#case 2.3

[mlady-magnolia]

Banana Black Swan.

[thecoppersoulbox]

Ok without spoiling anything too much. Very fun to know that Silver Wolf is not winning the idgaf competition.

[tumblezwei]

In theory, I could accept Stellaron Hunter Sunday

In practice, I'd honestly rather be forced to spend 5 patches in a row with Yanqing

[pinkypastal]

Wait, so that conforms that the next story/planet is xianzhou part 2... but penacony just got over, so it's most likely an event 🤔 but there's too many new characters for it to just be an event 🫠 what

[withachanceoflaxus]

I don’t know what this is. It’s partly me rambling for a long time. It’s a meta, but also has some of my own headcanons & thoughts sprinkled in. I call it my F.antasia Manifesto because that's what it feels like. It's an examination of Laxus’ character and why Fantasia happened in the first place; it wasn’t so much about the guild as it was Laxus & Makarov’s relationship which is the main focus of this. Keeping up with the Dreyars is a full time job.

shoutout to jana / @aeceso for betareading this for me <;3

We all know what Laxus was like in the beginning. Arrogant. Rude. Loud-mouthed. Very focused on strength. His need for the guild to be strong is his stated reason for Fantasia.

That’s how he’s portrayed and he is a dick to everyone he talks to. He literally calls Team Shadowgear weak after what Gajeel did to them only to then later attack Gajeel “for them”. Obviously, it wasn’t about them or Gajeel. 

We don’t really know at this point where his emphasis on strength originates.. One hidden part of it that I think we shouldn’t ignore is that Laxus as a child was sick. And that’s a key part I want to point out. He was a sickly child. I think some part of his obsession with strength, perhaps even subconsciously, was a fear of feeling like he did as a child. Pediatric chronic illness has been noted to align with later emotional, behavioral and psychiatric symptoms. It is not every child, obviously, but I think Laxus would be a good case for something like this considering Fantasia. Laxus going from being sick to having heightened senses of a dragon slayer will be something I explore in a different post because I believe that is important. And so is his relationship with Makarov.

Fantasia doesn’t happen because Laxus thinks everyone else is weaker than him, that’s just what he says. We learn that we can’t even trust his stated reasons, I don’t think he is even conscious of the fact of why he’s behaving so out of character for himself. We know we can’t trust him because Fairy Law fails. At that point, people are urging Laxus to go to Makarov, but he doesn’t and he continues. Everything he does, even in his most desperate moments, involve Makarov.

His identity is so intertwined with Makarov. All his accomplishments, all his strengths. His relationship with Makarov forces him to be more focused on the guild and the guild’s future than himself. This is proven at the end. Right after Fairy Law fails? We have these two panels. 

(sidenote: I really don't think Laxus opened up much to his friends at this point because if he did, Freed would Not have said that. Because it comes across, to me, like a "okay you made your point lets end this" kinda way that dismisses the root cause which also probably caused the screaming. How many times has Laxus been told to get over things? Well, I know at least one other time which I will also get into.)

The utter heartbreak I feel aside — this shows what Fantasia was about. And it wasn't strength. It was about Laxus, his place in the guild and in his own life. Which has been completely messed up.

Natsu, the main character, does go on to attempt to reiterate the a lesson learned in the Phantom Lord arc by saying to Laxus that blood family doesn’t matter; that “no one cares” if Laxus is Makarov’s grandson. That's wrong, though.

One, blood not mattering makes sense for Lucy, who was abused by her father (at the very least, she was neglected which is a form of abuse) and she ran away. Her father was trying to force her into marriage. The two situations are different. Two, it makes total sense for a character like Natsu to not put much stock into blood family. He doesn't have any. He's only had a dragon, Igneel, to grow up with and doesn't remember his human family. And later, we learn Zeref is his brother so I can't blame him — his situation is very special. So! For Natsu, it makes sense that's what he thinks.  Three, I'd say this is more Natsu's POV because it does matter.  Just look below!

Laxus gets flack for being a well known Fairy Tail mage and is constantly undermined because his grandfather is the GM. People have thoughts about him, alright. His reputation matters. People have thoughts and theories on him because of his connection to Makarov, because of his blood relation. Everyone assumes he will be the next master because Makarov is the current one. Also, just to add to blood relation mattering: Laxus is also connected to a founder of Fairy Tail. Of course people are going to assume he’s going to be GM. And none of it has anything to do with any of his own accomplishments as a mage. Which is infuriating because being a mage is all that Makarov expects from him, which we will get into. 

I doubt Mr. Zod was the first or the last person to say something of that effect. Makarov's reputation is very important for Laxus. 

I will also like to add how important reputation is in general for Fairy Tail. As a Fairy Tail mage...the reputation of the guild matters. Fairy Tail is wildly talked about and it's not always good as we can see below. They're not taken seriously and that can affect the nature of the jobs. Not only that, because of the their destructive reputation, they could get disbanded. Yajima was protecting them there which is just another side of Makarov being so shady but that's a different meta / headcanon.

So yes. Reputation does matter. Blood relations or no. You just get extra pressure and expectations put on you if you’re blood related. No biggie! 

Back to Laxus a bit. Fairy Tail and Makarov's reputation being what it was always affected him. From what people said to his face, what they said about him, how they treat and interaction with him — this is all impacted by his relationship to Makarov. Whether or not some people think otherwise (Natsu and Makarov). His relationship to Makarov gets thrown in his face constantly and how healthy can that be? His relationship with Makarov isn't even truly understood by most, if not all, of these people. They are not buddy-buddy wholesome cute close. In fact, I am hopefully going to show why I think Makarov and Fairy Tail are the same entity when it comes to Laxus and that’s how it was set up by Makarov’s own actions.

Before Makarov excommunicated Laxus, what positive interactions do we see? Yeah, Laxus is being stand-offish and a dick to others in the guild, but Makarov one, allows it to a certain point. Two, has never shown any true genuine affection for an older Laxus until the excommunication. Three, literally doesn’t seem happy when he hears Laxus is in town for the Festival despite the good memories (obviously, we the reader know something is up there, but Makarov hasn’t seen him for a few weeks). Four, we know that something Not So Chill happened and Laxus’ only parent, Ivan, was excommunicated.  At some point, this becomes an argument between them. And I personally think that argument is the catalyst for their relationship and leads to Fantasia & it’s aftermath and explains why just Laxus was excommunicated.

Laxus is about 14-17 in the flashback. I personally headcanon it takes place pre S-Class because of how it ends. He's also obviously an older teenager, not a tween. When it ends, two very important things happen. Laxus makes a vow to become strong (the earliest time we see Laxus put any emphasis on strength) not for Ivan, but for himself. Makarov, however, saw it as Laxus “choosing” Ivan and no longer trusting him. But … it didn’t begin as an argument about Ivan.

To summarize: Makarov asked Laxus if he was going to be in Fantasia (something Laxus used to enjoy as a child and also something expected of Laxus as a member). Laxus got angry and upset at Makarov. Laxus talked about how he never gets the credit he deserves. That he’s always…Makarov’s grandson. Does Makarov emphasize with his struggle? No. He says "no one gets the credit they feel they deserve" and seems rather tired of the conversation and of Laxus' outburst. He doesn't admit that there's pressure to being his grandson, brushes it off. Laxus gets frustrated as anyone would (let alone a teenager) and mentions his dad, something he is separately upset about. Laxus reveals the existence of Raven Tail, which is news to Makarov. Makarov tries to get Ivan's location from Laxus and Laxus refuses, Makarov is not happy about this. It's evidence of Laxus and Ivan interaction that Makarov didn't previously know about. Makarov is afraid of what Ivan knows. This fear is what ultimately makes Makarov not trust Laxus and we see the formation of the distance between them pre-Fantasia.

Also, in the argument, Laxus truly shows that he thinks blood relations should matter. He’s Makarov’s grandson. Ivan was his son. Doesn’t that mean something? Well. What does being Makarov’s grandson mean for Laxus? The reputation comes with pressure. It means working really hard for no credit. That there are expectations put on you. Being Makarov's grandson and your father being excommunication probably doubled the pressure on him because everyone is going to wonder how he would turn out. Lastly, a grandson could also get excommunicated despite being family because at the end of the day, you're a mage of Fairy Tail and that's the part of you that matters to Makarov, as shown by his actions.

To summarize where we are: Fantasia was not about strength. It was about Laxus' lack of real identity. He was never himself, not even to his grandfather. He's always a mage of Fairy Tail first. That's how his grandfather sees him, his only blood relative that is around him. Makarov and Fairy Tail. They may as well be one and the same for Laxus. He’s not really given any room or model for how to have an identity outside of Fairy Tail. So of course he’s going to care. And he cares with his strength because he thinks that’s all he’s allowed to have at the end of the day. If he can overpower Makarov, he can be his own person.

So that’s how we get to Fantasia. And I’m not going to go over it too much, but it’s easy to see by different character’s reactions and even the townspeople that this is not something that aligns with the Laxus they are familiar with. Natsu (not Makarov) doesn’t take the threats seriously until he’s forced to. Freed is even surprised at what Laxus says to him, especially after Evergreen falls in battle. He is obviously not acting in character despite him being a dick in the few months we see him before the incident. 

Now, I do think Laxus (and the Raijinshuu) do deserve a punishment for what happened. They did all endanger the lives of not only their guildmates but also citizens. I did find it odd that Laxus was the only one who was excommunicated, but when I thought about it deeper…it does make sense! Why? Because why would Makarov let Laxus and the Raijinshuu leave, when he could ensure that at least just Laxus is leaving. He can’t trust what Laxus was going to do after. Remember, in the flashback argument, Laxus threatened that if ever he got fired, he'd join his dad's guild. We know he didn't do that after he left Fairy Tail. Makarov, however? Makarov didn't have that foresight! Yes, Makarov will miss him and cries when Laxus leaves. Yes, Makarov promises to watch over his grandson from afar (considering he sent spies after Ivan, though, I figure that was a guarantee LMAO) . However, there is still a lack of trust in their relationship. 

Makarov who just fired Laxus cannot risk Ivan having Laxus & the Raijinshuu especially after the Raijinshuu just displayed all their tricks. Once more, Laxus is unwillingly put into the war between his dad and his grandfather. He is cut off from his support system (his friends) because of this. 

Either being fired from your job (in this case, from Fairy Tail) means you have to leave the entire city (why does a guild have that much power over its mages in the first place or why does Fairy Tail / Makarov have that power?) or, more likely, Laxus' exile was self imposed. And I think the reason why it was self imposed is tied directly into the relationship with Makarov he's had thus far: family = guild. There is no two separate things. Not even blood can save you. So of course being fired means leaving. Makarov didn’t just fire Laxus, it’s never that simple between them. Laxus is not a part of the guild, he’s not a part of Makarov’s family either. 

Which is devasting because obviously other people outside his relationship with Makarov do make it matter. Strangers make it matter. People close to him make it matter (Freed is an example of how close that is). But to Makarov himself? It doesn't. And we can infer that to Laxus it also mattered. He thought being blood related mattered. That he had a grandfather, not a guild master. Since that argument, we know that is not the truth for Makarov.

To conclude: Fantasia happened because Makarov and Laxus’ fucked up relationship and its impact on Laxus. He is not allowed to be Laxus, he has to be Fairy Tail’s Laxus. Not just to the general public, but to his grandfather. And there are pressures that come with being tied to Makarov that frankly, others either don’t acknowledge and/or care about. Their relationship was forever changed from that one argument and, I’d say even to the end in canon, it was never the same. They aren’t really close as Makarov will always put the guild over his family. 

[lecliss]

Found out Sunday isn't actually voiced by Robbie Daymond so idk if I even want him anymore so I went ahead and pulled Sparkle at 83 fucking pity. Idk if this was worth it

[soon-palestine]

In a statement that was shared with The Nation, a group of 25 HLR editors expressed their concerns about the decision. “At a time when the Law Review was facing a public intimidation and harassment campaign, the journal’s leadership intervened to stop publication,” they wrote. “The body of editors—none of whom are Palestinian—voted to sustain that decision. We are unaware of any other solicited piece that has been revoked by the Law Review in this way. “ When asked for comment, the leadership of the Harvard Law Review referred The Nation to a message posted on the journal’s website. “Like every academic journal, the Harvard Law Review has rigorous editorial processes governing how it solicits, evaluates, and determines when and whether to publish a piece…” the note began. ”Last week, the full body met and deliberated over whether to publish a particular Blog piece that had been solicited by two editors. A substantial majority voted not to proceed with publication.” Today, The Nation is sharing the piece that the Harvard Law Review refused to run. Some may claim that the invocation of genocide, especially in Gaza, is fraught. But does one have to wait for a genocide to be successfully completed to name it? This logic contributes to the politics of denial. When it comes to Gaza, there is a sense of moral hypocrisy that undergirds Western epistemological approaches, one which mutes the ability to name the violence inflicted upon Palestinians. But naming injustice is crucial to claiming justice. If the international community takes its crimes seriously, then the discussion about the unfolding genocide in Gaza is not a matter of mere semantics. The UN Genocide Convention defines the crime of genocide as certain acts “committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.” These acts include “killing members of a protected group” or “causing serious bodily or mental harm” or “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” Numerous statements made by top Israeli politicians affirm their intentions. There is a forming consensus among leading scholars in the field of genocide studies that “these statements could easily be construed as indicating a genocidal intent,” as Omer Bartov, an authority in the field, writes. More importantly, genocide is the material reality of Palestinians in Gaza: an entrapped, displaced, starved, water-deprived population of 2.3 million facing massive bombardments and a carnage in one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Over 11,000 people have already been killed. That is one person out of every 200 people in Gaza. Tens of thousands are injured, and over 45% of homes in Gaza have been destroyed. The United Nations Secretary General said that Gaza is becoming a “graveyard for children,” but a cessation of the carnage—a ceasefire—remains elusive. Israel continues to blatantly violate international law: dropping white phosphorus from the sky, dispersing death in all directions, shedding blood, shelling neighborhoods, striking schools, hospitals, and universities, bombing churches and mosques, wiping out families, and ethnically cleansing an entire region in both callous and systemic manner. What do you call this? The Center for Constitutional Rights issued a thorough, 44-page, factual and legal analysis, asserting that “there is a plausible and credible case that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza.” Raz Segal, a historian of the Holocaust and genocide studies, calls the situation in Gaza “a textbook case of Genocide unfolding in front of our eyes.”

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Anthony Robledo

The side effects of newly discovered COVID-19 strain XEC might not be as severe, but is part of the more contagious variant class, experts say.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines XEC as recombinant or hybrid of the strains KS.1.1 and KP.3.3., both from the Omicron family that became the predominant strain in the U.S. late December 2022.

The variant, which first appeared in Berlin in late June, has increasingly seen hundreds of cases in Germany, France, Denmark and Netherlands, according to a report by Australia-based data integration specialist Mike Honey.

XEC has also been reported in at least 25 U.S. states though there could be more as genetic testing is not done on every positive test, RTI International epidemiologist Joëlla W. Adams said.

"We often use what happens in Europe as a good indication of what might happen here," Adams told USA TODAY Friday. "Whenever we're entering into a season where we have multiple viruses occurring at the same time, like we're entering into flu season, that obviously complicates things."

What is the XEC variant? New COVID strain XEC is a recombinant strain of two variants in the Omicron family: KS.1.1 and KP.3.3.

The hybrid strain was first reported in Berlin late June but has spread across Europe, North America and Asia with the countries Germany, France, the Netherlands and Denmark leading cases.

Is the XEC variant more contagious? While there's no indication the XEC strain will increase the severity of virus, it could potentially become a dominant strain as Omicron variants are more contagious. However, current available COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots are particularly protective against XEC as it is a hybrid of two Omicron strains.

"These strains do have the advantage in the fact that they are more transmissible compared to other families, and so the vaccines that are currently being offered were not based off of the XEC variant, but they are related," Adams said.

Like other respiratory infections, COVID-19 and its recent Omicron variants will increasingly spread during the fall and winter seasons as students return to classes, kids spend more time inside and people visit family for the holidays, according to Adams.

How can we protect ourselves from XEC and other variants? The CDC continues to monitor the emergence of variants in the population, according to spokesperson Rosa Norman.

"At this time, we anticipate that COVID-19 treatments and vaccines will continue to work against all circulating variants," Norman said in a statement to USA TODAY. "CDC will continue to monitor the effectiveness of treatment and vaccines against circulating variants."

The CDC recommends that everyone ages 6 months and older, with some exceptions, receive an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the virus, regardless whether or not you have previously been vaccinated or infected.

Norman urged Americans to monitor the agency's COVID Data Tracker for updates to new variants.

KP.3.1.1:This dominant COVID-19 variant accounts for over 50% of cases, new CDC data shows

What is the dominant strain of COVID in the US? COVID-19 variant KP.3.1.1 is currently the dominant strain accounting for more than half of positive infections in the U.S. according to recent CDC projections.

Between Sept. 1 and Sept. 14, 52.7% of positive infections were of the KP.3.1.1 strain, followed by KP.2.3 at 12.2%, according to the agency's Nowcast data tracker, which displays COVID-19 estimates and projections for two-week periods.

KP.3.1.1 first became the dominant strain in the two-week period, starting on July 21st and ending on August 3rd.

"The KP.3.1.1 variant is very similar to other circulating variants in the United States. All current lineages are descendants of JN.1, which emerged in late 2023," Norman previously told USA TODAY.

COVID XEC symptoms There is no indication that the XEC variant comes with its own unique symptoms.

The CDC continues to outline the basic COVID-19 symptoms, which can appear between two to 14 days after exposure to the virus and can range from mild to severe.

These are some of the symptoms of COVID-19:

Fever or chills Cough Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing Fatigue Muscle or body aches Headache Loss of taste or smell Sore throat Congestion or runny nose Nausea or vomiting Diarrhea

The CDC said you should seek medical attention if you have the following symptoms:

Trouble breathing Persistent pain or pressure in the chest New confusion Inability to wake or stay awake Pale, gray or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds

[tardis--dreams]

"Borderline plagiarism" is the scariest thing anyone's ever said about one of my papers but turns out you can still get a B for something like that so idek anymore

[randomitemdrop]

what can an astral wizard get for 1000 gold? (sending again in case tumblr ate my ask bc sometimes it do that)

Item: truckload of 2,300 pounds of meth hidden in bags of farm-fresh celery

I don’t actually know if 2.3 pounds of meth for 1 gold is a good deal, just get it out of here quick before the cops notice

[strawberrycakefem]

Public toilets should be sex segregated not only for women's safety, but also to accommodate the different needs between the sexes such as women needing more floor space than men.

"On the face of it, it may seem fair and equitable to accord male and female public toilets the same amount of floor space – and historically, this is the way it has been done. 50/50 division of floor space has even been formalised in plumbing codes. However, if a male toilet has both cubicles and urinals, the number of people who can relieve themselves at once is far higher per square foot of floor space in the male bathroom than in the female bathroom. Suddenly equal floor space isn’t so equal.

But even if male and female toilets had an equal number of stalls, the issue wouldn’t be resolved, because women take up to 2.3 times as long as men to use the toilet. Women make up the majority of the elderly and disabled, two groups that will tend to need more time in the toilet. Women are also more likely to be accompanied by children, as well as disabled and older people. Then there’s the 20–25% of women of childbearing age who may be on their period at any one time, and therefore needing to change a tampon or a sanitary pad.

Women may also in any case require more trips to the bathroom than men: pregnancy significantly reduces bladder capacity, and women are eight times more likely to suffer from urinary-tract infections than men which again increases the frequency with which a toilet visit is needed. In the face of all these anatomical differences, it would surely take a formal (rather than substantive) equality dogmatist to continue to argue that equal floor space between men and women is fair."

— Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

[fingertipsmp3]

Well tomorrow is certainly going to be a day.

[b1adie]

ummm… theory

(end of 2.3 spoilers)

jade shows up to offer sunday something on behalf of robin’s “wish.” jade refers to her deals with people as fulfilling their wishes. robin made a deal with jade to get her to save sunday.

when we learn how jade does business, we see three examples. from the first client, she takes money. from the third, she takes a man’s memories. from the second, she take’s a woman’s close relationships— her friends and family will cut her off, and she will never be able to forge any new friendships.

at a point in the quest i made a little joke about robin saying “former head of the oak family” instead of just, his name, or “my brother” or something, but figured she was just being formal…

… but now i’m not too sure if that was the case.

i’ve always thought about this line. why “eternal separation”? since he’s not dead, what’s stopping them from seeing each other again some time in the future? we know they care a lot about each other, so i can’t imagine anything would really keep them apart forever…

jade only deals in precious things.

what did robin give her in exchange for saving sunday?

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Working class Dems who campaign on economics beat Trumpists in elections

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me FRIDAY NIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and more!

The Democratic Party Pizzaburger Theory of Electioneering is: half the electorate wants a pizza, the other half wants a burger, so we'll give them all a pizzaburger and make them all equally dissatisfied, thus winning the election:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/16/that-boy-aint-right/#dinos-rinos-and-dunnos

But no one wants a pizzaburger. The Biden administration's approach of letting the Warren/Sanders wing pick the antitrust enforcers while keeping judicial appointments in the Manchin-Synematic universe is a catastrophe in which progressive Dem regulators (who serve one term) are thwarted by corporatist Dem judges (who serve for life):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

The Democrats – like all parties in two-party systems – are a coalition; in this case, a "progressive" liberal-left coalition with liberals serving as senior partners, steering the party and setting its policies. These corporate dems like to color themselves as "neutral" technocrats with "realistic, apolitical" policies that represent what's best for the country:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

This sets up the left wing of the party as the starry-eyed, unrealistic radicals whose policies are unpopular and will lose elections. But for a decade, grassroots-funded primary challenges have made it possible to test this theory, by putting leftist politicians on the ballot in front of voters, especially in tight races with far-right Republicans (that is, exactly the kinds of races that the corporate wing of the party says we can't afford to take chances on).

The 2022 midterms included enough races to start testing these theories – and, unlike traditional midterms, these races enjoyed high voter turnout, thanks to the unpopularity of GOP positions like abortion bans, book bans and anti-trans laws. Jacobin teamed up with the Center for Working-Class Politics, Yougov and the Center for Work and Democracy at ASU and analyzed those races:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/11134429/CWCP-Report-2024.pdf

Their conclusion: candidates from working-class backgrounds who campaigned on economic policies like high-quality jobs, higher minimum wages, a jobs guarantee, ending offshoring and outsourcing, building infrastructure and bringing manufacturing back to the US won with a 50% share of the vote in rural and working-class districts. Dems who didn't lost with a 35% share of the vote:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-03-18-how-actually-existing-democrats-run-for-office/

In other words, in the kinds of districts where Trumpist politicians are beating Democrats, running on "left populist" policies beats Trumpist politicians.

That's the good news: if Dems recruit leftist, working class politicians and put them up for office on policies that address the material reality of voters' lives, they can beat fascist GOP candidates.

Now for the bad news: the Democratic establishment has no interest in getting these candidates onto the ballot. Working-class candidates, by definition, lack the networks of deep-pocketed cronies who can fund their primary campaigns. Only 2.3% of Dem candidates come from blue-collar backgrounds (if you include "pink-collar" professions like nursing and teaching, the number goes up to 5.9%):

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/left-populists-working-class-voters

All of this confirms the findings of Trump's Kryoptonite, an earlier Jacobin/CWCP research project that polled working-class voters on preferences for hypothetical candidates, finding that working-class candidates with economically progressive policies handily beat out Republicans, including MAGA Republicans:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/08125102/TrumpsKryptonite_Final_June2023.pdf

Since the Clinton-Blair years, "progressives" have abandoned economic populism ("It's not a burning ambition for me to make sure that David Beckham earns less money" -T. Blair) and pursued a "third way" that seeks to replace half the world's of supply white, male oligarchs with diverse oligarchs from a variety of backgrounds and genders. We were told that this was done in the name of winning elections with "modern" policies that replaced old-fashioned ideas about decent pay, decent jobs, and worker power.

These policies have delivered a genocide-riven world on the brink of several kinds of existential catastrophe. They're a failure. The pizzaburger party didn't deliver safety, nor prosperity – and it also can't deliver elections.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/20/actual-material-conditions/#bread-and-butter

[fairuzfan]

As a survivor of the Bosnian Genocide, I am acutely attuned to the haunting echoes of that dark chapter in human history, a chapter that refuses to be closed. Today, as I witness the unfolding tragedy in Gaza, the spectre of genocide resurfaces with a poignant familiarity.

The Palestinian landscape, scarred by 75 years of Israeli military occupation, mirrors the hardships faced during the Bosnian War and Genocide - displacement, economic hardship, and restricted access to basic resources.

The ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza exacerbates an already dire humanitarian situation. This is more than a geopolitical conflict; this is a contemporary genocide.

In 111 days, more than 25,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel, including at least 10,000 children. More than 8,000 are missing, trapped under the rubble, and presumed dead. Another 63,000 are injured, and more than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.

Videos of Israeli leaders calling for the destruction of Gaza and the forcible displacement of Palestinians echo the sentiments expressed by those responsible for the Bosnian Genocide.

In the case of the Bosnian Genocide, while both the Bosnian Serbs and the Serbian political leadership knew they were committing genocide in their expansionist plans to create a “Greater Serbia,” publicly they attempted to conceal their crimes to avoid accountability.

Their genocidal intent was not as open or as loud as some of the sentiments expressed by Israeli political leadership.

Nevertheless, comparing the Bosnian Genocide with the current situation in Gaza necessitates a nuanced examination. While historical contexts differ, the core elements of mass displacement, targeted violence against civilians, and the overarching goal of extermination of a specific group are the same.

To comprehend the concept of genocide, it is crucial to understand its legal definition and sociological framework. Coined by Raphael Lemkin after the Holocaust, genocide encapsulates acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

Genocide goes beyond the mere act of killing; it encompasses a deliberate and systematic attempt to annihilate a specific group based on its identity.

Genocide is a process. In Bosnia, it did not simply occur one day in July of 1995, nor did it suddenly rear its head in October of 2023 in Gaza. It is a process that starts with dehumanisation, discrimination, and persecution.

[alphynix]

There are no salamanders living in the Caribbean today, but one tiny fossil shows that this wasn't always the case.

Palaeoplethodon hispaniolae was discovered in a chunk of amber from the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. The exact age of this type of amber is uncertain, but it most likely dates to the early-to-mid Miocene, about 20-15 million years ago.

The only known specimen is a hatchling, just under 2cm long (0.8"). It's unclear what its full adult size could have been, but based on its modern relatives it may have grown to anywhere between 4.5cm and 20cm long (~2-8").

Its strongly webbed hands and feet suggest it was very closely related to modern tropical climbing salamanders – but Palaeoplethodon had a unique webbing arrangement, with its feet relatively elongated and its hands fully fused into small rounded pads.

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References:

Iturralde-Vinent, M. A., and R. D. MacPhee. "Remarks on the age of Dominican amber." Palaeoentomology 2.3 (2019): 236–240. https://doi.org/10.11646/palaeoentomology.2.3.7

Poinar Jr, G., and Wake, David B. "Palaeoplethodon hispaniolae gen. n., sp. n.(Amphibia: Caudata), a fossil salamander from the Caribbean." Palaeodiversity 8 (2015): 21-29. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1f381770

Wikipedia contributors. “Bolitoglossa” Wikipedia, 18 Apr. 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolitoglossa

Wikipedia contributors. “Palaeoplethodon.” Wikipedia, 20 Nov. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaeoplethodon

Wikipedia contributors. “Salamander.” Wikipedia, 7 June 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander