Needed A Sideblog

It's stupid conceptually, but do you know who proves it wrong?

Ukraine 🇺🇦

Since the turd got back in office aid to Ukraine has been slashed

And in the last few months Ukraine has made russia its bitch

Ukraine did not collapse as trump his cronies and putin bet it would, they adapted, they found new partners, relied on their own know how, embraced the fact that no US aid means less leverage and more freedom to strike russia as they please

Yet, the beautiful Josephine Baker continued to captivate the French capital.

Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906, she was an African American dancer and singer who had risen to stardom in Europe during the 1920s.  

To the Nazis, she appeared as little more than an entertaining celebrity, fixated on glamour, performances, and luxury.

This was a grave error on their part.

Baker deeply opposed the Nazis’ ideology of racial superiority, brutality, and discrimination, views shaped by her own experiences of racism in the United States.  

When France declared war on Germany in September 1939, she was recruited by the Deuxième Bureau, France’s military intelligence agency, as an “honourable correspondent”. She agreed without hesitation, driven by loyalty to the country that had embraced her.

As part of the French Resistance, Baker operated openly rather than in secrecy. She frequented high-society gatherings at embassies and salons, mingling with Italian diplomats, Japanese officials, and German officers.  

These figures spoke candidly in her presence, sharing details of military strategies, troop positions, and alliances.

Baker committed this intelligence to memory, then relayed it to her contacts.

Smuggling the information posed significant risks, with borders tightly controlled and luggage routinely inspected. However, her status as an international star allowed her to travel extensively with trunks of costumes and stacks of sheet music.  

She concealed sensitive data by writing it in invisible ink on her sheet music, which appeared innocuous to inspectors. 

Her fame often spared her thorough searches; border guards frequently requested autographs instead.  In this way, she transported crucial intelligence across Europe and into North Africa, where she also entertained Allied troops, sometimes performing atop military vehicles in the desert while clad in elegant attire. 

During the war, Baker suffered a severe illness, likely peritonitis, which hospitalised her in Casablanca from 1941 to 1942.  Even then, she persisted, using her recovery period to host Resistance meetings.

After the war’s conclusion in 1945, France recognised her contributions. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance, and General Charles de Gaulle named her a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, the nation’s highest civilian honour.  

Baker passed away on 12 April 1975, at the age of 68, following a cerebral haemorrhage.  Her funeral at L’Église de la Madeleine in Paris drew over 20,000 mourners, and she received full French military honours, including a 21-gun salute.   

She was the first American-born woman to be accorded such a tribute. 

Josephine Baker’s story illustrates a profound truth: underestimation can prove to be a formidable adversary’s undoing.

Anti-Israel rap trio Kneecap have brought a defamation suit against a Canadian indigenous leader after he signed a letter objecting to their planned performances at venues on ancestral lands in the country.

Harvey Yesno of the Eabametoong First Nation was a signatory to a statement posted by the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem, a pro-Israel group for indigenous communities globally.

Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin and JJ Ó Dochartaigh, known by their respective stage names as Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí, claim that the statement contained false and defamatory claims.

In particular, their suit centres on the allegation that it accused them of expressing support for the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups and condoning antisemitism, which they deny.

O hAnnaidh was previously charged in the UK with a terror offence after a video which appeared to show him displaying a Hezbollah flag at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, on November 21 2024, circulated online.

However, that case collapsed last September, with chief magistrate Paul Goldspring ruling the proceedings were “instituted unlawfully” as prosecutors had brought charges outside the required six-month time frame from the date of the alleged offence.

That ruling was later affirmed by the High Court, which rejected an appeal by the Crown Prosecution Service.

On Wednesday, an Irish court granted Kneecap’s legal counsel permission to serve notice of the suit on Yesno, in both Irish and English, in Ontario, Canada.

The group is suing for financial damages, claiming that the statement Yesno signed caused material damage to their reputation after it was widely picked up by media outlets.

Judge Cian Ferriter ruled that the group had an arguable case that they had been defamed in Ireland, allowing them to bring the suit in that jurisdiction, rather than in Canada.

He added that the three men’s reputations, as well as their identity with Irish language and culture, were “bound up” with Irish jurisdiction due to their citizenship and status as Irish public figures.

However, he did state that he was open to a prospective application from Yesno’s legal team to challenge the jurisdictional ruling.

Is there a place we can donate to support him against these terrorists?

it’s also not the only time they’ve done hezbollah propaganda.

the deniability fans try to give him is that he was “just reading” it, which isn’t necessarily showing support. which is true. I’ve read terrorist propaganda. doing so doesn’t make a person pro-terrorist.

But posing for a photo op and lifting the book to show the title isn’t “just reading”. it’s an intentionally crafted photo of an deliberately framed moment, that was intentionally disseminated to an audience; it wasn’t just reading, there was a decision at every step, and a message that was meant to be conveyed.

You are directly harming your own cause.

Refusing to acknowledge the existence of the State of Israel doesn’t materially change the reality that Israel is a sovereign nation with over ten million citizens. When leftists in the west chant “from the river to the sea” and “we don’t want no two states”, regardless of the intention, what do you think Israelis hear? What do you think a people that has faced genocide in living memory, from which our population still has not recovered, gets from that? We don’t hear it and consider your points, we hear it and remember all of the times Israel has been attacked with genocidal intent, and only survived through our own defense.

And what does this ultimately result it? It results in Israelis who no longer believe in the peace process. It results in Israelis who feel a visceral sense of fear which leads to doubling down on national security. It leads to diaspora Jews feeling unsafe in their communities and immigrating to Israel.

Chuck Schumer. Wants Susan Collins. A republican. To win a Senate seat that would almost certainly prevent him from re-becoming majority leader. That is his nefarious power hungry goal. To not get power.

One of the biggest excuses those developers have is “oh, well the noise it’s gonna make is only 60 decibels, which is the same sound as a normal human convo.” But like…animals can hear sounds and tones we can’t. I mean shit, I writhe in pain and vomit whenever I hear an “silent” rodent or dog bark deterrent.

So think of all those painful sounds that data center will be producing that most people can’t hear.

I actually just did a quick google and it turns out people are already suffering from “inaudible” noise and horrible vibrations from data centers.

This shit will do significant damage to the SSP breeding programs for wildlife conservation.

Because we are predators, and Geese are prey animals with hollow bones, no teeth, and no claws. What they do have are wings to make them look bigger and a fuck off attitude. That attitude works on most people apparently.

But it's still funny that people are scared of them, because like... They're just not that big.

And "serrated" break is a bit of an exaggeration. It's ridged, there are bumps along the sides but they're made for grinding water plant stems, not chewing meat or anything. They have a pretty good pinch pressure, but of all the birds I've been bitten by, geese aren't high on the list of a threat.

But humans, as predators, want to avoid being hurt *at all.* Because an injury means not being able to hunt and not being able to hunt means potentially starving to death.

The best way to not get hurt by geese is to leave them alone and respect that they're living things that don't want to be messed with.

You are 100% right, I have never been chased by a goose, not once in 41 years, because I wouldn't run from a fucking goose, and it cannot chase you if you don't run.

Geese are literally just animals. Here is me with one of my friend's geese many years ago.

They are not evil, they are not mean, they are not out to get you. They are animals. They are prey animals. They are defensive of their territory, their nests (because how would you like it if a giant invaded your nursery to look at your sleeping baby?? would you be super nice about it?? Would you gracefully and peacefully handle just Some Guy you don't know coming into your nursery against your will to look at and pick up your screaming kid?? like it's not even unreasonable behavior, people are just mad because it's an animal and they have weird beliefs about animals all having to allow human interaction), and their mates.

but they are literally just animals.

I would never be chased by a goose, because I don't run, but also because I leave them alone. And the few times I have had to interact, I was polite and they responded in kind.

A mated pair with 8 goslings in the narrow road I needed get down? PRIME candidates for being the "mean goose" everyone claims exists.

Yet, they moved politely out of the road when I got out and shooed them to the side, and they brought their muppet kids over to say hello when I greeted them properly. I gave them a few goose-safe treats and went on my way. No chasing, no attacking, no biting. One of the parents hissed a few times, but still bowed back when I bowed first.

I saw a lone goose in an Aldi parking lot earlier this year, and I brought over a cup of water and set it down, then backed away. It kept its distance while I was setting the cup down, but waddled right over to drink once I backed off. Didn't hiss once. Didn't chase me. Didn't try to get me.

Like, it's literally so easy to not be hurt by geese. I'm not talking out my ass; I've interacted with or been near so many geese and I've NEVER seen an actually aggressive one- only geese being harassed by humans into a provoked reaction.

I'm sorry to the people who got chased by one as a four year old or whatever and never recovered, but that's a you and/or your parents problem for bothering or allowing you to bother wild animals. Calling geese evil and nasty and mean because your parents allowed you to act inappropriately around animals as a toddler is an anthropomorphization that continues a cycle of wildlife harassment, because people feel justified in harassing "bad" animals.

And acting like I (or others) only think geese are not mean because I've never been chased by one is an excellent example of having fallen for their defensive mechanisms, as well as an excellent example of the attitude people have about geese that leads to people harassing and consequently getting attacked by geese.

For anyone wondering, I'm mainly referring to interactions between cats and big predatory animals for the most part. Although I suppose it can happen with people too, some people are scared of cats as well after all.

There are many videos of cats swating dogs twice their size, cows and even bears! With many of said animals choosing to back off. Perhaps it's the fact they tend to lack a prey response in those footages.

(this comes from an actual video of a cat chasing off a bear)

The house cat can't kill a bear, but the bear doesn't have the luxury of testing that.

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Well the vet failed to catch the goose with a blanket and she flew towards me and I caught her like a giant football and she got a wing loose and the elbow joint of a goose is strong as hell, she busted my lip open and broke my glasses

Anyway we had to treat her wounds and tube feed her medication to keep her comfortable and she’d bite and pinch the fuck out of us.

One day post medicating when I ate lunch in the exam room we kept her in I was putting notes in her file and she calmly sauntered over to see what I was eating. It was a Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich. I broke a piece off to toss to her as a peace offering since she hated the food the vet was giving her, and I felt bad about it.

Well she LOVED IT. A LOT. So much that she willingly sat in my lap and let me medicate her with the promise of another bite the next day. She stopped fighting me completely. However she continued to kick everyone else’s ass lmao

Very much did in the sense that I literally do not know where my job is at the moment. But, for the time being I haven't been let go because nobody else including the store owner knows where it is either.

So, I don't wanna risk doxxing myself by posting pictures but goddamn am I tempted because this is not a believable event. This is a cartoon problem. For looneytoons.

But yeah, so, I work(ed?) at a kiosk selling boba tea, right? Freestanding kiosk in the mall with full water and electrical hookups and multiple fridges and sinks and a mini kitchen and the works. Fully functional tea shop. Very important to note that it was there last night, The work chat was discussing another issue last night at closing time. I'll get back to this.

It's been showing signs of being on the way out with how business is being handled lately and I've been considering other options, which is probably why I'm not as torn up about this as I should be, but maybe it just hasn't set in yet, but that's not the point. The point is there's been a lot of shit breaking and not being replaced and nobody mentioning anything about it until I walk into work in the morning and have to figure out why shit like the fucking cash register isn't there today. So I'm kinda used to having to ask questions about big things that nobody bothered to update me on. I was out for two weeks recovering from a surgery, so I came to work this morning assuming there'd be some kind of bullshit, yeah?

So, the question I had to ask the chat this morning was:

Not a text I ever thought I'd have to send in sincerity, but there it is. Because what I found instead was a fenced off patch of discolored tiles and a few holes in the floor where my entire place of employment used to be.

And the answer? Nobody knows! It was there last night when the mall closed, and every single trace of the structure and all its contents including drink making supplies and our safe and cashbox was gone when it opened again. And when I say nobody knows, I mean everyone from last night's closers to the actual (former?) owner of the store jad no fucking clue about this until getting that text from me this morning. For once I am actually the first to know. 🎉.

So. I guess I didn't so much lose my job as had it stolen. Not by AI, but good old fashioned hands-on human beings picking it up and carrying it away somehow. All mall security would tell me was that they were instructed not to tell me anything and have us contact our management. Who also don't know anything. And later on I came across some construction workers around the gravesite of the kiosk discussing filling in the holes, asked them about it, and was told that they "weren't at liberty to say".

So, not only is my job gone in the most literal physical sense of the word, but it was taken in some kind of super secret kiosk extraction in the dead of night without any warning or witnesses and nobody is allowed to speak of it. The store owner said she was gonna figure it out 10 hours ago and still no word back.

My mother in law thinks the FBI took it.

Not any of the other stores around the state. Just the one little kiosk.

Why? Because she loves a conspiracy and is just a little bit extra.

Also because she was around for the massive crackdown on Yakuza-owned businesses in Waikiki (in her homestate) that did actually involve the FBI seizing stores (no confirmation of making kiosks cleanly disappear in the middle of the night though).

Still no word from my job on what's actually going on, but the most likely theory so far is that maybe the kiosk was on lease and got repossessed? The mystery continues

According to the owner, based on what she's been able to find out, the kiosk was not removed legally and they're starting a potentially long process of legal action. I hope she gets to sue the shit out of whoever did it but for now at least I know for sure I'm unemployed.

Really hoping for more details in terms of who/why/how, so I'll keep updating if I learn anything.

For now the summary is: An unnamed entity that is most likely mall management (on account of mall security cooperating with them) stole an entire kiosk and all the contents including money and machinery with barely a trace in the middle of the night grinch-style, with zero warning or explanation, and ensured the silence of both security and the construction crew, in an action that was definitely preplanned and illegal, and as far as I know nobody knows its whereabouts.

Enjoy the unintentionally funniest text I've ever sent in my life

Aaand a close-up:

HEY HI HELLO THIS ONE'S MY FAVORITE

the holocaust was unique because of how industrialized and effective it was. it was unique because the nazis made murder factories and they were good at it. i've seen many historical analysis videos titled "what if hitler won?" but to jews, he won the holocaust; he killed six million of us and wiped out a third of the worldwide jewish population. he achieved his goal.

furthermore, jews being thought of as white is an incredibly modern phenomenon, and the holocaust wouldn't have been nearly as effective without centuries of european antisemitism backing it.

which is why i want to strangle everyone who goes out of their way to try and universalize the holocaust. yes, the nazis also murdered non-jews, but absolutely no one was targeted on the same scale as jews were. the final solution was about jews and roma, and even so the roma death toll isn't anywhere near the jewish one. the holocaust was about jews and wouldn't have been the holocaust if it wasn't.

you can compare aspects of the trump administration to the third reich where characteristics of facism overlap, fine, but this is not "literally nazi germany." the actions of ice and the conditions of their detention centers are horrific, but they're not the fucking holocaust. quit saying "right now you're doing whatever you wondered you would have done in nazi germany" if you've spent more time parroting anne frank quotes than acknowledging the rampant rise of antisemitism since 10/7/23. until the trump administration is forbidding jews from engaging with society and sending them to death factories, it's not the fucking holocaust.

Many Jews, including survivors, fought against the term; it felt sacrificial. It was only in the late 1980s and 1990s that "Holocaust" remembrance itself became a "thing." Schindler's List was, at the time, revolutionary; yet people treat this all now as if it had been forced upon them. Now, with this history we do not remember and/or malign, we march around the world and say, "Oh, this is like the Holocaust." Were children hunted down across a continent? Were people injected with disease? Were limbs amputated to watch them heal? Were they packed into "sardines" to be executed—generations upon generations removed from this earth? When one method of mass murder--shooting--proved insufficient for the scale of murder desired--were more "efficient" mechanisms adopted? Are the names of millions still missing because literally no one was left to remember they ever existed at all? I do not think we remember well now. I do not think we have ever remembered well at all. Because I do not think we have ever really understood what happened there, in Europe, to Jews. It is a very sad thing, I believe, if we turn back time so far that we bring ourselves to 1945, when the rest of Europe said to the Jews who survived: "I hate your survival. I hate your suffering, too." We should do better, for the sake of history, if nothing else.

It is important to consider the culture of the person who created the piece, absolutely; but the different perspectives offered by the viewers is fascinating in and of itself and does not always detract from the message.

As an example, when I was younger, I watched Schindler's List. This movie is famously shot in black and white except for one section, concerning a little girl in a red coat. The camera follows her until her eventual death.

I am Turtle Island Indigenous and I was always taught that the only color spirits could see was red, because it is the color of life and blood.

So the second the girl in the red jacket came on screen, something inside me chilled with fear.

The only color in the movie was that red. At some point, I, the viewer, had died.

I remember sobbing at the sight of the burning human piles that were shown, convinced I was buried in there somewhere. The reason I had only seen red on the girl was that my death was recent. I was the ash in the air mistaken for snow. I had died before her and had followed her, helplessly, until she followed me.

The message I got for that was maybe not what the creator had intended: that there was no "being clever enough" or "good enough" or "kind enough" that would shield or protect you from such a massive tidal wave of evil.

You are not exempt from tragedy, that red jacket whispered. You are not special.

When I told some of my white friends about my experience with viewing Schindler's List, some were shocked and the rest just out-and-out mocked me for my "media illiteracy".

"it was just a filming trick to make you feel something," I remember one saying, which terrified me. How had he not felt anything even before she showed up?

To be clear, I’m not here to scold @sound-the-horn because how dare they read their culture into a Jewish movie, blah blah blah. It’s more about the reaction they got? Because I have a sinking feeling that if I did the same thing, there’s not an insignificant chance that I would get shut down, too. I am Jewish, and in this hypothetical situation, I would be discussing a Jewish film made by a Jewish film about the Jewish genocide, and I still think there’s a good chance I might get dismissed. I’ve seen the Jewish elements in works by Jewish creators ignore, dismissed, or deliberately ripped out too often to not have doubts.

idk what I’m trying to say here. there’s a discomfort with interpretations outside the cultural mainstream I guess? like, it doesn’t matter whether you’re reading or writing your minority culture into a piece of work, there’s not an insignificant chance that it’ll get sanded away if that work gets popular. does that make any sense?

On a more personal note, @sound-the-horn reading your interpretation reminded me of these two bits from Night and Maus respectively:

Mickey Katz : What Gross did with pictures, he did with music. SUPER corny by modern standards but his audience ate it up-representation matters!

Ernie Kovacs: Hungarian-Jewish comedian who went on to write for MAD magazine, a bastion of Jewish humor.

Harvey Moiseyevich Volodarskii: A Russo-Jewish magician character you fight in the Japanese game No More Heroes. Many famous magicians were Jewish, including Harry Houdini (Volodarskii is based off him) and David Copperfield.

I've never really liked or cared for superheroes, but my dad did and probably would've had some things to say about their Jewish origins.

Exactly. This.

In Judaism red is the color of protection specifically from the evil eye. It is why people tie a red string around their wrist. Some people even will get like a gold chain bracelet with a red string in it so the red string can be permanent and not break. At the Kotel our Holiest site that we can access freely with out harassment and danger people give out red strings.

Often in observant Jewish families babies will have something red with at all times. Some people even put red socks or shoes on a child who is starting to learn to walk.

So to me I always saw it from the perspective of how great this evil was that not even this could protect her.

What you said spoke to me on such deep soul like level. Because even though how cultures view red is different we both took the color red and understood the red in the context of how great the evil is.

That is something I don't think someone could understand in this sort of way if they are bring their whole identity with them.

I refuse to believe that we dressed that ugly.

You expect to believe that there was no color, no bead work, no embroidery? Just the most blah and bland item ever.

We have the clothing for Kohanim and Kohan Gadol described in the Torah and it is so beautiful.

Sure regular people aren't going to dressed like that, but seriously I'm expected to buy that no didn't interesting patterns with their weaving.

That no dyed their yarn? That everyone worn shades of brown and tan and white and the occasional light blue.

I know us. I know we enjoy beauty too. I know that it would a way to express ourselves and the areas of the land we live in.

We expect to buy that not single one of use didn't have pomegranate something going on in their clothes or any of the 7 species.

That we didn't go all out for Shabbat wear.

Give me a break.

The Philippines was one of the few countries who helped take in Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, was the only Asian country to back Israel in the UN Partition vote, and has had diplomatic ties with Israel since.

Between that history, Colonial withdrawal in the Commonwealth/Mandate period, and the fact they just declared independence in ‘46, there was a recognition of similarity with Israeli independence. There’s probably some Catholic philosemitism/affinity for Jews and the Holy Land in there somewhere as well (one of the few times that has actually worked out for us).

But since then, it’s also a strategic alliance (a defense pact with the US and Israel is a win) and exchange in the healthcare industry. A lot of Filipinos go into caregiving, and Israel has one of the most advanced healthcare sectors, especially for emergency medicine / crisis management.