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itsawhumpsideblog · 8 months ago

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The Safehouse, pt. 18

CW: for institutionalized slavery, mentions of abuse, treatment of people as things, medical setting, surgery, panic attack, flashbacks, broken bones and treatment of same

Advice from the Box Boy Liberation Movement:

Given the percentage of rescuees who enter a safehouse with one or more injuries or illnesses which will require medical attention, it is probable that you will be accompanying rescuees to medical appointments early in their time with you. Obtaining medical care can present unique challenges for rescuees and it is important to exercise complete patience with them in a doctor's office or hospital setting. Be aware that the atmosphere in such facilities may bring up difficult memories or even trauma reactions. Be prepared to help rescuees through anxiety or panic attacks, even flashbacks.

The surgery took longer than Angie had expected, or hoped and as it entered the third hour, she was glad that she had gone to get lunch right after they took Mikey. Finding the cafeteria, eating the sandwich, and getting lost on the way back had taken almost an hour and a half; a call to Tim and a chat with the rest of the household had taken another half hour. Since then, she had been sitting in the uncomfortable hospital chair, watching the clock and fidgeting. Not for the first time, she opened a game on her phone, played for a few minutes, closed it, and then opened it back up.

Angie tried the TV and found that it was showing an infomercial trying to delude senior citizens into converting their savings into gold bars. She fiddled with the remote, couldn't get it to work, and turned the TV back off. Then she played a podcast she couldn't concentrate on.

She was tapping her fingers on the arm of the chair and staring into space when the door finally opened and Wanda came in, holding some paperwork and smiling. Angie jumped up, fighting down a sudden surge of nervous, excited energy.

"It went great," Wanda said, before anything else. "He did just fine and the doctor said she thinks the procedure was a success."

"Oh, fantastic," Angie said. "That's amazing. I'm so glad to hear it!"

"Me, too. Now, let's go over some paperwork while they finish getting him in a cast and then they'll bring him back here to wake up a little bit. We want him awake and... well, usually we would say talking. But let's go with 'alert' this time. Once he's feeling a little more like himself, we can send him home."

"Sounds great!" Angie could have giggled in sheer relief.

"Okay, so there's no discharge paperwork, as such." Wanda flipped through the papers in the folder. "Not for the hospital, anyway. We've got a form here that should go to your Network contacts, detailing what the surgery was, the cost of it- not that Dr. Silva is charging, but just so their accounting folks are aware- and some discharge instructions." She handed the folder to Angie. "We should be done with him in the next half hour."

"Thank you so much!"

"Of course!" Wanda smiled and let herself back out.

Angie sank back down into the uncomfortable chair in relief, grinning to herself. Then she remembered her other responsibility and picked up her phone.

"Tim?" she asked, when he picked up.

"Yup, I'm here and you're on speakerphone."

"Oh, super, thanks. Hi, guys! I just heard from the nurse. She says Mikey did really well and they're going to bring him back in a few minutes. We'll give him some time to wake up and then we should be on our way home in a couple hours. Just wanted to let you know."

"Did they give you the instructions and everything?" Tim asked.

"Yup, all the paperwork we need. I'll hand it off to you when we get back."

"Excellent, thanks. Text when you're on the way and I'll meet you outside, okay?"

"Yup, will do."

"Thanks for calling, we'll see you soon."

"See you soon!" She hung up, took a deep breath, and sat back to wait.

Mikey was unaware that he had woken up, the first time it happened. He had the impression of being somewhere soft, softer than the garden had ever been before, and warm, too. For the first time he could remember- the first time since the drugs had taken his memory away- there was no pain. He felt like he was floating in a warm cloud and his head was light and sleepy. He let the clouds carry him gently away.

Angie watched Mikey as he lay in the hospital bed, waiting for the anesthesia to wear off and for him to start coming around. He was totally still, which he had been for much of the past week, since his fall, but it felt different this time. He wasn't holding himself rigid, nervous and braced against pain. Instead, he just lay quietly, slightly slack-jawed as he slept. Once, his head stirred and a faint smile lifted one corner of his mouth before he sighed in soft contentment and his breathing slowed and evened as he drifted back off to sleep.

He was still sleeping when Dr. Silva came in with post-surgical information for Angie, outlining instructions for monitoring Mikey's recovery, acceptable activity levels, and a basic plan for continuing treatment.

"He did well," she said at last. "I know we really kept you waiting but-" she shook her head. "There was a lot to fix. He's going to be in the casts for a long time and some sort of brace for even longer. I'm not sure I can say exactly how long it'll be, not until we see how his healing is progressing. We're talking months, though, not weeks. The scarring is likely to be extensive, although we did our best. And his joints will probably always ache a little, especially that shoulder." She sighed. "I really wish it was all better news. But there is some good news, which is that when this is all said and done, eventually he'll be able to use his hands and arms. And he won't be in nearly as much pain, which is the important part. The process won't be pretty, but when it's done, everything will be much, much better."

"Thank you," Angie said. "He would thank you, too, if he could." She looked over and smiled at Mikey, still resting peacefully.

The peace did not last.

When the anesthesia wore off, Mikey woke suddenly and completely, the way he had done when he slept every night outdoors and needed to respond instantly to his Master. When his eyes snapped open, he realized that something was very, very wrong.

All he could see were white walls and a white ceiling with bright lights that seemed to shine directly into his eyes. The brightness stung and Mikey squeezed his eyes shut for just a second, as if, when he opened them, he might find himself somewhere more familiar.

But when he gathered his courage for a second look, nothing had changed. He was still in the strange, monochrome room with the blinding lights and he was lying down. Nearby, something was beeping ominously and Mikey felt his heart speed up and adrenaline dump into his system, like it did when he heard those first footsteps cracking a stick somewhere in the dark at the edge of Master's property.

His mind was still hazy from the drugs and not really awake yet, and Mikey had the terrible, foreboding sense that he wasn't supposed to be there- wherever "there" was.

It never occurred to him to be frightened by the fact that he did not remember having come to the strange, white room. Mikey lacked memories of so much that this new gap in his life was barely meaningful. What was very meaningful was that Master was going to wonder where he had gone.

Then, suddenly, Mikey had a flash of memory of another Pet, tall and thin and dark-haired, bringing him fruit wrapped in a towel, and his stomach clenched. If he was here, what had happened to the other Pet? Was he here, too, or had he been sent... Mikey could not even imagine where else the other pet might have been sent. But he knew it would be bad.

All these thoughts crossed Mikey's mind within seconds, a collection of fears and memories and associations that came to him automatically and without larger context. Then he realized, again, that he was lying down on a soft surface and he broke into a cold sweat.

Soft surfaces were not for Pets. He must not be found here. He had to move, whatever it cost him. The cost would be so much higher if they caught him like this.

But when Mikey tried to sit up, he couldn't. Something tugged at his face- a muzzle? It was blowing cold air into his nose. And he couldn't seem to bend his body to begin sitting, or force his aching muscles to lift him. Mikey looked frantically around but without actually taking in his surroundings.

He dropped one leg over the side of whatever the soft surface was and tried again to sit up and found that was impossible. When he swung his right arm up to try to shift his balance and rise, he was horrified to find that it was restrained, tied up in some kind of cloth, and he couldn't even see his fingers properly, only the very ends of them. When he tried to wiggle them, pain shot down his fingers and they didn't even move.

Even worse, his left arm was immobile. He couldn't see it under the blanket, but it was probably tied to something, strapped tightly down to keep him from doing what he knew a good Pet should do. He strained every muscle trying to sit up, kicked his legs to shift his balance, threw his right arm forward in almost grotesque exertion. But he barely moved.

When the door opened, if Mikey had been able to make a sound, he would have screamed. As it was, his eyes widened, his fight-or-flight response in full activation, and he tried one last time in futile terror to right himself.

"Oh my god," Mistress gasped. "Mikey, what- I was only gone for a second- I'm so, so sorry." She hurried over to the bed. "Hey, hey- careful, you- oh geez-" She put a steadying hand on his right shoulder and finally Mikey's eyes landed on her face.

It all came flooding back to him in a rush, like being struck. The terrible beating they had given him the night his old Master died; the time in a cage; the journey to live with Master and Mistress.

Then, even better, he remembered everything that had come since. A comfortable bed he was meant to use and enough food to eat and a television to watch; Nathan's cheerful company and the joy of being re-united with someone who had become a friend; gentle Francis who told him stories when he couldn't sleep and who held his head when he had fallen and was hurting.

Best of all, he remembered that Master smiled and laughed and spoke softly, and that Mistress talked to him like she enjoyed his company and she had kind hands and Master and Mistress looked after them and never, never hurt them.

Mikey remembered all these things in a flash of knowledge, the same sudden wash of memory that only moments before had caused him such terror, and then he realized that Mistress was standing over him with her hand on his shoulder. If it had been any of his old Masters, Mikey would have been frightened but he found that even now, standing like that, Mistress didn't frighten him at all. She didn't look angry, only dismayed and- maybe even worried.

He looked up at her as if he was searching for answers to many questions and she smiled comfortingly at him. "Do you remember where you are?"

Mikey wasn't sure and didn't know whether to nod or shake his head, so he simply waited and watched her.

"You're in the hospital," she reminded him and now he did nod, a little uncertainly. That might be true- he might remember the morning, if that wasn't a dream.

"You had surgery, to fix your shoulder and your hands and everything. You won't remember that, because you were asleep for it, but it's over now." He nodded again. "The doctor says you're going to be fine- your hands and arms will be a lot better when you're done healing."

He gave her another nod, since she probably expected it, but he wondered if she would explain why they had tied his left arm down. Mikey felt that there must be a reason for it, but something was making his head feel fuzzy and it was hard to think. Hoping she would understand, he raised his bound right hand and looked questioningly down at it.

"Yeah," she said, as if she was continuing a conversation. "I know that probably feels weird. And it's going to be hard, not having your right hand to use, even a little bit-"

Wait. What did she mean, he wasn't going to have his hand anymore? Forgetting the strange stiffness holding his left arm and the way he was restrained from sitting up, Mikey tried to raise himself and looked frantically from his hand to Mistress. His hand was still there, wasn't it? He could see his fingertips, a little bit, under the heavy bandages and surely it wouldn't hurt so badly when he tried to move it if he didn't have a hand-

Mistress made a face that Mikey didn't realize was guilt. "You don't remember what happened at all, do you?" she asked. He shook his head, a little frantically now, starting to feel his heart speed up and beginning to sweat.

"Oh geez. I'm sorry," she said, and he was surprised to find that she actually seemed to mean it. "I'll start from the beginning. So, during the surgery, they basically put all your bones back where they're supposed to be, right? So they can heal and they won't hurt all the time." Now Mikey nodded again as the memory slipped through the fog in his head, of Master explaining this at home last week.

"And now that it's done, they have to hold all those bones and joints and whatever still, so they can heal. So everything will stay where it's supposed to be. Right?" A nod. "And to do that, they put on some casts. The one on your right hand is like what Nathan had on his leg when he first came home. Remember that?" Mikey found that he did.

"They need your whole hand not to move for- I don't know, a long time. Like a couple months, at least. And they did the same thing to your left arm and your shoulder, but that was a lot worse and it's kind of an awkward spot, so they put the cast over your whole arm and then they attached it around your body to hold your shoulder still."

Mikey just stared. So he wasn't actually tied to the bed? But he couldn't move his arm at all. Well- he hadn't really been able to before, either. Maybe in some ways, this wouldn't be so different.

"Do you want to see it?" Mistress asked. She almost sounded nervous and Mikey wondered if he should be nervous, too. Very gently, Mistress drew back the blanket that covered Mikey from his shoulders down, except where he had thrown it off trying to get up.

When he could see it, he stared at his left arm. The cast was blue and covered his shoulder and then went all the way down over his fingers, just like the one on the right. His arm was bent at the elbow so that his forearm was parallel to the floor and angled across the front of his body. There was a band of the same material around his chest, holding his arm still.

"Does it feel really weird?" Mistress asked, and he didn't even bother to nod. Somehow, he felt that she would know his answer.

"Don't worry," Mistress told him, but it sounded more like an offer than an order. "We'll take care of you. You're going to be just fine."

Mikey nodded, but he thought that getting used to this was not going to be easy.

Next Time: Mikey comes home from the hospital, to his housemates' great relief.

Master List

Notes: These keep being longer than I expected, so I'm adjusting the previously listed summary to account for that. A good problem to have!

Tag list: @pigeonwhumps, @cepheusgalaxy, @i-eat-worlds, @honeycollectswhump @taterswhump, @starfields08000 @whumpsday, @fruitypinapple00, @currentlyinthesprial

#bbu #box boy universe #box boy whump #whump #whumpee #the safehouse #pet whump #surgery whump #medical whump

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therandomfandomme · 1 year ago

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Biking is accessible movement

Biking is a very accessible mode of transportation and way to exercise, however I think a lot of people don't know that, since there are a lot of countries, who don't have the right infrastructure (which is sad). So, this post is me showing y'all how biking is very accessible.

I am writing this from the perspective of someone with mild chronic pain, so I don't know the ins and outs, I have just seen all these bikes around on the streets, because here in the Netherlands they are very prevelant. I do want to say that biking is far easier on my joints than walking, except the knees, even with my unmodified bike.

An accessability feature that is not the bike itself, but often seen in traffic are the signs for hard of hearing people, which can be attached to the back of the bike to let others know that the person won't respond to audible traffic cues and to be careful.

1. Not having the muscle mass or lung capacity for intense exercise

Electrical bikes used to be mostly associated with senior citizens, however in recent years it has become more popular with high schoolers, who have to bike long distances to school or adults, who don't want to arrive sweaty at work. They can either assist you or do the biking for you. Normal electric bikes can go up to 30 km/h, but the recently popular fatbike can go up to 60 km/h (which is a hazard and should be regulated, but I digress). Every bike type that follows after can be an eletric bike.

2. Needing back support

Of course not everyone can sit on a bike, whose seating gives no support and for those there are lying bikes. Though being able to get up and down from a pretty low seat, which is less.

3. Not having the balance for biking

One big thing with bikes is balancing, which is something I struggle with (shout out to physical therapy for helping with that). Once I'm on the bike it is easier for me, but I struggled a lot with getting on and off the bike for a while as well as balancing in general, so I had training wheels for a lot longer than most of my peers.

Luckily, there are a lot of options for people who have bad balance or for whom getting on and off a bike would be more of a struggle. A fatbike already makes for easier balance, however for more aid you have tricycles for adults, which are pretty common. And an extra wheel can also be put on a lying bike.

4. Mental disabilities that limit safe independence in traffic

Not everyone can be in traffic unsupervised due to mental disabilities or brain damage, so not everyone can bike on their own. However, there are many ways to bike while having someone there for safety.

A tandem might seem like a gimmick to some, but it can allow someone to bike without needing to take into account all the moving traffic. And the dubble bike, which is more often used as a fun thing for tourist to explore a city while being able to chat, can provide the same for those with bad balance. If the person in question is smaller than the person supervising, such as a child or little person, than there is also a bike attachment for any bike with a luggage carrier.

5. Using a mobility aid

A lot of people think that you can't bike when using a mobility aid, however biking is not the same as walking, so should your body allow it, biking is possible.

If a person uses a cane or crutches there are ways to hold them in place. A walker can also be attached to the back if it is foldable. If a person is in a wheelchair (depending on what kind) then a hand bike is an option, which allows for higher speeds than moving regularly, while not taking more energy. A person with a wheelchair can also be transported with a bike, if they are not able to move through traffic independently (i have been informed that this is for kids, so thank you for that addition).

6. Lifestyle makes it more difficult to bike

Some people can ride a bike, but aren't able of biking, because they have kids, pets or need to move more stuff. However, there are ways to still use a bike in those circumstances. Popular among people in busy cities with more than one kid is a cargo bike. A cargo bike is also avaible with three wheels for extra balance and both can be electric. For pet owners the trailer is more popular, since a pet cannot jump out of it, though I've also seen plenty of babies and toddlers in them. Both these options can naturally also hold stuff.

Of course I totally understand that not everyone is able to bike and that not everywhere there is the infrastructure necessary. I am just passionate about it and I think that a lot of people might not realize that biking can be more accessible than it is often portrayed. I might have missed something, so feel free to add if you find anything and I would love to hear thoughts or just reactions :D

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kali-writes-meta · 11 months ago

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Eldercare and Trump Worship

We think a lot about how to turn people away from Trump, but there's one aspect of Trump's appeal to his oldest followers that's been overlooked. It's a truism of eldercare that anything that engages the interest of the elderly helps keep them alive and healthy. It doesn't matter if it's hobbies, community service, exercise, church, pets, or whatever, if they have something to look forward to they keep going longer. There's numerous studies to back this conclusion up. Well, like it or not, this fact has to apply to Trumpism as well. Their interest in Trump, devotion to Trump, is keeping them active and engaged. No matter how much harm it's doing our country and our world, on a personal level that commitment to Trump has to be improving the health and longevity of his senior citizen followers. Which means that even though his policies may hurt their friends, family, and themselves, they are going to fight for him as if their life depends on it, because on a strictly personal level their life DOES depend on it.

This subliminal awareness presents a huge obstacle in weaning senior citizens off Trump. Disengaging from Trumpism is disengaging from the thing that's keeping them going. Without it, from their perspective, what reason do they have to keep on living? That's a deadly question at their age.

It's not enough to just say that the world and their life would be a better place without Trump, we have to actively paint a vision of HOW the world and their life would be a better place without Trump. And then we have to actively SELL that vision. Until we offer them a vision of the America more lively, interesting and engaging to them than Trump's, they have a vested interest in not making the switch.

We've given America hope before. We must do it again.

#donald trump #trump #trump 2024 #trumpism #republicans #democrats #us politics #politics #senior care #senior citizens #elderly care #elder care #voting #vote

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workersolidarity · 7 months ago

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[ 📹 The first moments following an Israeli occupation airstrike which targeted a residential home belonging to the Hijazi family in the Al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, destroying the building and leaving civil defense crews to negotiate fires as they attempt to recover the dead and wounded from under the rubble. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

EURO-MED MONITOR WARNS OF INTERFERENCE AT ICC, MORE CIVILIANS KILLED IN AIRSTRIKES ON DAY 206 OF GENOCIDE IN GAZA

On the 206th day of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 3 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 32 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while another 68 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as the Israeli occupation continues to destroy the homes and infrastructure of Gaza, it becomes more difficult for authorities to track the number of Palestinian civilians killed or wounded in the occupation's attacks.

Countless thousands of the occupation's victims remain buried under the rubble or scattered in the streets, with local ambulance and civil defense personnel unable to recover them, remaining uncounted in the official dead and wounded tally.

In other news, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor) warned on Sunday of attempts by the Israeli occupation's authorities to interfere with the International Criminal Court (ICC) as rumors spread that the organization intends on issuing arrest warrants against members of the Israeli occupation leadership, including occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IOF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.

Euro-Med Monitor expressed concern over reports that "political pressure" is being exercised over the ICC, aimed at "preventing the International Criminal Court in The Hague from issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli security and political figures."

The human rights organization, based in Geneva, Switzerland, warned that any attempts to undermine the ICC's work would "harm its integrity and independence, prioritize political interests over considerations of achieving international justice, and intervene on behalf of the perpetrator at the expense of the victim," declaring such a scenario to be "appalling".

Euro-Med Monitor also condemned the Israeli occupation's "incitement campaigns" to prevent the ICC from acting against Israeli leadership.

"Information that the ICC may issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials suspected of crimes against Palestinians has sparked different reactions and legitimate concerns about the Court’s capacity to carry out these orders, bring those accused to trial, and punish them without caving in to foreign pressure intended to undermine its work and obstruct its measures," Euro-Med Monitor said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces continued bombing and shelling across various sectors of the Gaza Strip, killing and maiming dozens of Palestinians, including large numbers of women and children.

Intense Zionist airstrikes targeted Palestinian homes, gatherings, civilian vehicles and infrastructure, pummeling buildings and leaving entire neighborhoods in further ruins.

In one example on Sunday evening, the Israeli occupation army conducted an airstrike on a Palestinian vehicle north of the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, killing one citizen and wounding a number of others.

Sources said the strike occured when an Israeli occupation drone fired a missile into a civilian vehicle in the New Camp area, north of the Nuseirat Camp, killing a Palestinian citizen and wounding several others.

The carnage continued over the weekend following shelling by Zionist artillery detatchments, which targeted a civilian residence in the Brazil neighborhood of the Rafah governate, in Gaza's south, wounding a number of Palestinians, while at the same time, Israeli artillery forces also shelled neighborhoods west of Beit Lahiya, in Gaza's far north.

On Sunday, local civil defense crews reported the recovery of 13 decomposing bodies of Palestinians from under the rubble that used to be the Al-Amal neighborhood, west of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

The south of Gaza continued to be hammered by further Israeli airstrikes over the weekend, with a Zionist atrocity recorded when Israeli fighter jets bombed a residential home belonging to the Khatib family, in the Al-Geneina neighborhood east of Rafah City, resulting in the martyredom of a woman and the wounding of several others.

The Zionist occupation further slaughtered Palestinians when IOF warplanes fired a missile into a residential apartment building belonging to the Al-Afifi family in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah, murdering four family members, including three women.

According to local reports, at least 25 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes just since dawn of Monday morning, including at least 5 children and 10 women.

As part of that series of attacks on Rafah, occupation aircraft bombarded a residential home belonging to the Abu Taha family, south of the city, killing 10 civilians, while 7 more civilians were killed when an Israeli occupation jet bombed a house belonging to the Al-Khawaja family, in the Al-Shaboura Camp of central Rafah. The targeted residential building had been housing displaced Palestinian families at the time of the strike.

Additionally, an Israeli air raid targeted a Palestinian house west of Rafah, leading to the deaths of at least 6 more Palestinian citizens, while yey another Israeli airstrike targeted a crossing in Rafah.

Zionist attacks on Monday were not limited to Gaza's south however, intense airstrikes further targeted agricultural lands west of the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, located in central Gaza, while occupation air forces bombarded a multitude of residential homes west of Al-Zawaida, also in the central governate, wounding several civilians.

Israel's genocidal acts continued when IOF soldiers opened machine-gun fire and fired three artillery shells on neighborhoods east of the Al-Bureij Refugee Camp, in central Gaza, while Zionist gunboats opened artillery and machine-gun fire on neighborhoods northwest of Gaza City, in the north of enclave.

Further still, three bodies recovered by civil defense personnel were martyred following an Israeli occupation airstrike that targeted a residential home belonging to the Hijazi family, in the Al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City.

Yet another Zionist attack targeted a civilian residence belonging to the Tartouri family on Abu Hasira Street, west of Gaza City, killing several civilians, including a number of children, in addition to several women.

The genocide went on with the destruction of another Palestinian home belonging to the Al-Mashal family, in the Al-Shati Refugee Camp, west of Gaza City, while three other residential structures were bombed prior to that strike, in the same neighborhood of the camp.

A further Israeli bombing targeted a residential building on Al-Jalaa Street, destroying the house and damaging several surrounding residential buildings.

"Israel's" acts of genocide went on when IOF warplanes bombarded the Al-Dawa neighborhood, east of the Nuseirat Camp, in central Gaza, while occupation fighter jets raided near the Juhr al-Dik area, east of central Gaza.

Several additional raids targeted various neighborhoods near the Nuseirat and Bureij Refugee Camps over the last 24-hours, while further Zionist warplanes bombarded the eastern neighborhoods of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, in addition to raids which targeted the Al-Mughraqa and Al-Zahra'a areas.

As a result of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the death toll among Gaza's local population has risen again, now exceeding 34'488 Palestinians killed, including upwards of 14'690 children and 9'680 women, while another 77'643 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

April 29th, 2024.

#source1

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#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

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girlactionfigure · 2 months ago

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❓HACK WARNING (via phone - SMS) - Thursday - events from Israel

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

⚠️(updated) ENEMY SMS HACK WARNING.. National Cyber Defense: During the night, many citizens received stressful and impersonating scare messages that include harmful links. It is the enemy's attempts to create panic.

Messages received from a variety of names, including: OREFalert (Homefront) and CyberIL

People have seen messages with a link “click if you are safe” - DO NOT CLICK IT.

With a number sequence to enter, like **##123, “enter to tell us you are safe” - DO NOT ENTER IT (meaning like a phone number)

Some have just received an insulting message.

IT’S A HACK. Homefront Command DOES NOT send out SMS messages, Cyber Defense does not send out SMS messages.

If you get a LINK and you haven’t seen the source before, even if it seems official, DO NOT CLICK.

If you get a NUMBER sequence to enter, especially if it includes * or #, DO NOT ENTER IT.

It could be via WhatsApp, same answer - DON’T ENTER OR CLICK.

BLOCK the number/source.

If you are not sure, call Israel Cyber Hotline - dial 119.

If you did click or enter the sequence, call Cyber Hotline 119 to ask what to do.

You may want to check on your elderly family members, they might be less knowledgeable and might click it.

⚠️HEZBOLLAH LEADER NASRALLAH’s.. speech back on for 17:00.

▪️GOLAN.. school and life operating as normal today.

⭕ANTI-TANK MISSILE from HEZBOLLAH at RAMIM RIDGE / Tel Chai, 8 wounded!

🔸DEAL NEWS.. A new offer, all the hostages all in exchange for the deportation of Hamas leader Sinwar and an end to the war.

✡️A brief daily word of Torah: If a person maintains his faith when he is in trouble and sees no solution, is his faith true? What choice did he have? But if a person has all that he needs and still chooses to place his trust in G‑d — that’s true faith. - Kozker Rebbe

▪️LEBANON BEEPER-PAGER and WALKIE-TALKIE ATTACK UPDATES.. The Saudi TV channel "Al-Hadth" reported that there is a "state of panic in Lebanon", and that "the Lebanese are trying to get rid of wireless devices". It was also reported by Iranian sources that "the devices that exploded today in Lebanon are widely used in Iran."

.. Last report we saw: 14 dead and 450 injured in the walkie-talkie attack.

▪️ASSASSIN CAUGHT.. (Shin Bet spox) The target: the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense and the head of the Shin Bet. An Israeli citizen was recruited by intelligence agencies in Iran to perform the assassination of Israeli leaders. He was smuggled twice into Iranian territory and received payment for carrying out missions. Senior Shin Bet official: "This is a very serious affair that is an example of the great efforts of the Iranian intelligence agencies to recruit Israeli citizens in order to promote terrorist activities in Israel.”

▪️NICE QUOTE.. The British Telegraph: A tiny nation the size of Wales now stands alone in humanity's battle against barbarism. (Via Amit Segal)

▪️FRANCE SAYS.. France calls on Israel to exercise maximum restraint in Lebanon. (I must have missed their calls on Hezbollah to exercise maximum restraint while rocket-ing Israeli civilian towns.)

▪️IDF OFFICER WARNING.. (Kaan) Hezbollah is preparing to attack senior IDF officers, senior officers have been ordered to lower their profile

▪️AIR TRAVEL.. The Italian airline ITA cancelled flights to and from Israel for today.

▪️MILITARY EXERCISE - HAIFA.. morning through noon. A lively movement of vehicles and security forces will occur.

▪️RUMORS OF GERMAN MILITARY EXPORTS TO ISRAEL BEING STOPPED.. FAKE NEWS: The chancellor's spokesman in Germany: "The Reuters report on the cessation of arms exports from Germany to Israel is completely wrong."

🔸DEAL NEWS.. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby: …It is believed that the negotiations for a cease-fire are over.

.. Egyptian Foreign Minister: Egypt strongly opposes any Israeli military presence in the Philadelphi border corridor, this is Egypt's clear position and it has not shied away from it.

♦️WAVE OF IDF ATTACKS IN SOUTHERN LEBANON.. Halta, Al-Adisa, Hula, Taiba, Kfar Kila.

♦️COUNTER-TERROR - SHECHEM.. Arrests in Nealin, Shechem area.

.. SHUAFAT.. overnight arrests following an explosive device thrown at police. Terrorist shot and killed.

⭕JUDEA-SAMARIA “MINOR” ATTACKS ..

.. The Jenin Battalion of the Islamic Jihad last night carried out a shooting attack against the village of Hinnit in northern Samaria. Damage was found in one of the houses.

.. Tonight the Jenin battalion again reported a shooting attack against the settlement of Shaked / Hinanit.

.. Fatah's military wing in Tulkarm carried out a shooting attack towards the Ta’anim crossing.

.. The military wing of Fatah in Tubas carried out a shooting attack against the Teyasir checkpoint.

#Israel #October 7 #HamasMassacre #Israel/HamasWar #IDF #Gaza #Palestinians #Realtime Israel #Hezbollah #Lebanon

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christiansorrell · 10 months ago

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Play Report: Tacticians of Ahm #2

Tonight, I ran the second session of an ongoing playtest of an upcoming starter Tacticians of Ahm adventure I'm hoping to get out in the February update (the game is itchfunding now). So, here's a play report (and here's a link to the first play report)!

After the chaos of the griffin attack on the Academy's field day, everyone went back inside the Academy walls for safety. Both griffins, including the one carrying Von Lopesbane, flew off to the northeast, after getting hit by enough attacks from the professors and student tacticians below to be thoroughly annoyed.

Inside the walls, the party saw a number of scouts coming in from the north, west, and eastern roads, all with the same news: sightings and reports of imperial soldiers (even several skyriders - the empress's griffin rider legion) attacking Ahmian citizens - all while proclaiming to be fighting back against the corrupt1on!

Groups of Tacticians and their advisors began to form parties to go out and address these various reports - after all what's a better final exam than the real thing? Professor Dana Turr, an elderly naga woman and the Senior Term headmaster, gave the group an option (since their advisor, Von Lopesbane, was missing): Find Von Lopesbane on their own and it will earn them a guaranteed early graduation and exemption from the remaining weeks of exercises. The other Tacticians on site at the Academy are spread too thin with more violent reports nearby, but she can't abandon Von Lopesbane and if the imperial army is involved, this could be serious enough to actually mean he's in serious risk.

The group agreed and were sent off to Quartermaster Bormos to get field equipment before heading out: 5 rations, a healing potion, and a piece of equipment (under 25g) of their choice. Both Tacticians took Leather Armor. Quablin bought both of them backpacks for the road.

The group headed out, into the region northeast of the academy in search of Von Lopesbane.

The party was somewhat familiar with this region from their time at the Academy. To the north was Four Families, a collection of four family farms all housed very close to one another - the road eerily quiet. To the east, the village of Dodona - smoke rising up from that direction in the distance. To the far north, ruins of an old war watchtower, formally abandoned for centuries.

Helios pushed for the group to head to Four Families and then east towards Dodona. The road was strangely quiet on the way (no random encounters were rolled).

They arrived at the farmhouses and found it, again, strangely quiet. They approached the nearest house and a halfling farmer whispered at them out of the shrubs - There are soldiers in the house! They attacked the other houses and his family only just made it out in time.

Helios approached the house and tried to convince the soldiers inside that she was a higher ranking officer, but the soldiers were assured in their mission, claiming Helios to likely be an agent of the corrupti0n. Frustrated, Helios kicked down the door and rushed in!

Over a 4 round fight, the Tacticians faced 1 Lietenant (EL2) and 2 Spearman (EL1). Through a clever use of Stupor to stun two of the enemies followed by a perfect backstab from Helios the group took the fight but both were just a strike away from falling. The gained 1 XP, 1 RP for their combo and leveled their Relationship to Level 1.

They questioned the defeated troops, you seemed out of sorts, babbling about corrupt1on, being far from home, and the vile nature of the White Walled City - almost as if the concepts of D4RKW3LL and Ahm were swapped in their mind.

Next time, the party travels onward!

[Design notes: We were testing some changes/expansions here to overland travel as it is currently written in the published rulebook. It's more of a node-based pointcrawl than a traditional hexcrawl (like the FF Tactics overworld map). The other thing I'm focusing on going forward in playtests in holding myself better to the digital nature of the world and highlighting those aspects (and providing guidance in the rulebook for GMs to know how to do the same).](edited)

Tacticians of Ahm is itchfunding now and it currently at it's lowest price (just $15 USD) with monthly updates coming from February to September of this year (and hopefully beyond)!

#ttrpg #ttrpgs #indie ttrpg #rpg #fantasy #play report #playtesting #tacticians of ahm #tactics

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mariacallous · 20 days ago

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In a small town, a kindergarten teacher leads an effort to evacuate more than 200 women, children, and older people to a local shelter. Using the training she received before the war, she binds wounds and guides the vulnerable along a practiced evacuation route. In this case, it’s just a training exercise in a town of 1,000 people in southern Estonia—one that’s attracted hundreds of volunteers, nervous about the very real war in nearby Ukraine.

Nearly 5,000 miles away, another group of civilians have signed up for a training course on basic first-aid skills, first-responder management, and evacuation planning. Kuma Academy, the Taiwanese organization providing these skills was created in 2021 to help citizens better prepare to respond to natural disasters. But today, the disaster they anticipate most is an invasion by China. Public interest in training courses surged after Russia’s 2022 full-scale war against Ukraine and remains strong due in part to China’s frequent military exercises. The public is also keenly interested in a forthcoming television series that dramatizes events days before an invasion by China called Zero Day.

Democracies have always struggled with finding the right balance between signaling public confidence through preparation for conflict and instilling fear and panic. Yet as the international security environment grows more ominous, with Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine and intensifying climate-fueled natural disasters and global pandemics, leaders and collective defense organizations such as NATO are accelerating efforts to enhance societal resilience. During the Cold War, Americans frequently practiced “duck and cover” nuclear drills and Britons made makeshift shelters and distributed first aid; yet the prolonged and relatively tranquil three decades after the end of the war made such preparations seemingly unnecessary and expensive, thus making them de-prioritized and under-funded.

That era is now over. Greater focus on national and collective democratic resiliency is urgently needed, as adversaries not only implant malware within national water, energy, data and health systems but also utilize state and non-state actors to wage crippling cyberattacks that could paralyze response capabilities. Economic coercion, weaponized corruption, political infiltration, and disinformation campaigns—all hybrid warfare tactics—are designed to convince public opinion that resistance to the adversary’s actions is futile. Ukraine has served as a laboratory for these Russian-implemented activities for over two decades—but the rest of Europe hasn’t been spared either. In the Indo-Pacific, China is deploying similar economic coercion and influence operations beyond Taiwan.

Countries under threat on different sides of the world can learn powerful lessons from each other. NATO’s Resilience Committee, for example, an advisory body formed in 2022, monitors, advises on, and coordinates defense planning and activities alongside nationally developed disaster preparedness and resilience plans to counter hybrid attacks.

NATO views resilience as a tenet of both territorial and collective defense, as enshrined in Article 3 of the North Atlantic Treaty which requires each member to “maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.” The Resilience Committee’s work focuses on six pillars: civic communications, civil protection, energy, food and agriculture, health. and transport.

NATO’s resiliency efforts should be more widely shared with U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific. Whole-of-society resilience and lessons learned from the war in Ukraine were leading topics of discussion during a recent visit by the authors to Taiwan (during Typhoon Krathon, no less). Senior officials of the recently inaugurated Lai Ching-te administration, as well as private sector and civil society leaders, stressed the need for more robust national resiliency efforts embodied in Taiwan’s Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience plan, announced on June 19 with the formation of a national implementing committee.

Holding its first interagency committee meeting in September to implement this plan, Lai underscored the need to “enhance Taiwan’s response capabilities and expand cooperation between the public and private sectors.” The role of the private sector within a resilience framework is key. With an initial investment of approximately $26.4 billion, Taiwan’s five resiliency pillars parallel NATO’s: social welfare and medical supplies; material preparations and critical supply distribution systems; civilian forces training and utilization; energy and critical infrastructure security; and information, cyber, transportation, and financial security. Not only would NATO members and Taiwan mutually benefit from a more focused set of information and best practice-sharing, but as the growing potential for both combined and simultaneous Chinese and Russian hybrid activities in the United States, Europe, and the Indo-Pacific intensifies, it will be critical to understand their evolving tactics.

Vulnerabilities vary, but shared experiences are highly useful—especially in drawing attention to aspects of resilience that one group might have overlooked. During recent discussions, Taiwanese officials seemed particularly focused on building greater resilience of its energy supply and grid, the government’s ability to retain communications with all citizens and the outside world (via resistance to Beijing’s cognitive warfare as well as protection of undersea cables, data, and satellite communications), and citizen preparedness (particularly first aid).

Observers of Russia’s relentless missile and drone attacks against Ukraine’s energy sector for the past two years highlight Taiwan’s energy import vulnerabilities and its need for greater energy resilience as Taipei imports nearly 98 percent of its energy needs (including 40 percent of its crude oil needs, 30 percent of its coal and 19 percent of liquified natural gas). China’s recent Joint Sword-2024B military exercise flexed its military muscles by demonstrating how a limited quarantine or blockade of the island and outlying islands could challenge Taiwan’s energy resilience.

The ability to sustain households and fuel its energy-intensive semiconductor economy is critical to sustaining both political will and economic stability. The private sector, in partnership with the public sector, will play a key role in energy resiliency through activities ranging from resisting cyberattacks to the protection of the energy grid and physical plants.

For the past several years, there has been growing global concern about the vulnerability of undersea cables, whose disruption would have profound implications for global financial and communication systems in both the Euro-Atlantic or Indo-Pacific regions. In response, NATO has recently set up a Maritime Center for Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure to better protect these vital economic links. Estonia and Finland faced disruptions after the October 2023 severing of the 48-mile Balticconnector pipeline and undersea cable by a Chinese-owned and Hong Kong-registered cargo vessel in the Baltic Sea which traveled to Russian ports along the Arctic Northern Sea Route.

Although China claimed the incident was an accident caused by a strong storm, Finnish officials declared it a “deliberate external act.” (Restoration of the Baltic connector and undersea cable took six months. One of Taiwan’s outlying island chains, Matsu Islands, has had its undersea cable cut 27 times over the past five years. After a Chinese fishing vessel reportedly severed an undersea cable February 2023, internet linkages took several months to restore. In a limited quarantine scenario, Beijing could sever Taiwan’s communications with these outlying islands, illustrating Taipei’s inability to protect and sustain communications with its citizens. Greater capacity for low-earth-orbiting satellites and use of microwave transmission are also critical to the country’s resiliency and, again, the private sector will play a key role.

An underappreciated element for any national resilience plan is individual citizen preparedness, a lesson that has been learned repeatedly and tragically by the Ukrainian people. According to the head of disaster management at Estonia’s Red Cross, “Ukrainians say that if the population would have known how to use first aid skills, it would have saved many more lives.” From Estonia to Taiwan, citizens are taking a greater interest in learning such life-saving skills, from applying a tourniquet to maintaining the safety of national blood supplies.

While European and Indo-Pacific leaders grapple with combating intensifying Russian and Chinese conventional military and hybrid activities, sustained senior-level engagement with the private sector remains absolutely critical, yet very underdeveloped. As Taipei urgently builds its whole-of-society defense resilience program, it would benefit from creating a high-level private sector advisory council. This would report to Taiwan’s National Security Council to ensure all five working groups are infused with private-sector input and that companies can rapidly implement as well as support the government’s evolving resilience plans.

While individual and multinational firms may have their own cyber and energy resilience plans, protection of vulnerable critical infrastructure would be insufficient in the event of a military intervention. The private sector should engage in regular tabletop exercises with government and civil society leaders to identify gaps and security vulnerabilities, and there should be clear and public timelines to address these shortfalls. Interestingly, the American Chambers of Commerce in Taiwan and Ukraine have, for the first time, exchanged best practices for private-sector resilience—an initiative that should be continued and strengthened by including other important private sector voices from Estonia, Finland, Sweden, and others.

Just as the NATO Resilience Committee was built upon the organization’s existing work on humanitarian and disaster response, government leaders in Taipei could better utilize the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF) as a vehicle to share best practices on whole-of-society resilience—particularly in areas vital to Ukraine’s resilience that have been under sustained attack, such as connectivity, data protection, and energy resilience. Full partners to the GCTF—Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United States—should prioritize this area alongside partners with rich societal resilience experience, such as the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, and, Sweden. These nations can deepen cooperation by increasing and intensifying co-organized workshops in support of Taiwan’s whole-of-society plan. Here again, the private sector should also be invited to participate in these workshops.

National preparation and resilience planning can mitigate the consequences of both natural disasters and conflict. A strong national and collective resiliency plan can go one step further and deter an adversary. Success requires societal unity, citizen engagement, and a robust role for the private sector that can work seamlessly with all levels of governments. Whole-of-society defense resilience, or what Finland calls “total defense,” is one of the most challenging tasks that a democracy can undertake—precisely why adversaries exploits societal divisions. As the saying goes, “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” For the democratic West, resilience is what happens when whole-of-society preparation counters the adversary’s “opportunity.”

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