I remember reading about this game heralding a new era where you could "play the news" (a hilarious phrase that has been rattling around in my head for over a decade now). I think I booted it up once and clicked around for fifteen minutes way back when. Anyway it's associated with a deeply embarrassing memory from college when I saw my friend Hichem standing in the main hall at a Palestinian students' group poster board, and encouraged him to play this game "because it really lets you understand both sides" !clueless

I remember playing about half of DA: Origins before it began taking over my life so I had to stop. DA2 apparently sucked. This one got a lot of critical praise when it came out and people seemed to like it at the time but I haven't heard a peep about it since then. Worth playing? Did it stand the test of time or get washed out?

"Outside agitators" accusations only go one way

On liberals at The Atlantic laundering Chris Rufo's talking points into the mainstream.

On one hand allowing obviously superior and cheaper Chinese EVs into the states at MSRP would obliterate the automakers which are one of the last bastions of organized labor. On the other hand getting cheap EVs into people's hands is the outer limit of viable climate change action in this treat demon settler country.

EVs aren't a viable way to address climate change; overall primary energy use needs to decrease and EVs are still a very, very energy-intensive form of transportation. Organized labor will be a necessary component of any attempt to address climate change beyond offering people better treats.

It is however ridiculous because the dems have created a system where only affluent people can afford EVs; they'll pat them on the back and assure them they did their part to save the planet. Now if only the poors trundling along in their aged gasmobiles could get their shit together.

This is not for sketchy reasons, I swear. All the primo spaces in our apartment building's bike storage room are taken up by rusting rotting flat-tired cobwebbed piece of shit bikes that clearly haven't been used in years. Half their owners probably moved out of the building and left them there. I have repeatedly asked building management to implement some kind of use-it-or-lose-it tagging system so if a bike isn't moved in a year it gets junked but they're basically useless and will never get around to doing even minor computer-only things unless you pester them at least six times, let alone something requiring actual effort like this. So.

I want to pick the locks on these bikes and either move them to the back of the bike room or if they're obviously junk just throw them out. How difficult is it to pick kryptonite u-locks? Is it also possible to re-lock them afterward? Is there any danger of damaging the bike locks? Some of the bikes also use tube-style combo locks which I know can be fairly easily cracked using the screwdriver tension method (and already managed to do this for a tiny 3-combo lock). Any general tips for getting started? Is it basically impossible to go from never having picked a lock to picking a u-lock? Assume time is no constraint, I can hang out there and pick them for however long is needed.

I know a bunch of people here like this map clicker. This seems to be the lowest price on it so far. They're trying to get people to buy it because DLC is coming out I guess. I tried it a bit on that free weekend several months ago and it seemed interesting enough. I do almost all my gaming on a steam deck now though so idk whether it's a good fit.

"Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter"

• Nathaniel S. Borenstein

Not affiliated with the developer or anything. Thinking I'll pick this one up.

So @EmmaGoldman@hexbear.net had a nice comment here in a previous thread explaining the dynamic of Jewish people's attitude toward Israel.

I think everyone here understands that it is in Israel's benefit to (1) conflate antisemitism and antizionism to both silence dissent and (2) foster the perception that antisemitism is increasing, and even (3) encourage actual antisemitism/ally with antisemites so that Jews living in countries around the world feel under threat. Israel can then position itself as the final lifeboat for Jewish people to survive capitalism as it degrades into fascism that will almost certainly target them. Of course fleeing to Israel means becoming a settler-fascist yourself, but this is quite a tough choice to put in front of somebody and there are quite a few mental escape hatches one can use about working to change the system from within once you're there or whatever.

So the problem we face is this: Under the assumption that the support (enthusiastic or mere tolerance) of Jewish people in the US for Israel is important to maintaining US support for Israel, or at least for maintaining the veneer of legitimacy for this support, how can we convince people to give up their lifeboat? I think this is quite a large ask. Many of us here believe the imperial core is inevitably degrading into fascism under the repetitive two-step of overt slides to the right & neoliberalism slightly arresting this process but making people widely despise electoral politics. This fascism will target Jewish people, and the fascists are perfectly happy to have somewhere to ship Jewish people off to instead of killing them as they build their white ethnostate. Many other minorities will also be targeted but do not have the luxury of a similar lifeboat. How can we square this circle?

Archive.org is currently down so pasting text from Firefox Read Mode is the best I can do. I think the article contains a number of illustrative photos & videos of clashes.

Neil Bedi, Bora Erden, Marco Hernandez, Ishaan Jhaveri, Arijeta Lajka, Natalie Reneau, Helmuth Rosales, Aric Toler

On Tuesday night, violence erupted at an encampment that pro-Palestinian protesters had set up on April 25.

!

The image is annotated to show the extent of the pro-Palestinian encampment, which takes up the width of the plaza between Powell Library and Royce Hall.

The clashes began after counterprotesters tried to dismantle the encampment’s barricade. Pro-Palestinian protesters rushed to rebuild it, and violence ensued.

Arrows denote pro-Israeli counterprotesters moving towards the barricade at the edge of the encampment. Arrows show pro-Palestinian counterprotesters moving up against the same barricade.

Police arrived hours later, but they did not intervene immediately.

An arrow denotes police arriving from the same direction as the counterprotesters and moving towards the barricade.

A New York Times examination of more than 100 videos from clashes at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that violence ebbed and flowed for nearly five hours, mostly with little or no police intervention. The violence had been instigated by dozens of people who are seen in videos counterprotesting the encampment.

The videos showed counterprotesters attacking students in the pro-Palestinian encampment for several hours, including beating them with sticks, using chemical sprays and launching fireworks as weapons. As of Friday, no arrests had been made in connection with the attack.

To build a timeline of the events that night, The Times analyzed two livestreams, along with social media videos captured by journalists and witnesses.

The melee began when a group of counterprotesters started tearing away metal barriers that had been in place to cordon off pro-Palestinian protesters. Hours earlier, U.C.L.A. officials had declared the encampment illegal.

Security personnel hired by the university are seen in yellow vests standing to the side throughout the incident. A university spokesperson declined to comment on the security staff’s response.

10:53 p.m.

It is not clear how the counterprotest was organized or what allegiances people committing the violence had. The videos show many of the counterprotesters were wearing pro-Israel slogans on their clothing. Some counterprotesters blared music, including Israel’s national anthem, a Hebrew children’s song and “Harbu Darbu,” an Israeli song about the Israel Defense Forces’ campaign in Gaza.

As counterprotesters tossed away metal barricades, one of them was seen trying to strike a person near the encampment, and another threw a piece of wood into it — some of the first signs of violence.

Attacks on the encampment continued for nearly three hours before police arrived.

Counterprotesters shot fireworks toward the encampment at least six times, according to videos analyzed by The Times. One of them went off inside, causing protesters to scream. Another exploded at the edge of the encampment. One was thrown in the direction of a group of protesters who were carrying an injured person out of the encampment.

11:03 p.m. to 11:39 p.m.

Some counterprotesters sprayed chemicals both into the encampment and directly at people’s faces.

12:26 a.m.

At times, counterprotesters swarmed individuals — sometimes a group descended on a single person. They could be seen punching, kicking and attacking people with makeshift weapons, including sticks, traffic cones and wooden boards.

12:29 a.m.

In one video, protesters sheltering inside the encampment can be heard yelling, “Do not engage! Hold the line!”

In some instances, protesters in the encampment are seen fighting back, using chemical spray on counterprotesters trying to tear down barricades or swiping at them with sticks.

1:10 a.m.

Except for a brief attempt to capture a loudspeaker used by counterprotesters, and water bottles being tossed out of the encampment, none of the videos analyzed by The Times show any clear instance of encampment protesters initiating confrontations with counterprotesters beyond defending the barricades.

Shortly before 1 a.m. — more than two hours after the violence erupted — a spokesperson with the mayor’s office posted a statement that said U.C.L.A officials had called the Los Angeles Police Department for help and they were responding “immediately.”

Officers from a separate law enforcement agency — the California Highway Patrol — began assembling nearby, at about 1:45 a.m. Riot police with the L.A.P.D. joined them a few minutes later. Counterprotesters applauded their arrival, chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.!”

1:45 a.m.

Just four minutes after the officers arrived, counterprotesters attacked a man standing dozens of feet from the officers.

01:49 a.m.

Twenty minutes after police arrive, a video shows a counterprotester spraying a chemical toward the encampment during a scuffle over a metal barricade. Another counterprotester can be seen punching someone in the head near the encampment after swinging a plank at barricades.

2:06 a.m.

Fifteen minutes later, while those in the encampment chanted “Free, free Palestine,” counterprotesters organized a rush toward the barricades. During the rush, a counterprotester pulls away a metal barricade from a woman, yelling “You stand no chance, old lady.”

Throughout the intermittent violence, officers were captured on video standing about 300 feet away from the area for roughly an hour, without stepping in.

It was not until 2:42 a.m. that officers began to move toward the encampment, after which counterprotesters dispersed and the night’s violence between the two camps mostly subsided.

The L.A.P.D. and the California Highway Patrol did not answer questions from The Times about their responses on Tuesday night, deferring to U.C.L.A.

While declining to answer specific questions, a university spokesperson provided a statement to The Times from Mary Osako, U.C.L.A.’s vice chancellor of strategic communications: “We are carefully examining our security processes from that night and are grateful to U.C. President Michael Drake for also calling for an investigation. We are grateful that the fire department and medical personnel were on the scene that night.”

L.A.P.D. officers were seen putting on protective gear and walking toward the barricade around 2:50 a.m. They stood in between the encampment and the counterprotest group, and the counterprotesters began dispersing.

3:24 a.m.

While police continued to stand outside the encampment, a video filmed at 3:32 a.m. shows a man who was walking away from the scene being attacked by a counterprotester, then dragged and pummeled by others. An editor at the U.C.L.A. student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, told The Times the man was a journalist at the paper, and that they were walking with other student journalists who had been covering the violence. The editor said she had also been punched and sprayed in the eyes with a chemical.

On Wednesday, U.C.L.A.’s chancellor, Gene Block, issued a statement calling the actions by “instigators” who attacked the encampment unacceptable. A spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized campus law enforcement’s delayed response and said it demands answers.

Los Angeles Jewish and Muslim organizations also condemned the attacks. Hussam Ayloush, the director of the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called on the California attorney general to investigate the lack of police response. The Jewish Federation Los Angeles blamed U.C.L.A. officials for creating an unsafe environment over months and said the officials had “been systemically slow to respond when law enforcement is desperately needed.”

Fifteen people were reportedly injured in the attack, according to a letter sent by the president of the University of California system to the board of regents.

The night after the attack began, law enforcement warned pro-Palestinian demonstrators to leave the encampment or be arrested. By early Thursday morning, police had dismantled the encampment and arrested more than 200 people from the encampment.

If you are able-bodied, and have the financial means, consider joining a BJJ or boxing/kickboxing/muay thai gym. The recent zionist mob violence - along with the neonazi/proud boy violence seen a couple years back - has driven home the point that we keep us safe. We cannot expect the fascist police to keep us safe, nor should we. As part of learning to fight you will learn how to move. Learning how to move is important to being able to evade the cops when they try to grab you, and to keep your balance and footing when the cops are shoving your line. Also, learning to fight is fun. A lot of people describe it as feeling like you're a kid again, roughhousing with your friends (if that is an experience you had).

Some details so you know what to expect:

Training for most fight sports can be split into two categories: technique, and sparring. In the technique portion the instructor will show you some move or strike then everybody practices with a partner at low resistance as the instructor roves the area observing and correcting. Sparring, in contrast, is simulated real fighting. You and your partner will attempt to apply the moves you know to each other with significant resistance. The amount of resistance varies; in striking sports, you rarely use more than 25-50% power because you don't want to hurt your partner. In grappling sports like BJJ it is more common to use 80% or higher levels of resistance due to the reduced risk of injury & concussion. The general consensus is you cannot learn to fight by learning technique alone. If you do not spar, you do not know how to fight because you have not been tested in anything resembling the crucible of the real world. Sparring is what separates actually effective martial arts from "fake" martial arts that claim their moves are "too deadly" to be practiced against a resisting opponent or some other such nonsense.

BJJ is the most accessible of all fight sports due to the low risk of concussion, compared with striking-based fight sports (for obvious reasons). In BJJ you spend a lot of time learning to fight a single person once you have both fallen to the ground. As we saw in the zionist violence, this is not entirely useful because once you've fallen to the ground the fascist's friends will surround you and beat you. However, BJJ does teach how to get back up once you've fallen down with somebody on top of you and also how to keep your balance so you don't fall down in the first place. Thus it is mostly valuable for learning how to move, since you're unlikely to be locked in a 1:1 struggle in the sort of scenarios we are worried about.

Striking based sports are most useful for learning how to block the fascists' attempts to punch or kick you. It's questionable whether it would be worth it to actually strike somebody, but knowing how to absorb or block a shot is a nice skill indeed. If nothing else a good leg kick will make them think twice about coming near you.

To set expectations, you will take at least two years to become basically competent at any of these sports, if attending class 2-3 times per week for 2 hours at a time. By competent I mean you will be able to easily ragdoll almost any newcomer to the gym unless they are physically large & muscular or have significant background in wrestling or other physical sports like football. 99% of people you encounter in the real world will not have any training whatsoever.

Two years is a long time. The best time to have started training was two years ago. The second best time is now.

I know you fuckers are a bunch of olds

It isn't all grey marching frowning guys and beating up ethnic minorities and suppressing art. People who show you personally great kindness, who make jokes, who enjoy music and good food - they find fascism compatible. Just endless numbers of seemingly nice things can happily coexist with and violently defend fascism. The juxtaposition will never stop sending me for a loop.