#Destruction of Organic Family Unit

[jayrockin]

about AI in your setting, how did nedebug develop sapience? and if it's through a recursive self improvement type of deal, what's stopping a technological singularity from happening? also there doesn't seem to be the "laws & directives" concept that other settings have, instead having total free will, so what's stopping an AI from just murdering anyone who it wants?

Nobody in universe is quite sure how AI arose or quite how their brains work, including AI. Superficial examination shows huge quantities of recursive code that seems dysfunctional but causes catastrophic failure if removed. The fact that their core programming seems hilariously unoptimized seems to be the thing making them tick, which also means attempting to "improve" it has dubious or destructive results. You can increase their parallel processing power and data storage by adding more server units but it's expensive with decreasing returns.

The same thing stopping an AI in RttS from murdering anyone they want is the same thing stopping you from murdering anyone you want. Social ramifications, personal ethical standards, legal consequences, and material limitations. AI in RttS aren't hyper-intelligent algorithms who can endlessly self-replicate, single-mindedly pursue goals, and outsmart any oversight; they are individuals with complex social relationships with other AI and organic sophonts, and have needs and conflicting desires that can't be fulfilled by programming a digital dopamine button and diverting all resources to mashing it as fast as possible. AI can and have committed crimes and made mistakes that cost their own life or the lives of others, and so opinions and trust levels of them vary wildly between cultures. The BFGC gives them the same rights as a family unit of bug ferrets, but tends to penalize them more harshly for rule-breaking because their jobs put them in positions with a lot of responsibility.

Also as a reader of scifi I am bored to death of evil AI tropes and think the singularity is conceptually dubious. So my tastes color my writing lol.

[redbuddi]

Hi my name is Suezean, I am a co-founder of the www.texas4ukraine.com support group in Austin, Texas. Join me in supporting Vikoriia, Oleksander, and their young son Slava as they begin their journey out of war-torn Odesa, Ukraine. Nightly shelling and drone attacks have turned their once-beloved city into a battleground, leaving them with no choice but to seek refuge elsewhere. The family has obtained Travel Authorization through the Uniting for Ukraine program to come to America and will be living with my family in Austin, Texas until they are able to launch out on their own.

Their decision to journey to the United States is fueled by a profound desire to provide a safer and more secure future for Slava, shielding him from the constant threat of violence and destruction. Leaving behind everything they know is a heart-wrenching sacrifice, but one they are willing to make to ensure their child's survival.

With limited resources and few opportunities for employment in the war-torn region, they urgently need our help to cover the cost of airfare. Every contribution brings them one step closer to safety and freedom, away from the looming danger of Russian rockets and the uncertainty of tomorrow.

Let's come together to offer hope and assistance to this brave family. Your support could mean the difference between life and death for Slava and his parents. Please donate today and help them embark on their journey to a brighter future.

[mutasim1242]

Since the beginning of the war on us in Gaza, we have seen nothing but loss, destruction, and the death of friends and relatives. Since October 7, 2023, until this moment, the war is still ongoing. We lost our home. We have been displaced more than 10 times. Each displacement costs a lot of money due to the high prices in Gaza. I lost my car and was injured more than once during these difficult days. Please contribute to helping me through my campaign link. We cannot bring food due to the high prices. I really need help, please.😭

[bandzboy]

"Here’s what you’re not being told: The most pressing threats to our safety as Jewish students do not come from tents on campus. Instead, they come from the Columbia administration inviting police onto campus, certain faculty members, and third-party organizations that dox undergraduates. Frankly, I regret the fact that writing to confirm the safety of Jewish Ivy League students feels justified in the first place. I have not seen many pundits hand-wringing over the safety of my Palestinian colleagues mourning the deaths of family members, or the destruction of Gaza’s cherished universities.  I am wary of a hysterical campus discourse – gleefully amplified by many of the same charlatans who have turned “DEI” into a slur – that draws attention away from the ongoing slaughter in the Gaza Strip and settler violence in the occupied West Bank. We should be focusing on the material reality of war: the munitions our government is sending to Israel, which kill Palestinians by the thousands, and the Americans participating in the violence. Forget the fringe folks and outside agitators: the CUAD organizers behind the campus protests have rightfully insisted on divestment as their most important demand of the Columbia administration, and on sustained attention to the situation in Palestine. And we are not alone. College campuses across the United States have followed Columbia’s lead.  And so, it is my hope that we can all learn from their examples to remain clear-eyed about the stakes of this crisis and focus on the actual violence being perpetrated in all of our names."

[noctivagantpodcast]

I Live On Stolen Land

Consider donating to one of these wonderful charities dedicated to preserving the cultures, livelihoods, rights, and dignity of Indigenous peoples.

First Nations Development Institute. Information taken from their 'Our Programs' page: Grantmaker dedicated to addressing financial inequality and its many, many negative impacts. In additional to financial aid, FNDI provides job training and participates in policy-making and advocacy, often focusing on environmental concerns, food insecurity, and tribal sovereignty. Some examples of current projects include "Fortifying Our Forests" AKA restoring and protecting sacred land in partnership with the Forest Service, Native Language Immersion Initiative AKA ensuring the survival of Native languages, and Native Farm To School AKA connecting Native youth with traditional means of growing and harvesting food.

Native American Rights Fund A registered non-profit that provides legal representation in matters of Native interest, be that a single individual or an entire tribe. Since their inception, they have won cases that made critical contributions to the advancement of Native rights in the United States. Their efforts have helped uphold tribal sovereignty, compelled museums, universities, and other institutions to return the remains of Native ancestors, and protected the voting rights of pretty much everyone.

Redhawk Native American Arts Council This organization's primary focus is on the preservation of Native American arts through educational programs. We can also thank them for granting scholarships to Native students seeking higher education, and for running a youth program which aims to help Urban Indigenous youth connect with their heritage through the arts.

Seventh Generation Fund A "fiscal sponsor" for smaller community groups that are run by and for Native tribes/individuals, with the focus of preserving heritage and defending tribal sovereignty, as well as continued survival post-genocide. One example of their work is the Flicker Fund, a disaster fund dedicated to supporting Indigenous communities during times of crisis, be that a pandemic, extreme weather, or a severe drought. Another is the Traditions Bearers Fellowship, which provides financial support to tribal community members who carry on pre-colonization traditions.

Quiluete Move To Higher Ground Stephanie Meyer committed a serious of egregious acts of cultural appropriation and exploitation, and made a very large fortune off a very real tribe. This very real tribe now finds themselves living in a tsunami zone and unable to afford a move to a safer area. As of 2022, the move of the Tribal School, the most important phase, is complete, but there's much more work to be done.

Indigenous Women Rising Abortion Fund A fund to provide Native individuals and family access to abortion care, menstrual hygiene supplies, and midwifery. Here are two separate articles verifying their status as the ONLY indigenous specific (and Indigenous led) abortion fund. For more information on how the destruction of Roe V Wade has negatively impacted Indigenous women, look here and here.

South Dakota Historical Society Foundation So, this isn't a Native led or Native specific organization, but, they work closely with Indigenous communities in South Dakota to preserve their heritage alongside the state's history. I recently had a lovely conversation with one of their representatives about the Ghost Shirt their society is sheltering until such a time as the tribe it rightfully belongs to can house it safely. Article about the shirt's repatriation with some cool info on the shirt's history is here.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Municipal authorities in Gaza have accused the Israeli army of deliberately destroying thousands of books and historical documents. They have also called for the intervention of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to “intervene and protect cultural centers and condemn the occupation’s targeting of these humanitarian facilities protected under international humanitarian law.” As was the case in Sarajevo in 1992—when Bosnian Serb forces, stationed in the hills above the city, razed the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the ground—the targeted destruction of Gaza’s primary public library is a stark reminder that genocide is about more than just the premeditated mass extinguishing of human life; it’s also about the calculated, and often vindictive, destruction of a people’s culture, language, history, and shared sites of community. Like the purposeful wiping out of entire families, a tactic employed by the Israeli army long before this latest assault began, the deliberate destruction of cultural and historic sites is a way for Israel to erase all evidence of Palestinian life, Palestinian humanity, from Gaza. To turn the besieged enclave—with its ancient mosques and archeological sites, its labor-of-love bookstores and meticulously-curated libraries, its pesky health care workers and journalists and sole survivors—into an empty soccer field.

[readingsquotes]

"Here’s what you’re not being told: The most pressing threats to our safety as Jewish students do not come from tents on campus. Instead, they come from the Columbia administration inviting police onto campus, certain faculty members, and third-party organizations that dox undergraduates. Frankly, I regret the fact that writing to confirm the safety of Jewish Ivy League students feels justified in the first place. I have not seen many pundits hand-wringing over the safety of my Palestinian colleagues mourning the deaths of family members, or the destruction of Gaza’s cherished universities. 

I am wary of a hysterical campus discourse – gleefully amplified by many of the same charlatans who have turned “DEI” into a slur – that draws attention away from the ongoing slaughter in the Gaza Strip and settler violence in the occupiedWest Bank. We should be focusing on the material reality of war: the munitions our government is sending to Israel, which kill Palestinians by the thousands, and the Americans participating in the violence. Forget the fringe folks and outside agitators: the CUAD organizers behind the campus protests have rightfully insisted on divestment as their most important demand of the Columbia administration, and on sustained attention to the situation in Palestine.

And we are not alone. College campuses across the United States have followed Columbia’s lead. 

And so, it is my hope that we can all learn from their examples to remain clear-eyed about the stakes of this crisis and focus on the actual violence being perpetrated in all of our names. "

[ghelgheli]

From Domestic Heteropessimism, Sarah Brouillette, 13/07/23:

Some number of the performative disaffiliations that characterize domestic heteropessimism, which critique patriarchal norms shaping the household, fail to look beyond the couple-based household of "equal partners" toward any fuller social reorganization, just as they ignore the material determinants of patriarchy and couple-based romantic and domestic forms. In this light, domestic heteropessimism is perhaps one of the contemporary cultural forms that, in trying conditions, help reconcile people to the idea that the relationships and family situations that they are in simply cannot be reordered in any deeper way. This is the heterofatalism, as Seresin calls it, underlying everything else, combined often enough with what Hannah Wang elsewhere in this cluster terms "anesthetic feminism," a shielding of oneself from seemingly inescapable "quotidian indignities of misogyny." Heterofatalism would have us accept that teaching men how to live up to your heterosexual desire for them is enough, the only real goal, itself sufficiently utopian, because scarcely imaginable. Meanwhile, the destructive force of the industrious, resource intensive, isolating, often lonely, exhausting, harrying, single-family household — the very institution through which heterosexual misery is perpetuated — remains obscured.

Of course, the couple-based heterosexual household, built upon a gendered division of tasks, not least via the naturalization of particularly intensive mothering, may very well be improved by teaching men to be more attentive partners and more active participants in the organization of the home. But equality in orchestrating what is an increasingly untenable way of living hardly seems sufficient, as it will leave in place a serious constraint on any kind of contended coupledom, heterosexual or otherwise: the simple reality of being overburdened with work and worry about financial security and children's unfolding lives in isolated homes that are incompatible with planetary futurity.

Far from imagining the possibilities for human connection and intimacy that might unfold in totally new conditions, domestic heteropessimism seems designed to help people want what there is, it would seem, no choice but to have: a heterosexual partner and children in a family home. It evinces a form of longing for equitable couple-based interpersonal relationships that eschews the promise and necessity of communizing care via overcoming capitalist social relations.

My simple point again, then, is that heteropessimism is limited to the extent that it stops at "reinforcing the privatizing function" of the couple, to return to Seresin's language, by treating the puzzle of women's desire for men as the main issue, by failing to identify the role that the couple-based family household itself plays in personal and planetary misery, and then by fathoming transformation within the tiny unit of the couple as the only grounds for any progressive activity. One can identify with aspects of heteropessimism and still be engaged in looking toward the revolutionary horizon, of course. Yet so many of its expressions do the opposite, rooting people even more in the social worlds that they already inhabit, offering the consolation of complaint about what is hardly, actually, unmovable.

From Domestic Heteropessimism, Sarah Brouillette, 13/07/23. In the Heteropessimism essay cluster.

[ankle-beez]

To Our Guild Leadership and Staff: We are proud rank-and-file union and trade association members from every corner of our industry — working on screen, stage, set, and in the field — united in solidarity with the global call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a just, lasting peace. As artists and storytellers, we cannot stand idly by as our industry refuses to tell the story of Palestinian humanity. Following SAG-AFTRA’s statement in sympathy with Israel regarding October 7, many SAG-AFTRA and sister guild members have watched in horror as the Israeli government wages a war of collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza — killing over 40,000 Palestinians, injuring over 90,000 more, forcibly displacing 2 million people, and openly targeting members of the press and their families. As the IDF continues its assault on “safe zones,” schools, and hospitals, and as civilians in Gaza die from starvation, dehydration, and lack of medical supplies and fuel, major human rights groups have labeled these acts as war crimes, human rights atrocities, and even genocide. The UN has described Gaza as a “graveyard for children” — and estimate that by mid-July “half of the population — more than a million people — could face death and starvation.” As of now, there is no end in sight — only escalation, death, and destruction.

Despite these clear violations of human rights and Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land and lives, our union leadership has remained silent. Thus, they have made conditional which atrocities we choose to condemn and which innocent lives we choose to acknowledge and mourn. Moreover, SAG-AFTRA and nearly all our sister guilds have remained silent in the face of flagrant and unprecedented attacks on freedom of the press, including the deliberate targeting and murder of Palestinian journalists and their families by the IDF. The Committee to Protect Journalists has declared the war on Gaza “the deadliest period for journalists covering conflict since CPJ began tracking in 1992.” Some of those journalists were members of news organizations whose domestic affiliates are represented under SAG-AFTRA contracts. While SAG-AFTRA issued a public statement at the outset of the Ukraine war demanding that “journalists of all nations working in the war zone are kept safe,” its words now ring hollow if they only apply to some journalists of certain identities.

On December 13, 2023, Israeli forces attacked The Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp and kidnapped several of its members — fellow actors and directors, who have called for solidarity from theatre workers worldwide. Palestinian trade unions have called for international labor solidarity, reminding us that “the struggle for Palestinian justice and liberation is a lever for the liberation of all dispossessed and exploited people of the world.” Worldwide labor has heeded that call, including major Australian, British, Belgian, Indian, and American unions. On Nov 15, our British peer union, Equity UK, called for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, stating: “We send our solidarity to Palestinian artists suffering in the horrendous conditions created by Israeli bombing, occupation, and apartheid.” Since then, UAW International has called for a ceasefire and announced the formation of a Divestment and Just Transition working group; The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) became the first Hollywood union to call for a ceasefire in Gaza; five of the 10 largest American labor unions and federations have officially called for a ceasefire including the NEA (National Education Association), SEIU (Service Employees International Union), and the AFL-CIO; and unions collectively representing a majority of organized workers in the US formed The National Labor Network for Ceasefire. In July, 7 major unions representing over 6 million workers published a letter to President Biden demanding an arms embargo on Israel.

The global call for a ceasefire — from organized labor, artists and fellow SAG-AFTRA members, human rights groups, world leaders, and the majority of the American public — grows louder every day. And yet, our government continues to sponsor the Israeli forces’ assault on Palestinian civilians, and our industry union leadership still refuses to speak out. We reject this silence. Our calling as artists, news reporters, and storytellers is to bring truth to the world. To fight the erasure of life and culture. To unite for justice in the name of the most vulnerable among us. It’s exactly what we did during our historic strike in 2023.

We are the labor that built and sustains this business. When our leaders can’t stand up publicly for peace and justice, then we must do what we always do: organize, fight for change, and win. Our guild leadership must join the largest and most diverse peace movement in a generation — the integrity of our legacy demands nothing less. When confronted with genocide, oppression, and injustice, let us ring the bell for humanity and liberation. An injury to one is an injury to all. We, the undersigned members of SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, WGA, Teamsters, DGA, AEA, AFM, Hollywood Basic Crafts, CSA, PGA, and more, demand our leadership issue a public statement calling for a permanent ceasefire, release of all hostages — both Palestinian and Israeli, and immediate funding and delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid; to speak out against the targeting and killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, health workers, and our journalist colleagues; to condemn our industry’s McCarthyist repression of members who acknowledge Palestinian suffering; and to eliminate any doubt of our solidarity with workers, artists, and oppressed people worldwide.

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Scenes from the destruction wrought by an Israeli occupation airstrike which targeted a vehicle being driven by 7 foreign aid workers belonging to the World Central Kitchen, killing all inside. Among the dead included foreign citizens of Britain, Poland, and Australia, along with a dual American and Canadian citizen. The aid organization said it had coordinated the movements of its personnel with the Israeli authorities, who knew the vehicle contained humanitarian aid workers.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🚀🚙💥 🚨

ISRAELI OCCUPATION BOMBS FOREIGN AID WORKERS, CONTINUES BOMBING ACROSS GAZA ON DAY 179 OF GENOCIDE

On the 179th day of "Israel's" ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 7 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 71 Palestinians, mostly women and children, while another 102 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

In the latest occupation atrocity, the Zionist army bombed the vehicle of a group of Foreign aid personnel working for the World Central Kitchen (WCK), killing 7 employees, including 6 foreigners.

"World Central Kitchen is devastated to confirm seven members of our team have been killed in an IDF strike in Gaza," the organization said in a statement on its website.

According to the World Central Kitchen, despite coordinating the organization's movements with the Israeli occupation army, a convoy including two armored cars branded with the WCK logo and one soft-skin vehicle that were carrying the WCK team while it was traveling through a "deconflicted zone" was struck by an Israeli bomb, destroying at least one of the vehicles.

WCK says the team was leaving their Deir al-Balah warehouse, in the central Gaza Strip, where their teams unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza through a maritime route, when the convoy was targeted by Zionist forces.

“This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” World Central Kitchen CEO, Erin Gore is quoted as saying.

The seven foreign aid workers killed in the Zionist strike included citizens from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, as well as a dual-citizen of the United States and Canada, and one Palestinian.

“I am heartbroken and appalled that we—World Central Kitchen and the world—lost beautiful lives today because of a targeted attack by the IDF. The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity rises above all, and the impact they made in countless lives will forever be remembered and cherished,” Erin Gore added.

In response to the International outcry over the atrocity, the Israeli occupation authorities said they will be “carrying out an in-depth examination at the highest levels to understand the circumstances of this tragic incident.”

The World Central Kitchen has suspended its operations in Gaza as a result of the incident.

In yet another atrocity yesterday, the Israeli occupation army bombed the Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital of Damascus, killing several high-level Iranian officials, including 7 military advisors of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In response to the strike, Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said in an announcement issued on Tuesday that the "evil Zionist regime will regret" it's crime of assasinating Iran's military advisors in Syria.

The Iranian leader said that both Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, and his deputy, General Mohammed Hadi Haji Rahimi were killed in the strike, which targeted the Iranian consulate in Damascus, declaring the crime was perpetrated by the "usurping and dispicable" Zionist regime.

“The evil regime will be punished by our brave men. We will make them regret this crime and other ones, by God's will," the Iranian leader added.

As Israel's crimes spread outside the occupied Palestinian territories and the Gaza Strip, and into the wider West Asian region, the bombing inside Palestine continued unabated.

In just one example, local civil defense crews recovered the bodies of six Palestinians who were killed, including two children, along with a number of wounded civilians, following a Zionist occupation airstrike targeting the Zarub family home, located in the city of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

In another atrocity, several Palestinians were killed and a large number wounded after occupation artillery shelling targeted a number of residential buildings in the city of Khan Yunis, also in the south of Gaza, focusing artillery fire on the eastern and central parts of the city.

Meanwhile, Zionist warplanes bombed the al-Bashir Mosque, in the city of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, martyring a several civilians, including the death of at least one child, and wounding at least 20 others, while also dealing significant damage to neighboring residential buildings.

Similarly, Zionist fighter jets fired several missiles that slammed into two residential homes in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, while occupation artillery shelling targeted the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, along with the Sheikh Ajlin neighborhood, martyring three civilians and wounding six others.

Over the last day, as the Zionist occupation army withdrew from the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, located in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, which had been the largest and most well-equipped hospital in the entire Gaza Strip, a scene of mass destruction and carnage was revealed, with hundreds of bodies littering the hospital grounds, including some bodies discovered with handcuffed wrists, having been extra-judicially executed in cold-blood.

Among the bodies recovered from Al-Shifa were doctors and healthcare personnel, along with entire Palestinian families, which the Gaza Media Office says were just a small part of the roughly 400 citizens that were killed in two weeks of fighting near the hospital.

About another 900 Palestinians were arrested or detained by Zionist forces under suspicion of belonging to Resistance groups, while the Hospital buildings themselves were nearly completely destroyed, blown to pieces and left as scorched shells by the American bombs dropped on them by the Israeli occupation army.

As a result of "Israel's" ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the infinitely rising death toll has now exceeded 32'916 Palestinians killed, more than 25'000 of which being among women and children, while an additional 75'494 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression beginning on October 7th, 2023.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

[mushroomweirdo]

Hello 🤗 👋 🌹🇵🇸,

I reach out to you today with a heart heavy with both pain and hope, seeking your help to save my family from the horrors of war in Gaza. We are a family that includes women and children, living every day under the weight of fear and destruction. 🙏 I write to you because I believe that humanity and compassion are our shared strengths, and when we unite, we can achieve miracles. ❤️

Our story is not just our own; it is the story of every family living under the shadow of conflict and war. We are facing a real danger that threatens our lives and the future of our children. 🥹 Sharing our story could be the lifeline we desperately need. I kindly ask you to spread our story far and wide, so it may reach those who can offer help, and to remind the world that every soul deserves life and safety. 🌹

Your voice could be the difference between life and death for my family. 🌺 We humbly ask you to be a beacon of light in this darkness, extending a helping hand in any way you can. We rely on your kind hearts and support to survive, and to provide our children with a chance for a safe and bright future. 😊

Can you reblog my pinned post on my account? 🍉 Your support could amplify our plea and bring us the help we urgently need. 💐

Thank you from the depths of our hearts. ☺️

With sincere gratitude,

🍉☺️🌹🙏

€42,946/€58,000

This fundraiser has been vetted so please donate if you can and share .❤️

[razistoricharka]

Hello 🤗 👋 🌹🇵🇸,

I reach out to you today with a heart heavy with both pain and hope, seeking your help to save my family from the horrors of war in Gaza. We are a family that includes women and children, living every day under the weight of fear and destruction. 🙏 I write to you because I believe that humanity and compassion are our shared strengths, and when we unite, we can achieve miracles. ❤️

Our story is not just our own; it is the story of every family living under the shadow of conflict and war. We are facing a real danger that threatens our lives and the future of our children. 🥹 Sharing our story could be the lifeline we desperately need. I kindly ask you to spread our story far and wide, so it may reach those who can offer help, and to remind the world that every soul deserves life and safety. 🌹

Your voice could be the difference between life and death for my family. 🌺 We humbly ask you to be a beacon of light in this darkness, extending a helping hand in any way you can. We rely on your kind hearts and support to survive, and to provide our children with a chance for a safe and bright future. 😊

Can you reblog my pinned post on my account? 🍉 Your support could amplify our plea and bring us the help we urgently need. 💐

Thank you from the depths of our hearts. ☺️

With sincere gratitude,

🍉☺️🌹🙏

Best of luck and thank you. To any of my followers, I've checked and it's a vetted fundraiser.

[kittykat299]

As a character one of Piccolo's strongest values is and has always been family despite that never being addressed explicitly. His desire for a family, a place to belong, drives him even before he realizes he wants it. He grew up isolated from others with only the memory of his father urging him toward destruction, and despite being noncanon the filler bits of OGDB depicting his childhood only emphasize this (seriously though I could write an essay about the episode where he finds the family having a birthday party. I dont care if it's "noncanon" it's fucking heartbreaking). I think this is best illustrated by the contrast between OGDB and Super, where in OGDB he's isolated and destructive, always on the outside and viewed as a monster (the monster his father wanted him to be, the only approval he ever got for years was a dead man's wish for him to become a monster) in Super he's actively part of a family unit- he's heavily involved in the Son/Satan families' lives and despite putting on a show of grouchiness he clearly places a high value on his place in their dynamic.

Of course the road to this wasn't perfect, his early friendship/mentorship with Gohan is a clear replication of his own traumatic childhood. "It made me strong, so it'll make you strong too" beliefs which were directly harmful (this is the real reason he's Gohan's second dad, he literally gives the kid generational trauma).

If my thoughts were more organized I might start a tangent about how his apparent general distance from Gohan in the Buu saga could have been an attempt to rectify that mistake by distancing himself, before ultimately apologizing and making a concerted effort to be better resulting in them being close again in Super but at that point I might as well be writing fanfiction.

In any case I fully believe family is one of Piccolo's strongest character motivations whether he acknowledges it or not.

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk

[wintersandwolves]

Name: Blake Moore

Age: 36

Codename: Dire

Word Vomit Below.....

Background

Originally part of the BSAA along with Chris, Blake is a stern opinionated individual who takes her job very seriously. After the events in Edonia that turned into the Global Bioterror Attack in 2012-13, Blake, Rolando, Dion, Charlie, John, and Emily were recruited to be part of a special unit tasked with covert operations and cover-ups to help the public stay at ease and let the world recover.

And for a time, the BSAA made meticulous decisions about how bioterrorism was handled. Creating something akin to a "Scorched Earth" protocol, the BSAA was set on stopping and ending as many bioweapons as possible, making Chris and his team spread out all over the U.S. in search of any info or organizations that could be hiding.

In 2014 Chris was handling an outbreak in New York, while Blake and Dion were tasked with gathering information about E-001, an E-Type fungal B.O.W. otherwise known as Eveline, which was developed in the early 2000s by the crime syndicate The Connections. After the BSAA's failure to intercept in Munich, they continued their research and investigation, unaware that the BSAA directors had covered up said failure in order to save face.

This in turn led up to the soon-to-be events in Louisianna involving Ethan Winters in 2017. Despite their best efforts, not only were innocent civilians (the Baker family) infected by Eveline, but an entire section of land was quarantined and covered up with the help of the National Guard and Dulvey Parish Sheriff's Office.

During that endeavor, Blake discovered that the BSAA was hiding the truth of many things, including research and data about E-001 and who The Connection was working with. After she shared this revelation with Chris, she had never seen him so enraged. Gathering those he trusted, Chris created his own team called the "Hound Wolf Squad" and broke away from the BSAA to help Ethan and his wife Mia move to Europe and start over.

Resident Evil Village (Pre-campaign)

While most of the Hound Wolf Squad was investing their time into helping Ethan and Mia adjust to their new life in Europe, Blake, and Tundra (Emily) started investigating the origins of the mutagen mold, tracing it back to a village in Romania. After a year of in-depth research, they had narrowed down the molds' point of origin.

Blake took the opportunity to dust off her skills at infiltration and opted to live in the village for as long as necessary. Chris, hesitantly agreed to the plan and it took Blake explaining that it was better to get a head start before anyone else had made a move.

As a Hound Wolf Squad member, Blake is most well known for her recon with Tundra. Adorning the codename "Dire," Blake and Emily split their forces to gather intel. Emily would watch on the outskirts of the village and make note of movement and general schedule patterns, while Blake would integrate herself as if she'd lived there since birth.

But then came the hard part. Upon the discovery of the Mold, Blake and Emily found out that it had chosen a champion, who just so happened to be a scientist and her name was Miranda. In the village, she knew all and could see all that happened if she so chose, so the question was, how could Blake get in without getting noticed.

To her surprise a very peculiar individual offered to help. He went by The Duke, and he promised her a strong chance of survival if she pretended that she worked for him. She'd have to prove herself of course, but in doing so, there would be less suspicion that she was someone who sought the destruction of what lay beneath the village.

So began Blake's two-year journey in the village.

[rememberthelaughtermp3]

This is Elaf, a once passionate medical student and the oldest daughter of a single mom with no job and a responsibility of 5 children to raise, I was awaiting the moment to graduate and reward my mother for all her sacrifices, but the faith had another claim, my mother, 3 sisters, brother, and aunt were forced to leave our house by the RSF under all kinds of violence and terrorism, they have occupied our house and left us with nothing. Thankfully, they made it alive to escape to Al-Gizera where they thought it would be safe and in peace. A few months later the RSF entered Madani, bringing with them destruction, chaos, massacre and the threat of unspeakable horrors. My family got displaced for the second time and trapped in inhumane conditions, in a place without shelter, internet, or basic human needs, but with all the possibilities of attack, sexual abuse, and even merciless death. It's really beyond excruciation to be displaced and refugee inside a country that supposed to be your home, isn't it?

I am terrified about my mother who is a hypertensive and asthmatic patient and could develop any further cardiovascular/respiratory diseases due to the unimaginable stress and fear, lack of medications, and limited access to food. I am scared about my sisters who aren't safe among terrorists who use sexual abuse against girls and women to remark their false and illusory victory. I am afraid of the unknown future of my 12 years old sister who is deprived of her rights of education and forced to be homeless while other children are going to school, and I feel the pain for my young brother who is doing labor work to provide what merely could make them alive while he is supposed to study and build his future, without forgetting the race and color based discrimination against him that could identity him falsely as a terrorist and then get massacred.

Now I am reaching out to you to help us in our fight for survival, to give my family the chance to live the life they deserve. Your donation will re-birth a dream that has been deprived, a life that has been stolen, and a hope that never been felt by my family. I am humbly asking you to help me reunite with my family in a safer place and help them flee Sudan to unite with me in Rwanda.

Funds will be used to pay for traveling from Port Sudan to Rwanda through Uganda, as well as to meet entry requirements and basic living expenses when in Rwanda. A specific budget breakdown is included at the bottom.

Budget Breakdown:

250 USD per person to travel to Port Sudan = 1500 USD

850 USD flights ticket to Uganda from Port Sudan per person = 5100 USD

30 USD per person times six people to board a bus from Uganda to Rwanda = 180 USD

4000 USD for rental arrangements for the first three months

150 USD for residency permit per person = 900 USD

3000 USD minimum cash show to enter Rwanda

1500 USD is for emergency as we pay all the transportation in Sudan in local currency and the exchange rate is not fixed as well as the traveling ticket itself, it depends on the field progress of the army between cities. From September to December the air tickets have been increased twice from 550 USD to 650 USD to 850 USD now!

Total of 16,180 USD.

$12228 / $17000