#and solve The Jewish Question (threat)

[decolonize-the-left]

Sound familiar?

"After the First World War, the map of Europe was re-drawn and several new countries were formed. As a result of this, three million Germans found themselves now living in part of Czechoslovakia.

When Adolf Hitler came to power, he wanted to unite all Germans into one nation.

In September 1938 he turned his attention to the three million Germans living in part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. Sudeten Germans began protests and provoked violence from the Czech police. Hitler claimed that 300 Sudeten Germans had been killed. This was not actually the case, but Hitler used it as an excuse to place German troops along the Czech border.

Things that happened in September 1938:

Sept 7. On instructions from Hitler, Konrad Henlein broke off negotiations with the Czech government. Allegations of Czech police brutality at Moravská Ostrava were used as an excuse

Sept 7. A famously controversial editorial appeared in The Times which recommended giving Hitler what he wanted because "the advantages to Czechoslovakia of becoming a homogenous State might conceivably outweigh the obvious disadvantages of losing the Sudeten German districts of the borderland."

Sept 13. French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier asked Neville Chamberlain (leader of Czechoslovakia) to make the best deal he could with Hitler.

Sept 20. The Czechoslovak government rejected the Anglo-French proposal in a note explaining that acceptance would mean that Czechoslovakia would be put "sooner or later under the complete domination of Germany."

Sept 20. Hitler met with the Polish ambassador Józef Lipski and told him that Germany would support Poland in a conflict with Czechoslovakia over Teschen. Hitler also said he was considering shipping Europe's Jews to a colony (Israel, a colony for Europe's displaced Jewish population would be established in 1948) and expressed hope that Poland would cooperate with such a plan. Lipski replied that if Hitler could solve the Jewish question, the Poles would build a monument to him in Warsaw

September 26. In the Berlin Sportpalast, Hitler made a speech threatening Czechoslovakia with war. "My patience is exhausted", Hitler declared. "If Beneš does not want peace we will have to take matters into our own hands.

Sept 27th. The French government announced that France would not enter a war purely over Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlain gave a radio address saying, "However much we may sympathize with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbor, we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in a war simply on her account. If we have to fight it must be on larger issues than that

Sept 27. President Franklin Roosevelt writes to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler regarding the threat of war in Europe. The German chancellor had been threatening to invade the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and, in the letter, his second to Hitler in as many days, Roosevelt reiterated the need to find a peaceful resolution to the issue.

Sept 29. German Führer Adolf Hitler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and Italian Duce Benito Mussolini met in Munich to settle the Sudetenland crisis. Czechoslovakia was not invited, neither was the Soviet Union.

Sept 30. Munich Agreement: At 1 a.m., the four powers at Munich agreed that Czechoslovakia would cede the Sudetenland to Germany by October 10. The territorial integrity of the rest of Czechoslovakia was guaranteed by all signatories. Neville Chamberlain flew back to Britain and declared "peace for our time"

I think we all deeply need to reconsider what we were taught about WW2. The allies who "saved" everyone from Hitler's camps are also the Same People who allowed him to get so much power in the first place.

Closer looks at these histories show they had their own motives for allowing it just like Biden does today. FDR & Biden are actually mirroring each other really well considering they're separated by time and death. FDR was pleading and asking Hitler to please stop doing war until Pearl Harbor cuz they had a good relationship like that :) Yeah, so all he really did up to that point was play arms dealer for France and Britain because he didn't wanna jeopardize his relationship with Germany by Directly getting involved.

Yeah.

See what I said about it sounding familiar?

And can I remind y'all that Hitler didn't start by saying he hated Jewish people. No.

You know what his plan was at first? A "Greater Germany" that would unify Germans across the territories that Germany was forced to concede after WW1.

.....Y'all remember this image?

Fascists and dictators and warmongers come in all shapes, sizes and belief systems, but you can always recognize a Fascist Supremacist by the thinly veiled expansion genocide being done in the name of their people. And the guys who help them are always trying to gaslight you about how things are "It's not that bad"

All this to say: get the fuck up and make sure history doesn't keep repeating itself because it's starting to

Y'all are sitting there asking how the Holocaust could happen and Palestinians are asking why nobody is fucking doing anything.

These are related questions.

Get up and do something. Yeah it is crazy that you're going to work when a genocide is happening...so don't!!! So many people are scared of losing their comfort because of what MIGHT happen if it's for nothing, but I'm BEGGING y'all to ask yourselves what headlines you'd rather read about the 1930's-40's and make those real.

"Mob storms parliament, stops the Munich Agreement," "Citizens of (anywhere) create Organization to protect Jewish, Black, and Homosexual peers in opposition to state sponsored violence. Quote: These are my neighbors and Nazis can't have them." "Meet the University Students who chased Nazis off campus." "'We Couldn't Do Nothing' say arrested group of women who beat a Gestapo officer with a clothing iron." "'If they can't afford us, they can't afford war': How global strikes and the lack of scabs are changing the the future of war" "'I'm afraid to Sleep' American Nazis restless after serial arsonist publishes their addresses in the paper"

Germans literally tried to assassinate Hitler. Like several times. We need to step it up.

There are SO MANY things we can do if we can just agree that none of us will be doing them alone! You are NOT powerless to stop this war just because you aren't in Palestine!!!

[canichangemyblogname]

There are about 8 million Jewish people who call the US home. They should be safe here, in the place they call home. We and our government should be protecting Jewish people here, where they live, not be pushing that responsibility onto a foreign country that 1.) also does not protect Jews, and 2.) is a security threat to the region it exists in and the Jewish people therein. Jewish people’s security and comfort should not be tied to or contingent upon what happens in a foreign country. They should be safe here. Period.

My opinion? You can’t call yourself an antizionist if you aren’t taking steps to counter the “dual loyalty”-inspired policies that our politicians use as a means to “solve” the supposed “Jewish Question.” You should be taking steps to make this country safer for and more accepting of Jewish people, as a people. They should never feel like their religion and ethnicity are threatened, like they are in danger, or like they need to choose between being Jewish and being a full member of our public sphere or like they need to hide being Jewish.

Fuck Biden. Fuck the U.S. Government. Jews should be safe here. HERE.

[idiotic-b-gilson]

Hello everyone. So, in the face of the current genocide being conducted by Israel in the Gaza Strip, out of the many posts expressing support for, and solidarity with Palestine, I saw that some advocate for a one-state solution to the Palestinian question. One where all of the former British Mandate of Palestine ("from the river to the sea" as the slogan goes) would be united under a Palestinian state where everyone, regardless of religion or ethnicity, would be equal before the law. And I understand why people sharing these posts want that, or at least I think I understand. However, there is one specific hangup I have with this solution, that I'm asking in good faith for supporters of this one-state solution to explain how it would be dealt with, because I genuinely don't understand it: how do we deal with the fact, that there are more Jews in the former mandate than Palestinians?

Like, according to my calculations, there are about 7 million Jews in Israel and the occupied territories (excluding Golan Heights, since Palestine doesn't claim them), while prior to the current genocide there were about 6 million Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank, and Israel. That is not a huge difference, and I know that there are way more than a million Palestinian refugees outside these borders. However in all likelihood (given existing trends), Israeli Jewish population will keep growing for at least the next few years, while, given how genocide-happy the current Zionist regime is, the Palestinian population might grow at a slower rate, or even shrink. And we have to keep that in mind because, barring some major unexpected events, it's unlikely we'll see the Palestinian question solved in the next few years.

So I worry that by the time that the apartheid in Palestine is finally dismantled, the population difference between Jews and Palestinians will only grow larger. And we can't know how many Jews will emmigrate, or how many Palestinians will return, when apartheid ends. Therefore I find it a very real possibility that, when all is said and done, Jews will remain the majority ethnicity in the new Palestinian state. Democracy is a fragile thing (I should know, I'm Polish), and it is a real threat that, as long as Jews are a majority in Palestine, that Zionists could subvert this new state, and turn Palestine from the river to the sea, into Israel from the river to the sea, leaving Palestinians worse off in the end.

I dunno, maybe I'm exaggerating how big of a threat this would actually be, but it's the main thing that's keeping me on the side of the two-state solution. Because yes, it does mean giving up on most of Palestine's land and letting Israel have it, but at least what is left, West Bank and Gaza, after the West Bank settlements are dismantled, will be a majority-Palestinian state, where the right of Palestinians to self-determination is secure and indisputable. So, if anyone has an explaination of how the problem I described here would be solved, I'd genuinely love to hear it.

Have a nice day, Palestine will be free.

[barbaramoorersm]

March 19, 2023

March 19, 2023

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Book of Samuel 16: 1b, 6-7,10-13a

Samuel is followings God’s directions, and anoints as king the “unlikely one”, David.

Psalm 23

God is presented as the loving shepherd.

Ephesians 5: 8-14

This letter speaks of Christ as the light.

 John 9: 1-41

This is a long Gospel that reveals divisions within the Jewish faith over the growing attraction of Jesus and his message.

Divisions are all around us these days.  Disagreements about theology, politics, environment, racism and so many other issues divide us.  Families are divided. Force is also familiar to us as a people.  People who are carrying out their duties, like election inspectors and elected officials are threatened with death and harm because of different views and actions. We see political divisions over a national budget and our debt ceiling.  These divisions were also present in Jesus’ day.  While today’s Gospel is so powerful for the blind man, it reveals the divisive issues the people of Jesus’ day were facing.

We hear this divide regarding the man born blind.  Jesus is asked whether he carried this burden of blindness because of the sin of his parents or because of his own sin.  Imagine living with that opinion.  It automatically divided people. Jesus answers the questions about the cause of the man’s blindness by saying says “Neither.”  The man nor his parents are  responsible and then, he heals the man.  But this is only the beginning of the controversy.

To solve the issue the religious leaders asked his parents if this healed person is their son. Of course, they said yes but rather than delight in his healing, they told the leaders to ask the man himself how he was healed.  Why did they step back from this gift their son received?  Why?

As the followers of Jesus grew, they presented a threat to the traditional faith.  In fact, synagogues were expelling folks who were following Jesus. The parents were caught between the joy for their son’s healing and the possible expulsion from their synagogue if they appeared to accept the actions of Jesus.

Many believe John is sharing this story because the division between the Jesus’ followers and the followers of their old faith had already happened.  That had to be so painful for all the parties involved.  This was not Jesus’ intention.

The impact of the cure emboldened the healed man, who for so long had been judged as a sinner, and when questioned he responded, “If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything.”  And the healed fellow paid a price.  “They threw him out.”

We hear these days of election workers who feel “thrown out” because they are accused of cheating with ballots.   Some want to recall elections because they believe they were corrupt.  Denominations are divided over the role of women as ordained leaders and the recognition of LGBTQ men and women, some of whom desire to marry.

Jesus closes this Gospel with a very important lesson. The religious leaders heard him say to the healed man, “I came into the world that those who do not see might see and those who do see might become blind.”  What he saying to us and to them?  Perhaps he means that his teachings can open our eyes, that is, open us up to new understandings.  That our opinions and experience may make us blind to the needs, truth and goodness of others.

The Pharisees caught the lesson when they said, “Surely we are not blind are we?”  And Jesus answer indicates that they are blind because they refuse to see the goodness and the presence of God among them.

The words of the psalmist point to the truth of this lesson. “God guides me in right paths…even though I walk in the dark valley…”.  Today the blind man came out that dark valley but sadly others were walking through it.

The Gospel invites us to ask ourselves, “It what way am I blind to the actions of God among us?”

[eretzyisrael]

How the international community sought to create an endless Israel-Palestinian war

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN

One of the remarkable outcomes of the recent Hamas war on Israel was the use of terminology that illustrates a larger goal designed to create conditions that justify Hamas “resistance” and claim Israel is a “settler” state. These terms, similar to the chants of “from the river to the sea” that span the far-left and far-right Hamas supporters are designed to assert that Israel should be destroyed as a country. They have origins in the international community’s attempt to undermine Israel from the first days of the state.

In no other place in the world has the international community worked so hard to try to erode the foundations of an internationally recognized state. It’s worth looking at the broader context of this. For instance when Israel was created in 1948 it was immediately attacked by several other countries. This was an illegal invasion and attack on a state whose creation had been backed by the United Nations. When Israel succeeded in defeating these countries the immediate response from the international community was not to help broker peace and aid the refugees that fled, but rather to create a situation in which Israel’s borders were called into question so as to create the conditions of excusing war against Israel.

There would be “cease fire agreements” which by their nature meant the war was not over, just waiting for the next round. At the same time the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who had fled the fighting were housed in refugee camps and a narrative created telling them they would soon return to their homes. This “right of return” which does not apply to other refugees everywhere, of which there have been hundreds of millions in the last century, was created to force Israel to take back refugees. If Israel didn’t, international organizations would create numerous groups to support the refugees until such time this took place.

Next began the terrorism against Israel, no condemnation by the UN or others for countries hosting “armed struggle” against Israel which provoked wars in 1956, 1982 and at other times. Israel was subjected to an illegal military blockade at this time to and non-recognition by most states in the region. 

When that had largely failed to destroy Israel the next step was arming of Egypt, Syria and other countries to fight Israel. The same countries arming these states also claimed that the “conflict” and solving it would solve all the region’s problems, but pouring arms into the region for endless wars against Israel was not seen as a problem. Israel’s defensive actions were condemned, including the raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, a reactor supplied by France. Instead of preventing countries like Iraq from pursuing existential threats to Israel, it was encouraged. 

At the same time the Palestinian “liberation” organizations that vowed to reconquer all of Israel were given praise at the UN even as Israel was routinely subjected to one sided critique and barred from various regional bodies, isolated and then its national movement called “racist.” Countries in the region were encouraged to use the excuse of fighting Israel to roll back democracy, crush dissidents and minorities, develop and import weapons and start various wars. At each turn whichever extremist regime, from Iran to Nasser’s Egypt, was able to use the Israel excuse as a crutch. The most outlandish comments from Saddam’s regime, firing Scuds illegally at Israel in 1991, to Iran’s comments about Israel go uncondemned in the international community. 

What is extraordinary is how at each juncture the international community did not play a positive role trying to foster peace. Instead when there were peace talks there were. Purposeful roadblocks put up to derail them. Talks always said that the “refugees” and “right of return” would be the last issue on the agenda, guaranteeing failure. Also Jerusalem would need to be divided. Meanwhile everything that came to Israel always was removed from international norms. Countries like Iran could target Jews in South America, terrorists targeted Israelis at the Olympics, Hamas was permitted to produce and stockpile missiles illegally and so was Hezbollah. At each turn it was always an excuse that so long as these groups targeted Israel their illegal arsenals could increase. The Palestinian Authority wasn’t even expected to have elections. Israel was kept out of CENTCOM and regional bodies to appease the regional states up until recently. 

Ridiculous obsession with Israel at the UN led everything to be warped just to attack Israel from the WHO to Women and Human Rights groups, to UNESCO. Every rule that applies to every country in the world was shifted regarding Israel being singled out. And now human rights groups have done the same regarding accusations of “apartheid.” There is no commonality between Israel’s system and apartheid, but the term had to be changed just to attack Israel. The term “settler state” was shifted from its original meaning relating to the New World states to apply to Israel, a country that is not made up of “settlers.” The supposed “two state” solution has now been tossed aside in favor of what the anti-Israel voices call “one state” and “from the river to the sea.” The accusations that all of Israel is “apartheid” is designed to cater to this alliance of Hamas and the progressive left against Israel. It doesn’t matter what Israel does, just defending itself with Iron Dome is now considered a reason to attack it. Similarly the use of the term “settler” to describe Israel, asserting that this gives it less rights, when numerous other states in North America and other places were created by “settlers.” Only in Israel’s case are migrants and refugees called “settlers.” 

Even when Israel tried to do what the international community has asked, withdraw from Gaza, the same community that made sure that failed chaotic Palestinian Authority elections would enable Hamas to take over Gaza. Then they say that Israel still “occupies” Gaza, when Israel left. Hamas is said to have a “right” to “resist occupation” and attack Israel with rockets, and if Israel blockades Hamas then it is said to be evidence of “occupation.” Similarly even though Israel left Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah is permitted to claim it must keep a massive arsenal to “resist” Israel because Israel “occupies” Lebanon, even though it doesn’t. This shows no matter how much Israel withdraws from the “occupation” will never end and the need for “resistance” will never end. The doctrine is “one state” and a “binational” state. Under no circumstance to international organizations say they won’t fund Palestinian groups that use maps showing all of historic Palestine as theirs, and no Israel. Even terms like “’48 Arabs” or “48 lands” are used. To deny the existence of Israel. No other country is subjected to this. No one says that India is “48 lands”. 

Only Israel is subjected to non-recognition by numerous countries, based often on religious hatred. Even as the Cold War ended and other disputes ended there was no push by the international community to recognize Israel. It is a conflict that began in 1948 and which many in the international community will use forever. Iran’s regime uses the conflict to excuse spreading chaos in the region and arming illegal extrajudicial groups. Why does Iran threaten Israel? That question is never asked. Why does the regime get to continually use the Palestinian issue to threaten? No other country randomly adopts a cause far away to threaten to destroy some other other country. For instance Burma may be accused of suppressing Rohingya, but Iran or Turkey don’t threaten the country’s destruction. Only with Israel. 

The international community has done nothing to try to create peace in the Middle East and prevent the stockpiling of rockets by Hezbollah, Iran’s brazen nuclear program and other issues. As long as these countries say they will “destroy” Israel, they get a pass. If they threaten any other country they are held to account. Even Jewish history is neatly removed, UNESCO declaring Hebron a heritage site but purposely focusing on the Mamluk and Ottoman period to remove any need to mention Jewish heritage in Hebron. The whole of world history changed just to ignore Jewish rights and role in historic Israel. 

This is not about Palestinian rights and a state. Because the nature of the argument, the “river to the sea” talk now said at western Universities, it all about ethnic cleansing of Israel. It is the only state in the world the western left leaning progressive will seek to ethnically-cleanse of its diverse population. It’s the only state they say that it has to provide full and equal rights to “all its citizens” and change its flag and anthem, but no other state in the Middle East must do so. It’s the only state where 4,000 rockets can be fired at it without condemnation or even mention of Hamas. It’s the only state where when there is a war there is a huge rise in attacks on Jews all around the world by the same people who claim “anti-Zionism” is not antisemitism. This is the reality in the wake of the Hamas war. 

Regardless of Israel’s mistakes, the international community’s failure to rein in extremist groups and to continue to enable the excuses about why there is a war is one of the root problems. Had the international community done more to say that groups like Hamas and Hezbollah shouldn’t have a de facto “right to resist” there might have been more peace long ago. 

[arcticdementor]

A foundational principle of the fight against hate in America is the belief that intolerance in general, and anti-Semitism in particular, are functions of ignorance that can be solved with education. We see evidence of this whenever concerns about intolerance or anti-Semitism become more salient. Proposed solutions frequently feature improved Holocaust education or expanded diversity, equity, and inclusion training. Profiles of anti-Semites tend to feature rural whites or urban minorities from low-educational backgrounds. Well-educated people tend to feel secure in their higher-class status and imagine that the dangers of intergroup hatred are concentrated elsewhere.

…

A large problem with this widely held belief—which has dominated the American Jewish community’s approach to combatting hatred since the days of Louis Brandeis—is that it depends on survey questions that probably fail to capture anti-Semitism among the well-educated. For the most part, these studies measure anti-Semitism simply by asking respondents how they feel about Jews, or by asking whether they agree with blatantly anti-Semitic stereotypes. But educated people, being experienced test takers, know these to be “wrong” answers.

For instance, a recent survey designed to gauge anti-Semitism on college campuses was based on respondents’ level of agreement with statements like “Jews have too much power in international financial markets” or “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind.” Sophisticated respondents may be more likely to detect what they are being asked and give socially desirable answers that might fail to reveal a more nuanced degree of anti-Semitism. The belief that anti-Semitism is associated with lower levels of education may therefore be a function of who gets caught by surveys, rather than based on an accurate relationship between education and antipathy toward Jews.

To test this hypothesis, we developed a new survey measure based on what the human rights activist and former Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky identifies as a defining feature of anti-Semitism: the double standard. We drafted two versions of the same question, one asking respondents to apply a principle to a Jewish example, and another to apply the same principle to a non-Jewish example. Subjects were randomly assigned to see one version or another so that no respondent would see both versions of the question. Since no one would see both versions of the question, sophisticated respondents would have no way of knowing that we were measuring their sentiment toward Jews, and no cue to game their answers.

When we administered these double-standard measures in a nationally representative survey of over 1,800 people, our results differed widely from the conventional view about the relationship between education and anti-Semitism. In fact, we found that more highly educated people were more likely to apply principles more harshly to Jewish examples. By preventing subjects from knowing that they were being asked about their feelings toward Jews, we discovered that more-highly educated people in the United States tend to have greater antipathy toward Jews than less-educated people do.

Contrary to previous claims, education appears to provide no protection against anti-Semitism, and may in fact serve to license it—in part by providing people with more sophisticated and socially acceptable ways to couch it.

…

We found that respondents with higher education levels are markedly more likely than those with lower education levels to apply a double standard unfavorable toward Jews. Across the four items in which the Jewish and non-Jewish versions of questions seemed the most similar, and which the overall sample answered roughly in the same way, subjects with college degrees were 5 percentage points more likely to apply a principle harshly to Jews than to non-Jews. Among those with advanced degrees, subjects were 15 percentage points more unfavorable toward Jewish than non-Jewish examples.

…

When asked whether “attachment to another country creates a conflict of interest,” respondents with a four-year degree and those with advanced degrees were respectively 7 and 13 percentage points more likely to express this concern when the attachment in question was to Israel rather than Mexico. People with advanced degrees were 12 percentage points more likely to support the military in prohibiting a Jewish yarmulke than in prohibiting a Sikh turban as part of the uniform. Those with four-year college degrees answer this question the same whether the example is Jewish or Sikh.

The overall sample was fairly concerned about public gatherings during the pandemic, with 61% supporting the prohibition of public gatherings, whether for an Orthodox Jewish funeral or for BLM protests. Those with a four-year degree were 11 percentage points more likely to oppose these public gatherings for Jewish funerals than for BLM protests. People with advanced degrees were 36 percentage points more likely to want Orthodox Jewish funerals prohibited than BLM protests.

…

This greater antagonism toward Jews among the more educated is troubling for a number of reasons. First, Jews may be mistaken about where threats to their interests predominate. Jews may believe that dangers mostly come from distant and unfamiliar groups rather than from circles in which they tend to live. Second, well-educated people tend to have greater influence over the course of events, so it does not bode well for Jews to be disfavored by them. Third, our strategies for addressing intolerance in general, and anti-Semitism in particular, tend to revolve around the belief that group-hatred is caused by ignorance, and that the solution is more education. Yet if more-highly educated people are more hostile with respect to Jews, higher educational levels and more courses and training could increase prejudice, rather than diminish it.

At the very least, it seems that an education that simply provides information about historical events, civil liberties, and other cultural groups is insufficient. Addressing anti-Semitism and prejudice more generally may require the cultivation of virtue. Specifically, it requires the formation of a kind of character that is not only familiar with other outgroups and democratic norms, but also has the integrity to behave in ways that demonstrate consideration of their interests and restraint in the use of political power in the pursuit of personal interests.

As Harvard professor and Yiddish scholar Ruth Wisse has argued, anti-Semitism has not thrived because of ignorance, but because it “forms part of a political movement and serves a political purpose.” Those political causes making use of anti-Semitism are increasingly favored by the well-educated in this country. Countering the anti-Semitism of the well-educated will be a political and moral struggle, not one that can be addressed by conventional approaches and conceptions of education.

[noragami-ru-manga]

Calamity bears human face

These are my thoughts on the first half of 87-2. Spoilers ahead!

I really, really liked the second part of chapter 87. Adachitoka still refuse us Yukine’s entire past, but maybe that’s for the best. If what we’ve been shown so far causes this many emotions in the fandom, I’m scared to think what would have been if they revealed everything at once. But… this post isn’t about Yuknie. Not because I don’t like his character, but because I really want to discuss the first 10 pages of the new chapter.

As I expected, we got some of Father’s flashbacks this time. Except they were about the part of his life that had Yato in it, probably several years (?) after Sakura’s death.

Yato not wanting to kill people isn’t that strange, since he started “slacking off” because of Sakura’s influence, and we know that by this point Hiiro would take initiative whenever Yato wouldn’t put his heart in performing Father’s jobs, as shown in chapter 47. Interestingly enough, when Yato suggested that Father should kill people himself, the former answered that he “was killing gods, at least” – implying that he didn’t kill humans with his own hands.  Father’s words about killing gods do sound sinister but as we’ve already seen and will see later in the chapter, not all gods are warriors like Bishamon, Takemikazuchi and Yato himself, so I wouldn’t be too intimidated by this phrase.

His line about the uselessness of killing gods without killing people though … The idea is obvious and logical, so I don’t see the point in developing it further, but even now I think that Father did not choose the most efficient way to do it. Even if Yato stayed under Father’s total control, one god of calamity doesn’t seem to be that big of a threat on a global scale, contrary to whatever Nora has to say later in the chapter.

The thing that caught my attention on these pages is Father’s words about shrines. Yato already revealed before that someone would always tell him he didn’t need a shrine, that someone being Father. Up to this point I simply thought that this was needed to cultivate Yato’s fear of being forgotten – if he doesn’t have a shrine, it’s all the more easier for him to disappear without any chances to reincarnate. The idea that Father actually thinks that shrines are useless somehow never crossed my mind, although now that I see it on paper it makes total sense.

And since Yato raised the question, I’ll take it from here. He said he didn’t understand why did needed to destroy humans if life would be boring without them. I’ve always asked this question in regard to any character whose end goal is total annihilation – what’s the point? Sure, Father isn’t aspiring to be an evil overlord as to ask him a question “who are you going to rule over if there’s no one left”. But his goal, apparently, is killing all gods and also all humans so that old gods can’t reincarnate while new ones can’t appear. But what exactly is he going to do if he succeeds? Die while feeling the satisfaction of revenge accomplished? It’s just so hard to understand someone whose views  are so different than your own.

I wish I could say that the small local kami that attacked Yato proves that Father’s words about shrines are wrong, but what happens next actually corroborates his statement. Partially.

One the one hand, the villagers’ prayer was heard, and the local kami attacked Yato for destroying the village. But Father just crushed her. So in the end, the kami wasn’t able to so anything about these humans’ problem, so yeah, their wish wasn’t granted.

This scene also demonstrates that yes, Father can actually kill gods. The more important thing about it though is that Yato sees it. We have already seen just how much Yato used to fear death for the majority of the series. However, knowing that Father has the ability to kill Yato by forgetting him is one thing; but witnessing him kill a kami just like Yato really drives it home. And it’s all the scarier how Father simply intercepted Yato’s weapon – he just summoned Chiki, who moments earlier was in the boy’s hands. Just look at Yato’s face, you can see the terror.

And Father didn’t really have the need to kill that kami. What could they have done with a chopstick anyway?  Maybe he god mad at this kami actually answering people’s prayer, disproving his point. Or maybe he just hates the gods so much he couldn’t stand even seeing one of them, so he just had to kill them.

(BTW, does anyone know what’s with the blindfold? I’ve tried looking it up but never found anything).

Nora and Hiyori’s dialogue is my favorite part the chapter, there are just so many things to unpack here. First, “Father would praise the god called Yato”. Is it just me, or is Nora jealous? We saw in Yato’s memories that Father actually praised both his children. Then again, we also saw that he punished Nora when he wanted Yato to behave. Considering that Yato grew increasingly reluctant to kill humans, and Nora had to take the lead and finish Yato’s work, this kind of jealousy is unsurprising. Nora was Father’s right hand girl and supported him all the way, but between the two of them Yato would receive more attention.

“But at some point, Yato started mourning the deaths of other people”.  Yeah, we know at what point – Nora must be referring to the time when Sakura was still alive. I’ll just throw in a couple of pics from chapter 47 to remind you why Yato started mourning people.

“When calamity strikes, people always become more devout”. This must be one of the most powerful quotes in the entire manga, because it encapsulates one of the foundations of the Noragami universe. Gods exist to grant human wishes, but who would have more reasons to pray – someone who has it all, or someone who’s in trouble? Remember the main reason why people start seeing the Far shore and things that relate to it.

Of course humans would turn to gods if they can’t solve their problems themselves; that’s the reason they exist. I’ve already mentioned it in the post about memory and memories – the idea of a being that isn’t bound by human constraints, is immortal and can help out when there’s nothing else left takes shape of a person, and that’s how a god is born. Although there’s another reason, too – people hope that if calamity is sentient, you can bargain with it. That’s how people started worshiping Tenjin – not to ask for something they don’t have, but to beg him not to take something they already possess.

It may be that, by sending Yato to obliterate villages, Father was hoping not just for thinning out people, but for a somewhat different reaction from them.

“That boy loved people”. This line is just so heartwarming. And Hiyori already said it before. She saw Yato’s past and how even back then he tried to help humans – like making snow shoes for people in need. She understood him and accepted him.

I don’t really have anything to add to Father wanting “to do something” though. I’ve already said before that Father is done with being the game master and wants to be an actual player. Apparently, he is waiting for Yukine to discover GGS completely before summoning him as a weapon.

The line about natural disasters having human faces caught my attention before the chapter was even translated.  When people die because of natural disasters, it’s horrible, but there’s nothing you can do about it. We can say that “we need to build sturdier houses/dams/etc.”, “we need to take better precaution measures”, and we try, but you can’t possibly predict everything. But in a world where the sun, the moon, the lightning, etc. are personified as gods, a.k.a “have faces”, not only there’s a way for someone to direct their wrath at those faces, but there’s the question of why these sentient elements of nature do these things that hurt humans.

Let’s look at some of the examples of gods harming Nakatsukuni, the world of humans.

Chapter 7 – Bishamon cuts down a grove to get to Yato

Chapter 8 – Kofuku’s vent releases a horde of ayakashi, which results in rising crime rates in Tokyo

Chapter 60 – Bishamon causes a local hurricane to locate Father

Chapter 66 – Takemikazuchi transforms into lightning to fight Yato

The gods harmed the world of humans, but it wasn’t for fun. Bishamon was guided by her thirst for revenge both times. Kofuku was helping her friend. Takemikazuchi became angry because his guide was hurt. All of them felt very human emotions. Except, since they are gods and their power surpasses that of an average human, the result of their outburst is a dead grove, rising crime rates, a damaged school. They aren’t actually trying to purposefully hurt humans but for those who suffer from these actions that’s hardly a consolation. And like I said, it’s one thing when you don’t really have anyone to blame, because the wind that destroyed your house doesn’t hear you, and another, when that wind has a face.

I think that when Father sent Yato to destroy villages, he hoped that the calamities would make people turn away from the gods. After all, people don’t always become more devout during trying times, sometimes they turn away from religion, which is what happened with Father himself. There’s a phrase going around the Internet – it was allegedly written on the wall of a Nazi concentration camp by a Jewish inmate: “If there is a God, He will have to beg for my forgiveness”. I don’t know how true this story is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s real.

And even with all this in mind, I still don’t understand Father’s logic. Suppose he doesn’t destroy all of humanity, but does manage to kill all gods. I don’t think it would change that much. Amaterasu, for example, is depicted as the sun incarnate, but… if she’s killed forever, will the Sun go out, too? I understand that I’m going off the rails and into the cosmogenic myth territory here, but I can’t help it. If there are no gods left, but the forces of nature continue to destroy human lives, then Father’s actions hardly change anything. (Look at me, trying to find a reasonable explanation for an unhealthily long revenge plan). Also, don’t forget that gods of other religions canonically exist in Noragami – what is Father going to do about them, I wonder?

As for “someone” being killed by the Heavens, I’ve recently made an assumption that the pock-marked girl’s death could have been a payment of sorts to bring Father back from the dead. I made this assumption knowing that Father’s words in chapter 60 imply that gods were more involved than that. What Nora said here about Father hating attributing gods’ actions to natural disasters makes it obvious that the girl died because of one of such catastrophes. I’ve looked some more at that page from chapter 60, and I still don’t see any visible damage on the girl. However, Adachitoka emphasize a skeleton lying in a field near a dead tree. Also, I’ve turned the page upside down to get a better look, and now this skull haunts me.

Was it a drought, a famine that killed her? Or the smallpox? If these are her remains, why didn’t Father bury them? Who then helped him return from Yomi? We know it was a soul summoning, after all. So many questions that are yet to be answered.

However, even if we didn’t get all the answers yet, these ten pages did reveal a lot.

-          Nora knows Father’s backstory, but not all of it. Apparently, it’s a thing so painful that Father can’t tell everything even to his most devoted supporter.

-          Sakura’s influence on Yato was even stronger than I thought.  It’s possible that Father changed his course of actions and started giving Yato jobs that involved punishing criminals soon after the scene we saw in this chapter.

-          Father, apparently, thinks of himself as some kind warrior of justice while ignoring the fact that he does as much harm as the gods, and that he is a calamity with a human face.

 P.S. that page with the human faces of nature absolutely rocks.

[anastkantdhangar]

The Petrifying Situation of the Indian Media

India ranks so badly for press freedom because much of the media has simply stopped doing its moral job, and, as a culmination of facts, journalism is in some serious trouble in the world’s largest democracy. I’m afraid the consequences could be dire.

A cluster of mics of different channels of India's television media, accountable for shaping the social and political thoughts for the most of the country's population.

March 6, Vinesh Kunhiraman, The Media One anchor, goes on air, just like any other day in the office, about to tell his channel’s five million viewers in Kerala about the death anniversary of a famous comedian and the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic.

But just a few minutes into the broadcast, he sees the managing editor rushing towards the studio floor gesturing desperately. As soon as Kunhiraman realizes that something’s not right, his image dissolves into a blue screen, a message shows up on the screen saying that there’s no signal and that they regret the inconvenience. The channel’s uplink, all of sudden, goes dead.

Actually, this was no technical difficulty. The channel was cut off as a consequence of order issued by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to block the channel for 48 hours, because it had covered February’s biggest news story -- mob attacks on anti-CAA protesters and in Muslim-dominant areas of Delhi, which took place just a few days after the result of Delhi’s Assembly Elections, which ultimately flared into a broader unrest and the Delhi Riots --  in a way that seemed “critical towards Delhi Police and R.S.S.,” the order said.

This shows a glimpse of how tolerant the government of world's largest democracy actually is about it’s criticism, despite many of the government ministers and the Prime Minister Modi himself stating that he wants the government to be criticized as it makes a democracy stronger and motivates him to work better.

WIDE URGE TO ADVERTISE “POSITIVE STORIES”

PM Modi addressing the nation amidst the coronavirus pandemic and about the government’s steps to address it.

Just before he announced the world’s largest coronavirus lockdown, PM Modi met with top news executives and urged them to publish “inspiring and positive stories” about the government’s efforts. Then, after the lockdown stranded half a million migrant workers, with some dying along the highways, government lawyers persuaded the Supreme Court to order all media to “publish the official version” of coronavirus developments, although outlets are still allowed to carry independent reporting.

A large section of leading broadcasters were quick to welcome this decision of the apex court, but left many intellectuals with questions on India’s constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of press.

India’s media universe is vast, perhaps the biggest in the world: More than 17,000 newspapers, 100,000 magazines, 178 television news channels and countless websites in dozens of languages. Thousands of Facebook pages call themselves news publishers, and YouTube is filled with local bulletins on everything from real estate trends to police raids.

Under immense pressure from the government, many media owners have fired their journalists who have criticized the PM and his government, and asked their media houses to not to run stories of hate-crime trackers that may embarrass the government or the ruling party. Instead, media houses have been asked to, and have been running what is being called “positive and inspiring” stories so that a “healthy environment” is being maintained throughout the country, and that could actually lead to a number of conclusions from various points of views.

This is so evident at the time of the coronavirus pandemic, where media houses have been given official orders to run the “official versions of the stories so that people do not panic”. Indian media has been constantly pressing on to project the fact the fact how India have been tackling the coronavirus pandemic outbreak way better than the much developed western countries, but not many compared, what we should call, the “other statistics” -- the amount of daily covid tests conducted, and its comparison with the same countries it claims to be performing better from. 

Media, being the fourth pillar in any democracy, is morally obliged to present the facts in the way they should, in order to be in the best interest of the people as a whole. Even the academic study of journalism has part where it teaches the students, or the future journalists, to see government’s policies and steps with suspicion, as if media starts supporting government everywhere in any democracy, things could turn out to be disastrous, yes of course it is evident.

They can only ask PM about how much does he sleep, from where does he get the motivation, how much of a fakir he is. And this is the same person who left an interview with just three minutes into it because he was being asked bitter questions about his role during the 2002 Gujarat Riots, Modi was being interviewed by Karan Thapar then, and has not given any such bitter interview ever since even after becoming the Prime Minister of India, and has not even indulged in any press conferences but one, that too just before the 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, in which he did not answer a single question, in fact, gestured many to Amit Shah to answer.

Instead, days before 2019 Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi gave an "non-political" interview to a Bollywood actor, Akshay Kumar, in which he was asked questions like "how does he have his mangoes".

STRATEGICALLY CONTROLLING THE  COUNTRY’S THOUGHT PROCESS

It is a fact, even is a part of academic structures in schools, that Adolf Hitler ran a hate propaganda against the Jews for his political gains, most probably fulfilled his personal desires too through it, and eventually built such a large campaign that he was able to convince millions of Germans that a clear minority population composition of 6 million Jews were a threat to Germany and it’s integrity, and that to eradicate and eliminate them by killing them in large numbers and fleeing them was the only possible way to save Germany.

At first, this sounds outlandish for any democracy, as to solve differences between communities, especially by the side of government, rather sounds pretty un-democratic. But the fact that Hitler was able to convince this as only possible way out is very intriguing, as he off course had a popular public support. How was he able to do that?

Adolf Hitler addressing the people in a rally

In Hitler’s Nazi Germany, media was censored by the government, as a result of which what the media can open as news in public domain was solely controlled by the Hitler’s government, which led to media only praising Hitler as Germany’s Savior and projected every person who criticized Hitler as a traitor, giving Hitler complete power to prove so, and execute him. The whole anti-Jewish sentiment was a result of years of propaganda run by the Hitler’s media to earn a wide public support to execute his dangerous plans and unleash havoc.

Seems familiar? A considerable section of the world society sees the same signs repeating in India based on religious grounds. Starting from near-end of 2014, India’s media has run a large scale propaganda based on religious grounds, resulting in instilling of hatred against the largest religious minority in India, and convincing people that they do not belong here. As a result, India has seen a sudden upsurge in mob lynchings based on communal lines, a strong hostility against sections of society, challenging the integral character of India’s Unity in Diversity and it’s very traditional secular character.

CAPTURING THE STILL “FREE VOICES”

The current NDA government and PM Modi are backed up by an army of online allies who discredit and harass independent journalists; female journalists, in particular, have been besieged with abuse and rape threats. And the police say Hindu nationalists were behind the 2017 murder of Gauri Lankesh, a female newspaper editor hailed as one of India’s most crusading journalists.

And for the most part, Indian news outlets have knuckled under, concluding that since much of the public supports the prime minister, they should, too. Even skeptical journalists censor themselves, afraid to be branded anti-national by a government that equates patriotism with support for PM Modi.

The Modi government has been particularly concerned about broadcast media, which reach into every corner of the country. In such a scenario, months before 2019 elections, an ABP journalist, named Punya Prasun Bajpai, questioned the results of government’s scheme of providing financial help to farmers, and broadcasters stated that the broadcast of the show was being interrupted in various parts of the country until the ABP journalist was being asked to leave days after the incident. 

There are numerous such examples of journalists and reporters being left out and asked to leave by the broadcasters, so that they’re not being branded as anti-nationals, or lose sponsors or afraid that cases might be filed against them.

Arnab Goswami, from the Republic, hosting his debate program

Arnab Goswami of the Republic TV has come out be one of the most prominent Right wing, pro-government journalist in recent times, with constant praises for PM Modi, his government and his policies and of course his ideologies, and has constantly questioned the opposition for every misdeed in the country. He accused the Congress and Sonia Gandhi of sending goons to attack him in April.

Ravish Kumar, NDTV, in between his daily debate program

Ravish Kumar of NDTV, another popular journalist, this time one who has been critical of government, not only during the NDA tenure, but a hard critical of UPA government too. Being a hard critical of PM Modi and Amit Shah, he has been abused constantly on social media and death threats for him and his family, and the Modi and Shah’s BJP has now boycotted Ravish for years, by not sending any spokesperson in his show.

PM Modi, after taking over the PMO, gave his very first interview to Arnab Goswami, and Arnab has been backing up with frequent interviews of PM Modi, and his senior ministers.

Ravish won the Ramon Magsaysay Award, also known as Asia’s Nobel, in 2019. Even after this, no other channel even covered this achievement of Indian media. Many speculated that had Goswami win the Ramon Magsaysay, would PM Modi, or any of the senior ministers or his senior party members have congratulated him, or tweeted the same? Because not a thing even close to this happened.

THE CURRENT MILIEU

An usual Production Control Room of a news channel, responsible for working behind what we see on air

It is very much evident that the Indian Media is in a state of crisis, it simply ‘cannot speak the truth to the power’. From not being vocal about about how big a blundering failure the 2016 demonetization was and the dent it hit on the economy, to constantly attacking the opposition rather than questioning the power, to reporting from the AC studios and not about the situation from the ground, to initially having ignored the migrant laborer's crisis and much more, all this suggests that from the view of the best interests of a tolerant democratic nation, Indian Media has had been in a deep state of crisis.

If it had not been the case, no journalist in any democracy, can openly criticize the voters on live television of being freeloaders, anti-national and being abused for not electing those in central government in a state assembly election, and walk free without even a complaint. Sudhir Choudhury of Zee Media did the very same back in February after the results of the Delhi State Assembly elections, having called a democratically elected Chief Minister as a terrorist.

No wonder why India has further slipped in the latest Press Freedom Index Rankings to 142nd Rank out of a total of 180 countries, very close to Pakistan, ranked 145th, the only comparison most of the Indian Media understands.

If ever our future generations are allowed to look back upon how India lived in the hallucination of being in its best of times what actually also could be a very strong contender of being one of the most dark times in the history of Independent India along with the 1975 Emergency, Indian Media of the current times would also have to bear a lot of credit for the same, along with many strong names both in the government, and the government institutions.

Information and Pictures’ Reference -

The New York Times

Al Jazeera

Google

[keyofjetwolf]

GIFTENING Bonus Rounds

For each category, I included a “bonus round” question. YOU GUYS KILLED IT. I loved all the answers, but listed below are some of my particular favourites.

Haruka Tenoh is trapped in the wrong anime! Which would you have her visit next?

I want her to earth shake Kyubey out of existence, please and thank you

My bride is a mermaid. She can relate. :P

i think she would THRIVE in bodacious space pirates. gay teenage space pirates whose job is to dress up, be Dramatic, and rob the wealthy??? that shit is RIGHT up her alley

Hamtaro

Princess Tutu - where the world is finally as dramatic as her

PGSM (and Michiru is trapped with her, for REASONS)

Pokemon because everyone deserves to be happy

Any moe-style series so hijinks can ensue at her being baffled by everyone's ages

1960's Speed Racer

is is this a captcha or something i missed oh god

Free! so she can be indifferent to all the hot men and slightly uncomfortable because she still can't swim. 

Stick Haruka in a Gundam!

Dump her in Pretear or one of the Precures! It would be hilarious! She's never in the genre she wants to be!

Revolutionary Girl Utena, so she can be offended by misuse of roses.

Initial D, she will out-drive and out-drift all those guys and steal all their girls.

Evangelion. I would feel bad to watch her suffer, but it would be so, so funny for her to be the comparatively most normal person around.

Yakitake Japan! SO SHE CAN HAVE A SNACK OF DELICIOUS RIDICULOUS BREAD BEFORE THE NEXT INTERDIMENSIONAL ANIME STORM WHISKS HER AWAY.

The Holograms or the Misfits? DISCUSS

Holograms

both? both. BOTH IS GOOD

misfits bc Evil Ladies Hot

Steven and the stevens

Misfits.  How dare you make us try to think about anything in our lives.

Both, you mad fool. Those combined songs were the best.

The Misfits, their songs are better

The Misgrams: A group of girls who form a singing telegram start up company, but constantly deliver the telegrams to the wrong people.

kimber & stormer

Neither. Limp Lizards all the way. BROKEN GLASS.

I do not know what these things are

Misfits because guitar motorcycle

The Isle of Misfit Holograms

Holograms is just arguably better

I mean, I’m told the Misfits’ songs are better, but my true answer is the band Kimber and Stormer made in that big gay episode you liveblogged (checks) almost four years ago.

I've no idea what these words mean and I hope this does not make me TOO uncool.

this is about jem, right? right?? im hip i swear

Misfits, because Jasper is a member apparently

I don't know from Jem, but I mean...I certainly prefer holographic material to Glenn Danzig? So I guess there's your answer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Stingers

LIMP LIZARDS FOREVER

Senshi Band

You can make me liveblog a full series of any show you want! You also hate me. What do you have me watch?

Pick a GoT rip-off, any GoT rip-off

The Bachelor?

The Bachelor :(

depends on how much i hate you, but....probably the bachelor. quantity AND lack of quality

Critical role, it would take forever

If I were a horrible person who sought only malice?  Big Bang Theory.  Entire series.

Toddlers and Tiaras

The Mandalorian - Disney would come after you and kill keyofjetwolf just as dead as keyofnik.  We would all be very sad, you would have to go through a second round of restoring things to a new tumblr account, and your organizational heart would weep over adding yet another hosting site out of chronological order.

You are liveblogging Eva, and must discuss in full detail Shinji's emotional state at all times.

Hannity & Colmes

The Kardashians. And all of their spin offs. *kisses*

The price is right

the bachelor

Probably something with lots of romance and no friendships. Soap operas are like that, right? My college roommate used to watch General Young Light Restless Hospital of Our Lives (which one had Like and Laura?) And it was torture.

One Piece, because it's over 900 episodes so you could maybe do 10% before you die, also you will hate how the women are treated most of the time.

Fushigi Yuugi. Not only do you hate it but it also comes with you squirming when you admit to watching the whole thing. ;) 

Plus belle la vie. It's an ongoing French soap opera that has been airing five days a week since 2004, they're nearing their 4000th episode and there's no end in sight. Imagine all those hours upon hours submerged in French drama, mwahahaha!!

The Bachelor.  Or the Bachelorette, maybe - more straight dudes in that.

The Young and the Restless - IT IS THE LIVEBLOG THAT NEVER ENDS. IT WOULD OUTLAST THE INTERNET.

The entirety of the Bachelor franchise.

You can only play one game for the rest of your life. Which game would it be and why?

Kingdom Hearts Complete Collection. A) I love them. B) I beat the system and get like 10 games instead of one.

Gemcraft. This game actually takes a lifetime to finish.

Hatoful Boyfriend. It is the best game ever created. Feel it in your heart.

that's a mean question and you can't make me answer it

Pathfinder, which you could play for the rest of your life and still never finish.

Civ VI , so I can rule the world without leaving my house.

I am legitimately perturbed by this question and refuse to answer it.

Pokemon Go. I would have nothing else, but I would catch them all.

The Elder Scrolls Skyrim: I'll never run out of side-quests.

Mass Effect--it's the only way I'll get full completion. 

The dinosaur game on Chrome when the internet doesn't connect because my life is monotonous and it's a welcome relief. 

Stardew Valley. Peaceful farmer life and turning my children into doves when I'm bored with them.

Crabs Adjust Humidity

Oh my! A number of things come to mind, not one of them fit for print. Just, you know...*gestures vaguely* sex shit. 

I can't even stick to the ones I play now.

This is the worst of all possible things and I refuse to answer. 

Monopoly, I hate myself :(

Probably Minecraft! I haven't gotten into it because I know if I start I will NEVER STOP. Who would do things like build a hundred foot tall statue of Mako-chan? A-THAT'D BE ME.

the game. Of LIFE! *shrug emoji*

I don't believe I'll tell you, because I AM a salty little fish and it was HARD to cut that 11th choice off my vote.

Holligay and I are going to be the leads in a new buddy film. What's the premise? How does it end?

Be gay do crimes. Thelma and Louise. Duh. :P

I have no idea but only just surviving disaster is how it ends.

You break down in a small town during a roadtrip- your stay is full of hijinks and ends with you teaching the townsfolk the true meaning of friendship.

Doctor Holligay, Esquire, PhD, renowned Jewish femme of many talents, is assigned one Operative Jet Wolf as her bodyguard on a foreign diplomatic mission/vacation/culinary tour of the world ("same difference, shut up, narrator"). One problem: Operative Wolf needs a bodyguard herself, as the good doctor discovers when in one night her toilet is destroyed ("IT WAS A SECURITY THREAT") and Operative Wolf nearly breaks a leg falling down a small set of stairs ("THEY PUT A CLIFF OUTSIDE THE DOOR"). Worldwide shenanigans ensue as Holligay and Operative Wolf learn the true meaning of friendship, and also how to take care of themselves... by taking care of each other.

I’m not sure about the premise, but DEFINITELY it ends in murder.

Someone posted a major spoiler during one of your liveblogs. The two of you track them down seeking revenge. It turns out it was the original creator of the series trying to stop you. For some reason Holligay is a CGI badger.

It's clearly a buddy cop movie, and like all good buddy cop movies, it ends with Doc almost dying, and you saving her, and slapping her wound in the hospital as the credits roll.

It ends as it began: with Holligay roasting you.

A straight detective and her lesbian partner have to solve the case of the missing cinnamon buns.  It ends with nobody getting the guy OR the girl and you drive off into the sunset together, perps behind bars sans cinnamon buns.

I don't know what it's about but I know it will be the only movie that ever existed. 

Holligay is the lesbian chief of staff to you somehow being elected President and she's basically running the country while you're the charming face of the administration

Nerd and cowgirl meet at a bar, justifyingly murder some gross dude, go on the run from the law and have a life-changing road trip, on the way Nazis are punched

carrying a delicate object through a forest after your helicopter goes down

Thelma and Louise, but instead of dying, your deaths are clearly faked and you live on a ranch in Montana with your respective spouses and animals. One time a cop comes by the restaurant/bar you joint own with Doc and says, "You look familiar." Doc, in perfect lesbian, answers, "Jet's just got that criminal look, on account of how much she'd love to steal my cheesecake recipe. More pie?"

Queer Eye with a Straight Goy. The two of you do the show but in your own special ways.

Doc Holligay is the wild-west no-nonsense sheriff. Jet Wolf is the all-fun cyberpunk cop from the future. They punch nazis and argue about food. It ends as a tv series ala B99.

Your lives are already a buddy film, don’t get greedy.

Hands and socks.  You know how it ends.

See Grumpy Old Men for details.  How does it end?  Badly.

I can't imagine the premise, but I'm pretty sure the planet explodes.

A Coen Bros film. It ends poorly.

Wait? You're not already living this now? 

REI HINO

REI HINO

Sure. Why not?

HINO REI

<3<3<3<3

REI HINO!

Rei who? ;)

REI HINOOOOOOOOO

Plush Is being hugged by Zoisite in your banner.

MINAKO AINO

MAKOTO KINO

The best

SOCKS

MICHIRU KAIOH

It's time tooo.... REI! THAT! HINO!

sponsored by Here! curry

LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES USAGI LOVES REI [THIS REPEATS A LOT A LOT AND IS GLORIOUS] [...] LOVES USAGI LOVES REI LOVES JETWOLF

(THE REAL ONE)

Isn't how you spell Makoto Kino!

THE REAL ONE™

obviously

IS NOT A RHINO

In conclusion: Rei Hino

Rei Hino is giving this Giftening finger guns

BEAUTIFUL, STUNNING, SHOW-STOPPING, TALENTED, AMAZING, WONDERFUL

Hot stuff, lights my fire, blazes it regularly. I am out of fire jokes.

PASSION FLAME, SAILOR MARS

These hot feelings are C'EEEEEST LAAAAA VIIIIIIE c'mon rei-chan why aren't you singing along

IS THE BEST (I know who I'm talking to)

Ara!

DID DOCTOR HOLLIGAY PHD NOMINATE THE OPTION OF TALKING ABOUT MICHIRU KAIOH FOR 6 HOURS!!

If Hot Pocket were to plan One Last Heist, what do you think would be his objective? What would be Mina's role in his master plan?

Master Hot Pocket seeks BREAD. His friend and loyal companion, Mina-pup, acts as a distraction, as he has learned the humans are easily distracted by cute. While she does her sworn duty as Best Friend and Cutest Goodest Girl, probably with lolling tongue and glee at all the pets she receives, he picks the locks on the newly childproofed pantry, and Master Howard H. Pocket FEASTS AS NO CAT HAS BEFORE.

Every bag of flour in Montana; Mina runs distraction with her adorable puppy eyes

Open every container, leave none unmarked. Mina is the lookout who greets whoever comes and is completely ineffective at her job.

TAKE ALL THE FLOUR. Do it straight from the source: FlourCo Inc. What does a 10-pound cat do with eighty thousand tons of flour? If you can't figure that out, there's a reason he's the brains of this outfit. Mina would obviously be the bumbling lovable distraction to security or other people.

Bread.  Mina is The Face who provides distraction to the Keepers of the Bread by walking up to them and being herself.  Mina has absolutely no idea that Hot Pocket is using her in this manner because Hot Pocket is that Machiavellian, but Mina is a pocket full of sunshine in canine form and probably would just be happy to help out.

Hot Pocket knows that no mammal of the floor believes in flour anymore. It went away a long time ago. It doesn't exist. But what he also knows is that they're wrong. A lack of opposable thumbs won't hide the truth from him. He'll find the stash, and when he does, he'll stick his paw in it. Mina, with her limited climbing skills, will lick its remains from his claw and prove his discovery. As well as provide a warm place to curl up on for the aftermath of their adventure.

His goal is to sample every edible thing he can get his teeth on. Mina pulls triple duty as step stool, distraction, and scape goat

The Silver Crystal. Mina would play the role of Sailor V.

He is getting ALL THE FLOUR. Mina is a lovable distraction.

Looting all the carbs in the pantry. mina is distraction.

mina's role would be the "dopey" but talented best friend who it looks like HP is going to betray for the sake of the plan but then it all comes together when HP mounts a dramatic rescue. i dunno i'm still in film mode from that last one.

The Holy Bread Locked Within the Cupboard.  Mina would be the distraction, but she'd forget what she was supposed to be distracting from and end up leading you to him.

I am the Void. I am the Night. I am the Darkness with no hope of dawn. The Flour trembles before me in it's bleached fluffiness. It shall not escape my chaos, which will descend upon it like the Terrors of the Deep, claws and teeth and gnashing. It will howl at my claws. It will scream for my teeth, sharp and white, stars in the night of my fur. I shall tend and tear and -- Dammit, Dog-thing! How am I supposed to be terrible and terrifying with you wagging your tail and panting at me!? Oh, you found a good warm sunbeam? I guess I can stalk stuff later. I am the Void. I shall absorb the Sun's light and warmth and bring it into my Darkness where it cannot escape...

I'm new here and don't know all the complex lore of Jetwolf(fairly sure Mina is dog), so I'm going to assume that Hot Pocket is an actual hot pocket and his heist is robbing Fort Knox using Mina as his loyal stead/get away car. Then he explodes a microwave or something.

i lik the bred

Mina as the distraction while he takes one last tastes of EVERYTHING 

objective--stealing more chips; Mina--surprise betrayal 

The scene: Mama Jet's pantry The Objective: the bag of cake flour Aunt Doc made Mama Jet buy but she's never used Mina: confused but excited escape vehicle and/or scapegoat

RAIDING THE KING ARTHUR FLOUR FACTORY. Mina is of course adorable and keeps everyone's attention while Hot Pocket swan dives into the flour like Uncle Scrooge

Hot Pocket would definitely try to steal a monument, Carmen SanDiego style. Mina, of course, is the multi-talented and super cute face of the operation.

I have no idea who Hot Pocket is

HP would try to scale the tallest building in the world. Not to steal anything, just to be up there. Mina would be the adorable diversion.

It would be to get whatever food you've left on the counter. Preferably bread. He would tell Mina that he'll give her some of she acts as a distraction. She's a good dog so she does. He's a cat so she gets no food.

Truly, truly, THE GIFTENING winner is us all.

[jomanuworld]

How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World | Eps.2 | CCP | China |...

UNFORTUNATELY, SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM WILL REMAIN  IN FORCE AND ALIVE IN OUR PLANET FOR A LONG TIME BECAUSE CORPORATE GREED AND INFLATION IS OUT OF CONTROL IN AMERICA AND THE FREE WORLD. STRUGGLING POOR PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD THINK THAT BY DESTROYING AND  REPLACING CAPITALISM THEIR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS WILL BE SOLVED BUT AS OF TODAY COMMUNISTS IN CUBA, KOREA, VIETNAM, RUSSIA, NICARAGUA, AND VENEZUELA REMAIN TRAPPED IN AN ECONOMIC STAGNATION AND NIGHTMARE. THE JEWISH COMMUNIST EXPERIMENT CREATED BY VLADIMIR LENIN (1917 - 1923) IN ORDER TO ABOLISH THE RUSSIAN MONARCHY HAS NOT SOLVED THEIR ECONOMIC PROBLEMS AND THE LEVEL OF POVERTY AND GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION REMAIN IN RUSSIA, CUBA, CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA IN ORDER TO CONTROL AND MANIPULATE THEIR RESPECTIVE GROWING POPULATION.

Former US Ambassador to Cuba, Earl T. Smith is interviewed and reveals the State Department's involvement in the violation of neutrality laws, supporting a known Communist with a documented history of violent criminal behavior, and committing high treason by deliberately aiding an enemy of the United States and concealing a clear and imminent threat to our national security. This conspiracy against the citizens of Cuba has cost thousands of lives, devastated families, and has left the dispossessed Cubans stateless and destitute. It is a deliberate case of economic and cultural genocide that merits investigation and restitution. He added "I am convinced that my experience as the United States Ambassador to Cuba was unusual in the sense that I lived through the Castro Communist Revolution, and I feel that I owe it to the American people to try to establish the fact that the Castro Communist Revolution need never have occurred. From this experience, I learned not only that our techniques of relations with Cuba were faulty but that the modus operandi for the determination of policy is not only inadequate but dangerous to the defense of our country"

SOCIALISTS, COMMUNISTS, AS WELL AS CAPITALISTS LEADERS HAVE CREATED ECONOMIC STAGNATION, UNEMPLOYMENT AND INFLATION AROUND THE WORLD IN ORDER TO CONTROL THE FLOW OF MIGRATION AS WELL AS CONSUMERS’ BUYING POWER AND AS A RESULT, AMERICA HAS BECOME THE ECONOMIC TARGET FOR PROSPERITY BUT NEW IMMIGRANTS COMING TO AMERICA DO NOT WANT TO RECOGNIZE THAT AMERICA'S CAPITALISM IS BROKEN WITH INFLATION, PERSONAL AND CORPORATE DEBTS, UNEMPLOYMENT, AND MORE  ILLEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION. ALL THESE ECONOMIC  AND SOCIAL OBSTACLES HAVE BEEN CREATED BY GOVERNMENTS ACROSS THE PLANET IN ORDER TO SLOW DOWN THE TOTAL GLOBAL POPULATION GROWTH BUT WE HUMAN TROGLODYTES KEEP  ON POPULATING THE PLANET AND REPRODUCING LIKE GUINEA PIGS. THE AMERICAN DEMOCRATS,  REPUBLICANS, AND  GREEDY CORPORATE AMERICA THINK THAT BY ASPHYXIATING AND STRANGULATING CONSUMERS WITH MORE INFLATED PRICES AND REDUCED WAGES THEY ARE GOING TO FIX THE ALREADY BROKEN, INFLATED AND DYSFUNCTIONAL US ECONOMY. 

UNFORTUNATELY, SOCIALISM, COMMUNISM, AND TERRORISM WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BE ERADICATED FROM THIS PLANET. THE DYSFUNCTIONAL GLOBAL ECONOMY CREATED AND MANIPULATED BY CAPITALISTS AND COMMUNISTS ALIKE IN  ORDER TO CREATE MORE REVENUE IN THE LAST 200 YEARS HAVE  BEEN BUILDING AND EXTRAPOLATING GLOBAL INFLATION PRESSURE IN ORDER TO CONTROL OVERPOPULATION ISSUES BUT HUMAN TROGLODYTES KEEP ON REPRODUCING AND SPREADING ALL OVER THE PLANET LIKE GUINEA PIGS AND WILD RATS.  KARL MARX SPOOKY SPIRIT STILL MEANDERING IN THIS PLANET AS WELL AS GREEDY CAPITALISTS WHO WILL CONTINUE FABRICATING LIES ABOUT THE GLOBAL ECONOMY STATUS AND USE INFLATION AS A BUSINESS TOOL TO KEEP ON INFLATING THE PRICES OF GOODS AND SERVICES IN ORDER TO GENERATE MORE REVENUE. NO WONDER SOME PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE MONEY TO PAY FOR SUPER INFLATED RENTALS AND CAN'T AFFORD HEALTH INSURANCE NOR OBAMACARE IN THE US.

 Anonymous2708 __4 years ago

“I am 35 years old. single, and working 3 jobs as I finish my doctoral degree.  I have done all of the things that they say you should do.  I have always worked hard. I have worked full time since I was 16.  I have spent my entire adult life getting an education.  It is the most frustrating thing in the world to know how different things were for my parents.  There is a major disconnect in America.   My parents' generation and older just don't understand that the country is a very different place economically.  The opportunities just aren't there.  To this day, I am still lectured by my parents for not having all that they had when they were my age.  I need to just work harder apparently.   To be honest, I find the future to be incredibly depressing if there is not a fundamental shift in the entire economic system of America.  The American Dream died decades ago.   Is there any reason to be optimistic anymore?  All we can do is hope for a political and economic revolution I guess.��

 The discovery is that the vast bulk of recent job growth has gone to immigrants, including illegal immigrants who have little power to ask for raises. Specifically, since the start of the 2007 Great Recession “the US has added 2.3 million “foreign-born” workers”, but only 727,000 “native-born.” (This is according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own survey.) IT'S TIME TO STOP BOTH LEGAL AND ILLEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION!!!! NO MORE DACA, DAPA, CUBAN MIGRATION ACT, NACARA, AND EXECUTIVE AMNESTIES!!

YES, THE PRESIDENT SHOULD BAN ILLEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION IN ALL STATES AND CUTDOWN LEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION BY 90%. WORK VISAS SHOULD BE CUTDOWN BY 95%.  GREEN CARDS APPLICATIONS SHOULD ALSO BE REJECTED DUE TO HEAVY TRAFFIC CONGESTION AND LOCAL OVERPOPULATION ISSUES.

TO CONCLUDE, IMPORTING GOODS INTO THE US TO HELP OTHER COUNTRIES ECONOMIES IS NOT WORKING, INCLUDING MEXICO. THEY ARE DUMPING A LOT OF EXPENSIVE JUNK, POOR QUALITY BEEF INTO AMERICA AND  ON TOP OF THAT THEY WANT OPEN BORDER 24, 7, 365 DAYS TO CLEAN UP THEIR COUNTRY OF UNEMPLOYED CRIMINALS, PROSTITUTES, PIMPS AND LAZY BUMS CREATED BY THEIR OWN SOCIALIST AND STAGNATED ECONOMY. IT IS TIME TO BAN  ILLEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION TO AMERICA AND CUT LEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION BY 90%.

YES, THE TIME WILL COME WHEN CIVILIZATION WILL NO LONGER BE PAYING ATTENTION TO SOCIALISTS NOR COMMUNISTS OUTCRIES BUT IN THE MEANTIME GREEDY CAPITALISTS WILL CONTINUE INFLATING THE PRICES OF GOODS AND SERVICES TO COPE WITH MORE PERSONAL AND CORPORATE DEBTS AND ULTIMATELY MORE REVENUE  AND ONLY THEN WE WILL EXPERIENCE OUR NEW AND IMPROVED UNIVERSAL RELIGION CALLED "ANARCHISM."  THE WORLD WILL BECOME SO OVERPOPULATED, FRAGMENTED, AND BROKEN THAT THE NEW GENERATION OF HUMAN TROGLODYTES WILL END UP LIKE IN CHARLTON HESTON MOVIE, SOYLENT GREEN. YES, LIVING IN AN OVERPOPULATED WORLD WITH NO LAND AVAILABLE FOR FARMING AND THE ENTIRE ANIMAL POPULATION DESTROYED OR CONSUMED BY HUMANS ACTING AS PLANET EARTH GODS. A SOCIALIST - ANARCHIST CRUEL WORLD. YES, WE WILL EAT EACH OTHER FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER WORSE THAN IN THE BIBLE STORIES. NO COWS, NO CHOCOLATE, NO MILK, NO MORE CREAMY ESPRESSO, NO MEAT, CONTROLLED WATER SUPPLY, A 4 OZ JAR OF STRAWBERRY JAM WILL COST $150.00 (IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY) BUT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO EAT SOYLENT GREEN CRACKERS MADE OUT OF PROCESSED HUMAN CADAVERS. AND FINALLY,  LIKE IN ALL SOCIALISTS AND COMMUNISTS COUNTRIES, THE SOYLENT GREEN CRACKERS WILL BE RATIONALIZED LIKE IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION AND OTHER COMMUNISTS COUNTRIES. AMEN!!!

ONLY TIME WILL TELL! THE ONLY THING THAT GOVERNMENTS WILL HAVE TO DO IS TO SLOW DOWN THE OVERPOPULATION PROBLEMS,  BAN ILLEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION AROUND THE PLANET AND CUT DOWN THE LEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION BUSINESS BY 90%.

BIRTH CONTROL, AS WELL AS POPULATION CONTROL, WILL ALSO BECOME A POLITICAL ISSUE IN THE U.S  WERE THOUSANDS OF LIBERATED WOMEN ARE USING SEX AS AN ECONOMIC TOOL TO OBTAIN LEGAL STATUS, WELFARE, AND FREE MONEY.  U.S AUTOMATIC BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP SHOULD BE BANNED ASAP IN ORDER TO HALT THE POPULATION GROWTH.

IT’S TIME TO SAY NO TO MORE FUNDS FOR ILLEGALS!!! USING FEDERAL TAX MONEY TO BRING IN MORE ILLEGALS IS ILLEGAL WHILE UNEMPLOYMENT AND WAGES DEPRECIATION FOR AMERICANS ARE UNDERMINING  THE LABOR AND WELFARE SYSTEM DESIGNED AND CREATED FOR US CITIZENS IN DISTRESS NOT ILLEGALS.

Make no mistake...this is all calculated, by design, to “collapse the system”. To overwhelm the border with utter chaos, and then come in and present “immigration reform” as the only solution.

It is classic Cloward-Piven, and it will only get worse unless the Congress, or Southwestern states, put a stop to it.

Time to stop the chain migration game into the US. No more DACA, NACARA, VISAS TO WORK, DREAMERS, DAPA, MATERNITY TOURISM, ILLEGALS, and THE CUBAN MIGRATION ACT because wages depreciation/stagnation and both Republicans and Democrats, as well as Corporate America, are Manipulating the laws to push out American Workers in order to create jobs for Illegals and new refugees. THE OBAMA'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY IS JUST AN ILLUSION. THE ONLY ECONOMIC RECOVERY FORECAST FOR THE FUTURE IS INFLATION, INFLATION, AND MORE INFLATED PRICES OF GOODS AND SERVICES IN ORDER TO GENERATE MORE REVENUE.

I DO NOT LIKE OBAMACARE NOR TRUMPCARE. YOU POLITICIANS CAN NOT  INCORPORATE ILLEGALS AND NEW POOR REFUGEES IN THIS INSURANCE PACKAGE. OBAMA-TRUMPCARE SHOULD BE FOR AMERICANS CITIZENS AND UNEMPLOYED US CITIZENS. FLORIDA AND THE US SHOULD STOP THE MASSIVE CHAIN MIGRATION GAME BECAUSE  ILLEGAL FEMALES WILL CONTINUE BRINGING THEIR BABIES TO OBTAIN FREE MEDICAID. I AM NOT GOING TO PAY FOR ANCHOR BABIES  HEALTH INSURANCE. THIS IS A GOOD TIME FOR YOU POLITICIANS TO  PUT AN END TO  ILLEGAL AND LEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION BECAUSE FLORIDA'S BUSINESSES ARE HIRING AND FIRING FLORIDIANS IN ORDER TO CREATE AN ILLUSION OF FRESH JOBS CREATION. OBAMA-TRUMPCARE IS A FEDERAL STICK UP DESIGNED BY  HEALTH INSURANCE UNDERWRITERS TO GENERATE MORE REVENUE. INFLATION, INFLATION, AND MORE INFLATED PRICES OF GOODS AND SERVICES IN THE NAME OF PROFITS.

CONSEQUENTLY, THE GRANDIOSE, ENIGMATIC AND UNIVERSAL QUESTION REMAINS IN FORCE. ARE WE, THE HUMAN TROGLODYTES SPECIMEN POPPETS OF GODS OR WE REALLY PRETENDING TO BE GODS’ OF PLANET EARTH BY EXTERMINATING THE ANIMAL KINGDOM AND FAUNA IN ORDER TO MAKE MORE MONEY IN REAL ESTATE?  IT’S TIME FOR AMERICA TO BAN ILLEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION, CUT LEGAL CHAIN MIGRATION  BY 90%, AND HALT THE ISSUING OF  GREEN CARDS IN ALL STATES BECAUSE AMERICA IS SICK AND BROKEN WITH UNEMPLOYMENT,  MASSIVE CHAIN MIGRATION FROM SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST COUNTRIES, CORPORATE AND PERSONAL DEBTS, TRAFFIC CONGESTION, WAGES DEPRECIATION,  AND OVERPOPULATED STATES. 

CAPITALISTS, SOCIALISTS, AND COMMUNISTS WILL NEVER FIX/CORRECT  THEMSELVES BECAUSE THERE ARE TOO PREOCCUPIED IN CONDENSATING AND CONTROLLING MORE POWER/WEALTH IN ORDER TO GENERATE MORE REVENUE AND PROFITS WITH POOR/LESS EDUCATED  SOCIALISTS AND CAPITALISTS.  IT IS HAPPENING NOW IN AMERICA, WITH THE REPLACEMENT OF AMERICAN WORKERS WITH MORE ILLEGALS NATIONAL EXPERIMENT FOR  CHEAPER LABOR COST WITH NO BENEFITS PACKAGE AND MORE INFLATION TO STRANGLE THE MONEY SICK US ECONOMY. A NEW FORM OF SOPHISTICATED SLAVERY IN ORDER TO KEEP THE GLOBAL POPULATION SUBJUGATED  UNDER MORE INFLATION, INFLATION AND MORE INFLATED PRICES OF GOODS AND SERVICES IN ORDER TO ASPHYXIATE THE NEVER ENDING GLOBAL DEMAND FOR MORE MONEY CONTROL IN ORDER TO CREATE MORE POVERTY AND SLAVERY. THE SOYLENT GREEN EFFECT IS BUILDING UP AROUND THE PLANET BUT BLINDED GREEDY CAPITALISTS, AS WELL AS SLAVES SOCIALISTS, ARE TOO BUSY MAKING MORE MONEY TO COPE WITH MORE INFLATION. THE COLLAPSE OF PLANET EARTH ECOSYSTEM WILL BRING DOWN THE HUMAN TROGLODYTE SPECIMEN TO THEIR KNEES AND TO A TOTAL COLLAPSE OF CIVILIZATION IF WE DO NOT STOP REPRODUCING AND POPULATING/INFECTING PLANET EARTH LIKE WILD GUINEA PIGS/RATS PLAGUE.

 ”WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND!!!

“Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out!”

[zwischenstadt]

“The Atlanta situation adds to the general picture of difficult times we face.  Frankly, I do not expect much in the way of encouraging developments for the next couple of years.  In political discussions I have had recently there seems to be a fairly uniform distinction between folks like me who were politically/ideologically formed during the fifties and folks from your generation of the sixties.  The sixties folks expect a rather quick, somewhat spontaneous, response to the Reagan economic squeeze and the rightwing political offense. We oldtimers fear at least a partial reaction on the order of the McCarthy era when most of the centrist and liberal forces collapsed.  Militant forces were largely isolated and at best were able to carry out defensive strategies.

As I assess our work in the 1950’s, one of our problems was that we moved to the defensive too quickly without contesting the terrain at every point.  Too little attention was paid to developing limited offensives, for only in offensives can you raise new questions.  After 1949-50 the spector of what happened in Nazi Germany drove many people further underground than was warranted by the actual conditions.  Too many networks were dissolved when what was called for was a programmatic updating and re-orientation.  In the midst of defending political and economic terrain that was important, the old left lost the capacity to project a vision of a viable alternative society.  The only alternatives they put forth were cast in terms of the thirties and the great depression – revive the New Deal coalition and defend the Boleshevik revolution.

The question of projecting alternatives in the 1980’s might be more crucial than it was for the 1950’s. The possibility of barbarism in the U.S. is much greater today, for in the 1950’s American capitalism could solve many of its problems through growth rather than through social and political reorganization.  Lots of things came together during that era: world hegemony through victory in World War II; possession of a newly fashioned a vigorous welfare state at home; major technological break throughs in transportation, communications and information processing, plus 20 years of declining energy costs.  The 1980’s look quite different: international hegemony is hedged in by national liberation developments, capitalist competition and OPEC; the welfare state has lost its dynamism; energy costs are zooming.  The solutions to the problems of the 1950’s and 1960’s that the ruling class were able to work out were all cast in the mainstream of capitalist development.  With the exception of McCarthyism, which they eventually curbed, the domestic political solutions operated within the framework of bourgeois democracy.  With this room for creative maneuvering they most likely could have preempted even a more aggressive left, as they did in Europe.  Now that growth solutions are several (sic) restricted, the ruling class has a diminished capacity for creativity.  One illustration of this point is that ideologically they are thrown back to a stale rehash of 19th century economics for public policy debates. The big danger lies in a situation in which the ruling class becomes trapped in a set of problems for which they cannot work out a creative solution.  At that point they might embark upon a program of dangerous destructiveness.  If the opposition forces only respond with a strategy of defense, there will be no alterative vision of a good society around which to energize and mobilize people. We would then have a society bereft of any hope, even the hope of bourgeois expansionism.  If the ruling class is desperate and the popular forces are hopeless, we have a recipe for barbarism.

I guess that I have been dwelling on this point by way of trying to answer a question you have posed to me many times: Are we menaced by a real fascist threat, especially with the rising prominence of the KKK and the Nazis?  As dangerous and odious as these groups are, I do not think that they constitute the main danger, nor should they be the focus of major programmatic efforts.  Fascism requires a restructuring of the state, wiping out much of the grounds of legitimacy as it is constituted within the bourgeois parliamentary state. Violence that is illegitimate, even if it is officially winked at, is not the nub of fascism.  The key political factor of fascism is violence that is legitimated and organized through an authoritarian state.

In the U.S.A. the main danger appears to be a kind of authoritarian populism that can operate through the currently constituted state and political apparatus.  Bertram Gross has neatly coined the phrase for it of “friendly fascism”.  Our major problem is not that if getting the state to stop the outrages of the Klan and the Nazis (sic).  The state and the multinationals with legality and legitimacy are destroying the fabric of our society.  And they are now incapable of providing the grounds for a renewed wholesome society. At best they can give us more of the corrosive individualism of the marketplace.  At the other extreme – or maybe it is only the other side of the same coin – the (sic) present us with increased hierarchical domination through their bureaucratic structures.  Ironically we are now getting a combined dose of the worst of both tendencies, with domination masqueraded as freedom of consumption for the better off and as “helping” services for those without the bucks to operate freely in the marketplace.

When you take the racial realities of America into account, this situation requires a more complex analysis because the norms of bourgeois democracy have never been fully applied in the black community.  Even when the state has retreated from making formal governmental and constitutional distinctions of race, within civil society, as distinct from the state, the repression and oppression of black society by white society is still considered normal to one degree or another.  What we have happening today is an increase in degree as to what is considered normal racial oppression.  The tolerance for the Klan might be the most glaring aspect of this development, but it is only one aspect.  While this tolerated violence bears strong resemblance to the pre-fascist developments in Europe of the 1920’s, we can easily overstress the analogy.  For the black community the major controls are still exercised through the traditional state and corporate methods.  For the coming period we can expect the bludgeoning blows to come in very legitimate ways from General Motors, Chrysler, and Ronnie Reagan.  Punctionally, the violence works to generate quiescence from fear among those sections of the population in which the quiescence cannot be generated through appeals to the consumerist marketplace.

I am enclosing a couple of articles which have helped me clarify some of my thinking.  While they are based upon an analysis of British conditions, they shed considerable light for us.  In Great Britain the National Front has been more aggressive and organized in their upfront, on the streets racism than any group in the States.  The Front has even been able to develop a significant electoral presence in some urban centers.  Nevertheless, Sivanandan for the black left and Hall for the white left brilliantly show why the main danger lies within the legitimately constituted operations of the state.  They hold that the left has overemphasized the political potential in counteracting the National Front, partially because the target is so tactically appealing and capable of arousing a lot of folks.  However, the concentration on tactics has worked to divert attention from developing program targeted a the decisive issue.

At a later date, if the economic crisis really becomes unmanageable, extra-legal terror might become a more significant threat and even foreshadow a regressive restructuring of legality.  Right now jingoism and attacks upon liberal bureaucracy seem to be sufficient political mobilizers for the ruling class.  They can candle these ploys through the established mechanisms – witness Carter on Iran and Reagan on the budget.  They can still run things well enough that they do not have to run the risk of reconstituting the state.“

- Letter from Harold Baron, a “Silent Generation” (born in the 1930s) Jewish Marxist to Akbar Muhammad Ahmad, a young Black Power activist.  1979 or 1980.  From the personal papers of Muhammad Ahmad.

[kurtty-drabbles]

Blood path au

N/A: Just an idea I got here. EVO AoA au.

@djinmer4 @bamfoftheundead @dannybagpipesarecalling @sailorstar9 @discordsworld @look-ma-no-hands336

Power is the centre of everything. Who has money has power over the ones who do not have. Those who held a higher position in their respective job have power over the ones who are jobless one. Amanda wants power, but, a different type of power.  She wants to rule this dimension completely.

Amanda Szardos is the only daughter of Margalia Szardos, the Red Queen, and knows they are made to rule the world, sadly, they have enemies and those enemies have more power than them. A power that forces them to be subjugated.

But Amanda has beauty and ambition and she refuses to be less than a Queen.

"Hence, why I need a demonic dog" Amanda mutters to herself in her room. A cosy place that her magic crafted. Amanda knows how to rule, she needs power and the X-men are a big threat to her, she can´t cast spells left and right because Jean Grey will stop her, or even worse, Storm, the weather witch, will destroy her. Now, if she has a demonic dog...

All the ingredients are set in place. All the herbs, all the scents and all the words, everything is ready, well, except one ingredient. Blood, the life source that makes a person be truly alive.

("Our blood, Amanda, is far too precious than those lowlifes, never forget that" "of course, mother, our blood is proof of our perfection")

"Blood!" Amanda states rolling her eyes. "How cliche" but is a necessary ingredient. Her blood is sacred, the gods themselves crafted the Szardos and thus making their blood be a gift from the gods.

A smile plays in her pretty face. "There´s nothing saying it has to be my blood" and Amanda knows what´s best, after all, she´s the great Amanda Szardos and her fate is to be the most powerful woman in all planet.

The Bayville High School is a place that is more liberal in some terms and more progressive than others.  The mutants are still a tough spot to handle, but, the school has the policy of allowing any mutant in the school as long they aren´t a danger to the others.

Amanda wishes she could laugh out loud at how pathetic this situation is. Vermins fighting to see who is less dirty, well, Amanda can pretend to be a good girl with her golden blonde hair and angelical smile. The X-men don´t need to know the future Queen of the world is walking so close to them.

(Mutants, humans who cares. You all are born to serve me- is a thought that keeps Amanda going with such facade, how she longs to give a passionate kiss on her lover, her brother, free of judgment or rules)

Blood.Blood. Blood. This is a word that keeps reeling in her mind, over and over again. She needs blood, but, not any blood, but, blood from someone that is not from the Catholicism.

Amanda is not a true Roma, but, was never baptized either, but,  using her own blood is out of the question. Amanda´s eyes travel to the other students, cattle wanting to be massacred for their master.

Biting her fingernail is not a cute display, but, Amanda is a woman of habits and vices, so, her mind is searching for a fit candidate, when, out of sudden the school yard´s heard a loud cry from one of the soccer´s team. "Oh my god, she´s bleeding!"

And all eyes are on the small soccer team member.

Kitty Pryde, with her curly short hair and doe eyes, is on the floor holding her knee in visible pain.

Kitty Pryde is, of course, Jewish and extremely proud of her heritage, Amanda recalls, in one of Bayville´s soccer game that took place last month, the girl did wear the Davi Star at a full display on her uniform(she said something about her Ima, which is Jewish word, wants Kitty to win the game)

Amanda sees an opportunity and is taking by its tail. Putting her best caretaker expression she hushes to the injury Kitty Pryde. "Wait, I´d know first aids," she said looking at the injury and is really bloody, perfect for her plan.

Amanda is cleaning the wound and proceeds to treat as a real doctor or nurse should, then, once getting what she needs, Amanda offers a good story that Kitty needs to go to the infirmary right now.

As Kitty´s friends pick her up and take to the infirmary and at everyone´s eyes Amanda is a real darling.  And as people are either worrying for Kitty´s health or praising Amanda for her quick thinking, no one questioned why Amanda didn´t throw away the tissue with Kitty´s blood.

_____________________________

Back to Amanda´s lair, once her mother is back to her dimension and Steffan is needed in another place(killing children and bring their blood is barbaric but useful for spells, so, Amanda can only wish good luck to her lover) and she has free space and time to do her greatest scheme ever.

"First the school, then the city, then the country and finally, Belasco himself" an evil smile plays on her lips as she uses Kitty´s blood and throws on the pentagram she crafted with chalk.

"Hear me, the demon of hell, come to me and serve your master. Kill my enemies, bring the glory I deserve" the pentagram glows a soft red light and the blood is absorbed.

Nothing happens after that. Amanda tries one more time and this time, there´s no glow.

"Where´s my dog of hell?" Amanda shouts angrily. ______________________________________

Meanwhile, in the X-men´s mansion, one room is being light even though all the other room has no light, and, to make matters even worse, the said light of this peculiar room is a strong hue of red. This is the room of Kitty "Ariel" Pryde.

This strong light was more than enough to jolt Kitty from her bed, ignoring the pain of her kneel, and promptly grab her weapon close to her. A gauntlet with claws.

A figure steps in from a portal and starts complaining in German(?) and Kitty is a fan of "attack first, question later"

"Vhat?" the figure asked looking at his forearm and then to Kitty Pryde. "What have you done?" a young man with blue fur, tail, scarlet eyes, a red scar in form of lighting bolt and fangs shows up in her room, Kitty won´t be so helpless.

Ariel is a warrior in many subjects, so, if a demon wants to fight Ariel, then, a fight it will happen. So, once again, ignoring the pain, Kitty went to attack the figure. Throwing a good punch out him and letting her fingers phase through his face.

"Who are you and what do you want? Speak quick or your pretty face will be inside out" Kitty speaks as her eyes are gazing upon her scarlet ones fearless. Her other hand is already in his stomach and she can rip him apart if he tries any funny business.

"Rude! you summon me and now tries to kill me?" the figure speaks calmly letting his tail tapping on her injury knee "Thankful for you it was me not my moronic brother who was summoned" the last part has a certain disdain and Kitty has no time to solve the mysteries of the family life of her demonic intruder.

The demonic figure, for his part, is not showing fear, instead, his tail is tapping on her injured knee earning a loud groan of pain and making Kitty lost her balance, she should have fallen from the ground(a rookie mistake as the pain make her lose focus on her intangibility) however, the figure catches her in the last minute.

At this moment, Kitty only narrow her eyes and said with now the same disdain as the figure "I didn´t summon an edge version of Harry Potter"

"The name Darkholme means something to you?" he asked back now a bit confused.

"NO! dammit, I was sleeping and you show up ...and what fuck is going on?"

She notices that Kurt is keeping his sword at the sheath(Two swords and the man can use at any moment) and now is confused and slowly show his forearm. "Did you know what this means?" all the while still holding Kitty as if they are about to kiss.

Kitty tries to phase his organs out, but, his tail is causing pain on her injury once again and the pain is too great to be ignored "No, edge lord," she said and look at how her own forearm and is a shock. They both have the same symbol.

The X-men arrives and the figure shows the symbol making them by surprise. Ororo, the weather witch, looks at the symbol and reconize the symbol in seconds.

"Kitty, did you summon a demon?"

"NO!"

"Congratulations, you now have a demon"

"My name is Kurt Darkholme and not Demon,"

Meanwhile, Amanda is still crying about her faithful demon dog. Maybe Kitty´s blood wasn´t good enough, that´s ok, she can go after more blood.

[danscollectionofcrud]

II can’t exactly call this getting something off my chest, because it’s something I’ve been wrestling with for years now. But I really need to try and get some of my thoughts about it down. I’m going to put this under a read more because it’s going to be very long. But if you care about my journey with my Jewish heritage, the issues I’ve seen that effect Jews in my life, and how the left fucking fails Jews constantly you can read the rest.

Those of you who followed me on my old blog know that I’m an atheist and actually ran from my Jewish heritage. I wasn’t Bar Mitzvahed, I haven’t gone to temple or a seder in about fifteen years. But in the past little while I’ve begun to explore my Jewish heritage and what that means to me.

I’m still not a religious person, or even a believer, but it is my family, and my background, and that does mean something to me. There’s a rich cultural heritage there. A people who have been through and continue to endure so much. There’s also the whole Israel thing which is for another post (my short version is fuck Israel). But I’ve begun to look back on my life, at the antisemitism I’ve seen, and experienced, and to my shame ignored in a lot of cases.

So I’ve tried to change that, I’ve tried to shut that shit down when I see it. I’ve confronted Nazis, fully ready to fight them, I’ve done by best to get as active as my mental-illness allows me to be. And I’ve tried to be an advocate within my small social circle.

My social circle as you might expect is pretty soundly in the left column. The degrees of how left they go varies. I know socialists, communists, and unfortunately too few anarchists like myself. And a lot of just straight up liberals. But all people who consider themselves progressive and in touch with the struggles of marginalized peoples.

Except they’re all fucking terrible at recognizing antisemitism, and go out of their way to downplay it. None of the examples I’ll be posting are from my friends, both out of concerns for their privacy, and because I don’t so much see them leading this charge as just going along with it.

I don’t know if it’s because the majority of Jews are white, or because there’s this idea that we’ve “solved” Jews. But leftist people just will not stand up for us. Today three different Nazis declared they’re running for Mayor of Toronto. The first response I see when I go looking is this. 

That all sounds good, that all sounds correct. Except like three months ago this woman was recommending a book to her fans that included chapters on the Jewish Question. Written by a man who once said  "the historical mission of our generation is solving the kike problem" I suppose they could be speaking from their own perspective, that person is clearly a person of colour. But man it sure sounds like that common liberal tactic of replacing the term “nazi” with the term “white nationalist”. Because that way you can talk about how they hate POCs, and you can ignore the Jew thing.

I really started noticing this becoming super common when Charlottesville happened. They were in the streets chanting Nazi slogans, attacking a synagogue, and nobody wanted to talk about antisemitism. But even when they do use the term “nazi” instead of the more generic “white nationalist” you get shit like this.

She lists nine categories of marginalized people nazis target, none of them being Jews. I guess there’s always hope we crack the top ten with that last spot though.

In no way am I saying that the threat nazis pose to these groups is insignificant. They’re in this shit just like we are. But I am saying it sure seems like the left wouldn’t stand up if I was getting stomped on by a group of guys shouting “kike” at me. Maybe they’d save me too if they were also stomping a black guy.

[omgktlouchheim]

Word Vomit Wednesday - Stop Kavanaugh

 Welcome to Word Vomit Wednesday! A series of blog posts where I attempt to process thoughts and feelings, usually about a specific topic from current events that I, and sometimes the rest of the Internet, ruminate obsessively about. All thoughts/opinions/experiences are my own (unless otherwise indicated); I don’t claim anything that I write to represent anyone other than myself.

CW: Sexual Assault

As with pretty much all the news about our current state of affairs, the Kavanaugh nomination and hearings for SCOTUS have been extremely triggering and stressful. Even before Professor Christine Blasey Ford came forward with her story of being sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh, this nomination indicated an even darker America to come, as if the one we’re in now isn’t dire enough for women, the LGBTQ+ community, and BIPOC. And, as with so much of the news we’ve been contending with since 2016, I’ve felt a need to pull back from watching it, reading tweets and articles almost ritualistically just so I can take care of myself physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Staying on top of everything going on takes a tremendous toll and I constantly find myself thinking about how the well-beings of marginalized people are constantly looked over and dismissed.

This came up for me again the other night when, after having a pretty relaxed evening watching The Emmy’s with my parents, my dad turned the news back on and that sense of simmering rage and hypervigilance that I’ve learned to just deal with existing as a woman in the world, came bubbling right to the surface. I had to leave almost immediately because that was not the way I wanted to end my day feeling. If I’m going to be active and helpful in any way, even in small ways like writing this blog, I need to be able to sleep at night. But one thing that came up in the few minutes of watching the Kavanaugh coverage that I have not been able to stop thinking about was a quote from someone in the nominee’s camp saying something along the lines of not even knowing the story or who the woman could possibly have been until Ford revealed herself. This narrative is offered over and over again as a way to dismiss women when they come forward in these situations. A narrative that continues to portray women and our experiences as insignificant.

That killed me. The fact that this woman not only went through a trauma where her personhood was never considered from the get-go, has been affected by it for decades, is risking her life for this country (she and her family have since had to leave their home due to death threats) to share her story and make her identity known, to again, be told by men she is not worthy of consideration is devastating. And that seems to be a major key in all of this. Women are not considered. At all. Kavanaugh probably didn’t recall the assault because he got what he wanted out of it. He never considered Ford or her feelings, needs, or wants. He couldn't have cared less. He still couldn’t care less. The GOP, who should care about putting an alleged rapist on the bench of the highest court in the land, but instead made a publicity stunt of having 65 women sign a document (all but two seemingly had no idea what they had signed) that stated they would vouch for Kavanaugh, definitely don’t see a problem if they’re willing to manipulate women to get their man through the confirmation process.

I saw a tweet the other day from @laurenthehough, who shared this sentiment: “You know what would be fucking weird to hear? ‘I did that. It was fucking terrible. I’m sorry. I did years of therapy and soul searching and work and I changed my behavior. I can’t change what I did. But I made damn sure I never did it again.’ Why is that never the statement?”

Why is that never the statement? I cannot tell you how healing it would be if those were the statements that we started hearing. Real accountability. Real apologies. Real work put into an individual’s growth and education. Would those statements start solving all of these problems? No, of course not. But they would at least indicate that these people recognize that the women they’ve hurt are people. And that they understand that they have caused harm, sometimes a lifetime’s worth, to another person. That would create a powerful shift. Because one of the reasons we don’t hear these statements is because these people don’t consider what they do to women to be of any significance. That unless you’re related to a woman by blood or marriage or if you find them attractive, they don’t matter. It’s probably inconceivable to Kavanaugh and his ilk that a situation that was so forgettable for him because “boys will be boys,” had been burned into Ford’s mind. She never mattered to him, he felt entitled to her and her body, and our culture allowed that.

As I’m writing this, I realize that I will be posting it on arguably the most important Jewish holiday of the year, Yom Kippur. Which couldn’t be more fitting for this topic. Yom Kippur translates to Day of Atonement. It comes ten days after Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, wherein those ten days are meant to give us time to reflect on the past year. All the great and terrible experiences and the things we wish we did better or hadn’t done at all. What we are sorry about and who we need to apologize to and when Yom Kippur finally arrives we are supposed to take full accountability for ourselves. Now, one day to hold ourselves accountable for our actions (as well as inactions) and how they’ve caused harm and suffering to others and actively make amends is not enough. Especially if the damage we have caused has had a prolonged traumatizing effect on person’s life and livelihood. Going to shul once a year and reciting prayers are not going to fix things or provide the healing that’s actually necessary. But at least the holiday is there to jumpstart the conversation. To hopefully get us thinking outside of ourselves and give the apologies that we wished we’d been given when we’ve been wronged and make necessary and lasting changes.

I’m pretty sure Brett Kavanaugh is not Jewish, probably has no idea what Yom Kippur is, and, like most cis-het white males, doesn’t think he's done anything wrong and that he's entitled to whatever the fuck he wants. But for those men who do genuinely want to make amends and be better people and because we very rarely have a framework for how to get started with that, I’m going to offer a few suggestions (mostly for men to combat rape culture and inequality, though some of these skills definitely apply in many other areas and for most people) on some things to start focusing on that would be incredibly helpful. This is by no means a complete and comprehensive list, and there is no significance to the order, but a few things to get people started.

Listen to women and believe them. We know our own experiences, so please do not come at us with “what if she’s lying” bullshit. There’s a reason men are conditioned to believe that women are liars and that reason is to keep women oppressed. Learning how to listen, really listen, is one of the most valuable lessons anyone can learn. When you check your egos at the door, unlearn your social conditioning, and learn to center and hold space for someone else and their feelings, especially when they’re in need, it validates their humanity. We all need support and knowing someone is in our corner who’s not going to question our motives, interrupt us as we process whatever we’re going through in the moment, or lash out at us is basic common decency that we are rarely shown, but (as women) are expected to provide for others. It’s also invaluable for the listener because you will get to understand someone else’s world a little better and hopefully gain more perspective on the one you inhabit.

Start asking “What do you need” and “How can I help you.” Practice those questions so much until they become second nature. No one is asking you to bend over backwards for other people, only you know what your limits are and it’s your responsibility to be honest about what you can or cannot do, but this is another small gesture, just like listening, that goes a long way. On the flip side of that, asking for help when you’re struggling is an important skill as well. People will typically show up for you if you give them a chance, especially if you’ve shown up for them.

Hold other men exhibiting toxic behavior accountable. Show by example how a good man acts and let those who are extremely problematic know that you see them and what they're doing and are not here for it. Men listen to other men (bc toxic masculinity, but that’s a post for another day), so you pointing out that some behavior or thought-pattern is problematic or shameful is effective.

Vote for and support women. Not just the ones you’re related to or find attractive. If you can only make room for the former, you're only performing ally ship and you don’t actually support women.

Men built the glass ceiling, therefore it’s your job to dismantle it. Do not put the extra weight of men’s work on marginalized folx who are already carrying and navigating too much.

Go inward and start tackling your own internalized patriarchal proclivities. Do your due diligence to understand toxic masculinity, sexist/racist double standards, and your privilege and the ways in which you help perpetuate a system that gives you benefits at the expense and suffering of others. Ways to start doing that: go to therapy, get a group of your boys together and actually start talking about and identifying your feelings and asking each other questions, read books or watch films/tv by people who come from very different backgrounds than you. You’ll hopefully learn a lot about yourself and the world. And you’ll learn how to take responsibility for your own feelings in a healthier way, rather than putting and projecting that emotional labor on the women and other marginalized folx in your lives.

If you have realized that you have done something wrong or hurtful or it was brought to your attention that you have, you may want to get defensive. Acknowledge the feelings you're having to yourself, but to the appropriate parties try saying something like this: “I did that. It was fucking terrible. I’m sorry. I did years of therapy and soul searching and work and I changed my behavior. I can’t change what I did. But I made damn sure I never did it again.” If you haven’t done the work yet, don’t say you have unless you do actually plan on following through. And then follow through. These are also great growth opportunities for utilizing those new listening and offering assistance tools from #s 1 and 2.

*BONUS*: Do not, under any circumstances, attempt ANY of the above with ulterior motives. You do not get a gold star for being a “good guy.” This is just how people should be treated. Decently, respectfully, and without any expectation of owing you anything in return.

Obviously, this is a very simplified list but when you start opening the door to one of these items, more and more doors begin to appear. As hard as it may be at times, it is worthwhile work that benefits everyone. Also, if you’ve made it this far, please call your senators and tell them to not confirm Kavanaugh to SCOTUS. We, the people, deserve someone on the bench who considers all of us.

Katie Louchheim seriously doesn’t know how she functions on a daily basis with all this bullshit. CALL YOUR SENATORS TO #StopKavanaugh: 202-224-3121.

[the-record-newspaper]

General: ‘Israel is ready’

Brig. Gen. (Res.) Yehiel Gozal

From Record Staff Reports

Israeli Defense Force Brig. Gen. (Res.) Yehiel Gozal says his country’s troops are ready for whatever may happen.

“We are more prepared and have more technology than we ever,” Gozal said. “As far as military capability, we are one of the strongest military powers in the Middle East for sure. Our strategy is not to wait for them at the border.”

Gozal was interviewed via phone by The Record on Thursday afternoon. The interview was arranged and some of the questions were formulated by Record columnist Earl Cox, an expert on Israeli and Middle Eastern affairs.

Gozal was in Wilkes County Friday morning. Then, Bart Peacher with "It is Time Israel" along with Cox, Israel's Ambassador of Goodwill, hosted a "meet and greet" with Gozal. About 30 people attended the event which was held at the Apple Tree Lodge in Moravian Falls. After this meeting, Gozal and Cox left to visit television stations in three states and hold several meetings, sharing information about the current situation in Israel and the Middle East from an insider's perspective.

                         Gozal with Earl Cox at last Friday’s gathering

Tiny Israel faces many threats – Palestinians, Syrians, and Iranians – but members of its armed forces have for decades proven to be fearless fighters.

And, with the recent rocket attacks near the Gaza Strip, there is speculation that a new war

may be brewing.

“When you take a risk of launching rockets into Israel, it can escalate immediately,” Gozal said. “If a rocket (for example) were to happen to hit an Israeli school, it would mean they had gone too far. They can’t always control their resolve. One mistake could lead to a war they do not want.”

Gozal has an impressive resume.

He is a senior military professional with extensive experience in solving strategic security, diplomatic, and business challenges, including an international position based in the U.S. and France.

Gozal is currently the CEO of the Yahad - United for the Israeli Soldiers Fund. “Yahad” – is the joint organization of AWIS (Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers) and The Libi Fund, the official body for donations which benefit the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) with all overhead costs financed by Israel’s Ministry of Defense, 100 percent of all donations are utilized for their objectives without any overhead. He served as chairman of The Paratroops’ Heritage Association – Israel from 2010 to 2018.

He is national director of Friends of the IDF - USA from 2003 to 2008. The Friends of the IDF (FIDF) is a charitable organization that raises funds on behalf of the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces and their families. As National Director, Brig. Gen. Gozal has: Launched long- and short-term planning, with metrics to measure success; changed organizational and board culture, introducing a fiscal transparency that has led to greater trust, commitment, and individual investment; established an endowment to cover operational costs so that 100 percent of funds raised go to programs that directly benefit soldiers; created and implemented procedures to increase efficiencies, reduce expenses, enhance productivity, and improve employee retention; raised the organization’s profile in the U.S.A., Central and South America.

By instituting those changes, FIDF has earned a 4-star (highest possible) rating by Charity Navigator, America's premier independent charity evaluator. In addition, FIDF has:                                                           more than doubled its donor base; more than tripled its annual revenues to $61 million; broken fund-raising records – including a one-evening net of $26 million in pledges; begun the construction in Israel of 50-plus capital projects of more than $1 million each; and more than tripled the number of scholarships awarded to veteran soldiers.

In 2000, Brig. Gen. was appointed IDF Defense Attaché to France, Spain, and Portugal. While representing the Israeli Ministry of Defense, he forged productive working relationships across political lines that provided critical access and interchange among all levels of government. During his tenure, he facilitated agreements between the French Army and the IDF on joint, as well as created business opportunities for Israeli defense industries. Brig. Gen. Gozal also established warm ties with France’s Jewish community, which led to increased tourism, immigration, and fund raising opportunities.  

From 1976 – 2000, Brig. Gen. Gozal worked his way up from paratrooper to Chief of Staff of the Southern Command. During that time, he developed expertise in both the execution and logistics of high-intensity warfare (commanding five divisions with 50,000 soldiers), as well as the strategy and management of low-intensity conflicts (commanding special-forces/anti-terror units).  In 1982, during the first Lebanon War, Gozal received the IDF Citation of Honor for Bravery in Combat, when he was wounded twice and still refused to abandon his soldiers during combat.

Gozal speaks Hebrew, English and French with a full working knowledge of each. He was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, in 1957. His wife is Ayelet and their children are May, Eden, Romy and Adam.

As for recent events and possible upcoming scenarios, Gozal said, “This takes you back to 1973 and the Yom Kippur War, and it was a big victory.”

But, politics is the problems.

“I cannot assure that the politicians in the world will support us,” he said. “If it was up to me, we can stand and be determined and face every threat we have in the Middle East.

When asked, “How the international community can be supportive of Israel's soldiers who are fighting a very difficult enemy?” Gozal answered, “I would say it would be much easier for us if there was less interference. The problem is that some of the countries and states in the world, especially in the west, think they know how to solve our problems when they really don’t. We know how to protect ourselves.”

He added, “I don’t think we need to prove who is right and who is wrong. As long as they won’t be involved it’s better for us. If Europeans want to help, let them talk about peace, not about what Israel is doing wrong. Israel wants peace.”

Gozal has duel citizenship in the U.S. and Israel. When asked, “Why would an American living a relatively predicable and comfortable life volunteer to become a lone soldier (one who was not born in Israel or is not Jewish) in Israel's army, leaving his family, friends and culture?”

He said that there are around 7,000 “lone soldiers” in the IDF. About 4,000 are from other countries including the U.S., China, Russia, Brazil and Argentina.”

“That’s something unique,” Gozal said. “It means a lot for them to do this. When you serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, you are sending a unique message. It’s the military of God. We are, as a military, defending Israel, defending the Holy Land. It’s a very special mission to come and to serve and to do things that affect the whole world.

My responsibility as CEO (of Yahad) is to support those lone soldiers in Israel. We became their family. Some of them have been killed. They’ve sacrificed their lives to come and fight for Israel. And, it’s not for salary. It’s a real privilege to be a young man or woman to come and to be able to say, ‘I serve God.’”

[matchafrican446]

Orthodox Jewish Dating Sites

Orthodox Jewish Dating Websites

Free Jewish Dating Sites

Brooke, 30, an Orthodox woman divorced for six years, wants a meaningful relationship that will lead to marriage, but that is proving to be a challenge. She has tried matchmakers, popular in her circle, but most of them don’t give thought to the matches, ignoring her personal qualities and tastes. She’s tried Jewish dating sites too. But, she finds them “free for all and creepy.” Many of the men want to date casually, or just hook up. Some even create fake profiles.

Mazaltov.org is where marriage minded Jewish singles come to find true love. Our unique approach to creating a Jewish dating site has resulted in many success stories. We blend cutting-edge technology with our unique human touch, to create an online community like no other Jewish dating site. 3 reasons to choose Jewish dating sites. Here are 3 reasons to choose Mingle2 Jewish dating site: 😉 Secure verification: All members are personally confirmed by our staff to prove they are real. We provide you with real potential partners that are here for the same reasons as you. 😉 Quick to register: Registering an account and creating a.

In 2018, being Orthodox no longer offers the security of ongoing community support, and for single millennials, finding a partner is a solitary pursuit. While Jewish communities still value marriage and family above all, the burden of coupling falls on the singles.Yossi, 32, and Shira Teichman, 31, a married Orthodox couple from Los Angeles have drawn on their life experiences to create a technological solution to this dilemma. Together with life coach Shiffy,Lichtenstein, they are the co-creators of forJe a dating app for Jewish singles, like Brooke, who are seeking long-term relationships.

Chaim Orzel, 27, who grew up in a “very Orthodox home” and now describes himself as “Conservadox”, is ready to give the new app a try. He bemoans the shallowness of dating sites that promote pretty profiles and impressive job titles over internal gifts. “The problem is that it’s making marriage a transactional experience. What happens if a guy loses his job, or he has a stroke, heaven forbid? Free unpaid dating sites. External things won’t keep a marriage together.”

The Teichmans share this view. “We both have PHDs in dating,” says Shira wearily, in a telephone interview with this reporter. Before meeting one another in 2014, she says: “We had gone to all the matchmakers and the singles events. We were meeting a multitude of people, but nothing was working.” Yossi recalls that most dating coaches just gave advice on appearances.

The disappointment led Shira, who has an MA in education, to study with experts such as Leonard Carr, a psychologist who runs growth courses on relationships and “personal mastery” (https://www.leonardcarr.com/index.html), hoping to better understand herself. “I wanted to understand what drives me, what holds me back. Once I started understanding myself, I realized my dating was changing already. I was in a more powerful position to find the right partner.”

Shira decided to share this new sense of power and began running dating workshops called “Breakthrough Dating.” “Being able to develop a connection is a very tangible skill,” she explains. While Shira says many millennials will go on a date, not feel “a spark”, and then end the budding relationship, she believes they need to learn a process she calls “the anatomy of building a relationship.”

Positive feedback followed the early events. Out of 40 individuals at one of her first events, four ended up getting married. So, when Yossi entered the picture, the workshops became a shared passion. After each event, the couple would distribute surveys, later reviewed by psychologist Rabbi David Pelcovitz, chair of education and psychology at Yeshiva University.

Statistics in hand, a year and a half ago, the couple began serious work on forJe. Yossi worked with a team of other programmers to code what he calls “the first dating app to use Artificial Intelligence.” To screen out fraudsters, the app requires users to scan their drivers’ license. That information is then compared to the information provided from Facebook or Google when the user makes a profile. Once the app is satisfied that the individual is not a scammer, personal information is deleted and never shared, Yossi says.

The need for such a high level of user safety is the result of an increase in catfishing, or the act of luring someone into a relationship based on a false online persona. Since 2005, numerous websites like romancescams.org and Facebook forums have been created to help victims of these crimes. In the last six months of 2014 alone, the FBI reported that 82 million dollars of money was stolen through such scams, as reported by the podcast Criminal.

Ben Rabizadeh, the CEO of JWed, a Jewish dating site in which over 50% of users are Orthodox, said that his site faces threats from these international scammers. Fraudsters create fake profiles, get into an online relationship, and then ask for money. “We screen out a large majority of fraudulent profiles during initial signup; but occasionally something slips through and in those cases, we promptly respond to complaints and remove users who are not eligible to join JWed.”

ForJe’s decision to increase security is also a response to locals who lie about their marital status on Jewish dating sites. Rabizadeh says he is shocked to hear of religious married men saying they are single to pursue single women. “This has never come up except for the rare circumstance where a couple is separated and not yet legally divorced.”

But women interviewed for this article say it does happen. Brooke describes her worst experience – a man who created four different profiles and even changed the cadence of his voice when speaking on the phone as the various personas. “He also had a wife and girlfriend,” she added. “There are men who are married or in relationships and lie about their status,” says Jackie, 32, who acknowledges that she finds dating sites helpful, despite the perils.

ForJe is taking these reports seriously. And the next step in creating a profile is also aimed at screening out fraudsters. Users must answer a lengthy series of multiple choice questions. The type of questions reflects the Teichmans’ interest in self-knowledge and include probing queries such as “If you won a large sum of money, how would you use it?” and “How do you determine if you’ve had a good week?” The list takes a while to get through, but the time required has an objective, according to Yossi. “We want to weed out people that are just looking for hook-ups,” he says emphatically.

As users answer more questions and interact with the app, it is programmed to get to know their unique selves – at least as well as a machine can ‘know’ a human. Every day, users are presented with up to three matches. The low number of potentials is also there to encourage committed dating. There is no opportunity for rapidly judging the attractiveness of scores of photographs, a practice associated with other apps.“

Most dating apps today are not really dating apps. They are social media platforms and have all the features Facebook does. They just want people to be addicted and stay in. We aren’t interested in that. We are interested in you finding compatible matches.”But will singles trust a machine to set them up? Girls dating app.

Orthodox Jewish Dating Websites

Jackie, who describes herself as Jewishly “traditional”, says she would give the concept a try. “Seems like anything would be better than the matchmakers at Saw You at Sinai,” she says, naming a popular Orthodox site which uses remote matchmakers to set users up. “Machines aren’t focused on what they get out of it, so that would probably be more accurate matching,” agrees Brooke, referring to matchmakers in general.

The app is potentially great news, according to Rabbi Mark Wildes, an Orthodox rabbi who founded and directs the Manhattan Jewish Experience, an organization where millennial men and women in their 20s and 30s can explore Jewish life and meet new people. “Any kind of technology that allows people to be more honest will be helpful to more serious-minded daters.” he says. However, he cautions that young people overuse technology for dating – breaking up over text and not giving shy people a chance. “People are not as fast as computers,” he says.

Another challenge he has observed is that millennials have lost their faith in marriage. When it comes to the challenges faced by Orthodox singles, Rabbi Wildes thinks the answer may lie in grassroots matchmaking. “It should be a mandate for every young couple in the first 24 months of their marriage to fix people up. We need to increase the pool of matchmakers. Feeling a little gratitude that you found that special someone? Pay it back.”

But while Jewish singles wait for their married friends to set them up, they are finding ways to empower themselves. Signing up for an artificially intelligent matchmaker is one way to do that.

Another form of empowerment is taking a chance on love, says Orzel. He believes the Orthodox single crisis can be solved by a collective change in attitude. “In Hebrew ahava means love, the root word, hav in Hebrew is to give. So, to love someone, you must give to that person. Without giving, there is no love. In our dating life today, there is no concept of unconditional love.”

Free Jewish Dating Sites

Free iranian dating site. Suzanne Selengut writes feature stories about global Jewish issues and the arts. She is based in New York City.