#Southeast Division

[sfppn]

From the Pop Culture Bunker 292

It's Summer Price Madness: The Southeast Division!

FTPCB 292

[kissingwookiees]

watching any western conference game as an east coast nhl fan

[theresattrpgforthat]

hi! have you seen the TTRPGS for Palestine bundle yet? and do you have any recommendations from it

https://tiltify.com/@jesthehuman/ttrpgs-for-palestine

THEME: TTRPGS for Palestine

The TTRPGs for Palestine Bundle is going from April 12 to May 7, so there's not much time left to get it, but here's some recommendations of some really awesome games that you can find in it.

Gubat Banwa, by makapatag.

GUBAT BANWA is a Martial Arts Tactics and War Drama Tabletop RPG where you play as martial artists poised to change the world: Kadungganan: the cavalry, the wandering swordsmen, the tide turners, the knights-errant, the ones to call in darkest night in a world inspired and centering Southeast Asian folklore.

Witness, grand warriors, honorable gallants that trudge and toil under kings and haloes. Witness, KADUNGGANAN, that refulgent name. That blasted name: WITNESS NOW. The end of days is upon us: and the new world MUST BE BORN. Bear your blades, incant your magicks. Cut open your tomorrow from the womb of violence. Inscribe your name upon the very akasha of this world. 

Gubat Banwa is designed for fans of 4th edition D&D, with in-depth character abilities that make you feel both unique and powerful, in a colourful and flavourful world full of vibrant cultures and clashing conflicts. The game uses an action economy with different action options carrying different weights, which also reminds me quite a bit of Lancer. If you want a game that pushes you to strategize with your friends and weigh your advancement options carefully, you want Gubat Banwa.

Gun & Slinger, by Nevyn Holmes.

GUN&SLINGER is an RPG geared for short, episodic sessions about a weapon and a wanderer. A Maestro and two players (Gun and Slinger) set out into a dead planet mutated by a god's forgotten child and hunt strange bounties, investigate the world and unlock hidden powers. During play, they seek to learn the nature of what’s hunting the Slinger, figure out why the Gun is sentient and discover how the world died.

This game is specifically for three players, using the rules of Go Fish as a resolution system. Gun & Slinger is all about using your resources to the best of their ability, and your resources might exist on your character sheet, but they also exist as cards in your hand.

What really intrigues me is the lore that’s baked into your character sheets. One of you is a wanderer in a twisted world, tempted by strange powers that guarantee to change you into a monster. One of you is a sentient magical gun, borne by that wanderer and designed to deliver death and pain.

Gun & Slinger has expansions included, allowing you to instead play as a wanderer possessed by a demon, a mech and a pilot fused as one, or someone who bears a cursed sword. I think the fact that it requires a small table and the fact that the characters’ lives are tied together makes this a high-stakes, terribly intimate game.

Apocalypse Frame, by Binary Star Games.

In a ruined and terraformed world where most of humanity is under the yoke of a brutal regime, the former workers of a once-remote factory - now known as The Collective - have risen up to create a future of freedom from oppression. You are an Ace - a highly skilled pilot referred from a Division in The Collective and assigned a humanoid combat vehicle known as a Frame. You and your Strike Team of fellow Aces must take on The Collective’s greatest threats, ensure its survival, and carve a path for its continued success.

Apocalypse Frame takes mechs and fits them into the LUMEN system, which centres competency as well as fast but effective rounds of combat. The game includes a variety of different threats, allowing you to tailor your campaign to your group’s tastes, and the tailoring doesn’t stop there. You choose both a division that your character belongs to, and then one of three mechs within that division, allowing players to share similar fighting styles but differ in weapons. You can also modify your basic frame, adding general modular systems alongside systems and armaments that can come with your mech, making character creation and progression exciting for folks who love tweaking and tailoring to their heart’s content.

If you’re a fan of Armored Core or Battletech, you’ll want to check out Apocalypse Frame.

Here, There Be Monsters!, by wendi yu.

No matter what they tell you, there’s still weirdness and wonder everywhere. You just have to know where to look. At the edges and cracks of ‘normal’ life we exist, we persist, and we resist: the monsters, the magicians, the anomalies, the freaks, and the outcasts. We gather in the shadows, trying our best to live our lives in a world that, when it doesn’t exactly fear or hate us, doesn't even believe in our existence.

here, there, be monsters! is a rules-lite response to monster-hunting media from the monsters' point of view. It's both a love letter and a middle finger to stuff like Hellboy (and the BPRD), the SCP Foundation, the Men in Black, the World of Darkness games and the Urban Fantasy genre in general. It is an explicitly queer, antifascist and anti-capitalist game about the monstrous and the weird, in any flavor you want, not as something to be feared, but to be cherished and protected.

Here, There, Be Monsters is a love-letter to anyone who has been made to feel monstrous, as well as an homage to media such as Hellboy, the SCP Foundation, and Men in Black. It’s urban fantasy meets organized power structures, and as the monsters, you’re here to burn those structures down.

This game uses descriptive tags to slap onto your characters to represent what they can do. You can choose from a number of different monster character backgrounds to give you guidance towards, and there’s plenty of monsters both in the base game and in the game jam wendi ran back in 2022. If you want a game of power, anti-capitalism, and punching up, this is the game for you.

Pale Dot, by Devin Nelson.

Pale Dot is a collaborative storytelling game for 2-5 players about a crew of non-human cosmonauts leaving their planet to explore a strange solar system, finding threads to unravel the unknown along the way. It is fantastical, surreal, and perhaps very unlike humanity’s own ventures in space exploration. Though one thing is universal: leaving home is terrifying, dangerous, humbling, and a catalyst for changing one’s perspective. 

Pale Dot is a GM-less game where players work together to create an alien setting and subsequently envelop it in cosmic mystery, embodying cosmonauts called Dustlings, as well as one of 5 different settings. During their journey they will be able to travel to 24 different locations within their solar system, each with several prompts for improvisational scenes. Each player will also have to manage the integrity of their cosmonaut and their shared ship while avoiding space's many perils.

The cover for Pale Dot gripped me the first time I saw it; a tiny creature in an astronaut suit, looking up in fear at something in the sky, as vegetation blooms inside their helmet. You play as the Dustlings, non-human but sentient species exploring the Cosmos, a strange, horrifying and wonderful universe that changes those who venture into it.

Mechanically, Pale Dot uses a GM-less structure similar to Dream Askew, but there feels to be a much bigger emphasis on the setting your cosmonauts explore, rather than the cosmonauts themselves. Your characters are assembled traits, drives and equipment, almost all of which can be expended to cause or solve problems. Each player is also responsible for at least one setting element, such as The Cosmic Wilderness, The Wondrous Endeavour, or The Omnipresent Danger. As you visit locations, different elements will be prompted to influence the scene, while your cosmonauts try to navigate the scene and try to finish the mission. If you want a game that is collaborative and evocative, I definitely recommend Pale Dot.

Fractal Romance, by Ostrichmonkey Games.

A never ending abstract landscape of rhythm and soft glamour. Wander the halls, rooms, and chambers. Encounter strange Denizens and get to know them better; befriend them, fall in love, just chill. Try and fill out your own blurred edges. Fractal Romance is a tabletop role playing hangout. You will pick up a character to play and explore the Fractal Palace, generating its infinite sprawl and the Denizens that inhabit it, as you play.

Fractal Romance is all about searching; for something you need, something you want, or even for who you are. It feels rather surreal, perhaps like a dream dimension that you are moving through. The game uses a deck of cards to generate rooms, as well as the denizens of this gigantic, dream-like palace. This game uses rather simplistic playbooks, each asking you to choose three descriptive words, and then uses cards to fuel your character’s actions: you have things you can always do, things that cost a card to do, and things that you must do in order to draw another card.

If what you want out of a game is a chill time with friends, moving from one vibe to another, and generating emotional stories for your characters, you might want to check out Fractal Romance.

Himbos of Myth and Mettle, by huge boar.

You are big. Big arms, big tits, big thighs, big brai- you're big where it matters. In addition to a heaving, throbbing body, glistening lightly with a thin sheen of pleasantly fragrant perspirant, you have one singular unifying trait  - come hell or high water, you are going to help.

Himbos of Myth & Mettle is a high fantasy, high camp role playing game of epic proportions (of body), for 2-5 players, one of whom will act as Game Guide.  The rules center around a simple roll under mechanic and prioritize narrative flair and cinematic descriptions. Himbos is inspired by many classic fantasy properties (and could be considered OSR adjacent) , but leans towards a more garish, salacious and queer (gay or odd, pick your fighter) style of play. It is designed with comedy and flamboyance in mind, but is not without it deeper and darker touches. It's definitely not grimdark, but there will probably be blood. Think classic fantasy pulp in style, but contemporary sensibilities, modern rules-lite mechanics, and a player philosophy centred in helping, kindness and being fucking hot.

I’ve heard rave reviews for Himbos, and I think the idea of leading an entire group of well-meaning but possibly over-ambitious adventurers is a great set-up for a game full of laughs. Himbos is very much designed for a light-hearted evening of fun, flirting, and fucking up (but in the best way).

Other Games from the Bundle I've Recommended:

Space Taxi, and Creation Myths, by GothHoblin.

Caltrop Core, by Titanomachy.

Souvenirs, by Rémi Töötätä.

Thunder in Our Hearts, by Marn. S.

Eldritch Courts of Some Repute, by AlanofAllTrades.

[usafphantom2]

The Blackbird crew who flew 15,000 miles, in 10 hours 30 minutes non-stop to see how many times the SR-71 could refuel before the liquid nitrogen gave out

J58 engine

SR-71 liquid nitrogen

Five aerial refuellings

SR-71 liquid nitrogen Dewar’s

J58 engine

The SR-71, unofficially known as the “Blackbird,” was a long-range, advanced, strategic reconnaissance aircraft. Throughout its nearly 24-year career, the SR-71 remained the world’s fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft. From 80,000 feet, it could survey 100,000 square miles of Earth’s surface per hour.

The SR-71 aircraft (like its forerunners, the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A prototype interceptor) is powered by two 34,000 lbf (151,240 N) thrust-class J58 afterburning turbojet engines.

The J58 engine was developed in the late 1950s by Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division of United Aircraft Corp. to meet a US Navy requirement. It was designed to operate at speeds of Mach 3+ and at altitudes of more than 80,000 feet. The J58 was the first engine designed to operate for extended periods using its afterburner, and it was the first engine to be flight-qualified at Mach 3 for the US Air Force (USAF).

CLICK HERE to see The Aviation Geek Club contributor Linda Sheffield’s T-shirt designs! Linda has a personal relationship with the SR-71 because her father Butch Sheffield flew the Blackbird from test flight in 1965 until 1973. Butch’s Granddaughter’s Lisa Burroughs and Susan Miller are graphic designers. They designed most of the merchandise that is for sale on Threadless. A percentage of the profits go to Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. This nonprofit charity is personal to the Sheffield family because they are raising money to house SR-71, #955. This was the first Blackbird that Butch Sheffield flew on Oct. 4, 1965.

SR-71 liquid nitrogen

An engineering marvel, the J58 had a single-shaft rotor design with a novel compressor bleed bypass when in extreme high-speed operation. What made this engine so unique is the six bypass tubes, which directed airflow from the compressor stage directly into the afterburner. This allowed the Blackbird to operate at a much higher fuel efficiency than other afterburning jet engines when in full afterburner (AB).

On Apr. 26, 1971, pilot Lt. Col. Thomas Estes and RSO Lt. Col. Dewain Vick (he and his family were one of my neighbors at Beale AFB) flew SR-71 #968 15,000 miles in 10 hours 30 minutes non-stop on a grueling marathon mission to test the endurance of the J58 engines and the Blackbird airframe, but mostly to see how many times they could refuel before the liquid nitrogen gave out. At Blackbird speeds and temperatures, oxygen becomes explosive and can spontaneously ignite in the tanks and fuel lines. In order to prevent this, all 6 fuel tanks are purged with pure nitrogen before being filled.

The Blackbird also carries 260 liters of liquid nitrogen in 3 dewars [for this flight the SR-71 only had 2 – 106 liter liquid nitrogen dewars. The 3rd 50 liter dewar was added in the mid 1980’s]. This nitrogen expands into its gaseous form as it is pumped into the fuel tanks to top them off as fuel is consumed. Without the nitrogen, the empty fuel tanks would cavitate from the increased pressure when returning to lower altitudes to refuel.*

Five aerial refuellings

Taking off from Beale AFB in California, they flew 2 laps around the continental United States via Missoula, Montana; east to Bismark, ND; southeast to Peoria, IL; east to Columbus, OH; southeast to Cape Hatteras, NC; southwest to Gainsville, FL; south to Tampa, FL; west to San Antonio, TX; northwest to El Paso, TX; west to El Centro, CA; then back to Beale AFB. Once the second lap was complete, they entered the third lap and turned south at Bismark, for Santa Fe, NM; then west to Las Vegas, NV; then finally back to Beale (flight plan via Ron Kloetzli). This 15,000 mile, 10.5 hour flight required five aerial refuellings. After the flight the aircraft was thoroughly examined and found to be none the worse for the experience. The SR-71 remains to this day the only aircraft rated to run in full continuous afterburner.

I interviewed Colonel Shelton about his 13-hour flight during the Yom Kippur war. And he said that after a long flight like this his adrenaline was hyped up so high that he was unable to sleep even though he was exhausted.

To help with his adrenaline being on overdrive he would go for a long walk to settle down.

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. Dawn at 80.000ft – SR-71 Blackbird

SR-71 liquid nitrogen Dewar’s

On Sep. 20, 1971, Estes and Vick were awarded the 1972 Harmon International Trophy by President Richard Nixon for their accomplishment. They were also awarded the 1971 Mackay Trophy for the same flight.

*Crew Chief Floyd Jones explains: ‘The SR-71 does have three LN2 Dewar’s, two in nose wheel and the third in the left chine are just outboard of K bay. The LN2 goes from the Dewar’s to coils (heat exchange) in tanks 1 and 3 that turns the Liquid into gasses of nitrogen. The wing tanks are the ones that have the worse leaks. Reason being that during the in-flight refueling tanks 3 & 6 are empty during the refueling the excess Hot tanks and the very Cold Fuel cause the Tank Sealant to fracture (crack) causing leaks.’

Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Twitter X Page Habubrats SR-71, Instagram Page SR71Habubrats and Facebook Page Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Habubrats for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.

Source www.Habu.org

@Habubrats71 via X

[mariacallous]

The kids are all grown up. In the face of international law enforcement pressure, dozens of prosecutions, and worldwide disrepute, the network of young sadists, misanthropes, child predators, and extortionists known as Com and 764 has not shrunk away into obscurity.

Rather, its members have progressed from online extortion and crimes related to child sexual abuse material, to real-world violence, a trajectory that alarms extremism researchers and government officials alike. Knifings, killings, firebombings, drive-by shootings, school shootings, and murder-for-hire plots in North America and Europe have all been connected to a splinter group called “No Lives Matter” that, per the group’s own manifesto, “idolizes death” and “seeks the purification of all mankind through endless attacks.” The group has released at least two “kill guides” that have been connected to violent attacks and plots in Europe and the United States.

The US Department of Justice classifies Com and 764 as a “Tier One” terrorism threat, the highest priority afforded to an extremist group, ideology, or tendency in American law enforcement’s internal rubric. Intelligence documents reviewed by WIRED show a stream of concern from analysts about the group’s harm to juvenile exploitation victims and the growing exhortations to physical violence that embody the No Lives Matter ethos.

However, the phenomenon has proved incredibly hard to combat due to a lack of coherent structure or ideology. Along with the insidious neo-Nazi propaganda group the Terrorgram Collective, over the past four years, Com/764 has morphed into a twisted amalgam of the Columbine Effect and older domestic terror groups like the Atomwaffen Division: Young extortionists and assailants egg each other on to progressively more lurid and debased acts of violence for the sake of internet notoriety and status.

In response, Western governments have employed terrorism charges against young people accused of conspiring to kill homeless people or phoning in bomb threats to schools and religious institutions beyond their own borders. In the United Kingdom, the Crown Prosecution Service recently secured a six-year prison term for 19-year-old Cameron Finnegan, who went by the handle “Acid,” for a raft of 764-related offenses, including possessing CSAM, urging young people to kill themselves, and possessing a “kill manual” authored by No Lives Matter adherents, replete with viable instructions for carrying out lethal attacks with knives, firearms, and vehicles.

"We want to make the public aware of [Com/764]," Detective Chief Superintendent Claire Finlay, the head of Counter Terrorism Policing Southeast, told the BBC following Finnegan’s guilty plea in January. "The threat that they pose, not just within the United Kingdom but globally, is immense."

According to senior DOJ officials who were granted anonymity to speak about internal law enforcement matters, the feds have come across related cases in every field office in the US. US authorities are so hell-bent on pursuing this trend that they are trying to extradite a 17-year-old Romanian boy who prosecutors at the Southern District of New York claim took part in exploiting minors and soliciting and distributing CSAM. The teenager also faces US terrorism charges for allegedly phoning in several hundred bomb threats to dozens of schools and institutions in the US as part of 764 and its splinter groups, according to information obtained by this reporter.

"We’ve seen a lot of hybrid movements and ideologies, new trends that we can’t categorize under the traditional categories,” says Bàrbara Molas, a senior analyst at RAND Europe who specializes in far-right extremism and who testified as an expert witness for the prosecution in Finnegan’s recent Com/764-related case.

For Molas, Com/764 represents that type of hybridity, where participants in the network will pick and choose elements from a series of discrete ideologies—neo-Nazism; the satanist group Order of Nine Angles, which has become prevalent throughout the most transgressive spheres of the transnational far right; Ted-Kaczynski-inspired neo-Luddism—and assemble their own belief pantheon.

“When 764 was only about CSAM, their targets tended to be women—but specifically women from diminished social groups, who were seen as the weak party of society,” Molas says. “That ideal of imposing violence on this part of society has carried on and become more violent.” When members of the network commit violence in the name of the group, Molas says, it “helps them rise within the group and advance the larger cause, which is to change society through violence and chaos.”

The lodestar for this transition towards wanton violence is a German teenager named Nino Luciano, who went by the handle “Tobbz” within 764. Sent to live in a foster home in Romania because his mental illnesses overwhelmed the capacity of institutions in his home country, Tobbz was drawn into 764 during the Covid-19 pandemic and quickly became enthralled with the group, daubing its name on a wall in his room and tattooing himself with “764” and a septagram from the Order of Nine Angles. In March 2022, he committed and livestreamed a series of knife attacks, stabbing an elderly woman to death and severely wounding an old man. He was convicted in August 2023 and is serving 14 years in prison.

Tobbz’s behavior inspired other young extremists in the Com/764 network, who have since either tried to emulate his livestreamed attacks or commit similar acts of violence to boost their notoriety and status within their extremist peer group. No Lives Matter’s exhortations to commit mass casualty events and distribution of detailed guides to violence are patterned off Tobbz’s example, according to experts who’ve studied the network.

Baron Martin, a resident of Tucson, Arizona, was charged in federal court with cyberstalking and sexual exploitation of a child that included the production of CSAM. According to court records, the government also accused Martin of soliciting the murder of the grandmother of one of his victims under the handle “Convict.” He allegedly sent the following message to a Discord server, court records show: “know anyone in [state] thats willing to do kidnappings or shootings...i need someone to tobbz a grandma. Somebody wanted to dox one of my egirls. now I’m getting their grandma merked.” The use of “Tobbz” as a synonym for murder was not casual: Martin allegedly offered to pay another user to carry out the hit, which was never realized.

According to court documents, Martin, through his handle, was connected to authoring a detailed guide widely distributed in 764’s channels on how to groom victims for extortion, which the FBI claims Martin bragged online was “the catalyst for thousands of extortions.” (Martin has pleaded not guilty.)

Molas, of RAND Europe, says Martin’s alleged path from extortion to soliciting a homicide traces a familiar path of transgressive behavior often seen in Com/764’s online world. “They’ll start with little acts of sin—shoplifting, then robberies, abuse of minors, weapons violations, then all the way up to kidnapping and murder,” Molas says.

In mid-February, Jairo Tinajero, a 25-year-old Arkansas man who took part in the 764 splinter group 8884, pleaded guilty to CSAM and conspiracy charges for extorting an underage girl in Louisville, Kentucky. According to his plea agreement, Tinajero confessed to plotting to kill the girl once she stopped complying with him, posting her address and personal information about her and her family family in 764’s servers, unsuccessfully trying to buy an assault rifle, and talking through a murder plot with other 764 members.

Tinajero also admitted taking part in 764 online chats where prior mass casualty attacks were discussed along with “future attacks on heavily populated areas such as malls or other large gatherings, LGBTQ+ events and gatherings, schools, public places, government buildings and police stations” with the intent to “destabilize society and cause the collapse of governments and rule of law.”

Most recently, neo-Nazi Aidan Harding’s inspiration from 764 was brought up during a mid-February federal court hearing for CSAM possession charges. In addition to participating in public actions with a number of Pittsburgh-area extremist groups, prosecutors claimed that Harding and another man were deeply interested in the Columbine massacre, visiting the memorial in Littleton, Colorado, and posing for a photo in front of a swastika flag while dressed as Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. “Eric and Dylan were kickstarting a revolution,” Harding wrote in a message, which prosecutors showed in court. Harding and the other man, who hasn’t been charged, also discussed carrying out mass shootings through Instagram direct messages, which were presented in court. “The only thing holding me back is a partner … I don’t want to do it alone or die alone,” Harding wrote.

According to two researchers who attended Harding’s three-and-a-half-hour court appearance related to probable cause on February 12, an FBI agent claimed during questioning that investigators found reams of videos depicting children being raped, ultraviolent videos of executions, and the extremist mass shootings in Buffalo, Nashville, and Columbine, along with a photo on Harding’s phone of a phrase daubed in blood: “I sold my soul to 764,” above a swastika and a Lviathan cross often used by 764. Another photo, handed up to the judge and not shown in court, depicted the naked chest of a young girl wearing a cross, with the words “No Lives Matter” carved into her body with a sharp instrument.” Harding has pleaded not guilty.

The crimes described in court cases this year follow a months-long surge in No Lives Matter–related violence. In October, authorities claim, a 14-year-old Swede committed eight attacks on unsuspecting passersby in Stockholm. The attacker, per national broadcaster SVT, took part in 764 and went by the handle “Slain” in the group. Documents circulated by 764 participants on Telegram and elsewhere claim “Slain764” as one of their own, and identify Sweden, the UK, and Bulgaria as countries where their group has a presence.

In mid-February, Italian police arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of planning to murder a homeless man and livestream the act. Police said the teenager was reportedly involved in 764 and faces charges for explosives possession and possession of CSAM material. Italian authorities claim he planned his actions as part of a “week of terror” along with unspecified colleagues.

There is also evidence of 764’s praxis and imagery merging with that of the Terrorgram Collective, a neo-Nazi propaganda network that aims to radicalize young people and inspire solo acts of sabotage and mass murder.

Solomon Henderson, a Tennessee teenager whom police said shot up his high school last month, posted a sprawling manifesto that referenced both mass shooters inspired by Terrorgram as well as homicidal 764 members, including Tobbz. Henderson’s social media accounts also show extensive imagery from 764’s channels as well as the Order of Nine Angles “The influence I see most heavily in that agenda is the Order of Nine Angles,” Molas says.

That confluence of extremist inspirations is highly unpredictable, and may prove influential: There is reportedly evidence that social media accounts connected to Henderson may have communicated with accounts linked to Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, a young Wisconsin woman who killed two and wounded classmates in a mid-December shooting at her school before dying by suicide. Earlier in December, a high school student in Guadalajara, Mexico, livestreamed an axe attack on his classmates before they were able to subdue him. The young man’s social media posts were rife with O9A influence, including photos of himself with butchered animals and another with a blood pact, a common O9A practice.

[vintagelasvegas]

Dean Martin at Las Vegas Country Club, undated circa '69-'71

History of Las Vegas Country Club

aka Las Vegas International Country & Tennis Club ('67-69), Bonanza Country Club ('69-70), Las Vegas Country Club (1971-)

In the mid 60s the former Las Vegas Park Race Track was defunct and the landowner was dead. The estate of Joe W. Brown sold the property in '65 to National Equities Inc., a division of Levin-Townsend Computer Corp.

Chairman Marvin Kratter developed the country club. It opened Oct. ‘67 as International Country Club. The name was changed to Bonanza Country Club in Apr. ‘69 after Levin-Townsend bought the Bonanza Hotel & Casino. The property was sold late ‘70 to Realty Holdings (Moe Dalitz, Harry Lahr, Nate Adelson and Irwin Molasky) who renamed it Las Vegas Country Club. It became a private country club in ‘71, and eventually an equity membership Club that has operated as such to this date.

While the country club was being developed National Equities sold some 60 acres to Kirk Kerkorian for The International Hotel, and 20 acres to Clark County for an expansion of the Convention Center. The southeast section was saved for what would be come Regency Towers, Las Vegas’ first residential high-rise.

• Photos of Las Vegas Country Club

All photos from Las Vegas Country Club. Below: (1) Marvin Kratter (center), others unknown, at a groundbreaking ceremony after the country club was already open. (2) Invitation to the opening of International Country Club. (3) Clubhouse. 3000 Joe W. Brown Dr, Las Vegas.

Sources. Race Track Site of New LV Project. Review-Journal, 8/9/65; International Country Club Golf Club Here. Review-Journal, 12/26/65; New Country Club and Golf Course. Review-Journal, 7/16/67; International Country Club Given New Name. Review-Journal, 4/13/69; Bonanza Golf Club, land sold. Review-Journal, 11/4/70.

[cursedreverie1945]

Fritz Klingenberg (I think) with a K98K.

On 21 December 1944, Fritz Klingenberg was promoted to SS-Standartenführer and two weeks later (on 12 January 1945) was appointed to command the SS Division Götz von Berlichingen. The division was attached to XIII SS Corps, defending southeast of Saarbrücken against the XV Corps of the Seventh United States Army. On 23 March 1945, Klingenberg was killed by a tank shell during a firefight on the western edge of Herxheim and is buried at the German War Cemetery in Andilly, France.

[captain-price-unofficially]

The 69th Infantry Division fighting through Leipzig, Germany on April 18, 1945. The Shermans seen throughout this film belong to the 777th Tank Battalion, although armor support for the attack was also provided by the 661st Tank Destroyer Battalion.

According to the division’s official postwar history, it would seem the division attacked Leipzig from three different directions. The history noted, “The Corps Commander planned for us to come in from behind and drive from the east to the west after the armor swept to positions north and east of the city from which they could block reinforcements. One infantry regiment in accordance with the plans swung wide behind the armor and went into position generally north of an E-W line running through the center of the city. The second regiment was to swing into position south of the northern regiment so as to drive into the city in a northwesterly direction. The third regiment, which was already fighting on the south of the city, was to continue its advance to the north.” The division’s history also noted that the regiment in the south met significant resistance and heavy fortifications; apparently the Germans expected an attack from the south or southeast and had bolstered up that flank in particular.

[gemsofgreece]

Do greeks consider themselves as eastern european/balkan or do you hate that ? In france, the greek diaspora consider itself eastern euro and feels a bond with other balkaners, unlike the italians and french e.g, BUT on the english speaking internet it is the whole opposite, you seemed to be offended being called something else than southern european. I remember having an argument on reddit where i was saying that greece is EE because commie times arent a good indicators as it was 30 years ago for only 45 years while the old latin west greek east (catholic vs orthodox, rome vs constantinople) division was better as it lasted 2000 years, on top of being ottoman for 4 centuries which was the OG meaning of balkans and that in southEAST europe there is EAST. But all of the greeks said that they were 100% south europe only like the pigs and not e.g montenegro and that they were actually closer to WE.

The average greek and your thoughts on this ?

I can't speak for the average Greek because there's a joke saying "in the room there are three Greeks and seven opinions", you know...

Balkans and East Europe are not synonyms. The Balkans are a small part in the south of East Europe. Greeks are Balkaners to the core but the more you reach into the north fringes of the Balkans and farther towards North East Europe, the similarities start falling apart. In this sense, Greece is indeed more South Europe than East Europe because Greece has similarities with pretty much all South European countries, even Portugal, and it has fewer similarities with, say, the Baltic countries or Poland or Hungary. Personally, I think the region of noticeable similarities to Greece end somewhere across Croatia and Romania. In the East the similarities may extend farther in the countries where Orthodoxy is the prevalent religion so well into Southwest Russia and then towards Caucasus. Anyway my point is, a Greek will likely get more easily along with a Catholic Spanish or a Portuguese person than with a Catholic Slovenian or Hungarian person who are far closer geographically. Therefore, Greece is indeed more South Europe than East Europe.

The Greek people you noticed who did not get along with French or Italians, that's probably incidental. Typically Greeks get along with both South Europeans and other Balkaners, with the southern Greeks and islanders gravitating towards the former and northern Greeks gravitating towards the latter. Perhaps those Greeks were Northern Greeks. Perhaps they also bonded with other Balkaners on the basis of both being immigrants, as opposed to the local French.

Greece is Southeast and Balkan Europe, therefore it is East Europe by definition. The problem is that a) nowadays Greeks have very poor knowledge of history and b) there is this unfortunate stereotype permeating across the continent that tRuE Europe = Northwest Europe and that the east is backwards and underdeveloped. And because Greece is ALSO a honorary member of West Europe, Greeks have latched on this “convenient” opportunity to at least verbally distance themselves from East Europe, losing parts of their identity and their understanding of it in the process.

Now you may ask “what the hell is a honorary member of West Europe”. Well, Greece. Because of this whole “cradle of western civilisation” thing, the West honorarily accepts Greece as part of Western Europe. I don’t know if people realise that while it’s good when someone tells you “I want you to be part of us out of honour”, it’s extremely problematic in its essence because it screams the inherent superiority syndrome of West Europe. “We have picked up your entire culture so we allow you to be considered West Europe.” Well, thanks, but no thanks, folks.

Take a look at that:

See? It was not just angry Reddit Greeks. This is technically the "official" international stance on the matter.

There are in fact even foreign people who don't think Greece is part of the Balkans at all, which is insane because why would you even call it Balkan "peninsula" if not for Greece being in it??????? I repeat, Greece is 100% a Balkan country. Not only that but Greeks are one of the four Palaeo-Balkan peoples (Greeks - Thracians - Illyrians - Dacians).

And here’s where I am going to add one more layer to your mail, the biggest misconception about the Greeks, the one that the foreigners are just as guilty of, if not even more; you said, Greeks are more Eastern Europeans because of East Rome / Byzantine Empire and Ottomans. Well, that’s only part of it. There is simply no part of Greek history that is not eastern because the Ancient Greek was an eastern civilisation! One of the major ancient civilisations springing from the culture hub of the Near East and its periphery. Greeks interacted for centuries with Egyptians, Persians, Hittites, Phoenicians etc before they finally interacted with westerners, the Romans, and to whom they culturally gave more than they took. But even that was forgotten in the Middle Ages in the west (but not in the eastern - of course - Roman / Byzantine Empire). The Ancient Greek heritage was only re-discovered in West Europe during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and that’s when West Europeans “remembered” suddenly that they are cultural children of the Ancient Greeks (well they aren’t, at least not organically) and therefore they now have to suffer modern Greece being acknowledged as part of the west because they don’t want to spell out that “Western Civilization” is just the formation of several western contemporary societies using elements from the foundations of an ancient Eastern Civilization. Westerners would love to think West sprang from a parthenogenesis but in truth the West sprang from the East.

So, yes, the Greeks started as Easterners, kept being Easterners and they are still Easterners. This however does not mean that they have all that many similarities to Eastern Europeans who expand on the north. Greeks have more connections to the south, the southwest and to the true east. They are technically less now though compared to all past periods of Greece because it is only after the independence and the formation of the modern state that Greeks became so west-oriented. The reason for this was their urgent need to distance themselves as much as possible from Turkey and find allies and supporters in the west, who would be willing to aid and support in the basis of protecting “the cradle of the West”.

Here I must add that the West has indeed taken a lot from Ancient Greece and respects it way more than the East (due to the recent historical and religious developments there). All I say is it was not organic, it was not the natural evolution of the western culture. And I am not saying Greece should distance itself from the West. No, I do think we should have strong bonds and be companions and co-members and allies but that doesn’t mean we should rewrite history and erase our identity in the name of this alliance. I am fine with Greece being the most west-friendly country of East Europe, which it already is. I just wished Greeks celebrated more their Eastern identity, rekindled their relations to any potential alienated eastern friends and did not fall victims into one of the biggest historical propagandas and misconceptions there are: Ancient Greeks = Western and powerful versus Byzantine and Modern Greeks = Eastern therefore useless and different people.

To end this far too long ongoing discourse, Greeks are all the following:

Europeans

South Europeans

Balkaners

Mediterraneans

(not applying to everybody) descended from Anatolians - Greek Asians - from Asia Minor

East Europeans

currently so politically and financially western allied and so influential to the west that they are essentially perceived to function more like West Europeans than East Europeans, without however being true Western Europeans

[sharp-silver4795]

Creepypasta Mansion HC’s

Ok, I figured yall need to know my “au”(?) for creepypasta if we gonna keep doin this.

Once again, I’m gonna put headers and color codes. There are no warnings necessary.

Color code is by the amount of work each section has to do.

None >> Least >> Decent >> too much

Housing [General]

So I’m a bit conflicted on how I think about “mansion”- either the “traditional” idea of the mansion, or (my more main version) ⬇️

I can see it as “the mansion” is an area of land, and not an actual building. Each of the creeps are grouped in different ways to live together in groups of 3-4. I tend to lean towards this one. So, for these HCs I’m gonna stick to this version.

“The Mansion” is divided into four main sections:

True Mansion: the actual mansion. Only the Slenderman/Operator resides here.

Inner Mansion: the smallest occupied area of the mansion. That being said, it has no divisions. This is reserved for most of the Proxies.

Mid-Mansion: The largest collective area of the mansion. It has four divisions. It is the most occupied.

Outer-Mansion: The largest complete area of the mansion. Has no divisions. Has the least amount of occupants.

The rest of my head cannons are going to be sorted by these areas of the mansion. The true mansion will not be included for obvious reasons.

Inner Mansion

Occupants: Rogue Proxy, Zechariah, Wilson the Basher, Kate the Chaser, Masky, Hoodie, Kat Hunter, Neon Spike (OC)

One cabin with two levels. The girls are on the lower level, the boys are on the second.

They have the least amount of work due to no one actually being able to get that far into the mansion grounds.

Mid-Mansion: Game Freaks

The far western section of the mid manor.

Occupants: BEN Drowned, Lost Silver and Herobrine

It has one cabin with only one level, but they’re share rooms.

Mid-Mansion: Circus Freaks

Eastern most area. It actually has two cabins due to disputes between certain individuals

Despite being called “Circus Freaks” not all of them are based on a circus.

Southeast Occupants: Laughing Jack and Candy Pop

Northeast Occupants: Laughing Jill and Jason the Toymaker

Out of all the sections of the mid mansion, they have the least amount of work.

Mid-Mansion: Outsiders/Defensive Rebellion

So, backstory: there are two parts of the mansion called the “Rebellion”. This is because they don’t exactly “fit” with other creeps. They’re wildcards, if you will.

Called “Defensive Rebellion” because they are at the second North and South Levels.

There are two cabins, one in the north and one in the south.

Northern Occupants: Jane the Killer, Nina the Killer, Nathan the Nobody

Southern Occupants: Puppeteer, Clockwork, X-Virus

I will probably make a separate HC post for the proxies to explain why X-Virus is here.

The North does nothing. The south has a good bit on their hands though.

Outer-Mansion/Offensive Rebellion

Alright. The largest area of the mansion without divisions. That being said, they only have one cabin.

Occupants: Ticci Toby, Jeff the Killer, Eyeless Jack, and Liu Woods.

They have the most work due to this being the first area of the mansion.

Rather than being stationed, they kind of divide the land into two unequal zones and then those are split evenly between the two.

Jeff and Toby cover about 70% of the whole area of the OR. Jeff takes the West side and Toby takes the East side of it.

EJ and Liu cover the rest. Liu takes the East side and EJ takes the West side.

Other Stuff

To the south of the mansion grounds there is a highway that is right next to the city.

That being said, the south of the mansion is usually how people get in.

The mansion isn’t really big into fighting Zalgo and shit, they just protect the grounds for the most part.

Well, I hope ya liked this one. Sorry that my posts are kinda long, I just try to be thorough-

[transpondster]

At 12:24p.m. on the sunny spring afternoon of May 4, 1970, or 52 years ago this Wednesday, National Guardsmen patrolling the campus of Ohio’s Kent State University during a protest against America’s war in Southeast Asia — suddenly and with no warning, let alone rhyme or reason — turned, kneeled and fired 67 rounds of live ammunition into a crowd of students. Some 13 seconds later, nine young people lay wounded and four others — Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandy Scheuer and William Schroeder — were dead on the ground. Those 13 seconds changed America. A notion that had animated the boisterous 1960s — that America’s largest generation of young people, raised in post-World War II affluence and optimism, would change the world — seemed to also die on the hot asphalt of the parking lot where the victims fell. Even though no one to this day knows exactly who ordered the shots or why, many took what happened that May 4 as a warning: there are unwritten limits on dissent in the United States. What became known as the Kent State Massacre caused days of rage, including a nationwide strike that shut down dozens of campuses in spring 1970. It inspired a song — Crosby Stills Nash & Young’s “Ohio,” written by Neil Young — that still lights up FM radios, and it motivated the founders of the rock bandDevo and the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde(all enrolled at Kent State at the time of the shooting) to reject bourgeois life and become artists. More than a half-century later, some activists work to keep the memory of that day and the victims alive and to apply that spirit to protesting new wars or other outrages, in an echo of Young’s famous refrain, “How can you run when you know?” And yet there is something else about Kent State — or, more accurately, what it represents as the blood-soaked beginning of the end of an American youth movement — that we rarely talk about, even though this aftershock continues to affect tens of millions of people, most of whom weren’t even born on May 4, 1970. The shooting at this large Ohio public university, coming after years of similar youth-led protests from Berkeley to Columbia and everywhere in between, finally convinced a rising cohort of conservative “law and order” politicians that the movement toward making American higher education a public good — affordable and accessible to any young person wanting to better themselves — needed to end. What followed was the privatization of the American Way of College, a move to radically reduce taxpayer support for public universities, tuition that rose every year even more than health care costs, and the rise of a student-loan industrial complexthat saddled new generations with a $1.75 trillion debt bomb. The political divisions and cultural resentments caused by this crisis have split America in two.

And, 11 days later, police shot two students at Jackson State:

[along-the-silkroad]

"Karakhanid history starts to become clearer by the time of the mass conversion to Islam around 950 CE. It was Bughra Qara Khāqān Satuq (r. 942–955/60), the son or nephew of the ruler, who first embraced Islam in Artuj, a village not so far from Kashgar. Satuq then revolted against his overlord, conquered Kashgar, and continued to defend his newfound faith. This prompted many more Turks, traditionally held at “200,000 tents”, to follow suit and accept Islam.

By the reign of Satuq, Karakhanid power had spread into the Ferghana Valley and Zhetsyu. Control over the Ferghana Valley gave the Karakhanids enormous power. Through this fertile valley, in fact, ran one of the main arteries of the Silk Road, along the Jaxartes River, cushioned between the slopes of the Tian Shan and the Alay Mountain Range. To the north of the Ferghana Valley is Zhetsyu, also known as Semirechye, situated in the southeast of modern-day Kazakhstan and the north of Kyrgyzstan. Its name comes from the Kazakh for “Seven Rivers”. The region is bordered to the north by Lake Balkhash and to the south by the Tian Shan." -Olivier Goossens, Political History of the Kara-Khanid Khanate: From its Origins to the Division of the Empire - Read the full article on the website (link in bio) Photo: Tomb of Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan (r. 920–955 CE), the first Muslim khan of the Kara-Khanids, in Artush, Xinjiang

[preservationofnormalcy]

Are there any other harmful extranormal religions to look out for? Other than Radiant Heart, I mean.

I’ve actually been meaning to put out some information on this. We’ve been seeing a lot of weird stuff lately in certain areas of the country and we haven’t yet collated it into an official statement. I checked and I’m okay to give you a rundown of this ahead of a more detailed overview later on.

If you’re in the southeast of the United States, please keep an eye out for an organization of interest that seems to be self-identifying as Cult of the Coaxial. Currently several members of their organization are wanted for—

You might wanna put a content warning on this one, Norm.

Oh, right. That’s smart. You okay?

I hear hold music in my head when my phone is across the room.

Yeah, that’ll do it. Anyway, uh, content warning for explicit mentions of violence here. Theft, murder, assault, brain uploading, extranormal mutilation and/or vivisection, torture, attempted apotheosis, transmogrification, attempted creation of a post-post-post-human being via cyborgification, trafficking harmful extranormal items, the list sort of goes on.

We’re still trying to nail down a belief system or ontology. The ones we’ve managed to corner are not super…talkative. But we think that they’re related to The Signal, an extranormal force/phenomenon our AbTech division dealt with in the 1980s. We don’t know much about that either, but what we do know is that it travels or exists entirely within analog transmission devices and exerts a cognitohazardous effect on humans or near-humans.

Now, we don’t know how widespread they are, but we’re asking people to keep their eyes open for the following warning signs:

- cathode ray tube televisions behaving oddly

- an abnormal amount of static in televisions or radios

- a heightened interest in cathode ray tube televisions in the local population up to and including theft of such devices

- abnormal appearance and behavior of visually standard coaxial cables including growth, self-propulsion, splitting and “ivy” behavior

- blood or other substances “leaking” from the aforementioned devices

- persons using the aforementioned devices in place of surgically removed body parts, or integrated into the body. This includes coaxial cables, televisions, radios, VHS tapes or players, etc.

- graffiti or markings relating to any of the above

Please report any and all deleterious analog activity to our Office tip line.

[southeastasianists]

The Philippines is known as a country that supports political dynasties, and powerful clans have played a major role in the country’s politics for decades. But in the last week of June, Vice President Sara Duterte made an announcement that rocked the nation as her family appears to be gearing up to take political dynasties to the next level. On June 28, the vice president confirmed that her father, Former President Rodrigo Duterte, and her brothers, Davao First District Rep. Paolo Duterte and Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, will all run for senator in the 2025 elections. 

Social media is all abuzz with news of this development, with those supporting the Duterte camp ecstatic at the possibility of having all three Dutertes in the Senate. However, those who are staunchly against this have been equally loud on Twitter and Facebook, calling the country’s political system a joke. As one of the most influential political families in the country have benefited from the results of a well-executed social media strategy in the last presidential elections, Filipinos can expect that the Internet will once again turn into an all-out war zone in the coming months. But can social media bring about the downfall of political dynasties, or will it take them to new heights? Here’s what you need to know about the influence of social media on political dynasties in the Philippines. 

Social Media Brought the Marcoses Back to Power

For two decades, Filipinos had to submit to the rules of Ferdinand Marcos’ regime as the former president enforced Martial Law. Historians attest that his dictatorship resulted in over 3,000 extrajudicial killings and more than 30,000 tortures, apart from other human rights violations. The Marcoses also infamously stole $5 to $10 billion from the Central Bank of the Philippines as stated in the documents provided by the Presidential Commission on Good Government. 

After the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr., Marcos was blamed for his death. The family immediately fell from grace as Aquino’s supporters joined hands to support his widow, Corazon Aquino, during the People Power Revolution of 1986. Mrs. Aquino became the new President of the Philippines, while the Marcoses were exiled in Hawaii. In 1989, the matriarch, Imelda, as well as Marcos’ children were allowed to return to the country, and from there, they started planning their political comeback. Their return to politics started with Imelda winning a congressional seat in 1995, while her children, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Imee Marcos, won positions in local government. 

After Bongbong was elected as a senator in the 2010 elections, it was only a matter of time before he decided to run in the presidential elections. In 2022, Bongbong was up against nine other presidential candidates, the most notable being Leni Robredo, who was the Vice President at that time. It was reported that social media campaigns to discredit Robredo, a strong disinformation campaign, and online efforts to revise history contributed to Bongbong’s win, putting the Marcoses firmly back in power. That election year was one of the most divisive times in Philippine history, as it resulted in the falling out of families, the shut down of a major TV network, and increased hostility in social media platforms. 

Political Dynasties and Their Hold on Social Media

Political analysts are saying that the Philippines is where it is right now because certain politicians have turned public office into family businesses. With everyone complaining about the ever-increasing prices of commodities, lack of jobs, and non-stop graft and corruption for so many years now, many would think that Filipinos should have had enough of political families by this time. However, with politicians becoming social media savvy in recent years, it’s likely that more political dynasties will rise in the future. With the majority of Filipinos perpetually online, it’s likely that political clans will take to the Internet to gather support for their family members who are vying for a place in politics.

Other than the Dutertes, political analyst Edmund Tayao predicts that there will be more families running together in the upcoming senate elections. Siblings Pia and Alan Cayetano currently have seats in the senate, and so do Cynthia Villar and her son Mark. They are all projected to run for reelection in 2025. Meanwhile, 3 members of the Tulfo family, which has four members in congress, are also said to run in the senate elections. Their bid for a senate seat will be confirmed upon the filing of Certificates of Candidacy in October.

Countering Political Misinformation on Social Media

Certain influencers have found ways to spread disinformation on social media as a way to promote some political families, but anti-disinformation advocates have also taken to TikTok and Facebook to fight political misinformation. Genealogist Mona Magno-Veluz is one such TikTok personality who is actively battling historical and political misinformation. There’s also the local civic society organization Break the Fake movement, which regularly holds seminars to train influencers to fact-check their sources. 

AI tools have also been used by fact-checking initiatives such as FactsFirstPH to fight disinformation. Meanwhile, to inform the youth about election-related information, nonprofit corporation Pinas Forward created the E-Boto website, which contains background information for all national candidates, presented in a Gen Z-friendly, TikTok style.

Can Social Media Eradicate Political Dynasties in the Philippines?

Social media has made it easier to access information, but it has also created opportunities to spread disinformation and propaganda techniques to sway the results of elections. Knowing how to distinguish facts from lies, and putting a stop to historical revisionism can protect Filipinos from repeating past mistakes. Fact-checking information, hearing the opinions of a diverse group of people, and educating the public about the dangers of disinformation, fear mongering, hate speech, and cyberbullying may all help to boost the nation’s media literacy and prevent political families from dominating in the upcoming elections. 

But as long as Filipinos keep voting for candidates who share the same beliefs and principles as their family members who are in power, no amount of protests on Facebook or Twitter can change the country’s political landscape. As proven by the current administration, social media will continue to be a valuable tool for political dynasties jockeying for power. After all, it helped a once shunned family to regain their place in politics, so no one should be surprised if it enables multiple family members – even those who are blatantly unqualified – to be elected into public office. 

Nina Sumsy Nina Sumsy is a freelance writer with a background in journalism

[trans-ralsei]

god i'm tired.

i mean. i've been tired all the time. but whatever.

the home city is in the midst of election season. a queer ally (i use 'ally' loosely; she's actually wlw) stepped aside from candidacy in our parliament, and queer topics are now out of the media and spotlight.

which isn't bad. i told a diplomat that if a referendum was held on trans issues here that we were not resourced to win it. that's what the data tells us, to some degree, that people don't care, and if you bring this issue that is honestly complex to a layperson and highlight the deviance that we present against the last 60 years of elected one party social engineering, they're more likely to say that it's wrong no matter what we tell them

so what do we do? what do we do when... well, the transphobe-in-chief (who thankfully isn't in any position of power) posts about the cass report? what do we do when people in parliament pose questions about puberty blockers and confirm our suspicions — that the process of allowing young people to transition in the public healthcare system has been entirely halted since the year five people stood outside the department of education to protest?

people around the world are dramatically misinformed about the core problems that we face in the home city — they think about the christofascist far-right that are trying to fuck us all over (because well someone told them this was the case and spun up a massive conspiracy theory that I don't have time or energy to untangle)

but our lived experience is massively different.

it's akin to that of a boiling frog to some degree. the water's getting warmer and warmer, but you don't know what to do. what do you say? do you tell the cook to stop boiling the water? do you hop out? but the stove's right under us and the cook's gotta do what he has to do, right?

things *are* changing to some extent. they're bringing back the expertise we once held as one of the world's capitals in gender-affirming surgery. but what good is that if access restrictions keep coming up? what good is that if the patchwork of healthcare providers all say something different? what good is that if doctors still object to care on the grounds of religion, couch that as inexperience and hide behind issues of liability?

i still maintain that the biggest threat to my existence in general is the transphobia that exists in the Anglosphere. the home city is notoriously Anglocentric, despite our Southeast Asian roots. nearly everyone speaks English. they're all prone to the fascist propaganda from the Anglosphere.

this has led to a war for survival against a much more well-resourced global machine, one that our opponents have aligned themselves towards. and to gain allies in that war, we'll have to spark a cultural shift — one that shows people that what we want is also what they want. a freedom of being. a freedom to be. one that points to our opponents not as backward, but as the divisive force, when we have been an integral part of society since the city's independence.

it's a slow process, and i'm not sure if this will change in my lifetime. all i know is that we have to put ourselves out there, and that we have to ensure that we continue to have a voice somewhere.

and well, i'm very good at talking your ear off. so that's what i'll do.