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angellurgy2 · 2 months ago

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Hiveship

hii! this is the 1st and 2nd chapter of my new story, as a little show of whats to come when i make it a full-length book.

cw for bug rape but like, its also just an introduction to deeper non/sexual ways the bugs will destroy this girl's soul. you'll see!

i'd appreciate if people checked this out/gassed it up because i've worked reallyyy hard on this for a bit ^-^

CHAPTER 1

A live wire sparks as loretta reaches a gloved claw inside the open electrical box, her digits blunted by her heavily plated and padded, alabaster white cosmonaut suit. she roots around the active electricity, scraping out chunks of the greenish-brown sludge growing in its crevices- the same mysterious viscous slime that’s been popping up in parts across her starship over and over the past few weeks. her theories ranged from an excremetal expulsion of an unidentified space object, to some disgraceful cosmonaut’s trash finding its way into her ship’s vents.

she clicks the button for the analyzing tool of her protective visor, closely examining the fluid. long thin wires splay across all sections of the large junction, leaving burning hot indents in the thick substances that feel like way too much of a fire risk. looking at the wires, spread out in patterned parallels like gigantic spider-webs, an anxious tinge of fear strikes her. don’t fall in, don’t get caught- robots don’t need any more prey. not that you’re prey. you aren’t.

she flicks her visor back off, worried her sweat might fog up the the visor, and continues swiping the rest of the gunk into a bin.

all clean, she fixes the fuses back into place before immediately making her way back over to the equipment corridor to hang up her suit. on the way she passes vibrant posters of mechanical cross-section diagrams, detailed anatomy drawings of every variety of species she could scavenge, and historical propaganda posters. it was a nice splash of existence inside a clinical minimalist coating.

lounging in the cabin suite on her sofa, she flips her state-provided entertainment console to the galactic news. on-screen a suited, pristine looking woman takes the centre stage behind a stretched out desk. her voice is calm and analytical, with a hint of soft sympathy that can’t be hidden no matter how hard of a professional facade they must put on.

“News from the pandora planets have finally reached the internal core, revealing devastating effects of the latest assault campaign from the exoskeletal hives, multiple colonies’ messengers have reported complete razing of ground and sub-ground infrastructure, with several not appearing for the census at all. the URSS military and all commune bioships have retreated back to pantheon-V for rehabitation before a pandora counter-takeover can be attempted.”

Loretta shudders. the exoskeletals have been advancing deeper into URSS territory much faster than ever before, the fact that the state hasn’t been able to put a stop to it—and that the threat has only gotten more aggressive—makes sweat begin to pour down her head. if she was doing a term with the forces or part of a commune science crew she’d probably be worried for her life right now. thankfully, her ship was currently flying safely in one of the middle systems, relaxing in orbit of an abandoned desert world after recently coming back from a call of excursion to the outer worlds. she always enjoyed the quiet of minimal space travel and the utter lack of civilization when she gazed down upon a world, so this has been her favourite spot to reside for a long while. from the cabin module’s glass wall she can see such stark vistas of sandy mountain ranges, demarcating the most beautiful fields of gigantic outstretching spiny cactus.

with a loud buzz the tv automatically switches to the nightly Sallite news segment, where they broadcast the most important of state propaganda to every television set at 8pm local time. with an exasperated sigh she turns the volume all the way down to 1, takes off her grey tank, and throws herself into her cushioney bed. a switch on the wall next to the alloy headboard turns on the room’s surround sound to a soft pitter of forested rainfall, and she falls asleep in a matter of seconds.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Loretta awakes to the foreign sound of a sloppy wriggling near the floor by the end of her bed. jerking upright, she quickly slides into the suit boots she had laid at the side of her bed, strapping them tight, and moves to examine the intruder.

a pulsating green slime slides itself across the floor, leaving a small trail of slightly transparent lime goo behind it. loretta kneels to look at it closer. she could swear it’s looking right back at her- though without any obvious eyes or features of its own. it excretes another loud squelching sound and fires off a copper-smelling mist around it, some of which sprays directly into loretta’s face causing her to wince and tear up at the dense cloud of smell. she reflexively slams her booted heel down into the creature, stomping through its gelatinous body.

she attempts to swiftly scrape the thing off her heel,, but the flattened slime spreads to encase her entire boot before she can even look down at it. when she does, she sees sticky lime green half-translucent goo coating the suit metal like adhesive, excreting a slight burning odour. loretta throws her leg around trying to eject the subject, but only manages to trip over herself, tumbling to the thick panelled floor with a resounding thud.

on her back she watches with wide terrified eyes as the slime continues to slowly expand up her limb. it should be stretching itself out fully by now, but it seems to have an infinite amount of mass to express over her. some kind of anomalous entity from deep space? but how would it have gotten this deep into the middle systems? a new wormhole would’ve been reported immediately, and the nearest systems are all too well-inhabited. the gears turn in her head, clearly rusted over, struggling to think of a potential scientific hypothesis. by the time she breaks out of her clouded monologue and thinks to stop analyzing, the slime has already subsumed her entire left leg, grasping spreading tiny green tendrils grappling for the next part, which is fully uncovered by the comforting protection of the URSS engineer corps. she struggles to force herself away by clawing into the floor, but the slime seems to have extra weight to pin her leg down. such a little creature, overpowering her so easily- it must be alien. she doesn’t stop struggling even if it pins her utterly. if she could just get to the corner and grab her piece she could-

her scrabbling eyes find themselves staring at the cabin’s ceiling vent. a thick bile-like grey sludge seeps down from the cracks, forcing her to hurry. loretta shoves her hand into the green slime against her better judgement, trying to peel it off like one of her mother’s gelatin molds. her hands try to slide underneath it but they find themselves struggling to push against an unmovable solid, far away from the gravyesque consistency it had before. then she feels her legs, or rather, feels the lack of feeling of her legs. when she tries to move them, she cant even muster a shake, lower half pinned to the floor, not even pins or needles remaining. it doesn’t stop her relentless pushing and attempts to pull herself out by her arms, but she might as well be an amputee at this point. like one of those UOA prisoners of war from back in the day, laser neutered to be nothing but working hands for the Authority’s machines.

unable to get away from the oncoming deluge, lorreta realizes it must be relent or die. and so she does, shutting her eyes tight and curling her lips inward together like the anti-parasitites’ studies have taught her. though this wasn’t the typical annalidesque parasite commonly found in the outer cosmos, or a parasite at all for all she knows, it’s the best her dizzy mind can handle. and as she feels the sludge’s drip touch down on her estrogenated skin, it succeeds in helping stop it from flowing inside her eyes. she can feel it coat the skin tight, like a face mask but smelling of wood and suffocating and lively probing at her pores, blocking her vision black with its opaque body.

the sludge now dispensed, loretta senses a chance and attempts to pry the mask off of her. blindly groping for a free spot by her neck and sliding her unkempt nails under it and into the disgusting goo. it feels like a cadaver from anatomy class under her fingers, diving into the fat and peeling away the outer layer. but this corpse has undergone rigor mortis, and loretta’s attempts to peel it off go only slightly better than with the green thing, lifting an inch before it slaps itself back on even tighter. her second attempt goes even worse, her arms starting to feel numb and anaesthetized. she lifts her arms to fight but she cant feel the texture of what she touches anymore, and then the viral limpness travels to the rest of her motor function, and they flop uselessly at her sides. no part of her body responding to her brains frenzied orders to move, the most she can do is flail inside.

she pictures Andromeda-ZE in her mind’s eye, emotionally travelling to the place she spent most her childhood. she’s running through the market, the most well-known place in the capital, excitedly waving at family friends and commune teachers like she’s a kid again, so happy, so free, so ignorant. red and yellow and orange colours shine bright on the market stalls, sand and wood structures stand beautifully tall around her, everything is even more beautiful than it was when she was young. the wind on her cheeks as she runs makes her glow with a safety she doesn’t feel in the atmospheric void in space. not far ahead she spots her unit hut, and ramps up her speed. in a minute of invigorating sprint, she makes it to the large aspen door, knocking 5 times. she hears several light footsteps trot up and bounces with excitement. the door slowly creeps open…

and a hulking nurse bug towers over her. its mandibles chitter, the egg sack on its back wiggles, and its claws rub together in front of its chest. she looks into the creature’s eyes and sees a thousand mirrors staring back at her. she screams muffled into the slime gag, jolting away from the colour behind her eyelids, and back into the void in front of them. instead of trying to push inside like loretta assumed, the sludge begins to creep into the part of her eye socket above her lids, pushing with prying hair-like digits. her heart cramps, and she can feel her heavy perspiration being immediately absorbed by the material the second it drips. she doesn’t want to close her eyes, doesn’t want to see the bugs that close again- the spindling inner legs, the slimey chitin, vision of swarms of exoskeletals charging her squad flash through her, all she wants to do is scream but all it does is wear out the last muscles she can work. but she can’t stop, she wails banshily, reverberating in her own skulll. and then she can’t manage to hold her eyes open any longer.

the jointed arthropod returns, fully subsuming her soul.

“it’s okay, sweet darling Lore, we are here now” it speaks in her mothers voice. sweet and soothing.

CHAPTER 2

loretta wakes up in a stasis vat, her body floating in air like oil. green biofluid drenches her skin, manufactured nutrients flooding her organs, keeping her fed and stable. she smiles, thinking back to her first spacewalk, bounding into the open cosmos with footless steps. she kicks her foot up, sending herself into an airy backflip. her mouth opens on its own and takes in a load of the fluid. it tastes like the earth pineapples her mothers would trade for on her birthdays. she has to figure out what this is when she’s out of here. and by the looks of her motor functions, she’ll be out of this in no time.

* * *

she awakes groggily inside of another vat. there’s no more fluid, but something similar sticks to every inch of her skin. the walls of steel have turned into a coffinesque cocoon, fleshy and aboreal brown and wriggling with her movements. yet as she attempts to push herself backwards, her hands still find themselves scraping cold metal. she sees how some light manages to seep through the cracks of the chitinous chamber, and prods at the squishy folds where the tiny glowing rays strike, poking through an inch or two of foreign flesh before her fingertips feel air. bio vat? or some sort of.. metamorphosis chamber? she can’t remember how she got here, or when she signed up for such a procedure. she needs to find someone before she gets stuck. she lifts her moist lips to one of the little holes and screams out a plea for help. she manages to fit another finger out, and begins trying to spread open the breach when she’s stopped by someone’s cold fingers pulling hers. one of the scientists, or guards?

the person outside pulls on loretta’s hand hard and she feels her light body raise up to the roof of her confines. despite her reaching the walls, they keep going, tugging forcing painful friction between her bare limbs and the meaty hide. in a few short, supernatural pulls she is burst through the sac entirely, getting to see chunks of what appears to be sinew and slime splattering the surroundings as she flies through antigravital space and crashes hard into a familiar wall.

HISSSSSSSTHH

innumerous spindly brown limbs bringing fading memories of phasmid anatomy charts stretch out across the polished floor and walls now brutally scattered with keepsake and furniture debris, looking like abstract blobs in loretta’s slime coated vision. blobs which are constantly being absorbed upwards into the air by twitchy movements. loretta grasps at the wall behind her, pulling herself away from the enormous creature.

slamming into the far wall, she attempts to reach for where her dresser should be, where her trusty sidearm should be awaiting its imminent retrieval. then she remembers the lack of gravity.

it was a stupid idea to make a grav switch so accessible. she never even uses it, and humans are the only creature out in this abyss who are weak to its pull. stupid stupid stupid. she tries to look for it in the debris but can’t make it out through all the other white and grey blobs.

in the room, a few brown splotches stand out, utterly foreign to the ship’s shade-based palette. she stares closer, and even more seem to appear. the black space where the open door leads to dark corriders begins spewing them out en masse until at least two dozen of them scatter across the floors walls and ceiling of the cabin, staring right back into her with beady pinpricked eyes.

a bug pounces, its thin limbs pinning loretta hard. the hair on its tarsi scrape across her bare arms jolting goosebumps up her entire body. its membranal underside presses up close, making her shake with unease as its squishy segmented body rubs against her and coats her with an inky discharge well familiar to her after multiple campaigns.

click, click, click, click. clinking mandibles together, like a hungry and petulant child. antennae rub against her ears, just then noticing their dulling by a xenotic wax substance. yet the vile hissing of a group of specially angered freaks still deafens.

searing pain transports into her flesh. she screams but a sludgey backup in her windpipe stops everything but the vibration. loretta looks down at the thick brown apical claw stuck inches deep in her side. a gaping void begins a slow seeping of crimson. another of the blobs quickly dashes into her view, bursting into definition as it pops up at the wound’s side. the same black liquid that drapes over her skin begins to leak out of its open mouth-thing, mixing and diluting the blood until the cut is naught but a thick black wall subsuming a portion of her outer thigh.

she looks forward again as a twinge of neck pain insults her for forgetting herself, and sees the first roach reaching its body upwards. a yonic hole in its abdomen begins to slowly invert, while a large black tendril reaches out of the now-extremity and fluidly twirls itself around loretta’s leg, dripping ichor all the way.

she’d never gotten this close to one of the breeders before, to the point she didn’t even recognize their exotype until now. as far as she knew, they stayed deep inside the tunneled grounds of the hive worlds, fucking like lagomorphs to appease their queens and ever-outbreed the URSS’s onslaughts. and yet, here they are.

the appendage flicks into loretta’s belly, proding at and pushing inside her navel cavity. it feels almost like she’s being licked by a pet dog, or it would if it wasn’t by a fucking bug. the creature tries to push forward past the inch-deep space and is swiftly yanked back in turn, reaching the end of its rope. loretta sighs. if they can’t even reach her then the worst they could probably do is-

the tentacle prods at a lower place before a concept can reach her nerves. a deserted, forgotten plateau, a space too human for her to accept. sliding over a smooth ravine, wet shocks drive up her legs. coiling atrocity digs into her malleable dirt like the hills in pandora. she screams like she imagines it must. though the terror speaks in soft, writhing texture, and not pain. pandora and i, sister bodies- desecrated in twain.

she turns her head to the room’s one window. beyond the hexagonal plasteel frame, one of the last things held up through the chaos, halcyon skies stretch out for infinity- vistas of beautiful achromatic calm broken only by dots of terrestrial colour. an anaerobic dead zone, where nothing except calm would subsume her. devour her. she yearns to feel that cold blanket take her now. she dreams of the window bursting open, space gaining pressure the glass wasn’t ready for, and ripping them all out with it. she dreams of mom bursting through the door gun in hand. she dreams of simply disappearing from all being.

from above her head slithers another pair of mandible and trio of forceps, digging into her budding chest. a sparse pink miasma sprays across her vision, and she’s stumbled out of her wonder by a furious coughing fit rising in her trachea, and finally taking off some of the adhesive coating her throat alongside it. she tries to look back outside and the claws digging deeper just force her gaze right back. her eyes glaze over with water and, unable to wipe the sleeves away, it drowns her. it fills her mouth until her muscles strain, spread taught like an epithelial fingertrap. she cant help but cough more, painfully clenching on the foreign object sliding deeper inside using her windpipe as a transistor to her weak points.

beige meat squishes up against her face, phantom sensations of a man’s stomach thrusting. it should never have been able to get more evil than that. how did they put human’s cruelty into animals, was it taught? more inches of squishish meat force the thought from her shrouded head. her tears taste like ink. maybe they like it that way.

Lorettas’s hull stretches with fullness and terror. she cant see it, but she can feel it bulging her front extremitously. it feels like the two tendrils will soon meet in the middle. she shudders in fear and feels them swirl inside her as punishment.

she feels a slight relent, and her thoughts finally losing their haze. the creatures in front of her thrust backwards through the air, and the twisting coiling tentacles whorl their way out like a pullcord. again she has to feel the thing climb her hole, leaving a painful space where there used to be nothing, unable to go back to nothing. it is ashamed and sobbing in it’s own. what a bipolar old lady you are, where is your rage?

his voice forces itself inside of her. look what you’ve done. ruined and irreparable. you must’ve loved it. you and your little bug fascination. maybe if you didn’t spend your time with abominations, you wouldn’t have become one.

she screams back. it’s not too late, i don’t love them. he’ll never control me again, i’ve carved so much into the world, i won’t let myself be belittled. you’re smart, they’re miniscule- a surprise assault shows their utter lack of strength. i’ll kill them all if i have to. i’ll prove it, i will.

she tries to open her eyes again and sees, stained by pink clouds floating in her sclera, a huge mutated insectoid towering behind the others. a large dynastinaen horn displays ignorant ideas of its strength above its excitedly quivering mandibles. or perhaps the exoskeletals have no need for concepts of pride or egotism. perhaps hive mentality’s destroyal of the individual will always grant them an advantage. no thought of the victim- evil little creatures. no different than the evil of the Authority. no different than-

two blunt black mandibles thrust into her chest. the wind is crushed from her body before she can realize what’s happening. she is too dazed to look at the impact. her deflated cadaver is thrusted into the air, and carried,

her vision bobs up and down as swift twig limbs drag her forth without thought. station windows fly past her, blobs vaguely looking like her favourite posters lay scattered and sliced in pieces, slime staining them irreparable as it coats the floor. does their cruelty know no limits? was the destruction of her ship and her spirit not enough? the destruction of her people? will anything sway their pure evil? she wants to cry, but she’s already using all the tears her body can muster.

black begins to gorge itself on the halls, the chunky whirring of automatic doors blares in her ears drowning out the chattering sounds of dozens of limbs. the hydraulics were a deeply familiar sound, one she had always cherished hearing. it felt like a reminder of the spacecraft’s life, always interacting to her existence, responding in kind noise whenever loretta’d root around fixing her insides. it was a comforting relationship, wonderful in its unconditionality.

now, her beautiful partner screamed red with anger. they destroyed her entrance too. the airlocks outer seal is burst open with what could fairly be assumed to be anti-ship cannons, if not for the claw marks and acid tainting it all. she looks through the inner seal, into the void where death surely awaits, her body has been so painfully torn and remade, that she can’t make herself put up a single limb to fight at the end. she imagines a blaster in her hand, and clenches its handle tight. then she opens her eyes, and her fingers havent moved an inch.

then her face meets cold surface, jagged. then the green drapes grab onto her skin again. then her blood mixes with the green and turns the colour to the same rust she smelled in the air at the start. then she feels the perfectly held-at-average air of her beloved spaceship turn into cold freezing anguish of the outside. then she feels her body turn to nothing. then, she feels nothing at all.

#puppy writing #uhm #rbs encouraged #i needddd attention chat #but yeah um id appreciate ppl letting me know what they think too!!

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justinspoliticalcorner · 16 days ago

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Emily Singer at Daily Kos:

Montana Republican Senate nominee Tim Sheehy appears to have been caught in yet another lie about his military service. NBC News reported on Thursday that despite Sheehy claiming to have been discharged from his service in the military because he was declared medically unfit to serve, his discharge records say Sheehy voluntarily resigned and did not cite any medical conditions.

[...]

This is the latest false claim Sheehy appears to have made about his time as a Navy SEAL, service he has touted on the campaign trail in his quest to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. In April, The Washington Post reported a discrepancy in a story Sheehy told about being shot in the arm. On the campaign trail, Sheehy said he was shot in the arm while serving in Afghanistan in 2012. However, in October 2015, Sheehy went to the emergency room after a trip to Glacier National Park, where he reported having a gunshot wound in his arm. He told a park ranger that he had shot himself in the arm in the park by accident, and was fined $525 for illegally discharging a weapon in a national park. He later said he purposefully lied to the ranger about the gunshot wound because he hadn’t reported being shot in the arm to the military. He said he didn’t report it to the military at the time because the wound may have been from friendly fire and he didn’t want anyone in his unit to get in trouble.

[...] Questions about his military service are not the only scandal Sheehy has faced during the election. Sheehy was hit by a lawsuit in April from former employees of his aerial firefighting company of defrauding them out of millions of dollars. Sheehy has also been slammed by Native American groups in the state after he used racist stereotypes in talking about the Native population in the state. At a fundraiser in November 2023, Sheehy talked about going cattle branding on Montana’s Crow Reservation, and said it’s “a great way to bond with all the Indians out there while they’re drunk at 8 AM.” Polls show Sheehy, a multimillionaire Minnesota transplant, leading Tester in the race, which could determine control of the Senate. Tester has an uphill battle to overcome the likely double-digit win former President Donald Trump will pull off in the state, which would require Tester to win over a number of GOP voters.

GOP Montana Senate nominee Tim Sheehy caught in yet another lie about his military service record.

This should be disqualifying, but sadly, he’ll defeat incumbent Jon Tester (D) and flip this seat (and likely the Senate) red.

#Tim Sheehy #Montana #2024 US Senate Elections #GOP Lies #2024 Montana Elections #2024 Elections #Jon Tester #US Senate

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odinsblog · 7 months ago

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Musk reactivated the accounts of Brazilian far-right politicians Carla Zambelli, Gustavo Gayer, and Nikolas Ferreira. Ferreira, a Bolsonaro supporter, openly questioned the security of Brazil’s electronic voting machines, even though he won his local legislative race.

“All of these names have been problematic for years on social media,” says Flora Rebello Arduini, campaign director at the nonprofit advocacy organization Ekō. “They've been pushing for the far-right and election misinformation for ages.”

When Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, later renaming it X, many activists in Brazil worried that he would abuse the platform to push his own agenda, Arduini says. “He has unprecedented broadcasting abilities. He is bullying a supreme court justice of a democratic country, and he is showing he will use all the resources he has available to push for whatever favors his personal opinions or his professional ambitions.”

Under Musk, X has become a haven for the far right and disinformation. After taking over, Musk offered amnesty to users who had been banned from the platform, including right-wing influencer Andrew Tate, who, along with his brother, was indicted in Romania on several charges including with rape and human trafficking in June 2023 (he has denied the allegations). Last month, one of Tate's representatives told the BBC that "they categorically reject all charges."

A 2023 study found that hate speech has increased on the platform under Musk’s leadership. The situation in Brazil is just the latest instance of Musk aligning himself with and platforming dangerous, far-right movements around the world, experts tell WIRED. "It's not about Twitter or Brazil. It's about a strategy from the global far right to overcome democracies and democratic institutions around the world," says Nina Santos, a digital democracy researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Science & Technology who researches the Brazilian far right. “An opinion from an American billionaire should not count more than a democratic institution.”

This also comes as Brazil has continued working to understand and investigate the lead-up to January 8, 2023, when election-denying insurrectionists who refused to accept right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat stormed Brazil’s legislature. The TSE, the country’s election court, is a special judicial body that investigates electoral crimes and is part of the mechanism for overseeing the country’s electoral processes overall. The court has been investigating the dissemination of fake news and disinformation that cast doubt on the country’s elections in the months and years leading up to the storming of the legislature on January 8, 2023. Both Arduini and Santos believe that the accounts Musk is refusing to remove are likely connected to the court’s inquiry.

“A life-and-death struggle recently took place in Brazil for the democratic rule of law and against a coup d'état, which is under investigation by this court in compliance with due legal process,” Luís Roberto Barroso, the president of the federal supreme court, said in a statement about Musk’s comments. “Nonconformity against the prevalence of democracy continues to manifest itself in the criminal exploitation of social networks.”

Santos also worries that Musk is setting a precedent that the far right will be protected and promoted on his platform, regardless of local laws or public opinion. “They are trying to use Brazil as a laboratory on how to interfere in local politics and local businesses,” she says. “They are making the case that their decision is more important than the national decision from a state democratic institution.”

Though Musk has claimed to be a free-speech advocate, and X’s public statement on the takedowns asserts that Brazilians are entitled to free speech, the platform’s application of these principles has been uneven at best. In February, on order of the Indian government, X blocked the accounts Hindutva Watch and the India Hate Lab in India, two US-based nonprofits that track incidents of religiously motivated violence perpetrated by supporters of the country’s right-wing government. A 2023 study from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard found that X complied with more government takedown requests under Musk’s leadership than it had previously.

In March, X blocked the accounts of several prominent researchers and journalists after they identified a well-known neo-Nazi cartoonist, later changing its own terms of service to justify the decision.

—Elon Musk Is Platforming Far-Right Activists in Brazil

#politics #brazil #elon musk #disinformation #twitter #nikolas ferreira #misinformation #libertarians #fascists #fascism #elon musk is an enemy of democracy #democracy #eugenics musk #apartheid clyde #crypro grifters #techno grifters #crypto bros #election interference #electioneering

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eretzyisrael · 20 days ago

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by David Collier

Amnesty International has long denied supporting the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign that seeks to destroy Israel. They play evasive, denying BDS is harmful but stating ‘Amnesty do not take a position’.

But behind the scenes it seems that things are very different. In this exclusive, I show that the Amnesty Marketing and Communications Director didn’t just support an official BDS campaign – she even created the toolkit for it.

The Boycott Chevron Campaign

Chevron has been a target of BDS since 2022, but the latest BDS ‘escalation’ started in January 2024 – when the BDS National Committee (BNC) issued a call ‘for a consumer boycott of Chevron-branded gas stations’:

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) that issued that statement is the organising body behind the BDS movement. It has long been established that BDS is a movement seeking the destruction of Israel, and the organising BNC is closely tied to terrorist factions.

I have personally described BDS as akin to the siege engines used in medieval battlefields – a means of choking a fortified city and breaking down their defences. BDS is part of a war machine that denies Israel’s right to exist – and seeks to weaken, and eventually overrun it. No genuine human rights NGO would be going anywhere near it.

On September 25, the BDS account on X posted this call to support the Boycott Chevron Campaign.

What is of real interest to us is the link to the toolkit advertised by the offical BDS account.

The BDS toolkit

The document is explicit in its support for BDS – and opens with an explanation that this boycott is in line with the BNC’s ‘escalating campaign’.

This makes it absolutely clear that this campaign is a BDS campaign – which perhaps is not surprising, given that this is the same toolkit that was posted by the BNC on its official account.

The toolkit provides information and resources to people wanting to engage in the Boycott Chevron campaign. It gives ideas about what people can do, provides links to follow – and even provides graphics to download.

If we search the history of the website, we learn that the domain was created on the 13 March 2024.

This date is important, as the toolkit was also created on 13 March 2024 – exactly the same day as the domain was purchased:

Which means that whoever created the toolkit, did not do so as an afterthought – or as part of a personal mission – but instead, must have played a leading role in the BDS advertised ‘Boycott Chevron’ campaign.

Luckily for us – the campaign toolkit is hosted on Google Docs, which means we can search for the document’s owner.

The Amnesty International BDS host

Looking at the details of the Google hosted document, we learn that the email of the owner of the toolkit is ‘[email protected]’.

And that email address, leads us straight to Vanessa Serna, who just happens to be the US based Director of Digital Marketing and Communications at Amnesty International.

This is clear evidence that despite Amnesty’s protests – key figures are working behind the scenes to support the extremist BDS movement – and promote the destruction of the Jewish state.

Busted.

#vanessa serna #amnesty international #bds #bds toolkit

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mariacallous · 24 days ago

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As Moldova hurtles toward critical elections on Sunday, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Malicious actors, bankrolled by foreign sources, are working to sway the country’s public. And their target? President Maia Sandu — fighting not only for reelection but for her country’s future as a European democracy.

As Moldova’s first female president, Sandu’s candidacy has become ground zero for a flurry of gendered disinformation attacks, all designed to undermine her leadership and derail the nation’s EU membership referendum, which coincides with the election.

This is no ordinary election. It’s an all-out assault on Moldova’s sovereignty, and at the heart of the battle lies one simple truth: Whoever controls the narrative determines Moldova’s future.

In a crowded field of 10 candidates, Sandu’s still expected to win the first round, despite being buffeted by efforts to weaken and discredit her and the women serving in her administration. These attacks are gendered, insidious and relentless, looking to exploit traditional gender norms in a country where 97 percent of the population believes women should be “cherished and protected by men.”

But this isn’t about traditional values — it’s about manipulating them to maintain Russia’s grip on Moldova.

Disinformation targeting female leaders isn’t just a women’s issue. It’s a democracy issue; it’s a human rights issue; and in the digital age, it’s also a matter of national security. These weaponized lies are meant to fracture the foundations of participatory governance and erode trust in democracy.

Our organization, #ShePersisted, has been tracking these toxic trends since 2022, identifying common gendered narratives aimed at women in politics across major digital platforms in countries like Italy, Hungary and Ukraine. Now, it’s Moldova that’s become the latest battleground in Russia’s destabilization playbook.

The parallels to the U.S. are striking here. Much like Vice President Kamala Harris, who has similarly been the target of disinformation campaigns, Sandu’s candidacy has been a lightning rod for misogyny cloaked in political rhetoric. And just as we’ve seen false claims about Harris’s identity and qualifications, Moldova’s social media platforms are awash with deepfake videos and conspiracy theories aimed at the sitting president.

Both women have dealt with an onslaught of digital attacks designed to weaken the public’s trust in their leadership — attacks that are gendered, racist and xenophobic — and it’s no accident these narratives spread so easily. Social media algorithms reward the most divisive content. For the Kremlin, manipulating online discourse by gaming algorithms is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, all thanks to the oligarchs of tech that foster this environment, where digital distortions flourish in the name of keeping users hooked and advertisers paying.

In Moldova in particular, the malign actors are explicitly pro-Russian, using inauthentic and coordinated behavior to seed and amplify their attacks. And the campaigns are part of a broader strategy to destabilize the country, oust pro-European Sandu and drag Moldova back into Russia’s orbit.

The Kremlin’s use of deepfakes and false narratives — claiming Ukrainian F-16s will soon land on Moldovan soil and fabricating stories about compulsory EU-mandated “sexual education” — mirrors the chaos it tried to sow in the 2016 U.S. election. Its methods, however, have become more sophisticated. According to a joint statement by the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., Russia is now actively using “disinformation, criminal and covert activities, and corruption to undermine sovereignty and democratic processes” in the upcoming Moldovan elections.

Despite the red alert, though, it’s still largely U.S.-based digital media companies that are acting as modern-day conflict profiteers.

Earlier this year, #ShePersisted combined social listening with forensic data analytics to understand the toxicity directed at women leaders in Moldova. The results? A chilling glimpse into the future of global disinformation campaigns.

From deepfakes of Sandu resigning while wearing a hijab to offers of bribes for voters to reject Moldova’s EU integration, the manipulation is as multifaceted as it is dangerous.

In one case, exiled oligarch and opposition leader Ilan Shor — widely seen as “Moscow’s man in Moldova” — used Facebook to run hundreds of ads that were viewed 155 million times. And the fact that he could do this while not, in fact, being in Moldova is a testament to the power online infrastructure afforded him, as Meta has repeatedly failed to track and remove these coordinated campaigns.

But the threats aren’t confined to political manipulation. Human traffickers and scam artists are leveraging these same platforms to victimize Moldovans too. In a country where 80 percent of the population is deeply concerned about human trafficking, social media platforms have become the primary tool for traffickers, targeting vulnerable women and girls.

And what has Meta done? Almost nothing. Regardless of clear abuse, social media giants continue to prioritize profits over safety, allowing both gendered disinformation and criminal exploitation to thrive.

For Moldova, the road ahead is now fraught with peril— it’s a path the U.S. knows all too well. And as Sandu prepares for a tight election, the parallels between the challenges faced by women leaders worldwide are impossible to ignore.

Whether it’s Harris or Sandu, gendered disinformation is among the most powerful tools bad actors use to erode democratic progress around the world today. And if social media platforms don’t step up to enforce their own rules — removing posts inciting violence, disabling accounts that spread gendered falsehoods and curtailing the amplification of disinformation — they’ll continue to be complicit in corrosion of democracy.

Moldova’s election isn’t just a fight for one woman’s political future, it’s a fight for the future of democracy itself. Like any good fight, it requires action — in this case, both online and off. And if we fail to address the weaponization of gendered disinformation now, the next battlefield could be much nearer to home.

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thecruellestmonth · 2 years ago

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Some verified aid organizations

🥣 Gaza Soup Kitchen (featured on NPR)

➕ Palestinian Red Crescent Society

Khartoum Aid Kitchen

ℹ️ [Help for fundraisers] Getting your fundraiser verified and promoted

🌿 Operation Olive Branch - support Gazans in need

More action

[USA] How you can help - U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights

PrivacyGuides.org: pro-privacy alternatives to Google services

Receive commissions in exchange for donations, for as low as $5

--- fandom stuff ---

This blog contains a lot of Jason Todd. He is not my son; he is not my boyfriend; I don't particularly want him to be successful, happy, healthy, or proven right—he is a specimen that I study, and I'm also his defense lawyer calling for the proceedings against him to be declared a mistrial.

Some helpful newbie guides

https://jasonbasics.carrd.co/

Jason Todd comics and other media guide (Carrd) and guide on Tumblr by @dailyjasontodd

Robin Jason comic recs by @robiinjason

Guide to the Batfam by @comic-commentary

Hoopla Digital (US & Canada)

Masterposts and meta

jason todd meta list by sasheneskywalker

Cassandra Cain Meta List by casscainmainly

Jason + cops

Jason + literature

List of Red Hood's weapons/gadgets/toys (in Winick comics) by sang-i-fetge

Does Jason support the death penalty? (No, he doesn't.)

Jason and Steph are smart by wonderwondered

Robin II: DC Animated Universe and source material - comics influences and parallels on the DCAU's second Robin

Jason vs security

Jason’s knife skills by wonderwondered

Jason's lesser-known skills by wonderwondered

Jason's fighting skills by wonderwondered

How does Jason feel about Sheila Haywood?

Jason + Lazarus Pit influence on behavior? (to be updated and expanded)

Known canon blood types of various Gotham-based characters

Jason's trust issues and bond with Dick (2023)

Jason + dogs - fondness for dogs (and cats)

Jason's numerous crimes and atrocities by wonderwondered

Is Jason known to be a Wonder Woman fan? (Kinda, but Diana isn't his favorite Wonder Woman.)

books and articles about about comics, superheroes, dc and batman by sasheneskywalker

quick & dirty guide to Jason Todd in the modern masterpiece Batman: Battle for the Cowl by Tony Daniel

How many times has Jason Todd tried to murder Tim Drake and Damian Wayne? (once: Battle for the Cowl by Tony Daniel)

Some other blogs: @dailyjasontodd, comic-commentary (inactive), fuckyeahjasontodd.tumblr.com (inactive), @theunavenged, robiinjason.tumblr.com

Fan fiction recommendations

Jason Todd 2022 fan fiction recs

Jason Todd 2023 fan fiction recs

Dick Grayson & Jason fic recs

Stephanie Brown & Jason fic recs

Bruce Wayne & Jason fic recs: sweet and bittersweet

Cassandra Cain & Jason fic recs (FIGHT!)

A few random Steph fic recs (to be added)

Various Cassandra Cain fic recs (to be added)

Spooky Jason fics recs (for Halloween season)

FANLORE Wiki

some Jason angst fics

#PIN #fic rec #fic rec list #fanfic rec #Instagram

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kordeliiius · 5 months ago

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Promoting this on behalf of @aboodmush

The latest updates include a firsthand account of yesterday's attack on Nuseirat refugee camp, here's a preview:

Current campaign progress is 8,866 / 20,000 EUR. Current goalpost is 10,000 EUR and it's clearly in sight!! Please continue helping Abood @aboodmush so he can escape.

#fundraiser #palestine #free palestine #palestinian genocide #gaza #gaza strip #free gaza #gaza under attack #nuseirat massacre #nuseirat refugee camp #khan younis #aid #mutual aid #mutual funds #gofundme #gazafunds #palestinian lives matter #israel

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deafmangoes · 9 months ago

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The other annoying thing about procedural algorithms is that they don't need to be trained on other people's data. Yes, I know they need vast amounts of data to be of any accuracy or use, but there's a whole wealth of world literature that's not under copyright. It's all free to use.

Now, maybe they already started with that, but somehow I doubt it. I think these companies simply decided it would be too much effort to locate, source, digitise and label all the stuff that's actually out there for free, and instead just do backhanded deals with platform owners for user data.

In the latest Staff post, I note that one exception to sale was content shared to Tumblr by third-party companies for advertising campaigns and the like.

So just to reiterate, not only will they take your thoughts, feelings, jokes, anecdotes, stories, photographs, artworks - hell, even your porn - and sell it to be mulched into so-much digital pulp, but corporations are exempt from this because they have more rights than you do.

#fuck “ai”#anti ai #fuck ai #copyright is dead and we have killed it #okay that's probably itself a good thing but still

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originalleftist · 3 months ago

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Kamala Harris will host a campaign rally in Pennsylvanian on Tuesday August 6th, where she will reportedly appear with her running mate!

So, VP will be confirmed by August 6th at the latest- this makes sense I suppose, to meet the August 7th Ohio ballot deadline. It also suggests to me (if they're announcing this now) that she has already made a decision.

I wonder if making the first joint appearance in Pennsylvania is a sign she picked Governor Shapiro. That would be a bold choice, but a contentious one, given Shapiro's history of strong support of Israel. Picking Shapiro is probably writing off much hope of Harris winning back much of the pro-Palestinian protest vote. However, he'd somewhat be a counter-balance to Harris, who is seen as more critical of Israel, and it's hard to argue with picking a guy who won the governorship of an absolutely crucial swing state by double digits.

He'd also be the first Jewish person on a major party Presidential ticket IIRC since Lieberman in 2000, and if elected, the first-ever Jewish VP.

Picking Shapiro would also say/reinforce some things about Harris's likely approach to campaigning- namely, that she's willing to be daring and gamble on the controversial choice, rather than going for the "safe" option (ie Walz or Kelly).

I can see the merits if that is her decision, much as I'd love Kelly (astronaut wins a lot of points with me).

Well, we'll see in (at the latest) a week.

#US #Politics #Election #2024 #Kamala Harris #Pennsylvania #Josh Shapiro #Tim Walz #Mark Kelly #Kamala Harris 2024 #Vote #Vote Blue

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togglesbloggle · 1 year ago

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I've noticed a lot less... consistency? Plot? Worldbuilding? In many of the more popular video games ever since I stopped chasing the latest AAA sensations. More than once I've made the mistake of asking what a game is 'about' only to get blank looks- I'm making a category error even by asking the question!

Here I'm thinking especially of the 'mega-hit' games like Fortnite, Dead by Daylight, that sort of thing; Overwatch is famously not even canon to itself. Though there's plenty of the type at all levels of popularity, especially among imitators of the heavyweights. They tend to stream well, so they build big fanbases on Twitch and so on, and often involve quick (~15-25 minute) pvp matches in a bounded arena. But there's a decent amount of variation within the 'lore-light' type; I bet most of the new Vampire Survivor microgenre probably qualifies from what I've seen. Even Minecraft might, if you're feeling expansive.

Anyway, I try to resist the impulse to Kids These Days about it- it's not like games with plot and worldbuilding stopped being made, after all, and BG3 proves that there's still voracious appetite for more elaborate constructions. And besides, these arena games have obvious inheritance from classic multiplayer shooters like Halo and Quake, even Goldeneye, so it's been coming for a long time, almost as long as digital gaming has been a thing. They just... stopped bothering to include the single player campaign, so to speak.

Actually, I think it's probably a side effect of video games getting more and more culturally mainstream across my lifespan. Try this thesis on for size: The more mainstream that electronic gaming becomes, the more it comes to resemble sports. Or maybe the reverse! Maybe you can triangulate towards millions upon millions of fans by deeply intuiting interesting things about the nature of sports, and using digital media to explore that landscape in unexpected ways. This is, genuinely, a really interesting trend to me- this thing where many of the elements that I personally enjoy most in games become, sort of, just different-colored jerseys on a small squad of players that are here primarily to test their virtuosity against some opponent.

They tell me that much of the fun of sports is in the narrative, but it's an emergent narrative between the teams and players themselves, something that flows from the contest itself rather than some writer in a studio somewhere. All this seems like a really interesting sort of thing to enjoy, and I'm fascinated by the thought that there's some giant mass of humanity that eternally finds its way back to this participatory storytelling style, no matter how hard the Tolkiens of the world build their own de novo narratives systematically.

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foodsies4me · 5 months ago

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Can we have a little bit of Chairman Meow, as a treat?

Of course! Here is a little snippet of Chairman Meow being adorable.💜

Magnus wakes up to a loud crash and a muffled curse that sounds suspiciously like Alexander. Looking over at the digital clock Magnus debates dozing for another ten to twenty minutes, the time it takes for Alexander to finish whatever he's cooking and join him back in bed, when a familiar yelp rings through the loft.

The sound is quickly followed by a worried-sounding Alexander and, narrowing his eyes in suspicion at whatever ploy his daemon is pulling, Magnus climbs out of bed.

He's careful to avoid startling a still-dozing Apollo, using his magic to ensure the pillow he's sleeping on doesn't move around and then, after quickly dressing himself in one of his night robes, Magnus heads over to the kitchen.

Only to see Alexander cradling a softly meowing Chairman. He's softly pressing on one of Chairman's front paws, immediately letting go when Chairman yelps again, the sound stretching into a whiny mewl that Magnus knows is fake.

"Shit," Alexander curses again, looking worriedly at the paw before he finally seems to notice Magnus' presence. Rather than greet im with a good morning or a kiss the way he usually would, though, Magnus suddenly finds himself with a handful of his daemon instead, Alexander's worried gaze still focused on his daemon and not him.

"I dropped the cinnamon powder when I was trying to make French Toast and I think Chairman Meow stepped on some glass. Can you heal him?"

Magnus opens his mouth to inform Alexander that Chairman Meow is perfectly capable of healing his own injuries himself when Chairman’s tail twitches in that particular way that promises sharp claws and revenge if Magnus doesn’t play along with Chairman’s act.

Magnus narrows his eyes at his daemon, not trying to hide his annoyance at Chairman’s latest attempt at monopolizing Alexander’s time and attention. Wants to be annoyed that Chairman worried Alexander with his machinations while another part of him wonders how Alexander managed to be fooled in the first place considering he’s seen Chairman get struck by a seraph blade and brush it off like nothing happened and take down a wyvern with his size and teeth alone.

Inwardly scowling at his daemons ongoing campaign to monopolize his boyfriends affections, Magnus does as requested and heals the (non-existent) injury before walking over to Chairman’s brand new cat tree to leave home there and away from Alexander.

Only for Chairman to let out another, small pitiful sound, his eyes large and pleading as he looks at Alexander to be picked back up again before Magnus manages to get his morning kiss. Again.

I’m going to portal you to North Pole and leave you there, Magnusthreatens Chairman through their bond.

The smug look Chairman shoots him from Alexander’s arms tells him he isn’t impressed by the threat. Or it could be because he’s got what he wanted and is getting coddled by Alexander with one arm while Alexander gets back to finishing up the French toast once Magnus has banished the broken shards of glass and summoned a new container of cinnamon powder.

The sound of flapping wings ring through the loft right as Magnus finishes setting the table, Apollo landing on the sown-in shoulder pad on Magnus’ night robe before a little beak starts to nibble on his earrings in greeting.

“Good morning, darling,” Magnus greets, running his fingers over the back of Apollo’s neck to gently scratch there when his feathers fluff up in joy. “It’s good to know some people still care about little old me.”

Alexander rolls his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips as he turns off the stove and places the French toast on the table. “Who do you think I’m making this for?” He asks, lifting the plate with the mountain of toast for emphasis. “I even went down to buy the jam you like.”

“You know I’m just teasing you, darling” Magnus says, pressing a kiss to Alexander’s lips when he sits down next to him at the table. He lifts his hand to rest on the back of Alexander’s neck when he pulls back, lightly scratching his nails down the back of Alexander’s neck.

Magnus repeats the gesture a second time, relishing in the way Alexander melts into the touch with a breathy shudder before he pulls back again, shooting Chairman a smug grin in return.

If his daemon wants to play, then he’ll play. But that doesn’t mean he’ll play fair.

#Foodsies writes #Foodsies rambles #Chairman meow being a little menace #Magnus is jealous even though he won’t admit it #thanks for asking

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