#debating david french

[timbarrus]

Take notes. I am not amused. The good. The bad. And the indifferent. A legal argument. It's usually a legal/religious debate. If you read closely, that would be David French debating David French. This is illegal. It is also illegal for any person to drool over all the money these corporations never have because they are always losing money. Fiddledeedee. Overreaction to the felon's throne. "He may well be," is a term that seems to pop up a lot. Let's go with what we know. We know that the felon is a felon. He's a felon, don't listen to the convicted felon. Increasingly amused by overreaction. A bit smug. Ever notice how these guys are telling us in no uncertain terms that such and such a barbarian is at the door. And the next day, they are telling us we are overreacting. This feels like a speech in a courtroom to me. It's kinda slick. Nothing about family, Jesus, pornography. Nothing that says: the government is corrupt. Nothing that says A Culture War is an ironic thing to pin your hopes and dreams on. Nothing that says corporate greed plays a role in this. CEO bows down says: my bad. Leave the room backing up. Bowing down. Bowing done. Let us talk of humiliation and the men who cling to it not unlike a weapon. I don't know how the Normals do it. I'm autistic. All the bowing down. Can someone explain all this bowing down in the throne room. Now, we call the felon unstable. Be very careful it's the unstable felon. Felon with nukes. The nuke felon. Nothing on that. Either.

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

the baftas: my eyes need bleach after the livestream chat.

I SAID I WOULD COME TO TUMBLR AND SLUT-SHAME ALL OF YOU, AND YOU BET YOUR GODDAMN BILDADDY I'M HERE TO DO IT. First, a huge thank you to @good-usernames-were-taken, Valerie, for enabling this entire chaos and streaming it. And of course to Disappointment the Main Maggot.

Second, as per requests from you maggots, I have to give an honourary mention to the tragic lack of an emotional support gaseous orange, the late half-eaten packet of Lays on my desk, and my nearly empty can of Monster energy. Idk either, you asked for the mentions you got them.

Without further ado, presenting the BAFTA Awards 2024:

I am busy drawing out the neckline stitches of Crowley's wedding dress, when I am reminded of the stream and I crash into it midway. Little do I know what I am getting into.

Everyone is here for David Tennant. No one is here for the actual awards. This is made very clear very quickly.

KNEES. JUST KNEES. ALL EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT, THROUGHOUT THE STREAM, IS DAVID TENNANT'S KNEES. ARE YOU ALL OKAY WHAT THE FRESH HELL.

For context, David is in a kilt for the first half. I finally see why my relatives disapprove of skirts above knee-length. I never knew humanity's unholy worship of knees till I came here.

SOMEONE ASKS IF DAVID HAS TANNED HIS KNEES. MAGGOTS. PLEASE.

We interrupt our regular scheduled program of David knees to have an intense discussion about British versus French humour, and the misgendering of croissants.

RDJ wins an award and calls his wife his Alpha and Omega.

We're back to the knees. I can't handle how slutty David's knees are, says a worthy maggot.

This goes into a discussion about tickets for David's Macbeth, because, you guessed it, the kilt and the knees.

A lot of gorgeous and talented women in the BAFTAs tonight. I am floored.

I am not allowed to dwell in my awe because the chat is not a place of the lord. Curtain calls of Macbeth are discussed with unnecessary lasciviousness.

Thankfully, in the midst of this, I get a great Zodiac pattern reference for Crowley's wedding dress cummerbund. I was going to have to research the night sky for star charts but this is better.

People show their beautiful brainrot-induced Doc Marten purchases.

The knee thirst has moved into X-rated territory. I am terrified.

A song is sung in memory of film industry people who passed away this year, and people are sad about Dumbledore but at the same time are imagining Aziraphale and Crowley dancing to the song. The brainrot is real.

I accidentally spoil Saltburn's freakshow for someone. When I ask how I can make up for it, they say something about GOAD. I'm alarmed. Is that an OnlyFans, I ask. It's Good Omens After Dark, the chat answers. Is THAT an OnlyFans, I ask. Close enough, the chat says.

David has now changed outfits to a suit, which finally makes people pay attention to the BAFTAs, if only to alternatively thirst over the suit and bemoan the loss of knees.

Things, uh, happen, which I will have to include as quotes in another post. Cheers, @thearoacemess and @vitrilol.

Barty Crouch Jr is debated about as the Wolfstar child. Bratty Crouch Jr is said to be Crowley.

I obtain a banana, which I associate with blowjobs.

@thearoacemess talks about someone deepthroating a seven-inch banana without a hitch.

The stream does a flashback to the kilt time. It is a mistake. @queermarzipan barrels in and is being too slutty about the knees.

I tell them they need jesus, and they yell about how they've gone to mass twice today and they're an atheist.

Thankfully, @vitrilol starts chanting about the glory of Ireland. The only thing that will distract Marzipan from David Tennant is Ireland.

He proceeds to start screech-singing in all caps.

🎵IRELAND IIIRELAND TOGETHER STANDING TALLLL.🎵

The BAFTAs end. People are still thirsting over David Tennant.

🎵I KNOW YOU'RE MISSING HOME IT'S SO LONG SINCE YOU'VE BEEN🎵

Uh, more dubious things about David, suits and the absence of said suits are discussed. I'm trying my damndest not to notice.

🎵AND THE LIFE YOU HAD IN DUBLIN NOW AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A DREAM🎵

There is accidental Mascot lore: I am apparently from a different timeline (I mixed up timeline and timezone) and that's how Apollo deposited me in an illegal sushi restaurant where I became Neil Gaiman and Michael Sheen's intellectual child.

I am compared to a cat.

TOM HIDDLESTON AND DAVID TENNANT WERE IN THE STAGED-LIKE THING IN THE BEGINNING AHAHAHAHAH LOKI AND CROWLEY MY TWO CELESTIAL GENDERFLUID ICONS.

OKAY so I will end the summary here and make a list of out of context quotes in a new post. Because. Boy oh boy. That deserves its own post.

[enlitment]

favorite moments in the French revolution?

Thanks for the ask!

There's a lot of them! At the risk of being the sort of person Žižek calls out for wanting '1789 without 1793', a lot of my favourite moments come from the early days of the revolution.

Camille's passionate aux armes! speech at Palais Royal always makes the top of my list. I'm interested in the power of words, both from the literary/philosophical perspective and as a debater, so this moment feels right up my alley. There's just something about him being able to get over his stammer in the heat of the moment and inspire the crowd...

2. Second is probably the Women's March on Versailles! I think it really highlights just how important women (and mostly working-class women in this case!) were as a political force. This is something that people often forget, thinking that just because women didn't have political rights in the modern sense it meant that they had no influence on politics whatsoever. Events like this prove that this was hardly the case.

3. To move on from 1789, I am also fascinated by the merging of the revolution and religion. That's why I'm interested in the revolutionary festivals, like the Festival of the Supreme Being. (It gets such a bad reputation in a lot of historical sources, but if you look at the Catholic festivals which this was supposed to be an answer to... don't tell me they often didn't feel just as extra).

But what I find most interesting is how a lot of secular figures basically achieved the status of a saint in revolutionary France. Case in point: Marat (re: David's painting), Voltaire and - sigh - yes, Rousseau.

Just look at Rousseau's provisional mausoleum from 1794, in which he was buried before they moved his remains to the Panthéon:

fun fact - it's also currently my laptop lock screen. Don't ask why, I try not to over-analyse it.

[mask131]

A continuation of my Medusa post here.

Since people have been asking for links and sources about Medusa, I'll provide a little bibliography of various sources you can compare and debate about. Note that the bibliography about Medusa is even wider and bigger than the little samples I provide below, but I think they form a good "basic set" or "starting kit". (And I might have forgotten things, since I originally wrote my post unplanned and wasn't ready for it to blow up so much. I am just a tiny little blog that didn't get as much as seven likes on my biggest things you know Xp)

First of all, a resource that is fully available for free on Google Books: here, or here. It is called "Dangerous Beauties: Medusa in Classical Art", a Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, published in the winter of 2017. Very beautiful and informative with lot of nice art. There's also more about the exposition tied to this publication here. There was another publication by the Metropolitan Museum that can be of some interest, Majorie Milne's "Perseus and Medusa on an Attic Vase".

When it comes to English-speaking books analysing and dissecting the Medusa myth, two works keep popping up everywhere. 2003's "The Medusa Reader", and Stephen Wilk's "Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon". They do form references when it comes to the overview, analysis and evolution of the Gorgon figure. Other works of note include David Leeming's "Medusa in the Mirror of Time", and Thalia Feldman's "Gorgo and the Origins of Fear" (published within "Arion", I don't know if it had been published elsewhere). The Internet Archive has a free copy, right here, of Frederick Thomas Elworthy's "The Evil Eye: The Classical Account of an Ancient Superstition".

If you can read French, go read Jean-Pierre Vernant's works that tackled the Gorgon: "La mort dans les yeux: Figures de l'Autre en Grèce Ancienne", (Death in the eyes: Figures of the Other in Ancient Greece - explores the legends of the Gorgon and of Artemis) ; and his co-work with Pierre-Vidal Naquet "Mythe et tragédie en Grèce Ancienne" (Vernant did wrote in English a part of The Medusa Reader, the article "In the mirror of Medusa"). Jean Clair also wrote an interesting document: "Méduse. Contribution à une anthropologie des arts du visuel."

And finally, the cherry at the top, the Internet Archive even has a copy of the scholia (well, one of them), in which the old Pherecyde tales are described - the ones that make proof the idea of Medusa having been turned into a monster by Athena due to a crime of vanity and boasting is as old as the 5th century BC. It is right here. If you like to read Latin, go have fun.

(Shoutout to the people who asked for links and sources - which is absolutely normal and indeed much needed in this time of widespread misinformation and websites that can literaly invent Greek goddesses of torture out of nowhere

@60sec400 @fishlord-main @nouzillard @bigsnorp @gendermeh and probably others I forgot about

EDIT: adding @tanoraqui and @beanshery to the list)

[warningsine]

The curtain falls on the mass rape trial that shocked the world and saw Gisèle Pelicot emerge as a feminist hero.

After two and a half months of hearings, the Criminal Court in Avignon on Thursday found 51 defendants guilty of the rape, attempted rape and sexual assault of Gisèle Pelicot. The majority of defendants were handed prison terms of three-to-15 years – less than the four-to-18 years demanded by the prosecution.

Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, received the heaviest sentence of 20 years in prison for drugging his wife and inviting strangers he met online to rape her for nearly a decade. He received a two-thirds minimum sentence period, meaning he won't be eligible to ask for early release until at least two-thirds of his sentence has been served.

Dominique Pelicot's lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, who said she would consider an appeal, described her client as “stunned”. But she also expressed hope that Gisèle Pelicot would find solace in the rulings.

“I wanted Mrs. Pelicot to be able to emerge from these hearings in peace, and I think that the verdicts will contribute to this relief for Mrs. Pelicot," she said.

‘Here, we judge; we do not legislate’

The shortest prison sentences were handed to two defendants, known to the media as Joseph C. and Saiffedine G., who both received three years in prison with two years suspended for aggravated sexual assault. Saiffedine G.’s crime was reclassified as sexual assault in the verdict. 

Another defendant, Hassan O., who fled to Morocco and never appeared in court, was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison.

Around 40 of the defendants went straight from the courtroom to prison but others will not be incarcerated straight away.

The defendants have 10 days to appeal the judgment.

Overall the punishments handed down were less severe than those requested by the public prosecutor, who at the end of November called for sentences of four to 18 years for the majority of defendants and the maximum penalty of 20 years of criminal imprisonment for Dominique Pelicot.

Many of the defendants received 12-year prison sentences – slightly longer than the average sentence for rape of 11.1 years in 2022 according to the ministry of justice.

“The sentences were adjusted, and that's a good thing,” said Roland Marbillot, a lawyer for two of the defendants.

“One of my clients won't be incarcerated right away; the other will but will likely be released in a few weeks or months."

Marbillot added: "I would like to remind everyone that here we judge; we do not legislate," noting that it was a good thing that “the debate on consent did not dominate this trial”.

The mass rape trial has reignited the debate about the absence of consent as a legal criterion for rape in France.

France’s criminal code currently defines rape as a sexual act committed "by violence, coercion, threat or surprise", with no notion of whether or not consent is necessary.

At the end of September, the outgoing Minister of Justice Didier Migaud expressed his support for including consent in the French Penal Code.

‘I think of all the unrecognised victims’

Gisèle Pelicot and her lawyers arrived at the courthouse shortly after 9am, surrounded by a swarm of cameras. Her three children, Caroline, Florian, and David, were also present with their spouses.

Inside the courtroom, the red-haired septuagenarian, dressed in a blue striped shirt, nodded as the sentences were announced.

After the hearing, Gisèle Pelicot declined to answer questions but read a statement in which she thanked her loved ones: “I think of my three children. I also think of my grandchildren, who are the future, and it is also for them that I am fighting this battle.”

She also paid tribute to the “other families affected by this tragedy” and other victims of sexual assault. To “the unrecognised victims whose stories remain in the shadows… we share the same fight," she said.

Gisèle Pelicot did not comment on individual sentences but she said she respected the court’s verdict and did not regret her decision to make the trial public, in order to raise awareness about the use of drugs to enable sexual assault.

“By opening the doors to this trial, I wanted society to engage with the debates, and I have never regretted it,” she said.

‘Shame on justice’

Outside the courtroom supporters of Gisèle Pelicot gathered to hear the verdicts, which many felt were too lenient. Several chanted “Shame on justice!” and “Justice is complicit!” after they were announced.

"Feminists and women feel humiliated, disappointed and angry that the courts have handed down extremely low sentences,” said Blandine Deverlanges, president of the feminist collective Les Amazones d'Avignon. “Tonight, dozens of men will be going home and it's really unbearable to think that these men will be able to spend Christmas with their families."

Feminist groups are planning to protest at 1pm on Friday over the verdict, which they believe does not reflect the gravity of the crimes against Gisèle Pelicot.

“The question we're asking ourselves is whether women will continue to have confidence in the justice system,” Deverlanges said. “Personally, I'm beginning to despair and I think that women are going to start organising themselves to deliver justice.”

A lawyer for one of the defendants, Christophe Bruschi, was jostled and jeered by more than 100 feminist protesters, whom he referred to as “knitters”.

Throughout the trial, tensions between the defence and some feminist groups ran high, with lawyers accusing the groups of trying to influence the judges. Three weeks earlier, city officials removed a banner reading “20 years for all”, hung on the ramparts opposite the courthouse.

For the final day of the sprawling 15-week trial, which has seen scores of defendants take the stand, the courts implemented exceptional security measures, with nearly 200 police officers and gendarmes securing the courthouse in Avignon. 

In an indication of how the trial has captured global attention, there were also four broadcast rooms for journalists and the public.

At around 1:30pm a cheer rose up as Gisèle Pelicot left the courthouse under heavy police escort.

Women outside the courtroom chanted “Thank you, Gisèle!” as she slowly made her way through the crowds

[empiredesimparte]

Europeansim Council Summit: Francesim, Iona and Pierreland play spoilsport

The 8 heads of state of Europesim met for a summit of the Europeansim Council, one of the major institutions of the Europeansim Union. The role of the Europeansim Council is to decide on the next directions of the E.U. in the coming months, and it is currently presided over by the Empire of Francesim for 6 months.

Official photograph of the Europeansim Council summit.

H.I.M Emperor Napoléon V of the French, who presided over the meeting, wanted to impose stricter police measures throughout the EU.

The topics discussed at the diamond table focused mainly on the security of member states. As a reminder, Francesim and Iona have been the victims of attacks on their sovereigns, Emperor Napoléon IV and Queen Viviana I, in recent months. These terrorist acts raise many questions about policing and surveillance measures in the Europeansim Union. A few years ago, Pierreland also had to deal with a regicide.

H.I.M Emperor David of Pierreland brought his country's experience of crisis management to the diamond table.

While the national security vote is being prepared everywhere in the Europeansim institutions, uncertainty remains as to the severity of the legislation. This law is likely to have a major geopolitical impact on all Europeansim countries, allowing them to strengthen or not their surveillance measures, and leading to a clear reduction in individual freedoms.

Pierreland's proposals did not meet with unanimous approval, particularly from the heads of state in Iona and Greecesim.

Some countries, such as Greecesim, condemned these exchanges as a "terrible mistake". Queen Viviana II called for calm, proposing "reinforced surveillance" rather than fully aligning herself with the vigorous police measures proposed by the French Presidency.

From this meeting, we can only conclude that the Europeansim Council Summit will require further sessions to achieve fruitful debates. A rift between the Europesim countries is more than tangible, and is worrying the people of the E.U.

Collaboration with @funkyllama and @officalroyalsofpierreland

⚜ Traduction française

Sommet du Conseil européen : Francesim, Pierreland et Iona jouent les troubles-fêtes

Les 8 chefs d'états d'Europesim se sont réunis pour un sommet du Conseil Européen, l'une des grandes institutions de l'Union Européenne. Le Conseil Européen a pour rôle de décider des prochaines directions que prendront l'U.E les prochains mois, et est actuellement présidé par l'Empire de Francesim pour 6 mois.

Photographie officielle du sommet du Conseil Européen.

L'Empereur Napoléon V, président de la séance, a souhaité imposer des mesures policières renforcées dans toute l'U.E.

Les sujets engagés à la table losange se sont principalement concentrés sur le thème de la sécurité des états-membres. Pour rappel, la Francesim et l'Iona ont été victimes ces derniers mois d'attentats sur leur souverain, l'Empereur Napoléon IV et la reine Viviana I. Ces actes terroristes soulèvent beaucoup de questions quant aux mesures de police et de surveillance dans l'Union Européenne. On se souvient, quelques années plus tôt, que Pierreland avait également dû faire face à un régicide.

L'Empereur David de Pierreland a apporté à la table losange l'expérience de son pays en matière de gestion de crises.

Alors que le vote de sécurité nationale se prépare un peu partout dans les institutions européennes, l'incertitude demeure quant à la sévérité des textes de lois. Cette loi devrait avoir un impact géopolitique majeur sur l'ensemble des pays d'Europesim, leur permettant ou non de durcir leurs mesures de surveillance et entraînant une diminution des libertés individuelles.

Les propositions de Pierreland n'ont pas fait l'unanimité, notamment auprès des chefs d'états d'Iona et de la Grèce.

Certains pays comme la Grèce fustigent ces échanges parlant d'une "terrible erreur". La reine Viviana II appelle au calme en proposant une "surveillance renforcée" plutôt que de s'aligner totalement sur les mesures policières vigoureuses proposées par la présidence française.

De cette réunion, on peut seulement conclure que le Sommet du Conseil Européen nécessitera de nouvelles sessions pour parvenir à des débats fructueux. Une fracture entre les pays d'Europesim est plus que tangible et inquiète les habitants de l'U.E.

[blackcatsandlockets]

Jewish Nathaniel Kurtzberg headcanons

It is canon that Nathaniel is Jewish, evident in his surname and absence from the Christmas special. However because "religion is a secular matter and cannot be portrayed in a children's TV show" (🙄), Nathaniel's heritage won't be represented in any of the episodes, so I'll be writing these headcanons.

Nathaniel (like Marinette, Adrien, and their classmates) was born between late 2000 and mid-2001.

The law on religious display in public schools (la loi sur les signes religieux dans les écoles publiques) was signed on March 15, 2004.

The law on face-coverings in public (la loi interdisant la dissimulation du visage dans l'espace public) was passed by the Senate on September 14, 2010.

TW for references of antisemitism and Islamophobia

Nathaniel's great-grandparents were German Jews who fled to France shortly before World War II

his family is not Orthodox but they are religious, they go to synagogue, celebrate the holidays, follow kosher, etc.

Nathaniel has always been a shy, quiet kid but his parents raised him to be assertive and to question authority if necessary

the first time Nathaniel realizes he is different is when he is three years old and starts preschool, during lunch he can't eat what the other children are eating in case the food is not kosher

his parents contact the preschool, who refuse to provide a kosher/pork-free option or let Nathaniel pack his own lunch, they compromise to let him go home for lunch instead

December rolls around, and the other children are excited about Christmas, except for Nathaniel, who is excited about Hanukkah but can't help but feel a bit left out

at six years old, another boy in his class starts running his hands through Nathaniel's hair out of the blue, "I heard that your people have horns, where are yours"

at eight years old, a girl in his class sees the gold Star of David necklace that Nathaniel always wears and starts bombarding him with questions

Nathaniel knows that she has no bad intentions but can't help feeling a bit uncomfortable and othered

at nine years old, during a class debate on the hijab ban, another boy says how anyone who wears their religious symbols are not truly French and should go back to where they came from, leaving Nathaniel flushing with shame and anger

at eleven years old, he begins attending Collège Françoise Dupont

on his first day of middle school, Principal Damoclés makes him remove his Star of David necklace

he is afraid but looks the principal straight in the eye and refuses, "this is my religion and my identity," he says, his heart pounding and his voice shaking

after a few more resists, Principal Damoclés suspends him

when he goes home to his confused parents, Nathaniel breaks down in tears as he explains Principal Damoclés suspending him on his first day of middle school for his necklace

his furious parents storm over to the school to confront the principal, demanding he allow their son back to school immediately and for him to wear the symbol of his religious pride

Principal Damoclés lets him back the next day but Nathaniel never wears his necklace to school again, only at home and in non-school settings

the day he returns to school, fellow classmate Alix Kubdel approaches him

Alix explains her family heritage: her family is of Algerian origin and Muslim, and while she can pass as white, her parents and brother have faced racism, Alix's mother have even had her hijab ripped off by an old white man on public transit and no one defended her

Nathaniel knows that he, as a white-presenting boy, cannot relate to the experiences of Alix or her mother, but appreciates having a friend who understands

he invited Alix to his bar mitzvah

he loves learning about the Holocaust, it is painful but his ancestors' strength and resilience make him proud, he can't stand how all of his classmates seem to stare at him during class whenever it comes up

in his third year, he is placed in Miss Bustier's class with Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Chloé Bourgeois, Sabrina Raincomprix, Rose Lavillant, Juleka Couffaine, Lê Chiến Kim and Max Kanté

when he arrives at school one morning he sees a swastika drawn in permanent marker on his desk, drawn by Chloé "Can't he make sushi like everyone else" Bourgeois

he reports it to a furious Miss Bustier, who sends Chloé to Principal Damoclés, who lets her off with a mere warning, which infuriates Nathaniel and his parents

as much as he wants to stay home from school the next day, Nathaniel is determined to not let Chloé win and shows up at school the next day

a sneering Chloé comes up to him, but before Chloé could open her mouth, fellow classmate Marinette Dupain-Cheng spoke up

"you suck, Chloé." Marinette glares at the blonde. "you speak of him as if he is below you, but he's got more nerve in his finger than your entire body"

Rose and Juleka join in, "Leave him alone, Chloé" "go pick on someone your own size, someone with an overinflated head like you"

Chloé started bullying Marinette

meanwhile, Nathaniel starts to fall for Marinette and becomes closer to Rose and Juleka

in the middle of his fourth and final year, he gets over his crush on Marinette/Ladybug and instead starts falling for Marc Anciel, with whom he works on their Ladybug comics

he confides his feelings for Marc to Alix

"you might be bi or pan," Alix, who is aromantic and an expert in LGBT terminology, explains to him

he first comes out as bisexual to Alix, who is nothing but incredibly supportive and proud of her best friend

Rose and Juleka (canon girlfriends!) are the next to know, and he grows closer to the girls than ever

Nathaniel is hesitant to come out to his parents, however: he feels like he is betraying the Jewish identity his parents instilled in him since childhood by coming out to them

he begins to research queer Jewish identity on the Internet and hears stories of others from all across the globe, who are queer, Jewish and proud

Nathaniel eventually asks out Marc, who agrees to be his boyfriend and he is happier than ever

Marc isn't Jewish but is more than happy to learn about Jewish culture and to fight anyone who dares to say anything antisemitic, whether about Nathaniel or not

since he started dating Marc, Nathaniel gains the courage to come out to his parents, who immediately accept him, much to his pleasant surprise

"you are our son, and our religion accepts everyone," his father says

"love is love, and if this boy Marc makes you happy, that's all that matters," his mother says

he gets into the same design school as Marc and Marinette for high school

in his first year of high school, he and Marc finally publish their Ladybug comics, which quickly become successful

towards his final years of high school, he begins studying for the baccalauréat while continuing his relationship with Marc and their comics and applying for his birthright trip

on his final year of high school, he passes the bac littéraire along with Marc and Marinette, and the three reunite with their middle school friends to celebrate

soon after graduating high school, he leaves for birthright (Alix cried buckets of tears at the airport)

the trip is the best ten days of his life, Nathaniel feels at home as he connects with other French Jews and Jews from across the globe and visits the cultural sites

shortly after his return to France, Nathaniel invites Marc to the Seine, where he gets down on one knee, much to the latter's delight (they both cry tears of joy that night)

his and Marc's wedding was the most beautiful day ever, they have a traditional Jewish wedding filled with ketubah, chuppah, glass breaking, joy, light and love

[beardedmrbean]

[Huey Zoomer anon]

The Left: I want to show more black people in history

Me: Okay!

The Left: *Proceed to bastardized history with a Marxist oppressed vs oppressors mindset and refuse to actually use actual African Civilizations properly*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Also like the black Roman thing….hmmm do people mean like North African and MENA provinces where naturally west Africans would show up

Or are they trying to pretend that people of black descent would live in Roma and the Italia peninsula?

Also the black supremacy thing, where black characters can act like Victorian sociopaths because they were oppressed in the past

Don’t get me started on the renewal blood and soil arguments thanks to the Decolonial theory

Also why just more black people in historical eras? Why not show off the ancient Indian merchant (we found Hindu artifacts in ancient Egypt and even the infamous Pompeii dig sites)

Or make the “invisible Jews” more present as they were there

Actually AC origins was the first games I notice the proper cultural exchange between the Levantines and Egyptians

And this weapon from the game https://assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Canaanite_Blade

Wait the Jews were known for their ferocity? *Glance at Hollywood portrayal of Jews and stereotypes of jews* that new, perhaps I can fun NON BIBLICAL and non holocaust focus books about Jewish people more

Hmm, I told this to Nunya in the dms, but what about a video game or two set about the unification of Israel under Saul and David? Not saying from this franchise. But I was thinking like similar to the recent AC rpg games like Valhalla and Odyssey. Mossad can kill me for this but hey

Prologue David as a youth: Baby boy (sorry he was the youngest of 8, the baby fat on his face must been strong af)

David after killing Goliath and his exile: Traumatized baby boy

Fully grow adult David after got his beard: Conquerer daddy

Hmm, have Israelites found any ancient breastplates? Might play with the Judah Tribe Lion Motif with David designs a lot.

Sorry for my rambling…despite being progressive, I think we regress back to 60’s representation with a woke hat

Or are they trying to pretend that people of black descent would live in Roma and the Italia peninsula?

Septimius Severus Roman emperor from 193 to 211. From current year Lybia, there's debate™ about him.

Black people in ancient Roman history - Wikipedia The Romans didn't really have a concept of black or white only roman or not roman, kinda like how the French have been trying to do it for a long time.

Also the black supremacy thing, where black characters can act like Victorian sociopaths because they were oppressed in the past

You can say Killmonger it's ok

Also why just more black people in historical eras? Why not show off the ancient Indian merchant (we found Hindu artifacts in ancient Egypt and even the infamous Pompeii dig sites) Or make the “invisible Jews” more present as they were there

Both would be nice, be interesting to get something going into where the afro iranians came from (same place African Americans came from, same reason too) but there were also traders and others that likely set up shop all over the land mass that makes up the "old world"

Small Jewish community in China been there for a long time, there's some debate about how long but even the most conservative estimates put it at over 800 years.

Actually AC origins was the first games I notice the proper cultural exchange between the Levantines and Egyptians

The Egyptians may have looked down on shepherds, but they still needed that wool at times.

Wait the Jews were known for their ferocity? *Glance at Hollywood portrayal of Jews and stereotypes of jews* that new, perhaps I can fun NON BIBLICAL and non holocaust focus books about Jewish people more

Fiddler on the Roof is good if you're looking for a Musical.

Hmm, I told this to Nunya in the dms, but what about a video game or two set about the unification of Israel under Saul and David? Not saying from this franchise. But I was thinking like similar to the recent AC rpg games like Valhalla and Odyssey. Mossad can kill me for this but hey

could be fun, could also be a minefield

Fully grow adult David after got his beard: Conquerer daddy

We could probably skip calling him that

Hmm, have Israelites found any ancient breastplates? Might play with the Judah Tribe Lion Motif with David designs a lot.

Resources on ancient Jewish armor? Reddit Brain Trust on r/ArmsandArmor has this and skimming it I'm going with probably not, looking around I'm seeing one place calling the garments the High Priest wore including the Breastplate with "the name" written on it listed as armor.

In fairness it was supposed to keep him from getting killed, just not by soldiers.

Found this too, easy enough to pick out the eras even if you can't totally read what it says, first 2 are Saul next is Davidic then Maccabean, and the last two are Herodian.

You'd have to look up what passes for a coat of arms for the different families to go past that. This looks like a fairly well accepted collection of what they crests are though

Sorry for my rambling…despite being progressive, I think we regress back to 60’s representation with a woke hat

going to the lowest common denominator has really done that a lot it would seem ya.

sorry some of this is a little short, gotta run out for the night soon so I wanted to get it out to ya

[coimbrabertone]

Injuries, Job Security, and How MotoGP and Indycar Differ...Or Don't.

In the last two years, two racers I support have been seriously injured. One was Enea Bastianini, rider of the #23 Ducati in MotoGP, and the other was David Malukas, who never actually got to drive the #6 NTT Data Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet Indycar.

So, just to go over what happened to them: Enea Bastianini was injured in the opening sprint race of the 2023 MotoGP season, the Portuguese GP at Portimao. Luca Marini went up his inside into turn five (Torre VIP), lost it, and his bike slid into Enea's bike. Enea broke his collarbone in this crash, wound up missing the opening five races, came back, injured himself again at Catalunya, and missed another three races.

Enea would return for the Indonesian Grand Prix and would then win the Malaysian Grand Prix towards the end of the season. That win, combined with Jorge Martin on the Pramac Ducati failing to beat Francesco Bagnaia for the championship, secured Enea's seat for 2024.

So, while Enea was enjoying a secure offseason, David Malukas was preparing for his switch from Dale Coyne Racing to a frontrunning team in the form of Arrow McLaren...except, he never actually made his debut for the team.

David Malukas was mountain biking in California, riding an easy trail, when, trying to slow himself, pulled the front brake too hard, went up and over the handlebars, and landed on his hands. He would break his left wrist and it was announced he would miss St. Pete and probably Thermal.

St. Pete and probably Thermal soon became St. Pete and definitely Thermal, missing those two races. Callum Ilott would fill in.

Malukas missed Long Beach next, with Theo Pourchaire in the car now.

Then Theo Pourchaire raced Long Beach as well.

Around this time, various rumors started flying about Malukas getting replaced. This only grew as Nathan Brown reported that Malukas had traveled to Panama in order to receive stem cell shots to speed up his recovery, and only then did he get the pins in his wrist removed.

Then, after Barber - the fourth race of the season, Malukas blacked out his twitter page. I was sat in a discord debating what exactly this meant with some other Indycar fans, with news picking up that he had been dropped. With the story pretty much out there, Arrow McLaren made the announcement early in the morning, David Malukas had been released after failing to meet his contractual obligations.

By now, it's been announced that Ilott will do the Indy 500, and then Theo Pourchaire will fill out the rest of the season in the #6. The Malukas at McLaren story ended before it could even begin.

Meanwhile, in MotoGPland, Enea Bastianini continued with the factory Ducati team. However, with Jorge Martin now building up an annoyingly large championship lead and Marc Marquez on the Ducati stealing all the attention, the whole world seems to think it's between the two of them to get the Ducati factory seat for 2025.

For the record, Enea is tied on points with Marquez, just two behind his teammate, and spent this weekend's race - the French Grand Prix at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit - starting tenth, getting a penalty, recovering to fourth, setting fastest lap, and finishing just 2.2 seconds off the lead.

Enea is an immense talent, he's the rider I chose to support when I decided to become a MotoGP fan ahead of the 2023 season, and it's so rotten to see his career falling apart because of factors outside of his control.

As for Malukas, he's a young, popular kid and has proven so talented on the ovals in a Dale Coyne Racing car. I was so eager to see what he could do with an Arrow McLaren, particularly at tracks like Iowa, Gateway, and Nashville which seemed like they'd suit him. Now, we're not going to get the chance, and it's unclear where he might land if he were to try and return to Indycar.

So, in theory, MotoGP gives more time to injured racers, but no matter what series you're in, motorsports can be a cutthroat business. Bastianini and Malukas certainly aren't the first racers to lose top rides after an injury, and they certainly won't be the last. It's not exactly an industry known for job security.

If I could manifest a happy resolution to both, I'd have Enea Bastianini go to factory Aprilia to join Maverick VInales, while David Malukas could join Meyer Shank Racing (perhaps with Tom Blomqvist returning to IMSA with the same team) to reinforce their oval program the same way Felix Rosenqvist has revitalized that team on the road and street circuits.

For now though, we wait to see what happens to them.

To end on a happier note, Brad Keselowski won the Darlington Goodyear 400 NASCAR race last night running a throwback scheme in honor of the TOM's Castrol Supra. That is an awesome motorsports word randomizer and the fact that it's real is why NASCAR is really cool in 2024.

One day I'll write a blogpost where talking about current NASCAR is actually the point instead of just spending the final paragraph gushing about last weekend's cool race.

[randomfoggytiger]

Fail Better Premium: David's Thoughts (Part V, 2/3)

Creating a breadcrumb trail with David Duchovny's personal growth.

"I thought I knew this German word. Germans are... fascinating language, they can string together, kind of, concepts in a way that we can't? In a way that we do, kind of, in slang sometimes-- now I'm not going to be able to think of an English equivalent. But they can string together, like, "the falling down man", um. And they become one word rather than a phrase-- that's what's cool about German. As far as my understanding of it is; because I don't speak German. Clearly. But I had that thought.

"When you're interviewing, or you're engaged in a recorded conversation, you have this feeling afterwards-- I have this feeling, afterwards-- of, "Uh, I wish I had thought of that then. I wish I had said that." And I was aware of this-- what I thought was a German word-- which is, y'know, 'words that you think of too late.' And in my mind, it was like 'words on a staircase', as if you were at the party and you were being, uh... you're in some kind of debate with somebody and you think of this great put-down, or this great button; but you're already on the staircase leaving the party. And I thought, 'Oh, that's just a wonderful concept, a wonderful word.'

"But it turns out-- 'cuz I've been Googling it on my phone (you should see my search history)-- um, it's French, there's a French one. It's called: L'esprit de l'escalier. Le spree descal-yay? 'Words you think of too late.' ...'In the spirit'... de l'escalier... I don't know. I'll have to look up de l'escalier, I don't know it.

"But the Germans do have a word for it; and that's kind of what I was thinking. The German word is treppenwitz-- trepen-wits-- which means 'staircase joke.' It's like your comeback, too late. And that's the feeling you get when you're doing these-- the feeling I get when I'm doing these, y'know, these thoughts that come too late. And you wonder: 'Can you go and sneak 'em back in? Is that cheating?'

"But anyway, it sent me down a rabbit hole of German phrase words, German phrase concept words. And I don't know how to pronounce them, but here's a great one: 'vershim-bess'... 'vershimbesserung'*; which translates as 'an attempt at improvement that only makes things worse.' Now, come on. Talk about a worldview in a word. I've spoken of, I think, backpfeifengesicht; which is 'a face that needs a slap.' ...I use that word in a script I wrote recently." [Hums teasingly.] "Maybe I'll get it out there.

"Here's something called 'wall-dine-sami-kite'? 'Waldon...', 'waldine-samikite'**. Uh, it's that feeling of being alone in the woods. Which I take it to mean is a beautiful, kind of 'one with nature' feeling; but I also thought it could mean, y'know, when you're interviewing-- 'Ah! I feel like I'm alone in the woods, here!'" [Laughs.] "I don't know the way out."

(Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV: 1/3, Part IV: 2/3, Part IV: 3/3, Part V: 1/3)

*****

*verschlimmbesserung

**waldeinsamkeit

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Mira Lazine at Erin In The Morning:

Yesterday, the Washington Post Editorial Board yesterday published a piece attacking gender-affirming care for minors, presenting itself as a balanced examination of the science in the context of the Supreme Court case US v. Skrmetti. However, the article falls short of its intended goal. It selectively cites three European reviews critical of gender-affirming care, while ignoring the consensus of leading medical organizations—including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health—all of which support such care. Notably absent from the editorial’s analysis is any mention of the newly released guidelines from the first consensus French endocrinology guidelines on transgender care, which unequivocally endorse gender-affirming care for minors and reject the approach required by the Tennessee law.

Among the reviews cited is the Cass Review, an evaluation of evidence on puberty blockers commissioned by the United Kingdom government and led by Dr. Hilary Cass. The editorial highlights this review in an implicitly favorable light, noting it was used to justify the UK’s ban on puberty blockers. However, Dr. Cass has no professional experience working with transgender individuals and consulted with Ron DeSantis-backed healthcare providers in Florida while drafting the review. The Cass Review has been publicly condemned as methodologically flawed by hundreds of researchers, including experts at Yale and the British Medical Association, both of which endorse gender-affirming care for minors.

One of the reviews cited by the Washington Post, from the Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board, is not a scientific evaluation of evidence but a recommendation from a non-government agency based on a limited survey of patients and providers. Notably, it does not call for banning gender-affirming care for minors, as implied by the editorial, but instead advocates for clearer guidelines and further research. The final review cited, from researchers in Sweden, uses the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) metric to evaluate studies. This metric heavily favors randomized control trials, which are methodologically unfeasible for most aspects of gender-affirming care. Notably, treatments like radiation therapy, gallbladder surgery, and antidepressants also receive similar low ratings on the GRADE scale, yet no one is calling for their prohibition. Even so, the Swedish review does not recommend banning or restricting care for minors.

The editors of the Washington Post appear to hold randomized control trials (RCTs) as the gold standard that transgender people must meet to justify their care. However, as Dr. David Gorski of Science-Based Medicine has pointed out, this approach represents “methodolatry”—the worship of RCTs above all other forms of evidence, often without regard to feasibility or practicality. He notes, “When you see someone invoking RCTs regarding updated vaccines to target variants, you are very likely looking at methodolatry that weaponizes evidence-based medicine (EBM) against public health and vaccines to sow doubt and mistrust.” Gorski has applied this critique to debates about transgender care as well, calling RCTs “an impossible burden of proof.”

[...] This article reveals that the Washington Post’s editors are less interested in fair, accurate journalism on gender-affirming care and more intent on promoting an ideological agenda designed to harm and disenfranchise an already marginalized community. By following in the footsteps of the New York Times and British media, they risk cementing their place in history as a once-esteemed newspaper that chose bias over integrity.

The Washington Post becomes the latest outlet to hop on the bash trans people trend akin to The New York Times, as they wrote an out-of-touch editorial criticizing gender-affirming care for trans kids.

[scotianostra]

On July 17th 1790 economist, philosopher and author Adam Smith, died in Edinburgh.

Smith attended the local school where he was bought up, in Kirkcaldy, Fife before enrolling, aged 14 at Glasgow University, then a central institution in the prevailing humanist and rationalist movement which later became known as the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith cites the lively discussions led by Professor of Moral Philosophy, Francis Hutcheson, as having a profound effect on his passion for liberty, free speech and reason.

In 1740, Smith was the recipient of the Snell Exhibition, an annual scholarship allowing Glasgow University students the opportunity to take up postgraduate study at Balliol College, Oxford.

Smith’s experiences at Glasgow and Oxford were completely different. While Hutcheson had prepared his students for vigorous debate through challenging new and old ideas, at Oxford, Smith believed “the greater part of the public professors [had] given up altogether even the pretence of teaching”.

Smith was also punished for reading A Treatise of Human Nature by his later friend David Hume. Smith quit Oxford before his scholarship ended and returned to Scotland.

On his return home Adam Smith became a professor at the University of Edinburgh. It was at Edinburgh that he met David Hume.who would become one of his best friends. Over the years, Smith and Hume would discuss economics and philosophy. During this time, Smith began to formulate the ideas that would make him famous.

In 1759, Smith published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. He gained some fame for this work and was offered the job of tutor for young Duke Henry Scott. As tutor, Smith began to travel throughout much of Europe. He met many influential people including French economist Francois Quesnay and American diplomat Benjamin Franklin. Smith's theories on the economy continued to develop.

In 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. This book became the foundation of modern economics. It introduced and explained many economic concepts that are still used today. The most important idea in the book is the idea of the free market economy. This is where he proposes that the most productive economy is one that is allowed to regulate itself without government intervention.

Adam Smith died in Edinburgh, on this day in 1790. Today, he is known as the father of modern economics. The Wealth of Nations is one of the most influential books in history. Most countries throughout the world today operate a mixed economy that combines the free market described by Adam Smith with some government intervention.

[cant-get-no-worse]

I mean Messi and Ronaldo both won lots of ballon d'or young but wasn't it just because there wasn't any other good player around? like Messi was good, but not a young prodigy like Erling or Mbappé. He became very good after a few years though. Ronaldo too he was alright in United but only became really good at Real Madrid, meanwhile Erling for his first season at City broke every record and Mbappé is considered amongst the best while still in PSG. He won the world cup at 18 I mean!!

Why... are we having this debate, again? It makes it seem like I have a beef with these players when in fact I don't. Love Erling, like Kylian as persons. But buckle up because I won't stand for career revisionism of the two grandads, even Ronaldo, cause ain't no fucking way the football world held ten years of obsessional, insufferable rivalry for youngsters to barge in and say oh, actually, were they that good?

I don't know a whole lot about Ronaldo because I only followed him through the Clasicos/RM era. But he wasn't "alright" in United. He was, at 18, compared to G. Best, David Beckham, etc. Was already decisive in finals. Won his first Ballon d'Or there at 23. There's a reason his transfer to Real was costly and such a show; he was way more than "alright". As much as I despise the guy's guts — I liked him alright when he was younger, but the traits that irked me at that time that I could dismiss as youth are now still present and even worse as a grown ass man, and I can't stand it — he was a fantastic football player. Will of winning, his work ethic, his football. He was absolutely lethal to play against.

Messi, well. I won't ramble on it because you can find that anywhere, really. Before he reached 20 years old, he was considered amidst the world best players. At 18 years old, Maradona said of him he was "the player who will inherit my place in Argentinian football". Ronaldinho (at the time ballon d'or winner and viewed as best player in the world) said he "wasn't even the best at Barcelona", refering to then 18 years old teammate Leo. He was seen as one of the key players carrying a failing Barcelona team while being fucking 18/20 years old or something. I haven't got words for him. Genuinely. He's a magician, a genius with the ball, he embodied football. At 18 just like as 25 or 33 he was making you shake your head in disbelief at the sheer insanity of his goals, assists or playmaking.

Both Messi and Ronaldo being 36/38 now kind of make new football fans think they're just those washed versions of themselves and overrated. I assure you. Those fanboys, medias, pundits, coaches and ex-players were not obnoxiously talking about them h/24 for nothing. 18 - 28 years old versions of Ronaldo and Messi would make an utter mockery of any current player in the world, and I'm weighting my words.

Those two hags both embody the exact meaning of young prodigy, and I'd say Messi even more so. Personal preference, I leave it up to people. The fact that they were considered as such before they won any international trophy such as the world cup as, as you pointed out, Mbappé won with the French NT at 18, answers your own question and tells you stricly everything you need to know. They were the best players in the world all seasons long, from when they were 18/20 to more than ten years. They were absolutely ridiculous. Hope we can enjoy such rivalry with Erling and Kylian, but it's not the same, since it's all about stats and awards now, football is taking airs of NBA. It's different. It's not style versus style. That 2007 - 2020 decade was wild, and as much as I dislike this saying, you just had to be there.

So yeah, they were that good. They were even better than that.

[mask131]

It is very amusing - and yet quite terrifying - to see how still to this day there are blogs on Tumblr that support the belief that "All these things the West claims Putin did outside of Russia? He didn't do anything because there's no proof so people are just making it up, Putin's my poor innocent little baby :3 owo". I just saw a post like that two days ago. [It would be interesting to see what those people think the "West" means, because this range from "It is just the USA" to "It is just Western Europe" - anyway]

So, today is my obligatory post about the fuck-ups of Putin's Russia within other countries. And while I always wanted to make a post about the various misinformation campaigns and manipulations of Wagner in various countries of Africa (including the creation of a false mass-grave in Mali that Wagner wanted to use to accuse the French military in place in the area of war crimes - hopefully this plan was foiled because a drone ended up filming them as they were preparing the mass-grave), today I will rather focus on a more recent and more worrying case. And much more "hot-topic" because it involves... The Hamas-Israel conflict, and the mass wave of antisemitism in Europe that recently rose!

Let us go back in time briefly. 7 of october 2023, terrorists of the Hamas organize a surprise attack on Israel. On the 8th of October, Israel starts throwing bombs at Palestine in retaliation - and this is the beginning of the Hamas-Israel war. A war that completely, vividly and violently split the opinion in both Europe and North America, due to how muddled and complex and devastating this conflict is. And a war that had one notable very dark side-effect in Europe (but also in North America) - it woke up a dormant wave of antisemitism. Due to Israel position when it comes to the history of Palestine, and due to how excessive Israel's attacks towards Palestine in retaliation for the Hamas' actions were - notably leading to a grave humanitarian and sanitary crisis in Gaza, that a lot of people chose to define as a "genocide" - a "pro-Palestine" wave arose in Western Europe that was against "Zionism" (understand, support and affiliation with Israel). Problem is - for decades now a lot of antisemitic people had been using "anti-zionism" as a thinley veiled excuse for what was pure antisemitism, due to how Israel is THE Jewish nation. AND for years now, especially in France, antisemitic actions have been on the rise (in France we had the graves of great Jewish personalities covered in antisemitic tags, and various synagogues degraded). As such, alongside movements supporting Palestine and denouncing Israel, numerous antisemitic actions and attacks started happening in various European countries.

In this context, end of October, in the Ile-de-France region, in the Parisian area, over several habitation buildings, more than 250 Stars of David had been painted in blue, overnight. On the morning of the 31st of October, they were on display for everyone to see.

This of course only fueled further the panic and the socio-political debate. The blue color of the stars clearly indicated a tie to Israel. But the fact was that these buildings were habited... by Jewish people. These stars were used to "mark" these buildings - with the clear message "Jews live here". And due to the blue color, it seemed to be part of the whole antisemitic distortion of the pro-Palestinian message: "There are Jews here - There are people of Israel here".

This made all the news, and one interview in particular was in loop over the various info channels of France. Several of the inhabitants of this building were elderly people. Old enough sometimes to have known World War II. And one of the old ladies that lived in these buildings broke down in tears when interviewed because as she explained: "This is all like when I was a child. It is happening all over again."

Because, it should be known - and if you don't know, you will now - that France wasn't just invaded and occupied by the Nazi forces during World War II. The Vichy government of France actively collaborated with the Nazi government to "save" a bit of French independance and "prevent" some casualties - and this formed the darkest part of France's history, La Collaboration. France was divided in two - and while the South was the "free" zone... the North, including the Ile-de-France, was the "occupied" zone where Nazis and collaborators were in control. And Paris saw some of the worst things... Like the infamous "Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv", when the French government, by order of the Nazi government, arrested and gathered in a velodrome more than 13 000 Jews before sending them to the death camps.

As such, to have buildings in the area marked by David stars (the symbol used during World War II to mark Jews on their clothes, shops and houses) as a "visual denunciation" in the context of an antisemitic wave tied to foreign governments' decisions... You can understand how traumatizing this can be - or rather how this wakes up the old trauma and the old shames of France.

But here is where things get INTERESTING.

The police of course searched thoroughly the ones responsible for all these tags - and they ended up finding them... It was a couple. A man, 29 years old, and a woman, 33 years old. They were actually caught while they were painting more of those, in the 10th arrondissement de Paris. But... they were not of French nationality. They were from Moldavia. And this was intriguing. Everybody believed this had been done by antisemitic French people... But no.

And what was the Moldavians' justification for what they did? Support for Palestine? Antisemitism? No. They were "paid" to do so. They just did a job. Curious isn't it? The police found, by digging in the couple's phones, who exactly had paid them and given them the instructions for this operation... And it turned out to be another Moldavian man, but not anybody.

Anatoli Prizenko. A Moldavian businessman known for his strong pro-Russia views and for his open support of Putin. Of course, Prizenko was asked about this whole affair - he was notably interviewed by French media. And what was his answer? When asked why he paid a couple to go paint more than 250 Stars of David in the Parisian region, what did he answer? The funniest and most pathetic excuse you can find. "This was a gesture of support. This was a gesture of support towards the Jews of Europe. It was meant to be positive". I put pictures of the painted tags in this post: I will let you judge if it seems like a support for the Jewish people of Europe, or if it rather looks like the kind of tags left on buildings during World War II.

Okay, so a pro-Russia Moldavian businessman did this in hope to exploit the current tense and hostile climax in France, in light of the disastrous events in Palestine. But beyond his support of Putin, nothing actually clearly ties this operation to Russia, right?

Let us go deeper down the rabbit hole... By November, French authorities revealed that yet another campaign of mass information led by Russian entities was plaguing the French Internet. I say "yet again", because it wasn't Russia's first attempt. Already the French authorities had to denounce and warn the population about an enormous amount of fake websites created by Russians. These fake webpages were almost perfect copies of the ACTUAL websites of the various newspapers and information channels of France, and all covered the war on Ukraine... With the difference that these fake websites twisted the words, faked the numbers or outright invented elements that made it seem like Europe's support of Ukraine was a bad thing, causing all sorts of troubles and dysfunctionments, or that made it look like Ukraine was wasting all the resources it was given. A pure misinformation-operation in hope of making people lose faith in the support of Ukraine, or even making people hate Ukraine for "stealing all our money and weapons".

And they did it again... With this case. Another important Internet operation by Russian - from fake web pages to fake web accounts, this new operation was about mass-sharing and mass-spreading the news of the Stars of David... And insisting upon all sorts of fake rumors that were later debunked, and highlighting the antisemitism in France. (As I said, they didn't really need to do that since there is already an antisemitism on the rise that was well-noted and is already worrying everyone, so Russia didn't invent that... But their point was to overblow this specific incident in order to create a true mass psychosis). France denounced this Internet operation - and Moscow only answered by saying France was "stupid" for suspecting them in such a way...

And does it stop here? NO MY DEAR! Because these last days there's been a new development! Now it is not fully confirmed/revealed, because the investigation is still underway. But after all these months of research, there are pretty solid and conclusive elements to determine who was behind this Internet campaign of misinformation and rumor-spreading... All the clues point towards the "fifth department" (foreign business department) of the FSB, the Federal Security Service of Russia.

So yes... We are back to the Cold War...

And you want to know the worse thing? European countries have started collaborating on this business, because as it turns out, there were a lot of pro-Russian and anti-Otan manifestations or "waves" in several European countries recently (Spain and Germany for example)... that when investigated tie back to the FSB in one way or another. The oldest identified FSB operation of the sort is - at least from what I heard - from the spring of 2023, in Poland. There was a series of misinformation, sabotages and spying actions with strong anti-OTAN slogans used - and at first it seemed that this was a manifestation of the will and desires of Polish people themselves, as it was presented as "the folks of Poland are speaking"... But a bit of investigation revealed the core of this movement were... again, Moldavians, not Polish people. And further digging proved that these Moldavians had ties to the FSB, who very likely ordered them to do all this...

[nando161mando]

Even if one compares the historical schools of Marxism, and anarchism, one can see we are dealing with a fundamentally different sort of project. Marxist schools have authors. Just as Marxism sprang from the mind of Marx, so we have Leninists, Maoists, Trotksyites, Gramscians, Althusserians... (Note how the list starts with heads of state and grades almost seamlessly into French professors.) Pierre Bourdieu once noted that, if the academic field is a game in which scholars strive for dominance, then you know you have won when other scholars start wondering how to make an adjective out of your name. It is, presumably, to preserve the possibility of winning the game that intellectuals insist, in discussing each other, on continuing to employ just the sort of Great Man theories of history they would scoff at in just about any other context: Foucault’s ideas, like Trotsky’s, are never treated as primarily the products of a certain intellectual milieu, as something that emerged from endless conversations and arguments involving hundreds of people, but always, as if they emerged from the genius of a single man (or, very occasionally, woman). It’s not quite either that Marxist politics organized itself like an academic discipline or that it has become a model for how radical intellectuals, or increasingly, all intellectuals, treated one another; rather, the two developed somewhat in tandem. From the perspective of the academy, this led to many salutary results—the feeling there should be some moral center, that academic concerns should be relevant to people’s lives—but also, many disastrous ones: turning much intellectual debate into a kind of parody of sectarian politics, with everyone trying to reduce each others’ arguments into ridiculous caricatures so as to declare them not only wrong, but also evil and dangerous—even if the debate is usually taking place in language so arcane that no one who could not afford seven years of grad school would have any way of knowing the debate was going on.

Now consider the different schools of anarchism. There are Anarcho-Syndicalists, Anarcho-Communists, Insurrectionists, Cooperativists, Individualists, Platformists... None are named after some Great Thinker; instead, they are invariably named either after some kind of practice, or most often, organizational principle. (Significantly, those Marxist tendencies which are not named after individuals, like Autonomism or Council Communism, are also the ones closest to anarchism.) Anarchists like to distinguish themselves by what they do, and how they organize themselves to go about doing it. And indeed this has always been what anarchists have spent most of their time thinking and arguing about. Anarchists have never been much interested in the kinds of broad strategic or philosophical questions that have historically preoccupied Marxists—questions like: Are the peasants a potentially revolutionary class? (Anarchists consider this something for the peasants to decide.) What is the nature of the commodity form? Rather, they tend to argue with each other about what is the truly democratic way to go about a meeting, at what point organization stops being empowering and starts squelching individual freedom. Or, alternately, about the ethics of opposing power: What is direct action? Is it necessary (or right) to publicly condemn someone who assassinates a head of state? Or can assassination, especially if it prevents something terrible, like a war, be a moral act? When is it okay to break a window?

-David Graeber, Fragments of Anarchist Anthropology

[askjumblr]

Hullo! Timely question: what are your favourite parsha commentary books, in English (or French - or German if there's a gem - but I can't read Hebrew, sadly)?

Last year, I was reading along with Rabbi Shai Held's "The Heart of Torah", plus Rabbi David Kasher's class and weekly Hadar newsletter, and dipping into other resources periodically (Rabbi Sacks Covenant & Conversation online, the JTS and Pardes podcasts, etc.) I would like to add one book for weekly reading this year and I am debating between a bunch of options - considering Rabbi David Kasher's "Parshanut", or "The Women's Torah Commentary" (Ed. Rabbi Elyse Goldstein), Rabbi Josh Feigelson's "Eternal Questions", Rabbi Mark Asher Goodman's "Life Lessons from Recently Dead Rabbis: Hassidut for the People"...

...any thoughts / books you really love?

.