#administration framework

[centreforgoodgovernance]

Promoting Civil Service Ethics and Good Governance through the IC Centre for Governance’s Comprehensive Ethics in Public Administration Course

The IC Centre for Governance stands at the forefront of promoting ethics in public service through its specialized Ethics and Public Administration programs. As a centre for good governance, it empowers civil servants with essential values and practices that uphold transparency, accountability, and integrity. Its in-depth Ethics Course is designed to instill core public service ethics, aligning with the broader ethics of public administration. This initiative strengthens ethical governance and fosters a resilient, principled civil service framework for sustainable development.

[lloydlawcollege]

Comprehensive Guide to Understanding the of Administrative Law

Administrative law governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. It involves the rules, regulations, and decisions of administrative agencies. This area of law covers rulemaking, enforcement of regulatory agenda, and provides mechanisms for addressing grievances against public authorities.

[ellipsus-writes]

The words they're afraid of.

(Read on our blog.)

The recently appointed Department of Defense head Pete Hegseth (formerly Fox News pundit, perpetually soused creepy uncle, and current group chat leaker of classified intel) banned images of the Enola Gay from the Pentagon’s website for the offense of “DEI” language. In keeping with the far right’s stated war on anything vaguely resembling diversity, equity and inclusion, even historical photos are up for cancellation. When a literal weapon of mass destruction is censored for being a bit fruity under the Trump administration’s war against inconvenient truths, what exactly is left untouched?

This is clown show stuff, but the stakes are far from funny. While some might be hesitant to compare the current administration to the very worst history has to offer, we can at least all agree that they are dyed-in-the-wool grammar Nazis. Policing language has been the objective of the MAGA culture war long before Project 2025’s debut—the wave of book bans orchestrated by astroturf movements like Moms for Liberty, and Florida’s 2022 Don’t Say Gay bill have already had a profound effect in the arena of free speech and freedom of expression (despite the far right’s long tradition of doublespeak performative free-speech martyrdom to the contrary). Don’t Say Gay ostensibly targeted K-3 education, but LGBT+ content at all levels of education (and beyond) was either quietly censored or entirely preempted in practice. The results were not just a war on so-called ideology, or words alone—but on reality and essential freedoms.

Now, words as innocuous and important as racism, climate change, hate speech, prejudice, mental health, and inequality are targeted as subversive. Entire concepts are being vanished from government institutions, scrubbed not only from descriptions but from metadata, search indexes, and archival frameworks.

If you don’t name a thing, does it exist?

These words are as numerous as they are generic: women, race, Black, immigrants, multicultural, gender, injustice. But what is painfully unserious is also particularly dangerous in its real-world consequences. The process of controlling words is a well-worn authoritarian tendency. Fifty-two universities are now under investigation as part of the President's effort to curb “woke” research and thought crimes. Institutions are being coerced to comply with a nebulous set of ideological demands, or face budgetary annihilation. That means cutting funding for entire departments, slashing financial aid, defunding scientific grants, and pressuring faculty to self-censor.

The possibilities for censorship extend far and wide—interfering, by extension, in everything from reproductive healthcare programs, to libraries and museums. The Trump administration’s proposed budget slashing all federal funding for libraries, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will effectively gut an infrastructure that supports over 100,000 libraries and museums across the country—community centers, educational lifelines, internet access points, and archives of marginalized histories (starting with the Smithsonian Institution).

When you erase access, you erase participation. And when you erase participation, you erase people, and the means by which future generations might even learn they existed. A culture that cannot remember is a culture that cannot resist.

The erasure is, yet again, unsurprisingly targeted at minorities and LGBT+ people. The National Parks Service quietly revised the Stonewall Monument’s website to remove references to transgender people—a fundamental part of the original protests. Not an oversight, not a mistake, but a deliberate excision—one point in a wider plan of erasure depicted in stark detail in Project 2025, a blueprint to dismantle civil rights, defund LGBT+-related healthcare, and rewrite history from the ground up.

Dehumanization by deletion—welcome to the reactionary resurgence of doubleplusungood governance. In Trumpland, words are weapons—but not in the way they intend. Their fear of language betrays its power; that’s why they’re trying so hard to police it.

Words hurt them.

Hurt them back.

- the Ellipsus Team

[kaurwreck]

This post is not about Mori, and I am begging y'all to examine the implicit biases that are informing your understanding of the Port Mafia, the informal economy, and organized crime.

y'all do Gin, Higuchi, Hirotsu, Tachihara, Chuuya, Dazai, and Mori so dirty with the way you talk about who cares about Akutagawa and who doesn't.

[mapecl-stories]

[nasa]

LaRue Burbank, mathematician and computer, is just one of the many women who were instrumental to NASA missions.

4 Little Known Women Who Made Huge Contributions to NASA

Women have always played a significant role at NASA and its predecessor NACA, although for much of the agency’s history, they received neither the praise nor recognition that their contributions deserved. To celebrate Women’s History Month – and properly highlight some of the little-known women-led accomplishments of NASA’s early history – our archivists gathered the stories of four women whose work was critical to NASA’s success and paved the way for future generations.

LaRue Burbank: One of the Women Who Helped Land a Man on the Moon

LaRue Burbank was a trailblazing mathematician at NASA. Hired in 1954 at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (now NASA’s Langley Research Center), she, like many other young women at NACA, the predecessor to NASA, had a bachelor's degree in mathematics. But unlike most, she also had a physics degree. For the next four years, she worked as a "human computer," conducting complex data analyses for engineers using calculators, slide rules, and other instruments. After NASA's founding, she continued this vital work for Project Mercury.

In 1962, she transferred to the newly established Manned Spacecraft Center (now NASA’s Johnson Space Center) in Houston, becoming one of the few female professionals and managers there.  Her expertise in electronics engineering led her to develop critical display systems used by flight controllers in Mission Control to monitor spacecraft during missions. Her work on the Apollo missions was vital to achieving President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon.

Eilene Galloway: How NASA became… NASA

Eilene Galloway wasn't a NASA employee, but she played a huge role in its very creation. In 1957, after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, Senator Richard Russell Jr. called on Galloway, an expert on the Atomic Energy Act, to write a report on the U.S. response to the space race. Initially, legislators aimed to essentially re-write the Atomic Energy Act to handle the U.S. space goals. However, Galloway argued that the existing military framework wouldn't suffice – a new agency was needed to oversee both military and civilian aspects of space exploration. This included not just defense, but also meteorology, communications, and international cooperation.

Her work on the National Aeronautics and Space Act ensured NASA had the power to accomplish all these goals, without limitations from the Department of Defense or restrictions on international agreements. Galloway is even to thank for the name "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", as initially NASA was to be called “National Aeronautics and Space Agency” which was deemed to not carry enough weight and status for the wide-ranging role that NASA was to fill.

Barbara Scott: The “Star Trek Nerd” Who Led Our Understanding of the Stars

A self-described "Star Trek nerd," Barbara Scott's passion for space wasn't steered toward engineering by her guidance counselor. But that didn't stop her!  Fueled by her love of math and computer science, she landed at Goddard Spaceflight Center in 1977.  One of the first women working on flight software, Barbara's coding skills became instrumental on missions like the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) and the Thermal Canister Experiment on the Space Shuttle's STS-3.  For the final decade of her impressive career, Scott managed the flight software for the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, a testament to her dedication to space exploration.

Dr. Claire Parkinson: An Early Pioneer in Climate Science Whose Work is Still Saving Lives

Dr. Claire Parkinson's love of math blossomed into a passion for climate science. Inspired by the Moon landing, and the fight for civil rights, she pursued a graduate degree in climatology.  In 1978, her talents landed her at Goddard, where she continued her research on sea ice modeling. But Parkinson's impact goes beyond theory.  She began analyzing satellite data, leading to a groundbreaking discovery: a decline in Arctic sea ice coverage between 1973 and 1987. This critical finding caught the attention of Senator Al Gore, highlighting the urgency of climate change.

Parkinson's leadership extended beyond research.  As Project Scientist for the Aqua satellite, she championed making its data freely available. This real-time information has benefitted countless projects, from wildfire management to weather forecasting, even aiding in monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. Parkinson's dedication to understanding sea ice patterns and the impact of climate change continues to be a valuable resource for our planet.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space! 

[communistkenobi]

struggling to reconcile my dislike of the use of “choice” in relation to transgenderism. sex assignment itself is not a choice and I don’t find it meaningful or helpful to think I “chose” to be transgender. in fact there were many things I “chose” to do prior to transitioning to make this feeling go away and it did not. Choice is further wrapped up in intentionally de-politicised ideas about social action and agency, constantly positioned in opposition to “structure” or “social pressure” or what have you. “Choice” is what happens only in the absence of domination, it is the expression of the “individual” trapped within us all. What this leaves you with is a subject who appears to rise above the power of history, making decisions ‘of his own free will’ in spite of all this violence as a result of, um, well that’s not important! Let’s not look at the law or the state or history to see where these ideas of personal individual freedoms come from or how they are themselves enforced through violence. It’s just an individual acting on his desires! To “choose to be trans” in popular consciousness means to be given the privilege of being free from patriarchal social pressures. And this is a line terfs often use - trans people are reinforcing patriarchy by deluding ourselves into thinking we can “simply choose” to be another gender. I think committing to the idea of choice as a concept and all its attendant ideological baggage (overwhelmingly structured by bourgeois legal frameworks in the popular imaginary) forces you into some deeply flawed analyses of power and domination.

And I likewise hate that the other dominant framework is “born this way/born in the wrong body” because of how it naturalises the very political and violent nature of sex assignment and its embeddedness within state census data, administrative architecture, the pathologisation of sex and desire (all of which are not natural or eternal), and so on. furthermore I deeply respect the position other trans people have when they say that they chose to be transgender - outside of conversations of individual validity, I think that is a politically useful and powerful way to position yourself. Even if we were to accept that being transgender is fully a choice, people would still do it, because being trans is not disgusting or shameful. I am not a sick individual, or a tragedy, or a danger to others, I am transgender and that is an incredibly meaningful and fulfilling part of my life. To frame this as a sexual perversion or life-long condition means reinforcing the idea that transgenderism is a shameful deformity (we have much in common with our disabled & intersex comrades in this regard), that the cissexual body is the exclusive site of beauty and authenticity.

And so this is where I find the idea of autonomy much more useful - while ‘choice’ is situated as a thing that individuals do, autonomy is power that is granted to you. I can’t meaningfully demand choice as a political goal, but I can demand autonomy. I don’t want choice, I want the autonomy to act on my desires, and the way that will happen is through the state provision of free hrt, surgery, name and gender marker changes, and so on. Autonomy feels like a much more productive articulation of “choice” because it necessitates that we think about who and what grants autonomy, for what purposes, in which contexts. Who gives a shit about choices! Transgenderism is not a social position an individual can have in society, it is produced through cissexualism, through state and medical sex assignment, through coercion and pathologisation and violence - all of which can be changed.

As a direct comparison, I don’t think people should be given the “choice” to have an abortion, but the autonomy to do so - sure you can choose to get one, but unless there is the medical, financial, and social infrastructure available to you to act on that decision, then that is not a meaningful choice you can “make.” Abortion being legal (and therefore an action you are granted the ‘choice’ to take) doesn’t mean it is actually realisable as a decision, it just means that whoever already has the power & resources to act on that legality will, and those that don’t, won’t. Who decides which people have those resources and which don’t? Well let’s not worry about that, the important thing is that people have choices!

[kitty-pelosi]

Guys you need to understand that the intersection of citizenship, ICE detainment, and the prison industrial complex is not about deportation. It is about slavery and labor. When somebody is arrested by immigration agents they are not immediately put on a plane and sent home. They stay in an interment camp where they must wait for a hearing by an immigration judge. There are not many of these judges and so people WILL be waiting for months if not years in these facilities.

The government is, and has for the past quarter century, been constructing the framework it needs to enslave noncitizen residents in America and force them into the private prison industry where their labor can be sold to companies for base production tasks. The goal here is to provide a fallback for when American global trading hegemony ends (because it will) and we no longer have access to cheap foreign labor markets. We are manufacturing cheap labor markets domestically by arresting immigrants and toying with citizenship status.

What’s happening NOW and TODAY is just a piece in a process that has been ongoing for decades, under both Democrats and Republicans. This is not new, it’s just being marketed to the public differently now that an R is in charge so that the public can feel absolved of guilt.

The immediate goal of the Trump policies now are to overwhelm the immigration judiciary to accrue a stockpile of detained people lacking documentation. Once there are so many (we are here) the government will say “we can’t handle all of this! there aren’t enough judges!” But it will not supply more judges to actually deport these people. This stage is all about normalizing the presence of hundreds of thousands of detained immigrants under your nose.

The next step is allowing these facilities to more easily sell and exploit their labor. I forsee this administration using environmental crises to do so - look at the LA wildfires. They are often fought by incarcerated firefighters. We will see more of this as crises escalate - the government will begin using more carceral labor to deal with the aftermath of hurricanes, landslides, and wildfires. This will normalize carceral slavery in the eyes of the American public.

Once this step is accomplished it will be incredibly simple to further the normalization in moments where there is not an acute crises. Then, we will be having people in these camps making our textiles, picking and packaging our food, slaughtering cattle. After years of this you may even see carceral labor enter the service and entertainment industry. By 2035 you may even be able to call up CoreCivic and lease a cook or a maid! The hard working white woman needs household assistance, after all she is too busy girlbossing to do *those* things. Plus, it’s not her fault her slave decided to be a Criminal.

But it seems like most Americans are not conscious of this framework nor do they care. They engage with this from the perspective that “everyone is welcome here! don’t deport my friends!” hon your friends are not going to be deported, they are being enslaved. Begging you to use your fucking eyes. Your damn Senators are investing in GEO Group and CoreCivic for a reason! Because these companies have a great business plan! Enslaving immigrants already is a billion dollar industry and its potential for growth under post imperial late stage capitalism is mind-numbing!

[memecucker]

“This latest bill is part of a continued effort by the [California] Legislative Jewish Caucus to impose ideological constraints upon ethnic studies as a field to disallow the critical teaching of Palestine within K-12 education in California,” Christine Hong, a professor of critical race and ethnic studies at the University of California (UC) Santa Cruz and co-chair of the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council (UCESFC) told Truthout.

While AB 1468’s authors are Democrats who have condemned the Trump administration’s attacks on public education, Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), said the proposed bill would have similar effects as efforts in Republican-controlled states and on the federal level seeking to whitewash K-12 and college curricula and turn back the clock on civil rights progress.

“The Democrats and others who are championing these bills may not explicitly say themselves or even identify as part of the far right MAGA agenda, but it’s indisputable that what they are doing is in alignment with the broader attack on public education and the attack on anti-racist education, in particular,” Kiswani told Truthout.

AB 1468’s lead sponsor is the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC), one pillar of whose policy framework is to “maintain a strong California-Israel relationship,” including through “combat[ing] campaigns to delegitimize and demonize Israel.” JPAC lists the Anti-Defamation League and other Zionist organizations among its members.

Last year, members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus proposed a raft of bills meant to stifle Palestine-related speech in public schools and on college campuses. Among those was AB 2918, a predecessor to AB 1468. When a diverse coalition of educators and advocates mounted a pressure campaign and succeeded in having it shelved, sponsors vowed to reintroduce it this year. “AB 1468 is AB 2918, but on steroids,” Guadalupe Cardona, a high school educator and member of the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium, told Truthout.

The new bill would require all ethnic studies curricula, instruction and instructional materials to undergo public hearings, be vetted by the state, and be posted on the Department of Education’s website. AB 1468 also outlines standards according to which ethnic studies materials should be reviewed, including mandating that instruction focus on “domestic experience and stories” and not cover “abstract ideological theories, causes, or pedagogies.”

In the proposed legislation, “there are so many layers of policing and surveillance that no other academic area has,” Tricia Gallagher-Geurtsen, co-chair of the San Diego Unified School District Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee and a lecturer in critical race and ethnic studies at UC Santa Cruz, told Truthout. “It’s absolutely unprecedented overreach, and it’s an arm of the state trying to censor what our children are learning [and] censor the truth of our students’ realities.”

Under AB 1468, the body responsible for vetting ethnic studies materials would be the California State Board of Education’s Instructional Quality Commission, whose current members include Sen. Ben Allen and Anita Friedman. Friedman is a board trustee of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and executive director of Jewish Family and Children’s Services, an organization known for its efforts to silence discussions of Palestine and anti-Zionism in schools.

[asm5129]

Friend told me to share this around

You can still try to help stop project 2025 if you’re in the US

Contact your congressperson through email or letter or phone call (Use this to get their address/number/email/etc https://www.congress.gov/search?q=%7B%22source%22%3A%22members%22%7D)

Say or write to them smth along these lines:

> Congresswoman/congressmen, I am writing to you to urge you to put forth Saving the Civil Services act in the House to stop the Trump Administration from passing Schedule F through executive order, which will reclassify thousands of federal civil servant employees as political appointees and enables the Trump Administration to discriminate based on political loyalty and ideologies and allows important federal positions to be filled with political loyalists. This is a massive overreach of executive power. So, I urge you to do whatever you can to try and stop this.

This is important because regardless of the possibility of this being passed in Congress currently, if we can mobilise enough support for this, we can have a framework in place to stop Trump whenever it is possible for us.

So, share this message with as many people as you know, and contact your congresspeople through any means necessary.

[ovaryacted]

Y'all know how I get down politically, but I just wanted to say truly, now is the time to be the most vigilant when it comes to the media & how people talk about Iran in particular, specifically of the upcoming retaliatory response.

Now that President Trump chose to strike three nuclear bases in the soverign nation of Iran at night, at random, without congressional approval during a complete internet blackout in the country, that sets the groundwork for Iran's retalliation & that will bring the United States into war. Likewise, you will see A LOT of media sources trying to manufacture consent to make you all believe that we should be going to war with Iran in order to "liberate" them from their suppressive regime and to spread democracy in the region. Please know, we as a nation have absolutely no business getting involved into another war in the Middle East when it was the zionist colonial project of Israel that sent that first strike, and Iran was well within their right to defend themselves against the unjust strikes from Israel, and now the United States.

The "threat" of Iran possessing nuclear weapons has been mentioned for decades, and they have never come close to manufacturing one because of very strict sanctions & rules on how Iran can possess & use uranium. The biggest argument of why they shouldn't have nukes in the first place is because they will serve as a deterrent to Israel, who already possess nukes (badly kept secret). Globally, there are 9 countries that have nuclear weapons: Russia, United States, China, France, United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. Several others host nukes, but don't have the capabilities to make them. Iran doesn't fall in either category, however they've been able to utilize more of their uranium in the past few years because Trump pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal that Obama signed in 2015 during his first presidential term.

Having a country like Iran possess nukes, that is close to other neighboring countries and has openly and vehemently vocalized it's disgust with the zionist entity that is Israel in how they're able to bomb 5 countries simultaneously while committing a brutal genocide against the Palestinan people for the past 2 years (really 80 years), would pose a threat to the colonial project itself. It would make sense why Israel or the U.S. doesn't want Iran to have nukes if it threatens their ability to control and infiltrate the Middle East whenever they want, right?

But you will hear headlines and people in the media all throughout news channels and newspaper articles that had Israel & the U.S. not struck Iran when they did, we would be closer to nuclear annihilation and they Iran now can't build a nuclear weapon. That is a pure lie, and not to mention, that is how the media will try to sway public opinion in making you believe we had to go to war with Iran to stop them, we just had to get involved in the conflict because Iran was brutally killing civilians, raping their women, and they will attack us in the imperial core with weapons of mass destruction so we must stop them!

Sounds familiar right?

The current administration, whether it's just Trump or the entire godamn thing, is following the same framework President George Bush laid out to send the United States on a fictional witch hunt to track down these "weapons of mass destruction" they didn't want hitting American soil following the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. spent decades and trillions of dollars invading Afghanistan (2001-2021), Iraq (2003-2011), all while getting involved with Yemen & Syria to this day. They did all of that, sent people to die senselessly for these weapons that did not exist, all for a military conflict that in the end failed and resulted in a complete dismantling of several countries in the region. Not to mention the residual impacts of war that often go dismissed: disregard for our troops, disease spreading, famine & food insecurity, human trafficking, climate change from warfare, overall destruction of entire communities, infrastructure, & social systems. War isn't good for anybody.

The belief that Iran is a threat to the United States and to the world is based on so many things, mainly racism, orientalist ideals & islamophobia, and you will see the same language that was used post-9/11 to demonize Muslims & Arab people now being used to justify our continuous involvement within the region. America is the great bringer of democracy and peace all around the world. Israel was just protecting itself and its people from being invaded and killed. I beg and I pray that you all don't fall for the same lies that have been spread for decades to bring us into unnecessary wars and conflicts for the sake of funding our military industrial complex. Because nothing brings politicians and billionaires closer together than profiting off of the deaths of black and brown bodies, whether that be overseas or back at home. Colonial imperialistic projects need frequent expansion and investment, so war, in combination with late-stage capitalism and a sign of huge fascistic military force, presence, and aggression, is how that is done, and Israel & the U.S. are doing such things in the Middle East. We as people shouldn’t be sent to war to fund & defend an occupational entity’s right to wipe an entire group of people off of the face of the Earth and expand into other countries.

We don't know what's going to happen, everything is up in the air and the next 48 hours are crucial, but one thing is certain. We live in a world where we have erratic people in power who are blood thirsty and have a craving for death on a large scale, regardless of the consequences, the cost, and whos involved. Do your research, stay away from mainstream media sources like CNN and the NYT that are acting like propaganda machines for the American military industrial complex, read a book on the histories of these countries before jumping to conclusions, defend and protect your Muslim & Arab neighbors, because it's only going to get worse from here, and we aren't prepared for how bad.

We have our rights being stripped away one by one, increased mass policing towards immigrants with ICE, cost of living is through the roof, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are being passed & healthcare is practically unattainable, social safety nets are being wiped out, political assassinations are being swept under the rug, AI Corporate heads are being promoted to the highest branches of the military...and now we have war. They don't care if it's illegal, they don't care if it's unconstitutional, they only care that we die for the empire's benefit.

Iran is not the "bully" of the Middle East, just like Iraq wasn't, neither was Afghanistan, Yemen, or Syria. It will always be the United States and it's dog without a leash, Israel. You can have your critiques about the Iranian regime, but their liberation is not coming from Israel or the U.S. bombing them. You can't liberate the violated women & children of Iran when you're dropping bombs over their heads. And from the bottom of my heart, fuck anybody who voted for this man, you voted for this, you asked for this.

[notaplaceofhonour]

Are you really putting me on blast for a public comment to begin with?

Are you claiming that Judaism isn’t a religion? It most certainly is even if ethnically based historically. I know it’s matrilineal, but anyone can convert even if they’re not evangelical. Though there are ethnic differences even between Jews that are Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi or Ethiopian.

Semitic people or Semites is a term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East, including Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians. Gaza wasn’t even part of Judea, Ancient Israel or Samaria. It was the land of the Philistines.

If you believe in the text of the Torah, which coincides with the text in the Koran, then Arabs and Jews are related by Abraham. His sons just had different Mothers.

You have to understand that people’s words are being twisted right now. There are a lot of people that oppose the war, but do not oppose Jewish people. Bernie Sanders, the best candidate for president the US has had in decades in my opinion, opposes the war and that doesn’t mean he supports Hamas.

My point is not really about your opinion specifically. It’s about the right wing that is painting people with a broad brush as a way to deprive legal residents of due process. It’s a slippery slope that will be applied to anyone and he’s ignoring the Supreme Court. We’re entering really dark times. The Trump administration is using Antisemitism as an excuse to deport students and defund higher education. They’re using Jews as a scapegoat and the ADL is really not doing anything about it.

Yeah, retro, you really publicly post a racist screed as laughably & confidently shitty as that on one of my posts about antisemitism, and you really might get a response that publicly refutes it with all the respect it deserves.

“Semitic” Peoples & Antisemitism

Literally nobody that isn’t possessed by the ghost of an SS officer is using “Semitic” like that. It appears vestigially in “antisemitism” and is used in Linguistics to refer to Semitic Languages (there are Semitic-speakers; there are not Semitic peoples)—that’s it.

You pull up in a Jew’s comment section, insisting on this Nazi-ass 19-20th Century Scientific Racist racial classification of “Semites”, all in order to play mental gymnastic word games to claim the real victims of [word that means anti-Jewish bigotry] are a group of non-Jews at the hands of Jews… and you just might be put on blast for it.

And this isn’t even new; the way you’re using it was already starting to fall out of favor among anyone who wasn’t a proud self-described antisemite even before the Nazis came to power. It’s been understood as racist BS for more than century. Even Gil Anidjar, a pro-BDS professor at Columbia who shares a lot of your other views, understands this terminology is racist pseudoscience, writing in his book about the rise and fall of the word’s usage that “the opposing term was Aryan”.

That’s the racial framework you’re using. The “Aryan” one.

And who did these self-identified Antisemites target with their antisemitism? Did Wilhelm Marr’s Antisimeten-Liga that popularized the term allege an Arab conspiracy or a Jewish one? Did Hitler’s antisemitism lead him to kill 6 Million Arabs, or 6 Million Jews? Are there countless Arab organizations dedicated to fighting Antisemitism as such, or has that been left to Jews?

Arabs have their own word for bigotry against them. Stop trying to appropriate ours, especially when the people you’re claiming are the perpetrators are Jews. It’s dishonest, it’s cruel, it’s just gross.

Token “Good Jews”

Same with you goy-splaining about how Jews aren’t a monolith to act like all of what you said isn’t incredibly antisemitic. We know we’re not a monolith (possibly even more so than most other groups); our entire culture is built around structures of debate. But your inciting gish-gallop of talking points about “apartheid”, “open air prisons”, and terrorists being “freedom fighters” is one that would rightly make all but the most fringe token Jews, totally disconnected from Jewish community, balk.

In another message you sent, which I’m not going to respond to, you mention JVP, and OH MY G-D is it clear that this is where you’re getting your information about Jews. They’re an EXTREMELY fucking fringe group that harass and incite violence against other Jews, and they’re rightly understood by most Jews as a hate group akin to Autism Speaks. Like I said, they’re EXTREMELY fringe in the Jewish community. They have like 20,000-30,000 members, most of whom aren’t even Jewish, and all of their positions are miles outside of the already expansive & diverse tradition of discourse within Judaism.

Between them and Bernie Sanders, you can tokenize the “Good Jews” (you assume) agree with you all you want, that doesn’t make the rest of what you’re saying anything but grotesquely antisemitic.

And it does stand out that the “Good Jew” you name here is one whose speech on Passover—the Let My People Go holy day—completely omitted any mention of the hostages to position Palestinians as the sole victims of the conflict. It so clear that what it takes to qualify as a “Good Jew” is not just caring about groups in addition to Jews, but abandoning our own entirely. We have to assimilate and cut away pieces of our identity and so many in our community to fit into your framework.

Both sides are using Jews as a political football, and you’re just as much an example of this as Republicans. Just as Trump can take his false concern about Jews and shove it up his ass, so can you.

Am Yisrael

The Jewish people predates the concept of religion as a separate idea. “Faith” has very little to do with Jewish observance. There are obviously elements of Judaism that are religious, but that distinct categorization is external and does not describe Jewish collective identity.

Above I said “Jews have to assimilate and cut away pieces of our identity to fit into your framework”. That’s what Judaism-as-a-faith is. I put the comment about that in the tags rather than the body of the post because it’s a much less well-known by non-Jews, but that isn’t how the Jewish people have traditionally understood ourselves.

As Dara Horn puts it:

“Jews aren't a religion. There's millions of Jews who are secular Jews. Have you ever met a secular Mormon? There's an answer to who Jews are, and it's quite simple. We don't have to sit here and be like, ‘oh, are Jews a race or religion or nationality?’

Jews are a type of social group that was common in the ancient Near East, very uncommon in the West today; it's a joinable tribal group with a shared history, homeland and culture.

What I just said is a paragraph in English and in Hebrew it's one word that's two letters long: Am.”

This is the “Am” in “Am Yisrael” (the People/Nation of Israel), the endonym of the Jewish people.

It’s just… very clear from everything you’ve said that you haven’t spent any meaningful time around Jews or anyone who is even reasonably knowledgeable about us on anything past a surface level, and that doesn’t seem likely to change, because you keep spouting so many confidentiality wrong opinions about what we are/should be, while using fucking Nazi terminology to reverse the meaning of antisemitism on us, and not even taking a second to listen to us about us. You think you know who we are better than us. You don’t.

And this backpedaling to “oh I wasn’t talking about you” is bullshit. If you weren’t responding to the post why comment on it in the first place? Make your own damn post instead of making it my fucking problem. You saw a post talking about Zionism & decided to vomit up more of exactly the lies about Zionism I was refuting, and you just continue to double down on it.

I’m not responding to your other message. I don’t send anons. I’m not interested in wasting my time going back and forth debating your racist stochastic garbage full of the same 10 flimsy talking points. If you want to do better, start by shutting up and listening instead of telling us who we are or should be.

[mapecl-stories]

Disregard of Wolf Deterrence: Reckless Wolf Hunting Endangers Young Animals

In a series of regrettable incidents, seven wolves were shot in Burgdorf. However, these hasty shootings have revealed an alarming issue: hunters are displaying their incompetence and are unable to identify the correct wolf. The victims were innocent young animals, although their parents should have been the primary focus. The core problem, however, lies in the fact that 90 percent of livestock were inadequately protected against wolves, often lacking even the minimum protection. This concerning situation in Burgdorf, with seven attacks in 2023, six of them without any protection, urgently needs to be addressed.

Lack of Wolf-Resistant Fencing: Of particular concern is the fact that 90 percent of livestock in Burgdorf were not fenced with wolf-resistant measures, not even with the minimum protection. The minimum protection stands at 90 cm, while the basic protection should be 120 cm, and wolf-resistant protection should be 140/150 cm. Additionally, adequate electrification with high shock power and proper grounding is of great importance. According to the Federal Office for Nature Conservation, the fence should be at least 120 cm high, or ideally even higher.

Legal Framework and Responsibility: On the European level, the legal framework was clearly established by the European Court of Justice in three wolf-related judgments. On 10th October 2019, it was decided that livestock owners must fence their livestock according to the best scientific and technical knowledge. Failing to protect one's livestock appropriately constitutes an administrative offense. Despite the knowledge of these regulations, the Hannover region, represented by the Lower Nature Conservation Authority/Nature Conservation Team, continues to permit wolf hunting in the Burgdorf area. This approach is unlawful and contradicts Article 16 of the Habitats Directive, which permits the killing of only the "problem wolf" in cases of damage.

Lack of Reporting and Illegal Killing: What's particularly alarming is that the main edition of the HAZ conceals the fact that on February 6, 2023, a child was illegally killed by two wolves in the Burgdorf forest. It is now time to file criminal charges against the hunter, the regional president Steffen Krach (SPD), and the official in the Hannover region. Krach, who is considered the new responsible politician for wolf killings in Lower Saxony, fails to understand that in the entire Hannover region, there are only two adult wolves in Burgdorf and two in Wedemark, spanning an area of over 2,000 square kilometers.

Conclusion: Wolves have been present in the Burgdorf area for over seven years, with four documented instances of offspring. In Wedemark, there were even three instances of offspring. Nevertheless, a significant number of livestock owners have still not implemented the legally mandated protection measures (Paragraph 3, Section 2, No. 3 of the Animal Welfare Livestock Husbandry Ordinance). It is imperative to take action in this regard. Those who fail to provide wolf-resistant protection of at least 120 cm should be fined, and in case of further violations, may even face a ban on livestock keeping. It is also crucial to emphasize that THE GREENS, in their 2022 election program, called for comprehensive herd protection in Lower Saxony. Currently, there are only 35 wolf populations with offspring, approximately totaling 280 wolves, and not 500, as often claimed, considering a total of two million wild animals.

[contemplatingoutlander]

"Once a constitutional crisis becomes an endemic condition, the term no longer usefully describes our collapsing system. Instead, we live in an era of constitutional failure when the relevant institutions cannot fulfill their responsibilities."

—Jack Rakove, PhD, the Coe Professor of History and American Studies and professor of political science and (by courtesy) law, emeritus, at Stanford University.

The historian Jack Rakove makes a chilling case that we are now beyond calling what is happening with the Trump administration a "constitutional crisis." Rakove claims that what we are experiencing now is a "constitutional failure." Below are some excerpts.

The idea that the United States awaits some dread constitutional crisis has become commonplace. For lawyers, such a crisis would likely involve Donald Trump’s administration defying the Supreme Court on some critical ruling. [...] Such scenarios are not unfounded, but they do not diagnose our true malady. Our ongoing constitutional crisis began with the presidential election last November 5. Reelecting an individual culpable for January 6 who has twice made a mockery of the presidential oath of office is itself a constitutional crisis. Nothing in his past or current behavior suggests that Trump has ever felt fidelity to his constitutional duties.

Once a constitutional crisis becomes an endemic condition, the term no longer usefully describes our collapsing system. Instead, we live in an era of constitutional failure when the relevant institutions cannot fulfill their responsibilities.

Because constitutional failure is a term we have never needed to use, it merits a precise definition. First, it must identify the specific situations where the government institutions have manifestly not fulfilled their constitutional functions. Second, it should treat these omissions not as occasional lapses but systemic defects. Third, it must explain how the political and ethical norms of constitutional governance have evaporated.

To apply this framework to the second Trump administration is hardly difficult. The only problem is where to begin. Consider its authoritarian reliance on executive orders to vitiate legally established government activities, its attempt to intimidate institutions outside of government to do its bidding, and its insistence that servile loyalty to the president outweighs fidelity to constitutional norms. That some commentators describe this last practice as the "Führerprinzip"—the Nazi principle that the will of the leader transcends all legal norms—tells us everything.

Deciding whether the Constitution is failing requires asking if and why the other two branches of government have been remiss in checking a rogue executive.

[mesetacadre]

I understand this is extremely Communism 101 to ask, but how would human civilization at this stage in history even be able to function without the state? Almost the entirety of progress made by humanity has been made possible due to the resources and power made available by states (even supposedly "private" ventures owe much of their success to the structure of a state), and the only examples of stateless societies are burried so deep in the past that there are virtually no success examples that are relevant, at least ones that can ensure the function of a society that is larger than a small community.

You've stumbled across the answer, at least partially. Human civilization at this stage can't function without a state. But the reason why, and the rest of the answer to your doubts, I think can be explained relatively succinctly. What is the state, in the framework of marxism? The apparatus for the oppression of a class over another, the perpetuation of exploited-exploiter class relations. And when the proletariat takes control of the state to create its own instruments of class oppression, it remains a state, but with an inverted character. The class oppression it exerts is placed upon the bourgeoisie, for the protection of the proletariat's political power during the long transformation of society and its relations into a communist one. By definition, communism is a stateless society, as well as a classless one, meaning that there is no longer a bourgeoisie, extant or otherwise, and that it's no longer the antagonism between classes that drives society. Those two qualifiers, stateless and classless, go hand in hand because of what the state is, an instrument for the exertion of one class' interests over all the others through implicit or explicit violence. So, therefore, since the state necessitates as a prerequisite antagonistic class relations to exist as a state, once the relations of society lack class dynamics, the state will cease to exist. This is, nothing more and nothing less, what the withering away of the state means, the disappearance of any class relations will necessarily result in the disappearance of the state as it has existed ever since the very first classes emerged in history.

We understand the simple administration of resources and society to be distinct from the function of class oppression, and it's only the latter that makes a state, a state. I understand your concerns come from a supposed elimination of that administration, but that's simply not what marxists refer to by the withering away of the state. As for the specific form of that administration of resources and society after classes cese to exist, I think it'd be a very sterile debate for this momemt in history. Those stateless societies from before the dawn of economic classes also needed to administer their resources in a logical way, after all, and that will be orders of magnitude more important after human society creates a similar organization of society, except with billions of individuals instead of tens of thousands

[icedbatik]

I have no clear idea of what Sidney Crosby's involvement was. And I had to do some searching to find any additional information after originally seeing the story on (not hockey but) motorsports.net.

But ... there's this, from June 11, 2025, from the NHLPA and PHPA ...

The Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA) and National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) announced a new strategic alliance on Wednesday that will "reinforce and strengthen the close relationship enjoyed by the two associations."

A shared statement from both parties states that this first-time alliance will "provide for shared administrative and legal resources to ensure the best representation for all members, including in collective bargaining."

The PHPA and NHLPA will remain separate, fully autonomous entities with each maintaining their own governance and operational functions.

“We are very pleased and excited to announce that we have entered into a strategic alliance with the NHLPA that will support the tight unity between our organizations," said PHPA Executive Director Brian Ramsay in the release. "I would like to thank (NHLPA Executive Director) Marty Walsh and the NHLPA for their support and partnership as we work collectively to ensure the best possible representation for our members. We are stronger together."

“This agreement will better align our organizations to serve the needs of our players at all stages of their careers,” added Walsh. “We look forward to continuing to work with the PHPA to advocate for and improve the lives of the professional hockey players we serve.” 

Approximately 90 per cent of NHLPA members have spent time as members of the PHPA while playing in the AHL or ECHL.

And then there's this, from, yes, motorsports.net ...

Sidney Crosby hailed as the architect of a groundbreaking alliance that reshapes hockey’s power dynamics

A New Era in Hockey: Crosby’s Visionary Influence

In a move that promises to redefine the landscape of professional hockey, a groundbreaking alliance has been forged between the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA). This strategic partnership aims to solidify and enhance the existing bond between these two influential bodies, marking a significant shift in the sport’s power dynamics.

Sidney Crosby: The Catalyst Behind the Change

At the heart of this transformative alliance is Sidney Crosby, a player whose influence extends far beyond the ice. Known for his leadership and strategic acumen, Crosby has been instrumental in advocating for stronger unity among players. His vision for a more cohesive and empowered player community has been a driving force behind this collaboration. By fostering a closer relationship between the NHLPA and PHPA, Crosby is helping to ensure that players at all levels have a stronger voice and greater representation.

Strengthening Player Representation

This alliance comes at a crucial time when player representation and welfare are increasingly in the spotlight. The partnership is designed to bolster the support systems available to players, ensuring their needs and concerns are addressed more effectively. By uniting the efforts of both associations, the initiative aims to create a more robust framework for player advocacy, enhancing their ability to influence decisions that impact their careers and the sport as a whole.

A Legacy of Leadership

Crosby’s involvement in this initiative is a testament to his enduring legacy as a leader in the hockey world. His commitment to the betterment of the sport and its players is evident in his proactive approach to fostering collaboration and unity. As the sport continues to evolve, Crosby’s role in shaping its future remains pivotal, reflecting his dedication to leaving a lasting impact on hockey.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Hockey

The implications of this alliance extend beyond immediate player benefits. By reinforcing the relationship between the NHLPA and PHPA, the partnership sets a precedent for future collaborations within the sport. It highlights the importance of unity and collective action in addressing the challenges faced by players today. As this new chapter unfolds, the hockey community can anticipate a more unified front, poised to navigate the complexities of the modern sports landscape with resilience and solidarity.

In conclusion, Sidney Crosby’s role in orchestrating this alliance underscores his visionary leadership and commitment to the sport. This strategic partnership not only strengthens player representation but also paves the way for a more collaborative and empowered future for hockey. As the sport continues to grow and adapt, the influence of leaders like Crosby will undoubtedly shape its trajectory for years to come.

So, again, I have no idea what Sid's specific involvement was, but ... I think he's going to end up in the Hall of Fame, not just as a player but as a architect, a builder, someone who came into the sport and transformed it on just about every level possible. All through behind-the-scenes involvement that most people never see. One more layer/level of greatness for a man who already has so, so many of them.