#World Social and Political News

[historyandmemes]

(Note: See updated post) The new DRAFT U.N. Resolution, set to be voted on today, calls for:

• ... “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses” in the fighting throughout Gaza and the opening of corridors inside the enclave “for a sufficient number of days to enable full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access.” • U.N. Secretary General António Guterres to appoint a senior coordinator “with responsibility for facilitating, coordinating, monitoring, and verifying in Gaza, as appropriate, the humanitarian nature” of all assistance, and demands that “the parties to the conflict cooperate with the coordinator to fulfill their mandate without delay or obstruction.” • ... “immediate and unconditional” release of the hostages. It also demands that “all parties to the conflict comply with their obligations under international law ... including with regard to the conduct of hostilities and the protection of civilians and civilian objects.” • It reiterates the council’s “unwavering commitment” to a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians and “stresses the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.” (12/22/23 | Source: WaPo)

Although the resolution's language was toned down, this is a sign of progress. While such measures are long overdue and should have been honored from the start, we must do everything possible to meet the urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza and relieve unfathomable suffering.

DON'T STOP POSTING. KEEP UP THE PUBLIC PRESSURE. DEFEND HUMAN RIGHTS.

Stay tuned for today's vote.

[troythecatfish]

South Korea took the unprecedented move to file lawsuits against 7 Israeli leaders for crimes against humanity

The shock move, Seoul has filed lawsuits targeting high-ranking Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Source: Mintpress

[fresh-snow]

Following the footsteps of South Africa; Qatar, Oman, Malaysia have submitted statements in ICJ too.

Thank you South Africa for taking the first step.

[kaapstadgirly]

Jewish-American orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mark Perlmutter testifies that Israeli snipers deliberately target Palestinian children, often in the head and chest. Dr. Perlmutter traveled to Gaza as part of a medical humanitarian mission earlier this year.

Here's the link to the video.

[destielmemenews]

Written out that is $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, which is much larger than the entire world economy.

"According to the Russian news outlet RBC, the fine is the total amount demanded by 17 Russian television channels and other media outlets whose output has been blocked from YouTube — the video platform owned by the tech giant — as sanctioned supporters of President Vladimir Putin’s regime and its invasion of Ukraine. "

source 1

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[rueclfer]

well looks like im never leaving california! if any of u guys need reproductive healthcare i will house all of you im not even playing

[caitlinjohns77]

[thevvitchbitch]

[themisinformer]

ByteDance Threatens to Leak Supreme Court Justice’s TikTok Watch History if App Not Unbanned in the U.S.

BEIJING, CHINA - In the aftermath of TikTok’s banning in the United States, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, has given the Supreme Court an ultimatum: either reinstate TikTok in the U.S., or they’ll publicly release the TikTok watch history of every single Supreme Court Justice.

“We believe that everyone has the right to consume whatever type of content they want,” a U.S. representative for ByteDance told reporters Saturday. “But if the Supreme Court continues to suppress TikTok, then we’ll have no choice but to inform the public that one of their Justice’s spent an entire weekend watching TikTok thirst traps on repeat. If they want transparency from us, then we’ll give them transparency.”

In an emergency Supreme Court hearing, Chief Justice Justice John Roberts denied that any of the Justice’s had TikTok on their cell phones, stating, “The Supreme Court is a government body and does not engage in petty internet drama.” However, during the whole hearing, Roberts’ was seen anxiously scrolling through his phone, presumably trying to figure out ways to delete the watch history off of his phone.

Eventually, the idea of classified government watch habits proved to be too much of a threat to the country, and TikTok was quietly unbanned in the U.S. early this morning.

[workersolidarity]

🇵🇸🇮🇱 Footage from Hamas desecrating the Israeli flag as militants raid illegal Israeli settlements.

[historyandmemes]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT. DON'T LOOK AWAY.

Dec. 12, 2023: Biden describes Israel's military conduct as "indiscriminate bombing" (Source: Associated Press) Dec. 21, 2023: NYT Investigation confirms Israel "routinely" bombs "areas it designated safe for civilians" (Source: NYT)

Dec. 29, 2023: Despite the well-documented war crimes against Palestinians and the humanitarian catastrophe inflicted by Israel ... *the US sends more weapons*

(Source: Associated Press)

This is not defense, this is not justice, this is an affront to international law. Palestinians are being decimated at this very moment. ISRAEL MUST STOP THE CARNAGE. THE U.S. MUST STOP THE COMPLICITY. I haven't seen Palestinians or Gaza trending on Tumblr for the past several days — we can't lose momentum. DON'T LOOK AWAY. KEEP UP PUBLIC PRESSURE. PUSH FOR PEACE.

[troythecatfish]

BREAKING 🚨: The UN secretary General and and Israel admit there is ZERO evidence of rape on Oct 7 after examining all of the 5,000 photos, 50 hours of videos and audio from the day.

Mass rape on Oct 7 was just another Israeli atrocity propaganda like 40 beheaded babies.

[lullabyes22-blog]

gentle reminder that it's ok to take a break from social media re: global and US politics - especially if it's affecting your mental health, productivity and overall wellness.

<3

[kaapstadgirly]

"Self-defense" So what are they defending against now?

[icewindandboringhorror]

I've referenced before how I have a big google document to keep track of every media I've ever seen in my entire life (just for reference because I like to track everything possible lol… I am the Data Collector), but recently as I was updating it, I thought of actually evaluating them to find out random percentages (like for example, out of Total Shows Watched, what percentage did I finish vs. stop watching, what percentage did I like or dislike, etc.)...

Evaluating these things is made easier by the fact that I already place everything on each subsection of the list into 6 broad ranking categories, so I don't have to go back and guess to figure out how I feel about them or anything. The categories are: Ranking 5 - overall best* (despite some criticisms of course because I'm too much of an Analyzer to ever find anything Perfect lol) Ranking 4 - more positive than neutral, but not good enough to be 5 Ranking 3 - either the good + bad negate each other, OR it's just not memorable/interesting in any way enough to be ranked higher or lower (this is the Default category ALL things are placed in if no other rank applies) Ranking 2 - maybe a few redeemable elements but largely more negatives than positives Ranking 1 - So bad that it circles around to being fascinating to observe in some way (not necessarily Funny, or Good, but just interesting somehow) Ranking 0 - Bad in a genuinely frustrating or obnoxious manner

*("best" primarily defined here as most interesting, rather than most good in a technical sense, or some other measure. I tend to value more highly whether there's something novel or thoughtful about the worldbuilding, tone, writing, base premise, etc - than about whether it's actually executed perfectly.)

And here's the amount of shows that have so far been placed into each category -

TV shows ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 20 shows ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 28 shows ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 114 shows ~ Rank 2 (mid low) -33 shows ~ Rank 1 (low low but intriguingly so) - 14 shows ~ Rank 0 (iredeemably low) - 2 shows

This would make for a total of 211 TV shows overall. However, there are 57 shows within these list marked as "didn't finish" (typically meaning I quit on the very first or second episode - but log them still to keep a record that I at least had a brief view of them).

So my total of genuinely fully watched shows would be more 154. 211 Total, but a More Accurate Total of 154.

Counting them all and using the Total Number Of The List (211) -- that means roughly 9.5% of all total shows I have ever watched (or at least attempted to watch) have been Mostly Good, 13% have been Moderately Okay, 54% have been either entirely Forgettable or some mix of good + bad that lands them right in the Neutral Middle, 15.6% have been Mostly Bad, 6.6% have been Bad (but in an interesting way), and 0.9% have been Terribly Bad.

Additionally, I didn't even get past the first two episodes of about 27% of the total.

Sooo, discounting ones I didn't finish, my total TV shows ever watched in my life would be about 154 (maybe give or take a few, assuming I might have forgotten some from very long ago).

But instead of entire life, let's just say this is the total for 'About 20 Years' (so, not counting very early childhood when I likely wouldn't remember things I saw/have no detailed recollection of them (like for example, I'm sure at some point when I was like 4yrs old I must have seen an episode of Spongebob or something, but I have zero distinct memories of it, can't quote anything of it, and barely recall the premise - so I don't count it on the list, etc.)).

In that case, 154 divided by 20 would be roughly 7.7 shows a year.

Which is actually surprisingly low considering that I often have stuff on in the background for hours whilst I make sculptures and do costumes and stuff (maybe I should have also marked some distinction between 'things I fully paid attention to' and 'things I kind of half listened to whilst sculpting', but that would further split the categories too much probably lol), but I guess a lot of that is youtube videos or random documentaries, so .. eh.. maybe I get it being lower.

Now, doing the same thing for movies-

Movies ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 4 movies (3.4% of total) ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 12 movies (10.3% of total) ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 91 movies (78.4% of total) ~ Rank 2 (mid low) - 8 movies (6.8% of total) ~ Rank 1 (low but interesting) - 1 movie (0.8% of total) ~ Rank 0 (irredeemably low) - none in this category (0%)

That makes 116 for a Total (Actually Remembered) Movies Watched In Lifetime (Or At Least In 20 Years).

116 divided by 20 is roughly 5 or 6 movies a year (I feel this has probably been skewed though by adding everything since like elementary school onwards, as I remember a lot more movies from child/teen years.. Whereas, the past 3 years I feel like I've barely seen maybe even 5 movies?? lol). I also have "Didn't Finish" marked on 18 of them. Which means I quit halfway through about 15% of the total movies.

So, a for broader summary stuff..

I seem to be less forgiving to movies than tv shows, by far. Which makes sense to me, I guess, because I love elaboration and details, so "short form" things that only last an hour or two are often lost on me a bit. My biggest complaint with movies is indeed usually walking away just wishing there had been more exposition, more scenes where characters are doing nothing, more "mindless bantering" conversations, more Quiet Downtime and Lore Elaboration and so on lol, so... of course most 1-2hr films end up feeling a bit Not Enough To Draw My Interest/Nothingy to me.

If you count 5 and 4 as "like" and rankings 2 to 0 as "dislike", then for TV shows I at least somewhat liked 48 of them, and at least somewhat disliked 47 of them.. So it's almost exactly the same lol. I'm just about equally as likely to find something bad as I am to find something redeeming about it. But overall, the largest chance is that I just won't really care much for it at all and it will be tossed into the 'neutral' pile, forgotten forever. Movies have a bit better of a balance, "liking" 16 of them, and "disliking" only 9 of them. So I'm slightly more likely to enjoy a movie than to find it annoying - though still VASTLY more likely to just not find it anything in particular, possibly not even finishing it.

ANYWAY.. this is vague and literally pointless, but like I said, I just really find information fun. Like my document where I've rated every apple flavor I've ever tried (like 40 of them now?), or reviewed every oreo flavor (32?), or ranking data from my entire 10 years of Trying To Make Friends process (out of 100 people, roughly 8% chance of a moderate compatibility, 3% chance of high), or etc. etc.. I love to have random pointless things to analyze I suppose lol.

I doubt anyone tracks things in their life in this same exact way, but I'd be interested in hearing any at least somewhat similar data !!! (like, how many TV shows you watch a year on average, and what percentage of those you like vs. dislike (if you keep track of that sort of thing), etc.)). I guess it might be easier with movies, since I think some people use those websites where you curate a list of movies you've seen and you can rate them or something, so maybe the numbers are already available on those places. :0

[bearfoottruck]

BETTER THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR TIME THAN DOOMSCROLLING

So, recently on Reddit, I had to stop looking at the r/conservativeterrorism subreddit because all it was doing was reinforcing my desire to become the next Lee Harvey Oswald. As much as I hate the man with the orange face, I realize that this excess fear and negativity is not only unhealthy, but it's exactly what him and his cronies want from us. So, I decided to come up with a list of things that are way better uses of your time than just repeatedly trying to paralyze yourself with helpless fear. Feel free to add to this list, too:

Play one of your favorite video games

Draw pictures

Start writing your novel that you said you were going to write

For that matter, research ways to become a better writer/artist

Build a model of something, whether it's a pre-made model kit or one of your own scratchbuilt models

Spend time with your pets and let them know how much you care about them

Take a walk

Volunteer

Join a Meetup or other such group that you've never joined, but looks interesting to you

Join a support group of some sort

If there's no group for a particular interest of yours, then found one

Get any sort of exercise

Do a good deed for someone

Try a hobby that you've never tried before but you've been very curious about

If you have books you haven't read, read one of those

Same goes for fanfic

Write poetry

Take some time to appreciate nature

Find a spot where you can see the night sky clearly and look up at the full moon

Try a movie or TV show that you've yet to watch, but is on your list

Gather some of your friends together for a game night, whether video games, board games or some other type of game

If you're having trouble with an aspect of your character, read a self-help book related to that

Type "cat", "dog" or another one of your favorite animals into an image search engine and see what pops up

Also, watch videos about your favorite animals

Learn how to cook

If you already know how to cook, try making a recipe you've never made before

Learn a new foreign language

Look up jokes

Do research on a culture you know little about

Donate to a cause you care very much about, but make sure it's one that Charity Navigator has given good scores to

Snuggle with a pillow or a stuffed animal

Look up songs by artists you've never listened to, but are curious about. Don't just stick to music streaming services like Spotify, either

Learn how to compose music and/or play an instrument

Keep a daily journal of your activities and feelings

Keep a daily list of things you are grateful for

Keep in touch with people who matter to you

If you're looking for new books to read but don't want to pay money, download free ones off of Project Gutenberg

Remind yourself that no matter what anyone says or does, you are worth it

Find cool websites or other places that are a safe space from political discussions

If you absolutely must take part in any sort of activism, be sure to take some time for self-care