#source: i am from nj

[dear-ao3]

okay but full offense here blueberry bagels are in fact horrible and an abomination and an insult to bagels everywhere

[angstics]

I’m kinda a new fan had some questions. Are any of the members religious? I saw Gerard say god spoke in his head or something (I hear alot of Christians say this)

Regarding that whole thing does he hallucinate? I don’t mean to be rude I’m just wondering if he’s kinda schizophrenic. I really don’t mean to be rude.

Were they on drugs during the creation of black parade? Did they do drugs during the creative process at all? (Sorry to be weird)

Did Gerard write comics before the band? Was he successful? Did he actually work at CNN? Did he want to join military after 9/11 (I’ve heard him say he wanted to join in a tweet) ? Is there any pic of his art portfolio during college?

Did Mikey go to college?

hi! these arent weird questions. you just want to know what everyone else knows. im gonna answer your questions as best as i can from my own recollection. anyone can add if im wrong or forgot something. disclaimer, of course, there's a lot the public doesnt know so ill just be regurgitating What Is Known, and where you might have gotten these ideas. below the cut ->

"Are any of the members religious?"

the ways grew up catholic. Gerard has talked about his relationship with religion a few times. Most substantially this twitlonger in 2013 (from this tweet). i dont know if we know his Current Status. i feel like he talked about it in this 2019 podcast maybe. he def talks about his and his wife's relationship to "witchcraft" in there. In the second nj 2022 show he referred to bury me in black as a song from back in the "catholic days". whatever that means

frank used to go to catholic school. i think he no longer identifies with catholicism. i dont think we know what ray or mikey practice.

"I saw Gerard say god spoke in his head or something (I hear alot of Christians say this)"

he probably did say that, i just cant remember when. what i do remember is that he often talked about "hearing voices" (2014) and "being touched by god" (2007), particularly relating it to joan of arc.

"Regarding that whole thing does he hallucinate? I don’t mean to be rude I’m just wondering if he’s kinda schizophrenic."

so, he's never talked about any specific mental illnesses. he's only ever talked about symptoms. on purpose! there's this infamous tweet of his, "Labels: my therapist and I don't use them. I am chemically imbalanced, so I take medication to help with that. In fact-" "I don't use labels for anything. Using labels only gives others the leverage needed to categorize you or use you as a political tool." (2016 1, 2)

he talked about depression & mania. he's talked about "hearing voices" around the break up period, 2013-15. some attribute the paramour mansion hauntings to mental illness. it's vague

"Were they on drugs during the creation of black parade? Did they do drugs during the creative process at all?"

frank and gerard talked about doing drugs during the recording of three cheers in 2003 (2011, good discussion "After our grandmother died..." on). gerard went sober second half of 2004 and the band has talked about being sober around him in support. so i dont think they did any drugs while making black parade (which was when they were touring 2005 & in 2006). i think they've even said they smoked a lot of cigs because they couldnt do drugs.

frank has talked about his drug dependence during the black parade tour 2007-08 ish. mikey went sober around the break up. i dont think ray did drugs (in the last source, ray said, "I had no idea any of that stuff [drug use] was going on [in 2003]. I was so naïve.")

drinking & weed & cigs not withstanding

"Did Gerard write comics before the band? Was he successful?"

afaik gerard only worked on three published comics before umbrella academy in 2007.

1993 (age 16): "On Raven's Wings" (writer, 2 issues)

1998 (21): DC's "The Big Book of the Weird Wild West" (pencils & inks, page in 1 issue)

2000 (23): "Foot Soldiers" (writer, back up story in 1 issue)

"Did he actually work at CNN?"

he interred for CN (cartoon network) & pitched a cartoon to them that wasnt accepted.

"Did he want to join military after 9/11 (I’ve heard him say he wanted to join in a tweet)?

just the one time, he talked about considering joining the military at 23, which wouldve been 2000 (2014). he never talked about joining the army after 9/11

"Is there any pic of his art portfolio during college?"

i dont think there's photos of his portfolio anywhere. but there are photos of his college artwork. collected here and here.

"Did Mikey go to college?"

he did for a short bit! dropped out. only gerard & ray have degrees. i dont have any sources for the following info so im just going to give you want i remember. I THINK: mikey went to college to meet people to get in a band, met frank there, dropped out before mcr started, and worked for eyeball records.

[thehaniverse]

HYBE vs Min Hee Jin - The Full Timeline

[Last updates: June 1st 2024]

Hi guys, Han here, and LORD, this has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but I hope this is helpful to all those who are trying to follow this mess in its entirety.

Important notes:

I've included the pre-audit timeline to help you understand the history and context of everything that's happened

I will be updating periodically with new information

I will try to keep entries to the point, and highlight the main points given by each side without adding too much of my own opinion - so make your own conclusions!

Credits to TMIKpop on Twitter for most of the translated news articles as I'm far too lazy, busy (and dyslexic) to read all those Korean articles myself.

I tried to include sources as much as possible in the more recent news, but honestly, I'm going to be a little lazy with this as I don't have enough free time to go back and find sources for things that happened way in the past or are already well-known up to this point. Feel free to send me sources in my ask box though!

Green text indicates the latest updates for those following!

Also for reference, here are the key involved characters (and name abbreviations that will be used throughout this post.)

Bang PD (Bang Shihyuk, HYBE Chairman & BigHit CEO)

PJW (Park Jiwon, HYBE CEO, ex-CEO of NEXON Games)

MHJ (Min Hee Jin, ADOR CEO, ex-SM employee)

VP L (Lee Sangwoo, VP of ADOR, ex-financial division at HYBE)

VP S (Shin ??, VP of ADOR)

NJs (NewJeans), LS (Le Sserafim), IL (ILLIT), GFRIEND & BTS

BHM (BigHit Music), SouMu (Source Music), BELIFT & ADOR

Items with * are accusations by either ADOR or HYBE, but that haven't been 100% verified as true or false. Things that have been verified won't have any *.

Similarly, (RUMORS) that seem to have some basis in reality based on existing evidence but have not been explicitly stated by either side are also included. Also disclaimer: I am not pro-HYBE nor pro-MHJ, I have my personal opinion but I've tried to keep this as impartial and unbiased as possible. I've just presented the news that has been released, if it tills one way, that's just how it is.

Without further ado(r LOL), let's begin!

2019~2021

MHJ joins BigHit Ent as Chief Branding Officer for all labels - this is in preparation for Bighit Ent becoming HYBE.

*Between then and 2021, MHJ suggests making a girl group to Bang PD, and they agree to make the group under SouMu rather than BHM. However, MHJ is never officially employed at SouMu.

*Bang PD promises that MHJ's group will be HYBE's first girl group.

All NJs members join SouMu (Minji joined in 2017 / Hani 2019 / Haerin & Danielle 2020 / Hyein 2021)

*NJs' debut is pushed back initially because of COVID, then again due to contract issues, resulting in LS being ready to debut first and PJW telling MHJ that NJs will no longer be the first gg from HYBE. MHJ claims the reason for NJs' debut delay is because they didn't like her creative vision though.

2021

Q1 (Exact Timing Unknown)

Bang PD starts developing LS with SouMu as he wants to create a group featuring known members, Chaewon and Sakura from Iz*one.

*NJs' debut is pushed back initially because of COVID, then again due to contract issues, resulting in LS being ready to debut first

PJW tells MHJ that NJs will no longer be the first gg from HYBE.

*MHJ is upset that another gg is being developed under Source and claims that it's because Bang PD didn't like the direction she was taking NJs and abandoned her to work on LS instead.

MHJ later agrees to the new debut schedule, with LS debuting just 2 months before NJs, and decides that is enough time for her to promote NJs.

Feb/Mar

HYBE is officially established as a company with Bang PD as CEO.

May

PJW is announced as the new CEO of HYBE.

Bang PD continues as CEO of only BGM but only the chairman of HYBE. This means he has no say in the daily operations of HYBE, but can make big decisions that go to the Board of Directors (BOD). Note: Each label under HYBE has its own individual CEO.

GFRIEND is officially disbanded without any notice from SouMu.

*MHJ is accused (by HYBE staff) of taking almost all of the SouMu staff to ADOR resulting in SouMu not having enough staff to manage GFRIEND and LS. SouMu also had a lot of debt from the training of NJs that they would no longer see a return on as the profits would go to ADOR so they needed to take dramatic measures. (RUMOR) SouMu had already sunk a lot of money into LS (and NJs) and expected LS to be more popular as they were debuting under HYBE, so they decided to terminate GFRIEND at the end of their contracts without warning.

November

ADOR is officially established so that MHJ can have full control over her group's image and development, rather than answering to SouMu CEO and Bang PD.

HYBE gives 16.1B won investment for the establishment of ADOR

Bang PD gives MHJ 2B won to buy 2.8B won worth of ADOR stocks (amounting to 20%, 2% of which she later shared out to her two VPS.) He also gave her 2.9B of HYBE stocks as part of her official recruitment package as CEO of ADOR at only 23% of the actual share value (aka she got a 77% discount). However, MHJ sold 1,000 shares in mid-Nov and another 1000 shares on 8 Dec 2022, earning 760M, and walked away with an additional 120M in cash just 15 days after her investment. // Source: Silsa Journal

2022

May

LS debuts from SouMu

*HYBE claims they shortened their promotional period in order to give MHJ enough time to promote NJs ahead of their debut, but MHJ shows Kakao messages of PJW specifying that NJs should not be promoted ahead of LS' debut so they can benefit from the speculation of them being MHJ's group.

LS' debut is overshadowed by the Garam scandal.

(RUMOR) While Garam was later found to be innocent and misrepresented in the media (ie she was protecting a friend from a bully, not actively bullying someone), many believe MHJ was the one who leaked the information to the press to jeopardize LS' debut. This comes from the statements from HYBE that they have evidence of her collecting and leaking artists' private information.

July

NJs debuts with ZERO pre-debut promotion, instead dropping an incredible amount of content for the debut promotions. Note: While MHJ claims HYBE tried to stop her promoting at all before their debut, she has not provided any evidence. It is the responsibility of each individual label to plan and execute their artist's promotions.

End of Year

Thanks to NJs' successful debut, ADOR has paid off a majority of their debt to HYBE, and now only owes 4B won.

2023

Dec // Source: Donga Ilbo

Bang PD lends MHJ money to buy cheap stock options (intentionally discounted by HYBE for her to buy) and MHJ uses the loan to buy a 20% stake in ADOR. This means she gets paid her shares on top of her 1M USD annual salary as CEO. Note: I couldn't confirm this, but it's believed she is the only CEO of any HYBE label that has stocks in her company. BHM is private so there are no stocks and it is owned completely by Bang PD, while the other labels' stocks are owned 100% by HYBE.

MHJ buys the shares on the following conditions: + If she decides to quit, HYBE is obliged to buy the stocks back and pay MHJ 13 times [ADOR's profit from the last 2 years x her % of shares] + She can quit from Nov 2024 and has a non-compete clause for 2 years where she must maintain a 4.5% stake in ADOR. Note: This means as a stakeholder she can not establish her own company or work for a company that will directly compete with ADOR for those 2 years, as she can not do work that can potentially devalue her shares. This is standard in many industries.

MHJ later shares 2% of her shares to executives of ADOR: VP S and VP L. Note: It is unclear if she sold them or gifted them.

Q4 (Exact Timing Unknown)

VP L leaves their position in HYBE's financial team and starts to work at ADOR under MHJ.

*HYBE accuses VP L of downloading a bunch of HYBE's private financial data that he should no longer have access to, and giving it to MHJ to later use to try and blackmail HYBE into selling their ADOR stocks with the investors she is colluding with. This would mean the majority of ADOR stocks would be controlled by people who support MHJ's decisions.

2024

Feb // Source: Donga Ilbo

MHJ tries to negotiate the terms of her contract with HYBE. She requests the following: + The 13x valuation of her shares be increased to 30x. Taking their value from approximately 100B won to 270B won. (This would be 5.5x the amount of profit she actually made with ADOR in 2023.) + The complete removal of the non-compete clause, allowing her to cash out all of her stocks and start/work for a competitor company immediately after leaving the company.

Additionally, she asks for the ability to make decisions regarding outside investors by herself as the CEO without HYBE's input.

HYBE rejects all of her requests because they would be complete financial losses and risks to HYBE. Negotiations stop as neither side will budge.

It is also around this time that HYBE gets the tips that MHJ is planning a management takeover with outside investors.

Mar

HYBE received a tip that MHJ is planning to try and make ADOR independent by gathering investors who support MHJ to buy up the majority of ADOR shares.

[23rd~29th] MHJ and VP L share messages about selling ADOR after 'emptying it like a shell', how to make ADOR independent, and how they should blackmail HYBE and ruin HYBE's reputation. *HYBE believes the 'empty shell' comment means terminating NJs' contracts with the majority shareholder power from the investors MHJ was meeting. Note: MHJ has confirmed the existence of these messages but insists they were just jokes between disgruntled employees. HYBE retorts that these plans are too specific and detailed, and they found additional evidence to prove they were more than just empty words.

[25th] ILLIT debuts with 'Magnetic'

April

[3rd] MHJ submits an internal complaint to HYBE and BELIFT that IL's concept is copyright infringement of NJs and that HYBE has the obligation to protect them. She requests they respond by April 23rd or 24th (not clear.)

MHJ also complains to the parents of NJs that HYBE is trying to sideline NJs with IL.

[22nd] HYBE and BELIFT submit a 6-page response to MHJ. Note: She later claims that she didn't receive any response, but HYBE provides proof that she received it, so she changed that they replied last minute so she couldn't prepare for the audit, but the response doesn't mention the audit because they are separate issues. However, MHJ believes the audit is all because of the IL situation.

HYBE carries out and publically announces the ADOR audit. This results in an 8% drop in HYBE stocks. (Whistleblower will be revealed later!) *They claim to find evidence of her plans, the illegally obtained company and artist information, and more.

[23rd] MHJ holds a 2.5 hour press conference in retaliation. *She doubles down that she believes this is all because of the complaint she filed and that HYBE (and particularly Bang PD) has hated her and NJs from the beginning. Conference Transcript Here:

[24th] This was also the deadline for which all company devices needed to be returned for the audit but MHJ refused to return her work laptop (and still hasn't as far as I know.) *MHJ claims the timing of the audit was intentional to jeopardize NJs' comeback, however, HYBE provided copied devices to all the employees. She has since not given any justification for not returning her laptop and NJs comeback is continuing as scheduled.

[26th] While HYBE initially stated they wouldn't respond on the day of the conference, they later released a full statement addressing the key points of MHJ's argument. HYBE's full response in English:

NJs's fans (Bunnies) sent trucks to HYBE requesting that MHJ stop using NJs and their parents to protect herself and that NJs stay within HYBE.

NJ's parents refuse to accept calls from HYBE but express their support through newspaper interviews.

Both NJs and BTS RM announce their comebacks set for May 24th. (HYBE's stocks recover thanks to this.) MHJ paints this as HYBE trying to crush NJs with their biggest group because NJs surpassed BTS - HYBE retorts that BHM picked the date first and advised her to change the date, but she insisted on having NJs' comeback on the same day.

[30th] HYBE calls an extraordinary general meeting with the BODs, but the ADOR executives and MHJ do not attend, meaning they have to file a legal suit requiring the MHJ, VP S and VP L to attend the ADOR BODs extraordinary general meeting on May 31st instead.

Other things of note that happened between the 22nd to 30th:

News reports broke that a petition for re-investigation regarding a 2017 allegation against BTS for Sagaeji was passed to the KFTC & Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism. Days later the organizations responded by clearing the charges and asking that all musicians be as honest and forthcoming as BTS. It was later discovered at the hearing that MHJ was behind this situation, and ordered her VPs to create a buzz around the issue to distract attention from her. // Sources: Link / Yonhap News

Similarly, following the accusation from HYBE that MHJ was talking to her 'shaman friend', a rumor broke that BTS were members of a cult that the chairman of their university (Cyber Global University) is rumored to be part of. The Chairman denied being part of a cult, and HYBE/BHM released statements denying the allegations too.

(RUMOR) "K-ARMYs" sent trucks and funeral wreaths to HYBE dissing the company and pleading allegiance only to BTS until May 7th. The following day, these were replaced by trucks from "Bunnies" showing support for MHJ - contradicting the prior trucks sent criticising her. The suspicious timing, the unusually fast fundraising, the contradictory message, the hiring of bodyguards to protect the wreaths, and other strange coincidences cast doubt on if any of these trucks are actually from fans. Many believe MHJ is funding these herself to paint the image that fans are on her side, or at least hate HYBE, justifying her own discontent with HYBE.

May // Source: Biz Chosun

[7th] MHJ files an injunction to Seoul District Court to block HYBE from using their 80% share of ADOR to vote her out (fire her.)

[10th] ADOR BOD agreed to HYBE's request to hold the extraordinary general meeting to discuss the dismissal of MHj (and the two VPs.)

*The same day, prior to the BOD announcement, MHJ's side said a styling team leader was subject to improper coercion during the audit. // Source: Lee Daily HYBE later retaliated explaining how the audit was conducted and that when the staff wanted to stop, they respected her wishes. Furthermore, HYBE said they found evidence of embezzlement and improper payment receipts for ADOR staff. // Source: Newsen ADOR denied that the payment methods were normal and legal, but definitely they are not. // Source: Newsis However, the staff did come forward to say she felt pressured and blackmailed with the embezzlement claims if she didn't comply with the audit. // Source: Ilgan Sports

[12th] An email from "NJs Parents" to HYBE is released to a newspaper, the contents of the email describing how Bang PD did not greet the girls in the elevator, and how they are their parents were upset by it. HYBE retorted that this was not true, and that the email was fabricated by VP L and MHJ and they had proof of this. // Source: YTN A parent of NJs later gave an interview with Ilgan Sports revealing the email was in fact written by MHJ, based on conversations she had with the parents. She also claimed PJW had said the girls would take a break for 1.5 years in order to find a Grammy worthy producer for NJs and that the parents were worried about their careers. // Source: Ilgan Sports HYBE denies any such statement and that they plan to continue NJs schedules as planned. //Source: Seoul Newspaper

[13th] YTN reports HYBE has selected a new CEO for ADOR to replace MHJ once she's voted out, and that they will reveal all of the results of the audit at the court hearing.

Controversy about NJs new song 'Bubble Gum' being plagiarised from a 1982 song called 'Easier Said Than Done' by British Rock Band ShakaTak. // Source: Biz Chosun

[14th] HYBE filed a complaint with the FSS due to insider trading carried out thanks to a tip from MHJ's side about the upcoming public scandal. Note: It's complicated and is about additional people not mentioned until now, so I will link the thread explaining it. It is relevant however, as it backs HYBE's claim that MHJ had planned to ruin their company image as part of her management takeover plan even before the audit. LINK

[17th] The hearing for MHJ's injunction takes place. Each side has 30 minutes to present their arguments and evidence. The below tweets summarize the main points.

HYBE's Side:

ADOR's Side:

Although MHJ requested her Kakao messages not to be shared publically (despite her already showing some), a reporter did recreate the messages. (He copied them word for word but recreated the image so it doesn't break the rules.) The messages show her hatred for women in general, particularly a female employee who was reported assaulted by one of the VPs. Messages Translation: LINK Message Source: LINK LINK

[17th] NJs members and their parents all submitted petitions to oppose the dismissal of MHJ and request that MHJ and NJs continue to stay under HYBE - these petitions were submitted before the hearing where MHJ's disparaging comments against NJs were revealed. // Source: Hankook Ilbo

A petition signed by 10,000 NJs' fans, and various petitions from ADOR staff members was also submitted to the court in favor of MHJ.

Various staff from HYBE (Pdogg (BTS producer), CEO Han Seongsoo (Pledis founder and producer of Seventeen), CEO So Seongjin (Source Music), Son Seongduk (BigHit performance director), Kim Seonghyun (BTS and Le Sserafim’s creative director), and Slow Rabbit (TXT producer)) filed petitions in favor of HYBE showing strong loyalty from various labels and artists. //Source: News 1

[17th] HYBE's Q1 results were released and showcased how NJs/ADOR is not as valuable an asset as MHJ is painting them out to be. This goes against MHJ's argument that HYBE is trying to crush her because NJs are getting 'too big'. LINK

[17th] The whistleblower who tipped HYBE off to make them do the audit is revealed. Long story short it was one of the associates of the investors MHJ had been trying to get to buy shares of ADOR who reached out to HYBE. MHJ has claimed during her conference she never met any investors and that HYBE should prove who they are. Now that they've been named, she's still deflecting because it was VP L who met with the investors rather than MHJ herself. // Source: LINK / Biz Chosun

[17th - yeah, a lot happened this day] MHJ accuses HYBE of trying to make her commit 'Albun Pushing', as well as complaining about the distribution deal with UMG - HYBE retaliates denying the allegations and provides evidence of MHJ doing the exact thing she accused them of, and also explains how the UMG benefits all artists and has already benefit NJs. // Source: LINK Note: This is NOT Sajaegi, but it is still a tactic to inflate sales. The difference is Sajaegi is the company buying the albums themselves, whereas this album pushing is forcing distributors to preorder more stock and then hold events (like fansigns) to help them sell out after.

[22nd] BELIFT also filed an official defamation suit against MHJ. // Source: Hangkook Finance // Note: In Korea, you can sued for defamation even if what you said is proven true if it is deemed not beneficial to the general public and detrimental to the person/entity who was defamed. If found guilty, this would be grounds for MHJ's injunction to be canceled.

[24th] This day is the deadline by which both sides can submit additional evidence before the courts make their decision on whether to pass MHJ's injunction (stopping HYBE from voting her out) or not. // Source: YNA

[24th~19th] Various text messages, supposedly from HYBE's legal argument are leaked to the public. They contain damning messages that show that MHJ was planning (in detail) the takeover of ADOR/NJs prior to the debut of ILLIT. As the messages are 'leaked' it is hard to prove their validity, but MHJ later states (on the 30th] that the messages were taken out of context (not that they were lies/edited.) // Source: KBS

KakaoTalk Message Translations are available here: PannKpop

[25th] PJW met with 3/5 NJs' mothers and guaranteed that they would be able to carry out their Tokyo Dome performance plans regardless of MHJ's status after the injunction - despite MHJ refusing to share the files/information related to the concert plans. // Source: Ilgan Sports

[30th] The court rules in favor of Min Hee Jin. They admit that while she did plan a management takeover and take action that could be harmful/disadvantageous to HYBE, she did not do anything that would be detrimental to ADOR which is her prime responsibility, and that the loss of MHJ to ADOR could be harmful. // Source: Hankook Ilbo

This injunction temporarily stops HYBE from firing MHJ unless they can prove she is bad for ADOR or that she has committed some sort of criminal offense against HYBE. // Source: Kyunghyang Newspaper

HYBE says they will respect the court's decision and act accordingly (likely file an appeal.) MHJ announces she will do a press conference the following day. She also claims that the dismissal of her two VPs will be against the court's decision, but technically they aren't covered by the injunction. // Source: Seoul Newspaper

[31st] The ADOR extraordinary general meeting takes place.

HYBE fires the two VPs who worked under MHJ and replace them with with three Hybe officers. Kim Joo-young, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Lee Jae-sang, Chief Strategy Office (CSO), and Lee Kyung-joon, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) were appointed at the EGM. //Note: The CHRO is a woman, which is interesting due to MHJ's disparaging comments about working with women according to the messages allegedly leaked by HYBE. // Source: Yeonhap News

This new BoD line-up for ADOR means MHJ is outnumbered 3:1 in any decision and is seen as a way for HYBE to keep her in check.

Note: I haven't included notes from MHJ's conference yet as I haven't watched it for myself yet! I also don't know what parts will be relevant to the main timeline later, so I will update again a bit later.

This is all the information so far, I've skipped some of the common knowledge things like the details of the IL plagiarism or cult accusations because I think they just muddle the whole timeline and are very inconsequential.

I will continue to update this page as things continue to happen. And I want to show out TMIKPOP from Twitter one more time as I wouldn't have been able to put this together without their tweets.

[curio-queries]

https://www.tumblr.com/curio-queries/763213581731921920/i-just-read-your-i-am-still-review-and-it-makes-me?source=share

I agree with this anon. As a big RM/NJ fan i'm hoping for a different style of docu, more mature, more artistic, more like a movie. Maybe just not made by BH? I watched JKs "I am still" in a rather quiet cinema in my small country (glad for that) and i have to admit i was happy i didn't pay more than 17 €. There was not much i hadn't seen yet, and half of it were the songs from his Golden gig in Seoul which i saw too. Thank God I love JK very much and he is a sight for sore eyes to see 😍

But it also gave me the impression he is "not there" yet. He (and BH i guess) want to portraite him as the new pop idol and he can be that ofcourse, but... imo he can be much more (if he wants to) He gave us many beautiful songs and GCF so he is way more artistic than this. They should use that, and just like anon i hope they will after MS.

I also agree that Jimin chose to take that road, more artistic, more pourring out of himself/what he went thru and kept that also in his docu. FACE still is top.

And well yeah the baggy clothes... a bit too much smt. Love to see them in those suits again 😍

Sorry, not much of a question, but I just wanted to share my thoughts.

Thank you for sending this in anon.... before y'all read the rest of my thoughts, I wanna warn you I went on a TANGENT. Not that I think this was the main point of your message but apparently I wanted to talk about it. Below the cut to save our feeds:

I don't think i necessarily agree on the idea that jk is not fully developed. I think he is just currently better as a team player focusing on his particular area of expertise. I've been wanting to do a deep-dive into this idea that everyone thinks all artists should also be successful solo acts and I just plain don't think that's true. Such thinking can diminish the absolute majesty that is different people coming together for one goal.

Jimin made a very brief comment during the infamous Festa dinner about not seeing himself as a solo artist but instead as a member of a team. And boy chapter 2. It's like ppl suddenly thought the goal was to prove that the members are only valuable if they're also successful solo artists. NOPE.

I don't think some of you realize just how difficult cohesive teamwork is. Let alone teamwork that's so incredibly artistic? And that's been largely fueled by members themselves. Yes, they definitely have had their external guideposts but there's still a good portion that's had to have been driven by their wants, needs, goals, and work ethic.

I've said it from the beginning but one of the things I'm most excited to see when they return as a complete team is how their dynamic is going to change now that some members have stepped into roles they previously bypassed. There's going to be a new status quo and I'm so interested to see how it all lands.

...well that was tangent, I'll stop there. Definitely not negatively directed at you anon, but thanks for getting the juices flowing!

[zoekeating]

Dear Listeners,

It’s winter break here in Vermont so my son and I have been out on the slopes every day. For many years I have stayed away from fast slidey sports because I was afraid of injuring my hands. If my hands don’t work, how do I make music? But among the many bits of advice I’ve gotten in my parenting journey, “be into what your kid is into” has been one of the best. My lad needed someone to ride the lifts with and I needed to overcome my fear and learn how to fall properly, so here I am.

I found that skiing is not all that different from rollerblading, which I learned to do in Central Park the summer of my junior year. I brought the skates with me on my year abroad in Florence. On weekends there was this amazing city to explore but buses and museums and cafes cost money. And whenever I roamed the quiet streets and parks alone, I would be perpetually harassed, groped and even flashed by pathetic men. But rollerblading was free and, bonus, I am already quite tall, so with skates I was at least 6ft2in. No one ever messed with me on skates. I adapted to the cobblestones and explored all of Florence with exhilarating freedom.

One Sunday, as I was enjoying the expanses of asphalt in Parco delle Cascine, I came upon a group of folks on old-school rollerskates. They had a boombox and were dancing, just like the skaters of Central Park but without the sequined hot pants. They waved me over and exclaimed over my weird skates. They invited me to join them and for the rest of the school year, I spent every Sunday afternoon I could with the rollerskaters. We would gather, dancing and skating around obstacles, and once we had critical mass, tear off along the Arno and into the old city. We’d skate past the David, circle the Piazza della Signoria multiple times and whizz down the marble collanade along the Piazza Republica, ending in a bar, still on skates, for an espresso or aperativo. Those are some of my best memories of my year in Florence.

I continued the skating when I moved to San Francisco, zooming most days through Golden Gate Park to the beach and back again. Sometimes I’d join a similar group of mad skaters on Friday nights to roll fearlessly down hills and through tunnels. Skating was always a great source of joy. But then I moved away from the paved environment of the city and I transitioned to music full time. After acquiring a broken finger from an Evil Door and being shocked at how much that tiny injury impacted my ability to play, I quit skating.

Fast forward to Vermont. Like many people did during the pandemic, I got back on skates except this time with padding, wrist guards and a helmet. And then, as my boy learned to snowboard, I learned to ski. We still ride the lifts together but now he zips down black diamond trails while I ski carefully down the easy ones. He is mystified as to how I can bear to do the same runs over and over but I like it that way. It’s like a meditation. I focus on perfecting my technique and try to make each turn better than the last. It feels similar to one of the things I enjoy about playing the cello, which is noticing tiny details and gradually polishing them. How can I improve this one phrase that I have played thousands of times? It never gets old or boring for me.

I hope it never gets boring for you either! Next week I’ll get back to work improving my old songs and figuring out to play some of my new ones in time for my concerts in March.

March 15 - ArtYard in Frenchtown,NJ

March 16 - Underground Arts in Philadelphia, PA opening up for my old friend The Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

March 17 - Le Poisson Rouge in NYC

March 21 - St John’s Cathedral at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN

And one more

April 6 - Unitarian Univeralist Church in Burlington VT, accompanied by mesmerizing visuals by Alex Reeves

also, outside my solo work on April 7 I’ll be a part of composer Randal Pierce’s ensemble, performing his live soundtrack to George Méliès’ silent cinematic masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon

6:30 and 8:30pm shows

More about all the events happening in Burlington around the eclipse

Thank you for listening and please wear a helmet when you are going fast.

celloly yours, Z

[outsidereveries]

old requests from curiouscat (28th july 2024—7th august 2024)

28th July 2024

can you do a reading on heeseung? like what’s the future for him? will he ever get the recognition he deserves? popularity? change in personality? i feel like he had loosened up a bit he used to be strict with himself so i am curious

the hanged man, the chariot, 10 of pentacles, the devil rx, 5 of swords rx, 5 of wands rx • queen of pentacles

he's still strict with himself. he might loose up at times because he's so dissapointed with belift that he doesn't want to think about it. he waits for the time for the fiasco to end, to be honest and only then (when it comes to his solo popularity) he might do something. he wants to occupy himself with work and it doesn't exactly work out in the way he expected so for him it's complicated what might come in the future. the other influence it doesn't work out might be because of the lack of solo gigs he has (he won't think about it IF HYBE LETS HIM TO HAVE SOLO GIGSS.. that is what i felt)

Park Jiwon resigned. how will be the future of HYBE?

9 of wands, king of swords, page of wands • 9 of pentacles

my guides told me to ask again after the ador - hybe fiasco ends. sorry ...

what made Ryu Hanbi being cut out from NewJeans’ lineup? will she be successful in the future?

1: 7 of pentacles rx, ace of cups, the hanged man • the emperor

if she really trained there, which i kiiiiiiinda doubt there was a girl with this name, then she wasn't talented enough.

2: 2 of cups, page of cups, the lovers • justice

obviously yes, is she actually married? it's no coincidence there are only emotional lovey-dovey cards..

is there any possibility seventeen’s upcoming tour will have stop/s in australia or new zealand?

australia | 10 of pentacles, 4 of pentalces rx (more likely yes)

new zealand | 10 of swords rx, the devil (more likely no)

it's more likely for them to perform in australia as of now.

how newjeans feel about the leaked messages?

2 of swords rx, the moon rx, 7 of cups • knight of cups

they have different thoughts and feelings about them. so far i sense min heejin showed nwjns the real messages and it seems to strengthen their bond even more (positively).

what will happen to le sserafim, newjeans, and i’ll-it after source music's legal battle is finished?

LS: knight of wands rx, 10 of wands, knight of swords rx

changing companies (to pledis from what i see). soumu seem to close down (again bc of unpaid debts and fines). the girls will become extremely competitive for any activities, and i literally mean ANY. (there might be greediness for them but i really hope i'm wrong)

NJ: 5 of cups rx, king of cups rx, the star, knight of pentacles

they might not be that affected, but their hiatus might be too long, to be really honest. they will want to release something for tokkis right away.

ILI: 7 of swords rx, the hermit rx, the sun

as i see that the lawsuit between ador and belift will be done sooner, i'll-it will be quite ignored. i'm not sure if they'll disband some time after or will completely focus on solo activities. it's uncertain to me.

 it is better for WINNER to leave or stay in YGE for their growth & expansion of the career?

8 of pentacles, ace of cups, 9 of cups rx • justice

it is indeed better for winner to depart from yge.

do you still see nwjns being changed into another label? i think you said it was pledis

the devil, knight of swords rx, 6 of pentacles • the chariot

you mean le sserafim? yeah, they'll go there.

note: no, newjeans will stay under ador, the subsidiary will still exist. the energy about soumu closing down is still there.

2ne1 has just joined back with YG after some years and is planning a comeback and concert. can you ask why they decided to make this decision after all yg did to them and how will their comeback go?

why they decided to go back: 3 of swords rx, knight of wands, the sun, the magician, 5 of pentacles rx • 6 of pentacles

with the bottom card which although is usually optimistic, i see it as a knife with 2 blades. i'm sorry for repeating myself but 2ne1's intentions aren't as clever as they seem, the girls want what it actually belongs to them as resigning with yge as a group is just a needed step. with the rest of the cards, 2ne1 want to continue as a group willingly and they really miss perfoming together. however, not in the circumstances yge are offering, so they actually have a plan. i will be interested to see how it goes.

comeback energy: 10 of pentacles rx, 9 of wands, queen of pentacles, 8 of pentacles, queen of cups • judgement

i don't sense the success but behind the scenes stuff. when they come back, both sides will make extremely big compromises. yge want similar vibe as "come back home", 2ne1 want similar vibe as "fire" and "i'm the best", and they're really united for it. behind the company's back i can see that cl and bom (especially them, i mean) will try to do anything to find anything bad about the company. they have the plan about it, so it's not like they're clueless. overall working 2 things at once. somehow.

30th July 2024

can you do a reading on how i’ll-it’s comeback will go? is it going to be successful?

8 of swords rx, 9 of pentacles, page of pentacles, the magician, queen of cups • 2 of cups

as i see i'll-it will compliment in one way or another enhypen's storyline (and distance from their debut era), it can be successful as of now, the group will make extreme switch and somehow find their sound with their next comeback. it won't be as their debut in the first days though but it will be good enough, i believe so. currently i'll-it might be more impactful outside of korea, though. currently i'm leaning towards yes but in a way it will be similar to enhypen's comebacks success-wise, i believe so.

can you read tws’s future are they going to have a successful career

success: 9 of wands, king of wands, 5 of swords rx, 7 of swords rx, 10 of wands • queen of pentacles

their success seem to be slow but steady. at first, tws will fight extremely hard to be relevant (in the present too, i mean). one of the boys will be very popular to the extent he'll have way more solo gigs than the rest. i think 17's seungkwan was in similar situation in the past, right? this seems to repeat with tws. whoever happens to be the king of wands, if he mentions tws in all times, only then tws can do something that can be close to what seventeen has achieved so far, otherwise i don't see how they'll make it currently.

is there any bad blood between youngseo and i’ll-it because of her decision to leave the group?

4 of pentacles rx, temperance, ace of wands • ace of swords

no, everything is fine between her and them. youngseo just don't want to communicate with them as of now, she feels better to not talk with them currently.

how does minju (i’ll-it) feels towards newjeans (the group)?

6 of swords, death, 7 of swords rx • the emperor

despite si hyuk's tries to influence how i'll-it should feel towards newjeans, it's not working, minji's neutral about them. she knows that they aren't at fault so she'd prefer to not feel anything towards the girls. it can change with the time but as of now minju has more challenges to not be influenced by hybe's chairman rather than the newjeans girls.

can you do a reading about izna’s future? will they be successful? when are they going to debut?

success: 10 of swords rx, 5 of cups rx, 7 of cups rx, page of swords • page of wands

eh, not so much. possibly as successful as kep1er. there's teddy's desire to manage izna (similar energy as what he wanted with baemon) but wakeone doesn't want him to do it.

debut timeframe?: 5 of wands rx, 5 of pentacles, judgement • the fool

between this late october and early february 2025 (scorpio to aquarius season). wakeone and teddy have conflict when they should debut, therefore what i saw before for the time of izna's debut is still uncertain but when everything is better for them to debut, they will. i also see that all sides (wakeone and teddy) are waiting for the perfect time for the girls to debut. since i read they'll debut in the second half of this year, then between late october and december, however this means that they won't be eligible for any nominations of roty this year, mama awards included, so if wakeone still cares about this specific award, then they should put their expectations aside. i feel this capricorn-aquarius season might be more suitable for izna, and even if they debut in the last days of this year, then it doesn't matter that much as wakeone can fullfil what they want.

how will LE SSERAFIM’s upcoming comeback go?

2 of cups, 5 of swords rx, 7 of swords rx, the emperor, 8 of pentacles rx • 10 of cups

sorry for seeing mainly behind the scenes stuff, but, well, le sserafim are working waaay harder than usual. so sungjin's involvement is very prominent here with the emperor, and le sserafim are coming to take their throne with the reversed 5 of swords. they're as united as usually are (2 of cups), yet their strategy they are and will always use isn't working and won't work (8 of pentacles rx). i'm not sure if they will receive even 1 win with their upcoming comeback, the reversed 7 of swords for the first time ever since i'm active here is very, very important in this reading. le sserafim or soumu will ignore some important warnings, or will do something dumb and they'll be caught that they did it. with what i see, i'm assuming that they worked so hard yet their vocals are still the same. i will be suprised if they do another thing that will trip them up. if i'm being harsh, i'm sorry, when it comes to ls' vocal abilities, i really tried to be as neutral as possible😓 forgive me

is mhj really a p3-censored word like people are saying?

9 of swords rx, 7 of pentacles, 2 of pentacles • 6 of cups

uh, i never expected to see this answer too, so. will try to explain as much as i can.

there was a scandal that happened 2 years ago where min heejin was criticised for the concept of her groups (she worked before under sme) and it includes newjeans as they were rookies. specifically for the posts that shows allegedly her room with these .. pictures, as shocking as it looks, is actually fabricated. i'm not actually sure if the room is really hers, and i'm also unsure if her instagram was hacked around her time. as the pictures i'm talking about are deleted (i checked her instagram), just search "min heejin room" if you don't have clue about it. the answer here to me is "no, the rumors are false", there was obvious mediaplay that was done with the time towards her. if you've read my previous readings here, there was ask related to how bts feel about the drama between hybe and ador and jin's answer was interesting as i saw that important people from hybe offered min heejin explicit offer/s and she refused, therefore if this scandal that happened back in 2022 is really edited.. then i might happen to be accurate.

why is there so much 9 of wands energy surrounding yge?

5 of cups rx, the world, the chariot rx • temperance

the issue is related to the success the company had in the past.. especially when they had blackpink completely seem to be the main keyword. the reversed chariot seem to be the raw energy of the 9 of wands as it shows that yge don't have any direction for the future. even though they have steps now, like preparing baemon's first full album, treasure's other steps, i think they'll have also comeback, eventually 2ne1's return, blackpink's group comeback and etc., behind the scenes is the sole problem. they make the steps, but there isn't anything in return, or if there's something, to them it's little to nothing.

with the time, i started to have the thought that yge is thrifty as f—, and after some point, when i asked bp's thoughts on yge (pros-cons reading), jisoo and lisa "agreed" with me, so i'm really starting to think about how much savings the company has and will it shrink down more than planned with the time.

i'm actually worried of them spending the last of the company's savings for proper promotion where they should've done for their past artists when they had to and when they don't have anything to save, they might go to extreme (for them) solutions: cutting percentage of their artists' salaries and this is especially alarming for babymonster because they're extremely money-oriented and if that doesn't help, then bankrupt is also possible. when it's the time, yge should hire other people where they have to help the managers with the time in one way or another and another people where they advise the company with what's more beneficial for their artists. at least that's my advice, though. i'm just not sure how long they'll survive.

1st August 2024

how txt’s next comeback will go? like what will be the concept and sound of the album?

concept: judgement, 8 of swords rx, 8 of cups

as their new chapter is starting here, txt seem to do more fatal concept. as i feel it alignes to the storyline more than anything else, txt might rely on dark-related concept. i am not sure if there will be anything, related to the past, or to the purple color, but as far as i can see and feel, i can only see more cruicial energy in the storyline, therefore the concept seem to be darker.

sound: 5 of swords rx, 9 of swords rx, the lovers

txt might rely on healing songs, so possible genres that will influence their next album (except the k-pop) can be soul, lo-fi, jazz. there might be a piano in one of their songs, or a guitar. i sense more sensible songs. with the lovers, txt might do a collaboration, possibly with another female.

how do i’ll-it feel about newjeans and viceversa?

ili towards nwjns: 6 of pentacles, 8 of swords rx, 10 of pentacles

well, there's nothing specific to see. i'll-it feel that the members of newjeans are kind, generous, hardworking and more important, free. they also feel that they're wealthy and can afford what they want. the feelings are strictly related to how hardworking are and how much they earn.

nwjns towards ili: 2 of pentacles, knight of wands, the sun rx

to newjeans i'll-it are victims towards the favoritism hybe are giving towards the newer group. newjeans pretty much feel that it's harder for them because they have no one to rely on in these specific circumstances and are pretty much ignored, so they have to work and work.. and work, which is even harsh up to this point. they really hope they aren't alone and will find a way to continue being an idol. on the other hand, the newjeans members also don't understand why they're treated in that way by the corporation. they compare their treatmeant with i'll-it's and it's sad for them to see that they're not appreciated in the way min heejin treats them and wonder when they'll be treated as good as i'll-it? or le sserafim?

2nd August 2024

what’s the problem SM seems to have towards NCT 127? like do they dislike the members or the group as a whole? are they just over them, gave up on them…?

apart from the renewing? or breaking? contracts

10 of pentacles, 7 of cups, wheel of fortune, the high priestess, 4 of cups rx • the hanged man

when it comes to any gigs, sm entertaiment don't want nct 127 to do x or y. whether they're individual or group ones, sme has the habit to not answer and ghost because they just don't want to. therefore, sme want to control nct (somehow)'s busyness and really don't listen to the boys. it feels like sme ... they don't hate them, they are obsessed over controlling their artists' freedom and jobs, so it's more like "they want nct to be slaves", pretty much. i'm not sure how sme likes them as i don't feel it, but they seem to use their tricks when they have to. when it comes to nct's contracts (127 included), sme don't want me to share anything, so yeah. that's what i can share.

can you do a Huening Kai’s current energies?

knight of wands, 8 of cups, 7 of swords rx • 8 of pentacles

he's currently well, he might prepare for (upcoming) cover. he tries to do the best he can. nothing else from what i see so far.

3rd August 2024

what will happen to yge in 2025/2026?

tower, high priestess, wheel of fortune, 7 of pentacles, hermit, death, 3 of cups

i'm still shocked, so.. will try to explain why my mouth is still open out of suprise

yge will slowly but surely reconstruct. the company will prepare to become a subsidiary to another one. i don't have enough information of how it will happen as i only see the outcome but it will happen out of nowhere. i sense the yang brothers not having a choice. so what i can sense first before this action:

- the amount of artists shinking even more (akmu, sechskies, winner might leave the company, possibly with their trademarks)

- 2ne1 might want to sue yge bc of the girls wanting their trademarks (i've sensed it for quite some time the girls want revenge on yge) but after some point, they might not do it at all and get them without going on court (and leave yge afterwards)

- yge selling their subsidiaries (all of them, shares includes)

therefore it explains why the founder is trying to come clean. after the acquisitation what can happen:

- blackpink officially disbanding (lisa doesn't even want to have anything in common with the group and the company, she uses the money yge haven't gave her as an ultimatum because she really doesn't want to do it)

- yang brothers retiring

the company they'll become a subsidiary is allegedly foreign, possibly from uae (dubai?). dubai is on my mind for some reason..

5th August 2024

how’s “going seventeen” will be doing while the members are away to enlist? is it still airing like usual? how the members’re feeling about it?

q1: 4 of cups rx, the empress, knight of cups

going seventeen seem to stop during that time. the knight of cups though is another variety show that will be created during that time.

q2, collective feelings: 5 of cups rx, the lovers, 4 of cups rx

how ironic, i feel the duty and the patriotic vibes (with good intentions!!!) with the lovers. basically they know it was going to happen sooner or later, they're neutral bc they have to serve, it's the law. (the foreign members feel the other members have to serve bc it's their law, the vibe is similar)

can you read on how will carlos sainz be with the new team, williams, for 2025 and 2026? will he be just okay or score points even podiums? thank u

25': 4 of pentacles rx, judgement, 6 of pentacles rx

he'll make a mistake, he should be careful. the mistake seem to reflect way more on 2026, so he might do it in the end of the next year. for the rest of it, i'd say he might do better until that time when he'll do the mistake in question.

26': 3 of pentacles, knight of cups rx, justice rx

the mistake though might be reflected on his emotional side. as i saw who's dating currently, she might be a gold digger and cheat on him (assuming his current girlfriend is from this year and his last relationship was long-term, i doubt the gir will be different one). his personal life seem to be a mess for 2026 because she might want money, or more attention, i'm unsure this time how it will happen as i have no clue but it can turn to very sour lawsuit, he might do races more rarely and therefore might have less points for his activity.

overall not as good as he might expect, he should focus on his personal life a bit more to see who's clever intentions and who hasn't.

i saw a reading where you said that mhj wants to stay at hybe as for now. is there any reason why? and her contract ends next year so i kinda want to know what her plan is bcus she herself said that the contract is a bit too much.

7 of cups, 9 of swords, 3 of wands, 5 of swords rx, 2 of pentacles rx • judgement

if the situation stays in similar way, or the same, or even worse, she'll feel that she lets newjeans survive only alone. even if a new boy group debuts in a few months (which is uncertain to me tbh despite the alleged rush from these new managers), min heejin really feels that she'll act egoistical if she let her trainees and artists under ador alone. if they suffer, she'd prefer to suffer with them (for them) to get through their hardships easier due to the ongoing situation. basically that's why. she can always leave if she wants to but she's not that type of person at all, she wants to endure her artists and trainees' pain and make them feel better. she's aware this is kind of toxic trait she has currently but realises that she has to make a change in the idol industry even if it's insignificant so she'd prefer to suffer with them and help them heal (and therefore getting their negative emotions and feelings).

7th August 2024

is there a chance for RIIZE to reach to popularity level like EXO, BTS? can you compare RIIZE with these seniors?

1 card for the three groups' peak times

RIIZE | the devil rx

EXO | knight of pentacles

BTS | 6 of cups rx

as riize's card has similar energy as bts' one, yes, riize can reach popularity that can be similar to both exo and bts. however, when it comes to exo, they have lowkey been popular because of the big3 privilege. if i have to compare riize with exo, briize will be more stable, maybe as stable as army and not as stable as exo-l's. riize's potential to be as relevant as bts exists but it's up to them to achieve their desires.

what would happen to chanel bc their creative director left and im pretty sure they would find a new one. so i kinda want to know if this new person will have a great designs for chanel bc the old one didnt really receives a good feedback..

10 of swords rx, 9 of pentacles, the high priestess • the tower

the new creative director will make completely different designs. i see that this will make chanel's relevance change for good, so overall yes? their designs seem to be liked in the future.

[fromtenthousandfeet]

i can get behind your backing of new jeans, but the way you defend min hee jin is funny because that woman is crazy. you hate hybe so much that you think she's absolved of any guilt.

Hi Anon. Thanks for your message. I usually delete these asks, but I decided to answer yours.

I have a few questions for you before I share my own opinions.

Why is she crazy? Can you be more specific? Please don't answer with "she's a pedo, witch, groomer." Do you have clear examples of her craziness? What is she guilty of?

Have you ever worked under or lived with a narcissist? Have you experienced narcissistic abuse? What do you know about the effects of narcissistic abuse?

Why is it important for me to view her as crazy?

Do my opinions about her, BSH, NewJeans, or any of the members of BTS matter? Why is it important for me to agree with ARMYs about her?

You think your assessment of MHJ is correct and I think my view of her is correct. Which one of us is right? What if we're both wrong?

Now for my response. I follow a bunch of blogger on this site who don't like MHJ and criticize her. When I read their comments, I make a choice to either shrug it off and accept that we don't all have to see eye to eye, or in some cases, I just stop following them. I have never sent an anonymous ask questioning their views of her. Like seriously, who cares? We are all entitled to our own opinions. Nothing I say on this platform has any importance or impact whatsoever.

Contrary to popular belief (apparently), I am not some MHJ super fan. I don't have an altar of her set up in my home. There are things I like about her, though.

I enjoy her taste in music. You can see her playlists on her IG account. I like that she sources songs from up and coming indie women songwriters like Erika de Casier and Benee. I like that her creative directors are a woman and an openly out gay man. That's basically unheard of in highly misogynistic and homophobic SK. I like that the members of NJ aren't emaciated. I like that they're dressed like teenagers/young adults instead of Lolitas meant to appeal to middle-aged men. I like that she wants to change the K-pop industry, because it desperately needs an overhaul.

As for Bang Si Hyuk. I don't hate him as much as he saddens me. It's hard to watch him piss away all the money BTS made over the years. And now he's pissing away their creative legacy with his weird obsession with Western validation. To be honest, watching BSH move is like watching a Greek tragedy. Maybe he started out as a hero (yeah, no), but along the way he became blinded by hubris, ego, and greed. Sadly, he has the potential to bring down many other with him if he falls and fails.

Finally, all I want is for the members of BTS to be free. I want them to make the music they want to make, together and/or solo. I want them to have the freedom to live normal lives, speak their minds, have relationships, and so on and so on. I REALLY want Jimin out of the company, because they have never treated him fairly or equally, and they never will as long as BSH is at the helm.

Keeping tabs on HYBE is a diversion for me and blogging about what's going on is a hobby. That's as far as I take it. For entertainment purposes, I'm really looking forward to season 2 of BSH vs. MHJ! Let the battle continue! The NJ girls are likely days away from terminating their contracts with HYBE. Now everyone - Tokkis and ARMYs alike - should be happy.

I shared this article about MHJ a few months ago. I'm not sure if anyone read it or not, but it's really good. The interview with her took place before all the drama began and it's so interesting to read her thoughts on the industry. For those of you who don't want to read it, here's what she said about BTS:

Some BTS fans want to compare how well one member’s album does over another member’s. BTS is a group that’s been around for 10 years now. They did their duty, basically. So I think it’s time to focus less on the stats and just enjoy their music—[let them] do what they want to do. 

What she said about working with Taehyung was really nice, too. Anyway, here's the article again. Basically, she and BSH are polar opposites when it comes to their approach to music and the industry. For the life of me, I can't get this article to embed. Sorry.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91113146/k-pops-leading-company-has-declared-war-on-itself-this-never-seen-interview-profiles-the-creative-legend-at-the-center-of-it

P.S. One last thing on this already too-long post. I believe the parallels between MHJ and Jimin are strong. They're both super creative and have high standards. They're also both at the center of BSH's ire for being successful without him. MHJ's so-called crazy outbursts and press conferences are in line with someone who is new to gaslighting and narcissistic abuse. She was also a full grown adult when it started. BTW, gaslighting DOES make you crazy. I know first hand. Jimin's response to the years of mistreatment - pulling away, keeping a low profile, operating in self-preservation mode - is also indicative of someone who has been on the receiving end for a long time and from an early age. That's my armchair psychiatrist's take on things.

[dearweirdme]

Have you seen the drama between hybe and the ceo of ador? Any thoughts?

I have two conspiracy theories currently. First, I wonder if she is the one behind the leak of JKs apartment video 🤔 mainly because it has been said that she and other executives allegedly leaked artists personal information and used it to create negative media play. JK was NJ biggest competition last year. If it wasn't for his short tracking time he would've beat NJ in the end of year award categories, and after reading Adors statement they clearly don't like competition since all of this is allegedly because the new girl group illit is copying NJ. I also wonder if she could've been behind all the issues layover faced last year, but I don't feel too strongly about this because of my theory #2

Theory #2. What if she has been planning to convince Tae to come with her once she buys out ador. She worked with him on layover, NJ seems to often promote his work, and they visited Tae at the military base recently too 🧐 I know Tae re-signed with bighit but seeing how many kpop idols have been leaving their companies lately to have someone else handle their solo careers makes me wonder if this could be the case for Tae.

Hi anon!

My my.. it really is a whole situation right! I’m quite curious to see how things play out. What it looks like to me is that maybe Min Hee-jin is morally right, but legally either wrong or failing. I can understand her (and the whole of Ador, since that’s what it looks like) wanting to leave Hybe. I can also understand Hybe not wanting that. Things like this are always way more complicated behind the scenes than we are made aware of though. Any statements made by both sides are carefully constructed and try to paint a picture that’s in their best interest. So I have no clue what’s the actual story right now, I fear Min Hee-Jin is going to pull the short end of the stick here.

Though I do think that footage of Jk was published to harm him, I am careful to point to an actual source. There’s many who would benefit from him getting bad publicity and there’s many who just want him to do badly without having a reason beyond personal hate. Is it possible this cane from Ador? Sure, do we have anything actually pointing to that.. no. Members have been working with New Jeans through TikTok vids, Min Hee-Jin worked closely with Tae.. so I’m not really suspecting it was her doing. Though the entertainment business in general is a shitty one and not much would surprise me.

I think Tae’s cooperation with her was partly due to the connection with Hybe and partly due to him liking her ideas. It’s possible he was/is interested in signing with them. I’m not sure how much room he has to sign with anyone other than BH though. Again, contract stuff is complicated and it’s often only in hindsight that we are able to make anything out of it.

[smuggonifico-lmao]

Another small educational post featuring the turtles!

This time we have a very popular headcanon that Mikey has really scuffed up his arms in canon and wears compression gloves to fight tremors. But I have a little big add-on to this one! Which is basically that Mikey has arthrosis.

(Ive put some links regarding compression gloves for the pain regarding arthrosis. But! Theres also articles for studies on compression gloves that help with tremors which honestly are more relevant here pfff. I just like comparing things a lot and the headcanon that Mikey has both tremors and arthrosis just cant leave my head. This is really getting a little bit full link wise, I apologize.)

I can imagine that he's dealing with this arthrosis, which is a degenerative disorder that affects the cartilage that protects the bones from rubbing against each other. This is very simplified and you can read more on it in one of the links ill put onto this post! Actually I'll add on a ton of links because this topic is just this vast! Although, theres some other things you can do.

So first, regarding the arthrosis itself.

Arthrosis can exist from a dull throb to a very painful sting which can change daily depending on many factors like strain put on the joints, weather, or just eating specific foods.

In this next image I will show you an exercise I have learned in my training as an occupational therapist that I can swear works. Ive been doing it for my friend and mother, both who suffer from arthrosis in their hands, and they both said that me doing it has helped with the pain in their joints immensely.

(ID in image descriptions)

Leo will (infodump about it) explain it for me!

Once again! I am still in training and my knowledge will never be perfect so if anyone needs to correct me on literally anything then please do so! Also english is not my first language and I basically have to search for english sources properly and compare them to my own stuff so there can always be mistakes.

Thank you for reading this!

[thekpopgossip]

HYBE and Min Hee Jin Round 3...

Things are getting really messy between HYBE and ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin, who is getting sued by her employer. She did a press conference today, playing the victim and showing her bruised ego (which seems to be the main cause of this whole fiasco). It was embarrassing to the point of me feeling bad for her lawyer, who tried to stop her from talking nonsense and hurling insults at everyone.

Apparanetley her trying to go independent and backstabbing HYBE, while simultaneously accusing all the sub-labels of copying her ideas, wasn't bad enough, we now know she really is dumb trusting shamans to advise her on business deals. She was crying during the press-con saying: “I feel like they all want me to die. If I suddenly die, will everyone be happy? That’s honestly what I think. I don’t read all the articles and comments. If I do, I can’t live. I wonder if anyone can handle this much distress in a short period of time.” She added, “I am also human, and it’s not confirmed that I’m guilty. I think I’m innocent.” Mind you, she caused all this mess herself and is now getting sued by HYBE who will likely destroy her.

To this point, HYBE is not innocent in this debacle either, they gave her a label, gave her 20 % company shares, gave her Source Music trainees, gave her free control over NewJeans and are now also acting like victims. Those guys enabled her behavior and are now surprised she would try to go independent. Min Hee Jin also addressed some HYBE accusations, like her saying BTS copied her ideas. “Everything that HYBE is saying is a lie. I’ve never said BTS copied me. I want to ask HYBE why they made everything like this and try to ruin me”. Because you tried to go against the company?

I believe that part though, HYBE is playing dirty games here trying to get every fandom to attack her, but again, she caused this herself, when she publicly stated that ILLIT was a copy of NewJeans (which is true, but you don't say that ish out loud).

She also said, she had nothing to do with Source Music disbanding G-Friend, which I also believe. That was a money decision, they wanted a new group that could become a million seller, so LE SSERAFIM was born, and since BTS was going on army hiatus, they needed new groups quick to fill the void. However, pedo Min Hee Jin wouldn't be herself without also mentioning that NJ Minji was the only Source Music trainee she liked (the others were too old), and that she was even prettier when she was younger. She makes it so easy to hate her. MHJ was also majorly pissed that LE SSERAFIM debuted before NewJeans, which became a huge issue internally in the company.

In the press-con she also repeatedly called herself the mother of NewJeans, and that she gave birth to the group. “NewJeans and I have something more than what you would know. They always tell me that they thank me and love me. Hanni told me that she’d come over to me. Haerin is usually like a cat and doesn’t speak a lot, but she called me and told me that she couldn’t come up with the words to text me. She said that she just wanted to hear my voice. Haerin cried for 20 whole minutes” Min bursts into tears. “She told me that she thanks me so much because I helped her through hard times. She said that she wants to tell everyone what happened. The members’ mothers are so worried that I’m going to kill myself. But why would I? I’m going to say everything that I have in my heart. Do you know what Park Ji-won said to the mothers? He said that he’s not going to talk to them, just to ADOR. And they say that they care about NewJeans? I don’t care whether they sue me for libel.” - She's so fucking creepy, as if she didn't make the girls sing "Cookie".

She also went full egomaniac, saying: “It’s not me that turned my back on HYBE, it’s HYBE that betrayed me. It used me to the fullest and now wants to take me down because I don’t listen to them. No one has done what I have done during the 30 years in K-pop. But HYBE is trying to kill someone who’s done what I have as the head of a subsidiary. I’m the only one in the history of the entertainment industry to have reached such results in 2 years, my only crime is being good at my own job.”

At this point, I just feel bad for the idols and staff caught in between all this. HYBE is greedy and wanted their own NewJeans and MHJ tried to backstab her own bosses - now things are falling apart. NJ has a comeback in May too, no idea how this will end for them and whether they will stay at HYBE or go with "mom" MHJ.

[jaywritesrps]

Everything I hear and see about Ashlyn makes it seem like she's not a great person. Like, she couldn't even tell her wife of however many years that she was divorcing her??? And she took off proud mom from her instagram bio when she left her wife? Sophia, girl, of all the women in the world...

It's because she isn't. I was starting to like her again when I saw Marta, the most lovable and carefree person in the woso world, ignoring Ashlyn's comments and posting pictures with Ali's in FIFA's the best. It was when I decided to use my journalist's skills to find out more about what was going on in the woso backstage.

The story I heard from some friends in woso world is far worse than what went to public. Like, no wonder nearly everyone in that universe don't want anything to do with her and I believe the story it's true cause I heard a lot of personal sources who are connected to six different teams and USSF, and especially the sources connected to the NWSL teams, they told pretty much the same story, some with more details than other, but overall it was the same story.

Since Ali told part of it, I can share some here. The thing is when they talked about their relationship in early 2023, Ali and Ash agreed to wait until the season was over to decide on what to do about their relationship. Ashlyn never said she wanted out, so to Ali's side, this meant as "let's figure our shit out", when to Ashlyn's side this meant "we are going to divorce".

My source from USSF said that there was rumors on Pride around Ashlyn infidelity since early 2021, so they think that might be one of the reasons they went to NY/NJ at the end of the season, while my source from Orlando said that never heard about those rumors, although some players and team crew took very personally their departure to Gotham FC, not to a point to see Ashlyn as ungrateful, but also not more as willing to defend her as they were before - and I will highlight that she said Ashlyn nominally, not them, they, the couple or Ashlyn and Ali.

Also my source connected to Gotham told me, that the whole story Ashlyn said in her statement of "we were together to keep contracts" and yada yada yada is BS to the public, cause they never really talked about the commercial part until september when the rumors around Ashlyn and Sophia started, cause it was when the Gotham Player's conscientiously ignored her in EA's Party. Even until then she never really communicated to her wife she wanted the divorce. It's why Ali really thought they were going to sit down and talk, cause how can you say you are married to a horrible person and schedule a couple trip to Mexico? (Remember that trip Ali made with Kyle at the end of the season? It supposed to be a family cruise, but she changed to a couple's retreat in July as a way for them to fix their marriage.)

It's why I strong believe that Ashlyn was leading Sophia and Ali on, it doesn't matter if it was intentional or not, but this is a big red flag for a person. Like one of my sources said that Ashlyn probably was trying to keep both relationships and choose the one who was more profitable to her at the end, I wasn't sold on this belief, but I am now after the restaurant's story from deux moi and how Sophia is working to clean Ashlyn's image to the public, even though most of her fans doesn't want anything to do with her. (Personal gossip here: A group of friend of mine are attending at SXSW cause Lucy Lawless was going to be there and Fallout panel and told me that a rumor running around is that they had an open spot and they pulled a panel about women's sport just to fit Ashlyn in and keep Sophia as their speaker, but no one really wanted it or care enough about it. They said they are going to attend on it today if they have nothing better to do.)

And Honestly, I am happy Sophia is happy, but ffs man, like if half of the stuff I heard is true, I really hope Sophia is helping her to growing up as person, because I still don't see this ending well to Sophia.

[samknitchester]

Update:

Photo ID for text readers under the cut.

A series of screen capped tweets by twitter user @ Sam As I Am, Create Alliances for Better and Prepare for Worse, dated 26 June 2023.

A friend who is a municipal arborist just called to tell me about a guy who cut down 32 big mature trees on his neighbor's NJ property to get a better view of NYC. He hired a guy who hired another guy. Cut them down and left the debris there. The fine per tree is $1000 so the guy propably thought he was going to just pay a $32k fine. But the arborist wrote violations to all 3 parties, 96 in all (by hand, took him 12 hours) and there's a provision requiring the replanting of like trees "of the same size." And it's on an inaccessible by road mountainside. He put the affronted landowner in touch with the only guy who would take on such a job. They have to build a road, remove the debris, plant big trees and water them for two years. He quoted $1.5 million. And additional fines total $400k. I hope whoever this ass is he can't pay and they lien and sell his property, the value of which he probably figured would be increased so much a $32k fine was worth it, to cover the cost. We are living in the Jaime Dimon ethos. "So fine us, we can afford it."

The PS to this is I was just given a zoom link to the 1st court hearing tomorrow. I'm not sure if it's just for trial participants or spectators can use it, but if they let me observe I'll add more. It doesn't appear to have been picked up by any news source yet.

[Reply from twitter user @ ParSpec, The Pumpkin Dipshit:

Apparently NOBODY ELSE IN THE QUOTE TWEETS RESPECTS TRADITION ENOUGH TO POST THE TREE LAW COMIC

Panel 1: A distressed child with their hands in their hair, standing next to a tree stump. "Oh no! The rare cherry tree Grandma brought with her from the old country! It's been chopped down!! And only a week after my new neighbor complained about it blocking his view, too!

Panel 2: "Tree law?" appears over a bush behind the child, now startled.

Panel 3: A person with a bald head, full beard, and a suitcase is leaning around a wooden fence. He asks, "Tree law?"

Panel 4: A second person's head (short hair, sunglasses, no visible suitcase) pops out of the bush. "TREE LAW?!"

Panel 5: A third person with a bob-length haircut and their own briefcase coming out from under the stump. Tree law!!

Panel 6 of 6: The child is wide-eyed and crowd-surfing four lawyers, with money raining over them all. The lawyers also have a pitchfork and a lit torch. (Lit as in aflame, not synonymous with a flashlight.) The lawyers are chanting, "TREE! LAW! TREE! LAW!"

End comic ID.]

[A series of tweets by twitter user @ Sam As I Am, dated 27 June 2023]

A bit overwhelmed I had to mute notices and will check early if zoom link is supposed to be public. Preliminary hearing is 1:30 EDT. May be very limited. I don't want to be disruptive but will be back with the answer. And likely it'll hit the news. And thanks for all the follows!

I confirmed with the court clerk that it's okay to share the zoom link with the public. I'm grateful for all the follows and will be sharing an easily available method of keeping homes and more cooler and lowering AC consumption which I've used for decades. 🙏

[Captioner note: I am removing the zoom link because the trial was weeks ago, this the link is no longer valid.]

If you were on the Zoom call you know a new attorney hadn't seen discovery and the judge indicated adjournment to a 7/18 in person prelim. As I feared zoom was overwhelmed but fortunately it wasn't a delaying factor other than being asked to leave so the prosecutor could log in.

[End ID.]

Art by u/reachling

[outskirtspress]

Review of Outskirts Press by author Jeffrey D. Barbieri, author of "SOURCE CODE: "

“I love being a part of the Outskirts Press family. I would not be an author without the help of Dana and the book publishing team. With nine books published and still going strong, I am happy to have Outskirts Press on my side. Thank you for the tremendous help in making my dreams come true.”  The award-winning NJ Male Author of the Year for his books “Let’s Find You,” and “FROG” from the Ben…

[nj-ayuk1]

How NJ Ayuk Turned Being a Lawyer Into Being a Social Engineer

While William Shakespeare may have joked that lawyers have fingers that “dream on fees,” NJ Ayuk sees his profession differently. He adheres to the belief that attorneys can — and should — be agents of change. 

As the founder of the international firm Centurion Law Group, Ayuk has worked in the major leagues of the legal profession for years. And he attributes his rise to his education, his upbringing, and his work ethic — and an idea that struck him early on. 

Ayuk believed a lawyer could be either “a social parasite … [or a] social engineer.” And he had no intention of being a parasite.

NJ Ayuk: ‘I Am an African Capitalist’

Like many recent law school graduates, NJ Ayuk launched his career in a burst of idealistic hope. After witnessing the poverty of his native Cameroon and studying at the foot of Dr. Ronald Waters, one of the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, Ayuk was primed for a life of righting societal wrongs and pushing countries in the right direction. 

Along the way, his views evolved. “I became a capitalist,” he said with a smile. “But I am an African capitalist, and I think an African capitalist is very different because we have to be able to combine a social sense and African sense and use our most given resources to empower our people.” He never abandoned his core beliefs, though. Instead of deciding to pursue money at the expense of his ideals, he found a way to do good while doing well. 

He’s the executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber, where he tirelessly advocates for bringing electricity to the more than 900 million Africans who currently lack access to clean cooking technologies. It also shines in his books. His latest, A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History with an Energy Mix, shares his prescription for how to move Africa toward renewable sources of energy while allowing the people to benefit from the continent’s rich reserves of fossil fuels. 

But it doesn’t end there. 

NJ Ayuk’s Long Shot

The clearest example of how NJ Ayuk has taken the profession that Charles Dickens called “an ass” and turned it into a fulcrum of societal change comes from how he operates the Centurion Law Group. 

After founding the firm, Ayuk and his partners found immediate success. They wanted to expand but realized there was a shortage of qualified young lawyers who could deliver new blood and ideas into their business. 

Instead of going to Europe and the U.S. to poach talent, they decided to take a different route to expanding the team. They wanted African lawyers with a different set of credentials, so they opted to invest their money into the next generation of lawyers. 

“We did the most difficult thing, which everybody thought was crazy,” NJ Ayuk recalled. “We had a big deal and won a great case and had earned a lot of money from it. We took that money and invested 80% of it in sending 25 young lawyers from Africa to the United States and Europe. We just felt if we are going to go for long term, we're going to have to pick these really smart and talented people and try it.”

It was the kind of long shot that was exceedingly rare. But it was a risk NJ Ayuk was willing to take. 

“I personally pushed for that because without education, I wouldn't be where I am, and I also thought, ‘These are really smart people. We need to be able to try this,’” he said. “Now, it was a gamble, but it paid off. We had a group of young talented people that came back, and they really drove the firm up, and we did different things, and we were all better off for it.”

Not only did Centurion’s investment in education help the firm, but it began to transform the landscape of the African legal system. Suddenly, there was a conduit from Africa through prestigious law schools across the globe, allowing students to dream bigger than ever before and setting the stage for some truly remarkable happenings. 

“We went from being a regular law firm to getting up to 180 lawyers and business advisers, and then decided to list into the stock exchange to get everybody be part of what we're building,” NJ Ayuk said. “I think that you have to take a bet, but you also have to have the strategy, and you have to really work hard at it. You have to just have that religious ethic of getting up and never giving up and really believing in people, and that's what worked for us.” 

[gpuzzle]

Granted I am not very informed on military history in general, but like.

I can tell.

Ok, snark aside, let's get into the weeds. One, Japan's position in the world come 1930. Yes, we're going back here, but there's a reason for it. One, this is pre-invasion of Manchuria, but post-Northern Expedition. I need to pull the exact details, but my recollection Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers is my main source here (that book is currently at my cousin's place in NJ, US; and I am in SP in Brazil). Japan's economy, by this point, is somewhere between France and Italy. This is pretty significant all things considered. It is, on the other hand, nearly half of Germany's economy, especially its industrial sector, same with the Soviet Union and the UK. Oh, and all of them are utterly dwarfed by the US, it's not even funny.

Economics in a state largely serve to feed the armed forces, because they are a drain on resources and the maintenance of the state itself. The other part is generally infrastructure, but: a soldier cannot clothe himself, cannot feed himself, cannot arm himself on a one-to-one basis, not in any modern military. You need to devote a section of your economic footprint have a surplus to maintain your military. Japan is basically eating all of that into the military. That is a problem, and a major one at that. Put another way, Japanese logistics are so bad that factories start cannibalizing one another before Pearl Harbor.

But then there's China. China is a problem. I don't mean China is a problem in a sense that it already is a problem and it's disrupting Japan's plans now. It's that China is an obvious, blatant, screeching avalanche that is currently a snowball. China is disproportionately more populous than Japan. It is already rapidly industrializing ever since the Chinese Civil War went from "First Day as a 20th Century Warlord" to "Bog Standard Communist Insurgency" in 1927 with the Northern Expedition and the establishment of a semi-cohesive country with Chiang Kai-Shek. The number of factories in China doubles from 1927 to 1932, with over 1300 factories built in six years. This is a country that everybody, and especially Japan, realizes - this is going to eat us alive.

Oh, and there's the Soviet Union, which is a) far more modernized, b) industrializing at a breakneck pace, and c) right on the border with Japan and they've already had nasty conflicts: Japan was the last foreign occupier to leave the USSR in the early 1920s. Oh, and Japan is fiercely anticommunist. So they're shitting their entire ass by this point.

How about the US and Britain, their two primary rivals? Well, there's this thing called the Washington Treaty. And that restricts the US and Britain to a 5:3 tonnage superiority vs Japan in capital ships, including carriers. Hence a Heavy Cruisers arms race, hence Japan developing the modern destroyer. And, more importantly... Couldn't militarize a lot of places. Such as Taiwan! When the London Treaty comes around, Japan is blatantly disregarding it, hence things like Yamato and Musashi. This is why Japan is getting away with a disproportionately impactful Navy. Everybody else is essentially fighting with a hand behind their back.

Here's a separate problem: there is now an ongoing power struggle for grand strategy between the Army and the Navy in Japan. Who gets to control foreign policy? The Army, which wants to invade China, conquer it, and then turn to face the Soviet Union? Or the Navy, which instead is seen as hampered by external treaties and instead has paranoia over the US and the UK? The Army, of course.

So Japan moves from "directly supplying warlords" to "let's just move in and try to disrupt China on land". The Army is basically acting rogue at this point. First with Manchuria, which is a bizarre campaign seizing an area the size of Western Europe and one of the most industrialized in China, and then the outright war into China in 1937.

Which is a separate problem because they can't knock out China at all. Partly through tactical failure (such as not finishing the encirclement at Xuzhou), and partly because trying to conquer China is... really fucking hard. It is a big, populous land, where the hinterland is the one that produces food. Japan was having to feed even more people, and it already couldn't feed its population. You've now got a genuine stalemate that the US is just twisting the screw by shutting off all sots of imports, most notably oil. Oil is absolutely vital for everything, but fuel is a very notable one. A fuel-powered force can operate free from the Tyranny of the Horse Equation (95% of your food and water goes to feed the horses carrying your supply). So this is a major problem. Japan has to fight a war against an enemy which has some degree of modern equipment but a ton of people and is massively struggling to conquer it. It is also cut off from the outside world.

Oh and their dust up against the Soviets go so wrong they sue for peace.

Fundamentally, Japan has already picked an unwinnable fight before Pearl Harbor.

To be clear I'm not the type of weeb who is nostalgic for Japanese imperialism, but I think it's probably the case that Japan would have been as shoo in for "world power to rival the US" in the postwar years if they simply had not attacked pearl harbor.

Granted I am not very informed on military history in general, but like.

Seems like prewar Japan had an exceptionally capable navy relative to its size and industrial base, and their original grand strategy of "build a defensive perimeter around maritime East Asia with naval and air supremacy, wait for the Euro-American powers to attack us there, and beat them" would totally have worked if they had given themselves more time to just build up their industrial capacity. Not to mention that (unbeknownst at the time) all the European empires were about to go to war and bankrupt themselves and fall apart.

Ultimately a big part of why Japan lost is that America could just outproduce them, which like... duh! Of course they could!

IIRC Japan's leadership knew they couldn't win a protracted war with the US at that time, but the fear of direct US aggression lead them to opt for a preemptive strike, hoping (obviously in vein) that they could beat the US quickly. This was, I think, dumb at the time, and is dumb in retrospect.

They also famously overestimated the importance of battleships relative to aircraft carriers, another blunder that probably could have been avoided by just not going to war right when they did and watching how the coming European war played out. World-historically bad move.

[stereax]

lindy ruff being gone was the good news you talked abt yesterday?

Yeaaaaah boiiiiiiiiiii!!!

Source said not to share tho (I think I'm clear given it happened), but that they heard from multiple people in and around the org that Ruff was done for after the LAK game. We were all cautiously optimistic - I mean, we heard Markstrom WAS coming to NJ but that trade fell through - but HOLY SHIT I AM A L I V E RIGHT NOW!