#flags in order for the uninformed:

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Hamza Howidy, Palestinian from Gaza City

Published: Apr 25, 2024

Protests are spreading across the United States at college campuses, where university students are gathering in the name of Palestinian rights and occupying campus spaces with tents. Sadly, not everyone who purports to support Palestinians is truly interested in safeguarding our rights.

It pains me to say this as a Palestinian from Gaza. As my home is destroyed and too many killed, I never thought I would find myself criticizing those speaking up. And yet, I cannot be silent about what I am seeing. The truth is that the manner in which many gather to voice their support for Palestinians does more to hurt our cause than help it.

You know what would help the Palestinians in Gaza? Condemning Hamas' atrocities. Instead, the protesters routinely chant their desire to "Globalize the Intifada." Apparently they do not realize that the Intifadas were disastrous for both Palestinians and Israelis, just as October 7 has been devastating for the people of Gaza.

They should be speaking up for the innocent victims of Hamas—both Palestinian and Israeli. Instead, they endorse Hamas's ideology with posters announcing resistance "by any means necessary" and chants of "from the river to the sea," effectively glorifying the Al-Qassam brigades, Hamas' military wing, whose ideology is entirely based on the elimination of more than 6 million Israelis from the land.

I assumed individuals who initiated these slogans were uninformed about what they were advocating for. I saw the LGBTQ flag frequently flown among people chanting lines from Hamas's charter, and I initially wanted to educate them, to warn them that the group they are honoring would most likely toss them from the top of a building or murder them like they did to Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a Hamas commander accused of homosexuality. Hamas harasses women who don't cover their heads. Hamas tortures those who demonstrate against their authoritarian rule, as they did me when I protested.

All of this seems to be lost on the people who have named themselves our allies, to our misfortune.

Hate speech on college campuses starting with the one at Columbia has recently reached a frightening pitch. I've seen people yelling antisemitic things at Jewish students, including "Jews go back to Poland" and other horrible phrases. It has deteriorated to the point that Jews are no longer attending university classes due to the current hostile environment, and they are attending their classes online to avoid the demonstrators.

It's unconscionable. But it's not just the antisemitism that has me despairing. It's the hypocrisy. Where were these caring young people when Hamas took over Gaza and slaughtered hundreds of Gazans, or when Hamas held 2 million Gazans captive for more than 17 years? Why didn't they speak out about the fact that Hamas led Gazans into this conflict, which resulted in more than 30,000 dead and 80,000 injured, according to Gazan municipal authorities? Where were they when Hamas's failed missiles claimed the lives of hundreds of Gazans on October 17, or when Hamas murdered young people in order to steal aid and resell it to Gazans at massively inflated prices?

The only conclusion that can be drawn from these demonstrators' silence concerning Hamas' atrocities and their antisemitic chanting is that they are not concerned with protecting Palestinians. They are out in their tents because of a hatred of Jews and Israelis.

As a Gazan and as a Palestinian, I want the protesters and the organizers of these protests to know that their hateful speech harms us. The Jewish person or Israeli you are intimidating during your rally may be the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor or a family member of an Israeli slain or abducted by Hamas on October 7. These folks would be your partners if the protests were about achieving lasting peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis.

I do not accept hateful speech or terrorist chants, and all of these foolish dreams about eradicating Israel are disgusting—and will never be achieved. Both of us—Palestinians and Israelis—are here to stay.

But the protesters aren't interested in peace. Some of the groups have been blocking Palestinian peace activists like me—and I am from Gaza, the very place they claim to care about! Instead of blocking peace activists, they should be inviting us to join these protests and guide them in the right direction—a place without hatred with a focus on calling for the release of the hostages who have been held captive by Hamas for more than 210 days.

If the protesters cared about Palestinians, they would have one central demand: Hamas must surrender, because we have all suffered from Hamas and can no longer live under the rule of a terrorist group. Only then can a ceasefire be achieved.

Hamza Howidy is a Palestinian from Gaza City. He is an accountant and a peace advocate.

==

Told you so.

I've been calling these protestors "pro-Hamas" not "pro-Palestine" for months. I've invited dozens to condemn Hamas and none of them will. The "ceasefire" they want is for Israel to surrender so Hamas can murder them all, as they've consistently promised to.

Imagine people who pretend to want a "ceasefire" not just chanting for "intifada" (violence) and celebrating barbarous Islamic terrorism but blocking actual Palestinian peace activists. This was never about peace. It still isn't. They're useful idiots whose antisemitism is being used by Islamic supremacists to undermine western society.

[warningsine]

Protests are spreading across the United States at college campuses, where university students are gathering in the name of Palestinian rights and occupying campus spaces with tents. Sadly, not everyone who purports to support Palestinians is truly interested in safeguarding our rights.

It pains me to say this as a Palestinian from Gaza. As my home is destroyed and too many killed, I never thought I would find myself criticizing those speaking up. And yet, I cannot be silent about what I am seeing. The truth is that the manner in which many gather to voice their support for Palestinians does more to hurt our cause than help it.

You know what would help the Palestinians in Gaza? Condemning Hamas' atrocities. Instead, the protesters routinely chant their desire to "Globalize the Intifada." Apparently they do not realize that the Intifadas were disastrous for both Palestinians and Israelis, just as October 7 has been devastating for the people of Gaza.

They should be speaking up for the innocent victims of Hamas—both Palestinian and Israeli. Instead, they endorse Hamas's ideology with posters announcing resistance "by any means necessary" and chants of "from the river to the sea," effectively glorifying the Al-Qassam brigades, Hamas' military wing, whose ideology is entirely based on the elimination of more than 6 million Israelis from the land.

I assumed individuals who initiated these slogans were uninformed about what they were advocating for. I saw the LGBTQ flag frequently flown among people chanting lines from Hamas's charter, and I initially wanted to educate them, to warn them that the group they are honoring would most likely toss them from the top of a building or murder them like they did to Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a Hamas commander accused of homosexuality. Hamas harasses women who don't cover their heads. Hamas tortures those who demonstrate against their authoritarian rule, as they did me when I protested.

All of this seems to be lost on the people who have named themselves our allies, to our misfortune.

Hate speech on college campuses starting with the one at Columbia has recently reached a frightening pitch. I've seen people yelling antisemitic things at Jewish students, including "Jews go back to Poland" and other horrible phrases. It has deteriorated to the point that Jews are no longer attending university classes due to the current hostile environment, and they are attending their classes online to avoid the demonstrators.

It's unconscionable. But it's not just the antisemitism that has me despairing. It's the hypocrisy. Where were these caring young people when Hamas took over Gaza and slaughtered hundreds of Gazans, or when Hamas held 2 million Gazans captive for more than 17 years? Why didn't they speak out about the fact that Hamas led Gazans into this conflict, which resulted in more than 30,000 dead and 80,000 injured, according to Gazan municipal authorities? Where were they when Hamas's failed missiles claimed the lives of hundreds of Gazans on October 17, or when Hamas murdered young people in order to steal aid and resell it to Gazans at massively inflated prices?

The only conclusion that can be drawn from these demonstrators' silence concerning Hamas' atrocities and their antisemitic chanting is that they are not concerned with protecting Palestinians. They are out in their tents because of a hatred of Jews and Israelis.

As a Gazan and as a Palestinian, I want the protesters and the organizers of these protests to know that their hateful speech harms us. The Jewish person or Israeli you are intimidating during your rally may be the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor or a family member of an Israeli slain or abducted by Hamas on October 7. These folks would be your partners if the protests were about achieving lasting peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis.

I do not accept hateful speech or terrorist chants, and all of these foolish dreams about eradicating Israel are disgusting—and will never be achieved. Both of us—Palestinians and Israelis—are here to stay.

But the protesters aren't interested in peace. Some of the groups have been blocking Palestinian peace activists like me—and I am from Gaza, the very place they claim to care about! Instead of blocking peace activists, they should be inviting us to join these protests and guide them in the right direction—a place without hatred with a focus on calling for the release of the hostages who have been held captive by Hamas for more than 210 days.

If the protesters cared about Palestinians, they would have one central demand: Hamas must surrender, because we have all suffered from Hamas and can no longer live under the rule of a terrorist group. Only then can a ceasefire be achieved.

Hamza Howidy is a Palestinian from Gaza City. He is an accountant and a peace advocate.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

[stillcrazyin2023]

supernatural was only good because I was queer ~ a timeline

2013 me:

*watches supernatural, seasons 1 and 2 at a friend’s house for the very first time*

*tries not to let friends see me blushing

*it finally happened, a boy I’m genuinely attracted to, I guess I won’t die alone, maybe?*

2015 me:

*huddled in a blanket burrito at 3 am, 20 episodes into a day-long binge, fully steeped in every available spn soundtrack on YouTube, probably wearing a flannel under my blanket, crying over young dean’s ~trauma~*

*i just feel so much sympathy for this character*

*I relate so much to this fucking fictional character* *why do I relate so much to this broken goddamn character?*

***

*spends entire summer obsessing over this absolute wreck of a show*

*searches angsty spn fan art on Pinterest*

later 2015 me:

*walks around my college campus in hiking boots and a flannel-hoody-canvas jacket combo with a scowl on my face and rock music blaring in my ears*

*I just think he’s a good older sibling and I just want to emulate him so I can be a better older sibling to my younger sisters*

*searches dean-inspired outfits on Pinterest*

*learns about “coding” and “kinning”*

*chuckles to no one in particular, I’m so Dean-coded*

*stumbles upon the hillywood show*

*stumbles*

***

2016 me

*continues to obsess daily over Dean posts on Pinterest*

*I wish I could cut my hair*

*doesn’t*

2017 me

*still wearing five layers of flannel and a hoody at 3am*

*searches adult tomboy on pinterest*

*searches not boy not girl gender on pinterest*

*learns about non-binary gender identity*

*panics about not feeling real*

*what person would ever be attracted to a person who’s not a person?* (obviously a naive and uninformed take on my part, but my immediate reaction nevertheless)

*hides hair under a hoody and goes to strike best “blue steel” in the mirror at 3 am*

*feels giddy*

*takes selfie*

*good thing that’s out of my system*

2018 me

*tries dating a guy friend*

*breaks up after a week*

*friendship goes up in flames*

*starts watching lesbian bloggers for relationship advice*

2019 me

*regularly researches gender and sexuality terms and flags to remain informed as an ally*

*reads about comphet master doc on Reddit to better understand why I felt pressured as a straight woman to date my male friend*

*nods along, yes, i understand, even straight women experience comphet*

*unironically reads the first 5 chapters of Stone Butch Blues in order to better understand the lesbian identity and history*

*as an ally*

*a really good ally*

*hypothetically imagines self as Jess*

*for educational purposes*

*and like, allyship*

*cries*

*wants to cut hair*

*doesn’t*

2020 me

*if only I knew how long we would be out of the office, then I could try cutting my hair and have time to grow it back before returning to the office*

*rewatches seasons 1-6*

*watches lesbian couples vlogs “because they’re entertaining and I’m an ally, and I just really appreciate their healthy relationship”*

*downloads tiktok*

*entrenches self in queer tiktok*

*ally*

*watches tiktok claiming all lesbians are Dean-coded*

*pauses*

*scrolls*

*does not cut hair*

2021 me

*I’ve been out of the office long enough. I think I can finally cut my hair*

*feels at home in body*

*that’s neat*

***

*I need to be sure about this before I comes out*

*revisits Stone Butch Blues to make sure I’m sure*

2022 me

*hears about trash spn ending*

*hmm, i wonder why I liked such an objectively trash show in the first place*

also 2022 me: *is a raging masculine-of-center non-binary genderqueer butch lesbian*

Dean Winchester: *is subtextually (canonically) an angry, repressed, oblivious bi person, whose every inexplicably cringe action as a straight man makes 5000% more sense for someone struggling to reconcile queer masculinity without a blueprint*

[roxo4me]

Ugh.. This new twitter migration is giving me a headache. I have been deep diving into website alternatives. Here's the things I have found. Tried to take them in the order I would use, although that's is wholly my opinion

Tumblr

I'm gonna keep being on tumblr. Wether or not I go to other sites. While tumblr shows sign of being "algorithmd" it's all optional. So as long as it stays that way I have no reason to leave

Pillowfort

I have actually not found anything bad on this one. It also seems to be owned by a company which is great. It even started on Tumblr! Either way, it's small for now and because of how non-algorithmd it seems to be they don't seem to be very business first. Which is good for usage! Bad for growth.

I'll probably join this one, I'll come back to this thread if I find something bad I guess

Vtubers.me

This seems like an okay alternative, has been running for a while too. Sadly it is 100% owned by 1 person. Which will always have the same issues of sudden implosion, stupid standards or simple malpractice.

This person has been under fire due to a drama fight with a trans person. For the most part it seems resolved, but it has shown a couple of red flags. Example that they seem to have very weird views on trans, while not outright malicious they seem very uninformed and for example against transkids.. They are also EXTREMELY personally involved in their product. As to say they could totally ban you for disagreeing with you.

I would however rather bet on 1 random person than 1 random rich person trying to cash grab. Sadly the website itself is more targeted to Vtubers than Vtuber audiences so it has a very niche reach

Co-Host

These weirdos will tell you nothing. They run fully on charity and for some reason people accept "not telling you how we control and decide things worth" as a positive?!?! Anyway, they are very selective with accounts and very secretive about all innerworkings of the site. I would not trust, but nothing EXCEPTIONALLY bad has come forth yet. I.e. Nothing bad but nothing good either.

Mastodon

While a great server hosting program it is no different than being on private forums. Any owner has FULL control of all content therein. This includes if someone wants to do something less than legal on their server as Mastodon themselves takes NO responsibility for their content.

Have not found any group owned servers yet although this for sure isn't the worst alternative

Spoutible

Yeah.. This is just Twitter but Black. As in the owner is still a too rich, soulless, micromanaging, manipulating, criticism flaming pile of poop, but black this time...

Oh, and has had known crypto dealings

Hive

Stay away from this thing. It's closer to malware than a social media site.

Here's some sources

- Pillowfort

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Pillowfort

- Vtubers.me

https://twitter.com/nekolivt/status/1642753744679890944

- Co-host

https://alternativeto.net/software/cohost/about/

https://uk.pcmag.com/social-media/143905/cohost

- Spoutible

https://medium.com/@kayveebee/spoutible-the-safe-space-thats-anything-but-792299e92ae0

https://social.linux.pizza/@thomasafine/109905298796431794

[angrybell]

Biden issued an executive order on abortion.

He issued a program on student loans, based on nothing that could be called enabling legislation or powers in the constitution. The courts struck it down.

Biden signed a gun control reform law to deal with school shootings (mostly unconstitutional but the courts will deal with it mostly).

Biden did sign an executive order for Covid 19. More than one but I’m not searching for more.

Biden has signed at least two executive orders regarding BLM “rallies”, at least to deal with what they were “rallying” for. Biden was not in office during 2020 when BLM “rallies” were destroying American cities.

Biden didn’t sign an executive order for the Hawaii fires. Why? Because there’s already a system in place for that sort of thing. He did sign the necessary finding of major disaster.

So, in addition to everything else the OP is either really uninformed or trying to gaslight everyone. Given they’re putting the “Palestinian” flag in their twitter handle (it’s actually the Jordanian flag), I’m going to say they’re deliberately lying.

[esotericfaery]

Intimate Spiritual Diaries, 17 - I Should Have Remained a Virgin, Yet I Have No Regrets (Includes Asteroids, Arabic Lots & Fixed Stars)

(Note: no trigger warning required.)

The most obvious, and exoteric reason for why I'm now celibate, is my Virgo stellium, which I've shared about at length.

There's more in my Astrology to show why virginity would have been an ideal life for me.

I know that lifelong virginity is as rare as is celibacy. However, this entry can help you identify times where it's ideal for you to take breaks from dating, to recover if it ended difficultly, and also just to check in with yourself to make sure of centredness, groundedness and satisfaction enough while single. This will allow for firm rootedness within, and an empowered outlook on dating, leading to easier recognition of red flags, and less time spent giving chances to the wrong people.

- Love, a now celibate woman who has virginal warrior Goddess Pallas Athene in grounded & resilient Taurus, in the 1st house of the core identity.

~

The names with numbers in brackets are asteroids and hypothetical points, and you can find yours by entering your birthdate, with those numbers separated each by a comma in the extended chart section of astro.com, plus entering the names of the fixed stars the same way. You can find your Arabic Lots at astro-seek.com, by mousing over the free horoscopes section, and choosing various Astrology calculations at the bottom of the menu.

The previous entry focused on celibacy; a choice which can be made later in life, while virginity is original purity. I hope to eventually, through occultic and psychological means, reach a stage of my psyche where I feel fully virginal, even though I'm not. I know I'm on the path, as Astrology has allowed me to make great, firm and decisive strides recently.

While if I could go back in time, I would choose to have remained a virgin, I feel no shame. I no longer regret being alone, because that's not the same thing as being lonely. While this is a process & sometimes I still do feel a bit lonely, mostly I'm centred and grounded in the now, as I look forward to another half of this life in freedom from the distractions and abuses of romantic entanglements with men.

My lifestyle was not created due to sexual repression or shame. Blessed with a healthy childhood which was free of religious or other oppression as regards sexuality, I have never felt ashamed of such a natural & healthy part of being human. My regret is due to the uninformed decisions I made to be with a few men who ended up having such severe mental illnesses that I was not equipped to be with them.

~

Let's get into these virginity aspects, and you can see if you have any which are the same or similar. Let me know if you find anything here that helps.

More on my asteroid Pallas Athene: She's in several close occultic (hidden knowledge) "secondary" aspects to Jupiter (expansion), Neptune (truth vs. Illusion), Juno (committed marriages), Mercury (thoughts & communications), Saturn (restrictions & responsibilities), Descendant (the type of person one attracts for romance), & Vertex (fate), in the 6th house of everyday routines and overall health. They're all conjunct (mixing their energies closely together).

She's also square (massively painful friction) Vesta (virginal, sensual purification, sacred sexuality) and Venus (love, beauty, romance, creativity) in the 5th house of dating.

Then, there's an exact (closest; at the same degree) conjunction with asteroid Alekto:

Strategic, relentless enforcing of moral order, to reach reconciliation and objective balance, through intellectual & intuitive occult work, while recognizing the patterns of human behaviour, and overcoming psychological blocks to gain clarity.

It was easy enough to think I was that way because I'm a Virgo stellium, but this is actually more precise.

The more I learn about Astrology, the more I see how precision of aspects has far greater impact than whether or not those aspects are with planets or so-called "secondary" placements.

I had the feeling that Pallas was important to me somehow, but didn't know why until now.

Sabian Symbol - 5° Taurus - A widow at an open grave - Focus on avoiding surrender to frustration which would descend to ineptitude, for complete and confident composure which would transcend disappointment.

~

Exact conjunction of [h56] White Moon Selena, [55555] DNA - 29° 37' 15", Arabic Lot Benevolence.

Recognition of oneself in another with a feeling of purity, bliss & eternity, freeing oneself from karma and judgements. Successful, benevolent spiritual guidance into inner divinity.

This made it difficult for me to not seek romance. I now choose to only act on the parts of this which free me from judgements and karma, plus allow me success and benevolent spiritual guidance to build up and maintain my inner divinity.

~

[50] Virginia, [5261] Eureka, [105] Artemis, plus Arabic Lots: Acquaintances, Honourable and Illustrious, Honourable and Illustrious Acquaintances, Famous Friends, Trickery & Deceit, Cooperation I.

Sudden shock or clarity within unfair treatment, leading to freedom, tradition & purity, in the areas of the Lots.

Gratitude for all I had been given to help me recover from the instances where I had felt heartbroken.

~

Vesta conjunct fixed star Asellus Borealis.

Responsibility & charitable nature from a standpoint of purity, to make sacrifices for the greater good. Danger of violence is protected through the power of spiritually transforming sexual energy into ritual work.

~

[37117] Narcissus exactly conjunct Arabic Lots Children (Time, Number, & Sexes of), Condition of Males, Controversy, Discord; Controversy, Discord; Lawsuits, Lawsuits, Discord & Controversy, Waste & Extravagance, Love & Marriage II, Marriage & Love II, Praise & Acceptance, & Sentiment.

At a critical degree for Aquarius, the intense desire I felt to idealize my partners is no surprise. Keep in mind that there are many instances where things happen through projection towards you; not the energy which you are creating and projecting.

The lawsuits Lots have to do with karmic law.

~

[22] Calliope / Kalliope exactly conjunct Arabic Lots Contentment, Intercourse (Verbal, Trade, and for ??female??), Love & Concord, Love & Entertainment, Love II, Marriage of Men II, Peace, Property Management, Sex & Love, Sweet Foods, Trickery & Deception of Men & Women & Venus (Love).

I used to write romantic poetry, with the help of the muse of epic poetry and eloquence, along with the above Lots. I don't feel its loss, as I'd always written spiritual poetry too, so I can still do that.

~

[1488] Aura, [494] Virtus, Arabic Lots Energy, Stimulation, Sex Drive & Libido exactly square Sun.

Projecting or sometimes perceived as projecting from within my aura, as per those Lots. With this exact, highly painful friction involving my Sun (ego), I now understand multiple difficult experiences which made no sense to me at the time. I now understand why there have been so many instances in which men have insisted that I was attracted to them when I wasn't (though this doesn't mean they lack responsibility for their behaviours).

Thankfully, I also see here that I have powerful virtue which helped heal these issues.

[legalshell-app]

Here is the first part of a two part article on "Seeking Legal Guidance in the AI Era":

Navigating Legal Complexities in the AI Era

In today's world, legal agreements and contracts contain complex terminology that can be difficult for the average person to fully comprehend. Yet we are expected to understand these documents in order to make important decisions that impact our lives and livelihoods. This lack of understanding can have serious consequences, leading to uninformed choices or even exploitation. Fortunately, innovations in Legal Shell app are making legal guidance more accessible. Through artificial intelligence and machine learning, apps like Legal Shell can scan documents and provide plain language explanations of key provisions and obligations. This allows users to quickly grasp the meaning of dense legalese so they can make informed decisions about legal agreements. For instance, AI tools can identify key clauses in a contract and explain their implications in simple terms. They can also compare agreements to templates and flag unusual or risky clauses. By empowering people to understand complex legal terminology, AI is helping address an urgent need while saving users time and money.

Bridging the Legal Knowledge Gap

Apps like Legal Shell are serving as a bridge across the legal knowledge gap. By making expert guidance available on-demand, they allow average people to navigate situations that would otherwise require expensive lawyers. This technology has the power to transform access to the legal system.

Decode Legal Jargon in Seconds

Download the Legal Shell app to get plain language explanations of contracts and legal agreements.

For iPhones For Androids

Harnessing AI to Decode Complex Legal Documents

In our complex world filled with lengthy, dense legal agreements, many people struggle to fully grasp the implications of what they are signing. Services like the Legal Shell app aim to bridge this gap by utilizing artificial intelligence to scan documents and provide plain language legal guidance. With innovations in natural language processing, Legal Shell can identify key clauses and explain their meaning in simple terms. This allows everyday people to make informed decisions about contracts, rental agreements, terms of service and more. For example, when you upload a document, the app can compare it to standard templates, flag unusual provisions, and highlight important obligations or exceptions. You no longer need to puzzle over pages of legalese or hire expensive lawyers just to understand the papers in front of you.

Democratizing Access to Legal Expertise

By making AI-powered legal analysis available on demand, services like Legal Shell are helping to democratize access to justice. Allowing users to quickly grasp the implications of complex agreements ultimately empowers more people to understand how laws and contracts apply to them. As artificial intelligence continues advancing, it will open up even more possibilities for bringing legal guidance to the average citizen. The future looks bright for closing the legal knowledge gap and upholding rights in an understandable way.

Key takeaways

AI can translate complex legal language into plain explanations

Tools like Legal Shell help bridge the legal knowledge gap

These apps allow average people to understand contracts without lawyers

AI flags unusual clauses and summarizes key takeaways

This technology helps democratize access to legal expertise

Conclusion

By harnessing artificial intelligence to provide on-demand legal guidance, apps like Legal Shell are empowering everyday people to understand complex documents and uphold their rights.

[onlineforexreview]

AM Tradex review 2023: 5 things you should know about amtradex.com

AM Tradex is yet another offshore broker who falsely claims to be reputable and regulated, however this can’t possibly be the case. In fact this firm is situated in a country that is known for its lack of forex regulation, so there’s no way that AM Tradex could be licensed there.

On top of that this broker offers too risky leverage of 1:500 and too high of a minimum deposit. Its trading software isn’t anything exceptional either, as a matter of fact it’s just mediocre and isn’t worth the risk of getting scammed. We should mention the suspicious payment methods as well, which we do not recommend using. So in order to stay safe and avoid any kind of deceit, you better pass up investing here. In the following review we have tried to explain all the drawbacks of AM Tradex, so just keep reading.

Regulation and safety of funds

AM Tradex claims its registered address to be in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It also claims to be licensed by the local Financial Services Authority (FSA) and displays a license number as well. All of this may seem credible and trustworthy to any uninformed customer, however an experienced trader would immediately spot the fraud.

The truth is that St. Vincent and the Grenadines is an offshore zone known for its lack of forex regulation. In other words, any broker based there can offer investment services without being licensed or authorized by any watchdog. This makes these firms particularly dangerous as they don’t obey the rules and are not obligated to meet any requirements.

And if you doubt our words, just visit the official website of FSA. The moment you land on it an important notice will appear, saying that forex brokerage activities are not licensed in this country. You can follow the link provided and shall see the full warning, which alerts about the possible risk of getting scammed if dealing with unregulated firms. You can see the warning down below:

As you see, what AM Tradex claims is just smoke and mirrors. There’s no way that it could possibly be licensed in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the fact that this broker lies about that is already a huge red flag. Don’t invest with such impostor firms, as their only aim is to rip off unwitting traders.

To illustrate how dramatically different the whole experience could be, we will explain all the advantages of trading with licensed brokers instead. Such genuine firms are trustworthy and reputable, they also act in a fair manner and offer a very high client protection. Moreover, they are constantly supervised by relevant authority and must meet a ton of requirements in order to be granted a license. For example all regulated brokers in the UK and the EU must have a minimum capital of 730 000 EUR just to prove that they are financially stable. Legitimate firms are also obligated to keep their customers’ funds in segregated trusted accounts.

Trading software

AM Tradex claims to offer a web-based trading software named XOH Trading Platform. The broker claims it to be “the best platform you’ll ever try”.

As we registered, there was no trading platform or a download link. However, you can download the software from this broker’s website and log in with the details sent to your email. Take a look at the platform itself:

This is just a simple web-based platform with basic tools and indicators. What AM Tradex claims however is highly exaggerated – this is barely “the best platform you’ll ever try”, in fact it’s just ok. Not to mention that it can’t compete with much more advanced platforms like MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, which are proven to be the best in the sector – but this time for real.

MT4 and MT5 have been preferred by most of the reputable brokers for a pretty good reason. You can benefit from a whole bunch of fantastic features that ease your trading experience. For example the so-called Expert Advisors can perform the trading for you – you just have to set certain conditions – the moment the trading bot finds them, it will start trading right away.

In fact MetaTrader 5 and MetaTrader 4 are very easy to use even for novices. You can download the app and start trading right off the bat, no matter where or when. You should know as well that this piece of software is really safe – all transactions are encrypted, as well as your IP address.

You can effortlessly install MT4 and MT5 on your smartphone, computer and tablet. Note however that the apps can’t be downloaded on any device anymore, since Apple has removed them from its AppStore. So if you use an iPhone or iPad and you wish to install one of these platforms, unfortunately it won’t be possible. Do not get down however because all of you who have already downloaded the software can go on using it (without any further updates however). You can still download MT4 and MT5 from Google Play Store.

Trading conditions

AM Tradex claims to offer three account types – Standard, VIP 1 and VIP 2. Down below you can see some more detail about the three of them:

When it comes to the minimum deposit there is one huge contradiction. On its homepage AM Tradex claims that the minimum initial deposit is 10 USD. However on the chart above you can see that the minimum deposit starts from 500 USD. This is a great difference and speaks only one thing – that this broker tries to mislead its customers. Not to mention that 500 USD of minimum deposit is still too high, given the fact that the usual amount for the sector is around 250 USD or even less – micro accounts require around 10 USD.

As for the spread, this broker promises competitive spreads from 1.4 pips. After we saw its trading platform, there really was a spread of 1.5 pips, which is fine in general. Just as you know any spread below than 2 pips is known to be less costly. Nevertheless, we don’t recommend investing here for the reasons stated above.

The leverage of 1:500 however is too high and too risky without a doubt. In fact there is a leverage cap in most of the countries that regulate forex brokerage activities – 1:30 in the UK and EU and 1:50 for the US for instance. This measure aims exactly to minimize the potential risk of failure. Yet, if you want to trade with higher leverage we suggest looking at some of the offshore subsidiaries of reputable forex brokers here.

Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees

On its website AM Tradex doesn’t mention anything about its payment methods. This is yet another red light for scam, as most legitimate brokers would normally describe this in detail.

After we registered there were several payment options – with Visa/Mastercard, local bank transfer and crypto transactions with Tether. Take a look:

Note however that crypto payments are proven to be absolutely anonymous and irreversible, that’s why scammers like them so much.

But no matter the payment methods, we don’t recommend trading with this broker, as it’s totally unlawful.

How does the scam work

Remember that usually scammers want to make you invest with them no matter what it takes. This means that they might try to contact you via email or phone in case you provided them with this information. They’ll try to convince you to deposit as soon as possible, advertising their platform as very advanced and their trading conditions as risk-free and advantageous. Don’t believe them however as these fraudsters don’t intend to trade your money at all – they just manipulate their software.

Very often scammers like to fake your trading results as well, just to lure you into investing more and more until you realize it’s all a huge lie.

Before you find this out however you may face some more bad surprises. For instance it may turn out that you are obligated to pay a certain fee if you want to withdraw your funds – sometimes the fee can exceed 20%. Note that reputable brokers don’t ask for a fee upon withdrawal request or even if they do, the amount is insignificant.

We don’t advise you to deposit or pay fees with such offshore brokers, as you may find out that a withdrawal is impossible no matter what you try.

What to do when scammed

If you realize you have been a victim of financial scammers, don’t trust people on the internet who suggest helping you restore your funds in exchange for a certain fee. It’s very probable that they are also fraudsters, possibly the same who tricked you the previous time.

Still, you can try to retrieve your money if you have paid with credit or debit card – you can turn to the bank that issued your card and file for a chargeback in 540 days. In case you used PayPal or Skrill you can also open a dispute. Unfortunately crypto currency transactions are irreversible as we already stated.

0 notes

[vergess]

Newsweek Article link. Archival link.

Text version below.

Message From a Gazan to Campus Protesters: You're Hurting the Palestinian Cause | Opinion

Story by Hamza Howidy

Protests are spreading across the United States at college campuses, where university students are gathering in the name of Palestinian rights and occupying campus spaces with tents. Sadly, not everyone who purports to support Palestinians is truly interested in safeguarding our rights.

It pains me to say this as a Palestinian from Gaza. As my home is destroyed and too many killed, I never thought I would find myself criticizing those speaking up. And yet, I cannot be silent about what I am seeing. The truth is that the manner in which many gather to voice their support for Palestinians does more to hurt our cause than help it.

You know what would help the Palestinians in Gaza? Condemning Hamas' atrocities. Instead, the protesters routinely chant their desire to "Globalize the Intifada." Apparently they do not realize that the Intifadas were disastrous for both Palestinians and Israelis, just as October 7 has been devastating for the people of Gaza.

They should be speaking up for the innocent victims of Hamas—both Palestinian and Israeli. Instead, they endorse Hamas's ideology with posters announcing resistance "by any means necessary" and chants of "from the river to the sea," effectively glorifying the Al-Qassam brigades, Hamas' military wing, whose ideology is entirely based on the elimination of more than 6 million Israelis from the land.

I assumed individuals who initiated these slogans were uninformed about what they were advocating for. I saw the LGBTQ flag frequently flown among people chanting lines from Hamas's charter, and I initially wanted to educate them, to warn them that the group they are honoring would most likely toss them from the top of a building or murder them like they did to Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a Hamas commander accused of homosexuality. Hamas harasses women who don't cover their heads. Hamas tortures those who demonstrate against their authoritarian rule, as they did me when I protested.

All of this seems to be lost on the people who have named themselves our allies, to our misfortune.

Hate speech on college campuses starting with the one at Columbia has recently reached a frightening pitch. I've seen people yelling antisemitic things at Jewish students, including "Jews go back to Poland" and other horrible phrases. It has deteriorated to the point that Jews are no longer attending university classes due to the current hostile environment, and they are attending their classes online to avoid the demonstrators.

It's unconscionable. But it's not just the antisemitism that has me despairing. It's the hypocrisy. Where were these caring young people when Hamas took over Gaza and slaughtered hundreds of Gazans, or when Hamas held 2 million Gazans captive for more than 17 years? Why didn't they speak out about the fact that Hamas led Gazans into this conflict, which resulted in more than 30,000 dead and 80,000 injured, according to Gazan municipal authorities? Where were they when Hamas's failed missiles claimed the lives of hundreds of Gazans on October 17, or when Hamas murdered young people in order to steal aid and resell it to Gazans at massively inflated prices?

The only conclusion that can be drawn from these demonstrators' silence concerning Hamas' atrocities and their antisemitic chanting is that they are not concerned with protecting Palestinians. They are out in their tents because of a hatred of Jews and Israelis.

As a Gazan and as a Palestinian, I want the protesters and the organizers of these protests to know that their hateful speech harms us. The Jewish person or Israeli you are intimidating during your rally may be the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor or a family member of an Israeli slain or abducted by Hamas on October 7. These folks would be your partners if the protests were about achieving lasting peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis.

I do not accept hateful speech or terrorist chants, and all of these foolish dreams about eradicating Israel are disgusting—and will never be achieved. Both of us—Palestinians and Israelis—are here to stay.

But the protesters aren't interested in peace. Some of the groups have been blocking Palestinian peace activists like me—and I am from Gaza, the very place they claim to care about! Instead of blocking peace activists, they should be inviting us to join these protests and guide them in the right direction—a place without hatred with a focus on calling for the release of the hostages who have been held captive by Hamas for more than 210 days.

If the protesters cared about Palestinians, they would have one central demand: Hamas must surrender, because we have all suffered from Hamas and can no longer live under the rule of a terrorist group. Only then can a ceasefire be achieved.

Hamza Howidy is a Palestinian from Gaza City. He is an accountant and a peace advocate.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

alizalichtxo

I hope everyone will read this and share it. I posted the full piece. Hamza Howidy is a Palestinian from Gaza City. He is an accountant and a peace advocate. I follow Hamza on X and his tweets are very important. Unfortunately, he is being blocked. In his words, “But the protesters aren’t interested in peace. Some of the groups have been blocking Palestinian peace activists like me—and I am from Gaza, the very place they claim to care about! Instead of blocking peace activists, they should be inviting us to join these protests and guide them in the right direction—a place without hatred with a focus on calling for the release of the hostages who have been held captive by Hamas for more than 210 days.”

[cardealersbrisbane]

What Every Purchaser Should Know About Used Car Dealers?

Buying a used car can be a stressful and confusing process. There are many dealerships out there, each with their own salespeople, vehicles and policies.

If you're not careful, you could end up paying too much or making an uninformed decision that leads to trouble down the road. In this article we'll walk through some of the things you should look for when buying a used car from Car Dealers Brisbane.

The best used car dealers have good reputations, so do your research.

The Brisbane City Used Cars dealers have good reputations, so do your research.

Check out the dealer's website and see if you can find any customer testimonials or endorsements. If they don't have a website, this is a red flag.

If they do have a website, search for reviews on other websites like Google and Yelp (just don't trust everything you read). You can also ask friends or family members who have bought from the same dealer before if they had any problems with their purchase or service afterward.

Finally, make sure you're getting a good deal. If the dealer is asking for too much money or isn't willing to negotiate, move on.

You should choose a dealer who is willing to negotiate.

When you’re looking at used cars and buying them, it’s important to know that you can negotiate the price. Negotiation is different than haggling, where both parties are trying to get the best deal possible without being willing to budge at all. 

Negotiation means that both parties are willing to work together in order to find a mutually beneficial solution.

Negotiating the price of your car will ensure that your purchase price is fair and reasonable for everyone involved (including the seller). You may want a lower price because you don’t have much money or because you want more features on your vehicle; however, remember that if the dealer won't negotiate with you on their original offer then he/she might not be able to meet other requests later on down the road either like financing terms or extended warranties which could end up costing more money over time than simply negotiating from day one!

Keep these tips in mind when shopping around for new or pre-owned cars so that next time around things go smoothly without any headaches along side."

Make sure the car dealership has a fair return policy.

It's also important to know about the dealership's return policy. It shouldn't be a one-sided agreement. You should be able to return the vehicle within a certain amount of time, get a full refund, or get a partial refund. 

In addition, you should be able to trade in the vehicle for another one at no extra cost if you decide that it doesn't fit your needs well enough or if something goes wrong with it during those first few weeks or months after purchase.

When you're ready to buy, get prequalified for a car loan first. This will give you an idea of how much money you can spend on a vehicle and what kind of interest rate you should expect.

Conclusion

It is important to know that you are doing business with a reputable Car Dealers Brisbane, so do your research and ask around before purchasing. The best used car dealers have good reputations, so ask friends or family members if they can recommend one.

Source by - https://bit.ly/3EOJhZO 

[siilkmoth]

hi my names nixe and i want you all to know that i love this canonically agender vocaloid

(free to use with or without credit)

[tl-notes]

Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon S2 Episode 10 Notes

I’m extremely not an expert in birds, but I tried to look these up to see if they were a species native to New York (since they’re similar to the sparrows we usually see around Kobayashi’s place). Apparently there are few similar-looking species in New York? My totally uninformed guess is that they may be house sparrows.

The sun sets in Japan relatively early (probably around 6:30pm when this episode takes place), which would make it entirely plausible that if she just flew east (with a slight northward angle) she’d find herself over New York in the early morning while most of the rest of the country is still dark.

These bumpy grey pads at the pedestrian part of the intersection here are known as (among other things) tactile paving; they’re to assist people who can’t fully rely on eyesight to get around.

Interestingly (imo), they were actually invented in Japan in the 60s (by a Miyake Seiichi), where today they’re extremely ubiquitous. They even show up later this episode!

They’re often referred to in Japan as 点字ブロック, tenji (Braille) blocks, and they tend to come in two types: the “dot” design, which indicates a place to stop (or an angle change, or more generally “caution”), and the “line” design which indicates you can safely keep going. They’re generally colored yellow in Japan, ideally making them stand out more to help people with impaired vision find them, and are mandated by law in most places public transport can be found (among others).

Not really a translation note, but “deer cola” felt especially funny in the context of all the horse medicine stuff. 

I guess “[animal] [drink]” is a common branding device in-universe, given the crab beer Kobayashi’s always drinking.

Also not really a translation note, but the difference between how “hard” Kanna and Chloe are running to be at the same speed was a nice animation touch.

遊んだ遊んだ！ asonda asonda!

One feature of the Japanese language is a very heavy use of repetition. This includes “reduplication,” a linguistic term for creating words by repeating a root (e.g. a “boo-boo” in English or the dara-dara example below in Japanese), but also just like… saying the same word multiple times, as Chloe does here.

Typically this is done for emphasis or to help increase clarity: if you’ve worked in a Japanese office, you’ve likely heard someone in a phone conversation say desu desu in response to someone asking for confirmation. 

This acceptance of repetition sort of extends beyond the obvious uses like this as well: for example, personal pronouns are much less common; instead (if the subject isn’t dropped) you’ll often just use the person’s name again. You’ll notice similar trends with other types of words as well.

Not to mention the ubiquity of things like otsukare.

This often ends up being a challenge for translators, because reusing words in English (when it’s not for an obvious reason) tends to stick out rather unflatteringly, even if they aren’t that close together. 

(Like when I overuse “hence” in these notes.)

This “Christ” in the Japanese was “ったく” (short for 全く mattaku, but just used as a semi-generic exclamation). I mostly bring this up because it’s a good example of a word that doesn’t work out of its cultural context; e.g. it wouldn’t make any sense for a fantasy character to say “Christ,” but since this is an American speaker it works just fine (and helps distinguish that fact, even). 

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but English uses a lot of “explicit reference” words like this, that can break immersion if put in the mouths of characters who wouldn’t have exposure to said reference—which can be annoyingly limiting when trying to write dialogue sometimes.

As a bit of a culture shock for a lot of Americans I’ve met, most Japanese homes tend to have wall mounted air conditioning units, like this one, that are only for heating/cooling the one room they’re in. (Many also have a “Dry” setting that makes them act kind of like a dehumidifier as well.) It’s common to not have them in every room, like bedrooms, however.

This is in contrast to the central air conditioning system used by a majority of homes in the US (though type/use of AC in the US varies a lot by region; less common in the north for example)—and places like the UK where apparently residential AC units of any kind are quite rare.

You may have noticed that the doors between rooms always seem closed in Kobayashi’s apartment. That’s not just to make the backgrounds simpler, it’s also a good habit to keep if you’re going to be running the AC!

“Kobayashi, are you お休み today?” 

“Yeah, お休み.”

お休み o-yasumi, is a noun form of the 休む yasumu, to rest. The word has a variety of applications, as we see here. A day off work/school, i.e. a rest day? お休み. Want to say “good night” to someone before bed? Also お休み.

In this case, it’s not even necessarily clear it’s being said as a pun; as mentioned earlier, repetition is a common feature of the language, so despite the yawn there wouldn’t really be any reason for Kanna to think Kobayashi was about to go to nap or anything.

“Laze about” here is だらだら dara-dara, another phenomime (擬態語 gitaigo in Japanese)—one of those words that mimics the “sound” of an idea/concept/state, which don’t actually make a sound per se.

These phrases aren’t necessarily childish or anything (overuse of them can be, but you can find them even in news articles and political speeches for example). They are, however, used frequently by children, and by adults talking to children, as they’re very “easy” words: they’re expressive, they capture useful daily-life concepts, and they usually roll off the tongue. You’ll notice, for example, that Kanna uses them a lot.

Kanna has a very interesting way of talking actually, which I’ll touch on a bit more later.

Kobayashi’s “bean jam” here is あんみつ anmitsu, a traditional Japanese dessert (technically a spinoff of mitsumame). It typically is a mix of red beans (and/or red peas), agar (an algae-based gelatin equivalent), some fruit, some variety of rice flour product (shiratama in this case, similar to mochi), and a syrup (often black sugar based).

You can find it year-round, but it has a strong summer association and is even used as a summer season word. (It’s typically chilled and you can often get it with ice cream as an ingredient.)

It’s also sometimes paired with a green-tea flavored something as well (e.g. ice cream, agar, or syrup). The trinity of green tea, red beans (aka azuki), and shiratama makes what I like to think of as the “Japanese S’mores Flavor (for Adults)”. No I will not elaborate on this.

I will though point out the shaved ice flavor Kobayashi ordered later in the episode:

え？今スイカ様子あった？

A word of note here for language learners is 様子 yousu, which has a lot of definitions, but in cases like this where it’s attached to a noun or phrase means roughly “the appearance of __” or “an indication of ___” etc. In actual use, it typically means something that makes you think of whatever ___ is—or the lack of something that would make you think ___.

For example here, it’s like “Watermelon? Where’d that come from?” (since the TV was talking about a different dessert-y food entirely). 

Or an unrelated example: “I think that guy is hiding something” → “Really? I haven’t seen any yousu of that.” In other words, it can be a lot like “sign,” as in “I’ve seen no sign of ___.”

These color-bordered envelopes (originally colored based on the flag of the country of origin) used to be the standard for air mail, domestic or international, though they haven’t been required for several decades.

That said, they’re still popular for that “ooh, international mail!” feel (at least in Japan) and you can buy them at most places that sell stuff like envelopes. As here, they’re often used in media to immediately convey that a letter came from outside Japan.

Kanna (and Kobayashi) says エアメール, lit. “air mail” in English, which is used colloquially for international mail specifically, rather than “mail sent by plane.”

They’re having what’s called 冷やしそうめん hiyashi soumen, chilled/cold soumen for lunch here. (Soumen being a thin wheat noodle; udon but thinner.) As Kanna says, it’s very easy to make!

Basically you just boil it, wash it in cold water, add ice, get some sort of sauce to dip it in, and you’re done! It’s a popular quick meal in summer, and much easier than the more involved nagashi soumen setups you may have seen elsewhere, where they slide the noodles down a chute for you to try to grab and eat. (It’s basically the same meal aside from that though.)

(You can of course add more to it, but as we see here, you don’t really have to.)

The type of tea here, for the curious, is 麦茶 mugicha, barley tea. Mugi is the general name for cereals/grains including wheat (komugi), barley (oomugi), rye (kuromugi or rye mugi), and oats (enbaku or oat mugi). It’s incredibly common in Japan (and much of East Asia), where it's the household summer drink.

It has no caffeine like many other teas, and has a bunch of various nutritional benefits, so it’s considered a good way to stay hydrated as you’re sweating buckets in the muggy Japanese summer weather.

帽子した？  boushi shita? した！ shita!

I thought this was a cute way of phrasing this question/answer, and a good example of the “parent and their young child” way these two talk.

The suru (past tense shita) verb used here is the ultimate in “generic verb,” and it basically doesn’t get any simpler grammar-wise to phrase something as “noun+suru” like Kobayashi does here (even the particles are dropped). 

Kanna, for her part, doesn’t respond with a “yes” or etc, but instead just repeats back the verb itself in confirmation.

Just to note another one of those words like dara-dara: bura-bura, used for things like wandering around, doing something (or nothing) casually/aimlessly, or (with one bura) for something dangling/swinging in a more literal sense, like a spider, slack yo-yo, or wind chime.

These booklets are a common homework assignment for practicing kanji; you can see along the left side there it shows the stroke order, with the first block giving an example to trace over & showing where to start each stroke.

Each character is made up of radicals (e.g. “hot” above: 日 and 耂), which each have a standard way to write them. There’s 214 such radicals (though many are pretty niche; only about ~50 of them are needed to make most characters), and once you get a hang of them it makes learning new characters much easier (not too different from learning word spellings in English imo).

Kanna is repeating out loud the reading for the “hot” character as she writes it.

In addition to the above workbooks (which usually involve both kanji and math problems at Kanna’s grade), elementary school summer homework in Japan typically involves doing an illustrated diary (not a daily one necessarily) and some sort of research project about a subject of your choice. (Think kind of like a small science fair project).

The “research” project part is pretty expansive, and you can typically even do something more arts & craftsy for it.

Manhole covers in a lot of Japanese municipalities feature art representative of the area. For example, the city of Chofu, where the author of GeGeGe no Kitaro lived most of his life, has several with art of that series.

(Photo from https://www.gotokyo.org/jp/spot/1734/index.html)

I mentioned earlier that Kanna has an interesting way of speaking. Probably a better way to put it is that she has a pretty convincingly childish way of speaking (despite the monotone). That is, she uses simple grammar and “easy” words most of the time, but then throws out random big words and fancy idioms from time to time that make you go “...where did you learn that?”

In this case, the phrase she uses is 巷で人気 chimata de ninki. Chimata originally means like a fork (in the road), and since those are often places with lots of people passing through, it expanded to mean “the undefined place where people talk about ~stuff~.” So it’s used for “many people are saying~” or “word on the street is~” types of situations (or “talk of the town,” as here).  

It’s kind of an “adult” word though; for example the character for it isn’t included in the jouyou kanji (the 2000+ that are taught in elementary through high school). Hence Kobayashi’s reaction here.

The word she uses for “protected” here is 死守 shishu. The word is the combination of the characters for “death” and “protect,” ~meaning to protect something even at risk to one’s life (to the death, as it were).

It's a word that you learn in third grade in the Japanese education system—the same grade Kanna is in!

Both of these types of signs are common sights in residential areas like this: depending on where you live, it can feel like there’s always some sort of construction project going on, and Japan’s many family/individually-owned businesses like this tend to be closed on various extra days during the summer (and certain other times) to allow for time off.  

In this case, them being closed August 12th~16th implies they’re taking off for Obon (and probably leaving town to visit family).

The word Kobayashi uses here is 風物詩 fuubutsu-shi. Fuubutsu refers to something that makes up part of the “scenery” of a place or season, in a pretty broad sense. This shi typically means “poem.”

So fuubutsu-shi is originally a type of poem celebrating a season or a scene of natural beauty, that sort of thing. From that, it’s also now (more popularly) used to describe things that are representative of a season; the kind of stuff you say “it’s not winter until…” about, or “you know it’s summer when…” (It can also be used for places + seasons, like the ice sculptures of Hokkaido winters, or even summer Comiket in Tokyo.)

They’re very similar to the season words I’ve mentioned previously, though they’re far less strict about what counts as one. Here, Kobayashi’s could be referring to the whole package experience of “having to take cover and wait out a sudden heavy rain, despite it being mostly clear skies a few minutes ago,” which you could call fuubutsu-shi (summed up probably as like 夏の雨宿り etc.)

In contrast the relevant season word here would probably be yuudachi (or niwaka-ame), a word referring to the short, sudden bouts of rain that tend to fall (from cumulonimbus clouds, the makings of which are noticeable in the backgrounds before this) on summer evenings.

Feels like in season one she woulda eaten it. Three cheers for character growth!

The parentheticals there are just the “English” in hiragana/katakana.

Kobayashi’s comment (nihongo de ok, roughly “you can just use Japanese”) is an internet-born term people originally would use to reply to someone who said something that didn’t make any sense, had terrible grammar, or was so full of katakana loanwords it was hard to read etc.

Kanna says this line in English, and while I have no proof at all, my guess is that the specific choice of “wicked” was taken from the translation of “maji yabakune?” used in season one.

[captain-acab]

@just-your-average-tangerine I don't know anything about singing but!!

I do know a little bit about social psychology and communication, and I want to address what your friends told you. (well you said "a couple people," but I'm assuming these are people whose opinions you value?)

It sounds like they're trying their best to look out for you.

This is a controversial statement that many people in the notes may not agree with, but it has an important corollary:

Just because they meant well doesn't mean they're right.

I can see how their line of reasoning went, and I can see where they're wrong.

We all live in a society (yes it's a meme, but it's also a very basic statement about humans). That means we all have beliefs, expectations, and reasoning that are influenced by societal norms. One thing that has allowed humans to build complex societies is that were excellent at pattern recognition and grouping. The cog sci term for this is "thin slicing," aka the ability to extrapolate a lot of information from a "thin slice" of data. This is also the reason why tribalism, xenophobia, and racism are so ubiquitous. In short: we make assumptions about people.

Right now, I'm going to make some assumptions about those "couple people" you talked to, based on the thin slice of data you shared:

They're some flavor of leftists

They spend a fair amount of time online, including Tumblr or Tiktok

They engage, or have engaged, in something that could be described as "online discourse"

They have multiple faves, either IRL acquaintances or celebrities, that they have "canceled" and don't like anymore

They don't spend much or any time volunteering in-person (e.g. at a soup kitchen)

This is important because these traits coincide with having strong beliefs around how morality is displayed socially. In addition, they interact primarily with a small social sphere, which can skew their perceptions of "common" vs "uncommon" behaviors.

They have probably developed an idea of the prototypical *gritted teeth* straight white man, which includes things like "drinks beer," "plays guitar," "mainstream interests," "uninformed about feminism/queer theory," "emotionally abusive or manipulative"— wait, what? Do you see how quickly that escalated?

For people who believe that all those traits typically occur together, something as innocuous as "playing guitar" turns into a "big red flag."

But crucially, can your friends actually put into words what, specifically, is dangerous about playing an instrument? Can they describe what tangible, real-world harm guitar-playing can cause?

Or is it simply guilt by association?

There are other layers to this situation as well; it isn't uncommon for trans men to find themselves treated differently as they present more and more masculinely, as people start projecting assumptions about violence onto them. That's why back when you either ID'd as or were read as a "straight white woman," playing guitar and singing were harmless hobbies, but now that you're read as a white man, these traits become further proof that you fit into the violent male archetype.

But transitioning does not make you more violent. It does not make you a bad person, or make your hobbies any more suspect. You are still the same person.

Here's the kicker: Your friends probably know this! That's why they're advising you to stop playing guitar, so that you don't get judged as a stereotype by other people. But that doesn't mean they're right. Guitar playing (and singing) are extremely common hobbies, and the vast, vast majority of people do not have any negative associations with them whatsoever.

Your friends meant well, but they were ultimately telling you to stop doing what you enjoyed in order to fit in and not attract hostility from prejudicial people. And that's not a good reason.

If someone truly doesn't want to associate with you just because you play guitar, that's probably not someone you want to associate with either!

In conclusion:

The danger your friends perceive is disproportionate; guitar playing is extremely common.

The danger your friends perceive is unfounded; there is nothing inherently harmful about playing guitar as any gender. A "red flag" must indicate tangible harm.

The advice your friends gave is ineffective; making yourself more palatable to people who already decided to dislike you will never work.

The advice your friends gave is ultimately harmful to you; it demands that you reduce yourself and relinquish your hobbies, with no concrete benefit for yourself.

So I talked to a couple people and they all agreed that 'straight* white man playing guitar' is a pretty big red flag and I should probably stop and not tell people that I've ever played. I love it and I'm going to miss it a lot but it's probably for the best.

I was never that good to begin with and especially since t ruined my voice theres not much point.

*while I would consider myself gay, the consensus was that I'm a trans man so I am a man, but I'm still biologically female so my attraction to men is straight

[fruit-of-the-vine]

What do you think of Joyofsatan.org? They follow the Greek Gods and they’re the largest Hellenic Pagan group in the world.

This post turned out way longer than I anticipated. Here's a quick TL;DR- A quick glance around the linked site showed me no mention of Hellenic paganism (or any Hellenic gods), nor did a search through the forums. These are satanists, not Hellenic pagans. It even says so in their name.

So I'm going to answer this with the assumption of good faith. I poked around their website and it was... interesting. They seem to really hate x-iantiy, and I mean... good for them? The layout was a bit confusing, but I honestly looked around as much as I could and saw no mention of the Hellenic pantheon or indeed ANY of the Hellenic gods. Plenty of mention of demons and devils and whatnot but none about my gods.

Giving it the benefit of the doubt I even went to check the forums linked on the front page and wow! I really wish I hadn't. LOTS of blatant antisemitism, "new world order" nonsense (which, for the uninformed, is (neo?)nazi nonsense), and attempts to scare people away from taking the vaccine. I even saw a guy with a hitler icon- standing in front of a flag and looking very patriotic. I wanted to think at first maybe this was a loud minority but some of the people I saw posting seemed to be popular members of the community. Of course its hard to tell from a quick look but it seems pretty clear to me where this community stands.

Still, assuming good faith here. But, anon, I really, really don't think these people are worshipers of the Hellenic gods. Even if they suddenly all agreed no, actually, they believe in and worship Zeus and his kin, the way they talk about Jewish people, the way they attack trans people, the way they try to convince others to leave themselves vulnerable- it goes directly against Xenia (@/medeatheewitch wrote a nice post about Xenia and how to properly worship the Hellenic gods you must be anti-racist and anti-fascist that you can read here). They could claim to be Hellenic polytheists all they want, their stances show their true colors. They are not the sort of people I would allow in my spaces and honestly trying to say these people are Hellenic pagans seems insulting.

These are not Hellenic pagans. I see no attempts from them to claim to be Hellenic pagans. These are satanists, and a rather shitty bunch at that. They seem to be worse than a lot of Christians I know, and they do nothing but give satanists a bad name- something x-ians probably appreciate.

[noctomania]

Chappelle's stand-up and the trans employees that were suspended

I've been taking my time soaking in all the feedback on this matter. Not that anyone asked but I decided to address it.

Quick refresh for those out of the loop: Dave Chappelle's latest Netflix stand up special, "The Closer", featured a lot of ragging on trans people as he previously had faced backlash on his same input on the same topic. So of course he doubled down on his transphobia in order to get clicks. Because controversy sells. So he dribbled his "team TERF" trash and of course the trans community is upset because it's unnecessary punching down, AND because he seems to have this perspective that there are Black people and then there are trans queer people, and that seemingly there is no intersection between those two communities (plot twist and spoiler alert: there is not only an intersection, it is a huge intersection).

As part of the backlash to Chappelle's stand up, some employees of Netflix who are trans have spoken up against Netflix having the special on their platform, citing that it is harmful ideology to host. At least one trans employee has quit over the matter. It's also widely viewed as hypocritical for the company to pretend to uplift the queer community while also hosting such openly transphobic drivel.

Subsequently there were headlines that 3 trans people had been fired from Netflix over the issue. The headlines made the issue that much more debated however as they were seemingly misleading about why the employees were fired. Pro-Chappelle people quickly came to counter the headlines with "they weren't fired for their opinions or dissent but because they tried to crash a high-level meeting they were not invited to".

However we have found that not to be true either.

Here is a link to a tweet from Terra, one of the employees who had been suspended, addressing the fact she has been reinstated after assessment found that Terra had actually been invited to the meeting by a director. Below are screenshots of what you find in the tweet linked:

So what the hell happened? How could an employee who was literally invited to the meeting be suspended for going to the meeting?

I'm going to keep looking into this to found out more as Terra has been a focus butis now taking time to decompress, and I don't even know who the other employees are or if they will be reinstated etc. (As i have yet to be able to identify any of the other I suspect they may be intentionally staying out of the light for their own safety). I have my theories but I won't state them until I find out more.

I'd also like to note that I would still be in support of these employees even if they had crashed uninvited because if the meeting is about backlash from the trans community then it would make sense to have trans people at the table hosting these conversations. I'm definitely of the belief that if someone is talking about you but doesn't invite you to the table that you should pull up a chair of your own as you have a right to defend yourself.

All i know is Chappelle and Netflix deserve the criticism and this weird erasure of what has actually been going on should be a red flag to everyone who gives a damn. Remember who has the money and thus the power here.

It's noteworthy that Terra isn't uplifting herself, but using her position to uplift the voices of Black trans women, and other marginalized within the community who are undoubtedly most centered in the cross hairs of this Netflix special. This is important as it cuts to where the focus should be: Chappelle's arrogance attempting to pit "Black vs Trans" perpetuating and reverberating transphobic ideology within the wider Black community that was originally imported by imperialism.

There is a whole entire history behind transphobia and homophobia within the Black community dating back to, you guessed it, times of slavery. While the background may being context to how this came to be, it does not excuse it or the perpetuation of this archaic and uninformed ideology particularly in modern day. In fact the history shows that it is part of white supremacy to instigate homophobia and transphobia within the Black community to further divide and conquer people who would otherwise Unite to subjugate white supremacy.

Ultimately, as I started off, I'm still on the side of fuck Chappelle and the one-trick-pony he rode in on because at this point it should be obvious that punching down is not the same as punching up. And if you're double down on the punch down in my eyes it doesn't matter how much punching up you do because all you're doing at that point is ensuring you maintain your own personal status quo of being adored and/or hated by the same amount of people to keep your specials relevant. That is not at all progressive of him, to Black people, or to anyone.

Of course his perspective is that queerness is a "white thing" and that "we" are punching down on "his people" - citing his "friend" who died by suicide and blaming her death on backlash she got for supporting Chappelle's transphobia, which is unsupported. (Note: it is unquestionably in poor taste at the very least to put words in the mouths of the dead no matter their relation to you. Further gross to use her death as leverage for a fucking comedy special or as a shield against criticism. If you would like to read Daphne's last words before she died you can here and make assessment for yourself) I would also like to note that we trans people are no more a monolith than Black people are. We have as many problematic people in our community as any other community does.

Anyway, in closing I will say if you aren't of the group who wishes to boycott Netflix (no judgement honestly, no issue has only one solution) then what you could do in support of trans people is maybe down vote that special (idk if that's just to impact what Netflix suggests to you or if Netflix gathers those metric but it can't hurt to prevent the promotion of other problematic media) and instead watch Disclosure, which talks specifically about the ramifications of negative representation of any marginalized community.

Peace and love from this trans brother to my trans sisters 💜

[illogicallyinclined]

do the Boys got any sh*t for their stick tape, and if they do what do they do about it? thanks! love your AU by the way ❤️

let’s talk boys and their tape

tws: homophobia, cursing, violence (but Hockey Violence)

honestly, the NCAA has its fair share of problems when it comes to homophobia/transphobia/general mistreatment of the LGBT community. although the organization has gotten better about it over the years, there is No Doubt that there are some garbage guys out there ready to give the Aces shit for their sticks. that said, the responses vary:

For the core 8...

most opponents assume that Virgil and Remus’s sticks are an aesthetic thing -- because a majority of college-aged hockey boys are uninformed and thus don’t even recognize that they’re the flags for asexuality and aromanticism respectively -- so Virgil and Remus honestly don’t get too much flack for their tape jobs on the ice. 

homophobic opponents are more likely to target these two for their eye makeup, in which case Virgil will deal out a stealthy cross-check and some devastating words of retribution (#ChirpKing) whereas Remus will throw down Right There, Right Then

for Emile and Patton, it’s pretty hit or miss about whether their opponents will recognize that their sticks are taped to represent the trans flag. in the events that an opponent does recognize it and decides to be an asshole, neither are afraid to report said opponent to one of the officials and -- if all else fails -- deal out some body-checks that are perhaps a bit harder than necessary. (they’re just playing some hockey, right? late hits happen all the time...)

most people recognize Remy’s stick as the bi flag, but the joy of being a goalie is that he has defensemen to slash-and-or-crosscheck the living hell out of someone who decides that they want to harass him while he just watches and provides brutal commentary from the net

Roman, D, and Logan -- as the three of the core 8 with rainbow tape -- are among the most likely to be harassed for their choice in stick decoration:

Roman, like Remus, is a fighter. he’ll usually stick to roughing in order to avoid suspension, but if an opponent is very persistent, he can be persuaded to drop the gloves and Take Them Out. (Roman, under his breath: i’m gay and also stronger than you, so don’t try any shit)

D, like Virgil, is a cross-check and chirp kind of player. he’ll also spend the rest of the game making whomever thought their homophobic comment was necessary regret that they’ve ever been born. (he’ll trip them. he’ll elbow them. he’ll steal the puck the moment that they touch it and set up the play for the game-winning- goal out of spite and spite alone. don’t pick a fight with D. you’ll lose in every sense of the word.) 

for Logan, harassment by other players is... a unique experience. (some asshole: what the fuck is with that stick tape; Logan: *stands to his full height, looming at 6′7″ on skates* excuse me?; that same asshole, fearing for his life: never mind, sir. it looks very nice. have a good day.)

alternatively, Logan’s got another method for dissuading homophobes from trying to start shit