Links - 21st October 2024 (2 - Diversity)

Meme - "Queen Cleopatra 1st Century A.D. *White* Queen Cleopatra Now *Black*
Anne Boleyn 1536 *White* Anne Boleyn Now *Black*
George Boleyn 1536 *White* George Boleyn Now *Black*
Hannible Barca (247 BC-184 BC) *White* Hannible Barca Now *Black*
Jarl Haakon Sigurdsson 950 A.D. *White Man* Jarl Haakon Sigurdsson Now *Black Woman*
Queen Charlotte 1744-1818 *White* Queen Charlotte Now *Black*
Richard III 1485 *White* Richard III Now *Black (Danai Gurira)*
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) *White* Sir Isaac Newton Now *Black*"
Left wingers hate whitewashing not because raceswapping is bad, but because white people are bad

Jenna Ortega Says James Bond Shouldn't Be a Woman - "During a recent video interview with MTV while on the publicity tour for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Ortega was asked if she might consider an offer from director Tim Burton to revive “Edward Scissorhands” as the gender-flipped Edith Scissorhands, but Ortega would rather just get to lead a franchise as an original character instead.  “I love that there’s a lot more female leads nowadays, I think that’s so special. But we should have our own,” Ortega said. “I don’t like it when it’s like a spinoff — I don’t want to see like ‘Jamie Bond.’ You know? I want to see another badass.” Ortega won’t have to worry about the James Bond franchise switching genders as longtime franchise producer Barbara Broccoli has always said 007 will remain a man...  “I think [the next James Bond] will be a man because I don’t think a woman should play James Bond,” Broccoli told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “I believe in making characters for women and not just having women play men’s roles. I don’t think there are enough great roles for women, and it’s very important to me that we make movies for women about women. He should be British, so British can be any [ethnicity or race].”  Ana de Armas, who starred in “No Time to Die” opposite Craig, similarly told The Sun when the movie opened in theaters that Bond should remain a guy.  “There’s no need for a female Bond,” she said. “There shouldn’t be any need to steal someone else’s character, you know, to take over. This is a novel, and it leads into this James Bond world and this fantasy of that universe where he’s at.”  “What I would like is that the female roles in the Bond films, even though Bond will continue to be a man, are brought to life in a different way,” de Armas added. “That they’re given a more substantial part and recognition. That’s what I think is more interesting than flipping things.”  Daniel Craig himself told Radio Times on the topic: “The answer to that is very simple. There should simply be better parts for women and actors of color. Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?”"

श्रीकान्तः on X - "If DEI is a good thing in the progressive world view, why is it a slur to call someone a DEI hire? If you are offended by it, then maybe you shouldn't have DEI. Can't have it both ways"

Molson Coors ends diversity, equity and inclusion policies, moves to 'broader view' - "Brewing company Molson Coors says it is dropping its diversity, equity and inclusion policies and taking a "broader view" in which all employees know they are welcome. In an internal memo Molson Coors shared with The Canadian Press, the company says its DEI employee training is complete and that it will no longer have specific "representation goals" in its hiring process. As well, the Canadian-American multinational says it will no longer participate in the ranking program by the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group that scores companies on how inclusive their workplace practices are toward to the LGBTQ+ community."

danisha carter on X - "if men’s mental health mattered (to men) they’d be creating safe spaces for themselves and each other, pursuing therapy, and creating community. instead, they perpetuate the very behaviors systems that have handicapped them in the first place, refuse to support or create community amongst each other, severely damage the women in their lives who try to care for them, and attack women online for not doing the work for them in replies to tweets like the one below lol."
The Critical Drinker on X - "People like you made it literally impossible for men to have any spaces/hobbies/clubs/interests/groups or social spaces of their own. People like you mandated that women MUST be included in everything they think and do. And now people like you berate them for not having the very things they're prevented from having. People like you are the problem."
homo duplex on X - ""Men need to talk about their feelings more"
*men talk about their feelings*
"Oh boohoo, male tears, entitlement much?"
It's abuse."

@amuse on X - "DIE: The Chief of the Boat of the USS Manchester currently deployed in the South China Sea installed an illegal Starlink antenna and secret wifi network so she could watch her favorite telenovelas. When she was caught she lied to her commanding officer and the admiral not once but three times forcing an official NCIS investigation to be conducted. The antenna and network potentially allowed the Chinese Navy to track the ship and penetrate its classified Combat Information Systems.  Despite putting the entire crew of the Manchester at risk AND lying to her commanding officer Command Senior Chief Petty Officer Grisel Marrero was not given any prison time nor was she separated from the Navy - instead she was demoted to Chief Petty Officer and reassigned. Marrero was recruited and promoted BECAUSE of her racial and cultural identity to meet the diversity, equity, and inclusion goals of the Navy. As a result, her command did not believe they could separate her from the Navy much less sentence her to prison.   Like, reply, and subscribe if you’re as concerned as I am about DEI recruiting and promotion in the US Armed Forces."
Navy officer lost job for secretly installing internet on warship to check social media - "She and more than a dozen other chief petty officers used it to send messages home and keep up with the news and bought signal amplifiers during a stop in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after they realized the wireless signal did not cover all areas of the ship, according to the investigation.  Those involved also used the Chief Petty Officer Association’s debit card to pay off the $1,000 monthly Starlink bill.  The network was not shared with rank-and-file sailors.  Marrero tried to hide the network, which she called “Stinky,” by renaming it as a printer, denying its existence and even intercepting a comment about the network left in the commanding officer’s suggestion box, according to the investigation... she was convicted at a court-martial where she pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty and providing false official statements to commanders"

Fearless Fund drops grant program for Black women business owners in lawsuit settlement - "A venture capital firm has closed down a grant contest for Black women business owners as part of a settlement agreement with a conservative group that had filed a lawsuit alleging the program was discriminatory, both sides announced Wednesday. The settlement came two months after a U.S. federal court of appeals panel ordered the Atlanta-Based Fearless Fund to suspend the Strivers Grant Contest, which provided $20,000 to businesses that are majority owned by Black women. In a 2-1 ruling, the appeals court ruled that the American Alliance for Equal Rights, led by conservative activist Ed Blum, was likely to prevail in its lawsuit claiming that the program illegally discriminated on the basis of race."

Meme - saira rao @sairasameerarao: "Diversity and Inclusion has given us Black and brown faces committing white crimes. Bravo"
Even by her usual standards this is ???

If they want more diversity in medieval europe, why not make more content about medieval spain? : r/MauLer - "Or Sicily, or Constantinople or places the trade was big. It's not that hard you just have to pick a place where it is historically accurate. Like El cid which I think was pretty good spanish show."
"Then they have to recognize the Arabic/Muslim worlds conquest, colonization, and slave taking in Europa/Byzantium. That is a big no no in Hollywood.  There brain will totally short circuit, if you tell them that north west Africa along the Mediterranean Sea was settled with Vandals (Germanic people) Before the Arabic/Muslim arrived and destroyed/out competed the Vandals."
"Yeah you can never acknowledge anything like that. Heaven forbid you mention Tripoli and slaving of the Caucasus.  Slavery was exclusively American and it was exclusively ethnically white Europeans enslaving poor Africans and no one else was involved, slavery didn't happen anywhere else and if it did it wasn't important enough, and most importantly there is no slavery currently going on today! Do not look into the US Prison System and do not look around the world. Steer especially clear of Africa."
If they want more diversity in medieval europe, why not make more content about medieval spain? : r/MauLer - "They don’t want diversity they what their thoughts on diversity. Basically it’s a racist power fantasy  Like the woman king or cleopatra where they just deliberately chose to fuck with history, just because they want to. Honestly I see no reason why those things were ever made it past the concept phase"
"The Woman King was particularly egregious given that in real life she sold her own people into fucking slavery.  And she’s clearly meant to be seen as this heroic African leader; but, and this bears repeating, she sold her own people into slavery.  That’s like wanting to make a feel-good movie about a guy who’s great at target shooting, and deciding to make it about Charles Joseph Whitman."

Meme - "A female-led, diverse sci-fi movie that's very popular (80%|86% RT). Hmmm... this shouldn't be possible according to some. Maybe it has something to do with it being ACTUALLY good?"
"ALIEN: ROMULUS"

Meme - "MGS4 (2008) had female characters that looked just like their models... wonder why that doesn't happen now. I guess the new technology is only capable of making mega jawlines and gross physiques, seems misogynist!"

MGS4 (2008) had female characters that looked just like their models…I wonder why that doesn’t happen now : r/CriticalDrinker - "Because a lot of modern western developers hate beautiful women. They want them to look as ugly as they do. Then they claim that beautiful women do not exist in real life and say: ''you should get out more and meet real women''."
"I don't think they hate beautiful women as much as they dislike men who like beautiful women. It's not women they're trying to change with these choices. They think they can socialize men into liking all types of women."
"They hate everything"
"Themselves most of all."
"The root of all leftism is self-hatred."
"They’re trying to brainwash and mentally condition men into liking unhealthy (“thick”) and unattractive women through “body positivity”. Yet you never see women saying they want a body positive (FAT) man! 🤷‍♂️  They know that most women are overweight (over 60% of ALL women in the US are overweight or obese). If men only wanted young, thin, beautiful women over the high obesity rate of women that are so common in the US and other first world countries, the population would shrink and the economy would collapse."
"The fact that Spider-Man 2 and Fable have characters that kinda look like their models but look a lot more like people that worked on the game says something about how these western devs feel."
"I honestly wonder if they think making all of their actual female characters look like trans women with the Easter Island jawlines and all of that is going to make everyday men somehow be attracted to them lol."

This is fucking horrendous. : r/CriticalDrinker - "Hilarious how she says "even a melanin slider" as if every fucking game with a character creator doesn't let you choose skin color. They're just not pretentious enough to call it a fucking melanin slider."
"Yep this is the insanity of today. Skin colour choices have been in games gor 2 decades already"
"Longer than that. Neverwinter Nights on AOL let you choose skin color and that was like 1995"
"They wouldn’t know that, because they’re not gamers."
""Variety of alien characters"  SJWs: ALL ALIENS HAVE MELANIN"
This is fucking horrendous. : r/CriticalDrinker - "Well there are the trans mutilation options, fairly new. Maybe it's part of the lore that their mythical fantasy characters have a way of crossing the seas of space and time to go to post 2010 America to have cosmetic surgeries."
This is fucking horrendous. : r/CriticalDrinker - "As a tech bro, I can promise you we aren't responsible for this shit. We stay out of video games, they don't pay shit and hire children from college at 1/3 the pay of real jobs.  This is the result."
"They've always hired kids to code and do QA. They didn't always hire Queer Theory grads to design them though."
Woke video games are because left wingers go into making them not for money or even passion for gaming, but to push the left wing agenda

Meme - Learning TheLaw @Mangalawyer: "Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Can I cut off my breasts? Yes
Can I add cellulite? Yes
Can I add vitiligo? Yes
Can I enlarge my chest and have thin hips to reflect my anatomy as a woman? No..You should be ashamed!
That doesn't make any sense. Let's check who the director is... oh
2020: Man. 2021: Transwoman"

Meme - Deborah Tan: "Apparently you can be anything or have anything you want in the character creator except you can't have boobs bigger than a smallish B cup. Not very inclusive. #DragonAgeTheVeilguard #dragonage #fails"
The reality of what it means to "de-objectify women". Clearly women who have breasts bigger than a B cup do not exist

Meme - "New Rainbow Six operative is a disabled woman on a wheelchair with 2 robots."
This would be fine, but you probably don't have an option to kick her off the chair to disable the robots
Comment: "Why is she in tactical gear she doesn't need to move"

Daniel on X - "Imagine your job is writing for a national publication and this is what you turn in. And they publish it"
DEI? More like 'common decency' — and Silicon Valley is saying 'no thanks' | TechCrunch - "I would invite him — and those supporting them — to fuck all the way off. You misunderstand me. You thought I wanted you to fuck only partially the way off. Please, read my lips. I was perfectly clear: Off you fuck. All the way. Remove head from ignorant ass, then fuck all the way off...   <Climbs off soapbox and packs away rapid-dispensing box of expletives.>"
DEI? More like 'common decency' — and Silicon Valley is saying 'no thanks' | TechCrunch - "Editor’s note: This post has been altered to remove its most offensive language; it does not meet our standards of integrity. This post was also sent to subscribers as a newsletter. We apologize to readers for this serious error."
Weird. Why is the side of good so coarse?
As usual, left wingers define the left wing agenda as common decency, and then paint everyone who disagrees as evil

Why farming in UK is predominantly white - and what's being done to increase diversity - "The Royal Agricultural University (RAU) is launching a new scholarship scheme to encourage more British students from ethnic minorities to enter the farming sector.  The RAU, one of the leading agricultural institutions in the UK, hopes the two undergraduate scholarships will increase diversity and equality in the industry - which is predominately made up of white workers.  Analysis by Sky News has found that 97.2% of workers in agricultural, forestry and fishing are white, excluding seasonal workers, making it the least diverse job sector in the country... Mr Hassanin supports the RAU's decision to increase diversity at the university level, but says there should not be quotas... "I can speak for my community…they don't want to do it. They're lawyers, doctors, they've gone up in society, why am I going to go back to be a peasant farmer?""
Why isn't there a project to increase diversity in rap music?

US Naval Academy says considering race in admissions helps create a cohesive military - "Attorneys for the U.S. Naval Academy say the officer training school should be allowed to continue using race as an admissions factor because prioritizing diversity in the military makes it stronger, more effective and more widely respected... He said diversity among U.S. military leaders reflects core American values, demonstrating that if you work hard and perform well, “regardless of your background, regardless of what you look like, you’ll be put in a position of command and responsibility.”"
There will still be people who claim the military isn't woke
If you get in through racial quotas, that's proof you worked hard and performed well

New Docs Shed Light On Air Force’s ‘Goal’ To Reduce ‘White Male Population’ Joining Officer Ranks - "The Air Force finally handed over a trove of documents pertaining to its sweeping “goal” of reducing the number of white male applicants in a popular officer program after spending months stonewalling requests for their release. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman C.Q. Brown — at the time the highest-ranking member of the Air Force — issued a memorandum in 2022 that the branch was updating its racial and gender demographic goals for applicants seeking to become officers, in a bid to prioritize “diversity and inclusion.” Internal documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation include a slideshow from 2022 where the Air Force outlines racial and gender quotas and details how it hopes to “achieve” a reduced number of white males in its Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) officer’s applicant program. The documents reflect the Biden-Harris Pentagon’s intense focus on implementing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the armed forces, even as the military continues to combat dwindling morale among its rank-and-file, recruiting and retention shortfalls and low pay. “The American people are rightly concerned that, at a time when our country is facing dangerous and increasing threats throughout the world, the Air Force is focused on recruitment efforts based on arbitrary racial diversity goals — not merit or increasing the force’s lethality,” James Fitzpatrick, director of the Center To Advance Security In America (CASA), told the DCNF. CASA requested records regarding the Air Force’s new officer applicant standards through a federal transparency request in 2023. At the time, the Air Force said it couldn’t find any records... The respective slides in question also explain that the Air Force is either on track or needs to do more to hit racial and gender quotas in the ROTC’s officer applicant pool... In a separate set of documents from as early as 2022, the Air Force outlines its efforts to modify ROTC scholarship programs, which “play an important role in accession and diversity goals.” The Air Force suggests modifying the scholarship models could remove certain “testing barriers” to entry for under-represented groups. The diversity plans extend to the Air Force’s Aim High Flight Academy (AHFA), an aviation scholarship program for high school, ROTC and Air Force Academy students, according to the documents. The Air Force notes that the AFHA applicant pool should be made up of a “minimum” of 60% underrepresented groups, further noting that it must be at least 35% minorities. Like other branches of the military, the Air Force has struggled to keep up with recruiting and retention targets in recent years. The Navy is expected to miss its recruiting goals in 2024; the Marine Corps, Army and Air Force are on on track to meet their goals, although the latter two branches missed their targets in 2022 and 2023... Only approximately 57% of servicemembers or military families polled by the Military Family Advisory Network in 2023 said they’d recommend joining the service, compared to 74% in 2019. Among some of the reasons the respondents wouldn’t recommend service were the politically charged nature of the military, differences and divisions, and low pay, among others. A year-long study from the Arizona State University Center for American Institutions found that the Pentagon has turned into a “vast DEI bureaucracy” in the last four decades, a challenge that has been exacerbated by the Biden-Harris administration. “It’s no surprise that young people are turning away from military service in record numbers… DEI indoctrination has become a core component of military training that begins for officers even at the service academies,” Matt Lohmeier, former Space Force commander, said"
Weird. We keep being told that diversity is about levelling the playing field and increasing opportunities, not reducing them

Meme - Ian Miles Cheong @stillgray: "These are your new firefighters. Can you imagine any one of them carrying an unconscious person out of a burning building? DEI is going to get people maimed, if not worse. *3 women, 2 fat*"

Steve McGuire on X - "Asked how he identifies during a DEI session, Patrick Hogarty said “he identifies as an American, that he loves his country, and that he believes it is the greatest country ever founded.” 🇺🇸 Then they cut his position as dean of students for “budgetary reasons.” Now he’s suing."

Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ on X - "The Biden-Harris Administration has quietly established a DEI apparatus that spans the entire federal government, costs taxpayers billions of dollars, and advances racialism as the state ideology. Announcing a new investigative series in City Journal:"

Meme - i/o @eyeslasho: "What happens at a university which admits 92% of black applicants with a 3.2 GPA and a 1240 SAT, but only admits 14% of white applicants with those same credentials?
Answer: 37% of black students at the school end up on academic probation, but only 7% of white students do."
"University of Michigan, Affirmative Action and Educational Mismatch (2003-2005)
% Chance of Admit with 3.2 GPA and 1240 SAT
% on Academic Probation
% in Honors Program"
Clearly, mismatch isn't a thing and affirmative action works and the reason so many black and hispanic people are on probation but so few whites and even fewer Asians are is because of racism and white supremacy

Former Google Executive Reaches Settlement with Company Over Firing - "Ryan Olohan previously served as the company’s Managing Director of Food, Beverage, and Restaurants. The Employee Investigations team at Google conducted a review of Olohan’s role and performance and claimed that he “showed favoritism to high performers,” which they claimed was not “inclusive” language. He also made a passing remark about the “walking pace and hustle” of his employees, which the company determined to be an “ableist” comment.  Following his termination, Olohan took the company to court. In his lawsuit, Olohan claimed that he was the victim of sexual harassment by his boss Tiffany Miller, who accused him of “microaggressions” as punishment for rejecting her sexual advances. Google’s Human Resource Business Partner, Jacky Schiestel, ultimately concluded that Olohan was not guilty of any such “microaggressions.”... In the lawsuit, Olohan said that he had been told by Google’s Vice President of Google Consumer, Government, & Entertainment, Adam Stewart, that his team “obviously had too many White guys.” The suit further alleges that if Olohan had not been a White male, the company never would have addressed the “hostile work environment” in question."
Diversity hates meritocracy

Sasheer Zamata Is Bringing Witchy Queer Magic to ‘Agatha All Along’ - "one trend she has noticed since leaving SNL is how often she has been asked to play a lesbian.  “I kept getting cast as queer women,” she tells me, rattling off a long list. “I played a lesbian on Home Economics. I played a lesbian on Woke. I played a lesbian on Tuca & Bertie. A lesbian on Last O.G. I kept getting these roles. And this is before I myself was figuring out my identity. I was like, ’Whoa, what are these casting directors seeing that I’m not seeing?’”  I suggest, tongue firmly in cheek, that Hollywood made her gay.  “That’s what conservatives joke about all the time,” she laughs. “They’re like, ‘Oh my God, they’re turning everyone gay.’ And it happened.”"

Nathan Cofnas on X - "Harvard recently got rid of mandatory DEI statements, and conservatives congratulated themselves for a big victory over wokism. As usual, cons got played. DEI statements have been replaced with "service statements," which have the same function but with plausible deniability."

Laos Durian Dreams Grow as Plantations Rise to Feed China

Laos Durian Dreams Grow as Plantations Rise to Feed China
High-speed railway fuels investment in 'king of fruits' amid worries over forest loss

Chinese businessman Tao Jian spends an entire day navigating muddy roads on the Bolaven Plateau in southern Laos, inspecting his durian empire of 50,000 trees. The area is nicknamed the country's coffee capital, but soon it may also be known for the smelly, spiky "king of fruits" for which China has an insatiable appetite.

Tao's company Jinguo -- literally "golden fruits" in Chinese -- just had its very first harvest this year. "I believe Laos will soon become the world's fourth-largest durian producer, after Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia," the 54-year-old said.

Chinese investors like Tao are flocking to establish durian plantations in Laos, aiming to export their pungent produce back to China. The sprouting industry -- part of a broader influx of Chinese investment including the launch of a high-speed railway connecting China and Laos -- promises to be an economic boon for one of Southeast Asia's poorest and least developed countries.

At the same time, the durian craze could come at a high cost, according to local villagers and experts who are concerned about pollution and the loss of forests and biodiversity.

Another sticking point is that China does not yet allow Laotian durians into its market. But the two countries are reportedly in talks on this, and investors are convinced it is only a matter of time. Bounchanh Kombounyasith, Laos' director general of the Department of Agriculture, was quoted in a state-owned Chinese newspaper on Sept. 24 as saying that Laotian durians will be exported to China soon, as the two nations were preparing market access documents.

The fruit omits an odor so overpowering that it is banned from public transportation in places such as Hong Kong and Thailand. But its distinctive aroma and sweet taste have earned a huge following in China, driving a rapid expansion of trade. China takes in as much as 95% of global durian exports, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. And last year, it bought $6.7 billion worth of the fruit from Southeast Asia -- 12 times more than in 2017 -- according to Chinese state media.

Much of the region has mobilized to cater to China's craving. In the last 12 years, Thai durian production almost tripled. Vietnamese coffee farmers have pivoted to growing durians. Rainforests in Malaysia were cleared for durian plantations. But it is still not enough -- the reason investors are increasingly looking at landlocked Laos, with its suitable climate, cheap labor and vast uncultivated land.

Durians can sell for anywhere from $10 to hundreds of dollars per kilogram, depending on the variety. Healthy and mature trees can generate lucrative returns for decades. But as it takes more than five years for them to bear fruit, farming requires meticulous care, a large plot of land and high, long-term investments.

Even though the durian is native to Southeast Asia, the industry in Laos is only just taking root. Until a decade ago, the fruit was mostly found on trees in the backyards of Laotian families, not cultivated on a large scale.

But Chinese investors have the means to build the industry, as well as an urge to park their cash outside of China.

Tao used to invest in real estate projects back home, but in 2017, he saw a housing crisis looming and decided to shift away. "My vision is to leave China, but to invest in something related to China and to cater to the demand of 1.4 billion people," he said.

China's desire for durian persists even though its overall economic picture is bleak, with the government resorting to a host of stimulus measures to shore up flagging growth. Like Tao, many Chinese investors are searching for profitable ventures abroad, spurring outbound investment to new highs -- with Asia as the largest recipient.

Another Chinese player that has joined Laos' durian rush is Jiarun, an infrastructure builder. It has vowed to establish the world's largest durian plantation in Attapeu, a remote province in southern Laos. In 2022, the company secured a 50-year lease from the Laotian government for 5,000 hectares of land, 15 times the size of New York's Central Park. The company intends to plant durian trees across more than half of that area.

"We want to combine the Chinese agricultural model with Laotian resources," said He Ruijun, 42, deputy manager of Jiarun's local subsidiary. "Southeast Asia is now a land of opportunity, unlike China where the room for growth is now limited."

China has been the largest foreign investor in Laos since 2016. Providing extra momentum is the Laos-China railway, a crucial component of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative. Launched in December 2021, the train line shortens the travel time from Laos' capital of Vientiane to Kunming, a major trade hub in southwestern China, to less than 10 hours.

"For fruit producers like us, the Laos-China railway is very convenient, as it saves costs and time," said He.

Transportation of durians is a race against time, as ripe, fresh fruit can rot within days. Trains are the most cost-effective and reliable means of carrying them. The Laos-China railway has already proven a game changer for Thai durians, which are increasingly transported to China via the link.

Cutting open one of the first durians harvested from his Laotian farm, Jinguo's owner Tao looks forward to a near future when such fruit quickly ends up in Chinese shops. "In less than 48 hours [after being harvested], durians will get to the Chinese consumers," Tao said.

While early investors like Tao have harvested their first crops, newcomers such as Jiarun's He have just started to clear trees for orchards.

When He first set foot in the dense tropical forest, he was both terrified and amazed by the rugged landscape and the sounds of wildlife at night. When his company's bulldozers entered the forests, he saw something unexpected. "We ran into elephants -- a mother and a calf," he said. "I felt uneasy because we occupied their homeland." By his account, the animals left and never came back.

Jiarun's durian plantation is not far from two national conservation zones but sits on a production forest area, which can be used for cultivation and logging, according to Laos' Forestry Law.

"It's an untouched land. We were reluctant to develop it," said He. "But then I think the 'economic forest' can be just as beautiful, and that it can bring economic growth to the villagers and the government."

Laos contains some of the last remaining intact tropical forests in mainland Southeast Asia, home to diverse species of flora and fauna. But the area of primary forest in Laos decreased by 14% from 2002 to 2023, according to Global Forest Watch. Illegal logging, infrastructure construction and large-scale agriculture are among the main drivers of deforestation, which accelerated to 137,000 hectares in 2023 from 93,000 the previous year. Local farmers have also razed forests to make room for cassava, one of the most profitable agricultural products in the country.

On Chinese social media, Jiarun promotes its durian project as a green initiative and calls its approach tui lin huan lin, which means replacing the original forest with trees of high economic value. And Jiarun is not the only Chinese durian grower in Laos to tout this "reforestation." A Hong Kong company leased 5,100 hectares of nearby land in 2022, aiming to develop eco-friendly tourism in durian orchards.

But experts say plantations can never replace pristine forests. "Some aspects of a monoculture plantation appear similar to a forest, but the biodiversity is much lower," said Miles Kenney-Lazar, a scholar at the University of Melbourne who studies plantations in Southeast Asia.

Additionally, villagers might lose access to forest food, such as mushrooms and bamboo shoots.

In communities near the Jiarun farm, many locals remain unaware of the vast durian orchard next door. A group of villagers told Nikkei Asia that they were not consulted before the land concession was granted, nor informed about its progress since.

Those who know about the plantation have mixed feelings. "If the project is done properly and follows the law, I will support it because it benefits our country's economic development," said one resident.

Others worry about pollution. "I am very concerned that this project will cause negative impacts to our environment, especially due to the use of chemicals," one said, referring to fertilizers and pesticides. In 2016, a Chinese-driven banana boom in northern Laos left workers sickened and water sources polluted, which prompted the Laotian government to ban the opening of new banana plantations.

Balancing economic development and environmental conservation has always been a delicate issue for agriculture-reliant countries like Laos. The government has high hopes that the durian industry will help alleviate poverty. During a recent visit to durian plantations in the south, Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone urged investors to create jobs and build infrastructure without contaminating the land.

The Jiarun farm has received strong political support. Last October, Sommad Pholsena, vice president of the National Assembly of Laos, praised Jiarun as "an outstanding example" of Laos-China cooperation, according to Beijing's mouthpiece China Daily.

On the ground, it appears that the project has yet to blossom. Two years after acquiring the land, Jiarun has only managed to plant durian trees on 1% of its plot. Worse still, the earliest trees died due to water mismanagement and insect infestation. The manager He still believes the future is bright. "It will be a really pretty scene," he said, "when all the trees are dripping with durians."

 

Links - 21st October 2024 (1 - Palestine/Middle East Peace)

Iran Is on the Cusp of Producing Nuclear Weapons - "One of the many reasons I was a detractor of the 9/11 Commission was its counterintuitive “ramp up the bureaucracy” solution, so typical of Washington, to a problem — namely, lack of intelligence sharing — that was caused, in part, by there having already been too much bureaucracy. This solution, adopted by Congress in the similarly typical “let’s at least look like we’re doing something to fix this” mode, gave us the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Like another post-9/11 “fix,” the Department of Homeland Security, the ODNI is among the most redundant government bureaucracies. That is, its necessary functions were already being performed by other agencies before it was created, and its supposed value — drawing better performance out of an intelligence community that its creation made more bloated — is non-existent.  It’s worse than that, though. With nothing useful to add, the ODNI does politics camouflaged as intelligence.  A prime example: The ODNI was an important participant in the report that President Obama rushed out right before leaving office in 2017, which assessed that “Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton.” The theory read like a Clinton campaign press release, and we now know it was fed to the intelligence community by the Clinton campaign... The ODNI’s most consequential politicization of intelligence occurred in November 2007, when its NIE announced, “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” Iran, of course, never halted its nuclear-weapons program. You’ll be shocked, I’m sure, to learn that a principal generator of the 2007 NIE was then-National Intelligence Council chairman (now Stanford prof) Thomas Fingar, who on the eve of the 2020 election was among the infamous gang of 51 former U.S. national-security officials who, in aid of the Biden campaign, signed the public statement suggesting that the patently authentic Hunter Biden laptop data bore “all the classic earmarks” of Russian disinformation — a formulation crafted by James Clapper, who had run the ODNI in the Obama–Biden administration.  The 2007 NIE was a political agenda masquerading as an intelligence conclusion: The unelected bureaucrats opposed Bush administration Iran hawks, who urged taking military action if necessary to prevent the world’s leading sponsor of anti-American terrorism from acquiring the world’s most deadly weapons. From nearly 40 years of jihadist attacks and cries of “Death to America,” our politician-spies had deduced that Tehran was really teeming with moderates who would wrest control and warm to us if only we groveled just the right way.   To the contrary, no one with a shred of common sense was surprised by the post-NIE revelation that Tehran had constructed a uranium-enrichment facility deep within a mountain range at a base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps near Qom. Indeed, as our Rich Lowry noted at the time, in 2002 — i.e., just a year before, according to the ODNI, the regime had halted its nuclear-weapons program — “the Iranians were caught with an undeclared enrichment facility at Natanz.” And “a few years later they were caught trying to figure out how to get a warhead onto a Shahab missile.”   AEI scholar Michael Rubin detailed in these pages how Tehran’s cover story — that the oil-rich nation needed an extensive civilian nuclear-power program — did not pass the laugh test and was bluntly acknowledged to be a fraud in discussions among regime leaders. It would be better, Rubin contended, to listen to such insiders as Gholam Reza Hasani, a top aide to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who proclaimed in 2005, that “An atom bomb . . . must be produced as well. . . . because the Qur’an has told Muslims to ‘get strong and amass all the forces at your disposal to be strong.’”... it has for years been customary for the ODNI to insist that Iran was not “currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities that would be necessary to produce a testable nuclear device.” The July 2024 report, however, marks a shift. The ODNI concedes that Iran has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.”... As Iran gets closer, the Biden–Harris administration hews to its default position that “Iran does not have an active military nuclear program”...   To be charitable, one might have abided such delusional thinking back when Iran was believed to be so far behind in enrichment capability that we could assume we’d have several months of notice before it was on the brink of producing an atomic weapon. (I cannot be that charitable. We now know the U.S. intelligence community was unaware of Iran’s Fordow enrichment facility when it generated the 2007 NIE, and Israeli intelligence’s 2018 acquisition of Iran’s nuclear records proved the regime’s years of lies and feverish production activity. Ergo, how can the ODNI’s proclaimed insights about Iran’s capabilities and intentions be taken seriously?)  Now, however, self-delusion is intolerable. Given how close Iran is to producing weapons-grade fuel (if it is not there already), there must be scrutiny of its weaponization activities. Without that, it is not possible to assess how close the regime is to “break-out.”  The Biden–Harris administration won’t provide any such scrutiny, at least for public consumption, because “some uncomfortable truths would come out”...   Obviously, President Biden was never serious about his commitment to preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear-weapons power"

Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses
This seems to be what anti-Semites are referring to when they claim "Johns Hopkins genetic study shows 97.5% of Judaics living in Israel have absolutely no ancient Hebrew DNA, are therefore not Semites, and have no ancient blood ties to the land of Palestine at all.  Whereas 80% of Palestinians carry ancient Hebrew DNA and thus... are real Semites."

Thread by @khalidi79397 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "How many times did we get an offer to split the land with the Jews?
1. Peel Commission (1937): This was the first major proposal for partition by the British, recommending a division of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. The plan proposed a small Jewish state in parts of the north and coastal areas, with the remainder of the land going to the Arabs. The Jewish leadership accepted it in principle but wanted modifications, while the Arabs outright rejected it.
2. United Nations Partition Plan (1947): Known as UN Resolution 181, this was the most significant partition plan prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The plan proposed the creation of independent Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as an international city. The Jewish community accepted the plan, but the Arab leadership rejected it, leading to the 1947–1948 Civil War and the subsequent Arab-Israeli War of 1948.
3. Armistice Agreements (1949): After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, armistice agreements were signed between Israel and its neighboring Arab states, but these did not constitute a formal partition plan. Instead, they established ceasefire lines, known as the Green Line, without official recognition of borders.
4. Rogers Plan (1969): Proposed by U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers, the Rogers Plan aimed at resolving the Israeli-Arab conflict after the 1967 Six-Day War. The plan called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in the war (including the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem) in exchange for peace and recognition by Arab states.  Impact: The plan was rejected by both Israel and the Arab states, as Israel was unwilling to the pre-1967 borders, and the Arab states refused to recognize Israel or negotiate at that time.
5. Camp David Accords (1978): The Camp David Accords were brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Two frameworks were agreed upon: A. Framework for Peace in the Middle East B. Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty (1979) Impact: The accords improved relations between Israel and Egypt but did not resolve the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nor did they lead to immediate Palestinian autonomy.
6. Madrid Conference (1991): After the Gulf War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union co-sponsored the Madrid Peace Conference, bringing Israel and Arab states (including Palestinian representatives) to the negotiating table for the first time.  Impact: The conference initiated direct, face-to-face negotiations but did not result in a final agreement. However, it paved the way for later agreements, including the Oslo Accords.
7. Oslo Accords (1993-1995): The Oslo Accords were the first direct agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The accords outlined a framework for Palestinian self-governance in parts of the West Bank and Gaza and a five-year timeline for further negotiations on issues like borders, refugees, and Jerusalem. Impact: The Oslo Accords led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and the division of the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C, each with varying levels of Palestinian and Israeli control. However, final status issues were left unresolved, and subsequent violence, including the Second Intifada (2000-2005), disrupted the peace process.
8. Camp David Summit (2000): U.S. President Bill Clinton hosted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David to negotiate a final status agreement. Barak offered a two-state solution, proposing that Israel would withdraw from most of the West Bank and Gaza, while retaining some settlement blocs and offering a shared Jerusalem. Arafat rejected the offer.  Impact: The failure of the summit, combined with the outbreak of the Second Intifada, led to a collapse in the peace process.
9. Taba Summit (2001): Following the Camp David failure, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Taba, Egypt, to try to salvage the peace process. The talks made significant progress, with Israel offering a near-complete withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza and compromises on Jerusalem. However, the negotiations were interrupted by Israeli elections and the Second Intifada.  Impact: While progress was made, the talks ended without a final agreement, and violence escalated soon after.
10. Annapolis Conference (2007): The Annapolis Conference, held in November 2007 in Annapolis, Maryland, was a peace summit aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and promoting the two-state solution. It was initiated by U.S. President George W. Bush and attended by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and representatives from several other nations. The conference sought to revive peace negotiations based on previous agreements, with the goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. During the negotiations, Olmert made a far-reaching peace proposal to Abbas, offering a near-total Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, a territorial link to Gaza, and international control of Jerusalem's Old City. Abbas, however, rejected the offer.
11. Trump Administration Peace Plan ("Deal of the Century") (2020): The Trump administration proposed a peace plan in January 2020, which envisioned a two-state solution, with Israel retaining large portions of the West Bank, including settlement blocs, while offering the Palestinians limited autonomy over a non-contiguous state. Jerusalem would remain Israel's capital, and the Palestinians would receive some compensation for land losses.  Impact: The plan was welcomed by Israel but rejected outright by the Palestinian leadership."

Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦 on X - "Video showing Judith Butler’s amazing statement: ''Hamas and Hezbollah are social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left.'' Hezbollah leader Nasrallah explicitly called for the execution of LGBT people (which includes Judith Butler)"
Wesley Yang on X - "It's important to bear in mind the social and intellectual context -- American academia and the global Left -- that makes Butler's statement both not at all surprising and entirely true. This is in fact the global Left."

Brigitte Gabriel CRUSHES Lowkey: Terrorism vs Resistance! Pro-Palestinian Narratives Debunked - YouTube - "When the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was founded, the West Bank was in the hands of Jordan, it was Jordan. And Gaza was in the hands of Egypt, it was Egypt. So the PLO was founded in 1964 not because of any occupation. They wanted to drive the Jews into the sea and get rid of every single Jew in the Middle East...  in 2000 Ehud Barak offered them 97% of the territories back and they refused it again and again and again. In 2005 when Israel withdrew out of Gaza they said okay we're going to give you your own state, we're going to give you your own territory. Israel forcibly removed its own people. People fighting the IDF by force. Removed them out of Gaza. Not only removed the people, they dug out dead Jews' bones from the cemeteries because they knew exactly what the Palestinians are going to do to the cemeteries. So in 2005 when Israel withdrew out of Gaza there wasn't one Jew alive or dead in Gaza. They turned over the key to them and said okay, great. Now build your own place. You are independent... what did the Palestinians do within 24 hours after Israel withdrew?... They destroyed every single Jewish synagogue in the area... Israel did not put the Palestinians in a prison in Gaza. Hamas put the Palestinians in a prison in Gaza. Gaza could have been turned into, into Singapore. They had the money, they had more money pouring into the Palestinian territories and still from all over the world and what did they do with it? Build a tunnel infrastructure underneath bigger than the subway system in New York."
Weird. I thought "resistance" was not anti-Semitic. Yet they destroyed synagogues
Clearly, the problem was that the world didn't give enough money to the Palestinians

'Palestinians In Gaza Are Mostly Hamas,' Claims Lebanese-American Author Brigitte Gabriel - YouTube - "Palestinians in Gaza are mostly Hamas. They elect Hamas. Remember... Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians back in 2005. Their first election, they put a woman called Umm Nidal, that they nominated her to the prominent position in the, in the Ministry in their government. And the reason why they nominated her and she won by the way, because she sent three of her sons as suicide bombers, to die. And she ran on the, on the platform of I have another seven to send them over to Israel to blow themselves up to smithereens just to kill Christians and Jews. This is what the Palestinians elected and have been electing for all these years. The Palestinians and Gaza chose Hamas as their representatives. They support them, they stand with them, and they and for the Palestinians who may not agree with Hamas, they they hate the Jews so badly, they are collectively anti-Semite. And the plight of the Palestinian in Gaza, Palestinians in Gaza lays only at the feet of Hamas. It is Hamas who held them prisoners. It's because of hamas's atrocities and war that they are living in the squalor that they are living. Look! Gaza used to export, in 2004, 50 million flowers to Europe. Gaza flourished when the Israelis were there. They, I think they exported 40% of the world's tomatoes out of Gaza. They had greenhouses. When Israel withdrew out of Gaza and they gave Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005, they left all the greenhouses, they wanted to help the Palestinians prosper. I know a businessman in New York who raised $14 million and sent it to the Palestinians so they can continue working and operating the greenhouses. And what did the Palestinians do? Destroy the greenhouses within 24 hours. Not just destroy them, but steal the copper in the pipes to make sure nothing works. They shoot themselves in the foot so the Palestinians in Gaza are the collateral damage of Hamas, not of Israel"

Suicide Bombers' Mother Elected to Palestinian Parliament - "Mariam Farahat, who was elected to the Palestinian parliament, can work a crowd like a veteran politician -- shaking hands and greeting supporters. When she gets on the stage at a Hamas rally, she is the star attraction. She was one of Hamas' most popular candidates in Wednesday's election.  In Gaza, Farahat is known as Um Nidal, or Mother of the Struggle -- a mother who sent three of her six sons on Hamas suicide missions against Israeli targets.  "We consider it holy duty," she told ABC News. "Our land is occupied. You take all the means to banish the occupier. I sacrificed my children for this holy, patriotic duty. I love my children, but as Muslims we pressure ourselves and sacrifice our emotions for the interest of the homeland. The greater interest takes precedence to the personal interest."  She is most famous for her presence in a Hamas video, showing her 17-year-old how to attack Israelis and telling him not to return. Shortly afterward, he killed five students in a Jewish settlement before he was killed himself.  Um Nidal's home has become a shrine to her dead sons, with admirers and other members of Hamas often dropping by... "I had no desire to join the parliament or the political arena," she said. "It was enough ... the pride of jihad, and I found that I have to complete my social and political duty." Destroying Israel is not something Hamas has promoted much during this election campaign. But at the grassroots level in Gaza, where Um Nidal campaigns, most Palestinian supporters believe it was the violent attacks against Israel that forced them to pull out from the Gaza Strip last fall.  "This is our strategy," she said. "We are working on two parallel lines -- the political and the jihadist." Um Nidal is now a politician, but she says violence is still an option. And she does have three sons who are still alive. If necessary, she says, they will follow in their brothers' footsteps."
From 2005.
If there's any "genocide" of the Palestinians going on, it's auto-genocide
Land for peace does not work when the other side sees it as a sign of weakness and reason to commit even more terrorism

Meme - SevenAkuma @sevenakuma: "How out of touch do you have to be to say something like this"
CTSH1 @CTSH1_pc: "If anything I imagine hamas has become more accepting of lgbt people (atleast subconsciously) thanks to the prevalence of queer people protesting isreal's genocide"

Meme - Brianna Wu @BriannaWu: "Here’s the (dead) leader of Hezbollah calling for the murder of LGBT people.   My friends, stop being useful idiots and cheerleading the people that want to slaughter us. Their mission doesn’t stop with Israel."
"they shall be killed"

Meme - Ritchie Torres @RitchieTorres: "Dr. Rupa Marya is claiming that medical students have a right to be concerned about appearing in the same classroom as an Israeli.  There was a time not so long ago when white students were “concerned” about appearing in the same classroom as a Black person.  Those “concerned” white people were known as racists.  The “concerned” Anti-Zionists are antisemites.     Any doctor advocating discrimination based on identity, as Rupa Marya has done, is prescribing not medicine but poison."
Rupa Marya, MD: "Med students at UCSF are concerned that a first year student from Israel is in their class. They're asking if he participated in the genocide of Palestinians in the IDF before matriculating into medical school in CA. How do we address this in our professional ranks?"
Discriminating against people based on country of origin is good when it pushes the left wing agenda

Meme - Jihadists: "Death to the West!!!" *attacking with knife, rifle and RPG*
Israeli soldier with shield: *holding back tide*
Redhead holding phone and sipping coffee at table with "Free Palestine" T-shirt: "THOSE ZIONISTS..."

Meme - "Everything I Don't Like is GENOCIDE. A guide to discourse for online cosplaying Ieftists"

Meme - Jewish Mom: *protecting child with body*
Arab Mom: *putting suicide belt on child*

Isaac de Castro on X - "Deranged Jewish academics are like: “Go read my new book ‘Longing for Dhimmitude: How being a second class citizen was good for Jews because I, personally, am uncomfortable with power and I would rather condemn my entire community to perpetual endangerment and pogroms rather than give up my dinner parties with extremist faculty at Yale’. Yes, I do omit and lie about history because sometimes it is inconvenient but if you call me out you are silencing me as one of the twelve Jews with insane opinions your antisemitic professor is willing to cite to shut up the Jewish student in your class who feels uncomfortable with rationalizing murdering Israelis. Find my book at your local Marxist book store and at JewHatingPublishing dot com. PS, Mizrahi Jews are Muslim.”
“Also, sign up for my new Fall seminar JWST3044: The Jews are Genociders and Colonizers, Why Survival Is Bad. This is totally learning and not indoctrination.”"
joe on X - "Whats crazy is that there are jews that have lived longer in arab lands than in American land and the jews who have never stepped foot in the arab lands are lecturing the others about how life is good there ."

Brianna Wu on X - "People always say the history of Israel in the Middle East is complicated. It’s not, morally.  This is the Jews’ land historically. After the Holocaust, they wanted to move back there so they bought a bunch of land legally.   And then in 1948 five Arab countries tried to slaughter them and lost. The world recognized Israel as a country.  It really is that morally simple. There was a war and Arabs lost. And there’s been a political project to destroy Israel ever since with six different wars started by those same countries.  Britain lost a war with America in 1781 and you don’t see Kier Starmer launching sneak attacks on New York trying to take it back.   Instead of trying to destroy Israel, why not build a paradise with the land you have now, a luxury Jews did not have for millennia? Give up this dark dream with such an insane body count."

Brianna Wu on X - "I’m going to tell you a difficult truth.   Are you willing to kill your grandchildren for your grandparent’s home? How many more generations of Palestinian children have to die for your pride?  You started a war to slaughter your neighbors 76 years ago. You lost. You’re not the first people to lose a war. What is different is the Arab antisemitic political project to inflame your resentment and continue this suicide mission to destroy Israel, which will never happen.   It has had a staggering body count.   There is no future where you win. Israel has nuclear weapons and they have no illusions about defending themselves. Your only winning move is not to play. Stop starting wars.   It is time to build a beautiful new home. Make it paradise. Make it a worldwide beacon of your culture, which needs to be about more than destroying Israel. The entire international community, myself included, will proudly help you build it."

AP on X - "For thousands of years, Jewish blood was cheap. It wasn’t worth a thing. Jews were the easy target, the blame, the punchbag, the victim. Whoever felt like it-from the drunk in some European village to church officials, kings, and rulers-spilled Jewish blood without batting an eye. Pogroms, burnings, lynchings—take your pick. For centuries, it was open season on the Jews.  And why? Because no one cared. There was no one to answer to. Jews didn’t have a state, didn’t have an army, didn’t have a voice. We were at the mercy of whoever had the power that day. It didn't matter if it was a mob on the street or a king signing an expulsion order, Jews were nothing more than a target.  But everything changed, and it changed for two reasons: the Holocaust and Israel.
The Holocaust was one of the most horrific and unimaginable atrocities in human history, and it made the world feel so raw that even those who had spent centuries upon centuries crushing Jews had to step back. It was dark, vile, even for those that had laughed at pogroms or expulsions. The Holocaust somehow acted like a mirror, making the world confront its own brutality.  But even something as massive as the Holocaust, as horrific as the industrial slaughter of six million Jews, has an expiration date in people’s minds. Over time, people forget. The world gets distracted, the survivors die off, and suddenly the lessons get fuzzy. The old antisemitism starts creeping back in through the cracks.
That’s where Israel comes in.  The one that shall never let that happen again is Israel. Daring, audacious beyond belief, unapologetic-this is Israel, Its the only country in the world that has no dilemma what so ever about doing what it needs to do, whatever that might be, to protect the Jewish people. No questions asked, no permission sought, no limits.  Israel will bomb, raid, bulldoze, and defend its people to the last man because no one else will. And that audacity—that unrelenting fire—is precisely the reason Israel is hated. The same people missing those days when the Jews were weak and defenseless and easy to oppress are the ones raging against Israel from behind this newly found "humanitarian" mask.  They hide their hate as issues of "human rights," of "justice," but we know what this is: the same hate that has been burning for centuries, just repackaged. Because deep down, they can't stand the fact that Jews fight back now. They can't stand that we refuse to go quietly into the night like we did for so long.  The Holocaust woke the world up, but Israel is the reason it stays awake. And that’s why the hatred is relentless. Because Israel won’t apologize for doing what every other nation would do for its people. And to those who wish for the days when Jewish blood was cheap, Israel is their nightmare—a nightmare that won’t go away."

Meme - "Captain Palestine *Masked man with long knife/sword and baby strapped to shield with Palestinian flag*"

Meme - "I'd like to boycott Palestinian products *No Palestine* But their only invention is their history"

Uri Kurlianchik on X - "I used to think Iran was pathologically obsessed with Israel, a distant county that has never done it any harm. Then I joined Twitter and met the Irish."

Zach Sage Fox's 'Wild West Bank: Deleted Scenes Exposed' in Ramallah - YouTube - "ESSENTIAL VIEWING: Two months ago, Jewish-American writer and self-proclaimed "accidental journalist", Zach Sage Fox published the 'Wild West Bank', a video where he interviews Palestinians on the streets of Ramallah asking their views on October 7. The video exposed a strongly held solidarity with Hamas, and went viral. But Zach and his Muslim film crew almost didn't make it out alive. While filming, they were surrounded by a group of Palestinian men who allegedly threatened to kill them if they didn't delete their footage.  Zach has now been able to recover more of the deleted footage, releasing it in a second instalment, 'Wild West Bank: Deleted Scenes Exposed'..."
Damn Zionists!

Links - 20th October 2024 (2 - Trans Mania)

Meme - "Non binary 7 month old
I work at an ECE and a 7 month boy just entered my class. His parents are both "non binary" and insist that he is as well. Today they sent spreadsheets via email on how to address their son, and seem to get upset if we accidentally refer to him as a "him" rather than a "they/them". His older sister (4 years) is also considered non binary. I understand their situation, but I feel like it is confusing to such small kids, What are your  thought? Am I being overly protective or unpolitically correct? I have no issues with people who label themselves as non binary, queer, LGBTQ+, etc. Just want to make sure I'm doing the correct thing, Any advice appreciated."
"Locked post. New comments cannot be posted."

Meme - "Super Mutant:
-Sterile
-Perpetuates by forcible conversion
-Physically grotesque
-Unnatural colored skin
-Obsessive compulsions
-Evolutionary dead-end
Trans Activist:
-Sterile
-Perpetuates by manipulative conversion
-Physically grotesque
-Unnatural colored hair
-Obsessive compulsions
-Evolutionary dead-end"

Jesse Singal on X - "I don't know what to say anymore, man. There are just no adults left at most of these supposed gatekeeping and quality-control institutions within journalism... This professional association of health journalists wants you to know that its "aim is to decrease gender dysphoria and increase gender euphoria, in whatever form it takes for an individual.""
Benjamin Ryan on X - "At the @AHCJ  health journalism conference in June, I went to one session on the Transgender Survey study, and I got to the mic and told the room how shocked I was that we were at a science journalism conference and were essentially being told to abandon scientific critical thinking on this issue. One of the authors of this piece about reporting on trans issues in the ACHJ publication howled out objections to my words from the audience. She insisted that gender-transition treatment for kids is life saving, despite the fact that no study has shown it is and the one study to assess whether it is didn’t find it was. The very next day she gave a presentation on how to scrutinize flawed and misleading science. Sue betrayed no sense of cognitive dissonance. I remain shocked that she is being given a platform from which to mislead journalists about this research field."

Research into trans medicine has been manipulated - "IN APRIL HILARY CASS, a British paediatrician, published her review of gender-identity services for children and young people, commissioned by NHS England. It cast doubt on the evidence base for youth gender medicine. This prompted the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the leading professional organisation for the doctors and practitioners who provide services to trans people, to release a blistering rejoinder. WPATH said that its own guidelines were sturdier, in part because they were “based on far more systematic reviews”... Court documents recently released as part of the discovery process in a case involving youth gender medicine in Alabama reveal that WPATH’s claim was built on shaky foundations. The documents show that the organisation’s leaders interfered with the production of systematic reviews that it had commissioned from the Johns Hopkins University Evidence-Based Practice Centre (EPC) in 2018. From early on in the contract negotiations, WPATH expressed a desire to control the results of the Hopkins team’s work. In December 2017, for example, Donna Kelly, an executive director at WPATH, told Karen Robinson, the EPC’s director, that the WPATH board felt the EPC researchers “cannot publish their findings independently”. A couple of weeks later, Ms Kelly emphasised that, “the [WPATH] board wants it to be clear that the data cannot be used without WPATH approval”. Ms Robinson saw this as an attempt to exert undue influence over what was supposed to be an independent process. John Ioannidis of Stanford University, who co-authored guidelines for systematic reviews, says that if sponsors interfere or are allowed to veto results, this can lead to either biased summaries or suppression of unfavourable evidence... the WPATH executive committee wrote to Ms Robinson that WPATH had “many concerns” about these papers, and that it was implementing a new policy in which WPATH would have authority to influence the EPC team’s output—including the power to nip papers in the bud on the basis of their conclusions. Ms Robinson protested that the new policy did not reflect the contract she had signed and violated basic principles of unfettered scientific inquiry she had emphasised repeatedly in her dealings with WPATH. The Hopkins team published only one paper after WPATH implemented its new policy: a 2021 meta-analysis on the effects of hormone therapy on transgender people. Among the recently released court documents is a WPATH checklist confirming that an individual from WPATH was involved “in the design, drafting of the article and final approval of [that] article”. (The article itself explicitly claims the opposite.) Now, more than six years after signing the agreement, the EPC team does not appear to have published anything else, despite having provided WPATH with the material for six systematic reviews, according to the documents. No one at WPATH or Johns Hopkins has responded to multiple inquiries... an email in October 2020 from WPATH figures, including its incoming president at the time, Walter Bouman, to the working group on guidelines, made clear what sort of science WPATH did (and did not) want published. Research must be “thoroughly scrutinised and reviewed to ensure that publication does not negatively affect the provision of transgender health care in the broadest sense,” it stated. Mr Bouman and one other coauthor of that email have been named to a World Health Organisation advisory board tasked with developing best practices for transgender medicine. Another document recently unsealed shows that Rachel Levine, a trans woman who is assistant secretary for health, succeeded in pressing wpath to remove minimum ages for the treatment of children from its 2022 standards of care. Dr Levine’s office has not commented. Questions remain unanswered, but none of this helps WPATH’s claim to be an organisation that bases its recommendations on science."

Andy Ngo 🏳️‍🌈 on X - "Seattle — A trans person walks around exposing his genitals in the leftist Capitol Hill neighborhood, the same area that was occupied by far-left extremists for CHAZ in 2020"

Graham Linehan on X - "I spoke to a gender clinic veteran and he said "the young men who come in, they're desperate to get their hands on estrogen as quickly as possible."  "Why?" I asked.   "So they can grow breasts."  "Why do they want to grow breasts?"  He hesitated for a moment, then said "Because they want to play with them while masturbating""

Meme - Mojo from the X-Men cartoon holding picture of Jean Gray saying "Transwomen are women. Deal with it. You conservative freak": "See! She is literally me!"

Advocates say meeting with Alberta MLA who compared trans youth to feces went south
Colin Wright on X - "This is such an absurd video. We have a man in a cult subjecting a woman to a struggle session that requires her to deny objective reality to avoid hurting the man's feelings. But what's even more absurd is how mainstream this cult is on the Left."
It's telling that "transwomen are women" is a principle of faith you need to swear by. This is just like a cult
This doesn't stop left wingers continuing to hate on Danielle Smith, because they just need enemies to hate

Benjamin Ryan on X - "New Evidence Challenges Institutionalized Belief That Transgender Teens Become Transgender Adults, Undermining Core Defense of Medical Gender Transitions for Minors 🧵New from me for @NewYorkSun: A pair of analyses of insurance-claims data each found that the majority of youths diagnosed with gender-related distress saw that diagnosis vanish from their medical chart within six years."
New Evidence Challenges Justification for Child Gender Transitions | The New York Sun
Wilfred Reilly on X - "This is not new evidence, although the piece is quite good. We have known for literally decades that 65-91% of "trans kids" just grow up to be gay. What has happened in a few Western countries is that politicized fanatics have stopped science/medicine from following up on the obvious conclusions to draw from this."

New Hampshire School Bans Parents From Games Who Distribute Pink XX Armbands - "Some parents in New Hampshire have been slapped with "No Trespass" orders after they showed up to a girls' soccer game with pink armbands with "XX" on them to support their daughters who were up against an opposing team that featured a biological male on the roster.  According to the NH Journal, parents of girls soccer players from Bow High School — like most people with even the slightest grasp of basic human biology — were none too pleased about the prospect of their girls having to play a physical sport like soccer against a male.  So, they complained to the school's athletic director, but were told that there was nothing that could be done because of a federal judge's ruling that the term "girl" includes males who identify as female... "My daughter’s playing in the homecoming game this weekend, and I’m banned until the 23rd," parent Anthony Foote told NH Journal. "I can’t watch her play in homecoming — which is ridiculous."  Yeah, that is ridiculous. And so what was the problem? After all, Foote said that there was no other form of protest happening aside from the pink armbands. Videos of the Tuesday night match in question reportedly don't show much of anything, with the only disruption coming from people who were upset about the armband."
Weird. I thought the freedom to protest was very important. Turns out you're only allowed to protest if you're pushing the left wing agenda

Thread by @Rstorechildhood on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "🧵 Here is a tale of two boys who loved to dress up: Written by @thepeacepoet99  The boy on the left, named Styles, loved Spider-Man so much that he thought he was Spider-Man.  The boy on the right, named Jaron, loved princess dresses so much that he thought he was a girl.
Little Styles, was playing outside & wearing his beloved Spider-Man costume, when he was hit by a car in front of his home.  The seven year old believed that his Spider-Man suit made him become ‘Spider-Man’, & gave him the ‘superpower’ to jump out of the way of the car. The older sister of the little boy who thought he was Spider-Man, agrees that the boy’s ’Spider-Man’ powers allowed him to save himself from being hit by the car.  She credits his survival to his vivid imagination. She does not, however, think that he is *literally* Spider-Man
This little boy named Jaron, loved to play dress up. He loved sparkles & pink. He loved to dance & sing. He wanted his bowl cut placed into two ponytails.  Because he was a toddler, Jaron thought that this made him a girl. His parents panicked, & tried to turn him into one. Jaron was a happy toddler who enjoyed dressing up as a princess.  Jaron’s parents did not enjoy their son’s love of pink & sparkles. His mom could hardly speak through her own tears when describing her son’s love of pretty things.  So, she took him to the doctor. Instead of seeing the boy’s love of twirling in princess dresses, as a sign that he may grow up to be a fashion designer or a dancer-  This boy was conditioned by his parents, doctors & by one news crew after the next that he was really a ‘special girl born with a penis’
The little boy who dressed up as Spider-Man & even thought he *was* Spider-Man was not told that something was wrong with him.  On the contrary, his family celebrated affirmed his love of dress-up because they knew that the child had learned valuable life skills through play. The boy on the left believed that his ‘Spider-Man’ powers saved his life.  Adults didn’t tell him that his human body was wrong. There wasn’t an entire industry built to surgically alter him into embodying a fiction.  The same can’t be said for the boy on the right.
Instead of allowing Jaron to play dress-up and to learn valuable skills through imaginative play, his parents re-named him ‘Jazz’.  Jazz’s parents & doctors made millions by convincing the beautiful boy that he was born so wrong that only removing his genitals could ‘fix’ him.
Kids often play dress-up as the ‘other’ in order to understand the ‘self’.  When we celebrate imaginative play, our kids learn, grow & thrive.  When we pathologize normal play & stunt it by medicalizing a temporary fantasy into a permanently embodied reality- our kids suffer."

Meme - Paulie Walnuts @pwgm80: "Why would male predators draw attention by dressing as women to get close to women & children when they can look like this & fly under the radar for decades? It's not trans women you need to fear; it's men who exploit their power & positions of trust. #StopTransHate"
Thread by @Rob_ThaBuilder on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Seriously dude? You srsly can't understand WHY would predators adopt a trans identity in order to victimize women?  Transgenderism is a predators dream come true, providing them with unprecedented access to victims, social protections & powerful accomplices  A brief thread 🧵🧵🧵
You've got governments actively targeting women, shaming them & telling them to IGNORE the instinctive fear they feel in close quarters with strange men  Not long ago the #1 safety tip for women was "listen to your gut". Now, they're bigots if they do🤷🏼‍♂️ And then you've got signs like this one that are popping at universities, government buildings and other highly visible places in public society telling women they'd BETTER SHUT THEIR FVCKING MOUTHS if they feel uncomfortable when a man in a dress is in their single-sex spaces  So put it all together and you've got a situation where the predators are getting benefits from all sides: On the one hand, a trans identity gives predators unprecedented access to women's single sex spaces (that they simply wouldn't have if they weren't "trans") and then on the other hand, they've got unprecedented social/legal protection, with the government taking the role of accomplice, buying ads and pushing educational campaigns designed to silence and shame women for their innate protective instincts .  If you honestly can sit there with a straight face and play dumb and pretend you can't understand why predators would go to "all the trouble" of adopting a trans identity, you're either a fool or a liar (probably both). They do it because:
1) it gives them unprecedented access to women's private spaces that they would NEVER have if they didn't ID as trans
2) They have government and Big Business as accomplices, governments running grooming campaigns like the video above, shaming women into ignoring their protective instincts and
3) it gives them unprecedented social/legal protections if their victims try to cause trouble. All they need to do is cry "transphobia " and they can get away with anything.
If you can't see it at this point, it's because you don't WANT to see it, and that itself is highly suspect.  At this point, who else would defend this but other predators?"

Why Will Ferrell’s trans road trip movie misses the point - "“But I don’t know why trans people are meant to be threatening to me as a cis male,” Ferrell told The Indepdent. “I don’t know why Harper is threatening to me.” No one in their right mind sees Steele, or any transgender person, as a threat to a six foot 3 dude. Ferrell is not a woman and hasn’t had his space — locker rooms, prisons, rape centers and sports — invaded by biological men who are able to gain entry with only a few magic words: “I identify as a woman.” He hasn’t been told to shut up or be cancelled or suspended when he’s spoken up about having to compete against biological males in every level of sport from youth to collegiate to the Paralympics. He hasn’t, like Riley Gaines, been harrassed and even attacked simply because she advocated for fairness in women’s sports. He doesn’t have daughters so maybe he hasn’t had to worry about this blurring of biological truth. And yet, a high minded Ferrell conflates real substantive objections with ignorance and intolerance. Why can’t everyone just be as open minded as him?... Most people do not begrudge Steele happiness. We care if Steele’s happiness infringes on our rights as women. After all, the movie itself proves that generally people are kind. In the film, the pair visit an Oklahoma dive bar adorned with pro Trump flags and Steele arrives solo, striking up friendly chats with some locals... The stranger is, of course, welcoming and sweet. Both encounters prompt Steele to admit, “I’m not afraid of these people. I am afraid of hating myself.” One can’t help but like Steele, which is clearly Ferrell’s aim. He wants to protect his friend. But he is wrongfully casting aspersions. And while it’s a compelling, raw and at many times a funny documentary, there’s a great irony. Neither Steele nor Ferrell, who buys his friend diamond earrings, know the first thing about being a woman."
Left wingers keep claiming they're all about "empathy". But they can't emphathise with conservatives (we have a study showing that no less) or with those hurt by their agenda

Stephen L. Miller on X - "What so interesting about this is Ferrell's own film proves people aren't threatened by trans people.  His own film literally shows him taking his trans friend to country hick bars and dirt car hick races filled with Trump voters, and none of them care.   There's even a scene where he/she/they says they were scared to come out to places like this, and then it turns out they all just basically say "Hey do what you want to do."   It's the Borat syndrome. Borat went into a Christian Conservative's home, shat in a bag to try and outrage them, and they were still polite and caring toward him.  The Netflix film about Ferrall's trans friend proves the exact opposite point of the "trans genocide bigotry" they try to push. That was the takeaway from it."

Adrianne Curry on X - "Imagine, walking into a restaurant & everyone is being nice to you. Then, decide to announce your identity politics/political agenda to the entire place. For good measure, back handedly shame your fellow diners that they haven't done enough for YOU in their state. After this appalling act, pretend to be shocked no one likes you anymore and play the victim.  NARCISSISIM"
Will Ferrell regrets awkward Texas restaurant visit after co-star booed for trans rights toast - "They received what they described as an unexpected and uncomfortable response from diners at a Texas restaurant after Steele mentioned the state hadn't done enough for trans rights... "I didn't really have a grasp on how intense it was going to be and felt responsible for not properly vetting the situation we were putting ourselves in," Ferrell told The New York Times. "That felt like it was going to be this benign place where you eat a big steak in the amount of time, and then you walk in and it's a thousand people seated in this room and I was like, 'Oh, why are we here?'" Steele described the feeling of being "on display" in that moment.   "We gave a little toast, and I said something about passing a trans bill, and the room did a kind of reversal and a little bit of a boo and a woman shouted out, ‘We still love you.’ I hate the phrase," Steele said. "I could be misinterpreting this woman completely, but this is the feeling I had in the room: The ‘still’ is conditional. You still love me when I finally give up being trans and give my life over to Christ. They still love me even though I’m some kind of sinner or something. I felt that.""
The left shoves politics into everything, and if you don't support that you're a bad person

‘We are seeking to discriminate’: lesbian group wanting to exclude trans women compares itself to Melbourne gay bar - "A lawyer for a Victorian lesbian group that wants to exclude transgender and bisexual women from its public events has compared its request to a Melbourne gay bar that was granted the right to refuse heterosexual people. But a lawyer for the Australian Human Rights Commission said the Peel hotel’s exemption had been granted under Victorian state law to help gay men achieve equality, unlike the Lesbian Action Group’s application, which discriminates against transgender women. The Lesbian Action Group (LAG) has asked the administrative appeals tribunal to overturn the human rights commission’s October decision preventing it from excluding transgender and bisexual women from its public events... The LAG’s seven members claim they need to hold public events – as opposed to private events that are not subject to the same laws – for the advocacy and wellbeing of lesbian feminists... Under cross-examination, the LAG’s Carole Ann said it was a “statement of fact” that the group does “not believe humans can change sex”. She said young lesbian feminists told her there was nowhere for them to go. “They are so isolated, they have no one else to talk to and they don’t know where to find the support,” she said. “There’s nothing anti-trans about our application at all.”"
The most oppressed wins. This is why we have the Oppression Olympics
Of course, one solution is to stop discriminating against straight men. But left wingers hate them too much to do that

The BMA turns away from rejecting the Cass Report - "The British Medical Association (BMA) has reversed its decision to call for a pause in implementing the recommendations of the Cass Review, the New Statesman can reveal. It follows intense criticism of the doctors’ union after this publication exposed its discussions regarding the rejection of the findings of Dr Hilary Cass’s independent review into gender identity services for children and young people... a motion had been tabled by the BMA council – the executive body of the doctors’ union – which called for the BMA  to “lobby… to oppose the implementation of the recommendations made by the Cass Review”. It also described Cass’s recommendations as having been “driven by unexplained study protocol deviations, ambiguous eligibility criteria, and exclusion of trans-affirming evidence”. The motion had originally called for the BMA to “disavow” the Cass Review too, though this wording was changed to “publicly critique” when the vote took place the next day. Sources have confirmed since that 45 of the 69 voting members of the BMA’s council took part in those votes. Less than half of them – 21 – voted to oppose supporting the Cass Review (11 voted against; 13 abstained). By comparison, 29 members voted to critique it.   In a press release that followed, the BMA also criticised the government’s ban on new prescriptions of puberty blockers to those aged under 18 (for the purpose of treating gender-related distress). NHS England had already confirmed in March that puberty blockers would no longer be prescribed on the NHS for the treatment of gender-related distress, because of a lack of evidence over their safety and clinical effectiveness. Instead, they would only be prescribed as part of clinical research. The ban meant that others could not continue prescribing routinely as well, and was judged lawful by the High Court in July. The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has extended the ban until the end of November, and to cover Northern Ireland  An open letter condemning the BMA’s stance followed, gaining more than 1,500 signatures, around 1,000 of which were from BMA members. The BMA was the only major medical group in the UK to consider rejecting Cass. Supportive statements have been issued by the Royal College of GPs, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the Association of Clinical Psychologists. Many BMA members were dismayed, some resigning their membership in protest. Signatories to the letter accused the union of failing to follow an evidence-based approach to medicine. The letter, shown first to the New Statesman, criticised the process behind the BMA’s decision as “opaque and secretive” and said the motion did “not reflect the views of the wider membership, whose opinion you did not seek”. After months of criticism and negative press coverage, it would seem the BMA has now listened"

Cookiegender | Gender Wiki | Fandom - "Cookiegender is a xenogender and foodgender in which one's gender feels like a cookie. This gender may be described as soft or crunchy, chocolatey and gooey, or crispy and semi-sweet. One's gender may also taste or smell like a cookie."

X Æ ₳-XII 🆒💀🅾️ blocked you after he on X - "When i open my first business, im only hiring trans women. Men's strength, Women's wages 🤑🤑🤑"

Meme - Hazel Appleyard @HazelAppleyard_: "The lack of parenting here is astounding. 13yo girl refuses to deal with her periods because she thinks she’s a boy. 🩸 all over the car seat as a result. Mother wants to put her on medication to suppress her periods instead of just telling her to grow up and stop 🩸 on everything.   Also, bonus points for title “when the boy menstruates”. Just no."
"r/cisparenttranskid
When the boy menstruates
 13 years old, has been having periods for about a year  He says he doesn't want to go to the bathroom when he's on his period. This has caused major issues, most recently requiring my partner to get her car seat cleaned professionally. It was expensive because of bodily fluids. I asked him if he would be interested in getting on a medication that will make it so that he doesn't have his period anymore, and he said he's not sure.  His intake with the gender clinic is in February. His dad said he doesn't have flexibility for our kid to be on a cancellation list.  I'm pulling my hair out here."

Meme - The Heretical Liberal 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 @Rob_ThaBuilder: "Man who identifies as a woman has existential crisis when he realizes that actual women don't get sexually aroused from shaving their legs, applying makeup, or wearing "pretty girl clothing".  Walls come crashing down as he begins to consider the idea that its actually just been a fetish all along.   I mean, it sure would explain all the euphoria boners🤷🏼‍♂️ 🤔"
Help my whole world is crashing down on me : r/MtF - "Hi I am a 22 year old pre op trans girl and I have been on HRT for several years now. For almost a decade I have known and firmly believed I was born in the wrong body and took as many steps necessary to correct that situation, but since I read this stupid article a few weeks ago I cannot get it out of my mind and is making me doubt and question my entire identity. Turns out I was chatting through facebook with a guy I like and who I did not know was a total transphobe and after I told him I was trans he linked to an article about something called Autogynephilia and blew me off. I did not read it at first but after a couple of days I got curious and decided to give a try which I am really regretting now, the article blew my mind, it was like reading my own autobiography describing concepts and behavior I felt so intimately resembling my own that I was literally shaking by the time I finished it up. The reasoning behind the article is that I am not a woman born in man´s body but that I am a man who suffers from paraphilias instead, which I totally rejected at first but when I read sentence after sentence describing my own feelings and behaviors, like getting sexually aroused while wearing make up or shaving my legs, or using pretty women clothing, that started having an impact on me and getting me so nervous at first and then outright dysphoric later on. I do not know what to do, I am starting to feel I have thrown my life away chasing something that is not real, and I have questions, so many questions that I just repeat over and over in my mind, I am totally obsessed with this stuff now. Like, for instance, if I am a woman why do I get an erection while trying on some pretty clothes? Do women do that? Do they get excited while just trying cloths on? If I a woman born in a man´s body then why do I get excited and sexually aroused when either a man or woman lets me know I am passing as an actual woman? Do women actually do that? Do they get horny by being accepted as what they are, women? And why the hell do I also feel sexually aroused when it is a woman validating me as girl? Shouldn`t I just feel horny by looking at an attractive guy? And it goes on and on in my mind non stop, I am feeling desperate and I do not know what to do. Please if other girls in this forum have experienced something like this making them doubt themselves please share and help me out, I really need some guidance right now."