#jewish!councillors

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

By DANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD

Middle school students were forced to take part in a protest in Toronto earlier this week, where teachers allegedly instructed them to wear blue shirts to identify themselves as “settlers” and “colonizers,” Canadian media and government officials reported on Friday. 

Parents had been told the 7th and 8th-grade students were at the protest to “observe,” but videos and witnesses who spoke to the Toronto Sun revealed that the students were encouraged to take an active role. 

'You'll get over it'

While the protest had been in support of the Grassy Narrows First Nation and the ongoing water crisis, anti-Israel chants reportedly quickly took over.

One Jewish student expressed their discomfort to their teacher about the anti-Israel chants, the student’s cousin told the Sun. The teacher allegedly responded, “You’ll get over it.”

“It is very frustrating that elements of the anti-Israel mob are using their positions as educators to drive this agenda on impressionable children who know nothing about this conflict in the Middle East,”  Toronto City Councillor James Pasternak told the Sun.  “Our education system must nurture young minds in a positive way and not teach them to demonize those they don’t agree with.”

[imaginedreamwrite]

Like No One Does

Part 1: An Empty Line

The block of text had made you take a pause when you stepped back into the back room for a moment, the name across the top of the screen was one you’d never really texted before. You were aware that Danah had given Ari Levinson your number, she’d admitted to it a few years ago; however, you’d never received or read any of the texts he attempted to send.

Before today.

Now, the text message was staring up at you while you were running off your feet dragging around bottles of champagne for rich and snobby councillors in the city. It was short, it was to the point, but there was an adage of flirtatiousness that seemed to hang under the initial message.

'I need an assistant. Hear me out before you turn me down, sweetheart.’

You had wanted to ignore the message, you wanted to delete the text and act like you’d never received it in the first place. It would’ve been easy enough to act like there was a glitch, and you’d never gotten the text in the first place. It would’ve been easy to act like you weren’t being poached by your childhood best friend’s older brother, a notorious flirt.

You and Danah were opposites, in many societal ways.

Danah Levinson was born wealthy to parents who made themselves a healthy living by opening and running four different bakeries and cafés in the city. Each of them was inspired by Jewish food with stark reviews that had led the businesses to have a thriving following and loyal customers.

You were born to a low-income family with parents who had struggled to get pregnant in the first place. While you were loved and cared for to the best of your parents' abilities, their health issues had always seemed to overshadow most of your life, leaving you struggling at the best of times.

You had met Danah when you were 8, after your mother had visited in the hospital during a sick spell by Danah’s mother as a community outreach volunteer. Her mother was one of the kindest people you’d ever met, a bleeding heart who had expelled as much help upon your family as possible.

It was her mother who had helped you get into a better school through sponsorship, and it was Danah’s parents who had helped take you in when both of your parents had grown too sick and needed to be in hospital for weeks. Regardless of the societal standings that were different for yourself and Danah, you had become best friends.

You were thick as thieves, and throughout your years of being best friends with Danah Levinson, you’d gained a lifelong friend and sister.

When you were accepted into university under a scholarship, Danah and yourself had become roommates, and you’d often be sent care packages from her mother as if you were her daughter as well.

Through Danah, you had known Ari Levinson. Her brother was well known to be a notorious flirt, someone who rarely showed up to Sunday night dinners without someone on his arm. There always seemed to be a date or a fling on his arm, no matter the occasion, and it was a sight you’d gotten used to over the years.

It had pissed Danah off to no end, seeing these girls hang around her brother, who were quick flings. She had never approved of a single date her brother had, though both of them knew that the dates he chose to be with were temporary and nothing had gone past a few weeks.

When you were 19, you had experienced Ari Levinson’s flirtations for the first time. You’d spent the summer with Danah after your first year of university at her parents' place, and that was when it had begun. You’d been blissfully unaware of whatever attraction Ari might have had for you until Danah had scolded him for flirting, considering that you’d had a boyfriend.

Once you were aware of it, it was almost hard to miss the way he would let little comments slip. During the fast Hanukkah you’d spent with Danah and her family, when you were 19, Ari had deliberately gotten you different gifts than he had given his sister.

With the last night of Hanukkah being the time when he had given you the nickname ‘Princess’ along with a charm that was meant to bring you good luck. It was nothing you’d looked too far into, since you were on the rocks with your boyfriend, and you were missing your parents, who had died a year and half prior.

The next year of university, the last year before you dropped the program, Ari had offered a few internships through his company that was skyrocketing in value and power in the business world. During these trips to the school, he would take Danah out to dinner, and offer the chance for you to go with them, though you had sparsely joined in.

After you had dropped out of university to dive into work to pay down your parents' medical bills, Danah and you had continued to have that inseparable friendship and sisterhood. Nothing had changed with the Levinson’s, you were still invited to Sunday dinners, you had still watched movies on Thursday nights with Danah.

And every Hanukkah, Ari had gifted you a little charm that had correlated with the one from the year prior.

You never allowed yourself to look too far into the gifts, you never allowed yourself to think of everything you’d been given as anything more than him taking some kind of pity on you. You wouldn’t allow yourself to imagine the possibility of this infamous playboy and flirt, who had always seemed to have someone new on his arm.

Likewise, you had too much chaos in your life as it was, too many other things to focus on, and your best friend’s older brother was not one of them. Danah had, to her credit, told Ari to fuck off on more than one occasion on your behalf, though you wondered if her reasoning was because of his past with exes.

She didn’t want to lose you as a friend if you happened to go out with Ari and things hadn’t worked out, nor did she want things to be uncomfortable with her brother.

'Don’t leave me on read, give me an answer.’ His next message had re-centred your focus, and you’d looked at the message before you hastily sent a reply and shoved your phone into the deep depths of your bag.

'I’m busy at work. I can’t talk.’ You set your phone away and stepped out of the back room. You were heading through the walkway behind the front of the high-end restaurant, stopping at a table with a fake smile plastered on your face.

Every part of your body ached when you started the climb to your apartment. The seemingly endless day of catering to people who wouldn’t have cared about you if you hadn’t been the one bringing their food, was grating on your every nerve. That fake plastered smile and the unseemly way you had to tamp down your true feelings about being verbally or physically accosted by people who didn’t give you a shit, was all becoming too much.

Unfortunately, with you dropping out of university halfway through your degree, it had left you with student loans that were piled on top of your parents' medical bills. Between the three avenues for loans, you were left desperate for work and would have taken anything you possibly could. As it was, you were working two jobs already to pay down the debt that was saddled to you, and you were drawing your energy down to dismal levels.

You dropped your things by the front door of your apartment and slammed the door behind you, with more force than necessary, and walked into your bedroom. You stripped out of your work clothes and kicked them to the side in favour of a pair of sweats, and one of your old campus tees. You yanked both of them on, and secured your hair off your shoulders before you left your bedroom.

You moved across your small apartment and walked into the kitchen, barefoot and tired. You had no drive to spend more energy making something, and your instinctual desire was to grab a package of ramen and rip the top open. After drumming the flavour into the bag and shaking it up, you moved toward your couch and crashed onto the left side.

You turned the tv on and put whatever your remote first settled on, using it more for background noise than anything. As the series started, you picked at your dry ramen noodles and ate what you could, your attention drifting toward your phone. You unlocked your screen and first went to instagram.

The first post you’d seen when the app loaded was one of Danah’s, the first few pictures were of herself and her on again-off again boyfriend, the one that Ari really didn’t like. The next three were pictures of the Sunday night dinner they had together, the tags linked to how she felt annoyed by her older brother.

You scrolled down to the other few posts in your feed before you came upon an ad for some clothes, something you’d never buy for yourself, but it was targeted to your age group. Without watching the whole ad, you continued to scroll, and your thumb had hovered above one of your high school friends that you’d followed, when another message from Ari had come through.

Messages that you had missed, or ones that had come through later than they should have.

'You busy, sweetheart? Danah said you were working all night. Come out with me, I wanna talk to you.’

'I know you’re ignoring me, princess.’

'You’re not giving me a choice, baby. I’m coming to talk to you.’

You were already halfway through texting back when three solid knocks on your apartment door had interrupted you. You tossed your phone to the side and stood from where you had been sitting on the couch, Netflix still playing in the background.

As you slowly opened the door, your heart both plummeted and stopped beating with a single look at the man on the other side. Ari was waiting for you on the other side of the door, not wearing his usual tailored Armani or Tom Ford suit. He was wearing a pair of dark wash jeans, making him look even taller than he was, and the shirt he was wearing a Patriots shirt that he’d had for years.

“What are you doing here? I mean…why are you here?” He had smiled down at you, one foot crossed over the other, and his shoulder was resting against the doorframe.

“I don’t like being ignored, princess. You going to let me in, so we can talk?” His smile was charming, and that playboy personality that so many women had fallen for was clearly flourishing.

You’d heard of some of his exes in the past, and Danah had not been shy about talking about the women she had met, had given you the impression that Ari was almost entirely insatiable. Though you personally had never met any of his exes or his hookups, you couldn’t have avoided them entirely. It was impossible for you not to have knowledge of his vivacious love life, even if you hadn’t been a visual witness.

“You show up to my place unannounced and just think I’m going to let you in because you don’t like being ignored?” You crossed your arms over your chest, your eyes zeroing in on the takeout bags in his hands.

“I hope you weren’t going to eat that shit, baby.” Ari scoffs at the idea of you eating dried uncooked noodles, the bag that’s still in your hand. “I bought your favourite.”

“You don’t know my favourite.” You step aside and let him in anyway, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

As he moves further into your apartment, small as it is, he sets the takeout bags on the secondhand coffee table you have, and then he looks back at you. Regardless of you being best friends with Danah since you were children, and the obvious societal differences between you and the Levinson’s, their entire family treated you like you were their own.

“Give me some credit, sweetheart.” His grin, and his eyes, had become more pronounced and brighter respectively. “I know more about you than you think.”

“Why are you here anyway? You have any idea how late it is?” You keep yourself at a distance, watching Ari with thinly veiled interest as he unpacks the food he brought for you, his smirk still present.

“You ignored me.”

“I was working.” You argued your case, and crossed your arms over your chest as he sat down on your couch. Your random Netflix show was still playing in the background, and Ari had moved your iPhone to the coffee table, effortlessly making himself at home.

“You work too hard, princess.” You swore he used pet names more than your birth given name, the affectionate little quips had been something you were accustomed to. “We should talk.”

“About the job you want me to take? Or about the fact that you broke into my apartment—“
“Babe,” Ari’s grin widened, and he laughed huskily, “you let me in. I didn’t break in, besides we’re hardly strangers.”

You were at odds with yourself, knowing that he was right, and you had let him in. And you were irritated with your body’s natural reaction to the smell of the spices that radiated from the takeout container. Ari likely had gotten your favourite, it smelled the same, and it was from the same restaurant that was a favourite with yourself and Danah.

“So you bring food to coerce me?” You inched forward, sitting down on the edge of the couch as tension, both sexual and physical, bubbled between you two.

“You’re not that easy, darling.” Ari had spoken with admiration, and slid a container toward you. “But I thought we could talk in person. After you eat.”

“I was eating—“

“That shit?” Ari scoffed and reached out toward you, pulling the sleeve of your old campus t-shirt up your shoulder. “That’s not food, that’s…”

“Food that needs to be cooked.” You mumbled under your breath and sat cross-legged on the couch, popping the lid off the container, your stomach growling. “Ramen is delicious, by the way.”

Ari handed you a fork, without saying a word to you after your latest protest, and slowly sank back onto the couch cushion. He grabbed his container, setting it on his thick thigh, and then looked at you out the corner of his eyes. His blue irises were breathtaking, another feature of his that had stolen hearts left right and centre, and you’d often been intimated by the colour.

“You look tired.” It was an observation made while he watched you eat, almost like he was proud of himself for taking care of you, albeit momentarily. “You’re going to kill yourself working this hard, love. And then what?”

“Then you’ll have to find someone else to annoy.” You rolled your eyes, barely retaining your ignorance of the way he was looking at you, and the way he was speaking to you.

Danah hated when Ari flirted with you because she was afraid of losing someone who was like her sister, and she was scared that Ari would break your heart.

And you were just stubborn enough to keep yourself emotionally distant from anyone wanting to potentially ask you out or date you. You had to keep yourself focused and pay off the debts that you incurred from student loads, and the debts that fell to you from your parents' medical history.

“I’m serious, sweetheart. I’m not leaving until you hear me out, at least.” Ari had popped the lid off his own takeout container and started eating with you, almost like you were a normal couple.

Almost as if he weren’t your best friends’ older brother, and you weren’t a single emergency away from being broke entirely.

“It’s triple what you would make working both your jobs, you’d get benefits and damn good ones. Medical insurance, three weeks vacation…” Ari reached out toward you, his hand cupping your chin as he turned your head and made you look at him.

“I travel a lot, you would come with me. You could get the hell out of this shit-hole.”

“I like my shit-hole.” You felt your heart fluttering, tension was thickening as a figurative electrical storm was brewing between you. “But if it suits his majesty, I’ll think about it.”

“Good,” his smile, and eyes, softened, “good girl. Finish eating your dinner. I have rugelach for you.”

“From your mother?” You smiled to yourself, halfway done the food he brought for you. “She makes the best rugelach I’ve ever had.”

Ari dropped his hand from your chin, to pull your shirt back up your shoulder. His fingers had lingered for a minute, before he pulled away and reached for your remote. He looked back toward your cheap television and ended the show you had been watching, speaking softly to you.

“I’m putting something else on.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Chris McGreal at The Guardian:

Jimmy Carter’s terminal illness reignited a bitter dispute over accusations the former president was antisemitic after he wrote a bestselling book likening the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories to South African apartheid. Prominent American supporters of Israel lined up to denounce Carter and the book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, when it was published in 2006. Abe Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, called the former president a “bigot”. Deborah Lipstadt, who is now the Biden administration’s special envoy against antisemitism, accused him of having a “Jewish problem”. Alan Dershowitz, the US constitutional lawyer and ardent advocate for Israel, said Carter set out to offend Israelis and Jews. “Jimmy Carter’s sensitivities seem to have a gaping hole when it comes to Jews. There is a term for that,” he wrote.

Others did not beat around the bush and called Carter an antisemite. Pro-Israel pressure groups placed ads in the New York Times accusing Carter of facilitating those who “pursue Israel’s annihilation” and claiming he was “blinded by an anti-Israel animus”. But nearly two decades later, the book looks prescient given that leading Israeli politicians and major human rights organisations now accuse Israel of imposing a form of apartheid on the Palestinians in breach of international laws. News that Carter had entered hospice care at the beginning of the year prompted calls for critics to apologise for the abuse, drawing an admission from at least one critic. Among those outraged by Carter’s book in 2006 were members of the former president’s own foundation, which has built an international reputation for its work on human rights and to alleviate suffering. Steve Berman led a mass resignation from the Carter Center’s board of councillors at the time. Earlier this year, Berman revealed that he later wrote to Carter to apologise and to say that the former president had been right. “I had started to view Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians as something that started in 1967 as an accident but was now becoming an enterprise with colonial intentions,” Berman said in his letter to Carter. Shortly before Carter’s death, Peter Beinart, described as “the most influential liberal Zionist of his generation”, said the time had come for the former president’s critics to apologise for the “shameful way that the book was received by many significant people”.

When the late Jimmy Carter released his Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid book in 2006, the book’s release drew a lot of controversy because it called out Israel’s occupation of Palestine and compared their situation to South Africa’s highly controversial and racist Apartheid policies aimed at non-Afrikaner South Africans, especially the Blacks.

Turns out that Carter was well ahead of his time in calling out Israel Apartheid before it became a mainstream issue in some parts of the left in the US.

[greetings-inferiors]

I just finished the re up and a.) it is so funny that almost half of these endings are girls falling in love with nicole. In one route the councillor even goes ‘you two are lesbians lol’ and b.) what is that secret video ending?? I saw some people say that they think it’s hinting that you’d control Jecka in the next game, which would be really interesting, as while in the original she was great she really shines in the re up.

Honestly I’m just sad there’s only 7 endings I know they’re way longer so there’s about the same content (maybe even more, it took me 4 hours compared to the original’s 3), and the routes are actually better overall due to the more linear (or at least it feels that way) progression letting more things develop (Nicole’s mum working for a Jewish food place providing catering for the mein kampf reading, that’s a lot of setup), but it loses the interconnectedness of the original. They’re both great in different ways. I just want more. I love all these characters. I really like how Jecka actually wants to better herself and go to college and stuff. Her disowning Nicole after she abused ari does so much for her character. Nicole’s a car barrelling down the motor way at a hundred miles an hour, it’s fun to watch how s he crashes and burns, but Jecka’s just a genuinely nice (at times), funny, and smart girl. It’d be interesting to see a class of 09 where she’s the protagonist be an anti-anti-visual novel, where she is more sincere and empathetic in the wacky fucked up world she and Nicole inhabit.

Also it’d be funny to see if they make it a 3 for 3 for having a lesbian protagonist even with the straightest girl in the ensemble.

[beardedmrbean]

A Labour Minister has been sacked after The Mail on Sunday exposed his racist and sexist messages, including one vile post saying he hoped a pensioner who didn't vote Labour would die before the next election.

Andrew Gwynne also made anti-Semitic slights and 'jokes' about a constituent being 'mown down' by a truck.

Keir Starmer stripped Mr Gwynne of his job as Health Minister and suspended his membership of the Labour Party when he was told about the content of the WhatsApp messages yesterday. Meanwhile, the MP himself apologised for his 'badly misjudged commments'.

A Government spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister is determined to uphold high standards of conduct in public office. He will not hesitate to take action against any Minister who fails to meet these standards, as he has in

this case.'

In one particularly shocking comment, the Gorton and Denton MP says he hopes a 72-year-old woman will soon be dead after she dared to ask about her bins.

The Stockport resident wrote to her local councillor saying she hadn't voted Labour, but added: 'As you have been re-elected I thought it would be an appropriate time to contact you with regard to the bin collections.'

After the councillor shared the letter among fellow Labour figures in the WhatsApp group, Mr Gwynne wrote a suggested response: 'Dear resident, F*** your bins. I'm re-elected and without your vote. Screw you. PS: Hopefully you'll have croaked it by the all-outs.' 'All-outs' are elections at which every council seat is contested at once.

Accepting his fate last night, Mr Gwynne wrote on social media: 'I deeply regret my badly misjudged commments and apologise for any offence I've caused. I've served the Labour Party all my life and it was a huge honour to be appointed a minister by Keir Starmer. I entirely understand the decisions the PM and the party have taken and, while very sad to have been suspended, will support them in any way I can.'

The messages were exchanged in a group called Trigger Me Timbers, which Mr Gwynne shares with more than a dozen Labour councillors, party officials and at least one other MP, all based on the outskirts of Manchester.

The MoS gained access to thousands of messages from the closed group, which was set up in 2019, and discovered a barrage of abusive texts. Among them are:

Mr Gwynne saying someone 'sounds too Jewish' and 'too militaristic', apparently from their name alone;

Racist comments about veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott, mocking her historic achievement in becoming the first black MP at either Despatch Box for Prime Minister's Questions;

Sexist comments about Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner performing a sex act;

Mr Gwynne mocking a local Labour leader as 'Colin C*mface'.

The politician also made offensive remarks about Jewish people.

Discussing an upcoming Labour meeting, a member of the group asks if Marshall Rosenberg would be there, in apparent reference to a late American psychologist whose conflict management techniques might have been useful in heated debates. Mr Gwynne responds: 'No. He sounds too militaristic and too Jewish. Is he in Mossad?'

In 2018, Mr Gwynne made headlines when it was revealed he was in a Facebook group called Labour Supporters in which anti-Semitic messages were shared. At the time he responded: 'I was added to this Facebook group without my knowledge or permission. I DO NOT support the posts and I ABHOR anti-Semitism. It has absolutely NO place in the Labour Party or in society. End of.'

But months later, he was taking part in anti-Semitic banter in the WhatsApp group, including taking an apparently mocking tone to those who thought it inappropriate. 'Geoffrey the Giraffe says don't be nasty to the Jews,' he posted. It's not clear who he was referring to, but Geoffrey was the logo of the Toys R Us stores.

Alex Hearn, co-director of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, said asking if a person with a Jewish name is an agent of the Israeli spy agency Mossad feeds to an enduring anti-Semitism trope.

He said: 'This so-called 'banter' about Jews was unnecessary and unpleasant. Themes of disloyal infiltrators crosses the line into classic anti-Jewish racism, and should not be acceptable discourse among Labour officials, activists or anywhere in our society.'

Mr Gwynne also made race-based jokes on Trigger Me Timbers while talking about veteran black Labour MP Diane Abbott, when she stood in for Jeremy Corbyn at Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons in October 2019.

In the historic move, she became the first black parliamentarian to represent their party at the weekly clash. When one member asks if this pioneering moment for black Britons was a 'joke', Mr Gwynne told the group it was 'because it's Black History Month apparently'.

A councillor then suggests other black Labour MPs, living and dead, asking: 'Was David Lammy not available? I'd also take the corpse of Bernie Grant [the black Labour MP who died in 2000].'

Mr Gwynne adds: 'Or Desmond Swayne? Justin Trudeau??'

At the time, both Tory MP Swayne and the Canadian prime minister were engulfed in racism rows after photos of them in offensive 'blackface' caricatures had emerged in two separate incidents.

Bishop Desmond Jaddoo, a prominent black campaigner, said: 'It's amazing when a black person rises to prominence, they have to put up with these outrageous comments. They have racial connotations that have no place in our society. If a Minister has these kinds of views, then they should take stock.'

Angela Rayner was also mocked by the group, particularly by Mr Gwynne. In March 2021, when the deputy Labour leader faced criticism for claiming £249 Apple wireless headphones on expenses, Mr Gwynne reposted a tweet from the parody account Tammy Pax MP. It read: 'I don't see what the problem is. It's literally impossible to give a b*** *** while wearing wired headphones. Anyone with a similar background to Angela would understand this.'

Another outrageous exchange came after a councillor mentions a constituent called 'Nick' who asked for more cycle lanes. Mr Gwynne replies: 'I had positive visions of him getting mown down by an Elsa Waste HGV while he's cycling to the Fallowfield Loop [cycle lane]. We couldn't be that lucky!' The MP also mocked a senior party figure in Tameside called Colin Bailey, 61, the vice-chair of Labour's Audenshaw branch.

In January 2019, appearing to reference a local party victory, Mr Gwynne asked: 'How did Colin C*mface take it?' He added later: 'Can we post the Colin C*mface Tory supporting tweets now?'

A shocked Mr Bailey – who has campaigned for Mr Gwynne in the past – told the MoS yesterday: 'I am angry about this, if this is directed at me. Andrew never said anything like this before.'

Nigel Huddleston MP, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, said: 'These comments are sickening. It is shameful that a Labour Minister thinks it is appropriate to wish for the death of one of his own constituents – especially as his government has cruelly taken away Winter Fuel Payments and left vulnerable pensioners to freeze, and just goes to show how out of touch Labour are.'

And David Sedgwick, the councillor who posted a photo of the letter from the pensioner about the bins, said Mr Gwynne's comments 'are totally not acceptable'.

Mr Gwynne has been in politics since 1996, when he was elected as England's youngest councillor at the age of 21. He became an MP in 2005, and after last year's General Election was appointed Minister for Public Health.

Labour last night confirmed Mr Gwynne had been 'administratively suspended' from the party while the messages were investigated. They added: 'Swift action will be taken if individuals are found to have breached the high standards expected of party members.'

[ella-is-scarlet-exclusive]

Mordecai you have to stop. Your people are too Jewish. Your refusal to bow is too proud. The king's guards and councillors are too plotting. They will hang you on a 50 a'ma high tree.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

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

#15yrsago Super Man and the Bugout reading: what if Superman had been a nice Jewish boy from Toronto https://ia801603.us.archive.org/5/items/TheSuperManAndTheBugout/SMBO.mp3

#15yrsago Law prof and cop agree: never ever ever ever ever ever ever talk to the cops about a crime, even if you’re innocent http://www.tuccille.com/blog/2008/07/eight-reasons-even-innocent-shouldnt.html

#15yrsago Candian band staples CC-licensed CDs to phone-poles with anti-Canadian-DMCA messages https://web.archive.org/web/20080801204812/https://torontoist.com/2008/07/the_craft_economy_kill_bill_c61.php

#15yrsago UK tech-czar’s ridiculous, fatuous podcast interview — hilarious gag interview https://web.archive.org/web/20080804093334/https://fishnchippapers.typepad.com/tomorrow_fish_n_chip_pape/2008/07/if-ever-there-was-a-clear-statement-of-what-is-wrong-with-transformational-government-and-the-nis.html

#15yrsago Uni of Nottingham: Grad students researching terrorism aren’t allowed to look at terrorist documents on US anti-terror gov’t sites https://web.archive.org/web/20160315042221/https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/researchers-have-no-right-to-study-terrorist-materials/402844.article?sectioncode=26&storycode=402844

#10yrsago Researcher wins NSA cyber-security prize, says freedom is incompatible with the NSA “in its current form” https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2013/07/19/nsa-award-for-best-scientific-cybersecurity-paper/

#10yrsago Bank forecloses on wrong house, changes locks, steals tons of stuff, won’t compensate owner in full https://www.popehat.com/2013/07/26/want-to-burglarize-a-house-with-impunity-then-nickle-and-dime-the-restitution-it-helps-to-be-a-bank/

#10yrsago Canadian Tories distribute fake Braille flyers about disabled initiative https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/conservative-flyers-on-disabled-initiatives-contain-fake-braille/article_e500f631-3cc1-5b81-b4a3-db7f0b7edb2d.html

#10yrsago At VW’s request, English court censors Usenix Security presentation on keyless entry systems for luxury cars https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/26/scientist-banned-revealing-codes-cars

#10yrsago Bribery: pro-NSA Congressional voters got twice the defense industry campaign contributions https://www.wired.com/2013/07/money-nsa-vote/

#10yrsago NSA college recruiting ad, 1976 https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeholmes/9384778371/lightbox/

#10yrsago NV court marshal sexually assaults woman, then arrests her for complaining while judge looks on https://web.archive.org/web/20130726035500/https://www.8newsnow.com/story/21557505/cover-up-alleged-in-clark-clark-family-court

#5yrsago Android’s keyboard will no longer autocomplete “sit” with “on my face” thanks to me https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/sit-on-my-face-android-autocomplete

#5yrsago The Russian equivalent to Alexa is a “good girl” but not too friendly, and is totally OK with wife-beating https://aeon.co/essays/can-emotion-regulating-tech-translate-across-cultures

#5yrsago Calgary malls caught secretly using facial recognition to characterise shoppers’ age and gender https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-malls-1.4760964

#5yrsago The Cyberdeck: a homebrew, 3D printed cyberspace deck https://www.reddit.com/r/Cyberpunk/comments/8yyayp/just_designed_and_3d_printed_a_cyberdeck_time_to/

#5yrsago Trumpian Ontario premier Doug Ford will gut Toronto’s city council to punish his Tory rivals https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/ford-to-slash-toronto-city-council-to-25-councillors-from-47-sources-say/article_8d99a5f5-caeb-58d2-a6eb-1db261560a02.html?

#5yrsago James Comey: A freak of nature with the power to cloud liberals’ minds https://clickhole.com/step-right-up-and-feast-your-eyes-on-the-unfathomable-c-1825329399/

#1yrago Peter Thiel’s evil, but he’s not an “evil genius”: How to criticize self-mythologizing villains https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/28/descartes-was-an-optimist/#ordinary-mediocrity

#1yrago Your computer is tormented by a wicked god: Bootkits are why we can’t have nice things https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/28/descartes-was-an-optimist/#uh-oh

[l8in]

Cyngor Gwynedd council SACRE held a meeting on the 4th February. STANDING ADVISORY COUNCIL ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION The agenda pack can be found here - https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g5401/Public%20reports%20pack%2004th-Feb-2025%2015.30%20SACRE.pdf?T=10

The November meeting was attended by a Kiavdja Erzen, from the Jewish History Association of South Wales, who gave a presentation on the work of the JHASW.

Would Erzen have been treated differently if she had given her presentation in Welsh? Was this a silent protest against a young jewish educator in Wales for Israel's actions in Gaza? So what was the reason for the appalling behaviour from members...?

Cyngor Gwynedd held a planning committee meeting on the 3rd Februarty, 2025. An issue was raised with the minutes of the previous meeting not including all names of those who were in attendance... The agenda pack for the meeting can be found here -  https://democracy.gwynedd.llyw.cymru//documents/g5216/Public%20reports%20pack%2003rd-Feb-2025%2013.00%20Planning%20Committee.pdf?T=10

One retrospective application was refused contrary to the council's recommendation and yet again the long suffering planning officer had to coach members for a lawful reason for their refusal - presumably if it should go to appeal...

The last item on the agenda was an - Application to erect 16 dwellings with associated access, parking and landscaping on land by Talardd, Dinas, Caernarfon, LL54 7YN

Huw Rowlands, the local councillor opposed the application by the housing association ADRA. He was supported by other councillors whose main focus appeared to be the dilution of the Welsh language by english speakers despite evidence to the contrary. One critic of the scheme was slapped down by the chair for giving misleading information. The application was eventually passed by the committee...

The webcast of the meeting can be found here - https://gwynedd.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/953072

Something is very wrong within Gwynedd council...

[insidecroydon]

Labour suspends Jewish councillor for voting for peace

Our Lambeth correspondent, KEN INGTON, on the latest scandal that threatens to cause ructions at Brixton Town Hall Front page news: how the Workers’ Daily characterised the suspension of four Labour councillors. Entirely accurately Labour has again outraged its own members for a purge of four councillors in Lambeth who refused to vote against calls for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. One of…

[ultramaga]

"I feel physical nausea when I see other Jews cheering" Leftists have the emotional development of toddlers.

"dangerously racist" Against which race?

Because the Democrats adored him right up until he ran against Hillary.

"sexist" Against which sex? No, one of the two human sexes, not one of the ten billion that Leftists made up since last tuesday. It's funny that such a DANGEROUSLY RACIST AND SEXIST man doesn't seem to have a problem with women or people of other races. Maybe Leftists no longer know what those words mean. I mean, can they even define what a woman IS?

"most US Jews fear Trump be the end of the American experiment" According to you. You appointed YOURSELF as the speaker for all american jews. Holy fvck! What narcissicism!

"he continues his assault on democratic norms" By ... having transparent government? Allowing free speech? Releasing hidden files on the assassinations of key historical figures that were suppressed for half a century?

What sort of 'democracy' do Leftists desire?

"he's not a friend to the Jewish people" Huh.

I am looking for the people Leftists regard as "friends".

I do a little search on ... antisemitism uk council member

It's almost as if Leftism was an antisemitic and racist hate movement. Gosh, that is shocking news.

So let me get this straight. Leftists, as can easily be seen from tumblr for the last two years, are the friends of Hamas, an organisation that exists to commit a Jewish genocide.

Meanwhile, Trump, at the request of Jews, acts against Hamas. And that is why he is your enemy. Hmmmm!

I mean, I would say that you are a kapo, but at least they had some sort of excuse.

Did you know that there were anti-zionist Jews who were happy to sell out others?

What is the word for someone worse than a kapo, I wonder? A Żagiew agent, perhaps? Is that what we should call you?

I understand why many Israeli Jews welcome the re-election of Donald Trump. I do. I get it.

Perhaps if I was Israeli, I'd feel the same.

But I'm not Israeli, I'm an American and I feel physical nausea when I see other Jews cheering for a deeply, dangerously racist, sexist, demagogue who believes in nothing aside from narcissism and who is going to be a disaster for human/civil rights in the US.

While many Israeli Jews cheer, most US Jews fear Trump be the end of the American experiment as he continues his assault on democratic norms, liberal values, and the constitution.

I've believed most of my life that Jews are good at remembering the lessons of history, but Jewish cheers for Trump seem to reveal that belief as naive.

He may seem an ally to Israel at the moment, but he's not a friend to the Jewish people. He's not a friend to anyone, he's only a transaction partner for people he can use to enrich or glorify himself.

If it will increase his power or wealth, he'll sell out Israel at the drop of a hat.

[beardedmrbean]

A Toronto man has been charged with public incitement of hatred after police allege he held a "terrorist flag" during a demonstration last weekend.

Police say the 41-year-old man allegedly waved a flag of "an organization listed as a terrorist group by Public Safety Canada" while marching through the city's downtown on Sunday.

Speaking at a Toronto Police Services Board meeting Thursday, police Chief Myron Demkiw called the charge "unprecedented," noting the "very high threshold" to charge anyone with a hate propaganda offence.

"We're not putting up with this kind of hateful conduct," said Demkiw, at a news conference Thursday.

"This type of allegation points to an extremist, hateful perspective that we do not welcome in the city."

Police have not confirmed what the flag depicted or what group it was associated with. Speaking to the board, Demkiw said he would "not be complicit in providing a platform to both acknowledge or promote the hateful ideology."

The man is set to appear in court in Toronto on Feb. 23.

Antisemitic incidents make up 53% of reported hate crimes since Israel-Hamas war began: Toronto police

2 Toronto councillors say they want fire at Jewish-owned deli probed as possible act of terror

The chief said Toronto has seen more protests since the start of the Israel-Hamas war than any other city in Canada, and those demonstrations have escalated recently.

He also announced Thursday that demonstrations on the Avenue Road bridge over Highway 401 will now be prohibited as they pose a threat to public safety and have made many in the surrounding Jewish community feel intimidated.

Demkiw said people who ignore the ban can expect to be arrested "if necessary" and any activities that take place on the bridge will be investigated "with a criminal lens."

2 antisemitic hate crimes reported so far in 2024

Demkiw also provided the board with the latest details on the force's hate crime statistics, saying hate crime calls to Toronto police were down in December.

Demkiw said there were 10 reported hate crimes last month compared to 48 in November — a 48 per cent decrease. The shift is the first to come after the force raised alarm about the sustained spike in calls starting Oct. 7.

He called the recent figures "good news" but warned antisemitic incidents are still a major concern, representing a majority of all hate crimes in 2023. There were 132 total incidents reported compared to 65 in 2022.

This year, there have been two antisemitic hate crimes reported so far, one of which was a suspected arson attack against a Jewish-owned deli store in North York.

To date, the force also received 145 reports from people using the recently launched hate graffiti web form, police said.

"Let me be clear and unequivocal, our commitment to keeping our city's Jewish community safe is unwavering," Demkiw said.

"I will say this once again and as many times as necessary: violence and hate will not be tolerated."

It was the PFLP flag,

Demkiw and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met on Wednesday to discuss the recent and "alarming" increase in antisemitic incidents and what more can be done to keep Jewish Canadians safe. The meeting came after two Toronto councillors asked the federal government for help fighting antisemitism in Toronto.

"As partners, we'll continue to do what is necessary to tackle hatred in all its forms," Trudeau said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

From October to December, the force received an average of 190 hate-related calls, up from the average of 47 for all the months prior in 2023.

Demkiw notes the second highest increase were LGBTQ+ hate crimes, going up from 40 in 2022 to 66 reported in 2023 There was also 35 reported anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab hate crimes last year compared to 12 the year prior, marking it the third highest category.

Between Oct. 7, 2023 and Jan. 10, 2024, the force said its arrested 54 people, resulting in 117 charges related to hate crimes. The most common charges were mischief, assault and uttering threats.

[mariacallous]

Fascism begins with political violence on the streets. In 1922, Mussolini ordered his supporters to march on Rome and threaten to overthrow the democratic government.

In the early 1930s gangs of Nazis and communists fought for control of Berlin’s streets. In 1999, a mysterious bombing campaign, that killed dozens of people and destroyed apartment blocks in Moscow and Volgodonsk, allowed Vladimir Putin to take power by posing as a strongman, who could keep Russians safe.

The UK is experiencing its own version of fascistic violence.

As befits the modesty of this country we have a quintessentially British version of fascistic intimidation. Nothing too grand or showy is on display. Nevertheless, violence and the threat of violence is successfully perverting the course of democratic life.

In the chaos of yesterday’s attempt by Parliament to pass a motion on the war in Gaza it became clear that MPs were not frightened of the party leaders and whips but of Islamist terrorism and mobs at their homes and offices.

Paul Bristow the Conservative MP for Peterborough was clearly scared. He wanted to back a motion from the Scottish National Party, which was the most pro-Palestinian motion on offer.

But procedural infighting led to it being withdrawn.

It sounded as if he wanted to support the SNP motion because of a desire to divert men making rape and death threats.  

People had misrepresented his position, he said. ‘Someone suggested on social media that they would show my wife a real man. Someone else suggested that they would attack me and my family. Already today, Labour councillors in my patch are tweeting that I have not supported a ceasefire’

He wanted to vote for the Scottish National party motion on a ceasefire but could not. He asked the speaker, ‘Can you advise me how I can make my constituents clear of my views, given that I was not able to vote?’

There’s a saying knocking about in the Jewish community: ‘it starts with the Jews but it never ends with the Jews’.  It’s the modern version of Pastor Martin Niemöller’s refrain that ‘first they came for…’

 It ought to be possible in theory to deplore the brutality of the Israeli assault on Gaza without bringing anti-Jewish racism and violence to the UK.

But as the Jewish self-defence group the Community Security Trust pointed out there was an upsurge of antisemitic attacks within hours of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

They weren’t protests against the Israeli invasion of Gaza. It had not then begun. But a celebration of a pogrom.

Inevitably, the first UK politician to suffer was Mike Freer, the pro-Israel Conservative MP for the Jewish constituency of Finchley and Golders Green. He said he was resigning from politics at the next election because of ‘a constant string of incidents’ including death threats.  

He revealed that, before the Gaza conflict, Ali Harbi Ali, the Islamist who was to go on to murder the Southend West MP Sir David Amess in 2021, had tried to find him.

But if people thought hatred would be confined to Jews, they did not understand the reach of antisemitic conspiracy theory.

As I and other veterans of the wars on the Labour left can tell you, the concept of Jewishness is now unmoored from reality. It can’t be contained. Step away from left-wing orthodoxy and the gentile becomes a Jew and is denounced as a ‘Zionist’, even if they have never visited a synagogue in their life.

 Anyone can be Jewish these days, and anyone can be marked as a target of conspiratorially driven violence.

The reason why Labour broke with all precedent and forced the Speaker to allow its motion was that it was frightened for its politicians. If Labour MPs did not have a motion they could support, the left, the SNP, and political Islam could paint them as standing by and abstaining as the body counted mounted in Gaza.

There have been demonstrations outside the offices of the London Labour MPs Vicky Foxcroft and Rushanara Ali.

 On the Tory side, protestors targeted the home of Tobias Elwood while his children were in the house.

I don’t want to be melodramatic. Compared to fascist marches on Rome and bombs in Russian apartment blocks, the violence in the genteel UK is not much to look at.

But it is not nothing.

When the British public see the results of votes on Gaza, should they believe that their politicians are voting out of conviction or out of fear?

Lucy Powell, the Labour leader of the House of Commons, spoke in Parliament today of the ‘long shadow’ of violence being cast over political life.

 MPs do not like talking about it for fear of attracting attention to themselves and their families, she continued. They do not want to come across as whingers.

But they worry about the targeting of their homes, and believe the intimidation will get worse during the election campaign.

Lethal political violence is real. It comes not just from the Islamists who killed Sir David Amess but from the far right, which killed Jo Cox in 2016.

Yet until they turn lethal, the initial threats that so alarm politicians can seem trivial.

We have the right to protest. Demonstrating outside a politician’s home on a public highway is barely a crime: it is a breach of the peace if it is anything at all.  Meanwhile everyone in public life experiences foul abuse on social media.

But do not diminish it. A little fear goes a long way, and as Lucy Powell told the Commons, ‘Unfortunately, it is starting to affect people’s decisions and their behaviour’.

Unless the police and courts become considerably more authoritarian than they are today we will see two consequences.

Sensitive people will back out of politics. You might want to say that MPs should butch-up and grow a pair, but be careful what you wish for. Do we really want to be represented by a succession of preening tough guys (for most would be guys) who don’t care about the safety of their families or even have families?

The other consequence is perfectly obvious. It won’t just be Islamists and their allies who use the threat of violence. If the threats work, and they clearly do, for they persuaded the Speaker to tear up the rules yesterday, why should not others follow fascistic tactics?        

[katzish]

hate this artist he also painted this:

Giovanni Gasparro, The Martyrdom of St. Simon of Trento for Jewish Ritual Murder, 2O2O

On March 24th, 2O2O, Gasparro revealed this painting depicting the 1475 ritual murder of Simon of Trent. (March 24th was the feast day of St. Simon) This never happened. After the child’s body was found, the Jewish community of Trent was forced under torture to confess to kidnapping & murdering Simon to collect his blood. After the first trial (the Pope actually doubted & wanted to investigate but the Trentini were convinced of the Jews’ guilt & rushed court proceedings) 9 of Trent‘s Jewish men were sentenced to death at the wheel and stake. They were executed between 21 & 23 of June, 1475:

Old Moses- the oldest in the community, he was sentenced to death but had died in prison or taken his own life before he could be executed.

Samuel (Leader of the Jewish community): while all the Jews sentenced to death were transported by wagon to the execution grounds outside of the city, his flesh was torn out with glowing hot pincers en route (Po Chia Hsia 67), then burned at the stake.

'The citizen-councillors took pity on the prisoners and did not bind the Jews to wheels to have their limbs broken' (Po Chia Hsia 67-68). (How kind of them!) Vital, Meyer, Tobias, Engel, & Israel were also burned at the stake.

The last two men, both with the name Seligman, asked for baptism & the captain postponed their executions. On June 23, both Seligmans were baptized, then beheaded & burned post mortem.

In July, Pope Sixtus IV had the prince-bishop of Trent suspend the trial against the remaining Jews & sent a papal envoy to investigate the murder, who was then accused by the prince-bishop & Trentini of working w the Jews & accepting bribes from them.

The second phase of the trial took place from October 1475 to January 1476, and involved 6 more Jewish men, and several jewish women were interrogated in 1476:

Moses of Bamberg: found dead in his cell 3 days after his confession, unknown if a result of torture or suicide. 'The podesta sentenced his corpse to be dragged to the execution grounds outside to be burned post mortem’ (Hsia 91).

Lazarus & Issac were sent to the gallows on 13th January.

On 16th Jan, Joaff & Moses asked for baptism & recieved a less painful death by hanging.

Earlier in the trial, Israel the Painter asked for baptism & was converted, then accused of a plot to poison the prince-bishop, the podesta, & the captain. He was broken on the wheel & burned on 19th Jan.

The Jewish women (Süsslein, Gütlein, Anna, Sara, & Schönlein) were imprisoned through both trials, and tortured and interrogated in the second trial. They were separated from their children who were released from imprisonment in 1475. The trial was stopped April 1476 & 3 Jewish women & 1 man (Sara, Schönlein, Anna, & Salomon) were converted in Jan 1477, they were exorcised, baptized, & given gentile names which I will not write bc they do not deserve to be remembered by those names.

There is no record of the fate of these survivors or of their children. However, since Jews were considered serfs, the children could be baptized without parental consent.

Many accusations of blood libel, well poisoning, etc. came before & after this tragedy. They were often used to convert & remove the Jewish population of a city & seize their property. Compare Gasparro‘s painting from these 15th century works, this is what he is promoting:

If you want to learn more about what happened in 1475 i recommend this book, I’m heavily referencing it for this post. It references surviving manuscripts from the actual trial & is very informative. It gives a glimpse of the Trent Jewish community‘s perspective as well:

Trent 1475: Stories Of A Ritual Murder Trial by R. Po Chia Hsia

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vm0xm

Giovanni Gasparro

[speedyposts]

Chicago becomes latest US city to seek ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza

Chicago has become the latest city in the United States to call for a permanent ceasefire as Israel’s war on Gaza nears its four-month mark, placing more pressure on President Joe Biden before November’s election to help end the fighting.

After weeks of rowdy public meetings, councillors in the US’s third largest city on Wednesday narrowly approved the nonbinding resolution 24-23. The tie-breaking vote was cast by Mayor Brandon Johnson, who also had to temporarily clear the council chambers during the heated session.

.adtnl5-container { position: relative; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; /* Set your desired maximum width */ margin: auto; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 15px; /* Add border-radius for rounded corners */ } .adtnl5-image { width: 100%; height: auto; display: block; } .adtnl5-play-button { position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%); width: 120px; height: 120px; background-color: rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.6); /* Semi-transparent red */ border: none; border-radius: 50%; color: #fff; font-size: 36px; cursor: pointer; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; transition: background-color 0.3s ease; /* Smooth transition */ } .adtnl5-play-button:hover { background-color: rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.9); /* Darker red on hover */ } .adtnl5-title { position: absolute; bottom: 0; width: 100%; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7); color: white; text-align: center; padding: 10px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; /* Remove underlines from the link */ } .adtnl5-title:hover { text-decoration: underline; /* Add underline on hover */ } .adtnl5-marker { position: absolute; top: 10px; right: 10px; background-color: #ffcc00; /* Yellow background for the marker */ padding: 5px; border-radius: 5px; color: black; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; } @media (max-width: 767px) { /* Mobile responsiveness */ .adtnl5-play-button { width: 80px; height: 80px; font-size: 24px; } .adtnl5-title { font-size: 16px; } .adtnl5-marker { font-size: 11px; padding: 3px; } }

▶

Satya Nadella & Sam Altman: Dawn of the AI Wars | The Circuit with Emily Chang

Ads by BCI

The symbolic declaration includes a call for humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and the release of all captives held in the enclave.

“Do I believe that the words that we speak today, how we vote today influences directly international policy? I don’t. I don’t have those illusions,” said Alderman Daniel La Spata, one of the resolution’s sponsors. “But we vote with hope. We vote with solidarity. We vote to help people feel heard in a world of silence.”

The ordinance remained largely unchanged over the past few months despite urging from the council’s sole Jewish member, Alderwoman Debra Silverstein, who sought more support for Israel and criticism of Hamas.

“We all want an end to the bloodshed and an end to the war. But it is vital to understand what caused the conflict, and we should pass a resolution that addresses the issue responsibly,” she said during the meeting. “We should not pass a resolution unless it makes clear that Hamas cannot and should not attack again.”

Israeli attacks have devastated the Gaza Strip since Hamas fighters launched surprise attacks inside Israel on October 7 that killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials. Israel retaliated with a relentless air and ground offensive that has killed nearly 27,000 people, about 70 percent of them children, women and the elderly, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The US under both Democratic and Republican presidents has been giving Israel $3.8bn in military aid annually, ranging from fighter jets to powerful bombs. But in recent months, Israel’s relentless military campaign on Gaza has exposed deep divisions in the US amid growing anger over the Biden administration’s foreign policy.

The passing of the resolution means that Chicago has now followed cities such as Atlanta, Detroit and San Francisco to be calling for a ceasefire.

An analysis of city data by Reuters news agency this week showed that at least 48 US cities have adopted symbolic resolutions calling for a halt to Israel’s Gaza bombardment, with six others passing resolutions advocating more broadly for peace. At least 20 have passed resolutions condemning Hamas’s October 7 attacks.

Most of the ceasefire resolutions have passed in Democratic states like California, though at least 14 have passed in swing states like Michigan that could be decisive in Biden’s re-election bid, most likely against Republican former President Donald Trump.

Many of the ceasefire calls are modelled after Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush’s “Ceasefire Now” resolution, which also urges the release of captives and an increase of aid into Gaza.

At least nine of the ceasefire calls were in Michigan, where Arab Americans account for 5 percent of the vote and Biden’s 2020 margin of victory over Trump was less than 3 percent. An October poll showed Biden’s support among Arab Americans had plunged to 17 percent from 59 percent in 2020.

“Arab Americans will not vote for Joe Biden, no matter what. That’s it. They’re done with Biden,” Sam Baydoun, a Wayne County commissioner, told Al Jazeera this week.

“That’s the bottom line. Joe Biden is not going to be able to regain the trust of the Arab-American community,” he said, reflecting the frustration of many members of the Arab-American community over Biden’s unwavering support for Israel.

Douglas Wilson, a Democratic strategist in the swing state of North Carolina, said the war “is something that’s going to be on voters’ minds” in the upcoming election.

“It’s gonna be an issue here and in all the swing states because of the Muslim populations in these states, the Jewish populations in these states and the Black and brown population [in] these states,” Wilson told Reuters.

.adtnl5-container { position: relative; width: 100%; max-width: 600px; /* Set your desired maximum width */ margin: auto; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 15px; /* Add border-radius for rounded corners */ } .adtnl5-image { width: 100%; height: auto; display: block; } .adtnl5-play-button { position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%); width: 120px; height: 120px; background-color: rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.6); /* Semi-transparent red */ border: none; border-radius: 50%; color: #fff; font-size: 36px; cursor: pointer; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; transition: background-color 0.3s ease; /* Smooth transition */ } .adtnl5-play-button:hover { background-color: rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.9); /* Darker red on hover */ } .adtnl5-title { position: absolute; bottom: 0; width: 100%; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7); color: white; text-align: center; padding: 10px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; /* Remove underlines from the link */ } .adtnl5-title:hover { text-decoration: underline; /* Add underline on hover */ } .adtnl5-marker { position: absolute; top: 10px; right: 10px; background-color: #ffcc00; /* Yellow background for the marker */ padding: 5px; border-radius: 5px; color: black; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none; } @media (max-width: 767px) { /* Mobile responsiveness */ .adtnl5-play-button { width: 80px; height: 80px; font-size: 24px; } .adtnl5-title { font-size: 16px; } .adtnl5-marker { font-size: 11px; padding: 3px; } }

▶

Satya Nadella & Sam Altman: Dawn of the AI Wars | The Circuit with Emily Chang

Ads by BCI

[qudachuk]

Former Labour councillor Harriet Bradley has since apologised for the social media post.

[datkidwholovestacobell-blog]

My Virtual Escape 2 - Chapter 2

On April 1st, 1924, I began to serve my sentence of detention in the Fortress of Landsberg am Lech, following the verdict of the Munich People's Court of that time. After years of uninterrupted labour it was now possible for the first time to begin a work which many had asked for and which I myself felt would be profitable for the Movement. So I decided to devote two volumes to a description not only of the aims of our Movement but also of its development. There is more to be learned from this than from any purely doctrinaire treatise. This has also given me the opportunity of describing my own development in so far as such a description is necessary to the understanding of the first as well as the second volume and to destroy the legendary fabrications which the Jewish Press have circulated about me. In this work I turn not to strangers but to those followers of the Movement whose hearts belong to it and who wish to study it more profoundly. I know that fewer people are won over by the written word than by the spoken word and that every great movement on this earth owes its growth to great speakers and not to great writers. Nevertheless, in order to produce more equality and uniformity in the defence of any doctrine, its fundamental principles must be committed to writing. May these two volumes therefore serve as the building stones which I contribute to the joint work. The Fortress, Landsberg am Lech. At half-past twelve in the afternoon of November 9th, 1923, those whose names are given below fell in front of the FELDHERRNHALLE and in the forecourt of the former War Ministry in Munich for their loyal faith in the resurrection of their people: Alfarth, Felix, Merchant, born July 5th, 1901 Bauriedl, Andreas, Hatmaker, born May 4th, 1879 Casella, Theodor, Bank Official, born August 8th, 1900 Ehrlich, Wilhelm, Bank Official, born August 19th, 1894 Faust, Martin, Bank Official, born January 27th, 1901 Hechenberger, Anton, Locksmith, born September 28th, 1902 Koerner, Oskar, Merchant, born January 4th, 1875 Kuhn, Karl, Head Waiter, born July 25th, 1897 Laforce, Karl, Student of Engineering, born October 28th, 1904 Neubauer, Kurt, Waiter, born March 27th, 1899 Pape, Claus von, Merchant, born August 16th, 1904 Pfordten, Theodor von der, Councillor to the Superior Provincial Court, born May 14th, 1873 Rickmers, Johann, retired Cavalry Captain, born May 7th, 1881 Scheubner-Richter, Max Erwin von, Dr. of Engineering, born January 9th, 1884 Stransky, Lorenz Ritter von, Engineer, born March 14th, 1899 Wolf, Wilhelm, Merchant, born October 19th, 1898 So-called national officials refused to allow the dead heroes a common burial. So I dedicate the first volume of this work to them as a common memorial, that the memory of those martyrs may be a permanent source of light for the followers of our Movement. The Fortress, Landsberg a/L., October 16th, 1924 TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION In placing before the reader this unabridged translation of Adolf Hitler's book, MEIN KAMPF, I feel it my duty to call attention to certain historical facts which must be borne in mind if the reader would form a fair judgment of what is written in this extraordinary work. The first volume of MEIN KAMPF was written while the author was imprisoned in a Bavarian fortress. How did he get there and why?