated 6pm.

koutarou tried not to let his frustration get the better of him. the last thing he wanted to do was to come home late and angry. he tried to calm down in the cab driving back home.

koutarou reached the front door of the house at 11.16pm. that gave him... roughly 44 minutes to spend his anniversary with you. great.

he didn't bother unpacking his luggages, instead leaving them in the doorway and making a beeline straight to the bedroom. the door was slightly ajar, and the room was dark save the warm yellow light from the lamp on the nightstand.

koutarou felt his heart sink as he walked towards you, curled up in bed alone. 'i'm too late,' he thinks sadly, crouching next to the bed and staring at your face, tired but beautiful. he imagines you, trying to stay up even after a long day of work. 'she must be so disappointed in me.'

"y/n," koutarou whispers softly. he feels tears start to well in his eyes. "i'm home. i'm sorry for making you wait."

you stir ever so slightly in your sleep.

koutarou leans over and presses a kiss against your forehead. when he pulls back, your eyes are wide open and staring right at him.

"kou? kou!" your face breaks into a grin and you fling your arms around him. "you're back!! when did you get back?"

koutarou is bewildered. you're not mad at him?

"you must be so tired, baby! have you taken a bath? let's run you a hot bath, okay?" you sit up and move to get off the bed when koutarou catches you with his arms around your waist.

"i'm sorry," koutarou whispers against your chest. he squeezes your waist like he's afraid you'll disappear on him at any moment. "our anniversary's ruined, because of me."

you instinctively wrap your arms around the back of his head, cradling him. "you didn't ruin anything, kou," you ruffle his hair lovingly.

"we didn't even win." koutarou's head falls to your lap. you continue patting his head.

"that's okay. i'm still proud of you."

"i missed our anniversary."

"you're here now, aren't you?" you smile at koutarou when he looks up at you from your lap. he nods slowly. "that's more than enough, kou."

"really?"

"of course. happy 7-year anniversary, koutarou. i adore you."

what can i say. bokuto has been my comfort character since 2017. thank you for always being here for me bokuto!!!!! :D

[i-merani]

I was listening to an interview about Ukraine and the interviewer was talking how there's no empathy for russian soldiers "not asking for sympathy for the Russians as an invading force, but empathy for humans" is the direct quote and while yes empathy for humans should exist, highlighting this in this context is bizzare. He then follows saying that these are young soldiers and the west is celebrating when "they are sent to their mothers" (meaning celebrating their deaths).

And what struck me the most is him saying this: "Soldiers who've been sent to war not by their choice, they follow military, they follow orders". Quick question: how do you think defeated nazi soldiers were trying to avoid punishment for their war crimes? What "argument" was real popular, don't you remember? This exact "argument" is the reason why International Law actually explicitly states that if a higher ups in the war are forcing a soldier to execute unlawful acts, the soldier has the right and responsibility to refuse this order. In International Law "I was following orders" is not an admissible argument. If the Russian soldiers don't want to commit war crimes, they are, by law, obliged to refuse the orders. Yet the Russian army still stands, still committing war crimes in Ukraine. But yeah, poor russian young boys sent to their mothers…

Yes I do have empathy for brainwashed and indoctrinated youth of an authoritarian state, no I don't have empathy for war criminals.

[crimethinc]

Happy May Day! 🏴🏴🏴

For a short history of this day of celebration and resistance across a century and a half:

https://crimethinc.com/MayDayHistory

To give a sense of what the day means to us, read this excerpt of a text published today in Russian by the anarchist project http://akrateia.info.

We've translated it because it is a beautiful and inspiring expression of how the struggle for liberation and mutual aid has persisted across centuries against all odds.

"Mayday is an international distress signal in radio communications, similar to the SOS signal in telegraph communications. This is an approximation of the French phrase 'm'aidez,' a shortened version of the phrase 'venez m'aider'(meaning 'come to my aid,' 'help me'). On this day, we offer to come to each other’s aid (what Peter Kropotkin called 'mutual aid').

"We appeal to you: wherever you are—under fire, in a hospital, in prison, in a foreign country, trying to find a way to earn money, in your native country where you risk becoming a victim of torture by the authorities—we want to remind you that you are not alone. We want to be with you in spirit, no matter how difficult it may be right now.

"Anarchism never died. Throughout the bloody history of the 20th century. it survived and developed. If you are reading these lines, that means you are also involved in our great cause. How many times have anarchist periodicals addressed their readers on May 1? How many times have anarchists feared that anarchism might die and totalitarian countries and fascists would win?

"We will continue, as our predecessors did. We will not give up because we are coming to help each other."

[counterpunches]

source

[transcript: [slide 1]

we are treated differently and we are so tired

[slide 2] From day one, we were treated differently: the celebrations

Hamas is an internationally-recognized terrorist organization that is explicit in its aim to annihilate Israel and the Jewish people in its very foundational charter. On October 7, 2023, thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded internationally-recognized sovereign Israeli territory and slaughtered 1,200 people in a matter of hours, the majority of them civilians. They went door to door, pulling people from their beds, maiming, mutilating, beheading, raping, and burning entire families alive. About 80 of the corpses showed signs of torture. They also took over 200 people hostage, including Holocaust survivors and a 9-month-old. It was the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Israel is a small country; had October 7 happened in the US, it would be the equivalent of individually slaughtering 50,000 Americans in a matter of hours.

Instead of expressing outrage, there were worldwide celebrations. In the West Bank, Gaza, and elsewhere in the Arab world, candy was handed out on the streets in celebration. In Gaza, thousands gathered to cheer as terrorists paraded mutilated corpses. A group of 3000 United Nations teachers expressed their joy at the murder and mutilation of Israelis, including young children. All over left-wing social media, people celebrated.

On October 8, before any Israeli retaliation whatsoever, crowds of thousands gathered in Times Square to express their support for the murderers, holding signs that declared "decolonization is not a metaphor" and "by any means necessary".

Fringe extremists exist, but this was hardly the fringe. And we know this is not a normal reaction. We did not see entire protests in Times Square in support of the Russian slaughter of Ukranians, 9/11, the ISIS genocide of Yazidis, the slaughter of Yemenis, the slaughter of Syrians, or any other atrocity.

[slide 3] From Day one, we were treated differently: the contextualization and qualification

Secretary General of the United Nations Anthony Guterres' initial response to the October 7 massacre was the following: "It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum."

First, let me make one thing clear: there is no context, in international law or anywhere else, that justifies or minimizes the slaughter, torture, and rape of civilians, including women, children, those with disabilities, and the elderly.

But beyond that, there is a glaring double standard when Israel is the victim of a massacre. Let's take a look at another example of terrorism as a guideline. When ISIS bombed an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England on May 22, 2017, killing 22, Secretary General Guterres immediately "strongly condemned" the attack, and the Security Council released a statement, condemning "in the strongest terms the barbaric and cowardly terrorist attack" and extending its solidarity to the United Kingdom. No one said the attack had to be understood "in the context" of the UKs invasion of Iraq, the war against ISIS, or the UKs long history of colonialism in the region, and no one said that it did not happen in a vacuum.

Similarly, on October 7, millions of people rushed to social media to provide "context" for the cold-blooded, purposeful, and indiscriminate murder of civilians. Others, before their "condemnation" felt the need to clarify that they were not supporters of the Israeli government (okay, and?), when they've otherwise strongly condemned atrocities perpetrated on others, without feeling the need to qualify support (or lack thereof) for any other country's government.

[slide 4] From day one, we were treated differently: the victim blaming

On October 7, as the massacre was still unfolding, 31 Harvard University organizations released a statement holding Israel "entirely responsible" for the slaughter of its own citizens. I reiterate: as Israelis were still being slaughtered by the hundreds simply for being Jewish - or for being associated with Jews - we were told that our own slaughter was our fault.

They were not the only ones to do so. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Iran, and Iraq blamed Israel for the October 7 slaughter. Black Lives Matter Chicago blamed Israel for the October 7 slaughter. Labor unions across the US blamed Israel for the October 7 slaughter. The list goes on.

After the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an article in which one anonymous police officer said that the police is looking into the possibility that some of the victims of the Nova music festival were killed by fire from an IDF military chopper, antisemites took the statement out of context, distorted it, and disseminated it all over the media and internet.

In response to the Haaretz article, the Israeli police put out a statement that the investigation was only in regard to police activities on October 7, not military activities, and that as such, they do not have any indication about the harm to any civilians due to any aerial activity there."

Regardless, the conspiracy has taken a life of its own, so much so that Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of carrying out the massacre. Abbas later retracted his statement. A few other unverified reports have also similarly taken out of context to "prove" that Israel was actually behind its own massacre.

To this day, we are told, in response to released hostage testimony that Israeli women are being raped in the Hamas tunnels, that it's justified because "they were soldiers." For what it's worth, no one's rape is justified - even when they're soldiers.

[slide 5] A few days later came the denial

The 10/7 massacre was live-streamed by the perpetrators on their own social media platforms.

Initially, antisemites celebrated. After more and more heinous, indefensible details started to come out, antisemites started denying it happened at all.

To reiterate: the massacre was live-streamed to social media - by the perpetrators. We all saw it in the early hours of October 7. The perpetrators have gone on to boast about it since. For example, on January 10, the leader of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said, "We should hold on to the victory that took place on October 7 and build upon it."

The level of denial - just a few days after October 7 - is so pervasive that Israel had to compile a 47-minute film of footage with the most graphic, dehumanizing video evidence to screen for international reporters, government officials, and more.

But no amount of evidence seems to be enough. No independent investigators are enough. No video footage is enough. No survivor or eyewitness testimony is enough. Why are people denying what's before their very eyes? Why?

[slide 6] Then the one-sided demands.

From October 7, there were already demands on Israel - on Israel, as its civilians were massacred - to ceasefire. These demands came from important voices, including American Congresspeople, groups such as UNICEF, and more. These calls made little, if any, mention of Hamas, the perpetrator of the October 7 massacre.

No other country would be asked, as a slaughter of their people was still unfolding, to lay down their arms.

Since then, the calls for Israel - and only Israel - to ceasefire have been incessant. They have continued even as Hamas vowed, on October 24, that "there will be a second, a third, a fourth" October 7. When asked to clarify, in the same interview, whether they meant the complete annihilation of Israel, the senior Hamas official responded, "Yes, of course."

The calls for Israel to ceasefire continued as Yaha Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 massacre, promised on November 30 that "October 7 was just a rehearsal."

The calls for Israel to ceasefire continued as Hamas violated the terms of the temporary ceasefire every single day between November 24 and December 1.

The calls for Israel to ceasefire as Hamas has fired over 13,000 missiles at Israeli civilians. Even more infuriating, the calls for a ceasefire are often made hand in hand with calls to "globalize the Intifada." An intifada is an armed uprising; it's incompatible with a ceasefire.

The calls for Israel to ceasefire have continued as Hamas has rejected several ceasefires in the past several weeks. At this point, those calling for a ceasefire should be honest: what they care is that Israel ceases, but they are not particularly bothered (or even support) when Hamas fires.

[slide 7] The genocide accusations

There are 153 countries that have signed the Convention of 1948. Before this January, only two had ever been brought to trial before the International Court of Justice. Of the signatories, a number of them have been accused of genocidal acts after signing the Convention, including Azerbaijan, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, and more.

Only Israel, however, is put on trial, which is all the more egregious when we consider that the events post-October 7 are in response to a massacre of Israelis that Genocide Watch classified as "an act of genocide."

What's even more egregious is that South Africa, which has brought this case before the ICJ, maintains close relationships with genocidal dictators, including Russia's Vladimir Putin and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir. It is a close ally of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hamas' patron, which has been brutally oppressing the people of Iran since 1979. South Africa even hosted Hamas officials for a "solidarity" event in December 2023 - two months after the October 7 massacre.

Per the Hamas Ministry of Health, 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza; Israel claims at least 9,000 of them are Hamas combatants. While any civilian death is tragic, there are far deadlier wars and atrocities happening around the globe right at this very second. In Yemen, nearly 400,000 have been killed and a million have died in a famine. In Syria, over 600,000 have been killed. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 6 million have been killed. In Ukraine, at least 100,000 have been killed. The list goes on and on. In many of these cases, the perpetrators of the atrocities - some of them South Africa's closest allies - have explicitly expressed genocidal intent. Yet South Africa hasn't found it necessary to bring them before the International Court of Justice. Only the Jewish state.

[slide 8] Feminist advocates are suddenly silent - or worse, accuse us of lying

Perhaps among the most infuriating responses to the October 7 massacre has been the response of so-called feminists and feminist organizations.

On October 7, and every day since, Hamas weaponized rape as a tool of war, which is not only a war crime, but a crime against humanity. There is a preponderance of evidence, including extensive forensic evidence, eyewitness testimony, perpetrator confessions, and survivor testimony.

Yet the Women's March has not condemned Hamas' weaponization of rape as a tool of war; instead, it has only called for a ceasefire. Me Too has not condemned Hamas' weaponization as a tool of war. UN Women did not condemn Hamas' massacre until December 2, nearly two months after October 7, after intense public pressure from Israelis and the Jewish community.

Angelina Jolie, perhaps the most vocal global activist against the weaponization of rape as a tool of war, has said absolutely nothing about Hamas' war crimes; instead, she has asked Israel to ceasefire.

[slide 9] Double standard: legitimacy

Israel is condemned more than any other nation in the world, but the double standard doesn't end there. Israel's real or perceived crimes are blown out of proportion in comparison to other countries' real or perceived crimes, but the double standard doesn't end there. Israel's suffering is minimized, contextualized, denied, or qualified in comparison to the suffering of other countries, but the double standard doesn't end there. Instead, there is another double standard: everything coming out of Hamas' mouth is immediately taken as fact, while everything that comes out of Israel is questioned.

This is not merely a matter of "feeling" like there is a double standard.

On October 17, an explosion went off at the Al Ahli Hospital parking lot. Within minutes, Hamas claimed that an Israeli airstrike had targeted the hospital, killing 471 people. Israel claimed that a Palestinian Islamic Jihad missile misfired and hit the hospital. But the BBC ran with Hamas' story. This triggered worldwide outrage, inciting anti-Jewish riots in the Arab world and in Russia. Eventually, most international independent investigations corroborated Israel's version of events. But by the time the media retracted its original claim - that is, what Hamas said - it was too late. Two Jews had already been killed in Tunisia in retaliation for a massacre that Israel never actually committed.

Then there is the issue of the hostage videos. Hostage videos are hostage videos because they are made under duress. The hostage is told what to say; otherwise, their life is in danger. Hamas, of course, has coerced the Israeli hostages into saying that they are being treated well. These statements, made with a gun to the head, have been taken as fact, so much so that prominent figures such as Shaun King have gushed over Hamas' so-called "humane" treatment of the hostages (that they brutally abducted after murdering their entire families and friends before their eyes).

Yet, now that over a hundred hostages have been released, and they are no longer under threat from Hamas, they are coming out with stories of abuse and torture. Suddenly, no one believes these accounts, claiming that Israel must have told them what to say. It's absolutely absurd and defies all logic.

[slide 10] support my work

venmo: @rootsmetals cash app: $rootsmetals paypal: @debbie@rootsmetals.com

complete bibliography for this post: patreon.com/rootsmetals

disclaimer: the intent of this post is to educate, raise awareness, and challenge hate speech]

[mightyflamethrower]

“Name me a single objective we’ve ever set out to accomplish that we’ve failed on. Name me one, in all of our history. Not one!”

-President Joe Biden, August 16, 2023 

Joe Biden in one of his now accustomed angry “get off my grass” moods dared the press to find just one of his policies/objectives that has not worked. Silence followed.

Perhaps it was polite to say nothing, given even the media knows almost every enacted Biden policy has failed.

Here is a summation of what he should instead apologize for.

Biden in late summer 2021 sought a 20th anniversary celebration of 9/11 and the 2001 subsequent invasion of Afghanistan. He wished to be the landmark president that yanked everyone out of Afghanistan after 20 years in country. But the result was the greatest military humiliation of the United States since the flight from Vietnam in 1975.

Consider the ripples of Biden’s disaster. U.S. deterrence was crippled worldwide. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea almost immediately began to bluster or return to their chronic harassment of U.S. and allied ships and planes. We left thousands of allied Afghans to face Taliban retribution, along with some Western contractors.

Biden abandoned a $1 billion embassy, and a $300 million remodeled Bagram airbase strategically located not far from China and Russia, and easily defensible. Perhaps $50 billion in U.S. weaponry and supplies were abandoned and now find their way into the international terrorist mart.

All our pride flags, our multimillion gender studies programs at Kabul University, and our George Floyd murals did not just come to naught, but were replaced by the Taliban’s anti-homosexual campaigns, burkas, and detestation of any trace of American popular culture.

Vladimir Putin sized up the skedaddle. He collated it with Biden’s unhinged quip that he would not get too excited if Putin just staged a “minor” invasion of Ukraine. He remembered Biden’s earlier request to Putin to modulate Russian hacking to exempt a few humanitarian American institutions. Then Russia concluded of our shaky Commander-in-Chief that he either did not care or could do nothing about another Russian invasion.

The result so far is more than 500,000 dead and wounded in the war, a Verdun-stand-off along with fortified lines, the steady depletion of our munitions and weapon stocks, and a new China/Russia/Iran/North Korean axis, with wink and nod assistance from NATO Turkey.

Biden blew up the Abraham accords, nudged Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States over to the dark side of Iran, China, and Russia. He humiliated the U.S. on the eve of the midterms by callously begging the likes of Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and Saudi Arabia to pump more oil that he had damned as unclean at home and cut back its production. In Bidenomics, instead of producing oil, the president begs autocracies to export it to us at high prices while he drains the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for short-term political advantage.

Biden deliberately alienated Israel by openly interfering in its domestic politics. He pursued the crackpot Iran Deal while his special Iranian envoy was removed for disclosing classified information.

No one can explain why Biden ignored the Chinese balloon espionage caper, kept mum about the engineered Covid virus that escaped the Wuhan lab, said not a word about a Chinese biolab discovered in rural California, and had his envoys either bow before Chinese leaders or take their insults in silence—other than he is either cognitively challenged or leveraged by his decade-long grifting partnership with his son Hunter.

Yet another Biden’s legacy will be erasing the southern border and with it, U.S. immigration law. Over seven million aliens simply crossed into the U.S. illegally with Biden’s tacit sanction—without audits, background checks, vaccinations, and COVID testing, much less English fluency, skills, or high-school diplomas.

Biden’s only immigration accomplishment was to render the entire illegal sanctuary city movement a cruel joke. Given the flood, mostly rich urban and vacation home dwellers made it very clear that while they fully support millions swarming into poor Latino communities of southern Texas and Arizona, they do not want any illegal aliens fouling their carefully cultivated nests.

Biden is mum about the 100,000 fentanyl deaths from cartel-imported and Chinese-supplied drugs across his open border. He seems to like the idea that Mexican President Obrador periodically mouths off, ordering his vast expatriate community to vote Democratic and against Trump.

Despite all the pseudo-blue collar dissimulation about Old Joe Biden from Scranton, he has little empathy for the working classes. Indeed, he derides them as chumps and dregs, urges miners to learn coding as the world covets their coal, and studiously avoids getting anywhere near the toxic mess in East Palestine, Ohio, or so far the moonscape on Maui.

Bidenomics is a synonym for printing up to $6 billion dollars at precisely the time post-Covid consumer demand was soaring, while previously dormant supply chains were months behind rebooting production and transportation. Biden is on track to increase the national debt more than any one-term president.

In Biden’s weird logic, if he raised the price of energy, gasoline, and key food staples 20-30 percent since his inauguration without a commensurate rise in wages, and then saw the worst inflation in 40 years occasionally decline from record highs one month to the next, then he “beat inflation.”

But the reason why more than 60 percent of the nation has no confidence in Bidenomics is because it destroyed their household budgets. Gas is nearly twice what it was in January 2021. Interest rates have about tripled. Key staple foods are often twice as costly—meat, vegetables, and fruits especially.

Biden has ended through his weaponized Attorney General Merrick Garland the age-old American commitment to equal justice under the law. The FBI, DOJ, CIA, and IRS are hopelessly politically compromised. Many of their bureaucrats serve as retrieval agents for lost Biden family incriminating laptops, diaries, and guns. In sum, Biden criminalized opposing political views.

Biden has unleashed the administrative state for the first time in history to destroy the Republican primary front runner and his likely opponent. His legacy will be the corruption of U.S. jurisprudence and the obliteration of the American reputation for transparent permanent government that should be always above politics, bribery, and corruption.

If in the future, an on-the-make conservative prosecutor in West Virginia, Utah, or Mississippi wishes to make a national name, then he has ample precedent to indict a Democrat President for receiving bad legal advice, questioning the integrity of an election, or using social media to express doubt that the new non-Election-Day balloting was on the up-and-up, or supposedly overvaluing his real estate.

The Biden family’s decade-long family grifting will likely expose Joe Biden as the first president in U.S. history who fitted precisely the Constitution’s definition of impeachment and removal—given his “high crimes and misdemeanors” appear “bribery”-related. If further evidence shows he altered U.S. foreign policy in accordance with the wishes from his benefactors in Ukraine, China, or Romania, then he committed constitutionally-defined “treason” as well.

Defunding the police, and pandemics of exempted looting, shoplifting, smashing, and grabbing, and carjacking merit no administrative attention. Nor does the ongoing systematic destruction of our blue bicoastal cities, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. All that, along with the disasters in East Palestine or Maui are out of sight, out of mind from a day at the beach at Biden’s mysteriously purchased nearly 6,000 square-foot beachfront mansion.

Biden ran on Barack Obama-like 2004 rhetoric (“Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America).”

And like Obama, he used that ecumenical sophistry to gain office only to divide further the U.S. No sooner than he was elected, we began hearing from the great unifier eerie screaming harangues about “semi-fascists” and “ultra-MAGA” dangerous zealots, replete with red-and black Phantom of the Opera backdrops.

What followed the unifying rhetoric was often amnesties and exemptions for violent offenders during the 120 days of rioting, looting, killing, and attacks on police officers in summer 2020.  In contrast, his administration lied when it alleged that numerous officers had died at the hands of the January 6 rioters. In addition, the Biden administration mandated long-term incarceration of many who committed no illegal act other than acting like buffoons and “illegally parading.”

The message was exemptions for torching a federal courthouse, a police precinct, or historic church or attempting to break into the White House grounds to get a president and his family—but long prison terms for wearing cow horns, a fur vest, and trespassing peacefully like a lost fool in the Capitol.

Finally, Biden’s most glaring failure was simply being unpresidential. He snaps at reporters, and shouts at importune times. He can no longer read off a big-print teleprompter. Even before a global audience, he cannot kick his lifelong creepy habit of turkey-gobbling on children necks, blowing into their ears and hair of young girls, and squeezing women far too long and far too hard.

His frailty redefined American presidential campaigning as basement seclusion and outsourcing propaganda to the media. And his disabilities only intensified during his presidency. Biden begins his day late and quits early. He has recalibrated the presidency as a 5-hour, 3-day a week job.

If Trump was the great exaggerator, Biden is our foremost liar. Little in his biography can be fully believed. He lies about everything from his train rides to the death of his son to his relationship with Biden-family foreign collaborators, to vaccinations to the economy. Anytime Biden mentions places visited, miles flown, or rails ridden, he is likely lying.

Biden continues with impunity because the media feels that a mentally challenged fabulist is preferable to Donald Trump and so contextualizes or ignores his falsehoods. Never has a U.S. president fallen and stumbled or gotten lost on stage so frequently—or been a single small trip away from incapacity.

So, yes, Biden’s initiatives have succeeded only in the sense of becoming successfully enacted—and therefore nearly destroying the country.

[girlsdressingrooms]

Iris Barrel Apfel, Decorator and Fashion Stylist

(August 29, 1921 – March 1, 2024) 

Ms. Apfel was one of the most vivacious personalities in the worlds of fashion, textiles, and interior design, she has cultivated a personal style that is both witty and exuberantly idiosyncratic.

Her originality was typically revealed in her mixing of high and low fashions—Dior haute couture with flea market finds, nineteenth-century ecclesiastical vestments with Dolce & Gabbana lizard trousers.

With remarkable panache and discernment, she combines colors, textures, and patterns without regard to period, provenance, and, ultimately, aesthetic conventions. Paradoxically, her richly layered combinations—even at their most extreme and baroque—project a boldly graphic modernity.

Iris Barrel was born on Aug. 29, 1921, in Astoria, Queens, the only child of Samuel Barrel, who owned a glass and mirror business, and his Russian-born wife, Sadye, who owned a fashion boutique.

She studied art history at New York University, then qualified to teach and did so briefly in Wisconsin before fleeing back to New York to work on Women's Wear Daily, and for interior designer Elinor Johnson, decorating apartments for resale and honing her talent for sourcing rare items before opening her own design firm. She was also an assistant to illustrator Robert Goodman.

As a distinguished collector and authority on antique fabrics, Iris Apfel has consulted on numerous restoration projects that include work at the White House that spanned nine presidencies from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton.

Along with her husband, Carl, she founded Old World Weavers, an international textile manufacturing company and ran it until they retired in 1992. The Apfels specialized in the reproduction of fabrics from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and traveled to Europe twice a year in search of textiles they could not source in the United States.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute assembled 82 ensembles and 300 accessories from her personal collection in 2005 in a show about her called “Rara Avis”.

Almost overnight, Ms. Apfel became an international celebrity of pop fashion.

Ms. Apfel was seen in a television commercial for the French car DS 3, became the face of the Australian fashion brand Blue Illusion, and began a collaboration with the start-up WiseWear. A year later, Mattel created a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll in her image. Last year, she appeared in a beauty campaign for makeup with Ciaté London.

Six years after the Met show she started her fashion line "Rara Avis" with the Home Shopping Network.

She was cover girl of Dazed and Confused, among many other publications, window display artist at Bergdorf Goodman, designer and design consultant, then signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97.

Ms. Iris Apfel became a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin in its Division of Textiles and Apparel, teaching about imagination, craft and tangible pleasures in a world of images.

 In 2018, she published “Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon,” an autobiographical collection of musings, anecdotes and observations on life and style. 

Ms. Apfel’s apartments in New York and Palm Beach were full of furnishings and tchotchkes that might have come from a Luis Buñuel film: porcelain cats, plush toys, statuary, ornate vases, gilt mirrors, fake fruit, stuffed parrots, paintings by Velázquez and Jean-Baptiste Greuze, a mannequin on an ostrich.

The Museum of Lifestyle & Fashion History in Boynton Beach, Florida, is designing a building that will house a dedicated gallery of Ms. Apfel's clothes, accessories, and furnishings.

Ms. Apfel’s work had a universal quality, It’s was a trend.

Rest in Power !

[mariacallous]

In November 2023, the Russian Supreme Court ruled to ban the “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist organization” — despite the fact that no such formal entity exists. Soon after the decision was passed, Russian security forces began conducting violent searches of private parties. In February alone, the authorities have raided parties, forcing attendees to lie face-down on the floor and asking them if they belong to the LGBTQ community, at least three times. In some cases, party guests were beaten. Journalists from the outlet Mediazona spoke to attendees of these events about what happened. Meduza summarizes their reporting in English.

On February 21, the Russian TV network REN TV aired a segment about how security officials had raided a cottage in the town of Koltushi near St. Petersburg. According to the newscaster, the agents “shut down a provocative party” after finding “several dozen young people who couldn’t immediately name their own gender.” The report also said that items with “symbols of the LGBT movement, which is banned in Russia,” were found on the premises. Footage included in the segment showed about 10 people lying on the floor with their hands behind their heads. It also showed police interrogating people arrested at the party, asking questions such as “Do you consider yourself part of the LGBT movement?” and “Are you a boy or a girl?”

One of the attendees who spoke to Mediazona said that there were 16 people at the party and that they had gathered to celebrate a friend’s birthday. According to the source, the police burst into the cottage early in the morning on February 18 and forced everyone to lie on the floor. The officers lifted attendees up “by the hair and by the neck” before interrogating them on camera, according to the source, and the attendees ultimately spent five hours lying on the floor.

They made disgusting jokes, calling us obscene words, idiots, that kind of thing, and saying they wished we would die. They walked around asking each person, “Are you a boy or a girl?” And if they weren’t sure about somebody’s sex, they would send them to an investigator, where they were forced to show their body parts. They asked one girl to lift her skirt and tighten her leggings. My friend had to show scars from [surgery]. The whole time they were asking questions like, “Oh, where’s your penis? Where did you put it?”

That same day, law enforcement officials also raided a party that was dedicated to “openness and sexuality” at a cultural center in the city of Tula. According to the Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti, police made some of the attendees go outside, where they proceeded to beat them. A video published by the channel shows a man who is reportedly a plainclothes officer beating a person lying in the snow. “Who are you talking to like that, you piece of shit?” the attacker says.

Another video published by the channel shows security officials bursting into a building and shouting, “Everybody on the floor!” and “Come here, you son of a bitch!”

One attendee described the raid to Mediazona:

They beat them, including people lying on the ground, with fists to their face, and kicked them. They interrogated them, while filming what was happening. They stripped them naked and made them squat, do push-ups, and sing the city anthem of Tula. They threw them face-down in the dirt, tased them, and poured water on them. The officers forced everyone to state their full name and educational institution, if they were studying, on a recording. They searched everyone and took photos of everyone’s passports, and they were constantly shouting about ‘LGBT.’

The person also said the party was “small” and that it “wasn’t positioned as an LGBT gathering.”

According to the local news outlet Tula Press, several people who attended the event were charged with spreading “LGBT propaganda.”

Another party was shut down by the authorities on February 9, but the raid wasn’t reported publicly until February 20, when an article titled “Activity of large LGBT community curbed in Petrozavodsk” appeared on a local news site in Russia’s Republic of Karelia. The report says that a “female resident of Petrozavodsk is suspected of organizing a community united by affiliation with LGBT culture” and that only “known representatives of the LGBT community” were allowed into the party: “The shocking list includes both men and women. It includes both married and divorced people. It also includes mothers, including some with three children.”

Additionally, on February 4, police raided a club in Yekaterinburg that was hosting a BDSM party called Blue Velvet. Only guests who purchased tickets in advance were allowed to attend the event, and a password was required for entry. The authorities said the raid was carried out for the purpose of “stabilizing the operational situation” in the city.

[girlactionfigure]

What Happens When You Can’t Simply Arrest the Jews For Defending Themselves?

by Seth Mandel

The morning after Easter Sunday in 1903, Yehiel Pesker went to his shop at the Kishinev market to inspect for damage. The previous day, the early rumblings of a pogrom had unsettled the city. On his way back home, he saw about 200 Jews armed with clubs and even a few guns—the second wave of one of history’s most notorious pogroms would come that day and Jews wanted to be prepared. When the pogromists came there was a standoff, until the police intervened against the Jews and the deadly violence continued.

Although these Jews merely presented a desire to defend themselves should they be attacked, and although this was one brief moment on the second day of a three-day blood-riot that would shock the world, “local antisemites and their sympathizers,” according to historian Steven J. Zipperstein, tried to argue that this was an escalation by the Jews and therefore the victims were really to blame for the pogrom. Elsewhere in town, a nearly 60-year-old Jewish man fought off four attackers, who then spread the rumor that a Jew had murdered Christians. For some, then, a literal blood libel in the middle of an extended massacre was transformed into the origin story of the whole riot.

“In arguments made by defense attorneys at the trials of pogrom-related crimes, Sunday’s rioting was dismissed as a ruckus that would quickly have come to an end… had Jews not overreacted,” writes Zipperstein. “In this version it was the all-but-unprovoked aggression of Jews and subsequent rumors of attacks on a church and the killing of a priest that set in motion the unfortunate but, under the circumstances, understandable violence.”

That all may sound ridiculous, because few pogroms are better known than Kishinev and because it had such a profound effect on history: It shaped the perspectives of important Zionist figures and it alarmed the world, even becoming an element of the civil-rights fight in America as an example of why racial and ethnic minorities needed protection from the state enshrined in law.

But leave out the names of people and places, and you’d be describing the response to Hamas’s October 7 massacre. The Jews had it coming; the attacks were essentially an act of self-defense; it would’ve been a minor event had the Jews not escalated by defending themselves.

The Russian police director tried to argue at least for moral equivalence, based on these lies, between the Kishinev Jews and their murderers. You can hear a direct echo of this in Karim Khan, prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, filing applications for arrest warrants for both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar: “if we do not demonstrate our willingness to apply the law equally, if it is seen as being applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions for its collapse.” That echo is arguably even louder in the New York Times, which describes the reactions to Khan’s stunt this way: “Mr. Khan’s decision to simultaneously pursue Israeli and Palestinian leaders was criticized by Israeli government ministers and Hamas alike. Both sides questioned why their allies had been targeted instead of their enemies alone.”

Ah yes, both sides. A month after the Hamas attacks, the author Sam Harris denounced this way of thinking on his podcast in a soliloquy that will stand the test of time. The key part:

Of course, the boundary between Anti-Semitism and generic moral stupidity is a little hard to discern—and I’m not sure that it is always important to find it. I’m not sure it matters why a person can’t distinguish between collateral damage in a necessary war and conscious acts of genocidal sadism that are celebrated as a religious sacrament by a death cult. Our streets have been filled with people, literally tripping over themselves in their eagerness to demonstrate that they cannot distinguish between those who intentionally kill babies, and those who inadvertently kill them, having taken great pains to avoid killing them, while defending themselves against the very people who have just intentionally tortured and killed innocent men, women, and yes… babies… If you have landed, proudly and sanctimoniously, on the wrong side of this asymmetry—this vast gulf between savagery and civilization—while marching through the quad of an Ivy League institution wearing yoga pants, I’m not sure it matters that your moral confusion is due to the fact that you just happen to hate Jews. Whether you’re an anti-Semite or just an apologist for atrocity is probably immaterial. The crucial point is that you are dangerously confused about the moral norms and political sympathies that make life in this world worth living.

And in Khan’s case, if you can’t or won’t differentiate between Hamas’s war and Israel’s, you possess a moral deficit that disqualifies you from any position of authority or responsibility over others.

More important, however, is the core idea behind this trend. For most of history you could simply punish Jews for defending themselves, for staying alive. A pathetic puffed-up prosecutor could watch in silence as Jews were murdered and then file charges against “both sides” as soon as a Jew picked up a club in self-defense. Because the law, you see, must be applied evenly. The world wasn’t going to do anything about Hamas, even after its demonic acts on October 7. A fair prosecutor must wait until there is a Jew to be put in the dock as well. That’s balance. That’s justice.

Karim Khan may be a feeble clown, but he makes an airtight case for the existence of the State of Israel.

[spot-the-antisemitism]

Wikipedia is already questionable resource whenever you look at something that is even mildly controversial. However, I find it interesting to look at double standards regarding genocides.

Exhibit A: Holodomor and current war in Ukraine.

You can make an easy case that Holodomor was genocide against Ukrainians, yet when you go to wikipedia section:

"While scholars are in consensus that the cause of the famine was man-made,[9][10] whether the Holodomor was directed at Ukrainians, or whether it constitutes a genocide, remain in dispute."

Current war also falls within Lemkin's definition since it's been proven and confirmed by Russians themselves that Ukrainian children are being taken away and "re-educated" (and forced assimilation falls under genocide). Wikipedia lists that under Allegations of genocide.

There is no academic consensus or international recognition and wikipedia treats it that way.

Exhibit B: (((Zionists)))

There is a wikipedia page for Allegations of genocide, and there is also already dedicated Gaza genocide page. Yup, no international recognition or proof required.

Israel has been accused by experts, governments, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian population

Well if Experts (tm) concluded so, it must be true. Can we check those experts? What would happen if I pressed CTRL+F and typed "Al Jazeera" ? Oh look, 77 results.

And article is beyond biased and bloated.

When you go to international support Vatican is listed as maybe supporting the decision to call it a genocide and that is based on Pope allegedly saying he thought it was genocide. Yes, allegedly, there is literally no proof it ever happened.

And then you have cultural discourse section which can basically be summarized as "X celebrity said it was genocide."

So Holodomor gets "maybe it was genocide" while current war in Gaza gets "it's a genocide, Al Jazeera, Greta Thunberg and Taliban said so"

______

And when you go to List of genocides page you get another example of double standards.

This is Holodomor summary on that page:

The Holodomor also known as the Ukrainian Famine was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union.While scholars are in consensus that the cause of the famine was man-made,[230]whether or not the Holodomor was intentional and therefore constitutes a genocide under the Genocide Convention is debated by scholars.[231][232]

This is Gaza "genocide" summary:

Israel has been accused by experts, governments, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian population during its invasion and bombing of Gaza during the ongoing Israel–Hamas war.[8][9] By March 2024, after five months of attacks, Israeli military action had resulted in the deaths of over 31,500 Palestinians – 1 out of every 75 people in Gaza – averaging 195 killings a day,[10] and nearly 40,000 confirmed deaths by July. Although illustrative, medical reports from July 2024 onward suggest the current number could be around 186,000 deaths.[7] Most of the victims are civilians,[11][12] including over 25,000 women and children[13][14] and 108 journalists.[15] Thousands more dead bodies are under the rubble of destroyed buildings.[16][17][18] By March 2024, 374 healthcare workers in Gaza had been killed.[19] An enforced Israeli blockade has heavily contributed to starvation and the threat of famine in the Gaza Strip, while Israeli forces prevented humanitarian supplies from reaching the Palestinian population, blocking or attacking humanitarian convoys. Early in the conflict, Israel also cut off water and electricity supply from the Gaza Strip.

Holodomor description is short and concise while this one is double its length with constant attempts at emotional manipulation. Constant reminder how (((they))) are evil with casualty numbers pulled out the ass. Only thing missing in this summary is paragraph dedicated to production of blood matzah.

So in case of Holodomor you have to prove that there was a genocide, while in case of Gaza you have to prove that it isn't a genocide. Oh wait, you also can't do that because any pro Israeli source is considered to be biased by wikipedia mods and page is locked anyways.

Dear anon,

nice work there

108 journalists sounds like a nazi dogwhistle that snuck into this tankie circlejerk

We really do need to take wikipedia back from these holodomor denying antisemites

these people wouldn't know a genocide even if they were the sole survivor of the mass murder of their own ethnic group

Baltimore (most prolific pro-pal and anti lgbt and anti native wikipedia editor) you lone wolf terrorist for fucks sake touch some grass

yours,

Cecil

[quitepossiblytall]

I understand the anger and frustration that draws people to Jill Stein but she is not a good candidate, on the merits.

“Pro-choice” Jill Stein was backed by anti-abortion, pro-Trump billionaire, Bernie Marcus. Marcus has given money to the RGA, who supported anti-abortion governors Brian Kemp and Doug Mastriano.

“Pro-choice” Jill Stein has been playing cover for Trump’s attack on Roe v. Wade. She has never criticized him for it but instead blamed Biden.

“Anti-war” Jill Stein has called the continuing genocide of Ukrainians a Russian-US proxy war. Calling the Ukrainian struggle freedom a US plot to get military assets closer to Russia. She claimed that the US not the Ukrainian people installed a government hostile to Russia.

“Anti-war” Jill Stein is a longtime contributor to Russian Propaganda Network - RT. The picture of her sitting across the table for Putin is from a gala celebrating the 10th anniversary of RT. If elected, would Ukrainians qualify for military aid?

“Anti-war” Jill Stein made her millions in part because of lucrative stock holding in military contractors like Raytheon Corp., who make 90% of their profits in military contracts.

“Anti-war” Jill Stein also took money from Lockheed Martin in the 2016 election.

“Pro-worker” Jill Stein took money from Apple and Amazon in the 2016 election.

“Environmentalist” Jill Stein lies about the Biden administration’s climate change laws.

“Environmentalist” Jill Stein had $1 million dollars invested in Exxon, Toho Gas, Conoco Phillips, Duke Energy, and Chevron.

“Pro-Health Care” Jill Stein ignores and lies about the Biden administration expanding the ACA.

“Pro-Health Care” Jill Stein ignored and lies about the Biden administration’s prescription drug reform.

“Pro-Health Care” had lucrative stocks in Pfizer, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, and Allergen.

“Pro-Health Care” Jill Stein had upwards of $1 million dollars invested in big tobacco company, Phillip Morris International. They manufacture Marlboro and 17 other cigarette brands.

“Pro-Immigration” Jill Stein lies about the Biden administration’s immigration policy, claiming it’s the same as Trump’s.

“Leftist” Jill Stein is being propped up and cheered on by the right wing by people like Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, and Megan Kelly.

Jill Stein is a millionaire playing on people’s very justified anger about the actions of the Israeli government.

Jill Stein is a millionaire worth 7 million dollars, who was able to be comfortably retired, with her lucrative investments in the very companies she claims to hate, while regulars Americans were struggling through the Great Recession.

Jill Stein rails against democrats/biden constantly on her YouTube page but there are no videos about her policy. The only time she talks about Trump is to use him as a way to disparage Biden.

The Green Party silenced her opponents within the Green Party. She refused to debate other party members for the nomination.

She is a failed politician who was only true experience as a public official was the local Lexington legislative body. She failed to get elected as Massachusetts governor twice. She failed to get elected as a Massachusetts state representative. She failed to get more than 4% of the vote in both of her presidential runs. She’s not even on the ballot in her home state of Massachusetts. If her own home state doesn’t want her, has never wanted her, why should we want her in the higher office in the country?

Jill Stein isn’t the “Greater good”, she’s a “lesser evil”.

[sovietpostcards]

This is Marty and my close personal friend Irina. We used to work together and she's a very kind, loyal person.

She moved to Tbilisi, Georgia a year ago to live with her daughter who left earlier, after the war in Ukraine was started. They live together in a small rented flat and struggle to keep afloat with whatever jobs they can find (she cleans other people's houses and sews/fits clothes, takes on small copywriting jobs whenever she can; the daughter babysits and dogsits).

They have a dog and two older cats who moved with them from Russia.

Two months ago, Irina found this pup on the street near where she lives with a broken paw. Because she's the type of person who can't pass on others in need, she took him in and spent all of her time and non-existent money on vets and dog food and medicine.

She's been trying to find a new home for him because they can't support 4 animals and there's no space. Marty is very jovial and active, and can be--let's say this--quite disruptive. He spent some time in temporary houses, even travelled to Vladikavkaz (Russia) for a couple of weeks. Last week a girl in Batumi offered to take him in for good and we all CELEBRATED! Two days after, she returns him. He's too much, she says. And so he's back with Irina.

While I'm happy the dog is saved and healthy now, I feel very concerned about this situation. I know she's the type of person who puts everyone's needs before her own. She can overwork herself. And I know she's struggling financially.

If you're in Tbilisi or nearby - maybe you know someone who would want a dog? This is the number one priority.

She's saving up to put him in paid animal care until a new home is found. Please help if you can.

For Russian cards: +7(989)135-48-45 (Sber, Ирина Александровна С.)

For international help: please donate through my boosty with a note, "for Marty". I will transfer 100% of the money to her.

Here's her telegram channel: Котики в Грузии

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

So here’s a plot twist

Yesterday, P.Diddy’s home was raided by DHS, the Department of Homeland Security.

It came after a lawsuit was filed in late February by another music producer. The lawsuit accuses P.Diddy (or Puffy Combs or whatever his name is now) and some associates of sex trafficking, sexual assault, and RICO crimes.

We don’t know if the raid was connected to this lawsuit or to the ones Cassidy filed in November 2023.

Because there’s an international audience here — RICO stands for The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) of 1970, which is used charge criminal organizations as a whole. Before RICO, only the people who committed crime could be arrested, charged, sent to trial, etc. But now with RICO, the law can go after people who organize crime - ie the people who keep their hands clean while others do the dirty work. RICO is mostly well known for being used to bring the mafia down, but has also been used in cases such as Iran-Contra, Trump University, and FIFA World Cup Russian and Qatar bribery allegations.

So RICO crimes are very serious. But that’s not the plot twist.

The plot twist is that the lawsuit - which, remember, was filed by a third party (ie not government) - names Prince Harry as a prospective recipient of P.Diddy’s services:

Affiliation with, and or sponsorship of Mr. Combs sex-trafficking parties gamered legitimacy and access to celebrities such as famous athletes, political figures, artist, musicians, and international dignitaries like British Royal, Prince Harry.

In other words: Prince Harry went to parties hosted or sponsored by P.Diddy in which victims of sex trafficking were present and/or on offer.

Sound familiar?

It’s Epstein/Prince Andrew, Ginger Edition.

And what further twists the knife is that Ron Burkle is *also* being implicated in the P.Diddy lawsuit! Burkle, as you may know, was an Epstein partner and he also owns Soho House…so it’s very possible that if the Burkle side of this is investigated more, there’s potential for Soho House to get pulled into it.

There isn’t a whole lot that we know about these parties or Harry’s involvement/attendance. We don’t know when they took place (e.g., before Meghan came onto the scene or post-Megxit) or what actually happened or if Harry participated in anything. From a picture in the Daily Mail about this, it’s probably pre-Meghan, as the picture shows a young, happy Harry with P.Diddy at a party.

What we do know is that Harry is the only person mentioned by name to attend these parties.

Plot twist.

Here’s the Daily Mail’s story.

Lawsuit filing here. Do be advise that there’s a trigger warning for very graphic details.

[mask131]

I wanted to make this post last year but I got caught up in events (plus I couldn't find back my sources). But given the recent international events have completely turned away most media's attention from the Russian war on Ukraine, I thought it was finally time to make this post.

Because I want to talk about something truly crazy. Something that shows how deep Russia's distortion, warping and twisting of the Christian religion went - and how back there, we're back to the times of holy inquisitions.

Many people have covered the fact that the propaganda of Putin over Russia isn't just mediatic and politic but also religious. There were many viral reports and TV reports and investigations about how the higher-ups of the Russian Orthodox Church were in Putin's pocket, openly shared Putinist propaganda during their religious offices, declared that the war against Ukraine was a "holy war" that God wanted, that Putin was merely the agent and arm of God - there was this whole thing about the Patriarch blessing the weapons of the Russian soldiers sent to the front, and about him explicitely saying that the Devil and/or the Antichrist was in Ukraine.

But there is something that is even bigger and more shocking than that, and that shows how in Russia war = religion. It is a building: the Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces.

The building of this cathedral started in 2018, but it was only completed in 2020. The cathedral is technically a religious building, but the main reason of its existence is to celebrated the "various military feats of Russia", chief among which - the Russian victory over the Nazis during World War II. The completion of the cathedral was done on the Victory Day celebrating the Soviet Union crushing the Nazis ; and it was opened on the "Day of Remembrance and Sorrow" (a commemoration of when the Nazis turned against the Soviet Union and tried to march over it). There's something about "the resurrection of Christ" in there, but let's be honest, this was built exclusively for and around war.

This building is absolutely grandiose, without a doubt - and its beauty and enormity is a proof of Russia's dedication to its unique mix of religion and military matters. In fact it was considered one of the great monuments of Russia... until the Ukrainian attacks made people reconsider what this symbol ACTUALLY meant.

And the thing with this building is that it was FILLED with carefully-thought war symbolism. For example, take the main dome's diameter: 19,45 meters... To symbolize the year when World War II stopped (1945). [Another source rather claims that the dome's diameter is 22,43 meters but it doesn't change the symbol: the Nazi capitulation was signed at 22h43]. There is a small dome that is 14,18 meters in height - because the conflict between the Nazis and the Soviet Union lasted 1 418 days and nights. And the belfry is 75 meters tall... because 75 years had passed between 2020 and the end of World War II. By the way, did you know that when Russians talk of the end of World War II and how they helped defeat the Nazis, they do not speak of the "World War"? No, they rather speak of "the end of the Great Patriotic War". Because the conflict between the USSR and the Nazis wasn't part of any world conflict, oh no! It was just one specific war against the patry - aka Russia. The total height of the Church is a reference to Saint Vladimir's (the one who Christianized the Rus lands) birth date, etc etc...

Things get better - the steps and floors of the cathedral are made of metal. Metal made from the melted war trophies taken from the Nazis - their weapons an their tanks for example. As such, the Russians will forever walk on the remains of their old ennemies. The church's saints are carefully chosen as the patron-saints of the Russian military: saint Elijah the Prophet, saint Barbara, saint Fyodor Ushakov... All organized in the four sections of the church, each dedicated to a different branch of the army; ground forces, navy, aerospace military and strategic missile forces. There's a lot of depictions of Jesus wielding a sword too.

And then we go to the mosaics... Ah, the mosaics! These mosaics are not about the history of Christianity, but about the military history of Russia, each one depicting a great battle or a great Russian victory. You have several depictions of the orders of the Red Army overthrowing the Imperial forces in Russia, you also have depictions of the Soviet (or Communist) successes during World War II of course - there's the Battle of Stalingrad, there's the Reichstag fire... You also have more recent depictions of soldiers, with a kalashnikov in their hands... And of course, the latest mosaic depicting the latest "Russian military success" at the date of the Cathedral's fundation: the annexation of Crimea.

This mosaic was in fact part of a dual scandal, before while the Cathedral was built, two images were leaked of two intended mosaics - one for the Crimea annexation and one for the (exclusively Soviet of course) victory over the Nazis in World War II (sorry, "The Great Patriotic War"). And the scandal was because on the latter Stalin was depicted, and on the former it was Putin who was on the mosaic. There was a big outcry, and ultimately the artists of the cathedral decided to remove the faces of Putin and Stalin... But not before asking for Putin's opinion first, and then - this is very symbolic - their faces were replaced by icons.

Yeah all of this is kind of overwhelming - but one has to remember that in Russia, the Orthodox Church is on the same level as the various ministeries of Putin. The Patriarch Kirill, who consecrated the cathedral, has as such openly supported Putin's war and politics - invited and present at all of Putin's government meetings alongside his various ministers, the Patiarch has also placed in his sermons the exact same slogans and words used by the televisual Russian propaganda. In spring 2022, he held a whole sermon about how the Russian people had to stand together as brothers again the treacherous and wicked West - and added that the reason the Donbas distrusted the Russian Orthodox Church was because of the "vile phenomenon" of the Gay Pride - and added that it was against the corruption of the West, and the anti-religious "gay propaganda", that Russia was fighting - that it was to eliminate THIS that they threw bombs over Ukraine.

Speaking of that I almost forgot! Very recently the cathedral added a new stained glass to its windows... One made with broken glass shards from Mariupol, collected during the Russian attack.

And let's not forget how the Patriarch promised to absolve all the Russians sent to the front who would die on the battlefield against the Ukrainians (the SAME kind of words that were used in the Middle-Ages for the crusades!) - because, and I quote, "such a sacrifice will cleanse you of all human sin". And at the beginning of 2023 (if I recall well), the Patriarch went as far as to say that if Russia didn't win this war, "someone" (he didn't specify who) but SOMEONE would appear "with the intentions of dominating, and then destroying the world" (aka, the Antichrist). This was later backed up by Dmitry Medvedev, who added that the real goal of the war against Ukrainian was to "stop the supreme leader of Hell" (and this time he dropped names, but several at once - Satan, Lucifer, Iblis).

We are literaly back to medieval crusades and to the crazy witch-hunts. Russian propagandists will stop at nothing to convince people that everything is evil outside of Russia.

"But..." you're going to say, "Not all Orthodox Russian priests can be falling for this crap!". And indeed you are right, there are priests in the Russian Orthodox Church that called out the fact Christianity was about peace, not war. The problem is that the higher-ups of the Church have started a hunt for all priests that advocate for peace rather than war - and they simply kick them out of the Church and revoke their status as priests. The Orthodox priests who refuse to see their faith turned into political propaganda are forced to flee into other Orthodox countries to maintain their status as priests.