#arabic elite

[vague-humanoid]

https://pchrgaza.org/en/scourge-of-torture-under-detention/

At around 15:30 on Wednesday, 15 November 2023, the Israeli soldiers raided the villa amid shooting and I saw laser lights, so I shouted at them to stop and help me in Hebrew.  The soldiers stopped shooting and one of them ordered me to take off my clothes, except for my boxer, and sit with his head down on knees. I was then handcuffed behind my bank and blindfolded, and they then walked me out to another house.  They removed the blindfold and I saw 20 soldiers in green uniforms bearing the American flag.  Suddenly, they started punching me and continued for a long time, fracturing some of my breastbones.  They then set me to a polygraph asking me why I was here and I answered them in details.  They then asked me if I did any phone calls and I said yes but the polygraph made a sound.  Suddenly, I was beaten and electrically shocked, so I changed my answer to no I just sent 2 text messages to my wife and my boss.  However, they kept beating me and showed me pictures of a tunnel accusing me of coming out of it, kidnapping Israelis and Americans, and being a from the Hamas elite forces spying on the Israeli soldiers and existing in a combat zone.  I denied all of that, but they electrically shocked me 5 times and severely beat me all over my body, causing unbearable pains due to breaking my ribs and injuring my head.  After not being able to bear the pain anymore, I admitted to all the accusations and they took me handcuffed behind my back, blindfolded and wearing only my underwear in a troop carrier, where there was a soldier speaking Arabic fluently and treated me well.  He offered me water and biscuits and loosen the blindfold and the plastic ties. The carrier travelled for some time and then stopped to throw me on the ground.  The soldiers again beat me while I was on the ground, spit on me and peed as well.  They then brought me back to the carrier, which kept going and then stopped again to deploy the Israeli soldiers in other places.  All the way I was subjected to the same abuses.  I was then taken to a destroyed house, where I stayed all night and was forced by the soldiers to sleep on the floor that was covered with broken glass and scattered rubble; during which, the soldiers were stepping on me causing bruises all over my body.

[girlactionfigure]

Daniel Lewin and Mohammad Hamdani were two 9/11 heroes with very different stories.

Known as Danny by his friends, Lewin was the first person to die in the terrorist attacks, sixteen years ago today.

Danny was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 and an Israeli-American veteran of an elite IDF combat unit. He was trained in counter-terrorism and spoke fluent Arabic.

Investigators pieced together that Danny heard the terrorists plotting in Arabic and tried to stop the hijacking. He was stabbed to death by Saudi law student Satam al-Suqami.

Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Danny emigrated to Israel with his family as a teenager. As a newcomer, he could have skipped his military service, but chose instead to serve and work his way up to the toughest unit in the IDF. He later became a successful internet entrepreneur.

Only 31 when he died, Danny had already made his mark on the world.

Mohammad Hamdani was a first responder who died at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Mohammad immigrated with his family from Pakistan when he was a year old and grew up in Queens, NY. He played football for Bayside High. Hard-working and ambitious, Mohammad became an EMT and then a police cadet. He also applied to medical school, and in September 2001 he was waiting to hear if he’d been accepted. 

On the morning of 9/11, Mohammad was taking an elevated subway on his way to work when he saw smoke coming from the twin towers. He got off the train and rushed to the World Trade Center to help. Mohammad was never seen alive again. He was only 23 years old.

At first Mohammad was listed as missing. Because of his Muslim background and lack of connection to the World Trade Center, he came under suspicion of being involved in the attack. The cloud over his name did not lift until his remains were found at Ground Zero in October 2001, along with his medical bag and ID. 

Mohammad Hamdani was buried with full honors from the the New York Police Department, and proclaimed a hero by the city’s police commissioner. He is mentioned in the Patriot Act as an example of Muslim-American valor on 9/11. 

May the memories of these two righteous young men always be for a blessing.

Accidental Talmudist

[anyab]

Via NasAlSudan

Learn about the Sudanese revolution, the significance of December 19, and a legacy of resistance and resilience.

Join our call to action today and everyday during Sudan Action Week.

December 19 2023

Transcript:

Breaking it down

What is the Sudanese Revolution?

The Sudanese Revolution refers to the popular uprising in Sudan that began on December 19, 2018 and eventually deposed 30-year dictator of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, on April 11 of 2019.

How did the Revolution begin?

Protests first began in Atbara, a city with historical significance to the labor movement in Sudan, in response to the rising costs of basic supplies such as bread and fuel.

Protestors set fire to the national party headquarters, and the news of their revolt quickly spread, inspiring protestors first in other cities, and then in the capital of Khartoum itself.

Online, the caption #TasgutBas, translating to #JustFall, grew in popularity and helped connect the diaspora to those in Sudan.

Was it really just bread?

No. The rising cost of bread in developing nations is an indicator of how badly the economy is strained, to the point where it impacts members of every social class.

At this point in time in Sudan, subsidies on essential goods had been rolled back, funding for social and state services such as healthcare and education was nearly nonexistent, and it is estimated that nearly 90% of economic activity took place in the informal sector, all while the military budget continually increased.

Transcript:

Who led the charge? Creating a revolution

Group: Sudanese Professional's association (SPA)

Who they are:

Group of labor and trade organizations formed in secret in 2012 and publicly declared in 2016

Backbone of grassroots organizing in Sudan

Role played:

Led action on the street, organized national protests, like the initial march on Khartoum for increased wages before the transition to calls for regime change, and worker strikes.

Group: Local Resistance Committees (LRCS)

Who they are:

Initially formed as groups of students and youth organized together on the more local, neighbourhood basis during the Bashir era

Membership is extremely diverse across socio-economic, ethnic, tribal, religious, and political lines

Role played:

Considered the lifeblood of the revolution, with youth organizing local protests and ensuring safety against governmental repression by standing on the front lines + providing security, food, water, and medication to people

Group: Forces for freedom and change (FFC)

Who they are:

Coalition comprising the SPA, LRCS, the Sudan Revolutionary Front (group of anti-governmental Darfur militias), political parties, and civil society groups

Role played:

Essentially became the political mouthpiece of the revolution and signed onto the transitional government with the military on behalf of Sudanese civilians

It is also crucial to note that from a demographic perspective, it is youth and women that largely led and comprised the Sudanese Revolution.

Trabscript:

How did the revolution succeed?

01. Learning from the Past

Following the Arab Spring wave, Sudan also attempted a revolution in September of 2013

Civilians faced violent crackdowns within the first three days of protest. 200 killed, 800+ arrested

Activists were deterred from mobilization + felt a lot of guilt at the massive loss of life and spent the next 5 years grounding themselves in the study of nonviolent theory and action

02. Building a Movement

Coalition Building and People Power

Diversification of the reach of the movement to make sure all sectors of Sudani society were represented

Decentralization of Activism

Past revolutions in 1964 and 1985 were concentrated in the labor movement and educational elites in Khartoum

This time, experienced nonviolent activists trained those in the capital and ensured ethnic, religious, and tribal diversity

Newly trained activists then taught others locally across the Sudanese states

Transcript:

Why december 19?

On December 19, 1955, the Sudanese parliament unanimously adopted a declaration of independence from the Anglo-Egyptian colonial power.

The declaration went into effect on January 1, 1956, which is why Independence Day is officially January 1, but December 19 is when the Sudanese people were truly liberated from colonial rule.

The flag shown is Sudan's independence flag. The blue is for the Nile, the yellow for the Sahara, and the green for the farmlands.

The current Sudanese flag was adopted in 1970, with the colors used being the Pan-Arab ones.

During the 2019 revolution, protestors often carried the independence flag instead as a form of resistance to the narrative of an exclusive Pan-Arab Sudanese identity.

December 19 is ultimately a tribute to Sudanese strength and resilience. It honors our independence and revolutionary martyrs - not just those of the 2019 revolution, but the democratic revolutions of 1964 and 1985 as well.

Transcript:

Why is the revolution ongoing?

The goal was never just the fall of a dictator. The goal was, and is, to build a better Sudan, one free from military rule. One with equal opportunities for everyone, with economic prosperity and safety and security - the key principles of freedom, peace, and justice that the revolution called for.

Today, though, before we rebuild Sudan, before we free it from foreign interests and military rule and sectarianism, we need to save it. Each day that passes by with war waging on is one where more civilians are killed. More people are displaced. More women are raped. More children go hungry. To live in the conflict zones in Sudan right now - whether that be Khartoum, Darfur, Kordofan, or now, Al Gezira, is to be trapped in a never-ending nightmare, a fight for survival. And to live elsewhere in Sudan is to wonder whether you're next.

Sudan Action Week calls on you to educate yourself and others about Sudan, and then to help the Sudanese people save it, because we can no longer do it alone.

Transcript:

What can you do? Uniting for Al Gezira and North Darfur

As we witness the unfolding events in Al Gezira and North Darfur, the communities of Abu Haraz, Hantoub, Medani, El Fasher, and many others are reaching out for assistance. Sudanese resilience persists to this day, with individuals on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok seeking and providing guidance on transportation services, medical care, food, shelter, protection, safe zones, operational markets, and more. This isn't new for the Sudanese community. A legacy of unity emerged, notably during the 2019 revolutions, where nas al Sudan [the people of Sudan], both within the nation and in the diaspora, rallied together to support each other online. Beyond merely sharing stories on social media, this was about strengthening collective action, enhancing mobilizations, and building a resilient community rooted in solidarity. The essence of the Sudanese community lies in people supporting people, notably during the uprising in 2018 and following the events of April 15th, 2023

Swipe to see how you can help.

Transcript:

What can you do?

This week, on a day nearly mirroring Sudanese Independence and the popular 2018 uprising, Sudanese resilience endures as war follows nas al Sudan to Al Gezira and again in North Darfur. Our call to action this week is not just to share; it's a collective effort to uplift one another.

Share Resources:

If you have access to resources that can help such as transportation services, medical assistance, food, shelter, etc., please comment below.

Community Requests:

If you are in Al Gezira or North Darfur and require specific support, please comment on your needs

Connect Individuals:

For those unable to share resources directly, help amplify requests by sharing this information within your personal networks. Your connection may lead to support from individuals who can assist.

Spread the Word:

Share this call to action on your social media platforms to broaden the reach and encourage more people to contribute.

Transcript:

Hanabniho

حنبنيهوا

[We will rebuild]

#keepEyesOnSudan

#SudanActionWeek

[secular-jew]

BREAKING. Huge news. Hostage recovered alive! It's not surprising that Al Jazeera is withholding the name of the rescued hostage today. Why?

Because the rescued hostage was Qaid Farhan al-Qadi (52 years old), a Muslim Arab Bedouin who was rescued in a Gazan terror tunnel, saved by dozens of Israeli Jews who put themselves in mortal danger in a daring and dangerous operation.

The hostage rescue was carried out by Israel's Shayetet 13 Unit, an elite group of Navy Commandos, with collaboration from the IDF southern command, the Shin Bet security agency, and the IDF's 162 Division.

Shayetet is the Hebrew word for "Cruise" and is Israel's equivalent of the US Navy Seals.

This is a picture of Qaid Farhan al-Qadi before Oct 7th.

This is a picture of Qaid Farhan al-Qadi in a hospital bed in Israel, with his religious Muslim brother and a religious Jewish doctor. There are 2 million Muslim Arabs who lives as equal citizens in Israel -- IDF soldiers risked their lives to bring him home, with the focus and vigor as they would any other citizen.

This represents Israeli partnership in all its glory is exemplified in this powerful and joyful moment. Would you see such an image in ANY Arab Islamic country?

May he have a refuah shleima mehara.

[the-irreverend]

Death to Oppressors

As I've started to get more involved in regards to the fight for the people of Gaza and Palestine (mostly in the form of donations and esims), I've always wondered how I can contribute with my art skills, especially since I actually have some Palestinian ancestry myself (from my mother's side since she's half Middle Eastern).

So, after much thinking and a little handiwork, I made this.

As you can see, the drawing's center has a crescent and star in the colours of the Palestinian flag, including the little triangle on the right of the flag. You'll also notice that the star is, in fact, the Star of David, the symbol of the Jewish religion. Both the crescent and the star represent the uniting of Muslims and (anti-zionist) Jews as they fight to stop the hypocrisies, horrors, and atrocities inflicted upon Palestine by the political, economic, and social elites of the Israeli regime and beyond.

(I didn't make the Star of David blue because that would represent the Israeli regime and, subsequently, Zionism.)

And if you're curious about the writing on the top and the bottom, they both translate as "DEATH TO OPPRESSORS" in Hebrew and Arabic. (If you're wondering what font I used for the texts, I actually drew up the writing myself.)

So that's my first drawing related to the Palestinian cause, and it will not be the last.

From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.

P.S. Sorry about my weird writing style. I'm also autistic, so forgive me if I miscommunicate anything or phrase anything oddly.

[epicspheal]

Bring the Storm! A Raihan Analysis

It’s 2019. Gamefreak and TPCi are expecting that their Pants with Directions Galar champion would be the favorite of the fans. And while Leon is certainly a favorite of Galar (even if a tad controversial)…a certain 8th gym leader became a runaway favorite.

Raihan!

Let’s talk about his name first! In Japanese, his name is Kibana which has “kiba” in it which means fang. Which checks out considering he is a dragon type specialist. However his Japanese name also references “kibanafuji” which is the common laburnum. In fact many of his name translations also reference the laburnum. So what is the laburnum? The common laburnum (also known as the golden chain) is a tree in the pea and legume family. The laburnum tree produces legumes that are toxic to some species like humans, goats and horses, but deer and hare can earth them just fine. This duality has given the laburnum magical properties in folklore. The symbolism is most closely related to “beauty” and being “forsaken��� This dual nature that we see in Raihan’s main namesake flower I think really represents Raihan in relation to the Galar League and the fan culture surrounding it. He’s a very handsome man and very talented and many admire that of him. Yet we know his fans can be cruel to him online when he loses showing the toxic side of celebrity status. Also he himself has been frustrated with his losses in the past and perhaps parts of him worries about being forsaken by the league and the one he considers his greatest rival.

His English name Raihan comes from Arabic and means Basil. Basil comes from the Greek word basilikon phuton which means “kingly herb”. Very appropriate for someone whose gym is in an ancient castle and is strong enough to be a champion in another region, thus the king of the competitive battle circuit (not to mention his German/Spanish/French/Portuguese name is Roy which is literally “king”). In addition, the basil plant has a lot of symbolism regarding spiritual worship as it was used to help safeguard passage and warding off evil. Again given that Raihan’s gym is located in a castle, a symbol of protection across cultures this definitely shows that Raihan is meant to be seen as a protector

Now let’s take a look at his team. Raihan is unique in that his team switches up throughout the playthrough, something that’s typically only found in rival characters (yes gym leaders and elite four do add members for rematches but Raihan’s team goes through some more significant shake ups). However, since Raihan is the one true rival to Leon (before the player exists) and Leon is in many ways a stand-in for a protagonist it does make sense that his team switches up.

His first team is probably the team he is most famous for. A sandstorm weather team that has given birth to a number of his signature quotes. Despite being a dragon type leader, we see that Raihan does not restrict himself to just dragon type Pokemon. This isn’t exactly odd as Clair in gen 2 has non-dragon types (but draconic Pokemon) due to the limited number of dragon type Pokemon available (which of course is rectified in rematches in HGSS). However, Raihan is working with Galar dex, which though infamously limited, has a large selection of dragon types available. This once again reinforces the idea of him being a Rival to Leon’s Protagonist role as his team composition mimics Blue’s Viridian Gym Team in having a varied selection (with the key differences being Blue does not claim a type speciality, while Raihan is seen as a dragon type specialist).

We can see from his gym-team that it has a knack for dealing chip damage. Be it from the Sandstorm (which he can set up with Flygon or Sandaconda) and also Stealth Rock and Sand Tomb on his Gigalith. If he can get burn damage from Fire Fang on Sandaconda this also contributes to chip damage. His widespread use of chip damage shows Raihan as a person who doesn’t just like to rely on one path to victory and respects that the little things matter. 

He also enjoys using attacks that can paralyze (Thunder Fang, Glare), Burn (Fire Fang), Flinch (Crunch, Iron Head), further solidifying the fact that he employs multiple strategies in order to cinch victory. This also provides very needed type coverage allowing him to counter most strategies against him.

And of course we can’t forget the fact that his team is very doubles oriented, a rather unique style among gym leaders showing his willingness to stand out

Now let’s take a look at his team for the championship tournaments. Most notable he switches from his gym specialty of double battles to the single battle format for the tourneys. With this it changes the team composition a bit to include more weather options (sun and rain) which further exemplify his ability to have variety and be unpredictable.  He still maintains his ability to do chip damage and having a wide movepool for coverage but it's clear here his main goal is to throw the opponent off with using multiple weather formats.

Now let’s take a look at his league cards

"Raihan is commonly regarded as the most skilled Gym Leader in the Galar region. He has striven for victory in every environment, and as a result, he has adopted a battle style where he utilizes weather effects to their fullest. It is rumored that he could easily become another region's Champion should he choose to move, but it seems that to Raihan, defeating Leon is much more important. His uploaded selfies are quite popular. Occasionally he'll post a photo that only shows a sandstorm." - Normal League Card 

We can see with his normal league card the reason why his team line up is so varied with what it can do. He truly wants to be able to have a win condition no matter what. This shows him to be a very thoughtful and intelligent gym leader that has earned his spot as the strongest gym leader of Galar. Furthermore we get confirmation that he is champion level strength, which is a feat that only has been done with three other gym leaders in the past (Blue, Wallace and Iris). That being said you can tell he cares more about just the rank of champion since his goal is Leon. It would be expected that many people of his caliber who were stuck at the rank of eighth gym leader would move to an easier circuit to gain the title. But for him it matters not just that he becomes champion, but who he beats as champion. It shows Raihan to be very principled and not just seeking glory. 

"Raihan started taking selfies so as to never forget the pain of his defeats, but more recently he has been taking photos showing off his training routine, his fashion choices, and the like, causing some fans to leave harsh comments whenever he loses to Leon. It's true that Raihan is on a ten-nil losing streak against Leon, but no other Pokémon Trainer has managed to KO as many of Leon's Pokémon as Raihan has. Raihan no doubt looks forward to taking a selfie after finally defeating Leon." - Rare League Card

I wanted to talk about the selfies Raihan takes here. A lot of people in the fandom have reduced Raihan to just being a selfie hog which isn’t the case. Yes as we’ll see in future quotes he is just a tad vain (and this isn’t inherently bad because it’s not a flaw so big that it becomes a fatal flaw and in the end it makes him more human and thus more endearing), but in reality the selfies are meant to document his life and growth as a trainer. He started taking them so he could remember the moments where he lost, to remember the sting of failure and embarrassment so he can strive to do better. Rather than wallow in his losses and give up he chooses to use the negative feelings spawned in the moment as fuel forward. That’s extremely commendable. However we also see how the selfies ended up turning into a side hobby he can do outside of being on the gym circuit. This of course gives us insight on the rather cruel nature of the Galarian fan circuit because of the harsh comments he gets when he loses. 

Alright let's take a look at some of his quotes!

"Exhibition or not, Leon, your pristine record is about to end—when I beat you here today!" - SwSh intro scene

Here we get our first glimpse of Raihan (and for many the start of their crushes on him). This is straightforward pre-game banter but it sets up the competition we see between him and Leon.

"Oh! If it isn't the Trainer endorsed by the Champion! Let's see... What was your name again? Ah, right! <player>!" - first encounter with Raihan

Here is our first chance as the player to meet Raihan and we get to see a third role Raihan plays…being the keeper of the Hammerlock Vault. In classic Pokemon “Rival can’t shut up about their rival” fashion his way of greeting the player is in relation to the fact that they are endorsed by Leon. In game he’s actually scrolling his phone to get your name which plays into the fact that he is a content creator therefore has to keep up with the buzz online

"Gaining a better understanding of Pokémon by studying history certainly isn't a bad idea." - at the Hammerlocke Vault

Even though we don’t get to see him involved much with the uncovering of Galar’s lore we can see he does indeed appreciate history. Even one of his TCG cards shows him with his Flygon pouring over plenty of books showing that he’s very well read and educated. He’s not just a meathead battler as some like to claim.

"The tapestries in the vault depict the heroes of the Galar region's past. I suppose if we've got any modern hero, it'd have to be our Champion, Leon." - Hammerlocke Vault

Raihan, stop bringing up Leon every 5 seconds challenge- impossible. Jokes aside, it’s really nice to see that even though Raihan really wants to bring Leon down, there’s still a level of mutual respect between them both (as also seen in Leon’s words). Raihan acknowledges a heroic quality to Leon.

"The Gym Challenge is meant to be, well... challenging, wouldn't you say? Naturally there aren't too many Gym Challengers who can make it this far. And that's why I provide a format where you can really show off the brilliant combinations you and your Pokémon should be capable of!"

I really like how Raihan wants to challenge those who manage to make it to him not by gym mazes but by being versatile enough to battle in multiple formats. I feel like realistically a good future champion should be competent in both double and single battles and it’s nice to see that acknowledgement here by Raihan who makes sure those who beat him can battle in a double format well.

“Come on, Sebastian! You'll be first! Time to face the second Trainer! Come on, Camilla! You've made it to the third and last Trainer! Your moment to shine, Aria! - During his gym challengeThis is a little bit that I just always love seeing whenever I do my playthroughs of Sword and Shield. It’s really nice that Raihan seems to be a bit closer to his gym trainers than most other leaders in the series as he calls them by name and gives them encouragement right before battle. He really puts the “leader” in the phrase gym leader as he’s not just lording over the gym as the strongest trainer, but that he cares about the personal growth of those who serve under him. As we’ve seen in later installments of the franchise, being an ideal champion is more than just being skilled at battle, but being a role model to others and setting a positive example of leadership. This to me above all shows Raihan’s potential as a future champion. He embodies the skill and ideals a champion is supposed to live up to

"And you aim to defeat Leon... Do you have any idea just how high a hurdle that is? As his greatest rival, I guess that I—Raihan—will have to show you! Gym Leader Raihan doesn't simply control the weather. He also seeks two-on-two battles! You must be prepared for any situation against a foe like him!" -pre gym battle quote

Bringing up Leon unprompted count: 3 Once again we really see how despite his desire for victory, he still holds Leon in high regard. But also circling back to his team composition and normal league card we once again see confirmation of his tactical mindset by not only being a double battler but using weather tactics as well.

After the player used Hail "Ho? Not bad—changing the weather to Hail like that!"

After the player uses Sunny Day: "Pulling out a Sunny Day! Hah! That's not a bad countermeasure!" - during battle if weather changesAnd here we get to see he holds respect for the player too when he compliments them using the weather to their own advantage. He really holds a chivalrous mindset which makes me question how in the world people got “feral” out of him. 

"I might have lost, but I still look good. Maybe I should snap a quick selfie...In the aftermath of the furious battle... I feel as pure and refreshed as when the sky clears after a storm. What can I possibly say? Calling myself Leon's rival? Seems I'd grown quite conceited for someone who can't even claim the title of Champion! Overconfident in both myself and my team!" - post loss

One thing I really appreciate about Raihan, is how human he feels with his flaws. He’s a little vain and at times a little conceited. But he acknowledges those flaws within him. It honestly makes him more endearing and real.

"There you are, Leon's little brother! Don't worry—I'll give you a battle that'll make you want to quit the Gym Challenge altogether!" - when Hop comes to challenge

As mentioned above when he meets the player, we see him once again relate the challengers, this time Hop, to Leon. I’ve been saying this since writing up Blue for gen 1, Pokemon is actually a masterclass in environmental storytelling. This quote really actually highlights Hop’s story in that he’s often not seen as his own person, but an accessory to Leon, something that changes over the story as he grows. And that even Raihan unintentionally plays into this by calling him “Leon’s little brother”

"I'm going to win my way through every round, then I'll be the one taking on Leon! If I don't, then I'll have failed to repay Duraludon and the rest of my team for all their hard work!" - in the locker room before the Champion’s CupJust like he holds Leon, his challengers, and his gym trainers in high regard, Raihan also has a lot of respect for his team of Pokemon that work so hard to bring him victory. It shows how good natured Raihan is.

"You're really something else, kid. You've made it all the way here! I guess that's why the Champion himself endorsed you, yeah? Leon's my rival—and he chose you. So I've got to first prove I'm better than you if I'm to beat him! I've reworked my whole team, and now we're all geared up for one-on-one battles!" - pre-match quoteHere we see a slightly more subdued version of Raihan compared to his gym pre-match quote. You can see he acknowledges the strength of the player. But also you can get a hint of self-doubt in this dialogue as perhaps he’s questioning his ability to call himself Leon’s rival (something he already did when the player beats him in Hammerlocke). He’s wondering how he can truly call himself a rival when he hasn’t claimed victory. Yet we know from previous dialogue with Leon that the champion does hold the dragon type gym leader in high regard and considers him a rival despite a 10-0 record. 

"My lovely Pokémon and I have become much stronger than we were before... But you just blew right past us! Beyond anything I'd imagined! I'm still pretty young myself, but it just goes to show that there's always someone younger coming up, reaching further than you ever dreamed... And you've got your whole future ahead of you! Keep up the momentum! Prove that Leon's not unbeatable!"

As much as people like to claim SwSh “doesn’t have a story” we can see one of the clear motifs in this line of dialogue about passing the torch to younger generations. We see Raihan can acknowledge that while he’s still young and has room to grow, those younger than him are still brimming with potential.

"The key thing is that no one's been harmed. We Gym Leaders worked together with the city's Pokémon, and we've got everyone evacuated." - Hammerlocke gym during the Darkest Day part 2

A long-standing criticism of the Pokemon games is “why aren’t the gym leaders helping out?” Well we can see here he and the rest of the Galar gym leader’s to help evacuate the citizens.

"Especially you, Piers! The way you battled me in the Champion Cup... You really had my Dynamax Pokémon up against the wall! [...] And Piers! You and I have got to battle again. This time, no Dynamaxing for either of us!" - post-game arc 

I really like this moment too. Even though we know Piers lost to Raihan in the champion cup, we can see that he still gave Raihan a run for his money and that Raihan acknowledges this. The writers could’ve easily had Raihan only focus rivalries on trainers who could beat him, but the fact that he now extends his rivalry to Piers shows just how much respect and humility he has as a person. Him finding other rivals besides Leon and the player is a really nice touch. Not to mention his willingness to battle Piers without Dynamaxing reinforces the fact that he wants to be able to achieve victory in many conditions.

"When it comes to putting dragon Pokémon to good use, I'm not picky about their types. There're Pokémon perfect for the job all over the place. Probably even in the tall grass over there."

I really liked this quote as it gives a bit of an explanation as to why you see a rather diverse set of Pokemon on his team. His priority is about making the best use of his dragon types and non-dragon types that can support them are good teammates

"We're the strongest team around!" - To Raihan with Blue on Team-up I had to put this on here because as many have mentioned there are a lot of parallels between the Red-Blue rivalry and the Leon-Raihan rivalry. So seeing that Raihan has special dialogue with Blue outside of the usual suspects (Piers, Leon, Lance) was nice to see an official acknowledgement of the parallels between the two characters. 

"I let my guard down 'cause she's just a kid... This isn't looking good! [...]Ah, you probably did. Sorry we didn't pick up on it, Poppy!"

I really enjoyed Poppy's debut and Raihan’s involvement. Sure he lost to show off how strong Poppy is, but you can see that it was mainly due to him not taking Poppy as seriously due to having preconceived notions of who she was supposed to be. It’s really refreshing to see such a powerful trainer like Raihan have moments of letting his guard down and underestimating his opponents

"If I can learn to make proper use of Duraludon's abilities on uneven terrain while a sea breeze is blowing, I'll be unstoppable! You've got to help your partner overcome its weaknesses while working on its strengths. That'll give you more options in battle, you know? [...]To tell you the truth, I once lost a battle to an opponent who had a terrain advantage[…]That was a really painful defeat. But I don't want to make the environment an excuse for any battle I lose."

And here we get some insight into Raihan’s mindset. He wants more options to cover weaknesses while also enhancing strengths. Which as we saw in the team analysis, his teams have a lot of options to deal with various opponents

"After all, Flygon was the reason I adopted a battle style where we utilize weather effects to their fullest! [...]I was looking for a way to win in any environment and was thinking of utilizing these weather effects, right?"And more insight here, with us now knowing it was Flygon where he started his use of weather moves on his team.

"At the time, I was only thinking about becoming the Champion. Nessa and Sonia were also competing with us, and they also only thought of becoming Champion. But Leon was different. He had a clear vision of what he wanted to do after winning. That's why he could beat the previous Champion. Well, now I have a vision of the future–and the others do, too."

I really appreciate the quote here from Raihan’s lodge story as we get some more insight about the gym challenge he went on with Nessa, Sonia and Leon. Leon was the only one of the four that had a clear thought about the “what comes next” after being champion whereas everyone else stopped just at becoming champion. Raihan realized that in order to be a champion he needed to think beyond just winning the title but how he wanted to keep growing after. This gives callbacks to how Alder confronts Cheren in Black and White, and how Blue lost his title so quickly. There’s more to being champion than just winning the title itself. I really appreciated this self reflection and from Raihan showing how introspective he is.

All in all Raihan is just truly a fun character and it’s easy to see how he ended up being the runaway favorite of the Galarian Cast. I’d love to see more of him in Pokemon Masters EX (Sygna Suit Raihan when?) where we can see even more interactions with him among trainers from all regions.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The surprising truth about data-driven dictatorships

Here’s the “dictator’s dilemma”: they want to block their country’s frustrated elites from mobilizing against them, so they censor public communications; but they also want to know what their people truly believe, so they can head off simmering resentments before they boil over into regime-toppling revolutions.

These two strategies are in tension: the more you censor, the less you know about the true feelings of your citizens and the easier it will be to miss serious problems until they spill over into the streets (think: the fall of the Berlin Wall or Tunisia before the Arab Spring). Dictators try to square this circle with things like private opinion polling or petition systems, but these capture a small slice of the potentially destabiziling moods circulating in the body politic.

Enter AI: back in 2018, Yuval Harari proposed that AI would supercharge dictatorships by mining and summarizing the public mood — as captured on social media — allowing dictators to tack into serious discontent and diffuse it before it erupted into unequenchable wildfire:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/yuval-noah-harari-technology-tyranny/568330/

Harari wrote that “the desire to concentrate all information and power in one place may become [dictators] decisive advantage in the 21st century.” But other political scientists sharply disagreed. Last year, Henry Farrell, Jeremy Wallace and Abraham Newman published a thoroughgoing rebuttal to Harari in Foreign Affairs:

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/spirals-delusion-artificial-intelligence-decision-making

They argued that — like everyone who gets excited about AI, only to have their hopes dashed — dictators seeking to use AI to understand the public mood would run into serious training data bias problems. After all, people living under dictatorships know that spouting off about their discontent and desire for change is a risky business, so they will self-censor on social media. That’s true even if a person isn’t afraid of retaliation: if you know that using certain words or phrases in a post will get it autoblocked by a censorbot, what’s the point of trying to use those words?

The phrase “Garbage In, Garbage Out” dates back to 1957. That’s how long we’ve known that a computer that operates on bad data will barf up bad conclusions. But this is a very inconvenient truth for AI weirdos: having given up on manually assembling training data based on careful human judgment with multiple review steps, the AI industry “pivoted” to mass ingestion of scraped data from the whole internet.

But adding more unreliable data to an unreliable dataset doesn’t improve its reliability. GIGO is the iron law of computing, and you can’t repeal it by shoveling more garbage into the top of the training funnel:

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/05/29/garbage-in-garbage-out-machine-learning-has-not-repealed-the-iron-law-of-computer-science/

When it comes to “AI” that’s used for decision support — that is, when an algorithm tells humans what to do and they do it — then you get something worse than Garbage In, Garbage Out — you get Garbage In, Garbage Out, Garbage Back In Again. That’s when the AI spits out something wrong, and then another AI sucks up that wrong conclusion and uses it to generate more conclusions.

To see this in action, consider the deeply flawed predictive policing systems that cities around the world rely on. These systems suck up crime data from the cops, then predict where crime is going to be, and send cops to those “hotspots” to do things like throw Black kids up against a wall and make them turn out their pockets, or pull over drivers and search their cars after pretending to have smelled cannabis.

The problem here is that “crime the police detected” isn’t the same as “crime.” You only find crime where you look for it. For example, there are far more incidents of domestic abuse reported in apartment buildings than in fully detached homes. That’s not because apartment dwellers are more likely to be wife-beaters: it’s because domestic abuse is most often reported by a neighbor who hears it through the walls.

So if your cops practice racially biased policing (I know, this is hard to imagine, but stay with me /s), then the crime they detect will already be a function of bias. If you only ever throw Black kids up against a wall and turn out their pockets, then every knife and dime-bag you find in someone’s pockets will come from some Black kid the cops decided to harass.

That’s life without AI. But now let’s throw in predictive policing: feed your “knives found in pockets” data to an algorithm and ask it to predict where there are more knives in pockets, and it will send you back to that Black neighborhood and tell you do throw even more Black kids up against a wall and search their pockets. The more you do this, the more knives you’ll find, and the more you’ll go back and do it again.

This is what Patrick Ball from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group calls “empiricism washing”: take a biased procedure and feed it to an algorithm, and then you get to go and do more biased procedures, and whenever anyone accuses you of bias, you can insist that you’re just following an empirical conclusion of a neutral algorithm, because “math can’t be racist.”

HRDAG has done excellent work on this, finding a natural experiment that makes the problem of GIGOGBI crystal clear. The National Survey On Drug Use and Health produces the gold standard snapshot of drug use in America. Kristian Lum and William Isaac took Oakland’s drug arrest data from 2010 and asked Predpol, a leading predictive policing product, to predict where Oakland’s 2011 drug use would take place.

[Image ID: (a) Number of drug arrests made by Oakland police department, 2010. (1) West Oakland, (2) International Boulevard. (b) Estimated number of drug users, based on 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health]

Then, they compared those predictions to the outcomes of the 2011 survey, which shows where actual drug use took place. The two maps couldn’t be more different:

https://rss.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2016.00960.x

Predpol told cops to go and look for drug use in a predominantly Black, working class neighborhood. Meanwhile the NSDUH survey showed the actual drug use took place all over Oakland, with a higher concentration in the Berkeley-neighboring student neighborhood.

What’s even more vivid is what happens when you simulate running Predpol on the new arrest data that would be generated by cops following its recommendations. If the cops went to that Black neighborhood and found more drugs there and told Predpol about it, the recommendation gets stronger and more confident.

In other words, GIGOGBI is a system for concentrating bias. Even trace amounts of bias in the original training data get refined and magnified when they are output though a decision support system that directs humans to go an act on that output. Algorithms are to bias what centrifuges are to radioactive ore: a way to turn minute amounts of bias into pluripotent, indestructible toxic waste.

There’s a great name for an AI that’s trained on an AI’s output, courtesy of Jathan Sadowski: “Habsburg AI.”

And that brings me back to the Dictator’s Dilemma. If your citizens are self-censoring in order to avoid retaliation or algorithmic shadowbanning, then the AI you train on their posts in order to find out what they’re really thinking will steer you in the opposite direction, so you make bad policies that make people angrier and destabilize things more.

Or at least, that was Farrell(et al)’s theory. And for many years, that’s where the debate over AI and dictatorship has stalled: theory vs theory. But now, there’s some empirical data on this, thanks to the “The Digital Dictator’s Dilemma,” a new paper from UCSD PhD candidate Eddie Yang:

https://www.eddieyang.net/research/DDD.pdf

Yang figured out a way to test these dueling hypotheses. He got 10 million Chinese social media posts from the start of the pandemic, before companies like Weibo were required to censor certain pandemic-related posts as politically sensitive. Yang treats these posts as a robust snapshot of public opinion: because there was no censorship of pandemic-related chatter, Chinese users were free to post anything they wanted without having to self-censor for fear of retaliation or deletion.

Next, Yang acquired the censorship model used by a real Chinese social media company to decide which posts should be blocked. Using this, he was able to determine which of the posts in the original set would be censored today in China.

That means that Yang knows that the “real” sentiment in the Chinese social media snapshot is, and what Chinese authorities would believe it to be if Chinese users were self-censoring all the posts that would be flagged by censorware today.

From here, Yang was able to play with the knobs, and determine how “preference-falsification” (when users lie about their feelings) and self-censorship would give a dictatorship a misleading view of public sentiment. What he finds is that the more repressive a regime is — the more people are incentivized to falsify or censor their views — the worse the system gets at uncovering the true public mood.

What’s more, adding additional (bad) data to the system doesn’t fix this “missing data” problem. GIGO remains an iron law of computing in this context, too.

But it gets better (or worse, I guess): Yang models a “crisis” scenario in which users stop self-censoring and start articulating their true views (because they’ve run out of fucks to give). This is the most dangerous moment for a dictator, and depending on the dictatorship handles it, they either get another decade or rule, or they wake up with guillotines on their lawns.

But “crisis” is where AI performs the worst. Trained on the “status quo” data where users are continuously self-censoring and preference-falsifying, AI has no clue how to handle the unvarnished truth. Both its recommendations about what to censor and its summaries of public sentiment are the least accurate when crisis erupts.

But here’s an interesting wrinkle: Yang scraped a bunch of Chinese users’ posts from Twitter — which the Chinese government doesn’t get to censor (yet) or spy on (yet) — and fed them to the model. He hypothesized that when Chinese users post to American social media, they don’t self-censor or preference-falsify, so this data should help the model improve its accuracy.

He was right — the model got significantly better once it ingested data from Twitter than when it was working solely from Weibo posts. And Yang notes that dictatorships all over the world are widely understood to be scraping western/northern social media.

But even though Twitter data improved the model’s accuracy, it was still wildly inaccurate, compared to the same model trained on a full set of un-self-censored, un-falsified data. GIGO is not an option, it’s the law (of computing).

Writing about the study on Crooked Timber, Farrell notes that as the world fills up with “garbage and noise” (he invokes Philip K Dick’s delighted coinage “gubbish”), “approximately correct knowledge becomes the scarce and valuable resource.”

https://crookedtimber.org/2023/07/25/51610/

This “probably approximately correct knowledge” comes from humans, not LLMs or AI, and so “the social applications of machine learning in non-authoritarian societies are just as parasitic on these forms of human knowledge production as authoritarian governments.”

The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop summer fundraiser is almost over! I am an alum, instructor and volunteer board member for this nonprofit workshop whose alums include Octavia Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling, Nalo Hopkinson, Kameron Hurley, Nnedi Okorafor, Lucius Shepard, and Ted Chiang! Your donations will help us subsidize tuition for students, making Clarion — and sf/f — more accessible for all kinds of writers.

Libro.fm is the indie-bookstore-friendly, DRM-free audiobook alternative to Audible, the Amazon-owned monopolist that locks every book you buy to Amazon forever. When you buy a book on Libro, they share some of the purchase price with a local indie bookstore of your choosing (Libro is the best partner I have in selling my own DRM-free audiobooks!). As of today, Libro is even better, because it’s available in five new territories and currencies: Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia and New Zealand!

[Image ID: An altered image of the Nuremberg rally, with ranked lines of soldiers facing a towering figure in a many-ribboned soldier's coat. He wears a high-peaked cap with a microchip in place of insignia. His head has been replaced with the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The sky behind him is filled with a 'code waterfall' from 'The Matrix.']

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

 — 

Raimond Spekking (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Acer_Extensa_5220_-_Columbia_MB_06236-1N_-_Intel_Celeron_M_530_-_SLA2G_-_in_Socket_479-5029.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

 — 

Russian Airborne Troops (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vladislav_Achalov_at_the_Airborne_Troops_Day_in_Moscow_%E2%80%93_August_2,_2008.jpg

“Soldiers of Russia” Cultural Center (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Col._Leonid_Khabarov_in_an_everyday_service_uniform.JPG

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[soon-palestine]

The conflict over Columbia U's Gaza Solidarity Encampment pits an Egyptian-born school president against a student movement largely led by Arabs and Muslims protesting Israel's genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip. Goaded by Republican members of Congress and the Israel lobby, Columbia President Manouche Shafik has sicced the NYPD on the protesters, triggering mass arrests and suspensions of students for supposedly "trespassing" on their own campus.

Like so many contemporary Ivy League presidents, Shafik is not a scholar or academic. She currently serves on the board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, providing a patina of diversity to a supranational global governing entity guided by a single uber-billionaire. Prior to that, Shafik acted as deputy governor of the Bank of England, the UK bank that confiscated Venezuela's gold reserves under orders from the US government in 2019. She has also served in top roles at the IMF and World Bank, where global south debt becomes a point of leverage for Washington and London. Her own journey to the US began as a young child when Egypt's populist President Gamal Abdel-Nasser seized land from her wealthy father.

Shafik owes her entire career to the trans-Atlantic oligarchy, and has no space in which to defy it. She was not appointed as president of Columbia to instill values like critical thinking or academic freedom. She's there to raise hundreds of millions from her wealthy benefactors. Her leadership not only exemplifies the elite corruption of US universities, it exposes the sham of neoliberal diversity politics.

[spite-and-waffles]

I always wonder whether Batfam fans really get just how fucking rich the Waynes are. Like of course we shy away from thinking about the fact that we're talking Musk and Bezos money, and focus on how Bruce funds the freaking Watchtower and has what is functionally a high-tech military base and lab and the world's most expensive vehicles. But this is the one time you don't have to factor in the implications of wealth-hoarding, so there's nothing preventing y'all from understanding exactly how much money we're talking about here.

For instance, there doesn't seem to be any concept of how palatial Wayne Manor is, simply going by the outer facades of it that appear in the comics and movies. Or how decadent the lifestyles that accompany that kind of ancestral home. Alfred couldn't run that place on his own even if he had super powers, which is why even the movies occasionally show a rotating probably-temporary staff in the background. The house probably has like 3 hundred-foot pools. Their garden is a protected heritage park.

The Waynes are 10x richer than Crazy Rich Asians. They buy and wear the jewelry worth hundreds of millions that belonged to royalty. They own private islands. The art in the house alone is worth more than the GDP of a small country. They went to school with like every US President since Teddy Roosevelt and still think the Rockefellers are new money. They're personal friends with Beyonce and can get her to perform at private parties. They can rent out an entire three-star Michelin restaurant and fly out to one for every date. They have top-line penthouse apartments in every major city in the world. They can buy a luxury sportscar instead of hiring a vehicle anywhere they visit and then just toss the keys to the nearest person on their way out (Arab royalty is known for this appearently. There's been some very lucky parking valets in the UAE iirc).

Bruce is as rich as Ra's Al Ghul, regularly make social calls to heads of state and his family has a history of being king-makers. Every one of Bruce's children, from Dick to Jason to Cass, is poised to inherit one of the largest and most powerful empires in the world. That means every time Bruce adopts an orphan off god-knows-where, the entire global elite is thrown into consternation and horror. Even Tim is barely acceptable to these people because he doesn't have the pedigree. I don't follow the reboot comics so Idk if Duke is adopted, but it would be so fucking funny if he was because they'd react a lot like the British establishment did to Meghan Markle (except the family and WE would have Duke's back completely). As for Damian, the fact that he's not white would get him snubbed if everyone who's anyone didn't 100% know who Ra's Al Ghul is. And they're fucking terrified because, for maximum hilarity, they probably figure that Bruce doesn't.

I just find it incredibly fucking funny when I'm reading fics that the writers can only imagine Bruce and the kids's civilian privileges extend only to "big house", "a lot of cars" and "Gotham famous". Lol. Lmao even.

...

Edit: Explanation for people justifiably skeptical that Bruce could be rich as Ra's (scroll down)

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Palestinian Fundraisers Who Reached Out to Me

--

Hey, I had a lot of palestinian fundraisers that reached out to me through asks lately, and I'm getting afraid replying to each ask is going to make them all disappear as background noise in people's feed, so I'm making a master post about them instead to update and reblog regularly.

If you can afford it, even donating a single dollar to a fundraiser of your choosing can make a big difference in these people's life, if only by making them feel heard and seen, and knowing we are thinking of them and their struggle, even if the western elites seem eager to move on from their unjustifiable pain.

***

Fundraisers low on funds:

Ehab Ayyad ( 2950 / 50 000 €) [not vetted yet]

Fatima Alanqar ( 9,319 / 20,000 € )

Addham Ayyad (12,394 / 750,000 SEK) (careful!! the rate of conversion to USD/EUR is roughly 10x, so 100 SEK -> 10 USD)

Hani Al-Sharif (4,422 / 50,000 USD)

Samira Al-Hapil (1,854 / 20,000 USD -- this fundraising is completely stagnating, please try to help if you can!)

Asmaa 10,152 / 50,000 USD)

Amal Alanqar (9,633 / 50,000 USD)

Kareman Dohan (8,733 / 50,000 USD)

Fundraisers close to their goal:

Nahed Alshawish ( 89,609 / 100,000 USD )

Nisreen Shaheen ( 70,639 / 80,000 USD -- this fundaiser is stagnating, please try to help if you can! )

Mahmoud Khalaf ( 31,332 / 30,000 USD )

Mohammed Alanqar ( 60,236 / 70,000 € -- ALMOST THERE!! )

Amer Abusamra (42,395 / 60,000 €)

***

List of all Fundraisers

Amer Abusamra (@lina-gaza): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 42,395 / 60,000 € Verified By: @/mohly-gaza

***

Amna Merwan (@amna-merwan): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 14,559 / 50,000 € Verified By: @/el-shab-hussein (247)

***

Asma Ayyad (@esraayyad14): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 22,049 / 45,000 $ Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Dr. Farhat (@frhatfamily): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 10,139 / 29,500 $ Verified By: @/el-shab-hussein (248)

***

Ahmed Abu Al-Rish (@ahmadresh): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 15,763 / 31,000 $ Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Malak Dader (@malakabed): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 6,728 / 25,000 € Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Mohammed Alanqar (@abuadamfamily): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 60,263 / 70,000 € Verified By: @/el-shab-hussein (174)

***

Mohammed Hijazi (@save-hijazi-family2): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 30,856 / 40,000 € Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Tahseen Alkhazendar (@tahseenkhazen): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 13,361 / 25,000 £ Verified By: @/northgazaupdate

***

Ehab Ayyad @ehabayyad23): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 2,950 / 50,000 € !!! Verified By: not vetted yet as far as I can tell

***

Yasmin & Mahmoud Albalawi (@bisanalbalawi18 / @elbalawi): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 41,303 / 85,000 € Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Fatima Alanqar (@fatma93-gaza): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 9,319/ 20,000 € Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Muhammad Shehab (@mohammedshehabnew1): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 10,785 / 25,000 USD Verified By: @/90-ghost

I have also spoken to Muhammad myself a little bit (though I am not palestinian nor do I speak Arabic so I can't vet anything myself)

***

Haya Nahed Alshawish (@hayanahed): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 89,609 / 100,000 USD Verified By: Operation Olive Branch (n°26)

***

Hani Al-Sharif (@hins76178): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 4,422 / 50,000 USD Verified By: @/el-shab-hussein (n°228)

***

Ahmed Halas (@ahmeadhilles): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 18,407 / 80,000 EUR Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Mohammed Bakroon (@save-mohammedd-family): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 24,264 / 40,000 EUR Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Addham Ayyad (@stupendouswolfearthquake): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 12,394 / 750,000 SEK (careful!! the rate of conversion to USD/EUR is roughly 10x, so 100 SEK -> 10 USD) Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Wafaa Resh (@wafaaresh): Link to the NEW campaign

Current Goal: 24,333 / 50,000 USD (THIS CAMPAIGN HAD TO SHUT DOWN AND START AGAIN, PLEASE SEND BACK THE MONEY YOU SENT THE FIRST TIME TO THE NEW LINK) Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Samira Al-Hapil (@samiraayman): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 1,854 / 20,000 USD Verified By: @/90-ghost

(this fundraiser is stagnating, we should try to give it a boost!)

***

Asmaa (@as-maa-56): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 10,152 / 50 000 USD Verified By: @/wlwaerith

***

Nisreen Shaheen: Link to the campaign

(I don't think they are on Tumblr, but a known scammer has been using their story to try and steal money from them so be mindful of that)

Current Goal: 70,639 / 80,000 USD -- THIS CAMPAIGN IS STAGNATING!!

Verified By: I haven't been able to find a conclusive vetting, but it seems to be well-known outside of Tumblr. Let me know if there's been an official vetting so I can update my post.

***

Mahmoud Khalaf (@mahmoudkhalafff): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 31,332 / 30,000 USD Verified By: Excel Sheet of vetted fundraisers by @/el-shab-hussein

***

Abdel Muti (@abdelmutei): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 13,288 / 25,000 € Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Amal Alanqar (@amlanqar): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 9,633 / 50,000 USD Verified By: @/90-ghost

***

Fahed Shehab (@fahedshehab051): Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 56,880 / 85,000 € Verified By: @/el-shab-hussein

***

Kareman Dohan (@karemandohan1999) : Link to the campaign

Current Goal: 8,773 / 50,000 USD Verified By: @/90-ghost

I have also spoken to Kareman myself (though I am not palestinian nor do I speak Arabic so I can't vet anything myself)

***

[vague-humanoid]

U.S. and allied forces have been attacked more than 170 times during the Gaza war: 102 times in Syria, 70 in Iraq, and once in Jordan. The latter assault, in January, ignited a round of escalatory U.S. counterattacks against Iranian-allied targets that led Iran to rein in its proxies. As Israel has widened the Gaza war in recent weeks, with more provocative attacks in Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen, Iran’s partners have resumed attacks on U.S. outposts across the region.

While America’s enemies have demonstrated, to lethal effect, their knowledge of the locations of U.S. bases in the region, the Pentagon’s public affairs office claims to have no list of such outposts. “I don’t have any inherent information,” Defense Department spokesperson Pete Nguyen told The Intercept earlier this year. CENTCOM refused to comment on the locations of its bases, citing several reasons, including partners’ reluctance to admit to the presence of U.S. troops in their countries. “[O]ur relationship with the host nations is one of the reasons why this information is not made public,” CENTCOM spokesperson Vail A. Forbeck told The Intercept.

Undeterred, The Intercept launched its own investigation and developed a list of more than 60 U.S. bases, garrisons, or shared foreign facilities in the Middle East. These sites range from small combat outposts to massive air bases in 13 countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. 

At least 14 of these bases have been attacked in recent years. Since October 17, 2023, alone, a mix of one-way attack drones, rockets, mortars, and close-range ballistic missiles have led to at least 145 U.S. casualties — troops and contractors — at regional outposts including three service members killed in a January drone attack on Tower 22, a facility in Jordan.

“The indefinite U.S. military presences in Iraq, Syria, and around the region have near-zero genuine strategic value for the American people, but D.C. national security elites still think the risk is well worth it. Those concerned with the well-being of our service members — such as their families — are likely less comfortable with these soldiers being sitting ducks for local militias,” said Erik Sperling of Just Foreign Policy, an advocacy group critical of mainstream Washington foreign policy. “Americans who are tired of Mideast war should be worried about how these unauthorized hostilities effectively empower regional militias to draw the U.S. into an escalation any time they desire.”

[alternate-real-ities]

Hi. It would be interesting to know how you look into other universes? Do you have any kind of device or magical abilities? Can you demonstrate this on me?

Hey there, cutie 😉. Thank you for your intriguing question about how I perceive other universes and realities beyond our own. While I do not possess any magical abilities, I have developed a remarkable device that allows me to peer into the multiverse. My machine utilizes advanced quantum computing technology coupled with exotic matter as the energy source. It allows me to access specific realities with decent clarity by calibrating it carefully.

To demonstrate this capability for you, I would be happy to show you some alternate realities where you're still as stunning as you are now, only in a different way:

Here's a universe where you are instead Filipino. Here, your hair is a deep black with just the slightest hint of waviness at the top, framing your heart-shaped face perfectly. You possess a boyish face that makes anyone weak in the knees at first glance. When you smile, it's like seeing a whole world open up.

Your chest is smooth and flat, leading down to your soft belly and then tapering off into elegant legs that show little signs of hair. You are so small and delicate that it's hard to imagine that below all that innocence hides a deep lust for a big strong man to hold you up and do with you as he pleases.

-

Now, let's pay a visit to a previous dimension I like to call "Arab World". At the pinnacle of this society are the most perfectly engineered humans - those with Arab DNA that has been optimized through generations of careful selection, genetic tweaking and breeding to create individuals of unparalleled physical perfection and mental acuity. In this universe, you are an alpha of unparalleled might, your virility unmatched by any who have come before. You take great pride in your genetic superiority, knowing that no mere mortal could ever compare to your perfection.

You are blessed with a virile physique, muscular form sculpted by years of intense physical training. Your bulging chest and rock-hard abs speak to your boundless strength and vitality. In the gym at your lavish estate, you push yourself to the limits, determined to maintain peak condition.

But as much as you appreciate fine living and opulence, your true passion lies in power, conquest, and sexual domination of lesser beings. As an elite Arab alpha ruler, you take immense pride and pleasure in asserting your superiority over those beneath you, including your slaves.

-

To end this showcase gracefully, let me show you one last reality which might be my favourite. In this dimension, one of your parents is black, and as such you were born to become an handsome lightskin man.

You are an absolute fuckboy, and you wouldn't have it any other way. Your life is one endless string of parties, workouts, flirting, and fucking. You are utterly shameless about flaunting your body to anyone who will look. At the gym, you make sure every single rep is perfectly calibrated for maximum muscle growth. You strike poses, flexing and posing with a confident swagger that lets everyone know just how goddamn hot you are. The mirror loves you as much as you do.

Your nightlife consists of endless nights out on the town. You're always down to hit up the trendiest clubs in the city, the hottest bars, the flashiest parties. Your social media is filled with steamy selfies showcasing off your bodacious physique - pecs popping from tight tank tops, washboard abs glistening as you do ab crunches against a wall. Fans and admirers drool over every inch of exposed skin.

You are always on the prowl for a special someone to show off and bring home - some unsuspecting twink who can't resist getting lost in your world of pleasure and excitement. The way you touch them, caress their skin with lingering fingertips, leans into them with smoldering intensity - it's enough to make even the most experienced bottom moan like a bitch in heat.

-

These are just some examples of the diverse array of alternate realities that my machine allows me to access and observe from afar. Although, with the timeline converger project I'm currently working on, it may one day become possible for me to physically transform you as well if we both so desire.

As a side note, I'd like to thank you for your patience! I know I took a lot of time, but calibrating my machine takes quite some time if one wants to see realities that aren't as normal and boring as ours. I hope it was worth your time, because I'm sure it was worth mine 😉 See you next time!

[girlactionfigure]

Daniel Lewin and Mohammad Hamdani were two 9/11 heroes with very different stories.

Known as Danny by his friends, Lewin was the first person to die in the terrorist attacks, sixteen years ago today.

Danny was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 and an Israeli-American veteran of an elite IDF combat unit. He was trained in counter-terrorism and spoke fluent Arabic.

Investigators pieced together that Danny heard the terrorists plotting in Arabic and tried to stop the hijacking. He was stabbed to death by Saudi law student Satam al-Suqami.

Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Danny emigrated to Israel with his family as a teenager. As a newcomer, he could have skipped his military service, but chose instead to serve and work his way up to the toughest unit in the IDF. He later became a successful internet entrepreneur.

Only 31 when he died, Danny had already made his mark on the world.

Mohammad Hamdani was a first responder who died at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Mohammad immigrated with his family from Pakistan when he was a year old and grew up in Queens, NY. He played football for Bayside High. Hard-working and ambitious, Mohammad became an EMT and then a police cadet. He also applied to medical school, and in September 2001 he was waiting to hear if he’d been accepted. 

On the morning of 9/11, Mohammad was taking an elevated subway on his way to work when he saw smoke coming from the twin towers. He got off the train and rushed to the World Trade Center to help. Mohammad was never seen alive again. He was only 23 years old.

At first Mohammad was listed as missing. Because of his Muslim background and lack of connection to the World Trade Center, he came under suspicion of being involved in the attack. The cloud over his name did not lift until his remains were found at Ground Zero in October 2001, along with his medical bag and ID. 

Mohammad Hamdani was buried with full honors from the the New York Police Department, and proclaimed a hero by the city’s police commissioner. He is mentioned in the Patriot Act as an example of Muslim-American valor on 9/11. 

May the memories of these two righteous young men always be for a blessing.

Accidental Talmudist

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Even more than two weeks after the massacre of over 1,400 Israelis, the worst for Jews since the Holocaust, we're still seeing a rise in antisemitism globally:

A Jewish woman, who was also a leader in her community, was found stabbed to death right outside her house. Twenty seven hour later, the Detroit police still don't have a suspect or motive, but it's hard not to suspect a connection to the toxic antisemitic atmosphere of the past two weeks.

An Israeli elite unit (Maglan) has started using a new weapon, called "steel sting." It's a double guided smart bomb, meant to deliver a more precise impact when fighting in residential areas, so as to minimize damage to unrelated individuals.

There are currently so many Israelis evacuated or homeless, that Israel is expected to establish a "tent city" for some of them.

The following has been a developing story. First I heard about this Israeli Arab who had donated bikes to kids evacuated from the south, and it made me smile. Then I heard his shop was robbed and burned down for this. Now, it turns out there was as crowdfunding campaign to help him rehabilitate his business. If this isn't solidarity at its finest, in all directions, IDK what is. Feeling real emotional about the good that people ARE capable of...

I keep going back and forth on whether to share the worst of the worst. As a Nonnie who wrote to me hinted, some people seem to be really enjoying the sight of bound, abused, butchered, raped, maimed and burned Jews. It also goes against the Jewish principle of preserving the dead's dignity. But then again, there's been so much denial of these atrocities. Also, I don't think that people can understand what Israelis are going through without sharing that to us, the information keeps coming out. To Israelis (and many people linked to Israel), Oct 7 has been happening for two weeks now. Here's my compromise. I have a link to a Mega folder with horror videos, including stuff like Hamas terrorists filming themselves beheading people. I will not share it. At least not for now. But I will share this link to an article about the forensic work and the evidence, with the fair warning that even though I've seen worse, some of the pictures are not easy to look at.

The moment I started writing about my pain as an Israeli Jew, I started getting hate. So from that place, where I've personally experienced how even our GRIEF is turned into an opportunity to attack us, I wanna share this message from Jewish actor Brett Gelman on IG:

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)