#Black Flag Reference Document

[whatdoiknowjr]

Tales of the Valiant, Roll20, and Shard Tabletop

I wanted to pull together some posts I made about the Roll20 Tales of the Valiant character sheet situation into a single place on the blog, so some of this may seem a little familiar, depending on how closely you've been following recent posts.

You may or may not have heard that Roll20 had determined that they aren’t going to develop a character sheet for Tales of the Valiant. This may not seem like a big deal, but that means they aren’t going to support Tales of the Valiant in their character builder, and they aren’t going to create the new stat blocks to show up in a character sheet for the new monster stat blocks. Effectively,…

[dragonnarrative-writes]

Part 2 - Work Introductions

Autumn Embers Masterlist

CW: Mentions of child loss, mentions of medical neglect/abuse, mentions of reproductive abuse, mentions of pregnancy complications and death, mentions of racism, sexism (in an omegaverse way), Brandon (unfortunately living), real world references

Data entry and analysis isn’t the most exciting job in the world, no matter what kind of fancy title you’re given, but it pays the bills. Working on a military base isn’t ideal, but the benefits are nothing to sneeze at. And most days, you get to sit alone and uninterrupted, in your own office, instead of in a cramped cubicle.

On Tuesday, you’re startled out of your audiobook by a gentle knock on your desk. Sherry, your immediate superior, gives an awkward little wave and waits for you to finish your line and mute your music.

“Hey, I’m so sorry about this,” she says, as soon as your headphones are clear. “You remember those port reports from Honduras? Some of the senior analysts have some questions for you? They’re currently in a meeting and requested some clarification…?”

You wait, but she doesn’t say anything else. “…what do they want to know?”

“Oh, they didn’t tell me, I’m sorry,” Sherry says. “They asked if you could… Well, they need you to attend the meeting. Right now.”

“Do I even have the clearance for that kind of meeting?” You stand without waiting for an answer and disconnect your laptop from the dock. With it tucked under your arm, you grab a notebook and pen, as well as your water bottle.

Sherry leads the way out of the office. “I know you submitted these reports two weeks ago, and your notations are excellent. I think the problem is with one of the flagged ship manifests, but they wouldn’t clarify why they were concerned. Couldn’t get a word in edgewise.”

Her apologetic air suddenly makes sense. “Brandon’s in there, isn’t he?”

Sherry grimaces. “I’m so, so sorry. It’s him and a few alphas. There’s an American CIA agent as well.”

“So I absolutely don’t have the clearance for this meeting,” you sigh. “Great.”

A short elevator ride and two halls away, you take a fortifying breath before you step into an occupied meeting room. Brandon’s is the first face you see, and when he sees you the corners of his lips turn up in an infuriating smile. Next to him, another senior analyst’s eyebrows pop up, but Andrew actually looks happy to see you.

Before the door can close behind you, a blonde, American alpha stands and offers her hand in a no-nonsense shake. “Kate Laswell. We appreciate you being so prompt.”

“Of course,” you answer. Unfortunately, your attention is a little torn. All four members of the 141 are sitting at the table, looking at you curiously. Sergent MacTavish grins like a wolf. Captain Price tips his chin up just enough that you know he’s scenting you. Lieutenant Riley, face covered from the nose down in a black neck gaiter, gives you a quick once over that makes you want to shiver. But you’re a professional, so instead of fleeing you take the nearest seat, across from a smiling Sergent Garrick. You fold both of your hands on top of the table, the very picture of accommodating and helpful, “What can I assist you with?”

“Why’d you flag this shipping manifest,” Brandon asks. The projector at the front of the room switches to a document that would be barely legible, even without the distortion of zoom.

“You’re going to have to be more specific,” you tell him, flipping your laptop open. “What’s the file name?”

“Honduras,” Brandon says, Port Cortez.”

“Puerto Cortes,” you correct. And seeing as it’s the largest seaport in Central America, I’ve combed through literally hundreds of manifests, you think, but don’t say. “I’m going to have to ask you to be a bit more specific. The projector isn’t easy to read.”

“You flagged this manifest for a Korean ship.”

You jump when Sergent Garrick says, “Christ, mate, just give her the file name.”

Lieutenant Riley gives a cough that sounds suspiciously like a laugh. You think you see MacTavish still grinning at you out of the corner of your eye. Laswell rattles off the document name without looking.

As soon as the document loads, you know exactly why Brandon and Andrew are confused. And you know that the following conversation is going to be so unpleasant that you shoot off a quick email to take the rest of the day off once this meeting ends.

You take a deep breath, let it out slowly. “The manifest is inconsistent with previous patterns from that particular port and that particular captain and crew. As I noted, the four containers from Venusian Pharmaceuticals wouldn’t have made it on the ship do to political and economic pressures.”

Brandon doesn’t bother to look at you when he asks, “What pressures?”

Laswell interjects before you can answer, “Leaked internal communications provided evidence that Cloudstone Pharm was selling tampered heat suppressants and birth control in various black markets. The 4B movement in South Korea had been calling for an investigation for years by that point. A lot of omegas were killed because of mis-labeled medications. Pregnancy and birth related complications.”

“I remember that. It was, what, five, more years ago?” Lieutenant Riley asks. “Had an entire re-brand. Cloudstone to Venusian. Everything went from blues and whites to greens and yellows.”

“Okay, so the containers had a bit of extra security to get onto the ship,” Brandon says, before you can get over the shock of two alphas in a room who know anything about even the broad strokes of omega health care. “There’s protesters at every major port for one thing or another.”

“Even if they’d gotten on the ship, they wouldn’t have made it to Puerto Cortes,” you counter. “The captain lost two of his kids because of their medications. He’s had his crew dump the containers and alter manifests before. He was investigated for it, but his crew wouldn’t speak against him.”

Brandon frowns. “How do we know he didn’t get paid off?”

How do we know the omegas weren’t worth less than a cash payment? Your throat feels like closing in on itself. You keep your voice as steady as you can. “He wouldn’t have been.”

“How do you know?”

Andrew, eyes darting between you and Brandon, tries to interrupt. “Well-”

“Because he made the autopsy reports for both of his sons public,” you answer. You have to force your jaw to unclench. “Along with pictures and videos of how sick they were before they passed, before anyone knew what was really wrong with them. And the executives of Cloudstone, an American company, laughed. Called them slurs and ignorant animals in emails and meeting memos that were later leaked to the public.”

Across from you, Garrick is not smiling anymore. “That’s… disgusting.”

“Cloudstone struggled to recover in eastern Asian markets, even with the re-brand,” you continue, then take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “And all of this was in my report.”

“Your job isn’t to provide those kinds of references. You’re not trained for it. There were a couple of links to articles,” Brandon dismisses. “Not enough to-”

“One of his sons experienced total organ failure,” you interrupt, closing your laptop. You know your scent must be all over the place, but the subject matter was already touchy. Now he’s questioning your work and misrepresenting your job duties? Oh, fuck him. “Because he was on incorrectly administered fertility treatments that were disguised as birth control, he had a high-risk pregnancy with multiples. And then his medications were switched with heat inducers. His other son had rapid onset neuropathy and multiple strokes within a week. Neither of his sons wanted to have children. One of them couldn’t, biologically, because it would have killed him anyways. And their partners decided that they didn’t care.”

Brandon wrinkles his nose at you. “No need to get so worked up.”

You practically feel the way your scent goes hot and acrid. Where most omegas have a distress scent that is sickly sweet, yours is much closer to an alpha’s shock scent. Your parents used to call you “Wildfire” because of it. You watch the hairs on Garrik’s arms stand up.

You can barely smell Andrew’s nervous distress over your rage. “Okay, yeah, that’s plenty. The captain wouldn’t have taken the containers.”

“Is there a reason you didn’t consult the references I added into the report?” You know the sudden calm in your voice, the relaxing of your posture, is at odds with the way your anger scent gets stronger. You’ve been told it’s a sensory nightmare, so you only do it when someone tells you you’re not calm enough. You fold your hands on the table again. “Because I included original and translated sources, according to the standards of the department.”

The room is silent. All seven alphas are agitated. You can only pick out MacTavish’s scent, muddled and frustrated. Andrew opens his mouth, closes it. Finally says, “I didn’t receive the references.”

“Senior analyst Lawrence received the full report directly,” you say, holding eye contact with Brandon. “But I know how emails can get lost. I would be happy to send them again. I’ll CC you, and request that your access to the full drive be confirmed. Sir. Is there anything else I can assist the team with?”

Laswell scrawls something on a sticky note and passes it over to you. “Please also include me on those emails.”

You give her your most demure smile. “Unfortunately, Agent Laswell, I don’t have the clearance to send reports outside of the department. I would be happy to help you coordinate that with senior analysts Lawrence and Bennett.”

You pluck the sticky note from her hand, stand, and gather up your laptop, notebook, and water bottle. When you have everything, you pass behind her to where Brandon and Andrew are sitting. Deliberately putting yourself at Brandon’s back, you hand the note to Andrew with a placid smile. “Agent Laswell requests that you provide her with the full report.”

Brandon smells disconcerted, trapped in his seat with your scent roaring as you stand just inside of his blind spot. Andrew, for his part, only hesitates for a moment before taking the offered sticky note, looking from you to Laswell to Brandon and back. “Thank you.”

“Of course, sir.” Butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth. “Is there anything else I can assist you with?”

“I… believe that will be all…?”

“Of course, sir. Thank you, sir.” You cement your little performance with a perfectly deferential partial curtsy to Andrew, then to the rest of the room. “Please do not hesitate to let me know if there’s anything else I can do the support the team.”

As the door shuts behind you, you hear Captain Price’s voice for the first time. “Goddamn. That is a woman capable of murder.”

[scotianostra]

Happy St Andrews Day.

As part of our Patron Saint’s Feast Day the Scottish Saltire is proudly flown and many people add it to their posts on social media to celebrate the day, but how did Scotland adopt the saltire? 

There is no actual date, or in fact nothing in our written history of the time, but legend has it that in  AD 832 the king of the Picts, ‘Aengus MacFergus’, ( Anglified to Angus but some stories say Hungus) with the support of ‘Scots’ from Dalriada, won a great battle against King Athelstane of the Northumbrians. The site of the legendary battle became known as Athelstaneford in present-day East Lothian.

St Andrew visited the Pictish leader in a dream before the battle and told him that victory would be won.  When the battle itself was raging, a miraculous vision of the St Andrew’s Cross was seen shining in the sky, giving a boost to the morale and fighting spirit of his warriors. The result was a victory over the Saxons, and the death of Athelstan. Thus, after this victory, according to the tradition, the Saltire or St Andrew’s Cross became the flag of Scotland, and St Andrew the national patron saint.

While there is no written reference to the battle in Scotland from the period it was said to have taken place, this is not surprising, as it was a time for which we have little or no documentation for anything. The earliest written mention of the Battle of Athelstaneford in Scottish history comes from years later in the newspapers of the day, if you follow my posts then you know I dip into these “Chronicles from time to time, the first one to mention  Athelstaneford is the Scotichronicon, written by the Scottish historian Walter Bower. 

The Scotichronicon has been described by some Scottish historians as a valuable source of historical information, especially for the times that were recent to him or within his own memory. But he also wrote about earlier times, and this included the battle at Athelstaneford.

Bower’s account includes the scene where Aengus MacFergus is visited by St Andrew in a dream before the battle. He was told that the cross of Christ would be carried before him by an angel,  there was no mention of a St Andrew’s Cross in the sky in this version. It was in later accounts, from the 16th centuries onwards, that we have the description of an image of St Andrew’s Cross shining in the sky.

Bower was writing in the early 1400s. The bitter and bloody struggle to retain Scotland’s independence was not just a recent memory but also a current reality for him. Parts of Scotland were still occupied by England, and Bower had been involved in raising the money to release Scotland’s king, James I, from English captivity.

Also, Scotland’s early historical records and documents had been deliberately destroyed during the invasion by the English king Edward I. This was done in part as an attempt to remove historical evidence that Scotland had been an independent kingdom. The idea was simple: take away a nation’s history and you strip it of its identity and justification for its independent existence. The theft of the Stone of Destiny was part of this process,  the Black Rood which was believed to contain a piece of the Cross Jesus was crucified on was also removed, I have covered both these in previous posts.

Part of Bower’s motivation in writing his Scotichronicon was to help restore this stolen history. He was a scholar and a man of the church. In his time, the figure of St Andrew had become a prominent presence in Scottish society.

The greatest church building in the land during his time was the Cathedral of St Andrew, which housed relics of St Andrew himself. It had taken over a hundred years to build and wasn’t formally consecrated until 1318, just four years after Bannockburn. The ceremony of course included Robert the Bruce and at it thanks was given to St Andrew for Scotland’s victory.

Less than 100 years after this, in 1413, the University of St Andrews was established and Walter Bower was one of its first students. By this time, the Cathedral of St Andrew was a place of pilgrimage, with thousands travelling there to venerate the saint’s relics. A pilgrimage route from the south took in the shrine of Our Lady at Whitekirk, not far from the site of the battle, and many pilgrims took a ferry across the Firth from North Berwick, where the ruins and remains of the old St Andrew’s Kirk can still be seen close to the Scottish Seabird Centre.

So as he sat down to write his history of earlier times, he was able to trace this connection to St Andrew, using the limited earlier written accounts, such as those of earlier Chronicler I’ve mentioned before, John Fordun, who lived in the 1300s. While Fordun doesn’t specifically mention the location of Athelstaneford, he records a battle which took place between the Picts led by Aengus and a force from the south led by Athelstan, and said the location of the battle was about two miles from Haddington. The account of St Andrew appearing in a dream to Aengus is also described by Fordun.

This creates a powerful link to the development of the written version of the story. Let’s remember Bower came from what is now East Lothian. Let us also remember that people in the early centuries stored and passed on much of their historical knowledge not in the written word but in memory and handed down oral traditions. People told stories, remembered them and told them to the next generation. Undeniably, some details would be forgotten or changed over time, but the bones of the story would be handed down. And that would include reference to locations of significant events in the local landscape.

Bower will have had access to this rich oral tradition of local stories based on handed-down collective memories of past events, which is perhaps why he was able to name the location. The later writers who added to the story of the battle will likewise have found new sources in the oral tradition to add to the narrative. Even in the 19th century, cartographers mapping the area were able to identify locations traditionally associated with the battle from local people who were custodians of ancestral memory.

This is how the story of the Battle of Athelstaneford and its connection with St Andrew and the Saltire has evolved.

The village is home to the National Flag Heritage Centre which occupies a lectern doocot built in 1583 and rebuilt in 1996. It is at the back of the village church. Today the village is surrounded by farmland and has little in the way of amenities. Tourists can follow the “Saltire Trail”, a road route which passes by various local landmarks and places of historical interest.

Athelstaneford Parish Kirk has a connection with the subject of my post last week, author Nigel Tranter, who was a prominent supporter of the Scottish Flag Trust. He married in the church, and in April 2008 a permanent exhibition of his memorabilia was mounted in the north transept of the church. Items include a copy of Nigel Tranter’s old typewriter, a collection of manuscripts and books, and other personal items. The display was previously at Lennoxlove House, and prior to that at Abbotsford House, the home of Sir Walter Scott.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Resistance News Network:

The armed terrorists of the Syrian opposition "Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham" continue their media campaign to present their formerly ISIS- and Al-Qaeda-affiliated selves as reformed and "open to change," which the western media parrots without question.

HTS leader Abu Mohammed Al-Julani is now presented as giving up his head-slicing ways under a black flag in favor of a tailored olive military outfit, palatable to the west. Remarkably, Al-Julani, despite being among the world's most abominable terrorists, was freely given an interview in CNN today, where his "changed" views were platformed, glossing over his history as an ISIS leader in Iraq and Syria.

Al-Julani, in a message to Iraq a few days ago, manipulated language to serve the Western agenda, speaking about "Iran's wars against the region," referring to the Gaza genocide and "israel's" war on Lebanon, without naming the executor at all. This is a calculated rhetoric that aligns fully with the agenda of his Western and zionist backers which seek to fracture the resistance in the region.

In an interview with zionist media today, an FSA officer openly admitted that their only enemies are the Syrian state, Hezbollah, and Iran - not the settler-colonial and expansionist tumor in the region called "israel." Far from even pretending to condemn the occupation, he expressed willingness to be friendly with the genocidal entity, mirroring what was told to zionist analyst Mordechai Kadar, that opposition groups want increased support and weapons from "israel."

He added that they are "thankful to 'israel' for strikes against Hezbollah." This is no surprise, as opposition groups have repeatedly been documented expressing thanks to Netanyahu and celebrating assassinations of resistance figures, even through Al-Aqsa Flood. As quoted, the opposition's sole goal is overthrowing the Syrian state; they seek to normalize with "israel" and even requested "'israeli' and American aid for reconstruction," which would only make Syria more dependent (Note: the Syrian state owes $0 to the World Bank today).

The Syrian opposition has deceived the West, as well as some Arabs, that they are virtuous humanitarians fighting for the Syrian people. In reality, they are pawns in the destabilization the region, aiming to break the link of resistance, and serve "israel" with their actions. By Al-Julani's own admission, over 30% of their ranks consist of foreign mercenaries, far from the "grassroots" movement they aim to represent, while their operations are shaped and funded by Turkey and the West.

Despite the sanitized picture they try to sell the western media today, horrific stories of executions, robberies, siege have emerged from towns that have been taken over in the last week. Despite the attempt at covering up these stories, their true colors shine through by their actions, as well the occasional ISIS patches they forget to hide on their uniforms.

While the resistance in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen defends the region from Western hegemony and tyranny, the Syrian opposition has not lifted a finger. Their Western-trained drones, operated by Ukrainian instructors, have never targeted the zionist entity—they have only targeted Syrians. For months, they have schemed to destabilize the region and undermine the gains of the resistance. With the blessing of their masters and Western cover and support, they are working to sow chaos, diminish the resistance's momentum, and serve their foreign interests.

https://t.me/PalestineResist/71175?single

[beardedmrbean]

While other factions still control significant parts of Syria – including the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), HTS’s ally in the latest offensive, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – HTS has achieved a stunningly rapid military victory. In just ten days, the Islamist group toppled the Assad regime and seized control of most of Syria’s major cities.

This sudden consolidation of power has sparked widespread alarm, particularly among Syria’s minority communities. The country’s mosaic of ethnic and religious groups – including Shia Alawites, Christians, and Kurds – now finds itself under the rule of a group with a deeply controversial history. HTS, which remains on the terror lists of the United States and the European Union, has also provided shelter to international jihadists from Afghanistan, Chechnya, and France. For many minorities, the notion of such a group ruling from Damascus evokes fear and uncertainty about what lies ahead.

Since its creation in 2017, HTS has attempted to rebrand itself as a more moderate force, demonstrating a degree of tolerance towards certain minorities, particularly Christians, in the areas it controls, compared with the al Qaeda-linked group it emerged from. Since assuming power in Damascus and much of Syria this month, the group has generally shown restraint in its treatment of Christian and Shiite Alawite monuments and communities.

In official announcements and meetings with local minority leaders, HTS has repeatedly pledged to safeguard the safety of Christians and Alawites. Jolani told CNN on December 5: “These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them.”

But reports and videos on Syrian social media show that reprisal killings have begun, casting doubt on HTS’s promises of protection. Members of the Alawite community appear to be the primary target. Despite representing only 10 percent of Syria’s population, Alawites dominated the country’s power structures for more than four decades under the Assad regime. Their close ties to Iran’s Shia regime – an unwavering backer of Bashar al-Assad – have further entrenched their vulnerability under HTS rule. 

Video shows execution of suspected regime 'Shabiha'

On December 10 a video emerged on Telegram documenting the execution of four men by HTS fighters. The video opens with two bodies visible, one man on his back, another man face down with his hands apparently bound. A voice is heard saying: “There they are, Shabiha pigs,” a reference to the Shabiha, pro-regime militias known for beating and killing political opponents of the Assad clan. Two men are visible on their knees. As one of the fighters asks their name, others are heard calling them “Nusayriyah”, an anti-Alawite slur, and “Allahu akbar.” Two of the fighters, one wearing the black Seal of Muhammad flag popular among Islamist groups, then open fire and kill the two men with bursts from their Kalashnikovs, as a third says: “Two pigs killed in the village of Rabia.” (There are at least two villages in Syria called Rabia, one in Latakia governorate, the other in Hama governorate. There were conflicting reports about which village was the site of the killing.)

FRANCE 24’s specialist on Islamist groups, Wassim Nasr, said the video was the first documented case of a summary execution by HTS fighters since the offensive began on November 27.

Other videos appearing to show reprisal attacks against suspected regime collaborators have also emerged. Two videos filmed in Idlib and posted on December 10 show a body being dragged behind a car as a crowd applauds.  The caption includes an apparent plea to the HTS leadership: “We demand the establishment of a state with a justice system. Shabiha thugs should be punished by the rule of law, not by actions like this. There is no difference between you and the Assad regime.”

Videos like this are adding to the fears of Syrian citizens about their future under HTS. The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to Syrians from the Alawite, Sunni and Christian communities.

[cobrastrikes421]

LGBTQ art

Bisexual fact:

Overall, 4% of U.S. adults say they identify as bisexual, according to an August 2023 survey by the Center. Younger adults are more likely than older Americans to describe themselves as bisexual. the term bisexual was used in Dutch for the first time in 1877, to refer to a hermaphrodite who had their sexual career as both a heterosexual woman and a heterosexual man. Later, the term bisexuality is used to represent both the double sexual-object choice and androgyny.

Aromantic fact:

Aromantic people can also form non-romantic relationships of all types, as well as being able to enjoy sexual relationships. They may also choose to have children, and studies indicate that aromantic individuals are no less likely to have children than alloromantic individuals. One of the earliest uses of the modern term "aromantic" dates back to 2005. The early online community around aromanticism formed on the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), an online community around asexuality, and social media platforms such as tumblr.

Progress fact:

a reinterpretation of multiple iterations of the pride flag. The original 'rainbow flag' was created by Gilbert Baker in 1978 to celebrate members of the gay and lesbian political movement. It comprised eight coloured stripes stacked on top of each other to evoke a rainbow, a symbol of hope. Daniel Quasar (xe/xyr pronouns) is the creator of the Progress Pride flag, a combination of the original Pride flag by Gilbert Baker, the Trans Pride flag by Monica Helms in 1999, the More Color, More Pride flag introduced by Amber Hikes in 2017, and a black stripe from the Victory Over AIDS flag, inspired by Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, to represent those lost during the AIDS crisis. This flag design “forces the viewer to confront

Aro/ace fact:

Aromantic asexual people are colloquially known as "aro-ace" or "aroace". Aromantic individuals are also able to experience platonic love and may have committed friendships, and some form intimate non-romantic partnerships called "queerplatonic relationships". the early 2000s as a way for individuals to explore and understand their experiences of limited or absent sexual and romantic attractions.

Agender fact:

agender" was actually on the Internet! It was born in the year 2000, on an Internet forum called UseNet. In a chat room discussion entitled alt. messianic, a user posted the following: “God is amorphous, agender, so image can't be a physical or gender or sexual thing.” Agender is a term used by individuals who do not identify with any specific gender or who experience a lack of gender altogether. Agender people have a sense that their gender identity is completely neutral, or does not exist at all. They may use words like "genderless" and "gender free" to describe themselves.

Trigender fact:

In Ancient Greece, Phrygia, and the Roman Republic and Empire, Cybele and Attis were worshiped by galli priests (documented from around 200 BCE to around 300 CE) who wore feminine clothes, referred to themselves as women, and often castrated themselves, and have therefore been seen as early transgender figures. The exact origin of the term "trigender" is unknown, but it has been mentioned as early as 1998. The prefix tri- means three, so "trigender" literally means "three gender".

Gay fact:

2400 BCE, are speculated to have been gay based on a representation of them embracing nose-to-nose in their shared tomb, though critics say that they were likely brothers. In 1978 Harvey Milk became the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States, and the first openly gay or lesbian person to be elected to public office in California, when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. "The green (Community) and teal (Joy) in the flag represent Nature. I thought this was important because love between men is often seen as “unnatural” in the eyes of society and in religion. Furthermore, gay men have historically used green flowers and plants (Carnations, hyacinths, etc.) to symbolize our love, reinforcing our connection with Nature. The white stripe is adopted from the Trans Pride flag because trans, nb, and GNC men are often erased or talked over and need explicit representation.

Pansexual fact:

the hybrid words pansexual and pansexualism were first attested in 1914 (spelled pan-sexualism), coined by opponents of Sigmund Freud to denote the idea "that the sex instinct plays the primary part in all human activity, mental and physical". created to differentiate between the bisexuality flag, which also has three horizontal bars. It was created on the internet sometime around 2010, and has gained popularity since then. The Pansexual symbol combines the male, female, and transgender symbols into one, new, P-shaped symbol representing pansexuality.

Demigirl fact:

The earliest demigirl flag was created on April 15th, 2014 by Tumblr user kyriefortune. The second demigirl flag was created on August 24th, 2015 by pride-flags based on Willow's demiguy flag. Another flag was posted on the same day by pride-flags also based on Willow's demiguy flag. A gender identity term for someone who was assigned female at birth but does not fully identify with being a woman, socially or mentally. transgender pride-flag, retaining the central white & pink stripes representing enbies & women, but with 4 added horizontal stripes of different shades of grey to signify a disconnect and/or uncertainty associated with this gender-identity.

Hope you all had a great pride month. Can’t wait to do more of them.

What pride art should I do next year?

[vague-humanoid]

The arrested officers include a K-9 handler named Morteza Amiri, who is accused of inducing his Belgian Malinois, Purcy, to bite 28 suspects over three years, and Eric Rombough, a member of Antioch’s SWAT team and Gang Unit, who allegedly shot eleven suspects in one year with a “less lethal” launcher. The launcher is a shotgun-like device that fires 40mm impact rounds, about an inch-and-half in diameter — designed to bludgeon and bruise, rather than kill. According to the indictment, Rombough blasted suspects from close range, often hitting “potentially lethal” areas of their bodies. The alleged conspiracy includes a third cop, Devon Wenger, who, according to the charging document, cheered on Amiri as “my hero,” and also used a 40mm launcher to shoot a suspect in the chest who’d raised his hands in surrender.

The indictment paints both Amiri and Rombough as twisted: they allegedly collected “trophies” to memorialize their uses of “excessive force.” Amiri bragged he took “gory pics” of each K-9 bite for his “personal” collection, while Rombough allegedly collected his “spent 40mm munitions” for an art project: a hand-crafted American flag collage. (According to the indictment, “the munitions were used among the stars and stripes to commemorate” his shootings.)

These cops were remorseless about their bad actions, according to the indictment; Rombough even bragged about his unconstitutional actions, as in this text exchange:

Unidentified officer: What’re you guys up to?  Rombough: Violating civil rights

Officers Amiri and Rombough also sent texts indicating racial animus, repeatedly referring to city residents as “gorillas”; Rombough texted of another suspect: “I seriously want to beat his black ass.” 

The alleged sadism of Amiri, the K-9 handler, is presented in excruciating detail across the indictment, which reproduces texts to his fellow officers gleefully recounting his violent exploits — e.g. “that shit is fun” — and includes snapshots he sent of the wounds left by Purcy’s bites. He’d send such messages from his personal phone, along with the numeric tally of how many times he’d used the dog to attack someone. For example: “#4 on fire rn.. Lol.” (According to the indictment, the bite count rose above two dozen before Amiri was removed from the Canine Unit in 2022.)

@chrisdornerfanclub

[best-non-english-word-torunament]

hey, im not much of a linguistics person, just wondering what is the flag in your header? what do the symbols on it represent? :0

I'm assuming you're referring to this map in my header:

It's an interactive map from glottolog called GlottoScope that can be found here. It shows one dot for each language, as well as endangerment status and documentation status. The full symbol explanation can be found there, but in general the colour shows endangerment (green is not endangered, red is nearly extinct and black is extinct) and the shapes how extensive the best description of the language is: circles are long grammars (350 pages+, captures almost every aspect of the grammar), squares are grammars or grammar sketches (less extensive but at least 50 pages) and triangles are things like description of a single feature, a collection of text, a description of the sounds used, a dictionary or a wordlist (couple of hundred words max). Go there and play around with it! You can zoom in and see language names for all of them.

[talkingpointsusa]

Fake psyops and real Neo-Nazi's; A look into Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec's unhinged Rumble show

There's an Eagle behind my shoulder because MURICA!!! (Source: The Charlie Kirk Show on Rumble)

So, Charlie Kirk has been acting like a complete moron lately. He put out an "expose" on Martin Luther King Jr. that was essentially just him being a mask-off racist and parroting myths and rumors about MLK and now he's in hot water for saying that if he saw a black pilot he'd be automatically worried that they are unqualified.

The episode we are covering today is not his main show, it's from a show that he puts out on Thursdays with a guy named Jack Posobiec called ThoughtCrime. If that name doesn't immediately set off any alarm bells, this might not be the right blog for you. Lets get into it.

Trigger warning; pretty explicit discussion of racist remarks made by the four panelists on this show and others. Towards the end of the post these guys endorse somebody who is extremely racist and they get super disgusting about immigrants in the middle.

Wait a minute, who the hell is Jack Posobiec?:

I'm glad that you asked completely hypothetical viewer, Jack Posobiec is a complete lunatic and a possible Neo-Nazi.

Before he was a famous figure in the far-right media ecosystem, Jack was a US intelligence officer in the navy who was a key figure in promoting and lying about far-right conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate. Jack's Pizzagate coverage, in case you are wondering, consisted of him and his friend live-streaming some kids birthday party on Periscope and getting kicked out. As it turns out, live-streaming some kids birthday party on the internet comes off as extremely creepy. People took this as a sign that Comet Ping Pong had something to hide and Pizzagate started trending soon after.

He also allegedly took a sign reading "rape Melania" to an anti-Trump protest in order to slander the protestors. He eventually got his security clearance revoked for trying to downplay the Charlottesville Unite The Right Rally by pointing to the medias lack of coverage to shootings in Chicago.

Jack also has recorded ties to Neo-Nazis. He has a documented history of paling around with Neo-Nazi activist Richard Spencer. Jack has also used coded language such as the triple parentheses meme, an antisemitic dog whistle where one puts triple parentheses around the name of a Jewish person that originated on a white nationalist blog called The Right Stuff.

Golly, I wonder who "them" refers to.

The Southern Poverty Law Centre has a fantastic deep dive into Jack Posobiec's consistent association with white nationalists but in short, this guy at the very least has Neo-Nazi sympathies. The fact that Charlie Kirk is doing a show with him is pretty mask off in and of itself.

The Debunk:

Jack isn't the only new face on ThoughtCrime. Tyler Bowyer and Blake Neff are also co-hosts and they also have...interesting histories lets say.

Blake Neff was a former writer for Tucker Carlson Tonight who was fired after posting some truly insane racist remarks on a forum called AutoAdmit. I won't repeat what he said here but trust me....it's bad and it involves the n-word. Think about it this way, you've got to be pretty damn racist for Tucker Freaking Carlson to fire you. Again, the fact that Charlie is hanging out with this guy on air raises a lot of red flags.

I could find less info on Tyler Bowyer. He's a member of the Republican National Committee and the chief operating officer of Turning Point USA and the COO of Turning Point Action. He apparently sued Arizona's governor in an effort to overturn the 2020 election on the basis of voter fraud. The suit got rejected.

Here's something you need to understand about ThoughtCrime before we get into the debunk, this is where Charlie lets loose his most deranged takes. Sure, he says a lot of unhinged stuff on his own show but ThoughtCrime is truly the wild west of right-wing lunacy. We'll definitely cover more of it in the future.

Anyway, here's how they start off.

02:32, Charlie Kirk: "So, what is going on with Barbie?"

Jack Posobiec: "So, you know, Charlie, just real quick. You know, it's very strange, I was out reporting on the campaign trail today earlier today, had to fly in for ThoughtCrime, and I just made sure -- right before I went up, I said 'guys could you tell me the name of my pilot by chance before, before I get in', I'm not gonna name the airline, United, and they said 'his name is John Smith' and I said 'OK, wonderful, thank you so much'."

First of all, I seriously doubt that this happened. John Smith is one of the most made up names in the history of made up names. If it did, it just indicates that Jack is a racist who automatically assumes that anybody with an ethnic name or background can't be a good pilot.

I talked about this with Matt Walsh, but the diversity hire argument is built on the bedrock of a racist conclusion that minorities cannot be good pilots. This is a completely racist and insane conclusion to make however this argument is being made in the right-wing media, just in barely coded language about diversity hires.

03:40, Jack Posobiec: "Barbie, Margot Robbie, snubbed for the best actress category. Greta Gerwig for best director, also snubbed. But you know who got nominated for best category? That's right, Ryan Gosling for Ken. And for the, as Rush used to call them, the feminazi's out there it was basically like 9/11 because the patriarchy got the achievement while the women were told 'well, you are not allowed on stage. You have to stay in the kitchen.' And it just goes to show you folks, we're back, we're so absolutely back."

Jack's really stupid sexist remarks about women "having to stay in the kitchen" being a good thing aside, yes, the Barbie Movie got snubbed at the Oscars with the exception of Ryan Gosling.

The issue isn't necessary just with the fact that Greta and Margot got snubbed, the issue is that it highlights a streak of sexism that exists within the Oscars. The Barbie Movie was a massive critical and financial success and was directed by a female, yet she isn't being recognized for it. Same with Margot Robbie starring in the film.

At the Oscars, this turn of events is more common than you might think. A 2020 study published by Emerson College showed that men are almost twice as likely to win best picture than women. Many people feel like the snubs revolving around the Barbie Movie highlight this issue. I don't think that this is really the most important story in the world since we are facing more important issues as a society right now, but it's certainly interesting to think about.

06:35, Blake Neff: "The New York Times has this big headline; 'For Barbie Fans Online, a bitterly ironic Oscar snub. Margot Robbie missed Academy Award nomination for actress, a fact that was a little too on the nose for some.' I will note, the Oscar category is for best actress. So the implication is she got left out due to sexism but she just didn't get the nomination compared to other women competing in the same category--"

First of all, this ignores the fact that Greta Gerwig got snubbed for best director. Unless the category is "best female director" and everybody got it wrong, the snub for best director was questionable at best.

Second of all, the point is that Margot Robbie was excluded from the Oscars whilst her male co-star Ryan Gosling wasn't. It isn't that she was excluded from best actress in of itself, it's the people in the movie that they chose to include and exclude.

07:05, Blake Neff: "Maybe some of them played dudes, it's all the rage these days."

....That's not how gender identity works.

07:09, Blake Neff: "So, it fits into this realm in cinema where they just complain about things that are not real and don't happen."

I'm not sure if Blake has seen a right-wing YouTube channel before but you guys complain about movies all the freaking time! Tim Pool alone could probably rebrand into a right-wing film criticism channel without much trouble.

07:17, Blake Neff: "A few years ago they had a Captain Marvel come out, it was one of the stupid superhero movies, and they acted like it was the first time a woman had ever starred in a major motion picture but in fact many women have starred in motion pictures and best actress has been an Oscar category going back, as far as I know, to the original Oscars."

I am starting to think that FOX was looking for an excuse to fire Blake before his forum posts were discovered because this is absolutely daft stuff.

Absolutely nobody on the planet thought that Captain Marvel was the first time a woman starred in a major motion picture. It was the first time a woman starred in a Marvel movie so people were talking about that. He's arguing against a point that's stupid....so stupid that nobody was making it!

Anyway, Blake isn't done being a complete goon.

07:54, Blake Neff: "Well they have nominated some women for best director even though the best directors are in fact men so there is in fact that."

Agnès Varda, Lilly Wachowski (a trans woman no less!), the aforementioned Greta Gerwig. I could go on and on.

09:04, Charlie Kirk: "I don't really watch movies because they're all CIA psychological operation programming."

To InfoWars with you Charlie! Anybody who thinks that Charlie Kirk is a serious person should take some time to think about that statement.

I guess Tyler isn't so important to this show, makes sense because he is the only one of these guys who hasn't made the news for being an outright racist on the internet. I love how he's sitting quietly going "yeah, I work here too!"

13:16, Jack Posobiec: "The end of this movie is that Barbie is superior to Ken and that women are superior to men and that women are not allowed to be held accountable, women are not allowed to be subject to objective standards of anything, because women of course, the main thing they want is to be the center of attention and have everyone talking about them and if everyone is not then it is obviously because of sexism and is because of misogyny. That is quite literally, quite literally, the message of this film."

That's not what I took away from Barbie when I watched it at all but go off I guess. The fact that Jack's review of the movie just turned into a rant about how much he hates women should probably clue you in on how he drew that conclusion.

See what I mean about this show being mask off? This is the kind of thing you'd expect to hear on Hanna Pearl Davis' channel (which I plan on covering very soon. Watch this space).

14:57, Jack Posobiec: "It's just a movie. Guys, like, you're stupid if you think it's just a movie, like honestly. This is one of the most high-level democrat operations that's been going on for a long time in our country. If you wanna know why DEI, if you wanna know why all this political correctness stuff is being pushed at the highest level, it's because people get their understanding of the world from Hollywood movies and if you don't understand the influence they have on our society then, like, maybe stop watching the show."

You heard it here first ladies and gentlemen, the Barbie Movie is a psyop that's being backed by the Democratic Party. Why? To trick people into....treating women like human beings I guess.

It's such a successful and well-funded psyop that it got snubbed at the Oscars. This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever even if we were to just go with the information that Jack and Co have provided. Unless of course, you understand the real reason why Jack has spun this conspiracy which is that he is a misogynist who feels threatened by women far more famous and influential than himself.

15:40, Charlie Kirk: "Jack, thank you. Let's get onto the Texas topic here. Blake, what is the latest? There seems to be a big cascading effect on Texas."

So, I guess we're going to be talking about the "border civil war" now. Blake Neff is absolutely one of the last people I would go to for information about this story. So, what happened?

Well, in essence, the supreme court allowed border patrol agents to remove razor wire that Texas installed along the border to deter migrants from entering the country as a part of it's Operation Lone Star campaign. The razor wire itself was a cruel and inhumane policy that did nothing but dehumanize and harm migrants attempting to find shelter in the United States. The Justice Department argued that the razor wire made it difficult for federal border patrol agents to effectively do their jobs.

Once the razor wire was taken down, Governor Greg Abbott turned around and issued the order for more razor wire to be put up, directly defying the Supreme Court.

Since then it's been a complete shitstorm with blog favorites like Matt Walsh and Tim Pool declaring that a civil war is imminent. Whatsmore, there's a trucker convoy headed to the southern border to start a series of rallies. I can see that going sideways REALLY quickly and so did Alex Jones who preemptively declared any violence at the border to be a "false flag". Essentially, all of the hateful conspiracies like the "great replacement theory" are starting to come to a head and shit might get really messy really quickly.

Anyway, lets see what these morons have to say about this situation.

16:03, Blake Neff: "So, big story this week, other than New Hampshire, is that Texas has been fighting over whether they should allow 3 million people into the United States every year in an endless flood tide of humanity until they inundate the entire country or they could not allow that to happen."

This whole "army of migrants" narrative is soaked in the rights paranoia about foreigners replacing them and turning America into a non-white nation.

The fact of the matter is that the right wants there to be a crisis at the border. Without a crisis at the border, the right can't fearmonger about migrants on the campaign trail. Why else would they repeatedly block the democrats efforts to curb migration at the border? Biden also managed to remove a higher percentage of migrants in his first two years than Trump did during his last two years.

Their coverage on this is actually pretty boring to be honest. But lets power through. Here's Blake being a hypocrite.

19:41, Blake Neff: "It's so reckless. You have this, especially on the far-left of the Democrat party, they're really loving the idea of 'lets stoke this crisis as much as possible'."

Every single right-wing propagandist has been extremely inflammatory about this story for clicks and Blake is doing it right now. Whatsmore, the party he supports is literally taking steps to stoke this crisis as much as possible by shooting down Biden's deals for tightening security at the border.

20:22, Charlie Kirk: "Now the spirit of the decision, not the text of the decision, basically is like 'Hey, let the federal government determine border policy'"

Charlie is wrong on a lot of levels here.

First of all, razor wire is actually pretty ineffective at deterring migrant crossings at the border and only serves as an unneeded hazard for federal border patrol workers whilst also being an inhumane way of handling migrants. When the razor wire was up, people would either tunnel under it or use scraps of cloth to climb over it. The razor wire has also led to people getting caught in it and drowning, including a pregnant woman. This wire also prevents the federal authorities from saving these peoples lives. It's just unnecessary cruelty for the sake of it and fails at the thing it's stated to accomplish.

Also, if Charlie cracked open his Turning Point USA Constitution for more than twelve seconds, he'd find a little something called the Supremacy Clause. This clause states that federal law has greater authority than state law. So the Supreme Court didn't just make this up on a Tuesday last week in order to screw Texas over, it's the law and Governor Abbott is flagrantly breaking it. Charlie is in essence describing something that's already in place.

Anyway, Charlie seems to realize that Tyler has been spending the show presumably staring off into space whilst drooling and tries to get him to chip in. This is a bad idea.

21:46, Charlie Kirk: "So Tyler, I wanna get you in on this. Tyler was, he didn't chirp in, get it? Because chirp is a theme here on the Barbie thing and that's fine. Tyler, what are the politics of this? You've radicalized me on the border over the years, you're seventh generation Arizonan. This is a winning issue, it's becoming like the issue, the grassroots are on fire, swing voters, independents. Talk about the politics of this."

I refuse to believe that Charlie Kirk needed to be radicalized on the border. Anyway, here's Tyler talking about the politics of the border. It's dumb as all hell.

22:10, Tyler Bowyer: "I mean, I wanna harken back to a law that was passed in Arizona that was very controversial at the time. It was, at the time Arizona had a supermajority Republicans in the state senate and they passed a law called SB1070, I don't know if you remember this. It was the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods act and this was the-

Charlie Kirk: "Arizona used to be amazing man."

Tyler Bowyer: "It was, oh we we were so good. And Senator Russel Pierce, rest in peace, he passed away last year, was the author of it, was the prime sponsor, and it was supported by a majority of, the supermajority, in the state legislature here. And this is -- it made it a crime, a misdemeanor crime, for an illegal alien that gets caught here without any kind of paperwork whatsoever. It was a crime, there was financial crime, there was you'd get thrown in jail, and ultimately we would send them back to Mexico. And that was basically aiding ICE with doing it's job, because ICE wasn't doing it's job at the time, during the Obama Administration. The second piece to this was you could go to jail if you hired or aided or helped an illegal alien."

I can see why Tyler hasn't spoken that much up until now, he's about as articulate as an intoxicated long-haul trucker. Also, would you believe that he's leaving some stuff out about SB1070? Shocking, I know.

One of the provisions allowed the police to arrest people without a warrant if they suspected them of being an illegal immigrant. This extremely dystopian provision was struck down. What wasn't struck down however was the police being able to demand somebodies papers and investigate their immigration status if they suspect them of being an illegal immigrant. All this did was invite unnecessary racial profiling on minorities, including those who immigrated legally. Also, the fact that you guys just mentioned that you've been complaining about the border since Obama is really not a good look.

24:48, Tyler Bowyer: "It has nothing to do with Mexican immigrants, it has everything to do with people coming and jumping our border from all over across the world."

Then why are you guys ranting about the Texas border so much?!

24:54, Charlie Kirk: "So Tyler, help me understand the psychology because the border fight, whether we like it or not, is largely being driven by Chamber of Commerce people right now. And I don't think they want it, I just think that it's so popular, it's such in demand, it's such a crisis. I mean Abbott's a nice person, he's a chamber guy, he's better than Bush, he's not a movement conservative but he's acting like one, how do you explain that?"

This is such a stupid question, let me answer it.

This entire "border Civil War" is just a bunch of political grandstanding meant to help Trump get back into power. Greg is absolutely a movement conservative and I get the sense that Charlie is struggling to communicate to this audience that a guy he's stated isn't on their team is on their team now.

"Oh yeah, he's not a movement Conservative....he just behaves exactly like one. But he's not one of us because...well he just isn't, ok?!"

Tylers answer is so boring and nonsensical that it doesn't even warrant transcripting.

26:32, Charlie Kirk: "So, Jack, I wanna get you in on this. You and I, Jack, are on a group chat with somebody we really respect, please don't say the name, but he's someone we respect, he comes to our shows, he speaks at our events, and he's very worried that what's happening in Texas is gonna spark a civil war and we debated this in chat. Jack, can you just strongman this argument and why it's wrong?"

I am 99.9% sure that "mystery person" is Steve Bannon.

Anyway, Jack chips in.

26:50, Jack Posobiec: "Well so, there's -- there's a couple pieces of it and so we do need to talk about the wider situation of whats going on. So, we have Abbott there obviously saying that he's not gonna back down to the Biden Administrations pressure. The Supreme Court ruling, I think a lot of people have taken this out of context and they're saying that the Supreme Court told Texas to take down all the razor wire or that the Biden Administration was gonna take down all the razor wire and that's not actually true."

They authorized federal agents to take the razor wire down, I'm not sure how it could be more clear.

Jack's answer gets even more rambly and he starts ranting about BLM. In this rant, he drops what might be one of the most blatant distortions of the truth that I've seen while writing for this blog.

28:34, Jack Posobiec: "And unfortunately of course, we are not the BLM people. Our side is not going to get treated like them. The City of Seattle just agreed to a ten million dollar deal to pay the activists as they called them, the members of ANTIFA and BLM who were burning down Seattle and set up CHAZ in 2020, ten million dollars because of the police tactics used in CHAZ. That's what happens when the left gets activated and does direct action."

See, this is a great example of how slimy Jack is.

The City of Seattle didn't "make a deal" with the protestors, they settled a lawsuit with 50 protestors who were met with excessive force by the Seattle Police Department.

How excessive you ask? Well, just ask Aubreanna Inda who was hit in the chest by a blast ball and sent into cardiac arrest. One of the plaintiffs was an already disabled veteran who was teargassed and tackled by the police. So yeah, pretty goddamn excessive.

All of this is absent from Jacks retelling of the story and if you just took his word without doing any research, you would assume that Seattle just gave ANTIFA and BLM ten million dollars out of the blue. It's a completely bald faced misrepresentation of the story and it's designed to manipulate their audiences into thinking that the left just gets off easy with everything and are actually rewarded for destroying cities and rioting. Never mind that bodycam footage presented in court proved that these protestors were peaceful and facts be damned!

30:20, Jack Posobiec: "Lets say some illegal immigrant gets shot or gets killed or, as we saw last week, drowns and then they blame it on Greg Abbott. They say 'This is your fault you white male Christian governor. You did this' and they'll turn that guy into the next George Floyd."

Charlie Kirk: "So they want Jorge Floyd, is what they want. They wanna try to have a young man who is trying to come into the country, five or six years old, get drowning and they say 'Oh my goodness, look at this' and then they try to make it go viral and it's because of the open borders, ok?"

If five or six year old children are drowning at the border, there's clearly a massive problem on Greg Abbott's side that needs to be addressed. These guys don't care though.

30:54, Blake Neff: "They just have all of these professional photographers with HD cameras, there was a thing last summer that was like this. The New York Post had like 'This mother and child are crawling through razor wire on the border and thank goodness there was this professional reporter with an HD camera right there to photograph the entire thing the whole time.'"

"Yeah, look at these psychos.....practicing journalism. That's sick man!"

Even if there is an open border, which there isn't because the border is more highly guarded than it ever has been but lets leave that aside for now, wouldn't it make sense to have reporters there to cover it? God, these people are complete idiots.

31:58, Charlie Kirk: "Remember, when there's an issue that is not going in their direction in election years, they need a psyop. George Floyd was a psyop. And even Blake will agree, I'm not saying that the actual incident was but the all in platforming and overemphasis on that incident. And by the way, there's a lot more to that incident than people would ever think. A lot more. In fact it's more and more clear that George Floyd was not murdered and he was either drug overdosed or there was something else regarding it right? Regarding that."

Tyler Bowyer: "Derek Chauvin did nothing wrong."

Oh my goooooooddddddddd.

The myth that George Floyd wasn't murdered has been debunked countless times but just to humor Chuckles and co, the autopsy showed no evidence of a drug overdose. Chauvin was taped murdering George Floyd and if he was a white conservative we wouldn't hear the end of it, and you know what it would be just as repulsive if it were a white conservative because murders murder!

Also, this conspiracy theory makes no sense. So, some unspecified issue wasn't going in the Democrats direction so they waited until the police murdered a black man on video tape and then amplified it. That's the most circumstantial and luck based evil plan on the bloody planet.

I guess everything is a psyop now. I declare this blog to be a psyop!

32:31, Jack Posobiec: "If you go to the Wikipedia article for, they call it the Standoff at Eagle Pass, you guys gotta pull this up. The Standoff at Eagle Pass. They're already describing it on Wikipedia, left wing platform, as if it's some kind of battle. They're listing the governors on one side, they're listing Biden on the other, and it already says 'casualties and losses, three migrants drowned.'"

This is so stupid. So apparently Wikipedia, a platform that literally anybody can edit by the way, is where the CIA announces their psyops to the world. Also three migrants did drown, two of them children.

I don't get what Jack's point here even is. Does he think that Wikipedia doesn't create new pages for literally any major event almost immediately?

33:53, Charlie Kirk: "Let me tell you what the cartel does. This is a true story and I heard this from two separate border patrol agents. The cartel will throw a three year old in the river and do you know what Texas National Guard and border patrol does? They go out of their way, they mobilize everyone to go save the three year old that's drowning. Do you know what that does? It creates a diversionary affect and then the got aways hundreds of miles away scatter into the country. That's what's happening on the border, the cartel is throwing kids into the Rio Grande river on a daily basis."

Lets not mince words here, this is fucking disgusting.

So, Charlie is using some made up story that he allegedly heard from border patrol agents that doesn't really make any sense (you're telling me that every single border patrol agent focuses on the kid. Surely some stay behind to protect the border) to justify border patrol agents letting children die.

Think about it, the conclusion that Charlie is trying to draw is that we should let kids die. Otherwise you'd be letting people from the cartel into the US. Maybe he didn't mean it that way but it sure as hell comes off that way. And that's not even mentioning that border patrol agents have been ordered in the past to push children into rivers so it's really the opposite.

Screw Charlie Kirk.

36:59, Blake Neff: "And by the way, you know, drunk driving is not a felony he said even though it kills thousands of people a year. But, you know, who cares about a crime that's disproportionately committed by illegal immigrants."

Here's a whole study about how this claim is bullshit. At the end of the day, there's no statistical relationship between illegal immigrants and drunk driving.

They start talking about some Great Replacement bullshit and by this point I am praying for them to switch over to the next topic because these guys takes on the border are so fundamentally incorrect.

I'm assuming these guys took one look at the Supremacy Clause, thought "wrong supremacy", and then just never read it again. And they keep saying that Biden is on the side of the migrants, no he's not. Ignoring the fact that they are portraying migrants in the extremely racist light of being "invaders", they are completely ignoring the GOP's repeated efforts to turn down all of Biden's policies that give them what they wanted.

There's not much more in the section about the border that we need to talk about. It's just Chuckles babbling about the Great Replacement Theory. They talk really graphically and exploitatively about child sex trafficking and it's really gross.

Charlie does a segment that's basically just an obscenely long ad for extremely sketchy "emergency health kits". Charlie tries to defend his stupid-ass and racist comments about black pilots and it's ridiculous. He thanks Jordan Peterson, Tim Pool, Matt Walsh, and Candace Owens for their support. I've covered all four of them except for Candace (and believe me, she's coming) and they all are complete idiots and awful people. It's so useless, just Charlie going "Yeah, I'm not racist....I just said something that sounds racist and you misinterpreted me." Let’s look at a little bit of it, we don't need to look at too much but it's so ridiculous.

1:02:03, Charlie Kirk: "What I was saying is that DEI creates and fosters sinful, unwholesome, thought patterns."

No, that's on you Charlie. Being a racist is a choice YOU made. And again, DEI doesn't mean that people are lowering the standard for minorities and hiring unqualified people. His entire argument is that the left made him racist because of DEI.

Anyway, they just circklejerk about how the left transformed him into a racist. I don't get why we are talking about pilots given that this discourse is about Boeing planes having structural defects that the pilots can't control.

1:09:00, Blake Neff: "Like I said, people online just totally lost their minds over this. And when I say lost their minds, I mean like pointing, sputtering, crying, vomiting, pooping themselves, pulling the poop out of their pants, smearing it at their faces, screaming at the mirror."

Ah, so what conservatives do when they see a trans person just trying to live their life.

Also, I don't know if I speak for the entire left but when I saw the video of Charlie talking about black pilots I just thought "Oh, Charlie being a dick again. Maybe I'll cover this on my blog, maybe not." and just moved on with my life.

1:09:17, Blake Neff: "One of the people doing this was a fellow, Jack is also very familiar with, his name is Will Stancil."

Charlie Kirk: "See, I'm unfamiliar and uninitiated with this whole topic."

Blake Neff: "Will Stancil, he's got about 70,000 Twitter followers. He is a liberal. You can put him on the screen, 162. He's got what we call an IPA bod, I don't know if he's done a bench press or another weight."

Charlie Kirk: "He's also got a low vitamin D level."

Blake Neff: "Yeah, he doesn't have the best physical expression of the genes within his body."

What exactly do you mean by expression of his genes?

Also, I don't like knocks on peoples physical appearances. It's a super pointless and immature way to argue and leads to absolutely nothing productive. That being said, these guys are absolutely ones to talk. Charlie alone has almost exactly the same build as Will.

Anyway, Will apparently got into some Twitter fight with a guy named Steve Sailer who these guys like. Guess what? He's another white nationalist! He works at VDARE and published a book entitled America's Half Blood Prince: Barack Obama's "story of Race and Inheritance. These naturally should set off a five alarm fire of red flags in any reasonable persons mind but in case you aren't convinced that this guy is a white nationalist, here's a quote from one of his writings:

"Five out of six African-Americans have IQs below the white average. But not talking about this IQ difference has singularly failed to make it go away. The black-white gap has remained roughly one standard deviation for the last 80 years." - Steve Sailer.

Can't get more obvious than that I'm afraid. Naturally, these goons love Steve. You know that old saying about he who sits with Nazi's....

1:10:36, Jack Posobiec: "I think I finished our last episode saying. I said it very quickly but I said 'Shout out to Steve Sailer, the godfather of ThoughtCrime.'"

These guys declaring a person who works at a white nationalist website to be the godfather of their show is such a poetic end to this post that I just have to end it here. Also, I am fed up with these four guys so there's that.

Conclusion:

Just wow. I knew ThoughtCrime was a very mask off show considering that it's only syndicated on Rumble but holy shit! We've learnt that every movie is a psyop and that these guys are fans of a goddamn white nationalist! That's a level of insane that I didn't expect.

Anyway, I wish Charlie all the worst and all of you all the best. Cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

[kushblazer666]

Love them ISIS Terrorist group is created by Israel(Mossad) linked to Al-Qaeda that is made by the CIA and America is controlled by Israel. Discreetly expanding and profiteering by means of War, Deception(False Flag Operations), Diversion(Media Manipulation) & Usury(Federal Reserve).

Government funded terrorist groups such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf, Hamas, Hezbollah and Boko Haram, serve as an ever-present manufactured terrorist threat created for False Flag Operations to prevent peace, used constantly to justify repressive measures(Occupation), political agenda or ethnic cleansing at home and in expanded objectives abroad.

ISIS - ISRAELI SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (fake & impostor Black Flag, attacking and killing for the expansion of Israel and America's war profiteering in the Middle East)

HAMAS - 1% Mossad Case Officer, 30% Israel Defence Forces, 20% Foreign Mercenaries & 49% Palestinian Recruits, 100% Made by Israel (Occupation Of Gaza and its Offshore Gas Fields)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=394582034027313&set=a.106178499534336.15523.100004265593324&type=1

EDWARD SNOWDEN (Intelligence Contractor)

The only solution for the protection of the Jewish(Zionist) state, is to create an enemy near its borders. Intelligence services(CIA, MI6, Mossad) of three countries created a terrorist organisation(ISIS) that is able to attract all extremists of the world to one place, using a strategy called “the hornet’s nest”. NSA documents refer to recent implementation of the hornet’s nest to protect the Zionist entity by creating religious and Islamic slogans.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/isis-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-trained-by-israeli-mossad-nsa-documents-reveal/5391593

DR.BILAL PHILIPS (Canadian Muslim Teacher)

I have consistently informed them that ISIS is an un-Islamic group of thugs who have exploited the need of Muslims of Iraq and Syria and sabotaged the legitimate struggle against the Assad regime by attacking other Islamic groups and falsely claiming the revival of the caliphate.

ISLAM IS AGAINST TERRORISM/SUICIDE

QURAN 4:29

O you who have believed, do not consume one another's wealth unjustly but only in lawful business by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves or one another. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful.

QURAN 2:190

And fight in the Way of Allah those who fight you, but transgress not the limits. Truly, Allah likes not the transgressors.

QURAN 60:8

Allah does not forbid you to deal justly and kindly with those who fought not against you on account of religion and did not drive you out of your homes. Verily, Allah loves those who deal with equity.

True Muslims do not cooperate in terrorism, get involved in politics or acts of oppression. They dont give negative image to Islam, kill innocent civilians, cover their faces and act like bandits. True Muslims strive in a positive way and struggle in peaceful manner.

https://www.facebook.com/rajah.soliman.92/media_set?set=a.106178499534336.15523.100004265593324&type=3my like has gone on the wrong post

[whatdoiknowjr]

Grasping Power: Playing with Spellcasting Assumptions

I know, I just posted these this morning, but I wanted to make sure I stored the information somewhere more permanent than social media, and expand some thoughts. Let me know what you think. #5eSRD

I’m pulling together some thoughts I was moved to post on social media regarding the standard D&D spellcasting classes. I don’t know if any of this is incredibly profound, but I’ve also learned that I can’t trust social media as a storage format for my thoughts, so here’s hoping you don’t mind me sharing. Over the years, I’ve posted many articles about the philosophical differences between…

[koleengalang]

CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

“Peopling the Philippines II” shows how the Austronesian / Malayo-Polynesian migrations developed into the different ethnic cultures of the Philippines. Aside from using photographic reference from the late 1900s to the present, De Pio also uses images from the boxer codex, one of the first ethnographic documentations of the different Philippine people, done in 1590. De Pio also writes the names of the native groups both in roman letters, as well as in the traditional script, called baybayin.

“Pre-Hispanic Philippines” is a black and white imagining of life along the coastal kingdoms such as that of Maynila, Namayan, Tondo, Cebu, Butuan, and Sulu. Whereas many of these kingdoms were converted to Islam, their cultures still were strongly a hybrid of older cultures, as well as Chinese influences, whom these chiefdoms had been trading with as early as 900 AD. Other trade relations were also developed with the Siamese, the Viet, the Javanese Majapahit Empire, and the Bornean Srivijaya Empire, among others.

“Galleon Trade” presents the flourishing trade between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico, between 1565 to 1815. The need to explore Asia, which led to the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, was driven by the Europeans’ demand for spices, specifically in India. Although the Spanish did not find India or similar spices in the Philippine archipelago, the wealth of local gold and access to Chinese products proved justification for colonization. The Spaniards spread through the country via the sword, Catholic evangelization, and diplomacy; the latter is best exemplified with the Blood Compact between the conquistador Miguel de Legaspi and Rajah Sikatuna, of Bohol. 

“Breaking Colonial Ties II” relates the latter part of the Philippine Revolution (1896-1898), where General Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964) took over the revolutionary government, now called the Republic of Biak-na-Bato. Finally there is Aguinaldo’s declaration of Philippine Independence, in June 1898, where he formally unfurled the Philippine Flag in Kawit, Cavite, which was made by Marcela Mariño Agoncillo, aided by her daughter Lorenza and Delfina Herbosa Natividad.

“Re-asserting Independence” presents the battles between the Filipino forces against the Americans, who had snatched victory from the Philippine revolutionaries in 1898. After a brief respite, the Filipinos, under President Emilio Aguinaldo, fought bravely but unsuccessfully during the Philippine-American War of 1899 to 1902. Two of the leading the Filipino commanders of that time were General Antonio Luna de San Pedro y Novicio Ancheta (1866-1899) and General Gregorio Hilario del Pilar y Sempio (1875-1899).

IN CONCLUSION

The exploration of the Philippines' rich history reveals a complex tapestry of cultural evolution, trade, and resistance. From the early Austronesian migrations that laid the foundation for diverse ethnic cultures to the flourishing maritime trade routes established during the Galleon Trade, the Philippines has always been a convergence point of various influences. The interactions with neighboring regions, including China and Southeast Asia, significantly shaped the local cultures, as evidenced by the hybrid identities formed in pre-Hispanic kingdoms. Furthermore, the documentation of these early peoples through works like the Boxer Codex highlights the importance of preserving cultural heritage and acknowledging the roots of Filipino identity. The struggle for independence, as illustrated in the latter part of the Philippine Revolution and the subsequent conflicts with American forces, underscores the resilience and determination of the Filipino people. Figures such as General Emilio Aguinaldo and his commanders exemplify the spirit of resistance against colonial powers, marking a significant chapter in the quest for self-determination. The declaration of Philippine Independence in 1898, coupled with the ongoing fight during the Philippine-American War, illustrates the challenges faced by a nation striving to assert its sovereignty. Ultimately, this historical journey reflects not only the complexities of colonial legacies but also the enduring strength of Filipino identity and the continuous struggle for autonomy and recognition in the face of external pressures.

written by: Manaloto, Stephanie Shane Y. & Galang, Koleen M.

[scotianostra]

Happy St Andrews Day.

As part of our Patron Saint’s Feast Day the Scottish Saltire is proudly flown and many people add it to their posts on social media to celebrate the day, but how did Scotland adopt the saltire?

There is no actual date, or in fact nothing in our written history of the time, but legend has it that in AD 832 the king of the Picts, ‘Aengus MacFergus’, ( Anglified to Angus but some stories say Hungus) with the support of 'Scots’ from Dalriada, won a great battle against King Athelstane of the Northumbrians. The site of the legendary battle became known as Athelstaneford in present-day East Lothian.

St Andrew visited the Pictish leader in a dream before the battle and told him that victory would be won. When the battle itself was raging, a miraculous vision of the St Andrew’s Cross was seen shining in the sky, giving a boost to the morale and fighting spirit of his warriors. The result was a victory over the Saxons, and the death of Athelstan. Thus, after this victory, according to the tradition, the Saltire or St Andrew’s Cross became the flag of Scotland, and St Andrew the national patron saint.

While there is no written reference to the battle in Scotland from the period it was said to have taken place, this is not surprising, as it was a time for which we have little or no documentation for anything. The earliest written mention of the Battle of Athelstaneford in Scottish history comes from years later in the newspapers of the day, if you follow my posts then you know I dip into these “Chronicles from time to time, the first one to mention Athelstaneford is the Scotichronicon, written by the Scottish historian Walter Bower.

The Scotichronicon has been described by some Scottish historians as a valuable source of historical information, especially for the times that were recent to him or within his own memory. But he also wrote about earlier times, and this included the battle at Athelstaneford.

Bower’s account includes the scene where Aengus MacFergus is visited by St Andrew in a dream before the battle. He was told that the cross of Christ would be carried before him by an angel, there was no mention of a St Andrew’s Cross in the sky in this version. It was in later accounts, from the 16th centuries onwards, that we have the description of an image of St Andrew’s Cross shining in the sky

Bower was writing in the early 1400s. The bitter and bloody struggle to retain Scotland’s independence was not just a recent memory but also a current reality for him. Parts of Scotland were still occupied by England, and Bower had been involved in raising the money to release Scotland’s king, James I, from English captivity.

Also, Scotland’s early historical records and documents had been deliberately destroyed during the invasion by the English king Edward I. This was done in part as an attempt to remove historical evidence that Scotland had been an independent kingdom. The idea was simple: take away a nation’s history and you strip it of its identity and justification for its independent existence. The theft of the Stone of Destiny was part of this process, the Black Rood which was believed to contain a piece of the Cross Jesus was crucified on was also removed, I have covered both these in previous posts.

Part of Bower’s motivation in writing his Scotichronicon was to help restore this stolen history. He was a scholar and a man of the church. In his time, the figure of St Andrew had become a prominent presence in Scottish society.

The greatest church building in the land during his time was the Cathedral of St Andrew, which housed relics of St Andrew himself. It had taken over a hundred years to build and wasn’t formally consecrated until 1318, just four years after Bannockburn. The ceremony of course included Robert the Bruce and at it thanks was given to St Andrew for Scotland’s victory.

Less than 100 years after this, in 1413, the University of St Andrews was established and Walter Bower was one of its first students. By this time, the Cathedral of St Andrew was a place of pilgrimage, with thousands travelling there to venerate the saint’s relics. A pilgrimage route from the south took in the shrine of Our Lady at Whitekirk, not far from the site of the battle, and many pilgrims took a ferry across the Firth from North Berwick, where the ruins and remains of the old St Andrew’s Kirk can still be seen close to the Scottish Seabird Centre.

So as he sat down to write his history of earlier times, he was able to trace this connection to St Andrew, using the limited earlier written accounts, such as those of earlier Chronicler I’ve mentioned before, John Fordun, who lived in the 1300s. While Fordun doesn’t specifically mention the location of Athelstaneford, he records a battle which took place between the Picts led by Aengus and a force from the south led by Athelstan, and said the location of the battle was about two miles from Haddington. The account of St Andrew appearing in a dream to Aengus is also described by Fordun.

This creates a powerful link to the development of the written version of the story. Let’s remember Bower came from what is now East Lothian. Let us also remember that people in the early centuries stored and passed on much of their historical knowledge not in the written word but in memory and handed down oral traditions. People told stories, remembered them and told them to the next generation. Undeniably, some details would be forgotten or changed over time, but the bones of the story would be handed down. And that would include reference to locations of significant events in the local landscape.

Bower will have had access to this rich oral tradition of local stories based on handed-down collective memories of past events, which is perhaps why he was able to name the location. The later writers who added to the story of the battle will likewise have found new sources in the oral tradition to add to the narrative. Even in the 19th century, cartographers mapping the area were able to identify locations traditionally associated with the battle from local people who were custodians of ancestral memory.

This is how the story of the Battle of Athelstaneford and its connection with St Andrew and the Saltire has evolved.

The village is home to the National Flag Heritage Centre which occupies a lectern doocot built in 1583 and rebuilt in 1996. It is at the back of the village church. Today the village is surrounded by farmland and has little in the way of amenities. Tourists can follow the "Saltire Trail", a road route which passes by various local landmarks and places of historical interest.

Athelstaneford Parish Kirk has a connection with the subject of my post last week, author Nigel Tranter, who was a prominent supporter of the Scottish Flag Trust. He married in the church, and in April 2008 a permanent exhibition of his memorabilia was mounted in the north transept of the church. Items include a copy of Nigel Tranter's old typewriter, a collection of manuscripts and books, and other personal items. The display was previously at Lennoxlove House, and prior to that at Abbotsford House, the home of Sir Walter Scott.

[itsurshine]

CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

“Peopling the Philippines II” shows how the Austronesian / Malayo-Polynesian migrations developed into the different ethnic cultures of the Philippines. Aside from using photographic reference from the late 1900s to the present, De Pio also uses images from the boxer codex, one of the first ethnographic documentations of the different Philippine people, done in 1590. De Pio also writes the names of the native groups both in roman letters, as well as in the traditional script, called baybayin.

“Pre-Hispanic Philippines” is a black and white imagining of life along the coastal kingdoms such as that of Maynila, Namayan, Tondo, Cebu, Butuan, and Sulu. Whereas many of these kingdoms were converted to Islam, their cultures still were strongly a hybrid of older cultures, as well as Chinese influences, whom these chiefdoms had been trading with as early as 900 AD. Other trade relations were also developed with the Siamese, the Viet, the Javanese Majapahit Empire, and the Bornean Srivijaya Empire, among others.

“Galleon Trade” presents the flourishing trade between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico, between 1565 to 1815. The need to explore Asia, which led to the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, was driven by the Europeans’ demand for spices, specifically in India. Although the Spanish did not find India or similar spices in the Philippine archipelago, the wealth of local gold and access to Chinese products proved justification for colonization. The Spaniards spread through the country via the sword, Catholic evangelization, and diplomacy; the latter is best exemplified with the Blood Compact between the conquistador Miguel de Legaspi and Rajah Sikatuna, of Bohol. 

“Breaking Colonial Ties II” relates the latter part of the Philippine Revolution (1896-1898), where General Emilio Aguinaldo (1869-1964) took over the revolutionary government, now called the Republic of Biak-na-Bato. Finally there is Aguinaldo’s declaration of Philippine Independence, in June 1898, where he formally unfurled the Philippine Flag in Kawit, Cavite, which was made by Marcela Mariño Agoncillo, aided by her daughter Lorenza and Delfina Herbosa Natividad.

“Re-asserting Independence” presents the battles between the Filipino forces against the Americans, who had snatched victory from the Philippine revolutionaries in 1898. After a brief respite, the Filipinos, under President Emilio Aguinaldo, fought bravely but unsuccessfully during the Philippine-American War of 1899 to 1902. Two of the leading the Filipino commanders of that time were General Antonio Luna de San Pedro y Novicio Ancheta (1866-1899) and General Gregorio Hilario del Pilar y Sempio (1875-1899).

IN CONCLUSION

The exploration of the Philippines' rich history reveals a complex tapestry of cultural evolution, trade, and resistance. From the early Austronesian migrations that laid the foundation for diverse ethnic cultures to the flourishing maritime trade routes established during the Galleon Trade, the Philippines has always been a convergence point of various influences. The interactions with neighboring regions, including China and Southeast Asia, significantly shaped the local cultures, as evidenced by the hybrid identities formed in pre-Hispanic kingdoms. Furthermore, the documentation of these early peoples through works like the Boxer Codex highlights the importance of preserving cultural heritage and acknowledging the roots of Filipino identity. The struggle for independence, as illustrated in the latter part of the Philippine Revolution and the subsequent conflicts with American forces, underscores the resilience and determination of the Filipino people. Figures such as General Emilio Aguinaldo and his commanders exemplify the spirit of resistance against colonial powers, marking a significant chapter in the quest for self-determination. The declaration of Philippine Independence in 1898, coupled with the ongoing fight during the Philippine-American War, illustrates the challenges faced by a nation striving to assert its sovereignty. Ultimately, this historical journey reflects not only the complexities of colonial legacies but also the enduring strength of Filipino identity and the continuous struggle for autonomy and recognition in the face of external pressures.

written by: Manaloto, Stephanie Shane Y. & Galang, Koleen M.

[marezablr]

okay i feel like an important part of this document is being missed and that's leading to alarm so:

you are not going to get in trouble for using anarchist symbols

not to defend the fbi (because. the fbi) but to prevent anxiety:

the fbi explicitly is referring to anarchist violent extremism. the document states, in bold, that the use or sharing of the symbols/phrases isn't on its own evidence of violent extremism/illegality. they say the same thing for all the entries in this document.

that doesn't mean they haven't, aren't, or will not monitor people for slogans. there is the whole thing over 'antifa' alarmism. and also marginalized groups tend to get policed harder than other groups for essentially nothing. we know this.

but, as of right now, you probably don't have to be too worried about the fbi making it a habit of arresting twitter users for having a black flag in their pfp.

IMPORTANT!!!

I’ve only seen like one person talk about this and it’s super important that this gets out there

Multiple punk symbols and sayings have been added to the FBI’s domestic terrorism guide

Things included are

The symbol for anarchy

ACAB and 1312

The three arrows pointing down in a circle

Eat the rich

Those are a few but it also mentions anything anti-fascist and anti capitalist

So if you live in the US please be careful

[ukreplicaswisswatchesx352j]

How to Spot a Fake Tudor Pelagos: A Comprehensive Guide

The Tudor Pelagos is a remarkable dive watch, known for its robust design and exceptional functionality. However, as with any luxury item, the market is flooded with counterfeit versions. Knowing how to spot a fake Tudor Pelagos is essential for any watch enthusiast or potential buyer. This guide will help you identify the genuine article and avoid the pitfalls of purchasing a replica.

1. Understanding the Tudor Pelagos

The Tudor Pelagos was introduced in 2012 and has quickly gained a reputation for its durability and water resistance, making it a favorite among divers and watch collectors alike. With its titanium case, helium escape valve, and luminous markers, the Pelagos combines advanced features with a classic aesthetic.

2. Examining the Weight

One of the first indicators of a fake Tudor Pelagos is its weight. The genuine Pelagos is made from titanium, which is lighter than stainless steel. If the watch feels heavier than expected, it might be a counterfeit. Always compare the weight to a known authentic model if possible.

3. Checking the Dial and Markers

Pay close attention to the dial and hour markers. The genuine Tudor Pelagos has a matte black dial with clear, luminous hour markers. Fakes often have shiny dials or poorly applied markers. Use a magnifying glass to inspect the details. Authentic watches have crisp, well-defined printing, while fakes may have smudges or inconsistencies.

4. Inspecting the Crown

The crown of the Tudor Pelagos is another critical area to inspect. On the authentic model, the crown is engraved with the Tudor logo, and it operates smoothly without any resistance. Fakes may have poorly executed engravings or feel rough when turning. Additionally, the crown should screw down tightly and not feel loose.

5. Serial and Model Numbers

Every authentic Tudor watch comes with a unique serial and model number. These can typically be found between the lugs on the case back. Ensure that the numbers are correctly engraved and match Tudor's records. Counterfeit watches often have incorrect or missing serial numbers, making this a vital step in validation.

6. Assessing the Case Back

The case back of the Tudor Pelagos is also an area where fakes often fall short. Authentic Pelagos models feature a brushed finish and the Tudor shield logo. Counterfeit versions may have a polished finish or poorly executed logos. Use a loupe to examine the engraving closely.

7. Movement Matters

One of the most significant differences between a genuine Tudor Pelagos and a fake is the movement. The authentic Pelagos is powered by Tudor's in-house movement, which provides precision and reliability. If you have access to the watch's movement through an open case back, look for the Tudor branding and the quality of the craftsmanship. Fakes often use inferior movements that can be identified by their irregular ticking sound.

8. Documentation and Packaging

When purchasing a Tudor Pelagos, always ask for the original box and papers. Authentic watches come with a warranty card and a manual. If the seller cannot provide these documents, consider it a red flag. The packaging of a genuine Tudor watch is also of high quality, with the logo prominently displayed.

9. Purchase from Reputable Sources

To minimize the risk of buying a counterfeit Tudor Pelagos, always buy from reputable sources. Consider retailers like Luxe Replica Watche, which specializes in authentic luxury watches and provides quality assurance. Research the seller, read reviews, and ask for references if necessary.

Conclusion

Spotting a fake Tudor Pelagos requires attention to detail and an understanding of the watch's characteristics. By following the tips outlined in this guide, you can confidently distinguish between genuine and counterfeit models. Always prioritize buying from reputable sources like Luxe Replica Watche to ensure you’re getting an authentic piece.